On the sixteenth of December, Mal walked herself down to the circle with Ben, Sophia, Stewart, and Lumiere in tow. The palace guards had emptied the circle last night after protestors had broken three of the lights leading up to the palace and dumped paint everywhere. Mal had to be careful as she stepped over half-frozen purple, blue, and white paint in dangerous slippy sheets. Ben's face pinched with worry as he watched her load her suitcase in the trunk of his old car, which she'd decided to ride since the roads and the cold were hard on the carriage. Sophia put a picnic basket of food in the passenger seat, along with Mal's cell phone.
"You'll text when you get there?" Ben asked as he leaned against the closed rear-passenger door. Mal was leaning through the open rear-driver's seat door.
"Yes, Ben. I'll text." Mal smiled as she tucked three blankets along the floor with two notebooks and a pencil on top.
"Do you have the card to buy gas?" Ben asked, drumming his hands on the window.
"I've got it, I've got it." She chuckled. She could see him nervously tapping out of the corner of her eyes as she walked around the car.
"Are you sure you don't need someone to come along and make sure you're okay? It is a long drive." He worried.
"Ben." She smiled, reaching him and putting her hands on her hips. "Calm down. I'm okay. I have directions, a map, a GPS, and my phone. There's blankets, food, gas, and radio. I'll text you when I get there and when I leave. And yeesh, I know how to drive. You act like we didn't have those lessons almost every night last September."
"It wasn't icy then," Ben argued. He scuffed his heel in the colorful snow on the edge of the driveway to make his point.
"I have snow chains and I know what to do if the car starts to skid." Mal rolled her eyes. "Seriously, it'll be okay. And as a last resort, there's magic."
"Magic?" Ben repeated with a deep-set frown as she reached up and pecked the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, you'll use your nature magic to fix a car in anti-thaumaturgy Auradon if anything goes wrong."
Mal tolled her eyes again. "Anyone want a king? He's for sale." She joked, punching him in the arm lightly. Mal hugged Sophia and Stewart. Even Lumiere got a hug. Then, she turned to Ben, got on her tip-toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gave him a quick kiss for luck. After that, she walked around to the driver's side door and opened it up. The car was already running, and warm air billowed out in a misty cloud. "Bye guys!" She waved.
Everyone waved and called bye except for Ben, who shifted like he wanted to ask again if someone could go with her. Mal smiled. "Bye babe." She said, much quieter. Ben's cheeks turned bright red. She smiled, and slipped inside, closing the door behind her. He watched through the tinted windows as she slipped on a pair of sunglasses and put on some strawberry-flavored chapstick. She pulled her seatbelt over her shoulder and slid the car into gear. Slowly, the car disappeared from in front of him and out of his sight.
Stewart patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about her. She's strong and capable. And she needs this freedom. She just doesn't know it yet."
Ben nodded. After all, Mal had been by his side practically since she'd arrived in July. That's almost five months completely with him. He could spare her for a month until she came back. And then another. And one more. Indefinitely. And he had to trust she wouldn't run away and refuse to come back, proving that he'd made the wrong decision. It wasn't as much that Ben didn't trust Mal, it's just that he was infinitely afraid of her dying at the moors and taking him out with her. Still, he considered how there was still a chance she would want to stay at the moors, therefore dooming him to the excruciating pain of bearing Maleficent's curse by himself, running the Isle and his own kingdom, and losing his best friend, all in one fell swoop. As anxiety set in, his mind ran crazy.
It was entirely possible Mal might be stopped by robbers on the road, who would quickly discover she was the queen and kill her before she could magic them into oblivion. Then, they would hold her body for ransom whilst cutting off her purple hair and selling it on some sort of twisted black market. Ben imagined a label reading: Former Queen of Auradon's Hair – 20,000 dollars.
Of course, there was no guarantee Mal wouldn't run over the robbers the moment they stopped her on the road, so the worst he might have to deal with is rumors that the queen was a murderess and a few minor scrapes on his old car.
It was also entirely possible that her foot would catch on a root and she would fall and hit her head on a rock that would be driven an inch and a half into her forehead, and they wouldn't be able to recover her body because she'd be in the moors. The moor people would close the barrier forever and he'd never even see Mal's body. Fae would turn her corpse into a new flower that would spread across the kingdom and to the Isle, and Audrey would spitefully send him bouquets every holiday.
On second thought, most of the moor people had magic and were really good at healing. And the forest floors were magically smooth. She'd probably be fine. Probably. Also, he wasn't sure if he couldn't journey to the moors independently. Mal had told the creatures to be nice to him and had introduced him and everything. Really, who knew?
But there were so many other variables! She could be struck by lightning, she could be struck by a sudden residue curse from her mom, she could have a heart attack and die, or her car could slide off the road and into a brick wall…
Ben pushed his increasingly nonsensical visions away. He knew he was being silly. Mal was extremely capable. The chances of something like a root or lightning were laughable by normal people's standards, but Mal was part fae and had been raised on the Isle of the Lost. She was hearty and healthy, and honestly one of the most naturally-talented drivers Ben had come across if a bit reckless.
As he romped up to his office to begin work, he forced himself to accept what he already knew. He was afraid of losing her. Not for the curse or for her kingdoms, but because she was a friend. She teased him for looking away during Bambi and thought he was nerdy for adoring Hiro Hamada and Louis Robinson's stories. He liked the way she challenged things he'd known all his life and liked the sarcastic, playful front she put up around new people. Her castle page had become one of his most favorite website pages because he liked how she related to the common people more than anyone else in his family did. She knew what it was like to be dirt poor and to starve for a few days. She taught him about what that was like. He'd never even known how unfair they'd been to the villain kids until she shut him out of her room that first day after turning him on his head about everything he'd ever known.
He hadn't told her yet, but he was pretty sure he was in love with her. Like, 98% sure. She was smart as a whip, prettier than any other person he'd seen, sassy, kind, artistic and honest. And queenly. She demanded the same respect from others that his mom had as queen. She didn't speak like a queen or act like one, but he recognized her divine right to rule in her intelligence, compassion, and determination. If those weren't queenly things, he obviously didn't know royalty very well.
Up in his office, he finished typing his proclamation on the open waters around Auradon and explained how commercial boats needed to avoid the barrier and leave boats ferrying back and forth alone. If things escalated, he'd have to hammer out an official law with Mal, but for now, he hoped this would help things. He sent it to Doug for formatting. When Doug sent it back, he'd put it on his page on the castle site and file it with the palace record system.
Underneath two letters from Aladdin regarding Winter Solstice and one from Pocahontas, he discovered a small treasure. It was an envelope with his name written on the front in his mom's curly handwriting. Inside were two calligraphy papers covered in pretty fonts. His mom had taken his and Mal's coronation blessings and written them out for him and her in her best, most queenly calligraphy. Ben smiled and leaned back in his chair to read his.
"Benjamin Florian Benson," it began in large letters. Ben skimmed the introduction. When someone was chosen to give a person's blessing, they would hold the Fairy Godmother's wand or some other prophetic tool before the ceremony with a spell attached and receive glimpses of that person's future. As soon as the blessing was given, the gift of prophecy would be removed, and that person would no longer remember what they had seen. Adam had done Ben's, and Doug had, of course, done Mal's.
Ben examined the words his dad had used. "Great and marvelous things." It said. It'd already been two months, but Ben didn't feel like he'd done a lot. He'd funded the Isle of the Lost so that it could start rebuilding under Mal's crazy idea, asked ships to leave business alone, and lowered taxes by .0006%. Some great and marvelous king.
The next lines opened his head to thoughts he'd had but hadn't dared dwell on. 'you are not, and never have considered yourself, the hero of your own tale'.
It was true. Growing up, he didn't have the same extravagant get-things-done personality type the heroes had. He was a personality type B, the deuteragonist, the supporter. He'd rather do what he was told than forge his own path. Still, being told in the blessing that made him king of an entire nation that he wasn't the hero of his own story kind of… stung. He wanted to have some sense of closure from it. "Hey Ben, don't worry, you're going to be amazing and you're a fantastic leader, even if you're not the primary hero." At least the next line helped: "your name will be blotted down as the greatest king in Auradonian history."
Not one of the greatest, but the greatest. The huzzah of huzzahs. And he was only the second in line. Either that meant Auradon wouldn't last long, or his descendants would forever be trying to live up to him.
"There will come a period of time where there will be no suffering upon the face of the land… including in the parts you have abdicated unto your new wife."
With a line like that, it wasn't hard to believe he could one day be a really, really good king.
His mind was once again brought back to the 'you are not the primary hero' line at the next and final part of his blessing. "You and Mal will build up an empire unto your kingdom and unto yourselves." The line filled him with such a rush of pride and excitement that, for a moment, he immediately understood why he didn't feel the urge to go out and conquer and prove his worth. Family was the most important thing to him, and while there were certainly barriers to be crossed and problems to be solved, he was the personality to love his family and build relationships, not love his victories and build stories.
"You have no need to fear for the future. Do your best and all things will work for your favor."
Ben sighed. He wished his blessing said more. Would Auradon grow? When would his parents die, and what would he do then? Would the moors join with Auradon? Would the Isle of the Lost heal? What would happen to him and Mal as they got older?
He set his paper down and looked at the envelope with Mal's blessing. His fingers itched. Technically, it was for her, not him. On the other hand, the blessing had been given to the entire kingdom, and it was public domain. Plus, Mal probably wouldn't care. Probably.
He opened the paper.
Mal's was much, much longer than his. His mom had had to write smaller to fit everything. Ben was momentarily jealous, but then he reasoned that Mal had a rocky life where she had been uprooted from everything she'd ever known, and the entire kingdom had been skeptical about her coming to the throne, so she probably needed the guidance.
Words popped out to him, like "Explicit worthiness to rule this kingdom", and 'you are not a normal queen.' An odd sense of closure settled over him. This was not a coincidence. He had not just happened to be cursed to the purest, kindest girl on the Isle. This was Fate, spinning her threads and creating the map of destiny. He couldn't help sensing the correlation between Mal's "explicit worthiness" and his "you are not the hero of your tale." Something told Ben that he knew exactly who his protagonist was.
"Your sole kingdom, at this time, is that of The Isle of The Lost," Doug had said. Ben chuckled. 'At this time', as in, soon to change. Now, Mal possessed the Moorland. How prophetic.
Doug promised that Mal would have a glorious future and that she'd bring happiness to her kingdoms, but the parts that jumped out at Ben were the parts about him. 'Your marriage and your strong relationship with your husband will one day be your greatest achievement'. That implied a long time.
Ben hesitated upon seeing the next line. "Fear not about never seeing those you have left behind and whom you miss. You will have the opportunity to reconnect and rebuild."
Rebuild. Literally. She was constructing a new city and a new economy. But it struck Ben how she would be able to reconnect with people she'd left behind. Mal had, once, long ago, mentioned friends. People she'd left on the Isle. Ben stared at the words, and an idea began to form in the very back of his mind. Mal had friends; people she missed. He wondered who they were. It was a small idea, but with a promise to grow into a mission; a quest.
Mal's blessing mentioned her family, but Ben wasn't sure what that would entail. Him and his parents? Maybe the husband mentioned wasn't even him, but someone else she would meet after the curse was broken? Of course, his blessing mentioned her by name and hers said: "you are entering this marriage", but no one could perfectly predict the future. Another thought on family whispered in the back of his mind: children, but he pushed it away. 'Mal is sixteen, seventeen next month'. He told himself. 'It's not fair to think that of her yet.' Or ever, considering the circumstances.
Lately, though, it had been hard not to want more of Mal. She was electric. He found himself wanting kisses and hugs and moments that took their breaths away more and more often. He was married to her, so it wasn't exactly a bizarre situation, but he wanted to remain fair to her. Again, she was seventeen. He was twenty-two. The age gap wasn't horrible and would grow even less notable with time, but it was definitely apparent now, in their youth.
Ben took a breath and schooled his feelings. He reached for his cell phone. Of course, there was no message from Mal, but he found the Fairy Godmother's contact. "Out of genuine curiosity, how is decoding the curse coming along?" He asked.
She didn't reply right away, which gave him the opportunity to balance a few budget books, but when she did it was a lengthy message.
"We've examined and mapped out the curse from every angle imaginable. It is intensely complex and strong. So far, we have found no chink in its armor. Maleficent made this in a clever manner. We have been pumping raw spell power into it as much as possible, hoping to unravel it at least a little, but so far, we have no luck. The magic either washes over it or is absorbed. The only way we think we could break it is it we were able to pump magic through it from the inside, but that's not possible as there is no way past the spell. In short, we have nothing yet."
Ben was left alone with his thoughts. He drummed his fingers on the table as he thought. Long-distance curse decoding was still at almost the same zero it had been when Mal had first arrived. The chances it would remain for a while longer or even indefinitely seemed high. Maybe once Mal was a little more powerful she'd be able to help them with it, but so far, they were at a standstill.
Let's say… four or five years down the road when Ben and Mal had gotten their kingdoms on a good path and she was at least his age now, what if they did decide to settle down? After all, it wouldn't make sense to wait seventy years and never consider what happened if the curse never broke, right? But let's say they were both a few years past twenty-two and they had a kid or two. Then the curse broke. Would Mal stay? Would she leave? Would they explain anything to Auradon?
So many solutions, so many problems, so many loopholes. Ben reached into the second drawer in his desk for aspirin and pushed his thoughts out of his mind. After all, there was work to do.
That night, Ben laid in bed, once again plagued by his own thoughts. He spiraled down his thought train with no avail. Mal had texted, informed him she'd made it safely, and sent a heart emoji. What did that mean? A heart? Did she love him? She'd kissed him, for sure, but they were married. She seemed to like him, but they didn't quite have the same charge that his parents had while he had grown up.
Several times Ben tried to roll over and go to sleep, but his mind kept running on overdrive. He wished Mal was here to take his hand, so he didn't have to wonder.
He was tired, but his mind didn't want to shut off. There were things to be thought of. Had he sent that email to Prince Charming? When was Grumpy the dwarf coming to the palace again?
Ben knew he was in trouble when he rolled over in the early hours of the morning and realized the sky was brightening up. He hadn't slept a wink and now he was up and the next day was beginning. He and Mal would have climbed the sides of the castle if it was summer and if she was here and – oh, great. Now he was off on yet another tangent.
He dragged through the day with lots of coffee and loud music and returned to bed early the next night. His head hit the pillow and he curled into the sheets, expecting to be taken away in sleep's wonderful embrace. Nothing. He couldn't fall asleep. For the second night in a row, he laid completely awake all night, though this time his head was completely silent.
Two hours into the third night after being a zombie for two days, it occurred to him that something was wrong. He'd never had this much of a problem falling asleep before.
It wasn't that he wasn't falling asleep, it was that he couldn't fall asleep.
Ben stared blearily at his computer screen before putting his hands in his head. It was the twentieth of December, and he was officially running on his fourth day without more than a wakeful rest. He couldn't focus on anything anymore, and to make things all the more dramatic, he was supposed to be traveling for the winter solstice with his parents tomorrow.
A blinking red call button appeared on his call box. He hit the receive button, and Lumiere's voice echoed through the speaker. "The Fairy Godmother just arrived." He said.
"Fantastic. Send her up." Ben replied. He downsized everything on his computer screen and laid his head down on the desk. When a physician could find nothing wrong with Ben sans the obvious extreme lack of sleep, Lumiere had paged for the Fairy Godmother, who was busy while Auradon Prep prepared to let out for winter break but promised to come as soon as possible.
After fifteen minutes of Ben with his head practically glued to the desk and desperately trying to convince himself to open his eyes and try to do some work before the Fairy Godmother arrived, the door clicked open. Ben begrudgingly pushed his head up and began to blink furiously to clear his vision.
The Fairy Godmother was staring at him from the doorway with a soft smile. "Tired, much?" She teased.
"Very." Ben groaned, running his hands over his face.
She shut the door behind her and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. "When did this start?" She asked, smoothing her skirts over as she straightened her spine.
"Night of the sixteenth, I couldn't fall asleep. Haven't been able to get more than a weary rest since." Ben mumbled. He laid his head on his hand and yawned.
Fairy Godmother nodded. "Has Mal been experiencing the same thing?" She asked.
Ben shrugged. "I don't know. She's at the moors right now."
Fairy Godmother deadpanned. "Mal's gone?"
Ben nodded with his eyes closed. "The plan is for her to go to the moors every other month. She'll be back February first."
The Fairy Godmother crinkled her cheek and drummed her fingers on Ben's desk. "Now, Ben." She chuckled without humor. "When exactly did Mal leave?"
"The sixteenth." Ben yawned. He opened his eyes and met the Fairy Godmother's gaze. "Oh- Oh! You don't think this is related, do you? I didn't have this problem before we got married."
"Well." The Fairy Godmother sighed. "I can take a look at Maleficent's spell. It's possible she made it like this so that it would be impossible for you to live apart, but until Mal gets home and we see if she is also suffering, there's no way for us to know. Sleep was Maleficent's specialty."
"What about in the meantime?" Ben yawned. "We're leaving for the solstice tomorrow, and I can't run a kingdom like this."
"No, evidently not." The Fairy Godmother shrugged. "I know… a few spells… but I can't perform them without my wand. It's back in the museum, as you know. I only had it while using it the three months up to your coronation."
"I can send for it." Ben sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Fairy Godmother, I'm going to be honest with you, I've been encouraging Mal to use her magic as often as she can. Not for any real reason, but my heart is telling me it's the right thing to do. I want her to be able to do that."
The Fairy Godmother hesitated as she listened to Ben's words. "It… is still discouraged, Ben. You could cause her public problems."
"I know, I know." Ben sighed. "I think… I know that this is right though. It's better for her, and better for Auradon. She needs that power to back her up before the Public learns to trust her, and she has to rule the moors; a magically powerful kingdom. She needs it." He let loose a wild yawn. Fairy Godmother watched him.
"Send for the wand, Ben." She said softly. "Let's get you some rest."
Agrabah smelled like spices and scorched hair. Ben was glad they were arriving under the cover of darkness and leaving again before the sun rose. That way, he didn't have to worry about being burnt to a crisp under to unforgiving yellow rays of death. How Aladdin had lived all his youth on the streets and in the sun, he had no idea.
The wand had bought Ben four hours of restless sleep, and Fairy Godmother stayed to place him under a charm that let him sleep through the night. When he woke, he still felt exhausted, but immediately went about getting things done and getting ready to travel to Agrabah. He'd knocked out on the train for about a half-hour against his Mom's shoulder and then watched the day turn to night as the cars sped on, wishing desperately for more rest.
Inside the Sultan's palace, fake trees had been set up behind the thrones and in a few corners of the throne room. White 'snow' made of salt was spread around the throne bevel, and snowflakes hung from the ceiling. A few snowmen gathered forlornly beside a balcony beside a concessions table that consisted of dates, melons, plums, several types of kebab, dolma, and biryani, and some curry. Guests from hundred of royal families around the country wandered amongst each other, fanning themselves with complimentary fans that Jasmine and Aladdin had rightfully figured was the most acceptable party favor years ago. All of the large doors that lined the ballroom were open, letting the crisper desert air drift in.
Ben paused by a drinks table and picked up a glass of water. It was already warming, though ice had been added in copious amounts. A pale, slender hand seized a glass under his arm and he looked to his right as Princess Ericka of Arendelle straightened up, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Evening." She muttered, examining the glass. It began to steam, and ice reformed inside. Ericka took a sip and let out a sigh. Ben examined her and completely forgot he was supposed to return her greeting. "Some winter party, huh?" She asked.
"Some." Ben nodded, closing his eyes for a few seconds and yawning. "I honestly wouldn't protest if someone started a snowstorm outside."
Ericka furrowed her brow. "You're not supposed to be encouraging that." She told him. Ben shrugged and yawned.
"Everyone knows your mom doesn't follow those rules anyway," He mumbled. "She here?"
"Is she ever outside of Arendelle?" Ericka shot back. Ben shrugged in acquiescence. Elsa, ever since the formation of Auradon, had been distant. She had intensive walls around her kingdom and was geographically isolated from everyone due to the mountains surrounding her kingdom. She only followed the rules that she wanted to follow, and the laws against magic didn't exactly fall under Elsa's approval, given the entire basis of her fairytale.
He honestly hadn't heard much from Elsa in years. The snow queen tended to avoid politics. All he knew was that she had another daughter, a four-year-old who had been coronated in private, in front of Arendelle citizens only. It'd have been a scandal if it was anyone besides Elsa. As it was, it was only the Snow Queen's second child without a father in sight. Ericka had been the scandal, but her younger sister was the repeat.
Ericka yawned widely and slipped away without a goodbye. Ben mourned the loss of the chill that surrounded her but didn't protest as she disappeared into the crowds. People's heads turned to watch her go as she walked.
"Ben!" A loud, booming voice came from behind him as someone who wasn't quite as tall as he tried to put a hand around his shoulder. "There you are!"
"Hey, Chad." Ben yawned, turning around to find a group of his old Auradon Prep classmates, now Auradon Accelerated students, all of them. His eyes drifted up and down Chad, Audrey, Lonnie, Jane, Aziz, Jordan, and Ally. He extended a hand, shaking all the boys' and then pressing a quick kiss to each of the girls'. Audrey let her heart linger in his a second too long. They all looked so different from the last time he'd seen them. Audrey had cut her hair shorter, to her shoulders with a taped back. "How are you all?"
"Not as wasted as you, apparently." Chad laughed. "What happened?"
"Oh, just a few stressful days of work." Ben waved them off. "You guys need to help me stay awake."
"I've got an idea!" Lonnie announced with a wicked smile, cracking her knuckles. "How about a little sparring? I'm sure I can beat you now that you're out of practice!"
"I'm not out of practice." Ben denied, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "I have an actual Isle warrior who's been keeping me on my toes."
The mood darkened a little, and all of his friends exchanged curious, wary glances. Ben raised an eyebrow at them. "What?" He asked.
"It's so weird to think you're married now." Aziz huffed. "I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were graduating and Jane tripped trying to grab her diploma and-"
"Hey!" Jane yelped indignantly, slapping Aziz's arm. "But he's right. And someone from the Isle, too. What's Mal like?"
"I've met her," Audrey grumbled. "She's reckless. She almost lasered me through and climbs through the palace gutters…"
"The gutters?" Jane asked, furrowing her brow. Ben frowned at Audrey.
"Well, she's adventurous. And no, she wasn't going to laser you. She can't even do that." Ben rolled his eyes. "She's fabulous, really. It's really cool to-"
"Her eyes were all lit up!" Audrey protested, cutting Ben off. "She totally possesses magic!"
"What's wrong with that?" Jordan frowned. Jane, too, crossed her arms.
Audrey sputtered as Ben rolled his eyes. "Yes, she does. She's the magical queen of the moors, remember?" He sighed. "But, as I was saying, it's really cool to see her interact with new things because she never got a lot of what we have in Auradon on the Isle. Like cell phones and the television and…" He trailed off with a soft smile. "Snow." He finished.
"She sounds lovely." Lonnie nodded approvingly. "How good is she with a sword?"
"Talented." Ben rolled his eyes. "But she plays dirty. She grew up battling pirates. She's beat me once, but that was using magic out in the moorlands."
"She uses magic?" Chad pinched his lips together into a frown. "How do you know she's not using it on you?"
Ben bit his cheek with a sigh. It wasn't like he could explain the principle of how Mal didn't exactly choose to marry him and that she still held grudges against Auradon, though it seemed she'd disconnected him from her idea of the evil, overbearing heroes. "She's not." He grumbled. "Believe me, we keep an eye on her."
"Why are you so against magic?" Jordan grumbled. "Are we all evil?"
Chad crossed his arms and grumbled. "Of course not, but we don't know this new person. How long have you known her, Ben?"
Ben closed his eyes and counted to ten. "Long enough to be married to her." He sighed dramatically.
"Is it an arranged marriage?" Lonnie asked. "I thought it was, since everything was being announced by 'the palace' instead of 'King Adam and Queen Belle'."
"Ah…" Ben trailed off, trying to remember if they'd ever released anything on it before. "Sort of?" He replied.
"She's so young." Aziz pointed out. "Isn't she like nineteen?"
Ben felt like sinking into his shoes a little. "Seventeen, actually." He mumbled. Lonnie made a sound like a gulp in the back of her throat, looking a bit surprised. "She's seventeen this coming month."
"That's only like, five years." Jordan shrugged. "But young for her. Your parents arranged this?"
"Why would your parents have you get married as you took the throne?" Chad frowned. "Workload balance?"
"Mal doesn't work on Auradon with me." Ben sighed. "She has her own country. We just… have a contract giving each other partial rights over the other, I guess. Politics-wise."
"She seems funny," Jane interjected before someone could cut her off. "I follow her blog, actually. The castle one. She's quite a jokester."
"She is." Ben smiled, relieved that the conversation was finally treading back into kinder waters. He turned to shield a yawn, and then returned to his friends. "She's very sarcastic and is a great admirer of irony. She's also very kind, very strong, and very bold."
Audrey frowned and crossed her arms. Meanwhile, Jane, Lonnie, Aziz, and Jordan were all nodding approvingly. "I want to meet her." Aziz declared. "Anyone who can beat Ben with a sword, even cheating, is someone I want to get to know."
"It was so unfair," Ben complained. "We had our swords locked and I was stepping on her foot and forcing her back, and she made the sword fly out of my hand and into a tree." He shook his head with a huff. "She's a dirty little cheat."
"Sounds lovely." Audrey huffed. "Ben, are you taken for the next dance?"
Ben blinked and listened to the whistling music around him. "Um, I probably shouldn't be dancing while I'm like this." He yawned. "I literally haven't slept well in five days." He grumbled.
"Dancing will wake you up." Audrey declared. She took a glass of a drink called sharbat from a passing waiter and took a long, slow sip. "Ugh, Aziz, your kingdom is too hot."
"I like it." Aziz shrugged. "Whenever we have to travel anywhere else, it's always freezing."
Ben sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I want a drink of something strong, on the rocks." He grumbled. Chad and Lonnie both nodded simultaneously. Audrey wrinkled her nose.
"Why?" She asked. "That stuff makes people violent."
Ben pinched his lips together. If Mal were here, Mal would roll her eyes with him. Actually… she'd turn and go grab Ben a drink herself if they'd let her. Maybe she'd take – or pretend to take – a few sips as she focused on Audrey's facial expression.
"I miss my wife." He sighed, pinching his brow.
"Where is she?" Chad asked, looking around the room for a head of purple hair. Ben shook his head.
"Moorlands." He grumbled. "Every other month. She has to go and make sure they're doing okay." He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I need to go home." He declared. "I need my best friend back."
"That's cute." Jordan rolled her eyes. "So, what did Maleficent think of all this? That's her mom, right?"
Ben shrugged and rubbed his jaw. He felt like he was in an interview as he tried to deflect the question. "She approved it and saw Mal on her way to Auradon." He shrugged. "It is still way, way weird to think my mother in law is the mistress of all evil."
The music changed and Audrey set her drink down. "Let's go for a turn, Benny-boo." She cooed, crossing their little circle of friends and pulling him towards the dance floor. Ben stumbled, waved helplessly to his old friends, and followed Audrey. They took up a close hold alongside all the other couples, and Ben turned over his shoulder to yawn.
"I kind of wanted to catch up with everyone, Audrey." He told her.
"There'll be time for that later." Audrey decided. "Tell me, are you okay? She hasn't hurt you at all, has she?"
"Hurt me?" Ben blinked. "No, no, Audrey. It's not what you think. We're really, really happy together." He guided her, in line of dance, through an underarm turn and hid a yawn as she came back to him. "She's… awesome."
"She's the daughter of a villainess." Audrey reminded him with a frown. "I'm just looking out for you. Are you sure she's not spelling you?"
"Positive, besides the general spell of her presence," Ben confirmed. "And by that, I mean I enjoy her presence. Seriously, Audrey, she's fantastic. I got really, really lucky."
Audrey frowned and shook her head. "I don't understand." She declared. "How could you be attracted to the child, and I mean a literal child, of the enemy?"
Ben let out a longsuffering sigh. "Why was Tiana attracted to Naveen? Or Romeo to Juliet?"
"Romeo killed himself." Audrey reminded him flatly.
"Okay, maybe he wasn't the best example, but really, I'm happy with her." Ben stopped the dance and took Audrey's hands. "I'm sorry. I know I hurt you and I know you had your hopes, and I'm sorry. But I think one day you'll find a really, really great guy, and you'll be happy with him."
Audrey squeezed Ben's hands. "I don't think I'll ever be happy without you." She sniffled. "Please… take me back. I swear I'll be a good queen. All those things… I can be kind and strong and bold too."
"Audrey," Ben let out a sigh. "I can't. She's my whole life now." He squeezed his old friend's hands. "I love her." He whispered.
Audrey looked absolutely baffled as Ben let her go and yawned again. "Goodbye, Audrey," He whispered.
It was unsettling. Ben glanced to the left. There was Sophia, and Lumiere, heading out of the room. To his right, his mom and dad sat on the couch, half reading, half admiring the tree and stealing small, knowing glances at their son. He sat in the center of them all, and to his right, there was an empty place. Someone was missing.
Belle reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, dear," She whispered. "She'll be back soon."
"You realize," Adam announced, turning down a corner of a page in a book and smiling over to Ben, "That this is our last year doing a gift exchange as a family of three? Who would have thought so much would have changed last year?"
"It could be three again next year." Ben shrugged, wringing his hands together with a sour expression. His fingers were tingling. "Mal could leave for the Isle again." Or, even, Ben's parents could die. But still, he shrugged. "Four." He sighed. "Think it'll ever go up?"
His parents exchanged looks. He saw the way his mom's eyes lit up. "Maybe." Belle shrugged. "What do you have in mind?"
"Mal's friends," Ben admitted. "But… don't tell her. I'm trying to see if I can find their names so I can look into bringing them over, but I don't know if it'll work or be, you know, safe for Auradon, so it's still a work-in-progress."
"No kids?" Belle asked, deflating a tad. Adam elbowed his wife sharply in the arm.
"No." Ben frowned. "Mal's seventeen, mom. Sixteen, technically, for a few more weeks." He raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you trying to insinuate?" He demanded.
Belle raised her hands in acquiescence. "It just seemed like the most logical conclusion." She insisted. "I was only curious." She tilted her head to one side and examined her son. "Think they'd have purple hair?"
"Mom!" Ben's brow crumpled as he stared at his mom. "We're still waiting for the curse to be broken. After that, Mal and I won't be married anymore, remember?"
The thought struck a little black, cold feeling into his heart, but he stood his ground.
Belle nodded, shut her mouth, and leaned against Adam's chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, looking disappointed. Ben exhaled and stared at the tree. Mal's gifts remained underneath. About nine brightly-colored gifts. Some from Sophia, Lumiere, Stewart and the Fairy Godmother. One from both Belle and Adam, and two from Ben. The other two had come in the mail for her. Cards were attached, but Ben didn't know who they were from.
A week later, the new year passed. Ben found no joy in staying up to midnight as he still couldn't sleep. He would be awake for four to five days and then faint from sheer exhaustion only to start the process over again. The palace grounds were open past seven for the event, and reporters and normal people from Auradon City came up to celebrate. Palace servants and palace guards, including Sophia and Stewart, wandered the grounds and handed out sparklers and candies to small children.
At first, Ben hung out inside on the ground floor, leaning on a window and examining the party outside as kids ran back and forth across the grass with bright yellow sparks flying. Large coolers of water were laid out for them to dispose of the burnt sticks, though the gardeners would still collect the excess afterward.
Ben watched Lumiere and his sweetheart, Plumette, walk around the edge of the party. She was leaning on him heavily, but he didn't seem to mind as he smiled and talked with her.
His mom and Dad had seen the start of the party, stayed outside until the reporters showed up to start filming as the night grew darker and then decided to turn in early. Now, really, the only 'members' of the royal family outside were Sophia and Stewart.
Ben opened the door to the outside and slipped out. His appearance was met by cheers and calls. He waved with a tired smile to everyone around him, hoping that the bags under his eyes and his slumped demeanor wasn't too terribly obvious.
"King Ben!" Someone with a deep voice and tan skin at the base of the steps called as he began to walk towards the crowds. "Can you spare a question or two for Auradon General News?"
Ben paused, blocked a yawn, and nodded. "I suppose I can spare one or two." He agreed.
"You're not escorting anyone tonight. Where's Queen Mal?" The reporter asked. He had a rather round nose that peeked over the top of his notepad as he hastily began to take notes in messy shorthand.
Ben groaned. "Well, maybe not those questions." He grumbled. "Mal doesn't really need an escort. She does her own thing. But she's not present tonight. She's in the moorlands for a month, and then she'll return to the palace."
The reporter nodded and mumbled under his breath as he finished writing. "Can I ask your thoughts on having her gone? Are things terribly different in the palace without the reigning queen being present?"
Ben stopped and stared at the man incredulously. He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from shaking. "I – um," He stuttered, and a cold feeling sank into his spine. "Yeah, things are definitely different. We, um, work is still getting done but…" He trailed off. What was he supposed to say?
The reporter tilted his head and closed his notepad. "Miss her terribly?" He asked in a softer tone.
Ben examined him as he tucked his pen into his pocket. He had the intense feeling that most of this question would, for once, be kept off the books. "Yeah." He admitted. "Life just… isn't really the same when she's not around. She usually makes lots of jokes and makes us laugh a lot, so the palace isn't as… happy. And I just miss talking to her, you know. It's like when your best friend goes on vacation and so you sit at home every day waiting for them to come home so you can hang out again."
The reporter nodded in understanding and flipped open his notepad again. "So, last question, I swear, what do you think of the party?"
Ben looked around at all their surroundings. Screams of excitement echoed around the gardens and people laughed to watch the children run by. "I'm really glad we do this every year." He yawned with a smile. "I just wish I had Mal here to see everything." The reporter nodded in sympathy, and Ben took a few steps back. A little girl screamed as she dashed behind him with sparks flying from her burning stick. Her mother hurried along behind her with another child, a toddler, on her hip. She didn't notice the King of Auradon chuckling as she passed him.
"Fifteen more seconds!" Someone screamed across the grounds. Everyone turned towards the source of the sound as a massive countdown began. "Ten… Nine… Eight!"
Ben spotted Sophia and Stewart. He stopped her as the countdown echoed across the grounds. As the shouts turned to "Five… Four… Three…" And on 'one', as fireworks were launched from the east and north sides on the palace grounds, Stewart pulled Sophia in and kissed her.
Ben watched her smile and watched her laugh, and pushed his hands deeper into his pockets, feeling exponentially more lonely as he watched Mal's best friend with her boyfriend. Bitter jealousy made him force his nails into his palms, and then he turned around and walked inside, to bed.
Mal's birthday passed on the seventeenth of January. There was no celebration of any sort aside from a few remarks of the importance of the date. Over dinner, Sophia stopped in and patted Ben's shoulder. "Only fourteen more days." She whispered. "You're almost there."
"I hate the moorlands," Ben grumbled, pushing his plate away and burying his face in his arms. "I just want to scream."
Ben was sick of having her gone. He was so miserable he could barely hear his dad and Sophia chuckling.
"If she hadn't decided to stay the whole month, she'd be back by now." He grumbled.
"It's only a little while longer," Belle mumbled. Since Ben had snapped at her on Christmas, she'd been very careful not to mention Mal too much, but neither Ben nor Adam were fooled.
Adam drummed his fingertips together and cleared his throat. "What are you going to do after the curse is broken?"
Cry. Ben decided in his head, immediately. A lot. "I hope we'll stay in contact and still see each other." He mumbled. "I mean, the Isle and Auradon will probably continue to go back and forth a little more."
"You going to get remarried?" Belle asked in a whisper.
Ice raced down his spine. He sat back up, slowly, and stared straight ahead at the wall. He tried to imagine being married to someone besides Mal, even dating someone who wasn't the purple-haired queen and let out a long, steady breath.
"Maybe?" He shrugged. "I mean… I have to have a queen. For… eventually."
Belle and Adam both looked down at their plates, and Belle pushed hers away, looking absolutely sick. "Oh lord, what have we done?" She whispered.
"Belle," Adam began with a heavy sigh, but Ben's mom pushed her chair back and stood.
"Excuse me." She mumbled and turned to flee out of the room with a hand pressed over her mouth as tears started to fall from her eyes.
Adam threw his napkin down and stood. "Pardon." He sighed, and followed Belle out the door she'd vanished out of.
Sophia stood behind Ben for a few minutes, and then quietly left the room without another word. Ben put his head in his hands and closed his eyes. He drummed his fingernails on the table and then hummed. "I know you." He whispered. "I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you; that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam."
His eyelids grew heavy, and he saw purple flying in his vision even though his eyes were closed. "But if I know you, I know what you'll do, you'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a… dream."
He felt himself blacking out, falling forward, hitting the table, and falling into a restless sleep.
A month after their first meeting, Ben received a text from the Fairy Godmother. "We can't find anything, but there are many parts of the spell that are hidden. We'll have to wait until Mal returns to determine if it is spell-related or not."
Which was fabulous, because she was basically telling him that he was stuck.
Most days, his head felt like it was going to split open every time he saw the sun. Most nights, he lay awake thinking about what Mal was doing in the moors. Part of him hoped she was getting plenty of rest. The other part of him was hoping she was going through the same problem so that they could both fall asleep together for three consecutive days before going about their lives. A very, very small part was worried he'd never actually get a full night's rest again, even if Mal came back. But that was just unrestful thinking.
Finally, in the morning on January thirty-first, he received a message from Mal. "Hey!" It read. "Just left the moors. Now we know that cell service does NOT work inside the borders… yet. ;) Be home soon."
What a relief.
I woke up this morning to blood in my right eye. Apparently a blood vessel burst. Overall, today was fantastic.
I do not own Descendants, Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast(1991 2017), Big Hero Six, Meet the Robinsons, Bambi, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Cinderella(1950 2015), Mulan, Alice in Wonderland, Frozen, the Princess and the Frog, or Romeo and Juliet.