Your lengthy, amazing reviews yesterday sort of made my birthday complete. So here's another chapter right away! Yay! (Just keep in mind, this took forever to write which MEANS I'm still working on Chapter 22, so that'll take a while.)

-M.R.

XXI. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

UNDER OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES NAVEEN WOULD have been overjoyed to wake up in the middle of blaring jazz and bright lights.

But—no time for grogginess—as he sprang up and pressed his eye to the keyhole again, Naveen realized things had only gotten worse.

True, all he could see was the back of a red, ermine-trimmed cape (his, technically, worn by Laurence) and part of a wide pink skirt (undeniably Miss La Bouff's), but Naveen could also hear, over the lights and music which clued him in to being in the middle of the Mardi Gras parade, the words: "If any of you objects to the union of these two people, speak now or forever hold your peace."

"ME!" yelled Naveen, all but thrusting his lips out of the keyhole. "ME! I OBJECT!" At least, that was what he'd planned on saying; over the roar of approval from the crowd, he could barely hear himself.

"Do you, Prince Naveen…"

On the whim of a moment, he sent his tongue flying out of the hole; it found the wooden floor and Naveen gained an inch or two. If he could just get closer to Laurence—well, he'd figure out what to do once he got there. Closer…closer…

"…as long as you both shall live?"

"Cap!"

Naveen couldn't see Ray, but he could have sworn that was his voice. Who else would call him "Cap"? "R—"

A crushing weight descended on Naveen's tongue. Howling wordlessly, he reeled back, as Laurence replaced his foot on the ground, waved something away from his face, and stammered, "What? Oh—I do! Yes, I'm for it!"

Despite his bruised tongue, Naveen muttered some extremely uncomplimentary (and garbled) things in the direction of his evil butler.

"Who—what—" Naveen's view was suddenly obscured, but he'd never felt more relieved in his life; it was Ray, after all. "Is that you, Cap?"

"Do you, Charlotte La Bouff…"

"Way!" bellowed Naveen. "Geh 'ee ow dith box!"

"I can't hear you!" Ray bellowed back. "I'm gonna get you out this box!"

"Oh, I do!" cooed Charlotte La Bouff.

Naveen cringed. "Ray, hurry!"

Despite Ray's "big back porch," he wiggled through the keyhole with ease.

"Ray, how did you find me?" asked Naveen, a little weak with relief (and all of his exertions since his faint, earlier), as the bug worked. "Dr. Facilier said only two people in the world could even see this box, and—"

His brow furrowed in concentration, Ray nevertheless had time for a little chuckle. "Cap, I ain't a person."

Ray dismantled the mechanism in no time. Naveen flung the box open and, crouching as low as his frog legs would go, flung himself at Laurence's neck.

"…pronounce you man…and…"

The plan, of course, was to rip the voodoo amulet from around Laurence's neck—and expose him for the fraud he was in front of everybody. Instead, Laurence's limp shock and Naveen's strength and momentum combined to send them both tumbling off of the float on which the wedding had been so far conducted. It was shaped, Naveen noticed, like a giant wedding cake.

Naveen would have thought that even a pink-loving rich girl would've had better taste.

No matter. His plan hadn't worked. The fall hadn't even crushed the amulet. But the wedding was still brought to a screeching halt.

"Goodness gracious! Are you all right!" called Miss La Bouff.

"I just need a moment to compose myself!" Laurence yelled back, dashing with Naveen in his fist into the nearest building and slamming the door.

"Laurence!" Naveen was finally able to ask, his voice echoing off of the cathedral's walls, "why are you doing this?"

Laurence glared down at his former master with a look of hatred so intense, Naveen hoped it'd never appear on his (own) face again. "As payback," he spat, "for all those years of…humiliation."

Before Naveen could respond—and really, what could he have said to that?—Facilier appeared from nowhere and barked, "Get your royal rump back on that wedding cake and finish this deal!"

Naveen saw Ray slip under the corner of the church door and knew what to do. While Laurence was distracted, Naveen took a big gulp of breath and swelled his throat, loosening Laurence's hold. He took a firmer grip, this time, on the amulet as he simultaneously clasped it and propelled his feet off of Laurence's chest.

"What's he doing? Stop him!" directed Facilier.

This time, the cord broke and Naveen flung the charm towards Ray, who caught it. Naveen made as if to follow after, but Laurence—now his old (literally), gray, and paunchy self again—caught and squeezed Naveen until he felt like his eyes would pop out and roll across the stone floor. He could only watch, worried, as Ray fell like a stone under its weight, but popped back up again and dragged the charm stubbornly towards and under the heavy wooden door.

"Let go of that!" Laurence cried, belatedly realizing what Naveen had done and making a rush for the doors.

"Stay out of sight," snapped Facilier, shoving Laurence—and Naveen—back up the church's aisle. The shadow man flung the doors open, gave a short, sharp whistle, and was gone, slamming the door behind him again. Silence ensued.

.:..:..:.

"I am sorry."

Laurence stared at Naveen like he couldn't believe his ears. Naveen almost couldn't believe his own mouth, but there was no way to un-say it; he pushed onwards.

"It was very selfish of me. The way I treated you, I mean," he hurried to explain, not meeting his onetime butler's eyes. "I wanted—I guess everybody just…wants to have a fun life, and you were always trying to get in the way and stop me—but I should not have treated you like you were not there, or like a clothes rack to put my luggage on. I mean—luggage does not go on a clothes rack—" he glanced at Laurence, who was glaring at Naveen worse than he had earlier.

"It would have been one thing," hissed Laurence, "if you had been abusive. But you ignored me too much even for that; it was another matter entirely. YOU cannot understand. You've always had to be the center of attention everywhere you went—everywhere I had to FOLLOW you! selfish, vain fool! You cannot IMAGINE what it is to be ignored, and to be made a fool of in the intervening time."

"No," Naveen agreed simply. "I cannot."

The two men (well, one man and one enchanted frog) regarded each other mutely. Their faces, respectively, were humble and inscrutable. Consequently, Naveen—somewhat shamed by the realization that he'd never spoken this frankly with, nor paid as much attention to, Laurence, before—found it hard to break the silence a second time. How could he say anything, when he couldn't tell from Laurence's expression what effect it would have?

"Look. I may not be able to know what I have put you through, but I am sure you can guess what I have experienced in three days as a frog in the bayou," sighed Naveen. "I do not know how my ignoring you has changed you, either, but what I do know is that I am a very different ma—fro—man than I was when we came here. Achidanza! I've fallen in love, after all! And," Naveen continued, suppressing his triumph as Laurence's face twitched in surprise, "I did apologize to you a minute ago. I think that makes the second time in my life I have ever apologized because I wanted to.

"I guess it's very obvious that you don't want to work for me any more—I would not want to work for the old me anymore, either—and I am sure you don't want to be friends with me," Naveen concluded regretfully, choosing his words with caution. "But I hope that—well, that you will stop pretending to be me, and you will not try to kill me, or anything—and that we can be on good terms if not friendly ones."

Naveen tried to extend a webbed hand to Laurence to shake. But the older man's grip didn't loosen.

"I don't believe you," Laurence replied coldly. "Three days could never eradicate a lifetime of dissipation and cruel nonchalance. Besides, Naveen, do you really think it's enough for me to be your ex-butler? Never have to clean up after you again? Once, that would have been enough. But once I finally marry Miss La Bouff in your stead, I'll possess half of her fortune AND have Dr. Facilier's powers at my right hand!"

"You are the fool!" Naveen cried, exasperated. "I would bet you my—my transforming back into a man—that Facilier only serves one man, and that man is not you!"

Doubt visibly flickered across Laurence's face.

But just as Naveen was about to name Facilier a self-serving man, they were distracted by pounding on the door, accompanied by a muffled voice.

"Prince! Prince Naveen! Your shy and retiring bride-to-be is getting—antsy!" On the last word, the doors flew open to frame a furious-looking Charlotte La Bouff.

Clearly Laurence, who'd had his back to the door, had somehow forgotten he no longer looked like Naveen. "Oh!" he gasped, smiling and turning (and hiding Naveen behind his back) to face his bride. "Hello, darling!"

The reaction was instantaneous. Charlotte screamed, Laurence screamed and threw his hands in the air and ran; and Naveen, flung into midair by Laurence's gesture, landed in a small shell-shaped basin of water on a little table by the door.

"Miss la Bouff!" he spluttered. "Please, down here! Allow me to introduce myself: I am the REAL Prince Naveen—"

A second later, Naveen wished he'd stayed in the water font; he was currently splayed out, quite flat, on the wood of the table—lain low once more by a heavy book. "—of Maldonia," he groaned.

Fortunately, Charlotte La Bouff's second reaction was kinder than (he thought with a pang) Tiana's had been. "Did you say 'prince'?" she fluttered, picking him up, plopping down on the church step like a little girl about to hear a story, and placing him gently in front of her. "If you're really Prince Naveen, then how in tarnation did you end up as a frog?"

"It's a long story." Naveen glanced at the cathedral clock; it was a quarter to midnight, and he rushed to explain. "I was cursed by Doctor Facilier so that he could disguise my butler, Laurence, as me—that was that old man who ran out of the church—and marry you, take your fortune, and kill your father." He took her huge eyes as a sign of her absorption—and hopefully, belief—and hurried on: "So I remembered the plot of The Frog Prince—"

"Ooh! That's my favorite story!"

"I'm sure it is, Miss la Bouff. Anyways, I convinced Tiana to—"

"Tiana!" Whatever her faults, it was obvious Charlotte cared greatly for her friend. Her eyes got even bigger at the name. "Her mama came over the other day to tell Big Daddy and me that she'd disappeared! We've been looking for her everywhere and—OH!" Naveen feared if Charlotte's eyes got any huger they'd fall out. She looked like something had clicked. "Do you know where she is now?"

"In a minute, Miss La Bouff!" As if there was even a minute to spare, now, thought Naveen irritably—it was ten to midnight now. "Tiana kissed me, but it—ah—backfired, to say the least. But since you're Princess of Mardi Gras, if you kiss me before midnight—"

"Great balls of fire!" exclaimed Charlotte. "You'll turn into a prince, won't you? It's like I'm in my favorite fairy tale!"

"YES!" Naveen applauded, flinging himself into a princely, kneeling position. "PLEASE KISS ME NOW!"

He wasn't excited, just desperate. Only five minutes were left.

Charlotte fanned herself with her hand, as Naveen watched Laurence being arrested behind her. "Goodness gracious, this is so much to absorb! Let me see if I got this right: If I kiss you before midnight, you'll turn human again?"

Naveen's knee began to ache. He looked at the clock again—three minutes to midnight—and sighed as Charlotte continued, "And then we're gonna get ourselves married and live happily ever after, the end?"

Naveen sighed again. "Yeah," he agreed, "more or less. But you must give Tiana all the money she requires for her restaurant—"

"She's always refused it before—"

"Well, force her! Because Tiana…" he hesitated. Charlotte had a right to know—"She is my Evangeline."

—even if she didn't understand.

Which she didn't. "Anything you want, sugar!" Applying a new coat of lipstick, Charlotte beamed down at Naveen. "Pucker up, buttercup!"

Naveen tried his best. Really, he did. But it wasn't much of a pucker. Especially when he heard someone cry out, "Wait!"

"Tiana?" he exclaimed, twisting away from Charlotte, and "Tiana?" echoed the latter. Faldi faldonza,he'd forgotten to tell Charlotte that Tiana was a frog now, too.

And it really was Tiana, hopping up to Naveen. "Don't do this," she pleaded.

Naveen looked at Tiana like she was crazy. Which was not a happy thought. "I have to do this!" he reminded her. "And we are running out of time!"

"I won't let you!" Tiana protested, grabbing Naveen's arm like she was stronger than him.

"Tiana, stop making this harder than—" Naveen broke off, clenching his fists. "It's the only way to get you your dream!"

"My dream…?" echoed Tiana dazedly, as he shook her off and turned his back on the frog he loved, heading back towards Charlotte. Did Tiana really think he was going to kiss and marry Charlotte because he wanted to?

"My dream wouldn't be complete…without you in it."

Naveen stopped walking.

He just stood there for a second.

Then he turned around and stared at Tiana.

Had she actually said that? Naveen had never had much of an imagination, but he couldn't blame it for coming up with something like that.

But Tiana, who was looking at him with that same soft look he'd seen the other day, smiled and shrugged. "I love you, Naveen."

This time he'd actually seen the words come out of her mouth. In another second he was beside her. "Warts and all?" he breathed, taking her hands.

Tiana dimpled and squeezed his fingers, resting her forehead against his. "Warts and all."

They might have stood that way forever, but Naveen heard sniffles behind him and cringed. Just because he was used to dealing with women scorned—those which Hell hath no fury like—didn't mean he ever enjoyed it.

But "All my life," said Charlotte, "I've read about True Love in fairytales—and, Tia, you found it!" She wiped away another happy tear and held out a hand to Naveen. "I'll kiss him—for you, honey—no marriage required!"

Climbing into Charlotte's hands, Naveen puckered up, buttercup, with gusto this time. He knew Tiana wouldn't mind.

The clock struck midnight, and Naveen and Charlotte opened their eyes wide and looked at each other, horrified.

"Oh, my word! Uh—maybe that ol' clock's just a little fast!" Charlotte cried, covering Naveen in kisses.

Naveen, who was still small and green enough for Charlotte to hold, shrugged at her. It was no use.

This time, Charlotte's tears weren't happy. "I'm so sorry!" she cried.

"It's all right, Lotte, honey!" Tiana exclaimed (Naveen was busy rubbing lipstick off of his face). "We'll be frogs together. Everything's gonna be just—"

"Tiana! Naveen!"

"…fine," finished Tiana weakly as the two frogs, forgetting Charlotte, hopped down the street to meet the running alligator.

"Louis?" Naveen asked, more unsettled than he cared to admit by the look on his friend's face. "What is it?"

Louis lowered his cupped claws to the pavement. "Shadow man done laid poor Ray low," he moaned, ignoring the cry that came from Tiana and went through Naveen like he was hearing the bad news a second time. "He's hurting awful bad."

Prone on a discarded Mardi Gras feather, Ray's bulbous abdomen was crushed and he breathed unevenly, but he seemed so peaceful as his eyelids fluttered open and he looked at them. Tiana reached out a finger and gently stroked his forehead.

"Hey, chèrie," sighed Ray. "How come you're…still…?"

"We're staying frogs, Ray," Tiana told him.

"And," added Naveen, squeezing Tiana's hand as she squeezed her eyes shut as though trying to make tears go away, "we are staying together."

"Oh, très bien." Ray's face lit up a little in a semblance of his old smile. "I…like that…very much. Evangeline…like that, too."

Tiana was squeezing both of Naveen's hands hard by now. In addition to his own sadness, Naveen felt like he was feeling Tiana's, too: She and Ray had gravitated towards one another as friends just like Naveen and Louis had done.

Naveen couldn't have said exactly when Tiana started crying so hard because the rain came pouring down.

Evangeline was still reflected in Ray's eyes when they turned glassy and remote.

Next: HOME, in which Tiana and Naveen have some time to themselves for once.