All Good Things 21

[lumelle]

For story summary, warnings, pairings, etc, see the first chapter.
Chapter: 21/25
Chapter title: A Hope Rekindled
Chapter rating: G
Chapter summary: Rapunzel is grateful, and wants to give Lea gifts in exchange for all his help, because just nursing him back to health is obviously not enough. The new cloak will keep him safe, but it's her other idea that will really give him hope.


"Ah, you are awake already." Rapunzel smiles as she peeks in from the door. "How are you feeling?"

"Hmm, much better than yesterday." Lea stretches his arms above his head, then winces as it pulls a bit too much at his injured side. It's been nicely stitched up and bandaged, and as soon as he's feeling well enough he'll use his magic to get it better, but for now he's still pretty sore. "Still frustrated that I'm not getting better faster, though."

"I'm sorry." She walks into the room, carrying a tray of food. A part of Lea thinks he should be embarrassed, making the princess wait on him, but then it's not like he's asked her to. And yet, she's the only one he can remember attending him aside from a couple of doctors every now and then. Apparently the fact that he saved her husband means she can't even trust anyone else to bring him food. "Hopefully you'll be well enough soon. You certainly look better already."

"Yeah. I've been lying around doing nothing useful for days, though." Even if most of that time he's spent in a blood-loss induced haze that doesn't do well for coherent thought. He shouldn't let such little things hold him back like this.

"We don't mind at all, you know." She brings him the tray, setting it in his lap. "We'll never be able to pay you back for everything you have done for us."

"Just doing my job, princess." Pancakes, and ones that smell absolutely wonderful. This is going to be great. "Say, you never told me how your darling reacted to the happy news." Which was somewhat surprising, considering that it should have been pretty high priority on the list of news, but then today is the first day he's actually feeling well enough to talk properly.

"Well, it took me a while to tell him," she admits, smiling as she sits down in a chair next to his bed, watching him eat. "Like, ah. Not until yesterday."

"Really, now?" Lea raises his eyebrows. "I thought you were in quite the hurry."

"Yeah, well, the situation wasn't exactly the best." Rapunzel brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. She looks much more obviously princess-like with the coronet on her head. "When I woke up, Maximus tried to get me to leave the valley. However, I wasn't exactly agreeable, and then before we could get very far, there was a flash of light from the tower and everything changed."

"That'd be when I closed the keyhole, then." Lea nods. "And then you guys got me all the way here, right?"

"That's right." Rapunzel nods. "I insisted on seeing what had happened when the tower turned back to normal, even though Max protested, and then when he finally let me go into the tower we found you unconscious and Eugene injured as well. Fortunately Max is strong enough to bring you both here."

"And you didn't want to stress him when he was injured?" Okay, he can sort of understand that.

"Right." Rapunzel sighs. "He wasn't nearly as badly injured as you, but he was still hurt. And, well, he was absolutely terrified for my sake. I figured it might not be wise to tell him about the baby until he was convinced I was safe."

"And when you finally told him?" Okay, now he is just overcome by a form of morbid curiosity.

"Well, he did still freak out. A little." She pauses. "Quite a lot, to be honest. But after that, he was overjoyed."

"That's good." He nods, devouring yet another pancake. It's the first time in ages that he's been able to properly enjoy food. "I'd hate to have to punch him for upsetting a nice young lady."

"What, you'd protect me from my own husband?" She gives him a small grin. "That's oddly sweet, even though perfectly unnecessary."

"That's good to hear." He pauses. "You have any idea where my coat ended up?"

"Ah, it was just not salvageable." Rapunzel sighs. "I'm sorry. We tried our best, since you seemed to be pretty frantic about it the first couple of times you were awake enough to talk, but it seems some parts of it got burned in the explosion when you took down the monster. At least, that's what Eugene tells me."

"Right." He sighs. "Well, I suppose I'll have to make do without it."

"Is it special somehow? I mean, obviously we'll get you a new one, that's the least we can do, but I doubt you would be so worried over a mere garment."

"In a way, yeah." He shifts and winces again. "It's designed to protect hearts from darkness. That's pretty much the only reason I still wear it; I don't exactly have good memories of the people I got it from. However, it's the only way I can travel through darkness from world to world without risking getting corrupted."

"Oh." Rapunzel sounds concerned. "But if you can't travel safely between worlds, you can't get home by yourself!"

"Eh. I can risk it one time." And if he can't, well, at least he's going to people who can handle him even if he's long gone. "When I get home, I can get myself a new coat."

"But you're already badly injured. You shouldn't be taking risks like that." She's frowning now, like she were scolding a small child. Oh, yes, she's going to make a wonderful mother.

"Not much I can do about it." He sighs. "Don't worry, though. I'm not in any condition to go much of anywhere just yet."

She doesn't say anything to that, just frowns as she gathers the tray away.

After that he doesn't see her much, just for long enough for her to bring him food every now and then and make sure he's comfortable. Eugene makes an appearance, though, looking still a bit battered but quite happy to make his appreciation clear for the whole search and rescue mission. He even lets it slip that Rapunzel seems to be planning something, but any attempts at prying any further details out of him end in failure as apparently he's not exactly aware of them, either.

Eugene seems pretty torn between enthusiastic about his future parenthood and just plain terrified, for the safety of Rapunzel and the baby and how they were both put to risk because he was snatched away, of being a bad father and raising the kid wrong because he didn't have a good example himself, of something or anything going wrong that he can't help and taking away everything that makes him happy. Lea supposes he can't help those fears much, except by pointing out that both Rapunzel and the child made it out in one piece and Eugene is going to be fine too.

A part of him wonders just how he ended up in this position again. People really should know better than coming to him to talk about relationships or kids or whatever. He's a bastard with a chronic backstabbing disorder who spends his time chasing the ghost of the one guy who made him feel something.

Though then, he supposes he knows more about the fear of losing something than most people ever will.

It's a couple of days later, when he's starting to feel good enough to actually get out of bed and walk around the castle, that Rapunzel comes to him with an almost mischievous look on her face. "Ah, Lea. I've been looking for you."

"Can't have been that difficult, considering that I haven't gone very far from my bedroom." He leans against the railing of the balcony she found him on, gazing down into the labyrinthine town below. "Any special reason you have chased me down, Your Highness? I assure you, the doctors said it's fine for me to be up if I don't exhaust myself too much."

"I have something for you." Still that same mischievous smile. "I know it's not even nearly enough to thank you for everything, but I hope it will at least be some small help."

"Oh?" He raises his eyebrows. "And what would that be?"

"This." She gestures at the door, and a servant hurries out, carrying something. It's a cloak, he realizes, a short cloak trimmed in purple and lined in gold, the colors of the kingdom judging by the flags he's seen flying around the castle. The outside of it has been embroidered in small shapes of brilliant red, like a thousand little flames running along the golden surface.

"It's a cloak." Well done, Mister Obvious, you've proved you're only half blind. "To make up for my torn coat?"

"That's right." She nods, and the servant brings the cloak closer. "I know it's not exactly the same style, but you did say you didn't have much good memories associated with the old one." She reaches her hand to run her fingertips over the surface of the fabric. "My magic may not be enough to heal you, nowadays, but I did my best to put as much of it into the cloak as I could. Legend has it my magic is from a drop of sunlight; hopefully it will be enough to shield you from darkness."

"You made this yourself?" He touches the cloak, too. It makes his fingers tingle for a moment, a kind of gentle warmth spreading through him from the contact. "This must have taken ages."

"Well, it's taken the better part of a few days, but it's still really nothing much." She smiles as he takes the cloak from her. "I owe you everything. One cloak to protect your heart is really not even nearly enough to show my gratitude."

"I've told you, I'm just doing my job." Not that he doesn't appreciate the gesture, though. "Thanks. This should keep me more than safe on my way." He may not entirely understand this magic, but even he can feel the amount of care and light that must have gone into the fabric of the cloak.

"That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about." Now, she starts almost fidgeting, and he wonders what else she has in store. "I mean, it's kind of silly. More of a superstition, really, but…"

"Just tell me." He shrugs. "I've been searching for over a year now, and visited almost every world I've even heard of. If there's any superstition that might possibly make this any easier, I'm more than willing to try it."

"I was led home by lanterns." She walks to the railing now as well, looking out to the town. "Every year, I saw thousands of lanterns, released by everyone on my birthday in hopes it might lead me home. And one day, I did go out to see the lanterns, and found out where I belonged."

"And you think releasing a lantern might help my lost one find me, too?"

"It's worth a try, isn't it?" She turns to smile at him. "I mean, I doubt he's in this world if you've never been here before, but perhaps he'll see it somehow, anyway. At least, I'm sure he'll feel that you haven't given up your search for him, yet."

"Sounds good enough to me." He nods. "Fine. I'll send out a lantern for him before I set out again."

That turns out to be two days later, the day starting to turn into evening as he walks out to the balcony. He's feeling much better already, even his slight magic enough to hasten the recovery. He'd probably better not get into a battle just yet, not until he's recovered some more, but then he does intend to head to Disney Castle first of all. It'd probably better not worry them any more or Mickey will soon send someone after him.

"Here." Rapunzel smiles as he gives him the lantern, decorated by a shining sun. "I hope it will bring you fortune in your search."

"Nothing to lose, at least." He draws a deep breath, thoughts focusing on Roxas, before he creates a flame just strong enough to light the lantern. The warm air takes it to the air, a soft light in the darkening night as it rises up to the sky.

Then the light suddenly gets more intense, more so than the lantern could produce even if it caught on fire altogether, forcing Lea to shield his eye. Then it softens, and as he looks again he finds an image spread over the dark sky in front of him, warm light pouring out of the scene.

Rapunzel gasps beside him, and he hears Eugene muttering something behind them, but that's not important right now. What's important is that the scene, brought forth by the lantern that he set out to find Roxas, is familiar.

"Destiny Islands," he murmurs to himself. "Of course. That's where they left from."

The image fades away, then, as suddenly as it appeared, and the lantern floats off to the sky. Lea doesn't care, though. He quickly grabs his new cloak, throwing it over his shoulders, and then the bag of supplies Rapunzel had prepared for him as though afraid he wouldn't get fed at all in Disney Castle. There are requests for him to come back some time, really any time he'll be welcome and bring his lost one too once he's been found, though he only barely registers any of that as he quickly opens the Corridor, only barely remembering he should go to see Mickey first before rushing off to the islands.

For the first time in a long while, he actually feels hopeful.


Chapter 20 - Interlude: The King's Concern
Chapter 22 - Deal with the King