Eugene crouched drowsily by the campfire, jabbing at the slow flickering flames with a long stick he'd found. He settled another handful of dried kindling into the fire and watched as embers bounced up into the sky and were carried off by a gentle breeze. Everything about the evening murmured lazy and sleepy, but he couldn't sleep. Firstly, he wanted to ensure that there were no sneak attacks by the Stabbingtons or the guards. And secondly, her. He couldn't sleep because of her.

The girl was in a deep, peaceful slumber, her hair meticulously wrapped over top of her. She was curled up like a cat, a lock of hair draped across her face and a smile curling the edges of her pink lips. Her frog...chameleon...whatever was nestled in the crook of her elbow. A flood of emotion alarmed him, and he yanked his attention back to the fire.
"For the record? I like Eugene Fitzherbert much better than Flynn Rider."
Maybe he was over-thinking things, but maybe she was hinting at something deeper than a name. In what he'd expected to be their last moments on planet Earth, he'd dropped the act of Flynn Rider and revealed his true self. Maybe she liked the real Eugene. Since then, he obviously couldn't swing back to acting like an arrogant jerk...not with her. She was too smart, for one, and she was also too...precious, he decided. Innocent. Kind. He simply could not.
And this is what he got.

Leave it up to little orphan Eugene to fall for the girl he'd have to leave. Besides, she deserved so much more than what he could give. A scenario in which Eugene Fitzherbert got the girl was not exactly simpatico with reality. A small bit of him, though, a quiet whisper in the back of his mind, said if you never try, you'll never know. He sighed, rubbing at his burning eyes. No, it would be best if he could just take her to see the lanterns, return her to her tower safe and sound, and never see her again - it would be best for her, too. Probably. But what was up with her never leaving that tower in eighteen years? Personal choice, or overprotective mother? Maybe she had as messed up of a past as he did...maybe.

Now, he wasn't the type to get mushy. No, he would rather keel over than profess his undying love for someone. Then again, he had never particularly loved anyone before. But this girl...Rapunzel...as he watched her sleep on the other side of the campfire, he decided that he'd probably melt into a puddle in his boots if she'd give him those emerald eyes and smile. He didn't like this feeling one bit - he preferred adrenaline rushes; putting your life on the line for mere sport. You didn't have to tell people or get rejected by them when you were thieving or running away.

As he thought, poking the fire a few more times, Rapunzel murmured quietly in her sleep, her eyelids fluttering open.

She looked across the fire drowsily at him, wondering why he was still awake. Sitting up carefully so as to not pull her own hair or disturb Pascal, she yawned. "Why are you still up?"
He sat back on his heels on the other side of the campfire, alarmed at her sudden awakening. "Keeping watch. Midnight attacks aren't fun, and we'd have pretty much zero chance of getting outta here if someone ambushed us."
She nodded, mesmerized by how the embers twirled up into the night sky...they reminded her of why she was out here right now with this mysterious man: the lanterns! Smiling to herself a moment, she switched her attention back to Eugene. "Do you want me to stay up and watch for awhile? You've got rings under your eyes, you're probably tired. Don't the guards ever sleep?"
"Well, yes," he nodded. "But you never know. Plus, I just can't really sleep anyway. But you need to - don't want you falling asleep in the middle of the festival tomorrow!"
She grinned. "Since you mentioned it, now I'll be too excited to go back to sleep!"
"Oh great," he teased. "I don't know how you have so much energy."
"I've been cooped up in a tower for eighteen years, I stored up a lot of energy in that time," she tossed back with a grin. Glancing up at the sky, she gasped. "It's such a clear night! Look at the constellations!" She loved constellations. However, Mother could care less about the things. When she was younger, she'd had a book on the stars, which she'd used to help identify the constellations for her mural on the ceiling of the tower. However, that book had disappeared as soon as Rapunzel had started talking about the mysterious and most fascinating stars - the ones that appeared only on her birthday and weren't listed in the book.

"Huh?" he asked, following her pointed finger to stare at the dark sky, which was cluttered with diamond stars. He was always terrible at finding constellations. She jumped up and in an instant was seated beside him, pointing out the constellations and tracing them with her index finger as she chatted quietly about them. He'd never found the pesky things so fascinating, and even felt a twinge of sadness when she decided it best to go back to sleep.

Staring up at the sky and trying to figure out and find the shapes she'd pointed out earlier, Eugene yawned and rested his head on the rock he'd chosen for a pillow. Feeling once again like a kid marveling at the world - which had to be Rapunzel rubbing off on him - he slowly drifted to sleep and gave into the dreams tangled up with copious amounts of blond hair and sweet little freckle-faced smiles.