𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 {𝕍𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕟 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣}

-Chapter Twelve- Let Me Make You Proud

/i will make you proud!/ i will make you have faith in me!/ i will prove that the way i used to be is all in the past/

-let me make you proud, varian

A large group of people had gathered in the palace foyer, huddling around fires and bundled in blankets. Pascal was serving warm tea to a long line of townsfolk, and Cassandra was stoking the fire with a grim look on her face.

Y/n sat perched on a windowsill, gazing outwards at the view beyond. Her vision was severely limited by the haze of the snowstorm, so her eyes merely followed the progress of the tiny flakes falling to the ground below.

She knew that she should be panicking, or crying, or doing something. Sure, Y/n's parents had been... less than supportive, but she should probably still feel something about her disappearance.

Still, Y/n could not bring any emotion about them into her heart, no matter how hard she tried. Does this make you an awful person? Not even caring about your own parents?

She wondered why, exactly, she had felt nothing when she learned of the dilemma. She... cared for her parents. No matter how many times they compared her to her sister, ignored her, forgot about her, scorned and neglected their youngest in favor of their perfect firstborn... Y/n still cared about them. Didn't she?

She knew that she had disappointed them- and maybe they were right to have doubts in her, maybe they were right to forget her. Still, though, Y/n had always tried her hardest to make them proud- futile as her efforts may have been, she couldn't help but try.

Y/n glanced up, hearing her sister approach their father's assistant, Nigel.

"Nigel, I need to go look for my parents." Rapunzel was saying with determination.

"But Your Highness..." protested Nigel, "you're the queen!" Y/n bit her tongue, half convinced that she would legitimately scream if one more person reminded her of that fact. "You can't just leave your kingdom in its darkest hour!"

Nigel sighed and led Rapunzel away from the fireplace, closer to where Y/n was sitting. She turned slightly, making an effort not to look at them or make her presence known- who knows what they may not want her to hear?

"Oh, Rapunzel, as much as it pains me to say this... their chances in elements such as these are-" he paused, seemingly afraid to continue, but Y/n could fill in the gaps just fine. "Oh, well. Let's pray your parents found shelter before the worst of the storm hit."

"But we can't just let them freeze!" cried Rapunzel angrily. Y/n stared at her gloved hands in the bone-white light of the snow, wondering if it would just be one more disappointment to her parents that she couldn't bring herself to care whether they lived or died.

Nigel looked down dejectedly. "My dear, going out in that weather now is a virtual death sentence. You cannot go!"

"He's right, Rapunzel." Y/n heard Eugene's deeper voice as a set of doors creaked open, revealing him and Rapunzel's gang of rogues and thugs standing there. "You can't..." Eugene walked forward with a determined expression. "But we can."

Rapunzel approached Eugene with a worried expression. "But you just heard Nigel! It's a death trap!"

"Look at us, Princess." said Lance from the doorway. "If the rest of the world had its way, each and every one of us would either be on the run, or locked up somewhere."

One of the thugs spoke up. Y/n never remembered his name, so she had just labeled him "Big Nose" in her head until she could find something better. "But your parents had the heart to give us a second chance. A chance to prove ourselves and go straight."