"Wh- where am I?"
Mal grunted, trying to figure out where in the world she was at this point. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep next to Evie during their sleepover movie.
As she came to, she recognized Evie's kitchen cabinets and the open refrigerator door illuminated in the barest hints of morning light. Mal furrowed her brow as she realized she was on the floor. She shakily got up, standing on her own two feet as she reached over and pushed the fridge door shut. It was odd. The door felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and she had to push harder than usual to get it to close.
However, it didn't take her long to realize that she wasn't at all viewing at the height from which she was accustomed.
"What the heck?" Mal questioned in almost a squeak, and she realized that her voice was completely messed up and not at all like it usually sounded. After only a second of this, however, she quickly recognized that she wasn't quite as balanced as she usually was either. She used the door to the refrigerator to hold herself up, and she absently looked at her hand.
Her eyes widened as she realized that she was looking at the pudgy fingers of a toddler. Mal stumbled back from the refrigerator in her surprise before looking down at her body. To her horror, she was viewing a toddler's body as well.
"A baby?! I'm a baby?!" Mal questioned to herself, totally blown away by the fact. But it wasn't the strangest thing that ever happened to her, so she wasn't panicking or anything.
Mal shook her head, trying to figure out what had happened to her. She absently noticed that the taste of carrots was in her mouth, and she realized that there had to be some reason for this. Mal backed up to look at the counter, almost losing her balance and falling, and she realized a bag of baby carrots were resting on the countertop nearby the fridge.
Mal then immediately knew that she must have been sleepwalking and obviously sleep-eating as well. But she couldn't help but wonder how she got like this.
After a moment, Mal decided that she must have said some spell that she had memorized from her spell book. However, Mal couldn't think of any spell that she could've said that would've turned her into one, much less a spell that could change her back to her actual form. It must have been one of those memories registered only by the unconsciousness. Mal sighed, trying to at least think of what could have triggered it.
Mal's first thought was immediately baby carrots. The baby in baby carrots must have triggered some unconscious memory of the spell and a muttering of it as well.
Either way. It honestly didn't matter how she had gotten here. The biggest problem was how she was going to change back considering the fact that she had no idea which spell needed to be used to complete the reversal.
Mal then remembered that she was definitely not in her own home, and that Evie was there with her. Mal immediately brightened at the odd thought that Evie was going to help everything, even though Mal knew logically that Evie couldn't do any magic that she knew of.
Unless she was counting that one time that Evie read her spell book and turned herself into a dog. But who was counting that?
Mal furrowed her brow in determination, starting her long trek toward Evie's bedroom. And a long trek it was, especially considering that her legs were roughly a foot and a half long at this point.
Mal hurried as fast as she could go, and it was still infuriatingly slowly, but she pushed through it, hurrying toward Evie's room. Mal almost groaned as she realized that it looked like it was shut. She had not idea how she was going to reach that ridiculously high doorknob. However, as she grew nearer, Mal realized that it was very thankfully cracked open to a degree.
Mal wrapped her small fingers around the edge of the door, pulling toward her as hard as she could. Evie had really invested in some thick wood doors, Mal couldn't help but notice.
Mal finally had it opened enough so that her small body could slip in. Mal teetered over to the edge of Evie's bed, and it swiftly came to her attention that Evie had obviously invested in a tall bed, too.
"Seriously?" Mal whispered to herself, her mousy voice barely disturbing the quiet of the room. Mal furrowed her brow in frustration as she started trying to jump up and climb onto the bed. Mal tried two times with just her arms grabbing, but on her third try, she decided to try to grab with her foot, too. But that only resulted in her falling down on her behind, and for some reason, she had the strangest urge to cry. However, she shook it off quickly, deciding that she was no quitter, and she was going to try one more time. After all, she had been especially close that time.
Mal attempted it once more, and this time, she just barely made it up onto the bed, managing to roll onto it safely. Mal sighed deeply, relieved that it had finally worked. She then turned her attentions to the bluenette curled beneath the covers. For some reason, Mal felt an even larger swell of affection for the girl than she usually did, and it made her want to grab onto Evie and never let go. Of course, that wasn't an odd feeling for Mal, but this time, it was exceedingly and dramatically magnified.
Mal shook her head, clearing her mind of those thoughts before crawling over to the other girl. Mal clambered onto Evie's stomach and looked at the girl. Evie hadn't hardly stirred, and Mal was surprised. After all, Evie usually was an exceedingly light sleeper. But it must have been something about the fact they had a sleepover.
Evie always said that she slept better when Mal was there close to her. They had used to actually sleep in the same room and a lot of times in the same bed if there was space, but now that Mal had gotten married to Ben, Mal and Evie had to have a large transition. But Mal always made sure to have a sleepover with Evie at least once a week.
After a moment, Mal realized that Evie was most certainly not going to wake up without some prodding, so Mal wasted no time in poking Evie's cheek. Evie's nose twitched a bit, so Mal did it again. Evie furrowed her brow, absently reaching up and swatting lightly at whatever had touched her face. Mal giggled a bit in spite of herself before poking Evie one more time.
This time was successful, and Evie's eyes opened sleepily as she raised up slightly before her gaze settled upon Mal where she had slid down into the bluenette's lap.
Evie just silently gaped at the little girl as she attempted desperately to comprehend what was sitting before her.
However, after only a moment, Evie's face contorted into one of immense fear as she started to duck underneath the covers.
"It's that dream again!" Evie cried fearfully, diving beneath the sheets. Mal rolled her eyes, grabbing the blankets in her small, pudgy hold and pulling them away from Evie.
"It's that one where I have a little heathen that looks and acts just like her!" Evie yelped as Mal came back into view before covering her eyes so she would have to look at the small child sitting there on her lap.
"It is me, E!" Mal announced sassily, and she couldn't help but think it sounded so much better when she had an adult voice. Evie barely peeked out from between her fingers.
"So your dad's not Hades, and I didn't end up like Persephone? Dragged against my will and made his wife?" Evie questioned as she sounded somewhat terrified. Mal paused for a moment, wincing in disgust and scrunching her nose as she thought of Evie being her stepmother, and then she crossed her arms over her chest.
"No! I turned myself into a toddler!" Mal expressed, tumbling a bit over the word toddler, and she furrowed her brow in slight frustration upon realizing that she couldn't speak as well as she usually did.
Evie was still as she watched Mal, and she raised her eyebrow carefully as she examined the child sitting there on her. Evie raised up slightly once again, reaching up and gently touching Mal's cheek. Mal for some reason felt the urge to hug Evie then, and she threw herself onto the other girl impulsively. Evie was a bit surprised, Mal could tell by the gasp, but she wasted no time in returning the embrace warmly.
Evie stroked her hair, and Mal pulled away quickly, not really understanding what had possessed her to just jump on Evie like that. She couldn't help but wonder if she was having some sort of toddler thoughts with her adult operations.
"Mal? How did this happen?" Evie questioned as she kept ahold of the small girl but held her at just enough of a distance to look at her face. Mal gazed up at Evie, feeling that familiar swell return again but this time it was accompanied by a feeling of safety as well.
"Well… Funny story, actually," Mal slowly pronounced the word actually, and it frustrated her to no end, but she moved past those feelings.
"I'm listening," Evie spoke, a bit of playfulness in her tone but primarily seriousness.
"I must have been sleepwalking. And you know that when I sleepwalk, I tend to-"
"Sleep-eat."
"Yes. So I must have gotten into your refri- refridge- refrigitater- no!" Mal outburst in pure irritation at her lack of being able to speak properly. Mal sighed, trying it again.
"I must have gotten into your fridge, and I got out some baby carrots. That's when some spell must have got trigg…triggered in my mind, and I said one of the trans… transform… changing spells," Mal struggled through her explanation, and Evie nodded, although Mal could easily see that Evie was trying not to smile at Mal's brutal fights with certain words.
"So how are you changing back?" Evie asked, her calm mocha gaze settling on Mal and sending another wave of calm through the small girl.
"We need my spell book," Mal told her, and Evie agreed easily.
"Sure. I can ask Ben to order it for emergency from the museum," Evie told Mal with a big grin, reaching over for her phone on the nightstand. Mal quickly grabbed onto Evie's shirt, almost shouting her disapproval of that idea. Evie quickly stopped, her eyes wide as she looked at Mal.
"No! Don't tell him! I don't want him to know!" Mal whined before hiding her face in Evie's chest. Evie placed a hand on the back of Mal's head as she ran her fingers through the short purple curls.
"Why not?" Evie asked, and Mal sighed.
"'Cause it's embarrassing," Mal slowly mumbled the last word, and Mal could hear the slight rumble of a chuckle in Evie's chest from her head's position.
"Well, what do you think we should do?" Evie questioned gently, and Mal just sighed, wondering what she really did want. However, it didn't take her long to think of precisely what she wanted to happen.
Mal raised her head up from Evie's chest to look at her best friend with a mischievous smile as the light of the morning shone in brightly, illuminating Evie's features in a golden glow.
"I want you and me to go steal it tonight from the museum."
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! :) Per Tessa's and Carpenterfan03's requests, I decided to try my hand at one of these stories. I hope I haven't done too badly with it, lol. This chapter fic probably won't be as long as some of my others, especially considering the fact that Mal only is going to be a baby for a day, but I hope you all enjoy it, nevertheless. We might get a good six chapters out of it. I don't know. We'll see. Let me know what you guys thought! :)