Chapter Text
The day Varian meets the Princess is shockingly unremarkable at first.
After months of sneaking off to install his water tanks under the village and of creating whole barrels of his reactive compound, Varian’s finally at a point where all he can do now is monitor the current reiterations, maintain and possibly, update his designs where he can. It's going even better than last time, like Varian’s finally got everything right! (Unlike last time…)
Oh, that and setting up traps for the wild animals that always seem to be sneaking into his lab. Okay, that’s an overstatement, there’s really only one raccoon that keeps trying to steal his things (especially his lunches, unsurprisingly).
The glue compound in his traps has worked well so far though, Varian notes with a grin as he deposits some more of the glass spheres filled with the stuff on one of the shelves above his desk, next to the bottle of solvent for it.
He doesn’t even notice said trap going off at first, busy with welding another ring for the central boiler, one that should, theoretically, offer the whole thing more stability, but the ruckus that follows is distinctly not made up of animal noises and Varian’s head shoots up. He turns off his blowtorch and tiptoes his way to the building’s entrance. Oh God, if he somehow accidentally caught his Dad again, he’s gonna be in so much trouble. It doesn’t sound like him, though…
Cautiously, he approaches and blinks. The silhouettes in the mist are unfamiliar, but maybe they’re some women from the village? It’s hard to tell.
“What do you want?”, Varian asks, voice echoing inside of the helmet. He’s frowning, wondering if this is where another one of the village people goes on a tirade on how his alchemy is dangerous (it isn’t, it’s, like, 99.44% safe! Or was it .43…), and Varian’s not really in the mood to hear the same complaints for the hundredth time.
“Oh, uhm. Hi! Hi, sorry, we’re here to ask you about my hair, actually!”, the voice of a young woman replies, taking him by surprise, “Since you’re an expert in magic-”
Now that makes Varian place his hands on his hips, ready to give a lecture on all the differences, subtle or not, between his refined use of engineering and alchemy and the far too ephemeral nature of magic of all things. He settles on offendedly screeching:
“Magic!? I do not work with magic!”
The echoing caused by the mask is probably not helping though, and Varian is a scientist! He must remain composed, after all!
So he waves his arms around to dispel some of the mist and takes the welding mask off, smiling sheepishly.
“It’s alchemy, technically!”, he continues, “But, yeah, don’t- Don’t sweat it!”
And did he hear that right? They need his help with-
Oh.
Hair. Long hair. Really long hair. Really long, twisted into a thick plait that conceals its true length, golden hair.
Instantly, remembering what Dad had taught him about protocol in front of the royals, Varian falls to one knee, bowing but unable to stifle an awkward laugh.
“Your Highness”, he breathes out, hoping he’s not messed up too badly.
The woman, the Princess , Varian reminds himself, looks a little surprised before a small smile tugs at her lips and she lays a hand on her chest.
“You know who I am?”, she asks.
“Y-yeah, it’s kind of hard not to! Heh”, Varian flails to answer, gesturing at her hair, and then he clears his throat, “Your Highness.”
A hand taps his shoulder, and when he looks up, the Princess smiles, bright as the sun sigil of her family.
“Please, just Rapunzel.”
Varian smiles back.
“Rapunzel”, he says, only hesitating a little.
“Alright, kid, if the introductions are done, could you get us out of… Whatever this is?”, the other person asks and Varian looks over at the woman dressed in what almost looks like hunting clothes and.
So.
He looks at her and his heart skips a beat.
“And this is Cassandra! My best friend and my handmaiden”, Rapunzel whispers to him while all Varian can do is watch her with an awed expression.
After shaking himself out of his stupor, Varian jumps up with another nervous laugh and goes to grab what he needs.
“Oh, that is a compound I created! It’s usually for local pests that try to sneak in here, but not to worry!”, he explains, raising a victorious hand, fingers clasped around the bottle of solvent.
He shakes his head fondly when he returns to Rapunzel and Cassandra, only to note that there’s a third guest in this odd little meetup. Namely, the raccoon he keeps having to chase out of his lab.
He shakes some of the solvent onto the glue where the little guy is stuck, picks it up and lets it run back outside into the sunlight.
“That’s fascinating! How did you-”, Rapunzel says, excitement shining in her green eyes.
“Oh, well it’s not even that hard. The color is given by heavily altered resin. To make everything sticky, there's actually these beans that-”
“RIveting, but”, Cassandra interrupts, “Let’s leave the details for later. There’s more urgent things we need to get to. Kid?”
“Right…!”
So Varian just nods, pours some more solvent over the rest of the glue and smiles, gesturing for his guests to come further into the lab. It’s a bit of a mess right now; keeping all of the water tanks in working order has taken a lot more organization than he’d thought, and the notes that help him do that are strewn all over, though he hopes the Princess and her friend don’t mind.
Throwing a glance at them now, Varian bites his lip. He should have actually been preparing to do a maintenance visit some half an hour ago before the two women showed up, but now, Varian has to cross his fingers and hope everything will remain stable a while longer. It’s not like the water tanks are functioning at maximum performance yet - he’s still doing test runs, so everything should be fine. Will be fine, he corrects himself.
“So!”, Varian starts while gathering some empty sheets of paper, tapping a pencil against his chin, “Fantastical stories of your hair returning have spread throughout Corona. Yep. People say it’s magic , but personally? Don’t really believe it.”
Oh, he could have it tested for structure, support, tensegrity, components! And he’s got just the thing…
He leads Rapunzel to lay onto a wooden stool as he adjusts some of the arms of his machine so they will actually work on her hair instead.
“My machine will run some, er, mostly harmless tests now, so don’t worry about any sudden movement, or uh, impending impact. It’s all so we can scientifically explore the traits of your hair. And we shall get to the bottom of this with the power of alche-”
Cassandra interrupts him with a less than pleased tone:
“Yeah, the power of alchemy. We get it. Now listen, kid? We need your help, but let me make something clear…”
Varian grins nervously when she approaches him, her glare a threat, but a very pretty one.
“What happens here stays here. Got it?”
“Got it!”
And with that, Varian starts his machine with the press of a button, watching to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Now, maybe he’s relying on luck a bit at this point, but where else can he get an opportunity to study the Princess’ famous hair? Not to mention, if he does a good job, maybe Cassandra will stop glaring at him, will be impressed , actually, ha ha-
Ahem.
After a few minutes, the first test is about to come to an end, the only thing left of it being a trial with the rotary saw to see if centrifugal cutting would yield any better results on the end of one of Rapunzel’s hair strands, but evidently not.
“And with that…”, Varian comments, “We’re done!”
“Yay!”, Rapunzel grins, her face bright with it, but Varian rubs the back of his neck and points at the clock mounted on the wall with his other hand.
“...With the first test.”
The clock dings down from a bolded 87 to an ever so slightly less intimidating 86.
“Oh, but don’t worry, this should take, eh, an hour or so. Max! Even less if your hair keeps doing…”
An ax is swung at it and shattes. It had been an old ax, sure, but yikes.
“That. I'm starting to think it might genuinely be unbreakable!”
Varian’s about to explain what the other tests will entail when, not for the first time today, someone slams open the door to his lab.
“Blondie, what are you- OHMYGOD”, a man shrieks. Thankfully, he doesn’t trigger any of the animal traps, but he does seem to know the two women. And if he’s bold enough to refer to the Princess as ‘Blondie’, then he must be-
Oh God.
Holy smokes!
“Eugene! Hi”, Rapunzel says while Varian all but vibrates in place with excitement.
“Blondie! You’re okay! You wanna tell me what’s going on here?”
“She’s fine, Fitzherbert”, Cassandra groans.
After heaving a sigh, the man - and it must be him, who else would it be? - finally seems to notice Varian. He gives him a confused raise of the eyebrows, before looking between Rapunzel and Cassandra.
“You’re Flynn Rider!”, Varian whisper-yells, pressing gloved hands to his cheeks.
Another glance at Rapunzel, and in an evasive way, the man says:
“No. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never seen you before in my life”, a pause, “You can’t prove anything!”
Varian just slowly backs away to pull a curtain aside and reveal one of the shelves filled with his more personal belongings, the crown jewel of which is his well-loved, well-read favorite childhood book series, The Adventures of Flynnigan Rider .
“I am your biggest fan. See?”, Varian beams, even pointing at one of the wanted posters of the ex-thief he’d managed to snatch years ago to complete his collection. Dad hadn’t been very amused at the time, but he’d indulged him.
And right now, Varian is face to face with none other than Flynn Rider himself! Or, er, the Princess’ current boyfriend too, but c’mon! It’s Flynn Rider !
At that, the suspicion from before eases and the man steps closer, which only makes Varian smile wider. His cheeks are starting to hurt with it and Varian can't even be bothered to mind.
“Huh. Hey. Flynn Rider. Nice to be met”, he smirks and stretches out a hand, which Varian vigorously shakes.
“I used to see your wanted posters all the time before, you know”, he gestures vaguely in the Princess’ direction, “You’re my hero!”
“Oh, well… ‘Hero’ is a bit much.”
“I’ve read every single book about you!”, Varian points to his books again, barely stopping himself from squealing. Flynn purses his lips.
“Uhm, ah ha. You see, that’s not actually me, I just took the name from the book and-”
“Hey, hey! You remember the time you dueled that evil knight, blindfolded?”
“Nope. Once again, not me-”
Varian takes out one of the modified saws he’s been using to cut metal sheets for the water tanks and he does a pretty good imitation of the scene, if he says so himself.
“-You wanna put that down or-”
“Oh, oh, oh! Or the time you took on the Earl of Camembert!”
As Flynn keeps denying his own heroic deeds, humble as he always is, Varian notes that, in the background, there is another conversation being held.
And, gosh, today is really proving to be the best day of Varian’s life. He’s not only met royalty, but also the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and his hero! How could anything go wrong now?
Finally, after Varian has relented and put the saw back down, still grinning like a little child on Christmas, Flynn turns back to the women.
“Would someone please explain to me who this child is?”, he implores.
“I’m Varian!”, Varian says proudly, puffing his chest out, nearly tripping as he does. He should really clean up in here.
Flynn opens his mouth to say something else, brows still knit together, when the ground rumbles below their feet.
And just like that, Varian snaps out of the happy spell, eyes wide and staring at the ground, already imagining what he will find. Oh no. Oh no , no, no, no!
“Wait. What’s that rumbling?”, Flynn asks instead, but Rapunzel shrugs, about as confused as he seems. Cassandra gives Varian an apprehensive glare.
He laughs nervously.
He has to get out of here, has to make sure the pressure isn’t going haywire.
He hadn’t been lying, the tests really should go smoothly, so if he just manages to sneak away before they’re done, everything will be fine.
And hey, the printing will give him a few extra minutes as well, the spectrometric press has certainly seen better days. So-
Oh. He’s left the press somewhere in the cave systems, hasn’t he?
Oh, Varian, you fool , he thinks to himself.
“Trembling? I didn’t notice any trembling, haha. I mean, what”, he tries, then, “But uhm, I do have to get my spectrometric press. The tests are useless if we can’t read the result, h-huh?”
With that, he makes to push past Flynn, when an idea strikes Varian. Suddenly, his wish to awe his childhood hero overwhelms any cautionary warnings going off in his head that sound suspiciously like Dad’s voice.
“Hey! Flynn Rider! Wanna come? I can show you a super secret project I’ve been working on on the way and-”
“A secret, you say?”, the man’s eyes light up, “You wanna tell me a secret? Did you hear that, everyone? Varitas- V- Var-”
“Varian!”
“A complete stranger wants to tell me a secret! He trusts me , unlike some of us - ahem. Lead the way, kid!”
And so Varian does, stomach a mixture of roiling nausea and fluttering enthusiasm. But everything will be fiiine .
Everything is not fine.
Varian basically chews a hole into his lips, keeping his worried mumbling and ranting to himself as they approach the central water tank. Yes. The trembling is coming from here, Varian knows, and he knows why .
He’s still tweaking the pressure release valves, they don’t quite work properly yet so it has to be done manually every so often, but the reaction has never seemed quite so strong before. Is there a leak somewhere? Damn it, how didn’t he notice before?
Still, he should keep up a confident face in front of Flynn! He wants the man to be impressed, not to think Varian’s messed up his calculations again, after all!
“Ah, there it is!”, Varian runs forward and grabs the press, then looks at the tank with narrowed eyes.
“Alright. Listen buddy, I need you to tell me everything that the Princess told you”, Flynn suddenly speaks up, making Varian nearly drop the press.
He turns to meet the man’s eyes, then laughs.
“Oh! Yeah, well, okay. First, she said-”, and he launches into another one of his rants, oh God, maybe the other kids in the village are right, he does speak too much - Flynn asked him to, though , explaining everything he’s heard, from seeking aid for the mystery of the returning ‘magical’ hair, then backtracking to when she and Cassandra got stuck in one of Varian’s booby-traps, and oh, the claim of him doing magic, that wasn’t very nice at all and-
“Right. That’s great, but what I mean is, tell me the important stuff!”
Varian looks at Flynn, then at the water tank, then at the press in his arms, which he slowly lowers back down. He can talk and work at the same time, because the rattling metal sounds behind him are really frying Varian’s poor nerves right about now-
“Well, Mr. Rider, when the Princess of Corona speaks directly to you”, Varian begins, climbing over some of the not-boiling-hot parts of his invention, taking out a wrench and hoping against all hope that, if he does this fast enough, the released steam won’t blast him with a face-full of scalding air, “Every word she says important!”
“Yeah, but- What are you doing…?”
Varian laughs again, a bit louder and even more nervous as sweat begins to build on his brow. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon-
“Oh, just, heh, doing some minor fixes if we’re already h-here! And I believe I-I promised you a secret, right?”
Flynn stares at the large machine as if this is the first time he’s actually noticed it, either awe or abject horror plastered over his face, Varian just isn’t quite sure which.
“Here? This ?”, he asks.
The ground shakes again and Varian turns back to the valve he’d been working on, arms moving faster. Flynn’s eyes widen.
“Y-yep! This- My creation, it uses a chemical reaction that produces heat near instantaneously and the pressure leads the water through the pipes! These tunnels run through my entire village, you see”, in spite of himself, excitement still creeps into Varian’s voice; he so rarely gets to show off his inventions, and to do so in front of the Flynn Rider-
“I… Don’t get it…?”, Flynn’s face is still unreadable, but Varian smiles, still thinking it’s a positive sort of confusion all the same.
“Using this machine and my newest compound”, he pauses, thinking, then grins, “Named Flynnoleum , I’m going to surprise my village with hot, running water!”
Varian makes a wide motion with his arms, rench still held tight between gloved fingers.
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait”, Flynn shakes his head, “Your machines are causing the tremors?”
Not exactly .
“No! No, certainly not…! It’s the compounds interacting and the explosive energy they produce to-”
“And no one knows you’re doing this?”
“Oh no. If my Dad knew what I was doing down here, he’d probably kill me”, Varian chuckles, brows furrowed.
Flynn looks at the tank, then at Varian, who’s putting all his failing strength back into working the wrench. Something is stuck, but he knows he can fix it, he’s done it before, he can-
“Okay. Listen, kiddo, I’m no expert in. Whatever this is. But something that can cause earthquakes cannot be safe. We’ve gotta warn people about this. We’ve gotta - oh my God, Rapunzel!”
He mumbles something along the lines of and the harpy, yeesh under his breath, but Varian freezes. The air around him is getting hotter. He needs to fix that valve, and right now, but Flynn’s words have snapped him right out of that zone.
“But, we can’t-”, he tries, only to be interrupted again when Flynn runs a hand down his face and speaks, voice leaving no room for argument.
“I’m gonna go get Blondie and Cass. You- You need to get out of here and tell the others, kid. Got it?”
And then he takes off running, just like that.
If nothing else, at least Flynn proves that he is the brave hero who tries to save others that Varian knows so well from his books, but he doesn’t understand . His inventions aren’t dangerous , they aren’t! They need a bit of work still, but Varian’s done the math, so why-
With a sigh and a hand placed over his suddenly too quick heart, Varian gaze narrows with determination. He picks his wrench back up, but instead of trying to work on one of the stuck bolts, he just starts hitting it against the metal components, hoping the force will knock something loose.
He gasps, feeling the heat to his left growing worse and worse, even through his gloves, but then, suddenly, with a hissing sound, something gives.
“Ow!”, he gasps when something strikes his left arm, through the glove, but he doesn’t linger. The machine has stopped shaking.
Not wasting any more time here but still feeling satisfied with his own perseverance, see, he can do this, he has got this , Varian runs through another tunnel. The pressure in the central tank must have affected the other five machines set up throughout the caves. Two of them have been inactive for days now, so that leaves - three. Varian can deal with three more possibly life-threatening escapades.
This won’t be like last time, it won’t, it won’t, it won’t-
His previous iterations haven’t been successful, not quite, but this time, he thought he had it, it’s why he’s started spreading out the water tanks and it won’t all get ruined, it won’t!
The cave lets out into the village, and for just a moment, the sunlight disorients him, but before he can shake it off and go towards the other water tanks, someone grabs him by the arm and Varian finds their grip too strong to jerk himself out of.
When he looks at them, his jaw drops.
“Listen, kid”, Cassandra says, “We gotta get outta here!”
He isn’t even sure how she found him, or why she’s trying to, to get him out of here, he can leave by himself if needs to, but that’s not what he needs to do right now, no-
“No! No !”, he tries again to get her to let go, but her eyes are hard and the fingers are even harder where they tighten their hold on him, “No, there’s still time, I’ve got three pumps to shut off and-”
And I can’t let this happen again!
“Look out!”
Something flies towards them as the chain of explosions begins, all at once. Much sooner than Varian had anticipated. Had he been wrong? Even in the calculations for the fail-safes? Crap, of course he’d been wrong, of course-
Everything turns dark.
For a second, Varian thinks that, either he’s fainted, or whatever struck them in the explosion actually took him out. He does hope Cassandra wasn’t caught up in it though, she was only trying to help and - Cassandra!
She stands above him, like an angel, and looks at him sternly until she notices that he’s awake. Something brief passes over her face and then she’s helping him up.
There’s that intoxicating feeling of relief, because, holy crap, he didn’t die, he’s alive , and it makes a bubble of pure exhilaration pop in his chest.
“Thank you”, he says, climbing out of what he realizes is a cylinder piece from one of his tanks, and then, more lightheartedly and with a little bow to counter his shaking voice and his unsteady movements, “M’lady.”
Cassandra groans and the corner of her lips twitches up.
But whatever cheeriness he’d felt at not being dead bleeds right out of him when he looks around.
The people are starting to gather outside their houses. Thankfully, they seem uninjured, but the houses…
Cracked walls and shattered windows and fallen doors and roofs that curve more than they ever did before, with missing tiles that are now implanted in the road. A tree that’s fallen down over a loaded cart. So much rubble in the streets, most of it pieces of his own, now broken, inventions.
Then, Varian shrinks in on himself as he hears his father’s voice, distant at first, then getting closer, calling his name.
“Varian!”
“Oh no…”, he whispers to himself.
When Cassandra raises a curious eyebrow, he continues, hanging his head and raising a hand to try to signal his presence to the man quickly approaching them.
“That’s my Dad.”
“Varian? Varian, where-”, he sees them and runs towards his son, “Varian!”
Quirin falls to his knees to embrace his son after a cursory glance reveals that is mostly uninjured, if a little dusty.
“Varian, what happened?”, Quirin asks after the moment passes.
“I… I’m sorry, Dad.”
He’s used to seeing disappointment reflected in his father’s brown eyes, but somehow, it doesn’t hurt any less now. Oh, if only the ground had swallowed him whole when it had been shaking because of his stupid, stupid, stupid mistakes.
“Oh son. Not again…”, there’s a heavy sigh, tired and world-weary, before Quirin gets up, turning his back on Varian and addressing the small crowd watching them.
Varian himself turns to Cassandra.
“Thanks. Again. For, uh… For that. I’ll see if I can still get the results a-and get them to you and… Yeah. But you should probably go now”, he trails off.
Cassandra looks in the direction of Varian’s lab and simply pats Varian’s shoulder before she leaves.
“Try not to get into any more trouble, kid.”
The gesture is a little comforting.
He half-smiles as he starts picking up the rubble. Cleanup will take a while, but he dreads it much less than the talk that he and his Dad are sure to have later tonight.
But the part-expected, part-feared conversation never happens.
In fact, even as Varian brings the rest of the rubble back to his lab so he can sort through everything in the morning in the hopes of finding something useful, his father barely acknowledges him on his way to lock up the animals for the night.
Dinner is a silent affair, and that only changes towards the end, when Varian picks up the stack of dishes to take them to the sink, only to wince and change his grip with his left hand.
“Varian. Show me your arm”, Quirin says, quiet and deep, exhaustion covering up whatever emotions he’s feeling. Disappointment, embarrassment, shame, he guesses. Varian bites at his lip, finishes placing the dishes in the sink and faces his Dad.
“I-it’s fine”, he tries, laughing, “I just moved it wrong when I-”
“ Varian . Your arm.”
Silence.
“Yes, sir.”
As Varian slowly takes off his left glove, he has to quickly look away. The burnt skin isn’t pretty but the dried blood makes him look away with a wince. Thankfully, he doesn’t faint.
Quirin looks, holds his son’s small wrist and turns it this way and that, only to gesture to the stairs that lead to where the bedrooms are.
The silence persists in Varian’s room.
Even after, when he’s done bandaging the burn, the air is too still, stuffy and uncomfortable in a way Varian can never stand. He feels so small, and he knows it’s his own fault, but…
Varian watches his father where he is kneeling before his bed, tying a knot in the bandages with gentle fingers that don’t quite mirror his distant demeanor. Varian watches and he can’t help but wonder when he will stop. Stop making a mess wherever he goes. Stop causing trouble for everyone, but especially his Dad.
Varian loves his father. He is everything Varian has. And what does Varian do to repay the love and support and safety his father offers him so readily?
He nearly kills people with explosions because he couldn’t be bothered to be more cautious. Or to not do anything at all. Whatever childish fantasies Varian has of doing something that will make life easier for his village, it’s all a dream. He can’t get anything right anyway.
He lowers his eyes to the carpet in the middle of his bedroom floor, avoiding Quirin’s gaze in return as he asks:
“Dad?”
But there is no response. Quirin gathers the medical supplies and leaves his son seated on the bed. He leaves and doesn’t say another word.
For a long moment, Varian just waits in silence, chest growing tight.
Then he forces himself to breathe.
Varian looks at his desk, his goggles placed neatly on top of scattered pieces of paper and parchment, alongside one of his gloves.
Maybe… Maybe tomorrow he can find something less risky to work on until things calm down. Something small. But tonight, he starts gathering up all of the boiler plans, stuffing them in his drawer and slamming it shut harder than he’d intended, his teeth aching with how hard he clenches them to keep from giving into his emotions.
Tonight, he stares out the window, at the moon and star lit sky and wonders, wonders, wonders.
Is this all he will ever amount to? Just a stupid kid (and he’s not a kid, but for how he acts, can he blame people for calling him that?) who delves into strange sciences that frighten the people around him and who puts everyone in danger?
