{Tangled belongs to Disney.}

A/N: This can readily function as a standalone oneshot, but it is also a slight tie-in to Don't Spare Me, a 2014 oneshot of mine. Enjoy! And check out Don't Spare Me if your heart desires. ;)

That thug at The Snuggly Duckling was right, Eugene realized.

His dream did stink.

One look at Rapunzel's awestruck face and it was clear that, for a large portion of his life, he had misunderstood the importance of wonder.

His dream – if one could call it that – had seemed like a very good one before this bizarre turn of events. What more was there in this world than monetary riches and some solitude? It seemed obvious.

And then this sheltered, wide-eyed girl had to go and mess up his certainty.

He had found himself warming and softening and feeling like a kid around her. In the span of a couple of days, his chaotic certainty was turned upside down and remade out of a new materiel.

He never would have foreseen this scenario. It was something out of a… kids' book, maybe. Something like this might happen to Flynnigan Rider.

Not to Eugene Fitzherbert. Nope.

But it did.

And here, sitting in this little boat with her – waiting for her innocent, childlike dream to solidify and take form – he couldn't say he would have it any other way.

In reality, there was nowhere else he would rather be.

Look at her, he thought. Her whole being was glowing with anticipation and a little healthy fear as she watched the in the direction of the castle, waiting for the first lantern to light up her world.

He found himself eager for the lanterns to rise into the night sky, too. And that realization struck a chord inside.

He'd seen the lanterns a hundred times. Okay, not a hundred, but however many years old that lost princess was now.

Except…except for those few years he left the kingdom after the one time he was caught thieving when he was sixteen…but that was years ago, and besides the point.

The princess was probably seventeen or eighteen now. He'd probably seen the lanterns thirteen, maybe fourteen times. They were beautiful and festive, yes, but they just were. Every year. Nothing new, nothing unexpected. Nothing magical.

But this year, with Rapunzel, the anticipation held magic.

"I'm terrified," she answered when he asked if she was okay.

"Why?"

"I've been looking out a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what it might feel like when those lights rise in the sky," she whispered, like it was a confession. "What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?"

A smile rose inside him. "It will be," he promised.

"And what if it is? What do I do then?"

"Well, that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

He didn't tell her that it was a new discovery for him as well, because he had no way to tell her that she somehow was becoming just that to him.

His new dream.

So, instead, he had carefully pulled a few flowers from her hair, and after placing one in the water, offered the rest to her. She smiled and, one by one, dropped them into the water in some indiscernible pattern.

And when those lights rose, they were made of magic; her face lit up like a star. Infinitely more precious than that crown.

Yes, Eugene thought, catching Rapunzel's exuberant gaze. My old dream stinks.

But I have a new one.

He smiled a soft, quite smile.

Review and let me know if you enjoyed! Would you like to see more Tangled oneshots?