Ways to be Wicked - Descendants 2 AU

Chapter 19

 The sea air coming off the cove was salty and bitterly cold as it whipped through the twin smokestacks of the Devil's Bayou. The old steam paddle boat groaned and creaked against the wind and waves that were battering it where it sat docked at the end of a private dock a stones' throw away from Ursula's Fish and Chips. Crew members meandered to and from the upper decks to the cabins below, no one sparing their blonde-headed captive a second glance as he stood tied against one of the two smokestacks.

Adrien wasn't sure what was worse in that moment - that he had been kidnapped or that he was now stuck tied to a smokestack feet above where two adolescent alligators prowled with a hungry look in their eye. Nearby, their pink-haired owner - Alix, Adrien thought - was laid back in a rickety lawn chair smirking at the sight. Supposedly, she and her reptilian accomplices, Nero Jr. and Brutus Jr., were meant to be keeping him from escaping until the trade was made. Adrien had a feeling it was a job Alix had accepted all too willingly judging by how she snickered every time her gators snapped at Adrien's feet.

"How's it feel knowing you're soon to be a human chew toy?" Alix sneered as she tossed some chum from the bucket beside her at the base of Adrien's smokestack. Nero Jr. and Brutus Jr. swarmed the raw meat, each hungrily swallowing up their portion inches from Adrien. The king tried not to flinch at the bits of meat that were flung onto his shoes, barely concealing his revulsion as the gators fed. If Alix wanted to see him squirm, she would have to try much harder than that.

There was the telltale creak of the wooden steps leading up to their small deck, Alix frowning as Juleka and Luka came into view. Juleka's glare was enough to make Nero Jr. and Brutus Jr. go scrambling back to their master's side and away from their captive.

"Guess that means the show's over?" Alix mused as she raised the chum bucket out of the reach of the two hungry gators.

"I told you to watch him, not to feed him to your lizards," Juleka snapped, her hands placed firmly on her hips. "We don't want damaged goods."

"You told me to watch him, and we are," the pink-haired pirate pointed out. "Never mentioned what state you wanted him in at the end of it."

"Save it," the sea witch hissed, gesturing towards the staircase. "Go help Max keep look out. We only have 20 more minutes until the exchange."

Alix's smirk turned on Adrien again, a devilish gleam in her eye as she rose from her lawn chair. "Hear that, your highness? Only 20 more minutes until you see what the inside of a gator's belly looks like."

"Alix," Juleka growled, Alix sauntering past her with a sigh as she hugged the chum bucket to her chest.

"Fine, fine, I won't stay where I'm not wanted," she said as she nodded her head to the two alligators. "Boys, we're leaving."

The pink-haired pirate and her reptilian entourage disappeared off the observation deck, only to have Juleka call after her.

"And feed those oversized iguanas!" Juleka cried over the railing. "I'm tired of people complaining that those two keep nipping at them!"

She gave a heavy sigh before collapsing back into the newly vacated lawn chair, her head cocked back against the backrest as she gave Adrien the once over. Luka stood at her side, leaned against the railing. Unlike his sister, he seemed to want to look everywhere but where the king of Auradon was tied up.

Adrien could see how Marinette could like him, he supposed. He seemed to be all shadow and mystery, and the look of someone who had seen it all and hadn't flinched. What really drew Adrien's attention though was the necklace that hung against his collarbone - an exact copy of Marinette's Hades necklace. He guessed that meant they were fairly serious before Marinette left. Why did she give Luka something like that in the first place?