Chapter 9 – Getting the Squad Together

-:-:-

"Why did you say that stuff to Mal?" Ben asked when they walked into Chad's suite, intent on tackling their homework before returning to the VKs.

Chad paused, because he'd said an awful lot of stuff to Mal and Ben hadn't bothered to be specific.

"The stuff about supporting my romance or whatever," Ben clarified when Chad was frozen in confusion.

"Oh." Chad took a moment to process this. "I just wanted to let your future partner know there wouldn't be any hard feelings-"

"Chad," Ben groaned, scooping the blond into his arms before collapsing on the nearest couch to cuddle him close. "That's not organic."

"No, it's natural," Chad countered. "To have clear communication, I mean. Or maybe it's not because most people don't do it, but that doesn't mean it's not necessary. They need to know that any romantic feelings towards you don't need to be stifled or anything on my account, assuming that's a thing they care about."

Ben perked up in just the wrong way, wrapping his arms more securely around Chad's waist. "Would they not care?" he asked. "I thought you said they were good people."

"They are," Chad insisted, because even Uma had only ever worked to get the children off the Isle because she knew they were being oppressed. "But they're also a bit rough around the edges." Chad sighed when Ben continued to give him an assessing look, the brunette knowing there was more to Chad's reservations because Chad had absolutely no poker face. "Okay, so, maybe in my world you were dating Audrey-"

"What?" Ben flailed a little, making Chad rock with him since he was being held so close. "Why?"

"At this point, I don't know," Chad admitted. "I'm sort of afraid maybe you were enchanted as well, which would be really awful, but like- ultimately it didn't matter because you broke up with her to start dating one of the VKs, and then you became the ultimate power couple and everyone loved you guys and it was like the perfect fusion of Auradon Tradition and New Isle representation and everything was good."

"Okay," Ben said, not seeming to entirely believe this because this version of Ben was a suspicious one. "What does this have to do with them not caring?"

"Well." Chad sighed. "You um- were apparently so enthralled with your new person that you sort of forgot to break up with Audrey." Not that Audrey told anyone this, because that would be entirely humiliating, so she just pretended it was a mutual breakup and moved onto Chad, who had always been there for her anyway. "Like, you just sort of broke into this huge song and dance number – it was really impressive, by the way – about how much you loved your new person, and that was how your broke up with Audrey."

Ben gave Chad a sort of hopeless look. "Other me sounds like a grade A douche," he said eventually, making Chad flail this time. "Actually, based on your description, that behavior seems entirely out of character for him, even if Audrey might have deserved it."

"Maybe," Chad said, because the entire concept of Audrey still hurt no matter what dimension he was in.

"If I was going to pull out the stops for a major song and dance, it would be like, for a proposal, not to ask someone out that might say no, especially one of the VKs, who seem so especially guarded. It's justified, of course, but still…" His lips pursed in thought. "Are you sure I wasn't enchanted then?"

"I- what?" Chad trailed off somewhat uselessly, because he'd never considered that.

"This person that I was in love with," Ben said. "So much so that I intentionally hurt Audrey like that – did they show any signs of enthusiastically reciprocating my affections?"

Chad thought about this, because even though he'd been instructed to keep his distance from the VKs, he'd taken it upon himself to keep an eye on them in case they actually did turn out to be evil.

"Not really," he said. "I was pretty sure they didn't like you all that much."

"And then I suddenly orchestrated a huge song and dance number for them," Ben said, seeming to put the pieces together. "That's a huge risk for someone in my position, let alone someone in yours, towards an individual who I would have without question had some amount of authority over. I don't think I would have done that in my right mind. I wouldn't have placed that kind of public pressure on anyone, unless having a mother somehow makes me a gigantic asshole."

"It didn't!" Chad pressed, turning so he could melt closer to Ben's chest. "It didn't, I promise. You're the best person I know, and it's not a mask. I've hung out with Audrey – I know when someone's faking it. You never did. It was always a genuine kindness and strength and-"

"Chad," Ben interrupted, curling his hand into the blond's hair to stop him from spiraling out completely. "It's okay, I don't actually think that."

"Never," Chad said, still feeling frantic. "Don't ever think that, please. It couldn't be farther from the truth." He reached up to cup Ben's jaw, which he probably shouldn't do, it probably crossed a line, but he needed the brunette to understand that.

For a moment, Ben just looked at him, tilting his head so he leaned more into Chad's hand, cutting down the distance between them.

They were probably too close. Chad hadn't realized it until that moment, but it wouldn't take much for Ben to just- not that he would, he wouldn't, but Chad wasn't smart and his dumb brain had the audacity to want it, even though Ben was never his to have, even though they were only faking what they had together.

"I trust you," Ben said, tilting his head forward just enough to rest his forehead against Chad's, staring deep into his eyes. This close, Chad couldn't miss the specs of gold scattered in the pretty hazel gaze, and Chad wondered if Ben thought his eyes were pretty too. Just- objectively.

It was enough to have Chad clearing his throat, hastily dropping his hand away from Ben's face so he could pull back and get back on topic. "I um- I trust you too," he said, cheeks feeling hot as he stared down at the ground. "So if you don't think you would have done it, then why do you think it happened?"

Ben was tense for a moment, one hand petting the length of Chad's side before he spoke up. "It sounds like a love potion to me," he said. "They picked up a spell book from Mal, right? Maybe she used that to enchant alternate me under her control so she could have more security."

"But… did that just never end then?" Chad asked. "Because they kept dating. And they seemed to genuinely love you – you'd have to be crazy not to see that."

"I imagine it would be quite easy to fall in love with someone enchanted to adore every part of you," Ben murmured, his voice hard.

"No, no." Chad shook his head. "Because Uma- you got enchanted to love someone else, and they- your person – broke the enchantment with true love's kiss. True love, Ben. Wouldn't the second enchantment cancel out the first? If it was broken, both of them would have been broken, which would mean that you were back to your normal self and even then you still kept dating them and named them your person of the court and asked them to marry you. You wouldn't have done that if you hadn't wanted to, right?"

"Maybe," Ben said, biting at his lip. "Maybe I just thought it was the best option, seeing as my other choice was Audrey."

"Ben," Chad urged, leaning into the brunette's shoulder. "I promise you have a good relationship. A great relationship. And you'll figure that out for yourself if you just give it a chance. We'll be on guard for love potions this time-"

"For you," Ben said, making Chad blink. "You're the prince of everything now, remember? Not me. If they're going to target anyone, it's you."

"Well, that's one less thing you have to worry about," Chad decided. "Because now you know if any of them make moves on you, it's genuine."

"Or they could be luring me away from you so that you're available-"

Chad sighed. "You need to believe in this. You can trust them. The VKs have saved Auradon at least twice. Or, they would save Auradon if given the opportunity to. They will choose good, because they're just kids that want to have basic security and love each other and they haven't been given the opportunity to do that."

"Then there's no need to rush things," Ben decided. "We don't need to search for romances that might have happened before just yet. Let's let them settle, let them decide to be good and then worry about romantic engagements."

"That's… fair," Chad said.

He knew it was a big deal for the VKs the first time had been their quest to get Fairy Godmother's wand, but if Auradon was going to get all the innocent people off the Isle anyway, maybe they wouldn't want that anymore? Or maybe they just needed to be shown that being normal kids was better than trying to take over the entirety of Auradon, which Chad was pretty sure was what their parents wanted them to do last time.

"Then that's settled!" Ben chirped, caressing a hand up Chad's inner thigh. "We won't worry about this now. No more trying to matchmake me-"

"But Ben," Chad whimpered when the prince brought his hand between Chad's legs, letting it hover over his groin with a meaningful look.

Chad was a weak person at the end of the day, and if Ben was interested, well-

He nodded.

"No buts," Ben hummed, smile tugging at his lips, giving Chad a careful grope before he moved to undo his belt. "From now on, we allow things to progress naturally – for real, this time."

"Okay," Chad sighed, though he made the addendum to only apply this to Ben.

After all, Doug and Evie were a power couple in their own right, and Carlos and Jane had always seemed really happy together. There was no reason Chad couldn't help them out.

"Thank you," Ben sighed in relief, eager to slip his hand into Chad's pants and fondle him through his underwear. "Now, what do you say about a reward for doing such a good job with the VKs this afternoon?"

"I'm pretty sure I did a lousy job," Chad whined when long fingers teased the head of his length through the soft material. "So I don't need- Ben."

"Agree to disagree," Ben rumbled, burying his face in the curve of Chad's neck as he continued to tease the blond, and Chad… well, he was greedy, and he'd already put Ben through a lot this afternoon, so he let the other prince have his fun. It wasn't like he wasn't getting something out of it.

-:-:-

"Fucking hell," Mal grumbled whenever the two of them went to pick the VKs up from their testing site. "You weren't joking about that orientation."

Chad fidgeted slightly, but felt better with Ben's hand in his. "I figured it'd be better to give you too much information rather than not enough." That had been something Carlos and Evie had complained about last time. "The same data's available for you in book form in each of your dorm rooms, and your provided laptops have a link to a database that covers the same stuff online."

"And you're getting us phones?" Jay asked, abandoning his flirtation for curiosity.

"That's still a work in progress," Chad said, because it was difficult setting up phone plans for people who didn't technically exist in Auradon – so the VKs' citizenship paperwork would have to be finalized before they got their phones, though that had been covered in the orientation too. "Though we should be able to get them to you by the end of the week."

"Wow," Dizzy said, sort of dancing happily in place. "Do you think I can put rhinestones on mine? I brought some in case I needed to make outfits snazzy."

"We can pick out cases for each of you," Chad said. "They're designed to protect your phones, and you can put rhinestones on that."

"Awesome," Dizzy whispered, sharing a happy grin with Evie.

Chad made a note to get Dizzy all the glue and rhinestones she could possibly want before they herded the VKs towards the dining hall. Unlike last time, they had an idea as to how it functioned.

Okay, maybe Ben hadn't really been good with details the first time around, but at least he got them over. That definitely counted. Chad was just learning from his mistakes.

"And we can have as much of this as we want?" Gil asked, following him down the line as Chad and Ben showed the VKs how to get what they wanted to eat.

"Pretty much," Chad said, scooping up a careful serving of roast beef and putting it next to his mashed potatoes, letting Gil watch before the other blond copied him. "The dining hall has established hours on the weekdays for breakfast, lunch, and dinner-"

"And then longer hours on the weekends," Gil said. "Yeah, I remember that."

"Right." Chad flushed. "Sorry, I didn't think you forgot-"

"Hey, no- you were just trying to be helpful," Gil chirped. "Which is super nice! I think that's just your default though, which is weird, but really cool. I'm not really surprised you're related to Dizzy. She's super nice too."

"Thanks, Gil!" Dizzy cheered from Chad's other side, his small cousin happily letting Chad demonstrate what needed to be done before taking food for herself. "Gil's also nice, except when he has to do mean stuff on Uma's orders."

"Uma's the captain," Gil drawled sagely. "That means she's my boss, and she doesn't like ordering us to do mean stuff either, it's just a thing we have to do. You know how it is."

"Yeah," Dizzy sighed, chewing on her bottom lip.

"But hey, we don't have to do that anymore!" Gil continued. "If we behave, we get to stay here, and soon the rest of our crew and your cousins will get off."

"I have other cousins?" Chad asked, aiming the question at Dizzy.

"Yeah." Dizzy nodded. "My cousin Anthony's your age, and he has two sisters."

"Oh." Chad felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment, because he hadn't known that. He would have invited them if he'd known. He didn't mean to play favorites.

"Don't feel bad," Gil offered, giving his shoulder a few pats. "Just because you didn't get them off now doesn't mean it won't happen."

"What he said!" Dizzy cheered. "We figured you guys were guessing since you didn't have any names on the invitations – just 'Child of Drizzella'."

"'Youngest son of Gaston'," Gil chirped. "Which kind of makes me wonder how you knew about Trois and Junior."

"…my vision," Chad settled on, his end all explanation for everything.

"Wow," Gil said. "I hope I get visions someday. They sound super useful."

They really were.

Chad was afraid that he and Ben were going to have to split up for dinner, but the VKs ended up sticking together. Chad suspected it was because neither Mal nor Uma wanted the other crew to get a chance to acquire new information from Chad without them being present. It ended with the lot of them at a big round table, Ben on one side of Chad and Dizzy on the other.

"So I was thinking we could shop for fabric this Saturday?" Chad said. "If that works for you, I mean. It'll give you the week to get used to how things run here."

"That sounds great!" Dizzy cheered. "Honestly, this is all like a dream. Do you think this is how your mom felt when she went to the ball?"

"Something like it," Chad said, his heart twinging in his chest. "I'm glad you're happy, Dizzy."

The young girl blinked at him, eyes widening before they filled with a distinct happy moisture that she ducked her head to conceal.

"Speaking of your mom," Mal spoke up suddenly, pulling Chad's attention away from his cousin. "Are you as close to Fairy Godmother as she was?"

"Not um- really," Chad replied honestly. It turned out that his grandfather had- not exiled, but encouraged Fairy Godmother to take up residency in a different kingdom after the death of Chad's mother. Queen Belle was the one that recruited her for Auradon Prep, and the rest was history. "I did work with her a lot recently to get the new school programs running."

"That's a shame," Mal said, wearing that fake smile again. "Aren't you interested in reconnecting with your birth mother's family?"

"He literally just broke his enchantment," Ben growled. "Give him a break."

"Ben," Chad whispered, because they'd just talked about this. They had. "She didn't mean it like that."

She was likely just trying to segue into a conversation about Fairy Godmother's wand.

Ben sighed, which indicated he was trying to hold his temper in check, something he was getting better at but this was a lot of new Chad was throwing at him and Chad knew he felt uneasy sharing Chad with so many new people. The blond watched as he considered a new response before Ben tensed, his gaze darting over to the distance before letting out a small growl.

"What?" Chad asked, tension curling in his chest. "What is it?"

"Marnie again," Ben said, making a show of wrapping his arm around Chad's shoulders.

Despite this, Chad tensed, because Marnie was one of his more relentless admirers.

"Who's Marnie?" Dizzy asked innocently, though perhaps with the worst timing because that was when the DunBroch teen was upon them, her brown locks pulled back into an intricate braid.

"Oh, are ye talking about me, Chadwick?" Marnie purred, the teen the daughter of some DunBroch clansman or other that Chad hadn't ever spoken to in his old world. "I'm flattered."

"Hi, Marnie," Chad said, offering her a polite wave. "How are you doing?"

"Better, now that I'm talking to you," she said with a roguish wink before her gaze shifted to Chad's boyfriend. "Benjamin."

"Marnie," Ben drawled back, nuzzling Chad's shoulder in a pointed display of romantic connection.

"That's Marion, to you," she replied, and though her tone was nothing less than cheerful, there was a cutting edge to it.

"So, Marnie," Chad spoke up because otherwise they'd devolve into a staring match where nobody won and Chad got to feel entirely awkward. "How can I help you?"

Immediately, the teen perked up. "I was actually checking to see if ye were free this Saturday morning," she said. "My cousin managed to score tickets to the last pre-season scrimmage for the Auradon Knights." The professional Tourney team that played for Auradon City, the capital of Auradon. "And we had an extra ticket. We'd be honored if ye could join us – we have a private box and everything, so ye don't have to worry about unsavory press."

"That's a um- delightful offer, Marnie," Chad said, trying to be as sincere as possible. "But I already have plans this Saturday."

"He's taking us shopping!" Dizzy chirped, stepping in before Marnie could casually probe for such details herself.

At the very least, the smile that slid onto Marnie's face seemed like a genuine one. "That's very kind of him," she said, not seeming to be mad at being passed over for Isle kids. "Then again…" Her gaze shifted to Ben. "Chadwick is well known for his generosity, so I suppose it's not a real surprise."

For a moment Ben tensed, and then he offered her a cheerful grin, curling himself a little closer to Chad's side.

"Thanks for the invitation, though," Chad said, trying to get them back on track. "Maybe next time."

"Of course," Marnie cheered, her nature entirely calm and positive and better than anything Audrey could have ever managed. "I'll see you in Calc."

"Right." Chad offered her another wave as she fluttered away, the teen giving the VKs a respectful nod before returning to her own table.

He didn't relax until he was turned back to face their table, and while he couldn't sigh, couldn't slump, he did lean into Ben's attention, because it helped him feel a bit more stable.

"Do you want me to growl at her next time?" Ben rumbled, nuzzling the curve of Chad's neck. "Because I can do it."

"It doesn't mean you should," Chad sighed, reaching up to pet Ben's cheek. "But I do appreciate the offer."

"Anything for my boo," Ben said, startling a laugh from Chad.

"That happen a lot?" Uma asked, getting directly to the point in a manner Chad was beginning to recognize as her usual method of operation.

"Only always," Ben grumbled, letting his fingers tighten in the material of Chad's jacket.

"Everyone wants to be the future queen of Sardinia, I guess," Chad said. "Or consort. It doesn't always matter if I'm already dating someone, even though it should." He shook his head, forcing himself out of his slump. "But there's worse things in life, right? That's just a minor annoyance. So um- did you guys look over the list of extracurricular activities?"

"Is it true that we each have to pick one of them?" Dizzy asked.

"Yeah, all students have to participate in one," Chad said. "It keeps us well-rounded, and also confirms that we're socializing, at least a little bit."

"I think I want to be a cheerleader," Dizzy mused. "That looks like fun. Or do costumes for the drama club!"

"I think you'd be good at both of those things," Chad said.

"Not like you're biased or anything," Mal muttered, but it seemed to be an almost fond thing, so Chad took it as a win.

He was happy to get those wherever he could, nowadays.

-:-:-

Despite them not having the same first day as last time, Chad decided to not take risks and prepared for the inevitability of the VKs sneaking out that evening to go to the Museum of Cultural History. Chad wouldn't have known about this were it not for Jay, who'd confided in Chad when he was slightly drunk and giggly, the Agraben deigning to hang out with him during the celebrations for the fall of the barrier because he couldn't find any of his other friends.

"They're on dates," Jay had slurred, his arm thrown around Chad's shoulders and cheeks flushed. "Because they're all, you know, romance people. People capable of romance."

"You're capable of romance, Jay," Chad offered as he fumbled the muscular teen onto a stone bench, the blond managing to maneuver them to a less-occupied area of the celebrations so they could breathe for a little bit. In truth, Chad should be with Audrey right now, would be with Audrey if she hadn't wanted space from his clinginess, which had left Chad at loose ends for that evening, at least until Jay's texts had started getting less coherent.

It was then that Chad used his Google alerts to track the other teen down to where he was nursing a bottle of what seemed to be moonshine, his hair fallen from the pristine bun it had been in earlier.

"I don't know why you think that," Jay said, unfocused eyes seeming somewhat miserable. "I don't know why you think I'm great at all, I treat you like shit."

"I mean…" Chad shrugged. "It's an objective greatness. You don't have to be nice to me for that to be true."

"But I should- I should be nice to you for you to believe it," Jay said, his head slumping dejectedly against Chad's shoulder. "…shouldn't you be with Audrey?"

"She um- wanted some space," Chad said. "So I'm giving it to her. I'm a good boyfriend."

"I don't doubt that," Jay said, and for whatever reason, he seemed to mean it. "You've always been dedicated." Before Chad could question what that meant, Jay continued, "I used to be dedicated, you know. Like when we first came over here, I was dedicated to the job. All for breaking into museums and trying to steal Fairy Godmother's wand and all that."

"Did you guys break into the museum?" Chad said. "Wait, that first night-"

"Yeah, that was us," Jay said with a lazy wave of his hand. "Don't tell anyone though, it's a secret." His head rolled towards Chad, bringing his face a lot closer than Chad was used to. "Know what else is a secret?" Jay asked, one of his hands rising to stroke Chad's chin. "How pretty you are."

"Jay," Chad whined, the same way he did any time the Agraben made fun of him.

"Okay, I guess it's not really a secret," Jay said as he began to stroke Chad's lips in clumsy movements. "But you're really fucking pretty, and that's a very frustrating thing for me. I hope you know that."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize," Jay said. "It's really- really not something I regret." Which made no sense, considering the previous conversation, but Jay was also drunk, so. "Does Audrey tell you you're pretty?"

"No," Chad said, blushing at the mere thought of it. "I tell her she's pretty, that's how it works."

"That's a stupid system," Jay declared. "And it's always like that. You're always giving stuff to Audrey and she just takes it and doesn't give shit in return."

Chad tensed. "Audrey gives me plenty of stuff."

"Like trauma?" Jay countered with a snort. "Come on, you told everyone you volunteered to be her lackey but we all know she stole you from the party. Jane saw it happen. She dragged you by your hair."

"She wasn't herself," Chad insisted, his heart pounding faster in his chest. "And it wasn't that bad. She was just a little intense, but she didn't hurt me."

"She locked you in a closet," Jay pointed out. "Even I know you don't like that because of that one time Fritz locked you in the storage shed and Ben literally ripped the lock off the door to get you out instead of letting me pick it, which I could have done, but I guess being fast was um- worth it because you were all curled up scared in the corner, so." He clumsily nuzzled Chad's shoulder. "Carlos doesn't like that shit either."

"…she wasn't herself," Chad repeated, because he didn't like reliving those low moments in school when he was pretty sure it was an accident but it could have also been bullying and he guessed he'd never know.

Jay scoffed. "Even when she's herself she doesn't treat you well," he muttered. "You should break up with her."

Chad froze. He didn't know where this was coming from, but then again, he was trying to apply reason to a drunk person. "I'm not going to do that."

"Why not?" Jay pressed, exasperated. "You can do better than her."

"She's literally the best princess in all of Auradon," Chad said. She had to be, Ben had dated her. "So no, I can't."

"Excuse you," Jay slurred. "But Evie's the best princess in Auradon."

Chad couldn't really fault that, but- "Evie's dating Doug," he pointed out. "I wouldn't want to come between them." Even if he thought he could manage such a thing, which he didn't. "Or hurt Doug like that. Doug was my roommate."

"Oh," Jay said, blinking at him. "Well, Audrey's still not even like, the second-best princess, so you shouldn't date her. You should date me."

"You need to stop drinking," Chad informed him, relieving Jay of his moonshine, which he should have done earlier. "And I'm very lucky to have Audrey. She puts up with a lot from me. I'm not nearly as charming or smart or powerful as Ben but she likes me anyway."

"You can do better…" Jay insisted, seeming to struggle to hold his eyes open. "You can… we can…"

He trailed off into sleep after that, which was likely for the best. Chad was pretty sure he didn't like this conversation anyway, though it was sort of nice that drunk Jay thought he deserved better, that had been cool. At the very least, he'd learned a lot from that conversation, but mostly he'd learned that it was the VKs that caused the false alarm at the museum the first night they were in Auradon. Chad had only known about it because of Doug, who liked to keep an eye on such things, who thought it was ludicrous that such important items were being held in a museum of all places, even if the security was supposedly good.

"You could just tell this stuff to Ben," Chad had said partway through one of Doug's rants when the dwarf kin stared at the security alert on his phone that had woken them up at three in the morning. "He's going to be the king soon, you know, he could do something to fix it."

Just like every other time Chad brought Ben up in their daily conversations, Doug had slumped, a light flush spilling across the bridge of his nose. "I'm not you, Chad," he grumbled, climbing back into bed in that adorable way of his. Chad wasn't sure how Doug managed to make everything cute, but he did. "I can't just go up and start a conversation with Ben. He's Ben."

Ironically, now Doug had conversations with Ben all the time because their girlfriends/fiancés were best friends, so Chad supposed it was he that got the last laugh after all.

But that was past stuff things. Now Chad had to stay focused on the present, which was ironically sort of his past.

Universe-changing wishes were really confusing.

"What are we doing here?" Aziz asked, huddling in his sweater and pajama pants and sneakers, looking sleep muddled but mostly confused as he dragged Chad back to the present.

"We are being careful," Chad decided, trying not to blush at the way Ben was more or less glued to his back, the brunette having let Chad know his objections to this affair many times over by this point. "We are going to be ready in case a um- thing happens."

"He thinks the transfer students might try to sneak out," Ben grumbled into the curve of Chad's neck, making Lonnie perk up in excitement.

"Are we here to stop them?" Lonnie asked, sharing a manic grin with Jane, who seemed confused as to why she had been invited. Come to think of it, Doug seemed that way too, which was a shame, because Doug was the best. Maybe this version of Doug had been afraid to talk to him the same way the old version had been afraid to talk to Ben.

"Sort of," Chad allowed. "In a stealthy fashion."

"Yeah," Aziz spoke up. "That's the part that confuses me."

"Don't worry, it will all make sense," Chad soothed, his gaze shifting over Aziz's shoulder as he caught the sounds of boots scraping against pavement around the corner, and knew his planning had been justified. "Just act natural."

The other prince didn't have a chance to ask for clarification before Mal's group came around the corner, immediately coming to an abrupt halt as they looked on him with surprise.

"Oh good, you're here!" Chad chirped, like this was entirely planned. "I didn't think you'd make it."

"…yes," Mal said, recovering before the others could. "Well, you know- we figured, since we had the time."

"Right, right," Chad laughed, pretending that she was joking with him rather than unleashing barbs dripped in sarcasm.

There was a beat, and then Uma and her two crewmates came around the other corner, and it was fortunate that both groups had decided to use this particular shortcut like Chad had hopefully anticipated.

"Great, you guys made it too!" Chad cheered. "Then we can get started. Welcome to the night hike. Fairy Godmother gave us permission to do this as a sort of welcome/bonding activity. Does anyone have any questions?"

Gil raised a tentative hand. "What's a night hike?"

"Good question," Chad said, giving him a gentle grin. "A hike is a walk through rural areas, usually for fun, and a night hike does this during the evening, usually so we can get a view of nocturnal animals that aren't out during the day. Tonight, we're going to walk up to the clearing so we can see fireflies."

"Oh, cool," Gil chirped, as though he instantly forgot why they had been out in the first place.

"If that's all, follow me," Chad said. "And um- I brought some other students for you guys to meet so you can um… bond and stuff."

"Which is very thoughtful," Ben said, nuzzling Chad's curls before slipping his hand into the blond's and tugging him forward.

Thank goodness for Ben, was all Chad was saying.

And planning.

And night hikes, he supposed.

-:-:-

Endnotes:

Conceptually speaking, night hikes don't seem like the best idea in the world, but for the purposes of the story, this was the best Chad had. Good on him for making believable cover stories ^_^

Story notes:

This is playing under the assumption that Ben kept the whole love potion thing under wraps to keep Mal and the others out of trouble.

Marnie is entirely made up for the purposes of this story.

In this universe, evil Audrey took Chad hostage instead of him volunteering to go with her, because this is my party and I make the rules ;D

Hey look, references to Fritz being the worst again, that guy just can't seem to help himself ;) For the record, Fritz in another one of my antagonistic OCs, one of the many princes of the Southern Isles who never has a hope of inheriting anything.

It was definitely bullying, Chad. Definitely bullying.

Until next time :)