Chasing Dreams

So, my love for Tangled was resurrected in a big way recently, in no small part thanks to the cartoon series coming out. And then I started turning over plot threads in my mind.

Then I realized I had way too many plot threads and tried to focus on paring them down into something manageable.

As stated in the summary, this fic follows the 'what if?' premise that Rapunzel doesn't come to the realization that she's Corona's lost princess. So instead of deciding to return to the castle... well. There're so many places to go, so many things to do...

Let us begin.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Grey Skies: Part 1

Summary: It was only then that the truth of the situation fell upon Rapunzel. She was alone. She had nothing. She had no one. Except him.

"There! Like it never happened." Rapunzel felt her mother's fingers pull out the last of the flowers that had helped to hold her braid in place. With nothing to support or catch it, her hair fell about her in long waves of gold. She didn't bother to look as the flower was tossed carelessly into the basket like all the others.

Somehow, Rapunzel couldn't find the strength to bother about very much of anything.

She heard her mother's voice, vague and indistinct as if coming from somewhere very far away, telling her to wash up and get ready for dinner.

Hah. Dinner. Had it really been that long since she'd come back to the tower? She couldn't tell. Everything around her had been a hazy blur. She was vaguely aware that she was clutching something tightly balled up in her hands.

It was the flag. That Eugene had bought for her.

His first gift to her.

All of a sudden a jumble of conflicting feelings welled up in her. She wanted to open it and press the cloth to her face, as if by doing so she could go back and relive those happy memories for just one more second before it had all come crashing down. She wanted to tear it in half like a flimsy paper, as if by doing so she could banish those memories that now hurt so much and dug into her heart like pointed stones.

Instead she opened her hands and let it drop, still crumpled, to the floor like a dirty rag.

She didn't know how long she sat there, simply staring at the far end of her bedroom. From her side she heard a small whirring and clicking noise as Pascal tried to offer what comfort he could, but even then she couldn't find it in her muster a smile to let him know that she appreciated what he was trying to do. She just stared and felt that dull ache that spread through every corner of her body.

Eventually, she heard her mother calling her down for dinner.

She didn't want to deal with mother, now of all times. But she knew from unpleasant experience that trying to shut her out would just make things turn out even worse for everyone involved, and so she stood.

Slowly, with hesitant steps, she made her way down the staircase, catching sight of the table and two bowls of soup now standing on it.

"Oh, just look at you!" mother's exasperated voice. "Didn't I already tell you to wash up? Honestly, Rapunzel, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. You're always lost in your own little world and never getting anything done. That's why you ended up inventing imaginary romances and filling your head with all sorts of meaningless dreams."

She knew those jabs. She'd heard them all a thousand and one times before, and she'd shrugged them off a thousand and one times too. It was just her mother's way of looking out for her daughter.

But today... today she seemed unable to shake them off, unable to give a polite smile and move on. Each word seemed to pierce deep into her, settling deep into the pit of her stomach, dragging and weighing her down.

And so she simply stood there, feeling like taking a single step forward would already be too huge an effort to make.

Mother must have noticed this, because something softer entered her body language and she let out an indulgent sigh.

"Well, don't worry too much about it, flower. What's done is done, and I'm still here. I'll always be here, you don't need to worry about that. Come on, eat your dinner before it gets cold."

With a nod, Rapunzel shuffled to the table and settled herself down on the chair while her mother turned back to the kitchen area, apparently focusing on something else. Silently, she forced herself to dip the spoon into the broth and bring it up to her mouth. She ate mechanically, barely tasting any of the food.

And then she heard it. Coming from far below, from the base of the tower.

A voice she had thought she would never hear again. A voice that made her both ecstatic and terrified.

Eugene's voice.

"RAPUNZEL!"

(X)

Eugene's thoughts had been in an uproar ever since he had been sprung from prison.

He had passed from despair at the thought that he would die without ever seeing her again to a sort of amazed bafflement at the sudden appearance of the Snuggly Duckling thugs apparently invading Corona's dungeons in order to save him, to relief and gratitude at the sudden appearance of Maximus and the realization that the horse had been the one to plan this whole escape.

He was still a bad horse by Eugene's reckoning, but maybe not all bad.

And as Maximus really started running and the streets of Corona became a blur all around him, he decided that Maximus was not even mostly bad.

But as he clung on to the stallion, Eugene found his thoughts wandering down a darker path.

The Stabbingtons had somehow known about Rapunzel's magical hair. He had been with Rapunzel for the entirety of the past two days and he knew for a damn fact that neither of them had let that information slip.

Given that Rapunzel had grown up in a tower for the past 18 years of her life, that left a vanishingly short list of people who would know about the hair.

"I – it wasn't us! It was the old lady!"

The only other person who knew about Rapunzel and her hair would be her mother. And despite never having met her, Eugene did not have a positive opinion of the woman who had trapped Rapunzel in a gilded cage for her entire life. The confession, blurted out by the elder Stabbington, only served to confirm that Rapunzel was not safe in her mother's vicinity.

Rapunzel was in danger, even if she didn't realize it yet.

Soon they were plunging deep into the forests surrounding Corona, and his eyes narrowed as he noted the familiar greenery around him.

"All right, Max, I know the way from here," of course the first time they had ended up in the clearing that was the entrance to the hidden valley, they had taken a more vertical short-cut, but he was also familiar enough with the forests to get back to the same place using a method that wouldn't be quite so hazardous to either of them.

Please let me be on time. Let her still be safe.

And then they had arrived, running through the curtain of ivy and vines, heading deep into the hidden valley. Eugene leaped from Maximus' back even before the horse could start to decelerate – it certainly wasn't the first time he'd done that and he knew how to fall to absorb the worst of the shock by now.

The windows were open, that much he could see, but from the bottom of the tower he had no way of telling if there was anyone within.

Please be in, please be in, please be in.

Desperation burned within him, and he cupped his hands around his mouth.

"RAPUNZEL!"

(X)

For a long, endless moment, Rapunzel sat as if she had been turned to stone, feeling as if someone had reached straight into her chest and squeezed down on her heart in an attempt to crush it.

Rapunzel felt like she could barely breathe. The spoon she had been holding fell from her nerveless fingers and clattered noisily to the floor.

And then,

"RAPUNZEL!"

The shout again. It was Eugene's voice. There was no mistake.

And suddenly Rapunzel found herself moving, not realizing that she had made a conscious decision to move, just feeling her arms pushing her up and her legs twisting her body in the direction of the window. The chair was pushed back and fell down with a dull thud, but Rapunzel barely noticed as she dashed towards the window.

Eugene was here! He had come back!

And if he had come back, then surely he hadn't abandoned her back at the beach last night! There had to be a rational explanation for why she'd seen him sail away on the boat.

There had to be. There just HAD to be.

And then she was at the window, staring out at the familiar scene in front of her. Her eyes first caught sight of a splash of white – Max! He had come too! - and then as she moved her gaze further down, closer to the base of the tower, she saw him.

He was just standing there, panting with exertion, but the instant he saw her, and expression of pure relief and delight came across his face.

Rapunzel felt her heart catch in her throat. That expression... such honest, open joy to see her just made the notion that he had abandoned her and run off with the crown seem even more ludicrous now.

Suddenly his face vanished, along with everything else, behind a thick blurry mist and Rapunzel realized that tears had formed in her eyes all of a sudden, and she found herself wanting to laugh aloud for no apparent reason.

Hastily wiping her tears away from her face, she quickly swung her hair around the hook above her window and let it hang all the way down where Eugene could grab on to it. She saw him jump up and grab onto the golden locks to pull himself up.

"You don't need to do that, you know," she laughed and hiccuped through her tears, and she wasn't sure he'd heard her at all. "I can pull you up to where I am – where we are!"

Suddenly she remembered that she wasn't alone in the tower and after a glance to check that her hair was properly secured to the hook she swung around to look behind her.

Mother would be angry, most probably, but they could work it out! They just needed to sit down and talk it out and then she'd see what a wonderful person Eugene really was, and everything would be fine.

"Mother! Look, it's Eugene! I was wrong about him; he's come back after all! I can't wait for you to meet him!"

(X)

When the first shout had sounded through the tower, Gothel had frozen. She had only heard his voice once, and that had only been from a distance, when she and those two idiot thugs had listened to their indistinct murmurings around the camp-fire. But there was still no mistaking the owner of that voice.

Flynn Rider was supposed to be dead by now! Or at least locked away deep in Corona's dungeons, with the secret of the tower to be taken to the grave with him.

But now he had survived – somehow. And now he had escaped – somehow. And now here he was, ready to fill Rapunzel's head with more foolish ideas about leaving the tower. Again!

She watched Rapunzel as she practically flew across the room towards the window. The girl was all but glowing with delight, and Gothel felt something akin to panic rising within her and threatening to break free.

The girl was smitten. She would believe whatever it was that Flynn Rider told her because she wanted to believe whatever he told her. If he was allowed to enter and to share his side of the story, Rapunzel would believe it – no questions asked.

And what exactly was his side of the story anyway? How much did Flynn Rider know about Gothel and – she swallowed hard. Those two idiot thugs. Had they given anything away? If they had accidentally spilled how they knew about Rapunzel's magic hair – Ugh! She should have properly disposed of them when she had the chance!

And as she watched Rapunzel frantically work to drag the thief up to her sanctuary, a single thought crystallized in Gothel's mind, shining with absolute clarity.

Flynn Rider could not be allowed to say anything. He had already poisoned her flower's mind for long enough.

Everything else could be smoothed over with Rapunzel eventually, and it would be far easier if Flynn Rider were out of the picture permanently.

Without looking, she slid open the drawer and reached for her dagger.

(X)

When Rapunzel looked behind her and saw her mother, the first thought that flitted through her mind was that there was something odd about the way Mother was moving. Something that reminded her of the way the two brutes had been walking towards her the night before. Like a predator towards prey.

But before she could fully process that thought she realized that Eugene had almost reached the window and so she turned back to the window, offering a hand to supportEugene as he clambered for the window ledge.

"Rapunzel!" Eugene said, relief written all over his face as he started to pull himself into the room. "I thought I'd never see you aga-" And then that relief turned into naked alarm as he saw something behind her and jerked back instinctively.

And suddenly Rapunzel was aware of mother coming up at her side, but rushing forward far too quickly, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw the flash of a dagger's blade.

Eugene's reflexes was probably the only thing that had saved his life – the stab that had been aimed at his breast instead struck at the arm that he had thrown up to ward off the blow, cutting a deep gash all the way from his wrist to his elbow. But he had been half-in, half-out of the tower, balanced on the windowsill, and the impact caused him to stumble backwards, falling off the ledge.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel gasped out as she rushed forward, her heart in her throat, but she saw his good hand had reached out and seized at the long curtain of her hair that still hung just outside the window, arresting his fall.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel cried again as she leaned out the window, her hands reaching out to grasp his and pull him to safety. But then she was aware of a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to see her mother, face tight with rage as she too leaned out the window, trying to stab at him again.

"Mother, what are you -" her cry of alarm and confusion remained incomplete as she saw her mother, lips drawn back in a wordless snarl, lunge forward.

Eugene could not save himself. His one good hand was already hanging on to her hair for dear life, his other one was slick with flowing blood and unable to properly grasp on to anything.

And Rapunzel found herself moving without conscious thought.

"Mother, STOP!"

Later, over the course of many sleepless nights, she would replay that moment over and over, trying to see if she could have done something, anything different. Had she moved too quickly? Too slow? Could she have grabbed onto her instead of pushing her?

Could she have done something else?

Could she have saved her mother's life?

She rammed her shoulder into mother, seeking only to push her away from Eugene and maybe to place herself between the two of them. But mother had been in the process of lunging while half-hanging outside the window, and Rapunzel's tackle had threw her off balance.

Mother screamed all the way down the tower.

Rapunzel stood there, eyes wide and taking deep gasping breaths.

"I – I..." she found herself stammering, trying to figure out what had just happened, what she had to do. Maybe mother was still alive! She had to get down there, she could heal – she HAD to heal -

"Rapunzel..."

Eugene's weak groan snapped her back to reality, and she frantically looked over to him.

"Eugene, touch my hair with your hand!" and as he moved to comply, she frantically started singing. "Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine..."

She tuned the rest of her own song out, having sung it so many times that it was practically automatic for her by now. As the golden glow began to flow through her hair, she pulled Eugene in closer, dragging him into the safety of the tower and letting him collapse onto the floor. A quick glance confirmed that the knife wound had healed over, but Eugene still looked weak and dizzy from the blood loss.

As for herself, she quickly grabbed ahold of her hair. Trying to force her trembling fingers to remain steady, she took a deep shuddering breath and began to slide down the tower again.

As she zipped towards the ground below her, she kept her eyes trained on red stain on the ground that was her mother's dress. Mother was still alive. She had to be. She just had to let Rapunzel sing to her and she'd be right as rain...

But as she reached the ground and began to run frantically towards her mother's cor – her mother's still alive body, what she saw rooted her to the ground with shock and horror.

Mother had already begun to crumble. Whatever magic her hair had given to extend her life while she was alive, it was apparently all revoked upon death. Her skin grew shrivelled around her frame, her hair faded from glossy black to powder white. Even as Rapunzel took another trembling step towards the body, it finally vanished into so much dust.

And Rapunzel sank to her knees, hands clutched to her chest and eyes wide with shock.

Her mother was gone.

And not even the magic of her hair could bring her back.

(X)

The Snuggly Duckling was noisy.

Admittedly, it was always noisy, but today it was even more noisy than was usual.

The thugs were packing and getting ready to move out at first light of dawn. The Corona Guards weren't known for being the best and brightest, not by a long shot, but assaulting the dungeons in broad daylight tended to be the sort of thing that drew attention to the place.

So, best to move out and hit the road for a while until that whole mess died down and they could come back to set up shop again.

At a corner in the far end of the room, Rapunzel sat, eyes staring at nothing in particular. Flynn Rider sat next to her, alternating between nursing a drink and trying without much succes to coax Rapunzel into eating some of the food that had been placed before her.

The two of them had shown up about half an hour earlier, just as the sun was starting to sink into the horizon. The girl in particular had looked like fresh hell, but given the way she had been clinging to Flynn the thugs had determined that he was not the source of her current misery and therefore decided that he was allowed to live.

For now.

Eugene resisted the urge to sigh as he stared at Rapunzel. How had it ended up like this? One moment he'd just wanted to make sure she was safe and – what? Convince her to leave the tower? Tell her that the woman who'd raised her from a baby was an awful, awful person and didn't have her best interests at heart?

And now the woman herself was dead and given that it had happened in process of her trying to murder him, he found it hard to feel especially bad about that. But he knew that it was tearing Rapunzel apart inside.

And what was he supposed to say to her? "I'm sorry for your loss" sounded ridiculously trite. "You're better off, trust me. That woman was crazy" may have been true but not the sort of thing one said to a grieving daughter. "I'm here for you" was marginally better, but given the events of the past twenty-four hours, he wasn't quite one-hundred percent sure where he and Rapunzel stood right now, and he was wary of making things worse.

Still, he had to say something.

He took a deep breath.

"Rapunzel, I -"

"Did you really leave?"

(X)

Rapunzel stared at Eugene as the question hung in the air between the two of them.

She swallowed hard.

It was a stupid question. Of course it was. Why ask that when he had obviously come back for her?

But it was only then that the truth of the situation had fallen upon Rapunzel. She was alone. She had nothing. She had no one. Except him.

Except Eugene.

And she realized she needed to know.

She needed to know that she could trust him absolutely. Trust him with herself, trust him with everything. Because if she couldn't, if she really was all alone in this big, wide, fascinating, terrifying world, she'd start shaking and crying and never be able to stop, not even after all the tears had been wrung out of her body and she was nothing but a pale, pathetic shell of herself.

And so right now, more than anything, she needed, needed, needed him to tell her 'No, I didn't', and she needed to be able to just trust him and, and, and feel safe.

(X)

Eugene swallowed hard.

"No," he said softly. "I didn't."

Something changed in Rapunzel as he said that. Like a knot that had been tied deep within her had suddenly come unwound and she wasn't curling up into herself quite so tightly any longer.

"I just wanted to get rid of that stupid crown. See, I had some – well, partners for that job. I double-crossed them earlier, just before I met you, actually. So I could keep it for myself. And then, yesterday... I realized I didn't want it any more. So I left to give it to them."

Rapunzel said nothing, but her eyes were wide and focused, silently urging him on.

"Well, turned out they didn't want the crown any more either. They wanted..." he drew in a deep breath. "They wanted the girl I was travelling with. You. Because of your magic hair. So they knocked me out, tied me to the boat with the crown, and sent me with a one-way ticket to meet the Corona Royal Guard.

"I was captured and scheduled for execution, but as you probably heard from some of the other guys here, Max rounded them up and staged a rescue for me so I could get to your tower. And the rest you know."

Rapunzel had bowed her head by now, hands unconsciously reaching up to tug at the golden locks framing her face. "They wanted my hair..." she mumbled. "But... how did they even know about it?"

Your crazy old witch of a mom told them about it so she would have the muscle needed to come after you. "I don't know either," he wasn't entirely sure what Rapunzel's mother had been thinking – or indeed, why she'd tried to murder him either, but it was a moot point now, and Gothel had taken her secrets with her to the grave.

Either way, no need to make Rapunzel feel any worse than she did right now.

"Why...?" Rapunzel was whispering to herself now, her words small and meek amidst the dull roar of noise around them. "Why did mother try to kill you? Why did any of this have to happen?"

Eugene was suddenly aware of how small and vulnerable she looked at that moment, curled up and miserable in a grimy, stained dress, huddled in a corner of a dingy bar in the ass-end of the kingdom. And so he reached out to grasp her hand.

She blinked and froze, but did not pull away.

"Rapunzel... I know everything that happened today has been a really traumatic and, well, you need time to take it all in. I haven't fully absorbed everything either. But," he continued. "I want you to know, before anything else, that you don't have to do this alone. No matter what happens, for as long as you want or need me, I'm here for you."

There was a whirr and a clicking noise from the seat next to Rapunzel and Eugene cracked a small smile.

"We're here for you," he amended. "Pascal too."

Rapunzel stared at him for a long moment.

And then she burst into tears.

She threw her arms around him, clinging to him tightly like a drowning man to a rock, and as the sobs shook her small, delicate body, he could hear her murmuring 'thank you' over and over into his shoulder.

As the night wore on, he continued to sit there, holding on to her.

Letting her hold on to him.

Chapter End

Author Note: I'll be doing this segment to hopefully point out stuff I want to clarify and expand on that I couldn't properly fit into the narrative itself. Hopefully it'll be informative and fun to read.

First off,

Eugene and Rapunzel's Relationship: With the events in the tower taking a drastically different turn in my story than canon, I think the way Eugene and Rapunzel's relationship developed would differ from what happened in the equivalent timeframe of the movie.

Eugene and Rapunzel are both aware that they love each other, of course, and given the events on the boat they're aware their love is more or less reciprocated, but they didn't have the twin scenes where both decided independently that they were willing to sacrifice everything they had so the other could live and be happy.

So, yeah, in love with each other, but not quite 'You're my New Dream' status. Yet.

Regardless, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.