Chapter Text
Pink held her new treasure in the sunlight, its facets throwing rainbows across her face. The pale rose crystal housed a milky lavender center that sparkled with a shock of electric blue, like an amethyst and a moonstone had an exquisite baby together. At first she'd kept it in Red and Pink's Treasure Box, but somehow it made its way into her purse instead. She'd meant to share it with Red, she did. But Red had literally everything. This little rock was just Pink's. It was always warm and gave off a vibe like a warm hug. Touching it made her feel lighter, somehow. Like she could float if she tried.
She gazed out the window to the courtyard where Red's friends were goofing around. Robbie and Felix were playing lawn darts (what a terrible idea goodness gracious). Red and Chloe sat back to back, and Luis had his head in Red's lap. Hazel was providing the Smee twins with enrichment via cheap magic tricks. But none of them mattered right now.
Max had on a pair of skinny rectangular glasses and was working on his homework, subconsciously worrying his new lip piercing with his tongue. His color pallet had shifted after the Incident going from purple, green-gold, and charcoal grey to deep indigo, silver, and true black. The reason for the change wasn't exactly a mystery. The way he looked at Chloe made Pink physically ache with a strange hunger she'd never felt before. Like she was the sun. Like staring directly at her hurt him.
(Jealous. Jealous. Jealous.)
She'd never had a crush on anyone before, and she wasn't quite sure she enjoyed the feeling it inspired in her. She hadn't been into him at first. Then he got the lip ring and stopped wearing contacts. And started with the skinny jeans, ugh. She wasn't attracted to him when he wore baggy pants, but the second he started wearing skinny jeans and a comically unnecessary amount of leather belts she wanted to maul him like an animal. But, like, with her mouth. Just... Bite, bite, bite. Chomp, chomp. Cover him in pretty purple bruises and make him forget all about the untouchable Chloe Charming.
The sharp facets of the gem in her hand bit into her skin as she curled a fist tightly around it.
He coughed a few times and pressed a hand to his chest, frowning as he struggled for breath. None of his friends noticed, but Pink did. He'd been coughing a lot lately. She didn't like it.
If he wanted to continue to dash his heart on the rocks of Chloe's indifference, Pink would become his lighthouse. It didn't have to be romantic. Pink loved having friends, after all.
A dark, smoky voice whispered in her ear, "But you don't want him as just a friend. You want him to look at you the way he looks at her."
Suddenly, she didn't want to be cute any more. She wanted to come across as mature and beautiful, not the physical embodiment of a five year-old girl's birthday party. He only saw her as Red's kid sister. She couldn't compete. She wasn't even playing the game; she was in the stands with binoculars and a soggy bag of popcorn. She pursed her lips and exhaled loudly through her nose.
"I do."
She had to play if she wanted to win.
And she was going to win.
Unbeknownst to her, the gem in her hand began to glow with blue-white light.
The heavy wet feeling in Max's chest was... Concerning. It was just a cold, not the ultra rare genetic disease that claimed his mother. It couldn't be. He had to have inherited the gene from both of his parents and the chances of that were astronomically low. So of course it wasn't that. Couldn't be. It wasn't. It was just a cold, or maybe fall allergies.
That didn't stop the constant flashbacks. The rattling in her lungs giving way to a slow gurgle. The smell of blood and hyacinths. Her hand cold in his. Wasting away in front of his eyes. True Love's Kiss didn't work. What was more true than the love of a child for their mom? "It's not the same, love," she told him around a mouth full of forget-me-nots. Her thin fingers feathered through his hair and wiped a tear from his cheek. "As much as I wish it was. It has to come from your father."
But Maddox had locked himself in his workshop, muttering into the Oraculuum. Trying to teach dodos to fly. No amount of begging, pleading, or screaming from Max made him come out and administer TLK to his own wife.
Mirana deserved so much better than to be locked away on the Isle for the crime of loving a mad man. Even Aunt Iracebeth called it an injustice, and she hated her sister.
Hanahaki was medically incurable, but its effects could be kept at bay. His mother might still be alive if she'd had proper care. When the barrier came down and she finally got to a hospital, it was much too late. He didn't even get to visit her before she passed.
Aunt Beth's attitude toward her sister never extended to Max himself, thankfully. But he was a clingy grieving eight year-old and she wasn't exactly the world's most cuddly person. She tried her best. She had him for six months before she realized she couldn't meet his emotional needs and reached out for help from the community. (Despite what Mainland Auradon believed, the villains took care of each other when it counted.)
James Hook was kind of the Isle's bicycle, and had a lot of bastard children. After a certain point he decided to just start adopting all orphaned VKs and calling him his kids as well. He was a good man, even if he was weirdly paranoid about crocodiles. Max folded into his crew, no questions asked. Suddenly, he went from being an only child to one of a baker's dozen of siblings. To say it had been quite a shock was a bit of an understatement. The chaos left little room for dwelling on his loss, except in the smallest hours of the morning.
The nightmares never stopped. Black vines growing out his mother's mouth, covering her body and dragging her down into the earth. His dad watching impassively, even as the vines climbed up Max's legs too. Sometimes Aunt Beth or Captain Hook tried to pull him out but neither succeeded. Later Hazel was there too, drowning in plants as she tried to save him. He would wake in a cold sweat, disoriented. Down was up and up was down.
"When in doubt, swim in the same direction as the bubbles," she whispered to him when his flailing woke her too. "They'll always bring you to the surface."
But there were no bubbles to follow in the Great Vine Sea. Just thorns.
He felt eyes on him. Looking up, he saw Princess Pink sitting in the her room's window seat, hands curled into a fists atop her leggings. Her expression was sharp. Not angry, exactly, but weirdly intense. It melted into something much more familiar when their eyes met. He put down his homework and waved at her. She opened the window and leaned out, kicking her feet behind her. "Hey, blue boy. What's hanging?"
"What are you doing inside on such a nice day?"
"Homework."
"Why? It's Saturday."
"Aren't you doing your homework too?"
He had been staring into the void trying to shake the image of his once proud mother withering away for no reason, but sure. Homework. "Yeah, but I actually enjoy it." That was quite possibly the single nerdiest thing he could have said, yikes. "Get some fresh air with us. It'll do you some good."
She watched the crew horsing around behind him for a moment. "I don't know, they're awfully distracting."
"We could go somewhere else if you'd like."
Her smile turned absolutely Cheshire. "Max Hatter, are you trying to lure me away to some undisclosed location to do villainous things to me?"
"No way, your mother would have my head."
"What if I did the luring?"
Heat flushed up his neck. "Do you think it would make a difference to her who lured whom?"
"No, probably not. You'd be cooked either way. I hear the lake is beautiful this time of year."
He felt watched again and turned to look behind him. Red dragged her thumb slowly across her neck. Her face was neutral but her body language said she was ready to throw hands if he so much as sneezed in Pink's direction. He sighed. "What about that tree over there? In full view of your sister?"
Pink pouted at Red. "Fun killer!"
"If you run away with Max Mom will kill me," she yelled back. "Stay where I can see you, please. And no hanky panky."
"No panking the hanky, got it."
Max took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, wishing he was invisible. The blush had made it up to his face now. "Please don't say things like that, Pink."
She winked at him. "Whatever you say, study buddy."
"Study buddy," Hazel laughed. "That's too good! What next, you nerds gonna go to the ice cream social together?"
Max flipped her off without looking at her, which only made her laugh harder. "Don't listen to her, Pink. She's just jealous of your ability to read."
"Rude!"
Pink leaned back into her room. "Let me put on some shoes. Catch!"
She tossed her notebook at him, giving it a bit of a spin. The pages had more doodles than notes. Puppies, kittens, flowers, butterflies, and a ton of sparkly diamonds littered the pages. He was trying to find the actual homework on it when she flung her world history textbook at him too.
"Head's up!"
"I am not your juggling monkey," he said after he nearly dropped it. Despite his words, his tone was light. "Stop throwing shit at me."
She put on her ballet slippers standing up and stretched. "Okay, get back. I'm coming out."
"Out the wind-?" She did a series of flips before springing off the windowsill and executing a perfect three-point superhero landing in front of him. "Right out the window. Wow. Okay, that's one way to do it."
She stood up, raising her hands triumphantly above her head. "Nailed it!"
"You sure did." She was right there, invading his personal bubble. Little rainbow sparkles glittered on the ends of her eyelashes. "That was almost as impressive as it was unnecessary. You could have used the door."
"What, like a normal person? That's boring!"
Part of him wanted to step back, but the VK in him felt vaguely threatened. She was a whole head shorter than him, but she took up so much space with her presence that they might as well be on the same level. He took a step closer instead, daring her to back up first. She didn't. "You like being extra, don't you?"
"Always," she said seriously. "Go big or go home."
He failed to suppress a lopsided grin. "There are so many dick jokes I could say in response to that, I don't even know which one to pick."
"Then maybe you should just keep that pretty little mouth of yours shut," she said quietly, low enough that nobody else could hear. She tugged on his coat lapels, brushing away imaginary dirt. Her eyes glittered dangerously. "Hmm?"
"Under all those frills, you're a bit of a freak. Aren't you, Princess?"
"You have no idea." Her smile was all teeth.
And... Now he was hard. He growled, low in his throat. "Don't play with fire. You might get burned."
She placed both hands on his chest and gave him a little shove. "Oh stop it, you're just too funny!" She laughed loudly, and cartwheeled toward her sister and Chloe.
He blinked rapidly a few times and shoved a hand in his coat pocket to cover up his confused boner. Bwah?
"Let's have a girls' night tonight," Pink said, landing in an effortless split in front of the two girls.
"We do that now?" Red asked.
"It'll be fun! Right, Chloe?"
Hazel slid up next to Max looking like the physical embodiment of the smiling cat emoji. She casually shuffled some cards she stole from Felix. "She is going to hunt you for sport."
"I-" He pointed after Pink. "I did not expect villain-style flirting from such an innocent little nepo baby."
"Methinks baby girl doesn't want to be innocent any more. She's gunning for your ass like a hurricane."
He swallowed thickly. "This can only end badly for me."
"You are so doomed," she chuckled, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll say only nice things at your funeral, promise."
"Seriously, Haze, what am I going to do?"
"Live fast, die young?"
He raised an unamused eyebrow at her.
"Roll with it, bro! You could do way worse than Pink."
"She deserves better than being my rebound girl."
She smacked him upside the head, nearly knocking his hat off. "Then don't treat her like one! Why do you always insist on overthinking it?"
"Hazel-" he warned.
Faster than he could blink, she had him in a headlock. He dropped Pink's books. Cards flew everywhere. "Let yourself have nice things, you stupid emo asshole!"
He flailed his arms uselessly, trying to find enough purchase to fling her off. "Get off!"
"No!" She tossed his hat away like a Frisbee and messed up his hair. "Stop being a martyr! You made a mistake. Big deal! We all fuck up sometimes. You're not that special."
"Butt out of it!" He finally managed to grab a handful of her hair and pulled hard. She screeched like a cat, dropping him.
Everyone was staring now. She raised her fists. "Pirate code dictates-"
"I'm not a pirate, remember? Your dad said so himself." He dodged a punch, and threw one right back at her.
"Deflect, deflect, deflect. Do you know how annoying that is? You do it constantly." She tried to sweep his legs out from under him, but he flipped away. "Hold still you slippery bastard!"
He danced around her. "If you want to sit in a circle and talk about our feelings you're barking up the wrong tree. That's HK shit. We don't roll like that."
"You want to do this the hard way? We can."
"Bring it on."
"I challenge you to a game of Sail Monkey."
He held up his hands in the Time Out position. "Whoa. Really? Sail Monkey?"
She crossed her arms in a huff. "Have you forgotten how to play?"
"What's Sail Monkey?" Robbie asked.
"Pirate tag."
"Dangerous," Max said half a second later. "Last time I played I dislocated my shoulder."
"That's 'cause yer a pathetic laaaand lubber."
"It's almost lunch time, Hazel. Why don't you go eat a whole bucket of sand?"
She cracked her knuckles. "Eat this-"
"Knock it off, guys," Luis said, imposing himself between them. "What's this even about?"
The two started speaking at the same time. "This sad sack-"
"Miss Pirate Queen-"
"-Believes he has to suffer because he made one stupid mistake-"
"-Thinks she can beat me into submission like I'm one of her-"
"-Denying himself happiness will earn him forgiveness points-"
"-Can solve all problems with her fists, like we're back on the Isle-"
Red whistled. "Stop! Just stop!"
"Come on, study buddy," Pink said, grabbing Max's hand. She beamed up at him. "Let's take a walk."
He growled in frustration, but let her lead him away. They walked in silence for a few minutes and he just... Didn't let go of her hand. It was soft, and warm, and she had a death grip that could easily qualify her to take on Luis in an arm wrestling contest. Eventually, though, she dropped his hand and looped her arm through his instead. His anger at Hazel cooled, and eventually he felt level-headed enough to joke with Pink. "Oh, you're definitely luring me away to an undisclosed location. Should I be scared? What sort of depraved things are you going to do to me, Princess?"
"You'll see."
"I can't wait," he said with a lopsided smirk. Pink was fun. And she intuited that he didn't want to talk about it, which was refreshing after the brawl with his sister. Maybe he really could let himself have... Whatever this was.
The lake really was beautiful this time of year, the trees resplendent in their autumn foliage. They didn't really have seasons in Wonderland. It was always in the flush of spring, with colors vivid enough to stain the inside of one's eyelids. Auradon, comparatively, was like a cozy sepia photograph. The air was cool and sweet with the scent of enchanted water undercut with the barest whiff of decaying leaves.
Pink really needed Max to feel comfortable with her. The right application of raw crazy was probably only an effective tool if used very sparingly, so as much as she wanted to simply accost him she had to play the long game. She was surprised at how receptive he was to playing the Game with her so far, but that wasn't a pass to go in whole hog. Too much too fast and he would run away like a startled deer. The Lighthouse was steady. Patient. Constant. Unshakable. Time was her ally, not her enemy.
At least that's what she told herself.
She led him to a cute little gazebo with a two-person hanging swing. Ivy in all hues of the fall palette climbed the structure, creating a curtain effect. Wisteria flowers hand painted on the support beams had faded in the sun over time, but clearly had once been bright pink and purple on a white background. The swing creaked when she sat in it. Someone had carved 'M+B' in the seat, surrounded by a heart made of barbed wire. Interesting choice.
Max leaned on one railing in front of the swing and looked down at her with a little crease between his eyebrows, then experimentally tapped the empty side of the swing with the toe of his boot. It wobbled back and forth in a way it wasn't really designed to do.
"I don't bite you know," she said, patting the empty spot next to her. Well, she did, but that was a conversation best saved for later. Much later. (Chomp chomp.) "Afraid I'm going to hanky your panky?"
"Oh. My. God." He scrubbed his face with both hands, trying unsuccessfully to hide a blush. "Pink, I told you not to say things like that! What are you even doing?"
"For a VK you're easily scandalized," she laughed.
He kicked the swing again, a little harder this time. "I'm starting to wonder if you're secretly a VK."
"I'm dabbling in it. Testing the waters. How am I doing?"
"Too well. What brought this on?"
"I recently discovered there's shades of gray between black and white, thanks to a certain someone."
He looked around the space and sighed. "Being bad is really... Fun, to put it mildly. But once you start, you don't really want to stop."
"You did, though."
He snorted. "Did I, though? Doesn't feel like it."
"Sit down, Max."
"Okay, Princess." He didn't move.
She shrugged and scooted to the middle of the swing, pumping her legs casually to make it go. "All right. Don't then. I'm not the boss of you."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Reverse psychology isn't going to work."
Patience, she told herself. Give him some more line. She hummed. "I'm not manipulating you, honest."
"You're lying."
"I don't know how to talk to you, okay? I want to be your friend, so I'm trying to... I don't know." She curled her hands around the old chain, flakes of rust grinding into her skin. "Speak your language?"
"You don't need to do that. Just be yourself."
"'Myself' is annoying. Unremarkable at best. I've always struggled to make friends."
"Okay, move," he said, shooing her over so he could sit next to her. Jackpot! "You don't have to try so hard to impress people."
"Not 'people' in general. You. Specifically."
"Why?"
She looked at him sideways. "Because I like you, Max. Isn't that obvious?"
"Oh." He frowned. "Again, why?"
"I don't know," she scoffed. "Why does anybody like anybody? You're nice and I find you attractive."
"I'm not nice."
"You've never said a single bad thing about me."
"Pink, that's literally the bare minimum. If your bar was any lower it'd be in hell." He ran a hand through his hair. "Ah, shit, Hazel threw my hat away!"
"No, no, I picked it up." She pulled it out of her deceptively small purse and handed it to him. "Here you go."
His expression turned soft. "Thanks. That was... Kind of you."
"Anything for a friend."
"A friend," he echoed. He put the hat on. "What do you want from me, exactly?"
"Whatever you're comfortable with giving me. I... I know you like Chloe, so I'm not going to ask for anything like that."
"I don't want you to feel like you're my second choice. You deserve better than that."
(Jealous. Jealous. Jealous.) She bit her lip. "You don't love different people in exactly the same way, though, do you? Everyone's unique, and so is the love you have for them. I don't want you to direct the way you feel about Chloe onto me. Frankly, I'd be insulted if you did. I want something new. Something that's just mine."
"I don't know how to do that, if I'm being honest. I've never dated before."
She put her hands in her lap and fiddled with her fingers, wishing she had her gem to play with. She put it in the Treasure Box before jumping out the window so it wouldn't distract her. "I can wait until you figure yourself out."
"You shouldn't have to. I... I want you to be happy."
"See? That's what I'm talking about when I say you're nice."
"And I still think the bare minimum is nothing worth celebrating."
She looked into his eyes. Up close they had microscopic flecks of jade in them. Gosh, he was pretty. Breathtakingly so. "Want to make out now?"
"You're such an adorable little shit!" He laughed.
"Just one little kiss?" She leaned forward with puckered lips.
He stopped her with a finger to her mouth. "Uh-uh, Princess. Too easy. You have to woo me properly first. Wine and dine me. Then we'll talk."
"How do you feel about flashy public declarations of intent?"
"Please don't."
Oh, this was going to be fun.