A few days passed since Beast had left for the Isle. The castle tried to act as though things were running as normal even though it was clear to anyone that they weren't. After all, if things were 'normal', the Crown Prince would have been running around after his friends with a smile on his face or had his nose buried in a book.
Not staring out the window of his bedroom as if he were the spouse of a sailor eagerly awaiting their partner's safe return.
"Benji? You wanna go reorganize the library?" Chip offered.
"No thanks," Ben said softly.
Chip sighed. The thought of reorganizing the library normally could tempt Ben more than anything as Belle's private library was organized by category, not by the Dewy Decimal System that the public libraries in Auradon had. Meaning it was possible to find oneself surrounded by piles of books, something that was, without a doubt, Ben's favorite thing in the world.
"Ben, you know...I'm sure Audrey and Chad are just having a busy day that's all. Trust me bud, I'm sure the 'ABC' gang will be running around these castle grounds in no time," he said, using the name Ben had given their little trio after he learned to read and realized Audrey's, Chad's, and his names all started with an 'A', 'B', and 'C'.
Truthfully, Chip had no belief in that considering he might have swiped a letter from Audrey saying in no uncertain terms that she and Ben were friends anymore considering he was now 'tainted' by the Isle. Normally he would never dream of opening his brother's mail but Ben had enough drama going on.
Gods Leah, you know I don't really care for Audrey but she's a young kid. You're supposed to be teaching her to be better than you, not a mini you, Chip thought. Hopefully, Aurora makes it so you're not around Audrey or Phillip Jr. much so you don't get a chance to completely ruin those kids. Ben needs his friends now more than ever and for some reason, he considers Audrey a friend.
"Um...just to let you know there're two idiots coming your way," they heard Mal call from the hallway, her voice slightly muffled because of the closed door.
Ben hadn't wanted his mom to see him upset so he tried to keep his door closed as much as possible. Of course, he didn't realize that every time Belle saw the closed door, her heart broke slightly as normally Ben's door would be open as wide as his smile.
"Idiots?" Chip asked as he went to go open the door. A good thing he did too because the next thing he knew, a purple and gold carpet holding two five year old boys came barreling through the doorway.
"Ben!"
"Emir? Akiho?" Ben asked, looking surprised to see his two friends as they rolled off the carpet. Or at least attempted to as Carpet clearly had been taught how to prevent hyperactive children from falling off of him. "What are you doing here?"
"Akiho's mama and papa were visiting my mama and papa and we heard about your papa," Emir said. "Aziz always says Auradon City is only a few hours away from our castle as the carpet flies so we borrowed Carpet when Olaf wasn't looking."
Chip shook his head. "I'm guessing by 'borrowed', you didn't tell your parents where you were going?"
"I mean...they always say we can go play with Ben! And Ben needs us!" Emir said before going to give Ben the biggest hug he could.
"Yeah Chip, we're not going to let a little thing like permission stand between us and our best friend!" Akiho nodded before he joined in on the hug.
Mal chuckled. "I might have been a bad influence on your friends Benny!"
"Nah, they're always like this," Ben called back to her, his voice slightly muffled by the hug from Emir and Akiho.
Chip shook his head, clearly impressed by the loyalty these kids had. Sure, his own friends had texted him and reassured him that they didn't think he was 'tainted' by the Isle with Adam being sent there, but they were teenagers. Early teenagers but still teenagers.
Ben's friends were five and yet they had more loyalty in them than some grown ups.
"Is it safe or am I going to be run down by a carpet?" Mal asked as she rolled her way into Ben's room.
"It's safe," Chip told her. "Unless Emir and Akiho decide to give you a hug."
"They do that, I roll over their feet," Mal said but anyone would have been able to tell she was merely joking, the same way she would have joked with Uma or Harry. "I didn't see Aladdin or Jasmine or Anna or Kristoff arrive though."
Emiri and Akiho both shrugged.
"...You two both know your mamans and papas are going to be upset when they find out you're gone right?" Ben asked with a small sigh.
"Don't care," Emir said. "Aziz was hanging out with Lonnie's brother anyway so the only one who'd know we were gone is Ashaki and she's a baby."
"But...I don't want you two getting into trouble..."
Akiho shook his head. "Ben, being your best friend means that when you're upset, we're there for you."
"Excuse me, but he's got me for that," Mal said, crossing her arms.
"And I'm sure you've done great," Akiho said, looking over at her. "But let us have a turn?"
"...We don't share easily on the Isle."
"Yeah well, we're in Auradon. By the way, get in here. Group hugs are weird when you leave someone out."
Before Mal could react, she found herself pulled into the hug. She had to admit, she liked it.
Of course she'd like it even more if she was out of the cast and therefore out of the wheelchair, but according to Lady Steph, it'd be a couple more weeks!
"So...Teacup...do I want to know why there's about two too many kiddos in your brother's room?"
Chip jumped slightly at the sound of his friend's voice. "Lucas? What are you doing here?"
"What, you think I was just going to be happy with only sending you a text?" Lucas asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes as he walked into the room. How he knew which room Chip was in, the former teacup had no idea though he suspected either his older brothers, older sister, or his mother had told him. Or even Lumiere or Cogsworth if Lucas had gotten lost—the castle was rather big after all. "Nah, I wanted to see you and make sure you were okay. I know how close you were to King Beast."
Chip couldn't help but shoot his friend a small smile out of thanks...even as his heart fluttered slightly at the sight of Lucas' smile in return. He shoved it into the back of his mind, he could wonder about the odd going's on about his body when Ben wasn't feeling upset.
Or you know, when there weren't two errant Princelings in Ben's bedroom.
"You two need to call your parents to at least let them know you're here and you're okay," Chip said. "I'm sure they're worried about you."
Emir shrugged. "Mama and papa have Aziz and Ashaki to worry about...though Jordan might have told Auntie Dalia where we were going. She saw us when we were borrowing Carpet."
"I gave her a block of chocolate to keep her quiet," Akiho said.
Ben shook his head. "You bribed her?"
"I've definitely been a bad influence then," Mal said with a grin that clearly said 'I regret nothing'.
"We had to come see you!" Akiho said with a small shrug. "And mama and papa have said we'd visit you at some point but for right now your mama probably doesn't want to deal with company on top of everything that's been going on."
"So...you just left?" Mal asked, tilting her head.
"Ben would do the same for us," Emir and Akiho said at the same time.
Oh yeah...these two are definitely the Auradon versions of Harry, Mal thought. After all...Harry had offered up his bed at his home with Captain Hook back when we thought I'd have to try to survive the Isle with a broken ankle.
"Guys, your parents are going to wonder where you are and you're going to get in trouble—."
"So we get in trouble Ben," Emir shrugged as he shoved a tiger plushie into Ben's arms. "i almost forgot, papa said you're going to be spending six months on the Isle so you're going to need some new toys while you're over there."
Akiho nodded as he also shoved a reindeer plushie into Ben's arms. "Yeah, and we wanted to make sure you had something to remember us by. I wanted to see if we couldn't sneak onto the isle too but Emir said you might not like that."
"You don't think your parents might not like that either?" Mal spoke up.
"Let them," Emir and Akiho said at the same time and Ben gave them both a small smile.
"Guys...I don't want you getting into trouble over me. We'll always be best friends though. That will never change."
"I know," Emir nodded. "And if it does change, Chip'll hunt us down and smack us over the head."
Lucas chuckled. "Should I be worried how five year olds know you so well, Teacup?"
"They're Benji's best friends, I've babysat them before," Chip shrugged.
"...Who's the guy?" Mal asked, having only just realized Lucas was there.
Chip chuckled and shook his head. "Mal, meet Lucas. He's one of my best friends. Lucas, meet Mal. She's a new friend of Benji's who's been staying at the castle with Lady Persephone."
"Nice to meet you," Lucas said with a small smile. "You like art?"
"...Maybe," Mal said, narrowing her eyes slightly as she wondered how the new guy knew that about her.
Lucas smiled and held his hands up slightly, as if to tell Mal he didn't mean anything by it. "There's an art book in the side pocket of your chair," he told her.
"Oh..."
"Lucas is probably the best person to talk about art with," Chip said. "He's always saving up for a new art tablet or something."
"Hey, my little brother might want to be a Charmington guard like his friend Derek but I'd rather go into art," Lucas shrugged.
"Oh yeah! How is Liam doing?"
"He's good, asks after you though. He wants to know when you're coming over though I think it has something to do with the fact that the last time you were at our house, Liam ate his body weight in candy."
"Hey! You never let us do that!" Emir, Akiho, and Ben all exclaimed at the same time.
Chip shook his head. "I only 'let' him do that because when Liam eats a bunch of sugar, he crashes. Whereas you two live up to your name of promised chaos and you attempt to read every book in the library."
"Benny does that anyway," Mal said.
"The adult section of the library and he'll attempt it unsupervised," Chip elaborated. "And some of that material is not something I want to explain to a five year old thank you! I value my sanity!"
"...You have sanity, Teacup?" Lucas asked and Chip couldn't help but stick his tongue out at him.
Mal shook her head. "You know, that's not exactly helping your point about having sanity," she said.
"Thank you!" Lucas nodded. "You know I like this one. Prince Ben, keep her as a friend because she clearly has a brain in her head."
"...You don't have to call me 'Prince'," Ben said, his voice soft. Especially since...since I don't know how long I'll be a Prince...but Maman says I'm not supposed to talk about that because it might jinx things. I don't know how but if papa could get spelled as a kid then anything's possible I guess. I wonder how papa's doing...the Enchantress isn't on the Isle is she?
"Ton père va bien*," Mal muttered to him, having rolled over to him, and Ben couldn't help but smile as he heard the French.
"You've practiced."
Mal shrugged. "Lady Steph's been helping me every night after she found out you had started teaching me. She said it might be a nice surprise if I showed improvement. Plus that way we can start learning the fun words—like strawberries and dragons!"
Ben couldn't help but chuckle. "You mean fraises et dragonnes."
"Eh, they mean the same thing," Mal shook her head.
"...How do you know papa'll be okay?" Ben asked as he looked over at her.
"Because Lord Hades will be looking out for him," Mal said before biting her lip. She didn't know if she should say anything but...chances were that Uma and Harry already knew and it wouldn't be a good idea to have an ally be clueless on the Isle. "And...and I...I trust my dad not to get your dad hurt."
It had been the first time she had used the title of 'dad' since finding out that Lord Hades was her father...or at the very least, the first time she spoke it out loud.
"Your...your dad?" Ben asked softly.
"Yeah...I mean every kid has one right?" Mal asked with a small shrug. "Just got lucky that my dad can protect yours...but we can talk about that when your idiots aren't here."
"Got it," Ben nodded and sighed as he looked once more at his insane best friends. "Guys, you know your mamans and papas are going to be worried about you."
"We know," Akiho nodded. "Doesn't matter. We wanted to see you Ben...well you and Abby but you more so!"
"Yeah Ben," Emir said as he also nodded his head; his raven black hair flopping into his eyes. "This is something Aziz will tell his Little League Tourney teammates but I think it applies to us. We're with you till the end of the line."
"...Can I steal that?" Mal asked as Ben gave his friends a grateful smile before giving them another hug.
"We figured you would!"
Chip chuckled before quickly closing the door as he caught sight of one of the servants walking down the hall. Ben would likely have to say good bye to his friends at some point but right now, he was happier than Chip had ever seen him.
And that was something he would never give up. Not if he could do anything to stop it.
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French Translation: Your dad is fine