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Chapter Text

They pull into the fjord and the Kingdom of Arendelle shows itself to the two tired travelers. It nests between the tall cliffs, backed by a mountain so high the peaks are gleaming white with ice and snow even though it’s the height of summer, mid July. The Royal Castle is a sight to see, with green tipped towers and tall stone walls. It stands proudly on the fjord, guarding the rest of the kingdom, and it reminds him a bit of Corona and how it stands apart from Old Corona in the mainland.

“Look at it, Eugene!” His wife is leaning so far out the railing he’s a bit concerned she’s gonna fall. He still can’t believe he gets to call her his wife. Finally. “It’s so beautiful! The guide didn’t do it justice!”

“Careful, Sunshine!” he calls. “Why don’t you start bringing us down?” Then he smirks. “What do you reckon? Think they’ve ever seen something like this?”

She giggles as she fiddles with the flame that’s keeping their balloon up in the air. It’s with the practice of many trips that Rapunzel lowers the intensity enough to not send them free-falling but slowly gliding downwards. At the tilt, Eugene guides their vessel to the docks. There’s an entryway marked by two small lighthouses, right by the castle. They’re still high enough that Eugene could bypass it altogether and go over the castle and harbor to land wherever he pleases, but he figures it’s better on the long run if they behave.

There’s a disgruntled harbormaster waiting for them at the docks, one of his apprentices standing next to him with his mouth wide open. Rapunzel looks back to catch his eye, as amused as he is by the reaction, and he winks at her, cutting off the flame propelling them forwards.

Feeling cheeky Eugene leans his head out the basket. “You got somewhere I can park this thing?!” he calls out. “It doesn’t do water very well!”

“We would be very thankful if you could point us somewhere we could land and not be in the way!” Rapunzel yells as politely as one can yell. “We’re the diplomatic delegation from Corona!”

Even from forty feet away, Eugene can see the dismay on the harbormaster’s face. Of course the nutters coming in a flipping hot-air balloon happen to be the Crown Princess of Corona and her Prince Consort. Eugene feels sorry for him, he does, really. But the guy is a professional through and through: he manages to regain his cool and shouts directions at them until Rapunzel nods, shoots him a thumbs up and sends them back up again.

They fly above the mostly empty harbor. They’re a few days early, the coronation won’t take place until the end of the week, and so most of the delegations are yet to come. Eugene would have put it off, too, because the plan was to enjoy three weeks in the golden, hopefully not Lorb infested, beaches of Spain before heading north for the coronation, but a mysterious box with an even more mysterious message had derailed their honeymoon.

“Come on, Eugene!” Rapunzel had looked at him with those green wide eyes of hers that no man could ever say no to. “The travel guide said that Arendelle has some of the most romantic landscapes in the continent. And there’s nothing more romantic than solving mysteries with the person you love, right?”

Eugene figures they’ve had enough of mysteries, with the whole Black-Rock-Expedition, Moonstone-Hunting and Oh-Shit-There’s-An-Ancient-Evil-Warlock-Coming-Back-From-Hell-To-Destroy-The-Kingdom Shenanigans. Corona is still half in shambles, after all. But he’s never been able to say no to Rapunzel and so here they are, gathering a bit of a crowd as they land. Apparently there aren’t many flying balloons around these parts.

One guy catches his attention as they step out of the basket. Part of the reason is because he’s staring at them so intensely, but mainly it’s because he’s leaning against the weirdest stag he has ever seen. Rapunzel doesn’t seem to notice, too busy saying hi to the kids crowding their balloon and basking in their awe as they learn she’s a princess. She’s always been good with kids, Coronan, Arendellian or otherwise. Eugene keeps an eye on her, although he doubts the kids and their even more star-struck parents pose a danger to her but one can never be too sure. He keeps another one on the mysterious young man, who waits under the shade of one of the market stalls. Once the crowd has thinned enough, Eugene catches him talking to himself. Or maybe it’s to the stag?? He seems, Eugene notes with amusement and a bit of concern, to be talking enough courage into himself to walk over towards them.

He didn’t need to have bothered.

“Oh my God, is that a reindeer?!”

Rapunzel shoots across the square with surprising speed and Eugene hears a yelp coming from the startled guy. It looks like Rapunzel has the upper hand and so he finishes packing up their balloon and gathers their things. By the time he makes it to their side she’s already won the stag’s –reindeer she’s said- eternal devotion, if he’s to go by the way it squirms under her hands. He’s not sure if the blonde man is more bewildered by the small princess with magical hands or by the chameleon sitting atop her head. He’s several years younger than Eugene, with the pale skin and blond hair combo that seems pretty common around these parts.

“-such a good boy!” Rapunzel is cooing. “You’re the handsomest reindeer in the world, Sven.”

Not surprised at all that she’s already learnt the animal’s name, Eugene nods at the confused owner. “Blondie here really likes animals,” he offers pointing his chin at her.

The poor man goes from bewildered to baffled and Eugene can see the “But she’s not blonde??” screaming behind his eyes. Part of the reason he keeps using that nickname is because the confusion of everybody who hasn’t met Rapunzel with her blonde hair is hilarious. Rapunzel usually finds it really funny as well, but right now she’s too busy making friends with the reindeer to notice.

The stranger looks between them all. “Right,” he says then clears his throat. “You’re the Princess of Corona, aren’t you?”

Rapunzel stops petting the reindeer, which looks very disappointed at that, to beam at the guy. “That’s right! I’m Rapunzel and this is my husband, Eugene!” The way her smile turns brighter at the end of the sentence tells him she feels as much of a thrill calling him her husband as he does hearing it.

“I’m Kristoff,” says Kristoff shaking the hand she’s offered him. He looks extremely uncomfortable at the familiarity the royal is displaying and Eugene kind of wants to pat him in the back. Poor guy. “I have something for you.”

From his pocket he fishes out three smooth stones roughly the shape and size of an egg. One of them is light purple, the other icy blue and the third one a mix of pink, green, white and pale blue. When he passes them to Eugene he notes they’re as smooth as they look like and cold to the touch. From his other pocket, Kristoff gets out a folded letter and Eugene’s heart skips a beat when he recognizes the sigil on the paper.

“Shit,” he says and that makes Rapunzel look up from her own study of the weird stones.

She follows his gaze to the letter and her eyes widen. “Shit,” she echoes.

Kristoff’s letter told him to get to Arendelle a week before the coronation with the three rocks and to find the Princess of Corona. Rapunzel’s letter said to get to Arendelle a week before the coronation with the weird box and find the future Queen and her sister. And the soon-to-be-Queen had definitely received a letter as well because she has the doors to the castle opened for them and watches them come in with wide eyes and an expression that clearly reads: “Fuck.”

Once introductions are made, poor Sven has to stay outside, Princess Elsa leads them to her solar. She arranges for a maid to bring them some tea and pastries and sits behind her desk, her back to the window. They offer their letters up to her and she takes them in with pursed lips.

“I should have known.” She deflates in her seat and the gesture makes her seem so young. She’s around Rapunzel’s age, Eugene knows, but for a few seconds she looks even younger. “I got one, too.”

From a drawer she grabs a matching letter –the last of them, Eugene hopes-. He does his best to read it over Rapunzel’s shoulder.

Dear Princess Elsa, it reads.

I write this letter with the best of intentions. I know you’ll probably believe this to be a joke but trust me when I say (write?) that I’m speaking only the truth. There’s some information you need to know to prepare for the days ahead. There’s some things you need to learn about the past and about the future. It will make you a better Queen, a better sister and a better ally. Believe me or not, but I’m only trying to help.

A few days from now, a week before your coronation, you’ll receive three visitors to the castle and you’ll need to let them in. They carry important gifts I have given them that are crucial if you wish to learn about the information I mentioned. Let them in and you will see they are telling the truth and so I am.

I recommend you head to a comfortable place for the next part. Couches are strongly recommended and you will need a wall and a white sheet. Your sister should be joining you then. I know, I know, but it will be fine, you’ll see. First goes purple, then blue, then, if you wish, the last one.

Have faith.

D.

“Well, believe it or not they were way more cryptic in our letter,” Eugene tells the future Queen, hoping for a laugh. He barely gets a twitch of her lips. “Look, I know what the letter says but if you want us out of your hair we can forget the whole deal. Kristoff here will go back to his reindeer and Blondie and I will make ourselves scarce for the rest of the week.”

“Oooh, there’s some fjords I’ve been wanting to see and there’s this waterfall I’ve read about that’s supposed to be breathtaking. And we have to see Arendelle as well, of course!” His wife has also seen the fear in Princess Elsa’s face and, as usual, she’s way better at reassuring people than he is. She chatters about the supposed sights of the kingdom until the other princess relaxes in her chair and loses the frown.

That’s, of course, when the door slams open.

“There’s a reindeer in the entrance hall!” exclaims the short redheaded intruder.

“Anna!” Princess Elsa exclaims.

On a first glance the two sisters don’t resemble each other much. Elsa is deathly pale, with hair so light it looks white, carefully coiled around her head. She’s dressed up from head to toe (she’s even wearing gloves inside!), not a thing out of place. Anna, on the other hand, has a healthier pinkish complexion, her hair in two messy braids and the look of someone who just jumped out of bed and got dressed with the first thing they had on hand. But then Eugene looks closer and he notices they have the same blue eyes, the same nose and the same mouth. Even the shape of their faces is similar.

The younger princess turns red at the realization that her sister is not alone in the solar. “I’m so sorry!” she chokes out. “Oh my God!”

“What are you doing?” Princess Elsa cries, the regal and calm demeanor she had been maintaining nowhere to be found.

“There’s a reindeer in the entrance hall,” Anna repeats, her eyes flickering between her sister and the three strangers as if she’s not sure where to look. “He’s been... um... he’s left some gifts? On the floor of the hall?” she tries, grimacing.

It takes a couple of seconds to register and then Kristoff is launching himself towards the door with the cry of “Shoot, Sven!”. He almost knocks Anna over, runs backwards as he apologizes profusely, trips down the stairs and almost breaks his head open. Eugene laughs so hard he has to clutch the backrest of his chair to not keel over.

“You must be Princess Anna,” says Rapunzel standing up and diffusing the awkwardness with a warm smile. He does his best to get his laughter back under control. “I’m Princess Rapunzel of Corona. That’s my husband, Eugene, and the man who just left is Kristoff. His reindeer, Sven, is a sweetheart and I’m sorry about what he’s done to the hall. But I’m sure Kristoff is cleaning it up right now so there’s nothing to worry about!”

On Rapunzel’s shoulder Pascal nods in agreement. Princess Anna gawks at them both.

“That’s the weirdest frog I’ve ever seen,” she announces.

Eugene is dying.

They relocate to the drawing room, which has some really comfortable couches and armchairs. Sven has also been relocated to the stables, as Kristoff tells them. Princess Elsa and Rapunzel catch Princess Anna up to speed as Eugene tries to figure out the box thing and Kristoff, with Pascal’s help, struggles to hang a bedsheet on the wall.

“This is amazing,” Anna breathes out with wide eyes. “Who do you think did this?”

The box is made of a smooth reddish wood. It’s one foot long, five inches wide and four inches tall. There’s a hole with a round lens on one of the sides and a smaller hole at the top, near the edge. The hole at the top is big enough for Eugene to stick his fingers in, but he can’t make it past his knuckles. If he stretches he can feel a velvety surface with the tips of his fingers.

“We don’t know. They left no clues aside from the sigils in all the letters. Oh, and they signed them as D, but that doesn’t really give us anything,” Rapunzel says.

If Eugene tries to peer inside the box it gets him nowhere. It’s a weird, dark box, that’s what it is.

“Do you think they’re telling the truth? About information about the future?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you think they’re a seer?”

Eugene huffs, not that fond of seers, and feels Rapunzel glaring at the back of his head. He, wisely, keeps his comments about not paying five silver pieces to himself.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like something a seer would do.”

“Why bring us together?” This time is Elsa who’s asking. “Why us, why the two of you and why Kristoff?” The Kristoff thing seems to really baffle her but he can’t blame her. He’s just a random guy who had shown up alongside royalty with a shitting reindeer and weird stones.

“Hold on...”

“He must be important to what’s supposed to happen?” Rapunzel says. “I don’t think D would have brought him in otherwise.”

“An ice seller?” Anna asks with skepticism.

Eugene reaches for one of the rocks, feeling the weight of it. He looks back at the hole on the box and yep! It’s the same exact shape.

Rapunzel laughs awkwardly. “I don’t know. Maybe you’ll run out of ice?”

Elsa makes a weird noise, half a laugh half a huff, but no one has time to dwell on it. The stone slots perfectly in the hole and starts glowing once it’s inside the box.

“Ah-ha-ha!” Eugene crows jumping to his feet.

A ray of light bursts from the box, landing on the white sheet Kristoff and Pascal have just managed to hang. Instead of the purple light that the stone is radiating, a painting of a peaceful forest is instantly depicted in the sheet. A moving painting of a peaceful forest.

“Wait, what?”

“This,” says a very familiar voice coming from nowhere. “is the story of how I died.”

Eugene drops the box.

Chapter Text

They all gather around the box on the floor. The purple stone had jumped out in the fall and both things are now dark. Anna crouches down to get a closer look and Elsa has to push back the urge to grab her by the shoulders and get them both away from the weird box.

“Is this... magic?” asks Anna poking the rock. Nothing happens.

“Hey, careful, Red!” the Prince Consort of Corona snaps. “We don’t know if it’s safe or not.”

He does what Elsa has been wanting to do: lean down, grab her by the shoulders and drag her a couple of feet away. The nickname, though, makes her wrinkle her nose.

“Sunshine?” he calls to his wife. “What do you think?”

In the hour or so she has known him, Eugene Fitzherbert has addressed his wife by many pet names but has yet to use her proper name. A mean voice inside of her wonders if he’s forgotten it. Sunshine is the most common and Elsa can understand that one because while she barely knowns Princess Rapunzel she can already see her bubbly personality is like a ray of sunshine. Sweetheart also has made an appearance a couple of times and Elsa has no problem with that one. No, it’s the blondie’s and the goldie’s that make her so confused because Princess Rapunzel is a brunette. She’s very brunette. There’s nothing blonde about her that can inspire that nickname.

It’s not Princess Rapunzel who answers, but the ice seller, Kristoff.

“The rocks look like memory crystals,” he says. When all the attention lands on him he shuffles awkwardly. “I’ve seen my family use them sometimes. They can be used to keep memories in them. And the box... well, I guess it allows people to see those memories?”

“Memories...” says Eugene Fitzherbert shooting a pointed look to his wife. Her eyes widen and a whole conversation passes silently between the two of them. They both have incredibly expressive eyebrows, Elsa notes, made for conversations like those. “Well, alright!”

Princess Rapunzel grabs the box and the memory-crystal-stone thing and walks to stand next to her husband. He throws his arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to her temple. Elsa aches on the inside: that will never be her, she can’t allow it. She will never have someone be as close to her as those two are. And most days she’s fine, but others it tears her heart in two.

“Guess you guys will see how Blondie and I met!” the Prince Consort says with forced cheerfulness.

“Wait, what?” Anna sounds as confused as Elsa feels.

Princess Rapunzel drops the purple stone in her husband’s extended hand and Eugene raises it up so that they can see it easily. “I’d recognize that deep, manly, seductive voice anywhere,” he says. Beside him, Rapunzel rolls her eyes, but she has a soft smile on her face. “It’s mine.”

Ugh.

“I don’t know why it’s so important that the three of you learn about our past,” says Rapunzel. “But it’s clear someone has gone through a lot of trouble to get us here watching this. So...”

“Do you have popcorn?” Eugene asks perking up. “I never watch a play without something to nibble on. I like salty things but I could also use something sweet.” And he winks at the woman under his arm who pinches his nose playfully.

Ew. Elsa looks to her sister, to see if she’s as put off by the display of affection in front of them but Anna has stars in her eyes and she’s basically melted into a puddle. Right.

So that’s how they find themselves, a few minutes later, getting ready to watch the love story of the future rulers of Corona. It’s not as if Elsa hasn’t got dozens of letters to read, agreements to sign and things to organize. She has taken the armchair on the right –there’s no way she’s sitting in the couch so close to Anna or three strangers- and Kristoff takes the other one, on the left. Sitting on the couch in the middle are Anna and the cuddly couple. Fitzherbert has a bowl of grapes and a plate with cheese and crackers at hand because they haven’t got these popcorn things he’s talking about but Elsa knows the first rule of how to be a good host is to not let one’s guests go hungry. The chameleon the couple has brought with them sits on the backrest of the couch, shooting its tongue from time to time to snag one of the grapes.

The box sits in the middle of the small table, lens pointed towards the bedsheet on the wall. Rapunzel drops the purple stone and the whole thing starts to glow.

A peaceful forest. Tranquil music is playing. A bird shoots across the screen and its unseen cousins tweet from the trees. There’s a poster nailed on a tree.

“This is the story of how I died” says the voice of Eugene.

The image zooms on the sign. WANTED it reads DEAD OR ALIVE. There’s a portrait of Eugene smirking and underneath it says Flynn Rider and THIEF.

“Wait, what?!” Anna lurches forward and sticks her hand on the box. The second she touches the stone the image pauses. “What do you mean: wanted?” she asks with wide eyes. “You’re a criminal?! I thought you were a Prince?” She squints at the image on the wall then back at Flynn: the resemblance is undeniable. “Do you have an evil twin brother?”

Fitzherbert guffaws but it’s Rapunzel the one who offers an explanation. “Before he met me Eugene was a thief,” she says. “He used to go by Flynn Rider but once we got together he reformed and went back to his real name.”

Ah, thinks Elsa in understanding. That’s why Eugene, or Flynn, starts the story saying it’s how he died. She can already see it’s the story of how Flynn Rider died and Eugene Fitzherbert was reborn. But also...

“Hold on! Flynn Rider?” she frown as she does her best to remember. “I’ve heard that name before, I’m sure of it.”

Rapunzel groans. “Please, don’t tell me this is like the Eye of Pincosta all over again!”

He huffs, offended. “I’ve never stepped a foot in Arendelle before,” he swears. “It must be me my dashing reputation as a rogue and master thief. You know, there was a time my name was known in every nook, in every cranny, in every ba-”

“The Tales of Flynnigan Ryder!” exclaims Anna, snapping her fingers. “We have that book in the library and we used to read it all the time back when we were kids!”

“Or it might also be that,” Eugene grumbles, deflating.

Anna turns to look at Elsa, her eyes wide and vulnerable. “I can’t believe you remember that,” she says as if Elsa hasn’t spent the last fifteen years clutching to the memories of Anna like a lifeline.

“I can’t believe you remember that,” she shoots back. “You were so small you didn’t even know how to read.”

“I remember everything when it comes to you,” Anna tells her, broken and defiant at the same time. The worst part is she believes it’s the truth.

An awkward silence settles over the room and Elsa can see them all trying to build the backstory behind that small interaction. She feels as if she’s under a blazing light and all she can feel are her eyes on her.

“Right!” Fitzherbert breaks the silence and Elsa couldn’t be more thankful. “Red, if you may. I sense a long narration coming and I’m always happy to hear my voice.”

“Don’t worry, this is actually a very fun story. And the truth is, it isn’t even mine,” Eugene is quick to reassure them, his voice losing the solemn tone of the beginning.

“Well, at least they got my nose right this time,” Fitzherbert grumbles under his breath.

“This is the story of a girl named Rapunzel.” The image fades to black and then to a beautiful orange sky with a brilliant sun. “And it starts with the sun. Now, once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens. And from this small drop of sun grew a magic, golden flower. It had the ability to heal the sick and injured.” As Eugene talks they see the golden drop of sun and the golden flower unfurling. In the background an old cloaked lady with a green lantern approaches and Eugene also takes notice of her. “Oh, you see that old woman, over there? You might want to remember her: she’s kind of important.”

“Yeah, right,” Rapunzel scoffs at that and when Elsa turns to see, she finds her curled tight against Eugene’s side. She’s half on his lap.

“Hold on,” Anna pauses the story again. It reminds Elsa of when they were kids and she would always interrupt her when she was reading. “A magic flower?”

“Seems crazy, right?” Eugene asks cheerfully. But he has an arm slung tight around Rapunzel’s waist and his hand encircling her leg in a possessive way that tells her neither of them is alright. There’s more to the story than it seems.

“We’re watching memories coming from magical rocks in a magical box,” Kristoff says. “It’s really a magical flower too much for you?”

Anna slumps back to her seat. “No,” she pouts. “I just wanted to make sure. I’ve never seen anything magical.”

Else doesn’t know if she wants to laugh or cry at that.

“Well, centuries passed and a hop skip and a boat ride away there grew a kingdom. The kingdom was ruled by a beloved King and Queen. And the Queen, well, she was about to have a baby. And she got sick, really, sick.”

“Oh,” said Anna, sadly.

“She was running out of time. And that's when people usually start to look for a miracle. Or in this case, a magic golden flower.” The image jumps from the guards and citizens in search of the flower to the old lady from before. “Ahhh, I told you she'd be important! You see, instead of sharing the Sun's gift, this woman, Mother Gothel, hoarded its healing power and used it to keep herself young for hundreds of years. And all she had to do was sing a special song.”

“Flower gleam and glow.” The flower starts to glow as bright as the sundrop from the beginning. “Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse.” She’s lost the croaky voice from the beginning of the song, her voice now rich and powerful. “Bring back what once was mine, what once was mine.”

“Alright, you get the gist. She sings to it, she turns young. Creepy, right?”

“Creepy,” concedes Rapunzel darkly.

While Elsa has to admit it’s a bit weird, she would rather have a magical flower that turns people young than her stupid ice powers that bring nothing but cold and destruction.

Mother Gothel hears the voices in the background and covers the flower back again but on her haste to get away she knocks the fake bush with her lantern, leaving it out in the open. Two guards find it and drag it out, being careful to uproot the whole thing. From her hiding place, Gothel narrows her eyes.

“You know, it’s kind of a waste they used the whole flower to heal your Mom,” Eugene comments as they watch the flower melting into water. “I get she probably was in no condition to travel, but I’m sure there was a more efficient way than to make a soup out of it.”

Rapunzel wrinkles her nose. “I guess they just wanted to be sure it worked.”

“A healthy baby girl, a princess, was born. With beautiful, golden hair.”

“Awww, you were so cute!” Eugene coos.

“That’s where Blondie comes from!” Anna exclaims happily. Elsa is relieved to notice she’s not the only one bothered by that nickname. “What happened?”

“You’ll see,” Rapunzel tells her with a pained smile.

“Flexible, too,” Eugene notes as they watch baby Rapunzel gnaw at her own feet. “What happened?” he asks, mimicking Anna.

“Excuse me, I’m still very flexible!” she frowns at him.

He winks at her. “Don’t I know it.” The blush on Rapunzel’s cheeks makes the innuendo even clearer. Ewwww.

“What? I don’t get it.”

But none of them answer Anna, choosing instead to focus on the cute family moment in the sheet.

“I’ll give you a hint. That’s Rapunzel.” The baby giggles and the crown her father has just put on her head falls, lopsided, over one of her eyes.

“Damn, you had a huge head when you were a baby,” Eugene notes. His wife, with a perfectly proportionated head, hits him on the chest.

“To celebrate her birth, the King and Queen launched a flying lantern into the sky. For that one moment, everything was perfect.” The lantern in the bright blue sky melts into the moon over the dark water. The soft happy music playing in the background turns sinister, but still soft. “And then that moment ended.”

A shadow falls over a sleeping Rapunzel and it’s made clear to whom it belongs when she starts to sing. “Flower gleam and glow...” Like the flower Rapunzel’s hair starts shining with golden light.

“Wait, what?” Anna breathes out.

Elsa can’t breathe. Rapunzel has magic? She has magic too? Elsa’s not the only one with... There’s someone who can understand? Who won’t judge her. She understands now why Eugene and Rapunzel are here, why they’re watching this.

“But you’re not blonde anymore,” Anna frowns and she’s right. “What happened?”

The memories answer for them. Gothel cuts a lock of hair and it turns brown, leeching the youth it had just given her.

“Ah,” says Anna, understanding.

A ball of lead falls on Elsa’s stomach. Because something had happened to Rapunzel’s hair and her magic. It had been cut off (quite badly, she might add) and she’d lost it. But there’s no magic hair Elsa can cut to get rid of her powers. She’s stuck with them, with this curse, until the day she dies.

“Gothel broke into the castle and stole the child. Just like that... gone.”

They all watch the story with wide eyes. Because while they’d all heard the story of the Lost Princess of Corona it’s been three years since she’s returned and they’d kind of... forgot she’d been missing in the first place.

“Oh, crap,” Anna mutters.

And, well, Elsa might hate her powers but at least she can still be with her family. She was able to grow up with her parents and her sister and she wouldn’t trade that for anything.

“The Kingdom searched and searched, but they could not find the Princess. For deep within the forest, in a hidden tower, Gothel raised the child as her own.” Inside the tower Gothel brushes the glowing hair of a now older Rapunzel as the little girl finishes the song. “Gothel had found her new magic flower. But this time she was determined to keep it hidden.”

“Why can't I go outside?” little Rapunzel asked.

“The outside world is a dangerous place. Filled with horrible, selfish people. You must stay here, where you're safe. Do you understand, flower?”

“Yes, Mommy.”

Elsa spares a glance to the current Rapunzel. She has a fierce scowl on her face and her eyes are glistening. Eugene is rubbing her arm and whispering something in her ear that Elsa can’t hear. Feeling like she’s intruding on a very private moment, she turns back to the sheet.

“But the walls of that tower could not hide everything.” As Eugene narrates again the little Rapunzel creeps down the stairs. Her hair is so long it trails on the floor behind her. “Each year on her birthday, the King and Queen released thousands of lanterns into the sky,” Rapunzel opens the shutters to see a night sky filled with the floating lanterns. “In hope that one day, their lost Princess would return.” Awestruck, little Rapunzel leans on her crossed arms to watch the view.

“Aww, Sunshine! Look at that face! So adorable!”

“I know,” says Rapunzel with no modesty whatsoever.

Elsa knows she’s going to have to talk to Rapunzel about her magical hair. She has so many questions she’s about to burst with them. But that can wait, because she has the feeling most of them are going to be answered soon. She also knows she’ll have to tell them about her powers in return, but she’s not sure she even knows how to do it.

Not now, she tells herself. You can do it later.

Later.

Chapter Text

Rapunzel is reconsidering the whole “Let’s watch the past with this magic stones! It’ll be fun!” thing. It’s been three years since she’s seen the woman who kidnapped and raised her and Rapunzel has gone very far in these three years. She’s grown up, learnt and discovered so many things, loved so many people! She’s gone through all the stages of grief about her past and the conflicting emotions she feels about Gothel. She’s put it all to rest.

But that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t affect her, specially seeing it with her own two eyes like this. That doesn’t mean the memories on the sheet don’t feel like they’re pulling at the scabs of her freshly healed wounds, trying to get them bleeding again. She’s not sure she can watch the whole thing unfold.

The only reason she’s not run away is the arms around her and the weight on her shoulder. Pascal has curled up on his usual spot by her neck, the greying blue tint of his skin showing how conflicted he also feels about the images. And Eugene is hugging her, her front pressed against his side and his arm circling her waist. Her legs are slung over his knees and his right hand is a comforting weight on her shin. He keeps dropping kisses on her hair, her ear, her forehead and wherever he can reach.

The tower stands proud and calm in the middle of the valley. Pascal skitters out the window alongside a playful music and plasters himself next to a vase with flowers. Breathing heavily he changes colors to match the flower pattern behind him.

“I don’t- What?” Kristoff mutters, shaking his head. “That’s not how chameleons work!”

“This is so cool!” Anna exclaims on her other side.

The disparity of the answers has Rapunzel hiding a grin.

“HA!” Rapunzel slams the window open.

She can feel Eugene and Anna startle and she presses her lips to her husband’s shoulder to contain a giggle.

“Shut up,” he mutters fondly.

“Hmm. Well... I guess Pascal's not hiding out here.” Rapunzel says the last bit over her shoulder, clearly having noticed the chameleon. Pascal chuckles to himself but falls silent when he feels a lock of hair wrapping around his tail. It snatches him up. “GOTCHA!” He shrieks and deflates, going back to his usual green.

On her shoulder Pascal grumbles to himself. Eugene laughs softly at him.

“Sorry, frog. You tried your best.”

“That's twenty two for me,” Rapunzel tells him as she lowers them both down. “How about twenty three, out of forty five?” Pascal squeaks and frowns, a clear no.

“And I thought Sven was expressive,” Kristoff mumbles.

“Okay, well, what do you want to do?” Rapunzel asks, sitting on the window sill. Pascal lights up and points his tail out the window. “Yeah, I don't think so.” Rapunzel grabs him by the tail and sets him down on her lap. “I like it in here and so do you.” Pascal’s deadpan expression and the raspberry he blows are clear signs he disagrees. “Oh, come on Pascal, it's not so bad in there.” The strumming of a guitar, not as background music as they’ve been hearing this whole time but loud and undeniable, center-stage, starts playing as Rapunzel grabs Pascal and takes them both inside the tower.

“What does it mean: Tangled?” Eugene scowls. “These are memories! Why do they have a title?!”

But no one knows what to answer him. Kristoff looks as put off by the title appearance as Eugene does, Elsa is frowning deeply and Anna doesn’t seem to care much at all, happily bobbing her head along to the music.

While Rapunzel is also concerned about the title she’s more worried about the guitar music. Because it feels different, it feels like when they start singing on a play.

And sure enough, memory-Rapunzel opens the ceiling window, lands by a clock and starts to sing. “Seven A.M. the usual morning line up.”

“Ugh, you get up at seven?” Anna grumbles.

“Why are you singing?” Eugene demands, reaching over to pause the memory. “Why is this suddenly a musical number?”

“I mean, I sang in the tower sometimes,” Rapunzel admits. “But not this song. I’ve never heard this before.” It’s only been a line but she’s sure.

“Great! Not only we have to relieve our memories but they’ve also turned them into a musical!” He pales as he realizes. “Oh, no. I swear if these stones have me singing I’m gonna throw them out the window.”

Kristoff snorts. “You’re that bad at singing?”

“Excuse me, I’m great at singing!” he protests, offended. “Have you heard this voice? Angelic. Aaaaaaah!” The high pitched note he sings is the furthest thing from angelic there is and it has them all fighting their laughter. “It’s the principle of it. I hate musicals.”

“Oh, I love them!” sighs Anna flopping on the couch. “The singing and the feelings put to music and the harmonies!”

Eugene looks back at her and Rapunzel shrugs with a small smile. “I do like musicals.”

Grumbling, he gets his finger out of the box and settles back on the couch.  They all watch at first with amusement and then with growing pity and sympathy the many chores and hobbies Rapunzel tackles to keep herself occupied.

She lets her face fall. There’s times that she misses the tower and the simple life she led there, without responsibilities or danger or betrayals, but watching it back now she feels her chest burn at the loneliness it emits. She was so alone for so long it makes her want to cry. She huddles against Eugene’s side and he’s watching the memories with his jaw clenched so tight his cheek is trembling. He tugs her closer towards him, even though that’s not really possible because they’re already pressed together, and drops a kiss on the crown of her hair.

He doesn’t say anything but Rapunzel knows all the same.

“Awww,” Anna coos at the sight of Pascal in a dress and, on her shoulder, he turns a deep red. “You’re so talented!” Anna tells her. “I also spent a lot of time alone and very bored, but I didn’t have half as many hobbies!”

She can see Elsa grimacing behind her sister and there’s a story there that Rapunzel doesn’t know. It’s a story that explains why Anna reminds her so much of herself when she hasn’t grown up isolated in a tower with her kidnapper and why Elsa is always so tense she looks like the slightest pressure can break her in two.

“And I’ll reread the books if I have time to spare. I’ll paint the walls some more, I’m sure there’s room somewhere!” Rapunzel keeps singing without a smile now. “And then I’ll brush and brush and brush and brush my hair.”

Another thing she doesn’t miss. Short hair is so much easier.

“Stuck in the same place I’ve always been. And I'll keep wondering, and wondering, and wondering... Wondering, just when will my life begin?” The music turns softer, melancholic as Rapunzel runs to the window and looks outside. “Tomorrow night, the lights will appear. Just like they do on my birthday, each year.” The new painting she’s made reflects the lights she’s talking about. “What is it like out there, where they glow? Now that I'm older.” She paints herself underneath the lights, sitting on top of a tree with her impossibly blonde hair trailing down. “Mother might just let me go.”

Anna reaches over to pause the scene. Her eyes are wet with unreleased tears. “I’m sorry,” she says with heartfelt sincerity. “It’s just... I know how it feels.”

“It sucks,” Rapunzel offers and the other girl smiles and nods.

“Did she?” Elsa calls out from the armchair, there’s an emotion hiding in her voice that Rapunzel can quite place. “Let you go?”

Rapunzel makes a face and tilts her head in a so-so motion. “You’ll see,” she promises.

The scene changes abruptly and so does the music. A figure slides down a roof, rattling the tiles, and jumps on another one. Two other men follow him.

“Ah!” says Eugene, perking up. Rapunzel had thought she recognized that blue vest. “This is where I come in!”

Flynn Rider jumps over two chimneys, his accomplices behind him, and a wider shot lets them know exactly where he’s sneaking in.

“You’re stealing from the palace?” Elsa narrows her eyes at him and Rapunzel can almost see her going over all the valuable things in her own castle to hide them from him.

“Perhaps,” he concedes.

Flynn pauses for a moment to take in the view.

“Wow! I could get used to a view like this!”

“It’s a pretty good view,” Rapunzel agrees.

“Rider! Come on!” the thug with the sideburns urges him.

“Hold on,” he says, unbothered. “Yep, I'm used to it. Guys, I want a castle.”

Anna giggles and Eugene wags his eyebrows at her.

“Guess I got my castle in the end,” Eugene says as, on the sheet, Sideburns is getting sick of Flynn dilly-dallying.

Kristoff shakes his head. “I still can’t believe they let a thief marry a princess.”

“What can I say? I’m very charming.”

Sideburns and Eyepatch lower Flynn from the ceiling with a rope.

“Wait! You’re stealing her crown?” Anna demands and, when they both nod, squeals with excitement. “That’s so romantic.”

Kristoff and Elsa both scoff in disagreement. But Rapunzel is with her, it’s kind of romantic.

One of the guards, who looks awfully bored, sneezes.

“Ugh! Hay fever?” Flynn commiserates from behind him. He’s still hanging from the rope, a satchel on one hand and leaning on the pedestal. He has the smuggest of grins on his face.

“Yeah,” says the guard happy that someone asked. Then the penny drops and he turns around but Flynn is already escaping through the hole on the ceiling.

“You need to get better guards,” Elsa tells her. Anna is quietly laughing at the whole thing.

“He’d had a tough couple of weeks,” Rapunzel excuses. “Hay fever is no joke!”

Flynn and his two accomplices run out of Corona. “Can't you picture me in a castle of my own?” he tells them. “Cause I certainly can! Oh, the things we've seen and it's only eight in the morning! Gentlemen, this is a very big day!”

The scene cuts to Rapunzel putting her paints away. “This is it. This is a very big day, Pascal.” She giggles as he climbs over her arm and shoulders. “I'm finally going to do it! I'm going to ask her!”

“Rapunzel!” Mother Gothel sing-songs from the outside. “Let down your hair!”

She takes in a deep breath. “It’s time!” Pascal preens on her shoulder. “I know, I know. Come on, don't let her see you.”

“She doesn’t know about Pascal?” Anna asks.

Rapunzel shakes her head. “She used to say I wasn’t capable of taking care of a living being so she didn’t let me keep any pets. Every time I tried they all ‘mysteriously’ disappeared. So I couldn’t let her find out.”

“Good thing Pascal is really good at hiding, then,” says Kristoff.

Rapunzel grins at her best friend. She’s not sure how she would have survived in that tower without him. “He’s the best.”

“Rapunzel, I'm not getting any younger down here!” Gothel calls.

“Coming, Mother!” Rapunzel calls back. She loops her hair on a hook and casts it down. Once Gothel has secured herself, Rapunzel starts pulling her up and the orchestral music swells as Gothel ascends.

“Geez,” Anna whistles beside her. “And you pulled her up every single time?” When Rapunzel nods Anna lets admiration turn her eyebrows upwards. “You must have really strong arms.”

Rapunzel is panting a bit when Gothel enters the tower. Still, that doesn’t stop her from greeting her, if a bit breezily. “Hi! Welcome home, Mother!”

“Oh, Rapunzel! How you manage to do that every single day without fail? It looks absolutely exhausting, darling.”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

“Oh!” Rapunzel chuckles. “It's nothing.”

“Then I don't know why it takes so long!” Gothel boops her nose, adopting that same sing-song cadence from before. She laughs before Rapunzel can say anything and waves her off. “Oh, darling! I'm just teasing!”

Rapunzel laughs as well with awkwardness. “All right...”

“That’s... not... okay.” Kristoff sighs and gives up.

“So, Mother!” Rapunzel walks behind her as Gothel studies herself in the mirror. “As you know, tomorrow is a very big day-”

“Rapunzel look at that mirror!” Gothel interrupts, bringing her close. “You know what I see? I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady.” A beat. “Oh, look, you're here too!”

Eugene lets out a surprised guffaw. When they all glare at him he raises his hand, the one not around Rapunzel’s waist, in defense. “Look, I hate that woman with all my soul, I think she’s a despicable human being, she can rot in hell for all eternity as far as I’m concerned... but that was a bit funny.”

Gothel laughs and elbows Rapunzel. “I'm just teasing! Stop taking everything so seriously!” she says as she stretches her skin in search of wrinkles.

“Okay,” goes past-Rapunzel not wanting to dwell on that. “So, Mother-” But Gothel is not listening for she has noticed an age spot on her hand. “As I was saying, tomorrow is-”

Gothel interrupts again. “Flower, Mother's feeling a little run down. Would you sing for me, dear? Then we'll talk.”

Rapunzel’s eyes widen. “Oh! Of course, Mother!” The background music turns playful as she arranges, fast and with ease, the chair, the stool and the brush. She starts singing very fast. “Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fate's design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine!” The hair lights up in a brief flash that Gothel barely manages to brush.

“Rapunzel!” she scolds, disgruntled.

Rapunzel leans into the armrest, getting all in Gothel’s personal space. “So, Mother! Earlier I was saying tomorrow’s a pretty big day, and you didn't really respond, so I'm just going to tell you: It's my birthday!” At that she clutches at Gothel’s arm, shaking her a bit. “TADA!”

“Happy birthday!” exclaims Anna, pausing the thing once more. “It’s really sad she didn’t remember. But maybe she was faking it and was going to surprise you on the next day?”

“I’m just surprised she told you about birthdays at all,” Kristoff grumbles.

“It’s not her birthday now, Anna,” Elsa reminds her sister.

“My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but thanks,” Rapunzel tells Anna with a soft smile.

“Did you do something fun?”

Rapunzel shares a knowing grin with Eugene. “You could say that, yeah.”

Gothel pries herself out of Rapunzel’s grip. “No, no, no, can't be. I distinctly remember. Your birthday was last year.”

Anna huffs. “But they happen every year. That’s the-”

“That's the funny thing about birthdays!” Memory Rapunzel finishes alongside her. “They're kind of an annual thing!”

Rapunzel and Anna high-five each other with equal grins.

“Mother, I'm turning eighteen.” (“I’m eighteen!” crows Anna) “And I wanted to ask- Argh! What I really want for this birthday -actually, what I’ve wanted for quite a few birthdays now...”

Gothel interrupts YET AGAIN. “Okay, okay. Rapunzel, please, stop with the mumbling. You know how I feel about the mumbling. Blah, blah-blah-blah, blah. It's very annoying! I'm just teasing, you're adorable! I love you so much, darling!”

“Does she ever let you talk?” Kristoff asks a scowl on his face.

“Meh!”

“And why every time she says something nice to you it’s with that same tone of voice like she’s reciting something?” And Rapunzel hadn’t noticed it back then, she hadn’t had anything to compare it to, but watching it now it so obvious it’s painful.

“Probably ‘cause she is,” Eugene mutters darkly.

Rapunzel, left sitting alone on the ground, is encouraged by Pascal and bursts. “Dah! I want to see the floating lights!”

Gothel freezes, mid-picking an apple from the basket and laughs. She sets it back down. “What?”

“Oh.” Rapunzel climbs to uncover the new painting on the wall. “Well I was hoping you would take me to see the floating lights.”

“Oh, you mean the stars.”

But Rapunzel won’t be deterred. “That's the thing! I've charted stars and they're always constant. But these, they appear every year on my birthday, Mother. Only on my birthday. And I can't help but feel that they're- They're meant for me. I need see them, Mother. And not just from my window. In person. I have to know what they are.”

“Nice speech, it’s still not going to work,” Kristoff tells her matter-of-factly.

“How do you know?” Anna scoffs at him. “She could-”

But Eugene and Rapunzel both shake their heads at her and she trails off.

Gothel is walking to the window. “You want to go outside? Oh, why, Rapunzel.” She slams the doors closed. “Look at you, as fragile as a flower.”

“Not another song!” Eugene groans. “Not a Gothel song on top of that!” He tries to hide his face on Rapunzel’s shoulder but it’s already occupied by Pascal, who squeaks at him.

“Still a little sapling, just a sprout. You know why we stay up in this tower-”

“I know, but-”

“That's right, to keep you safe, and sound, dear.” This bit she sings clearly to Rapunzel’s hair, into Rapunzel’s hair and her feelings couldn’t be clearer.

“Oh, come on!” Eugene gestures wildly towards the sheet, but they’re all seeing the same thing he is.

Rapunzel has known for a long time that Gothel only wanted her for her hair, never actually loved her, but it still hurts a bit to see it put so clearly. It also makes her a bit angry with her younger self because how oblivious could she be?

“Guess I always knew this day was coming!” Gothel proceeds to make the room darker and darker, getting rid of all the sources of light she can find. “Knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest! Soon, but not yet.”

“But-”

“Shhh! Trust me pet. Mother, knows best.” With that she plunges Rapunzel into darkness. The music changes, turning playful. “Mother knows best.” Rapunzel lights a candle. “Listen to your mother. It's a scary world out there.” Rapunzel fights with something tugging at her hair and her candle blows out. “Mother knows best. One way or another. Something will go wrong, I swear!” She drops Rapunzel in the spotlight in the middle of the room.

“I know we hate her,” says Anna, who has been bobbing her head to the music. “But, damn, she can sing!”

“Ruffians, thugs, poison Ivy, quicksand! Cannibals, and snakes,” she sings cheerfully flipping a doll in a frying pan. That’s… dark. “The plague!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“But-”

“Also large bugs-”

“How is she moving so fast?!” Anna huffs.

“-men with pointy teeth. And stop, no more, you'll just upset me!”

Understandably the next shot is of Rapunzel huddled in her hair, absolutely terrified. Gothel grabs her hand and pulls her up. “Mother's right here. Mother will protect you. Darling here's what I suggest!” Rapunzel hugs her but it turns out she’s hugging a dress form and Gothel is on the stairs behind her. “Skip the drama, stay with Mama. MOTHEEER! Knows best!” With a laugh and a swoop of her cloak she blows out all the candles lining the stairs. Rapunzel tries to light them back up, but Gothel puts them out as she sings: “Mother knows best. Take it from your mumsy. On your own, you won't survive.” Next is Rapunzel in front of a mirror which Gothel uses to point out her flaws. “Sloppy underdressed, immature, clumsy.” She tugs the rug from under Rapunzel’s feet, making her fall, then sweeps in rolling her into her own hair. “Please! They'll eat you up ALIVEEEEE! Gullible, nave, positively grubby! Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm vague. Plus I believe, getting kinda chubby.”

“Okay! That’s going too far!” exclaims Eugene trying to get up to turn off the play, but Rapunzel stops him.

“I'm just saying 'cause I wuv you! Mother understands! Mother’s here to help you! All I have is one request!” From the darkness a single spotlight and Gothel stands in the middle, her arms open. Relieved, Rapunzel runs to hug her. This time she doesn’t disappear. The music mellows. “Rapunzel?”

“Yes?”

“Don't ever ask to leave this tower, again.” And there’s danger promised in her eyes.

Rapunzel looks down, defeated. “Yes, Mother.”

“Ahh, I love you very much, dear.”

“I love you more.”

“I love you most.”

Rapunzel winces at that. She remembers, how love felt like a competition she was always losing no matter what she did. No matter how much she tried, Mother always loved her most.

 “Don't forget it.” She boops her nose singing again. “You'll regret it. Motheeeeer! Knows best.”

And Rapunzel is left alone again in the middle of the room, a word on her lips.

“Ta-ta!” cheers Gothel already halfway down the tower. “I'll see you in a bit, my flower!”

“I'll be here,” says Rapunzel sadly, releasing her hair from the hook. The violins pick up the melody from When Will My Life Begin and the orchestra closes the sad instrumental reprise of the song.

“She’s awful,” Elsa says, her voice thick with anger. “Was she like that all the time?”

Rapunzel wants to say that her asking about the lights hadn’t provoked a whole musical number back then, just a brief reminder of how dangerous the outside world was and how unfit to face it she was. But she knows that’s not going to help and nods silently instead.

“I’m sorry,” the future Queen says. “And I’m really glad you got away.”

Rapunzel lets herself smile at that. At the beginning, on the really bad days, there were moments she didn’t think like it, but those days are far, far behind and she knows now how lucky she is. Eugene squeezes her knee, probably also remembering the meltdowns she’d had in the beginning, and she smiles at him.

“Yeah,” she says. “Me too.”

He smiles back.

Chapter Text

This is probably the weirdest day of Kristoff’s life, and that’s coming from someone who got adopted by trolls. He’s in the castle with three princesses and a thief turned prince. (And a chameleon). They’re magically watching the memories of the royal couple of Corona like it’s some sort of weird musical play.  Oh! And it turns out that the Princess of Corona used to have magical hair that glowed and kept people young.

He has no idea how he’s ended up here. The letter was weird enough, but Kristoff had figured maybe some of the trolls had helped out with the memory stones. And since the trolls couldn’t go out into the city to deliver them, Kristoff had been chosen to do so. That he could understand. Why he was forced to watch them it’s what’s baffling him.

Why on earth is he siting in an armchair in the royal drawing room?

He misses Sven. They’ve put him in the stables so he can’t keep pooping on the royal floors and Kristoff misses him. He’d rather be on his way back to the glaciers to get some ice than stuck here. It’s his busiest season and he’s losing so much time!

The sheet with the memories is now showing another Flynn Rider poster but this one has gotten the nose completely wrong. The rest of the face is a good depiction, except for the nose and it makes him laugh. The guy himself shoots him a glare from the couch, knowing what Kristoff is laughing about, but he refuses to be cowered.

The two thieves with Flynn run by the signs but Flynn trails behind and leans on the tree to catch his breath. He spots the flyers and gasps, ripping his out of the tree.

“Oh, no. No-no-no-no-no-no-no. This is bad. This is very, very bad. This is really bad!”

“If you didn’t want your face to be on wanted posters maybe you shouldn’t steal things from people,” the future Queen of Arendelle tells him.

But Flynn Rider defeats her point when he turns the poster towards his accomplices and complains: “They just can’t get my nose right!”

The other two princesses laugh, but while Princess Rapunzel’s is a soft, fond thing, Princess Anna’s explodes out of her with a cackle. Princess Elsa sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Who cares?” Sideburns scoffs at Rider.

“Well, it’s easy for you to say!” Flynn crouches down to get a closer look at the other sign. “You guys look amazing!”

They do, Kristoff has to give him that, and so he says: “I think the painter has it out against you.”

“Thank you!”

The neighing of a horse makes him look back. It’s five guards, pursuing on their horses. They run but are caged in by a smooth rock wall.

“All right, okay. Give me a boost and I'll pull you up,” Flynn offers.

“Give us the satchel first,” says Sideburns.

“Wha-? I just-” Flynn is so offended he can’t even finish his sentences. “I can't believe that after all we've been together, you don't trust me?”

“I wouldn’t trust you either,” Kristoff says, because the Flynn Rider on the sheet is clearly planning something.

“Me neither,” seconds Princess Elsa.

“Agree,” follows her sister.

“Sorry, darling,” the third princess smiles apologetically. Even the chameleon shakes his head.

“I’ve never felt so betrayed in my entire life!” Eugene pouts, bringing a hand to his chest.

The two brothers have identical deadpanning expressions.

“Ouch,” Flynn tells them dryly but forks over the satchel. He then proceeds to climb over the two redheads, using his feet more than necessary as a petty form of revenge.

“Now help us up, pretty boy!” Sideburn orders once Flynn is safely on top.

“Sorry!” Flynn says and grins. “My hands are full!” Because of course he’s taken the satchel as he climbed.

“What? RIDER!”

Princess Anna laughs. “See? That’s why they shouldn’t have trusted you.”

“It’s all their fault, actually,” he says smugly. “They knew I’m an excellent pick-pocketer.”

Flynn runs back to the path but the guards and their horses aren’t far behind.

“Oh!” Princess Rapunzel perks up, recognizing some of them.

“Yeah, I know,” beside her, Eugene rolls his eyes.

“Retrieve that satchel with any force!” the Captain orders.

“Yes, sir!”

The horses proceed to do the exact same thing.

“What?” Kristoff asks laughing incredulously. As if his reindeer isn’t also stupidly smart.

“That’s Maximus,” Rapunzel offers. “He’s the co-Captain of the Guard of Corona.”

“Your Captain of the Guard is a horse?” Anna leans in closer with amazement.

“Co-Captain,” Rapunzel corrects shooting a smirk at her husband.

“He’s a really smart horse, alright?” Eugene defends both himself and his Co-Captain. “Follows the rules, knows how to fight and is really loyal, okay?”

“You’re the Captain of the Guard?” surprise twits Elsa’s features. “Talk about favoritism.”

He puffs his chest out. “Talk about character development.”

The guards give chase, shooting their crossbows at Flynn but missing. A tree holds all of them back except for Maximus and his rider.

“We got him now, Maximus!” the Captain crows.

Flynn grabs into a hanging vine, swings around the tree and dismounts the Captain, taking his place astride Maximus. The horse grinds to a halt.

“Come on, fleabag. Forward,” Flynn urges. But the horse’s attention has narrowed on the satchel and it tries to grab it with its teeth. “No. No, stop it! Stop. It. Give it to me!”

Their struggling sends the satchel flying and it lands on the lower branch of a tree growing sideways on the edge of a cliff. Both of them chase after it, tripping each other, but Flynn gets there first and holds it out triumphant.

“That’s not going to hold,” Elsa notes.

And true to her word the tree cracks and breaks.

“I still don’t know how the hell Maximus managed to hold on,” Eugene grumbles as his past self and Maximus drop and drop and scream.

Maximus lands, jumps to his feet and starts hunting for Flynn’s scent, his nose to the ground like a bloodhound. He passes by a big rock next to a wall with ivy rom which Flynn emerges once he’s gone. Flynn falls through the ivy wall, which is not solid like it seems but the entrance to the valley with the tower.

Princess Anna squeals. Kristoff would be a liar if he said he’s not excited to see how that first meeting went down as well. Even Elsa stands up a bit straighter in her armchair.

Flynn climbs the tower using two arrow shafts, slams the window shutters behind him and breathes out with relief. He opens up the satchel and, to the crown, says: “Alone at last.”

CLANG! Flynn drops to the floor to show a scared Rapunzel with a frying pan.

Princess Anna bursts out laughing, eyes wide with surprise and delight. “Oh my god!” She’s reached over to pause the memories once again, probably so she can properly enjoy the moment.

Kristoff also has to smile because he had not been expecting the lovely couple’s first meeting to start with violence and it’s funny. Even Princess Elsa is smiling and she’s as cold as ice.

Eugene brings a hand to the back of his head, probably remembering the pain. “It still hurts sometimes,” he complains.

“Don’t be such a baby,” his wife tells him.

“You knocked me out with a frying pan!”

“You broke into my tower!” she shoots back.

Rapunzel yelps and hides behind a dress form.

“Why are you hiding?! You’re the one who attacked me!”

Pushing the semi-mannequin in front of her she moves closer. With her frying pan at the ready she nudges his head. He doesn’t stir. Rapunzel looks at Pascal for advice but he shrugs. She turns his head to the side and, upon Pascal’s urging, uses the handle to check for pointy teeth. She only finds perfectly straight and white teeth and it surprises her.

“Why are you disappointed because I have normal teeth?” Eugene demands, offended. “Did you want me to be a dangerous thug with pointy teeth? Are you out of your mind?!”

Besides the couple, Princess Anna is sniggering to herself.

Rapunzel flips the lock of hair out of his face and the sight of the whole thing takes her fear away. The music turns softer, tender.

“Oh,” sighs Anna. Kristoff can see she’s a romantic.

“I knew you thought I was handsome!”

Rapunzel leans in closer, enthralled. Flynn opens his eyes and CLANG!

“Twice?!”

Anna is helpless with laughter besides them and she pauses the scene to catch her breath. “You knocked him out twice?” she says.

“He was waking up!” Rapunzel defends herself. “You were waking up!”

He’s rubbing the back of his head. “No wonder I had such a headache the whole day,” he complains. “And that second time had way more kick in it, you could tell.”

Rapuzel drags the dead weight of an unconscious Flynn to a wardrobe using her hair. Then proceeds to try and shove him in. The first try she only manages to ram his back against the lower part of the wardrobe.

Kristoff grimaces, that looks like it hurt.

“Ouch!” Eugene agrees with him.

The second time Rapunzel comes from above and slams him into the closet but then she can’t get her hair out and she drops her forehead against the wood in defeat. She proceeds to consider the sprawled, unconscious form of the thief. Manages to push him in but the doors open behind her, sending them both crashing to the ground. She tries with a broom and fighting with all that she has to push him in back again. As she slams the doors closed they catch on his fingers. Guiltily, she plops them back in.

“This… this explains so much!” the once manhandled thief exclaims.

“I’m sorry!”

“Everything hurt!”

“Sorry!”

“When they said love hurts I don’t think they were meaning it like this, Blondie!”

Anna is laughing so hard she’s entered the crying with silent laughter stage and she’s fallen from the couch, now sitting on the floor shaking. Since she’s basically dying with laughter he doesn’t feel annoyed that she keeps pausing the scene. Besides, she looks kind of cute when she laughs.

Wait, what?

Nononono, bad idea! Baaaaad idea! He needs to get that out of his head. He can’t like a princess! She’s… she’s a princess! She needs to marry a prince or something. He has no chance! That’s doomed to failure! Okay, so she’s cute and sometimes snorts when she laughs, which is also cute. And she’s a romantic who likes musicals so she would probably really like his family and- WHAT IS HE DOING?

He needs Sven here right now to help set his head straight. He’s clearly losing his mind.

While Kristoff is having an internal crisis the royal couple of Corona keeps bickering and Anna keeps laughing. She’s clearly enjoying it and oh, boy, she’s way too dangerous.

Princess Elsa has to clear her throat and pointedly look towards the sheet to get them back on track. Kristoff fears they would have never moved on from that moment hadn’t it been for her.

Rapunzel leans a chair against the closet door so that Flynn can’t escape if he wakes up. “Okay, okay, I’ve got a person in the closet,” she tells herself. “I’ve got a person in my closet.” As she looks at her reflection in the mirror, frying pan in hand, it dawns on her. “I’ve got a person in my closet!” This time it’s impressed and elated and she laughs. “Too weak to handle myself out there, huh, Mother?” She flips the pan catching it again. “Well, tell that to my frying pa-!” CLANG! Spinning the pan she hits herself in the face.

“HA! Karma!” Eugene celebrates.

But when Kristoff looks towards him he can see he’s carefully rubbing the spot in her temple where Rapunzel had hit herself. He leans down to press a kiss to it and Rapunzel melts. Feeling awkward, Kristoff slides his gaze off them and it falls on Anna, still sitting on the floor. She smiles at him, a private thing because she’s also caught the moment, and his heart skips a beat.

Nope! Danger! Kristoff turns back to the memories.

The reflection of the crown catches Rapunzel’s eye in the mirror and she fishes it out of the satchel. She looks at it but it’s soon clear that she has no idea what to do with it. It doesn’t go around her arm and it’s not a prism.

“I know how it works now!” Rapunzel defends herself, probably sensing their judgement.

She turns around and, looking in the mirror, places it on her head. The music swells and both Rapunzel and Pascal seem surprised at the image. And then Pascal shakes his head.

“Why on earth would you trust the frog’s opini-Ouch!” an elbow to the side keeps Eugene from finishing the sentence.

“Rapunzel!” calls the most annoying voice on the planet. Rapunzel knocks on the mirror and drops the satchel and crown in a pot. “Let down your hair!

“One moment, Mother!” Rapunzel tells her as she gets ready to pull her up.

“I have a big surprise!” Gothel announces.

“Uh, I do too!” Rapunzel mimics her tone.

“Oh, I bet my surprise is bigger!”

“Oh, I really doubt it!” Anna laughs.

“I seriously doubt it!” says Rapunzel to herself with a glance towards the wardrobe as she pulls.

Anna chortles at the coincidence and Kristoff smiles. He sees the two princesses grinning at each other with delight.

“I brought back parsnips.”

“Yeah, no, your surprise is definitely bigger,” Kristoff tells her. She winks at him.

“I‘m going to make hazelnut soup for dinner! Your favorite! Surprise!”

“But you hate hazelnut-OOOOH!”

“Well, Mother, there's something I want to tell you.”

“Oh Rapunzel, you know I hate leaving you after a fight,” Gothel tells her as she throws her cloak on a hanger by the wall. “Especially when I've done absolutely nothing wrong.”

“Okay!” Rapunzel doesn’t fight the comment, eager to get to the point. She glances between the closet and her mother with an excited smile. “I've been thinking a lot about what you said, earlier...” But that’s a mistake, because Mother Gothel’s face darkens and she stops unpacking her basket but doesn’t turn.

Gothel’s tone is calm yet dangerous. “I hope you're not still talking about the stars.”

“Floating lights!” Rapunzel corrects approaching the closet. “And, yes I'm leading up to that.”

“Please, don’t tell me you’re actually going to hand Flynn to her.” Kristoff grimaces. Because he’s seen enough of Mother Gothel in these memories to know she will not take kindly to strangers in the house.

A look back to the couch lets him see Eugene sitting up straight, his whole body taunt like a bowstring, Rapunzel with an angry set of her lips and Anna, still sitting on the floor, with a hand covering her eyes like she doesn’t want to see what happens next. But she has the fingers of her hand splayed to be able to peer between them because she does want to see. Danger, he reminds himself.

“Because I really thought we dropped the issue, sweetheart,” Gothel says infusing a sweetness in her tone that belies even more danger.

But Rapunzel doesn’t heed it. “No Mother, I'm just saying, you think I'm not strong enough to handle myself out there.”

“Oh, darling,” Gothel says in a throaty voice full of dry amusement. “I know you're not strong enough to handle yourself out there.” She finally turns around to look at Rapunzel.

“But if you just...” Rapunzel inches even closer to the wardrobe.

Anna lets out a high-pitched “eeep” at seeing her so close.

“Rapunzel, we're done talking about this.”

“But trust me!”

“Rapunzel.”

“I know what I'm-” Rapunzel rests a hand on the chair.

Kristoff gets the urge to cover his face just like Anna is doing. It’s like watching two reindeers fighting: he’s unable to watch but at the same time he can’t look aside.

“Rapunzel-” Gothel warns darkly.

“Oh, come on!”

Gothel explodes. “ENOUGH WITH THE LIGHTS, RAPUNZEL! YOU ARE NOT LEAVING THIS TOWER! EVER!”

And even if Kristoff feels a bit bad for Rapunzel, her face in the sheet is nothing short of heartbroken, he’s also glad that Gothel has shown her true colors. For starters, she’s stopped Rapunzel from revealing the unconscious thief in the closet: even if Kristoff finds him a bit annoying, he wouldn’t wish Gothel on him. Or anyone, really.

“Oh, thank God,” Eugene breathes out with relief. Though he didn’t think it was possible, Princess Rapunzel has scooted even closer to him and now he has both arms wrapped around her. Her eyes are wide and shiny and Kristoff wants to ask her if she’s alright, but he figures she’s clearly not and she’s already with the only person in the room who can do something about it.

Besides them, Anna lowers her hands at last. She’s biting her lips anxiously, which is even worse, Kristoff considers.

Rapunzel retreats her hand from the chair and Gothel flops down in an armchair.

“Oh, great!” she says. “Now I'm the bad guy.”

Rapunzel hesitates, many options running through her head. She looks at the painting of the lanterns and then at the chair. Decides.

“All I was gonna say, Mother, is that...” she starts in a soft voice. She moves in front of the closet, using her hair to cover the chair. “I know what I want for my birthday, now.”

“And what is that?” she asks tiredly.

“New paint,” Rapunzel half tells her half asks her. All the fight has left her and she’s hugging herself closely. “That paint made from the white shells you once brought me.”

“That was smart,” Eugene congratulates her softly. The room is so silent, all of them waiting with baited breath how Gothel is going to react, that it echoes.

“Well that is a very long trip, Rapunzel.” Gothel opens her eyes and looks at her. “Almost three day's time.”

Ahhh, Kristoff can see where this is going now.

“Oh, well done,” Anna mutters.

“I just thought it was a better idea than the... stars,” she sighs out the last word, a silent white flag she’s waving to her mother.

Gothel accepts the offer of peace and stands up. “You sure you'll be all right on your own?” she asks with a bit of tenderness back in her voice. They hug.

“Ew,” says Eugene.

Kristoff has to stifle a laugh.

“I know I'm safe, as long as I'm here,” Rapunzel says as Gothel kisses the top of her hair.

The scene cuts to Rapunzel getting a basket ready with food and mother Gothel putting her cloak back on. Rapunzel hands her the basket and then lowers her down the tower.

“I'll be back in three days time,” Gothel’s voice says as she is lowered. “I love you very much, dear.”

Rapunzel watches her leave. “I love you more.”

At the edge of the valley, by the entrance to the cave covered with ivy, Gothel turns and waves. “I love you most.” Rapunzel waves back. The second her mother is out of sight she dashes back into the tower.

Oh, Kristoff thinks. When he looks back at the couch he sees the royal couple has perked up and they’re both smiling. This is where it gets interesting.

Chapter Text

This is probably one of the best days in Anna’s life. She thought it would be the coronation, a few days away, but she has a feeling not even an evening of dancing and music and people can top this day.

First of all, Elsa is outside of her rooms. Not only that, Elsa is talking to her. Granted, she’s not talking much right now, because they’re too busy watching the magical memories and Anna knows she shouldn’t be talking either but she just can’t help it. Besides, the royal couple is talking way more than she is, so it’s probably okay that she’s laughing and stopping the thing so much, right? Right??? They don’t seem to mind.

And that’s the other thing! Not only Elsa is outside but there are people in the castle. New people that aren’t Gerda or Kai or the other few servants they still staff. Anna can’t even remember the last time she had a conversation with a stranger and here they are three of them! Four, if she counts the chameleon! And it’s not only people who are around her and talk to her but it’s people who are having fun with her. It’s, and Anna knows it’s probably way too soon to start thinking this because she’s only met them like an hour ago (two hours tops), what having friends feels like.

Anna doesn’t know much about having friends. Her best friend when she was a kid was her sister and Elsa stopped talking to her one day out of the blue and so Anna’s best friends now are pictures in the wall who don’t talk. But Eugene and Rapunzel and even Kristoff, even though he doesn’t say much and his reindeer made a mess of the entrance hall, are the best friends she’s had in ages. Is it sad? It’s probably very sad. But Anna feels the opposite of sad, right now. Anna feels glorious sitting here in this couch laughing with these former strangers like they’ve known each other for ages.

She feels like she’s known Rapunzel for ages, at least, and with every second that the memories play out in the white sheet the feeling only deepens. They have so much in common! They’re both princesses raised in isolation! Although Rapunzel didn’t know she was a princess most of her life, but, still...

On the sheet past Rapunzel is about to get back to the Flynn Rider that she has trapped in her closet and Anna perks up because she can’t wait to learn more about this story. It’s the most romantic thing she’s ever seen and the best part is that it actually happened.

Rapunzel shelters behind the chair, frying pan at the ready, takes a deep breath and uses her hair to open the door. Flynn Rider drops face-first to the floor with a wet slap.

A giggle escapes Anna, although she feels bad for all the abuse the poor thief once suffered. It’s still funny, though, and the way he slowly, and loudly, slides across the floor only makes it better. Or worse, depending on how you look at it.

“Oh, come on!” he huffs beside her. He’s smiling, though, so he can’t be that mad.

Rapunzel studies him, frying pan at the ready, and lets out a pensive “Huh.”

Then the sheet shows Flynn Rider, bound by Rapunzel’s hair to the chair. She uses said hair to drag the chair to the circle of light in the middle of the room. Pascal pops up in Flynn’s shoulder and slaps him to wake him up. It doesn’t work and neither does poking his tail on his cheek, so Pascal has to resort to dirty tactics. He sticks his tongue in Flynn’s ear.

“Eeeeewww!” cries Anna.

“That’s not... I don’t think that’s very hygienic,” her sister says in a low voice, making a disgusted face that matches Anna’s.

On her other side both Eugene and Rapunzel shudder, although Pascal preens with pride.

Kristoff laughs loudly. “Well, that’s one way to do it!”

It works and Flynn startles awake, sending Pascal flying. He looks around with wide, alert eyes, and tries to break free of the bonds.

Eugene opens his mouth but Rapunzel slams her hand over it before he can say whatever it is he wanted to say.

“Don’t you dare,” she tells him in a low serious voice. But Anna can see the smile she’s fighting to keep down. He winks at her and a soft pink colors the other princess’s cheek.

“Oh, God,” chokes Elsa on Anna’s other side.

There’s something she’s missing, a big clue that’s going over her head, but as she opens her mouth to demand an explanation Kristoff catches her gaze and shakes his head at her. Anna’s not sure why, maybe because she doesn’t want to interrupt the memories once again, but she lets it go.

“Is this... hair?” he asks as he takes in the ridiculously long locks sprawled all over the tower and disappearing somewhere in the ceiling.

“Struggling... struggling is pointless!” Rapunzel calls out from the rafters trying to appear tough.

But Flynn isn’t intimidated. More like confused. “Huh?” he goes as he squints up to the ceiling.

Rapunzel drops from her perch and Flynn follows her with his eyes.

“I know why you’re here,” she tells him still hiding in the shadows. “And I’m not afraid of you.”

“What?” goes Flynn, who clearly has no idea what’s going on.

Anna snorts.

“Let me tell you, I was so confused,” Eugene stage-whispers at her. “The concussion had probably something to do as well.”

“For the last time, I did not give you a concussion!” cries Rapunzel.

Rapunzel steps out of the shadows and the music swells dramatically. She’s still holding her frying pan.

Anna yelps with barely contained excitement. She’s basically vibrating on the floor. She can’t help it. It’s the first time they’re meeting face to face in the memories. It’s love at first sight waiting to happen and-

“Who are you-” asks Rapunzel walking closer. “-and how did you find me?”

“Ah-hah...”

Rapunzel is not having that and she tightens her grip around the frying pan. “Who are you, and how did you find me?” she demands.

Flynn clears his throat. “I know not who you are. Nor how I came to find you,” he begins, matching the pompous tone she has set. “But may I just say...” He pauses, closing his eyes deep in feeling. “Hi.”

A peal of laughter bursts out of her. It finds its echo on the far left, Kristoff laughing with her, and Anna’s heart swells. Rapunzel is grinning at the sheet with huge amusement, though she’s not laughing, and when Anna whips around to look at her sister she finds her fighting a smile as well. The only one who doesn’t seem to find it funny is Eugene, who’s doing his best to hide between Rapunzel in mortification as it seems.

“It usually worked, okay?” he cries. “That was a perfect execution! It’s not my fault the background music is making this so ridiculous!”

Rapunzel puzzles at him. Flynn doesn’t drop the charming smile and doubles down on the flirting.

“How you doing?” He lifts his eyebrows at her. “The names Flynn Ryder.” Rapunzel clearly doesn’t know how to proceed and she shots a quick look at the side, probably to Pascal. “How's your day going, huh?”

Alright, so maybe Anna was expecting something else for that first meeting, something worthy of a grand novel, but this... this is the funniest thing she has seen in a while. This is way better.

“I wasn’t expecting a super sheltered girl who didn’t even know what a man looked like, okay!” Eugene keeps trying to defend himself against the sniggers around him. For once is not Anna who reaches over to pause the memories. “I swear my charms are top-notch, alright? Look!”

At that he turns his attention on Anna, still sitting on the floor, and his eyes darken in command. There’s the promise of something in those depths that Anna can’t quite read, but it steals her breath all the same. He lifts his eyebrows.

“Hi,” he says in a deep, low voice.

And even though he’s got his wife on half-on his lap, even though she thought it was ridiculous and hilarious when he did it on the sheet not ten seconds ago, the full focus of his attention like this makes her feel like she’s been put inside an oven. Her face burn and she has the feeling she’s blushing horrendously. She hides her face with her hands and against her knees for good measure with a mortified “Oh, my God.”

She can hear him laugh triumphantly, but not meanly. “See? It works!”

“Leave the poor girl alone, Eugene!” Rapunzel tells him with exasperation. The voice, gentler now, turns to her. “Don’t mind him, Anna, he’s ridiculous.”

Anna steels herself and braves the rest of the room. Elsa’s staring at her with incredulity, which only makes the blushing worse, and Kristoff is focusing on the sheet with a small scowl. He’s probably so tired of them pausing the thing so often and has better things to do than just sit around and watch it with them. And on the couch the royal couple is smiling at her: Rapunzel kindly and Eugene amused.

“Sorry about that, Red,” he tells her throwing in a wink for good measure. It doesn’t help.

Elsa clears her throat, loudly, from her armchair. Her eyebrows are arched. “Can we please continue with the memories?”

“Yup! On it, sorry!”

“Who else knows my location, Flynn Ryder?” Rapunzel threatens him with the frying pan and he winces away from it.

“All right, Blondie-”

Anna perks up, blush receding, at the first use of Blondie. A quick look at the couple lets her see Rapunzel, soft-eyed and with a fond smile, shake her head at her husband.

“Rapunzel.”

A beat: “Gesundheit,” Flynn tells her and moves along. “Here's the thing. I was in a situation. Gallivanting through the forest.” Even though his arms are tied down well, he still uses what little freedom he has of his hands to accompany his words. “I can across your tower and...” He cuts himself off as he realizes. “Ho, oh no, where is my satchel?”

“I've hidden it,” Rapunzel tells him smugly. She crosses her arms and finally puts the frying pan away. “Somewhere you'll never find it.”

Flynn looks around the tower with a deadpan expression. “It's in the pot, isn't it?”

CLANG!

“That one was just being a sore loser!” Eugene complains.

Anna hides her smile behind her hand.

“It’s not like I could hide it again with you watching,” Rapunzel defends herself with a huff. “And the pot was a good hiding place!”

They all shake their heads at her.

Eugene opens his eyes, regaining consciousness, and this time finds Pascal with his tongue deep in his ear.

“Ewwww!” yells Anna, shuddering. Because once was bad enough, but twice?

“Please, stop doing that,” Elsa pleads to the couple and the chameleon with them. Her disgust has turned her face a deeply pained, pinched expression.

“Aghh! Will you stop that?!” Eugene echoes her and rubs his hear against his shoulder.

Elsa’s expression sours even more at the similitude and Anna has to stifle a giggle.

“Now it's hidden where you'll never find it,” an even smugger Rapunzel announces. “So, what do you want, with my hair?” she goes back to the interrogation, circling him as she threatens him with the pan. “To cut it?”

“What?”

Rapunzel shoves the pan underneath his chin. “Sell it?”

“No!” he exclaims. “Listen, the only thing I want to do with your hair, is to get out of it. Literally!”

Taken aback, Rapunzel hesitates. “Wait, you don't want my hair?”

“What else was I supposed to think?” she cries.

“Anything else!” her husband shots back.

“Why on earth would I want your hair?” Flynn asks her. “Look, I was being chased, I saw a tower, I climbed it, end of story.”

“You're... telling the truth?”

“Yes!”

“Hmmm.” Pascal climbs down her shoulder and perches himself on the edge of the pan that Rapunzel is holding in front of Flynn. He stares down at the bewildered thief until Rapunzel pulls him back and steps away to convene.

“That was probably the weirdest thing that had ever happened to me until them,” Eugene tells them. Anna snorts when she tries to put herself in his place. “It just keep getting crazier and crazier.”

“Oh, you love it,” Rapunzel tells him with a smirk. “You’d hate your life to be boring.”

“I know.” Rapunzel whispers to Pascal and he squeaks in answer. “I need someone to take me. I think he's telling the truth, too. He doesn't have fangs! But what choice do I have?” Behind them, Flynn decides that’s enough weirdness for one day and does his best to escape. “Ugh! Okay, Flynn Ryder!” Rapunzel straightens up and Flynn freezes. “I'm prepared to offer you a deal.”

“Deal?” he asks. His tone lets them know how unhappy he is at the suggestion.

“Look this way.” She tugs on her hair as she walks by and spins the chair around. Flynn falls flat on his face once again.

“That wasn’t a good day for you, huh?” Kristoff tells Eugene with a commiserating look on his eyes.

He huffs out a laugh. “I’m just lucky she didn’t break my nose.

“Do you know what these are?” Rapunzel pulls back the curtain to show the drawing of the lanterns.

“You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?” he asks nasally from the floor.

“Lanterns! I knew they weren't stars!” she says to herself before shaking her head and turning back to Flynn. “Well, tomorrow evening they will light the night sky with these lanterns. You will act as my guide, take me to these lanterns and return me home safely. Then, and only then, will I return your satchel to you. That is my deal.”

“It’s not a bad deal,” hums Anna. They both get what they want and they’ll clearly fall in love in the way. She doesn’t know how she feels about Rapunzel returning “home” safely, though. But it’s clear they figured out that bit.

Flynn disagrees. “Yeah, no can do.” And he props the chair to its side so that he’s not face-down against the floor. “Unfortunately, the kingdom and I are not exactly ‘simpatico’ at the moment. So I won't be taking you anywhere.”

Pascal pound his fist to the flat of his hand, letting Rapunzel know the course to follow.

“What did I ever do to you, frog?!”

Rapunzel narrows her eyes and drops down to the floor. “Something brought you here, Flynn Ryder,” she tells him as she starts tugging on her hair to bring the chair back to an upright position. “Call it what you will: fate, destiny.”

“A horse.”

A snort from the right has them throwing surprised looks at Elsa, who hides her mouth behind her face and tries to melt with the armchair.

“So I have made the decision to trust you.”

“A horrible decision, really.”

“It was a horrible decision,” Eugene agrees with his past self. “What if I had been literally anybody else? You’re lucky it worked out, Blondie.”

“Excuse me, I’m an excellent judge of character!”

Eugene’s deadpan expression matches the one currently on the screen. Even Anna can see he has a point from the whole Gothel drama alone.

“But trust me when I tell you this.” She pulls at her hair and the chair tilts forward. She holds it with her hand so that she’s left with her face above his. “You can tear this tower apart, brick by brick. But without my help? You will never find your precious satchel,” she threatens with a low voice and fiery eyes.

“You know, I discovered many things about myself on that moment,” Eugene comments airily.

“Eugene!”

Aaaand Anna is back to being confused.

Flynn clears his throat. “Let me just get this straight. I take you to see the lanterns. Bring you back home and you'll give me back my satchel?”

“I promise.” He’s not having it. “And when I promise something, I never ever break that promise.” Flynn raises an eyebrow. “EVER!”

On her shoulder Pascal nods.

Anna turns around to ask if this is true: she tries her best to not break her promises as well but she can’t say she’s very good at that. Most times she just forgets. But Rapunzel is pale, all the amusement has dried out of her face, and she’s biting her lip. Eugene whispers something in her ear and she shakes her head. He kisses her cheek.

And Anna doesn’t know what’s going on, why the topic of promises makes Rapunzel look like someone stabbed a puppy in front of her, but she wants desperately what they all have. She wants someone to hold her like that, someone to whisper comforting things in her ear and kiss her cheek.

Lump in her throat, Anna turns her attention back to the sheet.

“All right, listen, I didn't want to have to want to do this, but you leave me no choice,” Flynn tells her. “Here comes the 'smolder'.”

The ‘smolder’ is a pouty look with scrunched eyebrows. And a suggestive saxophone music on the background.

“Pfffft!” Anna’s sure that, unlike the ‘Hi’ from before, if he tries that on her right now it will only get him a laugh.

Kristoff is laughing as well, so hard he’s doubled over on himself. “What is that supposed to do?”

Even Elsa’s lips are twitching!

Eugene glares at the ice-seller. “Okay! The ‘smolder’ is my best weapon! It never fails.”

Rapunzel laughs. “Oh, darling...”

He grumbles and pouts.

“This is kind of an off day for me,” Flynn says when his best weapon fails. “This doesn't normally happen. Fine! I'll take you to see the lanterns.”

In her excitement Rapunzel lets go of the chair. “Really?!” Flynn goes crashing down. “Ooops!”

“You broke my 'smolder'.”

“It never fails?” Kristoff asks Eugene with a laugh.

“She doesn’t count! Blondie here has always been immune to my charms.”

Rapunzel preens in his arms.

Flynn climbs down the tower, using two arrows to hold on.

“Now that I think of it, why on earth were there arrows in your tower?” Eugene asks. “You never were attacked or anything.”

Rapunzel shrugs. “I guess they were there before we moved in? It’s not like Mother built the tower with her bare hands.”

“You coming, Blondie?”

Rapunzel peers down from the top of the tower. The soft chords of When Will My Life Begin pick up as she looks down at the grass below.

“Look at the world so close and I’m halfway to it,” she sings.

No one dares to complain about another song this time. Anna stares wide eyed at the sheet, her heart in her throat.

“Look at it all, so big. Do I even dare?” Rapunzel looks back to the drawing of the lanterns to gather strength. “Look at me, here at last! I just have to do it. Should I? No. Here I go.”

Pascal comes out of her hair and ties himself down. He gives her a thumbs-up of both encouragement and approval. Rapunzel answers with a soft laugh.

The music swells. The hair comes down. And then a laughing Rapunzel. Until she stops, hovering over the grass, wide eyed and terrified.

Come on, Anna thinks to her. You can do it, come on. The hesitation is tugging at her heartstrings.

Rapunzel lowers one foot first. Then the other. Giggles.

Anna does her best to blink the tears away. She needs to be able to see what’s happening.

“Just smell the grass, the dirt! Just like I’d dreamed they’d be,” Rapunzel sings kneeling and then lying on said grass and dirt.

She knows that Rapunzel had never left the tower, they’ve made it abundantly clear in the memories, but the realization that that’s probably the first time she’s ever felt the grass on her skin makes her incredibly sad. Sad and a bit angry and happy at the same time. Anna is feeling so many things she doesn’t know exactly what she’s feeling and the only thing she can do is watch the scene with tears in her eyes, a smile on her lips and a hand around her heart.

“Just feel that summer breeze.” Rapunzel closes her eyes to enjoy the wind on her face and then follows after the dandelion seeds it blows. “The way it’s calling me.” She stops with a delighted gasp as she steps into the pond. “For like the first time ever, I’m completely free!” She cups some of the water and throws it. A bird flutters around her.

And by God if the lyrics don’t hit Anna like a punch in the stomach.

Rapunzel follows behind the bird, first a jog but then quickly picking up speed alongside the music. “I could go running and racing and dancing and chasing and leaping and bounding.” Rapunzel is now full on running towards the mouth of the cave. “Hair flying, heart pounding.” She bursts out of the vale and into the woods. The music a grand orchestral thing. “And splashing and reeling. And finally feeling: that’s when my life be-giiiiiiiiiiiins!”

Anna tries to choke down the sob, but it escapes all the same. It’s just... Rapunzel being stuck in the tower reminds her of herself. Even if she knows it’s not the same, because Anna still had people to talk to and her real parents and she could go to the gardens whenever she liked, the loneliness of it all is still too familiar. And now, seeing her finally out for the first time, seeing her singing and happy and free... it fills her with sorrow, but the good kind. It makes her jealous but... but at the same time...

It fills her with hope.

After the first sob comes another and then a whole avalanche of tears, growing in strength.

“Oh, Anna!”

The orchestra cuts off and something drops to the floor with her. A slim arm goes around her shoulders. Anna curls on herself and hides her face on Rapunzel’s shoulder. The older princess is warm and smells of sunshine somehow.

“I’m sorry!” she tries between her tears. “I don’t- I’m sorry!”

But Rapunzel hushes her with a soft hum. Her hand cups the back of her head and her fingers scratch at her scalp.

“It’s okay,” she tells her softly. “It’s okay, Anna. I understand. Let it out.”

And so Anna does.