(Mal)

Thank god, I'm away from that fucking woman.

As she made her way to the dorm buildings early in the morning the overwhelming anger Mal had been feeling slowly dissipated with every other stride, dwindling until she felt utterly neutral about everything again. Despite the fact that she had been completely and undeniably healthy after she woke, Belle had forced her to stay another night in the infirmary, so she could make sure her sudden recovery wasn't merely temporary. This could have been better if the woman hadn't spent the entire night hurrying around the room and constantly bothering her; she only had one thought about Belle, and it wasn't a pleasant one.

Pushing open the dormitory doors she immediately ran into someone, and – as she remained perfectly steady on her feet – the other person spiraled to the ground, flailing amusingly. Not being able to help herself she let a laugh slip through her lips as the small girl landed on the ground, and she couldn't stop another from tearing through her when she caught a glimpse of the girl's hair. It was nearly bad enough to make Mal offer her help to the girl; almost.

"Aren't you going to apologize?"

The question came from Mal's right, and she shifted her attention toward the voice to find its owner, eyes already flashing green. It was a boy with slightly curly blonde hair and an incredibly average face set in a pompous expression; he already irritated her. With the first glance he got of her eyes he took a frightened step backward, his eyes widening briefly before he seemed to force himself to get over that fear and stand straighter.

"I've nothing to apologize for," Mal stated, furrowed eyebrows challenging the boy to say something else. "It was her fault she was in my way."

The boy reached down to aid the small girl in scrambling back to her feet, smiling warmly at her before bringing his gaze to meet Mal's again, eyes narrowing. "You have everything to apologize for. You ran into her and knocked her over."

"And it's my fault she's clumsy?" Mal questioned with no intention of allowing him to answer. She stepped closer to him, crossed her arms over her chest, and gave him a look that dared him to continue. "Do you really want to pick a fight with me?"

"You knocked her over, it shouldn't matter whether she's clumsy or not," the boy was seemingly becoming angrier by the second.

But so was Mal, and it showed in her eyes when they flashed an impossible shade of green for any mortal, the sight causing the small girl to squeak and flee while the blonde boy took several steps back, his fingers closing tightly around the straps of his bag; she had easily won this argument.

"I'm going to ask you one more time," Mal started, holding up her pointer finger to emphasize the number of times she would repeat this. "Do you really want to pick a fight with me?"

Just then, the girl Mal had spoken to first after her arrival in Auradon came skipping up to the curly-haired boy's side, looping her arm through his and placing a kiss on his cheek. Still, the boy didn't look away from Mal, his eyes widened in terror, his mouth hung open the slightest bit.

"Hi!" The new arrival chirped, eyes bright with joy. "You're Mal, right?"

"Mmhm," Mal hummed, flicking her gaze toward the taller girl, finding that she didn't remember her name; though she didn't care. "And you are…?"

"Lonnie, remember?" Lonnie finished where Mal trailed off, not seeming the slightest bit fazed by the fact that Mal didn't remember her. "We met over a week ago, I asked you about your hair."

"Right," Mal had remembered that part, and definitely didn't need to be reminded of the strange girl's obsession with her hair.

There was a pause in conversation, one where the blonde boy shifted uncomfortably while Lonnie seemed to be debating what to say next; Mal just wanted to leave. However, as soon as she took the first step away from the pair Lonnie suddenly seemed desperate to keep her around.

"This is Chad," Lonnie spoke quickly, reaching out to grab hold of Mal; but she seemed to recall their first conversation and pulled back her hand. "Chad Charming. He's my boyfriend."

"That's unfortunate," Mal replied shortly before heading toward the stairs, completely prepared to use magic to get away from these two, if necessary.

Thankfully, nothing else was said as she took the stairs two at a time. She already hadn't been in the best of moods, and the fact that this Chad guy had found it an intelligent idea to challenge her had only managed to irk her even further. However, just as she blew out a breath of relief from her escape, her mood suddenly shifted to panic when she spotted blue hair down the hall. With her heart hammering violently against her chest, Mal swiftly threw herself around a corner and out of Evie's sight as the girl passed through the hallway and down the stairs. Almost as if she were in a trance she found her legs carrying her up to the railing, her fingers sliding over the bar as her eyes tracked the girl's every step.

It was like she had no control over herself anymore, not when her brain was taking in the image of the beautiful, blue-haired Princess. Whenever she saw Evie her body reacted without her even understanding what was happening. When she looked into those unique red-brown eyes they tugged on her chest; when she witnessed the girl's radiant smile she felt a light tickling sensation fluttering through her; when she read the pain in the girl's life she felt a sickening twist in her stomach. She didn't understand anything that happened to her when she was around Evie, but she also couldn't stop it no matter how hard she tried, and all of it made her wish she had never formed the connection between them. None of this would be happening if I hadn't done that spell.

Still, despite knowing she only felt these things due to the magical connection linking them to each other, she couldn't help but lean her elbows on the railing in front of her as she watched the blue-haired beauty interact with the two people she had just left baffled by her behavior. A small smile crept into her expression when she saw Evie's face light with delight, her luring eyes crinkling with joy as her stunning smile widened enough for anyone looking to see both sets of her teeth. Shortly after this, however, another shot of panic bolted through her stomach and she pushed away from the railing just in time. As she turned to continue her original journey she could feel the girl's gaze lifting to land on her a split-second before she made it to an area she couldn't be seen by her, and despite having been turned away when Evie had spotted her she could tell that the girl knew she had been watching.

Come on, Mal, she shook her head as she made her way down the empty hallway; you came here to do something, and that something wasn't stare at Evie. Forcing the blue-haired girl from her mind she focused on the numbers labeling the doors in search of a specific one, and when she located it she tapped her knuckles loudly against the door, announcing her arrival. When the door was pulled open she found herself internally groaning.

"What do you want?" Jay questioned, his voice making it clear that he was anything but friendly.

"I want to talk to the little one," Mal answered easily, lifting her arm to gesture to the boy that had just come into view behind Jay.

"Are you kidding me?" Jay seemed bewildered, straightening his posture until he seemed to fill the entire doorway. "I thought I told you…"

Mal held up her hand, using her magic to silence the long-haired boy suddenly; she hadn't been willing to deal with Chad, and she definitely wasn't in the proper mood to deal with Jay. "Don't waste your breath, boy. You told me to stay away from Evie, not Carlos. So if I'm correct, and I always am, then I can talk to him anytime I wish."

Jay seemed angry, and also a little confused. He narrowed his eyebrows as Mal released him from the spell, but instead of arguing any further he merely grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder as he brushed passed her in the doorway, purposefully knocking her off balance. Isn't he quite the character, she mused as she stepped into the room, using the sole of her boot to kick the door closed behind her.

She brought her gaze to meet Carlos'. "We need to talk."

Carlos nodded, though Mal could see the remaining terror present in his expression as he continued what he had been doing before she had arrived; which seemed to be collecting his school supplies together. A single bark made Mal glance toward the middle of the room, and just like she had expected she found the boy's furry companion resting by the leg of the table.

"You witnessed something you were probably better off never seeing in your entire life," Mal started, surprisingly not referring to the death considering she figured the boy had already seen plenty of that with the way he had described his childhood. "But since you did witness it, I feel it's pointless trying to lie to you."

"You have magic," Carlos finally spoke, voice not shaking, yet also not completely stable either.

Mal nodded in confirmation, though she knew he didn't need it. "Yes, I was born with it."

"Who were those men?" Carlos asked, seemingly no longer having the capability to hold back the questions overflowing his mind about last night. "Why were they trying to hurt me? Why did you want me to check on Evie?"

Knowing she shouldn't withhold any bit of information from him Mal answered all his questions the simplest, most straightforward way she could think of. "Those men were agents sent from an agency who collects one-of-a-kind artifacts, they were trying to hurt you to get you out of the way so they could kill me, and I wanted you to check on Evie because she's the reason they're here in Auradon. Just like me."

"Why would they want to kill you? And how is Evie the reason they're even here in the first place?"

"You sure ask a lot of intelligent questions, kid," Mal laughed lightly, absent-mindedly brushing the sleeve of the jacket she wore. "Well, they want to kill me because I keep stopping them from killing Evie, who they're here for because of that stupid little necklace that hangs around her neck every day."

"The necklace her mother gave her?" Carlos questioned, reaching up to scratch the back of his head in confusion, clearly not understanding why a family heirloom could be so important.

"Yes, that exact necklace happens to be a powerful artifact that had been lost for hundreds of years," Mal explained, though even she thought she sounded insane. "These agencies were only able to find it the day Evie got it from her mother because the necklace rightfully belongs to her. She's the only one powerful enough to use it."

"Evie? Evie's the only one powerful enough to use it?" Carlos seemed bewildered by the information, as well as amused by the thought that Evie possessed powerful magic. "She doesn't have magic. I think I would know if she did."

"See, that's the thing," Mal slid her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket, one side of her mouth quirking into a smirk. "Evie doesn't know either."

"So how do you?" He seemed almost defensive, as if he felt someone claiming his friend had magic was an insult.

Mal gave him a pointed look, one that expressed how irritated she was getting. "Because we can sense each other. That's not what matters here, though, I came to explain to you why what you saw had to happen. Why I had to kill those guys."

"Because they're here to kill Evie, right? You said that earlier," Carlos pointed out, dropping a few textbooks into a torn bag carelessly. "They want to kill Evie, but you keep killing them, so they sent some guys to kill you to free the path to Evie," he shrugged nonchalantly, as if he hadn't just explained the entire thing better than she had. "At least, that's what I got out of this conversation."

"Good," Mal breathed out, delighted that she didn't have to spend any more time explaining it in a way that would keep the boy from turning her in. "Then we're done here."

"Wait, hold up," Carlos said suddenly, hoisting the bag onto his shoulder and making his way over to Mal where she had already pulled open the door, ready to exit. "Why are you here to protect her?"

Oh, right. I did leave that information out, didn't I? "My boss," she spoke the title through grit teeth, "…sent me to protect her."

"So you belong to one of these… artifact companies?" Carlos questioned unsurely, pulling his room door closed behind him and catching up to her again.

"I don't belong to anyone," Mal's eyes flashed, her magic flowing through her dangerously.

Carlos' step faltered, and his dog quickly came to wrap around his feet the best his small size would allow him to; an attempt to protect his master. Mal inhaled deeply, focusing on calming down by reminding herself that hurting the boy would be unnecessary, and certainly pointless.

"Sorry," Carlos apologized quickly, clearly having seen the dangerous flash in her eyes. "I didn't… I mean… do you work for one of the agencies, or…?"

"No need to make a fool of yourself," Mal stated, continuing her way down the hallway and to the stairs, casting a quick side glance at the boy and deciding to re-word her sentence. "Well, at least more than you already normally do."

If he had been offended by her analyzation of him, he didn't show it. Once again, the two of them walked side-by-side as they descended the stairs to reach the dorm lobby, a comfortable silence spreading through the air around them almost as if they had been friends for a great length of their lives. Mal didn't like the silence being comfortable, disliking the idea of the boy being her friend; disliking the idea of anyone being her friend.

As they made their way to the main school building the loud, ecstatic chatter of many teenage girls rang through Mal's ears, irritating her quickly, however, something inside the similar conversations they all seemed to be having caught her attention. A dance? What's a dance? Why are these girls so excited about it? And – though she didn't enjoy the fact that it had been her first instinct – she shifted her attention back to the boy walking beside her.

"What's a dance?" Mal asked the small boy, nodding her head in the direction of the squealing horde of girls. "What are they so happy about?"

Carlos glanced over at the girls, a light laugh escaping his lips soon after when he realized what she was asking. "Oh, um… it's this event where the school meets up in the gymnasium and everyone dances, or socializes. I generally just find the food table and stay there for the entire event."

"That sounds excessively painful to live through," Mal stated, facial expression taking on one of disgust as her gaze found the group another time.

"It's not all bad," Carlos shrugged, making his way up the school stairs more slowly than Mal, and she found herself slightly aggravated having to wait for him to catch up, yet again. "You're supposed to bring a date, and typically that makes things more fun."

This time, to ask her question, all Mal did was arch her eyebrow, and Carlos seemed to understand her perfectly; yet another factor about them that Mal quickly despised.

"A date is someone you're interested in, whether it be emotionally, or simply physical," Carlos explained, obviously amused by the fact that Mal didn't know any of this. "Though in Auradon physical attraction is never really enough, they're all too pure for that."

She couldn't help it; she laughed at the way he spoke that descriptive word, finding that it was a real, genuine laugh. Looks like the kid's got some issues of his own with the belief system of these Auradians. Though she hated to admit it, she was beginning to like this boy at a steadily increasing rate.

"So, do you have a date?" The word just didn't feel right in Mal's mouth, and she felt strange letting it slip passed her lips.

She didn't know whether or not she was surprised when the boy nodded his head without a single moment of hesitation, but she knew she was definitely bewildered by his next words.

"Evie is my date."

A sudden – and unfamiliar – sharpness overtook her chest as the idea sank into her mind, leaving her with an incredibly disturbing image of Carlos and the Princess. No, she shook her head, unsure what to believe; he doesn't mean… but there was nothing else he could have possibly meant by those four mind-numbing words. Fortunately, this feeling didn't last long, and she soon found herself confused and frustrated by having went through that experience at all. She had no idea what that random sensation meant, but she certainly knew she didn't like it. Why do I even care? I shouldn't. I don't. She hoped she never went through that feeling again – no matter how brief – because she may not be familiar with it, but she did understand that it was one of those feelings that Evie coaxed from her that she never wanted to experience in her entire life, one that she should never experience.

And that list was quickly becoming an overwhelmingly lengthy one.