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« I-is now a good t-time to tell y-y-you im claustrophobic? » varians voice shakes. He looks up at rapunzel, who is standing over him, rapidly teying to undo her hair. Varians breathing speeds up as he feels the stone walls around them push in further. *why? Why the fuck did we think this would be a good idea? » varian asks himself angrily. He and rapunzel somehow decided it was a jolly idea to go and explore new areas of the tunnels under corona. But it could be that simple could it now? Ofcourse, the second tunnel they decided to check out was one of the oldest, and it was just their luck for the walls to collapse on them right as they entered!
Varian thinks he might cry. Hes always been scared of tight spaces, and this?
Rapunzel drops her hair to the ground once she finishes untying it. She grabs onto varians hands and pulls him close. « It’ll be okay.. » she assures the boy, which would be comforting, if she too didnt look as worried as she did. The two of them feel the pressure and bounce of the walls as smaller rocks drop onto them. Then all of a sudden, the shaking stops. Varian breaths after what felt like a long time, but was realistically just a few seconds. He steadies his shaking hands just long enough for him to grab the last vile from his pouch. Varian whines slightly. It isnt what he hoped for, but its all theyve got. « H-Hang on
pr-princess » he pulls rapunzel even closer and drops the glass bottle to the ground. Theres a loud « KABOOM » the walls that were pushing the two of them down fly apart, and so do rapunzel and varian. Smoke fills the room, making it hard to see or breath. Varian lets out a grunt as he hits a wall, hard. He hears something in his body crack and pain shoot across the left side of his body. He cant think properly everything is blurry, and within moments it all goes black.
« Varian? Variannnnnn? Varian! » rapunzel yells for him. Only then noticing him unconsciously sitting on the ground, with his back propped op againts the walls. Rapunzel shakes him gently. Varian jolts awake, fear visible in his eyes. « I-IM SORRY, IM S-SO S-SORRY » he yells, startling rapunzel. « Hey! shh, varian itsokay.. » she soothes, grabbing his hand. She rubs gentle circles on his palm, allowing the young boy to calm down. Varian starts to get up and stands surprisingly easily. Its rapunzel who has an issue. As she tries to stand with varian, her vision gods blurry and she stumbles backwards. « W-Woah, are you okay? » varian asks, its now his turn to be concerned. « Yeah… yeah imfine, lets just getout of here… » rapunzel replies. Shes slurring her words, and varian notices. But even if she has a concussion (as Varian suspects) theres nothing that can be done about it here. They start to walk in the direction where theres just a small sliver of lighting. Theyre unsure where they’ll emerge, but atleast they know it will be somewhere outsife of the tunnels.
A rock falls loose a few feet from them, causing varian to flinch. But as he flinches he realizes he has a pretty serious injury too. He feels an extreme pain somewhere by his left ribs, he pick up his hand to feel his ribs and heset with blood and puffy skin. « Great » he mutters under his breath. Rapunzel, who is holding on tighly to his left hand turns to look at him. « Whatsgreat? » she asks worriedly. « I-I think i did s-something to my ri-r-rib » rapuzel frowns at him gently. « Lets justget out of here as soon asossible, they we’ll takealook »
She reassures him.
Finally, after what felt like hours (and probably was) they make it out of the tunnels and By some miracle, they end up right beside the castle. They walk up the stairs, past the worried guards and straight to rapunzels room, where cassandra and eugine are waiting impatiently. « There you are! » cassandra sounds mad. But her voice softens instantly as she sees the state of the two of them. « come sit down, il check you out » she ushers them to rapunzels bed.
Cassandra starts by looking them both up and down, taking note lf any minor scratches that would need cleaning. « just what where you two thinking!? You know those tunnels are dangerous! » eugine yells. Varian flinches back at his outrage. He might be used to people being disappointed and mad at him, but he never stops flinching from it. « And to go in there, without anyone know but cass! » eugine goes on. « eugine shut up » cassandra interupts to focus on the blood stain on varians left side. « Can i take off your shirt? » she asks, but shes not really going to take no as an answer. « y-yeah » varian nods. Varian lifts his arms up, wincing slightly at the pain, and Cassandra pulls his shirt off. She cleans of the blood and feels around gently, noticing that even the lightest touch brought pain to varian. « okay, varian you have one or two broken ribs that need bandaging and at least 6 weeks of rest, preferably more » she orders, her voice stern yet loving. « rapunzel, you have a concussion, that ne-» she starts to say, but gets cut off. « Youdidnt even check meoutyet! » rapunzel objects. « Raps, youre stumbling around like your drunk and youre slurring your words, im not stupid » cass smiles « youre not allowed to do anything but rest for the next 3 days, after that youre taking it easy and resting ectra for the next 5 weeks » rapunzel lets out a whine and falls down backwards. Varian smiles at the princess. « Thanks cass » he says. « Always, now lets get those cuts cleaned up »
After an excruciating 40 minutes, cass was all done with the two troublemakers and dragged eugine out with her to give the some time together. They lay in bed together in silence taking in everything that had just happened. « Hey varian? » rapunzel starts. Varian hums to let her know hes listening. « what were yousaying boutbeing sorry? After you woke up? » rapunzel murmured. « I-I… It was j-just a n-nightmare… » he answers plainly, trying to hint with his tone that he dosnt want to talk about it. « Youve beengettinthose alot recently… » rapuzel pushes gently. « L-look i dont re-really want to to talk about it.. » varian mumbles, turning to face the princess. «alright.. but if yoever need anyone to talk to, im right here » she smiles and varian smiles back.
Rapunzel fluffs up varians hair and plants a kiss on his forhead, before the two of them drift of to sleep…