To @truth-from-lies-within-fiction
Merry Christmas! I hope this malvie fic puts a smile on your face! Enjoy!!
It was far too cold to be casually walking the streets of Auradon, but when Mal had informed Evie of a surprise she had planned, the blue-haired girl couldn’t stop herself from throwing a coat over her shoulders and following Mal from inside their shared dorm room.
And as expected, the frigid air forced the two to pull their hoods over their heads and shove their hands into their pockets, but they continued on nonetheless, Mal seemingly unaffected by the wind gusts that fanned over her face.
“Were the winters this cold on the Isle?” Evie muttered through gritted teeth that remained so in an effort to stop them from chattering.
“Oh, stop complaining, it’s not like it’s snowing,” Mal teased, jabbing an elbow playfully into Evie’s side to which the girl only groaned. Evie waited for an ‘anymore’ to be tacked onto the end of the statement, but it never came. “Besides, we’re almost there.”
Evie squinted into the distance, searching for a hint of where exactly ‘there’ was, and found a dimly lit café sign about a block or so ahead of them. She slowed slightly, her head tilting to one side. “Mal,” she started, turning to look at the girl whose purple hair had begun to peak messily from the edges of her hood and blow wildly in the wind. “I appreciate the gesture, but couldn’t we have just made hot cocoa in the dorms and avoided this weather?”
Mal stopped then, too, her eyebrows falling low on her forehead until she found the café sign and shook her head. “I’m not taking you to get hot chocolate,” she laughed as if the thought alone was ridiculous, taking a hand from her pocket and wrapping it around Evie’s arm to tug her forward. Evie pouted out her bottom lip, trudging on until the sidewalk ended and looked out upon a fenced-in lake that had long since frozen over in the December weather.
“So,” Evie prompted, scanning over the area for a sign of the surprise Mal had promised.
“So,” Mal mirrored, gesturing to the lake. Evie’s eyebrows furrowed as her gaze found a group of students sitting along the edge of the lake, pulling skates onto their feet. “We’re going ice skating, silly.”
Evie’s eyes widened at that. She froze (quite literally) in her tracks.
“What? You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s— not that, it’s just—“ Evie stuttered in a failed attempt to gather her thoughts in a way that formed a cohesive sentence. Mal smiled at the way Evie had grown so flustered, but the grin quickly faded to a look of concern.
Evie dropped her gaze to the snowy ground below, cheeks beginning to burn a light shade of red. “You’re gonna laugh at me,” the blue-haired girl said as more of a warning than a worry.
“No, I won’t,” Mal dismissed but when Evie held her line of sight with the snow, Mal added, “I promise.”
Evie couldn’t stop a smile from tugging at her own lips at the words, knowing well that Mal didn’t make promises to just anyone, and the fact that she had made one to Evie— no matter how small— filled her with the tiniest spark of pride.
“Fine,” she grumbled, bringing her eyes back to Mal’s. “I’ve never been ice skating.”
Immediately, Mal stifled a laugh, to which Evie pouted audibly and almost turned completely to start back towards their dorms before the purple-haired girl stopped her with the grip that was still on her arm and rushed an apology through her continuing laughter.
“You promised,” Evie whined, arms crossing over her chest. Mal simply shook her head, the smirk ever-present on her lips.
“Evie,” Mal took her other hand from her pocket and reached it out to turn Evie to face her with two gloved fingers. “Neither have I.”
Mal’s smile was contagious and a similar one easily came to Evie’s face before it fell to a frown of confusion.
“This sounds like a terrible idea.”
“Oh, hush, it’ll be fun,” Mal rolled her eyes, starting towards the lake with Evie’s coat sleeve still in tow.
“Can’t we just go home and drink some hot cocoa?” Evie took a step backwards, trying to coax Mal into turning around. Mal did pause in her movements, glancing at Evie with a look of obviously fabricated annoyance on her face. “Think about it, Mal. Me and you, curled up in front of the fireplace, drinking the hot chocolate that Carlos is so good at making.” She could see the girl’s green eyes softening at the idea, and Evie took a step closer to her until their faces were just inches apart. “We could put on a movie and—“ Just when Evie thought Mal might give in to the temptation of returning home, the girl abruptly turned away with another sharp tug on Evie’s arm.
“Nice try, you’re not getting out of this.” Mal dragged Evie to the rental booth, ignoring the mumbled laments that came from her as they checked out two pairs of skates and headed towards the ice.
“I still think this is a terrible idea.” Evie stood from a bench once her skates were tied securely on her feet, struggling to find her balance on the uneven blade. Mal found her footing easily and held back more laughter as she watched Evie falter in her steps.
“You know, considering you wear six-inch heels on a daily basis, I thought you would be better at this,” Mal said, knowing it would draw a reaction from the girl. Evie would have reached a hand out to shove the girl if she hadn’t thought it would make her fall, so she let the remark go unavenged for the sake of her own balance.
Evie looked prudently towards the ice as they neared it, stopping just before her skates reached the point where ground changed to lake and letting out a shaky sigh. Mal took the girl’s gloved hand into her own, offering it a reassuring squeeze.
“You’ll be fine.” Evie nodded in faux agreement, pondering for a moment on how she had become so willing to do anything as long as it would put a smile on Mal’s face.
The shorter girl was the first onto the ice. Her stance faltered for only a moment before she straightened with a look of accomplishment on her face. “Come on, Evie, it’s not so bad.”
Evie’s face, however, did not read triumph as she successfully made it onto the frozen lake, instead stuck somewhere between fear and regret.
Mal dragged her skates a step or so forward, sliding Evie’s along with her until the two were a few feet from the edge, gliding along the ice at a snail’s pace.
“See, nothing to worry about,” Mal said just as Evie fumbled forward, a yelp escaping her lips before Mal tugged her back up, mere inches from her knees hitting the ice.
“You’re trying to get me killed, aren’t you?” Evie exaggerated breathlessly, using the hand that didn’t have a death grip on Mal’s wrist to smooth out the wrinkles that had formed in her coat.
“Of course not,” Mal scoffed, pulling Evie closer until the taller girl was pressed against her side. “Because if you died,” Mal leaned in and planted a soft kiss on the taller girl’s lips. “I wouldn’t get any more of those.”
Evie blushed, the flustered smiled that Mal loved so much finally returning to her lips.
“I still think this is a terrible idea,” Evie mumbled, her smile making it impossible to believe the statement.
“What if I told you that we can stop and get hot cocoa on the way back?” Mal brushed a lock of blue from Evie’s face, her own lips parted in a similar smile.
“Then I like this idea a little more.”
