Work Text:
People think being dumb is easy. That you can just breeze through life without any worries. Oh you would never be moving up but you also wouldn’t move down. Not when you are at Chad’s station. That assumption isn’t correct. Not when you are Heir Apparent of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
His entire life had been training for the throne, for being the sole ruler of one of the most powerful kingdoms in Auradon. It wasn’t until he was twelve and little miracle baby Chole was born, that there was any doubt about his future. Now, even as he was eighteen and she was six, there were rumors of the crown going to her instead.
Chad wasn’t entirely stupid, he knew that he would never be the best. Never have the best grades or be the most popular. He knew that most people thought of him as some sort of dumb dolt who only did Audrey’s bidding. And perhaps he was. But it still didn’t change the fact that Sardinia, his kingdom and his people, were his number one priority. If it had to make the choice between his longest oldest friend and his people, there would be no question. No hesitation.
Everyone just looked at him and saw nothing. Lights on but no one’s home they would say. They didn’t see the mountains of paperwork he sorted though weekly, or all the proposals that he had helped his parents send to King Adam. He had sat by his parents side, forever waiting for a budge, for the sliver of hope to be given breath. His dear mother had always been too kind, and the high king too harsh. So when news came of others, they took the small fracture, the small what if, and rejoiced.
His pushback against the initial villain kids had been purely selfish. Why them? Why the ones that no one had asked for? No Tremaines or the Gothel girl? No one who any kingdom had wanted off had gotten off of the Isle, Queen Snow had warmed up and began to love Evie but that didn’t negate that she had never wanted her off the Isle beforehand.
It wasn’t til afterwards that Chad found out that Ben had never known about any of the motions to get children off the Isle before his proclamation. That Ben thought he was alone in his wishes. Chad had sealed his fate due to his pettiness, until Dizzy got off he would never get a chance to get close or apologize or explain that they did have allies. Just another thing that silly stupid Chad Charming had screwed up. Another reason to give the crown elsewhere.
People rarely looked at him and saw his parents. They saw the spoiled greedy prince, a harold of the old times. Someone who didn’t care who he hurt as long as he was on top. Someone who’s wealth and position mattered more than the people they were supposed to serve. They often forget that kind does not mean nice.
All he would ever be to the general public, to high society at large would be Chad Charming, the pretty boy with much to him.
But to his kingdom, his people, his Sardinia. He was Crown Prince Chadwick Geoffrey Theodore Nikolai Denzil Anastasius William François Reginald Leopold Hamnet James, heir to the throne of Sardinia, the kingdom of kindness, of the wish fae. That’s what mattered most to him. To carry on his parents legacy in the best way that he could, even with the bridges he’s burned, Chad will do his best to continue further into a golden age.