Chapter Text
Audrey wasn’t supposed to be here. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be here, yet here she was anyway. It was very VK of her, disobeying orders from literally everyone in the castle. She was still technically on house arrest while things got smoothed over, the tingles from her short stint in the sleeping curse still buzzing across her fingertips. She actually turned back on the way here, not once, but twice. Yet she found herself at Chad’s guestroom in the Auradon Palace, staring at the door, rethinking this choice. The Charming Royal family were staying in the capital at Ben’s invitation, seeing as the journey from Charmington was a long trip to make for a single day event–that being Barrier Day–scheduled for the end of the week. Audrey had been specifically told by multiple people to stay away from this side of the castle.
What she had done to Chad while…well, evil…was truly unforgivable. She wasn’t expecting any forgiveness at all, knowing what she’d nearly done. Yet her gut took her to Chad Charming anyway, just like it always did when things got hard. When Ben dumped her, she went to Chad. When she got a flat tire, Chad was on speed dial. The only person to stick around despite how rotten she’d been lately was…him. And she hurt him. She went and fucked that up, too, and now she had no one.
“Fuck!” Audrey stomped a foot, the scream but a whisper as she pivoted on a heel, ready to turn herself around and go back to her designated room. The guard meant to be watching her door probably realized she was missing by now. She was in trouble. Taking a step back, ready to bolt, the door opened on its own. Double fuck.
“Audrey?”
“I was just leaving, don’t mind me,” she managed in a single breath, her shoulders scrunched up as she waved a flurried hand. “I’m fine.” She expected Chad to leave it at that. If she were in his place, she wouldn’t want to speak with her either. Yet as she took another unbalanced step, her eyelids burning with frustrated tears, a familiar, warm, soft hand caught her wrist.
“Hold on.”
“I shouldn’t…be here, Chad. This was a mistake. I’m so sorry.” She still refused to look at him, afraid of what she’d see. A look of disgust? Hatred? Fear? Gods, she’d toss herself off the third-floor balcony if he ever looked at her in fear again. She still remembered how scared he was in the cottage; of her. Of what she was. “Fuck.”
“Why are you swearing?”
“Because I don’t…know what else to say,” she managed, nearly falling over as Chad gently pulled her backwards. “I should go.”
“Auds, what’s wrong?”
“Damn it, Chad, could you just hate me for a second!” Audrey snapped at him, curling her fingers into fists as she pressed her jaw shut. She’d hyped herself up for this conversation, she wasn’t going to cry over it cause tears felt so worthless. Yet here she was, unable to keep the tears from falling as she wildly wiped at them with the heel of her palm. “Shit.”
“Auds, look at me.”
“No.”
“You’re so stubborn,” Chad laughed, giving her arm another gentle pull. She went with him like a leaf followed a stream. Her bent elbows hit his chest, the muscles well-toned and familiar through his light blouse. Audrey stared at the ivory buttons sewn into the fabric, only to blink as a thumb tilted her chin straight up. And there they were, his familiar, baby blue eyes. She crumbled. She crumbled faster than she ever thought she could, the emotions just barely held back by a thin veil of dignity. The tears came, the shaking came, the wheezing came. She only started wheezing when the tears were real. These weren’t crocodile tears, which she’d been using a lot recently. These were real, burning, aching tears. And for what? Why did she cry over him when she was the one who strung him along all this time?
“I-I’m so–so sorry,” she hiccupped out, pulling her face down to stare at their feet, mere inches apart. He was wearing his stupid converse shoes again, the flat ones that had holes in the toes and bum heels. He was in the royal palace of all places and those were the shoes he chose. Helpless boy. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
“I know that,” Chad told her, taking her arms as he gently rocked them side to side. “You already apologized.”
“N-no! You don’t get it,” Audrey barked, trying and failing to hold in another painful sob. “I’m sorry for everything. I-I’m sorry for kissing you after Ben dumped me for Mal. I’m sorry for–for making you get smoothies, or fix my tires, or–or edit my essays. I’m so sorry for leaning on you for literally everything when we both know damn well I can do those things for myself. I-I’ve treated you like shit, Chad. Yet you stayed and took it, and I-I don’t know why you did that because fuck, Chad, I’m a monster. A-and now everyone’s telling me that you-you’re better off without me, and I-I thought that was stupid at first. But–but the longer I thought about it, the more I realized they are right. All of them are right. I’m horrible for you, I don’t deserve this at all, a–and you should find someone who–who will treat you the way I can’t.” The words came out in one long, running breath. She was gasping by the end, clinging for dear life to Chad’s arms to keep from falling over from suffocation. Despite all that though, he still just held her, rocking them back and forth. Glancing up at him, his face was…weirdly serene, like he hadn’t heard a word she just said. “Chad?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“Yeah.”
“And?” Audrey swallowed thickly, her saliva hard like a small rock in her throat. “You…you want to break up, right?”
Break up was a strong term, seeing as their ‘dating’ was way less ‘dating’ and more like ‘servitude’. Having come to Chad expecting the absolute worst–he was, after all, traumatized from his experiences recently–having him laugh wasn’t on her mental bingo card. It wasn’t a fake laugh either, but one of those real, honest Charming laughs that made her knees feel funny. Safe to say any girl who was this close to an actual Prince Charming probably felt that way. “You’re laughing.” It sobered her, the tears drying as she scrunched her brows. “I think you’ve lost your mind. Oh my gods, I drove you crazy.”
“No, Auds. I may not be super bright, but I’m not crazy,” he chuckled, kicking at her ankles as she was forced to stand on top of his stupid floppy converse shoes. “I heard what you said. But none of it’s true.”
“Of course it’s true,” Audrey complained, leaning back a bit as Chad supported her weight with his muscly arms. Tourney did that to a guy; she always did love his arms. “I’ve been a royal bitch to you since…gods, since forever, I guess. How can you say it’s not true?”
“Cause it’s not? I know you, Auds. Better than you think I do, apparently. I know Ben hurt you really bad…and not just like, break-up, kinda bad? I mean like, questioning your entire sense of self bad. I know who you were before, Princess. Before Ben? Before Mal? Before all of this royal junk.” Chad motioned to the castle with his eyes, rolling them so far back in his head that the blue irises got dark. “I missed that girl. And I guess that’s why I stuck around; because I always knew she was still in there somewhere, beneath all this…other stuff.”
“You miss her?” Audrey frowned; she couldn’t help it. Chad being weirdly philosophical also wasn’t on her mental bingo card for today. She should go get a lottery ticket and try her luck; the universe was apparently in retrograde. “W–what do you mean?”
“I 'missed’ her,” Chad corrected, tilting his head with a smirk. “Because the day you woke up from that curse, there she was. Exactly as I remembered when we were kids. After all this time hiding, you’re finally you again. And gods Audrey, I’ve missed you like crazy, you have no fucking idea.”
“I…I don’t understand? I’ve been so awful, I nearly cursed all of Auradon.”
“You weren’t you.”
“It wasn’t the scepter, Chad,” Audrey frowned. “You know that.” Everyone liked to say it was the scepter’s fault. She supposed it was a little bit. But it was her choice to go to the museum that night; it was her poor intentions that caused so much misery. She refused to lean on the excuse that her shitty decisions were caused by a curse.
“I’m not talking about the scepter; I’m talking about everything else: the expectations and the propriety, the galas and the princess lessons and the perfect grades. Ben and Mal and all of this bullshit that we’ve been through? All of that was sitting on your shoulders, Auds. There’s only so much a mortal can take. Even Atlas had to take a knee to hold the world on his shoulders, you’re no different.”
“That doesn’t excuse my behavior.”
“No, but Audrey from last week wouldn’t be standing with me in her pajamas apologizing about it, either. I’d say that’s some massive progress for what…three days?”
Audrey opened her mouth, then closed it. He was right. Shit. She wouldn’t have even thought about leaving her room in anything but her best. Yet she was standing on Chad’s stupid shoes in her favorite pink striped pajamas, her hair in a claw clip and not a speck of makeup to be found. Gods, he was right. “I…I’m just…I’m so sorry, Chad,” she croaked, not sure what else to say. “I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you, but I also won’t be apologizing.”
“Apologizing?” Audrey hoisted a confused brow. “For what?”
Chad didn’t answer with words. The kiss was enough. Having never actually been caught off guard by a kiss before, Audrey nearly fell over in surprise, gripping her companion’s arm to keep from tumbling. Normally–almost always–she was the one who initiated contact. Chad had never done it before, at least not that she could remember. Tilting her head for a better angle, Audrey found that she didn’t mind not being in control for once. She let him kiss her, such a simple little thing. Yet she knew, and Chad knew too, probably, that the girl from last week would’ve never allowed it.
Blinking as he pulled back, it felt like the wind had been sucked right out of her. She’d not felt a kiss like that in…well, ever. Not even Ben ever managed to fully steal the breath out of her lungs. Staring up at her companion in awed silence, Chad smiled. “No apologies.”
“No,” her ears burned hot, like Mal had just scorched them with her dragon breath. “Um.” Not used to having no words on her tongue–Audrey was often told she liked to talk–she just curled her fists into Chad’s shirt instead. She'd imagined a million different ways of how this apology would go; being breathless and speechless by the end of it wasn’t part of the plan.
“I was supposed to be meeting my parents for breakfast,” Chad drawled as he effortlessly swung one arm under her knees. She yelped at being suddenly picked up, blush rushing from the tips of her ears into her cheeks. “But I’d much rather do this instead.”
“What are you doing, Chad! I’m not even dressed, for Merlin’s sake.”
“I think playing keep-away with your guards is way more fun,” Chad laughed, turning and beginning to run as there was a shout from down the hall. Ah. Right. She was still under house arrest. “She’s mine now, losers!” The boy shouted, his grip on her thigh and shoulders firm and sure. Chad wasn’t going to drop her, that was sure enough.
“...hey, stop!”
Chad, did not, in fact, stop. Audrey couldn’t help it, a laugh escaping her throat as they flew through the palace like children. As they sprinted through the foyer, the flash of purple that was Mal (and Ben, obvi) was hard to miss. They stood with King and Queen Charming, perhaps waiting for Chad himself to go into breakfast. Last week, Audrey would’ve been outraged at such embarrassment. But some part of her, maybe the part Chad saw, simply didn’t care. She didn't give a single shit and it was marvelous.
“Hi, your majesties! Bye, your majesties!” Chad called without stopping, Audrey’s giggles completely uncontained. She couldn’t help herself, this was completely and utterly absurd. “I’m stealing this, don’t wait up!”
No one could get a word in otherwise as they burst through the front doors and into the brilliant Auradon morning. Having not been outside in actual days, Audrey lifted an arm to shield her eyes. Yet somehow, as things became a bit clearer, everything was so…vibrant, like she was seeing it through a photo filter. Slowing from his running pace to a walking one, Chad was heaving for breath as he pulled her down onto the lawn, groaning as he wiped his forehead with a hand. “Tourney off-season is a bitch,” he moaned, huffing as Audrey rolled to sit across his chest. The grass smelled amazing, and there were pollen motes and butterflies everywhere she turned.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Audrey chuckled. “I…I feel like I haven’t seen color in such a long time.”
“It really is beautiful, isn't it?” Chad wasn’t looking at the royal gardens all around them though. He was looking up at her, bending one arm behind his head, while he used the other to play with one of her pale blonde locks. “I miss your brown hair,” he mumbled, pouting. “I remember when it was still curly.”
“I was ten the last time my hair was curly, Chad,” Audrey laughed, her chest rattling with the noise. “I can’t imagine myself with it now.”
“You’d look good, I bet.”
“Hmm, maybe.” Staring at the garden still sprawled around them, Chad’s fingers toying with her hair, Audrey let her head rest on the flat of his chest. She could hear his heart, still racing from the sprint down here. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“You know.” Audrey smiled, tracing patterns across the boy’s loose white blouse. She loved his muscles, and his hair, and his baby blue eyes. And yes, she also loved his stupid flat shoes that needed a one-way ticket into the trash. She was glad Chad was here…she was blessed that he saw her in ways no one–not even herself–ever could.
“My brother says I’m not very bright,” Chad mumbled against her neck. “What am I getting thanked for?”
“For everything, Chadwick Percival Charming,” Audrey mumbled, pecking his lips as he smiled up at her, his expression somewhat stupid looking from this angle. “Thank you for everything.”