There fell a short silence after Myra's question. Uma and Harry exchanged a long look with a lot of eyebrow movements that Myra couldn't place.
"Guys, we told it before. It's not that hard." Gil spoke up, not understanding why the other two were being so cryptic. The blonde boy turned to Myra, "while you were singing to Audrey, Uma- who was terrified something would happen to you- helped Mal with reactivating the magical God stone. Once it was working again, Mal flew up and blasted the evil princess with the Ember. She got knocked out. Mal and the little girl tried to wake you two, buuuut nothing worked. Harry and Uma yelled at Mal for letting you get hurt." Myra looked between Uma and Harry, touched that they yelled at the future queen of Auradon for her. Gil just continued, unaware of her reaction.
"In the mean time, Jane, Doug and I had found the Fairy Godmother. She was, like, a statue like most of the others until Audrey got knocked out. So after that we went to the castle where we arrived at the same time as the others. You and Audrey were put in some fancy beds where Fairy Godmother Bibbidi bobbidy boo'ed you and Audrey. You didn't wake up, so Uma yelled at her. But then this awesome little red striped lizard doctor dude came. He had this dope yellow hat and bag-"
"Gil." Uma interrupted him, urging him to get back on track.
The boy shook his head and continued. "Anyway. The Doc said you'd be okay after some rest and that he would go get something that should help, but he isn't back yet. Ow, and he couldn't do anything for Audrey so we don't know if she'll ever wake up again. But you're awake again and that's all that matters so everything's okay now."
Myra's head was spinning trying to take in all the information. The Ember is working again. Audrey is still unconscious. The doctor was a lizard with a hat. And beside all that, she still had so many questions. Where were her clothes? And her flute? Did anyone else get hurt? What happened to Jay, and Evie and Carlos and the others? Were they okay? Was Celia okay? When did they have to go back to the Isle? Would she see Jay again before she had to leave? Was the doctor really a lizard? And if yes, was it a human size lizard or a lizard size human? Did the lizard study to become a medical doctor or did he had a doctorate in something else?
Myra shook her head to get the stream of question to stop and instead ask one of them to the others. "Where is my flute?"
Again, silence. And again, Uma and Harry exchanged looks. But this time Myra recognized some of the looks, enough to realize there was something wrong. "Guys..." She started with a hint of suspicion. "Where is my flute?"
"Right here." Harry answered, reaching down beside him. There was a little nightstand on the right side of her bed, Myra hadn't noticed it before, but now Harry opened the little drawer and took out a little bundel of brown cloth she did.
She frowned as the boy handed the little package to her. Myra couldn't help but feel dread wash over her when she opened the package and saw what was inside. Her flute. Or what once had been her flute. It was shattered to peaces of wood and metal. One of the two pipes was still in tact, but the other one was only a bunch of splinters. The once shimmering, golden mouth piece was now dull and in the cracked surface Myra could see the dark outlining of her reflection. Ever since her father had told her how he had bought the Flute she had held a lingering amount of resentment for the instrument, but now as it lay in her lap, blown to peaces, something inside of her broke. She didn't start crying, no tears filled her eyes and her body didn't shake, she just stared. Her tired eyes stared at the wooden remains blankly. There was no sadness in them, no remorse, no relieve. Everything was blank. Even her brain was blank, not knowing how to process the loss of the magical instrument.
A knock on the door got Myra to look up, quickly folding the brown fabric around the remains before the door opened. Evie's head pocked around the corner, once her eyes fell on Myra, sitting up and awake a big smile took over her face. "You're awake!" She exclaims while throwing the door open wider, revealing Evie hadn't come alone. Behind her were Carlos and Celia. Celia- upon seeing Myra- ran passed Evie, almost knocking Gil from his place on the bed as she forced herself in front of him.
"O my Gosh, Myra, I am so sorry for jumping Audrey and for ruining the Ember and ratting you out to Hades-" Celia was talking fast, barely breathing as she chained the words together. Myra tried to follow the girl's rambling as tears started to become visible in the small girl's eyes. "-and for that time I locked Lunch inside a jar and not telling you."
"You did what?" Myra's question got ignored by Celia, who was still too caught up inside her own words.
"And for trying to cut your hair in your sleep, and poisoning your food-"
"That was you!" This did get Celia to stop for a moment.
"Well, yeah. I thought you knew that."
"Well, now I do." Myra's voice was filled with disbelieve, a hint of amusement and even a little pride. She and Celia had spent a lot of time together on the Isle since Myra had started working for Hades more. She had grown fond of Dr. Facilier's daughter, even though she had never said it or let it really show. And all these schemes of her may have been aimed at her, but she still found they were amusing and done pretty well. Except for the one involving Lunch.
"Ow..." Celia said with big eyes. "Well... I'm sorry. I mean it's my fault you almost died today and-"
"Celia." Myra interrupted, a bit harsher than she had intended, causing the little girl to fall silent. "It's fine. I'm fine. Now stop apologizing. You were just trying to help- well, at least with Audrey. But we are going to have to talk about what you said about putting Lunch in a jar." At the mention of the event, Lunch had let out an indignant squeak and looked at Celia with an angry glare. The girl hadn't noticed, she just nodded her head as she was doing her best to force the tears back.
Myra shot her a smile, reaching out with her left hand to ruffle Celia's explosion of curls. This small show of affection got Celia to smile back.
In the mean time, Evie and Carlos had come standing beside her bed as well. Evie lay both her hands on Celia's shoulders as she spoke to her in a gentle voice. "Why don't you go get Fairy Godmother and see if the doc is back, yeah?" Celia nodded and exited the room again.
The moment Celia was gone, Carlos opened his mouth and mumbled. "She really is a hand full."
"Yeah..." Myra responded, biting down on her lip. "Is Mal okay? Audrey hit her pretty bad with that lightning."
"Mal is fine." Evie answered, "dragon skin is a lot tougher than human skin."
"That, I believe." Myra said through a small chuckle as she re-positioned to favor her right arm. The buzzing sensation still hadn't left her shoulder and now and then there were pulses of electricity shooting through her head. "What about the evil Princess? Gil said she's still knocked out. Is she doing any better?"
Evie shot the girl a sympathetic smile, "Unfortunately, yes."
"Unfortunately?" Uma spat. "The bitch almost killed my cousin. If it was up to me she'd be permanently unconscious."
"Aye!" Harry agreed. "She should be rottin' 'bout now."
Myra chuckled, leaning her head against Harry's leg. "Calm down, guys. I'm fine."
"Yeah, fortunately for her." Uma mumbled, looking out of the closest window. Myra recognized her cousin's expression of masked relieve and smiled, taking the young woman's hand.
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Jay had been pacing through the hall, worry eating away at him. He had been at Myra's bedside multiple times, most of the time together with the others, but now and then when they were alone he would take her hand and talk to her. He didn't think she was able to hear him, the doctor said it was possible, but Jay wasn't convinced.
Evie and Carlos had gone back to visit Myra and asked if he wanted to come, but he had declined. Seeing her like that made his stomach turn. It didn't help that every time seeing her reminded him that she would be going back to the Isle, which was already bad enough before he found out the barrier would never open again.
The boy let out a deep sigh before letting himself fall down on the pillowed bench. There stood a few of them spread through the castle's hallways, together with some round, wooden tables with vases filled with flowers on top of them. Who knew why, Jay always assumed the former King and Queen thought it looked stylish.
Jay barely had had the time to pull his hand through his hair when Celia came walking down the hall, she wasn't quite running, but she had a quick pace to her step and a determined expression on her face. She hadn't even noticed Jay sitting there until he stood up, half blocking her way even though the hall was broad enough for the two of them.
"Hey, Celia." He said enthusiastically, a half forced smile on his face. "What's going on?"
Celia blinked a few times before looking up at him, clearly he had snapped her out of her own world. "Myra woke up, I'm getting Fairy Godmother and-"
Jay zoned out on the rest of Celia's words. Myra is awake. "Is she okay?"
Celia placed on hand on her hip, clearly not happy that Jay had interrupted her. "Audrey? No, I just said that."
"No, no. Is Myra okay?"
The girl shrugged, gesturing down the hall where the door to her room was. "Go ask her yourself." Jay wasted no time before he ran to Myra's door. Too fast to see Celia crossing her arms over her chest, watching him jump over the bench while shaking her head.
The boy slid to a stop in front of the door and reached for the handle, only to pull it back. Doubt crept into his body, would she be happy to see him? Would she even care?
Quickly he shook his head, getting rid of the thought. Jay pulled his scarlet beanie off his head, fixing his hair in the reflexive surface of the vase that stood on a small table beside the door. Deciding he looked presentable, he put the beanie back on and knocked on the door. Opening it without waiting for an answer. For a moment he just stood in the doorway, taking in the scene in front of him. Myra was sitting up in the bed, Harry sat on the headboard on her right and Uma on Myra's bed on her other side. Gil sat on the end of the bed with Dude beside him. the blonde boy was petting the dog. Carlos- who was sitting on one of the chairs on the left of the bed- didn't seem to mind. Instead he was talking to the group with a big grin on his face. Everyone was smiling or laughing with each other. Evie was standing at the end of Myra's bed, she was the first one to notice Jay standing in the doorway. Only Jay hadn't noticed her eyes falling on him, because his eyes had fallen on Myra. A familiar warm feeling took over as he saw her smiling, her hair tangled and wearing his Tourney shirt. When they had taken her down from the tower's top, her clothes torn apart and still smoking from the lightning, they had to replace them with something loose to cover her. His shirt had been the closest thing they could grab. A smile grew on his lips, he loved how his shirt looked on her.
Myra laughed at what only could have been the punchline of one of Carlos's stupid jokes, because she laughed while shaking her head. Her eyes turned away from the white haired boy and found Jay's. She stopped laughing and smiled at him. Holding her gaze, Jay could feel the corner's of his lips tug into an even bigger smile than before.
Noticing the silent interaction between her two friends, Evie spoke up, attracting the attention of the boy in front of her. "Hey, Carlos. Come on, we gotta go help Ben with that thing."
Carlos looked up at Evie with furrowed eyebrows, "what thing?" Evie glared at the young man, gesturing to Jay with an almost unnoticeable nod. Now also seeing what she ment, Carlos's mouth made a little O shape. "Yeah, of course. That thing. Let's go." Cruella's son was trying to act normal, but failing tremendously as he got up from the chair and joined Evie's side.
Evie hadn't been the only one noticing the way the two looked at each other and jumped up from the bed as well. "Well, still got a lot to take care of," She started. "Harry, Gil. Let's go." Harry followed without a second of hesitation, but Gil didn't seem to understand.
"What? Why? We just got here, I-"
Uma swatted him on his shoulder, leaning down to his ear and whispered: "Let's give the love birds some privacy." Jay hadn't heard it, but Myra had and shot Uma an angry glare. Which Uma received and answered with a knowing smirk. Also understanding what was going on now, Gil got up and followed the rest.
The group of people passed Jay by as they left the room. Of course he had noticed everyone had left with an excuse to leave him alone with Myra just as much as the girl had. Which didn't help with the slightly nervous feeling that had started to infiltrate his stomach. As he passed by, Carlos gave Jay an encouraging squeeze on his shoulder while Gil went with a bit more aggressive slap on his back.
The door closed behind him and silence fell in the room. The absence of laughter made the room feel empty, but still there grew this tension that Jay couldn't ignore.
"Hey." Myra broke the silence, smiling at Jay with her head slightly cocked to the side. Lunch was laying in her lap besides a little brown bundle. He knew it were the remains of her father's flute.
"Hey." Jay responded, walking closer to her and sitting down where Uma had been sitting before. Only a little more to the edge of the bed so they weren't touching, not knowing if she wanted him to. "How are you feeling?" His voice held concern, just as his eyes did as they glanced from the bandaged up wound to Myra's tired eyes.
"Honestly? My head keeps blasting me with electricity every time I start to relax and my shoulder feels like it's burning. But beside from that, I'm good." She forced a small smile at him to support her statement, but Jay knew she wasn't fine. She had been lied to by Mal, climbed up a tower, got hit by magical lightning, her magical flute had been blown to peaces, she had been unconscious for a day and now had to look forward to going back to work for Hades as his personal slave for the rest of her life.
He knew she was lying so he wouldn't worry about her anymore. But how could he not worry about her? He loved her and she almost died. He had been standing beside her seemingly lifeless body, not knowing if she would wake up. He had almost lost her. Only for him to realize that she wouldn't be here for much longer. She would go back to the Isle, behind the closed barrier and he would really lose her.
"Jay, what's wrong?" Myra's voice broke him out of his thoughts, his brown eyes finding her forest green ones, hers were filled with worry.
A half smile tugged on his lips as he pushed down the tears that were starting to fill his eyes. The young man lifted his hand, softly touching Myra's cheek. Not caring anymore about keeping distance. "You almost died..." He mumbled. It was the first time he had said it out loud, the reality of it hitting him even harder.
Myra brought her left hand to softly take the one Jay held to her face. "But I didn't."
"Yeah, but... What about when you're back on the Isle. It's dangerous there, especially working for Hades... you could get injured again or actually die without me to protect-"
"To protect me?" Myra asked, her voice gentle as she moved their hands down without letting go of his. "Jay, you weren't there when Audrey hit me, you were turned to stone."
"Yes, I know. But on the Isle I can't-"
"I've never been this close to actual death in the Isle. Honestly, I think you are going to need more protection out here than me out there." She was trying to joke, and Jay let out a soft chuckle. Only for some reason, while his chuckle turned into a soft laugh, Myra's eyes teared up and without warning the first one ran down her face. Jay stopped laughing immediately and when the girl in front of him seemed to start to break down he scooted closer and pulled her into a hug. She buried her face in his chest while a sob escaped her mouth, her fingers clasping around the leathery fabric of his vest until her knuckles turned white.
Jay didn't know why she had broken down crying, but that didn't stop him from pressing her closer to him. What did stop him from doing so was the slight whimper of pain that escaped her lips when he put too much pressure on her shoulder. "Mee..." He started, slowly drawing circles on her back with one hand. "It's okay. You are okay. Everyone is okay." He could feel her shake her head against his chest.
"I..." Her body was trembling now, just as her voice. "I don't want to go back..." Her words had been a soft whisper against his chest, but he had heard it. He wanted to comfort her, tell her that everything would be okay. But he didn't. Because he didn't want her to go either. "I don't want to have to miss you again."
Those words would have made his heart jump with joy if she had told him that that night by the tree. After he had confessed his feelings for her. But now? Knowing that she couldn't stay? A wave of dread and sadness washed over him, causing tears to run down his face as well. He sucked in a shaky breath, about to say something in response, but he couldn't think of anything to say. So instead he pressed her closer- careful not to hurt her bad shoulder- and pressed a soft kiss against her temple.
The two sat like that, curled up against each other, neither of them wanting to let go of the other. Jay had started pulling his hand through Myra's hair, softly tugging at the knots to untangle them. The feeling had started to sooth her. Her breathing had calmed down, her body had stopped shaking and the tears had stopped falling. Myra's hands had stopped clinging on to Jay's shirt, instead she had wrapped them around his waist. Jay wasn't crying anymore either. They just lay there, enjoying each other's touch for as long as they still could.
"Jay..." Myra whispered in a husky voice, moving back a little so she could look him in his eyes. Jay hummed in response, looking down at her while the hand that had been untying her hair rested half on the side of her head, his thumb tracing her jawline. Myra let her hands slide over his chest until they were loosely wrapped around his neck. No more words got spoken between the two as both of them started to lean in.
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