Brielle POV
Today has been a bad day.
I woke up alright sure, but almost as soon as I walked out of my dorm I was hit in the face with problem after problem. From paparazzi breaking in again and making me late for my classes all the way to the council continuing to bicker with me seemingly for their amusement. Not to mention, there's a very special Lady of the Court that has been messing with me recently and not in a playful way.
For some odd reason, Mal recently has become slightly trigger happy about arming the guards on the coast that I set up because of Uma being on the loose.
That's my job, I'm in charge of the military part of all of this it's my job, not hers. I've told her repeatedly to not do that because she's just being paranoid, but somehow we always end up here and I'm sick of it,
"Alright, who armed the guards again?"
I loudly spoke as I walked onto one of our balconies where one of our lovely commanders that I assigned is posted. The soldiers saluted to me as I walked by, I nodding to them in return. Mal and Ben and the commander were at the epicenter of all of this, the commander bowed,
"Your highness, Lady Mal believes she saw a tentacle near-shore"
I sighed and looked over at Mal who had a stern yet slightly guilty look on her face as if she's trying to hide the fact that she's in the wrong here,
"Mal, tell me do you see anything actually happening down there? Is Uma crawling up onto the beaches as we speak? If you couldn't tell, the answer is no"
I sternly spoke. Have I mentioned that Audrey bothered me all this morning about Harry and I's relationship again? Yup, she ripped on it for as long as I could take it before I stormed off before I could lose it. Later on, Audrey sent Chad over to me and wouldn't leave me alone about him being my obvious best suitor and that I should stop being "silly" with Harry. Audrey then joined him and ganged up on me, barking that I'm being naive.
So yeah, I'm just a little fucking pissed off right now.
Mal sighed and walked up to me, abandoning Ben and his arm that she had been holding,
"Brielle I know her, she's going to wait until we're not paying attention to strike we should honestly probably have all of the guards armed at all times"
Mal said, I get her point of view but no. This is genuinely unnecessary,
"Mal, I know how to do my job. None of the guards should be armed until we need it otherwise it cooks up necessary fear and unrest, even then that's why we have our commander up here to arm them if he deems necessary. So, please for the love of my sanity Mal, just stop being so paranoid about Uma"
Mal sighed and shook her head some, getting a little fired up herself not that I could care right now,
"I'm not being paranoid-"
"Oh yeah? So you're telling me arming guards without a threat incoming is normal then?"
Ben came up to us and stood to the side but in between us at the same time,
"Brielle she's just on edge"
Oh... so Ben decided to take her side then huh? Thanks bro, big thanks to my biological twin brother that I had to share a womb with for nine months for NOT taking my side on this. I'm so done for today,
"Ben, really? You know she's being paranoid"
I said with a scoff. I slowly shook my head and looked to the commander and motioned to the guards. The commander nodded and promptly walked over to them and began ordering them to lower their weapons and such,
"So what if she's being a little paranoid?"
Mal shot him a look, he whispering something along the lines of giving me the benefit of the doubt to Mal. If he really wants to be like that then I will go for the jugular and he does know that,
"Ben, a paranoid ruler can easily evolve into a dictator. And I won't be having any dictators in Auradon as long as I live I would hope you know that. Mal..."
I looked at her with a smile at first before completely wiping that fake smile from my lips and stepping towards her some,
"... don't mess with things that are not your problem, don't take things that are not yours including jobs and duties, and do not try to do my job for me even a little bit"
I spoke in a monotone voice. Mal looked down and stepped back some, nodding just a little. Ben put a hand on my shoulder and made me step back some,
"Bri, tone it down"
He said sternly, I slowly reached a hand up and grabbed his wrist to take his hand off my shoulder,
"I'm not in the mood for that, not to mention..."
I turned my head away from Mal before I spoke as to not spark any extra conflict for today,
"... I get wanting to flatter your girlfriend by taking her side but when I'm right or when she's in the wrong I would really appreciate my brother having my back"
I whispered. Ben turned his head to talk back as Mal furrowed her brow at the conversation being cut off from her,
"You were being harsh Bri, I know you are particular about how military matters are handled but she's simply trying to help-"
"By overstepping after being nicely told multiple times not to, and you can blame your ex, the council, and the paparazzi for my "harsh" tone"
I can't be around other people right now. I'm not just pissed but I'm feeling massively overwhelmed from all of this. I looked back at Mal before looking back to Ben with a look of some vengeance.
To be fair, I would be willing to explain my point of view if I weren't fighting back tears of being so stressed out so quickly. I sharply turned around and stormed off for the second time today, trying to make it look like I'm not about to just combust into tears.
I stormed past everyone I walked past, not paying attention to who I walked past or who was looking. I made a beeline to my dorm as I just want to cry for a few solid minutes to get all my rouge emotions out. I quickly and frantically unlocked my door and threw it open and slammed it shut, definitely disrupting my neighbors.
I stormed over to my curtains and yanked them shut to block out the light and kicked my shoes off, feeling the breakdown coming I just threw myself onto my bed and buried my face into my pillow. It's been a while since I've felt so overwhelmed like this, feeling like things are out of my control and having my brother go against me like that was most certainly the icing on the cake, the cake being Audrey and her sudden determination to rule my love life.
I hate sudden waves if breakdowns like this so much, the unnecessary pit I have in my stomach right now is too much.
Harry POV
So here I was, minding my own business with Carlos and Jay by the picnic tables when I heard some whisperings that caught my attention. And the only reason I'm tolerating Jay is because Carlos wants us to get along better and Carlos isn't that bad so I tolerate his existence.
Anyway, I heard some people whispering a certain name, they were talking about Brielle. I perked up from zoning out from Jay's rambling and looked around for a second. I followed everyone's eyes to see none other than Brielle, and I have never seen her like that.
Brielle shoved through everyone in her way, not going around anyone but instead shoving into them and continuing her march without even apologizing for running into people. Carlos and Jay caught on and furrowed their brow,
"Man, what's up with Bri?"
Carlos muttered, I narrowed my eyes some to read her expression. She looked angry, that's what her body language was saying but now that I focus on her more her eyes look glossy as if she was crying. I subconsciously began stepping forward to follow her but someone stopped me,
"Maybe we should give her a second"
Carlos said as he had pulled me back some by the shoulder. I shook his hand off,
"I just wanna make sure she's alright"
I said before continuing. Jay and Carlos followed as I followed her, Carlos because he actually cares and Jay because he's a chaotic evil.
Brielle was definitely going to her dorm with haste, I honestly can't imagine what could've gotten her like this. She was fine this morning, we went to our respective classes and now here she is very not fine. We all turned the corner to see her quickly fiddling with her dorm key before opening her dorm room door with quite the force, but that force was nothing compared to how hard she slammed the door. When I tell you the walls shook, I mean the walls SHOOK. Picture frames fell, lights flickered, those in surrounding rooms stuck their heads out of their rooms to see what was up. Carlos took a shaky breath,
"Oh she's real pissed"
"What did you do?"
Jay said as a follow-up, I scoffed and turned to him,
"I didn't do anything"
Jay shrugged,
"Maybe that's the problem, females can be confusing like that sometimes. Is today an important day that you forgot to acknowledge or did you forget something?"
"I didn't fuckin' forget anything and she's not that sort of lassie, she's not confusing like that. She's quite the tame lass when it comes to telling me if she's feeling something she doesn't like so we can sort it out with ease. This is something external"
Carlos tugged me back by the shoulder again,
"Really though, maybe you should leave her be for a second before you try anything"
Maybe he's right, I mean Carlos hasn't really led me astray when it comes to advice yet so I just casually sauntered over to her door and leaned against the wall beside the door. Jay and Carlos stood across from me,
"Yeh, give her a minute to defuse"
"Probably for your safety"
Jay added, what is with him and doing that? Adding something snarky after something someone else says, it's fuckin annoying,
"Jay will you shut-"
I paused as I thought I heard something from behind the door, I furrowed my brow and leaned my head closer to the door,
"Shut what? Shut-"
Jay was about to do the snarky thing again,
"Mate shut up"
I cut him off as now I actually wanted him to shut up so I could hear better,
"Oh classic Hook-"
"Jay do me a favor and actually shut up for two seconds"
I cut him off again, am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? It sounds like-
"One, two, alright that's it-"
"Actually shut up Jay, I'm trying to hear something"
I growled, I took my hook in my hand and pointed it at him for a second to display my seriousness. Carlos stopped Jay from talking the next time thankfully. I leaned into the door again... yeah I am hearing that right. It sounds like crying, muffled crying at that,
"She's not angry, she's upset"
I muttered. Carlos and Jay looked at each other for a second while I leaned a little closer so my head was almost up against the door. My heart ached as that wasn't just crying anymore, but had escalated to sobs. I turned back to Jay and Carlos,
"I'm gonna handle this, I mean this in the kindest way possible but ye two go somewhere that isn't 'ere"
I quickly said, Carlos raised a brow,
"What is it? What's up with her?"
I shrugged and thought of a quick excuse, I didn't want to say that she was having a breakdown exactly because I can see why someone like Brielle wouldn't want just anyone knowing that she's upset,
"None of yer business, once again I mean that in the nicest way possible. Now shoo I have a lock ta pick"
Jay looked to Carlos and was about to inevitably say another snarky comment, but Carlos stopped him and shook his head so he knew to stop. Carlos and Jay went ahead and walked off, leaving me there to finally do what I want to do which is ultimately figure out what's troubling my lass and comfort her some as I hate hearing her cry at all.
I gently knocked on the door, the crying pausing for a second,
"Darlin'? May I come in?"
I used my really gentle voice but raised it enough so she could hear me through the door. A few seconds passed, very faint sniffling was all I could hear,
"Y-Yeah"
A cracking voice eventually called back. I hated that, she's never sounded like that before. I quickly tossed my hook in my hand and pressed my ear against the door and waited to hear the click to tell me I've succeeded at picking her lock. I've pretty much memorized the order of which this goes, a little to the left, all the way to the right, move up to the top some before shooting back to the left, and press down. And there ya have it, that's a picked lock right there.
I turned her doorknob and peaked in, the room was all dark with the light from the hallway being the only thing lighting the room beside the sun desperately trying to get through the curtains that blocked the direct light. I saw Brielle's small figure curled up in bed, she wasn't facing me but I could tell just by her body language what she was feeling.
I walked into her room and quietly shut the door behind me and walked over to her bed, kicking off my shoes and setting my hook down before climbing in behind her. I gently moved the hair from her shoulder brushed her bare shoulder with the back of my hand,
"What's the matter, love?"
I whispered, she turned her head some to look at me with some confusion however all I could pay attention to was her quivering bottom lip, tired glossy eyes, and tear stains running down her cheeks. I immediately felt sad that she was feeling this way, I didn't care what for I simply hate seeing her so upset,
"H-How did y-you know s-something was t-the matter?"
She whispered. I couldn't take it, her sweet voice should never have to waver like that. I sat up some and leaned against the headboard before scooping her up, one arm around her back and the other around her legs. I brought her in between my legs,
"I saw ya storming about earlier and I followed ya ta make sure ye were alright"
She hummed some and curled up into a ball and hid her face in my chest, as horrible as I feel about her feeling this way man do I love it when she does that,
"I-I'm just h-having a b-bad day... f-feeling o-overwhelmed"
Aww, I knew it was bound to happen eventually. I know how hard she works and how much she has to deal with, I truly respect that side of her job so much because my goodness I couldn't do what she does there. I wrapped my arms around her and rocked back and forth, taking one hand up and carefully taking her hair down from the high ponytail it was in with one hand. I ruffled through her hair some to loosen her hair as it was pulled taught. That most certainly couldn't have been helping, having her hair so uptight like that couldn't have been comfortable,
"I'm sorry about that bonnie lass, anything I can do ta make it better?"
Brielle POV
I wish I could have just melted into him, but my stress right now wasn't allowing it. I just clung onto him as tears continued down my cheeks,
"I'm sorry about that bonnie lass, anything I can do ta make it better?"
I smiled a little at that alone, moving my head from his chest to look up at him. He gently brought both of his hands up to cup both of my cheeks and wipe my stray tears,
"I hate seeing ya so upset Brielle darlin', what can I do?"
He softly reiterated, I shrugged and smiled some,
"I dunno, y-you've already helped a bunch"
I whispered. He lightly sighed and tilted his head some before sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of my bed, tugging me along so I would follow,
"Ye look tired, how about I do what ye always do ta me when I'm having one of these days eh? Let me return the favor?"
I furrowed my brow some and took a deep breath to continue my calming down process,
"What do y-you mean?"
I do a lot of stuff with Harry when he's feeling down, he surely can't be implying that he's going to do all of the things I normally do for him right? I mean I do tons of facials for him and if he's tense I'll give him a lil massage and then we watch a movie and I always end up playing with his hair the whole time, it's kinda over the top. He can't really mean he's going to do all of that for me right? I'm only having a minor breakdown anyway,
"Let me take care of ya, I've paid attention every time ye do yer lil routine ta me so when ye had a bad day I could do the same for ya"
Oh, he really did mean the full routine? Aww, I love my pirate. I tilted my head some at him and smiled a bit more,
"Really?"
"Yeh really, now hold on because first things first are the facial part of this"
I wiped my eyes one more time before slinging my arms around his neck. His hands ran down to my upper thighs and stood up with ease, I wrapped my legs around him as he did to help him out some so he wasn't doing all the work. Still, I am absolutely bamboozled as to how easily he can just scoop me up or sweep me off my feet to carry me around.
Harry carried me into my bathroom and set me down on the edge of my bathtub. He opened up the special drawer, yes the special drawer full of all the things that I do for self-care and for his care if he needs it. He took out a few of the products, funny enough it was the exact things I used on him. He glanced over to me as he took things out of the drawer as I adjusted part of my dresses collar,
"Ye don't look too comfortable over there darlin', that dress bothering ya?"
How is it possible that he picks up on stuff that fast? I mean I can do it but when he does it I just get mind boggled because I'm so used to being the only one who does that. I giggled and nodded,
"Yeah, it's just tight all around the wrong parts including my chest and honestly Har I've known you long enough so I'm just going to say it, the girls are not happy right now"
I said as I pointed to my chest. He got the message and chuckled,
"Why are ya wearing it then?"
"Because it matches my shoes"
Harry slowly turned to me for a second before cracking a very amused smile. He slowly walked over to the hooks on the bathroom wall that had some towels hanging from it and my robe. He snatched my robe from the hook and walked on over to me and unfolded it and held it open at me,
"Well ye aren't wearing any shoes, so wearing the dress is not necessary even though it isn't necessary anyway. Ye shouldn't be wearing something if it hurts ya, anyway I won't look"
I sighed and stood up and turned my back against the robe so he could put it on me as soon as I was out of this torturous dress,
"Har? Could you do me a favor and unzip?"
I casually said while I held my hair away and pointed to the zipper on the back of my dress. He didn't do anything for a few seconds but eventually, he indeed did unzip the zipper for me as it was in a bit of an inconvenient place. He did unzip it rather slowly which I thought was odd but alright.
Once I was free from the dress and my bra since that was not helping the problem at hand he wrapped me up in my robe,
"That feel better love?"
He asked once I finished tying up the robe and turning around to face him again,
"Yeah, thanks for the suggestion"
Harry paused for a few seconds and stared at me, his smile very gradually growing before he snapped himself out of it. Well, that was cute, it's pretty rare that I catch a lil moment like that but it was utterly adorable. He turned back to the things he brought out and gently cleaned my face of all the makeup I had on before starting the face mask and face massage cycle, all while playing therapist and letting me vent about the day and supporting and reassuring me when I would get upset again.
Whew, after that I am surely feeling better than before. Harry wasn't lying when he said he was paying attention to when I did this to him because he did an excellent job and my skin is absolutely glowing now.
After that, he ushered me back to bed and dug into my snack stash and got me some of my favorite candies from there before turning on the TV as I contently munched away at some sour straws in absolute bliss,
"Horror movie?"
He asked, he does really know me too well, doesn't he? I smiled and nodded. He went into the horror genre and went until I stopped him on one of the movies. It's a more modern horror movie but I think it's interesting so why not? It was "The Conjuring", one of my personal odd favorites because to be fair it's not the best, but for some reason I really like it. He started it up and crawled on the bed to sit behind me, snatching a sour straw as he did and putting the whole thing in his mouth before dusting his hands off over the side of my bed which I really appreciated as to not make my bed too messy.
Then Harry ran his hands onto my shoulders and began slowly rubbing my tense muscles as we watched the movie, occasionally I'd blindly give him a sour straw and he'd just eat it from my hand as to not pause the lovely massaging that he was doing. He went from my shoulders to my neck and all the way to my back before finishing it off with a scalp massage. It was absolutely heavenly, to say the least.
After that we cozied up under all of my blankets and finished up the movie there, still snacking as we did and I sometimes having to explain what was going on to Harry but I of course don't mind. By the time the movie was over I was so sleepy, not tired but sleepy. Like I feel all warm and cozy, we're cuddling, I'm not upset anymore, my skin feels amazing, and my muscles are all relaxed, of course I wanna just close my eyes and drift off into dreamland right here. I did actually feel my eyes struggling to stay open as I snuggled into Harry some more,
"Rest those gorgeous eyes of yers, my love, ye deserve it and I'll be right 'ere when ya wake up"
That's all my eyes needed to glue themselves shut. Harry's warm embrace and all the blankets wrapped around me made me feel so safe, so relaxed, and so loved. So with that, I allowed myself to slip away to the wonderful land of dreams, my lover holding me the whole time, one last thought drifting past my tired mind,
How on earth did I get so lucky to have you?
A/N
Hiya! Fluffy fluffy chapter today despite the angsty title ayeee :D The next one as a heads up will for Brielle's birthday which obviously means it'll be Ben's birthday too but just so you all know they do apologize to each other after this one-shot because of their little fight so the party won't be awkward XD This one will also probably be a few parts long because I have a lot of ideas for it, so that'll be super exciting cause their last birthday was spent at their coronation of course :)
As another little bit of info, I'm only gonna write one birthday bit per person (Brielle and Harry) because it would be repetitive if I did every year so because of that I think that handy dandy lil countdown to D3 is gonna start soon :3 After the royal twins birthday, D3 is only about a year away book time which is maybe four to five one-shots our time, how exciting is that? :D
I'm so excited to get to work on D3, I have been waiting for this moment since the end of D1 when I began cooking up possibilities and such. I think I've finally narrowed it down to our top two contenders when it comes to story line, so I'm super pumped to finalize a path to go on :D
Hopefully you all liked this chapter :3 Remember to stay hydrated and to be kind to yourself today :D
-Brooke