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Chase was not doing well. At all.
As he had just told Deacon, he was having a crisis. A proper one. Who wouldn’t, after seeing that? Who would've thought that Buddy could look so… so… so stupid crazy hot! Not fair!! And what the hell was with his clothes?! Had he ran out of space for a bigger boob window and decided to get rid of his shirt entirely?! I mean, sure, the outfit looked amazing (as always), but why did his key keep encouraging him?! It wasn’t fair to Chase, look what it had done to him! Also, since when could he dance like that? Had he taken classes? But so had Chase! There was no way Buddy was better at this than him, right?
Chase grabbed onto his cousin, desperate to find out what his verdict was. As Deacon assured him that –despite both him and Buddy “dancing like a backpack full of ferrets”, whatever Deacon meant by that– Chase was still the better dancer, the blond vaguely registered Buddy putting his hoodie back on. Now, when he was all sweaty from his performance. What had been the point of taking it off to not get it all sweaty and gross if he was just going to put it on right after?!
But Buddy’s dancing was taking up too much of his brain at the moment to care much about that, and he needed a distraction now, so he quickly asked Deacon to talk instead, who decided to go over the story. Ah, but this wasn’t really working, and Chase decided he really needed something to drink, some water, some juice, anything really, just as long as it helped him get it together.
He glanced around absentmindedly, Deacon's words turning into background noise, and noticed the prince was holding a cup in his hand. Bingo! He reached for it almost as fast as he saw it.
“ I’ll have that, princey, thanks!” Chase said, before snatching it out of the prince’s hands and drinking the entire contents of the cup in one big gulp. “Hm. Sweet." He turned back to his cousin. "Anyway, Deacon, can you start over? I caught none of that. …Deacon?”
Deacon didn’t respond. He was staring at him, eyes wide with shock. Actually, he wasn’t the only one. Buddy was also staring at him in shock, while the prince just looked slightly taken aback that his bride-to-be had snatched his drink away in such a manner.
.
.
.
“What?”
“Chase, did you just-”
“How idiotic can you get?!”
Chase turned towards the speaker, only to find a red-faced Buddy who had just grabbed hold of his wrist, the one connected to his hand that had been holding the cup. Ah, he’d really pissed him off this time, hadn’t he? Also, he was beginning to realise that the drink had not fulfilled its intended purpose at all. Because looking at the dark-haired boy now, he somehow seemed even more handsome than he had before, and the fluttering in Chase’s chest had increased by tenfold. So much for getting it together!
“I- You- Are you deaf as well as illiterate?!" Buddy's grip on his wrist tightened. He looked like he wanted to strangle Chase. "Did you not just hear Freckles over there telling you about the love potion?!”
“Love potion! Right, yeah! He said something about that earlier. What was it again? The dancer girl-”
“-gives a love potion to the prince so that he’ll fall in love with her instead.” said Deacon, hands covering his face in exasperation.
“Riiight. So…?” Chase was trying really hard to concentrate on this conversation and continue it with a straight face, because for some reason, his brain was freaking out about the dark haired boy holding his wrist, and somehow, inexplicably, every inch of his being was screaming to get close to Buddy, admire Buddy, hold Buddy’s hand, cling to Buddy, tell Buddy how great he is, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy! EW?! That’s the reaction he should be having towards those thoughts, so why wasn’t he?!
The newly-turned-super-hot boy stared at him in silence for a second before letting go of his wrist (Nooo... :c. Wait, yes! He meant yes! This was a good thing!). He then proceeded to touch two of his fingers to his forehead, close his eyes and heave a big sigh. Could he get any more dramatic, Chase wondered.
“What the hell do you think you just drank, little idiot?”
And then it clicked.
“Oh.” Chase let out. Suddenly, the drink not working as he had expected made a lot more sense.
“Oh indeed.” Deacon sighed.
By that point, the entire room was staring at them, wondering what the commotion was about. The prince, who had heard bits and pieces of their conversation (although passed through the book’s filter), looked especially confused. “Darling? What is going on?” he asked Chase, who realised that, with the turn things had taken, attempting to continue the story at that moment and staying in that room were probably not the best ideas. Buddy might hate him for deviating from the plot, but, well, the damage had already been done anyway.
Chase cleared his throat. “Hey, princey, I’m, uh, not feeling so well. Mind if I head to my room with my maid and the… dancer girl?”
“Why the dancer?” the prince questioned.
Chase gulped. What excuse could he come up with…? “...so she can… teach me… how to dance? And then I could, ahem, dance for you.” Chase finished through gritted teeth and a fake smile.
The prince beamed. “What a lovely idea! Go, darling, go. I’ll be looking forward to it!”
“Haha, yeah.”
And with that, Chase was out the door, followed by the other two boys. As soon as no one else was around, Buddy broke the silence.
“How am I supposed to teach you how to dance when you’re “not feeling so well”?”
“Shut up. It worked, didn’t it?”
“You’re just lucky he’s an even bigger idiot than you are.”
“Ugh,” Chase decided it’d be best to ignore it, especially when most of his concentration was going towards fighting against weird lovey-dovey thoughts about Buddy. Ugh indeed. “Do either of you know where my room is supposed to be?”
Neither of them responded.
“Right, I’ll just find it myself then.”
Miraculously, he actually managed to do so. After about 10 more minutes of walking in silence, they had arrived. And no, there was no need to point out how unnaturally close to Buddy the blond had walked the entire time. After he’d closed the door, Deacon finally spoke up.
“Honestly, Chase, what were you thinking?”
“Clearly he just wasn’t.”
“Enough!” Chase yelled, sitting down on the bed, covering his face with his hands. “As if this wasn’t hard enough already!”
Buddy smirked and leaned in close to him. “What, is loving me really that difficult?”
"More like I'm having a hard time understanding why it feels so easy ." The blond mumbled into his hands, face feeling awfully warm.
"What?" Deacon asked, seeming to have somehow caught some of that. Chase cursed his cousin for knowing him so well (and for having super hearing, apparently).
"Nothing!" he shouted back, uncovering his pink face and glaring at him. He then turned to Buddy. "And you! Quite standing so close! I can't deal with your hotness right now!"
Buddy froze, for once left utterly speechless. Chase was left in pretty much the same state, his face morphing into one of utter horror after processing what he had said.
"That's! Not what I meant to say! At all! The potion! It was the potion!" he scrambled to say, shaking his head and moving his hands around in an attempt to convey that he had not, in any way, wanted to say that. Whether he had truly thought it or not was a completely different matter that the other two had no business knowing about.
Deacon raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Didn't you say something similar earlier though? Before you took the potion." Chase's eyes shot towards his cousin in warning. Clearly, he did not care much for it. "Something about him being ‘stupid crazy hot’?" With the way Deacon had said the last three words, you would have thought he believed them to be one of the greatest lies known to humankind.
…no business knowing about it, huh, Chase?
"Deacon, I will burn your stupid sea books."
Deacon put his hands up in mock surrender. "Just helping clear up what the effects of the potion really are."
Buddy had remained silent all that while, and still he did. His cheeks were slightly pink. Chase eyed him suspiciously. "What, no smart remarks, no insults?"
Buddy opened and closed his mouth a couple times before moving to toy with his hair and finally saying. "You... You think I'm...?"
"I guess!" Chase interrupted. "I-It's ‘cause your outfit looks nice, that’s all. It, uh, suits you." Had he not embarrassed himself enough already? Truly, the situation couldn't get any worse.
"O-oh. Thank you." Buddy proceeded to stare at the floor while continuing to toy with a strand of his hair. It was the second time Chase had seen Buddy flustered, the first being when he had complimented his hair a while back. A giddy feeling crept up Chase's chest and slowly made its way up to his brain, where it brought out a big lit-up sign saying "Cute!". That damned potion!
Chase nodded awkwardly and looked away, suddenly unsure of what to say next. The air felt awfully heavy, and the room was just way too quiet, and his stupid heart was beating so, so fast that he was starting to worry that the other two boys could hear it. Buddy was the one to break the silence.
"Yours is... Nice. As well."
Chase blinked in surprise –had that been a compliment?– but before he could say anything, Deacon interrupted.
"God, this is painful to watch," he groaned.
The other two boys looked at him, the blond ready to ask what he was referring to, the other raising an eyebrow.
"Look, I'll just head out for a bit, okay? Get some air and all that."
Buddy narrowed his eyes at him. "We're supposed to figure out what to do about the story."
Deacon looked at Buddy, then at Chase, then at Buddy again, with an unreadable expression on his face. "I'm... Sure you two can figure it out on your own. Goodbye." And then he was gone.
"Tsk," was all Buddy let out.
After a moment of silence, Chase said "I'll let Silver know."
"What?"
Chase, who was staring at the spot Deacon had until recently been in, looked over at Buddy. "Uh, my key. I'll let her know you like the outfit she made. She'll appreciate it." he clarified.
"Oh," Buddy said. "Mine will, as well."
"Cool," Chase replied.
Once again, the room was drowned in silence. How awkward could this get, seriously?
"...how are you, uh, feeling?"
So, so much more awkward was the answer to his previous question! Did this guy really have to tease him right now?!
"Seriously, Buddy?! What the hell do you think?” Chase shouted, trying to explode the other boy with his mind. “Completely and utterly in love with you is what I'm feeling. God!" He hid his face in his hands again, trying to somehow rub the heat out of his cheeks.
"Ah," was all the stupid crazy hot (but mostly stupid) goth added.
"Ughhh, just, how do we fix this?" the blond asked, rubbing at his face a final time and looking back at the other boy. "Deacon didn't make it to explaining how we made the prince come to his senses."
"Ah, right," the other contributed, blinking for a moment.
"What, are you planning on me staying like this for the rest of eternity?" Chase asked, annoyed.
"I- No..." Buddy said, followed by a cough. "You two were meant to steal the antidote from me. I have it here." He continued, pulling out a small bottle from somewhere in his outfit.
"This whole time?!" Chase exclaimed, jumping up from the bed and pointing an accusatory finger at Buddy. "What the hell, dude?! You hid that on purpose, didn't you?!"
"What? No!"
"You just wanted to make fun of me, you big jerk! You enjoyed watching me fawn over you!" he continued, as he stepped closer to the one his anger was directed at.
Buddy stayed silent at that, looking away with a slightly flushed face.
"God! Just, give that here!" Chase finished, snatching the small bottle away from the other boy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once Chase had downed the potion, the effect had been immediate. Buddy still looked... Insanely attractive, but the fluttering had been (somewhat) subdued, his cheeks were no longer burning, and anything else he could figure out that night during a long talk with his pillow. After that and before leaving the room, thank yous had been given, explanations had been made and hoodies had been returned. All the while, Buddy had been... Exceedingly nice.
Meanwhile, shortly after leaving the room, Deacon had found himself chasing after an 8 year old girl through the palace corridors, praying to anyone who would listen that a certain cousin of his could keep the villainess distracted a little longer.