Philip had noticed Vivian’s emotions on his face when Theo greeted their drama club advisor. He realized immediately that Theodore still hadn’t told him anything yet. How could he let Snow find out so suddenly like this? He knows how insecure Snow can be. Even I, an outsider, can see that he is a ball of anxiety with an adorable outer shell. Philip’s train of thought trailed a little, but went back to the matter on hand quickly. As Snow’s step-father, and more importantly the only family he currently has, he should prioritize Snow’s well-being over rekindling an old flame. The more he thought about it, the more Philip got frustrated at how blind and stupid Theodore was being. Here was his Princess relying on a lovesick step-father who couldn’t even notice how mind shattering this little bit of news about his background was to his Princess. Philip started to pout inwardly. He wanted his Princess to rely on him.

He tugged on Vivian’s sleeve to get his attention. “Come on Viv, we still need to change into our full out costumes before the masquerade ball starts. Plus I have a surprise for you afterwards.” Philip was excited for the gift he had bought for his Princess. The problem was that he wanted Vivian to be in a good mood when he gave it to him. He had to get Vivian away from this confusing situation.

“Oh, ok.” Vivian was obviously out of it when he replied.

Philip pulled on Vivian’s shirt to drag him away. He noticed his aunt’s nod on the way out, but chose to ignore it. She knew more about this then Philip did, and probably knew her childhood friend had wussed out of talking with Vivian. There were enough changes in his Princess’ life to add more surprises to it.

They didn’t get far in the hallway before Philip noticed the blood had slowly started to drain from Vivian’s already pale face, and slight shivers could be noticed on closer inspection. Philip started to get scared, he had never seen Vivian do this before. Philip tried to get his attention, but got no reply. He grabbed Vivian’s hand (it was extremely cold) and turned him around to bring him somewhere more private. There was still an open house going on afterall.

The drama club storage unit was locked, but thankfully Philip knew Vivian had a copy attached to a strap in the front pocket of his messenger bag. Not letting go of his Princess’ hand her silently apologized and rooted through the bag that Philip had been carrying anyways. (He was glad that he had insisted on carrying Vivian’s bags ever since they met up at the flagpole.) He quickly found the key and unlocked the door, pulling Vivian in behind him.

Once inside he made sure to sit Vivian down on a beanbag chair prop and texted reinforcements, making sure to close the door behind him so no one could look in and see his Princess breaking down. The only person who would come in was the one who he had decided to summon.

He knelt down in front of the silently crying Vivian and just hugged him. He knew of no other way to try to comfort him, he knew not what was going on inside Vivian’s head, and he didn’t know how his Princess would respond to his touch. Philip was relieved when he felt Vivian lean into his hug. It was the right thing for Philip to do.

After a moment Vivian’s hyperventilating had slowed down to shuddering breaths. Philip leaned back slightly to look at him and check on his complexion. He was still extremely pale, but it was getting closer to Vivian’s normal pallor. The fear Philip was holding onto slowly got better at that sight.

Philip reached up to wipe some of the tears away from the corner of his Princess’ eye. His hand ending up lingering against Vivian’s cheek for a second more than he was planning. Vivian looked into Philip’s eyes with a dazed look before closing his eyes and snuggling his face into Philip’s hand. Vivian then sighed and seemed to fall asleep since his breathing got slower and quieter.

Philip felt his heart tighten as he watched over his Snow White in his comatose state. He had caught on about Vivian’s anxiety, but he never knew it could get this bad, and on such a flip of a coin. Even though Vivian’s face was now completely relaxed, Philip’s had inherited the slightly pained look. What happened to make Snow become like this so easily?

Philip’s eyes were filled with worry, but most importantly they were filled with love. If Vivian was awake and could see how much love Philip held for his Princess, then he would maybe understand how loved he was and see that there are people he can trust and rely on no matter what. Unfortunately he wasn’t awake. He probably would never find out about this intimate moment of Philip holding him and doing his best to comfort his pained self.

As Philip was filled more and more with unconditioned love for his Princess, he started to give into temptation. He slowly closed his eyes and leaned his face forward towards Vivian’s.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Azazel ended up being the one who had to walk around the open house with his cousin and Fintan. Loralai promised that she would forgive him if he went in her stead. She even insisted that he had to dress like her in the costume he had picked out for her and wear her make-up. He had obviously done this kind of thing before for his mother, but it still was hard to act like her when he wasn’t Loralai. Loralai knew how hard it was for him, and knew how serious he was when he immediately agreed to receive her forgiveness.

He wasn’t sure if his two guardians noticed which one he was, but if they did, they didn’t say anything. It never seemed like it mattered to them which of the two they talked with, unlike every other guardian they had in their life. It was actually a big relief for the two of them not to constantly be compared to each other and just be themselves.

The open house didn’t have a lot for the twins since, due to their circumstances, they had special classes separate from most of the other students. They really were like ghosts within the school. If not for Loralai joining the drama club along their cousin and her husband taking them in, the two of them would just fade into the background and disappear. The only reason they decided to show up was because Fintan was curious about how his wife was doing in her classes, since it was her last year of school.

She was going to be inheriting a family friend’s flower shop as soon as the school was over and wouldn’t be attending college in person, only taking a few business courses online that she had already started this year. This also meant that she and her husband would still be Azazel and Loralai’s guardians until they moved out on their own.

They were looking at the art class exhibits when Azazel received a text from Princey. He was used to random chatty texts from Princey, and at first decided that he would just look at it later, especially since there was one sculpture in particular that stood out to Azazel. It was much darker than the rest of the sculptures and somehow seemed to resonate with him. It was placed with the projects that were supposed to be about the creators expressing themselves. It was a small black ceramic figurine curled up into a ball that had its eyes closed and had tears carved into the face. It was hanging precariously using thin fishing wire inside a much larger wire egg, with sharp wires wrapped around its whole body as well. The wires were all cut short then twisted together and poking slightly in every which way to look like thorns. Every breeze or breath of air sent the figurine swirling around, showing how fragile and insecure the artist felt.

On closer inspection Azazel noticed that there appeared to be tattered wings on the back that had the only pop of color in the whole sculpture. He had no idea how he almost missed it. The wings were a navy blue with patches of pink where the wings seemed to be missing feathers or be injured. Azazel wondered if it was supposed to be a blood color, but the artist didn’t have any red and made due, or thought that the pink was supposed to be red after being fired in the kiln. Azazel couldn't think of a reason for it to be pink.

As he was pondering, his phone vibrated again to remind him he had an unopened message. Azazel grumbled since it was his sister who downloaded the special notification app onto the phone. He opened the text from Princey then immediately turned to his cousin and cousin-in-law.

“I’m so sorry, but I just got an SOS from Princey, so I have to go run to the drama storage room. You two are fine without me right?”

His cousin understood and just nodded, while Fintan made more of an effort to hurry Azazel along. “It’s rare to see you so worked up, so Philip must be in a lot of trouble. We know our way around a lot better than you and will be fine. Go and hurry up. Keep us updated as well since the Eccentrics are all like our second family.”

“Of course.” Azazel nodded, then hurried off. He was glad that he had convinced Loralai to let him wear sneakers instead of heels like she wanted, although she made sure the heels were in the car for when they switched for the masquerade part. He also wanted to wear pants underneath, but unfortunately only got away with wearing spandex running shorts that he didn’t even realize he owned. He was a flurry of pink with bouncing dirty blond curls as he hurried off to the opposite side of the school to help out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Philip’s lips were a centimeter away from Vivian’s when the storage room door swung open and a bundle of pink frills staggered in. Philip could tell from the look on the dolled up face that accompanied the dress which of the twins had responded to his earlier SOS. He was glad and relieved that it was Azzy since he felt like they needed the steadfast support over the emotional in this situation.

“Where is he?” Azazel didn’t immediately notice Vivian based on the positioning of where each teenage boy were located.

“Shh, he just fell asleep.” Philip slightly adjusted to reveal his most precious treasure to the dolled up boy. This action made Philip realize that he was still on his knees and that he needed to adjust to get his circulation properly running. So, as Azazel started to take some steps forward and close the door behind him, Philip focused on carefully moving both himself and Vivian in a way that wouldn’t wake his Sleeping Beauty. After some careful maneuvers, Vivian ended up on top of Philip’s lap and cuddled up to his chest with one leg stretched out on either side of him. Philip was holding him even more protectively as well now, occasionally rubbing his cheek against the head that was snuggled into the nook of his neck.

“Will you explain exactly what happened so I can understand what exactly triggered him? Also include what you did after you noticed the meltdown so I can let you know if you did the right thing.” Azazel came over and did his best to kneel down without messing up the dress or showing off that he was wearing a petticoat.

“I can’t tell you exactly what happened before since I want to respect my Princess’ privacy, but I can let you know everything after the moment that most likely triggered him.” Philip was unconsciously rubbing Vivian’s back during his spiel. After Azazel nodded in agreement to Philip’s terms, Philip immediately recounted exactly what happened and his responses to everything.

Azazel just nodded the whole time, only occasionally stopping Philip to confer or compliment his train of thought in the moment. Philip had no clue how to properly deal with someone having this kind of meltdown, but he knew Azazel use to suffer from them and figured he would be the best bet since Vivian seemed to connect with him a few days prior. He figured having someone that he knew Vivian could trust and was confirmed to have gone through something slightly similar would be better than an adult that could possibly be unpredictable in how they would respond and could make a choice that was worse for Vivian. Philip was way too protective of his Princess to make such a risky choice.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once the events were all accounted for, it was time for the final verdict on how Philip did on his first time of having to deal with one of Vivian’s breakdowns. Azazel confirmed that since Vivian had fallen asleep by himself, it showed that he felt comfortable and relaxed enough to trust Philip with his fragile state. Meaning he most likely did a good job and did exactly what Vivian needed done in that moment. It was a relief to both the currently awake teenagers. Philip because he properly protected Snow, and Azazel because he was unsure of the situation based just on the SOS text.