The Tour

Political Conversations and Dawning Realizations

"We have 30 seconds before we all have to make our grand entrance, where are the girls?" Carlos asked. "Probably on there way." Ben said. "Yeah well they'd better hurry-" Jay started, but was quickly interrupted by the sight of the girls all but sprinting towards them. Almost all of the girls were able to stop before colliding with their male counterparts. All, except for Mal, who tried to stop but ended up sliding across the freshly waxed floor and was sent careening into Ben. Thankfully, Ben was able to somehow keep himself from falling from the impact . "Nice tackle." Ben said only half- joking. "Nice catch." Mal replied, righting herself. Ben offered his elbow to her. "Shall we?" Ben asked. "We shall." Mal confirmed, taking his proffered elbow.
Together they walked into the dining hall. Once the herald announced their arrival, Mal saw everyone snap to attention. As Mal surveyed the room, she guessed their had to be at least 20 people gathered. The queen, sat at the head of the table with Anna on her right and Kristoff in the next seat over. There were two open seats on the queen's left. One reserved for Ben as he was a king. The other was for Mal. Mal sat down and smiled at Anna and Elsa and gave Kristoff her most dazzling smile just to annoy him. And annoy him it did as he cast a glare at her. But as Ben gave him a stern look, the glare faded from Kristoff's eyes. Ben's look had been a warning. You mess with her you mess with me.

Mal knew she should be paying more attention to the nobles around her, trying to memorize their names and faces. But, as Mal picked at her salad, the first of five courses of what was sure to be a long and tortuous dinner all she wanted was to crawl into Ben's arms and die. She'd spent the past 10 minutes listening to a Lady Mira go on and on about her sick cat and was beginning to feel sick herself. Mal valiantly nodded and smiled at the lady but was beginning to get annoyed. Ben seemed to notice her discomfort because he said her name and pretended to need her opinion on something. Ben leaned close to her so no one would hear their conversation  . "How are you holding up?" Ben asked, concern filling his soft, green eyes. "I'll be fine as long as I don't have to hear the word cat for the rest of the night." Mal replied. Ben chuckled and then once he was sure no one was looking, leaned in and gave Mal a soft kiss that was all too brief. Mal looked up and found that they did have one witness; Kristoff who looked at them curiously. Ben didn't notice but Mal did. Mal pretended she didn't care. "King Ben." Queen Elsa said his name. Ben gave Mal an apologetic smile before returning his gaze to the queen.
Mal sat quietly for a bit, all the while feeling Kristoff's gaze on her. During this time the appetizers were served, stuffed bell peppers. "So you and the king certainly are free with your affections for each other." Kristoff said making Mal jump. Ben was still deep in conversation with the queen along and now, the princess who must have joined in at some point. "You weren't supposed to see that." Mal said tersely. "Well I did. So what made him kiss you just now? In a room full of people who could have seen him." Kristoff asked. "He kissed me because he loves me and was worried about me. Ben knows I hate fancy dinners and was checking to make sure I was okay. Not that our relationship is any of your business." Mal replied, shortly. "Okay you don't have to be snappish about it. I was just curious. Here I'm hardly allowed to look at Anna in public so I was just wondering." Kristoff said. Mal felt a twinge of sympathy for him, the custom of courtship had been seen as an antiquated and outdated practice in Auradon, but many places still practiced it. Including apparently Arendale. "I guess it's just different Auradon." Mal said. "Must be." Kristoff agreed. Ben grabbed Mal's hand. Maybe he wasn't as occupied with his conversation as Mal thought, as he rubbed the back of her had with his thumb, the tender gesture was so familiar and dear that it made Mal's heart swell. Mal knew that no matter what happened she and Ben would always have each other. Mal's thoughts backtracked. Always? Since when did Mal find herself wanting her and Ben's relationship to be for always. Always was a long time. Mal continued to consider it for some time. Then int finally dawned on Mal, she realized that she wanted to spend her life with Ben and wanted him to propose and ask her to marry him. The more Mal thought about her future, the more she realized that she couldn't picture one without Ben in it. Mal knew she should probably be freaked out at the idea of marriage but with Ben it felt natural. Yes, it would mean her becoming queen and all the work that went into ruling a nation, but Mal felt the rightness of her thoughts settle in her heart. For a moment she was content and happy. But then a problem came to mind. How was she going to tell Ben? She knew she loved him and he loved her, but did he want to marry her? Would the people accept her? A million thoughts danced in Mal's head. As dinner carried along, Mal continued to poke and prod at the issue in her head, but couldn't find a plausible solution other than to tell him the truth. Mal was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice dinner was over and that most of the guests had departed. "Mal? Are you okay?" Ben asked, startling Mal back to reality. "Hmm yeah I'm fine." Mal replied smiling. "Good you had me worried. What were you thinking about?" Ben asked. "The future." Mal replied. "Oh? What about it?" Ben asked curiously. "Us."