Sorry that this chapter took me so long to write. I started it right after I posted the last chapter, but I just got stuck. I ended up writing 2000 words of fluff, and deleted almost all of it. I didn't really know how to write the whole 'breaking into the throne room' scene, so I hope it's okay. And, the last part of this wasn't really planned either. I really only have the major plot points planned out, so most of the details are just appearing while I write them. Anyway, sorry for the wait, but I hope this chapter is okay! (It also isn't edited, so sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes)
By the time Puck knocked on Sabrina's door that night, their plan had already been messed up.
"I couldn't find our clothes!" Sabrina exclaimed as soon as Puck had closed the door behind him. "I think they got thrown out!"
"Ugh! I had been worried about that." Sabrina picked uncomfortably at the long, frilly robe and nightgown her maids had dressed her in.
"Can I borrow some of your clothes? I can't do anything wearing this."
"It probably won't fit, but yeah." Puck looked at her doubtfully. "I guess we should go to my room." Halfway down the hall, Sabrina remembered that she had forgotten something.
"Wait! The food!" She ran back into her room and grabbed the sack that she had filled with string, eggs, peanut butter and muffins.
"So, what's all this for?" She asked when she got back to Puck. He grinned at her.
"Pranking, of course!" Sabrina groaned.
"Even the muffins?"
"No, those are just to eat." Sabrina glared at him.
"Why couldn't you have gotten all of this? It took me ages to find the kitchen!" She whined. It had taken her the whole afternoon to find all of Puck's supplies and to discover that their clothes were gone.
"I had royal duties!" Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"What were you even doing?"
"Meetings."
"About what?"
"I dunno. Fancy schmancy royal stuff."
"You could have at least told me where the kitchen was!" Puck shrugged and smirked.
"Oops!" Sabrina shoved Puck into a wall, and kept walking past him.
"Hey, Grimm! You missed my room!" Sabrina looked back, and saw Puck going through a door. Whoops. She couldn't remember where anything in this palace was. She walked in after Puck, and shut the door behind her.
Puck's room was just as she had remembered it. Impersonal and large. She looked over at his bed, and remembered their first kiss. Her cheeks heated. It was not the time!
Puck was rifling through a wardrobe, looking for clothes that might fit Sabrina.
"Here," he said, holding out a pair of pants that looked way too big for her. She bent down to take off her slippers, and looked when she felt Puck's gaze on her.
"Yes?" She asked, annoyed. "I still need a shirt, you know!" Puck smirked.
"But you're changing in front of me! I wanted to see the show!" Sabrina blushed and glared at him.
"I was just going to put these on under the rest of my clothes! Don't be… Like that!" she paused, looking around. "Which door's the bathroom?"
"Aw. I never said I didn't want you to change in front of me!"
"Puck!"
"Fine, fine, too much. The bathroom's the second door," He said, waving a hand at the wall before ducking into the wardrobe again. Sabrina went into the bathroom and shut the door carefully behind her. Then she turned her attention to getting dressed.
Okay, she had actually lied to Puck. She hadn't been able to find most of their normal clothes, but she had refused to part with her underwear on the first night. She had been wearing her panties since they got there, because she did not like the 1800s equivalent. But, wearing a bra didn't work with the elaborate dresses and corset. So, she had stashed it under the mattress of her bed. She had decided to wear it tonight, under her nightgown, because she didn't want to be sneaking around braless, and couldn't wear a corset while sneaking.
So, the first thing Sabrina did was strip down into her underwear. Next, she pulled the pants on. It was bad. They were a little tight at her thighs, too loose everywhere else, and did not stay up the slightest little bit. But it was better than a dress.
"Puck!" She called through a crack in the door. "Do you have a belt?"
"Coming!" He shouted back. "Here, open the door a little more." Making sure to keep her body around the opposite side of the door, Sabrina cracked the door enough for Puck to pass her a button down white shirt and a belt.
"Does that work?" He asked through the crack."
"Just a sec." Sabrina shut the door, and pulled on the shirt. It was big, and very long, but it would work. The real problem was the belt. She tried to strap it on, but the holes didn't go small enough! Then, she had an idea.
She pulled the silken robe, or 'dressing gown' as her maids had called it, from the pile of clothes on the floor. She pulled out the sash, and tied it around the top of her pants. The knot was a bit awkward, but at least the pants weren't falling down. It was probably the best she could do.
"I'm done!" Sabrina called as she opened the door and walked back into Puck's room. Then she froze. Puck was standing opposite her, facing away, in the process of pulling a shirt on. Her eyes widened, and Puck whirled around. He raised an eyebrow at her blush.
"So I can't watch you change, but you can watch me?"
"I didn't mean to! I was just done!" Puck let out an amused chuckle and took a few steps closer.
"Sure you were." Sabrina found her gaze falling down to his bare chest. Stop. Looking. At. Puck. She wrenched her eyes away, and turned around.
"Put a shirt on, will you!"
"Oo, am I making you nervous?" he taunted.
"Of course not-" Sabrina whirled around, and found herself face to face with Puck.
"Puck!" She whined. "Put a shirt on!" He grinned.
"What if I just walk around like this from now on?"
"Puck!"
"Fine! If you really care that much!" He walked over to his bed, and pulled on the shirt that was sitting on it.
"Why were you even changing anyway?" Sabrina asked him. Puck shrugged. Then she realized that he had just put on the same shirt he had been wearing earlier!
"Puck! That's the same shirt you were wearing earlier!"
"Yeah."
"So why did you take it off?"
"I wanted to see your reaction." He grinned at her, and Sabrina's face heated.
"What do you mean, just to see my reaction?"
"You heard me. Now let's get on with this." For a second Sabrina had no idea what he was talking about, but then she remembered why she had been changing clothes in the first place.
"Right. The throne room." She paused. "So how many guards are there again?"
"There should just be one at the main entrance, and one patrolling each of the hallways on either side. So we only have to sneak past three guards."
"How are we doing it? Diversion?" Puck nodded.
"Diversion. That's where the Trickster King comes in!" Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Can't we just cause a normal diversion?"
"Nope! Because only a few of the guards would come to check it out. We need all three distracted to make it in."
"Sooooooo… What are you going to do?" Puck grinned mischievously, then explained exactly what was in store for those three poor guards.
Ten minutes later, Sabrina and Puck were crouched in a hallway near the throne room. It ran perpendicular to one of the hallways patrolled by a guard, so they could see him as he walked back and forth, up and down the hallway. Puck was ready.
A couple minutes later, Sabrina watched the guard trip over the string Puck had set up going across the hallway. Cursing, he stumbled around to see what he had tripped on. He saw the tripwire, and his head immediately came up, looking around. He knew someone was there.
While Sabrina had been keeping an eye on the first guard, Puck had gone to the other hallway to trip the second one. Right on que, the two guards came around their respective corners to ask the door guard if he had seen anything suspicious. But, just as as Sabrina and Puck had planned, he wasn't there.
The door guard was currently rushing away to change his clothes, because Sabrina, pretending to be a servant, had 'accidentally' crashed into him with a bunch of peanut butter.
When the hall guards saw the missing door guard, they immediately knew that something was wrong.
"I'll fetch more guards!" One yelled to the other as he ran off. The other looked unsure what to do, so he ran off down another hall, presumably looking for the culprit. It was their chance.
Silently, Sabrina snuck up to the throne room doors and started to pick the lock. Within minutes, she was in.
"Sabrina Grimm, Queen of Sneaks," Puck whispered in her ear as he came up behind her, putting his hands on her waist.
"Puck!" she whisper-yelled. "Be quiet!" She grinned.
"You're being louder than me!" She silently glared, not wanting to agree with him. With a huff, Sabrina turned around and started to circle the room.
Lining the darkened throne room were many small alcoves and tables, each displaying some artifact or treasure. She squinted to see, as the only light was coming from the huge, moonlight window at the end of the room.
"Puck! Did we bring a flashlight or something?"
"No flashlights in the beginning of the nineteenth century." she groaned. How could she forget?
"What about… Candles?"
"Nope!" She rolled her eyes, wanting to blame Puck, even though it was partly her fault that they hadn't brought a light source.
"You search the other side," She said instead. He complied, and they spent the next few minutes walking up the sides of the long room, looking for a brass ring. For a second, Sabrina had thought that she had seen it, but the ring she saw had small green crystals set into it. The one they wanted was solid, tarnished brass.
In a rush of footsteps, there was a bang on the door, then another. Sabrina jumped and spun around, her face white. All of a sudden, she was glad that Puck had taken the time to barricade the door.
"We're out of time!"
"Over here!" Puck called, running behind the throne. "There's a secret passage back here!" He was going to open the secret door, but when he saw Sabrina his breath caught. Practically glowing in the soft moonlight coming from the window next to them, with her hair coming out of it's ponytail and wearing clothes that were way too big for her, his clothes, she was so, so beautiful. The most beautiful girl in the world. And she was his Sabrina. To her surprise, the second she had walked up to Puck, he seized her waist and was desperately kissing her.
"Puck!" She gasped, a little dazed. Why would Puck randomly kiss her at a time like this? "Puck. Not the time." He gazed down at her, and this time it was Sabrina's breath that caught. His green eyes were wide and full of emotion. Without warning, he kissed her again, but Sabrina pushed him away.
"Not the time!" She repeated, and Puck seemed to come to his senses.
"Sorry," He muttered, but he still held her gaze.
"How do we get out?" Sabrina asked him. "Where's the secret passage?" Finally, at her request and the growing noise behind the door, Puck turned and pulled up a tile behind the throne to reveal a ladder that descended into darkness.
"After you!" He waved a hand at the ladder. Sabrina gave him a searching glance, then grabbed the ladder and went down. She was still really confused. All thoughts of the magic ring out of her head, her mind was racing with the memory of what had just happened. Why was Puck acting like that?
She descended hand over hand for about ten feet before she felt one foot hit the floor. Reaching out, she could feel stone. She was in a tunnel, about four feet wide and tall enough to stand in. The only light came from the hole above her, where Puck balanced on the ladder as he pulled the tile back over the entrance to the passage.
"What took you so long?" She hissed at him.
"I left some... surprises on my father's throne." Sabrina couldn't see him, but knew that he had just smirked.
"The raw eggs?"
"Yeah."
"Quiet! They might hear us!" Puck didn't reply, and Sabrina soon heard the reason why. They could hear several pairs of footsteps thundering about them. Sabrina reached behind her, grabbed Puck's shirt, pulled him up next to her.
"Do the guards know about this tunnel?" she breathed. She felt him shake his head, and he stepped closer until their foreheads were touching.
"Royal family secret. Let's go." Feeling for his hand, Sabrina grabbed it, and they started their walk down the tunnel. The noise from the throne room soon became muffled, and eventually they were walking in silent darkness. After a few minutes of this, Puck stopped walking.
"This tunnel should let out right around the corner to my room. We'll be there soon." Sabrina nodded, then remembered that he couldn't see her.
"Got it. Why is this tunnel here anyway?"
"It's an escape for the royal family if they ever got trapped in the throne room. But we've never had to use it, so no guards no about it."
"That's good." Sabrina leaned into him, and felt herself yawn. Puck chuckled, and yawned too.
"We better hurry up and get back," She said into the silence. They walked for a few more minutes, hand in hand. Even though she couldn't see a thing in front of her, Sabrina was enjoying the silence. And Puck's hand in hers. She had just started to daydream about what her and Puck's relationship would be like once they got back to Ferryport Landing, when her slipper-clad toe slammed into something hard.
"Shit!" She yelled, bending over to grab her foot.
"What's wrong?" Puck yelled back, pulling her behind him and stepping forward. His foot hit the same thing Sabrina's had, and he fell backwards on one foot.
"Well," Puck gasped. "At least we found the stairs." Sabrina waved out the hand that wasn't holding her foot, trying to hit Puck.
"You couldn't have WARNED ME THAT THERE ARE STAIRS?" Puck groaned.
"I forgot! I haven't been here in years!" Sabrina shot him a dirty look, even though she knew he couldn't see her.
"Well I'm not wearing REAL SHOES!" It was true. The only shoes she could find in her room were either heels, boots, or flimsy slippers. The slippers had seemed like the best choice for sneaking, but were really only a small step up from going barefoot.
"I'm sorry, 'Brina. I really just forgot." Sabrina was surprised at the sincerity in his voice, but knew he was telling the truth.
"Yeah, I know." They let the silence ring for a few seconds. "But now we have to go up the stairs in the dark." Puck sighed.
"Yep."
A few minutes later proved that the stairs were indeed very hard to climb. Like the rest of the tunnel, they were roughly carved out of stone and packed dirt, but unlike the rest of the tunnel, they were not smooth. Every step was a different size, which meant that they had to feel for each step with their feet before they could walk forward.
It seemed like they had been yawning and climbing up hundreds of steps by the time Sabrina ran into the door. She had been prepared to climb yet another step when her foot couldn't find the edge of it. It kept going up. She reached forward, and felt scratchy wood. Puck, however, had not realized that she had stopped.
"Oof!" Sabrina grunted as Puck ran into her back.
"Sorry!" He exclaimed. "Is it the door?"
"Yeah," Sabrina replied. "But I can't find a handle.
"It'll only open for a faerie," Puck explained. Sabrina stepped to the side so that Puck could reach the door. As his hand made contact with it, Sabrina heard a click and it started to swing open. But before it could go far, Puck grabbed the edge.
"Guards," He whispered. Extra guards must be patrolling the halls, to see if they can catch whoever tricked the throne room guards, Sabrina thought.
"Wait, Puck!" She whispered. "What if someone goes to check on me, and they see I'm not in my room? I'm new here, so someone might suspect me!" Puck's eyes widened. Neither of them had thought of that! Immediately, a plan came to his mind. It would be embarrassing, and he knew Sabrina wouldn't like it, but it was the only thing he could think of that people might believe. But, it all rode on one thing…
"Come on!" Puck grabbed her wrist, and they ran out of the passage. Puck shut it behind them, and they raced to his room. Once he had shut his door behind them, Puck relaxed, but Sabrina was still on edge.
"How do I get back to my room? If someone catches me, they'll think I did it! There's no excuse for me to be out this late!" She glanced at the clock. It was almost a quarter 'till two. In the morning. Puck wrapped his arms around her, and she looked up at him.
"There is one excuse," His voice was low, his gaze intense.
"Wha-," Then Sabrina realized what he was talking about, and pulled away. "NO! No, definitely not. There has to be something else. And anyway, This is the 1800s! That could make it worse! No way! I'm not doing that! I'm not even faking that!"
"'Brina, we don't have to do anything. We just have to make it seem like it. And just think about it; It's the reason that you aren't in your room, and in mine, and it's an alibi." They were both blushing, but Sabrina could see the logic behind his words.
"Maybe… Okay fine. There's no way I can get back to my room. And they probably already checked." She thought for a second. "I should probably go put my nightgown back on." Puck blushed a little, but agreed. Sabrina rushed to the bathroom, and hurried to put her nightgown back on. She held the robe up for a second, considering, but decided that it would make their excuse more believable she didn't wear it. So, she draped it over her arm and went back to Puck's room.
For the second time that night, he wasn't wearing a shirt when she walked in.
"Puck!" She groaned, not looking at him as her cheeks burned up. "Put a shirt on!" He smirked a little.
"Do you think I would be wearing a shirt, if we…?" He didn't finish, but Sabrina knew exactly what he meant.
"Yeah, okay." She dropped her robe in a pile on the floor, then dramatically flopped into Puck's bed, yawning.
"Ugh, I'm so tired."
"Me too," Puck yawned. "I guess we can just rest for a while, and just wait and see if someone comes."
"Yeah," said Sabrina. "I hope no one comes." After she laid down on one side of Puck's bed, he came over to the other side. She leaned her head on his shoulder, blushing. She was overly aware of the fact that Puck wasn't wearing a shirt. Even after a few minutes, she was not relaxing. All at once, she sat up.
"Puck, I can't sleep, like… That." He grinned and sat up too.
"What do you mean?"
"With you… Like that!" She waved a hand toward him, and he grabbed it, pulling it to his bare chest.
"Like this?" She blushed, and avoided eye contact.
"Yeah," she said softly.
"'Brina," he said quietly, and then they were kissing. Sabrina's hands went to Puck's shoulders, but then one slipped down to his chest. He had a surprising amount of muscle, and she blushed at the thought, even as they were kissing. Somehow, Sabrina had migrated into Puck's lap, and she wrapped her legs around him. Their kiss deepened, and there was a knock on the door. Sabrina froze.
"Act like you don't see them," Puck whispered. Sabrina gulped, but pulled Puck forward as she tipped backwards. He was on top of her, and they kept kissing. Sabrina was hyper-aware of Puck's body pressing into hers, but also that the door had just creaked open.
"Puck!" Came a shout. It was Mustardseed's voice.
I hope you liked this chapter! Please review!
