Tangled After The Series - There's No Such Thing As 'The End'

Chapter 27: The gift my heart desired

*~*~* Three weeks later *~*~*

     "Morning Sunshine," Eugene whispered to his wife beside him,

     Rapunzel gasped, "It's Winter Holiday!"

     Eugene took her hand and kissed it, "It sure is Sweetheart."

     Rapunzel pushed herself up to sitting and ruffled Eugene's hair, "We'll spend the morning finalizing everything but this evening we are spending together, friends and family,"

     "And everything in between," Eugene held his hand out for Pascal who had woken up and was brining himself down on his branch, "Animals included frog don't worry," Pascal stuck his tongue out.

     Rapunzel laughed and Pascal scampered across Eugene's arms and shoulders to her waiting hands, "Happy Winter Holiday buddy," and the two friends snuggled cheeks.

     The family celebration was one to remember, Rapunzel had made sure of that. A lot of careful planning had gone into this day and the ones following it, the Winter Holiday was spent with the people you were close to but the day after a ball was held at the Castle. Rapunzel had attentively chosen all of the decorations herself and had spent many enjoyable afternoons with her friends decorating the big tree in the courtyard and the smaller one in the private sitting room. Everyone that she held dear had been through a lot earlier this month and they deserved the merriment.

     Varian's condition had improved considerably in the past three weeks. There had hardly been one minute when Cassandra wasn't by his side, "By the end of this, you'll be sick of me," she had told him to which he had answered with a kiss. Slowly, Varian had started eating more and had first gone on walks through the Castle with Cassandra and occasionally some of their other friends then when his strength picked up, walked through the streets of Corona City. He hadn't yet made it to Old Corona or rode on the back of a horse but Quirin and Shadow had been more than happy to come to him.

     After what had happened, Rapunzel had insisted that Adira and Hector stay in the Castle instead of the Inn and join in with their Winter Holiday Celebrations. "Come Brother and Sister, you can't deny the Princess," Edmund had said and that was when they agreed. Lance, Kiera and Catalina had returned to their tree house after the event but arrived that morning at Eugene's invitation for the Winter Holiday dinner.

     Rapunzel and Cassandra had assisted with most of the dinner themselves, adding that personal touch and when Kiera and Catalina arrived, they had asked the young girls if they wanted to add the finishing pieces.

     The dinner was set to start when the City Clock tower chimed six. Before then, Rapunzel, Cassandra, Kiera, and Catalina all met in Rapunzel's room and got ready together. Rapunzel brushed Catalina's hair and pinned a flower to the side of her hair, similar to the one she wore when they first met. Cassandra braided Rapunzel's hair - which she had had plenty of experience in – and Rapunzel wove a few sprigs of mistletoe through it. "You think that you need to wear that to make Fitzherbert kiss you?" Cassandra smiled,

     Rapunzel grinned, "Nope but it's a tradition that I like," she picked up the remaining piece of mistletoe from her vanity and tucked it in behind Cassandra's ear, "And I think that you will too." Cassandra had lightly hit Rapunzel on the arm as she laughed but didn't remove it nonetheless.

     The Princess had let Cassandra keep the dress and necklace that she had worn at the family dinner six months back and that was the dress she had chosen to wear tonight, but she hadn't been able to find the necklace. She felt guilty so said nothing about it, Cassandra had then looked for her broken Cassandrium necklace to see if she might be able to temporarily fix it but found that missing as well. She puzzled over it while smoothing down the skirt of Kiera's dress and tying her chin-length hair back with a ribbon but could think of no answers. Neither of the necklaces were where Cassandra thought she left them, she would have to turn her room upside down later.