A/N – Disney owns it all, still!

Chapter 23

Sunday evening rolled around, Mal had spent the day sorting the rest of her homework out and began trying to get ahead with a couple more classes. Harry had spent the night before with her again, but he was so exhausted from training he'd barley given her a proper kiss before he was asleep. Despite the lack of 'activities' she still loved to wake up snuggled in his arms.

She was in the middle of tidying her desk up, placing her art folder back in its place when her dorm room door opened. Evie had returned from her college taster weekend, complete with a new suitcase!

"Evie! How was the weekend" she greeted her clearly excited friend. The blue haired girl had almost bounced into the room.

"It was amazing M! Just hope I can actually get in to study there. All the staff were so friendly. They've even got a special scheme for students whose parents can't help with the financial side." She gushed. When the VK groups had discussed futures previously the big barrier they'd discovered would be funding it as their parents wouldn't be able to help and unlike some of their friends they weren't in line for any trust funds. They'd been fairly certain that the boys, certainly Jay, would be able to get some form of sports bursary.

"That's great news! Now you just have to try and score a dorm mate half as awesome as me" Mal joked, knowing that in Evie's world anyone would be an improvement when it came to the rooms tidiness.

"It will be strange not sharing with you anymore as we always shared at the hideout and obviously here" she began. She placed the new suitcase onto her bed, "come over here, I'll show you what they did with us."

Mal did as instructed and went over to her friend's bed who had begun to pull contents from the bag. At the top was various sketches of clothing designs, along with a few handbags, followed by some fabric samples in the school's colours. The final item out Evie's new bag was what Mal recognised as a paper pattern - something Evie didn't use often. This one appeared to be for a autumn style women's coat, and bellow it in the bag she could see her friend had started working on it.

"Hopefully in a few days' time I'll have a nice new jacket to wear round school, the college have asked us to send a picture of our finished pattern. Everyone who attended was given a different one and they gave advice on what the best fabric would be for our pattern."

"Sounds like you really enjoyed it E! It's nice to have some company again what with the boys being in tourney all weekend." Mal said, genuinely happy for her friend.

"Enough about my weekend, what have you been up to here on your own? And when did you finish that Hades portrait?" Evie asked spying the art folder on Mal's desk with the portrait of the God currently at the top. The last time Evie had seen it Hades had been bald - not a good look for the man.

"Got the homework situation sorted, had a pirate sleepover - I'll restock your top drawer, had breakfast with Harry and Ben, minor run in with Audrey, FaceTimed with Dad, then finished my art stuff off. Then you arrived as I was trying to sort everything back out." Mal summarised knowing she'd have to fess everything to Evie eventually so may as well get it out of her system.

The shriek of excitement from the blue haired girl almost had her regretting her previous words. "How chivalrous off Harry to ensure you weren't on you own" she said while winking at her blushing friend. "Don't worry about the 'supplies', Doug bought them last. Guessing Audrey was trying to rub you up the wrong was about breakfast arrangements" Mal nodded at this, "she only saw Ben and I once Harry had left for practise so tried to back me into a corner about it" Mal concluded with an eye roll.

"That explains the completed portrait, the hair truly looks amazing. Was it nice to catch up with him? So glad we're not going to be put through the family day torture again this year. At least Snow said she'll come see me for a bit. She sounded quite interested in seeing your artwork to learn more about our pasts."

"It was so great to see him again, never realised how much I missed him till I saw him sat in his cave. The most surprising bit was the fact that Harry actually spoke to Ben to get it sorted, Gil may have engineered it though!" Evie's jaw almost hit the floor at that, knowing the two were not on the best of terms.

"Why don't we head to Jay and Carlos's room and see how they're doing?" Evie asked, Mal nodded just hoping one of the four would still be awake following the days training. They still had a couple of hours before curfew so it would be good to be a full group even for short while.

Given the rather unique situation the six came from in comparison to their classmates they had keys for each other's rooms. Carlos had created them in his 3D printer as if they had an emergency it tended not to be a normal one and only one of the others could help.

This meant that when the two girls arrived they just let themselves into the boy's room, not worried about invading privacy as that never existed when they'd been living in the hideout on the Isle.

When they entered, Carlos had his back facing them as he was sat at this desk doing some form of school work, Jay however was nowhere to be seen from the rooms doorway.

"Hey Carlos!" Evie greeted brightly. "How's your weekend been and where is everyone?"

"Evie! How was college? Hey Mal" he said smiling at the smaller girl stood behind Evie. "Jay went over to Gil and Harry's about an hour ago - not seen or heard anything since" he shrugged. "Coach really put us through our paces, Arendale's totally going down on Wednesday."

Mal had forgotten who they were playing but it now clicked why Ellie had been so excited for the match - her mother would be coming to support. She'd grown surprisingly close to her during the time they spent in art. Ellie had admitted that she'd always felt like a bit of an outsider as some people still didn't trust her mum following the 'Big Freeze' and Mal found it nice having another magical person around.

Evie filled Carlos in with some details of her weekend that Mal had already heard. Carlos was just finishing up his work for tech class, "let's head over and check they're okay?" He said to the two girls with slight concern for their other friends.

When they entered the room occupied by the two pirates it was clear the trio had been trying to watch old tourney matches but ended up falling asleep on the sofa.

"Don't wake them! I need a picture first" Evie whispered indicating towards the three boys slumped together snoring away.

"Get a picture now and then video them, I'll sneak round the back and scare them awake" Mal said, her eyes brimming with mischief. She'd clocked that the rooms only weapon was currently located on Harry's bedside table so no one would get accidentally hooked in the process. Evie and Carlos nodded at this idea.

Once in position Evie gave a thumbs up to indicate she was recording, causing Mal to spring up whilst loudly shouting "Boo" at the unsuspecting boys. The three woke up the second they heard the noise however Harry's reaction was the most entertaining. He'd always been a light sleeper and was normally never without his hook, especially when sleeping, given the years on the Isle where there was always a high chase of an attack. As reflex he swung his, normally hooked, hand in the direction of the 'attacker' and managed to knock Mal over the back on the sofa onto the laps of the three boys causing the other two to groan at the unexpected weight.

Evie and Carlos burst out laughing at the scene in front of them, eternally grateful it was being recorded so they could show Jane, Lonnie and Doug.

Harry didn't look at all annoyed by the rude awakening, especially as it had the unexpected bonus of having Mal on his lap. She looked up him, smiled widely and began to sit up and try to get off the sofa but a strong pair of arms wound round her waist, clearly not wanting her to move. Harry whispered in her ear, "what's this I heard about a private breakfast between you and a certain king? Although the information did come from someone having a spectacularly bad hair day..." he trailed off knowing full well that Mal's magic was the responsible party for that.

"I believe the King was simply enacting a citizen's request" she replied in a tone almost worthy of her former Lady of the Court title.

This caused the others to burst out laughing, Jay and Gil were sat next to them on the sofa with Evie and Carlos having constructed pillow seats on the floor. They were all up to speed with how Mal and her father had ended up with a tablet. Hopefully they'd be able to talk to a few other people on the Isle - they'd have to see how far Hades' new WiFi connection reached.

"Oh Harry, thanks for making sure Mal wasn't too lonely over the weekend" Evie winked at him causing his cheeks to darken slightly.

"Really Evie!" Sighed Jay, "please don't even make me think of my sister that way." While he wasn't against their relationship anymore he certainly didn't want it flaunted in his face. At least on the Isle they hid it. Here they were far more open about it.

Smiling at the beautiful girl on his knee he just shrugged at Evie, "what can I say? She's mine, she was alone, and I know how not to get caught" he finished with a smirk. Gil just shook his head at his closest friend knowing he'd try anything for Mal. He knew if Harry ever managed to land himself back on the Isle he's spend the rest of his life trying to break the barrier.

At this Evie got up from her place on the floor, "I'm going to go and find Doug - tell him all about the weekend and do some catching up. You'll be fine to come back for curfew Mal." She sang sweetly at the end.

"Urgh too much information there E!" She groaned, not that she could really complain.

After Evie left the boys got back onto their two favourite subjects tourney and video games. Harry kept giving her the odd kiss on the crown of her head along with gently playing with her hair which she found strangely relaxing.

Thankfully when they got around to actually playing video games they went easy on her and tried to help her out. Perhaps gaming wasn't so bad she concluded before heading out so she wouldn't miss curfew. She'd never be as obsessed about it as the boys but she could finally see why they enjoyed it, or at least the driving games!

She gave Gil, Carlos and Jay each a quick hug before giving Harry a short but passion filled kiss. Slowly she began to head back to her room, hoping that Evie would keep her promise.

Upon reaching her room she tentatively knocked on the door and counted to three before heading in.

While Doug and Evie were both sat on her bed, they were fully dressed and laughing at a video playing on Doug's phone.

"Hey Doug, how's band doing?" She greeted and asked knowing they'd also had a full weekend of practise.

"We're ready for Wednesday" he replied with a childlike grin on his face. Briefly looking at his watch he began getting ready to return to his room. The last thing he wanted was to earn the girl's room another month of supervision.

"Sweet dreams Evie" he said, kissing her cheek, "you too Doug" she replied sweetly. He headed out of the room, towards the boy's corridor.

Both girls got ready for bed knowing it was a long week ahead. Mal would be getting her first taste of proper photography in art this week and Evie had a big experiment coming up - they'd been planning it for most of term so far. Not to forget the teams opening match of the tourney season this Wednesday

"Evil dreams E" Mal wished her friend before turning off her bedside light, plunging the room into darkness.