Disclaimer: Still don't own.
Chapter 4: Family Talk
"Um...Evie? Is this stuff supposed to be tingling?" Carlos asked coming out of the attached bathroom.
"Yep," his friend giggled sitting on the edge of her bed. She was just finishing putting Jay's hair into three braids that led into a man bun, her legs thrown over Jay's shoulders as he (willingly) applied some sparkly blue nail polish to her toes.
The door to the girl's room opened revealing Mal carrying a tray full of various sweets and snacks. "Look what I raided from the kitchen," she grinned kicking the door closed.
"Score!" Jay laughed removing Evie's legs from his shoulders before meeting Mal at the table where she placed the food. He tossed a bar of chocolate at Carlos, before passing Evie a plate of chocolate chip cookies. He snuck a few strawberries from the bowl that Mal had commandeered before taking the plate filled with pizza bites (something that Ben had recently introduced him to) for himself. "Okay! Now we can really get this Girl Talk started!" He said flopping onto Mal's bed.
Since the Royal Cotillion, the four friends, despite their busy and sometimes never overlapping schedules had decided to make Sunday nights "Girl Talk". ("We can't change the name now, Carlos," Jay had chuckled the first Sunday despite his friend's embarrassment.) It was a time for them to catch up on each other lives, the successes, and often times many of the struggles they still encountered as children from the Isle. It was a time just for them where they could be honest and not feel judged by their often well meaning but clueless Auradon friends. Not even Ben, Doug, or Jane were allowed to come.
Some of their Auradon friends who knew about their Sunday night get togethers called it Villain Kid Support Group especially after the one time Freddie Facilier was seen joining them. (No one commented that night on how the girl's witty remarks and cheshire-cat grin were forced. Nor on the bruises on her arm that she had awakened to from the nightmares she had the night before of shadowy hands pulling her somewhere dark and inescapable. Instead, Jay and Carlos showed Freddie how to play some of their video games; Evie made little hats for some of her shrunken heads; and before Freddie left, Mal passed her a small vial of dreamless sleep potion that, one of the few potions she remembered from her mother's spell book.)
Tonight, though, it was just the Rotten Four. Tonight it was just family.
"It's gonna be so weird tomorrow," Jay said thoughtfully, popping a pizza bite into his mouth. "New VKs in Auradon is gonna be crazy."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Mal groaned, picking up Dude as she sat next to the sprawled out semi-former thief (hey, bad habits were hard to break) and placing the small dog next to her. Dude sighed sleepily, commenting drowsily to scratch a little bit lower.
"You're not gonna pull another runner, are you Mal?" Carlos teased sitting down at one of the girls desks and making a quick correction on one of their assignments. "The queen of Atlantis first name has three A's by the way."
"Ha ha ha," Mal said dryly the same time Evie gave a cheery, "Thanks!"
"But seriously," Jay said sitting up next to his oldest friend. "Are we gonna have to tie you down?"
The half-fae gave him a playful push. "Guys, I'm good. Seriously. I've been talking to Queen Belle. You know she wasn't a princess before she married Ben's dad. She may not have been from the Isle but she had to deal with her own adjustment to stepping into her role as queen," she explained. "If my fate is to be Ben's queen, I'm going to do it my way, on my own terms."
"Wow, Mal. You make eventually marrying your true love sound sooo romantic," Carlos murmured picking at his face mask that was beginning to flake. "Hey!" he exclaimed after a strawberry bounced off his head, Mal popping another one a little too innocently into her mouth.
"You can stop picking at it and wash it off," Evie stated to the boy before turning back to Mal. "But seriously, are you going to be okay with tomorrow? This will be the first official group of VKs coming in after us. And...Uma will be with them."
"Look," Mal said crossing her arms, "as long as she doesn't try to mess with what's mine, I have no beef with her. We may not be friends but it's like you and Ben have been saying, E. She's a kid of the Isle and deserves a chance. But that doesn't mean I have to trust her. She steps one tentacle out of line and I'll personally fly her fishy butt back to the Isle."
Evie shook her head. "I don't think she'll be a problem. I mean, no matter what our personal feelings are in regards to her, I really do think she just wants to do the best for those who really should have never been left on that island. You could see that with some of her terms of negotiations."
"Fine. Okay," Mal said running her fingers through her hair a little too harshly. "Can we change the topic? I'll deal with Captain Shrimpy and her jolly crew in the morning."
Looking around, Jay raised his hand. "Ok, Subject change," he said. "So um… you know Carlos and I have a game coming up soon."
"Oh yeah?" Evie asked while showing a now face maskless Carlos a new design she had been working on for him. "It's an away game right?"
Jay didn't answer, struggling for once in his life to get the words out. It was Carlos who spoke up for him. "It's in Agrabah."
Mal and Evie were silent, faces instantly filling with understanding.
"Yeah," Jay chuckled, his grin just not reaching his eyes. "I know. It's gonna be a hell of a homecoming."
Mal rubbed his back. "You're not your dad. They can't blame you for what he did. I talked to Jasmine and Aladdin about it that one time I met with them and they seemed to hold no grudges against you."
"I know that," Jay sighed. "It's just...weird, ya know? My dad always told me that I belonged to royalty. And though I never really cared about that, Agrabah it's...I mean, I never been there before but...it's supposed to be home, right?"
"They say here that 'home is where the heart is'," Evie smiled softly sitting next to him and taking his hand.
"Yeah," Jay nodded looking at his friends who he knew had his back no matter what. "They may be right."
The Next Day, On the Isle
"I swear on Davy Jones's locker itself, if ye go against us, sister or not, I'll-!"
"-hook me," Harriet Hook rolled her eyes exasperatedly as she stared up at the ceiling of her ship's cabin. "I know dear little brother. I thought you had lowered yourself into the position of being another Captain's first mate, not her parrot," she said.
Harry growled, getting out of his seat. His sister always knew how to push the wrong buttons. He was pulled back down in his seat when Uma tugged on his jacket.
"So we're in an agreement?" Uma questioned irritatedly, wanting to get out of the middle of this sibling squabbling. She also hated being on another captain's ship, especially the one belonging to the oldest child of Hook. Though the slightly older girl had some slightly twisted sense of loyalty to her only brother, it was as fickle as a leaf blowing in a hurricane and often times she didn't withhold saying something that would push her only brother into a destructive self-loathing.
Harriet sighed, removing her boot clad feet from her cabin's desk, the iconic red Hook jacket draped securely on her shoulders. "Aye. I'll protect your remaining crew and turf here as well as handle the new fancy supply shipments. You lot just remember to protect my crew members going with you who were in Yen Sid's little club."
Uma nodded. "Aye," she said, both captains shook, clasping each other's forearms in agreement.
"Oh, and little brother," Harriet called out just as they were leaving, Uma already up on deck. Harry didn't turn but he stopped, waiting for her to continue. "If you see Calista…"
"She's probably dead somewhere on this Isle," he said looking over his shoulder. "But if the rumors are true and that crazy little wench did sneak through the barrier," he grinned widely, a glint in his eye, "I'll hook her for ya. Free of charge, sister o'mine."
Harriet snorted unamused as she sat back at her desk, waving him out. "Get a new threat, idiot."
Harry blew her a kiss before sauntering out and off the ship to where Uma was waiting for him. Uma raised a brow questioningly when he finally joined her but didn't ask any questions as she led the way back to their ship.
"Go on and finish getting ready," Uma said not stepping up the ramp to board The Lost Revenge. "There's something I gotta do before the cars arrive," she said glancing over to where Ursula's Fish and Chip Shop stood.
Harry's eyes followed hers, frown deepening. "If yer not back before an hour's time," he said as she began walking away, "I'll come in swinging!"
"You can't even tell time!" one of the crew interrupted from the deck (Jonas. It was always Jonas just asking for a hookin', Harry thought) before being joined by a chorus of laughs and cackles.
"Why you!" Harry snarled stomping up onto deck, hook raised, threats being hurled in his heavy Scottish accent, promising the still laughing crew very painful deaths. Uma rolled her eyes at her crew fooling around, a small smile on her lips as she made her way to her mother's shop.
When she stepped through the swinging doors of the chop shop, she paused, surprised at what she saw waiting for her in the empty room. Her mother. Ursula.
"What are you doing here?" came out of the young girl's mouth before she could even stop them.
A poorly drawn thin eyebrow rose, chapped red painted lips turning down. "Last time I checked," the older sea witch said pouring herself another glass of cheap rum, "this dump still belonged to me. Sit."
The girl scowled but made her way over to the table where her mother was sitting. A frown of disgust was deeply etched onto her face as she watched her mother slingback the glass of rum, some of the amber liquid running down her chin. Finally, Ursula sat down her glass, letting out a loud belch.
"You know," she began. "I always thought you were a disappointment. You were born with those hideous things," she said gesturing to Uma's legs. "You were never able to really beat Maleficent's traitorous bitch. The family's good looks seemed to have completely skipped over you," she reached out tilting Uma's face this way and that with one of her tentacles, patting her daughter's cheek a little too hard for it to be affectionate. "And to make things worst, you further spit on the heritage that you weren't even worthy of to begin with by becoming Captain of men and a dinky little ship." She poured another glass, eyes never leaving Uma's. "If I didn't need you to fill in shifts for this place, I would have drowned you before you had learned how to swim a long, long, long time ago," Ursula said offhandedly.
"Wow, and they said you didn't deserve the Mother of the Year award," Uma sarcastically spat. This wasn't anything new but that still didn't mean Uma just wanted to sit there and listen to her mother rant. She attempted to get up before she was roughly tugged back down into her seat by one of her mother's tentacles.
"Oh hush now, angelfish. Can't spare some time for you dear old mommy-dearest before you abandon her and all the fools on this island who follow you, just like your pal Mal?"
Uma slammed her fist down on the table. "Don't you dare compare me to her!"
"Oooo!" Ursula chuckled deeply, a dark hacking sound that filled the entire room and made Uma wish that her mother's old necklace still worked, if only to shut her up. "Guess I pushed one of baby's little buttons."
"Cut the crap, Ursula. What's your deal?"
The sea witch suddenly grew quiet, unnerving Uma before she reached one of her tentacles back into the kitchen. The sounds of pots, pans, and various other items hitting the floor were heard before the tentacle pulled back dropping two items in front of Uma.
"A mildewy old potions book and...what is this? A fishbone pen?" Uma asked picking up the last with just her thumb and pointer finger.
"As you said, sweetcheeks, let's cut the crap," Ursula said leaning forward. "Disgrace or no, you are still my daughter, a granddaughter of Poseidon. I know what your plans are. A little drawn out and a bit bland for my taste but there's nothing to do about that since you used your ace already at the little King's cotillion. If you're really going to commit to this Royal Councilor thing - don't look at me like that, I'm your mother. I know every thing - but as I was saying, if you're going to commit to this thing and control the King from the shadows, you'll need more than just my necklace. I'm giving you my potions book and dealmaker bone pen. Use them to have those Auradon scum controlled bowing at your feet!"
"You're giving these to me?" Confusion and shock was evident on Uma's face.
"Well who else am I going to give it to?" Ursula sneered, already annoyed with this conversation. "My sister's kelp-brained daughters on the other side of the Isle? Ha! Rather have a little shrimp like you have it then to let that bitch think she won. She could never get over the fact that I was mother's favorite. Now go," the sea witch said dismissively. "I'm tired of looking at you."
Not needing to be told twice, Uma quickly got up, deciding the little trinkets she had hidden in the kitchen under a floorboard that she originally name for were not worth another minute in this place. She made her way back to her ship, people quickly moving out of the way once they saw her dark expression.
When she stepped back on her boat, Jonas was tied upside down to one of the mast, obscene drawing drawn all over his face ("Really Hook? Did you have to draw that so close to my face?), a pleased looking first mate sitting next to him on a crate. As if by instinct, Harry immediately focused on Uma once she was aboard.
"What's that in yer hand?" he asked as she moved across the deck to the other side of the ship where she snapped the pen in half before ripping repeatedly some pages of the book before tossing everything off the side and into the murky water.
"Nothing," she said, just as a golden bridge of magic began to stretch from the Auradon's coast to the isle. "Just old trash."
As always, thank you for the wonderful reviews, favorites, and subscriptions!
Question: Did anyone else want more Ursula in Descendants 2 when they found out that Whoopi Goldberg was voicing her? -raises hand- Oh. Just me?
I have decided that the events of Wicked World so far (because I think they'll have another season) have taken place but if you haven't seen the mini-episodes, their influence on this story isn't that much, if at all and anything needed to know about them will be explained. (Freddie Facilier is the daughter of Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog and basically was accidentally brought to Auradon but decided to stay at the school.) The episodes are super short though so if you want to, you can watch them on YouTube or just ask me any questions in a review.
Next chapter will be the highly anticipated Auradon arrival! It might take me until next week though for the next update. My right wrist has been hurting recently so I want to see if giving it a break from typing will help.
Anyway, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!