A/n: if ur easily triggered by rape you probably shouldnt be reading this story, but also u def prob wanna be warned of this chapter

No rape scene but Varian talks about it in a bit of detail

When the bath was finished, the water was disgusting. Maybe this was why he was still so sick. That dirt was carrying diseases. The two men did rock paper scissors to figure out who would pull the plug, and of course Lance lost—so he pulled the plug, and once all the water went down, gave Varian a final rinse with a few more buckets of water, before taking him out of the tub and drying him.

Once he was thoroughly dried, they wrapped the towel around his waist and brought him back to the room and sat him on the newly made bed.

"Has he stirred at all?" Rapunzel asked quietly.

Eugene shook his head in concern, "no. He hasn't even made so much as a peep. We let him soak in the water for a while though and I think the cold water made his fever go down."

Rapunzel placed her hand on his forehead, "hm. Yes, he's much cooler than he was a few hours ago...but now the poor thing is shivering. Look at those goosebumps. Perhaps we should give him some blankets?"

Cassandra shook her head, "I dunno Raps, he's still pretty warm" she said after she felt him herself, "plus I have to rewrap his wounds and ribs. These wounds are still extremely sensitive and easy to rip open, especially the ones I had to stitch closed. I should put some bandages over them."

Rapunzel nodded, "okay..once all that's done and we get him dressed, then can he have a blanket? Just one? I feel bad..."

Cassandra sighed, "yes. Of course. I'm mean, but i'm not cruel" she joked.

"Could've fooled me" Eugene quipped.

"Fitzherbert" Cassandra growled lowly.

"Sorry, Sorry!"

—————————————————

Varian woke up groggily, finding that his arms were much more mobile than they were just a few hours prior. His goggles had been returned to him before he woke up thankfully, curtesy of Cassandra not wanting a meltdown. He wiped the tiredness from his eyes and groaned, "ugh, my head..." he mumbled.

He heard a light gasp, "Varian!" Followed by a firm hug.

He hugged back in confusion, squinting as his blurred eyes came into focus, "princess...?" He murmured.

"Yes! Oh, Varian, you really scared us. Your fever went really high, and then you couldn't move and were unresponsive—can you remember anything? Oh, I doubt you can...you were really, really out of it! I couldn't really process anything you said to me, and then you just wouldn't wake up!" Rapunzel exclaimed, her expression and tone changing throughout her explanation, and Varian was sure she had just went through the five stages of grief.

She hugged him again, tighter, before looking him straight in the eyes, "never get sick like that again!"

"I—I'll try my best?" Varian croaked out, voice weak from exhaustion, his expression contorted into confusion.

Cassandra laughed, "Rapunzel calm down, you're scaring him."

"I'm scaring him?! I was worried half to death!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

"She really was" Eugene commented, "oh, and Lance almost cried when you didn't wake up for dinner."

Lance's lip wobbled at the memory, "I thought you were dead. Who sleeps through dinner?!" He cried.

"Wha—what time is it? The last thing I remember was the princess feeding me lunch...I think I puked it up though?" Varian questioned.

"You did" Rapunzel sighed, "right now it's about nine pm, but don't worry we've got dinner right here. It's cooling."

Varian nodded, glancing down at himself and freezing. He lifted the blankets tentatively, and his suspicions were confirmed.

The sheets were a different pattern—they'd been changed. And so had his hospital gown. And his bandages had been replaced, and he felt so much cleaner, and—

"What—what happened?" Varian asked quietly, "did you..did you give me a bath?"

Eugene tensed up a little bit, "kid, don't freak out—but, um. Yes."

"W-Why?!" Varian sputtered.

Lance snorted, "well kid, you were very sweaty. And disgusting. And a bath was long overdue, trust me! You still had filth and grime on you from prison! The water was horrifying by the time we were done! I bet you feel so much cleaner now!" He gave a charming, convincing smile.

"Why are the sheets different?" Varian asked.

Rapunzel tensed, "well you see, you had a little...um accident—"

"You wet the bed" Cassandra said bluntly from where she stood, leaning against the wall frame, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Cassandra!" The other three exclaimed.

Varian covered his face and groaned, "what?! Why?!"

"Because you were sick and had to pee" she shrugged, "no big deal."

"Ugh, oh no I remember now! I was trying to tell Rapunzel but I was just feeling so sick and couldn't! I'm so sorry you had to deal with that! Again! I really tried to hold it I swear!" He covered his face, "I can't believe this. Ugh, and I was bathed! Who bathed me?!" He yelped.

"Relax, pipsqueak, me and Lance bathed you. No females saw the goods" Eugene winked.

Varian wrinkled his nose, "ew, don't say it like that!" he exclaimed, his voice raising by ten octaves.

"You know, with how loud you guys are, i'm surprised the king hasn't found out about this whole operation and sent Varian back to the dungeons!" Cassandra snapped coldly.

Varian shrunk in on himself, "W-What...? I'm going back when he finds out? I thought..." he mumbled, covering his face, "sorry, sorry..."

Cassandra's eyes widened and immediately tried to rectify her mistake, "oh—oh, no, Varian, no that was out of line, i'm so sorry!"

"No, no Varian you are never going back, Cass was just joking!" Rapunzel assured, "just a funny little joke! Hah!"

"Way to go Cass, you've sent the poor, sick child spiraling!" Eugene hissed.

"As if he hasn't been tortured enough!" Lance exclaimed dramatically.

"Oh, no no no i'm fine! Yeah—yeah yeah sorry" Varian said, "just..paranoid I guess" he chuckled, "it's just scary think..that i'd ever go back there."

Cassandra sighed. She felt rotten, "don't worry kid...that won't happen. Even if the king found out right now, I would literally pick you up and run into the woods. I swear."

Varian wiped his eyes, sniffling, "was that all a diversion so i'd forget that I wet the bed and got a bath?"

Cassandra smirked, "no...i'm not that cruel. Just an honest mistake."

"Ugh, I hate the idea that you two saw me naked" Varian whined.

"Why? The three of us are men! We all have the same parts!" Lance said, if only to make Varian more uncomfortable.

Varian blushed, "shushhhhhhh! There are women right there!"

Lance chuckled, "you're so modest."

"Should I not be?!" Varian exclaimed, "i'll never understand you guys!"

Rapunzel will never understand how Varian went from 'I hate all of you so i'll reek havoc on your country and murder everyone you love if it's the last thing I do' to 'please don't bathe me I don't want to be seen naked' but she's kind of grateful that life went this route.

Varian was clearly upset about the whole thing, but then again, who wouldn't be? He had humiliating experiences with bodily functions every day, and he had to be bathed too? Which means they had to physically wash him.

"I just...don't like the idea that you guys saw me..." he blushed, "the guards...you already know they took my clothes. They would always stare, and...and they'd..." he trailed off, biting his bottom lip harshly. There was so much that he wanted to tell them, to get off his chest. 'They'd force me to look at them, they'd grab my chin and pull my hair and tell me I was a pretty boy. They'd run their hands down my body. Their breaths were hot and heavy, rolling down my neck in waves as they took me' He took in a shaking breath and looked down, "I just don't want you guys to act the same..."

All of the adults in the room froze at that information. Cassandra and Eugene met each other's eyes, and Rapunzel looked like she had seen a ghost.

"No, no. Continue. What did they do?" Lance questioned seriously.

He couldn't tell them. He couldn't. They'd know that he was dirty, they'd know he'd been touched, and used, and that he was just pathetic and weak, and allowed himself to be hurt in the most horrible ways.

But.

But, he'd been holding that information in for so long. He'd been tormenting himself, wondering what they would think of him if he let the words spill past his lips. He pondered and wondered if they'd still look at him the same. He found himself wanting to tell them now, unsure where the confidence came from. It was hard to admit, but he knew they'd care. Wouldn't they care?

He took in a breath, "Oh, um, they'd say a lot of really dirty things..." he began to shake, his mouth feeling dry as he stared down at his lap, "a-and most of these hand print bruises. They—they're from those moments. I have some really dark ones on my upper thighs. They'd grab there and squeeze me...a-and go up, and just...they'd touch me. I didn't—" his voice broke, "I didn't like it. I swear, I hated every second!"

'But I needed it' he thought to himself. He needed that warmth that came from their hands, the comfort that came from being held by another person, even if he felt sick to his stomach the entire time. Varian felt nauseated every time he spilled his seed into their hands, because then they would start the mocking. Then they would tell him he must have enjoyed it. That they were holding the proof in the palms of their hands.

"Varian" Eugene whispered, his voice quiet, his eyes serious, "Varian, they molested you"

Cassandra's face twisted, morphing into disgust as she wrote down more down on her clip board, "i'm going to kill them."

Rapunzel's eyes brimmed with tears. She couldn't breathe. They had suspicions that the guards were creeps, yes, but for it to be so much worse than they'd imagined? For it to be confirmed that this child—this child, had been touched by grown men, and so frequently? It was horrifying.

"I'm so glad we know who these guards are" Rapunzel whispered, a tear falling down her face, "because they are not getting out of this alive."

The room went silent in shock, but only for a few moments. Even Rapunzel had her limits, though it was still a surprise to hear her insinuate that she wanted someone dead.

Lance spoke up from the silence, "kid, why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"It never came up in conversation..." Varian mumbled.

"Why would it?! Were you just going to keep that to yourself forever?!" Eugene exclaimed, "Varian, there are certain things that you have to tell us!"

Varian'a shoulders trembled as he stared down, not wanting to meet Eugene's eyes, "it's embarrassing. It's wrong, i'm wrong, I—I just sat there and let them, and i'm dirty, and used, and—and how can you guys still look at me the same? Knowing that i'm—that i'm—"

"Varian" Eugene said, "Varian, none of what happened was your fault. It doesn't matter what they said to you, what they tried to convince you was true—they're in the wrong."

"You aren't dirty" Rapunzel whispered, tears flowing freely down her face, "they...Varian. I don't know what to say."

"I'm so sorry that happened, Varian" Cassandra whispered. Because what else could she possibly say? She couldn't make it better. None of them could—their words of comfort were meaningless in this situation.

"Thank you" Varian said, wrinkling his nose and closing his eyes, "I just hate that I was so weak. To just let it happen. I had to go with it and nod along because if I didn't they'd—" his voice cracked, and he cut himself off, not trusting his voice.

"Shh..." Rapunzel whispered, "we understand, Varian, you don't need to explain yourself. You aren't the one in the wrong here."

The room fell silent as Varian sniffled and bit his lip, "is it bad...is it bad that I..." he tried to form his sentence, "that I longed for those moments?"

Rapunzel stiffened up as she stared at Eugene, "what...do you mean?" She asked, her voice almost nonexistent.

"It was the only time I could feel something that wasn't cold" he whimpered, "when they touched me, when they—when they just laid there, naked, one of them on either side of me and draped themselves across me and ran their fingers over me and—and fondled with me—when they did all of that, it felt just a little nice, because I was always just so freezing cold, and they were just so, so warm..."

The only sound in the room after they finished was Cassandra's aggressive note taking and Rapunzel's quickening breaths as she curled into Eugene's chest. Varian let out a choked sob every few seconds, feeling scared at what he'd said, but so, so relieved that he didn't have to keep it to himself anymore.

"I—I didn't like, enjoy it, or necessarily even w-want it, I just—I don't know how to explain it, because I felt so uncomfortable and unsafe, and looking back, I wish I could have been strong enough to push them away, to tell them no and just take a beating for it, because I still feel them. I can feel their eyes, and their hands, and—and—" he balled his hands into fists and put them over his eyes as he cried.

"Varian" Lance whispered, "Varian, I'm—i'm so sorry this happened..."

"I—I don't think it's necessarily bad—not on your part" Cassandra told him, trying to find the words, "they...they forced you to feel that way. I feel like anybody would feel like that. And you're a—a child..."

"I just...." He sighed, "I had no one to tell. They could do it whenever they wanted. I never felt safe."

"You'll never have to worry about them. Not ever again" Eugene said firmly.

Rapunzel wiped her eyes, nodding in agreement with Eugene, "thank you for telling us."

Varian had more he wanted to say, but he wondered if it would be too much. The conversation clearly wasn't over though, so he figured he may as well just rip it off like a band-aid. He kind of felt...powerful. The guards always insisted that if he told anyone, he would just have it worse, but the guards had been caught, they couldn't hurt him anymore.

He didn't have to suffer silently. He didn't have to pray for the sweet release of death, or hope that one of the guards would bash his head into the wall until his skull cracked open and his consciousness faded away.

"They...they didn't just touch me" Varian admitted quietly, screwinh his eyes shut, "they'd....well, they'd have...they'd have sex with me."

He let what he'd said sink into the shocked silence for a while before continuing, "they were different every time. One would go...inside of me. The other would either make me suck them, or...they'd suck me. Sometimes they'd...play with me until I..." his face flushed. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see their faces, "or—or they'd make me take them, they—they experimented with so many different things, because they thought they'd never get caught, they—they—"

He trailed off as four pairs of arms slowly wrapped around his body. He cracked his eyes open. Everybody had tears running down their faces.

"They raped you" Cassandra seethed.

Varian let out a choked sob. It was true—he knew it! He wasn't at fault, he wasn't the one to blame, he wasn't wrong, he wasn't dirty just because he got hard, or because he came, or because he couldn't hold back the moans when they'd give him that soft, slow sex.

"They—they raped me" he quietly admitted to himself. His breath hitched as memories flashed before his eyes. Memories of him scared, curled into a corner wailing and begging for the guards to stop as they shook off the last of their clothes and took him. Memories of them purring and growling in his ear, thrusting into him and rutting against him, insisting that he was enjoying himself because he was hard, because of the noises he was making.

It was real, it was real, it was all too real. And that word, it—there was a word for what had happened to him! "They raped me!" He gasped out a sob as the realization hit him.

Nobody said another word. They just let Varian cry until his throat was raw, until he was still sobbing, even when all his tears had been spilled and his body could make no more, until he succumbed to his exhaustion and fell limp in Eugene's arms.

Wordlessly, Rapunzel stood up from the bed. She began to walk to the door.

"Rapunzel?" Cassandra asked slowly, "what are you doing."

"Where...are the guards being kept?" The princess asked, her voice low.

Cassandra grabbed Rapunzel's wrist as she tried to open the door, "Raps, you can't—"

"I'm going to kill them" Rapunzel seethed, "and then i'm going to thrash my father within an inch of his life. So i'll ask you again—where are the guards being kept?"

Cassandra's mouth fell open in shock. She wished she could see the looks on Eugene and Lance's faces, but she needed to focus on keeping Rapunzel in check, "Raps, you can't do this now. We need to collect ourselves, the King isn't going to hear you if you run in there screaming, it will just agitate him, and make him lock you up in your room. He'll get the guards to restrain us, and then he'll tear the castle apart looking for Varian. You'll just be putting him in more danger."

As much as Eugene hated to admit it, "Cassandra is right" he said, "Rapunzel, I...I'm having a hard time processing this too. But killing the guards now, that would be letting them off easy."

Lance nodded, "they deserve to suffer."

Rapunzel slowly untensed, though she was still glaring at the door. Cassandra slipped her hand from Rapunzel's wrist to her hand, and placed her free one on the princess's shoulder, "I want them to pay for what they did to Varian. I want to kill them myself, i'm sure we all do. But we have to be smart about this. We have to present the king with this like it's a case. We have to be calm about it, and explain what happened to him. After he's convinced, you can tear into him, okay? And i'm sure you can get in a few licks at those guards."

She nodded slowly, and finally leaned into Cassandra, closing her eyes and letting out a deep breath, "sorry. You're right."

"We can't just let the guards be killed" Eugene muttered, starting down at Varian's face. His bruised and battered face. His dry, chapped lips that had been forced to hold the seed of two grown men countless times, "Like Lance said, we...we have to make sure they suffer. They have to pay for what they did to Varian."

Lance nodded in a silent agreement. Cassandra pulled Rapunzel's shaking form closer.

They weren't sure if things were okay—or if they'd ever be okay again. None of them were going to get much sleep that night.

Rapunzel couldn't even fathom it. When she'd been rescued from the tower and she and Eugene had gotten more serious, the man had realized how innocent she was to so many things. He informed her about sex, and after a long talk, they'd agreed to wait until marriage for Rapunzel's first time, and Eugene told her that he wasn't a virgin. Rapunzel joked around with him and said that much was obvious.

But...she hadn't known that sex, something she'd been told was exciting, sweet, and beautiful—an act of love and trust between the right two people—could be turned into something scary, something that could be used to hurt someone, something you could make someone dread.

It made her stomach churn, knowing they'd taken something so precious from Varian, something he couldn't ever get back. She wasn't even sure if Varian would ever be able to enjoy it, even with the right person.

Cassandra led her back to the bed, and she sat on the edge. Slowly, she ran her fingers through Varian's hair. She screwed her eyes shut as more tears fell down her face.

Her father was so in for it now.