Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, sat at the desk in the room she shared with Evie, twirling a violet tendril between her fingers as she read. She was relieved to have the room to herself for what felt like the first time in weeks. Evie was out with Doug and everyone else at the tourney game, the faint cheers of the crowd and the announcer's mumbled blow by blow of the game coming through the window every few minutes. After the debacle of the last one and Ben's proclamation due to her very powerful love potion, Mal had decided to skip it in favor of studying.
Of course, her mother wasn't helping.
"Has loverboy kissed you yet?" Her mother's miniaturized voice came from the plastic cage that had become her new habitat. It had been spelled up the wazoo by Fairy Godmother to keep her in after Mal had fought hard to keep her in their dorm. "I'm counting on it, you know." For a brief moment, it felt like they were gossiping as any mother and daughter could, Then Mal remembered Ben's proclamation while under her love spell.
I would give my kingdom for just one kiss.
Promises were promises, in Auradon and on the isle, and they were not easily broken, especially with the faerie kind. Mal was at least half faerie. Her mother had never told her who her father really was. Only that he was a weak human.
Her mother's miniature laugh pulled her out of her thoughts. "When he does take your first kiss, King Ben's kingdom will be mine forever!" She reminded her, and Mal closed her book and stood from the desk, her anger building.
She had spent the last three weeks of her relationship with Ben coming up with every excuse she could think of not to kiss him. Every spare moment that she wasn't in class or with Ben, avoiding his lips, researching a way to counteract his promise. She had already spent sixteen years under her mother's rule, trying to be evil and impress her enough to give her more of her name.
Forever would just be too long.
"I would rather die!" Mal answered with a shout before she could even think to correct herself. Then she realized what she had done.
Her mother laughed. "If that's what it takes." She answered, "And once a promise, always a promise." She reminded her, once again giddy.
Mal groaned and slammed the door to her dorm harder than she intended. She took her book with her, clasped under her arm as she tried to calm herself down before her anger overtook her. In an instant she ran right into Ben, still slightly sweaty from the game and she jumped in surprise.
He stood there steadying her, his usual smile plastered on his face, the same one whenever he saw her. It only faltered slightly as he noticed her surprise.
"Hey!" He said, reminding her of an excited puppy. Every time they met up, no matter how long apart, he looked excited to just see her and know her. She knew he was probably waiting in excitement for the one thing she could not give. "I missed you at the game." He told her, leaning in for a kiss and she instantly moved away.
"Mushrooms!" She told him as she freed herself from his arms and moved to dart past him. "I just had a salad with mushrooms and you are allergic." She lied, trying to keep at least some of her cool. She wondered how many excuses she could think of before she ran out of them. She and Ben had already been dating for nearly three weeks and she had used so many already.
Ben just agreed and started to follow her down the hall. "Ok." He answered, accepting it as easily as if it had been the truth, too innocent to even think that she could be lying to him the entire time, "but I still missed you at the game." He repeated, the smile still on his face she was sure, though she didn't risk looking back. She didn't have to look back to know that he was trying to catch up to her again.
"I was studying." She explained as she headed for the stairs. She had to get to the library and do more research, especially after her accidental promise to her mother "The remedial goodness final is coming up and I really need to study." She lied. The lie was partially true, though it was going to be an easy final for her. "Gotta get to the library!" She exclaimed, taking the stairs two at a time.
"I could help you study." Ben suggested, catching up to her, his smile finally starting to flag, but just slightly, his dimples melting away as they walked side by side. "I'm great at being good." He explained, and she couldn't really argue with that, "and I am the king after all." He gave her a little wink.
As if she could ever forget that.
"Sorry." She said, avoiding his eyes, and glancing at his face momentarily "I promised Jay, Evie and Carlos that we could cram. It's not fair to you to study for a class you're not even taking. Evil, but not fair." She was getting better at making excuses and it still sometimes shocked her how easily he ate them all up. "And you need a shower." She told him, the sweat from the tourney game still present in his hair and on his forehead, the smell of teenage boy nearly overpowering.
"Can I see you later tonight?" Ben asked, accepting that he needed to shower after the big game. She couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't showered in the locker room like he usually did. "We could go back to the lake and I could bring more strawberries." He suggested as he turned and walked backwards to face her for several steps, his eyes on her and not the other students he should have been avoiding. "I could teach you how to swim." He whispered suggestively, reaching out for a tendril of her violet hair as he had at the enchanted lake.
That idea sounded great, and she wished she could, but she couldn't risk being alone with Ben on a date where he could possibly kiss her. Half naked, dripping wet, definitely too much potential of a kiss that could quite possibly kill her.
"Maybe we should do something with Doug and Evie." She suggested instead, moving out of hte way of his hand and shuffling past him, She knew he wasn't going to give up until he found a way to spend some time with her. "But I'll see you later!" She said before she darted off through the crowds just coming back from the championship tourney game. She did not want to risk another chance at a kiss and have to make up another excuse.
"Ok." He answered, his response less than enthusiastic. He stood outside the dorms as she darted away, "Text me?" He shouted over the general hum of the other students before she ran farther away and toward the library.
Mal let out a sigh of relief when Ben had stopped following her. She hated that she had to consistently push him away, and how second nature it was becoming. She slowed down to a fast walk, not wanting to intentionally bump into anyone. It wasn't that kind of day.
Had she really messed everything up further with just four little words? She hadn't said that she promised but she knew enough to know that the intent was there. And intent in magic was everything. If she did kiss Ben, would she die and his kingdom go to her mother? She didn't know. But she knew she wasn't willing to risk it.
She had to find a way to break it without him knowing, and as soon as possible.
The library was quiet when she entered, not too many students there to study for finals, especially after the championship tourney game. She found a table in the back, closer to the restricted section, the locked up section with the old magic books and the books that held any ideals that the King and Queen of Auradon didn't agree with, but were too dangerous to send over to the island as trash. She figured she would find most of her answers there, but only Fairy Godmother had the key, and only certain students were allowed in. Certainly not the VKs, still testing out their goodness after three weeks, or so she imagined Fairy Godmother saying, looking for any excuse to keep her out.
It was easier to text Evie from the tables toward the back and not get noticed by the snooty librarian, easier to flip through her spell book and her remedial goodness book without anyone looking over her shoulder.
It took Evie longer to get to the library than Mal thought it would, considering that she had sent the "nine alarm fire" text. The text they had only ever used in actual emergencies, and hardly ever before. Even worse, she showed up with Doug, still in his band uniform, their hands intertwined tightly, though that wasn't the worst way she had seen them intertwined.
It was not the best of circumstances, but Mal knew she couldn't be too picky.
"What's up, Mal?" Evie asked excitedly, and judging by her mood, Doug's beaming smile and Ben's mood from earlier, the Knights must have won the game.
"I'm having a girl issue." Mal answered, pursing her lips and acting embarrassed, hoping Doug would excuse himself. Again, it wasn't necessarily a lie. "I need your help." She said, looking right at Evie.
Evie just smiled understandingly. "You know I keep an extra package of those under my bed just in case." She whispered, though no one else was there to hear them besides Doug, who she knew already knew about that "extra package" that was nearly half empty. "If you and Ben need to-"
"It's not that kind of girl problem!" Mal exclaimed loudly, not even wanting to think about what possibilities could exist after kissing with Ben and whatever Evie and Doug got up to when she wasn't around, she had already walked in on enough.
The characteristic shushing of the librarian followed and Mal gave her best excuse for an apologetic smile and a wave.
"Doug, can you give us five?" She asked as politely as she could, "Please." It wasn't a word that had been in her vocabulary often before Auradon.
"Sure." Doug answered, with a short nod. He seemed to know better than to get on any of the VK's bad side. "I'll be over in the history section, V." He told her before he let go of her hand and moved toward the other side of the library.
Evie waved to him sweetly and then took the seat next to Mal. "What the hell is going on?" She asked her in a hurried whisper, the cute, excited, happy vibe after the game dropping from her like a lead balloon. "I ran into Ben in the hall and even he thinks you're acting weird." Still, Evie sounded quite concerned. The sister she had never had, and for several years never even wanted.
Mal sighed. Everything had gone so wrong, so fast and it was all her mother's fault again. "I messed things up." She explained, not looking at Evie, but unfocusing her eyes and staring at the smiling face on the cover of the remedial goodness book, "and I don't know how to fix them." She admitted putting her head in her hands.
Evie was the only one she really trusted enough to see her true turmoil, and after the events when they were six, she could almost laugh at the irony of that statement.
"Mal?" She heard Evie ask as she placed a gentle hand on her shoulder after a few seconds of silence between them. "What did you do?" She asked, always the most understanding of the VKs.
"I promised something without realizing it and it may just cost me my life." Mal mumbled through her fingers, thinking about her idiocy and shame at how easily her mother had gotten her way, in several ways. "Not to mention I can't kiss Ben and it's getting harder to find excuses not to."
"What did you do?" Evie repeated, much softer that time, her hand a gentle pressure on Mal's shoulder, keeping her grounded there almost. "Who says you can't kiss Ben?" She continued.
"He did." Mal answered, her frustration finally eating through as she looked up from her hands at Evie. "When he serenaded me after I love spelled him." She reminded the blue haired girl, her bitterness almost tangible. "And I would give my kingdom for just one kiss? It's technically a promise and since a faerie was there it's binding." She explained, even though she knew Evie knew almost as much about magic as she did.
"Mal," Evie said gently, though Mal could read the anxiousness just under her skin, "You're half faerie." She reminded her, "Your mom never told you who your dad is." Mal knew that, but it didn't change anything. Any Faerie blood was enough to be binding. "And how is it going to kill you?" She asked, definitely not understanding the issue.
She couldn't understand. Sure, she and Doug had started off rocky too, but he had plucked up the courage to go against what he knew and what his friends were saying, and had asked her out at the spring dance a week after the coronation. From that moment on, they were nearly inseparable and Mal knew that better than anyone, sharing a room with Evie, and most of the time, Doug too.
Mal sighed again. "My mother may have goaded me into promising that she could have the kingdom over my dead body." She answered, trying not to put the blame on anyone else but herself. "Which means my first kiss just might be my last." She answered, hanging her head again, trying to focus on anything but the prickling of tears behind her closed eyes. "I don't know what to do, or how to break it." She admitted. "You know what happens as a faerie promise gets stronger."
Pain, destruction, plague, famine. Everything evil and rotten, that she thought had been fun, before Ben and dating and strawberries.
"You need to talk to Ben." Evie answered after several seconds, and Mal knew that would be her solution. "You should have talked to him about it weeks ago." She added, and Mal hated to admit that she was right. "The poor boy must think he has perma bad breath or something." She laughed, but it didn't make Mal feel any better. "We'll find a solution." She continued taking Mal's hand in hers and squeezing it gently. "But for now, talk to Ben." She repeated.
Mal knew she was right. "Thanks E." She answered, sitting up and closing her spell book with a satisfied thump. She pulled out her phone and text Ben.
It might just be the hardest conversation of her life, but it had to be done.
Ben leaned against the statue of his father, immortalized in stone when he was younger and his mother had broken the beastly spell. He didn't really see the resemblance, but everyone had always said he was a perfect mix of both of his parents, not having more features of one or the other. Mal had sent him a text and had asked to meet him there, where they had first met when she and the others had first arrived in Auradon.
He didn't know why, but he had a terrible feeling about the whole meeting. Maybe she was finally going to break up with him after nearly a month of nothing romantic due to tourney championships and Kingly duties and more meetings than he could even count in just three short weeks. She had shot him down every time he had tried to kiss her, giving him excuse after excuse and only starting to become more ridiculous as the weeks were rapidly turning into a month. There had to be a reason.
Had she ever really loved him or had she just been using him? Love spell or not, he knew his feelings, but she had never shown him, or told him hers. She had just said that he made her Happy.
Happy and Love were two very different things.
"Hey Bennyboo." Mal's voice pulled him out of his thoughts abruptly. Her tone was flat, and not at all like that nickname had been before. Though to Mal, that nickname had always been a joke, but at that moment, she didn't seem like she was joking.
He turned to see her standing several feet away, her posture scared almost, drawn into herself more than he had ever seen her before. Her face in a tight line, her eyes distracted, looking anywhere but right at him.
Something was up, as he had suspected before.
"Mal!" He said excitedly, forcing a smile onto his face, in the kingly fashion. Rule number one: never let them see your true emotions, fear especially. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming." He added, diplomatically, no excuses. She was late, and by more than just a few minutes.
"I got caught up in research." She explained, nervously, not getting too close to him. That only fed the fear that she was going to break up with him. He watched her carefully, his mind racing with anything and everything he could say to convince her otherwise. "I need to talk to you about something." She continued, not looking right at him, but past him at the statue of his father, the stone features that of a man.
"Look Mal." He continued, before she could get any more words out and quite possibly break his heart. "Whatever I did or didn't do, tell me and I'll fix it however I can. Whatever it takes." He said, forgetting about supposed rule number one. Running a kingdom and talking with your girlfriend were not the same thing. "I don't want to break up." He admitted catching her green eyes in the twilight.
Mal looked right at him, her eyes betraying her usual cool demeanor, wide in shock. "I don't want to break up either." She answered, "Though I will understand if you do after I tell you everything." He continued to stare, his thoughts going a million miles a minute. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about." She continued. "It's something else." She added, not looking at him again, but somewhere out in the rapidly darkening night.
"What's going on?" Ben asked, gently, taking a step closer to her. "What happened?" He continued, trying to get her to look at him again with those green eyes with the little gold flecks. Whoever, or whatever had caused Mal to become like that before him, he would banish it or them in an instant, just to see her smile again.
Mal took a deep breath. "How much do you know about faeries?" She asked him. That was not where he had expected the conversation to go. What did faeries have to do with anything?
Still, he answered, not wanting to scare her away, letting her explain things in her own way and time.
"They grant wishes and bestow gifts on infants," he answered, thinking about the main three faeries they had covered in History of Magical Creatures, the three that had granted the gifts to Sleeping Beauty, and the few that he had delt with in the past, her mother included. "Or curses." He added, remembering just who Mal's mother was. "Why?" He asked, wondering just what it was all about.
Mal sighed in frustration, "Typical Auradonian education, dumbing everything down and erasing most of the magic out of everything." She groaned and he was relieved to see at least the start of a scowl forming on her face. "Faeries have a thing about oaths and promises." She explained, once again gentle and scared. "We don't take them lightly, and once they're made they can't be broken until they are seen through."
Ben continued to listen intently, wondering just where Mal was going with her explanation. "We?" He asked, before he remembered that by birth she was at least part faerie. A fact everyone else seemed so quick to forget. "So what does that mean?" He rephrased, wondering just what that had to do with her sudden shift in mood. He couldn't remember making any promises to her, or anyone else.
"The thing about promises," Mal continued, her eyes meeting his briefly and then darting away again. "They don't have to be stated as promises." He could hear her voice crack and he hoped that she wasn't about to start crying. He couldn't stand that. That would just be too much and he didn't know how to fix that if she, they, were going to break things off. "If you repeat something enough, or mean it with enough intent, it becomes a promise." She took a ragged breath, and Ben wanted to reach out and hold her to him, or whatever else he could do to help.
"Mal?" Ben spoke, barely a whisper, not wanting to break her or scare her. She seemed as fragile as glass. "What happened?" He asked.
She looked right at him. "And I would give my kingdom for just one kiss." She quoted his own words to him. "You said it three times in your little serenade." She explained, "and we faeries love the number three." She looked pained and the urge reach out and touch her only built within him.
"You're only half faerie." Ben tried to remind her gently.
"It doesn't matter." Mal answered back quickly, her anger rising. "One drop of faerie blood and a promise is binding." She explained, "I've done the research Ben. There is no way out of this." She crossed her arms across her chest, as if it would create some kind of barrier between them, her eyes looking anywhere but at him, her face etched in an angry scowl, her eyes misty and he could see that.
"So if I kiss you, you get the kingdom?" Ben asked, trying to understand the whole thing, trying to pull her from the anger that he knew was rolling in her like a tempest. "That doesn't sound so bad. I would gladly give-"
Mal slammed her gloved hand over his mouth hard, shoving him into the stone fountain with a force that he might have liked if the situation wasn't so serious. "Don't you dare!" She exclaimed, clamping her hand down harder to prevent any sound from coming out. "If you pass your kingdom on to me for just one kiss, it goes to my mother until I'm twenty-two." She explained, "The legal age of faeries, but I'll be dead before then if you kiss me."
Ben tried to mumble more questions but Mal didn't let him, her hand hard against his mouth. He took her wrist gently and pulled it away. "Another promise?" He asked gently, his eyes finding hers in the darkening evening, the shine from the lights on campus showing him that tears were imminent.
He tentatively wrapped his arms around her, his hands gently resting on her hips, through several layers of fabric, and he was sure she preferred it that way.
Mal sighed again "I lost my temper with my mother and said something in anger that was most definitely a threat and an oath." Mal explained, pulling her gaze away from him again, focused on the yellow stitching on his blue shirt. "She gets the kingdom over my dead body." She continued. "If we kiss, I die and it goes to her." She broke away from him before she could say anymore, his arms falling away without any resistance, and backed further away.
She was trying to put more distance between them, make things easier for him if he wanted to end things like she had suggested. It was a pretty serious situation, but that didn't mean he wanted to end things.
The silence hung between them like a veil for several long seconds as he tried to reason out a solution. "You can't know that." He answered slowly. "You're only half faerie, so couldn't it be half the strength? A Sleeping curse, like Sleeping Beauty or Snow?" He asked, knowing it was not the time for humor or history, but it could be possible. He chose to pick the optimistic option.
He refused to believe that Mal could die from his kiss.
"Are you willing to find out?" She asked him, nearly a threat. "Because I'm not." She said. "And if that means you want to break up with me, then do what you have to do." She raised her hands in completion and began to walk away. Then she broke into a jog.
Ben's feet took a few seconds to catch up with his brain and he chased after her, pulling her to him as she struggled to get free and keep running. "Mal!" He exclaimed, turning her and pulling her close into a tight embrace, burying her face in his chest. "I'm not going to break up with you." He explained as she struggled against him, trying to push him away with a strength that he had always forgotten she had. "I'm not going to break up with you." he repeated, more gentle than before. Then she seemed to give up the struggle. "I've already fought hard enough to get you." He told her quietly, thinking of all that had happened between them since they had met and after the coronation. There was no way he was going to be the one to end things between them, not that night, not ever, if he could help it. "There are a lot more things to do in a relationship besides kiss." He continued gently before he lessened his hold on her.
Mal didn't move from his arms for quite a few long seconds. The silence between them almost torture. "You're tempting fate, Benjamin Florian." She said quietly. "Faeries like to fuck things up with mischief. They tend to interfere with promises, especially big ones that involve several people." She added, "and this is a huge one. A king, a villain and her daughter? There will be interference." She said, "I'm sure of it." She shivered and not just because of the temperature of the warm night.
"Mal." He said, as he reached out to touch her again, try and ease her fears however he could. "It's going to take a lot more than just some faerie interference to push me away." He told her, brushing his fingers across her cheek gently, "but when this promise is broken, I'm going to give you the best kiss of your life." He added with his signature smile and he could see her smile pulling at the edges of her red lips.
"Looking forward to it." She answered, her eyes still watery. "But let's get through finals first." She suggested as he took her hand and led her back toward the school. It was getting close to dinner time and someone would come looking for him soon.
"So what are your plans for summer break?" Ben asked, swinging their hands together as they walked up the path, then tension between them seemingly broken. He had planned to ask her earlier, after the game, but she had darted away before he had had the chance.
"Well the others are going back to the isle to see their parents, but my mom's here in my dorm." She explained. He already knew that. It made for some awkward commentary as they studied or watched movies, well when Doug and Evie weren't busy with other activities. "So I was just going to stay here." She answered, "Enjoy having the room to myself, watch over Dude for Carlos, and teach mother dearest about Remedial Goodness." She said with a laugh, even though it was no laughing matter.
"Come with me for the summer." Ben suggested. He couldn't stand the idea of her alone at Auradon Prep for the entire summer. He couldn't stand the idea of being apart from her until September. "My parents and I usually go to our summer castle and throw these huge lavish parties and call the kingdoms together for a council." He wasn't making it sound like a good idea and he realized that. "I could teach you how to swim, and take you on picnics. I promise no kisses until you are ready."
"That is tempting fate." Mal answered as they reached the front steps of the school. "Me in a bathing suit, you're not going to be able to contain yourself. It's going to be ridiculous." She explained, giving him a little bit of trouble with the terrible pun and his kooky actions under the power of the love spell. "And besides, I can't leave my mom here alone." She continued when Ben didn't laugh.
Ben thought about it for a long while, the front hallway giving way to the lockers and the cafeteria. "Did I mention there's a huge library where you can research to your heart's content?" He added, "My mom loves to research everything." He explained. "And being the king, if we don't have it, I can get it."
She bumped into him playfully as they walked through the doors of the cafeteria. "Playing the king card again, Bennyboo?" She asked. "Being king can't help you find a solution about my mom." She told him as they forewent the line for food and sat down at a table.
"She can stay in my room." He suggested as some of the kitchen staff brought him a tray of food. The same tray that she usually mooched from at most meals. "She can enjoy the great view from my desk." He continued. "Watch us all dance the maypole on Summer Solstice and the servants and maids have secret trysts at night when the weather gets too hot to couple inside."
He laughed as Mal blushed, as she always tended to with anything romantic, or vaguely sexual. "My mom is not living on your desk for an entire summer." She tried to stay serious, but he knew he had caused some sort of reaction with his words. "You do not need her negativity in your ear all day and night." She added.
"Mal Bertha," Ben began seriously, "Are you going against your king's rule?" He asked, "because if you are, I might just have to sentence you to a summer locked in my library studying nothing but remedial goodness."
Mal rolled her eyes. "Oh the horror." She answered, stealing a fry from his tray as he expected she would. "Fine, I'll go with you." She agreed, after a few seconds of deliberation, "but my mother is not staying in your room." She compromised.
"We'll figure something out." Ben answered with a smile as the others joined them. "We just have to get through finals." He finally had something to look forward to, though after the hell that would be finals week.