The Cursed Princess Club fanfic: The Secret of The Plaid Family

Ch.1

( A story for the CPC fandom that I came up with. I know its self indulgent but what fan fiction isn't. Frederick is one of my favorite characters and I think he deserves a lot more respect for trying to change. He already took the first step standing up to his verbally abusive dad, so I decided to write this story with Frederick's anger and frustration peaking before the Pastel Ball. This fic will be rated T for language and violence. Disclaimer: I do not own the The Cursed Princess Club. All credit goes to LambCat on Webtoon. This is all for fun and I just really love this comic.)

CPC: Ch.1

(Frederick's Thoughts: Italicized)

" Useless! Absolutely useless! Once again your complete incompetence surprises me!" screamed the Plaid King as he threw the shredded remains of Frederick's proposal in his face. He flinched away, dread creeping up from his toes.

Well, here we go again.

"This is your proposal?! More trees and libraries!? How can my own flesh and blood come up with something so pathetic!?"

The king groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Where did I go wrong with you? I trained your brothers the same way and they turned out fine. Why can't you be more like them? Lance and Blaine have been turning in manlier proposals since they were toddlers.

Frederick rolled his eyes as he replied, " I'm pretty sure Lance only just learned to do that last year." The King gave a hard stare to his son.

"You know what!? There's still a lot you can learn from your brothers. So today you will be shadowing both of them during their daily duties. I can only hope that even a scrap of their excellence would seep into that fragile body of yours." The king turned on his heels and walked away from Frederick, muttering, "Honestly, sometimes I wonder if I sired a daughter." Frederick felt a familiar numbness echo in his chest as he picked up the remains of his ruined proposal off the floor. "You didn't even really read it....." He said to no one.

What was I even expecting? Of course he didn't read it through. If there isn't even one mention of fighting or anything Father considers "manly" enough, he treats it like dirt. I constantly try to please him and for what? Why do I need him to be happy? He'll always be disappointed with me, he'll never care about me........

Frederick felt tears itching his eyes.

Would it even matter if I was here?

Frederick stood up and briskly walk down the hall to the library. Screw the shadowing. I need to relax. Frederick was just turning the corner when he bumped into someone, nearly dropping his damaged proposal. "Ah, sorry about that, Frederick, I didn't really see you there." said Lance, his second elder brother. The tall man with light-bluish hair helped Frederick get his a few pages of his proposal straightened out. "Its fine, Lance." Frederick replied. Lance smiled. "Dad said that you were going to be tailing me today. So get into your work clothes, our first lesson is a nice spar in the gym!" he said as he slapped Fredrick hard on the back. Frederick frowned as his normally bright green eyes dulled. "Actually Lance, I'm not really feeling up to it right now. I'm just gonna go and-"

he said as he tried to walk pass his older brother. But Lance moved in front of Fredrick's path. " Ok. Then lets take a look at your proposal then and see if we can improve it." he said as he snatched Fredrick's papers. Frederick reached out for them but Lance held him back as he read aloud what he could make out. "Lets see..... "Increase flora production in the kingdom"...... "focusing on growing our some of our own plants".....encourage gardening among the men! Whoa! No wonder dad was mad!" Frederick made a grab for the papers. "Give it back, Lance!" he yelled.

Lance simply dodged Fredrick's leap and continued reading. "Improve the education system in the Kingdom with more libraries....... Make them more available to people farther from the main city..... start a Writer's Guild for inspiring authors! Whaaaat!" Frederick grabbed the papers from Lance with a snarl. "Give me that!" he said holding the pages close to his chest. Lance patted Fredrick's shoulder with a smile. " Don't worry. My first few proposals were crappy too. We just have to take out all the girlie stuff."

Frederick stiffened as he looked up at Lance; Heat beginning to rise to his face. "What?"

Lance continued, oblivious of Fredrick's disturbing expression. " You know, all this stuff about getting guys into gardening and writing and stuff. Its all girlie stuff. Guys don't belong in gardens growing flowers or holed up in a room writing about their "feelings". They're supposed to be out there fighting for the kingdom, hunting, doing real manly work. Come on, Frederick, you were just asking dad to yell at you if you brought him this."

Frederick was quiet; His heart pounding in his chest like a war drum. He clenched his fist, crumpling the torn papers. Something stirred inside of him, something that thrashed and howled in its fleshy cage. Its fiery body burning through every inch of his being. He wanted to let it out. Let it all out. He wanted to get in Lance's face and just scream until he couldn't even make a sound.

He needed to get away.

Frederick walked past Lance, continuing his trip to the library. Lance called out to him, keeping behind his brother. "Wait up, bro! This won't take long. We'll take out the lame stuff and put in something like exploring new lands or something. Then if you feel up to it we can spar later. Sound cool?"

Frederick stopped, still looking at the ground.

"Is your eyesight good?"

Lance cocked his head in confusion. "Huh? Yeah, why do you ask?"

Frederick turned his head to him slightly; Just enough for Lance to catch the cold furry filled green eyes of his younger brother.

"Because I didn't think you could see very well with your head so far up your ass." he replied. Then Frederick walked away, leaving Lance frozen in place. The second oldest brother's mouth hung open with shock and confusion. As Lance watched his brother turn a corner and disappear, he struggled to comprehend what his baby brother had just said to him.

And why?