Author's Note: Thank you to everyone that's read, added this story to their favorites, and/or alerts. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.


Chapter 2

Jay didn't elaborate anymore about meeting Selene when they were 13 years old. He still stood, leaning against the window sill, arms crossed, and looking down to his shoes to avoid eye contact with his friends.

"So… who's Selene?" Carlos asked, the name still not ringing a bell.

"Long black hair, she's really quiet," Mal started to describe. "Always alone, lives with her dad in the Marionette Shop."

"Oh her!" Carlos exclaimed finally matching a face to the name. "She's really pretty."

Evie gave him a glare. "Don't you have a girlfriend? I believe her name is Jane. You know, Fairy Godmother in training?"

"Well… I still like Jane. I'm not gonna break up with her. I was just... stating my opinion," Carlos explained.

Ben smiled as he drew the conversation back to the matter at hand. "So Jay, what's the deal with Selene? What makes her a good candidate? I don't think I can put down, 'Really pretty,' as a reason," he chuckled, throwing a glance at Carlos, who just smiled bashfully. "The more information I can get, the better."

"She's just… different," Jay said with a shrug.


Jay was walking passed the docks after his visit with the Pirates. As he approached the Marionette Shop his mind wandered to the girl he had met a few weeks prior. He stopped right in front. The shop looked deserted. All the lights were off, but he knew it wasn't closed. It wasn't really a shop. Jay knew Stromboli worked on the docks that brought the shipment of food and other goods to the Isle. No, this definitely wasn't a shop like his dad's. Like he had told Selene when they first met, Stromboli had a fetish for puppets.

Jay looked farther up the three story building to find a pair of legs dangling off the side. His nonverbal question came out as a hum as he walked up to the side of the building and decided to climb up with the help of the lattice and drainpipe. Peeking up over the edge of the roof, his question was answered. The pair of legs belonged to Selene. She sat at the edge wearing a plain mint green t-shirt, in her plain jeans, her hair once again only half up.

"Ahoy there, Feisty," he greeted getting his feet steadily onto the flat top roof.

Selene was snapped out of her daydreaming. She turned to her right to see Jay walking up to her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked clearly perturbed at being bothered.

"I saw a pair of legs that were begging to be wrapped around me," Jay said taking a seat next to her, uninvited. "So I decided to come up and put them out of their misery."

She rolled her eyes, a disgusted look on her face. "Don't flatter yourself. Clearly you're here, simply to annoy me."

"I'll have fun either way," Jay chuckled. "So what are you doing here?"

"I live here," she quipped.

Rolling his eyes Jay asked, "What are you doing up here?" He asked gesturing to the roof top. "People usually stay inside their house, not on top of it. Unless there's fireworks going off in Auradon. But definitely not on some random Sunday."

Selene looked over to Jay. There was no signature smirk or playful twinkle in his eyes. He was curious.

"You know, you have some nerve coming here and barging in on my alone time, asking stupid questions."

There was a silence. Jay was still waiting for an answer, but Selene wasn't about to give it to him. She was always alone and liked it that way. Maybe if she'd ignore him long enough he'd get bored and would go away.

She looked back out, away from Jay.

The few minutes, felt like days, and for once Selene felt uncomfortable in the silence.

Selene remembered Jay's comment about how the Auradon parents treat their children. She thought she was the only person that thought about that stuff. No one on the Isle wondered about people's lives in Auradon. They cursed at the fact that the Auradonians had it better than what they had on the Isle, and plotted for their pending rebellion.

"What do you think it's like living in Auradon?" She asked, glancing over to Jay once again.

Anything but the silence.

He turned to look across the way, over the building in front of them, and across the ocean, to Auradon.

"Auradon?" He asked. "With all the uptight kings, queens, princes, & princesses? Horrible."

"Better than being here."

"You'd rather be good?" He asked, disgust evident in his voice.

Selene shook her head, focusing on the land before them. "You don't have to be good, just not evil."

"But it's so much better being evil," Jay said with a laugh.

Of course Jay would say that. Anyone on the Isle would... should say that.

"But what if I don't want to be evil." Selene's voice was soft as if she didn't want Jay to hear, but needed to say it out loud to someone, anyone.

The silence was back as the two took in what little information she had revealed.

It was Jay that broke the silence this time saying, "You didn't answer my question. What are you doing up here?"

"Sometimes," she started, feeling the need to get this off her chest once and for all. She heaved a sigh, "Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I were to just... jump."

She turned again to look at Jay. He was looking down at the street below with furrowed eyebrows.

"It's not high enough for you to die," was his only response.

"Unfortunately, not right away. A few broken bones, major bleeding, but what would happen?" She asked again. "Knowing the people on the Isle, they wouldn't care. They'd walk on by, probably laughing at the weakling, slowly dying on the street. There isn't anywhere to get patched up, not really. So then what?"

Selene was right, there weren't any hospitals on the Isle. Any witch doctors or anyone that could assist the injured wouldn't go out looking for people to help. The ailed would have to go to them and bring them something worth their time and effort to put them back together again.

"So maybe it is enough for you to die," Jay stated.

"Yeah," was all Selene could say.

The silence came again. Selene didn't mind it so much this time around. She just looked toward Auradon as she normally would, barely noticing Jay was still sitting next to her.

"I bet parent's there don't put out their cigarettes on their kid's skin," Jay stated.

Selene looked over to Jay again. He was still looking at Auradon. Her eyes travelled down to his bare harms, no visible scars that she could see.

"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours," Selene offered starting to feel comfortable around the thief.

Jay noticed a slight playfulness in Selene's eyes. An equally playful smile appeared on Jay's lips as he shifted to lift up his vest a little showing a small circular scar above his left hip. In turn, Selene shifted to the right so she was facing Jay directly. She rolled up her left arm sleeve revealing a similar circular shape on her shoulder, only slightly larger than Jay's.

"Cigar, I was maybe five," Selene said.

"Where'd your dad get a cigar?" Jay asked surprised.

Cigars were a luxury item. He didn't think anyone at Auradon would throw those away.

"Dad unloads what comes in the freights from Auradon," Selene started to explain. "He swipes all the good stuff that he wants."

"Hmm that's right… maybe I should find out when those boats come in," Jay mused and Selene let out a short laugh. "Anyway, how about this. I came home after midnight once, when I was eight, and dad threw me against a table."

Jay took off his beanie, grabbed Selene's hand, and placed her fingers behind his left ear. She felt a small bald spot with the familiar feeling of a scar.

"Gnarly right?" Jay asked rhetorically.

Selene took Jay's hand this time and placed his fingers behind her right ear. "It's almost identical to mine," she said as he rubbed his fingers against her skull.

He didn't drop his hand immediately. He kept his hand were it was, still rubbing where his fingers lay. Selene reached up for his wrist with the intention of removing his hand. There was no way she was going to be another addition to Jay's little harem. However, as her hand wrapped around his wrist, her fingers brushed over a slightly raised line. After a few seconds of Selene brushing her finger against the line on Jay's wrist, he removed his hand presenting it to her.

"Dad slashed me once," he said. "Well, more than a few times, but you know…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, I know."

Selene hesitated a moment before moving her hair to the side to reveal a part of her neck. There were a few slash marks along the side.

"That's why you keep part of your hair down," Jay realized.

"Need to keep the hair out of my face while I read, but I don't want anyone to see these," she confirmed.

"Villains are brutal," was all Jay said.

Taking a closer look at her neck he could see more scars farther back. He made to move more hair out of the way, but she moved her hair back in place. He was getting too close and she wasn't willing to share those scars just yet.

Selene shifted once again, this time to stand up. Jay, following suit, noticed the solemn look on her face as she hooked her thumb in her jeans, bringing it down to reveal her lower left hip. He could see the beginning of a long, fresh gash, disappearing below what she was willing to show him.

"Yesterday," she stated.

"Why? What happened?" Jay asked.

Bringing her jeans back to its proper position she said, "He was still hungry after dinner. I guess I didn't get enough food," she explained

"Dad's an angry drunk," Jay stated. "That's the only time he gets like that. I guess your dad has a temper, huh?"

"Yeah," Selene sighed. "And speaking of dinner, I should be heading to the market."

With that she turned around toward the opposite side of the building that Jay climbed up and started to descend a metal ladder.

"That's easier than climbing up a drainpipe," Jay chuckled, scratching the back of his neck.

Putting his beanie back on, Jay climbed down the ladder after her.

"So, you wanna see which one of us can steal the best food?" Jay challenged once he landed on the ground.

"Why?" She asked, the playfulness was back again. "Want to redeem yourself from last time?"

Jay scoffed. "You were just lucky."

"Actually, I had fantastic decoy." After receiving a questioning look from Jay, she elaborated, "Everyone was too weary of you to even notice I was there."