Work Text:
what is love?
Love. a noun-
noun: A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
Tough love- When your mom insults you because "it's for your own good and how else are you going to survive in this world if I'm not tough on you?"
I've never felt real love from living on the isle. No matter how much I try, I can never find it.
I feel like her mother skipped the chapter of love in teaching her how to survive on the isle. The only efforts on educating her daughter about love was as a took to get her way. Except that wasn't love. That was manipulation. She thinks love just about material things. And rose about marrying a prince to get these material things. But that's what her orders her to do. so she must.
I find out the newly appointed king invites you, Mal, Carlos and Jay to Auradon. All your mom can think about is you setting her free and obsessing over you looking perfect.
---
I set your eye on the prince of Auradon. He goes by the name Ben.
"My moms a queen, which means I'm a princess"
"She doesn't have real royal status here" remarks a brunette. Your smile starts to falter.
"And neither do you" she says with the most annoying grin.
What the fuck is her problem? Her eyes are really pretty for someone who looks like she has cartoon-ish- smoke coming out of her ears
"And he already has a girlfriend. Me"
I flirt Dopey's son. I guess it's easier to find love on Auradon. She sees Doug likes her because he keeps being nervous and stuttering around her. He seems nice and smart. He probably knows about the wand.
You have biology together. You find out Chad Charming. Hes a looker that's for sure. You hear his mom Cinderella has a big castle. You flirt for him because it's fun. And who said girls couldn't have any fun?
Chad turns out to be a huge jerk. Who's using you to do all his homework. He then almost gets you caught from cheating in class with the magic mirror.
Doug is still nice as ever and convinced the teacher to give you another chance and he does. You get a B on the test. You feel happy. Its nice to have someone who believes in you.
Chad calls Mal a slut and you a gold digger. You want to him to shut up.
--
Mal is planning to stay in the Isle. The place where you both suffered so much torment. You feel like it may be love for the first time. Because you are saying something you'd never think you would say. Saying you would stay back in the isle to be with Mal. Because you know you'd miss her.
Maybe missing someone was a sub topic on the chapter of love. Because not having someone so close to your heart be so far away from you makes you feel like somethings gone. Not missing but just taken away from you.
You know she'll miss you too because this goodbye is taking so long to get through. She tells you this is not the end. Because you are a part of who I am, you say back. And you mean it.
---
For months, Ben has been planning on proposing to Mal. He has consulted with you on how to ask her. You tell him he should just speak from his heart because that's the reason Mal fell in love with him in the first place.
Even though you were in on it, seeing him do it in real time looked like so special. You are so ecstatic for your best friend.
"Well this beats our movie nights" Doug says so disappointingly. You see his eyes and it hold the same sadness that yours do.
"I LOVE.. your movies.." you say because you feel like you have to. You'll feel bad if you don't.
He's the nicest guy you could possibly know. He likes you for your smarts and your kindness. He respects that you want to have your own space to live. He never gets upset with you and when he got jealous, he didn't turn to anger. I like that about him.
-----
Mal, Uma, and I go to my estate. We see Doug who is asleep because of Audrey's sleeping spell.
Uma suggests kissing him.
"True loves kiss, works every time?" she says like it's the most obvious option.
You ask them for privacy. They both leave the room. You haven't told traded "I love you's" so kissing him to wake him up doesn't seem very viable. You pace around the room like you always do when you're thinking up a storm. You know you care about him
Audrey is put under her sleeping spell. I hold her hand because she's scared. Touching Audrey's hand gave me a different feeling. She felt tender. It was a new feeling brought to her. Seeing this pink princess, no scratch that, Queen who was full of vengeance, be so peaceful felt so great.
Before this she was pacing nervously around the room, what if Mal couldn't get the ember? What if the ember didn't work?
Mal jokingly mutters
"Hey why don't you just kiss her?"
"What?" Evie's heart was beating out of it's cage.
"...you know,, to break the spell?"
She was speechless. Did Mal know about her feelings for the princess ? She never said a single word. She knows how much Mal despises the sleeping girl.
"I was just joking.. unless you think It'll work"
I think how it didn't work when I tried to wake up Doug. I feel terrible. There's no way this would work. Maybe I'm broken. Maybe being hurt by mom has stopped me from being able to love in the way I do.
I plant a kiss, just a simple one of Audrey's hand. Gently. The way a princess deserves to be kissed.
I feel Audrey's hand move first. Her painted pink nail fingers shimmy closer to your own, grasping to take away the space that separated them.
I look into to her eyes. Really into her eyes. Something she could never do before. But confidence strikes like lightning after having having a hand hold reciprocated.
Her eyes are open. She gives me a look first of confusion and worry.
"You saved me"
The blue haired girl just nods, being bashful for once. I think I'm the one who needed the saving.
"Even after, I've been so awful to you and your friends after all these years? Even with me going on revenge rampage?"
"Yes"
"Why?" Her eyes are squinted like she's trying to read me.
"The same reason why you pulled my hand closer to yours"
She looks at me knowingly. Because of the four letter word. She doesn't want to give it out so easily.
"And I know how it feels to be misunderstood. I know people's expectations are hard to tackle"
She says her apologizes to Mal and Ben and everyone. Mal and Ben give say sorry back and mean it.
She looks at you again like she wants something. She catches you off guard and kisses you. You kiss her back.
"If I want it, I take it l, right?" she winks at me and has a smirk.
And I thought I was the flirt.
You lead to kiss her again. and again. You feel like you kiss those wonderful lips forever. You almost forget that other people are there until you hear someone coughing very loudly.
She doesn't know what any of this means but she feels magic in the air. The kind that you always hear in fairy tales but deep down wonder if it even exists. And it does. It's not cut dry in the way you may expect it to be. But its marvelous.
And it turns out it does work every time. It just has to be with the right person. And for once, maybe she's found her.