Mal and Ben ~ Parenthood

A New Beginning

Preparing for her wedding was something Mal would never have seen herself doing. Back on they isle they didn't really date much, so a wedding rarely happened. But she was happy, more than happy. Everything was just going so right for her, that she kept wondering if every kid on the isle could be happy like she was right now, one day.

In some ways it wasn't really fair how she was living the best life possible, while all the kids left back on the isle had to live a life like that. She wanted to help them. She wanted to bring more kids over, but being a mother also activated her motherly protective instincts, and she was afraid bringing more kids over would somehow be a danger to her daughter. After all she knew how she had been when she first arrived in Auradon.

Those thoughts and the excitement of the wedding were keeping her up at night, and she found that her only way to calm down enough to fall asleep was to have Lily beside her, and just look at her sweet innocent face.

She wanted to teach her to be open minded, and not judge people because of who they are, but how could she do that, when one of the first things she would ever learn, was that her grandparents locked away everyone they didn't like, just to make themselves have a good life? Was that really the world she wanted her to grow up in?

With those thoughts still stuck in her head, she actually managed to fall asleep. But that didn't keep the thoughts from coming. Her dreams were filled with all the horrible things every kid had to go through on the isle. How everyone she used to know, could now look at her becoming the queen, while they could eat their trash of food, and sit in their dark and dirty homes.

---

Ben wanted to make the wedding happen as soon as possible, and Mal agreed. They had waited a long time for this moment, so they didn't need to wait any longer. But Mal kind of felt like she needed to share her thoughts with him before it happened, to not feel like she was betraying anybody.

Lily was still confused about the whole wedding thing, but Mal knew she was going to enjoy the day when it came.

Ben wasn't working much these days, since the wedding was taking all focus of everything for everybody. Getting a new queen was apparently something really exciting, even though they had all known it would happen someday for some years now. Not that it bothered her, it was just a lot of pressure suddenly put on her. And... it also meant she would actually get a vote in everything that would happen, she could change the world if she was brave enough to use her voice. And when had she ever not been brave enough to do that? This whole situation just seemed so complicated to her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Lily trying to get her attention. She was playing with some of the new toys she had gotten for her birthday, and Mal had intended to join her, but had accidentally ended up worrying about everything instead.

"I'm sorry sweetie," she told her, picking her up to place her in her lap. She gave her a few tickles and kissed her nose, "Do you want to go outside and play?"

Lily nodded happily, "Yes," she said, "Let's go now."

She had always loved to be outside, and she could always find all kind of games to play.

"Let's just find dad, and ask if he wants to go with us," Mal said, picking Lily up, but as soon as they were out the door, she wanted to get down and walk herself.

They found Ben with his parents talking through some details for the wedding, "You're sure you won't rather take a break from that, and come outside for a bit with me and our lovely daughter?"

Ben looked up when he saw Lily running into the room, and picked her up and kissed her on the cheek, "You bet I do. Nothing beats spending time with you two."

"Go swimming?" Lily asked Ben with begging eyes, that she knew would make him say yes.

"I can't see why not," he answered.

----

They went to the enchanted lake, since it was one of the best places to swim, and they knew Lily would be safest there.

They all went into the water. Lily was actually pretty good at swimming, better than Mal had managed to get in the years she had been in Auradon.

After some hours of playing in the water, Lily was tired and went down for a nap in Ben's lap. He had wrapped a blanket around her, and told her a story before she went to sleep. Mal couldn't help but smile every time she saw something like that, no matter how many times it did.

When she had fallen asleep, Ben looked up at Mal, "Is everything okay?" He asked, "I feel like something is bothering you."

Mal looked at the ground for a while, deciding if this was a good time to share her thoughts with him, before she decided it probably was, "When you brought me and my friends over here, you said you wanted to bring more kids over later, but you never did that, and I just can't help but think that that is all on me. That I should be standing up for them, but at the same time I'm afraid what would happen if we were to bring them over here."

Ben looked at her, and took her hand, "I know how you feel. As I said to Uma once, the plan was to bring over more kids, and I feel like I betrayed them, by not doing so."

"I'm going to be queen..." Mal said.

"Indeed you are," Ben answered, waiting for her to continue.

"Does that mean I can make a suggestion for something I think should be done?"

"...yes."

"Whatever it is?"

Ben looked at her, trying to figure out where she was going with this, "Yes?"

Mal chew a bit on her words before finally deciding to say it, she could tell Ben everything after all, "I think we should open the barrier. I think we should give everyone a fair chance of proving themselves. I know it's a risk to take, and yes I am worried of what it might mean for Auradon and for everyone, but you barely even know them. What if there is some heroes amongst them over there? And to be honest we don't know everyone here either. Those villains came to be because of how the world treated them, not because their parents were either good or bad. Who says new villains can't just suddenly appear, and that heroes can't appear on the isle. We can't just live in fear, because in reality it doesn't actually protect us from anything."

Mal was a bit afraid to look at Ben after that, and see what his reaction would be, but when she did she saw him smiling at her, "You know I agree with you on that," he said, "And if I can make a proclamation as king, I think we indeed should bring that barrier down once and for all, and fight our own battles, instead of hiding them away too afraid to face them."

"Okay," Mal said happily, "Not really believing what she was hearing. When do we do it?"

"On our wedding day," Ben answered immediately, "I think that is the best way to show Auradon that it is the right think to do. If one villain could become queen, and three others become amazing things too, who says that everyone over there wouldn't be able to become something amazing too?"

"We'll never know unless we give them a chance."

"Exactly. Let's bring down the barrier, and reunite as one world once and for all."

Note: I'm trying to catch up with Descendants 3, without affecting the previous events of the story, so that's why all of these Descendants 3 things are happening 😂😂