"May sixth. Why do you ask?" Eugene popped another ripe strawberry into his mouth.

"What? Really? That's less than a month away!" Rapunzel paused between feeding grapes to Pascal and peered down at Eugene, who's head was comfortably nestled in her lap. It all seemed too good to be true, but here he was; money to his name, a clean slate, a castle of his own and now engaged to a beautiful young woman who just happened to be a princess. Eugene still had to occasionally pinch himself to make sure that this wasn't just a dream.

"Actually it's about a month and six days, but again what does that matter?"

"Well, you've never told me and you know when my birthday is. This is so exciting!"

He loved the way her eyes would sparkle when she was elated. But he found he got to see less and less of that these days. The wedding date was still painfully far away, and much to Eugene's dismay, there were watchful eyes everywhere, ever cognoscente of his whereabouts and hers, making certain that never the twain shall meet (until the ordained night, of course). It would be an enormous embarrassment to the kingdom for the princess to show up at the alter and already be great with child. Or so he was frequently reminded. So in the mean time, the happy couple had to make due with stolen kisses in a stairway or vigorously groping each other when they thought no one was looking. And when Rapunzel had time between her various lessons, picnics together outside on the palace grounds.

"More bread?" Rapunzel tore off a chunk of the end piece and offered it to him.

Smiling, he took it and bit into the soft layers, the loaf still hot from the kitchen.

He savored everything as he ate. It wasn't too long ago that he may have gone a day or so between a good meal. And even a "good" meal back then was no more then what Rapunzel may now eat for a snack. The bread was permeating warmth through his hands. It was a particularly chilly day for April and he was starting to think that Blondie may have been on to something with those fuzzy mittens she had wanted him to wear.

"Oh… here." She dabbed at the corner of Eugene's mouth with a small lacy handkerchief. She smelt like the strawberries they were eating and he couldn't help but cup his hand over hers and plant soft kisses on the pads of her delicate fingers. Rapunzel hummed with delight and slid her eyes shut, reveling in his touch.

"AHEM."

Eugene winced, reluctantly pulling back from her sweet smelling skin. He would know that shrill harpy's voice anywhere."Alright, Josephine. Don't get your knickers in a wad. You're just jealous that I'm not sucking your fingers."

The old woman snorted, her unibrow snaked across her face as she scowled down at Eugene who was smirking happily to himself for yet again breaking Josephine's demure demeanor. The King's advisor had appointed this stocky, overbearing, brutish woman to be Rapunzel's personal chaperone. Eugene had more than a few choice words and a frying pan with that guy's name on it. Josephine turned her nose up self-righteously. "An unwed young woman has no business being in the presence of a man while unattended." The same song and dance, the same thing he had heard time and time again from everyone since they had both taken up residence in the palace. Eugene knew better. What they were really saying was, "You are no better than scum, the King may trust you but we don't. And you will not deflower our newly found Princess, at least not until her wedding night." So far they had managed to do a damn good job of keeping them apart. Rapunzel's time was filled mostly with lessons and classes, events and tea times. She must learn her duties, know her responsibilities and know what it meant be a princess. One afternoon they passed each other in the grand hallway on the east wing. Rapunzel had all but tackled him and sent them both crashing to the ground before Josephine lumbered over to yank her up by the back of her corset. Before she had a chance to drag the naughty girl away she pressed a folded piece of paper into his hands and beamed at him. He later studied it to find it was her schedule. There was a tiny gap of time from 11:15 to 11:45 that they had graciously allotted for her lunch. Meet me by that big oak tree behind the servant's quarters and we can eat together! There was absolutely nothing in the world that he would rather do.

A sudden breeze broke Eugene from his brief trance, and brought him back to where he was sitting. It tousled the short locks of brown hair around Rapunzel's pink cheeks.

"What did you do last year on your birthday?" She was handing him a piece of cheese, which he mindlessly reached out and accepted. He thought for a moment. There was truly no telling where he had been last May. He was pretty sure however that he had been in a bar, and under the "it's my birthday" ploy, had taken a pair of lovely red headed twins to bed that night. He shook his head to erase those thought of his old life.

"I was probably doing something that I shouldn't have been. Birthdays have never meant much to me anyway. Here…" His face turned up in disgust, "I don't like cheese." He placed the lump back into her hand, and she looked at it for a moment as though she were inspecting it for something wrong. She shrugged and then began nibbling on a corner.

"Why not? Birthdays are so much fun! It's a day to call your own and everyone has to be nice to you and give you what you want."

"Yeah, I guess. But at the orphanage we didn't celebrate individual birthdays. Sure, some of us knew when our real birthdays were but no one else did. I guess they didn't… uh, maybe they couldn't keep track of all the kids and the different dates. So each year around July we would have one communal day that we all celebrated." Pausing he looked up to see the top of her head as she looked solemnly down at her lap. Picking up on her unease at having potentially asked a hurtful question, he quickly shifted gears.

"But hey, sharing the new toy with two hundred and ninety brother's and sister's was kind of fun."

Rapunzel gave him a small smile, enough to let him know that she could tell his bullshit when she heard it. Leaning forward she pressed a tight mouthed kiss to his lips.

"That's enough," Josephine interrupted, eyeing Eugene as though the kiss were all his fault. You're going to be late for your riding lessons."

"But Ms. Josephine, the stables are right over there."

"And you have to get into your proper gear or Mr. Nuesbaum will be cross at the both of us."

Rapunzel sighed, getting to her feet and brushing any stray grass from her dress."You're right… Eugene, will you meet me here again on Wednesday? And I won't bring cheese next time."

"I'll be waiting right here." He called after her as the old hag pushed her in the direction of the palace. They exchanged a small smile as she was being ushered away. Gathering all the leftovers into a pile, and as gently as he could manage he pulled the corners of the blanket they had been sitting on into a pack. A passing servant had rushed over and tried to assist him, but from the moment he came here he was determined not to become someone who was too good to pick up after himself. This also meant he was often spotted roaming around the castle with garbage, looking for the right receptacle. Just because he was now living the good life (minus the actually getting laid part) didn't mean he needed to be waited on hand and foot all the time. Mostly because it made him feel more useless than he already was. Besides, none of his so-called "duties" were ever important anyway. They were more so annoying attempts at keeping him busy and out of everyone's hair. Speaking of duties, he was sure there was something that he was supposed to be doing this afternoon, but for the life of him, he just couldn't remember what that was right now. After brushing off several maids and servants that insisted on taking his pile of trash from him, he finally relented to Toby, the brown eyed, brunette pageboy that he was becoming quite fond of. He figured on some subconscious level he must have bonded with this kid, as he reminded him of himself at that age. He scruffed the boys hair and flashed his most winning smile. Toby gazed at him with wide eyed admiration, surely hoping he could be just as handsome one day. He returned the smile and ran off to attend to the work he'd just received. Eugene continued his aimless wandering through the castle, only to have a rather miffed looking attendant abruptly grab him by the arm.

"You're supposed to be in a meeting with the King and his advisors right now."

Damnit. That was it, wasn't it? Eugene's eyebrows lifted in feigned surprise. "Oh good. So I'm late? I'm sure my absence will go completely unnoticed."

"The meeting is to discuss your preperations as Corona's next prince."

"Well, now I'm definitely not going." Swinging his whole body in a different direction he made a b-line for his quarters. The already red-faced attendant turned an interesting new shade of red as Eugene sauntered down the hall and out of sight.