A New Mistake

Explanation Time

Varian jumped awake, sharply breathing in. He was shaking and disoriented, but took no time waiting to kick the blankets down off him a bit, pulling them away from his face and letting his arms free. He hated feeling trapped.
Breath still shaky, he calmed down enough to look around. He was in his room in the castle. He hadn't been here in a while, it felt good to lie on a bed after sleeping on the ground in his lab for a month. Whenever he found the time to sleep that was.
Peering out the window, he could see the mountain where his lab was from here. It looked normal. God how could he not have thought it would collapse after the amber was gone? Stupid Varian. He held his hands to his face, they felt very cold, and smooth.
He wasn't wearing his gloves, someone took them, no, they can't see him like this, no!

A knock at the door.
"Varian?" Rapunzel.
"Come in, I guess."
She came in, and got a goofy smile on her face. "That's an odd position to lie in."
"Oh, hehe, I uh, I hate feeling trapped, so when I woke up I didn't know where I was and panicked, so yeah." He saw her looking at his hands, and hid them under the covers again.
"Can, can I have my gloves back? Please?"
Rapunzel pursed her lips, and gave a frown.
"No."
"No? Why not?"
"Why do you want them?"
"Ah, no- no reason, I just like wearing my gloves, safety first, you know? Hehe..." He gave an unconvincing smile.
"Well there's no danger in here Varian, so you'll be fine."
He had no response to that.
"Varian-" she began again, "You've been hiding something from me, haven't you?"
He couldn't meet her gaze, only hiding his hands further under the covers.
"It's not like you need to tell me, I figured it out. Not that it was hard to figure out."
He still didn't respond.
"Back in the lab, when it was collapsing, you wanted to save Rudigger, right?"
"Is he okay?!"
"Yeah, he's fine, happily running round with Pascal and Max in the garden."
"Oh. How was he saved? The boulders were about to hit him?"
"You don't remember?"
"I got hit by something and blacked out before they hit him."
"Oh. Well, when you reached out to him, just as you blacked out, some of those Black Rocks sprouted, and saved him..."
"What?!"
"Yeah, that's when it all made sense. Your hands, you're 'gloves'," she made finger quotes around the word gloves, "they're not inspired by Cass's armour are they? They're are Cass's armour, aren't they?"
He shrunk down into the bed, pulling the covers up so they covered his nose, and mumbled out a "yes."
"Varian, and I want a proper, honest answer for this, do you somehow have the Moonstone?"
"Well, I don't have the Moonstone, but, Idohavethepiecethatbrokeoffwhenyouhadthat
fightatCass'stower." He spoke so fast Rapunzel almost didn't catch it.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"No. I was going to, but then," he held his hands up, "this happened. And I was scared that you would think I was gonna over take the Kingdom, or I was working with Cass, or that I was gonna attack you or something. So I hid."
"Varian. Listen to me: I know we've had ups and downs, but one thing is crystal clear to me; you're smart, and brave, and loyal. I don't think you'd ever try to take over the kingdom again, you have no reason, the first time you were abandoned and the second time we got in with some bad people. I don't think you'd ever attack me either, it's not like I'm a threat anymore." She ran a hand through her short hair. "As for joining Cass, well her rein is over and you helped fight her, why would someone working with her fight her?"
Varian just sat dumbstruck. She continued.
"I believe there is good in everyone, Varian. No matter how deep it may be hidden. Like that Hector guy, you met him? With the rhino and the cat-badger things?"
"And the green eyes?"
"Yeah- you're blushing." She grinned at him, as he ducked under the covers once more.
"He fought us, and destroyed our caravan, and awoke Zhan Tiri's tree, all to keep us away from the Dark Kingdom. He believed he was saving us by keeping us away. That's technically a good deed. And that's coming from a guy with a murder rhino." The duo laughed at that.
"You are one of the smartest, and bravest people I know Varian. I mean that. Sure you can get in over your head sometimes, but then again, it would be scary if such a smart guy didn't get lost in his thoughts every now and then. I know you only do things for reasons you think are right, so if you thought hiding was the right thing to do, I trust your judgement. I trust you."
Varian was crying and hadn't even noticed.
"Thank you. I- I- thank you, Rapunzel, genuinely."
"You don't need to hide anymore though Varian."
"I was scared, but being scared didn't seem to help- ouch!"
"What's wrong?"
"The armour, when it grows, it sometimes hurts a bit, that's all."
"It GROWS?"
"Uh, yeah, you saw it happen in my lab." Varian hopped out of bed, to sit in the cushioned window ledge instead. "When it first reacted it only covered my original gloves, up to about here." He pointed halfway up his forearm. "But as you can see, it is now up to my elbow. I don't know why it's doing this."
Rapunzel sat down on the bed parallel to Varian.
"The moonstones power was the opposite of mine. I could heal and make things better, the moonstone makes things worse. Oh! Remember those red rocks? The fear ones?"
"Uh, yeah? I helped destroy them."
"Right. They were made of fear. The Moonstone responded to Cassandra's emotions, specifically the negative ones. It must be doing the same to you!"
Varian stared at nothing for a moment, then drew a slow breathe in. "I'm an idiot. I should have thought of that! That explains why it didn't react back at the tower too."
"What?"
"Back at the tower, when I picked it up, nothing happened, but when I went to tell you about it a month ago, it did. I think it's because as shaken as I was that day, I was still excited coz the final incantation and the fight, it was all a huge adrenaline rush. But when I though of telling you, I got scared, and worried that something would happen. It reacted to my fear that day, and hey presto!" He did jazz hands. "Magic hands." She giggled at him.
"So, you had the stone for months, and it did nothing until recently?"
"Well, I didn't have it on me, it was in the book in my lab, coz we were all kinda trying not to get brutally murder by Cassandra and OH MY GOD I JUST REALISED I made the black rocks! I did that! That is awesome! Terrifying, but awesome!"
"Yeah, you also got a new hair stripe."
"I what?"
Varian ran to the mirror, and pulled at his fringe, staring at the new strip of blue.
"I kinda hate it." He chuckled, then winced, clutching his arm.
"I wish there was something I could do to help with that pain." Rapunzel said.
"Ah, it's nothing just AHHH, there's another one!" He pulled at his hair again. "Ohh, oh I know what's going on. Cass's hair turned blue the moment her armour fully formed right? My armour is forming slowly, so my hair is changing slowly too. Yippee." He gave a light air punch.
"I think it looks nice."
"That's great, but I liked my hair the way it was! Plain black-ish brown with a blue stripe."
"How'd you even get that stripe?"
"I- actually have no idea. I've always had it, even as a baby, in photos from when I was 2 or 3 I had my hair stripe."
"Weird."
"Yeah. The point still stands though, I don't want blue hair."
"And I miss my blonde hair. We're both just going to have to live with it."
"Actually I could change your hair."
"Wait really?"
"Umm yeah. Brown is your natural hair colour, it was only blonde because of the Sundrop. But I have some colour solutions that could change your hair to any colour you want! I would do the same to mine, only it's magic.
"Really? Wow."
"I'd just need a strand or two to do a test with, to make sure your head wouldn't go on fire."
Rapunzel grabbed at her hair. "I think I'll stick with brown for now, thanks."
"Hehe, I wish I could say I was joking..."

"Hey Blondie, is- Varian your hair is more blue than usual."
He hung his head. "Yeah, I know."
"So, you two get everything sorted out? Because no offence Varian but you look exhausted. Sleeping on the floor of a hollow mountain cave for a month did not do you good."
"I've been through worse."
"What on earth is worse than a month in a mountain cave?"
"Try not sleeping for a week in a torn apart abandoned house no matter how hard you try because your father is trapped in a magic crystal with no way out and it's all your fault but you can't do anything to fix it."
The room fell silent. The bad, awkward silent.

"Yikes. Okay that happened two years ago, but it seems your still not quite over it, and I'm gonna go, because I feel like I'm making things worse, so I love you both, now goodbye."
"Hehe, sorry." He grimaced and grabbed at his arms. "How! Am I meant to work through things if anytime I feel anything bad I get a new layer to my "Master Villain" outfit?!"
"Varian we'll work through things, don't worry."
"You sure? Coz I'm not."
"Yes I'm sure. But there's something we have to do first, that you may not be too fond of."
"I trust you Rapunzel, and besides, what's the worst thing that could happen now? After all of this?"