Chapter Text
In his short life, Max had learned many things.
But if his adventure in Wonderland had taught him anything, it was that sometimes you just had to stop thinking and act on impulse.
And unfortunately, one of those impulses had a first and last name: Luis Madrigal.
All the tension that had been building up—not just during those chaotic days in Wonderland, but through months of arguments, lingering looks, and heavy silences—finally exploded in a night of pure euphoria, when they managed to lock themselves in the first empty room they could find inside the Hearts Palace.
Sleeping with the enemy.
That’s what Hazel called it when Max confessed to her the next morning.
But he didn't see it that way.
Luis wasn't his enemy anymore.
Though he couldn't exactly call him a friend either.
He was an ally. A convenient one at the time. Nothing more, nothing less.
And to be honest, hooking up with a casual ally didn't sound so scandalous.
Besides...
It had been a great night.
Damn it, Madrigal definitely knew how to use his strength and when to use it.
"You've got something right there..." Felix teased the next morning, pointing at his neck before they went down to the dining hall.
Max looked up at the nearest mirror and let out a heavy sigh.
Two hickeys.
He pulled up the collar of his shirt as high as it would go, though he doubted it would do much good.
When they walked into the dining hall, Luis was already sitting next to Red and Pink.
The second their eyes met, Luis gave him a smirk and a brazenly charming wink.
Max immediately looked away.
When they finally returned to Auradon, the welcome was entirely different from what any of them had expected.
News of how the ten of them had saved Wonderland spread through Auradon Prep like wildfire. The moment they crossed the school gates, they were greeted with applause and, to everyone's surprise, an official commendation from Principal Uma.
Of course, the recognition didn't get them off the hook.
All ten of them were handed a week of detention for disobeying school authorities and running off even after being explicitly forbidden from interfering.
It was a price none of them minded paying.
But the biggest shift wasn't the punishment.
It was the way people looked at Max.
Before, all he had to do was walk into a classroom for people to assume he’d cause trouble sooner or later. That he’d hurt someone. That he’d live up to the infamous last name he carried.
Now, things were different.
The story of how he had stood up to his own father and played a key role in rescuing both the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella had circulated all across campus. The very same students who used to avoid him were now waving at him in the hallways, smiling, and greeting him as he passed by.
It was a small change to anyone else.
To Max, it was a whole new world.
After discovering the mess caused by time travel, he had come to believe his life was ruined forever. That he would never be able to escape the shadow of his last name.
And yet...
For the first time in his life, people were seeing him for who he was, not who they expected him to be.
Maybe he still didn't know how to feel about it.
But he did know one thing.
He could get used to this.
At least, that was how it went for a month...
That morning, Max woke up with a strange feeling in his stomach—a thick, icy nausea that shot up his throat at a terrifying speed. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes, let alone his slippers; he bolted out of bed as if catapulted by a spring and sprinted into the dorm bathroom, dropping to his knees in front of the toilet just in time to throw up until he didn't have a single breath left in his lungs.
The noise was loud enough to wake Felix, who stumbled out of bed, tripping over his blankets and rubbing his eyes.
"Max?" Felix peeked from the bathroom doorway, his hair a mess, wearing purple pajamas patterned with silver skulls. He watched as the young hatter clung to the edge of the white porcelain, pale as a ghost and trembling. "Are you alright?"
"I'm... fine," Max managed to gasp out, resting his forehead on his arm before another violent wave of dry-heaving hit him.
Felix sighed, walked over, and gave him a few reassuring pats on the back.
"Must've been something I ate yesterday," the hatter mumbled.
"Yeah, that pudding looked pretty sketchy to me. Just rest up today, it'll pass by this evening. Besides, with your new reputation, they'll definitely let a missed day slide."
Max nodded... but it didn't pass. Or at least, not the way they expected it to.
The next morning, history repeated itself with mathematical precision. The moment the first ray of sunlight cracked through the window, Max woke up again with an unbearable nausea that sent him flying back to the bathroom. Cold sweat drenched his forehead, and his stomach throbbed as if he had swallowed a handful of tacks.
Felix, who was already awake sorting through cards at his desk, froze the second he heard his friend's desperate retching. He walked to the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms as he carefully analyzed the scene.
"Alright, hatter..." Felix drawled, adopting that sly, analytical tone he used whenever he wanted to sound serious. "Expired food makes you puke once, maybe twice. But two days in a row, at the exact same time, right when you wake up..."
Max rinsed his mouth with water, desperately avoiding Felix's piercing gaze in the mirror.
"It's probably a stomach bug, Felix. Don't overthink it," Max said, trying to sound firm, though his voice came out weak and raspy. "If it makes you feel better, I'll head to the nurse's office after class."
Felix closed his eyes and let out a relieved sigh.
"Alright, yeah, that actually makes me feel better."
Max smiled, knowing Felix trusted him.
"Felix told me you're sick," Hazel confronted him right as class ended, trapping him the moment he stepped out of the History of the Kingdoms classroom.
Oh, Felix, you sneaky little bitch.
"It's nothing, just an upset stomach," Max dismissed, brushing it off.
"Felix also told me you were going to the nurse's office, so I'm here to make sure you actually go," the pirate said firmly, grabbing his arm to start walking.
"Hazel, no," Max said.
"Hazel, yes," she replied, marching straight toward the infirmary.
"Fine. We'll go, and you'll see there's nothing to worry about," he sighed.
The infirmary was staffed by two fairies—an older one and a younger one. They had Max sit on an examination table, taking his vitals, checking his temperature, reflexes, alertness, and everything in between.
Finally, they had him lie down. The younger fairy began passing her wand over his body, but she paused right over his abdominal area, her eyebrows furrowing.
"Could you lift your shirt up a bit?" she asked.
Max bit his lip, pulling up part of his purple shirt to expose his stomach. The fairy passed her wand over him once more.
"Uhm... Agatha, could you perform a second check?" she asked. "There's... a suspected Code Lavender."
"What did you say?" Agatha asked, glancing from her assistant to Max.
She walked over, waved her wand again, and her eyes widened in shock.
"I think we're going to need a doctor from Wonderland," Agatha concluded.
"A doctor from Wonderland?" Max asked, caught off guard.
"Is everything okay?" Hazel called out from her seat.
"You see, Max," Agatha began gently, "normal human anatomy and Wonderlandian anatomy aren't all that different, but there are still subtle distinctions that fairies like Hallie and I aren't fully trained to handle. A doctor from your homeland would be much better suited for this."
"But I was born on the Isle of the Lost," Max pointed out.
"Yes, but your father wasn't, Max," Agatha reminded him. "And you possess the anatomy of a true Wonderlandian. For now, I'll give you some anti-nausea pills that should help. Take one before bed and another right when you wake up. We'll notify you as soon as the specialist arrives."
Max took the bottle of pills, offered a quiet thank-you, and left the infirmary alongside Hazel.
"Code Lavender? What on earth does that even mean?" she asked as they walked away.
"I have no idea," he replied.
Two days passed. The pills provided some relief for Max, though he still experienced bouts of dizziness upon waking up.
When his last Moral Philosophy class ended, Nurse Hallie intercepted him to announce that a specialist from Wonderland had arrived and was ready to see him.
He made sure Hazel accompanied him once again.
Upon arrival, they met the doctor: an elderly gray hare, easily a century old, who moved at a slow, deliberate pace. She introduced herself as Doctor Thistle, the only hare to earn nineteen doctorates and the royal physician for three generations of the Hearts family.
"Come along now, young Hatter, sit down. This won't take long," the doctor instructed.
The hare checked his vitals using her own peculiar instruments. She did things the fairies hadn't, like peering into his ears with a strange, long, cone-shaped device that resembled a miniature telescope. She pressed a weird, suctioning gadget to his forehead to read his temperature and handed him a soft rubber plate to bite down on.
"It's to check your dental health, just in case. I know the Isle lacked a proper dental care system," Doctor Thistle noted casually.
After all of that, she asked him to lie back down and pull up his shirt to expose his abdomen.
The doctor gently pressed on various spots across his stomach, used an archaically styled stethoscope, and rubbed a cold gel over his skin that warmed up within seconds. Finally, she placed what Max could only describe as a small silver mirror over his belly, leaving it there for a solid two minutes.
As she pulled it away, she nodded while inspecting the mirror.
"Max, how much do you know about Wonderlandian anatomy?" the doctor asked, pulling out a glowing silver thread to measure his abdomen.
"Not much... I grew up on the Isle, and my father... had other priorities on his mind," Max answered.
"Very well. Now, I have a more personal question for you..." Doctor Thistle looked him dead in the eye. "When was the last time you had unprotected sex?"
Max felt the air freeze in his lungs. Doctor Thistle’s question hung heavily in the infirmary air.
From her seat, Hazel's brows furrowed as she leaned forward.
"What does that have to do with a stomach bug?" she chimed in, raising an eyebrow.
Doctor Thistle completely ignored the pirate, adjusting her round spectacles and keeping her gaze fixed on Max.
"Young Hatter, I asked you a question. And I strongly suggest you are completely honest, for the sake of the answer you are about to receive."
Max swallowed hard. His mouth went bone-dry in an instant. He could feel Hazel’s searching gaze locked onto the side of his face.
"It was... about a month and a half ago," Max whispered, his voice barely audible. His eyes were glued to the silver thread the elderly hare had used to measure his waistline.
"Well, to put it simply," she began explaining, "on the outside, there is no difference between a normal human and a Wonderlandian. On the inside, however, our internal anatomy is entirely distinct. Wonderlandians possess unique biological traits. It deeply saddens me that you weren't given this necessary information, young Hatter—especially considering the high regard I hold for your grandfather."
Max barely flinched at the mention of him. His grandfather, the great and notorious Mad Hatter, had raised him for about three years before his natural madness ceased to be so 'natural.' They had been forced to find a new guardian for Max, given that Maddox was definitely out of the question, and no one—not even Max himself—knew who his mother was.
"You see, young man, male Wonderlandians possess organs that activate under very specific conditions, forming a rather peculiar internal reproductive system," Doctor Thistle continued. "Right now, your body is adapting to what you are carrying inside you..."
"What do you mean by that?" Max asked, his chest tightening.
"You are pregnant, Max. Seven weeks along," she stated gently.
And Max felt as if his head were about to explode.