Chapter Text
[CHASE’s POV]
“All you have to do is go fight Buddy for the bracelet.”
Chase looked over the boat to where Buddy was sitting in the shadows against some cushions. He was leaning back and relaxing like he owned the whole boat and he stared back at Chase with a sly look.
Is he…was he purring?! Could humans even do that??
—-
Chase had been coming into the books to get narratonin for a while now. He’d gotten used to the starry-eyed princes calling him by some girl’s name instead of his own. He’d gotten used to be dragged around a lavish ballroom to waltz music by tall men for what felt like years, while barely being able to keep up (he hated being so short). He’d even gotten used to listening to guys talk about horseriding and tulips and whatever for hours and hours, while he was just supposed to sit there and look demure…which he just barely pulled off by hiding his phone in his lap and playing games while they talked.
But what he never got used to was Buddy.
The guy had come out of nowhere during one book and tried to take his key, and since then he never seemed to leave. He was like a tall, pale, annoying goth shadow that followed Chase everywhere. Chase had quickly started to hate that guys guts after they met and he was right to. Buddy got in the way all the time and never made things easy for him.
Sure, if it had been a different setting and Buddy had been nicer and he hadn’t been getting in Chase’s business and his personality was the exact opposite and the humidity and temperature and day were totally different, Chase might have admitted he was cute. He looked like he was around Deacon’s age, just a year or two older than Chase. He was pale and had soft, dark black hair that was cut sleek and preppy and fell across his wintery-blue eyes that stared right through you like ice, and he was tall and slim and wore some edgy kinda clothing all the time. And he always smirked at Chase, leaning down to look at him languidly, always had a smug look like he knew some big secret, he always had his eyes half closed in a come-hither gaze.
Okay, he was kinda gorgeous…for a big jerk. He needed a personality transplant, but there wasn’t a big enough saint of a donor out there to make up for how much of a creep he was. Being pretty didn’t mean you didn’t have to be nice. Plus Chase was like 90% sure the guy was just cheating with really good eyeliner.
So he put up with him in story after story, day after day. But after a while he noticed something, Buddy seemed to be helping him out once or twice, it didn’t happen all the time but it was enough. It seemed like it might have started in the last Cinderella book he did. He did a lot of Cinderella in the beginning because it was easy and he knew the story, but he never got much narrotonin from it. But then Buddy decided to bet him he couldn’t do one book all the way through, and he actually got more of the stuff, even though Buddy had been driving him up the wall the whole time. Plus he wrecked the wedding.
Today though, was just too weird even for how weird Chase’s life already was. After getting mad at him and calling him a little idiot for the thousandths time and throwing rocks at Deacon, Buddy was suddenly…
The stupid jerk was purring. Just sitting over there, staring at Chase while this very quiet purrrrrrr could be heard. How did he even do that? Buddy always had the kind of voice that had a sort of low purring to it, at least when he wasn’t yelling at Chase, but this was an actual purr. He looked extra-smug about it and it was throwing Chase off, he wasn’t sure what to do. He knew he had to go tackle Buddy and get the princesses bracelet back so the story would work, but the idea of just jumping on Buddy and wrestling him for the jewelery…
Chase fought Buddy a couple of times and even got a black eye from him, but it was just them throwing punches, and only because Buddy made him so mad and wouldn’t stop interfering. This was weirder, he wasn’t doing anything wrong…just sitting over there like he was daring Chase to come over. To come over and fight him like he’d done in the past, throw a punch or a slap, put him in a headlock…or the way he was sitting, maybe he was daring Chase to come over and sit in his lap, feel that soft, silky black hair against his cheek, soft and pettable as a purring cat
Chase swallowed very hard and pulled at his collar of his shirt. Was it really, really warm sitting out here in the sun? He had fur on his jacket, that must be why. Stupid cat outfit.
Buddy was still over there, sitting contently on the floor of the boat, waiting as if he had all day. He had his silly rhinestone cat ears on that looked ridiculous and that Chase totally didn’t want to own a pair of, at all.
Chase thought back to the time he slapped Buddy in the face. It was the first time he did it on purpose really…all the other times they fought, they were just pushing each other around or trying to grab for the same dumb glass shoe. But then Chase got sick of Buddy’s nonsense and slapped him and then he stormed away out of the book.
And ever since then, Buddy seemed way more…okay with Chase being around. Not, like, happy to see him, but more chill?? Did Chase accidentally earn this guys respect somehow? Or was he just secretly into being slapped in the face?
Chase almost laughed at that last thought. Buddy didn’t seem the type. But maybe he finally got that Chase was serious and is standing up to him now, and not going to let Buddy get in his way anymore. Maybe that was it, Chase had earned Buddy’s respect by putting his foot down.
But seeing Buddy sprawled out on the cushions like that, he was sitting like he wanted to return the favor by putting Chase down, on the floor, and earn a little more than respect out of him.
Chase turned red as a tomato at the thought and shook his head. Noooooo, not having thoughts like that about my mortal enemy, no thank-you!
But he had to do what the story wanted, so Chase stood up and prepared to at least try to talk it out with the purring menace. And if Buddy didn’t listen, and Chase was forced to tackle and get all up close with him and get all tangled up with a hot guy in thigh-high boots and cat ears, well…
Someone had to finish the story.