The servants led them through a series of halls before taking them up a flight of stairs. It was… It had to be a palace. There was no other explanation.
Thick rugs carpeted the middle of the shiny wood floors. Paintings hung on the walls and there were plants in pots everywhere. Small little knickknacks sat on weird little tables and Carlos shoved his hands in his pockets to keep himself from pocketing them. Just one of those would buy an entire month's stay at Lady Tremaine's brothel or fresh fish for two months. The Evil Queen would kill to have a palace like this. Especially decorative mirrors hung in random places. Evie was glancing at her reflection every chance she got.
Eventually, they stopped in front of several doors in yet another hall that looked like all the others. The man servant moved to one of the doors, while the woman moved to the other.
"If sirs would follow me," the butler said as he gestured to the door, "your baths await." The maid was saying the same thing to the girls and his mind stalled. They were being separated.
"No way. We stay together," Jay protested, feeling Carlos move closer to his back.
Mal crossed her arms. "We don't-"
"Men and women always bathe separately," the maid interrupted Mal, eyes wide in horror. "It's not proper to bathe together." The rest of the servants stopped, looking between the man and woman who appeared to be in charge, and the four of them, not sure what they were supposed to do now.
"Who cares about proper?" Mal snorted. "It's just a bath."
Several gasps escaped a few of the servants and the scandalized looks on their faces were priceless.
"Miss," the woman frowned. "It would be most inappropriate-"
"We've already bathed together before. One more bath won't make a difference," Mal interrupted with a shrug.
One of the female servants swooned. Several of the men looked ready to do the same. Jay didn't get it. A body was a body, was a body. Besides, bathing wouldn't even be the most intimate thing the four of them had ever done. It's actually pretty tame.
"Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll-" Mal started, moving to the door the butler gestured too.
Stepping forward, Evie caught Mal's arm and tugged her toward the other door. "We'll bathe separately," the princess smiled. "It won't be a problem." Then she caught Jay's eye and mouthed "Just go with it."
With a shrug, Jay tugged Carlos along with him into the room next door to the girls'. Of all of them, the princess was the expert on what to do in the mainland. If she said to separate, then he guessed they were going to separate. Two metal tubs were set up for them, with small little tables covered in strange bottles next to them. What he guessed were towels, but looked nothing like what he knew to be towels, were folded and sitting on a stool.
"Please take all the time you need. We will bring fresh clothes for you once you are done," the man in charge told them before bowing and closing the door, looking a little relieved.
He exchanged looks with Carlos. "What was that all about?"
"I don't know," Carlos shrugged. They stood in silence for a moment before Carlos gestured towards the tubs. "So do we…?"
"Might as well," Jay said, starting towards the tubs. "They seem pretty determined."
"They think we stink," Carlos commented as he followed Jay. "Whenever they get close to us, their noses wrinkle."
Jay gave himself an experimental sniff and shrugged. He didn't think he smelled that bad. When they reached the baths, they stripped, Carlos piling his clothes next to the tub while Jay just tossed his to the side.
Bracing himself, Jay stepped into the tub and gasped. Immediately Carlos froze.
"What? What's wrong with it?"
"It's…warm," Jay replied, staring at the water. Now that he was looking closely, there was a faint haze of steam above the surface of the water. Warm but not scalding. Not even close to ice cold.
"That's mean, Jay," Carlos huffed, glaring at him.
"No, seriously."
Clearly unconvinced, Carlos stepped into his own bath and Jay watched as his lips formed a little o. Then he sank into the water, eyes closing, and Jay copied him. Warmth wrapped around him, seeping into his muscles and Jay groaned. Fuck it felt good. It felt really good. Evie had once mentioned that her baths were usually lukewarm and Jay sometimes found himself wondering what that felt like. Now he knew.
For a long moment, he forgot that they were supposed to be bathing and just stretched out in the water. That alone was weird. Every time Maleficent had deemed him and Mal too filthy to be in her presence, they'd taken turns using a wooden tub just big enough for them to sit in. It wasn't until he heard Carlos scrubbing at himself that Jay remembered to wash himself.
Once they were both done washing and Carlos had washed his clothes, pointing out that they were going to be given clothes to wear and his clothes really needed to be washed anyway, they grabbed their towels and dried off. Carlos kept his towel wrapped tightly around his entire body while Jay settled for wrapping it around his hips. Usually he wouldn't bother, but these people seemed to have a weird thing about bodies.
At their knock at the door, the head servant came in, looked them over and, not so subtly, sniffed them. Then he pressed his lips together. "Did either of you use soap?"
"Soap?" Jay repeated.
The man stared at him like he'd just said Mal's favorite color was yellow. Then he blinked and walked over to the tables with the little bottles. "Soap and shampoo," he said. "You use these to help remove dirt and odors. These," he held up two bottles, "are soap for your body. And these," he gestured to the remaining three, "are for your hair. We'll refill the tubs and let you bathe again with the soap." Then he bustled out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Again, he exchanged looks with Carlos, but the younger boy looked just as confused as he felt. Through the door, he could hear the man say, "The girls too? It's as if they're animals."
At least Mal and Evie failed too. Still, it wasn't their fault Auradon had strange rules about how to clean themselves. What did it matter anyway? They were just going to get dirty again. He turned to Carlos to mock the man's uppity tone, but the younger boy wasn't paying attention. Fuck.
"They think we're animals?" Jay laughed, throwing an arm around Carlos's shoulders and pulling him close. "They should meet Uma's crew."
Brown eyes cleared a little and Carlos grinned. There. That was better.
A few minutes later the man returned and opened small drains to empty the tubs then closed again for the fresh water that poured from a strange faucet when the man turned a strange knob. Magic? Once the tubs were full of steaming water, he left with a final reminder to use soap this time and they were left alone to bathe. Again.
A small door Jay hadn't noticed eased open and Evie stuck her head in, blue hair damp. Seeing no one else was there, she slipped into the room followed closely by Mal. Both of them wore towels wrapped around their bodies and Mal kept her arms crossed over her chest.
"What are you doing?" Jay asked as they joined them.
"These people are stupid," Mal huffed.
Ignoring her, Evie smiled. "We figured you guys could use a little help too so we picked the lock."
"You guys failed to impress too?" Jay teased. He already knew they had. But this was a perfect opportunity to mess with their leader and princess. "Evie, I thought you'd at least get it right."
"These people are stupid," Mal repeated.
"Stupid or not, we need to get it right," Evie snapped, eyes narrowing. "The standards in Auradon don't match the standards we're used to. And back there it was impossible to even think of being as clean as Auradon." Her gaze locked on Jay, daring him to comment. He said nothing. Evie didn't get mad a lot, but when she did, it was safer to just shut up.
"Get in the tubs," Evie ordered. Grip tight on his arm, she steered him and Mal towards one of the tubs before pulling Carlos into the other one with her. Under Evie's supervision and through some trial and error, they washed themselves with the soap and shampoo. Jay worked the shampoo through Mal's hair, wrinkling his nose against the flowery smell.
"Gods, I'm going to smell like a fucking fairy," Mal muttered.
"You are half fae," Carlos pointed out from where he was helping Evie rinse her hair.
Rolling her eyes, Mal flipped him off. "Like a fucking good fairy," she corrected. "Why do we need to stink like flowers anyway?"
"Because we're in Auradon, and if this is what we need to do to stay, then this is what we'll do," Evie replied. Of course, smelling nice had always been something she was accustomed to with her mother brewing potions and perfumes to sell.
Mal didn't say anything and Jay did his best to rinse the bubbles out of her hair. When she washed his hair, she took too much pleasure in using the most flowery shampoo, stating it "suited his sensitive nature". So he tried to shove her under the water which escalated until they were wrestling, Evie and Carlos ignoring them. It was tempting to have a little more fun with her, and he could tell she was tempted too, but this wasn't the time or place.
Eventually, Evie grabbed each of them by the ear and dragged them out for her to look over and sniff. After scrubbing their faces one more time, she deemed them worthy and then dragged Mal back into their own room so the servants didn't find them all together and flip out.
Sighing at his new smell, he began drying off before the crazy butler returned. He better get used to smelling like this., If Evie had her way, they were going to be smelling like this for a long time.