Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wallis Berry POV:
I was in my study trying to get some work done when my assistant, Garret, popped his head in.

“You’re Majesty,” he said with a bow, “you have just received an invitation from King Ben to attend the annual lookover for his kingdom. Your decline or acceptance is due three days before he asks Kingdom Beauty.” He sets the envelope on my desk and leaves the room. 

The annual review was something that all the kingdoms did. Every year, for a new king’s first ten years of reign, a king from another kingdom visits for a week to see if the new king is a good fit for the kingdom.

I look at the invitation, and it says that his wife, Queen Mal will also be looked over. 

Queen Mal.

There has been a lot of talk about King Ben’s wife in the press. Every week, there seems to be a new headline as to why she’s an unfit queen. From her allegedly giving a love spell to the king to her still wanting to take over Auradon. 

I sign the bottom, saying that I want to attend the lookover and call for Garret to send the message back to Auradon. 

I discarded the manila folder I was reading and looked up some of the news articles surrounding Queen Mal. 

Is our Queen unfaithful to her King? Queen Mal has been photographed spending lots of time with a fellow VK, Jay, son of Jafar. They have been seen taking nightly walks around the castle grounds, going to restaurants, and hugging for prolonged periods. This information resurfaces rumors that she was sneaking into his dorm room during their time at Auradon Prep. Does King Ben know, or is she sneaking around right under his nose? We’ll keep you updated on the status of Queen Mal, King Ben, and Jay.

So Queen Mal is cheating on King Ben? Does he know? 

Another headline I see is about the queen and her mother.

Is Queen Mal planning something with her mother, the mistress of evil? Queen Mal has been sighted driving to the Isle of the Lost and visiting where her mother resides. Based on outside sources, she’s seen in the Isle about 1-2 times a week and stays there for 2-3 hours. Will the kingdom fall because of our evil queen? I would start preparing for the downfall of our kingdom within the next years of her reign. We will never know if King Ben even keeps her for that long. 

So, is Auradon being run by an evil cheating queen? Does King Ben know about the allegations against his wife? 

When I see him next week, I’ll have to warn him about the type of woman his wife is. 

Chapter Text

Wallis Berry POV: 

I was in the limo, on my way to Castle Beast in Auradon. The driver is pulling up to their driveway when all I see is King Ben and the former King Adam. The purple-haired Queen was nowhere to be seen.

The driver opens my door for me, and Adam comes over and hugs me.

“Hello, dear friend!” I say, patting his back. 

I pull away from Adam and shake hands with King Ben. “I’ve heard many things about you from my father,” he says, laughing. 

“All good things, I hope.” He nods and chuckles a bit. “Alright, so I’ll have Lumière take your bags to your room. I assume you don’t need a tour, so we were just going to take you to the dining room for a quick lunch. The Queen is already there, getting everything ready,” Ben says, as we’re walking into the castle. 

He was right about not needing a tour. I grew up coming to this castle to visit Adam when he was a child.

Just a few minutes later, we entered the dining room to see Queen Mal with glowing green eyes, moving floating dishes from the kitchen to the dining room table. Once all the dishes were set on the table, her eyes dimmed to a normal green color, and she turned to us. 

Her eyes brightened and she started smiling when she saw Ben. She started walking over to him and gave him a hug and a kiss. He grabbed her by her waist and spun her around, smiling. When he set her down, she stuck her hand out to me for a handshake. “Hi! I’m Mal.”

“Hello, I’m Wallis Berry,” I said with an unexpected coldness in my voice. Her smile dropped a little. 

She clapped her hands together. “Ok, um, Mrs. Potts and I have made spaghetti and meatballs with strawberry cake for dessert. I hope you like it.” Ben held his arm out for her, and they walked together to their seats. Adam and I walk over to our seats, me sitting on the side of Mal’s and Adam sitting over on Ben’s side. 

I took a bite of the pasta, and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. “So, did you cook this food, or did you just use your magic to do it?” I ask the coldness back in my tone. 

“Oh, um no I didn’t use any magic other than to set the table. And I didn’t even make the pasta, I helped prepare everything for the cake,” she said looking down a fidgeting with her fork. Ben and Adam paused their conversation to listen to Mal and I’s exchange. 

Mal cleared her throat. “Um, excuse me, I think I left something in my office. I’ll be right back.” And with that, she left the room. 

“King Wallis, what was that? Why were you interrogating her?” Ben asked, his eyebrows scrunched. 

“I wasn’t, I was just asking basic questions,” I said, my hands raised in surrender. “I was reading about her. Lots of people seem to think that she’s an unfit queen. They’re saying that she’s unfaithful to you. Is that true?” 

“What is this? A press conference? You should know, being a king, that the press will release anything for people to click on. So tell me, what did you read about her?” Adam asked.

I turned my gaze from Ben to Adam. “I read that she’s cheating on you with someone else from the Isle.”

“And who might this someone be?” Ben asked.

“Jay, the son of Jafar.” They both burst into laughter. Adam had tears in his eyes when he finally settled down. 

“What? Did you know about it?” I ask them.

“Wallis. I can assure you that Mal is not in any sort of relationship with Jay other than an honorary brother. They both grew up on the Isle together. He’s her best friend, they bicker like siblings, and they take care of each other like family,” Ben said.

“B-but what about the constant meet-ups, the nightly walks, the meetings at restaurants?” I asked, confused. 

“Well, like I said, they’re very close. So they talk a lot. And for the nightly walks, they’re going to the arena we have on the grounds. They like to do wrestling, sword fights, or just fighting. The meetings at restaurants are just about Jay liking food. Just plain and simple. So I can assure you that my wife is faithful and faithful to only me. Now, is there anything else that you read?” Ben asked. 

I raked a hand through my hair. “I read that she’s planning on taking over Auradon with her mother, Maleficent. The article said that she’s been going to her old house on the Isle a couple of times a week.”

Ben’s face sobered at that. “The past few weeks have been hard on Mal. Maleficent isn’t doing very well, so Mal has been going over to the Isle. However, going to the Isle has been causing her to hardly sleep because of stress, nightmares, or just worrying about her mother. And to be honest, Maleficent wasn’t the best mother. She would mentally abuse Mal, and sometimes even physically. So Mal seeing her so often has caused her self-worth to deplete significantly because she’s constantly surrounded by her mother. Maleficent is good at finding weaknesses. So she’s been playing with Mal. Calling her a terrible and useless Queen, that she’s nothing but my ‘arm candy’, and saying that she wasn’t even good at that. And people like you, assuming the kind of person she is because of what you’ve read from the press, is also really hard on her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check on my wife,” Ben says, getting up and leaving. 

“Now, why don’t I show you your room and we can talk,” Adam says, also getting up but waiting for me to do so as well. 

Chapter Text

Mal’s POV

I was tossing and turning, not being able to sleep. I looked over at the clock on my nightstand, and it was one in the morning. I sigh, I know that I’m not going to get any more sleep tonight. I look over at Ben, and he’s still in his clothes, shoes and all, and not even underneath the blankets. I grab my robe that was draped over the desk chair and grab his office key from the drawer on his nightstand.

I grab my spell book. I know I shouldn’t spell him, but he needs more sleep. “Rest your weary head and let dreams seep, more sleep you'll keep and wake less weak,”

I whisper. It won’t make him sleep any longer, but it will make him feel more rested. I carefully sneak out of our bedroom and head down a few doors into his office. 

When I open his office door, the entire thing could be more organized. There are whiteboard pens everywhere, sticky notes littering the floor, and files splattered all over his desk. I sigh and pull out my spell book from the pocket of my robe. “Tidy your space with a swift, neat sweep; an organized office is a promise you'll keep.” Everything was now organized. Instead of sticky notes on his calendar, it was neat and printed, and all of the files were in neat stacks. 

I sit in his desk chair and start sorting through the files, making stacks from urgent to it can wait. I was in the middle of taking notes on a file when I heard someone opening the door. There was no use in hiding, so I just went back to taking notes. 

“What are you doing here?” I looked up and it was King Wallis. I went back to taking notes while I spoke. “I’m trying to lighten my husband’s workload. He’s going to work himself to death if I don’t help.” I place the file I was working on into the filing cabinet and grab a bottle of water from the little fridge Ben has in here. 

“Do you do this often?” Wallis asks, taking a seat in front of the desk. 

“I do this whenever he needs help. So yeah, pretty much every night. However, I'm here earlier than I usually am. I normally come here at around four and work until eight, but that wasn’t the plan today,” I say, grabbing another file. This one was about the Isle. I put it on a stack of other files and grabbed another. “Usually I work just enough so that he doesn’t notice that I haven’t been sleeping, but I don’t think that that’ll be the case tonight.”

“I just wanted to apologize for lunch earlier. I was going to go do it at dinner, but you weren’t there. I had no right to question you in your own home,” Wallis said. 

“It’s fine. It happens a lot when we have guests come here. The press doesn’t know what I do behind the scenes. Most nights, I get about four hours of sleep, so I stay here and get some of these files knocked out for the remainder of the night. I try to be more helpful in the public area, but the press misinterprets everything I do. I understand they’re trying to get a better story on how the VK turned royal, but it sometimes gets frustrating and annoying.”

When I finish looking over the details of the meeting with the Atlantis officials, I grab a bowl of strawberries from the mini-fridge beside the desk.

“Can I get you anything? We have water, tea, strawberries, and blueberries,” I offer Wallis. The strawberries are in there for me, and the blueberries are there for Ben. Wallis shakes his head, and I go back to looking at the stacks upon stacks of files.

There was a rather large file about the upcoming Seven Kingdom meeting, and I know that this meeting was very important not just for Ben, but for Auradon. The meeting helps build trade agreements and relationships with the other kingdoms. 

“From file to whiteboard, data takes flight, turning bytes into insights, day and night.” I transport the important information from the file to the giant whiteboard. 

“Woah.” I look up and see Wallis looking at the finished product of the spell. “Do you often use magic to help you?” 

“I do use magic, but not for reading the files or signing anything. It just saves a lot of time when I’m trying to get things finished. I don’t have to worry about wasting time moving information from a file to calendars or whiteboards. 

***

We don’t say anything for the rest of the night. Wallis ends up drifting off sometime during the night. Before I know it, there’s light peeking through the parting of the curtain. I glanced over at the clock, and it was 7 o’clock! I had 15 minutes to wake up Wallis, lock up, and get back to bed in time for Ben to wake up with me. 

I rush over to Wallis and gently wake him up. “Wallis, you have to get up and get out of here. I’m finished here.” He groans but gets up either way. “It was a pleasure,” he mutters as he groggily walks out. I grab the key and lock up the door. 

I hop back into bed with 2 minutes to spare before Ben’s alarm goes off. I doze off, but then a screeching alarm tears through the room. 

Ben groans and rolls over to face me. He gently kisses me and says, “It’s time to get up, Sleeping Beauty. It’s time for breakfast.”

I groan, but get up anyway. I was going to be really tired today. Hopefully, I can squeeze in a little nap after lunch. 

I put on a little purple sundress with my hair in two French braids. When I walked out of the closet, Ben was waiting for me. 

“Come on, my Queen,” he says with a little smirk on his face. “As you wish, my King.” I stand on my toes and kiss him. He kisses me back with a lot more intensity. “No, sir, if you keep doing that, we’re not making it to breakfast,” I tease and give him a peck on the cheek. 

We walk with his arm around my waist and my head on his shoulder. He’s supporting me and helping me walk. If I had to do this, I would probably pass out from exhaustion. 

Chapter Text

Mal’s POV

“You’re awfully tired today. Did you sleep well?” he asks, opening the door to the dining hall. Wallis and Adam are already there, eating their food quietly. “No, I just couldn’t fall asleep,” I say as he pulls my chair out for me. 

In front of me were strawberry pancakes with a glass of milk. “So, Wallis, how did you sleep last night?” Ben asked. Well, crap. Wallis could either fess up or lie for me.

“I didn’t get much sleep either, your highness,” he admits. I give him a cold look. If he says anymore Ben will know I was in his office last night. 

“Really? Last night was the most restful night I’ve had in a while. So, did you do anything since you couldn’t sleep?” Ben asked. Well, I’m fucked. 

“I was with Queen Mal in your office. I was watching her do some of your work. I dozed off somewhere around 2, and she woke me up at 7, telling me she was done and ushered me out.”

Ben looked over at me. “Mal! You were in my office all night?! ” 

I glanced over at him sheepishly. “Well, not all night. I decided that it was no good trying to sleep at around 1, so I wanted to make myself useful and do some work.” I glanced at Adam, and he looked between Ben and me with an amused look on his face. 

“Mal, you’re exhausted. You can’t keep doing this. You’re going to work yourself to death,” Adam said. To prove his point, I yawned loudly. 

“You’re going to take a nice long nap as soon as breakfast is over. I’ll see to it myself. I can do my work on the desk in our room, so I can make sure that you’re sleeping,” Ben added. I rolled my eyes at his worry. I was fine, I was just a little tired. 

The rest of the meal was silent. Sometime during that, I leaned my head on Ben’s shoulder. He wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my arms in a comforting way. I started dozing off, and the last thing I remember was Ben lifting me out of my chair before I completely fell asleep. 

***

Wallis Berry’s POV:

Ben picked up Mal when I fell asleep on his shoulder and carried her out. When Ben and Mal left, I asked Adam, “Does that happen often?”

Adam chuckled a little before answering. “Usually Ben and Mal eat breakfast in their bedroom, so I can’t exactly be sure. But I do know that Mal does go into Ben’s office at night quite frequently, from the staff. There have been a couple of instances where Ben has told me he found Mal asleep at his desk in the early hours of the morning.” 

I nodded. “Last night she told me that she normally gets about 4 hours of sleep a night before she can’t fall asleep anymore.”

Adam smiled fondly. “Yeah, with her upbringing and the stress from being Queen and the press always breathing down her neck, it makes sense. Ben has been trying to help her take better care of herself, but she’s a stubborn one. She tries to get better for Ben, but there hasn’t been much progress. And she’s been stressing out over you being here and the report you’re going to write. She’ll probably murder me in my sleep if I tell you this, but I’ve been seeing her reading etiquette books, and when I asked her about it, she told me that she wants to make sure that you have nothing bad to say about Ben and his choice of marriage,” he said sadly. 

Wow. I can’t believe that my being here has caused her all of these problems. 

I was about to say something when Ben reappeared. “Hey, son. How’s she doing?” Adam asked, taking a sip from his coffee. 

Ben sat down and began eating his food again. “She’s exhausted. She’s not taking care of herself. She hasn’t been sleeping because of the stress of the people, and it’s been giving her nightmares. When I sat her down on our bed, she started muttering things about her ‘not being perfect.’ I know she’s not trying to, but the things the press is saying are getting in her head, and it’s been terrible for her. She finally blew up a couple of weeks ago because there was an article released that said that I could’ve picked any other person, but of course, I had to fall for ‘the worst one.’ She started yelling and saying how I ‘should’ve picked Evie when I had the chance.’ I’m terrified she’ll do something to herself,” Ben’s voice cracked at that last statement. Adam stood up and pulled his son into a hug.

“Don’t worry, son. She won’t do anything to herself. She’s insecure in her abilities, and it’s her anxiety that’s talking. She’ll be ok.” Ben pulled back and nodded.

He didn’t say anything for a while, but finally said, “I’m going to go and pick up some files and do them in my room. I want to be there in case Mal needs me.” And with that, he left the room. 

***

Ben’s POV:

I walked into my office to see the entire thing was organized, the calendars and whiteboards had neat and printed information on them. What I was most shocked at was the small amounts of files on the desk.

I checked the filing cabinet for the finished files, and it was almost filled to the brim. I sighed. 

Mal does so much, yet she gets such little credit for it, if any at all. 

Honestly, I’m just waiting for the day when she tells me that she can’t handle it all. It’d hurt so fucking much, but being with me isn’t the best thing for her. The press is whispering things in her ear, telling her all of her “bad qualities,” and she believes them. 

It makes me so sad that she does all this work, probably matching my workload, just so I wouldn’t be so stressed and have an ounce of free time. And here I am, the terrible husband who lets his wife work herself to the point of exhaustion and falling asleep during breakfast. 

I grab the remaining files on the desk and head over to our bedroom. Mal had shifted towards the middle of the bed, clutching onto my pillow. I drop the files on the little desk in the corner and head over to Mal. I crouch down so I’m facing her front and brush the hair that had fallen in front of her face. I kiss her on the forehead and start working on the files, glancing over at her every couple of minutes. 

Chapter Text

Wallis Berry’s POV:
It was around 9 pm and I was going towards the kitchens to grab a glass of water when I ran into Ben. 

“Sorry about that. What’re you doing out here?” Ben asked. 

“I was just going to go and grab a glass of water before heading to bed. What about you? Why are you out so late?” 

“Mal isn’t in our room or my office, so I’m going to go and check the arena to see if she’s there.” Arena? I didn’t know they had an arena. I learned on my first day here that the Queen liked to do various types of fighting, but I thought there was a gym. Not a whole arena for her. 

“Can I tag along? It would be nice to get out of here,” I say. Ben nodded and motioned for us to start walking. 

We start walking and it takes 5 minutes before a huge building peaks behind the trees. Ben motions for us to be quiet and slowly opens the door that leads inside. There’s a long hallway with various rooms. There are rooms filled with knives, swords, guns, weights, basically anything that you can think of. Ben leads us to the huge door at the end of the hallway, but turns left instead of going through the door. 

“That big door leads to the main entrance to the arena. Over here leads to a back entrance,” he explains as he quietly opens the door. We sneak in, leaning against the wall in the shadows. When I finally look towards the center, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. 

Two people are sword fighting, moving so fast that they’re slightly blurred. I can recognize the Queen due to her bright purple hair, and she’s fighting against a man with long brown hair that’s pulled into a man bun. Neither of them is wearing armor, just brightly colored leather. 

They move around the arena in a dance-like way. They’re both dripping in sweat, and with every block or blow, they grunt and pair the attack with just as much force. They both have very shallow cuts on their arms and faces. It won’t scar, but they would have to bandage it for a day or two. 

The fighting finally ended when Mal did a back handspring and kicked the man’s sword out of his hands, and pointed her sword at his throat. She smirked when the man raised two hands in surrender. “I win,” she teased. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, princess ,” the man teased back. “You know, Jay, I’ve been queen for two years. I would hope that you would address me accordingly.” Jay just rolled his eyes and took his sword from her. 

Wow. Sure, I’ve heard from Adam and Ben that she was an exceptional fighter, but I never thought she could take on a man twice her size and still win. I looked over at Ben, and he had a proud look on his face. 

I turned back to the two friends and they were leaning on the wall taking drinks of water. Mal put the water down and called out, “Ben! I know you’re here! Come on out before I have to come out and find you!” 

“Well, you already know I’m here, so come and get me!” He shouted back with a smile. 

It was so quick! One second Ben was standing normally, then Mal was somehow on his back, her hands covering his eyes. He didn’t know what was happening so he tried to get Mal off of him. 

She was just laughing when he tried to buck her off. “Guess who, Bennyboo,” she said with the biggest smile on her face. I heard chuckling, and I saw Jay leaning against the wall watching the whole thing go down. Jay already had all of his cuts bandaged, but when I saw Mal, her face, arms, and hands still had little cuts all over them. 

Mal squealed when Ben maneuvered her so he was carrying her bridal style with her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. 

“Alright, you two. Break it up. I still get Mal for 15 more minutes,” Jay said, walking towards the couple. The couple broke away, but Mal started pouting at Jay. 

“Hey! You were the one who wanted to come out here. Now put the pout away and let's go!” Jay tossed Mal over his shoulder like she weighed nothing and started jogging away. 

Mal and Jay started wrestling. You would think that Jay would immediately overpower Mal, but she was holding her own. 

Ben was laughing the whole time, not the slightest bit concerned about his wife. He seems to know that she would be fine. I, on the other hand, am watching nervously, waiting for something to go wrong. But it doesn’t come. The fight ends when Jay flips Mal over his head and she lands on her back. Jay presses a foot to her chest putting more and more force onto his foot until Mal finally says, “Mercy.” 

Jay reached a hand out to Mal, but Mal ignored it and got up by herself. “Salty are we?” Jay teased. Mal stuck her tongue out. 

It was fun to see Mal and Ben be themselves. They seem like really fun people. Maybe if the public saw Mal like this, they would like her better. I’ll have to do something about that. 

Ben stepped out into the arena and walked towards Jay and Mal. They bro-hugged, and he picked Mal up and spun her around. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.” It only took 2 minutes before Mal had everything bandaged up. 

Mal went over to Jay and hugged him. “I guess I gotta go. You know, you could always spend the night here. Your room has been untouched,” Mal offered. Jay just shook his head. “Nah, I gotta get home to Lonnie. She’s not going to be happy I came here without her,” he chuckled. Mal nodded and waved goodbye. 

Ben wrapped an arm around Mal’s waist, and she put her head on his shoulder. “Come on, Wallis, let’s get out of here.”

Chapter Text

Mal’s POV:

I woke up to Ben’s annoying alarm. “Ben, I love you, but I’m going to murder you if you don’t change that damn alarm,” I say, covering my ears with a pillow. “Well, it’s the only alarm that will wake you up. Trust me, I’ve tried other alarms,” he says, laughing, pulling me to his chest. 

He starts kissing my face and shoulders. I laugh when I feel his breath on the back of my ear. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Time for breakfast.” I groan and try using my arms to push myself from the bed, but it hurts so bad. Well fuck. I guess I pulled something yesterday. 

I fall back to bed and cuddle back into the blankets. “Can we just eat breakfast here? I think I pulled something last night, and I don’t feel like getting up,” I say, hugging the pillow. 

“Oh shit! Your arm is huge! Yeah, let’s eat here. I’ll call for a compression sleeve and a heating pad,” Ben said, scrambling out of bed and grabbing his phone. He puts the phone to his ear. “Hey, Dad. Mal pulled something on her arm last night, so we’ll eat breakfast here, sorry. So, can you call for two breakfast trays, a compression sleeve, and a heating pad?” He pauses for a minute. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll see you at our meeting later.” He hung up the phone and came over to me. 

“Here, let me help you sit up,” he offers. He got the pillows situated on my back and helped me into a sitting position. That’s when I finally got a look at my arm. My bicep has grown three times bigger and is slightly purple. Yep, that’s going to hurt for a few days. 

“I will call the staff and make sure you don’t do any work today. You need to rest that arm. I’m not going to put you on bed rest, because even if I did, you wouldn’t listen. But please, for the sake of my sanity, don’t do anything too strenuous. It pains me to see you in pain,” he says, giving me a light kiss. I nodded and gave him another kiss. 

We were interrupted by someone knocking on the door. “Come in!” yelled Ben. In popped Mrs. Potts with a cart with two breakfast trays. A compression sleeve and a huge heating pad were on the bottom of the cart. “Good morning, your majesties. I brought your food and the Queen’s heating pad and compression sleeve. I’ll leave you two alone. Have a nice day, and don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.” She then left, closing the door behind her. 

Ben got out of bed and grabbed the trays, setting them on the bed. He lifted the metal covering, and there was a bowl of strawberries, waffles, and a small cup of syrup. “Looks delicious!” I grab my fork and start eating the waffles. Halfway through our meal, Ben kept getting text messages and calls. “Shit,” he muttered. He turned to me. “Mal, I’m so sorry! I completely forgot, but we’re supposed to take Wallis out and walk around Auradon as part of his report. I just got a message from my dad, and we have half an hour to get ready.”

I nodded. “It’s fine. I can just wear a long-sleeved dress so I can wear the compression sleeve underneath it.” I set the tray on the nightstand, and grab the sleeve. “Can you help me put it on?” I hand the sleeve to Ben and stick my arm out. It was a little difficult to get it over my bicep, and it hurt but once it was on, the pain dulled a little. 

“I’m going to go get ready.” I give him a little kiss and walk into my closet. I grab a lavender long-sleeved sundress and some black combat boots. I walk into the bathroom and lightly curl my hair while eating the rest of the strawberries from breakfast. When I walked out of the bathroom, Wallis and Ben were already there. “Good morning, Your Majesty. I heard you injured your arm last night. Are you feeling ok?” Wallis asked. I nodded. “Thank you for your concern. I’m perfectly fine.”

Ben grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “If y’all are ready, we can head to the limo and go into town,” Ben said, wrapping his arm around my waist. When we left the castle, there were already flashes of the paparazzi cameras, trying to take pictures from behind the main gate. I don’t know why, but the second the paparazzi show up, my anxiety just goes overboard, and I just go on autopilot. “It’s ok,” Ben whispers in my ear as we enter the car. 

“Are you alright, Mal?” Wallis asked once the car started moving. I nodded, curling up at Ben’s side. “Yeah, it's just that the paparazzi and I don’t have the best relationship.” Wallis nods understandingly. 

“So, where would you like to go, Wallis? We can give you a tour if you don’t already have something in mind,” Ben offered while rubbing his thumb over my knuckles.

“I would love to visit the Museum of Cultural History. It has always fascinated me.” 

Ben nodded. “Of course, we can do that. How about we can visit that first, get  lunch, then we can do whatever else you want to do.” 

“Great! Sounds like a plan.” We sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the ride. I look out the window and see paparazzi cars following us, trying to get pictures of us inside the car. 

It takes 5 minutes for us to get to the museum. The driver opens the door for us, and Wallis exits first. He waves to the crowds that are surrounding the car. Before I get out, Ben grabs my arm and says, “If this gets too much, just tell me and we can leave.” I just nod and leave the car. Thankfully, security is there and doesn’t let the paparazzi get too close. Although I tried not to make any eye contact with anyone or look at the cameras, I still heard some of the questions the reporters were yelling out.

“King Ben! How does it feel that your wife is cheating on you?”

“King Ben! When are you going to leave the Queen?”

“Queen Mal! How do you feel that your affairs have been released to the public?”

Sadly, since the museum is a public area, we can’t keep the paparazzi from getting in. “So, Wallis, what would you like to see first?” I ask, trying to get my mind off the horde of people following us. “I would love to see the magical artifacts. I’ve always wondered how they work.” The three of us go up the stairs to the room that holds the magical artifacts. 

In the room are my mother’s spinning wheel, a basket of “poisoned apples,” the Evil Queen’s magic mirror, and my mother’s spell book, all along the wall. In the middle is my mother’s scepter, still pulsing green with magic. I flinched as Wallis moved to touch the handle. “Woah.” Wallis seemed to be fascinated by my mother’s scepter. 

Ben, who seems to sense my distress, wraps his arms around me and playfully plants a whole bunch of kisses on my face. I giggle, and Ben smiles into his kisses. “Ben, stop! That tickles!” I exclaim while he picks me up and spins me around. He finally stops and sets me down, giving me one last kiss. I could hear the cameras clicking behind us, trying to photograph our interactions. 

I turn back to Wallis, and he’s standing next to us. “So, Wallis, what would you like to see next?” I ask. He stops to think for a couple of seconds. “I think that I’m ok right now. We can leave if you want. I’ve seen all I need to see.” He walks out of the viewing room towards the exit. “Alrighty then,” Ben mutters as we turn to leave. 

We were halfway out of the museum when one of the reporters got too close to Ben and me, and I ended up tripping over their foot and twisting my ankle. The reporter fell with me, and when I hit the floor I cried out in pain as my ankle felt like it was going to fall off. 

“Mal!” Ben yelled. He helped me up, wrapping an arm around my waist to take on most of my weight. “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry!” I say, as the person I knocked over got up. “Come on, Mal,” Ben muttered and started to help me walk. It was taking too long, so he just lifted me bridal style, but the jostle of my ankle made me cry out in pain. 

“You just love to get hurt, don’t you?” Ben teased as he helped me into the limo. “Oh my goodness, Mal! Are you ok?” Wallis asked as Ben rested my legs on his lap to keep my ankle elevated. “Yeah, I’m fine! I just tripped over a reporter’s foot,” I reassured him. 

“She just loves getting hurt,” Ben jokes. “I’m really sorry, Wallis. You and Ben can still go out on the town. I can just have the driver take me home.” Ben and Wallis look at me. “Are you sure, Mal? We can go back to the palace so you don’t have to be by yourself,” Wallis said. 

I shook my head. “No, you’re not going to be here for much longer. You can go! I’ll be fine.” Wallis nods. “Excuse me, Jacob!” Ben calls the driver. “Can you drop Wallis and me at the Midnight Cafe, then drop Mal off at the palace?” Jacob looks at us through the rearview mirror and nods. 

It takes about five minutes to get to the front of Midnight Cafe. Ben gives me a light kiss before he gets out. “I’ll see you tonight,” I say as he gets out. He nods and opens the door for Wallis. I give them a wave goodbye as they head into the cafe to get lunch.