Tick, tick, tick, tick.

He finishes the letter.

It feels... floaty. Like he just untethered himself from ordinary reality.

He’d - always, always, always assumed that he’d just stay in the tower forever. There’d been an implicit ‘well, maybe I’ll venture out when I’m a hundred’ woven into it, but - him being a hundred is and was a long, long ways away, and this is happening in the present tense.

His mother is going to be so upset. He can imagine it now - she appears, doesn’t see him, looks downstairs and upstairs, looks at the note, sets it on fire, does something other people are going to regret -

But it’s fine. She doesn’t exist right now. He doesn’t exist right now. Nobody but his prince exists right now. He’s in the lap of his prince and he has strong arms holding him and everything is going to be fine and he’ll be warm and safe and loved and he doesn’t have to do anything, doesn’t have to make any decisions, he just has to go along for the ride.

He sets down the little quill he was using. 

“Ready,” he hears himself say, softly.

“Awesome.”

And then they disappear in a flurry of gold and steel and silver feathers, and then they’re somewhere else.

They’ve landed next to a small little pond, a path, and several trees. The ground is wet; it must’ve rained here, recently. The grass is dotted with flowers; the sky is dotted with clouds. They’re still in a similar position; Prince Ezekiel sitting crosslegged on the ground, Rapunzel in his lap.

It.

It isn’t even slightly a tower.

Rapunzel stares.

Prince Ezekiel holds him.

”Man, this has been, like, the best day, and we haven’t even done anything yet - you’re so soft and small and pretty and stuff, and you’re gonna be mine forever, and I won’t have to hear any more bitchy comments about how I should really find someone to settle down with - though I kinda still wanna sleep around, are you gonna mind if I sleep around?”

“I don’t believe I will.”

“Cool. I love you. I’d be all ‘maybe I should rescue gentlemen in distress more often’ but you’re the best one ever and everyone else would be, like, super disappointing.”

“Is that so, brother,” says a voice from behind them.

- it takes about half a second for Ezekiel to deposit Rapunzel on the ground, rise to his feet, and draw his sword.

“... hey.”

(Rapunzel peeks at the scene from between his legs.)

The other man - or the other prince, rather, there being some distinction - seems about as tall as his brother, a little less ridiculously broad, a touch more handsome, and similarly disinclined to wear shirts. He also has a sword.

”What are you doing in the forest seducing a new conquest? Very pretty catch, by the way, I might want a sample.”

“I found him in a tower and fell in love at first sight. You can totally fuck him - if he’s, like, okay with it - but, like, not right now? What are you doing here.”

“Hunting three pigs who thought they could get away with architectural sabotage.”

“Are you doing that whole ‘rawr, I’m a royal vigilante’ thing again?”

“Rest assured that if I do anything to them before turning them over, they’ll never tell a soul. Are you and your new consort-to-be going to be presentable by tonight? I’m surprised you aren’t already fucking his brains out.”

“Some people like to wait five minutes after meeting people before fucking them, Damien, it’s totally a thing. I was leading up to it and you’re not invited.”

“Fine. Have fun, then, big brother, and do make sure to keep track of the hour.”

“I totally will.”

And so Prince Damien -

- turns into a terrifyingly large and vicious-looking wolf, and runs off into the distance so quickly he seems like nothing more than a blur of tooth and fur and claw.

“His magic kinda sucks, but his alternate form is way cooler than mine,” opines Ezekiel. 

He should probably be concerned about what Damien is going to do to those pigs, but...

“And, um. Apparently you were leading up to having sex with me?”

“I mean, like. If you wanna?”

“I think that I do. You can do whatever you want to me, you’re my prince.”

That seems like an invitation to teleport them over to one his rooms in the palace - in a small flurry of feathers - and pin Rapunzel to the bed, and kiss him, and start tearing them both out of their clothes!

Rapunzel approves of this sequence of actions so much! He demonstrates this by being squirmy and squeaky and appreciative.