Hi Guys. Here is Chapter 3 for you. thank you SO MUCH for all your reads,reviews,follows and favs. And of course a MASSIVE MASSIVE THANK YOU to my ABSOLUTELY AMAZING Beta xez2003 for your AMAZING editing! Honestly this chapter would be a SKELETON without you THANK YOU Well I think that is all. Take it away chapter 3!
DISCLAMER: I DO NOT OWN DECENDANTS ALL RIGHTS GO TO DISNEY ANY DIOLOGE YOU RECONISE BELONGS TO DISNEY I OWN NOTHING!
The following morning Mal swiped two cups of black coffee from the Slop shop down the alley and headed back to her hideout to start her training with Ben.
"Ben?" she called as she entered the main living area. When she heard no answer, she placed the cups on a nearby table and went to his room, knocking on the door.
"Ben? Are you in there?" She shouted louder this time hoping for a response. She was rewarded a few seconds later when she heard a loud thump followed by a sudden growl. This made her think that she had somehow startled Ben awake, who had jumped in fright and landed on the floor.
She brought a hand to her face and shook her head in disbelief. But despite her best efforts a small smile won the battle on her face, before she quickly returned serious and called gruffly. "Ben! It's me, Mal. Hurry up! I don't have all day. We need to start your training."
"Coming." he called and a short while later the door unlocked and he joined her in the living room.
"Looks like you slept well last night if you didn't hear me enter the front door." She said as he nodded.
"Good. Now catch!" She exclaimed as she suddenly threw him a bruised apple she had picked up that morning. She watched with a satisfied smirk as he easily caught it before taking a bite.
"You have quick reflexes. That's good as you will certainly be needing them." She said. "I got you breakfast. There is coffee on the table if you like."
Ben finished his breakfast and watched in silence as Mal disappeared in her room and returned a minute later carrying a dagger set and an old target practice board made out of cardboard. She pinned the cardboard on the opposite wall and returned to his side.
"Come." She called. "We'll start with daggers as those will be the most common weapon you will be using on the Isle. Why do you think is that?" she asked him.
When Ben did not answer her, Mal quickly grabbed the dagger which was hidden in her boot and brought it up to his throat. She smirked as his eyes widened in surprise before she quickly turned and threw the dagger across the room, hitting the centre of the bullseye.
"As you can see, a dagger is a very useful weapon, especially here on the Isle where you need to think quickly on your feet. Remember what I told you about having to be subtle and sneaky around here. Daggers are the perfect weapon as they can easily be hidden and your opponent won't expect it coming". She explained.
She waited for him to nod in understanding before she continued. "Right. So we will first start with learning how to throw them before moving to actual dagger fighting. Once you have mastered that, we will then try staff and sword fighting and see where we go from there. Don't worry, by the time I am finished with you, you will be the perfect VK." She quipped confidently.
Ben nodded and watched as Mal crossed the room and picked up the dagger from the target practice and returned to his side.
"Now first things first." She began. "We need to work on your grip. Now if you grip the dagger too tight it won't leave your hand when you throw it. Grip it too loose, you may end up with a stabbed foot from dropping it." She said as she slowly let him take the dagger in his hand. But as she adjusted his grip on the handle and her hand made contact with his, she felt a sudden shiver run threw her spine which made her stiffen. Ben stared at her for a second as he noticed her sudden change in behavior but she quickly shook her head and continued. "Good. Now look at the cardboard, draw your arm back and close one eye." She told him as she adjusted his arm. "Take a deep breath in and release it as you throw. Now!" she finally told him. The dagger ended just off the centre.
"Not bad. Seems you are a natural." She said with a satisfied grin. "Now try again. On your own this time. Let's see what you can do." She challenged.
Ben did turn out to be a natural after all and after only a few hours he had easily mastered the skill of dagger throwing, so much so that Mal decided to move on to some dagger fighting. Ben relied on his strength to attack but Mal easily outmatched him as she effortlessly avoided his attacks by using her experience and agility to make up for the disadvantage of her petite frame. Not before long, Ben was sweating profusely but he still had to land a successful hit on her.
Mal instinctively bent down as Ben once again attacked her. She quickly kicked the side of his knee, making him loose his balance and fall on his back. As she brought her dagger dangerously close to his face, she smirked and said "I think that is enough for today. It looks like you could really use a break."
"And also a shower I must say!" she snickered. She stood up and started to pack up the daggers while Ben headed in the direction of the bathroom.
A short while later Mal heard the sound of water running, as she continued putting away their training gear. Suddenly a loud growl and the clanging noise of metal being hit caught her attention and she rushed in the direction of the bathroom.
"Ben? Are you okay in there?" She called just outside the door. Ben did not answer and all she could hear were the growling and clanging noises which had now become even louder. Without thinking, she decided to barge in, fearing the worse. A number of different scenarios ran through her head as she entered the room but she was certainly not prepared for the sight in front of her. She came face to face with a still fully clothed but totally drenched Ben who was still growling and snarling at the now dislodged shower nozzle, holding one end of a broken broom stick in his hand.
"What happened?" Mal asked incredulously as she hurried over and turned the water off.
"This metal contraption attacked me!" Ben scowled.
Mal just stared at him dumbfounded for a few long seconds, completely in shock at his admission. And before she realized what she was doing, she burst out chuckling before it quickly turned out into a full laughing fit. She continued laughing wholeheartedly for a couple of minutes unable to stop, until she managed to calm herself and finally regained her composure.
"Ben" she sighed as she wiped her eyes. "You're supposed to use it to wash yourself. It is meant to have water come out like that." She giggled.
"Oh" he muttered as he looked down in embarrassment.
"Ah! Don't worry it. It is just a shower nozzle and it still looks like it is somehow working. This is the Isle after all. Everything here is just half broken anyway. Now don't move and wait for me here, before you wet the entire hideout. There should be some dry clothes somewhere lying around which Jay left behind him." She said as she turned to leave the room.
She returned a minute later with a change of clothes and she left them on a cupboard. "There you go. These should fit you."
"Oh and another thing! Now I don't know what you did in the forest but people here do take off thier clothes before showering." She snickered in amusement as she left the room and closed the door behind her.
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Later that evening, as she waited for Ben to get ready for dinner, Mal decided to relax for a couple of minutes on the battered sofa and put on the TV.
"What is that?!" Ben cried startled as he entered the room a while later, and before Mal could stop him, he threw one of his daggers at the box, destroying it.
"Ben! It's ok!" Mal cried.
"It's called a TV and well, it's meant to keep us entertained. There is not much to see since we are on the Isle but it mainly tells us what's going on in Boradon."
"What's that?" he asked curious.
"Well. The place's actual name is Auradon and it's where all the stuck up princes and prissy princesses live." Mal sneered. They spent the rest of the evening comfortably on the sofa as Mal told Ben all about Auradon and how the Isle of the Lost had been created.
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The days quickly turned into weeks and two months later the only sounds that could be heard in the hideout was the crashing sound of the fast moving Bo staffs and Mal's and Ben's sharp intake of breaths and shouts as they trained. Ben wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a defensive stance before his teacher, Bo staff ready in hand. Just as he had been taught, he narrowed his eyes as he drowned out all the other surrounding sounds and turned his full focus on his opponent, as she shifted her position ready to attack. He braced himself as Mal advanced on him taking a low swing to his side. He smirked as he easily anticipated and blocked the blow with his Bo staff and thought about how the long hours of practice where finally paying off. Mal returned the smirk as her staff quickly changed direction and she suddenly aimed for his neck but once again he blocked it.
After so many hours of training together, their moves had now become fluid and flawless but also precise in nature. And in the midst of it all, Mal had surprisingly discovered that for some reason she actually started looking forward to their daily training sessions. Mal grinned as she then swung her Bo low and tried to knock Ben's feet from under him but he anticipated her again and managed to jump out of the way avoiding the attack. The Bo swung several more times between them as they each tried to find a weakness in their opponent's defenses but each swing got easily blocked effortlessly.
Finally their staffs collided with each other in mid-air with a loud snap and Mal's face came merely inches from Ben's. She instinctively smiled at him and suddenly felt something flutter deep within her stomach as their eyes locked for a few seconds. She lowered her eyes to avert his deep gaze and lowered her weapon, signalling the end of their training practice.
"Well done, Ben" she praised.
Ben blushed slightly and smiled. "I had a great teacher."
"And I had a great student. I think it is now time to test just how much you have really learned but this time against a different opponent." Mal told him.
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The following morning, Ben watched in curiosity as Mal entered the hideout followed by a muscular looking boy around their age with long straight dark hair.
"Ben. This is Jay. He's part of my gang and he's here to give us a hand." Mal told him.
"Hey. Whassup?" Jay greeted awkwardly as Ben just stared at him for a few long moments.
Ben just nodded and his eyes flickered in Mal's direction as if to say 'If you trust him, I'm ok with him'.
"Don't worry Ben. As I said, Jay is part of my gang and he is the only person, apart from me, who knows from where you really came from." She reassured him.
"Alright boys. Let's get to it." She snapped.
Ben and Jay circled each other before taking a battle ready stance a few meters apart.
"Mal says that I will have difficulty in beating you. Well I highly doubt that. No one has ever gotten the best of me on the Isle." Jay quipped confidently as he looked up and down at him. "I really don't know what all this fuss she made on you is all about. You don't appear to be anything special." He provoked.
Ben snarled but kept his cool as he remembered what Mal had taught him. Never let your emotions get in the way. You need to be cool and calculating to win.
After a few moments just staring at each other, Jay decided to take the first step and suddenly lunged at him. Jay threw out numerous punches and kicks in Ben's direction but none of them hit their mark as Ben swiftly and easily dodged and side-tracked every one of them. A satisfied smirk appeared on Ben's face as he noticed the frustrated frown that had quickly appeared on Jay's face.
Mal watched in satisfaction as Ben easily anticipated and avoided a sneaky kick to his knee by Jay who still had to land a successful hit.
Ben and Jay once again circled each other. Jay started to grow impatient and lunged at Ben with a cry. Ben waited until the last second to move away before slapping him hard on the back. This added to Jay's momentum and he lost his balance and ended up unceremoniously on the floor.
"Nice Ben." Mal praised in satisfaction as she watched Ben then pin Jay to the ground. He had certainly come a long way from their first days of training where he would just rush at her without any kind of plan.
As the afternoon dragged on, both boys had really gotten into it as Jay had not taken his earlier defeat lightly. And before they knew it, both boys were sweating profusely from their long drawn fight. Ben removed his now wet shirt and hastily tossed it to his side before returning his attention back to Jay who was charging at him. He stayed still and waited for the last possible moment before rapidly bending down slightly and placing a strong punch to an exposed part of Jay's gut. Jay instinctively clutched his stomach in pain and before he had a chance to retaliate, Ben kicked his leg making him fall once again to the ground.
Ben looked in satisfaction at Jay's prone form on the ground before he turned to Mal, fully expecting her to give him another praise. Instead, he surprisingly found her staring at him with a strange look on her face, as a slight blush coluored her cheeks.
"I think that is enough for today." She replied gruffly as she looked away. "Go take a shower to cool off." She muttered as she abruptly turned and walked away from the room.
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Later that evening, Mal walked up to Ben's room to let him now that dinner would be ready in a few minutes. Despite his shaky and somewhat hilarious start, Ben had now adjusted quite well to living back into civilization. But even though two months had already passed since he left the forest, Mal still did not trust him enough to be able to handle himself in the kitchen so she took it upon herself to prepare dinner every evening.
As she approached his room, she noticed that he had left his door slightly ajar. She was about to knock on it but she stopped as she noticed that he was sitting on his bed surrounding by his books and he was staring intensely, lost in thought, at an old looking photo in his hand. She tried turning around to leave in silence so as not to disturb him but she lost her balance. She ended up holding onto the door and its squeaking noise alerted Ben to her presence.
This was not the first time that she had caught Ben looking at that photo but despite her curiosity, something had always stopped her from asking him about it. But as he looked up to her startled, she decided that today was her perfect chance to finally find out something more about his mysterious past.
"Ben?" she asked softly. Ben's entire body visibly relaxed as he realized that it was just her and Mal took it as a sign that she could enter the room. She walked up to his bed and sat next to him. He didn't flinch at her closeness and Mal took the opportunity to finally get a look at the old tattered photo in his hand, which revealed the faded image of a woman with dark brown hair and the same hazel green eyes as him.
"Who is she?" she asked.
He looked at her before turning back to look at the photo. "It's my mom." he revealed quietly. "I don't remember much about her but I have this one happy memory of her reading these stories to me as a child."
"Where is she?" Mal asked softly after a moment of silence.
"Gone." Was all he said.
An awkward silence descended upon them as Mal noticed the sad expression that had now invaded Ben's face. Then she remembered the reason why she had come to his room in the first place and turned to him.
"Um. Are you hungry?" she asked. "Come. Dinner is nearly ready."
He nodded and silently followed her into the kitchen.
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One morning, two weeks later, Mal stormed up the steps leading to the hideout, visibly upset with tears threatening to spill from her eyes as her mom's harsh words from that morning kept ringing in her ears. I will not cry! I will not cry! she kept telling herself as she banged the front door and flopped herself on one of the couches, resting her face in her hands. She remained unmoving in that position until she felt a shift on the couch and she heard Ben's voice ask her if she was alright.
"Yeah…just my mom telling me the usual. That I'm weak, useless and a huge disappointment and how she doubts I could even be her daughter." She muttered. She then looked up at him with bright shining eyes as she heard him snarl.
"But there is more to it. What is it?" Ben asked angrily clenching his fists tightly in a ball as he took a good look at her upset expression.
"Nothing." She muttered.
"Come on. I can tell something is wrong." he insisted.
"Fine. This is not the first time that my mom has told me those things and I usually I just brush them off. It's just…that today I thought she would have least remembered."
"Remembered what?" Ben asked.
"it's my fifteenth birthday today." Mal confessed softly.
"Oh." Ben replied not knowing what to say. Instead he instinctively rested his hand on her shoulder.
"And my mom never acknowledges it. Not even once! No present, no 'happy birthday', no cake, not even a small gathering. The only reason I know when it is, is because she once referred to it as the worst day of her life. But that was it! I know this is the Isle and that I shouldn't expect anything. But growing up, I have seen with my own eyes the other kids get their own birthday party despite their parents being villains and evil and that has always made me so jealous." Mal muttered angrily as her eyes flashed an intense green.
"Anyways! I need to get going. I will see you later for training after I return from Dragon Hall." She snapped as she brushed his hand off her shoulder and turned and left the hideout.
Ben stared at the closed door long after Mal left, deep in thought. He felt something strange stir inside him as he realized just how alike Mal and himself are after all and that despite having had such different childhoods both of them have suffered at the hands of their parents. Suddenly he smiled as an idea popped in his head. He had been wanting to do something to thank Mal for his training and today just seemed the perfect day.
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A few hours later, Ben walked up the narrow alley as he just left the docks and smiled as he looked down at the small bag he was holding in his hands.
He stiffened as he suddenly heard a noise behind him and he quickly tossed the bag to the side. But before he could turn around, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps very close by and two pairs of large hands grabbed him and tackled him from his side. Being outnumbered and with the element of surprise on their side, they easily managed to pin him roughly against the wall and Ben could feel his left cheek start throbbing from the painful contact it had made when they slammed him against the wall. From his position Ben managed to make out one of his attackers who was wearing a yellow bandanna. Ben growled as he started struggling against his attackers.
"Gil! Anthony! Hold him still." A familiar voice rang out as Ben felt a third person arrive on the scene, who roughly pulled his hands behind him and tied them with what felt like some kind of rope.
Once he was tied up, Gil and Anthony grabbed Ben tightly by the arms and pulled him away from the wall, and he came face to face with Harry Hook.
"Time for a little payback. You should learn I don't like getting beaten Ben." Harry smirked as he punched Ben in the stomach. Ben doubled over in pain, as much as the tight hold that Gil and Anthony still had on him allowed him to, and he tried to catch his breath as the wind got knocked out of him.
"Yeah? Well you shouldn't have touched Mal then!" Ben snarled as he recovered and looked up menacingly at Harry, feeling a strange sense of protectiveness rise in him as he thought of Mal.
"Mal is mine. I can do whatever I want." Harry taunted.
Suddenly the silence of the alley was broken by a loud roar and the sound of something being torn. The sounds of a brief scuffle quickly followed but after a while, silence once again engulfed the area. If one really strained their ears they could barely make out the sound of the soft pained groans that had escaped the now three unconscious attackers.
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Mal opened the front door of the hideout, a deep scowl on her face. She had been in a rotten mood the entire day and had been secretly looking forward to that evening's training session where she could finally blow off some steam and vent her frustration. The welcoming smell of cooked food invaded her senses as she entered and so she turned in the direction of the kitchen.
"Ben? What is this?" Mal asked as she looked dumbfounded at the sight before her. He had his back towards her as he faced the stove. The table behind him had been set up for dinner and in the middle of it there was a large plate filled with what looked like toasted bread with ham and melted cheese.
"Happy Birthday!" Ben greeted as he turned to face her. When Mal continued to stare at the table and did not answer him, he continued awkwardly, "I know it is not much but I don't have much experience around the kitchen and I did not want to burn the entire hideout."
Mal's breath caught in her throat as she took in what Ben just said and she slowly looked up to face him.
"What happened to your face?!" she exclaimed, snapping out of her shocked state as she noticed the dark bruise on his left cheek.
"Oh this…it is nothing. I had a small run in with Harry and two of his pals who wanted some payback for me hitting him last time when he touched you. But don't worry I'm fine. You should see the other three chaps." Ben smirked.
Mal's heart started beating wildly in her chest. No one had ever thought or cared for her enough to give her a surprise like this. An unexplainable feeling took over her as she slowly reached out and gently stroked his bruised cheek.
"Thank you. No one's ever done anything like this for me before." she whispered as she lowered her hand.
"You're welcome." Ben said softly. "I also wanted to say thank you for my training. Now let's sit down and eat before everything gets cold."
And the only sound that could be heard that evening was Ben's and Mal's laughter, as Ben recounted about how he had nearly managed to burn the entire kitchen twice while trying to prepare dinner while Mal's listened intently, as all thoughts about her mother's harsh words that morning were long forgotten.
That's it! The Bal is coming I repeat the Bal is coming well they are on their way at least lol. I know you guys may be wondering about Ben's mother, lets just say that Ben's backstory will be next chapter. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Please review?. Pretty please?