Gerard and Rapunzel by Dira Sudis (PG-ish)

[turlough]

Fandom: BANDOM
Pairing: Bob/Frank/Gerard, background Mikey/Ray
Length: 13,470 words
Author on LJ: dsudis
Author Website: Words Words Words & on AO3
Why this must be read:

He is Gerard, and she is also Rapunzel. A retelling of Rapunzel in an early medieval setting.

This is an absolutely gorgeous story. It's quiet and thoughtful and bittersweet, and the writing itself is wonderfully sparse and lyrical. The characters are the familiar ones we know and love but shaped by another time and place into something beautiful and strange, and the way the story twists and plays with gender adds extra richness to both characterisations and plot. It's one of the loveliest stories I've had the pleasure to read in any fandom.

Excerpt from the story:

The holy woman kept Rapunzel very busy, so Rapunzel did not often have time to walk and sing in the forest, but when she did, many times she met Ray and Michael playing there. On the first of these meetings, she held out her hands to Michael and said, "I am your Gerard, and I am also Rapunzel."

Michael seemed to find this satisfactory, and thereafter he and Ray always called him Gerard, and seemed to see nothing odd in the fact that Michael's brother had long hair in a shining stream down his back, and wore a long gown and sturdy slippers instead of a tunic and hose and boots.

So things went for years, with the three boys playing in the forest and the girl Rapunzel faithfully serving the holy woman. Rapunzel continued to grow in beauty, and Gothel's watch over her grew sharper and sharper. One summer, when the boys had begun to be tall youths - Ray quite a lot taller than Michael - and Rapunzel had begun to be a maiden rather than a child, the holy woman kept Rapunzel quite close to her indeed. Rapunzel did not see Ray or Michael at all, until one day when Gothel was at her prayers and Rapunzel was tending the garden, and she saw Ray come up the path alone.

She was instantly filled with fear, for Ray was seldom separated from Michael, and indeed Ray's face was creased with worry. He came quickly to her and knelt beside Rapunzel in the garden, and told her that Michael was sick. All summer his weak eyes had been growing dimmer. Michael was still forbidden to come to the holy woman, so he could not be blessed and perhaps cured; he wanted only to see his brother once more before his sight was gone entirely.

Rapunzel did not think of disobeying Gothel. He thought only of his brother, and Gerard followed Ray at once into the woods. Michael waited for them there, sitting at the base of a tree. He looked up when they approached, though he did not see them until Gerard knelt before him and looked closely into his eyes.

Gerard and Rapunzel (or here or here