Descendants – Better Together

Chapter Two: Something New, Something Brave

Emily smiled as she sat down on a bench outside the castle, with Rose next to her. Bella and Mel, who had taken off her sportswear while she played, were playing with Lupa and Cerberus as they ran around. She went to say something, only for her phone to beep. "Ben's text me the directions, and he says we should wear our pyjamas," she said, smiling at Rose. "Apparently it can also be a sleepover if we want… Do you think he knows?"

"Probably, he's not stupid," said Rose, as she watched Mel chase Bella. "You do realise Bella is gonna come over here when she trips and gets mud on her dress, right?"

"Well, yeah, but it's just a quick spell to fix that," said Emily, shrugging. "And you're right, Ben's not stupid, he probably knows. And if he knows, then Evie knows." She smiled, just as a white dog ran into view.

"Bolt!" came a female voice, from behind the two. Both turned their heads to see a brown haired girl about their age running towards them. "Bolt, heel boy!" The dog, Bolt, didn't seem to be listening to her, instead choosing to play with Lupa, Cerberus, Bella and Mel. The girl sighed as she joined Emily and Rose. "I'm so sorry about Bolt."

"It's quite alright," said Rose, with a smile. "Our friends seem to like him. I'm Rose, by the way, and this is my girlfriend, Emily."

"Penny," said the girl, with a smile. Before taking a seat next to them. "Mighty strange dog you have there." She motioned to Houndoom. "What breed are they?"

"A Houndoom," said Emily, smiling. "A special breed you've probably never heard of."

"Yeah, can't say I have," said Penny, nodding. "Must be rare."

"Oh very," said Emily, smirking. "One of a kind. At least here in Auradon."

"For now, anyway," said Rose, smiling. "It's probably not gonna be long before Lupa lays an egg and we have a Poochyena or Houndour on our hands…"

Penny looked slightly confused but didn't say anything, just as Bella let out a cry and the three turned to see the Mouse Pokemon on the floor, mud over the front of her dress. Emily immediately stood up and strode over to Bella, scooping her up. "It's alright, Bella," she said, with a smile. Before clicking her fingers, allowing the grey smoke to engulf the dress. The mud was all gone when it dissipated. "You know, it would probably be better if you took that off while you're playing with your friends." At the stink eye Bella gave her Emily had to hold in laughter. "Fine, but it's probably gonna get muddy again."

"'chu?" she asked, tilting her head. She appeared to be thinking it over, before beginning to gently tug at the bow on her ear. "Pika!"

"Let's go over to the bench, I can take it off when you're in my lap," said Emily, smiling as she walked over to the bench. Where Penny and Rose were chatting. She sat down and began undoing the bow.

"Bella's agreed to take her dress off?" asked Rose, looking at Emily with a smile. "What miracle was that?"

"I told her it would get muddy again," said Emily, as she finished undressing Bella and the Pikachu jumped off her lap, running back over to the group. Rose laughed with a grin.

"So, Rose tells me you're in room 2-15," said Penny, smiling at Emily. "I'm in 2-14, we're neighbours."

"Huh, it's a small world after all," she said, with a grin. Earning herself a playful shove from Rose. "What? It is."

"I guess they put all us animal lovers in that corner of the dorm building," said Penny, smiling. "Though, before you arrived, I think I was the only one."

"Interesting," said Rose, smiling. "Well, it seems our friends get along with yours. So that's one good thing."

"Bolt is very friendly," said Penny, nodding.

"So, Penny, are you invited to Ben's room tonight?" asked Emily, as she casually lent back on the bench. "For film night?"

"I thought he cancelled it," said Penny, frowning. "Something about Evie not feeling well. He didn't want to get anybody else sick while she recovered."

"Oh, huh," said Emily, nodding. "I guess he forgot to text us about that."

"Yeah, he must have forgotten," agreed Rose, before standing up. "Sorry about this, Penny, but Emily and I forgot to lock our dorm room. We should probably get back."

"It's fine, Rose," said Penny, standing up. "I've gotta take Bolt for his proper walk still."

Emily nodded and the three said their goodbyes before going their separate ways, calling their friends to them.

"That was weird, right?" asked Rose, looking at Emily as they settled into their room again. "Ben definitely knows, and so do Mal and Evie." She was pacing the room while Emily was sat on their bed, with Bella and Mel. Both of them back in their clothes. Bella was sat on her lap.

"There is no way they don't know now, yeah," said Emily, nodding. "But like I said, if we tell them we want to go slow, start small and work our way up, I'm sure they'll be fine with it."

"Ben is a nice guy," said Rose, nodding. Before taking a deep breath. "But what if they want to go on a big thing right away… I don't think I'm ready for that." She looked at Emily, who was smiling at her. "How are you so calm about this?"

"Because you're panicking and two people panicking is never productive," said Emily, smiling. She put Bella on the actual bed, earning a little stink eye before Bella hopped off the bed and joined Lupa and Cerberus in front of the fire, along with Mel. Emily looked at Rose and scooted up the bed, patting her lap.

Rose took a second deep breath, before getting on the bed and laying her head on Emily's lap. "I know I'm thinking of worst case scenarios but that's where my mind goes."

"That's why we work so well, Guppy," said Emily, as she began stroking her girlfriend's hair. "You jump to worst case scenarios, I always try to think of the good case scenarios."

"Best case scenarios, you mean," said Rose, with a slight laugh. "And yeah, I get it." She sat up, kissing Emily on the cheek. "I love you so much, Emmy."

"Love you so much too, Guppy," said Emily, returning the kiss. Before looking at her phone. "So, we have an hour till we have to get ready, do you wanna see what's on TV here? Other than So Random, of course…"

Rose nodded as she cuddled into the side of Emily.

An hour later, Emily and Rose were stood outside the room they had been directed to by Ben's text, in their pyjamas. Bella was sat on the back of Cerberus, also wearing pyjamas, and Mel was on Lupa's back, pyjamas on as well.

"Well, there's no time like the present," said Emily, before knocking on the door. She felt Rose's hand grip hers harder, and began to rub it gently.

The door opened to reveal Ben standing there, as if he had been waiting. "Hey," he said, smiling. "I'm afraid nobody else could make it so it's just the five of us…" He quickly counted the Pokemon. "Nine. Just the nine of us." He smiled at them again. "Why don't you come inside?"

Emily nodded as she led Rose into the room, while Lupa and Cerberus followed.

There was a brief silence as Emily and Rose got settled onto one of the sofas in the room, with Mal and Evie on the other. Lupa and Cerberus had made their way over to the, currently lit, fireplace and curled up in front of it, with Mel and Bella. Ben took his place between Mal and Emily before saying "I'm sorry, we lured you here on false pretences…"

"You lied to the others about Evie being ill," said Emily, with a smile, as she took Rose's hand in her lap. "We know, we were talking to Penny earlier. We met her while we were letting our friends tire themselves out earlier." She looked over at the four Pokemon. "Hopefully they will fall asleep at some point while we have this chat." Bella stuck her tongue out at Emily, even though her eyes were barely able to stay open. Emily shook her head before looking at the three again.

"So you know why we did that," said Mal, looking at both of them with a small smile. "We're on the same page here?"

"That the five of us are soulmates and you're wondering how open we are to the idea," said Emily, nodding. "Rose and I are not opposed to it, but we both have some reservations." She looked between the three. "The truth is, we both don't feel like we're ready to jump right into a poly relationship. We were hoping we could take this slow…"

Ben nodded before saying "I understand, Emily. We don't want to make you or Rose uncomfortable."

"We can take this as slow as you wish," said Evie, smiling at them. "In fact, if you feel up to it, we can each take you two on a date on our own and slowly build up to more than one of us…"

"We don't even have to talk about this tonight," said Ben, standing up. "I have some popcorn in the other room. We can do what you came here for and watch a movie. You can even pick, the DVDs are on the shelf over there." He smiled at them, before looking at Mal. "Can you come help with the popcorn?"

Mal nodded and stood up before saying "There are strawberries, right?"

"And chocolate?" asked Evie, looking at Ben, hopefulness in her voice.

"Yes, I've got strawberries and chocolate," said Ben, smiling. Unaware that Bella had perked up at the word 'chocolate' and had made her way over to Emily and Rose.

"Pika?" she said, placing her front paws on Emily's legs. "Pikachu?"

"You want some chocolate too, huh?" asked Emily, with a smile. Before reaching into her bag and pulling out a packet of chocolate buttons. "Just the one, OK?"

"Pika…" she said, sounding disappointed as she reached into the packet and pulled out a button. Emily smiled and put the packet back in the bag, but not before offering one to Evie and Rose, and taking one herself.

"Oh wow," said Evie, with a grin, after she had eaten the button. "This is amazing. What are they?"

"Just chocolate," said Emily, smiling as she placed Bella, who was now happily munching away at the chocolate in her hand, on her lap. "Bella can't have too much or she goes hyper, so these are the best size for that. But I had to make my own because nowhere on Pokearth sold them, but they did sell ordinary chocolate so I made a mould and just melted chocolate into them."

"DIY chocolate buttons," said Rose, with a smile as she popped the button in her mouth. "They're amazing as well."

"It's just chocolate," said Emily, shaking her head. "Like shop-brought chocolate."

"We should probably choose a film, Em," said Rose, looking at her as she stood up.

"Oh I was thinking we could choose something from my bag," said Emily, with a smile. "Something like Night at the Museum or Sky High… One of the Back to the Future's could be fun as well. Or a Star Wars…"

Rose shook her head before saying "Really? You don't even know if they'll work here."

"No time like the present to find out," said Emily, shrugging as she stood up, placing Bella on the sofa and walking over to the TV.

Two hours later, they had just finished the first Night at the Museum film. "That was great," said Ben, smiling as he looked at Emily, who was taking the DVD out of the TV. "And you say that's a film from your world?"

"Yeah, there's two more if you want to see them," said Emily, looking at Ben. "Why?"

"Because it just as easily have been filmed here," said Mal, looking at her. "We visited that museum a while ago on that boring trip around the country… It did look different though, very different exhibits."

"Really?" asked Rose, with a smile. "New York exists here?"

"Always wanted to visit there," said Emily, putting the DVD back in her bag. Before turning to look at the three. "How far away is it?"

"About two days travel if you go none stop, three if you take regular stops," said Ben, looking at her. "Auradon is quite big."

"So was America back home," said Rose, smiling, as she stood up. "Em and I had a plan to road trip across the whole country with our friends when we turned eighteen."

"We were gonna hire an RV and everything," said Emily, grinning. "I kinda envisioned a Scooby Doo like trip where we'd stumble into trouble in every town and help stop a crime or two… But it probably wouldn't have been anything like that."

"What's Scooby Doo?" asked Evie, looking at Emily, confused. Emily's eyes went wide and Rose sighed.

"It's a TV Show back home, Emily's very obsessed with it," said Rose, looking at Evie. "She has all of the DVDs. And last time somebody told her they didn't know what Scooby Doo was she made them sit down and watch all of the original show and a bunch of films…"

"Hey, it got that SKUL agent to break, didn't it?" protested Emily, looking at Rose with her hands raised. Before sighing. "Granted we didn't actually know he was a SKUL agent when I did that… I'm surprised M didn't try to kick me out over that…"

"She understood the reasoning," said Rose, shrugging. Before noticing Ben, Mal and Evie looked confused. "We were secret agents back in our original universe. It was interesting… Though we never really went off school grounds."

"Secret agents?" asked Mal, perking up. "Like spies?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said Emily, smirking. Before looking at Rose. "You know, you make it sound worse than it was… I didn't force him to watch it… I just locked the door and refused to let him out…"

"And you're a good guy?" asked Ben, looking at Emily. "That sounds like torture."

"Eh, it was a more of a grey area," said Emily, shrugging. "He did tell us the location of a SKUL base where they were training kid agents…" She went to say something else but yawned instead. "Tonight's been fun, but I think we should take our leave now, it's been a long day. And I think it's probably better if we retire to our room. Especially after the conversation we had."

Ben nodded, as Rose began gathering the Pokemon. Lupa and Cerberus rose from slumber, while she gently picked Mel, who was still asleep, up. Bella was also asleep and Emily gently picked her up, making sure not to wake her. They said their goodbyes before walking out the door of Ben's room.

Soon enough, they were back in their dorm and getting ready for bed. Lupa and Cerberus had returned to their spot in front of the fire, and Mel and Bella were tucked into the spare bed, fast asleep.

"See, I told you we had nothing to worry about," said Emily, as she got into bed with Rose. She looked at her girlfriend with a smile as Rose put her head on Emily's shoulder. "Ben and the others are understanding."

"Dates with just one of them at a time doesn't seem as daunting, no," said Rose, with a small smile. Before smirking as she looked up. "You know, I thought I was the one who was always right in this relationship."

"Well, I have to be right once or twice," said Emily, smirking back. "Laws of averages and all that. Plus you're usually the calm one in our relationship, I think the whole thing got flipped today."

Rose let out a hearty laugh before saying "Yeah, you're probably right about that too. At least our soulmates are nice, which is a big plus." Emily smiled, as Rose sat up. "We should probably continue our rewatch of Once, right?"

"Of course," said Emily, clicking her fingers. In a puff of smoke her laptop appeared along with the Season Five boxset of Once Upon A Time. She turned the laptop on as she said "You know, we should probably go into town tomorrow, Beauty and Capilet are probably itching to get rode again."

"That sounds fun," said Rose, as she watched Emily set it up. "Do you think we should ask Ben about a tour guide, though? We barely know Auradon as it is, I don't think I want to get lost. Even the Spy-Pod isn't foolproof."

"If we ask him, he'll want to do it himself, and no doubt Mal or Evie, or both, will tag along," said Emily, looking at Rose as they waited for the laptop to boot. "You'd be OK with that?"

"If it was as casual as tonight, I'll be fine with it," said Rose, with a smile. "You should text him, I still don't have his number in mine."

Emily laughed as she summoned her phone in a puff of smoke while Rose took over setting up the laptop. She tapped away at the phone with a smile before putting it down on the side table. Just as the laptop screen burst into life.

Halfway through the episode, Emily's phone went off. Rose paused the episode as Emily reached for her phone. "Ben?" she asked, looking at her girlfriend. "What'd he say?"

"As I predicted, he's volunteered to do it himself," said Emily, with a smile. "Apparently they were heading into town anyway and were going to ask if we wanted to join them."

"Fortuitous," said Rose, smiling. "That sounds fun though. Who's going?"

"Other than Ben, Mal and Evie?" said Emily, looking at Rose. "I think Jay and Carlos, and a bunch of other kids who are still here. Apparently he wants to make it up to them for tonight."

"He said all this in a text?" asked Rose, in disbelief. "Damn…"

"His text was almost as long as one of yours," said Emily, smirking. "Proper English and everything, no text speak…"

"Oh, like you use text speak either," said Rose, gently pushing Emily. "Tell him its fine and we'll see him tomorrow morning."

Emily nodded and tapped at her phone for a moment before putting it to the side. "Alright, let's get back to our marathon," she said, pressing the play button again before putting her arm around Rose and letting Rose rest her head on her shoulder again.

I hope you liked this. :)