Sea Witch's Curse

My throat is fucking killing me. How they convinced me to come in today is beyond me.

Mark absent mindedly rubbed his throat, wishing the action could actually soothe the burn in his esophagus. He'd been fighting off a cold for about a week now, and he'd done pretty well; his only real symptom being a sore throat. Unfortunately, a sore throat always ended in a lost voice for him.

"Excuse me? Can I get these rung up for me?" Mark turned to see an elderly lady at the counter and smiled.

"Sure thing, ma'am." Mark loudly whispered. The blue-haired teen began scanning and bagging the toys she'd collected.

"Oh dear. You poor thing. Here, have some butterscotch candies. Sucking on these will help." She handed him her card and candies at the same time, taking back her card and receipt after everything had gone through.

"Thank you very much." Mark waved and popped a piece of candy in as the woman left the Disney store. Mmmm.... That does help a bit.

"Mark, why don't you go take your break? I know you aren't feeling too well, but thanks again for coming in. I know we aren't that busy, but the extra body helps. Especially with Suzy being MIA in the back room for inventory." Mark smiled at his boss, Arin, and nodded.

"It's okay. I know you wouldn't have asked if you didn't need me." Mark cleared his throat, shifting the candy disc in his mouth.

"All right. Head on out for lunch!"

Mark clocked out and headed to the back to check his phone and study a bit. He'd never regretted convincing his mom to let him get a part-time job. Especially when he'd found out his local mall was putting in a Disney store. Being the huge Disney nerd he was, he'd immediately began begging to put his app in.

He also loved spending time with the kids that came in. Being an uncle several times over and being one of the oldest cousins, he usually got put on child duty at reunions. He never minded though. He wasn't much older than them at 17, and he had no problem playing games and watching cartoons with them.

Mark glanced at the clock to see his break was pretty much over, so he began packing his notes and books away, when he got an amazing idea.

~~~~~~

Every time Arin looked at Mark, he cracked up laughing, so he'd been put in the back of the store organizing the mountain-shaped stuffed animal display. Which would have been fine, except Mark could barely reach the top.

"'Scuse me? Can I have one of those?" Mark turned to see a little brunette girl pointing at the Wall-E plushies he was currently arranging. She looked to be around 9 and was horribly adorable with her pigtail braids and little gap between her front teeth, making her slight accent even better. Her eyes lit up a bit. "Oh!... Please?"

Mark smiled as the girl reminded herself to be polite. He slowly stepped down the mini-ladder he'd found earlier and handed her a plush. Her eyes got big as she noticed the little sign around his neck. He patiently watched her sound it all out to herself, then jumped a bit when she gasped.

It was Mark's turn to gasp as she grabbed his arm and started pulling as fast as her little body would allow. Mark could barely keep up as she ducked and wove between the displays, her little pigtails whipping back and forth as she searched the store. She stopped short at the end of an aisle and began tugging Mark down it.

"Uncle Sean!"

"Emily, you okay?" Mark followed her eyes and froze, not expecting to come face to face with a classmate, much less his extremely attractive classmate. "Mark? I didn't know you worked here."

Mark shifted awkwardly and tried to smile and remove the deer-in-headlights look he was sure he was sporting. It was then Emily pulled on his arm again, pulling his attention away from the green-haired boy.

"He needs help, Uncle Sean."

Ah. That explained the accent. And the striking blue eyes. They must run in the Irishman's family. He came back to to see Jack- or Sean, I guess?- chuckling, a hand over his mouth. Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Jack motioned down at Mark's sign.

'Can't speak. Ursula the Sea Witch stole my voice!'

Mark felt his face go scarlet all the way to his ears. Why had he thought this would be a good idea? He was never gonna live this down.

"We have to help, Uncle Sean! He has to get the true love's kiss or he'll never speak again!" Emily gripped Mark's hand even tighter, adamant that they were going to fix this.

Jack knelt down to her level, and Mark wondered how he was going to explain this one. "Well that'd be a right shame, Darlin'. He's got the voice of an angel. I'd hate to never hear 'im sing again."

Oh apparently they were rolling with it. Great.

Emily gasped. "You've heard 'im sing?"

"I have."

Emily glanced up at Mark and leaned in so Mark couldn't hear. Even though he totally could. "Is he as good as Ariel?"

Jack leaned in conspiratorially. "Even better'n her. I've heard 'im in Music class."

Emily gasped again and looked up at Mark, a new sense of urgency in her voice. "Then we can't let you lose your voice forever! Uncle Sean'll help, won't ya?!"

Mark was so confused. And mortified. Let's not forget mortified. He was at work, had no voice, and was being practically kidnapped by a little girl who was apparently related to the punk guy he had a huge crush on. What had started out as a simple joke to turn a bad situation a bit better had landed him here.

"Well, where should we start? You're the expert here, Em." Jack pushed off his knee to stand back up, hands on his hips.

Mark was really starting to sweat, but he saw no way out of this that didn't involve him being really rude to his classmate and his adorable little niece. Plus the look of pure determination on her face was too priceless.

"Hmm... Well, it's gotta be true love. So someone he really, really likes and that likes him back just as much." Emily nodded, looking up like she'd just solved the biggest case ever.

Mark wasn't sure his face could get any darker, but by the way Jack started chuckling behind his hand, he had.

"Any ideas? You're the one who knows him!" Emily looked at Jack like he had all the answers.

"Well...I know someone who likes him."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's just a matter of if Mark likes them back..." Jack looked away, scratching the back of his neck, a tic Mark had discovered meant he was unsure of himself.

When Jack finally looked back up, Mark gave him a soft grin, his head tilting a bit, giving him a slight puppy look.

"Well let's go find them!" Emily yelled, obviously not getting it.

"Pretty sure you won't have to go far." Jack muttered, taking Mark's empty hand, silently testing the waters. Mark squeezed his hand back, and that was all Jack needed.

"Well then let's-" Emily drifted off as she noticed the two boys drifting closer. Their lips met for a few seconds, and their eyes opened slowly after they separated.

Mark cleared his voice and tried his damnedest to control his vocal chords. "My hero."

Emily and Jack both smiled as Mark's deep voice washed over them. Emily threw herself at her uncle and wrapped her arms around his middle. "You did it, Uncle Sean! You're his true love! You broke the curse!"

Mark chuckled but couldn't quite keep the cough down. Jack frowned, then a smile crept onto his face. "Looks like we still have some work to do. What time are you off?"