#impliedjaudrey

[eviesmyspiritanimal]

His Captain

Summary:  Surrounding Harry's feelings after Uma rejected his kiss at the party after the barrier was brought down. Huma or Uma x Harry and some Audrey thrown in with her surprisingly insightful advice. This is kind of sort of a prequel to "Keep Your Enemies Closer" and "Girls' Trip." However, it isn't required to make sense of the other two.

  Harry spun Audrey around, grinning wildly at her, and pretending not to notice Jay’s insistent glare on his back as he danced with her. She was pretty enough, but she couldn’t really erase his underlying feelings about the rejection he had just endured from Uma.

  He glanced over at his captain, watching her as she shimmied beside Gil and humored his silliness for a moment. Harry could see the fondness on her face as she rolled her eyes at the goofball, ruffling his hair out of its strangely and obviously quite temporarily perfect state.

  He felt whatever happiness he had in his chest drop a little further as he considered what had happened just earlier. It was a sad state of affairs. The entire thing was.

  “You’re a great dancer, Hooky,” Audrey teased, and he could easily see that she wasn’t feeling quite as enthusiastic as she should’ve been given that everything was going so swimmingly. It was quite apparent that she was keeping a firm façade to cover her true feelings. It was as fake as anything he had ever witnessed. He could tell that she had a lot of practice at it, but it was effortlessly identifiable to someone who had endured as much pain as Harry Hook had in the past.

  “Ye aren’t so bad yerself, Princess,” Harry flirted with her mindlessly, shooting another look in Uma’s direction as he tried to appear enthusiastic about dancing with Audrey.

  Audrey studied him for a moment as they skipped around one another, and he forced that charming grin on his face in hopes that she would swoon and completely forget whatever train of thought she was currently on.

  Disappointingly for Harry, it only brought a slight smile to her face that most certainly didn’t meet her eyes and she sighed slightly as she slowed a bit in their dance. It unnerved him to see her calm coolness and what seemed to be understanding of what he was feeling.

  Harry Hook did not do emotions. Everyone knew that he was a flirt that never cared anything about anybody. The only thing he was loyal to was Uma, her ship, and the promise of trouble.

  But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  “You love her, don’t you?” Audrey asked him, and he was shocked at her intuitiveness. He quickly tried to think of something that was witty and would deflect her attention from his deeper feelings but she shook her head at him. She seemed to be able to read him like a book, and it scared him out of his mind.

  “I’ve been after someone that I couldn’t have before,” Audrey confessed, and Harry watched as the mask slipped for just a moment to expose the true turmoil that was lying just beneath the surface with this girl. Audrey looked over at Ben dancing with Mal, and Harry was surprised to see a small smile come upon her face.

  He knew that Ben getting engaged to Mal was the entire reason that she had went nuts not too long ago. But to see her actually appearing to approve of their relationship was absolutely amazing.

  “I didn’t stand a chance with him. But I should’ve seen it coming. I didn’t love him as a girlfriend should, after all,” Audrey solemnly confessed, and he sensed the need for her to tell this to someone that was almost suffering the same fate as her. He watched her carefully, soaking in her every word carefully.

  “He always was my sweet big brother,” Audrey continued, giggling a bit at the sight of Evie and Ben hip-bumping and acting crazy. After a moment of watching him, she looked back at Harry with a very serious expression.

  “I was clouded by the big picture of what I wanted and what others wanted for me. I wanted to be a girlfriend to someone, so I was willing to go with anyone.” Audrey looked pointedly at him and she knew that particular comment was sent at him for his choosing to dance with her over Uma. He grinned sheepishly, but his smile melted away quickly as he swallowed hard in an attempt to keep away whatever emotion that could show.

  Audrey sidestepped, keeping up their happy dancing despite both of their true moods. After a few moments, she paused, couples dancing happily all around them. Harry raised his gaze to look at the people. Audrey gazed with him, but she quickly returned her eyes to his own icy blue ones.

  “So I took the first thing that came at me, and didn’t stop to actually worry about what I wanted at that moment,” Audrey painfully admitted.

  Harry was sure that he caught sight of tears in her eyes, but she closed her eyes for a moment before smiling at him as she reopened them. She held his hand that was in her own tightly, squeezing it.

  “But the good part about you is that you do actually have a chance with her because you really do love her in that way. Don’t waste your time on other girls, Harry. You need to talk to her,” Audrey told him, and he watched as a tear slid down her cheek.

  He furrowed his brow, feeling her touch slipping from his hand as she backed away from him with a final look of sweet well-wishes thrown his way. She turned, and he watched until she had completely faded away, disappearing into the thickness of the crowd.

  Harry knew she had to be coping with her own demons right now surrounding what she had done under the scepter’s influence. He didn’t know very much about her, but that was something that was easy to assume. Affecting that many people had to leave one with serious guilt.

  He always said he wanted to hook someone and he always made a huge drama about not getting to do so, but the truth was that he never wanted to hook anyone if he didn’t have to. Harry never truly wanted to physically harm anyone.

  Now hurting someone’s pride was a totally different story, but he generally avoided that if he possibly could, at most jabbing roughly in the places where he knew he wouldn’t seriously wound anyone’s feelings.

  Harry was amazed at this Auradon girl that he never even knew before this huge conflict concerning her alter-ego. Audrey had successfully managed to dig deeply into his carefully guarded heart and had managed to unearth every emotion and hidden thought that he possessed.

  He didn’t feel anything for her beyond what was platonic, but he certainly had a certain admiration for her amazing abilities to understand him. Harry supposed it was probably because she had suffered a similar issue and she could recognize it inside of him as well.

  Harry was disrupted from his reverie when a couple came dangerously close to stepping on his feet. He stepped back, starting to leave the circle of dancers. He was nearly outside of them when a hand caught his wrist and yanked him so that he turned back to face the mystery person.

  His eyes widened as he recognized his captain standing before him. She had a highly displeased expression on her face as she eyed him carefully.

  “So, what kind of stunt were you pulling back there?” Uma cut to the chase, blunt as always. It was almost as much of a comfort to him as it was a curse. He wet his lips slightly.

  “Well, my cap’n, ‘twas jus’ a slip of the tongue. Or the lips as the case may be,” Harry told her with a big grin in an attempt to dispel any anger she might have had. However, to his complete shock, he almost thought she looked disappointed. However, whatever weakness that could have been showing at that moment quickly disappeared in favor of undisguised irritation.

  “No, not that, you moron. I’m talking about dancing with Hello Kitty,” Uma clarified, her gaze hardening as she stared him down.

  “Oh, she grabbed me, so I thought the gentlemanly thing to do would be to oblige,” Harry explained himself, finally allowing himself to look down at Uma’s hand that was still closed firmly around his arm.

  Uma followed his gaze and she ripped her hand away from him, stepping back just a bit. A twinge of disappointment took hold of the pirate as he watched her dust her hand off on the top of her dress.

  “Huh… Since when did you care about being gentlemanly?” Uma skeptically questioned when she finally looked back at him and Harry smiled at her slyly.

  “Since we’re living in Auradon,” Harry told her cheekily and Uma glared at him, but allowed a softer grin to come onto her face as she looked at Mal.

  Harry followed her gaze and couldn’t help but enjoy the sight of Mal who was currently making herself look like an idiot as she danced ridiculously with Evie. Mal was having some sort of a dab attack while Evie was jokingly doing the floss back at her before they both collapsed into giggles, hugging each other tightly.

  “And it’s all thanks to her,” Uma told him, a look that was so purely adoring that Harry couldn’t help but want to kiss her. He stepped a bit closer, but quickly shifted back into his original spot, his smile quickly fading as his and Uma’s incident came back to his mind.

  “Yeah,” he hesitantly agreed as he watched Mal kiss Ben who had sneaked up behind her. When it had went on for just a little too long, Jay came over and patted him hard on the back in a friendly warning about his little sister, despite the fact that they were going to be married soon. Harry couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the other boy.

  Harry honestly wished that Uma would look at him in the same way that Mal did Ben. He wanted nothing more than for his captain to take the mate in first mate more seriously.

  “Thanks for standing by me, Harry. I couldn’t ask for a better guy by my side,” Uma told him sincerely, and he felt his heart jump just a bit with her particular phrasing. It was almost as if he were her guy, which would be an absolute dream come true.

  He hadn’t meant to, but he had fell completely and deeply in love with this girl and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

  She looked up at him with a big smile and with undisguised love in her gaze. He returned her look and wrapped an arm around her tightly. She leaned into him heavily, pressing her head against his chest.

  Harry knew that she didn’t experience the sort of love that he felt, but he was willing to take what he could from her.

  “I love you, you idiot,” Uma mumbled under her breath and he looked at her quickly, a little too quickly if her embarrassed expression was anything to go by. He knew she had to have meant it platonically, but to ensure that fact, he squeezed her tightly and replied with something lighthearted but barbed with a hidden test.

  “I’m glad ye think so highly of me as your first mate. I s’pose ye won’t be givin’ my position to Gil no time soon,” Harry told her, hoping she’d clarify her declaration. Uma rolled her eyes, reaching up and smacking him lightly on the back of the head.

  “Good grief, I’d never give it to Gil ‘cause he’s an even bigger moron than you are,” Uma said with a laugh, but the look that she flashed him after that statement conveyed that she didn’t mean it entirely.

  “Hi, you two,” Mal suddenly spoke to the both of them, materializing just behind them. Uma spun around with a big grin and Harry felt his heart warm with his captain’s happiness. He knew she was ecstatic to get back her long-lost partner in crime and best friend. He also knew Uma had always cared deeply about Mal despite the fact that Mal didn’t want anything to do with her after the drowning incident when they were children.

  “Hey, Dragon,” Uma teased, drawing Mal into an excited hug as Evie came up behind the both of them with a big grin. Evie smiled at Harry, and he raised an eyebrow at her flirtatiously. She just rolled her eyes good-naturedly and returned her gaze to Mal and Uma.

  “I trust that you are enjoying yourselves?” Mal asked them in a ridiculous voice as she attempted to look queenly. Uma faked a deep bow as she acted as if she were completely honored to be in Mal’s presence.

  “Indeed, my dearest Queen Boogerface,” Uma managed to keep a perfectly straight face as she addressed Mal. The faerie mischievously raised an eyebrow as she stared at Uma with mock contempt.

  “You will be locked away for that act of treason, you lowly peasant,” Mal waved her away, and they both laughed at Mal’s goofy voice.

  “Okay, but seriously, you get to dancing with your boyfriend, okay? This is a partay, seaweed-breath, not a ball,” Mal joked, winking at Uma as she glanced at Harry with a grin. Harry’s breath hitched at her comment about boyfriend, and he looked at the back of Uma’s head, eager to see how she would respond.

  “Yeah, yeah, sure thing. I’ll dance with him if it makes you feel any better,” Uma told her, rolling her eyes, and Harry couldn’t resist his heart’s excited jump at her subtle agreement with Harry’s status. But he did quickly reprimand himself, knowing that she was really just trying to avoid letting Mal win in their little battle of the wills.

  “It would indeed,” Mal trailed off, eyeing the two of them before clapping her hands twice.

  “As you were. But with dancing this time,” Mal faked yet another bow in the midst of her happy haze, and her and Evie strode off to enjoy more of the dancing and no doubt discuss Mal’s wedding that was sure to come in the not so distant future.

  Uma rolled her eyes at the purple-haired girl, but Harry saw the fondness in her gaze as she watched her leave. She then turned to Harry with a raise of her eyebrow.

  “Well, you wanna dance before she comes back with some smart comment?” Uma offered. Harry internally jumped at the opportunity, but he maintained his usual suave, unaffected demeanor as he wrapped an arm around her waist, dragging her into the fray of dancers.

  “T’would be me pleasure, Cap’n,” Harry agreed, feeling a little daring and kissing her hand just to see how she’d react. Uma’s eyes lit up in a strange emotion that fortunately for Harry was not anger or anything of the sort. He couldn’t exactly recognize it, but before he could consider it any further, she started moving as she copied the other pairs around them.

  “I don’t exactly know how I feel about this gentleman version of you. We’re off the Isle, but that doesn’t mean you gotta go and get a whole personality change,” Uma told him, her expression conveying her unimpressed emotions but her voice betraying a softer feeling.

  “It was always there. Maybe ye just didn’t see it up close,” Harry replied smartly, a grin on his face as he led her in the dance. She snorted and moved in just a little closer as they skipped about.

  A few minutes of silence passed as they danced together. To Harry’s utmost surprise, Uma pulled a completely unexpected move as she spun around him before landing back in front of him with a flourish. He grinned at her, admiring her new trick.

  “Bet Princess couldn’t do that, could she?” Uma remarked, and Harry hoped that he correctly noted what sounded like jealousy in her tone.

  “Nay, I’m sure she couldn’t have. After all, no one’s as great as me cap’n,” Harry expressed, and Uma grinned widely at him.

  He felt his heart soften at her happiness with everything here. Whatever she felt for him, he supposed it didn’t really matter in the end. She loved him in one way or another, and he loved her with all of his heart.

  After all, that was his captain.