Author's note:
Welcome to my story! I hope you enjoy it and stick around till the end. It is completed, so read through. Make sure to review at the end of the story, because reviews make me keep writing. I don't own the PATF or any characters. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Tiana stretched out next to her husband, yawning in the early morning. She had to get up and start prepping her restaurant for that Saturday's rush. The gumbo had to be just right. She didn't trust her chefs with her Daddy's recipe.
"Tiana," Naveen moaned, flopping his arm over her stomach, "Dot not leave me, it is still so early, no?"
She pushed him off, chuckling, "We go through this every morning, Naveen. It's been six years. Aren't you used to it yet?"
He rolled over, his light brown eyes staring into her chocolate brown ones, "I will never get used to you rising before the sun. It is not natural."
She got up despite his mumbled protests. She crossed to his side of the bed and kissed his forehead.
"Get used to it, Froggy Prince, you signed up for this for the rest of your life.
Naveen refused to let Tiana ride the trolley anymore, so the driver dropped her off a few blocks away from Tiana's Place. She didn't want people to think she was uppity now. She was the same old Tiana. She just happened to be a Princess now.
She lived in one of the mansion's right next to Lottie. Naveen's parents restored his fortune after they saw the absolute change Tiana had made in him. They wanted not for anything. Tiana could have anything she wanted- dresses, shoes, jewels, cars- but she was always conscious of the stares she and Naveen received with their drivers, butlers and servants. Every time someone made a comment about the color of their skin, and suggestions on what Tiana did for a living to afford such an upscale home, Naveen was quick to shame them, put them in their places for harassing royalty. Tiana, though, knew they didn't belong.
Which was why they were leaving American, and heading to Maldonia, where, as Naveen put it, "A person's a person no matter what color". Of course, her mother and Louis were coming. But Tiana couldn't bring her place; she had to leave her restaurant behind. She would still be the owner, and Naveen promised she could open a new place in Maldonia, but by leaving, she felt like she was leaving her father behind.
But Naveen had convinced her. She was royalty of a country she had never stepped foot in. She was Princess of a people she had never met. If they were to be effective rulers, he said, they would have to present.
And as much as Tiana hated to admit it, she knew Naveen was right.
Tiana stepped through the back door of her kitchen and into the busy world of her prep cooks.
"'Morning Tiana," Mr. LaBouff called his typical greeting, "You ready for your last day?"
Tiana managed a small smile, "Course not, Big Daddy," She sighed, glancing around, "But I suppose I better get used to the idea. Have Tims start prepping my gumbo, I'll be out in a minute," she instructed as she slipped into her office.
She sighed in the peace and quiet, looking at the moving crates stacked everywhere. Naveen would be by later to help move her out of her restaurant, and tomorrow they would be on a ship to Maldonia. She felt her stomach lurch at the thought. Five days on the open sea. She knew Naveen was an accomplished sailor, but she was very uncomfortable on ships.
"Tiana," Mr. LaBouff knocked, "Preppin' is done, the stove is yours."
She smoothed out her skirt and put on a brave mask to face her staff, many of whom had been there since the first day she met her dream.
She walked towards the stove with her Daddy's gumbo pot ready to cook.
That was the only thing she had yet to pack.
We gonna make gumbo in New Orleans one last time, Daddy, she thought.
"Tiana, darling, do relax. The way you are sitting makes my body hurt. You are so tense," Naveen pleaded, rubbing her shoulders, "Just two more days, and we will be home."
Tiana felt the boat lurch in the storm again, and her chest quaked as thunder rumbled around them.
"I would rather be a frog in the Bayou for 100 days than sit on this boat for two more," she moaned, lowering her head between her knees.
Naveen glanced helplessly at Eudora, who was on the other side of her daughter, trying to dab a cool cloth on her forehead. She had no idea Tiana was such a poor boat traveler.
Naveen stood, kissing Tiana's head, "I will go ask the captain when he expects this weather to calm down, okay?"
Tiana moaned.
Naveen latched the door of their deck cabin securely behind him, breathing in the fierce salty air around him. He had trained in the Maldonian Navy, on the insistence of his father, so although it worried him, he was not afraid of the storm. He stepped confidently up to where Captain Trexe stood, a secure grip on the railing the whole way.
"Captain? How are things?" Naveen shouted in his native tongue over the whistling wind, edging closer to the captain.
"Pruto!" Trexe bowed quickly, never letting go of his hold on the wheel, "You shouldn't be up here! The seas and waves are dangerous!"
"Yes," he nodded, "And I am afraid the Pruta is not faring well. When do you expect the storm to pass?"
The captain gripped the wheel tighter as the ship rolled with the force of the ocean, and a wave rushed over the side. He glanced up just in time to see Naveen's fingers lose their grip on the railing. He slipped over the edge of the ship with the receding water.
Tiana had shifted onto the fetal position, her mother patiently stroking her hair. The ship rocked again, and so did her stomach. She quickly reached down for the bucket a poor sailor just emptied and promptly vomited for the umpteenth time that night.
"Goodness, Tiana, I don't think I've ever seen anyone this sick before. This is a terrible seasickness you got," Eudora took the bucket away and rang the service bell. A young sailor appeared immediately.
"Needs emptied again," Eudora said, "But bring it back quickly."
The sailor shot Tiana a sympathetic glance before scurrying away.
"Mama," Tiana said softly, "I ain't just seasick..."
Suddenly, commotion outside their cabin exploded. Shouts of the sailors lifted into their cabin. Tiana reacted before she fully understood the words.
"Un Pruto a la mer! Un Pruto a la mer!"
Prince overboard.
"Naveen!" she gasped, heaving herself up and pushing past her mother. She whipped the door open to the elements, the rain cold and sharp against her cheeks. She ran onto the deck, searching frantically for her husband. The boat rolled with another wave, sending Tiana collapsing to her hands and knees, cold seawater lapping at her.
"Pruta!" a sailor knelt beside her, draping his rain jacket over her shoulders.
She grabbed his sleeve, pleading, "Naveen, le Pruto? Where is Naveen?!"
The sailor glanced at the railing. Tiana stood clumsily and stumbled to the side, gripping tightly to the wooden rail.
The grey waters churned violently, sea foam grazing the top. She bent over farther, peering into the emptiness, sobbing. Sailors dived fearlessly into the water on either side of her, desperate to find their prince.
Naveen knew there was nothing he could have done. The wave was too powerful. He watched his last finger slip off the rail, and his heart dropped like a rock as he washed over the side.
He smacked into the ocean, back first, knocking the wind out of him. He tried to gasp, but freezing, stinging salt water filled his lungs. He managed to keep his eyes open, despite the burn.
He kicked off his shoes, and began swimming up. At least he thought it was up, everything around him looked grey. Panic began to grow in his soul as his lungs burned, as he pushed harder and harder for any relief.
Evangeline, he begged, please, please, I am not ready.
But the harder he tried, the more the darkness around him grew, the heavier his arms and legs felt, the drowsier he became. He felt himself begin to drift, down though, not the direction he wanted to go.
No.
He tried to find himself, find his heart, soul, arms, legs, lungs.
All he felt was cold, all he saw was darkness.
Ray, my friend, keep my Tiana happy, even without me, let her live her dreams.
Tiana cried, her tears mixing with the stinging rain. The sailors in the churning seas kept diving down, but each time, coming up empty handed.
I know I can't see you, Evangeline, but I'm begging you, don't let me lose Naveen tonight. Not now, we are almost there...
A commotion caught her eye. Under her, against all odds, a sailor popped up with Naveen draped over his shoulder, desperately trying to keep both heads above the water. He and the fellow diver attached Naveen to a pulley cord, and he came up over the railing, caught by a dozen other sailors. They lowered his limp body on the deck.
Tiana scurried to his side, stroking his face moving his wet hair out of his eyes.
"Is he alive," she demanded, looking at the sailors, "Naveen, is he alive?"
The men glanced at each other, not understanding their princess.
However, a fit violent coughing and gasping answered her question. Naveen coughed the water out of his lungs, sitting up, letting the salt drip from his mouth.
Tiana flung herself at him, and he caught her with one arm secured around her waist, the other hand supporting their weight on the deck.
"Don't you ever, EVER do that again!" she sobbed, pounding his back, causing his to cough up more, "Don't you ever, EVER leave that cabin again!"
He took a deep, clear breath before answering her, whispering in her ear, "Yes, Tiana, anything you say, ma chere."
She pulled away abruptly, a distant look on her face.
"Tia?"
She scrambled up to the railing, pulled herself up, and vomited quickly into the ocean.
Naveen stood to help her, but soon found himself not feeling so well.
"Ah, bring extra blankets to our cabin please," he asked one of the sailors in Maldonian, "And some hot broth for the Pruta and I, oui?"
Naveen led the trembling, gasping, shivering Tiana away from the watchful and concerned eyes of the sailors.
It may not be conventional, but she was endearing herself to these people. Even the most hardened of seamen had experienced what Tiana was. In a royal family where appearance and dignity was everything, Naveen sensed that the sailors were already very protective of Tiana, because she presented herself as human in front of them. By fighting her own bout of seasickness.