The Tri-Kingdom AU

“Hannah,” he started, faster than she was to start talking. “You know Cotillion’s coming up?”

“Even though I don’t know exactly what that is, I’ve heard everyone talking about it,” she replied with a light smile. He was acting weird. She continued, if only with the aim to keep things from getting awkward. “Sapphire and Erin made sure I’ll have a dress.”

“It’s just another fancy dance,” Thomas shrugged, his true opinion obvious, but that didn’t erase what it could mean to him now. “I was hoping you’d go with me.”

“I did kind of assume,” Hannah giggled.

“Yeah but it’s still important that I ask you,” he said. He refused to be the guy who never asked, who worked off assumptions and didn’t put the effort in. “What colour’s the dress?” Hannah smiled as she recalled her reflection the first time she tried it on. For the first time, she looked like a princess. She’d managed to take Sapphire’s advice to not show anyone else the photos, and hoped she could keep the secret until the day, for imagining Thomas’ reaction filled her with butterflies just thinking about it.

“Navy blue.”

“Got it, I’ll be sure to match,” he nodded, not letting silence disrupt the flow of everything he still had to say. “There was something else.” He took a breath, fingers rolling the box in the palm of his hand. If he was nervous now, actually proposing to her down the line would be something else enturely. “I know we’ve got a lot of big plans for the next few years, and when we’re a little more stable and settled we can talk about getting engaged, but,” he revealed the box to her, opening it to show her the ring inside, a silver band decorated with blue gemstones. “I wanted to give you this. It’s a promise ring, like a pre-engagement ring. A physical reminder to go with my promise to love you, and to stick by you, and to fight for us through the harder times.” In the warmth of the sunlight, surrounded by the quiet of the lake, Thomas could’ve proposed marriage and she would easily have accepted. Everything was perfect.

“It’s beautiful,” Hannah breathed. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.” She let him take her hand, slipping the ring onto her ring finger just as he would with an engagement ring. As he imagined himself doing in a couple of years. “I can’t wait for our future, I’ll do everything I can to get us there,” Hannah promised in return, worrying it fell a little short compared to everything he’d done for her. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Thomas smiled softly, looking at her hand before smiling up at her face.

“I know you will,” Thomas softly said, before kissing her fingers. “That’s why I chose you.”

Merrick hadn’t accepted the accusations lightly, of course he hadn’t. What had meant to be a quiet confession, a request not to work with him on any level, had turned into an official report to the headteacher, and most of their social group turning their backs on him. Most. It had also triggered the end of bands, friendships, and relationships alike, all from one request. Bianca couldn’t face being the catalyst to it all right now.

“Bianca?” The sound of her own name made her jump, the only thing she could place about the voice that spoke it was its familiarity, and masculinity. Her heart pounded in her chest at the concept of a confrontation, before Bradley approached her slowly, cautiously, aware that his presence might be startling to anyone who wasn’t expecting it. Out of all the people she worked with, or was friends with, he might have been the only person that hadn’t been directly affected in some way.

“Oh, hi,” Bianca replied as casually as she could manage, trying to choke back the lump in her throat. “How are you?” He was already well aware that something was wrong for her to be out so late, and so far from anywhere else.

“I’m good,” he replied initially, still deciding how honest he should be. “I’m a little worried about you.” Bianca sighed.

“Yeah, that’s fair enough I guess.”

“What are you doing out here?” Bradley asked, hoping she’d be as honest as he’d been with her.

“I just… I wanted to be alone?” Bianca started, retracing every thought she’d had since the middle of the afternoon. She didn’t get far before Bradley interjected.

“Oh, I can go—”

“You don’t count,” she replied quickly, before realising how it sounded. Bianca had just wanted him to stay long enough to hear her explanation for it all. “Not like that—”

“It’s okay.” Bradley understood, giving her as long as it took to explain things. She let out another sigh, focussing on the steady stream of the river ahead of her, and the noise of the water running over the rocks.

“I’m sure you know everything that’s happened with Merrick,” she started, beginning to feel sick at merely saying his name. If he wasn’t aware, she wasn’t sure she could explain it again. “I feel like everyone knows.”

“Uh, yeah, Matthew actually gave us a vague outline when we took on the acoustic project,” Bradley told her, trying to avoid the specifics just as much as she’d done. “And um, I’ve actually witnessed a few things that I didn’t love about him.” Keeping things vague was difficult with each reminder of witnessed control attempts, or methods to keep her isolated that almost worked. And if they almost worked in front of people, he could only imagine what Merrick could be like behind closed doors “So yeah, I know, and I am fully on your side in this one.”

“Okay, we’ll see how long that lasts,” she muttered, unable to stop herself from being so cynical. Bradley tried not to take it personally.

“I told Harlow about what he said to you, while you were filming with Marty,” he confessed, hoping it would serve as some kind of proof. It had come out fast and raw and honest, slightly desperate even, like he was scared she’d run away if he couldn’t prove he believed her. It wasn’t how he’d intended to come across. “She said she’d passed the message on.” Bianca’s expression softened, the moonlight catching her cheekbones more than her brow as she stared out into the water, forced to remember it all. Part of her wanted to bring up how little smoking weed and trying to forget at Harlow’s suggestion had actually helped in the long run, but more of her was already ashamed of how harsh she’d been to someone so kind already, and she forced a smile.

“She did,” Bianca confirmed, letting silence fall over them again.

“Bianca, you shouldn’t have been put through what he did, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” she shrugged. She’d heard it endlessly since everything had come out, but it didn’t change anything. “It’s whatever, I just…” She had permission to tell the next part of the story aloud too, it had already happened, and she had possibly the most impartial person ever right there to listen to her. She took a breath, closing her eyes in a hope that it would stop her from crying as she remembered how the conversation had gone, willing herself to get his words out of her memory. “Jake chose not to believe me.” Bradley didn’t have anything immediate to reply with, simply taking a deep breath himself to avoid any kind of outburst that centralised him and his own reaction.

“I’m really sorry,” he simply replied. As silence fell again, it was too late. The way Jake, the longest, closest friend Bianca had ever had, looked her in the eye and told her none of it was that bad, that she was at least partially to blame for anything Merrick had done, or that she was making it out to be worse than it really was. The way he’d turned his back on her, tried to convince the others to do the same, and they hadn’t spoken since. The way she’d broken down as she told him, hoping to find some kind of safety and had received the total opposite. It all played on a loop in her mind as she tried to focus back on the sound of the river under the bridge. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and in a moment of total irrationality, she turned to Bradley and clung to his waist, burying her face against his shoulder.

“Hey, you’re okay,” he gently said, holding her lightly so she knew she could leave at any time.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry.” Again and again she apologised, each new breath holding another apology to the point where she wasn’t even sure what she was apologising for anymore. The darkness disoriented her, and soon she was holding Bradley to stay standing.

“Bianca, you have nothing to apologise for,” he told her, gently rubbing her back until she calmed again, her breathing settling into something far more healthy. “I’m with you. I believe you.” Her eyes ached, her cheeks and neck wet with tears, but the moment he said it she was crying again.

“Thank you,” she sobbed, wiping her face with her sleeve again, before letting out a sarcastic laugh. “Ugh, I can’t believe you’re still here. I’m so sorry you’re seeing me like this.”

“Bee, it doesn’t— I don’t mind,” Bradley told her honestly, before lightheartedly adding, “I know we don’t know each other that well, but I promise I’m not that superficial.” It got another laugh out of her, the resulting smile sitting on her tear stained face. As she looked at him, nose and cheeks red and irritated, his heart broke. No one deserved to feel so destroyed. “Can I walk you back? Or contact someone else for you?” Bianca shook her head. She didn’t need to be out drinking at a gig, or smoking in a back alley somewhere, and she certainly didn’t need to be offered to try something heavier. Harlow wouldn’t be a good person for her to be around right now, and honestly there was no one else she felt like she could trust. She’d already told Bradley too much.

“There’s no one,” she sighed, a shiver running up her spine so strong that she noticeably shuddered.

“If you want a different room, I can clear off for a night? Go and sleep on someone’s floor? Marty’s out anyway,” he offered, dragging a tired but grateful smile from Bianca.

“You don’t have to do that, I’m fine,” she tried to double down. “But you’re probably right, we should get inside.”

He walked with her right back to her dorm room, careless towards any curfews that forbade him from wandering around so late. None of that mattered now. The other side of the door seemed quiet, and there was a small hope that Harlow wasn’t absolutely off her face in an attempt to deal with her sudden breakup, or just doing it somewhere else. Bianca couldn’t decide what was better.

“Let me know if you need anything,” Bradley said as she reached for the door handle.

“Thank you,” she quietly replied. “And I’m so sorry you had to see me like this.”

Relief coursed through her at the total opposite outcome to everything she feared, and Bianca immediately called him.

“Hey,” Bradley’s warm voice said from the other end of the call.

“I got your note,” she instantly said, before actually thinking. “Wait, are you busy? I can call back.”

“It’s okay, I’m in rehearsal but it’s fine,” he said, his smile audible in his voice. “Is this a yes?”

“It’s a yes,” Bianca replied, looking at the tickets again.

“Well I’ll book us somewhere to stay the night in that case,” Bradley added the plans Bianca had envisioned changing for the better ever so slightly. He was really getting them away from it all. 

“Okay,” she said shyly, “I’ll let you get back to it.”

“See you later, Bee,” he said, before hanging up. Bianca dived onto her bed, pressing her face into her pillows as if hiding from the rest of the world would cool off the heavy blush faster. 

Saturday morning rolled around, and Bianca’s bag that had been packed for nearly three days by the door, finally being taken out to a taxi. She’d finished her makeup, putting her shoes on and heading out to the main gates where they’d arranged to meet. He was already waiting.

“Bianca!” he called out to her, and she ran to him, practically throwing herself into his open arms. “Hey, ready to go?” Bradley asked.

“Everything’s in the car,” she said, taking his hand the moment she left the hug. It had been too long since she’d been able to touch him. 

“Let’s head off then,” he said, letting her lead him towards the taxi. 

The journey took them into the centre of Auradon City, the taxi stopping outside a hotel where they unloaded their small overnight bags. 

“We’ve got about an hour until we need to be at the concert hall,” Bradley started after getting their keys, heading up in the elevator to their room, “so we don’t have to rush.”

“Do you already have dinner planned too?” Bianca asked, her attention grabbed by the advertised hotel restaurant menu in the elevator with them.

“I figured you’d probably want to do that part,” he smiled as he spotted exactly why she’d asked. 

The room was nothing unexpected for a hotel, and as Bradley set his bag down, hung his jacket up, and took his shoes off, Bianca threw herself at the large king sized bed. As she heard him laugh, she turned around in time to watch him flop down beside her. For a moment they both just lay on their stomachs, facing each other with the same soft smile.

“Thank you,” Bianca softly smiled. “I needed this.”

“Oh me too,” Bradley openly said, sitting on the bed, leaving his hand on Bianca’s back. “I am overjoyed to be spending actual quality time with you, not just on a video call.” 

She’d spent nearly an hour in the shower, her hair now dried and styled half up, and wearing the pink sequinned jumpsuit she’d bought especially for the event. Things were going well at least, despite the nervous shudder in her hands, her pink eyeshadow matching the shade of the jumpsuit nearly perfectly. Just as she was finishing up her mascara and lip gloss, someone knocked on her dorm’s door.

“Come in!” she called over her pop playlist, the door swinging open. Ben stood halfway inside.

“Rosa, the taxi’s here when you’re ready,” he politely informed her.

The journey to Neverland was very familiar by now, the winding roads towards the actual venue was the only new scenery. She’d been told in advance that the ball was to be hosted at a country club, but hadn’t realised the extent of what that meant until she got out of the taxi. The building itself was huge, colourful lights from inside leaking through the windows into the dark outside. Ivy had grown over the exterior, shutters opened on the outside of the windows. Surrounding the building were expansive gardens, rows of trimmed hedges and flower patches that went further back into the dark than Rosa could see.

She walked inside, the anxiety she’d felt over the last week crashing into her all at once. Music seeped through the walls, getting louder with each step closer to the main hall.

“Rosie!” Grace grabbed her attention from down the corridor, Bella staying a little behind her as she ran up and threw her arms around Rosa in a tight hug. “I missed you so much.” Immediately, any anxiety she still had clinging to her dissipated. At least a couple of people were glad to see her.

“It’s so good to see you guys again,” Rosa replied, taking a turn to hug Bella too, before following them into the main room.

What appeared to be a country club dining room by day had been decorated with shiny banners and streamers on the walls, a disco ball from the ceiling, and plunged into colourful lighting. It looked more like a prom than the advertised ‘ball’ but that was the least of Rosa’s concerns. Bella and Grace went in ahead of her, leaving her hesitating in the doorway.

Instantly she noticed Austin. She’d known it was inevitable over the journey, most of her hesitation coming from exactly how he’d interact with her outside of the rehearsal space. Across the room, he seemed a little stuck in the corner, surrounded by Georgina, Ruby, Annie, and Delphine. Rosa wasn’t surprised whatsoever, heading inside and finding a table to base herself at for the next few hours.

The time passed. Aurelia, Brooke, and Chantelle sat at Rosa’s table at one point, talking excitedly to her about everything they were up to, a clear opportunity for them to brag. Ethan nearly convinced her to get up for a dance with him, to which she’d laughed kindly at his efforts and declined. Austin and Annie were nowhere to be seen at one point, then suddenly back. He kept looking at her and smiling awkwardly, as if he was silently making a promise to talk with her soon. It never happened, even during the few times Rosa saw him attempt to approach her before getting apprehended by someone else. Her one day to actually spend time with him, and this is how it was going? Admittedly he definitely didn’t look like he was having a good time either, but it frustrated her all the same.

It had reached a late point in the evening, where Rosa really just wanted to go home. She’d shown up, proven she wasn’t scared or bothered by how she’d been treated, and that was enough. She finished her glass of lemonade, getting her phone out to call a taxi home, reluctant to stay longer than she had to. Waiting outside seemed preferable, the phone signal in the building limiting her ability to get a ride home anyway. Besides, she hadn’t explored the gardens yet.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I…” “I was actually just going to head home. You know, it’s kind of a long way.”

“Are you already waiting for someone?” Austin asked, a hint of desperation in his voice that piqued her curiosity and infiltrated her heart. She shook her head. “Then could I convince you to stay for just a little longer?” Rosa sighed, unwilling to let him get his way so easily when he’d ignored her all evening. It depended how long it all took, she supposed.

“Sure,” she replied, making no effort to hide the annoyance she felt towards him in the moment. Austin formally offered his arm for her to hold onto, and she did, as he led her into the gardens.

Strings of lights illuminated a small bench, sheltered by a frame of vines, hosting small pink flowers. He sat on the bench first, indicating for her to do the same. The quieter location and the fresh, cool air had Rosa reconsidering just how much she wanted to leave Austin’s company.

“I’m sorry I haven’t made more time for you tonight,” he started, a strong start that didn’t overcome the fact that this was the first time he’d actually talked to her all evening. “I wanted to blame Georgina but it’s more than just that.” The start of what sounded like some kind of confession had her heart racing with anxiety.

“Thanks,” she replied cautiously, aware of how her own feelings might be leaking into her tone. Awareness didn’t translate to control. “She’s desperately in love with you and has tried to ruin my life over the past year because of it, and if I’d known tonight would be like this, I wouldn’t have come back here.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Austin said, latching onto only part of what she’d said. Rosa looked horrified.

“What?”

“Wait, wait let me get this right,” he backtracked, looking down at the path in front of him while he sorted his thoughts. “This is some awful timing, I wasn’t thinking… It doesn’t matter that she’s in love with me, to me.” Nothing was sounding like he’d practised in his head all afternoon, and he couldn’t remember any of the phrases Annie had told him to repeat. Nothing was going right.

“Okay?” Now Rosa was just confused.

“The rest of it matters a lot, and I am so glad that despite everything you did come back,” Austin continued to clear up the mess he’d created. “And now I’ve said a lot without really saying anything at all or finishing what I actually mean, and you’re looking very confused.”

“What did you actually mean?” she asked plainly. Acting with this much stupidity, in all fairness, was very out of character for him.

“I’m falling in love with you.”

The confession took a moment to land, she didn’t quite believe it. The quiet of the gardens worked against her, the silence too loud. She took a breath, focussing on the soft glow of the lights around her as she considered how to respond. The only thing on her mind was a question.

“When did you change your mind?” Rosa quietly asked.

“I don’t remember,” Austin honestly told her, a shy smile falling across his face. It was sometime over the last year, probably, between the rehearsals, competition days, and breaths of downtime between it all when he got to see her for herself outside of dance. “I guess I just realised I want to dance with you forever.”

She just stared at him. What had started as an awkward crush years ago had been rejected, she’d attempted to move on and view Austin as a friend. Looking at him now though, those feelings hadn’t gone anywhere.

“I get it, if I’m a little late,” he continued, “if it’s your turn to turn me down, I understand—”

Adaline had taken it for granted, which she only realised the moment she’d noticed Jed wasn’t keeping up with her pace any more. She’d been so enthusiastic about showing him the actual beach that she’d overlooked the beauty of the path that led there. She paused, looking back at him, and smiling. The wind caught in his hair, blowing his afro around his face, and she knew him well enough to read the thought of wishing he’d tied it up.

He caught on, overly aware of when he was being watched, but over the years his disdain of it had softened when it was Adaline looking at him. He met her gaze, smiling back, prompting her to trot back down the path to stand beside him, wrapping her arms around his waist in an enthusiastic hug.

“You’re so beautiful,” she smiled, looking up at him.

“Thank you for taking me here,” Jed replied quietly, despite the wind being their only company out on the cliff path. “It’s quiet.” It took her a moment to realise exactly what he meant, her bright smile turning softer.

“I’m glad,” she replied, taking his hand when he offered, and continuing along the path more at his slower pace for the first time ever.

The beach they ended up at had been her favourite place as a child, and returning brought back every positive feeling she’d ever had about her family. Nostalgia almost had her forgiving them. It wasn’t large by any means, but that was exactly why it was her favourite place, for the tourism that the town attracted never reached its shores. A set of wooden stairs connected it to the coastal path, the last place her phone would have signal. Adaline stopped them, searching up the tide times, explaining her hesitation to Jed briefly as she checked how long they could stay for.

“Tide times?” he echoed, the term totally unfamiliar. Ada paused, looking at him with clear confusion.

“Yeah… you don’t know what that is?” she asked, Jed shaking his head. “Every day the tide comes in and goes out at a slightly different time. I’m checking when it comes in, so we can leave a little earlier and stay dry.” One of the things Jediah had fallen in love with was how much she could explain to him, even teach him about for the first time, without ever making him feel stupid for not understanding it.

“I thought they just came in and out,” he said, drawing all the knowledge he had on the moon’s control of the tides. “But that makes sense.”

“Come on,” Ada smiled, starting down the steps, “it’s going out now, so we’ve got until four this afternoon.”

The sand was softer out here than on any of the other local beaches, especially closer to the city, and she would always notice. They sat together in the middle of the dry sand, shoes and socks off and left by a sizable rock. For nearly ten straight minutes, Jediah just wanted to listen to the ocean. Watching the waves crash against the cliffs they’d just been walking over, washing up onto the sand, felt like watching a visual representation of Adaline’s own heartbeat. They seemed like they moved at the same pace as her steady rhythm that he routinely fell asleep to, one he knew well.

“So you grew up here?” Jediah eventually broke the quiet between them. It took Adaline a moment to blink herself back into the present, her mind wandering over every memory they’d shared on the Isle of the Lost and how it compared to where they sat now. His comment earlier had stuck with her.

“Yeah, technically,” Adaline started, realising live in the moment that every little bit of information she’d given him over the past month was all coming back to haunt her. “Before everything really kicked off with the Isle.” Jediah patiently let her continue. “Then when that all started we moved to the city.”

“What was your favourite part of living here?” he asked gently, drawing her away from the disdain he could see behind her words. The memory came back to her instantly.

“When I was tiny,” she started, eyes alight with a smile, “Mom took me and Ben to the bigger beach, round the corner. He’d just learned to walk, and the moment she set him down, he ran towards the sea.” Adaline smiled to herself, staring out across the beach. “Mom had to run after him.”

“Sounds like an appropriate first trip to the beach for him,” Jediah laughed, considering it. King Ben, as a baby, running at the ocean was a very prominent image in his mind. Despite the unrealism of it, the toddler in his imagination still wore an oversized crown. At that point the role was probably lined up for Adaline anyway.

“Oh for sure,” she commented. “Anyway, it’s nice taking you out here. Makes everything feel new again.”

"What if he's taking me horseback riding?" Ivy asked, the seventeenth possible date option she wouldn't be prepared for. Rosa was sat on her bed of their shared dorm room, sewing the ribbons onto a new pair of pointe shoes while her roommate emptied her wardrobe onto her own bed.

"He wouldn't even know where to get horses," Rosa replied confidently, without looking up. she'd already shut down the idea of a high-end restaurant (with what money?), or an extreme sporting activity (he wasn't stupid enough to plan something like that and not warn her), and Ivy had already settled on wearing a knee length green dress and a pair of ankle boots, in the likely case of a long walk. Getting ready for a first date was at least far easier when it was her best friend's brother she was dating, at least, and Rosa had committed the last three hours to helping her get ready.

The feeling of awe that compared to love at first sight hit differently after seeing that same person in some of their lowest moments. And three minutes after their planned meeting time, it was what Ryan was hit with upon seeing Ivy in a dress again. As he smiled, watching her walk down the path towards him, he reminded himself to let her see the side of him that adored her. That it wasn't too soft, or something that would embarrass her, like people had tried to convince him in the past. He waved at her when she was closer, and offered his arm for her to hold when she was stood beside him.

"You look beautiful," Ryan said, and when she smiled, that only doubled.

"Thank you," she softly replied, taken incredibly off guard. "You look great too. I like this shirt on you."

"Thanks," Ryan breathed as she placed her hand on his chest, running her palm across his collar, trying to focus on what he'd been saying before she touched him. "I uh, you didn't find out where we're going, did you?"

"Nope," she said, letting him lead them both deeper into forest just behind Neverland's coastal paths.

"Okay, good," Ryan said, "I wanted it to be a surprise."

Over the course of the seven minute walk, the pair talked on and off, spending the rest of the time gazing at the trees around her in Ivy's case, and smiling softly at Ivy in Ryan's. The little awkward conversation they did make revolved around school mostly, and outside of that, the Isle of the Lost. Their slightly disjointed relationship between being close friends and new romantic partners was never clearer than when they were spending time just the two of them. Ivy slowed her pace as Ryan did, but she couldn't quite tell why.

"Can I ask you to close your eyes?" he asked, unwilling to tell her to do anything, but she nodded, going along with it, and holding onto him a little tighter in reliance on him to guide her. "We're nearly there." Ivy assumed they'd only walked about ten or twenty metres by the time he told her she could look again, but it was enough for the scenery around them to have completely changed.

Obviously they'd been at the edge of a clearing when Ryan had attempted to hold off the surprise a little longer, and the extra steps she hadn't seen had moved them from the lush green forest, to an open field filled with brightly coloured wildflowers. Ivy's eyes lit up, her breath held as she gazed out across the field.

"You like it?" Ryan asked warmly, Ivy turning to look at him with the same light excitement in her eyes.

"How did you find this place?" she asked, and Ryan had to stifle a laugh.

"I uh, it's kind of funny actually," he smiled, "I got lost on a jog a few weeks ago. I meant to stick to the coastal path, but there's that bit where the sand kind of covers the track?" She was smiling too, quizzically. "I just thought, I need to take Ivy with me."

"To the field, or on the jog so you don't get lost?" she cheekily asked, but there was no way Ryan could feel anywhere close to annoyed.

"The field," he initially clarified, "but you should definitely join me on my next run, your company would make it a lot better."

They spent the next hour sat in the middle of the field, making hypothetical plans for future dates. Restaurants they wanted to try, adventure activities that hadn't come anywhere close to the things they'd trained ahead of going to the Isle.

"I'll have to show you around more of Neverland," Ivy promised with a smile. "And you can show me Auradon."

"I'd love that," Ryan replied seriously, already running through a few of his favourite spots in his mind, the natural ones and the urban ones. If he'd been left to think about it, he'd have planned an entire week long holiday, but Ivy had stopped him thinking any further the moment she lay her head in his lap, staring up at the sky. He started absent-mindedly pulling up flowers from beside him to stop him totally overthinking, holding a handful of daisies and buttercups that he began threading into her hair. The way she smiled at each one had his heart soaring.

"When you're next free, we should go out to the northside beaches," Ivy thought aloud, the feeling of him playing with her hair as he filled it with flowers making her feel totally at home so close to him. Her own plans for their future gave him the confidence to voice his own.

"I want to take you to Auradon's high street, there's this great bakery that I think you'll love," Ryan told her, visualising the plans in his mind already.

"Let me know when you're next going jogging too," Ivy smiled, looking him right in the eye. The competitive side of her that had caught his attention in the first place was on full display, and he matched it with his own eager grin.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself in for," he joked. The quiet that settled over them once again felt a little less awkward.

The walk back to campus was accompanied by the setting sun, the evening air growing a cool edge that had them both content that the date had ended.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Ryan said, seeing no reason why they wouldn't both be in class together, but wanting to hear it anyway.

"Yep," Ivy said, "thank you for today. I had the best time." She still had the flowers tucked in her hair, smiling softly, and looking like a fairy. They were in Neverland, Ryan supposed, it was fitting.

"Me too," he softly replied, both of them reluctant to head back to their respective dorm rooms, while knowing they had a curfew to meet, and an early morning the following day. "See you later."