Evie was busy touching up her makeup when the natural disaster occurred. Wide-eyed, she stared at her nail-polish containers as they shook a bit on her desk periodically. She then heard the horrid booming noises down the hall.
She raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow, already beginning to get a good idea of the exact nature of the natural disaster. Evie patiently sat with her hands folded on her lap as the thunderous sounds grew closer.
Suddenly the door was jerked open. Mal huffed, a flurry of fury into the dorm room, and Evie could see her barely resisted urge to slam the door behind her.
Perhaps not a natural disaster in the traditional sense of the word, but Mal's wrath was an absolute disaster when it naturally occurred.
"Bad day?" Evie questioned somewhat hesitantly, watching as the girl passed her angrily. All she received in response was a frustrated growl. Evie kept her stare on the purple-haired girl in her vanity.
Mal flung her mid-thigh length dress off, leaving her in her bra and black leggings, and pulled on the light purple tee that she kept under her pillow. Evie glanced at the fallen dress with minor disdain, feeling a little offended for the dress that she had so impeccably put together for the girl behind her. Mal then passed her own bed and crashed face-down on Evie's, grabbing one of the pillows and screeching as loudly as she could in the muffled insulation of the fluffy cushion.
She continued watching her for a moment, but, in the end, Evie resigned to covering her lips in a fresh coat of red as she waited for her grumpy roommate to cool down.
She couldn't help but wonder what had caused Mal to blow up. She knew the girl had a short fuse sometimes, but something bigger must've happened for the girl to come stomping even in the halls.
Evie rubbed her lips together and then separated them with a satisfying pop. She then moved to her mascara and began adding another layer on top of the one she already had with the wand.
The bluenette hummed softly to herself, the tune familiar yet far away, as she worked nimbly, her expertise enabling her to avoid moving it into the skin around her eyes.
She knew Mal was under a ridiculous amount of pressure and she truly felt for her. It couldn't be easy being expected to become a Lady of the Court and Evie admired how well Mal seemed to be dealing with it on a regular basis. Evie knew that Mal would do wonderfully with the job.
The green-eyed girl had just hit a snag. And Evie would help her out of it. She hoped.
With a final look at her visage reflected in the mirror, Evie peered over her shoulder silently, a concerned expression slipping onto her features as she watched the violet-haired girl resting sadly on Evie's bed. Mal's face was still stuffed in a pillow but Evie could easily know that she was likely wearing her pouty face.
The taller girl sighed and left her place in front of the mirror to join her best friend on the quilts.
Apparently Mal wasn't conscious of Evie's presence, and when she ran her hand down Mal's back in a comforting gesture, the younger girl jerked as if she had been burned.
Evie's hand stopped immediately, and she settled for letting it sit upon the thin material of Mal's t-shirt.
However, Mal was still frighteningly tense. Evie furrowed her brow and her stomach lurched as she noticed the shorter girl was trembling a bit.
Evie pulled herself onto the bed carefully so that she was lying side-by-side with Mal. She wrapped her arm around the girl carefully, first placing her hand on the green-eyed girl's shoulder and sliding it gently across her back so that her arm enveloped Mal in a comforting embrace.
Evie rested her chin nearby Mal's ear and whispered gently.
"Hey, it's me. You're okay," Evie reassured, tilting her head against Mal's.
Mal raised her head up a bit, looking at the other girl with unadulterated relief as her entire body loosened. Evie swallowed hard to rid herself of the huge lump developing in her throat as a result of Mal's pain. The girl beside her was her baby sister as far as she was concerned, despite the fact that they did not share the same blood and that Evie was only a few months older. A baby-sister-best-friend-person.
Evie loved Mal with all of her heart. It was as simple as that. Whenever Mal felt the slightest bit of pain from anything, it struck Evie as if it had happened to her ten times over.
Mal completely melted into the other girl's embrace, leaning into her heavily. Evie knew that, just from that simple gesture, that Mal trusted her completely. She would not so willingly allow herself to be vulnerable if she did not.
"You okay?" Evie questioned softly, keeping her eyes on the girl beside her.
She heard a sigh and, after a moment, Mal finally spoke up.
"I guess I fell asleep a minute ago. It's really nothing, though. It's all good. Perfectly fine," Mal repeated as she began to move away from the other girl and it almost seemed as if she were not only telling Evie, but also attempting to convince herself.
Evie moved her hand to the side of Mal's head, pulling her back close to her, and kissed her hair. She caught the small smile of relief that crossed Mal's face at the comforting gesture. Evie wished that her baby-sister-best-friend-person would have had all the love she deserved as a girl. She knew Mal carried that scar even today.
"Tell me," Evie pushed her a bit in a reassuring, calming tone, hoping that the green-eyed girl would break and actually talk to her.
"It's stupid. It's really just not anything important," Mal attempted to shut Evie down, but the bluenette was intent on helping the green-eyed girl.
"M, it's obviously important to you. I'm not forcing you to tell me or anything, but as your best friend-" and sister, she mentally added – "I'm here for you."
Mal didn't respond and Evie simply let the purple-haired girl lean against her. After a few moments, Mal moved slightly so that she was in a more comfortable spot and Evie repositioned her arm around Mal.
Just as Evie was sure that Mal was not going to confess anything, the girl spoke lowly.
"I thought… I thought I was back there… with her," Mal murmured, and Evie absorbed every word as she looked down at the girl beside her, knowing exactly who she was talking about.
Evie knew Mal's mother was not good to her. She never was. None of them had creampuffs as parents, but Maleficent seemed to have an additional gleeful insanity to her evilness. Evie knew that she never felt comfortable around Mal's mother. Not that she even felt particularly comfortable with her own mother, but with Maleficent there was a sense of imminent danger.
Evie hummed in understanding, silently urging Mal to go on so that she could get it all off of her chest, and Evie chose not to mention the metaphorical yet very literal lizard in the room.
"I sometimes wake up at night and am so afraid that I'm back at the Isle," Mal admitted. Evie was silent- she knew this already.
Though Mal didn't realize it, as an extremely light sleeper, Evie woke up whenever she heard the heavy breathing of the girl in the bed not too far from her. She had seen Mal raise up in the bed, gasping as if she had run a marathon, and look over at Evie in the other bed, almost to ensure that her reality was in fact a reality and not some sort of sick, twisted trick of a dream.
Evie never said anything about it because she knew how embarrassed the girl would be about it if she did. The bluenette had known that Mal would open up about in her own time. And that time had just so happened to come now.
"It's really dumb, and you probably think I'm crazy. Some kind of detached loon," Mal bitterly spoke, closing her eyes tightly in self-loathing. Evie moved forward and rested her forehead against the back of Mal's head.
"No, I don't think you're insane. It's okay to feel that way. I actually understand how you feel. There's been a few times that I've stared in the mirror for too long in my early morning fog and I mess up my makeup. Big shock, huh?" Evie grinned a bit at the small chuckle that she was awarded. "And when I mess it up, I immediately steel myself for Mother's criticism."
Mal turned in Evie's embrace and faced her. Evie forced a smile on her face and looked down at the sheets, feeling a little uncomfortable with the admission.
"Really?" Mal asked finally, not seeming to know how to respond to the bluenette.
"Yeah," Evie nodded her head in affirmation.
"Hmm. You, uhm… handle it well," Mal acknowledged. Evie moved her gaze back up to meet the younger girl's, a more genuine smile on her face.
"You handle things well, too. But don't think that you have to always. It's okay to take a break from being Super-Mal," Evie joked, nudging Mal. The purple-eyed girl rolled her eyes with a small grin, looking away and wriggling so that she was lying on her stomach.
Evie moved onto her stomach as well, moving her arms so that her hands could support her head.
It was then that she realized she still hadn't gotten to the bottom of Mal's bad mood and she was determined to help the purple-haired girl with her problem. She hated seeing Mal upset about anything.
"So?" Evie finally questioned.
"So what?" Mal threw back at her. Evie rolled her chocolate brown eyes.
"So what got you in a kerfluffle and sent you back here in such a tizzy?" Evie questioned, bumping her shoulder into Mal's somewhat playfully.
Mal groaned, placing her forehead on the bedcovers.
"Chad was being a stupid, self-absorbed jerk. Again. Evie, couldn't I just spell him into next week? It'd save us all a whole lot of pain," Mal begged, her eyes pleading. Evie allowed a minor lapse of rage inside of her at Chad, but she shook herself from it and chuckled a bit, imagining him as some horrid little creature.
"As much as I'd love to see him as a toad or a pumpkin, I'm afraid it's a little against the rules." As soon as Evie denied her the right to use her magic, she looked up with every inch of her face contorted into the pout that she only chose to use when Evie was the one rejecting what she wanted.
"M, you know I don't fall for the pout. Try that on Ben, not me," Evie instructed, raising an eyebrow. Mal huffed.
"It's no fun to do it to Ben. He always goes for it." Evie looked down at her with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"So you actually want to be turned down?"
"It's a challenge, E," Mal mumbled, placing her chin on the comforter, and Evie noticed the grin that the girl was trying to hide.
"Hey, I know how you are. Even though you'll never succeed at convincing me, you're so cute with your little lip poking out," Evie poked Mal's protruding lip with her index finger, smiling a bit.
Mal made a half-hearted attempt to bite her finger, leaning forward and giving the bluenette plenty of time to retreat.
"So close," Evie teased, booping Mal's nose. Mal then looked up at Evie with an evil grin.
"Keep poking me, and you're going to see why nobody wanted to mess with me back at the Isle," Mal threatened, but Evie persisted.
With her lips pursed in a smug expression, she slid her finger down the bridge of Mal's nose and then booped her again.
"Whatcha gonna do 'bout it?" After a moment of an intense staring contest, Evie was suddenly slapped in the face with something soft and squishy. When it fell away from her face, she looked at Mal, completely shocked and a little confused.
Mal just giggled wickedly with a superiorly sneaky smile. Evie glanced down and realized the precise object of offense that Mal had utilized so slyly- a pillow.
Evie then returned her gaze to the mischievous girl beside her and raised an eyebrow. Mal shrugged her shoulders with a wild grin, absolutely thrilled with her misbehavior.
Evie wordlessly stood up, turning around and crossing her arms over her chest as she faced the window nearby.
"E? What is it?" Evie carefully eased her hand down beside her and grasped at the lacy bordering of a pillow, preparing to cream Mal with it.
"Come on, you're not that easily offen- oof!" Evie laughed at the expression on the green-eyed girl's face. Mal only stared at her for a second before she hopped to her feet.
"Oh. It. Is. ON!" Mal shouted and began grabbing all of the pillows she could possibly manage to reach, throwing them with all of her might at Evie.
Evie squealed, dodging and trying to make her way over to Mal's bed to take cover. Her plan to distract her baby-sister-best-friend person had perhaps worked a little too well, she thought as she was smacked with pillow after pillow.
One hit her shoulder and another hit her lower back as she tried to evade the many cushions flying from her bed. Evie launched herself behind Mal's bed and tentatively reached her arm up to grab the few pillows that were in the middle of the warzone.
She was beginning to think that she should've picked a different kind of fight. Maybe a makeover fight? At least something that she'd even have a slight chance to win at.
"Come out, come out, O ye fairest of them all," Mal taunted, and Evie could hear her footsteps growing closer. Evie looked under Mal's bed, a plan in her head fueled by the ever-growing thrill of being chased.
"When I get you, you're going to be toast, Princess," Mal laughed as she grew closer and closer. She quickly gathered all of her pillows in her arms and slid them under the bed.
"And… I've…. Gotcha!" Evie wriggled under the bed just before Mal arrived on the other side. Evie could almost see the confusion on the younger girl's face. As dusty and disgusting as it was to crawl under the bed and out on the other side of it, she certainly found all of the repulsion to be worth it if she could have a better chance at winning this battle of the cushions.
Evie moved from under the bed swiftly and rolled silently out on the other side. She raised up carefully onto her feet and crept up behind Mal, who was currently bent over and beginning to look under the bed in the midst of her confusion.
Evie grinned widely, a shiny row of pearly whites exposing themselves in a burst of wicked enjoyment, as she smacked Mal hard on the rear end.
"Direct hit!" Evie announced and proceeded to chucking the rest of them at Mal after her proud statement.
Cushion after cushion was thrown at Mal and Evie screeched a bit as the purple-haired girl pushed through the attack, standing up and moving toward Evie.
All of Evie's attempts at attacking were completely forgone once Mal dug her fingers into the taller girl's sides. The daughter of the Evil Queen immediately fell apart into a basket full of giggles, not able to stand up to the slightly younger girl.
"Do you admit defeat?" Mal questioned evilly, stopping her unyielding torture for just a moment.
"N-n-never!" Evie exclaimed when she finally regained enough breath to speak.
"Oh, well. Can't say I didn't give you a chance," Mal shrugged, returning to relentlessly wiggling her fingers.
"HAHAHAHAHA! P-please stop! I'm defeated!" Evie pleaded, laughing hard. Mal finally brought the tickle fight- or, in Evie's humble opinion, tickle assault- to a halt and gazed up into Evie's brown-eyes with a big grin.
Even in the midst of Evie's recovery and her slight annoyance that Mal had bested her, she couldn't help being mostly pleased. She had managed to cheer up Mal and make her smile more genuinely than Mal had in a long time.
She smiled softly at the shorter girl, her chest heaving in an attempt to regain air. Mal's impish grin calmed to a more sweet smile. Evie opened her arms, inviting Mal for a hug. She knew how much it scared Mal to be touched without Mal's knowledge that she was about to be.
Mal moved into the Evie's warm embrace, hugging her around her middle tightly. Evie also knew that her baby-sister-best-friend person was very happy to be touched if the interaction was with someone close to her.
"Love you, E. Thanks for… Everything," Mal mumbled into Evie's shoulder. The bluenette smiled affectionately, resting her chin on the slightly younger girl's hair.
"It's what sisters do, Mal."
Well, well, well… My first Disney Descendants fic. I figured I'd hit this fandom with a super sickeningly cute fluff piece. Of course, that's what I hit most fandoms with… And if I do any more Descendant's fics, I'll probably write some more tooth-rotting sweetness. Oh, well. Hopefully we all have good dentists. If you got some time, let me know how you think I did. Reviews are the primary motivator for some more stories (suggestions for sisterly fluff for these two is a pretty good thing to do, too, haha).