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Tucking a strand of purple hair behind her ear, Mal left the dorm she shared with Evie, her best friend. Evie had left an hour before to meet her "true love" Doug, son of Dopey. Mal had merely rolled her eyes at Evie's swooning. Nonetheless, Mal knew the feeling, and that was why she was now ready to meet her own "true love". Sighing, Mal pictured him in her mind's eye. Ah, Ben, son of Queen Belle and King Adam. Well, former King and Queen, Mal thought.
Now the ruler was none other than the adorable Ben. Getting ahold of herself, Mal focused on getting to her destination. Ben had insisted they meet again at the Enchanted Lake. Mal wondered with a smile if he'd still wear those ridiculous crown bathers. Losing herself in thoughts of Ben, Mal managed to run into none other than Audrey. Although Mal felt she'd made peace with the daughter of Aurora, Audrey still gave her a quick stink eye before moving on.
Of course, Mal had known better than to befriend the daughter of her mother's victim. After all, how in the world could a daughter of Aurora become besties with a daughter of Maleficent? Getting rid of the thoughts that constantly plagued her mind, Mal continued on her way.
Ben was waiting for her under the pillared shelter the duo had shared a picnic under on their first date. Was that-? No way...
"Ben, you brought strawberries?!" Mal exclaimed in joy - a rather new emotion for her.
"Well, you clearly love them more than me, so I had to use them to keep you here," Ben chuckled, popping a strawberry into his mouth.
"Don't eat them all!" Mal rushed forward, grabbing a strawberry and cautiously seating herself a safe distance from Ben.
She really did like him (a lot), but she was still new to this whole "love" thing. Every night, Mal had nightmares about her mother and how Ben and the others would abandon her. What if her mother managed to manipulate her again? Maleficent was probably plotting yet another revenge in the Isle of the Lost at this very moment...
"Mal?" Ben looked at her face with concern.
Mal secretly wondered if it was due to the masses of makeup she'd foolishly allowed Evie to apply. Evie was definitely like Audrey in some respects - makeup and boy obsessed. Thankfully, Evie had toned down the constant ranting about how many boys she loved. Doug definitely made her excruciatingly happy.
"Mal!" Clicking his fingers in front of her eyes, Ben stared with worry once more.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Mal waved him away, selecting another strawberry to consume.
"So, how have classes been?" "Well, since we're all good now, we have to take classes with you lot." Mal reminded the prince. "And it's pretty much as boring as our previous classes."
"Didn't you ace your old Goodness 101 classes though?" Ben inquired.
"Only because they were easy if you actually tried to look at the bori-" Mal paused and tried to correct herself "- I mean, the good options."
"What about Evie, Carlos and Jay?" Ben raised an eyebrow, clearly amused at the fact Mal was struggling to adjust to the good ways.
"Evie was busy flirting, and Carlos and Jay were busy fighting," Mal shrugged, trying to focus on the strawberry rather than the question she knew was about to come.
"What were you busy doing?" Ben asked, easing his hand ever closer to Mal's.
"Preparing to steal the wand, duh." Mal gazed into the distance, not bearing to meet Ben's eyes.
"What about me?"
"What about you?" Mal retorted, reaching for another strawberry.
Ben's hand caught her wrist as it searched for its strawberry prey. Feeling his eyes burning into her soul, Mal huffed and let her eyes wander to meet his.
"Mal, I know you had feelings for me. Deny it all you want, but I know." Ben seemed to try to look mean or angered, but honestly? He just looked as cute as ever.
"If you know, why did you ask?" Mal had always prided herself on her lightning speed ability with comebacks. She was pretty sure Evie, Carlos and Jay admired her for it. Or maybe that was just her wishful thinking to mean something...
Ben sighed and dropped the subject, and Mal's hand. Rising to his full height, he mumbled something about going for a swim. Mal impatiently watched him strip down to his bathers. And... Bingo! Ben had yet again worn the royal bathers.
Not being able to stop herself, Mal let out a rather unladylike (since when had she cared about being ladylike?) snort. Twisting around in confusion, Ben cocked his head as if to ask what's wrong?
Covering her mouth with the back of her hand, Mal gestured lazily at Ben's swimwear. Seeming to ignore her, Ben took both of Mal's hands into his and pulled Mal to her feet.
"Y'know, I didn't invite you here just so you could laugh at my amazing crown shorts," Ben told her, slowly pulling her farther away from the shelter. "
"Then what are the strawberries for?" Mal inquired, grinning from ear to ear as she saw only Ben's face.
"I'm going to give you a little lesson, Miss Bertha," Ben seemed to be proud of himself for discovering her middle name.
Cringing clearly, Mal shook her head in disgust. It was one thing for her mother to name Mal Maleficent like her, but giving Mal Bertha as a middle name? She'd been told her mother was cruel from a very young age, but that was just torture.
"First, don't call me Bertha. But, since you're cute I'll forgive you," Mal winked at Ben. "And second, this had better be a good lesson because I for one despise lessons."
"Oh, it's a good lesson," Ben assured her. "I'm going to teach you how to swim."
Shuddering at the memory of embarrassing herself in front of Ben whilst attempting to swim on their first date, Mal realised it was probably time. There had never been anywhere on the Isle of the Lost for the villain's children to learn to swim, so Mal (as well as her friends) were very inexperienced when it came to keeping afloat in water.
Mal shouldered off her loose shirt (she'd been told to wear swimwear beforehand) and her denim skirt, leaving her standing in a deep purple one piece. As much as she adored Ben, she was not ready to flash her stomach at him. She knew it would've sounded stupid if she explained this to anyone (even Evie had looked at her strangely), so she mostly kept it to herself.
Blinking as though startled, Ben took a few seconds to get ahold of himself.
"Mal, you look-" he seemed at a loss for words, so he just gestured at her "- wow..."
Laughing a little, Mal tried to twist her body to the left and right a few times like Evie had told her. Apparently if she did this with her hands clasped in front of her, and an innocent smile on her face, Ben would think it was adorable. Mal highly doubted he would ever see her as adorable, but she gave it her best shot.
"A-anyway," Ben stuttered, seeming to force his sight from her, "let's get started, shall we?"
Ben led her to the shallowest area of the lake, and watched her slip her feet in whilst firmly grasping his hand. Water lapped over Mal's feet, and she quickly withdrew her feet as the cold hit her. Mal absentmindedly wondered how Ben could have just leapt into the ice cold water.
After another moments hesitation, Mal gathered her (minimal amount of) courage, and dipped her feet in again. Giving the cold some time, she started to slowly feel the water get warmer; or was her body just adapting to the cold? Mal felt she didn't need to know the answer. All she needed to do now was learn to swim.
Ben instructed her, showing how she had to paddle out into the deeper waters by kicking her legs from behind her. Mal had gone all out with the kicking originally, managing to almost kick Ben in his kingly face, and definitely succeeding in drenching him. Now she kicked softer and slower, but she knew she was still making progress. After Ben felt she'd earned a gold star in that aspect of swimming, he told her about the proper way to use her arms, instead of just flailing them around. Mal thought of her hands just slicing through the water (which was probably her mother whispering in her ear again). However, when she confessed this to Ben, he reassured her that was basically what it was.
Finally, Ben let her go. He'd been holding her waist as she'd progressed through the stages of swimming and keeping afloat. After a half hour of the duo just swimming with each other's company (featuring occasional splashing contests started by the adorable king), the couple met in the middle of the lake, treading water.
Mal felt Ben's hand wrap around her underwater. Her body went into red alert, and she had to stop herself from kicking off and away from the affection. This was what love was, Mal guessed. Although Mal knew very little about positive feelings and love, she knew that she wanted to drown herself in Ben and all the love he would give her.
Large hands touched the small of her back, and Mal found herself drifting closer to Ben. His lips drew ever closer to hers, and finally they met. His lips were wet and tasted kind of salty, and Mal had no doubt her lips were the same. Ben moved his lips slowly against hers, and Mal could feel his smile against her own.
This was what love was. This was what she'd been missing in her life all these years.