This author note might get annoying if you read multiple of my fics because I'm going to copy/paste it over all updates for maybe the rest of the month.

I really have been neglecting some of my fanfics for about a year and some even two years. I've decided to try to update as many as I can (or as many as I know people want to see). I'm going to be scheduling fic updates but based on the number of hits on the latest chapter (there is a way to see on fanfiction net a huge discrepancy between unique IP visitors and hits and I will make sure that no one is just continually clicking refresh on fics). Right now I am updating fics that have 75+ hits on the latest chapter. That is 46 fanfics at this present time. Once I finish the updates of all of those (hopefully before the end of the month) I will update my stat list (an Excel document) and start again. Hopefully this will explain my updates until the end of the year (although there may be a handful I write just for fun). Thank you for checking out my work. I appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Love the reviews but I still appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Thank you.

Chapter Five

5.1

Tiana took a look between Ralphie and where Naveen had been. She couldn't imagine what pain and confusion her brother-in-law was feeling but she did have faith in the two brothers. Naveen would have accepted Ralphie as a frog, Naveen was always open and even let Louis perform whilst he tried to convince everyone that he was okay. Surely that trait had to be linked through the family.

"Tiana, it's okay," Naveen whispered to her and Ralphie looked around but was too distracted to realize where the voice was coming from.

"My brother?" he asked and Tiana smiled softly.

"You love your brother don't you?" she asked him and Ralphie gave her a look that said of course he did and a quick nod. Tia looked to the box before hugging her brother-in-law. "Then I think that it's better if you stay in this room without me in it for a moment," she told him and Ralphie shook his head.

"I'm telling you that I need to talk with you about keeping Naveen safe," he panicked and she gave him a sympathetic and supportive smile.

"I'll come back shortly and we can talk but for now if you just want to sit. Be patient, be still, don't make sudden movements and it'll be okay, just…as much as you can, look at the situation with acceptance."

Ralphie nodded again, he wrapped an arm around himself and then nervously went to sit on the bed. He looked to the floor of the room and heard Tiana close the door behind her. "Okay." He tried to prepare himself for what might happen next. "Okay. You're fine. Tiana wants you sitting in here to relax. Tiana wants to help you. It's okay. You're not screwed over yet, you're fine."

"Ralphie?" Naveen asked in a loud enough voice that his brother would hear him.

Ralphie's spine straightened and he looked around the room. "I can't see you," he told his brother, "I can't see you and I need to see you and if you're a ghost then….I can't handle it if you've become a ghost. We need you," he said again and tried to calm himself.

"I'm not dead but my form has been….altered," Naveen said and Ralphie looked up at the ceiling not knowing what his brother meant by that. "It'll seem very…very strange to you but I am willing to show myself. Can you just remain calm?" he asked and Ralphie laughed weakly.

"With the kind of days I've had it is pretty much impossible to stay calm," he said and then nodded. "You're my brother. You'd never hurt me. You'd want to protect me. You're my brother. You didn't send some creepy shadow man after me."

Naveen froze as he kept himself from exposing the secret for a few moments longer, "You met with the shadow man? What did he….look like?" he asked and Ralphie laughed nervously.

"Just like you. He had taken on your form," the prince said as he laughed nervously. "He made me promise that when I become the ruler that I would give him more power but that's because I knew you were the next in line and now…can you rule? Can you do that?" he asked nervously, fearful that he had been taken advantage of.

"At this time…no…" he told his brother and Ralphie started panicking, his feet tapping against the floor and his heartbeat racing. "He took my body so…."

"What do you mean no!?" Ralphie asked before trying to calm himself down again. "Naveen, are you in here?" he asked as he looked at the ceiling and would have really loved to hear that he was talking to his brother over some kind of radio device. "I could have messed up the entire country. I could have doomed everyone. Where are you?"

Naveen took a deep breath in, "I think that it would perhaps be scarier to you were you to see me."

Ralphie bowed his head trying to keep himself from not hyperventilating. Better not to see him? What had happened to him? "You're still my brother," he told him. "But are you alive? Please at least tell me whether or not you're alive?"

"I am alive," Naveen said. "More than that however…" he said awkwardly and Ralphie nodded. "I don't think you're ready to see me. I don't know how much I can help in this form? There's going to be time before the coronation but this guy, this guy knows how to play his cards and it's going to be a lot harder to stop him this time."

Naveen looked at Ralphie and saw his younger brother wrap an arm around himself and start shaking. He looked to the ceiling as if to have a panic attack and it pained Naveen to see this. He looked at his hands and the mucus on them before looking at his brother feeling as much a responsibility to calm him as he did his own children. "I'm going to come out slowly…I ask you not to…uh…squish me…" he said and Ralphie laughed weakly.

"Squish you?" he said with the words not making any sense to him. "Like a cockroach."

"More like a frog," Naveen said as he hopped onto the bed next to his brother who stared at him with a blank expression. There was silence in the room as Ralphie's eyes widened and Naveen just looked up at him. "You can see now wh-"

"Here," Ralphie said offering his hand out to his older brother, "Hop on," he said still in shock. When he felt the weight of Naveen on his hand he cupped his hands protectively around him and brought him up so he could look at him. "Okay. This is…strange…" he said and Naveen laughed.

"It's strange to me too, now I didn't mean to scare you. I think if I could explain," Ralphie brought Naveen towards his chest and held him securely but not enough to hurt him.

"No. You didn't scare me. I'd much prefer you to be alive," he said before placing Naveen down again and reclined on the bed so that they could look at each other face to much smaller froggy face. "So…can I ask why you're a frog."

"This shadow man you have encountered, I first met him in New Orleans working with this man Doctor Facilier. I was…let me say… a little rash in my judgment. At that time I was broke and trying to play up the bachelor life, entertaining many many women, but then I traded it all for a chance to be free and to have the green .Such a stupid play on words. But…I managed to break the spell by kissing a princess. By marrying Tiana and kissing her. And -"

"So Tiana took care of you before? That's how the two of you fell in love with each other?" he asked and then laughed a little. "Even though we're screwed, that story has its charms and its fantasy elements."

Naveen sighed, "We took care of each other but you're right, we do need to fix this especially if he's posing as me. I'm not going to tell the whole country that I've been changed into a frog."

"Of course not," Ralphie nodded before hearing a knock on the door, "It'd cause a complete panic." He saw Tia poke her head in to check on them. Ralphie sat up and smiled weakly to his sister-in-law. "I know. He's told me. He showed me what happened," he tried to explain looked back at his brother.

Tiana walked over to them and sat down, patting her lap for Naveen to jump there. "I saved his life, you know," she said trying to lighten the subject.

"In more than one way," Naveen added and Tiana gently ran her finger across the back of his hand and down his body, petting him as one would a much fluffier animal.

"So, you said that you think that the shadow man approached you and that he is trying to gain control of the kingdom. Did he tell you why?" Tiana asked and Ralphie shook his head trying to think back to that conversation. Power? Control? It didn't seem that he wanted more than that. All the souls of the country? He had signed a death warrant for the lives of countless people and now he felt as if he had been punched in the gut. His brother wouldn't support this, he understood that much at least.

"Tia," Naveen said as he looked at his brother. "What matters most is that we have some idea of what is going on. We might not know the right move to make just yet but no one is to blame. We've all assisted in this happening but we had no choice, we weren't clear on the information, we need to come up with some kind of battle strategy."

"I am not letting you go into battle in the state that you're in," Tiana refused and Naveen sighed.

"We beat those frog catchers, right? We beat Facilier. We have done a lot that we didn't think that we could do, why not go into battle in this forma as well," he challenged her but Tiana simply shook her head. She wasn't going to let him make her let her guard fall. As much as he might say that he didn't need it, he needed to be protected.

"Let's think of other methods," Ralphie suggested. "I think Tiana's right, you're too small, too easily hurt and we don't know what he's capable of."

There was another knock on the door and Ralphie sighed, falling backwards from exhaustion, what could happen next? He saw Tiana put Naveen in the box and then stood up and opened the door for the head of staff. "Hello, can we help you with something?" she asked politely and Ralphie sat up.

"An audience is requested with the prince," the head of staff said and Ralphie's eyes quickly drifted to the box before he stood up. He knew that this was a conversation that would happen without his brother being there but he wished it didn't. Hearing that he was going to take on the throne would only remind him of the deal that he had made. He gave an apologetic look back to Tiana and left the room.

"I'll report all the information when I get back," he told her and Tiana nodded. She sighed and sat on the bed, once they were gone she lifted Naveen out of the box.

"See, he loves you," she tried to comfort him. "And I'll always love you too."

End of Chapter Five

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Four

Uzzyrosales, KathyMesser, ThatBlackGirl