As the sun sets on the horizon by the west, Ursa, Uma, Harry, Gil, and the other crew members swim by the Lost Revenge, splashing, chasing, and racing each other, having fun during the few opportunities they get to do so. When they get to have fun, it's usually because of Ursa, as Uma is all about work and keeping her reputation in the Isle.
Despite the threats of having sharks down in the water by the ship, there is no dangerous marine life there.
The real sharks in the water are the crew of the Lost Revenge, roughhousing each other, and even Ursa is not safe from that. She, in turn, doesn't hold anything back while retaliating.
They swam until the sun went down and the water was too cold for the humans. But Uma and Ursa, who are mermaids by blood, stay there, treading the waters, refusing to go back to land.
"I wonder which ones we get," Uma says.
"What do you mean?"
"Whether we get our mom's cursed tentacles or our dad's mermaid tail."
"Huh." Ursa looks up at the full moon. "I never thought we would get out of this hellhole of an island and find out, so it doesn't matter which one we would get."
"I'll get us out of here," Uma says resolutely, which makes Ursa look at her. "I'll get the whole crew out of here.
"Though I bet you would get the mermaid tail since you're so nice and kind like the prissy Auradonians," Uma says with fake venom in her voice and her eyes jokingly looking at Ursa. "And I would inherit the curse and get tentacles since I'm the evil one out of the two of us." She says this candidly as if she fully believes it so.
"If ever you get the tentacles, it'll be because you're firstborn, not because you're 'evil'. And if you're so evil, then why are you so nice to me?" Ursa goes closer to her sister, all smiley.
"That's because you're my little fishy, Ursa. My little sister."
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"It's your date with Crown Prince Ben, and it seems like I'm the one who's excited out of the two of us," Lonnie jokingly jabs at Ursa, helping her style her hair and clothing.
"I have," Ursa counts quickly in her mind, "three things to say to what you just said. One, it's not a date, we're just going to swim together as friends. Two, you're saying as if I'm only going because he's going to be king. Which I am not, he's my friend. Three, I'm just nervous, alright?"
However, under the nervousness is the excitement of being with Ben again and swimming with him, for all her memories of swimming are with loved ones, and this not-date was going to be added to that list. Having Ben and swimming would feel like two homes coming together where she could be just her, just Ursa. Not that she would ever admit it, even to herself.
"Okay, no girl would ever be this nervous for a not-date," Lonnie counters and sighs. "Just look behind you and see if you like how you look in the mirror."
She does, and oh. She likes it. This is one of the few times she felt pretty. No thoughts of hers were planting seeds of doubt in her mind, no.
She just feels pretty.
Her dress looks like a clean ocean, shimmering when she moves. Her hair is pulled back, out of her face, in braids that unravel with her natural curls showing at the end, which she got when Lonnie dragged her to a hairstylist. Before that, Uma braided her hair, and Ursa braided Uma's. Even with taking good care of her braids, they had to be redone already. Lonnie put on her face light make-up, for a change, instead of her bare-faced 'beauty,' as Lonnie would say.
Speaking of her. "So? What do you think? Is that a good speechless or a bad one?"
Ursa sees herself smiling genuinely. "A good one. I feel pretty."
"Well, you are," Lonnie says, while pulling Ursa's hair back. "You're gorgeous, as always. This style just makes you pop more," she pops the Ps in 'pop'.
"It's just a shame the make-up would get washed off when we swim."
"I told you, all this is waterproof."
They hear a knock at their door.
Lonnie squeals. "That must be him!" She says as she drags Ursa toward the door.
"Lonnie! He might think I was the one who squealed!"
"He wouldn't have heard it, the walls and doors are thick here."
Lonnie then opens the door and pushes her to stand in front of Ben. And he looks handsome, more so than usual, Ursa thinks. He's wearing a deep blue, long-sleeved polo that makes his physique pop out more. He has one hand holding his varsity jacket over his shoulder, and on top of that body built from Tourney and Fencing is a pretty face, bright eyes, and a kind smile, which grows, if that's even possible, after seeing Ursa.
"Hey, Ben." Ursa can't help but smile back at him.
Seconds pass without anyone talking.
"...Ben?" Ursa says.
He takes a deep breath and resolutely says, "For the first time, I understand what 'beautiful' truly means.
"And, uh, I hope you're okay with bikes, with your dress."
"Uhhh, yeah, I think bikes are cool." Ursa looks down and checks the length of her dress. "Don't worry about my dress, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"In any case, we can do this." He goes to hug her (she could smell his perfume, and he smells good), but then ties the sleeves of the jacket around her waist. "Just to be sure you're covered. And hey, it matches your outfit."
Ursa is blushing from what she thought was (and what felt like) a hug. She's glad blushing isn't noticeable on her dark skin.
"Are you ready to go?" Ben asks her.
"Yeah, let me just get my purse." Ursa turns around just to have Lonnie hand her purse over.
"Thank you. Bye, Lonnie," Ursa says as she walks next to Ben, turning to wave at Lonnie.
"Take care of her, Ben. If you hurt her, I will hunt you down." Lonnie says, with a glint of mischief in her eyes and a dash of gravity in her smile.
Ben just laughs. "I won't hurt her, I promise. Bye, Lonnie, it was nice to see you."
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She does like bikes. She thinks the people who ride them are cool. So Ben riding it just adds to his list of qualities that she likes. Not to mention she gets to hold him in her arms.
When they get to their destination, he even helps her get off the bike and smiles at her.
He and his smile make her heart feel all fluttery inside. All her efforts to push down her feelings are failing right now. She is feeling the full force of it.
They're walking down a forest when they pass a bush of small white roses. Ben leans down to pluck one out of the bush.
"These are roses that grow without thorns. These ones are actually named after Cinderella." He leans to put the plucked flower behind her ear, caressing her hair.
"Come on."
They talk with each other about anything and everything under the sun, but it feels different than usual. The air is charged with something, like something important and special. But being with Ben makes it feel effortless and comfortable like this is where she's supposed to be.
"Benjamin, you did not!" They're crossing a hanging bridge, and Ben is telling her a story wherein he made Chad cry as a kid.
"Poor kid. Though I gotta say, seeing how he is now, he got what he deserved... while he was still a kid," Ursa rambles as she is bouncing to make the ropes, and the bridge, bounce with her.
"I gotta say he was just as pretentious then as he is now if he's not more pretentious now. And It's Benjamin Florian Beast. If you want to use the full name, you better know it."
Ursa laughs. "Your middle name fits your princely status, you know."
"Does it fit my personality?"
"No, it's too elegant for your personality. I've seen you spit your food out, you know."
"That was one time, and it was because of something that you said. Will you ever let that go?"
"You spat it on me. So no, I will never let that go."
Ben turns toward Ursa, holding both of her hands and walking in front of her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Will you please let that go?"
Ursa smiles and looks up, pausing as if to give it a thought. Her smile grows brighter. "No."
Ben sighs. "Fine." He recognizes where they're at and quickly goes behind her, covering her eyes.
"We're almost there. Watch your step." He guides her slowly. "There's a rock, be careful. Are you good?"
"Mhmm," she voices out while she nods.
"Now, step up. There you go. You ready?"
"Yeah," Ursa says with a smile, excited to swim.
Ben feels nervous, wondering if Ursa will like what he prepared, but removes his hands from her eyes anyway, and says, "Open. Go on."
And the sight looks wonderful. The lake is clear and clean, and she can see the stones beneath it. Surrounding them is a foliage of green leaves, so thick that you could seldom see any branches or trunks. There's a broken pavilion, wherein a basket lies on a picnic blanket.
Ursa just gasps.
"You like it?" Ben tries to hide the uncertainty in his voice, and Ursa is too enamored with the view to notice it.
"Like it? I love it." She traipses toward the broken pavilion, sitting down on the picnic blanket.
Ben follows after her, setting the food he prepared (with the help of his castle's chefs) out of the basket and onto the blanket.
"And you even prepared food?" Ursa gapes.
"Of course. These are foods I want you to taste since you couldn't back then in the Isle. You'll love the fruits, I brought more kinds than the cafeteria offers. These are chocolate-coated strawberries. I already know you love chocolates so I brought more kinds of those. I also brought pastries, and yeah."
"Thank you. This is wonderful. No one has ever done this for me before."
"Do you want to eat first or swim already? Although it is bad to swim right after eating." Ben says.
Ursa was already beaming and bouncing in her seat at the word, 'swim', but she waited for him to finish what he was going to say. "Let's swim first."
"Are you fine with cliff diving?" Ben stands up and Ursa follows. "We can go on top of there," He points, "And jump from there."
"Yeah, that sounds fun! We would jump from the ship when we used to swim back in the Isle."
Ben starts to unbutton his polo, and Ursa turns around, her face feeling warm.
She starts to remove Ben's jacket from her waist and shimmies off her shorts and underwear since her legs would just turn into either a tail or a bunch of tentacles if she leaves them on. She folds them neatly and puts them under his jacket. She places her purse and the flower in her hair on top of it.
As she turns around, she sees Ben facing away from her.
Then she sees his swimshorts. "That's so cute. You're like a little kid, having little crowns on your shorts."
He looks back at her and laughs. "Stop the teasing," he pleads.
Ursa glances up a little and sees his abs. Once again, being grateful a blush wouldn't be noticeable on her face, she forces her eyes upwards to his face, notices its redness, and is spurred to tease him further. She laughs. "What, being compared to a little kid's got you blushing like that? I've seen you handle teasing worse than that."
"It's not because of that, it's—" Ben stops. "Let's go to the cliff so we can finally swim."
That takes her mind completely off of teasing him. She squeals, "Oooooo, let's go!"
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The cliff is higher than when she would jump off the Lost Revenge into the water, but that just adds to the thrill of it.
She turns to Ben and sees him offering his hand to her.
He says, "You want to do this together?"
She blushes, nods, and takes his hand. "Together."
"On three."
They both go backwards and count together. They run on three and jump.
Ursa feels so elated as they hit the lake, never letting go of the other's hand. While underwater, Ursa feels a tug on her belly. She centers on it and lets it happen, feeling her legs stick together, forming glistening scales of blue and green, the tip of her tail like a betta fish's fins.
All the while, they both watch her tail form, in awe. Ben swims downwards, refusing to let go of Ursa's hand, thus making her swim with him. He shows her a white shiny rock, with them smiling giddily at each other. Ben, needing to breathe, swims upwards, tugging Ursa with her. They break the surface, and Ursa laughs, elated at her tail. "Just look at it! It looks so pretty!"
"Make a wish," Ben says as he places the rock in her hand that he's holding and lets go of it to tread the water.
She laughs incredulously, "At a rock?"
"It's the only rock that's white in this Enchanted Lake."
"This lake's enchanted?"
"Yeah, so this rock is probably enchanted too."
"I doubt that." Nevertheless, she cups it in her hands, closes her eyes, and wishes on the 'magical rock'.
She wishes most fervently that Uma, Harry, Gil, and the rest of the crew would get to Auradon, and that they could be happy together. She opens her eyes, and asks Ben with a smile, "Now what?"
With his sparkling eyes and fond smile, he points toward an arch and says, "Throw it there."
Ursa snickers at the childish request, but nonetheless follows his instruction, throwing the rock as hard as she can towards the space below the arch. It plops when it hits the water.
They both turn toward each other. Ursa takes both of Ben's hands and inclines her body horizontally, moving backward.
"Let me pull you around the lake," she smiles, truly elated.
Ben thinks her smiling face is dazzling.
And they spend much of their afternoon like that, swimming around, occasionally splashing, chasing, and racing each other, with Ursa always winning. They only got out of the water when they got hungry.
Ursa loves all the food Ben prepared. She's so excited to try everything that she doesn't notice the jelly from the donut on her lips.
"Is this your first time?" Ben asks, fondly watching her eat while getting some food himself.
"First time doing what?" She asks, with her mouth full, so she covers it with her hand.
"Eating a jelly donut? You have a little something here." Then he leans forward, taking his thumb to get the jelly from her lips and putting his thumb in his mouth, eating the jelly.
Ursa, once she processed what happened, blushes unnoticeably and nods, saying, "Yeah, there aren't donuts on the Isle, seeing as most of our food is leftovers from Auradon, which I just learned, is not healthy. Those of us who eat at the Chip Shoppe are lucky since we get to eat fresh fish from the sea that ends up inside the barrier."
This sobers Ben up from his lovesickness from before, as this is the first serious conversation they've had today. "Right, I'm so sorry. I should do something about that."
Ursa, having the urge to comfort him despite getting the short end of the stick (being born on the Isle), places her hand over his and says, "It's okay, it was your dad who trapped us there, not you. But it would be nice if you could do something about it. Give us—them fresh food and better technology (even if we don't have Wi-Fi...better fridges would be nice), maybe help us fix some of our buildings so that they could be safer, not always at the risk of caving in. Despite being a prison, it has become a society for the people stuck there. Help them build a better, humane one."
"I will, when I become king." Ben resolutely promises. "You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"
"Yeah. I used to not think about it, since I never thought I would get out of the Isle, and I didn't have the power to change things, but now that I'm here, I fully realized what we had been missing, and I would think about how to make it better for them. Now that I'm here, thanks to you, I owe it to them to make life better for them, so that fewer people get to suffer as I did, especially the kids. If the other children of the villains don't get to come here, at least they could lead better lives there, you know?"
"Yeah, I understand what you mean. The plan was to start with you 5, then bring more children here if your assimilation proves successful."
Ursa gasps softly. "So we're the pilot batch? The other kids getting here depends on us?"
"In a way, yeah," Ben says.
Ursa furrows her eyebrows. "Oh no."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I can be good, but the four of them? They were notorious back on the Isle, being wicked and bullying people. Although Carlos and Evie aren't too bad, and I can see that Jay is getting better, Mal has always been the one pressured by her mom to be evil. She has been cruel, and she always gets them into trouble. I'm just scared that if they don't change for the better, we'll all get sent back to the Isle, and no one from the Isle can ever get out." For the next part, she's apprehensive about snitching on them, but she has to continue. For Ben. And for Auradon, his home. "And did you notice how Mal kept asking about the wand when we first met? I have a hunch they're up to something. Or at least, their parents put them up to something."
Ben is slowly coming to a realization. "She did..." Ben looks at her in the eyes. "Mal did love spell me. Or it was a potion, she said."
"What?!"
"Don't worry, it's gone. If it weren't, the Enchanted Lake would have washed it away. But it's gone because of you."
"Me?"
"Remember before the Tourney game? Chad and Audrey—well they did something, and you were crying?"
"My tears washed them off," She realizes.
"Yeah. You saved me."
"I wouldn't put it like that," Ursa says, embarrassed.
Ben turns his hand up and holds her hand with both of his. He looks at her in the eyes, and says, "You did. You saved me."
They share soft smiles.
"But I'll tell Fairy Godmother what happened with the love potion and your hunch about the wand." Ben caresses her hand with his thumbs.
"I've been curious since the day you saved me. Your tears can save other people. But who can save you from a spell, a potion, or a curse?"
Ursa unconsciously puts his hand on her lap and plays with his fingers. "Tears of pure sadness from mermaid can save other people because the magic is assuming that the mermaid is crying for that cursed person and that they want to reverse it. If I were the one who was cursed, someone who loves me, who truly loves me, whether it be romantically or not, has to cry real tears of sadness, and I have to make contact with the tears." Ursa stops playing with Ben's fingers for a while, finally realizing what she's doing. But she takes a deep breath and braves herself, continuing to play with his hands. "Now, for curses done with the power of Poseidon, that is, for magic done by the trident, it can only be reversed by the trident too. That's why my mother's stuck with her tentacles."
"What's she like? And your dad, too, what's he like?"
"Dad was never in the picture, and mom wouldn't explain what happened to him. But when I would cry, and I would cry a lot, she would tell me that I'm 'just like my father, always sad and depressed,' so we could guess what happened to him. Maybe my depression, and in turn my suicidal ideation, is a genetic thing, even if most of it comes from my experiences. And my mom, well, she made one of her kids depressed, so you guess what she's like," Ursa jokes darkly.
"I-I'm sorry, you don't have to talk about it." Ben quickly stammers.
She smiles at him softly. "Don't worry, it's okay. I trust you.
"I can't say she loved us. She neglected us. She was never there for us. Even if we were under the same roof, we wouldn't feel her presence until she got mad. And when she does, she gets explosively angry. Shouting at us, hitting us, breaking things.
"Uma wouldn't want to admit it now, but she was like our mother when she was younger. When Uma would get mad at her, she would take it out on me. I guess what changed her was when she found me with cuts on my wrists when I was 13 and she was 14. She was horrified. After that, she stopped displacing her anger on me, she stopped shouting at me when she was angry and instead talked me through it, she made sure that her crew would treat me well and would defend me. It wasn't hard to command the crew to do that since they helped her make sure that I stayed alive when I tried killing myself."
All throughout, Ben was caressing her hands, providing comfort for the difficult situation.
"It's hard to talk about it," Ursa says, teary-eyed.
"It's okay, you don't have to continue talking about it." Ben sighs. "My dad is like that too. When he's mad, he's explosively angry. I think it was left over from when he was cursed, and he wasn't that good of a kid either.
"He wouldn't hit me, but when he was angry, he would break the things around him, as if displacing his anger on me to the things around him. Some days I wonder if, instead of hitting the things around him when he's angry at me, he'd hit me."
"That must be scary," says Ursa.
"At least I have my mom balancing him out and comforting me. So it's not as scary as yours, I bet."
"No, don't invalidate yourself. Just because we have different experiences doesn't make one scarier or worse than the other."
They decide to descend to lighter topics, discussing things that have happened at school and their lives. They ate the food Ben prepared, and when that was finished, they continued staying there, talking with each other until they noticed it was getting dark, which was when they decided to go back to the dormitories.
It was all smiles and stories until they got back, with Ben accompanying her to her room, hands intertwined.
"Thank you, for agreeing to hang out with me today. I had a lot of fun," Ben says once they reach her door.
Ursa's mouth was agape. "I should be the one thanking you, for everything you prepared!
"But seriously, thank you. Because of you, I got to swim with my tail.
"And I had a lot of fun, too."
"Great! That's great," Ben says, "I should let you freshen up and get ready for dinner already."
"Right, bye." Ursa lets go of his hand and turns to the door, opening it to see Lonnie beaming at her. She closes the door behind her with one last glance and one last smile at Ben, which he returns. Then, once the door was closed, she prepared herself for the barrage of questions Lonnie would give her.