: chapter 7; wonderlandSummary:
Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.
Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who's got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for .)
Chapter Text
Louis thinks they must be in Wonderland, because he kind of feels like he's on drugs.
That, and the fact that they're lying under a huge mushroom, which. Yeah, that tips him off pretty well, too.
Liam gasps after air, hair ruffled and eyes widened from the overwhelming trip. His head snaps around to get a grip of where he is.
"Where are we?" he asks almost frantically. "What is this?"
"Calm down," Harry huffs, brushing a couple of chocolate curls from his forehead and follows Liam's example of looking around, if only with a bit more emotional stability to it. He n arrow s his eyes thoughtfully. "Cloudy skies. Trippy colors. No sense of rationality regarding whether size, form or environmental development. This must be Wonderland."
"You don't say?" Louis raises from his spot , too , scratching his neck and leaning against the mushroom to not lose balance.
"I do," Harry replies indifferently. "We should probably be careful."
"What?" Liam looks slightly panicked. "What's dangerous about this place?"
Harry and Louis can't help but exchange a look. Harry straightens out his black t-shirt and decides to answer Liam since Louis makes it clear with a defiant raise of his eyebrows that he won't. Louis isn't really good at breaking possibly bad news gently —h e's more into lightening someone's mood after receiving them. That's his forte.
"Wonderland..." Harry starts, pouting his lips and biting the lower one thoughtfully, not entirely sure how to put the rest.
(Louis doesn't stare at the way the lower lip plumps out redder than Snow White's apple after that. He most certainly does not. Who even cares about stuff like that? Not Louis. That's for sure.)
(So what if he did anyway. It doesn't make Harry any more enjoyable as a person.)
"Nothing makes sense here," he settles for at last. "It's built on solely the imagination of the right half of a brain. You know how our brain halves function and control different areas, yeah? The right half is what makes you emotional, creative and intuitive, the left one makes you organized and analytical and logical. To be able to think rationally and work properly as a living creature, one side of the brain can be dominate, but you always need a mix of both. They need to balance each other."
Liam swallows frailly . "Yeah?"
Harry smiles gently, but his eyes are serious. "Wonderland does n't have any left brain thinking. Nothing is logical. Nothing is organized. We're living inside one big dream right now, and it tends to fuck with your brain, to not be in an environment accommodated for both parts of it. Wonderland confuses you. It makes you lose grip of what's real and what's not. You can feel it in the air already, yeah? "
"Yeah," Liam almost whimpers. He looks sort of pale.
"Long story short, we need to be careful down here, because this place dims the part of your brain where you can think rationally. And do you know when you need to be able to think rationally? When you need to stay out of trouble. Which is what's we need to do, because nothing about Wonderland will work in our favor. It'll work in the creatures who live here's favor."
Harry looks pretty unbothered by this fact. Liam doesn't.
Louis guesses this is where he steps in.
"It'll be fine, Liam," he says softly, slowly walking up to the shape shifter, putting a comforting arm around his waist. It has to be the waist, because Louis would probably actually have to fly a tiny bit above the ground to reach around Liam's shoulders —which is not something Louis would openly confess. "We'll keep each other grounded, yes? Stop once in a while and solve some mathematical problems to keep our minds in shape. I could start if you'd like, look. There are six cotton candy trees over there. Say I cut them down, and I'm dividing them fairly between us. How many trees do we get each?"
Liam furrows his eyebrows, giving Louis a confused look. Louis just answers it with urging anticipation.
"What," Liam says then. "You want me to answer?"
Louis rolls his eyes as if Liam should've gotten that ages ago. " Yes ."
"Oh. Two?"
"Wrong," Louis sighs and shakes his head with a wistful smile. "I get all six. I would never share that loveliness I worked so hard for with your ugly mugs."
Liam still has a doe-eyed, doubtful glint in his eyes , but a smile is twitching in the corners of his mouth, and Louis sees that as a victory. Harry just snorts behind them. Louis doesn't know if it's to cover up laughter or because he thinks Louis is ridiculous, and Louis can't really bother with caring. He knows he's fantastic. That's all he needs.
"Okay," Liam inhales and exhales deeply, fluttering his eyes shut for a moment, adjusting to the bizarre situation. "Alright. Okay. Right. Let's just —w hat do we do, then?"
"We find another portal."
"Gee, Louis, we wouldn't have guessed," Harry rolls his eyes at the fairy's naïve answer. "How were you planning on finding it, babe ?"
Louis shoots him a glare. "I don't know. I haven't been here before, you two are the ones who thought this was a good idea in the first place. Does anyone know what to avoid and what to look for?"
He gets two pair of blinking eyes at him. Right then. Great.
"None of us have been here before, Louis. We're not supposed to." Harry says slowly. "Wonderland is the most secluded place of all the worlds, probably. No one leaves, and no one goes here."
"So we're absolutely clueless," Louis confirms , brow furrowing . "We know nothing."
"Why did I agree to this?" Liam wonders, shaking his head hopelessly.
Louis would love to know that, too .
"Well," he figures when no one else seems to take the initiative. "I think we should go that way." He points towards the squiggly road that continues on by the cotton candy trees. "It feels like the right thing to do."
"Right thing for you or for your stomach?" Harry sneers, and the fairy promptly turns to him with a glare that should terrify nations, but Harry just looks amused.
" What are you trying to suggest with that ?" he demands furiously.
Here's the thing; Louis has got this small pouch of a tummy, right, he's well aware, and it's not a huge deal, but it's one of the more unfavorable physical traits of his—yeah, he's self-conscious about it, to be frank, to the point where it'd been quite a relief to be able to wear shirts for a change when he got to UoT. And right now he's caught between Harry, who's tall and slim, and Liam, who looks like he could crush Louis in his embrace, and it's not exactly doing wonders for his self-esteem. He'd never openly admit to having any qualms about it, though, and he certainly won't ever take any sort of crap for it. Especially not from Harry. He may not have Harry's toned, commanding physique, but that doesn't give the spirit the right to try and pique him for what he may or may not eat.
The spirit's eyes widen animatedly and the smirk immediately falls off of his face. "What? N othing ."
"Then why did you say it ?"
Harry looks extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden, running a hand through his curls. "I was referring to the— the mathematical task you did. You, you know, the punchline was you taking all of the—so I thought, I thought maybe you just really liked—you know what, just forget it. I didn't mean it like that."
He seems genuinely distressed by this, that Louis thought he'd been insulting his weight, interrupting his own sentences and tripping over words, and if Louis wouldn't be so busy building his Harry proof walls even higher, he'd probably be more astounded by the contrast to the spirit's usual behavior. H e doesn't now, though, just narrows h is eyes a little further. H is hands are promptly resting on h is hips.
"Well, then. I think an apology might be in order if that's the case, don't you?"
That certainly gets the Harry Louis knows and despises back. " What ?"
The fairy's eyes are stern. "You heard me."
"Why should I have to apologize for you misunderstanding something?"
"You offended me, and when that happens one usually apologizes."
"You're overreacting, pixie. I'm not apologizing to you."
"Oh, don't even try. I think you just don't apologize, period."
" You're getting real brave trying to pin that one on me . "
Louis is just about to bite back with a venomous retort to cover up how close that one hits to home when Liam decides it's probably a good idea to not let this argument develop any further .
"Right!" he exclaims, walking to stand in-between the two creatures. "Let's go that way then, shall we?"
He points to the way Louis had suggested only moments earlier, sending scolding borderline pleading looks to both of them.
And Louis really likes a good argument, right, no one's missed that, but he also likes Liam. He thinks Liam is kind of awesome, actually. Besides, he still feels really bad for messing up so badly with Sophia (honestly, he has an apology to utter as well, he knows he does, but it would just be awkward to bring up now, wouldn't it?), so he lets it go and gives his new friend a compliant smile.
"Of course. Let's go."
And they do.
Louis concentrates on the grainy, bright yellow pebbles under his feet as they walk in silence, quietly ripping off small pieces of cotton candy when they reach the trees. He can feel Harry's amused eyes on his neck, and he's extremely tempted to turn around and pick a fight, but then he remembers Liam, and he decides against it.
The air is weirdly thick in this place in a way Louis hasn't felt before. It's not actually different from the oxygen he's used to inhale, per se; but he can feel it all the way down in his lungs, he can feel his head lightening remarkably with every breath. Louis can't decide if it's a good kind of light or a bad one. It's like someone decided to take the expression of 'clouding one's judgment' and then make it painfully literal—maybe this place is where that saying comes from. Louis tries to remain calm. H e thinks of math.
"So, um," Liam starts lightly. "What's the plan?"
"Hm?" Louis is pulled out of his (well, attempted to be) concentrated thoughts.
Liam scratches his neck anxiously. "Like, where do we go? Are we just following this road until it ends?"
"Oh. I don't know." Louis looks at Liam and then at Harry to maybe get some kind of help with this decision . He doesn't get any. Shocking. "The castle, maybe? There ought to be someone around who can help us."
Liam is just about to answer with a hum of agreement when Louis hears voices and freezes where he's standing.
"Do you hear that?" he asks, widening his blue eyes as much as he can. "There's someone just around the corner!"
And like the times before, Louis doesn't give his two companions a second thought before taking off in rapid speed to settle behind another tree made of cotton candy. It's pastel green, and he thinks at the back of his mind, at least they kind of got the color right on this one. It could almost pass for an actual tree. Almost.
When he looks out from his spot, he realizes two things; one, the 'voices' are more like 'frantic laughter mixed with loud conversation', and two, Wonderland's fields are a beautiful turquoise now. Louis is charmed .
The laughter is coming from a table, set in the middle of the widely stretched lawns, and Louis furrows his eyebrows in confusion as he looks closer. Harry and Liam seem to have caught up to him now, as they are both right behind him once again, observing with him.
(Louis smiles nearly unnoticeably. Leading a group in this kind of way, knowing that they follow and trust him enough to not question his random impulses, kind of makes his heart wrap itself up in a warm blanket. He realizes he really likes the feeling of being important like this —not that that's a surprise , but still . It's a nice feeling. Even if one of the people making him feel that way is kind of despicable.)
"Is that... Is that a hare? Next to that man with the hat?" he asks. He genuinely thinks it is. A huge hare currently pouring himself a cup of tea. Maybe the place has got to Louis already.
Except b oth Harry and Liam are blinking, eyebrows pr actically grazing their hairlines, so Louis can't be the only one.
"Yeah ? " Liam 's voice trembles just the tiniest . "I think so."
Well. The place stays true to its' reputation, Louis supposes . At least the hare seems to be a very happy one, and positivity is always nice. His laugh is screeching and obnoxiously loud and occasionally gurgling from the liquid he is eagerly emptying inside his mouth. The man beside him is wearing a funny hat and even though the table is quite big, they're still sitting at the short side of it, tightly pressed against each other's sides. A dormouse is sleeping in one of the cups between them on the table.
"Should we ask them for help?" Louis asks again, hoping for a definite answer because quite frankly, he hasn't got a clue. Would they actually get help? Is the madness contagious? Are these creatures even safe? They could be killers for all Louis knows. Maybe they weave webs of nightmares underneath that quirky table. Maybe they're laughing about how terrified they have made creatures with regular sleeping patterns. Louis wouldn't know.
"Yeah." Liam doesn't answer this time — Harry does. "It's at least worth a shot, yeah?"
"You don't think they seem a bit... Unreliable with solid information?" Louis figures, watching the nearly hysterical pair smash down their tea cups on the table again. The cups break.
"This is probably the best we 're going to get," Harry states with resignation. "Sorry."
What's the worst thing about this situation? Harry's probably right. Louis purses his lips unwillingly and sighs.
"Alright, then. Off we go?"
"You take the lead, little one."
"Don't call me that ever again."
Judging by Harry's smug smirk, Louis just got himself another nickname. Great .
He occupies himself as they begin to approach with coming up with as many alternatives to Harry's name as possible. The only catch is that Harry likes to comment on a minor flaws in Louis' appearance , like his height, and Harry's got, well, just about none of those. He's frustratingly good looking and it makes Louis hate him even more.
(Maybe he could figure something out about his nose. It's a bit bigger than average, right? Louis has a nicer nose than Harry. That's totally nickname material.)
(Maybe he could refer to the way Harry looks like a frog with his eyes widened. Possibilities.)
When they reach the table, Louis kind of expects the hatter and the hare to see them and initiate a conversation themselves, but they don't. They actually don't even spare the trio a quick glance. Which means that Louis needs to take the matter into his own hands.
This should probably be uncomfortable —t he situation could go any direction imaginable. It should be awkward, probably, and Louis should perhaps feel a bit insecure. Because once again, he needs to participate in something where he'd have to cooperate with people bigger than him, taller than him, people who'll most definitely look down on him. People who tend to disregard his personality just because he looks fragile.
Louis should be feeling small. He should be, but then again, this is Louis. And when has Louis' physical size ever been equivalent to his personality?
Never, the blue eyed soul thinks resolutely and pushes his shoulders back. He clears his throat.
"Excuse me, gentlemen?" he speaks loudly, voice clear and melodic like wind chimes. "Excuse me, lovelies."
The two creatures stop mid conversation, curiously turning their heads to look at their guests.
Louis smiles and nods once in a greeting. "Hi. Could we have a quick chat?"
The hatter and the hare just blink in time with each other, and Louis decides to go ahead and take it as an invitation.
"Come on, lads," he murmurs to Harry and Liam. "Let's sit down."
None of them protests, so Louis just walks the remaining steps that sets himself and the chair at the other end of the table apart. He's dragging the chair out to comfortably sit down on the soft cushion, when the hatter and the hare at last seem to snap out of their tongue-tie and proceed to loudly protest against his decision.
"There's no room! There's no room here!"
Louis raises an eyebrow, checking the chair an extra time. It's as empty as can be, so he sits down, anyway. To his right he spots Liam and Harry doing the same. "There's plenty of room."
"It ' s very rude to just sit down without an invitation," the hare enlightens them. "You need an invitation. This isn't just some come-and-go tea party, right Nick?"
The hatter—Nick, apparently— agrees whole heartedly.
"Yes, yes, very rude indeed," the dormouse mutters in its sleep.
Louis shrugs and opens his mouth, but Harry beats him to answering, and the smile on his lips is ingratiating.
"Well, then," he says. "May we have tea with you?"
"Do any of you take sugar?" the hatter asks, not even answering the proposal. The three boys decides to take it as an invitation, though, because no one complains about it after that.
"I do, thank you," Louis tells them amiably. "Harry doesn't really like anything sweet, though, isn't that right?"
"Funny," Harry deadpans.
The hare takes a cup and fills it with sugar all the way up until there's a nice little mountain towering over the rim and offers it to Louis . Louis accepts it, although he leaves it be —h e's not all that pumped about getting cavities later. He doesn't have the heart to tell the hare this amount of sugar wasn't what he had in mind, and besides, they're not here to drink tea anyway.
"So, what are three foreigners like you doing out here attending tea parties?" the hare asks, downing a scolding cup of tea in one go.
"It's kind of a funny story," Louis laughs nervously. " The portals are broken. And we just fell through one! And now we're here, and we really need to get back to where we come from.
"Oh my, you better get out of here," Nick drops his wide grin in a heartbeat to nail him with a serious stare , and Louis must admit he's quite impressed — he didn't think he had it in him. "The Red Queen doesn't like visitors."
"Who's the Red Queen?" Liam asks. Louis lets h is gaze fleet over the boy 's features for a moment, search ing for any signs of distress, but he's seemingly calm—h is freak-out in the beginning must have faded by now, then. H e's back to h is responsible, sensible standard setting.
Nick nods absent-mindedly. "Hey, why is a raven like a writing desk?"
It's like talking to a little child. Louis fidgets impatiently.
"Look, mate, you're a delight but we just really need to know who the Red Queen is, yes? And possibly how to get out of here. You don't happen to know where a portal is?"
"Wow, now," Nick raises his palms to stop the fairy. "You can't answer my question with a hundred new ones. I can't keep up." Another teacup is emptied. "I think you should help me with mine first."
"What, with your riddle?"
The hatter looks at him expectantly. "Yes." Then his eyes light up. "Let's make it a game!"
Sure, Louis thinks. He shrugs in consent . He can do games.
"You get the answer to my riddle right and I'll tell you all I know."
"Deal." Louis leans over the table, clasping his hands tightly in front of him and narrowing his eyes determinedly.
Liam gazes between the two of them doubtfully, and then to Harry to see if someone can confirm that this whole situation is actually happening and not something h is tired mind is making up as it goes. Harry looks amused more than anything , but he does roll h is eyes a bit when he catches Liam 's eyes to tell h im that yes, he finds this quite ridiculous, too .
Louis doesn't notice their non-verbal exchange . He's too preoccupied pondering and wondering, turning the riddle inside out and upside down looking for a suitable answer. He's sternly glaring at Nick's smug and delighted face as the hatter keeps laughing along with the hare, filling up endless cups of tea. The teapot seems unable to empty.
After repeating raven and writing desk in his head at least thirty times in different ways, the fairy gives out a drawn out groan and smacks one hand down on the table.
"Can you at least give me a clue?"
Nick frowns as if deeply personally offended. He puts a hand on his heart. "No! That would be cheating. We don't cheat here."
Louis' fingers are slowly starting to itch with a want to slap the man across the face . He's not a violent person, he's not, but Nick is really getting on his nerves.
"God, I don't know ," he hisses. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
Nick sighs and stirs down some tea in his honey filled cup as he answers happily. "I have no idea."
Louis sputters and Harry barks out a joyous laugh beside him.
"You're fun," he proclaims. Louis' blood isn't boiling, per se, but it definitely has potential to get there. "I like you."
Nick beams at the spirit. "I like me too! And you're alright, as well, I suppose. Nice hair."
Harry just flicks a strand of mahogany hair from his face (Louis rolls his eyes so hard they almost disappear up into his skull) and smiles fawningly.
"Look, Nick, we would love to stay longer, but we must get going. We'd hate to cause any trouble by being here. Certainly you understand."
"Of course," Nick nods and raises his hands to wave them off. "'Twas nice drinking tea with you!"
" However ," Harry continues, smooth and slow like velvet, not moving out of his spot. "Before we go, since I consider us friends, I think you ought to tell us about some portals that you know of."
"Friends?" Nick's eyes widen and he exchanges a look with the hare. They both look back at Harry shiny with delight over the spirit's choice of word.
"Best of friends," Harry promises.
"There are portals in the labyrinth!" the hare says, almost interrupting Harry in his eagerness to please. "The labyrinth behind the Red Queen's castle, yes, but it's very hard to find anything in there. That place is a maze! Hah. A maze. Get it?"
He laughs hysterically along with Nick. Harry's smile is patient and Louis does not understand.
"So what's the way to Red Queen's castle, then?"
"Oh, you mustn't go there, friend!" Nick says , eyes widening comically. "She will have you beheaded. She doesn't like visitors very much, the queen. Have I already said that once?"
"I think you have," the hare figures.
"You have," the dormouse sleep talks.
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Harry promises, tilting his head and softening his eyes until h e looks infinitely friendly.
Louis has got to hand it to him. He's good .
Nick pours himself another cup while looking hesitantly between his three guests. He touches his hat up a bit. The cup fills up quickly and tea is spilling over the edges. It doesn't stain.
"It's that way," he says at last, pointing to a crossroad not too many steps away. "You go left by the yellow tulips and then left again by the candy canes. Just keep going, you will see the castle soon enough! It's pretty big."
"Huge," the hare offers.
"Enormous," the dormouse helps in-between soft snores.
Harry shows off all of his white teeth, positively blinding Nick as he stands up.
"Thank you so much. You're a darling."
Nick and the hare wave enthusiastically as Louis, Liam and Harry starts walking towards the huge yellow tulips , and L ouis purses his lips and fidgets a little. He's not too this overly large theme this place seems to go with. He'd quite like for a few things to be unusually small as wel l—surely that's not too much to ask.
That's not the number one thing on his mind right now, though. What he wants to know primarily is why Harry, the spirit of pain , just charmed his way into getting information.
"Okay. So what was that?" he hisses, eyes demandingly locking with Harry's.
"What was what?" Harry sticks his hands in his pockets and looks at his feet. He can't quite hide the smile nipping at the corners of his mouth, though.
"Why did the Nick guy like you? Aren't you supposed to have the opposite effect on people?"
"I am a spirit of emotion," Harry says simply, "which makes me intuitive with people, no matter what my assignment is."
Unsatisfying answer. Louis doesn't like it, even if it makes sense— Harry can sense what makes a person anxious and scared and hurt, and that must also be a pretty good indicator of what to do to keep them calm, if necessary. Maybe Louis just doesn't love Harry being useful, ever, in h is life.
"I don't get it," he settles for with a head shake .
"I don't expect you to, pixie."
"I'm not a pixie."
"You're like, two feet tall."
" Could you l iterally shut up for one second? "
"You don't want me to figuratively shut up, then?"
Louis can't even bother with a reply to such an unnecessarily snarky smartass answer— he just pointedly narrows his eyes and hopes that delivers the message of ' I hate everything about you ' enough.
He thinks it probably does, because Harry grins and for the spirit that's probably a reasonable reaction. Dislike must be a sort of warmth for him.
"Right," Liam pipes up , rubbing his eyes a little . "So , the labyrinth is behind the Red Queen's castle."
"Yes," Harry confirms.
A concerned crease appears between Liam's eyebrows, and he narrows his eyes in thought.
"What's wrong, Li?" Louis wonders softly.
"Oh, nothing," Liam shrugs and purses his lips. "It's just, castles usually have guards, don't they? By every entrance."
Yeah. Presumably, t hey do.
Fantastic.
~
The castle, quite unsurprisingly, has guards. What's slightly more surprising is the sheer excessive amount of them.
That, and the fact that they ' re literal playing cards. Like, the guards are literally a scattered deck of cards in hearts and diamonds with faces and limbs. They're absolutely everywhere, backed up against every wall and peaking out of every corner and shielding every possible way in to the huge, fancy castle, protecting doors and windows on every single floor. This is going to be hard.
"Well, shit," Harry states. It's a bit too calm and indifferent for Louis' liking. "What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Louis hisses. "Liam, you're smart, right? You're smart. I think you're smart. Tell us what to do."
"How about you tell us what to do?" Harry interjects with a pointed look on the fairy. "Oh, Louis the a lmighty. Lighten our path to success."
"Oh, sod off," Louis snaps. "I didn't ask for your opinion."
"Well, the funny thing with this, Louis, is that I'll give my opinion on things regardless of who does and doesn't ask for it."
"You're only doing it to make fun of me!"
"No, I'm eagerly awaiting the moment you will finally put your money where your mouth is."
Louis gives the spirit a well-deserved glare. "Oh, don't worry, curly. I will."
That's when Liam clears his throat vigorously, brown eyes severely judging them in that way he's established so particularly well in such a short amount of time .
Louis looks away and blushes. God, this whole truce thing with Harry will never work, and it frustrates him to no end that Harry, of all people, winds him up to the point where he can't even take two seconds to evaluate whether the argument's silly or not. He's usually at least able to recognize when he's making a fool of himself and not during fights, he usually knows when it's appropriate to build up the bickering and when to let it stay shallow—but not now. Not with this creature. With Harry, everything is suddenly infuriating to the brink of murder.
Harry's just taking advantage of Louis' temper. He knows which buttons to push, Louis reminds himself. Don't let him win.
"Maybe," Liam suggests, "if we try and sneak around this hedge and to the back, we can figure something out? Maybe it's not as heavily guarded there."
"Maybe," Louis repeats, nodding. "It's worth a look, yeah?"
And so, that's what they do.
Harry and Liam both have to occasionally duck when they walk around the hedge, as it tends to change height whenever it feels like it. It makes them look a bit stupid and a bit tired, and Louis smirks in amusement. The next time Harry decides to poke fun at Louis' height, he'll remember this. Remember the hedge in Wonderland , he'll say, the moving one . The one that made you and Liam look like Jack in the Box while I could just casually mind my own business.
Louis giggles into his palm as he looks at the two of them behind him, who can't even tell him off in their concentration on the hedge to be prepared for the next move. The whole thing is strangely hilarious for some reason.
None of them realizes that no one's watching the way in front of them anymore.
" Intruders ! Intruders !"
The yells are sudden and loud and unbearably screeching, and all three boys jump about five feet up in the air, their hearts in their throats and panic rising like the tide .
" Shit ," Harry exclaims again, but this time , it's a lot more passionate.
Louis' head snaps around in all possible directions, and he realizes there's nowhere to run. Guards are coming at them, forcefully raising their sharp spears while endlessly chanting " intruders, intruders, intruders " at the three clueless boys in the middle of it all. No ne of them knows what to do. All Louis can come up with is tumble the castle over on the cards , or blow really aggressive wind in their faces to keep them away, but he doesn't know how he'd do those things — and at the same time there's a steady stream of frustration tingling all the way to his fingertips because he knows he's forgetting something , he knows there must be an option he can't figure out.
Neither can Liam or Harry, apparently, because the very next second they're completely surrounded by cards and Louis is sure there must be more than one deck of cards used here , hostile frowns and spears poking inwards. Louis folds his wings down and turns around to stop the pointy tips from scarring them.
At the end of the day, he'd rather his face get messed up than his wings.
"Well," he mutters, looking into the stern eyes of the nine of hearts in front of him. "This is unfortunate."
~
The inside of the castle is surprisingly neat and bright, which is a sudden, but not unwelcome, change from the dimmed and messy environment outside. The ceiling is high and beautifully painted like in a church, but instead of the wistful angels you'd see in those, these smooth concrete surfaces are covered in delicately drawn playing cards, laughing and swirling and dancing as if it was the most normal thing, and Louis takes the time to admire the fine handwork. He's always wished he could draw —t here's something special about people with the ability of putting emotion into pictures and colors and constellations of shapes , he thinks .
This far, the palace doesn't seem all that bad—it's actually giving Louis a feeling of security, the brightness and the open spaces. The serenity is different in here, and it's a welcome change.
It's not doing the same for Harry and Liam, however.
Both boys' eyes are narrowed in suspicion, looking warily around the hall—they're eyeing the smooth marble statues lined up along the red carpet under their feet, studying the oil paintings of a big-headed woman—presumably the queen— on the walls like they're out to get them. Louis thinks maybe they should relax a little. The queen can't be as bad as she's been played out to be, can she? Not when she's got this remarkable sense of décor.
She even has the delicate taste to put freshly cut rose bouquets in mighty vases along the aisle. Louis can feel the clean, blossoming scent of them even from where he's being pushed forward a few meters away.
A giant door which reaches all the way to the ceiling opens obediently before them as they approach, and they enter the next big hall.
There's a throne at the other end, massive and ornate and demanding of attention. It's got m agnificent golden patterns gracefully looping and swirling their way down the frame of the backrest and down to the armrests, where thin fingers are knocking down the hard metal expectantly.
The Queen of Hearts has a very fragile body, arms like the top twigs of a birch and a torso like a down pointing arrow. Her ankles peak out out from the countless layers of fabrics and skirts, and they look like they'd snap if they'd ever have to substantially support the weight of her body. And her dress, of course. The dress alone probably weighs more than her entire body.
The only thing to not add up, is her enormous head. It's twice the size of her body and it's wearing an unwavering frown, and it's making Louis' stomach churn with discomfort. Maybe he was wrong earlier. Maybe her impeccable interior design is just an unfortunate coincidence.
Her heart-shaped lips are distorted into an ugly purse as the group approaches her.
"Who are these strangers, then?" she asks with a bitter look. Her eyes are pitch black.
"Your majesty," the Eight of Diamonds next to Harry begins. "They were found trespassing outside the castle."
The wrinkle between the Queen's eyes deepens further. "Trespassing, hm? I hate trespassers."
" U m —" Louis starts, immediately alarmed by her unchanged hostility, but he's quickly cut off by the card on his left.
" So do we, your majesty, so do we!"
"This is a misunderstanding," Louis declares with a panicked look at the Queen. "We didn't know, we— "
"Hold up!" the Red Queen silences him with a raised finger. She looks up and narrows her eyes, as if to listen to something very faint. "Do you hear that?"
It's drop dead quiet in the hall. If an ant came sailing in on a feather, you'd hear it arrive before it even entered the building. Louis has never been in a place this tremendously silent in his entire life. No, he does not, in fact, 'hear that'.
"No... your majesty," he utters, trying his very best to sound as if he doesn't want to strangle someone. He hates these stupid people with their stupid questions. Especially with the added threat of lethal danger within a direct future. He doesn't have time .
"Hm." The Queen purses her lips thoughtfully. "I could've sworn those were the souls of the beheaded men before you telling you I couldn't possibly care less about your motives."
Louis sputters as the guards take a new, firm grip around his biceps to keep him still. They're obviously waiting for their Queen's doom, and by the sound of this, it won't be a favorable one .
The Queen of Hearts lets her eyes sweep over Louis, and then Harry, and then to halt on Liam. The boy is nervously biting his nails, and when their eyes meet, he looks pleadingly at her.
She gets something soft in her eyes for a few seconds, and she shoots him a small smile. "I like you. You can stay. Eight of Diamonds, make sure to get out the second throne and send after the cleaners to polish it until it looks brand new!"
What ?
Liam's eyes shoot wide open, and he exchanges frightened stares with both Harry and Louis, who are just as desperately clueless as he is .
So if Liam stays, what ' s she going to do with—
"And for you two," she points a thin, frail finger to the remaining two boys. "Off with your heads!"
Harry and Louis don't even get a chance to protest before they're roughly and viciously dragged out of the room, Louis frantical ly trying to reach his hands out towards Liam, who's promptly held put, brown eyes widened impossibly with confused fright.
There's nothing to be done. The huge gates close behind them, separating the shape shifter from Harry and Louis with finality , and then the two of them are pushed down to a set of stairs, all the way down to the dungeons.
Notes:
dun dun duuuun
i'm a bit meh about this chapter but hopefully it turned out alright???
ALSO oh my god I just want to say that you literally make my day when you read and comment and give kudos and stuff on this i am sO happy about it?? like some of you even wished me a nice trip to greece and shit yall are so NICE i don't even know xxxxxxx
thank you v v much and as always, if u talk to me i will love you forever so hit me up @ a-bit-extraordilarry.tumblr.com :D