Pairing: Ben x MC (Alaska) x Joel (past, implied)
A/n: My MC (Alaska) cut ties with Joel and stayed in the competition for Ben. Here's my personal head canon on her thought process and how everything transpired later in their lives. Is this a fic? Not exactly?
Word Count: Idk I typed this on my notes app
Alaska joined The One, in an attempt to put herself out there and give her career in entertainment one last chance. She finds the lead, Ben, 'nice' and joins the competition in order to marry him since "anything could have been better than her current love life."
On the show she and Joel develop feelings for each other, a rather unlikely outcome which was definitely not a part of plans for either of them. They both came here to win Ben over, but had both long lost the zeal to follow through with this plan.
The affection they shared was fleeting and the nature of their relationship wasn't something they could easily give a name to. The format of the show was such that nobody really knew each other, they were all playing their parts, treading the fine line between performance and authenticity.
Joel's elimination came as a surprise to Alaska, the sudden thought of not seeing the one you care for again, prompted the two to hold onto each other a little tighter. That night as Bradley dozed off, they confessed their real feelings to each other and made the most of the little time they had left together.
With an uncertain promise of staying in contact and seeing each other again, Joel bid farewell.
When Joel left the show, Alaska found herself in a state of dilemma choosing between a stable marriage and successful career or giving up all of it for a guy she barely knew and confessed to the night prior.
Her rationality trumped over her emotions as she decided to stay in the competition to marry Ben.
She wasn't a teenage girl anymore, she had lived long enough to realise that love is as transient as footprints in sand, it changes course, shifts, fades. Already in her late 20s, Alaska couldn't afford to throw away her last chance at making her dreams come true.
Marrying Ben was no longer about finding the love of her life, she saw it as her last chance at escaping her old life as an underpaid barista.
Ever since she overheard the Host's conversation about quitting the show, Alaska had been working to pitch herself as the next host of 'The One', she had to stay in the game and win the show in order to better her prospects.
After filming multiple challenges and choreographed dates, Ben proposed, and she accepted. Alaska and Ben exchanged vows on national television.
Their equation had been cordial, they cared for each other and were great friends who happened to be sexually compatible too. The two always supported each other and tried to make the most of life, together. They were a great pair for a marriage of convenience arrangement.
A few years passed and Alaska became a household name in the world of entertainment, she ventured into Production part of the industry after honing her craft on screen.
Ben successfully took over his family business and expanded it further. The two eventually launched a culinary reality show which became a huge success.
Neither of the two were keen on having kids, but conceived after 7 years of marriage. It wasn't intentional but they decided to go ahead with it anyway. As Ben put it "It was yet another adventure he was supposed to experience with Alaska", for someone who never wanted a family of his own, Ben turned out to be a doting father, then again there wasn't a single role he didn't play well.
Alaska's little family with Ben had been a congenial arrangement as the two became habitual of each other's company, one could say they loved each other immensely considering how well their marriage worked out, their support for each other's work and their love for their children made them media's favourite power couple.
After another long day of work when Ben was still at work and their children were on their school trip, Alaska finds herself zoning out alone in the living room, leisurely sipping her glass of wine, she thinks about an old flame, Joel.
She wondered how he had been since he left the show years ago, they never contacted each other and Joel never returned to the showbiz. She wondered whether Joel ever found 'the one', if he was alive and well, if he ever thought about her, if he watched the finale and saw her getting married to Ben or kept up with the articles and interviews about how great their married life had been, does he read such articles and chuckle to himself?
Did he hate Alaska for her betrayal and her facade of perfection? Was it all really a facade? Did he understand her choice and come to accept it later in life? Or maybe he did not care at all and Alaska was just one of the many he's been with.
The doorbell rings, pulling Alaska out of her grim thoughts. Ben is back home, looking at his smiling face, she quickly beckons him to the kitchen and the two sit down for a meal together.
While Alaska sometimes wondered how things could have gone with Joel, she does not regret marrying Ben, her partner through thick and thin, who always put a smile on her face. He gave her his unconditional love and support which she reciprocated. Her choices gave her a successful career and Ben gave her a happy family, a safe haven she could always return to.
