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CJ decided to decorate the dorm – of course she did. The fact that she’s basically a stoveaway here didn’t stop her. Or, you know. The fact that she’s technically wanted by the law? For kidnaping the king and then dipping and all that?
Anyway, CJ is the reason why Freddie has a blanket fort in her dorm right now.
„It’s not a blanket fort, Freddie,“ complains CJ, „It’s clearly a pirate ship!“
Well, it was pretty, ehm, structurally unusual, fort anyway, so, yeah. A pirate ship. Obviously.
…The haphazardly pilled up and hanged blankets could pass for sails? And, wait? Is that a spear?
Oh. It was a spear. It is a mast now, obviously.
It also has a string of fairy lights on it?
„CJ?“ Freddie asks reluctantly, „Why are there the fairy lights?“
„Well Harry has them! He hasn’t told me yet why, but he has them, so I must too!“
Okay, makes sense. Harry has fairy lights, so CJ must have them too. Nevermind that more accurate assessment is „Uma has fairy lights,“ Freddie knows.
Also, Freddie isn’t gonna question the assortment of daggers and knives and other weapons. As long as CJ doesn’t have any guns, she’s good.
„Sounds fair–“
„Come on, Freddie. It’s awesome, look at it! It’s almost like being back home! Not that I miss home. Or anyone back there, obviously!“ CJ backtracks quickly, getting lost in her own thoughts and see-through lie, and Freddie takes a sharp breath.
She does miss home, and Celia and her father; the school and the arcade. Her allies.
„Freddie?“ CJ nudges her hand with back of her palm, „Wanna go into the ship?“
„Yeah, sure,“ Freddie giggles shakily; she can recognise an offer of comfort when she sees it. Especially when coming from CJ.
„Let’s go in there.“
CJ jumps up and down a bit and grabs her hand, dragging her towards the bed. She only stumbles a bit to kick of her boots and then climbs inside: She holds the blanket-sails open for Freddie with one hand and extends the other for her to take.
So Freddie toes off her own shoes and climbs into the blanket pirate ship. It is a thing that she does now.
Holy fuck, it is a thing that she does now–––
(Great, and she is thinking of the Isle again.)
„No bad thoughts on my ship, Shadow witch,“ CJ tells her, and „What has you so glum, oh your Dark Majesty?“
Against her will, Freddie giggles. CJ tends to have that effect on her. But even so, the laugh quickly dies in her throat.
„Just. Thinking about the Isle, yeah? About Celia. Wish she’d get to just build blanket forts too, just like that.“
„Hey! It’s a pirate ship, I told you!“ CJ defends herself, „Besides. I kidnapped the king, like, yesterday. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. Easier than playing a fiddle. Or a piano. Or an organ. Maybe even a guitar, really, but Diego won’t let me touch his.“
And for a good reason, Freddie suspects. She has no doubts that her menace of a girlfriend would drive anyone crazy within, well, two days tops, if given access to any kind of loud noise-making instrument. In which case Freddie would conveniently vanish off the face of the earth for about a week. Not that she has any plans to gift CJ with a trumpet on FG’s watch, obviously. Absolutely not.
„Anyway,“ CJ shakes her head, which makes her hair bounce all around,and grabs Freddie’s hand with both of hers, „Point is, I’ve kidnapped the king, and I could do it again! We could take him hostage and tell him he must give us Celia and – and – and he will walk the plank if he doesn’t!“ CJ lets go of Freddie’s hand to mimic a hostage walking down the plank as well as their dramatic fall; her hands fly up high.
„Boom!“ she finishes her dramatic reenactment and falls down, laying her head in Freddie’s lap. She looks up at her and flutters her eyelashes; Freddie brushes out some loose strands of hair that fell on CJ’s face.
„It’ll be easy, Freddsie. Really.“
„Or,, Freddie joins in on the impromptu plotting session, „We could kidnap someone close to him. Maybe the old queen. Or this Audrey girl.“
„Oh!“ CJ sits up again in her excitement, „We could kidnap Mal! Harry would love it if we kidnapped Mal!“
„…Do you think he likes her enough to trade her for that many people?“
„Yeah, no, you’re right,“ CJ deflates and fall back down. Yes, into Freddie’s lap. As she damn well should.
„Of course you are right,“ CJ continues, „No one likes Mal that much.“
Freddie laughs at CJ’s pout.
Which is why she doesn’t hear the knocking at the door at first. Though, honestly, knocking? No one has the decency to just quietly pick a lock here in Auradon.
The knocking doesn’t stop.
„Yeah, come in,“ Freddie calls out, annoyed.
The doors open and through the gap in the blanket-sails, Freddie can see the king.
„Hi, Freddie,“ he says, waving awkwardly as he stands at the doorstep.
Freddie reluctantly greets back.
„I gather that you have CJ here too, so, hi CJ?“
…Okay, back track. Why does the king of Auradon know where CJ’s staying? Auradon doesn’t have a decent spy network, as far as Freddie is concerned.
…Unless?
„CJ?“ she asks quietly. She doesn’t even need to finish the question before CJ flutters her eyelashes in utterly innocent manner, because of course she does.
And of course she did. Why would kidnapping a king in the middle of a very public event be an excuse not to run her mouth?
„Greet the king, CJ,“ she whispers instead.
„Servus, Majesty,“ drawls CJ unenthusiastically before hiding her face in Freddie’s t-shirt.
„She says hello,“ translates Freddie just in case, as Ben likely isn’t used to, well, CJ. His loss, really.
„…Okay? Anyway, I wanted to, like, resolve your legal status in Auradon? Not like you’re in trouble, just–“
„Why am I not in trouble?“ CJ complains, „I kidnapped you! Held you hostage! That must be some kind of treason, right? I mean, Harriet would ground me for kidnapping her!“
„Shut up!“ Freddie hisses and nudges her in the ribs, hard, „Do you want to get in trouble?!“
„Yes!“ CJ exclaims like the crazy drama queen that she is.
„She said that she’d love to talk!“ Freddie calls at the king.
„I did not!“
„Yes you did. Now shut up and talk with the king who is insane enough to want you in his kingdom, you bloody menace.“
CJ makes a long face and mutters something like „But you love me!“, before backing out.
„Okay,“ she allows, „I’ll talk to the king. But he must come on my ship.“
She is talking to the king right now, if you couldn’t guess.
Freddie turns her eyes back at that.
„What?“
„No, nothing,“ assures Ben quickly, „I just– ship?“
Freddie peeks over the blankets and gestures at him: She means this?
„The… Blanket fort?“
„It’s a ship!“ protests CJ again.
„Yes,“ answers Freddie instead, „Now get in there?“
„Into the–“ Ben cuts himself off and gestures around, mouthing „The blanket fort“ for only Freddie to see.
„Yes, she says again, „Now get into the fucking blanket fort.“
And he does.
What is a little talk about skirting around the loosely written laws in a blanket pirate ship, really?
(Easy answer: A day to day reality, when you hang out with CJ Hook. And Freddie wouldn’t have it any other way.)