"What is this?" Harry demanded almost as soon as he walked into Ben's office.
The king looked up in time to see the invitation the pirate waved in the air. Harry had made a fantastic habit of barging into his office whenever he liked—ignoring protocol and the shouts of Ben's secretary. Ben loved it. Even his friendships growing up had been shadowed by his crown. No one forgot who he was or even the people that loved him most bent over backwards to respect royal protocol. Mal tried so hard to be a good influence and take her own position seriously. He could never explain how much comfort it gave him to have one friend that didn't give a shit about his crown or protocol.
"That," Ben pointed at the mistreated invitation. "Is an invite to my 18th birthday party."
Harry stopped, halfway into the room. He cocked his hip to one side and his head to the other, waiting like a disgruntled bird.
Ben laughed. "Don't pretend you don't know what a birthday is…"
"I don't know what a birthday is. And I asked Uma, and she hasn't the foggiest. Is this a Cotillion thing? How many times must people celebrate you being king?"
"You didn't go to Cotillion or my coronation," Ben reminded.
"Because you left me on a prison island…"
"Well you could have come if you hadn't ignored your first invitation to Auradon," Ben countered.
Harry rolled his eyes and tossed the card down on the desk, throwing himself into the chair across from Ben and kicking his heels up onto the edge of the polished wood surface. "What is with you and invitations?"
Ben laughed and then shook his head. "You really don't have birthdays?"
Harry shook his head.
Ben sat upright. "Is this why Mal won't tell me when her birthday is?" he suddenly put the pieces together. He thought she was being coy…
"Probably," Harry sounded bored now. "What is it?"
"It's a celebration of the day you were born."
"I knew this was about you again…" Harry smirked.
"Everyone had a birthday. How else will you know how old you are?"
Harry shrugged.
Ben gawked. "You're joking. You don't know how old you are?"
Harry shrugged. "Same as you, probably. Why are you obsessed with this?"
"None of you know?"
"Well a handful of years there in the beginning were foggy, mate! You try counting your age before you can count!" Harry snapped but his fury was all for fun.
Ben supposed no one had asked any of them. Auradon was the royal academy. The students ranged from early teens to twenty-five when they finished their specialized educations with the world's best tutors and moved back to their respective kingdoms. The kids coming from the Isle took entrance exams and were placed in classes like anyone else. Age had never mattered as far as that.
"I'm sure Fairy Godmother can figure it out. Might take a little magic but it should be worth it."
Harry had gotten comfortable, wiggling down into the deep leather chair. "Why bother?"
Ben opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it. He had to think for a reason this particular pirate would care about age and just saying that Ben thought it was something a person should know about themselves seemed flimsy. He smirked when he knew how to answer. "Well, when you're eighteen you can share a dorm room with your significant other."
"My what?"
"The person you're dating. The one you share your life with. The one you kiss…"
He had expected Harry to jump on this, instead he looked very still—the way he did when he wasn't sure what to do or say. Ben laughed. Harry hadn't realized this was a rule at all! "You're already moved into her room, aren't you?" Everyone knew Uma had kicked her roommate out on day one.
Harry put his boots on the floor and sat upright. His expression pinched bitterly and Ben could practically hear his friend's thoughts. First he would wonder if there was any proof he'd broken any rules, then he'd wonder what sort of punishment there could be, and then he'd worry about any of that falling on Uma rather than himself.
"Stop it. I'm not going to tattle on you. But if Fairy Godmother finds out, she'll definitely kick you out."
"Of Auradon?"
"Of Uma's room…"
"That's stupid," Harry snapped. "I can't sleep without her."
Ben let out a little laugh and shook his head. "Riiiight."
Harry blinked at him and for a second they just stared at each other. Ben hadn't expected him to be honest or romantic so he'd just assumed it was euphemism. Harry didn't seem to know why. "You're not having sex," he realized aloud.
Harry's eyes flared. He stood and started for the door, about to leave without a goodbye as usual but this time on almost a reflex to escape.
"Wait!" Ben jumped to his feet and followed, mind racing over what Mal had told him about the island. He should have found a better way to talk about this but it was something he wanted them to talk about. But Harry wasn't stopping, almost to the doors now. "Have you ever had sex?" he blurted out—going straight for the core of this conversation.
Harry swung around, gawking at him, eyes glinting with the madness he was known for. "Why?" he snapped. "Is that something I was supposed to report before leaving the Isle?"
Ben shook his head, moving slowly closer still. "No. No, of course not. But we're friends and I'm trying to look out for you."
Harry curled his lips in a snarling laugh. "I don't need anyone looking out for me but her."
"Has Uma had sex?"
Harry changed in a flash, closing the space between them and shoving the heels of his palms into Ben's chest—pushing him back a few steps. The king realized his mistake in the wild look in Harry's eyes—like he was far away in another place and time. He had heard it as a threat and it made Ben's stomach drop. There was too much about their lives on that island that he didn't understand.
He held up both hands, a show that he meant no harm. "Harry," he said his friend's name, calling him back to here and now. "Harry."
Harry shook, turning away and forcing himself to pace a circle in the large space of the room. He dragged his hands through his hair and shuddered out a breath.
"I know you think we're a bunch of prudes here, but when it comes to this topic—Auradon is pretty open. We don't have to talk about this, but I need you to think about it. Things are different here and I think this is something important."
Harry shook his head but kept pacing, looking a lot like one of those tigers prowling Jasmine's castle. "What do you want?" he said, and Ben stood very straight because he wasn't sure Harry was really talking to him and not some ghost of his past. He had a wicked slyness to him now, gaze shifting around and never landing on Ben's face. His fingers curled and uncurled and he never stopped moving.
"Nothing."
"Liar," he hissed. "What is it? You want me? Or you want her?"
Ben took a step back and then another, shaking his head. "You know that isn't it. You know I'm your—"
"Friend?" Harry snapped and jerked to a stop, staring at him. "You forgave me for kidnapping you pretty quick, didn't you?" he stalked across the room, straight for him. Ben backed up, hitting the wall and Harry jumped forward, arms out and hands slapping the wall on either side of his head, caging him in.
Harry swayed in front of him, face leaning in close and Ben remembered just how wild those eyes had been on the island. "Yeah. And then you brought me here. Saved me. And you… You have the power to send me back, don't you? The power to do anything you want with me." His shoulders shifted, body leaning in closer until there were only inches between them. His voice dipped, sultry and flirtatious and for the first time Ben understood that when Harry flirted, it wasn't real—it was dangerous, meant to push people away rather than bring them close. But he imagined it would work just fine on the wrong sort of person. And he knew it had. He knew this came from something horrible. "So, what do you want?" Harry purred, teeth glinting in his wild smile.
Ben did the only thing Harry wouldn't be ready for—he didn't cower or yell. He didn't hit or push or take that terrible bait. He pushed off the wall, closed that tiny space between them, and locked his arms around the pirate. He hugged him. "I'm sorry," he said firmly. "I shouldn't have pushed. I shouldn't have said any of it. I'm sorry."
Harry froze and Ben could feel his heart pounding. He was wound so tight that it was like hugging a statue.
Harry jerked back suddenly, expecting to be held in place and have to fight his way free, but Ben let go immediately.
The pirate staggered back, dragging in breaths like he'd been in a fight and looking painfully confused.
Ben didn't know what to do now. "Harry—"
Harry turned and bolted, leaving the doors open in his wake and vanishing down the halls.
Uma closed her locker, turned, took one step and got a bucket of water to the face.
She hoped it was water.
She looked down at her drenched front and the ruined books in her arms. Yeah. It was water. That was something, she supposed.
Chad and his friends from the other day let out peals of laughter.
"What the hell?" Mal shouted, stomping up from down the hall behind Uma.
Chad pressed back his laughter but kept his smile. "Just wanted to make the sea witch feel more at home."
"You forgot the salt…" Uma muttered.
"Get out of here!" Mal yelled, her temper was fast and Uma was grateful. She'd been holding hers down hard since they came to shore. She couldn't let them be sent back to the Isle because of her and she knew, if she slipped, her whole crew would slide down with her. It had been near impossible in the beginning, but she was getting used to it. Now, it was almost laughable. What passed for harassment in Auradon would have been affectionate on the Isle.
She shook out her books. "I'm starting to think they hate me reading..."
Mal turned to look at her only when the boys had gone. She pressed her own wicked smile into the corner of her mouth. "We should probably get you cleaned up…" She looked around for a bathroom.
"Forget it." Uma started down the hall. She had finished her classes for the day.
To her surprise, Mal walked with her. "Do those guys usually give you a hard time?"
Uma huffed a laugh and gave the other villain kid a look that suggested she'd gone soft.
Mal smiled back knowingly. "Okay. A bucket of water is hardly as bad as sewage…"
"Or that time your mom threw broken glass at you."
"Yeah, but I dodged that way better than you dodged the water…" she said, enjoying the dark memory. It was hard to joke about something that messed up with her friends in Auradon. They didn't understand. And Auradon had made her soft, but she had come to terms with that being okay. They needed a little soft sometimes. "You should talk to Fairy Godmother about Chad…"
Uma laughed. "Why? He'll say he didn't do it, and she'll believe him. He's Charming, after all."
"Yeah, well, despite the name, he's not very charming," Mal commented before they came to the stairs up to Uma's dorm floor. "You're sure you don't want to talk… or something?" she screwed her face in that "this is lame and soft but I'd do it" sort of way.
Uma was honestly surprised. She hadn't realized they had that kind of loyalty. She supposed they were kind of the last of their kind here. Everyone else had been followers and followed them to Auradon—taking queues from them. "Yeah. Thanks." The word came out awkward and they both smiled knowingly before going their own ways.
Uma went up the stairs and down her hall. Water had dripped down her front and into her boots. Fuck. She slowed when she noticed her bedroom door was open. Harry never forgot to close it. She nudged it into a wide swing and scowled at the princess. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Are you inbred idiots teaming up against me?"
Audrey didn't even look bothered to be caught snooping. She put her hands on her hips. "I knew you were a freak," she hissed and nudged her head toward the closet. It was open.
Great. She'd gone through her things. That wasn't creepy or a complete invasion of her privacy. Luckily, a life of creepy and invasive had prepared Uma for this and just about anything else. She smiled. "What? You don't have a nap in your closet sometimes?"
Audrey stalked toward her. "Just tell me where you're hiding it and I won't tell the whole school how big bad Uma hides in her closet at night?"
Uma laughed. "Tell whoever you want." She walked into the room, putting her wet books on a table and frowning at their instant puddle. "And what exactly do you think I'm hiding? It looks like you went through everything…"
"Bullshit!" Audrey snapped, stalking toward her.
Uma smiled, a little impressed by her language and temper. She might have made a great villain kid if she'd been born on the Isle. "Sweetheart, I don't know what—"
Audrey slapped her.
Uma dropped her jaw, surprise running over her colder than any bucket of water. "Oh, you did not…"
"Where is it?" Audrey shrieked.
"Where is what?" Uma screamed back.
"I know you have magic. A charm? A potion? A book?"
Uma pinched her brows together in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
And then Audrey's eyes locked on the shell necklace Uma wore. Her arm shot out for it and Uma jerked back, catching the other girl's wrist.
"Give it to me!" Audrey shouted, pushing forward until Uma's thighs hit the table. She kept pushing until they fell over onto it, her back hitting hard and that crazy princess on top of her.
"Get off of me!" Uma yelled, catching her other wrist too, unable to get a hand free without letting go of one of Audrey's and, right now, those long pink nails were looking particularly unsettling. Maybe pink could be a scary color…
"I knew you were bewitching them! I knew it and I'm going to prove it," Audrey snarled.
Uma tried to shove her off but found herself awkwardly pinned. "It's not what you think! Just get off—"
Suddenly Audrey was off of her, lifted into the air with a new shriek. Uma sat up on the table, watching Harry haul the crazy princess toward the door, one hand fisted in the back of her dress and the other in her hair. Shock and embarrassment settled her by the time he dropped her outside the door. She stumbled but gathered herself, turning to glare past Harry at Uma. There were a dozen threats in that gaze and Uma had no idea where they'd come from.
Harry slammed the door and locked it. "You making friends, sweetheart?" he drawled, returning to her.
Uma groaned, flicking her still wet braids over her shoulder. "I seem to be popular."
He came to stand beside her, tipping her chin up to get a look at her. No scratches or bruises today. He flashed a smile. "That princess had you pinned…"
Uma frowned. "I might have underestimated manicures."
He laughed and she noticed then that he sounded worn thin. "Hey." She grabbed his collar and pulled him closer, between her legs where she sat on the table so that she could look up at him. "What happened?" His eyes were darting, unfocused, and he was still swaying even though she had him close. Usually he went real damn still when she got his attention like this. He was unsettled.
He looked down between them, plucking at her wet top. "You go swimming?"
"Harry."
"I might have fucked things up…" he confessed quietly, and she heard a tremor of fear in his voice.
"What did you do?" she demanded. It wasn't that she minded him messing things up, but she needed to know what they were dealing with—because it was always them together dealing with it.
He sighed and looked away. His jaw jumped tightly. "I might have threatened the King… I don't know. I just. He was. I don't know." He growled at nothing—probably himself.
Uma frowned. "What did he do?"
"I think he was just trying to be friends…"
"That does sound awful," she said, not entirely joking.
He laughed a little and dropped his head forward to touch his forehead to hers. "I think I really messed things up."
"So, you had a fight? What's he going to do?" she said and then quieted while they both thought about what King Ben could do. "If he sends us back we'll make a run for it."
Harry sulked and then plucked at her soggy top again. "Seriously, why are you wet?"
She shrugged. "New fashion."
He raised a brow. "Chad again?"
"I have it under control."
Harry growled.
She smiled and leaned up, kissing him. It wasn't a battle of tongues. He always submitted to her. She was the captain. They made out, her hands in his hair, making it even messier than usual. She was about to break the kiss and ask him to join her in the shower—bold new territory the very idea of which made her heart thud wildly. Harry made her want things she'd never even thought about. He made her want peace because he made her feel content.
And then some son of a bitch knocked on her door.
Harry groaned and pulled back, hands still on her sides and her legs around his waist. "How many friends did you make today?"
She laughed dryly and pushed him back, hopping down front the table. His hair was a mess, his lips swollen, and her shirt was still sopping wet. She unlocked and opened her door, looking annoyed but swinging it open to look back at Harry when he saw Ben standing there. "Looks like it's one of yours."
Harry lost his steam, looking bitterly at the floor.
Uma turned back to look at Ben in her doorway. He didn't look angry either. "Are you going to banish us again?" she demanded, temper short today.
Ben's eyes widened with enough alarm to tell her he would probably never send them back to the Isle. He actually cared. "No!"
"Good." Uma left the door open and marched back through her room to the bathroom. "I'm showering. If you're going to fight with your fists, do it outside." She went into the tiled room before either of them could say anything and slammed the door. Within a minute the shower was on.
Ben sighed, hesitating at the door. "Can I come in?"
Harry wrinkled his nose but nodded. Ben took two steps, not too close to Harry this time. And Harry cringed, remember how he'd behaved. Why he had done that? Of course, Ben hadn't meant anything like that when he'd asked those questions. He wasn't a villain.
"I just wanted to bring you this…" He held out an envelope.
Harry took it. "Another invitation?" he joked thinly.
Ben smiled with relief at the small normalcy. "I went to Fairy Godmother and had her do some of her bibbi bobbiding to figure out your birthday."
Harry looked up at him, surprised. He would have had to go straight to the headmistress to have this already. Harry had taken a long, stomping walk around the grounds but that hadn't taken him more than an hour.
"You're eighteen, congratulations, we're the same age," Ben joked just as thinly as he had, nerves raw. "Your birthday was actually a couple weeks ago. And Uma's nineteen. Her birthday is in there too…"
Harry held the envelope tighter, suddenly it was precious. What the hell? Why would he do this after Harry had been such a jerk?
"And the paper is in there to file for your room change if you want. I mean, you don't have to. I don't mean to be pushy. I just…"
"Thank you," Harry said, the words surprising him almost as much as Ben.
Ben stared and then smiled. "You are coming to my party, right?"
Harry smiled at last. "Another chance for everyone to celebrate their king? I wouldn't miss it."
Ben sighed in relief. "So… We're okay?"
Harry was stunned. Was Ben asking him for forgiveness? Wasn't it supposed to go the other way. "Yeah. I mean I was the one… Yeah."
Ben shook his head. "It was my fault." He sighed, looking back toward the door behind him. "I have to go. I'm supposed to meet up with Mal…"
Harry nodded, moving closer to see him out. Somehow they went back to normal quickly—and no one had to punch anyone. "Ben," he said just before the other boy left. "We can talk about it sometime. Just not now."
Ben smiled that easy way of his and clapped Harry on the shoulder, like he wasn't a ticking time bomb or a crazy dangerous flirt. And Harry realized they really were friends.
Harry closed the door after he'd gone. He locked it and then opened the envelope, thumbing through the papers inside. He found Uma's birthday. He'd have to wait almost a year to surprise her with it, but he could definitely wait that long for her and then his grin grew wicked when he found the application for changing dorm residency. It required her signature. Luckily, he was an expert at it. He signed more of her papers than she did.
A HUGE thank you to anon37 for the amazing review. It was so nice and such a boost of inspiration! Glad to know other people are enjoying this.
