Mal and Ben ~ Parenthood

New friends

Mal and Ben had decided that it was time for Lily to associate with other children more often. Some of their friends and family did have children, and Lily had often played with others, and she always enjoyed it. However, mostly it would be in periods of time, and then there would go a long time before they met up with someone again.

Now, since she was starting to be more adventures, they thought it would be good for here. None of them were really ready for this step, so they decided to take it slowly.

Lily was used to being around lots of people, and she was rarely shy or nervous when meeting other people, but she had always been spending a lot of time with her parents, so they weren't so sure how she would react if that changed too quickly.

Therefore, they had arranged for Lily to play with some children her age once a week, and today was the first time she was going to meet them. She had already met Ashley a few times before, but the three rest of the them she hadn't met.

Lily was about two and a half now, and she was really excited to meet all her new friends. Mal could imagine her being exactly like herself, if she had grown up on the isle, and therefore, when she looked at Lily, she imagined that this would have been kind of her life if she had grown up in Auradon, and it made her happy to think that she could give that to her daughter, so she wouldn't grow up the same way she had done.

She was always very open and kind to other people, and she wanted to be friends with everybody. So, even though it was difficult to think of her growing up, they knew this would do more than good for her.

"Mommy!" Mal heard Lily call from her bed, a bit earlier than she normally did.

Mal got out of bed and started making her way towards her room, but before she managed to reach it Lily had already left it.

"You're up early today," Mal told her with a smile, "Any particular reason for that?"

"I wanna meet my new friends," she said really excited.

It had been kind of hard to get her to go to sleep last night, so it was no wonder she would also wake up earlier.

"Well," Mal said, picking her up to give her a hug, "There's still a few hours before they're here."

They had decided to meet at the castle, since everyone knew where it was, and it was quite easy to get to.

She looked sad for a moment, but then the smile returned to her face and she tried to get down from Mal's arms. Mal let go of her, and she went to get Ben to wake up.

"Daddy!" She said loudly and sat on his chest, "Wake up!"

Ben woke up immediately and looked right into Lily's eyes, "Good morning to you too," he said, before he sat up and kissed her forehead, "Isn't this a bit early, even for you?" He asked.

Lily shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know," she said, "I can't tell time."

Mal and Ben both laughed.

"Are you excited to meet your new friends?" Ben then asked, slowly starting to get out of bed, with Lily in his arms.

She nodded excitedly, "We're going to have so much fun."

"Of course you are," he said.

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A few hours later the others arrived. By this time Lily had asked right about 200 times when they were going to be there.

There were two girls and two boys. Ashley and Lily had seen each other not that long ago, and therefore they immediately remembered each other. Conor and Mila were twins, and then there were Ethan. Ashley, Conor and Mila were all very near Lily's age, while Ethan was a bit younger.

Mal and Ben didn't really know their parents that well, they had of course met Ashley's parents a few times before, but the rest of them they had only met shortly. They were friends of the family and that was why they had managed to get in contact with them.

They all seemed really excited to be there, and it didn't take long for them all to start playing.

They had set up a room for them to play in, and brought in some of Lily's toys. Lily were happy to share her things, and was excited to show them all how much fun it was to play with them.

While they played all the parents sat a bit away from them and talked. It was weird how this made Mal so happy but at the same time a little sad. She was happy to see that her daughter was having such a good time and seeing her this happy, but it was also a bit sad to see that she didn't need her to help her with anything, she was fine by herself. Of course every parent want their child to grow up and be able to take care of themselves, but she had really grown up way too fast.

Mal missed most of the conversation with the other parents, because she was spending all her time looking at the children, but Ben seemed to be doing the talking for both of them.

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After a few hours Mal and Ben brought in some snacks, and short after that some of them seemed to be getting a bit tired. Then the twins and Ethan left, while Ashley stayed about half an hour more, before going home with her mother too.

To neither Mal or Ben's surprise Lily was still full of energy. She spend the next couple of hours talking about how much fun she had had and how much she couldn't wait for next week.

Mal and Ben had both taken the day off, so they spend the rest of the day doing some calm activities, since, even though she tried to hide it, Lily was a bit tired from such an eventful day.

At bedtime Mal read her a story, and listened to her tell her another story about her fun day. She then kissed her goodnight and smiled to herself as she left the room. Nothing in the world made her happier than seeing her little girl smile like that. Her happiness was the most important thing to her.

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Not long past midnight Mal heard Lily call for her. Mal went to her room as fast as possible and saw that she was crying. She picked her up and carried her with her to their bed, while trying to calm her down.

She soon feel asleep in Mal's arms, and in that moment Mal realized that no mater how much she seemed to be growing up, she would always need her.