mal is under a love spell and evie knows how to break it; true loves kiss works every time.
a/n: based off this post by @malsevies. i’ve been thinking about writing this for about a week and a half now and i finally got the motivation to do it, so here!
i was not committed enough to write mal turning into a dragon, so apologies and also we’re pretending evie made mal a nice dress instead of that yellow and blue nightmare.
title from ‘kiss the girl’ from the little mermaid/descendants
AO3
No one is expecting Mal to show up at cotillion with Uma on her arm. In fact as far as any of them knew Uma was still stuck on the Isle. Yet here she is, in a dress that reminds Evie of sea foam, face softer than Evie’s ever seen it as she hangs off Mal’s arm.
“I dove through just before the barrier closed,” Uma explains to the crowd, “I’m a good swimmer. Besides, I had to see Mal again.”
Evie’s throat tightens when she sees the way Mal smiles at Uma while she speaks. It’s a look she’s familiar with, one she didn’t think she would ever see directed at anyone else.
“I feel something when I look at her,” Mal says, voice dreamy and heavy with inflection. One of her hands comes up to brush along Uma’s cheek and Evie shudders at the phantom feel of deft fingers tucking escaping blue curls behind her ears, fingers lingering against her skin.
Jay’s hand settles against her shoulder, too large to be comforting, as the crowd murmurs and shifts, watching the events unfolding in front of them with unease. Someone says something, probably directed at her, if their warm breath against her neck is anything to go on. But she can’t bring herself to tear her attention away from Mal and her ongoing heartbreak.
“I managed to track down and explain everything to Mal,” Uma continues, looking contrite, “Luckily she understood where I was coming from, and that old spark was still there.”
Evie’s forehead creases at that. It seemed unlike Mal to forgive someone making a move against her like that, despite their recent move to team good Mal still wasn’t big on forgiveness. Especially not so quickly and definitely not after something so big.
“I don’t remember why we broke up in the first place,” Mal says.
Evie remembers. Mal had ranted about Uma for nearly three weeks after their break up, yelling about how she was selfish and unreasonable and a dozen other adjectives that could have just as easily applied to Mal.
“Creative differences,” Uma says, and there’s something sharp underneath her words, even as she smiles at Mal. It makes her look softer, younger somehow. Evie has tried to forget what the Isle turned them into, but it’s impossible. The VK’s, Uma and her crew, they were all cut from the same cloth no matter how hard they tried to forget it.
“Evie, we can leave,” Jay says, pity in his eyes. Carlos, Ben, and Lonnie hum in agreement, their gaze flicking between her and Mal. “You don’t have to be here for this.”
Evie would rather be anywhere else right now, but something feels off -and even if it didn't, she could never leave Mal like that.
“No,” Evie says, forcing her voice to remain firm and even despite the fact that she felt anything but, “I need to be here for this.”
“Evie,” Carlos starts, and Evie cuts him off. She can see the way he’s looking at her.
“Something’s not right,” Evie says, and she knows she’s right. Besides, Evie had had nothing for as far back as she could remember until Mal. Even though neither of them would ever admit it out loud, Mal was the first good thing Evie had ever had in her life. She wouldn’t abandon her now. “This isn’t Mal.”
“You think Uma spelled her, like you guys did to me when you first arrived here,” Ben says, catching on quickly.
“Mal left her spell book on the Isle,” Evie says, “If Uma got a hold of it she has access to the same spells we did, including the love spell.”
“It makes more sense than any of this,” Jay agrees, gesturing towards the scene unfolding in front of them.
“I think it’s the eye contact,” Evie says, hands smoothing down the skirt of her dress as she steps forward, ignoring the other’s hisses to wait. “Mal.”
Mal and Uma both turn towards her at the interruption. At the sound of Evie’s voice Uma’s fingers curl into Mal’s upper arm tightly enough that Evie thinks they’ll bruise.
“Mal,” Evie repeats, “Mal, look at me.”
“No, look at me,” Uma says, using her grip on Mal’s arm to turn her towards her. Mal has a faraway look in her eyes and she trips over her own feet at the tug, “Look at me. You love me, remember?”
Mal opens her mouth to respond before it falls shut, her teeth clicking together. A small frown appears as Mal tries to work something out.
“Mal, please, just look at me. I never told you how I felt about you because I thought you knew, and because I never thought I was enough for you. Not on the Isle and certainly not here in Auradon.” Evie’s voice breaks at that admission, and her chest feels tight. Evie never thought Mal would hear any of this, let alone what’s going to end up being the entirety of Auradon and the Isle.
“Mal,” Uma says, but her tone has lost its conviction and she’s backing away from the pair, searching for an exit.
“But Mal, I can’t lose you.” Evie says, reaching out to take hold of Mal’s hands, “I could lose a lot of things, but never you.”
Evie leans into Mal, their clasped hands pressed between them, and rests her forehead against Mal’s. Mal doesn’t try to move away, doesn’t say anything, and Evie shuts her eyes and just breathes. Allows herself one moment of peace before leaning the rest of the way in and kissing Mal.
This is technically their third kiss, but it’s the first kiss that feels real to Evie. As soon as their lips touch Mal let’s out a soft, breathy sound before her lips are moving against Evie’s fervently. When Evie pulls back Mal lipstick is smudged and she chases after Evie’s lips for a moment before she fully comes back to herself.
“Fuck,” Mal says, and Evie brings one of her hands up to cup Mal’s flushing face.
“That good, huh?” Evie asks, breathing out heavily.
“Yeah,” Mal says, eyes wide but her own again, “That good.”
“Well, you know what they say,” Evie says, a smirk taking over her face, “True love’s kiss, works every time.”
Mal lets out a soft laugh but doesn’t deny it, just reaches out to pull Evie into a tight hug. Evie brings her arms up to loop around Mal’s shoulders as the smaller girl buries her face in the crook of Evie’s neck and takes a series of deep breaths.
“I take it these feelings are requited?” Evie asks, quietly enough that Mal is the only one to hear the question.
“E, even before we got over our grudge on the Isle I thought you were gorgeous. Now that’s just a bonus to go along with everything else,” Mal says, pulling back to look her in the eyes.
The pair separate to watch the guards taking Uma into custody under Ben’s orders, hands clasped tightly between them as she’s marched off the boat.
“This is our fault you know,” Evie says when Jay and Carlos join them, “We got so wrapped up in our new lives here in Auradon we forgot about our roots, about all the kids still trapped on the Isle who weren’t offered a second chance.”
“It’s not too late,” Carlos says, “We can talk to Ben about it tomorrow, start working to bring more kids over from the Isle and offer them the same second chance we got.”
“Agreed,” Mal says, leaning into Evie, “For tonight, I say we enjoy this party. We’re already dressed for it.”
“We do look good,” Evie says, reaching out to adjust Mal’s purple skirt.
“Thanks to our amazing designer,” Jay says, leaning over to press a kiss to the side of Evie’s head, “Thanks Princess, we’ll leave you lovebirds to it.”
Mal swats at Jay as he and Carlos file past, bee lining for the refreshment table, but otherwise lets the comment go without incident.
“How did you know I was under a spell?” Mal asks, looking up at Evie.
“Because I know you,” Evie says, “I would have been more concerned if you weren’t spelled and had gotten back together with Uma.” She stays quiet for a moment, biting her lip before saying, “I was so jealous when you started dating Uma.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Mal asks, eyebrows furrowing, “I would have broken up with her in a second.”
“We didn’t do feelings back then unless they were anger,” Evie says, “Besides, I didn’t want to give you anything over me, and we both know you would have kept seeing her just to upset me because you were still pretending you were above feelings.”
“If something like that happened now, would you tell me?”
“I’d like to think I would, but I would probably be stupid about it for a while first,” Evie says, “However I hope I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“I would hope not,” Mal agrees, taking both of Evie’s hands in her own again, “Evie, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?”
“I would love to, Mal,” Evie says, smiling widely enough that her cheeks ache.
Mal uses her grip on Evie to tug her forwards, leaning in for another kiss. Somehow when Evie imagined Mal admitting her feelings for her it never felt quite like this. She’ll take it though.
