It is the early night when Uma and Harry disembark to go to talk to Mal and Ben, leaving Nerea in Gil's care. Uma has felt her fury burn inside her all night, like a geyser that wants to spill whole from the bowels of the sea. It hurts her to leave Nerea so early in the morning, but she doesn't risk taking her with her, not when confrontation can go from words to anything in a matter of seconds.
Uma has never trusted Mal. There are broken things that cannot be fixed with soft words, or pacts signed in real ink and paper, so Mal cannot fix what she did when they were children. Honestly, Uma doesn't need her. Why would she? She has Harry, Gil, the crew. But the agreements, the alliances, are another matter. And Mal may not be a pirate, but Uma is, and under the code of the men of the sea, this can only be called treason.
Among pirates, treason is never forgiven. It is the worst of crimes.
And yet, for her people, for the only chance her daughter has to be able to leave the Isle one day, Uma is willing to give a second chance.
Just another.
The early morning mist is broken too, ripped into treacherous shards of glass, and the early hours of the day smell like putrid garbage and stagnant rainwater on the Isle of the Lost.
The city is still silent. Uma is angry and Harry doesn't want to tell her to stop this time, he doesn't want to subside her rough sea urges, and he has to admit, though without guilt, that it's partly because he's drawn to the force of her gaze and the way her steps are determined and he can almost feel the freedom in them, and because the same fury that she feels, he perceives it on his skin, in the heat of his veins. However, he gently stops her by the arm before they arrive. Uma never tenses at his touch anymore.
She looks at him with her gaze of haughty captain, full of impatience and, in that second, Harry can only think that he wants to kiss her to die on her.
Harry always knew, even before leaving the island, that the bond he shared with Uma was not limited to just anticipating the other's thinking. They always shared hopes and dreams, but also hunger and rage, in all respects.
He pulls Uma into a protective hug, because always, when it comes to a confrontation, however minimal, between her and Mal, Harry wants nothing more than to protect Uma. Because he is still haunted by the nightmares of little Uma crying (the only time he saw her cry before leaving the Isle of the Lost) in an empty alley, with her braids full of rotten shrimp and her wounded pride. He feels her fit deeper into his embrace, hungry for contact with him, and Harry almost wants to smile when he hears her whimper a complacent sigh.
"I'm watching your back, darling," he murmurs, purposely reaching out to smell the scent of her salty, turquoise braids. Sometimes Uma undoes them and then her curly hair is free, and Harry likes to feel the texture of the loose strands. He also loves braids, however.
"I know," Uma exhales into his chest. Harry is warm, known, like the tropical water of the sea in the afternoon sun. She groans, catching her nails on Harry's hip. She is upset, a lot. But then, Uma does something that surprises Harry a bit. She looks at him, and her expression changes. "Don't let me forget about Nerea".
She would never forget her daughter. But when Uma allows her fury to blind her, when she lets the squall take control of her… she is afraid, for the first time, of getting lost in her own storm.
Harry brings his hook close to her so that Uma can tangle her pinky finger there, which always calms her down. It reminds her of important things.
"Calm, Uma", no matter how many years have passed, her name does not stop sounding like a prayer, an invocation, in his mouth (it is not that Harry tries to make it sound different).
She nods confidently, and then, before she can yell Mal's name for her to come out to speak, a purple haired girl peeks out the door.
It is evident that Mal did not intend to be found at this time of the morning, and it is evident from the expression on her face when she sees Uma and Harry there, that they are the last people she wishes to meet.
Uma tenses immediately, Harry can see it in her shoulders, her back, all of her stiffen, ready to survive whatever blow is thrown at her. And he frowns angrily. He knows that Uma is not afraid of Mal. It is only the betrayal, and its deep imprint that does not fade like the footprints in the sand when a gentle wave arrives. She's blunt, and she doesn't wait for Mal to open her mouth to offer lie-filled greetings.
"You broke our agreement."
Mal adopts that gesture that is now a habit in her, cordial, diplomatic, but Uma can see what is hidden under that mask, the real Mal, and can almost hear her heart pounding. She is scared.
"It's not that," she says immediately. "It was a matter of a day. Some kids decided to give Ben and me some cans..."
"Please!" Harry exhales, now offended. How dare Mal think that Uma would believe her explanation? "Nobody on the Isle of the Lost gives away anything. Food, especially".
"Well," Mal replies, smiling nervously. "We are the King and Queen of Auradon and the Isle of the Lost, after all".
And with those words, she undoes any kind of deal they may have had. Uma stops Harry, with her tight grip on him, and he holds onto her as well to reassure himself.
"No, Mal," Uma roars, in a voice that would echo through the sea caves. "You and Ben go to my ship, you dare ask me to sacrifice my family to help you... and you know there is no queen on the Isle of the Lost, unless this is a self-proclamation, and then you know what will happen".
There will be no quarter. It will be like old times.
That's when a confused Ben, seemingly just awake, peeks out from the balcony.
"Wrong? What's the matter?"
He frowns when he sees Harry and Uma. He seems like he's trying to understand, which is a bit strange. Mal sees Ben moving away from the balcony, perhaps willing to go downstairs to talk to his friends, and then his expression changes, and she seems desperate to calm Uma and Harry.
"Listen Uma, you know that people still see Ben and me as leaders. We are king and queen, and you are very busy with Nerea, we ask too much of you when we want you to take control of the isle, I am doing this for you".
Ben hits the street just in time to come between the two women, and Harry holds Uma around the waist, though his grip is loose enough to allow her to loosen. It is just a reminder, an anchor to the ground, and Uma gets closer to him so as not to lose her sanity and hit Mal right there. However, the talk is no longer friendly, and Uma is no longer willing to give any chances.
"Don't you dare put my daughter's name in your pathetic excuses. You betrayed us, Mal ".
"Hey! What's going on? Mal, what's wrong?", Ben seems to be beyond bewilderment, and then Uma understands, and it's so obvious, because Mal has always acted behind the backs of others. So, Ben doesn't know, he's not part of this.
Is incredible. Uma seriously can't understand Mal.
"She broke the agreement we had on the merchandise, and now she proclaims herself queen of the island," Harry explains to Ben, threatening, and the hook in his hand seems to glow for a second. It's been years since Harry last spoke to Ben in this tone, and it's almost like going back to when Ben was a hostage in the Revenge.
Ben pulls back, almost struck by the anger in Harry's voice, and looks away from the soot-painted eyes of his friend, at Mal, who looks at him almost pleadingly.
"You made those kids go pick up cans, right? We'd talked about it," there's accusation in Ben's voice, and Mal seems upset. "Mal, we had asked them to take control of the isle. Why are you doing this?"
"It's the best for them, Ben. You saw it, you saw what happened to Uma on the ship..."
And then, Ben doesn´t gets in the way of Uma's aggressive shove at Mal. Uma's braids dancing behind her like seaweed on a raging shoreline. Mal does not fall, but she has to regain her balance. And she looks at Ben, hurt, although he is as surprised by his actions as she is.
Ben immediately walks over to Mal, trying to see if she's okay, but she scowls and turns away from him.
"Someone needs to take control here, and do it right, and I just want to avoid the chaos that would be on the isle if Uma can´t do it".
"It's not the way, Mal, and you know it," says Ben, looking infinitely disappointed. The air feels heavy and it's like fishing net about to break, like a rope so taut the strands will part at any moment.
"You always take their side! You seem to prefer Uma and her pirates over me, Ben!"
Uma doesn't need this. She doesn't want to stick around to watch the fight, so she just tosses her braids back off her shoulder impatiently.
"You are not a damn queen, Mal, not in Auradon or here. You still can´t accept it, but you better do it now. Get off your cloud. And don't you dare betray us again".
With one last menacing look from Harry, the two walk away. Uma can hear Ben and Mal arguing and trying to keep their voices down while doing so, and she almost feels bad for Ben.
Mal dared to accuse Uma of weakness, and she feels her pride stir within her like a chained ocean that struggles to unleash and engulf everything, every space of surrounding land, every chink of sky and world. Her anger is so strong that she has to hold onto Harry for a second, trying to slow her heart rate with deep breaths. Harry holds her against himself and, the moment Uma clings to his chest, she can also hear the crazed sound of his heart.
"You aren´t weak, captain," he says, holding her face tightly, so that she can feel the strength of his words, but without hurting her one bit. Uma growls, not at Harry, but growls, and she feels her throat has gotten used to making the same sounds it did when she was younger: screams, growls, also the roar of the waves as they crash insistently against the dock.
"We should never have trusted Mal to keep her word, Harry," they head back to the dock, home, and Uma feels a sudden longing to have Nerea in her arms.
She feels that the Isle becomes more and more dangerous, because there has been this sensation in the air, a smell of rupture, like tar, like dangerous humidity that hides shadows and throbbing edges.
"She's always been a treacherous lizard, she can't help it".
Uma takes Harry's hook firmly between her fingers, and he reaches over to kiss the top of her head. She then slides her fingers through the hips of Harry's pants, looking for a place to hook them and to be able to adopt that possessive position, the one that screams that Harry is hers and nobody else's, and that he is proud to belong to her.
The dawn is gone, but the mist does not rise. However, people begin to go out to do their activities for the day and the dock is already full of desperate fishermen who will not take anything home today, and thieves who hide in the barrels, but no one dares to get up close to the pirate queen who breastfeed a baby on the deck of her ship. They have seen her in the afternoons, the way she exposes her skin without shame, without vulnerability, and the fierce look in her eyes even when she caresses her daughter's round cheeks. They don´t dare to even look at her.
Nor do they dare to approach Harry, whose voracious gaze always follows Uma, eager to give himself to her, eager to belong to her. Even when Uma stayed outside the barrier, years ago, everyone knew that he was always going to be of her own. Harry is a sea whirlpool full of chaos, a force that needs firm edges to avoid dragging the world to the depths. No one with common sense, in truth, would dare to disturb them. Cutlasses hang from their belts and have people backing them up.
But, just as there are people who look at them and feel that they should respect them, because they are unpredictable, erratic, and they are the fury of the sea when they are together, there are also glances that hide in the alleys, that stalk them, and that watch over the ship during the night, because love is the greatest weakness, it has always been so on the isle. They hide, they hide, waiting for the right moment, the unexpected second, sure that it will come...