"Huh… I wonder what in the heck they're up to," Mal muttered under her breath, furrowing her brow in concentration as she squinted a little and took in the sight of the three people in the alleyway nearby as she balanced precariously on a barely standing shed.

It was none other than Uma and Harry. However, they were accompanied by some shifty man in a cloak that was speaking quickly and looking over his shoulder every few moments as if he expected someone to suddenly appear behind him.

There were several things that Mal noticed about the situation. Firstly, the man seemed to be giving them information that he obviously desperately did not want someone to find out about. Secondly, Uma looked much too pleased with the intel she was apparently receiving. And thirdly, Harry was not taking his eyes off of Uma and was constantly dopily grinning at everything she did or said.

Mal rolled her eyes at the sight of the two. That was exactly why her and old Hairball broke up, after all. He was too fond of Uma, and Mal was not pleased with his loyalties. Of course, she did not really have any lingering feelings for him or anything, but it did somewhat irritate her that Uma won in that respect.

Mal realized that Uma was suddenly looking much more sly than pleased, and Mal moved her way forward, despite the fact that she did not have much more room to move. Additionally, the shed was suddenly making strange creaking sounds beneath her. Mal held onto the shed's frame firmly, leaning forward in an attempt to listen in on Uma's conversation. However, as soon as she shifted a bit more, the tin of the roof shuddered and completely collapsed underneath her, causing her to fall down.

Sheer panic ran through her until it was suddenly replaced by a sharp pain in her head as she collided with debris from the roof that had crumbled beneath her. In spite of herself, she yelped with the pain, suddenly realizing that her head had hit something even harder beneath the tin. She whined under her breath, clutching a hand to her head as she tried to recover and rolled over onto the cold concrete of the sidewalk. She was dizzy and she could feel that she was just on the edge of finding herself knocked out cold, so she knew she had to take it somewhat slow.

After a considerable amount of time, she reached out and felt around, suddenly making contact with a concrete block that she had quite obviously smacked her head against. Mal groaned deeply, suddenly remembering in her sluggish stupor that Uma was around. She removed her hand from her head and furrowed her brow painedly as she realized it was covered in blood.

She rolled over slowly, using both hands to help support herself as she slowly got to her feet, stumbling her way toward the one place that she knew she would be safe.

The secret lair.

…

"How did you hurt yourself?" Evie demanded softly, grasping at the back of Mal's neck with her hand as she held the girl in place so that she could better reach the gash on Mal's head. Mal winced at the feel of the rag compressed against her head. She grabbed Evie's wrist firmly, noting with immense irritation the headache that was pulsating even worse with the contact.

"I didn't!" Mal whined a little, immediately hating how her words came out. She sounded so desperate, and she absolutely despised the weakness in her voice. Fortunately, no one was nearby except for Evie, and even the boys were nowhere to be seen, for which she was quite thankful indeed. Of course, right now her head was so woozy that she honestly could not seem to bring herself to worry too much about who was around to see.

When Mal had finally managed to appropriately throw and hit the sign triggering the secret entrance with a rock, she found Evie upstairs, mellowly sewing together some article of clothing. As soon as she had seen Mal, she had not removed her hands or eyes from her as she insisted on tending to Mal's wounds and finding out the exact story behind what happened.

"Mal, blood is flowing from your head like Niagara Falls. What happened?" Evie questioned, furrowing her brow and lowering her head so that she could look into Mal's eyes as she compressed the injury. As soon as those warm mocha eyes met Mal's, Mal sighed deeply, looking down in an attempt to avoid those pools for as long as she could. Her vision refused to focus, but somehow when she looked at Evie, she could see her perfectly clearly. But that might have been because she was so used to Evie's mannerisms that she could easily discern what her expression might be.

However, she accidentally managed to look in Evie's direction, and she saw that Evie was raising her eyebrow while looking at her with that same soft look she had whenever it was just the two of them that always pierced Mal's heart to its very core. Mal groaned deeply, frustrated that she could never resist Evie's wiles, but also irritated with the immense pain in her head.

"I might've fallen!" Mal admitted in a harsh whisper, hoping that Evie would give it up. But she knew Evie better than to really think that Evie would forget it all so quickly. She could feel Evie staring at her and could almost feel the minor panic emanating from her.

"From where?!"

"From a small building," Mal replied nonchalantly, hoping that Evie would not overreact. After all, if anyone discovered them in the middle of a vulnerable moment like this, it could mean serious trouble, despite the fact that Mal and her group were some of the most feared people on the entire Isle.

As soon as Mal uttered the words, Evie's eyes went ridiculously wide, and her jaw slackened significantly. Mal immediately began to shush her, trying desperately to keep her from voicing her apparent worry at an unsightly volume.

"What were you doing?!" Evie finally cried, fortunately much quieter than Mal was afraid she was going to speak, and Mal rolled her eyes, despite the pain it caused her to do so as Evie removed the rag and dipped it into the alcohol she had managed to scrounge up.

"I was up for a leisurely stroll on top of the building, and I decided to calmly take a nosedive," Mal sarcastically replied, trying desperately to avoid squinting with the pain, and Evie furrowed her brow as she held the rag in the air, suspended by Evie's pause to consider Mal's words.

"What do you think I was doing?! I was spying on Uma and Harry! Son of a—" Mal hissed, the words coming out much harsher than she intended because of the sudden pain of Evie pressing the rag to her head. Mal absolutely abhorred the sudden whine that escaped her at the feeling of the red-hot burn of the disinfectant.

"You're okay, it's okay, M," Evie reassuringly spoke, stroking Mal's hair with her free hand. Mal clenched her teeth hard, headbutting Evie's chest with the pain of it. Evie just soothingly hummed to her, attempting desperately to soothe her pain as she scooted closer to Mal to allow the girl to get closer to her. Mal, despite her initial feelings, felt her resolve weakening with the warmth of Evie's form and she melted into the other girl.

The pain of the alcohol made her eyes water and her teeth felt as if they would crack under the pressure that she was putting them through, but Evie's presence somehow made it better. Therefore, she did not hold back in her attempts to grow nearer.

"It's alright," Evie whispered, trying to hush the low whine that was building in the back of Mal's throat. Mal pressed the top of her head harder against Evie.

"M, move back just a little bit. I can't reach the gash," Evie told her softly. Mal conjured every piece of willpower she possessed and moved away from Evie. She painfully noted that Evie's shirt was now covered in blood, which was a stain that was most certainly not going to come out easily. It was also going to be a serious issue with Evie's mother.

"E, your shirt," Mal pointed out somewhat dazedly, and Evie just shook her head, cradling Mal's neck-jaw area carefully as she cleaned Mal's wound a little better. It burned a little less now that Mal was used to it, but it still hurt nevertheless.

"It's nothing, M."

"Your mother won't think it's nothing," Mal attempted to challenge, but even she could notice that there was a lack of any real insistence in the statement. Evie just looked into Mal's eyes, removing the rag from Mal's head as she took the bandaging in her hand without looking down at it.

"I'll get by," Evie assured her, and Mal managed to focus just long enough to get a clear look at Evie's caring eyes. Mal felt her heart twinge a little with the amount of emotion in those sweet, kind orbs, and she honestly did not want to acknowledge just how much she cared about this ally of hers and how close the ally came to being true family.

"E, give me the shirt and wear mine home," Mal told her, almost baring her teeth as Evie started to secure the bandage. Evie chuckled a little under her breath, never opening her mouth as the mirth bubbled a little and made a strange humming sound before she spoke.

"I think that'd go over even worse," Evie admitted, and Mal shook her head, reaching up and grabbing Evie's wrist again.

"No, no, no, tell her I stole it," Mal explained herself, and Evie furrowed her brow.

"Okay…? I see how that will work, but how am I going to explain wearing your shirt?" Evie asked curiously, attempting to follow Mal's train of thought as she finished her tending to Mal's head and lowered her hand from the other girl. Mal followed the warmth of the hand, but quickly straightened, desperately hoping that Evie would not notice the slipup. Judging by the fact that Evie suddenly placed her hand on Mal's arm, Mal assumed that she must have very unfortunately taken note of Mal's pathetic moment of weakness.

"Tell her you stole mine out from underneath my nose so you'd have something to wear home," Mal told the other girl, honestly surprised that her good sense and logic was working at this point considering how foggy her perception seemed to be.

"It'd sound good for you, wouldn't it?" Mal questioned, raising an eyebrow but quickly letting it fall back to its ordinary place due to the pain that suddenly spiked in her forehead. Evie sighed, reaching up and hesitantly running her thumb over the tape that was holding the bandage to Mal's head.

"What if Mommy rubs it in your mother's face? Then you'll be in a ton of trouble," Evie pointed out, and Mal just shrugged.

"Well, it can't get any worse than this, right?" Mal chuckled, and Evie just narrowed her eyes, completely unimpressed with Mal's statement. Mal allowed her laugh to fall off to nothingness, but replaced it with an insistent stare.

"C'mon, E, let's swap," Mal told her, and Evie shook her head.

"I can't let you take a fall for me, M," Evie spoke, and Mal could hear the deep care in her voice. The thought immediately surfaced in her mind that she did not deserve Evie's gentleness and kindness, but she swiftly moved on from that consideration in favor of negating Evie's statement.

"Well, we don't know for a fact that your mother's gonna tell my mom. So go ahead and take my shirt, would you?" Mal insisted. Evie just looked at her carefully, and Mal could feel some odd emotion rolling off of the other girl in waves.

It was in Evie's eyes and etched in her features, and Mal could not quite figure out what it was. Mal knew she was not thinking straight, and she was really beginning to wonder what was wrong and if she were imagining it.

However, it left her with a warm feeling inside. She could not explain it or even begin to tap into it, but it was similar to how she reservedly yet often felt about Evie. It was strange to be on the other side of the feeling, but she found she liked it despite the fact that it utterly terrified her.

Mal blinked hard after a moment, reaching out and grabbing the somewhat torn arm of the sofa as she attempted to balance herself as she suddenly swayed a little too much. Evie wasted no time in hovering about her, her expression losing its intensity in favor of immense concern.

"Be careful."

"I'm fine," Mal immediately told her, a little more sharply than she intended as she tried desperately to regain some sense of her ordinary toughness. However, she did not attempt to apologize for it, and she relievedly acknowledged that Evie did not seem to be affected by the words.

"Alright, you relax here, and I'll keep watch, okay?" Evie questioned, and Mal just nodded, swallowing hard and closing her eyes as she slowly lowered herself on the ratty little couch.

"Don't leave without my shirt. Wake me up if you have to, you understand?" Mal forced just enough authority in her voice so that Evie would know that she was serious about the statement. She could practically hear the glow of Evie's smile as she spoke her next words as Mal found herself quickly falling into sleep's clutches.

"I will, M. Don't worry."

A/N: Oh, my goodnesses, I loved writing this one, lol. The Mevie stuff is always my favorite to do. Of course, it's always been that way, and y'all know exactly how much of a sucker I am for these… XD

Please let me know what you guys thought of this one! And please do make a suggestion if there's a Mevie friendship oneshot that you would like to see! I'd be glad to write it! :)