Actually, they were all supposed to be doing homework together, Mal, Ben, Carlos, Evie and Jay. But Evie ditched them for Doug, which no-one could really blame her for, and Jay and Ben left earlier to join a spontaneously set tourney practice, which left Mal and Carlos to do their homework without them.

Not that this was a problem, Mal and Carlos were friends, after all, it was just that the two of them never really spend time together without anyone else.

The were sitting by the table in the girls' dorm in an awkward silence, while Mal was basically just copying Carlos' results for their math problems.

„You know, if you'd let me explain it to you, you could do it yourself", Carlos said. He wouldn't say it, but he always felt good when there was something he was better at than others. It made him feel like he wasn't worthless after all.

Mal smiled absentmindedly and said, „Yeah, I appreciate that, but it's not that I dont understand, I just don't feel like it today.."

Carlos wasn't convinced she really understood the process but didn't dig further, instead he tried to make sense of her expression. „What's the matter?"

Mal sighed , still smiling, and put her pencil aside. „Promise me you won't laugh, I'll end you if you laugh."

Even though Mal had changed, even though he knew that she wouldn't really hurt him and even though she smiled as she said it, sometimes he was still worried, sometimes he was still scared when she said things like this. He blamed it on himself for not being trusting enough, but he couldn't help but being intimidated by her. She probably didn't do it on purpose, but somehow the air around her still reminded him of the old Mal.

He tried to shrug it off and act calm when he responded, „Promise." All worries aside, it was somehow exciting that Mal was about to share a secret with him.

„It's just that.. I'm in love", she said, playing with a strand of her hair.

Carlos couldn't help but be a little disappointed. „But.. that's not a secret. Everyone knows that."

„Yes, but it still feels so weird saying it, you know? All my life, I never even considered that I'd ever feel this way", she smirked at Carlos, „You've got to try it sometime."

Carlos avoided her look, but smiled at what she said. It was a strange feeling that Mal just talked to him like that, he'd assumed she only ever talked about things like this with Evie.

„What's it like?", he asked, immediately hoping he hadn't crossed a line.

But instead of lashing out or snapping at him like he expected, she just looked into the distance while she kept on smiling. Probably she really did change.

„Hm...How do I describe it without being really corny?", Mal thought for a second, „It's like, you see the other person and instantly feel good. They make you smile and laugh and blush", and she blushed as soon as she said it, „and they're always on your mind. And.. sometimes Ben makes me really nervous, but like, in a good way. You just want to spend as much time with them as possible."

With every word Carlos realized more and more that, even if she was the daughter of Maleficent, she was also a girl. And for the first time he knew, really knew, she would never harm him again.

„And you wanna know the weirdest thing? Sometimes I wear Ben's shirts because I really like his smell. I literally had no clue that that was a thing, but apparently it's normal when you're in love."

The situation was still a little awkward. Mal's cheeks were red, and Carlos was blushing too, he never had a conversation like that before.

„That sounds really great, actually", he said, thinking about a person who might made him feel like that.

Mal looked at Carlos compassionately and tried to make eye contact. „You know, I wasn't prepared for a lot of things that happened.. but if you ever want to know something, you can always ask me, okay?"

That made Carlos only blush more. He wasn't ready to talk about his own feelings like that, but he was infinitely happy that he had seen this side of Mal. „Well, I wasn't prepared for suddenly getting a big sister."

Mal laughed and ruffled his hair, „Now THAT was corny."