For the longest time, for what seems like eternity plus forever, we just stare at each other. At him. Him. Him.

Finally, finally, reunited at last.

"Charnell," I say, breaking the silence first. "Charn. Charm." I'd always called him Charm in the tower, that was what he told me to call him. And so it wasn't a stretch to fantasize about my Prince Charming. I never would have guessed him to actually be a prince though.

"Yes," he responds. "That's a childhood nickname. My friends thought it would be funny to call me Prince Charming since my name is so similar, but that was too much of a mouthful and it got shortened to Charm."

"I never would have guessed it to be you," I say. "I've been looking, I haven't lost hope, but when I heard about the ball, I'd no idea it was your ball."

"I'm glad you came," he says softly. "I can't believe... can't believe that finally..." He trails off and looks at me with hope in his eyes. For another long while, we lapse into silence before he asks, "What happened to you?"

I sigh. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. It was all my fault, you know. All on me. I was... a was a fool." I can feel tears rising up into my eyes and threatening to spill over.

"Don't think like that Rapunzel," he says. "It breaks my heart to see you tearing yourself down. Whatever it was, I'm sure it wasn't your fault. It was an accident, a cruel twist of fate."

"I told," I admit. "I was foolish, and I told Mother by accident. I just mentioned you in fleeting, and she figured it out. She... she cut my hair, as you can see, and cast me into the desert."

Charm reaches out to finger a piece of my hair. "I like your hair this length. It could get a bit... overwhelming when it was thirty feet long."

I smile slightly, relieved that he's not mad, that he still likes me. I hated my hair when it was first cut. "So what happened to you?"

"I went back to your tower the next day, as we'd planned. It first it had seemed all right. I called for you, and you let down your hair."

I stare at him, shocked. "Mother kept my hair?"

"That she did. She had it all tied together with some of the silken skeins we'd intended for your lader. I climbed up expecting you, and when I got to the top your old mother was leering at me."

"Oh, oh Charm, I'm so sorry," I say mournfully. "It's all my fault."

"Don't say that."

"Alright, I guess. So what happened next?"

"Let's just say that she gave me a severe talking to. She didn't want anyone messing with her precious daughter. And just when I was thinking that I may have gotten let off easy, that now I could go and track you down, she threw you from the tower."

My hand flies to my mouth. "Down the tower? That's nearly thirty feet!"

"I don't know why I survived. I should have died. But what really broke my fall were these sudden, prickly rose bushes at the bottom. I suppose sorceress that she is, she grew them in that instant just for me. But it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, and that includes jousts and sword fights. And as I was falling, I just heard her cackling above. And then she was gone, just gone. Or maybe she was still there and just stopped talking and laughing, I'll never know. All I know was the excruciatingly painful crawl from the bushes. I was bleeding so much, and the worst part was that they all got in my eyes, which were swollen shut."

"I... I can't believe I..." I'd thought I had it bad, but clearly it was nothing on him. My foolishness had almost killed another. And not just any other, but my beloved, my Prince Charming.

"If the fall hadn't killed me, I feared my injuries would. Once I finally made it from the bushes, all I could do was lie there, in my own spreading blood, and hope I wouldn't die. I don't know how long I was there; I couldn't move, couldn't see, could barely breathe. The only sign that time was passing was the air cooling, then heating up again as the days presumably went past. I couldn't eat, couldn't drink, I was starving, I was going to die. But then... a miracle.

"After some passing time, I felt a presence near me. I tensed up, fearing your mother, but it was a kind voice. She spoke some words I didn't understand, and moved her hands, touching the worst of my injuries, and all of a sudden, I was fine. My cuts healed, my bones mended, and most of all I could see. It was an old woman, and she had healed me. I didn't know why she had come, where she had come from, why she had healed me, and as I tried to ask her, she wouldn't say anything, only shushed me and brought me to my horse, who I've no idea if he was there all along, or if the woman had brought him as well. And then... she disappeared. She was a fairy."

I stare at him. An old woman, a fairy. "Grandmother," I say.

"Who?"

"This old fairy I met. She's helped me in so many ways, she practically helped me get to the ball."

"You met a fairy?" He raises his eyebrows. "What happened to you after the desert?"

I hesitate. I haven't seen Charm in so long, I just want it to be like old times. But it isn't, and I'm afraid to tell him everything, including getting my new friend killed and treason against the Mirchsonese royal family.

"This merchant saved me," I tell him. "He brought me to Grandmother, the fairy, and then we went to Dawsburg, in Krwenia. And I... I made friends with this girl, Lady Liliana. We went to Mirshcon, where I met their Princess Snow White, and another friend, Lady Aysela. And then the four of us came here for the ball." It's close enough to the truth, enough for now. I can tell him the rest later. Later. Right now I just get to enjoy us.

"That's quite the adventure," he muses. "Three kingdoms suddenly for the girl who had never left her tower."

I blush fiercely, then shake it off. "I'm getting to be quite the adventurer. But, I'll say, that in all that time, I was always, always, thinking of you. In my dreams at night, in my thoughts during the day. I was always wondering what you'd think of the new me."

"You're still the same girl," he says, shaking his head. "I would never think less of you. You're still the same beautiful Rapunzel that I met in her tower, just you've been out to see the world. But at the end of the day, now, we're together again."

I frown slightly. "Actually, I go by Ivy now." Hearing my old name has felt so natural from his lips, so familiar, but the truth is that I'm not Rapunzel anymore. I spent so long distancing myself from the weakling in the tower that was controlled completely by her mother and blindly accepted everything, and I can't go back to that now.

"Ivy?" The name sounds strange on his lips, doesn't roll off like my old name, and for a moment I'm tempted to tell him to forget it, to go back to the girl I was, his girl. But I make myself hold strong.

"Yes, Ivy. I didn't want to be known as the passive girl from the tower anymore."

"Ivy," he says it more slowly this time. "Ivy. You're Ivy. Okay. Okay, I can make do with Ivy."

I don't like the way he's scrutinizing me, but I don't say anything about it. This is us, we can do this. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's just different, but I can deal with different. I think we're all a little different."

"Yes," I say, sighing mournfully. "But at least we're together again."

"Yes. And I'd almost say it's a good thing that you told your mother and got yourself out of the tower, because now we're actually here together. Not conducting a forbidden romance in the sole space of your tower, but at a ball."

"Yes, I suppose this is better. Perhaps we should start over."

"That sounds good. So tell me, Ivy, would you like to dance?"

"I'd be honored, Your Highness."

"Please, call me Charm. It's what all my friends do."

I feel a smile break over my face as we step onto the dance floor. As he'd said, we'd never been able to do anything like this before. Always confined to my tower. Now, the edge of the world is the only limit. We can go anywhere, do anything. Now, I'm free.

The dance is a slow waltz. I stare dreamily into his eyes, and he into mine. I'm glad we've both removed our masks, so I can really see his face. It's still as handsome as I recall, and any scars from Mother's bushes must have been completely healed by Grandmother. But he's still different. I'd say it's in his eyes. He looks older. He's not the naive prince that came courting, and I'm not the silly girl who's only experience with the outside world was storybooks and her imagination. We're both older now, and wiser, and though I might mourn for how easy my life used to be, overall it's a good thing.

And then, suddenly, before I know what's happening, Charm leans down and presses his lips against mine. At first I stiffen, surprised. It's not like it's my, or even our, first kiss; we certainly shared more kisses during my time at the tower. But... no matter how much I try to deny it, a lot has changed since then.

Trying to clear my head, I close my eyes and kiss him back. It feels... nice. It's comfortable, like returning home. Pleasant enough.

Enough. Pleasant enough. That's not what I thought at my tower.

I was in love with the idea of being in love. With the idea of being a princess. But not with him. Liliana's words, if not then, make sudden sense now, and I can't believe I didn't see it before.

The decision is already made before I can think about it. It's hard. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Because Charm is safe. Charm was my anchor during my time at the tower. Charm was the person I've gone through all these trials for. He was the one solid thing in my life, and letting go is losing the one, final, last piece of my former self that I'd managed to cling to. But I realize now, without a doubt, that I can't do this anymore. I'm not Rapunzel anymore, and I never will be.

Opening my eyes, the first thing I see across the room is Leon, staring right at me, hurt filling his familiar eyes. Before I can think about it, I've pushed away from Charm. But Leon is already gone, disappeared into the crowd.

"Ivy?" asks Charm.

"I'm sorry," I say, lowly. "I wanted this just as much as you did. But... I can't. It's just... you were a thrill. I was all locked up in my tower, and you were strictly forbidden, as shown by what Mother did after she found out. And you were my first contact at all with the outside world. My only contact. But now... now that I've seen the world I can never go back."

I expect him to be mad. Or disappointed, sad. But to my surprise, he nods. "I know what you mean. You were a beautiful girl in a forbidden tower, an exotic change to my predictable life. But now... that just wasn't..."

"I know," I say. "You don't have to elaborate."

He looks relieved. "Good. Because that would be hard." He gives a chuckle, but I can tell it's stiff, forced.

"But we're still friends right?" I ask, hesitantly. Charm was a big part of my life and I can't just forsake that.

"Of course. You know that-"

I don't hear the rest of what he says. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see a flurry of motion. Whipping my head to look, I see a crowd of people running, and shrieking. And right in the middle of them...

Mother.

And Snow.

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What do you think of Charm? Don't forget to vote and comment, xoxo wisteria