Work Text:
[Inspired by this prompt: “Why don’t you like Disney movies?” “They’re too perfect.” “Well, screw you.”]
At Eliza’s invitation, Angelica had made movie night a regular thing. Every other Friday night, the eldest Schuyler sister stayed the night at the middle sister’s house, the girls going to bed only after watching at least one new movie. The two sisters enjoyed spending alone time with each other from time to time, but usually they preferred to have Eliza’s boyfriend, Alexander, join them. That typically entailed having to tackle and drag him away from his laptop and, on certain nights, they might have to also shut it off and hide it somewhere.
Angelica couldn’t deny the fact that she enjoyed that part of the sleepover as well. Which was a good thing, since she was currently doing so.
“Alexander,” she grunted, trying to reach over his shoulder to slam down the top of his laptop, “you have been on this damned thing for hours on end. You...need to...take a break!” With a gasp, the tips of her fingers reached the laptop and managed to shut it down.
“No!” cried the twenty-two year old. He had been sitting at his desk, attempting to protect his laptop while fighting off two irritated Schuyler sisters, which he had obviously failed to do. “Angelica! I hadn’t even saved my progress, and that was important!”
Angelica scoffed. “More important than me?” she questioned. “Than Eliza?”
Alexander looked out of the corner of his eye to both glance at his girlfriend and avoid her sister’s fed up gaze. “Well, no, but... Couldn’t you have at least let me save my work?”
Angelica laughed disbelievingly as she began to untangle herself from her favourite (and least favourite) workaholic. “Right, and give you a chance to escape movie night?” she snorted. “Yeah, sure. Besides, I know you were using Docs, which, by the way, automatically saves your progress. So stop complaining and get your arse on the couch.”
Alexander grunted a puff of frustration before submitting to Angelica’s glare and shuffling over to the living room. He knew the way, since he slept there basically every night — when he did sleep. If the girls’ parents ever found out Eliza was practically already living with her boyfriend, well...
Angelica crossed her arms as she watched Alexander stalk off and glanced at her sister. She arched an eyebrow and huffed, “Can you believe him?”
Eliza laughed. “You two...” She shook her head but, smiling, held out her arm to her sister, who graciously accepted it. Their arms linked, the Schuylers joined Alexander on the couch in their silently established arrangement.
“What movie are we watching?” inquired Angelica, who was sitting on the right side of the couch. She expected the non-stop talker to list off several movies he had had in mind, but, surprisingly, he was silent. Slightly concerned, Angelica had looked over at him, sitting on the left side of the couch; her worry was extinguished when she deduced from the look on his face that he was simply giving them the silent treatment. The twenty-three year old laughingly thought to herself, “I wonder how long that’ll last.”
Eliza spoke up with a gasp: “How about Moana, that new Disney movie? I hear it’s amazing.”
Angelica grinned. “You know I’m a sucker for Disney,” she joked, “so I’m game. Where can we watch it? Netflix?”
Eliza shook her head as she reached for a remote on the coffee table in front of them. “No, but it should be on — ”
“No,” interrupted her boyfriend. If it weren’t for the seriousness in his voice, Angelica probably would have busted out laughing at how quickly his silent treatment had ended.
“No?” repeated the youngest of all three of them quizzically.
Alexander nodded curtly. “No,” he dictated. “No Disney. I don’t want to watch Disney movies.”
Angelica gasped theatrically. “What?” she exclaimed incredulously. “Everyone loves Disney! How can you not love Disney?”
The man in question shrugged. “I just don’t,” he said simply, and that was when Angelica really did become worried. Alexander was not the type of person who said three words about his opinion and that was that. Not at all, and Eliza seemed to be on the same train of thought.
“Alex, you okay?” she asked.
“I just... Don’t watch to watch Disney,” he huffed.
“Of course we won’t if you’re this adamant about it,” piped up Angelica. “We just want to know why you’re so adamant about it.” As an afterthought, she added, “And don’t say ‘I just am’ because that is complete and utter bull.”
Alexander shrugged half-heartedly with his right shoulder, and the oldest of the three of them was about to prompt him with more force when he explained, “They’re too perfect. Disney movies, I mean. That’s why I dislike them.”
“Too perfect?” echoed Angelica. “What’s that supposed to mean?” After receiving yet another shrug, Angelica continued: “I mean, Disney is for kids. Of course their movies are going to be childishly utopian!”
That seemed to shake Alexander, slightly, from his quiet, Burr-like state. “Sure, but they’re too childishly utopian,” he claimed, beginning to get riled up. “Kids should be taught the ugliness of the real world shortly after the get-go, not during the hardest times of their lives when they’ve got a lot of other crap to deal with already. Why should adults shield children from the cruelty of our world? Soon, it’ll be their world. The whole ordeal seems a tad bit irresponsible on Disney’s part for me.”
“Irresponsible?” parroted the eldest Schuyler in disbelief. “They’re tasked with making entertainment, Alexander, not teaching kids life lessons!”
The workaholic was silent for but a moment before grinding out: “Well, they should be! Who else is going to teach kids those lessons?”
Angelica snorted. “Um, parents?” she scoffed. After seeing the Watch it look on her sister’s face, Angelica backtracked a bit on the patronization. “What’s gotten into you?” she demanded in a slightly gentler tone. “Why all the sudden hate for Disney? What’d they ever do to you?”
Suddenly, Alexander blew up. Jumping to his feet, he shouted, “Disney is a fake source of hope for children. For years they learn from Disney that life is good, life is happy, so you should be good, you should be happy. Then, boom, life takes a dump on their face. Guess Disney was wrong, but they totally weren’t expecting that. They’re not prepared. So Disney should be right, so kids will be prepared.”
“Don’t you want kids’ happiness to last while it can?” challenged Angelica, her patience beginning to run thin. On one hand, she was starting to really be concerned about Alexander, but on the other, he was also frustrating her to no end. Why couldn’t he just tell them, outright, the reason of his hostility towards Disney?
“Well, yeah, but...” Alexander hesitated, which never was a good sign. “But they should be ready for when that happiness inevitably comes to an end. And what if a kid’s life starts off unhappy? Isn’t Disney being totally unfair to them?”
“Unfair?” repeated Angelica in utter disbelief. Unable to contain herself any longer, she ground out, “Alex, what is wrong with you?”
Alexander seemed to take offence at the remark and hissed: “Nothing’s wrong with me. You should be asking Disney that. I raise a valid point, which they have yet to fix. They haven’t even considered fixing the issue!”
Angelica narrowed her eyes at Alexander. “Maybe because there is no issue,” she cried, throwing her arms in the air in dramatic exasperation. “There’s no issue with Disney or its movies. I see no reason to not watch Moana, so that’s just what we’ll do. Unless you have an actual argument against Disney hidden up your sleeves, Alex?”
Alexander was silent for a moment, as if weighing the pros and cons of going along with the movie choice and of revealing a part of himself, which he despised having to do. Seemingly having come to a decision, he fell back onto the couch with a loud sigh, his head on the back of the couch and his eyes staring upwards. “I...used to love Disney,” he started quietly, which was very unlike him.
“And?” prompted Eliza with a gentle nudge of her elbow.
Alexander turned his head slightly to look at his girlfriend and glance at her sister. “And...I trusted their movies,” he admitted. “I truly believed the good guys always lived happily ever after and the bad guys always got punished. I thought that was, like, the way of life. Until my dad left. My mom resorted to prostitution and my brother got jailed for possession.”
Angelica saw the pained look in her friend’s eyes, like it hurt to even talk about his past. She also caught the tears collecting in her sister’s eyes. The two girls had only known about the abandonment of Alexander’s father, nothing else. “That’s awful, Alex,” expressed Angelica carefully, “but Disney’s not, y’know, to blame for that.” She didn’t know what else to say, but she definitely wanted to help her dear friend get past his anti-Disney attitude.
Alexander bared his teeth. “I know that!” he exclaimed, moving his body back to its original position so he didn’t have to look at the sisters. “A–After my mom...died...I was taken in by my drunkard of a cousin. He was always putting me down, putting the Hamilton family name down, putting himself down. Putting Disney down. That only started when he caught me with some Disney merchandise or something, and I guess he realized whenever we argued, I’d quote Disney at least once and whatever. Despite his stupidity, he probably figured out I was a major Disney fan.”
The young man paused, probably to regain his resolve, and so Eliza spoke up. “H–How old were you?” she inquired softly.
Alexander made a strangled noise before replying, “Eight and a half.”
Then the floodgates opened. Eliza started crying and she flung herself onto her boyfriend, who undeniably had tear tracks on his face. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her close, staring off until his eyes flitted over to Angelica and they made eye contact.
“I... I guess that would explain the hatred for Disney,” she choked out.
Alexander barked out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, yeah I guess it would,” he agreed. Soon, all three of them were tearily laughing. Eventually, Eliza detached herself from her significant other and sniffled quietly at her hands in her lap. Alexander hastily wiped his face and Angelica refused to look at either of them.
“I suppose Disney just left a bad impression on me after that,” continued Alexander. “It’s still a sore spot for me, and I never enjoy talking about it or watching its movies. I... I’m sorry for overreacting tonight.”
Eliza latched onto Alexander’s arm. “You have nothing to apologize for,” she scolded him. Alexander shrugged, like he didn’t believe her.
“She’s right,” spoke up Angelica. “Your belief system was totally crushed at a young age and you buried your confusion and anger since no one was there to help you through the tough times. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s — ” Angelica was about to say Your cousin, but she decided against it. “ — it’s Disney,” she stated instead. “Disney is the one at fault here.”
Both Alexander and Eliza cracked up, and soon the three of them were laughing all over again. After they had calmed down, a comfortably silent blanket fell upon them as they mulled over their individual thoughts. Angelica’s were of Eliza and Alexander and their relationship, but her feelings on the subject were so complex she eventually gave up on defining them.
“This is nice,” she announced, referring to the tangle of limbs the three of them currently were.
“Yeah,” agreed Alexander, his voice muffled by Eliza’s hair.
Eliza shifted, making Alexander’s head fall and him gripe. With a chuckle at his antics, she thought aloud, “You know what would make this even better?”
“What?” asked Alexander, who was readjusting so he could lean against his girlfriend once again.
Eliza grinned. “A movie!” she exclaimed gleefully. “What do you guys wanna watch?”
Angelica opened her mouth to suggest Doctor Strange or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but Alexander beat her to it: “How about Moana?”
For a beat, there was silence. Eliza broke it: “Wh–What?”
“What happened to the whole ‘No Disney! No Disney! I hate their perfection and so I’m boycotting Disney!’ mindset?” questioned Angelica teasingly, though she had a sneaking suspicion to what happened to it.
Alexander shrugged. “I saw the reason in your words, Angelica,” he began. “And everyone’s always telling everyone else burying one’s feelings is a bad thing, so I guess... I guess it’ll be in my best interest to buck up and watch a Disney movie, right? A–And I figured, why not start with a movie my best girl friends say is a good one?”
Angelica grinned and snatched the remote off the coffee table. “Why stop there?” she said excitedly, turning the TV on. “I propose a Disney marathon!”
“Now, wait a second — ”
“That’s a great idea!” interjected Eliza as she plucked the remote out of Angelica’s hand. “Let’s start with Moana and move backwards from newest to oldest.”
“Wait, I have work — ”
Angelica nodded eagerly. “And next movie night, we can have a Pixar marathon!” she suggested.
“No, guys, I — ”
“Yes! Genius!” declared Eliza. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I...” Alexander halted in his protests in favour of groaning in defeat. “Yeah, it’s a date,” he sighed, resulting in the sisters cheering and high-fiving.
Eliza turned the Apple TV on and flipped through her purchases until she found Moana. “Ready?” she asked.
Alexander sighed. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” he answered, and Eliza pressed Play.
A few minutes in, Angelica glanced at Alexander and saw he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands propping his head up. Angelica almost laughed at how engrossed he was in something he had, a few minutes ago, hated. “Anyone want popcorn?”