HSM: Usurping Oberon 1/4
Fandom: High School Musical
Pairing(s): Chad/Ryan, Troy/Gabriella, past Chad/Taylor
Word Count: ~31,000
Rating/Warnings: R AU, slash, mix and matched mythology, a bit of gore
Summary: Have you read A Midsummer Night’s Dream? This is nothing like that. Wherein: Ryan is a Queen, Taylor has mad research skillz, Troy is both a stalker and a douche (he overcomes the latter), Gabriella has been a Disney Princess before there was even a Disney to princess, and Chad is in denial. So, situation normal.
Disclaimer: HSM is that of Ortega and Disney.
Disclaimer 2: I do not condone the use of any conjugation of the verb “to get” in the place of any conjugation of the verb “to be.” Just because Chad does it, doesn’t make it a good idea.
Author’s Note: A big thank you to both queenitsy and saekokato. This would never have been completed without either of these lovely ladies. This is for hsmbigbang.
I took all Celtic fairy tales and mythology, Arthurian mythology, D&D, and Aztec mythology, put them in a blender with some juice and ice, pureed them, and poured out the resulting mythological smoothie into this fic. Don’t think of each mythological history separately, because if you do, this will read as one big, incestuous orgy, which is not what it is: it’s a mythological smoothie, complete with the little paper umbrellas and possibly a shot of rum.
This started out with me attempting not to turn this into a heteronormative fic, now it’s all about post-colonialism. Sorry?
Usurping Oberon
Chad saw his first fairy when he was three.
He does not remember this.
- - -
Chad spoke to his first fairy when he was seven.
The fairy stared at him with wide eyes and hid quickly.
Chad barely remembers this, but long ago he convinced himself it was a dream.
- - -
Chad had his first conversation with a fairy when he was thirteen.
He and Troy had just had their first fight over a girl. Chad had gone to hide in the tree house his father had built in an old willow tree years ago. It was nowhere near as extravagant as the one Troy’s father had built. Chad’s was just a floor with railings. No one but Chad had ever been up there since its birth. It was Chad’s haven. His designated alone time. If he was in the trees, he was to be left alone, whereas his mother could walk into his bedroom at any given moment.
The fairy spoke first, startling Chad. He pulled his knees to his chest, his arms holding his knees in place for Chad to drop his head onto them.
The fairy had a strong, comforting voice, Chad remembers that. The voice was small, but so was the fairy. It sat with its long legs splayed out on the railing of the tree house, looking at Chad with wide, blue eyes. It had wings, Chad noted, thick wings the same startling blue as its eyes. It also wore nothing to cover its transparent skin. There was a hint of blue tone to the skin, but Chad could see every beat of its tiny heart. It had long arms to match its long legs, no hair, and rows of flat teeth.
Chad doesn’t remember what they talked about, but they talked for a very long time.
Chad never told anyone. Not even Troy.
- - -
Chad is almost seventeen and having the worst summer of his life. He has a job he hates, he’s not talking to his best friend, and his girlfriend wants to be “just friends” without giving him a reason. The summer’s a little less than half over, and he’s spending more time with Ryan fucking Evans than his best friend. In Ryan’s defense, he’s pretty cool. Not in the same way as Troy. Or Taylor. But he is cool. Gabriella wants to hang out with them. Ryan is okay with that, but Chad has reservations: he’d be choosing sides between his best friend and his best friend’s ex. He can’t put himself into that type of situation.
Chad is positive that his best friend will stop being a douche any day now. Well, Chad’s hopeful. He misses his friend. Ryan doesn’t fill that gap in Chad’s life. If Chad were honest with himself, he would say that Ryan fills the gap Taylor left, but Chad’s not ready to be honest with himself.
Chad had come home from work, and instead of heading inside, he had gone right up to his tree house. It is now decaying with age, but it still holds Chad’s weight. The night is mild, and Chad is content to lie down on the floor and look up at the stars - only slightly drowned out by the lights of the city. The branches of the willow are now long enough to brush the floor of the tree house, almost caressing Chad’s skin. It’s nice when it doesn’t tickle. It’s very soothing after the day that Chad had. He had broken no less than three plates, upended a bowl on cream of broccoli soup down the front of his pants, and poured ice water in a patron’s lap. This was while he waited tables. When he had caddied for the Evanses, Mrs. Evans’s backswing had caught Chad in the cheek, and a nice bruise is blossoming. He thought he had been savvy to her psychotic golf tendencies, but he apparently isn’t.
Chad watches the stars through the wispy branches of the willow tree and feels sorry for himself. This weekend is his birthday, and this is crap.
He almost drifts off to sleep when a small voice speaks from the vicinity of Chad’s chest.
Chad jerks into a sitting position, eyes wide and panicked.
A fairy clings to a willow branch directly in front of Chad’s face.
“Whoa!” Chad exclaims, eyes still wide.
The fairy glares at Chad, and he can see the shadow of its tiny heart beating hummingbird fast.
“Uh, hi?” Chad asks it, backing up to give it (and himself) room.
“Young Prince,” the fairy says in a small voice. And, okay, Chad’s never been called that before. Not even by the fairies he’s spoken to before. At least he doesn’t think so.
“Huh?” Chad says in return.
“Soon you will be of age,” it continues. It’s still clinging to a branch, but its wings are twitching. Chad can’t tell if it’s in annoyance or anticipation or if it’s just trying to balance.
“In a year,” Chad huffs. Like he needs a reminder that it’s that far off. Still, he’s a summer baby, so he’ll be eighteen before any of his friends. He can’t wait to be completely legal. The first thing he’s going to do is acquire a tattoo. He has the picture of the design at the bottom of his sock drawer. It’s of a star with a basketball in the center. He hasn’t decided if he wants color yet, but he has a year and a location: Chad wants it on his left shoulder. He also wants to have his tongue pierced.
“When the girth of moon is visible,” it says. Its heart rate has calmed significantly. Chad thinks that possibly the fairy means when the moon is full. He might be mistaken, though.
“Uh, no,” Chad says. He has no idea about the phases of the moon, but right now half is showing through the willow branches. Maybe a bit more. Chad will most definitely not be of age by the time the moon is full - if that’s what the fairy means.
“Yes,” it says. “You and your Queen will come to us at dusk.”
And it flies away.
Really?
Really?
Chad wonders if the exhaustion is making him delusional as well as tired.
He pulls himself up and goes inside to pass out in his bed.
- - -
Chad is distracted all the next day. All he can think about is how messed up his life is. But Ryan and Gabriella are nice to him, so that kind of makes up for it, but it kind of distracts him more. Apparently Kelsi has this fabulous idea that will help push Gabriella and Troy back together. It involves singing, which Chad isn’t as averse to as dancing, but still. At least it won’t be him singing.
Chad can definitely deal if it means Troy will stop being a douche.
Chad wanders down the long driveway of Lava Springs to the bus stop. He’s not sure, but he might have missed the last bus, and the last thing he wants is to call his parents at 11:30 at night.
He waits at the bus stop until well after the 11:10 is late, meaning it was early, and Chad has missed it.
He sighs to himself and takes out his cell phone.
Headlights appear on the road and soon the rumble of asphalt under rubber drowns out the sounds of the desert.
At first Chad is hopeful that it’s the 11:10, but it’s not. The headlights are wrong - too low with nothing up top and no lit sign for Albuquerque.
Instead of the 11:10, a yellow Mustang GT convertible pulls up to the stop.
Ryan Evans looks up at Chad from under his cap and asks Chad, “Do you need a ride?”
The obvious answer is yes, but Chad isn’t sure. He’s had a very strange 24-hour period.
“It’s in the opposite direction of your house,” Chad says, a bit stupidly.
“I don’t mind,” Ryan says.
So Chad shrugs and hops in. It’s better than calling his parents in the middle of the night.
They ride in silence down the freeway with just the rush of the passing air as a soundtrack.
Ryan drops Chad off at his house. Chad doesn’t ask how Ryan knows where Chad lives. His life is weird enough.
As Chad leaves the car he tells Ryan, “Thank you.”
Ryan says, “Be careful.” This only serves to confuse Chad even more. He really doesn’t need this right now.
“Uh, thanks?” Chad asks.
Ryan gives him a pinched smile. “Good night, Chad.”
Ryan puts his car in reverse and backs out of the driveway.
That could not have been weirder if Ryan had said “Beware the witching hour.” Not that Chad expected him to say that. Of course, Chad hadn’t expected Ryan to say, “Be careful,” either.
- - -
That night as Chad falls asleep a dry, desert wind picks up.
He wakes up more exhausted than when he fell asleep.
- - -
Chad works on his birthday, and it’s just as crappy as any other day at work. Even more so because it’s his birthday.
Taylor has lunch break the same time as he does, and Zeke has made him a magical cupcake. It’s only magical in that it tastes amazing. Chad eats it before his meal. It brightens his day just a bit. Enough so that he can make it through the second half of his day.
Chad steals the fries from Taylor’s veggie burger but doesn’t touch his roast beef sandwich.
Taylor wishes him a happy birthday and gives him a hug before she returns to work. She leaves him her fries. Taylor is seriously an awesome friend. Chad just mourns that he can’t have all those dating benefits anymore.
- - -
Mrs. Evans and Ryan want Chad as their caddy. Thus Chad’s afternoon becomes an extravagant game of hide and seek.
All afternoon Chad feels eyes on him. It makes his skin crawl, and Chad keeps shivering in the brutal New Mexican sun.
Around the eleventh hole, Ryan comes up behind Chad and says, “There’s a full moon tonight.”
Chad jumps. He had not heard Ryan walk up behind him, and Chad’s jumpy anyway.
“Okay,” Chad says slowly, his heart beating in his throat. Ryan has been seriously weird recently.
Ryan presses his lips together and shoves his hands into his board shorts before he wanders off to look for a ball his mother had whacked into the rough.
Chad wonders when his life fell into an alternate dimension.
- - -
Chad’s palms are itchy.
The sun is slowly sinking below the mountains, and he’s waiting tables. He desperately needs a ten. That’s all. Hopefully before he breaks something or drops something on someone.
He manages to break away and stare at the emerging stars on the back patio behind the kitchens.
He doesn’t know why but he needs to be away from all this. He wants to hear the hum of the desert, not the clank of dirty dishes. He just - he needs to be out there. In the middle of that pulse.
His feet take him there. Chad doesn’t even need to think. His feet go on their own.
He’s almost to where he needs to be when someone grabs his arm.
Chad looks at his arm where Ryan’s pale fingers almost glow in contrast to Chad’s dark skin.
“Don’t let them take you,” Ryan hisses.
“What are you talking about?” Chad’s voice doesn’t sound like it’s coming from his mouth. He’s still staring at Ryan’s fingers, and he’s still walking to where he needs to be. There is no way that Ryan can prevent Chad from being in the middle of it all, part of it all. Even if that means taking Ryan with him.
Chad can tell that Ryan is struggling to hold Chad back, but the pull of Ryan on his arm is nothing compared to the pull of the pulse. It’s loud in Chad’s ears, and he can feel it all over. He’s so damn close even his teeth are throbbing in time.
All of a sudden everything stops, and Chad’s body resonates with echoes.
The air no longer smells of sun and baking sandstone; it smells like damp earth. Chad is not accustomed to that smell. It’s new.
Ryan is very close and very still; he’s still connected to Chad’s arm, gripping so hard that Ryan’s fingernails bite into Chad’s skin. But Ryan’s not talking anymore.
They are in a willow grove, and the full moon is bright. It illuminates the trees and standing water.
Chad can hear nothing. For a moment he thinks he may have gone deaf, until the world explodes into a flurry of wings. They hum like insects and reflect the moonlight.
Beside Chad, Ryan sucks in a breath and squeezes harder on Chad’s arm.
A fairy hovers in front of Chad. Its translucent body glows in the moonlight.
Ryan makes a small breathy sound.
“Welcome, my Prince, to midsummer,” the fairy says. Chad can’t read its facial expressions in the moonlight, but its voice isn’t at all mocking.
Ryan makes another breathy sound, and the fairy turns to him.
“Is this your bride?” the fairy asks, flying in a lazy circle around Ryan.
Chad chokes. “Bride?”
The fairy returns to flutter in front of Chad. “You are of age on midsummer when the girth of the moon is visible. You are our prince,” it explains plainly. “A prince must have a bride and become our king.”
“Whoa,” Chad says. Mostly his brain is still stuck on the prince part. “I’m not royalty, and Ryan’s not my bride.”
The fairy zigzags in the air, scowling at Chad. Its expression is so severe that Chad can see the relief of it in the moonlight.
“If,” the fairy says in a disapproving voice, “this is not your bride, there is no place for him here. He must be killed.”
“What?!” Chad shouts in shock as Ryan’s grip tightens on his arm. “You can’t kill him!”
“Only under law as the prince’s bride may a mortal be protected,” the fairy explains. “This is a sacred place. Mortals may not desecrate our land.”
“Shit,” Chad mutters. He had no idea that fairies were capable of killing. In Fantasia, all the fairies were polite and cute. And then there were the fairies in Sleeping Beauty and even The Fairly Oddparents. But Chad knows the world isn’t a Disney film, plus he has read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’s also seen the movie too, but that was an accident. The movie his mother had rented was Rush Hour, but the DVD inside the box was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Chad’s mother had then made Chad watch it to “culture” him, as she said. Calista Flockhart’s bare chest had frightened him. Chad had been eleven.
“Is he your bride?” the fairy asks again, bending at the waist to peer at Ryan in a satirical bow. “He has a strong will. He will make a good queen.”
“Yeah, yes!” Chad says quickly, desperately. “Don’t kill him!”
Ryan’s grip on Chad’s arm eases for a moment, reflexively, but it tightens again quickly when every fairy flies up to examine Chad and Ryan. Hundreds of tiny, flying fairies buzz around. Chad marvels at how none of them fly into each other. His brain is still stuck on how he’s considered fairy royalty. He did not see that coming.
“He is a wise choice,” the fairy says.
“Our Prince has a bride!” the fairies all cheer in tiny voices. “We shall have a King and a Queen!”
Chad may have lost all the circulation in his hand - anywhere below where Ryan is attached. He can’t feel anything below his wrist.
“He is our King!” they also cheer, and Chad is dizzy from watching them fly around his head and from the overwhelming insanity of the situation.
The fairies somehow coax Chad and Ryan into the pool of standing water. They are both unhappy with this.
Chad is wearing his most expensive shoes. They’re shiny and black leather, and he wore them to his cousin’s wedding last fall. He’s also wearing expensive slacks. Although he doesn’t know why he bothers to wear them, considering that almost every night he spills something on them. Chad’s not a very good waiter. He’s gone through three pairs of pants in two days. Now both his shoes and his pants are ruined, and his feet are cold and wet.
Ryan is wearing his board shorts and flip flops, but he seems just as upset about being forced to stand in the water as Chad is.
But the water is now warm. And tingly. It is the good kind of tingle that makes Chad feel relaxed. It’s like a massage. Not at all like the pins and needles when something falls asleep.
Chad looks to Ryan for the first time since that afternoon. Ryan is very pale, almost ghostly in the moonlight. His eyes are wide, and Chad suspects that his trembling has little to do with the previously cold water. Ryan’s looking at him desperately and more than a little shell shocked. His thin lips are slightly parted, and Chad has a ridiculous idea about kissing them. And it is ridiculous, because this entire situation is on the absurd side of surreal. Chad has just been announced as the king of the fairies and had to declare Ryan as his bride to prevent him from being killed. Yeah. Ridiculous.
Chad is unsure what it means that Ryan’s now his bride. Well, he’s unsure what that means to the fairies. He’s not even sure what it means that he’s fairy royalty.
The tingly feeling has spread all the way up to the base of Chad’s skull, and from Ryan’s confused look, Chad can tell that Ryan is experiencing that same tingly feeling.
Like the pulse from earlier, the tingle is gone suddenly, leaving Chad bereft.
Except every touch Chad experiences is intense. He shudders at Ryan’s touch and again at the loss of that touch when Ryan suddenly releases Chad’s arm.
There are no fairies in sight, and Chad feels remarkably foolish.
“Uh,” he says, unbelievably loud in the resulting silence. Not even the sounds of the desert can be heard.
Ryan frowns, looks down at his submerged feet, and scowls. “Let’s go.” His voice sounds rusty, as if he hasn’t used it in weeks.
They walk in silence back to Lava Springs. Chad has a feeling that his ten minute break has expired several times over, and he has no idea how to explain his absence. Obviously he can’t say that he was crowned king of the fairies. He doubts that will fly with Fulton. Although, Chad can imagine Fulton’s comeback complete with mangled pop culture references, bulging eyes, and a ticking eyebrow.
Chad checks his watch to gage how deep he is in shit, but his watch has stopped. Chad frowns at it, trying to revive it with his willpower alone. It doesn’t work. He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket only to find that too has died.
Ryan is silent in step next to him. Ryan’s eyes are mostly shadowed by his hat, so all Chad can see are Ryan’s lips set in a tight frown.
The only sounds that pass between them are the crunch of gravel under their footwear and an occasional squeak from Chad’s wet shoes.
When the lights of Lava Springs come into view, the sounds of the desert flood Chad’s skull. He has almost forgotten how much of a comfort those sounds are: there’re coyotes yipping, insects droning, and poorwills gently whooping in the distance.
Ryan stops, planting both feet firmly on the ground.
Chad stops and turns to face Ryan, frowning as he does so.
“You’ve taken ill,” Ryan says in a detached voice, “and I’m taking you home.” He won’t look Chad in the eyes; instead he stares over Chad’s right shoulder.
Chad stares at Ryan’s hat, not processing Ryan’s words.
“Chad!” Ryan says sharply, finally looking at Chad’s face.
Chad takes in a surprised breath and brings his graze down from Ryan’s hat to his eyes. “Huh?”
“I’m taking you home,” Ryan repeats, sounding less put upon than Chad would feel if he were Ryan.
“Oh,” Chad says dumbly. “Okay.”
Apparently that isn’t the correct answer, because Ryan’s still staring at Chad and worrying his lower lip.
Chad tilts his head slowly to the left. “What’s wrong?”
For a bizarre moment, Chad thinks Ryan’s about to cry. “We’ll discuss this later.” Ryan’s voice wobbles a little. He then takes a step toward Lava Springs and keeps going.
Chad follows.
He follows when Ryan explains to Fulton that Chad has a stomach bug and needs to go home. He follows when Ryan goes to his car. He follows when Ryan steps out of his car and walks up Chad’s driveway. Chad stops Ryan there.
“My parents won’t bother us if we’re in the tree house,” Chad says. He’s talking to his shoes but addressing Ryan.
“Your parents might not,” Ryan says tightly, “but they will.”
Chad doesn’t even have to ask who they are. Ryan’s not talking about Chad’s parents. In this type of situation, Chad’s unsure which option would be worst. His parents had promised him a birthday dinner over the weekend, because Chad is supposed to be at work. He can see his parents watching the news through the window. There is a helicopter shot of a car accident on the television. Chad watches it blankly for a moment. His parents will ask questions for which Chad doesn’t have answers. It will be uncomfortable and awkward, and Chad will have to lie and somehow explain why he’s not at work in a way that also explains Ryan’s extended stay.
On the other hand, Chad doesn’t have a clue what will happen if they go up into the tree house.
What breaks Chad’s mental stalemate is physical: his legs are wet and cold, and his ankles are beginning to chafe.
“Okay,” Chad says.
He opens the front door for Ryan.
“Chad?” his mother calls out.
“Hi, Ma,” Chad calls back. He tugs Ryan into the family room.
“You’re home early,” she observes in a tone that insists Chad explain himself immediately.
“Uh,” Chad says ineloquently.
“Mrs. Danforth, because it’s Chad’s birthday,” Ryan steps in, “we let him off early.”
Chad’s mother raises skeptical eyebrows and looks from Chad to his father.
“Ryan and I have some things to discuss about the Star… Dazzle… thingy. We’ll be up in my room,” Chad says, steadfastly ignoring Ryan’s half smug, half stunned expression the same way he ignores his mother’s incredulity and his father’s shock.
Chad gives them a charming fake smile before dragging Ryan from the room.
They stop in the kitchen. Chad is feeling the lunch he skipped. He grabs himself a glass of water and a leftover slice of pepperoni extra cheese pizza and grabs Ryan a glass of orange juice - the kind without pulp, not that chunky stuff Chad’s father drinks. Chad would rather drink his juice, not chew it, thank you very much, and Ryan’s of the same opinion. Ryan declines the pizza, though.
They head up to Chad’s room. Ryan stops just inside the threshold, unsure.
“You can sit at my desk,” Chad offers, pointing to his desk with his glass of water, careful not to spill. It’s the only chair in the room.
Ryan gives him a closed expression before he pulls the chair out from where it’s tucked under the desk. He turns it around so he faces the room when he sits down.
Chad closes the door behind them and deliberates on locking it. He decides against it. Instead, Chad toes off his shoes. He puts his food and water down on his desk before he yanks off his wet socks doing an embarrassing one-legged hop in a circle before he braces himself on the doorframe.
Ryan averts his eyes as Chad shucks his fancy slacks for a comfortable pair of sweatpants.
Chad scoops up his food and water and sprawls out on his bed, after relocating his glass of water to his bedside table. He nibbles on his pizza. It’s cold, and Chad briefly wonders if he should have stuck it in the microwave. Chad looks to Ryan, who is delicately sipping at his orange juice. Chad gives up his pretenses and shoves this slice of pizza into his mouth, devouring it as quickly as possible. He’s hungry.
“The Star Dazzle Award?” Ryan asks wryly with a hint of amusement.
Chad shrugs. “My parents know that we’re trying to get Troy and Gabriella back together with that award thingy, so…”
He and Ryan don’t say anything for a long time after that. Eventually Chad caves.
“Do you know exactly what happened?” Chad asked.
“No,” Ryan answers softly. “I was hoping you did.”
“Oh,” Chad says, because he doesn’t know what else to say.
They lapse into silence again.
The house phone rings. Chad ignores it. It won’t be for him anyway. Everyone who would call knows that he should be at work, and those at work know that he went home “sick.”
He and Ryan continue to not talk.
“Chad!” His mother’s voice echoes up the stairway. “Troy’s on the phone!”
Chad frowns as he picks up the phone next to his water glass. There’s no reason for Troy to call.
“Hello?” Chad asks into the phone.
“Chad?” Troy asks, seemingly confused by this. “I heard you went home sick.”
“Yeah,” Chad says. He looks to Ryan, who is still not looking at him.
“Your Mom said that they let you off early because it’s your birthday,” Troy continues. “Are you okay, man? I mean, you lied twice.” Troy is just concerned with Chad’s wellbeing. Chad counts this in the plus side for Troy shaking free of his current douche-y tendencies.
“I’m not sure, man,” Chad says honestly. “I need to talk things over with Ryan, and I’ll let you know.”
Chad doesn’t miss that Troy chokes when Ryan is mentioned nor does he miss the thin tone Troy uses when he says, “Okay. Uh, Gabriella, Taylor, and I were planning on taking you out after work, you know, as a surprise. I guess we’ll have to surprise you another time.”
Troy and Gabriella are talking again? When did this happen?
“I guess,” Chad says calmly, even though he feels anything but. His pulse is racing, and he’s full of adrenaline. Just talking to Troy has triggered Chad’s fight or flight reflexes, and Chad’s unsure why.
“Cool. Let me know if you need help,” Troy says in a way that means he’ll be there for moral support should Chad have his heart broken, which, frankly, doesn’t do anything to settle Chad’s nerves.
“I’ll, uh, okay?” Chad says.
“Okay,” Troy says. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye,” Chad says and hangs up when Troy parrots it back.
Ryan lifts his eyes to meet Chad’s. “I guess that means we should talk about this,” he murmurs.
“I don’t know where to start,” Chad admits. “No, wait. I do. How did you know this was going to happen?”
Ryan licks his lips and frowns. “They…” He falters and looks away. “They’ve been planning this for a while,” Ryan confesses.
Chad is barely able to keep himself from shouting at Ryan. “What the fuck?!” he hisses dangerously.
“They talk to me when I need time away from Sharpay,” Ryan says quietly.
“You’ve known about the fairies for that long?” Chad demands, bolting upright on his bed.
“Chad,” Ryan says carefully. “There’s no such thing as fairies.”
“Didn’t we see those flying things?” Chad bites out. “Fairies.”
Ryan shakes his head. “Fairies come from Europe,” he explains slowly. “These are not from Europe.”
“What are they, then?” Chad says snippily.
“I don’t think they have a name,” Ryan says. He sets his glass down and sits on his hands. “They’re old, though. I sometimes call them duendes, sometimes sidhe, but that’s not their name.”
“How do you know that?” Chad demands.
“I can use Google, you know,” Ryan says conversationally.
“And you talk to them?” Chad asks skeptically.
“So do you,” Ryan shoots back calmly.
“What?!” Chad exclaims, nonplussed. There is no way that Ryan should know that.
“You’ve spoken to them,” Ryan elaborates. “You have all your life.”
“How would you know?” Chad barks, jumping up to his feet.
“Some of it - They told me some of it,” Ryan says, looking up at Chad defiantly. “Some of it was inference. They told me how exciting it was that their prince would turn seventeen while at Lava Springs - not in those words of course.”
“Of course,” Chad says snidely. He then sits back down on the bed with a scoff.
Ryan glowers at him. “If you’re going to be snide about it, I can leave, but you’re the one who dragged me - quite literally - into this mess and declared me your bride. Your bride, Chad!”
“Would you have preferred that I let them kill you?!” Chad growls. He sits on the edge of the bed, leaning forward with both feet planted stubbornly on the floor. He narrows his eyes in anger. Ryan surely cannot be upset about not being killed.
“For all we know, you might have done just that,” Ryan says. He looks straight into Chad’s eyes when he says it, refusing to look away. He’s right, though. Chad has no idea what is going on and neither does Ryan, but that’s not stopping anything from happening.
Chad’s head is spinning. “You tried to stop me,” he accuses.
“Yes,” Ryan says. “I did.”
“Why did you try to stop me?” Chad crosses his arms.
“Have you ever read any of the real fairy tales?” Ryan asks, cocking his head to the left.
“Of course,” Chad scoffs. He has no idea what this has to do with Ryan wanting to stop him, but of course he’s read fairy tales. He has a book of them on his book shelf. It’s buried under his CD collection, but it’s there, and he’s even read through them a couple of times.
“I don’t mean Disney,” Ryan clarifies. “I mean Grimm, Yeats, and The Faerie Queene.”
Chad frowns. He totally understands why Disney doesn’t count, he really does. He just hasn’t heard of the examples Ryan gave.
Ryan purses his lips. “Not all fairies are good,” he explains. “I think it’s smart to be wary. Don’t you think it’s strange that fairies need a human to be their king?” He pauses. “You are human, right?”
Chad’s mouth drops open in shock. He doesn’t know how to answer that - or if he should. Because as far as Chad knows, he’s human. However, he’s also fairy royalty. He’s not sure if that means he’s still human. He feels the same, but what if he was never human to begin with? What if he is a - what’re they called? - a changeling? He looks like both of his parents, though. Could his parents be fairy royalty, too? Chad’s not sure that he likes his train of thought.
“Chad?” Ryan prompts. He looks concerned. “That wasn’t supposed to be a difficult question.”
“Of course I’m human,” Chad says tersely.
Ryan has such gall to look at Chad incredulously.
“I am!” Chad insists.
“But you had to think about it,” Ryan points out with a frown. At least he’s not mocking Chad. Ryan takes his hands from where he was sitting on them and folds them in his lap. He stares at them.
“I - ” Chad starts, but he doesn’t know how to finish. Instead he asks, “What do you think all this means?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan whispers. “Most stories say don’t mess with the fairy queen, but they made you king. There usually isn’t a king in those stories.”
Chad voices an obscure thought: “If you’re my bride, does that make you the fairy queen?” He snorts in amusement, pinching his lips together to keep from laughing outright.
Ryan scowls deeply, and Chad thinks he is also grinding his teeth, which means that Chad is completely thrown when Ryan says, “Of course. Everyone knows I’m the Queen of the Fairies, especially in school. Just don’t tell my sister, she’ll try to steal my crown. Although, she’ll look nowhere near as fabulous as I do in a rhinestone tiara. But there was that one time she stole my favorite hat and Bedazzled it.”
Chad has no idea what Bedazzled means. He blinks heavily as Ryan smiles and laughs heartily.
Ryan reins in his laughter to say, “That was a joke, except for the fact that she did Bedazzle my favorite hat. I needed to give it a proper burial. It was tragic.”
Chad blinks heavily again.
“You have no idea what Bedazzle means, do you?” Ryan asks, peering at Chad with a shy smile.
Chad shakes his head slowly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan says. “That’s not what’s important here.”
Chad will take Ryan’s word for it. He doesn’t know, maybe whatever Bedazzle is could cure cancer. He doubts it, but Chad was crowned king of the fairies not three hours ago - anything is possible.
“Now what?” Chad asks, looking at Ryan’s hands in his lap.
“Now we ask around,” Ryan says. “Sharpay has an extensive social network. I’m sure someone knows what’s going on.”
Chad nods tersely. “I’m sure someone does, but do you have to involve your sister?” he whines.
Ryan frowns in response. “I didn’t say anything about involving her. I just said she has a big social network. She’s constantly leaving her phone in strange places. I can download her contacts into my phone.”
“You know how to do that?” Chad asks, a little awed, a little skeptical.
Ryan shrugs. “I know a guy.”
“You have a social network, too?” Chad asks dumbly, shifting on the bed.
“Not the, uh, same kind as my sister,” Ryan blushes as he says this.
For a moment, Chad is unsure why Ryan would be embarrassed by social contacts, until Chad makes the connection that there might not have been actual socializing going on.
“Does that bother you?” Ryan asks. He’s worrying his lower lip again.
“Uh, which that?” Chas asks. “That” could mean anything from Sharpay’s social contacts to Ryan’s, uh, carnal contacts to Chad being the fucking king of the fairies.
“That I know a guy,” Ryan clarifies quietly.
“What? No!” Chad says quickly. “That would be - I’m - You’re my bride, Ryan,” he follows up ineloquently.
“So that they wouldn’t kill me,” Ryan reminds him.
“Everybody knows you’re… gay,” Chad says delicately.
Ryan raises an eyebrow. “That’s not what I asked.” He pauses to frown. “I’m sorry if that bothers you, but you’re just going to have to deal. You dragged me into this.”
Chad’s gaze drops down to the floor. “It’s not you being gay that bothers me,” Chad starts. “I’m just - Tonight has been really weird.”
Ryan examines Chad, clearly unimpressed.
“I don’t know why I dragged you into this,” Chad admits. “I just - I needed to be in the center of everything. There was a pulse.” Suddenly feeling foolish, Chad stops attempting to explain. “I’m sorry.”
“A pulse?” Ryan encourages Chad to continue his explanation.
Chad nods, still not looking anywhere but the floor. “The desert has a pulse,” he says quietly.
Ryan leans forward slightly. Chad can hear the movement of fabric even though he refuses to look.
“A pulse or a rhythm?” Ryan presses.
“A pulse,” Chad says. “Like a heartbeat.”
Ryan makes a soft, understanding noise.
“I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop,” Chad finishes.
“Chad,” Ryan says. His voice is comforting, and Chad is confused. “It wasn’t you. It was something bigger than you.”
Chad’s eyes shoot to Ryan’s. “What? God?”
“No,” Ryan says slowly, eyes locked with Chad’s. “Old magic. They need you for something. That’s all I know right now. I just don’t know for what.”
“They need me,” Chad echoes.
“Maybe they just need a human,” Ryan says, bringing the conversation back to where it has been before. “Any human. And you happened to be available.”
Chad grunts but otherwise says nothing. He doesn’t know what to say. Chad looks to the side - out the window. He can see the willow tree illuminated by the full moon. A shiver races up his spine.
Ryan’s phone chirps, and Chad’s head jerks back to look at him.
Ryan flicks his phone open with a thumb and frowns at what he sees.
“I need to go,” he says. There’s a rushed feel to his words.
“Uh,” Chad says. “I’ll, uh, see you out.” Chad doesn’t really want to deal with his parents, which is what he will end up doing by seeing Ryan out, but his parents raised him to be polite to guests, and that includes walking them to the front door when they leave. Ryan is his bride, whatever that means, and his parents also raised him to be polite to whomever he dates. Of course his parents are blissfully unaware of that last part. Thank God. However, his parents are undoubtedly curious as to what he and Ryan were discussing while Chad should have been at work. They want to know what is so important that Chad had been given the night off.
Chad sees Ryan out.
On the front stoop, Ryan turns to Chad and smiles thinly. “Happy Birthday.”
“Thanks, man,” Chad says back automatically.
Ryan tips his hat and heads out to his car. Chad closes the door with a soft hiss, an exhale of a breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding.
“Chad,” his mother says behind him. Her voice is stern.
Chad jumps and turns around guiltily to face his mother.
“Troy said you went home sick,” she says stonily.
“Uh,” Chad says, feeling trapped. He contemplates an escape but knows his mother would never let that happen.
“Well,” she insists, folding her arms across her chest.
Chad wilts. All of his energy from the past few hours drains away, and he slumps as he plops down on the third stair up on the staircase. He drops his chin to his knees and wraps his arms around his legs, holding himself at the wrists.
His mother sighs and sits down next to him.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. She doesn’t put her arm around Chad’s shoulders. He’s spent seventeen years shrugging it off.
“You mean the new stuff from today?” Chad mutters bitterly.
“We can start with that if you’d like,” she says.
“Oh,” Chad says. He doesn’t know where to start. He can’t tell his mother the truth: she’d institutionalize him. Chad plans on graduating high school, and being institutionalized would stand in the way of that plan. He isn’t going to plod his way through over a decade of schooling just to be denied that one crucial year. Hell freaking no!
“How about you start with why Ryan drove you home from work, then you can explain why you’ve lied to me and your father and your friends,” she suggests. She’s not unkind about it, but she is firm. There is no way Chad will be able to squirm out of this.
“Uh,” Chad says. He honestly has no idea what to say, and he’s glad that his father is elsewhere. That way he doesn’t have to explain it to more than one person, which is a relief, but he’d rather not have to explain it at all. And he doesn’t even know what “it” is.
“Ryan?” his mother prompts.
“I - I don’t know how to explain it,” Chad says eventually.
“Your pants were wet,” his mother states.
Chad looks down at his pants. These pants are dry. “Yeah, my pants were wet,” he agrees. “There was this incident,” he continues, “with a pond.”
His mother makes a small, amused sound.
“It’s not funny!” Chad states indignantly. “Mom!” he whines.
“No, you’re right, it’s not funny,” his mother agrees. Chad can tell that she’s trying really hard not to laugh. “You were caddying for Mrs. Evans again, weren’t you?”
It’s such an easy out. He had caddied for Mrs. Evans earlier. It had nothing to do with his wet pants, but he had caddied.
“Yeah,” Chad says like it’s not a lie, because it isn’t. It’s just not the reason his pants were wet.
“See?” His mother bumps his shoulder with her own. “That wasn’t so difficult.”
Chad grunts. It can be taken as agreement.
“There’s more pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry,” she offers. She then pushes herself up and leaves Chad sitting on the stairs.
- - -
That night Chad dreams of Ryan. Chad can’t see his face, but he knows it’s Ryan. Ryan sits on the top of a sandstone cliff, his legs dangling off the edge. He’s dressed in pink from hat to flip-flops. He’s also wearing a pair of wings made from tulle and stretched over wire. They’re pink with silver glitter to give them the look of butterfly wings. The last time Chad has seen a pair of wings like this it was Halloween and his ten-year-old neighbor had dressed as a fairy princess.
Ryan looks back at Chad and smiles. It’s the most honest thing in Chad’s life in ages. There’s an ache in his chest, and Chad doesn’t know where it came from or what it means.
“I can fly,” Ryan says. He turns to look out over the canyon.
“No, you can’t,” Chad wants to say, but his tongue is stuck to the back of his teeth.
Ryan pushes himself off the cliff, and Chad panics. He runs to the edge; it’s like running through water, and he has to push himself hard to run those few feet.
But Ryan’s already gone.
Chad looks over the edge. All he can see are the pink wings at the bottom of the canyon.
An evil creature appears from behind a rock to claim the wings. It doesn’t look particularly evil: Chad just knows. Its features are blurred in that way dreams are, and the creature has no face that Chad can focus on. But those are Ryan’s wings. They’re pure, and only Chad has permission to touch them.
He can’t call out to the evil thing, and he can only look on in horror as it begins to tear the tulle wings into shreds.
Not seeing an alternative, Chad jumps off the edge of the cliff.
- - -
Master Post | Part II
Pairing(s): Chad/Ryan, Troy/Gabriella, past Chad/Taylor
Word Count: ~31,000
Rating/Warnings: R AU, slash, mix and matched mythology, a bit of gore
Summary: Have you read A Midsummer Night’s Dream? This is nothing like that. Wherein: Ryan is a Queen, Taylor has mad research skillz, Troy is both a stalker and a douche (he overcomes the latter), Gabriella has been a Disney Princess before there was even a Disney to princess, and Chad is in denial. So, situation normal.
Disclaimer: HSM is that of Ortega and Disney.
Disclaimer 2: I do not condone the use of any conjugation of the verb “to get” in the place of any conjugation of the verb “to be.” Just because Chad does it, doesn’t make it a good idea.
Author’s Note: A big thank you to both queenitsy and saekokato. This would never have been completed without either of these lovely ladies. This is for hsmbigbang.
I took all Celtic fairy tales and mythology, Arthurian mythology, D&D, and Aztec mythology, put them in a blender with some juice and ice, pureed them, and poured out the resulting mythological smoothie into this fic. Don’t think of each mythological history separately, because if you do, this will read as one big, incestuous orgy, which is not what it is: it’s a mythological smoothie, complete with the little paper umbrellas and possibly a shot of rum.
This started out with me attempting not to turn this into a heteronormative fic, now it’s all about post-colonialism. Sorry?
Usurping Oberon
Chad saw his first fairy when he was three.
He does not remember this.
- - -
Chad spoke to his first fairy when he was seven.
The fairy stared at him with wide eyes and hid quickly.
Chad barely remembers this, but long ago he convinced himself it was a dream.
- - -
Chad had his first conversation with a fairy when he was thirteen.
He and Troy had just had their first fight over a girl. Chad had gone to hide in the tree house his father had built in an old willow tree years ago. It was nowhere near as extravagant as the one Troy’s father had built. Chad’s was just a floor with railings. No one but Chad had ever been up there since its birth. It was Chad’s haven. His designated alone time. If he was in the trees, he was to be left alone, whereas his mother could walk into his bedroom at any given moment.
The fairy spoke first, startling Chad. He pulled his knees to his chest, his arms holding his knees in place for Chad to drop his head onto them.
The fairy had a strong, comforting voice, Chad remembers that. The voice was small, but so was the fairy. It sat with its long legs splayed out on the railing of the tree house, looking at Chad with wide, blue eyes. It had wings, Chad noted, thick wings the same startling blue as its eyes. It also wore nothing to cover its transparent skin. There was a hint of blue tone to the skin, but Chad could see every beat of its tiny heart. It had long arms to match its long legs, no hair, and rows of flat teeth.
Chad doesn’t remember what they talked about, but they talked for a very long time.
Chad never told anyone. Not even Troy.
- - -
Chad is almost seventeen and having the worst summer of his life. He has a job he hates, he’s not talking to his best friend, and his girlfriend wants to be “just friends” without giving him a reason. The summer’s a little less than half over, and he’s spending more time with Ryan fucking Evans than his best friend. In Ryan’s defense, he’s pretty cool. Not in the same way as Troy. Or Taylor. But he is cool. Gabriella wants to hang out with them. Ryan is okay with that, but Chad has reservations: he’d be choosing sides between his best friend and his best friend’s ex. He can’t put himself into that type of situation.
Chad is positive that his best friend will stop being a douche any day now. Well, Chad’s hopeful. He misses his friend. Ryan doesn’t fill that gap in Chad’s life. If Chad were honest with himself, he would say that Ryan fills the gap Taylor left, but Chad’s not ready to be honest with himself.
Chad had come home from work, and instead of heading inside, he had gone right up to his tree house. It is now decaying with age, but it still holds Chad’s weight. The night is mild, and Chad is content to lie down on the floor and look up at the stars - only slightly drowned out by the lights of the city. The branches of the willow are now long enough to brush the floor of the tree house, almost caressing Chad’s skin. It’s nice when it doesn’t tickle. It’s very soothing after the day that Chad had. He had broken no less than three plates, upended a bowl on cream of broccoli soup down the front of his pants, and poured ice water in a patron’s lap. This was while he waited tables. When he had caddied for the Evanses, Mrs. Evans’s backswing had caught Chad in the cheek, and a nice bruise is blossoming. He thought he had been savvy to her psychotic golf tendencies, but he apparently isn’t.
Chad watches the stars through the wispy branches of the willow tree and feels sorry for himself. This weekend is his birthday, and this is crap.
He almost drifts off to sleep when a small voice speaks from the vicinity of Chad’s chest.
Chad jerks into a sitting position, eyes wide and panicked.
A fairy clings to a willow branch directly in front of Chad’s face.
“Whoa!” Chad exclaims, eyes still wide.
The fairy glares at Chad, and he can see the shadow of its tiny heart beating hummingbird fast.
“Uh, hi?” Chad asks it, backing up to give it (and himself) room.
“Young Prince,” the fairy says in a small voice. And, okay, Chad’s never been called that before. Not even by the fairies he’s spoken to before. At least he doesn’t think so.
“Huh?” Chad says in return.
“Soon you will be of age,” it continues. It’s still clinging to a branch, but its wings are twitching. Chad can’t tell if it’s in annoyance or anticipation or if it’s just trying to balance.
“In a year,” Chad huffs. Like he needs a reminder that it’s that far off. Still, he’s a summer baby, so he’ll be eighteen before any of his friends. He can’t wait to be completely legal. The first thing he’s going to do is acquire a tattoo. He has the picture of the design at the bottom of his sock drawer. It’s of a star with a basketball in the center. He hasn’t decided if he wants color yet, but he has a year and a location: Chad wants it on his left shoulder. He also wants to have his tongue pierced.
“When the girth of moon is visible,” it says. Its heart rate has calmed significantly. Chad thinks that possibly the fairy means when the moon is full. He might be mistaken, though.
“Uh, no,” Chad says. He has no idea about the phases of the moon, but right now half is showing through the willow branches. Maybe a bit more. Chad will most definitely not be of age by the time the moon is full - if that’s what the fairy means.
“Yes,” it says. “You and your Queen will come to us at dusk.”
And it flies away.
Really?
Really?
Chad wonders if the exhaustion is making him delusional as well as tired.
He pulls himself up and goes inside to pass out in his bed.
- - -
Chad is distracted all the next day. All he can think about is how messed up his life is. But Ryan and Gabriella are nice to him, so that kind of makes up for it, but it kind of distracts him more. Apparently Kelsi has this fabulous idea that will help push Gabriella and Troy back together. It involves singing, which Chad isn’t as averse to as dancing, but still. At least it won’t be him singing.
Chad can definitely deal if it means Troy will stop being a douche.
Chad wanders down the long driveway of Lava Springs to the bus stop. He’s not sure, but he might have missed the last bus, and the last thing he wants is to call his parents at 11:30 at night.
He waits at the bus stop until well after the 11:10 is late, meaning it was early, and Chad has missed it.
He sighs to himself and takes out his cell phone.
Headlights appear on the road and soon the rumble of asphalt under rubber drowns out the sounds of the desert.
At first Chad is hopeful that it’s the 11:10, but it’s not. The headlights are wrong - too low with nothing up top and no lit sign for Albuquerque.
Instead of the 11:10, a yellow Mustang GT convertible pulls up to the stop.
Ryan Evans looks up at Chad from under his cap and asks Chad, “Do you need a ride?”
The obvious answer is yes, but Chad isn’t sure. He’s had a very strange 24-hour period.
“It’s in the opposite direction of your house,” Chad says, a bit stupidly.
“I don’t mind,” Ryan says.
So Chad shrugs and hops in. It’s better than calling his parents in the middle of the night.
They ride in silence down the freeway with just the rush of the passing air as a soundtrack.
Ryan drops Chad off at his house. Chad doesn’t ask how Ryan knows where Chad lives. His life is weird enough.
As Chad leaves the car he tells Ryan, “Thank you.”
Ryan says, “Be careful.” This only serves to confuse Chad even more. He really doesn’t need this right now.
“Uh, thanks?” Chad asks.
Ryan gives him a pinched smile. “Good night, Chad.”
Ryan puts his car in reverse and backs out of the driveway.
That could not have been weirder if Ryan had said “Beware the witching hour.” Not that Chad expected him to say that. Of course, Chad hadn’t expected Ryan to say, “Be careful,” either.
- - -
That night as Chad falls asleep a dry, desert wind picks up.
He wakes up more exhausted than when he fell asleep.
- - -
Chad works on his birthday, and it’s just as crappy as any other day at work. Even more so because it’s his birthday.
Taylor has lunch break the same time as he does, and Zeke has made him a magical cupcake. It’s only magical in that it tastes amazing. Chad eats it before his meal. It brightens his day just a bit. Enough so that he can make it through the second half of his day.
Chad steals the fries from Taylor’s veggie burger but doesn’t touch his roast beef sandwich.
Taylor wishes him a happy birthday and gives him a hug before she returns to work. She leaves him her fries. Taylor is seriously an awesome friend. Chad just mourns that he can’t have all those dating benefits anymore.
- - -
Mrs. Evans and Ryan want Chad as their caddy. Thus Chad’s afternoon becomes an extravagant game of hide and seek.
All afternoon Chad feels eyes on him. It makes his skin crawl, and Chad keeps shivering in the brutal New Mexican sun.
Around the eleventh hole, Ryan comes up behind Chad and says, “There’s a full moon tonight.”
Chad jumps. He had not heard Ryan walk up behind him, and Chad’s jumpy anyway.
“Okay,” Chad says slowly, his heart beating in his throat. Ryan has been seriously weird recently.
Ryan presses his lips together and shoves his hands into his board shorts before he wanders off to look for a ball his mother had whacked into the rough.
Chad wonders when his life fell into an alternate dimension.
- - -
Chad’s palms are itchy.
The sun is slowly sinking below the mountains, and he’s waiting tables. He desperately needs a ten. That’s all. Hopefully before he breaks something or drops something on someone.
He manages to break away and stare at the emerging stars on the back patio behind the kitchens.
He doesn’t know why but he needs to be away from all this. He wants to hear the hum of the desert, not the clank of dirty dishes. He just - he needs to be out there. In the middle of that pulse.
His feet take him there. Chad doesn’t even need to think. His feet go on their own.
He’s almost to where he needs to be when someone grabs his arm.
Chad looks at his arm where Ryan’s pale fingers almost glow in contrast to Chad’s dark skin.
“Don’t let them take you,” Ryan hisses.
“What are you talking about?” Chad’s voice doesn’t sound like it’s coming from his mouth. He’s still staring at Ryan’s fingers, and he’s still walking to where he needs to be. There is no way that Ryan can prevent Chad from being in the middle of it all, part of it all. Even if that means taking Ryan with him.
Chad can tell that Ryan is struggling to hold Chad back, but the pull of Ryan on his arm is nothing compared to the pull of the pulse. It’s loud in Chad’s ears, and he can feel it all over. He’s so damn close even his teeth are throbbing in time.
All of a sudden everything stops, and Chad’s body resonates with echoes.
The air no longer smells of sun and baking sandstone; it smells like damp earth. Chad is not accustomed to that smell. It’s new.
Ryan is very close and very still; he’s still connected to Chad’s arm, gripping so hard that Ryan’s fingernails bite into Chad’s skin. But Ryan’s not talking anymore.
They are in a willow grove, and the full moon is bright. It illuminates the trees and standing water.
Chad can hear nothing. For a moment he thinks he may have gone deaf, until the world explodes into a flurry of wings. They hum like insects and reflect the moonlight.
Beside Chad, Ryan sucks in a breath and squeezes harder on Chad’s arm.
A fairy hovers in front of Chad. Its translucent body glows in the moonlight.
Ryan makes a small breathy sound.
“Welcome, my Prince, to midsummer,” the fairy says. Chad can’t read its facial expressions in the moonlight, but its voice isn’t at all mocking.
Ryan makes another breathy sound, and the fairy turns to him.
“Is this your bride?” the fairy asks, flying in a lazy circle around Ryan.
Chad chokes. “Bride?”
The fairy returns to flutter in front of Chad. “You are of age on midsummer when the girth of the moon is visible. You are our prince,” it explains plainly. “A prince must have a bride and become our king.”
“Whoa,” Chad says. Mostly his brain is still stuck on the prince part. “I’m not royalty, and Ryan’s not my bride.”
The fairy zigzags in the air, scowling at Chad. Its expression is so severe that Chad can see the relief of it in the moonlight.
“If,” the fairy says in a disapproving voice, “this is not your bride, there is no place for him here. He must be killed.”
“What?!” Chad shouts in shock as Ryan’s grip tightens on his arm. “You can’t kill him!”
“Only under law as the prince’s bride may a mortal be protected,” the fairy explains. “This is a sacred place. Mortals may not desecrate our land.”
“Shit,” Chad mutters. He had no idea that fairies were capable of killing. In Fantasia, all the fairies were polite and cute. And then there were the fairies in Sleeping Beauty and even The Fairly Oddparents. But Chad knows the world isn’t a Disney film, plus he has read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’s also seen the movie too, but that was an accident. The movie his mother had rented was Rush Hour, but the DVD inside the box was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Chad’s mother had then made Chad watch it to “culture” him, as she said. Calista Flockhart’s bare chest had frightened him. Chad had been eleven.
“Is he your bride?” the fairy asks again, bending at the waist to peer at Ryan in a satirical bow. “He has a strong will. He will make a good queen.”
“Yeah, yes!” Chad says quickly, desperately. “Don’t kill him!”
Ryan’s grip on Chad’s arm eases for a moment, reflexively, but it tightens again quickly when every fairy flies up to examine Chad and Ryan. Hundreds of tiny, flying fairies buzz around. Chad marvels at how none of them fly into each other. His brain is still stuck on how he’s considered fairy royalty. He did not see that coming.
“He is a wise choice,” the fairy says.
“Our Prince has a bride!” the fairies all cheer in tiny voices. “We shall have a King and a Queen!”
Chad may have lost all the circulation in his hand - anywhere below where Ryan is attached. He can’t feel anything below his wrist.
“He is our King!” they also cheer, and Chad is dizzy from watching them fly around his head and from the overwhelming insanity of the situation.
The fairies somehow coax Chad and Ryan into the pool of standing water. They are both unhappy with this.
Chad is wearing his most expensive shoes. They’re shiny and black leather, and he wore them to his cousin’s wedding last fall. He’s also wearing expensive slacks. Although he doesn’t know why he bothers to wear them, considering that almost every night he spills something on them. Chad’s not a very good waiter. He’s gone through three pairs of pants in two days. Now both his shoes and his pants are ruined, and his feet are cold and wet.
Ryan is wearing his board shorts and flip flops, but he seems just as upset about being forced to stand in the water as Chad is.
But the water is now warm. And tingly. It is the good kind of tingle that makes Chad feel relaxed. It’s like a massage. Not at all like the pins and needles when something falls asleep.
Chad looks to Ryan for the first time since that afternoon. Ryan is very pale, almost ghostly in the moonlight. His eyes are wide, and Chad suspects that his trembling has little to do with the previously cold water. Ryan’s looking at him desperately and more than a little shell shocked. His thin lips are slightly parted, and Chad has a ridiculous idea about kissing them. And it is ridiculous, because this entire situation is on the absurd side of surreal. Chad has just been announced as the king of the fairies and had to declare Ryan as his bride to prevent him from being killed. Yeah. Ridiculous.
Chad is unsure what it means that Ryan’s now his bride. Well, he’s unsure what that means to the fairies. He’s not even sure what it means that he’s fairy royalty.
The tingly feeling has spread all the way up to the base of Chad’s skull, and from Ryan’s confused look, Chad can tell that Ryan is experiencing that same tingly feeling.
Like the pulse from earlier, the tingle is gone suddenly, leaving Chad bereft.
Except every touch Chad experiences is intense. He shudders at Ryan’s touch and again at the loss of that touch when Ryan suddenly releases Chad’s arm.
There are no fairies in sight, and Chad feels remarkably foolish.
“Uh,” he says, unbelievably loud in the resulting silence. Not even the sounds of the desert can be heard.
Ryan frowns, looks down at his submerged feet, and scowls. “Let’s go.” His voice sounds rusty, as if he hasn’t used it in weeks.
They walk in silence back to Lava Springs. Chad has a feeling that his ten minute break has expired several times over, and he has no idea how to explain his absence. Obviously he can’t say that he was crowned king of the fairies. He doubts that will fly with Fulton. Although, Chad can imagine Fulton’s comeback complete with mangled pop culture references, bulging eyes, and a ticking eyebrow.
Chad checks his watch to gage how deep he is in shit, but his watch has stopped. Chad frowns at it, trying to revive it with his willpower alone. It doesn’t work. He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket only to find that too has died.
Ryan is silent in step next to him. Ryan’s eyes are mostly shadowed by his hat, so all Chad can see are Ryan’s lips set in a tight frown.
The only sounds that pass between them are the crunch of gravel under their footwear and an occasional squeak from Chad’s wet shoes.
When the lights of Lava Springs come into view, the sounds of the desert flood Chad’s skull. He has almost forgotten how much of a comfort those sounds are: there’re coyotes yipping, insects droning, and poorwills gently whooping in the distance.
Ryan stops, planting both feet firmly on the ground.
Chad stops and turns to face Ryan, frowning as he does so.
“You’ve taken ill,” Ryan says in a detached voice, “and I’m taking you home.” He won’t look Chad in the eyes; instead he stares over Chad’s right shoulder.
Chad stares at Ryan’s hat, not processing Ryan’s words.
“Chad!” Ryan says sharply, finally looking at Chad’s face.
Chad takes in a surprised breath and brings his graze down from Ryan’s hat to his eyes. “Huh?”
“I’m taking you home,” Ryan repeats, sounding less put upon than Chad would feel if he were Ryan.
“Oh,” Chad says dumbly. “Okay.”
Apparently that isn’t the correct answer, because Ryan’s still staring at Chad and worrying his lower lip.
Chad tilts his head slowly to the left. “What’s wrong?”
For a bizarre moment, Chad thinks Ryan’s about to cry. “We’ll discuss this later.” Ryan’s voice wobbles a little. He then takes a step toward Lava Springs and keeps going.
Chad follows.
He follows when Ryan explains to Fulton that Chad has a stomach bug and needs to go home. He follows when Ryan goes to his car. He follows when Ryan steps out of his car and walks up Chad’s driveway. Chad stops Ryan there.
“My parents won’t bother us if we’re in the tree house,” Chad says. He’s talking to his shoes but addressing Ryan.
“Your parents might not,” Ryan says tightly, “but they will.”
Chad doesn’t even have to ask who they are. Ryan’s not talking about Chad’s parents. In this type of situation, Chad’s unsure which option would be worst. His parents had promised him a birthday dinner over the weekend, because Chad is supposed to be at work. He can see his parents watching the news through the window. There is a helicopter shot of a car accident on the television. Chad watches it blankly for a moment. His parents will ask questions for which Chad doesn’t have answers. It will be uncomfortable and awkward, and Chad will have to lie and somehow explain why he’s not at work in a way that also explains Ryan’s extended stay.
On the other hand, Chad doesn’t have a clue what will happen if they go up into the tree house.
What breaks Chad’s mental stalemate is physical: his legs are wet and cold, and his ankles are beginning to chafe.
“Okay,” Chad says.
He opens the front door for Ryan.
“Chad?” his mother calls out.
“Hi, Ma,” Chad calls back. He tugs Ryan into the family room.
“You’re home early,” she observes in a tone that insists Chad explain himself immediately.
“Uh,” Chad says ineloquently.
“Mrs. Danforth, because it’s Chad’s birthday,” Ryan steps in, “we let him off early.”
Chad’s mother raises skeptical eyebrows and looks from Chad to his father.
“Ryan and I have some things to discuss about the Star… Dazzle… thingy. We’ll be up in my room,” Chad says, steadfastly ignoring Ryan’s half smug, half stunned expression the same way he ignores his mother’s incredulity and his father’s shock.
Chad gives them a charming fake smile before dragging Ryan from the room.
They stop in the kitchen. Chad is feeling the lunch he skipped. He grabs himself a glass of water and a leftover slice of pepperoni extra cheese pizza and grabs Ryan a glass of orange juice - the kind without pulp, not that chunky stuff Chad’s father drinks. Chad would rather drink his juice, not chew it, thank you very much, and Ryan’s of the same opinion. Ryan declines the pizza, though.
They head up to Chad’s room. Ryan stops just inside the threshold, unsure.
“You can sit at my desk,” Chad offers, pointing to his desk with his glass of water, careful not to spill. It’s the only chair in the room.
Ryan gives him a closed expression before he pulls the chair out from where it’s tucked under the desk. He turns it around so he faces the room when he sits down.
Chad closes the door behind them and deliberates on locking it. He decides against it. Instead, Chad toes off his shoes. He puts his food and water down on his desk before he yanks off his wet socks doing an embarrassing one-legged hop in a circle before he braces himself on the doorframe.
Ryan averts his eyes as Chad shucks his fancy slacks for a comfortable pair of sweatpants.
Chad scoops up his food and water and sprawls out on his bed, after relocating his glass of water to his bedside table. He nibbles on his pizza. It’s cold, and Chad briefly wonders if he should have stuck it in the microwave. Chad looks to Ryan, who is delicately sipping at his orange juice. Chad gives up his pretenses and shoves this slice of pizza into his mouth, devouring it as quickly as possible. He’s hungry.
“The Star Dazzle Award?” Ryan asks wryly with a hint of amusement.
Chad shrugs. “My parents know that we’re trying to get Troy and Gabriella back together with that award thingy, so…”
He and Ryan don’t say anything for a long time after that. Eventually Chad caves.
“Do you know exactly what happened?” Chad asked.
“No,” Ryan answers softly. “I was hoping you did.”
“Oh,” Chad says, because he doesn’t know what else to say.
They lapse into silence again.
The house phone rings. Chad ignores it. It won’t be for him anyway. Everyone who would call knows that he should be at work, and those at work know that he went home “sick.”
He and Ryan continue to not talk.
“Chad!” His mother’s voice echoes up the stairway. “Troy’s on the phone!”
Chad frowns as he picks up the phone next to his water glass. There’s no reason for Troy to call.
“Hello?” Chad asks into the phone.
“Chad?” Troy asks, seemingly confused by this. “I heard you went home sick.”
“Yeah,” Chad says. He looks to Ryan, who is still not looking at him.
“Your Mom said that they let you off early because it’s your birthday,” Troy continues. “Are you okay, man? I mean, you lied twice.” Troy is just concerned with Chad’s wellbeing. Chad counts this in the plus side for Troy shaking free of his current douche-y tendencies.
“I’m not sure, man,” Chad says honestly. “I need to talk things over with Ryan, and I’ll let you know.”
Chad doesn’t miss that Troy chokes when Ryan is mentioned nor does he miss the thin tone Troy uses when he says, “Okay. Uh, Gabriella, Taylor, and I were planning on taking you out after work, you know, as a surprise. I guess we’ll have to surprise you another time.”
Troy and Gabriella are talking again? When did this happen?
“I guess,” Chad says calmly, even though he feels anything but. His pulse is racing, and he’s full of adrenaline. Just talking to Troy has triggered Chad’s fight or flight reflexes, and Chad’s unsure why.
“Cool. Let me know if you need help,” Troy says in a way that means he’ll be there for moral support should Chad have his heart broken, which, frankly, doesn’t do anything to settle Chad’s nerves.
“I’ll, uh, okay?” Chad says.
“Okay,” Troy says. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye,” Chad says and hangs up when Troy parrots it back.
Ryan lifts his eyes to meet Chad’s. “I guess that means we should talk about this,” he murmurs.
“I don’t know where to start,” Chad admits. “No, wait. I do. How did you know this was going to happen?”
Ryan licks his lips and frowns. “They…” He falters and looks away. “They’ve been planning this for a while,” Ryan confesses.
Chad is barely able to keep himself from shouting at Ryan. “What the fuck?!” he hisses dangerously.
“They talk to me when I need time away from Sharpay,” Ryan says quietly.
“You’ve known about the fairies for that long?” Chad demands, bolting upright on his bed.
“Chad,” Ryan says carefully. “There’s no such thing as fairies.”
“Didn’t we see those flying things?” Chad bites out. “Fairies.”
Ryan shakes his head. “Fairies come from Europe,” he explains slowly. “These are not from Europe.”
“What are they, then?” Chad says snippily.
“I don’t think they have a name,” Ryan says. He sets his glass down and sits on his hands. “They’re old, though. I sometimes call them duendes, sometimes sidhe, but that’s not their name.”
“How do you know that?” Chad demands.
“I can use Google, you know,” Ryan says conversationally.
“And you talk to them?” Chad asks skeptically.
“So do you,” Ryan shoots back calmly.
“What?!” Chad exclaims, nonplussed. There is no way that Ryan should know that.
“You’ve spoken to them,” Ryan elaborates. “You have all your life.”
“How would you know?” Chad barks, jumping up to his feet.
“Some of it - They told me some of it,” Ryan says, looking up at Chad defiantly. “Some of it was inference. They told me how exciting it was that their prince would turn seventeen while at Lava Springs - not in those words of course.”
“Of course,” Chad says snidely. He then sits back down on the bed with a scoff.
Ryan glowers at him. “If you’re going to be snide about it, I can leave, but you’re the one who dragged me - quite literally - into this mess and declared me your bride. Your bride, Chad!”
“Would you have preferred that I let them kill you?!” Chad growls. He sits on the edge of the bed, leaning forward with both feet planted stubbornly on the floor. He narrows his eyes in anger. Ryan surely cannot be upset about not being killed.
“For all we know, you might have done just that,” Ryan says. He looks straight into Chad’s eyes when he says it, refusing to look away. He’s right, though. Chad has no idea what is going on and neither does Ryan, but that’s not stopping anything from happening.
Chad’s head is spinning. “You tried to stop me,” he accuses.
“Yes,” Ryan says. “I did.”
“Why did you try to stop me?” Chad crosses his arms.
“Have you ever read any of the real fairy tales?” Ryan asks, cocking his head to the left.
“Of course,” Chad scoffs. He has no idea what this has to do with Ryan wanting to stop him, but of course he’s read fairy tales. He has a book of them on his book shelf. It’s buried under his CD collection, but it’s there, and he’s even read through them a couple of times.
“I don’t mean Disney,” Ryan clarifies. “I mean Grimm, Yeats, and The Faerie Queene.”
Chad frowns. He totally understands why Disney doesn’t count, he really does. He just hasn’t heard of the examples Ryan gave.
Ryan purses his lips. “Not all fairies are good,” he explains. “I think it’s smart to be wary. Don’t you think it’s strange that fairies need a human to be their king?” He pauses. “You are human, right?”
Chad’s mouth drops open in shock. He doesn’t know how to answer that - or if he should. Because as far as Chad knows, he’s human. However, he’s also fairy royalty. He’s not sure if that means he’s still human. He feels the same, but what if he was never human to begin with? What if he is a - what’re they called? - a changeling? He looks like both of his parents, though. Could his parents be fairy royalty, too? Chad’s not sure that he likes his train of thought.
“Chad?” Ryan prompts. He looks concerned. “That wasn’t supposed to be a difficult question.”
“Of course I’m human,” Chad says tersely.
Ryan has such gall to look at Chad incredulously.
“I am!” Chad insists.
“But you had to think about it,” Ryan points out with a frown. At least he’s not mocking Chad. Ryan takes his hands from where he was sitting on them and folds them in his lap. He stares at them.
“I - ” Chad starts, but he doesn’t know how to finish. Instead he asks, “What do you think all this means?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan whispers. “Most stories say don’t mess with the fairy queen, but they made you king. There usually isn’t a king in those stories.”
Chad voices an obscure thought: “If you’re my bride, does that make you the fairy queen?” He snorts in amusement, pinching his lips together to keep from laughing outright.
Ryan scowls deeply, and Chad thinks he is also grinding his teeth, which means that Chad is completely thrown when Ryan says, “Of course. Everyone knows I’m the Queen of the Fairies, especially in school. Just don’t tell my sister, she’ll try to steal my crown. Although, she’ll look nowhere near as fabulous as I do in a rhinestone tiara. But there was that one time she stole my favorite hat and Bedazzled it.”
Chad has no idea what Bedazzled means. He blinks heavily as Ryan smiles and laughs heartily.
Ryan reins in his laughter to say, “That was a joke, except for the fact that she did Bedazzle my favorite hat. I needed to give it a proper burial. It was tragic.”
Chad blinks heavily again.
“You have no idea what Bedazzle means, do you?” Ryan asks, peering at Chad with a shy smile.
Chad shakes his head slowly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan says. “That’s not what’s important here.”
Chad will take Ryan’s word for it. He doesn’t know, maybe whatever Bedazzle is could cure cancer. He doubts it, but Chad was crowned king of the fairies not three hours ago - anything is possible.
“Now what?” Chad asks, looking at Ryan’s hands in his lap.
“Now we ask around,” Ryan says. “Sharpay has an extensive social network. I’m sure someone knows what’s going on.”
Chad nods tersely. “I’m sure someone does, but do you have to involve your sister?” he whines.
Ryan frowns in response. “I didn’t say anything about involving her. I just said she has a big social network. She’s constantly leaving her phone in strange places. I can download her contacts into my phone.”
“You know how to do that?” Chad asks, a little awed, a little skeptical.
Ryan shrugs. “I know a guy.”
“You have a social network, too?” Chad asks dumbly, shifting on the bed.
“Not the, uh, same kind as my sister,” Ryan blushes as he says this.
For a moment, Chad is unsure why Ryan would be embarrassed by social contacts, until Chad makes the connection that there might not have been actual socializing going on.
“Does that bother you?” Ryan asks. He’s worrying his lower lip again.
“Uh, which that?” Chas asks. “That” could mean anything from Sharpay’s social contacts to Ryan’s, uh, carnal contacts to Chad being the fucking king of the fairies.
“That I know a guy,” Ryan clarifies quietly.
“What? No!” Chad says quickly. “That would be - I’m - You’re my bride, Ryan,” he follows up ineloquently.
“So that they wouldn’t kill me,” Ryan reminds him.
“Everybody knows you’re… gay,” Chad says delicately.
Ryan raises an eyebrow. “That’s not what I asked.” He pauses to frown. “I’m sorry if that bothers you, but you’re just going to have to deal. You dragged me into this.”
Chad’s gaze drops down to the floor. “It’s not you being gay that bothers me,” Chad starts. “I’m just - Tonight has been really weird.”
Ryan examines Chad, clearly unimpressed.
“I don’t know why I dragged you into this,” Chad admits. “I just - I needed to be in the center of everything. There was a pulse.” Suddenly feeling foolish, Chad stops attempting to explain. “I’m sorry.”
“A pulse?” Ryan encourages Chad to continue his explanation.
Chad nods, still not looking anywhere but the floor. “The desert has a pulse,” he says quietly.
Ryan leans forward slightly. Chad can hear the movement of fabric even though he refuses to look.
“A pulse or a rhythm?” Ryan presses.
“A pulse,” Chad says. “Like a heartbeat.”
Ryan makes a soft, understanding noise.
“I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop,” Chad finishes.
“Chad,” Ryan says. His voice is comforting, and Chad is confused. “It wasn’t you. It was something bigger than you.”
Chad’s eyes shoot to Ryan’s. “What? God?”
“No,” Ryan says slowly, eyes locked with Chad’s. “Old magic. They need you for something. That’s all I know right now. I just don’t know for what.”
“They need me,” Chad echoes.
“Maybe they just need a human,” Ryan says, bringing the conversation back to where it has been before. “Any human. And you happened to be available.”
Chad grunts but otherwise says nothing. He doesn’t know what to say. Chad looks to the side - out the window. He can see the willow tree illuminated by the full moon. A shiver races up his spine.
Ryan’s phone chirps, and Chad’s head jerks back to look at him.
Ryan flicks his phone open with a thumb and frowns at what he sees.
“I need to go,” he says. There’s a rushed feel to his words.
“Uh,” Chad says. “I’ll, uh, see you out.” Chad doesn’t really want to deal with his parents, which is what he will end up doing by seeing Ryan out, but his parents raised him to be polite to guests, and that includes walking them to the front door when they leave. Ryan is his bride, whatever that means, and his parents also raised him to be polite to whomever he dates. Of course his parents are blissfully unaware of that last part. Thank God. However, his parents are undoubtedly curious as to what he and Ryan were discussing while Chad should have been at work. They want to know what is so important that Chad had been given the night off.
Chad sees Ryan out.
On the front stoop, Ryan turns to Chad and smiles thinly. “Happy Birthday.”
“Thanks, man,” Chad says back automatically.
Ryan tips his hat and heads out to his car. Chad closes the door with a soft hiss, an exhale of a breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding.
“Chad,” his mother says behind him. Her voice is stern.
Chad jumps and turns around guiltily to face his mother.
“Troy said you went home sick,” she says stonily.
“Uh,” Chad says, feeling trapped. He contemplates an escape but knows his mother would never let that happen.
“Well,” she insists, folding her arms across her chest.
Chad wilts. All of his energy from the past few hours drains away, and he slumps as he plops down on the third stair up on the staircase. He drops his chin to his knees and wraps his arms around his legs, holding himself at the wrists.
His mother sighs and sits down next to him.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. She doesn’t put her arm around Chad’s shoulders. He’s spent seventeen years shrugging it off.
“You mean the new stuff from today?” Chad mutters bitterly.
“We can start with that if you’d like,” she says.
“Oh,” Chad says. He doesn’t know where to start. He can’t tell his mother the truth: she’d institutionalize him. Chad plans on graduating high school, and being institutionalized would stand in the way of that plan. He isn’t going to plod his way through over a decade of schooling just to be denied that one crucial year. Hell freaking no!
“How about you start with why Ryan drove you home from work, then you can explain why you’ve lied to me and your father and your friends,” she suggests. She’s not unkind about it, but she is firm. There is no way Chad will be able to squirm out of this.
“Uh,” Chad says. He honestly has no idea what to say, and he’s glad that his father is elsewhere. That way he doesn’t have to explain it to more than one person, which is a relief, but he’d rather not have to explain it at all. And he doesn’t even know what “it” is.
“Ryan?” his mother prompts.
“I - I don’t know how to explain it,” Chad says eventually.
“Your pants were wet,” his mother states.
Chad looks down at his pants. These pants are dry. “Yeah, my pants were wet,” he agrees. “There was this incident,” he continues, “with a pond.”
His mother makes a small, amused sound.
“It’s not funny!” Chad states indignantly. “Mom!” he whines.
“No, you’re right, it’s not funny,” his mother agrees. Chad can tell that she’s trying really hard not to laugh. “You were caddying for Mrs. Evans again, weren’t you?”
It’s such an easy out. He had caddied for Mrs. Evans earlier. It had nothing to do with his wet pants, but he had caddied.
“Yeah,” Chad says like it’s not a lie, because it isn’t. It’s just not the reason his pants were wet.
“See?” His mother bumps his shoulder with her own. “That wasn’t so difficult.”
Chad grunts. It can be taken as agreement.
“There’s more pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry,” she offers. She then pushes herself up and leaves Chad sitting on the stairs.
- - -
That night Chad dreams of Ryan. Chad can’t see his face, but he knows it’s Ryan. Ryan sits on the top of a sandstone cliff, his legs dangling off the edge. He’s dressed in pink from hat to flip-flops. He’s also wearing a pair of wings made from tulle and stretched over wire. They’re pink with silver glitter to give them the look of butterfly wings. The last time Chad has seen a pair of wings like this it was Halloween and his ten-year-old neighbor had dressed as a fairy princess.
Ryan looks back at Chad and smiles. It’s the most honest thing in Chad’s life in ages. There’s an ache in his chest, and Chad doesn’t know where it came from or what it means.
“I can fly,” Ryan says. He turns to look out over the canyon.
“No, you can’t,” Chad wants to say, but his tongue is stuck to the back of his teeth.
Ryan pushes himself off the cliff, and Chad panics. He runs to the edge; it’s like running through water, and he has to push himself hard to run those few feet.
But Ryan’s already gone.
Chad looks over the edge. All he can see are the pink wings at the bottom of the canyon.
An evil creature appears from behind a rock to claim the wings. It doesn’t look particularly evil: Chad just knows. Its features are blurred in that way dreams are, and the creature has no face that Chad can focus on. But those are Ryan’s wings. They’re pure, and only Chad has permission to touch them.
He can’t call out to the evil thing, and he can only look on in horror as it begins to tear the tulle wings into shreds.
Not seeing an alternative, Chad jumps off the edge of the cliff.
- - -
Master Post | Part II