The Golden Age of Unlikely Friendships

Author's Note

Hello, everyone! This week has been quite sucky, even though it's only been a few days in, so I decided to update because updating always make me smile. Let's jump right into it-this chapter's quite eventful!

Leave reviews and all the things!

**This story was given to me by WanderlustandFreedom. The majority of the ideas/outline and the first several chapters, including this one, are ALL HERS..**

Year 6

Fourteen was probably the worst year of his life.

As Audrey went into high school, his girlfriend turned from sweet and shy to clingy

and insecure. With that insecurity came a vicious tendency that alarmed both Belle and Ben, but Adam insisted they were a great match. He thought Audrey was wonderful, even though she was going through her not-so-gorgeous phase, and had already arranged for Audrey to begin sitting with Belle and learning how to be queen. He'd even set a date for the wedding, a mere three months after Ben would turn eighteen.

With all his childish charm gone, Ben found himself rather at the whim of the court. Some days they were on his side. Other days, he was the spoiled crown prince whom they weren't sure would be a great leader. The slightest recreational activity made him look like he wasn't serious about his own role and the slightest political suggestion painted him into a know-it-all character who didn't listen to anyone.

He felt like his hands were tied on every side.

The day Maleficent showed up, he was pinned between Audrey and Chad, both with tight warning grips and hissing threats if he should make the slightest greeting.

"I want to say hello." he muttered, but both Audrey and Chad shook their heads furiously.

He tried to shake them off and complain, but his father set a firm hand on his shoulder and forced him to stay in place. Ben did, but made it no secret he was irritated with the arrangement.

Maleficent didn't greet anyone. She walked up the stairs with vengeance in every stride. There was no more friendly atmosphere.

Behind her was a mess of colors– Mal wearing a black jacket and purple pants. Her blonde hair was neon green at the tips and growing in her natural purple underneath. It was shaggier and rattier than normal and pulled up to hide what Ben assumed was

an equally miserable face.

As Mal stepped onto the bottom step, a servant passed behind Ben. They stumbled down the stairs, gasped, and threw a bucket at Mal. Mal shrieked when the bucket doused her. It slammed into her neck and knocked her back onto her butt. The smell of bleach hit Ben's nose. Mal began to cry out, shutting her eyes tightly so the bleach wouldn't go inside.

"What is wrong with you!" Ben shouted at the top of his lungs.

Audrey and Chad both made to restrain him, but he was angry. He could feel the anger morphing him under his skin. He shoved Audrey back into her mother, picked Chad up, and threw him into the banister of the stairs. Then he dashed down to Mal.

Maleficent was already on the floor beside her, pulling her face up to get to her

eyes while Mal fought back the tears.

"Ben!" Adam shouted, trying to help Audrey back onto her feet.

The servant was standing beside him, looking smug. Ben's blood boiled. He picked the bucket up with what was left inside with a gnarled, clawed hand. He felt his shoulders get broader and extra height raised him up while hunching his back.

"Who did this?" he bellowed.

Chad and Audrey both looked close to faint. Adam was white-faced, terrified, but unmoving.

Audrey took a cautious step forward. "Ben," she said softly. "It was just a prank. You need to calm down."

With a roar, he snatched her arm and threw her into the bleach mess before dumping what was left of the bucket out on her hair.

"Get out!" he shouted. "If I see someone from Auroria within the next half-hour, I will rip them up!"

"This is not how you behave!" Belle sputtered.

"Ben, you're betrothed to her!" Adam shouted.

"I will never marry her!" Ben declared and hurled the bucket across the room and into a pillar. It embedded itself clean in and a crack split up the side. "This deal is off and if you try and force me into it, someone will get hurt!"

The suit jacket he was wearing ripped at the shoulders and everyone- Audrey, Chad, the servant, and his parents scrammed.

They streamed out the doors and up the stairs and away. Audrey was sobbing, trying to hold the bleach in her hair at an angle. Fat chance– the stuff had already destroyed Mal's hair and clothes and was working on Audrey's outfit, too. That stupid designer outfit she'd claimed she needed because she was going to be queen one day.

Not anymore.

Maleficent tilted Mal's head back. "You'll be alright," she said softly. "It was just a little. Let's go and wash the rest off now and then we'll head back to the Isle."

"I'm sorry," Ben felt himself shrinking back to his normal size. The ruined clothes hung off his arms. "I didn't know, I would have stopped it."

Maleficent fixed him with a hard look. "They won't ever accept us, Ben," she said. "You're the only noble person in the courts."

She took Mal up the stairs to find a shower and Ben felt the fury return when she began to cry softly.

That night, when he finally returned home after avoiding his parents all day, Adam was prepared with a speech. Ben cut him off before he could even get his mouth open all the way. "If Audrey is back at all before I'm sixteen, then my first act as king will be war on Auroria."

"Ben, we have a partnership," Adam said. "And Audrey's a wonderful girl. You used to get along so well."

"That was before she turned out to be as self-serving and small-minded as you."

They glared in a showdown until Belle put a hand between them. "Audrey's behavior was unacceptable," she said. "She will not be invited back for future solstice meetings until she formally takes over. I should have ended this betrothal the moment she began

whining about it, or even the moment you put the idea into your thoughts. Adam, you will write Auroria now and tell them that unless Audrey does a one-eighty, I will never allow my son to be married to someone so selfish."

Ben felt a victory before his mother turned her gaze onto him. "And as for you," she scowled. "I have a broken pillar, a charge of assault from Cinderellasburg, and a lifetime of embarrassment. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Ben dipped his head. He'd lost his temper and he knew it. "At least it was for standing up for someone?" he offered.

Belle's mouth twitched. "I will handle formally apologizing to Representative Maleficent and her daughter. You're going to hand-patch that pillar, apologize to everyone for your behavior, and you're grounded until I think you can exercise more self-control."

"But mom," Ben said. "Chad was holding me down. If anything, that's a penalty on his side for restraining me."

Belle pinched her lips. "I'll take it into consideration." she said and turned her finger towards his room.

Ben left with a sigh and didn't bother further argument. He sat down at his desk, pulled out a blue sticky-note, and began writing.

The next day, when the royals were leaving and Belle and Adam were bidding everyone goodbye, they found Mal holding a very familiar blue nerf gun in her hand, her other hand clasped around Maleficent's.

"Fire!" she yelled, shooting the gun and hitting the prince of Cinderellasburg in the behind. Chad yelped, turning towards her, and started pointing and shouting at her. Mal merely held the gun behind her back innocently.

"Oops. Didn't mean to shoot you, Prince Chad."

Chad started blubbering to his parents and when Belle told Ben what had happened, he tried to hide his smile.

Mal had used his old toy well.