Haepunzel sighed heavily, his frying pan once more poised in front of him with one hand while the other grabbed hold of a long strand of golden hair. He whipped the hair around like a lasso, before aiming it towards the wardrobe and whipped it at the handles, causing the ends to wrap around them. With a quick tug, the wardrobe doors burst open. Henry and Haepunzel held their breath in anticipation.

 

 

The captive’s body dropped out of the closet front-first, his handsome face smacked onto the hard, wooden floor. The boy with the magical hair and his companion grimaced.

 

 

~`~`~`~`~

 

 

It took the man a long time to slowly wake from his slumber. As his eyelids fluttered open, he felt something silky brushed against his arms. When he tried to move them away, he realised he couldn’t.

 

 

Trapped.

 

 

As the thought popped into his mind, he immediately straightened up. It was when the last few bits of drowsiness finally got blinked out of his eyes that he suddenly felt a new sensation on his left cheek.

 

 

‘Why the hell is my cheek ticklish?’ he thought as he glanced at his left shoulder. 

 

 

A rodent was perched atop of it, his bushy tail whipping against the left side of his face. He yelped, causing the rodent to scatter off (probably in fear, although Henry wouldn’t admit it). Now, the man is definitely awake. To distract himself from the urge to scratch his itchy cheek, he tried to move out of whatever was restraining him. He looked down at himself, expecting rope or a chain strapping him onto the chair he knew he was sitting on.

 

 

“Is this… hair?” he said cautiously, baffled by the golden strands wrapped around his body from neck down. He followed the mane as it dragged across the room and over the wooden planks supporting the ceiling of the tower. The hair finally stopped at a thin figure hidden in between the shadows, standing on one of the planks.

 

 

“Struggling… struggling is pointless.” The figure’s voice was high-pitched, scared. The man immediately guessed it belonged to a woman. “I know why you’re here, and I’m not…. afraid of you.” The figure leaped off the plank and onto the floor. Still hidden in the shadows, she slowly walked towards the light, frying pan ready in hand. ”Who are you, and how did you find me?”

 

 

Only, it wasn’t a she, the voice didn’t belong to a woman. It was a boy, judging from the slight muscles in his arms and the missing assets on his chest, despite the thin body and long hair. Said golden hair shone in the sunlight as he stepped into view, his purple leggings and simple satin shirt hugging his figure in all the right ways. “Aha…” he dumbly replied.

 

 

“Who are you, and how did you find me?” The boy repeated, his frying pan (frying pan!) now pointed at him. The man gaped at him, a mix of awe at his beautiful features and bewilderment at the skillet he’s using as a weapon. He gathered up his wits and cleared his throat.

 

 

“I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say… Hi.” he grinned at the boy flirtatiously. “How ya doin’? The name’s Euntyrone.” he continued while staring at his captor top-to-bottom. “How’s your day goin’? Hmm?”

 

 

The boy’s face remained blank at his attempt. “Who else knows my location, Euntyrone?”

 

 

Euntyrone dropped the charisma and now looked at the boy with annoyance. “All right, blondie—“

 

 

“Haepunzel.”

 

 

“Gesundheit. Here’s the deal.” he pressed on, as if he wasn’t interrupted by the strange boy with an equally strange name to match. “I was in a situation, gallivanting through the forest. I came across your tower and…” Realisation hit him harder than the frying pan did, and his body launched into motion against the restraints. “Ho, oh no… where is my satchel?!”

 

 

Haepunzel watched him smugly. “I’ve hidden it. Somewhere you’ll never find it.”

 

 

Euntyrone stopped struggling and turned his head to the right and noticed a pot on the floor. “It’s in that pot, isn’t it.”

 

 

He saw the younger’s frustrated pout before hearing a loud bang and his vision met darkness once more.

 

 

---

 

 

This time, instead of feeling a friendly tickle on his left cheek, the man aroused from his slumber to something wet pressed into his ear. He woke up faster than he did before, and quickly looked at his left. The rodent now had his tongue stuck into his ear, and if the man yelled like a 5-year-old girl, well, he’s not gonna admit so in a long time.

 

 

“Would you stop that?!” he grumbled while shaking the rodent off. He shifted his attention from the furry thing onto the short, thin boy in front of him.

 

 

Haepunzel peered down at him. “Now it’s hidden where you’ll never find it.” He started skirting around his captive. “So, what do you want to do with my hair? Cut it?”

 

 

“What?” Euntyrone looked at him as if Haepunzel had lost his marbles.

 

 

“Sell it?”

 

 

“No! Listen, the only thing I want to do with your hair is to get out of it,” he struggled against the golden mane. “Literally.”

 

 

“You— What? You don’t want my hair?” Haepunzel looked at him, confusion written on his innocent face.

 

 

“Why on earth would I want your hair?” It was Euntyrone’s turn to gaze at his captor in confusion. “Look, I was being chased, I saw a tower, I climbed it, end of story.”

 

 

 

“You’re… telling the truth?”

 

 

The man rolled his eyes. “Yes.”

 

 

“Hmm…” Haepunzel turned his back towards Euntyrone, putting his palms up in front of him to let Henry climb onto it. He could see that the chipmunk did not trust the stranger at all, and started expressing so with a flurry of hand motions.

 

 

“I know, but I need someone to take me to see the lights.” He whispered at his furry companion. Haepunzel watched as Henry does a new series of hand motions. “I think he’s telling the truth, too.” He replied.

 

 

Henry sticked out his tiny pointer fingers and puts them in front of his mouth upside down, representing fangs. Haepunzel sighed. “He doesn’t have fangs, but what choice do I have?” Their discussion got cut short when the boy felt his captive struggling against his hair. Fortunately, he already had a plan brewed up.

 

 

“Alright, Euntyrone. I’m prepared to offer you a deal.” he said as he started walking towards his floating lights mural above the fireplace. 

 

 

Euntyrone looked at him sceptically. “Deal?”

 

 

“Look this way,” he tugged his hair, causing the chair (and the man strapped into it) come crashing onto the unforgiving floor, face-first. “Do you know what these are?” Haepunzel asked while jumping onto the top of the fireplace and pulled the drapes covering the mural away.

 

 

“You mean the lantern thing they do for the prince?” Euntyrone replied as he tried to distract the pain that erupted from his nose at the fall. He managed to miss the hopefulness that sprouted in the boy’s eyes at his words. 

 

 

Haepunzel couldn’t have been more excited than he was at the moment. “Lanterns… I knew they weren’t stars!" he whispered to himself. Clearing his throat, he got back on track. “Well, tomorrow evening, they will light the night sky with these lanterns.” Haepunzel tried the using the word. 

 

 

He liked the sound of it. A million of lanterns released into the night sky. Whoever the prince was, he hoped he felt the same way about them as Haepunzel did every year. He pointed the frying pan in his hand towards Euntyrone.

 

 

“You will act as my guide, take me to these lanterns, and return me home safely. Then, and only then, will I return your satchel to you. That is my deal.”

 

 

Euntyrone shifted onto his side on the floor and sighed exasperatedly. “Yeah, no can do. Unfortunately, the kingdom and I aren’t exactly,” he did some finger motions. “‘Simpatico’ at the moment, so I won’t be taking you anywhere.”

 

 

Haepunzel looked down at Henry, who was perched on his right shoulder. Henry balled up a fist with his right hand and mashed it with his open left palm, motioning for Haepunzel to get rough with their captive. The short boy jumped off the fireplace and sashayed towards Euntyrone, pulling the chair and the man up by his hair. 

 

 

“Something brought you here, Euntyrone. Call it what you will, fate… destiny…”

 

 

“A horse?” Euntyrone interrupted with an unimpressed look.

 

 

“So I have made the decision to trust you—“

 

 

“A horrible decision, really.”

 

 

“—but trust me when I tell you this.” Haepunzel tugged his hair, causing the chair to topple forward, almost crashing onto the floor once more if the short boy didn’t catch it. The man’s face was now merely an inch away from his. Euntyrone could notice each individual eyelash on the beautiful boy, how his skin was free from any blemish, and questioned why his thin lips looked so desirable up close. His ears reddened from the thought. Haepunzel didn’t seem to notice, though.

 

 

“You can tear this tower apart brick by brick, but without my help,” he tugged his hair harder, causing them to squeeze the man a bit tighter. “You will never find your precious satchel.”

 

 

Euntyrone cleared his throat, and looked at the boy straight in the eye. “Let me just get this straight: I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back home, and you’ll give me back my satchel?” He confirmed their deal.

 

 

“I promise.”

 

 

The man stared at him blankly.

 

 

Haepunzel pressed on. “And when I promise something, I never, ever, break that promise.”

 

 

No response from Euntyrone.

 

 

“Ever.”

 

 

Henry nodded from his spot on Haepunzel’s shoulder. Euntyrone glanced at it before looking back at Haepunzel. He sighed exasperatedly.

 

 

“Alright, listen. I didn’t want to have to do this but, you leave me no choice. Here comes the ‘smoulder’.” He looked down onto the floor for a dramatic pause, then tilted his head up towards the boy, his eyes squinting and his lips puckered in what should’ve had women fanning themselves silly.

 

 

Haepunzel and Henry just looked bored.

 

 

“This is kind of an off day for me.” He mumbled through the puckered lips. “This doesn’t normally happen.” The unchanging mood from his captors caused him to give up. “Fine! I’ll take you to see the lanterns.”

 

 

“Really?!” Haepunzel squealed and accidentally let go of the chair, causing Euntyrone to crash back onto the floor with an undignified yelp. “Oops.”

 

 

“You broke my ‘smoulder’.”

 

---

aloha fellow aquaintances

new chapter for you all c: finally! our two lovebirds finally meet and euntyrone's already trying out his charms on the poor bby

do comment! i really need to know if my writing needs any improvement, and i would love some criticism ;u;