I don't own any of the recognizable places or characters. This story is part of a series that is called Descendants A-Z and is cross posted (always under "IvyNyx").
Set five years in the future. Jay and Carlos are together. Ben and Mal are together. Evie and Audrey are together.
"Oww, she fucking bit me!" Ben exclaimed while rubbing his arm.
"Dude, after half a decade you won't get any sympathy from us" Jay told him.
"Yeah, you married the psycho" Carlos agreed making Mal stick out her tongue.
"She wasn't a psycho when I married her!"
"Yes I was" Mal said at the same time everyone else said "yes, she was!"
Ben started laughing, "okay she was, but why did this get me bitten. All I wanted to do was rescue all the kids left on the Isle."
"She's testy so much of our generation was left behind" Evie said.
Ben had the sense to look ashamed, " I know it's late, but isn't it better late than never?"
Mal mumbled something.
"One more time, without the dick in your mouth" Carlos told her with an eye roll.
"I said, keep that in mind next time we have sex" Mal repeated slightly above a growl.
"I'd say your safe, she's still offering sex" Audrey spoke up, "but still what took so long?"
"My idiot father left a provision to prevent me from just bring everyone. No more than thirty kids per year. I couldn't get the counsel to agree to a change so I was screwed. Now though I can just do it without approval since it's a new proclamation." Ben said "I've spoken to a lot of people and a surprising number are interested, I think it helps so much of our generation remembers you guys from school."
"We'll talk more later, for now I guess it's better than never" Mal agreed
Ben smiled at his wife, she was one of the most unconventional queens ever, but she was his.
Jane stood inside a large building, with her were six of her friends from school. They were about to write history, by saving all the children on the Isle. They had agreed to take all children under age ten, enact a barrier to prevent any more pregnancies then in ten months perform another sweep to collect any newborns, at that time they'd also take any kids over ten that the younger children asked for. After all they would know best who was truly evil and who just needed a second chance.
Mal and Evie stood on either side of Jane, all three of them holding the wand, this was going to take a lot of magic to manage. Jay and Carlos were sitting together on the floor, they were here for the new arrivals, but couldn't do anything to help get them here. Audrey and Ben stood a short way from them, watching Mal and Evie for any signs of magical exhaustion. Jane had trained extensively to be a fairy, Mal had refused training beyond the ability to change the channel without a remote. Evie had self tutored herself but she didn't trust her magic, so she often refused to use it, like any muscle it didn't take well to being ignored. All three of them had been practicing working together for this project.
The building they stood in had been made with pure magic, from conjuring the materials to setting them in place. There were also wards that would prevent the kids from leaving and people from entering without permission.
Suddenly there was a blinding light and small bodies started appearing. A soft pen in the corner gained a bunch of babies, some looking to be a few weeks old. Around the room children were grouped by their age, magic preventing them from mixing together just yet. As the light died down Jane, Mal and Evie continued to change the magic on the barrier. Jay and Carlos stood up, Jay letting out a whistle that was always used on the Isle. Heads snapped to them before eyebrows rose in suspicion as to where they were and why.
"Welcome to Auradon, I'll continue when you're done freaking out" jay said with a smirk. Sure enough all the older kids started talking and yelling.
As they finished the spell Mal looked around at the noise, Jay stood with his arms crossed, Carlos looked like he was trying to guess lineage of the kids. Mal walked over to them and let her eyes flare to green. Suddenly it fell deathly silent.
"Well that worked" Jay said.
"Oh good, you recognize my eyes, that helps" Mal grinned. "I am Mal, some idiots like to put queen in front of that" she said with a glace to Audrey who was busy soothing the tiny babies, "but I don't. The next few weeks will be hell for you guys. You will have food, medical care and shelter, but you also won't have your parents or family, unless a sibling made it along. In this room is every child that was on the Isle under age ten. As you adjust you can tell any adult of another child that was left behind that you'd like rescued and we will try to get them as well. For right now the only adults allowed in this building are here, you may not go more than twenty feet away from the building. The spell keeping you in place will drop momentarily, please find a bed, don't fight over them there are plenty. On each is a bag of stuff, you may trade with each other but don't steal."
Jane let the magic drop, the older kids rushed to find their younger siblings, some climbed their beds and tore into the bags. Slowly the adults made their way through the kids, writing down which bed they took, their name and their parents as well as siblings.
"The real little kids without siblings I am going to try to place as soon as possible, I have a lot of phone calls to make to those who were interested." Ben said, Mal looped her arm around his, "lets go then, the sooner we get them to homes the sooner they can learn how to be good" Ben grinned at how Mal still sneered the word good as if the thought hurt her.
Early the next morning Ben and Mal were back at the orphanage, Jay and Carlos were going to meet them there later, Audrey and Evie had told them to call if they were needed. Jay and Carlos were playing with some of the older kids while Ben answered questions with perspective parents. Mal was bringing said parents into the building, one at a time to meet with the kids. A surprising number had already hit it off and were on their way to a fairy tale ending.
Within three months the orphanage stood empty, every child had found a new home. Some of the kids had been brought back, only to find another home a day or two later. Ursala's granddaughter had the hardest time, Carlos had befriended the six year old, she was a lot like Mal. Very nice girl, until she didn't get her way then it was threats and tantrums. In the end it was Melody's Daughter, Serena who adopted the pudgy little girl.
Carlos stretched out on the couch, his head in Jay's lap. In two days they were due to perform the summoning spell again to save the last batch of newborns.
"Didja ever think about having kids?" Carlos asked out of nowhere.
Jay looked down at him, trying to figure out why the hell he was asking, as usual the freckled boys face gave nothing away.
"Sort of, but not really. I mean I have no idea how to be a parent and being gay pregnancy isn't really a worry" he said with a grin.
"Oh, okay. I was just curious."
"Why, you want an urchin?"
"Dunno, I really never even thought about kids until we rescued the group. Ursa kinda grew on me, I almost miss going to see her"
"So call Serena. I'm sure you could visit." Jay said, glad Carlos had explained himself, kids wasn't exactly a topic he was prepared for, at all.
"Maybe I will, so what do you want for dinner?" Carlos asked.
"Dunno, are freckles on the menu?" jay asked with a smirk. Carlos smacked his arm playfully before rolling off the couch to go into the kitchen.
Jay and Carlos sat on the floor again, this time next to the corner where the newborns would show up. Evie was once again holding the wand with Mal and Jane while Audrey and Ben watched over them like a hawk. In a matter of seconds bright flashes of light started going off, unlike last time this time you could see the flash of each child. Some were crying, others looked confused. One small boy looked around before rolling onto his stomach and trying to crawl away. Jay and Carlos looked over the kids and were surprised to find them all in fairly good health. The last kids had a wide range of injuries, these looked to have scrapes at worst.
Ben immediately went out to start brining in parents. Half the kids went home with their new family. Carlos had agreed to stay the night with the kids, jay agreed because he really couldn't remember the last night he'd spent away from his husband. Carlos quickly fed, changed and put to bed the remaining twelve kids.
"You know you won't get much sleep tonight" jay said when the third cry in twenty minutes was heard.
"I know, but it's just one night tomorrow more parents will come. If I need to I might stay another night, but Mal might do it. I think her and Ben are going to adopt that little boy, she seemed rather attached" Carlos said while picking up a small girl with black hair. He rocked her for a minute before the smell hit him, he grimaced while grabbing a new diaper to change the baby. Five minutes later he was back rocking her, she quickly fell to sleep. He slid her onto the soft floor where she stirred slightly before falling fully back to sleep.
Carlos laid back down on the air bed near Jay and stretched out. "You really think Mal wants a kid?"
"Mhmm, and judging by her pet python, that Ben is terrified of, he's not very good at saying no to her." Carlos grinned.
"I guess that's good. Bet we end up baby sitting all the time."
"Probably." Carlos smiled at the thought.
"You really do like kids dontcha?" Jay asked letting his arm wrap around the slim man.
"Surprisingly, I do"
"So, why don't you pick one" jay said shifting slightly to see Carlos's face better. He grinned at the surprised look.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I mean you obviously like kids, I don't hate them and all of them need a home." Jay said.
"Ben has parents interested in them though."
"Yeah, but I know he'd give us first pick"
"They're kids not puppies" Carlos laughed, "I guess if there is one left we'll talk to Ben. I don't really want to take any of them from what would probably be a better home."
A soft cry from the floor had Carlos moving away to see what was wrong.
"Better home my ass" Jay said softly.
After a long night of crying, diapers and bottles the sun came up, shortly after a woman with blonde hair came to the door holding a small pink bundle, a shock of black hair just barely visible around the blankets. She handed the child to Carlos, "I don't think it's going to work out with her, she bites and just doesn't feel like a good fit with our family"
"Okay, sometimes the kid doesn't fit with a family. Would you like to meet another child?"
Twenty minutes the woman left with another little girl. Carlos sighed and laid the girl down, none of the babies had a name yet, but being the first failed adoption Carlos was tempted to name the little girl. He watched her close her big brown as she drifted off to sleep still wrapped in her blankets.
"She's cute" Jay said walking up behind Carlos "Wonder who her parents were."
"I wonder that about all of them." Carlos said. "it was weird with the last batch, they were able to tell us so many of the parents, this batch though is truly orphans."
Jay bit his tongue, he wasn't sure if he was imagining it but he thought there was a resemblance between Carlos and the little girl he was holding. He couldn't imagine Cruellea reproducing at her age, but he remembered Carlos had a cousin a bit older than them.
"As they get older we might be able to guess. I mean if Hades is involved flames for hair is promised." Jay said.
"And any De Vil gets black and white, wonder what would win between Hades and De Vil?" Carlos said getting lost in the science of DNA.
"Hades, it'd burn the de vil hair" Jay said, trying to think logically.
Carlos laid the baby down on the floor right before the door opened to admit Ben.
"We had a swap, this morning" Carlos said as soon as he got near them.
"It happens, I have five parents out there, seven more are due, so we might clear out today."
"Awesome" Jay said. When Ben went to leave he silently followed him. Carlos bit his lip to keep from asking why he was following Ben. They'd been off the Isle for years, but he still liked to keep close to Jay at all times.
"I wanted to talk to you about maybe adopting an urchin" Jay said as soon as the door swung shut.
"You know Mal said those exact same words last night" Ben started laughing, "lets start with the easy part, is Carlos up to date?"
"Mhmm, but he wants to just take any kid that's left. I can see the little girl that came back today has him wrapped around her tiny finger."
Ben smiled, "I think I can discourage others from taking her"
Jay felt his jaw drop.
"What? I can be a little devious. Besides she kinda looks like him. Mal has a spell that will tell us the lineage of all the kids, she's gonna do it tomorrow for all the kids that don't know their parents."
"That's awesome. For the kids and parents." Jay said.
"Mhmm, now why don't you convince him to give her a name. If I know Carlos having twelve nameless kids is driving him up a wall."
"Probably" Jay agreed, he walked back inside with a smile. Ben went to bring in the first of the potential parents.
Jay walked over to Carlos who was once again holding the black haired girl, he let his arm drop around the shorter man. "You should give her a name" he said.
"Nah, she's not mine, her parents will do that."
"She was the first kid returned, I think she should be special and get a name"
Carlos tipped his head to look at his husband, "Are you sick or something?"
"No, just trying to use logic on you, not working is it?"
"Hell no." Carlos laughed.
At the end of the day only the small black haired girl was left. Ben convinced Carlos to take her home for the night, there was no point in him sleeping in the orphanage for one kid after all. He winked at Jay behind Carlos's back, jay shot him a thumbs up. The baby slept tucked under Carlos's arm, who was tucked under Jay's arm. To both men's surprise she slept through the night, only waking when Carlos tried to slip out of bed to use the bathroom. Jay pulled the whimpering pink bundle closer and rocked her softly until Carlos came back, as soon as she saw the freckled boy she stopped whimpering.
Three hours later they walked into the orphanage, all the parents who didn't know the lineage of their kids were there. Mal handed out a special sheet of paper that would fill in on it's own. She waved the wand and spoke the rhyming words, silently cursing that every single spell had to rhyme. Around the room spindly writing filled in the pages. Jay smirked as he read the page, Carlos was busy cooing at the pink bundle to keep her quiet.
"I think that's enough reason for you to name her. And probably enough for us to raise her." Jay said as he read the paper a third time still having a hard time believing the coincidence of it.
Carlos' head snapped to the paper, on it the word mother and father with lines. Next to mother it said Harriet Hook, Carlos looked at the baby again, he could see that. Next to father though, it said Diego De Vil, that made the kid his cousin if nothing else.
"I like the name Ivy" Carlos said softly, still not believing any of this was real.
"Ivy De Vil, works for me" Jay said while giving Carlos a squeeze.
"So who hatched the biter?" Mal appeared to ask.
"Maleficent" Jay joked, Mal was notorious for biting. "Harriet and Diego" jay answered her real question, knowing despite the years she'd remember each of them.
"You've got to be kidding!" Mal said, Jay handed her the paper. "Holy shit. So I guess you're definitely keeping her now?"
Jay nodded, "Carlos named her, finally"
"Well?" Mal promoted looking to her freckled friend.
"Ivy. Ivy De Vil" he said, still not believing this was real.
"You'll have to update the spare room, I don't think she'll need a big bed for a while" Mal said with a smirk knowing her friend was totally unprepared for this. Despite that she had a feeling he'd do fine. After all her and Ben had a son that'd was descended from Madame Medusa and Edgar Balthazar. They'd decided to call the tiny boy Ethan. Looking down at Ivy's paper she smiled, "Her and Ethan are only two months apart. That should keep all six of us on our toes."
"Yeah, Evie and Audrey are so stuck as aunties in this mess."
"It'll be fun!" Mal said with a laugh, walking off to find Ben to tell him she was officially an aunt.
"So shall we head to the store and get Squishy some stuff?"
"Mhmm" Carlos nodded and shifted the pink bundle, "Can we get rid of the pink, it's an eye sore."
"Let me guess black, white and red" Jay joked.
"At this point, not pink." Carlos said.
Town had a small baby super center that had stocked in preparation of the Isle kids coming to Auradon. It took nearly two hours but the men had picked out everything they'd need to keep Ivy happy on Auradon standards. They looked at things like the crib and laughed, both of them having slept on the floor until they'd managed to make a bed of their own. They knew that was the 'right' place for a baby though so they got one.
The store was going to deliver their stuff around dinner time. They went into the hardware store and let Ivy picked her own room color. Carlos held her up to a chart of all the colors and she grabbed at a neon green color. Carlos smiled and grabbed that with a small can of black. At home he watched Ivy while Jay painted. They traded so Carlos could cook dinner, after dinner Jay gave ivy a bottle while Carlos went up to put the finishing touches on her room. On the wall where her crib would go he wrote her name using the black to look like withered and twisted vines. He quickly ran them randomly around the room painting on poison ivy leaves.
An hour later Jay came to see what was taking him so long. His jaw dropped, "Damn babe, I didn't know you could paint."
"I can't I can draw lines and leaves" he laughed, finally finished, he tossed the brush down on a rag and went to wash up. After he was de-painted he took Ivy back, just as the delivery men knocked. Jay quickly cleaned up the drop clothes and brushes.
The deliver men made short work on the putting everything together and in place. Jay directed them while Carlos handled a stink bomb.
Two years later Jay was laying on the floor while a two year old Ivy climbed on him. He lifted her up and swing her around a little. Making her giggle.
"So Squishy, what are we going to convince you to eat for dinner?" he asked
"Awfuls!" she cheered, sitting on Jay's chest.
"Waffles" Jay said slowly.
"I sayed awfuls!" Ivy insisted.
"I said waffles" Jay fired back, trying not to groan. He knew they had to teach her to speak correctly, but it was awful. He popped the frozen disks into the toaster and smashed the handle down. Carlos was resting after what he called the night from hell with Ivy.
Fifteen minutes later Carlos walked up behind a syrup coated Ivy. He ruffled her hair, grinning as the white showed. When her hair was down it was black, but the underneath in the back was pure white, it had changed when she was a year old.
"I see we have a squishy syrup monster today"
"Rawr!" Ivy said.
"Feeling more human love?" jay said.
"No, coffee please." Carlos said flopping into a chair. Jay laughed and poked the coffee maker. Parent hood wasn't that hard, once you got used to the lack of sleep, privacy and quiet.
"Mal offered to Squishy sit tonight, if we'll take Eth tomorrow" jay said sitting down Carlos's coffee.
"Hell yes!" Carlos cheered
"Is that over coffee or kidless night?"
"Both" Carlos said before draining half the cup.
"God I love you" Carlos said, "and before you ask, that's me talking to the coffee"
Jay laughed and hugged his husband, "you love me too, I know it".
"Mhmm, of course I do, you deliver my coffee" Carlos laughed.
Carlos yanked his shirt off and flopped on the bed, he barely hit the bed when he was asleep. Jay laughed when he walked in the door and saw him already sleeping. He took off his own shirt and pants before crawling into the bed to nap. They'd planned dinner and a movie, but a nap sounded just as good. He pulled his husband tight against him, this parenthood thing was exhausting them both, but they loved Ivy to pieces.
A three year old Ivy was jumping from one piece of furniture to the next, pretending the floor was lava. Ethan laid on the lava nearby playing with a tablet. Carlos was in the kitchen making dinner for the kids, Jay was helping Ben paint and decorate a bed room in their castle. Mal was expecting twins any day now. Upon hearing she was having twins she had threatened Ben with every form of castration she could think of including by dragon claw. However in the end she was excited. Surprisingly she made an amazing mom. Much like Jay and Carlos she had a shining example of what not to do.
"Hey, Squishy, after dinner wanna go to the park with Eth?" Carlos asked the girl.
"Is Baba gonna come, and auntie and unca?"
"I think we could convince them. I don't know if auntie will want to walk that far though."
"Oh" Ivy looked sad, "maybe we could just go play at their house. I don't want auntie Mal to miss out"
Carlos smiled "I think we could do that, why don't we bring dinner over there and we'll all eat together."
"Yeah!" Ethan agreed shutting off his game.
Carlos laughed "ten minutes, or so" he went back to cooking.
Twenty minutes later the three of them were banging on the door to the nursery. A minute later Jay opened it, twin cries of "Baba" and "Unca" went up as the kids wrapped their arms around his legs.
"Really feeling the love guys!" Ben said from the other side of the room. Both kids redirected to attack him with hugs, this time screaming "Daddy" and "Uncle" as loud as they could. Mal laughed from her chair and waited for the kids to notice her. Ethan waved and said "Hi Mommy" while Ivy attempted to give the purple haired woman a hug, her belly making it rather difficult.
"I brought dinner. The I tried to bring them to the park but they didn't want auntie Mal left out." Carlos said, which made Mal pull a face.
"I swear these two need to get their eviction notice already. I feel like a whale."
"Kinda look like one too" Jay said laughing and making sure he was out of Mal's reach.
"I could always hold Ivy here hostage" Mal smiled with her arm around the girl.
"Take her!" Jay and Carlos both said at once before bursting out laughing.
Jay twisted Ivy's hair before using a clip to pin it back against her head. The small girl used two mirrors so she could see the back of it.
"Thank you Baba! It's perfect. Daddy never gets the twisty thing right" ivy said examining the way the black and white twisted together perfectly.
"No problem Squishy, I think Daddy's eyes will be too leaky today to do anything"
"I'll be fine" Carlos protested from the kitchen, "at least until we get home, and at that point you won't be any better."
"Yeah, she'll have fun through. I'm glad Jane put her and Ethan in class together."
"If she hadn't they'd have spent all day sending them back to the right class" Carlos said with a laugh as a knock sounded at the door. Ivy took off to open it, knowing Mal was bringing Ethan over to walk to school with her. Mal had one little boy on each hip while Ethan spun and hopped around her, as soon as the door opened he and Ivy dove at each other hugging and talking a mile a minute.
"Good grief! You just saw each other yesterday!" Mal said at the two of them.
"That was like days ago!" Ivy whined.
Mal sighed and sat Jacob and William on the floor after shoving the door closed with her foot. "I can't believe these two are starting school already."
"I can't believe they haven't been arrested yet!" Jay said with a laugh. The two kids were already notorious, they were well known because of their parents, both biological and adoptive. However outside their shadows they had already shown a knack for causing mischief. Such as stealing an entire bag of candy and sharing it with all the kids at the playground.
Mal, Jay and Carlos walked the three kids to school, Ben unable to be there due to his kingly duties. All three parents hugged both kids. The kids hugged Will and Jake too before running off into the building.
"Here's to hoping it's still standing at the end of the day" Mal said holding Will's hand
"It will be fine" Carlos laughed taking Jake's hand and turning to leave.
"You can't start a food fight alone!" Ivy yelled before slamming her bedroom door.
"I fucking know that, why the hell else would you and Ethan both be suspended?" Carlos growled out at the door.
"Jayden, Carlos!" Mal shrieked into their house, shoving the door open.
Carlos came out of the hall, Jay looked up from the couch.
"Do you know what those two jack asses did at school today?" she asked.
"Same thing we did almost daily?" Carlos asked trying not to laugh. He knew it wasn't funny, but genetics was a bitch.
"Exactly! They aren't suppose to be like us!"
Jay rolled his eyes. Mal had this insane idea that their kids would be some kind of angels. Ethan and Ivy were proving her wrong, one food fight, prank and suspension at a time.
"Mal, Ivy is the kid of Diego and Harriet. Ethan is not so distantly related to Madame Medusa and Edgar Balthazar. We're lucky the two of them aren't murdering every animal in the country while operating an underground fur trade." Jay reminded her. They'd had this conversation many times as the kids grew up, now that they were fifteen they seemed to have it almost daily.
"How are you punishing her this time? Mal asked, hoping for ideas.
"We're not" Carlos said, Mal's jaw dropped.
"But there was yelling when I came in"
"Mhmm I was trying to talk to her, it didn't work" Carlos said.
"Why no punishment, I mean this is the second food fight this month, and it's only the fifth!"
"What happened if someone tried to stop us, what happened anytime someone stood in our way?" Carlsos asked.
"We beat the shit out of them and did it anyway. Or we just did it anyway."
"Exactly" Jay said from the couch, ""Los decided to try this after how well the last grounding went."
Mal groaned and sat on the couch, she still wanted to kill the teens for that. Both had disappeared in the middle of the night, their parents had finally found them sound asleep in one of the bedrooms of a disused wing of the castle. She silently pulled out her phone and texted Ben telling him no punishment at the moment. When he asked what the hell she was talking about she told him to ask Jay.
Ten seconds later Jay's phone rang.
"Told Ben no punishment, he wants to know why" Mal said hearing the ringtone.
Jay told the king the same thing he'd told Mal, Ben sighed into the line and hung up.
"He'd have a hard time punishing him anyway" Carlos said as Jay hung up the phone.
"Why?" Mal asked
"Cuz Eth is upstairs with Squishy, not wherever he's suppose to be" Carlos said with a smirk.
"How the hell do you do that?" Jay asked
"Ethan is as graceful as his mother... Both of them" Carlos said with a laugh "I heard footsteps, and since we never hear anything when Ivy is up there, I know he's here"
"And that doesn't bother you at all?" Mal said, trying to restrain herself from going up there and screaming her head off.
"I was only fourteen when we went to Auradon, think of everything we got up to before then. They're fifteen, I'm not really worried about it." Carlos said with a shrug. Mal stared at him with her jaw open, she always forgot Carlos was younger than them, she tried to picture her son doing an eighth of the things Carlos had by the time they went to Auradon. There was no way, the kid still slept with a teddy bear for crying out loud.
Carlos started laughing at the look on her face, "I literally just watched it sink in." he said when Jay looked at him like he was insane.
"I forget you're younger than us." Mal said.
"At this point, two years is nothing." Carlos said, "now shall I go get your son?"
"Nah, let him stay, after all how many nights did you spend at Evie's house, or mine, or Jays" Mal said with a small smile. She hugged her friends and left, Ben was not going to take this well, but it was something they'd have to deal with."
"Let me get this straight, Ethan and Ivy started a food fight, then Ethan sneeked out to Ivy's and neither kid is going to be punished?" Ben asked. Mal just nodded.
"Are you insane? They're just kids!"
"Ben, they're older than carlos was when you met him" Suddenly Mal understood why carlos had laughed at her, there was something amusing about that expression.
"Oh fine, but if the twins pull anything like that they're grounded until they're Jay's age!" Ben gave in.
An hour later Carlos walked up the stairs two plates balanced on his arm. He gave the door knob a twist and found it locked, he tried not to laugh. Ivy tended to forget her dad was an Isle kid. In seconds he pushed the door open as if it had never been locked.
"I don't wanna hear it" Ivy said not moving an inch.
Carlos looked at her with a smirk. Ethan was sitting back against the headboard his arm around Ivy, her head down on his chest. Carlos sat on the bed, sitting the plates on the bedside table.
"Condiments work a lot like glue on school meat" Carlos said with a small smile.
"What?" ivy demanded
"If you throw a piece of ham with some mustard on it, it sticks to the wall." Carlos said slowly as if talking to a baby.
"Why tell me that?" ivy said, confusion clear on her face.
"It's from a memory of mine. Back on the Isle your father and I often started food fights" Carlos said, watching his daughter perk up, it was rare he spoke about the Isle, Jay told the stories not him. Neither of them spoke of Diego often at all. "One time he threw a sandwich at the ceiling and it opened, the meat got stuck up there, took weeks for it to fall off."
Ivy smiled, before looking confused, "you're suppose to be mad".
"Why?"
"I keep getting in trouble, Ethan sneeked in, these are the things you and Baba explode over."
Carlos smiled, "Squishy, think about that, how often do I really yell at you about anything? Sure I ground you, but that's it. Jay is the yell-y one."
"But still, when I really mess up it's you not Baba."
"Well this time it's me because you're not in trouble at all. By the time I was your age I had broken a hole in the dome, faced down magic to attempt to steal Maleficent scepter, ran away more times than I could count, never slept at home and moved to Auradon. We won't talk about the abuse, fights and other day to day life on the Isle. I can't even pretend to be mad at Ethan for sneaking in I went to his mum's house more times than I can count. As for the food fight, it's a food fight, you didn't kill a man!"
"But you said if I got in trouble at school again I was grounded until I was your age."
"I also told you if I found Eth in your room again I'd nail your window shut." Carlos reminded her, "Parents make threats they don't mean. Maleficent threatened to kill Mal daily, yet she survived to sixteen to escape."
"Yeah, now she threatens me daily" Ethan muttered.
"Yep, because she loves you. I think you're both old enough to be let in on a little secret. Maybe it will help you understand your parents heads better" Carlos said scooting back on the bed, he put his arm around his daughter and poked Ethan in the ribs making the boy laugh. "I know Baba talks about the Isle, but he always leaves out a lot. I don't talk about it because I don't want to leave anything out." Carlos looked into both kids eyes, his daughters so similar to his own chocolate brown and his not-quite-nephews bottle green ones. He knew they were ready to hear this, even if he wasn't really ready to tell it.
"Fifteen years ago when we first adopted you, me, Jay and Mal had a break down of sorts, it was your first birthday Eth. Mal was upset because she didn't think she was a good mother, she thought no matter what happened she was doomed to be like her mother. It had been brought on because she forgot to give you lunch while she was busy setting up the party. You never even noticed. She came to me almost in tears about it, you know Mal, crying isn't her thing. It hurt her because we'd spent so many nights on the Isle hungry. She never wanted her child to know hunger. On the Isle we were alone until we found each other. As we got talking all of us spoke about what we were afraid of, things our parents did that we didn't want to do, anyway there was a lot of crying. We promised each other we'd never let that happen, and so far it hasn't. But tonight I noticed something happening that may be worse. We're not giving you any freedom." Carlos paused to let that sink in before he continued "we're all still broken from the Isle. You tell either of your parents this and I will cut your tongues out". Both kids smiled as he continued, "Mal still keeps a bag packed in case she ever needs to leave at a moments notice. Jay still has a stash of valuable things that he can't bear to get rid of, I still have my medical bag from the Isle and Evie still stashes food around the house, just in case. We know you didn't have the lives we did, we tried like hell to make sure you wouldn't. But at the same time we know you don't have the experience that goes with that life. I think it scares us all to think about what could happen if you're given freedom like we had."
"But it's safe here, and we can both fight" Ethan said.
"I know that, but you're not the only Isle kids, and you never know when one of them will find their genes to be stronger than their will. Cyanide has a lot of trouble with it, how often does he freeze people when he gets mad?"
"All the fucking time" Ivy said, having been given the cold shoulder by the boy more than once.
Carlos smirked at his daughters language, him and Jay didn't even try to prevent cursing, "Exactly, as he gets older he could slip up and accidentally freeze someone's heart. He still has control over it, but someday he may lose it. Just like your mom Eth, or Baba, or me or Aunt Evie."
"Baba has a little magic, my aunts have a lot of magic, what could you do daddy?" Ivy asked, her dad never mentioned any family powers that would be a problem. Carlos thought for a minute, he looked around the room before his eyes settled on Ivy's kitten, Bubby. He let his powers go, trying not to cringe at the feel of magic washing over his skin. He commanded the kitten to stand up and jump on the bed, it did without pause.
"Watch" he said softly before making the kitten do a flip. As soon as it landed he let his powers drop, it scampered into Ivy's lap. "I can control anything living, humans, pets, plants" he reached into his shirt and pulled on the chain he wore to show his daughter the pendant. On it sat a dragon, around his throat was a cobra, his head had a crown, in his claws a dalmatian puppy was held. Their eyes were all pieces of the same green jewel, his mother had worn it as a ring, but he broke the gem and and had his pendant made. "I can sort of do it without the charm, but the charm makes it stronger."
"Wait so you're basically the strongest of the so called core four?" Ethan asked, there was no way Uncle Carlos could control his friends, and my extension his friends powers.
"Mhmm, but I don't use them. Oh once in a while to get a certain little cat out of my bed, but it's rare."
"Mum doesn't use her powers either, despite her eyes scaring the ever loving shit out of me sometimes"
"Why does Baba use his powers so much?"
"Because he's not afraid of them, his father had wished for his powers, but Jay was born with his, so he thinks they aren't evil. That or he really, really hates to wash dishes, we're not sure which" he said sending the teens into laughter. "It's also helpful since he spells our dinner to stay warm, while I talk to our unruly brats" he added ruffling Ivys hair as he slid off the bed.
"Just keep in mind, I can open that door any time, and I don't want to see you two undressed anymore than you want to see me and Jay undressed." he said walking out the door, an indignant "Daddy!" screamed behind him as he pulled the door shut.