Disclaimer: I do not own Descendants.

Chapter 10: So You Had A Bad Day?

"So Harry, we can use this time however ya see fit."

The pirate leaned with practiced ease against a bookshelf, schooling his face into annoyed disinterest while also scoping out the cozy office and the man it belonged to. The room was filled with books, many of which looked older than the world itself. In the corner of the room on a tall coat rack, was what looked like a well-worn red robe that looked like it had seen better days, along with a wide brimmed brown hat decorated with a large red feather. On the adjacent wall, taking up most of the space, was a large wooden boat wheel where on one of the spokes, Harry could just barely see a crudely carved "1928".

"Can I use this time by not being here? More precisely, not being here with ye?" he snarked, attention snapping back to the man before him.

Mickey chuckled, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back in his chair. "Sad to say, pal, but that would have to be a no."

"I'm not your pal," Harry sneered. "And what is this therapy crap? Are ye interrogating me? Is that what this is?"

"Ah," the short man sighed, readjusting his pristine white gloves. "So Fairy Godmother didn't explain this to you?" he questioned, pausing to see if the young man would say something before continuing. "Well, for an hour, two times a week, you and I will be meeting, just to talk."

Harry tried not to look confused as he walked towards an antique looking globe that was on a nearby desk. "To talk? About what?" he asked, purposely giving off a disinterested air as he gave the globe a spin. "What could I possibly talk about with ye?"

Mickey shrugged, the encouraging smile (which was kind of starting to irritate Harry, seriously, no one was that cheerful,) never leaving his face. "Well, I've been told that ya had a panic attack yesterday shortly after arriving."

The confusion still didn't leave Harry's face as he dared to ask, "Panic attack?"

Mickey nodded. "Symptoms of a panic attack sometimes include dizziness, difficulty breathing, your heart racing, and feelings like you're inexplicably going to die or that you're losing control. It can sometimes come suddenly without warning and often happens during stressful times in a person's life."

The pirate snorted, walking over to a window and running his hook through a wind chime. The echo-y tinkle of the bells made him think of his father, angry and drunk and throwing whatever was closest to him at Harry. (Never at Harriet. Never at CJ. Just Harry.) He stayed silent for a second, thinking. Yesterday it had been his hook taken away, before that it had almost been when he and Gil at first couldn't find Uma after the whole Cotillion fiasco, and even further back it had been when Harriet had left the Jolly Roger to start her own crew, leaving behind a gangly Harry and a still small C.J. to fend against their father's violent mood swings.

"And that's what ye think I've been having?" the boy questioned, pausing before bursting into rough mocking laughter. "Yeah right! I'm a pirate. We don't panic. We cause panic," Harry grinned viciously at the therapist, spinning his hook in his hand.

He noticed how the movement caught the therapist's eyes and that made him feel uneasy, to see the obvious interest Mickey had in the hook. So he casually crossed his arms so that his hook was underneath the other arm, mostly hidden from sight.

"Okay," Mickey said with a small smile, leaning back in his chair. "Then what would you call them?"

Harry shrugged, slightly unnerved by all of the questions. "Dunno. Old Smee used to call me Da's fits Neverland's Curse."

"And that's what you think it is? A curse?"

Harry looked down at his hook, frowning deeply in thought.

"She's calling me," Harry remembered his father once slurred to him years ago in a rare state of quiet contemplative drunkenness. "Neverland," the older Hook had clarified, eyes dull and far off. "She wants me to return, lad. To continue the game. To play my role against Pan. After all, what is the 'the Boy Who Never Grew Up' without a Captain Hook to fight with? To defeat and then start all over again? Round after round after round… It's just all a game...all just a game for him...a never ending game that I had lost before I had even knew the game had begun…Be thankful, lad. That blasted barrier may keep us in here. But it keeps him out. We are trapped. But we are free here..."

Harry shook the memory off. "No. It's a maids tale to explain how a supposedly once great pirate captain could have completely fallen so far down the rum bottle."

Mickey nodded. "I see," he said thoughtfully, and the first mate hated that for a second he actually thought the short man did see. Saw how the young pirate had always been running away from the shadow of a little boy he had never even met but whom had such an impact on his life. "Okay so not panic attacks," he said in a way that made it seem like he believed the contrary. "And not a curse. What do you, Harry, think it is?"

The pirate shrugged, crossing the room to plop down in a chair, an amused smile lighting up his face briefly when he realized the chair spun. The room grew quiet, Harry continuing to spin lazily in his chair, untrusting bright blue eyes managing to hold a glare with calm brown ones.

The silence went on for what felt like many awkward minutes before Harry growled, frustrated. "I know I'm a pretty handsome devil but are ye gonna just continue to look at me without saying anything?"

The therapist chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, Harry. It's a therapist technique. Just trying to allow ya to feel like ya have the space needed to say whatever ya want."

The boy scoffed, quickly getting annoyed all over again and the hand around his hook beginning to twitch anxiously. "I got nothing to say to ye."

Looking down, Mickey nodded. "Okay. That's fine," he said, as he got up. When he turned his full gaze once again on Harry, the first mate once again felt that overwhelming sense that this man was much more than he let on. "We'll go at your pace, pal. Just know that whatever is said in this space is between only the two of us. Not even the Fairy Godmother or King Ben will ever know what is said in this room, unless, of course you're planning to commit harm to yourself or others."

"Then I guess we won't be doing much talking then," Harry said with a smirk as he stood out of the chair. The mischievous glint in his eyes caused Mickey to pause.

"Ya know, ya look like him," the therapist mused, more to himself than to Harry, but the pirate heard all the same.

Harry felt his usual cocky grin fade from his face. "Me Da?" he asked, hating how his voice sounded so small, how there was still a hint of wanting to prove himself to a man who hardly recognized him as his own blood.

"No," Mickey replied, a distant look in his eye. "Like Pan."

For a moment Harry forgot how to breathe, his mind stalling on those two little words that dredged up the raw feeling of self-loathing that Harry had tried so hard to forget for so long. To be compared to his father's most hated adversary, the never aging child who had terrorized his father and cut off his hand and fed it to a crocodile, felt like a hurt worse than any physical blow. The therapists words seemed to dredge up all the memories of his father's disdain and disgust and paint them in an even darker light.

Mickey allowed himself to give a small smile to the boy as he opened up the door, seemingly unaware of the turmoil he had just started. "I'll see ya again for our next session at the end of this week, Harry."

The pirate wasted no time going through the open door as if Pan himself was after him, and barged through the small waiting room. He wanted to get away from this strange old man and his strange office and his strange ridiculous thoughts about how he was more like the worst nightmare of his father than his actual father. He was already reaching for the door that led out to the hall when the handle slipped out of his hands, the door opening to reveal a startled looking Carlos De Vil.

"Um…" the younger boy began, a look of shock and confusion blooming on his face at seeing the pirate before him. Harry himself was momentarily startled to see the younger boy here as well when Mickey, still standing at the door behind him, called out to the younger De Vil boy.

"Carlos! Right on time as always! Come on in so we can get started!"

"Um...uh, yeah," Carlos murmured, slipping past Harry quickly and ducking into the room that the pirate had just been in.

Mickey watched the younger boy with a fond smile before turning back to Harry, his smile still stuck firmly in place. "Have a good rest of your day, Harry!" he called out before closing the door to his office behind him.

Harry stumbled out into the hallway, feeling his heart already start to race as a voice that started off sounding like Mickey but then morphed into his father's drunken sneer began to play in his head. Like Pan. Like Pan. LikePanlikePanlikePan. The thoughts roiled and tumbled in his mind until those words were the only thing that he could focus on...

WLTF

Though technically still a student of Auradon Prep, it was rare when Ben was able to have a day where he could go to all of his classes without some sort of council meeting pulling him out. Despite the late night that he and Evie had, Ben felt energetic and hopeful. Maybe he would finally be able to atone for his father's mistakes.

(It had been weeks since the young king had last contacted his father, but he chose not to dwell on that at the moment.)

He had awoken to an email approving his request to temporarily borrow a groundbreaking medical invention from the rising star student of San Fransokyo. Though part of the United States of Auradon, San Fransokyo was one of the newer lands that had been added after the first original kingdoms united twenty years ago. It had previously been its own governing nation that had a mostly amicable trading relationship with Auradon. It was only after mutual agreements that benefited both Auradon and San Fransokyo that the city-state was finally adopted into the USA. The city would help develop a long term plan for the other kingdoms to transition away from the use of magic, as long as any high level technology based crime that happened within the San Fransokyo was under the jurisdiction of the city's personal protectors, the Big Hero 6. It was this allowance of essentially self-government that made San Fransokyo have a somewhat delicate relationship with the rest of Auradon. (And at some point Ben would have to deal with that and the fact that more lands would now request independence.) For now, he was just thankful that there was a solution to what seemed like a never ending list of problems.

Grinning down at the request papers in his hand, Ben felt eager to share them with Uma and hoped that this would be the start of a trusting and mutually beneficial alliance with the pirate captain. He knew that Uma could do some real good now that she was in Auradon, but Ben wasn't an idiot or as naive as the Isle kids, Mal and Evie included, tended to think he was. It would take more than just getting Uma off the Isle to gain her trust, he knew.

Ben was just wondering where Uma could currently be, wishing he had memorized her schedule, when he saw Jay with his arm slung around an Herkie's neck. It wasn't technically an unusual sight. Jay was probably one of the most physical people he knew, always casually slinging his arm around whichever friend was nearest. (Reassurance that they're still there, that I can protect them, the long haired boy had once told him in a moment of vulnerability one day after a particularly tiring week when Carlos, Evie, Lonnie, and Jordan had all had the stomach flu and all the two boys could do was sit and wait for them to get better.) However, something seemed off, Ben noted, noticing the tense set of Jay's shoulders.

The two were about to go into a classroom when the former thief caught sight of the young king. He said something to Herkie quickly before nodding his head towards Ben as he pulled away and walked over towards Ben. An unusually serious expression slipped onto his face once Herkie had entered the classroom.

"You need to find Uma," was the first thing out of Jay's mouth.

Ben blinked, caught off guard by the boy's statement. "Wait. Wh-what?" he said shaking his head, wondering if he had misheard. "Did something happen? Is she alright?"

"I wasn't there at the beginning but it seems like Herkie tried to start a fight with her, which is weird because Herkie wouldn't hurt a fly. Hadie, one of the new Isle kids, stepped in but even though he stopped Herkie I think... I mean, I did what I could, Ben, but..." Jay sighed again, shaking his head. He pulled off his hat to card his hand through his hair before putting it back on. (He's really nervous about this, Ben thought worriedly.) "Just...just find her, bro," the taller boy said, a frown worrying his lips. "Especially before Harry does, or all the hard work that you and Evie have been doing is gonna go to hell."

The young king's eyes widened and he found himself nodding. Though he wasn't particularly afraid of Uma's first mate, (especially with his hook spelled), he was aware that the son of Hook had strong feelings for his Captain and wouldn't hesitate to get revenge on anyone who even thought of hurting her.

"Okay. Yeah. Uh, yeah…," he said, trying to calm down the rushing worries and fears that he had not only for the Auradon born students, but especially for the misunderstood pirate captain. "Where is she?"

Jay pointed in the direction that he had come from and that was all Ben needed before he took off down the hallway, hoping that he could salvage things.

He hadn't noticed that his purple haired girlfriend had been walking up to them when she heard Jay's explanation, nor did he hear her call out after him as he took off.

Ben just knew he had to get to Uma fast.

WLTF

Uma wasn't even sure if she was walking in the right direction of her next class. To be perfectly honest, she really didn't care. She just let her legs take her to wherever they were taking her. She just needed to not feel so small. To not feel so numb. She just needed…

"Harry."

Familiar blue eyes caught her gaze and she unhesitatingly cut her way through the crowd towards where he was leaning against a wall, his eyes, as always, only on her. A bit of confidence rekindled itself in her as she heard some girls whisper how they wished a guy would look so intensely at them. (Dream on, girls. Dream on.)

As she drew nearer though, she realized he looked off. Though any of these Auradon punks would have thought he was lazily leaning against the wall waiting for her, Uma saw the slight tremors in his frame, the anxious way he rotated his hook in his left hand, how his usually vibrant cocky and mischief filled eyes seemed to lack their usual confidence and seemed slightly unfocused.

Not again, she thought, worried for her first mate.

However, as she got closer, a light seemed to spark within him, his tremors seemed to completely stop which almost caused Uma to smile until she realized that her first mate didn't seem to be reinvigorated solely due to her presence. Actually he was glaring at her. No. That wasn't right. He wasn't glaring at her.

He was glaring at her shoulder, where a bruise, red and swollen, was beginning to form.

Uma cursed herself for being so soft and sentimental about the pen drawn tattoos that he had done earlier on her arm. She should have put her jacket on immediately after dealing with that idiot Wonder Boy-wannabe. Harry would never have noticed the bruise otherwise. When she looked back up at Harry, he was so close that she could see the patchy stubble that was beginning to form on his locked jaw.

"Who did this to ye?" he growled, eyes focused on the bruise.

Uma grabbed onto the collar of his red coat, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "It's been taken care of," she said slowly, making sure to never break eye contact with him. "You think there's something I couldn't handle on my own? You think that little of your captain, Hook?"

Harry was still tense but Uma could see him starting to calm down as he shook his head. Uma restrained herself from letting out a sigh of relief, pushing him away from her with a teasing smirk on her face that he immediately mirrored. She was going to suggest that they find Gil and ditch the rest of their classes for the day when a voice called out to her, stopping both pirates in their tracks.

"Uma! There you are! I was looking-"

Then her first mate was no longer standing next to her, but was instead shoving the boy king of Auradon face first against a locker, whatever papers the king had once been holding now thrown against the ground.

"Ye got a lot of nerve showing yer mug around me right now, Benny-Boy," Harry tutted putting all of his weight on the boy from behind, one hand holding Ben's wrist in a bruising grip behind his back while the other hand used his hook to threateningly caress his hook down the young king's cheek before pressing it firmly against his neck.

"Harry! Stop it!" Uma growled, aware of the eyes that were all watching them. "I said it was already handled. It has nothing to do with Ben!"

"Harry," Ben grunted from underneath the pirate's surprisingly heavy body. "Mal and Evie told me about what agreements mean on the Isle and what it meant for me to bring you all here. You are all under my protection but despite that, Uma still got hurt. Let me fix things. I'll make sure the student who instigated the fight with Uma is given the proper consequences without resorting to violence."

"Then whoever the idiot is won't be receiving the proper consequences if I can't give them a hundred times over what they did to my captain!" Harry snarled, pushing Ben harder against the locker. "But ye seem to know who did it, so tell me and I'll think about not sending you back to Maleficent's spawn with too many bruises."

"Harry! Enough! Cool it!" Uma ordered, frustrated, as she tried to tug him off Ben. She heard several students calling for the royal guards and though the pirate captain was deadly with a sword, Harry wasn't in his right mind to back her up properly if needed.

"The boy's being kind of a dick. Let's give him the treatment he deserves with a little kick!" a horribly familiar voice said, sending pinpricks down Uma's arm at the sudden presence of such a concentrated amount of magic. The sea witch barely had time to move out of the way before her first mate was shoved away from Ben and collided with the opposite row of lockers with a bang! that made Ben and even some other students wince. Harry groaned and the only thing that reassured Uma that he hadn't been hurt too badly was the long string of curses that flowed out of his mouth.

Whipping her head around, Uma's gaze connected with a glowing green pair. "A little bit of overkill, don't you think, Dragon Breath?" the sea witch hissed, the scent of cold sea air starting to fill the air.

Mal's glare didn't falter as she moved closer to a now free Ben, Jay and Evie backing her up, the latter looking worriedly between Ben and Uma. "Maybe I wouldn't have had to use excessive force if you'd trained your guard mutt to uphold an agreement and not bite the hand that gave him food, Shrimpy!" she said heatedly, all sense of her normal cool demeanor gone. Uma would have laughed at having riled up Mal so much if she herself wasn't so agitated as well.

"Mal that's enough!" Ben nearly roared, startling everyone. Mal's eyes stopped glowing, her face morphing from surprised to hurt, and she took a step back into Jay who immediately put an arm around her protectively. Uma could see the guilt that instantly blossomed on Ben's face as Mal's usual indifferent mask fell into place.

"Maybe we should put a pause on this conversation until it can be discussed somewhere more private," Evie stepped in, gesturing to the students who were all whispering frantically among themselves about what had just happened. In the crowd, Uma could see the distinctive frame of Gil moving towards them, leaving the side of a girl who looked like every stereotype of a pretty pastel pink princess, who looked after him worriedly. (Later, when she wasn't so close to wringing the neck of the next person who pointed at her or Harry, she would ask Gil about the girl).

"Yeah," Uma said, nodding her head towards Harry when Gil got closer, the son of Gaston easily pulling the still fuming and bruised pirate back up to his feet. Gil kept a firm hand on Harry's shoulder as the first mate continued to silently glare daggers at Ben and Mal. "But let me make this last part abundantly clear," Uma sneered, taking a step forward, a cruel smile forming on her lips as her eyes focused on Mal. "I can handle anything you throw at me. However, touch my first mate, my crew, or anyone under my protection again, Gecko Girl, and I will skin you and turn you into boots. Remember, Mommy isn't here to protect you anymore. And don't forget," she said, snapping her fingers more out of instinct than actual knowledge of what it would do. Nevertheless, a nearby water fountain started to spray water, and the resulting deluge landed mostly on Mal but also managed to splash Jay, Evie, Ben, and a few other students who were nearby.

Startled and angry shouting was heard as the sea witch cruelly laughed at their drenched appearances.

"You aren't the only one with magic tricks," Uma reminded before turning on her heel, Gil pulling a scowling Harry along as they followed their Captain.

A slight grin appeared on the sea witch's face when she heard Mal's shout of frustration but she didn't stop until she had led both boys back to their dorm room. Once they had all stepped through and the door was closed, all amusement left the sea witch and Uma spun towards the two members of her crew, pulling Harry out of Gil's grasp.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? she growled, giving him a hard shove that almost knocked him off his feet. The startled gasp he let out did nothing to calm the waves of her anger.

Her first mate didn't even have the decency to look guilty, the kohl around his eyes had smudged, giving his blue eyes a haunted look as he stared stubbornly back at her.

"We're pirates. We don't play nice with pretty boy Kings. We don't wait for justice. We take it!" he hissed.

"WE DO WHATEVER I SAY WE DO, HOOK!" Uma roared, the sound of waves crashing against jagged rocks embedded in her voice as she gave the boy another shove that actually did knock him off his feet. That seemed to knock him out of whatever rage-filled haze he had been in as he looked up at her with an expression of surprise and perhaps a very real bit of fear. However, at that point Uma was too far gone in her rage to even care.

"Uma," he began, trying to push himself up. However, her boot-clad foot pushed down on his chest, sending him sprawling back down.

"Is this it?" the sea witch hissed, putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his chest as she looked from between him and Gil, who was looking at their captain with worry etched deeply into his face. "Is this the moment where I should expect another bucket of shrimp dumped on my head? Huh? Because you've managed to find a way to embarrass me in just a little over a day in front of all of these Auradon brats! Are you tired of being my first mate and taking my orders? Fine! Go grovel to fucking Mal and kiss her feet! Leave me like everyone else was so smart to do all those years ago!"

"Uma!" Harry exclaimed, disbelief in his voice as he grabbed onto her ankle, not to remove her foot or relieve some of the pressure she was putting on him, but in a desperate plea. "Ye know I would never join that witch! You're my captain! Ye know that!"

"Yeah," Gil finally spoke up, hoping to help calm his captain and friend down. "Besides, Harry said he's allergic to purple-haired bit-"

"ENOUGH!" Uma bellowed, silencing them both. Her chest rose and fell with angry breath after angry breath and something deep within the depths of her wanted to drown the boy under her into submission. To watch as his lips turned blue as she dragged him deeper and deeper down into the water...

Wait, what? Uma found herself snapped out of anger, disturbed by her thoughts. This was Harry Hook, her hot blooded but always fiercely loyal, border-line worshipping, first mate. The only one who had always stuck by her side. The boy who never looked at her with anything but respect and wonder when her own mother lamented not just smothering her when she was too young to not fight back.

Weak.

Disappointing.

Poor unfortunate soul.

Should have drowned you a long time ago...

She looked down at Harry and nearly stumbled back when she saw the fear in his eyes. Fear that she had caused. Fear looked strange on his face. She didn't like it.

She couldn't stand to see that look any longer.

"I need to go," she spun around, avoiding Gil's gaze as well, knowing that whatever expression he held would be the final nail in the coffin.

"Uma! Wait!" she heard Harry call out, but she was already out the door, the last thing she heard was Harry cursing Gil and Gil's mother for not letting him follow her.

Shoving her way past a group of younger looking students who weren't able to move out of her way as fast as she would like, Uma made her way to the part of the dorm that she believed her room was, ignoring how the back of her throat felt itchy or the sudden pressure behind her eyes. (She was not about to cry! She wasn't!)

It wasn't long before she finally found the room belonging to the room number the pirate captain had been given the other day. She didn't even give the plaque under her room number that had her and her roommate's name a glance as she opened the door, hoping beyond hope that no one else would be in the room.

It was a basic looking room by Auradon standards but still better than the little closet she had back on the Isle. But it was strange that there was only one bed. She had thought she was going to be sharing a room.

Whatever, she thought. She didn't really want to deal with anyone right now.

She unwrapped her jacket from around her waist, pausing as her hands trailed over the compass Harry had drawn on her hand earlier before she reached for the hem of her shirt. Harry's shirt. She hesitated for a moment longer before pulling it off and tossing it in a corner, turning to reach for her bag that had been placed at the foot of her bed. Once one of her many purple fishnet sleeved shirts was on, she pulled on her gloves as well so that all signs of the compass were covered.

On the other side of the room was a bookshelf that was completely bare except for a golden lamp with ruby and emerald jewels glittering merrily in the corner. There was a sign in elegantly scripted lettering right next to it that read, "Don't rub the lamp!"

Maybe it was because she had such a long day and it was barely even over. Maybe it was because she wanted something, anything to get that fearful look that Harry had on his face as he stared up at her out of her mind. And maybe it was because she was tired of trying to play by the rules today only to first be showed up by that Olympian golden boy (she didn't even want to think about Hadie) and then Mal and just wanted to do something wicked, no matter how small.

Whatever the reason, Uma ignored the sign and rubbed the lamp...and found her body being immersed in a cloud of lavender smoke before she was dumped on a large gold embroidered pillow.

"You know, usually I get really annoyed when people touch my lamp" a familiar voice said, startling her. "But I guess I can forgive you just this once," the Auradon girl from her last class grinned from her position next to her.

"Where are we? Who are you and why did you bring me here?" Uma demanded, not yet noticing the teal and purple harem pants and top she was suddenly in.

"I didn't do anything. You rubbed the lamp despite the sign saying not to," the azure eyed girl argued, crossing her arms. "As for who I am, I'm Jordan, daughter of the Genie of Agrabah. I'm your roommate. And you," she paused, taking in the way the young sea witch looked like she was one magic carpet away from flooding her lamp with tears. Jordan's features softened slightly. "You look like you need a friend who can do this," she said gently, opening her palm before flicking her wrist, a bowl of ice cream appearing in it before she handed it to the confused pirate. "And that," she said pointing next to her where a spinning carousel filled with many different nail polish colors appeared. "And a little Abracadabra," she said with one final point as the biggest TV screen Uma had ever seen appeared before them along with a tray filled with various snacks that the pirate had never seen before in her life.

She looked up at Jordan, who was looking rather proud of herself. "And this is…?"

"Roomie bonding, of course," Jordan said with an exasperated but teasing tone. "Like I said before, you ain't never had a friend like me," she said with a wink before holding up the carousel of nail polishes. "Now, what colors do you want me to do your toes?"

Hello everyone! Thank you for being so patient. It's been a while. I hope you're all doing well! As always, thank you for the lovely comments, new kudos, bookmarks, and all the other stuff. I really appreciate it!

And as always, thanks to elphaba_swan my amazing beta.

I am hoping to at some point explain the whole development of the United States of Auradon because I really can't see all the known Disney places joining at the same time. Hopefully I'll find some way to weave it into the story but I'll also be making some headcanons on my Tumblr page about that at some point.

Thank you again and hopefully I'll be back with a new chapter after 2-3 weeks.

Until next time!