It's So Alchemical! | Varian X Reader Stories

Baking Instinct

Inspired by a comic in Issue 4 of Tangled the Series magazine.

(Y/n) and Varian had just arrived at the castle to see Rapunzel when, while looking for her, they both found Eugene in the kitchen. "Hey, Eugene," said Varian, "We're looking for Rapunzel. Is she around here some..." His voice trailed off as he noticed that Eugene is dressed in a chef's hat and apron and was scrapping some burnt food into the trash bin.

"What's that?" (Y/n) asked, pointing at the food. "This? It's nothing. Just a little experiment," said Eugene casually. "Experiment, you say?" asked Varian, raising an eyebrow, "I'd love to hear about it. What's your hypothesis?"

"It's not that kind of experiment," said Eugene as he dust the flour off himself, "I'm trying to do something special for Rapunzel. You know, show her my domestic side." (Y/n) and Varian looked at each other for a moment before looking at Eugene again. Eugene glared them. "What? You two think I don't have a domestic side?" he asked. "I didn't say that!" Varian replied nervously. "Neither did I," (Y/n) replied, "I mean, I thought it, but I didn't say it." Eugene sighed, turned around, put one foot on top of a bag of flour, and did some kind of "manly pose" as he said, "Well, maybe baking's not coming to me as easily as wit and roguish charm, but I can't be a natural at everything."

"Why don't you ask one of the royal chefs for help?" asked (Y/n). "They're all busy preparing for a big state dinner," Eugene answered, "And I had sort of wanted to do this on my own, but... well..."

"Here, I'll help you." said Varian, rolling up his sleeves, "After all, I'm a master of alchemy, and what's baking but alchemy with slightly more mundane ingredients and tastier results?"

"I'll help too!" said (Y/n), "I helped mom bake goodies many times before. So where's your recipe?"

"I... don't really have one," Eugene confessed, "I was sort of playing it by ear." Varian sighed and said, "Oh boy. Grab a mixing bowl and hand me some eggs." Eugene snapped his fingers in realization and said, "Eggs! I knew my cake was missing something, but I thought it was oregano and buttermilk!" (Y/n) rolled her eyes and went to grab Varian a mixing bowl. "It's a good thing I came along when I did," she said to herself.

Everyone went to work as Varian crack the eggs and pour the ingredients into the bowl while (Y/n) and Eugene hands him what he needs. "Measure out a cup of flour, would you?" Varian asked Eugene. "Sure!" he replied as he went to do the measuring. After Eugene hands him a cup of flour, he left to grab something else. "(Y/n), hand me two sticks of butter," said Varian. "Yes sir," said (Y/n) before she hand the butter to him. Varian toke the better without even looking at her and use a mixer to soften them up.

(Y/n) couldn't help but think of how cute Varian looked with he's concentrating on something, especially at something as normal as baking. She moved closer to Varian's side to get a better view of his face. Varian noticed how close (Y/n) is and blushed a little but he kept on mixing. Then he turned around to fetch something. (Y/n) watched him left before turning around and sigh.

She had a crush on him for some time now but she is unsure if Varian felt the same way about her. He seemed to be more interested in alchemy than he is in her. But then she remembered that she and Varian were just kids right now. There's plenty of time for them to mature and maybe when they do, Varian will see her in a new light. She smiled at the thought.

Just then, she noticed that Eugene was about to pour in something into the mixing bowl. "Hold on there!" she called out, causing Varian to turn around and place an arm in front of the bowl to block Eugene. "Eugene, that's starch," said Varian. "Oh. Whoops!" said Eugene, who chuckled in embarrassment. Varian only glared at him as he returned to mixing the ingredients.

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Everything's looking good so far. They used all the ingredients, but something was still missing. "Hmm, I wonder..." Varian thought aloud, as he dig into his apron's pocket. He pulled out a little bag with three vials in it; one with red liquid, one with green liquid, and one with yellowish-brown liquid. Varian smirked. "I've actually been dying to try this out," he said as he picked up the yellowish-brown vial, "It's some new extract I brought called 'vanilla'." (Y/n) watched with intrigue as Varian carefully poured the liquid onto a spoon. "The merchant told me it's primarily for baking, but I was going to use it to make my experiments smell better," he explained. Then he poured the vanilla from the spoon into the bowl. Eugene toke a whiff of it and smiled. "That's smells incredible!" he said.

But then, Eugene looked into the little bag and toke out the green vial. "What about this one?" he asked. "No, don't!" (Y/n) exclaimed, causing Varian to look up and panicked when he saw what Eugene's trying to do. "Wait, not-"

He was too late. Eugene already open the vial and poof! Green smoke covered the room and green specks speckled their hair and clothes. Varian and (Y/n) give the surprised Eugene a glare. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" asked Eugene innocently. "Not. That. One." answered Varian with an annoyed tone.

(Y/n) hold out her hand. "Just give that to me," she said. But as Eugene hands the vial to her, he felt something caught in his throat, causing him to cough hard. The force of the cough made the vial slip from his hand and land right into the cake dough. (Y/n) and Varian looked in horror as the dough starts to make a strange sound and shake a bit. "I take it that's not good?" asked Eugene. Before anyone can answer, the dough exploded into a huge green mess that covers the whole kitchen and the trio.

Unfortunately, the mess seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the minute. "Help me find the red vial!" shouted Varian, as he starts to search the room. "In this mess?! How?" asked Eugene as he wrap the green dough off his face. "Search everywhere!" shouted (Y/n), moving the dough around as she looked frantically for the vial.

Varian explained, "You better hope we find it! It's the only thing that'll reverse the chemical reaction! This stuff's like yeast, now that it's started off, it'll just keep growing!"

Everyone searched and searched though this green gooey mess in hopes of finding the red vial. "I think I got it..." said Eugene, feeling around the dough with his hands, "No... oh wait, I think... nope."

"Less talking, more looking!" shouted Varian. Everyone continued to search through the mess until (Y/n) felt something familiar with her hand. She pulled it out and it was the red vial.

"Got it!" she exclaimed, passing it to Varian, who then opens the vial and pours a drop onto the dough. Just as they hoped, the green dough stopped growing and slowly begins to shrink. Varian and (Y/n) sighed with relief. Eugene, on the other hand, looks around for a while. "Huh. I wonder if this stuff'll stain," he said. (Y/n) groaned in disbelief. "Let's start over, okay?" asked Varian, annoyed.

After much, much later, the trio are in the dining room with Rapunzel and Cassandra. Eugene placed a round dinner tray with a dome lid onto the table in front of Rapunzel. Rapunzel looked at it with excitement.

"What is that strange smell?" asked Cassandra. Eugene shrugged and said, "Nothing to be concerned about."

"Just a little unforeseen alchemical accident," added Varian. "And by little, we mean big," whispered (Y/n) in Cass' ear. "Hmm," hummed Cassandra as she nodded her head.

"Anyway! Enough about that," said Eugene, changing the subject, "Time for the piece de resistance!" He lift the dome lid, revealing a cake shaped like a big gear connected to three smaller gears, decorated with six purple "balloons" with Corona's sun symbol on them, chocolate icing, five green "bushes", and a little house on top with real smoke coming out of the chimney and a letter "R" as a doormat on the front porch. But what made the cake really special is that the "gears" rotate.

"Wow! It moves!" exclaimed Rapunzel with joy. Eugene placed his hands on Rapunzel's shoulders and asked, "Well, Blondie? What do you think?" Rapunzel looked up to him. "I think you're full of surprises!" she replied, giving Eugene a kiss on the cheek. Eugene smiled dreamily.

"How'd you make the icing?" asked Rapunzel. "Let's just say it's a trade secret," replied Eugene, who turned to the two teens beside him and winked. "I would absolutely love to!" said Varian. "Me too," said (Y/n) with a giggle.