Stressed Out Dragon
A/N: I do not own anything with the exception of my OCs. Everything else belongs to Disney.
Yes, this is another one shot! Thanks in part to a conversation I had with another author over on Ao3, this was born! And probably a couple more like it because why not? :D
Hope you all enjoy! Let me know what you think! :D
Carlos DeVil was many things. A tech genius. A kid from the Isle of the Lost. A former cynophobe. A member of the Championship winning Tourney Team. A current member of the R.O.A.R. team. Not the best with asking girls out.
What he was not? Prepared to see one of his three best friends transform into a dragon before his very eyes.
Sure he knew Mal was stressed, how could he not? To go from sixteen years of living in the shadows of the barrier, scheming and staying out of sight to being thrusted into the spotlight as she was paraded around Auradon on the arm of the King? That was a lot to ask someone to get used to in just six months.
So it was pretty understandable when he saw Mal rush into his dorm, closing the door on the throngs of reporters who were clamoring after her. Carlos even understood why she locked the door. Hell he would too after seeing that.
But the purple smoke surrounding Mal was not something Carlos understood. The glowing green eyes, Mal throwing her head back…all of these things were new territory for the younger boy and when the smoke cleared he had a dragon in his bedroom.
And said dragon was standing between him and the locked door. Not to mention said dragon also looked kinda angry. At him.
Carlos was in no way ashamed to admit that he dove out of his open window, not realizing in his panic that he'd left Dude on the bed. All Carlos was concerned about was finding probably the one person who could turn Mal back.
"Jay! Jay, Jay, Jay!" Carlos shouted as he burst into Evie's dorm. Sure it was also Mal's dorm but Evie had finally cornered Jay into getting a suit fitting for Cotillion.
"Hey Carlos," Jay chuckled. "Come to rescue me from Evie's clutches?"
"Need…you…in our…dorm…"
"Why? What's up?" Jay asked, the amused look shifting to concern as Carlos continued to pant, resting his hands on his thighs.
"Everything okay?" Lonnie asked as she poked her head in, presumably there to keep her spot as the next appointment Evie had for the day.
"Yeah, we could hear Carlos yelling from the quad," Emir nodded as he and Akiho walked in as well. No one was quite sure why they'd come in but they were always welcomed.
"I'm not sure," Evie said with a slight frown. "Carlos just burst in saying that he needed Jay in their dorm."
Jay shook his head. "Carlos, if Chad's using your 3D Printer again, just tell him to leave. You don't need muscle for this."
"Not…the reason…I need…you…"
"Ah, need help asking a girl out?"
"Mal's a dragon!" Carlos snapped, finally able to regain his breath. Sure he had run a lot on the Isle and yeah he was a Tourney player but he'd never run that fast in his life. Fear was a powerful motivator and in this case, he had every right to be afraid.
"Yeah, we know," Jay said, frowning slightly. "She's Maleficent's daughter. Everyone knows this 'Los."
Carlos groaned. "Not that kind of dragon you idiot! I mean a fire breathing, scaly, treasure hoarding, person barbecuing, cow dishonoring, dragon!"
"You mean—?"
"Yes!"
"How is she—?"
Carlos groaned. "We don't have time for me to tell you the story so details to follow. All I know is Jay, you're the only person I can think of that can get Mal to turn back."
"What about Ben?"
"He's got king stuff to take care of to quote Lonnie. I wouldn't want to bother him."
"His girlfriend's transformed into a dragon Carlos. You think he wouldn't want to know about this?"
"Actually," Akiho spoke up. "Ben has a well known obsession with dragons. If you brought him along, he'd probably do whatever he could to keep the dragon in front of him for as long as possible. Not consciously mind you but yeah, probably a good idea to keep Ben back for this one."
Evie paused as she did a headcount. "Where'd Dude?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean Dude's never far from Carlos' side and I don't see him here," Evie elaborated. "He's not spending time with Ben today is he?"
"Uh no…" Carlos said as he remembered exactly what he did. "Um…guys….I think Mal has Dude."
"What?!"
"I panicked okay? I thought Dude was right behind me and I was more focused on finding Jay!"
Lonnie shook her head. "Okay, we don't have time for this. We need to rescue Dude from Mal…and that's a sentence I never thought I'd say. Come on."
The group made their way back to Jay and Carlos' dorm, pausing only to allow Jay to change back into his regular clothes. Carlos couldn't help but hope that in the time it took Jay to change, Mal would have turned back into herself.
He was wrong. Peering through the open window, they could see Mal curled up around Dude; as if to protect him.
"Well…at least Dude hasn't become Mal's lunch," Jay said and Evie whacked him on the arm. "What? It's true!"
"You keep talking like that and you'll become Mal's lunch," Evie said with a sigh. "Okay come on, through the window we go…and why are we going through the window?"
"You do see the dragon between us and the door?"
"Ah yes, right."
Lonnie shook her head as she climbed through the window, grinning slightly as she saw Mal. "Gods, you're magnificent Mal. But…you've got to be cramped like that, there's no way Carlos and Jay's dorm is big enough for a dragon."
Mal growled and narrowed her eyes at Lonnie, who backed up slightly.
"Okay, compliments aren't going to work," she said with a sigh. "Any other thoughts?"
"I got this," Jay said with a smirk, sauntering up to the dragon that was formerly his friend. "Honestly Mal I thought you were tougher than this. What, royal life got you stressed so you decided to live your life as a dragon?"
"Probably not the best idea to piss off the dragon," Carlos said as Mal lifted her head and snatched Jay's beanie off his head. "At least now Mal has a chew toy that's not us."
"Yeah. Shame, that would have worked on the Isle," Jay sighed. "And that was my favorite beanie!"
"I'll repair it for you," Evie said, shaking her head. "M, come on. It's two days until Cotillion! Don't you want to wear the dress we made and dance with Ben on your arm?"
The only response Evie got was another growl as Mal continued to tear apart Jay's beanie.
"Honestly you all are going about this the wrong way," a new voice called and everyone stared in shock as it appeared to come from….
"Dude?"
"Yeah," Dude nodded as Mal held him close, the same way a young child might hold a stuffed creature. "I went rifling through Mal's bag when she dropped it and found this gummy thing. It was nasty but I ate it anyway. So now I can talk. Mal and I had a good talk after someone abandoned me to jump through the window instead."
"Heh," Carlos chuckled as everyone turned to look at him. "I thought you were right behind me!"
"Nah, I chose to stay behind and sniff the potential new friend," Dude said, grinning slightly. "Anyway, you guys lecturing her isn't going to help."
"Well what will?" Emir asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. His best friend being King at sixteen? That he could handle. Said friend's girlfriend turning into a dragon and talking dogs? Not so much.
Surprisingly it was Akiho who came up with it. "She needs to destress. My aunt was able to unfreeze Arendelle after she learned that love was the key. Maybe if Mal de-stresses…."
"But the way she does that is mainly spray painting," Jay said. "I don't think she can hold a can of spray paint as a dragon Akiho."
"Not to mention her schedule's packed," Evie said. "She told me at her dress fitting that she has twenty other things to do after Cotillion so she needs to get ready for those as well."
Mal snorted and flapped her wings, the resulting gust of wind causing everyone to fall back.
"Oh…she wants to fly," Emir said with a grin. "If I had to take a guess that is."
"Okay so how do we get her out to the quad?" Carlos asked. "I doubt she can fit through the window or the door and my room's big but but not big enough for Mal to fly around in."
"Let's try the door," Lonnie said, walking over and after unlocking it, opened the door. "Come on Mal, you want to go fly?"
It was as if Lonnie said the magic words as Mal raced out of Carlos' room, still in her dragon form. The others looked at each other before racing after her; Emir and Akiho both texting Ben to warn him about the reports of a dragon in Auradon he was about to get.
"Well…that's new," Doug said as he walked up to them; Mal having already gotten to the quad and taken flight. She was a bit unsteady on her wings but you could still tell that she was having a ball.
"That's Mal," Evie told him.
"Explain please?"
"Mal turned into a dragon. That's all I've got."
They were drawing a crowd as more and more students stopped to stare at the purple dragon doing…loops? Okay, attempting to do loops and then almost crashing but getting up to do the loop again.
"Okay, okay, children," Fairy Godmother said as she and Ben rushed up. "There's nothing to fear. The guards will—."
"Fairy Godmother, that's Mal," Carlos said quickly. "She's not a threat, she just turned herself into a dragon somehow."
"I…I see…"
"And we've lost Ben," Akiho chuckled upon seeing the look on Ben's face that could only be described as loving awe. "This might be the best day of his life."
"No the best day of his life was the day that he got to ask out Mal," Emir corrected the blond.
"Can't he have two best days of his life?"
"Okay, okay," Jay shook his head. "Enough you two. Go tell the rest of the team they don't need to gear up to fight. Hopefully Mal's de-stressed enough that she can turn herself back into a human."
"Yes," Fairy Godmother nodded. "I can always turn her back myself but I'd rather not. The process might be painful and the last thing I'd want to do is hurt her."
Just as Fairy Godmother said that and before either Emir or Akiho could head off, Mal landed in front of them; still in her dragon form. Ben stared in awe as the sun gleamed off of her scales; her green eyes standing out prominently against her purple skin.
"Whoa," he said, his voice a near whisper. "Mal…how did you…?"
"She was stressed," Dude chimed in.
Fairy Godmother, Ben, and Doug all stared at the dog in shock.
"Did…did he…?"
"Talk? Yep," Dude nodded and wagged his tail. "But yeah, girl had too much on her plate and no one seemed to be listening to her. I mean, I don't blame her. I've lived my whole life not being able to talk so now having the ability is really weird!"
"The dog makes sense," Jay sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"I'm confused," Doug said.
Evie, though, gave Mal a small, sad smile as she looked at the dragon before her. "What you were asking yesterday, about thinking about the Isle and what we'd be doing if we were still there," she said, her voice soft. "You weren't being curious were you?"
Mal snorted and shook her head.
"I'll…I'll be honest M," Evie said with a small sigh. "Thinking about the Isle hurts. Because I'll think about Dizzy who doesn't belong on the Isle, sweet Dizzy who should be here with us and getting to spend her teenage years in the sun. I though she'd be right behind us. But as one month grew to three and grew to six, I…I just threw myself into my work because I'd have no choice but to think about her otherwise."
"Same," Jay said. Would it have been his choice to do this heart to heart out in the open? Of course not. But if it got Mal back, he'd do it in a heartbeat. "You honestly think we just turned on a dime after just six months? Mal you remember what my dad used to tell me about food."
Mal nodded, her eyes softening as she looked at Jay. They both knew exactly what he was referring to: if the haul wasn't big enough or valuable enough, the only food Jay got from his father was whatever Jay managed to steal for himself.
"Yes, living in Auradon is great," Jay said. "But…but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's why I didn't argue against Chad when he insisted Lonnie couldn't join R.O.A.R.—because I didn't want to be the reason we four got booted back to the Isle."
"I just want my friend back," Carlos spoke up. "The girl who walked around Dragon Hall telling me she was going to have a party at my house in a tone that indicated no arguments. The girl who had no issue wearing leather around Auradon Prep because that's who she was and no Boreadonians were going to tell her otherwise. The girl who was more at home with a can of spray paint in her hand than textbooks."
"Ben, now would be the time for you to say something," Lonnie whispered as Ben continued to stare at Mal's dragon form.
"Huh?"
"Focus your royal dragon obsessed brain on your girlfriend!"
"Oh! Oh, right!," Ben nodded and looked at Mal. Thankfully she just seemed rather amused by the exchange than anything else. "Mal, I love you. No matter what. I know I gave you props for fitting in and handling everything but…maybe I should have been asking if you were okay instead. I never wanted you to change who you were to please Auradon. That's not the girl I fell in love with. The girl I fell in love with was a leather clad, spray painting, magical makeover giving, girl who's the most loyal person I've ever met. And…and I'm sorry if I made you feel like you couldn't come to me."
Slowly, a cloud of purple smoke surrounded Mal and before the group knew it, Mal stood before them again. Though not in the dress she'd been wearing when she went into Carlos' dorm.
"Whoa!" Mal exclaimed, patting down the still smoking leather outfit. "Okay, so I did not know I could do that."
"I think I speak for everyone when I say that makes all of us," Carlos spoke up with a chuckle. Ben grinned and walked up, pulling Mal into his arms.
"I think we can go ahead and cancel the picnic," he murmured in her ear. "You need a break, my dragon."
"Is that a new pet name, Benny?" Mal murmured back but she couldn't help but smile a little.
"Uh huh. And it's staying."
"Fair enough," Mal chuckled and rested her head on his shoulder. "Sorry for scaring you 'Los."
"Thanks for not eating Dude," Carlos told her with a grin.
"How about a spa day?" Evie suggested. "After all, your blonde hair does not work with your Isle garb."
"You know what," Mal said with a small smirk. "I could deal with that on one condition."
"What's that?"
"It's at Curl Up and Dye. You need to see Dizzy, E. It's been six months, I think we can sneak onto the Isle without anyone attacking us."
"Or…" Ben said. "I bring Dizzy over here? Actually, I can't believe I let the VK initiative slip to the wayside. Evie, Mal, you want to help me out in terms of kids to bring from the Isle?"
"That works too!" Evie squealed with delight as Mal shook her head in amusement.
"Thanks Ben but I've got about a thousand things on my plate," Mal told him. "E's got this."
"But first, your break," Ben said, gently leading her toward her dorm.
"What? No Ben!"
"Yes Mal."
"But…"
"No buts."
Akiho chuckled. "Oh my how the tables have turned. Well that was enough excitement for one day. Time to go do absolutely nothing!"
"I'm down with that," Emir chuckled.
Lonnie rolled her eyes. "And you two wonder why Ben thinks you're insane?"
"Oh we don't wonder," Akiho said, shaking his head. "We know. But we don't let it bother us."
Jay snorted. "Hey Lon, want to go do some R.O.A.R. practice?"
"You sure you want to train with a girl?" Lonnie teased.
"Okay I earned that," Jay said, chuckling as they walked off.
Carlos looked at Fairy Godmother. "Um…quick question. What do you know about talking dogs and how to get them to not talk?"
"That…is a good question dear," Fairy Godmother said. "Come along, we'll look it up together."
"Oh come on! I like talking! It just takes some getting used to," Dude exclaimed as he trotted after them. "Hey Carlos, while you're with Fairy Godmother, maybe you can take the time to ask Jane out?"
"Dude!"