"I thought you were gonna ask me to be your valentine," Mal admits. "I was dreading it all day. I thought I was gonna puke at lunch when those girls came in to do the candy-grams."
Jay slows down, which is the absolute last thing Mal wants him to do. They're so close to home, to her and Evie's room, to safety from the potential humiliation of the hallways.
He's giving her that little half-smile, the one that shouldn't make her stomach flip anymore.
Mal rolls her eyes back into her head just so she can stop looking at him. She's going to be expelled if he keeps up with all this looking. There's things that are decent to do in the hallway, and then there's the thoughts that pop into Mal's head when Jay does that little half-smile, and the two categories are like a pen diagram. A van diagram? They're like the nerd shit where the two circles don't touch.
"Shut up, I know," Mal groans, and very carefully doesn't think about anything else Jay's mouth could do that makes her groan. "Don't humiliate me more."
Jay stops walking entirely, and turns to face her.
Oh, no. Oh, no no no. Mal is not mentally prepared to handle this, not today. Not when she's been accosted by love on all sides for the whole day, and she's so close to home free, where she can eat unholy amounts of discount chocolate from the student government booth and maybe throw the gross ones with nuts at Carlos, who's going to show up in her room at some point whether she invites him or not.
Jay's smile is turning sort of wobbly around the edges. "We've been together for like three years, killer. I thought you being my valentine was a given."
His smile slides off entirely, which, okay, is something that makes Mal feel a little bit glad. She shouldn’t be the only one who’s caught off-guard and off-balance by this stupid holiday. "Yeah? I didn't know you needed a candy-gram to make it official."
“I don’t need anything to make it official, because we’re not valentines,” Mal snaps. “Because valentine’s day is a stupid Auradon holiday and we’re better than them and it’s not like I’d want to be treated like a princess anyway.”
Jay’s smile oozes back onto his face like an oil spill, dark and shining and dangerous. “You’re not a princess. I’d never make the mistake of treating you like one, killer.”
Mal graciously allows him to back her up, until they’re pressed tight into the space next to one of the suits of armor. “Damn right I’m not.”
“You’re a fucking dragon. A vicious,” Jay dips his head down, so that they’re eye-to-eye, mouth-to-mouth. “Cold-blooded villain.”
Mal will not be the one to break and kiss him first, because flattery aside, they still have a matter to take care of. “I’m evil, I know. Enough with the flattery, Jaybird. You were really going to ask me to be your valentine?”
“I didn’t think I had to ask!”
“You assumed?” Mal arches a single perfect brow, which yeah, maybe she let Evie pluck into perfection last night. Sue her. It’s not like she’s totally invulnerable to stupid, cheesy Auradon holidays. “You know what they say about assumptions.”
Jay pulls back. “Let’s pretend I don’t, M, because I’m pretty fucking confused what you’re actually going for here. Are you mad at me because I didn’t ask you to be my valentine, or because I wanted to?”
“Does that question even make sense?”
“I don’t know!” Jay leans back even more, until he can rip the beanie off his head (gray, because of course he’s not going to wear the red one on the day that everyone in the school is wearing red, because he’s a villain, and he’s got to stay unpredictable like that) and shove a hand through the tangled mess of his hair underneath. “I thought– I don’t know! That we were supposed to be valentines by default! I was gonna give you all the chocolate I stole from the student gov kids once we got back to your room, and like, maybe I was gonna see how some of it tastes from your mouth, I dunno!”
“You stole chocolate for me?” Mal asks, squashing down the fluttery feeling in her chest. She doesn’t need any stupid butterflies in her stomach. She’s got more than enough chocolate in her backpack to kill the whole pack of them, and she’ll eat it with or without Jay there. “I thought you were done with that shit. You’ve been doing the whole perfect Auradon boy thing for months now.”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Jay’s eyes go even more liquid. “Dragon.”
“No, nope, I can’t handle any emotions outside of my room, I have an appearance to maintain.”
“I stole so much chocolate for you.” Jay croons, cradling the words in the curve of the smile that’s back again and threatening to take over his face. “I had to get a second bag to fit all the chocolate I stole. Because you’re my va–”
Mal shoves her hand over his mouth before he can finish the terrible (wonderful) word. “I said no more emotions in the hallway!”
Jay licks her hand without a single sign of repentance for his crimes. “Fine, take me to your bedroom first. I’ll tell you you’re my valentine wherever you want me to.”
“I love… free chocolate.”
“Aw, I didn’t know I was getting a new pet name today. You’re the best, killer.”
Mal rolls her eyes, but this time it’s to push back the totally un-villainous smile she can feel creeping onto her own face. “Back to my room, freebie. I’ll let you have your gross mushy feelings all over me once we’re out of sight.”
“I guess I do,” Mal admits. “Even if Auradon valentine’s is a stupid holiday and I’d rather die than have somebody sing a candy gram song about me.”
“Oh, let me just call something off real quick–”
Mal hip-checks him into the suit of armor. It makes a truly spectacular crash, which really feels like the spirit of the holiday. A spectacular, public mess of things. “I’m going to eat all the chocolate I stole for you by myself if you don’t get a move on, Jaybird.”
Jay bounces up again, and throws the helmet of the armor towards one of the stupidly delicate vases at the other end of the hallway, next to Audrey and Hannah’s room. “Race you there?”
dededos
gummygunk
jacobvanloon
titsay
germansingergirl
