Mal and Ben ~ Parenthood

Did I mention

Yesterday had been a really good, but also very eventful day. The reason for that was that it had been Lily's second birthday.

To start with Mal had decided to just have a small and quiet birthday this year, but apparently that wasn't an option. Already a week before the event, Belle, Adam and especially Evie had already started to talk about it.

Most of the time Lily was an very outgoing person, but lately she had been more attached to her parents or people she knew very well. Mal understood it, everyone adored her and wherever they went people would want to get in contact with her.

That was why a nice, cozy and quiet day to Mal seemed like the best idea, but she also knew that it was only her birthday once a year, so she could right as well make a party of it.

The party included a lot of their friends and family, and a lot of gifts. But the only thing that really mattered to Mal, was that she had known Lily was happy. Lily had once again loved the attention, which Mal had been a bit worried she wouldn't this year. Apparently the more shy part of her was only there when it wasn't so many people all there because of her.

But as always a long day, brought a tired girl the next day. Which actually happened quite rarely. Normally Lily loved to get up and start the day, and she always had all those ideas of what to do. However on days like this all it took was one look into her eyes for Mal to know exactly what she needed, and to be honest probably what she also needed herself. Which was to have her little girl in her arms, making sure she was save and no one would be able to hurt her. And Lily too needed some quite and comfort.

Ben had stayed up late last night to try to clean up after the party, so Mal didn't want to wake him up. Instead she made sure that all of Lily's needs were seen to, and that she was happy and safe.

As she sat there looking out the window, with Lily half asleep in here arms, she couldn't help but wonder what she would have been doing right now if it wasn't for Lily. Where would she have been? What would be her next step? She couldn't imagine it.

If she had still been on the isle she would have been lonely, pretending not to be. She would have spend every day trying to be the most evil as possible to make her mother proud of her. She would maybe even have build up the courage to go see her, not any less evil, father.

If she hadn't met Ben, or hadn't started to date him, she would probably have gone through with her evil plan to steal the wand, and Auradon would now be enslaved by evil.

But most importantly of all if she hadn't gotten pregnant. If everything had gone as it did, but that one thing had been different. What would have been the most important thing to her right now? Probably Ben, or some queenly duties. Not that she was the queen yet... there had just been so many other things to think about. Maybe she would be planning her wedding right now.

But no matter what conclusion she came to, she knew that everything had changed for the better the moment Lily had been born.

Ben woke up later that morning, and they spend the rest of the day together.

----

Mal woke up the next morning to find both Ben and Lily gone. After the time they hadn't been able to find her all day this sight would normally worry her, but one thing she had also realized was that she knew whenever she was in danger. She had known the minute she wasn't there that something had been wrong, she knew that now. Because right now she had that complete opposite feeling, which was that she was perfectly fine.

As soon as she opened the door to go find them, she was met by Evie who looked like she had been waiting for her.

"What are you doing here?" Mal asked, a bit confused of why she wouldn't just have knocked on the door.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't know how to tell you this so I kind of stood here to try to build up my courage."

"E?" Mal asked, "What's going on? What is this about?"

"It's about Ben," she eventually said, "Something happened..."

She seemed pretty worried, but Mal didn't know what to believe. She would know if something was wrong, "What?" Mal asked, desperate to get an answer, "What happened?"

Evie paused, "I think it's better if I show you."

Evie took her to a car and asked her to get in, whereafter the driver, which was Jay, took them deep into the forest.

"What the hell guys?" Mal said, "What is going on?"

They didn't say anything, and after a few more question Mal gave up on getting an answer out of them.

They reached the enchanted lake where her and Ben had had their first date. When Mal first saw it the thoughts that went through her head was that Ben had taken Lily here and then something had happened to her. But then why would Evie and Jay know before her.

She walked out on the platform thing, and called Ben's name a few times, "Ben, what's going on?" She asked again.

She turned around when she heard music starting to play and she turned around to find way more of her friends there, and well... Ben and Lily too, "Wha...?" She started but was cut of when Ben started singing a verse from his song, Did I mention. She did not know exactly what this was about, but she had her ideas.

The verse ended with the line "But now look at what you've done, you've got me down on my knee." And in exactly that moment Ben truly did go down on his knee.

"Mal," he said.

"Ben," she answered, still a bit annoyed this was the way he had gotten her to come out there, to actually make her worry that something had happened to them.

"I know I should have asked you this question long ago, but then our little miracle came into the world, and she became the most important thing in our lives."

Mal smiled.

"But I thought that it was about time, and I hope that you think the same. So Mal... Will you marry me? Will you be my queen?"

Mal didn't say anything for a few seconds, just to see if it would worry him, but when she saw that it actually did, she immediately said, "Yes, of course I will."

He placed the ring in her finger, stood up and kissed her, until they heard a cute little voice they knew all to well, "Mommy! Daddy!"

They both reached out for her, and then stood like that with her in their arms for a little while. Just enjoying how perfect their lives seemed in that moment, and every other moment spend together.