Early on in my quest to Write All the Things before I tripped into the CCD rabbit hole was a Aranella Lives AU. Instead I got a bunch of scenes that I had trouble connecting them with the rest of the plot so in the end I just...wrote them down and gave up. So...uh...enjoy I guess.
Stick to the Script and Other Stories
By Bilbo-sama
Untitled Nella Lives AU
1.
As the mouse centaur...thing tilted his head back and breathed in, Roland spotted the oddly colored flames emerging from its maw..
"Look out!" shouted Evan unhelpfully somewhere behind him. Roland's heart sank. Even if Roland dodged out of the way, there was a high chance that the boy wouldn't escape the flames fast enough.
So Roland quickly grabbed his gun and fired a bullet at the centaur's neck. The centaur shrieked in pain and shock as the interrupted fire in his throat exploded. Roland fired another shot that made its mark into the creature's head as it flailed.
The centaur tumbled down the ravine. A few moments later, there was a loud thud.
"Nella!" Roland turned around to see Aranella, a bit battered but still alive, being hugged by Evan.
"Are you alright?" Roland asked, relieved and pleased that at least something about this day was going well.
"I'll be okay once we get out of here," Aranella replied as she extracted herself from Evan's grasp. She motioned them to follow, "It's this way."
Evan woke up to the sound of voices and a crackling bonfire. He instantly recognized Aranella's but it took him a moment to remember that the new voice was Roland's. He reluctantly remembered what occurred earlier. Oh right. That.
"...Story I had told Evan when he was younger," Nella was saying, "a fairy tale about how this world is linked to another and people used to be able to travel back and forth."
"Considering I'm here from another world, there may be some truth to it," said Roland, sounding hopeful, "do you think there is a way back?"
"If there is a way," Nella sounded apologetic, "it may have been lost to time."
"I see," came the disappointed reply.
Both went silent. The call of sleep returned to Evan as he laid by the fire.
The last thing he faintly heard was Nella asking, "What is your world like?"
Evan woke up again. He faintly remembered an odd dream where he held a conversation with a strange boy. He had a feeling they have met before but he couldn't recall when.
Birds chirped in the distance. Ah, morning then.
He let out a yawn that morphed into a 'mrrrow' towards the end. Nella looked up from her spot at the camp fire, cooking some sort of meat.
"Good morning, Your Majesty. Did you sleep well?" Evan nodded sleepily as he thought about it. Strangely, he did despite the previous day's events.
Speaking of which, "Where's Roland?"
"Mr. Crane is nearby on watch duty," said Nella before pointing to a path that lead to the look out. "Can you tell him breakfast is ready?"
Evan nodded and went after Roland.
2.
"And what were you two think you were doing?" demanded the tiny red-headed sky pirate girl at the two pirates who were about to execute two travelers.
"Taking the law into your own hands, eh? The Boss will love that?" she said sarcastically with a glare.
"Er...we..." started the sky pirate wearing a red hat.
"You were all set to play judge, jury, and executioner and then drag their bodies back for a reward, weren't you?" the girl accused.
"Mistress Tani -" said the bearded pirate.
"It's not your job to decide!" lectured the girl named Tani, "It's Chief Batu's!" She heard a gasp from the grimalkin-eared boy behind and her eyes flickered between the two cowed sky pirates and somewhere behind the hat wearing sky pirate.
"Take them back to base so the Boss can properly Chief and don't do anything stupid along the way," she ordered suddenly.
"What do you mean?" asked the hatted pirate before he froze with a squeak. His bearded friend frowned and turned to see what caused that sound. His eyes widened.
"If you two idiots were more observant, you should've noticed there was another one you missed," said Tani nonchalantly as a woman in a pink-purple dress pressed a knife against the hatted pirate's throat. Aranella had purposely fallen behind to scout for dangers that hid when her charge passed by them. She would've killed the two captors by now if Tani hadn't intervened.
"...Alright, Sunshine," decided Chief Batu of the Sky Pirates, "Ye've got yerself a deal. However, one of ye will need to stay here."
"Why?" asked the man in the blue coat.
"Insurance in case ye do a runner. Can't escape if ye leave a mate in the dust, aye?" He's...got a point.
The three intruders in the village glanced at each other. All three of them have skills they may need for the rescue mission. And Evan had just sworn on his life to rescue Tani or die so he can't stay behind.
"I'll stay," volunteered the woman. Batu watched as Khunbish and Chingis had quickly paled. There was a story behind that. And if somebody besides him and Tani could bring those two in line...
"Alright," smiled Batu, amused as Khunbish made an 'erk' noise. It caused the woman to glance in their direction.
"Nella!" said the child king as he ran up to the woman's side.
"It's alright, Evan," Nella knelt down to the boy, "I'll be fine."
"We will be back," promised the man in blue. His eyes burned with the fires of determination, "We wont fail."
"Protect him, Roland," ordered Nella and she received a nod in response.
A day later, they returned with Tani in tow.
3.
"If we're really lucky," said Roland cautiously as the group got closer to the camp site that marked where Evan planned to create a new Kingdom, "Aranella will never know what had gone on in Goldpaw."
"EVAN PETTIWHISKER TILDRUM!" Nella's voice rang out.
"Too late, mun," commented Lofty.
"Evan," Roland looked down at the child king who suddenly looked very nervous.
"Y-yes, Roland?"
"Run," Roland ordered, "she can't catch you if you keep moving."
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, GAMBLING LIKE THAT?" How did she find out?!
"But what about you?"
"I lived a long life," said Roland solemnly.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM, ROLAND?"
"And I doubt I can outrun her," added Roland, "Now go."
Evan nodded and he ran to the camp site with all the energy his age can grant him.
Nella still caught all of them.
4.
Evan and Tani wandered the streets of Hydropolis. It's been over an hour since they completed the errand Roland told them to go on and they couldn't find him or Nella anywhere. Batu and Lofty both nonchalantly shrugged, which didn't help at all.
It was the growing crowd near the docks that attracted the preteens' attention.
"What is she doing up there?"
"She's breaking one of the four pillars!"
"Should we call the guards?"
"Look! Someone's coming!"
Evan and Tani at last looked in the direction the crowd was focused on. Standing at the end of a high balcony that must've been blocked off because of how damaged the stonework had gotten over the years, was Nella. She had traded her maid uniform for a yellow sundress and had released her shoulder length hair out of its ponytail so it can be gently brushed aside by the ocean breeze. She was staring out to the open sea before she turned to see who just interrupted her daydreaming.
Roland was wearing the purple suit he had last worn at the trial in Goldpaw. This time, he had left out the jacket so his black waist coat and more of his tie was visible. His sleeves of his white undershirt was rolled up to his elbows in response to the warm air of the city.
He was approaching her with a confident swagger.
"Ah, so there you are, Aranella," he said with a carefree smile, "I have been looking for you."
"You have?" Nella cocked her head questioningly.
"Yes," Roland was a few feet away from her now. He wasn't quite in her personal space but there was enough room to give him time to dodge her knife strikes.
"I've been meaning to tell you this for a couple of weeks now," he declared, "and I just can't wait any longer."
"What do you mean, Roland?" she then gasped as Roland inched closer and carefully held up one of her hands in his own.
"I thought I would never be able to find someone who catches my heart again so soon," he said.
"What does he think he's doing?" demanded Evan quietly from his spot in the crowd. Tani's attention was diverted by the sound of some shouting in the distance.
"C'mon, they might need back up," she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the mesmerized crowd. Evan could hear Roland continuing his speech as Evan and Tani frantically searched for the right stair case.
"...I thought I was going to be alone once more for the rest of my life until I met you."
"Roland..."
"Oi, this way!" Lofty peeked out of an alcove, "you got the thing, right?"
"Yes!" Although, Evan wasn't sure why they needed a red coral ring. It's used for couples planning to marry, right? Is Roland planning to skip courting Nella and jump into marriage? Is that what they do in his world?
...Wait. Is this how Roland plans to gain an audience with the Archon or the Queen? Surely there's better ways than getting arrested for violating the law.
"...I must confess, your beauty is shining like the sun."
Aranella giggled, "Oh, what else?"
Lofty scoffed as they got closer to the entrance of the balcony, "Really? He's resortin' to flippin' generic lines now?"
"It's doin' the job, isn't it?" said Batu as he leaned against the wall, looking out to the balcony while listening for the sound of Hydropolitan guards approaching.
Evan peeked out into the balcony and gasped.
In the time he and Tani looked and found the path to the balcony, Roland had closed the space between himself and Nella so they were merely a few inches apart. They were both staring into each other's eyes. Roland, if he was anyone else, had risked getting maimed just to brush a lock of hair away from Nella's face.
"JUST KISS ALREADY!" someone in the crowd below shouted.
"IN THE NAME OF QUEEN NEREA, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" Ah, the guards have found the entrance.
"Will you marry me?" asked Roland quickly without skipping a beat.
"Y-yes."
The two 'lovers' smiled and wrapped their arms around each others' shoulders. It was hard to see but judging from their movements, they kissed. Evan and Tani's jaws dropped for they weren't expecting the two adults to go that far.
As the guards surrounded the foreigners who dared to break a pillar of law, Batu muttered, "About time they wrapped this up."
5.
"And Miss Nella!" yelped Khunbish as Roland raised the gun, "She'll gut you like the traitorous swine you are when she finds you!"
Roland smirked, "You didn't know? She's in on this too."
"Wha-"
Roland fired.
Y'know what? Maybe this is a decent one-shot on its own. :O
Also, Roland and Aranella pretended to kiss...or at least they implied they did. That section was also an attempt at me writing Roland being smooth and romantic and I was trying to go for 'wow you see the shoujo bubbles from here' but I ended with what I wrote out instead. Oh well.