A/N: For ArtemisBAMF1218, ta daaaa! It's Jay and Mal reminiscing about the Isle.

Enjoy!

"It had been dirty." The new princess was sat on a balcony high up amongst the turrets of her new castle.

"So dirty, I mean think about the places that we rummaged through…" Jay was sat next to her, both pairs of eyes staring resolutely at the horizon with the last of the sun's warmth bathing them.

"When did we become so against dirt?" Mal chewed her lower lip in concentration, she smoothed down the fabric of her shirt against the waistband of her jeans and looked at the practically immaculate clothing in mild distaste. Sure the Lost Four opted to wear the darker and sombre colours of their youth but they were now tailored in Auradon – any rips were artistic not habitual and any smears on their clothes were usually gone by the end of the day.

"I don't know if we really are, I mean we're willing to do things that most of the Auradon Royalty are against…" Jay sighed, crossing his ankles and stretching his legs out further. "I think we were just used to dirt… we were born to dirt." He shrugged and Mal sighed as well.

"Did we have more fun on the Isle though?" She asked quietly, it was a question that played on the four individual minds quite a lot of the time, though none of them ever voiced it to their Auradon other halves, or any of the Four. Jay tensed slightly and then he sagged a little.

"Sometimes I wonder that too…" He admitted and sensed Mal turning to stare at him inquisitively.

"Sometimes I think we did." She mumbled back and he gave a half smile.

"I think we had a very different life there, we fought our own battles and we scraped and scrapped our way through life, I think we deserved a lot of the glory we had on the Isle…"

"Did we though? We each stood in our parents shadows and we each had a high standard to live up too… mum almost murdered me after I let Evie live after the Fortress."

"Dad almost skinned me when I came back without the staff…" Jay snickered. "But nearly every kid on that island had a parental reputation to live up to, it's the same here but every second gen here has all the sidekick help they can possibly want." Jay pointed out..

"That's true." Mal pursed her lips. "But we technically had sidekicks – I mean mother had all the minions the Isle could afford…"

"Exactly, your mother had them, Carlos might have had side-kicks, that idiot Jason and whatshisname…" Jay grimaced. "But our parents expected us to make it on our own. Seriously I've seen Audrey's beauty team and it's got to be ten strong… there's a dressing team and a hairstylist team. She also has a besotted mother and father. We didn't even have both parents…"

It was an unspoken heartache not knowing the other half of their parenthood, each Villain had forbade the youngsters from asking and after a few curious attempts they had learnt not to again.

"So do we miss it or not?" Mal said finally, Jay's words sinking in and flowing through her.

"I think part of me does. I miss the freedom, the lack of scrutiny I receive and the abuse was even matched on the Isle. Here if I so much as flip out off of the Tourney field there's…"

"…whispers. There's always whispers." Mal said as the sun began to sink beneath the horizon. "I think part of me misses it too – the independence, knowing who I was, was because I made it that way, not because I'm Ben's accessory." She scrunched her nose, remembering some Princess's scathing review of Princess Mal.

"I miss standing tall. Here I feel like I've got to fit into a suit that's not quite right for me." Jay added, feeling far more at home in his cut off tee than any of the tuxedos Audrey had forced him into in the last few years.

"But I don't think we'd fit in back there anymore. We know love and we know kindness – we both know that doesn't work back there." Mal shrugged.

"We make our own way Mal." Jay clicked his fingers restlessly. "We're not the poodles of Auradon and we're not the villains of the Isle. We are the next generation and we get to find our way." He turned to her suddenly and the pair noted one another's unhappiness written into the features.

"We always do it our own way." She said with a slight smile.

"I know. No other princess wears dark purple for her coronation in Auradon." He smirks.

"No other Prince wears blood red at his betrothal party." She raises one eyebrow, grinning at Jay's look. Audrey had nearly thrown a tantrum at his choice of clothing for their engagement party, but really she knew who she had chosen to marry. It just took a little longer to rub off her stiff Auradon corners.

"I'm not a prince." His smug smile makes Mal frown. "You are Crown Princess Consort or whatever your ridiculous title is – I'm just fiancée of Audrey Beauty. Boom." He laughs when Mal reaches across to punch his arm.

"God my mother would have a fit if she could see me now." Mal rests back against her chair with a chuckle and for the first time in a very long while, she feels the pressure in her chest easing. She had never been able to talk to Ben about her past – he just didn't understand, and discussing emotions wasn't something the Lost Four were entirely used to, but knowing she wasn't alone and that Jay was in the same emotional boat as her was quite comforting. It was better when she realised that Evie and Carlos were probably also experiencing the same niggling worries.

Closing her eyes with a smile, she felt the sun's disappear beneath the horizon as the warmth began to leech away from the air, replaced by a cool breeze that gave her a lot of comfort. She may not feel like Auradon was entirely her home but she was rooted by her best friend next to her at the very least. She was not adrift in a wide, pastel coloured ocean – there were three tethers keeping her anchored, keeping her sane.