Chapter VIII: A Moment Lasts Forever
Benny hadn't realized beforehand how quickly his world would fill with noise.
Big noises. Small noises. Happy noises. Even a few sad noises.
Everywhere. Around every corner, nook, and cranny.
The light tap-tap-tap of Lola's sequined shoes as she practiced her pageant-walk filled his afternoons, as did the furious scritch-scribble of Lucy's fountain pen against her neverending stash of paper-scraps. The faintest fluttering of pages told him when Lisa was near and the noisy flapping of leather shoes told him he'd better watch out–Luan's father was on the lookout for any 'suspicious activity.' He couldn't even count the number of animals Lana had befriended in the castle's courtyard, but based on all the chitters and chirps he heard drifting in from the windows as he sat by the fireplace and read, he would have to guess at least a dozen squirrels and birds, maybe even a chipmunk or two. The gentlest rumbling of thunder warned him of storms yet to come.
It was funny, then, how amidst the tangled-up threads of noise, noise, noise, his ears were always searching for one sound in particular–that of a certain laugh that never failed to make his tail wag.
Luan wasn't around nearly as much as he would've liked. A lot of her siblings would drift in and out of the castle whenever they had free time (and he was getting pretty good at remembering all of their names!), but her schedule seemed to be so much heavier than the rest of theirs, which he should've expected. Getting a lead role in a play was a heavy commitment; it involved countless hours of memorizing and dozens of hours of rehearsals to get a performance exactly right. Benny hadn't seen her around at all since yesterday, when she'd first introduced her family to him, and him to the concept of chaos.
That didn't stop him from looking up every few pages and pausing to listen for the distinctive vibrations of Luan's footsteps. They were light and sprightly–not heavy like Lori's or her parents'-and swift, as though she always skipped around on tiptoe. They didn't wander or meander like some of her younger sisters' did. Luan always walked with purpose. Although sometimes, that purpose was merely to plant a whoopee cushion underneath someone's seat.
Sadly, all he could hear were Luna's impromptu riffs and drum solos, Leni's interior design tips, and whatever the heck Lynn Jr was doing in the basement.
He tried not to show his disappointment. He was an actor after all; it should be easy for him to prevent his ears from drooping and to focus his eyes on the spidery words crawling across the endless white pages instead of on the window.
What story was he even reading? And was that streak of yellow that had just crossed the window a bird, a leaf, or something else?
Dang it. He was a terrible actor when he was thinking of her.
He was ready to give up and hurl his book out the window when he felt a light tap on the shoulder that made his tail puff up in surprise.
He hoped to find the sleeve of a yellow cloak, but was met instead with the silky pink fabric of a long, flowing gown. The glint of a glittering tiara.
Big blue eyes stared into his with an expression he couldn't even begin to read. Lola's eyes weren't nearly as familiar, sweet, or pretty as Luan's. Which was an objective fact and clearly not just his own biased opinion.
"You're invited to my tea party," Lola said flatly, even managing to sound a bit hesitant.
And Lola was never hesitant. She shouted and screamed at anyone who crossed her path or even looked at her in a way she didn't like. Almost all of the members of the Loud family bore at least one bite or scratch mark that had come from her, and no one had more than her own twin sister, Lana. He'd even heard a story blowing around that she'd once taken down a pair of thieves.
So it was odd to him how cautious she looked when she was around him, like she didn't really know what to make of him. Especially since he was just as uncertain of how to feel regarding her. She'd seemed to warm up to him a little when he'd showed her the castle's secret treasury (double-checking her pockets before she departed, of course, since she looked like the kind of person who wouldn't place herself above things like theft), but there was still an air of unease about her, as there was with the rest of the family.
He tilted his head at her. "Wouldn't one of your sisters be… I don't know, better-suited for something like this?"
"None of them ever want to come to my tea parties!" Lola complained. "Not even Lana, and I can usually get her to do anything I want if I give her enough of my scabs!"
It occurred to Benny that there was probably a really good reason why everyone else in the castle had long-since opted out of Lola's tea parties. But he really didn't have anything better to do at the moment, and Lola's pleading eyes were almost too cute to resist.
"I'll happily attend your tea party," Benny wagered. "If you'll let me hear your lines for the play." He knew from Luan that Lola was also in the local play. Maybe that was something he could connect with her over.
Lola rolled her eyes. "I only have three lines! And I have the dumbest role out of all the dumb roles in the entire universe!" she complained. "But sure. Whatever."
Benny lifted himself out of his chair and slid his book underneath its legs for safekeeping, not even bothering to mark what page he'd left off on (since he hadn't really been reading it anyway).
"Just remember," he told her as he let her lead him to what he hoped wasn't his doom. "There are no small roles, only small actors."
"That's what Luan always says!" Lola griped.
Benny smiled at the mention of her name. "Luan's a very smart girl, then."
Lola shrugged, apparently unconvinced.
Benny took a seat among Lola's haphazardly-scattered pink and purple plastic teacups. He rummaged frantically through the back of his mind, trying to remember what his snobby tutor had said about the key to differentiating the sugar bowl from the cream bowl.
After all, if he wanted to make a good impression on Luan's siblings, it made logical sense to quickly win over the only one (he hoped!) who might be capable of delivering a bite worse than his.
…
Luan sat near the steps trailing up to the theatre's stage, her knees pulled in tightly against her chest. In one of her hands she held her Romeo and Juliet script, for she was currently plagued with the ever-daunting task of memorizing her neverending pages of lines. Her other hand cradled her cheek, her index finger occasionally flicking up to twirl absently through a few stray strands of her hair. Her eyes did their best to follow along with the words her partner was spewing, but she could've sworn they'd glazed over twenty minutes ago.
It wasn't her fault, honest! It was just…Spencer could be so boring sometimes.
She figured he was trying his best, but his voice still lacked the sort of evocative emotion she was drawn to. And the way he kept stumbling over the simplest sentences? Sweet comic relief, he couldn't give her a break, could he?
Luan knew she ought to cut him some slack–every actor learned at their own pace and had different strengths and weaknesses–but it was difficult now that she had experienced life with a certain someone whom she considered to be a much better acting partner. She had no doubt that if Benny were here, he would've tried to do something to make her laugh. He always kept things interesting.
She wondered what he was up to. Hopefully, her colorful cast of siblings weren't giving him too much trouble. She hoped she'd made it perfectly clear that if Lynn Jr dared to bean his brains out with her baseball bat, she'd get a pie to the face faster than she could say 'improvisation.' And Luan would make it the flavor she knew Lynn hated, too, just to rub an extra pinch of salt into the wound.
She really missed practicing with Benny, but Madame Bernardo had made it clear that Luan was to rehearse her lines at the theatre so that she could keep an eye on her and make sure that her student was actually doing her work. Which, fine, sure, that was fair, but it didn't stop Luan from constantly watching the clock tick-tick-tick the precious seconds away.
She was currently doing that when Spencer cleared his throat.
Oops. Luan was supposed to be paying attention to him, wasn't she? Funny how that had slipped her mind. "Sorry, did you say something?"
"Did I read my lines right?"
Dang it. Luan tried to find her place on the page. What had he been saying? Something about the all-seeing sun, and how there was only one girl in all the world that could rival its beauty.
What was it with Shakespeare and the sun? Seriously, it was almost like he'd had a crush on the sun itself instead of being in love with an actual person.
Still, the metaphor made her think once again of a certain boy who often liked to compare her to the sun through the words of Shakespearean sonnets. Just yesterday, when they'd managed to find a quiet spot near the window–a temporary respite from her family's unhinged chaos–and she'd been watching the leaves drift down into the trees' afternoon shadows, Benny had hit her up with a classic "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
"You definitely stole that from Shakespeare," she'd replied with a quick, affectionate roll of her eyes.
"Who is this 'Shakespeare' you speak of?" Benny's eyes had held a playful twinkle . "Someone I should know?"
"Quit messing with me," she'd said with a smile. "I know you know perfectly well who I'm talking about, and that you did in fact swipe that quote of yours from one of his most popular sonnets. I'm pretty well-versed in poetry, you know."
"Well," he'd said, winking, "Perhaps we just so happen to think up the exact same poems when in the presence of truly amazing girls like you. Wild coincidence."
That had made her blush, her eyes darting quickly back to the window where the red leaves continued to fall at their slow, gentle pace, as though they had all the time in the world.
But, out of the corner of her eye, she'd caught the hint of a smirk on Benny's face. She had the feeling this insufferable creature had known exactly what he was doing to her.
She wasn't sure quite what it was about this sweet and silly Shakespeare-wannabe, but he seemed to have a way of making her heart race and her brain go all foggy at the most inconvenient times.
Blinking those annoying thoughts out of her brain, she realized with a startled jolt that Spencer was still waiting for her reply.
Well. Case in point.
Pulling on an extra-chipper fake smile as though it were a mask, she looked Spenser right between the eyes and told him, "That was great! Best performance you've ever given, and I'm not playing around with you there!"
She was lying, of course. But she felt she owed him a compliment considering she'd completely zoned out the entire time he was talking instead of actually being a competent critic. Besides, any actress worth her salt could pull off a convincing enthusiastic grin.
He rolled her eyes at her half-witted pun and continued reading.
Meanwhile, Luan's eyes darted right back to the clock the moment his gaze escaped hers. Twelve minutes left. She could handle that.
Probably.
…
DONG-DONG-DONG!
The moment Luan heard the clock strike two, she sprang up from her spot near the stairs. As she rushed past the rows of stained-glass murals and out the door, there was nothing to mark her departure except the fleeting flash of a yellow cloak and a polite, if hurried, "Thank you!" to her theatre teacher.
As the door banged shut behind her, she thought she heard Spencer complain about something or another, only to be met with Madame Bernardo's voice, which was much louder and more enthusiastic, proclaiming, "Ah, you'll have to excuse her, dear! She's got feelings!"
Luan's ridiculous one-track mind knew much too well the way through the village, up the hills, not through the woods, to the Stone Castle. She'd memorized the path by heart. Almost as though it was the path to her heart.
She shouldered open the door, barely dodging a flying diaper that had been headed towards her face. She prayed for the love of all things funny that it hadn't been a dirty one.
Lily was acting up again. She toddled this way, then that, displaying her bare bottom in all of its naked glory. Lincoln struggled to keep up with her, carrying enough diapers to build an igloo out of and trying his hardest not to slip on any of the loose stone floor tiles and lose his balance.
On the table rested empty plastic saucers and teacups, having been abandoned long ago. Lynn Jr was currently holding the spout of the purple-and-white teapot up to her mouth, downing what had to be at least a gallon of cold tea. Meanwhile, Luna and Leni cheered her on with a series of hearty drumbeats on the table and a resounding, "Chug, chug, chug!"
One fleeting glance back at the window told Luan that Lana was in the yard, burying herself in the mud like an eager little piglet. Meanwhile, Lola took her sister's lack of attention to her advantage, snatching up a rather unwilling Hops and dressing him in her favorite doll's little tutu and pink plastic tiara.
Lori was shouting at Lisa, gesturing wildly at a broken test tube. The young inventor, her face covered in the ash and dust that signified a failed experiment, actually had the decency to look ashamed, though the minute Lori's back was turned, she went right back to what remained of her equipment.
From the faint scent of smoke coming from the kitchen, Luan could guess that her father was cooking up something that had at least a fifty percent chance of ending in complete disaster. Rita was nowhere to be seen–she could've been out in the yard making sure Lana didn't kill herself, or perhaps down below in the village, taking what must've been her fourth trip to the market this week.
The room was full of so much loud, unscripted, beautiful chaos that for a solid few minutes, Luan didn't even notice where Benny had gone. He was tucked out of sight in the most shadowy corner, the one furthest from the door, curled into a calm lotus position. His hair and clothes looked quite disheveled, a stark contrast to the pristine, rosy-pink flower crown–the kind Lola loved to make–perched atop his head.
However, what Luan found to be the most surprising thing of all was the sight of her spooky little goth sister, her dark, lacy clothing barely visible from the shadows, sitting right beside him in the same position. Furthermore, she actually seemed to be guiding him through the meditation, muttering something to him in a low voice.
Grinning, she tiptoed past to give her little sister a swift pat on the head, knowing this sort of simple touch always caused Lucy's zen to shatter. What she hadn't expected was for Benny's eyes to flicker open as well, looking up at her and giving her the quickest wink and a small smile. If Luan were to blink, she would've missed the gesture completely.
Luan was taken aback. She was the kind of person who could probably sneak up on a dragon if she wanted to. How had this boy known someone was there at all, let alone known that it had specifically been her? Maybe his hearing was better than she realized.
She marveled at how quiet and calm Benny's face looked, almost as though he was one with the chaos itself. Though she had to fight back a smile, and a slight creep of girlish blush, when she noticed that his tail was twitching violently, as though it wanted to wag but its owner wouldn't yield. He didn't see it in himself, but sometimes, he was just the cutest thing.
The loud, booming sound of an explosion caused him to twitch, his ears pulling back. Apparently, he still wasn't used to all of her family's sounds.
She touched a hand to his shoulder for a moment–a reassuring gesture she often gave to her younger siblings whenever they had a bad case of night terrors–then marched over to the other side of the lobby to give Lisa a piece of her mind.
"Lisa!" she hissed as her little sister blinked up at her through a new, freshly-settled layer of ash. "Aren't we always telling you not to use explosives in the hou–indoors?" she corrected herself. "It never gets a good reaction out of any of us!"
"Forgive me, fourth-eldest sibling," Lisa said, the closest she ever really got to an apology. "I was merely attempting to concoct a brew that would transfigure an unsuspecting test subject into a member of the fascinating species hylarana erythraea. But I miscalculated the amount of optical organs belonging to a certain amphibian I needed to add. My bad."
"If I'm being serious, I didn't understand anything you just said," Luan stated bluntly. She picked up one of the glass beakers on the desk and read the label. "Eye of newt? Where did you even get that?"
"You'd be surprised at how many animals Lana will catch for you if you don't tell her what they're going to be utilized for," Lisa said with a smile that looked far too evil genius-y and far less innocent than Luan found comfortable.
"You're not trying to be a witch, are you?"
"Quarks and quantums, no. Scientific pursuits will always be my first and only love." Lisa's eyes took on a pyrotechnic glow. "But, magic is almost like a whole new field of scientific discovery! Except, of course, it's not science. Because it's magic!"
"You didn't happen to discover anything… particularly interesting, did you?" Luan asked, confident that Lisa would understand her hints.
"If what you are speaking of is the curse on your inamorato, then no. It took me all day just to decipher this spell, and it's supposed to be the easiest one in the book. So much intellectual stimulation! I hope my scientific mind is up to the task." She paused. "Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it is!" Lisa eagerly flipped through the pages of one of the spellbooks draped across the end of the desk. Her expression reminded Luan of the time Leni had accidentally added nineteen tablespoons of sugar to Lori's coffee. Lori had unsuspectingly drunk the whole thing in one sitting, and as a result, she had been unbearingly hyperactive for the next three days straight.
Apparently, Luan's actress instincts had failed her again and neglected to fully mask her disappointment and worry. Because the next thing Lisa said to her was, "I assure you, elder sibling, I am doing everything I can. I fully intend to assist you."
Luan took a closer look at her sister and noticed for the first time the dark, heavy circles under her eyes and the way her head drooped. "Are you getting enough sleep?" she asked, knowing Lisa had the tendency to skip out on her naptime whenever she got a little too caught up in uncovering the secrets of the universe.
"I got a full ten hours last night," Lisa protested.
"It should be twelve," Luan reminded her, not for the first time. "And when's the last time you took a break?"
Lisa didn't answer. She only yawned.
Luan bent down to brush her younger sister's messy bangs out of her tired eyes. "Come on. You need sunlight."
Lisa looked as though she was going to protest, but Luan shut her up quickly with that serious, significant look of hers that she knew no one could argue with. She'd learned it from the Queen of Bossiness herself: her older sister, Lori.
Lisa looked reluctant, but she took her sister's hand in hers. "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"
Luan laughed, giving her younger sister's fingers a good squeeze. "I think you'll find that no one "no's" better than I do. Get it?"
"Despite the cringes your ludicrous humor induces in my nervous system, I do indeed 'get it.'" Lisa said, rolling her eyes.
I bet Benny would've laughed at that, Luan thought as she guided her sister out of the castle and into the bright sunniness of a crisp, red autumn afternoon.
For the second time that day, Luan was nearly hit in the face by a dirty, flying projectile the moment she opened the door. This time, a clod of mud.
Lana. Luan shook her head with a smile.
"Muddy days are the best!" Lana said between stomps as she leapt between the puddles that had collected in the gaps between the tiles of the stone pathways. She paused her shenanigans to scoop up a handful of dirt from a long-empty flowerpot and add it to the biggest puddle, apparently wanting to make it even more mucky. Then, she scooped up the ooze and rubbed it all over her forehead and cheeks, even getting a few drops in her mouth.
Luan couldn't help but chuckle. Her little sister looked more like a half-melted chocolate Easter Bunny than a seven-year-old child.
"That's the good stuff," Lana said, licking her lips and rubbing her stomach.
Luan smiled. "I take it things went well today?"
"Oh, for sure. It was raining hard this morning, but Lori let me go out and play in it anyway. Sure, she made me wear a coat, but still! I had to come inside when it started thundering, though, because getting zapped by lightning would probably be a bad thing. Then, Benny let me use the piano so Hops could practice playing 'Hot Cross Buns.' I think he's getting pretty good–he only flubbed up half the notes this time! A real, genuine Beethoven for sure." Lana looked around hurriedly, appearing distracted. "Hey, where is Hops, anyway?"
Luan decided it would probably be for the best if she didn't tell Lana what had become of Hops. The last thing the castle needed was another screaming match. She felt she owed Benny that much after he'd clearly been so sweet and kind to her siblings all day.
"I haven't the froggiest idea. How is Benny, by the way? You didn't give him any trouble, did you?"
"Us? Trouble? Never!" Lana sat down in the mud puddle and started to make a little drip-castle on the tile between her legs. "He seems like a pretty cool dude. He even let me teach him to play fetch!"
Now, Luan really couldn't hide her laughter. A hilarious image of Benny on all fours, running after Lana's thrown stick, his tail wagging happily, rushed through her head and made her grin. She'd definitely be teasing him about that later.
"Oh, and sis!" Lana said, pulling Luan out of her thoughts. "I got you a present!"
"Oh, you di-" Luan couldn't even finish her sentence before Lana shouted "Mud pie!" and struck her in the face with a hunk of mud that she'd pulled seemingly out of thin air. It was all Luan could do to hurriedly step in front of Lisa to shield her from the blast, taking the full brunt of the filthy attack herself.
Pranked by a novice? She couldn't believe herself! Lana would not get away with this!
Luan wiped the soil out of her eyes, scooped up a handful of wet dirt, and started shaping a mud pie of her very own, her mind on nothing but sweet revenge.
She was about to give her sister a brutal taste of justice when another mud ball hit her in the back of her head.
How? It was impossible for Lana to have thrown such a shot from where she was currently sitting. She whirled around, trying to find the culprit.
It didn't take her long to find the offender, who gave her another playful wink and a very smug smile.
Benny had joined their mud battle…on Lana's side.
Ooh, he was going to pay for that! He knew perfectly well what he was getting himself into. Luan had made it pointedly clear to him time and time again that just because she was a lady didn't mean she couldn't throw with the best of them.
"Yes!" Lana cheered as she gathered up another round of ammunition. "Mud fight!"
Lana and Benny teamed up to fire shots at Luan from opposite sides, while she tried desperately to keep up with them while at the same time preventing Lisa from being targeted. Soon enough, it became apparent that she was definitely losing this battle.
"Normally, I don't care for this kind of inane tomfoolery, but what the heck? Ha!" Lisa declared, darting out from behind Luan's legs to chuck a mud ball at Lana. Her aim was perfectly-calculated, striking Lana right in the face.
"Nice move!" Luan said, getting down onto her knees to give her sister a proud and proper high-five.
It didn't take long for the noisy shenanigans outside to draw in a large crowd. Within minutes, all ten of her siblings had joined the fray, hurling mud at each other left and right with little rhyme or reason. Shouts of both joy and mock fury could be heard from every angle. Luan had to hand it to her family: they didn't mess around when it came to mud fights.
Luan took a shot at hitting Lincoln, then whirled to strike Leni in the chest. After being bombarded with mud balls thrown by an unusually carefree Lori, she launched her own attack on Luna. She was on a roll, acting on nothing but her crazed prankster momentum, until she was stopped dead in her tracks when Benny beaned her with another mud ball of his very own.
"You're nuts!" she cried, bending down to scoop up another mud-bullet. She was so ready to take him down
"No, you're nuts," he countered. Then he smiled. "And now I know where you get it from."
A comment like that deserved a double whammy. She gathered up another mud ball and threw them both at him at the same time, just to pack that extra punch.
"THAT'S RIGHT, LOUD FAM!" Luna shouted. She played a wild chord on her lute before turning it around to whack an incoming mud ball away from her face like a baseball player. "WE PLAY DIRTY!"
Luan let out a shout of joy before setting her eyes on another target. This was so much more fun than practicing lines with Spencer!
Yes, it was unruly. Yes, it was loud. Yes, it was messy and would probably be pretty tedious to clean up. But from the bottom, top, and sides of her golden heart, there was no place Luan would've rather been.
…
Thirty minutes later, twelve exhausted creatures huddled around the fireplace, their clothes dripping wet with hose water and still caked in many places with clumps of dirt. After the big mud battle had come to an end (with Lynn Jr the decided reigning champion), Benny had taken charge of the garden hose, while the others had gathered up mops, rakes, and sponges. With all of them working together, it hadn't taken long for the yard to be restored back to its original pristine status.
Benny had given them all a thorough douse with the hose, making sure to put it on the gentlest setting instead of the power-wash, before letting them back inside. When Lana had protested this, however, he'd had to put his foot down.
"Why does this thing collect dirt so easily?" Luan had complained, trying unsuccessfully to scrub a particularly pesky mud stain out of her beloved yellow cloak with her sponge.
She'd yelped in surprise as a bolt of powerful water had surged out of the hose, blasting her with the force of a geyser. Benny had hit her with the power-wash.
"Better?" he'd asked, the corners of his mouth quirking up mischievously.
"I guess that's one way to make a splash," she had replied, earning a laugh out of him.
It seemed silly to her (though, of course, everything was silly to her), but she thought she felt herself really fall for him the minute he had playfully blasted her full-force with that hose. He didn't treat her like she was delicate, the way most boys had treated her older sisters in the past. He didn't look like he had to be extra-careful around her, or hold anything back. He was brave enough to be himself around her.
She loved that. Because she felt she could be herself around him, too.
Luan held her bare palms close to the flickering orange flames. Despite how drippy and soggy her cloak still was, she felt warm. Both inside and out.
…
The rest of the day was pretty slow–but, the good kind of slow. Luan practiced her lines several more times (because she wanted to prove once and for all that despite everything that was going on, she was still a good and committed actress, in fact). Lori told her that she'd successfully booked another show for this weekend at that same stage up on the hill, so she practiced a skit for that as well.
Though most of the time she was able to remain relatively focused, she couldn't keep her eyes from wandering every now and then, just to look for Benny and see what he was up to. And just as always, he never ceased to make her smile. Everywhere he wandered, everything he did, caused a few of her littlest siblings to trail after him, although the most interesting thing he was doing was merely dusting the mantel above the fireplace. Even when he nearly tripped over Lola, he patiently let the little girls stick around–as long as they promised not to pull on his tail.
Every now and then as he walked past Luan, he'd give her ponytail a little twirl, or else he'd playfully brush his featherduster against the tip of her nose. She'd swat him away, telling him to stop making her lose her focus, though secretly, she kept waiting for him to do it again because it gave her those silly warm feelings all over.
In the evening, she found herself near the fireplace again, reading a few pages from Romeo and Juliet to Lana, Lola, Lucy, and, surprisingly, Lynn Jr, though Luan suspected she was only paying attention to the parts where someone got stabbed or shouted insults.
Outside, the sky was full of flashing tangles of lightning. The rain had started up again around sunset, lightly at first before suddenly releasing torrents of neverending water. Rita, who'd returned from her shopping spree only moments before the rain let loose, had sternly warned Lana that this sort of weather was definitely not designed to be played in.
Rita had decided it would probably be a good idea to stay at the Stone Castle for the night. There was no way she was willing to risk sending any of her children out into the middle of a lightning storm. Benny was more than happy to allow them to stay, making a comment about how the sound of thunder made him feel a little like a spooked dog.
He'd kept busy tending to the fire and reminding Leni that even though the flames looked pretty, it wasn't really a good idea to touch them. And despite how the thunderous noises outside made the fur on his neck bristle, he'd actually been the first to fall asleep. As he slept, occasionally his nose and fingers would twitch, though whether he was unconsciously reacting to the thunder or to nightmares, Luan never knew.
As the rest of her family settled in for the night, not even needing blankets when the heat from the fire was so close, Luan got up to put away her book. She tiptoed past the sleeping forms of her family, looking for a place of her own to settle down, when her eyes fell upon Benny once again. The deep, worried-looking creases in the space between his eyebrows suggested that he was having a very disturbing dream.
For a moment she considered kissing him. Nothing serious, just a quick, warm peck on the cheek or nose, just to see if that would make the darkness he was experiencing a little lighter. She didn't think anyone would've seen or noticed it, and it probably wouldn't have changed anything anyway, but still something stopped her. Still she hesitated, because she felt much too young and much too foolish for something that intimate.
Luan Loud, afraid of being foolish. Wow, that was an ironic thought.
She settled for adding another log to the fireplace and letting her fire-hot palms brush along Benny's shoulder when she saw him go through a particularly violent twitch. Then, she plopped herself down on a bare spot on the floor–not too close to Benny because her father definitely would've mounted her head on a spike if she dared to give that sort of impression–and wrapped her cloak tightly around her small form. A moment later, she felt Lucy's stone-cold-and-still body gradually snuggle up to hers, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her little sister and pulled her closer.
Luan stared into the glowing orange flames in the fireplace, hearing nothing but the ever-so-faint noise of Lucy's breaths as her chest rose and fell and the heavy pounding of rain on the castle roof. She was almost relieved when her father started to snore and Lana and Lola started poking each other (in their sleep or otherwise), filling in the gaps when the rain started to lighten. Complete silence and stillness bothered her.
Eventually she slipped off into a slumber of her own, into drifting dreams of lily petals and green robes, before waking the way she always did, just before the sun.
The storm had seemed to vanish into nothing but a hazy cloud of humidity overnight, and bright, familiar sunlight poured in through the windows.
Just enough for her to make out the shapes of her family, still asleep. What she saw made her smile.
In the absence of her pillow, which she usually liked to squeeze the everloving life out of, Leni had instead resorted to gently stroking the fur of an oblivious sleeping Benny's tail. Lola and Lana had shamelessly draped themselves across his back. Even Lisa, the only other one awake, tucked herself into his side while she pursued the pages of her thick book.
Benny had just become the newest victim of a classic Loud Family sleep pile.
…
An enchantress's job was much harder than it looked.
Especially when that enchantress's job included warding off an ever-growing band of thieves so that a certain infuriating comedienne had a decent shot at breaking a certain terrible curse.
Doing all of that, especially with a three-year-old child in tow, was no easy feat. At least, if you asked the enchantress herself.
"Mommy, do you have to make the thunder so loud?" her daughter complained, burying her nose in her blue robes–the color worn by enchantlings: the children of spellcasters who were themselves future magic users. Hardly anyone got to wear the green robes she herself donned, since they signified that the user was of the most powerful variety–the kind who had dedicated years to the mysterious study of witchcraft.
"I'll make it as loud as I have to in order to get the point across, Esmeralda," she replied as she watched the sun's last dwindling rays slip below the horizon. "Besides, if you hadn't gotten us kicked out of that inn for trying to brew a demon-summoning potion in the toddler potty, you wouldn't have to be here. Now hush up and let your mother work."
Last night, when she was patrolling the Stone Castle in search of suspicious villager activity (which was definitely helpful and not at all creepy), she'd spied a couple of miscreants sneaking off after leaving a series of white marks on the castle wall. She let them off easy with nothing but a little shock–quite literally due to the work of a simple tazing spell. She'd done it so discreetly that she doubted either had caught sight of her at all. She hoped a bad omen would make them reconsider going near that spooky old castle. It certainly would've made her reconsider.
After that, it had occurred to her that maybe weird, unexplained phenomena weren't the best way to approach this kind of situation. The castle was already known to be cursed; that had sparked curiosity in a lot of the village folk. Making it seem even more cursed would only make them curiouser, which was the exact opposite of what she was going for.
Still, the enchantress had to do something to stop the thieves from potentially breaking into the castle tonight. Especially since she hadn't seen Luan's family leave–she assumed they were staying the night. She may have been a petty, hot-tempered fool (and she knew it, too), but dang it, she did have standards. She wasn't going to be responsible for harming a child.
Or… harming another child, at least.
So, she'd had to do some serious thinking, and after a solid ten minutes of flicking through her spellbook (she should have bought the condensed version), the yellowed pages had given her the brilliant idea to conjure up a thunderstorm.
It had already rained for a spell earlier that morning, so an evening storm didn't seem like it would appear to be out of the ordinary at all. But sweet charms and crystals, weather-altering spells weren't exactly made for beginners. It took her a lot of time to perform, and drained most of the little energy she had left after putting up with Esmeralda and her whining all day. How in Merlin's name did that comedienne girl's mother put up with eleven of these adorable soul-sucking creatures? She could barely handle just this one.
Her efforts had better be worth it, because she hated the disgusting, skin-crawling guilt she felt whenever she glanced at the crumbling Stone Castle or thought of its cursed inhabitant. She shuddered when she thought of how much more crawly and guilty her skin would feel if that curse was never broken. She'd be brushing imaginary centipedes off her neck for the rest of her days. Ew.
What she hated the most was that there wasn't really much she could do about it, either. She couldn't even tell that infernal Luan about the curse's solution or hypnotize her into doing her bidding (although that might be fun, actually), because the love needed to break the spell had to happen naturally.
But it wasn't even that hard, really! Luan definitely cared for the boy, maybe even loved him. How difficult was it for her to take that extra step to express that love?
The enchantress didn't think she'd ever understand the enigma that was teenage girls.
All she could do was to try to come up with more of these clever ways to stop anyone unwanted from going near the castle (a drawn-out game of keep-away, if you will) and maybe, perhaps, give that idiot comedienne a gentle nudge or two in the right direction.
...
A/N: This chapter is mostly fluffies. I won't lie to you; that's what it is! But this fandom, I've noticed, tends towards darker fics, (many of which I find really cool and well thought-out), especially in longfics. Someone's got to write the silly, fluffy stuff to balance the scales. Besides, I've been smart and dignified all week in college. I'm allowed to indulge in fluffy fanfiction.
I must confess, the idea of throwing in a mud fight instead of the snowball fight in the first movie is not mine. I snatched it from another BATB AU, To Bear the Strength of Love, by Alexandria Keating, though I did my best to make it my own. It's a wonderful story, so feel free to check it out if you'd like. (And if you have read any other good fairytale AUs, let me know!)
My most recent review, from a Guest called Sab, told me that my fic was mentioned in an Instagram post. Excited, I scoured the internet for a good twenty minutes (this is a normal thing to do, I swear!) and found that someone had quoted a line or two from my fic in a post on there! Let me tell you, it is so cool, and so weird, and so COOL to see my name appear on a platform other than this one in any degree. It's like, "Oh hey, that's me! I wrote that!"
This fic is quickly approaching the 50k word milestone (and the 3-month anniversary! October 20th, mark your calendars, lol!). That's surprising, since I never imagined it would make it past 40k. Seriously, there's a note in the earliest pages of my outline saying I expected the final outcome to only be between 15,000 and 40,000 words. Boy, was I wrong!
As always, thanks for reading! :)