Dangerous Love

Aftermath

It's been one month since the Cotillion disaster and things hadn't changed much on the Isle. People were still miserable, children were still starving and life was still pitiful. King Ben’s promise to bring the remaining Villain Kids to Auradon had given the children hope for the first time in their lives. However, as time went by and absolutely nothing seemed to change, the people started to lose hope in the King’s promise and their hatred only continued to grow. The Villain Kids were beginning to support Uma and her thirst for revenge, since they have all been forsaken again by the so-called “King” of Auradon, who only seemed to care about himself and his fellow royal friends, while on the Isle, life just kept on getting worse.

All Villains had been going through a particularly rough phase recently, especially Captain Hook. His drinking problem was ultimately getting out of hand, as he chugged absurd amounts of alcohol until he could barely stand up straight, but that didn’t stop him from getting violent with his kids, which them to avoid coming back home as much as they could. Harry had been spending even more time at Ursula’s fish and chips, messing around with his friends and doing everything he could not to think about his father.

He had created the habit of staying at the shop after closing hours, helping Uma with the cleaning her mother forced her to do. She tried to protest at first, telling him that she could take care of herself and he could screw off, but Harry never obeyed her. The blue-eyed pirate knew how much she hated cleaning that place all by herself, so he simply started to make her company without caring if she asked him or not.

It was also a habit of Harry to always try and make the environment lighter for both of them on those monotonous nights. He would always play around and act silly just to make Uma laugh, and even though she liked to act tough around the crew and other VKs, Harry always found a way to lower her guard. Sometimes, after all the work was done, they would even sit down on the floor and just talk for hours on end, discussing anything and everything until they lost track of time.

Uma would even let Harry lie his head on her lap sometimes, and she would just stay there, running her fingers through his hair and talking about anything that came to her mind. That was probably one of the only moments in which the hooked pirate would drop his crazy villain façade and just act like a normal guy his age. Kids from the Isle were not allowed to let their guards down around others, because that would only result in threats and abuse, but even though they had to keep this stone armor around them, deep down inside they were still kids. So, whenever they had a rare chance of acting like kids, they would always grasp it with both hands and make the most out of it.

It was early noon when Harry arrived at the fish shop and he could already feel the tension that lurked in the air. All the pirates were sitting with their heads down at the tables, as if Ursula’s horrible meals were now the most interesting pieces of trash ever. Even Gil was looking a little off, but not nearly enough to make him stop stuffing his face with food like a pig and act completely oblivious to the world around him. However, the one who seemed the most annoyed of them all was Uma, who was sitting down on the counter like an angry princess, picking on her blue-colored nails like they had done something so evil that it was only punishable with torture.

Harry immediately identified the source of such general anger as he laid eyes on the small television that stood behind the counter, which was turned on at the Auradon News channel. Mal’s face was covering the entire screen with her sickly-sweet smile as the interviewers obnoxiously asked her about her and King Ben’s plans for the future, after the Cotillion disaster. She seemed a little fazed by the mention of her rough encounter with Uma at the ball, but soon recovered her composure and continued to talk about how the King was still working on his plan to bring all the remaining Villain Kids to Auradon. Harry couldn’t help but scoff at her words. What a joke.