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The nighttime wind was beginning to come in as the sun continued to sink lower in the sky. From this height, the shadows looked like darkness descending on the ground below. Eugene was leaning on the edge of Varian’s cage, keeping one hand on the bars of black rock just in case the wind tried to knock him over.
He was waiting in anticipation for something to happen, but he wasn’t sure what. He hoped that Rapunzel would be able to talk down Cassandra but from all the rumbling that began to vibrate the tower, he began to fear the worst, wishing he could charge back the beam and burst through those tower walls. Varian was keeping himself from falling through the cage gaps by keeping himself huddled together and had been leaning his head against the bars with his eyes closed, although he knew for certain that the kid wasn’t asleep.
He barely did anyways.
They had both fallen silent shortly after Varian had managed to get the final incantation from the Demanitus scroll, having realized that there was absolutely nothing they could do except wait, unless of course, they wanted to accidentally plummet to their doom.
Eugene had been relying on Varian for checking how much time had passed, as he seemed to have been counting in his head. Every time he’d asked, however, it seemed only a few minutes had passed, no matter how long it seemed. After another moment of silence Varian had shifted his position slightly, and winced.
“You alright?” Eugene asked concerned.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Varian said, with a twinge of pain in his voice, carefully moving his legs into a safer position. “I just sort of got hit in the chest with a black rock and hit the ground really hard.”
Eugene’s eyes widened recalling the intense pain he’d felt when Cassandra had struck him back in the Dark Kingdom, “I - uh definitely know that feeling. Erm… you sure you aren’t hiding any broken bones over there?”
Varian shrugged, looking away. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet, but given their rather dire circumstances Eugene wouldn’t fault him. He wasn’t even panicking and to be honest, Eugene thought he was handling this all quite well… a little too well.
Varian looked even more tired than he felt, which was pretty reasonable considering he’d pretty much been kidnapped in the night and held hostage, having spent the entire day dangling in a cage hundreds of feet in the air probably didn’t help either.
“Alright, you’re getting a definite visit to the doctor as soon as we get back.” Eugene said, acknowledging the dark circles under the teenagers eyes just as a sudden gust of wind caused them both to shudder.
“I wish we knew what was going on in there.” Eugene said through gritted teeth as he tightly gripped onto the bars again.
Varian had done the same but sighed as he let go again.
“Why am I so stupid?” He suddenly asked, placing a hand on his head for a moment and then wincing again, causing Eugene’s eyes to narrow with concern.
“What do you mean?”
“If I could’ve kept my mouth shut, we probably wouldn’t be stuck up here.” Varian replied gloomily.
Aw, man.
The kid was blaming himself for this whole mess and Eugene for one was not about to let him continue on like that.
“This isn’t your fault, you know,” Eugene said reassuringly, causing Varian to give him a disbelieving look.
“Yeah, right.” He grumbled, “Just stop lying to me and admit it.”
His tone surprised Eugene, but after a moment, Eugene realized it shouldn’t have.
Of course he’d be a bit grouchy right now. Being held hostage for nearly over twenty four hours, sometimes does that.
After all, the kid seemed to have been doing just fine in the Demanitus chamber until they’d shown up and accidentally eavesdropped on his rather adorable conversation with that cat.
It was just then that Eugene came to a realization that nearly caused him to facepalm himself.
“No, no, I’m serious, kid.” He said quickly, “Look, I’ve literally paid the price for letting my mouth run miles before my head several times, heck, I’ve ended up with knives to my throat or in really weird places… and to be honest that was a really stressful situation.”
Varian snorted and crossed his arms, muttering something about that being the understatement of the year and causing Eugene to roll his eyes.
“Not to mention that we did accidentally lead her to you.” Eugene admitted rather guiltily, causing Varian to look up at him in surprise.
“Seriously kid, you are entirely faultless here. In fact, I for one, completely blame Cassandra and besides even if you hadn’t accidentally told her you had somehow created and memorized the translation key of an ancient one of a kind scroll that no one has been able to translate for… just you know a couple of centuries , she would’ve taken you anyways. It’s pretty obvious that it was in your head, considering the size of that nerd brain of yours. That’s pretty impressive, you short genius.”
He reached through the bars and gently ruffled Varian’s hair fondly before realizing that the boy’s shoulders had suddenly stiffened and that the kid was staring at him with those practically shining blue eyes.
Varian’s eyes were widened with shock and Eugene suddenly felt awful, he knew that kid was still getting some of his self-confidence back but that was the same look of surprise the boy had whenever anyone complimented him for anything.
One that Varian hadn’t even realized was on his face a lot often ever since the whole red rocks fiasco.
“Hair stripe?” He asked softly, bringing his hand back to himself and hoping to give the kid a moment to bring himself back to the present.
Believe it or not, he’d seen the kid freeze up like this even worse before.
It had been not long after the king and queen had completely regained their memories after the red rocks incident, when Varian had rushed to the throne room, bowing down low and holding out his wrists before them, and of his own free will immediately placing himself at their mercy. Apologizing for all he had done and telling them, ever so humbly that he’d be willing to take whatever punishment they deemed fit.
The boy had frozen when the king had risen from his throne and walked towards him. The man had raised a hand to silence him, and had then apologized to him as well.
Varian had broken down, not long after, but Eugene who had just informed him that their memories had returned just ten minutes prior and had chased after him, having quickly deduced what he was about to do with the initial intention to stop him, arrived just in time to help him finally pick up the pieces and begin to glue himself back together again.
The kid had finally started to allow himself to open up again after that. He’d finally, truly begun to heal and gain his confidence again. But, of course, life didn’t seem fair to the young alchemist where something always happened to try to bring the boy back down to his knees.
“Thanks I guess,” Varian finally said after taking in a deep breath but then he looked away again.
“But, I - I tried to reason with her.”
He looked towards the tower with a deep sadness.
“And I failed.” His voice hitched as he looked away from it again.
Before Eugene could attempt to try and reassure him again though, he continued speaking with every word sounding more crestfallen then the last.
“She - she was talking to herself… she was acting strange… But I guess, kind of like I did, she's pushing everyone away. I feel like I almost got through to her but … then she got angry and I got thrown out here.”
“Sheesh, but since when has she listened to anyone?” Eugene asked but he couldn’t seem to get through to Varian who was still going, his voice beginning this quiver as he began to lose control of his breathing.
“Varian,” Eugene tried again, but the boy kept going.
“When I think about what she’s doing… she’s making the same mistakes I did … how far I went … I just know how stupid I was … if I had just been more patient … had … had … let you all know how I was really, really feeling instead of going rogue … but instead I hurt you guys… I almost really… I - I -”
He suddenly gasped as he tucked his head between his knees, hands tugging at his hair and causing Eugene to take immediate action.
He carefully twisted his body and reached into the cage, through the bars with both hands. He pressed himself against the stone cage and gently pulled Varian’s hands away from his head.
He finally realized that Varian’s shivering wasn’t just from the cold and his voice was shaking as he began to overwhelm himself with his own guilt.
Rapunzel had told him about how Varian had stood up to Andrew, how he had been so willing to be the one who went down with the ship.
It had nearly broken her heart.
This was the kid who had even braved his fears and saved the kingdom from the red rocks, but Eugene knew now that the kid definitely hadn’t forgiven himself.
This brave kid who he had vowed never to leave behind ever again.
Although they had told Varian about the events of their year-long trip, Eugene realized that finally seeing what Cassandra had seemingly become must’ve triggered his bad memories and regrets. It must have been even worse for him now, possibly because he had been stuck up here with only own thoughts for hours.
“Kid, you’ve got to let yourself breathe, just like Lance taught us, remember?” Eugene quickly said, still holding his hands as Varian slowly looked back at him, his teary face filled with remorse.
“Which one of those technique thing’s do you think you wanna use?” He asked.
It took a few minutes for him to get a quiet answer.
“D - don't have any more… paper left… can’t draw the sun, no sun… breathing,” He stuttered and then looked to the sky above, silent tears running down the sides of his face. “Hot air balloon… works though.”
Eugene remembered Lance teaching Varian that breathing technique for sure, not long after the Saporian’s attack and they all finally sat to have a talk about the past year, alongside the kid’s father.
“Huh, you really like those things, don’t ya?”
Varian nodded, hands still shaking and taking in a gulp of air.
Eugene made a mental note to take the kid flying in one later and they could take the others too for a picnic even. The young genius had after all even been asked to design quite a few for Corona by the queen herself, having acknowledged how efficient they truly were.
“Sit up straight… or as straight as possible without hurting yourself or erm… falling out of the basket.”
The cage looked like a very uncomfortable basket indeed, but Varian sat crossed legged and slowly did as he said.
“Good work, now close your eyes and take in a deep breath through your nose. You’ve got to get enough air to fill the balloon up, you know?”
He could tell that Varian’s mind was already calming down.
“Now, slowly let it out through your mouth, we don't want the balloon to burst from filling up too fast if we want it to fly now, do we?”
Varian gave him a slight shake of a head as he did so and with his eyes closed he couldn’t see Eugene’s small smile at that.
Varian seemed to already have recalled how the technique worked as he slowly brought his breathing back to a normal pace, but something Lance had mentioned was that having a voice to listen to was grounding.
“Now… we’re up in the air, the view is pretty nice up here, ain’t it?”
It sort of actually was… and honestly, this could’ve been nice if they had willingly gone on a hike to see the view or something and of course, if the whole lady ice dragon and moonstone thing wasn’t currently going on.
Come on Cassandra… stop being petty and come home already.
Please, Sunshine, get through to her.
He still didn’t know what would happen if she couldn’t, but right now, his main focus had to be on Varian.
“Look,” He finally said to him. “You were going through a very tough time, had no one to turn to and being alone didn’t make it any easier. There was an accident and you ended up making some obviously bad decisions but you were definitely not the only one who made bad decisions. At the end of the day, you made the right choice and decided to do whatever you could to fix your mistakes even when you knew nothing good may come out of it for you. You did that all on your own kid and that takes guts.”
Varian finally opened his eyes, looking much calmer but still a little distraught. He quickly shook his head, “I - I still did those things Eugene and nothing can ever change that.”
“I let my anger take control of me and I let you all down.”
“But that was in the past, and it says nothing about who you are now, Varian.” Eugene said and then he smiled.
“You are someone we are all proud of.”
Varian’s eyes widened when he said that, his whole body shaking but Eugene knew he needed to hear that.
“I’m - I’m not… no... what’re you -“
“You don’t think I haven’t seen you in the town square helping the townspeople almost everyday, both in the city and when we visit Old Corona.” Eugene interrupted.
“To be honest, I’m pretty sure the Old Coronan’s love you by now, what with all you’ve done for them this harvest season?”
“But I’m just trying to do my part.” Varian suddenly argued but Eugene could see a small realization dawn on him as he then almost shyly looked away.
“And it does help that they aren’t afraid of me or hate me anymore.” He added in a quiet voice, his mouth turning into a small but genuine smile.
And Eugene gave him an even wider grin of his own. Varian wasn’t going to allow this to bring him down, and now Eugene knew that for sure.
“Ha, you probably can’t imagine their reactions when I was released of all my charges… considering that I did rob half of them.” Eugene joked and Varian let out a short laugh.
“That - that is absolutely nothing compared to what I did… but yeah, real forgiving of them I guess.”
“I know, kid, but believe it or not, I still do understand a bit of what you’ve been through. I let my anger at the world turn me into the most wanted criminal for almost more than a decade, so if you ever need to talk about that sorta thing, I think my experience still suffices. And in terms of the situation you got yourself caught into, I honestly don’t even know how I would’ve handled it.”
Varian stared at him blankly for a moment, wanting to say something more before their conversation was interrupted by a particularly rude gust of wind, causing them both to go silent for a moment.
“Eugene?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“Thanks, for looking out for me.” Varian said quietly, “Ever since you’ve all gotten back.”
“Eh,” Eugene said with a smile, “Don’t mention it, you’re kind of my annoyingly nerdy little brother.”
Varian’s eyes lighting up when he said that, absolutely did not go unnoticed.
Another rumble caused the cage bars to vibrate and their attention returned to the situation at hand.
“Right, we’re still up here.” Eugene said, trying to maintain the calmness in voice. He tried to reassure himself and pretended that he was remaining calm for Varian’s sake more than his own, but Varian must’ve sensed his worry.
“Rapunzel won’t stop trying to make things right, she also promised you she’d stay safe and she always keeps her promises.” Varian said firmly.
Eugene gave him a grateful smile.
“Well… eventually, anyways.” Varian added with a mischievous pout and then crossing his arms, causing Eugene to raise an eyebrow at him and then let out a laugh.
“Well… thanks anyways kid, but I just can’t help but worry.”
He sighed as the darkness began settling in.
“I just wish there was a way we could, you know, magic ourselves in.”
“Yep, it’s always magic with you guys,” Varian said exasperatedly with an eye roll.
“Hey, you didn’t say alchemy that time.” Eugene pointed out and Varian shrugged, slouching tiredly against the bars of his cage.
“I wouldn’t be a good scientist if I continuously denied its existence at this point.”
“No,“ Eugene agreed as he too leant against the cage bars wishing that they could all just go home now, “You sir, definitely would not.”
Just then the entire beam began to shake worse than before. Varian was nearly knocked over in his cage while Eugene suddenly grabbed onto the bars with both hands.
The rock beam suddenly began to get pulled in towards the tower and Eugene could now see that the entrance had reopened.
They were going in.
Did this count as magicking their way in?
“Eugene?” Varian whispered, his voice suddenly full of fear as Eugene had never heard it before. He turned towards him and looked straight into those bright blue eyes.
He didn’t want to face Cassandra again, Eugene realized, nearly bursting with sympathy for the poor kid they’d accidentally gotten into trouble once again.
“Stay close, kid.” He said firmly, offering Varian his hand.
The boy’s hand wrapped around his tightly and Eugene vowed that no matter what happened next, he’d do everything in his power to ensure the kid never felt abandoned ever again.
They’d get through this together.
That was a promise.