I'm not sure how I came up with this idea; it might have had something to do with my observation that a noteworthy number of "Tangled" fanfics involve Rapunzel encountering acne first-hand, but nevertheless the other day I was thinking about "Tangled" and poof! There it was! It takes place a few years prior to the movie, as I signified by stating a few paragraphs in that Rapunzel is fourteen.

Gothel is curled up on her bed, filing her nails. Since she only has Rapunzel around, she perhaps does not need to lie in such a sultry position as she is; body twisted at the waist so her legs and hips are on their sides, top leg gently crooked over the other, the left arm propping her up as her right hand holds the file beautifying her left nails. Still, she's had about four centuries to ingrain this behaviour into herself, and it's not about to fade away like that.

She quietly hums to herself, no particular tune of course, but halts everything when she hears her "daughter"'s ethereal voice singing the healing incantation. "Rapunzel! Something's happened!" Rapunzel probably wouldn't sing the incantation to herself if it wouldn't solve whatever was wrong, but Gothel isn't the sort to take chances, not on these matters at least.

"Rapunzel? Is everything alright?" Gothel calls out to her, as she exits her room and makes over to the staircase.

"Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine! What once was mine." Rapunzel finishes the song as Gothel draws back the curtains to her room. "Oh, hi Mother!", the fourteen year-old smiles.

"Rapunzel, are you alright?" Gothel glides over to the girl and sits beside her on her bed, one hand raised to stroke her precious, magical hair. "I heard you singing the healing song. What's happened, Flower?"

"Oh, it's nothing really big, or anything!" Rapunzel shrugs, "I'm just getting rid of these!" She points to her forehead, where Gothel observes are three pimples, round, red, and disfiguring as pimples go. "There were four a minute ago, now I've just got three left!"

"Oh!" Gothel sighs and laughs. "But darling, you do realize you could get rid of all of them in one sweep, right?"

"Yeah, but," Rapunzel shrugs again, "I don't know… it's more fun doing them one at a time!"

That's true. As ugly as acne is, there's something to be said for the act of eliminating it, whenever it arises. Gothel smirks inwardly, recalling how in her true youth, she used to love squeezing every zit that bubbled up on her face, when it was ripe and ready. There was a delicious satisfaction that came from watching that sickening, yellow, often cloudy and creamy-textured pus come bursting forth when the precise amount of required pressure was applied to the marauder-of-complexion. Perhaps it came from knowing that once it was out, all that she needed to do was wash her face and eventually the open sore would heal over and be gone. This periodic fetish followed her into her elderly years, and persisted even after she'd discovered the magic, sunlight-based flower. If and when she noticed a zit, before making off to restore her physical perfection via the golden botanic miracle, she would wait till the whitehead or the blackhead was ready, then head to the mirror, slay the little beast to the cliché "Ha! Take that!", grin in triumph, and that would be that.

Rapunzel takes a strand of her hair and touches it to another one of her zits, beginning to sing again.*

"Rapunzel, wait!" Gothel cries suddenly. Rapunzel stops in alarm - did she do something wrong? Gothel is generally nurturing to her, but she can be very flaky and unpredictable at times.

Steadying herself, Gothel says in a quieter, gentle but firm voice, "Don't move, Flower. Don't do anything. Just stay like that for a moment." Rapunzel looks warily at her "mother", who has a strange, almost childishly wild glint in her eyes. Grinning devilishly, Gothel reaches up and squeezes one of the three blemishes.

"Ouch! Mother!" Rapunzel winces. Gothel merely says, "hold still!", and wipes away the exploded residue from the volcano-like formation that was on Rapunzel's face before. Then she moves on to the next one, and repeats this fun process. And then the next (Rapunzel feels no better with the second or third squeezing than with the first). Finished, she sweeps her hands back and forth against each other and smiles in a smug style. Sure, she felt just a little apprehensive about the concept before Rapunzel went to get rid of those three remaining pimples, but a pimple is a pimple, and a temptation you yield is a temptation you yield.

"There! All done, dear, you can go back to singing now!" Gothel cheerfully declares as she gets up to leave.

"Um, alright? But Mother?"

Gothel, holding the curtains to step through them, turns back to her "daughter".

"The song would have gotten rid of them anyway! Why did you have to squeeze the zits like that! It hurt!"

"Oh, I'm sorry dear, it was silly of me really." Gothel waves her hand dismissively as she speaks. "I suppose I just did it because… I can! Too-da-loo!"

She then laughs throatily as she slips past the drapes and scuttles downstairs, feeling like a little brat and loving it!

The end.

AN: Well, there you have it. Who knew Mother Gothel had a fondness for zit-breaking? I hope my in-depth descriptions didn't gross anyone out… too much. ;)

*About that part when she's about to sing one of those nasty blemishes away. I'll bet Rapunzel's about the only case in which hair can be used to get rid of acne, instead of stimulate/aggravate it! :P