Finding New Love

The Greatest Feat

Mal didn't know how to respond. There was no way that she could respond to Harry's confession. For the first time in her life, she was speechless.

Harry waited expectantly for Mal's reply. He didn't really expect his reply immediately. He knew what had happened between them had been years ago. He knew that she had moved on to the current king, but his love for her had never stopped.

Map honestly couldn't respond. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and make Harry leave. His company was... soothing to say the very least. But she didn't think that she could respond to his confession. She was just getting over her breakup with Ben.

She didn't want anything to be awkward between her and Harry. She liked having him as a friend, and maybe if she got over Ben, something more than just a friend, but...

"Did I seriously make the great Mal speechless? This is the greatest feat in the history of mankind," Harry said, honestly meaning his words. Mal was almost never speechless. And if she was, it definitely wasn't by anyone on the isle, other than her mother, but her mother was gone now.

Mal glared at Harry. "Shut up!"

Harry just gave a lazy grin back. "I'm just saying. I think this is the first time in history that someone other than Maleficent had made you speechless. And you don't have to respond. I want expecting you to. I just wanted you to know in case anything happens. I want you to know that after you left, I thought that I would hate you for it, but I couldn't. I just felt really..."

"Sad? Depressed? Like something was slowly dying in you?" Mal asked. She had felt the same when she left, knowing that she was leaving Harry behind, but she had to push those feelings away in order to  do what she needed to. Ben had been a... misstep in her plan, to say the very least. 

"Yeah," Harry said dejectedly. "That pretty much sums up the feeling." 

Mal knew immediately what he was thinking. He thought that she was feeling that now. "No," she said suddenly, surprising Harry. "It's not because of Ben. I might as well tell you the truth. When I left the Isle, it-" 

She was interrupted by the door opening. "Mal!" Jay's voice called out, the echos bouncing off the walls. 

Mal sighed. She hadn't been able to tell Harry the truth. And it she desperately wanted to. He deserved to know how she felt. And why she had gone to him the day prior. Why she had walked in to the bar when she could have gone somewhere else to end her miserable existence. She wanted him to know everything that was going through her warped mind. 

Jay's heavy footsteps got louder as he walked closer to them. "Why is he in the apartment," Jay growled when he saw Harry sitting on the couch. 

Harry was on his feet within seconds and he was already in a defensive position. He wouldn't fight Jay. He knew that Jay and the others were the closest thing that Mal had to family. A real family that was based off of love and not blood. He wouldn't fight Jay for that reason and that reason only. 

"Oh, don't get your panties in a twist, Jay. I thought that Auradon would have taught you something," Mal said in a sarcastic, almost deadpanned manner. "If he wanted to do something, he would've done it last night. If he wanted me dead, don't you think that I would be dead already?" 

Jay could only gape. He looked between Mal and Harry multiple times. His gaze finally rested on Mal. "Last night?" he squeaked. 

She could only shake her head. "I really hate how stupid you can be sometimes," she said with a sigh. "Last night. As in, the night before. I don't know how to say this. You really are stupid. And no, we did not do anything last night. Harry was just...helping me."

Mal couldn't tell Jay that he had held her as she cried and that he was actually a nice person that was just misunderstood quite frequently. 

"What do you mean by 'help?'" 

Mal felt the color leave her face as Jay asked that. 

"Oh, nothing," Harry said with a grin that said trouble. "Just that I slept over last night on the couch with Mal, and when we woke up this morning I was on top of her." The way he said everything made it sound suggesting, which was his intent because he loved to get Jay riled up. 

Jay glared at Harry. "What did you do to her?" 

Harry just smirked as he got up and walked towards the bathroom. "Oh, nothing that you haven't done before. Or... maybe you haven't?" Because he was pretty sure that Jay had never actually held someone and let them cry on his shoulder. Harry didn't think that he would have done it either had it not been for the situation that Mal was in. 

He loved Mal. It was as simple as that, and he didn't think that anyone could change that for him. Not her friends. Not the king. No one.