Third Person
Brielle and Harry walked from the inside of Evie's house to the courtyard where everyone was waiting for further instructions by the person they all knew had the best judgment when it came to planning, that person being the Queen of course. All eyes were on Brielle when she and Harry walked out of the house, and Brielle looked over at her friend that she hadn't even noticed before,
"Oh Jane! I have a question for you"
Brielle said, making Jane pause the admiring of her birthday present Carlos got her, a necklace. Carlos was inspired to get Jane a necklace from Harry's gift to Brielle. And sure enough, Jane wasn't planning on taking off the necklace Carlos gave her for a long while,
"Hey Bri! I'm so glad you're alright, I was trying to reach you and you weren't responding"
Brielle and Harry walked over to Jane, Harry was happy to follow Brielle around as she talked to her friend,
"Oh yeah, just got caught in a bush of thorns that's all. But I was wondering, do you know where your mom is? She could be a huge help right about now"
Jane sighed and shook her head, getting a little more somber and shrugging her shoulders,
"No, I haven't heard from her for a few hours"
She said in a bit of a scared tone. Carlos wrapped an arm around her shoulder for support and consoled her some. Brielle sighed and tilted her head some and took a second to think,
"I think we should try to find FG, so Jane... Doug, and for muscle... how about you Gil? You wanna tag along to find Fairy Godmother?"
Gil perked up with a wide grin and excitedly nodded,
"The Fairy Godmother? Woah, totally!"
He said with enthusiasm before trotting over to Jane while Doug normally walked over to her. Carlos turned Jane to look at him for a second and began giving her words of encouragement and reassurance. Brielle took a deep breath to calm herself some as she was feeling some nerves beginning to act up. She lightly furrowed her brow as it was as if something was wrong, but there was nothing new that would be making her feel that way.
Harry felt Brielle getting tenser, he peered down at her and read the expression on her face as one of mild concern and some worry. Before he could ask her what was wrong, she seemed to shake it off some and began ordering everyone around again as if nothing was the matter,
"Alright everyone, let's get moving. Jane, Gil, Doug, I suggest checking the museum. FG was aware there was an attack on Auradon and probably went to go get her wand. If she's either not there or is asleep or unfortunately turned to stone, then Jane I want you to get the wand and take it with you. When we meet back up I can use it, and don't try to use it. I think we all remember how that went the last time you tried, no offense"
Jane nodded and smiled some at Brielle's bit of a joke at her that she found equally as funny as Brielle did,
"Oh yeah, I most certainly won't try to use it. But how do you get it from the forcefield?"
Brielle parted from Harry's grasp and walked over to Jane and whispered to her as to not wildly advertise how to get the wand from the magical barrier,
"All you have to do is call the wand to your hand with good intentions in your heart, it's not terribly complicated"
Brielle quickly whispered. Jane nodded to her and smiled,
"Got it, come on boys let's go!"
She shouted with command before taking the liberty and walking off first. Brielle's influence was totally beginning to really rub off on Jane and it was most certainly for the better. The two boys quickly jumped to action and followed her away. Brielle smirked some at Jane's leading role and nodded to her one last time before turning on her heels and facing her brother, re-adorning a stone-cold expression on her face,
"Ben, to Fairy Cottage"
She announced with a monotone voice. Ben nodded some and looked at his sister with that pleading look again, but Brielle promptly turned away from him again. Ben took a long sigh and began sulking his way into leading the way to Fairy Cottage. Mal stayed at Ben's side and gently wrapped her arms around one of his arms.
Uma hung back closer towards Brielle and Harry, she was planning on telling Harry that she was sorry during this long walk. Celia stayed at Brielle's other side, for she had grown to really like the Queen and her understanding nature and had begun looking up to her, therefore she wished to stay by Brielle's side. Carlos, Jay, and Evie naturally stayed near each other in their own group.
Mal looked up at Ben with a bit of a guilty look as she purposely began separating them from the group some once they were into the woods. She took a long sigh before she began to speak as she had been wanting to talk to Ben alone for some time now and finally saw a chance. Mal had been really thinking over the idea of closing the barrier behind Brielle's back, slowly but surely she was beginning to comprehend the decision and was slowly realizing how terrible all the effects of deciding without Brielle would be. So, in hopes to solve the problem without creating a scene, Mal decided to tell Ben to call the decision off and hope he wouldn't want to tell Brielle about the plan anyway,
"Ben?"
She very quietly said, Ben peered down at her with residual sadness in his eyes from Brielle's continuous cold demeanor towards him,
"Yeah?"
Mal took a deep breath and got her words into order before speaking,
"I'm having second thoughts... you know about the whole barrier thing? The sole reason why I even mentioned it was because I thought the scepter was stolen by a villain kid and such"
Mal quietly spoke so only Ben could hear. Ben took a second to think over what Mal said before sighing,
"I am too, I think as soon as we can we should shred that damn document I wrote. I haven't liked going behind Brielle's back whilst trying to apologize about even bringing the idea up earlier"
Mal nodded and smiled a bit more,
"Well, I feel a lot better now"
Mal spoke, making Ben catch on to her smile a little. He nodded and got his spirits lifted some,
"Yeah, so do I. I just hope Brielle understands that we regret trying to go behind her back"
Ben said, making Mal look back up at him with a bit of a surprised expression,
"You wanna tell her? No one has to know you know"
Mal said, hoping Ben would just act like they never had that idea in the first place. Ben looked down to her again with a furrowed brow,
"Mal, she's gonna find out eventually. I think it'll be best to tell her, I bet she'll appreciate that we didn't go through with it and forgive us and finally forgive me"
Ben said with quite the optimistic outlook on how Brielle would react, but Mal was far less optimistic than he. She had been battling with the idea of shutting the barrier since they figured out Audrey had the scepter but was trying to convince herself that she was right. However, in her subconscious, she knew she wasn't right. Mal knew that she should've listened to Brielle from the start, it would've prevented a lot of flared tempers, arguments, and hurt feelings. Mal did feel better though, she felt that she had made things right once again.
Uma stayed back and eventually was able to muster up the courage to talk to Harry for the first time in years without an insult or without yelling. She took a deep breath and stayed back until she was on Harry's other side,
"Hey... Harry?"
She cautiously asked. Harry, who was a little surprised that she was actually trying to talk to him looked over to her with cold eyes,
"Yeh?"
He answered coldly. Brielle peeked over to Uma and gave her a reassuring smile and nod. Uma appreciated the supportive gesture and went forward with her apology,
"I... I talked to Brielle earlier while you guys were out and she told me that I should say the same thing I said to her to you so... Harry I completely understand if you never even like me ever again, I just... I just want you to know I'm really sorry..."
Harry was taken aback from the start that Uma even talked to Brielle, but the apology was very unexpected for him. He furrowed his brow some and glanced over to Brielle before looking back over to Uma,
"... from the very beginning I never really appreciated who you are to me, I acted like I didn't care because I thought it was cool. I know how much you did for me, I really messed up. As for more recent events, I really really fucked up... when it came to your dad and all. I don't know what I was thinking, and I'm really glad you were able to get out of there. I guess I was blinded by the thought of getting off the Isle and was willing to do anything, including throwing my brother figure under the bus to do so. Listen, Harry... I don't expect you to even forgive me for what I've done to you, I just want you to know how sorry I am"
Harry stared at Uma in shock for a few seconds, he needed more than thirty seconds to process what she said. He began slowly nodding after he got the majority of her words processed. Harry slowly looked over to Brielle who had been silently watching the exchange,
"What did she talk to ya about?"
He asked Brielle quietly. Brielle smiled a little and quietly responded,
"She apologized to me for never giving me a chance and thinking I was a stuck-up royal without knowing me. She also apologized for being bitter with me, said that she should be happy that I make you happy, and be supportive of you and I. She was very sincere about the whole thing"
Harry slowly nodded at Brielle's words before turning back to Uma who was looking at him with sad and guilty eyes. Harry stared at Uma with narrowed eyes for a few moments just as they got up to the Fairy Cottage, night slowly falling and the sun disappearing over the horizon. Harry eventually hummed and nodded once,
"Consider us neutral, I'm not yer friend but I'm not yer enemy"
Uma took a very quiet sigh of relief as she knew that was a better outcome than she thought she was going to get. She only nodded at Harry with a small smile, Harry returned the nod without a smile.
Uma looked back to the path in front of her, feeling like the weight and burden of what she did to Harry that she had been towing with her for years finally lifted off her shoulders. Brielle smiled a little for the two making up some and supportively wrapped her arms around one of Harry's and lovingly squeezed his arm for a second. Harry very casually peered down at Brielle and got a full smile back onto his lips at her supportive gesture just as they approached the cottage.
Brielle POV
I know that was hard for both of them, them being Harry and Uma even calmly acknowledging each other. I was proud of Uma for trying and I was proud of Harry for taking the mature route and accepting her apology even a little bit. He's grown so much as a person, and I could not be more proud of him.
We approached the cottage and everyone went on a bit more of a high alert as Audrey could very well be in there. Harry and I both re-situated ourselves to have one hand on each of our swords handle. We all got down lower and began quietly creeping forward. Harry took my free hand in his and quickly led the way through to get closer to the cottage in the stealthiest way possible as the nervous tension could be cut with a knife. He kept gently tugging me along to keep me close to him by making me bump into him constantly, but I don't mind.
Harry led me up to the door first with Ben and Mal close behind, everyone following directly after us. Harry then put his hand on the door handle and quickly opened the door with a bit of a slam as he hit it with his body to open it faster. I walked in first and immediately began scanning the area, everyone spilling in behind me,
"Someone go check upstairs"
I ordered, Jay jumped in and climbed up the stairs while we all acknowledged that no one was down here at least. We all quickly spread out some and looked around the room right as Jay came back down,
"She's not upstairs"
I took a big sigh of disappointment, but with an undertone of relief as my nerves getting here have been piling up for some reason. We all took a breather once Jay came back down and let us know there was no one here, well we thought there was no one here until we all heard some banging on the pantry door,
"Hey you guys! Maybe someone could let me out?"
Chad? That sounds like Chad. Ben quickly walked over to the door and pushed the board up that was locking the door and opened the door to see none other than Chad himself standing in the doorway,
"Chad?"
Ben asked, Chad slowly nodded and seemed to be scanning the room,
"That's me alright, Audrey locked me in there a while ago. But I wasn't scared, I'm too much of a man-"
I rolled my eyes at the statement that he luckily cut off, but he cut it off right when he was looking at me. He locked eyes with me and began slowly walking over to me while Harry walked over to stand behind me,
"Oh, Brielle... hey there~"
He said in a deeper voice than how he normally talks. I furrowed my brow and leaned back into Harry as he continued walking towards us,
"Uhm... hey Chad?"
I said very skeptically. Harry slowly wrapped one arm around me from behind as I think he sensed something was up too. Chad chuckled and continued his sauntering towards me,
"So Brielle, how are you feeling right about now in the presence of... a real prince?"
When I tell you I about snorted in laughter, I wish I were kidding. I could hear the wanna be seductive tone in his voice, listen when you've heard Harry's truly seductive voice everything else after that sounds like child's play. If it's not considerably deeper, always with a loving tone to it rather than one of simply lust, and with a Scottish accent, I don't want it. I don't know what's going on with him but my goodness he's funny. I chuckled and raised a brow,
"Uhm... uh I don't know what to say to that"
I awkwardly said in return. Harry tugged me from standing in front of him to standing to the side as he stared Chad down with a dangerous glare. Chad continued to walk towards me despite Harry trying to get me away from him,
"Lost for words? So taken aback you can barely breathe hm? I could even say utterly starstruck, I can see it in your eyes~"
He asked, at this point, it stopped being funny. Now, this was stepping over the line of being creepy. I nervously laughed and looked around for someone to drag me out of this, I tugged on Harry's sleeve hoping that he could step in some,
"Chad you are increasingly making me more and more uncomfortable the more you even look at me so maybe you could do me a solid and not?"
I asked with a stern voice as I tugged at Harry's sleeve. Harry quickly tossed his hook into his hand and pointed it at Chad,
"Ye heard her, stop being a creep"
Harry growled, I smiled a bit at him and his protectiveness. Chad put his hands up as if he were surrendering and began side-stepping,
"Alright, alright..."
He began, suddenly he pulled a fast one and ducked around Harry and shoved me away from him and into a wall. I tensed up and immediately felt my chest tighten in panic as I saw the look of terrible lust in his eye that I really did not care for,
"... we'll see how much of a creep you think I am when you realize you're in love with me~ I've been waiting for this moment forever~"
Nope nope nope NOPE! NOT TODAY SATAN. Right as he began leaning closer to me I kicked a knee up with the fury of a thousand suns right where the sun doesn't shine, right in the crotch, right where all that toxic masculinity of his comes from. As soon as he folded over I ducked and weaved out of his arms and began showing my cringe,
"Ew ew ew ew ew EW!"
I basically shrieked whilst trying to keep my gagging down to a minimum. Everyone was in shock, I was just freaking out at how disgusting that was and nearly almost was. I got a mad case of the shivers and twitched about some in utter disgust.
Meanwhile, I don't think I have ever seen Harry more pissed off. By that I mean, he was madder than even back when he confronted Uma and his dad back then. His was boiling red, teeth gritted together, and fists clenched in anger. Suddenly he hooked the back of Chad's collar as he laid in the fetal position on the floor holding his... you know what and cursing to himself, all while Harry I kid you not DRAGGED him out of the cottage by the collar and outside before slamming the door,
"Girl are you alright?"
Uma asked with concern after coming up to me and putting a hand on my shoulder,
"Y-Yeah I'm good"
I stuttered out before rolling my shoulder some,
"Ow, good gods he shoved me with force"
I muttered, I glanced over at Ben to see him completely frozen in time it seemed. Suddenly he began growling and marched outside too, also slamming the door,
"I'm gonna kill him"
He muttered as he marched out. Evie came to my side too and began consoling me some, before I knew it every girl we had in here was by my side, every girl and Carlos that is. He's always just been a good guy, so after a few seconds of making sure I was good called to Jay,
"Come on, let's go help Harry and Ben hide the body"
Carlos said which successfully made me chuckle some. Carlos and Jay were the next to go outside for a moment, Celia ran to the table and grabbed a chair and brought it to me to sit down which even though I'm not exactly scared was nice. I took a seat and a breather at the same time, all while my fellow female friends made sure I was alright which really made me feel good to know I have friends of sorts that's for sure. All I have to do is get my bearings, then I want some words with Mr. Charming.
Harry POV
I have never been more pissed off in my life.
What sort of privilege does that lad think he has to lay his hands on Brielle, my lass, like that? Well, I was very eager to find out so duh, I dragged him outside to have a stern talking too and yeah to probably beat him up some. We'll see how angry he can make me, shall we?
Chad fumbled to his feet while I dragged him and tried to unhook himself from my hook, but once you've been hooked there's no going back.
Once we were outside I promptly turned to him and unhooked my hook from the back of his collar and quickly held it to his neck, absolutely fuming by the way. I planned on whisper yelling as to not let those inside hear because trust me, giving him a piece of my mind is an understatement,
"How DARE ya lay yer disgusting, filthy hands on my lassie like that eh?! Ye think yer smart or something? Think yer better than me because yer some magical prince? Hell no, never in my life have I treated ANY lass with such disgusting disrespect that ye just displayed! And that makes me a million times better than ye I can promise ya that! Guess what ye absolute bastard? Brielle. Is. My. Lass. Do I need ta say that any slower for yer tiny mind ta comprehend? It's not hard ta understand ta be honest, Brielle has never given ye the time of day and suddenly ye think that ye can try ta assault her without her or I saying a damn thing about it? Congratulations, yer fucking crazy in the head!"
I whisper shouted right into his face, slowly he was getting a far less cocky look about him thankfully. I hate that stupid cocky smirk he had on in there, made me want to slap it right off his face BEFORE he tried what he tried with Brielle,
"I-I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding here, y-you see Audrey was supposed to put a s-spell on her-"
No, no fucking way he wanted her to be spelled for that, I don't care what the spell is for. At this rate, I'm gonna skin him alive,
"I'm gonna stop ya right there, there is no misunderstanding 'ere. What ye just tried ta do is unacceptable yeh?! I've always hated how ya look at her, I've always hated yer condescending nature towards her like yer some sort of god, here's a solid reality check lad. I don't care how possessive this sounds, she. is. mine. Ta her, yer absolutely nothing! She could not care less about what happens ta ya especially after the stunt ye just pulled, and she's not out 'ere ta calm me down and guess what? She's the only person that can, so at this rate, yer gonna end up six feet down and no ones gonna look for ya because no one would care enough ta do so. I'm aware that I can be hot-headed, but I've grown ta be quite the tolerant lad but the minute, no the SECOND ye mess with MY lassie we are gonna have a MAJOR issue!"
I continued one, bringing my hook up and making sure I was getting it nice close and personal with his face and neck. Suddenly the door slammed again and out came Ben with his brotherly fury. As soon as he came out here he threw his jacket off and ran into Chad with a powerful shove,
"If you think you can fucking assault my goddamn sister in front of my fucking eyes you're dreaming Charming!"
He shouted with a growl, I may not like him too much right now but with our combined forces we could totally get away with murder here. I took a second and held Ben back because I still had words to say to this dickhead,
"I hope ya know the mess ye've just gotten yerself into, and I hope ye know yer not gonna get out of it unscathed ye disgusting, sad excuse for a boy..."
I refuse to call Chad a man, look at him! Come on, that is not a man. That is a coward, oh I haven't used that word yet,
"... and the fact that ye think ye need ta spell her ta get her ta like ya should really say something, what a fucking coward. And before ya say something stupid, Brielle loved me before the stupid cookie incident so ye can keep yer mouth shut about that!"
I growled, Ben looked at me with big eyes before looking back over to Chad,
"Spell? What the fuck?!"
Ben shouted, the two of us completely cornering the cowering Chad right when the door slammed again. We both turned our heads in unison to see Carlos and Jay coming out, Jay cracking his knuckles and Carlos looking pissed off too,
"And the award for today's royal pain in the ass goes to Mr. Charming!"
Carlos announced. Jay and he came behind Ben and I and completely outnumbered Chad by an insane amount,
"Where do we wanna hide the body boys?"
Jay said next. If he keeps it up with taking my side and such then he might just make it to my friend's list. Chad was completely shaking like a leaf in fear and trying his best to get some form of words out, but the pitiful attempts were something to simply laugh at.
Suddenly I felt the lightest tap on my shoulder, I whipped my head around to see my lassie herself standing right behind me with a smile and batting lashes, something that immediately calmed my temper a considerable amount,
"Boys? May I have a quick word?"
Brielle very calmly spoke. I looked at her in awe, her calmness was always a little frightening in moments like this. Somehow she's able to keep a dangerous calm in moments like this that end up erupting into her lashing out somehow, whatever it is whenever it happens I can tell ya one thing. She may be fuming, but my god it can be hot. So I stepped back and let her look at Chad who immediately dropped to his knees,
"P-Please Brielle you have to u-understand that this was a-all just one big misunderstanding! I-I was t-tricked! It w-was a wicked t-trick I know b-but you must forgive me!"
Chad pleaded, Brielle slowly nodded and hummed some,
"How so?"
She calmly responded as Ben and I especially had to really take a moment to cool down,
"A-Audrey lied to me! I-I was set up I swear! S-She said that s-she put a love spell on you s-so you would love m-me! I d-don't know w-why okay?"
He said, proceeding to beg her for forgiveness and to get all of us who ganged up on him to let him go unharmed and all of this bullshit. Ya know it's gonna be good when Brielle only hums as a response. She motioned to Chad to stand up and locked eyes with him and slowly smiled at him,
"I understand"
She simply said to all of our surprises, but then I noticed her left-hand tense into a fist. That's when I knew this was going to be good. Suddenly she raised her fist and clocked him right between the eyes with a growl of anger and ferocity,
"Doesn't mean I'll let you get away with being a fucking creep"
He fell to the ground and quickly appeared to be knocked out cold, and I... I did not know Brielle had the physical capability to knock someone out with one hit... holy shit... no wonder I'm madly in love with her. Everyone stood in shock, I think all of us had our jaws dropped for a second as Brielle flicked her hand around some and flipped her hair back before looking back at me,
"Well, I didn't exactly mean to hit him that hard... oh well. Does my hair still look good? I feel like it's been all messed up since he decided to be ever so rude and shove me into the wall back there"
Whew, I really gotta cool down. The way she just casually knocked him out cold and simply ask if her hair still looked good just... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little excited at the moment. I slowly nodded with big, starstruck eyes,
"Yeah, ye look stunning"
I said in a spacey voice as I just could not look away from her. She smiled some more and fully turned to me and tilted her head some,
"Thanks for having my back Har"
She said in a far sweeter tone than the one she was talking in before. I smiled like a complete idiot and nodded, slowly just pulling her into a hug as Chad struggled to his feet,
"Chad, get lost"
Brielle sweetly said without even turning to look at him. He very quickly got his bearings and sprinted off in fear of a one-punch hit to the face again, and I could not be prouder. I have been helping Brielle with hand to hand self-defense for a while now, ever since Uma was at large and such for her own safety. But gee, I did not know she could do that. I guess she's been working out alone to gain muscle so when we work out together she doesn't go full force on me, not to mention I guess it's like a secret weapon of sorts.
Good gods... I wanna marry this woman so bad.
A/N
Hiya! Whew this chapter has a lot in it XD I was trying to find a break in it but nowhere looked right until I got all the way to this point so welcome to the nearly five thousand word chapter XD As for Brielle knocking Chad out for a second, I know it seems a bit harsh but I thought about what I would do in that situation and I would've done the same thing so here we are XD
There are a lot of bits in this chapter to process so hopefully, it wasn't overwhelming :) The next one... well the next chapter won't be so all over the place that's for sure. Choices will be made, sides will be chosen, and... fates may just be sealed.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter :D
Remember to stay hydrated and to be kind to yourself today :D
-Brooke