Thirty minutes later, they sat in his office at his desk. The nearly 500 photos all on the screen. Mal scrolled and deleted any of the ones that weren't perfect. She could feel Ben's eyes more on her than the photos, but she wasn't about to ask him to stop. Things were quiet between them, but it was better than any awkward conversations he could come up with.

"Hey Mal?" Ben asked quietly as she deleted a bright photo due to the flash in the darkness. She turned to him slightly, he was using the same tone he had used at the hidden lake. Too gentle, too scared. His words about to carry a heavy weight she feared. "I was thinking about our-"

A loud knock came at the door, just through the archway that separated his office from the small entryway where he could hang his coat or a wet umbrella. "Your majesty," one of his several servants called out. "Your requested meal has arrived."

So much for any conversation.

As soon as Ben disappeared into the entryway, Mal stood from the desk and took the laptop with her to the wood floor. There, she continued to edit for the few minutes that Ben was occupied with whichever of his several servants had brought their meal. She couldn't help but wonder what he had been trying to say before he was interrupted.

She looked at a few of the ones she had snapped without him knowing as she waited. The one by the fountain, before she knew he was her subject, the few she had taken in the restricted section, the ones she had snuck on the way back to his office.

They were all beautiful and impossible to get rid of, even though they were definitely not campaign worthy. Still, it was easier looking at the pictures than Ben himself. There was just too much that could go wrong with Ben himself. More of a chance he could do or say something stupid. Promise something else that could ruin all of their lives.

His pictures were physically silent, but they said a lot through his eyes and his smile, or even his simple body language in the candids. He was more expressive, more open than she had previously realized. It was making it nearly impossible for her to stay impartial for the several days left in their agreement.

The conversation between his parents and Fairy Godmother wasn't helping either. She could be more dangerous than her mother? Her mother had been scorned by a prince and a king? It had been eye opening to say the least, and Ben right up against her the entire time had changed things for sure.

It made her head all loopy and her quite confused. She wished she could talk to Evie about it, but she was currently busy, or so Mal guessed. She no longer had relationship issues so she would no longer understand. Mal was on her own for that one.

Ben's chuckle pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see him holding the tray stocked with the food he had ordered for them, his face transformed into the cutest chuckle face she had ever seen. "What are you doing on the floor?" He asked, setting the tray down on one of the free tables and leaning down to help her up.

She refused with a quick shake of her head. "It's a VK thing." She admitted, feeling a small blush come to her cheeks.

"You prefer to be low to the ground?" Ben asked. "Less chance of someone hurting you?" He wondered.

Mal shook her head. "Your desk is too comfortable," she admitted. "I would fall asleep before I could get anything done."

What Ben did next, she didn't expect. He pulled the tray of food from the table and set it down next to her, then he sat down himself. "You could have said something earlier," he said. "I would have found you the most uncomfortable chair."

Even she laughed at that. "You could try," she answered, "but I think every chair here in Auradon would be too comfortable." She admitted.

"Hear ye, hear ye," Ben announced to no one else in the large, mostly dark office. "The King sends forth a proclamation to find the most uncomfortable chair for his girlfriend. Anyone with a worthy chair should present it accordingly."

Mal laughed again, the blush coming across her cheeks again at his words. She wasn't sure if he had realized what he had said. "The floor is good enough for the daughter of Maleficent." She looked right at him. "And your girlfriend?" She asked, feeling a little evil. "What did Audrey do to you to earn an uncomfortable chair?"

The blush that crossed his cheeks, the crown lopsided on his head, his hair wild, made her want to capture the photo, capture his lips, pull him closer to her and never let him go. The photo would have to do.

"More photos?" Ben asked softly, the tiredness leaking into his voice though curfew wasn't for a few more hours.

"Just one last one," Mal answered quietly, taking in his absolute beauty as he leaned against the desk with her. "We already have enough to edit." She forced herself to turn back to the computer screen and away from him, just in case she got the idea to do something completely stupid.

"But first, food." Ben's hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her attention away from the screen and the thousands of faces of him and the few glimmers of purple in between. "You've never had food from the MuShu, have you?" He asked.

She shook her head with a smile. "Just the leftovers from the isle, and even this junk didn't last forever," she explained with a small chuckle.

She looked down as he handed her the wooden sticks. She had never seen them before, or like that. There had been several of them in the junk heaps, stained with the dark brown of the salty sauce, broken and snapped from use and trash processing, but she had never seen them New. She couldn't help but stare, almost afraid to grab them.

"What are those?" She asked, her voice quiet, almost scared. When she had first seen them on the isle she considered them torture devices, wondering if the darkened stains had actually been blood.

A smile that she considered almost wicked crossed his face. "You've never used chopsticks before?" He asked, then his eyes became alight with a kind of excitement that Mal wished could stay there forever. He was so childlike in his excitement and it was absolutely beautiful.

Then, as with everything else he had caught her up on, he told her all about chopsticks and how to use them. Showing her with a kind of ease that shouldn't have been legal.

Using them herself however, was the most awkward experience ever. She could grip whatever it was loosely but then it quickly would fall back onto the tray, or her lap and he would just laugh and she tried not to get too angry. She knew how bad magic would look, Especially after that conversation they had overheard with Fairy Godmother and his parents, but she did want to impress him.

She liked when he laughed. When the laugh was so powerful that it made him smile so big that it traced all the way to his eyes. The kind of laugh that made his belly shake and tears threaten to stream from his eyes.

She wished she could take a picture, but the camera was too far away and her fingers and hands were covered in the sweet brown sauce, so she would have to keep that image of him in her mind, Especially If things didn't work out between them.

For the moment, she wanted to keep him laughing. "These things must be torture devices," she spoke, after she had dropped the sticky piece of chicken for what must have been the tenth time at least. "Who would willingly use these to eat?" She asked.

He continued to laugh and she was relieved she could still do that. The conversation they had overheard had made her fear for their relationship, whatever it was at that point. What were Ben's thoughts on the whole thing?

"Come here," He said, once he stopped laughing. "Give me your hand," He continued And She offered it slowly and carefully.

His hands were always warm, and that took her off guard, that and how soft they were. They had never known a single day of hard work it seemed and they were pleasantly warm, he was always pleasantly warm it seemed and she had to admit that she missed being so close to him over the last few days.

She wasn't even paying attention to his words as he taught her about the chopsticks, but the way his lips moved, and the way his fingers brushed against hers and his patience and kindness. Everything good about him.

And everything terrible about her.

Maybe he was right, maybe Audrey and Jane were right, maybe Fairy Godmother and Beast and Belle were right.

Plainly, she didn't deserve Ben, and everyone seemed to know it but her.

She knew she should leave, let that be the end of things, like everyone else wanted, but she was selfish. She wanted more time with him.

Luckily, mastering the chopsticks wasn't completely difficult, and after a few of his instructions she could master it well enough to at least get some food to her mouth. Ben seemed quite satisfied with himself.

"How are the fairy tales coming along? Have you read The Witch's Knot yet?" Ben asked a few minutes later, and she dropped the few noodles between her chopsticks out of surprise. They were pretty much done with dinner anyway.

"Not yet," She answered. "I've been a little preoccupied with classes and my mother doesn't know how to shut up at night so-" she stopped. Why was she telling him so much all of a sudden? It wasn't like they were together anymore or actually she had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't going to be the one to open up first.

As Belle had said: She wasn't capable of Love.

He just smiled and stood up slowly. She kept her eyes on him as he strolled over to one of the large bookshelves, crammed full with books in pristine condition. It only took him a few minutes to find what he was looking for and then he pulled one of the large pillows from the chairs and sat back down next to her.

She couldn't help but let out a short laugh as he sat on the large cushion looking satisfied and comfortable. She would never be comfortable on such a big cushion like that.

They were from completely different worlds.

She decided to focus on the big, well loved book between his hands as he sat facing her. She looked back up to him for an explanation. It looked like one of the books that should have been tossed to the isle long ago. It seemed almost completely out of place with all of the pristine perfect books and technology around them.

"It's one of my favorites," Ben explained. "It was my mother's before she met my father and her father read it to her, and she read it to me," he continued and Mal could see the blush as it crossed his cheeks. "I flip through it when I'm stressed sometimes," he admitted.

She could see the title and the picture of a happy child on the front, nearly worn clean off through the fabric cover. It was a book of fairytales, or so she guessed, unable to read whichever foreign language it was.

"The Witch's Knot is in there?" She asked, wondering why the heck else he would ask about it and then pull down a different book. He nodded in approval and she knew that she had to get back to editing his photos, but she wanted to keep him there, keep him looking at her like that. "Will you read it to me?" She asked, feeling kind of stupid. No one had ever read her anything.

What was she? A child? Of course he wouldn't-

"I was hoping you would ask," Ben answered quietly. "It's one my father tore out of all of the other fairytale books, because of his feelings toward magic and how he views the ending and the characters, but luckily I have my copy and a few others exist."

Mal smiled. Of course, King- Past King Beast wouldn't want any positive views of magic anywhere. Especially not in children's fairy tales full of wonderment and imagination.

She pulled her attention away from Ben and back toward the laptop, still displaying the hundreds and hundreds of pictures they had taken. "Do you mind?" She asked, pulling it back up to her lap.

"Go ahead," He answered.

She set out to work and he began to read.

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, where magic is everywhere and abundant, there lived a young witch in training.

It was a good start as she scrolled through the hundreds of pictures and picked out the best hundred or so to edit and have him choose from.

She was training to be a good witch, helping the citizens of the small town she grew up in. She spent her days in the forest outside of the town learning the helpful herbs and spices that would heal the ailments of the townspeople, and her nights reading through all of the spells and charms for the people.

Of course, she would be a good witch and not evil at all. Evil wasn't allowed in Auradon, well until Ben had made his proclamation.

One day, when she was searching the forest, the crown prince and his men rode through to the small town and nearly ran her over. She was ready to use the forbidden magics, but as soon as she saw him, she was struck by his beauty.

It sounded like the meet cute from hell. And yet the same thing has happened between her and Ben, in a way.

Not only was he beautiful to look at, but he was generous and kind and perfect. The witch in training could feel her heart change, flutter and become untamed and chase him wherever he went.

That sounded eerily similar to their situation, and she made a mental note to ask him about it later, when she wasn't so distracted by his photos.

He visited the small town often, learning about it to better understand when he became king. The witch in training found herself distracted whenever he came around. She knew she couldn't be distracted, and that the crown prince and future king would never return her feelings, so instead of telling him about them, she decided to knot them up in string.

A simple binding spell from the sounds of it.

For years and years he would come by her little shop, asking for charms, pendants and potions to make him a better future king, and every time she would give them to him, feel her emotions bubble up and add another knot after he left.

Maybe that's what she should do, If things were to go sour, and Mal knew they would.

Eventually, when the witch finished her training and became a full fledged witch, the knots had formed into a decent sized mass of knots, but the prince still came around and she added to it every single time, tying her feelings away, hiding them the only place she knew they would be safe.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The crown prince returned to her little shop one day after not being there for quite a while, so long that she thought he would never come again, and asked her for one last spell.

"I am now the king of this fine land and I desire one last spell," he said. "I wish to woo a fair maiden and ask for her hand."

The witch knew it was the last time she would see the crown prince, then king, so she knotted the mass of knots one last time and presented it to him. She knew he could never return her feelings, but there was so much love hidden in it that she knew no woman would be able to resist him.

"Present this to the maiden and assure her that it will keep her bed warm even in the coldest of winters," the witch explained. "In less than a fortnight, she will be wooed."

Then she watched him go one last time. Knowing he would never return. Knowing that what she felt for him would never be.

"What a happy ending for a witch," Mal spoke out loud as she filtered through a few of him in the same pose on the laptop screen. "I can't see why your father wanted to get rid of it. Torturing magical beings, That's right up his alley!"

Ben just laughed next to her. "It's not over yet," he answered, "but if you want me to stop-" he trailed off Before she could even cut him off.

"Go on," she answered.

Years passed and the witch learned to forget about the king and the feelings she had had for him. As long as they had stayed knotted up in the blanket she had given him to woo the other maiden, she didn't feel them. She focused solely on her craft and helping those in the small town. She kept to herself, only going out to help others and never taking anything for herself.

She had almost completely forgotten about the king when he appeared in her shop one afternoon, carrying the mass of knots that was the blanket.

The moment she saw him all of the feelings began rushing back, burning her like a fire that she had tried to put out unsuccessfully.

"Your spell didn't work, Witch," He said, though he wasn't mad at all. "Every woman I have tried to woo has only told me that I already feel for someone else."

The witch tried to keep her feelings back, control them, but after years they were just too strong and she began to feel them. "What can I do for you, your majesty?" She asked.

After a long silence, the king spoke. "I couldn't figure out who they claimed I had feelings for, but when the blanket snagged on a tree branch and began to unravel, I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Let me fix it for you," The witch answered, hoping she could seal her feelings back up and make him happy again. Whatever she could do to stop the burn of feeling.

"I don't want anymore spells from you." His words almost hurt. "For years I have been coming to you for things I thought I needed but I have never left here satisfied."

The witch was scared he would sentence her to the ultimate fate, but he just kept smiling.

"I just want you," He said, taking her hands.

"As the King commands, so it shall be…"