A Curious Cat Chapter 2: Setting the Scene, a descendants, 2015 fanfic

Chapter 2 – Setting the Scene

GENERAL WARNING – Scene two features some homophobic language and slutshaming (one F-bomb).

WARNING – Non-Graphic Assault/Abuse – featured in the second scene – please see endnotes for more details.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It all came to a head one innocuous Tuesday, when everyone was laughing and coexisting in a state of relaxed peacefulness the VKs rarely managed, Ben with one arm around Taylor while the blond shyly leaned into his contact, soaking it up.

"I'll be honest," Ben was saying, coy and charming as always. "I'm sort of amazed you agreed to go out with me, seeing how um- forward I was when I met you backstage."

Taylor's smile slid off his face slowly, the other performers from the musical sharing looks with each other, mimicking Taylor's confusion.

It was Aziz who spoke up. "You went backstage during rehearsals?"

"Oh… no." Ben was slowly picking up on Taylor's unease, as were the VKs, who seemed especially attuned to their surroundings. "I meant after the opening night performance."

At that, Taylor actually did freeze.

Ruby cleared her throat. "Um, Ben…?"

"Taylor didn't perform opening night," Lonnie cut in, kind enough not to beat around the bush.

Mal tensed at that, but Ben's confusion was extensively worse. "…what?"

"I didn't actually do any of the performances," Taylor explained quietly, breaking his confidentiality agreement with a casual sort of disregard, because that was what you did when the king had an arm around you and you discovered you weren't the cat he was looking for. "I was the understudy."

"The real performer's identity had to be a secret," Lonnie explained, her voice in a conspiratorial whisper. "I overheard Ms. Terpsichore talking about it. Apparently his family is like, super homophobic. He almost failed dance because they wouldn't let him do any of the performances."

"What?" Ruby expression fell into something of empathetic pain, the heir to Corona unable to fathom such a thing. "That's awful."

Chad was still reeling, burdened with that knowledge that while his identity had remained a secret, his circumstances apparently hadn't, even if they'd been misconstrued. His grandfather wasn't homophobic, and Chad wasn't, you know, gay. The duke just had very strong ideas as to how a prince should behave.

And sure, Chad had a crush on Ben, had let him- you know, but everyone had a crush on Ben. That just made Chad human.

"I know," Lonnie sighed, tapping her tray distractedly. "It sucks because he's really good too. Like, he learned all his choreography in a week, and that was all by himself."

"That's… terrible," Ben said, and even all his training could not hide the look of conflict in his features, which he shouldn't really have because Taylor was awesome and Ben had been happy with him.

"What did you do with the other guy?" Mal cut in curiously. "What was so forward?"

"Um." Ben flushed, a dark and immediate thing that made Taylor tense.

"Ben, you dog," Jay laughed, sharing a grin with Mal. "Did you give Rum Tum Tugger a good tug?"

"This isn't funny," Taylor said, his hands curling against the table.

"Taylor." Ben looked pained and sort of at a loss for words, which wasn't a thing he ever did. "I-"

"Was that- was he the only reason you asked me out?" The question made the table fall into a tense, uncharacteristic silence – one that, for once, was focused on Ben. "Because of the way he danced? All that stuff you said?"

"I'm sorry." In this, Ben was at least genuine, his honesty without question. "Taylor, I really am. But I- I saw him and I just knew."

"It's my fault." Taylor was shaking his head, already collecting his lunch tray as he moved to stand. "It was so random, you asking me out, but you're so nice-"

"I'm sorry," Ben repeated, torn between helping him and his own confusion.

"It's fine," Taylor dismissed. "I just- I need some space."

"Okay." Ben watched helplessly as the other blond just walked away, Ben making no effort to follow him.

"I'll go after him," Ruby offered, and then she was gone too.

"Wow," Carlos said after a few beats when Ben seemed well and truly dejected. "So you've got a mate now, but you don't know who it is."

"It's got to be one of our classmates, obviously," Mal said, already reviewing the situation. "So it's probably someone you already run into on a regular basis. Wouldn't you recognize them?"

"I should," Ben seemed frustrated and sad, which- he'd get over it. Chad did, on a regular basis. "I didn't feel a connection until I saw him dance, though. And then when I got close enough to smell-"

"So you'd recognize his scent?" Evie interrupted, latching onto the problem with a scientific focus.

"I should," Ben repeated. "But I haven't. I didn't with Taylor."

"Because it wasn't Taylor." Mal surmised, waving a hand so they could move on. "But what about anyone else? Have you caught a whiff?"

"No." Now Ben seemed miserable, which, for the record, didn't tug on Chad's heartstrings.

How someone danced or the way they smelled did not discern them as a life partner, and thinking as much was stupid. Also, Chad definitely needed to marry a princess and was not attracted to Ben. Like, he was sort of attracted to Ben, but not really attracted to Ben. The end.

"Can a scent be blocked?" Carlos asked. "I mean, if you get the right chemical compounds-"

"You could search for the absence of a scent!" Evie chirped, lighting up with excitement. "Look for all the guys that fit the right physical profile who are taking a dance class."

"Someone who had missed all the other performances," Aziz said, his brows furrowing. "Since his family wouldn't let him perform, right?"

The others were on a roll brainstorming, but it seemed like that comment was enough to set the wheels in motion for Lonnie, who seemed struck by a small moment of contemplation before her eyes settled on Chad.

Chad did not panic. Chad had the perfect cover; in that he was an asshole.

"Don't look at me," he said, waving her off as he stabbed at the pasta he was never going to eat. "I was sick."

"For every performance?" Lonnie pressed, her brows raising in a dubious expression.

Their conversation had been a small aside to the bigger discussion, but Mal was unfortunately sitting close enough to eavesdrop.

"Please, like it could be Chad," she dismissed, rolling her eyes. "There's no way he's that good a dancer."

"E-xcuse you," Chad sputtered even though he was happy for her backup. "I'll have you know I mastered the jazz square just last week."

"See?" Mal said, waving him off. "If Chad fails dance, it's because he's lazy and uncoordinated, not because his dad's secretly a homophobe."

Like his dad would talk to him.

"I am not," Chad huffed, fake affronted but entirely glad for Mal's interference. She was such a good sort-of friend.

"What are you guys talking about?" Carlos asked, bringing the table's attention to their side conversation.

"Chad's the only one in dance class I know who's missed all the recitals," Lonnie said, folding her arms across her chest.

"But there's no way it could be him," Mal said, Chad nodding along in solidarity. "Ben, just like, give him a whiff or whatever so Lonnie will stop going on about this."

"Yeah, no," Chad said, moving away from the table. "I'm good. Keep your nose to yourself, thanks." Because he was definitely wearing scent blockers, had been ever since the performance.

That had been a tricky black market find, but in one of Chad's rare instances of ingenuity, he'd managed to be successful for once.

Mal shot him an annoyed look. "We are trying to clear you."

"I'm already cleared," Chad shot back. "I hang out with Ben all the time." That was a lie. "If I was his mate, he would have figured it out by now, but also, I wasn't in Cats."

"Sounds like something someone in Cats would say," Jay noted, leveling his fork at Chad with a cocky smirk.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Whatevs. I'm out, losers-"

The thread of whatever he had been about to say ended when he felt a nose shove against the curve of his neck, and once more it seemed like Chad had underestimated the lengths Ben would go to for his so-called 'mate'.

"Ben," Chad huffed, trying to step away.

The baboon followed him. "You don't smell like anything."

"Because I shower," Chad snapped, batting at the hands Ben had clamped around his hips. "Now, let go."

"Why don't you smell like anything?" Ben pressed, taking another inhale.

Because Chad went through a lot of effort to smell like detergent or evergreen or a soft breeze but not like whatever his basic biology produced what made Ben so hot for him.

"We're going in circles," Chad muttered, pinching Ben's fingers. "Let go."

"Why did you take dance?" Lonnie cut in suddenly, drawing Chad's focus from the retreat he should be making because eventually more of the surroundings tables were going to stare at the way Ben was clinging to Chad and someone would take a picture and then he would be grounded forever.

"Because I thought it'd be an easy credit?" Chad hazarded while he tugged at Ben's stupid fingers. If anything, the other prince cuddled closer to him, molding himself to the contours of Chad's body. "I was also wrong."

"And it's not because you like dance?"

"I am ambivalent towards dance," Chad declared, hoping he wasn't blushing, because this was stupid, Ben was stupid, they were all stupid.

"You feel good," Ben murmured, nuzzling Chad's shoulder. "Smell wrong, but you feel-"

"Get off, Ben," Chad snapped, tired of this bullshit, and at last, the other prince followed his request, stepping away from Chad with an audible whine.

The rest of the table stared at him as though they were looking at him for the first time, splitting their focus between the tension of Chad's shoulders and Ben's more animalistic behavior.

"Holy shit," Mal muttered, likely having figured it out.

Well, that was just great for her.

"Chad," Ben said reaching a hand out towards him. "I'm sorry I thought Taylor-"

"I don't care about your love life, Ben," Chad snapped, shouldering his bookbag and abandoning his lunch tray. Jay would eat it anyway, that guy wasted nothing. "Bye, guys."

"Wow," Carlos repeated, and that was all Chad heard before he stormed away, blocking out memories of Ben and desires of Ben and focusing on what he needed to do, which was get ahead of this stupid cat thing because if his grandfather found out, Chad's head was going to be on the chopping block.

Perhaps maybe even a literal one.

-:-:-:-:-:-

For the record, Chad did not get ahead of the cat thing.

Because he had unfortunately missed the presence of his arch nemesis Audrey sitting just a table over, who had started filming Ben's descent into stupidity the moment Chad had stood up from the table, likely hoping to catch him doing something stupid or embarrassing so that she could post it online for all the world to laugh at.

Chad hadn't read the comments on the video because he did not have a death wish, but he did have to deal with an unexpected yet foreboding visit from the Duke himself.

At least he had met Chad in his dorm room, alone, instead of drawing things out in public. His grandfather likely figured that Chad had already made a big enough fool of himself and Sardinia that day.

Upon confirming Doug's absence (Doug, who was at chess club or jazz band or with any other accumulation of his many friends because he wasn't a tool), the Duke cleared his throat, looking very imposing with his sturdy wood cane, the brass knob handle gleaming beneath his gloved hands.

The Duke was not one for wasting time, so he cut straight to the point. "There are rumors that you are starring in the school's production of 'Cats'."

Chad had learned a long time ago never to attempt lying to the Duke, and yet, in that moment, he desperately wanted to do so anyway. "I wouldn't say starring-"

"Do you have any idea how this reflects on Sardinia?" the Duke snapped, surrendering to his anger now that the worst had been confirmed. "To know that its heir is parading around on stage like a damn pansy?"

"I just- I needed a performance credit," Chad rushed to explain. "Ms. Terpsichore arranged it so it would be a secret."

"Except it isn't now, is it?" the Duke snarled. "Now it is but speculation, but with Prince Benjamin's little fit in the cafeteria…"

Chad felt himself pale, ice gripping at this chest. "That doesn't confirm anything."

"That doesn't confirm that you let another prince molest you after dancing around dressed as a cat for three hours?" the Duke growled. "It didn't confirm that? Because he certainly seems to think that was the case, and again, you manage to make Sardinia the laughing stock of all the kingdoms of Auradon."

"I'm sorry," Chad whispered, feeling like the walls were closing in on him. "I'm sorry. I don't have to do anymore performances-"

"You damn well won't," the Duke spat. "Now or ever." He gripped his cane tight in his hand, readjusting his hold so his fingers were wrapped around the wooden pole of the cane, allowing the brass knob to waver like a true threat. "Sit down."

Chad didn't hesitate, despite the conflicting tumultuous swells of confusion and fear spiking through his chest. Normally, his grandfather bent him over his knee for this part, or had Chad splay across the bed. This order was new, and while Chad knew what would follow it, how it would do so filled him with a distinct sort of terror.

"Legs out," the Duke order, motioning with an impatient wave.

Chad complied as best he could, letting his legs spread out before him as he sat with his back against the foot of his bed.

The Duke levered his cane at the ready, eyeing Chad with a palpable sort of disappointment and disgust that seemed to mar all their interactions. "Do not make one sound," he said, and Chad could only nod, could only press a hand against his mouth because he would rather appear weak and quiet than try and brace himself and fail. It earned another point against his competence, but Chad didn't care. He needed to get this over with as quickly as possible.

He was ready when the Duke pulled the cane back. He was less ready when it descended upon his right ankle, sending a wave of staggering pain up Chad's leg.

He cried reflexively into his hands, which seemed to make the Duke's next hit harder, then harder, his grandfather attempting to bash all sides of his foot and ankle until it was a throbbing, broken mess.

"I had thought better of you, Chadwick," the Duke said between blows, watching tears of pain roll down Chad's cheeks with his usual apathy. "I thought you could restrain yourself on your own, but clearly you lack the self-control to keep yourself from committing to such vile performances. I do not like doing this to you-" There was a particularly painful whack that definitely fractured or broke his foot in its wake. "-but if you cannot manage the simple composure to act according to your stature, then I will do it for you."

Chad tried not to twitch, not to flinch away despite his body screaming for him to do so, his foot and ankle a mess of pain that radiated angry, throbbing stabs that made Chad kiss his brief yet stupid dance career down the drain. Fuck, it might make him kiss walking down the drain, because it hurt so very much and the Duke still didn't seem satisfied.

"You're a stupid boy, Chadwick," the Duke growled when he finally paused, his chest heaving with exertion. "Willingly submitting to the king. Do you want the citizens of Sardinia to look on you as a whore? Desperate for sex with little regard for how it's achieved?"

"No," Chad gasped between his fingers, knowing that the question was far from rhetorical. "Of course not."

"Of course not," he spat, tone mocking, and then the base of the cane was pressed pointedly against Chad's crotch, increasing in pressure until a new wave of tears leaked from his eyes. "'Of course not', he says, and yet you would gladly spread your legs for the prospect of relief-"

"I didn't-" Chad's protest was cut off with a pained scream that he had to muffle between his hands, the Duke redirecting his focus to directly hit between Chad's legs now. "Please, please- stop-"

"Stupid boy," the Duke muttered, the favorite of his pet names for Chad. "Stupid, useless boy. I should pull you from this school entirely – you are clearly unprepared for it."

"Grandfather-"

"That's 'your lordship' to you," the Duke spat, reminding Chad of the privileges he'd lost so long ago. "You're a failure, Chadwick. Fundamentally dislikeable and now, in addition to that, a faggot."

"I'm not," Chad gasped, shaking his head, vision blurring because he couldn't stop crying. "I'm not, I promise."

"Save it," the Duke said, and finally – finally he seemed done, with Chad's right foot practically useless and his groin radiating a level of pain Chad wasn't sure he could ever recover from. "I will try to mitigate some of this nasty 'mate' nonsense. You, in turn, will lay low and try not to create any more problems." He set his cane down again, resting his weight on it and letting Chad know that the punishment was well and truly done. "After I leave, crawl to the window and jump out of it," he said, already turning away. "That will explain your foot injury. Tell them you were feeling especially emotional, or something. That you weren't thinking."

"Yes, your lordship," Chad whispered, holding still while his grandfather exited the room with a sweep of his coat, the door locking shut behind him because he'd had a copy of Chad's room keys for as long as he could remember.

It took a gargantuan effort for Chad to slowly drag himself across the floor to the window seat positioned a deceptively far distance away. Every shift made Chad ache, his groin throbbing and leg claimed in a slow but steady fire, and all of it was bad and would likely to get worse when Chad fell on them, but those were his grandfather's orders, and if Chad didn't follow this much after messing up so terribly-

He didn't want to think what would happen. He knew it would be bad.

Fresh tears leaked from his eyes when he pulled himself up onto the seat, and his mouth was open as he gasped painful lungfuls of air. He needed to get a hold of himself. If he had been strong enough to manage a trip to the bathroom, he would have cleaned up first, but he'd always been pathetic. It was truer now more than ever, and Chad mostly wanted to hide.

But he couldn't do that until he fell from his third story window, and then he could pretend his baby tears were from that pain instead of the lingering dread of his failure. People would buy crybaby Chad, especially after the video Audrey had uploaded without his permission.

The wind caressed him with a gentle freshness he did not deserve when he got the window open, and he tried to focus on that – on the cool night and glittering stars rather than the potential fall, his heart squeezing in his chest. Pulling his legs out in front of him was another difficult challenge, but not impossible, and then he was just sitting on the window ledge, waiting to commit his grandfather's one and only order. He probably wouldn't be able to get the nurses to look at his groin, there would be no explanation for it, so he'd have to just deal with that pain. That had likely been his grandfather's intent the entire time.

"Chad?" The voice startled him out of his reverie, and Chad looked over to find Jay, of all people, clinging to the trellis, lingering just under his bedroom window. "Are… are you jumping?"

"No," Chad snapped, hastily wiping at his face. "What do you want, Jay?"

"I um… want you to go back inside," Jay said, his voice uncharacteristically kind. It was the same way he talked to Evie or Carlos when they were feeling worked up, a kind sort of familiarity Chad hadn't earned, and he immediately hated it.

"I'm getting fresh air," Chad sniffed, hiding his face as best as he could from the other teen.

"You could do that with your legs inside." Jay was climbing higher, drawing closer to Chad's position.

"Would you just fuck off?" Chad snapped, looking away. "I can enjoy the evening however I want. And if this is it-"

"Precariously balancing on a ledge that's too small for you?" Jay offered, climbing higher. "Chad, just go inside. We can talk about what happened-"

No, they fucking couldn't. "Fuck off, Jay," Chad hissed, using Jay's presence as an excuse to shift suddenly, until his risky position unquestionably worsened. "Don't act like we're friends. Did Ben send you?"

"Mal did, actually," Jay said, having the audacity to look worried. "After we saw the video Audrey posted-"

"I'm fine."

"Seriously, dude." Jay wasn't buying it. "Go back inside. You're gonna fall."

"Then I'll fall," Chad snapped, swallowing down the swell of anxiety to let his balance fail completely, until he was sliding off the window ledge.

He was gonna fall, it was gonna hurt, his ankle was going to snap like a twig if it already hadn't-

Except somehow, Jay managed to catch him.

"Holy fuck," the ex-thief said, yanking Chad close to him as he managed to snag the prince before he passed by completely. "Shit, Chad – whatever your grandfather had to say couldn't have been that bad."

"Fuck off, Jay," Chad repeated, words half-sobbed because Chad wished it wasn't that bad, wished he wasn't that bad so he wouldn't get hit so much, so his grandfather and his father would love him like a good prince would be.

"Just… climb back up, dude," Jay said, squeezing him close. "You don't have to-"

"I can't," Chad snapped, trying not to watch the way his right foot uselessly hung there, twisted at an angle that was just slightly past the edge of natural.

But he failed, because he was a failure, and Jay followed his gaze, letting out a quiet string of curses at the sight of it.

"What the hell, what the hell," he chanted as he tugged Chad close. "I can't believe Lonnie was right."

"Lonnie wasn't right," Chad hissed. "Now, let me go."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Jay declared, serious. "We're not covering up grandpa's crimes. Mal?!"

The sudden call threw Chad off balance, enough that he didn't immediately recognize when Mal poked her head out his window, like maybe she'd broken in too, or maybe Doug had let her in-

"What the fuck are you guys doing?" she asked, and yet she still moved to help, trying to work with Jay to pull Chad back into the window when it was the last place he needed to be.

"We need to get Chad to the infirmary," Jay said. "His grandfather-"

"Let me go," Chad snapped, struggling against Jay's hold. "I just need to-"

"Did that asshole order you to jump down two stories?" Jay asked, and then at Chad's stunned pause, started cursing again. "What the fuck?"

"Just keep him steady, Jay," Mal ordered, her small fingers gripping at Chad's shoulders. "Come on blondie, up you go."

"Stop," Chad sobbed. "I've got to-"

"Go to the infirmary?" Jay said as they tugged him inside, sealing his fate on another simple order he had yet again failed to complete. "Yes, you do. How kind of you to notice."

"It'll be okay, Chad," Mal said, wiping at his tear tracks despite the fact they weren't friends. "He won't get away with this."

"There's nothing to get away with," Chad gasped, and at that point the two of them decided to ignore him, Jay scooping Chad up and marching him down the hall with Mal at his side, her eyes glowing a furious shade of green.

Useless. He was useless. He couldn't even fall out of a window right.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Waiting in the infirmary was just as awful as Chad expected it to be, because this time Jay was there to give his take on the situation whether it was true or not, rarely letting Chad get a word in edgewise, even if he was generous enough to keep an arm wrapped around Chad's shoulders for stability. Mal had disappeared almost as soon as they'd gotten to the infirmary, and Chad would worry about that but he was too busy trying to correct Jay's (unfortunately accurate) depiction of what had happened, because Chad hadn't been assaulted, he'd been punished, and there was a difference.

"I fell," he said anytime they asked him, the nurse looking at the swollen, bruised mess of his foot and knowing there was no possible height he could fall from in his dorm room that would generate that amount of damage.

"Chad," Jay would sigh, but he wouldn't let him go. Maybe he was just feeling stubborn.

"I fell," Chad repeated, pretending he wasn't huddling closer to Jay but definitely doing that.

This was stupid. He was supposed to be the knight in shining armor rescuing some damsel, but of course he was the pathetic creature dripping snot all over his sleeves because his grandfather had to be a little strict with him. As though Chad had any face to lose.

"Do you have any other injuries?" the nurse asked, just trying to do her job, and in that moment Chad wished Jay was far from him, because there was no missing the way Chad tensed. Sitting on the examination table had already been a trial, though Jay had likely attributed that to Chad's injured foot. If he hadn't carried Chad the entire way there, he would have known about the other punishments the Duke had left Chad with.

Chad swallowed. This was dumb enough as it was. "No," he said, shaking his head. "Just the foot."

Jay sighed again. "Chad."

"…if you fell twice, it would make sense for you to have more injuries," the nurse offered carefully, watching Chad's pained expression.

If Chad had fallen right the first time, maybe he could have played this off, but-

But his groin was really starting to hurt, enough that he was getting concerned, enough that it was hard to think.

Chad cleared his throat. "I um… I might have fallen on…" He trailed off with a humiliated flush, motioning to his crotch.

That time, Jay's curses were entirely in Agraben.

"Do you want him to go?" the nurse asked, and Chad tensed, even though that was an entirely reasonable question he should say yes to so Jay wouldn't have to waste time on him-

"I'm staying," Jay declared, insistent and unyielding.

Chad could have melted with relief.

He would have to figure out a better way to handle this later, but for now he was relatively safe within the infirmary. The Duke couldn't be that mad at him, right?

"I'm going to give you a little something for the pain," the nurse said, and then things might have gotten a little hazy.

Shortly after that, the darkness claimed him, and Chad gratefully surrendered to it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad woke up in gradual increments, buoyed by a delightful haze that made the realization that he actually was awake take longer than it normally would have. It took him longer to register the numbness that usually accompanied pain medication, and not just any medication, but the good stuff Chad had to scramble to procure from the black market. The Duke must have really fucked him up this time, for Chad to be this disconnected. He hoped he hadn't messed up the dosage.

It was those small worries that gradually brought his attention to the rest of his surroundings – to the twin bed beneath him, comfortable and clean, to the neutral warm tones of the room – not his dorm room, but somewhere else. He was wearing different clothes too, a hospital gown?

Ah, fuck. He must be in the private treatment area of the school's infirmary. Because Auradon Prep catered to so many royals, they had created a special wing just for treatments in order to ensure the young royal's protection.

Aw, damn. Ah, hell. He wasn't supposed to get himself hospitalized; the Duke was going to be so pissed.

"Chadwick?" Chad blinked over to see Fairy Godmother sitting next to his bed, a worried expression pinched on her features. Jay was nowhere to be seen, but there was a detective from the Inspector's Office hovering closer to the door, looking grave. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

"…I'm not," Chad settled on, trying to catalogue his body's condition. Nope, still numb. "What happened?"

Fairy Godmother offered him a tight smile, the same one she used whenever she tried to give him peptalks to get better grades. "Jay brought you in a couple of hours ago, dear. Your right foot and um… pelvis had sustained a lot of injuries. Multiple breaks and fractures for your foot and ankle, and your pelvis…" she trailed off with a swallow. "Well, that won't be a problem for long anyway. Now…" She seemed to refocus herself, pulling out of her mild sorrow to face Chad directly. "I wanted to ask you a few questions, if that was okay."

"Alright," Chad said, figuring there wasn't much harm in it. "I might not be good at answering them, though."

She gave him another tight smile. "Just do your best, okay?" It was the same thing she said at their meetings, and Chad had the feeling that just as he had in all those, he was going to fail now too. "Now, could you tell me how you sustained those injuries?"

Chad's response was immediate. "I fell," he said, his hands curling into the soft material of the blanket. "Twice."

"Right." Fairy Godmother was kind enough to nod slowly, even though she clearly did not believe him. "Do you know why you fell?"

Chad tensed. "Because I'm… clumsy," he settled on. "And stupid."

"Is that what your grandfather told you?" she asked, her voice so very gentle, and it was a lie, a lie, because no one was that nice to Chad.

He didn't know how to respond, so he settled for being vague because doing anything else would confirm a falsity. "My grandfather wants me to be better. I'm not good, so he has to be strict with me, sometimes. That's not a crime."

"That's not," Fairy Godmother agreed. "But beating your grandson is."

Chad flinched, curling back against his pillows. "He didn't- I fell."

"Chad." There was pain in her eyes, and Chad would know it because it was a feeling with which he was intimately familiar. "…Douglass's webcam was running during your grandfather's visit. Miss Bertha and Douglass already turned the footage in to the Inspector's Office."

She already knew what happened, was what she meant. She already knew, but she wanted to hear it from Chad. Chad, who had to live with the knowledge that his private dress-down had been recorded, that other people were going to see how weak and pathetic he was.

"It wasn't a beating," Chad said, trying to correct course while he attempted to handle the growing panic of Doug potentially watching the footage. "I told you, I'm stupid. Sometimes I can't learn without the Duke having to take more extreme measures. That's not his fault, it's mine."

"No, Chadwick." Her eyes were getting all glossy now, wet with unshed tears. He was making his mom's Fairy Godmother cry. Damn, did he suck. "It is entirely his fault. He's the adult in this situation, he should know how to communicate his needs without resorting to violence. That's not your fault, and telling you that it was is just another form of abuse."

"He didn't abuse me." Chad's face was beginning to feel warm, his eyes burning in frustration. "He punished me, yes, but I deserved it. I mean, I'm an asshole. The whole school knows that. I'm supposed to be charming but I'm so stupid and dislikeable-"

"Chad." She reached forward, her fingers curling through his so he could no longer continue his stranglehold on the blanket. "I promise you, there is nothing you could have done to deserve that. Not dancing in the musical. Not having the king develop a crush on you." Chad flinched at that, but she kept going. "Not even failing a test or a class. It isn't warranted, Chad, and that's why… why your grandfather was arrested this evening."

With her gaze still locked on his, she reached for the remote on his nightstand and turned on the television mounted to the wall, where a muted image of his grandfather's arrest was being played.

"They've had it on loop," she explained, though Chad was too busy choking on his own failure.

"D-Don't arrest him," he whispered, feeling himself start to tremble. "Please. Don't- not for that. If I'd been better, he wouldn't have wanted to do it. He didn't want to do it, he just had to, because I'm not good-"

"Chadwick James." That was her teacher voice, firm and true and unyielding. "You are very good, and I am somewhat of an authority on goodness." She had graced his mother with her magic, so Chad supposed that might be true. "Your grandfather must take responsibility for his actions – that is not a negotiation. I'm here now because we need to know how many times Duke Francis has 'punished' you before, and what injuries it resulted in."

"He didn't," Chad sniffed, wiping at his eyes. "I fell. I fell."

He was such a fucking loser. Not only had he blown his cover, he'd managed to get his grandfather arrested.

Now who would love him? Ben? The only thing Ben liked about him was the way he danced and his scent, and both were things Chad could easily lose. He had nothing.

"I fell," he repeated, hoping that if he didn't own up to his other punishments, his grandfather's sentence might be reduced. Fuck, what if they sent him to the Isle of the Lost? Because of Chad?

He'd doomed his grandfather; he was so dumb. He was useless and stupid.

"It's okay, dear," Fairy Godmother lied, squeezing his hand. "We don't have to talk about it now." Or ever. "Why don't we focus on the positives? After you're released from the infirmary, you're going to come live with me and Jane!"

Jane and Fairy Godmother had a private cottage located close to campus for their convenience. While Jane had the option of staying in the dormitory, she ultimately ended up spending most of her time with her mom in that cozy looking home that Chad admired from a distance, and while a small part of him was excited by the prospect of seeing inside that house, a greater part of him was confused.

"I don't understand," Chad said, perhaps the most predictable response from him. "Can't I just go back to my dorm room?"

Fairy Godmother's smile tightened. "I thought it would be best for you to remain off-campus throughout the course of the investigation. At least until the media lost interest. You'll be doing your schoolwork from home."

Right, that made sense. But-

"Then shouldn't I go back to Sardinia?" Chad asked. Maybe that was too far away. Still, that was his home.

It was a poor sign that Fairy Godmother didn't even try to keep the smile on her face as she considered his question. "Your father's under investigation too, Chad," she explained quietly. "Right now we're not sure if he's capable of properly taking care of you."

Wait, that was- the entire thing was preposterous.

"He doesn't have to take care of me," Chad pressed, wiping frustratingly at his cheeks. "He's a king, he's got a lot more important things to do than look after me."

There was a tense pause, and when Chad looked up, Fairy Godmother looked entirely stricken. What had he said wrong now?

"Chadwick, dear," she began quietly. "Even though he's a king, he has certain responsibilities as your father that have to come first. Whether he's a king or not, he has to take care of you."

"No, he doesn't," Chad sniffed. "I'm irritating, and a nuisance. He shouldn't have to deal with me until I learn to be better."

"Is that what your grandfather told you?" she asked again, intent on digging into that wound.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Chad said, glaring down at his blanket while fresh tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. "…are you going to arrest my dad, too?"

"No, dear," she said, and Chad could have sobbed, he was so relieved. At least he had kept his dad safe, at least he'd done that much. "But things will be different going forward."

"Like me staying at your house?" Chad asked, trying to get a feel for the lay of the land.

She offered him a small nod. "Yes, sweetheart. Among other things. But we'll figure it out together, alright? You and me and Jane, we're gonna be like three peas in a happy little pod…"

She trailed off when her gaze flickered towards the television screen, and Chad looked towards it just in time to catch what must have been Doug's webcam footage playing on a public news network.

"What is this?" Fairy Godmother asked while Chad watched a sniveling version of himself sit on the ground, bracing his legs out in front of him. "How did they get this?"

"I don't know," the inspector said, speaking up for the first time just as Chad's grandfather smashed his cane down on Chad's foot, the Chad on the screen flinching reflexively in pain. "There must have been a leak-"

"Well, do something about it," Fairy Godmother said as the cane continued to fall and fall, as the entirety of Auradon got to see what a giant baby Chad was, tears already leaking from the corners of his eyes from a few measly blows.

"I'll call it in now," the inspector said, but it was already too late.

Sardinia would never respect him now. He would never be king. And now he couldn't even fall back on dancing, because he'd fucked that up too.

"Let's just turn this off," Fairy Godmother said, doing just that.

It wouldn't stop the rest of Auradon from watching, though, wouldn't make Chad's humiliation less thorough, or public. He hated himself. He hated, he hated-

"It will be okay, Chad," Fairy Godmother lied, petting a hand through his hair. "You'll see, it will all be okay."

It wouldn't be, but it was a nice thought. A nice lie.

Maybe for once he could be stupid enough to believe it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Endnotes:

WARNING – Chad's grandfather assaults him in the second scene. Like in some of my previous stories, he hits Chad with his cane. If you would like to skip this, look for:

"Chad complied as best he could, letting his legs spread out before him as he sat with his back against the foot of his bed."

You can jump back in at:

Until next time :)