THAT'S MY CROWN

Max Hatter x fem!reader | princess!reader | stolen tiara | mutual pining | teasing | palace chase | playful Max | physical closeness | first kiss | soft Max | Descendants: Wicked Wonderland | 6.2k words

By the time Max Hatter stole your crown, you had already been awake for six hours, smiled through two diplomatic breakfasts, sat through a lecture on trade routes between Auradon and Charmington, and endured an etiquette rehearsal that had somehow lasted longer than the actual ceremony it was meant to prepare you for.

Which was why, when you returned to your rooms just before noon and found the little silver tiara missing from the velvet cushion where your maid had left it, your first thought was not theft.

Your first thought was that someone had moved it.

Your second was that perhaps you had imagined seeing it there at all.

Your third came approximately ten seconds later, when you heard a very familiar laugh from the corridor outside.

You closed your eyes. “No,” you murmured.

There were certain sounds one learned to recognize for survival. The warning crack of magic gathering in an enchanted object. The scrape of steel being drawn. The distinct, ominous silence that fell over a royal banquet immediately before someone said something politically disastrous.

And then there was Max Hatter laughing when he had done something he knew he was not supposed to do.

You turned toward the open doorway just as a flash of black and purple vanished past it. “Max.”

No answer.