12:15 pm - The Woods and the Beach Front
After twenty or so minutes of the tour, Harry was bored. He had fallen to the back of the group, waiting for the right moment he could slip off unnoticed. Eventually, as they passed the games fields, Gil had sucked Jay and Carlos into a discussion about the sports played at the school and Jay forgot all about the pirate.
Harry bent down to readjust his boot, using his hat to shield his face from the group of students making their way back up to the main building for what he presumed was lunch.
He glanced over at the VKs and then fell in step with a passing student, using the boy and his friends as cover to slip into the wooded area that bordered the school. Harry pulled his hat off and sighed, leaning against an ancient tree trunk for support.
He missed his home, his ship docked in the harbour at the Isle. When he had been offered a place at Auradon Prep, Harry had had to fire his crew and pay a sea witch some hefty bribery money to cast a spell upon his vessel, shrinking the boat until it fit into an empty bottle.
Reaching into his coat, Harry's fingers wrapped around the neck of the clear bottle, pulling it out and levelling it in front of his face. His ship, a beauty he had worked for since he was ten, the emSailing Grace/em cruised in the inch of sea water within the bottle. Her golden sails were flapping as if there were a strong breeze and Harry watched the waves lap at her sides.
Harry could still remember the horrible and cruel things he had done for his father to secure the ship. The blood on his hands haunted him but the attachment he felt to the vessel in his hands was worth the reputation and the torment.
He had always been on a crew. His fathers and then Uma's, rising to be her first mate. The problem was that Uma was heavily tied to the Isle, her mother's tentacles never allowing the young girl to stray far out to sea. It had caused Uma to be greedy and she hadn't known when to stop.
Harry regretted being apart of the King's capture but the rise he had gotten from his old Captain when he had told her that Mal and the VKs had returned had been worth it.
Harry missed the sea. The salty air that would rustle through his hair and the freedom he felt when he was stood in the crows nest. He never felt as alive as he did hanging off the mast, looking out across the sea with the wind on his face. He missed being able to sail even if it was only around the Isle of the Lost. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept on dry land having taken permanent residence in the captain's quarters of The Grace.
If it was possible, Harry felt landsick. He stoked the pad of his thumb over the glass and gently pocketed the bottle once more, tapping it for luck as he had grown accustomed over the past week to its weighty presence.
"Soon," he told himself, pushing off of the trunk with his foot and setting off down the small beaten track, through the woods and the undergrowth. The canopy above him was thick and full of life, worlds away from the urbanisation on the Isle.
If he closed his eyes, Harry could pretend that he was in a faraway jungle, exploring the globe on his ship. He crowed loudly and unsheathed his sword, using the blade to hack away some vines and shrubbery as he delved deeper through the wood. Harry suddenly broke into a run, using his hook to swing from low hanging branches or plunging it into the trees, using it as an anchor as he sharply changed direction. He leapt over fallen branches and climbed through the hollowed out trunk of a long dead tree, feeling as though he was ten years old again.
After some time, when his heart rate had doubled and his breathing became laboured, the pirate slowed to a jog, tilting his head to listen to the noisy wildlife around him. He swore when the faint call of a seabird carried on the wind.
Harry began to run blindly again, brandishing his sword to cut down the plants in his path. He could hear a sea bird and so that meant the sea itself would be close. The urge and overwhelming desire to swim overtook him as he ran, sprinting as fast as he could until he burst from the woods onto a shoreline.
It was a mixture of smooth, flat pebbles and sand, the sea foam clinging to the rocks that bordered the woodland. He yelled in delight when the waves lapped at his boots and he hastily tugged them off along with the rest of his clothes and draped them on the closest branch to him.
His sword, hat, the bottle and his hook were then placed gently on the clothing, making sure they were well hidden and secure. Harry, in only his underclothes, then threw himself into the water, staying under until the need for air was burning his lungs.
He was a strong and confident swimmer and soon found himself quite a way out from the secluded beach, simply floating as the current kept him within a safe enough distance. The seabirds Harry had heard circled lazily overhead and as he swam back to the shallows, Harry could hear the unmistakable call of a dolphin further out, playing with its pod in the open waters.
"This is more like it," he said to himself, swimming back so that he could sit on the sandy beach, his legs and lower torso still submerged in the waves.
The same time - The Same Path
When Mal emerged onto the grounds of the castle, she ran a frustrated hand through her hair, blowing the purple strands out of her eyes. She had no clue where to start looking for the pirate and her rumbling stomach only annoyed her more.
"Gods above, this is an emergency," she told herself unconvincingly. Looking around, Mal quickly walked to the woodland that fringed the grounds of the school and pulled out her phone from her pocket. She glanced around making sure no one was watching as she opened up the device.
Swiping until she found the right app, Mal bit her lip in hesitation. In front of her on the bright screen were emergency spells, written out in case she didn't have access to her spell book. Now that the book was in the museum, Mal relied on the bank of magic she had recorded.
"I cannot search these ancient grounds, make it easy, show what needs to be found," she chanted, her eyes clouding over to their signature green, a sight that was reflected in the screen. The green magic in her fingers glowed and then shot out, as delicate and dainty as silk from a spider. One end was still wrapped around Mal's fingers, the other snaked through the woodland, disappearing through the trees.
"Shit," Mal swore, the thrill of the mild rule breaking calming her. Looking back to the school building once more, Mal pocketed her phone and pulled the material of her sweatpants up and began to follow the trail of magic that she hoped would lead her to the pirate, the last person she wanted to be alone with.
12:57 pm - The Secluded Beach
Harry was still sat in the sand, the waves making it divert around him each time they crashed onto the beach a few feet behind him.
In the sun, Harry's hair dried to its usual unruly curls and he relaxed for the first time since the King's kidnapping. He felt at home and at peace in the arms of the sea.
He was so content with allowing himself to get lost in the melody of the waves, the birds and the dolphin's pod, that he missed the sound of a branch snapping behind him. Mal had followed the green thread, the magic seeping back into her as she passed it.
In the cover of the trees, she simply looked at him. His muscled back had scars marring the tanned skin, the shiny scar tissue a few shades lighter. There were a handful of tattoos, some only symbols no bigger than a coin and other were streams of a script written in a language Mal couldn't read. They snaked around his ribs and shoulders, dipping down under his underpants, the cotton material moving with the current.
Mal took a careful step forward, wincing and freezing when the branch under her foot snapped. She shot a hand out to balance herself and her eyes widened when her fingers brushed along the leather of Harry's coat, his most treasured possessions piled on top of it.
She couldn't help herself and reached out to touch the hook, shrieking when Harry's voice spoke directly in her ear. He was right behind her, his wet lower body dripping onto her sweatpants and darkening the material as his fingers closed around her throat.
"Ye best be leavin' that where ye found it, savvy?" he threatened and Mal scratched the fingers holding her throat lightly. He let go, holding up his hand whilst the other slid into the hook.
"I came to find you," Mal told him, breathless from both fright and an emotion she couldn't name. "You went off without permission."
Harry laughed and Mal turned her back as he began to redress, pulling on his trousers and retying the sword belt around his narrow hips. "I didn't realise I had to ask the princess for permission," he teased when Mal glared at him, eyes wandering over his shirtless chest.
"Nice tattoo," she spat and Harry smirked looking down at his torso. There was a hook, much like the one in his hand, inked over his heart in an old-fashioned style.
"I know someone else with a nice bit of body art," was all he said, reaching for his shirt and coat. Mal's eyebrows furrowed at the comment but did not rise to it, she herself had a small sun on the curve of her foot which no-one at Auradon had seen. Instead, she watched the pirate retie his headscarf and put his hat back on, picking the bottle up and trying to put it away quickly.
"Whats that?" Mal blurted out, her hand rising to her mouth when Harry stopped fumbling with the bottle. "Is that a ship?" she asked slowly, stepping closer to look at The Grace forgetting the front she had put on.
"Aye, me own," Harry told her, reluctantly holding the bottle vertical so she could see the boat sailing in the storm within the glass. Harry didn't offer her any more information and put it back within the safety of its pocket.
Mal's hostile body language faltered. "I'm glad you got your own ship, Harry," she said sincerely. "I know how much it meant to you."
Harry scoffed and pulled on a boot, ignoring the history that he shared with the girl stood in front of him. "You would have been there to see her set sail the first time if you hadn't abandoned the Island."
Mal pursed her lips and glared at him. "Come on, we need to head back or Fairy Godmother will kill us both. This is not a beach that belongs to the school," she said coldly, heading back down the same path she had come, using the same green thread to retrace her steps.
"What makes you think I'm ever going back there? I'm off the island, I'm free," he called to her and she stopped in the path not bothering to turn to address him.
"You Harry Hook will never be free on dry land. Besides, if you don't follow me, I'll make you," she threatened, her eyes flashing the acidic green to emphasis her point when she turned her head. "You don't want to push me today pirate."
Harry whistled slowly, holding both hands up in surrender as he pushed past her. "Crabby I see," he snickered, sipping his hands like the crustacean and he quickly broke into a run. Mal let out a small scream of frustration and was forced to follow the same quick pace, thinking of different ways to kill him without being confined to the Island once more.
13:32 pm - Mal and Evie's room
"I hope she's alright," Evie said aloud to the room. Jane, Dizzy and Doug were talking animatedly about the school's extra curricular options whilst Jay and Carlos tried to explain the rules of tourney to Gil. Everyone had taken a seat somewhere around the girls' room, leaning against the bed frames, the window sills and on the floor.
Jay twisted from his seat on the floor to look at Evie laying on her bed. "Mal is more than capable of handling Harry Hook Evie, she's been doing it for years," he told her and Gil sniggered at the innuendo.
"Whats with those two anyway, you're all acting as though they shouldn't be allowed within ten feet of each other," Doug commented, looking at the VKs who all looked shifty.
"Mal and Hook dated a while ago," Dizzy told him which was met with Evie saying her name quickly, reprimanding the younger girl. "Oh sorry, I didn't know it was a secret," she said sheepishly, colour rising to her cheek.
"They did?" Jane exclaimed, still in the dark about Mal and Ben's relationship ship deterioration, looking at Evie for confirmation since she was Mal's best friend.
"Yeah, well, they didn't ever call each other boyfriend or girlfriend but they were together in every sense of the word," Carlos told them.
"Never spent more than two nights apart," Gil smirked, elbowing Carlos. "If you know what I mean."
Dizzy, Doug and Jane's eyes all widened and Jay punched Gil's shoulder.
"This is Auradon Gil, they don't do things like we did back home," he hissed and Gil nodded, dropping his head.
"What do you mean?" Doug questioned, looking at Evie whose cheeks were stained red.
"Dizzy, why don't you go and check out your room, it's the one to the left of ours," the daughter of the Evil Queen suggested, smiling tightly as Dizzy reluctantly got up and left, knowing this was a conversation she didn't need to hear. "She is ten years old, I will not have this kind of talk around her, do you understand," Evie snapped at the three VK boys on the floor who nodded guiltily.
"Evie, what did Jay mean we do things differently here," Jane asked quietly.
Evie sighed. "On the Island, things like physical relationships are not held in same high value as they are here. In Auradon, everybody is taught to wait until marriage but on the Isle, being with another person is a normal activity," she stuttered through the explanation, refusing to meet either of the Auradon kids' eyes.
"You mean Mal and Harry Hook..." Jane trailed off, gasping at the thought. "Have all of you..." she waved her hands around to try and finish the sentence.
"Not all of us no," Evie told her gently. "But most of those over sixteen on the Isle have."
Doug and Jane stared wide-eyed at the VKs since they were all over sixteen, Jay was nearing his nineteenth and the thought of him spending the past two years having pre-marital sex made Jane's head spin.
"I have if you are so curious," Jay confessed under their scrutiny and Gil nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry for bringing it up, I didn't realise it was such a big deal," Gil said, unfazed about the topic that was making Evie, Doug and Jane blush profusely.
"Have, have you?" Doug asked Evie and she bit her lip, looking over his shoulder instead of his face.
"Would you feel any different about me if I said I had?" she countered, finally looking at her boyfriend.
He was in deep thought before he pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I think I would be jealous that somebody else had seen you like that, but no, it wouldn't really matter to me," he told her honestly and she let out a deep breath.
"Only once, just so you know," she told him and he nodded, accepting the information without much of a fuss. Evie was a gorgeous girl and he couldn't blame her.
"Carlos? Have you?" Jane couldn't help herself, looking at the white haired teen who shook his head. Jane breathed out a sigh of relief. "Aren't you sad you didn't wait for a person you truly loved?" The ripple of laughter that went through the VKs made Jane frown.
"You have to understand we thought we were never getting off that island and so finding true love was never anybody's priority, besides, it's a normal human interaction," Jay told her, making her see it from his point of view.
"I still don't know," was all she said, her nose wrinkling slightly at the thought. "We better go find the pair of them then."
Evie and Jay shared a laugh as Jane rose from Mal's bed, determined to find the pair.
"Trust me, Mal and Harry practically hate each other now, the last thing you have to worry about is those two sneaking around," Carlos told her, standing up to wrap an arm around her shoulders.
"Hate each other? Why?"
"Broke each other's hearts. Why do you think they're both so ruthless," Evie grinned wickedly in reply.
"Because now neither has a heart," Jay finished the old saying that had circulated around the teens on the Isle.
"Well, still, we better go and make sure they haven't killed each other or something," Doug reasoned and the group left Mal and Evie's room, making their way down to the tourney pitch to begin their search.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment or review, favourite and follow the story and until next time :) xo/p