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“Okay, first real date. It’s fine,” Rapunzel says to Pascal, blowing out a breath as she looks at herself in the full length mirror in her bedroom. “But this is the outfit, right?”

She smooths down the sleeveless dress before pulling on the denim jacket and stepping into a pair of purple flats. Her hair is braided with flowers and thin purple ribbons woven in and she’s wearing the earrings that Peter got her for her birthday.

Pascal scampers up her shoulder and fixes a stray piece of hair before giving her a thumbs up. She smiles and takes him gently in her hands to set him on the pillow in the middle of the sofa, where he has access to the remote and snacks. Rapunzel and Pascal are a package deal and she’s pretty sure Peter knows that, but she figured they could use some privacy, at least on the first date.

“Okay, be good and—“ She’s cut off by the buzzer sounding, and she lets out a little gasp as she straightens up. “Wish me luck!”

After grabbing her purse, she leaves the apartment and locks the door, nervous but happy as she heads down to meet Peter at the front of the building.

Her heart is so full, and she’s so happy. No matter what Peter has planned, she knows that it will be fun.

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"Okay, fine. I won't ask about school," Rapunzel says easily, resisting the urge to cross her arms defensively. Peter's mention of his family makes her frown, and she looks back over at him. "Then it sounds like we were saying the same thing."

She watches him, feeling trapped in this awkward moment, and a sudden movement in the corner of her eye makes her visibly jump. It's just the server setting down their plates, and Rapunzel gives the girl a tight smile and a thank you before she takes a sip of her tea.

"These do look good," she says once they're alone again, trying to push past the awkwardness.

"Yeah," he said, looking down at their plates, even though last thing he wanted to do was eat. Picking up a fry, he nibbled at it halfheartedly, his stomach churning guiltily.

"Rapunzel, I'm sorry," he blurted, as she set down her glass. "I don't..." He floundered, because he couldn't give the excuse of saying he didn't know what was wrong with him. He knew exactly what was wrong with him.

He tried— he fucking tried just to have some normality, but he still had this black cloud hanging over him, and even when that wasn't the case, he'd never known how to keep from saying stupid shit all the time.

Edited 2019-06-02 22:56 (UTC)

"I'm sorry too," she says after a moment, softening slightly as she looks up at him finally. "Maybe I pushed too hard."

She knows that her usually unfailing optimism can sometimes get to people, maybe especially people like Peter who have seen so much darkness. She can't change it, though, even if for some reason she wanted to. And so she smiles at him, showing all is forgiven.

"So, does my being older actually bother you?" She asks, mostly teasing as she smiles him and reaches for the ketchup. "Because really, it's not much of a difference."

"No, you didn't," he promised her, even if it felt a little like she had, if only to Peter, who felt most of the time like an animal trapped inside a cage that just kept getting smaller and smaller.

"You didn't. But, um. Some of that stuff is kind of tangled up with things that are... hard to talk about," he admitted, offering her a lopsided smile as he reached out and handed her the ketchup, since it was closer to his side of the table.

"What! No, no. I just... I thought maybe it bothered you."

"Well, if I ever make you uncomfortable, please just tell me," Rapunzel says in a gentle request to not be snapped at again. Still, it's a minor upset that she's happy to let pass as long as they both learn something from it.

She takes the ketchup with a smile and squirts a small pile on the edge of her plate before picking up a knife and cutting her burger in half so she can handle it better. She has to laugh fondly at his response, and she looks up at him as she lays a paper napkin in her lap.

"It doesn't bother me. I wouldn't be here if it did," she assures him. Where she's from Peter would already be getting married off and working hard, and she'd be edging closer to being an old maid. He's old enough. "I like you, Peter."

"Yeah, I know. I like you, too," Peter said, offering a thin smile. "Sometimes I wish we'd met somewhere else. Or before all the stuff with my sister. Or maybe that you hadn't seen me piss myself that one time."

His lips twisted into a self-deprecating smile.

"I was never all that great at it, but I can't even pretend to be cool around you," he admitted with a soft huff of laughter.

Rapunzel watches him speak and smiles a little, keeping her gaze on him for a few minutes before she gets up and comes around to his side of the booth. She slides in next to him and takes his hand to hold under the table, lacing her fingers with his and squeezing.

“Peter, I like all of you, not just the pretty parts,” she tells him, smiling softly over at him. “And as for that other thing, I have no idea what you mean.”

She winks at him to try and lighten the moment, because she knows that he’s embarrassed but she doesn’t judge him, not after what he had to see.

Rapunzel lifts their hands and rests them on the table, brushing her thumb back and forth across the back of Peter’s. “I don’t want you to pretend to be anything. For what it’s worth, I already think you’re pretty cool.”

Choking out a laugh, Peter gave her a good-natured roll of his eyes, catching her thumb with his own and pinning it playfully to the back of his hand.

"Yeah, well, maybe your judgement isn't that great," he said, looking down at the table to hide his faint smirk.

"Luckily for you," she teases with a wink, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. And then a few more little pecks along his jaw to try and make his smile a little bigger. After one last kiss to the corner of his mouth, she sits back and gives his hand a squeeze before letting go and reaching out to slide her burger across the table.

"Looks like I'm posted up over here now," she says, smiling over at him before lifting her burger half and taking a dainty bite. "I had a burger with an egg on it once. Amazing."