Second in Line - Descendants (?Mal) ~Slow Updates~

The sun had started to go down, night was rapidly approaching and Emma knew she should go to bed soon to be well rested for her big day tomorrow. Being crowned Queen of Auradon would change her life for good. No more school, no more lessons in etiquette or public relations, no more room for mistakes. She would be the one everyone looked at for council, to solve their problems, to keep everyone save and secure and happy, to lead them. The young princess did not feel ready in the slightest. 
     After she had arrived at her parent's place, they had dinned together. Although there hung a tension in the air after the events of that day, no one brought it up. Emma had told herself she would, but in the end the idea filled her with too much fear. What if they said they thought she wasn't ready to be Queen? It would shatter the little self esteem she had build over the past few months even more. Besides they couldn't cancel the coronation, so what would be the point? 
     No, she would just have to work twice as hard. Which is what she had been doing the moment they had finished dinner and Emma had made her way back to her room.
     The crown princess of Auradon sat at her desk, the picture of her brother in front of her as she worked. All the forms and books surrounded her laptop, where an open document was being filled with all the new information she had gathered on the Isle of the Lost and it's inhabitants. If she wanted to bring over more children, she would have to do more research. Perfect the VK project. 
     First of all, she had to add more kinds of lessons to their curriculum. Yes, Remedial Goodness 101 seemed to have had at least some sort of effect, but more was needed. Swimming lessons for starters. She had already mentioned to Fairy Godmother that she would like to look into giving the four from the Isle the option to get swimming lessons after she had calmed down a bit more when coming back from her first date with Mal. Where the fairy's daughter had tried to save her from drowning even though she herself could not swim at all. 
     A little smile came to Emma's lips at the memory. Sure, at the time she had been freaking out so much after waking up from the love spell. But they did have a lot of fun while Emma tried to learn Mal the basics of swimming. 
     "Now I know how that princess felt after being turned into a frog... I feel like an idiot." Mal had complained while trying her hand at the breaststroke for the first time.
     Emma had laughed, "well, some people call it the 'frog stroke' for a reason." 
     Mal had turned to stand in the water, pushing some wet hair out of her face, "how do you even come up with that?"
     Emma, who had been swimming beside Mal, turned to lay on her back, letting the water carry her. "Observing frogs, mostly." 
     Mal rolled her eyes, letting out a sign, "Of fucking course, I should have seen that one coming." Again, the brunette laughed.
     "Best way to learn is from the experts."
     Maleficent's daughter let herself sink back into the water, a little smirk on her face. "I should probably look into getting a different teacher then." Emma gasped, looking at Mal with big, surprised eyes, but before she could do anything else, the purple haired girl used her hand to splash some water in her face.
     "Hey!" Emma exclaimed, moving so she was no longer laying in the water but standing on her feet. Mal laughed, only for Emma to splash the girl back, with a lot more water then just a few drops that Mal had managed. This time it was Mal that gasped, and before they knew it, the two girls were facing off in Mal's first ever water fight.
     Even though that had been a lot of fun, Emma knew she probably would need to get Mal and the others an official swimming teacher, so she wrote that down, together with some potential teachers. Of course there were the obvious ones like Queen Ariel, who already spend time out of her days to teach the local children of her kingdom how to swim and respectfully take care of the oceans and the creatures in it. Or maybe her daughter Melody, she had learned to swim as a human first, unlike her mother who was a mermaid in origin. 
     Either way, she added their names and put that aside for later to be discussed with her council. Making her realize again, she was going to have a council. With monthly and sometimes weekly meetings... Emma shuddered at the thought of all the responsibilities for a moment, then took a deep, calming, breath, reminding herself she would get used to it all and went back to focusing on the matter in front of her. Perfecting the VK project. Just like her brother would have wanted. 
     For a moment, Emma paused to look at the picture of her brother. Immediately after she had gotten home she had checked if the letter was still hidden within the frame and her parents or a servant had not accidentally stumbled across it and taken it. A wave of relieve washed over her when she found it exactly where she had left it.  
     The day she had found the letter was the day she had lost her brother. As always, Ben had finished reading a book, this time it was My Adventure Book and how I almost forgot to live, a biography by Carl Fredricksen. And as usual when he thought Emma might like it, he had left it on her nightstand. But this time, it had a letter tugged into it. A letter explaining why he felt like he had to leave. Telling her he loved her and their parents and would be back after he had found the part of himself that he never had the change to discover as Crown Prince.
     If she had only found the letter sooner, before Ben had gotten in that car, before he had left... Maybe things would have been different. She might have been able to stop him from leaving. Or at least have delayed him so he wouldn't have been on the wrong place at the wrong time and that truck would not have crashed into him. Maybe he would still be with them... Even if not physically, he would have been alive. She would give anything if it meant Ben would be alive and well somewhere in the world.
     But she hadn't found the letter sooner. Only after being waken up by Mrs Pots in the middle of the night and brought to the hospital where her parents stood huddled together, crying over the bruised and broken body of her brother. After getting home and being put back into her bed as if her world hadn't just come crashing down on her, only then her eyes had found the new book on her nightstand. Only then she had picked it up and noticed the piece of paper falling out. Only then she had found the very last words her brother had given her.  
     Three knocks on her door broke Emma's stream of thoughts. "Dear?" Her mother softly pushed the door open to find her daughter sitting behind her desk. "Why aren't you in bed yet? It's getting late and you have a big day tomorrow."
     Emma turned back to her papers. "I know, and I will, but I first wanted to put some thoughts down."
     Belle walked into her daughter's room, looking over the papers and the open tabs on the computer. "What is all this?"
     "The VK project." Emma answered, putting down some pieces of paper and scribbling down some notes. "I have to improve on it before I can bring more children from the Isle over to Auradon. Did you know the people who grew up on the Isle don't know how to swim? I never realized it, thinking with them living on an island and all they probably learned, but the barrier keeps them from the water. Which is obvious now I think about it. But still, when they get here there is a lot more open water and they should learn how to swim before an accident happens."
     Belle listened to her daughter, humming thoughtfully in response. "Emma, darling," Her mother started, kneeling down beside Emma, taking her hands in hers as she turned her daughter a little to be able to look her in the eyes. A gentle empathy in her voice and eyes as she spoke, "Are you sure this is the best idea, after what happened today?"
     Here we go, Emma thought, the subject she had been avoiding. The young woman took a deep breath. Fearless... "If anything," Emma started, meeting her mother's gaze despite the way her heart pounded against her chest, "that made it even clearer to me that I am doing the right thing. Queen Leah's reaction may come from a genuine place of concern and she had some points, but blaming Mal for her mother's actions is not fair." The young woman turned back to her project. "As Queen I should strive to do what's right for my subjects. All my subjects. I will just have to find a slightly different approach, that's all.
      Belle smiles at her daughter, pride in her eyes. "You will make a fine Queen, Emalia."
      Emma stares over at the picture of her and her brother again, some relieve going through her with her mother's words mixed in with a world of doubts. "Ben would have made a great King... I just hope I'll be able to live up to all of you." Emma spoke softly, carefully, letting a bit of the fragility she felt sound through.
     "Emma, of course you will." Her mother's voice filled with sympathy as she squeezed her daughter's hand. "You are going to be a Queen we can be proud of."
     "Maybe," Emma responded. "But earlier today... When dad said..." It took everything in Emma not to start crying from the build up emotions in her chest. "It made me think-"
     "Emma," Queen Belle interrupted her daughter, "your father has always been prone to be stuck in his own ways. You have no idea how long it took for me to get him to properly use cutlery again." Emma laughed at her mother's comment, and Belle smiled at the memory and her daughter's amusement. "He might not fully understand your vision right now, but he will turn around when he sees the fruits of your labor."
     "Are you sure?" Emma asked her mother, but before she could answer, her father's voice sounded from the open door. 
     "I am sure." He said, drawing the attention of the two woman to him. The man smiled as he walked closer, placing his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Besides, it didn't take that much effort before I started using cutlery again." 
      "Well, you and I remember that very differently." Belle spoke doubtfully, making the two laugh. Only Emma didn't laugh, still a little startled by her father's sudden presence and wondering how much of their conversation he had heard. 
     When King Adam realized his daughter was not laughing and looking at him with a troubled expression he let out a sign. "Emalia, listen, I..." He stopped himself, looking into his daughter's eyes, he had never been great with words and especially not in combination with his daughter. So he decided that maybe, putting it in song might be a better idea. 
     "As you go through life you'll see,
       There is so much that we,
       Don't understand." He reached out, gently stroking his daughter's cheek. Happy to see her lean into the touch instead of pulling away.
     "And the only thing we know,
       Is things don't always go,
       The way we planned." 
Adam stuck out his hand to his daughter to take, who took it and let him pull her to her feet. "But you'll see, every day, that we'll never turn away.
     When it seems all your dreams come undone."
    "We'll stand by your side," Belle sang as she stood up as well, placing her hand on her daughter's shoulder.
      "Filled with hope and filled with pride." Beast took over again.
     "We are more than we are,
      We are one."
     Emma walked away from her parents, opening the doors to her balcony and looking out over the lands. The graveyard in the distance, the forest beyond it, illuminated by the last rays of oranges and pinks of the sunset. Placing her hands on the cool railing, the young woman started to sing. "If there's so much I must be,
      Can I still just be me,
       The way I am?"
      Her father and mother came standing on either side of her, but Emma's attention stayed with the graveyard. Her eyes already found the grave of her brother even from such a distance it was hard to miss with the many flowers and trinkets people had left around it.
     "Can I trust in my own heart,
       Or am I just one part,
       Of some big plan?"
     Belle was quick to notice and guess where her daughter's mind had gone to. "Even those who are gone,
       Are with us as we go on.
       Your journey has only begun." Softly, she reaches over to Emma's cheek where she wiped away a stray tear.
     "Tears of pain, tears of joy,
       One thing nothing can destroy." Belle took her daughter's hand in hers and softly pressed both to Emma's chest, just above her heart. "Is our love, deep inside, we are one."
     "Family, family, we are one." Adam and Belle sung together as they walked the halls of their castle with their daughter by their side. Unaware of a third voice, the voice of a young man, harmonizing with them.
     "Family, family, we are one."
     Adam stopped them when they stood in front of the big portrait of their family that had only been painted two years ago. All of them together, Adam and Belle in the back, Ben and Emma in front of them. All smiling, they looked so happy. Emma missed it.
     "We are one, you and I." King Beast continued on his own.
     "We are like the earth and sky.
       One family under the sun." He turned his attention back to his daughter, taking her shoulders in his hands. "All the wisdom to lead,
       All the courage that you need.
       You will find when you see,
       We are one."
     "Family, family, we are one." Belle and her husband sang as she too came to stand with them.
     "Family, family, we are one."
     Eventually, Emma lay one hand on her father's and the other on her mother's, and joined in. The four of them harmonizing for the first time in a long time. "Family, family, we are one.
       Family, family, we are one,
       Family."
      As the song died down, the three kept standing there. If Emma closed her eyes, she could feel as if Ben was there with them. 
     And for a moment, for the first time in months if not the entire year, she considered showing her parents Ben's letter. To share the burden she had carried with her since that day. But as she looked at her mother and father, who seemed to finally had started to heal from the grief of losing their son, she decided against it. What would be the point in letting them find out their expectations had been the reason he had been in that car? All it would do was open up wounds that hadn't even fully closed yet.
     No. Emma decided then and there. Better let them believe Ben had been on a midnight drive to clear his mind, instead of trying to escape. The guilt would be hers to carry, and she had made her peace with that.
     
     
     
     

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A/N


Heyhey! 

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Giving a heads up, it will probably be a week or two/three before I upload the next chapter, depending on how things go here. Buuut the coronation is so close! Meaning the end of Part 1 of this book (and the first movie) is very close as well!
I am very excited, I have so many plans for parts 2 and 3!!

Aaanyways, have a good day/night/whatever it is!

~Purple Dragon