I will be uploading sporradic chapters until this story is caught up with its AO3 partner.
After her shower, Mal patted her hair dry as she took in her surroundings. She got redressed in her old clothes, which kind of defeated the purpose of the shower but whatever, and began to look around. The room was most certainly not one of the biggest in the palace, but it was comfortable. It was done up mostly in shades of turquoise and tan. The room had more than four walls all set at different angles, but there were curtains hanging in such a way she couldn't actually tell how many corners there were. Multifacial room. The bed was pushed up in the center of the wall second from the door, parallel to the bathroom entrance. There was a dresser directly to the left of the bed instead of a nightstand. On this dresser sat a dark blue clock which looked like it was an hour fast.
The walls created a little hideaway cubby where a desk had been placed. This desk was peculiar in that it had a marble top instead of a wooden one. Mal ran a finger over it and found it devoid of any dust or lint.
Hidden out of sight from the door but visible from the bed was a small balcony, whose railing was placed very, very high. She could scarcely lift her arms up to brush the top of the blocks. She was sure the palace had picked this room with that feature for a reason, despite the fact she could push the desk over and scale it.
Should she?
Mal considered the implications of leaving. She could probably pick her way around Auradon, stealing and living out of the way of everyone. Mal examined the castle exterior walls and immediately picked out rough places in the brick overlay that she could easily climb if she wanted. She had no idea how far down the ground was, but chances were she could easily climb down to the ground. The guards might catch her, but if she was quick she could outrun them.
Mal grabbed the chair from the desk and pulled it over to the balcony. She climbed up and looked down at the ground below. It was only a story or so down. It'd hurt if she fell, but she and Jay had jumped further distances.
Mal made up her mind and hooked her fingers into the rocks. She swung herself off the balcony and climbed down a few paces so she could see the bottom of the balcony. There, she stopped.
If she did this, the prince wouldn't ever become king. Auradon would be angry, and they'd either elect a different monarchal family or... she didn't actually know. That was certainly evil, right? And she'd be free, so...
Something inside her told her that it would be a very, very bad thing. Who knew what sort of nasty things her mother had put on her curse? Maybe she should just... hang out and lay low.
Mal hauled herself back up the wall, using the balcony as leverage, and dropped back over the other side. She put the chair back in its place and continued looking around.
Around the rest of the room, there were other small pieces of furniture and personal items that she assumed had been placed for her. These included a bookshelf, nearly empty, with only a dictionary, thesaurus, and a small paper with a "wifi password", a rectangular device that lit up with a plain grey screen when she picked it up to see it and a cord she assumed was to be plugged into the base of it, if the shapes were anything to go by. There was also a bar of deodorant and a bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo and conditioner, a razor and a small container labeled bubble bath in the bathroom. She checked the walk-in closet beside the bed and discovered it entirely empty. She didn't even have hooks or hangars and all of Mal's stuff was probably still down in the limo somewhere. The drawers in the desks had nothing, not even a pencil, and the drawers of the dresser ground on dust when they opened. Everything was new, unused, and empty.
With so few things to look at, Mal quickly got bored of her surroundings. She walked over to the door with the intention of going out to explore. She tried the lock only to discover that it wouldn't turn. She frowned and bent down to examine it. There were scratch marks around the metal base of the handle and it was placed unevenly. The Castle had tampered with the handle, and now the door locked from the outside. She was trapped in her room.
She sat down on the bed and considered her situation. To be honest, she should have expected something like that. Auradon seemed the petty sort to fear a sixteen-year-old with no experience here. The problem now was that she was utterly bored in a room with nothing to do.
She pulled the dictionary and thesaurus down and figured out how to attach and detach the cord from the rectangular device on the bookcase. She left the cord in the wall and brought the screen over to the bed. There, Mal considered it dubiously. She'd seen these before on the Isle, but they never worked. They came in with the garbage loads all cracked and useless. Sometimes Carlos took them apart to fiddle with the parts. Carlos would be able to figure out how to use the Thing, but she didn't know if she could.
It lit up when she tilted it up. She could see her reflection. The plain grey screen had few embellishments, and the only wording she could see right off the bat was the time and the date: July 29th. Then, she saw the words 'swipe left to begin' appear. They began to appear over and over in several different languages as well. Mal was only startled for a few seconds before she followed the instructions. Many more words appeared, showing her how to use the device and set it up. It taught her a number that people could use to contact her, and she was able to set a password and change the plain grey screen. She changed it to a photo she found on the web of the Isle of the Lost. It seemed fitting.
The phone informed her directly after the set-up process that unless she wanted to keep using data, she needed to connect to the wifi. That wasn't very daunting, considering it was on the paper by the bookcase, but Mal was proud to say she'd successfully navigating the complicated process.
There wasn't much on the tablet. There was a notepad, a recorder, two different virtual stores, a phone, and a camera. There were also a few other icons, but she wasn't sure what they were yet. One turned out to be a search engine, with which she searched her mother, Maleficent. There wasn't a lot there that she didn't already know.
After about two hours, there was a gentle knock on the door. Mal had figured out how to use the camera and other essential apps, looked up her friends' names (to which only their parents came up), and was now watching a video explaining how to remove a doorknob from the locked side. She would have tried to kick the door open, but it was solid, and she didn't have the same muscle mass Jay did. And she'd rather not risk kicking the doorknob off and damaging the equipment so severely she really wouldn't be able to get out. The door couldn't be picked, and she'd begun to think the Royals had forgotten about her when she first heard the soft sound.
"Yes?" She called to the other side of the door. She uncrossed her legs on the bed and stared at the door suspiciously.
"It's Sophia, ma'am. I've come to check up on you." A feminine voice called.
"Well, I'd open the door, but I've been locked in," Mal replied sarcastically, leaning back on her wrist. On cue, the doorknob clicked. Mal looked up from her spot, sitting cross-legged on the bed, and watched a thin, black-haired woman slip inside with white muslin fabric draped over her arm.
"Good afternoon, miss," Sophia said, dropping into a small curtsey with a bright smile. "Is the room to your liking?" She looked around at the small space and nodded when she saw most everything was still in its place.
"Yeah, it's great. Thank you for asking. Just, y'know, the problem that I can't leave." Mal set the screen down on her ankles and gave the woman a pointed look. The poor servant looked immediately uncomfortable.
"Yes, I'm sorry, but it's merely a safety precaution for, ahem-" Sophia waved her hand to accentuate as she spoke.
"No, I get it." Mal cut her off with a wave. "I'm guessing I'm still not allowed out though, yeah?"
"Yeah," Sophia admitted shyly. "I did bring you this, though." She unfolded the muslin and flapped it out a little. It resembled a nightgown. It was designed to cover the entire length of her arms, come down to her ankles, and hide her collarbones. There was nothing exceptional about the garment except that there was some pretty red stitching around the collar. Not exactly much of an offering and Mal had never worn something so plain in her life.
"It looks a little big," Mal said slowly after a few seconds.
Sophia flushed a little. "Yes, miss. We're going to arrange for new things for you, but we must admit that we weren't anticipating someone so small."
Mal withheld a sigh. "I guess that's what happens when someone tips you off the night before, huh?" She murmured. Sophie nodded and laid out the dress on the bed.
"Why don't you get changed, miss? Then I can take your clothes away to be cleaned."
Mal looked down at her outfit and slipped off the bed without a word. She disappeared into the bathroom, taking the dress with her. She changed quickly and brought her clothes out for Sophia to slip outside with and toss into her cleaning cart. Mal assumed she would be bored for a while after that, but Sophia returned and sat down on the bed. Both women were quiet for a few minutes, then Sophia awkwardly cleared her throat.
"Is there anything I can bring you, miss?" She asked as Mal fiddled with a string poking out of the comforter on the bed.
"Just Mal." Mal snapped. She was getting sick of all the 'miss' crap. "I don't know. What are you allowed to bring?" She couldn't fix the door, or bring her friends, or let her out. Mal wasn't even sure what could help her boredom right now.
"Food," Sophia answered immediately. Mal perked up. Food would help. Food would help a lot. She hadn't eaten a real meal since yesterday morning.
Sophia continued listing options. "I could bring you some books from the library to put on your shelves in here. I could bring paper or pens, or if you're into sewing I could bring you some scrap materials?"
"I'd like some food, and paper would be lovely. I'm not really into sewing, though." Mal admitted to Sophia. "That was always my friend Evie's thing. She made all my things."
Sophia's face softened, and she looked touched. It was an expression Mal had never seen before, and it startled her. Sophia took Mal's hands and smiled warmly. "My Mother used to do that all the time." She admitted. "I didn't realize how much I loved it until she died, and I had to wear store-bought things. It broke my heart to buy a shirt when she'd always make mine."
Mal felt like she'd forgotten to breathe. Suddenly, Evie seemed further away than she'd ever been before. Mal looked down at the muslin dress in shock and realized it was the first thing she could remember wearing that wasn't an Evie original creation since she'd made friends with the girl at age eight. Her throat felt like it had closed, and that wasn't something she'd ever experienced before. Sophia let go of her hands and smiled again at Mal.
"I'll have some food sent up. Who knows, maybe I can send Ben up here as well." Sophia winked and shuffled out of the room. The doorknob clicked behind her, signaling that she was once again locked in.
Ben? How would Ben make anything better? If anything, seeing the crown prince would make things worse. She'd just been ripped from her home and everything she knew and now she was in Auradon and had absolutely no idea what she was doing. The air in the room suddenly felt very cold, but Mal's skin felt icy. She folded her trembling arms around her stomach as the urge to throw up came over her. She started seeing double. All the yellows and tans and whites in sight made her brain bleed and her eyes scream in agony.
What was she going to do? She was an Isle girl. She stole and lied and cheated. How could they make someone like her a queen of Auradon? She'd drive the entire country into the ground and bury herself in the rubble. She couldn't rule a kingdom. She didn't want to rule a kingdom. She didn't want to even have anything to do with Auradon, much less take it over as her mother would suggest.
Mal continued to spiral into a mindless panic. It was a horrible experience - she knew she was being irrational but she couldn't tell her brain to chill out. It was like she was being sucked into the middle of a twister, going tighter and tighter the more she struggled to get to the outside. The walls felt like they were being pulled down on her. She was starting to go slant-eyed as she struggled to stay upright. Darkness, Mal thought. She needed to find somewhere dark where she could hide.
Mal flung open the closet door and pulled it shut behind her. She folded herself into the corner and buried her face in her hands, begging the pounding in her head to calm down. The noise of the door rattling in its hinges was like nails on a chalkboard to her. Mal squeezed her palms on either side of her forehead with the same strength as if she were breaking up a fist fight. White spots appeared behind her eyes.
What was she going to do? What was she going to do? They were going to make her a queen, someone Ben could parade around while they struggled to break the curse. What about afterward? Would they let her abdicate? Or was this going to be her life forever?
Her vision went black and the air became harsh to breathe. Mal felt like she was in an extremely small, cramped box that was squeezing down on her from all sides. In her head, she heard Maleficent shrieking in the other room, exactly like the night they'd returned from the forbidden mountains after Maleficent's scepter had vanished and Mal had woken from her slumber. Their parents had been arguing in the next room, and the four of them - Evie, Jay, Carlos and her - had sat together in Carlos's mom's closet and formally agreed to work together. But Maleficent had been screaming over Cruella's, the Evil Queen's, and Jafar's arguments and Mal had sat with a pile of furs at her back with her feet carefully held clear of a bear trap as she and her new gang shook hands. She still remembered feeling Jay's hands, like leather between her fingers, with fear creeping down her spine like ice water as Maleficent screamed and her feet pounded nearer the door. It had been at this young age of twelve that it had occurred to Mal what the consequences of having an insane mother could be and the first time she'd ever feared becoming Maleficent. After twelve, she was content to be Mal. Mal had her head screwed on better than Maleficent anyways.
Mal wasn't sure at what point during this cloud of anxiety that the bedroom door opened, but suddenly she heard sounds from the other room. People were running back and forth. Their voices sounded like they were underwater. She tried to move her hands from her head to open the door but found they were immobilized. She couldn't move her body. Every muscle felt like she was being held down by iron weights. More panic settled throughout her body.
The closet door flung itself open and Mal became aware that Belle's yellow sundress hem was at eye-level with her. The yelling ceased, but there were quiet voices. Sophia appeared, and her mouth was moving. Mal suddenly felt very sick. She closed her eyes and shook her head. A horrible, horrible pain began in the center of her forehead, right behind her eyes. Mal's vision took a swim. She tried to bury her head into her arms, but an arm wrestled her chin up and two fingers pressed against her forehead. Why did everyone have to be so loud?
Someone who smelled like books and roses put their arms around her and leaned her back into the crook of their arm. Mal didn't resist, but she didn't let herself de-tense either. After several long minutes, their arms removed themselves, and a very, very heavy fabric fell around her shoulders and head. The pain evaporated almost instantly, and Mal's ears popped. A loud ringing that she hadn't even known was in her ear vanished. Someone was touching her back in a comforting manner.
What happened? What was that?
"Can you hear me now?" Someone asked quietly. It was Sophia, Mal realized, and she was proud she was able to decipher who had spoken since her ears felt like they'd been wrung out from the inside.
"Yes." She mumbled hoarsely. "My body feels like it's made of stone, though." It did. Everything was wound up and tense. Mal moved her stiffened fingers as her head readjusted to the light levels in the room.
"It was a panic attack, hun." Belle murmured to her. Mal stiffened a little at the queen's voice.
"You'll feel better once you eat. I brought food for you, just like I said. Can you stand up at all?" Sophia whispered, getting from her knees to her feet.
Of course, she could stand. She was the daughter of one of the most powerful faeries in the history of ever. There was no way a random… attack like that would stop her. Mal tried to uncurl her legs but ran into some resistance. She opened her eyes and realized that Belle and Sophia were not the only people in the room. Ben was sitting on the floor in front of her, and King Adam and another male servant were standing in the closet doorway, looking extremely concerned. Her face went red.
"Sorry." She said in a quiet voice, pulling her feet back toward her. "Sorry." She directed at Ben. "I didn't mean to kick you."
Ben smiled. "No problem." He assured her. "Just take it easy now." He got to his feet and moved out of the way.
Belle and Sophia helped Mal to her feet. She swayed a little from the blood rush and the weight gain from the blanket, which had slipped down off her head and onto her shoulders. Mal examined the blanket tactfully. It was heavy, brown and warm to the touch.
"What is this?" She asked and moved her arms for effect. The blanket flapped around her sides like a pair of earthy wings.
"A shock blanket. The weight helps with anxiety, and it's charmed with things like pain relief." Sophia told her as she helped Mal out of the closet and over to her bed. Adam and Ben cleared a path as Sophia waved them aside.
"I thought Auradon didn't use magic?" Mal asked as she sat down. The two books and her screen slid to her side. Belle moved them aside and sat down to rub Mal's shoulder bone lightly.
"We use certain brands." King Adam answered stiffly. "But that's not permission for you to do anything. We encourage our youth to discover their talents in other fields without the help of magic." His expression softened. "Are you alright, miss?" It was the first kind thing the king had ever asked. Belle must have really snapped at him.
Mal shrugged. "I don't know what happened. I thought the walls were going to fall so I went into the closet, and I heard the sounds as everyone was talking but couldn't move or speak." She stared at her hands in confusion. Belle patted her shoulder.
"It's alright dear. All over now. You'll feel a lot better after you eat, and we can always have someone check you out later." She looked at Mal's screen, where the picture of the Isle of the Lost was visible.
Ben sat down on the opposite side of her bed. "I thought you'd left." He said honestly. Everyone else nodded as they all slowly began to relax.
Mal snorted and shrugged. "To go where?" She asked. No one answered, which was fine because they weren't supposed to. Sophia procured a tray that she'd left on the dresser and handed it to Mal with a smile. Mal took it gratefully. On it was some toast, milk, some grapes and a tray of vegetables. To the side was a small bowl of seasoned rice and some wrapped silverware.
"What is everyone doing here?" She asked as she picked up a little vine of grapes.
"We needed to discuss what we're going to do with this mess." King Adam said in his loud, booming voice. Mal closed her eyes as the sound triggered a small headache. Belle laid a hand on Adam's shoulder and shook her head.
"The Fairy Godmother will be coming by before tonight, but we felt it would be better if we had some idea of what we wanted before she got here," Belle told Mal in a tone barely above a whisper.
"Sounds reasonable. What exactly do we need to happen?" She asked, keeping her eyes closed as she popped grapes into her mouth, one by one.
"We need your decision, really. Everything is riding on that. We can't figure out if Ben can become King or not if we don't have your decision on what you want." Belle told her with a sorrowful tone in her voice.
Mal looked up from her food in surprise. "You want me to choose now? I just got here. Don't I get time to weigh my options or anything?"
"The options as far as we know are you marry Ben and he can become King, or you don't, and we have to figure something else out while pacifying the people." Adam rolled his eyes. "There's not much else to it. We're not going to abdicate the throne to you."
"How long do we have?" Mal asked.
"Three months." Ben murmured, slumping against the wall and looking absolutely miserable. "Give or take."
A split decision. That's what they wanted. Mal felt the panic return. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from everyone. This isn't what she wanted, this isn't what she wanted. What would her mom do? Wait, she was supposed to be angry at her mom. What wouldn't her mom do? She squeezed her throat shut. The evil thing would be to say no. The evil thing would be to reveal this to everyone in Auradon. The evil thing would be to force their hand and show everyone just how evil the king and queen had been. She opened her mouth. "Fine." She said.
"Fine?" Ben looked surprised. "Does that mean yes?"
Mal let out a ragged breath. "If anything else - anything else - comes up that will make this work, I'm going to change my mind," She growled. She speared a spoonful of rice in absolute misery. "Now what?"
Everyone looked extremely relieved. Meanwhile, Mal felt like she was being crushed. She fiddled with the bedspread and refused to look near the prince. Said young man let out a low whistle. "I guess now I really need to break up with Audrey." Everyone chuckled except for Mal, who stared at him in disbelief.
"Audrey?" She asked. Ben groaned good-heartedly.
"My girlfriend." He explained, waving his hands a little as he spoke. "We haven't been working out for the last little bit, so this is a great opportunity for me to-"
"You seriously brought me over from the Isle of the Lost in the hopes that I would marry you, all the while not thinking about the very important fact that you have a girlfriend?" Mal snapped, looking affronted. Ben remained silent. Mal scoffed and popped a grape off a stem to resist flinging her knife towards the prince. "Auradonians." She growled. No one was very sure of what to say.
"Are you going to lock me away?" Mal asked after a few long seconds of silence. She imagined herself stuck in this room day-in and day-out, watching the sun rise and set and never going anywhere.
"Of course not," Belle said. She laid a gentle hand on Mal's shoulder. "We understand how hard this must be for you. So, we were planning on keeping this from the public for a little longer and releasing the information about a month before the coronation. In the meantime, it'd probably be best for you to stick around, and get to know everyone. We want you to feel comfortable here. And we also need to figure out things like how much control you have over the kingdom, and-"
"I don't want your kingdom." Mal interrupted. She stared down her plate with a hot feeling growing in her belly. "Tell the public that. I honestly don't want any part of the power." All three royals and Sophia looked shocked. The tall male, who had remained silently beside the closet door this entire time, looked mystified.
"Well, the curse says-" Adam began, but Belle waved a hand at him to silence him.
Ben cleared his throat. "That's for a later time. Is this room good for you?"
Mal gestured with her fork at the walls. "Yeah. It's great. A little bare, but overall nice." She took a bite. "You know what would be nicer?" She asked.
"What?" Ben asked leaning forward in that interrogative way of his.
"If I could go and walk around," Mal sighed.
Belle blinked. "Can't you?" She asked. Mal shook her head in the negative. King Adam cleared his throat.
"I had one of the servants switch the lock around. For safety's sake, back before we knew what we were dealing with." He looked at the ground with a bit of pink tinging his cheeks.
Belle turned a furious shade of red, and both Sophia and Ben leaned away like the air around her had suddenly become uncomfortably warm. "I told you-" Belle sputtered at her husband. "We would never again have prisoners here. I was the last one."
Ben buried his face in his hands and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Goodness." He groaned. "You'd think this family has a thing for imprisoning their future queens."
"Stockholm syndrome," Mal commented dryly, spearing a vegetable.
"No, no it wasn't," Belle rolled her eyes. The red tones were slowly fading out of her cheeks. King Adam looked properly scorned.
"I'll have the servants switch it back before tomorrow night." He sighed.
"Yes, you will." Belle bit out. She pursed her lips together and flashed her eyes at Adam.
Mal watched and was slightly impressed. She had had no idea the queen was such a force to be reckoned with. "So, the way I have it, I marry him-" She jabbed her fork at Ben. "-unless we figure out a way to break the spell. If we figure out how to break it after I marry him, we divorce and part ways as unlikely friends." Belle and Adam nodded along to her words.
"What about after that?" Mal asked. Everyone looked confused. "If you send me back to the Isle my mother will put me on death row. And that's only if I manage to get to her. The rest of the Isle might just kill me since I was a former royal. We don't exactly like you guys."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Ben drummed his fingers awkwardly on the dresser. Belle swallowed.
"So, I'm just doomed to die, or doomed to never go home again, or what?" Mal prompted.
"Auradon doesn't do death row," Adam growled. "So, we can't just kill Maleficent. And there's nowhere else to put her. You'd have to stay here. We could set up a place for you. There's nothing else."
Belle set a hand on her husband's shoulder to calm him down. "He's right, Mal. We can't relocate the entire Isle. You'd have to stay here in Auradon."
"Fine. Whatever." Mal growled. She bit her cheek and steeled herself against the pain she was feeling at the moment. There was nothing else to be done. All their arguments were infallible. "Three months then. Do I marry Ben and then we just not tell anyone, or what?"
Belle and Adam exchanged a look, then Belle spoke again. "I don't feel that's the right thing to do. Originally that was going to be the idea, so we could prevent an uprising against the crown, but I truly don't think we have anything to fear from you. You don't even want partial rights to the crown. It... wouldn't be right to hide something like this when we have no reason to."
Mal scoffed. "You could save yourself the embarrassment of Belle's son marrying Maleficent's daughter." She whispered.
"Um, I'm here too." Adam scowled. He rubbed his face with his hands and let out a quiet groan. Belle bit her lip.
"We could do a joint service at Ben's Coronation. We could coronate the two of you as rulers and have a ceremony along with it. Would you like that?" Belle asked, patting her hand.
Mal pulled her hand away and shook her head. This was all happening so fast. And now she was to be embarrassed as the King's puppet wife. "I don't know. I have no clue. All I really know is that I'm marrying him in three months because my mother is evil." She closed her eyes. "You pick. If you want it kept quiet I won't care, and if you want me to walk down an aisle I'll do it. Either way, the end result is the same."
Adam touched his wife's shoulder. "It doesn't have to be decided now. We can talk later, but it's clear Mal is exhausted. If her panic attack is anything to go by, she needs rest, food, and quiet. Let her and Ben talk for now. We have our own things we need to discuss." Belle nodded and stood up. She patted Mal's shoulder as she walked by.
"Goodbye, for now, Mal." She said in a soft tone to the purple-haired teenager. Adam held open the door for the queen as she walked out. As soon as it had closed, Sophia began gathering things up to take away. Mal handed the empty tray to the female servant and watched until Sophia and the male servant, who had stood quietly in the corner while the family talked, had left.
Ben cleared his throat and shifted closer to Mal on the bed. She stopped him with a hand. "Please don't touch me." She demanded. "I don't care if I just agreed to marry you, you are still a stranger and I don't want you to touch me."
"Oh," Ben said, quite lamely, sitting back on the mattress.
Mal groaned and buried her head in her hands.
"What's on your mind?" Ben asked. She peeked out in between her fingers at him. He bent down and looked right back at her. "I'm serious. Talk to me." He said.
She straightened up. "Oh, you 'know, just thinking about how my life managed to go down the drain in less than forty-eight hours." She chirped in a falsely cheerful tone. "How's your day been going?"
Ben said nothing. He leaned in, facing her, and waited for her to continue. After a while, the silence became uncomfortable, and Mal began to talk again.
"It's just- you know how unfair this is? You don't know me, and I don't know you, and you're five years older than me! I'm sixteen! In what sort of world is it okay for sixteen-year-old to have to be deciding if they're going to let a kingdom fall apart for maybe a year or so while a curse is broken or if they're going to get married to fulfill part of an evil curse? On top of that, I'm never going to be able to go home again. Bam! That door in my past is shut, locked, and barricaded. All my friends, all my past, everything is gone." Mal curled up miserably. "For some reason, my body stopped working because I thought I was going to be crushed in this room, and I'm going to be bored out of my mind until someone unlocks that stupid door!"
"The door is unlocked," Ben mentioned. "It has to be locked from the other side and Sophia never locked it when she left."
"Were you the one who locked me in earlier?" Mal asked.
"No. It was already set to lock the moment the door closed. I did know it would lock since I heard dad tell Lumiere to have that done. Oh, Lumiere was the man who was in here before. He's been with my dad since he was a beast living alone here." Ben smiled a little.
"Oh really? What piece of furniture was he?" Mal sighed without really caring about the answer.
"Candelabra. To be honest, I kind of accredit him with my existence. Mom would have escaped from the castle and never looked back if Lumiere hadn't offered her a better room and food." Ben bit his cheek as tapped his hands on his knees.
"What luck. And while your parents lived out their happily-ever-after, he stayed on as a servant." Mal retorted sarcastically.
"Hey, Lumiere is more than a servant." Ben defended the former candlestick. "He taught me how to play ball and to throw a frisbee. And he and mom would team up to help me with my schoolwork. He was one of my best friends and role models growing up."
Mal chuckled. "That explains a lot." Ben frowned. Mal sighed and curled her legs up into her frame. "He sounds happy though. Everyone is Auradon sounds happy."
Ben leaded back into the bed. "Eh, we have our problems." He admitted. "But, yeah. Happily-ever-after is a work in progress."
"You get there," Mal mumbled, pushing her hair out of her face.
Ben tapped his hands anxiously on his knees. "I mean... this is Auradon. Land of opportunities, where we can be whatever we want to be. What do you want to do?" He turned to Mal and watched as she started biting the ends of her hair and twirling the locks in her fingers.
"I can't do what I want to do." Mal sighed. She couldn't go home, she couldn't leave Auradon, she couldn't even climb out of the palace.
"Be evil?" Ben asked curiously. It didn't seem like a bad thing when he said it. It was almost as if he were suggesting she become a lawyer, or a teacher, or something.
Mal pushed her hair out of range of her teeth and folded her hands in her lap. "I dunno if I am evil. I just keep to myself. Don't touch what's mine, and we get along fine." Her mother would have cut out her tongue if she'd heard her daughter say such things, but Mal knew in her heart that they had to be true. She didn't want to be Isle, but she definitely didn't want to be Auradonian either. Both seemed toxic and corruptive.
Ben nodded as if that made sense. "You're not evil." He announced to the room. His voice echoed off the walls a little.
Mal glared at him. He backed off a little. "How do you know that?" She asked softly.
"I'm listening to my heart." Ben gave her a little smile. Mal examined him for any hint of a lie, but either he was being truthful, or Auradonians were much better liars than Isle folk.
Ben put his hand on the bed, in easy reach if she decided to put her hand on his. But Mal wasn't really that kind of girl. She folded her arms with her hands pinned under her armpits. "So, what do you want to do?" He asked.
Mal didn't say anything, so Ben leaned forward a little more. It was a subtle psychology trick he'd learned as a ten-year old to get people to feel like they had to talk more. She sighed in exasperation. "I don't know," She sighed, hiding her face with her hands and rubbing her eyes. The last remnants of the panic attack were wearing off. "You're being quiet though. What do you want?" She turned to face him with an accusatory look.
"I don't know either." Ben shrugged. He held his hands up and began to move them around in the air as he spoke. "It's just... I've always focused on..." He trailed off.
"Being king?" Mal asked, pulled her legs up to her chest and covering her legs with the hem of the oversized dress.
Ben put his hands together and sighed. "Yeah." He agreed. "That's kind of the entire point to my existence. I have to be there for the kingdom."
They were silent for about a minute before Mal swung her legs back down and turned her body towards him. She swallowed and then hooked her hands together on one of her knees. "If... you knew the kingdom would be fine either way, what would you want to do? Where would you go?"
Ben snorted and raised an eyebrow at her. "You're a bit obsessed with this 'go-wherever-I-want' freedom, huh?" He asked.
"Happens when you've been imprisoned on an island all your life." Mal slurred. She cocked an eyebrow at Ben.
Ben shifted with an uncanny look on his face. "See? You are." He hesitated and then got to his feet to pace in front of the foot of the bed as he waved his hands with increasing flare. "I've always respected people who just stay in one place and fix everything they can - make everyone's lives better by just existing. And- I would totally be that guy! I would want to fix things in everyday life. I would be perfectly happy to, I don't know, travel a tiny bit here and there but mainly just stay here and pass laws and solve problems like that. Help people and fix things that..." He trailed off.
"Things that your parents forgot?" Mal finished for him. She didn't move from her spot on the bed.
"Yeah." Ben sighed as he sat back down. "But I'm never sure of how I should go about it without hurting their feelings."
Mal brushed her toes along the carpet and chewed on the ends of her hair. "I hope you get a happily-ever-after," She whispered. Ben looked surprised at the brutal honest tone in her voice.
"You too." He said. A bit of dust flew down his throat and made him cough. Ben coughed so loudly he almost didn't hear Mal scoff.
"I'm a villain. We don't get happily-ever-afters." She muttered, pulling in annoyance at her sleeves. As Ben caught his breath, it occurred to him what Mal had said and he turned around, already defensive of her.
"Of course, you do. Everyone deserves a happy ending!" Ben protested. Mal laid her head on her crossed arms but turned to look at him.
"Funny." She commented. "I don't recall that being in the end of war manifesto."
Ben knew exactly what phrase she was referring to in the proclamation that had basically created Auradon. 'We hereby banish the villains from this land in the hopes that our inhabitants will have an equal opportunity at Happily-Ever-After in the new world we will raise up.' He had no comeback.
"When you sent us away, you kept our dreams and opportunities here. I know people who have - had - dreams that could never happen on the Isle." Mal met Ben's eyes. "I honestly can't think of a more villainous thing to do than to keep children from their dreams."
Ben almost fell off the bed in shock. He'd never thought of it that way, but she was completely right. The children on the Isle of the Lost were deprived and denied any form of happiness. Villainy. He clutched a hand to his chest. Mal scoffed at him. "Well, don't start acting like you care now." She said sarcastically. "after all, you've put almost twenty-three years into making sure we know exactly where we rank in the scale of things." She stood up.
"I don't really want to see you right now." She waved her hand to dismiss him. "You know where the door is."
I do not own Descendants, Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalminations, Aladdin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Beauty and the Beast, or Cinderella.