The Joker and the Queen

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Elena of Avalor

Copyright: Disney+

/

"And I know you could fall for a thousand kings

And hearts that would give you a diamond ring

When I fold, you see the best in me

The joker and the queen"

- Ed Sheeran, "The Joker and the Queen"

/

It was like a scene out of a fairy tale. On Queen Elena's twenty-first birthday and first coronation anniversary, in a glittering ballroom full of richly dressed people, Prince Alonso of Cordoba serenaded her with a love song on his guitar. The entire orchestra was backing him up; he must have planned this in advance. At the end of the song, he handed the guitar over to a footman, sank down elegantly on one knee, pulled a heart-shaped box out of his suit pocket and popped it open. The diamond inside was so big, it set off rainbow sparkles all the way across the room. The assembled guests burst into applause.

Luisa squeezed Francisco's arm. Gabe's jaw dropped until a grinning Naomi shut it for him. Isabel kept a tight grip on Flo to prevent the excited creature from bursting into the middle of the scene. Esteban watched it all with a knowing smirk on his face.

Elena gasped, put her hand over her mouth, and recovered with a smile more brilliant than the diamond.

Mateo de Alva, watching it all from behind a column, felt like he was going to be sick.

"Thank you so much, Prince Alonso." Elena's clear, confident voice carried effortlessly over the clapping and cheering before it subsided. "I am truly honored by your proposal. Before I give you my answer, though, would you please give me some time to think it over? Such an important decision shouldn't be rushed."

"Absolutely, Your Majesty." Alonso bounced up from his kneeling position like a jack-in-the-box, grinning from ear to ear. "Take all the time you need. Come on, everyone, don't let us interrupt you. Enjoy the party!"

The orchestra launched into its next song. Elena murmured something to Alonso, too quietly for anyone else to hear, which only made him grin even wider. She put a hand on his shoulder and spun him gently around, propelling him towards a nearby Princess Valentina of Paraiso. He bowed to the magenta-gowned woman; she glared daggers at him, but still accepted the offer to dance. They threw themselves into a tango so extravagant, every eye in the room was soon focused on them.

Mateo was tempted to make himself invisible. He knew the spell for it, after all. As it was, he simply shuffled into the shadows behind the column where he stood. He felt unbearably plain and awkward in his grandfather's second-hand robes, even though they were the finest clothes he owned. He could never in a million years pull off a performance like Alonso's, and even if he did, he had no idea how Elena would react.

"Mateo, there you are!" He jumped as Elena rubbed his shoulders from behind. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Dance with me?"

He turned around. She was glowing - not magically, but her face was flushed with triumph. Had Alonso's proposal really made her that happy? Mateo would never have believed it possible three years ago, but the playboy prince had matured a lot since then. He'd even risked his life to help defend Avalor from the Four Shades. Could Elena have developed real feelings for him?

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Mateo, with a bitterness he couldn't quite hide. "Your fiancé might not like it."

"My what?"

Mateo jerked his chin in the direction of Alonso, who was twirling Valentina around so that her full skirt cut a swathe through the other dancers.

"Not my fiancé," Elena snapped. "Did you hear me say anything remotely resembling the word "yes"?"

"Well, I didn't hear you say no." He hated how petty he sounded, like a sulky child, but he couldn't help himself.

"I was being diplomatic!" She kept her voice to a furious whisper to avoid being overheard. "What was I supposed to do when he made a scene like that in public? You know how it is for royals - "

"As a commoner, I'm afraid I don't."

"What's gotten into you?" She put her hands on her hips and scowled, before closing her eyes and taking a deep, deliberate breath, the way she did to keep from triggering her crystal magic. "Okay, c'mon. We need to talk. Come out to the balcony with me? Please?"

Mateo swallowed a sarcastic Yes, Your Majesty, but his uncomfortable "Oookay … " wasn't much of an improvement. She grabbed his hand and tugged him out through the balcony doors.

The cool, fresh air outside was a relief after the heat, noise, and competing perfumes of the ballroom. The moon shone down on the clean white lines of the balcony and the little gazebo. Elena had found him here five years ago, panicking over his investiture ceremony, and she'd encouraged him so warmly that the memory made his throat ache. Every time he thought he'd gotten the better of his gnawing doubts, they came back to bite him in a new shape.

"I'm sorry," he said, before she could ask what was wrong. "I know I'm being a jerk. I've got no right to be jealous over a proposal you didn't accept. I just … it's not easy to watch someone else offer you more than I could."

"More of what?" Elena looked bewildered. "Jewels? Money? A kingdom? I already have all of those."

"I know how important your alliance with Cordoba is to you."

"You're important too," she retorted. "And my alliance with Cordoba doesn't need a marriage to be strong. We trade with each other, we keep up the border bridge together, we've faced magical creatures together, for goodness' sake! Juan Ramon's a reasonable man, he'll understand. What I don't understand," she turned from confident queen to worried lover within moments, "Is why you're acting like this. You don't actually want me to marry Alonso, do you?"

"Of course not!" he burst out. "I'm trying to be realistic here, that's all. I know plenty of people at court think you could do better than me - "

"So what?"

" - and sometimes … sometimes I'm afraid they're right."

There. It was out. He hid his hands in his long sleeves and lowered his head, ashamed of himself, afraid of what he might see when he met her eyes. She loved him - he knew this, of course he did; they'd been together for a year and friends for even longer - but there were still moments like this, when he feared it was all too good to be true and would come crashing down around his ears at any moment, like all those failed spells in his mother's basement when he was a child.

"Mateo … " Her voice was beautifully soft; not an order, just a plea. "Mateo, look at me."

He did. Her copper-brown eyes alight with love were a sight he would never forget.

"I could remind you about all the amazing things you've achieved as Royal Wizard," she said, taking both his hands in hers, "Everything you've done for me and for Avalor, but it would be beside the point. It's like … remember that vision? The one Zuzo gave me the night before my coronation? I wasn't royal in that world and you weren't a wizard, but we still understood each other."

Mateo remembered her telling him that story. While the idea of being a court jester horrified him - if there were two things he hated, it was performing in front of crowds and being laughed at - it would have been worth it to see Elena leading a revolution.

"I don't love you for anything you can offer me," said Elena, "I love you for just being you."

"Elena … " His voice, never his most attractive feature, wobbled with tears, but it no longer embarrassed him. "I love you the same way. So very much."

The first time they met, moments after her emergence from the Amulet of Avalor, he had bowed to her and she had stopped him by leaning down to his eye level. He realized now that she'd been doing this every day since then. So did he sometimes, when she was sick or hurt or struggling with her emotions. What held them together was stronger than anyone or anything that could try to keep them apart … including his doubts.

"And while we're out here, I … I'd like to say something else," she said, ducking her head with a shy, flickering smile that was lightyears away from the queenly one she'd used to respond to Alonso. "I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, I was just waiting for the perfect moment. Only there's no such thing, is there? I'd go down on my knees, but this dress is really tight, and I don't have a ring, but we can pick one out from the Treasury later … Okay, whoa, now I'm rambling." She laughed. "Anyway … Mateo de Alva, will you marry me?"

As a proposal it was awkward, impulsive, heartfelt, and nothing at all like the staged performance Alonso had given earlier. It couldn't have been more perfect.

"Yes!"

He threw his arms around her, kissing her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids and finally her lips. Five years ago on this balcony, under the same stars, her touch had helped him conjure an illusion of light and fire, but tonight the light and fire ran in their veins, and the only magic was the strongest magic of all. They hardly even noticed the glow from Elena's crystal tiara, or the pink orchids growing between the flagstones.

"Poor Alonso," he said eventually, so happy he could afford to be generous. "I hope he won't be too disappointed.

"Oh no, not at all," said Elena cheerfully, leaning her head on his shoulder as they watched the city lights below. "He only proposed because his father asked him to. There's another girl he really likes, he's just too shy to ask her."

"Alonso of Cordoba? Shy?"

"I know, right? That's how much he likes her. And if he can win her over, Juan Ramon will have to be impressed."

"It's Val, isn't it?" Mateo remembered the nudge Elena had given her would-be suitor in the Paraisan princess' direction earlier. "Ah, I see what you're doing. Well played, Your Majesty."

"What can I say? I'm so happy right now, I just want to share it."

Yellow butterflies fluttered up from among the pink orchids, lighting up the night with their glow. One of them landed softly on Mateo's hand, tickling his skin. It shimmered and shifted into a delicate golden ring.

It was like a scene from a fairy tale, but better than any story he'd ever read, because it was theirs, and it was true.