The foreign group left on Sunday afternoon and Ben send a quick text to Mal telling her that he needed to rest because the group was exhausting and he would see her in class the next day. Mal felt like that was another excuse not to have a conversation with her about her wish to go away before settling down, and she wanted him to know that after considering not been near him she had decided that staying with him was more important for her. So with that in mind, Mal changed her pajamas for some equally comfortable clothes and went on her way to the castle to tell Ben that she was going to stay with him after finishing school.
To her luck when she arrived at the castle Alexandra was coming out, and she had to tell Mal that Ben was in his room. "I'm pretty sure that he is just playing video games or sleeping. That delegation really tired him out they were kind people but terribly boring. Poor Ben the second they say goodbye he barely made to his room and asked for his food to be send up, he was supposed to go out with his parents, but they decided to go alone so he could rest. I was going to walk a little but now that I know that you are going to keep him company I guess I can have my normal jog without feeling guilty to leave him alone."
With that, she went off, and Mal made his way to Ben's room with ease with the knowledge that aside from the King there was no one else, being Sunday everyone else had the day off. She found herself imagining scenarios where they could take advantage of their solitude and found herself blushing from the images that started invaded her mind, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be alone with Ben.
Mal shook those thoughts from her head, and soon enough she found herself in front of his door and giving it a little knock open it without waiting for his response. Turning her head to the left Mal was able to see Ben laying on his bed throwing a ball towards the ceiling just for it to go up and then back to his hands and then he repeated the action, she tried calling his name but then noticed that he had his earphones on. With a smile on her face, she made her way towards his bed and plopped herself next to him making Ben jump startled with the sudden presence next to him, the look of confusion and fear that he initially had soon changed to a smile when he realized who just scared him.
"Mal! What are you doing here? You scare me." Even though his word seemed to be a reproach her presence neither did his tone or expression back that sentiment. She didn't answer but proceed to take her sneakers off and lay next to him cuddling to his side; Ben was quick to turn himself so they would be facing each other. Mal gave Ben quick kisses on his face making him smile while telling him how much she had missed him.
"Ben I was thinking about what I told you the other day. I know that it was a surprised and that I should have tell you about it from the start instead of just worrying you, but I guess I was scared of what you would think." He didn't make a move to say anything and Mal wonder how mad was Ben at her and decided that he also needed to take his own advice and be open with her and she told him just that.
Ben nodded and told her that he had been hurt not only by her inability to trust him with her worries but also for her desire to move away and have a future that didn't include him. "I was being selfish Mal; you shouldn't have to choose the life that I have. Since I was born, I have known that my future was this and to my luck, I love to serve my people. The fact that I could help you and our friends to have a better life makes me extremely happy, I wished that I could give you the life you want, but I guess that I can't have it all."
Mal felt her chest constrict with the realization that her wishes to travel the world and get to know may be a reality but the cost of it was for her to lose Ben forever. Without noticing what was going on her eyes started to fill with tears and Mal had to blink a couple of times to be able to see, Ben seemed to realized what was happening a little late and he was cleaning the tears that were coming down her cheeks.
"Please don't cry. The last thing I wanted was to make cry I'm not really myself now, those people are exhausting. They wouldn't stop talking and asking a question, and if I'm honest, I was barely paying attention to them thinking of you." Ben put his face in his hands groaning at the way he had said everything that was in his mind without any filter and had hurt Mal. He knew that she going away didn't necessary mean the end of their relationship, but he worried that Mal maybe would decide that he wasn't in her plans in any aspect. He managed to tell her that he knew that she leaving wouldn't mean the end of her and apologize for giving her the idea that he did.
Mal told him that she had decided to stay with him, assuring him that she rather be with him than traveling alone around the world. "We can see the world together, I do think the experiences would be better, and I can paint anywhere."
Ben laughed and shook his head "We truly are meant for each other, we are a couple of fools sometimes. I've been asking around to see what schools have the best art courses; I was thinking that you might want to spend your last year studying there. I found one that is supposed to have the best program for art students and also a renown one for designers if Evie wishes she could accompany you there."
The girl was in shocked, Ben stood from the bed and walked towards his desk and for the first time Mal notice that it was covered in brochures from school. She joined him at his desk and looked over the amount of information he had gathered for her; Ben picked one that had little annotations on the cover and gave it to her so she could inspect it by herself.
"When did you find all of this? I thought you were busy with the delegation this week." Mal wondered for a moment if he had indeed been busy or did he just didn't wish to see her because he was mad, the fact that she had just accused him of avoiding her wasn't lost on Ben. With a hard look, Ben assure Mal that he had been very busy, but he was still able to spend late nights and early morning researching the information that he thought would be needed by her, he wanted to be supportive.
Feeling a little bad for having talk that way to Ben Mal tried to downplay her earlier comment, but he cut her off. "I think you might want to check this brochure before making any decision; this is just an idea you are free to do your own search or decide to go away after school. "
"You are mad." Ben face change from a stern look to one apologetic one in a second, he took a step forward and embraced Mal. The girl hug him back with the same force he was putting in his embrace she could hear him mumbling something but wasn't able to decipher what he was saying. Mal knew that if she let go of Ben, she would be able to understand what he was saying but she couldn't find it in herself to do it, Mal would ask him later what he said.
A couple of minutes later they let go, and Ben smiled at Mal, and she remembered that he had told her something before, hoping he wouldn't be put off by she asking him to repeat himself he did so. Then she asked what was making him laugh. Ben told her that he had apologized for his tone and told her a story trying to excuse his behavior, but apparently, he was so tired that he wasn't able to speak loud enough. Mal joined him laughing and taking his hand she walked towards the bed she told him to lay down.
"They are nice people Mal, but they talk so much! And they have so many rituals for every little thing I swear the only normal dinner we had was when you were here." Ben continue to tell Mal about his week, and even though it could constitute a rant, Mal found it so cute when Ben complain about things because he really never does things like that. His head was on her lap while Mal played with his head listening to Ben complained about the group while assuring her that they were truly the nicest people ever. Every now and then he would turn his head, and Mal would give a kiss the first ones were quick but as the stories progress they got longer and longer until Ben had her pinned on his bed and was kissing her nonstop.
Mal had missed so much this side of Ben, for a moment they were focusing on them, and just them, no other people, or studies were on their mind. Neither of them knew how much time had passed until Alexandra was knocking on the door repeatedly telling them that Ben's parents were arriving at the castle and they needed to stop whatever they were doing and Mal needed to come to her room. Mal pushed Ben away even though she hated to do so and went on her way to Alexandra's room with Ben following her like a little puppy, they could hear the voices of Belle and Adam coming from the stairs, and they started running.
Alexandra was waiting for them and quickly press play to the movie she had on her tv which they had already watch weeks ago, to make it more believable the three of them were sitting on the floor. Mal, who was in the middle, was holding the popcorn and Ben stuff his face with some of it while Alexandra started mocking him about being a pig. Just then Belle and Adam appeared on the door and looked at the three of them with suspicious looks, but when Ben tried to say hello with his mouth full making the girls gag, and Adam laughed they let it go. All of them went downstairs to prepare dinner while talking but before his parents started making questions that would make it obvious that he had spent the afternoon making out with his girlfriend, Ben told them about the brochures Mal was looking at.
She stiffened unsure about the reactions of Ben's parents, but both of them surprise her being extremely supportive. Just like Ben had told her she could decide to do her last year of school in another kingdom or go to study away after graduation. Alexandra was particular excited about the idea of Mal going away on her last year because the best art schools were on her kingdom and she would love to have Mal with her next year. Ben stuck his tongue at his friend and told her to chill with the excitement while he hugged Mal from behind telling Alexandra that it was Mal's decision. He also mentioned that Evie might be interested too once she could go over the brochures.
Ben tried to suggest that Mal stayed the night, but his parents told him that she needed to go back to her dorm, but maybe they could ring FGM to tell her that she was going to be late so they could finish watching their movie. They accepted and went back to Alexandra's room to watch the movie, the first 30 minutes of the movie were constantly interrupted by Ben's parents appearing out of nowhere to check on them. When the decided that it was safe to leave the three teenagers alone and went to sleep, Ben took Mal's hand and told Alexandra that they were going back to his room and that he would walk back to her dorm so she could go to sleep if she wanted.
Putting an alarm on his phone, the King proceed to make out with his girlfriend for the remaining of their time together. Later he walked her home, and they talked a little more about what her plans for the future were going to be, Mal admitted to being overwhelmed, but she thanked Ben for the information. Honestly, she never wondered if maybe her friends also wanted to venture into the world instead of staying in Auradon. Evie would love to learn more about designing clothes, but her friend was full of talents so who knows what she would want to do with her life. If she wasn't wrong, Mal had also perceived that something was going on between Evie and Azis so maybe she needed to factor him into her friend decision.
Again they said their goodbyes outside her building, but this time they spent a little more time saying goodbye on the side of the building, and the idea of living away from Ben seems excruciating. Later that night when she talked to Evie about everything that happened and the girl started looking at the information Ben had given Mal, she then sent a quick text to their friends and told them that they needed to talk first thing tomorrow. "Do you want to go Mal?"
"I do. I want to be with Ben but every time I looked at the brochures I get so excited, is only a year if after that I want to study more, well at least I know that. If I stay here, I'm not giving myself a chance, and Belle is right I'm going to resent Ben. I know is going to be hard, but at least I'll have Alexandra with me, and I'll find a way to see Ben once in a while, he can travel, right? Not every weekend but sometimes?" Mal ramble like that and Evie could see that the girl was getting agitated about the prospect of leaving Auradon.
Evie managed to calm Mal enough that they both could go to sleep and before going to class Jay and Carlos came, and both girls told them about the possibility to go away for a year. Both of them seemed shocked that Mal would even consider leaving Ben but they were happy that he had understood about her wishes to study. "Look Mal; we would go wherever you want. We are family, and we are going to stick together."
Mal fear that they would say something like that, she was having a hard enough time trying to decide if she was going to be able to leave Ben and now to consider the repercussions on his friend's relationships was too much. Evie intervene telling the guys that they should stay, they had a life made already and they would be fine without them. Mal turned to see Evie, and the girl smiled at her "I want to go too, designer school is going to be the best experience I could have. Is a year and then we can see what we do after."
The boys didn't look convinced, and so the four of them went to the woods to their old hang out place and talked things out. They send texts to everyone telling them that they needed a day off and so they spent that time together talking about their lives how much they had learned about the world and each other, they were different people, and they look forward to seeing how much they could make of themselves. By the end of the day they had made a decision, the girls were going to study abroad at the end of the year, with was only a couple months away, and the boys were staying, but they would visit each other as often as possible. They were family no matter where they were nothing would change that; Mal just hoped that she was making the right decision.
Notes
The end is near for this story, but I'll be writing one shots about how their lives go so at least there is that.