Ben almost throws up the first time a boy shows up to pick his daughter up at the palace. Because out of all the people she knows, why on earth would she want to go out with this kid? In which Ben and Mal's daughter begins dating, and Ben is suspicious of every person who shows up.
Ben almost throws up the first time a boy shows up to pick his daughter up at the palace.
And no, it's not just because she's old enough to be considered pretty and there are now boys sending her cards for her birthday and asking for her number. Because he and Mal have handled that pretty well - checking her phone weekly and making her download a spyware app that tells them not only how often she's using her phone to text but also who she spends the most time texting and also forwarding any photos she sends or receives. (Ben's honestly not too worried about her sending bad photos to boys since she's always been pretty aware of what would happen if someone got ahold of sexts from the princess of Auradon, but he does care about what she might receive.) And Belle is smart. She gets good grades and all her friends act like mini-adults outside of Preston and Jayson, Jay's two twin boys. Her two best friends are Tanner and Sophie, Evie's kids, and those two are the type of honest kids who make the world spin the way it should. So when Belle tells him and Mal that she'll be going out one Friday night(that did hurt a bit, in hindsight), he doesn't worry too much. He makes sure that she charges her phone and tells her to make sure to keep the ringer on and don't go anywhere there isn't reception. She gets some pepper spray and a switchblade from Mal, and a cautious warning from him. On the night of, she comes in to ask for help putting a braid in her hair(Mal pulls too much and always forgets which way she's braiding halfway through), and then borrows a pair of Mal's earrings that someone from the courts sent her and that she's never worn.
He has to run up to his office to file some paperwork, but Lumiere pages from the front gates when the boy arrives and he gets down to the foyer about a minute after Mal and Belle have already welcomed him in.
And that's when he has to hold back a simultaneous snort, roll of the eyes, and a gag.
Because out of all the people Belle hangs out with and her being the upstanding teen she is, why on earth would she want to go out with this boy?
His daughter had to bring home the worst sort of kid out there.
The smell of smoke is wafting around the kid as he stands in the foyer of the palace wearing a sweaty tank top and what appear to be girl's leggings that are pushed down to show the tops of his underwear. His ratty hair is braided back and he has green streaks in both his eyebrows and head hair. A nose ring pokes through his nostril with a gem swinging from it like some sort of crystalized booger.
Now, to be fair, Ben has no issue with boys braiding their hair or cross-dressing or nose rings or hair dye. Smoking toes the line a bit. And this kid, he knows, is definitely not old enough to legally be smoking.
However, it is the sheer lack of uncleanliness and the devil-may-care attitude that has him squinting a little, closing his eyes, and then dragging his hands down his face with a sigh.
Mal's mouth is pressed together in disappointment. She, too, is no stranger to funky hair colors or piercings and boys dressing like they're heading to tourney practice(she grew up on the Isle of the Lost with Jay as her close ally, of course), but her disappointment makes the air so thick he has no idea how Belle is still smiling, fidgeting a little as she presents the young man.
"Daddy," she begins with a little smile. "This is Joel. We're going out skating tonight." Then she waits with her little handbag clutched in between her fingers, twisting the toe of her shoe into the ground as she waits.
What is she waiting for? Approval? An "I'm so sorry for you"? Ben looks over at Mal, whose eyes are a bit wide as she exhales in frustration. It's good to know they're on the same page.
Joel steps forward, letting out a breath, and slouches forward as he puts his hands on Belle's shoulders. "When do you want her home?" He asks.
Now, Ben thinks, it is one thing to come into the High Palace dressed the way you are. It is another to think you can take the princess out, who looks decent and tailored and somewhat professional, when you reek like you've been choosing to shower in smoke and sweat instead of water. It is one more to meet the king - the father of the girl you're taking out - not introduce yourself, not greet him at all, and not have any regard to speak except "when do you want her home?"
Ben gives the boy another once over and this time notices something that turns his stomach around in his torso. The kid has a white box between the waistline of the leggings and his underwear, half-open and dirty from touching his skin. This time, he does roll his eyes.
"No," he announces, shaking his head.
"No?" Belle asks, with the smile dropping off her face in confusion. "What do you mean, no?"
"No," Ben repeats, stepping forward, taking her arm, and then pushing her towards the stairs a little. "Not happening. Go upstairs, you're going to bed."
Mal hides a smile behind her hand as the kid processes what is going on. He looks like a blue screen on a computer as it loads. "What?" He asks. "But-" he leans over Ben's shoulder to try and talk to Belle. "Aren't we going to go skating?"
That pisses Ben off. Because if anything, the kid should be asking him this instead of ignoring the way he's now standing in between him and his daughter.
"Not anymore," Ben takes the boy's shoulders and, ignoring the sweat that is now on his fingertips, turns him around and marches him closer to the door. "I just decided she's not going out. Have a nice evening and drive safe."
Mal opens the door with a smirk as Ben moves closer to it. Joel steps out with a dazed look. "Wait, but-" the door closes softly in front of him.
"Dad!" Belle protests from the stairs. She marches up with her green eyes blazing in fury. "Why can't we go out? It's going to be fun!"
"I can't believe you even tried to bring him home," Mal snorted softly. "If I were you, I would have attempted to meet up there."
"I would have had to have met the kid first to allow that," Ben disagrees, taking Mal's arm and shaking his head. "You seriously couldn't pick anyone better? The kid was high and looked like he hadn't showered since the day he was born."
"I met cleaner kids on the Isle of the Lost," Mal pitches in, nodding along to his words.
"Listen, Belle," Ben begins. "You are a bright and smart and beautiful young girl. I don't know why on earth you're going out with people like that, but I don't want you to ever bring someone like that home again."
"You're just upset because I'm older now and dating people!" Belle accuses. "And you're judging him based on the way he looks!"
"And smells," Mal adds dryly.
"Belle, I will let you go out with any decent kid you show me, boy or girl," Ben sighs, holding out his hands to count on his fingers when he talks. "But the kid you just tried to show me clearly put no thought into making tonight special for you, didn't even consider that he was coming to the palace to pick you up and he would have to meet the King and Queen before he'd be allowed to take the princess out, was higher than the ceiling fan, didn't introduce himself or shake hands or anything, and was filthier than the backside of a factory vent." He crosses his arms and frowns at her. "If you're going to make a habit of bringing home kids like that, we'll have to get you a lot more than pepper spray."
"A class," Mal moans, covering her face. "A self-help website. A book. A counselor. Something."
Belle's eyes fill up with stubborn, angry tears before she whirls on her feet and stomps away up the stairs. Ben listens to her march away. Her room is further up to prevent people from sneaking in while royal activities are going on, but he still hears the echoes of her door slamming about two minutes later when she reaches it.
Mal leans her head against his shoulder. "We're not going to survive the dating phase, are we?" She whispers. Ben sighs in silent agreement before she puts a hand on his shoulder and looks up at him. "Did you see on his hip? He had a box of-"
"I saw," Ben cuts her off with a shake of his head. "It's okay. It won't happen again."
Belle doesn't stay mad for long. She forgets to be angry by lunch that next day and by the time 24 hours have passed, she's agreed that it probably wouldn't have been the best situation. It gives both Ben and Mal a bit of hope when she says she's been asked out again, but Ben makes sure to be in the foyer when the second boy knocks. There have been a few long conversations - Mal and Ben made a deal that if he gave Belle the "what to do if a boy wants to do things you know we don't approve of" talk, then she'd handle teaching their daughter a few self-defense tricks and set out standards for boys and dates and "how your father and I want your date to behave when he meets us" and the occasional threat for not complying with their terms. Belle now has a taser and Ben called Carlos to see if there was a way that they could program the emergency button on Belle's phone to also call him and Mal if she hits it, and they all feel a little more prepared.
There's a knock at the door and Ben opens it up. At least with this kid, there's an immediate reason why she's going out with him. He looks good. Long, dark hair like Jay's back in high school, but thicker. His skin is dark and clean and he's strong. He's dressed in a red t-shirt that looks well enough, but the blue jeans he wears are almost all holes. All up and down his legs, in the front and back. The only untouched parts are the seams on the sides. Ben sighs a little and puts a smile on. At least this kid doesn't have a jewel swinging in his nostril. Instead, the black gauges he has look calm and not flashy.
"I'm Carlie," he introduces himself, holding out a hand to shake. "Your daughter and I are going out to a rodeo tonight. I hope she's ready."Mal hums beside him. He glances over at her as he shakes Carlie's hand.
"Okay," he nods.
The kid steps over the doorframe, weaves around Ben, and then claps his hands together when he sees Belle standing beside the stairs. Ben sees Mal narrow her eyes as he invites himself into the entryway. "There she is!" He announces to the world in a loud voice. "Come on, we can't take forever!" He huffs and crosses his arms before giving Ben's daughter a once-over. She's wearing a floral dress with a white jacket. Her shoes are white sneakers, and she looks a little thrown off. "Girl, you're going to ruin those shoes. The rodeo has black mud for miles. And you won't be able to ride anything in that dress."
Belle's lips fall into a frown. Ben and Mal exchange a look. "You didn't tell me we were going to a rodeo," she told him. "You said to dress nice."
"I meant like this," Carlie slaps his hands against his distressed jeans. Mal presses a hand to her forehead.
Belle stares at Carlie, eyes tracing his outfit and the disbelieving expression on his face. Ben feels bad for her - she spent a solid three hours getting ready and even went to Mal for advice when she stopping believing his affirmations of "you look wonderful, sweetheart." She never goes to Mal for fashion advice. Ever. It's always him, Evie, or sometimes Audrey.
Belle sighs dramatically. "Well you should have given me context," she reprimands him. "And if you were worried about being late, why didn't you ask to pick me up earlier?"
"Didn't realize I'd have to come all the way up and meet your folks," Carlie replies, sticking a thumb out at Ben and Mal. "Most chicks just come on down and get in the car,"
"Well, I guess next time you know to plan ahead," Belle mutters. Her eyes are sparking in annoyance. Ben presses his lips together to keep from laughing.
"Next time?" The kid asks with a laugh. "Do I have to come by the king every single time? Maybe next time you should just drive yourself and meet me."
Belle looks past Carlie at Ben and gives him this wide-eyed, hard look of "I can't believe this is happening." Ben can hardly believe it either. He wishes he had a camera rolling. Would the security cameras pick up good enough footage?
"Well," Belle huffs. "I guess we'd better get going then." She walks towards the door, pausing beside Carlie and holding out her arm for him to take. He ignores it though, and then walks back out, scoffing a little as he passes Ben and Mal.
Mal hugs Belle and whispers a few lines of "Be safe, I love you, be good." And then Belle tries to hug Ben. He puts an arm around her and kisses her head, but he's not convinced yet. They watch Carlie jump down to his truck, which sits in the circle lot, and then hop in and start it up. A cloud of black smoke explodes from the tailpipe and the car starts with a noise like a cow screaming. Belle's arms are tense.
Ben puts his arms around Mal as they watch her walk down. "Are we really letting her do this?" Mal demands in an urgent tone. "Look at how he treats her!"
"It's okay. She needs to learn that if she picks the wrong type of guy, she won't have a good time," Ben assures her. Mal's fingers curl into her hands still, and they watch as Belle opens her own door, looking immensely irritated, and then buckles her seatbelt.
The car leaves slowly. Ben hums as they reach the end of the circle driveway. "I didn't think she'd last that long," he whispers in Mal's ear. She looks up at him, a little confused.
The car stays paused at the end of the driveway for the longest time. Then, instead of turning out to the main road that will take them to the gates, the car returns into the driveway and comes back up to the door.
"There is it," Ben laughs. Ben and Mal watch Belle open the door, now looking angry. As she jumps out, a storm of swear words follows her. Ben briefly hears about five insults directed at her, him and Mal, and the palace before Belle slams the door so hard a crack appears in the window. She stomps up the steps as the truck takes off, leaving behind a cloud of black smoke that makes Ben cough a little as his daughter storms past him and Mal. He chuckles as he closes the front door.
"How'd you know?" Mal asks once Belle is far enough away. "Ben shakes his head.
"Oh please," he snorted. "She likes the way he looks, but she doesn't like his attitude!"
She only tries to sneak past Ben once, and he makes sure it'll never happen again.
He's in his old office, finishing up a few things, when Lumiere pages up. The receiver on his desk cackles a bit as it connects and then Lumiere greets him with a little smile. "Your Majesty," He begins, "The princess's date has arrived."
Ben pauses, staying silent, and glances down at the calendar on his desk. It is blank. No one is due to go anywhere tonight. This means Belle either completely forgot she had a date and didn't tell them, or she forgot to tell Lumiere not to tip her dad off when they showed up. Ben hums. "Thank you, Lumiere. Could you let them in, please? But if Belle is in the car when they go back out, keep them in."
Lumiere pauses on the other end of the line. Ben can feel him contemplating the odd request, but he doesn't ask. "Yes, your majesty," he agrees.
Ben picks up the key to lock his room on the way out and then walks past Mal's office as she's on the phone with someone in Arendelle, arranging for them to transfer a case from the lower courts to the High court. He's in a bit of a rush, but he can't resist her when she's furrowing up her brow and forcing her breath to come out normally. He loves how hard she works to be his queen. He steps inside and, when she doesn't immediately notice him, hurries to sweep in and cut her next sentence off with a kiss.
"We'll be expecting the file to arrive on - mph!" Mal squeaks as he shoves the phone away from her ear to tangle his fingers in her hair. There are days when his suits are tailored and his skin is clear and he is every inch the king his parents hoped he would be. Then there are other days when buttons on his shirts have been hastily snapped off and possessive marks dot his neck and jaw and there is nothing anyone else can do about it but roll their eyes. Sometimes he is perfectly professional. Other times, he's a fool in love.
"I'm on the phone!" Mal protests. "Why are you here?" He can hear someone from Arendelle laughing on the other end of the call as they realize what happened. He's well-known for interrupting meetings, conversations, and interviews when he decides she's too darn sexy for him to pass up.
"I love you," Ben laughs, kissing her cheek as her face flares up the way it did the first few times he said it when they were teens. "And I'm heading to correct some negligence in our family."
"Negligence?" Mal askes, dumbfounded. "What did Tyler do now?"
Ben snorts. Of course, Mal would assume it was Tyler after all the years they spent trying to get their middle child to shape up. He's an adult now, though, and not even living in the palace. He shakes his head as he heads back to the door, gesturing to Mal to finish her call up and he'll tell her later.
He has to speed up to make it down the entry staircase and out the front door before Belle comes down or before her friends show up, and then he takes a right and goes wandering through his Mom's rose garden to the left of the palace while he waits for Belle's friends to reach the front.
A red pickup truck pulls in, with three teens in front and a large group in the back. They don't notice him as they pull to a stop in front of the palace. The front door opens and Belle dashes out, purple hair up in a ponytail and a black leather jacket over her shoulder with an old school backpack in one hand as she dashes out to the truck in a frantic panic. One kid jumps out - a boy with muddied boots and a black long-sleeved shirt, and he helps her step up on the wheel and swing her leg into the truck. "Don't we got to talk to your parents?" One girl calls from the front of the truck.
Belle waves them on. "No, we just gotta leave before they get out of office! Come on, let's go!"
Ben pinches his lips together. Hmm.
She sits down in the back and then the truck lurches to a roll. They start to pull away, music loud and everyone laughing. Before they can pass the rose garden, Ben steps out and walks slowly out to the center of the driveway. For a moment, the teens don't see him, and then the truck screeches to a stop about seven feet in front of him. Ben just presses his lips together again. The kids in the front seat stare at him for several long seconds, and one of the girls has the decency to look sheepish. "What's going on?" Belle yells from the back.
Ben walks around the truck with his arms folded, nodding to the driver as he passes. He appears on the side Belle is leaning against and appreciates the looks of horror that pass each of her friend's faces. Belle's mouth curls down into that perfect pout she got from her mom. It used to get her out of lots of trouble, but it's not going to work now.
"Dad..." She moans slowly, shoulders slumping. She's just barely finished pulling on her jacket.
Ben walks to the back of the truck and pulls on the lever to release the back of the truck. It falls down with a little thud and Ben takes a moment to glance over the teens in the backseat. Belle is sitting perpendicular on her date's lap with her back to the sides of the truck bed and her feet tangled up with her other friends from school. Tanner, Sophie, Preston, and Jackson are in the car, along with Mila, Carlos's daughter, and a couple other kids that she probably knows from school. It's not unlike how he and Mal used to go around with their friends back during everyone's college years when they were all twenty. The difference was that his parents always knew where he was going and who he was with. And then, most importantly, what time he and Mal would be separated for the night. (They didn't necessarily care about who got home first or where they went once they were separated, but if they were falling asleep somewhere together there would be a debt to pay later on.) And it was only with Mal since everyone knew from day one that he was committed to her. If Ben wanted to sleep over at Evie's, fine, but they also had to know where he and Mal would be and who would be watching them.
There had been times that his mom or dad had stopped him before going out with friends like this. His mom had grabbed his arm and threatened dismemberment if she heard he and Mal had snuck off anywhere the first time that they'd left in this manner. But that was always inside, not in front of friends like this.
Belle's date looks mortified to have been caught sneaking the princess out of the palace with said princess's arm around him. He carefully removes Belle's arm while flushing and avoiding Ben's gaze. Belle looks heartbroken as Ben gestures her forward by holding out his hand and flexing his fingers with a small nod to the palace. It's a trick he learned from Hades, and he's grateful for it. Belle deflates and picks up her backpack dejectedly. She stumbles over everyone's feet. Ben seizes her upper arm when she's close enough and helps her climb out. She only starts arguing once she's on the ground. "Dad, we're just going down to the pier. You never let me go out with anyone fun."
Ben crosses his arms. "No. I never let you go out with anyone who'll hurt you."
"They're not gonna hurt me!" Belle protests, flinging her arm out in the direction of the truck. "Why can't I go?"
"Because I also don't let you go out when you're grounded," Ben replies, raising one unimpressed eyebrow.
"Grounded?" Belle repeats, furrowing her brow together.
"Grounded," Ben repeats, turning her towards the palace and shoving her shoulder to move her forward. He hates having to play the mean parent, but he's not going to put up with her sneaking out. She's still a princess, no matter how much like her mom she is. He's not going to let her be hurt. "For lying and breaking our rules. Go to your room. I'll send your mom up in a moment and you can explain to her what you were trying to do."
He's sending Mal because all three children are scared of their mother when she's angry. Five minutes of scathing disappointment under his wife's glowing green gaze and Belle will never want to leave home again, much less without permission.
Belle hangs her head and begins her shameful walk back to the palace. Ben turns back to the kids in the truck. He glances at the second generation islanders first. "Your parents better know that you're out," He warns them. Then, he focuses on the scared-stiff boy in the back of the truck. "If you would like to take my daughter out," He begins, "You have to meet me first. That is the rule."
Ben then lifts the truck bed back and pushes it into place. He steps back and gestures for the truck to continue its trek, sans one, down the driveway. The teenagers pull away in silence.
The front door is left open, which would piss Ben off even more if Belle wasn't sitting on the bottom step, waiting for him with tears running down her face. "Dad, why'd you do that?" She hiccups. "You're being mean. None of my other friends have to have their parents meet every single person at the door. I just wanted to go out for an hour. I would have been back at sundown."
"Well, that would have been a much more appreciated sentiment before you were jumping in and yelling about how you needed to leave before your parents got out of office," Ben raises his eyebrows at her. "And Belle, none of your other friends are attached to the crown. People get famous off of dating princesses. People could want to hurt you as a token of pride. I'm not going to let someone take advantage of you."
Belle hiccups and scrubs at her eyes before she breaks down. "Can you please not tell mom?" She whispers. "I won't try again. Please?"
Ben almost gives in when he sees how pitiful she looks with black streaks running down her cheeks. This is still his baby princess who was so excited whenever he'd put plastic or paper crowns on her head at birthday parties and who was so proud when people started commenting about how much like her dad she looked instead of always saying she had Mal's green eyes and purple hair. But he tilts his head, knowing there's no way in Auradon or on the Isle he's not telling Mal about this, and gives her a soft look that makes her start to cry harder. She stands up, stomping her foot, and begins to climb the stairs in despair.
"Belle?" He calls before she can get very far, and she huffs as she turns back around. He holds out a hand. "Phone." He demands.
Belle screws up her face as she whips out her touchscreen and drops it into his hand. He slips it into his pocket and then she turns and storms away to her room.
Ben walks back up to his office to continue work. On the way up, he stops by Mal's office and drops Belle's phone on her desk. Mal looks up from where she's searching through a filing cabinet, squints at the phone, and then turns to him for an explanation. Since they can remote-access anything on their children's devices and need to make sure their children can always reach the palace, it's not often they remove cell phone privileges.
"What happened?" She asks in a dull tone.
"I took care of it," Ben assures her by way of explanation. "But I need you to do the punishment part." He puts his index finger down on Belle's phone as his way of telling Mal she's not allowed to have it.
"That bad?" Mal stares.
"Don't go dragon when you hear," He tells her. "And I would do it now so she doesn't get herself together only to fall apart again." Get the bad parts all over with so she doesn't have to cry herself out twice.
Mal snaps the filing cabinet closed and slips the phone into her pocket. "Bye," She says as she kisses his cheek and slips out. Ben watches her go with a sigh. Thank goodness he married an Isle girl and not an Auradon princess, otherwise, it'd be his job to frighten the kids into submission and he's not one to be able to withstand tears for long.
Goodness, how is he going to survive Belle's dating phase?
Belle manages to have one or two successful, small, low-key group dates before Derik shows up on his doorstep. The kid has a buzz cut, acts as if he's a soldier, and when Belle cracks a joke at the front door, he doesn't get it. Ben sends them off with a wave and a roll of his eyes and doesn't say anything when Belle sneaks back in twenty minutes later, frustrated."At least she's slowly learning, right?" He tells Mal.
Things get harder then. Belle has a running list of what she wants. Someone kind, someone who will compliment her outfit and open doors for her, someone who will check all her parent's boxes and who is funny and fun to talk to. She doesn't just accept dates with anyone because she's flattered they asked anymore or because they look nice. Now it's with friends and people she's known for a while. Which makes it a lot harder if Ben has to say no.
Her science lab partner shows up for dinner one night. Belle's two older brothers Zach and Tyler get a little confused when they see him. Zach travels a lot, doing things for the throne since he's 'technically' king now. Tyler works in town, managing a restaurant that he actually started at by washing dishes. So they both have been busy and kinda oblivious to the fact their kid sister is dating. It rocks them a little when they find out.
Babel is the kid's name. It throws Ben off for a second because he hasn't heard anyone with that name, but then he nods and offers the kid a chair and then shakes his head at Mal when Babel's back is turned. He already knows this isn't going to work out. Twenty minutes into dinner, he realizes why.
"So, you're third in line for the throne, right?" Babel asks Belle, cutting off her and Tyler's rendition of something they used to do together as kids. Ben feels Mal's hand hit the table before she moves it over to set her fingers over his, and he sighs internally. It's something that came up with each of their sons whenever they started talking to girls(and boys. Tyler has experimented a little). The matter of the crown.
Belle frowns a little. "Uh, kinda." She nods and then attempts to relaunch into her story.
"Kinda?" Babel asks. "What do you mean?"
Belle sighs. "Well, I'm not of age yet, so I can't be queen until then. So until I'm sixteen, my parents actually are in line before me. If something happened to Tyler or Zach, the crown would go back to them. But once either of them gets married, my right of inheritance gets bumped back. So if Zach married, his wife would be second. And if they had a kid, the baby would be third. And then Tyler would be fourth, dad fifth, mom sixth, and I'm last in line before you go to my grandparents."
"And then your husband after you?" Babel asks.
Belle frowns and has a million-and-one questions about the crown and the kingdom and what Belle's allowed to do and "have you ever used your status to bend the rules". It makes Ben sad because he can tell Belle liked this kid before he started trying to insinuate what her reaction would be if both of her brothers happened to go missing. He knows as his daughter leads Babel to the door that night, that he won't be seeing the boy again, and that it probably won't be the last time someone dates her for a shot at the throne of Auradon.
When Belle shuts the door and then slumps against it with a disappointed sigh, Ben steps up behind her and gives her a hug. "Dating is so hard!" She complains. "Can't I find someone who is nice and cute and who likes me and not the castle?"
Ben understands. He was once dating Audrey, after all. He sighs and squeezes her tighter. There's not a lot else he can do.
They get a system, he and Mal do. As boy after boy with the occasional appearance of a girl appear and leave on their doorstep in varying degrees of failure, they both start picking up on signals and body language. And then there are predictions.
"She's not leaving the property," Mal whispers as they watch her get into a small coupe with a smashed-in passenger side door.
"She'll be back late," Ben hums when someone opens the door to a large, red truck and helps her in.
There's still the occasional time that someone unfavorable shows up, but all Ben has to do is glance between his daughter and the person outside, say "No", and she'll lead them away with a sigh. If they're particularly cute or nice, he'll get a whine of "Dad, why?", but she trusts him after the first few problems she had.
Still, she's a teenager, and she's growing surer of herself. Ben knows it can't be long before she starts to disregard his advice.
It finally happens one evening in October.
Two weeks from his and Mal's anniversary and Lumiere pages up to say someone has arrived for Belle. Ben goes down, opens the door, and finds himself peering into a pair of clear, blue eyes. Someone with tanned skin and curly black hair and bright eyes stands behind his door with a confident smile. He's all dressed up in slacks and a red button-down shirt and his teeth are whiter than paper. Ben feels a headache come on. This won't end well.
"Pleased to meet you, Your Majesty," the boy extends a hand to shake. "My name is Jayme. What can I call you?"
"Ben," Ben replies softly. He doesn't recognize his last name when it's called since it's so uncommon to use it. "Nice to meet you, Jayme. Belle hasn't come down yet. I'll walk up and get her. Feel free to come in and wait in the formal."
Jayme gets past the front door, which is an accomplishment in and of itself, and Ben walks up the stairs. He glances back to see what Jayme thinks of the place. He briefly examines the family portrait on the wall and then the rug under his feet, and then takes a deep breath and waits. A bad feeling churns in Ben's stomach.
He knocks on Belle's door and she calls for him to come it. She's sitting at her dresser, finishing applying a dark pink shade of lipstick. She looks classy and elegant with her black dress and her purple hair all curled.
"Your date is here," he calls, leaning against the doorframe.
"Oh, great!" Belle smiles as she turns back around. "You met him then? What did you think?"
"No," Ben shakes his head. The smile drops off of Belle's face. "No, sweetheart, he's not the right person yet."
"What's wrong with him?" Belle frowns. "Did he not introduce himself or something? He might be nervous - it's pretty intimidating having to meet the former king."
"Belle, I think you should stay in tonight," Ben sighs. He knows, though, from the tone of her voice, that she's dug her heels in. She's like her mom and both of her grandmothers. When she thinks she knows, she knows.
"No," Belle replies, a sound that breaks Ben's heart. "I'm looking forward to tonight. I know he'll take care of me and I know that we'll have a good time. And if he doesn't, then there's always magic and pepper spray and 1-2-1." She taps on her cell phone as a further reference to Auradon's emergency number.
Ben sighs and opens up the doorframe. She steps through, expression still sour, and then heads down to the foyer. Mal is there now. She's smiling and laughing as he and Jayme talk. He catches the punchline of a joke before Belle steps out into sight and heads down the stairs. Jayme's mouth falls open a little when he sees her, and a blush blooms across Belle's cheeks. He tells her she looks beautiful, kisses her hand, and offers her his arm. Mal looks proud.
Ben comes down the stairs and ignores Belle's pointed gaze as he loops his arm through Mal's. "Be home by eleven," he tells her and then shows them both to the door.
They watch Jayme escort Belle out to a silver car with a black interior that he opens with a smile. She smiles as she gets in and the twisting in Ben's heart increases.
"Well, I think she finally got it," Mal laughs as they close the door. "He's a really nice kid. I like him." She puts her arm around his waist and kisses his cheek. "What did you think?"
Ben shakes his head and puts an arm around her shoulders. "No," he says.
That's all he'll say on the matter.
Belle comes back overjoyed. Everyone is regaled with tales of Tayme over breakfast, and her phone is constantly abuzz with messages from him. Mal is just as excited for her. Mom and daughter stay up late talking about Belle's new relationship and comparing it with Ben and Mal's from back when they were teens. Ben just shakes his head.
Two weeks later, on their third date, Jayme asks her to be his girlfriend. She changes her social media statuses and makes her new profile picture a shot of him kissing her on the cheek. Ben knows the night she has her first kiss with him because she stumbles through the front door grinning like a fool and almost crashes into the stair banister.
Magazines write stories of him and her together, the boys slowly warm up to him and welcome him into their circle and all the while Ben has this pit of dread expanding in his chest because he already knows that somehow, this relationship will end with Belle heartbroken.
Belle counts all the months with growing pride and glee. First one, then two, suddenly they're at four and then five, and then one day she's coming to him with a bright smile and putting a watch down on his desk with the question "Is this a good anniversary gift?" on her lips.
"Yes," he answers with a nod. "He'll like that a lot."
"You like him now, right Dad?"
Ben pinches his lips together and gives a forced sort of shrug. "He's not the one," he whispers, and Belle's face twists.
"I think he is!" She protests. "Come on, what did he do wrong?"
Ben shakes his head. It's not that the kid has done anything wrong - it's just he can't see this lasting. Jayme seems like a great kid, but he's not going to make her happy in the long run. Nothing will change that. Sure, he may know her favorite orders to all her favorite fast food places and knows the places he and Mal used to take their family while she was growing up and he might have been invited to spend Christmas Eve with the family and all of Mal's old friend's families, but Ben knows like he knew he'd die for her the day she was born that this is just not going to work.
Belle leaves in a huff and stops speaking to him. She must have assumed that Ben was slowly warming up to Jayme, and now she's angry to find otherwise. Mal comes to him then with questions like: "What's going on with you?" "Why don't you like him?" "Are you sure you're not just upset she's getting older?" She doesn't quite know what to make of his responses - he's calm, nonchalant, but adamant against Jayme.
Jayme himself comes up one day to talk with Ben. They walk out on the grounds and talk about Belle and Mal and everything under the sun. "Do you not like me?" Jayme asks, innocently enough.
Ben gives him a once-over. "I'm not against you personally," he tells the kid. "But you and my daughter aren't right for each other."
Jayme looks appropriately hurt. "I love her," he assures Ben, and Ben has to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Is there any way I can convince you of that?"
Convince him? Belle is already convinced. He raises an eyebrow for a moment and then looks out over the clearing. "I've just been thinking of where she's planning to go," he lies to Tayme, testing the boy. "She came to Mal and I a few nights ago and said she might want to go live with her grandpa Hades when she gets older. Stay on the Isle and do service work out there."
Jayme stumbles back, shock falling over his face and horror frozen in his eyes. "What? But she-" he relaxes when he sees the look on Ben's face. "Oh. You were joking. Why?"
Ben shakes his head. He has his answer now. He knows. He closes his eyes and snorts. "Never mind," he replies. "What do you want to do when you're older?"
There's a lengthy response about how fascinated he is with politics and how he wants to especially work with displaced people from the former Isle of the Lost, but Ben ignores it all.
The breakup comes three days before their six-month anniversary, and it is every bit as bad as Ben anticipated. It breaks everyone's heart except for his. Belle locks herself in her room sobbing hysterically, listening to every depressing love song she can think of and going through gigantic boxes of chocolate and cotton candy. Ben gets the full story across the pillows of his and Mal's bed that night as Mal does her own crying.
Apparently, there was a phone call about their anniversary that she'd said goodbye to and then neither of them had hit hang-up in time. She overheard his friends laughing about her. There had been a lot - enough for them to break up but not enough to have Tayme arrested for malicious intent towards the royal family. Something about how Belle was beautiful but ditsy. Easy to please. Quick to look past problems. Something about how it would be nice to be king. Live in the palace. Drive nice cars and wear nice clothes. Something about how the Former King didn't seem to like him, but he thought he'd come around.
"How did you know?" Mal asks, wiping the last of her tears away as she curls against his chest like she's a kitten instead of a dragon. "How did you know what he was?"
Ben can only shrug. "I think it was because he looked at the portrait in the front hall weird," he lies. In truth, he has no idea, but he has to give Mal some sort of reason so that she can feel justified for missing it.
He lets himself into Belle's room the next day to find her curled up inside five thick comforters, two and a half empty boxes of chocolate beside her, and a stuffed animal from when she was three. Beauty and the Beast is playing on her phone.
Ben untangles her and then they sit together on her bed. She curls into a ball that he holds to his chest as she cries her little soul out on his shoulder. It's a few hours that they sit like that, just healing from everything.
"You were right, dad," she hiccups a little. "I'll listen to you next time."
He doesn't get any satisfaction from that. On the contrary, he sighs and kisses her head and just squeezes her tighter as she cries.
She starts bringing her phone to him when someone asks her out. It's a little weird at first, but his track record is pretty great. He can usually give her a shrug of "maybe" or a "no" within a few minutes. Belle still sometimes gets frustrated with the responses, but she doesn't question him anymore.
Mal regards him as if he possesses some sixth sense. It's pretty cool how impressed she is with him. Even though he's married her and there isn't really a reason to keep trying to impress her like he's still trying to catch her attention, he still gets overly proud of himself when she smiles like he's one of their children and she's proud of them. He made the right choice with this one.
Belle goes on a few dates here and there but nothing serious while she's still recovering from her betrayal.
Belle turns seventeen in April. It's been more than a year since she first tried to bring home that first kid, and Ben has to pause to ponder his own state at seventeen. Seventeen was after he had already met Mal. Seventeen was when she almost went back to the Isle and he'd chased after her, having his suspicions that she was "his person". He got that confirmation in the self-same year. He's glad that Belle isn't like him and that she hasn't fallen so hard at so young. Sure, it worked out pretty well for him and Mal and it would sure solve a lot of the "what if" questions they all have now, but he doesn't quite think she's ready for the kind of commitment he and Mal had from a very early point. To be fair, he and Mal had to have a lot of commitment - she was coming from the Isle of the Lost and denouncing her mother on live television and he had passed a law that allowed her to be in Auradon and had publicly dumped Audrey to date her. Also, she drugged him. Something he still likes to tease her about.
He has to give a lot of credit to his parents because if Belle brought home someone like Mal(or even if Zach or Tyler brought home someone like Mal), he'd be more than a bit wary. To bring in a girl who kept knives up her sleeves and who more often than not kept her mother's spellbook tucked inside her jacket and then to bring in the story of how she gave him a spelled cookie to try and destroy Auradon before accidentally tripping over everything she'd been taught and falling in love with him. He hopes he'd have the same patience they did.
For Belle's seventeenth birthday party, they close off the woods that hold the enchanted lake, string up thousands of colorful lights in the trees, and then bring in tons of food and people. Evie, Jay, and Carlos all show up with their families in tow and it cheers Belle up to be around everyone else's families. They're all like cousins, those kids, because Mal and the rest of her "core four" are like siblings. Carlos was even the family member who gave Mal away to him at their wedding. He and Jay had fought over that right until Mal had implored Ben to find an alternative task for one of them and thus Evie had been the maid of honor, Carlos had walked Mal down, and Jay had been Ben's best man.
Ben doesn't know most of the people at the party. He recognizes a few kids that either Zach or Tyler or Belle have dated and he knows people from the courts that he had to deal with back when he was king and then there are a few old friends from Auradon Prep that make his children uncomfortable when they bring up old memories of their parents at school.
Zach and Tyler both bring their girlfriends. Zach is in his mid-twenties and has been dating Audrey's daughter for quite some time, which cracks both Ben and Mal up. They seem to like each other though, and Ben doesn't have anything against the girl. He just thinks it'll be a huge laugh between him, Audrey, and Mal if they end up getting married. Tyler has dated furiously, skipping around with different girls and boys(the greenest face Ben ever saw on Mal was the night he announced he was going out on a date with Uma's daughter) but his current fling is one of the girls from his graduating class who Ben rather likes. Her name is Faith, which is one of the names Ben requested for Belle back when she was born (along with Joy, Hope, and Charity, but he couldn't sway Mal to agree to any of his good-intentioned names).
Tyler and Faith swing around the buffet table and then come sit beside Ben and Mal. Ben has to chuckle at their choice of snacks. Faith obsesses over peaches and thinks they are the most delicious things to have ever existed. Meanwhile, Tyler...
"Give me some," Mal demands as soon as she sees his plate piled high with chocolate-covered strawberries. She reaches out to steal some, but Tyler shields his plate from her.
"No, mom!" He protests. "Go get your own!"
As Mal and Tyler began a squabble over Tyler's right to his chocolate strawberries("I'm your mother! You're supposed to take care of me!" "You have two legs and two hands! You get your own!"), Ben reaches out and shakes Faith's hand. She's chuckling a little and smiling as her boyfriend and his mom interact, and her smile grows a little wider as she smiles at Ben. He wishes that Belle could find someone and have things as easy as the boys have it.
Belle strolls over as the place is getting dark and the lights start looking like fairies hiding in the trees. She sits down so close to him that he couldn't even set his hand down if he wanted to and then drops her head onto his shoulder. She's exactly the same way Mal is when her mom gets tired. She just wants someone to hold her.
"What's got your goose?" He whispers, sliding his arm out from under her head and putting it around her shoulders.
Belle huffs and little tendrils of smoke escape her nostrils. Ben suspects she and Tyler, who also inherited Mal's purple hair, both have the ability to shapeshift into dragons, but since everything has been peaceful since the barrier fell, they haven't had to experiment too much with their powers. The closest either has come is when Tyler accidentally set a tree and then a field on fire when he went out drinking with friends for the first time a week after his twenty-first birthday. The kid holds alcohol about as well as Ben can, whereas Zach can retain his dignity no much how thick his BAC. He and Mal will always retreat to corners at parties to drink and talk - mostly about Zach's own childhood - while anyone who can't drink and remain conscious, like Ben and Tyler, keep away.
"Jayme said he was working on a song for my birthday," Belle confides in a small whisper, bringing Ben back to the present. "I'm just wondering what it would have been like."
"Probably more painful once you found out," Ben reasons softly, but he knows that isn't quite the answer she's searching for. He runs his fingers through her hair as she sighs dejectedly and curls up against his side.
He watches Zach lead Amber down a path closer to the enchanted lake. Their arms are linked together as they walk down. Zach pulls the crown off his head as soon as they leave the crowds and instead hangs it on his arm. Amber reaches up to ruffle his hair with a laugh and it throws Ben off a bit because she usually acts a lot like her mother, and Audrey would never have done that to him when they dated. Of course, Amber was Tyler's friend before she was Zach's girlfriend, so she's a great deal looser than her mother.
Belle gives a little, unhappy sigh at his side as Tyler jumps away from Mal's reach and then Faith appears with a second, more reasonable plate of strawberries for Mal. Mal sighs in happiness and then nudges Tyler. "Where can I trade you out for her?" She jokes.
"Give it a few years," Ben advises. "Maybe you can have both."
Faith blushes a deep red and hides her face as Tyler tilts his head, considering. Mal laughs - she knows he only teases them because of how badly they were teased for getting engaged so early in their lives.
Ben runs his fingertips through Belle's hair and hums. "You are my sunshine," He sings. "My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey."
Belle snorts and then hides her face in his shirt. "That's beautiful, Dad," She chuckles. "I love you."
On Ben's other side, Mal slumps into his chest. He chuckles and moves his arm to be around both of his spunky, spitfire girls. Mal drops a strawberry stem onto the ground before setting her hand against his chest.
Across the way, through the trees and underneath a patch of pink lights Ben suddenly notices a young man sitting all alone on a bench with a homemade card in his hands. He sits, staring at the ground, with his shoulders hunched and hands braced on his knees. Ben pokes Mal's side and she yelps as she comes to life under his touch. He points across the way and sees Mal squinting to follow his gaze. It only takes a moment of hesitation before he pokes Belle's side too. "Look at that young man over there," He directs. "Do you know him?"
Belle blinks a little and then turns around to see who he's talking about. "I think so," She nods. "We have English and French together. He's very smart."
"He looks lost," Ben hums.
Belle nods in agreement. "He does," She affirms, and then gets to her feet. "I think I'll go talk to him."
Mal sets her hand on his knee as soon as Belle is out of earshot. "Look at you, playing matchmaker," She teases. Ben furrows his brow. That wasn't quite his intention, actually.
Belle sits down beside the boy without announcing herself and when he looks up, he jumps. They exchange pleasantries. The boy hands her the card with a shaking hand. Belle takes it, opens it, and her entire face lights up as she reads the contents. She says something, and he laughs, and then something new that Ben hasn't felt with any of her flings up until this point takes place in his chest. Peace.
This is going to be okay.
A week later, Ben opens the door to let Auden inside the palace. The poor boy stumbles over the doorstep, looking around with wide, uncomfortable eyes. He swallows and then slowly extends a hand to Ben. "Hello, uh, sir," he stutters. "I'm Auden. I was hoping I could take Belle out tonight if, uh, it's okay with you?"
Ben smiles as he shakes Auden's trembling, sweaty hand. No one has asked him yet. "Hello Auden," He greets. "You can call me Ben, and yes, Belle will be down in a second."
Mal comes in from the front entryway and Auden shakes her hand too - something else that no one has bothered to do. Mal's hand is more often kissed, which annoys her to no end. She prefers handshakes and it shows as she smiles in approval at the young man in the entryway. Ben cracks a little joke that she only bites in dragon form and the kid laughs a little as Mal rolls her eyes.
There's a sound from up the stairs and then Belle appears with her hair down, wearing one of Mal's old Isle jackets and black slacks. She looks pretty with her makeup minimal and her smile bright. Auden's mouth falls open and he makes several gasping sounds in the back of his throat. "O-oh!" He exclaims. "You look so - just so beautiful! Wow!"
Belle blushes just like he does, dipping her head and trying to keep her smile from spreading even wider. Auden offers her his arm when she gets to the bottom of the stairs and Mal crosses her arms in silent approval. This kid is hitting every spot the others missed - checking every box. And for the first time, Ben doesn't feel worried or anxious about this. Even if they don't end up working out, it'll be on good terms. This kid isn't going to take advantage of her or ignore her or use her status to get where he wants. He's going to make her feel special.
And heaven help her if Belle doesn't do exactly the same thing.
"This place is so big!" Auden marvels, looking all around. "I'd get lost here."
Belle nods. "I'm thinking of moving out one day," she confides. "That's what my older brother did. I might go live on the Isle beside my Grandpa Hades."
"That'd be cool," Auden nods. "I haven't ever been to the Isle."
"We should go sometime," Belle suggests. "Mom took us all while we were growing up. I could tell you lots of stories about her."
Ben and Mal stand in the doorway as Auden and Belle head out. Auden makes sure to shake both of their hands again on the way out and thank them for letting him take their daughter out and promise to walk her to the door afterward. Another thing no one has even thought to do. They catch snippets of conversation as he takes her down to a beat-up blue civic in the driveway and opens the door for her and helps her in. "She'll be back late," Mal hums against his shirt, leaning her head into his shoulder.
Ben snorts a little and squeezes her tighter to him as the car starts and then slowly turns out onto the road. "You know," he begins with a chuckle, "I think we might survive the dating phase after all."
Y'all know I'm a sucker for Parents Ben and Mal, right?
If you're watching for the next portion of Westward, I'm working on it; don't worry!