Disclaimer: Rapunzel and Grimm Reflections, all characters, places, and related terms belong to the Brothers Grim and Wimsey Films.

Now What?

Rapunzel stared at her unshackled hands, flexing her wrists and fingers, her look full of wondrous disbelief. After watching her carefully for a long minute, Will spoke quietly.

"Now what?"

There was no warning between the moment the long-haired maiden lifted her head to look at him and when she threw her arms around his neck, her grin a blur. Will stumbled back half a step, familiar shock washing over him.

(Since Will had found the lost princess, broken her out of her prison, and ended up on the run with her she had surprised him. From how her piercing eyes seemed to see straight through him…standing up to him…declaring she preferred death to imprisonment…to the way she drank in the surrounding woods with something akin to kinship, she was not at all what he had expected.)

Instead of stiffening or shaking her off as he would have done – before – the young man found his arms coming up to hug her back, a startled chuckle escaping him. His smile faltered as Rapunzel suddenly squirmed, releasing him and stepping away. Two more steps she took backwards, head down. Swallowing, Will felt an unfamiliar sense of loss.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. Don't want your Archer to get the wrong idea," she murmured. Her eyes flickered towards the warrior standing by the tree line clasping her bow.

It took a second for him to comprehend. "She's not my Archer!" he blurted, more harshly than he intended.

It was hard to tell who was more startled by his outburst: Rapunzel (now frowning thoughtfully) or Will (feeling swept off his feet). For a long time they stared searchingly at each other.

Rare heat raising in his cheeks, the young man blinked first and looked away, focusing on the waist-high wildflowers swaying in the breeze. He ran a nervous hand through his dark hair.

He did not know what to do with this. He was used to being alone, keeping the very few he considered friends at arm's length. Things like caring and feelings were foreign to him. Yet this princess had somehow crept under his skin, was a puzzle he was struggling to figure out. …Did he really want to?

An elbow lightly nudged him in the arm, shattering his thoughts. "Now what?" Rapunzel echoed his earlier question.

Will discovered her expression grave, empathy in her eyes. He held her gaze.

"I don't know," he admitted.

Slowly she nodded; her body relaxed. "Nor I."

Will exhaled, some of the tension slipping off his shoulders.

Rapunzel lifted one of her hands, palm up. She added, "Only one way to find out."

For a long moment the young man critically eyed the offered hand. Then his lips turned up in a slow smile, and carefully he placed his palm over hers. "Okay."

And the princess's grin returned, big and bright this time, completely concentrated on him.

"Okay."

THE END