I want to thank (and dedicate this to) ofjaylos and sowhelmecl on tumblr. I was having personal issues and I had not planned on updating this tonight, or for a while, actually. Talking to them definitely gave me the push I needed to write this. So I hope you like it, I'm really proud of myself for finish it!

Jay wasn't sure what he was supposed to do; what he was supposed to feel. Should he yell at Carlos? Should he punch Ben? Was he supposed to be mad with Ben, too? He wanted to be, because he saw that Ben was obviously the one to initiate the kiss but Jay couldn't help but be angrier with Carlos because he had done nothing to stop it. In the end, he decided that the noise of everyone cheering while Ben made out with his boyfriend was not something he wanted to hear. He had to get away; he had to be able to think. Plus Carlos would probably give him even more shit for causing a scene, and no one would want that, because god forbid Jay express feelings for once.

Jay felt stupid for thinking that him and Carlos could actually be together. Carlos had told him that they couldn't hurt each other at Auradon, but he was wrong. He felt worse than when Carlos told him he wanted to stop being friends. He should've just listened to his father when he told him that nobody would ever love him. He had been so dumb to think that his dad had been wrong, that maybe Carlos had loved him, or at least liked him and didn't want to simply use him. God, how could he have been so stupid?

He was glad that the hallways were void of people, because he was able to stomp quickly down them and have no one question him. He didn't know where else to go, so he went to his room. He knew he would most definitely run into Carlos there later on, but he didn't mind. In fact, he wanted to talk to Carlos about the whole situation. Tell him how fucking awful it was to play with someone's emotions, especially with someone as fragile as Jay himself (not that he'd ever admit that, of course). At the very least, he would let Carlos explain himself and hopefully unlike other times, Carlos would be truthful about it.

When he arrived at his room, he immediately shrugged off his Tourney jersey and put on a simple black t-shirt. After he had put away his dirty clothes, he found himself pacing the room quite quickly, eagerly awaiting Carlos' return. When he realized what he was doing he mentally scolded himself. He was acting ridiculous over a stupid boy who couldn't, for the life of him, stop hurting Jay. He angrily kicked at the wall, startling Dude, who Jay gladly glared at. Jay knew Carlos wouldn't be back for a while, and since he still stunk from the game, and pacing around the room wouldn't make Carlos arrive any sooner, he decided he would take a shower.

By the time Jay had returned to the room from his shower, he had decided that he didn't need Carlos. All he really needed now was for Carlos to apologize. Jay had sketched out a plan in his head during the shower: When he saw Carlos he wouldn't explode with anger. He would ask why, and then he'd ask for an apology, and that'd be that.

The plan seemed perfect until he came back to his room and Carlos was petting Dude and suddenly by viewing the stupid boy's perfect freckles and ridiculous white hair, the anger came flooding back all at once. Towel clutched in hand, Jay slammed the door loudly to gain Carlos' attention. Carlos' hand flew back from Dude's fur, and he stood upright immediately, eyes wide. He was still in his post-game winning glory, with partially sweat drenched hair, glistening skin, and his over sized Tourney jersey with the ridiculously stupid cringe-worthy 101 gracing the back. He bit at his lip and wrung his hands together, prepared to talk, but Jay was quick to make sure he would be the one to get the first word.

"What the fuck was that!" Jay yelled, arm outstretched. Well, there went his plan of being perfectly calm.

"You saw that?" Carlos blanched, playing with his hands nervously. He knew Jay had probably seen it; moments before Ben had decided it was perfectly okay to kiss him in public, Carlos had spotted Jay in the crowd. So, yeah, he had seen it, but he still wished he hadn't.

"Everyone saw it!" Jay threw the towel onto his bed and stomped up to Carlos, poking him at his shoulder. Carlos frowned, taking a step back.

"Okay," Carlos swallowed heavily. "Let me explain."

"Yeah, why don't you," Jay bit out sarcastically.

Carlos knew Jay was going to be mad, hell he was mad at himself too, but telling him this could possibly help their relationship later on, so Carlos was willing to risk it. "Ben and I sorta had this thing going on..."

"Thing—what-"

" You know..it was like when you and I had a thing back on the Isle?" Carlos was trying really hard to dance around the subject, because he definitely did not want to outright say it.

Jay's eyes go wide in recognition, and Carlos tries to ignore the fact that he had both of his fists clenched. Carlos could practically see the anger coming off Jay in waves.

Those words had been a giant stab in Jay's heart, and he didn't want to believe the words he was hearing. Had Carlos seriously been hiding something from him? "What the hell, Carlos! Why didn't you tell me? Why the—"

"Shut up and let me talk!" Carlos pushed at Jay's shoulder angrily. "When we first got here, I was feeling lonely, and I didn't want to risk anything with you. So once I realized Ben seemed to be the only person giving me the type of attention I was wanting, I went for it. Yeah, Jay, we hooked up and told nobody about it. We both decided it would be best that way."

Jay had to bite his tongue to keep himself from shouting out. He knew Carlos deserved to explain, but he really didn't want to hear anymore. It wasn't that he was mad about Carlos hooking up with someone else, because he himself had hooked up with a couple of girls since arriving at Auradon, so it would be hypocritical of him to give Carlos shit for it. What he was angry about was the fact he had kept it hidden from him. The trust that he had thought he had in Carlos had dropped a massive amount.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me, Carlos! I thought we agreed a long time ago to not keep secrets?"

"You were the one to make that stupid agreement, I never actually agreed. It's my business anyways, so there was no point in telling you."

"And what about Mal?" Jay smirked, thinking he had Carlos trapped.

"Most of it happened before Mal and him started dating. There were only like two times that we did anything while he was with Mal. I felt really bad, so I told him we should stop. Look, I didn't know he was going to do that, Jay!" Carlos ignored the fact that he had been with Ben while he was dating Audrey. He tried to feel bad, but since he barely knew the girl, he couldn't find the room in him to care. (Not that he'd tell that to Jay or anything).

"What? Kiss my so called boyfriend in front of the whole fucking school?" Jay chuckled dryly, shaking his head. He ran his hand through his hair angrily as he takes a step back from Carlos.

"No, I didn't! I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you are."

"Jay! We hadn't done anything in almost a month. I thought we were done. I was just as shocked as you were when he kissed me!" Carlos' voice was getting shaky and he cursed himself for getting emotional. This was not how he wanted the rest of the day to go. He had been hoping to take Jay for ice cream or to a movie or something else stupid, not to have a petty fight with him.

"Oh? Is that why you kissed him back?" Jay wanted to believe him, but he couldn't. His mind wouldn't let him believe that the boy standing in front of him was innocent. He was so used to the hurt that the boy caused, that he didn't really believe Carlos could bring him anything but that.

Carlos groaned in frustration, throwing a hand to his hair. "Jesus, Jay! If you had fucking stayed you would have realized I pulled back immediately and told him that I was most definitely, without a doubt dating you and no longer wanted any part in his games."

Jay closed his mouth and takes another step back. He blinks several times as he stares at Carlos. He didn't know what to say, or what he was supposed to do. Jay decides he'll let his brain do the talking, so out slips: "You said we couldn't hurt each other here, Carlos. But you did. It hurt like hell. Still does, actually."

Carlos steps forward to grab at Jay's arm, but retracts it when Jay flinches back. "I'm so sorry, Jay. You mean the whole fucking world to me, and I can't believe I already fucked this up. Ben and I are done, and he even said he'd apologize to you personally. So now it's just you and me, Jay. Just you and me."

Jay breathes heavily, speaking shakily. "I—I don't know if I want that anymore."

Carlos pales, stepping toward Jay again. "What, no. Ja—"

"Carlos, stop." Carlos shuts his mouth, biting down on his lip. "That was a really big secret to keep from me, Carlos. I don't know why you didn't think you could trust me with it. We say we'll stop hurting each other, but it never happens. It's a constant cycle and I don't think it'll ever stop. The constant pain, it's not something I deserve, Carlos, and you don't deserve it either. You are amazing, Carlos, but we don't deserve this. We don't deserve each other."

"No, Jay. You know that's not true. If you believed what you were saying right now, you wouldn't have agreed to date me this morning. Jay, please."

Jay wavers as he eyes Carlos, who is pleading desperately with him. He can tell Carlos is close to crying, something Jay had never meant to cause and he wants to say: "See, this is exactly what I mean. We'll never stop hurting each other." But he doesn't, because he thinks of what Carlos is saying. The words he had spoken did have some meaning. Because deep down, Jay did want something with Carlos other than meaningless flings.

So he decides to say, "I don't know, C. I just—I need to think on it. Okay? Just give me time to think."

Carlos nods quickly, wiping at his eyes to prevent the tears from falling. "Yeah, of course."

Jay smiles at his response, and he glances around the room awkwardly. He shuffles his feet on the floor and glances to the door. "I'm gonna go, uh walk and think this through."

Carlos nods at him and Jay grabs his jacket, throwing it on as he dashes out of the room. When his feet hit the hallway floor he feels like he can breathe again.

On his walk, he runs into Mal and Evie. They try to talk to him, but he brushes them off at first. Then he gets an idea, and he decides that maybe they can help him with his problem. He's a little weary to explain it at first, because Mal is there. He knows Mal had seen Ben kiss Carlos, but he still decided to leave out the fact that Ben had cheated on her twice with Carlos. If she were to ever find out, that was Ben or Carlos' place to tell her. So with a shaky breath, he tells them everything. He explains about their situation back on the Isle, and they only scoff in reply, saying they had figured that out long ago. Jay is surprised by that and he ignores them when they make fun of him for blushing.

He then tells them that Carlos had asked him out that morning, and they both squeal in delight. Evie claps her hands enthusiastically and Mal just says "Finally." He scolds them for getting excited, and they're confused at first, but then they remember what they had witnessed on the Tourney field two hours ago.

"Oh," Evie said, lowering her hands back down to her sides. Mal scowls in memory and Jay tries to hurry the conversation a long. When he explains that Carlos had apologized, and he had responded that he wasn't sure if he wanted to still date him, Evie had asked an odd question.

"Does he make you happy?"

Jay, caught off guard, stepped back in confusion while lowering his eyes at Evie. "What?"

"It's a simple question, Jay. Does he make you happy?"

Jay looks between the two girls, acting as if he had been caught in a trap. "I mean..why does that matter?"

Mal laughed sarcastically, bumping shoulders with Evie. She loved Jay to death, but damn, he could be so idiotic sometimes. "Look, we'll answer for you. The answer would be yes. Ever since you and Carlos started being friends again, you have been a complete joy to be around. You're constantly smiling, and you actually laugh at things Jay."

Jay shrugs. "Okay...I guess, yeah, lately he's been making me really happy."

"Then there's your answer," Evie chirps, smiling wide.

"How? No, that's stupid Evie. It doesn't matter how happy he makes me. We still—"

"Hurt each other, yeah, I know," Evie mumbled, rolling her eyes as she pushed back a piece of hair with her perfectly manicured nails. "You can work with that. You should at least try, alright? Every relationship has hurt in it. It's not perfect. Jay if he makes you happy, then you should try. You deserve to be happy. In my opinion, I think you're only hurting each other because you're afraid to have a real relationship."

Jay looks pointedly at Evie. "So you really think I could be happy with Carlos? Have a relationship with him?"

"Yes!" Mal shouts, exasperated.

"You deserve it. After everything you've been through Jay, you deserve to be happy and feel what it's like to love someone and to be loved back."

Though he had said nothing about loving Carlos, he decided not to correct Evie. He only shook his head and smiled wide, ecstatic with his decision.

"Okay..Okay, yeah! I know what I'm going to do. Thank you, guys."

Carlos is startled when the door is ripped open and Jay comes stumbling in, nearly face planting as he trips over his feet. Carlos raises his brow in confusion and climbs off his bed and walks toward Jay slowly.

"Carlos, Carlos!" Jay shouts, rushing towards Carlos, grabbing him by his shoulders.

"What?" Carlos laughs weakly, testing the waters. He gazes at Jay curiously, wondering what had caused the drastic mood change in the thief.

"Yes. Yes, Carlos. You and me. Yes."

"Yes?" Carlos smiles wide.

"You make me happy, Carlos. Like, really really happy, and we deserve that. I was wrong, we deserve each other and we deserve to be happy."

Carlos grins, laughing. "You make me really happy, too."

"Oh thank god," Jay breathes as he pulls Carlos to his body, trapping him in a bear crushing hug. He tightens his arms around Carlos' waist and fits his nose into the top of Carlos' hair. He can feel the vibration against his chest as Carlos laughs.

When they pull away, Jay is quick to place his lips onto Carlos'. Carlos laughs again, and Jay smiles against his teeth, pulling him closer. They kiss like they haven't been together in years, and there's so much desperation that Jay is sure they look like horny idiots. After they pull back for a breath, Jay pulls Carlos in for a hug again.

"Just no more secrets." Jay mumbles into his hair. Carlos leans back and looks up at Jay.

"Yeah, I promise." Jay grins at the response and ducks his head to the side to give Carlos' cheek a quick peck. Jay can't seem to quit smiling and Carlos can't quit laughing. Who would've thought they could be so happy? At that moment, Jay wished his father could see him. That he could shove in his face that he had found somebody who cared for him. That he was everything his father never wanted him to be and more.

"Well, looks like we got that happy ending our parents vowed so hard to get." Carlos laughs as he squeezes Jay's hand. Jay looks down at the boy and Carlos notes the way Jay's eyes seem to sparkle with glee. Jay laughs along with Carlos as he squeezed his hand tighter.

"Yeah, and we deserved it."