The Golden Age of Unlikely Friendships

Author's Note

Hello, lovelies! The seventh chapter of The Golden Age! Hope you enjoy!

As always, leave those reviews!

**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 7

Ben was informed that Mal came this year, but she didn't attend the meeting and instead stayed in their room. Maleficent did and accepted Auroria's apology for the previous year. Audrey did not come either, which made him more happy than it should have.

Ben heard that Maleficent approached Queen Belle with some sort of offer before leaving, but was kindly rejected and did not show any animosity. He didn't bother to ask what had happened.

Adam had prevented Ben from coming to this year's meeting. He had tried to keep him out of most conversations and away from the topic of them in the weeks leading up to it, but Ben simply rolled his eyes at the effort. He would be king next year and then there would be nothing his father could do to keep him from poking at all the sensitive subjects he wanted to.

If he wanted to tell Auradon and Weselton to shut up about each other, he could. If he wanted to put his foot down on Chad's attitude, fine. And if he wanted to bring Maleficent all the way down to replace King Phillip's shot as a partner of Auradon, who was going to stop him?

So he let his dad hold onto control while he could and simply sat back to take notes, observing through what his mother told him about the meetings.

Ben found out from a servant that Mal was attending the afterparty and he begged Belle to let him come with them.

"Very well. But only for a little bit." she agreed and Ben got dressed in his blue suit and he ended up with his mother at the buffet tables, talking to some of the other queens. Well, more like Belle chatted with the other queens while Ben snuck pieces of doughnuts from the table spread behind his back.

"Are you excited for the bonfire Ariel is hosting next week?" Tiana asked, placing a hand on the mentioned queen's shoulder. Ariel smiled at them.

"It'll be oh so lovely. And Ben, you can invite your own friends if you'd like to." Ariel said, turning her smile towards him. He nodded and then the conversation twirled into what the ladies would wear.

Ben glanced around the ballroom and noticed that Maleficent was at the afterparty, too, but she kept looking towards the door, like she was waiting for it to burst open. A small smile tugged at her lips when it did open and in came Mal, followed by three other teenagers.

Ben peered around the ladies standing to see better and he saw a blue-haired girl that was a bit taller than Mal, a short, skinny boy dressed in white and black and red, and another boy, who was bulkier and had long, dark hair and a beanie haphazardly thrown over it.

"Who are they?" Rapunzel asked, her eyebrows raising, and Snow White hummed. "I heard that Maleficent allowed Mal to bring her friends with her this year." she replied in her cheery tone and Ben straightened.

"Can I say hi to her, mom?" he asked, pulling on Belle's sleeve. Belle didn't get a chance to answer as the two boys had pulled out what looked like guns and shot them towards the windows. People started screaming, but the guns didn't do anything, only splattered the velvet curtains with paint.

Purple, blue, red, and white paint.

"What are they doing!" Ben heard Adam yell as he motioned for guards. The guards, however, could not catch the four villain kids, who were much more agile and nimble than they were. The two boys danced along the buffet table, shooting their paint guns, then stuffing the food into their pockets while the blue-haired girl flitted in and out between the royals, smiling almost diplomatically as she lightly brushed what appeared to be nail polish against everyone's fancy clothes.

Mal was laughing, her mouth turned up at the corners, as the guards made for her and Ben opened his mouth to warn her, but Mal ducked out of the way and raised her foot up, causing one of the guard's spears to land in her hand.

"Missing something?" she asked before hitting the spear into the floor and kicking it so that it rolled and tripped the guards.

The royals had gathered in a corner, all of them frantically yelling, many of the females clamoring about their ruined dresses. Ben watched as Mal whistled and her friends regrouped next to her and in all the commotion, they slipped out of the ballroom.

That was when Ben decided that he wanted to invite Mal and her friends to Queen Ariel's bonfire. All of the other royals' children, sans Audrey, were going, so why not them? After all, Queen Ariel had told Ben that he could invite any friends he wanted. And even if Mal didn't consider Ben a friend, he did, and so he glanced at where his father and Phillip were yelling at Maleficent, who was staring at her nails with an almost bored expression, and Belle was trying to reassure the other guests.

He knew they wouldn't notice him for a bit and he wasn't going to be gone for a long time anyways, so he inched along the sides of the ballroom then ran out. He wasn't sure where the four went, but judging by the drops of paint on the red carpets, he went to the right.

Ben followed the paint splatters up a spiral staircase and ended up in one of the attics, where he found the paint guns left on the stone floor. He heard talking coming in from the window and walked over as quietly as he could, realizing that the four were sitting on the roof.

He stepped onto the window ledge, about to climb up there, but he stayed on the ledge, only his eyes peering out, curious to hear what the four were saying.

"Did you see Snow White? Mommy says she's so pale that she looks like a ghost and she was right," the blue-haired girl put on an annoyed expression. "I've never met her before, but Mommy hates her and I can see why. Her voice is annoying, all high-pitched. She sounds like a bird."

"They're all oblivious twits," the boy with the beanie said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and dumping a pile of various bracelets and trinkets in between the group. "I stole all of this stuff and nobody even noticed!"

"Jay, seriously?" the other boy murmured, picking up one of the bracelets and fingering it. "Why do you need all of this stuff?"

"To sell, Carlos," Jay replied, snatching the bracelet back then shoving it all in his pockets again. "People on the Isle would kill for this stuff." He hummed as he broke one of the pastries into quarters, handing them to his friends. "I saw Aladdin. He looked stupid, like he'd just robbed a clothing store and then sewed everything together."

"Didn't you hit them with your paint gun?"

"I did. Shame I couldn't get his pretty face." He and Carlos snickered in amusement.

"M, did you see.. Ah, what was his name? The crown prince you said your mom liked?"

Ben's ears perked up. That was him! Mal licked her finger clean of the frosting that had clung to her hands. "I saw him. He was with his mom," Mal sniffed, her nose twitching, like it was too cold for her. "His mom's okay, but his dad is annoying. Just like Prince Phillip. Annoying."

"Don't you think the Phillip guy is weird?" Jay muttered, elbowing Mal's side and she yelped and whacked his arm. He chuckled. "I mean, he had no problem with just smooching a sleeping girl."

"She could've been dead for all he knew." Evie said, wrinkling her nose as she brushed her hands together to get rid of the crumbs sticking in-between her fingers. "And how come Beast is annoying? He sounds nice."

Mal scoffed. "Nice? Please, that's like saying Gothel doesn't love to look at herself in a mirror." she blew a strand of her hair out of her face. "Mother doesn't like him because he thinks too highly of himself and doesn't like anybody who tries to defy his rule."

Ben bit his lower lip, not wanting to admit that that was mostly true. Evie hummed softly as she twirled a strand of blue hair around her finger. "What about the prince? What was his name again?"

"Ben."

"Do you like him?"

Ben thought he saw Mal hesitate, but she crossed her arms. "He's too goody-goody. Always trying to get in good with my mom and then I have to like him because my mom likes him."

"Mommy says that if a prince shows interest, you be interested."

"That's stupid."

"It's not stupid! Don't you want to find somebody who'll love you and give you lots and lots of goodies!"

"No."

Evie stared at her incredulously while Mal rolled her eyes. "All princes are stupid, including him."

Ben frowned. Surely she didn't mean that?

But judging by the way Mal looked directly at him when she said it, maybe she did.

Ben sighed, clambering down and running out of the room, going back down the way he came.

Scratch the bonfire invitation.