"Godsdamnit."
A low growl slipped past his bared teeth. Godsdamnit! He needed to breathe. But breathing wasn't exactly easy when what he really wanted was to throw his head back and roar at the gods. This was never going to be an easy "project"; he knew that the moment he decided what his first decree was going to be. But sometimes people and their stupidity and hatred for anything different from their norm just pissed him off.
After making sure no one else was around, Ben allowed himself another growl as he stalked back towards his and Doug's dorm room. With each step, he forced himself to breathe, to unclench his jaw, fighting his inherited beast.
As he slammed the door closed behind him, Lonnie looked up from where she was sprawled on the window seat. "So how'd it go?"
"How do you think it went?" Ben replied, running a hand through his hair as he paced the length of the room. "Mom wasn't exactly thrilled. A week of rumors like that in her university? Yeah." Lonnie winced a little and he took a breath. This wasn't her fault, he knew that, and it wasn't fair of him to take it out on her even if only a little. "Sorry."
"All good," Lonnie shrugged with a wave of her hand. "I get it."
"I'm surprised it took so long for such rumors to start," Doug commented from where he sat at his desk reading.
"Not helpful Doug," Ben groaned. If he was completely honest, he'd thought the rumors would start sooner too. But he didn't need to hear it from Doug. Not when he was already this worked up and not when he'd fought so hard to get this far.
"I'm merely saying that I expected it to start by the end of the first week."
"Doug," Ben warned as he felt himself bristle.
"What?" Doug blinked. "They have not been subtle regarding the fact that the four of them share a room. That, of course, is before you even take their clothing into account. The style of clothing strongly suggests-"
Thank the gods Lonnie, literally stepped in, and put a hand on Doug's shoulder. "Do we have any idea who started it?"
Swallowing the growl building in his throat, Ben shook his head. "I have no idea."
"Have you tried asking Audrey?" Lonnie asked.
Audrey. The slowly growing thorn in his side. Earlier during lunch, he'd brought up the rumors with her and she'd dismissed them, stating she didn't have time to waste on such things. Especially when it involved villains and was probably true anyway. This time the growl escaped as he grit out, "Audrey was…less than helpful."
Lonnie glanced over at him, assessing, and Ben avoided meeting her gaze. He was perfectly aware of the fact that his inherited beast was showing and he didn't particularly care; at least he didn't grow fur like his father did sometimes. "What did she say?"
"That she didn't know," he replied automatically.
"And you believe that?" Lonnie pressed.
Pausing mid–step, Ben frowned. "No," he admitted, lip curling in a silent snarl.
Hand dropping to her hip to play with the hilt of her dagger, Lonnie glared at the ceiling. "Me neither. There's no way that social spider doesn't know. She's got her webs everywhere. Which means she either doesn't care–which is bullshit–or she started it."
That…that made sense. That made a lot of sense. And he would confidently bet that Audrey was the source of the rumors. It was underhanded and sneaky enough to keep her out of the spotlight since rumors took on lives of their own and no one really remembered how a rumor started in the first place.
"No, no. That first point makes sense," Doug said. "We all know she doesn't care much for them so of course she would avoid anything that involves them. To her, rumors about the VKs would just be a waste of time." When Ben and Lonnie said nothing, the dwarf looked up. "Guys?"
"You can't be serious," Lonnie told him, rolling her eyes. "She hates them."
Frowning, Doug put down his book. "That's why I'm serious, Lonnie. If you hate someone then you ignore them." As Lonnie cursed in her native language, pressing her hands together as if praying for patience, Doug looked at Ben. "I don't understand."
"Hate to tell you this, Doug," Ben sighed, "but some people don't ignore people they hate; they go out of their way to get rid of them or target them. Audrey's one of those people. Starting the rumors is definitely something she would do."
Expression blanking, Doug blinked and Ben could see him trying to process."But," Doug started, "but Audrey is royalty. She's meant to be impartial. How can she rule justly if she gets rid of anyone she doesn't like?"
"She can't," Lonnie pointed out.
"Then-but what-That's not right. She can't just get rid of whoever upsets her."
"It's not. And apparently she can," Ben muttered. And somehow he was supposed to let her help him rule Auradon.
The same thing seemed to dawn on Doug because his best friend stared at him with sudden horror. Finally, he whispered, "I knew it was bad, but…"
"Yeah." It was bad.
"Then we have to do something," Doug said, getting up, shaking a little. "We can't let her get away with this."
As much as he wanted to agree, as much as he knew they were right, he knew they couldn't. "We don't have any proof," Ben reminded him, sinking onto his bed. "She's still royalty and my betrothed. I have to keep the peace."
Silence filled the room, Doug wringing his hands while Lonnie braided her hair and Ben himself chewed his lip. Gods, what was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to handle this?
"We could try asking the other royals if they know how the rumors started," Lonnie finally suggested and shit that was something he'd forgotten he wanted to talk to them about. "What do you think?"
"I don't know if they'll be willing to help."
Confused, Lonnie sat up. "Why?"
"Because of something Audrey said." When he finished explaining what Audrey had said about how they'd inherited their parent's right to the world as heroes while the VKs blood meant they would never be anything but villains, his friends stared at him.
"She said that?" Doug breathed even as Lonnie said, "That entitled little bitch," before cursing again in her native language.
"Yeah," Ben nodded. "And I don't know whether or not the other royals think that way too. I meant to ask you about it, Doug, but I guess I got distracted. Do you know if Neal thinks like that?"
"I-I don't know," Doug admitted. "We never talked about things like that as children and we were never close."
"Can we still ask him?" Lonnie asked. "And if not, who else can we ask?"
Frowning, Ben bit his knuckle. There were six other heirs excluding himself and Neal: Audrey's younger brother Daniel, Melody the daughter of Ariel and Eric, Chad the son of Cinderella and Henry, Rapunzel the daughter of Fredrick and Arianna, Aziz the son of Jasmine and Aladdin, and Merida the daughter of Fergus and Elinor. Three of them didn't attend the university. Of those three, Ben wasn't too concerned about Merida or Aziz because, well, their parents weren't the type to teach it… Then again… he hadn't thought that Aurora or Philip would either. But DunBrock and Agrabah had voted in favor of giving the VKs a chance to live off the Isle. Either way, Daniel was the one he was most concerned about. Out of the rest of them, he already knew Rapunzel's view of the world.
"The only ones I could confidently approach either aren't here or I already know their answer," Ben admitted. "Asking the others could… cause a lot of tension in the Ascendancy."
"Guess we just need to be more observant," Lonnie sighed. "Fuck."
Ben agreed with that. Fuck.