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It's a great day to be Eugene Fitzherbert.
First of all, he got a full night's rest—and not just eight hours, but ten. Ten. His skin is glowing thanks to those extra few hours. Atilla dropped off some homemade cherry tarts because of a heist he helped prevent last week—something about his and Monty's recipes being trade secrets. He's never thought recipes for cupcakes were such a hot commodity in the baking community, but hey. If it gets him free tarts he's not going to complain.
He strolls leisurely through the castle halls, basking in the late morning sun as it warms his face through the windows. He didn't have guard duty today either, so he could actually spend some time working on his tan. Oh yeah. Today was going to be awesome.
“FITZHERBERT!”
Ugh, he spoke too soon.
Eugene turns to see that blond twink Varian dragged back from his soul-searching trip come sprinting around the corner. For once, Hugo isn’t running from him, but toward him, which is a weird enough sight on it's own. Hugo hits his chest and nearly bounces off like a piece of rubber, the spidery hands grabbing at his coat the only thing keeping him from faceplanting onto the ground.
Hugo's voice nearly breaks. “Oh thank gods. You have to hide me, right now.”
Eugene raises an eyebrow. “Ooooor should I be arresting you for whatever it is that you obviously stole?”
Green eyes glare up at him behind thick glasses. “First of all, I didn’t steal—aren’t you like, supposed to be protecting all Coronian citizens when they’re in peril? Hello, yes, it’s me—a Coronian citizen, in grave danger. Now hide me.”
Eugene taps his finger on this chin. “Y’know, you are technically an immigrant—”
“Hugo?”
And at the sound of Varian’s disembodied voice, Hugo goes completely ashen. Eugene barely has a second to catch his terrified expression before the blond is scrambling away from him into a storage closet, gangly limbs flying akimbo.
The other royal engineer peeks around the curve in the hall and frowns. Eugene watches as a hopeful expression deflates into disappointment when Varian doesn’t see who he’s looking for. “Oh. Hey Eugene. Have you seen Hugo? I thought I saw him run this way.”
Let it be known that Eugene Fitzherbert is no snitch.
“Uh, nope! No blond idiots running through here. Haven’t seen him. I’ll be sure to letcha know though if I do.” He shoots the kid a finger gun for good measure.
Varian suddenly looks so glum it’s like someone just told him Ruddiger ran off to be best friends with Doctor St. Croix instead of him. “Oh.”
As Varian goes to sulk back the way he came, Eugene’s curiosity gets the better of him. “What have you two crazy kids gotten into this time? Fighting over whatever little chemicals you need for your latest stink bomb?”
“No,” Varian says lightly. “I’m trying to propose, but he keeps running away.”
Eugene chokes. His mind reels until his thought process splatters like an egg thrown against a wall. He did not just hear those words come out of his baby brother’s mouth. “Pro—propose? Oh—oh, good joke kid. Really hilarious. I mean, you and that guy? Ha! His hair isn’t even that shiny—”
Eugene can’t be certain, but he’s pretty sure he hears an annoyed growl from inside the storage closet.
Thankfully, Varian doesn’t seem to notice. But something even more frightening is that he looks deadly serious, zero hint of a jape on his face.
“Why wouldn’t I want to marry Hugo?” the alchemist asks innocently. “I’m in love with him.”
Eugene’s jaw hits the floor.
“Wh—what?" And okay. Sure. Rapunzel had her suspicions. They'd talked about it many a time during their nightly pillow talk sessions. Have you seen the way Varian looks at him? she'd always gush. It's like he's a flower basking in Hugo's light. The queen was convinced there had to be evidence simply in the fact that Varian brought Hugo home. Like a souvenir—like something he couldn't live without.
Eugene loved his wife, he really did. But she was a dreamer, and his baby brother ending up with the guy who once tried to drop a piano on his head was nothing short of a nightmare.
His eyes search Varian’s face, looking for anything to signal that this was a prank, but there’s nothing but seriousness reflected back in the kid’s purple eyes. Oh sun above, the kid is going to ask him to be the best man. He's going to have to give a speech about that four-eyed rat and—
Wait.
Now hang on a second.
Eugene doesn’t have the slightest clue as to what the hell is going on right now, but it clearly cannot be anything good if Varian’s eyes have turned purple and he’s trying to propose to Hugo. Get a grip, Fitzherbert. Magic was afoot here. “Ah, you know what? I actually think I just saw him run back toward the astronomy tower.”
Varian tilts his head. “Astronomy tower? Why would he go there?”
“Because he wants to find inspiration to write you the perfect love poem!”
Eugene definitely hears an annoyed growl from the closet. He can’t help but smirk, but his smug expression goes unnoticed because Varian already dashing away toward the left-wing of the castle. He quickly flags down a set of guards and tells them to lock the kid safely inside, then turns his full attention on that fucking closet.
He whips open the door to find Hugo cowering toward the back, pressed against the furthest wall like a sinner being dragged toward consecrated ground. “What,” he seethes, “the hell did you do?”
“Me?” Hugo cries, green eyes wide and frantic. “Why do you think this is my fault?! He’s been the one trying to propose to me for the past hour, and that was after he tried groping my—”
“Okay.” Eugene cuts him off before that sentence can burn into his brain forever. “So, if this isn’t your fault, then how did his eyes turn purple?”
The blond lets out a shaky breath and runs a hand down his face. “I don’t know. One minute we were doing our jobs, and the next thing I know he’s all over me.”
Eugene squints. “And how do I know you’re not all over him too, hmm?”
Hugo gapes at him, face flushing a ruddy red (a totally unattractive color for his skin tone). “Did you miss the part where I’ve been running away from him? I don’t want him to—but I do want him to—I mean, not like—grck,” the ex-thief cuts himself off, burying his flushed face into his hands.
Eugene sighs. He could sit here and needle out the rest of whatever that sentence was, but Varian being under some kind of spell was the bigger problem at hand.
Wait. That’s actually a good idea. “Did he get hit with a mood potion?”
Hugo shakes his head, face still hidden. “Mood potions don’t make you fall in love with the first person you look at.” Then, the blond straightens, face lighting up in realization. “Look at. Varian was studying a flower petal that was pressed inside a book—what if it had an aphrodisiacal residue on the petals and it made skin contact?”
And that probably sounds logical and all, but Eugene can’t get past that one word earlier in his sentence. He chokes on his own tongue. “Aphrodisiacal—”
“Oh gimme a break.” Hugo rolls his eyes. “We were in the reproductive section, it’s not that far of a stretch to assume something is affecting his brain to want to grab my ass.”
“Yeah, ‘cause no one would ever do that normally.” That gets him a punch in the shoulder, but it’s worth it. Hugo’s arms are like noodles anyway.
“All I need to do is get back to the library and figure out whatever that flower was, then concoct an antidote,” Hugo mutters to himself, like a Nerd. No wonder he doesn’t have any friends. “Can you distract him for like, four hours? I can’t focus if he’s all up on me.”
Eugene salutes. “Keeping him away from you is the one task I take more seriously than any other.”
Hugo flips him off, and then both men separate to attend to their own missions.
The observatory is strangely dark when Eugene enters. Normally, the windows and skylights would be wide open to seek out any stars or planets. Right now, they’re shut tight, which only adds to Eugene’s creeping trepidation. Only creeping spots of sunlight peek through the slats of the blinds, casting long shadows around the room.
At least he knows the kid is in here. However, he’s been dive-bombed by an alchemist with a vendetta before, and he would not like to experience that again, thank you. “Kid? Hey Varian, where’re you?”
There’s a soft rustling to his left, and his fingers automatically go to his belt. But instead of seeing an infuriated alchemist, he sees a crumpled figure slumped against one of the telescopes.
“Varian!” He’s over to the kid in seconds, grabbing at the back of his neck to raise his head. It lulls to the side, boneless. White-hot panic strikes his heart. “Shit, kid. C’mon, wake up!”
Bleary lavender-colored eyes flicker open. “’Gene? Wh- where’s…? I need…” Varian lets out a pitiful whine, curling deeper into himself. Ripping off his gloves with his teeth, Eugene presses his bare hand to the kid’s forehead and confirms his suspicion—Varian has a fever.
A high fever. One that’s unnaturally warm, burning Eugene’s hand as he touches flesh.
“Fuck,” he mutters. “Varian, can you hear me? I need you to wake up kiddo, we’re gonna get you to the hospital wing and—”
“No.” Varian groans, pained and guttural. “I need…to find…Hugo. Please,” and the way his hazy eyes suddenly clear up at the syllables of the other boy’s name tells Eugene that this was definitely the magic talking.
And as much as he wants to keep his brother and that hooligan from ever interacting, Eugene can’t help but give in this one time. That fever was too high, and if it came on this suddenly, there was no way of knowing what else that creepy flower's residue could do to Varian’s body.
“Right,” he says, necessity replacing bravado. “Don’t worry kid, I’m gonna get you to him.”
He scoops Varian off the floor and dashes back through the hall, clearing floors and stairs until he gets out to the main courtyard. Fortunately, he catches the other royal engineer just as he’s leaving the castle walls.
“Hey, Glasses!”
Hugo turns, face paling.
Varian, on the other hand, perks up immediately. “Hugo!” He practically leaps out of Eugene’s arms and tackles the blond boy to the ground with a grin. “I found you!”
Eugene finds himself locked in an infuriated emerald glare. Hugo hardly looks threatening from his position on the ground, but if looks could kill. “You had one fucking job, Fitzherbert.”
Eugene ignores him, crouching down to feel Varian’s forehead. Yep. Back to normal. “Well, unfortunately, it looks like separating you two makes Varian get sick.”
“Sick?” Hugo echoes, blinking. “Sick how?”
“Like my heart was being ripped from my chest!” Varian regales in horror. “Like I’d never be whole again!”
Eugene snickers. He completely forgot how dorky the alchemist got when he liked someone—he literally invented a new gemstone for Cassandra that one time he had a puppy crush.
Hugo also seems to realize this. He lets his head fall back onto the ground and blows out a breath through his lips. “Oh, fuck me.”
“Only if you ask nicely,” Varian leers. Hugo turns six different shades of red in rapid succession. Varian leans down but Eugene will have none of that, thank you, and yoinks the kid back by his collar.
“’Gene,” Varian whines, clawing at the air in a desperate attempt to grab onto Hugo’s pant leg. “Why are you being so mean?”
“I’m going to die,” Hugo says, and by the way he’s shaking, Eugene almost believes him. “Holy shit, I’m going to die.”
“No, you’re going to think of a plan.” He lets out a soft grunt as one of Varian's boots hits his shin in a particularly hard squirm. Sheesh this kid was stronger than he looked. “One that better work ASAP because watching this is making my eyeballs want to throw up.”
Hugo tiffs, sitting up and looking very much not pleased with the situation. Varian stops fighting him, instead swaying forward as much as he can as if drawn into Hugo's orbit. He's 100% completely focused on Hugo, eyes glistening an unnatural lilac.
The blond starts sweating. “If he has to be in proximity of me, can’t you like, distract him or something? If he keeps trying to jump me it’s going to cause problems.”
“Yeah, in more ways than one.” Because watching his baby brother try to make out with the guy he hated was not how he expected today would go. “Luckily, I know just the team of distractors…”
“Is this your card?”
Varian lets out a wistful sigh. “No.”
Rapunzel hums as she bites her lip, then pulls out another card out of her deck. “Is… this your card?”
Another sigh. “No.”
“Varian, I’m almost to the end of the deck. I would have had to hit your card by now."
"I don’t think he’s paying attention, Sunshine.”
There’s a tch of frustration. “I also don’t think I’ve been doing this right...”
“Would you all shut up!” Hugo screams, glaring up at the three other people sitting at the table. Fitzherbert—the sellout—the sunshine queen herself, and Varian.
Varian, who’s looking at him like he hung the fucking moon, eyes wide and shimmering—
Hugo swallows and quickly turns his attention back to the book in front of him. He stares at the same sentence over and over again, stubbornly trying to make his frazzled brain READ THE WORDS and not pay attention to the pretty boy making go-go eyes at him. “I’m trying to read.”
Eugene hums sympathetically. “I know that’s hard for you.”
Hugo’s lip pulls back in a snarl. Pretty boy priss. Varian lets out another longing sigh, deep and heavy with emotion. “Hugo’s good at everything he does. He’s so smart and funny and charismatic and—”
Heat floods Hugo’s face and he leaps up out of the chair to slap his hands across Varian’s mouth. Fitzherbert is no fucking help, throwing back his head and cackling so loud he’s got tears in his eyes. What an ass. Varian looks up at him, fuchsia eyes blinking through long, dark eyelashes.
Hugo swallows hard.
“Eugene.” Rapunzel flicks her husband’s ear. “Hugo has to concentrate to search through these texts and you’re not helping.” The last few words are said in a gentle sing-song, but you’d have to be an idiot not to hear the threat that lies between those light and lilting words.
Hugo still hasn’t taken his eyes off Varian. They’re locked in the weirdest and most intense staring contest of the century. Varian’s eyes are huge, hazy, and overflowing with affection.
And they're purple.
It’s just the spell, he reminds himself bitterly. Idiot, it was just the spell. Varian wouldn't look at him like that otherwise. Hugo just wishes his heart stop beating like that.
He grits his teeth and pulls back, standing and tucking his book underneath his arm. “I’m going over there. Still within eyesight,” he adds when Varian lets out a high whine. “Just. Stay over here.”
He turns on his heel and strides over to a floofy chair that’s by one of the library’s floor-to-ceiling windows. The windows don’t actually look outside—there’s no outside in eternity, apparently—but being farther away from…all of That makes him feel better.
The thing is, Hugo can take teasing. He thrives on flirting, on games of hearts and minds, on easy conversation full of nothing but hot air. But the fact that it’s coming from Varian makes everything so much more serious. Unfortunately, he likes Varian. More than a friend. And he hates that he likes him. Hates that he was too much of a coward to confess his feelings at the library the first time around. Hates that he totally agreed to move to Corona because of his stupid crush, hates that he’s too much of a scardey cat to come clean to the other boy.
And now he’s got to deal with Varian being like That. Falsifying feelings that probably aren’t even there. It’s such a bitter pill to swallow. He just needs to keep reminding himself that Varian was under a spell and that he didn’t actually feel the same.
He flips the next page in a way that totally isn't bitter at all. His heart leaps in success. On is it exactly what he’s been looking for: a diagram of a flower. It’s a sketched drawing with wide, purple petals. The Idle Flower, it’s called. Petals that are a key ingredient in love potions due to their magical properties.
Alright, now they’re getting somewhere.
Hugo’s eyes quickly scan the pages, trying to absorb as much as possible as quickly as he can. It’s only because he has the trained ears of a thief does he notice the soft padding of bare feet.
The sunshine queen shoots him a hopeful smile. “Find anything yet?”
“Actually, yeah.” He turns the book around to show her. “These petals were pressed inside the pages of the book Varian picked up.”
Rapunzel hums as she reads. “Native to Mount Saison, the flower is supposed to heighten feelings of desire in those affected.”
Heighten desire? That couldn’t be right. That meant Varian, ah, desired him, which Hugo is pretty sure he doesn’t. “I thought it had something to do with the residue the plant lets off. It's been in that book for who knows how long, maybe the magic is acting out randomly.” He keeps reading, eyes flickering quickly over the old script. “Looks like all we’d need for an antidote is more of the petals. You up for a road trip, your majesty?”
She frowns. “Mount Saison is days away, and if you leave Varian like this there’s no telling how it’ll affect him. Is there a faster way?”
He presses his lips together as he reads. “Says the only alternative is—” He cuts himself off. The traditional way to reverse the effects of the Idle Flower is—
True Love’s Kiss.
You’ve gotta be kidding.
He slams the book shut before Rapunzel can read over his shoulder. “The alternative is nothing,” he chirps with a false smile. He tucks the book under his arm and stands so fast the chair scoots across the floor. “Gotta get to that mountain, right? Wow, I love road trips! Can’t get enough of ‘em. Who wants to pick the playlist?”
He keeps babbling, saying stars only know what, trying not to focus on the rapid beating of his heart. He refuses to look anywhere near Rapunzel—he can feel her eyes heavy on him. His hands clench tighter around the book as he plasters on a mask of cool indifference that he’s been wearing his whole life.
He can’t kiss Varian.
It occurs to Hugo, as his ass is throbbing after sitting on this horse for the past five hours, that he has once again been hoisted by his own petard. He thought traveling to the dangerous mountain would give him time to clear his head, shove down his feelings and ignore them like a real man. But noooo. They just had to put Varian on the same horse as him.
Varian, who is all snug behind him on the saddle, rests his chin on his shoulder. “Ooh look! There’s another red warbler.”
There isn’t one. Hugo knows this because Varian has been pretending to see random birds for the past half hour, using it as an excuse to slide a little closer. He’s had to slap the other boy’s wandering hands away from his belt five (5!) times.
He’s going to murder Fitzherjerk when all of this is over with. If he’d just kept Hugo hidden, LIKE HE’D ASKED, he wouldn’t be halfway across the kingdom right now.
Hugo stops the horse, gritting his teeth against the warmth that Varian’s hands bring to his skin. He reminds himself that Varian is under a spell. He shouldn’t be thinking how nice it is to have his arms wrapped around his waist. He SHOULDN’T. “I’m getting off.”
Varian blinks when he slides off the horse. His brows pinch in concern, lilac eyes wide. “Where are you going?”
From behind them, he hears the clopping stop. The queen on Maximus has come to a stop too. Rapunzel eyes both of them warily. “Is everything okay, Hugo?”
Varian is already making moves to get to the ground. “You shouldn’t be walking in the woods alone! Something could happen!”
“I’m not going to go very far.” Hugo pinches the bridge of his nose under his glasses, wondering when his life when from average to absolutely batshit insane. Two years ago the weirdest thing he had to deal with was the strange-shaped padlock on the Duke of Westleton’s gate because it took a little longer to crack. Now he had to deal with magic and peppy queens and stubborn beautiful alchemists and their affinity for getting in trouble.
Rapunzel frowns. “Varian is right. These roads aren’t safe. If you want to take a break and stretch your legs, someone should—”
“I’ll protect him!” Varian chirps.
“It’s not a hike!” Hugo stresses at the same time. “And no, don’t—I don’t need you to—” Varian is looking at him again, and Hugo forgets how to fucking breathe. He glances between the object of his affections, the queen, and the horse, desperate for someone in this situation to save him.
In the end, he finds no one, so he throws up his hands in defeat. “I have to pee, okay? Do I need a fucking chaperone to pee?”
Rapunzel blinks and has the gall to look a little embarrassed. “Oh. Um, no.” The horse whinnies almost like it’s laughing. Gods, he hates Corona.
He inches back toward the brush, but a hand catches his wrist. Varian. Apparently intent on following him anyway. Hugo wriggles his way out of the smaller boy’s grip, but it takes effort. “Please stay away from me with my pants undone.” Now those are words Hugo never thought he’d ever have to say.
“Varian,” Rapunzel calls lightly, tone full of diplomatic sugary fakeness. “Why don’t you help me pick some flowers while Hugo, uh. Does his thing.”
Hugo rolls his eyes, but thankfully it gets Varian off him. The pair of them can oooh and ahh over flowers all they want, just as long as it gives him a few moments to be alone. He leaves them to it, heading out into the brush to commune with nature.
As he finishes, he considers making a break for it. Koto wasn’t that far from here. He could probably get there in maybe four days if he sprinted. But Varian would literally die if he left, so uh. There was that.
He’s still considering how much the smaller alchemist’s life is worth when he gets back to the road. He immediately sees two things that make his heart flatline in his chest.
- Varian has made a flower crown.
- Rapunzel has pulled the book out of his satchel and is reading it. There’s a furrow between her brows.
Well that can’t be good.
“Hey!” Hugo tries to hurry over to her. “Don’t dig through my—”
Varian steps in front of him, a grin so wide it’s nearly cracking his face in half. In literally any other circumstance he would be adorable, but right now he’s so dopily annoying. “Hugo, look! I made this for you! Do you like it? I wanted to find roses but there aren’t any—”
“Yeah yeah yeah, ’s pretty, move.” Hugo shoves at his shoulders until he finally gets around Varian and shoots his best impression of Nuru's Stink Eye at the queen. “What are you doing.”
Rapunzel looks up. Yeesh, her gaze could be intense. “You said there was no alternative than finding the flower.”
Hugo swallows thickly. “Heh. Did I?”
She turns the book around to face him, so he can see the plainly written text that he has been trying to avoid for the past twenty-four hours. “Hugo, why did you make us go on this whole trip if there was an easier solution? All you need to do is—”
“I can’t!” Hugo blurts out, so abruptly it even surprises himself. His heart twists in his chest. “I won’t—” his eyes flicker to Varian, who looks woefully dejected holding his little flower crown. “—do that. I don’t want to take advantage of him like that. This spell is already forcing him to feel things against his will and I don't want to do something he doesn't want.”
She looks at him for a long moment, green eyes full of compassion and understanding.
“Your heart is in a good place,” she says genuinely, “but this is hurting Varian the longer he’s like this.” And he knows that this isn't what she means, but all he hears is it’s hurting him to love you. Wow, conscious. Thanks for that one. Rapunzel smiles softly. “I’m sure he wouldn’t see it as taking advantage if it was the way to get him back to normal and your intentions were pure.”
Hugo can’t hold her gaze any longer. His eyes drift down to the dirt, scuffing a bit of the path with his shoe. “It’s…it’s not just that.”
He jolts when he feels tapping on his shoulder. Varian is offering him the flower crown again with a hopeful look in his eye. Gods, when did Hugo become such a sucker for a pretty face. With a sigh, he tilts his head down. The smaller boy beams and places it on his hair, fingertips brushing down Hugo’s neck and the soft hairs of his undercut. An involuntary shiver wracks his frame and his face feels hot.
“Oh,” he hears Rapunzel say. Hugo breaks away from Varian and shoots her a startled look. She’s grinning.
“Oh what?” Hugo snaps, immediately on the defense. “No, it’s not like—he just—” But Rapunzel’s grin widens with each spluttered word, and he feels his blush deepen. “Okay fine, maybe. Just a little. But it’s not like he feels the same.”
One of the things he hates so much about Rapunzel is she always seems to know something he doesn't. It makes her calm in every situation. Like right now, when he’s about to lose his mind over his crush being forced to have false feelings for him, she gives him a look that reminds him of pity. Pity. As if she needed to pity him. He truly had sunk so low in his life to require the pity of a queen who was Stockholm Syndromed nearly her whole life.
“Hugo,” she beings carefully, gently, in a tone that made it sound like he was going to shatter if she wasn’t careful. “Have you thought about talking to Varian about this?”
Has he thought about it. Every day. Every hour. Every second he stands in Varian's presence. He's been agonizing over coming clean to the other boy since their first arrival at the library—since even before that. Since that one time when they were eating ham sandwiches around the campfire and Varian got a smudge of mustard on his upper lip. Hugo had thought that’s adorable and immediately knew he was fucked.
Presently, he wraps his arms around himself in what is not a defensive position. “I can’t exactly ask him properly when he’s doped up on some magic flower.”
“I meant normally.”
“That would just…” he trails off, shrugging up one shoulder. “Make things weird. After everything we’ve gone through—after everything I’ve put him through—I don’t think it’s fair to ask that from him.” Even as he says the words, his throat threatens to close up. Varian was his friend. His best friend. He couldn't lose that over some stupid crush.
Rapunzel looks at him thoughtfully for a moment. “I think Varian would still appreciate you asking.”
And he just…really doesn’t know what to do with that.
They’re interrupted when Varian, who had left to pick more flowers, trots back over. “Hugo look! I found a green one! It matches your eyes!”
And something inside Hugo breaks. He’s at his emotional limit—he can’t stand here and be openly mocked by the universe with the one thing he can’t have any longer. Fuck it. He surges forward, wrapping his palms around Varian’s cheeks, and slots their lips together.
The kiss is chaste, but it still manages to send warmth shooting through Hugo’s entire body. Every nerve is suddenly buzzing at the feeling of Varian’s lips. He fits so well between his hands, tastes so perfect, Hugo refuses to think about how this will probably never happen ever again.
He pulls back after a moment. His face feels like it’s on fire. He hides it all behind a glower. “Are you normal now?”
Varian looks dazedly back at him. His eyes aren’t quite focused yet—but they’re back to their normal baby blue, so that’s something. “…Hugo?” His gaze darts around the trees in confusion and concern. “This isn’t the library. Where are we?”
“Halfway to Mount Saison.” Hugo not-so-casually takes an exaggerated step back, intent on putting at least twenty yards of distance between them. Everything in him is screaming to grab the other boy’s face and continue where they left off, and he can’t do that. Especially not with Rapunzel watching.
The smaller boy tilts his head. “How did we get out here?”
“Went for a road trip. Okay, everything seems fine, can we go home now? Great.” He says this offhandedly to Rapunzel, who he doesn’t even check is paying attention. He still feels his ears burning so he keeps his head down as he swings himself on the horse. “He can ride with you.”
He doesn’t wait around for her to try any of her goodie-goodie bullshit to make him feel better. He flicks the reigns and is already halfway down the path by the time Rapunzel tries to call his name.
After that, things go back to normal. Normal-ish. Hugo doesn’t avoid Varian, but he definitely doesn’t stay in a room with him alone long enough for the other boy to talk to him. He times it so he’s in the lab when Varian is off doing his other royal duties and swaps to the library when the other boy steps in. It’s like an elaborate dance—one that Hugo is great at.
Unnecessary you say? No, this is very necessary. And he’s going to keep it up for as long as humanly possible.
Or so he thinks. Everything changes when abruptly, he’s walking down the hall and gets ambushed from behind by a pair of stupidly strong arms. They drag him kicking and screaming into a nearby supply closet. As Hugo starts to swing out to hit his future murderer, light suddenly floods the closet.
“Were you about to punch me?” Varian asks, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
“I’m sorry, were you about to kidnap me? Don would never pay a ransom.”
He expects Varian to roll his eyes. Instead, the other boy looks exasperated. “Well how else am I supposed to talk to you when you’ve been avoiding me? I have to use force!”
Hugo is suddenly very aware of the situation he’s in. They’re in a closet. Ironic that days ago he was hiding from Varian here, but now they are in here together, very much alone. Varian’s body is angled so the doorknob is hidden out of Hugo’s reach. And they’re less than six inches apart. They’re practically breathing the same air.
Oh shit.
Hugo’s heart kicks into high gear, panic making the words sound a little reedier than usual. “I’m not avoiding you.”
“You are,” Varian insists, getting a little closer. “Why? Are you mad at me? If you’re mad, why don’t we talk about—”
“Not mad,” Hugo grits out. He tries to look anywhere but directly at the other boy, but it’s so hard when he’s so close. Their gazes end up meeting anyway. Shit. “Can I just…Can we just drop it? Sure, I might have switched up the schedules so we don’t see each other as much, but I’ll switch them back. Can I leave now?”
Varian stares at him for a long moment, those big baby blues looking through him, into his soul. “Is this because you kissed me?”
Hugo lets out a strangled, squeaking noise. “You remember that?!”
“Why wouldn’t I remember?”
“Because—because you were coming down from a spell!” Hugo’s life feels like it’s flashing before his eyes. Any second now his corpse was going to hit the ground.
Varian’s eyes go wide with realization. “It is because you kissed me.”
This is Hugo’s nightmare. He hides his burning face in his hands and groans, “Look, the only reason I did it was because it would break the spell’s effects. It was that or traveling out farther to find the flower, and that was my first choice. I wouldn’t have done that unless you gave me permission otherwise, and I know you wouldn’t want…Can’t we just pretend it never happened and move on?”
Varian is quiet for a moment. It’s a long moment—long enough to send Hugo’s heart beating double time.
“Why did you assume I wouldn’t want to kiss you?”
Hugo’s head whips up so fast that he nearly throws off his glasses. He gapes at the smaller boy for a moment, unsure if the words are processing correctly.
Varian suddenly looks sheepish, looking away as pink colors high on his cheeks. “I…I’m happy you didn’t want to do anything without my permission. But if you did ask, I would have said yes.” Blue eyes flicker up to him. “I like you, Hugo. I have for a really long time.”
Hugo can barely hear the words around the rush of blood in his ears. His heart feels like it’s soaring in his chest. Wow. Varian liked him back, even after everything. Maybe he should have asked sooner. He takes a deep breath, intent on responding with his own declaration of feeling.
Instead, he says, “Do you wanna make out?”
Varian laughs, so hard that he nearly doubles over. Like bubbles rising to a boiling surface, soon Hugo is too, and pair of them clinging to each other and giggling like fools.
“Yes,” Varian says eventually, still grinning. “I would like to do that.”
Hugo grins back. “Awesome.”
“You’re so dumb.” The smaller boy snorts. “Did you seriously think I didn't like you? I asked you to move in with me.”
“I, uh, wasn’t sure after y’know, the whole my-mom-tried-to-kill-you thing…”
“Hugo.” Varian looks at him very seriously. “I’ve forgiven you for that. Why else would I have asked to be around you every day?”
Hugo shoots him a toothy smile. “Because you’re bad at engineering and need someone better to help you get all the credit?”
“Stars, I hate you so much,” Varian says, but he’s smiling, a soft little thing that makes Hugo’s heart flutter. The smaller boy draws closer, tilting his head up so they’re barely an inch apart. “Now shut up and kiss me.”
And Hugo gladly does.