“Am I being too subtle?” he asks, leaning casually against the lockers next to Mal’s, the perfect picture of a devoted boyfriend. Except for the conversation topic.
A laugh bubbles out of her, honestly surprised and brightly entertained. Ben is always pleased when he can do that, anything to make her happy.
“You announced to the entire school that you were in love with me before we were even dating, and on our first date you took off your clothes,” Mal reminds him, smile edging sideways with mostly benign teasing.
He scratches his cheek sheepishly, acknowledging her point, but defending himself with, “But that was when I was under the love potion.”
Her nose crinkles, now more ashamed at the memory of having to resort to a love potion than having been caught using said potion.
“But it didn’t change who you were, or how you acted while in love. It just focused those emotions on a specific target,” she responds thoughtfully, fingers tap tap tapping against the spine of her spell book, “Just because the target of your affections is one that you’ve chosen, doesn’t mean your behavior would be considerably different.”
Her voice drops out of the lofty theorizing, and darkens into something hard and flinty, “I understand that you’d want to be a little more discrete since it’s Carlos…”
And Ben is still working his parents over on the matter of my-girlfriend-is-Maleficent’s-daughter, much less the I’m-actually-in-love-with-Cruella’s-son.
“…but he’s not going to end up your dirty little secret,” she states, advice and warning combined.
He shakes his head, because of course not. He wouldn’t–doesn’t–view Carlos that way whatsoever. The reason why he doesn’t sing his feelings at the top of his lungs to the entire school is because Carlos and Mal are different. “With you, I knew you’d reject me if you didn’t want me, even in front of the entire school. But with him… I don’t want him to feel pressured into saying yes.”
“There you go,” she says, satisfied, “Now, walk me to my math class so we can pass by Carlos in the hallway on his way to computer science.”
Ben’s next class, history, is in a completely different building on the other side of campus. But he thinks the daily tardies are a worthy exchange for daily smiles and waves.
Mal hip checks him when he stops moving to watch Carlos walk away, nearly completely turned around to do so. Luckily for Ben, the crowd flowing around them are all students almost late for class, too busy to notice.
“Not subtle at all,” she chides half-heartedly.
~
A/N: THIS IS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF DRABBLES I HAVE WRITTEN IN ONE DAY. I AM RUNNING ON LESS THAN THREE HOURS OF SLEEP. WHY ARE MY FEELINGS FOR THIS CAMPY MOVIE INCREASING OVER TIME?
Continuation of today’s earlier posts.
Also, any suggestions for a title for this series?
EDIT: NOW WITH TITLE– “ONLY FOOLS RUSH IN”
JackSGreyson Says 