Mal jerked awake, not knowing what had caused her to awaken. She furrowed her brow, realizing the television in front of Evie's bed was still on but was silenced.
Mal and Evie were having one of their frequent sleepovers that they always loved to have with one another, and they had been sitting in Evie's bed watching some movie that Mal couldn't remember the name of at the moment. The last thing that the faerie remembered was cuddling into Evie's side with her eyelids drooping further and further while Evie became just as drowsy.
Ultimately, nothing had changed in the room since they had fell asleep except for the oddly muted television.
But there was also the strange absence of Evie in the bed beside Mal.
Mal furrowed her brow, wondering what had happened to the other girl. Where had Evie gone? Evie wasn't one to get up in the middle of the night, despite her habit of being a light sleeper. And obviously, the girl had muted the television.
Evie could have just went to the bathroom. But for some reason, Mal found that highly unlikely. It was almost as if some unconscious instinct within the girl was warning her otherwise.
Mal blinked a few times, trying to gather her wits about her as she made the decision to go and look for Evie. Mal got up from the bed, stumbling into the hall as she made her way through the house.
Mal looked around the house somewhat bleakly before her eyes settled upon an exceedingly strange sight.
There on the couch was Evie, just sitting and not doing anything whatsoever. Mal was almost immediately more aware as she observed the other girl. It was terribly strange for Evie to be sitting on the couch of all places. And in the dark in the middle of the night.
"What're you doing up, E? It's… Well, I don't exactly know what time it is, but it's pretty early in the morning," Mal pointed out, laughing slightly as she questioned the other girl with some concern.
Evie did not respond to Mal's words at all, and actually didn't even act as if she had heard Mal speak. Mal furrowed her brow as she stared at the back of her best friend's head.
"Hey, are you okay?" Mal questioned, hesitantly approaching the girl on the couch from behind. Evie didn't move, just staring ahead into empty space. Mal furrowed her brow, moving to the side of the sofa slowly as she came closer to Evie.
"Evie?" Mal called carefully, and Evie never looked at her. Mal sat down next to the other girl at a safe enough distance that Evie could choose to move nearer or not.
Very unfortunately, Mal recognized this look. It was one that she oftentimes had on her face after a particularly rough night of dredged up memories.
But as Evie wouldn't look at her at all, Mal knew she had to bring a stop to it.
Mal reached out for Evie's hand gently, and as soon as her fingertips brushed the top of it, Evie jumped as if she had been shot, straightening immediately and her posture turning significantly rigid. Mal just kept her hand where it was, barely touching Evie, and she looked the bluenette in the eyes.
"Evie, it's me," Mal told her, and Evie just kept staring at her blankly as if some subconscious part of her brain was not allowing her to register this information. Mal raised her hand slowly, trying to bring back some piece of Evie.
Mal moved her hand nearer to Evie's face, and the taller girl flinched violently as Mal brought her hand so close to her. Mal stopped beside Evie's face, not backing down from the challenge, but she was letting Evie get used to the closeness. The entire time, Mal kept her eyes locked onto Evie's.
"Evie, it's okay, okay? You're fine," Mal reassured, despite the fact that she felt this rising sense of pure panic in her chest.
What could possibly be so wrong with Evie that she'd reject touch? She never reacted to Mal that way. She actually never turned down touch from anyone. She was a very physical person, and she loved to express her affections through a fond squeeze of the arm or a quick side hug.
With Mal, it went even further than that, and she would always make it a point to hug Mal full-on at least once a day. Not to mention how closely she liked to linger by Mal, always keeping an arm linked in Mal's or an arm thrown around Mal's shoulders lovingly. When they sat down anywhere, Evie was always the first to plop herself down as near to Mal as she could possibly get, her loving spirit always taking precedence.
Which was why it was so utterly terrifying for Mal to see her in this state. This was always Mal's way of being, and Evie was infinitely more capable of handling these sorts of situations. Mal didn't really know how to handle Evie when Evie was the one being like Mal.
So after a long moment, Mal started moving her hand closer to Evie's face. Evie stiffened immediately, and Mal almost thought she was going to bolt again, but she stayed remarkably still. In fact, if her widened eyes were anything to go by, Mal could easily assume that she was too scared to move at this point.
It pained Mal greatly to move her hand to touch Evie's face, knowing how terrified Evie was. But Mal had to show the other girl that she would not hurt her, and she knew that in some subconscious piece of Evie's mind, the bluenette knew Mal would never hurt her.
Mal's hand finally made contact with Evie's face, and Evie just stared at Mal, every muscle in her body tensed as firmly as she could make them. Mal could feel Evie's jaw tightened ridiculously against her hand.
"It's okay. It's me. I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you," Mal told her softly, not knowing exactly how to handle this, but jumping into it headfirst, nonetheless. After all, that was what Mal did best- jump into situations that she had no idea how to approach and make the best of it.
Evie let out a shuddering breath, watching Mal closely, and Mal thought that she could see the slightest glimmerings of recognition in her eyes.
"I promise. It's okay. You know I'd never hurt you. You're my Evie, my best friend in the whole world. I'd never hurt my Evie," Mal assured her, attempting to make the girl loosen up at least a little.
Evie looked at Mal for a long moment, and finally closed her eyes, the tension letting up painstakingly slowly as she incrementally leaned into Mal's touch to her face.
Mal very carefully moved her thumb in gentle strokes along Evie's cheek just beneath her eye as she chipped away at the girl's terror. At the movement, Evie's eyes opened quickly, but not as quickly as they could've.
Mal nodded to her slowly, keeping her eyes firmly locked upon Evie's. Evie swallowed hard, and Mal just sat there stroking Evie's cheek for the longest time as she tried to make the bluenette trust her enough to move nearer.
After what felt like forever, Mal slowly raised her other hand, making sure that Evie saw it, and she left her palm extended out flat between them. She was hoping that Evie would get the idea to take it without Mal's insistence, but she was willing to wait her sister out.
Evie watched the hand for a long moment before she moved her hand just barely toward Mal, hesitating for a long moment. She looked back up at Mal uncertainly as if she were scared to take it, and Mal nodded in approval. Evie then, with only a second's length of reluctance, placed her hand in Mal's.
"Yeah, there it is. See? It's all good, E. You're fine," Mal reassured her, and Evie looked somewhat more comfortable as she seemed to gain more of an awareness of what was around her.
Mal slowly laced their fingers together, making sure that it was a gradual enough movement that it wouldn't spook Evie. Evie didn't react nearly as fearfully as she had before, and she just watched Mal's fingers as they moved through her longer digits.
They sat there like that for a long time, and Evie slowly started to look around much more, seeming to have gained more of an awareness of where she was.
Something must have scared Evie terribly to bring her to a state of pure panic attack. Mal could count on one hand the amount of times that Evie had had a panic attack. Mal was the one that always shut down entirely, and it was always when she had traumatic remembrances usually brought on by dreams that took her back to the Isle.
Mal looked at Evie closely, wondering if that was what had happened to the girl. The largest extent that nightmares usually had affected Evie back when they were at Auradon Prep was when Evie would hesitantly approach Mal's bed and very shyly and very worriedly express that she had a nightmare to which Mal would reply with the command that Evie get in bed with her.
Mal's eyebrows slightly raised as she realized that Evie was very carefully and hesitantly working herself toward Mal's side and starting to do her usual snuggling. She easily welcomed it, though, and she let her hand slip away from Evie's face in favor of resting on the back of the couch.
Evie didn't even stop as she slipped in closer to the other girl, carefully placing her head on Mal's shoulder as she started to slowly sink into Mal. Mal then moved her arm down from the back of the sofa and allowed it to wrap around Evie's back. Evie sighed slightly, and Mal moved her head so that her cheek was pressed against the top of Evie's head.
And Mal just held her like that for a long time, giving Evie time to start talking of her own accord.
"You need to go to bed, M. It's three o'clock in the morning," Evie finally spoke up, her voice rough and a much huskier version of its usual sweetness but her ordinary loving emotion still very much present. Mal furrowed her brow, looking down at the bluenette as she was surprised that Evie knew the precise time when Mal herself hadn't.
"I could say the same for you," Mal told her, and Evie didn't say anything in response. Mal attempted valiantly to hold her tongue, knowing that it was likely best if Evie came around of her own accord.
However, there was only so much tongue-holding that the faerie could do before she had plain lost her ability to wait any longer.
"Evie?" Mal prompted, hoping that Evie would understand what Mal was trying to hint at without the purple-haired girl actually having to go into the details of what she was implying. Evie was deathly silent, and Mal knew that Evie had to know what Mal had been attempting to address.
"I… I had a nightmare," Evie expressed, and Mal moved the arm that she had around Evie so that she could thread her fingers through Evie's hair.
Evie sighed deeply, closing her eyes, and the corners of Mal's lips tugged into the barest of smiles. She knew how much Evie enjoyed her hair being played with. It was one of her most favorite things.
"You wanna discuss?" Mal offered, and Evie's eyes slowly opened as she looked suddenly very unhappy with the entire situation, despite the fact that she was leaning into Mal's hand that was scratching gently at her scalp.
"It was about Mommy," Evie expressed finally, and Mal internally winced at the use of such a fond, sweet nickname used for such an evil, hateful woman. But Mal knew and perfectly understood why Evie referred to her in that manner. It was something that Grimhilde had firmly instilled within Evie, and Mal personally thought it was some sort of cruel, sick sense of forcing Evie to be further in submission to her mother.
"I've been having them for several days now, but tonight was the worst I've had yet," Evie murmured, her voice barely audible.
"You haven't had any of those for a long time. Actually, since we left Auradon Prep," Mal pointed out worriedly, and Evie nodded slightly, turning her head and nuzzling her nose against Mal's neck as she closed her eyes.
"I don't know why they've come back. I've been having them every time I go to sleep, and they just seem to be getting worse. That's part of the reason why I asked you to come over tonight. I thought that having you laying there with me would keep them away" Evie expressed in that trusting, loving manner with which she was so inclined to always address Mal. Mal smiled softly for a moment, squeezing Evie gently, but it quickly faded away as she scanned her brain desperately as she tried to figure out some connection.
"What have they all been about?" Mal questioned, and Evie was silent for a moment, seemingly hesitant to say what was the main focus.
"Mommy," Evie replied shortly, and Mal nodded slowly, trying to figure out what could possibly be going on.
"M, what's tomorrow?" Evie suddenly asked, her voice having a strangely un-Evie-esque sound to it, and Mal's quickly scanned her mind for the precise date.
"Sunday," Mal simply replied, not understanding Evie's sudden need to know the date but at the same time willing to help Evie in any way that she possibly could. Evie pulled away from Mal's neck as she looked at her sister, her eyes filled with pain.
"Tomorrow's Mother's Day."
Mal's throat went dry and her jaw slackened as she realized precisely why Evie's dreams had been bothering her so badly and had made such a significant comeback. Mother's Day had always been a very touchy topic for Mal, Evie, and Carlos. In Mal's case and what Mal suspected to be Carlos's case as well, she simply tried to forget the fact that the holiday even existed and didn't even attempt to keep track of it.
Evie had always had a harder time forgetting about it that easily, and Mal had known this well. It just hadn't really occurred to Mal because Mal's way of forgetting the holiday had worked too well. Evie had a bad habit of sitting there and dwelling on how badly her mother had done her and how she endlessly hoped and dreamed that her mother might love her despite that treatment. It wasn't that Mal and Carlos didn't have the same thoughts, it was just that Evie had a tendency to really focus on it too much.
Obviously, she had been resorting to that same habit.
"E, I-" Evie just shook her head, interrupting Mal's words. Mal let a breath out, just watching Evie carefully.
"I guess I knew Mother's Day was coming. Just not really consciously. I knew I've been thinking a lot more about her, but," Evie trailed off, shrugging as she pulled away slightly, and Mal could easily see that hard swallow and that slight sheen to her eyes that was a bit glassier than ordinarily.
Mal clenched her jaw, immediately feeling a surge of protectiveness over the other girl. Evie was usually the emotional protector of Mal, but anytime that Evie needed emotional guarding, Mal came in swinging, ready to destroy anything in her path. Mal suddenly felt the urge to personally take care of the Evil Queen. After all, now that the barrier was down, it would be tantalizingly easy to do.
But Mal knew she couldn't do that. As much as Evie was hurt by her mother, she still would never wish any harm toward anyone. She was not a fan of revenge in the same manner that Mal was.
However, where Mal was concerned, Evie would endlessly pursue revenge, even in the basest and sometimes silliest of forms. When someone did Mal wrong, if Evie hadn't helped Mal gain some sort of vengeance, Evie would just give them the silent treatment and be as rude as she could possibly be toward them. Sometimes, she would keep up the rude manners even if they had gained retribution.
Mal watched her sister carefully, knowing that this was hurting Evie greatly. Mal sighed deeply, leaning over and resting her chin on Evie's shoulder as she watched the other girl's face. Evie offered just the barest of glances but mostly kept her eyes in front of her.
"M, does… Did… Did she love me?" Evie somewhat brokenly questioned, and Mal swallowed a bit, trying to think of a good response that would hopefully not hurt the other girl. Mal obviously couldn't tell Evie what she truly thought because that would be brutal, but giving Evie false hope seemed torturously cruel.
"I don't know," Mal finally settled upon answering something that was indefinite, allowing Evie to back her own judgement on this topic.
They were quiet for several moments more until that telltale whine arose in Evie's throat, signaling the incoming tears as she shook her head.
"Why do I get so upset about her?" Evie breathed before sobbing. Mal wasted no time in wrapping her arms around Evie. Evie immediately latched onto Mal, her cries the only sound to be heard in the dark room. Mal stroked Evie's hair, pressing her cheek to the side of Evie's head as Evie clung on.
"It's okay, E. You can be upset. That's perfectly normal," Mal explained to her, trying to make the girl feel at least a little better about the entire situation.
"I'm so stupid, M. She has never loved me, and she keeps hurting me, and I keep… I keep hoping that something will change," Evie bawled, trying to control her voice in the midst of her hopeless sniveling.
Mal felt a deep pang within her heart as she held Evie in her arms, the taller girl somewhat engulfing Mal's form.
"You are not stupid. You hope, and that's what makes you beautiful, E," Mal assured her, feeling a lump in her throat at Evie's statement, and Evie pressed her forehead against Mal's shoulder, hiding her face as she wet Mal's t-shirt with her tears.
"But it's stupid when you keep loving someone that never will love you back," Evie said, and Mal was immediately brought to thoughts of her own mother.
While Maleficent had grown incrementally and now had the ability to speak in lizard form, she certainly was no sweetheart and was the farthest from a nice person that Mal had ever seen. Maleficent did not really seem as if she loved Mal at all, which, as much as Mal loathed to admit it, killed Mal inside.
So Mal guessed she really didn't handle her mother issues as differently as she originally thought Evie did, after all.
"Evie, it's not stupid. I completely understand where you're coming from," Mal told the bluenette, and Evie's shoulders temporarily stopped their shaking as she slightly pulled back from Mal to look into the faerie's green eyes. Evie pressed her forehead to Mal's, and Mal let out a puff of air.
If someone had told Mal six hours ago that she would be sitting here about to pour her heart out about her mother, Mal would've likely laughed right in their face before leaving them in the dust with all of their prophetical crap. But here she was, about to open her heart for the millionth time just to make this girl before her feel better.
It was really nothing new. Mal would do anything to alleviate Evie's pain in any way that she could muster. She loved her best friend more than anyone.
"My mother treated me like dirt, E. She treated me like I was some giant failure of a henchman that she kept around out of the barest kindness of her heart and that just happened to be her miserable disappointment of a daughter," Mal expressed, and Evie nodded. Mal quickly felt Evie's hand move Mal's arm from around her in favor of lacing her fingers through Mal's.
Mal knew Evie already was perfectly aware of Mal's issues with her mother. Evie knew everything there was to know about Mal, and she likely already knew what Mal was about to say. But Mal still felt Evie needed to hear it out loud.
"And… Through all that," Mal swallowed hard, blinking rapidly in an attempt to compose herself. Evie's grip tightened a bit around Mal's hand.
"Through all that, I still loved her," Mal told Evie carefully, holding back tears of her own at this point, and Evie's watery brown eyes offered a world of wordless consolations for the faerie.
"I still love her," Mal admitted, and Evie nodded knowingly with a sad look in her eyes as she watched Mal.
"I know, M," Evie replied, caressing Mal's nickname with extra love and care. Mal closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them and meeting her sister's gaze once again.
"So, don't feel alone," Mal told her carefully, trying to control her voice as she spoke. Evie didn't need Mal's tears. She need comfort, not something that would make her feel worse.
"Just… Just know that you don't need her. You have so many people that love you and value you," Mal pointed out, and Mal felt her heart lift as she noticed the slightest hints of a smile on Evie's face.
"You know, you're probably the most loved human being that I know. I don't think I've ever seen any normal person that hates you," Mal informed her, and Evie couldn't help but chuckle a bit in response to Mal's observations, averting her gaze downward as she mustered some semblance of humility in the midst of her very much growing ego as a result of Mal's stroking of it.
"So, please. Please don't let her affect you, E. I love and appreciate you so much, and ol' EQ is blind if she sees anything but a beautifully golden girl when she looks at you," Mal assured her, and Evie met Mal's eyes again as she listened to the faerie's words. Evie looked at her best friend quietly for a moment, and bit her bottom lip slightly before speaking up.
"Don't let Maleficent affect you either, M. You're worth more than you could ever know," Evie replied to her, and with only a few words, Evie coaxed a few of those tears in Mal's eyes to slide down the faerie's cheeks.
Once a few beats had passed, Mal laughed slightly.
"Look at us. Mourning over the wrongdoings of a couple of old bats who're not even worth our time," Mal joked a bit, trying to lighten the mood. Evie chuckled once, looking at Mal with that overwhelming sisterly love that she held in her heart so greatly for Mal.
After a moment, the two of them moved so that Mal was snuggled against Evie. They both were attempting to hold each other as equally as they could manage considering the fact that Evie had a tendency to wrap around Mal's form when they were both sitting on even surfaces as a result of the bluenette's size difference.
And so they sat together, closing their eyes and cuddling into the couch as they enjoyed each other's presence.
They were two broken, motherless best friends, but with the love that they held together for one another, they were truly one whole.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this one! It's a bit late for Mother's Day, but hopefully it's still good. I just love my Mal and Evie fluff. It's probably my favorite thing to write for Descendants. :) So if you guys have any ideas for Mal and Evie, please do feel free to offer a suggestion in a review or a PM.
Please let me know what you guys thought! Until the next fic!