Tangled: Stardust and the 12 Zodiacs (Varian Fanfiction)

Chapter 46: Once a Flower

Early morning, Varian sat alone on the caraboat's roof as he listened to the waves crashing on the shore. The winter sea breeze ruffling his hair and the early morning sun kissing his skin. Despite being on a tropical island, you can still feel winter coming close. He sighed as he looked towards the horizon. After what happened last night, he couldn't bear to sleep again, afraid that he'll have another nightmare and predict another near-death experience. Aside from that, the thought of almost kissing Soul raced through his mind. He was so into the moment that he forgot what he was doing. He just hoped he hadn't ruined his friendship with the girl.

But wait...She didn't pull away..Varian thought. His eyes widening in realization. She even closed her eyes and waited...Di-did she...no..that's too absurd. Maybe she didn't know what else to do, so she just planned to go with the flow. Yeah..that's probably it.

"Man, how can I face her now?" He breathed out, sighing.

"Hoot!" The sound of hooting snapped Varian out of his thoughts. He looked out below since he didn't see the owl near him and saw Soul walking along the shore, Sir Hoots and Flick walking with her.  The girl had a conflicted expression on her face, her eyebrows scrunching upwards as she fiddled with her pendant. Varian wanted to come down to her and ask her what's wrong. Take her mind off from what's been bothering her, but he felt somewhat scared. What if she avoids him again? After all, Soul did have a tendency to avoid him when he's done something that upsets her. But that won't happen, right? She did promise that if he did something, she would tell him instead of ignoring him. Nevertheless, Varian just watched her play around with her animal companions, smiling softly at how she omitted a different glow from when he first met her.

Meanwhile, with Soul, she was in a semi-sour mood since Flick and Hoots woke her up early just to bug her to take a walk. Have they not noticed that their human friend is in need of sleep and is close to dying from not sleeping too much? 

"Bark!" "Hoot!" Flick barked, and Hoots hooted, looking up Soul with their big eyes. Yeah, with their cuteness, Soul had a bit of trouble saying no to them, so off they went. 

While walking down the shore, Soul took the time to examine her pendant again. She was sure that it was her pendant that summoned the Pisces fish. As far she knew, her magic can't really do anything like that, and even if it could, she wouldn't be able to cast it because of the amount of energy needed. Aside from that, she thought about how the pendant's magic worked. She now knows two- three things about it: It glows, it summons forcefields and fishes. Okay, two things. And it protects her from dying. Okay, three. She knows three things. 

SPLASH

 A sudden splash in the face snapped Soul out of her thoughts, and the snickering of her animal companions can be heard. Flick was rolling around in the sand while Sir Hoots-a-lot was covering his beak with his wing. 

"Very funny, you guys." Soul said as she stared at the two with an unamused expression. Flick flicked his tail in the water, splashing the girl in the face again before running off. "You! Come back here!" She shouted, chasing the mischievous fox. After a while of playing with the two, Soul felt someone watching her. On instinct, she turned around to look at the caraboat and saw Varian. 

Their eyes met, and for a second, it was like time has stopped, and the only ones that existed were them. Varian backed away from his spot a little bit, shyly waving at the girl. Soul waved back before looking away as she tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. She sneaked a glance at the male before turning around and returning to her walk in an attempt to hide her red face after remembering last night's events.

 Varian watched the girl walk away as he sighed, leaning on the fence of the roof when he heard chittering beside him, who turned out to be Ruddiger. Petting the raccoon's fur, he looked at him with sad eyes. "What am I gonna do now, bud?"