Burn cream, hydrogen peroxide, and nail clippers all go on their expense list for their trip.
At dinner, two equally annoyed but still respectful princes sit side-by-side by each other. No more mottled skin, no more twisted hands.
"Zach, how did you open the safe?" Ben asks, not looking up from his menu as he shows Tyler what he's allowed to order.
Zach flushes. None of them need to ask what he got out or how Ben knows. Even Tyler isn't surprised – he must have been keeping the secret with Zach. "I know the code," he admits, sliding into his chair with the tips of his ears red.
"How?" Ben flicks his eyes up to examine his oldest.
Zach's ears turn completely red. "I saw you punch it in on my phone." He's referring to the restrictions passcode. Ben recently learned you can keep kids from clearing their history and while they trust Zach (a lot less after today but still) he decided it'd be a good precaution to take.
"Hm," Ben hums and glances over at Mal, who rolls her eyes to the ceiling. "I don't know about you but I think I could use some wine right now."
"If you get drunk, you're sleeping with the boys and supervising."
Zach turns eight. They survive the rest of their family trip and manage to have some fun on the beaches together. Mal fills a section of hers and Ben's suitcase with shells that she plans to decorate a frame with when they get home. School restarts a month later and Zach enters college while Tyler begins the wonderful world of the second grade.
Zach's first four classes in either subject are difficult until he figures out what subjects everyone else already knows and finds a book to fill him in on it all. Then, once he knows the subject matter, he's back to downloading everything the teacher mentions into his brain. His first tests come back all nineties and ninety-fives. So that's that. Mal has an eight-year-old who is acing college and no, she's not bitter about it at all.
She just really has to fight the urge to set the school on fire.
Tyler is acting now with the children's theatre program. The opening show for this season is Julius Caesar, which Mal had no idea could be adapted for children, but the closing show is Beauty and the Beast and Tyler has his heart set on being Grandpa Adam. Math is still hard for him, but sometimes he and Zach will sit at the bar table so Zach can help him and that helps keep them from fighting. Sometimes, after school, they'll sit at the bar working on homework together while Mal pulls out snacks. Belle will be sitting on the floor all by herself, bopping her head along to whatever beat is playing and switching her hair color from purple to dirty blonde. She must have some sort of magic in her but hasn't done much besides switching back and forth between looking like Ben or looking like Mal. Hades thinks it's something called a Split-Gene disorder, where Ben and Mal's chromosomes didn't cross over correctly due to her being a fairy and him being a human. Therefore, she has the ability to switch back and forth between looking like Parent A or Parent B. Zach supports this theory, but Mal doesn't quite understand it. The other alternative is that she has the ability to change her appearance at will but only chooses to mimic her parents(and possibly Zach and Tyler, but who could tell) because that's who she's around the most.
School is in session for about two and a half months and nothing interesting happens except for when Zach brings home a few papers from his professors asking to test him out and move him into more advanced classes and also asking if he'd like to sign on for more classes at the semester change. He signs on for chemistry and physics and Trigonometry and Statistics. He asks Mal if he can take Calculus alongside all the others but they both agree he shouldn't push himself too hard. He also signs on for his first English class with the college, which he's a bit nervous for since essay-writing is still a small struggle for him. He hasn't had all the training that the other students have. So he starts staying after to work with the librarian in the college and that helps him feel a little more secure.
On October the third, Mal is in a meeting with the council. This is one of the few meetings she gets to attend with Ben, and she's rather enjoying the feel of his hand atop hers when her cell phone dings and rings against the table, drawing all conversation to a halt.
"Sorry," Mal blushes as she reaches for the beeping object. "I must have forgotten to silence it." She flips it over to reach for the end call button, and then pauses and narrows her eyes suspiciously at the contact.
"Who is it?" Ben asks, nudging her and glancing over her shoulder. Mal holds up a finger.
"Sorry, I need to take this real quick," She mumbles and slides the dial to accept the call. "Hello? This is Mal?" Ben gives her an incredulous look. Everyone else exchanges miffed looks. It's quite rude for the hostess to be taking a cell phone when Audrey of Auroria was so carefully trying to explain about climate changes in her kingdom.
"Mal?" Ben raises his hand to the phone at her ear to try and draw it away, signaling her to head outside to take the call or end it.
Mal gestures with her finger at him even more firmly. "Yes?" She asks in a low and dangerous tone that makes a few royals take their hands off the table. Ben continues trying to catch her gaze up until her eyes flash like lightning and smoke starts to drift out of her hair. The royals surrounding them jump up out of their seats and withdraw from around her. "Is he still there?" She asks, lowering her tone and squinting at the grains in the table carefully.
"Who is it?" Ben whispers urgently. "What's going on?"
"Give him the phone," Mal commands through gritted teeth before she begins packing up all her notes, her pens, and the papers needed for the rest of the meeting. Ben watches in confusion until she starts hissing into the phone again, and then his blood goes a little cold. "Tyler James, I will be there in a half-hour unless God is really liking you today. Don't you dare move from that chair until I walk through those doors."
Ben backs off. He backs far off.
"No, no," Mal snaps over the sounds of someone crying on the other end. "You may ask your father for grace when you get home but not even the law can protect you from me, young men." She snaps her fingers towards Ben to indicate she's talking to him now as she gets up from her chair. "Ben, cover this all for me."
"Are you going to go get him? Is he hurt?" Ben asks, starting to get to his feet. Mal gestures at him to sit down.
"No, no he's not hurt. Yet." The last word she hisses into her phone and Ben hears Tyler crying on the other end of the line. "He's coming straight home." She hangs up without even a goodbye and shoves her chair back under the table with a screech and a thud.
"Is he in trouble?" Ben asks as she walks away.
"Big trouble," Mal affirms. "Hope you feel like playing the good parent tonight, because I'm about ready to barbecue a six-year-old snot."
Without another word, she snaps the door open and leaves. Ben stares at the closed door in something like shock. What could Tyler have done? Sure, he's energetic and hot-headed and he's fallen or gotten in an argument or two, but never bad enough that Mal had to leave to go get him. And he hasn't heard her get that angry at one of the kids in… ever.
Everyone's looking at him for answers, and so Ben takes a deep breath and forces a smile. "Sorry, Audrey," He apologizes to the miffed woman. "Family emergency. Please continue."
He glances at his phone for the rest of the meeting, hoping for some sort of update from his wife. No such thing comes through. The meeting finally lets out and then he walks everyone down to the front entryway, still checking his phone for any sort of correspondence.
As everyone is coming down the front stairwell, the door opens, and Tyler walks in, sobbing unashamedly and keeping his face turned towards the ground. Mal enters after him, madder than mad. Tyler reaches the staircase, looks up and sees his dad, and then collapses to the staircase crying. He buries his face into his knees and lets his backpack fall beside him as Mal starts to storm up the stairs. Some of the royals who don't quite care as much about drama in the head family start heading out the door, but others stop and stare at the purple-haired prince in concern.
Ben catches Mal's arm as she starts to head up to their apartment, so angry her face almost matches her hair. "What happened?" He demands, casting worried looks at the child on the steps.
"Oh, you'll never believe it!" Mal exclaims in a moment of flamboyant rage. She completely forgets about the other royals surrounding them as she whirls down to direct her statements down the stairs. "I can't believe such a horrible thing would happen in our family and especially that one of our kids did it. I'm never been so embarrassed and upset at one of them!" Down the step, Tyler only cries harder. He's hiccupping so much he sounds like he's about to cough up a lung. Mal has no sympathy as she turns back around. "He's going to tell you all about it because I can't stand to look at him right now!"
"I'm sorry!" Tyler whimpers from the bottom steps. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry,"
"No you're not," Mal hisses. "But you will be."
She turns and leaves without another word. Ben's left to gape open-mouthed as other royals start shuffling towards the door, some still trying to hang back and see the drama. He starts trying to lead people to the exit, walking around Tyler until everyone is finally gone and left. Then, he goes over to sit in front of Tyler and pull the details out of him. It's all in hiccups without looking at him once, but that doesn't make Ben feel any sorrier once he figures out what happened.
Hmm. Turns out Mal wasn't overreacting. She might have been underreacting.
He hasn't felt this much rage towards one of his children before.
"You better scram," He growls when Tyler's finished explaining everything to him. "Because I have never been this disappointed in you. I don't want to look at you either. You go straight up to your room and don't you dare come out until we come to get you."
Tyler sprints away immediately, crying in sadness and fear, and Ben only feels a few pangs in his chest before he has to get up, grab Tyler's backpack, and head up the stairs.
Up in the kitchenette, Mal is balancing the baby on one hip as she nurses a glass of ice water with the other. Ben hangs up Tyler's backpack and goes to stand against the bar as she takes a few deep breaths.
"How many kids?" Ben mutters in a harsh whisper.
"They're saying eight now," Mal replies. Her voice is much calmer now that her eyes are closed and she's balancing Belle and her water. "But it might be more. They're asking his old classmates and everyone in his grade right now."
"How'd they catch him?" Ben asks.
"One of the kids broke down when the teacher asked how they'd liked their treat," Mal says nonchalantly. "They think he's been threatening kids since before school let out last year."
"He doesn't know who told, right?" Ben asks. He doesn't want the poor kid under more stress.
"No, he does know. The teacher was talking to the whole class when it happened. That's how they found out it was so many kids all at once. Once one kid admitted it the rest broke down too. The teacher took the entire class straight to the office and they've been going through everyone and calling parents for the last two hours. They called us last when they knew how many kids were in his class that he'd threatened."
"Greedy little punk."
"What're we going to do?"
Ben has no idea what to do. Zach never even went to school, much less bullied his class into giving him stuff. And the stipulation… he hasn't been this mad in a very, very long time. "And he used us?" He asks, voice trembling with barely concealed fury.
"Some of them he did. He said we'd get them and their parents in trouble. Others he just used his magic to threaten them."
"And no one got hurt?"
"No, but everyone's pretty scared of him now," Mal sighs, shaking her head. "He's suspended all this week and next. Maybe I should pull him out and make him tutor at home?"
"I don't know," Ben shakes his head, taking a seat at the bar. "He's got to apologize to his whole class, though. And we've got to figure out a good punishment for him."
"I don't think we need to yell at him anymore," Mal sighs. "I traumatized him enough just walking into the building. He wet himself on the way out to the car. What did you do?"
"Told him I was disappointed and that I couldn't look at him and to go sit in his room." Ben runs a hand down his face. "It won't be as effective though. He's a momma's kid."
Mal nods with a hum and kisses Belle's forehead as their five-month-old sleeps against her chest. She's currently wearing Ben's looks right now, as she often does when she's asleep. She tends to take on Mal's hair and pallor when she's angry, hungry, excited, or when she's having a particularly colorful dream. "I wonder if we made him pay dividends out of his own pocket for the class?" She asked. "Aladdin and Jasmine had Aziz do that while he was growing up if they caught him stealing."
Ben tosses the idea back and forth and then nods in approval. "I like that idea, actually," He sighs. "Maybe we should pull him out until the winter semester and give him a tutor until then. Keep him under wing so he doesn't lash out at anyone until then."
Mal hums her approval and then flicks her eyes towards the door. "Should we go talk to him now, or give him more time to cool down?"
"I don't want to look at him right now," Ben growls and leans forward to put his head on the table. "Oh… that child… he's got such a sharp tongue."
"You're telling me," Mal muttered, taking a seat beside him.
"You know he gets it from you, right?" He turns to stare at Mal. "Him and Zach both. All their wit comes from you and your parents. They talk circles around me."
"That's flattering, Ben," Mal rolls her eyes. She sighs and leans her head on his shoulder, balancing the baby in her lap far enough away that Belle's not breathing the underside of the table. "I need a nap."
Ben laughs. "Only a nap? I need a full winter's hibernation."
"I need a grave," Mal responds dryly.
"Here lies Mal Betha's patience."
"And Ben Florian's wit."
"Ouch."
"…"
"Should we go talk to him now?"
"I thought you needed a hibernation?"
"Oh, believe me, wrestling with that kid is going to put me into a coma, easily."