Forget-Me-Not (Varian x Reader)

Chapter 35- I'm Fine

Sunlight filters through the treetops and casts patterns of light onto the tree house we were constructing for Catalina and Angry.

After Rapunzel discovered that Catalina was the werewolf the whole time, she was able to figure out what was filling the red-headed girl with such rage. As it turned out, Angry and Catalina got into a fight about whether or not they should move into Old Corona and settle down. We were able to help the sisters reach a compromise when we offered to build them a brand-new tree house in the woods.

With help from the pub thugs, we built them a beautiful house in a matter of days, which the girls were overjoyed by.

Today we have been putting the finishing touches on their new home, such as furnishing and painting it.

As Varian and I paint one of the side walls of the house, I softly sing while I work. Varian dips his paintbrush in one of the buckets of crème colored paint; he smiles at me. "I haven't heard you sing in a long time."

I glance at him as he begins running the paintbrush along the wall. "Yeah...this past year has been stressful. I missed it." I chuckle a bit.

"I'm so sorry, (Yn)." Varian sighs. "I guess I got so caught up in my own issues that I ended up neglecting your own."

"That's not entirely true. You had a lot going on, Var. You shouldn't have to apologize for that."

"But it wasn't fair to you." Varian sadly says, smacking his forehead a couple of times. "Ugh, I've been so stupid! I've been a horrible friend."

I place a hand on his shoulder. "No, you haven't." I give him a small smile. "You've literally saved my life like three times now."

"Well, you've saved my life and helped turn me around so..."

"So we're even?" I ask with a knowing smile.

Varian's blue eyes meet mine. "Yeah." We continue painting for a moment before Varian speaks up again. "Hey...are you okay?"

I don't look away from my work. "What do you mean?"

"Well...I just mean...with Cassandra, your parents, these crazy new powers..." Varian gives me a worried glance. "...how are you doing?"

I let out a long and hollow sigh. I set my paintbrush back in the paint bucket, and sit down on the floor. Truth be told, I'm not okay.

After everything that's happened these past couple of years, time has only proved how fleeting things can be. As a child, I was aware that sometimes we lose things. I knew about my sister and how she was taken from my parents, but I never really felt a sense of loss for her because I never knew her. To a five-year-old girl, my sister felt more like a fairytale character rather than a real person.

I never truly knew loss.

After all, nothing can prepare someone for loss until it finds them.

The battle of Old Corona was where I experienced my first loss; Varian. That night, I not only lost my best friend, but the boy I fell in love with. Even though he didn't pass away, he was still taken from me. It crushed me. Then, I lost Rapunzel when she left to follow the black rocks. I lost my sister, the sister I had only known for about a year. Fast forward to a few months later, I lost my parents to the wand of oblivium. Sure, I never actually lost them, but I lost the people who they once were. I had to say goodbye to my parents and the memories we once shared. And then Cassandra. The woman I saw as the big sister I never had. I lost her to the moonstone. She left her home and family behind, and to be quite frank, I have no idea if I'll ever see her again.

If I've learned anything from my time outside of the palace, it's that the universe can take what it wants whenever it wants. Everything I hold dear can be taken in mere seconds, and sometimes, I can do anything about it.

How am I supposed to live knowing that?

I just got him back; what if Varian leaves me again?

I take a breath as I gaze into Varian's beautiful blue eyes. He looks at me intently, patiently waiting for me to tell him about what's on my mind. I want to tell him everything, I want to tell him more than anything...but I can't. Varian already blames himself way too much. I don't want to add to his burning guilt, so I smile at him. "I'm fine, Var."

He sits beside me. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything."

I nod, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. I feel bad for lying, but I know that it's for the best. "I know, and I appreciate that. Thank you."

:-:-:-:-:

"Okay, so let me get this straight..." Rapunzel sighs as she looks over the notes she had taken in her journal. "Ever since I came back to Corona, you two have been getting weird powers that only appear when you're in danger, and when you're together?"

Varian and I glance at one another and turn back to Rapunzel, nodding our heads. Out of all the awkward sibling talks I was expecting to get when my sister came home, I never thought that one of them would involve me and my friend sitting in my sister's bedroom in front of a massive collage of drawings featuring magical stones, flowers, ancient demons, and blue and gold rays of light, but here we are.

Rapunzel glances back at her overcrowded vision board before she turns back to us. "Is there anything I'm missing?" She checks.

"Oh!" Varian suddenly speaks up. "Our hair stripes and eyes glow whenever either one of our powers activate, but our eyes glow only when we're actively using our power. I think it might have something to do with the chemical makeup of the energy these powers are coming from, but I can't be entirely sure until I can run further tests."

Rapunzel nods and scribbles something in her journal. "Got it." She looks over her notes again, before she looks back at us. "I think I may know what's going in here..."

"What?" Varian and I ask in perfect unison.

"I think you two are somehow connected to the sun drop and the moonstone."

Varian and I burst into a fit of laughter from how crazy my sister sounded.

"I'm serious!!" Rapunzel exclaims.

"Yeah..." Varian says through laughs. "And I'm the King of Neserdnia."

"Think about it!" Rapunzel quickly states. "I get my golden hair from the magic of the sun drop. (Yn)'s my little sister and she has a golden streak in her hair! Varian, the moonstone is blue, just like your hair! I think that when Cass took the moonstone and activated it, it activated the power of the sun drop and moonstone's energy inside of you!"

I gasp. "I think you might be onto something..."

"But that still doesn't explain why our powers only work when we're together." Varian points out.

Rapunzel paces back and forth, clearly deep in thought. "There must be something we're missing. Maybe a detail we've overlooked...?"

I suddenly remember something. "Wait, while you were on your journey, I had a really weird dream one night." I softly say, thinking back on the dream I had several months ago.

I quickly jerk my head around and see Varian appearing through the fog. I suddenly gasp. The blue streak in his hair was illuminated by a bright blue. It was glowing.

"Varian?" I try to approach him but the chains hold me back. "Your hair..."

Varian smirks. "I should say the same to you~"

I gasp as the gold streak in my hair brightly gives off a golden glow. It was like the sunshine of a summer's day.

My hair glows brighter, as does Varian's. With every step we take closer to one another, our hair becomes brighter. I slowly extend my hand out to Varian. He mirrors me, and our fingers touch.

A blinding light explodes from the contact.

"Varian and I were in Old Corona...my gold hair stripe was emitting a golden glow while the blue streak in Varian's hair was glowing with a bright blue. We started walking toward each other, and the closer we got the brighter the glow. Our hands began reaching for each other, and when they touched..." I trail off. "A bright explosion erupted."

Varian and Rapunzel's eyes widen in fear. "What happened next?" Rapunzel inquires, her emerald eyes never blinking.

"I-I...I don't know."