A/N: Hello anybody who is reading this story! Thanks for reading so far, I hope you're enjoying the story. As you know we're caught up to D2 now and a lot of this may seem repetitive but it seemed weird to skip all of it. There will be some scenes added in but all will comply with cannon and the plans I have for post cotillion in this story I'm super excited about. So my question for you all is what scenes do you want to hear Ben and Mal's inner thoughts? What scenes do you want me to keep in as a part of this story? I look forward to your reviews! Happy reading!

Mal watched Ben closely as he took his first bite of the d'oeuvres she fed him, trying to see if he could tell she had spelled the food instead of made it. Did spelled food taste different?

"Mmmm, this is the best thing I've ever had."

"So you like it?"

Ben stared at Mal for a second. He wanted to say he loved it but thought better of it. "I more than like it."

Ben stood up to lean in close to Mal teasing her, then he switched and grabbed another d'oeuvres. He popped it into his mouth, "I double like it."

He surveyed the table in absolutely awe. She truly was the best taking all this time to do this for him. "Is that beef ragout"

"Yeah."

"This is amazing."

"Did I surprise you?" Mal searched his face anxiously but Ben wasn't paying attention to anything but the food.

"Oh, yeah, you surprised me. This is every single dish Mrs. Potts made for my parents. What'd it take you? Three days?" Ben was looking at her now. Wanting her to truly understand how much he appreciated her being his rock in all this despite how it was affecting her.

"You know, don't even ask me." Mal chuckled.

Ben leaned forward and grabbed Mal's hand, "Well it means a lot that you stopped and did all this for me. Especially with all the craziness you've been put through."

She looked down guilty but he had her looking up again, smitten by his words. "I missed you."

Ben stroked her cheek lovingly ,"We don't get much time to be just us anymore."

"I know," Mal reached for Ben's face as well but realized he had some food in the corner of his mouth. She chuckled swiping at it with her finger.

"You can't take me anywhere right," Ben recalled their first date and had them both genuinely laughing for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Do you have a- do you have a napkin or something?"

"I do! I packed some." Mal reached down for the picnic basket but then realized it wasn't on the floor but on the table.

Ben reached over to grab what looked like a napkin peaking out from the basket on the table. "Oh there it is."

Mal panicked, the spell book was in there. "Oh I can grab it."

Mal watched in horror as Ben pulled her spell book out of the basket. "What's this?"

She tried to recover after gasping for a second, "I actually threw that in there super last minute in case it rained."

But it was too late. Ben was already flipping through the book looking at the pages she had marked. Mal's entire world was finally imploding and all she could do was watch.

"Speed reading spell. Blonde hair spell. Cooking spell." Ben looked up at Mal, willing all this to be a bad dream. But one look at her told him it wasn't. She really had betrayed him like this. His heart felt so heavy. Here he was being so worried about her. Feeling so guilty about not being able to handle his own responsibilities. Ben thought they were in this together but she was cheating. Worse than cheating, she was lying to him about cheating. Ben had never been angry with Mal before but all the suppressed feelings from months were starting to bubble up. "And I was giving you props for fitting in so well. For doing your best!"

Mal was so desperate and so overcome with emotions she tried to spell Ben to forget. "Take back this moment that has passed. Return it- reverse it-"

Ben couldn't believe what he was seeing or hearing. His whole world was falling apart. He had spent all this time tip toeing around Mal's feelings thinking she was trying so hard and he was the one failing. It had all been a lie. Ben jumped up, his hurt fueling his rage. "Are you trying to spell me right now?!"

"It has been so hard for me!" Mal tried to defend herself.

Ben exploded, "Yeah some things are hard! Do you think learning to be King has been easy for me?!"

"No-"

Ben cut her off again, his vulnerability peaking through the anger. "I thought we were doing this together."

Mal got up trying desperately to fix it, "Ben, we are in this together."

"But we're not Mal. We're not. You've been keeping secrets and lying to me. I thought we were done with that." Ben was thinking about all that they had shared together, was it all a lie? "This isn't the isle of the lost Mal."

Mal felt as if she had been slapped in the face, "Yeah, believe me, I know that."

Ben needed Mal to fix this. To say something that didn't mean their whole relationship had been a lie. "Then why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm not one of those pretty pink princesses Ben. I'm not one of those ladies of the court. I'm a big fake, okay. I'm fake. This is fake." Mal grabbed her book from across the table as Ben stared at her gobsmacked. "Take this feast this sumptuous meal, return it back to what is real."

The whole meal turned into a single peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mal was hurt and defeated and angry. But mostly she was tired. She was so tired of this facade. She didn't like herself anymore and she wasn't happy. She didn't want to admit that because she wanted so desperately to be with Ben. But this was the reality. It didn't work. "This is who I really am."

She walked away. Ben tried to stop her but she shook him off. Ben was hurt and confused and didn't know how to feel or what to do.

He spent the rest of his day trying to sort through his feelings while going through mindless paperwork.

Ben realized he had to talk to Mal. What she did to him wasn't right. But he was starting to see clearer why she did it. He was always so busy and never had time for her. She probably felt more alone than he had realized. They weren't communicating. He was too afraid to set her off but not being more assertive and making her communicate had only done that exactly.

Ben was happy when Evie walked through the door of his office. He was hoping he could talk to her about what had happened and how to fix it. But Evie crushed that dream with one simple sentence, "Mal's gone back to the isle."

Ben heart sank to the depths. Evie walked over and handed him a note and his ring. It was from Mal. He scanned the letter not really processing the words. She was sorry. She didn't feel like she belonged. She was suffocated. Ben's heart broke. He felt sick to his stomach.

"This is my fault. This is my fault I blew it. She's been under so much pressure lately and instead of being understanding I just went all beast on her." Ben slammed his hands on his desk. He has desperate. His whole body stung with fiery pain. Ben couldn't accept this. He needed to fix it.

"I have to go there and beg for her to come back."

Evie tried to reason with him but he was beyond reasoning, "Ben you'll never find her. You need to know the isle and how it works and... you have to take me with you."

Ben spun around, "Yes-"

He saw Evie's face and he remembered. He knew that the isle was a nightmare for her. She was scared of it. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. She's my best friend." Evie started pacing and planning, "and we'll bring the boys too, because there's safety in numbers and none of us is really too popular over there right now."

Ben didn't know how to express his gratitude, "Thank you."

"But let's get two things straight. You have to promise me that I won't get stuck there again."

"I promise," Ben told her sincerely.

"And there's no way you're going looking like that."