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The next morning, we were awakened by knocking at the door.

"Morning, girls," we heard through the door, "Get up and meet us for lunch!"

"Eugene, it's too early!" Rapunzel grumbled.

"It's almost noon!" a smaller voice said.

There was a muffled noise from Cassandra.

"We'll be there soon." the princess yawned, "Come on, guys!"

She began to shake Cassandra. I laughed as Cass grumbled and tried to push Rapunzel away. The princess turned her head to me.

"Well, at least someone seems to be in a good mood!" she smiled, "Come on, we gotta go meet the boys!"

I slowly woke up, not wanting to get up, but wanting to see the others.

Eventually, the three of us got ready and headed down to lunch. When we entered the room, we saw only the king and queen.

"Good morning, girls!" the king's voice boomed from his seat at the long table, "The boys said they have everything set up in the garden."

I was confused, but followed Rapunzel and Cassandra outside. We walked down a cobblestone path, under an arch that was littered with fairy foxglove, forget-me-nots, and sweet alyssum flowers, and further down the path, as slowly we seemed to fade into another world.

Once we reached the center of the garden, we saw Eugene and Varian standing next to a picnic blanket that had all sorts of foods on it.

"Awe! You guys did all this?" Rapunzel squealed.

"We had a little help from the kitchen." Varian replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You guys are so sweet!" Rapunzel squeezed them both in a tight hug. Once they were released, the boys took out bouquets of flowers. Eugene handed one to Rapunzel, and Varian handed Cassandra and I each one. My bouquet just so happened to consist of my favorite flower, along with others. I inhaled the sweet smell of the flowers.

"Um, (Y/n)?" Varian's voice brought me out of my thoughts. He gestured over to the picnic blanket, where the others were getting seated. Varian and I sat down, and then we ate our lunch.

After lunch was finished, and everything was cleaned up, Varian asked if he could speak to me off to the side. We stepped over near a tree, and he spoke.

"Hey, uh, I was wondering if... maybe you'd want to see my lab?" he asked.

"Of course!" I smiled, eagerly. Varian smiled too, seemingly just as excited.

"You wanna go now?"

"Yes!"

"Awesome! Come on!" he exclaimed. And with that, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. My face reddened at the touch, and I attempted to keep up with the raven-haired boy.

Soon enough, we had run all the way out of town and into Old Corona, or so Varian had told me. It seemed less excitable out here. It was calm, unlike the bustling center of town, where the castle stood. Varian led me to a simple-looking little shack. (Though all the buildings seemed fairly basic.) He swiftly opened the door and pulled me inside. I didn't have time to process my surroundings as Varian continued tugging me towards a lab table. He let go of my hand and ran to the table.

"Rudiger!" he exclaimed, moving a raccoon, I had just noticed, off the table. Varian continued reprimanding his presumable pet, "You know better than to play with my equipment!"

This must be a pretty smart raccoon.

As Varian went and put the raccoon somewhere, I finally had a chance to look around. It wasn't a top-of-the-line laboratory, but it was awesome. It felt as though I'd died and gone to heaven. This was the closest I'd ever been to alchemy equipment.

"You...You like it?" I heard Varian say from behind me. I turned around to the boy in the doorway.

"Like it?" I said, "I love it!"

We smiled at each other, and I noticed his cheeks had become tinted with pink.

We continued to hang out in Varian's lab for most of the day. He taught me a lot of alchemy, which I was ecstatic to learn. There were several times that he acted weird, but I'm not that oblivious and I knew that he most likely liked me, which, inturn, made me act awkward as well.

Eventually though, Varian's dad returned home. Varian introduced me, and his dad invited me to stay for dinner. I accepted, and afterwards, it was dark outside.

"(Y/n), I have already spoken with the king and your cousin, and they said it would be fine if you stayed for the night." Varian's dad told me.

"Yes, sir." I nodded. He then looked at Varian.
"Varian, you can lay out some blankets on the floor and let (Y/n) have your bed for the night, since we don't have an extra one."

"Yes, sir." Varian nodded. I wanted to object and say I'd sleep on the floor, but the words wouldn't come to my mouth.

Soon it was time for bed. I was handed a nightgown, and by the look on Varian's face, it had probably been his mother's. I had seen a painting of her in the hallway. She was beautiful, and I felt as though she had probably been the kindest person in the world. Her eyes seemed to have seen such hard times, yet she still seemed to glow with joy and wisdom. I wished I could be like that.

As I thought about the painting, I got changed into the nightgown. It was a good bit big on me. I nervously stepped out of the bathroom, and back into Varian's room. It wasn't quite normal for a girl to be seen in her nightgown by a boy that wasn't family. I blushed as Varian smiled at me innocently. Obviously he didn't quite know about that "rule", but I hadn't seen any other girls around my age anywhere, so maybe that's why he didn't act weird about this.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as Varian shouted, "I left Rudiger in the closet!", then ran out of the room, leaving me with my thoughts. I sat down on the edge of his bed, then laid on my side for a minute, my legs still dangling off. I could smell Varian's scent on the pillow and sheets. I was just assuming though. I hadn't, like, smelled him or anything. The bed smelled of iron, cookies, and a hint of dirt. Breathing in the surprisingly pleasant aroma, I smiled.

I laid there for another minute then sat up. After a few seconds of looking around, Varian came back in with the raccoon earlier.

"I don't think you two have been properly introduced," Varian said with a laugh, walking over and sitting next to me on the bed, "(Y/n), this is Rudiger," he gestured to the floofy raccoon in his lap, "And Rudiger, this is (Y/n)," he gestured to me.

"Pleasure to meet you, Monsieur Rudiger," I said in a 'fancy' voice, as I took the animal's paw and shook it, dutifully. Varian laughed, causing me to laugh as well.

Varian got up, placing Rudiger on the ground, and began to set up his pillows and blankets on the floor. I looked around at his room. It was surprisingly basic for a hyper alchemist.

"I figured your room would be full of-"

"Glitter and ribbons and magic tricks?" Varian cut me off. I nodded with a laugh. That wasn't exactly what I was going to say, but whatever. Varian continued, "I keep all that in the lab. I'm not in here much anyways, except to sleep and sometimes to read."

I nodded.

"Well, I guess we should get some sleep."

"Yeah," I replied. We both got snuggled in our spots and Varian blew out the candle.

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