Disclaimer: Descendants does not belong to me.

Chad does not have a pool party for his birthday that year (although she had had plenty of swimming lessons by the time it rolled around). Instead, there are a range of activities and entertainers - including a magician who does little tricks like pulling coins from behind the children's ears and making little red balls disappear from the cups in which they are placed. She cannot seem to tear herself away from watching him. She knows that it is not magic magic the way that her mother had magic (that she so so does not have), but she is still fascinated and cannot seem to look away from the movements of his hands and the way he directs the attention of the watchers wherever he wants it to go.

Chad had left her behind after she had given him a nod reassuring him that it was okay. He knows that she does not care to be in the middle of a crowd. The birthday boy is the center of attention and in the middle of a large group that is traveling in a pack from activity to activity, so she would have wanted to stay out of the middle of that even if the magician had not caught her attention. As it is, she stays where she is and watches the man do card tricks for some of the parents that are content to sit in one spot instead of following after their children.

It is Ben that eventually appears at her elbow with that expression that he gets when he is noticing something that you are not sure whether or not you want him to notice.

"Do you want to learn?" He asks her with a small nod of his head in the proper direction. She isn't sure what he is asking her exactly. He knows (some days she thinks that even people who have never met her must know) that she has no magic of her own. She blinks at him because she has no idea what it is that she should say. "I can ask my mother," he tells her sounding more confident with every word. "She could see if he would teach us."

It's the us that keeps her from shaking her head and sliding away somewhere out of sight from this boy that is paying her attention in the middle of the party where some of the parents are shifting their gazes in their direction (because the adults always watch Ben and standing beside him brings notice of its own).

"Us?" She says as if the word is an unfamiliar one on her tongue.

"Us," he repeats with one of his Ben smiles that never seem to show up i n any of the pictures of him that appear on the cover of magazines or newspapers. "I think it looks like fun."

She nods her head because she does not have any words. It isn't magic. It won't be magic - not real magic. She knows that, but she still can't make herself not want the appearance of it that it represents. She wants to know, and Ben wants to know with her. He doesn't wait for her to talk - Ben is good about that. He just heads over toward the group of ladies surrounding his mother and finagles his way into the middle of them before they realize that he has done it.

Things happen quickly once Queen Belle is on board with something and arrangements are made before the party goers have all made their way off of the castle grounds.

Ben stays on for two weeks after the party. This had not been in any way a part of the original plan, but Chad and Ben like to play together (and don't get to do it very often). Queen Belle and King Adam had come to some sort of an agreement with Aunt Ella and Uncle Henry without her getting close enough to overhear, but everyone seems happy with the spur of the moment plan (royalty, she knew even that young, did not get to do very many things on the spur of the moment).

The party magician agrees to teach, so she and Ben take lessons in what the man calls prestidigitation. Chad comes just long enough to learn how to hide something up his sleeve without getting spotted and declares that that is all he cares to know. She and Ben learn more than that. She is good with the cards; Ben is good with slipping things away from others without them noticing. When the magician figures out how good, he calls a halt to the lessons and tells their parents there is nothing more needed but for them to practice on their own. She suspects that the man has realized that he has essentially taught the Crown Prince of Auradon how to be a pickpocket and wants to make his escape before he gets into trouble for it.

It's not like Ben uses his new skills to do anything bad. He just thinks it is funny to slip items from people's pockets and put them back again before they notice. She thinks it is funny as well, but she isn't as smooth at it as Ben is who looks like it comes to him as easily as breathing (some of the children on the Isle need this skill like it is necessary for their survival and still aren't as calm and collected about it as her future High King).

They only keep it a secret from Chad for two days before they confess after watching him go nuts for three hours thinking that he had truly lost the cellphone that he had begged for and hesitantly been granted for his birthday. Chad also thinks it is funny after he gets over being annoyed and spends the rest of Ben's visit issuing a series of challenges that their prince never fails to meet.

The three of them have a wonderful time. It's a treat for Ben to get to spend that much time away from the constant politics of his home. It's a treat for Chad to have another boy his age around for an extended period of time. It's a treat for her to have the number of kids around her that treat her like her presence isn't unwanted to double.

It's a good two weeks, or it was a good two weeks until she ruined it.

She ruined it by shattering the glass of one of Aunt Ella's china cabinets and slicing her hands and wrists on the broken shards in her sleep on Ben's last night before the boys could stop her. Ben (kindhearted, helpful Ben) had gone running for the adults before Chad could tell him not to go. She supposes that it doesn't really matter. She had known even as they waited for the sounds of concerned and rudely awakened grownups to get closer that their secret keeping would not hold up on this occasion. Chad had met her eyes even as he wrapped the t-shirt he had worn to bed around her lower arms and pressed and they had both understood without saying any words that they never would have been able to hide this - Ben or no Ben. There was too much blood. There was too much glass.

There were too many broken things - not least of which was her.