It's Chemistry

Chapter Four

Dedication: Not quite as many reviews for the third chapter as there were for the first chapter, but thank you to everyone who favorited or followed the story. All of these positive responses that I've been getting are what helps me get the muse to continue.

After Mal and Ben had gone to his room, things between them hadn't exactly been smoothed out. Mal was still being distant, and Ben still wasn't 100% sure as to why she was acting that way. Sure, she had mentioned that she hadn't dated while living on the island, but was she really that unsure of what a date entailed that she didn't want him to kiss her? She had also mentioned that she wasn't sure that a connection could have been formed between them without the help of the spell, but now that the spell was off, unknowingly to her, Ben was going to show her otherwise.

"Mal, can I show you something?" Ben asked as Mal stood by the window looking out.

"Sure... what is it?" Mal asked as she turned to face him.

"This..." Ben said as he carried a small square box over to where Mal stood.

"Ben..." Mal said cautiously.

"It's not a ring Mal, you don't have to worry." Ben said as he opened the small box and showed Mal a perfectly preserved rose petal.

"Why are you showing this to me?" Mal asked in a small voice.

"My mom kept it after she broke my father's curse. She said that it reminded her of the beauty that can come from such a seemingly unassuming thing. She fell in love with my father when he seemed like nothing more than a selfish and controlling Beast. She looked past his appearance and looked to his heart and found love there. When I was old enough to understand that same meaning, she gave it to me. When she fell in love with my father, he seemed to be a villain... and she loved him anyway. She hoped that by giving it to me that I could find the same thing. She was nothing more than a commoner and an outsider, falling in love with a cursed Prince. I don't care about your past Mal, nor do I know what your mother's intentions are by being okay with you and your friends coming here, but I'm showing you this to let you know that I see love in your heart. You might not know what love is, but it doesn't matter. I love you Mal. I really do." Ben said and when he looked up to see her reaction, he saw tears filling Mal's eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Mal said as she quickly wiped the tears away and turning back to look out the window.

"Please talk to me Mal." Ben pleaded.

"I can't..." Mal said as she clenched her hands into fists and closed her eyes.

"Yes you can Mal... I won't be upset." Ben said causing Mal to spin around suddenly, her eyes glimmering bright green.

"I can't tell you the truth Ben. I don't know how to tell you the truth. There's a huge chance that if I tell you, that you won't want to be around me anymore, and then everything would have been for nothing. You might think that you won't be upset, but you also don't know what would happen to me if you dismiss me from your presence and I fail." Mal said angrily.

"Just tell me what your mother wants you to do, and we can figure everything else out after that." Ben said as he moved towards Mal, only for her to duck out of the way and walk past him.

"She wants me to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand, okay?" Mal said. "Happy now? I gave you a love spell so that you would ask me to be your girlfriend and I would get to be up front at your coronation. I'm supposed to steal the wand and then bring it back to my mother. Evie, Carlos and Jay all know about the plan. Everything that my mother told us to do; everything that I've done to get us closer to that goal, including the love spell on you, they have known about. That's also part of why Evie was trying to get to Chad. She thought that maybe if she was with him, that she could get closer to the wand as well, especially given who his parents are, but he ended up being a huge ass-hat, and used her." Mal said with a glare.

"Mal... the love spell is gone. It washed away in the lake today." Ben said quickly before he could think better of it.

"What are you talking about?" Mal asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"It's the Enchanted Lake Mal, did you really think that by me taking a swim in it, it wouldn't wash away any kind of spell that someone is under?" Ben asked.

"I never considered it. Then again, I had no idea that it was called the Enchanted Lake." Mal scoffed.

"The point is Mal, my feelings for you are real. I love you, with or without a love spell. I wouldn't have shown you the rose petal or told you about my parents if I didn't. And honestly, I never even showed that petal to Audrey or even mentioned it to her. She would ask me about the Enchanted Rose of legend, but I would never tell her what she wanted to know, because deep down, I knew that I never loved her. I was waiting for the right girl to come along to share that part of me with. I never thought that I would find that girl in the daughter of a villain, but I did, and I couldn't be happier that it's you." Ben said, his inner Beast growing and shrinking as if breathing heavily, ready to come out at any moment.

"You can have any girl that you want... why me?" Mal asked as she stared intently at him.

"I have no idea Mal. You make me feel something that I've never felt with anyone else before. Shouldn't that be enough? I love you, and whether you know how to love or not, my feelings for you aren't going to change any time soon. And as I said before, you told me the truth and I'm not upset. It's something that has probably crossed my parents' minds as a possibility of happing with you and your friends here. What I am upset about is that you are belittling yourself because of who your mother is. I hate that you think so little of your importance, and is your heart really into doing something that you don't really want to do?" Ben asked.

"That's not fair Ben." Mal retorted.

"Life's not fair Mal; you should know that already. Was it fair that my father sent all of the villains to the Isle of the Lost? No. Was it fair that you and your friends, and all of the other children there are being talked down to because of your parents? No. Is it fair that you are being forced to steal the wand even though you know it's not the right thing to do? No. Nothing in life is fair, even for a Prince, so don't even try to bring that up." Ben argued.

After Ben's little speech, Mal was silent for a few minutes as she looked between him and the small box with the rose petal in it and then back at him. Walking over to where the box was sitting on Ben's bed, Mal picked it up and stared at it. Gently picking it up, Mal studied the petal intently for a moment before turning around to look at Ben.

"What does your mother want you to do with this petal once you find the girl that you love like she loves your father?" Mal asked.

"She never told me. She did say that I would know what to do with it once I found that love. Do you know a spell or something that could preserve it as a pendant or something?" Ben asked.

"No. Magic doesn't work on the island, so I've never learned to actually use magic much. I was going with my gut when I started changing everyone's hair." Mal said with a shrug.

"Where is the spell book?" Ben asked.

"In mine and Evie's room." Mal replied.

"Then in the morning, when you go back to get ready for school, grab the book, and then at lunch we could look through it together and find something. Until then, I'll keep the petal here." Ben said with a firm voice, leaving no room for argument.

"Sounds good to me." Mal said with a shrug.

"Now, will you push me away if I kiss you again?" Ben asked as he pulled Mal towards him.

"Kiss me and find out." Mal replied.

As Ben started to lean in, Mal pulled away and moved past him. When Mal tried to move back towards, she was forcefully pulled backwards and away from him. Before either of them could say or do anything, Mal was engulfed in bright green smoke. And before the smoke that was engulfing Mal disappeared, another cloud of bright green smoke engulfed Ben.