Chapter Text
“How to get out of the friendzone.” Carlos said aloud as he typed in “how to ask out a busy girl”.
Him, Jordan, and Dude were all lying on his bed as they looked up tips for how Jordan should ask out Thalia, who was super busy due to all of the stress put on her because of Cotillion. Jordan was floating in the air and juggling some of Carlos and Jay’s pillows using her magic, as she needed to release some magical energy and she was flat out bored. Carlos was propped up on his bed with a few pillows and his laptop was on his lap. Dude was curled up on Carlos’s right side and was attempting to nap.
“Oh shut up. It took you how many months for you to ask out our s/o’s?” Jordan grumbled as she tossed one of the pillows at Carlos.
The pillow was bounced off by Carlos moving his arm to protect his sensitive chest, causing it to land next to Dude, who just opened an amused eye at their shenanigans before shutting it again, sighing very loudly. However, the dog suddenly perked up, his ears swiveling and his eyes glued to the door. And, almost as if on cue, the door suddenly opened and Mal rushed in before slamming it closed and locking it.
Mal immediately started pacing, her breathing choppy and uneven. She stopped pacing briefly in front of the TV and grabbed the remote to the TV, which had been playing the news, and fought to turn it off. Once she did, she continued pacing before she stopped once more. However, this time, a giant wave of green energy swept through the room, emanating from Mal. She then groaned, pushing the loose strands of hair out of her face.
Immediately, Jordan stopped floating and landed daintily on the ground, looking concerned as she put back all of the pillows. Carlos, on the other hand, pushed off his laptop and scrambled onto his feet and went over to his girlfriend, taking her hands into his own.
“Hey, Mal, are you feeling okay?” he asked gently, one hand letting go of her hand and cupping her face.
Immediately, the dams seemed to break as she sobbed into Carlos’s shoulder, holding onto him with both arms. Carlos gently rocked her back and forth as one hand rubbed circles on her back and the other played with her hair. Eventually, the sobs subsided and faded into sniffles.
“Those stupid fucking reporters have been following me all day and I’m so sick of it!” she hissed, sounding a mix of sad and angry.
“Mal, it’s fine. They’re just-.” Carlos started to soothe when suddenly she pulled away, a conflicted look on his face.
“Carlos, do you ever miss the Isle?” she asked with an almost pleading look on her face.
Carlos was taken aback by the question, mainly because he didn’t know how to answer it.
No, he didn’t miss the overall lack of rules and the abuse that many of the villains enforced on their children.
But, when he closed his eyes, he saw Diego’s bubbly and excited looks as Diego showed him Beelzebub’s most recent litter of kittens, David’s loving grin as David ruffled his hair as he commented how much he was like his uncle Phil, Cardinal’s gentle smile as Carlos confided in him the fact that he was trans, Connor’s reassuring looks as the two garnered attention as they walked around, and Coraline’s proud looks whenever Carlos made something that he was extremely excited to show her.
So, in a way, he did miss the Isle, if only for the people, mostly family, that he had left behind there.
“I...miss my family.” Carlos noticed the surprised looks on Mal and Jordan’s face before he realized how vague that statement was, “Not Cruella. God no. That bitch can rot there for all I care. I meant...my other family. You know, the Hartzs and the other members of the de Vil family.” he clarified with a shake of his head and a reassuring but nervous smile.
“I...forgot that you actually have other family there.” Mal said with a slight surprised and nervous giggle.
“You have other family?” Jordan asked curiously, obviously not knowing the full extent of what Adam had done.
“Yeah. All direct members of the de Vil family, which means Cruella’s brothers and sisters, cousin, and mother were gathered and put onto the Isle, despite none of them, except maybe my grandma, being similar to her.” Carlos explained with a shrug.
“Why did you never bring up the fact that you missed them earlier?” Mal suddenly asked, sounding surprised and kind of heartbroken.
“I...just didn’t have the guts to. I thought everyone would laugh at me.” Carlos admitted with a nervous laugh and a shrug.
“Well, together we’ll bring it up to the others after Cotillion, okay?” Mal said with a gentle smile, leaning against her boyfriend.
The three teens all stood in silence until Mal pulled away, looking over at Jordan with a curious look.
“Now, what did I barge in on?” Mal asked teasingly, looking between the two other teens and the laptop.
“Jordan is having troubles asking out Thalia so she came crawling to me for help.” Carlos said jokingly, an exaggeratedly fake-smug grin on his face.
Both teens laughed as Jordan spluttered as she tried to defend herself, turning beet red as she did so. The three then sat down as Carlos explained the situation seriously, causing Mal to laugh at the Arabic girl in a sympathetic way and Jordan to blush even more in embarrassment.