Family Maintenance

Author's Note

Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in-between, another chapter of Family Maintenance. I updated TGAOUF and I wanted to keep the two stories in tune with each other so I decided to just throw this in. Enjoy the fluff in this chapter because the next few are going to get all doozy.

Leave reviews, please! :D

**This story was given to me by WanderlustandFreedom. The majority of the ideas/outline are HERS.**

The tutoring was really helping, Mal had to admit. It'd only been a few weeks, but she had gone from having mostly C's to high B's and A's. Her math teacher was really pleased with her progress and had even stopped giving her the judgemental glares she often gave her when she first ended up in the classes.

But now, her math teacher had returned to glaring at her, mainly because Mal had brought Este with her and the poor girl was throwing a fit, crying loudly and clinging to the floor.

"Este! Baby, what are you doing?" Mal murmured as she tried to soothe the young child. As Este continued to scream and slither around on the floor, the math teacher sniffed haughtily, obviously irritated.

"Miss Mal, if you cannot control your child, I kindly ask that you step outside until she has calmed down." she requested, pointing her finger towards the door.

Mal sighed, fighting the urge to mouth off at the teacher, as she picked up a struggling Este and grabbed her tote bag, pushing open the door. She shifted Este's weight in her arms and paced back and forth down the hallway, cooing softly in her ear.

"Why are you crying, baby? Are you tired, do you want to take a nap?" Mal asked gently, brushing away her daughter's tears. "Or are you thirsty?" Mal fished out a toddler bottle filled with water out of her bag and offered it to Este, who took it then proceeded to slam it into the floor.

"No!" she yelled and Mal continued to walk back and forth, her ears ringing as Este sobbed, kicking her tiny feet a little. "No! No!"

Mal didn't notice as Ben walked up, his face furrowed in confusion, tapping her shoulder. "Mal?"

"Ben! Sorry, I didn't-" Mal was cut off when Este started to shriek again, this time reaching for Ben and squirming wildly in her mother's arms.

"Here, give her to me." Ben held out his arms and Mal placed Este in his embrace, desperate for her to stop crying.

Thank the Gods, Este did stop, pausing to sniff and rub at her eyes. Ben bounced her up and down, patting her back, and Mal watched in disbelief as Este calmed down, burying her face into Ben's neck.

"Oh, baby." Mal said softly, combing her fingers through Este's hair, which had been mussed up from her tantrum.

"What happened?" Ben inquired, his eyebrows raised as Mal bent down to pick up the bottle. Mal dropped it into her bag and shouldered it.

"Jay and Carlos were supposed to watch her, but the coach asked them to come to practice earlier and Evie's at a science thing with...What was his name? I think it was Doug," Mal explained, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "I don't have anyone else to take care of her, so I brought her with me- I thought she'd be fine since it's my last class, but I guess she wasn't in the mood today."

"I could watch her," Ben offered quickly. "I can help whenever you need it. Today can even be a test trial for how exceedingly well I do with young children." he joked and Mal laughed.

She hesitated a bit, but she couldn't deny that Este had grown a liking to Ben and was more comfortable with him than a stranger. And Mal was slightly tired of being sent to the hallways by the teachers whenever Este started to fuss.

"Are you sure? I don't want to trouble you." Mal said slowly and Ben shook his head. He definitely enjoyed having Este around and helping Mal out would help his case with the council. It was a win-win in his eyes.

"No, it's no problem. I could bring her to the castle sometimes, I think she'll love it there, but for now we'll just stay in your dorm." Ben tickled Este's chin and she giggled, a drastic change from her mood just then.

Mal smiled a little. "Okay. Thank you, Ben. I'll.. I'll see you later then, I guess. And I'll give you my key. She doesn't like the dark and don't let her watch too much T.V. The boys are always doing that with her. She has clothes in the second drawer of the dresser to the right, and if you feed her, she doesn't like bananas or anything that's orange, so give her strawberries or warm milk. She's tired, so if you can put her down for nap-"

Ben cut off her rambling with a chuckle. "Don't worry, Mal. I think we can handle ourselves for a bit, don't you think so, Este?"

Este nodded eagerly and Mal bit her lower lip. She reached up on her toes to give Este a kiss on her cheek.

"Bye, Mama." Este murmured as Mal stepped back. She had never left Este alone with someone other than the three villain kids, but strangely, she trusted Ben.

"Be good for Ben, okay, baby girl?"

"Okay, Mama."

"I love you."

"Wove you more."

Mal stood in the hallway, waving as Ben carried away her daughter, her smile growing on her face when Este straightened to blow her a kiss.

"Well then, little Este, I suppose it's just you and me for the afternoon." Ben hummed as he inserted the key into the doorknob and twisted it open. Mal and Evie's dorm room was a little messy, toys and clothes strewn over the floor. Ben set Este down and she toddled over to what he supposed was Mal's bed, given the folded purple clothes atop of it.

"Mama likes you," she said absentmindedly as she reached for Cuddles the bear. "She d'snt like leavin' me with the sta'gers."

"Strangers?" Ben asked, bending down to start cleaning up the place a little. The last thing he needed was for Este to trip and hurt herself. Then Mal would most likely kill him and that'd be a little bit of a sad way to go.

Este nodded. "At home, the sta'gers gonna take me and Mama is sc'red, so I stay with Auntie Vee or Uncle Jayjay and Car'wos."

Ben blinked in surprise. Take her? Surely people weren't out to kidnap Este- she was so sweet and adorable and naive. He glanced at the little girl, who stared back at him innocently, and he smiled a little, reaching out to ruffle her hair.

"Don't worry about that here, Es. Nobody'll take you here, I promise."

Este grinned before she yawned. Ben laughed. "Are you sleepy?" he asked and she shook her head.

"No! Am not sleepy."

"We should take a little nap."

"I don't wanna."

Ben looked around the room, his eyes landing on a book of fairytales on Evie's dresser. It looked brand new and he smiled. "I'll tell you a very special story."

That got Este's attention. She looked at him, her big brown eyes squinting. "Wha' stowy?"

"I'll read it to you before you take your nap." he offered and Este pouted. "Fine." She curled up on the bed, her face scrunching up when her leather clothes scratched against her skin.

"Do you have jammies?"

"Auntie Vee."

"Evie has your jammies?"

Este shook her head and pointed to the sewing machine that was propped up on the table. "Auntie Vee makes me jammies."

Ben nodded in understanding. "Do you… Ah, do you know where she keeps your jammies?"

Este grinned and she pointed to the dresser next to Mal's bed. Ben didn't exactly want to go digging through Mal's clothes, but he remembered what Mal had said about the second drawer, so he pulled it open and selected the first thing he saw that was folded atop of it, a purple jumpsuit.

"This one?"

"No."

"How about this one?"

"No."

"Er, this one?"

"Nuh-uh."

Ben furrowed his eyebrows. "Este…"

"That one," Este pointed to a dark blue nightgown, a shade of blue similar to Ben's suit, and he handed it to her. She held it up to his clothes and nodded. "This one."

"We can match!" she said cheerfully when she noticed his confused expression. Ben smiled, a warm feeling tugging at his heart.

"Yeah, we can match."

Mal opened the door slowly and almost dropped everything she was carrying when she saw Ben and Este, curled up together on the bed, their eyes closed and breathing slow.

Este was tucked into his chest, her knees pulled up to her chest, and she was gripping Ben's jacket. One of the fairytale books Fairy Godmother had gifted Este was sprawled out in front of them- they had stopped in the middle of Beauty and the Beast. They both were wearing dark blue and peaceful expressions and Mal resisted the urge to take a picture.

A ghost of a smile spread across her lips as she walked quietly towards them, grabbing a spare blanket and draping it over them both. She chose not to wake them up and instead sat down at the table, pulling out her homework for the day as softly as she was able to.

She could panic and worry about Este growing so close to Ben later.

For now, it was peaceful and calm and she wanted to bask in the feeling as long as she could.