Okay, so I probably should be working on one of my other multi-chapter stories instead of this, but I keep thinking this would be a great story…

I respond to ALL signed reviews. I will respond to guest reviews of the latest chapter in the beginning AN of the next chapter (so, I'll respond to reviews of chapter 1 in chapter 2, provided they were left before chapter 2 was posted).

Finally, I do not own Disney's Tangled or Taylor Swift's "Long Live" (which heavily influenced the idea for this story).

Chapter 1: Almost An Ending

"Your Majesty, there's another—"

"No," the queen replied. "Not today. She'll have to wait until tomorrow."

The guard nodded. He gave a short bow, and stepped out of the room, silently shutting the doors he had opened on his way in. He understood. Who in their right mind would come to the palace claiming to be the lost princess, the day after said princess's twenty-fifth birthday? Especially this girl; she had to have a few screws loose. She and the man she was with (who hadn't removed his cloak or hood) insisted that she was the lost princess. The only problem? Her hair; she was a brunette, when the princess had had blonde hair.

Granted, that phenomenon has never been entirely explained, he thought. Most believed it was because of the flower. It's magic was derived from the sun, so golden locks weren't that surprising. But, both the queen and king were from a long line of dark heads. Some of the more… scientifically-minded had decided there must have been blonde somewhere in the family line because magic couldn't explain everything.

Whatever the case, the girl, now standing before him, had undeniably brown tresses; short, too.

"I apologize deeply, madam, but Their Royal Highnesses aren't seeing anyone at the moment. They ask that you return tomorrow." He was shocked when tears began pooling at the corners of her eyes.

"Please? I have to see them. Even if they don't want me, I want to explain why I've been gone; why that horrible witch took me away from them."

"It's not that they don't want you, dear, they just…" he trailed off, unsure of how to console her without misrepresenting Their Majesties.

"Don't believe me?" she prompted, her voice almost breaking.

"No, they're… They go through these things a lot. They're always gracious, but yesterday was her birthday, and they… They're still grieving."

She nodded, turning to her companion. "I suppose we need to go find some lodgings F—Eugene."

"Yes, I guess we do."

"Blondie, you gotta be more careful: you almost blew it back there!"

"I know; I know! I'm just not used to calling you… that."

Flynn sighed. It was his own fault, asking her to call him 'Flynn' for the past seven years. If he hadn't… well, they probably would have starved by now.

He glanced at the simple band gracing his left hand, its more feminine twin peeking out from the end of Rapunzel's overly long sleeves. He smiled, grabbing her hand and pulling her back. She stared up up at him, her wide green eyes shining, partially from tears, partially from the feelings they had confessed to each other seven years ago today. He leaned forward and placed a light kiss on her forehead, on her nose, on her lips.

"Fl-ynn," she said softly, dragging out his name teasingly. "Or, should I say, Eu-gene."

He grinned at her, and whispered, "I love you, y'know that right?"

"Flynn, what are we going to do if… if they don't… if they don't believe us?"

"We'll survive; we've lived through worse, Rapunzel. And it'll be them missing out: missing out on knowing you, and being your mom and dad."

She nodded a little at that. It was true, after all. She and Flynn had proved it in their own minds beyond a shadow of a doubt, so forget anyone who didn't believe them, who called them crazy. Forget the cynics who would forever doubt, if she was accepted by her family.

She'd seen far too much of the world, far too much of reality, to not realize that would happen, and that their chances were so very slim.

"Let's go find some place to sleep."

"How dare someone do that, right after her birthday! Have they no shame? Don't they know how sad we both get this time of year, knowing we're so much farther from finding her, that we've missed another year of her life?"

"Dearest, I'm sure they mean w—"

"No! The can't 'mean well'! They're always not her!" The queen broke down, then, falling to her knees as her whole body shook with sobs. "Peter, I can't do this anymore! If this girl isn't her, I don't know what I'll do."

Peter knelt beside his wife, and simply held her, offering her the consolation of a shoulder to cry on, and rock solid support to hold her up through this.

"How about this is the last? No more, after tomorrow."

Catherine drew a shuddering breath, pulled her head from his shoulder, looked him straight in the eye.

"Yes."

Alright, this is probably going to be the shortest chapter of the bunch. I wanted to set things up, but I'm not one hundred percent sure how much of the movie I'm going to be changing. So I started at (almost) the end! :D

Please leave a review, so I know if anyone wants this continued! I love them all so much (especially the really sweet ones)!