In the castle that the Royal Family of Auradon lived in, the oldest princess was sat on the sofa in what was soon to be her office but was currently her father's. She had a tablet in her lap and a mug of tea in her hand. She quietly sipped as she typed out emails, looked over budgets and finalised plans.
Her father, King Ben, was in the room too, looking over a potentially outdated piece of legislation. He sighed gently as he ran a hand through his hair, staring intently at the words in front of him.
"Trade you," Lia said, looking up at her dad. "Seriously, I'd rather try and figure that out than decide on the exact shade of white the tablecloths are going to be."
Ben chuckled, "Yeah, I'd prefer doing this too. Hence why I'm doing it."
Lia huffed and put her mug down. "We have event planners. Why do I have to make all the final decisions?"
"Because it's a reflection of you, Bear," Ben responded, patiently, "Especially because it's your birthday party."
Lia sighed again. "Maybe Maesi can help me. Any idea where she is?"
"Probably out with Dylan again," Ben told her, looking back at his work.
Lia felt a sharp pang of something in her chest as she thought about Maesi and her boyfriend. "Right, Dylan, of course."
Ben gave her a concerned look. "You okay, Bear?"
Lia gave him a small smile, "Yeah, of course. I was just hoping that my sister would be able to aid me in my time of misery."
Ben let out a small chuckle as he swiped his finger across his tablet screen. "You'll live. Not to mention, the seemingly inconsequential decision making could help you later on. You never know."
"Is that you trying to pass on some kingly wisdom or you trying to get me to stop complaining about having to decide if I want," she paused and looked back at her tablet, "cream or eggshell tablecloths at my birthday party?"
Ben frowned at her, "Why is it whenever people have to decide between shades of white, it's always cream or eggshell?" he wondered aloud, just as the door opened and his wife walked in.
Lia shrugged, "I have no idea. They're probably the best shades of white or something," she responded before greeting her mom.
"Choose eggshell," Mal told her, smiling as she went and sat down on her desk that was adjacent to her husband's. "If there is one thing I've learnt when it comes to planning events, eggshell makes you sound like you know what you're doing more so than cream."
"Eggshell it is," Lia replied, with a small laugh. "Or should I go completely off the rails and suggest that they be fluorescent green?"
Mal let out a laugh, "Only if you're trying to cause heart attacks among the elder royals. Can you imagine what some of them would think about their future queen going with fluorescent colours for a royal party? You'd be offending their traditional royal sensibilities."
"Ooh, are we offending royal sensibilities?" The second oldest princess, Maesi, walked into the room at that moment, looking very happy, as she pulled her boyfriend into the office, their hands entwined. "I want in!"
Lia felt a bit of a lump in her throat as she looked up at the couple so she quickly looked away, going back to her tablet. "No, of course not. I just had the fun of choosing between eggshell and cream tablecloths so I'm trying to decide if I should go in a different direction and use florescent colours instead."
Maesi snapped her fingers, "Florescent pink is a great way to do that, I believe."
"I think orange would work better," Dylan added, "That would give people a real shock."
"A combination of both?" Lia replied, laughing as she looked back at them. "Not only do fluorescent colours but do ones that don't go together?"
Dylan laughed hard at that, "That's genius!"
Lia smiled brightly at him. It amazed her how comfortable the guy had become in their little family unit, but then again, he spent a lot of time with Maesi and therefore, by extension, spent a lot of time with them.
"But in all seriousness, go with eggshell," Maesi told Lia.
Lia furrowed her brow at her in mock seriousness, "Should I really be taking advice on shades of white from a girl who primarily wears black?"
Maesi stuck her tongue out at her older sister before turning back to her parents. "Anyway, Dylan just wanted to come up and say hi, so I'm going to walk him out now."
"You not staying for dinner, Dylan?" Mal asked, turning to the young man.
"I wish I could," Dylan replied, "But I've made other plans, I'm afraid."
"That's a pity," Ben said, "I hope you'll join us for dinner again soon."
Lia laughed, fixing her eyes on her father. "Dad just doesn't like feeling outnumbered by the girls all the time."
"Dad will always be outnumbered by the girls until you get a boyfriend," Maesi replied with a laugh.
Lia felt another pang in her chest as she glanced back at her sister, who hadn't let go of Dylan's hand the entire time. She managed a smile though. "Yeah, well, we both know that that isn't something that's going to happen for a while. So Dad is just going to have to suffer with his girls."
She looked back at her dad with a mocking pout and sad eyes that made him laugh.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Ben informed her. "However, we do have work to get on with, so it was nice seeing you again, Dylan."
"You too," Dylan responded with a nod of his head. He bade Mal and Lia goodbye, then he and Maesi left the office.
The office went quiet as the three remain people turned back to their work.
Lia made her way through the finalisation of a few more plans for her upcoming twenty-first before Maesi came back into the room and flung herself onto the sofa.
She kicked her sandals off then through her feet across Lia's lap, careful to not knock over her mug. "So...any chance I can pull you away so that we can have some girl talk?" Maesi asked, cocking her head as she gave her sister a pleading look.
Lia sighed, "I have a few more things to go over, Ellie. My birthday is a week away."
"Ugh, come on, La! How do you make even planning a birthday party sound like stressful work? It's supposed to be fun!"
"Leave her be, Maesi-Beth," Mal reprimanded gently, "A lot of pressure can come from planning events like that."
Maesi sighed, "Ugh, fine."
"I'm okay with you staying here if Mom and Dad are," Lia added. "I may need your help on some of these things."
"What, do they want you to choose if the napkins are going to be snow white or frost white?"
"Don't be silly," Lia replied, "Those are winter whites. We're in the height of summer."
The two girls managed to keep serious eye contact with one another for all of three seconds before they burst out laughing.
Ben and Mal shared a look of affectionate exasperation before Ben turned to Lia. "Take a break, Bear. You've done a lot today."
"And there is still more that needs to be done," Lia argued.
"Then go take it to your room and spend some time with your sister," Mal told her.
Lia sighed, "You're a needy child, you know that?" she tells her sister, before gently shoving her legs off of her.
"Yay!"
The two of them left the office and started heading for Lia's bedroom. As they walked, Maesi talked about the date that she and Dylan had just gone on and how much fun it was and how sweet he was. Lia smiled at her sister, though something churned in her stomach a little as her sister spoke.
They settled down in Lia's room – Lia at her desk, her tablet still open, and Maesi lying across the bed as she continued to gush about Dylan and what a great guy he was.
The churning in Lia's stomach grew stronger and she felt herself slowly becoming more and more irritable. It didn't help that whenever there was a brief break in the conversation and she looked up, Maesi would be muttering spells that made lights appear in front of her like little fireworks (giving a visual display as to what kissing Dylan apparently made her feel).
Lia watched as her sister's mismatched eyes lit up with pure delight and her lilac hair fanned out on the bed, giving her the look of someone who was simply carefree and in love.
Finally, Lia snapped.
"Okay, I get it!" she all but yelled, throwing her hands up as she let the tablet hit her desk with a small bump. "Dylan's great! You're happy and in love! Wonderful!" She huffed as she snatched her tablet back up and looked at her sister. "But if that's all you want to talk about, surely it can wait until I'm not busy? Because I love you but I don't need the rundown of you and Dylan's entire relationship every single time you guys have a great date."
Maesi gave her sister a hurt look. "I...I'm sorry. I just…I thought you wanted to hear about me being happy."
Lia sighed, "Look, Ellie, nothing makes me happier than knowing my kid sister is happy but I'm busy, okay? I don't have time to sit and listen to the same things over and over because I'm two months away from becoming Queen of Auradon. I have things I need to do that are more important than me hearing about how great Dylan is for the hundredth time. I know how great he is. I've met the guy."
Maesi frowned, "I hate it when you call me your kid sister. I'm sixteen. Not a baby."
Lia gave her an incredulous look and dropped her head onto the hand not holding her tablet. "Is that seriously all you heard from what I just said? Maesi, I'm busy. Please let me get on with my work."
Maesi stood slowly from the bed, "I'm sorry. I just wanted to be able to have girl talk with my older sister."
"Yeah, well, there isn't going to be as much time for that anymore. I'm sorry." Lia poked her tablet with unnecessary force as she typed in her password.
Lia didn't look up from her tablet again as Maesi left the room, suddenly much more subdued than normal. The moment she shut the door, however, Lia put the tablet down again and dropped her head into her hands.
She didn't mean to snap at her sister and she regretted it but there was only so much Lia could take. The churning in her stomach didn't stop and another lump formed in her throat as she thought about her sister. Her perfect, little sister. The beloved princess. The one people saw as more than just their next ruler.
Lia didn't know how long she'd been stewing before there was a quiet knock on her door. Lia sighed gently and looked up.
"Enter," she called, barely loud enough to be heard by the person on the other side of the door.
The door opened to reveal her mother, looking concerned. "Everything okay, Baby Bear?"
Lia sighed, "Please tell me she didn't run to you and tattle that I snapped?"
"She didn't," Mal responded, as she walked in and sat down on the bed, "She came to me because she was worried about how she'd upset you so much. She cares about you, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Lia replied, closing her eyes and leaning back a little.
"And in the four months of her acting lovesick, this is the first time you've snapped at her about it."
Lia dropped her head into her hands again. "I know."
"Baby Bear, what's going on?" Mal gently prodded.
Lia shrugged, "I don't know, Mom." She removed her hands from her face. "I just…I get so…I don't even know how to describe it."
"Jealous, maybe?"
Lia looked over at her mother, opening her mouth to argue before slowly closing it again, realising she had no argument. Because she was jealous. She knew that. "Yeah. It's stupid, I know."
Mal gave her a concerned look, "Lia, baby," she said gently, in a tone that she only used when Lia was showing her vulnerable side. "Are you...falling for Dylan?"
Lia's head shot up, her eyes wide as she looked affronted. "Am I...for Dylan? No!" Lia shook her head vehemently. "Absolutely not. Look, Dylan's a great guy for Maesi," she emphasised, "but come on, Mom. Do you really think that I would be into someone like Dylan? He's...very different from me and not in the opposites attract kind of way."
Mal put her hands up, "Okay, okay. I'm just trying to put two and two together as to why Maesi talking about Dylan might have upset you so much."
Lia sighed. "Look, I'm not jealous that she has Dylan, okay? I'm really happy for her and for Dylan. I'm just...I'm jealous that she has a boyfriend. Not of her boyfriend. Just that she has one." She looked away from her mom as she pulled a pen from her pen pot and began fiddling with it. "It's dumb, I know. It's just that...she's sixteen and she's found this guy who's so great for her, yet I'm almost twenty-one and I haven't even had my first kiss yet."
Mal gave her a tiny smile with a tear shining in her eye. "Oh, Baby Bear," she sighed, "The right guy is out there for you, I promise. Look, if it makes you feel any better, the only man I ever kissed was your father."
"Who you were engaged to when you were eighteen," Lia reminded her gently, looking over at her again.
Mal scrunched her nose up a little, "Okay, fair point. But I didn't realise that bothered you so much. You've never particularly shown any interest in guys."
Lia sighed, "Yeah, I know. I'm not, really. I guess seeing Maesi so happy in a relationship has made me feel...lonely, I guess? But it's not just that. That's just what set it over the edge."
"Okay, so what else is it?"
Lia huffed as she dropped the pen in her hand. "I just...Maesi is the beloved one of the two of us. The one that people are most interested in as a person whereas sometimes it feels like all they want to know about me is if I'm going to be as good as Dad. They see me as a future ruler and that's it."
Mal shook her head, "Baby Bear, surely you know how adored you are by the kingdom? People know that you'll be a great ruler. They may seem more interested in Maesi but it's because she's more of a wildcard and they're trying to work out what they should expect from her."
Lia shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, Maesi is the one with the exciting, more interesting powers. She's the one who is more beautiful to look at. She gets to be carefree and choose what she wants more than I get to."
"Okay, Lia, now you're just being silly," Mal replied, shaking her head. "The public doesn't even know about your powers and okay, yes, they may seem less interesting than Maesi's but think about it. Would you really rather have Maesi's powers? When your own are so unique and well-suited to you? Do you really want the burden of handling that kind of power on top of the power you're about to receive as queen? Your powers don't make you less interesting than Maesi. They just make you different. Not to mention, your powers aren't as explainable, so I think a lot of people may even find yours more interesting." Lia didn't respond so Mal kept going. "And your powers don't make you who you are or define you as a person. Your powers are tools. One you will find a way to use to your advantage."
"I know that. I do," Lia told her. "And I know that some of the council members would have a harder time trusting me if I did have magic because they'd be afraid that I was holding them under my influence but...I don't know, Mom. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have them."
"And that's natural," Mal told her. "It's okay to wonder, but don't let it go to the point that you think you're lesser just because you don't have magic." Lia nodded, quietly taking in what her mother was telling her. "Also, your sister having purple hair and green and blue eyes doesn't make her more beautiful to look at. You two could be twins – your colouring is simply different. Purple hair is rarer than brown but that doesn't make it more beautiful."
Lia laughed, "Actually, I think people tend to find rare things more beautiful because of the fact that they're rare. You just don't think like that because you just see your two daughters who you love equally."
Mal rolled her eyes good-naturedly, "I stand by the belief that your hair colour doesn't affect your beauty. Now onto your last point about Maesi getting to be more carefree...Lia, do you not want to be queen? Because you can still back down. If you don't think that it's what you want, that's okay. We can train Maesi to be queen if that's what she wants, or we will have an election held for a new royal family if it comes down to it."
Lia shook her head quickly, "No, no! Being queen...it's my duty as the heir to the throne and it's my birthright as the oldest child. I want to lead this country and I want to make it a place where people want to live. I want to leave it to my oldest child even slightly better than it was left to me because I want to make a difference. I want to be queen because it's who I believe I'm meant to be. Also, it's a sure career path, so I don't have to worry about finding a job once I'm done with college."
Lia and Mal shared a laugh on that one.
"Sometimes I just wish that I'd been able to choose it, the same way a lot of people get to choose their careers."
Mal reached over and squeezed Lia's hand, "It will be okay, Baby Bear. Maybe you didn't exactly choose your career the same way most people your age would, but it's what you want and you will do amazingly in it. You may not get to be as carefree, and I'm sorry about that."
Lia shook her head, "It was still my choice, Mom. I made the decision and I knew what my life would become because of it. It's just a silly bout of jealousy that probably stems from me overthinking myself into insecurity again."
"You haven't done that in a while."
"I know," Lia replied, looking over at her mom. "I think the stress of it all is causing me some sleepless nights and when I lie awake at night, I have a tendency to overthink some things." She then looked back at her desk, "I should go apologise to Maesi, shouldn't I?"
Mal nodded, "Yeah. You should."
So she did. Lia immediately went to find her sister and she talked to her about everything after apologising profusely. Maesi was incredibly understanding (though she did tease Lia a little about being jealous, because what were sisters for if not a bit of light teasing?) and after dinner, the two of them hung out in Lia's room, just talking about everything and anything, resulting in Maesi sleeping over in her sister's bed, something they hadn't done for a few years.
If Lia ever felt jealous again, she'd remember the conversation she had with her mom and she'd look to her sister and remember that she didn't have to be jealous of Maesi, because, no matter what, Maesi was her sister, and she would always have her.
Here you go, Guest.I. I'll admit, I wasn't too fond of this one because I don't really see Lia as the jealous type or quite so insecure, but I guess it fit better with the prompt this way. I do hope you enjoyed it though! I definitely was pleased with how it turned out, even if I wasn't keen on the premise.
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Response to Reviews:
Grace: Well, it was a great idea so bias or no bias, it was very cute! Thank you, my lovely. I hope it was as good! Thank you for giving me the motivation to keep writing this one (yes, you being ill meant that I wanted to do anything in my power to make you a bit happier – not the best oneshot for that, but hey, it's a oneshot, right?) Love you!
RPM Shadow: Yeah, I think he'd make a good grandpa and I love writing him like that. I'm sure it was hard, lol. Thank you so much for reading! :D
Love you guys so much! Stay safe! SparkyGurl
P.S. Please don't be afraid to leave constructive criticism. It helps me get better!