XJ → Harry Hook [1]✔

Aftermath

Everyone on the ship was either furious or elated. Mal and her friends belonged to the latter as they had made their escape with Ben, and Uma's crew were seething. It didn't help that their captain had jumped overboard without another word.

XJ had climbed up onto a net and had her eyes closed. The wind of the sea blew through her hair and the salt in the air helped her successfully clear her head after the encounter with Mulan's offspring.

"I watched you, you know," A voice said as XJ felt movement beside her.

"Watched me do what?" XJ asked, her eyes still shut.

"I watched you fight, Xiao," Harry said, his voice serious, which was a surprising turn from his usual mischievous tone. "It was hard to hear you in the middle of all the fighting, but I caught words."

"And?"

"The look on your face gave me chills. I thought you were going to finish the girl off, but you let her go instead."

"I'm sensing that you want an explanation."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Not like I would be able to force it out of you." Harry said carefully, watching XJ's unchanging expression. 

XJ was silent for a while and Harry was about to change the subject, but then XJ spoke. "Mulan's emperor refused to give my father's people food. We were dying so we did what we had to. Mulan's little girl had eaten up the story everyone around her had told her, so I decided to enlighten her. She didn't take it well, but I managed to convince her."

"And why did you let her go?"

"When I get to Auradon, I'll need a mole. When Fa Mulan's daughter forces the truth out of her mother, she'll turn against her family, no matter how much she won't admit it. With a little bit of convincing, she'll work for me." XJ's eyes finally opened.

"Huh, I thought you'd gone soft." Harry said, wrapping an arm around XJ's waist, which he seemed to like doing a lot.

XJ snorted, "The day I get soft is the day my father decides to search for me again."

"You deciding to date me counts as getting soft, you know." Harry smirked.

"You really like bringing up the fact that we're a couple, don't you?" XJ said, smiling slightly.

Harry shrugged, "It's quite a feat to court you, lass."

There was a moment of comfortable quietness in between the two, XJ and Harry just watching the waves move and splash against the rocks.

"Did Uma tell you her backup plan?" Harry asked all of a sudden.

XJ shook her head. "I'm assuming that she's going to swim through the barrier when Mal and her gang drive out back to Auradon. I don't know what she's planning to do after that, though."

"She found Mal's spell book and she's making Ben fall in love with her. She's going to show up at the Cotillion and have Ben remove the barrier around the Isle." Harry explained. "It was a split second thing, and she kind of shouted her plan at me as she ran off the side of the ship."

"That's not a bad plan. I'm impressed." XJ commented, "But you and I both know that it's not going to work."

Harry raised an eyebrow quizzically, "Why?"

"If anybody knows the side-effects of a spell, it's Maleficent's daughter. Uma won't be able to do anything, since the rest of us can't get over to her. If she had thought of the plan before, maybe we could have all swum over when the barrier broke for a split second and stall for time, but with the crew stuck here, nothing's going to change. Our best bet is Ben inviting some of us to Auradon, and then finishing the mission Mal and her friends were supposed to do." XJ finished.