Choosing Family

Chapter Forty Three

Mal sighed as they stopped the limo and smiled slightly as she stepped out of the car. She was finally back on the Isle. She should feel a sense of joy at being home after so long.

So why did all she feel was a sense of dread? A sense that she was making a huge mistake being here with Ben?

"Jay, get the limo covered," she said quickly, shoving down her doubt. She was acting captain with Uma not being in the group, there was no time for her to have doubt. The limo would be fairly obvious that they were from Auradon if anyone but her or Jay came across it.

"Mal?" Ben asked as Jay quickly scrambled to grab a nearby tarp to use to cover up the limo. "What can I do?"

"Stay right there," Mal said simply. "You're not leaving our sight."

Ben nodded slightly, titling his head a little in confusion and Mal had to will herself not to melt at his puppy dog eyes. "But...why won't you say my name?"

"Because saying your name is probably the stupidest things we could do right now," Jay muttered as he walked past them, pulling the tarp that he had found over the limo. "Think about it dude, your dad's not exactly popular on the Isle."

"Jay's right," Mal nodded, thankful that she brought her first mate. At least he would be sure to keep his head. "Gods we should have thought about this before we left Auradon."

"Mitchell."

"I'm sorry?" Mal asked, looking over at Ben.

"If you need a fake name, call me 'Mitchell'," Ben elaborated. "Mom and dad had considered naming me that before settling on my name. You could pretend I'm a VK who was born outside the Isle."

"If we stay out of Maleficent's territory, that could work," Mal nodded. "But Mitchell, you're going to have to do everything we say while we're here. Understand?"

"Yeah absolutely thank yo—"

"Dah! That's the first thing that's got to go," Mal said, slipping back into her Isle persona. "There are no thank you's on the Isle. There are no 'please's'. There is no 'touchy feely' stuff where we go on about our emotions or ruffle people's hair unless you're in someone's crew. And there are no apologies. You want something, you take it. If they won't let you take it, you break it because if you can't have it, no one can."

"But nine times out of ten, they let Mal take it," Jay said with a smirk. "Meaning they let anyone in Mal's crew take it too."

"Being known as the Dragon's spawn tends to work in my favor around here," Mal said, returning the smirk.

"You said something about Maleficent's territory," Ben said, cutting into the conversation. "How would I know where that is?"

"The giant spray painted silhouette of Maleficent in green with the words 'long live evil' over it might help," Mal said dryly. "Or the spray painted dragon with the words 'the dragon will rise again'. Or the red Genie with 'long live evil' spray painted over it. Basically anything that has 'long live evil' over it. Besides, you won't be going anywhere without me or without Jay and we're not going anywhere near Maleficent's territory."

"Oh yeah, that's another thing," Jay nodded. "We're avoiding my dad's shop."

"We avoided your dad's shop whenever we could when we lived here," Mal chuckled. "Besides we don't have anything to pawn."

"Good point," Jay nodded. "But come on, we're burning cloud. They're going to realize we're gone over in Boreadon at some point."

"I'll get the loot," Mal said, both of them easily slipping back into their Isle personas as Ben stared in slight shock and amazement. "We'll take Mitchie boy here to Lord Hades' restaurant since he wanted to see it. I'll meet you two there—I want to stop by Ursula's Chip Shoppe."