A/N: Trying to get back to my schedule, which is a weekly update usually on Saturdays or Sundays. Keyword on 'trying', I really hope I'll stick with this and not end up updating every month or something. I would have updated daily if I wanted to but I get burned out easily and I'm a huge procrastinator so :P
Warning: Emma breaks some rules and there is intense profanity ahead, reader discretion advised.
The winged doors of a dorm room quickly swung open, followed by several painful thuds as hard-covered books fell on someone, on the head area in particular. "We're back- oof!"
"You really need to start being careful," Liz chided as she passed by Emma, who was sitting on the ground, rubbing her head as several books laid haphazardly around her. Liz had stopped feeling empathy for her roommate, sort-of best friend after seeing her fall on her face or trip on her own feet enough times, and besides, Emma seemed resilient enough anyway, having fallen off of several flights of stairs, several potions exploding on her face, tripping over her own feet in an average of forty-two times on a daily basis, and yet suffer little to no repercussions whatsoever. It's a pretty impressive feat in itself.
"I've already come to accept my clumsiness," Emma waved it off as she got up and dusted herself off.
It was afternoon, Liz and Emma had both finished their classes and went back to their dorm. Usually, three other dorm mates would have finished their classes earlier and came to the dorm before them, but today, Liz observed, the dorm was empty and eerily silent. "Where are the others?"
Emma tapped her chin in an attempt to recall information, "Well, Lana still has a class, Brittany left back to Solaria, and Max and Cel ditched class to go to Solaria with Leon and the guys."
"Oh," what Emma said didn't process to Liz immediately. "Wait, what? Solaria? What are they doing there?"
"Apparently, an Earl and his family were murdered a week ago, now's their funeral and as the crowned princess, Brittany left to attend the ceremony."
"Okay; that makes sense...but what do Leon, Max, and Cel have anything to do with this?"
"Oh, apparently Hansel ditched class to attend the funeral too, and dad didn't take it too well so he sent Leon and his squad to go fetch him. Leon and the guys were feeling rebellious so they stopped by Alfea and asked Max and Cel if they would like to go, they said yes. He asked me too but I was in Griselda's class at the time."
"Ah," Liz nodded in understanding, "Huh, I wonder what they're up to by now..."
Emma shrugged, "No idea but it's fun I bet considering how they're getting more focus recently," she said, "Ah, I wish I could have just went with them! Like, did you know we aren't going to appear again until the arc ends? Boring!"
Liz looked at her roommate in a puzzled manner. "What are you talking about?"
"And I won't get to appear much in the next arc either! Ah! Does she hate me? I bet she hates me. The most underrated character here. I'm the most underrated character. There are Rhys and Kai too but still."
"I seriously have no idea of what you're talking about. Have you gone crazy? Should I take you to nurse Ofelia?"
Emma sighed, "I'm going to do my homework. See you." With that, she left, leaving a puzzled Liz behind.
...
"What's going on?" Brandon demanded as he rushed through the halls hurriedly with Brittany, Stiles, and Hansel right behind him. Several guards, maids, and curious bystanders crowded the middle of the hallway, though upon noticing the king approach, they immediately stepped away and made way for the royal family to see the commotion, well most of them anyway, the ones closer to the scene were too engrossed in the situation to notice his highness lightly shoving them to get a better look. His eyes widened at the sight.
"Lemy!" Brittany gasped as soon as she saw her servant friend, her eyes turning glassy and her voice cracking at the last syllable. Stiles and Hansel looked equally as shocked.
The servant boy Brandon had just talked to, Lemuel, laid on the ground, clearly out cold. Luggage was sprawled all over the place, one large suitcase was even open with its contents spilling out, but what really sent shivers down the king's spine was the puddle of blood pooling underneath the servant's head, his already red-brown hair stained, making it look redder than it already was.
"Blunt force trauma," The palace doctor tending to the servant concluded, shaking his head as he stood up, "Let's take him to the infirmary for treatment and some tests," He turned to the clearly concerned king, "We'll try our best, your highness," with a bow, the doctor left with two guards and the servant on a stretcher. The crowd looked at the descending figures and kept whispering to one another, before they each broke off from the crowd and went their separate ways, leaving the royal family, an Eraklyonian prince, and some guards to the crime scene.
"Princess," one of the guards approached the visibly shaking fairy, "one of your luggage appeared to be ransacked when we appeared on the scene, and suspect that something might have been stolen. Only you can verify it, your highness."
Brittany stared at the guard with wide eyes, before her eyes darted to the opened suitcase. She approached the suitcase and knelt down, looking through her things, there wasn't much to be stolen from in this suitcase, it mostly consisted of inexpensive things she could replace with a snap. Well, except...
"My mirror," Brittany said as soon as she went through each and every stuff in her suitcase. She went through her belongings yet again to confirm that it's missing and indeed, it was nowhere to be found. Her heart immediately sank. "Oh no..."
Everyone looked at each other worriedly as they approached the princess, Brittany had never looked this distressed before. "What's missing, sweetheart?" Brandon asked, kneeling down next to his daughter.
"My hand mirror," she murmured, her hand over her mouth. "It's not here...it's like my favorite thing ever and I never go anywhere without it and..."
"What does it look like?" Hansel asked curiously, crouching down next to her as well. As much as he wanted her to get angry at him during their playful rivalries, he hated seeing her genuinely upset. He hated seeing anyone so genuinely upset.
"It's about the size of a palm, oval in shape, and a gold frame with gems on it," Stiles recalled, tapping on his chin as he looked at his sister for confirmation. Brittany nodded. For some reason, the hand mirror has been etched in his mind ever since he was seven or so, and always identified the mirror as his sister's favorite thing, never seeing her go anywhere without it.
"We'll try looking out for it, your highnesses," the guard said, "though, one of the detained suspects might have it in their possession."
Brandon whipped his head to the guards, his brow furrowing. "Suspects? We already have suspects?"
The guards nodded, "We caught them near the scene when we arrived,"
Stiles raised a brow, "Are you really sure they were the culprits?" The guards merely shrugged.
"No, but they were really suspicious as we couldn't identify them. They were teenagers, most were wearing Red Fountain uniforms. We suspect they were mere delinquents trying to steal but got caught and therefore resorted to violence."
Stiles shifted awkwardly, and so did Hansel. They had a bad feeling about this...
Brandon and Brittany didn't seem that bothered though, as all they were thinking was avenging the servant and retrieving the mirror. With his kingly voice, Brandon ordered,
"Take us to them immediately!"
...
They didn't even arrive in the interrogation room yet and they can already hear familiar voices protesting and arguing with the guards. Hansel and Stiles' hearts sunk lower and lower as they walked closer, while Brittany and Brandon's thirst for avenging slowly turned into confusion.
"I swear to the great fuckin' dragon that if you ask one more goddamn stupid condescending question that I don't give a rat's ass about then I will shove that hideous smirking pile of shit called your face up your ass until you vomit in your fucking pancreas you fucking asshole-!" Everyone visibly cringed at the girl's...creative vocabulary, even the guards standing outside the room shuddered at the idea. Hansel, Stiles, and Brittany looked at each other, knowing exactly who that might be.
"Please don't mind her. We didn't do it. We're just here to fetch our friend, h-here's the letter from our headmaster to prove it. No, we didn't steal anything. We don't even know who that guy was. Please just let us go..." Another, softer male voice pleaded. The voice also sounded oddly familiar.
They went in the room and the three teenager's suspicions were proven correct as soon as they saw four familiar heads, long navy blue, tousled orange, medium-length black, and short pink. Everyone in the room immediately turned to the new arrivals. The "suspects'" faces lit up when they saw the royal family, especially Max, who stood up. "Stiles! Brit! Buddies! We're buddies, aren't we?! You know we didn't do whatever, right?! We're innocent- hey, don't touch me!" Max's words were cut off as a guard held her back, she glared at him and he glared back. "Your wife is cheating on you and your 'son' isn't yours," She muttered, the guard shrunk his shoulders and backed off.
"What are you kids doing here?" Brandon asked, his voice softening as soon as he saw his buddies' kids and some boys from his old school.
Leon stood up stiffly, "We were sent here to fetch prince Hansel, sire," he pointed to Hansel, who looked sheepish, "as he left school premises without permission. I swear we have nothing to do with the incident."
Brandon sighed, 'Uncle Brandon' doesn't seem to stick with these kids. Oh well. "Let them go," he told, "They're not the culprits, I know it. They are family, after all." He said, directing his last statement at Leon, Callum, Max, Cel, as well as the other Specialists with a smile, who gladly returned the favor.
"Great! We should go now," Cel said as she walked past everyone, before stopping to Hansel and harshly grabbing his hand. "We have Prince Hansole. Let's go!"
"Wait, everyone calls me that?" Hansel asked incredulously as he was being pulled by Cel. Everyone else began to walk away as well. "I thought Bit- I mean Brittney was the only one to call me that..."
"Wait!" Brandon suddenly called out to the teenagers after some pondering. Everyone abruptly stopped to turn to the king. "It's...getting a bit late, I know it's a long way between Solaria and Magix, and I know you guys are tired. You can stay the night here, we have plenty of guest rooms for all of you. You can then leave in the morning," Everyone looked at one another hesitantly, "I'll inform Helia and Miss Griselda that you'll be staying for the night, they'll understand, don't worry about it." He smiled.
After much thought, everyone sighed. "Why not? I've always wanted to stay the night in a palace anyway," Spark said, and everyone agreed. Brandon smiled and clapped his hands together.
"Great! I'll have the servants prepare your bedrooms. Supper will be at eight o'clock sharp and-"
"Thanks, Uncle Brandon," Max suddenly said, "You're the coolest, you know that?"
Brandon was taken aback before he chuckled. "I know that," he said with a playfully smug face. "And you're welcome."
A/N: Does Brandon sound shady? I hope not. That's not my intention at all, I want him to be that cool and chill uncle who brings great presents and everyone likes.
We have two or three more chapters for the Stella arc, one shorter chapter that will probably be up sooner (no promises, tho), and the climax/ending that may or may not be split. This is the first time I've gotten this far into a story so if my pacing is too fast or too slow or if I'm doing it wrong them feel free to tell me. After the Stella arc will be our 'favorite' redhead's time to shine, the Bloom arc, and honestly? I can't wait to get to that part, even if Bloom isn't exactly a favorite of mine.
Trivia time: Stiles' character is based on Hideyoshi Nagachika from Tokyo Ghoul, a cheerful and bright sunflower boi who is also very observant and smart, even if it's not that obvious. Speaking of Hide, he is NOT dead. If anyone says he's dead, I will throttle you, whoever you are. If it's not obvious, he's my favorite character of all time, my current username, 'The Witch's Servant' is a reference to him. Oh right, I changed my username to anyone wondering.
Enough ranting! Till next time!