The past is never where you think you left it.

-Katherine Anne Porter

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Chapter 2

"Get away from him!" A blur of purple leapt across the room and onto Carlos's bed where he sat in the blankets crying. The two couldn't have been much older than four, but the fierce determination in Mal's green eyes made Jay pause.

"Mal, we want to help," Ben spoke calmly.

"No." Mal glared at him and crawled over to Carlos, wrapping him in a hug. She softly petted his hair and whispered, "It's okay, puppy, it's okay." Carlos's cries turned into whimpers and he hid his face in her hair. Jay stood frozen in place staring at his friends. He hadn't heard Mal call Carlos 'puppy' in years. When they were younger, they came up with codenames for each other for when they pretended to be villains like their parents. As they grew older their games started to become their reality and their codenames weren't as amusing anymore.

"She doesn't remember me," Ben said softly, looking at Evie and Jay. He felt his heart ache and found that he was hurt by her lack of recognition.

"You've haven't even known her for a year, and she's a child. Of course she won't remember you." Jay quipped. If Mal remembered Carlos despite returning to an age before the four met, then she should probably remember Jay and Evie as well. At least that's what Jay was hoping. Moving slowly he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "Mal?" Jay asked, tentatively. Mal looked up at Jay, with her normal determination, not fear in her eyes so he continued to speak. "Is Carlos alright?"

Mal bit her lip and said with all the bite that a child can muster, "He's scared, duh. We need to get back home before our parents know we're gone. I don't want to get in trouble." Her bottom lip began to pout. Evie motioned for Ben to stay back and she knelt by the bed.

"We have a new home now, M." Evie said, "We live in Auradon now."

Carlos lifted his head, and rubbed his eyes, "I wanna go home." He hiccoughed. Jay reached out and picked the boy up, ignoring as Mal growled at him, still fiercely protective of Carlos. He couldn't imagine what Carlos was going through right now. He'd always been afraid of many things, fear was how Cruella controlled him. Once Carlos had met Mal, and subsequently Evie and Jay, he'd begun to fear less, confident that he had people who would stand by him and protect him; but Carlos didn't have that protection when he was four.

"Later buddy, first we need you to meet a friend of ours." Jay stood up as Carlos looped his arms around Jay's neck, pressing his tear stained face into the collar of Jay's red jacket. "This is Ben." He gestured for Ben to move closer to the bed.

"Is he the one who kidnapped us?" Mal asked, tugging on the bottom of Jay's jacket.

"No, of course not." Evie asserted, shaking her head. "He's really nice to us. He's our friend Mal."

Mal stuck her nose in the air and crossed her arms, "Well I don't like him. I hate good people. I'm going to be evil someday. My mommy told me so."

Ben frowned but refrained from commenting. "We need to talk to fairy godmother." Evie decided.

"Agreed," Ben spoke. "I'll go get her. I don't think it'd be wise to take them through the school where everyone can see them yet." Evie nodded and picked up Mal, balancing the young girl on her hip. Mal stuck her tongue out at Ben as he walked toward the door.

Evie worried her lip with her teeth, "What are we going to do?" She asked Jay.

Jay felt as concerned as Evie looked but with Carlos in his arms, he knew better than to voice his fears. He merely shrugged and continued to rub Carlos's back as the boy hiccoughed and desperately clung to Jay's neck.


"And how exactly did this happen?" Fairy Godmother rubbed at her forehead, foreseeing how much trouble this would cause.

"We don't know," Ben said, self-appointed advocate for the group. When he had told Fairy Godmother that there was an emergency with the villains' kids she immediately rushed out of her office towards their room, leaving Ben no chance to explain the situation. "Last night they felt weird, went to bed really early, and then when we woke up this morning they were like this."

"This isn't another one of Mal's magical mishaps like the love potion is it?"

Jay frowned at her disdain. He was sitting on Evie's bed with Carlos across from him, playing with a tourney ball that Jay found underneath Mal's bed. How it'd gotten there, Jay hadn't a clue, but he found himself grateful for its existence because Carlos was having the time of his life rolling the ball back and forth to Jay, giggling like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"No!" Evie protested, "And how'd you know about that?"

"I take care to keep track of what magic goes on at this school. This looks like some sort of de-aging spell. You're lucky that it was only strong enough to make them children. If it was too strong, they could've faded out of existence!"

Evie gasped and clutched Mal tighter on her lap. "So what do we do?" Jay asked.

"In my experience, the duration of the spell is determined by the strength it was cast with. Seeing how young they are, they might be stuck like this for a while before it wears off." She explained. "Maybe even months."

"Months?" The three echoed.

"We can't know for sure unless we find who cast the spell. I would advise against any action until we can determine what exactly was used against them, just in case there are defense wards."

"Defense wards? Those aren't real are they?" Ben laughed nervously.

Fairy godmother raised an eyebrow, "It's advanced magic to be sure, but we don't want to take risks. This was deliberate against the two. I need you to figure out who could have the will and means to do this." She stepped closer to the beds. "I would do this myself, but I think more people would be suspicious if I snooped around than if you were to ask a few questions."

"Oh don't worry, E and I will definitely find them," Jay commented sharply, rolling the ball back to Carlos.

"Jay and Evie, I need you to watch over them for now. They know and trust you so I think it would be best for you to act as their guardians for the time being. Ben, I need to contact your parents and update them on the…situation. Do make haste to let me know if any developments occur." Fairy godmother nodded at them before taking her leave.


"Jay Jay Jay Jay!" Carlos yelled, jumping on the bed while Jay was lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

"What." He said shortly. It had been hours of the three teens attempting to entertain Mal and Carlos, and Jay was discovering that he simply did not have the energy to keep up.

"My favorite color is red and Mal's is purple which is made of red so my favorite color is better because without mine Mal's isn't purple!" Carlos babbled gleefully.

"Not true! Purple is better than red because you take two colors to make a better one!" Mal argued from across the room where Evie had managed to capture her attention by asking her to draw a picture for Jay.

"Yeah yeah well red is the bestest because I said so and my mommy said it's true too." Carlos bounced in a circle on the bed, tripping over the folds in the covers but recovering quickly.

"Favorite colors are subjective, you know." Ben said, making Carlos pause.

"What's subjection?"

"Subjective, it means special to each person. Your favorite color is different than mine because we have different reasons to like them," Ben explained in a way that Carlos could understand. Before Carlos could start to bounce again, a knock sounded on the door that captured the attention of everyone in the room.

Evie answered the door and squealed in delight when she saw Doug. "Good morning sweetie." She greeted him, giving Doug a kiss on the cheek, "What're you doing here?"

"Well, I got a call from Fairy Godmother who said that Dude hadn't been picked up from the groomer's so I picked him up. I was going to drop him off at Jay and Carlos's room but neither of them were there. I figured that they were with you so I brought him here." Doug explained, walking into the room with Dude in his arms.

"Doug, no!" Jay sat up, listening to their conversation. From the bed, Carlos sucked in a breath and began to pout, lip quivering. The tears began to roll down his cheeks and he stood like a deer caught in the headlights. Doug seemed to realize what was happening just as the wailing began. Jay rushed over to Carlos and scooped him up, cradling him so he couldn't see Dude.

Jay watched as Mal jumped down from her chair and ran over to Doug. With all her might she kicked him in the shin. "Ah!" Doug cried out, from pain and shock. Dude wriggled out of Doug's hands and ran around Jay's feet, both boy and dog trying to console the crying child.

"Mal!" Evie scolded, holding the writhing child back from causing more damage to her boyfriend.

"He made Carlos cry so I have to destroy him!" Mal screeched, scratching at Evie's arms.

Meanwhile, Ben started to chase after Dude, failing to catch him but succeeding in corralling the mutt out of the room. Ben grabbed Doug's arm and pulled him away from the door before swinging the solid oak shut. "What about Dude?" Doug asked, rubbing his soon to be bruised shin.

"He was fine without Carlos before, someone else can take care of him in the meantime." Ben said, slightly out of breath. He lunged as Mal broke free from Evie's grip and tore after Doug. He wrapped an arm around her stomach and lifted her off the ground, grunting when her flailing legs limbs made contact. "Mal, stop! Carlos is fine!"

"Carlos, please," Jay pleaded from across the room, "He's gone, the dog is gone!"

Bit by bit, Carlos lifted his head from where he'd buried it in the crook of Jay's neck, leaving a large wet patch from his tears. "He, he's gone?" The boy gasped, brown eyes focused on Jay. Jay walked over to the nightstand and grabbed a tissue to wipe the tears and snot off of Carlos's face.

"I promise. He had to leave really quickly, you wanna know why?" Jay asked, keeping his voice low.

"Why?" Carlos responded, eyes wide with seriousness.

"Because he was late for a tea party," Jay whispered conspiratorially.

Carlos covered his mouth as he started to giggle, "What? No that's silly. Doggies don't go to tea parties."

Jay struggled to keep up his solemn façade, "No really. He was in charge of bringing the tea cups but he totally forgot so now he has to go all the way down to the kitchen to get them." He turned and saw Ben a few feet away with a still struggling Mal.

Evie locked eyes with Jay. "Hey Carlos, sweetie, can you let Mal know that you're okay now? You know how she worries," she called across the room. Mal paused at Evie's words and looked over at Carlos who waved. She waved back, before wriggling again, this time to be put on the ground. Ben lowered her until her feet touched the carpet, then released her. He moved to stand between her and Doug when she began to leave his hold. However, instead of continuing her rampage against Doug's shin, the purple haired girl bounced over to Jay, tugging on his pants leg.

"Up!" She demanded.

"How strong do you think I am?" Jay quipped, before crouching to lift Mal with his other arm, one child on each hip. "The two of you are heavy." He grunted.

"Hush." Mal shushed him, placing a hand on his mouth. Jay feigned indignance but complied. "Puppy?"

"I'm okay Lilly." Carlos sniffed, "He went to his tea party so I'm safe."

"What?" Mal scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Lilly?" Ben asked Evie quietly.

"We had lots of nicknames for each when we were younger. Hers came from Lila, the German word for purple. My mom's from Germany. She used to speak it around the house a lot." She whispered back in a hurried explanation.

Ben nodded, "So that's why she calls him puppy."

Evie nodded in return, watching the two kids now giggling at the idea of a dog at a tea party. She clapped her hands together and smiled, gaining their attention. "I don't know about you, but I'm just famished. I think some lunch is in order."

"Lunch?" Carlos echoed.

"Second meal of the day," Doug clarified.

"Second?" Mal looked hopeful and Ben felt his heart ache for the second time that morning. He knew that food was a sore topic for the four and so had assumed the worst, but even in his worst imaginings, he'd thought that the parents would've attempted to provide enough food when they were children.

"Here in Auradon, you get three meals a day." Ben declared, "And sometimes even a snack."

"Let's have a picnic," Evie sighed, ever the romantic. "Besides, we accidentally skipped breakfast."

It was common for the four to accidentally forget to eat. As their stay at Auradon lengthened, they improved, but Ben found that it was still common for one of them to get wrapped up in a project of some sort and completely forget to feed themselves. Growing up on the isle made it easy for them to ignore their hunger without a second thought. "That sounds like a great idea," Ben agreed. "Doug and I can go prepare it."

"Actually," Evie said, slinking over to Jay and taking Mal from his arms. Jay shifted so he was carrying Carlos on the other hip and sighed gratefully. "I was thinking that Doug and I could prepare the basket and you and Jay could pick out a spot." On the last word she pushed Mal into Ben's arms, grabbed Doug, and ran out of the room, laughing.

"Evie!" Ben exclaimed, holding Mal out at arm's length. Mal crossed her arms and glared at him. "Um, hello." Ben nervously spoke.

"Your hair is stupid," Mal said. Jay snickered but feigned innocence when Ben cast him a quick look.

Ben cocked his head at an angle, "Well I think that your hair is the loveliest shade of violet."

"You do?" Mal asked, caught off guard. "My mommy says its ridiculous."

Ben cautiously set her on the ground, kneeling in front of her. "Your hair is not ridiculous, it's beautiful." He stood and grabbed a blanket from the table where Evie had neatly stacked them. He reached out and offered his hand to Mal. "Come on, let's go find somewhere to have a picnic."

Mal looked at Ben, then at Jay and Carlos, before shyly taking his hand and walking through the door that Jay was holding open. Ben looked away from Mal's direction, unable to hide the smile overtaking his face. Suddenly a thought came to him, "Jay, text Evie and make sure that she packs strawberries."

"You do it." Jay wrinkled his nose, more for principle than actual feeling.

"Hands full," Ben reminded him.

As Jay was opening his mouth, Mal asked, "What're strawberries?" She drew out the syllables in the word enjoying the sound of it.

"Something you'll love, trust me."


"How do you feed a child?"

"Pardon?" Ben asked, pausing from where he was slicing strawberries. Evie was watching as Jay and Doug were running around with the kids. Although it looked more like Mal was running around, Carlos was doing his best to keep up and Jay and Doug were supervising.

Evie turned and looked at Ben. "How do you feed a child?" She repeated. "Is there anything special you have to do? Like, I don't know, how a baby needs mushy stuff?" Evie's voice was subdued and Ben surmised that she probably felt insecure about not knowing how to take care of Mal and Carlos. It wasn't like the isle offered a Parenting 101 class. Auradon didn't either, but Ben had some idea of the basics.

"I'm not an expert," He began, grabbing a paper plate, "But more or less, take food you think they'll like, make it bite-sized, and put it in front of them." He split the strawberry slices between the two plates, adding half of a peanut butter sandwich and some cheese cubes. "Evie, you don't have to worry, taking care of children is exhausting but not rocket science. I've been a camp counselor for a few years now, Doug used to babysit his baby cousins, and you and Jay know Mal and Carlos inside and out. We'll figure it out."

"Yeah." Evie took a shaky breath, "You're right. Thanks, Ben." She smiled at him and stood up to fetch Mal and Carlos. The four gathered on the blanket at Evie's call. Jay sat near Ben, almost falling into the King when Carlos plopped himself onto Jay's lap.

"Oof!" Jay complained, "I don't remember you being this clingy when we were younger." Jay grabbed the plate Ben offered to Carlos and held it where Carlos could easily grab the morsels. He grabbed a sandwich of his own, ravenous from chasing around Carlos and Mal. He looked down to see Carlos staring at the plate, unsure. "Eat up, C."

Carlos picked up a piece of strawberry in his little fingers. "Red." He declared and popped the fruit in his mouth. "Mmmm yummy." He said as he chewed, grabbing another bite. Mal settled herself in between Jay and Ben with her own plate.

With her mouth full of peanut butter she poked Ben in the leg and said, "Wahs a strawbewwy."

Ben laughed, before reprimanding, "Chew and swallow before speaking Mal, it's polite."

She swallowed the food. "Your face is polite," she said, mimicking his tone of voice. She gave him the child version of the finger by sticking her tongue out in Ben's direction.

"You have some strawberries on your plate, why don't you give them a try? Carlos already did and he seems to like it." Ben pointed to the bright red fruit on her plate.

Mal looked at the strawberry with suspicion as Jay laughed, "He likes it because it's the sweetest thing here. Auradon awoke his sweet tooth and not even turning into a kid can make that go away."

"Why is it so red?" Mal looked around at the teens.

"That is a wonderful question, Mal." Doug chimed in, immediately entering lecture mode. Ben watched as Jay took that as his cue to tune out and grab another sandwich while Evie listened closely. "Strawberries are red because of some chemicals called anthocyanins that are made in plants by combining a sugar molecule with an anthocyanidin molecule. Separately they are colorless, but when combined they create bright colors which is also why the fruit grows brighter in color as it ripens. But they don't only make red, for example, purple grapes or blueberries. It all comes down to pH—"

"No no no," Mal interrupted. "Why are they so red? They're too red for food," she insisted

Evie laid her hand on Doug's arm to placate him and answered, "It's because they're fresh. They're much better than old apples or bruised pears, I promise."

Ben and Doug shared a look, an act that became more common as the two spent more time with their girlfriends. One of the villains' kids would make a casual comment about life on the isle that would jolt Ben's and Doug's worldviews. It was easy to forget how bad the isle was when you lived in Auradon. The boys had learned quickly though to let the comments slide and not ask about them. If any of the four wanted to talk about the isle, which was rare, then they would pursue the topic themselves. Otherwise Ben and Doug had learned to keep their mouth shuts to avoid accidentally sound ignorant on topics they didn't know much about.

Mal nodded and finally took a bite of the red fruit. Her eyes grew wide as she chewed. She made sure to finish chewing and swallowing before turning to Ben, her rosy mouth forming a small 'o' of surprise.

"Good, right?" Ben laughed, grabbing one of the intact strawberries and taking a bite. Mal nodded and returned to her plate, attacking her strawberries as viciously as Carlos had moments earlier.


Evie was filled with questions. When Ben had first met the girl, he never would have expected the transformation she underwent. She had initially shown that she wasn't very bright, reminding Ben of Chad, but as time went on Ben discovered that it had mostly been and act and that she was intelligent, easily keeping up with him and Doug in class. He was glad that she didn't hide her intellect anymore because the three took a few advanced classed together, and had formed a study group to meet before exams.

While at Auradon, Evie had discovered that she loved learning things. When she didn't know something, she asked a question. So far she'd bombarded him about the napping and sleeping habits of four-year-olds—of which Doug looked up on his phone discovering that they needed over eleven hours of sleep. She then went on to ask about how often they need baths, where she could get patterns for children's clothes, and how to keep them entertained during class. Evie was asking questions faster than Ben could answer them, making his head spin. Mal and Carlos had escaped after eating and were a few yards away, picking dandelions. Ben wished he could join them in their youthful bliss, easily fascinated by the stringy yellow weeds, but he stayed put and focused on responding to the most recent question from the Evie inquisition.

"I think your guys' rooms should be fine, I mean you'll want to put sharp and dangerous things in a high place or a locked drawer." Ben trailed off, in thought. "You'll probably want to keep Mal's spell book hidden away as well," he commented.

Evie drew in a sharp breath, "Mal's spell book. I totally forgot about it!"

Jay sat up, from where he'd lain, head pillowed in Evie's lap. "Do you think we could use it?" He asked, fixing his hair quickly.

"I don't know but it can't hurt. We have to find it!" She insisted. She and Jay stood up.

"Wait!" Doug said, standing up as well. "What about Mal and Carlos?"

Evie paused, then huffed, "Fine. Ben, clean up the picnic. You and I can take them on a walk around the gardens. Doug and Jay, go look in our room. Jay, you're to find it, Doug, you're to put the room back together when he's done destroying everything."

"You're not going?" Jay questioned, "You sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure. We need one of us to stay with them until they start to trust others, and you're better at finding things than me." Evie explained. Jay nodded and squeezed her shoulder once before setting off towards the school, Doug trailing behind awkwardly trying to keep up with Jay's swift pace.


"Look look look Evie look!" Mal tugged at Evie's hand, small legs moving rapidly as she tried to pull Evie along.

"What is it, Mal?" Evie laughed.

"Look! It's purple! Just like me! 'Cause I'm purple too!" Mal pointed towards a patch of violet colored flowers, delighted in her find.

"You're right! It is just like you!" Evie exclaimed, crouching down to examine to petals.

"Does that mean that Lilly is a flower?" Carlos absently asked from Ben's arms, tearing apart one of the dandelions that he'd picked and carefully placing the individual strands in Ben's hair.

"No, she's definitely human." Ben responded. "Those flowers are called Verbena. Pretty, huh?" Carlos hummed in agreement, eyes never leaving his task of covering Ben in the mutilated dandelions.

"Evie! Ben!" Jay yelled at them, capturing their attention.

Evie stood and walked near Ben and waited for the boys to reach them. When they arrived, Doug buckled over, breathing heavily and Jay burst into an explanation, "I couldn't find it anywhere! I even checked my room in case she'd dropped it in there. Also, I might have broken into her locker to look but wasn't there either!"

"Nowhere?" Evie squeaked.

"What's nowhere?" Mal asked, looking up at Evie.

Doug finally straightened up, having regained his breath, "There's absolutely no way we could've looked over it. The spell book is missing."

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I loved reading all your comments, thank you for your reviews! :) Make sure to drop me a line if you see any typos or anything you liked or even if you just want to say hi.

Updates on Sundays.

~R&R~

(Edit: Fixed a typo, thank you to those with better eyes than mine who can spot my mistakes)

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