okay, but please consider: au where carlos is part of uma's gang instead of mal's. ben's proclamation goes out, and it could go two ways: one, carlos doesnt get invited at all, or two, carlos DOES get invited and hesitantly helps mal and the others get the one, if only to help uma and the rest of her crew get off the isle. (uma and harry dont want to let carlos go and try to mask their worry when he does, and barely succeed because they totally have a soft spot for their little runt.)
Bro, I can’t believe I never thought of this!
- Harry and Uma being pretty damn protective of their pirate crew and giving death threats to Jay, Mal and Evie if anything happens to Carlos
- Jay’s like ‘aww, you mean that cute freckled kid? He’s gonna be my roommate!’
- Uma whipping out her sword like ‘it’s such a shame you think with your dick, maybe I can get ride of it for you?’
- Carlos being completely silent and still in the limo. He’s terrified because he’s the odd one out in this group, even if Mal includes him in her plan for the wand, Evie is trying to be friendly and Jay is laying on the charm like crazy
- but when they think the limo is going off the bridge, Jay, Evie and Mal cling to each other and Carlos huddles by himself in the corner and immediately regrets leaving his friends
- he’s roommates with Jay, who is always (purposefully) walking around their dorm without a shirt on
- Evie squeals that she has someone with them who understands fashion, she and Carlos bond over sewing and designing clothes
- Mal terrifies him and relaxes him at the same time because she’s the daughter of Maleficent, trying to take over a country, but she’s also a lot like Uma and Carlos misses his pirates more than he wants to admit
- he’s a little more athletic, since pirates practice sword fighting and swimming, so Carlos isn’t terrible at tourney, but goes out for the swim team instead
- confides to Dude how much he misses Uma, Harry and Gil. Evie overhears it one day and her heart just breaks. Yeah, she’s away from home and her mother too, but at least Evie got to come with people she knows and cares for. Carlos came by himself
- Evie going super out of her way to include Carlos in everything, so he starts spending time with the three, even outside of their plan to steal the wand
- the three of them are like “crap, this guy is really smart and good with mechanics and plans, we should’ve claimed him for our group, let’s get him to join us”
- Carlos talking about Harry, Gil and Uma with stars in his eyes, going on and on about how Harry protects everyone and Gil always makes sure the pirates have enough to eat and Uma is so intelligent and Mal, Jay and Evie realizing there’s another side to the group they’ve hated and fought with for so long
- super doesn’t care about being evil, just about getting his pirate family to a better life and maybe slowly starting to care about Mal, Jay and Evie, so when they all choose good, Carlos grabs Ben right after coronation and is like “I have like a dozen people who need to be brought over NOW”
- to his surprise, Jay, Evie and Mal vouch for the pirates too because any friends of Carlos’ must be okay
- Carlos demanding that Mal’s crew and Uma’s crew get along, trying to play peace keeper
- Uma thinking “okay, I trust Carlos and if he trusts them, I guess we can try to be friends.”
- Mal’s crew and the pirates being a makeshift little family that originally starts as fighting over Carlos, but grows to Harry and Evie talking about make up and Jay fencing with Uma and Gil following Mal, completely awe-struck at her magic
- all of them being friends
- happily ever after
- Jay and Harry fighting over Carlos and taking turns being his boyfriend until they just all become boyfriends