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!
Guest who asked about a third kid (And all the other guests and members who've asked about a third kid): I promise, I know all the secrets in terms of the future of the Adams family. I can't say any more than that.
Also: this chapter will briefly reference Evie's miscarriage that was first mentioned in Chapter 21. And, if you haven't read it yet, it's fine, but this chapter kind of/sort of brings up stuff from Candy Canes and Mistletoe, but it is not a prerequisite for this chapter to have read that.
Jay makes the winning goal and the crowd goes wild. Aria and Clara's excited cheers in his ears, in addition to Carlos and Evie's shouting at the top of their lungs and just the general volume of their box almost deafens him.
This is the first time ever that the Arendelle Frost Giants are competing against the Auradon City Beasts in the conference finals before heading into the league championships. While Chad's team is good, they've never gotten past the league semi-finals in all the years that he and Jay have been playing professionally, while Jay's team usually wins the whole league. They'd all pitched in for the biggest box in the stadium that is currently cramped with people and Aria, Clara, Tegan, and Henry have become tripping hazards more than once.
As he high fives Mal beside him, he notices Carlos sneaking out of the box.
Just a few minutes later, he's run onto the field and is kissing Jay.
"No way," Freddie laughs, walking closer to the windows.
"I believe my dear husband owes me twenty bucks," Audrey says to Ryder, pressing a kiss to his cheek and whispering something in his ear that makes him blush.
"How long has that been going on?" Anxelin asks, nodding towards the two.
"Years," Jane replies, grinning. "I've been trying to get them to do that for ages."
Jaylos trends on every social media site the next day.
Chad won't stop teasing Jay when Ben meets with them and Ryder for fittings for the wedding that Chad had somehow convinced Freddie to have on Christmas Eve. The dude is way too obsessed with the holiday.
Which, of course, means that all the suits are red and green and the boutonnieres would apparently be something Christmas themed- either holly or a poinsettia leaf. And they were forced to put on Santa hats while trying them on. A Christmas wedding, he knows, could be done really tastefully.
But, this is Chad and Freddie. It's going to the be the tackiest thing he's ever been a part of.
Ben as the best man gets the worse luck. A striped red and green tuxedo that he's sure was only picked because Freddie hates him. Well, not really, but enough to agree to him wearing a red and green striped tuxedo.
He's convinced that Ryder posts it online simply to humiliate him, and considering that, by the next morning, it has gone viral on the Internet, he really wants to punch him.
Even more so after Mal turns the photo into flyers and hangs them throughout Auradon as her next prank war attack.
And once his parents suggest getting a portrait done of him in it, he actually does punch him, but Ryder only laughs and tells him to loosen up about it.
Only a few days after the punching incident is guys' night. Girls' night is happening across town, but there's talk that, now that families are expanding, of making them both every other week with girls' one and guys' the next.
And the entire time, Ryder seems to be going back and forth between brooding and exhilarated.
"You look happy," Ben comments during one of the moments of brooding and receives a slight glare in response as Ryder throws back a shot. "What's up?"
"Audrey's stopping her birth control," he replies.
"You're trying?" Doug asks and Ryder nods. "You know it'll take a few months for everything to go back to normal, right?"
"I do now," he says. "Any advice?"
"Neither Aria nor Clara were exactly planned," Ben chuckles, "It was a rarity when Mal or I actually remembered to use contraception."
"Little more than I needed to know," Ryder replies.
"Evie and I were better, especially during the tense months after her miscarriage, but not by much. Henry was at least planned, though, so we beat the Adams on that front."
"It's not a race, Dwarfson. When are you going for Number 3?"
"Never. Are you?"
"Eventually. Maybe."
"Mal's not getting any younger."
"Neither is Audrey," Ben retorts and Ryder rolls his eyes. "Just stay relaxed about the whole affair. That's what's most important, I've heard."
"Think of it as that you're not not trying," Doug adds. "But if it gets to be a year or more, look into things. Might just be luck, could be something else. Evie will help you in anyway she can."
"Fashion, chemistry, and babies, in no particular order. The Holy Evelyn Dwarfson Trinity."
Doug and Ryder both laugh, and the latter seems a lot calmer now. Ben wonders if he and Mal had been like that after they found out she was pregnant with Aria. He's sure they were.
Mal laughs as he rolls so he's hovering over her and he starts to press kisses down her neck, making her shiver, when there's a knock at their bedroom door.
"We're busy!" Ben shouts.
"Open the damn door, Adams," Chad's voice calls. Ben and Mal look at each other in confusion before he hops off the bed, pulling a shirt on over his head lazily while Mal reaches down to pick up her robe. Once it's on, he opens the door and Chad barges right in and sinks down in Ben's desk chair.
"Come in," Ben says sarcastically to no one in particular before closing the door.
"Can we help you, Chad?" Mal asks. Chad's much less of a dick than he was in high school, but Mal can hold a grudge like nobody's business, even if Chad is 95% of the way to being forgiven.
"I can't do it. I can't marry her."
Ben and Mal glanced at each other.
"You wanna elaborate more?" Ben asks.
"I can't put it into words. I just- I don't know."
"Chad, if you're not ready to get married, you need to talk to Freddie, not us," Mal tells him, crouching down beside him.
"Of course I want to marry her," Chad says, sounding almost offended.
"Then I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to say."
"Marriage, it's forever. It's one of the biggest, most important things you do in your life."
"And that scares you?"
"You know Freddie and I had a rocky start. What if-"
"Chad," Mal interrupts, "You can't think like that about this. No what ifs. Marriage you jump in head first and don't think of ten years down the line. You think how can I love this person so fiercely and so much that I want to spend my life with them and how can I make them know it? That is how you keep up a marriage. It's what I've been doing for five years. I never thought I would even fall in love, much less get married and have kids. Freddie and Evie and Carlos and Jay and all of us who have benefitted from being here… That's our thought process on this."
Chad nods and stands up shakily, pressing a quick kiss to Mal's cheek and clapping Ben on the back as he leaves. The second the door shuts, Ben pulls Mal close.
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
A/N: Until March 4!