Tangled Autumn

Apple Picking

     "I thought Raps and Fitzherjerk were supposed to come down and help," Cassandra said, walking out of her bedroom door,

     "Yeah, Stan gave me a brief message from them this morning, Eugene's tied up with Captain stuff and Rapunzel's stuck doing some Princess thing with Nigel," Varian replied, closing the door behind them,

     Cassandra huffed, "Once she's Queen I hope she fires him," she mumbled,

     "I'd like to say I disagree but..." Varian shrugged.

     Cassandra laughed, kissing his cheek then turned to walk down the corridor but she felt fingers wrap around her wrist and the next thing she knew, Varian had pulled her back towards him and pressed his lips against hers. She sighed and relaxed against him, her eyes fluttering closed. They had been dating around two months now and everyday she fell further in love with him.

     Regrettably, they pulled apart both of their faces flushed. Cassandra took a deep breath trying to collect herself, "We should get going - your Dad will be waiting for us,"

     "Alright." Varian took the basket from her, swapped it to his other hand and wrapped his now free arm around her shoulders. Cassandra reached up to squeeze his hand as they made their way out of the Castle.

*~*~*

     "Wow, a lot of people turned up huh?" Cassandra commented, standing at the top of a ladder surveying the orchard around her,

     "I know," Varian said, stood below her holding the ladder still against the tree, "I guess the neighbours wanted to help Dad get in the last harvest before he sells,"

     "Still can't believe he's selling - this farm has been over two decades of his livelihood." Cassandra stretched her arm up to grab another apple,

     Varian chuckled, "Please, I've been trying to get him to sell for months - he can deny it all he wants but this work would only get harder as he gets older."

     Cassandra laughed, tugging on the apple stubbornly clinging to a branch. When she finally got it free, before she could put it in her basket a grey blur flew across the tree snatching it from her grasp. She put a hand on her hip watching Varian's faithful raccoon run off into the bushes with his stolen fruit. "Age hasn't slowed you down huh?"

     Varian shook his head and laughed, "Come on, hand me the basket, it's got to be staring to get heavy."

     Cassandra raised an eyebrow, "I think I can handle it,"

     "I know you can but what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't insist?" Varian asked her with a smirk. She grinned back at him and handed him the almost full basket. He held it up in both his hands as she continued to pluck the fruit from the tree.

     "Heads up!" she called down, one arm cradling the recently picked apples the other tossing them down to Varian.

     "Woah!" Varian stumbled backwards and forwards trying to catch the apples Cassandra threw down, "Hey! Slow down Cassie!"

     Cassandra laughed, "Just try and keep up Var - oh!" she exclaimed as a couple of apples fell out of her other arm. She leaned to catch them and without Varian holding onto it, the ladder teetered. "Ah!" Cassandra cried out, trying to reach for anything to grab onto as she felt herself falling sideways.

     "Cassie!" Varian shouted, his mind immediately blanking out everything else except the girl he loved. He dropped the basket, apples going flying down and rolling across the grass, running around the ladder to catch Cassandra. She landed in his arms, bridal-style, panting from shock.

     She reached up a shaking hand to brush her hair back from her face but Varian's beat her to it, "You okay?" he asked, a bit breathless himself,

     "Y-yeah." She forced a laugh and patted his chest, "Nicely done."

     "You're sure you're not hurt?" he pressed,

     Cassandra smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand, "No, really I'm fine. Thanks to you,"

     "Well I didn't fancy carrying you down to the doctor's with a broken arm or leg,"

     "Good thing you caught me then,"

     "Always." Varian bent forward and kissed Cassandra's forehead. He pulled away just enough to set her down on her feet then moved to kiss her again, Cassandra's head tilting up so his lips could meet hers. He brought his hands up to caress her cheeks, his fingers weaving through the hair at the base of her neck. Cassandra rested her own hands on Varian's shoulders, surrendering all thoughts and senses to the kiss that seemed to mean something she just couldn't place.

     As much as Cassandra wanted to stand here kissing the man she loved all day, they had work to do. She pulled back, biting her lip to stop herself from starting another kiss. "Let's clean up this mess - see if any apples on the ground are still acceptable."

     She crouched down and reached for the apple beside her foot but another hand covered hers. Cassandra looked up to see Varian crouched in front of her, staring at her with a sudden intensity. He lifted her hand up off the apple and gripped it tight - doing the same with her other one. He seemed almost...nervous? He took a deep breath and asked her: "Cassandra would you be my girlfriend?"

     The world faded away until there was only her and Varian. "Var..." She could sense him holding his breath, waiting for the answer. "Of course!" Cassandra nearly shouted the answer but even then it wouldn't show how much she meant it.

     Varian's face broke out into a smile and he let out a relieved laugh. Cassandra didn't even let either of them stand up before rushing to kiss him, Varian catching himself with a hand before he fell completely to the ground. Before their lips met Varian stopped her, "Y-you're sure?"

     "Yes!"

     Varian held his free hand on his girlfriend's back and pulled her closer, onto his lap, kissing her at last. Cassandra wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck, the apples scattered around them all but forgotten.

[~Author's notes~]
Hi everyone! So this is the first of my collection of tangled one-shots using the fall based prompts on instagram liz.potent 's three AU - ursurper, summer weddings and next-gen - discord server. These are going to be really fun and you can bet most of them are going to be New Dream and Cassarian.