Temporary Happy Places
A/N: I was watching the 'Hugh's Not Normous' episode earlier, and I loved that scene with Max and Harper in Alex's bedroom. But, they never showed what exactly happens when Harper helps Max destroy his bedroom, consequently making me a sad panda. Sooo, I figured hey, why not write what I would've liked to see happen? I have that power. What really sucks though is that I just watched this episode a couple of hours ago, and yet I can't remember the exact quotes leading up to what's supposed to be happening. Guess I need to lay off the Red Bull. Er...anyway, forgive me if they aren't correct.
BTW MARPER IS MADE OF REALLY ADORABLE AWESOME 3.
Disclaimer: Me no owny Wizards of Waverly Place.
Summary: The missing scene from 'Hugh's Not Normous' where Harper helps Max destroy his bedroom. They embark on their own secret adventure. Marper friendship.
~!#$%^&*()_+
"Alex!" Harper exclaimed, seeing a roomful of people as she entered the lair at a running pace. At hearing her name, Alex approached her friend.
"Max wants to destroy his room, because he thinks it'll get him off the hook for destroying your room!" Harper informed the raven-haired wizard, who scoffed at her brother's stupidity.
"That's insane," Alex stated, with which Harper agreed.
"Thank you!"
"You have to make sure he goes through with it!" Alex added, nearly causing Harper to get metaphorical whiplash from her sudden change of heart.
"What?!" She replied, looking taken aback.
"Yes! Because...um, friends do favors for friends. So could you please do me this favor, as a friend? As a very, very best friend?" Alex pleaded with Harper, and Harper couldn't understand why Alex wanted her to do this. Alex had concurred with how strange it sounded. Still, Harper supposed Alex wouldn't ask this of her if it wasn't of absolute importance. Or, perhaps she would. Harper couldn't really be sure.
"Oh, you Russos are so manipulative!" Harper said with a huff, before storming out. She then realized it would have little effect since she was doing what Alex had asked anyway.
She rolled her eyes repeatedly on the way upstairs, but stopped short of Max's room. She heard sounds of destruction inside; paper ripping, glass breaking...possibly food squishing? Harper cringed at the thought of what might've awaited her behind the door. She gulped and took a deep breath.
She'd heard tales of the horrors that lied beyond that door, things too horrible for mortal eyes to witness. And here she was, about to embark on perhaps the most dangerous mission of her entire life. Having a wizard for a best friend pretty much guarantees that you will occasionally find yourself in a tight spot, but this may have been too much for Harper to handle.
But still, she braced herself for her quest and placed a shaky hand on the door. It creaked open in spite of the other audible noises, and Harper gasped at what she saw.
There stood Max, in the midst of a thick storm of white feathers, which Harper assumed came from his pillow. But the boy was a crazy wizard, so that was probably too safe a guess.
Harper's eyes attempted to land on everything that had been destroyed thus far. Max's closet appeared to have exploded, all of his clothes scattered throughout the room. His bunk-bed was now in pieces, with the top mattress now leaned against the wall on the other side of the room, and the bottom one halfway hanging off the box spring.
"You really don't waste time, do ya?" Harper inquired, picking feathers out of her hair. Max stopped what he was doing to help her with this.
"Oh, I'm not even close to being done. You got here just in time, actually. I'm about to start pulling out all the stuff under my bed and throwing it against the wall," he answered with a confident snicker, as though doing all this would benefit him. Harper didn't really have the heart to tell him otherwise.
"Riiight. You don't actually need me for this--" before she could even finish, he had grabbed her by the hand and practically dragged her towards his bed. Max knelt down to lay on his stomach, and Harper couldn't really see any other option than to do the same.
So there they lay, side by side on the floor, peering into vast unknown of under Max's bed. Harper cringed at the sight...and the smell.
"Feel free to just reach in and grab whatever," instructed Max cheerfully, almost like he expected Harper to be as excited about this as he was.
"Okay..." Harper responded, forcing a dry chuckle and reaching a hand under there, knowing she probably shouldn't. She jerked her hand back towards herself rather quickly.
"Ow! Something bit me!" She cried out, clenching her finger with her other hand. Max gasped in awe.
"No way. That science experiment actually worked!" Max declared, punching the air in victory.
"Science experiment?" Harper repeated, in disbelief. Max developed a hard-to-explain expression.
"You didn't think Justin was the only smart one in this family, did you?" He asked rhetorically, but in an annoyed tone. Harper ignored him, and refused to reach back under the bed.
"Fine, could you go start smashing up the stuff on my desk?" Max requested, getting over his strange episode rather suddenly. Harper rolled her eyes, but did as he asked.
The few easily breakable things she spotted were a clock radio, a lava lamp, and a tambourine. She picked up the clock radio, only to toss it on the ground and stomp it with her foot. An involuntary giggle escaped her lips as she did so, and she had to actually think about why that had happened.
It caught Max's attention too, as he rose to his knees to watch her. She almost appeared, for a moment, to be having...fun?
Harper set her sights on the lava lamp next. She unscrewed the top from the oddly shaped bottle, and drained all the liquid she could out of it. It splattered all over the floor, and Harper giggled once more. Max smiled at this strange occurrence.
After finishing off the lava lamp, Harper focused on the tambourine. A swift right hook, and BOOM! The tambourine was left with a gaping hole right in the middle, which made Harper laugh hardest of all.
"See? I told you this would be fun," Max told her, finally springing all the way to his feet.
"No you didn't," Harper reminded him, although she continued giggling.
"Well, it's fun, anway. There's still some stuff in my closet," Max replied, motioning towards the dark abyss. Yes, Harper had started to lighten up, but the closet seemed a bit more dangerous than the rest of the room.
As she and Max started toward the closet, Harper grasped Max's arm tightly in fear. He reassured her in a way that only he could.
"Harper, relax. I got rid of all the human-eating space spiders last week. Or, at least I think I did. Those things were really tiny," he began calmly, before spinning off somewhere else entirely.
Harper gripped him even tighter, as they finally got to their destination.
"I just wish we could see in there," she muttered, more to herself than anything.
"Your wish is my command," Max said, smiling at her, and pulling his wand out of his pocket. He lifted it before she could stop him.
"Max, no!" Harper yelled, not trusting him to perform magic without someone more experienced around.
There was a burst of green light, and she and Max were both sent flying backwards. Suddenly, Harper felt weightless. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and felt a hand cover hers. That was about the only thing she could feel.
She opened her eyes groggily, to see Max hovering over her, an immensely alarmed look on his face. It was almost as though when he sensed she could see him, his face relaxed into a less concerned expression.
"You okay?" He inquired, seeming more composed than before. His words sounded distorted in Harper's ears, but she nodded nonetheless. She turned towards him on her side, and sat up. The sights around her took her breath away.
They were lying in a field of colorful flowers. The firmament was in the twilight stage of day, with faint stars sparkling against a pink and purple sky. Mountain ranges and cliffs enclosed them in this area, with gushing waterfalls nearly everywhere Harper looked. Every breath either one of them took seemed to be the loudest sound among everything, even their words to each other. There was an unseen, faded ethereal singing in the distance, mingling with their peaceful breaths, as the two struggled to regain their bearings.
"Where are we?" Harper asked the obvious question.
"I'm not sure," Max mumbled half-heartedly, surveying the area for wherever that singing was coming from.
"What do you mean you're not sure? Your spell brought us here!" Harper exclaimed. Her voice didn't seem loud to either of them, but it did cause a flock of green and purple birds to scatter from a nearby tree.
While Harper was fascinated by the birds, which happened to be part purple (her favorite color), she was more interested in wringing Max's neck.
"Cool, I've never seen green birds before. That's my favorite color," Max stated, his attention also in their direction. Harper gripped his chin between her fingers and turned his face towards hers.
"Forget about the birds! You need to figure out how to get us out of here!" Harper told him, but his attention was once again stolen.
In the distance, there was a series of silent explosions in the sky. Fireworks of colors the two had never seen before. Harper was soon engulfed in it, too.
"Or maybe we could stay a little longer," she spoke softly, Max turning to her and smiling, befiore they both went back to watching.
Suddenly, everything around them disappeared, and they stood in blackness. The only thing they could see was each other. Soon enough, they heard another voice, though it was nothing like the singing they'd heard while in that marvelous place.
"Welcome to your Temporary Happy Place, brought to you by the Temporary Happy Place SPELL!" It rang loudly through the darkness that surrounded them. Harper once again clung to Max out of fear, for neither of them could see who the voice belonged to.
"Temporary happy place spell?" Max repeated, clearly confused.
"Correct! The Temporary Happy Place Spell! Performing this spell grants five minutes of euphoric bliss to you and anyone within three feet of you!"
"I....don't understand your words..." Max muttered blankly.
"I certainly hope you've enjoyed your time in your Temporary Happy Place, but your five minutes have expired! You will now be sent back to whatever destitute existence you lived prior to your experience here!"
"Uh..."
"Wait!" Harper piped up.
"Yes, dear girl?!"
"Well, could you explain what just happened?" She asked, her fear waning a bit, but still holding onto Max.
"Why, which part?!"
Harper rolled her eyes at how ridiculous the voice sounded, but since she didn't know who it belonged to, she kept her thoughts to herself.
"Well...all of it. Like, why could we barely hear our own voices?"
"Because of you, dear girl! You're never able to go a day without hearing your parents yell at each other! But in your Temporary Happy Place, there is no yelling! It is not permitted!"
Harper blushed a bit, at having her chaotic home life brought up in front of Max, but she perservered.
"And...the birds?"
"A combination of both your favorite colors!"
"The flowers?"
"You love flowers so much, you manage to incorporate them into your wardrobe quite often!"
"What about the fireworks?"
"The pyromaniac you seem to be uncomfortably attached to!"
Harper glanced at Max, before letting him go, and awkwardly scratching behind her ear.
"I wasn't uncomfortable," Max growled at the voice, prompting a questioning look from Harper.
"Goodbye!"
"Hey, wait!" Harper yelled, but it was no use. The room formerly known as inhabitable slowly melted back into view, broken items and all. Harper staggered a bit, as magic usually did mess with her head.
"What...in the world? Why did you use that spell?" Harper inquired, rounding on Max and placing her hands on her hips.
"I didn't mean to. I don't even remember ever hearing about that spell," he admitted, placing his wand safely in his back pocket. Of course, a wand being anywhere near Max Russo probably shouldn't be deemed 'safe'.
"I'm pretty sure that was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me," Harper decided, forgetting whose fault it was momentarily.
"Yeah, but come on. It was pretty awesome," Max chuckled, nudging her in the arm.
"No it wasn't! It was terrifying!" Harper retorted, relieved that she was now able to use her voice at the volume she intended.
"Oh please...'Maybe we can stay a little longer,'" Max mocked her, even gaining the dreamy eyes to go along with his impression. Harper picked up a stray article of his clothing and smacked him in the arm with it. He clutched his arm, but continued laughing.
"I don't sound like that!" Harper whined, her voice far from the calm, pleasant gentleness it had been just moments earlier. But even she began giggling at his impersonation of her.
"So...can we finish destroying my room now?" Max asked, after the laughter subsided. Harper crinkled her nose and glanced around at everything.
"I'm pretty sure this is enough," she told him, and he nodded reluctantly.
They stood awkwardly there for a moment, unsure of what to do now, before Harper slowly began making her way to the door. She turned around to face him again.
"Well, I guess I'll go see what Alex is up to now," she announced, balancing forward and backward on her heels. Max nodded understandingly, and offered her a lopsided smile, which she returned.
"I don't think we should tell anyone about the spell. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble," she added, and it was quite apparent that she kept talking for no reason other than the fact that she wanted to continue talking with him.
"'Kay," he agreed, nodding in concordance with his words. Harper nodded along with him, again, for no reason other than prolonging their conversation.
But, she finally realized she was out of things to say, so she waved lackadaisically, before turning and walking a bit closer to the door, but again, she stopped short. She glanced back at Max only for a second, before pointing one of her fingers outward, and sticking it through the nearby tambourine that lay destroyed on Max's desk. She turned to look at him again, and laughed a bit harder this time.
"Hey, Harper?" He called her.
"Yeah?" She answered, fully turning back around again.
"Maybe sometime, we could use that spell again?" He suggested, wearing a hopeful expression.
She smirked at him.
"I stand corrected," she replied cheerfully.
"Hmm?" He mumbled.
"That is why I hardly ever talk to you," she said with a giggle, beaming at him playfully to let him know she was joking, before finally turning and bouncing out of the room.
Max couldn't stop smiling, and he couldn't figure out why. He flopped backwards on his messily positioned bed and continued smiling. He lay there for quite a while, but exactly how long, he did not know.
Eventually, he remembered he was supposed to be seeking revenge on Alex. He glanced over at the items Harper had destroyed, and a smirk slowly crept onto his face. He jumped up and grabbed a small box out of his dark closet, before piling in those very items, with a few others for good measure.
Max's attention fell on the tambourine in particular.
"I don't think I'll tell Harper that this actually belongs to Justin..." he said to himself, before heading towards the door. He was still smiling, and he would smile all the way down the stairs to where his brother and sister waited.
A/N: I can't believe that. I wrote that entire story in one sitting. I usually can't do that! I guess I was inspired. This turned out a lot different than I expected. I was just gonna do the garden-variety room smashing stuff, but then a sudden burst of inspiration hit to involve magic somehow, and the Temporary Happy Place SPELL was the outcome. I kinda like it this way, as opposed to what it was gonna be. Hope you enjoyed it as well. Bye!
Ruina