Various small scenes that didn't make it into HRH
Mal stood up with her arms still crossed and stared at the mural on the wall. Belle gathered up her own shorthand notes and came to stand beside the teen. They stared at the beautiful painting together.
"For our first anniversary, Adam hoped to have the library redone, but the plans took too long to be drawn up. So, two years later, for our third, they began work. I was pregnant with Ben that year. The paint fumes were too much for me most days, so I never saw the progress. Two weeks after he was born, I brought him in here for the first time, and that was the first time I saw the mural." Belle informed Mal.
"It's beautiful." Mal said, with her eyes flitting around the wall. "It offsets the library very nicely."
"It does, doesn't it?" Belle agreed.
Mal got the distinct feeling that Belle wanted to tell her something.
"You know, Mal? You're an incredibly brave girl. One of the bravest I've ever known. We both know this isn't easy, or fair."
"Life isn't fair."
"Of course, it is. Only fair means everyone gets what they need, not what they want."
"Not necessarily." Mal raised an eyebrow at the queen. "I'm not sure you know this, but you still have people starving to death in your country. Is that 'fair'?"
"Well, that's why we have you. To correct our mistakes." Belle shifted her workload and put an arm around Mal's shoulders. "Come on now, let's have dinner."
Her dreams smelled like wet cardboard and smog. They took place in a building where the floors were falling in and the ceiling had holes in it. An old television sat in front of a moth-eaten couch. A witch with horns was screaming so loudly Mal couldn't hear what she was saying.
It was her old home with her mother. The three villains were nowhere to be seen, but Mal could see Evie, Jay, and Carlos through the holes in the floor as Maleficent screaming louder and louder. None of the words made sense. Her mother's scepter was aglow with green energy as she howled. The foundations of the house shook. Dust rose into the air from the floor. One more shake, and the roof came crashing down on top of Maleficent in a colossal crash that left Mal's bones shaking at the joints. The screaming continued… continued. She looked for the source of the screaming in the rubble, but all was silent there. She caught glimpse of her face in the reflection of a sheet of aluminum. Her mouth was open wide. She was screaming… screaming… screaming.
That night, she found Ben, Belle, Adam, Sophia, Stewart, Lumiere and a tall, pale, woman with a sickly pallor who was introduced as Lumiere's sweetheart Plumette. When she entered, they all glanced up simultaneously, giving Mal the impression that they'd all been talking about her even though the room was silent.
Ben was pulling wood out of the wood box to put in the furnace. As Mal watched him pile it in, she frowned. "That's not how you build a fire." She reprimanded.
Ben raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked.
"Piling it in like that… it'll take forever to get going. Here." Mal got down on the floor and began arranging the wood in the unlit furnace. She showed him how to make an alcove, so oxygen could get in, but it was harder for wind to blow the fire out. She started the fire and within a few minutes a small blaze was blowing.
"How do you know so much about this?" Ben asked when he and Mal sat back against the legs of a couch. Lumiere and Plumette had offered to move, but Mal and Ben had simultaneously decided the unhealthy woman needed the seat move than them.
"Practice on the Isle." Mal answered with a yawn.
Together on the floor, Mal didn't touch Ben until he opened his hand, palm up, for her to slip her fingers into. With the light of the fire casting orange shadows on them, she leaned her head on his shoulder and yawned. Behind them, Adam was pulling up a blanket around him and Belle, Lumiere was rubbing Plumette's chilly fingers, and Sophia and Stewart were whispering quietly with their knees touching. Mal reached into her pocket and pulled out the last of the strawberries she had snitched that day. She showed Ben with a cheeky smile and used her nail to clumsily break the berry in half.
With the taste of warm strawberry on her tongue and the comforting smell of smoke in the room, her eyes began to drift closed. As Ben's warm, strong fingers curled over her knuckles and twisted her marriage band around her finger, she dreamed of bright colors and soft smiles.
The door opened. Ben walked back in. He looked up and met her eyes.
"Wait." Mal told Elias. "I know we're in the middle of an interview, but – Ben!" She called.
Ben's head swiveled mid-step as he heard his name. Mal stood up and hurried over to him. The cameraman hadn't been planning on moving, but he swiveled the camera around to reveal everyone backstage as Mal hurried to Ben and wrapped her arms around him quickly.
"Quick hug." She murmured, and then sprinted back.
Mal returned in June with good, better, and best news. Good news, Ben could sleep again. Better news, donations for the Isle of the Lost had started to come in, and right before the Summer Solstice as well. Best news, three fae people had agreed to journey with her to the Isle of the Lost to help people receive their cards.
Ben met Mal outside in the sunshine as she pulled into the palace circle. As she kissed her husband and let him hug her a few seconds longer than necessary, something occurred to her that had been occurring to her a lot over the last few months. She might be in love. Like, the true love kind of love that only Evie had believed in on the Isle. She'd never thought it could happen to her, but here he was. It was pretty… amazing.
Stewart and Sophia were in love too, which was pretty great even though Mal didn't get to see Sophia as often anymore.
Life was moving onwards and forwards. Mal began to see her life spanned out in front of her as if were a moving picture. She could see the Isle healing and becoming self-sufficient. She could see herself falling in love with Ben over and over, every time she woke up beside him and every time she looked over and caught his gaze. She imagined him with laugh lines and thinning hair, and imagined grey streaks appearing in her hair. It didn't seem like a horrible fate. Doug had been right. She cherished this relationship with her husband.
Maybe one day there would be 'I love you's', and they'd be together the way married couples were supposed to be, and maybe, in a few years, children. Children so that there'd one day be a day when Ben and Mal could step down and live together the way Belle and Adam were now living.
"I missed you." Mal told Ben as three fae women stepped out of the car. "This is Myth, May, and Mercy. They're going to help me on the Isle."
"It's nice to meet you all." Ben said, wrapped an arm around Mal's shoulders. "Thank you for coming. I can help show you all to some rooms where you can stay."
May nodded, and Mal stopped only long enough to pull her suitcase and bag out of the car. By now, she was good at it and had learned to wrap her bag around the handle of the suitcase, so she only had to pull one thing. The three Fae followed Ben and Mal into the palace, where they were shown to three different ground-level rooms that opened into the gardens. The Fae women seemed very pleased.
"Anything interesting happen?" Ben asked.
"Yes, actually." Mal said. "Those three women are planning on taking architectural ideas back to the moors. They're going to break grounds on palaces, huts, and homes. Everyone is very excited."
"Will that ruin the forests?" Ben asked, interested as always.
"No. We're building it out of the way, in an area of the moors slightly damaged from the wars against Stephan's kingdom. They didn't want to loose the natural aspect of the land." Mal explained.
"That's good." Ben nodded. "You going to the Isle soon, then?"
"Tomorrow, hopefully." Mal gave Ben a sympathetic glance. "I'll be back before dark though. Think you can hold out?"
"I'll do my best." Ben chuckled. He clutched her hand tightly. "I missed you." He told her.
Mal pecked his cheek. "Missed you too."
Ben picked up a lock of her hair. "The fairies grew out your hair again."
"They did." Mal sighed. It was back to being shoulder length. "Give it another three visits and it'll be back to where it was."
They reached their room and Mal put her suitcase on the bed in their bedroom and began to unpack. Ben sat down on the bed and watched her as she worked.
"You know what sounds nice?" She started.
"What?" Ben asked with a smile.
"Oh, you and me." Mal started with a smile. "Strawberries, and a cheesy hero movie. We could watch Mulan or Giselle. I've heard they're really good."
"Giselle's is funny." Ben nodded. "You'd probably like her a lot."
"Sweet." Mal said as she put a pair of shoes on a shelf and leaned against the closet door frame to smile at Ben. "It's a date then?" She asked.
Ben gave her a double thumb's-up, and Mal smiled to herself as she went back to her packing.
The situation on the Isle grew hazardous. Travel outside of the city stopped one night when villains kidnapped a citizen who'd been skirting the wharf and killed her within view of the city. Her body was left to swing from a tree. Mal asked Ben to carry through a message to not travel outside unless absolutely necessary.
A school had started on the Isle, along with several businesses that had started up all without Mal's help. The Deavor girls were keeping track of all the records, all the people, everything. Mal had gotten them two tablets and they had created an entire interdimensional web space where they stored classified data and created official documents, though they were only allowed to do that with Mal's permission.
Meanwhile, more people were dying inside the villain-closed section of the Isle. Screams and cries for help rose continually from the sector, even though many people believed there was no help for them.
Mal was determined to do something.
Everyone nodded their heads and hurried to their new homes with their possessions. Only a little boy with a black bowl cut lingered. He put his hands behind his back as he walked forward.
"Are you the King n'Queen?" He asked softly.
"Yes." Mal sat forward on her ankles. "Do you need help?" She asked.
"I wanted to tell you I'm Martin, and my mom is Margaret." He said. "I'm a son of Gaston. I wanted you to know I like my mom more."
Ben laughed. He held a fist out to the boy, who stared at it, then slowly tapped his fist against the King of Auradon's. "I don't care who you like more. Besides, you don't have to be like either of your parents. I mean, look at Mal and I."
The boy nodded, and quickly took off running towards the beach. Ben and Mal watched him go.
"He's precious." Mal chuckled softly.
"You've done really well with the Isle." Ben said, taking Mal's hands and kissing her knuckles.
"Thanks." Mal replied with a smile, pulling her hands out of Ben's as she cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Now." Ben quickly swung her off her feet and into his arms as she squealed. "Let's get to work. We have a kingdom to build."