The Isle's Love

|21|

The next morning Carlos woke up and went into the living room expecting to see Jay. "Jay?" Carlos called into the empty room. He turned around and he saw something taped to the tv screen. 

         Carlos, 

I went to search early. Mal means too much to me so I can't just let her be missing forever. I know you'd do the same for Evie. If I'm not back by 10, come looking for me in the marketplace, but come alone. I don't want Evie getting hurt, and if we did find Mal, Zevon would most likely make her run.

        -Jay

"Hey Carlos? I thought you said Mal lived here." Zevon said coming to stand behind Carlos. "She does. She's just out." Carlos said cruching up the note behind his back. He shot a glance at the clock and it read 9:59. He suspected Jay hadn't found Mal yet. He waited for a few minutes in the living room watching the news and when Jay didn't come into the house at 10:10, Carlos put on his coat and told Zevon and Evie he'd be back later and walked out towards the marketplace. 

He easily found Jay. He was in his normal red leather jacket and sprouting a worried looking expression. "Where haven't you looked yet?" Carlos asked. "This city is huge. I've searched this entire marketplace 4 times since this morning. I checked every single inch of the boardwalk and beach and came up with nothing." Jay said tiredly. 

"Don't worry Jay. We'll find her." Carlos reassured Jay. "I sure hope so." Almost 12 hours later, Carlos and Jay went back to the house defeated. "Hey guys. How was the Mal search?" Evie asked. Jay didn't answer as he walked past her into the living room. He grabbed the remote and tuned everybody out as he did last night. "Not good. We looked everywhere and we couldn't find her." Carlos told Evie quietly. 

"I made dinner." Evie said and handed Carlos a plate with 4 slices of pizza. "Thanks. I'll bring some to Jay and Zevon." He took a plate to Zevon who thanked him, and he set the other plate in Jay's hands. "I'm not hungry." Jay said staring at the tv. "Jay, please just eat it. Why don't we talk to the royal guards tomorrow and see if they can find her?" Carlos suggested. "Like they'd care." Jay scoffed. 

Carlos stood up and took Jay's full plate back to Evie and shook his head. "I hope we find Mal soon. I've never seen Jay like this before." "Me neither." Evie said. After Carlos and Evie cleaned the entire kitchen and did all the laundrey in the house, they made their way upstairs to their bedrooms. "I'm worried about Jay." Evie said. "He'll be fine. I'll talk to the royal guards tomorrow. I'm positivly sure they can find Mal." "I agree with you. I'll come with tomorrow." Carlos kissed Evie's forehead and they parted ways. 

That night, Jay couldn't get to sleep. He was too worried about Mal. It was around midnight when Jay fell asleep to the sound of the news anchor talking about nothing important. Around 2 A.M. the door to the house opened and a fair of graceful feet carefully walked in, careful to not make any noise. 

Jay had fallen asleep on the carpet of the living room, and the blanket he had had fallen halfway off of him. The owner of the two graceful feet pulled the blanket back onto Jay. Jay felt the blanket moving and then he felt a pair of soft, tender lips on his forehead that he recognized instantly. He opend his eyes smiling, "Mal." He said. Mal grinned and Jay sat up and he embraced Mal. 

"You scared me Mal! Please don't leave me like that again!" Jay said into Mal's hair. "I'm sorry. I got trapped at the beach. Apparently spraypainting the docks isn't legal." Mal said laughing softly. Jay softly kissed Mal's forehead and didn't let go. Mal wrapped her arms around his head and rested her head on his shoulder. Mal remained sleeping on his chest for the remainder of the night. 

The next morning, Carlos walked into the living expecting only to see Jay and a boring tv show on. Instead, he saw Mal there too. "Somebody pinch me." Carlos said. "Okay. You said it though." Evie said and pinched his arm. Carlos shrieked. "You said to pinch you." "Shh! They're asleep." Carlos said pointing at in the direction of the living room. "Who's they?" "Mal and Jay." "Mal's here?" "Yeah. She must have snuck in during the night." Carlos said sipping his coffee. "What should we do?" "Obvisouly nothing. They aren't going to want to go back to Auradon City. I mean just look around. This house is one reason, another reason is this city. Corona is a beautiful city." Carlos said. 

Evie nodded and walked back upstairs. "So Zevon, how are you planning to talk to Mal?" Carlos asked. "The way I always do." "Which is?" Carlos said looking at him with a confused look. "Slowly and calmly." "I've never seen you talk that way." "To Mal I do. She's my sister and she's really special to me." "Thanks Zevon. I'm really feeling the love." Carlos said. Zevon gave him a look and Carlos laughed. "I'm kidding!"