A Dog Boy's Heart (Carlos X Oc) (Editing)

Back to the Isle

Back in Auradon, Mal and Ben are at the Enchanted Lake enjoying the picnic that Mal had promised Ben. They sat under a small gazebo at a small, round table that was covered in a checkered tablecloth. About a dozen plates with all different types of food were displayed across the table. Ben's face was amazed looking at the spread.

"Would you like a hot hors d'oeuvre?" Mal offers, holding out some food for Ben to try.

"Yes, please. Mmm! This is the best thing I've ever had." Ben smiled, eating the hors d'oeuvres.

"So, you like it?" Mal asks with a slight tilt to her head, almost like she was asking if he could taste anything off about the food.

"I more than like it. I, uh... mmm-- so like it." Ben nods his head, wiping crumbs off his face.

"Beef ragout?" Mal offers another bit of food to prevent him from asking questions about the food or her.

"Yeah. This is amazing." Ben beams, looking out at the table and the lake behind them.

"Did I surprise you?" Mal questioned, her words concealing ulterior motives.

"Oh, yeah, you surprised me. This is every single dish Mrs. Potts made for my parents. What did it take you? Three days?" Ben cheered, gesturing at the food, marveling at the greatness of his girlfriend, truly believing that she had made all this food herself, and how all of it was still warm like it had just been made.

"You know, don't even ask me." Mal deflects, trying to move on to another topic, like the lake or classes.

"Yeah. Well, it means a lot that you stopped and did all this for me. Especially with all the craziness you've been put through. I've missed you. We don't get much time to be just us anymore." Ben sighs, leaning back into his chair, finally getting a break from King Duties, the Press, School, and many other things that he was juggling all at once. For a moment, he just got to be Ben Florian, not King Ben, not Son of Adam and Belle, just Ben. Ben who wanted to spend time with his girlfriend.

"I know." Mal laughs silently, watching as Ben takes a bite of a jelly doughnut.

"You can't take me anywhere, right? Do you have a-- Do you have a napkin or something?"  Ben laughs as he looks down at his shirt, pointing out the bit of jelly that landed on it when he took a bite.

"I do! I packed some." Mal chirps, gesturing to the basket sitting just behind them.

"Oh, there is--" Ben starts to riffle through the basket, trying to grab a napkin.

"I think I stowed them away. I can grab them." Mal trails off, watching as Ben pulls her spell book from the basket.

"What's this?" Ben questions. He thought all the VKs had given the items that they had been given by their parents to the museum, but clearly, he was wrong.

"I actually threw that in there super last-minute in case it rained or--" Mal tried to explain herself, but stopped talking as Ben slowly opened the book to multiple pages Mal had dog-eared.

"Speed reading spell. Blonde hair spell. Cooking spell. And I was giving you props for fitting in so well, for doing your best." Ben scoffs, looking between the book and Mal with disappointment.

"Take back this moment that has passed. Return it-- Reverse it--" Mal trying to cast a forgetting spell on Ben like it was instinct, but stops when she realizes was she was going.

"Are you trying to spell me right now?!" Ben yells, offended that Mal would try and do this to him.

"Ben, it has been so hard for me!" Mal retaliates, thinking that Ben wouldn't understand what it's like.

"Yes! Some things are hard! Do you think learning to be king has been easy for me?" Ben argued back, not understanding why Mal was having such a hard time adjusting compared to Alex and Evie, who were doing just fine. "I thought we were doing this together!"

"Ben, we are in this together." Mal pleads.

"But we're not, Mal. We're not. You-you've been keeping secrets and lying to me. I thought we were done with that. This isn't the Isle of the Lost, Mal." Ben sighs, gesturing to the area around him to prove his point while standing up in anger.

"Yeah. Believe me, I know that!" Mal yells, also standing.

"Then why are you doing this?" Ben questions with a desperate look in his eyes, trying to understand.

Because... I'm not one of those pretty pink princesses, Ben. I'm not one of those ladies from the Court. I'm a big fake, okay? I'm fake. This is fake. This is fake." Mal shrugs, gesturing to her hair and her clothes, now a pale yellow instead of purple and a dress instead of her typical leather. "Take this feast, this sumptuous meal, and return it to what is real. This is who I really am." She turns the feast back into just a singular peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which made Ben double-take. She threw her hands up and started to walk away.

"Mal." Ben tries to call her back and apologize, but she brushes him off. "Peanut butter and jelly is my favorite!" He calls out after her.

After leaving the Enchanted Lake, Mal goes back to her and Evie's dorm, luckily, the girl wasn't inside. Mal storms into the bathroom, changing from her dress into purple leather, which looks odd with her bleach blonde hair. 

"I don't belong here. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's blow this popsicle stand. Yeah?" She stabs a pencil holder to create airholes before putting a still lizard, Maleficent, into it.

She makes her way out of the room, off campus, and into the forest. She keeps walking until she reaches a spot where the ocean meets the land with a view of the Isle, her final destination. She has the Moped that Ben gave her as she casts a spell on it.

"Noble steed, proud and fair, you shall take me anywhere. Okay. Whew. Please work." Mal begs before climbing onto the bike and driving over the ocean towards the Isle, finally escaping Auradon, but heading into much more dangerous territory.