Descendants Imagines

Childhood Crushes (Carlos)

Carlos de Vil is standing alone, trying to figure out how he can go through with this. He thought leaving the Isle of the Lost was hard, so why is coming back suddenly so much harder? This should be a good day, as he and the other VKs get to bring even more kids over to Auradon. Everyone else seems happy, and Evie and Mal are practically bubbling over with joy at the thought of seeing their old friends once again.

Carlos is also thinking of seeing someone again, but it's not quite the same. He left someone here, back when he went to Auradon for the first time and left his old life behind for good. Carlos has no idea if that someone hates him for going, for not writing, for not trying to find her again. He'll only find out now.

Carlos' fingers unconsciously reach upward to tug at a chain around his neck. He's worn it since the day he left the Isle of the Lost, even after he realized that he fit in quite well at Auradon Prep. The necklace itself isn't much to look at, as it's composed of many different sections of chain and metal that have all been looped together in a somewhat ungainly fashion. Some parts look more expensive, as if they'd been stolen (they have), whereas others are so old that they could have been pulled from the crypts of long-dead witches (they have not, but it's close enough to the truth).

The necklace had been a shared gift between Carlos and the girl he left behind, a product of past adventures that grew with every link and loop they borrowed. There's a pendant from a sunken ship, a chain that had once bound them down, the clasp from one of his mother's capes... It's almost too long to wear, but he keeps it anyway. It reminds him of Y/N L/N, and that's all he needs to treasure the chain like it were wrought of pure gold.

He and Y/N used to share the chain, 'borrowing' it back and forth as they wished. That's how kids on the Isle of the Lost keep their possessions, anyways, by stealing it enough times that people give up and let you have what you want. The necklace spent a significant amount of time around Y/N's neck, but Carlos managed to get it back just before he left for the Isle.

Now, it's all he has left of her. Carlos left in a hurry, and barely had a chance to wave goodbye, let alone say half of what he wished. If he had a longer chance to drag his heels and deliver proper farewells to everyone, he would have lingered longer by Y/N's side, and finally said everything that's been bursting at the tip of his tongue for the past couple of months.

He's been gone a while, but the feelings still haven't subsided. Y/N has been his closest friend ever since Carlos can remember, but recently things started changing in his head. Priorities have shifted, hearts have started beating differently, and Carlos realized that he doesn't just like Y/N as a best friend but as something more.

He was planning on telling her at some point, if he could ever get up the courage to form the words. How is it that Carlos can spit in the face of Auradon in general, steal a dozen trinkets from a hundred prominent villains, and do basically everything he wants except tell the girl he likes how he feels?

Carlos really should have said something to Y/N before he left, he knows that much, but the words just couldn't come out. All he remembers is seeing the look on Y/N's face as the car took Carlos, Jay, Mal, and Evie away to a new horizon. Carlos doesn't know that she could ever hate him, or he hopes as much, but she looked broken by his departure.

He had been able to run away from these thoughts for a while, as Carlos was doing his best to not flunk out of Auradon Prep before he had enough time to enjoy the place, but now he's back and he can hide no longer. Somewhere in this maze of streets, Y/N is here, pacing the cobblestoned corridors, smiling with that same wolf's grin Carlos only sees in his dreams.

He can't help but wonder if she will look the same. For some reason, despite the fact that it hasn't really been that long since Carlos left the Isle, a part of him fervently believes that Y/N must be very different from when they parted ways. He feels different, at any rate, so shouldn't she be changed as well? Maybe he won't even recognize her. Worse, maybe she won't even recognize him. Carlos can't decide whether he thinks the Isle won't have changed at all during his absence or that it will be vastly different.