XJ → Harry Hook [1]✔

Home Sweet Home

Ben nodded understandingly. He turned his head to glance at the pirate next to him. "What about you, Harry?" Ben asked. "What about Captain Hook?"

Harry snorted as he kicked up his feet onto the dashboard, "The minute he gave me his hook when I was ten, Dad turned into a drunk. He saw the hook as his responsibility as a captain, and once that was gone, he fell apart. He came home every night with a bottle of run and passed out on the couch in the living room. One night, he fell off the side of his ship and drowned."

There was an uncomfortable silence after Harry told his backstory. Harry noticed.

"What?" He asked demandingly. "If you're wondering whether I miss him, there wasn't much to miss. He didn't love me and I didn't love him."

"But you still carry his hook," Jane said quietly.

Harry stayed silent the remainder of the trip and even small talk among the rest of the group seemed strained.

When they arrived at the Isle, the familiar feeling of the cracked stone gravel underneath his feet made Harry breathe out a sigh of relief. Auradon was amazing and he was free there, but he hadn't realized that he had missed the place he had grown up in, even though it was essentially a prison.

"Wow," Jane said, trying to look and sound impressed. "This place is..."

"Broken, dirty and looks ridiculously abandoned," Evie filled in, looking around and sighing.

"Hey, I never said that," Jane said defensively.

Evie smiled empathetically, "It's fine, Jane. I get it. I feel the same way too."

"Hey, we need to keep a low profile," Carlos reminded. "We can't afford our parents knowing that we're here."

Mal nodded, "Carlos is right. We need to get in and out quick."

"In that case, do we know where XJ's gone?" Ben asked. "The last time I was here, I didn't get a good look around."

"Xiao's going to be in her house," Harry said without missing a beat and already walking ahead. "Let's go."

"You know where that is?" Jane asked as the group followed, struggling to keep up with Harry's quick footsteps.

"I used to go over to her place when we were back on the Isle. I..." Harry hesitated for a little bit before continuing in a softer voice. "I went over each day."

After a moment of silence, other than the sound of everyone's footsteps on the ground, Evie cleared her throat.

"Harry..."

"What?" Harry snapped.

"What are you going to say to XJ to try and get her to come back?" Evie asked carefully. She didn't trust Harry not to stab her with his hook if she pushed too far.

Harry laughed humorlessly, "Nothing I'm going to say will make a difference. It's up to Ben."

Ben blinked, "I'm not her boyfriend."

"That's the point, Bennyboy. You weren't the one who broke her heart." Harry snorted. "Once you break Xiao's heart, you're never finding your way back in."

"You could at least try, you know." Evie said, raising an eyebrow.

Harry sighed, "I never said I wasn't going to."

A couple more minutes of Jane looking around, asking questions about the Isle and Carlos replying to them, Harry finally stopped at a building.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "We're here."