Rapunzel's Homecoming 22

Rapunzel's Homecoming 22 - Back to the Tower
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Author's Note: At some point Eugene, Rapunzel and her parents need to go back to the tower to share in Rapunzel's memories, both the good and the bad. Yes, that key really is on the wall by the window in the movie.
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"Rapunzel. Your mother and I were wondering if you were ready to go back and show us where you lived," gently asked her papa, King Leonard of Corona. As they sat together on a fish embroidered sofa after dinner, so they could be close for a while.

...

It had been two weeks since the Return of the Lost Princess. The celebrations were over, detailed stories were shared of each of their lives.

Things were settling down. Rapunzel was feeling much better.

The chaos of the celebration had been overwhelming at times. But she had had so many wonderful experiences.

The big final celebration after her coronation was amazing. She was pretty sure she finally meet everyone in the kingdom. It had broken her heart to tell the little girls who had braided her hair that it was gone, but they seemed to take it in stride once they got to play with Pascal, feeding him oranges and grapes so he would change color.

She wasn't always with her parents they were finally getting comfortable letting her out of their presence and they hugged every time they saw each other.

Eugene wouldn't stop stealing her crown which drove her to distraction, but she found kissing him got her crown back.

Hookhand played up a storm, he played so hard his hook kept flying off.

And all those floating lights, um, lanterns were so beautiful even during the day. They found Shorty in the forest near dark.

...

One of the experiences that had gone not so well, was when they had shared some brandy the evening after the Coronation. Eugene had drunk the small amount of amber liquid in one gulp. She always watched how other people ate things now, so she wouldn't hurt herself. So she had emulated him.

Bad idea, she had thought her head and chest were going to explode or something. She had coughed so hard, she had to sit down. And it tasted worse then paint, how anyone could drink it, much less enjoy, it was beyond her.

Eventually she had calmed down and Mama explained that it is more enjoyable to take small sips. She'd said that she'd rather not try any more. The others seemed to enjoy it, but then something odd happened, it felt like the bindings on her mind were coming loose. She felt unsteady. She had clung to her mama as they cuddled on the sofa, hoping the feeling would go away, and after an hour or so it did. Mama had put her to bed, and she had felt fine in the morning, well, after she calmed down from the nightmare (an old one for once, the thunderstorm), but it had been very scary, it felt like her mind was unravelling.

But in the week since, things were much calmer and she was feeling much better. Except for the screaming nightmares in the morning and sitting together after dinner they hadn't established much of a routine yet and there were hardly anyone new to meet, but more meetings to attend.

She got some extra rest and time to work on her paintings. They helped a lot, she felt protected in her room, now that everyone was painted in. Eugene looked rather protective in his armor. The idea of cherubs she got from the palace chapel was neat, so she painted the Pub Thugs as cherubs around the edge of the ceiling. A ladder wasn't as fun as her hair had been, but it got the job done.

She was hoping they would help the nightmares, but it hadn't so far. Nothing was helping the nightmares, not the awful tasting rosemary tea they kept giving her, nor dancing until she could no longer stand and Eugene would have to carry her to bed. It was frustrating, but her parents and Eugene were always there for her comforting her, and that was good, so much better then Mother.

She was talking with a tutor, trying to map out what she knew and didn't know. Her ignorance had embarrassed her, but Mama had consoled her that Mother had tried to keep her in the tower by keeping her ignorant of so much. She wished that Mother had really loved her. Maybe they could have worked out something.

She was so disappointed in Mother so often lately. Mama, Papa and Eugene were showing her what love was really like and it was nothing like what Mother shared with her, but just like what she shared with Mother.

Based on the description of where it was, the Lock Guard had found the tower and secured it without disturbing it. In case their charge had a desire to go back to it from time to time. They reported back to the king and queen what they had found and done.

...

Princess Rapunzel took a breath.

She stilled her hands as they sought the hair that was no longer there near her shoulder. "Yes, I think so. You should see where I lived, where I grew up. You've shown me so much about yourselves by showing me around the castle and the kingdom. You should know me better by me doing the same for you."

But the queen noticed that her hands were worrying her skirt. Then Rapunzel smiled "Oh, I can show you my gallery, and the candles. Oh and my guitar, lute and sewing. Yes, I must show you all of that. And if you wouldn't mind I'd like to bring my things here. We left in such a hurry to help Maximus and meet you, we didn't bring anything. I miss my clothes and others things. Not that what clothes you've given me are bad or anything, but they just aren't what I am used to." She felt the needs to explain.

"Yes, of course, dear. You should have your things, so you can feel more at home." said Queen Rebecca kindly. "You should have said something."

"It was so busy all the time, there just wasn't time for it."

"You're worth making the time for."

...

The next day they rode out to the tower, Rapunzel riding Max who lead the way. It was an easy journey, but the queen noticed her daughter getting quieter as they got near, though there were a lot of birds around them, they had missed Rapunzel. They passed under the vine curtain that had so effectively hid the tower for all those many years.

"Oh, it's so beautiful!"
Everyone looked at Rapunzel, who blushed.

"Well, I never really saw it from the outside. When Mother and I came back it was dark, and the first time I left I didn't bother to look back since I wanted to leave so much."
"Ha, You should have seen her, by the time I got to the bottom of the tower she was running as hard as she could for the exit. You'd have thought she'd stolen a crown or something," he smiled broadly.
"And the last time I couldn't look back, it was too painful." Eugene's smile dropped off his face with a thud.

...

Rapunzel got down from Max, her eyes on the cloak, dress and shoes that still lay at the foot of the tower, held down by a pile of dust, all that was left of the person she had called Mother for 18 years. She knelt down next to it and her Mama kneeling next to her.

Rapunzel looked at her mama, her real mother, with tears her eyes. "Mama, please understand, and help me understand how I feel. I spent 18 years loving her and calling her Mother and trying to please her. I loved her. When I understood what she had done to me I hated her, but at the very end when she was screaming, I wanted to take away her pain. When she tripped and fell from the window I tried to catch her, because I didn't want her to go away." Tears flowed down her face.

"As far as you knew she was your mother, and you are a good, loving person. You want, no, you need to help others. As you have told us about how she raised you, how she was continually trying to crush your spirit, there were times I felt white hot hate." The queen said ferociously.

The king put an hand on her shoulder, she put her own hand on top of his and looking lovingly at her beloved daughter, "But I look at how you are, how you treat others, and how capable you are. And in that I feel some gratitude to her because she did raise you to be good. You are a truly good person. There is no shame in feeling as you do."

They hugged tightly.
"Would it be okay if we took these in, and put them on her bed? Just leaving them here doesn't seem right."
"Yes, that would be fine." The women worked together to fold the clothes and carry them up.

...

"Rapunzel, be careful of all the glass on the floor." Mama said as they climbed up through the trapdoor.
"Yes, mama."

Rapunzel padded, barefoot, over to the nook where Gothel had slept and place the folded clothes tenderly on the end of the bed. As she took a deep breath thru her nose, the smell of her tower caused a flood of memories. There was so much she remembered now and yet it wasn't really home anymore, either.

"Oh my, this was your hair?" the queen was kneeling and holding a loop of the limp brown hair that covered so much of the floor, having been told she had had 70 feet of hair was very different from seeing it in real life. "How ever did you ever get around?"

"It did seem to get in the way all the time. And I spent so much time brushing it and brushing it and brushing it." She moved to get the brush, she stopped as she saw the chair and the stool and her face fell.

"What is it, dear?" asked her mama.
"Well, whenever Mother wasn't feeling young enough she would have me set out her chair and my stool by the fireplace, and she would brush my hair as I sang. She always did so much for me and it felt so good to be able to do something for her. But now I know that she was just using me, my hair to stay young. Oh, it's complicated." Rapunzel shook her head.

"So what should we do with the hair?" Eugene asked very gently.
"Well, it hasn't got any power anymore. So it isn't worth taking, is it?"
"But it was yours."
"It was and all my life it made me feel special. But I am special now in a different way. I am the Princess of Corona." Rapunzel smiled.

"I still have the Lock that was left in your crib, so I don't need another one." The Queen said as she touched the place where the vial lay on the end of its necklace, near her heart.
"We should leave it on Mother's bed. She was the one who wanted it so much." Rapunzel decided in a quiet voice, and she never touched her hair again.

"Let's clean up this glass." said the Queen.
With a grateful look for the change of subject Rapunzel dashed off for the broom and dustpan as the Queen looped the hair into a neat pile.

"What is this face doing here on the floor." The king said as he swept up some glass. There was the red face with the pointy teeth.
"That was a face Mother painted to scare me when she was telling me about men with pointy teeth that would come to cut my hair." Rapunzel frowned. "You know, I haven't actually seen any people with pointy teeth."
"There aren't any people with pointy teeth, dear." said her mama.
"Oh, another lie then." It wasn't a question.

As they came to the stairs Eugene stooped down to pick up a large shard of mirror. "This was it, wasn't it."
"What?"
"What I used to cut your hair and this is where I died," as Eugene touched the chain that was still wrapped around the banister "This feels very strange." He gave a shudder.

Rapunzel went around pulling open the draperies and then moved around the tower opening the windows to let in the light. She looked up and frowned, "What's wrong?" asked Eugene.
"Well, without my hair I can't open the upper shutters to let in more light," pointing to the lever high in the rafters.
"Oh, that. No problem." He pulled out a length of rope from his satchel, gave it a twirl and hooked the lever, "If m'lady wishes to do the honors." Rapunzel laughed and pulled on the rope. Light poured in revealing the interior of the tower.

The king was near the center of the tower slowly turning in place amazed at the paintings that completely filled the walls.
As they gathered up the things Rapunzel wanted to take back home, she explained the stories behind the pictures she had painted, some which were quite involved, as she sketched them onto a book so she could be sure to remember them. After explaining her star chart, the King said. "You'll have to meet with the court astronomer, he'd love to see your take on the stars."

...

The Queen turned to her daughter, "Show me your room, please," the queen asked gently.
"Oh yes, it's up here," Rapunzel padded up the stairs. "This is where I figured out I was the Lost Princess."

Rapunzel twitched the curtain aside and they all crowded into her room.
"I don't know if you can see them, but embedded in all these paintings are the sun your, ah, our sigil has."

The Queen paused at the top of the steps and looked back to where Gothel had slept.
"What is it mama?"
"I didn't expect this to be your bedroom." the queen said slowly.
"Why?"

"From what we know about her need to stay young, I would have expected her to keep this bedroom for herself and put you in the nook. It makes her harder to hate. You have a vanity of your own and a very beautiful bed. Yet she slept in a nook. I think I don't really know as much about her as I thought. She cared about you more that I realized."

"What is this?" they hear from the king. They turned and saw him holding a large head in his hands.
"Oh, I made that, its papier-mache. I made it from the remains of my old sewing book. It had fallen apart and then the ink wore off the pages. It was something I made just for fun. But it scared poor Pascal" Everyone laughed and Pascal turned an embarrassed pink.

"One of the most fun things I did was read my books." Rapunzel was telling her mama, moving to the shelf which held them.
"I still can hardly believe she taught you to read." said her mama.

"Was that bad?" asked Rapunzel in a worried tone.
"No, not at all. It's just that is ... unexpectedly generous of her."
"Why do you say that?"

"Because one of the best ways to keep someone under control is to never teach them to read. That way they have nothing to compare their life to and know that there is a better way. That is why teaching reading is so important to our kingdom. We want our people to know the best way to do things. What books did she give you?"

Rapunzel looked shocked. "Uh, I had a book on Botany, Geology and Cooking. I used to have one on sewing, but it wore out. I liked the cooking one the best because I could actually use it. While I could grow some plants they were usually small flowers that could fit on the windowsill or from the few hanging baskets we had. Geology was almost useless, I could identify all the major features of the rocks surrounding the tower, but I couldn't get close enough to see any details. Mother brought up a few rocks but there's only so much you can do with a small rock at the top of a tower." She smiled sadly at the end. "We were also running too quickly through the canyon by the dam to see more then the fact that it was made up of sedimentary rocks."

The king and queen shared a look.
"What's wrong?"
The queen smiled gently. "Nothing dear. It's just we don't know what you know and don't know. and we're a little surprised at what we are finding out. It's going to take some time and we need to get to know each other and that will take time."

They had moved back to the main room of the tower, Eugene was walking past the window and noticed something. "Um, Rapunzel?"
"Yes, Eugene."
"Does this key really go to your window there?" Still looking at the window.

"Yes, it does." Rapunzel said stoically.
"Why? I was a thief and all, but locking a window at the top of a 50 foot tower seems like overkill, I climbed that and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the arrows. That overhang was a killer." Eugene was looking out the window.

"It wasn't so much to keep people out, but to punish me." Everyone stopped and turned to look at her. The queen moved to be close to her daughter, with a sad face. "She would lock the window so I couldn't be with my bird friends or see the sky, if I did something she didn't like. I often couldn't tell what would set her off. I would have to be extra careful near my birthday, so I would be able to sneak down and see the lanterns."

"Oh." Eugene regretted bring up the key. The King and Queen came and gave their beloved daughter another hug. Eugene could see the look on the Queens face, a look of sick revulsion, directed at Gothel's bed so that Rapunzel couldn't see.

Eugene couldn't stand it. The tower was so beautiful, it couldn't all be full of terrible memories, not, and still have Rapunzel be such as kind, loving person. There had to be some good memories here too. He just had to fine just one pure good memory before they left so this place wouldn't be a terrible memory for her.

All too soon one of the guards came up, saying that it was time to go back to the palace.
"It's odd," Rapunzel said, "but the tower feels so small now."
"Well, is there anything else we need from here?" asked the King.
"Just one last thing," spoke up Eugene, who had an idea for a good memory. He turned to Rapunzel and put his hands on his hips, "Just where did you hide my satchel?"

Rapunzel smiled, "Oh that. I hid it under the bottom stair, it is a little loose and comes out easily. Though I do wonder how Mother found it."
Eugene went over to inspect it. "I don't know, but this was a good hiding place, much better then the pot." He turned grinning.

"Oh, that reminds me, I definitely want the frying pan."
"Ha, you're really good with that frying pan, maybe we should train some of the guards to fight with it."
Everyone laughed.

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Author's Note: Well, that is almost all of it. My first foray into fanfiction. It turned out a bit bigger then I expected. It's funny, it was supposed to be a few pages, a dozen tops. It's 156 pages!? I've never written anything that long before from scratch. I sucked at creative writing in school. But I must congratulate Tangled for bringing this wonder into my life.

It turned out pretty well I think. I've read over it. It has problems, but I definitely got better as an author over time. I started this April 1st and it took until June to finish it up.

One more thing...