"Mal! Seriously, let me look at it!" Evie wakes up to the sound of the door to the dorm room swinging open and angry footsteps echoing loudly across the floor. It takes her eyes a minute to adjust to the light streaming in through the large window by her bed, but once they do they immediately fall on the concerned and slightly guilty expression that adorns Jay's face.
"Fuck off, Jay. I said I'm fine." Mal's voice comes out slightly broken and it doesn't take long for her to see why. Her girlfriend's hands are stained crimson and she's holding the taller boy's beanie to her nose in an effort to stop the steady flow of blood that is making its way down her face. Evie sighs softly before getting up and heading to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit. This isn't the first time she's had to patch up someone that she cares about and it won't be the last.
"Sit," She points to the purple haired faerie and then to the bed, dragging a chair over from her sewing station so she can be comfortable while she works. She gets a glare and a mumbled 'I'm fine' thrown in her direction but Mal complies easily enough. "What happened?"
"Jay punched me in the face." Mal says as she side-eyes the boy who's made his way over to the bed to perch next to her. This earns her a noise of protest and a light shove to the shoulder, an action he deeply regrets when Evie levels him with her patented glare.
"I didn't punch her in the face, she threw her face on my fist like a fucking maniac." He stops when he sees Mal's smirk and realizes how ridiculous he sounds. "It's true! We were boxing after someone woke me up at an ungodly hour to go on a 5k run with her and she decided to go all space cadet in the middle of sparring. I went to shake her out of it and her first response was to head butt me, I got my arms up in time to block it but she bashed her face off my fist." Evie looks to Mal for confirmation and receives an eye roll and a nod of the head.
"Why can't the two of you just do yoga like Carlos and me?" Mal's nose has stopped bleeding long enough for the older girl to remove the cloth that she had replaced the beanie with and take a good look at it. She'd seen and experienced her fair share of injuries on the Isle and she knows enough to know that it's not broken, she expects it to bruise pretty badly though and she hands the shorter girl an ice pack to help with the swelling.
"We do. It's called stretching and it's usually something that people tend to do to warm up before the actual work out." Jay throws a smirk in her direction but it does nothing to lessen the look of annoyance that has made itself a home on her face.
"Why don't you go try that one out on your boyfriend, see how long it'll be before he performs downward dog for you again?" The older boy laughs at her and sends her a wink before leaning over and laying a quick kiss to the top of Mal's head and giving another quiet apology. They all mean the world to each other but Mal and Jay have known each other the longest, they've been through a lot with one another and their bond is one that Evie would be jealous of if she wasn't so secure in her relationship. The former thief sends a quick wave and heads out the door, probably in search for food or Carlos, maybe both.
Her girlfriend is quiet as she holds the ice pack to her nose and the blue haired princess takes a minute to study her. There are dark circles under her eyes that Evie hasn't seen since the Isle and her skin looks paler than usual.
"What was the dream about, M?" She doesn't waste anytime in getting straight to the point, she's worried and she's tired and she doesn't have the patience to wait for Mal to come to her about this. The faerie just lifts her shoulder to form a half shrug and Evie lets out a sigh of frustration before reaching out and taking a hold of her girlfriend's chin, forcing her to meet her eyes. "Mal. What was it about?"
"I don't know. I was in some sort of cell or basement or something and it was dark and I was hurt. That's it." Evie isn't buying it. Mal doesn't scream and panic and dissociate for nothing, there would have had to be more to the dream to elicit such an intense reaction. She lifts her eyebrow in challenge and stares at the younger girl until she breaks. "It was the feeling. I don't know, it felt real and intense and I couldn't control my body's reactions but I felt like I was there. Usually when I wake up from a nightmare, I know it's just a dream, but this time I-" She stops and rubs at her wrists for a few seconds before continuing, "It feels like this is the dream. Like I'm gonna wake up in that room… alone."
Evie studies green eyes for a minute before pulling the smaller girl off of the edge of the bed and onto her lap. The kiss that she initiates is hard and fast and passionate, but she's careful not to bump the other girl's nose. She's not letting this go, but she knows when Mal doesn't feel like talking and so right now she's going to try to focus on making her feel something.
"Did that feel real?" Evie shoots her a soft smile as she pulls away and rests their foreheads together.
"I don't know. I might need a little more convincing." Mal's changing the subject but it's not forever and they need time to just be them, without the looming thoughts of the Isle or unwelcoming Auradonians, or abandoned evil schemes so for right now, Evie is happy to play along.
A/N: Hey guys! Another chapter of interactions. Don't worry, plot will kick in soon, I'm just trying to establish relationship dynamics and the ground on which the plot will be built. I've got a rough outline of where I'm going with this but I love to collab and go in new directions, so if anyone has any ideas they want to share or anything they want to see happen, please let me know and I will definitely consider incorporating it. Let me know what you think of the chapter and thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows!