Chapter 9 – Somewhere Warm and Sunny
WARNING – Non-graphic nightmare in scene 8 (final scene). See endnotes for more details.
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Their mad researching session was interrupted sometime later, after it had been unanimously decided that Gil's contributions should be limited to drawing supportive pictures while the others did the actual work. It was something he'd been testing out in the margins of his paper because, well, he needed to pass the time somehow and he mixed up the basic runic alphabet too much to be any help researching, so he was kind of glad for the 'reassignment'. One of Ben's many assistants had managed to track down a sketch pad and colored pencils, and Gil was beginning to get why Mal spent so much time in her art studio. This was pretty nice.
Varian had – in the midst of his many mutterings – said that Rapunzel was an artist too. Gil had never really considered practicing art before – mostly because he'd never had access to the materials, but he could admit there was something soothing about it.
He was halfway through a rough drawing of the four of them running towards the setting sun when Queen Belle pushed into the room, taking in the hustle and bustle of work (or in Gil's case, definitely not work) with a small grin.
Doug, who was not an old family friend of royalty (or, not this royalty – he'd said something about meeting Snow White in the future once), paused his work only to stare, obviously flustered by the queen's attention.
Belle offered him a dainty wave. "I see you four have been busy. Could you introduce me to your new friends, Ben?"
"What?" Ben was kind of hilarious around books in that he got completely absorbed in them, leaving the outside world behind as he pursued his quest for more knowledge.
It seemed the queen was used to this behavior. "Your new friends?"
"Oh." Ben blinked his eyes sort of owlishly. "This is Doug." He gestured towards the still-staring dwarf kid who immediately flushed, trying to bow in his seat and only kind of succeeding. "And um- that's Flynn."
"Hi." Gil waved at the queen from his spot on the floor. It was only marginally less dusty down there, but it kept him out of the way and allowed him to spread out, so everyone sort of won.
"Flynn?" The queen echoed. "Like Flynn Rider? You don't hear that name often."
"Exactly like that!" Gil bounced to his feet, unable to fight his excitement because maybe he'd found someone who could give him some answers. That must have been what Queen Arianna was talking about. Maybe that was where Ben had gotten the name from.
Jane, who had only been paying as much attention to the conversation as manners required her to, blinked up from her thick tome. "You're named after those old books?"
"Yeah?" Gil actually didn't know. It seemed like a Ben thing to do. "Are they good?"
"They're wonderful," Queen Belle said, though Gil had a feeling she said that about literally every book ever. "We have the full collection in the main library. Come on." When the three researchers didn't budge, she waved her hand again. "Come on, all of you. You need to take a break. You can't stay locked in this dusty room all day."
Ben laughed. "That is rich coming from you."
"Do as I say, not as I do," the queen offered sagely, and then she pushed open the door, giving all of them a rather pointed look.
Ben sighed, as though the world's troubles were on his shoulders. Which, they sort of were.
The trip to the main library was pleasant and not at all dusty, and even though Gil had gotten better at reading, it still wasn't something he did much, and yet, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the grandeur of the library because there were so many books. Books about everything, he guessed. He wondered if there were stories about foreign countries or cooking, languages or histories. It probably had it all.
The others seemed impressed by it too, Ben having to physically drag Doug away from a section of engineering textbooks. The corner Queen Belle led them to had yet another cozy fireplace, the couches surrounding it all lined in a pretty green velvet.
"Here we are." She crouched next to a bookshelf near one of the couches and pulled out a few. "The Adventures of Flynn Rider. Go ahead." She pressed one into Gil's hand. "Take a look. All of you," she turned to the others. "Read whatever you like, as long as it has nothing to do with whatever you're researching."
"Mom," Ben groaned when it became obvious he had been edging towards the magical history section.
"This is leisure reading," the Queen explained, unsympathetic. "Oh, I can't wait for you to read it," she gushed, turning her excitement on Gil. "They're great books for bedtime stories. My papa used to read them to me every night."
"My mom did that with the Pixie Court books," Jane said, her pale eyes scanning the nearest bookcase. "They're greatly exaggerated of course, but she wanted me to have a taste of old Fae culture." She stopped her perusal, turning to face Gil. "What about you, Flynn? What books did your parents read you?"
"Um…" Gil's stomach felt tight, the book in his hands seeming to weigh down on him like a large boulder. "My uh… my dad doesn't really like books."
Gaston may have wanted to claim Queen Belle as his own, but he had hated the novels she had been so very devoted to, thinking they represented everything that was flawed, Gil guessed. If Belle hadn't been so busy reading, she would have realized how amazing Gaston was just like everyone else, and there was no way any son of his would be caught dead with their nose in a book.
On better nights, his Uncle LeFou would make up stories for him, whispered in the cramped darkness of the backroom. He wasn't the most creative, but he'd always let Gil be the hero, let him save the beautiful princess or the beautiful prince and see rainbows and sunshine and trees. And they always lived happily ever after, even if Gil didn't understand what that was. When he was little, he'd imagined it as a life where he was exactly what his father wanted him to be, where his uncle didn't look scared to walk through the marketplace. When he got older, he'd learned to include Uma and Harry and the rest of the crew, sunsets and fresh ocean winds and ships that didn't threaten to fall apart.
Belatedly, he realized that the silence had been going on for too long because he'd shared an ugly thing. It seemed harmless, but they were all smart enough to read between the lines. They'd know.
A delicate hand covered his, and when Gil looked up, the queen was smiling at him, a soft sort of thing like what Uma would give him when he'd done especially well.
"As it so happens, my public speaking skills are a little rusty," she explained, taking the book from his hand. "Would you humor me?"
Before Gil could ask what she meant, the queen was already setting herself down on one of the couches. At a loss, Gil followed her, the others arranging themselves similarly as they stared at the queen.
Who just... started reading. Just for them.
Gil wondered if this was what having a mother was like.
He sort of hoped that it was.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"And then what happens?" Jane had one arm wrapped around the pillow clutched to her chest and the other around Gil's bicep, as though both would somehow ground her. "Did he get out?"
"She's about to get there," Gil murmured. "Right? That's what's next?"
"You two would know by now if you'd let her talk," Ben sighed, because for all his objections to time being wasted he had gotten sucked into the story with the rest of them, trading whispers with Doug about historical inaccuracies that led to many a giggle session Queen Belle had to shush with an unimpressed look.
"And then," Queen Belle continued as though she hadn't heard them (but she totally did, Gil had the feeling this lady heard everything). "With a mighty swing of his sword, Flynn managed to cleave the lock in two and break down the door, running up the stairs to freedom!"
"What about the princess?" Jane clutched Gil tighter. "He's going to save her, right? The countess had been lying about her love fading, he has to save her."
"I mean, he wouldn't be that good a hero if he didn't," Gil offered. "Whether she loved him or not. Rescues should not be conditional to whether someone returned your feelings, right?"
"That sounds like it could be a thesis paper," Doug said distractedly, likely already writing said paper in his mind. "Actually, if you think about it-"
"Guys," Ben sighed. "We're going to have to stop talking if we want to find out what happens anytime soon."
"Actually, I think you're going to have to wait until after dinner as it is." Queen Belle closed the book gently, sliding a bookmark into place as she settled the worn novel on a low polished table. "It seems your father has need of me."
"Don't mind me." All of them jumped at the sound of King Adam's voice, Ben's father lingering near the bookcase divider that had separated their reading nook from the rest of the library. "I was enjoying the story too. I haven't read it in a long time."
"Too long," Queen Belle decided, rising to her feet. "I'll have to leave you guys for now, but if you'd like, we can read the next chapter tonight."
"You don't mind?" Gil asked instead of taking the gift for what it was, because that was what Auradon people did, they gave and thought nothing of it, had no alternate motives in mind. "Aren't you busy?"
"I'm never too busy for a good book," Belle declared with a wink, and then she was leaving, arm-in-arm with her once upon a time captor, now-upon-a-time king and father of her hopeless booknerd of a child.
"Wow," Jane sighed kind of dreamily when they left. "I didn't realize those books were so good."
Ben grinned, stretching out his arms. "They are classics for a reason. And you know what? I'm glad mom made us take a break. This was nice."
"Yeah," Gil agreed, even though he hadn't been working. "This was... that was really cool, Ben."
"You should draw her a picture," Jane said out of the blue. "Like, a thank you picture. Maybe a bookmark?"
"She'd like that," Ben said.
"And we could all sign it." Gil was starting to really like this idea. "Good call, Jane. I'll do that while you guys look at runes."
"But first," Ben cut in. "Dinner."
On cue, their stomachs seemed to rumble, displeased at having been ignored for so long.
Okay, it was only Doug's stomach that rumbled, but to be fair, he hadn't had an awesome waffle breakfast.
The dwarf kid blushed. "Yeah, dinner sounds good."
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"Do one of you guys want to move to the inside?" Gil asked when they were getting ready for bed that night, Gil going through the song and dance of picking what would be Doug's blanket. This involved holding up two of them until the dwarf kid pointed at one, and then Gil abandoning the one that hadn't been chosen for a fresh candidate. The process confused Doug, who seemed to think he should go with the first blanket he'd seen. The poor, uneducated soul.
"What?" Jane looked up from where she was brushing her hair, staring at Gil in the reflection of Ben's vanity mirror.
"Do one of you guys want to move to the inside?" Gil repeated. "Or do you want to stay on the outside?" He turned to Doug. "That would put you on the inside with me."
Doug's brows furrowed. "The inside of what?"
"The bed." Gil tossed aside the latest reject and went with a blanket he had dubbed Sir Flufferkins of cotton land. "Ben and Jane usually sleep on the outside."
"The outside," Doug repeated, sounding out the words carefully. "Of what?"
"The bed."
Honestly, it was like he wasn't even listening.
Doug sputtered. "Do you, um-" He dropped his voice to a frantic whisper. "Share the bed?"
"Why are we whispering?" Gil shot back, but Doug only looked more panicked, so he decided to answer his question. "Do you see that bed? It is huge. It could fit like, twelve people-"
"Eight people," Ben piped up from behind his desk, looking like he immediately regretted his contributions when his cheeks flushed.
"It can fit eight people," Gil corrected. "So we share it, because it's huge. And you're going to share it too, unless-" Gil blinked. "Unless you don't want to, because personal space is important and you don't have do anything you don't want to do."
There, that was sort of what Evie had said that one time.
Doug blinked at him, seeming kind of dazed. Gil was getting that reaction a lot. "I'm uh… fine with the middle."
"Cool!" Gil pumped his fist, using his free hand to press the final blanket into Doug's chest. "Do you want Ben or Jane? Neither of them snore, but Jane might take custody of your arm and you won't get it back until she wakes up which-" He turned in her direction. "-isn't a problem, I just thought you should be warned."
Gil didn't actually know that yet, but Jay had complained about it before so it seemed fair to warn Doug now.
"Um…" Doug blushed harder. These people. "I'll take my chances."
Gil shrugged. "More Ben for me."
By his desk, Ben seemed to choke on nothing.
Seriously, how was this guy a king?
-:-:-:-:-:-
Four days in and Queen Belle finally put her foot down.
"Enough." With an unfair amount of grace, she managed to steal the two books Ben had been referencing before he could so much as consider putting up a fight. "You guys have made great headway, but now you need to actually enjoy your summer. Fairy Godmother and the others can figure this out from here."
"But..." Ben was still blinking at the empty space where his books used to be. "We're really getting somewhere."
"Yes, you are." She didn't make their contributions seem any less than they were, which Gil thought was nice. "But you will be stepping up as the next successor come coronation day and after that you definitely won't have time to be a teenager, so you're taking a break now. All of you." She smiled at the lot of them, a soft, sparkly thing. "Go. Enjoy your summer. We've got this."
Gil frowned. "Are you sure-"
"That included you, Flynn." She said it kindly, like she'd been expecting his protest. She probably had been, because she was scary smart. "Now get out of this dusty room and enjoy some sunshine."
That was how they ended up in the palace gardens having teatime, Gil sprawled out on the grass as he stared at the variety of flower bushes, soaking up the sun's rays.
"So." Doug cleared his throat awkwardly. "If you don't need me for research anymore, I suppose I should go."
What?
"What?" Gil said.
Ben tensed, but nodded. "Of course. Thank you for your help, Doug. Your contributions have been invaluable."
"What?" Gil repeated, a little louder. "Doug's not staying?"
Both of the boys seemed to freeze.
"I mean-" Gil rushed to correct himself. "Right. You probably already had summer plans that you dropped for us. Thank you. What Ben said. You really are the best."
"I don't-" Doug looked down, his cheeks flushed. "Thanks, Flynn."
Gil missed whatever subtext had been there, but Ben seemed to catch it, his interest piqued again, like he had managed to hold onto one of those manuals his mom had confiscated. "If you... if you're not busy, Doug, you're more than welcome to stay." This earned him a look of surprise, which seemed enough to convince Ben to keep going. "I really enjoy your company. I'm glad we got the chance to know you."
"I also enjoy your company," Gil volunteered. "Because you are a cool guy."
"Me?" Doug scrunched his nose in a picture of confusion. "Cool?"
"Oh, yeah." Gil eyed a nearby rosebush, wondered if he should give sketching it a shot. He was getting better, though most of his stuff still looked like a cartoon. "You and Jane and Ben, I mean. You're all super smart and super nice. That's like, the epitome of cool."
A pleased grin spread across Jane's face, her cheeks flushed from the gentle heat of the sun. "Thanks, Flynn. And..." She turned her smile on Doug. "I enjoy your company too. It'd be fun if you stayed."
"But we understand if you need to go," Gil added, because he practiced what was in Evie's thoughtfulness pamphlets.
The one good thing about all the testing was that Gil knew he would have aced Remedial Goodness 101. In fact, Fairy Godmother said he had tested out of that class so he wouldn't have to attend it when he actually got to Auradon Prep. Sure, it technically meant he was a failure as a villain, but Gil was okay with that.
Doug stewed this over for a minute. "I've got to call my dad, but otherwise I'd um- I'd like to stay with you guys."
"Awesome!" Gil cheered, throwing a fist into the air. "Secret summer shenanigans all the way!" He grinned, and this time it was because he couldn't help himself, because he felt so genuinely happy. "So uh... what do teenagers do during the summer anyway?"
"You don't know?" Jane asked. "What do you normally do?"
"Um..." Gil had never experienced a summer vacation before. Any kind of vacation on the Isle was sort of laughable, but he supposed his ambassador job with Jay sort of counted as one. "I usually go exploring, I guess, but we probably can't do that."
"Says who?" Ben asked, and Gil was proud of the fact that he recognized that as a rhetorical question. "We could explore the castle and the nearby properties. Explore Auradon city. We've got options."
"Creatively interpreted options," Jane mused, her eyes already narrowed in thought.
"I could show you the Enchanted Lake." Ben was excited now, his words coming faster than his normally composed disposition allowed. "Wait, have you already seen that?"
No, but Gil had seen Jane completely soak Ben in magic water from said lake, though that probably didn't count. "Nope. We can explore that together."
"Sweet," Ben said, and it didn't even seem… ironic? Was that the word Harry used?
"I'll admit, completing a list of stereotypical teen activities does hold a certain scientific appeal," Doug murmured. He was thinking now too, and once he started coordinating with Jane, all hope would be lost. For boredom, Gil guessed.
"Let's do it, then," Ben decided, rising to his feet as though they were going to get started then and there. "We've got half a summer of freedom. Why not enjoy it while we can?"
"That's... rhetorical?" Gil asked, considering his options carefully. Twice in one conversation – it could happen.
"Yep," Jane confirmed, already getting out her pink and blue sparkly notebook. "Now, let's start planning."
"It's the only way to be thorough," Doug said, as though anyone was going to argue with him.
Guy was literally preaching to the detailed-plan choir. If Evie and Carlos had been present, there would already be color coding and diagrams. For science.
Gil couldn't wait for them to finally meet the VKs, but until then, he'd take Queen Belle's advice and enjoy this while he could.
Because eventually, he'd have to get back to Corona.
And eventually, he'd have to face the king and queen.
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It was fun getting to know the three of them. Well, getting to know their younger versions, because the older versions Gil had only ever interacted with peripherally with the exception of Doug (and sometimes Ben), and Gil felt bad about that, because a guy as smart as him shouldn't be stuck with a person as dumb as Gil.
They spent one day constructing kites and watching movies and then the next Ben took them to 'explore' a private cove, armed with a picnic basket courtesy of Mrs. Potts and a bounty of sunscreen that the queen had made them swear to periodically replace. They spent an afternoon flying their colorful creations until an accidental midair collision, broke for lunch and then finally got in the water. Jane was shy about getting in the waves for whatever reason, which may or may not have led to Gil bodily picking her up and jumping off the dock with her clutched in his arms, the young fairy shrieking until they hit the water.
Ben and Doug thought it was hilarious until Gil repeated the process with them, and while Ben was too busy laughing to put up a fight, Doug was mostly resigned by the time Gil got to him, his cheeks flushed in the beginnings of a sunburn because someone forgot to reapply.
They spent a morning trying to learn how to make travel foods under Mrs. Potts' tutelage and the only one who was even close to successful was Jane, though Ben was relentless in his quest to achieve mediocrity, refusing to surrender even with flour dusting his hair. They took their picnic feast to the stables where they discovered how horribly unpracticed Doug and Jane were at riding horses (that, at least, Gil knew – thanks DunBroch), so Gil and Ben decided to go ahead and double up and take two horses out instead of four. The end result was Doug nestled in the front of Gil's saddle; Gil wrapping one arm around his waist to keep him stabilized while the other guided the horse. Across the way, Jane sat behind Ben, her cheeks wind burned a pretty shade of pink.
They managed to find a distant field out on the castle grounds to share their treats, Gil pointing out the flowers that he recognized and Jane supplying the names of those he didn't. On the way back he and Ben switched passengers, and Gil got to keep a running commentary with Jane about Ben's epic failures in cooking until she was giggling nonstop.
One morning they all dressed 'incognito' with hoods and baseball hats and fake glasses (on Ben's part) and headed down to the museum where Doug gave them a walking tour of Auradon's history, sometimes spending fifteen minutes at a particular exhibit when it caught his fancy. Gil steered clear of the Hall of Villains. Jay had said his dad- that Gaston's hunting bow was in there, and Gil didn't want to look at it, not after all the times he'd been threatened by its absence, because if 'he had his bow, you wouldn't dare run, would you?'.
Gil didn't understand or appreciate all the exhibits but he did take the chance to sketch the others in their natural learning habitat, managing to capture Doug's awed grin or the enthusiastic slant of Ben's eyebrow as they read over facts they likely already knew.
They spent lunch in a cozy café sampling 'tourist food' and ended the meal with yogurt parfaits that made Jane glow with happiness, and Gil even stopped eating his halfway through so she could finish it off just because she loved them so much, and he liked to see her happy.
Each night ended in the library after dinner, Queen Belle reading them another few chapters of the Tales of Flynn Rider while they sipped cups of tea or cocoa or cider (which had apples and cinnamon and goodness) before they went to bed, and it got to the point where the others traded out spots but seemed fine with Gil sleeping in the middle, which he preferred, honestly. It was nice and weird but good, and Gil wondered if he could ever do this summer vacation thing again someday, except maybe with Harry and Uma as well. They would have liked it, and in honor of their absence, Gil tried to appreciate it twice as much. If they couldn't be here, at least he'd bring them stories.
It was the fairest trade he could come up with.
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"Ben?" Jane spoke up halfway through lunch, prodding her food more than she'd been eating it, which was how Gil knew something was wrong. Jane loved strawberry salad. "Would Audrey be mad about... you know."
"Who's Audrey?" Gil asked before his filter could catch up and remind him that Jane had been talking to Ben and not him.
Still, it seemed to shake the young fairy out of her daze, and she faced him with clear focus. "Audrey is Queen Aurora and King Phillip's daughter. She's the princess of Auroria, and... Ben's girlfriend."
"Huh," Gil huffed. "I forgot that Ben had a girlfriend before Ma-" Belatedly, Gil realized he was about to say a thing he definitely should not say. "Maaa-yyyyyyyyy food is delicious."
Wow. Beautiful save. Ten out of ten on the swagger scale.
Jay would be laughing so hard right now.
Gil shoveled another bite of food into his mouth to keep himself from talking, and groaned. "Wow, that is the best."
"Flynn?" Of course Ben wasn't deterred, because Ben was the most stealthily stubborn human in all of existence. He seemed calm and nice and patient because he was, but he could also be relentless when he put his mind to it. "What was that?"
"Nothing!" Gil chirped. "I didn't say anything that I um... definitely should not have said. Hey, is that cantaloupe?"
Ben pulled the bowl of grapes out of Gil's reach, refusing to let him use the same gag twice. "Flynn..."
"Oh, come on," Gil sighed, plopping his fork down beside his plate. So he'd forgotten for like, half a second about who the pink-obsessed chick that had cast a sleeping spell over all of Auradon was. That wasn't a crime. "I can't talk about it."
"Are you saying I break up with Audrey?" Ben didn't seem upset by this, more curious than anything else, his thirst for knowledge lit into a stubborn flame.
"I'm not saying anything." Mostly because Gil didn't want to break the timeline. He cared about the timeline, he lived in it. "Maybe you guys will date forever, maybe you won't, it's up to you. Yay choices!" Gil offered Ben some spirit fingers (Jane had showed him, it was part of her routine for cheerleader tryouts, and Gil loved them a lot).
Ben wasn't fooled by the show, but mostly it was because he seemed lost in thought, like he was reviewing everything that had led to this moment.
It made Gil distinctly uncomfortable. "Hey uh- where is Audrey, by the way?"
The four of them had spent the past few weeks together, Gil would have expected like, a call from her at some point.
"Spa retreat," Ben said, as though those were words that made sense. "She's decompressing before the new school year. They make all the participants surrender their electronics to promote um- 'good chi'."
"Qi," Gil corrected, remembering his stuttered lessons with General Fa. She'd been patient as she ran Gil and Jay through the explanations, and it only made Gil admire her more.
Ben gave him a blank stare. No, a surprised one. "Right. I won't be seeing her until the week before school."
"So she probably won't be mad about this," Gil said, answering Jane's original question. "Can't get mad at us for hogging Ben if she's decompressing. Not that I blame her." Gil picked his fork back up, distraction successfully implemented. "I've never been to a spa, but I heard they're pretty cool. Makes sense to spend time there."
Jane blinked slowly. "I've never been to a spa either. My mom says they're not necessary."
Slowly, Doug looked between the two of them, and the thoughtful expression on Ben's face. "I think I know how we're spending tomorrow."
"Really?" Gil asked. "Did you finish that- what was it, predictive behavior... thing?"
"Um, not yet," Doug seemed all hot under his collar. "But that's not why-"
"I actually have some suggestions for that," Jane said, whipping out a piece of pink paper that had been folded in the shape of a flower. Gil had done it earlier just to see her smile, and it had totally been worth the handful of minor papercuts.
In the meantime, Ben said nothing, which meant he couldn't ask about his future (ex) girlfriend(s).
Points to the Gil-meister for that one.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Spas were weird.
Granted, any place that required you to strip down to your skivvies was automatically suspect in Gil's book, but that seemed to be the entire point of the spa. He found himself mostly apologizing to the massage people (they had a different name but he already forgot it) for his scars, but all of them were polite enough to assure him it was fine. On the bright side, all the weird spa stuff happened in private rooms, so the others didn't see the old wounds.
He reconvened with the others by a bank of weird leather chairs that also massaged (double massaged? Gil didn't know) while some people busied themselves by giving them manicures and pedicures and smearing green minty stuff on their faces.
Overall, it was kind of a fun experience – at least for the story it provided.
"I don't understand the purpose of this," Doug said eventually. "But it was kind of nice."
"I liked that hot room with the steam," Gil said. "It was so cute."
"I don't think aesthetics was the point of that room," Ben said. "But hey, appreciate the spa how you will."
"Thanks," Gil chirped, and that pretty much was that.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"No!" Phantom hands were reaching for Gil, black spikes bursting from the ground that threatened to crack apart underneath his feet. He tried to run but his legs refused to work, boneless and uncoordinated as the shadows grew larger, Cassandra's cackling voice echoing from every direction.
"Come, my sweet," her silky tone drawled, jagged stone claws digging into Gil's hair and yanking, trying so hard to pull it from his scalp, desperate for its power. "I need your sunlight to guide the way, and you're not using it."
She tugged harder until tears spilled from Gil's eyes, his mouth hanging open but he couldn't get any air, everything too hot and oppressive and crushing him in stone, everywhere stone.
"Gilly, Gilly," she sang, stealing Harry's nickname and twisting it into something dark. "Let down your hair-"
"No!" Gil struggled against the hands that held him, even though the air was breathable again – not that he'd know because he was too busy sobbing, raking his hands through his hair in a desperate search for Cassandra's stone fingers. "Don't let her take it! Don't-" He curled in on himself with a sob.
He needed to steady his breathing, like Uma taught him. Needed to focus on something outside his head, listen to something, feel something. Cassandra's wicked laughter was ringing in his ears but beyond that were distant murmurs, soft things, calming things in familiar voices. Gil's chest heaved as he forced himself to focus on what he felt – cool, soft blankets – nicer than anything he'd known before, fluffy and comforting – the bed. He was- it was Ben's bed. He wasn't back in the Dark Kingdom. Cassandra was gone. Or, she would be.
Eventually, his cries died down and he could actually hear the others, could see Jane's panicked gaze as she tried to detangle his hands from his hair.
"It's okay, Flynn, it's okay," she was saying in steady mantra. "She isn't here. You're safe."
"No one's going to take it," Ben was muttering, curling around their heads so he could help Jane. "Okay? No one's getting your hair."
"Should we call someone?" Doug was pressed to Gil's back, his voice steady save for a slight quiver. "Should I get Mrs. Potts?"
"N-No," Gil groaned. "I- I'm back, now. Sorry. S-Sorry."
"It's okay," Ben immediately soothed because Ben was too nice for this world. "Everyone gets nightmares, Flynn."
Yes, but not everyone still had to run from them. Not everyone had brilliant symbols of what they could lose plastered to their heads, unyielding, unbreakable. That was just Gil.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Jane asked, trying to be kind.
Gil shook his head, forcing his hands down to rest against the blankets. His bandana had gotten lost somewhere in the throes of his nightmare, and his hair tie was missing too, leaving his hair to spill across the pillows in a tangled mess.
"Sorry." He said again. "I can- I'll leave-"
"You're not going anywhere," Doug said, fierce, and then- "Unless you really want to, because your choices are important and respected, but if you're worried about whether we want you to go anywhere, know that we don't."
"Please stay," Jane urged, delicate fingers brushing against Gil's cheeks, wiping away tears as though her very happiness depended on it, as though it were Carlos who needed her comfort. "It will be alright, Flynn. It will all be okay."
It wasn't a promise she could keep, but Gil appreciated it all the same.
"Come on." Ben urged them into the sitting position, Doug and Jane following with twin looks of confusion that Gil would have copied if he wasn't so tired. Ben led them towards the couches, pressing some buttons on a random remote until part of the wall slid away, revealing a television. "I think it's time for a movie."
"Oh, let's see one of the Flynn Rider ones your mom talked about." Despite her earlier uncertainty, Jane seemed to really get into the idea, grabbing up a few blankets as they approached the couch. "The one with the minstrel?"
It was Gil's favorite, because Flynn and the minstrel traveled the land together like the most epic of bros, like Jay and Gil had once upon a time. Though honestly, Gil pretended it was Jay who was the dashing Flynn Rider, Gil happy to provide his musical accompaniment. At least, in his dreams.
"That sounds good." Ben sat himself down in the middle of the couch and then reached for Gil's wrist, tugging him down until-
"I-" Gil flushed, because Ben was pulling him into his lap. "I'll crush you."
"No you won't," Ben decided, stubborn streak shining through once again because his eyes were already glued on the screen, flicking through different menus due to the argument being over. At least, in his opinion.
Gil wanted to squirm away, but Jane was already curled against his back, Doug lifting Gil's feet to rest in his lap on Ben's other side, one hand curling around Gil's ankle. It left his head resting against Ben's shoulder like it was the easiest thing in the world, Jane's gentle hums buzzing against his spine.
Honestly, he wasn't sure if he stayed awake for the opening titles, but he was pretty sure that was the point.
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Endnotes:
Thank you guys for the reviews! I'm glad you guys enjoy this particular use of time travel, and as to what Ben knows about the situation – that will be covered later in the story, promise ;)
Story notes:
The Pixie Court books are entirely made up for the purposes of this story. What they entail, why that is entirely up to you ;D
There really wasn't any reason for Gil to correct Ben, since it is – according to my very brief google search – pronounced 'chi' anyway. Just wanted to show off Gil's mystery.
While it was not explicitly stated, Doug and Gil were both wearing swim shirts when they hit the beach.
WARNING – Non-graphic nightmare – At the beginning of scene 8, the final scene, Gil has a nightmare about what happened under the spike barricade in the Dark Kingdom. It does not get graphic in any way, but he is afraid of getting attacked or trapped. If you would prefer to skip this, look for the line:
'Eventually, his cries died down and he could actually hear the others, could see Jane's panicked gaze as she tried to detangle his hands from his hair.'
It is safe to read on from there.
Until next time :)