the sun & stars

new history

Rapunzel can only watch in shock as her sister runs, and for a moment, she tries to reach out, but the princess is already disappearing around a corner. The black haired lady who came with her brushes her arm when she runs by, stopping at the doorway to call after her.

“Nadine, wait!”

Nadine… Her sister’s name is Nadine.

The lady looks like she’s going to chase after Nadine, but the king- her father’s voice cuts through the air.

“It’s alright, Cassandra. Please, stay with us for now.”

The lady- Cassandra- hesitates in the door frame before she turns around with a nod. Then her eyes meet Rapunzel’s and she has the sudden urge to apologize.

“Cassandra- Cass, can I call you Cass?- I-I’m really sorry,” she blurts out, pulling her hands to her chest, even though she’s not quite sure what she’s apologizing for. But whatever she did, it must’ve been something wrong, because why else would her sister have run away?

“Don’t apologize, sweetheart,” her father begins, and it takes her a moment to realize ‘sweetheart’ was her.

Did Mother Gothel ever call her by anything but her name?

(She didn’t consider Flower to be a proper nickname anymore, not after she discovered that it was more literal than she thought.)

“Your sister has... always had a strong flight instinct,” he continues, and Rapunzel nods along slowly, wringing her hands.

“Right… right! I’ll just, um, wait for her…?”

It comes off as more of a question since Rapunzel has no clue if that’s what the expected response is for this situation. Should she treat it like befriending the birds that’d sometimes perch on the windowsill…?

Her father smiles, and she relaxes.

“I knew you’d understand, Verena.”

A beat passes.

Then another.

Rapunzel keeps smiling, confused.

“I’m… sorry. I think I heard wrong?”

He just looks at her like he doesn’t understand, and when she looks to her mother mom for help, she just has an expectant look in her eyes, even with her patient smile. Eugene just mouths ‘Verena?’ from behind her.

“My name is Rapunzel,” she says slowly, and she has to keep herself from phrasing it like a question again.

Her mom’s smile falls.

“Is that what that woman told you?,” she says so softly, it sounds more like a whisper. And it sounds so fragile that Rapunzel almost doesn’t wonder how they knew about Gothel, if maybe they'd seen her that day. 

It’s kind of hard to ask your kidnapper about the day they took you away when they died the same day you figured everything out. Would her new old parents want to even tell her if she asked?

And the world starts to feel like it’s beginning to tilt around her at the thought that maybe Gothel didn’t only lie about loving her, and the lanterns, and the outside world, because what else could she have lied about that Rapunzel just accepted as fact when there was nothing else, no one else to say otherwise? So the only response Rapunzel can give the waiting king & queen is a distracted nod, and her mom covers her mouth with a tearful look before her dad puts a hand on Rapunzel’s shoulder.

Rapunzel just looks up at him in surprise at the casual touch, but he starts to talk without even noticing.

“Verena is what we named you, sweetheart.”