My Anchor ~ Harry Hook

CHAPTER THREE

11 YEARS EARLIER

Another, mind-numbingly, isolating 24 hours had passed, the seventh one to be exact, since her failed initiation ceremony. She had been confined to the halls of the palace while 'this situation' as her mother had put it had been resolved. Not only that but immediately after the ceremony her parents had left for a month long trip to Agrabah for business, leaving Sebastian in charge.

Normally, this would delight Aria who looked up to Sebastian like a father but he was unusually busy with work and had no time to entertain her. Melody had been unable to see her as much either as she had been busy with her school work and unable to spend time outside of meals.

Coincidentally, as if preempted by the God's she had been placed in the only spare bedroom at the time of her birth, on the other side of the living quarters in the palace, separating her from her family and walking to her room now it felt almost like a sick joke that had been mocking her since the dawn of time. The paintings of her predecessors taunting her, challenging her to embarrass them further.

When the undemanding atmosphere of her room finally enveloped her her breathing began to ease out not even realising she was struggling to breathe in the first place. She prepared herself for another never-ending night of tossing and turning before laying down and attempting to get comfortable.

By the time she had been staring at the wall opposite for what she guessed was at least 3 hours she heard the door handle turn making her body tense and close her eyes trying to wish away whatever was coming next.

Then the door shut softly and moments later and the sound of footsteps padding across the floor were muffled by the thick carpet.

Then the mattress beside her dipped under the weight of another body.

Then an arm snakes around her waist pulling her in and pressing a kiss to the back of her head.

Then the soft voice of her eight year old sister 'I'm so sorry, Squirt. For everything,' and then she went silent.

PRESENT DAY

'BASH!' Aria squealed running down the front steps to hug him.

'Hello, Mon Chou! I missed you too!', hugging her just as tightly back. A soft hand rested on her shoulder and a voice connected to it said 'Nice to see you too Squirt. Got a hug for me too?' she asked holding her arms out.

'Mel! I didn't even know you were coming! What are you doing here? How are you here?' Aria questioned causing her sister to chuckle.

'Pulled a few strings,' she answered vaguely, shrugging like it was no big deal.

'She's skipped University,' Sebastian reprimanded her raising his eyebrows to prove his point.

Aria gasped placing her hand over her heart before copying Sebastians accent 'Scandalous,' causing the girls to break into a fit of giggles before linking arms and making their way to the courtyard. Sebastian following behind rolling his eyes and smiling fondly at them.

As they entered the courtyard it was full of her peers and their parents. She didn't belong here in this situation, among these perfect families with her mismatched, DIY family. That, don't get her wrong, she loved but it wasn't the same as all these picture perfect families.

'Stop overthinking it missy,' her sisters voice came from her left knowing exactly what she was thinking.

Parents day. Aria thought was a sorry excuse for Auradon Prep to ship the students off back to their homes for the long weekend so that teachers could go back to planning how to ruin their lives further. It was also a ball-ache considering she didn't really have any parents of her own. Not really. Not with her mothers deliberate avoidance of her for over a decade and her fathers fear of her mothers rage were she to find out he actually liked his own child. Not to mention his busy schedule.

'I'm not I'm just...thinking,' she said as if that was a good enough excuse stirring her lemonade with her drink.

'Uh huh. Let me know when a single thought that isn't about our parents floats into the pretty little head of yours,' Melody teased tapping her lightly on the head with her finger.

'Hey, fine I'm just thinking about how much of an absolute piss take this shit is when you have barely existent parents,' Aria defended.

'Language, Aria,' Sebastian warned distractedly as he was engaging in conversation with another parent she didn't recognise.

'Sorry, Bash,' she apologised taking a sip of her drink and opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by shouting about fifteen feet from her.

'What? You! How are you here? And how have you stayed so young?' Queen Leah exclaimed clearly having caught onto the arrival of the villain kids. About a month too late but caught on nonetheless.

'Oh. Fuck.' both Aria and Melody said simultaneously before making their way over to the commotion leaving Sebastian to raise his arms in defeat.

Out of the corner of her eye Aria saw Ben being pulled back by Astrid and Ajax stopping him from interfering knowing it'd only make it worse. She made her way over to them just as they were sitting him down on a nearby bench. After muttering a greeting to the twins she enveloped Ben in a hug knowing that he didn't need a lecture or being told that his initiative would never work.

He just needed a hug and reassurance. It took less than a minute for everything to get impossibly worse. She watched as Evie lunged forward and spraying something that knocked Chad out immediately causing Aria to internally face palm.

Ben witnessing these events play out was understandably distraught and ended up having to be taken somewhere to calm down having realised his plan, his one chance at proving himself to be a good king had been destroyed.

Aria wanted to go with him, to provide comfort. She really did, but soon after Melody was at her side pulling at her arm and telling her that they needed to start their journey to the Anderson castle for the long weekend.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Her parents, who had just arrived home after a two month trip to Sherwood Forest, had demanded her presence at dinner that night, saying it wasn't polite to sit in her room instead.

At some point in the evening she had genuinely began to question whether they had forced her to sit with them out of pure spite or not.

'Aria, I have heard you have been mixing with the strays' her mother stated suddenly breaking the awkward silence in the dining room.

'They have names mother,' she muttered in response trying to avoid engaging in the topic by moving her food around her plate.

'Well I certainly do not care, who they are or what their names are. However, what I do care about is you mixing with those disgusting people.
Don't you think you've destroyed this family enough!' her mother fought back throwing out wild accusations.

Aria had enough and slammed her cutlery down before pushing her chair back scraping it against the floor before storming out and slamming the door behind her. Muffled shouting followed her down the corridor but that was quickly drowned out by her heart beating in her ears, overloading her senses and by the time she had reached her room she was sliding down her wall into a crumpled mess in the corner.

She was never going to belong here.