Disclaimer: I do not own Descendants or any of its characters. I only own my OC, Rosalie Radcliffe. Any of the story line that seems familiar, I most likely do not own.

Rosalie knew that her overly good mood was due to what happened last night with Carlos. She found herself humming as she got ready to attend classes for the day. For once she had decided to put a little bit of effort into her appearance. She was sure that if Ben knew what had happened, he would never let her live dressing up a bit down. Instead of wearing her usual whitewashed skinny jeans and a collared shirt with a semiformal woolen sweater, Rosalie was wearing a crimson-colored skirt, black tights, and a cream-colored blouse that she had tucked into her skirt. After twisting her long hair into a single braid down her back, she picked up her backpack and slipped on some black and white checkered flats before leaving her dorm room. As always, Freckles was close behind her. She noticed that she still had some time before classes started, so she went to stop by Ben's room to see if he wanted to walk together to class. Nearly bouncing down the hall, Rosalie arrived at Ben's door. Knocking in a pattern she'd made up on the spot, she stepped back and twisted her fingers together while she hummed. Ben answered the door and looked at her in surprise before wordlessly letting her and Freckles into his room.

"You're up early," he commented, the suspicion oozing from him like waves.

"Can't I decide that I want to get up early for a change?" Rosalie asked innocently.

Ben raised an eyebrow and regarded her with a look of amusement, "Not when it's you and when it's a school day. You hate getting up early unless you're going somewhere you're excited to go."

"Maybe I just decided that I need to be more responsible for a change."

Ben snorted.

"Rude!"

"Are you going to tell me why you're actually up early for once? And also why you're wearing a skirt? Not that it looks bad, it's just different."

Rosalie almost immediately flushed red, avoiding eye contact with the soon-to-be king. She rocked back and forth on her heels and decided to turn her focus to her hands.

"Was it Carlos?"

Rosalie choked, "Wha- no!"

But Ben knew her well enough by now to catch the lie. He snickered when he realized that he had hit the nail directly on the head. Rosalie was childishly pouting now. Ben went over to the couch and sat before gesturing for Rosalie to join him.

"So? Tell me everything!"

His words snapped Rosalie from her embarrassment. She laughed, "I swear you're just as bad as some of the gossiping teenager girls around here."

"I resent that. Well?"

Rosalie affectionately rolled her eyes before sitting down, "Well, Carlos and I-"

"So it was Carlos!"

Rosalie punched him, which made him laugh harder since she couldn't pack a punch to save her life. She knew her way around swords and she could get herself out of a fight, but that was it. Ben tried to teach her more, but she didn't have the muscle strength for it.

"Are you going to let me finish?" Rosalie gave Ben a pointed look. He closed his mouth and nodded, "As I was saying, Carlos and I were studying last night. He offered me help with my maths homework. We all know that I'm terrible with it. Then, well, when he was leaving he kissed me before he left the room. He also called me Rose."

Ben had a wide smile on his face. The smile was a general characteristic, he was usually a positive and happy guy. The look he was giving her? That wasn't normal.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I told you so."

"Told me what? That Carlos was going to kiss me? Because you definitely didn't."

"It was implied."

Rosalie let out a guffaw. She wasn't sure if his weird attitude was from whatever Mal had done to him or from him hearing about whatever was going on between her and Carlos.

"How's Mal?" Rosalie asked, quick to change the subject to avoid more teasing.

Ben's face changed almost instantly. But it hadn't changed to the lovestruck puppy look that it usually did whenever the purple-haired villain kid was mentioned. This expression was more confused.

"What's wrong?"

"She spelled me."

Rosalie couldn't say that she was surprised, though it did catch her off guard with how bluntly Ben told her.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

Ben sighed, "I took her to the Enchanted Lake. I went swimming and the lake water washed away the enchantment."

"You don't seem mad though?"

"I'm not. I still had a great time. It was the best date I had ever been on. I'm just confused."

"Maybe she saw how close you were with Audrey and didn't know what to do." Rosalie was just throwing out a random suggestion to attempt to make him feel better.

Ben brightened a bit, "Yeah. Maybe."

"It's getting close to class time. You coming?"

"Yeah, yeah let's go."

The day had gone by quickly for the VKs. After seeing their parents, they all were feeling a little down. Carlos had moved to his bed after Mal went over the plan for how they were going to get the wand. He was cuddling with Dude and trying to push a particular girl from his mind. He saw her during their shared classes today. As usual, he thought she looked beautiful. But seeing her wearing colors that were signature de Vil colors? He felt a mix of dread and happiness. He didn't want to think about what would happen to her and her family after the villains invaded Auradon. Carlos knew that his mother would immediately go for her family's rescue. The Dalmatian Plantation if he remembered it correctly. He couldn't stand the thought of disappointing her.

"M?" Evie's voice snapped him out of his concentration, "You want to break Ben's love spell?"

Carlos looked up to listen to their conversation.

"I mean yeah. Uh, for after. I've just been thinking, you know, when the villains finally do invade Auradon, and begin to loot and kick everyone out of their castles and imprison their leaders, and destroy all that is good and beautiful, Ben still being in love with me just seems a little extra... cruel."

Mal sat for a bit before she snapped her spellbook close and stood up to leave the room. Carlos couldn't help but replay her words through his head. All that was good and beautiful to him was the small, strawberry blonde with blue-grey eyes. Evie left the room shortly after Mal had. Carlos sighed. Jay turned his gaze onto the de Vil. After much prodding, Carlos told the son of Jafar about what had happened with Rosalie.

"You should go see her," Jay announced after a few moments of silence.

Carlos looked at his best friend with surprise, "And say what? It's not like I can tell her what we're planning. What we're going to do."

"I mean, it's not like you have to talk."

Carlos threw a pillow at him when he snickered.

"Alright, alright. Listen, everything's going to change in just a matter of weeks, if not days. You should take this chance while you have it."

"When did you suddenly give good advice?"

"I've always given good advice. You just don't listen to me."

Carlos rolled his eyes but moved to stand up. As much as he hated to admit it, Jay had a valid point. He doubted that Rosalie would want anything to do with him after the villains took over Auradon. When he had opened the door and went to close it after himself and Dude, Jay called out.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Carlos couldn't decide if he should throw something heavier than a pillow or just leave before Jay could see his red-tinted cheeks. Deciding revenge wasn't worth the guaranteed teasing, he left the dorm room and grumbled to himself. Just like the night before, Carlos nervously made his way to Rosalie's dorm room. He hesitated in front of the door for a few moments before he found the courage to quickly knock. He heard a faint, 'just a minute!' come from inside the room. As per usual, the small strawberry blonde took his breath away when she answered the door.

"Oh, Carlos! Hey," Rosalie greeted in surprise.

"Um, hi, Rose," Carlos couldn't help but feel slightly proud at how the blush colored her cheeks after he called her Rose.

"Ah, um, come in."

Rosalie opened the door wider to let the de Vil into her dorm room. Freckles had raised her head from her position on the bed to acknowledge whoever had knocked on the door. Once seeing Carlos, Freckles laid her head back down on top of her paws. Rosalie wrung her hands together in nervousness after she closed the door behind Carlos. Carlos couldn't help but study her for the moment he had. She was wearing blue flannel pajama pants and a plain black shirt. Her feet were donned with mismatched socks. For a moment Carlos was concerned he had woken her up until he saw her textbooks and notes scattered along her desk.

"What are you doing here?" Rosalie asked, purely out of curiosity.

"I, um, I wanted to see you," Carlos responded.

Rosalie looked at him with an expression of surprise. He came to her dorm room solely because he wanted to see her?

"Just to see if you, um, if you wanted to hang out for a bit?" Carlos winced at how lame he must have sounded.

Rosalie felt her lips move into a smile. She could tell he was about as nervous as she was. She went and sat down cross-legged on one side of the couch before gesturing for him to sit on the other side. Carlos moved to the seat and sat down. The pair lapsed into silence, not sure what to say.

"So, um, what are you guys going to do for Parent Day?" Rosalie asked, desperate for some form of conversation.

"Oh well," Carlos dropped his eyes, his thoughts going to the video call with his mother and the other villains, "Fairy Godmother set up a video call so we could see them earlier today."

Rosalie felt his mood shift and immediately felt guilty for bringing it up, "Um, I'm sorry, we can change the subject?"

"No, no. It's okay. I just, well, ugh. It doesn't matter."

"What doesn't matter? What you feel and think is valid and important. It's not up for someone else to decide that."

"My mother. She's never loved me the way a mother should. I used to be so focused on just avoiding her. And seeing her today was um,"

"Hard?"

"Yeah."

"Do you, um, wanna talk about it?" Rosalie cringed, "Um, only if you want to. Man, that sounded really dumb."

"No, uh. I don't mind."

Carlos proceeded to slowly tell her about the video call with his mom and the other VKs parents. He couldn't help but talk about more than he had planned to. No one other than Mal, Evie, and Jay ever cared enough to ask how he was doing. It was different from having someone other than his friends care for a change. He told her about how he used to sleep on a lumpy mattress on the closet floor. He told her about the bear traps and how Evie was the first person who cared enough to give him a pillow and a blanket. He told her about how horrid his mother was. About how she cared more for her furs than him. The frustration and loneliness. After he had finished talking, he slowly brought up the courage to look at Rosalie, ready for resentment. But all he saw was sympathy for the way he had been treated. She wasn't pitying him nor coddling. Rosalie genuinely cared about his past.

"I can't believe you stood up to her." Rosalie began, "I don't think I would have been able to stand up for myself as you did. She's not even my mother."

Carlos let out a breath of relief.

"Are you going to be okay?"

Rosalie's question made Carlos freeze. He could only think about the plan for the coronation. All that was good and beautiful was sitting across from him. And all she wanted was to know if he was going to be okay. Instead of coming up with a response, for fear of her knowing he wasn't telling the truth, Carlos cupped her cheek and kissed her.

As much as he wanted to believe it wasn't there, he could feel the nagging guilt in his gut. Trying to push it aside, Carlos just tried to focus on the moment. After all, this was likely the last time he'd ever have alone with the strawberry blonde and he was going to cherish every minute of it.