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⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧•• men and women

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── .✦ IN FENCING, Freddie was sat on a blue and yellow box, his elbows propped up on his knees as he watched Jay walk around, "All right, boys. Let's line it up. Carlos, you're with me, let's go."

     "Yeah." Carlos exhaled, pushing himself up from the box beside the one Freddie was sat on, following after Jay. They all stood in front of one another in a long line, and pointed their swords at each other.

     "Rassembler! Salute! Lower the point. Masks down. En garde." Jay spoke, and they all began grunting as they fought. Freddie was fighting Amin, and he was winning by the looks of it, "Keep your center. Eyes on your opponent. Up and over." They jumped on the boxes, fighting each other as people cheered all around the outside of the stage and the fencers stopped when Jay began fighting alone with a random fencer they couldn't identify.

     "Get him, Jay." Carlos encouraged and Jay pulled off his mask, staring at the unknown fighter in confusion. They began fighting again, and everyone exclaimed when the fencer did a few flips in the air, impressing them.

     "It's practice." Jay spoke with a chuckle as he noticed the other fencer becoming too aggressive and serious in the fight but they didn't listen, attacking him again.

     "Watch out, Jay." Carlos warned his friend, watching from the sidelines beside Freddie.

     "Nice!" Jay praised and eventually, the unknown guy took Jay's sword from him, disappointing his friends.

     "Oh, Jay, what happened?"

     "Finish him." Chad told the unknown fighter, making Freddie roll his eyes. Jay managed to get his sword back, and the unknown dude stopped, bending down to take off his helmet, revealing Lonnie.

     "Whoo!" A few girls cheered from a balcony, clapping loudly for Lonnie and Freddie's eyebrows raised, he was impressed to say the least.

"Not bad." Jay complimented, his sword over his shoulder.

     "You should put me on the team." Lonnie suggested, taking off her gloves and Chad ran forward in protest.

     "Hey... What? No, no, no. We'll be the laughing stock of the league. And what's gonna happen next? We'll have girls playing tourney? Come on, guys." Chad rambled and Freddie groaned loudly, his hands rubbing down his face in annoyance.

     "So?" Jay questioned with a confused expression, and Chad looked to him shockingly.

     "So?" The blonde repeated in disbelief, "So, have you not read the rulebook?" He pulled out the book from his back pocket, and Freddie and Carlos chuckled together at how goody-two-shoes he was, "Section two, Paragraph three, eleven dash four. "A team will be comprised of a captain and eight men." Mmm?" He held up the page to Lonnie and then to the girls on the balcony, "You should read the rulebook."

     "Okay, yeah, but you're down a man." Lonnie reasoned, "You know, since Ben had to leave to do all that King stuff."

     "Exactly. We're down a man." Chad continued, and Freddie had to resist from walking over there and knocking the Charming kid out on the spot.

     "Jay." Lonnie pleaded, looking over at Jafar's son who just winced apologetically.

     "I'm sorry. Coach trusts me. I'm not gonna stay captain if I just throw out the rulebook." Jay shrugged, not really knowing what to say or do.

     "If my mother thought that way, she would have lost the war." Lonnie told them, and Chad scoffed, looking back at Jay, shrugging his shoulders.

     "Okay." Chad responded sarcastically and Lonnie walked off with a heavy sigh of defeat as Chad waved the rulebook in the air, causing her to scoff, "Rulebook. Rulebook."

     "All right, guys. Practice is over, let's go." Jay told them, and they all began to leave. Freddie stood beside Carlos, pulling off his gloves with his teeth since he had no free hands when Carlos yelled, startling him.

     "Jane! Jane, hey." Carlos called out to the brunette on the balcony, jumping onto the box in front of Freddie, and she stopped in her tracks with a smile.

     "Hey, Carlos, what's up?" She asked, taking a step back over to the balcony, and Dude barked, jumping up on another box nearby, distracting Carlos.

     "Uh... not much, you?" Carlos asked and Freddie rolled his eyes, turned around.

     "I'm out." He visibly cringed at Carlos' awkward attempt at flirting with Jane, and he walked off out of the room towards the locker room to change back into his purple suit with the Corona's Crest on the pocket of his blazer.

     On his way towards his dorm, he found an angered Ben pacing in front of his door. As Freddie got closer, he heard Ben muttering words to himself through gritted teeth, causing the prince to become concerned.

     "Bennyboo?" Freddie approached the angered King, who spun around on his feet, tears in his eyes, "Oh no, what happened?" The lighter-haired boy asked as he unlocked his dorm door, he pushed the door open and draped his arm over Ben's shoulders, pulling him into his dorm before he closed the door behind him.

     When they finally got privacy, Freddie wrapped his arms around his best-friend to comfort him. Ben sobbed in Freddie's shoulder as they embraced for quite a while until they eventually pulled away, and Freddie dragged Ben carefully over to his bed, sitting him down.

     He sat down beside him, his arm draped over Ben's shoulders and he let him wipe his tears before he asked, "So, what happened on that date?"

     "It went well at first. I thought Mal spent three days preparing all of my favourite foods, but it was all pretend. She's been using her spell book, can you believe that?" Ben asked in sadness and disbelief and Freddie lied as he shook his head, seeming oblivious to it even though he knew. It probably wasn't the best idea, lying to his best-friend, but he didn't want to hurt him further — he knew Mal was struggling and she needed support, "I just can't imagine how overwhelming this whole thing is for her, I feel so bad."

"I know, Ben. But she's pushing through, even with her spell book, I think she just needs to learn to be herself and it'll all come together." Freddie assured, and Ben nodded towards him in agreement, his tears slowly disappearing from his eyes.

"You're right, I'll talk to her tomorrow. I'll give her space for the rest of the day." Ben nodded again, looked down to his trousers and Freddie patted his back, standing up from the bed.

"I'm always right. Now, I gotta run some errands and then see Evie. Are you gonna be all right on your own, bud?" The prince questioned, rushing over to his desk to grab his wallet and a few of his other belongings.

"I will be, I have a meeting in an hour." Ben stated and Freddie turned around with a grin, walking back towards his friend.

"It'll all be fine, dude. Just listen to your brain." He flicked the side of Ben's head, smiling wide, causing Ben to chuckle, "That's the spirit."

They both headed out of the room in smiles and Freddie locked the door behind him before they went their separate ways. Ben to his office, and Freddie to the library to find a specific book about gemstones.

｡･:*˚:✧｡

     ON HIS WAY to Evie's dorm, he was listening to Not Afraid by Eminem, a skip in his step and he pulled off his headphones when he made it to the door, knocking lightly.

     Chaos was heard on the other side of the door before Evie opened it, peeking her head through the crack, "Oh, hey. What're you doing here?" She asked obliviously and Freddie lifted his wrist to check his watch, and as expected, it said 4:50.

     "We said we'd hang out at 3:45, sorry, I'm a little late. I struggled to find that book." He reached his hand up, scratching the back of his neck nervously and Evie gulped loudly, scared of something.

     "Uh... Oh, yeah, well, uh... Come in." She opened the door, revealing her messy dorm room. There were various dark blue fabrics strewn across the floor along with a pair of leather trousers which caught Freddie's attention. He strolled over and bent down to pick them up when Evie snatched them out of his hands, throwing them behind her, "Sorry, it's a bit of a mess."

"That's okay." He chuckled awkwardly before he walked over to her bed, sitting down on it as he watched her rush back over to her desk, continuing to sew whatever she was sewing before he knocked, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Evie replied quickly and suspiciously, obviously hiding something but Freddie didn't want to pry so he just sat there, nodding slightly and watching her sew up what looked to be an mens blue Isle outfit.

"Is that for Ben?" Freddie asked, knowing he was the only dude that wore all blue and Evie froze, side-eyeing him with her back to him, "If it is, it's fine, I was just curious." He shrugged and pulled out his cell to message his friend.

Boo 🥵

are you going to the isle?

what? no!

are you lying?

stop being nosy
pinnochio

oh okay 😂
so you are

mal left

god
why?

i upset her
she feels she doesn't belong here

but she does
can i come?

hell no fred
you'll endanger yourself

but i love the thrill!
i'm coming
is evie coming too?

yep
jay and carlos too

jeez bae how many people you
wana endanger?

shut up mal could be hurt

true that's why i'm coming

oh my god

     "I feel like purple would suit me best." Freddie spoke up after a while of silence, scaring Evie and she scrunched her brows, staring down at the blue leather in front of her.

     "Huh?" She asked, and she heard some shuffling and a couple footsteps approaching her before Freddie's sketchpad was placed on the table beside her sewing machine, showing a coloured sketch of a purple and black leather outfit that looks like it belongs on the Isle, "What's this?"

     "My outfit. You know, I've always planned for this day, which is why... Wait, I'll be back." He sped out of the room, leaving his pad on the table and she groaned loudly in defeat. He wanted to come, and she didn't want him to come, but she knew he wouldn't take no for an answer. Freddie was the type of guy that would protect his friends no matter what danger he was putting himself in, even death.

Twenty minutes passed by, and she managed to finish Ben's jacket when Freddie came bursting in looking like a whole new guy. He was wearing a full leather outfit, even his boots and it was all dark purple with yellow accents. Over the top of his outfit, he wore a large dark purple cloak with a hood that covered most of his face so he was unrecognisable but so he could still see where he was going.

"Woah." Evie's jaw dropped, and he spun around in a circle slowly at the sight of him. He looked like the man of her childhood dreams, the guy she only ever imagined meeting on the Isle, and she almost drooled, "You designed that? And made that?"

"Hell yeah, even the boots." He wiggled one of his feet towards her to show off his cool black and purple combat boots and she giggled, admiring the outfit.

"Have I ever told you how amazing you are? You'd fit right in." She covered her mouth with her hand as he pulled down his hood, and he held his arms out, bowing slightly.

"What can I say? I'm just that great. Also... does that mean I can come?" He asked quietly, causing her to laugh and she nodded.

"As long as you stay silent and away from trouble, okay?" She widened her eyes and raised her brows towards him in a demanding manner, and he quickly nodded to her, causing her to smile, "Good boy. Now, could you help me with Ben's gloves, I'm not entirely sure if I should just go simple and do black or go all in and make them blue? Or maybe even a bit of both?"

"Hmmm..." He hovered over her, his hands leaning on the ledge of the table as he thought, and she couldn't help but blush, looking up at him in awe. He was just so hot. Unable to keep her calm, she leaned up and grabbed onto his face, pressing her lips into his, catching him off guard.

After a moment of shock, Freddie melted into the kiss and placed his gloved hand on the back of her neck, pulling her closer him. She giggled as she pulled away for a short breath, and he pushed her head gently back towards his, deepening the kiss as they stumbled around the room.

"You're beautiful." Freddie mumbled through the kiss passionately, but it was true and he told her that everyday because she was, indeed, just so beautiful. Everything about her was so precious, her eyes, her lips, her delicate skin, her perfect hair, her body, her outfits, everything. And he had waited forever for this day to finally kiss her soft lipstick-covered lips — he was shocked she was the one to start it, but he wasn't complaining, he did everything but complain because he was sure this was the best moment of his entire life.

AMXLIEWRITES || I SEE THE LIGHT