Finding New Love

He's Here. Looking For Her

Two weeks passed after Ben's letter arrived. Mal had been trying to find a way to avoid the wedding that was being planned. She didn't want to see him. At some point, she knew that she would have to, but not yet. And the wedding was planned to be in two weeks. That was too soon for her.

She needed an output for all of her anxiety and stress. And right now, art just wasn't doing it.

Mal thought she knew exactly what she was doing when she got out of bed in the middle of the night and walked to the other room where Harry was staying. She thought she knew what she was doing when she opened the door to the room that he was currently occupying. But she paused as she saw him sleeping peacefully. He looked younger when he was sleeping. He looked like he did when he was younger. Before everything happened.

She stood in the doorway, not knowing if she should go back to her room. She didn't know what to do anymore, but she should probably move because it seemed kind of creepy for her to be standing just outside the room that Harry was occupying and stared at him as he slept. She was about to turn around to go back to her room when she heard a groggy Harry say, "What are you doing up? It's like the middle of the night."

Mal stopped in her tracks. She turned around to find Harry leaning on one arm to keep himself up. She didn't know how to answer his question, though. There was no answer that she could give that would satisfy both of them.

"Come here," he said, rubbing at his eyes and sitting up. Harry didn't actually need an answer to his question. He already knew.

"I-I woke up, and I was going to get a drink of water and-" Mal stammered. She didn't know what Harry was doing to her. She was the infamous Mal. She was not one of those school girls at Auradon that would blush and stammer like she was currently doing.

"I said to come, Mal," Harry growled lowly. She couldn't help but feel slightly aroused at the time that he used with her.

She carefully walked over to Harry. Her feet barely making a sound on the floor beneath her. She slid onto the bed with the same caution.

His hand came up to her face, and though she knew that he would never hurt he, she couldn't help but flinch. She was slightly surprised when his hand gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You haven't been sleeping well during the past couple of weeks," he said with concern written all over his face.

Mal didn't think that anyone had noticed. She thought she had been good about hiding it from Harry and Jay. She had been trying to hide her bags with the makeup that she had packed. She had hid her exhaustion through smiles, and yet Harry was able to see through every lie of hers. Through every mask that she put up.

She didn't understand how he was able to see everything. She didn't know how he was the only one that was able to see her.

"I thought that I was hiding it pretty well," Mal said with a grim smile. "How'd you figure it out?" She honestly wanted to know what she was doing wrong.

Harry couldn't help the sadness that flickered throughout him. "Mal, I'm up when you have those sleepless nights. I hear you when you wake up in sweat and you're panting from the nightmares that you always have. You can talk to me, you know?"

He wanted her to talk to him. He wanted Mal to stop isolating herself. He knew that she wanted to be independent and not bother people with her problems, he couldn't help but feel like she was misinterpreting the word "independent." Just because she wanted to be independent, did not mean that she had to keep all of her emotions to herself.

"You don't have to do everything yourself, Mal. You can talk to me. Please," he begged her. "Talk to me about it."

Mal looked away from him. She couldn't talk about how empty she felt. How it was only occasionally hat she felt like she was alive with Harry. She didn't think that she could talk about it. And it wasn't about Ben anymore. It was that she had left Harry and had been so willing to turn into them that she had forgotten what it was to do things that she wanted to do.

Part of it was how Ben wanted to get back to her for everything. He wanted her at his wedding with Uma to rub it in her face. She hated how empty it made her feel. She couldn't feel anger or even hate for him. She only felt empty every time she looked at the letter. How she had led to her friends getting suspended. How they might hate her for that.

"I'm okay," she said, trying to convince herself, rather than him.

"You're not," Harry said, sighing in frustration. "And I wish you would tell me how you feel," was all he said.

Mal was about to say something before a loud bang went throughout the apartment. It was the sound of the door slamming open.

Mal rushed out of the room with Harry hot on her heels.

They found Jay and Carlos standing in the doorway with the door wide open. They were bent over, panting and their faces flushed.

"He's here," Carlos said in between pants. "Looking for her."

Mal knew who he meant.

Ben was on the isle.