The longer he watched her, the more it all seemed like a dream. She wasn't quite the same Mal he had seen fall through his claws months earlier. Some things had changed, including the power that seemed to zing through him where their skin touched.
"Close your eyes," he said gently as they got closer to his secret hiding place from the mobs. She had always enjoyed his surprised before, even though she almost always complained about closing her eyes.
She didn't argue that time. She closed her eyes and he led her forward as he had on their first date, to nearly the same place.
"Open your eyes," he said, once they got closer to the small lake and its quiet shores.
He tried not to sound too gruff, but his time as the beast had made him not as soft as before. It would be something he would have to get used to, along with the fangs. Those were definitely new. At least he had a beard. He had always wanted one.
She opened her eyes and the look on her face, that surprise all the way in her eyes and through her cheeks and through her whole face with a gentle smile almost made all that time apart worth it. "Ben," she whispered gently, turning toward him. It was every little thing she did that made him realize how long it had been since they had last been so happy, and just how much he had missed her. "How?" She asked, turning toward where they could see the tallest part of the castle through the trees.
"I don't know," he answered. "Maybe Fairy Godmother did something, but they all walk right by, as if they can't see it. I've lived here since-" He didn't exactly have a timeframe. He had come across it nearly on accident it had seemed. "No one can find us here. We're safe."
She relaxed as if a heavy weight had fallen from her shoulders.
Then she turned on him.
"Why didn't you tell me the real ending of The Witch's Knot?" She asked. "Why didn't you translate that song from the Spring Dance correctly? Why didn't you tell me about all of this?!" She asked, her voice cracking in her throat.
He hated that he had caused that anguish. "Mal," he said gently, almost afraid to touch her with the magic that wasn't quite magic surging between them. "I knew from the moment the love spell washed away in the enchanted lake," he said. "I knew that there would never be anyone else for me in all the seven kingdoms." The way she stared at him, her eyes shimmering, nearly made him weak in the knees. "But I knew that you weren't ready for that level of commitment, so I gave you a graceful out if you wanted to take it."
Was it always this much work to talk to her, or was his time as a beast catching up to him?
"I lied because I didn't want to scare you away," he admitted. "You had a lot to deal with. Even telling you something small, like the true ending to the Witch's Knot or mentioning the lines about love in the song from the Spring Dance seemed too much." He shrugged gently, the cloak around his shoulders letting more of the cool night in. "I thought if I told you about my issue that you would want to try and magic me out of it instead of really breaking it under the ideal conditions." He sighed. "I guess I thought that if I showed you enough love over the summer, enough fun, enough trust, enough- just enough of everything, that I wouldn't need to try and explain it and it would just break without any hassle."
She giggled. "Did you miss the part where Madame Mim is a villain?" She asked. "We always have loopholes."
"We?" He asked, unable to look away from her, unable to take one step further away from her under the moonless night. Had she always looked so ethereal?
"Villains," Mal answered. "You can't take the villain out of the Isle without some of the tendencies coming along," she explained with a small shrug. "And thank goodness, because all of you Auradonians are terrible villains against my mother."
Mal was right. Maleficent wouldn't give up her reign if they just asked nicely.
"Mal?" He said gently after a few long silent moments of them just watching the nearly still lake. She turned her attention back to him with a small noise of acknowledgement. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you enough with the truth."
"You were right not to," She answered. "I would have tried to magic you out of it." Just as he had expected. "But if I had known I wouldn't have been so furious with you and wasted all this time avoiding you and anything to do with you."
He took a deep breath. He didn't know any of that. "Oh," he said gently. "Are you still furious with me?" He asked, suddenly feeling more uncomfortable than before. He knew she had a right to be furious with him.
She paused and he wasn't sure it was a good sign or not. "I'm just frustrated," she answered, crossing her arms across her chest. "After all this research, and time, and attempts, I still don't know if I can kiss you without you going all beastly again."
He stared at her in wonderment, a smile cracking across his cheeks. "Is that all you're frustrated about?" He asked, taking pleasure in the blush across her cheeks. "That issue is no longer an issue." She stared at him. "That second kiss," he explained. "You kissed me and the kingdom went to your mother. Since she already has it, and all of the spells over me have already been properly broken, it should no longer be a problem."
And how he wanted to kiss her! He wanted to kiss her and never ever stop, if that was possible.
"And the love spell?" She asked, turning her attention out toward the calm surface of the small lake. "Don't try and tell me that it hadn't been there all this time. King Arthur still has his."
He couldn't help the grumble that fell from his lips as he sat stubbornly on a fallen log near the shore. "I'm telling you," he said, making sure the cloak properly protected him against the chilled night air. "That first kiss broke every single spell over me, even though that love spell washed away in the enchanted lake the second I hit the water. And if you're not sure, I ate the whole brownie that was supposed to break the love spell, even though it was absolutely not your best baking." He could feel that anger of the beast slowly bubbling beneath his skin. Everything was too immediate, too brash, not at all like his parents raised him. "Since the moment I met you, everything I have ever felt has been 100 percent genuine, without the magic."
"But-" She started, ready to try to argue with him.
The frustration bubbling up in him spurned him to action. He stood up from the log and grabbed her shoulders as gently as he could and held her gaze. She stared back at him with a shock and fear that was foreign to her face. He wondered if he really looked that terrifying. "Yes or no?" He asked, trying to hold onto the gentleness that he knew was exclusively human. "Do you trust me?" He asked. "Do you trust me enough to kiss you?" He asked, barely a whisper.
He already knew she loved him. He wouldn't be standing there as a human if she didn't, but he knew better than to force her to do something she didn't want to do.
"I'm scared," She admitted with the small giggle that she often used to make herself seem tough to everyone else. It had never worked on him. He had nearly always seen through it. "The daughter of all things evil, the scariest thing in this forest is scared of a little kiss, ok?" Her cheeks were warming up under his hands.
He could accept that, even though he was already doing his best to find a solution, even though his mind was completely flooded with her and how he wanted to hold her and never let go.
"Ok," he answered, removing his hands from her and turning toward the lake. "I'll just wash off in the lake and we'll go back whenever you're ready." At least she wasn't scared of him. Everything had changed, but at least she wasn't-
"Ben?" She asked, and before she even finished his name, he had turned back toward her. "I don't want to be scared," she said, closing the distance between them.
His heart beat hard in his ears, the excitement surging through him as she leaned in closer.
That kiss was different. The spark wasn't there. The electricity was lacking. Too calm and too slow. He absolutely hated it.
"Let go, Mal," he said, barely a whisper as their lips separated. "I know you're still using spells against me." He couldn't resist what came next. "As your-" He paused. He wasn't king anymore. He couldn't really command anything anymore, but he did it anyway. "I command you to stop using protective magic."
She took a deep breath. He could feel the shift in the air yet again. It crackled through the trees and between them, as if lightning were about to strike. "I don't want to lose you again, Ben," she breathed.
"You won't," he whispered, brushing his fingers through her hair gently. "I'm right here," he said. How he had missed being that close to her after so long. "I will always be here," he said, threading his fingers through her hair.
At first, the kiss was timid, gentle (partly because of his newly acquired fangs) but still containing that small buzz of potential. Then, in an instant, it was as if something had broken between them. Her hands snaked around his neck and tangled in his hair, pulling him closer to her, which was… well, dangerous.
Or it would have been if he cared. After a year and a half, he found that his embarrassment of being naked had nearly disappeared.
He held onto her lips with his as long as he could, but the need for oxygen outweighed his desire to kiss her eventually. He pulled apart from her with a gasp of air, not wanting that to be the end of their contact. He looked back at her and she looked back at him with a small smirk.
He had been right, nothing bad had happened.
After that, it was like they were magnets, trying to connect in ways that he hadn't previously thought of, at least in that situation. Her skin was addictive, the warmth, the softness, the lack of touch he had had for so long, that he wasn't about to let her go for anything less than the end of the world. Her lips latched onto his neck, making an electric jolt run through his entire body, and he knew he wanted her.
"Mal," he practically cried out, not caring enough to know how desperate he sounded as her lips roamed his neck and his hands roamed her skin, looking for something, some kind of approval to continue.
"Ben," She answered in a seductive whisper that set his blood on fire and made him want to do so much. "You're filthy," She said, pulling away from him and pushing him toward the lake.
He couldn't help the laugh that bubbled forth. "The forest makes everything filthy," he said, pulling her with him. "I'm not about to let you out of my sight with these ruffians around."
She looked down at her dress, dirt smudged and damp with sweat and he could feel the magic oozing from her. She was content to just use magic as a convenience again.
"No," he said, grabbing her wrist gently, "That won't do at all." He began pulling her toward the lake.
"Ben," Mal forced out. "No! I still can't swim!"
He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped. "I never said anything about letting you go."
"Ben!" She shrieked as the cold water began to hit them. He would never get tired of hearing his name from her lips.
"I'm not going to let you go."
As the water clung to her, it woke something deeper in him. Something he was almost afraid to name.
In a flurry of something he couldn't focus on, with her skin and her aura and everything else, he lost track of himself. Suddenly his hands were on her bare skin. The sounds she made, the things he felt, all made him lose control in the best ways.
She only spurned him further. Her mouth made such delicious sounds. Her skin, everything about her so perfect that he couldn't stop, didn't want to stop.
"Mal," he forced out between kisses against her skin as she kissed him back just as excitedly. "Tell me to stop." He issued it as almost a challenge. As an out, should she want it.
"Nuh uh," she answered, a pout, a challenge back.
That was all the encouragement he needed. He felt renewed with a new vigor. Whatever he gave her she gave right back, her vigor matching his as they stripped each other of their clothes.
Her hands were warm around his skin, elliciting shivers where they trailed, more than just from the water. She could be in control if she wanted, and he knew that, but she was following his lead. She was completely vulnerable for the first time and he wanted to do nothing more than to take his time and enjoy it.
Whatever was to happen.