I'm Gonna Go To DisneyLand! (Complete)

There were those whom believed that magic was something limited to the realm of fables and comics. The kind of thing that let children used as an excuse to let their imaginations run wild while they are young only to grow out of it as they get older. However, the truth was that magic DID exist...it just depended on your definition of it and knowing where to look. Case in point, Disneyland.

"Oh my gosh! This place is so much fun!!" Aurora squealed as she sat on top of one of the buildings with her partner while eating a head of cotton candy almost twice the size of herself, "You were right, Alan. Coming here was a great idea! You want some of this cotton candy?"

"No thanks. I'm good..." Alan groaned as he did his best not to hurl. Ever since they had arrived, his friend had wanted to try one thing after another. Be it food, games, or a ride, and now his stomach was paying the price, "You sure you're not getting queasy from all that junk?"

"Nope!" She swallowed before standing up, "Come on. Let's go burn off some of this sugar." Before he could protest, she grabbed his hand and jumped off the building, causing them to form into one person that then took on a new, eye-catching appearance:

Spoiler:

Alan mentally groaned but decided to just go along with it for now. Besides, they were at Disneyland. One of the happiest places on Earth. What could possibly go wrong?

Malik was walking around the crowded walkways of Disneyland with a sort of guilt and regret that could make you sick. The last time he was here, he was young... Around 3. He couldn't remember anything about this place, but he could see a little baby version of him running just ahead of him. He was wearing the same cloak he wears for his hero outfit now. Yet, he was pulling his sober dad and present mom giddily, even though the cloak was too big for him.

Suddenly, baby Dire found a break in the crowd. He began pulling his two parents down the walk at surprising speed, so much speed he had to begin to catch up.
He began to speed up, only focusing on the child.
Little did he know he was headed straight for a woman with long white hair...

"Hey, why don't we try finding Cinderella and seeing if she's got a spare dress we can try on! I bet we'd look great in it!" Aurora exclaimed within their shared mind as they moved through the crowd, taking in all the sights.

Alan rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile as his friend got to experience one of the great marvels of Earth culture. No matter who you were, young or old, Walt Disney's works were something to be enjoyed regardless of who you were or where you came from. Seeing all these sights though made him reflect back to his Mom and how they would spend Saturday nights together with a couple of Disney movies rented from the store when he was young.

Those nights were made extra special by the fact that it was one of the few luxuries they could routinely afford on his Mom's limited income. Hearing another set of footsteps behind her, she turned in time to see a young man blazing forward through the crowd. Thinking fast, Siren put out her arms to catch him, "Whoa, easy there! You're gonna knock somebody down if you keep running like that."

Malik felt the arm catch him, pulling him out of his sad trance. He blinked a few time, looking around for the mirage of himself and parents to no result. He lost him.
He was kind of happy for the interruption, this trip wasn't meant for sadness anyway. It WAS Disney after all!

"Oh... Sorry... I was just...Looking for something... I-"
It wasn't until his pause that he actually saw who he was talking to. He took a deep breath in and blinked a few times. "Well, I certainly wouldn't have minded bumping into you..."
He shook his head and grimaced.
"Crap, I'm sorry... That sounded awful..."

Siren had to do their best not to sigh or grimace at the man's comment. Before she could reply though, he apologized which was enough to convince her to let it go for now. "Look, it's fine. Don't worry about it..." Getting the impression that something was bothering him though, they just had to ask, "Hey...you ok? You look like something's weighing on your mind."

"Aurora, think we can take five minutes to help the poor guy?" Alan asked his partner.

"Yeah, sure. I don't like seeing sad faces at what's suppose to be the happiest place on Earth either." Aurora agreed.

Still holding onto him, Siren pulled over some chairs at a nearby table, "Here, have a seat and I'll order us some drinks," She flagged down a waitress dressed in a Minnie Mouse costume, "Look, I'm no psychologist, and I'm not gonna force you to say anything you don't want to say...so how about we start with names? I'm Alice, and you are?"

Holy crap... Literally my favorite name...
"Well, my name is Malik..."

He winced at his name, he hated it honestly.

"What brings you here to the most magical place on earth, so they say."
He asked looking out in the distance, still looking for baby Dire...
He loved seeing people bustling around, it reminded him of why he wasn't a villain.
He looked back over to Alice and smiled.
"Seeing all these people happy is wonderful ain't it?"

"Malik, huh? That's an interesting name," Siren commented but said no more on that matter since she wanted to be polite, especially since the man's mind still seemed to be lost in the clouds. At hearing him talk about Disneyland, she found herself nodding in agreement, "Indeed. You don't see too many happy people these days and I don't bother listening to the news much since it's mostly just depressing stories, anyways," At this, she shrugged, "Honestly, I think the world could benefit from more places like this, especially since so many children these days never get a real childhood...."

It was her turn to briefly slip away from reality, her own words reminding of the fact that while her human self's childhood hadn't been "bad", it was always incomplete without the presence of a father figure. "Snap out of it, Alan! This is not the time for reflecting on the past! You got more important things to worry about right now!" He admonished himself before looking back at Malik, "Sorry about that. Anyways, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? A man like you must have led an interesting life," She winked playfully at him.

By now, the waitress came by to take their orders, "Ah yes, I'll have a chocolate milkshake. Malik, pick whatever you want. It's my treat."

Malik's smile diminished as he listened intently, hearing her speak of children not having a complete childhood. Don't I know that....

Malik felt bad for falling into this trap that Alice set, he didn't want to seem rude by refusing her offer, yet at the same time he didn't want to order something expensive and make her pay for it. "Water's fine."

He was caught off guard when asked about his life, he always had a game plan for such situations. He would always have some quip for how he was a businessman who travels the world to sign contracts. Today was different, his mind wasn't all there yet. He struggled to even think of a lie at this point.
He quickly recovered, spitting a choppy sentence out.
"Contractor. I go out and get contracts for money."
Dammit, it's always the pretty ones t
hat throw you off...

Hoping to deflect the question, he then asked "What about you? Lemme guess, a model. An underwear maker... No, I got it! An underwear making model!"
He began feeling some of his humor come back.

As the waitress left to get their drinks, Siren listened to Malik's rather abrupt explanation of what he did for a living. She nodded along though in the back of her head she got the impression he was leaving out a lot of details. However, that train of thought was abruptly thrown off the tracks by his own question which honestly left her a bit lost for words.

Eventually though, she did find her voice and spoke up, "An underwear making model..." Her only reaction was to facepalm and let out a dismayed sigh, "No...I am not...that thing. I have a part-time job as a singer...where on earth...did you even get the impression I was...that other thing?" Somehow, Siren got the feeling that taking this guy under her wing was going to soon prove to be a giant mistake.

Malik's eyes widened. No no no no! Let's just restart this!
"Uh... No reason, I'm sorry. I just- It was a joke."
What. The. Hell.
He NEVER cared about his crude humor, what was so different now?
When the water came he chugged it immediately due to how nervous he felt.

He shook that loss off and tried to recover, "So, you're a singer? That's really cool! What do you sing? I've been told I can sing myself..."
Dammit, that was a bit self centered.

"I see," Siren took a sip of her milkshake while eyeing him critically. The man was starting to test her patience just a little but she couldn't help but find it strangely adorable about how he could flip between being so suave and haughty one minute and go all dorky and meek the next.

"Ah geez, what is wrong with me?" Alan thought to himself, remembering how he wasn't fussy about whether he was attracted to guys or girls.

At hearing him ask about her singing, her mood brightened up a little, "Oh, me? Nothing fancy, though I do enjoy the occasional Blues song and remixes of various older bands. I'm a big fan of the band, Queen, by the way," Seeing a chance for payback, she smirked and set her drink down, "Oh? You sing? Very nice! Perhaps we can find a karaoke booth around here for you to try? I'd love to hear your rendition of that song, "Let It Go"."

Malik felt as if Alice had a trump card in her hand, but Malik just grinned. He knew he had a wonderful singing voice, for once he was selling himself short. He had done a rendition of Let it Go before and it was a hit, so he hoped this actually.
"Well, I must warn you... My singing voice has been the cause of many death's. I've made ears bleed."
He said this truthfully, he had made people's ears bleed with his voice. One time back in the old days.
Story for another time.
"Speaking of Queen, I am the champion at any Disney song."
Once he had to do a seriously messed up job, and he had to learn almost every Disney song. He wasn't proud of that job, but it paid well.

"So, what brought you here? Work? O-M-G, are you gonna sing here?"

"Is "Ears Bleed" your type of lingo for "making girls swoon with your voice"?" Despite her words, Siren was smiling, "And, the champion of singing Disney songs? I'd love to see you put your money where your mouth is, considering I grew up with all the classic Disney films,"

At hearing him ask what she was here on, Siren shrugged, "Eh, who knows? I've been told that I'm full of surprises..." She did another playful wink, "Sometimes, I even surprise myself," The white-haired lady suddenly glared down at the glass of water, "...I'm sorry, but I cannot tolerate the sight of someone just having a glass of water." She quickly called back over the waitress to order two deluxe cheeseburger platters.

Malik's smile went to near sadness when she ordered more stuff for him. It was like he was begging with a wad of cash in his pocket, he was many bad things but this is not one of them.
"You don't have to do that, I'll gladly pay for it myself." He said politely.

Then the thought hit him, You always could ask her to ride the rides with you, it's just making a new friend...
Malik hadn't done this in forever. He and Nadia hadn't talked in a long time, and he was pretty lonely on this trip. The more he thought about it, the better this idea sounded.
"Hey... Uh... Were you... Uh... Leaving? When I ran into you, I mean... Because if not, we could probably... uh... Ride the rides together..."
He mentally scolded himself for making himself look like an idiot. His career literally involved making women swoon so he could kill them, but he could never do it right in a situation where it was real.
Idiot. He thought.

Siren took notice of Malik's attitude and decided to wave off the waitress, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I was just trying to help..." She suddenly found her attention focused on the pavement as she let her thoughts wander. If there was one thing neither aspect of the alien hero had it was a strong sense of discipline, and thus a bad habit of getting too emotionally involved in things.

"I should probably be on my way. Sorry again to bother you..." She went to get up when she heard him asking if they could go on the rides together, which actually made her heart skip a beat.

"Ah geez, what do I do, Aurora?" Alan asked, now feeling more than a little flustered.

"Take his offer, duh! You wanted to help the poor guy and it looks to me like he just wants company, so it's a win-win for both of you." Aurora explained with a nod of her head.

"Why you always gotta make sense?" Alan quipped before Siren found her voice again, "Sure, I'd love to. What did you want to go on first?"