AN: I took a few creative liberties here, but tried to stay true to the details in the novel, movie, and series...More to come? Maybe? I really like exploring these characters and getting to know them better.
2/?
-x-
If the students of Auradon Prep were the lifeblood of the school, then the large dining hall was its heart. The vaulted ceilings echoed with warmth, light, and laughter as Mal and Jay finally slipped from the shadows and into the throng of students patiently waiting for food. The press of bodies jostled and bumped the pair as they struggled to reach the line, grab their plates and locate their friends.
"Gotta love the dinner rush. I think I have at least four new bruises." Carlos grumbled, rubbing his ribs comically.
"Hah, you're lucky then. You do NOT wanna be at my house during dinner time." Jay chuckled. Evie laughed along, gladly digging into the thick turkey leg laid in front of her. Mal's eyes flicked to Jay's as she cocked her head, sharp ears catching the tinge of sorrow in Jay's voice.
"Rough times?" Mal pressed, arching her eyebrows curiously.
The brief question hung in the air between the four for a moment. An eerie silence in the center of the pressing crowd.
Jay glanced away, his eyes trained on the table as he fiddled absently with his fork. "Yeah. Me and my brothers. We didn't have much, apart from what we could steal. And even then, it was take what you can to feed yourself, and fuck the rest. So we had to hoard food when we could. Steal it and hide it. Sometimes…" Jay's voice hitched low in his throat; he feigned a cough to cover it. "sometimes the younger ones didn't eat."
Mal sat in silence, watching her friend push a smashed lump of peas around his plate. Suddenly Jay's backpack stuffed full of food didn't seem so strange.
"It was the same with me too." Carlos mumbled through heaping bites of mashed potatoes. "Mom said I could only eat after chores were done...and usually she'd forget anyways. She'd make me sleep on the floor." He gulped and shoveled another spoonful into his open mouth "She used to lock me in her coat closet so I could tend her furs." His shaking fingers flitted to the hem of his shirt sleeve, briefly tracing a series of ropey white scars. Puncture wounds from the iron jawed traps that protected his mother's collections of precious furs.
Evie nodded in agreement, smoothing her skirt hem. "I remember that. You used to cry when we would walk to school together." She flashed a nervous smile. "I once tried to bring an extra apple in my lunch so you could have it, but mother caught me…" her voice trailed off and her dark eyes became distant. "I...I didn't get much after that. She would always say that pretty is as pretty eats."
The table lapsed into tense silence, the weight of their memories both creating and destroying the distance that yawned between them. Bonded through shared pain.
"We've seen some shit." Jay mumbled, half to himself.
"Yeah...we sure have." Evie replied, her voice returning to its normal gentle candor, though her eyes still held a misty, far-off aire.
"But we have each other." Mal murmured, her voice low and determined. "We watch out for one another. Take care of eachother. We always have, and always will".
The four nodded in unison.
"I may not know what it feels like to be a part of a family," Carlos spoke, his voice thin and halting "...but I think we can be a family of our own."
'A family of our own' Mal repeated the words silently to herself. 'Yes, that's what we are.' She mused as her eyes flicked from one face to another 'Lost, lonely, afraid, searching... but not alone. Never alone.'
Mal slid her hand across the table, balling it into a fist. "To family."
"Family." Jay clenched his fist in return, tapping his knuckles against hers.
"To good. To a real family." Evie echoed, mirroring the gesture.
"to...our family." Carlos whispered, placing his hand in last.
And for a moment, all the sounds and bustle of the halls and the students melted away, replaced by the solemn unspoken oath that bonded them all- four hearts beating as one.