Child of the Moon.

~Chapter Nine~

 Apparently, going to the bathroom was much harder than Eugene had anticipated. It had taken him a great deal of patience in order to convince Lance to go in by himself, not to mention the fact that Hector had been strapped to his leg like a parasite the entire time. Lance had then taken forever to finish and now the group was even more behind schedule because Lance kept stopping everywhere to ask questions about even the stupidest of things.

"What's that?" Lance asked, stopping for the millionth time and pointing.

"Ugh, that's a statue, Lance," Eugene groaned, grabbing the boy by the hand and leading him away.

"What's it do?"

"It doesn't really do anything. It's just there."

"Why?"

"Because Matthews wanted it there."

"Who's Matthews?"

"A really annoying guy we're trying to save you from!"

"Why?"

"I don't know why! Maybe because Rapunzel feels bad for you kids! Why, I don't know!"

"Why?"

"Will you just- Hector, let go of me before you cut off my blood circulation!"

The little boy immediately released Eugene's leg and backed away, wrapping his arms around himself, starting to tear up again. Eugene tried to calm him down and explain why he had needed to let go, but the words didn't come out right. Lance's continuous questions made it hard for him to think of anything other than his growing headache. He could barely hear his own words over the sound of Hector's crying and Lance's questions. He couldn't stand it.

"Shut up, Lance!" Eugene snarled in Lance's face.

Lance was quiet for a moment, as was Hector. He looked Eugene in the eye and started to cry alongside Hector. Eugene instantly realized he'd crossed the line and tried desperately to think of something to say. Lance hadn't cried once since he and Rapunzel had found the kids. Hector was a meek and sensitive child, but Lance seemed to be the most emotionally stable of the group of kids. He was always so happy even when he got mean and bothered answers to his questions!

"Look, Lance," Eugene began as softly as he could manage. 'I... I'm sorry about what I said. Really, I am. Just, please don't cry! 'Cause if you start crying, then I'm gonna start crying and I have a really, really ugly crying face!"

Lance looked up and began drying his eyes. Evidently, the idea of hurting someone else seemed to make him stop. It baffled Eugene that, despite what he said, the child was still willing to stop to save him any pain.

The kid's actually kinda sweet.

Eugene then started leading both the boys down the hall again. Lance was once again skipping along happily, but Hector was a different story. He was still trying to dry his eyes, while also clinging to Eugene, making it very hard for the former thief to move. He didn't want to yell at the boy again (That only seemed to make things worse.) but they needed to hurry up. Rapunzel would be worrying by now and probably searching for them. The longer she looked for them and not the top, the less and less time the kids had to be turned back into adults.

"C'mon, Hector," Eugene groaned, trying to peel the small child off of him. "Let go! Please! You're making it hard for me to move, and we need to get back to the others!"

"I'm sorry! I'm-"

"No!" - Eugene knelt down and grabbed the boy by the shoulders - "No apologizing! We only apologize when we've done something wrong, which you haven't. I was just asking you to let go so we can move faster. You didn't do anything wrong! What is up with you and apologizing?"