Princes of the Universe (Maylor AU)

Chapter 8

The prince glanced warily at the set of fake brothers. "What about them?"

"We already told you," Tim interjected—his tone more aggressive than he meant it to be. "We're looking for our brother."

"No, you're not!" Freddie shouted, meeting Brian's concerned gaze. "Chrissie doesn't have any brothers, Brian," he tried to convince him. "I just checked."

"Checked what? The phone book of the universe?" Roger chimed in, eliciting a small laugh from the prince whose amused reaction did little to calm his right-hand man's nerves.

"I'm serious, Brian," the dark-haired man stressed, pushing past the suspicious pair and approaching his friend with an unshared sense of urgency. "These men, here," he whispered, leaning in and shooting his thumb back at Roger and Tim, "They're not who they say they are. They're—"

"Here! I found them!"

Everyone glanced back to see Chrissie and John strolling towards them, the soon-to-be queen's dress relaced and the undercover mechanic's tool kit relidded. Chrissie grabbed at the skirt of her dress to lift it off the floor, picking up her pace ever so slightly and inserting herself between her two supposed brothers. "We've been looking everywhere for you two. I told you not to wander off."

"'Couldn't help it," Tim replied, a slight paleness to his face as he tried to play off her remark. "This castle's just so...big."

"You get used to it," she giggled, grabbing their hands and directing her attention towards the prince. "Can you believe it, Brian? My brothers came here for the wedding." Her grip tightened as she raised their intertwined hands and gave them an excited shake.

"You never told me you had brothers," he muttered, mixed feelings bubbling up inside of him as he struggled to find the resemblance among the four—John joining the line of siblings with arms wrapped around the large prop sitting on his hip.

She laughed again. "Of course I did. You probably just forgot."

"No, you don't have brothers, Chrissie," Freddie insisted with a clenched jaw and fists tucked underneath his crossed arms. "You never had any brothers, and even if you did, how do you know they survived the attack? You barely remembered how you got here, and even now, you don't remember what your life used to be like."

"Well then, Fred, who are they, if not my brothers?" she demanded to know, throwing Roger and Tim's hands down and placing hers on her hips. "Why would they come here?"

With all eyes on him in eager anticipation of his answer, a blush instantly crept up in the dark-haired man's cheeks. He nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other, matching her defensive stance and gesturing towards the three men standing by her sides. "Why don't you ask them?"

The android looked at the men in question, her mesmerizing eyes landing on Roger—the flashing red light tucked behind her iris sending him into a trance that the nudge of John's elbow snapped him out of. The blonde rubbed the back of his neck, stealing a quick glance at the company he found himself in and noticing the different expressions each person wore on their face. Freddie was fuming; Brian concerned. Tim was curious; John nervous. Chrissie unsettled the blonde the most, though, with her staring eyes belonging to someone else; someone sitting behind the microscopic camera implanted in her skull; someone Roger knew all too well and knew would have him killed for the wrong response.

Swallowing the anxious lump in his throat, the blonde shifted his gaze to the prince. "We are her brothers," he replied calmly but sternly, complacent in the plan he realized—thanks to that little light in Chrissie's eye—he had no control over. "All we want is to see her off, be there for her—" he took her hand in his and mustered as genuine a grin as he could, "—make up for all the time we lost thinking she was dead."

A single tear rolled down the humanoid robot's cheek before she buried herself in the disguised prince's chest, hugging him as if they really had been separated by years of believing the other had perished. While Freddie saw right through the façade that surprised the others, Brian couldn't help but step forward and wrap his arms around the pair of reconnected siblings, physically expressing his acceptance of the deceptive boys as relatives of Chrissie's. Instinctively, the other two joined in on the embrace.

The dark-haired man rolled his eyes and loudly cleared his throat, reminding the reunited group of his presence. It was in this moment, with the prince's back to them, that the Nevermore natives took the opportunity to mock his irritated right-hand man, arrogantly victorious in their ruse—an outcome Roger hadn't expected when they first arrived; nor did he expect to be the one to pull it off and convince the prince that they were indeed his lover's brothers, and that he was to be believed, trusted.

Freddie suppressed the urge to sink to their level, choosing instead to address Brian directly, saying through clenched teeth, "I really think you and I should speak in private about this, Bri."

"What's there to discuss, Fred?" the prince replied, draping his arm around his bride and meeting his friend's incensed gaze. "They're her brothers, and they're here for the wedding. Why don't you be useful and get some rooms set for them?"

The reiterated request infuriated the dark-haired man like no other, his boiling rage ignored as the betrothed couple brushed past him, the three imposters following in triumphant tow, but not without John stopping at Freddie's side first and grabbing his shoulder. "Better luck next time, Fred," he whispered in his ear, having pulled the two of them close.

"You're not going to get away with this," he growled back, shrugging off John's hand and jabbing a sharp finger into his chest. "I know who you are, and it's only a matter of time until everyone does too."

The spy swatted the stiff hand away and watched with narrowed eyes as Freddie escaped down the hallway in the opposite direction.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Roger called out, drawing the young man's attention to him and the guard standing in the middle of the hall, waiting for him.

John nodded, trudging over to the pair. "Yeah, we're good." He met the blonde's gaze and smirked. "Just keep it up, Meddows. Do what you did today every day and you'll be so close to that idiot," he pointed down the corridor to the prince, "he won't suspect a thing."