(no subject)

[insteadofwords]

It's been a few days and Keys feel like he's at least sort of starting to settle in. His apartment is still pretty sparse, but he's bought a few things to make it feel cosier, more like his. He still misses his place in Seattle, misses how like him it had felt, but it's not like he can blame the apartment in Dimera for still feeling like it's someone else's, not when he's been in it for less than a week.

His wardrobe is also still feeling pretty basic. He'd bought a week's worth of plain t-shirts in black, white, navy, as well as a couple of pairs of jeans, a few sweaters, a hoodie, socks, boxers. His wardrobe in Seattle hadn't been anything to write home about, honestly, but there are a few things he'll miss. He found a decent pair of combat boots in an army surplus store, which helps with the weather.

He's met a few people so far but really the only person he can think of as a new friend is Rapunzel. She's been checking in regularly and he's thoroughly grateful every time his phone lights up with a text. They text a lot, not about anything in particular, and it's been pretty much the only thing that's stopped Keys from spiralling into just feeling desperately, completely alone.

When Rapunzel invited him over for dinner, Keys had a brief panic about what he should bring with him. His parents raised him to be polite, and he knows that it's good manners to not show up empty handed. So, when he shows up at her door, he's wearing the coat she helped him to buy, a hat pulled on over his hair, and he's got pie and he's got wine.

He's doing his best, anyway.

Comments

[fatesdesign]

“Well, I had to keep myself busy,” she admits with a laugh, though she winces a little at the question.

“I kind of avoided telling you that before because I didn’t want to freak you out,” she says gently. “But I got here on my eighteenth birthday. Almost eight years ago.”

[insteadofwords]

It does freak him out, just a little bit. For all of his talk about teaching and studying, part of him had thought he'd snap out of...whatever this is. To hear Rapunzel talk about nearly a decade here puts that into perspective. Eight years ago, he'd still been at MIT.

He puffs out his cheeks with a long, slow exhale.

"I heard people leave sometimes?"

[fatesdesign]

His reaction makes Rapunzel frown sympathetically and she reaches up to rub between his shoulder blades, expecting something like this. What takes her by surprise is what he says next, even though it probably shouldn’t.

Her breath catches and she goes still, eyes stinging as her lower lip wobbles.

“They don’t leave,” she admits with a trembling voice. “Sometimes people just disappear without any warning. I—“ She pauses and swallows hard. “We don’t know where they go.”

[insteadofwords]

He leans into her touch without really realising he's doing it. He's upset her, he can see that, and his eyebrows draw together as he studies her face.

"You lost someone," he says. "God. I'm an idiot. I'm sorry for bringing it up, Rapunzel. I..."

[fatesdesign]

“No, no. It’s okay. You couldn’t have known,” Rapunzel assures him, sniffling a bit and wrinkling her nose. No tears fall, thankfully, and she takes a slow breath.

“My boyfriend. About nine months ago,” she tells him. She’s lost more than just Peter, but that was the one that hit her hardest, and the one she isn’t sure that she’ll ever really get over. “I feel like I’m just sort of getting back into the swing of things. Being a person again.”

[insteadofwords]

"Doesn't mean I'm not sorry for bringing it up," he says. He hesitates for a moment and then he slips his arm around her shoulders, tentatively, tugging her in against his side, but giving her plenty of slack to pull away if she doesn't want it.

"We can talk about it, if you want," he says. "Or we can talk about literally anything else."

He's been ignoring the fact that he might never see Millie again, been refusing to think about it. He shoves the thought away again.

[fatesdesign]

Keys’ arm goes around her shoulders and Rapunzel can’t seem to help the way she slumps against his side, grateful for the contact. She sighs softly and rests her hand on his thigh, closing her eyes for a moment.

“Gosh, look at me,” she says, chuckling a little and shaking her head. “You just lost your whole life and here I am.”

She pats the top of his thigh and tips her head over onto his shoulder, feeling grateful that she was the one to run into Keys first. He’s nice, and she likes nice people.

“We can talk about something else,” she assured him. “But thank you. You’re very sweet.”

[insteadofwords]

"Yeah, well, my life wasn't up to that much to be honest," he admits, his arm curling around her to keep her tucked in against his ribcage. He has to concentrate to stop his brain from blue screening when she puts her hand on his thigh - when she squeezes - but he's got a lot of experience at that.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asks. "I remembered to bring my glasses in case you ended up wanting to watch a movie or something later."

[fatesdesign]

“Well—“ Before she can even think of a new topic, the oven timer goes off and she startles a little, grabbing at the inside of Keys’ thigh as she sits up straight. “Oh, the chicken!”

Rapunzel hops up from the sofa and holds her hair out to keep from getting twisted in it as she runs into the kitchen. She feels a little flustered, maybe because that was the first time she’s been so close to a man since Peter, and she wasn’t really expecting it.

She takes the chicken out and prepares them each a plate— roasted chicken with veggies and wild rice— and calls out to Keys from the kitchen. “Can you bring the wine over to the table, please?”

[insteadofwords]

"Yes, ma'am," says Keys, wincing a little at the way his voice gives, a combination of her hand on his thigh and the accidental glimpse down her shirt he gets as she sits up.

"That smells delicious," he says, bringing the bottle and the glasses over to the table, pouring a little more wine for each of them. Before he sits down, he peels off his jumper, t-shirt tugging up to reveal a strip of pale skin. "I've been living off microwave stuff. I still need to.get my kitchen properly set up."

[fatesdesign]

"Well, that won't do," Rapunzel says as she comes over with two steaming plates, smiling as he takes off his sweater and makes himself comfortable. "You need real food."

She sets one plate in front of him and playfully ruffles his hair with her free hand, then sets her own plate down around the corner from him, rather than across the table. Before sitting down, she brings Pascal a small cup of his own food, setting it on his little platform in the ficus. He squeaks happily and nuzzles against her fingers before digging in, and Rapunzel returns to the table to sit down in her chair, reaching for her glass of wine as she tosses her hair over one shoulder. "Okay, dinner is served for everyone."

[insteadofwords]

"I'm not actually a bad cook," he says, settling himself down in the chair. She ruffles his hair and he grins, pushing it back out of his face with one hand. She watches him take food to Pascal and then waits for her to settle before he picks up his fork. "I meant it when I said this smelled delicious." He glances up at her, smiling. "I'm so glad I met you."

[fatesdesign]

"Then maybe you can cook for me next time," she teases, scooting her chair in a bit and twisting her hair back over one shoulder before reaching for her fork. Keys' next words take her a little by surprise and she blushes a little, looking over at him with a softly pleased expression. He might just mean it because of all the help and the home-cooked meal, but it makes her feel nice.

"I'm glad I met you, too," she assures him, looking at him from under her lashes for a moment before looking down at her plate and spearing some food onto her fork just for something to do with her hands. "Now, eat before it gets cold."

[insteadofwords]

"It's a date," says Keys, loading up a forkful and popping it inot his mouth. He groans softly as he chews. "Seriously," he says, reaching for his glass and taking a sip of his wine. His knee bumps against hers under the table. "I guess cooking was a good way to keep yourself occupied?"

He'd basically learned to cook so that he wasn't living entirely as a stereotype. So many guys he knows live on coffee and take-out sushi.

[fatesdesign]

Keys' reaction to her food delights Rapunzel and she laughs happily at the noises that he makes, pressing her knee back against his. It's nice to share a meal with someone. She has her friends over as often as she can, but they have their own lives, and their own partners that they spend time with. Keys will eventually be the same, she supposes, but she'll enjoy it for now.

"Yeah, but I think that I'm better at baking," she tells him once she's swallowed a bite. "I really only ever had what Gothel brought me to occupy myself. Sometimes it was books, sometimes food, sometimes paints. She was gone a lot."

She smiles ruefully and sips from her wine again. It goes well with the chicken, she thinks, but she's not exactly an expert. Most wine just tastes like wine to her.

[insteadofwords]

He can't imagine isolation like that, especially not for someone like Rapunzel, who's some warm, so vibrant, who so clearly comes alive in company. He can't imagine how lonely she must have been.

"I don't remember it ever being quiet when I was a kid," he says. "I might have been happy to trade with you." He takes another sip of his wine. "Or, at least, come and keep you company or something."

[fatesdesign]

“You would have had to be very good at climbing,” she tells him, but it’s a very nice sentiment, one that she appreciates.

“The thing is, at the time, I didn’t know what I was missing.” Her brow furrows thoughtfully, nose scrunching. “I mean, I knew that there was more to life. I knew that I wanted to leave the tower, but I didn’t know just how bad it was.”

She takes another bite of her food mostly just to give herself a moment to try and get to the point.

“Things are better here,” she tells him finally. “I’d rather you visit me here. Here I’m not a victim, or a stolen princess. I’m just Rapunzel.”

[insteadofwords]

"Well, I'm glad I met you hear then," says Keys, taking another bite of his food, washing it down with a sip of wine and then reaching for the bottle. "It's not the same, obviously, but my life had been kind of shitty for a while, honestly, before I washed up here."

Things were maybe starting to look into, but only if Milli and Guy had managed to stick it to Antwan.

[fatesdesign]

“Everyone has their own version of shitty,” Rapunzel tells him with a sympathetic smile. She had a difficult life, but she certainly wouldn’t want anyone telling themselves that they couldn’t think the same because circumstances were different.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” She sets her fork down to pick up her wine, looking at him curiously. “Were you not writing games back home?”

[insteadofwords]

"Not for a while," says Keys, fiddling with his fork. "It's...kind of a long story, honestly. Filled with failed dreams, desperation and student debt." He remembers Mouser - that sounds horrible, boring, and full of white privilege. He huffs a laugh through his nose and takes a swallow of his wine, setting down his glass and then dropping his free hand to squeeze her knee under the table. "I don't want to bore you."

[fatesdesign]

“Failed dreams?” Rapunzel picks up on that part easily, and her heart sinks a little. She’s such a firm believer in following your dreams, and she knows how hard it can be when they don’t turn out the way you plan.

She opens her mouth to reply, but pauses when Keys’ big hand settles on her knee under the table. It’s an innocent enough touch, but it takes her a little by surprise for some reason. Honestly, she can’t decide if she’s relieved or disappointed that she went with jeans instead of a dress.

“You don’t bore me,” she assures him, smiling warmly at him. “They’re your dreams. How could they be boring?”

[insteadofwords]

His thumb grazes her knee-cap through the rough fabric of her jeans and then he takes his hand back, leaning his chin into it instead. "It's not the dreams that are boring, although, you haven't heard them, so reserve judgement." He smiles faintly. "It's what happened afterwards, I guess. What I let happen afterwards." He'd been such a coward. In his gut, he'd known that Millie was right, but they hadn't been able to prove it, and, in the end, it had been easier to just fold, to take the easy job in Cyber Security and not code and just...let that part of him die. Or try to, anyway.

[fatesdesign]

"A person's dreams are their own. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of them," Rapunzel assures him. She thinks wistfully of the men she had met in that tavern back in Corona, hoping that they took her song to heart and followed their dreams.

Keys' face does something complicated, and Rapunzel sets down her fork to reach over and put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry that things didn't work out the way that you planned, but maybe you can find a new dream? It's not too late."

[insteadofwords]

She puts her hand on his arm, warm on his bare skin, and Keys feels his face flush a little. Hopefully, he can blame it on the wine.

"Yeah," he says. "You're right. I guess I can be anything I want to be here." He covers her hand with his and squeezes. "Tell me about your business."

[fatesdesign]

"It may not be exactly ideal, but it is a fresh start," Rapunzel assures him, because she has a stubborn habit of always trying to see the bright side. She smiles at him and rubs her hand up and down his arm before letting go to pick up her fork again, taking a bite of food as she ponders her answer.

"It's something that's kind of evolved over the years," she explains after she's washed down her bite with a delicate sip of wine. "Like I said, I started making clothes for myself and a few friends, because the sorts of options we were used to weren't really available here. Then they told their friends, and I started taking commissions, which branched out to more modern styles as I learned about them. That's how it started, and it just kept growing and growing."

She's modest, but pleased with what she's created. "I started selling some pieces in a friend's store, but unfortunately he's no longer here. Not long ago, I opened my own shop. It's very small, but it has some workspace in the back so I don't have to have bolts of fabric taking over my whole apartment."