Chapter Text
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“Kit, you alright?”
Katherine’s head snapped up to attention. She tightened her grip on her drink when she noticed Anne looking at her, her cousin’s face morphing into a frown at Katherine’s reaction. Catherine looked up from where she was reading over Anne’s shoulder, the two older queens’ attention now on Katherine Howard.
Katherine shuffled on her feet from where she stood, giving Anne a curt nod as an answer. Anne handed the script to Catherine, the first queen accepting it wordlessly.
“We haven’t run over your song yet today.” Anne hummed, turning to their table and picking up the wrinkled papers marked with a tiny pink highlighted streak at the corners. As she did so, she called over to Catherine, “You got what you needed, Cath?”
Catherine looked at the script, skimming through the first few pages before giving Anne a thumbs up. She seated herself on one of the folding chairs scattered on the stage, thoughtfully rereading the same few lines over and over, occasionally taking a pen out to add a few alterations.
“What do you think of the choreography Grace came up with, Katherine?” Anne asked, handing the papers over to her. “You’re the only one that hasn’t given any feedback yet. We all need you to tell us how it is before we can start rehearsals.”
Katherine knew that. Aragon had told her this several times, Anne had mentioned it one or twice before and Jane had hinted on it. Even Anna had nagged her about saying something. Parr seemed to agree that she just needed more time, but as time went on, they were running low. There were no more excuses she could keep using. Grace, Aragon’s friend they’d all simultaneously decided would be in charge of choreography due to her being a professional dancer, had been getting impatient as well. They did have a limited supply of time, after all.
But Katherine didn’t know how to tell them her true thoughts on it, how the lyrics Anne and Jane poured over together made her feel uncomfortable at places she’d rather not say. The choreography Grace came up with was brilliant , so brilliant that it felt so real. Too real . But Katherine couldn’t say that. It would be insulting- they would have to redo everything . Too many hours had gone into planning.
Perhaps, it was better if she’d back out. Then they wouldn’t have to redo anything. They’d already wasted time on her, they didn’t need to waste more of it by working on accommodating her.
“Anne.” She said slowly, focusing on the chilly condensation of her Starbucks cup. Anna told her it was called Strawberry Acai Refresher. The pink liquid looked extremely appetising, the strawberries and blackberries topping it off even more so, but the more Katherine thought about her song, the more queasy she felt at the thought of having anything inside her.
As she took the papers, Anne didn’t let go. Instead, her older cousin covered Katherine’s hands with hers, nodding reassuringly. She seemed to have picked up on something possibly plaguing Katherine.
“Is it okay if I-” She squeezed her eyes shut tight, exhaling anxiously. “If I just, don't take part?”
She looked down. Anne was probably angry at her for saying that with them running so short on time. Everyone’s choreographies were designed for 6 people; Katherine deciding not to take part at the last second would surely cause so much trouble for them. She had not thought of that sooner.
Instead, Anne removed her hands from Katherine’s, resting them on her shoulders instead. “Can you tell me why?” She asked patiently, not blowing up like Katherine had expected.
“I don’t think it matters if I join.” Katherine lied through her teeth. “I’m just the teen Henry married and beheaded. I didn’t do anything important.”
Anne let out a whirring sound from between her closed lips, appearing thoughtful with Katherine’s statement. “But you have your story too. Everyone’s story is important, whether or not you did something that made a huge dent in history.”
"I don't think it's something anyone can benefit from." Katherine insisted.
This caused Anne to frown, and it took everything in Katherine to not squirm. She was supposed to back out without raising any suspicions - now Anne was definitely going to have questions.
“Kit,” Anne began, her tone serious. “You are an amazing young woman - you’ve proven that time and time again. There are young women like you, like us , out there - the ones we’re doing this for. We are role models in history set to inspire, because we have the ability to keep going despite everything. That’s why we’re telling these stories.”
Katherine couldn’t help the smirk that reached her lips at that, prompting Anne to chuckle, “What?”
“You’re starting to sound a lot like Catherine.” Katherine teased, pulling her straw out of the drink and pointing it at Anne.
Anne laughed, shrugging nonchalantly, “Hey, women of wisdom.”
“You’re also as humble as her.” Katherine commented sarcastically.
Anne glanced at Catherine's direction, the woman distractedly dotting down notes on the script. “I guess that’s why she’s ‘Humble and Loyal’ and I’m ‘The Most Happy’ to be here- ”
The air was light for a good moment, Anne grinning wide at her little cousin while Katherine allowed herself to laugh. But then the main issue returned to her mind, and the joy was quick to fade out of her.
“But that’s just the thing.” The younger of the two gnawed her bottom lip, pointedly averting Anne’s gaze. She was grasping at straws by this point - Anne was becoming convincing, and Katherine had never been a great liar. “I don’t have anything inspiring.”
Anne looked confused. “Yes you do.”
It was obvious they all knew each other’s stories by this point. They’d summarised some of the most important aspects of their lives; how things escalated, their lives under Henry’s influence and how, for some of them, inevitably led to their deaths. Katherine had spent several days with Anne and Jane working on her song, planning out the choruses of how the four men in her past life treated her so unjustly.
“Kitten, you were excited about this when Cathy first proposed the idea and we all started planning for the musical. Did something change?”
Yes, something did change. Katherine was excited. That was until it was all put into play. Katherine discovered, after much progress had been made, that she was uncomfortable with how the queens touched her in her song, and how she had to act out her pain and discomfort. All the trauma she felt as her life continued to go down an irreversible downhill spiral. It reminded her too much of the cruelty she’d faced at such a young age.
It made sense - she was meant to remember them to tell her story. That was the point of it all. Unfortunately, she had not made peace with it for as much as she thought she had.
“No.” Katherine answered instead, resuming her lie. If the saying was literal, her pants would’ve caught fire by then. “I just don’t think it matters, that’s all.”
Some form of recognition briefly flashed past Anne’s eyes, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she was quickly interrupted.
“Hey Anne,” Catherine Parr called, appearing from the wings. She was waving a few papers stapled together in one hand. “I need your help with the lyrics for the mashup.”
“Coming right over, Jellybean.” Anne responded over her shoulder. Parr’s expression morphed into an unimpressed thin-lipped smile and she disappeared behind the curtains once again. Anne turned her attention back to Katherine, giving her a calculative look that Katherine only ever saw when Anne was thinking hard over something. Then, her elder cousin shook her head and smiled, pulling Katherine into a side hug. "We'll talk about this later, Chaton, okay?"
After a nod from Katherine, Anne left and disappeared to where Parr was. She was suddenly abruptly aware of the condensation in her hands, looking into her drink to see a portion of it had melted. Stirring it with the straw, she gave it a mournful look before drinking out of it, slightly displeased by the mush it had become.
Katherine strolled over to where Aragon sat, now looking through the script thoughtfully. Quite a few scribbles had made their way into the paper, some lines cut out and rewritten in the queen's elegant handwriting. Katherine took the seat next to the eldest queen, leaning in slightly to see what she was altering.
"Do you want to help me, Gatita?" She asked, surprising Katherine slightly despite the fifth queen not even attempting to be subtle with her presence.
"With what?" Katherine asked, wondering what she could possibly be useful for. Aragon rarely ever asked for her assistance, usually only for her opinion every now and again.
Aragon stood up, taking the script with her. "We're trying to come up with dialogues as scenes in-between songs." She explained. Katherine followed her when she gestured to the edge of the stage, both queens, oldest and youngest, taking a seat at the very edge. They left their legs dangling down to the front row, facing the rows of empty theatre seats in front of them.
"Acting scenes?" She questioned.
“The acting scenes,” Aragon confirmed. “We’ll be interacting with each other as the ex-wives. Seeing as it’s a competition for who gets to be the leader, we’ll be a little set in the competitive game, so not everyone will be friendly towards each other.”
Katherine swayed her legs thoughtfully. “Okay, how can I help?”
“Things slowly escalate,” She explained, flipping the script until she reached the page she needed. “During every interaction, us queens are meant to be-” Aragon did air quotes with her fingers, rolling her eyes fondly as she did so, “- hostile towards each other. It will keep building up, like I’d be displeased with Anne after her song, and we’d all belittle Jane after hers, Anna would get dismissed - all within reason, of course.”
She showed the script to Katherine where a lot of the printed words were crossed out and rephrased, others simply discarded where the flow seemed to end at either an awkward note or appeared rather slow paced.
“It’s the part after your song we’re trying to figure out.”
Katherine snapped up to Aragon. “Mine?”
The first queen nodded, “It’s a transition from all the first five queens arguing to Parr questioning why all the competition was necessary. Seeing as it’s an argument that grows to more members as the show went on, what makes the last one bigger?”
“What about a fight scene?” Katherine suggested instantly. She was reminded of the wrestling shows Jane liked to watch sometimes, though of course they shouldn’t pull off anything to that extent in a musical about dead Tudor Queens returning to life as a band to tell their stories.
Aragon raised a questioning brow. “A fight scene?” She seemed unsure.
“Yeah, it’ll be funny, I think. Entertaining.” Katherine nodded to herself, already sold on the idea. “Like- Jane could have listened to the song and still think her death is worst by far, so she’d insist hers is the worst fate while still agreeing mine is, well, bad. And Anne could be comparing her execution to be worse than mine because… yeah.”
She received an odd look from the elder queen at that last statement, to which Katherine was quick to cover up. “And you could start another argument with Anne again - it makes sense for you to look like you have the most grudge towards her right? That’s the running theme isn’t it? And you could just both blow up and try to fight each other on stage. Trying to throw punches and all. Maybe some karate stances?”
Aragon laughed at the mental image of that. The idea of her losing all composure and acting undignified was so unexpected it was bound to catch attention and keep things interesting. “That would be funny.” She agreed.
Katherine nodded, grinning. She was enjoying this and couldn’t bring herself to stop despite how much she wanted to. “Anna would just be chill there because she’s already accepted she won’t win, but she’ll try to stop the fight with Parr. Maybe the entire time Jane would try to keep participating in the fight as well.”
Aragon clicked her pen and wrote everything down. "You're not in here aside from the beginning." She frowned.
"Maybe write Jane pulling my hair or something." Katherine said jokingly. To her surprise, Aragon wrote it down.
Katherine panicked internally - she was supposed to be writing herself out, not in . She’d gotten so carried away with assisting on the act, she’d forgotten where she stood with the queens. She’d just give them more work to write her out by the end of it all, and that wasn’t good.
“Catherine, wait-” Katherine found herself saying before she could stop herself. Aragon paused in her writing, turning to her. Katherine fumbled with her words, not having prepared herself for it. “Maybe… not have me do… that .”
Aragon unclicked her pen, placing it in the middle of the script as she laid it across her lap. “Have you do what, Gatita? You’re the one getting your hair pulled.”
“I mean,” She hesitated. She needed to phrase this properly. “ Not in the scene, I mean.”
“But you’ll be on stage.” Aragon seemed confused. “We can’t have you standing around doing nothing when you were just harassed over your song. Lacking a little in character, don’t you think?” She smiled at Katherine, trying to soothe her.
“Maybe have me walk out?” Katherine said instantly.
“Why would we do that?”
The drink in her hand suddenly seemed interesting. What was left of it had melted completely by then. “Because,” She hesitated, “It’s not an important song. Why would I defend it?”
Aragon placed the script on the surface next to her and turned to Katherine, pulling her legs up and folding them underneath her. Katherine scooted a little ways back. She wiped her hands nervously against the fabric of her sweatpants.
“There are plenty of reasons for you to defend it.” The eldest queen told her, gesturing to the stage. “That’s what we’re doing. Of course your story is important, just as important as all of ours. It’s yours to tell. These things went silent once, shrouded by false facts and strung along with bleak assumptions. You can change that.”
Just as Anne had been, Catherine of Aragon had a way with words that were easily convincing.
“But say- what if I just… don’t want to?”
Aragon studied her apprehensively. “Then it’s your choice.” She said slowly. “But what is this truly about, Katherine?”
Katherine sat a little uncomfortably, nervously tapping her fingers on the moist cup. Several drops of condensation dripped down to her shirt.
“I need to use the restroom.” She said hastily, pulling her legs up and standing up hurriedly. The elder queen didn’t stop her. She simply watched after Katherine with the same apprehensive gaze, and Katherine felt her sharp eyes digging into her retreating back as she turned and walked away.
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It was raining when the time came for queens to leave for the night. Katherine stood by the entrance as she waited for Jane to come and bring the car around, hood pulled up over her head and hands tucked into the cosiness of her front pockets.
“An alien race created humans as their entertainment. Now they're voting on which country should be eliminated.”
She whipped around at the sudden company, coming face-to-face with one Anna of Cleves. Anna had a wide grin plastered on her face as she stalked out of the theatre, arms crossed across her stomach.
“Does that imply we are the true aliens instead?” Katherine humoured her, pulling a hand out of the pocket to wave.
Anna hummed. “Perhaps. Tell me, what characteristics do you think aliens would have?”
“Well,” Katherine responded thoughtfully. “They would be reincarnated from the Tudor times for one.”
“Oh?” Anna stepped up next to her to throw an arm across her shoulders. “Do you think they would be royalties or can they just be anyone?”
She reached up to grasp Anna’s hand. “I’m not certain.” The teen pursed her lips, kicking at the pavement as she considered this. “Maybe they all happen to have musical abilities. That’s the entertainment the alien overlords wanted, so they can sit back and watch and maybe write fanfics and do fanart to occupy their eternal lifetime.”
“Wow, spot on! You’ve uncovered the true universe's secret!” The fourth queen laughed, playfully ruffling Katherine’s hair. Katherine giggled and ducked away.
“I hope our country won’t be the last one to be eliminated. That would be sad, wouldn’t it?”
“Well,” Anna considered, “Then we must put on the best show the world has ever seen. If we please the alien overlords, maybe our country will get to stay in one piece.” She winked at Katherine.
As they talked, Catherine Parr emerged from behind them, accompanied by Anne and Grace. They seemed to be discussing something, if Parr’s astute expression was anything to go by. Anne was speaking, causing Grace to nod along to her words.
Anna pulled away and zipped her jacket up. “Hey Cathy, are we good to leave?”
Parr, seeming to have just noticed the two queens standing there, gave a nod in response. She said something to the two and walked towards Anna, pulling her car keys out of her purse.
“Do you want me to bring the car or are you coming with?” She asked, jangling the keys out of habit.
“I’ll come with you.” Anna answered. “A little rain won’t hurt.”
Parr nodded again and gestured for Anna to follow, sparing Katherine a glance and a smile before leaving. She seemed distracted, and the shadows under her eyes appeared to have gotten darker since the last time Katherine saw her. She’d been working herself to the bone with planning the musical, and with working her part-time job, she must’ve had her hands full.
Katherine sighed quietly to herself, guilt plaguing her at the fact that she was barely pulling her own weight.
Anna paused in her steps and turned around to pull Katherine into a hug. The girl immediately returned it. “See you tomorrow, Kätz.”
“See you.” She whispered, letting Anna pull away and stroll down the street after Catherine Parr.
The rain continued to pour, bringing with it a cold breeze that pushed itself into Katherine's hood. She fluttered her lashes in the wind, feeling the gentle tranquil of lightness floating through her presence. She mutely listened to the chatter from behind her, the familiar voices of her cousin, Grace and now Aragon - she seemed to have left the theatre last - as she stood, accompanied by the chilly weather.
The streets were lit up with multiple billboards and street lamps, and people were bustling about busily as they were either making their way home from work or on their way to a night shift. In the years she'd lived there, Katherine learnt that there was always a flurry of activity going on. It was comforting, in a way, the fact that people were able to live their lives to their own accord so freely.
Jane arrived with the car moments later, apologising profusely for taking a while. The car ride home was silent, Jane already exhausted from needing to work that morning and immediately having to attend their practice and planning at the theatre. She quite literally collapsed on the couch when they made their way into the apartment, Katherine taking on the task of pulling off the woman's shoes before throwing a blanket over her.
She retreated to her room afterwards, changing into nightclothes and playing a few of the test recordings they had of the songs. All but her own.
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