Two Roses

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖊𝖓

"All right. It says that we still need one tear, and I never cry," Mal said a bit annoyed.

"Let's just chop up some onions," Carlos suggested.

Mal sighed in exasperation; she was still on edge from what happened with Blakely, "no. It says that we need one tear of human sadness. And this love potion gets the best reviews, so we have to follow it exactly."

"A tear is a tear," Jay said, holding an onion.

"That's not true, Jay. They both have antibodies and enzymes, but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear," Evie said.

They were still mad at her but still impressed, "Listen to you," Mal smiled at her. Her mom always told her to get a prince she couldn't be smart.

Evie blushed a bit. "Yeah, I knew that," Jay tried to play off.

"Did not," Carlos shove him.

"Yea I did," He tried again.

Lonnie and Audrey walked in not a second later. Mal quickly covered her spell book with a tissue. Audrey looked at Lonnie with an annoyed look and huffed as she grabbed a bowl from the cabinets.

"There you are, Mal! we were looking for you."

"She was looking. I wanted some strawberries," Audrey said walking over to the fridge and pulled a huge plastic container.

Lonnie rolled her eyes. "Is all you can think about right now is food?" Audrey nodded her expression still somber. "You know, all the girls want you to do their hair!" She turns back to Mal. "Midnight snack, huh? What are you guys making?"

"Nothing special. Just cookies." Lonnie dipped their fingers in the batter and taste it, "oh, no, no!" Mal shouts. Audrey jumped and looked at them confused. She was probably the VK's biggest problem right now if Lonnie was wacked out on the love potion, she wouldn't realize the odd line of questioning, but Audrey definitely would.

"What? I'm not gonna double dip," Lonnie said.

"Feel anything?"

"Yeah, like maybe it might be missing something?" Audrey eyes narrowed.

Jay smirks and walks up to them, "hey, there," Lonnie looks weirded out.

"It could use some chips." Lonnie said.

Blakely walks in a few minutes later, she takes a brief look around. Her eyes land on Audrey making her breath catch in her throat. She shook her head a bit and picked up her pride, "midnight kitchen party? Why wasn't I invited?" She snarks.

Carlos barks out a laugh, "Sorry didn't think you'd be up for stealing food."

"Oh, I'm always up for food puppy," She grinned evily.

Jay started laughing again, while Evie and Mal looked at Carlos with an interested expression. "Blake," he whined.

"Carlos," she mocked grabbing a huge plate and some premade cookies from the pantry, stuffing them in the toaster oven for a minute.

Lonnie smiled at the interaction between the VK and the princess but frowned seeing Audrey's hurt expression. "And those are...?" Mal asked seeing her pull out the chocolate.

"Chocolate chips. Just the most important food group," She answered. Lonnie sprinkled some in the bowl. "Wait, didn't your moms ever make you guys, like, chocolate chip cookies?" They all looked at her confused.

"Like, when you're feeling sad," Blakely elaborated, pulling the premade ones from the oven and looking for an ice cream scoop.

Audrey added wistfully, "and they're fresh from the oven, with a big old glass of milk, and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and..." She missed her mom. She noticed the looks on the VK's faces. "Why are you all looking at us like that?"

Mal went back to stirring the contents of her bowl trying not to think about it. "It's just different where we're from."

"Yeah, I know." Lonnie pushed "I just, you know, I thought... Even villains love their kids," her voice broke as she saw all of them not meeting her eyes. Blakely whipped a tear from her eye and finished scooping the ice cream on top of her cookies. "Oh... How awful." Audrey started to cry.

Mal wiped away Audrey's tears and into the cookie mix. The girl looked startled and touched her face not fully realizing what just happened. Just that Mal, the girl who was supposed to be her enemy whipped away her tears. "Yeah, well, big bummer, but we have to get these into the oven, so thank you so much for coming by." She pushed Lonnie and Audrey to the door and jerked her head at Evie for Blakely, "Really, really have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow. Evil dreams." She pushed them both out of the door.

Evie started pushing Blakely out, "I'll see you tomorrow, Yeah?"

Audrey held her breath, Blakely looked at the princess who was so willing to push her away over something so small. Anger and pettiness coursed through her, "yeah, meet me after the tourney game."

Evie smiled, "done." Blakely leaned in and kissed her on the cheek like she used to do with Audrey. Said princess bit her lip so hard it started to bleed, she clenched her eyes shut and stalked off.

"Good night," Lonnie whispered softly. She didn't have a side. She understood Blakely, she really did, but this, looking at your best friend and agreeing to meet someone she doesn't like was messed up on her part.

She didn't even look in Audrey's direction as she stalked off to her own dorm. This was a mess. 

~~~

She walked to her dorm where she was met with a tired Raine and a very hyper child of Tiana and Naveen. "Hey Theo, want a cookie?" 

They nodded and took on off the plate, "Thanks Blake." 

"Theo was asking where they could get a binder and where you get your formal wear." 

"You told your parents?" she asked putting the cookies down in front of Raine allowing her to get hopped up on sugar and taking one herself. 

They grinned, "I told them over the phone, and they asked if I could dress in what I found comfortable on family day. Papa's biggest concern was that he wouldn't get to call me princess anymore and started thinking up new nicknames to call me." 

"Well, you're still technically royal and you like butterflies so why not monarch," Raine said with wide tired eyes. 

"I like that," they decided. They looked up at Blakely and sat on the edge of Raines desk, "How about your parents?" 

"Still against it still don't care, in fact I'm meeting Evie tomorrow after the tourney game." 

Raine nearly dropped her cookie, "weren't you all sad that Audrey avoided you because of her." 

"I figured if she could drop me over something so small then she does really care." 

"What if she was just trying to help fix yourself destructive behavior." 

"Ghosting me doesn't fix myself destructive behavior Theo." She deadpanned, "I'll take you shopping with me and Carlos during the week so you can get some formal wear. I must once again spoil the small under privileged child." 

They nodded, "alright thank you. I hope you and Audrey work things out. Can I take more of these cookies?" Blakely nod, "Thanks again I'm gonna go scratch my dead name off my notebooks."

"Here's some white out," Raine tossed them a small bottle. 

"Thank you! Night." 

"Night." 

"Goodnight." 

Published: Aug 9th, 2022

Edited: June 14th, 2023