He didn’t react, Rush had felt all kinds of pains in his short life, clumsy, or maybe left to his own devices too young and too often. Cuts weren’t as bad as broken bones, but when someone spotted the blood, a commotion broke out, and now here he was in the clinic with pink cheeks, wanting the ground to swallow him up.

“Honestly— it’s nothing some tea won’t fix up” he said to the doctor, popping the finger in his mouth to suck off the blood himself.

Losing her magic, even temporarily, had shaken Rapunzel up. It made her fear the worst: her mother was coming after her, she wasn’t safe in New Salem, and something was up with the mayor who had brought them all there. She tried to ban these thoughts from her mind as much as she could without being too careless, which was what Cass had specifically warned her against. “No, I swear, I pulled him aside in the hallway, tried to sing the song, and nothing was working,” she assured her, feeling a sense of frustration that she hadn’t before. While she never wanted anyone to get hurt, it was almost as though Rapunzel wish she could, just to prove to Cass that she wasn’t lying. “I was terrified of my mother coming after me, too, I swear. I don’t know what’s wrong in that town, but maybe I shouldn’t go back without the both of you.”

Things had somehow gotten even worse between Cass and Rapunzel after their small argument at the bonfire. The proposal that had sent shockwaves through Rapunzel’s entire world was just another wedge that the world had decided to throw into their friendship. Since coming home from the bonfire, they’d barely spoken a word to each other, as Rapunzel had been locked in her room besides going out to try and draw every so often to get some sunlight. Despite their differing opinions on Kit, Cass had at least been the one who made sure she ate every night when Flynn had brought home food from the Duckling, and Rapunzel knew that was her way of showing that she cared about her.

With a sigh, Rapunzel couldn’t ignore the growls that her stomach made any longer, and got up to go to the kitchen once again, this time for the rest of what she’d left from the lunch Flynn had brought back for her. On her way, she passed Cass’ room, and, seeing her friend lying on her bed, Rapunzel stopped herself, poking her head into the door. “Hi, I’m ... going to eat, if you wanted to join, or anything,” she offered, knocking on the doorframe quietly. “If you don’t want to, though, I could come by after. Or never. You know, whatever works for you.”

Since the initial wave of drama that had placed targets on the two women of their household, Rapunzel and Cassandra hadn’t spoken much. They were cordial with each other, but not much more, not in the same way that they had been before with each other. Rapunzel couldn’t help but feel like it was partly her fault, like she should’ve seen the inevitable coming and tried to stay as far away from Kit as possible to begin with. It was too late now, but she hoped that it wasn’t too late to try and fix things with Cass and try to get the feel of their house back to normal. 

The bonfire was her chance to try and get things back to the way they were, to move forward and past the rift Kit had caused between them. Rapunzel couldn’t let him take anything else from her. While Flynn had gone off to see one of his friends and attempt to distract himself in his own way, Rapunzel sped up to meet Cass, who had been a few paces ahead of her and Flynn since they’d gotten there. “You know, you can slow down now that you’re not trying to beat Flynn to the boardwalk. Unless there’s some race that I don’t know about going on, in which case, I should’ve brought more than just these,” she said with a laugh, raising the pair of flip flops in her hand for reference. 

Cassandra hadn’t been home when the blog post had dropped, and, to be honest, Rapunzel was kind of glad she wasn’t, especially not after she had been named as one of the people that Kit’s father was looking to marry him off to. She already had a feeling that Cass didn’t like Kit, but this? This had to send her over the edge of not liking into a far scarier territory that was reserved for a select few. She’d tried to avoid her roommate as much as she possibly could after Cass had given her a stern I don’t want to talk about it after Rapunzel had tried to talk about it, but it was killing her inside. 

She didn’t even know that she was home now, while Rapunzel was in the kitchen stress-baking her third round of cupcakes in the past few days when Cassandra entered. Rapunzel looked up from her batter with wide eyes, scrambling to set down her wooden spoon and wipe her hands on her apron. “Hi! I’m, um, making cupcakes. Again. Your favorite. I was actually going to leave them by your door later, when they’re done, but I guess the surprise has been kind of ruined now, so ... surprise?” she blurted, raising her hands into a theatrical shrug. “I didn’t know you were here. I thought you were at work.”

“You mean to tell me I was treated like a damn abandoned kid and now I own a mansion?” she asked incredulously. 

“Well you actually share it with the son of Henry Halestrom,” said the representative in charge of the affairs of the late vampires estate. 

Then the door creaked open and Robin looked over to see who was there, “Is this the kid?” Robin asked with a slightly disgusted look on her face. Everything was getting to be overwhelming. One day she was waking up a vampire then she had to be taken in by other vampires since nobody knew who turned her so she worked in the nightclub. All of a sudden she was being taken to a way fancier home than she had ever been and being told she was rich and shared said riches with a kid. It all seemed so ridiculous that she couldn’t even control the small laugh that left her. 

“Cassandra!” Rapunzel calls as she sees her friend near the tables covered in food. She runs over to her, the feeling of the grass beneath her feet as great as ever. When she finally approaches her she smiles brightly. “I’ve been looking for you! There are just so many people here and I had to say hello to so many of them. But I found you! Now we can eat and walk around together!”