I was now walking towards Adam and Belle's suite and as I saw the main doors of their suite I suddenly started to feel at what me and Ben were about to do. I loved the outfits that Evie had made me for mine and Ben's press release and I felt the one that I had decided to wear was perfect for this moment. The outfit that I decided to wear was a knee length dark purple dress that had dark blue folded cover with matching cuffs on the sleeves that stopped just below the elbow. The material of the dress was lightly and flowy and it had a V-neck design and on the shoulders there was dark blue epaulettes with gold chains hanging down from both shoulders. I loved how Evie was trying to incorporate both mine and Ben's colours which I knew was going to make this moment even more special for me and Ben.
I was wearing dark purple pumps and I was wearing my hair down however Evie halved my hair and pulled the top part into a ponytail. Evie was just finishing my make up when we heard a knock on the door and when I called for them to come in Cogsworth stepped in with a wood box in his hands. He then explained that Belle hoped that me wanted to wear this for my press release and I gasped when I opened the box.
Inside the box was a gold tiara that was covered in yellow and blue jewels, I smiled at the fact that Belle had given me to wear this for mine and Ben's engagement press release. This was going to mean a great deal for me and Belle, and I knew how this would look to the Kingdom. This would look like things were getting serious and I was beginning to move into the royal family. Yes I knew that this was going to happen but living through it was another thing, it was overwhelming at times but this was what my life was right now and it felt right.
It was at this point when Evie stated that she had an idea and she disappeared for a few seconds before she returned with my gold sash which held my Beast pin from when Ben knighted me. She then helped me into my sash and she pulled over the chain in my left shoulder so it was now laid over the sash neatly. I looked at my self in the floor length mirror in my room and I couldn't help but smile at this. This is how I would need to be dressed like from now on, my state clothes were going to have to be incorporated into my outfits now. Lucifer only knows how it would change after both of my upcoming coronations.
On the way over to walking to Adam and Belle's suite Evie had excused herself to go to her new dresser rooms, she stated that she wanted to start organising things better in her rooms. After she had left I watched until she disappeared fully from my view and I smiled, I loved that me, Evie, Jay and Carlos had found our places in the world and I knew that this was all that we all had ever wanted.
"Wow!" I heard Ben say, after I closed the main suite doors behind me. I looked up to see Ben stood already waiting in the living room part of his parent's suite. He was wearing his dark blue and gold state clothing with his sash with his pins and medals on. His hair was neatly arranged and his crown was shining brightly.
"You're pretty wow yourself" I teased as I stood in front of him.
"Come here you" he grinned and we both shared a brief hug and when we pulled away we both noticed that Chip stepped out of Adam and Belle's bedroom.
"I have been instructed to walk you down" he advised. "Sorry" he quickly apologised as he pursed his lips together.
"It's ok Chip" I smiled at him. It was at moments like this that showed the magnitude of this situation, it didn't affect me and Ben, it also affected Adam, Belle and the staff also. I could tell by the look in their eyes that they felt sorry for me and Ben, and I did appreciate this, they were Ben's family and it was also hard for them to see me and Ben going through this whole proposition mess. "We both understand" I added. "Don't we Benny?" I stated as I looked up happily to Ben.
"Yes" he answered as he pressed a kiss against the top of my head. "My beautiful fiancé" he grinned down lovingly at me.
"So what is going to happen when we go downstairs?" I enquired.
"Well-" he began. "We will walk into the throne room and allow the press to take photos of us for a few minutes" he continued to explain. "And then we will move into a board room that Hayley has made look more intimate" he added. "We will sit on couches, and we will speak to the reporter for the Auradon News" he confirmed. "They are the newspaper in which we generally give a first press release about these type of things to" he finished explaining.
"What about the other papers?" I questioned. "How will they get the information?" I added.
"It gets distributed out" he stated. "But I believe the Auradon News have to post first" he said.
"Why?" I asked in confusion.
"I don't know" he admitted. "It's how it has always been done" he shrugged. "But saying that" he said as he wrapped his right arm around my shoulders. "It is only minutes later when the rest do" he stated as he dropped his arm from my shoulder and he offered me his right arm.
"I see" I noted as I slid my left arm onto his and we both started to walk out of the room, with Chip following slowly behind us. As we left Adam and Belle's suite I started to get nervous, yes I had done many a royal event with Ben but this one felt very different to anything that we had done before. I just hoped that everything was going to go ok and it was everything that me and Ben needed and wanted for this occasion. We were both very happy to share the news of our engagement with the Kingdom, the news of our engagement had been warmly received and I knew that everyone was waiting for every detail of both our engagement and wedding - and they were just going to have to wait and see on some parts and I don't know how they were going to feel about that.
When me and Ben got close to his throne room we were then led down a small corridor, I was about to question this but I quickly stopped myself. I could hear that the press were already in position eagerly awaiting me and Ben, and I guessed that me and Ben were going to make our grand entrance by going through the side door. And this was confirmed when me and Ben stood behind the side doors and a couple of seconds later we both heard Lumiere's voice.
"Members of the Press-" he started and I heard as the Press then went silent at this. "You have been gathered here for the press release of his Majesty and Dame Mal's engagement" he continued. "You will stay behind the barriers" he pressed bluntly.
"Barriers?" I muttered.
"Yeah" Ben nodded as he looked down at me. "They are normally there" he stated. "But given what happened to you recently-" he began before he stopped himself and he pursed his lips together.
"Benny" I cooed.
"What?" he asked as he slowly pulled one brow up ay me.
"You are a very protective Beast" I smiled up at him as I reached up and brushed some loose hair behind his right ear. "And I love you" I grinned up at him.
"I love you too" he grinned. "My very protective Dragon" he chuckled at me, which made me wink at him which made me chuckle at me once more.
"So without further ado-" we both her Lumiere call out which made me and Ben both take a deep breath as we straightened up. "Presenting His Royal Highness King Ben and his fiancé Dame Mal Faery!" he declared and the doors quickly opened and me and Ben grinned at everyone which made the Press start to go crazy by taking photos. Ben then slide his left hand into my right and we both stepped out together, we walked slowly forward until we stood in front of the steps of Ben's throne.
"Your Majesty!" we both heard members of the press call.
"Dame Mal!" other members of the press shouted as me and Ben stood in front of each other and moved slightly so we were slightly facing the member of press so they could continue to take their photos.
"Here!" I heard a deep male voice say. Me and Ben kept the smiles on our faces as Ben wrapped both of his arms around my waist and we stood a few seconds before I got ready for the big reveal. After a few seconds of the Press taking photos like this I then slid my left hand onto his chest and the press went crazy as my engagement came into view. Me and Ben both started to hear the Press calling for a better view of the ring Ben lifted his right hand out slightly and I rested my left hand out and rested it against his which gaze the press a better view of my beautiful engagement ring.
"I believe it is time for our interview" Ben grinned a few moments later as I noted that one tall blonde woman wearing a dark green dress face lit up which told me that she was doing our interview.
Before anyone can say or do anything Ben quickly dropped his arm from around my waist and he slid his right hand into my left and he started to lead me from the room and into the next boardroom. As all three of us walked into the boardroom I noticed how they had changed it for the interview and I couldn't help but smile. They had lit the fire next to the two couches and the camera had already been set up behind the couch on the right hand side which told me that me and Ben were going to be sitting on the couch on the left hand side. The board table had been moved slightly so it gave us more room and quite frankly made it easier to get over to the dark blue leather couches.
"You may sit" I heard Ben say to the reporter as we both sat down with Ben on my left hand side.
"Thank you" she replied as she quickly sat down. "My name is Daphne Plunkett" she informed us both. "I am from the Auradon News and I will be doing your interview" he clarified. "Which might I say is such an honour" she grinned eagerly.
"You're very welcome" Ben smiled back.
"This is also my camera man Vince Hummel" Daphne informed me as she nodded backwards as a short, dark brown haired man stepped forward and he started to look at his camera.
"Hello" me and Ben said together.
"Hello" he grinned back as he quickly bowed to the pair of us.
"Tea?" I offered Daphne.
"Please?" she nodded back at me as Vince also nodded behind her. I then reached forward and started to pour the four of us a cup of tea, which made me thankful of Belle's previous training for such occasions like this.
"I will let you both put your own milk and sugar in" I stated breaking the silence as I noted that the three of them waited in silence for me to finish before we proceeded. "I know that Ben has quite a sweet tooth, but I wouldn't want to inflict that on you in case you don't like your tea like that" I teased the pair of them as I heard Ben chuckle next to me.
"Thank you" Vince said as he took his cup and quickly walked back behind his camera and he pulled a chair up.
"I do prefer it quite sweet as well" Daphne advised as she started to put two sugars in her tea.
"I see" I noted as before me and Ben both took a drink of our teas as the Daphne and Vince continued to get everything ready for our interview. I then watched as Daphne and Vince both nodded at each other before they both looked over to me and Ben.
"Ready?" Daphne enquired politely.
"Ready" me and Ben said together which made Daphne grin as she pressed a button on her tape recorder before it jumped into action. It was also at this point when Vince also hit a button on his camera and a red light started flashing on top of it as it was facing Daphne.
"This is Daphne Plunkett from Auradon News-" Daphne began as she smiled for the camera. "I am commencing the official interview for His Majesty and Dame Mal Faery's engagement announcement" she advised. "So, let's begin" she offered as Vince slowly moved the camera towards me and Ben and he looked at the screen and nodded to to tell the three of us that the camera was in the right position.
"So Dame Mal-" Daphne smiled at me.
"Yes?" I smiled back.
"Did you expect his Majesty to propose this soon after leaving college?" she asked eagerly and I took a couple of breaths before I answered as the nerves continued to build up.
"To be honest, no" I admitted. "I knew that we were moving on to different stages in our relationship because before we went on the tour his Majesty asked me to move in with him. So I knew it would happen at one point but I didn't expect it this soon" I admitted hoping that this answer was enough to suffice.
"So, everyone is dying to know, how and when did he ask you?" she pressed.
"Do you want to answer this?" I offered to Ben to see a proud look in his eyes which told me that I was doing better than I thought. "Given how much planning you put into it?" I teased, and I watched as he shook his head as he playfully pursed his lips together.
"Of course not!" I chuckled which Ben made Ben laugh for a few seconds. "Well-" I started. "Ben asked to spend date night with me a few days ago" I advised.
"Did he tell you where you were going?" Daphne questioned as she slid her tape recorder closer to me and Ben on the coffee table.
"No" I said as I shook my head. "All he said was that he wanted to sweep me off my feet" I added and me and Ben both looked at each other and we shared a brief loving glance before we looked back at Daphne.
"Ah" she cooed. "So his Majesty likes to surprise you?" she enquired.
"All the time!" I exclaimed. "I asked him where we were going a few times; but he just kept up the secrecy" I advised.
"So where did he take you to?" Daphne asked, and me and Ben shared another quick glance before I answered.
"I'm not going to tell you exactly where because it's quite a private and personal spot to us-" I started to explain. "But I will say it was where he took me on our first date. I started to get more confused as he led me there and there were little fairy lights leading us to a picnic basket" I said as I started to remember the perfect memory of the evening that Ben proposed to me. "When I asked him what this was all about he told me that he wanted to say thank you for being there for him and being me" I finished happily as Ben slid his right hand into my left and he gave it a gentle squeeze.
"So his Majesty is romantic?" Daphne questioned.
"Well he tries" I teased.
"Oi!" Ben said playfully as he started to look hurt but the face he pulled only made me laugh at him for a few seconds.
"So what happened next Dame Mal?" Daphne pressed, and it was at this point that I noted that she was mainly speaking to me right now and I put this down to the fact that Ben normally tends to do most of the talking when we speak to the Press. I understood why this was currently the case but I hoped to get Ben more involved in the conversation soon.
"We had our picnic and it had all of my favourite foods there and when we were finished he asked me did I want to dance. After some reluctance I stood up with him and we started to dance" I explained.
"There was also music?" Daphne questioned.
"No, Ben sang to me" I answered.
"What did he sing to you?" she asked.
"The first and only song that he's ever sung to me" I grinned. "As you know and have probably seen as it is on the internet Ben sang to me at the first ever Tourney match I went to" I reminded her.
"He sang that song?" Daphne questioned slowly.
"Yes" I nodded. "But a little bit slower, he only sang up until a certain point" I confirmed.
"Which was?" she prompted.
"Well in the song he sings "now look at what you have done you have me down on my knees" but instead he sang "you have me down on one knee" I clarified. "He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him" I admitted.
"That is totally adorable! So I'm guessing everything went to plan then your Majesty?" Daphne stated, directing this line of questioning towards Ben.
"No, it was even better than I imagined" Ben grinned. "The girl of my dreams agreeing to marry me, I was on cloud nine" he added as he squeezed my hand and I squeezed it back. "I still am" he admitted as he looked back over to me and we both smiled at each other.
"How long were you working and planning on this amazing proposal your Majesty?" Daphne questioned, which made Ben look back over to her.
"Well you see-" Ben began. "As I was ending college I was thinking a lot about my future plans" he continued to explain. "All of them had Mal in them, college was hard on the both of us as we couldn't see each other as much as we would have liked" he added. "But she stuck by me and was always patient with everything" he stated. "So when I started to plan the tour this prompted me to think about what else I wanted. And as Mal has already said before the tour we talked about moving our relationship on" he said. "At the time I wanted Mal to move in with me, so we could spend more time together. However what Mal didn't realise at the time I was gauging whether she was ready to make our relationship more serious than it already was" he finished explaining.
"So if Dame Mal wasn't ready to move in with you, would you still have proposed?" Daphne questioned.
"I would never make Mal do anything she didn't want to do or she wasn't ready for" Ben simply said. "If Mal didn't want to move in with me I would have waited until she was ready and then other stages would have followed" he confirmed. "However I don't want to appear as a know-it-all but I kind of knew that me and Mal were in the same place" he said very smugly. And the room filled into silence for a few seconds as we all took in what Ben had just said. In all honesty I knew where he was coming from, we were both so in sync with each other I could understand why he would think that his guess was right on the money. On the other hand I also knew that if I wasn't ready for such commitments then Ben wouldn't force the issue, with was one of the reasons why I loved Ben. We went at things at our own pace, and we talked about everything and this is was something that I knew would never change as this is what made us work the way we did.
"How did you know that?" I heard Daphne say, which broke me out of my train of thought.
"Mal is my soul mate, we are on the same wave length" Ben replied happily with his trademark smile spreading across his face.
"At the time did you feel ready Dame Mal, on both occasions when his Majesty asked you to move in and marry him?" Daphne directed to me.
"After having conversations with Ben about life after college it did spark those very thoughts in my mind-" I started. "About what I wanted me life to be after college and every aspect of it had Ben in it" I explained. "However, I didn't expect Ben to ask me to move in with him or to marry him when he did" I admitted. "But I always knew it was on the cards eventually so when he asked me on both accounts it felt right" I confessed further.
"I'm so happy for the pair of you" Daphne grinned at the pair of us. "Congratulations!" she exclaimed.
"Thank you" me and Ben said together.
"Let's move things on a little bit" Daphne stated. "Have you started thinking about the wedding?" she eagerly asked.
"We have discussed this; but at the moment we want to keep it under raps" Ben advised. "However, we will be making some announcements soon enough" he confirmed.
"So it will be a short engagement then?" Daphne probed, and I couldn't help but note that she was trying to get more info out of us. In all honesty I didn't mind the Kingdom knowing the date that me and Ben were going to get married, but I knew marrying a King things had to be done a certain way and I was going to take Ben's lead on this one.
"Maybe, maybe not" Ben chuckled. "We haven't talked about dates yet" Ben lied, and I knew that Ben was probably doing this as he wanted to do the official announcement in a few weeks. And I wasn't going to take this from Ben, there was rules that had to be followed and I knew that the council wasn't going to say anything until we both made our announcement.
"What have you talked about?" Daphne asked politely.
"That is for another time" Ben dismissed.
"Why?" Daphne asked as her face dropped behind the camera.
"We haven't finalised anything yet" Ben confirmed. "But all I will tell you is that I'm looking forward to it because that is the day that I marry my best friend" he said and we lovingly looked at each other once more. After what Ben had just said I wanted to pull Ben into a hug but I couldn't do it with the cameras being on us. However I made a mental note to hug him for that comment later, in truth I felt the exact same way. Ben wasn't just my fiancé, he was my best friend as well, and neither of us could wait to get married to one another.
The interview didn't go on for much later, Daphne did try to ask questions about dates and wedding dresses but me and Ben were able to keep her at bay. I knew how the Kingdom was going to react to such details and things would certainly start to heat up when the reveal about our wedding date and my wedding dress.
The conversation then moved onto Daphne trying to find out how Belle was doing, and Ben simply told her that she was doing well thank you. The interview then came to an end and before I knew it Ben was leading me out of the room by the hand, when we walked back into the throne room I saw that it was now empty. The barriers were still in place and to be honest I was glad that we didn't walk back into a busy room with the Press talking photos of every move we made. As me and Ben started to make our way back to his parents suite I started to hope that our press release was going to be warmly received, I knew the Kingdom was eager for details and in time they would get them but right now wasn't the right time. It was a time for me, Ben, Adam and Belle to have this moment as a family - and this is what the four of us fully intended to do.
P.S. I hope you have enjoyed this slight venture back into this story. I know it was only a slither but I would rather give you guys it than make you wait longer. I will try and get the next set to you as soon as I possibly can, see you guys soon. RSD xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox.
