"XJ! XJ!"
An animalistic growl ripped through XJ's gritted teeth as the Chinese girl's head snapped up from her plate of pizza in irritation.
She was sitting at her dinner table alone, as Harry, Uma and Gil were having another meeting in Uma's dorm. They had been having more and more meetings recently and XJ had half a mind to eavesdrop, but she had better things to do, and she trusted the three pirates.
XJ's eyes narrowed as she turned to the direction of the enthusiastic voice, ready to snap at whoever it was to leave her alone. She had succeeded at getting into all of the teachers' at Auradon Prep's good books, except for Mr. Deley, whom she had taken upon herself to annoy as much as possible. However, pretending to be good for a whole day was utterly exhausting, and XJ's self-control was slowly dipping.
"WH - oh," XJ stopped in the middle of biting someone's face off when she realized that it was Chad who had been calling her, Audrey beside him.
XJ took a deep breath. Half the cafeteria was staring at her because of the short outburst. "Hello Chad and Audrey. I see you two got back together."
Chad smiled flashily at XJ as Audrey made googly eyes at her boyfriend. "Yeah, I realized that it was a mistake to leave him. He can change and he definitely proved it today."
"What happened today?" XJ asked, feigning ignorance.
Audrey rolled her eyes, "Come on XJ, I think we all know that you know exactly what happened."
XJ's heart stopped and Chad's eyes widened. "What?" XJ asked with eyes the size of dinner plates.
Audrey giggled, "XJ, I know that you helped Chad with setting up the date. Chad told me by accident during the picnic."
"Charming!"
Chad blinked in confusion, "Did I?"
Audrey giggled again, which was getting more annoying by the second, "You did, silly." She turned back to XJ and smiled warmly, "Either way, thank you so much. When I first met you, I didn't show it, but I hated you. I thought that if I played nice and you acted like all villain kids do, then we would automatically drift apart. But you showed me that you're not like other villain kids. Thank you, really."
XJ managed a smile, it was a tired smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. "You're welcome Audrey. I didn't have to do much; Chad did most of the work."
Audrey smiled, "You're a wonderful person, XJ."
Chad nodded, "Thank you."
XJ sighed and maintained the smile, "You're welcome. Have a good night, guys."
"You too," Audrey and Chad said happily in unison before walking off, their arms hooked together.
XJ turned back to her food and decided that she wasn't hungry. She left the table and shouldered her bag before walking back to her dorm. The hallways of the girls' dormitories were deserted and quiet, as everybody was either at lunch or on dates with their partners. It was a Saturday, and everyone wanted to get as much out of the weekend as possible.
On the way back to her dorm, when XJ was looking forward to a hot soak in the beautiful marble bathtub that the school had provided her with, she suddenly heard particularly loud muffled voices. As she walked closer to her room, the louder and clearer the voices got, until she could hear them word for word.
"I can't do it!" A thick-accented voice shouted.
"You said that you were fine with it!" Ursula's daughter's familiar voice sounded through her own dorm door.
XJ furrowed her brows and carefully crept to the door. She put one ear against the door to listen.
"I said 'How hard can it be?'!" Harry roared furiously.
"Don't tell me you've actually fallen in love with her," Uma's voice said, full of disgust. "You have, haven't you?"
"So what if I have?" Harry said coldly. "I love her and I can't do what you asked me to. It's that simple."
"You've actually fallen for her?" Uma asked incredulously. "You've fallen for the daughter of Shan Yu? Who's notorious for manipulating people? You do realize that she's probably using you too?"
XJ had been meekly hoping that the girl that they were talking about wasn't her, but now, at Uma's words acting as confirmation, her heart had crept up to the back of her throat. She felt like she was about to be sick.
"We're doing the same to her, so what's the problem then?" Harry challenged.
"The problem is that if that really is what she's doing, then our entire plan is going to sink to the bottom of the ocean!" Uma shouted.
"Our 'plan' was to steal the wand and break the barrier, Uma," Harry snarled. "We had close to no plan!"
"We make it up as we go! We're pirates, Harry - not military strategists, like some people are," Uma sniffed disdainfully, her voice full of contempt. "You've been around her too much."
"I like being around her!" Harry argued, "Which is why I can't use her like - "
"No, Harry," Uma interrupted, "You can't bring yourself to use her. You can, but you won't, because you love her. Unfortunately for you, I'm your captain, and what I say goes."
"I - "
"You are my first mate, and I am your captain! You listen to ME!" Uma thundered.
Then everything went quiet.
Finally, XJ heard Harry sigh, "Aye, aye, captain."
Then XJ heard footsteps. They grew louder and louder until they were right outside the door that XJ had her ear pressed against. XJ threw her head back just as the door opened. A shocked looking Harry was staring right at her.
"Harry, what's - " Uma stopped dead as she caught sight of XJ standing at the door.
"Oh no," Gil muttered quietly, but not quietly enough for Uma to not hear and not cast a murderous glare at.
"Lass, how much of that did you hear?" Harry asked, his voice barely above a whisper, as the color slowly drained from his complexion.
A deathly silence hung in the air as the three pirates waited for XJ's answer, praying optimistically that she hadn't heard anything.
"Enough," XJ finally replied, her voice even more emotionless than ever.
Without another word, XJ turned around and walked into her dorm, slamming the door so loud that the noise echoed through the hallway, as well as making the door frame shake.
"You know, the fact that her room is right next to ours makes it less threatening."
"Shut up, Gil."
---
It was a while before Harry built up the courage to even attempt to walk up to his and XJ's dorm. Uma shoved him out of her dorm at around midnight when everyone was asleep so that they wouldn't be able to hear Harry's begging.
Harry took a deep breath before he asked carefully, "Xiao?"
No answer.
Harry sighed, "I should probably start by saying that I'm sorry. I know that it won't make a difference and I've ruined all my chances of even looking in your direction again.
"What you heard back there is true; I'm not going to try and lie my way out of it: Uma originally asked me to court you so that you would be out of the way when she took over Auradon as well as the fact that she would have an extra pair of hands on deck. I'm her first mate - I do whatever she says, so I did.
"I do love you - that's not a lie, which is why I was telling Uma that I couldn't knowingly use you. As you can probably guess, it didn't go very well. I was going to go behind her back and tell you when you came back from dinner anyway. It wouldn't have mattered whether you eavesdropped or if I had told you myself; I know you well enough to know that I would have lost you either way.
"I'm not asking you to give me another chance, because I know you won't. It was hard enough trying to hook you - I can't do it a second time. I just want you to know where my mind was going and what I was going to do. You probably don't care and I don't blame you. The most I can tell you is what Uma's planning to do so you can take over Auradon before she can. I owe you that much. It's obvious that we're not going to the dance together anymore, so you don't have a reason to wait."
Harry paused for a bit. There was still no sound from the room. He expected to hear something, anything, even if it was the sound of footsteps. He frowned. "Xiao Jun?"
He tried the doorknob, and was shocked to find that the doorknob twisted all the way. He flung open the door and stepped in, expecting his heart to be carved out by a spear.
But XJ was no where to be seen.
Harry's eyes widened in panic as he looked around.
"Xiao Jun?" Harry called as he ran into the connecting bathroom. XJ wasn't there either. Harry dashed back out into the room and suddenly noticed that XJ's things were missing.
Her bags, notes, laptop and books had all gone. Her jacket, that had been hanging on the coat rack, was missing too, and her shoes, which were all usually lined up neatly against the closet, had vanished.
Harry flung open the closet doors and found that her clothes were gone too. There was no trace of her, other than the training dummies in the corner that had been knocked over. It was like she had just blinked out of existence.
All of a sudden, a flurry of movement caught Harry's eye. He looked over at the window and frowned. He ran over and pushed it open, looking around and hoping to see any clues or hints as to where XJ might have gone.
"Xiao Jun?"
"Caw!"
It took Harry a couple of seconds to realize that XJ did not make bird noises, and a couple more after that to notice that there was a hawk perched on the windowsill.
Harry scowled, disappointed that the bird wasn't a clue, or XJ for that matter. "Shoo, you flying rat!" He snapped.
The bird just ruffled its plumage with it's beak and raised its head in response, looking proud and pompous with it's chest puffed out.
Harry got even more annoyed and attempted to swat the bird away. "Go away!" He growled, waving his arms like a madman.
His arm wasn't long enough, but the bird seemed to understand. The bird eyed him beadily for far too long, making an unsettling feeling form in the pit of Harry's stomach. After what seemed like an eternity, the hawk finally flapped its wings and flew away.
Harry sighed and watched the shadow of the animal soar through the clouds until it had disappeared before closing the window.
Perhaps he was going insane, but the hawk reminded him of XJ.