There was a flurry of activity in Castle Beast, as the servants worked alongside the king and queen to set up a gorgeous birthday party for the youngest princess.
One of the downstairs sitting rooms had been turned into an indoor play park, with a slide, a swing and a ball pit. There were various toys scattered about as well as a table with colouring sheets and pencil crayons. Towards the back of the room was a table where the children would be seated for some snacks. The room was decorated with balloons and ribbons in a variety of purples, blues and yellows.
Stood at the wall opposite the doorway was the queen, using her magic to change the colour of the banner in front of her that proudly said: Happy Birthday, Maesi!
Originally the banner had been white with the letters in light purple but by this point, Mal had changed the colours of the letters about fifteen times and the background of the banner about six times. Currently, it had a gold background with the letters in a darker shade of purple.
"Mal?" The queen turned to see her husband stood behind her. "Everything okay?"
Mal nodded, "Yeah, it's fine. I just can't get the colours to seem right." She looked back at the banner. "Maybe if I made the letters light blue? Dark blue didn't look right but purple seems-"
"Mal," Ben said firmly, "What's going on?"
Mal sighed, "I don't know. I'm just nervous, I guess. I want her to enjoy this party."
Ben laughed, "Mal, she's turning one. As long as she's with us and has cake on her face by the end of it, she'll be fine. And if not, she won't even remember it."
Mal nodded, "You're right. I don't know why I'm so worried. Lia's first went perfectly."
Ben placed a hand on her waist and gently kissed her forehead. "Because you just want to do right by the girls. Now, come on. Guests will be arriving soon and Maesi will probably be waking up any moment now."
"Let me just fix this," Mal said, gesturing towards the banner. She chanted a quick spell and the banner ended up with a pale purple background and the lettering in glittering gold.
"Perfect," Ben complimented, removing his hand from her waist to hold her hand.
The two of them then made their way upstairs, their hands entwined as they walked towards the nursery, where their little daughter was fast asleep. Their other daughter, Lia, came tearing out of the playroom the moment she heard them coming up the stairs.
"Are they here yet?" the five-year-old demanded, as she launched herself at her dad's legs and attached herself to them.
Ben raised an eyebrow at her. "That depends on who 'they' is," he replied.
Lia huffed and dropped her arms from her dad's legs. "My aunties and uncles and baby cousins!"
"They'll be here soon, Bear," Ben reassured her, "But remember, they're here for Maesi today. It's her birthday."
Lia shrugged and went back to the playroom to entertain herself while she waited for everyone to arrive.
"I'm glad some of the other royal families have children her age," Mal confessed. "I think she may get bored otherwise."
Ben nodded in agreement, "Yeah, hopefully, she'll be okay." He gave Mal's hand a quick squeeze, then the two of them went into the nursery, where little Maesi was sat up in her crib, looking eagerly at the door.
"Mama!" she cried out in joy, holding out her arms for her mom.
"Hey, Maesi-Beth," Mal replied, releasing Ben's hand and gently lifting her daughter into her arms. "Happy Birthday!"
"Bur-day!" Maesi mimicked with a loud giggle, "Bur-day, Bur-day."
"That's right, baby girl," Ben told her, tickling her tummy, "It's your birthday."
"Bur-day!"
Ben and Mal laughed together. "We really need to ensure that Jay watches his mouth seeing as she's begun mimicking us," Mal commented, gently brushing her hand over her daughter's purple hair.
"Like you had to do when Lia first started speaking?" Ben reminded her with a cheeky grin.
Maesi recognised Lia's name and began saying "Lala!" amongst her usual cheery babbling.
"Oh hush, you," Mal replied to Ben with a blush dusting her face.
"Lala!" Maesi cried out again, pointing towards the door.
"You want to go find Lala?" Mal asked. Maesi nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, let's go find Lala. Then we need to get you in your brand new dress!"
Maesi giggled and clapped as Mal and Ben began walking towards the nursery door. Mal kept Maesi well balanced on her hip as they walked out of the room.
After taking Maesi to her sister and letting Lia say "Happy Birthday" to her, Ben brought Maesi back to her nursery and changed her into a little purple dress with golden flowers on it and matching golden shoes.
In the meantime, guests had begun arriving, so Mal had brought Lia downstairs so that they could greet them. Among those first to arrive was Evie, Doug and their two little boys, Charlie (who was 2) and Jonathan (who was 14 months old). Jonathan was being carried by Doug, with his head resting on his dad's shoulder, while Charlie was holding onto Evie's hand, eagerly pointing to some of the toys.
"Let's play!" he cried out, tugging at Evie's hand.
"Why don't you go play with Lala? I'm sure she'd love to play."
"Lala!" Charlie cried out, toddling to his older cousin. "Play!"
Lia nodded and took his hand, gently leading him to some of the building blocks.
"Do you want to play too, Jono?" Doug asked the boy on his arm, as he pointed at the building blocks where Charlie and Lia were. "Come on, let's go play."
Mal embraced Evie as Doug put the boy on the floor and encouraged him to walk towards his cousin and brother.
"Hey, E," she said, "I'm so glad you could come."
"What else would I do? Miss my niece's first birthday? Speaking of, where is the little on?"
Mal laughed, "Ben insisted on being the one to dress her. He enjoys putting her hair up in little pigtail buns."
Evie gave a little giggle, "Oh, that is so sweet."
The door opened and Ben walked through at that moment, Maesi happily sat on his hip. "Here comes the birthday girl," he exclaimed.
Evie was immediately by Ben's side and Maesi excitedly reached out to her with her little arms.
"You go to your Auntie Evie," Ben told Maesi, as he transferred her into Evie's arms.
As Maesi happily started babbling at her auntie, who responded as though she could understand the little girl, Ben made his way over to Mal. "So, should we start making the rounds?"
Mal nodded, "Yeah, sure."
The party wasn't large, with a few royal and noble families who had similar aged children as well as a few other close friends and family members. Mal quickly noticed her father-in-law having a conversation with Audrey (whose son was only a few weeks older than Maesi), and Belle chatting away with Dizzy.
By the time that they'd greeted about half of their current guests, the doors opened to reveal Jane and Carlos with their two twin boys, as well as Lonnie and Jay, who was holding a car seat that held their two-month-old daughter.
Mal quickly detached herself from the conversation she was having and went over to the new arrivals. As she approached them, Jane and Carlos put their sons down and let them crawl towards the toys laying out on the floor, where other children were playing. Carlos kept a close eye on them while Jane embraced Mal.
"Hey!" Jane exclaimed, with a broad smile. "It's so good to see you."
"You too," Mal replied, her smile equally wide, "Look how big the boys are!"
"I know," Jane responded. "Joe cruised for the first time yesterday."
"He did?" Mal questioned, "Oh, that's great. See, we did say that he was fine. He's allowed to be a little behind his brother."
Jane laughed, "Yeah, I know. Still, I worry. Though I'm starting to think that maybe Luke is just more adventurous than Joe."
"Good luck when he starts walking then," Mal joked, "If he's as adventurous as Lia was, you're going to be running after him for the next few years."
"Good thing I'm a fast runner," Carlos chimed in, tearing his eyes away from his sons for a few seconds. He quickly embraced Mal, then went to go sit with his boys.
Mal gave Jane a quick squeeze on the arm before moving to greet Jay and Lonnie who had found a place to sit with their sleeping baby between them.
"Hey," she said softly.
Jay and Lonnie smiled up at Mal, both looking exhausted. Mal quietly sat down next to Jay and leaned over him to look at Kamryn.
"Aww, she is so sweet," she said.
Jay gave a little tired nod, "Yeah, she is. When she's asleep, anyway."
"We're both exhausted," Lonnie added, looking down at her daughter, "But I wouldn't have it any other way, you know?"
Mal smiled and nodded. She definitely did know exactly what Lonnie meant.
Just then, Kamryn started stirring and let out a little cry.
Jay sighed, "That's her wet cry. I've got it." He then carefully removed Kamryn from the car seat and slid her diaper bag over his shoulder as he set off towards the nearest toilet.
Mal smiled as she watched her older brother leave with his daughter. "He seems to be doing better now," she commented, as she remembered how worried Jay had been in the first few weeks of Kamryn's life.
Lonnie smiled, "Yeah. We both are. We're slowly getting the hang of things." She looked over towards where some of the younger children were playing. "I'm going to go say hi to the birthday girl."
Mal nodded and watched as Lonnie got up and headed towards Maesi. Mal remained seated, watching as Lia played with Prince Andrew of Agrabah, who was just over a year younger than her, and Maesi light up at the sight of Lonnie, putting her arms out to be picked up, which Lonnie did happily.
Mal's eyes flitted away from her own children and began watching other parents also interacting with their children as well as others. After a few moments, Mal got up again and went to speak with people she'd yet to greet.
Adults and children alike seemed to be enjoying the party, even the oldest princess of Agrabah, who was nine, seemed to enjoy playing with the younger ones, despite having a significant age gap with most of the children.
Soon, it was time for cake and snacks. The children were sat at the long table and provided with snacks and food, with their parents sat next to them to aid them where needed. After singing happy birthday to Maesi, the cake was served and Maesi immediately grabbed some and smashed it into her face.
Lia apparently decided that this was a brilliant idea and proceeded to smash her face into her own bit of cake, causing Maesi to start giggling and giggling. Lia emerged with the widest grin on her face as she listened to her baby sister laugh and began pulling faces.
The table was filled with laughter for a while before it was slowly replaced by coherent chatter from the adults and some incoherent babbling from the babies that were there.
Everyone had soon finished eating and so Ben announced that it was time to move on to the presents.
As he sat down with Maesi on his lap and the presents next to him, Lia spoke up.
"Is there any for me?" she questioned, staring at the pile as she stood little ways out of the group.
Mal gently shook her head at her. "No, Baby Bear, these are all for Maesi because it's her birthday."
Lia pouted a bit, her brow furrowing. "But I want some too."
Mal crouched down next to her daughter to look her in the eye, "Hey, listen. You get lots of presents on your birthday, don't you? Ones that are only for you and not for Maesi?" Lia nodded, looking confused. "Well, today is Maesi's birthday, so it's her turn to get presents that are for her and not for anyone else."
"Oh." Lia considered this for a bit. "Okay."
"Tell you what, though," Mal told her, "I think Maesi would like it if you helped her open them."
Lia's face brightened and she went to sit next to her dad. Like everyone in the room, Ben had heard the conversation between Mal and Lia, and so pulled her into his side. Maesi ripped at the paper of a few presents, but eventually got bored and started playing with one of her new toys, so Lia opened the remaining ones and showed them to her little sister.
Soon the party was over and people were heading back to their own homes or to guest rooms in the castle. The New Years Eve party was also that night and so Maesi's birthday party was quickly and efficiently by Castle's Beast staff, with help from Mal and her magic, while Ben put Maesi down for her nap and then played with Lia for a while.
As Mal magicked the birthday banner to come down from where it'd been hung up, she couldn't help but smile as she realised that this had indeed been a really, really good birthday for Maesi, even if she wouldn't remember it in the years to come. That didn't matter though, because Mal knew that this party was just the first of many.
Here you go SusieBeast! I hope you enjoyed this! :D
Request Count Down: 7(it's getting lower!)
Response to Reviews:
RPM Shadow: I'm glad you liked it! :D
wildflowerchildGrace: Yeah, I know. I agreed with you XD But yeah, Merlin was actually kind of fun to write. I did, however, have to research him because I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I even watched The Sword in the Stone.
Eli201: Yeah, I suppose that is normal. Well, if you want to review all the ones that I did for you, they are chapters 151, 152, 153, 154 and 162. :)
Musiclover 09: He didn't say more powerful than the two of them combined, just that she was more powerful than those two individually. Eli201 created Maesi and she put a little bit about Maesi's future in the reviews if you want to have a look. As for Lia and Andrew, I recently published a story called "Are We Really Strangers?" that is about those two, so please go and read that and if you want more, leave a little review on that story letting me know ;)
Maria Barbara: Well, this story might be ending, but I'm not going to stop writing! I'll still be publishing, but now it'll be my own works as opposed to requested works. :D
Love you guys so much! Stay safe! SparkyGurl
P.S. Please don't be afraid to leave constructive criticism. It helps me get better!
