Descendants: To Kill A Dragon

Interlude I: Cousins

A/N: A little one-shot that takes place in the Kill A Dragon universe. It gives some background and story about the Tremaine cousins and their relationship with Ginny Gothel. At the time this story takes place, Maleficent hadn't banished Grimmhilde yet, so Evie still goes to Dragon Hall.

Chapter Contains: Consensual, non-graphic incest between cousins. This chapter is relatively fluffy compared to previous ones, but totally optional and has little to no bearing on the main story.

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On the isle, there was no such thing as love; but there was loyalty. You had loyalty to your gang, and loyalty to your family. Loyalty to someone you slept with was pretty high on the list too, and that's what Ginny was to Antoine Tremaine. She was just some girl he had sex with, so he was obligated to offer protection when he could, and he let her sleep over sometimes, when her mother was being irrational and vain, and to be perfectly honest, he rather enjoyed having her around (evil forbid anyone heard him say it though).

Daria was different.

They were born in the same year, just weeks apart, and they were raised like twins in their grandmother's household. Daria came a month behind her cousin, and they shared everything together; first bath, first meal, first steps.

First Kiss.

It wasn't right, the Auradonians would say (hell, even some villains said as much), but Lady Tremaine was of the opinion that high blood should marry high blood, and if both parties were cousins... Well it wasn't a problem in her day, so she abided it in her household. And honestly, the rules wouldn't have stopped them anyway. When did Isle kids ever care about the rules?

For the first part of their lives, Daria and Antoine were inseparable. When they heard the kids at school talking about kissing, and how you did it, and whom you did it with, they didn't want to be left behind in Dragon Hall's latest prepubescent trend. That evening, after school, they sat on the back porch and watched the stars come out, through the murky pollution and magic barrier fog that can only be seen on the Isle of The Lost.

"So what did the girls say about kissing?" Antoine asked his cousin, knowing that she'd been listening to the rumours and gossip among the girls. They always spied for each other in circles where their other half could not go.

"Evie says that kissing is like in the fairy tales, that you kiss the Prince you want to marry." Daria mused. Evie was known around Dragon Hall's second grade as a bit of an airhead, and too kind for her own good.

"Gaston Jr. says that if you kiss a girl, she'll have a baby." Antoine replied.

"Well that's a load of crap." Daria answered, grinning when her cousin nodded in agreement. "Mother told me that my father never kissed her. She used to complain about it all the time."

"I remember." Antoine noted. "If your mother was never kissed, how did you get here? Gaston must be lying."

"Gilda said that kissing is something you do with a boy you think is cute." Daria continued her report, glancing at her cousin, and then looking away.

"That fact is also widely accepted among boys." Antoine noted, even as he purposefully avoided Daria's eyes.

"We should try it sometime," the girl suggested, "Since all the other kids are doing it."

"Of course. Merely to keep up appearances." Antoine quoted his grandmother. She said that a lot: 'to keep up appearances,' and while he wasn't sure what it meant, it seemed to apply to this situation.

"So..." Daria trailed off. "Are there any girls you think are cute...?"

"You're the only cute one." Antoine replied, with all his seven year old logic. And while he had amended his opinion over the years (there were many beautiful girls on the island), the sentiment still held true.

Daria Tremaine was the only girl who ever understood him fully, completely, like two halves of a whole. They were soulmates in the truest sense of the word (in that they completed each other's soul). They were twins from two different wombs. There was no one he would rather share his first kiss with than her.

It was only later that they discovered the social stigma attached to cousins who were closer than family should be. Deep kisses beneath the moonlight became hushed presses of lips beneath the covers. A peck on the cheek before school was given out of the sight of prying eyes.

Daria dated Gilda for a while, and Antoine went out with Ginny.

It wasn't the same as the moments they shared together as cousins, so they eventually stopped talking about it. They took other people to bed and didn't get jealous over a new fling, because they knew it didn't matter. The Tremaine cousins meant more to each other than all the wealth in the world, and the other trysts were merely entertainment.

Until one day, at a raging party, Ginny kissed Daria, sloppy and drunk and passionate nonetheless. The girl began to see what her cousin saw in Gothel. Soon, they began to bring her gifts and food, and protection. Courting her in their own way, a way that the Isle accepted. She had wormed her way into the cousins' hearts, and eventually, one day, they told her about their feelings for each other.

They were certain it would end in disaster, but the burden of dishonesty from Ginny was worth the risk. To their surprise, when told that Daria and Antoine loved each other strictly more than cousins should, she simply laughed.

"Evil sakes, that's hot." She muttered, a wicked grin curling across her lips. "You'll let me watch, right?"

"Darling, we'll let you join in." Daria smirked.

Ultimately, Ginny Gothel was just a girl he sometimes slept with. Or so Antoine said to those gossips who asked. While Daria held a near and dear space in his shriveled black heart... Ginny Gothel was a close second.

Update: Minor typo fix