"It's nice to have a peaceful day." Pascal said as he sat with Maximus and Ruddiger, leaning against a fence near Varian's home.
"Yeah." Ruddiger nodded. "We have been way too busy lately. Sorry my old colleagues are assholes." He got up and went to pick three apples, tossing them at them.
"Meh." Pascal shrugged, catching his apple as Maximus did the same.
"You know, usually when things are this quiet, Eugene attempts to propose again." Maximus said thoughtfully. "Think he's going to do it today?" He took a bite of his apple.
"What's this about a proposal?" Sven said eagerly, bouncing over to join them. Maximus choked on his apple piece and groaned after Pascal helped him dislodge it. "You know, I know all about love. I was raised by love experts! I bet I could give you some great pointers!"
"None of us are proposing." Ruddiger said, picking another apple and tossing it to Sven, who yelped as it hit him in the face and knocked him down. "Whoops."
"I don't think Eugene needs any advice." Maximus said as he walked over to help the reindeer-man up.
"Ohhh, the Queen's boyfriend?" Sven asked excitedly. "I bet I have loads of advice for him!" He bounced on his feet, turned, scrabbled his feet a bit and took off running.
The trio stared after him, processing what happened, then gasped.
"Hey, wait!" Pascal hopped off the fence and they ran after them together.
–
Varian looked over from his book as he saw them running by and sighed, shaking his head. "What are those guys up to, now?" He muttered, leaning back against the tree he was sitting under.
"So, this is where you live?"
He jolted and looked up to see Elsa leaning against a fence. He closed his book and got up, holding out a hand to still Hamuel, who had been about to get up to address the visitor. "Your Majesty." He bowed at the waist.
"Please, just call me Elsa." She smiled gently and walked over to him. "It's...more comfortable. Besides, shouldn't I be bowing to you? You're the Celestial."
Varian blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "U-Uhm, yeah. Heh. Do you want to come in? I can make some hot cocoa."
"That would be wonderful." She agreed, and they started off to the manor, Hamuel quietly following. "Your village is very pleasant, very green and full of life."
"Well, we're working on the 'full of life' part. Mr. Miller sent messages out to the other people that evacuated, letting them know the rocks are gone and we're repairing the place." Varian nodded.
"I meant the flora and fauna, but that's good to hear." Elsa nodded. "Varian, I've been wondering something."
"Yeah?" He looked at her.
"I've been hearing...talk about you coming back to Corona wearing some...fancy magical outfit that reminded people of...me?" Elsa asked with amusement.
Varian groaned. "Ohh, that. Yeah, uh, when I first got the Moonstone, it decided to give me this fancy outfit with a super long cape and everyone was making jokes about my taking fashion advice from you. I was stuck in that thing until I learned to control the rocks, and I was determined to figure it out myself instead of having the answer given to me. I'm weird like that."
"May I see it?" She asked with an amused smile.
He sighed. "Okay, but you need to show me yours, too. I've only heard about it, never actually seen it."
"Okay." She nodded.
"Let's do this inside." He opened the door and walked in, Elsa following him in, and they went into the kitchen. "Hey, dad. Mind if we do some magic here or should we go to my room?"
"I'm cooking, go to your room." Quirin said, not looking up from his stirring.
Varian nodded and motioned for Elsa to follow as he headed up to his room. Once up there, he let Elsa look around to satisfy her curiosity and then she turned to him. "What's this on your bed?" She pointed to the metal appendages.
"Various grooming tools." He shrugged. "Alright, so...ladies first?"
She stood up and waved her hands around, changing her appearance into the clothes she wore the day she finally accepted her powers. Varian stared in awe and resisted the urge to ask to touch it, to know if it was cold or not. She seemed to know what he was thinking, though, and offered her arm for him to touch her sleeve.
"It's actually not that cold." She said with a gentle smile. "Somehow."
He chuckled. "Somehow." He gently moved his hand along her arm, picking at her sleeve to feel the ice particles that made it up. "You know...I kind of expected to panic a little when I first saw you use your powers but...I think we're good, as long as you don't unleash a blizzard."
"Well, then I will do my best to not unleash a blizzard." She nodded. "Your turn."
"Oh, gosh. It's so dumb." He blushed. "There's a tiara and everything."
"Show me." She coaxed him.
He sighed and stepped back, then closed his eyes and focused, changing his clothes into the black rock armor he woke up in the Moonstone Chamber in. He heard her give a soft gasp and opened his eyes before smiling and offering her his arm.
"This is...your rocks?" She asked in awe, examining his sleeve and then the cape. "It's beautiful. I didn't know they came in other colors, you've only shown me black and red."
"I don't know how the red happens. I think it's just..my fear being manifest. But black, white and blue are all colors I can change the rocks into." Varian explained.
She hummed thoughtfully, then giggled as she caught sight of their reflections in a full-length mirror. "You know what? Side-by-side like this? They're right."
He chuckled. "Yeah. Oh, but you don't have a crown."
"I can fix that." She used her magic to give herself an ice crown and then they both laughed.
"Varian? Is everything alright?" Quirin asked.
"Yeah, we're fine!" Varian called down. "Hey, let's go down like this."
"Ah, yes, displaying our fabulous matching magical clothes." She giggled.
Varian went over to open the door before motioning for her to go first. "After you, m'lady."
"Why, thank you, good sir." She did a curtsy and lifted her skirt as she started down the steps, her cape trailing behind her. Varian waited a bit then followed her down.
Quirin looked up at they came down. "I prepared some hot cocoa for you both, if you—oh my." He turned to him. "I thought you didn't like this outfit, Varian?"
"We're just showing them off to each other." Varian shrugged as they went to take a seat at the table.
"Hm." Quirin walked over and set their drinks in front of them.
"Thank you, sir." Elsa said politely before taking a sip of her drink. "Mmm, chocolate."
"I know, right?" Varian grinned. "It's best when it's hot, just slides down your throat and warms you up after being in the cold outside."
"Mm. What are you doing for Yuletide this year?" Elsa asked. "That is what you celebrate here, right? We celebrate Christmas in Arendelle. Is it much different?"
Varian shrugged. "I don't know. Yuletide is so far away, we're just trying to focus on surviving to the end of the year at all. Demons first, parties after." He sipped at his drink. "The last couple Yuletides haven't been so good for me." He cleared his throat. "Speaking of parties, Rapunzel wants to celebrate my sixteenth birthday, but I haven't celebrated it since..." He glanced at his father. "Well, in a long time."
Quirin focused on his cooking. Elsa sipped at her drink, guessing this had something to do with whoever "Donella" was. Varian's entire family seemed to have...issues, but she was here to help him overcome his issues with his powers, not help him figure out his family problems - which he'd pretty much figured out, so now she was just getting used to him. Then again, she hadn't seen him summon the spikes without holding her hand, so...they still had some work to do.
"So, uhm...what's Arendelle like?" Varian asked, changing the subject.
Elsa smiled and started to talk about her homeland, grateful for the change.
–
"No." Eugene said flatly as he examined himself in the mirror. "No, I do not need 'love advice' from a reindeer."
"Really? Because I've asked Owl and he said that you've tried and failed proposing to her at least two times." Sven said, sitting on his bed.
Eugene sputtered. "OWL!"
"So, I really think you need my advice." Sven nodded. "Like I said, I was raised by--"
"By 'love experts'. Yeeeah, no. Look, Rapunzel and I have just been..." he sighed, reaching into his vest to pull out the ring box, "a lot's been going on. A lot. There's her getting used to being the princess, then the Varian stuff, and now demons...it's a mess."
"What's a mess?" Cassandra asked, looking into the room.
"Does no one respect my privacy anymore?!" Eugene groaned, putting the box back in his vest. "I thought you were training with your dads or something?"
"They're sparring, I figured I'd go see what you were up to." Cassandra smirked.
"What about Rapunzel?" Eugene asked.
"She's too busy having 'girl talk' with Anna and Juniper. Honestly, I'm worried that they're going to come out of that with more knowledge on what goes in the bedroom than they're comfortable with." Cassandra sighed. "But, who am I to get in the way of three princesses having 'girl talk'?"
Eugene sighed. "So you decided to bother me."
"Yep." Cassandra smirked. "Unless you have a better suggestion?"
Eugene sighed. "I don't know...catching the snowman?"
"Catching the--" Cassandra looked over her shoulder at Olaf running by with a dress, Faith running after him. "Catching the snowman it is." She ran after him.
Eugene breathed a sigh of relief, then groaned when Sven said, "So, as I was saying, you just need to know how to set the mooood properly. And use the right words, of course. Now, I asked about your last proposals...gotta say, not impressed. Talking about growing 'old and gray' isn't really going to win you any points, and she definitely wasn't in any mood for a proposal at the time, so..."
Eugene ran his hands over his face and wondered how he was getting out of this.
–
"I don't like this." Rapunzel said softly. "I feel like we're in the calm before the storm, like something...really bad is coming."
"Elsa was saying something like that, too." Anna said, brushing Rapunzel's hair while Juniper brushed Anna's hair. "That something dark is coming."
Rapunzel clutched at her hair anxiously. "I'm just so nervous...and scared."
"It's okay to be scared." Juniper assured her. "What's important is that you don't let that fear hold you down and keep you from doing what's right. We knew that this wouldn't be easy when we decided to have the revolution, we knew that the Disciples had been causing you guys trouble, targeting you. Honestly, we should've seen their alliance coming a hundred miles away."
Rapunzel looked over her shoulder. "How are you so relaxed?"
"Well, try to look at it from my perspective, Raps. We not only ended a centuries-long conflict between our people, but I got my dad back and loads of missing people. And our enemies are the people responsible for the whole thing? I'm excited to kick ass and get revenge for what happened to my ancestors!" Juniper grinned.
"Yeah, kick ass!" Anna cheered. "...Why are we kicking a donkey?"
Juniper laughed. "It's also a crude word for 'butt'."
"Ohhh." Anna nodded.
"Normally I'd be teaching you all sorts of crude things, but I don't want to risk pissing off your sister." Juniper admitted.
"Ohhh, tell me!" Anna said excitedly.
"I wanna know, too!" Rapunzel said eagerly.
"Well, since you're being so insistent..." Juniper smirked.
"Juniper, would it be too much to ask you to not corrupt these two Princesses?" Andrew asked as he leaned against the doorway.
"Is it too much to ask for you to not intrude on a private discussion, Andrew?" Juniper looked at him with a smirk.
"When I heard that someone was careless enough to leave you with not just one but two impressionable Princesses from different cultures than ours, I knew I had to hurry over and make sure you didn't fill their heads with anything...unfortunate." Andrew walked into the room and chuckled. "Princess Anna, I think your boyfriend was looking for you earlier."
"Oh, he was?" Anna asked. "I wonder why? I bet he found something cool he wants to share with me." She got up and headed for the door.
"Queen Rapunzel, I believe your boyfriend needs some rescuing from a reindeer." Andrew chuckled.
"Oh, Sven's not doing any harm." Anna assured him as she walked out.
"Ruddiger was the one that told me. Apparently he heard you guys had a couple failed proposals and wanted to help." Andrew chuckled.
"I better go." Rapunzel got up and tied up her hair as she left her room.
Juniper sighed and got up. "You never let me have any fun."
"My dearest little sister," Andrew started.
"Uh oh." Juniper cringed.
"Your brand of fun involves fifteen bottles of something strong, no clothes and a lot of touching in places that would make their boyfriends scream." He finished.
"Oh, please. You know I don't sleep with taken people, only single ones or taken people AND their partners. Rules of Saporia." She walked past him, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"Mmm, you still would've gotten them both VERY inebriated and they would've been found naked in bed with you and the rumors would fly like birds." He walked after her.
"Speaking of birds, any sign of more of that tea?" Juniper asked, her tone serious.
"No, we got it all, and the two Disciples responsible are sealed away." Andrew assured her.
"That's good. Any sign of Lucas, or anyone else?" Juniper frowned.
"No. The only Disciple we've seen since they were caught has been Regulus, which is...suspicious. I don't like it." Andrew walked over to lean against a window, looking out it at the woods in the distance. "The others are planning something. And where did Frederic go? We need to find them, find where they're hiding and--"
"Drew, Drew, Andy-drew." She reached up and rubbed his head before rubbing his shoulders gently. "You need to learn how to shut off. You have been 'on alert' since the revolution. Maybe they're planning something, we can probably count on that, but we can't do anything about it right now. Let's not stress out and jump at shadows."
He sighed and turned to her. "I'd rather jump at shadows than be caught off-guard." He stepped away from her and walked on. "Kline says that he needs Varian to grow accustomed to his powers so he can learn 'the rest', Rapunzel also needs to learn all of the magic the Sundrop grants her, and she would rather play games and paint than meet with him so he can help her unlock her powers." He stopped and clenched his fists. "But, we're in a war, Juniper. We're at constant risk. We hide away behind wards while they plot and scheme and use even our allies to sneak in an attack. The tea came in an a Nerserdnian vessel! What else will they sneak in?! We don't have time to sit around brushing hair and talking about sex!"
"I'd say that you need to get laid and relax, but..." Juniper sighed.
"I've had enough of that, and it doesn't relax me." He said grimly.
"I know." She nodded. "...Hey, seen Varian around?"
"He's in Old Corona. Queen Elsa asked me about the same thing, so I suppose she's gone to visit him." Andrew sighed.
"Right...hey, wanna go see if Caine's back?" She nudged him and he smiled a bit before they walked on.
–
Lucas hummed to himself as he prepared a bedroom. Soon, very soon, it would have a rather important occupant, and it needed to be fit for a King.
"Do you need anything else?" Tromus asked as he stood at the door.
"I think we're all set." Lucas hummed thoughtfully. "How much longer?"
"21 hours." Tromus assured him.
"Ah, I'm so excited. I feel like I'm waiting on a baby to be born. I can't wait to see what powers he has! And what his Disciple form will look like! Ah, he's going to be beautiful, I just know it!" Lucas giggled a bit.
"Yes, we are all very excited." Tromus assured him.
"Can we hold a feast? I know all his favorite foods!" Lucas said eagerly.
"A feast, yes, we will have a feast." Tromus assured him. "Honestly, I had forgotten how excited you got about zhis."
"Just 21 more hours. Less than a day." Lucas sighed happily and went to adjust the bedspread a little. "The anticipation is killing me!" He fell on the bed and laughed.
Tromus chuckled through his lips and left the room. "Oh, sometimes I wish it would..." He muttered as he left the room.
Lucas gave him a good-natured middle finger and wolfish grin in response.