Chapter Ninety Four

A/N: I do not own anything other than my OCs when they come out to play. Everything else belongs to either Disney or the Greek myths!

Gods, it's hard to believe that I think this is the last break chapter of Choosing Love—soon the reading group will be reading Choosing Home and all the insanity that goes on there!

Just wanted to let you guys know that starting Monday, I start my new job so updates might slow down as I'm not entirely sure how much energy I'm going to have after trainings and whatnot. But I'll still aim to get updates up in a timely manner!

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think! :D

Malinda couldn't help but smile as she looked over at everyone talking. Yes it was still weird to see a teenaged Harry being nice to CJ but she wasn't about to rock that boat. Harriet deserved to have a moment of her siblings getting along.

Speaking of siblings…

"What are 'deviled strawberries'?" Hadie asked, pulling Malinda's attention away from the group and onto her little brother.

"I'm not sure," Malinda told him. "Let's have a look shall we?"

Malinda took the descriptor card from the table and held it close so that both she and Hadie could read it.

"So apparently the mix has heavy whipping cream, sour cream, and cream cheese? Rather dairy forward isn't it?" Malinda asked with a small chuckle, even as she popped one into her mouth. Hey a strawberry was a strawberry, she wasn't about to turn her nose up at one even if the filling did seem weird.

"Did you get lemon in there?" Hadie asked.

"Oddly enough I did," Malinda nodded before looking at the descriptor card again. "Huh, there's fresh lemon juice in there. That's the lemony flavor I'm guessing."

Hadie shook his head. "So dad's right apparently, the sun melts your brain."

"Oh really?" Malinda asked with a small chuckle, knowing her little brother was only teasing her.

"Hey Malinda…actually…can I call you Mali?"

"You can call me whatever you want Hads," Malinda told Hadie, looking over at her brother. She wasn't going to lie, it was weird having to look down again after so many years of needing to look up at her younger brother. That being said…she wasn't going to lie and say she didn't also enjoy it.

Hey she was the older sister okay? Order needed to be restored somehow and it had been! Maybe temporarily but it still had been restored!

"Thanks Mali," Hadie said before sighing. "Do…do you know why I couldn't go with Ben to get your ring? I just…you or younger you or older Mal—."

"Hads? You're focusing too much on the semantics," Malinda said gently. "I know you mean me, you can just say that."

Hadie gave her a smile. "Thanks, it was getting confusing even when I was just thinking it. But anyway, you seem to be able to just hop off and visit dad whenever you want in the scroll. Why can't my scroll self do that too?"

Malinda signed and sat down so that she was looking Hadie in the eyes. "Alright Hads, I want you to listen to me okay? First off, don't think that I didn't want you to come with. Every trip we did was spur of the moment, if they'd been planned you would have been part of the group."

Hadie raised an eyebrow. "The trip to drop off food and the applications to the Warf Rats was planned and I wasn't part of the group. I, or my scroll self, probably would have enjoyed seeing CJ and Ryan, or ducking into Curl Up and Dye to see Dizzy while you guys were at dad's restaurant."

"Right, right," Malinda said with a small sigh. "Okay, full honesty, cards on the table? You weren't medically cleared to go back to the Isle."

"Wha—?"

"I don't fully understand it but the barrier affected your development," Malinda told him. "You were on a prescription course of nectar and ambrosia to stabilize your magic and going back to the Isle could have undone what progress you'd made or even damaged you. I wasn't going to let that happen, and neither was mom once she was in Auradon."

"So…so I'll never get to see dad in the scrolls?" Hadie asked softly.

Malinda shook her head. "Hads, didn't you hear me say Zeus granted dad the ability to go back and forth as a wedding present? We all live in Auradon now, we get both of our parents in our lives full time now."

Hadie sighed. "So basically…I just have to be patient?"

"You got it," Malinda nodded and gently ruffled Hadie's hair.

"Hey!"

As the sibling duo began to goof off and tease each other, Mal was busy with a conversation of her own. See, she'd wanted to talk to the older version of Ben because she…she was curious about married life. She'd seen at least one example from her parents but she truly never thought married life would be something she'd have.

Even if a small part of her wanted the happiness her parents had, minus the six month separation.

"Hey Mal," Benji said with a small smile as he watched the younger version of his wife come over. "What's up?"

"I…I was wondering if I could talk to you?" Mal asked.

"Sure!"

Mal couldn't help but chuckle softly before shaking her head. "Um…what's it like?"

"What's what like?" Benji asked before the gears in his head seemed to click and his eyes grew wide in realization. "Oh you mean being married?"

"Yeah," Mal nodded.

Benji couldn't help but smile. "It's like always having your best friend around, only in my case there's less insanity. I'd never trade a day of being married to Mal…err Malinda."

"I knew who you meant," Mal snorted.

"Hey, you never know," Benji chuckled before shaking his head. "I know it sounds trite and cliche but I really wouldn't trade a day of being married to her. I love everything about her, from the way her eyes gleam as she lobs a sarcastic remark at someone to how she would rather spend time with her dog than go to a royal event."

"Who wouldn't want to spend time around Estelle? Estelle's the best!" Mal said.

"No arguments here," Benji nodded.

"…Why do you say 'she' and 'Malinda' when you're talking about well…me to me?" Mal asked him.

"Because, and I say this as kindly as possible, telling the younger and under eighteen version of my wife things I love about her while I'm in my twenties feels very wrong," Benji said.

"Fair enough," Mal nodded.

Benji smiled and shook his head. "I know you're probably still thinking your future self is insane, why in the world would you ever get married?"

"I—."

"Mal, you've only just come from the Isle. If I know anything about VKs, it's that when they come straight from the Isle, they're not the most trusting of sorts. And as we've read, you all have more than enough reasons not to trust anyone in Auradon and especially not me."

Mal shrugged. "You've been alright…but your younger self really needs to relax. I mean I may not know much about clothes, but even I know that suit can't be comfortable and he's been full suit since we got here."

Benji shook his head. "I'm sure it's just habit by now, after all I've been wearing suits since I was six. Unless I'm playing Tourney or I'm at R.O.A.R. of course."

"Which don't count as non-suits, Ben!" Emir and Akiho called.

"Yeah, yeah!" Benji called back, shaking his head again.

Mal smiled slightly before looking back at Benji. "And…and Harry and Uma are really married?"

"Oh yeah," Benji nodded before catching one of the younger kids eyes and handing them a plate of food. "Can you please give this to my wife and tell her 'eat this please, I see you eyeing the strawberries again'?"

"Sure thing, King Benji," Ruby said with a chuckle at seeing Benji shake his head before going off and giving Malinda the plate.

"It's your child that's making me crave strawberries, Benjamin!" Benji heard his wife call over to him not five minutes later.

"Uh huh. And what's the reasoning for when you're not pregnant?" Benji called back, a chuckle in his voice.

Mal shook her head. "This is weird. And I'm in a room with a different timeline's version of Hook who apparently none of us want to kill?"

"Yeah trust me, that's weird for me too," Benji nodded. While Mal had never truly gone into detail about what Harry had gone through at the hands of his father, Ben wasn't an idiot. He could tell that the relationship between father and son wasn't a happy one and it wasn't because of any action on Harry's part.

Shaking his head to bring himself back to the present, Benji chuckled softly as he looked over and saw Henry and Harry in mid-spar; Claudine watching and being more than moderately impressed by both boys' skills.

"If you want another example of a couple who's thrived being married, look no further than Henry and Claudine," Benji told Mal.

"…Really?" Mal asked. "I mean I know we told Henry that we don't care who he's with but it's odd imagining him married."

"With kids," Benji added. "Did we not mention that when we arrived? I feel like that was something we mentioned but in all fairness, with all the excitement that's happened it's understandable that a detail or two slipped through the cracks."

"Henry has kids?" Mal asked with a small smile. She knew that if Uma had been with her, she would have likely freaked out over the news (understandably so as Mal was trying to not do the same). But Uma was off to the side with Ariel, Eric, Poseidon, Elle, and Melody; having what looked to be a somewhat awkward conversation based on the look on Uma's face.

They're asking about the 'tentacle wrapped around my arm/leg/torso' bit from one of the last scrolls, Uma told her over the mental link. I gotta say cuz, why did the Fates include that bit? Besides, it's not so bad—Harry's had it ten times worse than I have!

Uma, they're your family, Mal thought with a small head shake. If mom's shown me anything, it's that the Godly side of our family tree worries about their family.

Well…except Zeus.

Well of course, he goes without saying, Mal thought with an inward nod. …How's Harry doing?

I don't think he's noticed that CJ is still curled in his arms, or that he's gently rubbing her back. Then again, if we read about something like what happened to Ryan happening to our friends…

That's different though, Um, we all know how Harry feels about CJ. Even CJ knows.

I know, Mali, I know, Uma thought with a small sigh. But then this has to be a good sign right? It means Harry deep down truly does care for CJ…he just doesn't show it?

Oh he shows it. Remember? Henry said it was a contest between Ryan and Harry to see who'd skewer Freddy first during that Face Off.

Why did we stop them?

I mean, we didn't since we weren't there but also, we don't allow killing unless it's self defense remember? There's too much death on the Isle anyway, why should we add to it?

Because it's Freddy and he deserves to die!

…You make an excellent point.

Benji chuckled softly. "Talking to Uma?"

"How did you…?"

"After being married to your older counterpart for a few years, I think I can recognize the signs of a mental link chat," Benji said. "And I'm guessing, based on the slight brow furrow, you were talking about Freddy?"

"You'd be right," Mal nodded. "I was just talking to Uma asking why we made it so the crew kept Ryan and Harry from killing Freddy last year. He certainly deserved it and then he wouldn't have been able to hurt Ryan."

Benji sighed. "I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, but many who die deserve live and many who live deserve death. It's not up to us to deliver it and we shouldn't be too quick to dole out death and judgement."

"…Bigger Benny, you're in a room filled with royals and Gods. If they can't dole out death and judgement, who can?"

Benji shook his head. "Somethings never change," he said with a fond smile.

"Would you want them to?" Malinda asked as she walked over. "What are we talking about?"

"Your younger self was talking to Uma asking why they let Freddy live."

"Ah. And then you quoted Tolkien at her?"

"I provided some advice, yes."

"And was that advice Tolkien?"

"…Maybe…"

Malinda shook her head before kissing her husband on the cheek. "You're lucky you're cute, you know that?"

"It's why you fell in love with me," Benji teased.

"That's for me to know and for you to guess," Malinda teased back.

Mal shook her head. "I know I said I want what mom and dad have, but seeing it in action seems weird."

"Yeah, I'm sure it would seem weird seeing an older version of yourself be married and pregnant," Malinda said with a small smile as she rested her head on Benji's shoulder. "But you know what?"

"What?"

"I wouldn't trade it for anything," Malinda said. "Getting here was a wild ride, I won't argue that, but what's life without a little excitement?"

"Boring?"

"Exactly!"

Benji chuckled. "You two truly are the same person," he said, amusement coloring his voice.

"Benny, I am her. Just older," Malinda said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "It'd stand to reason that we'd have the same reactions."

"You know what I mean though," Benji said.

"I know," Malinda nodded as Benji kissed the top of her head. "Now then…has it been thirty minutes? I feel like it's been thirty minutes and I wouldn't put it past Henry to try to sneak in more sword work especially if he's sparring with Harry."

"Good luck stopping them though," Mal shook her head. "I mean, we can barely do it now and we're the Captains."

Malinda chuckled. "Watch and learn, young one."

She locked eyes with Claudine and motioned her to come over to where they were.

"Is everything okay?" Claudine asked as she approached.

"Oh yes, everything's fine," Malinda nodded. "But we need your skills as the 'Henry whisperer' to get him to wind down sparring so that way we can start back up on the readings."

"…Henry whisperer?"

"Ah right, you're not his wife or the mother of his children yet," Malinda chuckled. "Gods it's weird to think of a world without Clara or Hali in it."

"Ease up on the future information, Mal," Benji said, catching Claudine's stunned face. "You might shock some people."

"Oh right, right," Malinda nodded. "Sorry, pregnancy brain."

"It's…it's quite alright your highness," Claudine said softly.

Malinda shook her head. "Claudine, you don't have to call me that. Just Malinda is fine."

"Oh…okay Malinda…" Claudine nodded before scurrying off to get Henry to stop sparring.

"Hey Harry! Stop sparring with Henry, we've got more insane reading to do!" Uma called after a few minutes went by and no sparring had stopped.

"Aye Uma!" Harry called back and within a few minutes, the whole group was back together.

"Who…who wants to read?" Smee asked.

"I'll read," Evan offered. "If no one else wants to."

"Have at it, Ev," Eugene smiled at his son.