DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.
Ben takes a deep breath and glances at Mal out of the corner of his eye. She's wearing one of the dresses Evie designed for her, a black one that hugs her belly and draws your eye to what he is sure is a baby bump but she says isn't defined enough yet to count as one.
She's kind of hoping the dress says everything when they make the announcement.
He pushes the doors that lead to the throne room open, where the camera crew was waiting to film their annual interview that would air on the daily news.
Mal is still nervous, that he can tell. He doesn't know if she is remembering it, but he certainly remembers when someone (He thinks Audrey) had told her that a villain would never be the queen. It was something that she had brought up at their engagement and wedding as a reason that he should be with someone else.
It is mostly all the same questions as in past years, but this year, when they're jokingly asked, "When's the future heir making their appearance?" Mal says immediately, "June 20."
The laughter stops as Snow White and the camera crews stare at them in shock. Ben and Mal share a look and laugh, turning back the cameras before saying, simultaneously announce to the cameras, "We're pregnant!"
The reaction once it airs is insane.
A few days later, Mal finally begins to accept Ben calling the curve to her midsection a baby bump. There is definitely something there now, and it's slowly starting to become obvious that she's pregnant. Evie has even started bring over her old maternity clothes that she made Mal's "style." Mal's even started wearing some of it.
They're lying in bed that night, watching some stupid rendition of when the Original Four, as they've been named, first came to Auradon.
"Okay, with the barrier broken, you'd think that they'd actually go to the island to actually get a sense of what it's like there," Mal commentates, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth and then saying, mid-chew, "It's ridiculous."
"It also focuses way too much on all of the royals' reactions to your arrival, and I swear to God, if it shows Audrey's and Chad's actors having sex in the aftermath of the tourney game, I'll be the one hogging to toilet bowl tonight," Ben replies. Mal laughs before freezing, ghosting her hand over her belly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I, just, um, I think I just felt the baby move," she says, almost in awe, "But it was really light so you probably wouldn't be able to feel it. And- just-"
Ben presses his lips to hers, causing her to shut up. He then moves down to her growing bump and whispers, "Hi. Daddy here. What's it like down there?"
He feels Mal laugh more than he does hear her as he presses his ear up against her belly, and nods as if getting a response.
"I see. Mal, the baby has asked you to stop eating saltines, as they find them disgusting."
"Stop making me throw up and I won't have to," she retorts with a grin. Ben moves back up the bed, steals a kiss, and then returns his attention to the simply awful movie in front of them.
"Aw, look, we've gotten to your tourney performance!" Mal coos.
"Love potions are known to cause random musical outbursts, so let's not go there, okay?"
"Whatever you say, Benny-boo."
"Shut up."
Lonnie had started instituting mandatory girls' night shortly after Tegan was born to get Evie out of the house. That had caused Chad to start instituting guys' night for the guys.
Tonight is one of those nights.
With Mal off at a restaurant with the girls, Ben had gone over to Jay and Carlos's apartment in downtown Arendelle, where Chad, Doug, and a few other guys would be meeting them. Jay and Carlos had decided to room together in what they called 'The Ultimate Bachelor Pad,' though Evie has convinced herself that one or both of them is in a relationship that they won't tell anyone about. The group is still waiting on Flynn and Ryder, triplets alongside Anxelin, to show up.
"How's Mal?" Jay asks, popping open a beer bottle and passing another unopened one to Doug.
"Good. The morning sickness is slowing down, and she's got a lot more energy," Ben replies. He doesn't add that she's also become a sex maniac, but based on the look Doug is giving him, he is very well aware of that due to Evie's pregnancy.
"You had to get food at three AM for her yet?" Chad chuckles.
"No, not yet. Her appetite's changed a lot, though. She can't have alcohol or coffee-"
"Mal before noon with no coffee, after a night of getting up to throw up for long periods of time?" Carlos says incredulously.
"Yes."
"How the hell are you still alive?" Jay adds.
"Duh, he wakes her up after noon," Chad supplies. Practically everyone laughs.
"No, she gets up at her normal time. She's started drinking tea, but she won't eat anything fried because the smell makes her sick, and she's also developed an aversion to strawberries."
"Ben, I hate to break it to you," Jay tells him, clapping him on the shoulder, "But Mal's been replaced by someone that looks and sounds exactly like her, but isn't her."
That earns a chuckle from everyone, even Harry, who is one of the most pessimistic and sarcastic people (Well, half-dwarf) Ben has ever met.
(And to think, Happy's his father.)
"No, it's her all right. Trust me."
No one asks for clarification, though a few of the guys (See: Jay and Carlos) seem both unsettled and annoyed at the way he phrased it.
Flynn and Ryder finally show up and they make their way to Tapper's for their weekly round of drinks (Or maybe two or three, depending on the collective mood). Ben settles into step beside Doug, the only father of the group, who just so happens to be staring almost wistfully at a picture of Tegan.
"Is it hard? Being a father, that is?" Ben asks.
"For me? Yeah. But for you, it'll be different."
"How so?"
"Well, you've been the king for eight years."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"As the king, you have to make decisions about things that affect everyone in Auradon. You're already like a giant dad to all the people here."
"But I don't know those people; it's different."
"It may be different, but it's the real world experience that matters."
Ben supposes that Doug is right. He'd always thought his dad was a pretty good father, and he'd only been king for half the time Ben has been when he became a father.
Maybe he did have the real world experience.
But he didn't really think that mattered.
He's growing more and more confident about this parenting thing by the day.
A/N: The next chapter will be up soon!
If anyone's curious: Anxelin appears in at least one of the School of Secrets videos, though her name is not given. She might appear in the novel, which I still haven't read yet, but I don't know. She is the daughter of Rapunzel and Eugene/Flynn, if you could infer that by the names I gave to her brothers/my OCs, Flynn and Ryder.
(Harry and Tegan are also an OCs, though I think you guessed that about Tegan.)
I also made 'downtown Arendelle' a place for two reasons. One: the few maps of Auradon I could find I feel are somewhat hard to make out. Two: Arendelle was literally the first kingdom name to pop into my head.
And two final things to conclude this author's note: The first is that the boys' "usual" bar is influenced by Wreck-It Ralph.
The second is… *drumroll please…*
THE BABY'S GENDER/NAME DECISION SYSTEM WILL BE REVEALED NEXT CHAPTER!