Chapter Text
Many know of the tales of a Twisted Wonderland, and the brave, mistakenly-taken hero of its story. They’ve heard of the majestic magic school for practicing mages, Night Raven College and its rival school, Royal Sword Academy, and how through the course of one school year, a magicless teenager runs around fixing problems that pop up left and right.
This is not that story. Not exactly.
No, instead, our story starts on a day like any other in the fair Rose Queendom, on the side of a busy street in a small park frequented by children and amateur croquet players. This would have been a normal playdate for three friends living in the Rose Kingdom— except, of course, if you discount the fact that one of these friends was actually playing hooky from his mother during his hour of free time.
“ Che'nya ! Stop being unfair and give the hedgehog back!”
A little redheaded boy puffs his cheeks out at what seems to be a patch of empty air, lip jutting out in a pout as the disembodied head of his friend appears with a teasing grin.
“But then there's nya thing for me to play with!” Che'nya shrugged. “Besides, Riddle, Trey’s got a mew hedgehog right over there.”
Both Che'nya and Riddle turn to look at their glasses wearing friend, who shrugged and held out a hedgehog. “I picked him up from the street. I don't know where he came from, but… if we need to, we could play with him instead?”
“But…” Riddle frowned. “What if that's someone else's hedgehog? We can't play with it then, right? We might hurt it!”
“Playing croquet won't hurt it, nya,” Che'nya said. It's hesitant, though, and after a few seconds he materializes back into corporeality, revealing the little hedgehog curled up in his arms.
“Che'nya, I told you— ”
“I'm so sorry to interrupt, but have you seen my hedgehog?”
All three boys turn to look for the source of the voice, being greeted with a little girl who looked around their age. She had bright orange-blond hair and rich green eyes, and was dressed in a frilly pink dress and overcoat with several seemingly out of place bows. Her frazzled appearance was furthered by the fact that her bright flame-orange hair was tangled and knotted, and there was a small rip in the hem of her dress.
“My sisters told me to look after her, but…” She looked down at her shoes. “I lost her. So, uh, I was wondering…”
“Is this your hedgehog?” Trey asked, pulling the little animal out from his sweater pocket, where it had been furiously trying to make its way out.
The girl gasped with delight, running over to Trey and scooping the small animal out of his hands. “Yes, it is! Thank you, thank you so much! I don't know what I would'a done if she'd gone missing… ah, wait. Sorry, I almost forgot— Mother said that if I ever had to get help from someone else, I had to do something to make it up to them. So, uh… is there anything you might need me for?”
Riddle blinked. He looked at the hedgehog, then back at the girl. What she'd said sounded really alike to his own mom. No wonder— Mother was right after all, if even this girl's mom was following her advice!
“Do you wanna play with us?” It was the first thing out of his mouth. Riddle almost didn't register that he'd been the one to say it. He just thought… he hadn't wanted her to be as lonely as he was, following his mother's advice.
“I…” She looked at the hedgehog and the fake flamingos they were using as croquet mallets. “My… my sisters say that I shouldn't be doing boy-ish things…”
“But croquet isn't boy -ish, nya,” Che'nya said, suddenly appearing in front of the girl and startling her so much she bumped into Trey. “Sorry. But I mean, you can still play with us— your sisters don't have to know, nya.”
“I… I guess so,” she said.
Che'nya pushed a flamingo toward her, which the girl gladly took in hand. She looked toward Trey, as did both Riddle and Che'nya (on account of him holding the hedgehog after Che'nya had rematerialized it). “So, ah… how do you play croquet again..?”
Trey blinked. “You don't know how to play croquet?”
“I'm… my family just moved here from Pyroxene, so…” She fiddled with the hem of her dress sleeve, looking nervous. “Sorry. I won't intrude if it's too much trouble…”
“No, no, you should stay!” Riddle pulled her back before the girl could leave. He flushed a little when she turned to look at him with a politely confused expression he'd seen his Mother use when she had guests bothering her. “It's just… croquet is more fun when there's more people…”
“Riddle's right,” Trey spoke up. “I'm really sorry for making you feel like you can't play with us, I was just… um…”
“Surprised?” The girl provided, smiling slightly when Trey nodded frantically. “Yeah… it makes sense. Sorry too, I should've told you.”
“Well, nya w that that's all over… can we finally play croquet?” Che'nya whined.
Riddle laughed, turning to his friend before picking up the hedgehog from Trey’s hands. “Yes, please!”
Most of their match was spent teaching the girl how to play croquet, but Riddle didn't think he'd ever laughed harder than when he saw her accidentally hit the hedgehog ball into a partially invisible Che'nya. She'd apologized hundreds of times, of course, but he and Trey were cracking up in the corner while she fussed over the other boy, who eventually told her there was nothing wrong and that he just wanted to tease her.
“Don't worry, Che'nya messes with everyone,” Trey told the girl, who seemed pouty. She opened her mouth to say something in response, but just as she was about to speak, a bell rang from somewhere in the village, and her face grew pale.
“Ah… that's… I have to go now, I'm so sorry,” she said. Riddle realized with a start that he, too, had to leave— if he didn't return in time, his Mother might find out where he had been.
“But, wait— we didn't even get your name—!” But it was too late, the girl was running away with her hedgehog safely nestled in one of her big bows. Riddle too couldn't stay much longer, so he gave his friends a big hug before turning back home and climbing back in through his window.
Just in time, too, because his mother entered the room not even a moment after he shut the windowpane. “Alright, Riddle… for your afternoon snack, we've got some low-calorie and low-sugar milk pudding…”
Riddle sighed softly as he took the plate from his mother with a ‘thank you, Mother’ and dutifully started eating the pudding quietly. It was as close to a sweet treat as he would get. While he ate and worked, his thoughts went back to the flame-haired girl. Was she also going through the same things right now?
Cater hadn't meant to stay out so late. His plan had been to retrieve Missus Hedge and then run back home before his sisters noticed so he could go upstairs and hide in bed before they got another excuse to dress him up. But before he'd known it, he'd gotten caught up with playing croquet with the other boys. When the bell rang in the town square, Cater had been so panicked that he'd run back as fast as he could, losing a bow in his hair on the streets.
He'd managed to make it back home before his mother's valet parked in the driveway, though, so he'd take that as a win.
“Catie!” Cinque cried when she saw him, scooping him up into a hug so tight that his ribs hurt. “You had us so worried! Don't run off like that again, you silly goose!”
“Cinnie, don't hug Catie so tightly. He's holding Missus Hedge in his hands— her spines might get tangled in his dress if you keep that up,” his eldest sister, Seis chided. “Now come here, Catie. Mother will be home soon, so let's clean up the house before she arrives, yeah?”
“Yes, Issy,” Cater said quietly. He walked over to Missus Hedge's cage and deposited her inside, before following Seis into the kitchen.
Though he was sure his sisters cared about him, they had… an eccentric way of showing it. Seis was seventeen this year while Cinque was fourteen and Cater was nine, so she was often left in charge of the house when their mother was gone. Most of the time, whenever Seis told Cater and Cinque to do a chore, Cinque would run off somewhere to leave Cater scrambling to finish it before their mother came home and got mad at him.
But sometimes, Seis would stay and help out with the chores. It was nicer when he could do them alongside Seis, who helped him out when he didn't know what to do. Also, she was easier to speak to than Cinque was. Cater felt like he took after Seis a lot, probably because she had acted more like a mother to him than their actual mother.
“So, Catie… where did you end up finding her?” Seis asked as Cater got to cleaning the stovetop, referring to their runaway hedgehog.
He waited for his sister to finish taking out the dishes from the cleaner before answering, “She was with a bunch of boys. I think they got her mixed up with their croquet ball.”
“Croquet ball?” Seis furrowed her eyebrows, pursing her lips. She looked unbelieving of Cater’s story— and in fairness, it wasn’t done out of malice, but rather, true disbelief. He’d rather this than his mother’s subtler ways of discrediting his— slightly tall, but mostly true— tales. “How do you mistake a hedgehog for a croquet ball? I mean, I know the Rose Queendom really loves their croquet, but still… it's a bit…”
“They play croquet with real hedgehogs as balls,” Cater shrugged. “And flamingos as mallets, but not real ones. The ones they used were plastic, but Trey said that professional players use real flamingos.”
“That's… interesting.” Seis hesitated before asking, “Did you make friends with them?”
“Not… really?” Cater’s voice went a little quieter as he fiddled with the cleaning towel in his hands.
Out of everyone in his family, Seis had always been the one to encourage his branching out. The problem was that because the Diamond family was constantly moving around to avoid the press and notoriety, most of Cater’s early friendships were short-lived and he'd given up on making friends early on. As a result, whenever Seis looked to him to see if her little brother was doing alright in the social aspect, she was always sorely disappointed.
“What do you mean, not really?”
“Well…” Cater frowned. “They…” They thought I was a girl… but I don't want to admit that. Not even to you. “They let me play croquet with them, but they didn't ask my name.”
“Hey, well, you don't have to start off a friendship with telling each other your names on the first meeting! Just look at Winnie, Tinks and I.” Seis dried her hands off before turning around to pinch Cater on the cheek, laughing when he batted her hands away. “Besides, I'm sure they'll want to hang out with you more anyway. Our Catie is too cute not to want to befriend!”
Cater smiled hesitantly. “Yeah… you're right.”
Just when he thought that he could end the conversation off on a good note, though, Seis turned around and said, “Though, you'll want to make sure they don't become a bad influence, yeah? You know we all just want the best for you, but… it's too difficult to have to deal with someone who's too boyish. Remember, you're a Diamond. You've got to act like one. You would never let us down, right Catie?”
“I… of course not, Issy,” Cater said softly.
And that's another good day shattered.
Halfway across the span of the city in the Rosehearts Manor, another boy silently agreed with Cater, though neither would ever know it.