"Where are we going?"

"You will see. Be patient."

Ben led Mal by the hand beyond the castle grounds, where the hustling, bustling noises of daily life gave way to the quiet hums of nature. Tall elms and gingkos shaded them from the midday sun, and a pleasant breeze kept them cool on their journey.

"You are making me do quite a bit of exercise for a man who insists I rest," Mal remarked, stepping over a fallen branch. Ben turned back so she could see his smirk. He remembered the first time she had joked with him since the war ended, only a few days ago, and how he had been too startled to laugh. It was just one of the many milestones in her recovery that he had been mentally tracking. Her first initiated kiss. Her first request for food. Her first steps outside of her room. Her first entirely lucid day. She had come so far.

"And you are complaining quite a bit for a woman who insists she needs no rest." He chuckled at the face she made to mock him. "It is not much farther."

The long-neglected path wound deeper into the forest, finally reaching the shore of a small, sparkling lake. Off to their left, the ruins of a marble gazebo crumbled over a patio of stone. There, Ben finally stopped. He saw Mal smile out of the corner of his eye. It was a beautiful spot - and one that, from what he had seen in Mal's memories, most resembled her first home.

"This is lovely," Mal told him as they sat, both leaning back against the same thick column to stare out at the water.

"I think so, too. I hope the moors will look like this again one day, now that we have put a stop to the Burnings."

At the mention of the old Fae kingdom, Mal grew visibly uncomfortable. They had not yet discussed the fate of the Fae, the relationship between Mal's people and Auradon, or their own future. For a while, Mal had not been ready for any of these conversations, but Ben was sure she still worried about them. He hoped to put a rest to some of those worries this afternoon.

When she did not answer, he changed the subject. "Have I ever told you the story behind this?" He took his ring off his fifth finger and held it in the palm of his hand.

"No." Mal frowned, trying to remember. "In fact, I have only ever seen you wear it recently, since the feast."

"That is true. It is usually worn during times of celebration." He picked it up with his thumb and forefinger, watching the central sapphire catch the rays of the sun and reflect them in every which way. "This ring was made over a hundred and fifty years ago, a gift from one of my ancestors to his bride on their wedding day. When their first son was born, she insisted that it go to him. That unintentionally began a tradition. It has been in my family for generations now, passed from mother to son - " Ben took Mal's hand and placed the ring in her open palm, curling her fingers closed around it. " - and from man to wife."

Her breath caught, and she looked up at him in surprise.

Ben grinned. "Shall I help you wear it? I suppose I should have waited until the wedding ceremony, but - "

"Ben." He paused and met her gaze. Her eyes had filled with tears. She opened and closed her mouth several times, unable to find the words to express her emotions, finally settling with, "I will spend the rest of my life doing whatever it takes to be deserving of your love."

"Oh, Mal..." Almost as an afterthought, he slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. "You already are."

She shook her head, the tears spilling, and threw her arms around him. Ben held her just as tightly, knowing that for once the sobs wracking her body came from a place of happiness. "I love you," she whispered fiercely, "I love you so much." She buried her face in the crook of his neck and took deep, shuddering breaths. Ben placed a lingering kiss in her hair, smiling mostly to himself.

"And I...well, I find you quite tolerable." Mal snorted and pulled away from him, wiping her tears clumsily as she laughed. Ben joined her in her mirth when she gave him a playful push.

"You have ruined this moment."

"Have I?" With a mischievous glint in his eye, Ben leaned forward to kiss her, tasting the salt on her lips. Mal responded eagerly, almost immediately threading her fingers through his hair and teasing his mouth open with her tongue. And then - "Good lord, Mal!"

"What?" she asked innocently, her eyes wide.

"Here?"

She shrugged and straddled him. "Who is going to disturb us? The fish?"

"I suppose not - " Ben's uncertainties were drowned out in a second, much more passionate kiss.

"I believe congratulations are in order, my prince," Captain Li said when the two of them had a moment to themselves. News of his engagement had been kept mostly quiet, as the populace largely believed Mal was still incapacitated after the final battle - conveniently allowing her to recover without the pressures of rebuilding her kingdom.

"Thank you, Lonnie." He mirrored her smile, and then realized that in the post-war chaos he had completely forgotten - "And you? When can I reciprocate these good wishes?"

The captain shook her head, her expression frozen on her face. "Not in the near future, Prince Ben. I consider my service to the crown to be of the utmost importance - "

"Lonnie." Ben's hands came down heavily on her shoulders. "You cannot be serious."

"I am," she stated, bristling at the implied doubt of her resolve. "I have not forgotten what my carelessness cost you."

"That was not your fault."

"On the contrary, Prince Ben, it was my duty to protect you and I refuse to fail again."

"And what will this decision cost you?" asked Ben somberly. "You cannot give up on your life, Lonnie. I will not allow it. Yes, something terrible happened - but blame those responsible, not yourself. Your misery is not worth the minute chance that another fairy powerful enough to best Mal will come along and hurt me again. No - " he continued when she attempted to interrupt. " - you cannot disagree, I am your prince. Do you love him?"

"That is irrelevant - "

"It most certainly is not. Do you love him?" Her sigh of defeat told Ben all he needed to know. "Do not do this, Lonnie. Not for me. Not for anyone. You are more than your duty. And not only will this not change my unwavering trust in you, but the formidable force you and Jay are together - enemies of Auradon, beware." That, at least, drew a grin from her. "You know, I have not seen much of him - he is probably sulking over you. Go, find him before he and I end up in another drunken brawl."

Ben was shaken awake - which was unusual, as he normally woke on his own to Mal's cries in the middle of the night. "Mal!" he gasped, startled. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No, my love." His fiancee was propped up on one elbow, stroking his cheek with her hand. "You did."

It came back to him, then. He had been chained to a chair, unable to move as he was beaten to within an inch of his life..."Oh."

"You were moving around - and then you started to yell, so I thought I should wake you." She tilted his head towards her. "Tell me."

"No. It is nothing." Ben gave her a reassuring smile. "I am sorry to have woken you."

"Do not say that." Mal frowned and sat up. "This is not the first time you have dismissed my concern, Ben, and while I understand your reasons for doing so previously, we are engaged now. A husband and wife should support each other through everything. You have taken care of me during my worst days, and seen me through my worst nights. You have never left my side, despite the - " - she gestured at the bed they shared - " - impropriety your parents were so afraid of. You literally spoon-fed me when I could not lift a finger to help myself. You told me how eager you are to call me your wife, but if you do not think I am even capable of simply comforting you, what right do I have to call you my husband?"

"Mal...that is..." He sat up as well, frantic with worry that this was some guilt-ridden method of ending their engagement. "You have every right."

"Ben." She took his hands in hers. Her calmness put him at ease - he was sure that if she truly intended to break things off with him, there would be more tears. "There is so much I wanted to say to you when you proposed but I was so overjoyed, I could not. So let me say it now. I cannot and will not take your love for granted. You saved me from myself more than once, and you opened your heart and home to me when I gave you every reason not to. And now, we are turning to the next chapter of our lives, one in which we are partners. I refuse to be the broken child that you must look after any longer. Our pains and sorrows must be borne by both of us, yet you have spent all of this time shouldering the burden by yourself. Is that fair to you? Is it fair to me?"

"You were never a child, Mal," reasoned Ben, aware that he was missing the point by her threatened interruption. "No, please hear me. You were broken, yes, but you had grown up long before me. And despite that knowledge of the cruelty of the world, you believed in me and my plans for the future of my kingdom when everyone else dismissed me as a naive boy. You gave me hope that perhaps I was not wrong. Understand that you took that burden from me without even knowing it, and that it was you who saved me first, before I was even completely lost." He brought her hands to his lips for a brief kiss. "I will share everything with you. Everything that is not this. You and I both know that if I tell you about these dreams, it will only make you worse. And...not even a month has passed, Mal. You still suffer, still hear things that torment you. Please, give yourself more time, at least where that - whatever happened - is concerned."

"Torture, Ben," she said quietly. "You were tortured. You can say it."

He did not know what to do, other than to draw her into a tight embrace. His eyes burned and his vision blurred. "Mal, I...I do not know what I would have done, in your place. To watch someone do that to you, and let you think it was what I wanted...or to refuse and see you killed. I cannot make that choice. I would not have been as strong as you were."

He heard sniffles as she cried into his chest. "It was not strength. It was desperation."

"You went mad," he pointed out, "before you would give me up. You never broke."

The sniffling had turned into heart-wrenching sobs. "It did not even matter...I fell into his t-trap. It all c-could have been avoided. You went through so much pain and even n-now, you relive it over and over..."

Ben ran his fingers through her hair, stroking it slowly. "Now who is shouldering the burden by herself?" He lifted her chin. She could see the tears that had rolled down his face. "Yes, I relive it. But you experience both of our pain, and I cannot even imagine the extent of yours. I do not need to tell you about my nightmares, Mal, because you already know. I just want...I only want to hold you, until the fear goes away."

She nodded, looping her arms around his neck. "I can do that." Her forehead pressed against his cheek and her breath fanned over his neck, warm and real and there. Her body fit into his like pieces of a puzzle. For a while, the only sound was her haggard breathing while she calmed herself down. "Do you know...the things I hear...they are quiet when you smile, when you laugh."

He did smile then. She probably felt the movement of his mouth against her skin. "I did know, actually. I figured it out by myself."

He must have sounded rather proud, because she drawled, "Such intelligence, Your Majesty." Ben chuckled, earning himself a kiss to his jaw. They sat in silence then, snuggled together to protect each other from the horrors that haunted them.

Mal kicked Carlos under the table - the boy was fidgeting, though Ben could hardly blame him. This meeting had gone on for two hours already. While Ben was quiet invested, considering the implications of these decisions on his own kingdom, Carlos had very little to contribute after being assigned to an apprenticeship with one of Auradon's most respected inventors.

Jay, naturally, had been appointed the head of Mal's Queensguard, despite previously deriding the position. Evie and Mal's godmother remained close advisors - one in matters concerning Auradon, and one in matters concerning the Fae.

They were all currently gathered around a table with a map of Auradon laid flat on it, determining the borders of what would be the Fae state. Mal had made it very clear that she would not live separately from Ben for any amount of time, and so it was decided that an alliance would be discarded in favor of making the moors a province of Auradon. The Ladies Audrey and Aurora had ceded the borders willingly - the land was still burnt anyway, and would take years to grow back. By then, Ben and Mal would have an heir, a child with a birthright to rule both the moors and Auradon, making them one kingdom.

The discussion instead centered mostly around the still hostile atmosphere between the Fae and what used to be Stefan's people. "Integration will not happen overnight, nor does it need to," Mal pointed out. "Until the moors are habitable again, no fairy can live there. And even after that, those who have created lives among humans may not wish to relocate. We have time to ease tensions - which will require education, more than anything. Most of these people have been brainwashed."

"They will not be willing to be un-brainwashed," noted Lady Aurora. "It is a difficult thing to admit to killing and losing lives over Stefan's personal vendetta against Queen Mal. Much easier to believe they were doing God's work, fighting demons. To convert them from the ideology that Stefan planted in their heads may be impossible." She had stopped referring to Stefan as her father.

"We have many years yet. Start with the youngest and their schooling - they should not learn Stefan's version of the Great War. The church will be another ally - an unlikely one, but extremely important in dismissing the notion of 'demons'," Ben said to nods of approval.

"Let us call a meeting of the clergy within the next month," Queen Belle decided.

The talks continued, until finally Audrey let out a loud sigh. The king raised an eyebrow at her. "You have something you wish to add, Lady Audrey?"

"We also need to talk about their wedding," she grumbled, jerking her head at Ben and Mal without looking at them. "And of course, because Prince Ben never took an interest in planning, I alone have the list of florists, entertainers, wineries..."

"Lady Audrey," said Mal, trying not to smile, "we appreciate your generous offer to help us. But we have decided that our wedding will be a simple one, and the only expense will be feeding the guests."

"Simple?" Audrey gaped while Ben and Mal exchanged amused looks.

"Fret not. We will save the grandeur for your wedding - you are my niece, after all."

The ribbing did not impress said niece. "I have forgiven you. Do not push your luck."

"Perhaps we should take a small break," Lord Philip interjected hastily. "Clearly, many of us are tired."

Carlos let out a sigh of relief, and Evie rolled her eyes at him. Adam allowed the recess, so the boy rushed out of the room. "Shall we eat, Jay?"

"Not yet." Jay ambled out as well, dragging Lonnie behind him. "I have matters to settle with that woman of mine. She owes me a rematch from yesterday."

"'Woman of mine'? How very brazen of you, compared to the timid man who cowered before my parents the other day." Barbs aside, her inordinately pleased expression could be read like a book.

"Let us watch them spar over lunch. I imagine it will be great fun," Belle suggested to her husband.

Ben and Mal let them all go ahead, walking at a slow pace with their fingers intertwined. "I am glad we all came together to discuss. This meeting gave me hope for the future," she told him. "I know how long it will take, but for the first time I can see my people returning home safely. There was a time when I could not even - why are you looking at me like that?"

He had not realized his stare was so intense. By way of explanation, he simply pressed his lips to hers, gathering her up in his arms. "You did so well, Queen Mal." He had been so worried for so long about the madness that had taken her, that had left her cold and dead on the inside without so much as a spark in her gaze. But now he had hope for the future too, because today, he had seen the fire in her eyes return.

That's the end! It has been a pleasure reading your reviews, so thank you for taking the time out for this story. Now I've got nothing to distract me while I wait for D3.