Levi kept his confident stance as another trickle of sweat ran down the back of his neck. He'd grown up in Florida and was used to the heat and humidity and all the rest of Floridian craziness (a guy got arrested in Olive Garden for eating pasta with too much aggression the other day), but it was a whole new level of heat when wearing boots, pants, multiple long sleeved shirts, a hat, and a wig. 

But this was the life of a Disney face character. A very highly wanted, praised position.

He swore he saw a guy cry when he didn't make the cut. Levi preferred him to the ones that had glared daggers after the auditions, as if he'd stabbed them all in the back to get the job. He shriveled at the thought of killing a bug, so that definitely hadn't been on his mind. Still, he could see where they'd been coming from. Most of them had acted in plays. Some were standup comedians with impressive improv skills, all of them roguishly handsome.

Then came quiet, no experience Levi, snagging the role, the others auditioning gawking at him like he was already Jack Sparrow, somehow thwarting the East India Trading Company's plans with nothing but a shred of luck. Because Disney only hired the best of the best.

"Interesting," Oliver had said that day at auditions, causing his neck to prickle, "I never suspected you could even act. Then again, they're mostly looking for people of the right height and build. There's not as much competition here."

Levi banished the thought from his mind. Because he wasn't Levi right now, he was Captain Jack Sparrow, and he had guests to talk to. Which was difficult because he had his own fountain running down his back and it wasn't the fountain of youth.

The next group of guests came forward. It was a group of women who looked like they'd spent the past few hours drinking around the world at Epcot—not just because of the way they stumbled more than he did, but because they were wearing Epcot shirts that had clearly been marked off with at least half the countries. Why they would take so much time to take a bus over here when they clearly weren't done with their festivities didn't really bode well.

There were six of them and they came forward like a hoard of zombies, grinning and feasting with their eyes to the point where Levi almost backed up into his corner. But he stood his ground, pasted on a charming smile, and said, "Ah, ladies. How fortuitous of you to venture into Adventureland today."

But I'm not your adventure, he thought, hoping to keep his phrasing very clear when it came to him not being exactly happy that they were there. Not when they were clearly trouble.

Maybe they wouldn't be trouble. They hadn't even said anything—

"Hello, captain." And all his hopes drowned at how incredibly flirtatious the head girl, who had red hair, declared, "Do you wants a red head?"

He gave her props for at least quoting the ride. Or, well, the ride before they'd changed it to better reflect the times. "I'm not in the market right now, but thanks."

"I guess he's just sampling." The red head elbowed one of her friends. They all started giggling. She took another step forward, unsteady, eyes dilated before meeting his. "Do you want to sample me?"

He immediately looked around to see what all the other Cast Members were doing just to see who could call in if they had any sort of problems.

Sarah, his handler, had stepped away to point a guest in the direction of the Haunted Mansion and the PhotoPass CM was trying to help the last group of guests with their MagicBand, which for some reason wasn't scanning the right way. You'd think his last Cast Member, the one counting the line and making sure everyone had their autograph books ready, would at least be noticing that something was up, but no. It was a busy day and she seemed to be frantically trying to get the crowd moving as a giant hoard of teenagers was causing some sort of ruckus, which made it the perfect moment for this woman to basically get away with whatever she wanted. A pirate's word against hers.

Obviously they'd trust his word over hers, but he wasn't exactly sure how to tell his boss that some lady groped him. Not that she had yet, but this was Disney and you couldn't really sneeze with bad intentions without getting reprimanded. It didn't become the happiest place on earth by letting in people who weren't rule followers.

And this lady clearly took the whole "happiest place on earth" slogan a bit too far. He wasn't that sort of actor.

"My only love is the sea," he said stiffly. "Even Gaston is a one woman sort of man. I don't think you'll find what you're looking for here."

Her hand started descending in what felt like slow motion. "Oh, but I like what I—"

He had no idea what he was supposed to do in this sort of situation. Yes, he'd had training, but it was different when it was actually happening. Making a scene didn't really sound like an option, but just acting and playing along like he seriously was a Jack Sparrow that didn't want any involvement with women, as realistic as that would be, felt like a lie. A lie to himself. Because it wasn't appropriate and he didn't want to play it off as if everything was fine. This wasn't fine. He wasn't here to be some lady's fantasy.

Before he could do anything, a girl shoved her way past the red head, pushing her hand away. "Excuse you, but Captain Jack Sparrow is untouchable."

"Aye," he said, hoping it sounded confident enough. But Jack being confused was as legitimate as it got, so that worked too.

The new guest, who clearly wasn't part of this group, turned with a hand on her hip, a finger pointed in accusation. "By order of the East India Trading Company, now ruling over these waters of Adventureland, Captain Jack Sparrow is a novelty that is not to be handled by anyone outside of it." She tilted her chin up. "If you want a picture with the captain, that can be arranged. But there will be no contact, as he is a wanted fugitive."

"Who are you?" one of the girls snarled.

His defender straightened, cocking her head to the side. "Who am I?" A hand to her heart. "I am Captain Jack Sparrow's lawyer."

Some of them backed away.

"Aye, you thought I couldn't get myself one, could you? But I did. A girl lawyer," he said, very glad for his girl lawyer, as silly as the whole thing was. "And you can take that to the bank!"

"Oh I most certainly will, Mr. Sparrow," she said.

"Not all of it," he said, a finger raised in protest, lip wobbling over bared teeth, Jack's novelty cringe pout that had taken Levi a while to master.

"Picture time!" his savior exclaimed, clapping and organizing the bumbling girls as if she was a Cast Member herself. By this time, his PhotoPass Cast Member was ready to go, shooting away.

Sarah had returned and the girl stepped over, whispering to her.

Levi smiled and tried to pay attention to his less than polite guests, but his eyes kept landing on this mystery girl. He actually recognized her. She'd been pretty infrequent, infrequent enough where he'd gotten away with forgetting her name, but he should remember it. She was always fun and asked him questions, which were intriguing and usually more creative than what most people their age and older came up with. He'd always looked forward to her visits, but in that absentminded way where he usually forgot about her until he saw her again.

He wouldn't forget this time. And, it was with great satisfaction that her name popped into his head when she turned and smiled at him. A lovely, shining smile that always lit up her face.

Sarah had ended up calling park security, someone undercover who was hovering nearby in case anything happened, but fortunately the girls seemed to walk off without an issue.

And his smiling angel of a girl practically skipped up, looking very proud of herself.

"Nora," he said, "my lawyer." He held out a hand, which she shook promptly. "What did I do to deserve such protection?"

She rocked back and forth on her heels. "You promised me a lot of gold."

His lips quivered. "That doesn't sound like me."
"What, the gold or the false promises?"

"If false promises were gold, aye?" He grinned. "But really, I owe you a debt."

"You remembered my name that time. I guess you gave all your rum to those ladies?"

"They looked the type to steal it, wouldn't you say?"

"Unfortunately."

"I say we get a picture to commemorate your stunning defense of an honest man."

"No one deserves to be auctioned off, you know. Or anything like that." She changed into a gruff voice, bowing. "Just doing my civic duty."

Oh, he liked her. To quote something so random from Pirates? Yes.

"You'll be back to see me, then?" he asked.

"I always stop by. If you haven't noticed, Pirates is my favorite movie trilogy." She pointed at him. "The fourth is okay and I'm sorry, but the last one can go into the Bermuda Triangle forever."

"I agree with you on that one. Not my best work." He tipped his hat.

She was grinning.

He would never forget her name again.

Levi grabbed his pack, debating what to do with the rest of his night. It had been a day. It was mostly being in the sun and talking, talking, talking that got to him. As Jack Sparrow, being fake extroverted wasn't so bad, but the second he was out of costume and back to being Levi, all the energy seemed to get sucked out of him. He felt like Mother Gothel, definitely needing Rapunzel to sing some life back into him.

Not that Rapunzel liked him very much. He fell into the category of "thug". And also, the actress playing her had too much fun with her princess friends to care about him. He was pretty young for a face character, which was a bit ostracizing when it came to hanging out with the other Cast Members. Which was fine and all. He wasn't much of a people person anyway, especially when so many of them wanted to go to Epcot and drink. It wasn't really his style.

Plus he was underage, which didn't help his Peter Pan sort of never-growing-up aura he had going for him.

Levi decided he needed a pick me up. Magic Kingdom food wasn't his favorite at all, but it was still nostalgic enough to fill his heart.

Levi grabbed a turkey leg and went to sit inside Peco's Bills to eat it, leaning his head back against the wall as he slowly devoured the smoky meat, relishing the nice cool air blowing on him. He loved his Cast Member discount, not that it applied to everything. Loving Disney was still a pricy endeavor, even if he did get into the parks for free.

Peco's was big enough that it wasn't too crowded, even at a peak meal time since it was the off season, but the bustling noise was still giving him a headache. It still felt wrong to leave without at least doing one attraction. He didn't want to do anything fast paced, nothing that spun or went in circles, but that left a lot of options. Fantasyland called to him, so after throwing his trash away he went to PhilharMagic. Air conditioned. Short. Normally a lot of space in between parties, especially at this time of the day when people were leaving the park or trying to ride the bigger attractions before the fireworks.

He still got unnerved when a Cast Member recognized him. It didn't happen too often, especially considering that there were thousands of Cast Members who worked for the Magic Kingdom alone, but outside the ones who either helped him regularly during his meet and greet or happened to hang out in the Adventureland area of the utilidor a lot, there weren't many people who knew. But one CM outside of PhilharMagic was a College Program kid and, by the way her mouth dropped open, knew exactly who he was.

Levi quickly walked by, too embarrassed to want the attention, though before he was out of earshot, he heard her say to her partner greeting at the entrance, "He's friends with Jack Sparrow."

The classic hidden line even he was allowed to say to people, but didn't. No one outside of his parents and brother knew—well, and Oliver, but he didn't count him. He didn't even want his extended family knowing he worked at Disney. Everyone always hounded Cast Members for their free passes. No thank you. He was used to being the cousin who didn't have anything going on and he was fine with being at the bottom of the ladder in terms of achievement.

Levi tried to shake off the feeling that the CM had stepped inside to "check" on all the guests, glad that there wasn't a line. He grabbed his Opera glasses, which were just 3D plastic glasses, and headed into the last waiting area, giving a huge sigh of relief at the dark blues that shadowed the area and the quiet. He closed his eyes, grateful for the peaceful few minutes before they'd be let into the auditorium.

And then it ended.

Someone started humming There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow next to him. Right next to him. The song didn't bother him, but considering the waiting area was huge and there was barely anyone waiting for the next show to start, he wasn't exactly happy to have someone invade his personal bubble when they really didn't have to.

He decided to wait it out. She had to stop eventually, right?

She was humming, but that didn't stop the words from forming in his brain, Man had a dream and that's the start, he followed his dream with mind and heart. And when it becomes a reality, it's a dream come true for you and me! So there's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow just a dream away.

The song finished and she started humming The Best Time of Your Life next. Which meant he couldn't ignore her anymore. He hoped that looking at her would make it obvious enough that he wanted to wait in the quiet.

She was wearing the Opera glasses already, something they asked you not to do. Not that this was incredibly obnoxious, especially considering they were standing still, but it put him more on edge. He didn't want to be associated with a rule breaker. He was too squeaky clean for that and, as a CM, needed to be a perfect model for guests.

"First time at the opera?" she asked, eyebrows wiggling.

"Not even close," he said, shuffling a bit so he was a few more inches away from her.

"Oooh. An AP?"

"CM." It was somewhat of a test to see if she knew her very basic Disney lingo. Considering she knew what an Annual Passholder was, he doubted she'd have any problem knowing the abbreviation for Cast Member. Not to mention she was singing The Best Time of Your Life, a song associated with the Carousel of Progress but wasn't even sung during it.

"I salute you for all your hard work of making this place incredibly magical." She held a hand to her forehead. "You, sir, are made of pixie dust, and deserve the highest rank of all officers."

He blinked, not knowing the appropriate response. "Thank you."

"I like that you're here. Just got off your shift, huh? But you couldn't leave."

"I could leave," he said, more to remind himself that he didn't have to talk to this girl. That his whole plan of a relaxing last attraction was going up in flames because she couldn't have stood by herself.

"But you won't," she replied confidently. "I sense you don't get Disney burnout. You and I," she gestured between the two of them, "we're alike."

He doubted they could be more different. Levi's face must have resembled his confused Jack Sparrow look because she laughed.

"Oh, come on. We're Disney people. It's in our blood. Look at that, you have a Mickey Mouse Park Life MagicBand! Oh, it's so cute."

Levi startled as she grabbed his wrist, holding it up to inspect. "Um—"

She let go, letting his arm fall. "See? Disney person. You splurge on MagicBands you don't need."

He rubbed the back of his neck, his forearm tingling. He was used to strangers hugging him when he was Jack Sparrow, but this was different. And he didn't know how to tell her to leave him the heck alone.

But then she lifted her Opera glasses. His annoyance fell away instantly as he took in the warm brown of her eyes.

Nora.

As often as he saw her, it shouldn't have been a surprise to run into her in the parks without his makeup on, but for some reason it was. His stomach sunk at him thinking she was annoying when she'd saved him earlier.
            
He almost said her name out loud, but remembered that he, as Levi, hadn't officially met her yet. Instead, he swallowed, now on his best behavior. "Yeah, you're right. We have the same obsession."

Her face split into a wicked grin. "I knew it. Was that so hard to admit?"

Levi stared at her. Should he tell her who he was? It wasn't like he wasn't allowed to, but it was pretty frowned upon.

He remembered one of his trainers sliding a picture across to him, a macho man in red. "This is Tom. Tom used to be Gaston."

Levi glanced down at the picture. It was very typical of Gaston. Muscle poses.

"Tom was gaining a lot of popularity to the point where he was trending on social media. Hundreds of guests would come to the park specifically to meet him. A lot of people wanted to be his friend when he wasn't on stage. Tom was a nice guy. He ended up getting close to some of the guests when he was a guest himself, being honest about his role. He ended up being let go. The girls started posting about who he really was, which led to a lot of negative PR that we had to cover up. He was being stalked, harassed, and some of the guests would use his real name during his interactions." She took the photo back, sliding it into her neat pile.

"Haven't other face characters told other people who they are?" Levi had asked.

"It's completely acceptable to tell people you are friends with Jack Sparrow. However, it would be prudent to only tell people that you're close to and to avoid telling guests. Otherwise, you may unfortunately end up in a similar situation as Tom."

At the time, it was laughable to think of wanting to tell any guests he was a face character. Laughable that he'd be close enough to anyone to want to tell them that. He hadn't even had enough courage to audition for a school play, as if someone would gossip about the shy kid. As if he'd had anything to lose. What would they do, talk to him less than they already did? Then again, there was such a thing as negative attention.

Which was why the face character gig was so appealing. Barely anyone knew you were a character. Your name wasn't printed on a program for everyone to see, you weren't a celebrity that anyone would look for you in a crowd. You didn't even have to act with other people, usually. You got to interact with guests, bring smiles to faces, and go home without anyone being any the wiser.

But here Nora was, right in front of him, expecting him to interact with her without eccentric expressions or poses. He could thank her for being so amazing to him when it came to handling those drunk women.

But should he? He wasn't Jack Sparrow. He wasn't confident. It felt like boasting almost, to meet her and say, Nice to meet you, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. As if he wanted to be impressive.   

Besides, he didn't know Nora yet and, as much as she came by, she could be one of those obsessive character stalkers with crushes on all of them. Or she could share his identity through social media, which had started to pick up lately when it came to his popularity, and he didn't really want to be any more famous than he already was.

He didn't want to be the next Tom.

So, as much as he didn't want to lie to her, he could keep this professional. Besides, it was just PhilharMagic. After this, he'd go home and the next time he'd see Nora, she'd be looking at a pirate, not him.

"I guess it is," he responded. "Not everyone is the biggest supporter of Disney people."

"Well, we're all mad here." Nora winked.

He couldn't help but smile.

The lights flashed and the doors opened. Nora immediately started forward, but Levi put a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. "Wait."

"You're keeping me from my Donald dream," she whined.

"We're going to try to sit in the middle." He waited for a few larger groups to go in first before saying, "Now."

"Pro tip." She flashed him a grin. "I should keep you around."

His heart burst like cannon fire when he realized how long he'd had his hand on her shoulder. He tried to remove it with as little panic as possible.

Levi let her pick their seats, which did end up being in the middle. She plopped herself down, squirming until she was comfy, hands falling into her lap, polite and pristine. "I'm Nora, by the way."

"Levi."

"We match." She pointed between the two of them. "Two syllable names."

She acted like it was destiny that they met. That two syllable names were the coolest. It made him feel as if he didn't know how to small talk. Heck, he wasn't even really good at regular talk.

He went on to safer waters, a conversation topic he normally talked about with guests. "Have you been here all day?"

"Having the time of my life? Yes. I guess you've been here all day too, huh? What land do you work in?"

Levi frantically wondered if he should lie, but wasn't sure if that would do him any good. "Adventureland."

Cool. Attractions? Retail? Cooking? Janitorial services?" The way she said janitorial services was like she was trying to get him to admit to sinning.

Yet again, he wasn't sure how to respond. He went with janitorial because if, for whatever reason, she ever went looking for him, he could say he was cleaning the men's bathrooms for all eternity. He then changed the subject so he wouldn't have to keep lying, "What's your favorite thing to do here?"

"Characters."

Not exactly wanting to know the answer, Levi asked, "Who's your favorite?"

"Guess."

"Peter?"
            
"No."

"Gaston?"

"Big no."

"...Pooh?"

"Back up a bit."

The name barely left his mouth. "Jack Sparrow?"

"Captain," she said with the commanding familiarity of Elizabeth.

The theater dimmed, which made it impossible for her to see his red face. He wasn't sure if that information made the reason for lying better or worse.

Nora was the perfect audience. She ooooh'd and aweee'd in all the right places and even tried to touch all the gems and 3D things that of course weren't right in front of her.

"Levi." She nudged him. "You totally need to be reaching out to grab those jewels that Ariel is giving us."

"Can't," he said. "I don't want the theater to be flooded with ocean water because of my greed."

"Nice call."

Nora sang all the songs. This didn't surprise him one bit. He ended up having more fun watching her than the show.

"The Beauty and the Beast scene is my favorite part," she whispered near the end of it, after Donald had tried to grab the sorcerer hat and ended up with the most amazing apple pie instead.

"Eh."

She punched his arm. "It has the best smells."

He preferred the Aladdin part, with the wind and cool flying scenes, but to each his own.

"Yeah. I need some dessert after this," he whispered.

"It's a date."

He blinked a few times, but said nothing. He doubted she meant it was an actual date.     

This was already weird enough as it was.

"Favorite Magic Kingdom dessert?" she asked as they exited the theater, tossing their glasses into the bin for cleaning.

"That's such an unfair question. There are too many to choose from."

"Easy." Nora steered them towards the carousel. "A nice cinnamon roll."

"Main Street?"

"Gaston's Tavern."

He shriveled his nose at the thought of Gaston.

"You're not easily impressed, are you?" Nora practically skipped over to the sword in the stone. "Well, watch this."

She pulled. Levi couldn't help but smile, lingering closer as she huffed and puffed. "I don't think you're worthy."

"How dare you. At least I know my favorite Disney dessert."

"I don't think that's what it takes to be Temporary Ruler of the Realm." He couldn't help but add, "I was, once."

Her mouth fell open. "No you weren't."

"I was. When I was seven. Merlin chose me and I pulled the sword out of the stone."

She crossed her arms, pouting. "And here I thought you couldn't get any cooler." The words registered, but didn't make sense. Him? Cool? "A Cast Member who also became king for a day? Wow. Color me impressed." She bowed. "You deserve to pick the dessert, Your Majesty."

"Oh. Well..." He couldn't help but look at the castle, past Fantasyland, which was where he'd have to go to grab a bus to his car. Main Street was the opposite direction. "I mean, ice cream sounds good?"

Nora leaned over the anvil, her face incredibly close. "You'll have to answer a very important question. By ice cream do you mean ice cream or do you mean dole whips?"

It was also the wrong direction that he should be going, but he couldn't help but say what she obviously wanted to hear despite it supposedly being his choice, "Dole whips."

Her smile was as refreshing as crystal clear ocean water. "I like you, Levi. You have good taste."

Without missing a beat, Nora started towards the castle, leaving him dazed and staring after her for longer than necessary.

She led him away from Frontierland, the fastest way to get to where they were going. "Have something against the Old West?"

"Of course not. It's just the Adventureland entrance is amazing and, if ever possible, must be taken."

His tired feet disagreed, but he obliged. It's not as if she was wrong. A wooden bridge led into the land, complete with skulls, spears, and a headdress.

Nora pointed out the ducks on the way over. "I've seen some just like those on an exotic cruise lately. Very different species despite how similar they look."

"I've seen some like those singing in a small room."

"Birds of a feather flock together, I suppose."

They made it to the dole whip stand, Nora shooing his MagicBand away. "It's my treat, Mr. CM."

"Oh. Are you sure?" he asked, tentative. He'd never had someone pay for him before.

"Positive. You deserve it." She grabbed their dole whips off the counter, handing him one and toasting. "Cheers."

"Cheers."

Nora spun in a circle after her first bite, looking as smitten as Aladdin talking about Jasmine. "This is amazing."

It really was. There was a reason the lines were usually long for dole whips. "Thanks for the treat."

"Sure thing." She licked her spoon. "It's nice to have someone to hang out with for once. Usually I come alone. Sometimes I run into vloggers or people who are friendly, but I think most people during the week are on vacation, so I can't really tag along. I've tried some Facebook groups, but sometimes there can be a lot of drama in those and I'm not really for that, you know?"

"I get it. I don't really hang out with anyone either. Sometimes my brother, but he's one of those people you described. He got burnt out."

"I think that about settles it then."

"Settles what?"

"We are now officially Disney park buddies."

Levi stared.

"What? I thought my idea was awesome."

"It's not a bad idea." He started swirling around the pineapple juice, mixing it with his ice cream. "It's just... I'm pretty busy. You know how Cast Member schedules can be."

"I'm not being Ursula and making you sign over your soul." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying sometimes we can hang out."

But he was lying to her. And he'd lied because he thought this wouldn't last longer than tonight. He didn't want to lie to this girl. Heck, he shouldn't have even let her buy him a dole whip. He owed her, not the other way around.

But he didn't want to tell her the truth either. He also didn't want to start hanging out with her. This had been fun. He wanted to remember it as a random magical experience a guest had given him, not a "that one time a girl wanted to be around me and then ghosted me like the loser I am" memory.

Her voice was suddenly serious. "I mean, unless you don't want to be friends with me."

Levi looked at her. She seemed so sincere, but so far in life he hadn't really made any actual friends who stuck around. Why would she, except to maybe use him for his CM perks? But he couldn't exactly explain this to her right now. People didn't exactly like baggage. They weren't even friends, so why should he tell her?
            
But Levi was very, very bad at saying no. He set his dole whip down and took out his phone, exchanging numbers.

She noticed his quietness. "You know, you don't have to be alone. I'll be your friend. Really."

She acted like it was as easy as kindergarten. Not that kindergarten was a good memory for him. He met her eyes, hoping he looked genuine despite the memories weighing down his heart. "That would be nice."

Helloooo,

Hope you're enjoying it so far! Let me know in the comments and by liking and following.

Question of the Chapter: What's your favorite Disney dessert? If you've never been, just take a guess at what it would be. You could spend hours looking at all the goodies online if you want to be that thorough.

Pro tip: a lot of stores sell Mickey shaped ice cream sandwiches and bars now, the same ones you can get in the park. Only difference is they're smaller. So, if you want a bit of Disney sugary magic, stock up your freezer. Mine is.

-Flips