Chapter 1 – You Can't Always Get What You Want
Summary – Ben wants to be open about his relationship with Chad. Chad just wants to survive high school. Cue a high stakes game of political intrigue that ends with probably more kidnapping than it should.
WARNING: Not sure if this will be triggering, but there is a scene where Chad's personal boundaries are violated as a medical necessity. It isn't something he's thrilled about, but he understands the need. See endnotes for more details.
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"So for coronation I was thinking of getting us matching capes," Ben declared, staring down at his notebook (that Chad would read through later) before jotting down some random scribbles. "I know we each have to wear our kingdom's designated formalwear, but since we're going together-"
"Hold up." Chad stilled the earnest and frankly adorable diatribe with one hand, struggling to process the onslaught of information. "Since when are we going to coronation together?"
"Um." Chad struggled not to find Ben's confusion horribly cute. He failed. "Since I told you I loved you?"
"No, Ben," Chad sighed. "You describing your delightful fantasies does not constitute as asking me to coronation."
"Oh." Ben blinked, visually processing this. "Okay. Chad, will you go to-"
"About that." Chad knew they were going to have this conversation sooner or later, he'd just been hoping for 'later'. "I still think you should go with Evie."
And there was the royal pout. "Why?" Ben asked, slowly closing his notebook.
"Because the Isle needs a champion, that's why." Chad was glad he had already formulated this perfectly reasonable argument. "Despite the fact that Mal and the others have been relatively on their best behavior, people are still wary of them. If people see you dating one of them – a princess, no less – that not only solidifies Evie's bid for the Hanover crown-" Which didn't need to be solidified but the older people of Ben's council were stubborn shits. "-but makes them seem more relatable, more trustworthy, and helps us fast track our proposals to get more kids off the Isle."
"And that's the entire reason," Ben said, not really a question. "That's it. You don't have some kind of ulterior motive that you're not sharing with me."
It was a damn shame that they had realized Chad was smart now, and that Chad felt disinclined to lie to his significant others. "Okay, there may be other reasons-"
"Like the fact that you're a guy?" Ben pressed, his face shifting into an unhappy expression that killed Chad's soul. "Or the fact that there's no written record of royal same sex couples? That doesn't have anything to do with it?"
Chad sighed. "Ben, try and be sensible about this."
"No." It was so like Ben to get obstinate when it would be least helpful. "No, I'm not going to apply logic to my feelings. Logic can dictate everything else in my life, but not my relationships. I love you."
"And I love you," Chad said, and it was terrifying how easy it was. "But we have a duty to our people, Ben-"
"And what about all the other same sex couples out there? Why can't they have a champion? Why are we hiding when I want to shout from the rooftops how much I care about you? I mean, if you're really stuck on this Isle thing, I'll just take you and Evie."
"No," Chad snapped before he could compose himself, forcing a few deep breaths at Ben's surprised expression. "Absolutely not, Ben. Do you have any idea what that would do to her? You'd make her a target, or worse, you'd label us both as whores-"
"Could you please stop thinking of the worst possible scenario for everything?" Ben urged. "Chad, I love you. And I'm on my way to loving the others. I want our relationship, big and messy and complicated as it is. There's nothing wrong with what we're doing, and if we don't pave the way, who will?"
"Why don't we pave the way after you're king?" Chad asked. "After Evie is crowned as Queen Snow's heir and the others have their Auradon citizenships solidified? I'm not saying we should deny it forever, I'm saying we should be smart about this. We need to keep them safe." Chad could think of nothing worse than hurting the people he cared about due to his love. "We could have Aunt Snow do an exposé on polygamy – start working it into the popular culture in small ways-"
"We can do that," Ben said, and it was a relief that he would listen to reason, that he would learn. "But, I still want to take you to coronation."
"Ben," Chad groaned. "Look, my grandfather – he's old school." Ben's face settled into that deeply unhappy expression again, because they still didn't really talk about Chad's grandfather, even though he was sure Carlos and Doug may have let spill tales of his abuse. "You may be king soon, but I'm not going to get there until my father steps down, which will keep me under my grandfather's thumb until I'm at least eighteen. Until then, I've got to play by his rules."
"So, what?" Ben's bottom lip was trembling, and Chad was frantic to try and piece together what he'd said that could make that happen. "You're just going to deny what we have for two years because of your grandfather?"
"It's only two years, Ben." Chad realized to Ben's fairytale life that might seem unreasonable, but it was such a quantifiable time to Chad. "After that I get the rest of my life to do whatever I please. And that will involve proclaiming my open love and admiration for your dumb, stubborn face, but I can't do that if I'm locked in a tower 'for my own good'."
"Your grandfather wouldn't do that," Ben said, further proving how little he understood about the Duke. "Come with me to coronation."
"No," Chad said, then left the room, because if he didn't he might do something horrible like change his mind.
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Of course Ben, being the stubborn shit that he was, didn't let the subject drop.
Instead of retreating with any amount of grace, the prince merely waited for a different audience, opting to ambush Chad when he and Evie were designing potential outfits for coronation.
"Evie," Ben exclaimed as he marched into the room, flopping down on her bed. "Tell Chad he has to go to coronation with me, otherwise it will be weird when he goes to cotillion with me."
"Is Chad not going with you to coronation?" Evie asked, ignoring Ben's dramatics. "I thought I was making your capes."
So that was what had started this mess.
"No, Chad is not going with him," Chad snapped. "And I'm not going with you to cotillion either; we talked about this."
"No, you talked about it, and I thought you were dumb," Ben said, blowing off Chad's very justified concerns. "I want you to go to coronation with me; I want you by my side for this important moment. Why wouldn't I fight to have my boyfriend there for me?"
"Um, because when people see me by your side they're not going to think 'Hey, there's Chad Charming – the witty, kind, smart guy' they're going to think 'Wow, Chad must be really good in bed' because there's literally no other reason for you to take me."
"Don't say that," Evie murmured, cupping Chad's face between her hands an pressing an insistent kiss to his lips. "Don't say that about my boyfriend."
"I have to if it's true," Chad replied, willing away his blush. "I've spent a long time developing a reputation as dumb and fairly harmless so I could get shit done – that reputation isn't going to go away overnight."
"Then be vacant and airheaded for coronation and work on improving your rep for cotillion," Ben pressed. "You can drop all the stuff you don't care about and just- be you."
"It's not that easy," Chad groaned. "I still have my grandfather to contend with-"
"This again," Ben sighed.
"Yes, this again." Chad had to force himself to remain calm. "I know you might find it hard to believe Ben, but not everyone has family members that like them. That's just you, the rest of us deal with what we have."
Chad paused when he recognized the stillness that had claimed Evie's shoulders, cursed the misstep because here he was – a prince – complaining about family members, when Evie's mom was literally the Evil Queen.
"Evie, I'm so sorry," he gushed, taking her hands carefully. "I didn't mean-"
"No, you're right." She shook her head. "You're allowed to complain about your family, Chad. You don't have to hold back on my account."
"I'm sorry," he repeated instead of trying to deal with that response. "I just-"
"Does he really not like you?" It was Ben that asked this, seeming so shocked by the possibility that Chad wanted to cry. "I mean- he's your grandfather."
"Yeah, well-" Chad shrugged. "My mother was a commoner. As far as he's concerned, I'm the trash he's stuck with."
"That's…" Ben didn't know what to say.
Chad didn't know why that hurt him. "It is what it is, Ben."
"…maybe we should go for a walk," Evie offered, and then they did just that, pretending it wasn't a strategic retreat to get away from Ben and his pity and broken heart.
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"He's just so frustrating," Chad muttered, fighting not to petulantly kick his feet because that was distinctly not charming or regal. "He lives this magical fantasy life and is surprised when the rest of us have to deal with reality. It's like he thinks I don't want to go with him." When really, that was the thing Chad wanted more than anything else. "I do, I just also don't want to be a target."
"Your grandfather," Evie cut in, her arm hooked through his elbow so that they presented the perfect picture of royalty as they strolled the grounds. "How much of an issue is he? I know he controls your food intake, but everything else…"
"He controls everything he can because he doesn't trust me." Chad tried not to be bitter about this because it was just another fact of life, but he couldn't hide the entirety of his anger. "He thinks I'm a second away from ruining Sardinia's future. He tried to get my father to remarry after my mother's death but it wouldn't take – though if he had he would have pushed for any of the children from that union to act as heir in my place."
Evie frowned. "But you'd be the oldest."
"Yes, but they would have had noble mothers which, as far as my grandfather's concerned, would make them much more suitable to inherit the crown." Chad shook his head, forcing his expression into bored amusement. "It doesn't matter. My father didn't remarry so he's stuck with me."
"And he controls your fate for at least another two years."
"Unfortunately," Chad sighed. "After that, he can't blame my age for 'poor decisions', he'd have to declare me mentally incompetent and that would be too much of an embarrassment for him. He might hate me but I'm still his blood, however little I look it."
Evie gave a noncommittal hum, though her fingers seemed to tighten against his arm. "Then I suppose there's nothing left to do but wait."
"Tell Ben that," Chad groused. "We just need him to realize he can't always get what he wants, and that taking you or Mal to coronation would be a great step for the Isle kids."
"We'll think of something," Evie said, and Chad desperately hoped she was right.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"-I understand your concerns," Ben was saying, had been saying, though if he really understood them he wouldn't keep bringing this up. "But your grandfather can't punish you for accepting an invitation from the crown prince."
"Yes, he can." For once, this was not issued from Chad, but from Carlos of all people, who broke his silence with a furious look. "Ben, if Chad says it's no good, it's no good."
"Carlos-"
"No, Ben." The young De Ville was on his feet now, earning concerned looks from Evie and Jay. "You weren't there after the football game."
Chad felt his stomach drop like a stone. "Carlos-"
"No." This seemed even more furious. "You weren't there when Chad was beaten so hard he could barely walk – so hard that Aziz and Lonnie had to sneak him to some clinic-"
"Chad." It was Ben's turn to look crushed, the air in the room painfully still. "Is that… did that happen? When we thought you were sick?"
Chad fought very hard to maintain his composure. "Sometimes negative reinforcement is necessary-"
"It's abuse," Doug snapped. "It's abuse and you covered for him-"
"Because he has far more power than anyone in this room, Ben included," Chad shot back. "We talked about this."
"Is this a regular thing?" Mal asked, shifting to her feet.
"He rarely exerts the effort," Chad replied, because that was true.
"That's not an answer."
"He's always been like this." Chad didn't have any other way to explain it. "My father stopped interacting with me when my mom died so my grandfather took over to make sure I'd be the leader Sardinia needed. Unfortunately, we don't see eye-to-eye on… a lot of things." Far too many things. "It's one of the reasons I created a dumb persona in the first place, because I can be charming, just not more charming than my dad. I have to be the best, but I can't be better."
"That's ridiculous," Doug muttered.
"Well, that's my life," Chad snapped. "It is a constant balancing act and if you think for a second that I don't want to go with you to coronation, that every fiber of my being isn't begging for the opportunity, you are wrong. I want to, Ben. I just can't."
"…he'd hurt you, because of this," Ben said quietly, the tension in the room somehow managing to increase. "Hurt you because of us."
"He'd find other reasons to hurt me, Ben." Chad had learned that through hard experience. "It will always be something; this is just one of the things that can affect you too."
"This is fucking stupid," Jay snarled, though it seemed mostly to himself.
"We can't let this keep happening," Evie pressed, trying to be the voice of reason. "Your father-"
"Has been suffering from severe depression since my mother died," Chad admitted, hated saying the words out loud even though he knew they were true. "He functions enough to carry the kingdom, but he can't do much more than that." His hands curled into tight fists against his knees. "My grandfather won't let him, and every time I try to get him treatment-"
Punishments and interceptions at every turn.
He released a shaky sigh. "I don't have the power to do what I need yet. I started collecting evidence against my grandfather, but it's hard to keep things from him. Hard to do it and stay safe."
He controlled – everything. Everything Chad tried to touch, tried to claim as his own.
"… you were alone before," Ben began suddenly, eyes wet and voice sounding close to shaky. "You've been fighting him alone but you've got us now."
"I can't-" Panic laced through Chad's chest. "I can't risk you for my problems. Any of you. The Duke hasn't pushed me past my breaking point because he needs me, but anyone else could be a casualty. He wouldn't care, Ben. You have to understand that."
"I understand that this old fucker needs to be taken care of," Mal muttered, eyes shining a furious shade of green. "You're mine – I claimed you. We claimed you, and if he wants to hurt what's ours, he's got another thing coming."
"Mal, please." Chad could feel the desperation edging at the corners of his mind. "You don't know who you're dealing with. I've spent years maneuvering around him-"
"And you were a child," Doug said, a seemingly harmless note that cut more effectively than any barb. "This isn't right, Chad. If you've got evidence, we need to take it to the council."
"They have no reason to believe me," Chad said. "Me, specifically-"
"Queen Snow will believe you." Doug didn't doubt this, but mostly it was because he was right. "Sultana Jasmine will believe you. General Fa will believe you. Ben is already on your side, if we talk to Fairy Godmother, start briefing the other prominent council members-"
"I've been doing that," Chad pressed. "But it takes time, and my grandfather controls where I go."
"That's why you've got to let us help you," Evie said, like it was simple. "We can do the groundwork for you; you just have to trust us."
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't trust you." That went without question. "But please, you don't understand the fight you're getting into. Nothing about it will be easy and you will all be at risk."
Mal tossed her hair as though he hadn't basically outlined the need for a political coupe. "Sounds like fun."
And apparently, that was that.
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The fun thing about fighting a monster was that a monster did not play by your rules.
It reviewed them for the sake of entertainment, sneered at their restrictiveness, then completely batted the concepts aside before enforcing rules of their own, terraforming the playing field into something that allowed them the greatest advantage.
In real terms, that meant this:
Chad had been stupid. He'd been naïve to think that the Duke wouldn't have some kind of eye on the people Chad had started publicly hanging out with on a regular basis. Chad had been absent from a new school function for them, had stolen a weekend with the crown prince – of course the Duke had noticed that. Of course the Duke had kept a close eye on their actions. Of course the Duke had bid his time, waiting for Chad to slip up, then pounced the moment things might be slightly inconvenient for him, because that was what he did. He took care of problems before they could actually become problems.
For Chad, that meant he fell asleep one night in the dorm room he shared with Doug and woke up the next day groggy and disoriented, and also not in his dorm room. No, he knew this place from his grandfather's threats – the secret attic tower storage space that had been wiped from any ground plan of Sardinia Castle. It had no windows, only smooth stone walls and yet, Chad did not doubt for a second where he was.
To add insult to injury, Chad wasn't even strapped to his bed. He had been deposited on the lumpy thing, stripped of his normal clothes and clad in a thin hospital gown. Turning his head was a monumental effort, but he managed it if only to avoid the glare from the bright ceiling lights.
It brought him face-to-face with his grandfather, who reclined in a rickety looking chair next to Chad as though it was a throne.
"You truly are a nuisance, Chadwick," the Duke said, upon seeing he had Chad's attention. "Thankfully, your new 'friends' are less-so, at least without you to spur them on."
"D-don't…" Chad gasped, each movement a struggle as he fought to control his mouth. He was definitely drugged. "Don't… hurt-"
"I have no care for who that daft prince warms his bed with," the Duke said with a dismissive scoff. "Though I'm not surprised you found a way to worm yourself in there. You were always good at getting what you wanted."
Chad tried to form some kind of protest, but even just breathing seemed difficult to manage.
"As you can imagine," the Duke continued. "I have been waiting for an opportunity to pull you from the public eye for quite a while. I'm grateful that you provided me sufficient motivation to do so, it was very thoughtful of you." Of course he considered it thoughtful, he was a monster. "I will keep this brief," he said. "Officially, you have returned to Sardinia to brush up on your private studies. You will remain here until Prince Benjamin calls off his farce of an investigation. Actually…" His fingers tapped a random pattern against the top of his cane. "I suppose I shall keep you here until Cotillion, to ensure you do not embarrass the name of Sardinia further."
Panic spiked in Chad's chest. That would be six months. His grandfather wanted to keep him trapped for six months.
"You'll notice that your motor functions are not as responsive as usual," his grandfather continued, careless of Chad's growing panic. "That is because you've been dosed by a rare potion I bought off the black market, the effects of which can only be reversed by a very specific antidote that only I possess." He seemed very smug when he said this, though Chad supposed it was his due, at this point. "You will behave, Chadwick," his grandfather said, gaze narrowed with hatred. "Or you will be a cripple for the rest of your life."
With that, he pushed himself up out of the chair, making bold strides towards the trap door that would take him into the castle below. "I have assigned two servants to look after you, but other than that, you will be alone, as you should be."
He left before Chad could try to get a word in edgewise, though Chad understood why.
The Duke had won. Chad had tried to fight against him and gotten handicapped and locked away for his troubles. And what was worse, the others might begin to blame themselves, might be going out of their minds with panic because they didn't know where Chad was.
Chad had never felt so frustratingly useless before, but he supposed that was the point. The Duke didn't want him to feel in control, because Chad wasn't in control. He had lost.
He could only hope that the others would find him soon.
Assuming they found him at all.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Chad's days became a relentless cycle of monotony, frustration, and his basic privacy being regularly violated.
His grandfather had not been lying about Chad's handicapped status. He hadn't been tied to his bed because he didn't have the energy to leave his bed, but what was worse, he couldn't really feel his body either. Most sensation had been stolen away with the poison, until he seemed buoyed in a state of constant numbness.
The two servants that had been assigned to him were a male nurse and a female servant. The nurse was the one who had equipped Chad with a catheter he couldn't feel. He was the one who gave Chad the occasional sponge bath or manipulated his limbs so his muscles would not atrophy before the Duke felt like releasing Chad.
The maid was in charge of trading out Chad's medical gown, in charge of feeding him and brushing his hair in quick, efficient movements that offered no comfort.
It was uncomfortable, and yet Chad found himself yearning for their presence, because when they weren't there he was alone, useless and unoccupied for hours on end. He had no way of telling the passage of time aside from the three meals he received a day, and the Duke could very well have ordered the servants to fuck with Chad's internal clock by manipulating the hours between those meals, because he was a petty man like that.
With each potential day that passed, Chad grew to hate himself more, grew more worried for his partners. He hoped they weren't beating themselves up over this. He hoped they didn't think he was dead. He hoped-
He hoped he'd get to see them again one day, but he had a feeling he wouldn't.
Good things rarely stayed in Chad's corner, after all.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Time passed… horribly. Slowly.
Chad tried to keep himself occupied, running through the different alphabets for the languages he knew, reviewing the non-restricted mystic arts in his arsenal. He mused over thought experiments and math equations, public policies he wanted to adapt and improve.
He tried to keep his thoughts clinical, but he couldn't help but think of the others. Think about what Ben was doing, how Doug fared. He worried about the transfer students, hoped that Mal and Jay's tempers stayed in check. Chad wondered if his grandfather had forged a note in Chad's handwriting to explain his absence, or if the Duke had been up front about his blackmail.
Chad tried to focus on easier things, like the sound of Mal's laugh and Evie's smile, Jay's need to win and Carlos' ingenuity. He thought about Doug's stubbornness and Ben's goofiness. He held onto that.
It was all he could do.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Chad suspected that maybe two months had passed before things changed.
In sort of an explosive way.
One moment he'd been asleep (he slept a lot, nowadays) and the next the trapdoor had exploded upwards, followed by a haze of movement that he was pretty sure was a hallucination, because Aziz and Lonnie wouldn't have been stupid enough to sneak into his castle for a rescue mission when Sardinia proper was a clusterfuck of political red tape.
And yet, it wasn't an illusion when Chad was getting loaded onto a magic carpet, when Lonnie urged him to go back to sleep-
So he did.
It wasn't like he could do much else.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Endnotes:
I won't lie, I had grand intentions of this being longer than it is. I tend to write my stories out of order, so I had plans for a drawn-out investigation and slowly rising tension before Chad got kidnapped, but man did my inspiration crap out on me. The rest of the story was mostly there, so that was why we ended up with the expedited evil Duke doing evil things you can all come to expect from me ;P
Also, the Duke knows Chad is just, the most persistent little shit in the world, so if he has to keep him hostage you better believe he was going to be drugged, or else there was a huge chance of Chad escaping on his own.
As always, if you feel like I missed a tag, for this chapter or any others, please let me know. I prefer to ere on the side of caution, and while I do my best to catch this stuff myself, sometimes I've been staring at a story so long that the details fade out on me :)
For those of you who haven't read the previous story, Sardinia is the name I came up for Chad's kingdom. Its cannon name is 'Cinderellasburg' which- yeah, just doesn't sound like a real country, so I improvised.
WARNING – If you want to skip the scene in reference, it starts with 'Chad's days became a relentless cycle of monotony…'. It's a short scene, sets the stage more than anything else.
Until next time ^_^