This was inspired by Xez2003's The Black Arrow; A Tale of Two Kingdoms. I do not own Disney Descendants.

They passed Charmington by, and then a week into the trek, it rained.

They had seen the storm coming, and so they'd had time to erect teepees and lean-tos and a couple of large canopies that Carlos had whipped up. Then, they'd turned over some of the carts and covered all the supplies with tarps and hides. Now that there was no more work needing to be done, Ben was hiding out underneath a cart with Jay and Carlos, Evie and Uma. Evie, Uma, and Carlos were doing some sort of crazy math that Carlos invented to figure out how far they've gone while Jay and Ben played a game with a stick. The stick had one end painted red. One person flipped it to the other, and if they caught the red end, it's a point against them.

Ben heard the first few drops hit the ground as he caught the stick in mid-air. He paused, twirling it in his fingers before looking around at their group. "Where's tall, pink and scary?" he asked, flipping the stick to Jay, who snorted at the contradiction he'd painted. Ben raised an eyebrow at him as he threw the stick wide and Ben had to lean in his chair to grab it.

"Out," Uma shrugged. "Don't worry, Prince Charming, she'll be back soon. Then you can stop pining for her."

Ben rolled his eyes. "I love how you all assume I'm completely smitten for her despite the fact I treat her and Dizzy about the same way," he snorted. Now, to be fair, he did think Mal was very lovely, but he had Audrey to remember. Aside and Little Belle.

"Except you don't drool when you look at Dizzy," Evie laughed. She'd stopped being sore at Ben's subtle rejection and was now prone to making all the suggestive comments she could, taking great joy in the way he dismissed her every whimsical notion. "And your eyes don't get all big and wide and you don't start ignoring everyone else around you."

Ben scoffed. "Sure, Evie," He sighed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Give it a month," Evie recommended with a wicked grin. "You'll be helping her sleep at night and I'll be right." She turned to Uma with a smirk pulling at her lips. "I can't wait to see what their wedding will look like. It's sure to be a royal spectacle."

Ben's mouth went dry. This was not careless teasing. It was not friendly jabs. He and Jay both stopped their game as Jay's dark gaze hovered on Ben's shocked expression.

"Evie," Ben swallowed nervously. "You know I'm married, right?"

Evie's mouth dropped open and she spun to stare at him face-on. Ben kept his expression straight and serious as he pulled out his ring. "I, uh, don't wear the ring when I travel. It got broken too many times the first year I tried." He held it out for proof. It was a flashy, rough, ugly sort of thing. Ben hadn't ever actually thought a wedding ring could be ugly until Audrey had dropped that one in his hand. It was blue and made entirely from sapphire with little silver tendrils curling around it. Partially clear, and with her name on the outside, though it was hard to see without focusing. It was, he thought, a good allegory for how their relationship was. Very expensive, flashy, centered on her and often uncomfortable to wear.

Carlos sucked in a breath as Uma let out a whistle. "Way to go big or go home," she laughed. "Why'd you pick that shade of blue? It doesn't match with anything."

Ben shrugged, red tones creeping into his neck. "She did," he admitted. "I, uh, just went along with it." He replaced the chain around his neck and hid the ring from sight, feeling sheepish. "I, uh, know it doesn't exactly blend in very well. I think that was her intention."

Uma turned her head to the side. "But you like this girl, right?" She demanded. "Like, Auradon True Love and everything?"

Ben blinked slowly at all of them as they leaned forward. This was the part where he agreed. Yes, he and Audrey were in love. They were, after all, the example of what everyone in Auradon wanted. He had to play that part so that these people - these new citizens of Auradon - would know what to search after. Perfect marriage with your one True Love and Happily Ever After. But for some reason, he couldn't conjure his affirmation. He gave an odd motion instead - something that was half nod and half-shrug. He tried to open his mouth to say something to back up his motion but a dozen images stopped him. Audrey, not even looking at him when he came in to tell her Belle had been dropped from preschool for bad behavior. Audrey, forbidding him to touch or move a dozen different items when they first moved in together. Audrey, slowly filling up everything everywhere with her and her presence while Ben watched all things small and simple fade from existence.

"Oh man," Carlos exhaled. "That's rough, man."

Ben blinked. He hadn't said anything aloud, but apparently, his face had changed while he was consumed in his thoughts. "It's, uh, not ba - I mean - it's manageable."

"Does Mal know?" Jay asked, pulling his focus back to the purple-haired girl's right-hand associate.

Ben shrugged. "I assumed word would get around but apparently not. Does Mal need to know?"

His only answer was an awkward silence and the shifting glances of everyone around. Ben's heart sank. This had obviously gone way further than he ever intended. "I'll... drop a hint," he agreed dejectedly and ran his hand through his hair.

"A hint for what?" Someone asked as they walked up. Everyone's heads snapped over to where Mal was approaching with a sword swung over her shoulder. Ben swallowed. It was one thing to - break her heart? Let her down? Disappoint her? But it was another to do it when she had a means to decapitate him.

"Nothing," Ben assured her. "Where did you run off to?"

"Just out," Mal rolled her eyes and used her foot to pull up a chair beside Evie, within easy reach of Ben. She stuck the sword into the ground, leaned her chin against her hand, and then put her feet over by Uma's chair. Uma wrinkled her nose and kicked Mal, but Mal moved her foot out of the way of the blow and then set it on top of the teal-haired girl's foot.

Ben sighed and leaned over to knock Mal's hand out from under her chin. "Quit antagonizing each other," He demanded. "You guys are so similar it's hilarious."

On instinct, Evie opened her mouth to make a snide comment, then closed it without further comment. Mal stuck her tongue out at Ben. "Sure, your majesty," She rolled her eyes. "I thought you weren't going to be giving out orders?"

"Fair point," Ben nodded. "Mini-Maleficent, would you kindly refrain from pestering the daughter of Ursula, who is patient enough to keep feeding your ungrateful behind day after day?"

Uma burst into laughter about the same time Mal spun around, eyes lit up, to glare at Ben. "Beasty boy," She drawled, glaring at him. Ben's heart thudded against his chest. There was a sudden pain under his tongue and he realized that Evie was right - he was drooling. He closed his mouth in time to listen to Mal continue talking. "Would you like to quit talking or would you like to lose a few fingers?"

"To be honest, neither option sounds quite right," Ben sighed, leaning back in his chair. "You know what, Mal? I'm calling your bluff. Let's see this violence you keep threatening me with." He leaned back into an upright stance and offered Mal his right hand. She blinked at it in shock.

"What?" She gasped. "Are you insane?"

"Go on," Ben snorted. "Let's see your threat in action. I bet you won't."

Mal shoved his hand away. When their skin brushed, his heart did flip-flops inside his chest. He could feel pins and needles all along where she had touched him, and he was suddenly short of breath. As he leaned back into his seat, trying to conjure up a triumphant smile, he focused on making sure his lungs were still functional.

A sudden boom echoed throughout the sky. Everyone gasped and Mal seized her sword, jumping to her feet. Evie, Jay, Uma, and Carlos all spun around to see where the sound had come from. Ben stared. "It's just thunder," he told them. "Did you not have it on the Isle? In storms and everything?"

"We had storms," Uma frowned, staring at him in confusion. "But our storms didn't yell at us."

Ben snorted and then covered his face as he laughed. "I'm sorry," He apologized. "It's not the storm, it's the electricity in the air. The same stuff that's in batteries. See, when the weather is dry and there are lots of temperature changes in the air, you can get lightning. It's a lot of sparks that can fall from the sky. You'll probably see some here soon - it's very beautiful. But anyways, light travels faster than sound, so the lightning comes first and then the thunder follows. You can actually calculate how far away the storm is by counting how far in between they are."

"So, the thunder comes from the lightning?" Evie asked, leaning out over the edge of the cart and examining the sky. In the distance, Ben could hear people panicking, calling for help. They'd have to head out to explain everything soon.

"Yeah," Ben nodded. "But when they first named them, they didn't realize that." He stood up, brushed his legs off, and then pointed to the skyline, where scores of dark clouds were approaching. "Here, wait a moment, we'll probably see some lightning and then I'll show you how to tell how far away it is." He leaned against the cart with an arm above his head. Evie, Carlos, and Mal all leaned forward, examining the skyline quizzically.

"We didn't have lightning on the Isle," Jay murmured. "I guess the barrier stopped the electricity."

"But you do know what electricity is, right?" Ben asked. "I can explain that too."

"We do," Carlos nodded. "I found a book on it once. And that's how we escaped. I used a magnetic pulse to break the barrier long enough for Mal to get in the hole and hold it open."

A flash of yellow appeared off in the far distance. Evie gasped in shock and Ben saw every single hair on Mal's arm stand up on end. Her face had gone paler with surprise. "One," he counted softly, still tracing her face with his eyes. "Two, three, four…" He waited for the boom of thunder to follow. Finally, it did, making everyone jump a little before they all relaxed and began to laugh. "Twenty-two," Ben announced. "Sound travels a mile every five seconds. The storm is a little over four miles away."

"Four point four," Carlos breathed. "You divide the seconds by the time." He began to laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Can you tell when it'll get here?" Mal asked, frowning a little as she cautiously waited for another bolt to appear. Ben smirked. Was the daughter of Maleficent afraid of a little lightning?

"No," he responded. "If we had some wind gizmos, we could tell how quickly the wind is blowing and then distance over time is speed. And in Auradon, we've launched satellites so that we can track storms from space and see what direction they're moving and where they form."

"Woah," Evie whispered softly. Ben ripped his gaze off of Mal long enough to see that she'd looked back at him. The look on her face was one of pure amazement. Then, she glanced at Mal and her face twisted in something like pain. Ben turned back to Mal and raised an eyebrow to see her studying him.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"This is all common knowledge in Auradon, isn't it?" She asked, setting her sword aside dejectedly. "There's no way you just happen to know all this."

"Well," Ben shrugged his head back and forth. "It's taught in some schools but I doubt anyone remembers it. I know it because, well, there was this one story about a little girl who left her bear in a rainstorm and she was trying to figure out how far away the storm was so she could go grab it. It was like, the second grade. I'm probably the only person who remembers it. And then the distance and speed stuff, I know that from a physics book I reread last summer."

"And the compass?" Mal asked.

Ben laughed. "It's stupid," He warned her. "See, when I was younger, I really wanted to run off into the wilderness and leave Auradon behind. So I read all these books about people who survived being stranded or lost or people who struck out on their own. There was one about a guy who got lost in a jungle after a plane crashed. There was a sewing needle in a first aid kit he had and so he made a compass and figured if he went straight in one direction, it'd keep him from going in circles."

"So, you just remember everything you read?" Evie asked.

"Not everything," Ben shook his head. "But lots of things, yes. I like to read."

Mal wrinkled her nose up further and further as he spoke and crossed her arms as if his words were irking her. Ben tilted his head at her. "Do you have a favorite book, Mal?" He asked.

Mal turned away and hefted her sword back up into her arms before pulling a whetting stone out of her pocket and starting to scrape the edge of the blade with it. "I like the history books we had back on the Isle," she muttered, glaring at the ground.

Ben furrowed his brow. "Did you guys not have any storybooks sent over? Or fiction stuff? I know Auradon wasn't the best provider, but surely some things would have slipped in along the textbooks?"

Mal huffed and turned her head away from Ben's. Her face was an angry peach color. "I can't read, Ben," she admitted in a hiss.

Ben dropped his arm off the cart and stared at her in shock. "What?" he gasped. "But… Evie and Carlos can." He nudged Uma. "Can you?" He asked. Then, across the way to Jay, "Can you?"

Uma snorted and shook her head. "Only the menu items and some words in dutch," she replied.

Jay shook his head. "I know numbers," He replied.

Mal still wouldn't meet his eyes, instead brushing her hair to cover her face even more. Ben took a step forward and leaned a little bit to catch her hard gaze glaring at the ground. The moment she glimpsed him in her peripherals, she whipped away and turned her back to him. "Mal?" He asked.

"What, Ben?" She snapped, venom dripping from her tone. "I can't read. Sorry that not everyone on the Isle is as educated as you Auradonian filth."

"Mal," Evie whispered softly behind him.

Mal turned briefly to her friend, and then turned back away, still avoiding him, and continued sharpening her blade. "I didn't need to know how," She explained in a softer, more vulnerable tone. "I needed to know what was poisonous and how to use whatever magic I could inside the barrier. I needed to memorize the spells my mom told me and I needed to make sure my gang was protected and never questioned. When I showed up for classes, it was to hurl spitballs at students and mock the lower villains who taught the classes. We had Hostage Taking, Selfishness 101, things like that. I made Carlos do all my work."

Ben's gaze flicked over to Carlos, who had nodded twice to her final statement. Before his eyes, a picture spread of Mal, the pinnacle of evilness, trying to be everything her mother wanted her to be, throwing everything paper at Carlos. That was why Carlos knew math and reading and some sciences. Mal's education had inadvertently gone to him. "I could teach you," He offered before he gestured to Jay and Uma as well. "I could show you all how to read."

Uma scrunched her brow together. "I'd like that," She nodded. "And I'd want Harry to learn with me. Think I could learn things like you?"

"I'm sure you could learn more," Ben laughed. He glanced at Jay, but Jay didn't look too interested. Mal glanced up, pushing her hair back just enough to peer out at him, and then went back to sharpening her sword without a word. He wasn't sure if that was a yes or a no. He cleared his throat. "But you like history?" He asked.

Mal said nothing. He waited, but she remained tight-lipped. Finally, he turned away with a sigh. Some days, she was open to him. Others, she was just as closed off as Audrey.

"I better go calm everyone down," Evie hummed after a moment. "Uma, want to help me cover ground?"

Uma nodded and the two girls peered out from under the cart cautiously before they sprinted across the field. Ben furrowed his brow at them. It was as if they were afraid of the sky. Carlos left too - in the same manner - looking excited about a revelation he had just had. Now it was just him, Mal, and Jay.

He listened to Mal scrape her blade against the stone and sighed as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. One… two… three… at eighteen seconds, thunder shook the sky, inciting more panic from the others in the camp. He saw Mal flinch, but she made no sound. It occurred to him that if they had counted the time between the first and second lightning strikes, they could tell how fast the storm was moving. He'd suggest the idea to Carlos when he returned.

"I don't think this is a problem, but if the lightning happens to start a fire when it strikes, we'll have to put it out somehow," Ben mentioned, scoffing at the ground. It wasn't dry, per se, but would still probably blaze if prompted.

Mal glanced towards the clouds, finally pushing her hair back out of her face. "I'll put it out," She promised. "I know a spell. It's made for dragon fire, but it should work fine for normal fire."

Ben nodded and sat down with a sigh. "You know lots of spells?" He asked. Mal nodded but didn't expand. "Did your mom make you memorize them."

Mal glared at him. A real glare, one that made his entire body feel cold and hot at the same time. "Ben," She spat, and he knew she was being absolutely serious about this because she was using his real name and not something like 'Prince Charming' or 'Beast Boy', "don't ask me about my mother,"

Ben nodded and looked away from her. "Sorry," He apologized.

There was a deep silence. Ben supposed that Mal had gotten used to him responding with varying levels of sarcasm and now his sincerity was strange to her. He listened carefully as she set her sword aside and then sat down in her chair, still facing mostly away from him. There were several long beats of silence, wherein lightning flashed again in the distance and then, ten seconds later, thunder made Mal jump. He glanced over at her, watching her purple hair brush against the back of her chair.

Finally, she cleared her throat and turned her head a little more so he could see the elegant slope of her nose behind her hair. "Evie used to read books aloud when she was first learning. Carlos taught her because he noticed she was interested in chemistry. Mostly books on sciences and then some literature. She read Sleeping Beauty aloud once or twice. Didn't notice I was listening in for a long time and then just waited until I wasn't busy to start reading."

"She's a good friend," Ben gave a slight nod. "I'm glad you had that opportunity."

Mal snorted a little. She looked down the field and Ben followed her gaze to see Carlos dashing across the field holding a variety of metal tools. Ben stood up and held his hand out. "Carlos!" He called. "I had a thought on how to predict when the storm will get here."

Carlos reached the carts, panting, and then dropped a variety of things onto the ground. "Oh?" He asked. "I was going to build a thing for the wind."

"You should," Ben nodded. "Just in case we run into a storm with no thunder or lightning. But if you count the distance twice, so two lightning and thunder rounds, and also count the time between flash number one and two, we can figure out how much ground the storm covered in X amount of time, and then distance over speed is time."

Carlos tilted his head and then began to nod ecstatically. He sat down in his chair with his collection around him and began fiddling while also examining the skyline. It wasn't long before he pointed and said "There!" and began tapping out a count on his leg.

Mal continued looking out over the field. "Evie and Shrimpy better get back soon," She grumbled. "Don't want them to be stranded out in the field."

"Uma," Ben corrected automatically. Thunder cracked and Mal stiffened. Ben stood up and stepped out from under the cart's cover. He headed around to the side and pulled from a chest he'd been given two jackets that Evie had gifted him. One she'd made after measuring him, the other she had simply altered. The 'From Scratch' one was blue, and the other was brown. Ben wondered if she'd have a problem if he kept one or both when he left.

He pulled the brown jacket on, noting how it didn't quite fit right around his torso, and then stepped back underneath the cart. Mal was leaning forward in her chair, squinting down the field and looking a little concerned. Thunder cracked again and she jumped.

"That's three!" Carlos exclaimed. "So it's now point six miles away and before it was one. It was thirty seconds in between flash to flash, so it traveled point four miles in thirty seconds."

"So about another minute and a half?" Ben asked. He heard a plopping sound on the underside of the cart. Mal withdrew her foot from the edge of the cart, looking alarmed.

"You sure the carts will be safe, Mal?" Carlos asked, glancing up at the wooden underside in fear.

"Should be," Mal nodded. "I spelled them all."

Ben dropped his blue jacket, the one Evie had made, around her shoulders and pulled her hair out from under the collar. Mal almost jumped straight out and her hands balled into fists as she whipped her head around to see what he was doing. "Relax," He muttered under his breath, smoothing the shoulders down over her own petite ones. "There. That'll protect you from the thunder."

Mal did relax a little, though she stared at him with something that was either fearful confusion or confused fear. "Why do I need protection from the thunder?" She asked.

Ben shrugged, sitting back down. "You don't seem to like it much. Don't worry; it won't actually hurt you."

"I'm just not used to it," Mal scoffed, picking at the zipper on his jacket. "So I don't actually need this?"

"Nah," Ben shook his head. "Just thought I'd be nice and grab something for you." He didn't look at Jay or Carlos. He didn't want to see the judging looks in their eyes.

The rain started to come down in tiny little pitter-patters that made Ben relax into his chair with his eyes closed. The smell of rain and of wood and of Mal washed over him. This was nice. He could stay like this for a long, long…

Someone screamed.

He snapped to attention, looking around to see Evie and Uma in full sprint across the field. Evie. Evie had screamed. What was wrong? Was there a snake, or-

Mal jumped to her feet. "Come on!" She yelled, anxiety clear in her tone. Evie dashed towards them, face white, almost crying, while Uma slowed, looked confused. She held a hand up to the sky as lightning flashed overhead and thunder followed almost instantaneously afterward.

Evie crashed into Mal, flinging water off her hands and shaking from panic. Ben was baffled. "What's wrong?" He asked, staring at them in shock. "Was there a snake or something?"

Mal wrinkled her face up at him. "What?" She asked. "No, we could have dealt with a snake. But the rain. Doesn't it-"

"Guys!" Uma barked from where she stood, about five feet from the carts in the rain as it came crashing down, soaking her from head to toe. "It ain't burning!"

Evie stopped sobbing and stared at Uma in wonder. She examined her own skin, where a few raindrops had fallen, and then reached her hand out to catch a handful of water. It slipped through her fingertips, taking all dirt with it, and she let out a breath.

Mal frowned at the water outside and then, in a moment of determination, stepped out into the downpour. Jay had finally gotten to his feet to stare outside with his jaw gaping. She turned her face skyward, closed her eyes, and stood still while the rain hit her face. "Oh my gosh," she whispered. "It's clean."

Evie stepped out too, then Jay and Carlos. Evie began to laugh, clapping her hands to her mouth. "Auradon has clean rain!" She gasped. "Woah!"

Ben's hands shook a little as he took in the scene, and then he swallowed as he slowly got to his feet. "Don't get too cold," he warned. "You'll catch a chill."

Mal opened her eyes and looked back at him. A blinding smile spread across her face, making his heart twist. He raised an eyebrow in response to her and then nodded to the downpour. "You don't have this on the Isle?" He asked.

"Our rain burns our skin," Mal explained. "And it rots through wood. Dangerous."

Ben felt like he might be sick as he watched her take in the new experience with a smile. She turned away from him and then walked out further into the field. He watched her in the rain. Her hair stuck to her face and her smile grew all the brighter when raindrops hit her cheeks. She turned her face heavenward as if there was nothing more magical than rain.

Holy heavens above, she was beautiful. So beautiful he could feel his knees giving out as she slowly stole the breath from his lungs.

The storm grew thick and nasty, but all the VK's stayed out, spinning and laughing as they explored the new experience. Jay was the first to come back, shivering and blue with a bright smile on his face. Then, softly after, Mal returned, puffing a little as she collapsed into her chair. His jacket had served as a waterproof covering, so she wasn't too soaked, but her hair still stuck to her face.

"That," she gasped, "is magical,"

Ben chuckled and then leaned forward and picked up a lock of her hair, turning it in his hand. It curled when it was wet. Then, coming to his senses, he dropped it and turned back to the outside. "Yeah. I've always loved the rain."

"You love everything," Mal blurted out. Ben glanced sideways at her. If he was single, this would be the perfect moment for a pick-up line. If he was dating her, it'd be the perfect time to make her blush with something like "I love you."

Uma gasped as she stepped back into the cover of the cart, and Mal's mood soured just a tad as she turned away from Ben. Uma watched Ben out of the corner of her eyes as she collapsed back into her long-abandoned chair with a sigh. And Ben remembered what he had to do. Clue Mal in.

How to do it? How to break this fragile little thing they had going? He swallowed and looked back out at the rain. The sky had darkened, and he could barely see Evie and Carlos enjoying the downpour. The clatter was so loud that he wondered how, if he said anything, anyone would hear him.

Mal stood up and stood beside him, close enough he could drop his arm around her and pull her close if he wanted. Not if he wanted; if he could. If he wasn't already spoken for. "I love the rain," she whispered softly.

It was probably, he thought, the first time she'd ever admitted to loving something aloud.

"My daughter hates it," he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on the sky as a flash of lightning lit the sky up.

There was a very, very long silence. Except for the fact that Mal had put a foot behind her and he could feel the increasing confusion and hostility rising from her, he would have thought the statement had gone unnoticed. He finally dared to glance towards her and the sight was worse than he'd anticipated. Her lower lip was jutted out as she squinted at him and clouds of hurt had fogged over her eyes. Behind him, he could see Jay and Uma exchange an anxious glance while letting out simultaneous exhales. "What?" Mal asked.

"My daughter," Ben forced himself to say. "She, uh, she's a lot like her mom. Doesn't really like the rain very much. It used to scare her a lot, but now she just complains whenever it rains." Belle would complain no matter the day or time, but there wasn't a way he could phrase that frustration at the moment. He turned a little towards Mal and then glanced down at his jacket on her frame. "During rainstorms when she was little, she'd come and curl up in our bed. My wife would steal my sweaters and we'd read together."

It occurred to him too late that details like that might hurt her more.

Mal's face glassed over and looked down at the jacket around her shoulders. Her hands came up to tug lightly at the zippers. "You're married?" She asked, sounding very stifled.

"Yeah," Ben mumbled softly. "For seven years."

He waited to see what her full reaction would be. Mal's emotions were always puzzles. Her sarcasm made up for laughter and amusement. Her insults made up for tears or anguish. He watched her hands curl around the zipper of his jacket before she abruptly spun around, ripped it off her shoulders, and dropped it in his chair. She pushed her wet hair back and then ducked back into the storm. Ben followed her departure with his eyes. She glowed green until the darkness grew too thick and she had vanished from sight.

"You could have said that a bit better," Uma reprimanded softly. She reached for Mal's sword and ran her finger down the blade. She and Mal both liked using big, scary, threatening things to hide behind.

Ben nodded silently. "I guess," he muttered, and then picked up his blue jacket. Part of him wanted desperately to raise the jacket to his nose and take a deep whiff to see if she'd left behind any scent, but he knew now wasn't the time nor place.

"So, are you and your wife... close?" Jay asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. "Because earlier, you made it sound like you weren't."

Ben considered a response, twisting the collar of his jacket in his hands. When none came to mind, he shrugged and looked out to the rain. The rain that Mal loved. The rain she'd looked beautiful in.

Maybe if Audrey could find joy in small things like Mal could, he'd love her-

Well, he shouldn't be thinking like that.