Chapter VI: Bittersweet and Strange
The sun was still struggling to pull the last of its lazy rays over the top of the hilly horizon by the time Luan set out for the Stone Castle, towing along a very confused Leni. As they walked, Luan observed (with a little twinge of jealousy) how the sunbeams cast a perfect glowing halo of light around Leni's flawless, silky blonde hair, and the fact that her bright, shining eyes were the exact same color as the dawning blue sky.
Luan's older sister was a showstopper for sure. Though she was too dense to realize it most of the time, a lot of boys had flirted with Leni after the family's performances. Why wouldn't they? Drifting lightly among the crowd of after-show minglers, her laughter clear and airy as she made effortless conversation with just about everyone, she was a vision of feminine beauty. It only helped that her costumes were all razzle-dazzled in stunning sparkles and lace. And on top of that, she was undeniably the sweetest, kindest, most generous person in the Loud family. Last winter, she'd even given her favorite scarf to a shivering little boy without so much as a second thought.
In the past, Luan had sometimes tried to imitate Leni's natural charms. While she didn't mind indulging in a sparkly outfit once or twice a month, it was much harder for her to come up with kind words or compliments than it was for her to think up a clever pun. When she tried to curtsey in the same elegant manner Leni could manage, it was a miracle if she didn't end up tripping over her own feet.
As for ballroom dancing? Goodness, that was just a disaster. Maybe it was for the best that boys never asked her to dance.
She had spent a considerable amount of time cringing at old memories of past balls and formals she'd attended before Leni suddenly spoke.
"So… what am I doing here again?"
Luan rolled her eyes. She'd forgotten that Leni had been distracted during the entirety of the prior family meeting. "I'm going to meet a friend of mine. And mom doesn't trust me to go alone after what I did last night, so she's making me bring along some supervision. That's you."
Leni stared at her blankly. "Supervision? My vision's no super-er than yours. It's no better than anyone else's." She tugged thoughtfully on the lacy collar of her blue dress. "Except maybe Lisa's."
Luan facepalmed. "What I meant was, you're here to keep me out of trouble." She thrust Lynn Jr's baseball bat into Leni's confused palms. "Here. If any wolves try to kill me, give them a good whack for me."
"Wouldn't that be mean?"
"That's kind of the point! Listen, do you want me to die or not?"
"Not!" Leni scratched her head. "I mean, no." She swung the bat in a way that Luan guessed was supposed to look menacing, but the way the bat bounced lightly off thornbushes, tree trunks, and once, Leni's own head, ruined the effect.
"Close enough," Luan said with a shrug as they approached the dusty pathway that led to the Stone Castle.
No matter how many times Luan told Leni that the thorns on the bushes growing around the path were indeed very sharp, Leni always insisted on poking them with her finger just to make sure. After Leni tried for the thirteenth time, producing her thirteenth "Ouch!", Luan had had enough. She yanked on her sister's sleeve, pulling her as roughly and quickly as she could to the castle's door.
Her gaze lingered for a long moment on the door's rusted knobs. Just like she'd done the first time she came across the Stone Castle, when she was a few weeks younger and ten lifetimes more naive, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.
Bringing an unfamiliar person into the home of someone who was clearly very shy and nervous about letting other people see him? And then throwing unexpectedly upon him the additional stress of meeting eleven more people in less than twenty-four hours? All while the someone in question was, for some reason or another, not quite right in the head? He'd nearly killed her yesterday. What would stop him from doing the same to one of her family members? She especially worried about her littlest sisters. They wouldn't even stand a chance.
Luan wasn't a stranger to risks and gambles. She'd walked tightropes, rode unicycles, and had even been shot out of a cannon once. She was the type of person who wasn't afraid to get out of her comfort zone-heck, she wasn't even sure she had one to begin with!
But the stakes seemed higher this time, somehow. It wasn't just herself she was risking, it was everyone she cared about. And she could think of a million ways things could possibly go wrong.
Luan shook her head quickly, trying to chase away those pesky negative thoughts. Don't be such a downer, she urged herself. Try to see the bright side!
That was her specialty, after all. Her first and most natural instinct. Whenever times were hard-if her family was worried about money, or if one of her siblings messed up their performance, or if rain ruined their chances of a perfectly good day's profit, Luan was the one to keep the smiles on their faces. Every family needed an optimist. Someone to help them see the sunshine.
Maybe nothing would go wrong. Maybe letting her family in on her secret was a good thing. Maybe if everyone put their heads together, they could figure out a way to break the curse and set her poor, sweet friend free.
What was that saying again? Fourteen heads are better than two?
That's the spirit! Her confidence restored, she raised her fist to knock, just in time to see Leni absentmindedly walk straight into the door.
Luan facepalmed as Leni rubbed her forehead. "Leni! While I find your ditiziness a-door-able, you really ought to check if a door is open before you try to walk through it."
Leni blinked. "Oh. Right. I keep forgetting that part."
Luan put her hands on Leni's shoulders and scooted her back a few steps so she'd be out of harm's way when the door swung open. Then she brushed a few stray particles of dust off her newly-mended cloak and tapped her fist lightly against the wooden surface three times-her trademark knock.
"Knock-knock?" she called just as she always did, trying to keep the last remaining traces of anxiety from showing up in her voice.
Ever just the same, the reply was, "Who's there?"
Luan smirked. "As if you don't know. I'm here to bother you some more." She paused. "Oh, and Benny? Don't go into Luanaphylactic shock when you open the door. I… have a little surprise for you."
She pressed her ear against the door and listened as Benny cleared his throat to speak. "I, Prince Benjamin Marcus Stein, hereby promise that I will not have a heart attack and die when I open this door, even if my lovely lady Luan throws a live snake at me."
Luan couldn't help but roll her eyes affectionately at his over-the-top theatrics.
She heard three light taps come from the other side of the door. "And why would you ever think you were bothering me?"
The comedienne was speechless. Why did she think that? Benny had never given the slightest indication that he was in any way annoyed by her. Not even once.
Because most people are annoyed by me, she thought. She didn't quite miss how most of her family cringed at her puns and quips. And when was the last time any one of them had actually laughed when she played a prank on them? She was quick to hide any feelings of pain with a giggle and a smile, but deep down, sometimes she felt like a nuisance. An unappreciated, unfunny burden.
Again with the nervous, negative thoughts. What was wrong with her today?
"Quit fooling around and open the door already," she demanded. She definitely preferred the weird flutters she got when she saw Benny's smile over whatever bad feeling she was currently experiencing.
"Anything for you."
Luan had another nagging feeling as Benny tugged open the door. Did this boy really mean it when he said he'd do anything for her, or was it just another joke? And if he did mean it, why? Why her?
Probably because she was the only one who talked to him. If anyone else came along, he'd do the exact same thing for them, because that was just the sort of kind, devoted person he was. There was nothing special about any of this.
Nothing special.
She was interrupted when Leni screamed. "EEEEK! A monster!" She leaped protectively in front of Luan, brandishing her baseball bat as though she was a knight with a sword, just about to slay a fire-breathing dragon. "Get back, beast! Nobody tries to pulvertize my little sister!"
A deep stab of guilt struck Luan's body when she saw Benny's ears droop. She shot him a sympathetic look before turning to face her sister. "The word is pulverize, Len. And this isn't a monster. This is the friend I was telling you about." She reached out to take Benny's hand in her own and gave it a tight squeeze. "And you just made a terrible introduction."
"Hm." There was a loud clatter as Leni dropped the bat onto the floor. She studied the odd creature in front of her, her eyes narrowed. "You didn't tell me you were friends with a werewolf."
"Not a werewolf," Luan said defensively. "Just a boy under a curse. And I'm pretty sure I did mention that several times at the family meeting."
"Family meeting?" Benny tilted his head in exactly the same cute way that Charles did when he was begging for table scraps.
Luan looked him in the eyes, trying to keep her face serious because dang it, she wasn't about to let his adorableness distract her today. "We have a lot to talk about."
He nodded. "Definitely. Come inside. I have a surprise for you, too."
Well, it wouldn't kill her to let a little smile slip through. "You know I love a good surprise."
…
"This is my sister, Leni. Leni, this is Benny." The way Luan's eyes seemed to fill with light and sparkles made Benny guess she'd just thought of something funny.
She snapped her fingers, a delighted smile starting to spread across her face. "Ooh, Benny and Leni! That rhymes!"
Right again, he thought with a grin.
At the very least, Luan hadn't been lying about having one sister. Benny had to admit Leni was pretty, in that blonde-haired, blue-eyed bombshell sort of way a lot of people liked. But in his humble opinion, Leni's beauty couldn't hold a candle to her sister's, especially when Luan smiled like that.
"Okay, seriously," Luan said, her grin disappearing even quicker than it had arrived. "Down to business. You know how last night I overslept and stayed here way longer than I'd planned to?"
"Mhm."
"And you know how I mentioned that my parents were probably going to kill me?"
He for one was glad they hadn't. "Mhm."
"Well, I'm happy to report they spared my life. I did get punished, though. Extra chores for a month." She looked down at her feet and toyed with the band in her ponytail as though she was nervous about something. "And…my family wants to meet you. All of them. Tomorrow."
"Mhm," he said again, less focused on the words she was saying to him and more focused on the fact that when the sunlight from the open window shone upon Luan's face, it revealed a subtle spray of freckles across her nose that he'd never noticed before. It was kind of fascinating how everytime he looked at her, he'd see something new.
That was why it took him a solid minute to process what she'd said. "Wait, what?!"
"I know, it's such short notice and I understand if you're scared and I just want to say that I totally get it if you hate me now. Because my family is really big, and really loud, and there's really no way to talk them out of anything." She massaged her temples with her thumbs. "How on Earth do I keep getting myself into messes like this?"
Benny placed his hands on top of hers, careful not to scratch the perfect, delicate skin with his claws. He was still a little scared to touch her, even though he knew she didn't mind when he did, but he was determined to get through to her. "Hate you? I could never," he said as he pulled her hands off her head and held them over his heart, wrapping his own hands around hers in a warm bundle.
"We'll get through this." He tried to make his voice sound much more confident than he actually felt, because under the surface, he really was more than a little freaked out about meeting her parents. But, Luan didn't need to know that. "Like I said, anything for you."
"Um, I-" It looked like Luan was trying to say something, but couldn't find the tongue. After a minute or so, she completely shifted gears, putting on a light smile with a shrug. "Didn't you say you had a surprise for me?" she asked, making no effort to free her hands from his grasp.
"Right," he said, trying to keep his tail from wagging and giving away his emotions. Was he just imagining how perfectly her hands fit between his? Maybe she thought that, too.
It was dangerous for him to think like that, he knew. Dangerous, but hopeful.
He led her up the spiral staircase, keeping their hands joined. Leni tagged along behind them, muttering something about having 'super vision.'
After guiding her along the long upstairs hallway, Benny stopped in front of one of the doors, which had been left slightly ajar. It had once been a storage room, but he'd spent the better part of the morning converting it into something very different.
"After you," he said, stepping back to let her open the door and trying to conceal his smug expression.
"Such a gentleman!" Luan said approvingly, pulling her hands out of his and jerking open the door.
Unbeknownst to Luan, there had been a different reason he'd been so eager to let her do the honors. On top of the slightly-open door, he'd perched a bucket of water. The moment the door was pulled wide, the pail tumbled down, completely soaking her.
After all, he hadn't forgotten about getting back at her for the prank she'd pulled on him a few days prior.
Luan stood there for a long while, apparently shocked speechless, before whirling around to glare at him. "Benjamin Marcus Stein!" she shouted, crossing her arms.
Uh-oh. She'd used his full name. He shrank under the intensity of her dripping-wet scowl, certain he'd just made a grave mistake. Had he pranked the wrong person again? Was she so upset that she'd walk out the door and leave, even after she'd already promised she wouldn't?
What had he done? What was wrong with him?
His mind started racing, trying to think of how to apologize when she broke into a grin. "You got me good!" she declared.
He tilted his head. "So you're not mad at me?"
"Why would I be mad?" Luan wrung the water out of her ponytail, stared at the wet, limp tangle of hair, and laughed. "I had no idea! How did I not notice that setup? It's the most classic prank in the book!"
"If anything, you're the one who fooled me," Benny said. "For a moment there, I was worried you were actually upset with me."
One glance into her eyes told him that she'd been faking it the whole time. He'd forgotten how clever and convincing an actress Luan was when she wanted to be. "As if!" she assured him.
Seeing a trace of some emotion in his face, perhaps, she touched her palm to the back of his hand, running her fingers calmly through the brown fur. "Benny," she said, glancing up at him. "If there's one thing that's a hundred and ten percent true about me, it's that I will always appreciate a good prank. Especially if it's being played on me. Never doubt that."
When she put it that way, it seemed silly to have ever thought she'd respond to his lighthearted antics in any way other than how Luan did to everything else-with optimism and a heaping mound of humor. Luan had undertones of insecurity beneath her surface, but at her core, she was a pretty uncomplicated person. Someone easy to understand.
"I can open the door now, right?" Luan asked. "Something tells me that wasn't the surprise you were referring to."
Benny nodded and Luan put her hand on the doorknob.
She hesitated. "And this door isn't rigged in any other way? You're not going to throw a live snake at me, are you?"
"The answer to the first question is 'no'," Benny promised. "And the answer to the second question is 'are you kidding?' I hate snakes." He shuddered just thinking about their disgusting wiggly bodies and their unsettlingly cold stares. "They give me the creeps."
Luan's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You're afraid of snakes? You, the boy who took on a pack of wolves, mind you, are afraid of snakes?" She grinned. "For some reason, I find that to be absolutely hiss-terical, and also kind of endearing."
"That's me," Benny said with a note of sarcasm. "The most 'endearing' person you'll ever meet."
"Quiet, you. As a matter of fact, I find you very endearing and I'm going to keep drilling that into your head until you finally get it. And by now, the suspense is slowly killing me, so if you don't mind-"
She pulled the door wide open and he was amazed by how satisfied he felt when he realized he'd managed to totally stun her twice in the same day. Her arms dropped to her sides in awe, her eyes large and wide and full of those mysterious sparkles again.
All around the cozy little room, neatly arranged on the tall mahogany bookshelves and sprawled across the stone floor, was the most impressive collection of gags and joke items in the entire kingdom (and the kingdom was not exactly small).
Rubber chickens sat limply beside fake spiders. A posse of marionettes smiled cheerfully at the awestruck newcomer. A stack of joke books was piled high in one corner of the room while a red unicycle was propped against the opposite wall. A few funny hats hung from a marching line of pegs; occasionally the breeze from the open window would caress them and cause the bells on some of the hats to softly jingle. A few things from far away lined the edges of the shelves: finger-traps from China, cuckoo clocks from Germany, and even a fez from Morocco.
All things Benny had collected over his early years, but had put into storage after his life went downhill, fully intending to never see them or embrace the part of himself they brought out ever again. He'd never thought he'd have a reason to.
Luan's reaction was, he believed, a pretty solid reason.
"...It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life." Luan's eyes shone.
"What, this?" He shook his head. "It's nothing compared to you."
He meant it. The many ways she encouraged him, stuck by him, stood up for him, and made him laugh time and time again-he never knew how much he needed that. It meant a lot to him, so much so that he'd gladly trip all over himself for even the slightest hint of a smile from her.
Luan stared at him in disbelief. "You're just too much sometimes, you know that?" She shook her head and laughed. "You look so smug with yourself right now."
He winked. "Wait until you see what's out the window."
She didn't even hesitate. Rushing over to peer out the window, Luan didn't even notice the strategically-placed banana peel he'd carefully arranged on the floor in front of it. Predictably, she ran right over it, slipped, and fell on her backside.
After sitting on the floor, stunned, for a good minute, she dusted herself off, picked up the banana peel, and studied it closely. "Did you just prank me again? Twice in a row?"
"Yep." If his smile could get any more smug, it did.
"And there's really nothing out the window, is there?"
"Nope."
"You're not getting away with this!" she declared, a mischievous spark glowing in her intelligent amber eyes.
He winked. "You want to play it that way?"
What ensued was probably the biggest, most epic prank battle the kingdom of Suncobran had seen in the last hundred years. Over the course of several minutes, Benny and Luan both kept trying to sneakily place banana peels and trip wires near each other's feet, but they were so rushed and frantic to get back at the other that they'd more often than not wind up running straight into the path of their own setups. Eventually, they'd fallen onto their butts so many times that neither of them would be able to sit right for weeks. Leni, still standing in the doorway and staring bemusedly at their shenanigans, had to use the power of her almost-adult 'super vision' to tell them to settle down before they ended up killing themselves.
Benny rolled his eyes at Leni's strictness, though secretly he was glad to have someone older express a little concern for him and look out for him. "Alright. Truce?" he asked Luan.
"Truce," she agreed, sidling closer to him, a very faint dusting of blush across her cheeks. She reached out her hand, presumably to shake on it, but as soon as his palm made contact with hers, an electric current raced up his arm and through his body, giving him a good shock.
He patted down the fur on his neck that had stood on end while she cockily revealed the joybuzzer she'd been hiding under her thumb. Then, she took advantage of his disoriented state by reaching down to yank the carpet out from under his feet, causing him to stumble backwards and bump into the wall.
"I warned you," she said, playfully bopping him on the nose with her hand. "Nobody pranks me and gets away with it."
She pulled a book off the top of the stack and curled up in the quietest corner of the room, as calm and peaceful as a stone. As he gaped at her, she glanced up from the pages to fix him with a sly, clever look.
"Duly noted." He picked up a book and joined her. Leni followed suit, perusing the words of her book so carefully and studiously that Benny was afraid to tell her she was holding the book upside-down. Apparently, that sort of silly, nonsensical personality ran in the family.
A long, silent spell, punctuated only by the occasional flicker and flutter of a turning page, passed before Benny dared to speak again. "So, what have you been up to?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Luan shrugged. "Not much," she said. "Remember the play I was telling you about? The cast had our first meeting the other day. Everyone seems pretty nice. The director's a little nuts, but in a good way. I think I might be her favorite."
He recalled wistfully the time they'd practiced her lines together. What he wouldn't give to be up there, performing on an actual stage again! "I wish I could've gone with you," he said.
"If I'm being honest, so do I. You should see the guy they cast as Romeo. His name is Spencer, but that's not really important. He writes his lines all over his arms and chest and he still forgets them!" Luan rolled her eyes. "Oh my gosh, I still can't believe I'll have to kiss that guy. And considering how he cringed when I told him I couldn't handle the sus-Spencer of the final scene, I'd say the abhorrence is mutual."
"Can't imagine why. I love it when you make puns. I'd kiss you."
Luan dropped the book she was holding in complete and utter surprise. "You'd what?!"
"Nothing! Nevermind," he stammered quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Leni glancing at Luan's flustered expression and then giving him a meaningful look.
Dang it. He hadn't meant to say that last bit out loud!
He dared to glance shyly at Luan and noticed that she didn't seem to be able to meet his eyes. Was she embarrassed? Worried about something? Maybe scared?
Funny how she was so easy to read in one moment and incredibly hard the next.
He nudged her in the side with his elbow, trying to break her out of her tense and uncharacteristic silence. "Benny for your thoughts?" he quipped.
That actually got her to smile, and it took all of Benny's remaining willpower not to pump his fist in the air and shout in victory. "Once again, your name puns put mine to shame."
Then, without warning, her eyes turned serious. "Can I talk to you?" she asked.
"Anytime and always."
"I mean, really talk to you," she said with a grave expression.
Uh-oh. He figured this either meant she was going to lead him into a very good conversation or a very, very bad one. But as her friend, it was important that he let her know he'd be there for her no matter what.
He nodded resolutely. She got up from her place on the floor and tugged on his arm, silently urging him to follow her lead, which he did. He followed her to the doorway, wondering and worrying about what it was she wanted to tell him.
Leni looked at them and started to get up, too, but Luan held up a hand to stop her.
"I need to talk to him alone," she said.
Yep, definitely the bad kind of discussion. Was she going to tell him she didn't have feelings for him the way he did for her? He might've fallen for her, but that didn't mean she had to reciprocate anything. Considering his hideous appearance, it was kind of stupid to have ever considered the possibility that there might've been something there between them.
"Oh." Leni reached for her book again, suddenly content to stay right where she was. Then, her expression shifted abruptly, as though she'd just had some sort of an epiphany. "Oh. If it's that kind of conversation, I totes understand!" She waved a dismissive hand at Luan. "You and your boyfriend can just go ahead and work things out. I'll be okay here."
Luan tugged nervously on her ponytail. "Um, thanks. But he's not my-" her eyes darted to look at Benny.
"I'm not her boyfriend," he finished helpfully. Just saying that word caused him to blush.
Leni looked unconvinced; her brow was raised skeptically. That made him weirdly uncomfortable.
"Uh, we'll just be going, then," he said, gently nudging Luan toward the door.
He was surprised when she led him back down the stairs and into the lobby. They'd spent a lot of time together in this particular room, so reminders of their interactions were everywhere. His bright and sunny drawings still adorned the walls, and when he looked at the frozen statues of his parents, all he could see were the times Luan had studied them curiously, blissfully unaware of what they actually were.
She took a seat at the table where they'd once rehearsed her lines for Romeo and Juliet, and he sat down in the chair across from her. She stared deeply into his eyes and cleared her throat.
I don't love you. He mentally braced himself to hear those words from her. She'd do it bluntly, briskly, just to get it out of her mind and onto the table. She would be open with her emotions, and he'd love her for that even if she didn't care for him.
The only problem was, what she said was something completely different.
"Do you think I'm funny?"
That wasn't at all what he'd been expecting. He tried his best to formulate a quick response.
"Yes! Luan, believe me when I say you're the most hilarious person I've ever met." He cocked his head. "What makes you think otherwise?"
The comedienne pulled at a few loose strands of her hair. "This may come as a shock to you, but according to a lot of people, I'm not as funny as I think I am. Some days, it seems as though for every person in the crowd who laughs at my jokes, there's two more with nothing but a straight face. There are lots of times when I've been booed at, told to get off the stage, and ridiculed. And yeah, I'm mostly able to get over all of that, but it still really stings." Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I guess what hurts the most is that my family's reactions to my attempts at humor are usually annoyance or irritation. I mean, if the people who know me the best don't think I'm funny, what hope do I have of convincing everyone else?"
Benny wasn't quite sure what to say to her. He'd known about the insecurities she hid behind her sunny demeanor, but he hadn't realized how deep they ran. "Don't give up," he reassured her, wishing he was better at this whole comforting thing because she deserved much more, but if he was all she had, he owed it to her to at least try his best. "There are people out there who support you." He ran a nervous hand through the fur on his arm. "Well, maybe I'm not exactly a person, but you know what I mean."
This time, there was no denying it. Luan was blushing.
"Besides, I'm a lot more like you than you think," he told her.
The encouraging look in her eyes told him that she was expecting him to elaborate.
So he did. He wasn't sure what it was about this moment, or about her and how she listened so intently to him, but the walls he'd built to hide himself from her swiftly came crashing down. Words he'd kept locked in for years came tumbling out. Words about how a single prank gone wrong had resulted in so much heartbreak, caused his castle to start to crumble into ruins, and turned his friends and parents to petrified stone. It was as though her heart was the glittering gold key to the lock around his.
She got up from her seat at the table and moved in that meaningful, observant way of hers across the room over to the statues of his parents. The sweeping yellow cloak that brushed against her legs gave her movements a sort of gliding, ghostly appearance. He watched as she touched her pale hand to the lifeless shape of the thing that was, once upon a time, his mother's hand. She kept it there for a while, and he was surprised by how quiet, thoughtful, and still she was.
He recalled the dream he'd had the night before and rushed over, about to try to pull her away from the statue, worried that if she touched it too long, she'd suffer the same fate. Then, he looked at his claws, stopping in his tracks as he remembered some of the other things that had happened last night. Was she really any safer touching him?
Luan glanced over to stare at him. She looked like she was in pain. "Oh, Benny. I had no idea. And you really don't know of any way to fix this?"
He shook his head. That was the one thing he still had to lie to her about, and it hurt him so badly to have to do that to her. "Can I show you something else?"
She let him guide her back up the flight of stairs, and then up another set of steps into the attic, which was so small that he had to remember to duck his head to keep from bumping it on the slanted ceiling.
Unless cobwebs counted as items, there were only three things in the room. A small circular table, a glass case, and the magic gold lily trapped within it. Luan, standing beside him, studied it unsurely, still clueless about what everything meant.
"This flower is linked to the curse," Benny explained. "I have until the last petal falls to break the spell."
"What happens if you don't?" Luan's bright eyes reflected the glow of the lily's petals.
"Well, then I'm stuck as a beast forever. Which is not ideal, of course, but I guess it wouldn't be that bad if you-"
"You do know I'm not giving up on you, right?"
"Luan, please-"
"I mean it, you idiot." She tugged on the collar of his tunic, forcing him into bending his knees so she could look him directly in the eyes. "You're not going to get rid of me. We're going to figure this out, and we're doing it together. So you'll just have to shut up and deal with me."
She put her hands on the sides of his face and pulled him even closer. Close enough that he could observe the delicate curves of her eyelashes and count the adorable freckles dotting her cheeks. Close enough that their noses were less than an inch apart.
He watched, totally dumbfounded, as Luan closed her eyes and edged forward a little more, her nose now brushing against the tip of his. She looked like she was going to-
Was she about to kiss him? Would kissing him break the spell? That was how it usually worked in fairytales.
Yes! Benny thought as he gazed at her by the light of the flickering magic glow, his heart beating fast in anticipation, wanting nothing more than for her to kiss him so that he could kiss her back and make everything okay again.
…
Unbeknownst to the strange prince and his stranger companion, someone was watching them. Her green robes billowed in the breeze as she hovered, using her strange, dark magic for the very menial task of levitating high enough to peer into the third-story window from outside.
It had been five years since she'd cursed this particular prince in a bout of anger after he'd assaulted her with a careless prank. The amount of disrespect she'd felt he'd given her had seemed so big and monumental at the time.
Since then, she'd grown older. She'd met a lot of people and had even birthed and started to raise a child of her own. As she started to understand what it meant to love and accept the others in her life, even when they came with unfixable flaws, the enchantress realized just how foolish she'd been back in the days when she went around hexing others and using the strange magic she'd been gifted with for evil.
A few days ago, in her never-ending quest to sell her wares and potions, she'd been traveling across a town overlooking a crumbling stone castle. The setting had seemed familiar to her, but she hadn't been able to figure out just why.
Then she'd heard the rumors about a strange animal living in the castle and saw the yellow lilies growing around the front steps, and everything had rushed back to her.
She'd had the desire, then, to check up on the young prince whose life she'd ruined, though admittedly, that was all she could do. Once curses were set, they were absolute, bound to the rules the spellcaster had established. She couldn't break it if she tried.
It deeply upset her to see that no one else had broken it. The boy was still stuck in the same monstrous form she'd set upon him years prior. His eyes looked much wiser, much more focused than she recalled them looking when he had been ten, which implied that her spell had done what it had intended to, which had been to force him into taking his life seriously.
But was that really what he needed?
Her attention turned to the odd girl standing beside the prince. She'd heard a lot about this girl, this Luan Loud, for she was currently the talk of the town. A naive, peculiar comedienne who'd suddenly been spending a lot more time checking out the old abandoned castle than pulling pranks on the librarian-that seemed to a lot of people to be very puzzling, indeed.
If someone were to have told the enchantress five years ago that this could be the person intended to break this particular spell, she would've laughed hysterically. It seemed so counterintuitive.
But the way he smiled whenever he was around her, as if for the first time in years, told her everything she needed to know.
Yes, she thought as she watched Luan pull her friend close. Break the spell and break it fast, funny girl. She'd heard that some of the villagers might be planning to raid the castle, and she feared what might happen if they discovered what looked like a monster living there. Magic users such as herself were well aware that scared people tended to form mobs, and mobs tended to kill people, blinded beyond reason by their one-track minds. No one, especially not someone so young and innocent, deserved a fate like that. That had never been her intention, and upon seeing what could happen now, she desperately wished she could take back her past actions.
If she had to do something to dissuade the tense villagers, she would, but it was entirely possible that things could take a different turn.
As Luan leaned in to kiss the prince, the enchantress smiled faintly. Maybe, just maybe, she was about to see some magic happen.
…
By now, Benny's heart was threatening to explode right out of his chest. If he concentrated, he could hear a small sound that might've been Luan's heartbeat, which seemed to be going just as fast as his, maybe faster.
Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe there was something there.
Time seemed to slow down. Every second was now an hour.
Her closeness nearly put him in a trance. There was no way he was thinking straight, not when his mind kept imagining her eyes, her laugh, her smile, and what she was about to do…
What they were about to do…
"Ooooooh. I knew it!" The silence-killing sound of a voice not his own, and not her own, startled him and caused him to flinch.
It startled Luan, too. Her eyes shot open and she jerked back with a yelp of surprise that seemed to catch in her throat.
Both of them whirled to look at the doorway, where Luan's sister, Leni, was covering her mouth with her hands, looking as though she was trying very hard not to squeal.
"L-Leni?" Luan's voice had that nervous stutter again. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, you guys were taking a while, so I was wondering if maybe you'd been eaten by wolves, so I went to go and find you, just in case." She swung the baseball bat she was holding and bonked herself in the face. "Whoops! I totes meant to do that."
Luan blinked. "I-I should probably get going, anyway. I have chores to do."
Benny noticed that once again, his friend avoided looking at him, which might've been a good thing, actually, since it meant she didn't notice how his ears had drooped in disappointment.
"Oh, come on!" Leni protested. "Things were just getting good!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Luan said flatly, backing out of the room and towards the door.
"Just kiss him, Luan! I can tell you have a thing for him."
"We're leaving!" Luan pushed her still-protesting sister out the door. She was gone in a flash, leaving him alone in the room to try to register what the heck had just happened.
Come back! Benny wanted to say to the empty space where Luan had once stood, though he knew it would do him no good. His friend would never know it, but there was a chance that she had been so close to breaking the curse she was trying so hard to figure out.
So close, yet so far.
His mind was also ensnared by a different thought. Luan had almost kissed him.
He was still trying to wrap his head around that concept.
Was it possible she did have feelings for him?
It was still dangerous, so dangerous, to consider possibilities like that, but for the first time, he felt a slight ray of hope.
With nothing else left in the room to capture his attention, he stared at the mystical lily, still trapped in its fragile glass prison and bathing the attic in its gentle, yellow light.
He noticed a second petal had already begun to tremble, threatening to join its single fallen companion, which had started to wither and dry up.
There was no way around it. He was running out of time.
It was a hard truth, made harder as he imagined the yellow flower was taunting him, teasing him with something that could be well out of his reach.
She loves me, she loves me not.
…
A/N: This chapter took me quite a while. These past few days, I've had college orientation to go to, and now I'm writing this in between my classes. That's right, the next time you see someone with a totally serious face on in the library, headphones pulled tightly over their ears, you never know, they could be in the middle of proofreading chapter six of their fanfiction!
This is a long chapter full of a lot of dialogue and not much kickin' butt, so if you were able to get through it in one sitting, you deserve a cookie. But it's important dialogue, and we'll get to the kickin' butt parts eventually, don't you worry!
By now, the romantic tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife, and since I'm an awkward introvert with no idea how relationships work, some of that was hard to write. Luan's a big bundle of nervous energy and emotions, and due to having so much to process, she swings wildly from one mood/topic to another, and just like in the actual show, Benny's just trying to keep up with her. He's such a simp for her.
There goes my serious face. Man, writing fanfiction in a public place is harder than it looks.
I just want to make it clear how much I love my readers! Your comments continue to be so lovely, and such a nice boost to my confidence. It's nice to be on this site, and nice to finally have a place where I can try to break out of my shell a little bit. I love how the guest user known as Luanny4Life (I love your comments and reactions by the way; they're the icing on my fanfiction cake!) pointed out that the one-month anniversary of my fic just passed. And to think I didn't even notice!
Well, yep, my brainchild is now a month old! Proud "mom" moment, lol. :)