Six years ago...

Ben stood uncomfortably in the center of a small clearing. At his feet sparkled the Enchanted Lake. To his left, a small white gazebo decorated beautifully with elegant violets and roses. To his right, sitting near the water, a stunning girl with shoulder-length purple hair waited nervously. She glanced toward him and her green eyes flashed in surprise.

"Ben?" she sat up from the water and leaned against the pillars. He gave no response. She blinked and her smile slowly slid into a frown. "Ben, what's wrong?"

He stared at her, speechless. And then, he finally found the words to voice his thoughts. "I'm...I'm sorry," he stammered. "But...I don't...don't know who you are." Then, in an act to save face, he hastily took a step toward her and stuck out his hand. "I'm Ben, King Beast's-"

"King Beasts and Queen Belle's son," the girl cut him off with a small nod. "I know."

"Erm..." Ben coughed awkwardly, trying to hide a furious flush of embarrassment. He noticed that she still had yet to introduce herself. "So, are you...a family friend?" He tried to sound as polite as he could, while his brain was frantically tried to fit the absent pieces together.

He waited for her face to fall, for him to become angry with him. But, to his surprise, the girl through back her head and laughed. "Hardly. Pretty sure your family hates me, actually. Along with the rest of Auradon, of course." She waved a dismissive hand as though it didn't bother her one bit.

He didn't buy it though. "I'm sure that's not true," he protested, scooting closer and taking her hands in his. She looked up at him in surprise. "I think you are...very pretty." He was so startled by his own words, but he didn't react externally.

The girl chuckled sadly. "But you aren't like them, Ben. To them," She waved a hand toward the city. "I'll never be more than a villain's kid."

She's from the Isle? Now Ben knew he had to be dreaming. There were no villains in Auradon. His father had made sure of that long before he'd been born. So, that left only two possibilities. One, the girl was lying to him and she was really someone in his kingdom that he just hadn't met. Or, two, she was who she said and this was all just some bad dream...with a beautiful girl who didn't really exist.

He elected to go with the second option.

"You're not real."

The girl looked at him, seeming a bit confused, but understanding at the same time. "What do you mean?" she asked softly. "Of course I'm real. I'm sitting here talking to you aren't I?"

"But that's...no...that's not what I..." Ben protested. He took a deep breath and let it all out in a whoosh. "I...I just meant...I've never met a girl..." He trailed off at her amused expression. And then he realized what he'd said. "Like you!" he hastily added. "Never met a girl like you!" Internally he groaned at his stupidity.

The girl smiled. She had a radiant smile. Ben watched as she stood up and prepared to leave. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "What's your name? How can I find you again?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment as she put on her punk jacket. "My name? That you will have to earn, I'm afraid. As to how to find me..." She smirked. " I don't think you'll have any trouble with that. You'll figure it out. You're going to be king remember? You'll think of something. Goodbye, Ben." With that, she turned, and, snatching one more plump strawberry from the bowl, started up the path toward the school.

Ben sighed as he watched her go.

And then, in the distance, someone screamed.

Ben awoke with a jerk. This was followed promptly by a bang, a crash, and a thump as his best friend flew out of the bunk underneath him and ended up in a jumbled mess on the floor. Ben sighed at this and snuck a glance at his watch. 1:35. Huh. That's a new record for him. "Doug," he groaned, leaning over the railing of his bed to find the boy fumbling around blindly for his glasses. He looked a bit like a chicken whose head had been cut off, the future king decided groggily. "Dude, seriously? Again?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Doug yelped, finally managing to detangle himself from his blankets.

Ben rolled his eyes. So it went every time Doug came for a sleepover. The next morning would find them both exhausted from a night when Ben couldn't sleep and would like awake, staring at the ceiling for hours on end, or Doug would do what he just did and wake the whole neighborhood with his panicked screams and outlandish nightmares. He'd told Ben about a couple of them. Though the dwarf was older in some and younger in others, the same concept always seemed to apply. They all contained destruction and death to Auradon, the family of dwarfs especially. The rest, Ben had pieced together from Doug's journal (what? It wasn't his fault Doug had left it open and in plain view!). Between the pages of formulas and equations, Doug had jotted down notes about his nightmares. They kept circling back to one thing and one thing only. Or, more accurately, one someone. A teenage girl with unruly blue hair and dark brown eyes.

So, it seemed he and Doug were in the same boat. Both single, both dreaming of strange girls at night. But they were only ten years old! Surely they didn't need to be thinking about girls! Besides, Ben had his future kingdom to look out for, and his friends, of course. Doug had...well, Doug had his textbooks to keep him happy. Too bad he couldn't marry them.

"Are you all right?" he called down in a hushed whisper as not to wake up his parents. Without waiting for an answer, he worked his way to the end of the bed and down the ladder to where his favorite pair of fuzzy slippers were waiting for him.

Doug stumbled to his feet and turned to face him. "Y-yeah. I'm f-fine."

Now, Ben was no psychic, but he could smell a lie from a mile away. Call it an inherent trait of being part-Beast. Not that he needed much more evidence than the sheer look of panic in the boy's tear-filled green eyes. Ben immediately felt bad for him. "Was it the dream again?" he asked kindly, going over and putting an arm around the sniffling boy.

Doug nodded weakly as he put his glasses on. His hair was rustled, packed to the brim with rat nests, and his entire undersized body was quivering uncontrollably. " I-I'm sorry," he kept repeating softly. "B-Ben, really I-I-"

"Hey, hey," Ben cut him off. "It's okay. I get it. Don't worry about it. Come on. Try to go back to sleep, though, 'kay?"

Doug nodded submissively, turning and crawling back into bed. He pulled his blankets up around him fearfully, watching as Ben climbed back into the top bunk. As he lay back down, he heard Doug's whisper.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't think my dreams will...come true...do you?" There was no mistaking the terror in his shaking voice.

Ben paused at the thought. "How could they?" he finally said. "My Dad locked all the villains in the Isle." He frowned, thinking about the girl again. What if she was really from the Isle? How would he find her again? After all, he couldn't rightly go there, could he?

Doug hummed something. "Ben?"

"Yes, Doug?"

"Thanks."

Ben was surprised by this. He smiled as he laid his head against his pillow. "Anytime. Goodnight, Doug."

"'Night Ben." And that was the last he heard from the dwarf.

But his mind was still working overtime with Doug's innocent question. What if the villains could get to Auradon? What if there was some way to bring them over safely? But, being honest, he knew why he was even considering such an insane plan. It was the girl. She was still up in his head. Her smile. The way she'd looked at him...if she actually was on the Isle, surly he couldn't let her stay there, right?

He recalled her words. You'll figure it out. Well, she was right. He may not have had any ideas at that moment, but, one thing was for sure, he wouldn't give up until he found a way. He thought once more of the purplette as he drifted off to sleep.

And then, maybe one day, I'll get to meet you.