Reunion at Sea

Perfect

"Varian! Varian, it's time to wake up!"

"Mmn..." Varian groaned and slowly opened his eyes. To his shock he found himself in...his bedroom? He sat up and looked around, his mind processing what last happened at rapid speed. He was in that strange, magical house that looked like a seashell, with...with...

Who else was there with him? A girl with blonde hair...Princess Rapunzel?

"Varian, are you awake?"

He jolted, hearing his dad's voice. Wait, why did that alarm him? "Uhm, yeah, I'm awake." He said, stepping out of bed.

"It's a beautiful day, son. You should come out to see it."

Varian walked over to pick out his clothes, pausing when he saw his mother's old clothes. He felt compelled to put them on, but knew that it wasn't good clothes for when he wasn't going to be doing alchemy, and when his dad said "come out and see the beautiful day", it meant he wasn't going to be doing alchemy.

He put them on anyway, complete with the alchemy gear. It felt...right. He looked at himself in the mirror and tilted his head in confusion before he went to check his height against the board he'd been keeping track of it on. He'd gotten...taller. When did that happen? He looked more adult, too.

"Varian? Did you go back to sleep?"

"Uhm, no, I'm coming." He grabbed his boots and put them on, then stepped out of his room.

His father was standing in the hallway and Varian felt his heart skip a beat when he looked at him. "You're going to the coronation celebration in that?" He asked with an amused smile.

"...Coronation?" He blinked.

"Of Princess Rapunzel. Did you forget?" He reached out and rubbed his head.

Right, the Princess of Corona's coronation weekend. He had been sick before, though, wasn't he?

Wait..."before"?

How could there be a "before", if it was happening at this moment?

"Varian, are you feeling alright?" His father asked with concern.

"Uhm...sorry, I guess I was so excited about a project I've been working on that I forgot. I'll get changed." Varian said, stepping back into his room and removing his clothes after shutting the door. He paused when he removed his shirt and turned around in front of the mirror, feeling compelled to look at his back for some reason. He looked over his shoulder and didn't see any reason that he would want to.

Maybe it was because of that dream. That horrible, horrible dream where he became a criminal and his father was caught up in his alchemy and the King didn't care about his subjects. Where he'd been whipped in the interrogation room of the dungeon, while the King watched.

He shuddered and grabbed a clean, blue shirt to pull on, with a black vest, then removed his mother's gloves and put on his black leather ones, instead.

"Never remove your gloves." He murmured, then put his mother's clothes and alchemy gear away after he changed into black pants instead of his mother's old brown ones and tucked his pants into his leather boots, leaving his mother's old rubber ones with the rest of her clothes. Then he tied back his hair into a ponytail, pinned his long bangs out of his face neatly and headed back out.

"Much better." His father smiled and nodded. "Come along, we'll eat breakfast and then go to Corona Capital."

Something felt...wrong about this. His father never smiled this much...right?