(Evie)

It felt unfamiliarly strange to be relaxing after an entire week of constant studying and testing; needless to say, finals week had completely thrown off Evie's carefully sketched out schedule. Paranoia had made her study more and had kept her staying after class to receive extra material, and as a result of her increased study schedule she hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep. However, now that she was allowed the luxury of sleeping any time she wanted – for as long as she wanted – she found herself unwilling to tear herself away from the social callings of her friends, and despite the pull of sleep she kept her gaze scanning those she was currently with, entirely content with staying awake.

Though she often couldn't look away from one specific individual.

She hadn't been capable of tearing her gaze from the girl before everything had happened, but the way Mal consumed her mind was different now. Mal was beautiful to her in both a physical attraction and an emotional one, before it had been limited to physical. But now Evie had seen the wounds that Mal didn't cauterize, the scars that she didn't hide, she had now witnessed the girl's acceptance of the caution and fear directed to her, and how she didn't let it control her life. However, despite her love for all those aspects, the one thing that had seemed to seal Evie in where she couldn't escape was the way Mal embraced everything good and everything bad; she didn't choose just one like everyone in Auradon did.

Evie wished she had possessed the ability to accept her differences as well as the ability to ignore everyone's critical views of her when she was growing up; she wasn't even sure she knew how to do those things presently. But she didn't only admire Mal, and it made the girl's admirable and beautiful characteristics much harder for Evie to think about. She had to keep telling herself to focus only on what was important.

And that was the fact that Mal was progressing more quickly than any of them had expected her to after only a few weeks, especially given the reactions she seemed to coax from nearly the entirety of Auradon now. Evie had immediately noticed the way everything shifted around the girl, how everyone watched her cautiously, waiting for her to detonate, how everyone kept their distance for fear of somehow becoming a victim of an outburst. It sickened her. She couldn't believe these so-called 'heroes', hiding from anything and everything that proved to be different from their precious ideals, anyone who dare have a scarred heart; thankfully, not all of them behaved this way. Lonnie had gone out of her way several times to bring a smile to Mal's face – though it didn't always work – and Ben had seemed to become one of the main reasons for the girl's progress. However, herself, Carlos, and Jay seemed to understand and aid Mal the most, their experiences on the Isle having given them a past they can relate to Mal's, even if it was only in the smallest way. They had been given wounds and scars, and together they had learned how to accept them and make them into a golden part of themselves, a part that helped them find who they truly are. Auradon, however, wasn't the ideal place to be while learning how to accept the darkened parts of life because everyone that was born here – with the exception of Ben – was ignorant to the fact that life would never be perfect. Some would say they were blissfully ignorant, but Evie wouldn't hesitate to disagree because she knew the necessity of struggle, of pain, of fear, of being occasionally lost. It was a part of life that everyone needed, unfortunately, it was also a part of life that the Isle of the Lost understood while Auradon denied its existence.

But as she looked at Mal, watching the way her eyes lit up despite the dreary glint visible deeper inside, she could tell that Auradon's ignorant beliefs didn't faze her even in the slightest, and she found herself delighted for the girl, well aware that healing would be easier without those beliefs being shoved down her throat; though she didn't think anything about it would be simple. She wished Mal could recover from everything that happened to her in her past, but she wasn't stupid, she knew that no one could ever fully recover from traumatic experiences; one could heal, but they would never recover. She knew that the past follows everyone around despite everything, ignoring the beauty of every healed wound by cutting into it so that the burn of blood could haunt once again. It was a personal knowledge. Her own past still invaded her mind, still tied a noose around her heart, still severed her breathing. She still found herself unable to focus due to whispers from her mother, whispers from others she encountered that she would have preferred to never be aware of the existence of; she still woke at night with phantom pain from memories she wished desperately to forget. Both Carlos and Jay experienced similar disruptions in their everyday life, but they now knew how to deal with it, how to help each other heal those wounds again and again.

And they were all ready to do the same thing for Mal.

"I am not losing."

Evie tuned back into reality because of the sound of Jay's confident, defensive voice, and as she quickly shifted her gaze from the girl she had been staring at for at least the past twenty minutes to the boys standing in front of a large television, she found that she had missed the beginning of the current conversation.

"I don't know if it's amusing, or disturbing, that you actually believe that," Mal replied with a disbelieving scoff.

It didn't surprise Evie that she was already back to watching Mal, a smile curving her lips with the way the girl's nose scrunched. She found herself amused despite having little idea about what was occurring.

Mal continued, arms crossed over her chest while she stood by the cluttered table. "Your entire strategy is almost pathetic, Jay, and your fighting technique..."

"I'll show you my fighting technique," Jay narrowed his gaze as he glanced over his shoulder at the purple-haired girl. "I bet you won't think it's so pathetic after it's been used on you."

Before, Evie would have been terrified, already throwing herself between the two to keep them from grabbing each other's throats, however, she had noticed a shift between them and could tell the words they threw at each other were merely friendly banter. Still, sometimes it put her on edge, and she lifted her body from her lounging state and instead crossed her legs underneath herself, moving closer to the end of Carlos' bed so that she could act quickly if she felt it necessary.

"If you can't beat Carlos, I doubt you could ever beat me," Mal snorted with laughter, lowering herself gently against the surface of the table, not completely sitting on the furniture, but not entirely standing either.

"We'll see about that," Jay smirked almost evilly, and Evie would have laughed if she wasn't still so weary of their newly formed friendship.

Friendship? The word didn't quite feel right to Evie when studying what was between Mal and Jay; they're more like frenemies, she thought, deciding it fit better.

"No bruising each other, you two," Evie spoke for the first time since they had all gathered in the boys' room.

Though she knew all three of them had turned toward her – more than likely surprised she hadn't spoken since then – she couldn't help but keep her gaze trained where she knew light-green eyes would meet the red-brown of her own, and she felt her heart skipping several beats when she finally found those breathtaking eyes watching her back. She could feel the boys studying her, but failed to meet their undoubtedly knowing gazes despite her desire to prove them incorrect in their assumptions, which, unfortunately, only proved them the opposite of what she wanted. Despite this feeling, she could only focus on the feelings coursing through her body. Her heart felt like it was fluttering, her stomach threatened to flip somehow pleasantly, her entire body warmed with pure joy, and she could physically feel herself growing lighter. All of these lumped together feelings would have confused her had she not heard the stories, and although a portion of her wanted to deny the obvious, to entirely ignore the possibility, she knew she shouldn't; she knew she couldn't.

Now that she couldn't stop herself from thinking about unrealistic scenarios she forced herself to avert her gaze from Mal's, suddenly unwilling to be entranced by her mesmerizing eyes. Stop it, she told herself, beginning to play mindlessly with the fabric of the comforter; that's the last thing she needs. She could feel Mal's gaze burning her skin, and somehow she knew curiosity swam through the girl as she studied her. She didn't want to be someone Mal couldn't understand, but she restrained herself from lifting her gaze because doing so would mean the girl would see right into her. Still, she felt as though she were completely bare in front of her.

That was the one thing she disliked, the one thing the stories never taught her. She wished she had been warned that she would feel completely exposed whenever those special eyes watched her, she wished she had been warned that those eyes would always be able to read her no matter how thick the mask she wore was. Part of her felt it was uniquely them and thought it possible that this information hadn't been written into the stories because it would be false told by anyone else, that same part reminding her that Mal could see through her before they even really knew each other, back when all the girl did was ignore her. Only, it seemed more intense in that moment, felt more intense now that she had fallen into an endless hole she would never be able to crawl out of. She didn't even know when it had started, let alone when she had crossed the line, but she had easily bypassed the section where she could doubt her feelings, doubt herself, and it had taken her only a few days to give in and accept the obvious.

Evie finally lifted her gaze, something deep inside of her praying that Mal could truly understand everything just by looking into her eyes as she allowed herself to be captivated again. And she was lucky she could keep the words tied to her mind. I'm falling in love with you, Mal. With her eyes, she urged Mal to know how she felt, but she contradicted her wishes by sliding her glazed mask over her face.

I'm falling in love with you, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

(Mal)

With the fingers of both hands clasped tightly around the motion sensors, Mal swung both her arms in an outward motion, watching with a triumph smirk as the character she controlled effectively took out the remaining life of her opponent. The fight had taken only two minutes. Eyebrow arching in a silent challenge, she brought her gaze to the boy standing next to her with his mouth opened in utter bewilderment.

"Nice fighting technique," Mal praised sarcastically, mouth still curved into a smirk as she glanced over her shoulder to find Carlos' mouth curved in an impressed appearance. "No wonder he's never won a match."

"That's not true," Carlos retorted, though he struggled to hold back his laughter. "He's beaten the computer before."

"What level of difficulty?" Mal questioned, completely ignoring the shove she received from Jay in return.

"Easy, probably," Carlos answered with a laugh, his light-brown eyes shifting to study Jay in amusement.

Mal turned to Jay. "Your problem is that you think you can win simply with strength, which is never the case. Technique and strategy will always win over strength, trust me."

"Oh yeah?" Jay's eyebrows furrowed the slightest bit as he carelessly dropped the motion sensors he held on the ground by his feet. "And what makes you a professional?"

"I've been in a few fights during my lifetime," Mal shrugged, trying to remain nonchalant even as her vision flashed with painful memories.

"So have I," Jay announced, seeming defensive – like always.

"Did you win?" Carlos questioned, though Mal figured he already knew the answer.

"Some of them," Jay answered honestly, averting his gaze to the ground. "Nobody wins every fight."

"Isn't that the truth," Mal breathed out quietly, moving over to hand the sensors back to Carlos.

As the boy took the items from her hands she noticed something different about the area behind him, and her eyebrows knit in confusion when she realized that Evie was gone. She searched the room for the girl, unsure when she had left, or even if she had. She could just be in the bathroom. She settled on that until Carlos spoke beside her.

"She went to spend time with Lonnie."

"Why didn't she say goodbye?" Mal asked curiously, not thinking about the words coming from her mouth until they seemed to echo around the room. Why do I even care if she says goodbye to me, or not? She told herself she didn't, but knew it was a lie.

"She said she was leaving, but I guess you two were too busy to hear her," Carlos shrugged his shoulders, meeting her gaze with a knowing look that Mal almost detested. "She told me to tell you goodbye."

So she did say goodbye, Mal thought, trying her best to ignore the way her body felt lighter with the knowledge. Even after a week she continued attempting to limit her time with the blue-haired girl, still worrying that the girl thought her desperation for her company during the first week unnerving, but she not only did it for Evie's sake, she did it for her own as well. She had never depended on anyone since her mother had left her, so she wasn't going to start now, especially not with the one person she felt so off and on with – though she knew it was entirely her fault given how she had always treated the girl. Still, she couldn't help but feel a magnetic pull toward the girl, and therefore couldn't help wanting her around.

"I think… I think I'm going to go to bed," Mal spoke quietly, clearing her throat before raising her voice in attempt to make herself seem less affected. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"You sure?" Jay questioned, arching his eyebrow while one corner of his mouth quirked upward. "We could always continue playing."

"Go ahead, just remember that you need technique," Mal replied, meeting the boy's eyes. "Call me when you've beaten Carlos, and maybe we can battle again."

Jay rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest, remaining in denial. Mal laughed lightly, meeting Carlos' gaze briefly with a smile before heading toward the door that led into the hallway. Closing the door behind her she stopped for a moment, her hand still loosely gripping the doorknob as she stood unsurely. After about a minute, or two, she shook her head and began the journey to her shared room.

She knew she should have stayed and continued enjoying her time with the boys, but something had bothered her about Evie leaving so suddenly. For some reason she found herself incredibly worried, and it wasn't until she remembered the entire reason she was here in the first place that she realized why she was worried. Has there been an attack? If there had been, she figured it would have been successful, or at least Evie would have been telling everyone about it. No, she decided; there hasn't been one. But she was still worried. Why hasn't there been an attempt recently? What are they waiting for? It would be intelligent to attack when the protection was separated from the target the majority of the time, and the realization of the added danger she had placed Evie in due to her own selfish fears had her cursing herself. She went to spend time with Lonnie, she told herself; and Lonnie lives in the same dorm, therefore Evie didn't have to step foot outside. It would be a horribly idiotic idea for the agents to enter the dorm building in search of her, let alone attack her while indoors. Someone would see them, or at least hear them.

Deciding she needed to stop worrying about Evie for at least tonight, Mal turned the knob of her own room and entered with little hesitation, closing the door behind her. Moving further into the room she pulled off her leather jacket carefully to make sure her gloves didn't slip off with it, however, when she remembered that Evie would be gone the entire night she decided to finally remove her gloves as well, something she hadn't done since arriving in Auradon unless behind a locked door.

Holding her hands out in front of her she studied the eternally scarred skin, hopelessly wondering if there was a spell she could use to hide her wrists more effectively. She sighed, well aware that there wasn't. She made her way over to her side of the room to toss her jacket in the closet, her gloves finding their way to the mattress where she could easily pull them on underneath the sheets if she slept long enough for her roommate to return. Sitting down on the edge of the bed she reached down to unlace her boots, sliding them off her feet so that she could lift her legs onto the mattress, however, she stopped with only one leg sinking into the soft material.

Her gaze had fallen onto the bed to the right of hers, its dark-blue sheets still excessively neat from when their owner had made them so that morning. She didn't know why the sight of Evie's bed made her halt her movements, but after minutes she found herself still unable to situate herself fully onto her bed. She was still worried about the girl, worried that she hadn't really been headed to Lonnie's room, worried that she hadn't made it there, worried that she was in immediate danger, or worse. Something clenched around her stomach nauseatingly at the thought of the girl being harmed, and she knew a lot had changed since she had first arrived.

Not knowing what she was doing or thinking, Mal slid her leg off her bed and got to her feet, silently making her way over to the bed she had been staring at for the past five minutes. The painful knot remained in her stomach as she stopped with her legs pressed into the bed, her mind still caught up more in the horrifying possibilities than reality. And so, without even questioning herself, Mal pulled back the sheets of Evie's bed and crawled underneath them, pulling the incredibly soft material up to her shoulders as she settled into the middle of the bed, shifting onto her side. Evie's scent immediately overwhelmed every one of her senses, and she found herself inhaling deeply as she buried her face in the girl's pillow, allowing the smell of her to embed itself in her memory as she found relaxation in the same warmth she knew enveloped Evie every other night.

Inhaling deeply another time, she thought; yes, so much has changed since I first came here. And she knew that the most alarming change had been that now, if she was given the chance to sacrifice herself to save Evie, she would throw herself in front of the blade without a second's hesitation.