Into the Depths

Chapter 8

A few days after Cotillion, Mal found herself walking up to Cinderella's castle. She finally had enough time in her schedule to attend another Learning to be Royal meeting now that Cotillion was over. Honestly she was a little excited to get the chance to attend one again.

She had attended them in the beginning but as her schedule began to get more and more packed, something had to give. Unfortunately, it had been the one thing meant to help her get used to life as a royal after sixteen years of living on the Isle.

Knocking on the door, Mal brushed some fuzz from her pants. She was wearing her traditional Isle garb, despite the near heart attack Natalie had had upon seeing her. Mal couldn't help but smirk at the memory.

Natalie is just going to have to get over herself. I'm not going to let my Lady of the Court duties fall to the wayside. I'm just going to do it looking like me rather than try to be some painted princess.

Still it would probably be a good idea not to antagonize the woman too much. Natalie did control her schedule after all.

"Hello Mal," Cinderella said with a smile as she opened the door and Mal stared in shock as she came out of her thoughts. Instead of the usual ball gown, Cinderella was wearing a simple dress with a brown top and a blue skirt, along with black ballet flats.

"Hello," Mal said as she shook her head slightly to get over her shock and walked in. The kind smile never left Cinderella's face.

"I know you've attended meetings before where we've been decked out in the royal finery," she said as the two of them made their way to the den. "But I decided, for this meeting at least, that we shouldn't forget our roots. Besides, sometimes our 'common' outfits are more comfortable than the royal ones."

Mal couldn't help but chuckle slightly at that. Cinderella wasn't wrong, the fancy dress was a lot more confining than her Isle garb—which was definitely ironic considering the Auradon dress was a lot more flowing than the leather garb of the Isle.

"Did Kitty or Lucy not pass along the message?" Cinderella asked. "I had asked them to tell you just so you wouldn't be caught off guard but-"

"I think Kitty told Natalie. I'm sure Natalie just forgot to tell me," Mal said quickly. She did remember seeing the second eldest Charming talking to Natalie once a while back but Mal never found out what that conversation had been about. Cinderella nodded, though a small frown still graced her face. However, it vanished upon reaching their destination.

"Here we are," Cinderella said as she opened the door to the den. Mal stared once more in shock as she stared at everyone. All the members seemed to be in what Cinderella had called their 'common' dress, or at least that's what Mal assumed.

"Mal!" Belle said and walked up to the purple haired girl with a smile on her face. Mal couldn't help but shake her head, it was strange seeing the former queen in a dress that wasn't yellow. Instead Belle was wearing a light blue dress with a white apron around the skirt, her brown hair out of the braided bun it seemed to always be in and was instead in a low ponytail with a blue ribbon holding it together.

Blue definitely works better for her...and I have officially spent too much time around Evie if that was my first thought, Mal thought.

"Hello Belle," Mal said with a small smile. It had taken a while but the two of them had gotten to the stage where Mal was comfortable referring to Ben's mom by her first name and not her title. Of course it helped that Belle was no longer Queen of Auradon and was just Ben's mom at this point.

"I'm so happy you could make it," Belle told her, pulling Mal into a hug. It was thankfully a quick hug-Mal may have changed since her time on the Isle but she was still definitely not a hugger. "We don't really have much planned for this meeting, or if Ella does have anything planned she hasn't told us."