Ways to be Wicked - Descendants 2 AU

Chapter 24 (Bonus)

 This can't be English.

Adrien sat at his desk, rereading the same paragraph of some subcommittee report for the fifteenth time. He had come back to his father's office - no, it was his office, he was the king - to see a pile of paperwork that seemed to mock his tired mind. After the last day and a half he had been through, Adrien was tempted just to slide it all off into the waiting trash bin and collapse onto the office couch until Natalie came and got him for the next meeting. Eventually, his sense of responsibility outweighed his need to procrastinate which left him looking over a report that he was convinced wasn't written in any language he had ever heard of.

Adrien let out a low and tried groan, setting the report aside to run his hand through his now short hair. It was still a shock, the length of it now after his impromptu Isle haircut. He hadn't had the courage to bring it up with his parents. His mother would have a heart attack. And he had done that and so many other contradictory things over the past day and a half for what?

For a girl.

An absolutely spectacular girl who seemed to want nothing more to do with him.

The thought left Adrien's heart hollow and his head stumbling through a fog. He had broken multiple rules, codes and royal decrees to wander the alleyways and docks of the Isle of the Lost and had come up with the same thing he had before they had left. Nothing.

Not exactly nothing, Adrien reminded himself as he leaned back in his chair. He saw the Isle, up close and personal and the people who lived there amongst the rubble and decay. They were his people now that he was king and, from what he had seen, had also been severely neglected under his father's rein. For the most part they seemed pretty docile. Not content per say, but all too comfortable with the state they had been living in for far too long. Except for Juleka and her crew that is who leaned in the completely opposite direction. Instead of being beaten down, they had chosen to be hardened by the struggle, becoming vengeful and cynical.

Not unlike Marinette in the beginning, Adrien mused. He knew what he said in the limo must have struck a nerve in her, comparing her to Juleka when there was so much bad blood between them, but he felt that he was right in a way. They were both proud leaders, strategists and hotheaded. Marinette seemed to have cooled somewhat since coming to Auradon, but looking at it now with hindsight, maybe he had mistaken her inner defeat for a want to blend in. And he had been the one to break her spirit.

She had been so vibrant too. When they first met at the start of the year and her friends had come stumbling out of the limo, she had been the one he had noticed. She was the definition of calm, cool and collected and had no regard for the title he was about to receive which in a world where that seemed to be his defining feature for most people, he had found refreshing.

Sure, she was all together intimidating with her spiked jewelry, leather jacket and dyed hair, but he couldn't help but be drawn to her like a moth to her unholy flame. Someone so witty, so bright, and unlike any other girl he had ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Marinette was enticing, curious, and an altogether enigma. He found himself seeking her out specifically instead of one of the other Isle transfers. He had told himself it was because she was their obvious leader and the one that needed to be impressed when in reality he just wanted to know her better. He had been falling for a girl from the other side of the bay before he knew what was happening.

Being enchanted just seemed to magnify that feeling, leaving him in a daze for days, all thoughts but thoughts of her abandoned and the need to be by her side becoming almost urgent. It was an odd sensation, being so compelled to be with someone. But he had been spelled, and magic tends to make people do ridiculous things - like sing their praises in front of the student body at a sporting event.

That day by the Enchanted Lake had somehow managed to change everything and nothing at all. He has been on cloud nine with her arms wrapped around his waist as they sped along the back roads to the spot he had been so desperate to take her to, to have a moment alone with this perfectly wild individual who seemed to have hypnotized him body and soul. He wanted to know her, wanted to peer beyond the carefully constructed rough exterior she portrayed to everyone else, and he somehow got more than he could have expected, and that was only after the spell had been washed away in the magic water.

She was invincible. She was scared. She was cynical. She was emotional. She was absolutely spectacular. The spell may have pushed him towards her, but even without its magnifying power, Adrien knew he was a goner. Marinette had his heart.

Adrien rested a fist against his brow as he let out a low sigh of what could only be described as anguish. They had had a one in a million thing going, the way they seemed to fit together so naturally and now, he was missing his right arm. Why hadn't he told her the significance she had in his heart every day she was his?

He was considering abandoning his paperwork in favor of wallowing on the office couch when there was a knock at his office door. The king stifled a groan, rising from his chair like all his joints were rusted before he went to see who it was that needed his attention then. A small part of him prayed it was Marinette so they could finally make amends and find out how to save whatever they had together. He wasn't so lucky in that aspect as he opened his door to see nothing there but a container of strawberries waiting on the floor just outside his door, a folded note stuck amongst the berries.

As he stood there, looking down at this anonymous gift, he was suddenly struck by the significance it could carry. Strawberries were Marinette's favorite thing in Auradon. Adrien bent down gingerly to scoop up the little container, plucking the white note from it with shaking fingers as he went to sit on the office couch. He unfolded the note and saw a little doodle of a hastily drawn strawberry in blue pen with the words 'I'm berry sorry' in loopy handwriting.

The king couldn't help but let out a harsh laugh as a grin split his face. A pun. She had punned just for him. Suddenly the memories he had been reflecting on, tinged with sadness because of how they were ending, had taken on a rosy color once more.

Marinette, sitting on a blanket wrapped in his jacket because she had dove in after him, thinking he was drowning despite not being able to swim herself.

Marinette, blushing and slack jawed when he presented her with the black roses she knew from home and most likely never thought she'd see again.

Marinette, standing down the Olympian of death, her own father, to defend not only her friends but the people of Auradon who had despised her so in the beginning.

Far braver than any knight. Far more beautiful than any princess. A radiant flame that he knew he would be drawn towards all the days of his life. He'd do it, he decided then as he held the small note in his hand like it was made of solid gold. He'd go find her right that moment and go so far as to beg her to let him back in her life, whatever form she would have him in. Adrien was ready to go, just about to rise to his feet when he picked up one of the larger strawberries and took a bite, leaning forward as juice dripped down his chin. Marinette certainly knew how to pick a good berry, these were fantastic. Adrien discarded the leafy top of his now eaten strawberry in the carton along with the others, about to stand when he stopped suddenly, unable to move from where he sat on the couch with the card still in his hand.

If he were more adept at things like potions and magic, maybe he would have noticed the unearthliness of the strawberries Marinette had supposedly gifted him. The smell was too sweet, the berries to perfect and the handwriting on the coveted card was shaky, as if someone had copied it down while looking at a sample of Marinette's handwriting. This was no present - it was a poisoned apple.

A familiar haze settled over his mind, his limbs heavy as all of his former determination to go and see... who was it he wanted to see? He had wanted to meet up with someone, someone important. If he could only place the name...

There was a creak at the door as it slowly swung open, a shadow framed by the hallway light like a haloed figure. It was her. She was the one that he had meant to go and see, to declare his love most ardently for her before the whole of Auradon Prep, no, before the whole country. He'd make sure everyone knew just how much the thought and affection for her had consumed him body and soul.

"Hello, your highness," Juleka crooned, the empty bottle of love potion resting in her hand. "Is now a good time to discuss that invitation you offered me?"