AN: Whoa, I've written something that isn't a Hetalia fic! But I had to, I've fallen in love with The Princess and the Frog! I'm still working on Let it Snow!, the next chapter is just taking me a while. It'll be up before too long though. Okay, on with the fic! There are spoilers for the end and it's set about seven years after the movie. Enjoy!
In certain parts of New Orleans, folks would say that you could hear Miss Charlotte La Bouff coming from a mile away when something had gotten her all in a tizzy. Tiana might not have been able to hear Charlotte from a mile away, but she sure did hear her arrive with a screech of tires as her shiny new Model T pulled up in front of Tiana's Palace on that lazy afternoon, and she heard the other woman bound up the steps and throw open the front door and, when Charlotte saw Tiana (who had thankfully just sat down the tray she was holding), she launched herself into her old friends arms with a miserable wail and Tiana could hear her loud and clear, thank you very much.
"Oh Tia!" Charlotte howled on Tiana's shoulder. "It's awful! It's dreadful! I've got the most terrible disaster on my hands and I wouldn't even know where to begin fixing it-"
"I'm sure it's not all that bad, Lottie-" Tiana tried to interrupt, steering her distraught friend to an empty table near the back, but Charlotte would be having none of that.
"Oh it is, Tia! It is! That poor little boy's just the sweetest thing but I can't possibly marry him! Oh, it's going to break his little heart, I just know it, I can't bear the thought of making the poor little fella cry-"
"Lottie," Tiana said firmly, raising her voice to be heart over the near hysterical ranting. "I'm going to get you some tea from the back, and I want you to get yourself calmed down while I'm gone. And when I come back, you can tell me all about it. All right?"
"I don't suppose you could bring me a couple of those pralines y'all had the last time I was up here? The ones with pecans?"
"I believe I've got part of a batch left over from lunch. I'll just go grab those and I'll be right back, you hear?"
Tiana grabbed up her drink tray and hurried back to the kitchen while Charlotte fished a handkerchief out of her purse and dabbed her eyes with it. It wasn't the first time Charlotte had popped up like that and it probably wouldn't be the last either, but at least she had shown up at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, after the lunch rush but well before the dinner. There were only two other customers in the restaurant other than Charlotte, and the other employees she had hired after business started booming a few years back would be able to take care of them just fine. She could spare a little time for an old friend. There was still a pitcher of sweet tea and half a dozen pralines left over from the lunch rush, and Tiana grabbed then both, along with a glass and plate, and went back to Charlotte.
"Now what's all this about some boy wanting to marry you?" Tiana asked, after she had poured Charlotte a glass of tea and given her a minute to munch through a praline. "Start at the beginning now; I had no idea what you were going on about earlier."
"Well, you see," Charlotte paused to take another sip of tea and another bite of praline, "you see, I got a letter today from little Prince Kanvar-"
"Wait a minute now," Tiana interrupted. "We're not talking about Prince Kanvar of Maldonia, are we? Naveen's little brother? Next in line to the throne since Naveen abdicated?"
"That's the one!" Charlotte said, apparently happy that they were on the same page.
"Goodness, what is he now? Twelve?"
"Thirteen. Just had his birthday last month, he told me."
"And he says he wants to marry you?"
Charlotte's eyes welled up with tears again. "Oh Tia, you wouldn't believe the letter he sent me! He said he wanted to marry me ever since we danced together at your and Naveen's wedding, can you believe that? And he said his folks were starting to talk about him getting married one of these days – not yet, of course, but royals have to start thinking about these things earlier than normal people, you know – and he said he couldn't think of anyone he'd rather marry than me! And he kept going on about how he thought I was the nicest, most generous woman he'd even known and oh! I don't even know what to think! Where on earth did he get all that from? I danced with him a few times and he was a real sweetheart and we talked a bit, but he was only six and I didn't think I'd done anything that memorable-"
"I think you can blame Naveen for that," Tiana said thoughtfully, remembering that night. "He really started singing your praises later in the evening, about how good you were to offer to kiss him to break our spell-"
"But Tia! It didn't even work at all, not one bit-"
"That doesn't matter," Tiana said firmly, patting Charlotte's hand. "You were willing to give up your dream for ours, and we'll always be thankful for that. And Naveen was carrying on quite a bit that night, you remember how he had a bit too much wine? Wine makes him so talkative you know, even more than usual. And I suppose Kanvar was listening to him talk about you and it all stuck with him."
Charlotte sniffled loudly. "It sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it? Him remembering me all that time. But I can't marry him! He's only thirteen, he's still much too young, even if he is awfully charming..."
"Wonder if he takes after Naveen?"
"Who takes after me?" The two women glanced over to the entrance to the kitchen. Naveen strolled out casually, apparently waiting for the right moment to make his entrance. The effect was somewhat ruined by his stained shirt and bloodshot eyes. "I thought a heard a pair of lovely ladies talking about me and I-"
"Did you finished mincing those onions?" Tiana said sharply.
"I finished mincing most of the onions," Naveen assured her, apparently under the impression that 'most' was good enough.
"There were only ten onions! It's been a hour! What on earth have you been doing-"
"I will have you know that I tried my best, but they simply made my eyes sting too much. It was unbearable."
"I told you to breathe through your mouth when you're cutting onions, we've been through this-"
"Ah, but I minced plenty of celery and cucumbers to make up for my failure with onions!"
"I don't need any more celery or cucumbers! Get back in there and finish the onions."
"Couldn't you show me how again? You have a most magnificent onion cutting technique-"
"No. Can't you see I'm busy with Lottie? And if you finished most of the onions already then you can do the rest. I believe in you."
Naveen made a face that would have been called a pout on anyone else (and would probably still be called a pout on Naveen, he just would never admit to pouting) and sulked his way back to the kitchen.
"Breathe through your mouth!" Tiana called after him. "And wash the onion in water first! It'll help! Oh Lottie, you better hope his brother's nothing like him!"
"You're not having trouble with your marriage, are you Tia?" Charlotte whispered loudly once Naveen was out of earshot.
"Of course not!" Tiana laughed, waving her friend's concern off. "We're happy, very happy. And he's usually a hard worker, he just gets a little hung up on things like that. He isn't a big fan of dealing with things that are smelly or sticky or make his eyes sting. Or that pinch his fingers. You wouldn't believe the fuss he made when I tried to teach him how to prepare a crab..."
"I wouldn't know if Kanvar knows how to cook. I'll have to ask him when I write him back and tell him I can't marry him."
"Now hold on a minute, Lottie. Was he asking you to marry him right this minute, or did he say he'd like to marry you in the future, after he's older?"
"Wouldn't you know, I can't seem to recall! Let me check...knew I left his letter in my purse somewhere...oh, here it is! 'My dearest, most lovely Charlotte, I hope that you would allow me to be your husband someday, when I've grown enough to be a proper man for you. It's my greatest wish that you will be my princess one day, and once I become the king of Maldonia, my queen.'"
"You sure he's only thirteen, Lottie?"
"I can't imagine why he'd lie about that!"
"Well in that case, how about you tell him to think about it for a while? And once he's grown up, if he still wants to marry you, you'll consider. It's too early for both of you now, but later on, who knows? You might get to be a princess after all."
"Oh Tia!" Charlotte cried happily, almost knocking over her half full glass of sweet tea as she grabbed Tiana's hands. "You're brilliant! Whatever would I do without you? I'll go straight home and write that letter this very minute!" She stood up and turned for the door, then froze and whirled back to Tiana. "Oh goodness, I nearly forgot! How much for the tea and pralines?"
"15¢ for the tea and 22¢ for the pralines, but you're a friend, you don't need-"
"Don't be silly, Tia!" Charlotte insisted, digging into her purse and finally depositing a wad of bills on the table.
"Lottie, that's way too much-"
"It's a tip!"
"That's too generous of a tip, it's way more than the food cost-"
"That tip," Charlotte interrupted, "was for your advice. I feel an awful lot better now! Now I've got a letter to write, Tia! Bye bye!"
"You just come back and tell me what your prince says when he writes you next!" Tiana called after the blond woman as she rushed back out the door, now on a serious letter writing mission.
"I will!" came a shout from out in the street, and the rumble of her automobile as she drove off again. The restaurant suddenly felt very quiet in comparison to before, and Tiana found herself wishing that Charlotte, for all the noise and trouble she brought, could visit more often. Oh well; she'd see her again when the prince wrote back, that much was certain. In the mean time, Tiana needed to get back to the kitchen and check up on Naveen. If she knew him as well as she thought, he was still struggling through those onions.