Chapter 9 – Bromance
-:-:-
"I'm glad we're still doing this," Chad admitted when they got together that Saturday night, the prince dropping his bag near Harry's dresser before he fidgeted awkwardly. "I thought maybe after the bullying stuff you wouldn't want to, since I'm so dumb I didn't even realize it was happening."
"You're not dumb," Harry hissed, and then he was dragging Chad into a hug, one of his most favorite pastimes.
"Oh." Chad blinked, then melted into the contact. "Hooray. I love hugs."
"And I love giving them to ye," Harry replied, managing not to flush at his honesty because this was Auradon and they were allowed to cuddle and shit and have it be entirely fine.
"Aw," Chad groaned, nuzzling his shoulder. "Could you give me kisses too?"
"Yeah," Harry said, and it didn't feel awkward to tilt his head and capture Chad's lips. He felt himself grin when the blond eagerly leaned into him, tentative but determined and happy to follow Harry's lead.
The pirate took his time coaxing Chad through making out, guiding the blond until his movements became seemingly more confident.
"Oh," Chad gasped against his lips, his hips rutting against Harry's thigh, revealing a telling firmness. "Um- what um- do we do now?"
"What would ye like to do?" Harry asked, nuzzling Chad's shoulder.
"Could I see you naked?" Chad asked, a dark flush spreading over the bridge of his nose. "I mean, you can see me naked too, we could both be naked? Is that okay?"
"Want to share a shower?" Harry asked, because he'd learned that sometimes testing out new forms of intimacy was easier when it was transitioned through an activity you already did on a regular basis.
"Oh, okay," Chad blinked, nodding eagerly. "Yes, we can- and we can hug?"
Harry flushed. "We'll do bro stuff, yes."
"Neat," Chad chirped, and then he was all but skipping into the bathroom, dragging Harry in his wake. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy," he murmured as they started taking off each other's clothes, pausing to trade kisses. "Aw man, Sonny, you're so pretty."
"Chad," Harry moaned, pausing to shudder against him.
"You are!" Chad insisted. "And um- maybe I've been imagining this all week, and I'm really excited and- whoa, you're buff."
"Back at ye," Harry said, taking his time to trace Chad's torso as he eased his shirt off.
"Oh, we can do that?" Chad said, then started mimicking Harry's actions, which might have been the worst thing Harry had ever taught him, the teases making him even more brilliantly worked up than before.
It was a fight to gently guide Chad onto the chaise lounge that came with his dumb bathroom so Harry could tug off his shoes, nuzzling his groin all the while and earning sharp inhales with every brush.
"Seriously, Sonny, I'm gonna lose it," Chad whimpered after Harry's shoes had been abandoned and they were fighting their way out of their clothes. "I don't know why it feels so much better when you do it but like fuck man, I am but a mortal and you are a god. A sex god. A god of sexiness- please touch me."
When asked so nicely, it was impossible for Harry not to oblige.
Finally pressing Chad against the cool tile of the shower stall was a relief, the blond clinging to him as Harry brushed himself close. It had been so long since he had this – his naked body sliding against someone else's – that he almost fell apart against Chad's thigh. Thankfully, Chad seemed to be in the same boat, grappling onto Harry's shoulders while his pretty length twitched between them.
"Oh fuck, Sonny, oh Light," Chad moaned. "Light, Light, it feels so good, you look so good, I'm gonna-"
"H-Here," Harry said, managing to angle their lengths together in one pointed rut.
Immediately, they both fell apart.
Harry managed to keep his eyes open so he could watch Chad fall to pieces, so he could savor each moment of it. He felt like he was creating an addiction because he knew he wanted to see that look again, wanted Chad flushed and naked, panting against the wall until his length twitched soft and flushed between his legs.
"Sonny," Chad whined when Harry pumped him slowly, trying to urge out every last drop. "Oh man, Sonny, I'm sorry-"
"I came too, Chad," Harry murmured into the curve of his neck. "Ye um- ye feel really good."
"I think I'm going to get worked up again," Chad moaned. "I'm sorry."
"No, that works out," Harry gasped. "I um- me too."
"Oh wow," Chad murmured. "This bro stuff really is the best."
They ended up losing it again rutting together like that, Chad desperately pressing his lips against Harry's while the pirate allowed his hands to rove Chad's body – his sides, his back, settling on his rear to establish a steady rhythm that left Chad keening.
"Oh man, keep touching my butt," Chad babbled, unknowing how the words affected Harry, how they could affect anyone. "That feels really nice."
"I- I'm glad," Harry managed to pant, his eyes glazed over in lust.
"Want me to do it to you?" Chad asked, making Harry's breath catch. "Like-"
His hands shifted, giving Harry's rear a shy squeeze, but that was enough to leave Harry throbbing against him helplessly, a broken sound spilling from his throat at the contact that felt like brands.
"Oh, that was good?" Chad asked. "So do you want me to keep going like this, or um- g-go here…?" He slipped one hand between Harry's cheeks, wiggling against the sensitive skin there until Harry collapsed against him with a whine. "Neat. Okay, so that's also good."
"Chad," Harry croaked, unbearably hot. "Ye don't have to-"
"No way, this is awesome," Chad said. "You could um- try doing that for me-"
He cut off with a gasp when Harry parted his cheeks, moving with more determination until he brushed against that puckered ring of muscle.
"Sonny," Chad whined, pulsing hard. "Oh, Sonny- I, there."
They really were like two inexperienced losers, getting off on mere brushes alone, rutting together until they fell apart again.
"Wowzah," Chad said without a hint of irony when it was finished. "Can we explore that more later?"
"Sure thing," Harry murmured, trading gentle kisses with Chad for no other reason than he could. "Want to get cleaned up, now?"
"So long as I can wash you," Chad chirped, and Harry had the feeling he'd created a monster, but admittedly a monster he would be happy to deal with.
No such thing as bad networking. Auradon bonding. It was all fine.
No need to look deeper.
-:-:-
"Part of me wants to ask Aziz why he didn't tell me about this and part of me like, wants to assume it's because he thought I knew, because otherwise he thought I didn't know and- I don't know, maybe he thought I couldn't handle it or something," Chad babbled as Harry pressed him back against the bed, the pirate nuzzling down his stomach until he could mouth at the bulge straining against his underwear.
"It's just rare," Harry decided, savoring the taste of the prince – salty and responsive, twitching in a way that made Harry's mouth water. "I guess it's an extreme circumstances thing."
"W-Well, that's dumb," Chad gasped as Harry worked his underwear low. "I know all our parents want us to date princesses because that makes our lives easier and they didn't get on the whole 'homosexuality isn't bad thing' until like, recently, but you should be able to bro with your bros as much as you want and- oh, Light, Sonny."
Chad let out a truly obscene sound when Harry licked the head of his length into his mouth, the responsive flesh already leaking steadily, something that worsened when Harry increased his suction, swirling his tongue against Chad's slit and reveling in the choked sounds it earned him.
"How am I not choking you?" Chad panted as Harry swallowed more of him down. "It's so hot and wet I can't- I'm gonna- Sonny, I'm gonna come in your mouth and you probably don't want that, it's probably gross. Sonny."
He cut off with a whine when Harry really started bobbing his head in earnest, making Chad's legs spread reflexively.
"Aw, man, Aw geeze, I'm gonna- Sonny!" He fell apart spectacularly, and just like every time Gil had done the same for Harry, the pirate swallowed Chad down, taking his time to drink the blond dry until he was nothing but a shuddering mess. "I can't breathe," Chad moaned. "Or I can, I totally can, it just feels like I shouldn't- Sonny."
More embarrassed whines, but Harry was intent to give Chad the focus he was due, and if that involved licking him dry, well, that was what would happen.
-:-:-
"You've been spending a lot of time with Chad," Aziz noted in that offhand way of his during sailing practice, like he didn't want it to seem like a big deal which was how he safely indicated that it was a big deal.
So Harry didn't feel bad for making a face at him. "No more than usual," he muttered. "Maybe a bit more for studying purposes, but that's it."
"Is it?" Aziz hummed, quirking a brow at him. "You having study sleepovers now?"
Harry paused his work to shoot an unimpressed look at the prince. "Ye spying on us now, Aziz?"
The Agraben shifted uneasily. "I dunno, maybe Lonnie and I are interested in sleepover fun times, did you ever think of that? Just because Ben and Doug were gone didn't mean we couldn't hang out."
"Ye could have just said that," Harry muttered, poking Aziz in the middle of his forehead. "It's a lot more direct than your witch hunt."
Aziz sputtered. "Maybe I thought you guys were doing secret shenanigans or something, seeing as you didn't tell us-"
"We can spend time apart, ye know," Harry murmured. "Maybe we just thought ye wanted to do that."
"Eh." Aziz shrugged his shoulders. "I'll take time with you guys rather than myself any day."
Harry tried not to cling to the words, knowing they offered the vague promise of something that wasn't really there. This was friendship in Auradon, that was all. This was normal.
-:-:-
At least, Harry thought it was normal until he received a random invitation from Fairy Godmother to join her and Chad for a private conversation at her cottage one evening after dinner.
"Any idea what it's about?" Ben asked as Harry prepared to leave them, the other four already falling into their usual 'keep Ben from being overworked' routine.
"No clue," Harry replied honestly, a spike of anxiety shooting through his stomach. "Hopefully it's nothing bad."
"It probably isn't," Lonnie chirped, giving him a reassuring smile. "I bet she just wants to thank you for being such a good friend to Chad. All that studying's paying off – both of your grades are going up. That's awesome work."
"Thanks, Lonnie," Harry murmured, ducking his head bashfully. "Yeah, maybe it's just about that."
That was the best-case scenario, but Harry was groomed to operate on the worst-case scenario, which was why he carefully schooled his emotions as he approached Fairy Godmother's cottage. If the news was good, he could relax. If it wasn't, he could adapt. They were the only options available to him, so with that caution in mind, he knocked on the cottage door, waiting a few beats before Fairy Godmother opened it for him.
Her tense smile was the first indication that things had taken a turn for the worst, but at least she was being polite about it. Harry swallowed, following the Light Fae into her living room where Chad was fidgeting, perched on the edge of the couch with his head ducked. He glanced up once then winced before he looked back down at the floor, refusing to meet Harry's eyes.
More bad things. Harry wanted nothing else than to pull Chad into a hug, to offer him some kind of comfort, but that seemed to be the last thing he should do at this moment given the way Fairy Godmother was watching him. Her gaze was sharp in a way he hadn't seen since the old Isle – analyzing him as though aware of the monster lurking within, just waiting for when he would strike, not if.
"Thanks for joining us this evening, Sonny," Fairy Godmother chirped, taking a seat in her armchair, posture perfect, as though she were sitting on a throne. "I've recently been made aware of you and Chad engaging in what you deem 'bro activities'."
"Right," Harry said slowly, wondering where she was going with this. He supposed that explained Chad's uneasiness, that the blond had given the secret away when he'd been trying so hard to guard it. He likely felt bad for that, but Harry wasn't sure why it warranted this amount of attention from Fairy Godmother. "Is something wrong?"
"Not necessarily," Fairy Godmother hummed, which may as well have been a 'yes'. "I realize there might be some cultural differences between the Isle and Central Auradon, but here we don't encourage casual intimate relations in our young royals. It can lead to confusion, and I realize your intentions were likely harmless, but the truth of the matter is that you're planting the seeds for something that could very well never come to fruition."
"I don't understand," Harry said, his stomach beginning to fill with ice. "I- this isn't an Isle thing. Aziz was the one who told me about it. He said- it's an Auradon thing." He looked to Chad, who of course wouldn't know, Harry was the one who had told him. "Is it not an Auradon thing?"
"Sonny," Fairy Godmother sighed, like she was disappointed in him. "Perhaps you misconstrued something Aziz said, but I assure you this is not normal Auradon behavior, and at Auradon Prep, we expect a certain code of conduct to be followed." She started chewing on her bottom lip. "I know that Chadwick is a fairly attractive young man, and his lack of social experience may make certain prospects tempting, but it is up to you to engage in personal restraint to keep things… gentlemanly."
Harry could read between the lines of what she wasn't saying, and doing so left him entirely humiliated.
She thought he had targeted Chad. Thought he'd made this entire thing up just so he could get into the blond's pants. She thought he was a predator, no better than Taylor, and she looked at him as such.
"Call Aziz," Harry said, floundering. "He can tell ye. Please, I didn't- I didn't make this up."
"I'll call him," Fairy Godmother said, her gaze pitying. "But while we wait for him, perhaps you and Chad should consider spending some time apart."
At that, Chad tensed. "But-"
"You have a lovely friendship, Chadwick," Fairy Godmother said. "But you also have other friends who would like to spend time with you. You can't let Sonny monopolize your attention."
Funny, how Chad had been the one worried about monopolizing Harry's attention, and now it was Harry being the greedy asshole hogging the blond away from the rest of the world.
It felt like forever before Aziz arrived, though to his credit the Agraben seemed to have run the entire way there, taking in the nervous tension of the room and schooling his expression appropriately.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, shifting his gaze between Chad and Harry, who were both sort of miserable.
"Not really," Chad admitted, glaring at the floor. "You did tell Sonny about bro stuff, right?"
"What?" Aziz blinked, seeming confused, enough to make Harry grit his teeth because now of all times was not the moment for Aziz to not be a know-it-all.
"At the Agraben restaurant," Harry muttered. "Ye said bros helped out bros and then um…" He motioned below his waist with a humiliated flush.
There was a pause, and then a horrible sort of realization flooded across Aziz's face. "Yes, I- yes, I did say that, but what does that have to do with-?" He cut off abruptly, looking between Chad and Harry before finally turning his gaze to Fairy Godmother's stony visage. "Oh no," he said, pressing a hand to the side of his face. "Fairy Godmother, whatever you thought happened – this is totally my fault. I um- I was trying to avoid an embarrassing situation so I made something up. I just- I didn't want Sonny to feel bad, and I didn't think that- I mean, I sort of forgot that he doesn't know Auradon culture so he just took it as a given and this is- this is all a misunderstanding, I promise. Whatever happened, that's on me."
"That's kind of you to say, dear," Fairy Godmother said, not seeming to entirely believe him. "But maybe you should be more careful with these kinds of things going forward."
"Right, yes – of course," Aziz agreed, nodding his head deftly while Harry struggled to process what had just happened. "Does um- that fix everything?"
"It certainly clears things up," Fairy Godmother said, which wasn't a yes. "I still think it would be best for Chad and Sonny to spend some time apart though."
Chad frowned. "But-"
"Thank you so much for coming," Fairy Godmother continued. "Aziz, Sonny. Let me show you two out."
"Of course, Fairy Godmother," Aziz said, tugging Harry up from the couch.
Harry followed dumbly, unsure of what else to do. He'd been banished. He'd- he hadn't done well. He'd done terribly, if anything.
And he had no one to blame but himself.
-:-:-
"Okay, in hindsight, I can see where I went wrong," Aziz babbled as Harry tried to calmly walk back to the suite, his heart thumping furiously in his chest and humiliation consuming him like a visceral thing, threatening to claim him entirely so that he'd be of no use to the world. "I should have clarified, I just- I didn't want you to feel embarrassed, and you're such a reserved guy that I didn't think it would be an issue but I should have- I know I should have said something, had an actual conversation with you-"
"Ye think?" Harry snapped, shaking his arm out of Aziz's grip when the prince tried to make a grab for it. "Do ye have any idea of how this makes the Isle look? I'm the one representative, everything I do reflects back on them, and I thought- I trusted ye, and that was my own damn fault, wasn't it?"
"Please don't say that," Aziz said, his expression falling into one of misery. "Please, I know I fucked up-"
"She thought I was using him," Harry muttered, his cheeks flaring with heat. "She thought I was biding my time so I could take advantage of my friend, and I didn't even have any ground to stand on because the entire basis for which we were getting together was cemented on something ye fucking made up."
"I hurt you," Aziz said. "Please, let me make it up to you-"
"Yeah, I fucking think not," Harry hissed, pulling away from him. "We're not friends, Aziz. A friend wouldn't have done this to me." He didn't have much experience with them, but he was pretty sure a crewmate, at least, wouldn't have allowed this to happen. "Just- stay away from me. I won't go out of my way to bother ye. We can be civil with the others, but you and me? We're through."
"Sonny," Aziz said, his gaze wide, wounded. "Please, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I'm glad ye are," Harry said. "That means your decent, but we're still done."
And with that, he kept walking, pain and humiliation and heat building in his lungs, threatening to strangle him entirely.
-:-:-
It was just his luck that the others had lingered in Ben's suite during his absence, all of them too nosy for their own good. Jane was likely off with Audrey, as she was more and more these days, so it was just Ben, Doug, and Lonnie, the latter two likely having dragged Ben away from his paperwork through sheer will alone to badger him into taking a break via some board game Doug had probably discovered.
"Hey," Lonnie greeted distractedly when she heard the door open, all three of them circled around the breakfast table in the sitting room. "What did Fairy Godmother end up wanting you for?"
"And why did Aziz need to join you guys?" Ben asked, his expression shifting from reserved fondness to palpable concern in less than a second. "Is everything okay?"
Harry didn't know how to respond, fumbled for his words until his eyes settled on Doug, and a new wave of anger consumed him.
"Did ye know?" Harry asked, heart pounding in his chest as he focused on the dwarf kin alone. "The 'bros helping bros' bullshit from the first restaurant trip, did ye know Aziz made that up?"
For a second, Doug froze, his gaze going wide before obvious shame claimed his features. "I very much suspected, yes, but that was an isolated incident-"
"I thought that was how things were done here," Harry interrupted, feeling broken and stupid all over again. "I thought that was an Auradon thing because ye both seemed so fucking genuineabout it."
"Sonny," Doug gasped, realizing where he was going with this.
"So I just had a conversation with Fairy Godmother about how she's concerned my 'casual Isle regard for physical intimacy' might be affecting Chad, like this was- like it was my idea, like my whole intent with helping him was just so I could have sex with him or something."
"Sonny." Doug pressed to his feet, immediately stricken. "I'm so sorry, I'll talk to Fairy Godmother right now."
"Aziz already did," Harry snapped. "And she probably thinks he's covering for me because she wants me to spend less time with Chad, thinks we have an unhealthy codependence or something-"
"Guys," Ben interrupted, rising to his feet. "Please, step back a second and tell us what's going on."
"What's going on is that Aziz and Doug are fucking dead to me," Harry snapped, heat welling in his eyes. "And Fairy Godmother will be kind enough to keep this transgression to herself, but this will still affect her opinion of me – people will notice, your parents will fucking notice, and then the Isle kids will lose favor because I was a stupid idiot that trusted ye."
With that, he stormed into his bedroom, locking the door behind him and then storming into his closet for good measure. It was the closest thing he had to his old cabin aboard the Lost Revenge, the place that had been his home for so many years. He marched to the back of it, turning on his lantern and burrowing into the sleeping bag he had stashed there as he tried to sort through the tumultuous swell of emotions waging war within him.
Then he started crying, because he didn't have a hold on who Harry Hook was anymore. He'd lost it the moment he'd left the Isle. Evie had wanted him to become soft, to be sweet and sensitive and caring and he'd lost himself to that too much. He didn't know how to be strong anymore, so now he was just a dumb crybaby.
The thought made him shake harder. The others- what if they didn't want this version of him anymore? What if he came back and he was too weak and needy for them? Unrecognizable from the competent, independent pirate they'd sent out to represent them.
That guy wouldn't have allowed himself to get fooled.
But Harry had become soft in Auradon. He wasn't a guard captain anymore, he couldn't be fierce. Now he was crying over losing someone who wasn't even his love, someone he never could have truly had, who never would have truly wanted him, so why did that hurt?
Emotions were stupid, but Harry was lost to them regardless. He just- he needed to focus. Obviously, he needed to make some changes.
He'd become too indulgent, but he had a job to do. There was always work to focus on, he'd just do that.
Forget Aziz. Forget Doug and Chad and Fairy Godmother. Harry had survived on his devotion to Uma alone for years, he could easily do that again.
He just needed to stay focused.
-:-:-
From then on, he spent mealtimes by himself. Uma would have his head if he didn't eat, so he just did it at odd hours of the day, when he knew the others wouldn't be there. He stopped going to Tourney games, stopped attending Doug's band concerts, stopped talking to Aziz during sailing team practice. Lonnie and Ben kept trying to talk to him, but Harry ignored them too. He focused his efforts on sewing new clothes and buying supplies, on writing notes and tracking down spells and trying to salvage the Isle's reputation.
Evie had said that in the event he did mess up, not that she thought he would, he was to lay low for at least six months, and by then the media would move on to be interested in something else, so Harry just did that. He kept out of Fairy Godmother's line of sight. He didn't bother Aziz or Lonnie's parents, didn't bother anyone. He was perfectly polite and didn't fall behind on his schoolwork and tried very hard not to be embarrassed even if he mostly failed.
"It wasn't your fault, Sonny," Ben would say to him through the wood of his bedroom door. He and Lonnie took turns keeping him company, even if he never left his room for them. "Doug told me what happened, and it wasn't your fault. Chad feels awful about it-"
At that point, Harry slipped on his headphones, adding 'CD player + music' to his supplies list.
The people of the Isle needed music. They needed art. They deserved more.
They deserved freedom.
"Aziz fucked up," Lonnie said. "He knows he fucked up. We all know he fucked up. He tried to do a nice thing and didn't think it through, which is classic Aziz. I'm not saying you have to forgive him, but if you gave him a chance, he and Doug would grovel for the opportunity. They both feel terrible." A beat, then, "Aziz's parents are working on Fairy Godmother. I think we can all agree that keeping you and Chad apart isn't doing either of you favors. I think Fairy Godmother feels bad about jumping to conclusions and she's struggling to correct that because she cares about Chad so much, but she will come around, Sonny, just give her a chance."
Harry had nothing but time, now. If she came around to liking him again, wonderful, but he doubted it. She'd seen behind Harry's mask and recognized the dirty, stupid child waiting beneath.
He wouldn't want that anywhere near his family either.
"We're not leaving," Lonnie said. "No matter how much you ignore us, we're always going to be here for you, Sonny. You're our friend, and we love you."
Everyone left in the end. And if they didn't leave, then Harry would be the one pulled away from them. That was just the way things went.
There was no point in fighting it.
-:-:-
Endnotes:
Hope you guys enjoyed all that fluff and bonding, because we are now back at angst-time central, baBY ;)
Storynotes:
Aziz throwing out low-key confessions of affection that Harry is in no way prepared for. Classic Aziz.
I'm not sure if I've clarified it in this particular story, but for me there is a difference between Auradon (the union of kingdoms) and Central Auradon (the specific kingdom that Ben's family resides over) – to explain why I occasionally specify Central Auradon.
Realistically, Fairy Godmother didn't handle this situation in the best way – especially since Harry is a minor in a foreign country that doesn't have an active guardianship (which is forever and always something I will rail against in the Descendants' canon, as it is stupid). Due to Chad's prior abuse, she overreacted, but this is something that will ultimately be addressed.
Until next time :)
