Work Text:
"To Evie and Doug!" Jay announced, filling the room with his loud, boisterous voice. Everyone winced but held their glasses aloft. They sat on four matching couches that all faced a round coffee table in Belle's, now Ben's library, in pairs. Ben with Mal, Carlos with Jane, Jay with Lonnie, and Evie with her new fiancé Doug. "For finally tying the knot after waiting all these years." Jay finished.
"To Evie and Doug!" Everyone toasted, holding their glasses aloft and then taking a sip in their friend's honor.
"About time." Ben mumbled under his breath. Mal snorted in agreement as Carlos rolled his eyes and nodded beside her. Evie was finally taking a short hiatus from Evie's Four Hearts and her rigorous business life to marry Doug. She was the last person in the group despite being the only one of them who'd wanted to get married when first arriving in Auradon. Ben put his arm around Mal as she leaned back into his grasp, smiling a little behind the group at the portrait of them that hung above the fireplace with Belle and Adam, the former rulers, to the side. It wasn't her favorite image of them – they were both in their crowns and just the picture of the immaculate skirt made her itch – but it was still nice to see them hung up in such a professional, permanent way.
"I think we made a good choice." Evie hummed, fluttering her fingers a little bit in the pretty chandelier light from far above their heads. They were gathered at the palace, where they usually met because it was always clean, very big, and it was hard to convince the guards to let the royal couple go anywhere else. Plus, they could have servants fetch whatever food they felt like eating.
"Me too," Doug agreed. "Though I still can't believe Jay and Lonnie hitched before us."
"Hey," Jay scoffed, leaning down and taking Lonnie's hand. "When the time is right, the time is right."
"Agreed." Ben hummed. Mal leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. It had been a long day full of meetings and politics and a service project down at East Auradon High, and while she loved catching up with her friends, she was just a bit too exhausted to keep up.
"Do you have any advice about staying in a happy marriage?" Doug asked, mirroring Ben and sliding an arm around Evie's shoulders. The group hummed as one in thought as the fireplace cracked behind them. It was November, and the nights were getting chilly.
Carlos sat up a little, keeping his hand on Jane's knee so he could rub little circles there. "I think conversation is huge for us." He began, looking to Jane as she nodded in agreement. "Jane and I are both busy at Auradon Prep, so whenever there's a moment for conversation it's really, really impactful."
"Not just conversation, but also doing things together." Lonnie agree. "Jay and I are both super busy with our sports and our diplomatic lives, so whenever we chop out time for each other, it's a really big and rare thing for us." Doug and Evie nodded as if this made sense and turned to the last couple in the group. Ben squeezed Mal's shoulder, indicating he wanted her to say something. Mal hummed in thought.
"Don't let work get in the way." She advised with a groan, sinking further into Ben's skin as everyone laughed. It was certainly easier said than done, given she couldn't exactly neglect her kingdom, but the advice was still sound.
"I think that Evie will definitely have the hardest time getting away from work out of all of us, aside from Ben and Mal." Doug laughed, rolling his eyes and putting his hand down on Evie's. Mal nodded with a grumble and curled into Ben's side. Her work would hunt her down if she didn't do it, or at least get her name slathered in the tabloids. The group fell silent. Mal exhaled, curling her fingers into Ben's shirt a little as she debated on whether or not she liked Ben's new cologne. It was spicy and almost smelled a little like smoke. She was just taking a deep breath when Ben jumped and jolted away from her.
"Ow!" He shouted a little, drawing his arm back from around her and shaking his hand as if he'd been shocked. "You burned me!"
"What?" Mal frowned, drawing back from him in confusion. She glanced at her hands. She hadn't done anything.
Ben stilled his erratic movements and raised an eyebrow at her. Carefully, he reached out and ran a hand down her bare skin. A frown stretched across his mouth. "Your skin is warm." He told her. "Like, feverishly warm."
"I don't feel warm." Mal protested, running a hand down her own arm. She felt normal.
Carlos leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Huh." He hummed. "You feel like a heater." Immediately, everyone got up and reached out to touch her. Mal flinched back as her friends raised eyebrows and exchanged glances, running their hands down her arms and patting her shoulders and legs.
"You feel like you just came out of an oven," Evie commented with her eyebrows knit together in concern. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I feel fine." Mal snapped, pushing their hands away. "Now stop touching me!"
Everyone jumped back. Mal leaned into the couch. Ben glanced at her skin suspiciously. "That's so strange." He hummed. "You didn't cast a spell or anything?"
"Why would I?" Mal asked.
Ben unbuttoned his sleeve and rolled up the cuff, revealing an odd red mark where his arm had been around her. Mal's mouth dropped open. "I did that?" She gasped.
"You just flared up." Ben shrugged, still looking puzzled. "It was like you were a stove. You're a little cooler now but holy crap, ow."
"I'm sorry." Mal frowned. "Here, am I still cooling off?" She extended her arm a little and Ben carefully laid a hand on her bicep, ready to rip it away if she flared up again. After several seconds, he shook his head.
"No." He responded. "You've leveled off, but you're still incredibly warm." He pinched his lips together as Mal crinkled her nose.
"Huh." She mumbled and rubbed her hands together before poking him. Ben jumped and wrinkled his nose at her. Then he leaned back into the couch, carefully not touching her, and pulled out his phone. She snorted. "Doing some internet-searching?" She asked. Ben nodded, lips pressed into a thin line, and didn't say a word as he started punching in keywords. "I'm not dying." She told him. "So don't try and start ushering me to the hospital like that one time I had a red mark appear on my throat."
Ben made a face and waved her off, still examining his phone screen.
"Can I feel your skin again?" Carlos asked, wrinkling his forehead. Mal made a face but extended her hand and let him take it. Carlos felt her fingers and shook her head. "That's freaky." He told her. "And you just flared up?"
"And then cooled by like, five degrees." Ben nodded, squinting at his screen and grumbling. "All I'm getting is explosive behavior." He sighed. "Let's try hot…skin…"
"I wouldn't put that in a search bar if I were you," Carlos advised. He pulled out his phone and began searching the web.
"Point taken." Ben sighed. "Sudden Fever..." He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Fairy with a sudden fever." He grumbled.
"Oh, that makes sense. Maybe magic is involved." Evie nodded. Mal rolled her eyes and watched her husband pinch his lips together as he skimmed search results and flipped between pages on his phone. They fell a little silent, waiting for him to find something, and then slowly began to exchange glances. After a few minutes, Mal watched Ben's fingers slow a little. His gaze flicked up to her, then back down at his phone, and then they locked eyes for a few seconds.
"Did you find anything?" She asked, leaning towards him and trying to glance at the screen. Everyone else got up, craning their heads as if they'd somehow be able to twist their necks around to peer over his shoulder. Ben hid his phone from them, shaking his head and pinching his lips together to keep from laughing. He slipped the screen into his pocket and pressed a hand to his forehead, shaking his head and blinking rapidly. "What?" She asked.
Ben ran his hands down his face and a bright, stupid, disbelieving smile spread across his face as he shook his head, glancing surreptitiously over to her. "Was it another conspiracy theory?" Mal asked, shoving his knee a little as a bewildered smile passed across her face. Ben chuckled, shaking his head harder and harder as he pulled his phone back out and let the phone read his facial features so he could unlock it. He put a hand on her shoulder as he leaned over and showed her the screen, carefully blocking the screen from Jay and Lonnie, who were edging closer to the couch's arm. Mal blinked twice at the screen and glanced at Ben as her smile dropped from her mouth into a face of shock. He made sure she had a firm grip on the phone before withdrawing, covering a smile with his hand as Mal pulled her legs up and waved at Jay to sit down.
The page was from the MagicalMoms blog and appeared to be a Question-then-answer type format. The question? "This is my first pregnancy and my husband's grandma was a fairy. I've noticed I'm incredibly, unbearably hot and my average temperature is actually 110.6°. Is this normal for fairy/fae pregnancies?" A list of answers was below. Mal felt her shoulders slump as she read the longest, most liked response.
"YES! Totally normal. I just had my fifth, so I'm very familiar with the heat. I actually have fae blood myself though, so I don't notice it. You must be human, which is why you can feel how warm you are. Most Fae women are oblivious to their own temperature. It's actually the earliest symptom you can show in a magical pregnancy – the moment the embryo implants on the side of your uterus, you're warm, so unless you're alone you'll probably figure it out right away. It's usually an instantaneous thing the moment – or the few seconds – after you become pregnant. You flare up and then you'll remain a space heater until the baby is born. The reason the heat can happen anywhere is because there's a certain amount of time from emission to fertilization to implantation. It can take anywhere from five to fifteen days for implantation to occur, which officially 'begins' a pregnancy. Most other symptoms will show up around month two and three. The only time my husband and I didn't notice right away was because we were on vacation with family when I found out about my third. We stayed in the hot tub for, like, four hours with all the adults, laughing, and then when we went home was when my husband noticed my skin hadn't cooled off yet. You actually have a very low temperature… I think the average is 118.7°, but the highest I've been is 136.3° and the lowest is 121.6°. So it varies! WARNING: 120 degrees is very, very hot! A five-minute exposure will produce third-degree burns. Make sure and do not let little children (Or your big children(Husbands)) fall asleep on you! It shouldn't be dangerous to you(maybe just really uncomfortable). Hope that helps!"
Mal glanced left at Ben, who was still covering his mouth and shaking as he tried to keep from bursting into laughter. She glanced back down at the screen and kept scrolling.
"Gave my husband a second-degree burn after he fell asleep with his hand on my knee… whoops!"
"I dunno if this is common for everyone, but I flare up when the heat first starts. Like, it's really intense heat for the first five seconds. My poor, patient husband had his arm wrapped up the first time it happened because the burn was so severe(We had our arms linked together)."
"Ya, that's normal. Man, I can't even tell you how awkward it is to be at lunch with your GF's and your mom-in-law and they all turn around and start smirking at you bc you're suddenly a million degrees."
Mal turned off the phone and handed it back to Ben, carefully feeling her skin even though she knew, logically, that she wouldn't be able to feel anything. Ben put it back in his pocket, covering his mouth with two fingers as he stared at her, waiting for her reaction. She stared into his eyes for a few seconds and then shook her head. "No comment." She told him. Ben nodded in agreement and turned back to their friends, who were waiting for an explanation. "He found a weird article about the two of us again." She lied to her friends.
Evie hummed. "I found one the other day. It was talking about how Mal had put Ben into a magical sleep and was keeping him underneath the palace while Harry Hook posed as Ben."
Ben snorted and put his head down. His brain was still fried from searching for what could possibly be the cause of Mal's random burst of exothermic energy. Jay and Lonnie laughed though, and Jay slapped his knee. "There was the one I saw at the store the other day – It was about how Audrey had killed Mal and then started pretending to be her so that she could still be with Ben."
"Audrey and I literally haven't been a thing for seven years now," Ben grumbled with a smile still frozen on his face as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's married!"
"I have a news story for you right here," Carlos mumbled. He held his phone up a little and let Jane read over his shoulder as he rolled his eyes at the screen.
"Let's hear it." Mal hummed, setting her hands on her knees as Ben ran another hand down his face in shock.
"Magical pregnancies usually involve a sudden rise in body temperature that lasts from the point of implantation until the end of gestation." Carlos read. "A female, especially one with fae blood herself, may find that her resting internal temperature is about 118 degrees, which is hot enough to sustain third-degree burns over longer periods of exposure."
Evie's mouth dropped open and Jay let out a series of unintelligible noises as he pointed at Mal suddenly, whose cheeks turned bright, bright red. Ben covered his face and finally began to laugh hysterically. Lonnie squinted as she tried to figure out what was going on. "Wait, wait, wait!" Jay exploded. "So you got pregnant, like, right there?" He pointed to the couch. "Like, five minutes ago?"
"I don't like this symptom," Mal whispered. Ben was too busy laughing to console her. She covered her face by dipping her shoulders forward and holding a hand underneath her forehead, hiding her eyes.
"Shoot. What are you going to do?" Evie gasped. Doug elbowed her with an eye-roll.
"They're married, E." He snorted. "It's not exactly a horrible thing that Ben's wife of three years is pregnant. It's not like we're all seventeen and she's just lady of the court."
"Just lady of the court?" Jane harrumphed. "But yeah, Evie, they're adults now. Did you forget?'
Evie blinked slowly in a way that illustrated quite clearly that she had, in fact, forgotten. She looked a little shell-shocked. Ben finally managed to straighten up. He leaned over and kissed Mal's cheek. "Well," He sighed, still shaking his head incredulously. "That was excellent timing, I guess."
"No kidding." Mal stared at her arms with a wrinkled nose. "Can we just… not talk about it right now? Ben and I need to talk first and figure out what's going on."
Mal reached over for his hand and squeezed for a moment. Ben let her keep his hand for a few seconds and then pulled it away and waved it to cool it off. "We need to get an abundance of fans and ice packs." He sighed. Jane burst into laughter and doubled over as Mal pinched her lips and sulked. Ben turned to the Fairy Godmother's daughter. "Did you know about this?" He asked.
"No." Jane laughed. "But thanks for tipping me off. And hey, in the future, you guys don't have to come up with any elaborate schemes to tell us."
Mal groaned. "I can't believe that just happened." She sighed. "I think… I might turn in early."
"You okay?" Ben asked, raising an eyebrow. Mal nodded and gave two thumbs-up, though she still looked a little shocked. She got up and walked towards the door of the library. No one said anything until they heard the knob click into place behind her. Then Carlos let out a breath.
"I didn't realize how warm it had gotten around her until she walked away" He mumbled. The remaining seven burst into laughter, nodding in agreement. Jay, Carlos, and Lonnie leaned over to thump a half-beaming, half-embarrassed Ben on the back as Evie, Doug, and Jane let out simultaneous breaths. The entire situation was so surreal that no one even commented on it.
The second time went a little better, if only because they were alone when it happened. Zach was three and they were still the only people in the group with a kid, though rumors were starting to fly that Jane wanted one. She, however, hadn't lit up yet.
Ben's workday had run over with meetings and so he'd walked in late, after Mal had already put Zach down in his nursery by herself and turned in. As he opened the door and pulled his crown off his head with a heavy sigh, he could see his wife's frame curled up in a half-moon shape, facing her side of the bed. Her shoulders were bare, so she'd evidently tried to stay up for him, but running a kingdom and raising a son were just as hard on her as they were on him. Ben set the crown down on his nightstand and leaned over to kiss her left eyebrow, which was facing up. She didn't even stir. Completely gone. Ben sighed.
He shut and locked the door and threw his suit over a chair in the corner. He'd have to send for it to be dry-cleaned tomorrow. He plugged his cell phone in beside his crown and then slipped into bed beside Mal. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled him close to her, hugging her tightly. She didn't stir, which was mostly okay because he was tired anyway. He closed his eyes, buried his nose in her hair, and memorizing the way their skin felt touching each other – even though he'd already memorized it a thousand times in a thousand different ways.
His eyelids were growing heavier and her scent was slowly dragging him down to sleep when Mal let out a little breath that made him open his eyes for half of a second. And, in an instant, he felt like he was on fire. The feeling happened so fast he didn't have time to react to the sudden pain, but then his entire body felt very stiff and very, very warm. A mist was arising from the sheets as the warmth hit the cold air. He lifted his hand up. Even in the dark, he could see dark burns stretching across the skin where he'd been holding onto her, just like a sunburn. He turned his hand around, ignoring the way his skin felt like it had the maneuverability of plywood, and used the back of his hand to feel her skin. It was hot to the touch. Ben sighed and released her. He could hardly move as he rolled back over, carefully avoiding contact with her so he wouldn't have any severe burns in the morning, and stared at the ceiling in something like shock.
She was pregnant. Again. Holy crap. Ben covered his face with his hands and let out a disbelieving laugh as he imagined what his parents would have to say tomorrow morning. Mal would, of course, be suspicious about her own condition the moment that she noticed the burns that were likely covering his neck, chest, arms, and legs. He wondered how she'd react.
The next morning, he found out when he woke to Mal frowning down at him with squinted eyes, examining the angry red heat scars across his chest. "Did you get burned?" She asked, eyebrows knit together.
"You burned me," Ben informed her, raising an eyebrow and carefully prodding her arm.
Mal hit him with a pillow and decided to go back to sleep.
"Five minutes, that's all I'm asking!" Mal demanded as her irate children squirmed in their outfits. Zach was being better than Tyler, but not by much. Her eight year old fidgeted as he stared mournfully at the picnic basket in the far distance and trying to inch away from his mom, who was wrestling with Tyler.
"I don't wanna!" Tyler exploded, eyes flashing and green magic crackling at his fingertips. Mal balled her fists up.
"You have to! For five minutes while the photographer takes a photo of us and then we can go!" She snapped, fixing Tyler's shoe on his foot. "Zach, don't you dare!" She reprimanded him.
"It's not going to be five minutes, mom!" Zach groaned. "It's going to be hours and hours and hours!" He collapsed against the chair he was supposed to be standing by. Mal tangled her hands into her hair and fought back a scream.
"Need help?" Someone asked behind her, setting a hand on her shoulder. Mal whirled around, nearly smacking the person behind her with her hair.
"Yes!" She snapped, shoving Tyler's other shoe into Ben's chest. "You take care of your sons! They're just like their grandmother and I can't handle them anymore!" She stomped her foot at the two boys. Zach's eyes grew wide at being compared to Maleficent and he straightened up a little, looking ashamed.
"Okay, okay, Madame Dragon." Ben laughed. He bent down and put Tyler's shoe on. "Boys, you're stressing Mom out. We need one photo for the history books, and for the portrait in the front hall. And if you want, we can have you stand still for three hours so the painter can paint it live instead of taking a few photos and doing it that way." He gave both boys a stern look and they both let out groans. Mal pinched her fingertips to the bridge of her nose as Ben picked up Tyler in his arms. He kissed Mal's cheek. "It's only another hour, and then you can escape, and I'll take the boys swimming." Ben promised her.
"Escape to where?" Mal demanded. Evie, Jane, and Lonnie were coming up for lunch, but she didn't really see why that was supposed to be a relief. "Lunch and small-talk with your mom and all the girls is not 'escape', Ben. It's a prisoner exchange program. Except one jail cell contains constantly complaining children and the other contains constantly complaining moms." She crossed her arms as Tyler sneezed and lit Ben's shirt on fire.
Ben batted the green flames off his shirt and stamped out the ashes on the ground. Tyler's flames weren't usually dangerous. He frowned and carefully shifted his son away as the small boy whined and pulled at his dress shirt. "Whose bright idea was it to have a son with magical potential?" He asked.
"Not mine." Mal pinched her lips together. "I didn't get a say in either of them." She crossed her arms indignantly.
"You don't want me?" Zach's mouth dropped open and crocodile tears filled his eyes. "I'm sorry I'm acting like Grandma!" He cried as his nose started to run. "I still love you, Mommy!" He wrapped his arms tightly around her legs as Mal's eyes softened, though she looked skyward at his dramatics.
"Oh, baby." She groaned and leaned down to hug Zach. "I didn't say that. I do love you. I'm happy I get to keep my little prince around."
Zach sniffled and wiped his eyes. "But I'm not a prince." He mourned. "I'm just an evil, wicked dragon who's going to spell Charlie to sleep!"
"And… that's a sign we're not going to let you play with Audrey and Chad's children anymore." Ben jumped in, sending a pointed look towards Mal, who nodded in exhaustion. "Listen, sport, keep your head up. Everything's going to be fine. You're going to be awesome. You know, above all else, a good king has to believe in himself, even when things get hard. Don't listen to what people say about Grandma or Grandpa. You're not the Beast or the Evil Fairy. You're you, and you're a great kid." He leaned down and hugged both small kids to him. "But, it would be great if you could not complain about the photo anymore. If it helps, Mom hates them more than both of you combined, and she puts up with it even though she doesn't get to go swimming afterward."
"Mom can't swim." Zach pointed out, wiping the last of his tears away. Mal wrinkled her nose. Of all the things she wished Ben would have never have told their children about her, that was near the top of the list.
"Fine," Ben conceded. "Mom puts up with it even though she doesn't get to maybe have snow cones down at the lake afterward."
"Snow cones?" Zach exclaimed, brightening up and letting a smile break across his face.
"Snow cones?" Tyler repeated, accidentally kicking Mal in the leg as he flopped his feet out while staying attached to Ben's hip.
"Yes, so be good or else we might have to worry about mommy turning into a dragon and burning the snow cone shop to the ground." Mal threatened half-heartedly.
"Is everyone ready?" The photographer called, finishing adjusting the settings on his camera and adjusting for the lighting levels looking out over the lake. Two chairs were set up facing the camera. Mal sighed and looked over to where Belle and Adam had been patiently waiting beside the car, watching Ben and Mal wrestle the two young princes. "Let's start with the boys, do mom and dad, and then do the whole family before our zwei kinder go down to the lake." The photographer suggested, winking at the young boys as they shifted in excitement. Mal exhaled, leaned back against Ben, and ushered the two boys forward to the photographer.
Ben took her hand and leaned down to whisper: "Please don't tell them they're acting like Maleficent anymore." Mal could only sigh and nod in agreement.
The promise of snow cones and swimming combined had finally won them over. Both Zach and Tyler sat still and paid attention as the photographer took photos of them. Mal was proud of Zach especially, since he apparently needed forty-million photos, being the future king of Auradon.
Oh. Wait. She didn't like that idea. Zach would be King one day. Mal squeezed her eyes shut. Thinking of her little boy all grown up and in her husband's place made her heart feel black and sad, and she didn't want to do it ever again.
Taking photos with Ben was nice because he kissed her cheek and held his touch there, and whispered jokes into her ear to make her smile, and her sons were behind the photographer making silly faces to brighten her day. So all in all, it wasn't a bad experience. There were an awful ten minutes where Belle and Adam got their pictures taken and the boys had to be entertained, and then finally they were on to family pictures.
"Now, let's have Mom here and Dad here," The photographer instructed, arranging them on the chairs. "And then little Tyler, do you want to sit on Mom's lap or Dad's lap?"
Tyler stretched his hands out to Mal, and called: "Mom!" Which made her feel a little happier even though she knew he'd be complaining in about forty seconds. Zach sat on Ben's lap, and they all held their best smiles for about thirty seconds while the photographer snapped a shot of them.
"Done!" Zach declared, reaching to unbutton his shirt and bracing his frame to start dashing back to the car for his swimsuit. Tyler started kicking his leg up and dropping it back down against Mal's leg. She pinched her lips but said nothing.
"Woah, champ!" Ben exclaimed, catching Zach's shoulder before he could undo the first button. "We've got to get grandma and grandpa in, now. Remember?"
Zach let out an insufferable groan and collapsed into the dirt. "I want to go swimming!" He complained.
Ben stood up and Belle sat down beside Mal. Adam took up a place behind Belle and Mal, and Ben stood beside his dad. Mal continued holding Tyler, who was still kicking his foot into the air, and Zach took a begrudging place behind Mal, with his hand on her shoulder. As the photographer got behind the camera, Tyler began to squirm, making Mal tighten her hold on him. He kicked a little harder, and his shoe went flying off, landing in the ground about twenty feet away.
"Tyler!" Mal groaned, leaning her head back. Belle laughed and patted Mal's leg in consolation. Mal felt like the queen had no idea what this was like, though. She'd raised one child with beast blood, not two.
"I got it." Ben sighed and left his post to retrieve the shoe.
As he left, Mal felt Adam put a hand down on her shoulder and squeeze it comfortingly. "You're doing great." He told her. "I wish I had video footage of trying to get Ben to sit still for his portraits when he was growing up."
Mal could only groan. She watched Ben pick up the shoe and turn back around, and Tyler squirmed even harder, wanting to be let down. She pulled him tight to her chest and growled. "Sit still!" She demanded.
Suddenly, Belle yelped and ripped her arm and leg away, which had been brushing Mal's side. "Goodness gracious!" She exclaimed. In Mal's arms, Tyler had burst into screams, and angry red and brown marks suddenly covered his skin. Adam cursed – loudly, and a word Mal did not want her children repeating – while Zach yelled in pain and panic and dropped to the ground dramatically at her feet while holding his scorched hand. "Mom's gone dragon!" He yelled. "We're all gonna die!"
'What?" Mal gasped, her arms loosening as Tyler began to scream even louder. She watched Belle quickly take Tyler out of her arms and glimpsed more red marks covering him, exactly where she had been holding him. Her eye twitched, and she turned to stare at Ben, who had watched the scene unfold with a dumbfounded expression.
Adam felt her neck, the closest exposed skin, with his unburned hand. "You're like a furnace." He informed her. "You must be at least twenty degrees warmer."
"Congratulations?" Belle asked, trying to calm her irate grandbaby as Zach rolled over, face-first, into the grass and began to howl with his nose into the dirt.
"I've been burned!" Her eight-year-old wailed. "Mom burned me!"
"What happened?" The photographer asked slowly, staring at the family in confusion. Behind her, Mal watched a blue convertible car pull into a parking slot with three bodies inside of it. One, dressed in fiery pink and orange, jumped out and raced over in concern.
"Why is everyone screaming?" Lonnie asked, gasping for breath as she caught up to Ben, who was slowly coming back to his sense and was beginning to realize that they were in a very public place with two royal children who were screaming about their mother burning them. He dragged a hand down his face slowly and shook his head.
"Go back to the car, Lonnie." Ben sighed, and took a few tentative steps towards Mal, stepping over Tyler, who was hiccupping and fussing about the burns on his body, some of which had tiny little risen bubbles appearing on them. He set the shoe down and offered a hand to Mal. "Are you oka-" He began.
Mal shoved him, hard, and stood up in a flurry. She kicked her shoes off in the grass and stepped over Tyler before making her way to the car. "Leave me alone. I'm done." She declared. Ben watched her go, yanking pins and clips out of her hair and turned back to assess the damage. Two burned hands, one of them on a rather dramatic eight-year-old, one burned hand, and leg, and one very badly burned five-year-old. He sighed and covered his eyes. "Boys, we might have to skip swimming today to, ah, go to the hospital." He carefully took Tyler from Belle and unbuttoned the child's shirt to see how badly the flare had hurt him.
"Mommy burned us!" Zach howled. "She was gonna light us on fire!"
"She wasn't," Ben assured the crown prince. "Listen, Zach, I need you to pay attention for a second. Mommy can't really control that heat. It's something that happens to her that tells her she's going to have another baby."
Zach's eyes bulged out. "Right now?" He exclaimed.
"No, no." Ben shook his head. "Not for a few more months. I'm sorry you got burned. Mommy didn't mean to burn you. That's just her body's funny way of saying she's going to have a baby. It happened with both you and Tyler too."
Zach sulked and looked down at the red marks on his skin. He hadn't gotten it too bad. It just looked like a very small and oddly-shaped sunburn. "So, Mom's going to have another baby, like Aunt Evie just did?"
"Yeah." Ben sighed, and carefully redid Tyler's shirt. The worst of the damage was on the little boy's hands, and some burn cream would clear it up soon enough. "Hey, how does an extra-large snow cone and no swimming sound in exchange for getting a new sibling in a few months?"
Zach wrinkled his nose. "I don't want another Tyler!" He exclaimed and broke off into several pitiful groans. "I wish Mom had turned into a dragon instead!" He turned around pointedly, crossing his arms, and Ben rolled his eyes as he gathered Tyler into his arms. "We'll have to try another day," He told the confused photographer, who nodded and began to pack up. Evie and Jane appeared behind her, surveying the scene as Belle and Adam examined each other's wounds.
They met his eyes, trying not to laugh. Ben pointed a finger to them both. "Not a word." He cautioned. "You both had to go through it too, so not a word."
Evie and Jane could only laugh as Ben took his quivering five-year-old to the car, where Mal had plugged in some headphones and was listening to Isle music with her eyes closed and the seat leaned all the way back. "She has the worst timing," Evie whispered to Jane, who could only laugh in agreement as the photographer packed up, and the party broke off before it ever actually began.
The last baby was a girl, and Mal was absolutely done after that. And where once-upon-a-time Ben had wanted more children with her, dealing with twenty-seven total months of not being able to touch her for extended amounts of time(Which kind of forced him to cut back on his favorite things to do with her) and then dealing with the "normal" things like morning(all-day) sickness and sleeplessness and cravings(No, Mal, you can't have five pounds of salt of everything!) really convinced him otherwise. So they stopped at three and three was fine. Three was actually more than fine. Three was three more than Mal had ever planned on growing up, and three was a good number to keep track of, and of those three only two could use spells, so all was well.
Even just one was fine, really, because that one got her off of the throne. She and Ben retired at age forty-two, and Zach(who eventually mellowed out and became less dramatic) became King of Auradon. He ended up marrying Charlie, Audrey and Chad's daughter, which wasn't necessarily a relationship that Ben and Mal supported in the beginning but worked out well enough in the end. Tyler hasn't married yet, and the last girl, Belle Marie, is dating around and not really playing seriously. Mal loves her daughter, but she wishes she could have at least one Sunday dinner with her where Marie's phone isn't blowing up with messages from random guys(and girls) who want to date her.
Ben agrees.
It's nine a.m. on a Tuesday and, for once, they're having breakfast together. Well, except for Charlie, and Marie is dragging her feet today. Charlie is down in the royal stables, Mal thinks, and is getting her horse hitched up to take to Auradon Elementary for the day. Zach is rushing a little bit, walking out of the room and down to his office before returning with papers and pens and – oops! – he forgot a stapler so he's back out again. Tyler doesn't even notice as his brother wanders in and out of the room. He's too busy eating all the marshmallows out of his cereal before trying to coyly steal more, thinking Mal won't notice even after all these years. He's twenty-two, but some things never change.
Mal gets up to steal a few more strawberries as Ben plays a math game on his phone. She has no idea how he can concentrate. Nine a.m. is an evil hour and no well-minded person should wake before the hour of eleven, in her opinion. It's been years since she was a delinquent at Auradon Prep, but again, some things never change.
Marie staggers into the room with a bed head and a bathrobe and a collection of different-pitched yawns. She slumps into her seat and crosses her arms and lays her head down on top of her plate. Mal's daughter share's her opinions about mornings. "They're more evil than Grandma and shouldn't exist."
"Morning." Mal hums. "How did you sleep?"
"Fine." Marie yawns and Mal set her plate down beside Ben's and then reaches over to rub Marie's back a little.
"What are your plans for-" She cuts herself off, and then squints at her daughter's skin suspiciously. Marie's neck is warm. Far, far warmer than just a fever. Mal presses the back of her hand to her daughter's cheek, shocking the teenager awake, then feels the side of her neck before she turns to Ben with a dumbfounded expression.
"Why are you touching me?" Marie complains, batting at her Mom's hands. "I'm fine, Mom."
Ben, however, has looked up and has his head tilted in that way that Mal remembers from years ago when he'd hug Evie or Jane and know, immediately, what new eventful thing was going on in their lives. His lips pinch together in a fierce, angry line, and he leans over to touch Marie's cheek as his expression goes even whiter.
"Stop!" Marie moans and hides her face away. Ben and Mal examine each other, and neither is quite sure how to break this news to their daughter.
Zach reappears in the doorway and laughs when he sees Marie curled up on top of her plate. "Hey, Rie." He laughs, and leans over the table to push her hair aside and send light streaming into the dark prison she's building around her head. His joking expression turns to shock and horror as he jumps back, holding the same hand he burned all those years ago to his chest. "Oh my gosh!" He shouts, and finally shocks Tyler out of his stupor.
Tyler looks around, eyes flashing a little bit as he calms down from his surprise, and gasps: "Where's the party?"
"Why are you all warm?" Zach demands of his sister. "You're like, five-million-degrees!"
"No, I'm not!" Marie frowns and finally sits up. "I'm not warm at all!" She runs a hand up her own arm to prove it, and Mal exchanges an exasperated look with Ben, who is looking increasingly angry about the entire situation.
"You totally are! You're like a furnace!" Zach protests. "It's like when mom-" He cuts off, and Mal watches her son connect the dots. It is probably a good thing, she thinks, that he's experiencing this deductive reasoning with his sister before he ever experiences it with his wife. Poor Charlie will, however, suffer along with him from the heat.
"Wait, she's all lit up?" Tyler asks, and then pushes his seat back and jumps out of his chair. He puts about ten paces between himself and Marie and stares at her in horror. "Are you going to burn us?" He yelps.
"Burn you?" Marie asks. "I haven't cast any spells!" She looks toward her mom, the magical expert in the room, for help and notices her parents exchanging tight-lipped and amused expressions. "What?" She demands.
Ben turns off his phone, shaking his head, and picks up his glass of orange juice. "You better call your boyfriend." He mutters.
"What?" Marie asks. Mal sets a hand down carefully on her daughter's shoulder.
"Did I ever tell you about the time I found out I was pregnant with you? People with Fae blood… they flare up and can actually burn people. Tyler was burned all over his body because I was holding him. Zach only got his hand. And then after that intense heat, you just stay warm until it's over." She watched realization, and then horror appear in her daughter's eyes and took her hand away. "Just food for thought. Usually, you can't notice the heat either. Only if you're completely human." She sits down and watches Tyler and Zach slowly calm down and return to their seats. Marie looks like she's been hit with a freight train as her eyes bug out. Mal isn't quite sure what to do. They live in a palace with servants and thousands of rooms, so there's not really a financial problem, and there'll be plenty of time to comfort her only female offspring when she's not soaking in the information, so she figures that for now, it's best to make sure her daughter gets her head wrapped around her own situation and then maybe later they can express their disappointment in the situation. (Unfortunately, she's an adult now, so they can't do much more than that.)
And everything kind of has a way of figuring itself out, so she lets it be and focuses on trying to help Ben not explode into death threats towards whoever dared defile a Princess of Auradon.