Who: Rapunzel and Caleb What: Rapunzel tries to heal Caleb from his ability. Spoiler alert: it doesn't work Where: Caleb's place When: Recent! Rating/Warnings: Low Status: Complete
Caleb wasn’t the biggest fan of his new ability. Ever since his dead aunt showed up. He didn’t want to see ghosts or spirits or whatever the fuck the proper term was. But after Darren had attacked him and Lina? Yeah he was much less of a fan. Lina had been able to resolve things. Did some spell that gave Darren some peace, but he never wanted to have an encounter like that again. He didn’t know how to stop it. Didn’t think he could stop it. He just had to keep researching. Learning as much as he could. But today he was do for a break. He wanted to just relax with a friend and not have to worry about any of this. Plus he missed Pascal.
So inviting Rapunzel and her little chameleon over it was. “Hey,” Caleb said as he opened the door to let her inside. “Advanced notice, if I randomly start talking to myself, I’m not. A ghost just decided to pay me a visit.”
Being invited to Caleb’s place had been unexpected, but she was rather pleased that he had remembered to invite her to do something. She came with Pascal on her shoulder and a new painting in her hands. It was one of a sunset over the beach and she really liked how the colors had come out and she promised Caleb that she would give him a few new paintings for his place. There was a happy smile on her face when he answered the door and then her smile fell when he commented.
“Um, what?” Well, that certainly wasn’t something she was expecting to be told. A confused look passed over her face as she stepped into the apartment, “That’s not a normal thing to say. Oh and here’s a painting for you.”
It was nice having a friend who painted. He never had to buy art for his walls, although he honestly probably wouldn’t anyway. That was more Hanna’s thing. “Thanks,” Caleb said accepting the painting from her. He set it against the wall behind the couch, he would hang it there later.
“Yeah,” Caleb said with a frown. “Turns out I can see ghosts. First it was my aunt, then it the guy that kidnapped Hanna decided he’d haunt me.” He was getting a better handle on the whole seeing the dead thing, even learning some spells to help deal with them but still. He didn’t like the idea of violent ghosts showing up in his apartment and breaking shit.
“You want something to drink?” he asked heading back to the fridge. I have beer and..” he paused as he opened the door. “Okay just beer. Or a glass of water?”
“Caleb insert your middle name Rivers stop right there,” Rapunzel spoke with a stern tone as he dropped all that information on her and then just ran off. Her mind was reeling a little bit as she tried to catch up with everything. There were ghosts and the mention of a kidnapping and being haunted by someone who had done the kidnapping. How was Caleb able to keep himself sane?
“When in the world was Hanna kidnapped? What happened there? And the guy who kidnapped her is dead now? How did that happen? It sucks that he’s apparently haunting you, but how in the world did you suddenly get the power to see dead people?” Rapunzel was still frowning at him as she waited for the answers to her questions. She was going to get them or else she would throw something at his head.
Shit. He hadn’t told Rapunzel. Well then yeah she would definitely be needing a beer for all this. He grabbed two out handing one to her. As for keeping himself sane, well he wasn’t sure how he managed. Actually he wasn’t sure he was even sane anymore.
“Uh, Hanna was kidnapped when I left a few months ago. It’s why I came back.” Best to start at the beginning. “By people from my past. One was killed the other two are still alive,” although he hadn’t spoken to Austin since. He should probably check with Neal about how he was doing. “My friend,” he wasn’t going to sell Garrus out “shot Darren when we were trying to get Hanna back. The other two we were able to talk down.”
He popped the top off his beer taking a sip. “As far as the dead people thing. I’m not entirely sure. I went to this weird town in the dreams and can apparently talk to ghosts there so now I can here.” Ravenswood was complicated as hell to explain, he still didn’t completely understand it, but that basically summed it up.
Since moving to California Rapunzel had certainly been more open to drinking and she realized it may be because of the shenanigans that continued to happen around here thanks to the dreams. She didn’t drink often, but sometimes the situation called for it as she took the beer from Caleb with a thanks.
“Caleb, that’s awful. I’m sorry you had to go through something like that. I am so glad that Hanna is okay, but what a dangerous situation,” it was a little disappointing that someone had to die in order for Hanna to be safe, but she didn’t know the evil man, so she couldn’t say much about that. It was a hard enough situation and now someone was dead and apparently haunting Caleb.
“That is awful. Do you think it will go away? Can you do anything to make it go away?” It didn’t sound like an ability that Caleb seem to enjoy having and Rapunzel could fully understand not wanting to be haunted by anything. How strange that it happened to him.
Beer in hand he headed toward the couch. This was definitely a sit down conversation. He motioned for her to do the same. “It’s fine,” he shrugged. It wasn’t really fine but there wasn’t much to be said about that whole mess. “It’s over now that’s what matters.” Of course he felt bad that Darren had to die, he had a conscious, but Caleb had seen Darren murder an innocent man before. It was the whole reason Caleb left Allentown in the first place. And he had hurt Hanna, probably would have killed her or Caleb, so he was able to rationalize his guilt away fairly easily.
“I don’t think so,” he sighed rubbing his temple. “I think it’s just one of those abilities dreamers get. Like your hair. Which, is getting very long by the way.”
When he made the motion to sit on the couch she followed along and opened up her own beer. She took a sip as she tried to mull over what he was saying. If she knew that he had seen this Darren do bad things already then she wouldn’t feel as badly that he was dead now. After taking a seat on the couch she took another sip and then frowned when he didn’t think it would go away.
“Well, you never know. I think some of my ability to heal might go away if I cut my hair or at least it’ll be different? I’m not quite sure how it all works,” the mention of her hair getting long made her reach up and run her hands over it, “It’s getting too long. But, I guess it comes with the dreams.”
There was no need to go into detail about everything he had seen Darren do. The things Caleb himself had been part of. He didn’t enjoy talking about his past. He was trying to put it all behind him, move on with his life. So he let the subject drop there taking another sip of beer.
“Maybe I should have waited to cut mine,” he joked. If only it was that easy, cutting hair and there would be no more ghosts showing up to haunt him, or ask forgiveness or whatever the fuck they wanted. “I bet it’s a bitch to maintain,” he commented and he did have some experience with that, he used to have long hair. Not Rapunzel length long but still. “Why would cutting it take away your ability?” he didn’t see how cutting hair had anything to do with her ability to heal even if the healing did come from her hair.
Rapunzel rolled her eyes playfully with a chuckle at the idea of Caleb leaving his hair long and hoping that would gain magical powers. She liked his short hair, so she wouldn’t tell him to keep it long, “And it’s a bit of a pain. Laura really likes to brush it though, so at least she’s helping me out. And in my dreams it took it away, but I managed to heal someone with my tears, so I’m not entirely sure what is going on with that. Although, I could always try to heal you and see if your powers manage to go away or anything like that.”
That wasn’t something that she had ever tried to do, but it could be something that wasn’t normal for Caleb. If it could take away age and bring someone back from the brink of death then perhaps it could take away a power like that? She was a little curious to find out if Caleb wanted to try, “No promises though.”
He certainly wouldn’t want to deal with all that hair. But at least she had someone to help her brush it. However her next comment caught him off guard. “Wait, what?” he asked a bit confused. “Your hair can heal from abilities?” because yeah he would be perfectly fine if he didn’t have his ability anymore.
“I have no idea, but we could try it? I mean, it brought Eugene back from almost dying, so who knows. It doesn’t hurt to try and if your ability stays then I’m sorry?” Rapunzel quickly explained. She did not want to get his hopes up that he would be automatically healed, but it was worth giving it a try and she would know for further reference. She almost wished it would work, but she was highly skeptical.
“Eugene?” Who the hell was that? It wasn’t super important at the moment but still he wanted to know. Looked like he wasn’t the only one that kept her out of the loop on things.
“But sure, why not? What do I have to lose?” Couldn’t hurt to try and if it kept evil spirits from attacking him again he was all for it. He set his beer down on the coffee table, no coaster needed, Caleb could really care less about that shit. “What do I do?”
“Eugene aka Flynn. He’s the guy in the dreams that I will probably live happily ever after with,” she explained to him with a laugh. She thought she had mentioned him, but perhaps not? Oh well, it was finally her time to not tell him something.
“Exactly, you won’t get hurt. It may make you feel more refreshed if anything. And you don’t need to do anything, just sit still,” Rapunzel commented as she unpinned her hair and moved it it to wrap around Caleb’s hands. She wouldn’t make him brush it like Gothel did, but this way it was connected to his skin, “I promise it won’t hurt.” She grinned before she began to sing the song of healing and watched as her hair glowed.
Oh Flynn. That name Caleb recognized. "I don't think I ever heard you call him Eugene before." It was a little confusing but then when weren't the dreams confusing? He was currently dreaming about doppelgängers and a death pact while his girlfriend was still in Rosewood dreaming about A. "I hope you get your happy ending." If anyone deserved one it was her, well and Hanna but that was a given.
Whoa. Her hair really did glow. She had told him about it but actually seeing it was a whole other story. "Damn," Caleb couldn't help but comment on both the hair glowing and the singing. She had a nice voice. He really should have taken her up one this healing thing sooner. Even if it was just for a paper cut.
“I figure if he wants to go by that now that he revealed his real name to me then I might as well call him that. It’s weird though because that’s the name of the town I grew up in,” she added that tidbit and it was one that still made her laugh. At least he wasn’t explain everything in his dreams to her because she would be incredibly confused how in the world his life had ended up like that in the dreams.
When he uttered that word she was almost tempted to chuckle, but instead she tried to focus on the healing. The glowing continued as she tried to send the power of the flower into his body and maybe drive out the weird abilities that he had now. After a bit she was growing tired so she backed off of it and looked at him, “Are you feeling anything?”
That was definitely strange. There were way too many parallels between real life and the dreams but having a person from the dreams having the same name as the town you grew up in? Caleb hadn’t heard of that one before.
However, he was focussing on the glowing hair and the healing at the moment. “No,” he responded to her question. “Am I supposed to feel something?”
That was actually a good question. She had never had to heal herself using her hair, so she was completely unsure, so instead she gave a shrug. “Maybe some tingling? I have no idea. Do you feel refreshed or anything? Maybe sore muscles feel much better?” That part was easy to figure out because it seemed to be what happened to Gothel when they took away her age.
“Uh,” Caleb scratched the back of his head as he thought about her questions. “No. Everything feels the same.”
“Caleb,” Patty said suddenly appearing in front of him. “This isn’t something you are going to be able to get rid of.”
Fuck. “It didn’t work,” Caleb said with a sigh, rubbing his face with his hands. When he looked again his aunt was still there. “You can go now,” he said to his aunt not realizing Rapunzel might think he meant it for her. He was still getting used to this talking to the dead thing.
“Er…?” A look of confusion passed over Rapunzel’s face as he said that he could leave. Well, that was unexpected. She took another swig of her beer before moving to set it down, “Um, I guess I could? Kinda rude to kick me out even if it didn’t work.” Usually she didn’t speak her mind about things like that, but it was unexpected for Caleb. Hopefully he would realize how rude he was and she wouldn’t have to leave, but for now she was starting to go through the motions of being dismissed.
“Huh?” What was Rapunzel even talking about? Oh, right. “No. Not you,” he said focussing back on Rapunzel. “Sorry,” he gave her a sheepish, apologetic smile. “My, uh, aunt is here,” he looked back to where Patty had been standing. “Or well was here,” apparently she listened. At least she had that going for her. “You should stay. Finish your beer. We can play video games? Or watch TV?” That was Caleb’s idea of entertainment at least. That and hacking but he didn’t think Rapunzel would be interested in that.
“Oh….you’re deceased aunt? Sorry it didn’t work,” that was a reasonable explanation so she slowly sat back down in her seat. It was so strange to know he had seen a ghost of someone and she hadn’t seen a single thing. What a strange thing, hopefully it didn’t turn out to be a bad thing. Once settled back onto the couch she picked her beer back up again, “Let’s do video games. I think I might stand a chance at beating you for once.” With an easy smile Rapunzel was ready to forget about their failed experiment and just hang out with her friend.