Chapter Text
When he wakes up on the third morning of their journey back from the Dark Kingdom, it's still night enough that the idea of daylight is more suggestion than reality. Still, he lays there, not sure why he woke up. Rapunzel is beside him, sleeping soundly and using her dimly glowing hair as a pillow.
Eugene forces himself not to move. Casting his eyes around, however, reveals Cassandra's blue hair casting a soft hue across the leaves, her body nestled in a tree above them.
Close enough to still trigger a reaction, but not enough to wake Rapunzel. Not yet anyways.
Her unpredictability keeps him motionless. What would Cassandra do if she knew he was awake? The last thing he wants at this point is to feel guilty by somehow scaring her off. The second to last thing is a fight.
Rapunzel sighs and shifts next to him, her lips curling up into a smile in her sleep. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Cassandra lean forward, her eyes suddenly sparking so blue they glimmer in the night. Rapunzel bolts upright and it takes every inch of his willpower not to startle.
There’s no hesitation, no search. Instead, her eyes instantly lock on to Cassandra above them. Eugene blinks and she’s up in the tree, nestled beside Cassandra’s crouched form, so close their hair is mingling where they touch, the rest wrapped around them both as if a blanket.
Only soft, unintelligible murmurs float down to Eugene where he lays.
-----
She takes a moment to soak in Cassandra, just like in the Dark Kingdom. The thrumming in the back of her mind has returned, just as strong, but more importantly, Cassandra has never felt clearer to her. She can feel all the frayed edges of Cassandra’s emotions pressing up against her own, like a cat, purring and rubbing upon their human for attention. There's a sense of elated peace as those edges weave into her own, as if they were never apart in the first place.
She reaches up to cup Cassandra’s cheek. “I’m so glad you’re back. I could feel you, you know. Always keeping a certain distance away, just enough,” she says, flicking her free hand through her hair as she slides the other into Cassandra’s blue locks.
“I could feel you too,” breathes Cassandra, smiling brightly as she adds, “ sunbeam .”
Rapunzel springs into action, pulling Cassandra even closer as bright golden light spills from her eyes.
Cassandra sighs in relief. Why was she ever keeping her distance? Some tendril of Rapunzel's essence wraps itself around her own, a distant and forgotten memory that Rapunzel has no part in, and yet the moment they fuse, there's no question the two snippets were meant to be interwoven. She can feel the tiny stitches if she searches for them, but there's little point.
Rapunzel pulls her into her lap and Cassandra melts, her mind peacefully quiet for a long moment as she rests her head on Rapunzel’s shoulder.
“You said we’re finally free,” Cassandra finally whispers, feeling almost intoxicated. This close to Rapunzel, this close to the Sundrop, this close to everything she holds dear. Stars, how she wants to just bask in Rapunzel’s warm presence. “So let’s just… do that. Let’s just be free.” A giddy laugh bubbles up and Rapunzel smiles adoringly.
“I know what that means to me,” Rapunzel says, smile turning impish, “but what does it mean for you, Cass?”
-----
When he wakes up for the second time, it’s daylight and this time, Rapunzel and Cassandra are nowhere in sight. Eugene shoves down the brief panic and shoves his boots on. Walking around the campsite doesn’t reveal the two either.
Where are they?
Eventually, he heads to the stream, not quite sure why but it has to be better than heading in any random direction. Eugene doesn’t want to wake the others quite yet, not when he isn’t even sure the girls are actually missing.
Thankfully, he hears soft laughter as he approaches and the relief makes him pause.
There, bare feet dipped beneath the placid surface of the stream, sit Cassandra and Rapunzel, just as close as they had been up in the tree.
“What about Eugene?” For the first time that morning, Rapunzel appears uncertain.
“Bring him along,” Cassandra urges, shrugging and nuzzling further into her shoulder. It hardly matters. “Anywhere we want to go, he’s probably got some tips. And a wanted poster, but we can handle that.”
“And the others?” Rapunzel frowns and mouths ‘others’ to herself a few times, unsatisfied.
Cassandra shrugs again. “Send them back to Corona. I mean, Lance is okay. But someone moderately competent needs to guide them back. Hookfoot and Shorty would never make it on their own, and King Edmund isn’t going to know Corona from Vardaros.”
“You, me, and Eugene,” muses Rapunzel. She chuckles. “Guess I’ll be switching rides between Fidella and Max, huh?” she adds, and Cassandra kicks some water up at her.
“That’s a good way to put it,” Cassandra purrs.
“That’s a good way to get those ridiculous noses tacked on my face again, actually,” Eugene says finally, stepping forward.
As one, they turn to him. Cassandra gives him an easy if coy smile, while Rapunzel practically beams.
“You’ll come with us, right?” she asks, hands clasped in front of her.
“Blondie, we shouldn’t. Cass, you know this,” he directs at her, looking for a glimpse of the focused if uptight woman he knows. She knows exactly what would happen if they returned without Rapunzel, especially with Cassandra herself gone as well.
He’s never been much for kingdom gossip, but even he has heard the rumors in the capital about Cassandra. And he knows exactly what kind of scandal it would bring to Corona if the princess ran off alone with her lady-in-waiting, innocent or no. It would be exactly like if he and Rapunzel ran off alone together.
Maybe, if it was the three of them, it would be okay. Surely. But that doesn’t make it any better if the rest of their group, including his newfound father, show up in Corona without any of them.
“I…” Cassandra starts, looking unnerved for the first time. She shakes her head, rubbing at her forehead. She drops Rapunzel’s hand and is suddenly furious. “He’s right.”
“Cass.”
“No, Raps,” she shoots back, standing up. “This isn’t us, sunbeam .” She bites down on her lip immediately.
The force of Cassandra’s shame hits her hard, sending her scrambling to her feet but also halting Rapunzel in her steps. Cassandra’s relief at her pause presses insistently at her, and only the rest of her willpower keeps her in place.
“He’s right,” repeats Cassandra. “The closer we are, the more we change. We - I need to put some distance between us.” Her eye twitches and she grits her teeth.
Eugene reads the pain on her face. “Let’s not be too hasty here. We’ve all been doing just fine.” The whiplash from the girls is making his head spin but apparently his priority role right now is to keep them from anything rash in either direction.
“Eugene, we almost bolted. I can’t even tell you where because I have no idea .”
"But you had a destination?"
"Maybe."
"What direction?" He asks, suddenly feeling as if that might be important to the puzzle of figuring out what is up with the girls.
Cassandra points, swinging her arm in a wide arc. "That way, I guess. I can't tell you how far."
There's a prickle of displeasure that ripples through her bond with Rapunzel but she ignores it, forces the urge to apologize and soothe down. It's important Eugene knows this. Just in case.
“No,” she repeats. “I need to go.” She takes a few steps further back from the two of them, fingers digging into her other arm. The material of her new suit gives under the pressure and she grabs a handful in her fist. “I’m sorry.”
Both of them reach out but it’s too late. Eugene curses, feeling that guilt he was so worried about earlier this morning.
“Cass!”
She’s already gone.