Disclaimer: I do not own.
Chapter 9: Not Quite Human
Gil couldn't be lost. Uma would be so pissed if he was lost.
But...he was lost.
"Oh fuck…" he murmured, biting his lip. He had just parted with Harry and Uma, each having to go separate ways after Remedial Goodness for their next class. He had promised Uma he had been listening when he was given directions to his class, especially the odd class or two he had by himself.
At the time he thought he knew… Whether he knew or not, he needed to find his class. Fairy Godmother had stressed the importance of being timely to class and other planned engagements. (Mon dieu, he really didn't want to find out if Auradon had a time out step.)
Suddenly, a small hand grabbed onto his arm with a vice like grip, pulling the lost pirate out of his thoughts
"Oh! I didn't know VKs could be so funny!" a girlish voice chirped loudly.
Looking down at his arm, Gil saw that an unfamiliar girl had linked arms with him, her much smaller hand gripping tightly onto his arm. He wondered if she was a princess with her shiny dark hair and her clean pink and blue dress.
"Say something!" she hissed under her breath, tossing a glance over her shoulder before letting out another fake laugh; her smile just a tad too forced. "Oh my goodness! You're so funny!"
Now, Gil knew he wasn't the brightest kid on the Isle, but he figured that even Harry or Uma would be confused by this girl and her weird behavior.
"Um...who are you?" he asked as the girl tugged him down a hallway. A few students who still hadn't made it to their class watched the odd pair with barely hidden interest.
"Princess Audrey. Daughter of Sleeping Beauty and most popular girl at Auradon Prep. Yes, I know, it's an honor to be in my presence," she said distractedly, looking over her shoulder again. Gil made a move to look back as well, to see what she was looking at, but her perfectly manicured nails dug into his arm painfully. "Don't look back!" she exclaimed, looking fearfully over her shoulder. She cleared her throat, gathering herself. "Now look, uh….what's your name?"
"I'm Gil." He watched her nose scrunch up in confusion, a look that he had seen often on Uma's face when she looked like she wanted to question him but decided ultimately against it.
"Okay, Gil. Here's the deal. You're going to walk me to class and along the way, you're going to pretend like we're best friends which shouldn't be hard because, hello, who wouldn't want to be friends with me?" she said, rolling her eyes. "And in return I'll...um...I'll get you something shiny. Villain kids like shiny things right?" she asked, not giving him a chance to answer before she continued on. "Right. Good. Now, laugh, Gil, and make it believable."
Not knowing what else to do (despite how Uma had once told him that princesses were weak, Audrey seemed to have a tight grip on him), Gil let out an awkward strangled sound, that apparently sounded enough like a laugh to appease the girl. When she loosened her grip on his arm a bit, he glanced back over his shoulder to see a boy with curly blonde hair completely red in the face and scowling at them as a smaller boy wearing glasses attempted to tug him in the opposite direction.
Gil wondered if the blonde boy was okay, not knowing if people in Auradon got sick easier than people on the Isle did. Maybe the boy should go to that doctor person Ben had mentioned the other day.
Again, he was pulled from his thoughts when Audrey suddenly stopped. "And we're here," she said with a gusty sigh as she released his arm and moved towards the classroom. "Thanks for your help Gil. You can sit with me during lunch, if you want, I guess. Wait," she paused, looking at him skeptically. "You do know how to use proper eating utensils, right?"
Gil tilted his head, an unsure expression on his face. (Princess Audrey was definitely a strange girl.)
The young woman sighed. "You know, forks and knives?"
"Oh!" Gil smiled brightly, not noticing the slight blush creeping onto the girl's cheeks. "Yeah! Totally! My friend Desiree, she does this thing with a fork, and-"
"Great. Sounds awesome," Audrey cut him off. "Don't you have, you know, somewhere you need to be?"
Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, Gil pulled out his schedule from his pocket with the other. "Actually...I don't know where my class is."
Audrey gave him a tight smile. "May I?" she asked carelessly, having already snatched the piece of paper out of his hands. She quickly scanned it and gave him a small smile. "Well, you're in luck, Gil. You have History of Kingdoms with me right now."
Gil let out a relieved sigh, and then grinned. "That's awesome!"
Audrey looked at him, confused. "It is?"
"Yeah," Gil nodded, the bright grin taking up most of his face. "You said we're friends, right? You know, when we were walking here and the blonde boy was behind us was looking all red?"
"Chad was looking red?" Audrey grinned, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him slightly in her excitement (Gil thought she looked pretty when she was giving a real smile). "Oh that's so perfect! Hopefully that'll send the message loud and clear that I'm not interested in dating him anymore. Ugh, he can be so annoying, following me around and-" she blushed suddenly, pulling away and smoothing invisible wrinkles on her dress. "I mean, that's a relief," she said quickly before pivoting and gliding into the room, Gil soon following her.
The youngest son of Gaston was so happy. He had found his class and apparently he had made friends with a princess. He couldn't wait to tell Uma and Harry! He hoped they were doing well.
WLTF
Harry frowned, looking at the door with a plaque labeled "School Therapist" on it. Between him, Uma, and Gil - which really meant between just him and Uma - they weren't able to really come up with any idea of what "therapy" was exactly. Gil had thrown around the term "head shrink", as well as something about lying on couches, and something or another about a dude getting inside your head which both the Captain and the First Mate shot down instantly. (Dear sweet Davey Jones, don't let that bloody idiot be right for once in his life.)
"Do I really have to do this, Uma?" Harry whined, looking dejectedly at the girl.
Though looking warily at the door, Uma nodded. "We talked about this. First few weeks we play it safe and follow King Beasty Jr.'s rules, at least until we get the lay of the land and see if this Royal Councilor thing," she said, using air quote around her new title, "will actually benefit us."
"So I can't convince you to skip yer class and come with me to...whatever type of torture Boradon has managed to cook up?" he purred, tugging on her braids as he sidled up to her.
An exasperated but fond sound escaped her lips as she gently pushed him away. "What?" she teased. "Scared of a little therapy?"
(Well if he knew what the hell therapy was, he could actually answer that question.)
"Hey!" Harry retorted indignantly. "I'm not bloody scared. But there's nothing wrong with a little caution when dealin' with these preppy whelps."
Uma allowed herself to laugh. The hallway was deserted; this room in a hallway with little to no student traffic. "Wow," she said with a smirk, reaching over to place the back of her hand on his forehead. "You must still not be feeling well, Hook." His eyes momentarily fluttered closed as he leaned into her hand, always left breathless when his Captain gave him her full attention. (He almost thought that he could live off Uma's touch alone sometimes.)
"No," he said, placing his much larger hand over hers, watching her teasing smile turn into something softer. "I just don't like being away from yer side. Especially in this place, Captain. Wouldn't be surprised if these Auradon fishbaits are stupid enough to try to seek 'justice' against ye."
The sea witch rolled her eyes. "I'd like to see them try," she scoffed, slipping her hand out from under his and back to her side. "You know I can take care of myself." (Aye, he did. Still didn't stop him from worrying.) "Now, stop stalling and go in, Harry."
Harry let out a sigh, allowing himself to run his hook through her teal braids one last time, keeping eye contact with her as he spun around to face the door until the very last second. "I'll be thinking of ye every second we're apart," he teased over his shoulder.
"Ha!" She smirked at him and began to walk away, a little sway to her hips. "When are you not thinking about me, Hook?"
That little bit of truth caused him to grin as he pushed the door open. As he stepped through the entryway, he paused; feeling like every inch of his skin was being pricked by small needles. Magic, he thought instinctively, looking back when the door he just entered closed by itself. His hand clenched tightly around his hook, the muscles in his body taut to spring into action at any second.
"Oh good! Harry! You found your way here!"
Harry spun back around, realizing that the small room with several chairs along the wall that he had stepped into, had another door on the opposite end that was currently open. Standing there with a wide smile was an older man with greying dark hair and what looked like the formation of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. Harry shifted uneasily on his feet, the hairs on his arms standing on end and goosebumps running up and down his skin under the almost physical pressure of the man's gaze.
It wasn't that the man looked intimidating, (especially with his black slacks, red sweater vest, and top of a yellow tie peeking out) Harry reckoned the man might be even shorter than Uma. However, the man's gaze unnerved the boy. That behind the smiling facade was something not human... not fully at least.
Harry immediately took a step back, raising his hook defensively. "What- Who are you?"
The man didn't seem taken aback by Harry's obvious discomfort and merely put his white gloved hands up (utterly pristine, Harry noticed with a disgusted sneer) in a placating manner. "Oh, how silly of me!" the man chuckled, extending out his hand to the boy. "I haven't even introduced myself, have I? I'm Mr. Michael Topolino, the school therapist. But students here at Auradon Prep like to call me Mickey. Nice to meet ya!"
WLTF
Uma sighed as she made her way away from Harry and to her next class, head held high as she moved through the halls, smirking inwardly as people pushed themselves to move out of her way. (She didn't come here to make friends, after all.) With no one in her way, she easily made it to her next class with just a few minutes to spare.
Her eyes swept across the room, looking for an open seat that would give her the best view of the room as well as an easy escape route if necessary. (You could take the girl off the Isle but you couldn't take the Isle out of the girl.) As her eyes scanned the room, she saw two available seats: one was next to a girl with dark purple hair pulled up into a high ponytail and bright azure eyes who gave Uma a little wave when their eyes met; and the other was next to...Oh seven fucking seas no. She was not going to sit next to little Miss Dragon Breath, the sea witch thought as she made eye contact with those familiar green eyes.
"Interesting seating choice," her desk partner commented when Uma slid down next to her. "Most people would jump at the chance to sit next to new Lady of the Court," she grinned, nodding towards Mal, who was attempting to discreetly watch them while also half listening to a story the girl in front of her was saying. (Uma vaguely remembered her being there when she had attempted to trade Ben for the wand back on the Isle.)
Uma glanced at the other girl from the corner of her eye before staring straight ahead, ignoring how the back of her neck prickled from all of the stares she was getting.
(She was the daughter of the goddamn sea witch, she was not going to let a couple of stares get to her.)
"Oooh, we're going for the quiet but badass sea witch pirate queen vibe. I can dig it," the other girl chuckled, settling her chin in the palm of her hand as she continued to observe Uma with an analyzing look.
"Didn't know you Auradon princesses knew words like 'badass', let alone were physically able to say it," Uma murmured, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of actually wanting a teacher to show up in order to put her out of this hell. (Oh fuck, was Auradon already getting to her? Those preppy-ass motherfuckers must have something pumped through the vents.)
"Well if I was a princess," the girl said, readjusting her gold jacket. "Your assumption might have been valid, but, since I'm not . . ." Uma raised an eyebrow and the girl smirked at her. "You've got a lot to learn, Captain, such as not underestimating potential allies if you're gonna make some real big moves here and shake things up."
She felt her eyes narrow and her body tensed up defensively. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Uma glanced back at Mal, wondering if this was another one of her cruel pranks.
"Hopefully a new friend," her desk partner said with a small smile.
Uma scoffed. (The nerve of this girl, to offer her friendship so brazenly. Though she had to admire the girl's spunk.) "Believe me; I don't need any new friends. Auradon princess or not."
The girl shrugged with a knowing smile on her lips, just as the teacher entered the room, starting the class. "I don't know, Ursula's daughter. You ain't never had a friend like me."
The sea witch raised a brow, briefly wondering if she should have just taken her chances sitting next to Mal. Other than Ben, the other students in Auradon had actively avoided her. It was somewhat unsettling to be directly in contact with another Auradon-born student who wasn't whispering about her as soon as they thought she was out of earshot or who wasn't trying so hard to avoid being near her. But this girl seemed to be an anomaly, and on the Isle, anomalies were hardly ever good.
Uma wasn't even sure what the teacher had been going on and on about for most of class, all of her awareness focused on the girl who was idly twirling one of her side bangs around her finger. The bell rang and before Uma could even think to do anything, her desk partner was out of her seat and giving Uma a dainty wave before waving to a few classmates, including Mal, before she disappeared out of the door. Uma saw Mal glance back at her, the girl worrying her lip (the pirate captain remembered her doing that a lot when they were younger, when she was struggling with something) causing Uma to decide to leave the room before the half-fae could make the idiotic decision to talk to her. (It wasn't running away, it was a tactical retreat. It would be idiotic to go up against Mal on a turf she wasn't used to without backup.)
Merging into the flow of students moving between classes, Uma managed to put distance between her and Mal, losing her in the push and flow of the crowd, even with a wide radius of students avoiding getting too close to her. She was just looking over her shoulder to make sure the half-fae wasn't following her when she nearly crashed into someone who had purposely stepped into her path.
Uma scowled up at the towering and athletically built auburn-haired boy standing before her. In an impressing display of self-control on her part, she bit down on a cutting retort as she tried to move around him. However, the idiot (who clearly had a wish to die) stepped in her way again.
"I don't see what's so threatening about a little girl like you," he murmured, a look of disappointment on his face as he tilted his head to the side.
Taking a step back, Uma crossed her arms and looked the boy over with distaste. "The fuck did you just say to me?" She did not appreciate that 'little girl' remark.
Not to mention, she was kind of taking it personally how he was looking at her like she was some sort of disappointing roadside attraction.
The boy didn't answer, merely reaching out and poking her in the shoulder with a beefy index finger before she could finish inviting him to fuck off. The sea witch didn't expect such a small movement to have so much strength behind it and her eyes widened as she nearly fell over at the powerful force. The once busy hallway seemed to slow and quiet as all eyes were on Uma and the boy before her. She heard someone whisper, "What the heck is Herkie doing?" and guessed that was the boy's name.
Uma barely ducked and weaved out of the way as the boy, Herkie, tried to shove her again, this time with both hands. This seemed to annoy Herkie as he reached out to grab at her wrists.
"Come on, witch," the boy goaded, an ugly sneer taking place on his face. "Let's see if all the rumors about you are true or not."
Oh, so this little dick wanted a fight! Luckily for him, Uma was already holding onto a kitchen knife that she untucked from her boot. But at the same time, she would only be able to threaten him with the knife. She highly doubted that the Wonder Boy King would take it kindly if she castrated one of his subjects and fed him his eyes.
Fucking hell, if this had been the Isle, this asshole would already be on his back bleeding! And weren't Auradon brats supposed to be little goody-two shoes that ran and told the teachers over any little thing? Weren't they supposed to be the "heroes"? So then why the blazing hells were they all just letting this obviously much stronger boy push around a much smaller girl? Where the fuck were the teachers? (A voice in the back of her head that sounded a lot like her first mate whispered, I told ye so.) Fuck, she thought with a snarl as she readied herself to give him a warning swipe. Maybe she had underestimated these over privileged bastards.
Just as Herkie was making a move to reach out towards her again, an overwhelming smell of ashes filled her nose before a gray hand reached out and stopped him. The auburn hair boy hissed in pain, pulling his arm away to reveal blackened skin in the shape of hand. "What the fucking Zeus!?"
"Temper, temper dear cousin. What would your beloved grandfather say to hear his pride and joy using his name in vain?" a soft voice sighed. The students surrounding them shifted with shocked whispers as Uma took a second to enjoy the flustered flush that went all the way from the boy's neck to the tip of his ears as he held his hurt arm close to his chest.
Uma turned half her attention away from the inhumanly strong boy, taking in the willowy form of Hadie, the son of Hades who was standing slouched and uninterested next to her side. (When the fuck did he get there?) His voice had caught her off guard, deeper than the last time she had heard it so many years ago. This was probably the longest sentence she had ever heard from the boy. One amber eye peeked through from under long blue hair that even on the Isle seemed to flicker and glow like a dying ember. Uma knew that underneath his bang was an eyepatch covering where his other eye had been. No one on the Isle really knew what happened to it, only that the boy had covered where his right eye was supposed to be with the patch ever since he was very young.
"You- I mean- You're not supposed to use magic, hellspawn!" Herkie managed to growl out, waving at the hand imprint on his arm that was already slowly beginning to fade.
Hadie shrugged, a mask of indifference on his face as Uma noticed he put a glove on that completely covered the hand he had touched the much larger boy with. (They were new looking and barely looked worn, indicating he must have got them in Auradon, Uma noted.) "And you're not supposed to be an arrogant hothead, but we must all make do, I suppose."
"You little shit. Wait until my grandfather hears about this—"
"Oh go ahead," Hadie replied airily. "Oh, I'm sure he'll rage and storm and curse my name, but he won't be able to do anything. You're the one who overstepped the boundaries. Boundaries that your temperamental grandfather and Uncle Poseidon agreed upon." The boy stopped and gave Herkie a small sneer, lips curling up maliciously. "What kind of a disgraced 'hero' needs to bully girls a third his size to make him feel masculine?"
Shaking with anger, Herkie opened his mouth to snarl out a retort when an arm slung itself around his neck, effectively cutting him off.
"Herk!" Jay gave the auburn-haired boy a friendly smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What are you doing? You know Coach and Lonnie will have your butt if you miss practice serving detention! You can't be late to class again, dude, we got the Agrabah game to prepare for."
In the midst of his spiel, Jay made eye contact with Uma, discreetly jerking his head in the opposite direction of where he was leading Herkie. At Jay's appearance, most of the students who had merely stood around watching the spectacle scurried towards their classes, the bell having rung just a minute or so ago, leaving only Hadie and Uma left in the hallway.
"I hope you weren't expecting a thank you," Uma muttered to the younger boy, tucking her unused blade back into her boot.
Hadie said nothing, just looked at her. But the way he was looking at her . . . It made Uma feel like she was an ant and he was trying to figure out whether it was worth stepping on her or not.
The son of the god of the underworld always had an uncanny ability in making others uncomfortable effortlessly. It was part of the reason why he never really got picked on much on the Isle despite being so thin and quiet. His appearance and quietness actually worked to his advantage, many people on the Isle thinking that since he was essentially the heir of Death and a god - even when imprisoned on the Isle - he must have more than a handful of murders under his belt.
It wasn't like he ever denied it, after all.
An old memory, one that Uma had purposely tried to forget came to mind. It was her birthday. The one year her mother had finally given in and agreed to let her have a birthday party only for Mal to decide to have her own on the same day, making everyone else forget about poor little Uma's birthday that she had spent hours decorating and preparing for. Harry hadn't even showed up - though that was more so because he had been recuperating from a harsh beating from his father at the time and Uma had made him swear he wouldn't injure himself doing something stupid like coming to her party. (He waited literally one minute after midnight before sneaking his way through the shop and into the small room she had called hers, a handful of colorful shells in his bruised hands for her.) The only one who did show up was little Hadie, who had wished her a quiet "Happy Birthday" with a small little smile on his deathly grey face and had only been there for all of five minutes before Hades had swept into the Chip Shoppe and dragged him away, hissing something about not needing Poseidon adding onto his punishment.
"Be careful around my cousin...and I suppose any descendant of the Olympian gods," Hadie finally spoke, drawing her from her memories, looking away with an almost wistful, yet far off look in his eyes. "I don't believe they're happy that you brought me here." He looked back to the sea witch, his gaze heavy with something unspoken, making the words dry up in Uma's mouth. Hadie lifted a gloved hand, and she was frozen as he tucked a loose braid behind her ear. "No, they're not happy at all," he shook his head, murmuring more to himself as he took a step back. "But I'm grateful to you, daughter of the sea. You will be repaid. Be vigilant. Not all of these Auradonians should be underestimated, and I would hate seeing you guided down the River Styx too soon, Uma." He turned and walked away. It wasn't until he had turned the corner, disappearing from sight that Uma realized that she hadn't been breathing.
"Fuck," she cursed, allowing herself to lean heavily against the wall. She should have felt powerful having the personification of Death in her debt, however, for some inexplicable reason that thought only made her feel very, very small…
I don't think I can say this enough but thank you all for your reviews, likes, favorites, etc. I truly appreciate them all. And thanks as always to my beta, elphaba_swan.
Shoutout to Carlos Fan and bukalay for guessing the roommate last chapter.
Not much to say. (Not true, I could always say more, especially about our new therapist.) The next chapter might take 2-3 weeks to put up since school starts back again for me. That, plus my internship, means I'll be super busy. If you ever want to help my procrastinate, follow me on tumblr edream93.
Until next time!