Come With Me And Take The Ride (This Is Where You Wanna Be)
She watched as three young children played across the busy city street. Their patch worked clothes hung limply on too thin bodies and she knew without a doubt that they probably hadn't had a decent meal in days and more than likely wouldn't have one tonight. And yet, their smiles shined brightly, like they had no worries or fears in the world. The two older siblings danced with laughter out of the small grabby hands of their toddler younger sister, their moves exaggerated and deliberately slower to give the giggling young girl a chance.
Even dirty, starving, and probably with very little to call their own, they had each other.
Her stomach twisted at that thought. She blamed the slightly moldy bread she had earlier.
"CJ!"
She sighed turning her attention back to her growing irritated companion. "I'm listening, Fred."
"Really?"Freddie Facilier arched an unconvinced brow, hands stubbornly on her hips. "Then what I just say?"
Calista Jane Hook, rolled her eyes. "Something along the lines of 'blah, blah, blah, CJ is the best. I wanna take my pretty little lips and-"
A netted fingerless glove covered CJ's mouth, hiding the satisfied smirk that grew on CJ's lips at the minute but telling way that Freddie's cheeks darkened. "Hush, you brat, before I make you sleep on the floor tonight," Freddie growled.
Moving Freddie's hand from her face with one hand, her other hand using their close proximity to creep slowly up the outside of Freddie's thigh. Freddie's cheeks darkened further, a glint in her amber eyes that promised much pain in the near future for CJ (or perhaps it was pleasure, it was always hard to tell with Freddie sometimes).
Before CJ could say something that she thought would sound very much sauve and get her out of trouble with her adorably grumpy maybe-something-more-than-a-friend, a familiar tailored red coat caught CJ's eyes, immediately causing her to suddenly push away from Freddie to get a better look. Freddie squeaked enraged but CJ ignored her as she watched a familiar red leather clad back slip through one of the nicer bar establishments of Auradon City.
Freddie quickly caught sight of him too, demeanor quickly changing from enragement to concern hidden behind a disinterested facade.
"You need me to go with you?"
"No," CJ tugged on her own red jacket, well worn but easily one of the nicest things she owned. "I can handle him," she paused taking in Freddie's darker skin and the three short white marks under each eye that seemed to glow eerily in tandem with her breathing, announcing her non-fairy magical lineage for all the world to see.
Though frilly flowery words were never part of this longtime...thing with Freddie, in the quietest moments of the night, when CJ's mind was buzzing with wondrous ideas while everyone else slept on, she would turn on her side in the bed that they shared, taking in Freddie's relaxed features. Within the depths of her heart, CJ knew that Freddie was one of the best things in her life, even if the hierarchical system around them thought differently.
Looking from CJ's face to the sign in the bar window, CJ shook her head. 'No Non-Fairy mages or creatures allowed!' it read in glittery fairy ink.
"I can definitely handle this," she said once again, not completely certain if it was for Freddie's sake or hers. "Besides, I'll need you to pay my bail if things go bottoms up."
Freddie stared back at her with an unreadable look before she snorted, leaning back with practice casualness against the brick wall behind her, arms crossed. "I guess we'll see if I like you enough to do that, chere," she smirked before the corner of her lips turned down in a deep frown. "Just make sure you don't get into any mischief with them spirits. We got a show later tonight and we can't have our charismatic leader puking her guts in a paid customer's hat again!"
"When you say no mischief with spirits," CJ grinned already halfway across the street, walking backwards, "are you talking about drinks or…" she wiggled her fingers making a groaning sound. "Because you know they might have both here!"
"Figure it out Hook!" Freddie laughed, the sound crisp and clear like fresh fallen autumn leaves. It was a drastic difference from the much more muted atmosphere of the bar that CJ walked into.
The room was dark, windows covered with thick dark materials that blocked out the early afternoon light. Only the wall of bottled liquid behind the bar counter, some sparkling, some glowing, provided the only source of color in the otherwise dull room. Seven older men sat in a dark corner, a few of them already looking like they had fallen halfway into their glasses, looked up at her entrance, bloodshot eyes staring a bit too long at the red leather of her coat in drunken recognition. Thankfully, they lost interest in her quickly, one starting to sing an old mining tune, the ones still conscious enough joining in.
The smell of pixie dust, rolled and smoked in big cigars by some of the one of the patrons, a fuzzy looking...blue being with droopy but intelligent eyes, hung heavy in the air, the smoke curling from their dark blue lips and into the air in magenta and lavender colored ringlets of smoke. The smell alone burned CJ's throat and she wondered idly if the contents of the cigars had been cut with iron as she sat down unceremoniously at the bar next to the familiar red clad frame.
"Whatever yer doing here, I want no part of it Calista Jane."
Pouting at the use of her full name, CJ made a small hand movement in front of her and a glass of shimmery brown liquid, flecks of gold with streaks of iridescent blue shimmered at the top. A small ball of light hovered expectantly over the drink, hindering CJ from taking it before she tossed a handful of coins and a few old thimbles onto the counter in payment.
Once the little fairy barkeep had moved onto another customer down the way, CJ took a long sip before speaking. "Can't a girl want to see her dear old big brother without there being some ulterior motive?"
"Not when she's a grubby little half pixie that likes to cause more mischief than she can handle, like ye, she can't," he murmured refilling his shot glass with an already half empty bottle of unassuming clear liquid that was probably the strongest drink the bar had, hitting it back with little reaction, refilling the glass again like clockwork. "Also, ye must not know the meaning of being disowned if ye think anyone here wants to see ye show yer face around here again."
CJ took another sip of her drink, ignoring the way her hand clutched tightly around the glass at his last comment. At least some things hadn't changed, she thought as she took in his appearance. Perhaps she was just a sentimental sucker but she found herself grounded in the familiarity of her brother, Harry Hook.
His dark hair was messy as always as if the wind had ran her fingers through it and the usual kohl around his eyes was smudged much to thick for this time of day, indicating her probably hadn't slept in his bed last night. (CJ internally frowned, not wanting to know whose bed he had slept in.) Nicely tailored paints were tucked into nicely buffed black boots. His shirt had a few buttons undone and looked wrinkled, but in a way that she knew had the noble ladies and gentlemen he often surrounded himself with yearning to rip it off him. CJ knew with just a look that it was probably made with the softest material imaginable, its worth more money than she had seen in the last year or so. The only piece of clothing that wasn't new and definitely not from one of his many admirers was the familiar and almost identical to her own red leather trench coat that seemed to clash in just the right way with Harry's much finer clothes.
He's still a sentimental sap. CJ observed. I can work with that.
She finished the rest of her drink, ignoring Harry's impressed whistle as she downed most of the glass in one go. It burned down her throat in a devastatingly delightful way and she had to remember Freddie's earlier warnings about not getting sloshed before a show. But was it really her fault that Harry was so irritating that he drove her to drink?
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Hook family drinking habits!" he giggled self deprecating around his own drink before tossing it down just as fast as CJ had done.
"Well then I'll get straight to the point. I want you to be my business partner, Harry."
He paused, hand holding his refilled shot glass, frozen half way at his lips.
Good. Caught him off guard.
"I need someone with your flair for dramatics, eye for detail, and who I can trust will at least yell before trying to stab me in the back." She watched him unfreeze, throwing the shot back easily as if there hadn't been an introduction. "The show is good," she continued. "More than good, but it can be better! It will be better. With your help."
Harry snorted. "Ye don't want my help. Just my influence. Influence that brings a lot of heavy pockets with it."
Smiling innocently, CJ batted her eyes. "Well you said it, not me, but since you're offering, that kind of influence would be extremely beneficial for my-"
"No," Harry cut her off, raising the bottle to pour himself another shot only to see that the bottle was empty.
"No?"
"Uh huh," Harry frowned, looking up and down the counter for their fairy barkeep only to not see the telltale ball of light. "In this context, I believe it means, 'to deny'," he jumped over the counter, eyes glued to the bottles of lined spirits - some pixie, some regular, all worth more than CJ had ever made even during their most successful shows so far. "'To put an end to before it even begins'," he waved his hand in a dramatic dismissive fashion before seemingly picking a bottle indiscriminately and reaching somewhere under the counter for a clean shot glass with little searching. He was familiar with this bar apparently. No surprise there.
"Trying to follow old Da to an early grave?" CJ sneered when after two times of refilling his shot glass he pushed it away and drank directly from the bottle. The fairy barkeep finally appeared, chiming angrily at him before seemingly giving up and going back to their other customers as if this wasn't that unusual of an occurrence. Harry sprawled himself across the counter in that disheveled but pretty way that he could always pull off, bottle dangling precariously from his ringed fingers.
"Awa' an bile yer heid!" he drunkenly whined. "Who gave ye the right to start meddlin' in my life again? Haven't seen hide nor hair of ye since ye shucked off old Da's inheritance, like ye were too good for it. And now ye think ye can just waltz back into my life?" He leaned towards her, his eyes bright and focus despite his obvious inebriation. "I said no," he said firmly. Blue eyes hard like glass. "I don't want anythin' to do with yer silly little freak show or with you."
CJ pouted, pulling out her final card.
"Harriet would have helped me."
It was a testament to how long she hadn't seen her brother, to how their paths had greatly diverged that she found herself caught off guard when his hands darted out quickly and grabbed her forcefully by the collar. Harry dragged her so that she was half on the bar counter, her face close to his, all previous tired drunken irritation gone and replaced by pure 100% Harold James Hook fury.
Her mind flickered back to the children she had seen playing outside and realized what the feeling she had tried to hide actually was: jealousy. Those children had never been the Hook siblings. They probably actually got along.
Harry's grip tightened on her collar, his eyes sobering until all she could see in his two blue pools were anger, shame, and sadness swirling together until all that was left was rage.
"Harriet. Is. Dead," Harry seethed, "And it's because of you."
They glared at each other before he released her with a none too gentle shove.
Harry turned back to the bar, grabbing another random bottle, uncorking it sharply with his teeth, and drinking straight from it.
At that point they were obviously drawing attention from most of the other patrons but CJ didn't care. Her hands clenched at her side. Harry wasn't the only Hook sibling with anger issues.
"How long are you going to keep blaming me?" she seethed quietly before jumping onto the counter and forcefully tugging the bottle out of his hands and throwing it onto the ground. "HUH?!" she shouted. "Don't you think I tried? She was my sister too, you know! I tried to stop her! But Harriet Hook always did what Harriet Hook wanted to."
She jumped down in front of him and shoved his back none gently against the wall of alcohol, bottles rattling, crashing down around them. Neither of them paid the other bar goers that quickly got up and left or the poor barkeep fairy that dropped dejectedly in the air at the mess any attention.
"At least she died doing what she loved. She was fearless! She would never hide behind the fancy skirts of the highborn faes and noble killjoys and their rules on 'appropriate' forms of magic. All magic was beautiful to her and she wanted to show that to everyone and Harriet was the only one who believed that I had the imagination and vision to make that happen."
CJ brought herself closer to Harry, so that their noses squished together bruisingly, tears growing but never falling from her eyes.
"You're just as guilty as me for her death, Harry. We needed a third for the spell and you didn't show up because you were too afraid of Daddy Dearest."
Again, Harry shoved her away. Instead of retaliating with rage, he turned from her and moved with tired steps to sprawl back on top of the counter. "The spell would have have been shite either way," he murmured into the wood. "Fairy blood doesn't run through me veins like it does with you...like it did with 'Ettie."
CJ stepped over the shards of broken glass, stepping closer to him. Her own rage, just as quickly as it had come, had cooled into something less intense but just as driven. "Three is always a powerful number. You just being there would have been enough, Harry. Spells always worked out better for Ettie and me when you were there."
Harry snorted, a wet sound that he tried to cover with a weak laugh. "Power of three," he muttered, using the back of his arm to to wipe under his nose quickly glancing at CJ, all the hot air blown out of him. "Not so powerful with only two fuck ups left."
Sighing, CJ rolled her eyes. Obviously this was a waste of time. She hopped back over the bar counter, ready to leave when she heard Harry sigh, calling out to her.
"C'mon. Let's take a look at this circus of yers and see if it's worth my time."
Pausing, CJ allowed herself to smirk before she smoothed her features out and turned back to him.
"Oh, once you see it you'll never want to return to your drab old life again."
Harry rolled his eyes at her confidence from where he was still sprawled along the counter before heaving himself up and jumping down to his feet, reaching for the top hat he had sat on the bar stool next to him.
CJ grinned ecstatically, rushing out the door.
Already grumbling to himself, Harry made to follow her but was stopped short by one peeved fairy barkeep chiming angrily in his face.
"Alright! Alright," he hissed, not even bothering to count the bills and coins and thimbles that he tossed onto the counter. "If that doesn't cover all it, send the rest of the bill to…" he paused in thought before a squished up dissatisfied face came to mind. "Lady Mal. If she asks, it was her associate, Jay made this mess," he winked before rushing out into the street, hat firmly on his head as he searched the crowded streets before a distinctive head of always knotted looking blonde hair.
"Come on!" CJ crowed, appearing at his side. She grabbed onto his arm and moved them through the crowd with such speed and dexterity that only someone who had fairy blood in their veins could manage. It was like their feet barely touched the ground, and with the excited buzz and chime that was unconsciously being emitted from his sister, Harry wouldn't be surprised if that was true, CJ bursting with enough happy thoughts for the both of them.
It wasn't long before they appeared before a tall brick building with banners proclaiming "The Greatest Show on Earth!" and many different depictions of what Harry assumed were each of the acts.
He didn't have time to take in the banners as CJ quickly tugged him to the side and back of the building, entering through the back door and into a space where there was a flurry of motion and movement of people and animals rushing back and forth, either preparing for their acts or helping others get ready for theirs.
"Wow, you actually managed to get him."
Harry looked up to see Freddie Facilier looking down at them from her perch on a railing of the backstage stairs that led up to what Harry assumed was where some of the circus members handled the above lights. It had been awhile since he had seen her and she looked just as smug and mischievous as she did as a young child all those years ago when CJ had first snuck her into the house when their father hadn't been sober enough to be aware. The top half of her face was painted into a white skull, covering her natural facial marks and she wore a dress of greens and golds and purples that would have looked gaudy on anyone else but made Freddie look every part like the shadow bayou queens she descended from, a small worn black top hat with a red trim and a purple feather perched on top of her head.
Though he had grown up with her long enough to think of her as another bratty younger sister, when he made eye contact with Freddie, Harry felt as if his shadow was crawling up his back, squeezing his neck slightly in warning. He blinked and the feeling instantly disappeared. When he looked down, his shadow moved on it's own, making a slow slashing motion along its throat.
Freddie smirked innocently when he glared back up at her, her message clear: Break her heart again and I'll have my friends on the other side hurt you.
"I told you I would, Fred!" CJ grinned as she bounced on her toes, a slight golden glow around her, completely unaware of what just happened before tugging Harry suddenly up the stairs, pass Freddie who hopped off her railing, shuffling her cards as she made her way to the stage entrance. Harry used his free hand to rub his neck as words continued to bubble from her CJ's mouth in excited little squeals that verged just on the edge of sounding like chiming bells.
Harry was just about to tell her that he couldn't understand half of what she was saying when she got excited like this when she suddenly stopped them on one of the highest platforms of the stairs, pulling aside a curtain that led to a balcony.
For a moment, as he stepped forward, all Harry was aware of was the bright glow of the stage lights and the sound of the decent but small crowd below. Up along the catwalk several of the stage hands worked in unison to turn over a large bucket that was designed to rain down water on the center stage. The whole building seemed to quiet as the sound of rain falling and the smell of sea salt filled the space. Even though Harry could see from his position that the stage hands had poured all the water that had been in pail out, it still rained down below onto the stage, a soft rumble of thunder accompanying the noise.
Suddenly, one of the stage lights fell on a built platform perpendicular to the one Harry and CJ stood on. Harry watched as a strong looking blonde man dressed as if he were sunshine personified in loose fitting gold pants and a tight sleeveless matching vest stepped until he was just at the edge.
"Is he one of them flying acrobatics, I've heard about?" Harry looked curiously to CJ.
"He is trained in that," she grinned, still at her spot by the balcony entrance. "But that's the later half of the act."
And with that, the blonde man jumped off the platform with no ropes or nets to catch him, audience letting back shocked screams and yelps below.
Harry rushed to the edge of the balcony, sure that he was going to see a blonde pancake on the ground but instead he was able to see just as the magic sustained rain stopped, all the water coming to the center to create a pool shape, the blonde diver diving safely in with a splash that had the children of the audience squealing with delight and the adults grumbling in their soaked clothes.
"Here comes the main star of the act," CJ grinned appearing next to him.
The blonde diver waved at the audience before swimming to the top of the pool, the water only rippling slightly as his head broke through the top. The water began to warp around him, breaking its shape and twisting until the blonde man was no longer in the water but sitting on top of it, the magical liquid taking the shape of a giant seahorse under him.
The children in the audience laughed and a few of the adults cheered as the blonde rode the water seahorse like a cowboy around the stage at a lively pace, sometimes almost looking like he was about to be bucked off but not quite.
"What is he?" Harry questioned. "Part merfolk?"
"No. Watch." CJ's grin grew as if she knew the best secret that he didn't.
Frown set deeply, Harry continued to watch as the water seahorse and its blonde rider continued to float around the stage.
Suddenly, the seahorse began to float higher and higher, it's bucking getting slightly more erratic the higher it got. The audience gasped as it looked like the blonde was loosing what little grip he had, if had any grip at all with the water. He was just about eye level with Harry when the water of the seahorse under him suddenly fell out, breaking its form. Gravity only took a second before it had the blonde hurtling to the ground.
Again, the audience gasped and Harry found his heart in his throat as the blonde flailed in his descent, growing closer to the ground...until he wasn't because the water that had fallen back to the ground already shot back up underneath him. Instead of catching him and turning back into the seahorse as Harry assumed it would, the water and the blonde continued their trajectory upwards, a rope swinging towards them that the blonde caught with practiced ease, reaching out towards the floating water with one hand just as an arm formed from the liquid. Within seconds the water was no longer an amorphous blob but a fully fleshed young woman.
Harry watched with rapt attention as the blonde grinned, allowing the direction of the rope he was holding onto give him the necessary momentum to toss his partner impossibly high into the air until she was just above the height of the balcony.
The girl seemed to hover as she flipped and spun with precise movements in the air, knocking the breath out of Harry as if a wave had crashed on top of him. He took in her teal and white partially braided updo that wrapped and swirled around her head like a windswept crown and the way that the blues and greens and golds of her outfit caught the light like the rising sun bleeding into the sea. It was only when she arched her back, preparing to dive through the air before her decent that her brown eyes caught his. In that second, she grinned, a mischievous mesmerizing little tilt upwards of her lips that felt like she was sharing a secret just with him and would have him dreaming about those sparkling teal painted lips pressing against his skin for weeks to come.
And then she was descending, falling with such control that she had to be using magic, catching the bottom half of a swinging hoop that the blonde was now standing on the top half of. In tandem, they both swung their hips causing the hoop to swing in a large circle above the stage. The girl laughed delightedly, a full and confident sound, as the hoop as it circled around also began to spin quickly as she pulled herself up on the hoop only by her arms her legs together, toes pointed down.
The sound of thunder cracking shook the building just before what looked like lightning seemed to hit the hoop. Just at that moment, all the stage lights flickered off and the girl's laughter were abruptly silenced, causing the audience to gasp again as they were plunged into darkness. Surely no one could survive being hit by lightning like that.
Put only a second passed before the stage lights turned back on with the blonde boy and the teal haired girl standing safely in the center of the stage, both smiling proudly hand in hand as they took their bows to the enthusiastic clapping of the audience.
Harry was glad he was leaning against the balcony railing. CJ would never stop laugh if she knew how weak his legs felt.
"W-who is she? I mean," Harry coughed, trying to cover up his mistake. "Who are they?"
"Uma and Gil. One of our most daring acts, as you can see," CJ said proudly as if it had been her act that he had just witnessed. "Those two were amongst the first to join. Ettie," she paused losing slightly before continuing. "Ettie picked them out herself. Once they joined in, a handful or two others followed immediately after them," she said snapping her fingers. "Just like that. Like they were waiting to see what would happen with those two."
Harry nodded, his gaze still watching as Uma and Gil took another bow before turning and making their way backstage. He tapped his finger thoughtfully against the wood of the balcony, mind already filled with brown eyes and matching wicked little smirks.
"I'll join ye for eighteen percent."
"Eighteen percent? Of my show?," CJ scoffed as if insulted. "I'll give ya seven, and that's being generous."
"Fifteen," Harry fired back turning towards her.
"Eight," Cj growled.
Harry tutted, wagging his finger as he pulled a flask out of the inner pocket of his jacket, taking a long sip that seemed to make CJ fume more. "Twelve," he burped.
Red bleeding into her face, CJ stomped her foot with an angry chime. "Maybe nine!"
"Ten!"
"Fine!" CJ shot out her hand. Harry took a moment to grin to himself. He reached out, giving her hand a hard shake.
"No need to frown, Callie. Ninety percent is still a lot for ya," he patted her on the head.
Crossing her arms, CJ muttered something under her breath.
"What was that?" Harry frowned.
"I said I only have eighty now."
"What happened to the other ten?"
"That belongs to me."
Harry turned to see Uma in all her teal and blue and green and gold glory leaning against the entrance of the balcony, her gaze sharp and appraising as she looked him over, taking in everything. From this close, Harry could see that an actual crown made from woven nets and starfish and shells and a few beads was securely tucked into her hair. Dramatic gold eye shadow was slightly smudged and a layer of sweat shined across her skin.
Harry fought the urge to bow down and kiss her feet.
After what felt like a long moment Uma looked away from him, apparently bored with her appraisal of him and either not seeing or ignoring the way Harry deflated.
"So this is your brother? The infamous Paramore of Auradon?" Uma said to CJ. "Didn't know that those snarky fairies and snobby gentle stiffs liked to share their beds with a guy who looked," she paused to sniff the air delicately before frowning, "and smelled like he was impersonating a dead skunk."
"I'm sure I can persuade you differently, darlin'," Harry dragged his own gaze teasingly up and down her body, lingering on her lips as he bit his own in a way that had Lady Audrey nearly ripping off his pants after the concert he performed at the other night before her husband Lord Chad Charming had pulled her away with a huff, a flirty wink thrown over his shoulder at Harry when his wife wasn't looking. "That is, if you give me a chance and maybe somewhere a little more...private to make my case."
Uma growled, and Harry found her anger just as much of a turn on as her smirk. He could only imagine what his body would do if she ever gave him an uninhibited smile.
"How about you give me a chance to drown you?" she snapped back.
CJ rolled her eyes before moving pass them, yelling over her shoulder for them to find a room as she made her way down, to prepare to close the show. This made Uma's face squish up in a way that Harry found adorable before she stomped away, muttering curses and promises of his death under her breath.
It was at that moment that Harry decided that maybe he would like this circus of CJ's after all.
Originally inspired by someone who asked for a Descendants writer to write a Huma Greatest Showman AU months ago on Tumblr. This probably wasn't what they expected but if they read this, I hope they enjoy.
So...I'm not sure if I'll continue this. It's meant to only be a oneshot to get some Greatest Showman plot bunnies out of my head. Also I don't know if teasing the whole magic hierarchy made things confusing or not. I just didn't want it to be basically a word for word retelling of the scenes from the movies.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Again, this was originally supposed to be a oneshot but if I feel inspired I might come back to it.
Until next time!