Chapter Text
Wanderlust sighed as he woke up, Discoball nudging him to sit up.
“Yeah, yeah… I know…” He said, sitting up and rubbing his face, “Right… meeting is today.” He stood, yawning as he went to his vanity and brushed out his hair.
“I still need to call Brezziana… And I need to go to Dancecity tonight… The day is packed.” He said to himself.
Discoball beeped softly, setting themselves on his vanity and looking up at him.
He smiled softly at them, “Yeah… Could be worse! But I really can’t be left to my own devices anymore after that, can I?” He said, going to get his clothes.
They were going to Sun Horizon today. He really didn’t know what it was about, but his father was always going to one Danceverse or another. It was kind of why he preferred staying with his mom, she was able to relax more and didn’t have to go around as much.
He really didn’t know why his parents didn’t live together. His working theory was that their magic combined could destroy a universe if used. But they were able to see each other once in a while, mostly around holidays and whenever there was some type of event… Speaking of, The Showdown was soon and he still didn’t know what he was going to open it with.
Well, either way, no more stalling. He needed to get to the lobby, his father was probably waiting for him.
He quickly braided his hair after he got dressed, weaving his crown into it and running down to the lobby with Discoball.
“Wanderlust! Come on, we need to go!” His father called out.
“Coming!” He yelled back, running down the stairs with Discoball.
“There you are. Come on, we have a meeting in ten minutes.”
“Yes, father.”
That was another reason he preferred his mom’s palace… His father was great, just… emotionally distant from him a lot of his life. He didn't think his father was really capable of strong emotions anyway, but it was a little difficult, especially growing up…
He didn't think his father necessarily understood being burnt out. Or understood being mentally tired, which he was a lot lately from… what happened.
Now wasn't the time to think about it, just go through the meeting, meet up with Brezziana and then Dancecity. Easy!
Hopefully… maybe he just jinxed it.
…
So maybe he ended up jinxing it just a little. Estrella got into a heated discussion with another dancer, from another Danceverse, and he had tried to calm them down… tried. After that, he really just let them talk it out. But Showdown rehearsals were starting soon so he needed to pick up the pace. He opened up with his own performance every year, and every time he tried to make it more interesting than the last… even if it wasn't his own songs a lot of the time.
He didn't put out a lot of music, only recently, and that was Can't Stop The Feeling. Just something he wrote when he was bored, but in a good mood.
The songs He didn't put out were the ones with true meaning. Granted, a lot of them were written when he wasn't feeling great. When he would go through breakups, or family struggles, or so on. He did a few times, but his father warned him that he shouldn't change his public image too much. So he didn't. He stuck with his “feel good” music or love songs. Which he enjoyed writing, but wished he could do more… and that he'd have enough music that it wasn't a shock when he actually sang something original at award events.
Anyway, mixed feelings and slight panic to think of songs aside, he had to go to Brezziana's place.
“When will you be back?” His father asked when they got back to the SpaceTime Hotel.
“Uh… maybe nine? Nine-thirty at the latest.” He said.
“Alright, I'll have dinner for you. Stay safe, okay?”
“I will!” He said, smiling as he opened up a portal, “love you, father!”
“Love you too. Have fun, Wander.”
He quickly went through the portal, sighing. He was already tired.
Discoball beeped as they flew around his head, looking a little worried.
He smiled softly, “It’s fine. I’ll be fine, buddy.” He said, “It’s just whatever she needs and then the city…”
He walked to the beach, where Brezziana told him to meet her at, and he found her almost immediately.
“Hey!” She called out, running up to him. She was still in her Lifeguard uniform, just got off duty.
“Hey, Brezz!” He chuckled, hugging her as she ran up to him, “What’s up?”
“I honestly just… wanted to check up on you.” She said, “I doubt being turned into some type of bird-monster felt good… at all.”
He sighed. He never wanted to talk about it. It messed him up more than he wanted to admit.
“I’m… fine, Brezz, don’t worry-”
“Lies.” She said, “I know it.”
He looked down, “Yeah. Yeah, it wasn’t great. I still think about it… It honestly hurt.” He said, sighing, “But I can’t really think about it. If I do, then it’ll be obvious and I’ll have to tell my parents what really happened, and how I ended up getting someone from a different world here, that we had to jump around Danceverse’s to save coaches, and that I met with Jack Rose… Father won’t be… the most thrilled about that.”
She nodded, “But… it’s nice to be able to talk about it, right? Just… be able to get it out of your system?”
“Well… Yeah, a little, I honestly just don’t often… talk about things that are bothering me.” He said, shrugging, “I'll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I promise!” He smiled, “I'm fine. Don't worry about me.”
She nodded, smiling softly, “if you say so.”
Well… at least he could lie.
“Anyway, what about you?” He asked, “how are you holding up after that?”
…
He spent a little longer with Brezziana than he was expecting, but it was fine. At least he was finally in the city, after this he could curl up and sleep, and hopefully relax tomorrow.
He decided to go up on the paths that people had made on the rooftops. Stay a little more out of sight. He hardly wanted to deal with much more today.
The city was always filled with life, and music, and people always dancing. It was a beautiful place… Just loud. And he didn’t have any more energy for it.
But this was it. He just needed to check on something and he could go and relax. Maybe he’d spend tomorrow writing things.
Until Discoball started beeping like crazy.
“You okay, buddy?” He asked, and watched as they looked over to a roof across from them.
“What is-”
And that’s when he saw Jack Rose for the first time in three weeks.
“What…?”
He was just sitting on a rooftop, a notebook in his hands and looked like he was singing to himself. He looked… peaceful. He actually looked comfortable.
“He’s here…” He said to himself, shaking his head, “What time is it?” He asked, turning to Discoball.
It was 8:30.
This might be his only chance… He needed to take it.
He decided to go to him.
Jack didn’t notice him at first, he was being really quiet, listening to him…
“... I’ve spent forever, wondering if you knew, I was enchanted to meet you~”
It was quiet. Hell, it was barely audible, but… it was really pretty.
“Please don’t be in love with someone else, please don’t have somebody waiting on you…”
It… really didn’t sound like something Jack would write.
So he wondered how much of his own career was Night Swan.
Discoball nudged him slightly, looking at him in annoyance, trying to tell him to hurry up.
He sighed, stepping around the corner…
“Jack?”
He quickly turned around, face softening at realizing who it was.
“Prince Wanderlust…?”
“When did you… get here?” He asked, walking up to him and smiling
“I… managed to leave through one of the portals that you opened.” Jack said, relaxing slightly, “Went with Mihaly. They got me here. So I got my own apartment, and I’ve been staying here since.”
He nodded, “I… I’m sorry I couldn’t find you sooner.” He said, sitting with him.
“I assume you had things to do. You are a Prince, after all.”
“But… I could have at least tried… I kinda thought you were still in Eternyx.”
“At least you did find me, right?”
Wanderlust looked over to him, seeing a soft smile on Jack’s face.
“Yeah… I did.” He said, sighing, “What are you up to, then?”
“Writing some thoughts out.” Jack said, “Might not ever be published, depending on… well… Mother, but it’s nice to just think about these.”
“You don’t want to put them out because of her?”
“I put them out, she finds out, finds where I live. Then what?”
He nodded softly, “I’m sorry that she’s stopping you from it…”
“One day, she won’t be able to… hopefully.” He sighed, “And you? What have you been doing?”
“Uh… Father has been in a lot of meetings, so I’ve been in those…”
“And your mother?”
“I haven’t gotten to stay with her in a while… I think she was also dealing with another part of Night Swan’s mess.”
“Makes sense. Her bullshit probably spreads into every little corner of every Danceverse…” He groaned, “What are the meetings about?”
He shrugged, “Showdown, mostly. Which I still don’t know what I’m going to open with…”
Jack chuckled, “Doubt you could do any of mine and get away with it.”
Wait… that’s not a bad idea!
“I don’t know, what were you humming to yourself when I walked up?” He asked
Jack smiled softly, “It was called ‘Enchanted’. Wrote it when I was about seventeen, one of my favorites from that album…”
“What was it?”
“Speak Now. I got to write it almost entirely on my own…”
He was getting somewhere. He could work with that.
“You have music, don’t you?” Jack asked, “I feel like you do.”
He sighed, “Not as much as I want to… Things I write that can’t be put out.”
“By choice?”
“... Half my choice, half my parents.”
Jack nodded, “I know the feeling.” He sighed, “What do you have, then?”
He lit up slightly. He could… talk about his songs.
He had his notebook on him too! He was able to show him!
The last time he really put out music that was about his life, he was fifteen, when-... he shouldn’t talk about it, or think about it.
He didn’t need to. Jack kept reading through all the words that were in his book, and he would briefly add to each of them…
Until it was finally 9:30.
“Oh- Oh, no, I have to go.” He said, “I can come back tomorrow.”
Jack smiled, “I’d love that. Why not?”
He lit up, standing, “Then I’ll be back.” He said, opening a portal.
“Goodnight, Wanderlust.” Jack said as he turned back to look at the city.
“Night, Jack!” He ran through his portal, going to the lobby of the hotel.
He sighed, and tried to go up to his room…
But once he got upstairs, Discoball beeped disapprovingly, shaking themselves in a way of saying “No” as they redirected him to the kitchen.
“Alright, fine…” He said as he walked to the kitchen, “I honestly forgot, okay?”
Discoball rolled their eyes, and he chuckled, “I’m going to eat, okay?”
He saw a plate sitting on the counter, still semi-warm. He just took it and sat down, thinking.
“Jack liked what I wrote…” He said, half talking to Discoball, half himself, “Maybe he could use it. I doubt most of them will ever be made by me…”
Discoball sat themselves on the table, looking up at him confused.
“It was only once. And I had to lie about it. Both of them thought it was another cover… You don’t know how much I was threatened with being grounded after that show…”
Discoball looked even more confused.
“Talking about how I felt, fifteen years old, about my parents having fights and being sick of it? In public and then getting an award for it? Yeah, they weren’t happy… did feel really good though.” He sighed, “So I probably can’t do what I want to. I’ll let him have it and I’m sure he can do it better than I would…”
“There you are.” His father said, making him jump slightly as he saw him walk into the kitchen, “How was your day? You must’ve been in the city for a while.”
“It was fine. I’m just tired, Brezz decided that I was a good text subject for a class she’s working on.” He said, chuckling, “City was fine… ran into someone I didn’t expect, talked with him for a while.”
“Who was it?”
“Believe it or not, Jack Rose! He’s finally out of Eternyx.”
His father looked stunned, “Seriously?”
“Yeah. I went there a few weeks ago, I got to meet him. He’s honestly really kind, just wanted to write his own music.”
“You… went to Eternyx?”
“Yeah, I heard about something and I wanted to see if it was true. It was just outside of Cygnus. Ran into him. Found him tonight in the city, and he was just happy to be there.”
That was something that only really he knew… He was a good liar.
And his father had no clue that he just told one.
“Wow… Okay then…” He said, “Do you have any idea of what you're going to do for Showdown? That wasn’t touched on today.”
“I have an idea. I’ll go to the rehearsals once they start up.”
Alright. Anyone you want to invite?”
“Mihaly and Brezz, mainly…”
He would have said Jack, but he knew it wouldn’t have ended well.
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do. Your mother will be here in about two weeks.”
He nodded, “Anything going on tomorrow?”
“Not that you have to be involved in. I’ll probably be out before you wake up, if you need anything, the guards and staff will be here.”
Perfect.
“Alright… I’m just going to finish eating and go to sleep.” He said, sighing.
“Sounds good. Goodnight, son.” His father said, turning to go up to his own room.
He sighed, looking back down at Discoball.
“Wouldn’t you be scared of that, too?” He said, chuckling slightly as he finished his food, going to wash his dishes and finally go back to his bed.
He unbraided his hair, sighing in relief as he took out his crown, setting it on his vanity as he went to change clothes.
So… Jack’s songs were an option- a very nice option at that. A peaceful rebellion!
He decided that he’d listen to Enchanted in the morning, while he was making breakfast maybe… Maybe he’d listen to more while he was at it.
So he went to bed, just glad that he had a full day of nothing.
He’d meet with Jack in the afternoon. Give both of them some time.
The next morning…
He found himself still in the kitchen, on his laptop, looking into Jack’s things.
First off, the album covers were really pretty. It seemed all of his tours were in Eternyx until his latest, “1996”. But that was nearly three years ago.
There was one that was different from the others. Lose Yourself, was the title. The imagery was different, the titles were different. It looked like something he fully wrote and made himself, with no input from Night Swan.
Was he listening to Speak Now all morning, though?... Yeah, he was. And after he finished listening to it, did he listen to Enchanted over and over?... yeah.
So it was settled what he was doing for Showdown.
But now, he was going to actually look decent and go to that rooftop to find Jack…