Chapter 1 – Raising the Curtain
Summary – Chad just needed a performance credit to pass his dance class. The problem was he didn't want to dance in front of people, so his teacher came up with a compromise: perform in the school's production of Cats under a fake name and no one would know who he was. Great. Amazing. And then Ben had to start throwing around all this 'mate' business.
-:-:-:-:-:-
There were moments where Chad loathed his existence.
Granted, he knew he had it better than most, but still, he could not deny that there were instances when the absurdity that was his life was irritating to the point of self-hatred.
For example: Chad was failing dance.
Dance. He was failing dance.
And he honestly had no one to blame but himself, because he'd needed a PE credit and thought 'dance, that seems like fun' because he enjoyed dancing in his own room back at Sardinia Castle. He enjoyed the few royal functions that took him to the ballet, he enjoyed watching performances online whenever he could indulge himself in frivolous entertainments. And while he had no formal training, Chad liked to think he was sort of good at it.
And he was. That was sort of the problem.
Well, the real problem was that he listened to his grandfather's grumbling about how only fairies liked to dance like that – and not the mystical kind. How only those with not enough time on their hands, those who had given up on more rewarding and intellectual pursuits, those that knew that 'visually whoring' oneself out were their only options in life, all turned to dance.
Why the fuck he decided to mention this after Chad had enrolled in a dance class when they had never touched on the subject before was beyond Chad, with the exception that this might have been the first time his grandfather had actually looked into his schedule and realized the prince-in-training he was stuck with also wanted to be a fairy. A non-mystical fairy.
So Chad had psyched himself out. To the point of failing dance. Mostly because he'd been 'sick' for all the recitals, but the teacher knew better and Chad knew he couldn't actually perform in front of other humans that might include his grandfather so he supposed his record was going to be tarnished by a failed PE credit and his grandfather would have yet another reason to hate Chad until the end of his days.
At least until the teacher found a compromise.
The compromise, for the record, was stupid.
-:-:-:-:-:-
"Do you know why you're here?" Ms. Terpsichore asked, utilizing a gentle smile that was definitely intended to lure Chad into a false sense of security.
Because most of the staff at Auradon Prep considered Chad an idiot anyway, he considered feigning ignorance for a few seconds before ultimately shrugging. "…because I get sick a lot?"
The smile widened. It was a lying smile, and yet even with that knowledge, Chad could find no cruelty in her expression.
"That would be one of the issues," she allowed with a hum. "As you well know, one of the requirements for achieving a passing grade in my class is to perform in two major dance recitals. Because of your various illnesses, you have yet to perform in any."
Chad allowed his eyes to go wide even though he'd been expecting this conversation for a while.
Ms. Terpsichore hummed. "Now while it could be quite possible that you've been sick during every one of our performances, I'm beginning to think it's more likely that you have stage fright. Except you do so well in all of your public interviews, so… maybe it's just dancing you feel self-conscious about?"
Obviously.
But Chad didn't say anything, because sometimes it was better to allow your opponent to fill in their own blanks rather than doing them the favor of providing ammunition.
He thought. He was pretty sure.
It couldn't hurt, was what he was getting at.
"…you seemed so enthusiastic when you first started class," Ms. Terpsichore noted. "And now I can hardly get you to participate."
That was because before Chad realized he'd be making his family look bad just by doing some ballet or whatever. He thought it was a good source of exercise and coordination- he hadn't known he'd look stupid, and that Sardinia would look stupid by extension.
On a regular basis, Chad already made his kingdom look bad by floundering under the weight of his private studies and Auradon Prep schoolwork, he couldn't add another thing to the list, even if he'd mistakenly thought it would be a harmless indulgence. He should have stuck to Tourney. Or Swords and Shields. Granted, he was doing those too, just, he'd wanted to avoid the practices that took place during school so he could avoid Jay, who made Chad uncomfortable for reasons he could never accurately express.
"So I've come up with a solution," the teacher continued brightly, pulling Chad from his contemplation. "You need a performance credit – that isn't a negotiation, but how you achieve that credit, well… we can get a little creative."
She smiled at Chad, another one of those soft ones that always made him feel uneasy, like she genuinely wanted him to be happy only no one really wanted that so he immediately found it suspect.
"Mrs. Calliope has selected a dance heavy show for the fall musical," Ms. Terpsichore explained. "It's an ambitious project, and one that will require a lot of male dancers."
"What musical?" Chad asked, cutting to the point because that would make all the difference.
That time, Ms. Terpsichore's smile became a little bit mischievous. "Cats."
"I'll take the failing grade," Chad said, knowing that he'd rather throw himself off a cliff than commit to a performance of Cats.
Cats. As in, the show where a bunch of people dressed up like cats and danced around the stage like cats for like, three hours all while singing cat songs. Chad honestly had no fathomable hypothesis as to how this thing could be a cultural success, but it was, and also the school was doing it.
"Don't be like that, Chad," Ms. Terpsichore tutted, having the audacity to look amused. "Between the makeup, wig, and costuming, no one would know it was you."
"Except my name would be in the playbill," Chad pointed out, as he'd been to quite a few live performances in his time. "So they would."
"Not if I decided not to list you," Ms. Terpsichore hummed and there, she finally got Chad's attention. "It's simple, really. We'd have your understudy – Taylor – listed in your role. He would do all the rehearsals and as long as you learn your choreography and blocking on your own time, you can do the performances."
"But why?" That seemed needlessly complicated, if the closest thing Chad could get to a perfect solution to his current dilemma. "Why not just let Taylor do it?"
"Because he isn't ready for it," Ms. Terpsichore explained. "But you- you're a wonderful dancer, Chad."
The statement was, without question, an exaggeration. Having a sense of rhythm and the ability to remember all the choreography did not make him a good dancer, it made him competent. At like, a useless thing. It was so unfair.
"And you deserve a chance to perform out on the stage," the teacher continued, fully committed to her pep talk. "But if you would feel more comfortable keeping your identity a secret in order to do that, then that's what we'll do. I can teach you the choreography during your study period, and after you complete a weekend of performances, you'll be safely passing my class."
It was, frankly, too good to be true. Chad didn't like strokes of good fortune – they rarely came his way without a price. Granted, the price of this was the humiliation of dressing up as a cat and performing in front of the entire school, but if his grandfather didn't know about it…
"Taylor won't say anything?" Chad pressed, deciding to focus on the more relevant issues.
Ms. Terpsichore grinned. "I already had him sign a confidentiality agreement."
Ugh. Curses. His one nagging doubt had been safely handled under the one thing that could assuage his nerves – legally binding paperwork.
"I want a copy," Chad said, and not even a second later the teacher slid it over, and he sighed again. "…okay."
"Brilliant!" Ms. Terpsichore chirped. "Welcome aboard, Rum Tum Tugger."
Chad's life was stupid.
But it was a manageable stupid, so that probably counted for something. He hoped.
-:-:-:-:-:-
The Rum Tum Tugger was a giant dick.
That was pretty much the entirety of Chad's character. Cat. Whatever. And honestly, he felt a little attacked that Ms. Terpsichore thought no one else was 'better suited' for the part when Tugger seemed mostly focused on being contrary, but he was also the womanizing cat (because of course there was a womanizing cat), so Chad supposed that partially made up for it.
Also, he was calling bull on this showing off his dance prowess, because while he did dance, Tugger's part seemed to mostly focus on his singing, whereas the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees (he could not make this shit up) had one number at the end of act 2 where he only danced, no singing required. And he was barely in the show, unlike Tugger, who seemed to never get off the damn stage.
It was a punishment, Chad was sure, but one he took with as much grace as he could manage.
The important part was he got through it, got through learning the choreography and suffering a costume fitting (his stupid skintight costume with a stupid tail and shoulder piece fur thing and it was all dumb) all the way through tech week, where Ms. Terpsichore assigned him to a private dressing room that had a secret entrance that was put in to sneak out what Chad assumed were celebrities, which worked well enough for him.
He never entered the theater as Chad. Or the dressing room. There was always some degree of disguise when he finished getting ready, performed, hid in the dressing room during intermission, and then finished up act 2 before hiding in the dressing room once more to wait a few hours in his dumb cat outfit for the theater to empty out. Only then would he hazard the secret passage so he could get to a bathroom far away from any security cameras and wash his damn makeup off, quickly ripping off his wig and changing into other clothes before he made the full retreat to the dorm room he shared with Doug.
Was it a perfect plan? No, but it was what he had. The end.
Opening night was weird. It had been strange performing with the cast all of tech week but it was stranger doing it in front of an audience, wearing a skintight costume surrounded by other people wearing skintight costumes and scampering around like an asshole cat. Chad was grateful by the time it was all over, locking his dressing room and hiding inside so he can begin the mind-numbing wait. He'd have brought homework to work on if he thought he could focus that much. As it was, Chad was too hopped up on adrenaline to do anything but pace the length of the room, waiting to come down from the high of dancing for three hours.
He'd more or less resigned himself to this before he heard a set of firm knocks against his dressing room door.
"Taylor?" Chad froze at the sound of Ben's voice – Ben the-nicest-human-in-existence Florian, who Chad had known was coming to see opening night because he'd talked about it at lunch, but was never supposed to come backstage. That was not a thing Ben did. "Are you in there?"
Nope. Nope. Nope. It wasn't even a lie. Chad didn't know where Taylor was, but he wasn't in this dressing room and also Chad wasn't in this dressing room with a heart that felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, dressed like a dumb fucking cat.
There was a pause, and then Chad's mind was further blown by the sound of a key turning in a lock. Ben had- he'd used his master key. His magic master key that he was only supposed to use for emergencies and this wasn't an emergency and what the fuck.
Ben had the decency to look sheepish when he pushed into the room, grinning when he caught sight of Chad before rubbing the back of his head in a bashful sort of way. "Sorry. I uh… just wanted to make sure the light didn't get left on."
Concern for an overuse of electricity did not warrant use of the emergency master key, not that Ben acknowledged as much, the king deftly relocking the door behind him as he crossed to where Chad was standing next to the dressing room's couch.
"You did an amazing job, by the way," Ben continued, blithely ignoring the fact that Chad hadn't said anything yet. "Like- really amazing. I just um- wanted to tell you that."
Ben walked, and then he just kept walking, until he was safely leaning into Chad's space, closer than propriety would normally allow. And this was, on many levels, entirely unfair, because Ben was the one who always went on about 'finding his perfect mate' and how his dumb beast blood would 'just know', which was how he realized that he and Mal weren't going to be a solid thing, even though they were still like, BFFs which, you know, more power to that guy.
But like, Ben didn't do this. He didn't approach princes he barely knew with a flush spreading across the bridge of his nose, eyes half-lidded and pupils dilated, sending Chad a variety of signals that shouldn't mean what he thought they meant.
"You're very graceful," Ben- lied? Exaggerated, resting a hand on Chad's shoulder and somehow leaning closer, until his nose was buried in the crook of Chad's neck and what the fuck. He inhaled, deeply. "You smell good," he rumbled.
That was a lie, because Chad smelled like sweat and hair gel and the usual exertions that came from dancing for hours on end, and that was not great.
There was a beat, and then Ben jerked away, seeming to come back to himself with an embarrassed look. "Sorry," he gushed, rubbing the back of his head. "Um- I don't know what came over me."
"…beast stuff?" Chad offered, doing his best to make his voice sound like Taylor's, and that seemed to be enough to assuage Ben's anxieties because the other prince immediately relaxed.
"Yeah," Ben chuckled. "I um- I think that's… yeah." He seemed to lose the thread of things again, looking Chad over with an unreadable expression. "This is um- going to sound stupid, and probably out of line, but could I um- hold you?"
Chad didn't balk because he was still too confused by Ben's presence in the first place to consider such a thing. "…and smell?"
Ben's flush darkened. "It sounds worse out loud, I'm sorry-"
"No um- it's fine," Chad said, because on one hand, he should say no, but on the other hand, he didn't want Ben to feel bad. That was the equivalent of kicking like, a boxful of puppies, and Chad was awful, but he didn't want to be that awful. "Hold away."
Chad still didn't think he smelled great, but Ben didn't seem to get the message because he was pressing himself closer to Chad, his hands settling on Chad's hips and burning brands through the thin material of his outfit until they were flush against each other, and this was- if it wasn't for that weird conversation, Chad would think it was a prank. That Ben had found out about Chad's hopelessly misplaced crush on him (though to be fair, everyone had a small crush on Ben. Carlos had a small crush on Ben and that guy was entirely devoted to Jane) and had decided to taunt him with it because Chad was an asshole that honestly deserved it. He couldn't even argue that it shouldn't happen, because despite Chad's best efforts, his exhaustion and exposure to constant criticism from his grandfather along with his heavy workload had a tendency to make him pretty unbearable.
It was just- he never thought Ben would try to make fun of him like this.
Only he wasn't, which was probably the weirder thing. This was something Ben wanted to happen. He wanted to hold Taylor, a guy he didn't really know, and smell him.
…it was a wonder that they let this guy go around unsupervised sometimes, it really was.
"I um…" Ben shifted uneasily, and Chad felt every movement of it because he was basically wearing nothing. "Shit."
"What?" Chad asked, wondering if this was just a thing Ben did in his downtime. Maybe it was. Maybe that was what he and Jay did at all their sleepovers.
And now Chad would be stuck with that mental image for the evening.
"I um- want to make you feel good," Ben said, his voice sounding strained.
Chad… honestly I had no idea what Ben was talking about.
"What? You wanna rub my shoulders, or…"
"I want to suck you off," Ben said, making Chad flinch because what? "I know," Ben continued, pulling back so Chad could have space. "I'm sorry, that's not- you don't have to- I'm so sorry."
"…you're sorry you want to give me a um- that thing?" Chad said, with all the confidence of a wonderfully inexperienced human.
Ben swallowed a rough sound. Chad was pretty sure he could classify it as a whimper. "I'm a king," he said. "I shouldn't put you in this position."
Chad agreed, but Chad also wasn't Chad right now, he was Taylor. Which meant he should probably do Taylor-like things which um… also involved being gay.
Chad didn't get it, of course, because if he was gay, his grandfather would beat the shit out of him, but like, it was still a pretty undeniable fact so… here they were.
He couldn't believe he was doing this. Then again, he'd just danced a three hour musical dressed as a giant cat, so maybe he should do a better job of suspending his disbelief.
"You can- you know," Chad said, thinking about how some of the less savory guys on the Tourney team talked about how awesome it was to get whatever action they could, likely because they didn't have to worry about the catastrophic ramifications of accidental pregnancies like a young royal did. "If you want."
Ben just stared at him. "You don't have to."
"You also don't have to," Chad offered, wondering if Ben might just awkwardly good guy his way out of the situation. He did that sometimes, it could happen again now, and then Chad wouldn't have to worry about this, or think about potentially getting his you know in Ben's mouth when to this point it had been in no one's mouth and that was probably very much for the best.
"I want to," Ben said, and then the king's hands were very much on Chad's butt while he breathed in again. And Chad felt it, because unfortunately the only thing he could wear under his costume was a dance belt, which was designed like a thong in the back and what was his life. "So good," Ben rumbled again, giving Chad's butt a squeeze before falling onto his knees, nuzzling against Chad's groin.
Chad did not squeak (because they just talked about this, even if he didn't think it was going to happen), but he did startle, maybe flail, and that was enough for Ben to urge him back onto the couch, hands determined to cup Chad's rear while he continued to nuzzle and mouth at the groin of his costume.
"B-Ben," Chad gasped, fumbling for the king's head with his dumb fingerless gloves.
"Wanna taste," Ben said, somewhat ominous (oh, man, he hadn't been bluffing, Chad had been hoping he was bluffing), and then he was pushing Chad back until he was sprawled against the length of the couch, Ben firmly between the V of Chad's legs while he undid the belt of Chad's costume. "Wanna taste you, please. You smell so good."
He did not, but that didn't stop Ben from tossing Chad's belt aside before hooking a finger on the waist of Chad's leg tights, dragging them down with a serious dedication that made Chad whimper. If he hadn't been interested before, he was now. And it wasn't fair, it was damn cruel that Chad's sick perversion of wanting Ben to ravish him was only coming true when he was dressed like a cat. And also, according to Ben, someone else.
"Yes, yes, yes," Ben chanted while he eased down the dance belt, leaving Chad's groin entirely exposed – and Chad could only be grateful that he and Taylor were both blond or else there might be some questions about the carpets not matching the drapes and-
Ben was licking him.
Loud, noisy, desperate licks that made Chad swallow down a keen, because he might have thought about doing this shit with a princess before but he'd never thought about it with Ben, who seemed so very determined to lick every part of Chad before finally taking the blond into his mouth, which was wet and hot and good, and that was before he started bobbing his head in earnest.
"Ah- Ben!" Chad gasped, likely slipping into his own voice out of distracted but very understandable reflex. "Ben."
Ben seemed to take this as incentive to suck him harder, as though that had been possible, hollowing his cheeks furiously and applying a wet-warm suction that brought Chad dangerously close to completion. For all his talk, Chad had never gotten this far in any sort of intimate relations, and between that, the lingering adrenaline from his performance, and a perpetual sort of disbelief at his current circumstances, Chad was very, very done. Ben worked his mouth up and down Chad like a sin, relishing Chad's groin as though it were some kind of treat. It was almost a relief when he pulled off, even if that left Chad painfully exposed, his interest throbbing against the tight material of his shirt.
"Ben," Chad gasped when the other teen started gnawing at Chad's hips, nipping and sucking in a manner that was entirely unfair because that wasn't where his mouth should be and what the hell was Chad thinking? "Ben-"
"So good," Ben growled, fumbling for something in his pocket while he pressed his face to Chad's pelvis and breathed, like that wasn't gross. "So pretty. You're so pretty, Taylor. And I um- I want- could I help you, more?"
"Sure," Chad gasped, because mostly he wanted Ben to stop talking so they could go back to what they'd been doing before, only that one word earned a stupidly wide grin from the king.
"You can let me know if it's too much," Ben urged like the responsible human he was.
Sure, whatever, just-
Ben continued to dote Chad's thighs with licks and kisses while he pulled out a small bottle of something, that on further inspection turned out to be- lube?
Why the fuck did Ben carry lube with him? Why was that a thing he would have and how was he going to use that on Chad? Why was he going to use it on Chad? What-
"I didn't think I could go crazy just from watching someone dance," Ben was saying, lube-slicked fingers sliding up behind Chad, nudging between his cheeks and- "I didn't know I could feel like this, but watching you perform-"
"Ben," Chad gasped when slick fingers probed at his entrance, swirling and massaging and sure Chad had dreamed of this happening in sort of a distant way, but it was along the lines of 'gee wouldn't it be neat to fly?' sort of way. Like sure, it would be cool, but also totally impossible so why bother considering the full ramifications of such an act?
Chad had never actually explored that particular territory, because he was going to marry a princess so it was irrelevant, because anything else would make him queer and Sardinia had no room for queer princes, except when they were being accosted by a very determined king.
"My dad said I'd know when I found you," Ben urging, swirling and prodding and teasing Chad in vile ways that made him shake. It was because it was Ben, that was all, it wasn't because- "And I did. I couldn't mistake you, and I want you to feel so good."
Slowly, ever so tauntingly, he eased a finger into Chad that seemed to wreck him entirely, even though the pressure was so very miniscule in comparison to some of the punishments his grandfather had given him over the years.
There was a finger, in his butt. And instead of reacting in any kind of normal, respectable fashion, Chad was moaning, a sound that only grew louder the more Ben eased the digit into his tight warmth.
"Good?" Ben asked, breathless as he curled his finger pointedly, scraping unexplored territory, beginning to pump his finger in and out. "I want you to feel good. I want you to feel amazing because you're amazing."
Fuck, fuck, damn – of course Chad's life would come to this. It was stupid, ergo, it was his life – his dumb, dumb life, and he couldn't even manage the strength to fight Ben. He could only lie back and take it as Ben continued easing that finger in and out of him, and then it was two, then three, and then a fair dosage of lubricant and a stream of nonstop compliments later Chad had four fingers up his ass and didn't seem to be flagging at all, Ben stopping every so often to mouth at Chad's throbbing interest with contented hums.
"Mine, mine, mine, please," Ben was saying. "Please. This will- it will be so good, Taylor, I promise. We'll break it to the public gently-"
"Ben," Chad moaned, his hips sinking back onto those long fingers with a desperation only a dipshit like him could manage.
Ben growled. "Need you," he said, and before he could clarify as to how, he was flipping Chad onto his stomach, coaxing his hips higher until they were jutted up like an offering. "I'm gonna- I need you, now. Could I- please?"
"Could you what?" Chad gasped, his breath seeming to come too fast and too shallow but then there was something blunt prodding at his entrance, far more substantial than any of Ben's fingers, and the king whined.
"Need you," he repeated, and that was- that was his genitals pressing against- he actually wanted to fuck Chad and instead of being horrified, Chad was dangerously aroused and how was this fair? Why did he have to be this dumb? "Can I?" Ben gasped, nudging his hips forward carefully until he was better situated between Chad's cheeks. "Please, please, please, Taylor."
"F-Fine," Chad said instead of 'no', instead of 'stop', because he wasn't Prince Chad right now, he was Prince Taylor, and everyone knew Taylor was gay anyway. His parents were weirdly supportive of the development; Chad didn't understand it. "Go for it."
Ben did not give his thanks so much as sigh when he pushed himself into Chad's heat, and at first the stretch stung but it was nothing, barely on the light side of pain compared to what some of Chad's punishments were, and then that gave away to pleasure when Ben brushed against something that made Chad shake.
"There," Chad breathed, rutting his hips backwards. "There, Ben."
"Yes, Taylor, okay, Taylor," Ben said, seemingly all in one rush of words. He found that spot again, dialed in on it and kept thrusting, until he was sliding in and out of Chad to the accompaniment of wet squishes.
This should be disgusting – Chad was still dressed as a cat – but it was Ben and it felt good, too good, and maybe that was why his grandfather had always warned him off of this. Maybe he'd thought Chad would get addicted because he was stupid and easily distracted.
"Taylor," Ben moaned, reaching a hand around Chad to palm his length, to squeeze and pump him until he was about to fall apart completely. "You feel so good, I want- do you feel good? Does it feel good?"
"Yes, Ben," Chad croaked, flushing at the completeness of his humiliation. "I feel- you f-feel good."
"I'm gonna do this every night," Ben said, and then he was pumping Chad with a pointed squeeze that made fireworks go off behind his eyes, made him weightless in the throes of arousal until he could feel Ben falling apart too, felt himself fill up with slick that seemed to leak out of him-
"Mate," Ben said, possessive and happy. "Mate, mate- mine."
"Ben." The other prince was still fondling between Chad's legs, continued to tease and tease him until he had nothing left to give. Eventually, the two of them collapsed next to each other on the couch, curled into each other's space, still in partial states of undress while they tried to catch their breath.
Though Chad hadn't been watching Ben while he'd gotten… beastly, it was clear that the king was slowly returning to normal, coming down off the haze of arousal to stare at Chad's dumb cat-makeup with an open adoration that was entirely a lie.
"Wow," Ben breathed, the bridge of his nose dusted in a pale, pretty blush. "That was um… pretty amazing."
"It um…" Chad didn't know what to say, could feel nothing but awkward in the wake of a fact that he'd just let another dude fuck him, even if that dude was the king.
Ben seemed to pick up on his unease. "I'm sorry," he said with a wince. "That was… wow, that was not how I wanted to do this the first time."
With his partner dressed up like a stupid cat? Yeah, Chad could understand why that was a story Ben didn't want to tell. Especially with the whole 'beast' thing following him around.
"I mean," Ben continued. "This wasn't how I wanted to properly meet you."
Because there were a lot of princes in the school, and despite the fact that Taylor and Ben had been on the Tourney team together, they had never formally met. That was probably why Ben thought Taylor was his mate in the first place.
Somehow, through the panic and anxiety and shame, Chad was struck with a mild sort of inspiration. "Then um… why don't we pretend it isn't?"
Ben gave him a confused blink. It was not adorable.
Okay, it was adorable.
"The next time you see me," Chad said, willing his heartbeat to slow down. "This didn't happen. We'll start at the beginning, okay?"
Ben considered this option, then gave Chad a wide, dopey grin that had no right being as earnest as it was. "I'd like that," he said, bending low to nuzzle Chad's dumb wig. "Not that I didn't enjoy this-"
"It's just um- maybe not a story to tell our kids," Chad said in what he hoped was an approximation of a Taylor-response, and he must have said something right, because Ben's flush darkened.
"Right," the king said, grinning. "So um… maybe I should-"
"Go?" Chad said, and clearly Ben hadn't been about to offer that but it was what Chad needed, so- "Yeah, people might start talking otherwise."
"Oh." Ben nodded. "Right. You're right."
"I have my moments," Chad said, and was entirely unprepared for Ben to lean forward and just- kiss him.
Chad had never been kissed before. It was not an activity he had wanted to do for the first time dressed as a cat, with slick leaking out of him, performed by a mouth that had just been touching his genitals.
But of course that was what he had gotten, because Chad was a piece of shit and the universe knew it.
"I'm going to drag myself away now," Ben said, continuing to be horribly charming. "Or else I am not going to leave."
"And you need to do that," Chad reminded him.
"Unfortunately," Ben said with a sigh, pulling out a handkerchief and reaching around Chad to clean his butt before he pulled the dance belt and tights back into place, taking care of Chad before he clothed himself, because even in this he was a perfect gentleman. "Until next time, and then we'll never part again." He seemed to realize the severity of that situation when he sat up, his blush darkening. "I mean, if you want to."
Chad swallowed.
This didn't matter, because he wasn't Chad. He was Taylor.
"We'll see," he settled on. "After we meet, I mean."
That earned him- earned Taylor a brilliant smile that seemed determined to wreck Chad in every way imaginable. "After we meet again," Ben echoed, and then just like he stated, Ben forced himself from the room, relocking the door behind him and leaving Chad, spent, dumb, and confused on the dressing room couch.
Later, he would freak out about this.
For now, he would just leave, on the offhand chance Ben lost his nerve and came back.
Chad was strong, but he wasn't that strong. Even he had his limits, and lovesick Ben was one of them.
What a night. What a damn night.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Chad spent the entire weekend terrified that Ben might revisit his dressing room after the next two shows, but true to his word, Ben stayed away, letting Chad complete his sentence in respectable isolation before hanging up his dance tights forever.
The following Monday, no one was more surprised than Taylor when Ben asked the blond prince out. He was very gentle and earnest about it, and while Chad wasn't there to witness the act, he didn't doubt that Ben had committed to the 'reintroduction' until it was just an introduction, and by the end of the school day, Ben and Taylor had achieved ultimate gay couple goals.
"Does anyone else think this is a little sudden?" Lonnie said, watching the new couple interact at a respectable distance with narrowed eyes. "It literally came from out of nowhere."
"I mean," Chad shrugged. "That's how love works, right?"
He could only theorize.
This did not comfort Lonnie.
"The last time he got like this, he'd been spelled," Lonnie said, and they all took a moment to remember the story Mal had told them in a drunken haze of guilt at Lonnie's birthday party.
Chad still wasn't sure why he'd been invited to that, but the gossip had been good, so he couldn't really complain.
Aziz shared a look with Chad, who honestly had nothing for him. "It's not like you could get him into the Enchanted Lake again," he said eventually. "At least, not without a reason."
An expression settled on Lonnie's face that never boded well for any of them. "We'll see about that," she said somewhat ominously.
A few days later, she unceremoniously tossed a vile of Enchanted Lake water in Ben's face, and what should have been categorized as low-key assault became a story they all got to laugh about as Ben assured her he hadn't been spelled, and while he appreciated her efforts, maybe like- ask first.
Mal gave Lonnie a high five and told her she had already checked the king over, and while Taylor had giggled, Ben had only looked up at the ceiling in despair.
It was…
Well, it was.
Ben and Taylor were sappy even if Ben didn't seem as relaxed as he probably should be, all things considered. Chad would feel guilty for the deception, were it not for the fact that Taylor was substantially better than Chad in a multitude of ways. If anything, Ben was getting an upgrade. He should be thanking Chad.
He wouldn't, but he should be, was all Chad was saying.
-:-:-:-:-:-
Endnotes:
Real talk, I don't know where the idea for this story came from, though it likely has to do with seeing that Cats movie with my mom for her birthday. The design was a mess, but compared to the musical, it was significantly more streamlined, with forward momentum and stakes.
Somehow that led to this, and the random stroke of inspiration my mind decides to grab at in the hours of early morning when I am still struggling towards coherence. Thank you, mind. You weird, weird place.
This story will consist of 4 chapters of story content. I update once a week, generally on Sundays, but because things have been so crazy lately, I decided to make an effort to update twice a week. So there will be one update on Sunday and one update on Wednesday/Thursday for now :D
Story notes:
Terpsichore is a character from Hercules the animated series. She is the muse of dance, and while I have never bothered to watch the full episode, I figured I could use her instead of just like, inventing a new dance teacher.
Calliope is the muse of Epic Poetry – she's the head muse in Hercules, which I figured was close enough to drama to count as the theater teacher.
Also – in my own private Descendants canon I call Chad's kingdom, which is canonically 'Cinderellasburg', Sardinia, because it is less dumb. You are all free to use this alternate name if you prefer, just give me a shoutout in the endnotes ;)
Google Rum Tum Tugger and you'll see that the original costuming for Cats quite literally covers the actor's entire body, which I think makes it believable enough for Chad to perform without anyone recognizing him.
Taylor is a name I stole from the movies. He's the guy Coach puts on shooter when Jay and Carlos are walking onto the Tourney field. I have appropriated him for the sake of this story.
Until next time :)