The Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney ride, and Charlotte/Tiana is my favorite Disney ship. I had to make a drabble that combines both.
The house had existed longer than Tiana's mother and father, before Charlotte's father ever owned a factory, probably ever before the rest of New Orleans was built. Logic stated that the grand house would have to have been built sometime, by people in some other life, but Tiana doubted that logic much applied to that house.
No, house wasn't exactly the right word. It seemed more like a castle, larger than any of the other homes surrounding the city. Larger than even Charlotte's family's mansion. But this was no castle that the princess ("in training" as she liked to call herself) Charlotte would ever want to live in. No one seemed to want to, even though it could surely house a number of the people living in the city.
"Do you see anything, Tia?" Charlotte asked. A sharp wind whipped at her blonde hair and moonlight, cold and clear, made her already pale skin look flushed and (ironically, Tiana knew) ghostly.
"No," Tiana replied, squinting up at the windows. The mansion was old, the white marble looking an almost washed out grey in the night. Ivy clung to the sides, curling up the wall. The green grass grew tall and wild around the house, broken only in sections near the front by large stones; some said the stones were graves, reminders of those who had once inhabited the place.
But that couldn't be true, Tiana reminded herself. Goosebumps ran up her arms and legs, the brown bumps dotting her skin.
A few trees grew around it as well, shading the area further. Shadows moved, dancing across the night.
It seemed fitting to come visit it on a night such as this, when the moon was full and the world seemed on edge. There was no working that night; it seemed as if the rest of the city wanted to stay home.
"Oh, if only we could see something!" Charlotte said. She paced from one foot to the other, but never stepped too close to the mansion's gates.
"Nine-hundred and ninety-nine ghosts," Tiana remarked, "and not one appears at the window."
No man holding a hat box came, no bride, and no hitchhiker. There was not a medium in sight, nor any grinning ghouls - just a house, old and nearly forgotten save for it's many legends, hidden away from most of the rest of the city.
"I think that we should head back," Tiana remarked.
Charlotte grabbed at her arm. "I suppose so. I don't know why I thought that we should come here."
The moment that Charlotte grabbed at her arm, Tiana warmed. She closed her eyes for a moment, savor in the feeling of the other woman's skin against her own.
When she opened her eyes, something moved in the windows, white and whispy, like something made of fog or smoke.
She blinked, clearing her eyes.
Ghosts, she thought. Even if they do exist, what use is there in searching for them?
Charlotte moved closer to her, and the two turned around and walked back down the dark road, with their arms intertwined, that they first travelled across. Beyond it, the lights of the city spun and sparkled, aglow with life.
"I still wish that we had been able to see a ghost," Charlotte remarked as they walked. The mansion was a mere dot in the corner of Tiana's eye.
"I believe that we would have had to go into the mansion to see one of them." Tiana remarked.
And what a terror that would probably be! Ghosts or not, the place was probably falling apart and filthy. If they went in and then somehow managed to get out alive, one could only guess how they would look once they left. For all they knew, they could come out looking like (dusty and weary) ghosts themselves!
Charlotte squealed, and Tiana could only giggle in response.