A/N: I normally do not place warnings at the beginnings of my stories, but this is a special case. If you like Doug and/or Doug and Evie's relationship, I advise that you avoid reading this story altogether. If you are anti-Doug x Evie or just anti-Doug, then congratulations- you have found the Descendants fanfic of your dreams. Last chance… Turn back now or forever hold your peace. You have been officially warned.
Mal relaxed on her bed in her and Evie's dorm room, completely and utterly at ease. She was engrossed in a book, her eyes trained upon the words as she lost herself.
Everything was magnificent. Until Evie came barging in with such a storm surrounding her. Mal jerked with surprise, but whatever smarmy comment she was going to throw at Evie had disappeared from her mind.
"Evie?! Are you okay?!" Mal asked, shooting up from her position on the bed. Evie stopped in her fast approach of her own bed, her head down and her blue locks covering her face in a mystical veil. Mal hurried in front of the other girl, taking her shoulders in her hands gently.
She tried to see through the impenetrable wall of hair to the face underneath. Mal was growing increasingly worried as she didn't receive a response.
But then she felt it. One small, nearly imperceptible quake of Evie's shoulders. Mal immediately knew something was terribly amiss and she gently parted the hair covering Evie's bowed head.
What she saw upon separating the curtain was just as concerning as what she had gathered from its existence. Evie's face was covered in smeared mascara, pure blue trails streaking down her face as tear after tear rolled down her cheeks.
"Evie-" Mal started to speak, but Evie shook her head, suddenly clinging onto the shorter girl with such a force that Mal was completely pressed against her.
Mal blinked and returned the hug hesitantly, her heart wrenching with a deep ache when Evie sobbed brokenly.
The green-eyed girl guided them backward the best that she could so that they were sitting on Evie's bed. Mal then simply held the other girl in her embrace the best she could considering she was the smaller of the two.
Evie was curled up against her as closely as she could get without being practically on top of her, her body shaking with the tears that were currently drenching Mal's thin tee.
Mal couldn't help but feel herself growing increasingly more worried about Evie. What happened to her? Or who happened to her? Mal couldn't help but immediately feel an uncontrollable flame of pure rage at whoever could've caused this. She would skin them alive, hang the trophy on her wall, and then throw whatever remained of them in the ocean between the Isle of the Lost and the United States of Auradon.
Nobody messed with her sister.
Evie clung to her desperately as if Mal was her lifeline, her entire body dependent upon Mal's sturdy frame. Mal just let the girl lean against her heavily with Evie's chin on Mal's shoulder and her head tightly pressed against Mal's own.
Mal tried to control her breathing as well as possible, slowly exhaling and inhaling in hopes that Evie would catch on and do the same.
After what felt like an eternity, Evie let out a long, shaky breath as her grip slackened incrementally. Mal hummed in appreciation, vocalizing her approval of Evie's attempts to calm down. Evie breathed in and out as Mal stroked her hair absently.
When Evie finally calmed down enough to perhaps relate to Mal what had happened, Mal tried to work up the courage to ask.
"Evie?" Mal spoke quietly so she wouldn't startle the other girl. Evie made a nearly silent noise of questioning. Mal wet her lips, trying to figure out the best way to approach the subject.
"What happened?" Mal mentally slapped herself. That was way too blunt. She should've said something about Evie telling her when she was ready. It would've been what Evie said to her if Mal was in Evie's position.
Evie stiffened, and tightened her grip around Mal to an almost suffocating grasp. Mal sucked in a breath, trying to regain the air lost.
"Doug… He-he-" Evie then burst into tears all over again. Mal's mind immediately jumped to the worst conclusions.
Had he harmed her physically? Mal hadn't seen any bruises or marks, but then Evie came into their dorm in quite a hurry.
Did he force her into… that? Mal couldn't help the low growl that escaped from her. If Doug had done that, he'd endure vast, unimaginable worlds of pain, suffering, and anguish before she finally killed him.
He'd never know what hit him. She'd come into his and Ben's dorm like a shadow in the night and take him away to somewhere that no one would ever find him before she tortured him brutally by candlelight. And then she'd finally finish him off by taking her own powers and strangling him.
"He broke up with me," Evie choked out, her sobs growing tenfold. Mal's racing mind was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt as she realized it wasn't what she had thought at all.
But she still might kill him.
That idiot had left a wonderfully good thing. Evie was perfect. Mal knew it. The bluenette was truly a magnificent girlfriend to Doug. She was almost always patient with him, she did so many little things for him, and she never ever yelled at him. Mal always wished that she could have the incredible tolerance that Evie had.
It made Mal sick to see Evie so utterly affected by that disgusting, horrid boy.
"Mal, what did I do wrong? I tried so hard," Evie bawled, and Mal felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her stomach. Evie never was this much of a mess. Even when she cried, she was always more composed than this.
Evie didn't deserve this. Doug deserved the pain.
"I'm not pretty enough, am I?" Evie questioned, sobering from her hysterics immediately as she loosened her hold on Mal. "My nose… it's too sharp. My skin's not fair enough, my eyes aren't the right color, my hair doesn't have enough volume," Evie launched into a hypercritical assessment of herself. Mal shook herself from her stupor and pulled away from Evie so that she could press her forehead against the bluenette's and look into her eyes.
"No, Evie, you're not pretty," Evie's face fell, and her entire face reflected a hurt, resigned disappointment. "You're absolutely gorgeous," Mal told her heartfeltly.
"That piece of," Mal paused, collecting herself since she knew Evie hated for her to swear, "work…. doesn't deserve you," Mal reassured firmly.
"I love him, Mal. I thought he loved me, too," Evie averted her gaze as several tears rolled down her cheeks. Mal hesitantly moved her hand up toward the slightly older girl's face. After a moment of thinking it over, she wiped her left cheek gently, the moisture remaining on Mal's hand.
"Hey," Mal spoke, trying to regain Evie's attention. "Talk to me about it. I know it hurts, but it'll help you if you let it out," Mal advised. She then grinned lopsidedly.
"At least… That's what my sister told me," the green-eyes girl spoke, hoping for Evie's usual response whenever Mal called her that.
Mal wasn't disappointed. Evie returned Mal's gaze immediately when Mal said the magic word. Her eyes lit up with that almost pitifully excited look of hope and affection. It was slightly dulled, but it was still very much there.
The corners of Mal's lips quirked with a slight smile. Evie returned the grin, albeit significantly less happy, but pleased all the same.
Mal pulled back from the bluenette and Evie leaned so that her head was on Mal's shoulder.
The purple-haired girl sat in complete silence with the other girl as they simply relaxed together. Mal was willing to wait on Evie to talk about it. She knew it was going to be painful for the other girl.
"It all started when I went to where we were supposed to meet today," Evie slowly, deliberately began, attempting to push through the agony that was about to come flooding in.
Mal offered her palm, her fingers extended. Evie's hand shot up like a flash, grabbing her own in a tight hold.
The story wasn't going to be pretty.
…
Evie skipped across the schoolyard with an enormous grin, her entre face bright with her excitement to meet Doug at their spot at the picnic tables. She had everything: the picnic basket was swinging lazily from her hand's grasp, her homework tucked under her arm, and whatever else she thought they could need on their study date.
Her heart skipped a beat as she spotted his lanky form positioned at the table. Evie quickened her pace, thrilled to see him again.
She carefully snuck up behind him, her eyes aglow with mischief as she suddenly dove in and covered his eyes with her hands, holding her papers underneath her arm the best she could.
"Guess who?" Evie playfully questioned. She heard him sigh, and her smile faded just a little. That was strange. Generally, she got a laugh from him when she did that.
"Evie, stop… We need to talk," he told her, an oddly serious tone lacing his words. Evie took her hands away hesitantly, her fingers lightly scraping against his scalp as she removed them.
Evie moved onto the seat, situating herself on the bench as she sat her things on the table gingerly, taking special care in placing everything in a perfect order.
She then turned her upper body toward him so that she could physically devote her entire attention to him and what he was about to say.
Evie nervously tried to read his profile, but whatever mask he had put up had effectively done its job. She couldn't see any sign of what sort of news she was about to hear.
Doug finally looked at her, and Evie quickly perceived that it wasn't going to be the good type of news.
"Evie… I think we should start seeing other people," he told her, averting his eyes to his hands that were resting on the table.
Evie felt as if she had been punched in the gut. It was as if the words had an actual physical effect on her. Evie sat blubbering for a few moments, trying desperately to think of something useful and good to say.
"Why?" she finally asked, unashamedly gaping at him as she tried to fully comprehend what had been said to her. Doug shook his head and he looked at her somewhat sadly.
"I just don't think that we're that well-suited for each other. You deserve better than me, and I'm tired of holding you back," Evie opened her mouth, about to object, but Doug held up a hand, effectively stopping whatever words were going to come.
"Also, I, um… Found someone else. Her name is Chaca, daughter of Pacha, you know, the guy that was such great friends with Emperor Kuzco," he paused for a moment, seeming to recollect his thoughts.
"And… Considering that, I just don't think it'd be fair to either of us if we were to keep dating," Doug explained with a slightly guilty twinge to his voice. Evie's jaw slackened, her eyes growing glassy as the words fully began to sink in her skin.
"Evie, you deserve a guy who can make all of your dreams come true. You deserve a guy who can give you all of his heart, a heart that doesn't already belong to someone else. And that guy's not me," Doug told her.
Evie sharply inhaled, trying to get a hold of her swirling emotions. Hurt, jealousy, inferiority, anger, there was an endless compendium composing a fiery vortex of betrayal and ultimately lostness.
She looked down at her lap, feeling her heart fall apart into a million, seemingly unrepairable amount of pieces.
"I love you, Evie, but not like a boyfriend should. You're a great friend and I hope we can still be friends. I don't want this to come between us," Doug told her with a small smile, offering his hand to her. Evie looked down at it.
It was so alien, yet so familiar. She wanted to take it, but at the same time, she wanted to turn it away. Evie brought her mocha gaze back to meet his own orbs. She suddenly felt like she was out of air.
Evie stood up so quickly that she almost fell, tripping over the bench. Evie turned away from Doug, taking off as quickly as she could in the other direction.
She heard him calling behind her, but she couldn't deal with him right now. Evie had to go to the one place where she knew she could remain largely unbothered. After all, there was a door and she could lock it.
It was also the only place that had a hot shower, extra cookies, and maybe even a shoulder to cry on if she got there at the right time.
…
"And I got back here," Evie choked out, shutting her eyes tightly. Mal squeezed the hand that was in her own.
Mal didn't really know what to say that could even begin to make Evie feel any better. She released a deep breath, resting her head on Evie's.
"That's… one heck of a story," Mal murmured, trying to fight the overwhelming urge to choke Doug. She was glad he had told Evie the truth before she got hurt even worse than she was now, but at the same time, she felt like killing him because he made the stupid decision to choose someone else over Evie.
Evie simply nodded her head in response, nuzzling further into the velvety softness of Mal's shirt. Mal shifted a bit uncomfortably. Evie was resting her full weight against Mal, and, although Evie didn't have very much weight to rest on her, it was still hard for Mal's small frame to hold her up easily.
When she felt a crick developing in the small of her back, Mal began to lower herself to the bed carefully, indicating gently to Evie that she was going to lie down. Evie moved back with her and before long, the pressure of Evie's body was significantly less than before as Mal rested on her back.
"Mal, I don't understand why he broke up with me… I did everything I could to be a great girlfriend, but I wasn't good enough," Evie spoke, her normally melodious voice cracking mid-sentence. Mal shook her head, turning it to look at Evie.
"You are so perfect, Evie. Everything about you is perfect. The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you look away when you know your best friend's telling the truth and you're being stubborn," Mal lifted their interlocked hands and extended her pointer finger, poking Evie's cheek gently with a playful grin. Evie rejoined her gaze with Mal's hesitantly, a small exasperated smile crossing her face.
"You're smart, you're beautiful, you're sweet, you're funny…. You're so many things, E. I actually wish I could be like you sometimes," Mal shrugged, looking up at the canopy covering the top of the bed.
Evie immediately trained her attention more fully on Mal.
"Wh- really? Why would you want to be like me?" the bluenette asked. Mal stared at her incredulously.
"Yes, really. Why would I not? I… I look up to you," Mal quietly mumbled the last part, turning her head in the opposite direction as the embarrassment tingled through her body. She hadn't exactly meant to tell Evie that.
It was true, though. After all, she viewed Evie as her big sister. Her awesome, incredible, one-of-a-kind big sister.
She eventually returned her head to its original position so that she could look at Evie. However, Mal certainly didn't expect to see a sweet smile on Evie's face and tears trailing down her cheeks.
Just as Mal began to worry that she finally broke her or that she said something wrong, Evie sat up on the bed, pulling up Mal, and yanked her into a bone-crushing hug. Mal returned it quickly, still a little concerned for whatever remained of Evie's sanity.
"Are you okay?" Mal questioned tentatively. Evie nodded her head, sniffling.
"Yes. It's just… It means so much to me that you'd say that. That I actually mean that much to you," Mal felt a stab to her chest at the horribly sad statement. Well… Take her heart, she didn't need it anymore, anyway.
"I'm absolutely honored that you look up to me," Evie paused to pull away from Mal and place her hands on Mal's shoulders, "and I promise you that I will do everything in my power not to disappoint you," Evie promised, and Mal felt the familiar sting of tears in her own eyes. Mal blinked hard and forced a chuckle.
Darn Evie. Always ditching her own feelings for the thought of someone else's. Mal was supposed to be comforting her, not the other way around.
"Well, gee, E, I thought you were the one down, not me," Mal plastered a smile on her face. Evie shook her head.
"You matter, too," Evie told her with an oddly serious expression as she sighed sadly.
"I know, but be a little selfish right now, 'kay? Besides I know you're trying to distract yourself. That's good, but it's also healthy to do a little wallowing," Mal told her, subtly wiping her eyes as she tried to muster a more cheerful look.
Evie nodded, and Mal could see her mind desperately fighting the thought of Doug.
"You know what I think this calls for?" Mal questioned suddenly, the perfect idea popping into her head. Evie looked at her with a questioning glance.
"No…?"
"Well, I don't know if you're up for it, but I've got some Oreos with our names on them and some weird movies I've never seen before that Lonnie came up with." As soon as Mal nonchalantly mentioned the cookies, Evie's focus was trained directly upon her singularly.
"Are they traditional?" Evie asked, and Mal could see her eyes lighting up with that familiar chocolate craze.
"Yep."
"What're waiting for?! Let's wallow!" Evie yelled, hopping off the bed in her haste.
Mal shook her head with a grin. Evie's heart could be healed in time. However, her smile faded slowly into an angrier expression as she began to consider what she was going to do as soon as she could manage.
Yes, she certainly has some unfinished business to attend to.
…
It was undeniable. Mal had the look of a woman on a mission. Her eyes were aglow with her trademark green, every sense heightened in her hunt for a certain dork.
Her gaze trailed across the open space. She easily spotted Audrey with her ridiculous new hairstyle that she actually thought was pretty. Mal rolled her eyes in disgust. Audrey was so ridiculous.
Mal continued her scan and she quickly saw Chad Charming with his latest girl that he had picked up and was cheating on Audrey with. She disgustedly averted her eyes from his way too public and certainly way too grabby show of affection. Honestly, was he trying to eat her face off?
There were various other people out and about. It was a sunny day, and Mal didn't blame them for seizing the moment of beauty. However, she herself was a little worried about getting a sunburn and consequentially receiving a long lecture from Evie about how she should take care of her skin.
She refocused her concentration on the task at hand, and quickly spotted the awkward boy seated at the exact picnic table that Evie had recounted.
Mal soundlessly strode over, and she kept her eye on him, making sure he didn't spot her before she was ready to be seen.
Mal then moved nearby a tree that happened to be close by Doug's sitting spot, her eyes gleaming as she surveyed her prey. She silently glared at him for a moment, if she could, she'd melt him in place. Then she wouldn't have to endure this painfully awkward conversation.
But she had to get it over with. It was for Evie's wellbeing and happiness and there was no price she wouldn't gladly pay for her best friend.
"Yo, loser-face," Mal finally spoke, her back against the tree as she stared at the shaggy mop of hair on top of the guy's head. He turned his head quickly as if startled and gaped at Mal.
"C'mon," Mal beckoned him with her finger, "we need to talk." She didn't wait to see if he'd follow and simply began strolling through the grass. After a moment or two, she heard his awkward gait as he hurried over beside her.
They walked together for a moment, neither saying a word. Mal finally looked over at him and saw that he was a nervous wreck. She lightly exhaled, knowing that she had better tell him what was on her mind before he fainted or did something totally sissy like that.
"Look, Doug, I appreciate you telling Evie the truth," Mal expressed, and Doug jumped at the sound of her voice. She offered a small smile, but it quickly disappeared.
"Well, I only figured it was right," he mumbled, seemingly shy around her. She sighed, hating that she was about to have to burst his bubble.
"And I also want to tell you that I'd really appreciate it if you didn't speak to Evie again for a long time," Mal told him, stopping in her tracks. He quickly mimicked the action, pausing immediately. He looked at her with a shocked expression.
"The reason being is that she's really upset right now. She's been desperately trying to distract herself, and I don't think seeing you would help the situation any right now," Mal tried to break it to him as gently as possible.
"B-but I want to still see her. I told her I still wanted to be her friend. A good friend wouldn't just leave her to suffer." Mal's eyes flashed with that familiar warning green flame and he stepped back in fear.
"She's not been suffering by herself. I've been there for every single solitary tear my sister has cried over you. Don't you think she deserves a break from you and the pain you cause?" Mal viciously poked him in the chest, allowing her anger to overrule her best judgement.
Doug looked down at his shoes and crossed his arms over his chest, and Mal could easily see the intense guilt lacing his expression. Mal's frustration with him faded away somewhat and she placed her hand on his shoulder, patting him gently.
"I'm not mad, Doug," he looked at her hopefully. She bit her bottom lip. "I'm sure there's a part of me, somewhere deep inside my heart where I'm not mad." At that point, he looked somewhere between horrified and relieved.
"I understand that you had to tell her the truth and I admire you for that. I just don't want her to have to go through any more hurt than she already has," Mal told him, removing her hand and drawing it back to her side.
After a moment of awkward silence, Mal cleared her throat.
"Well, consider that my letting you off easy for breaking her heart. Can't promise the guys are going to be so gentle, but I'll try to persuade them," Mal punched his shoulder firmly and Doug offered a small grin as they resumed their walk together. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he tried to subtly rub his very much sore arm. Hey, she didn't punch anyone easy. Unless it was one of the three most important people in her life. Mal was gentle with them.
"Thanks, I'd appreciate that," he chuckled. Mal grinned at him, her characteristic mischief shining through.
"Or I could introduce you to persuasion and reason myself. Y'know, let you get acquainted with them personally," Mal told him, bumping into his arm with her shoulder.
As they walked, she held up her right fist. "Here's persuasion," Mal held up her left fist, "and here's reason." Doug stared at her hands for a moment before smiling slightly.
"Not sure if you're kidding or not, but I'm going to take that as a joke." They both shared a hearty laugh.
"I was…. Mostly," Mal told him, and he stopped, watching her leave as she continued along her merry way.
Mal shrugged to herself once she was out of eyeshot.
"I tally that as being a good talk," Mal told herself, a smirk making its way onto her face as she left to find Evie.
Nobody messed with Evie. Ever. Or any of her family. They'd get to have an exclusive heart to heart with her fists of fury.
Well, if you made it this far, Imma go ahead and assume you're either a Doug hater or you just wanted some sisterly fluff. I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review and let me know how you liked it! :)