(Hiatus) Let's Talk: Tangled The Series

OS- Varigo AU Angst

Blood warning⚠️

"VARIAN?!"

Heads whipped around as I stepped into the tavern, the eyes of every person I could see wide with shock. I gave a confused wave, unease blooming in my stomach. "Uh- hi?"

"Are you barking mad?" Cass's voice rang out over tables, her lean form scrambling from a chair to reach me. I had barely a second to brace myself before she crushed me in a hug, the smell of pine and blood overwhelming me. "We thought you weren't coming back, Varian, where in the name of the Dragon have you been?"

I gave a strangled gasp to indicate that I couldn't breathe, and once Cass let go with a small "sorry", I sucked in a breath and doubled over my knees. "Well, uh, I'm pretty sure I only went to the bathroom, so I don't know why everyone is freaking out...?"

"I hope you realize that it's been three days, Varian. Your husband hasn't slept, he's going crazy with worry."

My heart froze. "Hugo... is here?"

Cass's face softened a touch. "That's right, he was still away when you disappeared... you should be able to find him in your tent, I'm sure Rapunzel is trying to get him to rest."

I gave a hurried goodbye and ran to the main door, pushing it open and forcing my way into the cold winter air. My foot crunched over something. I stopped.

A wasteland greeted me.

I could see the bodies of our troops littered on the ground, our flags tattered and torn, blood stained weapons strewn across every inch of the battlefield. I felt the blood drain from my face.

I- had I missed an entire battle? Where were the dead enemy soldiers? Where were the medics, the healers?

Where was my husband?

I felt my heart racing as I broke into a sprint, my face going numb as the freezing smell of snow and blood battered it. I could feel tears threatening my eyes, but held them back as my feet just kept going, going, going. Over bodies. Over patches of red stained earth.

A dash of blonde hair caught my attention, and I quickly changed course, a gasp in my chest as my legs barely kept their balance in the disgusting slush. The figure turned and I was startled to see that it wasn't Hugo, but Rapunzel, who's jaw dropped upon seeing me.

I was crushed into another embrace, my poor ribs wondering at how she was so strong.

"Where have you been?" she shouted, face quickly filled with anger.

I blinked, opening my mouth to respond, but there was suddenly a loud shriek splitting the sky. We both winced and covered our ears.

"Nevermind where you've been, you need to get to Hugo!" the Queen shouted over the dreadful sound, her green eyes looking haunted. I nodded, realizing with alarm that she seemed to be covered in someone else's dried blood, then stumbled as she pushed me to keep moving.

I adjusted myself as I continued to run, my heart pounding in my ears as the screeching turned into a low rumble.

The war alarm. We were being attacked.

I felt my chest heaving with panic, war tents and soldiers whipping past me as I forced my legs to go faster.

Hugo. Where was he? He would be at the forefront of the fighting, and he had been gone for almost two months last I knew, and if he thought I was missing there was no way he would be able to think clearly.

I missed his smile.

"Hugo!" I began to shout for him, my breaths turning into gasps as I kept running. "Hugoooo!"

I was greeted with a resounding cry, but not from my husband. It was the enemy, I knew. I knew their yells. I knew what was about to happen.

Another massacre.

I was crying now, my mind tumbling into hysterics. There were people everywhere, all shouting and preparing. I caught glimpses of Eugene and my father sharpening their blades together, but shot right past them in my desperation.

I was getting too close to where the fighting would be. If I couldn't find him soon... What if I didn't? What if he died out there, thinking I was missing still?

"HUGO!" My scream rang through the air, splitting down my throat. I forced air into my lungs. Tears froze against my cheeks. I stumbled up a hill, my legs burning, only to stop with dread slipping down my spine.

The opposing army was already here. There had to be at least thirty thousand soldiers, almost twice the amount we had managed to gather so far in this valley, and without all the troops that I'd seen dead outside the tavern...

We were royally screwed.

But there, in the chaos that was already ensuing, pale blonde flashed through it all.

I was running before I could even register it, muscles pumping. I was dodging around soldiers, both Coronan and not, my feet slipping in a bloodied mess of mud and snow. Hugo was atop his black war stallion, his hair knotted up on his head with armor gleaming. I felt my heart sigh for just a moment before snapping back to reality.

"Hugo!"

I saw his entire body jerk at my voice, hunter green eyes widening and darting to me. His face lit up like the sun, his smile stretching over it. Without breaking eye contact with me, he flung himself from his horse, grabbing an arrow that had been coming for his heart and stabbing it into an enemy soldier's chest. He raced to me, his arms looking so inviting.

There was a moment where everything was alright. There was no army. There was no war. No bloodshed. Just Hugo and I.

And then there was a blade through his chest.

Everything in my world stopped. Time didn't exist anymore. The screaming faded away, the bodies -both alive and dead- melted into the folds of reality. Everything focused in on Hugo.

I didn't even feel the scream that ripped from my chest when he fell. All I heard was the thud of his body, the terrible sound of bones and blood clashing to the stones. I was still so far from him. I wasn't fast enough.

His head was up. He was looking at me. He was reaching for me. I felt myself reaching back, our hands separated by several yards still.

Hugo, my mind seemed to whisper. Please. Please not Hugo. Don't take him, too.

His bloodstained smile still lingered on his pale face as his head dropped back to the ground, his frame shuddering with a final breath that I could feel eating through my soul.

I reached him, but not in time. I was never in time.

I couldn't feel my heart beating in my chest. I didn't even know if I had one anymore. For all I knew, it was laying on the ground in front of me, shattered and dead.

I curled up on my side next to him, my fingers reaching to twine with his. Lifeless eyes looked to me, tears still somehow falling from them. A strangled breath came from me, and I felt myself trying to say his name.

"Hugo?"

It might've only been the wind.

I stayed there, wishing wishing wishing that I would die too. That a horse would step on me and crush my skull. That an arrow would find my back, that a sword would go through my neck.

But it never came.

He still smiled. His expression was soft. His hair fluttered in the wind, and his chest never rose again.

I intended to lay there until I died.

"Hugo?" I managed to say again, my voice barely even there. My hand went to his face, and I smoothed back a strand of blonde hair before closing his eyes.

And now he was peaceful. Now he was sleeping, and dreaming of me. Now, everything was fine.

It began to snow.