I - Down Bad (Red's POV)

Everything was fixed. My mom wasn't my mom anymore, Cinderella was alive, and everything was right in the world. Except it wasn't. No matter how long I sat at Auradon Prep and life went on, it still never felt like it was the way it should've been. And when I talked to Chloe, she seemed to be completely oblivious to the feeling. Or maybe nothing changed for her. Maybe her life was already good before we went back in time and fixed it and I was the only one whose life would change. Who am I kidding, the entire reason we went back was to fix my mom, so of course I would be the only one affected other than her.

No one else knew about us going back in time. I wanted to tell Maddox but he would probably think I was insane. But being from Wonderland that wouldn't mean too much. Everything was backward there anyway.

"Hey, Red!" Chloe shouts happily as she barges into our dorm room. (Yes, in this version of my life Chloe and I have never been apart for long, apparently we grew up together.) I jump when I hear her voice, not from fear of her but from habit. Whenever anyone said my name back home it was usually my mother screaming for me after I did something she didn't approve of.

"Hey, Chlo," I say back to her, turning to face her instead of the window above my desk where I'd just daydreamed instead of doing my homework. "How was Swords and Shields?"

"It was so good! We did matches today and I beat everyone Coach Jenkins put me up against!" Chloe beams as she tells me about practice, about her day, about anything really. Chloe is always aglow with joy no matter what happens. I sit there and listen to her tell me everything about practice, using terms that I really don't know what they mean. But I listen anyway, it makes her happy to come home to me and unwind from whatever stresses her out during the day.

"We're getting a new captain soon. Coach is really looking at me for the spot," Chloe says wistfully. She really wants this, bad. She wants it more than anything else. One night when she was talking my ear off because she couldn't sleep she'd told me how Chad was the Swords and Shields captain when he was in school and how she needed to live up to that expectation. I'd told her she didn't need to do anything, she was perfect as she was. We're only in our sophomore year, she still has two more years to be captain. Chloe just giggled and rolled her eyes at me.

"Oh, hey," Chloe starts up again as if she's remembered something. "Do you know Henry of the Southern Isles? Hans' son? He asked me on a date."

I could feel my facial expression giving away my thoughts without so much as a second passing by. "You told him no right? Why would you want to date him?"

Chloe dulled a little at my response. "No, I said yes. What's wrong with him?"

I groaned, "Chloe," I drew out her name, exasperated. "Don't you know what his father did to Anna and Elsa? Do you really want someone like that to be your boyfriend? And isn't he a senior anyway?"

"He's been nice to me," Chloe says quietly before trailing off. Seeing her look like this made me feel bad. I felt like I'd kicked a puppy that came greeting me with little puppy kisses at the door.

I sighed in defeat, "Okay. I'm sorry. I guess you can give him a chance." Chloe perked up a little at hearing my approval of her date with Henry. "But if he hurts you I'll kill him and throw him down the rabbit hole." I said the last sentence with too much anger, but it's okay. Chloe already knows I'm protective of her anyway.

Chloe squeals with excitement, clapping her hands giddily. "Good! Because the date's tonight! Will you help me get ready?" I swear Chloe puts on her best puppy dog eyes and uses her charm on me to make me do whatever she wants. Must be a princess charming thing.

I groan even harder this time, throwing my head back in exaggeration. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope!" Chloe chimes. "I'm going to take a quick shower!" And just like that she's rushed into our dorm bathroom and I hear the hot water turn on.

"Fuck," I curse under my breath.

"Stop swearing!" Chloe admonishes while popping her head out the bathroom door.

I wanna hit my head against a wall. I hate when Chloe goes out on dates. She doesn't go on many but it still feels like someone's taking away something that's mine. She isn't mine, but she's the only one I've ever felt close with. No one can take her from me like that.

I sit there for what feels like eternity, waiting for Chloe to get out of the shower. God, that girl doesn't know the meaning of a quick shower. Or a normal temperature one either for that matter. Where I grew up, I had five minutes of lukewarm water at best before it turned cold. I've only just gotten used to being able to have the water as hot or cold as I want for as long as I want.

Chloe pops out of the bathroom now, wrapped in a towel and her hair sopping wet. I cringe at the feeling. I hated wet hair on my back; I don't know how it doesn't bother her. She rummages through her closet looking for something that would best suit her date tonight. I try not to look pained as I sit here trying to help her.

She looks at every single piece of clothing in her wardrobe. I'm not kidding. Every. Single. One. Nothing seems to meet her standards at the moment. She flops down on her bed, sighing heavily before whining, "What am I gonna do? I don't know what to wear." She turns her head to face instead of the pillowy mattress and says, "Fix it, Red. Pretty please?" Chloe sticks out her bottom lip just a little bit to pout at me and I'm sold.

"You know I hate when you use your adorable face to your advantage like that," I say as I comb through the dresses in her closet. One of them catches my eye, and what I like even more about it is that I don't think I've ever seen her wear it either. The dress is a deep navy blue with teeny tiny little silver crowns patterned all over it. It had a sweetheart neckline and the skirt was flowy and would only reach to just above her knees. I take it from the closet and hold it up for her to see like I'm a TV host showing a contestant the air fryer they just won.

"What about this one?" I ask.

"Oh, that one might work. Let me see if it fits still," Chloe says, getting up from her spot on the bed. When she stands up I can see where her wet hair was on her light blue comforter, making splotches of darker blue patches. She comes out of the bathroom and she looks beautiful in her dress, wet hair and all. I try to hide the fact that she's taken me aback but she catches it before I can wipe my facial expression back to normal.

"So this is the one," Chloe smirks at me, having seen my facial expression.

I clear my throat awkwardly, "Yeah, yeah you look pretty in that." Nice save, I think to myself, internally rolling my eyes, way to make things weird. She did look pretty, but only if pretty meant that nothing else in the world could look better than she did in this moment. The top of the dress was tight, accentuating all her… features. The skirt was loose and flowy, perfect for her.

"Okay, I have to go dry my hair! Be back in a bit!" A "bit" was a severe understatement. Chloe's hair was a beast to tame, it never cooperated and drying it was just the same. Miraculously, she came out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later, her hair dried and tied back in a low ponytail with a baby blue bow. I looked her up and down, seeing what all she had added without me knowing. Her shoes were glittery silver heels. Not super high but enough to notice an inch or two was added to her height. She had also grabbed a small silver purse, too.

"Will you help me with my makeup?" Chloe asked shyly.

"Of course, baby. Come here," ugh, why did I say that? I swear my brain and my mouth don't communicate before I speak. She sits down and I start my task of helping her. When she asks me to do her makeup I never go heavy with her like I do my own. I stay in the lane of natural shades of pinks, browns, and blues, not wanting to make her look outlandish or cartoony. I'm putting some lip gloss on her lips when she starts talking again.

"Isn't it crazy we tried to kill each other when we first met? Now look at us," Chloe laughs a little at the irony, and I can't say the irony isn't lost on me, either. We had tried to kill each other. Violently. She had a sword and I just grabbed a flag staff and hoped for the best.

I sigh, "Yeah, I guess so. Go look in the mirror. Tell me what you think." She gets up, walking so gracefully over to the full-length mirror on the front of our bathroom door. I come up behind her, wanting to see her face when she sees how beautiful she is.

"Thank you, Red," Chloe says gently. "You made me beautiful." I rest my head on her shoulder, wrapping my arms around her waist in a hug.

"No I didn't. You were beautiful before this," I said as I stared at myself in the eyes in the mirror. I couldn't look at her and say that without my face becoming the same shade as my hair. I can tell Chloe wants to fight me on this but she doesn't. There's a knock on our door and I glance over at the clock on my side of the bedroom. It's nearly seven o'clock. I open the door, finding Henry, the son of Prince Hans of the Southern Isles standing on the other side.

"Uh, hey," he starts, his words seeming a little flustered. "I'm here for Chloe?"

"Gimme one second," I tell him before smiling evilly, closing the door ever so slightly. I turn to Chloe, "Your date's here."

She starts bounding toward the door, ready to take it from me and leave. I don't let her grab it, instead I slam it shut so no one can take the door. "Turn on your location, share it with me so I know you're safe. Don't go to a second location, ever. And don't go anywhere private for a first date, either."

"Relax, Red. It's a first date, I'm not getting kidnapped," Chloe tells me. I roll my eyes and she begrudgingly does what I asked of her.

"Now, his turn," I said, quickly turning away from her and going out into the hall with her date.

"Have her home before midnight. I swear to God, if she tells me you made her feel uncomfortable, if you touch her where she doesn't want to be touched, if you do anything to upset her, I'll have your head on a spike outside my room as a garden ornament," I said. I hadn't realized I'd been pushing him back against the wall, but here we were. His face looked horrified at the promise I made. I was making a grown man cower in fear because of my words, because of my threats. Maybe I really was like my mom.

"Red, I'll be fine," Chloe says soothingly as she emerges from behind me. She motions to her date, "C'mon, let's go." Her tone became happy and chipper when she changed who she was speaking to but I didn't let it get to me. Chloe and her date walked off into the sunset and lived happily ever after.

Not.

That night I stayed up a little bit later than I should have to make sure Chloe did get home and wasn't murdered. I checked her location frequently and discovered Henry had taken her to Belle's Book Store and Cafe and nowhere else. Henry brought her home around 11:50, so he was within his time limit of before midnight, albeit cutting it a little too close for my liking. Chloe slipped in our dorm room quietly, probably assuming I'd be asleep by now. She knows how much I like my sleep, how much I enjoy not getting out of bed until noon on the weekends or days we don't have classes.

"Red? What are you doing still up?" Chloe's face is concerned and I know she's wondering why I waited up for her.

"I just… wanted to make sure you got home. And I thought you might want to tell me how it went," I added the last part in so that I didn't look as much of a fool as I probably already did.

"Oh, okay," Chloe perked up like a wilted plant that was just watered. "Well… he asked me to Castlecoming!" My jaw dropped. I knew Castlecoming was still a thing even after we'd went back in time and fixed everything, but it was already that time? It seems like the leaves just started changing colors and falling from the trees yesterday.

"He didn't," I said, my face a mixture of shock and disbelief.

"He did!" Chloe squeals at me, walking over to where I sat on my bed and gently shook my arm in excitement. I couldn't take it anymore. Why was she so excited about some guy? Some shitty guy at that. And she was mine first, he can't have her.

"Chlo," I started. "You told him yes didn't you?" I don't know why I even bother to ask when I already know the answer anyway.

"Yeah! I'm super excited! Can you tell?" Chloe beams even more now.

"No, you're super subtle when you're excited," I say in a dead tone of voice. Chloe rolls her eyes at me before shoving me playfully. I dramatically roll of the side of my bed to make her feel bad, even though we both know we're just playing around.

"Oh, get up, Princess," Chloe says, peeping her face over the side of my bed to look at me on the floor.

"You know I hate when you call me that," I grumble as I get up anyway. I shoot her a scowl for good measure. I don't truly hate anything Chloe does or says. It's just that when she calls me princess it makes me feel some sort of way. I never know how to describe it, not that I would ever tell anyone. She just makes me feel bubbly, like I'm free and nothing can go wrong. By the time I stand up, Chloe's sitting cross-legged on my bed, shoes off, of course. She knows better than to put shoes on my bed. She's fidgeting with her fingers like she's nervous, looking down at her lap and biting her lip. There's something on her mind and she doesn't know whether to talk about it or stay quiet.

"Red," she starts, looking up at me as she says my name. When she does it feels like I'm a flower and she's the sun, giving me her attention is like warmth to me. "Why did you tell him to bring me back before midnight?"

It takes me a moment to register her question, and why it would even be important to her in the first place. Then I realized who was asking me the question. Chloe Charming, the daughter of Prince Charming and Cinderella. Her mom's fairy godmother helped her look beautiful for the ball and gave her until midnight.

Fuck.

I'd done exactly that. But in her mom's story her mom fell in love with the prince, not the fairy godmother. Of course Chloe would fall in love with a prince, it's her destiny to. It's almost like her entire future has already been lined up for her. Her parents would never force her into an arranged marriage with some random prince, but it's expected that she'll marry one anyway.

I turned away from her, not wanting her to realize my cheeks growing the same color as my hair. I picked up my hairbrush, needing something to keep this new surge of energy in check, and started brushing through the messy waves of my hair.

"I… I don't know," I answered truthfully. I really didn't know why I'd said that. "I just said the first thing that came to mind. I realized the more I brushed at my hair the harder I dragged it down the strands of red.

"Sit," Chloe says gently. "Let me. You're hurting yourself." I do as she says, her voice soothing my screaming nerves. She takes the brush from my hands and starts working out the tangles at the bottom of my hair first. She's so gentle I hardly even feel what she's doing. I'm soothed instantly, feeling as if I could fall asleep right here right now.

"When I was little and couldn't brush my hair on my own my mom would do it instead. She would yank the brush through my hair and I'd always wind up crying, begging her to stop. It just make her more mad when she saw the tears, though. 'Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about' is what she'd tell me," I tell Chloe, taking a glance in the mirror to gauge her reaction. She swallows hard, and I almost see her eyes get a little glassy looking before she blinks it away. I try not to tell her about my childhood, it's so vastly different from hers that she could never understand it. She doesn't understand why my mother never showed me love the way hers did.

"I'm sorry, Red," is all she says to me before resting her head on my shoulder, wrapping her arms around my abdomen. She buries her face in my hair before squeezing me tightly. For the first time in a while, I feel truly comfortable. Something about her presence keeps me calm, she feels like the home I should've had but never got.

"We should go to bed. Get some sleep," Chloe says as she pulls away from me. It feels cold where her body was on me and isn't anymore. I swallow before agreeing with her, "Yeah, we should, it's late." I glance at the clock; nearly one in the morning.

We get ready for bed in silence but it isn't weird or awkward. Silence between us was never tense. It was easy silence. Chloe tucked herself into bed while I turned off the lights in our room. We never used to ceiling light, we both thought it was way too bright, and opted for smaller lamps or opening the curtains instead.

"Goodnight, Red," I hear Chloe mumble from under her covers.

"Night, Blue," I say back, knowing she loves to hate her nickname.