Two Roses

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕹𝖎𝖓𝖊

Blakely decided instead of moping around her dorm she was going to ride her horse Outlaw, named against her parents will. "Hey girl," Outlaw was a pure black Arabian horse, a gift from Aziz when she turned 16. She was never locked up and pretty much allowed to roam as she pleased, she always made her way back home. She fixed her saddle and mounted it.

"Whoa," she whipped her head around and found Mal staring at her.

Mal was probably the most distant VK, she didn't seem to want to be bothered so it was odd seeing her here. There was a tense silence for a minute before the princess broke it, "wanna go for a ride?" She asked, "I can teach you how, on Ghost."

She tightened her fist but let out a breath and nodded. If becoming friendly with Blakely meant riding a horse, she'd do it. Ghost was a smaller pure white horse that had her main and tail colored purple. Mal scoffed out a laugh, as Blakely saddled her up, she laughed, "Matches your aesthetic." She handed her a helmet, "here, we can go slow at first," she pulled out a step stool so Mal could mount up.

They started slowly, Blakely and Mal just walking around. Blakely didn't really need to hold on as she had been doing this for years, so she just kept her feet on the stirrups as she snapped pictures of flowers she found on the trees. Outlaw was basically her animal sidekick, which was the only thing she had done right as a princess over the years.

That thought stuck in her head, how she was a horrible princess. She was nothing like what a princess should have been. Princesses were honest, she lied to her parents a lot. Princesses were kind, she was only kind to those who deserved it. Princesses were happy with who they were, Blakely wore makeup, dyed her hair, refused to wear dresses and only wore a tiara because she didn't have a crown.

She called herself the Princess of Calamity for a reason, she was always making mistakes. It was like that from day one. When they were kids, Audrey was the pretty perfect princess, and she was the tom boy who couldn't catch a break. She refused to wear dresses while all the other girls did, she would pull her tiara off all the time. She tried to play basketball with the boys as opposed to house with the girls. She was wonderful at politics, but no one wanted her as the face of Auradon. They saw her as irresponsible and not appreciative of her title. "Blakely!"

She jerked out of her depressive thoughts and looked at Mal, "Yeah!"

"You looked kinda spaced out."

"Sorry I dissociated for a second." She sighed, "I just have a lot on my mind. I'm not used to Audrey ignoring me, we've been best friends since we were little kids ya know."

Mal shook her head, "I only became friends with Jay, Evie, and Carlos recently. Growing up I never really had friends, well I had one, but we're not close anymore, and I guess I could count my half-brother, Hadie."

"I saw him in the records. I wish we would have known Ben wouldn't have split you up."

"No, it's okay he doesn't know I'm his sister and it's better this was Jay and Carlos, they really needed the help," she said putting on a show.

Blakely looked at Mal and saw all she needed, "You weren't perfect back home, were you?" She stiffened, "It's not like a villain to worry about anyone, not even friends."

Mal tightened her grip on the leather saddle, "no matter what I did I was never good enough," she mumbled to herself; Blakely was able to hear her though.

"Hey I get it."

"How could you get it?" Mal snapped; this was not going the way it was meant to. She was supposed to be getting the princesses' insecurities out, not her own. "You're the perfect little princess, you have everything."

Blakely let out breath, "Maybe not to the same extremities as you but, life can be kinda tough when you little brother is the golden child, he's perfect and I came out defective," Mal looked to her, eyes closed as she kept her hands on Outlaws neck somehow still guiding her, and the horse trusted her. "First and foremost, I'm lesbian that's like the biggest mistake of my birth, just set me up for failure from the very beginning."

Mal raised an eyebrow, that was the big secret, that was nothing. "Wait, that's a problem here?"

"Is it not on the isle?"

"Not really it's pretty normal, especially with the pirates. We have way more to worry about then who you kiss in your spare time I'm pretty sure Evie's similar, bi at least. Though she could just like royalty in general."

"I wish it was like that here." She sighed, "All royal children get titles at one point or another. I call myself the princess of calamity, compared to Ben I can never do anything right. I'm energetic, artistic and loud. He's calm, organized and quiet. I'm a disaster zone of a princess. My desk is a mess. I'm good at political decisions, but I can't even decide which of these flowers would look good for the coronation after party."

Mal decided that the best way to get to Blakely would be to just be friendly. The most they could do with her, since Mal's magic wasn't as strong. She had a lot of insecurities but none that would get her anywhere. All they could do was wait and hope she picked one of the other three as her Coronation escort. As for her she was going to spell Ben.

"See ya Blake," Mal said after another hour, handing back the helmet.

"I think Ghost here likes you. You know he hasn't had a rider in years."

Mal turned back, "really why, he seems tamed enough."

"Well Aurora raised him but when his hair started to grow out weird colors Leah made her get rid of him because he was 'odd'."

"This is natural," Mal asked in shock.

Blakely smiled dismounting, "It's Auradon Mal, magic is everywhere all he would have had to do is eat a weird berry somewhere and boom purple hair for life," she took outlaws saddle off. "If you want you could come back and ride him every now and then," Ghost nuzzled Mal's hand. "He doesn't get out as much as he should."

Mal smiled, a real smile, she placed her hand next to Blakely's on the main of matching purple hair. "Yeah, I'd like that."

~~~

After the heavy day at the stables Blakely went to go back to her dorm shower then go and get some Ice cream cookie sandwiches. "Want some?" She asked the sleepy Raine.

The girl was hunched over her books trying to understand the flower representations in her books for English class, "Sure maybe the sugar will keep me awake."

Her roommate looked over at her work, "just use my binder." She reached up and pulled out a four-inch velcro binder filled to the brim with flower pictures and drawing as well as their names, symbolism, magical properties, colors they come in, and uses.

"This is what you've been working on for months?"

"Yeah, it's one of the few 'girly' things I enjoy even though I don't think flowers should be labeled as girly but whatever."

"This looks like something straight out of my uncle Varian's research shelf," she said, flipping through it.

Blakely smiled at the thought of being compared to Varian; she had such a kiddy crush on him when she was growing up, before she realized she liked girls of course. He had brought her to his lab a few times to help with science projects, he was awesome. "I'll bring you cookies."

"Thank you." 

Published: June 11th, 2022

Edited: Jul 14th, 2023