"Ben! No Ben! Why did you do that? No, please don't, come back!"

Mal woke up sweating and nervous, but luckily she didn't wake Ben. It was that nightmare again. They were starting to become frequent and were obviously taking away the Lady's sleep. She looked over and saw her husband sleeping peacefully and mostly safe and sound. She ran her hands over his face, brushing his bangs off his forehead. How could he be so cute? He got out of bed and drank some water, trying to go back to sleep this time in peace.

"Hey! Mal, Mal wake up."

Ben insisted on waking up his wife, who hadn't slept half as long. She heard and felt his insistence on waking her, but she hoped that perhaps he would give up.

"Five more minutes, please."

She begged him like a child.

"No, let's have coffee and then we'll have our romantic walk."

"I don't want to have coffee with the bizarre royal family and I think it's quite romantic to let your wife sleep."

She joked, pulling the blankets tighter around her body.

"Come on darling, act like the beautiful mature woman you are."

He lay down on the bed again, trying to convince her.

"Mature? I'm 22 and I'm in the middle of a big war, maturity is my surname Benjamin."

"And you'll have another war if you don't get out of bed right now Lady Maleficent Bertha Faery."

"I hate you Benjamin Florian Beast."

(...)

"So, what's the plan?"

Jay asked. The four of them were already on their feet and before they went down to breakfast, they got together to talk it over.

"As soon as Arthur and Artie leave, we'll go to Merlin."

Rashid explained to them.

"All right, and until then?"

"Until what?"

"What are we going to do until it's time?"

"Me and Mal, we're going out."

"Are you coming for coffee?"

Arthur appeared behind them, startling them.

"We're going now."

Ben replied, heading towards the table with his friends and wife.

"So, what are today's plans?"

Artie asked.

"We don't know yet."

Mal replied, looking at the boy and noticing something strange in his eyes.

"You have to be on time for the meeting, honey."

His wife said quietly, placing her hand on top of his on the table.

"Meeting?"

He (Agatha) asked incredulously.

"Yes, with the royal guard."

"Yes, of course, how could I forget?"

(...)

"I'll accompany you, if you like."

Abandoned room inside the castle. Agatha and Chad were settled in an obscure room, far from any suspicion.

"Come here, how long are we going to stay here?"

The prince asked, while taking his attention away from her witchcraft.

"Where could that old man be?"

She wondered about the whereabouts of the wizard of Camelot.

"Let me get this straight, you control all of them? Like, see what they see, hear what they hear and speak with their voices?"

"Your intelligence has evolved Chad, that makes me proud."

She said sarcastically as always, while observing their wonderful breakfast.

"Are we going to be here long? It's just..."

"Meeting?" She interrupted Chad's speech, startled that the queen had just spoken to King Arthur. "He can't go to a meeting, I have to watch the fools and find the old man."

"You have to go, King Arthur, he never misses a meeting, neither does Artie."

The blond reminded her of the subject he knew best, royalty.

"I need to find Merlin, my magic isn't what it used to be."

She thought of a strategy, she needed to go after him urgently, but she also needed to keep an eye on the staff.

"But you don't know where he is.

"I have a hunch."

She said, thinking of a good plan of attack.

"What's the queen's name?"

(...)

Central part of the castle

In one of the countless rooms was one of the wisest magical creatures ever known, Rashid. System Failure, as he was called, was talking to another great sage of magic.

"Merlin? Hi, this is Rashid, we're going to the hut after King Arthur and Artie leave for the meeting. They've been acting very strange and we don't want to arouse suspicion."

He was quite clever, so he made a sort of "magic telephone" to communicate with Merlin with just three potions' bottles.

"Listen Rashid, I spoke to Guinevere and she told me the same thing. I suspect that Agatha is using some kind of control magic on them, and as far as she's concerned we can't rule anything out. Come as quickly as you can, Camelot is no longer safe."

The man said and disappeared, now it was only a matter of time, Mal and Ben had left, which he didn't object to, because it was important for the king to believe that they really didn't know anything about Merlin.

(...)

"You knew you didn't have to."

Ben argued with Mal. The two of them walked hand in hand through one of the kingdom's gardens, it looked like they were dating, which in fact wasn't that long ago.

"They were going to attack and besides, it's been a while since I transformed."

She replied. The two of them were talking about her transformation into a dragon the day before.

"They ran off, Mal."

"It was funny."

She said laughing, remembering the scene.

"What do I do with you?"

He ran his hands over her delicate face and through her purple hair.

"Love me, love me very much." She pulled him around the waist and kissed him deeply. When they broke apart, Mal noticed his gaze on her as he fiddled with her hair. "What's wrong?"

"It's bizarre, at the moment we're together kissing and laughing, then you expose yourself to danger again and I'm left wondering if I'll ever have that again."

He spoke sincerely to her, who instantly lost her smile.

"That just makes these moments more unique, right?"

She asked, trying to get a smile out of him.

"Yeah, I know. Let's get out of here, there's somewhere I want to take you."

They walked to the part of the forest where there was nothing much, apart from a well, some flowers on the side, in short, a normal forest.

"And what's so special about this place?"

Mal asked curiously, after all, moments before they had been in a much prettier garden.

"Because of the wishing well, there's a legend that it makes wishes come true, so I brought you here, plus it's a more secluded place."

"Oh, so you didn't have enough fun last night?"

"We're on our honeymoon."

"That excuse of yours won't work one day."

"Until then." He pulled her close and kissed her. "Here." He handed her a coin. "Now make a wish and throw it in."

"You believe in a lot of things, Benjamin."

"Well, I dreamt that one day I'd meet the girl of my dreams and now I've married her, I have my reasons."

"Ah, okay, I'll do it." She closed her eyes. "I wish this war would end soon and I could defeat Agatha. Oh, and that I can finally sleep through the night and wake up whenever I want." She tossed the coin into the well, watching her husband laugh at her.

"Really?"

"What? You said I could wish for whatever I wanted. Your turn."

"I wish this madness would end soon so I could finally have my honeymoon." He said, making Mal laugh. "And if it's not too much to ask, live my happily ever after with the woman I love." He said sincerely, remembering all the despair he always felt.

"What would happily ever after be for you?"

The two of them sat down on the grass and were now talking.

"It would be you and me ruling Auradon without a super villain trying to destroy everything." They both laughed. "And watching our children be born and grow up, trying to raise them in the best possible way and seeing them live their lives and the two of us always together."

Maybe it was Ben's way, but Mal would never get used to his spontaneous declarations.

"'Kids'?"

She asked, slightly startled by the subject. Ben had been talking about it since school, but she still hadn't got used to the idea.

"Yeah, we're going to have kids at some point, why?"

Ben was as embarrassed as Mal at the thought of children.

"I don't know..."

"Mal, look at that."

Before he could answer and take Ben's mind off his fear of what Mal might say, the king saw Chad carrying Guinevere on his shoulders.

"That's..."