Work Text
The dankness of the Isle of the Lost was all around Jay. He found himself back there, thirteen years old again, sitting opposite his father at his desk. In front of Jafar was a big book of genie lore. Jay despised that book - he had spent hours agonising over every word in it, every stupid detail, memorising every page at his father’s request. In his defence, though, Jay was a genie (not that he had ever really felt like one, but anyway), so he supposed he should feel grateful that his father cared enough about him to want him to fully understand what they both were. But late at night, after doing enough reading, the words all blended together and became mindless nonsense, and it made him crave being back on the crowded streets where he could be in his element and just steal. Sleight of hand, playing the homeless orphan card, whatever he could muster to swipe the goods from any poor idiot who’d fall for his ruses.
At least he was inside, though, where being Jalil bin Jafar protected him. People who recognised Jay as the one who had stolen their silver watch or engraved lighter or whatever dumb trinket would come looking for him, of course. But then they realised the thief in question was Jafar’s son, and they backed away. Mostly.
Jay distantly heard his father say something to him, making him quickly snap back to reality. “I’m sorry, Baba, could you repeat what you just said?”
Jafar clicked his tongue in mild annoyance, but that was thankfully the most displeasure he showed. “You need to be paying more attention, Jalil. As I just said… remind me. What would happen to me if I stepped outside of the barrier?”
Jay didn’t even have to hesitate for his answer. “You’d be sucked back into your lamp, Baba, which is in the hands of the false Sultana. You’d be at her mercy.”
“Good. But you, my son - you are a genie with no lamp. What if you were to step outside of the barrier?”
Jay, yet again, immediately knew the answer. And the reality of it sat inside him uncomfortably, as if he’d just swallowed a rock. “My magic would start to work and immediately create my lamp. I’d be trapped in it until someone, preferably Jade, becomes my master. So, if the barrier ever comes down, we’ll go to Agrabah and rescue your lamp so you can take back your rightful throne.”
“Very good, Jalil.” Jafar smiled at his son in a fully genuine way. There was no ulterior emotion in his eyes at all, and Jay felt a little more than relieved. The man stood, wandering to the other side of the desk to place a firm hand on his son’s shoulder. “I know you will not fail me, boy. For you are my beloved son - Jalil Shahzad bin Jafar, Prince of Agrabah, and the true heir to the throne.”
The twenty year old Jay woke up with a flinch. He sat up quickly, which he immediately regretted. He looked around and realised… wait, he wasn’t at home. He was in the forest by the Enchanted Lake, spooning Evie, who was spooning Doug. And he remembered that his dad was far away from him and in his lamp, in Aziz’s mom’s study or something. Thank fucking God, that was just a dream. “Fuck,” he said with a sigh, a mixture of something in between relief and agony. His whole body ached, and his head was throbbing horribly.“Mmh?” A voice spoke from under him. Princess Evie stirred from her spot on their picnic blanket, stretching her arms and then grabbing the side of her head. (Jay only felt a little bad for waking her up - no-one from the Isle really slept well. If you had a gang, you slept in shifts to guard your territory. So everyone had to stay alert.) “Jay, are you okay? Fuck, my head…”“Mine, too. We all had way too much to drink,” he replied with a sigh, pulling her into a gentle hug. She gladly leaned on him. “And I’m fine, just a shitty dream about my dad. It’s nothing, I’m fine,” he repeated.“Okay. Do you want to talk about it?” Evie asked, putting a hand on his thigh and squeezing it. She shifted her upper body sideways so she could look at him as he held her. He watched as her perfect features creased for him - her symmetrical eyebrows furrowed, making way for a few forehead wrinkles. Her lips (of which her lipstick from the night before was mostly gone) curled into a pout that he had seen her mother smack her over, deeming it ‘immature and unattractive’. Her eyeliner was smudged, her hair was a bit of a rat’s nest, and she was as sweaty as Jay was. But he thought she was beautiful like this, and he wouldn’t have her any other way.Jay smiled at the princess softly and kissed her cheek. “Nah, don’t worry about it. Go back to sleep, I’m sorry I woke you. Doug looks a little cold there,” he teased, releasing her from his embrace. In true, lovingly dopey fashion, the half-dwarf was starting to shiver in his sleep, missing all of Evie’s body warmth.“Not arguing with you there. Goodnight,” Evie said with a yawn, laying back down and wrapping her arms around her boyfriend. With that, she quickly dozed off again, and Jay decided to drape his jacket over them both as a makeshift blanket. He made sure they were both comfortable and then stood up, slowly making his way to the Enchanted Lake. He wasn’t alone - there was the unmistakable silhouette of a wingless dark fairy sitting at the edge of the gazebo ruins, her legs hanging over the water below. Jay cautiously stepped over Carlos and Jane, who were peacefully passed out on the gazebo floor and would definitely never forget this redo birthday party, and sat to the left of the wingless fairy.“Hey. Can’t sleep either?”“Did I make the right choice, Jay? Like - taking down the barrier ? No-one seemed against it at the time, but it’s been on my mind all night. We can’t just let all of our parents back into Auradon like that.” Mal bit her lip. Jay hesitated for a moment and wrapped his arm around her, being careful to avoid her horns as he let their heads touch.“You’re doing your best to make a better world. You did a good thing by freeing the VKs, trust me. They’ll be better off here. And as for our parents…your mom’s still a lizard, your dad’s pretty chill now, my dad’s back in his lamp, Grimhilde can’t do anything without her mirror or her supplies, and Ursula’s the same. But, like, she doesn’t have her necklace. So they’re all accounted for. As for the rest… Well, we’ll figure something out. We always do.”“You’re probably right.” Mal sighed. “Your dad, the genie. Jasmine’s servant. God, I can only imagine how pissed he must be to be back in his lamp.” She snickered.“Right?” Jay laughed with her. Actually, speaking of lamps… where was his? He stood up, doing a scan of the area before remembering Evie having it last. How had he not thought to double check? “Hey, can we go find my-”“Sit back down. I got you, boo.” From her right side, Mal held up a small, unassuming oil lamp the shade of copper. The bane of Jay’s very existence. “Chill.”Jay sat back down, now letting himself keep breathing. “Thank fuck, M. Literal lifesaver.”“I swiped it out of Evie’s handbag last night. With how fucked up she gets on cocktails, I didn’t want to risk anyone taking it from her.”“And that’s why I love you.”Mal smiled at that. “I took some cigs from Chad, too, if you want to light them.”“Girl, we’re in a forest.”“So? We already trashed it last night. And I’m a fairy, the nymphs will forgive me.” Mal fished a box of cigarettes out of her pocket and took two out, handing one to Jay. “Fire, please.”“Yep.” Jay held out his index finger to the end of Mal’s cigarette, willing a tiny fire to go off on his fingertip. It caught on to her cigarette, and then his. Then he flicked his hand back and forth rapidly, putting out the fire.Mal took a drag and blew out, watching the smoke curl in the air. “Nasira and your mom are gonna come looking for you, you know.”Jay said nothing and took a drag of his own cigarette. He exhaled and watched his smoke curl with Mal’s, and then form the shape of his father in his full genie glory. It was a neat party trick Jordan had taught him. “Yeah, I know. I’m gonna let future Jay worry about that.”“Future Jay’s gonna think you're a dick. But, really, Ben and I can have them brought in like we did with my dad, assuming they haven’t left the shop yet.”“M, are you kidding? If my mom and auntie come here escorted by guards and in chains, I’ll never hear the end of it,” Jay scoffed. “I’ll let them come to me. Thanks, though.”“Yeah, sure.”As they sat there, smoking, there was an odd peace in the air. Neither of them wanted to be the one to say it, but it felt like they were back on the Isle again, unwinding in their hideout. Jay was scared to say it out loud, but he understood why Mal went back there those recent years ago. Things were simpler on the Isle; he didn’t have any genie fuckery to worry about and she didn’t have any political duties as the King’s fiancée. It was an agreement between the four of them, along with Freddie and CJ, that living in Auradon was exhausting. Undoubtedly better than the Isle, but also just exhausting.Apparently all of this was showing on Jay’s face, because Mal placed a hand on his shoulder and grinned at him. “Hey, cheer up. We’re going to be okay.”The two of them stayed there for hours, smoking and talking. Reminiscing on old memories, both good and bad. As Jay saw the Sun peeking over the horizon, he felt the warmth of the new day wash over him. And… yeah, maybe they were going to be okay.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Hurry it up, guys! Some of us have VKs to welcome so we can’t be here all morning! And we’re all hungover, so let’s keep moving!” Mal barked, picking up empty beer cans and tossing them into a plastic bag. As everyone worked, they slowly but surely cleaned up the mess they’d made of the forest. Mostly everyone was sober now, so her AK friends from her current life and her VK friends from her former life were properly getting introduced to one another. Dizzy had struck up a conversation between Jane and one of her big sisters, and now the three were gabbing about skincare. CJ Hook was finally reunited with her siblings Harriet and Harry after four years, and the three were using their hooks to collect trash as they got caught up. And Jordan seemed to be getting along with Jade, Jay’s cousin; the three of them had formed a trio the night before and it was still going strong.Mal felt the familiar touch of Evie’s hand on her shoulder, which she reacted to calmly by wrapping her arm around her waist. “I know. Isn’t this amazing?”The future queen looked at her friend, slightly confused. “What?”“The way you’re smiling, because everyone’s getting along so well. It’s amazing.”“Oh. Yeah, you’re right. I never thought Delphi and Jane would enjoy each other’s company so much, but at least Dizzy is happy about it.”“She really is,” Evie affirmed. “I’m so glad they’re here, M, they’ll do so well as Auradon girls. You made the right call. I’m proud of you.”Mal felt herself grinning a little too much at the compliment. “Thanks. I’ve been debating with myself over it all morning, and I think you’re right. This is for the best.”For a while, the large group kept cleaning, chatting away about anything and everything. They hadn’t done a bad job - all that was left to do was clean up the food scraps, and someone had to cast a simple spell to get rid of that sweaty post-party stench.“Not it!” Jay called out, raising his hand. Mal gave him a look. “What? I don’t give away my talents for free. You do it, nature girl.”She rolled her eyes. “Real noble of you, Jay.” Before she could open her mouth to recite a spell on the fly, she was distracted by a bright flash in front of her. What could only be described as an explosion of blinding silver sparkles filled the air, and it was accompanied by a high-pitched voice, a yelp, as the sparkles cleared to reveal the one and only Fairy Godmother. Mal only stared at her, a bit dumbly.“Whoops, I nearly lost my footing! I haven’t done that in ages,” the high school headmistress said with a brief laugh. “Are you kids alright? No-one got hurt?” She immediately made her way over to her daughter, stumbling on her heels as they sank into the soil. “And I see you’re tidying up, well done!”“We’re all fine, Mom,” Jane replied, in a shockingly normal tone. With the way she’d tried to outdrink Mal last night, it was impressive that she could even open her mouth without spewing everywhere. “I told you I’d be back by 1pm, you really didn’t have to come and, um. Pick me up.”“You did tell me that, love, I remember,” the Fairy Godmother assured her daughter. “But, ah… I’m not here for you,” she said with an apologetic look. “You four?” She glanced at Mal. “And Ben, Freddie, and CJ? You’ve all been summoned by the Royal Council, plus some others. Emergency meeting, I’m afraid.”Now, Mal was used to being called in for outrageously early morning meetings. Hell, she was even used to getting called in for one while nursing a hangover (which is what was happening at the present moment), and usually she could deal with it fine, but this immediately felt different. Because she knew exactly why the meeting had been called. She had followed her gut by taking down the barrier, and now her gut had left her with the intense urge to throw up every drink she’d had the night before.“Oh. Alright,” she said, which was all the words she could muster.The Fairy Godmother kissed Jane on the cheek before flourishing her wand. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!” And, with that, she disappeared as swiftly as she had appeared, this time taking Auradon Prep’s first six VKs plus King Ben with her. This was Mal’s first experience with teleportation, and it wasn’t at all like her mother had described - the Fairy Godmother’s magic was light, gentle, and cool, while theirs was dark, harsh, and hot. A rush of pure, silver fairy dust washed over her, obscuring her vision for a moment. When it settled… yeah, they were in a totally different location now. The area outside of Beast Castle’s conference room was mind-numbingly unforgettable.“You make teleporting look so easy,” Mal said with admiration.Her old teacher smiled appreciatively. “I know you’re all probably hungover, but this shouldn’t take too long. And, if you look down, I’ve dressed you all appropriately and given out baths.”Mal looked down to see that she was, in fact, now clean and wearing a gown she had definitely never seen before. “You must have a lot of free time.”“It’s very kind of you, Fairy Godmother,” Evie said quickly. “But we’ll get those other outfits back, right?”“Of course! The spell breaks at 12, you know me.” This fairy, who Mal was sure was at least one hundred and something years old, looked nervous. Which couldn’t be good. She was trying to put on a brave face, but Mal could see right through it after a life of reading rivals’ poker faces on the Isle. “I’m needed in there, too, so let’s go.”As Cinderella’s fairy godmother opened the doors to the conference room, where Cinderella herself would presumably be sitting with a crowd of others, Mal followed her in with her heart racing. Out of panic, she grabbed onto Ben’s hand, hoping for any form of comfort from her fiancé. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, which truthfully didn’t do much to calm her down.Her mother was known for her poor interactions with royals, and her first Family Day proved that she’d tragically taken after her in that regard, so the thought of so many kings and queens giving her their full attention and full rage made her uneasy. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to having attention on her, of course. Being Maleficent’s daughter had always been a big deal, especially on the Isle, but common criminals running from her in fear was far different from the heads of several royal houses looking just about ready to bite her head off. Though Belle (who she could usually count on to be in her corner) wouldn’t meet her or Ben’s gazes, which did the exact opposite of calming her nerves. The couple exchanged a look, and it was a shared sentiment of how badly did we fuck up this time?The table was quiet, tense, and very awkward. Some of those seated were Ben’s parents, the Three Good Fairies, Elsa and Anna, Aladdin and Jasmine, and Ariel and one of her sisters (who Mal couldn’t remember the name of but knew ruled Atlantica). Ben had settled on staring them all down. He had drank a lot last night, too, and it was obvious he was pissed to not be able to come home and immediately sleep it off for an hour with Mal. How done he already was with this added to how intimidating he looked, and she suddenly felt way more attracted to him.His father Adam was the one to break the ice, coughing politely to get everyone’s attention. “We need to talk about what happened yesterday.”“What is there to talk about?” Evie asked, her whole demeanour changing. Her expression was stone cold. “Families got to be reunited yesterday, including my brother and I. He’s never done a thing against any of you and we won’t let him or anybody else go back to the Isle.”“Eva… this isn’t about your brother,” Snow White said to her, tentatively. “It’s about your parents. They’ve gone into hiding. Most of the villains have, we don’t know where they are.” As she heard that, Mal suddenly felt like setting herself on fire. Evie clearly felt something similar, as her complexion blanched to a shade that matched her stepsister’s.“Wait… what? Don’t we keep surveillance on our side of the bridge after Zevon snuck over?” Ben asked, his eyebrows furrowing together. It was distractingly adorable.“We do, honey, but not many villains were actually seen crossing the bridge. Only Hades, Dr. Facilier, Mr. Smee, Lady Tremaine, Drizella, and a handful of others did,” Belle replied gently. “We sent guards over to the Isle last night, and the rest of them weren’t there.” She looked terrified, and Mal realised it was because Gaston was among the missing. With the way that man could go on about her, she didn’t blame her for being paranoid.Freddie had evidently caught onto this too, as she was next to speak. “My mom probably hid Captain Hook and your ex somewhere under the ocean with her. They’re pretty tight,” she said with a sigh. Unlike her sister Uma, she kept her cool in tense situations. That’s why Mal preferred her.“So it can be assumed everyone else left in similar ways,” the Fairy Godmother added helpfully. “Excluding Maleficent, others capable of teleportation are Madam Mim, Queen Narissa, Circe, Nasira, and the Enchantress.” Mal secretly found pleasure in how scared shitless Ben’s father suddenly looked.“This happened because the barrier came down without this council being consulted,” Sultana Jasmine stated bitterly, standing up from her seat. “The reason we aren’t all half dead and on that island right now is because Ali and I insisted on guarding Jafar’s lamp ourselves.” She reached for her husband’s turban and took it off, removing an object kept inside it that was wrapped in cloth. It was revealed to be a goofy-looking black lamp, and Aladdin had been wearing it under his turban like a trophy. It took Mal a moment to remember Jay’s dad was inside that thing. She looked at him, but unfortunately so did Jasmine. Her friend was a deer in headlights. “Jalil, can you imagine what your father and aunt would do if she had this?”“I actually do, they tend to talk about it pretty extensively. There are some lovely things my father wants to do to you, if you’re interested,” Jay snapped back, clearly refusing to stand down. He was terrified all the same, but he also looked ready to attack her. Mal’s heart ached - she had only seen him act this way in front of his parents before.“Hey, hey! That’s enough. Kids, we brought you here today because we wanted to ask you to track down your parents and bring them in peacefully,” Aladdin explained. He placed his hand over his wife’s, and she sat back down.Mal and her friends all sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. From the look on his face, not even Ben was expecting this. “Ask us, or order us?” Evie questioned. “And, I’m sorry, but why does it have to be us? This was your mess first for even creating the Isle. You find them, our answer is no.” Mal agreed, this was a hard no.“Eva-”“Evie.”“Fine, Evie. Can you just be reasonable for a moment?” Snow White pleaded, looking at Evie with a tiny glare. With the much harsher glare she returned, Mal wondered what kind of beef they had going on. “The last time I saw your mother was over twenty years ago, and even when I was growing up she wanted nothing to do with me. I wouldn’t know where to look, and even if I did find her she’d probably just try to kill me again. Not you, though.”“The same goes for the rest of you,” Cinderella added, looking at the VKs encouragingly. “You know your parents and you know Auradon. We know this is a huge ask, but you’re the best people for the job. And we’ll help with travel expenses, of course.”“And you know how crafty your dad can be, Evie. Who knows what he and Grimhilde are getting into?” Queen Anna of Arendelle all but begged. She looked as scared as Belle, and based on how Prince Hans talked about her, Mal couldn't blame her either. “He can’t be allowed to roam free.”The mention of Evie’s dad had made her go quiet, so Mal decided to stand up. “With everything considered, the blame for this is on both me and all of you.” She let her eyes fall onto each council member, one by one. “Provided you help out where you can, I’ll do this quest. And I’ll try to get as many VKs as I can to join me.”“Mal-”“It’s the right thing to do, E,” Mal pleaded. “We need to stick together if we’re going to do this. I need you.”“Our parents definitely won’t be able to hurt us, right? You’ll keep us safe?” Carlos asked, uncharacteristically timid. He had so far kept quiet this whole time, and now that everyone’s attention was on him, Mal realised how small he looked. Despite everything, it was hard to not see him as that poor, cigarette-burnt kid who she and Jay had taken under their wing.“None of us are going to let your mom touch you,” she promised him. “And I’ll kick her ass if she tries to.” There was a soft chuckling that resonated amongst her friends and fiancé. She looked at them individually, and they all seemed to be on board. Evie had a look on her face that suggested she had kind of given up fighting this. “Yeah, we’ll do it.”“Wonderful!” Belle clasped her hands together. “We can’t thank you all enough. Expect an email tonight to finalise all of the details, but for now you’re dismissed. I imagine you all have some sleep to catch up on.” Jay, Evie, Carlos, Freddie, and CJ all swiftly shuffled out of the conference room without a word, but as the king and almost-queen, Ben and Mal hung back. “Go with them,” Belle urged. “And take the rest of the day off, you both deserve it.”The couple said their goodbyes and left, and Mal immediately rushed to check on Evie.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Castle-Across-the-Way stood as a beacon of terror on the Isle of the Lost. It was old and decrepit, looking only plainly creepy to the unknowing passerby, but within those crumbling walls lurked the creatures that haunted it - the evil witch-queen of Hildeberg, the mad prince of the Southern Isles, and their children. The common criminals of the Isle knew not to disturb them, as was the case with most of the island’s villainous inhabitants. They were forces of chaos who had brought the world to ruin, so they had surely earned their respect, and were nearly treated as cryptids (if you saw a villain in public, you ran in the other direction and let them do their thing). But the queen and the prince hadn’t been seen leaving their domain in years - not that they would dare to. They had the ire of the Dark Fairy, everyone knew that. They disrespected her daughter, and it had led to their banishment.
With this banishment, the crooked royal family had a lot of free time on their hands. So the young Princess Eva of the Southern Isles, who was once known to old friends as ‘Evie’, often found herself being treated as a doll by her terrifying mother.
“Imagine with me, Eva. I am an inexperienced witch, much like yourself. I’m preparing a poison, but I ignore the recipe and add in a fourth deadly nightshade berry. What happens to the brew?”
Evie flinched as her mother attacked her eyebrows with a pair of tweezers. It was like the Evil Queen had some sort of score to settle with her face - it was distracting and didn’t really help her concentrate as she thought of how to answer (beauty was a curse, of course, so every moment of her life was a waking nightmare), but she would look more incompetent the longer she took to speak. There was no winning here, but thankfully the answer came to her.
“The dragon’s blood in the brew wouldn’t react well to the increased tropane alkaloids and it’d explode in your face, burning you beyond repair.”
“Nearly. I wouldn’t be beyond repairing,” Evie’s mother corrected, yanking particularly hard to pull out several of her eyebrow hairs at once. She yelped. “I’d just be left scarred. What if that were you, which man would want a deformed bride?” There was a pause as she let her imagine that scenario. “Oh, I know! Monsieur Frollo’s tragic bell-ringer.” She shuddered at the thought, but her mother cackled at it. The few times Claude Frollo had come to visit, he’d described that man as a hideous demon. Marrying someone that ugly wouldn’t be worth it, even if it meant it got her off the Isle.
She hesitated before replying. “That wouldn’t happen to me, Your Majesty. We don’t have access to proper dragon’s blood.”
“True, but you’re still my daughter,” the Queen pointed out. “Even if I can’t teach you witchcraft, I don’t plan on raising a stupid witch. Wouldn’t be a good look for me, you know.”
Evie’s heart sank. It wasn’t a surprise that she was only educated out of her mother’s selfish interests, but hearing it always stung. She had taught her to embroider, play the piano, sing, speak four languages, and be politically informed. The list went on. But none of it was from a place of love, and none of it would ever matter if she never left the Isle. What was the point of being this educated if she could only show it off to peasants?
“Don’t pout at me, Eva,” the Queen chided. Evie quickly fixed her expression, but she got a mild smack across her cheek anyway. She didn’t even realise she was pouting, so the smack didn’t seem fair. “Pouting is far too unbecoming of a princess. I mean, honestly. You’re thirteen.” And now the witch holding a sharp object dangerously close to her eyes was ticked off. Wonderful.
“But… we’re the only ones here. And Daddy and Harald wouldn’t judge me if I pout.”
“You’re sure about that?” The Queen sighed. “You have so much to learn, child. All men are the same, in the end. Judgemental, horrid pigs. I don’t want you thinking your father and brother are capable of being any different.”
“Oh.” Evie’s eyes fell to her mother’s vacant hand that sat gracefully in her lap. Of the two rings she wore on it, her wedding band was the one she never attempted to polish. Evie knew that her parents’ marriage was one of convenience, not romance - as two of the few royals on the Isle of the Lost, they had married for the mutual security that came with it. Hans’ status as the Evil Queen’s husband kept him safe from most threats, due to her reputation, and his royal blood kept her titled (whereas marrying anyone less than a prince would have stripped her of being ‘Queen’ Grimhilde). They were civil with one another for their kids’ sake, but that’s all they were.
One of Evie’s biggest fears was to have a marriage just like that: a transaction. Her mother could go on and on about how romance was an illusion and a cheat, but she didn’t care. Deep in her heart, she knew she wanted to find her true love. But obviously she could never admit that out loud.
“Indeed. It’s disappointing, I know.” The Queen clenched her jaw and leaned back, admiring her work. And Evie really did feel like just another one of her experiments. “There you go, that’s certainly closer to a presentable face. Take a look.”
Now, thanks to the Queen’s obsession with her own face, the Westergaard house was full of mirrors. Ones of good quality were hard to come by, but they certainly weren’t lacking in them. Of them all, only one mattered - a ridiculously small shard of broken mirror in an ornate oval frame that Evie was led over to. It was hung at the centre of the wall, which frankly looked awkward and naked without any other decor. This was, of course, the Magic Mirror - while it was only a fraction of the full relic and had no magic on the Isle, her mother probably cared about it more than she did her or her brother. It didn’t look very impressive.
The reflection she saw in it was even worse; her mother had plucked her eyebrows pencil thin. “You… certainly worked your magic, ma’am.”
The Queen chuckled. “Good, that’s the right answer.” Evie felt her hand on her shoulder, manicured nails digging into her skin through her top. “I once did this same thing to Snow White, you know. Except she had no eyebrows left at all. You’re lucky you don’t look anything like her, Eva.”
Unfortunately, Evie knew where this conversation was going. “I’d be the fairest if I looked like her.”
“Exactly.” Her mother’s grip on her shoulder tightened. “You might be the fairest anyway, you know? That wretched girl can’t possibly hold the title anymore. She sent me here, her own stepmother, to be amongst all of this filth and poverty. That’s an act as evil as anything I’ve done, Eva. If you’ve taken her place… oh, I just don’t know what I’d do. Maybe I’d kill you. Like I’ve always said, beauty is a curse.”
Outside of Beast Castle’s conference room, Evie had roped Carlos into taking pictures of her. Her gown, more specifically - now that the meeting was over and her head was clear, she realised how giddy she was at being given the Cinderella treatment. Here she was, the Evil Queen’s daughter, finally being treated like any other princess. The Fairy Godmother really had an eye for fashion, and before her spell wore off and left Evie back in her sweaty party outfit, she intended to capture every detail of this gown to replicate it later. She’d do anything to take her mind off of her stepsister, really.“Can you hold your arms up?” Carlos asked, and Evie did as he asked by raising both of her arms. He immediately went in and took pictures of her bodice, and in this moment, she was thankful to not be the only one in their gang who really understood clothes. Carlos got her outfit meltdowns in a way that Mal and Jay couldn’t, and she could go to him for advice on what to wear and get actually constructive criticism. And, for years, their thing had been tuning into the Met Gala to rate each celebrity’s looks and rank them all. Eventually Cruella and Grimhilde got into it, too, leaving the two VKs with one more day in the year where it was guaranteed they could bond with their mothers without any undertone of abuse or narcissism. (Not that Evie really missed the company of either of those hags. Or maybe she did. It was complicated.)The doors swung open, and Ben and Mal walked through them. “Ben and I are free for the day, so we could all do something tonight,” Mal immediately suggested.“Please, no more drinks,” Evie said with a groan, holding her hand out to Carlos. He gave her phone back to her, and she started to swipe through the pictures. “Oh, I can totally work with these.”
“No drinks? Who are you?” Jay asked playfully, hoisting an arm around her shoulders. At that moment, her phone went off, and he looked over to read the notification. “Ooh! David’s showed up!”Evie smiled at how much Mal had lit up upon hearing that, and then she glanced down to read her text. “Doug, Jane, and Jordan have also taken our things back from the forest. And they’ve brought a few of our old friends along, so let’s just head back.”
As the group of six made their way out of the castle, Mal caught up to her best friend. “E, what happened back there? Are you alright?”She felt her jaw immediately clench. “Not really. I don’t want to talk about it.”“Evie, you’re trembling. What’s Snow White said to you?”“Don’t push, Mal.” Evie tried to not sound desperate, but she sort of was. “I don’t want to talk or even think about it if I can help it. So, please, let’s not talk about what happened back there for a while.”She heard CJ scoff from behind her. “Whatever ye say, Princess.” She didn’t turn around, but she could just feel the pirate mocking a bow, and the thought of it made her sick.“Stop that,” Jay snapped. Still beside Evie, he placed his other arm around her and kissed the side of her head. “I’ve got you.”“Thanks.” Evie felt a bit dead. She started to get lost in her thoughts as they kept walking, and there was an uncomfortable silence for a minute or so.“So… who’s David?” Ben asked, as he waved a driver over to collect them.“A friend we left behind. His dad is my mom’s pet raven,” Mal explained. “I wanted him to come to Auradon with us, but he stayed behind to help Harald run the gang until we got back. Obviously that didn’t go well for them.” Evie was barely paying attention to their conversation.“Right… I’m sorry it took so long to reunite you guys with your loved ones,” Ben said apologetically. A limo pulled up in front of them, and he opened the door. They all spilled into it. “I know this won’t change the past, but I would’ve been fine with you guys bringing your pets. And… I knew you had a brother, Evie. I wanted him to come over, too, but my dad made me limit it to one kid per parent.”Jay nudged her to reply, so she let out a half-hearted “Yep”.“Ben, it’s fine,” Mal replied on her behalf, leaning back and stretching her legs. “Your dad’s kind of a dick, we all know that. Besides, Harald’s tough. He was fine without us, I’m sure.”“Apart from Uma kicking his ass, yeah,” Freddie teased.For everyone else, at least, the tension eased during the drive to Evie’s 4 Hearts. They had settled into laughing and joking like normal, and Evie was content to just be held by Jay, his firm embrace keeping her grounded. She eventually felt the limo stop, and he helped her out. A crowd of their friends, both old and new, were there to greet them, and usually she would echo their friendliness, but right now the only face in the crowd she was interested in was her brother’s. Like silk in a sea of cotton, he stood out - he was clean, wearing one of Jay’s outfits, and there was a sleek raven comfortably seated on his shoulder. Prince Harald was finally here, in the flesh, in Auradon.“Oh, God, Harald!” Evie threw her arms around her brother. She didn’t need to say anything more to get her point across to him. I missed you. “Evie!” Harald cried, awkwardly hugging her back. “We, uh, already did this yesterday?”“She had a weird run-in with Snow White,” she heard Mal mumble to him. “I don’t know what it was really about.”“Right. Let’s just go, yeah?” Evie was led into her room and towards her bed. Harald sat next to her. “Okay, what happened? Tell me everything.”