Author's Note: Your comments bring me an immediate smile when I see them, so thank you for your kind words 😊 They definitely keep me cranking out the chapters.


Melody found Harry's underwear washed up on the shore and forced a kiss from him before she'd give them back.

Then, announcing he was now fully warmed up thanks to her, he proceeded to dress in his still-wet clothes. He made a face as he slid his jacket back on, it was heavy and still soaked, but he didn't want to leave it behind.

Finally, he instructed her to hold the lock box so he could retrieve the pixie dust inside. She was now holding the tiny chest in two hands as Harry worked at the lock with his pick.

"I want you to teach me that, too," Melody said.

He cocked his head. "Yeh do?"

"Yep, and any other useful villainous skills you've kept hidden."

"Mmmmm," he hummed his high-pitched Harry approval as he continued tinkering with the lock.

"Fighting, lock picking, and pick pocketing. All of it," she said. "And I want to know how you stole my locket without me knowing."

He stopped what he was doing, offering a smug little quirk of his lip.

"Well that's easy, lass. It's because yeh were so stricken by me gorgeous face and aroused by me sensual touch that yeh didn't even notice me other hand pullin' off yer locket."

She suppressed an eye roll. "Oh really?" she said. "Show me, then."

He shook his head. "One villainous skill at a time. Don't yeh want to get back before the sun comes up?"

She shrugged. "I'm having much more fun here."

He looked her up and down, and she knew she'd won when he scrunched his lips together and flashed her an exasperated look. "Cannae argue with that," he said, sighing. "Alright, hold the box."

She obeyed and tucked it under her arm against her side.

"Yeh have to use a distraction when yeh pickpocket someone. In a crowd yeh can bump into 'em. If yeh have a partner, you can pair up and have the other person cause a disturbance. But when it was the two of us in that classroom, I just got extra close to make yeh a bit uncomfortable, then I did summat like this to distract yeh."

He repeated the very same sequence of movements he'd done that day in oceanography. But with no hook to drag against her skin, he used the dull edge of a dagger he had hidden in his jacket instead, then walked his fingers up her arm, across her cheek and pressed down on her nose.

And he was so close, she could remember how she'd felt that day. Her skin had reacted to him even then and she'd tried desperately to hide the goosebumps he'd erupted across her arms.

"It's a wee bit difficult now with yer hair down," he said. "With yer ponytail I had no problem opening the clasp and slipping the locket off."

She held her hair up and closed her eyes. "Do it."

He did and she felt a tiny brush of his fingers, hardly a tickle.

"I felt your hand."

"Course yeh did. That's why the distraction is the most important part. If I hadnae distracted yeh well enough yeh could have caught me right away in that classroom," he said. "Luckily yeh found me worthy of distraction."

"I also found you worthy of an ass kicking," she said before really thinking about it.

"So yeh did, and yeh blackened my eye to prove it."

She winced, still guilty for having hurt him like that. Especially after tonight, after seeing all of those scars. She answered softly, hoping he could hear the sincerity in her tone. "I'm still sorry for that."

"Dinnae fash yerself over it." He reached around to re-clasp her locket. "I didnae say that to make yeh feel bad, I've already forgiven yeh for it."

When he had the locket replaced, he let one hand linger there near her neck. He dragged his fingers down her shoulder, combing through her wet hair, then twisted a lock around his finger. She wondered what he was thinking about as he looked at her with those moonlit eyes.

"Will you sing to me?" she asked. She had no idea where the question came from, only that with him so close, and their increasing level of comfort with each other, she wanted to hear his song again.

His smile faltered. "What?"

"I was thinking about the song you sang that night, the one about Neverland."

He avoided her gaze, pulling his hand away from the lock of hair he'd been toying with. "Maybe another night. I'm dead scunnered, it would come out like a croak, worse than a bullfrog singin' show tunes."

She studied his expression for a moment. He did look tired. She could see the glaze of fatigue over his eyes, the barely there droop of his eyelids.

"Alright then sleepyhead, I'll let you get back to lock picking then."

And she pulled the lockbox from under her arm, presenting it to him between her two hands.

He got back to work, brows hanging low over his eyes in concentration. It didn't take long before the lock fell open and he cracked the box's lid to peek in. Golden light spilled out, illuminating his face and highlighting the eager glint in his eyes. He bit his bottom lip and reached for the vials inside, handing one to Melody and taking one for himself.

The tiny vial had a heaviness to it, much more weight than was natural for something as small as her pinky finger. She held it up into the moonlight and shook it up, watching the tiny flecks of gold buzz around inside like microscopic fireflies.

"Now you dinnae need much," Harry said. "Just a wee sprinkle."

He opened the cork on the miniature bottle and tipped the tiniest bit of golden powder into his hand, before recapping it and stowing it in his coat pocket.

Harry reached his cupped hand high over his head, then turned it over and let the powder float down over him, leaving a glittery dusting across his hair and shoulders.

She copied him exactly, before stowing the vial in her jacket pocket. A giddy sort of anticipation flipped around in her stomach as she waited for the pixie dust to take effect.

Nothing happened.

"How long does it take?" she asked looking down at her arms, her feet, and trying to figure out if they'd nearly killed themselves to steal two vials of counterfeit pixie dust.

Harry tossed the empty lock box aside and closed the space between them. "Yeh said yeh knew the stories." His wet pants were pressed against her leggings now and she could feel them soaking through. "Do yeh remember how Peter Pan did it?"

"Yes," she managed through vocal cords suddenly strung very tight.

"Then yeh know yeh've gotta think a happy thought." He was now so close she felt his warm breath against her forehead. His irresistibly curved bottom lip was begging to be kissed again and she didn't fight the urge this time.

"I'll show you a happy thought," she said.

And without even thinking, she buried her fingers in the soaking wet lapels of his jacket and pulled him down to her. Her lips flowed like an eddying current against his, liquid and hot. This insistence to taste him was new, different, because she realized that now, she had no reason to hold back. She'd seen him stark naked, they'd done… something together she'd never thought she'd be comfortable with. And now she felt free to kiss him the way she wanted, exploring his mouth, tasting him as deeply as she dared. It was liberating, exhilarating and -

He made a light little sound in the back of his throat, and Melody smiled against his lips.

"Did you just squeak?" she asked.

He was breathless when he managed to answer her. "Surprised me is all." Then he nuzzled against her cheek to speak the next words into her ear. "Yer getting' pretty good at that now, lass. If you dinnae want a second go around in the sand, we best be focusin' on gettin' off of this isle."

"Who says I don't want round two?"

"Och, yeh insatiable little minx," He pressed his lips tenderly against her cheek. "There'll be plenty of time for that later."

He clasped her hands and gazed at her, those sea glass eyes cutting straight to her heart. How did he do that? How did he steal her breath with a look? It really wasn't fair.

"Oi! And there we go, I've got me happy thought," he said.

And as if he'd stepped on an invisible elevator, Harry slowly rose toward the sky. And instead of chin level where she usually stood, she was now staring at his chest.

Glancing down, she saw Harry's boots were a few inches above the sand.

Melody didn't even need to close her eyes like they did in the stories to find her happy thought. Because her happy thought was standing there right in front of her. Her pirate. The irksome scallywag who'd started this relationship by robbing her of a precious family heirloom. And she couldn't think of any other happy thought that could compare to him in that moment.

The sand below her boots fell away.

She drifted up, testing the magic, feeling how the warmth of her happiness worked to power the pull of energy all around her. And she jumped, like a frog swimming in a pond, she pushed her arms and legs together and shot into the sky.

She was sure she left her stomach behind as her entire body lurched.

And Melody marveled in that moment at the fact that flying was almost identical to swimming in the way her body moved.

She somersaulted, relishing the way her breath caught as the force of the spin pulled on her insides. The wind tugged at her hair and clothes, and she laughed, the sound spilling into the night like musical notes in the most freeing symphony of wind and speed and stars.

And Harry was staring, a half-smile tugging at his lip. "Yeh sure yeh haven't done this before?"

She twisted toward him, whizzing by in a corkscrew maneuver and stopped with a flourish, toes pointed and arms outstretched in an acrobatic landing position.

"It feels like swimming. In the air!" She knew her eyes were wide, and her breath was coming short and fast. And for a moment she wondered if she should tone it down, if he'd think her childish.

But the twitch of his lip and that mischievous glint in his eyes told her that Harry believed the opposite was true.

"Lass, yer beautiful. Yer gods-damned beautiful and I cannae wait to get yeh back to me room and snuggle the life outta yeh."

"Your room? You want me to spend the night in your room?" She'd love to fall asleep next to Harry, but he wasn't the only one who lived there. "That you share with Gil and Jay?"

He drifted closer, placing his hands on the curve of her hips. "I want to stay with yeh tonight. Would yeh rather I go to yours?"

She must have made a face because he was explaining. "Not to, yeh know but… just to sleep. I was serious when I said I wanted to snuggle with yeh. Imagine without all the hospital wires this time."

He was a cuddler. Harry Hook liked to snuggle and her chest constricted with the thought, warmth spreading to her fingers and toes. As she watched his eager expression, she realized her cheeks had begun to ache from all the smiling she was doing.

"When do the guys usually wake up?" she asked.

"Their classes dinnae start 'til after eleven tomorrow and yeh know Uma and Gil probably got back late from the Isle, so Gil will sleep in."

"Ok, your room it is. Jane will be up and making noise at the crack of dawn."

She kicked her heels together and launched herself skyward, creating a gleeful whoosh of blood away from her head which made her dizzy.

But when Harry hesitated to follow, she circled back for him, noting the softness of his eyes and the barely-there smile twisting his lip.

"What's that look for?" she asked.

"Just, yeh –" he said, shaking his head as he held that knowing smile. "I just cannae believe it. When I first saw yeh in class, yeh had such an uncomfortable expression on yer face like a bird crammed into a cage that was too small."

She raised her eyebrows, but she knew exactly what he was talking about. It was the truth.

"But now look at yeh. Fully fledged and absolutely breathtakin'."

Then, Harry unfurled a grin from ear to ear and that villainous glint in his eyes was back.

The next thing she knew, she felt the wind as he blew by, speeding away back toward the shoreline of Auradon. He wasn't graceful in flight by any stretch of the imagination. He looked much too big to belong in the air and his movements were uneven, choppy.

"Catch me if you can!" he crowed, in full jubilant Harry mode.

Melody dipped back down against a rocky outcropping on the isle and kicked off hard. Wind screamed in her ears as she tried to catch up.

"You don't stand a chance, pirate!"

But what Harry lacked in the elegance department, he made up for in speed. He was hurtling through the blackness of night at a ridiculous velocity and she made herself try to be faster, pulling at the image of her happy thought to give her more control, to supercharge that pixie dust.

He glanced back to find her still at his heels, and she saw he was laughing, his coat flapping behind him. He twisted and spun, putting his arms out to his sides like a bird and swooped up and down. But Melody saw the maneuvers for what they were - he was giving her a chance to catch him.

She pounced. Finding enough of a speed boost to throw herself onto his shoulders, sending them into a roll.

She clung to his back, going so fast now she felt the wind inflate her cheeks as she laughed. The twinkling lights of Auradon lay below them now. They had to be thousands of feet above land. If they managed to keep this speed up, they'd be back to campus in minutes instead of the two hours it had taken by car.

They rode the currents together, following the winding highway below at top speed until she recognized the highest spires of Auradon University's towers in the distance. But Melody's stomach lurched then, not because of the height or the flying, but because she hadn't wanted this to end.

They found the dorms along the northeast side of campus, and when their feet touched down, they were facing each other. She was clinging to his coat, now much drier than when they'd started their flight.

"That was the best date I've ever had," he announced. "Settin' fires, fightin', foolin' around, and flyin'. Doesnae get much better than that, does it?"

She blew out a laugh.

"Come on, let's get to bed," he said, grabbing her hand and beginning to tow her along towards his room.

She hesitated, resisting his pull on her hand. "I wonder what time it is," she asked, looking at him expectantly.

He dragged his hand along his pants pocket, fumbling for the chain to his watch he kept there. Frowning when he came up empty, he actually peered down into his pocket. He spread it open, then checked the other side for good measure.

"Well storm it, I somehow lost me watch. That was from me very first plunder yeh know, I was a wee lad when – "

He stopped mid-sentence as Melody swung Harry's pocket watch back and forth in front of his face and offered him her most villainous grin.

"Why yeh schemin' little imp!"

But she could see the pride shining in his eyes.

"Yer first pickpocket." Then he snatched it back from her hand, putting on his most intimidating glare for her. "Dinnae ever do that again. Yeh scared me to death."

She nudged him with her elbow as they started walking again. "I had a good teacher."

They found door number seven but Harry blocked the way. "When did yeh do it?"

"Guess."

He scrunched his lips and looked up, thinking. Then his mouth slackened into a look of disbelief. "When yeh kissed me!" he said. "Och, that was so cruel. It was when yeh kissed me good and hard after we talked about happy thoughts. And here I thought yeh were really lovin' on me but it was all just a farce for yer fiendish ways!"

"A taste of your own medicine is what I call it."

"Wicked thing."

"You like it," she said, tapping his nose with her index finger a la Harry himself.

"Undoubtedly."

Then he opened the door and led her in. It was dark and their footsteps seemed too loud in the small, quiet space. Jay and Gil were both just lumps in their beds on their sides of the room.

Harry's side had changed a little since she'd last been there. He had maps and charts piled all over the place, on the bed, the desk, and some pinned to the wall.

He pulled her along toward his bed, then bent to grab some clean clothes from his dresser and stripped unabashedly. Apparently once you were naked once in front of someone it didn't matter anymore? Melody really didn't know, but from the way Harry acted, he was completely at ease as he put on a fresh pair of shorts.

"Do you have something I could wear?" she whispered, trying to keep from waking the guys. "Just a big shirt or something, these will not be comfortable to sleep in." She looked down at her borrowed leather jacket and tightly fitted leggings.

"I'm sure I do. But I better find summat yeh can keep in case yeh decide to hoard it in yer snugglin' stash."

She chuckled. He hadn't forgotten she still had his red jacket, then. "My hoard is growing by the day."

He tossed her one of his cotton R.O.A.R. shirts.

The room was dark, save for the dim light filtering in through the window and Jay and Gil were both snoring away on their sides of the room. Harry had stripped without a second thought. Then why was she so nervous to do the same?

Harry was staring at her, but he'd said she was beautiful, so, maybe her body was something else she didn't need to be embarrassed about in front of him. Making up her mind, she hung Uma's jacket over a chair, pulled her shirt over her head and she just went for it. She met his eyes as she unclipped her bra, slipping the straps over her shoulders, letting it slide to the floor.

He was definitely staring now as she pulled his shirt on and shimmied out of her leggings. Looking down, she realized she wouldn't need pants at all since his shirt was like a dress on her.

Those lips of his turned up into a smile and he moved a half dozen maps and rolled papers from his bed onto his desk. With space cleared, he sat down and patted the bed next to him. He drew up the covers and she crawled in beside him. Pilled sheets and a worn quilt never felt so good as Harry hauled her against his chest, fitting his body around hers.

He exhaled, a long, ragged sigh that spoke to the incredible length of this day. But she wouldn't change a thing about it. Especially not now, because this was so much better than cuddling with his jacket. She was fully enveloped in his warmth and his scent as the strength of his arms lulled her into a deep sense of safety, of belonging.

And she wondered about something he'd said before. That he'd never felt safe, even now in Auradon.

"Remember when you told me you didn't feel safe? About all the things you use for armor?"

"Aye."

"What are you afraid of?" she asked.

He was silent for a long moment, but in the dark, she could imagine what his face looked like as he chewed over her words. "I've always been afraid of me Da', his crew… and I guess me fears are changin' 'cause now I'm afraid of Sparrow gettin' his hands on yeh," he trailed off, silent except for his steady breathing. "But the thing I've always been most afraid of is meself."

That last word surprised her. "Yourself?"

"The more I tried to please me Da', the farther away from meself I got. I cared less and less, 'til hurtin' people meant naethin'. And one day I looked in the mirror and I saw me Da' starin' back. I was turnin' into him and that was the most afraid I've ever been. I was a walkin' talkin' empty shell is what I was."

She nuzzled her cheek against the arm she was resting on, showing him that she was listening. "What changed?"

"I'm still changin'. Got a long way to go yet."

She hummed, closing her eyes and listening to his breathing, sensing he had more to say.

"I was afraid of gettin' too close to anyone, too. The only people I ever trusted were Uma and Gil and it took me a long time to get there. I dinnae feel safe around other people."

And Melody had found out why earlier tonight. His family consisted of a father who was drunk all the time and sisters who had to look out for themselves.

"I was afraid, too," Melody said. "Of showing people what I am. My armor is different from yours, but I think you saw through it."

"Yer so much more beautiful without it," he said, settling back into the pillow and squeezing her tight. "Dinnae let other people put yeh in that cage again. Freedom suits yeh much better."

She felt the rise and fall of his chest against her back and listened to the soft sounds of his exhalation until his arm relaxed over her.

"Yeh, know lass, yeh never told me what yer happy thought was," he said, voice thick and dreamy like he'd been half asleep when he'd had the realization.

She reached for his hand and brought it to her mouth, pressing her lips against his knuckles.

Then she breathed the answer in a sensual mimic of his drawl. "Devil pickles."

He clicked his tongue and pinched her arm.

"Ow!"

One of the guys snuffled in his sleep and rolled over. Harry shushed her in her ear playfully and she buried her laughter in his pillow.

"Devil pickles," he muttered indignantly under his breath.

She turned over then to face him. It was too dark to see his expression, just the faint outline of his profile, but she knew he was probably grinning.

"Was there ever any doubt Harry?" she asked, reaching out to run a hand against his cheek, to trace the lines of his smile. "Of course, my happy thought was you."

The sound he made in response was something close to a purr as he pulled her close, wrapping her against his chest in the dark of his room.