Perfection~ MAL* BOOK 3

chad charming

PS. I didn't final draft it.

There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone watched Mal sit back down at Cori's side.

"Why didn't she wake...?" Mal mutters to herself as she caresses Cori's hair. She blocked out everyone in the room only watching over the love of her life.

Cinderella was the first to act and stepped forward to Hades. Kit and Chad tried to stop her, but she was adamant in her choice.

"What does this mean?" She asks the God of the Underworld. Hades only backs up and shrugs.

"I don't—"

"You managed to wake up Audrey." Cinderella cuts him off. "You did the exact same thing to my daughter, why isn't she wake?"

"I don't know!" Hades snaps at her, his face going up in fiery red flames. When he snapped, he got to Kit, Anthony, and the Auradon guards ready to jump at him if he crossed to line. He tried to scare her off, but Cinderella wasn't willing to back down.

He looked around and calmed himself. "Listen, I don't know why it didn't work. Maybe Maleficent's stupid curse is just too powerful to break."

"Maybe your ember isn't as powerful as you think in this situation." Etta pips in. Hades looks at her with a glare.

"Listen kiddo, the ember is my most powerful possession. I wouldn't have a pipsqueak like you dissing it."

"That's not what I mean, lard butt." Etta snaps at him. "I mean that that rock wouldn't work because there's only one way to break a sleeping curse."

"What do you mean, Etta?" Anthony asks. Etta sighs in frustration.

"Are you all suddenly brainless? The ember only woke Audrey cause she doesn't actually have a true love. But that's not the case with Queen Cori! The only way she'll be woken is—"

"True love's kiss..." Cinderella finishing. Everyone immediately looked back at Mal, who wasn't even paying attention to their squawking. She just sits there and laid her head beside Cori's, watching out her. For any slight movement that can indicate that she was with them.

Kit was the one to walk over to her future daughter-in-law and sleeping daughter. He placed his hands gently on Mal's shoulders to coax her to look at him. Mal did look at him, and he saw puffy red eyes. No one even noticed she was crying.

"Mal, my dear..." Kit starts. He looks over at his own wife for help. Cinderella walks over too, and sits down to help Mal sit up too. Mal tried to resist, but Cinderella's soft smile won this round. She holds Mal's hands tightly, enough to hold her in place but not enough to hurt her.

"You are something special, you know that?" Cinderella comments softly. "In the short time you've known my daughter since you first arrived, you've both seemed to have connected despite many people being against it. I'm so happy Cori met you, because I see how happy she even at the mere mention of you."

Mal sniffles but listens. Cinderella's motherly ways and warmth only made her sadder, but despite her kindness, it wasn't who Mal wanted the warmth from.  She just wanted her Cori back.

Chad watched the whole interaction, only remember the last conversation he had with his sister. The day she told him she was gonna ask Mal to marry her. In trust, Chad still didn't believe Mal loved Cori the way Cori loved her. He even thought she might have been faking.

But this...

This wasn't fake. These weren't fake tears or numbness or sadness. This was raw feeling. These were Mal's feelings for Cori. So powerful, so genuinely great. Now he thought that Mal loved Cori twice as much than Cori did her.

But that wasn't right either.

Cori and Mal loved each other unconditionally. And one doesn't see a kind of love like that everyday.

Chad walks over to join his parents and Mal. He silently asked his parents with gestures and nods to allow him to speak to Mal. They hesitated at first, but ultimately agreed. Chad stood in front of Mal, who looked really to lay back down. He kneeled in front of her.

"Once upon a time there was a—"

"Is that actually necessary?" Pipped in Hades. He earned a smack by a couch pillow, courtesy of Etta.

"As I was saying... Once upon a time there was a princess who would one day grow up to be a queen. She was destined to a great queen, because she was kind and generous to everyone she met. Then one day this kind princess met a rebel girl who was destined to be part of her future. This rebel was once sent to be a wrong deed, but upon getting to know the kind princess, she abandoned her deed. They grew closer together and eventually had fallen in love, but neither of them knew it yet. One day the rebel felt scared in her new life and ran away. But that didn't stop the princess from following after her. In the end, the princess and the rebel girl mended their worries and moved forward—"

"Chad, I really don't thi—" Mal voices her opinions.

"What I'm trying to say, Mal, is that you and Cori have gone through a lot. Even though everything, you are still together. Don't let a little sleeping curse stop you now from being together. Cori wasn't going to let me not giving her my blessings for stopping you, so don't stop it now."

"Chad, you—"

"I should have supported you both. Because I see now that you and Cori are meant to be. And now, you need to be together. So, Mal..." Chad stood up again and backed away. "... It's time for you to wake up my sister. Because only you can be the one to do it."

Everyone watched in aww at Chad. Mal took a deep breath and wiped her face clean with her hands before turning to look back at Cori.

She was a nervous wreck on the inside. Her brushed away a loose hair from Cori's face before pressing her own lips softly onto the sleeping queen's.

Nothing for a moment.

Nothing again.

...

Then a flutter of the eyes before they open up.