#and the people uses this situation to make fun of him for being uncleanly and showing executive function difficulties | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lia-jones · 4 years

Text

Growing Stronger - Chapter Thirty - Fifty Shades of Gold(man)

Author’s note: I have to say, I have tons of fun writing for this fic, but this was one of the chapters I had the most fun writing! This is an hommage to our dear assistant, always away from the spotlight, but with a sweet spot in our hearts! Thanks to @attackonmyself for the inspiration and incredible support, this project wouldn’t be the same without you!

It was 7 am when he arrived at LFG, his mind already busy listing all the things he had to do for work. And it was going to be a big day. He had to be the best he possibly could be.

“Good morning, Jeff.” He greeted the reception clerk.

“Good morning, Mr. Goldman. Is the boss going to be in a bad mood today?” Jeff joked. Although Goldman knew it was only half a joke.

“Not if I can help it!” Goldman smiled, feeling important. “Boss is waiting for a critical package today. Let me know as soon as it arrives.”

“Will do, Sir!” He heard the clerk say as he entered the elevator.

People say behind a great man there is always a great woman. Well, that’s because they never met his assistant. Some look at the assistant job as a menial one, playing maid while the CEOs do the big boy stuff. But the truth is, assistants are there so CEOs can be at the top of their game, and come home with a smile on their lips, perfectly relaxed. The way Goldman saw it, he should get two paychecks: one from Victor, and another from Andrea. He felt like their mother most of the time.

He quickly scanned the space as he got in the Financial Department. Victor was an observant man, and even a simple detail out of place would catch his attention and divert him from more pressing matters; in particular things he hated, like misplaced objects or uncleanliness. The floor was clean, the desks were spotless, the chairs were perfectly aligned with the computer keyboards and screens. Good. The cleaning lady was still there though. He looked at his watch. It was 7:05 am.

“Jody, you have ten minutes to leave. You know that if he sees you here he’ll start scolding the staff for being too messy.” Goldman warned.

“I know, Mr. Lee is always so considerate. I won’t burden him today, I’m leaving already.”

Goldman turned to Victor’s office, taking his key to open the door.

Step one, turn on the AC. The CEO felt like the cold temperature made him think clearly and sharp at all times, not to mention that he hated to perspire and would rather freeze than to feel his shirt wet, so the temperature of the room always had to be icy cold.

Step two, organize the reports by priority and then date. Victor hated things out of order and would function better in a particular one. Priority, then date.

Step three, make sure the CEO had a cup of steaming hot coffee on his desk. It had to be extremely hot, because the temperature of the room would make it cold too fast. Black, no sugar.

Step four, check the lighting. Victor liked the lighting in his room at a certain intensity, or else it would hurt his eyes after working on the computer for too long.

Step five, check if there was toilet paper, if the soap dispenser was full, if the towels were soft and clean.

Goldman checked his watch. 7:20 am. Some of the employees had already arrived and were chatting loudly in the coffee room. His phone signaled an incoming text.

He’s here.

Goldman goes to the corridor, raising his cellphone high.

“Got the text. He’s coming!”

Like an incredibly well-rehearsed team of dancers performing an intense choreography, everybody hastily took their place . Finishing their coffees in one big gulp, they went to their respective desks, turning on their computers and taking whatever documents they have to work on and putting them neatly by the keyboard. Goldman walked by, quickly inspecting the place, noticing a coffee mug on one of the desks.

“Coaster. Coaster!” He warns hurriedly. The employee promptly produces a coaster from the drawer. “And you better have that report I asked you for in 10 minutes, or he’s not going to like it!”

“Sure, Goldman.” The employee answers, already sending a document to print.

“Everybody, remember to put your phone on mute!” Goldman warned again, running to the elevator.

By the time he reached the elevator door, the Financial department was absent of chatter the only audible thing being soft strokes on keyboards and the ding of the elevator door opening. Out of it came Victor, minding his phone.

Schedule . That was what Goldman was expecting to hear. But he got something else instead.

“How big is a small wedding?” Victor asked, still tapping on his phone. Goldman looked over his shoulder, and instead of finding a report or the Financial Times in the CEO’s screen, he found… Flower arrangements?

“Excuse me, Sir?” Goldman paused, dumbfounded, as Victor continued walking alone. Not that he noticed.

“How big is a small wedding?” Victor insisted. “Fifty people? A hundred? Andrea says she would rather have a small wedding, but sometimes she is so vague…”

“I think around fifty people would be accurate, Sir.” He ran to the CEO, opening the door of his office for him. He was so distracted with his phone that he would probably have walked right into it.

“Understood. Now, does a small wedding include a string quartet? How big do you think the venue should be?” Victor asked again, taking off his suit jacket and handing it to Goldman. “It’s cold in here. How cold is that AC?”

Goldman took the AC remote, adding a few degrees to the temperature.

“Should I give you your schedule, Sir?” He asked as he hung the CEO’s jacket inside the closet.

“Right.” Victor put down his phone, paying attention to what Goldman had to say. “Also, stop calling me Sir. I was the best man at your wedding.”

“Sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess.” Goldman grabbed his tablet, ready to inform him all about the schedule.

“Andrea must need some help with the dress. Send a list of all our designer contacts to her.” Victor ordered.

“Right away. So, at nine am--” Goldman started.

“On second thought, call the designers and ask them to have a few designs ready for her, along with fabric samples. Then schedule a meeting for them and Andrea. On a weekday, after work hours. LFG conference room.”

“Absolutely. Like I was saying--”

“Oh, tell them by all means necessary they must not inform her of any costs. She must never know how much the dress will cost.”

Goldman sighed.

“Anything else, Sir?”

“No, go ahead.” Victor turned on his computer.

“Nine am sharp, meeting with the design team to approve the new LFG logo. Nine twenty, meeting with the financial department. Ten am, meeting with the account managers. The rest of your morning is free after that. In the afternoon we have a meeting with Cooper and Sons at two-thirty pm, and Loveland’s Mayor is here to talk to you at four. The reports you need for the Cooper meeting are on your desk, and I sent you the logo design to your email. Did you have a chance to see it?”

“Hmm.” Victor mumbled, his eyes stuck to the screen of his computer.

“Did you?” Goldman repeated, but the CEO didn’t answer. “Victor.”

“Yes, it’s nice.” Victor wasn’t very convincing.

“Shouldn’t you be discussing these wedding issues with Andrea? She’s the bride, after all.” Goldman frowned.

“The University wants her to publish at least some of her study before spring. There is a team in Germany on the same subject, they just found out.” Victor closed his laptop, taking the reports on his desk. “When do I have my meeting with the financial department?”

Goldman looked at his wristwatch. Ten minutes past eight.

“In fifty minutes.” He replied.

“Better get to work then.” Victor opened his laptop again. “Is Diane coming today? I need to talk to her.”

“She is coming later. I’ll let you know when she arrives.” Goldman offered, leaving the office and closing the door behind him.

As an assistant, it was his priority to give the CEO some space to do some financial magic, and Victor needed the solitude to focus. That day was very important to the company. Victor had spent months’ worth of meetings trying to buy off or at least fund Cooper and Sons, but it always fell through the cracks, for some reason. Well, in all honesty, the reason was plain to see, although no one would admit it: Jason Cooper and Victor Lee were both acting like stubborn old farts, butting heads instead of actually doing business. They had a natural ability to push each other’s buttons, and in each meeting, without exception, one of them would leave the table before negotiation could ever be done. This time, Victor swore to focus on the hardcore facts, and not let the old man get to him. He wasn’t going to give up on something for which he fought so hard for so long, but the situation was starting to wear him down.

Goldman went to the conference room, making sure everything was working perfectly, that the room was spotless, and that it was at the right temperature. Well, today a few degrees higher, because Victor had decided he liked the room warmer.

After a while, the members of the design team started arriving.

“How is he today? Bad mood?” One of them asked.

“He just got engaged. He’s getting laid on a daily basis. With Andrea.” Another employee bantered, before Goldman could answer. “He hasn’t been in a bad mood since then. She tames him.”

“Our CEO’s sexual activities are not watercooler gossip!” Goldman chastised. “But yeah, Andy’s a good influence on him.”

“I think I speak for all the men when I say any of us would love to be under her influence. Or on top.” The first employee wiggled his eyebrows at the second. “She may have a temper, but she’s hot.”

“Andrea is a remarkable woman and my friend, so you guys better watch it.” Goldman scolded them in a hushed tone. “Besides, that’s the kind of talk that will get you fired, so quit it.”

He looked at the watch. The CEO was five minutes late. Not like him at all. Maybe he needed some assistance.

He found Victor still working on his computer, trained eyes on the screen.

“Shall I inform the design team that you are going to be late?”

“Hmm?” Victor looked up from the screen, looked surprised to find Goldman there, until it apparently dawned on him. “Oh, the meeting. Coming right over.”

It wasn’t that the meetings didn’t go well. The meetings were productive, and the CEO managed to be somewhat present. But everyone could tell he was different, and that was making everybody nervous. He didn’t seem as focused as usual, like there was something else on his mind, and it was driving people crazy. And, obviously, Goldman was the one who had to instill some calm in the very worried employees.

“He’s selling LFG, isn’t he?” One of the members of the design team asked, during a coffee break. “It’s like he doesn’t care, he didn’t even criticize the logo, he just nodded. What does that nod mean, Goldman? Are we getting fired? Did he hate it and he’s hiring someone else to do my job?” The employee grabbed Goldman by the shoulders, shaking him. “Please, tell me, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?”

“Victor is not firing anyone, he just liked the logo.” Goldman didn’t want to disclose what was making his boss so preoccupied. “Come on, you complain when he scolds you, and you complain when he doesn’t?”

“Oh no, he’s acting weird.” Cindy chimed in. “Yesterday I presented a report, and he found some mistakes. I was expecting a lecture, instead he just took the report and wrote some notes, told me to change it. I got so nervous I started crying.”

“Not your best moment, Cindy.” Goldman glared at her, remembering Victor had to call him to calm her down.

“Oh and I haven’t got to the really weird part.” She spoke again, her eyes dramatically wide. “When I started crying he got all weird and came to me. He started patting me in the head and saying There, there…”

“That is weird.” Another employee commented. “Something’s wrong. Definitely.”

“Ok, let’s all calm down.” Goldman put his hands up, trying to get everyone’s attention. “As you know, he is getting married, he’s been a little preoccupied, that’s all. Your jobs are not in jeopardy. Just do your work as usual, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get back to his old self soon.”

The answer seemed to please the staff, as most of them knew Andrea from the time she worked there, and found it plausible that she would have some influence in the normally overbearing CEO. Still, Goldman had to mention this to the CEO. He couldn’t afford to have his staff running around like headless chickens. The matter was how to bring the subject up. Perhaps after lunch, when the CEO was given some time to relax.

It was a good idea, in theory, but the reality was much different. As Goldman prepared himself to knock on the CEO’s office door, he overheard him talking, probably on the phone.

“A million and a half is not that much, I can make that in a day… (pause) Andrea… It is nothing, compared to how much you mean to me. (pause) I wouldn’t allow you to have a cheaper ring. You are my future wife, I want you to have the very best. (pause) No, you cannot have a replica. (pause) No. (pause) Absolutely not. (pause) We’ll discuss it over dinner. I love you. Goodbye. (pause) Ugh, that woman!”

Nope, Goldman thought, not getting myself into that. He decided to turn and leave when he heard Victor call him. Bullocks.

“You called, Sir?”

“Yes. Remind me of my afternoon schedule again.” Victor frowned as he looked at his computer screen.

At least the boss was back in business, not wanting to talk about weddings.

“Two-thirty, Cooper and Sons. The Mayor at four.” Goldman informed him with a smile.

“I do not have the patience to deal with that man today.” Victor grunted.

“Should I reschedule?”

“Reschedule with the Mayor. You’ll handle Cooper for me.”

“ME, SIR??” Goldman couldn’t help raising the tone of his voice. He would talk to Cooper instead of the CEO? That had never happened in the 8 years he spent working for Victor. Victor never delegated, especially in such important matters.

“Who do you think will replace me when I’m on my honeymoon?” Victor smiled. “Speaking of which, I was thinking Bali, maybe also Morrocco. Do you think Andrea will like it?” He returned to his computer to search for honeymoon destinations.

“Sir, I cannot in good conscience accept to go-” Goldman tried to divert the subject back to more pressing matters.

“Diane told her about the ring. She’s afraid to lose it, she wants a replica. Do you think she didn’t like it? She’s not handling the money issue very well.” The CEO looked sad, all of a sudden.

Goldman sighed, conceding he would have to talk about the wedding once again.

“It’s normal that Andrea feels a little…uncomfortable with such luxury. But in the end, she will see that no matter how much you have, you’re still you. Besides, brides always get nervous for whatever reason. I remember when I was getting married, Diane was insufferable.” Goldman smiled, as he remembered.

“Andrea called her Bridezilla.” Victor chuckled. “You are right, this is probably just wedding jitters. Besides, she is under a lot of pressure at work, it’s normal she would lash out a little. I will deal with her temper and give her the wedding she deserves... Even if she opposes it at first, she will be happy when she sees the result.”

“Sir, about the meeting with Cooper…” Goldman tried again.

“Right, it’s almost time. Don’t let me keep you. Good luck.” And with that, the CEO retreated to himself, ignoring Goldman completely.

If anything, he was prepared, he pondered as he walked into the room. He had spent numerous hours discussing the matter with the CEO, reading every report, attending every meeting for that purpose. And surprisingly, Mr. Cooper welcomed his presence and was willing to listen, commenting every now and then how Victor was an ass--difficult person. The meeting ended in the best terms possible, and Goldman achieved the unthinkable. Not only were they funding Cooper and Sons, the set terms were incredibly beneficial to LFG.

The assistant practically danced all the way to the CEO’s office. Victor would be so incredibly proud of him. He could already hear him praise him: Good job, Goldman. LFG will be in the best hands.

To his surprise, Victor was in an incredibly good mood…bantering with his wife.

“Bernard Meer. He’s the one you have to get. He planned the wedding for the Princess of Sweden. Very solicited. Apparently very hard to get.” Diane bantered with a very engaged Victor, showing him one of her gossip magazines. “Look at this banquet room. It’s magical.”

“He does have good taste.” Victor analyzed the picture meticulously. “The tables look exquisite. Do you think Andrea would like it?”

“Who wouldn’t?” Diane gasped. “It’s a fairytale come true. And we both know, she is all tough on the outside, but deep down she’s just a dreamy little girl like the rest of us. I’m sure she will love it.”

“Then it’s settled.” Victor closed the magazine with resolve and turned to Goldman. “Get in touch with this wedding planner. Schedule a meeting with him as soon as possible.”

“And the date, is it still going to be March 21st?” Diane spoke, taking Victor’s attention again. “It is a great season for flowers! You’ll have peonies, tulips, hyacinths…”

“Yes, the flowers will be in bloom, which is great for scenery and pictures.” Victor bantered, excited. “Andrea loves nature, so it’s the perfect time without having to deal with the very hot weather.”

“Sir, about the meeting…” Goldman tried to divert Victor’s attention again to work. To this incredible work with Cooper and Sons.

“With the planner, yes. As soon as possible. If you have to reschedule something to make time for him, do it. The planner is your top priority.” Victor quickly dismissed him with his hand, looking at the pictures on the magazine again.

Top priority, right. Goldman left the room with a sigh. Now that he was finally able to prove his worth to his idol, he was too busy to notice. He quickly wrote a report of that meeting and sent it to Victor’s email, already knowing he wouldn’t read it. Then, he started making some phone calls, trying to get a hold of that planner.

It was easier to catch water with a sift than to get in touch with that man. He wasn’t taking calls or clients, for that matter. No matter how much Goldman would drop Victor’s name. The wedding planner was unavailable.

He wouldn’t relent, however. His boss had requested that Bernard fellow, and he would get him. If he couldn’t show diligence with his fabulous entrepreneurial work, he would do it with some outstanding assistant work. He would achieve the impossible. He would get what Victor wanted, and Victor would be proud.

All he needed was a different approach. And he knew exactly the person that could help him. The CEO would forgive him, but there was no greater genius mastermind in the entire planet than his loving wife, Diane. After all, Victor would have to thank her for getting married in the first place. She would know what to do.

When he finally found her, he noticed she was already busy talking with someone on the phone, probably a client. He started to walk away, not wanting to disturb her work. At least someone was taking her job seriously today. That is, until he heard a little of the conversation.

“Come on, Andy, cut him some slack! You should have seen him, so engaged in planning your wedding… And the way his eyes sparkle and his tone softens when he says your name… So cute.”

“Is that Andrea on the phone?” Goldman asked, seeing red.

“Yes. Do you need anything?” Diane asked, innocently.

“Hand me the phone.” He demanded with gritted teeth. Diane immediately obliged.

“Ok, I don’t have much time to spare, so I need you to listen to me very carefully.” He heard a confused OK on the other side of the line, and continued. “If it’s not too much to ask, will you please take a moment out of your very busy life to sit down with your fiancé AND PLAN YOUR DAMN WEDDING? It’s your wedding, not mine. I HAVE A DEGREE IN ECONOMICS, I AM NOT A WEDDING PLANNER! Also, the ring you refuse to wear took three months to pick and numerous trips to thirty exclusive jewelry stores! Victor was completely obsessed with finding the perfect ring, it was all he would talk about. I HAVE NIGHTMARES STARRING YOUR RING! You won’t lose it and nobody will steal it from you, but even if they do, it’s insured! SO JUST STOP COMPLAINING AND WEAR THE DAMN THING!” He paused, and it dawned on him that he had been screaming at Andrea, who was not only his friend, but also his boss’s future wife. She remained silent, probably in shock over his outburst. “And congratulations on your recent engagement. Best wishes to the happy couple, please don’t tell Victor I yelled at you.”

He gave the phone back to Diane, who was looking at him in shock, mouth wide open. Time to try to get the planner again, Goldman thought, with a sigh. He just wanted the day to be over. Even though he was happy for his boss, Victor was clearly letting his personal life slip into his professional one, and it was bound to affect results. Of course, he knew his boss wasn’t a machine, even though most times he worked with the efficiency of one.

And then it hit him. Of course! Personal life! Goldman had been worried about getting through the wedding planner through professional means, he had never considered the more personal ones. Highly unethical, but great tasks require unorthodox measures. He started calling his contacts and calling a few favors, when he found his gateway to the wedding planner: Bernard and Victor frequented the same hairstylist.

He was already on his way home when he called the stylist, Diane by his side driving and listening in the conversation. The guy was just going to the salon, and would call back when he arrived with the planner's personal contact, provided Goldman would promise he would try to have him and his team as stylists at the wedding.

“Victor really made you run for your money this time, didn’t he?” Diane asked, seeing him all flustered.

“And then some.” Goldman tried to rub the stress and exhaustion from his face.

“Don’t worry, our day will end on a sweet note. I have some very good news.” Diane beamed at him, while she parked the car in front of their building.

“I do need some good news.” Goldman heard his cell phone ring. “Oh wait, let me take this.”

The stylist was chatting his ear off, and while Goldman knew he had to be polite and listen, he just wanted the goddamn number already. He ran around the apartment, looking for a piece of paper and a pen, frustrated that he would always have those items at hand, laying around, except when he really needed them. Finally, he found some post-its and a weirdly shaped marker, that should do.

“Ok, you can give me the number now.” He took the cap off the marker and tried to write with it, but it wouldn’t work. “Crap! Just something work already!” He whispered in frustration. Diane gave him another pen. “Ok, go now. Two, four, four…” He scribbled the number on the post it. “Got it! Thank you very much. The CEO will be happy to hear of your help.”

Goldman felt himself relax when he looked at the piece of paper. He had done it. All he had to do now is call the guy in the morning and convince him to meet Victor. And the client being Victor, it wouldn’t be very hard.

His phone beeped and he looked at the screen. It was a text message from the CEO himself. Probably to know if Goldman was able to get him what he wanted. He sighed, opening the text. It read: Excellent work with Cooper and Sons. My trust was not misplaced.

Goldman let himself get inebriated with the sweet taste of victory. He had done it. HE HAD DONE IT! This day couldn’t possibly get any better!

Diane approached him, with a knowing smile on her face, and handed him the malfunctioning pen again.

“Just throw it in the trash, honey, it doesn’t…” He trailed off, staring at his hand, not believing his own eyes. It wasn’t a pen, after all. It was a pregnancy test. She hugged him and spoke softly to him.

“Congratulations! You’re going to be a daddy.”

Oh boy.

#Growing Pains - Series #growingstronger #mlqc fanfic #mlqc li zeyan #victor mlqc #victor x oc #love and producer #mister love queens choice

9 notes · View notes

hannahmcne · 4 years

Text

Getting It Right

Ben almost throws up the first time a boy shows up to pick his daughter up at the palace.

And no, it's not just because she's old enough to be considered pretty and there are now boys sending her cards for her birthday and asking for her number. Because he and Mal have handled that pretty well - checking her phone weekly and making her download a spyware app that tells them not only how often she's using her phone to text but also who she spends the most time texting and also forwarding any photos she sends or receives. (Ben's honestly not too worried about her sending bad photos to boys since she's always been pretty aware of what would happen if someone got ahold of sexts from the princess of Auradon, but he does care about what she might receive.) And Belle is smart. She gets good grades and all her friends act like mini-adults outside of Preston and Jayson, Jay's two twin boys. Her two best friends are Tanner and Sophie, Evie's kids, and those two are the type of honest kids who make the world spin the way it should. So when Belle tells him and Mal that she'll be going out one Friday night(that did hurt a bit, in hindsight), he doesn't worry too much. He makes sure that she charges her phone and tells her to make sure to keep the ringer on and don't go anywhere there isn't reception. She gets some pepper spray and a switchblade from Mal, and a cautious warning from him. On the night of, she comes in to ask for help putting a braid in her hair(Mal pulls too much and always forgets which way she's braiding halfway through), and then borrows a pair of Mal's earrings that someone from the courts sent her and that she's never worn.

He has to run up to his office to file some paperwork, but Lumiere pages from the front gates when the boy arrives and he gets down to the foyer about a minute after Mal and Belle have already welcomed him in.

And that's when he has to hold back a simultaneous snort, roll of the eyes, and a gag.

Because out of all the people Belle hangs out with and her being the upstanding teen she is, why on earth would she want to go out with this boy?

His daughter had to bring home the worst sort of kid out there.

The smell of smoke is wafting around the kid as he stands in the foyer of the palace wearing a sweaty tank top and what appear to be girl's leggings that are pushed down to show the tops of his underwear. His ratty hair is braided back and he has green streaks in both his eyebrows and head hair. A nose ring pokes through his nostril with a gem swinging from it like some sort of crystalized booger.

Now, to be fair, Ben has no issue with boys braiding their hair or cross-dressing or nose rings or hair dye. Smoking toes the line a bit. And this kid, he knows, is definitely not old enough to legally be smoking.

However, it is the sheer lack of uncleanliness and the devil-may-care attitude that has him squinting a little, closing his eyes, and then dragging his hands down his face with a sigh.

Mal's mouth is pressed together in disappointment. She, too, is no stranger to funky hair colors or piercings and boys dressing like they're heading to tourney practice(she grew up on the Isle of the Lost with Jay as her close ally, of course), but her disappointment makes the air so thick he has no idea how Belle is still smiling, fidgeting a little as she presents the young man.

"Daddy," she begins with a little smile. "This is Joel. We're going out skating tonight." Then she waits with her little handbag clutched in between her fingers, twisting the toe of her shoe into the ground as she waits.

What is she waiting for? Approval? An "I'm so sorry for you"? Ben looks over at Mal, whose eyes are a bit wide as she exhales in frustration. It's good to know they're on the same page.

Joel steps forward, letting out a breath, and slouches forward as he puts his hands on Belle's shoulders. "When do you want her home?" He asks.

Now, Ben thinks, it is one thing to come into the High Palace dressed the way you are. It is another to think you can take the princess out, who looks decent and tailored and somewhat professional, when you reek like you've been choosing to shower in smoke and sweat instead of water. It is one more to meet the king - the father of the girl you're taking out - not introduce yourself, not greet him at all, and not have any regard to speak except "when do you want her home?"

Ben gives the boy another once over and this time notices something that turns his stomach around in his torso. The kid has a white box between the waistline of the leggings and his underwear, half-open and dirty from touching his skin. This time, he does roll his eyes.

"No," he announces, shaking his head.

"No?" Belle asks, with the smile dropping off her face in confusion. "What do you mean, no?"

"No," Ben repeats, stepping forward, taking her arm, and then pushing her towards the stairs a little. "Not happening. Go upstairs, you're going to bed."

Mal hides a smile behind her hand as the kid processes what is going on. He looks like a blue screen on a computer as it loads. "What?" He asks. "But-" he leans over Ben's shoulder to try and talk to Belle. "Aren't we going to go skating?"

That pisses Ben off. Because if anything, the kid should be asking him this instead of ignoring the way he's now standing in between him and his daughter.

"Not anymore," Ben takes the boy's shoulders and, ignoring the sweat that is now on his fingertips, turns him around and marches him closer to the door. "I just decided she's not going out. Have a nice evening and drive safe."

Mal opens the door with a smirk as Ben moves closer to it. Joel steps out with a dazed look. "Wait, but-" the door closes softly in front of him.

"Dad!" Belle protests from the stairs. She marches up with her green eyes blazing in fury. "Why can't we go out? It's going to be fun!"

"I can't believe you even tried to bring him home," Mal snorted softly. "If I were you, I would have attempted to meet up there."

"I would have had to have met the kid first to allow that," Ben disagrees, taking Mal's arm and shaking his head. "You seriously couldn't pick anyone better? The kid was high and looked like he hadn't showered since the day he was born."

"I met cleaner kids on the Isle of the Lost," Mal pitches in, nodding along to his words.

"Listen, Belle," Ben begins. "You are a bright and smart and beautiful young girl. I don't know why on earth you're going out with people like that, but I don't want you to ever bring someone like that home again."

"You're just upset because I'm older now and dating people!" Belle accuses. "And you're judging him based on the way he looks!"

"And smells," Mal adds dryly.

"Belle, I will let you go out with any decent kid you show me, boy or girl," Ben sighs, holding out his hands to count on his fingers when he talks. "But the kid you just tried to show me clearly put no thought into making tonight special for you, didn't even consider that he was coming to the palace to pick you up and he would have to meet the King and Queen before he'd be allowed to take the princess out, was higher than the ceiling fan, didn't introduce himself or shake hands or anything, and was filthier than the backside of a factory vent." He crosses his arms and frowns at her. "If you're going to make a habit of bringing home kids like that, we'll have to get you a lot more than pepper spray."

"A class," Mal moans, covering her face. "A self-help website. A book. A counselor. Something."

Belle's eyes fill up with stubborn, angry tears before she whirls on her feet and stomps away up the stairs. Ben listens to her march away. Her room is further up to prevent people from sneaking in while royal activities are going on, but he still hears the echoes of her door slamming about two minutes later when she reaches it.

Mal leans her head against his shoulder. "We're not going to survive the dating phase, are we?" She whispers. Ben sighs in silent agreement before she puts a hand on his shoulder and looks up at him. "Did you see on his hip? He had a box of-"

"I saw," Ben cuts her off with a shake of his head. "It's okay. It won't happen again."

________________________________________________________________

Belle doesn't stay mad for long. She forgets to be angry by lunch that next day and by the time 24 hours have passed, she's agreed that it probably wouldn't have been the best situation. It gives both Ben and Mal a bit of hope when she says she's been asked out again, but Ben makes sure to be in the foyer when the second boy knocks. There have been a few long conversations - Mal and Ben made a deal that if he gave Belle the "what to do if a boy wants to do things you know we don't approve of" talk, then she'd handle teaching their daughter a few self-defense tricks and set out standards for boys and dates and "how your father and I want your date to behave when he meets us" and the occasional threat for not complying with their terms. Belle now has a taser and Ben called Carlos to see if there was a way that they could program the emergency button on Belle's phone to also call him and Mal if she hits it, and they all feel a little more prepared.

There's a knock at the door and Ben opens it up. At least with this kid, there's an immediate reason why she's going out with him. He looks good. Long, dark hair like Jay's back in high school, but thicker. His skin is dark and clean and he's strong. He's dressed in a red t-shirt that looks well enough, but the blue jeans he wears are almost all holes. All up and down his legs, in the front and back. The only untouched parts are the seams on the sides. Ben sighs a little and puts a smile on. At least this kid doesn't have a jewel swinging in his nostril. Instead, the black gauges he has look calm and not flashy.

"I'm Carlie," he introduces himself, holding out a hand to shake. "Your daughter and I are going out to a rodeo tonight. I hope she's ready."Mal hums beside him. He glances over at her as he shakes Carlie's hand.

"Okay," he nods.

The kid steps over the doorframe, weaves around Ben, and then claps his hands together when he sees Belle standing beside the stairs. Ben sees Mal narrow her eyes as he invites himself into the entryway. "There she is!" He announces to the world in a loud voice. "Come on, we can't take forever!" He huffs and crosses his arms before giving Ben's daughter a once-over. She's wearing a floral dress with a white jacket. Her shoes are white sneakers, and she looks a little thrown off. "Girl, you're going to ruin those shoes. The rodeo has black mud for miles. And you won't be able to ride anything in that dress."

Belle's lips fall into a frown. Ben and Mal exchange a look. "You didn't tell me we were going to a rodeo," she told him. "You said to dress nice."

"I meant like this," Carlie slaps his hands against his distressed jeans. Mal presses a hand to her forehead.

Belle stares at Carlie, eyes tracing his outfit and the disbelieving expression on his face. Ben feels bad for her - she spent a solid three hours getting ready and even went to Mal for advice when she stopping believing his affirmations of "you look wonderful, sweetheart." She never goes to Mal for fashion advice. Ever. It's always him, Evie, or sometimes Audrey.

Belle sighs dramatically. "Well you should have given me context," she reprimands him. "And if you were worried about being late, why didn't you ask to pick me up earlier?"

"Didn't realize I'd have to come all the way up and meet your folks," Carlie replies, sticking a thumb out at Ben and Mal. "Most chicks just come on down and get in the car,"

"Well, I guess next time you know to plan ahead," Belle mutters. Her eyes are sparking in annoyance. Ben presses his lips together to keep from laughing.

"Next time?" The kid asks with a laugh. "Do I have to come by the king every single time? Maybe next time you should just drive yourself and meet me."

Belle looks past Carlie at Ben and gives him this wide-eyed, hard look of "I can't believe this is happening." Ben can hardly believe it either. He wishes he had a camera rolling. Would the security cameras pick up good enough footage?

"Well," Belle huffs. "I guess we'd better get going then." She walks towards the door, pausing beside Carlie and holding out her arm for him to take. He ignores it though, and then walks back out, scoffing a little as he passes Ben and Mal.

Mal hugs Belle and whispers a few lines of "Be safe, I love you, be good." And then Belle tries to hug Ben. He puts an arm around her and kisses her head, but he's not convinced yet. They watch Carlie jump down to his truck, which sits in the circle lot, and then hop in and start it up. A cloud of black smoke explodes from the tailpipe and the car starts with a noise like a cow screaming. Belle's arms are tense.

Ben puts his arms around Mal as they watch her walk down. "Are we really letting her do this?" Mal demands in an urgent tone. "Look at how he treats her!"

"It's okay. She needs to learn that if she picks the wrong type of guy, she won't have a good time," Ben assures her. Mal's fingers curl into her hands still, and they watch as Belle opens her own door, looking immensely irritated, and then buckles her seatbelt.

The car leaves slowly. Ben hums as they reach the end of the circle driveway. "I didn't think she'd last that long," he whispers in Mal's ear. She looks up at him, a little confused.

The car stays paused at the end of the driveway for the longest time. Then, instead of turning out to the main road that will take them to the gates, the car returns into the driveway and comes back up to the door.

"There is it," Ben laughs. Ben and Mal watch Belle open the door, now looking angry. As she jumps out, a storm of swear words follows her. Ben briefly hears about five insults directed at her, him and Mal, and the palace before Belle slams the door so hard a crack appears in the window. She stomps up the steps as the truck takes off, leaving behind a cloud of black smoke that makes Ben cough a little as his daughter storms past him and Mal. He chuckles as he closes the front door.

"How'd you know?" Mal asks once Belle is far enough away. "Ben shakes his head.

"Oh please," he snorted. "She likes the way he looks, but she doesn't like his attitude!"

________________________________________________________________

She only tries to sneak past Ben once, and he makes sure it'll never happen again.

He's in his old office, finishing up a few things, when Lumiere pages up. The receiver on his desk cackles a bit as it connects and then Lumiere greets him with a little smile. "Your Majesty," He begins, "The princess's date has arrived."

Ben pauses, staying silent, and glances down at the calendar on his desk. It is blank. No one is due to go anywhere tonight. This means Belle either completely forgot she had a date and didn't tell them, or she forgot to tell Lumiere not to tip her dad off when they showed up. Ben hums. "Thank you, Lumiere. Could you let them in, please? But if Belle is in the car when they go back out, keep them in."

Lumiere pauses on the other end of the line. Ben can feel him contemplating the odd request, but he doesn't ask. "Yes, your majesty," he agrees.

Ben picks up the key to lock his room on the way out and then walks past Mal's office as she's on the phone with someone in Arendelle, arranging for them to transfer a case from the lower courts to the High court. He's in a bit of a rush, but he can't resist her when she's furrowing up her brow and forcing her breath to come out normally. He loves how hard she works to be his queen. He steps inside and, when she doesn't immediately notice him, hurries to sweep in and cut her next sentence off with a kiss.

"We'll be expecting the file to arrive on - mph!" Mal squeaks as he shoves the phone away from her ear to tangle his fingers in her hair. There are days when his suits are tailored and his skin is clear and he is every inch the king his parents hoped he would be. Then there are other days when buttons on his shirts have been hastily snapped off and possessive marks dot his neck and jaw and there is nothing anyone else can do about it but roll their eyes. Sometimes he is perfectly professional. Other times, he's a fool in love.

"I'm on the phone!" Mal protests. "Why are you here?" He can hear someone from Arendelle laughing on the other end of the call as they realize what happened. He's well-known for interrupting meetings, conversations, and interviews when he decides she's too darn sexy for him to pass up.

"I love you," Ben laughs, kissing her cheek as her face flares up the way it did the first few times he said it when they were teens. "And I'm heading to correct some negligence in our family."

"Negligence?" Mal askes, dumbfounded. "What did Tyler do now?"

Ben snorts. Of course, Mal would assume it was Tyler after all the years they spent trying to get their middle child to shape up. He's an adult now, though, and not even living in the palace. He shakes his head as he heads back to the door, gesturing to Mal to finish her call up and he'll tell her later.

He has to speed up to make it down the entry staircase and out the front door before Belle comes down or before her friends show up, and then he takes a right and goes wandering through his Mom's rose garden to the left of the palace while he waits for Belle's friends to reach the front.

A red pickup truck pulls in, with three teens in front and a large group in the back. They don't notice him as they pull to a stop in front of the palace. The front door opens and Belle dashes out, purple hair up in a ponytail and a black leather jacket over her shoulder with an old school backpack in one hand as she dashes out to the truck in a frantic panic. One kid jumps out - a boy with muddied boots and a black long-sleeved shirt, and he helps her step up on the wheel and swing her leg into the truck. "Don't we got to talk to your parents?" One girl calls from the front of the truck.

Belle waves them on. "No, we just gotta leave before they get out of office! Come on, let's go!"

Ben pinches his lips together. Hmm.

She sits down in the back and then the truck lurches to a roll. They start to pull away, music loud and everyone laughing. Before they can pass the rose garden, Ben steps out and walks slowly out to the center of the driveway. For a moment, the teens don't see him, and then the truck screeches to a stop about seven feet in front of him. Ben just presses his lips together again. The kids in the front seat stare at him for several long seconds, and one of the girls has the decency to look sheepish. "What's going on?" Belle yells from the back.

Ben walks around the truck with his arms folded, nodding to the driver as he passes. He appears on the side Belle is leaning against and appreciates the looks of horror that pass each of her friend's faces. Belle's mouth curls down into that perfect pout she got from her mom. It used to get her out of lots of trouble, but it's not going to work now.

"Dad..." She moans slowly, shoulders slumping. She's just barely finished pulling on her jacket.

Ben walks to the back of the truck and pulls on the lever to release the back of the truck. It falls down with a little thud and Ben takes a moment to glance over the teens in the backseat. Belle is sitting perpendicular on her date's lap with her back to the sides of the truck bed and her feet tangled up with her other friends from school. Tanner, Sophie, Preston, and Jackson are in the car, along with Mila, Carlos's daughter, and a couple other kids that she probably knows from school. It's not unlike how he and Mal used to go around with their friends back during everyone's college years when they were all twenty. The difference was that his parents always knew where he was going and who he was with. And then, most importantly, what time he and Mal would be separated for the night. (They didn't necessarily care about who got home first or where they went once they were separated, but if they were falling asleep somewhere together there would be a debt to pay later on.) And it was only with Mal since everyone knew from day one that he was committed to her. If Ben wanted to sleep over at Evie's, fine, but they also had to know where he and Mal would be and who would be watching them.

There had been times that his mom or dad had stopped him before going out with friends like this. His mom had grabbed his arm and threatened dismemberment if she heard he and Mal had snuck off anywhere the first time that they'd left in this manner. But that was always inside, not in front of friends like this.

Belle's date looks mortified to have been caught sneaking the princess out of the palace with said princess's arm around him. He carefully removes Belle's arm while flushing and avoiding Ben's gaze. Belle looks heartbroken as Ben gestures her forward by holding out his hand and flexing his fingers with a small nod to the palace. It's a trick he learned from Hades, and he's grateful for it. Belle deflates and picks up her backpack dejectedly. She stumbles over everyone's feet. Ben seizes her upper arm when she's close enough and helps her climb out. She only starts arguing once she's on the ground. "Dad, we're just going down to the pier. You never let me go out with anyone fun."

Ben crosses his arms. "No. I never let you go out with anyone who'll hurt you."

"They're not gonna hurt me!" Belle protests, flinging her arm out in the direction of the truck. "Why can't I go?"

"Because I also don't let you go out when you're grounded," Ben replies, raising one unimpressed eyebrow.

"Grounded?" Belle repeats, furrowing her brow together.

"Grounded," Ben repeats, turning her towards the palace and shoving her shoulder to move her forward. He hates having to play the mean parent, but he's not going to put up with her sneaking out. She's still a princess, no matter how much like her mom she is. He's not going to let her be hurt. "For lying and breaking our rules. Go to your room. I'll send your mom up in a moment and you can explain to her what you were trying to do."

He's sending Mal because all three children are scared of their mother when she's angry. Five minutes of scathing disappointment under his wife's glowing green gaze and Belle will never want to leave home again, much less without permission.

Belle hangs her head and begins her shameful walk back to the palace. Ben turns back to the kids in the truck. He glances at the second generation islanders first. "Your parents better know that you're out," He warns them. Then, he focuses on the scared-stiff boy in the back of the truck. "If you would like to take my daughter out," He begins, "You have to meet me first. That is the rule."

Ben then lifts the truck bed back and pushes it into place. He steps back and gestures for the truck to continue its trek, sans one, down the driveway. The teenagers pull away in silence.

The front door is left open, which would piss Ben off even more if Belle wasn't sitting on the bottom step, waiting for him with tears running down her face. "Dad, why'd you do that?" She hiccups. "You're being mean. None of my other friends have to have their parents meet every single person at the door. I just wanted to go out for an hour. I would have been back at sundown."

"Well, that would have been a much more appreciated sentiment before you were jumping in and yelling about how you needed to leave before your parents got out of office," Ben raises his eyebrows at her. "And Belle, none of your other friends are attached to the crown. People get famous off of dating princesses. People could want to hurt you as a token of pride. I'm not going to let someone take advantage of you."

Belle hiccups and scrubs at her eyes before she breaks down. "Can you please not tell mom?" She whispers. "I won't try again. Please?"

Ben almost gives in when he sees how pitiful she looks with black streaks running down her cheeks. This is still his baby princess who was so excited whenever he'd put plastic or paper crowns on her head at birthday parties and who was so proud when people started commenting about how much like her dad she looked instead of always saying she had Mal's green eyes and purple hair. But he tilts his head, knowing there's no way in Auradon or on the Isle he's not telling Mal about this, and gives her a soft look that makes her start to cry harder. She stands up, stomping her foot, and begins to climb the stairs in despair.

"Belle?" He calls before she can get very far, and she huffs as she turns back around. He holds out a hand. "Phone." He demands.

Belle screws up her face as she whips out her touchscreen and drops it into his hand. He slips it into his pocket and then she turns and storms away to her room.

Ben walks back up to his office to continue work. On the way up, he stops by Mal's office and drops Belle's phone on her desk. Mal looks up from where she's searching through a filing cabinet, squints at the phone, and then turns to him for an explanation. Since they can remote-access anything on their children's devices and need to make sure their children can always reach the palace, it's not often they remove cell phone privileges.

"What happened?" She asks in a dull tone.

"I took care of it," Ben assures her by way of explanation. "But I need you to do the punishment part." He puts his index finger down on Belle's phone as his way of telling Mal she's not allowed to have it.

"That bad?" Mal stares.

"Don't go dragon when you hear," He tells her. "And I would do it now so she doesn't get herself together only to fall apart again." Get the bad parts all over with so she doesn't have to cry herself out twice.

Mal snaps the filing cabinet closed and slips the phone into her pocket. "Bye," She says as she kisses his cheek and slips out. Ben watches her go with a sigh. Thank goodness he married an Isle girl and not an Auradon princess, otherwise, it'd be his job to frighten the kids into submission and he's not one to be able to withstand tears for long.

Goodness, how is he going to survive Belle's dating phase?

________________________________________________________________

Belle manages to have one or two successful, small, low-key group dates before Derik shows up on his doorstep. The kid has a buzz cut, acts as if he's a soldier, and when Belle cracks a joke at the front door, he doesn't get it. Ben sends them off with a wave and a roll of his eyes and doesn't say anything when Belle sneaks back in twenty minutes later, frustrated."At least she's slowly learning, right?" He tells Mal.

________________________________________________________________

Things get harder then. Belle has a running list of what she wants. Someone kind, someone who will compliment her outfit and open doors for her, someone who will check all her parent's boxes and who is funny and fun to talk to. She doesn't just accept dates with anyone because she's flattered they asked anymore or because they look nice. Now it's with friends and people she's known for a while. Which makes it a lot harder if Ben has to say no.

Her science lab partner shows up for dinner one night. Belle's two older brothers Zach and Tyler get a little confused when they see him. Zach travels a lot, doing things for the throne since he's 'technically' king now. Tyler works in town, managing a restaurant that he actually started at by washing dishes. So they both have been busy and kinda oblivious to the fact their kid sister is dating. It rocks them a little when they find out.

Babel is the kid's name. It throws Ben off for a second because he hasn't heard anyone with that name, but then he nods and offers the kid a chair and then shakes his head at Mal when Babel's back is turned. He already knows this isn't going to work out. Twenty minutes into dinner, he realizes why.

"So, you're third in line for the throne, right?" Babel asks Belle, cutting off her and Tyler's rendition of something they used to do together as kids. Ben feels Mal's hand hit the table before she moves it over to set her fingers over his, and he sighs internally. It's something that came up with each of their sons whenever they started talking to girls(and boys. Tyler has experimented a little). The matter of the crown.

Belle frowns a little. "Uh, kinda." She nods and then attempts to relaunch into her story.

"Kinda?" Babel asks. "What do you mean?"

Belle sighs. "Well, I'm not of age yet, so I can't be queen until then. So until I'm sixteen, my parents actually are in line before me. If something happened to Tyler or Zach, the crown would go back to them. But once either of them gets married, my right of inheritance gets bumped back. So if Zach married, his wife would be second. And if they had a kid, the baby would be third. And then Tyler would be fourth, dad fifth, mom sixth, and I'm last in line before you go to my grandparents."

"And then your husband after you?" Babel asks.

Belle frowns and has a million-and-one questions about the crown and the kingdom and what Belle's allowed to do and "have you ever used your status to bend the rules". It makes Ben sad because he can tell Belle liked this kid before he started trying to insinuate what her reaction would be if both of her brothers happened to go missing. He knows as his daughter leads Babel to the door that night, that he won't be seeing the boy again, and that it probably won't be the last time someone dates her for a shot at the throne of Auradon.

When Belle shuts the door and then slumps against it with a disappointed sigh, Ben steps up behind her and gives her a hug. "Dating is so hard!" She complains. "Can't I find someone who is nice and cute and who likes me and not the castle?"

Ben understands. He was once dating Audrey, after all. He sighs and squeezes her tighter. There's not a lot else he can do.

________________________________________________________________

They get a system, he and Mal do. As boy after boy with the occasional appearance of a girl appear and leave on their doorstep in varying degrees of failure, they both start picking up on signals and body language. And then there are predictions.

"She's not leaving the property," Mal whispers as they watch her get into a small coupe with a smashed-in passenger side door.

"She'll be back late," Ben hums when someone opens the door to a large, red truck and helps her in.

There's still the occasional time that someone unfavorable shows up, but all Ben has to do is glance between his daughter and the person outside, say "No", and she'll lead them away with a sigh. If they're particularly cute or nice, he'll get a whine of "Dad, why?", but she trusts him after the first few problems she had.

Still, she's a teenager, and she's growing surer of herself. Ben knows it can't be long before she starts to disregard his advice.

It finally happens one evening in October.

Two weeks from his and Mal's anniversary and Lumiere pages up to say someone has arrived for Belle. Ben goes down, opens the door, and finds himself peering into a pair of clear, blue eyes. Someone with tanned skin and curly black hair and bright eyes stands behind his door with a confident smile. He's all dressed up in slacks and a red button-down shirt and his teeth are whiter than paper. Ben feels a headache come on. This won't end well.

"Pleased to meet you, Your Majesty," the boy extends a hand to shake. "My name is Jayme. What can I call you?"

"Ben," Ben replies softly. He doesn't recognize his last name when it's called since it's so uncommon to use it. "Nice to meet you, Jayme. Belle hasn't come down yet. I'll walk up and get her. Feel free to come in and wait in the formal."

Jayme gets past the front door, which is an accomplishment in and of itself, and Ben walks up the stairs. He glances back to see what Jayme thinks of the place. He briefly examines the family portrait on the wall and then the rug under his feet, and then takes a deep breath and waits. A bad feeling churns in Ben's stomach.

He knocks on Belle's door and she calls for him to come it. She's sitting at her dresser, finishing applying a dark pink shade of lipstick. She looks classy and elegant with her black dress and her purple hair all curled.

"Your date is here," he calls, leaning against the doorframe.

"Oh, great!" Belle smiles as she turns back around. "You met him then? What did you think?"

"No," Ben shakes his head. The smile drops off of Belle's face. "No, sweetheart, he's not the right person yet."

"What's wrong with him?" Belle frowns. "Did he not introduce himself or something? He might be nervous - it's pretty intimidating having to meet the former king."

"Belle, I think you should stay in tonight," Ben sighs. He knows, though, from the tone of her voice, that she's dug her heels in. She's like her mom and both of her grandmothers. When she thinks she knows, she knows.

"No," Belle replies, a sound that breaks Ben's heart. "I'm looking forward to tonight. I know he'll take care of me and I know that we'll have a good time. And if he doesn't, then there's always magic and pepper spray and 1-2-1." She taps on her cell phone as a further reference to Auradon's emergency number.

Ben sighs and opens up the doorframe. She steps through, expression still sour, and then heads down to the foyer. Mal is there now. She's smiling and laughing as he and Jayme talk. He catches the punchline of a joke before Belle steps out into sight and heads down the stairs. Jayme's mouth falls open a little when he sees her, and a blush blooms across Belle's cheeks. He tells her she looks beautiful, kisses her hand, and offers her his arm. Mal looks proud.

Ben comes down the stairs and ignores Belle's pointed gaze as he loops his arm through Mal's. "Be home by eleven," he tells her and then shows them both to the door.

They watch Jayme escort Belle out to a silver car with a black interior that he opens with a smile. She smiles as she gets in and the twisting in Ben's heart increases.

"Well, I think she finally got it," Mal laughs as they close the door. "He's a really nice kid. I like him." She puts her arm around his waist and kisses his cheek. "What did you think?"

Ben shakes his head and puts an arm around her shoulders. "No," he says.

That's all he'll say on the matter.

________________________________________________________________

Belle comes back overjoyed. Everyone is regaled with tales of Tayme over breakfast, and her phone is constantly abuzz with messages from him. Mal is just as excited for her. Mom and daughter stay up late talking about Belle's new relationship and comparing it with Ben and Mal's from back when they were teens. Ben just shakes his head.

Two weeks later, on their third date, Jayme asks her to be his girlfriend. She changes her social media statuses and makes her new profile picture a shot of him kissing her on the cheek. Ben knows the night she has her first kiss with him because she stumbles through the front door grinning like a fool and almost crashes into the stair banister.

Magazines write stories of him and her together, the boys slowly warm up to him and welcome him into their circle and all the while Ben has this pit of dread expanding in his chest because he already knows that somehow, this relationship will end with Belle heartbroken.

Belle counts all the months with growing pride and glee. First one, then two, suddenly they're at four and then five, and then one day she's coming to him with a bright smile and putting a watch down on his desk with the question "Is this a good anniversary gift?" on her lips.

"Yes," he answers with a nod. "He'll like that a lot."

"You like him now, right Dad?"

Ben pinches his lips together and gives a forced sort of shrug. "He's not the one," he whispers, and Belle's face twists.

"I think he is!" She protests. "Come on, what did he do wrong?"

Ben shakes his head. It's not that the kid has done anything wrong - it's just he can't see this lasting. Jayme seems like a great kid, but he's not going to make her happy in the long run. Nothing will change that. Sure, he may know her favorite orders to all her favorite fast food places and knows the places he and Mal used to take their family while she was growing up and he might have been invited to spend Christmas Eve with the family and all of Mal's old friend's families, but Ben knows like he knew he'd die for her the day she was born that this is just not going to work.

Belle leaves in a huff and stops speaking to him. She must have assumed that Ben was slowly warming up to Jayme, and now she's angry to find otherwise. Mal comes to him then with questions like: "What's going on with you?" "Why don't you like him?" "Are you sure you're not just upset she's getting older?" She doesn't quite know what to make of his responses - he's calm, nonchalant, but adamant against Jayme.

Jayme himself comes up one day to talk with Ben. They walk out on the grounds and talk about Belle and Mal and everything under the sun. "Do you not like me?" Jayme asks, innocently enough.

Ben gives him a once-over. "I'm not against you personally," he tells the kid. "But you and my daughter aren't right for each other."

Jayme looks appropriately hurt. "I love her," he assures Ben, and Ben has to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Is there any way I can convince you of that?"

Convince him? Belle is already convinced. He raises an eyebrow for a moment and then looks out over the clearing. "I've just been thinking of where she's planning to go," he lies to Tayme, testing the boy. "She came to Mal and I a few nights ago and said she might want to go live with her grandpa Hades when she gets older. Stay on the Isle and do service work out there."

Jayme stumbles back, shock falling over his face and horror frozen in his eyes. "What? But she-" he relaxes when he sees the look on Ben's face. "Oh. You were joking. Why?"

Ben shakes his head. He has his answer now. He knows. He closes his eyes and snorts. "Never mind," he replies. "What do you want to do when you're older?"

There's a lengthy response about how fascinated he is with politics and how he wants to especially work with displaced people from the former Isle of the Lost, but Ben ignores it all.

________________________________________________________________

The breakup comes three days before their six-month anniversary, and it is every bit as bad as Ben anticipated. It breaks everyone's heart except for his. Belle locks herself in her room sobbing hysterically, listening to every depressing love song she can think of and going through gigantic boxes of chocolate and cotton candy. Ben gets the full story across the pillows of his and Mal's bed that night as Mal does her own crying.

Apparently, there was a phone call about their anniversary that she'd said goodbye to and then neither of them had hit hang-up in time. She overheard his friends laughing about her. There had been a lot - enough for them to break up but not enough to have Tayme arrested for malicious intent towards the royal family. Something about how Belle was beautiful but ditsy. Easy to please. Quick to look past problems. Something about how it would be nice to be king. Live in the palace. Drive nice cars and wear nice clothes. Something about how the Former King didn't seem to like him, but he thought he'd come around.

"How did you know?" Mal asks, wiping the last of her tears away as she curls against his chest like she's a kitten instead of a dragon. "How did you know what he was?"

Ben can only shrug. "I think it was because he looked at the portrait in the front hall weird," he lies. In truth, he has no idea, but he has to give Mal some sort of reason so that she can feel justified for missing it.

He lets himself into Belle's room the next day to find her curled up inside five thick comforters, two and a half empty boxes of chocolate beside her, and a stuffed animal from when she was three. Beauty and the Beast is playing on her phone.

Ben untangles her and then they sit together on her bed. She curls into a ball that he holds to his chest as she cries her little soul out on his shoulder. It's a few hours that they sit like that, just healing from everything.

"You were right, dad," she hiccups a little. "I'll listen to you next time."

He doesn't get any satisfaction from that. On the contrary, he sighs and kisses her head and just squeezes her tighter as she cries.

________________________________________________________________

She starts bringing her phone to him when someone asks her out. It's a little weird at first, but his track record is pretty great. He can usually give her a shrug of "maybe" or a "no" within a few minutes. Belle still sometimes gets frustrated with the responses, but she doesn't question him anymore.

Mal regards him as if he possesses some sixth sense. It's pretty cool how impressed she is with him. Even though he's married her and there isn't really a reason to keep trying to impress her like he's still trying to catch her attention, he still gets overly proud of himself when she smiles like he's one of their children and she's proud of them. He made the right choice with this one.

Belle goes on a few dates here and there but nothing serious while she's still recovering from her betrayal.

Belle turns seventeen in April. It's been more than a year since she first tried to bring home that first kid, and Ben has to pause to ponder his own state at seventeen. Seventeen was after he had already met Mal. Seventeen was when she almost went back to the Isle and he'd chased after her, having his suspicions that she was "his person". He got that confirmation in the self-same year. He's glad that Belle isn't like him and that she hasn't fallen so hard at so young. Sure, it worked out pretty well for him and Mal and it would sure solve a lot of the "what if" questions they all have now, but he doesn't quite think she's ready for the kind of commitment he and Mal had from a very early point. To be fair, he and Mal had to have a lot of commitment - she was coming from the Isle of the Lost and denouncing her mother on live television and he had passed a law that allowed her to be in Auradon and had publicly dumped Audrey to date her. Also, she drugged him. Something he still likes to tease her about.

He has to give a lot of credit to his parents because if Belle brought home someone like Mal(or even if Zach or Tyler brought home someone like Mal), he'd be more than a bit wary. To bring in a girl who kept knives up her sleeves and who more often than not kept her mother's spellbook tucked inside her jacket and then to bring in the story of how she gave him a spelled cookie to try and destroy Auradon before accidentally tripping over everything she'd been taught and falling in love with him. He hopes he'd have the same patience they did.

For Belle's seventeenth birthday party, they close off the woods that hold the enchanted lake, string up thousands of colorful lights in the trees, and then bring in tons of food and people. Evie, Jay, and Carlos all show up with their families in tow and it cheers Belle up to be around everyone else's families. They're all like cousins, those kids, because Mal and the rest of her "core four" are like siblings. Carlos was even the family member who gave Mal away to him at their wedding. He and Jay had fought over that right until Mal had implored Ben to find an alternative task for one of them and thus Evie had been the maid of honor, Carlos had walked Mal down, and Jay had been Ben's best man.

Ben doesn't know most of the people at the party. He recognizes a few kids that either Zach or Tyler or Belle have dated and he knows people from the courts that he had to deal with back when he was king and then there are a few old friends from Auradon Prep that make his children uncomfortable when they bring up old memories of their parents at school.

Zach and Tyler both bring their girlfriends. Zach is in his mid-twenties and has been dating Audrey's daughter for quite some time, which cracks both Ben and Mal up. They seem to like each other though, and Ben doesn't have anything against the girl. He just thinks it'll be a huge laugh between him, Audrey, and Mal if they end up getting married. Tyler has dated furiously, skipping around with different girls and boys(the greenest face Ben ever saw on Mal was the night he announced he was going out on a date with Uma's daughter) but his current fling is one of the girls from his graduating class who Ben rather likes. Her name is Faith, which is one of the names Ben requested for Belle back when she was born (along with Joy, Hope, and Charity, but he couldn't sway Mal to agree to any of his good-intentioned names).

Tyler and Faith swing around the buffet table and then come sit beside Ben and Mal. Ben has to chuckle at their choice of snacks. Faith obsesses over peaches and thinks they are the most delicious things to have ever existed. Meanwhile, Tyler...

"Give me some," Mal demands as soon as she sees his plate piled high with chocolate-covered strawberries. She reaches out to steal some, but Tyler shields his plate from her.

"No, mom!" He protests. "Go get your own!"

As Mal and Tyler began a squabble over Tyler's right to his chocolate strawberries("I'm your mother! You're supposed to take care of me!" "You have two legs and two hands! You get your own!"), Ben reaches out and shakes Faith's hand. She's chuckling a little and smiling as her boyfriend and his mom interact, and her smile grows a little wider as she smiles at Ben. He wishes that Belle could find someone and have things as easy as the boys have it.

Belle strolls over as the place is getting dark and the lights start looking like fairies hiding in the trees. She sits down so close to him that he couldn't even set his hand down if he wanted to and then drops her head onto his shoulder. She's exactly the same way Mal is when her mom gets tired. She just wants someone to hold her.

"What's got your goose?" He whispers, sliding his arm out from under her head and putting it around her shoulders.

Belle huffs and little tendrils of smoke escape her nostrils. Ben suspects she and Tyler, who also inherited Mal's purple hair, both have the ability to shapeshift into dragons, but since everything has been peaceful since the barrier fell, they haven't had to experiment too much with their powers. The closest either has come is when Tyler accidentally set a tree and then a field on fire when he went out drinking with friends for the first time a week after his twenty-first birthday. The kid holds alcohol about as well as Ben can, whereas Zach can retain his dignity no much how thick his BAC. He and Mal will always retreat to corners at parties to drink and talk - mostly about Zach's own childhood - while anyone who can't drink and remain conscious, like Ben and Tyler, keep away.

"Jayme said he was working on a song for my birthday," Belle confides in a small whisper, bringing Ben back to the present. "I'm just wondering what it would have been like."

"Probably more painful once you found out," Ben reasons softly, but he knows that isn't quite the answer she's searching for. He runs his fingers through her hair as she sighs dejectedly and curls up against his side.

He watches Zach lead Amber down a path closer to the enchanted lake. Their arms are linked together as they walk down. Zach pulls the crown off his head as soon as they leave the crowds and instead hangs it on his arm. Amber reaches up to ruffle his hair with a laugh and it throws Ben off a bit because she usually acts a lot like her mother, and Audrey would never have done that to him when they dated. Of course, Amber was Tyler's friend before she was Zach's girlfriend, so she's a great deal looser than her mother.

Belle gives a little, unhappy sigh at his side as Tyler jumps away from Mal's reach and then Faith appears with a second, more reasonable plate of strawberries for Mal. Mal sighs in happiness and then nudges Tyler. "Where can I trade you out for her?" She jokes.

"Give it a few years," Ben advises. "Maybe you can have both."

Faith blushes a deep red and hides her face as Tyler tilts his head, considering. Mal laughs - she knows he only teases them because of how badly they were teased for getting engaged so early in their lives.

Ben runs his fingertips through Belle's hair and hums. "You are my sunshine," He sings. "My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey."

Belle snorts and then hides her face in his shirt. "That's beautiful, Dad," She chuckles. "I love you."

On Ben's other side, Mal slumps into his chest. He chuckles and moves his arm to be around both of his spunky, spitfire girls. Mal drops a strawberry stem onto the ground before setting her hand against his chest.

Across the way, through the trees and underneath a patch of pink lights Ben suddenly notices a young man sitting all alone on a bench with a homemade card in his hands. He sits, staring at the ground, with his shoulders hunched and hands braced on his knees. Ben pokes Mal's side and she yelps as she comes to life under his touch. He points across the way and sees Mal squinting to follow his gaze. It only takes a moment of hesitation before he pokes Belle's side too. "Look at that young man over there," He directs. "Do you know him?"

Belle blinks a little and then turns around to see who he's talking about. "I think so," She nods. "We have English and French together. He's very smart."

"He looks lost," Ben hums.

Belle nods in agreement. "He does," She affirms, and then gets to her feet. "I think I'll go talk to him."

Mal sets her hand on his knee as soon as Belle is out of earshot. "Look at you, playing matchmaker," She teases. Ben furrows his brow. That wasn't quite his intention, actually.

Belle sits down beside the boy without announcing herself and when he looks up, he jumps. They exchange pleasantries. The boy hands her the card with a shaking hand. Belle takes it, opens it, and her entire face lights up as she reads the contents. She says something, and he laughs, and then something new that Ben hasn't felt with any of her flings up until this point takes place in his chest. Peace.

This is going to be okay.

________________________________________________________________

A week later, Ben opens the door to let Auden inside the palace. The poor boy stumbles over the doorstep, looking around with wide, uncomfortable eyes. He swallows and then slowly extends a hand to Ben. "Hello, uh, sir," he stutters. "I'm Auden. I was hoping I could take Belle out tonight if, uh, it's okay with you?"

Ben smiles as he shakes Auden's trembling, sweaty hand. No one has asked him yet. "Hello Auden," He greets. "You can call me Ben, and yes, Belle will be down in a second."

Mal comes in from the front entryway and Auden shakes her hand too - something else that no one has bothered to do. Mal's hand is more often kissed, which annoys her to no end. She prefers handshakes and it shows as she smiles in approval at the young man in the entryway. Ben cracks a little joke that she only bites in dragon form and the kid laughs a little as Mal rolls her eyes.

There's a sound from up the stairs and then Belle appears with her hair down, wearing one of Mal's old Isle jackets and black slacks. She looks pretty with her makeup minimal and her smile bright. Auden's mouth falls open and he makes several gasping sounds in the back of his throat. "O-oh!" He exclaims. "You look so - just so beautiful! Wow!"

Belle blushes just like he does, dipping her head and trying to keep her smile from spreading even wider. Auden offers her his arm when she gets to the bottom of the stairs and Mal crosses her arms in silent approval. This kid is hitting every spot the others missed - checking every box. And for the first time, Ben doesn't feel worried or anxious about this. Even if they don't end up working out, it'll be on good terms. This kid isn't going to take advantage of her or ignore her or use her status to get where he wants. He's going to make her feel special.

And heaven help her if Belle doesn't do exactly the same thing.

"This place is so big!" Auden marvels, looking all around. "I'd get lost here."

Belle nods. "I'm thinking of moving out one day," she confides. "That's what my older brother did. I might go live on the Isle beside my Grandpa Hades."

"That'd be cool," Auden nods. "I haven't ever been to the Isle."

"We should go sometime," Belle suggests. "Mom took us all while we were growing up. I could tell you lots of stories about her."

Ben and Mal stand in the doorway as Auden and Belle head out. Auden makes sure to shake both of their hands again on the way out and thank them for letting him take their daughter out and promise to walk her to the door afterward. Another thing no one has even thought to do. They catch snippets of conversation as he takes her down to a beat-up blue civic in the driveway and opens the door for her and helps her in. "She'll be back late," Mal hums against his shirt, leaning her head into his shoulder.

Ben snorts a little and squeezes her tighter to him as the car starts and then slowly turns out onto the road. "You know," he begins with a chuckle, "I think we might survive the dating phase after all."

#disney #ben descendants #ben florian #disney descendants #mal descendants #mal bertha #queen mal #king ben #ben x mal #children #dating #cute #family #fanfic #descendants

25 notes · View notes

xthe-corrupt-angelx · 4 years

Text

Meet the Muse | Eve Gabriel

**partial credit to @miami-blanke -we made this OC together

Name: Eve Gabriel

Age: Unknown

Height: 6'2

Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah///Banished to Atlanta, Georgia

Birthday: June 24th

Zodiac: Cancer

Sexuality: Open to whoever

Top/bottom/switch: General switch with anyone-dom leaning w/ men(or masculine muses), sub leaning w/ women(or feminine muses)

FC: Samuel Larsen

Likes/Interests/Hobbies: Night scenery, punk music(but secretly loves classical), anything beauty related, being alone most of the time, long in depth conversations, anything black or red, old books, old paintings, dark academia, vintage aesthetic, Polaroids

Dislikes: Rudeness, cockiness, being yelled at, being talked down to, people who don't accept them, early mornings, bright lights, loud noises, strong smells, uncleanliness, people who are passive aggressive

Family History: Eve was born into a highly Christian, very wealthy, and highly Mormon family where their parents were both doctors. They have many, many siblings, all of who they never really knew. A few months after Eve was born, both of their parents were in a fatal car accident that resulted in their death. Eve was sent to an orphanage, but their stay there didn't last long. Not even a couple hours later, God came down and brought them back to an orphanage in the heavens, where they stayed until the age of about 11. The rest of the siblings however, Eve never met most of them. They remember a very foggy memory of one, who was sent away not long after

Description: Eve spent most of their time staying inside the orphanage, not wanting to socialize much and was quite lost. When Eve questioned where they were and why, God told them that they had a gift. They were born an angel, one that was meant to protect others from harm. Being born into a rich and well known family, God saw their newest child as a very special one. He saw Eve as a protector, one that would never get caught up in any harmful situation. Little did God know, that would end up being a little more twisted in Eve's mind than he thought. The Tree of Knowledge still existed, lived, and was something Eve was sent to first protect. God knew that Eve didn't know their name, and wanted to almost redeem the story of Genesis. Giving Eve a new last name was also part of God's plan, knowing that Eve didn't have much family at all. Gabriel came about because of that reason, wanting Eve to make families for others even if they couldn't have one of their own. They became the "Seer of Fertility," where they could tell families what the fate was of their unborn child would be, and what that looked like for the rest of them. Protecting The Tree of Life was a simple task, watching over the tree and paying attention to the serpent that still roamed. God told Eve to never listen to the serpent, and told them about the original story of Adam and Eve; one that was meant to caution them. But Eve was so desperate to know the answers, why they were alone, why they were ripped from family, and what was their true purpose living up in Heaven. Eventually, they became frustrated and the unanswered questions became too much to bear. Being the protector of The Tree of Life and knowing the true story behind it, it was a two way battle for them. Without being persuaded by the serpent, Eve ate from the tree anyway; something God worried about. They could've asked God themselves, but they were told that too much knowledge was power and could do more harm than anything else. But they were desperate, they needed to know. Eve, now 11 years old, was facing the harsh reality against God's word. God cursed the forever dull pain of carrying wings, one that made even emerging them uncomfortable. Eve got used to this pain eventually, and accepted it. However, God wasn't finished. Eve was pushed from Heaven and was told to never return. Eve was sent down into the criminal crowd on purpose, something they didn't know or discovered. God hoped it would teach them respect, loyalty to what really means something to you, empathy, and what it means to take accountability. Eve felt betrayed and sickened, knowing that all they wanted was answers. It hurt deep down inside of them, leaving them asking more questions about how could God not love his children, and why he would punish them for wanting answers to their past. Eve was alone for a couple weeks, wandering the streets in search for something to live for. The pain of carrying wings, even if they weren't there, was made a rather normal feeling due to how much they would simply fly around for hours on end. They had nothing, and didn't even know where they were banished to. That is until one day, a group of criminals took him in. They were not the kind to rob local shops or murder for fun, but rather a group who wanted to kill off people who did more harm than good. Being raised by criminals confused the idea of a God born child in their mind, unsure of what their purpose really was now. They were taught the ways of criminal life, how to spot people who were the real bad guys, and how to use their abilities to their advantage. They adjusted to this new life and saw it as a new family, new home they could come to, and rebuilding trust with the mortal world that they weren't able to obtain at a young age. However, growing into a teenager was not a pleasant experience for Eve. In fact, it was a very horrid one. They knew something was wrong, and was scared to talk about it to the new family. They wanted to wear makeup and dresses while still maintaining that masculine appearance. They wanted to wear nail polish, lipstick, foundation, all while still dressing up as a male. They even noticed changes in who they had interest in, finding people of all genders and sexualities as something they were attracted to. One day, they opened up about this, expecting to be kicked out or be the one who was considered the bad one. Instead, it only made things stronger between Eve and the group. They accepted them, not wanting them to feel like they were trapped and betrayed again. They were able to express themselves under the protection of the group, where they made sure Eve was safe. All this time, Eve didn't think about where they were or paid any attention to detail. It was all about what the group and building a family. They asked one day, being told that they were in Atlanta, Georgia. Eve was okay with this, especially since they have now lived here for so long. God watched it all unfold, and knew that Eve would never return back to the Heavens. Though this was something Eve never knew about, God basically wanted to test them and see if the plan worked. Instead, God was left with his questions answered. As Eve got older, they were introduced into the drug scene. They looked at it as a sense of protecting others, giving them at least a little income, and having a job of sorts. Eve is a person of color, which many people in Georgia are also. They understood the low income to their families, the struggle to get jobs, to keep jobs, and to stay off the streets. So selling drugs was the one way they saw as helping those people earn a little more money and keep people "working." In Eve's mind, killing off true bad people and selling drugs was a way of protecting others; something he was born to do. It's a little backwards in their mind, even if in some ways it does serve as a good thing. Eventually, Eve started working in safe injection sites as a further reason to protect the community. They were trained by many medical professionals, and due to their religious upbringing and great sense of care for people, they were made a nurse practitioner after many years of working under their supervision. Still to this day, that has been their job and they have no plans on leaving anytime soon. Also to this day, Eve is still very close to the group and has even convinced them to work alongside them. At this point, Eve no longer lives with them, but is only a few houses down incase of emergencies. However, Eve does still resent God and what he did, and they carry that pain with them on a day to day basis

Abilities:

Healer

Great strength

Speed

Durability

Stamina

Invisibility

Energy manipulation

Telekinesis

Telepathy

Teleportation

Lie detection

Conversion

Shape shifting

Resurrection

Protective charm (protecting another person from harm)

Smiting(kill someone by touch)

Biokinesis(change someones biological makeup)

Holy white light (blasts of energy from their palms)

Memory manipulation

Pyrokinesis (manipulate/create fire)

Electrokinesis(create electricity)

Reality warping

Sedation

Hypnotism

Vessel locking(trapping someone through smoke/light)

Conjuration(make things or remove them from nothing)

Personality traits:

They're very loving and sweet, though it takes them a while to get there

They're very protective and care easily

Very sarcastic and playful, even too much so

Sometimes doesn't know boundaries, but that's only if they like someone

They're quite witty and hard headed

They can be very stubborn

They have a tendency to close off and distance themselves

They have a short temper from time to time

They can get quite sensitive

They don't like going into their past or talking about what they've done, though they can get carried away and end up talking about it anyway

They get defensive rather quickly

They're very blunt and have no problem telling people how it is

They come off as intimidating at times, though they're actually quite sweet

They're actually very smart and intelligent

They're respecting of other peoples viewpoints, so long as the other person isn't an asshole about it

They don't like being touched often unless it's by someone they like/have interests in

They're quite confident and a little cocky at times

They like attention from small crowds, not big ones

They can be a little selfish from time to time

They can be quite the flirt

They can be insecure at times, mostly when they really think about the choices they've made

Additional information/miscellaneous facts:

Even though they sell drugs, they actually don't do them often. In the very beginning yes, but as years went by it's more about protecting people than the high

They haven't been with many people, mostly because they were focused on other things

They've gotten into a couple fights over drug deals before

They don't like the idea of the path they've taken, but isn't sure how to change it

They're not proud of selling drugs either

They have quite a few scars over their body

They don't wear makeup and such as much anymore, at least not publicly-in private, yes. But going back to being a little restricted, they'd rather keep it more secret again

As a teen, they resented most forms of authority-kind of an anarchist but not fully

As an adult, they respect authority more. However, they do see the misunderstanding of some cases and the advantages some authorities have on others

They've broken their knuckles many...many times

Their wings make them feel a little more feminine in a way, so they're always glad to show them off when given the chance

Their wings don't hurt all that much anymore, but if they stay out for long periods of time it does become uncomfortable

Being an angel isn't a secret for them, they've actually embraced it through the years

Though they don't like the whole idea of being a Christian most of the time, they still wear a cross or have a rosary as a symbol of taking back their past

General tags:

🕯our waking life's just a living dream | aesthetic

🕯look into the spanish moss let your mind conjure up old ghosts | home

🕯the life you've always wanted could be yours | desires

🕯even if your love was unconditional it still wouldn't be enough to save me | nurse practitioner

🕯what god doesn't give to you you've got to go and get for yourself | musings

🕯i've got no judgement for you come on and ache with me | roleplay

🕯you want me to surrender my identity | self

Ship tag:

🕯i see your face when i close my eyes | lovers

(New)Other (side)blogs:

Zeus: @xking-of-the-godsx

Hera: @xqueen-of-the-godsx

Alessandra Galanis: @xi-dont-know-what-i-amx

Jaysen Gerasimos: @xking-of-the-overcloudsx

Griffin Saffi: @xthe-fortune-tellerx

**Rules/notes from the mun apply just as they do on @xking-of-the-cloudsx

**NOTE: This OC is not meant to bash religion, POC, and to glorify the drug scene. It's meant to explain the story of a Christan raised child gone a bit off, and understanding the harsh reality POC go through at times(Mun of @xking-of-the-cloudsx is a POC, has experienced religious differences, and grew up with cousins who were also forced into the drug/crime scene. It's not my intention to offend people with Eve's story, but rather explain the not so wonderful side of a child growing up in a world with somewhat switched morals and unacceptance through opposing beliefs)

#eve gabriel #oc #original character #character description #about #bio #tags #🕯our waking life's just a living dream | aesthetic #🕯look into the spanish moss let your mind conjure up old ghosts | home #🕯the life you've always wanted could be yours | desires #🕯even if your love was unconditional it still wouldn't be enough to save me | nurse practitioner #🕯what god doesn't give to you you've got to go and get for yourself | musings #🕯i've got no judgement for you come on and ache with me | roleplay #🕯you want me to surrender my identity | self #🕯i see your face when i close my eyes | lovers

4 notes · View notes

xxisxxisxxis · 5 years

Text

Gateway Drug | Part Eleven

Part Ten

Pairing: Douglas Booth!Nikki Sixx x OC

Word Count: 4.3K

Warnings: Mentions of drug use, violence, explicit sexual situations

Tag List: @vamprlestat @sharon6713 @itsametaphorbriansblog @miriampraez @allie-mcginn @rebeccaphillips14 @nicholeh7 @fandomshit6000 @lilmou5ie @tamedhearts @divaanya @kingbouji3 @evrsncnewyork @6ixx6ixx @ratedrkohardychick91 @floregrohlssard @oldschoolimagineblog @thanks2pete @abaldboi @swoopygorl @justjodeye @liith-ium @caos18blog @ytwahsog @shamlessobsessions @scarecrowmax @toadspleen @random-internet-user-4471

*Let me know if you want to be tagged*

———————————————————————

“Mom?“ I ask, paralyzed by her stare, absentmindedly moving closer to Nikki as if there’s a chance she’ll lunge for my throat and he’ll keep her off of me.

Her empty, cold, eyes study the both of us, not matching her warm smile. She’s putting on a facade and we know it.

"Sweetheart, we have been flipping over every rock in this city looking for you.” She tells me, relieved.

“You two aren’t the easiest couple to find.“ My dad adds calmly, giving me a genuine, sympathetic smile.

Nikki and I exchange looks as my mother starts tapping her foot, keeping her overbearing smile on her face as she waits for us to invite them inside.

I finally give up and step behind Nikki, giving the three of them room to come inside as I say, "You can come sit down.”

Nikki gives me a glare at my invitation to them, and I lick my lips, mouthing “sorry” to him.

“Quaint little place you’ve got here, Sweetie.” My mom points out, keeping her frozen smile as she looks over the empty alcohol containers in the garbage can and packs of cigarettes scattered about.

Although she’s still smiling, her eyes appear to be disgusted and angry, looking at Nikki as if all of this is his doing. He’s the Devil that kidnapped her perfect Vivian from grace.

She finally sits down beside my father on the couch, hesitating due to a suspicious stain on the cushion.

Her fingers brush a smooth, curled piece of her bangs out of her eyes, and she moves her knees to the side to keep herself modest in her pastel yellow dress.

“Come talk to us, dear,“ She tells me and motions for me to come sit on the coffee table in front of her.

Her eyes flitter down my exposed legs, peeping at the short pajama shorts I’m wearing, partnered with one of Nikki’s T-shirt’s that she takes notice of. But that damn smile doesn’t falter a bit.

Once I’m sitting in front of her, she’s grasping at the both of my hands, gently, trying to make me believe she’s calm when I know she wants to scream at me.

“I think we are long overdue for a talk, Vivian.” She explains, choosing her words carefully.

“I think so, too.“ I admit, trying to keep my voice calm but it’s shaking.

“We left things off on the wrong foot, you remember?” She asks, reaching to me to fix a stray hair of mine.

“Yes, ma'am.” I have no idea why she has this much power over me. Anytime I speak to her I regress into a seven year old, scared to say the wrong thing and get her in to a frenzy.

“Your father and I have been talking a lot the past few days, and we’ve decided we want you to come back home.” She informs me and I furrow my brows a little.

“What?”

“Kicking you out of the house for making your own decisions was out of line and uncalled for, is what your mother is trying to say.” My dad speaks up, leaning forward. He looks at my mother with a glaring undertone, and she brushes it off, keeping her eyes on me.

“I was a bit theatrical.” She confesses shamelessly, chuckling a little. “But I was caught off guard by it, Viv. Your whole life has been dedicated to making sure you were going to end up at a prestigious school with fine academics and a pristine performance program. We took all the proper measures to make sure you never hurt your feet so you’d have a long Ballet career, we kept your mind and your body in shape…you were so close, darling, and you suddenly decided you didn’t want to dance or go to school. All of the time and energy spent over the years for you to accomplish something and you backed out at the last minute. I got angry. Could you blame me?”

“Dance was fun to me, mom. It was a passion I had but you took it way too serious. I burnt out on it because all you ever had me doing was eating, sleeping, and breathing school and dance. And I know it requires dedication but, mom, I had no business dancing for six hours a day, every day after school.” I point out, wanting to add “which is why I skipped the last four months of practice,” but decide against it.

“You had nothing better to do.” She argues.

“I had friends to hang out with, mom. I had things I wanted to be able to do.”

Her smile falls off her face, now, replaced by her pursing her lips.

“Well, you’re certainly showing us that, now, aren’t you?” She asks me and I close my eyes for a moment. “I’m just curious as to when exactly you two met?” She asks Nikki, passive aggressively.

She doesn’t know he’s one of the few people that can’t have his arm bent behind his back until he cries “mercy” because he has absolutely nothing to lose.

They’re just staring at each other, sizing each other up, having an unspoken dick measuring contest, and I already know Nikki Sixx will win.

“We met early in the year last year.“ He replies, from his place, leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

"I take it that it wasn’t at a church service.” She states, her eyes coming back to me.

“No, the Starwood.” I tell her and she raises her brows.

“After I played a show.“ Nikki adds, his eyes cutting slightly to study her reaction. She just blinks a couple of times before speaking.

"Young man, my husband and I would like to speak to our daughter alone for a few minutes, if you would so kindly give us a moment.” Her tone is bitter, contradictory to her words.

Nikki hesitates, and I give him a reassuring nod. No matter how scared I get of my mother at times, I’d never ask him to endure one of her tantrums just so I’d feel more comfortable.

He gives her a dirty look before grabbing his cigarettes and stepping outside.

As soon as he’s gone, my mother’s pulling a folded up news paper clipping out of her purse.

“‘Mötley Crüe lead singer, Vince Neil, publicly poked fun at the ill fitting fact that one of the sleaziest Rockstars on the Sunset Strip, the band’s bassist—Nikki Sixx—is happily accepting the ball and chain and is scheduled to be married later this year to Vivian Kinston, while on stage.’“ She reads from the article before tossing it to the coffee table right beside me. "I can take you not being completely honest with us and dropping out of college. Every teenager rebels a little bit at some point and not going to college right after high school is not the worst thing you could have done, regardless of how I reacted to it, no, it is not as bad as I made it seem and I do apologize for my overreaction.” She says quickly, completely beside herself before she continues. “But this,” She motions around, referring to my living situation. “Is far beyond a little teenage rebellion, Vivian. And you know as well I, that living with a man—who openly disrespects our God—and making a mockery out of the sanctity of the marriage bed, is blasphemous.”

“Charlette,” My dad starts in a relaxed tone, trying to calm her down.

“She is sleeping with that boy!” She points to the front door Nikki just went out of moments before.

I’m humiliated by her words, Pastor Garett seemingly burning his eyes in to my soul.

“We don’t know that.” My father tries to defend me, earning a scoff of disbelief from my mother.

“That boy and everyone like him only live for three things: sex and drugs and ungodly music. He has a plethora of drugs and music so the sex isn’t far from the equation. I am not ignorant.”

“His name is ‘Nikki’, mom. I’m marrying him so he is so much more than just 'that boy’ you speak of as if he’s a disease.” I state boldly.

“You are not marrying that boy, Vivian. You are coming home with me and your father and you will attend as many counseling sessions with Brother Garrett that you need to in order to rid yourself of this disobedient demon clinging to you!”

“There’s no demon clinging to me! I haven’t completely thrown away God or turned my back on him, I still have relationship with him and—”

“You can have the entire bible memorized front and back, go to every church service at every church in the area that there will ever be but it doesn’t make a difference to God, or anyone else, when you come home every night and play house with the Devil!”

“I am not perfect, mom, and God doesn’t expect me to be perfect but I am doing the best that I can given the circumstances!”

“You weren’t given these circumstances of dousing yourself in impurity and uncleanliness, you dove head first in to it!”

“You kicked me out of the house and I had nowhere else to go but to Nikki, so yes, mom, I was given these circumstances!”

“So I suppose I am to blame for you having sex with him, too?! All of this is on me now, is that it?!”

“What he and I do—whether it’s have sex or get married—is between us and God, and you have no right and no place to go out of your way to try to control it!”

“It is my job as your mother to make sure you are doing what God would have you do and you’re obviously not listening to a thing he’s been trying to say because you’ve been too busy running around the Sodom and Gomorrah that is the Sunset Strip with your hand down the pants of a fool—who could care less about you, might I add—and you know this is not what we do, Vivian.”

“Stop talking. Just because it’s something you wouldn’t choose to do doesn’t mean it’s something I shouldn’t do.” I say, my blood burning as she doesn’t listen.

I quickly realize it’s a fear of my mother that’s kept me from being sure about Nikki, and this further fuels my resentment towards her.

“All of this is just a game to him, Viv. They love seeing who can corrupt the most honest girl and then when she’s strung out or ends up pregnant, they leave.” She replies venomously, stepping closer to me.

“Charlette, enough of this.” My dad cuts in, grasping at her but she snatches away from him.

“You’ve already dropped your education and career for him. You’ve bent your morals and orders, given to you by the Lord, for him…”

I don’t want to hear anymore, standing up and walking to the door before she follows and grabs my wrist, stopping me, choosing her words purposefully to get a reaction out of me the way she always does.

“…You have allowed him to get in to your head and convince you to be of the world instead of just in it and history has an ugly way of repeating itself. This is looking an awful lot like the beginning of Lily’s end.”

This is the last straw.

Seeing red, belligerence and lost patience fuels my movements as I scream, wrapping my hands around her throat and tackling her on to the coffee table, roughly.

Liquid splashes over my bare legs, and I hear Brother Garrett shouting out scriptures and praying in tongues.

My fight is interrupted by familiar hands grabbing at my waist and yanking me away from her.

Nikki stumbles back, taking me to the floor with him, but he doesn’t remove his tight grip around my torso as my mother cries out and wails in my father’s arms.

I’m so wound up that I’m shaking uncontrollably, my entire body prickling with heat and sweat as my skin warms up with adrenaline and anger. My back is pulled in to Nikki’s torso as his arms wrap around me to keep me in place.

My mother’s crying further spurs on my intolerance and I heave out heavy breaths.

“Get. Her. Out. Of. Here.” I say through clenched teeth to my father.

“Vivian—” He goes to argue but is stop him.

“Get her out!“ I demand, causing him to startle a little bit before he and Garrett are going as quickly as they can to the door, guiding my discombobulated mother along with them.

They leave us in the aftermath of a wasted effort.

It quickly hits me that I just viciously attacked the woman who birthed me and raised me, and I take in a sharp breath, Nikki’s arms loosening from around me as we sit in silence.

“I just tried to kill my mother.” I croak out, my voice raspy and raw from screaming so much, shattering the silence around us.

“I got mine arrested.” He replies and I can hear the hint of a smile in his voice, trying to cheer me up.

“If one of us ever turns in to our mothers, we have to kill the other.” I say lowly.

He doesn’t respond, his lips pressing to my hair and I lean my head against his chest, trying to accept the fact I’m no longer my parent’s daughter. I’m officially freed of my chains.

I never spoke to my mother again. I expected her to take me to court for assaulting her, but she never did. I learned sooner after she became one of the loudest voices supporting the Washington Wives, using me as her testimony and claiming that Mötley seduced me to sell my soul to the Devil in exchange for fame and wealth, the way that they did.

I wanted to write her and ask her where exactly was the “wealth” we sold our souls for because, at the time, we were barely able to pay our phone bills.

In the months to follow, the guys had managed to open for Kiss, but only opened for five shows before Gene Simmons kicked them off the tour for “bad behavior”…a.k.a Tommy screwed Eric Carr’s girlfriend and it wasn’t appreciated.

I, eventually, was no longer worried about my parents seeing or hearing what exactly I was doing, so I started going out with the guys a lot more often, which was a blessing and a curse.

May of ‘83 came around in the blink of an eye, and America was finally meeting Mötley Crüe at their biggest show to date.

The thunder of the echoing voices speaking excitedly on the other side of the curtains rattles through the atmosphere backstage.

“We’re gonna fuckin’ die.” Mick states, matter of fact, and I frown at him.

I can practically feel the anxiety and nervousness rolling off Nikki, Tommy and Mick, as we wait with Doc in the small hallway for Vince to get done in the dressing room.

“Boys,” Tom says as he approaches us. “On behalf of Elektra Records, I just wanna wish you good luck tonight.”

Nikki gives him a small nod before going back to looking around anxiously.

“Where’s Vince?” Tom asks and Doc replies before anyone else can.

“Just saw him in the dressing room, getting ready.” Doc tells him.

“Well, this is your first big show and there’s 18,000 people out there tonight, so…please don’t fuck this up.“ Tom looks at the three of them as if that helps any with the pressure already on them.

"Thanks, Tom.” Doc gives him a fake smile and once Tom’s out of earshot, Doc’s smile falls from his face. “Fuck all that.” He tells them sternly. “You guys just do what you do.”

Just as he says this, Tommy drops the drumstick he’s been twirling, which he never does.

“Fuck!” He whisper yells as Doc and Mick chuckle, picking up the drumstick.

“Jesus Christ,“ Nikki nervously whispers, motioning for Mick and Tommy to start heading towards the stage.

"You guys will be fine.” I assure Nikki, nudging his arm with my elbow as we walk to the steel stairs.

He doesn’t seem to believe me and I bite my lip before unclasping my crucifix and hand it to him.

“It helps me be less nervous.” I explain as he examines the small, diamond cross carefully before putting it on. It doesn’t necessarily match with his overzealous costume but he doesn’t seem to care, slinging his arm around my neck as he leans down and presses a sweet kiss to my lips.

Just as he’s pulling away, I see Tom’s girlfriend stepping from the hallway the dressing rooms are, joining Tom who’s oblivious to where she came from as Vince comes from the same hall, fixing his pants and sprinting so he won’t be late.

Nikki notices this, too.

“Vinnie, c'mon, man. Let’s go!” Nikki claps once as Vince laughs out, running up the stairs.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ. You do realize we just signed a record deal with his company and that fucking his girlfriend could seriously fuck that up?” Nikki asks him in a hushed voice, obviously unhappy.

“Only if he finds out, man.” Vince replies with a wide smile, pretty proud of himself.

Nikki looks at me as if trying to decide whether to be proud of Vince’s balls, or kill him for being so thoughtless.

“He won’t find out. It will be fine.” I assure him. “Everything is okay. You guys can do this, I know you can.” I add, giving them one last smile before turning to walk away and give them their little moment, and he exhales just as Tommy’s throwing the top half of his body over the railing of the balcony, throwing up.

“Seriously,” Mick says, shaking his head. “We’re gonna die.”

“I’m okay!” Tommy pipes once he’s finished, swishing alcohol around his mouth to get rid of the puke taste.

“Alright, c'mon, gather round guys.” Nikki starts, getting them to huddle together.

I’m not sure exactly what he says to them, all I hear is “we are Mötley fucking Crüe! So let’s destroy these motherfuckers!”

The announcer is soon introducing them to the crowd as they step out and everyone in the audience goes absolutely insane.

I join Tom, his girlfriend, and Doc to watch the performance from the sidelines, saying a silent prayer in my head for them to do well so they won’t screw their careers up before they even leave the starting line.

They start playing, and Vince comes over the microphone, saying:

“Title track from our up and coming album! We call it, 'Shout at the Devil’!”

The crowd goes even more wild and I listen to the song intently, mainly because Nikki won’t let me hear any of their new music until the album is complete.

Once they’re done with their performance, Nikki’s rushing to me, excitedly.

“You guys did so—”

I’m cut off by a bruising kiss, the two of us trying to contain our smiles as he pulls away.

“What was that for?” I ask him, wiping some of his smeared lipstick from around his mouth. He just gives me a devious smirk, and picks me up by my thighs, tossing me over his shoulder.

I laugh, clinging to him as he runs to the hall with the dressing rooms in it.

“Nikki, where ya goin’?!” Doc calls after us, probably wanting to give the guys an encouraging speech or something.

“We’ll be there in a second!” I answer for Nikki, hearing him open the door of his dressing room.

Once we’re inside, he’s sliding me off from his shoulder and pinning my body against the door, pushing the hem of my skirt up my thighs and I let out a shallow breath, wrapping my legs around his waist as our tongues move in sync, one of my hands gripping his bicep while the other rests against his face.

He yanks my hair to the side to expose my neck, his tongue sliding against the skin and I moan, my hand groping at the tent in his leather pants, causing him to groan lowly which ignites a strong sensation between my legs. My other hand fumbles with his belt buckle, the sparkling of my crucifix catches my eye, though and I stop for a moment.

“Wait, wait,” I gasp out for breath and he pulls away a little, his lips brushing against mine.

“What’s wrong?” He asks and I shake my head a little, blinking slowly.

“This needs to come off,” I take my necklace off of him and toss it on to the vanity a few feet away.

“Yeah, so does this,“ he mumbles against my lips, tugging at my g-string and I giggle as he pulls it down my legs so I can unwrap myself from him momentarily to get it off.

He tosses the fabric to the floor and I yank his belt loose, unlacing his pants as his fingers make no hesitation slide up and down my sex, teasing me until I’m barely able to do anything but grind against his hand and claw at his clothed chest.

Taking my hand from his shirt, he lifts my fingers to his lips, enclosing his mouth around my point finger, his tongue and teeth moving torturously slow around it as he buries himself in me to the hilt.

My mouth falls open, his eyes locked with mine as a slick, open mouth grin forms around my finger, his teeth keeping it from falling.

He drops my hand and wraps his hand around my throat, pounding in to me. My already tender flesh is abused further, not yet recovered from our last session earlier today.

"Oh, fuck, Nikki,” I breathe out, my teeth digging in to my lip to keep from being too loud as my nails scratch down his arms.

“You have such a filthy mouth,” He says pointedly, a throaty noise of satisfaction wrapped around his words.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I shoot back weakly, still managing to argue with him.

Before I know it, he’s putting one of my legs over his shoulder, allowing him to hit at a different angle, and a slew of curse words fall from my lips as tears building up in my eyes.

“God, you’re so fuckin’…“ he’s unable to finish his sentence, looking between us to watch himself push and pull in and out of me, roughly.

Heat swelters in my core, my toes trying to curl in my strapped heels and I tighten around him further.

"Nikki, I can’t do this, it’s too much.” I whine, a tear rolling down my face once he’s reaching between us and rubbing at the sensitive nerve endings to force my orgasm out of me.

“You’re gonna let every fuckin’ one know who the fuck you belong to.“ He borderline threatens and I let out high pitches whimpers with each stroke of his fingers and stretch of my walls as he pulls out of me, only to push back in, filling me up completely as if my body’s been created specifically for his.

My body reacts to his touch, my lips practically screaming out his name in choked sobs as he bites down on my shoulder, opting me to finish around him.

My forehead falls to his shoulder, exhaustion leaking from every pore of mine.

He releases, coating my insides, the two of us staying still for a moment as I try to recollect my hazy mind, completely wasted from the amount of adrenaline and Nikki coursing through me.

By the time we get home at three in the morning, Nikki’s doped up on quaaludes, wine and whiskey, barely making it to the bed without face planting.

“Oops,” He slurs as I help him catch his balance on the foot of the bed.

“You good?” I ask, and he waves me off.

“I gotta…” he trails off, rubbing at his eye like a sleepy child. “…it.” He motions to his side of the bed before tripping over himself and falling on the mattress on his stomach, nearly passing out there.

“No, you don’t got it.” I mumble softly, tugging at his boots and helping him crawl to his side of the bed.

He’s out of it by the time his head hits the pillow and I can’t help but smile to myself a moment.

How in the hell did I get here? If someone would have told me three years ago I’d be engaged to someone like Nikki Sixx, I’d think they were out of their mind.

I change in to a pair of flannel pajama pants and a tank too before heading to the bathroom to get my makeup off.

Once I’m done, I stare at myself in the mirror, rubbing my swollen lips together, looking over the apparent bite mark on my shoulder that Tommy and Vince wouldn’t let me live down at all tonight.

I chuckle, remembering their teasing, before a more serious topic resurfaces in my mind. Not able to help myself, I open the bathroom cabinet and sift through all of the clutter of miscellaneous, reaching for what I’m looking for in the very back corner of the cabinet. I’m careful not to drop it once I grab ahold of it.

I sit on the floor and look down at the mirror of the pregnancy predictor, seeing the red ring that I stared at for three hours after the positive result had first shown up last night.

My eyes drift to the plain, silver band on my ring finger, feeling a calmness instead of uneasiness like I had before.

Words that Nikki had spoken to me the last day I saw my mother, echos in my mind:

“It sucks but we’ll be fine. We’re Nikki and Viv. Things always turn out okay for us, somehow.”

I feel as if he might’ve been right.

#nikki sixx #tommy lee #vince neil #the dirt #mötley crüe #douglas booth #colson baker #daniel webber #the dirt movie #douglas booth!nikki sixx

85 notes · View notes