AN: Hello all, I am back with another update. This is chapter two of the Hush little baby arc.
As always, I would like to thank everyone who has followed, faved, viewed this story. I hope I am keeping everyone entertained.
The reviews keep me motivated, and I love hearing from you guys.
Sonisun: I am happy that you enjoyed it, and look another update.
Jewel Princess1992: I am glad to see you're enjoying the story, lol. And I updated when I said I would.
Biankies: Well I suppose I won't make you wait too long to find out. Enjoy!
Guest: Read on and find out. I think this Chapter addressed most of your questions.
Melancholy's Sunshine: So much to think about, hmm. And Hey, you've seen my authors notes, lol, so ramble away. Who am I to judge.
squishy the human: Glad you liked the chapter! Tada new one.
*!Chapter order has been fixed. All the story arcs are now together! Hopefully this will make the story easier to read, lol!
Anyway, on to the story, so that means….
Disclaimer: Descendants is soooo not mine.
Carlos waited for the people to run past his hiding spot, before he dared to move. He knew they would assume he ran, it's what little kids did when they were scared. But Carlos knew he was smarter than other little kids, so he picked a spot close to the door he had run out of. He crawled out from behind the chair in that sat just outside the door.
As he stood he realized how much he hurt. He must have done something bad. Mommy must have punished him, but he did not remember being bad. He wanted to cry as he forced himself to walk, everything hurt…. He must have been really bad, and then there was the dog. Dogs eat little boys who don't behave, did she send him to these people? Where they going to let the dog eat him?
He felt the tears fall at the thought, but mommy gets mad when he cries, she locks him in the closet. The thoughts only made him cry harder.
He didn't know where he was, he hurt, and there were dogs here. He wanted to go home, to his spot on the floor. He would be good, he would clean and be quiet, and mommy would leave him alone and he would be okay.
He sniffled and kept walking down the hall until he heard voices coming from in front of him. He stopped and looked for a place to hide, but there was no place to hide. Maybe he could go the other way.
Carlos turned and headed the other direction, until he heard a bark. He stopped short as the sound got closer, no longer caring about the voices he ran back the way he had been going. But the barking was getting closer, tears started again as he ran.
There was a dog, and dogs eat little boys who don't behave. He hurt, so he must have misbehaved. The dog was going to eat him.
Carlos ran until he ran into something that sent him sprawling onto his back. He let out a cry as he landed, he was already in pain, and the fall just made it worse. He sat there, crying and sniffling trying to get the tears to stop. If momma came in and saw him crying she would get mad, if she was here. But, Carlos did not know where here was.
The former king stared down at the little white haired boy at his feet. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the boy from the island, and he was crying.
The boy was curled up and shaking. So Adam knelt slowly next to the trembling child, as he was silently wishing he and Belle had searched for the boy together instead of going in different directions. Once he was closer to the child he tried to take stock of the situation. It appeared that the child was not yet aware of his presence, and for the moment he was kind of relieved. At this distance he could see the tensed way the child was holding himself making it clear, the older man that the boy was in some sort of pain. He could also see sweat mingling with the tears, he neared his hand to the boy and felt heat radiating of his tiny form before he even came into contact with skin.
The former king, frowned, this is why he had tried to stay away from magic the repercussions that went along with it held too many variables and side effects. Whether a spell or potion, the heat, the pain, and who knows what else were bi-products of its use. Magic at times was simply too unpredictable. So, now poor little Carlos was suffering because of it.
A quiet whimper brought him out of his thoughts, so the former king looked down and realized his presence had finally been noticed. Sighing inwardly, Adam tried his best to be as unintimidating as possible. So, he smile gently down at the little boy and slowly moved his hand to wipe sweaty bangs away from the child's face. He had to force the smile to stay in place first as the child tensed at his touch, and then as he saw confusion in those big brown eyes as his hand remained gentle.
"Hello there, my name is Adam." He introduced himself purposefully avoiding King Beast in case it was more that Carlos's body that changed.
The boy still looked confused so the former king pressed on.
"Can you tell me your name?"
The little boy seemed to cower the longer Adam's attention was on him, but the former king pressed on.
"Hey, it's okay. I only want to help you. It looks like you're not feeling very well." He gently touched the boy's face and ran a thumb under his eyes to wipe away tears.
"Hey, if you tell me your name maybe I could call someone for you, hmm, maybe your parents…."
"No!" the tenseness that had started to vanish from Carlos's small frame returned with a vengeance as he interrupted, the former king.
"No, please don't call mommy, she'll be mad…..She… sh..."
Adam was stunned into silence as he saw the little boy start to panic, he was far too young to be this afraid of his mother. However, when the little boy started taking in heaving rapid breaths the former king went into action.
"Okay, buddy I promise I will not call your mom." It was an easy promise he had never intended to call the woman in the first place, he had only meant to calm the kid down and that had backfired splendidly.
The tension in Carlos's little body slowly started to relax and the boy nodded.
"Can you tell me your name, I can't keep calling you buddy all the time." He really needed the kid to tell him, it was clear to the former king that the boy was mentally the same age as he now was physically. If they were too familiar with the kid it would likely scare him and that was the last thing he wanted.
"Carlos." It was almost too quiet for the former King to hear, but he caught it none the less.
"Nice to meet you Carlos. How old are you, buddy?" The little boy was scooting closer to the former king who at some point had sat down next to the little boy.
The little boy timidly held up three fingers. The former king smiled at the gesture as he recalled his own son doing the same when he was feeling shy.
"Wow, three whole years old, you are such a big boy" The former king's smile only widened as the boy preened shyly at the praise.
Before he could ask anything else a bark sounded from the other side of the hall. Recognizing Dude the former king stood to greet whoever the dog was with. However, he looked down when he felt a small hand tug at his pant leg. Dude barked again and Carlos let a small cry.
Dude rounded the corner and froze, but the former king could see his tail wagging happily as he spotted the smaller version of the boy he had grown close to. The little boy froze as well, but terror was the only emotion that could be seen on his face.
As Dude started to step toward Carlos the little looked up at the former king eyes pleading and little hand hesitantly making grabby motion, universal toddler for pick me up. The former king did not hesitate to comply.
Carlos clung to the former king's neck as he stared warily down at Dude, who was now whining as he walked around the kings legs.
The former king looked up to see his son rounding the corner. He smiled as he saw the relieved look in his son's eyes.
"Carlos." The little boy looked up away from the Dude when he heard the former king address him.
"This is my son, Ben." The little boy looked over to Ben only to hide his face in the former king's shoulder.
The former king then waved his son over.
"Ben, this is my little buddy, Carlos." The former king watched with amusement as the little boy shyly peeked up from where he had chosen to hide.
"Hey, Carlos. My friends and I have been looking for you."
The former king felt the little boy tense up and Ben saw the fear in those big brown eyes.
"You see my friend, Jay found you earlier. You looked like you weren't feeling to well, so he brought you to me so we could get you some help." Ben continued hoping to put the little boy at ease. It worked to an extent because fear seemed to leave his eyes as he realized that they, probably, weren't going to hurt him.
"It looks like you still don't feel well, can you tell us what's wrong, buddy. It would make it easier to help if we knew how you felt."
The former king tried to coax words from the little boy. For a moment he figured the boy would remain silent, but he looked down and saw the boy chewing his bottom lip thoughtfully. He looked up at Ben, and both remained patiently silent.
" 'm really warm." Was the answer they received.
The former king nodded he could feel that much for himself.
"Anything else" Ben prompted, and the former king saw him typing on his phone, he assumed letting the others know what was going on.
"Hurt." This answer was a little teary.
The former King looked once again to the boy and saw a grimace on his face, tears were starting to flow steadily from Carlos's eyes.
"Where does it hurt, buddy?" He asked urgently.
The little boy sniffled "Everywhere." He then answered with a sob.
The sobs were heartbreaking, but what bothered the former king was the fact that the little boy did not seek out comfort. Sure his head was on his shoulder, but instead of clutching the front of Adam's shirt and arms hugging around his neck, the little boy was clutching at the front of the oversized shirt that was threating to fall off his own shoulders. Sure Carlos did not know him, but Carlos was three and generally, at least in his experience, they sought out comfort from whoever was available.
Carlos was clearly hurting and the former King wanted to show him that it was ok to reach out, so he brought the boy closer and gently rubbed soothing circles onto his back. After a few moments, he could feel hands tentatively curl into the front of his shirt.
With a small smile the former king started to rock the boy in his arms, and was rewarded by the boy's sobs stopping and eventually the feeling of deep even breaths against his neck.
"He went to sleep." He whispered to his son.
"Where should I tell the others to meet us?"
"The nurse's office, he is in pain we need to figure out what's going on."
It bothered the former king to see Carlos in so much pain, physical and otherwise. This type of situation was exactly why he avoided magic.
AN: Well that is the end of chapter 2 of this story arc, chapter 3 should be up next week.
Feel free to message me a request if you would like, and hey reviews are cool if you feel like leaving them, I love hearing from you guys!
Oh! Before I forget, this story is being translated into Spanish. The wonderful valeoreo10 from wattpad contacted me and asked for permission to do so. So you guys can go check it out there, and here once it is posted.
So if you guys want check it out now go to La tinta de una Flor, valeoreo10 on wattpad the story is "Blanco y Negro: el cuidado y mantenimiento de Carlos De Vil", obviously, lol. The first chapter is up! Updates on Saturday.
As soon as the translated version is on here I'll let you guys know.
Anyway, until next chapter
~ Light's Lady