Two:

The sky was almost dark before they'd moved too far. The air was warm-the first day of summer-but still Rapunzel trembled in his arms. He rested his mouth on the back of her hair, breathing her in subtly, wondering whether he was moving too far for her in this state. Or at all, seeing as she'd never had human contact before, other than with that old witch.

"We'll have to set up camp soon, Rapunzel," he blinked heavily a couple of times. "It's been a big day for all of us."

"I'm not sleeping," she said quietly. She didn't turn to face him, but her voice was definite. "I'm staying awake tonight."

"Even so...we should rest. We both need to be in the best condition for tomorrow. I have a feeling it's not going to be easy."

"We don't have to go back tomorrow," she said quickly, for the first time since they got on the horse sitting up straight. "We could wait a few days; hide out, find somewhere comfortable until we know exactly what we're doing."

"I'm not having you become a fugitive with me, Rapunzel! You're going back to your family. They've waited for you long enough."

Now she did turn around. Her face was void of emotion, and that scared him a little bit. He wondered if she'd simply showed too much today already and was unable to conjure up any more. "You don't want me to stay with you!"

He pulled Max up, and the horse stopped immediately, huffing in discomfort. "Right now, I want you more than anything else in the world. But I'm not going to hold out on something that needs to be done. I'm risking my life taking you back there - you're going back, and that's all I'm going to say on the subject."

"But they'll take you away from me."

"That's something we'll have to dwell on when the time comes." He finished, then corrected himself to save her worrying. "If the time comes."

She was silent for a long time, still looking over her shoulder at him. Gradually her face crumpled and she looked as though she were going to burst into tears again, and Eugene dug his heels into Maximus, the horse wandering on obediently. "We'll go to the Snuggly Duckling. Then, at least, we're not out in the open."

The ride to the pub was completely silent. Eugene worked himself up to the attempt of starting a conversation a number of times, but each time he was on the brink he pulled himself back. He'd never heard her this quiet before, and it was beginning to scare him a little. From time to time she'd sniff, and he knew she was trying to keep the fact that she was crying from him, and he acted as though he didn't know any better.

The world was black around them when they arrived. Eugene dismounted and then helped the princess down, Pascal clinging to her shoulder. Maximus gave him a long look as he left him beside a barrel of water with a small promise to find a few apples.

He put a gentle hand to Rapunzel's shoulder, guiding her to the wide wooden door and pushing it open quietly.

They were met with a loud roar of welcome, which quickly died down at the sight of the now short-haired, seemingly tortured princess. Almost at once, knives were drawn and directed toward Eugene.

"What did you do to her?"

Rapunzel was swept up into the arms of Vladimir, who held her protectively, and she didn't even seem to register what was happening.

"What?! Nothing! She had a rough day - put her down!"

"Seems like a bit more than a rough day, Rider."

"Where's all that hair gone?"

"Tell us what he really did; we'll take care of it."

"Okay!" Eugene moved forward to take her hand and pulled her safetly behind him. "We need a room for the night, and we'll be off first thing in the morning. If you want to help us, go for it, but what she really needs right now is a bit of space and some time."

They were again silent at his outburst, and moved out of the way long enough for Eugene to work his way to the bar, still holding onto Rapunzel's hand tightly.

"We've got a room," Hookhand said quietly from the other side of the counter, looking at Rapunzel with worry. "Follow me."

They followed him up a set of stairs that looked a little too unsafe, and down a narrow hall with a few identical doors, stained and damaged floor boards beneath their feet.

"Here," he stopped and unlocked a door with a long key, stepping back for them to enter. Rapunzel wandered in slowly and hopelessly dropped onto the dusty bed, her face directed at the floor, Pascal curling into her cheek tenderley. Eugene sighed and turned at the door, leaning out of it slightly to speak to Hookhand.

"There's been a couple of changes to her life today, and she's still wrapping her head around the whole thing. She's going to need a bit of time, but we'll be out of your hair tomorrow morning."

"Speaking of hair..."

"Don't!" he pointed a finger at the thug before him, perhaps feeling a little more powerful than he should.

Hookhand narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Where are you headed?"

"Back to the kingdom."

The thug sighed and leaned against the doorway outside, crossing his thick arms. "And why would that be a good idea? You're wanted more than anyone else in the kingdom right now. You'll lose your head as soon as you step foot through the gates."

"Rapunzel needs to go back. I'm not letting her do it by herself."

Hookhand shook his head slowly, looking past Eugene, into the room where Rapunzel was now crying quietly. "You'd better hope we don't find out you did something terrible to her. She doesn't deserve a crook like you."

Eugene sighed, and for a moment couldn't look at the thug. "I know."

"Tell her to get some sleep. And keep your hands to yourself." Hookhand pushed himself off the wall and began making his way back down the hall, not turning back to look at the thief still half-standing in the doorway.

Eugene lit a lamp on a desk on the wall and pulled the heavy door closed, locking it quietly. He sat beside Rapunzel, watching her helplessly, wondering what he should do next. Pascal stared at him with question, and Eugene shrugged his shoulders, as if the frog would have any better ideas than he had.

"Rapunzel," he began after ten minutes or so. "Talk to me. It might make you feel better."

She lowered her hands from her face. Her eyes and lips were red and puffy, her face covered with red blotches from her tears. Her hair stuck up from bizarre angles, some parts were stuck down to her face. She took a deep breath and let it out shakily.

"What should I say?"

"What do you need to?"

"I don't know...I don't think you understand how I feel. I mean, you just know she was a crazy old lady who kept me locked away for my hair, but I -" she choked on her tears, looking away from him quickly.

"Rapunzel," he began quietly, taking her pointed chin in his hands and forcing her to face him again. "I know how it feels to lose everything. She was your mother. She was the only person you knew for eighteen years. That tower was your only home..." he cleared his throat, promising himself he could do this. "I understand all of that. Completely."

"You don't think I'm being ridiculous?"

"No!" he pushed himself further onto the bed and crossed his legs, grabbing both of her hands. "You had no choice but to have all of those things. Of course you were going to care so deeply for them."

"Eugene," she watched him closely, her eyes still surprisingly wide with their currently puffy exterior. "What happened? To your family?"

Now he looked away from her, and she let go of his left hand to catch his face before he could make to move away from her. "Tell me,"

"I don't talk about it, Rapunzel."

"But you know my story!" she sat up straighter. "I let you know; you can't just keep yours from me."

He wondered whether he was really getting angry at her. He swallowed thickly. Could he tell her? He'd never spoken to anyone about it before. They had people in to speak to him when he first arrived at the orphanage, but he hadn't even greeted them the long couple of months they were there. There were other kids who got help, of course, but most of them were younger than he was when they arrived and couldn't even remember their families or their home life. They didn't know they were missing anything. And then they would go just as quickly as they came; babies and young children who could be brought up so easily by families who couldn't seem to have their own. No one wanted an almost-teenage boy with so many issues.

"How old were you?"

There was a long pause, but he eventually answered her, his eyes dead as he stared back at her. He didn't show emotion on this subject. He simply couldn't anymore. He'd thought too long and hard about it and he didn't even know how he felt about it all at this point.

"Nine."

"How long ago was that?"

"It was almost a year after you were taken from your family." He supplied for her. "I didn't really understand at the time. An eight-year-old boy doesn't really worry himself on the subject of the royal family. I just liked the parties they threw. My parents talked about you going missing for days. Everyone did. It was all the entire kingdom was talking about it. And then the parties stopped, and I stopped caring."

Her lips pressed together, her eyes finally drying up, and he realised talking about this was taking her mind of what had happened. So he kept talking. For her.

"They got really sick. It was going around, and the town stopped being so involved. People only went out when they absolutely needed to, and the ones who were affected couldn't do much but stay in bed."

He heard Rapunzel swallow, and his eyes softened at her. "The queen had it. I remember everyone talking about that. She had it right at the beginning. When she was pregnant with you. But she was one of the only ones that got better."

"Eugene..."

"It's okay," he squeezed her hands, perhaps a little too hard, and continued. "My family avoided it for ages, but they eventually ended up with it. My little sister was the first to go, and then my father got it from taking care of her, and then my mother. I tried to take care of them as best I could, but they didn't let me do much. They didn't want me anywhere near them. I just remember being so upset because they'd all left me behind and all I wanted was to go with them.

"I stayed there for days after. I didn't know where to go..." he snorted darkly. "I had this really brilliant plan that the king and queen were after a child and I was after a family and they would take me in your place."

The princesses lips twisted, and Eugene was quiet for a really long time, both of them watching each other uncomfortably.

"And then I was found and taken to an orphanage, and the rest is history. I got out when I was fifteen and started thieving and running and convincing too many women I loved them."

"Did you love them?" she asked in a whisper.

"A couple of them," he said honestly. "Not that I think about them now."

"I'm sorry, Eugene."

"Hey," he shrugged as if none of it mattered now, and suddenly he seemed to be back to himself. "It all happens for a reason, right? Maybe it was all pointing me to where I was supposed to go."

"I'm sorry for being a mess."

"You deserve to be."

"But you went through it all, too! And I didn't even think about you!"

"That was almost twenty years ago, Rapunzel." He grabbed her shoulders gently. "You have every right not to be okay at the moment. But you have to keep telling yourself things are going to get better. You have a family waiting for you," he smiled gently, trying to seem genuine. "That's more than a lot of people have. You're going to learn to live as a princess, and things are only going to get better and better and better."

Her face seemed to give up supporting itself, and it was completely void of emotion as her lips parted again. "But I want you over all of that."

He scoffed, like she'd just said the most ridiculous thing in the world. "Me? Nah," he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You'll be too busy to even think of me."

"Eugene?" he'd never heard a voice so full of worry. "You're going to try, aren't you? You'll try to stay with me?"

He nodded, almost convincingly. "Of course, Rapunzel. We're just going to have to see how willing anyone is to listen to us."