Day 57: Waiting Room/Lobby 1 (Fourth Shift)
Since her talk with Soma in the morning, Rapunzel had been afraid this moment might come. Even as she distracted herself with other things, there was a tightness knotting up inside her stomach. Even as she assured herself that she would be prepared if it happened, the feeling wouldn't pass. And now, she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, and the
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For more than a few minutes, Zack was pretty sure he was in the wrong place entirely. Amanda could be a handful at times, what with the naivety, the issues with her mom, and that weird attachment to stuffed animals, but she wasn't crazy, right? He checked the envelope in his satchel again. Yep, this was the place. It looked like Mrs. Blumenthal had been telling the truth about something for a change, even if she had been screaming at the top of her lungs at the time.
Leaning against the wall, he picked at the flowers he'd brought: a few daisies in varying shades of purple and yellow, similar to the ones she sometimes put in her hair. They probably didn't allow for that sort of behavior in a hospital, but he figured it couldn't hurt to try to cheer her up- maybe they'd remind her of the good times, before the fight and the whole obsession with fairy tales. Maybe she'd suddenly decide she wasn't nuts and was ready to leave. If only he could be so lucky.
A nurse found him and led him to exactly who he wanted to see: Amanda was sitting at a table, as cute and innocent as the first time he'd laid eyes on her. Those were better times.
Zack cleared his throat as he took the seat across from her. "Hey, Blondie. It's been a while."
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And that really was the crux of the thing, wasn't it? For as it turned out, no amount of mental preparation was enough to prepare Rapunzel for actually seeing the man she had been half-expecting to see walking through that door. Her heart leapt, partly in elation, partly in panic. He was dressed differently, and he seemed a bit uncertain. But his face, his hands, his beard - it was all the same as she had last seen it. Rapunzel was stuck between leaping out of her seat to throw her arms around Eugene, and holding herself in the seat like her hands were made of glue.
After a few moments of decidedly awkward tension, the former won out.
Her arms were around him near-instantly. "Eugene!" she cried out without thinking, giving him the biggest, tightest bear hug her small arms could muster. She couldn't help it. It was just so... so good to see him alive.
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"Still going with the whole Rapunzel thing, huh?" he said quietly, his hands still on her shoulders. He brushed a strand of hair from in front of her eyes, trying not to let the whole situation sting him. He gave her a half-smile. "Guess I should've known. Your hair has gotten so long. Not that it doesn't look good long."
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Rapunzel looked up, bottom lip shaking as she bit the inside of it. "...Still, huh?" She wasn't sure how to respond to any of this, really. Eugene seemed so real. He was warm; he was breathing against her; his heart beat with hers. There was no way she could see him being an artificial person, no matter how advanced such things may have been. But what did that mean, then? That she had to just accept that the Institute had gotten inside Eugene's mind? Fight against it and make him see the light again? Go back to her room right now and refuse to come out until he was returned to normal?
For now, all she could do was to just think back to Soma's words. She had to stay calm. Whatever was behind the whole "visitors" thing, it was something no one had figured out yet, and it wasn't something she could do much about.
...Though, that didn't mean she couldn't try anyway.
"Eugene, come on, you know you've never seen my hair this short before," she tried pleading, forcing a smile. "Don't you remember climbing it? That kind of thing's hard to forget, right?"
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He rubbed the back of his neck- okay, so maybe this was more than just getting back at him for a misunderstanding. "I'm pretty sure I would remember climbing your hair, if it happened," he said with an a small, but unsure laugh. "It'd have to be insanely long for that. And would probably hurt like you wouldn't believe, too."
He remembered the flowers in his hand and offered them to her, the gift forgotten in the rush of excitement that came from seeing Amanda and the trepidation that he'd never truly see her again. "But I've seen your hair shorter than this. You remember the festival, don't you? We rented that boat and watched the fireworks from the lake? You wore some of these in your hair, and it was nowhere near as long then as it is now."
Yes, better times.
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Her front teeth shifted over the inside of her lip again, this time biting back the beginning of tears. She wasn't going to cry. She couldn't. He hadn't even been here for two minutes yet.
The contortion of her face as she fought the lead weight in her chest and throat, however, said otherwise.
Rapunzel let her forehead sink down on Eugene's chest. Hearing that even his memory of the floating lights was tainted just made everything worse. "How could you let them do this to you?" she said quietly against him, a shudder wracking her body. "You don't remember anything, do you?"
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