For the occasion, Ben, with some help from Jane, had organized a small welcome party in the lunch yard for his old friends, none of whom had spent a large amount of time in Auradon yet. The lunch yard was decorated with brightly shining lanterns and there were numerous tables covered with snacks and drinks. Lonnie took her place as the DJ behind the spinning table and the party was set off.
The VK's unintentionally found themselves at the center of attention of the righteous sons. Lancelot was extremely interested in Freddie's magic abilities and had asked her if he could study them sometimes. Aden and Jay were two pees in a pod, boastingly telling stories of their adventures and promising each other they would have to duel sometime in the future. Alex, meanwhile, had a thoughtful conversation with Evie and Doug concerning bringing children off the isle and the morality of evil while the couple could hardly believe the big man's sophisticated way of thinking. Royce was in a deep conversation with Carlos, apparently, he did not distrust him the way he did Mal because he seemed genuinely excited when Carlos told him about his inventions, especially those concerning bow and arrow.
Archer stayed with Ben and Mal for the larger part of the night, both to catch up with his old buddy and to question Mal about her past. Though he appeared to be genuinely nice, Mal could not help but feel like she was being questioned. Archer drummed up his questions so fast and monotone it felt as though he had prepared them beforehand. Ben eventually started noticing this to.
"Jeez, what's with the third-degree Archer? Do you think Mal might accidentally spill her secret evil plot to take over Auradon?" he asked smiling.
Archer gave a light chuckle and his eyes twinkled. "I still see it as my duty to protect you from dangers Bennyboo." He joked as he reached out to rough up Ben's hair again, who instead slapped his hand away annoyed.
"How many times have I told you to stop calling me that?" he asked, while also giving Mal an exasperated look after she choked on her drink at the mention of his nickname.
"Bennyboo!" she shrieked while gulping in air and putting her head on Ben's shoulder laughing. Ben couldn't help but smile at her priceless reaction and started stroking her back. "Wasn't that the nickname Audrey gave you?" Mal asked when she had stopped laughing.
Now it was Archer's turn to grin as he turned to Mal. "Yeah, he was still dating her when he joined up with us for a year, you should have seen them as they said goodbye." He gave a sad, pouty face and in a shrill voice continued. "Oh, Bennyboo, what if we never see each other again? What if you get eaten, or cursed, or get the flu? What would I do then Bennyboo?"
Mal shrieked with laughter again at Archer's priceless impression, but Ben seemed more embarrassed than amused. "She did not use those exact words, okay." He stated to no one in particular as both Archer and Mal were still too busy laughing to listen.
"It's alright Ben." Archer said. "As for the questions, I'm simply interested in what she has to say, I've never met someone from the isle before. I hear everyone there has practiced sword fighting, is that true?" he asked eagerly.
"Pretty much." Mal said. "We don't really have a choice, only the very tough survive there and you need to learn to defend yourself."
"Fascinating." Archer said while having a sip of his drink. "I would love to visit it some time, having danger lurk around every corner must be exhilarating."
"It's not that much fun when you grow up there." Mal said, with a hint of judgmentalism in her voice.
Archer looked shocked and bowed to her. "I'm terribly sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I just didn't realize for a second, ehm, can you forgive me?"
Mal was flabbergasted by how he was acting. Most Auradon people tended to act as if she exaggerated all her tales from the isle, but Archer actually seemed to hold her in high regard. "It's fine." She told him, "everyone blabbers on every once in a while."
"I just want to make a good first impression." Archer said with a hopeful smile.
"Shouldn't that be my job?" Mal replied.
"I have a feeling you don't like sucking up to anyone, no matter who they are."
"Well, you got that right." Mal said as she took a sip from her punch and Ben and Archer both grinned. "Ben told me that you guys tend to act like bodyguards whenever he gets a girlfriend."
Archer laughed. "Yeah, we can't really help it. I mean, someone has to look out for Bennyboo." He said, and he pinched Ben's cheek.
"You should really be more respectful to your king." Ben said sarcastically.
"Oh, your majesty, my sincerest apologies." He said with a comically large bow before looking back at ben smugly. "Come on, lighten up a little. I'm just trying to impress your girlfriend."
"You didn't do that with Audrey." Ben said, crossing his arms.
Archer waved a hand. "If you happen to be a prince, there's no need to impress her anymore." He said. "Mal's way more intimidating."
"Thank you." Mal said sarcastically. "You know, Ben has told me more about you." Mal said and Archer gave Ben an amused look.
"Oh, did he now? Only the flattering things I hope."
"If I had, I would have quickly been done talking." Ben said, after which Archer gave him a slight punch on the shoulder.
Mal gave Ben's quip no attention and instead looked back at Archer. "He said that there was no word to describe your fighting prowess, but he also likes to speak of the one time he bested you in a training session."
Archer looked at Ben bemusing, who suddenly had far more attention for the glass he was holding. "The time you bested me in a training session?" Archer asked with a widening grin. "When did that happen again, Ben?"
"I-ehm…" Ben seemed to stutter.
Mal looked at him perplexed. "You lied about that? Why would you do that?" she asked slightly amused, she had never seen Ben this uncomfortable.
Before Ben could answer, Archer spoke up. "Perhaps it is time for another training session, isn't it Ben? I would like to see how all that practice has paid off." More people had noticed this comment and now listened to their conversation.
Ben blushed at this, but under Mal's intense stare and the expecting looks of the other students he did not dare refuse.
And thus, under a lot of noisy chanting a large group moved themselves to the S.A.S arena. Both Archer and Ben removed their upper line of clothing and stepped into the ring in sleeveless shirts. Ben was very muscular, Mal knew as such, but Archer was slightly more chiseled and there were multiple small scars running over his arm and well as a small tattoo of a sword on his right shoulder. Both boys grabbed an S.A.S sword (naturally Archer wouldn't fight with Excalibur) and stood opposite each other.
The large crowd withdrew their breath as they approached each other. Mal had seen Ben swordfight before and knew he was quite good, but nothing could have prepared her for Archer.
He moved with such grace and precision it looked as though this fight had been tightly choreographed. He always seemed to be at least three steps ahead of Ben and seemed to always be able to predict his moves to the second. While Ben was apparently giving it all he had, Archer sufficed with small movements, sidesteps and the occasional small push or shove. He was simply playing with Ben, Mal had never seen someone with such raw sword fighting talent. Eventually Ben had to give up and Archer was able to swipe his sword from his hand with a delicate movement and catch it mid-air.
"You have made progress since you returned to Auradon." He said to Ben as he helped him up. "I see you've worked on your balance, but your strike-rate is still too sloppy and predictable. A true swordsman is able to fully adapt to their opponent's weaknesses instead of relying on his own strengths."
"Like I haven't heard that speech a million times before." Ben said before grinning. He then directed himself to Mal. "How'd I do sweetie?"
Mal raised an eyebrow. "About as good as I would expect a fish would in a fight with a bear." She said dead serious.
Ben looked at her offended for a few seconds before taking her in his arms and kissing her hard on the mouth, an offer she quickly accepted.
Archer tapped Ben on the head with his sword. "Hey, no romance in the arena!" he said before getting surrounded by the members of the S.A.S team, who were all fawning over his sword fighting ability. Before long, he had accepted challenges from every one of them for one-on-one matches and Ben and Mal decided to stick around for now.
They watched as each team member was soundly defeated by Archer, seemingly without much effort.
He was now up against Chad, who, despite his best efforts, had been cornered by Archer's quick sword work. Archer made quite a show of allowing Chad to swing at him while he agilely dodged every strike with supple gracefulness. Eventually he managed to get behind Chad and smacked him on the ass with the blunt edge of his sword, ending the match. The rest of the team cheered and hooted as Chad painstakingly made his way to the bench.
Only Jay and Lonnie were left, and it was the son of Jafar who approached Archer now. He and Lonnie shared a quick kiss before Jay donned his helmet. He met Archer in the middle and they saluted each other.
"I guess I finally get to find out how they fight on the isle." Archer said.
"You might be very surprised by the end." Jay said quite arrogantly.
And so, they started their fight. It became apparent immediately that this was a different fight from the others. For starters, Jay managed to hold his own for about two minutes. Archer seemed to probe and try for Jay before apparently having figured out his entire fighting style and quickly managing to drive him back before disarming him. He gave Jay a respectful handshake and exclaimed his admiration for his brash and brave fighting style.
"That was quite impressive." He told Jay. "The way you manage to combine swinging strikes with your jumps is interesting, how long have you trained for that?"
"Most of us on the isle grow up with fighting, I just happened to have a knack for it." He replied. "But you really are something else, would you actually be allowed to join the S.A.S squad when you enroll at Auradon prep? If we had you, the other teams wouldn't stand a chance."
Archer smiled. "To be honest, I'm not sure. As an officer in the army it could be possible that I'm not even allowed to partake in any school sports, but I'll look into it. In any case, I would be delighted to share some of my fighting expertise with you."
"That would be great." Jay said, and they shook hands again.
Lonnie was up last. While many guys had voiced their surprise and displeasure with her appointment as team captain, Archer gave it no mind. He even briefly talked to her about her parents, who had apparently taught him in eastern fighting styles for a short period.
"Your mother was undoubtedly the greatest sword fighter I've ever met." He told Lonnie. "It was an honor to have been trained by her. She was terribly strict though, it took me hundreds of bruises before I finally perfected her lethal swan strike."
"That is one of the hardest moves though." Lonnie replied. "She has mentioned you when she trained me, she said you were one of the best students she has ever had, and she kept on praising your mentality and so on. It got quite annoying to be honest."
"Well, I hereby apologize for your mother's excessively long monologues of my greatness." He said with a smile. "Shall we?" he asked, and the two met in the middle of the arena.
Lonnie was an excellent fighter, there was no doubt about that, but she simply lacked the experience and inventiveness of Archer, who had apparently already implemented elements of Jay's fighting style in his own repertoire. Lonnie's agility made for possibly Archer's greatest challenge thus far, but he managed to disarm her anyway. He then bowed to her before complementing her fighting skills.
"You are the spitting image of your mother." He said to Lonnie as he handed her sword back to her. "That lean back corkscrew move could not have been performed by anyone else."
"I know now that I must train harder though." She said with a smile. "It would really mean a lot if you would train with us when you enroll here."
"I'll definitely check into that." He said before he and the rest of the team left the arena.
They freshened up before rejoining the party. There, Archer was bombarded with questions and compliments about his fighting skills by the people who had seen him take on the entire S.A.S team and Ben. Sure, all the people had heard the stories told by Ben and others, but they had never expected to see him in action quite like that. There were some people who were slightly disappointed that he hadn't used Excalibur, but naturally understood that such a powerful magical heirloom was too valuable for a simple practice session.
"He seems to be quite popular with just about everyone, not just the ladies." Mal said to Ben as they looked how Archer had to let some girl feel his biceps for the tenth time tonight.
"Yeah, I guess I should have expected that." Ben said.
"Are you jealous?" Mal said amused as she looked at Ben's flustered face.
"What!? No, of course not!" he said, but he couldn't hide the blush on his cheeks.
Mal laughed. "Ah, you are. What is it? Come on, spill it!" she said as she poked him in his side.
Ben softly grabbed Mal's hand and pulled her close to him. "It's not that I'm jealous, or, maybe not in that way. It's just that, he's such a good friend of mine and I haven't seen him for so long. I guess I just hoped we'd be able to spend more time together, but naturally everyone wants to speak to him."
"Aww." Mal pouted with a smile as she stroked Ben's cheek. "Come on Ben, it's just the first night. You'll have plenty of time together left."
"I know." Ben said smiling.
"And I guess you'll just have to make do with me until that time comes." Mal said.
"That's not much of a punishment." Ben replied before kissing her.
"Although, I might choose to spend time with him over you." Mal said with a grin. "After all, he is a prince, and devastatingly handsome, and a much better swordsman." She did not get any further because Ben stuck a strawberry in her mouth.
"Please don't give me an excuse to execute him." He said laughing as Mal choked on her strawberry, before hastily chomping it down. She was about to scold him for force feeding her, when he pressed his lips onto hers again, and she rolled her eyes before leaning in herself.
The party went on til past curfew and it wasn't until fairy godmother herself, dressed in a furry robe and slippers, put an end to the festivities that everyone went to bed.
Archer and Lancelot shared a room, as well as Aden and Royce. Alex would crash with his brother.
Ben and Mal had a lengthy goodbye since this was the first night since the vacation had started that they didn't spend together. Evie basically had to drag Mal into their room by the collar to separate her and Ben. Mal knew that Evie couldn't be mad at her though, since Mal had never been this happy.