It was just friends around and especially no king and queen around so he and Rapunzel took a room together, just the two of them alone, in that amazing house she and Cass have built. They decided to make just one place to sleep and sleep on it together. To cuddle, as she have said. Yeah.

No one commented on it, so thanks for that, everyone, good job, but really, who would judge them? Bunch of thugs and his girlfriend's best friend? Worst thing that he could hear would be some stupid jokes from Lance that he himself would maybe have found funny a few years ago. It was also possible that no one noticed, they have built a house with many rather small rooms and everyone could easily have a room alone, so yeah, it was quite possible, taking into consideration avarage intelligence in this group, no offence, that no one noticed. Besides Cassandra of course, she noticed everything. And from her he could expect… he wasn't sure what exactly. No jokes, she had no sense of humour, that's for sure. If she had any comments, they would be on him, not on Rapunzel, so she have probably chosen to skip the issue completely.

If the king and queen were ever to find out in some way… he had no idea what else were they expecting, to be honest. They let them go freely with this caravan, just a princess, group of outlaws and a cold blooded cobra-woman. It must have been that they trusted them or something.

He wasn't quite sure if Rapunzel understood how much they shouldn't do it, because when he asked her, she said that's not a problem and that was pretty much it. They talked a lot about it back in the castle. About their boundaries, or her boundaries, let's be real. He made himself a promise to never initiate anything more than a kiss or hug with her and that was of course because she could consent to many things not fully knowing what it meant. Socially and in her specific case politically. He was confident she was completely capable of making decisions on what she would like to do and she would always tell him if she was uncomfortable, she was very assertive like that, but he was scared that she might not fully understand how the world works and how judgy it is and just assume that everyone is as kind as her and that everyone is delighted by people in love and has no problem with what they do in private. She just had too little experience with living in an actual world to make those decisions.

As for Eugene it was way easier for him than everyone was giving him credit. He would very much want to make love to her, that was no brainer, but it wasn't a problem that he couldn't. He loved her and wanted what was best for her and would do anything to make her happy. For an unknown reason what was making her most happy was being with him and that alone made him the happiest man on the world, he would never need anything more.

At this moment he was half-sitting on a bed they made out of grass, waiting for her to come back from washing in a river, which he has done earlier. Normally he would sleep shirtless, but tonight he have decided it's not a good idea, might scare her off. Or she might think he is getting some wrong ideas. And he is definitely not. Not even thinking about it.

He could admit he was getting quite nervous. It was kind of funny how he never used to be nervous waiting in bed for a girl to have sex with, but now, when he wasn't planning on it, he was actually stressed. In some ways this relationship was full of firsts not only for her.

When she came in she was smiling, as she was most of the time. So lovely. She was wearing white nightdress which made her look even more angelic. She closed door and he was once again impressed that this house even had doors. He moved on a bed making place for her, which she took, and then he felt her putting her hands around him and hugging him. It was super sweet. He was pretty sure it would be impossible to love her even more and then one look at her was enough for him to change his mind.

She kissed his cheek and put her head on his chest, her hair lying on the floor taking pretty much the rest of the room. It was still quite wet and Eugene felt his shirt getting a little wet too. Yeah, he was missing the short cut.

„Oh, I'm sorry, I made you wet!" She said trying to remove water by moving her hand around on his shirt as far as he could tell. „I normally just go to sleep with my hair a bit wet, it would take forever to dry it, but I normally just have them on a pillow…"

„Ah, don't mind that, I don't care" he said and pulled her closer. They started kissing and it went as usual, chaste at first and then with more tongue and everything. She learned kissing really fast, he was proud. It was quite a long time since they could make out like this, there were always some people around or a threat of someone walking on them. Not that it was somehow forbidden, but a bit… awkward if her parents were to see them snuggled somewhere smashing faces.

„Rapunzel, are you sure you are aware what it means that we sleep in one bed and how much we shouldn't do that?" he asked her, putting hands on her shoulders.

„Are you sure you are not giving me too little credit?" she said getting comfy on his chest again.

He started to caress her and answered her: „I am just scared that you will do something and then come to regret it".

„I'm very sure I won't. And all the people who can find out about it wouldn't have anything against it".

Did he… Did he just feel her hand under his shirt? Yes, he definitely did.

„What are you doing?" ha asked a little surprised.

„I'm touching you, you don't like it?" she quickly withdrew her hand.

„It's not that, I just wasn't expecting you to put your hands under my clothes".

„I'm sorry, I thought it's okay" she put her hand back on his chest. And moved her weight more on him. He was now feeling her body pressed to his in a very improper way.

„It's okay, Sunshine, it's very much okay with me. But I didn't think you'd do that".

„Are you really okay with that?" she asked suspicious. „You are always so reserved when I want to touch you. Is there something not right? From your reputation I wouldn't think you'd be so restrained". She said teasingly.

„My what? Ah, don't mind that… You listen to Lance too much" he said kind of uncomfortable, pausing his hands from caressing her for a moment. Her hair still wet and her body still on his.

She gave it a little laugh. „Why do you always have to deny it, it's funny. Eugene, I'm not that naive, I know you had many romances in the past". Romances? What a nobilitation.

„You know, not that many… there was maybe something… a long time ago…"

She was smiling at his awkwardness „There you go again. You can give it a rest, I don't have a problem with it".

„I just want you to be sure I'm not that person anymore. I used to be really bad, Rapunzel. It has nothing to do with us" he said looking in her eyes.

„Yet I had to fought for you with a girl you left at the altar".

„Yes, and that whole experience from a month ago was rather traumatic" he sighed and looked away, still holding her close.

„I know, but I would like to know if you have more exes that plan on forcing you into marriage, I have to get my pan ready" she tried to lighten his mood a bit, but in reality that memory was very much painful for her as well.

He took a deep sigh. So they are doing this. „I don't think so, I wasn't very much stable relationship kind of guy. With Stalyan it was going on for two years and it was by far the longest one. There was one other girl I was on and off with for maybe half of the year, but besides that there were just a few I met more than once, really".

She put her hands around his torso. „It doesn't sound very romantic"

„That's because it wasn't. It was completely different than what we have".

He was starting to become interested if someone was eavesdropping or even if those walls had any kind of soundproof value.

„What you had with Stalyan was completely different too?" now she was touching his neck. She was big on touching tonight.

„Ehh, maybe a tiny little bit less different? By that I mean we were a couple… so I guess that's something? But it was… We were crime partners, so it had to be bad. Rapunzel, I was really awful person. To be honest, I have no idea why she wanted to get revenge on me by getting me back into her life. I wasn't treating her good, I was cheating on her and I left her at the end. I actually felt bad about it until she put on this show".

„So you were this eager to sleep with all of those women and you don't even want us to touch. Maybe there is something wrong?"

Why on Earth was she even comparing herself to them?

„Nothing is wrong, if something was wrong it was with what I did then not with you". He picked up her chin to look in her eyes. „I don't ever want to use you, I don't want you to feel like I treat you how i treated them. I'm not proud of who I was".

„So you said those romances have nothing to do with us, but from what I hear it's quite the opposite".

„What do you mean by that?"

She positioned herself on his chest looking straight at him.

„I think you are so scared of behaving like Flynn Rider again that you won't let as be intimate on our own terms".

„What? It's not that… completely not that…" he was confused by her statement. He was always concerned about what was good for her, not him…

„Really?" She was demanding answers.

„It's that you were in that tower for so long… I don't want to rush you into anything, especially when I think you don't understand fully what it would mean for you…"

„But will you ever tell I understand it enough? Would you ever trust in my judgement? I asked you to be patient with me, but now it feels like you make all the decisions for me. And if there is something that being locked for eighteen years taught me, it is that deciding for someone what is and isn't safe for them is not right". He could tell that she was not angry with him… but for sure she sounded fed up.

„So at this point I am scared of amount of insight you are giving this issue". He was in need of a moment to think. „I guess I am overprotective… and maybe there is something going on with me trying to cut off from the past… How are you so clever? I love it."

„Sooo, I was thinking maybe tonight we could try something new. You told me once there are ways to be intimate and not go all the way…"

„There certainly are" he said and started kissing her neck.

„Are you any good at it?"

„You bet".