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Chapter Text

Carlos scoots the piano bench in place before he sits down. As always, he’s in awe of the 88 black and white keys across the grand piano. 52 white and 36 black. Had it also been a person? Or was it just items that Adam had felt sentiment for that were cursed and came alive again? A teapot and cup his mother gave him on sick days, a candlestick lit by his father in the middle of the night to ward off nightmares, a pendulum clock chiming for dinnertime. He tries not to think about it too hard and starts moving his fingers.
If he could keep his hands steady, he could get this right, but his left ring finger doesn’t reach out enough and slips onto a B flat.
It had been slightly bent from where Ben had smashed it into a doorframe. He had just received his signet ring from their father for transforming into a beast for the first time. Carlos had been so upset, he followed Ben to his room and burst open the door, demanding to know why he had gotten the only thing left from their father before his story began.
“It’s because some day I’m going to be king,” Ben smugly told him, trying to push him out.
Carlos had fought for his place in the doorway as Ben attempted to close the door shut, hard on Carlos’s hand. Carlos kicked and struggled to open the door again, ignoring his throbbing hand, until he finally could and yelled at Ben that it was unfair until his throat was sore. Then, for some reason he still doesn’t understand today, slammed the door on his own hand again.
Ben had been ten and Carlos had been eight at the time.
He practices until Mrs. Potts puts a hand on his shoulder gently and even then he doesn’t notice.
“Dear,” she says softly. “I believe it’s time you should start getting ready.”
Carlos keeps his eyes on the keys and tries not to pick at his fingernails. He does not want to face today.
“I think I can go in this.” He says confidently. Of course he can’t, it’s Ben’s old tourney clothes, but the oversize of it makes him more comfortable and he just knows that the suit Belle had tailored-made for him will be restricting and irritable on him. Yellow and blue weren’t even his colors.
Mrs. Potts isn’t one to take no for an answer but she notices the panic on Carlos’s face and fluffs up his curls.
“Alright dear, once more then you’ll have to get ready.”
Carlos nods but he doesn’t feel like playing anymore. Today had been planned a year in advance, he knew this was going to happen and went over it in his head constantly since then. Four Isle kids, two boys and two girls, would be integrated into his life and strict schedule, and even though he was the first one Ben had told anyone of bringing kids from the Isle to Auradon that doesn’t make it easier. He had dreams of the villain kids from the raffle last night. Their faces were smeared like paint and even though they sounded like they were underwater, their voices were familiar. Like he knew them in another life, buried somewhere in the back of his brain. He wonders if that’s why it wasn’t a nightmare.
Keeping an eye on the piano, he leaves the room.

Every word on the piece of paper is written in golden, swirled script. From his actual, legal name Jidan that nobody uses except his father when he’s really, really mad at him which seems to be more often now, to the parts he skimmed: “learn true kindness and goodness”, “an opportunity to be freed from your parents legacy”, “chosen as a bodyguard to the royal prince.” There was no choice out of this free-from-no-choice “win.” His father tried scratching the letters off but Jay just rolled his eyes and threw it away. It’s ridiculously posh anyway but it gave him great pleasure to see Jafar digging through the trash for once.
The shop is slow, it is the day for all this to start after all, so he just rests his head on the counter waiting for someone to come in. Eventually Jafar picks him up by the back of his shirt.
“Meeting,” He calls. “Now.”
Jay doesn’t question it and rips himself free to go to this stupid meeting. If it weren’t for Mal and Evie, he’d die from boredom of these meetings between them and their parents of “becoming the next top villains.” The girls are already seating next to their mothers, looking uncomfortable, and he sits down next to his father. Captain Hook and his son Harry Hook are there although they usually aren’t and they glare at all of them. There is no forgive and forget on the Isle. Maleficent stands up, her great height is an easy way to instill fear into them.
“As you children know,” she says, “you have been chosen to attend Auradon Prep. And while I don’t necessarily agree with their teaching or values of ‘being good,” blah, I do think this is an evil opportunity to take over their country. And we start by taking the Fairy Godmother’s wand.”
Mal looks like she desperately wants to say something but is too scared to. Luckily, Jay knows her well enough to know her question.
“How?”
Maleficent’s face goes sour and she pounds her hand on the table.
“That is for you to figure out. We’ve done our evil in our stories without anyone to help us. Get creative.”
Jay rolls his eyes and spins the marbles he stole from her earlier in his hand. If there was still magic on the Isle they’d flash to different scenes of her wrong-doings, but now it’s just plain glass.
“And what’s the wand for?” Evie asks.
“To get us off of here, you nitwit! Why don’t any of you children understand this opportunity, every opportunity you have ever had, is to help us, to help your parents!” The Evil Queen yells. It’s strange to hear her speak up since she rarely adds into the conversation during these meetings. Then again, Maleficent doesn’t let anyone but herself speak.
“And your daughters, what will their job be?” Captain Hook asks.
“Jobs?” Maleficent sounds almost offended.
“Yes,” Jafar says. “Where you work in exchange for something. Jay’s had one for a while now. His exchange is a house to live in.”
“I,” Jay wants to word this without sounding embarrassing. “I was told that I would bodyguard a prince in Auradon.”
“A prince!” Evie perks up at that. “Which one?”
“I’m goin’ ta guard th’ one to be king.” Harry says smugly. “Ye ladies be servin’ his mother.”
Evie’s face drops. Jay can’t blame her, she’d be getting the Cinderella treatment until they find a way to break their parents out of this island.
“Mom,” Mal finally adds. “How long do you think it will take us to find the wand?”
Maleficent pats her cheek. “As long as it takes for the prince to fall in love with you, darling. After all, the Fairy Godmother is his godmother.”
Mal doesn’t saying anything more, neither does Evie, nor Jay. They would scheme a plan up later. How long does it take for a prince to fall in love with you anyway?
“Meeting dismissed!”

Uma is lying over her plans, half asleep, when there’s a knock on the captain’s quarters. She straightens out her back and goes to answer it when Harry walks in. He almost never knocks but he’s nervous and tired-looking this morning, so she invades his space and goes slack against him. He holds her up and kisses her hair.
“Gat any sleep last night?” He asks, trying not to hook her locs.
“No,” she answers. “You?”
“No.”
They stand there in anxious silence for a moment while Harry rocks them side-to-side like the rocking of the boat. Ursula used to do that, if she can remember far back enough, but it would be too hard and her crib would slam against the wall.
“Today’s th’ day.” He mumbles into her hair.
“Today’s the day.” She agrees.
Knowing that only increases her anxiety so she shifts against him and stares into his hardened eyes for a second. He has terrible undereye bags but so is the consequence of a life of a pirate, even if she doesn’t believe that’s why. Harry overthinks too much, it’s a bad habit they share and she would spend nights worried if Hook would cut his throat open for no reason. She leads him to their table full of plans. Years full, if they do this right.
“When you get to Auradon, you need to become as close as you can with the princes. They will excuse us for any wrong-doing since this is the first wave of kids from the Isle to visit Auradon,” she explains. “If we can bet Mal to the wand, we’ll be able to one-up her but that’s not the main focus. I want her head on a platter.”
Harry purses his lips. He knows how much this means to Uma, but he also knows she couldn’t go without automatically killing Mal herself and receiving whatever punishment Auradon had. It’s why he put his name in the raffle so many times. Uma is filled with desolation, trauma, and the same memories fighting over her brain from Mal and her gang. The desolation would get worse now that he was leaving her, but there was no doubt that he is devoted to her and only her, but he says it anyway.
“I won’ lose my focus, I promise.” He tries to lose his Scottish lilt that she loves so much, then kisses her hand and moves up to her mouth. “I’ll be home b’for ya know it.”

Chapter Text

Adam rubs his arms as he sits in the rose garden, picking at memories. He’s not cold but his arm hair feels like fur and his fingernails are sharp against them. It’s distracting in a good way.
Today, the Isle kids who won the raffle will be welcomed to Auradon and he knows there is at least one witch. At any time his wife and child could be turned into plates or forks or worse just for the sake of it. He knows not to trust witches or enchantresses or faeries but Ben doesn’t, he’s too trusting and unguarded and that’s probably why he came up with this ridiculous, forgiving (as he called it) plan in the first place. But there’s a lot to learn from his son, so he hired the two Isle boys he knows aren’t the witch to protect Ben and Carlos. The only problem is finding out who their loyalties lie to.
Ben is a good boy. But why isn’t Carlos?

Carlos is very quick and agile for his age but that doesn’t make him necessarily quiet about it. He clanged into old suits of armor, which thankfully didn’t topple over, he wouldn’t have time to clean it up if it did, and almost fell down on the expensive rug on the stairs before balancing again.
“Ben!” He yells at the bottom. “Where’s Dude?”
“I don’t know,” Ben shouts back, distracted. “Go find him.”
He knows Ben is busy going over his introductory speech to the Villain Kids, but Carlos cannot focus or calm down until he finds Dude.
“Ben!”
“No.”
He hadn’t even gotten ready like Mrs. Potts told him to. If he finds Dude first, in his comfy clothes, he won’t have to worry about getting any possible dirt and dog hair over his oriental clothes. Then he can get changed and bring Dude with him to the welcoming ceremony… and get dirt and dog hair over those clothes there.
Dude was originally Ben’s dog, but once Carlos’s seizures started and his autism was finally acknowledged, he was trained to be Carlos’s service dog. At three, Carlos had been deathly terrified of the dog but Mrs. Potts had eased him into his friendship with the dog and Dude attended almost every Royal event, dinner, party and, at this point, nobody questioned it.
“Can you help me find him? Please?”
No answer.
Carlos goes into another room, then another, then another. He searches all the rooms of the grand castle and still can’t find Dude. Finally, he goes outside and sees Dude digging in the rose bushes and his father on the patio. He grabs Dude and bounces him like a baby while he tells his father of all the animals gets to introduce the Villain Kids to.
“Please,” Adam says slowly, not looking at him. “Any other day but today.”
That could mean so many things. Shut up about your plans for the Villain Kids; don’t become overstimulated and mute at the ceremony; don’t have the stress of this event that can cause a seizure; don’t say the wrong thing to a Villain Kid like The original plan was to have your parents executed, because it was, but one of them would probably execute him for saying that. Carlos doesn’t say anything back, his father hates it when he does, so he just nods and leaves, straightening out his words and actions like his father wanted them before the Villain Kids come.
Dude is covered in dirt and now is Carlos, but at least he was right about not immediately getting changed. He can have Lumière give him a bath while Carlos gets ready himself. He might even do his makeup for the occasion. He had been practicing.
At the last minute, he’s pulling himself into uncomfortably tight clothes and going over the appropriate lines in his head. We are very much excited to have you here in Auradon, where hopefully you’ll learn true goodness and love and share it with your kind. Okay, maybe “kind” wasn’t the best word but he’d bounce off what Ben would say and try to act normal. Cogsworth comes in without knocking while he’s applying blush.
“Lumière asked me to return this to you.” He said, holding out Dude.
Carlos plucks him out of his arms, giving up on any chance of not having any dog hair on his suit.
“Thank you, Cogsworth. Just let me finish my makeup and I’ll get him ready for the ceremony.”
Cogsworth comes over and straightens his tie and brushes the dog hair off. He’s incredibly fussy when it comes down to these events.
“Your father is not allowing Dude at the ceremony. He wants nothing that remind him of beast there. Only goodness, redemption.”
Carlos scrunches his nose at that. “Dude isn’t a beast, he’s my pet.”
“The Villain Kids,” Cogsworth starts, then restarts. “He wants nothing that somebody could harm there-of course the Royal family is always guarded and so are we- he wants nothing that could give a child of a villain an idea. A bad idea. Turning Dude into a beast to attack us or skin-”
Cogsworth clears his throat stops there, shakes his head and finishes Carlos’s makeup, then leaves without another word. Dude lays down on his bed. It makes him wonder if there were other options his father meant by Not today.

“Harry Hook, son of Captain Hook.
Jidan- Jay, son of Jafar.
Evelyn Grimhilde, daughter of the Evil Queen.
And Mal Bertha, daughter of Maleficent.”
Ben mouths the names quietly, over and over again as he walks down the stairs. The final name feels more familiar, more right in his mouth, but he stops once he walks into the gathering room. His family, Audrey, and Fairy Godmother are there, looking expectantly at him. He’s the last one to show up.
“Let’s go,” his dad says decidedly and pushes them out the door.
The final name is most comforting in this moment.

The limo is late, something must have happened on the Isle, Audrey thinks. Of course it would. She picks at her fingers. A nail falls off.

The Villain Kids exit the limo in a clean way like Russian nesting dolls. The girls are the first out and it pleases him that even villain kids have manners. The last one, Harry Hook, scraps a deep line into the car, however. A stiff, uncomfortable welcome is given by his mother and father. The way they stand, it’s Auradon versus the Isle.
“You four,” Ben starts. “Have been chosen to be liberated from the Isle of the Lost and welcomed to Auradon, because we,” he knows his father wants him to say the victims. “have acknowledged the crimes of your parents and have come to the conclusion that since you have committed no crimes, you deserve no punishment.”
Ben bows and his chest heaves. No one speaks. He can feel the tension, hatred, years of war radiate from his father’s eyes though.
“Harry Hook,” he greets uncomfortably, accidentally shaking the hook hand. “Son of Captain Hook.”
He says nothing.
“Jidan or Jay, son of Jafar. Which one is it?” He tries to ask politely.
The boy half-smirks. “Jidan. It means abundance in Arabic, but call me whatever the fuck you want, I guess.”
Ben nods, he assumes most people don’t get his name right anyway.
“Evelyn Grimhilde, daughter of the Evil Queen.”
The girl says nothing, just smiles and mouths a prince to the next girl.
“And Mal Bertha,” He chooses to ignore how light her name feels. “Daughter of Maleficent.”
Mal’s eyes flash bright green for a second and he chooses to ignore that too. Ben turns back to his family, girlfriend, and Fairy Godmother and they’re all stiff. He walks over to his brother and grabs his hand and both of theirs shake. Audrey will be pissed he’s not holding hers, and it’s understandable as she stares at Mal and sees Maleficent, but Dude’s not here and maybe he should have helped Carlos find him earlier. It’s comforting to know he’s helping Carlos though. Handshakes and guilt for everyone.
“While you are here, you will be attending Auradon Prep,” Fairy Godmother informs. “where you will learn goodness and virtue.”
“And magic? With wands?” Mal asks.
“Not exactly, we don’t use as much as we did back in the day.” Fairy Godmother says.
Mal frowns.
“And to help learn this, you two gentlemen have been assigned to protect the princes, Benjamin and Carlos.”
“So glo’ified bodyguards.” Harry sneers.
“Not necessarily,” Fairy Godmother says. “Think of it more as housecarl.”
“What the hell is a housecarl?”
“And you two young ladies will serve the Queen with her day-to-day activities.” Fairy Godmother continues.
“But are we ever going to serve you? Y’know, with your magic.” Mal tries again.
“I’ll properly introduce you to her, have her get to know you.” Fairy Godmother purposefully ignores Mal and grabs both the girls hands. “Come on.”
Then they’re pulled away to meet the Queen again.
That leaves the four boys and Audrey. Carlos lets go of Ben’s hand and shakes the Isle kid’s. He takes his hand back like the physical contact besides Ben’s burned him.
“This is my brother, Carlos,” he tells them. He can tell Carlos is going to spend the rest of the ceremony mute. “And my girlfriend, Audrey.”
“Daughter of Aurora,” she giggles. “Y’know, Sleeping Beauty, the one that was cursed by that girls mother-”
Ben drowns her out. She has a habit of rambling about how her parents had the most unfair story and he’s over it.
The Villain Kids stand idle and angry and Ben isn’t sure what to say. He wants to tell them all about the history of Auradon but he’s not sure they’d appreciate it. He’s spent enough time with Audrey he’s developed her habit of rambling.
“So, I don’t know if the letter included it, but Carlos is also going to Auradon Prep for the first time. He’s been castle-schooled most of his life.”
Carlos’s face goes so red it covers up his freckles. Ben’s not sure if that’s embarrassment or anger. And, okay, maybe he did overstep a boundary by telling the Villain Kids he was castle-schooled, but they were bound to find out anyway, right? With how obsessive he is over his inventions and how anxious he is?
“For…” Jay prompts.
“The, um,” Carlos stutters. “My brain.”
Carlos wants to kill Ben right know, he knows it but at least he’s talking. Overstimulated, yes, but if he can manage at least a few words out at this dumpster fire of a welcoming, their father will be happy.
“Your brain?” Jay questions.
“Yes, my brain,” Carlos huffs. “Welcome to Auradon. Doug will help you find your rooms and classes.”
Jay tilts his head and ignores that. “Tell me more about your brain and its fuck-ups. I’m sure it’s fascinating.”
“Say it right or don’t say it at all!”
It doesn’t surprise Ben that this is what makes Carlos go over the edge. Epilepsy and autism are words people are dance around because they don’t want to acknowledge the people who are epileptic, who are autistic, and it’s even worse when they see Carlos with his title as prince. Ben’s not sure how to bring him to balance without getting yelled at as well.
“Fine.” Jay says curtly. “Epilepsy. Now tell me.”
This union between the Villain Kids and Auradon is becoming a shit show and it's beginning to cause a headache. He’s managed to overstimulate his brother and piss everyone off and Audrey is just standing there, ranting about Mal even though she just met her. He tells his brother it’s time to leave, Doug can take care of them. Carlos doesn’t move. He wants a fight.
“I’m not telling you anything at all,” Carlos almost yells. “But you’ll kinda be like my service dog.”
It's Jay’s turn to go red in the face. “How dare you compare me to a dog when I come from one of the greatest thieves, greatest villains of them all.”
“Well, you are providing a service-”
Ben tries to steer the conversation away. “Harry, is your hook detachable?”
“No.”
There’s no saving this evening. He hopes that it’s just the effort of joining the Villain Kids to their society and that he hadn’t made a whole bunch of enemies before even becoming king. He tells Audrey this and she tells him he should have thought about if he really wanted the kids from the Isle in Auradon before inviting them.
Needles to say, the first impressions weren’t great.

Chapter Text

Doug almost snaps his fingers shut on his trumpet case when he’s being called by one of the princes. Of course they had assigned him to show the Villain Kids to their new home. When he gets downstairs, no one looks happy. Except the girl in blue that smiles at him, she looks like a candle permanently lit.
“Doug.” Carlos briefly introduces then tries to leave. That was it, just Doug, no son of Dopey added.
“Wait! Um, Carlos, you’re actually going on the tour with us.” Doug says before he leaves.
“Why?”
“Well, Ben is going to be king and his going to need to start getting ready for all his king-ly stuff. Homework.”
Carlos frowns. Jeez, his father might be the “cruel prince,” but he is definitely the difficult prince.
“Well!” He claps his hands and tries to cheer them up. “Let’s get this ball rolling.”
The hallways aren’t narrow in Auradon Prep but they’re cluttered with royal memorabilia; portraits, hanging swords, coins imprinted with the king and queens faces on it and the boy in leather in the back steals it all. The pretty girl in blue ends up at the front with him and that relaxes Doug as he explains the history and secrets of the school.
First, the music room so he can make sure he properly put away his trumpet. Carlos looks fascinated at the brass instruments as he runs a finger across them.
“Play any?” Doug asks. “You know you can always join us.”
“Only piano. And I think I’m good.” He mumbles and swats Jay’s hand away from music sheets. “What are you even going to do with that?”
“Just for fun.”
When the boy with the hook, who must obviously be Captain Hook’s son, starts swinging his hook back and forth barely over the grand piano, also “just for fun,” that’s when they leave for the next room.
Chemistry room. If he were allowed to, Doug would find the right items to put into chemical compounds to see the reaction but he’s not sure what the line is between chemistry and curiosity versus magic. He tells the group this and the only reaction he gets is from the girl in blue, Evie. Her mother is the Evil Queen, and if she could, she’d teach him at-home non-magic potions if he wanted. It might not be his personality but he’s always down for slight rule breaking.
Next is the library, where the purple girl, (Mal is her name because her mother is Maleficent and the villainous parents are obsessed with keeping names alliterated) asks if they have any books about magic and wand history. He tells her no, but it’s getting late anyway so they do a speed run of the rest of the school.
Dining Hall. Proper Sword and Weapon Handling. The new Remedial Goodness class.
Finally they reach the dorms. He starts with the boys, since he wants more time with Evie, and it’s about what he expected for the prince. A large television set with video games ready, a table with his inventions and books spread out evenly, a new dog bed for Dude on the floor… and only one queen-sized bed.
“Where’s the other bed?” Jay asks. He pissed, beyond the amount Ben told him what happened at the ceremony.
“Um, that’d be a question for Fairy Godmother.” Doug tries to defend himself. Jay could beat the shit out of him if he wanted.
“You can afford hallways full of gold but not a second bed.” His fist curls around the decorative coins.
“I didn’t even know the princes were getting bodyguards.” Doug quickly thinks of. Of course he did, he just needs to lie his way out of this.
“And where is said bodyguard supposed to sleep?” He asks. “Not a great way to welcome your transfer student.”
“Jay, shut up.” Carlos interjects. “He didn’t set anything up.”
Doug stands there awkwardly. He doesn’t know what to say. There’s nothing he can say or do to make a second bed appear, unless magic was still in use. It’s time to show the girls their dorm.
“Get back here, Sleazy!”
That only makes him walk faster.

Jay rips the blankets off the bed with great force. They’re satin with embroidery spread across them, softer and more beautiful than anything Jay’s been allowed to touch, just like everything here in stupid Auradon- including this stupid prince. He glares at him from across the green river and picks it up again, holding it tight to his chest. His father would be proud of this prize.
“There’s a couch,” Carlos tries. “Dude never uses his dog bed, he usually sleeps on the other side of the bed.”
Jay just balls it up and throws the blanket at him. The prince catches it with grace. He never realized how small, and irritating, the prince was until he was standing alone in front of him with a giant blanket taking up most of him. Black curls falling around his ears and freckles splattered across his face, his neck, his hands and even his left ring finger which looked dented. Jay doesn’t say anything about the couch because the prince drops the blanket to throw the dog bed at him in retaliation. Not very princely. It doesn’t hurt but it’s still frustrating that this douchebag is committed to comparing him to a dog and disrespecting the Isle.
“You don’t get it do you!” Jay shouts. “We have no beds on where I’m from. We have no fresh food or anything good; we get your leftovers. Everything that’s broken, everything that you don’t want, comes to us. And to even get away from that, we have a serve you, just because your brother wanted to give us a ‘treat’. We’re all just here so you can prove you’re good people for letting us off the Isle.”
Jay’s throat tightens. He never cries, he never shows any emotion that isn’t presented through intensity. If any tears do come, anger and frustration will be to blame. And there is no sadness or mourning for what the Isle could have been if it reconciled. Or if he does.
Carlos moves silently, picks up the blanket first, spreads it evenly across the bed, then the dog bed. He stands in front of him and with an even, confident voice says “Take the bed.”
Tears are starting to dry on Jay’s face and he rubs at that. “Don’t be dramatic.”
Carlos doesn’t waver.
“It’s not because of what you said about my epilepsy, it’s not because you’re a kid of a villain. I hate you because I know what you are.”
Hate is an easy word on the Isle but it struggles to fall from the prince’s lips, however once it does, it strikes Jay directly. He calls Dude over and slams the door shut so hardest reverberate through the entire room.
Jay sits down heavily on the bed and ruffles the blanket, pulls at the thread.
I know what you are. Same could be said for him.

Dear Uma,
The prince woke me up early so I figured I’d right you. I haven’t became best friends with him but the lad has a personlitea of a door. I woke up in the middle of the night when a alarm went off. I figure Mal and her gang have something to do with it. It was far away but my father always told me to keep a close ear for big fish. I miss the ocean, I miss you. I know you wouldn’t like Auradon though, these princesses aren’t xactly made for sword fighting. I hope my time here is short, I can’t stand another moment on land without you. Here goes day two.
Love, Harry

Mal is two black coffees and one energy spell into Fairy Godmother’s new Remedial Goodness and still can’t stay awake. Not that she cares, the answers are obvious-if you see a crying baby, give it a bottle, if someone drops their wallet, return it-but she’s at least trying to pick up on the woman’s habits and day-to-day schedule for this stupid wand. Carlos is there with them in class, Mal wonders if it’s Jay who has to be dragged to his classes or Carlos having to be dragged to Jay’s classes.
Either way, she had caught both of them asleep in the only bed in the room when she came to wake Jay up that morning. Jay had said Carlos wasn’t there when he left to execute their plan to steal the wand in the middle of the night nor when he got back either, so the only logical answer was that Carlos had slipped into bed some time at night. Mal doesn’t judge him, Jay is almost overheatingly warm although he does hog the blanket and most of the bed. “We need to be focused on getting the wand, not sleeping with princes,” she told him, then began to form a plan around that.
Carlos struggles with Fairy Godmother’s questions even though Mal told him it’s the non-fun answer. Why is he even in here if he was constantly surrounded by goodness growing up? Did Mal and her friends (and Harry) suddenly suck the goodness out of him when they arrived in Auradon? Even though he answers “Where do you put an item you no longer want at in a grocery store?” with “A random shelf”, he bounces in his seat when Fairy Godmother goes quiet for a second.
“So I have a question,” he says excitedly. “If there’s two train tracks and one track has five people tied to it and the other only has one, which lever do we pull for the train to go?”
Mal knows this question. “Is there a way we can hit both train tracks?”
Fairy Godmother makes a horrified face and organizes her papers so as not to look at Carlos. “Hopefully that never happens.” Then she pulls him aside and says something too low for Mal to hear.
When he goes back to his seat, Carlos’s cheeks are pink and he looks like he’s about to cry. Rejection sensitive, something Mal could never be. “Thanks for making me ask that, asshole,” he pushes Jay and Jay pushes back and it turns into the weakest one-sided scuffle Mal has ever seen. But whatever, Jay is bodyguarding now and it’s Auradon, she doesn’t expect much out of their ‘scuffles.’
“Boys!” Fairy Godmother alerts them. “I encourage you to take that energy to the tourney field.”
Mal doesn’t know what tourney is nor does she care.

That afternoon Jay drags Carlos to the tourney field, even though he’s supposed to be following Carlos’s schedule. “Don’t care.” Is all he said before picking up his pace to the field. Many of the players are idle and chatting around the field until the coach calls everyone over. He explains the basics to Carlos and Jay and gives them armor. Apparently, Carlos fidgets too long to get the armor on for Jay and he just grabs him by the arm and tightens and straightens the straps. He convinces himself the feeling of burning when Jay’s fingers brush is bare skin is the heat of the sun.
The coach blows the whistle and starts the game. Even after going to plenty of Ben’s games and having the basics explained to him, Carlos still can’t fathom how this works. Something hits him in the side, probably one of the flying things from the canon, and he drops down on the fake grass in pain. It really, really hurt. Chad drags him up by the arm yelling to come on, and even though they’re on the same team, Carlos and Jay can’t work together. He accidentally manages to hit Jay in the back with his paddle while trying to grab the ball and Jay falls down as well. Carlos trips over his legs and lands on top of him, both their helmets touching and staring at each other with deep resentment and competitiveness, even if he could care less about this sport. Jay pushes him off and gets back to the game, taking over from the other players and somehow winning. After all, there’s no team in I.
The coach calls them over again and gives Jay a big smile. “You’re on the team,” he says, putting a firm hand on his shoulder. “But first, ever heard of a rulebook?”
Jay gives him a brilliant smile back. He looks so excited and ready to be a part of something, especially something where he can prove his strength. The coach glances over to Carlos.
“Have you ever thought about band?”
Carlos doesn’t retaliate. He doesn’t want to tell him that he has, but later on drags Jay to the music room in turn, where Doug practices alone.
“So you did think about it.” Doug ask satisfied.
“I just wanted to talk to you about it,” Carlos says. “Tourney didn’t really go over well.”
“Well, if you actually managed to stand up you might have been able to play.”
Carlos keeps his attention on Doug while Jay makes rude, useless comments about anything else.
“You can’t really bring a grand piano to marching band,” Doug said. “But I can teach you some of the others: trumpet, French horn, I’ve even helped Evie learn some scales on the flute.” He sounds proud of himself.
“French horn,” Carlos almost immediately replies. “The royal band at home taught me what instruments symbolize. The French horn is nobility and accomplishments.” He leaves out the part where the band director included solitude and loneliness.
Doug nods and leaves to find a French horn in storage. He hands Carlos the heavy case and smiles at him. “Training begins today.”
Jay crosses his arms and does that stupid fucking half-smirk Carlos hates. “You’ll kinda be like my cheerleader.”
“If you don’t want to learn to play anything other than your stupid paddle sport then leave.” Carlos snaps back.
“But then I wouldn’t be your bodygu-”
“Leave.”
Jay does and Carlos unpacks the French horn and spends the rest of the day practicing with Doug.