Chapter Text
She woke up in a cloud of happy feelings with the sun warm on her skin. Which alarmed her somewhat – had they not closed the windows? She rolled over and felt the other pillows, searching for Ben’s head, and then his hand appeared on her cheek and turned her towards him. “Oh,” she said. “Good morning.” Careful not to draw him into danger, she leaned up to kiss him. “I was worried the sun would have gotten you.”
“I figured you might enjoy the warmth,” he said and cleared his throat. “Is that alright?”
“Fine,” she said, keeping her mouth close to his. “But, uh, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d have stayed in with me. Would have been nice to wake up next to you.”
“I’m cold,” he said. “Didn’t want to chill you.”
“I don’t mind. I knew what I was getting into.” She kissed him again, drawing him near, and then tried to see if he’d open his mouth to let the kiss go further. He wouldn’t and so she gave in with a sigh, leaning her forehead against his. “You mean everything to me,” she said.
“I do?”
“You do.”
She swung her legs out of bed and watched a blush start from Ben’s forehead and creep down his neck. She put her hands on his chest. He was dressed in a white shirt, black pants, but it was thin enough that when she applied pressure and rubbed, he sighed and groaned. Behind him, she noticed a collection of papers. “Have you been working?”
He nodded. “Just… things I’m getting ahead on before we leave.”
“Leave,” Mal repeated. A smile spread across her face. “How much more time do we have?”
“We have to leave before four, but I have a, uh, plane ready for us. We just have to let them know thirty minutes in advance so the flight crew can assemble.” Ben brushed his hair back. “That okay?”
“Of course. Are you bringing work?” She raised a severe eyebrow.
“No. I figured… since I don’t usually need any rest, I can try and work more at night while you sleep, and that way I have more time with you in the daytime.” Ben rubbed the back of his head. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to really share a bed anyway or-“
“I meant everything I said,” Mal interrupted. “I like the idea of more time with you, but if you leave me alone, I’m going to come and make you stay with me.”
He considered this, nodded, and brushed his thumb down her cheek. “I do love you,” he said carefully, as if the words might break.
She kissed him again. “I love you too.”
Planes were an interesting contraption. A large metal cylinder that got off the ground by using the flappy things under the wings to make the wind curve to the ground. Or so Ben explained.
They had the plane to themselves and were free to move about, but there was an attendant aboard who was there for to sole purpose to pull sodas out of the refrigerator when requested, so Mal didn’t dare try seducing Ben.
She did have questions though.
Ben stared out the window to watch the plane mechanisms work with fascination before they leveled off in the air and they were both able to remove their seatbelts. Before he could get up to fetch a game or charger or anything, she turned in her seat and set her legs across his. “This is great,” she said. “I’ve never been on vacation before.”
Ben snorted. “Me either. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.” He peered down at the ground. “Vacations… weren’t ever really an option.”
“Speaking of options,” Mal said, and she removed her feet now that Ben had gotten the hint she wanted him to sit and talk with her. “What, uh… what’s the story with Audrey?”
Ben flinched and glanced back toward where the attendant was. “You… want to talk about that now?”
“I’m not jealous,” Mal said. “But I got the impression you hadn’t dated anyone before me. So I was curious.”
Ben scratched his head. “I, uh, went to school my senior year. Had lots of guards, but my parents were hoping that someone would like me enough to put up with… me. And Audrey, of course, is super nice and we had a good, solid friendship. She knew what I was so she kept her distance, but we talked, you know?”
Mal nodded along, picturing a younger Ben and Audrey skirting around each other, trying to figure out if they liked each other.
“Audrey was dating Chad, but she and he had a falling out a week before Prom. She was all upset because it was her senior prom and we were chatting about it… she says “I don’t want to act spoiled but it kinda sucks” and I said “yeah, it does. I wish it didn’t have to be like that.” One thing led to another and I kinda braved up the courage to ask if she wanted me to take her to prom.”
“Wow.” Mal’s eyebrows shot up. “I can’t believe you actually did that. I practically had to beg you into dating me.”
“It was just a one-time thing.” Ben covered his face. “I had guards all over the place and we couldn’t really take photos together, but she was super happy about it.”
It took him about as long to find the words as it did for Mal to draw the picture in her head. “I brought a nice car to her place and she and her parents met me on the front steps. Gave her flowers and told her she looked beautiful. She had this very nice dress on that was sparkly and I got a tie to match it… and I shook her Dad’s hand and we agreed on a time to have her back and I helped her down the steps and into the car again.”
“And she was happy?” Mal asked suspiciously. She assumed something bad had to have happened for King Phillip to be the way he was now.
“Yeah. It actually went really well. We danced, when they ran out of food we just sent the guards out for stuff, she got embarrassed because I’d gotten her a little necklace and I gave it to her in front of her friends, and then she was crowned Prom Queen and I figured the entire night was golden. You know? She was happy – mission accomplished.”
Here, Ben exhaled. “On the way home she said she’d had a great time and would love to see me more. I was completely caught off guard, but we exchanged numbers and I said I’d call her. When we got out of the car, she gasped and pointed one way and then really quick kissed my cheek while I was looking away. I swear I almost passed out.”
“How scandalous,” Mal snickered.
Ben grinned bashfully. “Well, keep in mind that I wasn’t used to people touching me. And she knew full well – not like you the first time you kissed me.” He rubbed his hands onto his pant legs and his expression turned solemn. “Her mom came down and took her inside and it was like she was walking on air. But her dad stepped out after she was gone and closed the door and told me that if I ever looked twice at his daughter again, then he’d put a stake through me.”
Mal’s expression fell. “He… oh.”
Ben nodded. “Very upset. He didn’t want Audrey to know about it though. So he gave me a list format about how he didn’t want things like me around her and how if he found I’d… drank from her then he’d press legal charges and sent me on my way with a very clear threat that I wasn’t to see her again.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Audrey cornered me the next Monday, wondering why I didn’t call and I explained what her dad had said in… nice terms. She and he had a fight over that and their family hasn’t been the same since.”
“But you and Audrey never tried again?” Mal asked.
Ben shook his head. “I never would have done anything to go against her family and she knew that. So we quit but I think the feelings lasted until, well, I met you.” His green eyes burned into hers. “After that, I kinda forgot about Audrey.”
Mal nodded and sighed. “That’s too bad,” she said. “Audrey always said you deserved someone who would look past everyone else and stand up for you.”
“She’s a really cool person,” Ben nodded. “I hope she finds someone like I did.” He settled a hand on Mal’s hand. Mal grinned.
Ben looked at her, then glanced away and got lost in thought. “Senior year was actually pretty cool,” he said aloud. “I realized that most kids - not all of them - were cool with me. Audrey, Chad… we had Doug and Jane and Lonnie. Jane was still pretty scared of me for the first semester but we had a chemistry project together and after that, she was cool. She put whipped cream on my head as a dare once.”
“Did you ever drink blood for a dare?”
Ben rolled his eyes. “You really think I would do that? In public?” He shook his head. “No. But I did get dared to see if I could siphon orange juice through my fangs and my face burned for a week.”
Mal doubled over in laughter. She wondered – could he launch it back out of his fangs? Like you could if you gagged on water? What would that even look like? The fangs were porous, not with holes in the bottom… who knew?
She sighed and set a hand on Ben’s. “Thanks for telling me,” she said. “And to be honest… I’m glad things didn’t work out with Audrey, because I would have been so sad to find out you were married.”
Ben smiled too. “I guess it all worked out,” he whispered.
It was late enough when they arrived that Ben was able to put on a hat to avoid burning and be fine. Mal used magic to bring in the suitcases, even though she and Ben were both capable and Ben probably was strong enough now to do it mostly himself. It was just easier to have everything walk itself in. She propped open the door to the little beach house, threw open every window, and set a glass of blood out for Ben while she busied herself making a warm drink for herself. The wind made the house the perfect temperature – crisp – and the bubble that had existed around her mood since the previous night had yet to pop.
“I don’t need this,” Ben said when he saw the glass. “I had two this morning.”
“It’s just to relax,” Mal said. “Don’t vampires do comfort eating?”
He balked. “It’s… not leisurely, Mal. This stuff comes out of living things.”
“I brought enough,” Mal said. “Your parents kept trying to sneak into your bags, but mine are cursed so they didn’t try.” As she sipped her tea, the thought came to her. “I’d like to curse the door to our room at the palace so they can’t come in without us knowing. Is that alright?”
"What kind of a curse?"
Plague. Leprosy. Turn Adam back into the Beast. Mal shrugged offhandedly. "Make bats fly around them until I find them? Or maybe give them a really bad itch on their hands?"
Ben picked up the glass. Mal glimpsed his fangs rotating down into place. The lines appeared in his face again, but she noticed they weren’t as noticeable as they’d been the first time she’d seen them. He was healing. “I guess that’d be alright,” he said after a moment of contemplation. “But, uh, I want the guards to be able to get in. Just in case.”
Mal sighed and figured that was as good as she’d get for a bit, until she could assure him of his own control. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do that if you want.”
Ben set the glass down with only a quarter gone. “This is making me… focus,” he said. “Like, the entire world just got loud.”
“Headache?” Mal asked. “Or what?”
“No, I’ve never gotten this before,” Ben said. “It’s like… I suddenly feel… super aware of everything.” He pointed directly out to his left with pinched lips. "That fly is going to drive me insane."
She reached across the table and tilted his face up by the chin. He focused on her, hyper-aware. She reached out, took his hand, and squeezed it. He squeezed back and his grip was hard. Mal smirked. “I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy myself later,” she purred. “I haven’t seen you look this strong.”
Ben reached up, felt the bottom of his fangs, and retracted them. Then he reached up, leaned up, and kissed her. She felt him lick her bottom lip and, for the first time, part his own.
She wasted no time throwing herself down his throat. Pushing her tongue past his teeth and kissing him just as hard as she’d ever wanted before. His mouth still held traces of the mint gum she’d given him on the plane. No blood – that had probably been why he had wanted to make sure his fangs were clean. And speaking of fangs-
She skimmed her tongue past one and Ben went stiff underneath her. It was sharp, but she went light enough she didn’t cut herself. Only a light scrape. They were pointier than all his other teeth on both the top and bottom, but she could feel rough edges around the surface – the result of the filing he’d attempted years ago. Poor baby Ben.
When she’d gotten her fill, she leaned her forehead against his with a smile. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to do that,” she said.
Ben blushed. “You’ve got to be careful… I don’t want you to cut yourself.”
She ran her hands through his hair. “I will be,” she promised. “I’m glad you feel in-control enough to do that. Can we do more?”
He kissed her again. She sat down on his knees. He set his hands on her back and she slid them down until he was palming her butt instead. “I do appreciate that,” she whispered. Mal tilted his head back, guided him to unlock his jaw, and then pressed her thumb pads to his fangs. “You know I like these, right?”
He balked at the idea. She ran her fingers down his chest. “I like all of you…” she whispered. “These next two weeks are going to be so much fun.”
Mal felt like a scientist. If you give Ben a healthier diet, he’ll be stronger, have more focus, feel better, be happier, and begin to have even better self-control. Considering he was already able to exhibit a god-like level of patience and restraint, she figured she was now residing in the presence of the safest, noblest vampire in existence, who every day was more and more interested in trying things and letting her attempt what he’d previously dubbed “too dangerous” or “not safe.” And with no one else around, he trusted her words more. Didn’t search for lies in the honesty. Didn’t bother to wonder if she was tricking him.
She knew he was beginning to trust himself the first time he went to get himself more blood instead of hesitating, wondering if it would be good for his restraint, or asking her to do it. The experiment started by her mom had proved true – if you give your body what it needs, life will be overall better.
Not to even mention the wonderful things you could provide for your wife when you felt stronger and trusted her more.
Two weeks went by in bliss. Mal had never considered herself one to melt into marital bliss, but couldn’t imagine herself anywhere else. Her life was easy and obvious now. She was meant to be with Ben because he made her happier, stronger, more self-assured, and honorable. In a similar type of experiment, she’d discovered that life was easier when you were with someone you liked.
And here on the last night of their honeymoon was the perfect evidence of that.
She leaned back on the swinging hammock next to Ben and curled her head into his shoulder as he finished his glass and set it on the sand. The sun had gone down about an hour beforehand, so they’d gone down to walk the beach together one last time before heading home. He’d picked this spot to sit and talk and Mal had no complaints because it was comfortable and he was gorgeous and she was ignoring the rest of the world.
“I honestly wondered if you were going to kill me,” Ben said suddenly.
She was so shocked she almost fell out of the hammock. “What?” she demanded. “Why would you think that? Ben, I love you.”
“I know that now,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “But… I accepted I was making a risk. Life… wasn’t worth it anyway.”
She put a hand on his shoulder and turned him toward her. “Ben, why would you think that?”
He closed his eyes. She moved her hands to his face. “What happened?” she whispered.
“Nothing… happened. Just… in the beginning, I had no way of knowing what you wanted. If you had just come to Auradon to find me and become Queen. Maybe you’d known all along. But I thought… the chances of anyone ever treating me like this again were slim, even if you were lying, so if I made you queen and you killed me for the power, then at least I’d have the few months building up to it.” He put his hand over hers. “At least I’d know what it was like to be cared for again.”
“Again?”
He opened his eyes up and stared. “I wasn’t always a vampire, Mal. People cared when I was human.”
She imagined it – tiny Ben with tiny Audrey and Chad as close friends. People who’d turned cruel being only caring and kind. The thought occurred to her: Belle and Adam.
“What were your parents like?”
Ben’s eyes filled with tears. He looked away, taking a deep breath, and exhaled. “They were parents. I mean… they were there. Yeah.”
“What happened?”
He leaned back, pulling her with him as he thought, and the tears leaked down his face. He tried to keep his breathing level as he began to lay the story out before her, filling in the holes to what she’d been wondering for ages.
“When the man came into the library, I was hiding behind the couch. But he was starving and could smell me and he… lost control. And that picture of him with… mouth all bloody and those freakish lines… I couldn’t believe that’s what I was.”
She traced his jaw. “You aren’t.”
Ben closed his eyes. “He… drank me almost dry before coming to his senses and panicking. Said he would save my life and he… did this.” He gestured to himself. “And it hurt. I was just… writhing when they found me. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong. When you turn into a vampire… it’s always intentional. You have to use this venom in your teeth… he knew what he was doing. I didn’t. I tried to tell my mom where the pain was and they were calling for ambulances… they took me to the hospital and put me under and did a million blood transfusions. My body temperature had dropped, so they assumed I was practically dead. They gave up on me. Stopped treating me. So my mom came in the moment I showed signs of being slightly coherent to say goodbye to me. She didn’t realize that I was cold because he’d turned me. And after being asleep under those drugs for so long, I was thirsty, so when she leaned down to hug me…”
“You latched on,” Mal said.
“Traumatized her,” Ben whispered. “I don’t honestly remember much. Just the blood all over her neck and I was crying because I was confused.” He ran a thumb down Mal’s neck. “So… scared of myself.”
“So what did they do?” Mal demanded. She felt the anger rising like hot steam. “What happened next?”
Ben shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “They put me in a room and I didn’t see anyone for months.”
“They what?”
“It was a room.” He made a rectangular box with his hands. “Inside the palace. The door was locked and there was a bed and a desk and a window and a speaker. But the window was one way. They could see me and I couldn’t see them. They gave me a book and a pencil and notebook and kinda just let me sit while they figured out what to do.”
“What did they do?” Mal felt smoke curling out of her lips. “How long were you there?”
“I was there until I was twelve,” Ben said. “But they started coming in to see me when I was nine. They had on armored suits and wouldn’t touch me, but…”
Mal pictured the scene. Belle and Adam with backs against the door and Ben with arms open, wondering why no one would touch him. Why no one would talk to him. Why no one wanted him. “Twelve,” she whispered. “You were locked up for six years?”
“Well after six years I was so grateful just to see them that I did everything they wanted,” Ben continued. “Didn’t put a toe out of line. If they told me not to move, I’d stand still for hours and hours until they came back. But it wasn’t like it was before. They didn’t touch me, wouldn’t play games or read or talk… but they came and went and I held on to every glimpse.”
He’d eaten himself sick, Mal remembered. Pretending to be human. Playing that everything was fine. She covered her face in horror.
Ben looked down. “They didn’t give me a lot of blood at first, so I remember starving a lot. After I saw how much it disgusted them, I figured the key to get them to love me again was trying to not… drink. I just dealt with the thirst and the pain as much as I could and resisted.”
“You can’t do that,” Mal said. “Ben, look at you. You’re not meant to be like that.”
“I know I can’t,” Ben said, scrubbing off his cheeks. “But I hoped it would work. I missed them.”
Tears filled Mal’s eyes too and, with a hiccup, she started to cry too. Ben immediately turned to the task of soothing her, which made no sense. He was the one who’d been cast aside and hated and starved. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, trying to fix all the anguish he’d gone through years ago. Meanwhile, Ben rubbed her back. “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s okay. They never did anything bad. It’s okay now.” He kissed her nose. “It just makes you that much more special.”
“I should be special because we’re in love,” Mal said, wiping her eyes. “Not because I’m the first freaking person to realize how amazing and kind and good you are.” There were no tissues around, so she did her best to wipe her running nose on her sleeve. How embarrassing.
Ben kept his hands around her, tracing circles on her back until she managed to regain herself. Then, he laid his head down on the hammock beside her ear and closed his eyes. “There was one night,” he said, taking a deep breath to prepare himself. “They didn’t know I didn’t need to sleep. But I would fake it to make them more comfortable. And they came to the window when I was almost nine, just a few weeks before coming inside to see me the first time, and I heard them whispering.”
Mal squeezed him harder.
“Mom hadn’t been able to have another baby and so they were deciding whether they should keep me as the future king or keep trying to have another baby and… get rid of me.”
“They were going to kill you?” Mal demanded. “Belle and Adam?”
"I heard them making plans. Which was scary. No one knew I was alive for years,” Ben said. “That wasn’t by chance. One of the guards on the force specializes in the supernatural. He was paid in advance to kill me if anything went wrong. I only just let him go… before coming here because I didn’t know if you’d take advantage of us being alone anyway.”
Mal squeezed him tighter, feeling every part of him against her like a sixth sense. Treasured the fact that he was alive and had survived. That he was here. “Ben I’m never going to do that,” she whispered. “I’m glad you told me. And I swear I won’t let them hurt you again.”
Ben’s dry laugh shook them both. “I really don’t care,” he said. “I’m alive. You take care of me. They’re further away every day. Life is good now.” His hand trailed down her hair. “It’s good.”
When the plane landed, Mal went down first. Let herself be swept away by Belle and Adam long enough for Ben to come down unnoticed and disappear in between the careful watches of Hades and Maleficent. And the moment he was safe, Mal shoved off Adam and Belle’s questioning hands as they examined her neck and color.
“I knew something was wrong with you two,” she announced. “You’re both sick psychopaths and racist and murderers. The problem was never Ben. It was always you two.”
She stepped back, putting her hands up and warning them back. “I’m going to say this once. Any children I have, you will never see. If anything special happens in our lives, you’ll learn through the grapevine. You’re officially uninvited from every coronation, cotillion, ball, birthday party, baptism, or brunch Ben and I attend. Ben’s feeling more and more comfortable with himself and when the time comes, probably soon, that he decides he’s comfortable sharing with the rest of Auradon – who seems reasonable – what he is, then I will also expose you for everything you put him through. And if you ever come near us again, I will have you locked in that room you put him in and starved for just as long as he was.”
Behind Mal, Ben was led away by Maleficent and Hades. None of them spared Ben’s birth parents a backwards glance, though all could hear what was being said.
“Mal, we were just protecting ourselves,” Belle said. “There wasn’t anything else we could do.”
Mal rolled her eyes. She turned to the guard Adam had brought with them, their ‘protection’. “I’d like you all to go help the Former King and Queen pack. Ben decided they’re no longer welcome under his roof. As for me, I support him.” She glared at them both while relishing the shock and fear in their eyes. When Auradon found out, they’d have no protection or guards from the press and people. “You guys are the sorriest excuse for parents in existence. Do me a favor and write me an apology from hell.”
She turned and left. And that was the last interaction they ever had.