Author's Note: Okay, so here it is, the sequel to "Home". Now I didn't want to do the slice of/day in the life thing like I did for that story. I still wanted to tell the tales of the VKs and their lives in Auradon with their new families, but I wanted to do something different. So for this one, I thought I'd explore how they deal with family holidays. Now I'll try and do as many as I can, that's why I'm even doing Birthdays since I think of them as personal holidays. That being said, I think we'll start out with one of those birthdays.

Please enjoy...

Mal and Evie's Birthdays - Part 1

The time frame of this chapter is set in "Home", most likely just after the chapter's involving Ben's party, but before the chapter where Mal and Jane make that giant pool.

Fairy Godmother was in her office, her laptop booting up in front her. She'd been at the school earlier in the day making preparations for the upcoming school year when she'd received a phone call from Snow White asking if she could Skype with her later. Now that she was home, she texted Snow to let her know she was available.

"Hi, Snowy, it's good to hear from you," she greeted the queen.

"You too," Snow said happily. "How have you been?"

"Well, just feeling the pressure of handling two girls instead of one this summer."

"How are things going with Mal?"

"Good…at least now they are. Her and Jane seem to be getting along so much better now."

"That good to hear. Evie mentioned that they were arguing."

Fairy Godmother, sadly, proceeded to tell Snow about how they had become distant over the use of the wand, and, happily, told her about how they'd made up. Snow felt elated to hear that things were getting better between the two young half-fairies.

"The problem is, now that they're getting along, they seem to pushing their limits constantly. I've almost never had to ground Jane, but this year…"

"Partners in crime?"

"I'm glad that Jane's come out of shell, I really am, but I could do with a little less mischief."

Snow let out a small laugh and looked off screen for a moment. "Trust me I understand, Evie and Raymond have had a few…adventures shall we say."

"I swear I'm being a good girl, Fairy Godmother," Fairy Godmother heard being shouted from the somewhere on Snow's side.

"Is someone there with you?"

"Not just someone," Snow smiled, waving off camera view.

The next thing Fairy Godmother knew, Evie was sliding herself into view right next to Snow. Both girls began to giggle incessantly.

"Evie!" Fairy Godmother greeted the young woman. "How are you, Sweetheart?"

"I'm awesome," she answered, her smile practically flowing as much as her sister's.

"So I'm assuming that whatever reason you asked for this call involved young Evie, here?" Fairy Godmother asked in a faux-conspiratory tone.

Snow nodded, a small smile on her beautiful face. "Evie's birthday is coming up."

"Really? I didn't think it was coming up this quick. That means you're turning seventeen, right?"

Evie nodded. "And it's not that quick, more like a month away. But that's what I wanted to talk to you about," she began. "You see, Mal is older than me, by all of two weeks."

"I know," Fairy Godmother sighed. "I've been racking my brain trying to figure out something to do for her."

"Then it's a good thing that we got in contact with you," Snow said. Fairy Godmother looked at her questioningly. "Evie has been doing some thinking on that subject."

"And?" Fairy Godmother asked, her interest piqued.

"Well, you should know, Mal isn't really a fan of her birthday," Evie began, a sad look in her eyes. "Ever since the whole not being invited to Sleeping Beauty's christening, Mal's mom is completely anit-birthday party and never bothered to consider them for her, so Mal's never had a birthday party of her own – ever."

"That's terrible," Fairy Godmother gasped.

Evie nodded. "Then there was the whole thing when my mother wouldn't let me invite Mal to my sixth birthday party, and well…she's never had what you would call a good birthday experience," she explained.

"So that's why she changes the conversation whenever I ask her what she wants to do that day," Fairy Godmother revealed absentmindedly.

"Yeah, she doesn't like taking about it," Evie said. "But I'd like to change that," she added cheerfully.

"And how are you going to manage that?" Fairy Godmother asked, once again intrigued. Evie just smiled sneakily.

A few days later Mal, Jane, and Fairy Godmother were seated for dinner, Mal's favorite to be exact: barbecue chicken, broccoli, and a baked potato, though she'll always admit that she could do without the broccoli. However, Fairy Godmother always told her that without the broccoli, or whatever vegetable she served, she wouldn't get her favorite dessert – jelly doughnuts with strawberry filling.

"Is there any more chicken?" she asked, stuffing the last of her current helping in her mouth.

"Yes, Sweetie, though you might want to save room for dessert," Fairy Godmother told her.

Mal looked like she was thinking. "I can handle it," she replied.

"The extra chicken might help her from over doing it on the doughnuts and making herself sick again," Jane chimed in, reminding everyone of the last time Mal had too much room for dessert.

Mal and Fairy Godmother groaned at the memory. The last time jelly doughnuts were on the menu, Mal had a few too many, made herself sick like Jane had mentioned, and instigated a truly legendary night of vomiting.

"I'll keep it under four, I promise," Mal said.

Later, as Mal was downing her third doughnut, Fairy Godmother decided it was time to start the plan. "Mal, honey, I wanted to talk to you about something," she began. Mal looked up at her, her green eyes nervous. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad. Your birthday is coming up and –"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jane said in surprise.

"Because I don't normally like it," Mal said as she swallowed the piece of doughnut in her mouth.

"But everyone likes their birthday," Jane told her.

"Not everyone," Mal said, eyeing the plate of doughnuts sitting in the center of the table. Her stomach, and her sweet tooth, were telling to go ahead and have another, while her brain was replaying images of her crouched at the toilet, paying the price for one too many of those delicious little pastries. "After all, you never actually met my mother," she finished telling Jane after deciding that three was enough. I can always have those for breakfast tomorrow, she thought.

"She never made a big deal out of it?" Jane asked, her voice starting to sound sad like a hurt puppy.

"Nope. Not a party, not a card, not a present…now that I think about it, she rarely even said happy birthday to me," Mal lamented.

"That's horrible," Jane pouted.

"I'm used to it," Mal told her as she pushed her plate away.

"Then we need to do something big this year," Jane said excitedly.

"No, we don't," Mal corrected her. Jane immediately looked at her like she'd spoken complete nonsense. "I'm perfectly alright with not making a big deal out of my birthday. After all this time, I really don't see the need to start celebrating like I'm Evie. Besides, Ben's planning a quiet dinner for just the two of us on it," she explained.

"About that," Fairy Godmother cut in, her voice stressed from the news she was going to deliver. Mal looked over at her in confusion.

"Don't say I can't go," she asked nervously. "I get that I'm grounded right now, but you said I could go out with him that night."

"I did, and you can, or rather you could've. Belle informed me that that Ben's been scheduled to attend some emergency council meetings in the northern part of the kingdom and he can't get out of it. He's gonna have to leave a few days before your birthday, and he'll be gone a week."

"But he promised," Mal said sadly.

"I know, Sweetie, but he absolutely can't get out of it, and from what Belle told me, he did try to get it moved to another time, but he couldn't."

Jane and Fairy Godmother watched as Mal's eyes began to water, and then as she began to blink them away as hard as she could. "May I be excused?" Mal asked flatly. If it hadn't been for how upset she looked, Fairy Godmother would've smiled at the fact that Mal was getting more used to using proper table manners. Instead, she simply nodded. "And is it okay if I call Ben about this?"

"Sure," Fairy Godmother told her.

Mal got up and left in the direction of her room.

"Did you see how upset she was?" Jane asked, her voice just above a whisper. "I think she might actually cry."

Fairy Godmother nodded. "I didn't know she'd take that so badly, but that just means we have to make sure that Evie's plan goes off even better than ever to make up for it."

"I still can't believe that Evie is willingly giving up a birthday party of her own to give Mal one," Jane said in amazement.

"Those two really are the sisters they never had growing up," Fairy Godmother reflected. "Even Snow was surprised since she knows how much Evie does like being the center of attention."

"So, Evie really doesn't want anything done for her?"

Fairy Godmother shook her head at her her daughter.

"She wants this to be all about Mal."

There's what she wants, and then there's what she'll get, Jane thought.

Jane looked at herself in the mirror. She had put on her blue sun dress with white flowers on it that came down to just above her knees. It had wide shoulder straps and a modest neckline. Normally she preferred a higher neckline, but Mal had gotten her the dress saying that she needed to loosen up and let her hair down sometimes. Ironically her hair was usually down, she thought, but then figured that Mal meant not being so high strung. If Mal could see me today, she smiled as she adjusted the pink bows she'd added to the straps. She ran her fingers through her hair to fan it out a little, and then nodded at her reflection.

She made her way over to her bedroom door and proceeded to lock it. Mom may be at the grocery store, but that doesn't mean I have to take any chances, she reasoned. She then walked back over to her mirror and…

"Be not here, but be there, let me be…all up in Snow White's hair," Jane intoned, hoping her flare at the end of the spell didn't throw it off too much. When it came to tweaking the wording of spells she didn't have the best track record and hoped that this one didn't cause her to magically poof from inside Snow White's actual hair.

She watched as a billowing plume of light blue smoke started enveloping her, filling the mirror before finally disappearing, taking Jane with it.

Snow White was in a lounge chair by one of her palace's pools, enjoying some afternoon alone time. Florian had taken Evie and Raymond to the movies, leaving her with an afternoon off. She'd said she was fine to go with them, but he reminded her that she'd been spending so much time with Evie, that they both needed some time apart. She knew that he was right, not out of anything with any ill intent, but because he felt that Evie and Raymond needed to spend time together without her to bond on their own, so he offered to take them out for a day of whatever they wanted to do.

She was feeling relaxed, her eyes closed as she lay in the afternoon sun, the large umbrella helping to keep her fair skin from burning. As she tried to find herself in the right circumstances for a nap, she suddenly felt a slight swirling of the air. She opened her eyes just in time to see a twisting cloud of light blue smoke forming a few feet in front of her. She sat up straight and watched the billow until finally it dissipated revealing a single teenage girl.

"Jane?" she asked in bewilderment.

Jane looked around, then down at Snow, and then down at herself. She began feeling herself over, making sure everything was where it should me.

Head? Check.

Chest and stomach? Check and check.

Arms? Legs? Ditto.

Ten fingers? Yup.

"Yes! Transported without messing up," she celebrated. When she saw that she was in front of Snow White, she threw her arms into the air in triumph. "And I didn't come out of your hair."

"What?" Snow gasped as she heard what Jane said.

"Forget I said that last part, please," she smiled. "I needed to talk to you about Mal's birthday party."

Snow held up her hand to quiet the young girl in front of her. Jane looked at her expectantly. "I thought you were grounded," she told Jane, who simply nodded.

"I kind of am."

"Does your mother know you're here?"

Jane didn't know how to answer that without getting into trouble with the Queen in front of her.

"I'll take your silence as a no," Snow said. She then shook her head in building frustration. "Oh, my God, Jane, you and Mal cannot keep sneaking over here."

"We didn't – I came alone, and it was for a good cause."

"That cause being?" Snow asked, her voice letting Jane know that whatever came out of her mouth next had better be really good.

"I want to make sure Evie gets a party too."

"But Evie doesn't want one, at least according to her," Snow told her as she motioned for Jane to sit on the lounge chair next to hers.

"Yeah, I know, she wants this year to be all about Mal. And that's why we need to throw Evie one too," Jane said excitedly as she sat down facing Snow. "She's doing what she's doing because she wants to give Mal the best birthday she's ever had. I just think that we should reward her by making sure she's not forgotten either."

Evie really does have the greatest friends in the world, Snow thought as she looked at the smiling half-fairy in front of her. She didn't even know what Jane had in mind, but whatever it was, it had the young girl unable to sit still since she was practically bouncing in place. "I should be upset that you snuck over here, but if you have a really good plan, I'll happily overlook it, provided you go home and ask your mother if you can come over and do this."

Jane squealed with joy and once again raised her arms in triumph. "Not a problem, but…can we tell her its so I can help plan for Mal's. Mom's so stressed out over planning this party that I don't want to add to it. I figure I can plan all the Evie details with your help."

Snow held out her hand and Jane and she shook on it. Before letting go, Snow smiled at Jane and couldn't help herself. "Wand or not, you really are your mother's daughter, you know that?"

Jane beamed with pride at the comparison. Apparently you don't need a wand to be someone's Fairy Godmother, Jane thought, or in this case, Fairy Goddaughter.