The chains on her arms were cold and tight, just as they had been the first time.
Juliet looked down at them as a way to keep from looking at the guards leading her towards the throne room – most likely for sentencing again – and tried ignoring the growing disappointment at herself. Two months, that's all she managed to procure for herself. Varian had thrown away a chance at freedom and she had blown it by being caught two months later.
Dear God, she was stupid. Stupid to think that she could ever truly be free. First had been Azul the Swan's constant rules and regulations, then the chains placed on her by her former friends, and that was followed by the constant guilt at watching her best friend, the one she started to think maybe was more than her friend, being taken away because he lied to save her.
That storm that brought her to Azul and that stupid island should have just killed her when it had the chance.
The door to the throne room thrust open with no announcements, just a thunderous boom as the doors swung wide suddenly. The guard unlocked her handcuffs and then hurriedly pushed her in to the room but remained outside as the doors once again shut with a notably loud boom.
Juliet adjusted her weight from having been thrust in so suddenly, and then looked up to see five pairs – six if you counted Pascal, which Juliet did – of eyes staring at her. All of them appeared to be looking at her with an expression that could only be descried as a relief, which only confused the animal whisperer.
She had expected King Fredrick being here to sentence her, and for him to have a look of cool anger as he sentenced her to another life imprisonment. Perhaps even Arianna wasn't that big of a stretch being here and Rapunzel for that matter, considering the two were royalty as well. But Cassandra and Eugene? Those were two massive curve balls she had not been expecting.
"Uh...hi?" she tried, looking amongst them with wide eyes.
"Oh, Juliet, we were so worried about you!" Rapunzel immedailty lamented, rushing over to pull her into a tight embrace. Juliet immedailty stiffened at the touch, having not been expecting such a sudden rush from the princess. This was soon followed up by wondering why the princess had been worried about her – she was an escaped fugitive. The princess shouldn't have been worried about her.
"You were worried about me?" she asked. She cast her eyes on the king, who after seeing she was okay had immedailty gone back to a wall of impassiveness and raised an eyebrow. "All of you?"
Eugene stepped forward then, crossing his arms with a smile. "Of course, we all were." His own eyes cut across at the patriarch of the Corona royal family. "Okay, some more than others, but you get the point." The king, who seemed to not be taking the open talking about him, stood from his throne suddenly and walked forward in the slow way only adults trying to appear imposing know how to do.
"It has come to my attention that we –" Rapunzel cleared her throat with a raised eyebrow "– okay, I may have been quick to judgement. It was wrong of me to sentence you without evidence, but all the animals were disappearing so quickly, and you were the easiest explanation." The king looked down, almost embarrassed. "I'm sorry for the role I played in your imprisonment."
Juliet knew the right thing to say was that she forgave him for that, but couldn't find it within herself, at least not right now. The king gave an air of someone that was not used to not getting his way and the way he apologized seemed to have a rehearsed tone to it, as if he had to apologize quite often. So instead, Juliet just narrowed her eyes at him until Rapunzel stepped forward to speak, making sure to block the view of Fredrick from Juliet's eyes.
"All charges against you have been dropped," Rapunzel said happily. "Me, Eugene, and Cass did a little digging and we discovered that there was a man trying to smuggle animals, and when he heard wind you were the number one suspect, he tried to frame you."
Juliet looked up at her at a moment, guilt rising in her. Just before Juliet had been dragged to the dungeon, Rapunzel had called down that she would find the underlying cause of this. She had promised her. And Rapunzel had gone through with it. Juliet had planned revenge against her. Juliet had hated her over something she thought Rapunzel didn't do, when in actuality she had.
"We were coming to get you when we heard you and Varian broke out," Cassandra piped up. Juliet couldn't believe this. Her mind and pulse were racing as her body rushed to keep up with what her ears were hearing. Her friends hadn't forgotten her, they had tried to help her, they were going to free her.
Tears welled in her eyes as the revelations caught up with her. Rapunzel reached out a hand to put on her shoulder and Juliet choked out a sob. "I -I'm so sorry."
"Juliet, it's okay –" Arianna started to say, her tone forever kind and maternal.
"No, it's not," Juliet said. "I hated you. All of you. I thought you left me out to dry when I needed you most and I was going to do something stupid because of it. I should have trusted you, I should have just waited, I – "
"Juliet, calm down!" Rapunzel said, placing her hands on the young girl's shoulders. "Everything's alright."
"No, it's not," Juliet said. "I didn't trust you, when I should have. It was so stupid and selfish of me to bust out of that prison cell."
"You're right, that was not your best decision Juliet," Eugene said honestly.
"Eugene!"
"What? Blondie, I'm not goanna lie to the girl," Eugene said. Cassandra rolled her eyes and smacked him behind the head as she passed him.
"Ow!" Eugene said, rubbing the back of his head where Cassandra had struck him.
"You could have been subtler about it," Cassandra said, condescension in her eyes. "But he has a point. Juliet, why didn't you trust us? We weren't going to just forget about you."
Juliet blinked away the tears her eyes had conjured and looked up at the short-haired woman. Why had she run? That was the million-dollar question, one she wanted an answer to as well. Why hadn't she trusted her friends? Why had she automatically assumed they wouldn't be there for her?
"I-I don't know," she stated softly and honestly. "I never really had friends before, I thought – I thought leaving was the only way for me. That it was the best way, that I could – I could punish you for the slights I imagined you preformed against me." She breathed once heavily and shut her eyes, turning away from them. "I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"
"Of course," Rapunzel said, while Fredrick's expression seemed to indicate he had went in the exact opposite direction. He didn't seem all that ready to voice his opinion on that matter, so he remained silent, but the unsaid 'no' hung over Juliet harshly.
"But not for free," Cassandra interjected. Juliet looked up at Cassandra in confusion. "We need to know if you have any information on Varian, if he's planning something. If you know anything, please tell us."
Juliet took only a few seconds to decide what to say. "He wasn't planning anything. It was my idea, what we were goanna do, but I promise you, we hadn't done anything illegal. Besides, you know, breaking out of prison. Without me, he wasn't going to do anything, and without him, I definitely wasn't going to go through with it."
"Hold up, so you're saying it was your idea to break out of jail?" Eugene asked, incredulity in his voice. "And it was your idea to plan a huge revenge attack?"
"Yes," she answered. Arianna frowned.
"Juliet, sweetie, Varian said the two of you went your separate ways after he got out, and your escaping was just because you two shared a cell," Arianna said gently. Her eyes and smile were kind and actually was very comforting. Juliet could say all she wanted about the stand-offish and aloof King Fredrick, but Queen Arianna was someone that Juliet could never bring herself to disparage.
"He's lying," Juliet said, "He's trying to protect me, but it was my idea." Pascal shook his head and scurried off of Rapunzel's shoulder and stopped shortly at Juliet's feet.
"That is a load of malarkey!" Pascal exclaimed at her feet. "Rudiger when him and Varian were captured told me the whole story – just tell them that you two were in this together."
"Pascal, I can't do that," Juliet said.
"I have no idea what the frog just said, but I agree with him!" Eugene said rather enthusiastically, which earned him a rather exasperated eye-roll from Cassandra.
"You two haven't technically committed treason or done anything yet," Pascal continued. "All charges against you have been dropped. Admitting to having been the only one just makes Varian lying seem liking he's planning something more, something you're not apart of."
"Is that what they think?" Juliet asked softly, looking down at Pascal. "That Varian is still up to something?"
"Yes, we do," Fredrick said. "We want to give the boy the benefit of the doubt since he's so young, but he not only tried to murder the Queen, he declared war on the entire kingdom, committed high treason, and then became a fugitive of the law. And given his unusually high intellect, we can't rule anything out."
Juliet was unsure. Admitting that he also had a hand in the now defunct (?) plan would only increase the ire of the King and the Royal Family, but given what they were currently thinking, wouldn't it be worth telling them that this plan was no longer relevant? Varian may have a bit of suspicion finally lifted off him.
Juliet sighed and finally spoke. "Me and Varian met in the dungeons. We both felt betrayed and we wanted to do something about it ...."
^^^
It was just as cold down here as she remembered. Juliet shivered as she made her way down the dungeon, Rapunzel following soon behind her.
After explaining the story and the plan to them in full, Juliet hadn't had any charges brought against her in light of her honesty and the fact the she hadn't technically done anything yet. But after, she had immedailty asked to speak with Varian, much to the chagrin of Fredrick. He had started with some comment about how Juliet could be just trying to break him out again, but Rapunzel had quickly spoken up to grant that permission as long as there was someone watching them – which translated to 'You can do it, but I'm going with you.'
Juliet had been less than thrilled with the stipulation, but there wasn't much she could do under the circumstances. She was barely out of their bad graces and certainly not in their good ones, and she knew she had been pushing it by asking to see Varian at all. By some miracle Rapunzel had agreed and she wasn't in any position to argue.
They came to the door leading into the dungeons and found two guards standing at full attention. One was tall and lean, his face narrow and completely clean shaven, while the other was a bit taller with a stocky build and a moustache that was so thick it covered his mouth. Their faces broke out in grins at the sight of Rapunzel, before they quickly slithered off as their gazes caught Juliet.
"Princess," the slim one said, a forced carelessness glinting in his eyes, "What brings you down here?"
Rapunzel slipped a hand on Juliet's shoulder with a smile. "We came to see Varian."
"Varian?" the stocky one said with a raised eyebrow. "The only one who's come to visit him in a month was that racoon of his – what's his name again?"
"Rudiger," Juliet supplied, her tone more forceful than helpful. He snapped his fingers in realization and smiled at Juliet in thanks.
"Yeah, Rudiger, that's right, thanks," he said. "I wanted to call him Drew for some reason."
"Stan," the tall one said with a roll of his eyes, "You think everyone is named Drew, Lewis, or Mimi. It's a little weird."
"Whatever Pete," Stan said good-naturedly. Rapunzel cleared her throat to regain their attention. They snapped back to face her easily, and Juliet couldn't help but wonder how often they got distracted.
"Uh, guys?" Rapunzel asked, motioning to the door.
"Oh, right!" Stan said, and the two reached to open the door. The doors opened wide with a creak and she hesitated for a moment. What would Varian say when he saw her? Would he be disappointed that everything he had thrown away that night was for nothing? Last time he had saw her she was running away from him as he had been captured – regardless of it had seemed that he wanted her to run, there must be some resentment he had aimed against her.
"Come on," Rapunzel said gently, pushing her forward. The doors shut behind them softly and Juliet stared down at the end of the hall. It seemed all of the prisoners along this line of cells had been moved to another, as the only occupied cell was at the very end of the hallway, facing them directly.
In the cell was a figure leaning against the metal bars, turned directly to face the walls. A pair of goggles was haphazardly inserted into their raven hair which in itself was messy, most likely from having been run through many times in exasperation.
Varian.
A much smaller figure zipped out of the bars and towards the two of them, immedailty crawling up Juliet and coming to rest on her shoulders. Juliet gave a quiet laugh at them and scratched the head of the gray and black animal.
"Juliet! You're back! We missed you!"
"I missed you too, Rudiger," Juliet said. If Varian heard her, he made no motion that he did.
"Varian?" Rapunzel called out to him, her voice just the tad bit unsure. "We've come to speak with you."
"We?" Varian asked, not turning to face them. Ah, so he hadn't heard her. "Did you finally convince Eugene or Cass to come visit me?" The way at which he spoke implied that Rapunzel came to visit often enough, which made Juliet feel somewhat relieved. So, someone within the palace walls was still looking out for him.
"No," Juliet said, "I finally got caught."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a gasp from Varian's form and he rushed to standing, turning wildly to face them. His eyes widened when he saw her, which she returned with a shy grin. He reached forward and gripped the metal bars tightly, nearly sticking his head out of the bars as he looked across at them.
"Jules," he said, his eyes in a daze. "Y-you, how – you mean – you got caught?"
Juliet rolled her eyes and rested her hands on her hips. "I've noticed that for a genius, you ask a bunch of rather obvious questions." A flash of humor appeared on his face, but it wasn't enough to break the serious mood that encased them.
"Juliet," he said sternly. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you," she said, walking over to the bars with a soft smile. She heard the gentle padding of Rapunzel following her, but a little piece away she stopped suddenly, most likely to not invade on what they were going to say but also to be close enough she could hear if they said something of note.
"But why aren't you locked up like me?" Varian asked.
"They found the man that framed me for what I was jailed for originally," Juliet said. "And because we technically hadn't done anything else yet besides breaking out, they didn't try me again." Rudiger jumped down from her shoulders and back into Varian's side of the bars, rubbing against his legs before sitting down to look up at Juliet from the ground.
"So...you're free?" Varian finally said. "For good? As in, no longer on the run?"
"Yes," she said. An elated grin broke out across Varian's face and he reached between the bars to take her hand, squeezing it happily.
"That's fantastic!" Varian said. From his expression to the way he grasped her hand, it was easy to tell he really meant it. That was a bit of a shock for her, she thought he would be a bit aggravated the whole time he had been re-imprisoned for a girl that didn't even have an arrest warrant.
"Just, just please don't hate me," Juliet said. Even if Varian was excited for her now, his mood could change on the dime once she told him everything she told the royals. "I told them everything about the plan – that we were both involved, what we were goanna do."
"You...told them everything?" Varian asked slowly, still not letting go of her hand. Juliet gulped.
"Yes, everything," she repeated. "They thought you were up to something – as in you had a solo plan that you were still waiting to go through with and I'm assuming you don't anymore – please tell me you don't – and because they aren't charging me over it, they can't charge you, I know, Rapunzel told me so, and the Queen too, and I know you probably hate me –"
"Jules –" Varian tried to say, but Juliet just talked over him.
"– you're stuck here, and they didn't even want me, at least they didn't want me arrested and they wanted me –"
"Juliet."
"– I'm so sorry –"
"Juliet!"
Juliet silenced at the force in his voice but found that he wasn't wearing an angry expression. He appeared ...... happy?
"Sorry," she whispered softly in conclusion, looking down at her feet.
"Juliet," Varian said, a healthy chortle in his voice, "I don't hate you."
What?
"A little jealous? Okay – a lot jealous. But I don't hate you over this," Varian said. "There are a lot better reasons to hate someone."
Rapunzel fidgeted uncomfortably, obviously knowing she was the current target of his hate. Juliet bit her lip and looked over at Rapunzel before returning to look at him, a question in her eyes. Varian shook his head at the implied words and looked down at the ground. Do you still hate her?
"It's complicated," Varian admitted with a sigh. "I'm not angry. But I know I'm long ways off from being there yet."
Juliet nodded. Juliet could get what he was saying – while she suddenly understood that what happened wasn't Rapunzel's fault, it was hard to let go of that much anger so suddenly. Hadn't she moments before denied forgiveness to King Fredrick? She supposed that she could one day give him that, but for now she knew she couldn't.
"If it makes you feel better, I don't hate her!" Rudiger said. Juliet laughed and bended down to look at him directly, breaking contact with Varian for the first time since he took her hand.
"That's very comforting, Rudiger," Juliet said with a smile. Rudiger crossed over to her side and quickly crawled into her arms. Juliet stood straight again and hugged him close to her, which he responded too by rubbing his head against her shoulder as a sign of affection.
"Take him with you," Varian said. Juliet blinked.
"What?"
"He doesn't deserve to be here," Varian said. "I may not know what he's saying, but I know he cares about you. I also know that you care about him – I mean, you hug him like every five seconds. And I mean, they can't charge him with anything because he's animal – and yes, J, I know animals are capable of complex thoughts and emotions before you even start, but if they were to start accusing animals of crimes that would happen a huge container of worms they would not want to open and even so he didn't do anything that, at least not willingly. I was thinking maybe he could go with you." His eyes drifted over to Rapunzel. "I mean, as long as it's okay with the Princess."
Juliet blinked at the use of the term. Before, Varian had always referred to Rapunzel as, well, Rapunzel with a disdainful tone. Referring to her as 'the Princess' with a neutral inflection was something that made her do a double take. Rapunzel looked surprised as well, but Juliet couldn't tell if it was from being directly addressed or the way that Varian had addressed her. Most likely a mixture of both.
"Oh, um, of course," Rapunzel eventually recovered, her eyes clearly confused.
Rudiger looked up at her, a frown clearly visible. "Juliet – I-I can't leave him. He needs someone here."
Juliet looked back at Varian, his eyes pleading to take away Rudiger. Rudiger was by far the most important thing in Varian's life sans his currently estranged, de-animated dad and he wanted him to be safe and away from the life that was one stuck rotting indefinitely in the dungeon. But Rudiger wanted to stay – loyalty to Varian or loyalty to Rudiger, decisions, decisions with consequences...
"He...he said he wants to stay with you," Juliet said softly. "He says he can't leave you behind."
"Ruddy," Varian said, redirecting his attention on the raccoon. "You have to go with Juliet. I'll be fine. You deserve to be in the outside world – and after – after what I did to you, made you become a monster, I can't ask you to stay here with me."
"I want to stay with you," Rudiger said. Juliet opened her mouth to translate but was beat to the punch by Varian answering him.
"No, Rudiger," Varian said. "You can't stay here, and I don't need Juliet to translate that you want to stay. The blame is mine, and I won't let you endure the punishment too." He shook his head and his voice lowered. "You don't deserve that."
Rudiger made a broken sound, one so vulnerable and emotional not even Juliet could translate it. Varian didn't even blink or look to her for understanding; he reached across the bars and rubbed Rudiger's furry gray cheek, his hands barely fitting through the bars. Rudiger leaned into the gloved hand with a sad look that was returned by Varian's smile.
It was silent for a moment, and neither one of them said something. But Juliet could tell from that silence it was decided that Rudiger was leaving her today.
"You'll be fine," Varian said. "I'll be fine." He looked up at Juliet and met her eyes for a moment, and then looked back down at Rudiger. "We'll all be fine."
"I'll miss you," Rudiger said.
"I'll miss you," Varian said in turn. Juliet scratched Rudiger's head lovingly and he looked up at her, his expression torn between a smile and a frown.
"I'll take good care of him," Juliet said. Varian scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"It's not him I'm worried about," Varian said. Juliet opened her mouth in mock offense and fixated her friend with a semi-angry look that made him laugh. His laugh echoed off the stone walls of the mostly empty hall of the dungeon, letting her experience for a moment more than when he ended it. God, she hoped that wasn't the last time she heard it.
"Do you have any idea how long you'll be here?" Juliet asked. Varian shrugged.
"However long it takes me to pay off my debt to society," Varian said. Rapunzel didn't say anything in objection, so Juliet took it that for the time being this was the truth. The truth being he wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
"If one of those crimes is being annoying, well then, it was nice meeting you," Juliet joked. Varian rolled his eyes.
"Any idea where you're going?" Varian said.
Juliet hadn't even thought where she was going to go after she talked with him, let alone what her plan was now that she was free. She dimly thought for a moment she could return to the land she came from, but then the image of Azul came back, and she knew she would never go back. Besides, she knew Rudiger needed to be around Corona, for the distant someday when (she refused to think this was a 'what if') Varian returned to their lives.
Varian. Another memory, a story he once told her. An abridged biography of how Varian landed here originally. One about a puzzle still not quite solved, a puzzle that she had been told from the source. In the end, was their really anywhere else she could go?
"Old Corona," Juliet said. Varian raised an eyebrow.
"As in, my old village?" Varian asked. Juliet nodded.
"Yes," Juliet said. "I'm going to go free your dad."
Varian was in silence, a silence that Rapunzel broke. The blonde stepped forward and put a hand on the animal whisperer's shoulder.
"Juliet, you want to go work with Xavier?" Rapunzel asked in confusion.
"Who's Xavier?" Juliet asked at the same time Varian asked, "Xavier's trying to save my dad?"
"Xavier is a blacksmith here in Corona," Rapunzel explained, and Juliet choose to ask what a blacksmith was later, "He's the only person we could think of to make sense of your notes. To try and figure out what happened."
Juliet could see the storm of emotions in Varian's eyes. This, obviously, was new information for him and he needed to process it. Juliet nodded her head at Rapunzel said.
"Doesn't matter whose already there," Juliet said. "I may not be much help, but if anyone can see what Varian's poor handwriting says, it's me."
"Why?" Varian asked her. Juliet turned to him in confusion.
"What?"
"Why?" Varian asked her again. "Why would you go to Old Corona? You have so much you haven't done yet and places you haven't even seen yet. The only memory you have before the island is a storm – what if you have a family waiting for you?"
Juliet shrugged. "Varian, I've lived I don't even know how long on that island. And I didn't have a family back then, but you've lived with your father almost your whole life. You need him back. I can live a bit longer without answers, besides, I've never really been bothered by my lack of them, you know that."
That was one difference between them so sizable neither could wrap their head around. If Varian needed an answer, he would go for it and find the solution with no rest in sight until it was found. Juliet couldn't even begin to recall how many time he had to have been dragged away from the project by her, and she knew she hadn't been the first person to have to do this for him.
She, however, was a bit more passive with things like this. Juliet was a bit more content with the shape of her life as was. Trying to find the odds and ends of how she got there had never been something with a large appeal. She would be fibbing if she said she wasn't wondering where she came from and how that storm landed her with Azul and why she had been in it to begin with, but her life here in Corona and with Varian and Rudiger seemed a little more important.
She could tackle her past once she seized today.
"Juliet, I –"
"Tell him not to fight, a direct order from me," Rudiger said and Juliet smiled, which immedailty made Varian lean his head against the bar in frustration.
"He's on your side, isn't he?"
"Yes," Juliet said smugly. Varian sighed and looked back up at her again.
"A raccoon and a teenage girl," Varian said with a scoff. "Who knew that was all it took to lose an argument?"
"In your defense, I was going to do it anyway," Juliet said. Varian smiled and took one of her hands again.
"I'm goanna miss you, Jules," Varian whispered softly. Juliet smiled back and squeezed his hand gently.
"I'll miss you too, 'Rian," Juliet said.
"Look after her, Rudiger," Varian said to his pet raccoon. "If she ends up back in here, I will hold you responsible."
"She's crazy, I make no promises," Rudiger said in reply. Juliet frowned at him and moved him onto her shoulders.
"So not translating that," Juliet said. "And you wound me, Rudiger."
"We'll come visit you," Juliet said. She turned to Rapunzel in a panic, remembering that she had needed a chaperone to see him this time. Could she even see him again? Was this the last time she would see Varian?
Rapunzel laughed good-naturedly at the look on the young girl's face. "Don't worry, Juliet, you can visit him again." Her own face screwed up. "I think."
Juliet took that as signal it was more than likely she could return here for Varian. She returned to Varian and smiled at him.
"We'll be back as soon as we can," Juliet said.
"Yeah!" Rudiger said in agreement.
"I love you," Juliet said.
"I love you too," he returned. Though they had kissed, and Juliet felt as though something more than a friendship was developing – or at least had the possibility to develop --, Juliet said she loved him not as a romantic partner, but as the one person who had become perhaps the most important person in her life. Regardless of whatever it was he was, had been, or would become to her, she knew that she loved him. And from the way Varian had said it return, she had the inkling he felt the same.
That didn't stop the surprised gasp from Rapunzel, which both decided to ignore for the time being.
Juliet reached up and kissed his cheek through the bars, which caused a light blush to dust his cheek. She had half a mind to lean in and kiss him fully like she did in the forest, which she knew the bars were wide enough to allow just barely, but she decided against it. She had run off last time (though she had made sure to tell him she liked it), and now he sat in a prison cell.
No. If she was meant to kiss him again, she would do it on the day he was released.
"I'll see you soon," she assured.
"I'll hold you to that," Varian said. Juliet laughed, a hint of sorrow in her voice.
"Goodbye, 'Rian," she said. She turned around and made her way back towards the doorway, refusing to turn back around as she felt her tears rise.
"Goodbye, Varian!" Rudiger said too, his tone a bit cheerier.
"Bye, Rudiger. Goodbye, Jules," she heard Varian say. Her tears were hot and wet as she left the room and she was aware that Rudiger was pawing at them as they left, trying to wipe them away. She heard Rapunzel walking behind her and the call of the concerned guards, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
If one where to ask Rapunzel or Juliet, they wouldn't tell you that Juliet had finally broke down at the foot of the stairs, tears and heavy breathing her only communication. Juliet wouldn't tell you because she would never let herself dwell on leaving Varian like that, and Rapunzel wouldn't tell you because she had made a promise to Juliet on those stairs to never tell.
And Rapunzel never broke a promise.