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The party is electric, the base booming, the guests happy and mingling. People from all around the States of Auradon, and even some from outside of it, are in attendance to celebrate the momentous occasion of the barrier coming down.
Ben knows that there is still work to be done and that this exuberance and show of solidarity won’t last, but he won’t let the dread of the impending council meetings that will surely take place dampen his mood. He just wants to bask in this moment with his friends and his girlfriend-- his fiancee, his brain reminds him and his heart skips a beat. Now he really wants to see Mal.
The king surveys the party as he makes his way across the dance floor in the direction he saw Mal disappear in, dodging some friends from the Tourney team with a nod and a smile as he does so. Ben quickly finds his soon-to-be queen by the drink table where glasses of free champagne are lined up along with a few bowls of punch for the underaged guests.
He’s so distracted watching her laughing amongst their friends, he forgets to look where he’s going until he feels his body meet that of a shorter one. He immediately looks down with a surprised laugh, steadying the weight of the other person as the contents of their glass threatens to spill. “Sorry about that,” he tells them. By the looks of their clothing, which consists of a variety of patterns and colors, they’re a kid from the Isle. “I’m usually a lot better at this whole walking thing, I swear.” He wears his friendliest smile, conscious of his position of power and the stigma surrounding his own parentage from the islanders. He doesn’t want any of the new VKs to think the barrier will get reinstated or that they’ll get sent to a new prison just because they bumped into the teenaged king on the dance floor.
The young face that turns up to meet his carries a set of half-lidded, bloodshot eyes-- something that has Ben’s good natured smile slipping a little. “Iss no prob-” their speech is interrupted by a hiccup, “-problem… S’rry,” the kid says, covering their mouth with one overly long sleeve. They seem to be drowning in the raggedy, old sweater they’re wearing with a too large, makeshift pirate hat that’s falling down over their eyes.
One of the so-called wharf rats Mal has mentioned? Ben ponders before realizing the young isle resident (former resident?) is stumbling away.
“Hey, wait!” Ben finds himself saying, a hand reaching out to grab at the VK’s sweater. This causes the younger descendant to sway backwards, spilling some of their drink on the floor and themself. Once again, the king finds himself steadying the younger person, the smell of alcohol unmistakable now.
“Whu?” comes the less than articulate question from the young VK as they lazily blink at Ben over their shoulder. The VK hardly seems to have noticed that half of their remaining drink is either on the floor or on their clothing.
He opens his mouth to respond, with what he is still unclear on, when he spots Fairy Godmother heading their way, a smile in place as her eyes scan the rest of the dance floor, making sure everyone is safe and having a good time. And that there are no underaged drinkers or any other illegal things going on right now, he nervously swallows.
He looks in the direction of Mal and makes a split second decision to frogmarch the young VK over to her, gently, gently, he reminds himself-- because, if his recent episode as a literal beast, even if it was induced by Audrey’s spell, has taught him anything, it’s that his normal strength (even when not spelled) might not be as normal as the rest of society’s (Thanks, Dad.).
He makes it all the way to his soon-to-be queen without complaint, with guests parting like the red sea, and with many amused glances directed at him, as he goes. The young king finally makes it to Mal and is about to breathe a sigh of relief, surrounded by the amused smirks of Jay, Evie, Doug, Carlos, and Jane, when he notices what she’s drinking.
“Oh! Hey, Ben!” she says, a truly beautiful smile lighting up her face as she turns towards him, a glass of champagne in hand.
Champagne.
Her gaze drops to the young VK he’s still got his hands on the shoulders of. “What’s going on here?” Amusement is clearly evident in Mal’s tone. Distantly, he notices Evie giggling into Doug’s shoulder, smiling widely.
“Mal.” He feels his hands drop to his sides as he stares at the glass. The VK in front of him seems content to lean backwards into him as Ben has an internal freak out.
“What?” Her eyes are drawn back up to meet his as she brings her glass up for another sip of an alcoholic beverage.
“You’re drinking alcohol.”
“Yeah,” she replies with a disbelieving chuckle, something, he’s noticed, she often does when she thinks he’s stating the obvious and is, therefore, being funny- intentionally or not.
“Hello,” Evie says in that sing-song way of hers, raising her own glass of champagne. He hadn’t noticed it before as her hand had been resting low at her side. “We all are.”
It’s then that he notices all of his friends, even Jane and Doug, who should know better having grown up in Auradon, are holding flutes of champagne.
“That’s-that’s not what I mean,” he says, gaze returning to Mal.
“Ooh, okay,” she says in that tone of voice that means she’s not taking him seriously as she rolls her eyes with another short laugh. “Then what did you mean?” She takes a bigger swig from her glass, which has him stepping forward, jostling the young VK at his front into moving with him, as he takes the glass away from her.
“Hey!” she cries.
“Not cool, dude,” Jay says, taking a pointed sip from his own glass.
“Nope,” Carlos agrees, following Jay’s lead and sipping his champagne.
“Yeah, what’s the big deal, Ben?” Evie asks incredulously. “It’s just a little champagne.”
Doug and Jane, Ben notices, remain silent, not meeting his gaze with their usual confidence.
“Yeah, Ben.” Mal’s hand is suddenly on his arm as she stares up at him with a carefree smile. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that the Auradon drinking age is twenty-one,” he tells her.
Even though he’s not looking at the rest of the Core-Four when he says it, he knows their faces must be mirroring Mal’s expression of shock before she turns it into a disbelieving smile and laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” When his expression doesn’t change, she tacks on, “Right?” When it still doesn’t change, she turns towards Doug and Jane, along with the rest of the Core-Four. “Right?”
“Um…” Jane is biting her lip, looking sheepish while Doug looks around nervously, taking a rather large gulp of his beverage, resulting in a coughing fit that ends in Evie rubbing his back and looking concerned.
Mal directs her attention towards the only AK that’s not devolving into a coughing fit at the moment or acting as a leaning post for a very drunk young VK. “There’s laws here that have to do with drinking?”
“Yes,” Jane says, clutching at her glass.
“And, when, exactly, were you, or anyone,” she asks a little louder now, looking over at her boyfriend, “going to tell me?”
“It never came up,” Ben answers her, and it's the truth. Even when visiting other kingdoms and states within and outside of Auradon, there was always a non-alcoholic alternative served to him and Mal, as everyone was very conscious of them being underaged dignataries. Even before that, it seemed Fairy Godmother and Jane were very conscientious to have mainly non-alcoholic beverages within reach of those underage. The young king isn’t quite sure why that previous format for how drinks were provided was changed. Maybe because there was less time given to set up this celebration--since taking down the barrier was practically spur of the moment?
“Ben,” comes Jane’s voice, her blue eyes pleading. “Can’t we just let it slide for one night of celebration? It is a celebration, after all.”
Wow, if Ben hadn’t known Jane had been hanging out with the VKs as much as she had, loosening up and becoming more confident in a lot of ways, he’d say she must have been spelled to say all that. She’d never been one to break rules before.
“Yes, come on. You’re king, aren’t you?” asks Evie.
“It does come with the power of being king that your word is law,” Carlos says, matter of factly with a sly smirk he’s clearly picked up from Jay.
They’re all looking at him expectantly, hopefully, cheerfully. He doesn’t want to spoil their good mood. “Fine, but only for the older teens, sixteen and up.”
There’s immediate relief amongst them and some high-fives going around the Core-Four along with Mal and Carlos’ exclamations of “Yes!” and Jay’s “Alright!” as the ex-thief promptly drains the rest of his glass and reaches for another.
Ben smiles in fondness, shaking his head. He makes to move, but the shift draws his attention to the weight against his front that he’s seemingly forgotten about, and his original purpose in coming over to his fiancee and their friends, but before he can open his mouth to address the issue, Jay speaks.
“I have a question, oh King.”
Ben nods, licking his lips, a nervous habit he hasn’t yet been able to curb.
“Why doesn’t Auradon just let all the kids drink?”
“Yeah, why the age restrictions?” Carlos asks.
“Seems stuffy and, not to mention, boring,” Mal adds, crinkling her nose in that cute way as she loops her arm through Ben’s and leans into his side, somehow avoiding jostling the young VK still up against him.
Ben opens his mouth to explain, “Well-”
“Alcohol can have several bad effects on people, regardless of age,” Doug interrupts. “However, for children, the risk is a lot higher. Their bodies aren’t developed enough to sort of filter out the poison that alcohol can act as. This can lead to seizures, comas-- they could even die.”
“So the smaller the child, the greater the risk?” Evie asks, the answer rather apparent to all of them, their good mood effectively gone.
“Shit,” Jay says. All of them are staring at the young VK practically sleeping against the front of the young king.
Evie steps forward, looking between Ben and Doug, asking, “They’ll be okay, right?”
“I mean, they should be, right?” Carlos asks.
“Unless it’s an acute case, but a chronic poisoning of it isn’t good either,” Doug answers.
“Acute? Chronic?” Jay asks.
“Oh! I know this one!” Jane says, rather too excitedly to be tactful when it comes to the subject matter. “Acute means all at once, so a poisoning from one dose that results in a severe reaction, illness, or even death. Chronic means over time, smaller doses that add up and lead to a severe reaction, illness, or death over a longer period of time.”
At everyone’s increasingly concerned expressions, Mal scoffs, plastering on a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes as she gathers everyone’s attention. “Relax guys. It’s just champagne.”
Jay’s the next one to take up smiling. “You’re right. It’s not that high in alcohol content, right?”
“Yeah,” Carlos agrees. “It’s just a little more potent than the watered down stuff most of the isle residents grew up drinking, right?”
There’s a murmur of agreement between the Core Four, though Ben’s happy to note that Doug and Jane have caught on to the implications of what Carlos just said. It’s not just him that’s worried.
What were the isle conditions really like? Mal and her friends tend to keep the specifics to themselves, and the newer VKs, like Uma and Harry, are almost strangers to him still, for all he’s been kidnapped and saved by them in turn. He doesn’t feel right asking them so directly right now, either, which leaves Ben with one burning question:
Why would children be drinking on the isle?
Before he can ask the question aloud, as tonight has seemingly turned into a night of education for both the VKs and the AKs, the sight of pale blue wrapped in a pink bow enters his peripheral vision once more. Ben finds his head turning to watch Fairy Godmother start to move towards the outskirts of the dancefloor. She’s not tall enough to see it, like the young king is, but her trajectory has her landing in front of a group of stumbling, young VKs as they laugh at each other’s ridiculous, drunken dance moves.
“Oh no.”
“What?” Mal asks worriedly, tugging at his arm.
“We need to move.”
Jay’s quick to follow Ben’s line of sight. “That’s not good,” he says, already moving to intercept Fairy Godmother without any orders from the king.
The ex-thief’s movements prompt Ben into action, issuing orders to his friends that are just now piecing together the situation they’re in. “Get every VK under the age of sixteen who’s even had a sip of alcohol some water and food, and absolutely keep them out of the line of sight of Fairy Godmother by any means necessary.” He’s pushing the sleepy, drunk VK into Mal’s arms as he starts to pull away from her. “I’m going to go help Jay distract her.”
He turns his back to the sound of them springing into action. Somehow, with their help and the efforts of a rogue pirate or two (Uma was particularly helpful when they found her and told of the situation, her drunk first mate was particularly less so), they managed to make it through the night without any incidents concerning the VKs, which was quite a feat considering it was most of the kids’ first night in Auradon. By the end of the night, the question of Why were the underaged children of the isle drinking alcohol? was forgotten. In its place was a rush of adrenaline and euphoria as they made a game of keeping Fairy Godmother busy while they handled the younger VKs and then, once all the younger children were seen to bed, continuing to party with new allies and friends.
The question of alcohol and the VKs would not come up again until days later, just before the new VKs were settled in enough in the dorms at Auradon Prep to properly start attending classes with the regular AK student body.
It happens in passing.
Tucked into a hidden, padded window seat in one of the many hallways of the castle, Ben is reviewing documents for the upcoming council meeting. There’s so many things to get finalized and pushed through for the VKs. Things to help them all get adjusted to life in Auradon and to assist the ones who decided to stay on the isle. It’s complicated enough that Ben feels another headache coming on.
Pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, he forces himself to focus and read through his papers again (for what feels like the millionth time), when his ears start to pick up on an approaching conversation.
“Wait, wait,” comes the disbelieving voice of Curella De Vil’s son as he rounds the corner of the hallway, accompanied by a set of heavier footsteps. “You’re telling me the whole stereotype of ‘pirates drinking rum all the time and getting drunk’ is true?”
“Aye,” comes the unmistakable sound of Captain Hook’s son. “If ya have the access to it, tha is.”
“But your dad totally had access, right?”
There’s a silence when their footsteps stop and Ben imagines it’s filled with a manic pirate grin, courtesy of said manic pirate.
After a beat, Carlos continues talking and walking, Harry’s footsteps following suit. “So that time you came out of the dark of that alley to threaten us -- ya know, after you kidnapped King Ben -- how drunk were you on a scale of one to ten?”
Ben finds himself curious as to the answer. He only knew the gist of what had occurred once he’d been captured. He finds himself awaiting the pirate’s response as he decides to peek through the curtains that obscure him from the approaching figures.
“Hmm?” The taller VK pauses, tilting his head, eyes aimed towards the ceiling as he tries to think back. “More than a two and a wee less than a four.”
“That means three, Harry,” comes Carlos’ incredulous response.
“Does it now?” he asks disinterestedly. “Fascinatin’.”
And with that, their conversation moves on to other topics as the two VKs meander down another corridor, none the wiser of their eavesdropper. Ben is left with more questions than answers and absolutely no hope of finishing another read through of his papers.
The young king inevitably forgets the overheard conversation over the course of the next few days and, before he knows it, the day arrives when the new VKs start attending classes at Auradon Prep. Of course, with this comes the required course of Remedial Goodness 101.
Curious as to how Fairy Godmother actually conducts this type of class, and how the VKs are adjusting to Auradon because of it, Ben finds himself sitting in on the first day of class, seated on the outskirts of the rows of tables in use by the various VKs in the library, the makeshift classroom of Fairy Godmother’s choice. He notices that he’s not the only AK trying to discreetly watch the proceedings, catching several students trying to hide their eavesdropping by way of an open book held in front of their faces, not even bothering to flip the pages every so often to sell the ruse. Ben sighs at their antics, shaking his head a little as he turns his attention back to the gathering class.
Of the VKs in attendance, Harry Hook, Ben notes, is the most eye-catching, and it’s not just because he’s the only one wearing red and an obnoxious amount of black eyeliner. With his feet up on the table in front of him, his chair leaning back on two legs, his hook (made dull by a spell courtesy of Fairy Godmother) lazily held by one of his bare arms dangling over the back of his seat, and with the way all the other VKs seem to watch him, outright or by more discreet means, draws any outsider’s attention towards the craziest pirate in the room. It’s clear, especially since Gil and Uma were put in a separate Remedial Goodness class from their first mate, that Harry is the VK in charge here. Ben never really understood the hierarchy of the isle and their gang lifestyle, but here it’s on full display. Since Mal left the isle, the isle became Uma’s and, in the place of Uma, Harry’s.
As class begins, and Fairy Godmother scolds the red-wearing pirate into getting his feet off the table, which he does, but only after a heavy sigh and an overly exaggerated eye-roll, Ben notices something strange.
Every so often the young king sees Harry pull a metallic, rectangular flask out of an inner jacket pocket and drink it’s contents in large swallows.
Ben can do nothing but stare, not quite sure he wants to believe what is clearly happening in front of him, and he knows he’s not the only one if the murmurs from some of the other Auradon students watching are of any indication.
On the fifth or so time Harry takes up his flask, seemingly intent on draining it’s contents, tilting his head and chair way back as he does so, he’s finally caught.
“Bibbity-boppity, no!” Fairy Godmother has turned back around from where she’d previously been writing on the white board. Scandalized, she hurries over quickly to the pirate’s table, snatching away the metallic drinking container.
The older teen’s brain is slow to piece together what’s just occurred. “What the-?” His hand remains empty in much the same position it’d been in while holding the flask.
While the first mate continues to stare in bewilderment at his now empty hand, to the muffled snickers of his peers, Fairy Godmother is raising the flask to her nose, giving its contents a sniff.
“Oh, bobbity- yup,” she says, eyes tearing up a bit as she puts a hand to her sensitive nose, moving the open flask in her grasp an arms length away from her. “That’s what I think it is.”
Finally, the older VK’s mind seems to have caught up to the present. Blinking, he drops his hand to the table with a huff. “What?” Harry leans back further in his chair, feet moving to rest on the top of his desk once more. “It’s jus’ drinkin’ water.”
“It’s not-” Fairygodmather has to visibly take a deep breath and begin again. “It’s rum, Harry.”
“Same difference.”
“Detention!”
“Fer what?”
“For drinking while being underaged and doing so on school grounds.”
“That’s a load of croc-shit if I’ve ever heard any.”
“Excuse me!”
“Yer excused.”
“How dare you!”
The older teen sighs, exasperated. “It’s jus drinkin’ water. We’d drink it all the time back on the isle,” he says, to the nods of agreement from his peers. “It wasn’t until we came to Boradon that people started havin’ a problem with it. I know it's not because ya don’t have alcohol or don’t drink it yerselves, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that that is what actual water is for.” Harry snorts at this. “Alcohol isn’t supposed to be consumed in such a way, especially by one so young.”
“Then, o' wise fairy, what were we supposed to drink on the isle? Actual water?” The red clad pirate laughs, looking at his fellow VKs in the class who chuckle along with him at the preposterous idea.
“Well… yes. Water is-”
The pirate suddenly slams his hands down on the desk, his feet firmly planted back on the ground. All other sounds and lingering laughter are abruptly cut off by the motion as Harry uses his leverage on the desk to push himself up to stand. “But there wasn’t any, was there?” He’s looking at the older fairy through his dark hair that’s fallen into his face, blue eyes standing out even more starkly amongst the brown strands and the outlining of black ever present around them. “See- I know what water is. Live and breathe with the waves, as any good pirate’s supposed ta do-- that’s what me Da taught me.” He rounds the table he was sitting at, stepping towards the fairy who seems locked in place. “But even out at sea, surrounded by all that water,” he edges closer to her and Fairy Godmother takes a step back, before catching herself and making a visible decision to stand her ground against the younger man, “oftentimes there’s not any actual fresh water that’s safe to drink.” Harry continues forward, undeterred, leaning in close to ask, “Ya know wha' they drank instead?”
The blue clad fairy takes this as her opportunity to try and restore order to her classroom. “Harry, this is not appropriate behavior-”
The son of Hook pointedly ignores her, answering his own question as he turns back to address the rest of the class with his arms thrown wide and a loud resounding, “Alcohol!”
“Harrison James Hook-!” The aforementioned named individual’s sudden turn back to her catches her off guard and has her frantically dodging his still outspread arms, ducking down to avoid them.
“And just like out at sea,” he continues, oblivious or uncaring to Fairy Godmother’s predicament as she slowly rises back up from her crouched position with as much dignity as she can, “there was no good drinking water on the isle.” This causes a few gasps to rise up from the spectating Auradonians, those of which had purposefully been watching the proceedings and those that had just been passing through the library but got caught up in watching the drama unfold between the good fairy and the pirate. “Oh- sure, there was some fresh water,” he lowers his arms now, turning back around once more to his growing audience, “but it was sitting at the bottom of the Evil Queen’s well in the forest, deep in Maleficent’s territory. The only islanders who could partake in that life-giving sustenance was those Maleficent or her daughter favored, and if they didn’t favor you… well,” he looks pointedly over his shoulder at the canteen filled with rum still clutched in Fairy Godmother’s hands, which the fairy quickly holds to her chest in obvious fear that he’d try to snatch it back.
After letting the meaning of his gaze linger for a moment longer, his attention gets drawn once more to his audience and he quickly plasters on a too wide grin, clapping his hands together. “You drink rum!”
And, just like that, the spell the pirate had over everyone’s attention broke as he made his way back to his seat, a murmur taking up over the crowd with the Auradorains largely deciding to move on and go back to what they were doing before this whole spectacle drew their attention.
Fairy Godmother clears her throat, smiling tightly and trying to project the calmness she had at the start of this class. “Well- thank you, Harry. That was, certainly,” she pauses as she tries to find the right word, “enlightening.” He throws her a smirk and a wink from his newly seated position, which has her looking pointedly at the space above his head, if only to avoid further contact with those unnerving eyes. “But- rules are rules. Here in Auradon you all are not allowed to drink alcohol until you turn twenty-one.”
A collective groan gets taken up by the rest of her class.
“I know,” she says, addressing her seated students, “but you all have access to fresh drinking water now and other healthier alternatives to alcohol. So I insist you partake in them. And Harry,” she meets those unnerving blue eyes of his once more, “thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. For that, you no longer have detention. I should have known to give a bit more leeway, anyways, to incoming VKs. It’s a learning curve, but we’ll all learn together, okay?” She’s nodding her head as she says it, something she learned long ago usually gets people to nod back in agreement, which he does, though, she can tell, he’s uncomfortable with it (which she also learned happens quite often through using this movement). She's privately a little happy that she could make him feel even just a smidge of how uncomfortable she felt under his own scrutiny.
With that done, she looks up at the rest of her class, chin held high as the bell rings. “And that’s it for today, class.”
---------
Outside the makeshift classroom, Ben catches up to Harry in the hallway, a hallway of students that pointedly makes room for the pirate with at least a foot or two of room between him and any other passerby.
Slightly out of breath, because Ben had to run to catch up with the other boy’s strides, the Auradonian asks the VK the first thing on his mind from watching the previous scene in the library play out, forgoing niceties, “Where did you even get the alcohol? You didn’t bring it with you, did you?” He can’t remember any flasks or containers that might’ve held alcohol crossing the barrier with the rest of the kids, and some of the more redeemable villains, when they came over.
“No, didn’t have ta,” Harry says with a shake of his head and a self-satisfied smirk. “Yer Da has quite the collection, Benny-boy.”