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Audrey always caught him off-guard.
He never really expected her to talk to him. Even after she’d made it obvious that she had an interest in him, Harry always thought that she’d forget about him. She was a princess, after all, and he was a pirate. Their lives and worlds didn’t match up. But she always came back to him, with excitement to share or new clothes to show off, or beautiful sparkling bracelets to fasten around his wrist with a smile that was just as beautiful.
It takes him by surprise when she darts up to him. He isn’t really sure how he missed her, given that the clicking of her heels against Auradon Prep’s perfectly smooth floor can probably be heard from a mile away, but he still jumps out of his skin and brandishes his hook when she grabs his wrist with a perfectly manicured hand.
“Oh!” He watches with wide eyes as Audrey totters backwards on her heels, hair flying as she dodges the sharp object on a collision course with her face, and pulls his hook back with so much force that he falls into his locker with a crash.
“Harry!” Audrey’s voice is almost offended, but he can still recognise the hint of understanding that it holds, and he’s thankful for it.
“Shi- sorry, Princess!” He can already feel his face heating up and he swallows hard, trying his best to force the colour from his face. “I didn’t- didn’t know it was you.”
“No, it’s alright,” Audrey says, and dismisses his apology with a small wave of her hand. “I shouldn’t have snuck up on you. Anyway, look!” She reaches into her bag, pale pink with a shiny gold chain handle, and buries around in it, her face turning to annoyance when she doesn’t immediately find what she’s looking for. “I have something for you,” she mutters with an apologetic smile as she glances up, before returning her attention to her bag. “It’s... god, where is it?”
Harry rubs a sheepish hand over the back of his neck. He knows he’s still blushing, and he hates it. “You didn’t, uh- you don’t have to get me things, y’know.” It’s not that he doesn’t like getting things from Audrey. He appreciates it, and the things that she gives to him are always beautiful, and usually more expensive than Harry cares to know about. He just doesn’t exactly understand why she insists on giving him gifts, why she’s taken such an interest in him, or why she’s constantly fastening bracelets around his wrist instead of around Ben’s, or Jane’s, or really anyone else’s. For all his flirting with others, he’s still a complete mess around her, blushing and stuttering and tripping over his own words and feet, and with that added to the fact that he’s a VK, he really can’t work out why someone as poised and perfect as Audrey has decided that he’s who she wants to hang out with.
Audrey frowns. “But I want to,” she says, pauses, and looks up at him. “Besides, I thought you liked shiny things.” She gives a quick nod to his hook, and Harry hides it behind his back with a small smile.
“I do, just- why me, exactly?”
Audrey’s frown deepens. “Because we’re friends,” she says, with a tone as if she’s thought that that was obvious all along. She’s still rummaging in her bag without looking at it, and her face brightens suddenly with a smile that makes Harry feel as if he’s about to fall into his locker again. “Found them!” She pulls her hand out of her bag, tightly clutching two bracelets in her fists. “Look, what do you think?”
“They’re... pretty,” Harry replies, and they really are. They’re pink gemstones, tiny and round and pristine, strung together on a thin silver chain, with tiny hearts shaped pendant hanging from the middles. “Like you,” he adds with an overly exaggerated wink, a last ditch attempt to regain any of his usual coolness. His flirting with Audrey never works, usually because he gets too flustered to make it through even a single line, so he’s pleasantly surprised when Audrey flushes a little, smiling down at the jewellery in her hand. She collects herself almost immediately though, flicking her hair over one shoulder and looking up at him through long lashes.
“Thanks,” she says, and sends him a smug, flirtatious look that he’s used to giving, not receiving. “I know.” She beckons for him to hold his hand out, so he does, feeling more than a little dazed. He knows that Audrey seems to have some sort of feelings for him, and yet whenever she shows them, he ends up feeling a little lost and disoriented. He’s almost scared of how she has such a strong effect on him.
There’s a sudden coldness on his wrist, paired with a gentle softness, and he looks down to see Audrey’s nails tracing along his arm as she fastens the clasp of the bracelet. The path that she traces is soft, almost like she’s afraid of touching him, and he pushes his wrist into her hand to solidify the contact. She blinks down at him twice, then up at him once, and finally makes eye contact. “It suits you,” she whispers, and pulls her hand away. The bracelet glistens on Harry’s wrist, and he pulls his sleeve up over his elbow to make sure that it doesn’t get covered up.
“Thanks,” he says, and watches as Audrey fastens her own bracelet with one hand, quick and skilled, as if she’s used to doing it. She probably is, he supposes, and he smiles as he imagines the hoards of jewellery that she probably has hung up in her room.
Audrey smiles. She tosses her hair over her shoulder, adjusts the handle of her bag, smooths out her skirt, and lifts a hand to hold their wrists together. “We match,” she says, and her nose scrunches up in happiness as her smile widens. “I’ve always wanted friendship bracelets. They’re cute, don’t you think?”
Harry raises an eyebrow. “...Cute.”
“Well.” It’s so blunt that Harry takes a quick step back, almost worried that he’s said something wrong, but Audrey continues to smile at him and the sinking feeling in his chest dissipates. “I’ll see you around, Harry!”
“I- yeah. See you, Princess,” he says, and feels his face start to tug into the beginnings of a smile, but Audrey is already walking away, the familiar clicking of her shows filling the hallway as she practically skips back to her room.
“We should hang out sometime,” she says, glancing over her shoulder, and pauses. She plays with her bracelet with one hand, rubbing her fingers together nervously with the other. “For real.”
“For real,” Harry says, and finds that the words feel strange in his mouth. Everything Audrey says and does is strange. “We, uh- we should.”
“Good,” Audrey says, and disappears around the corner almost instantly.
“Good,” Harry repeats, a little softer, and plays with the bracelet against his skin. He can’t say he’s not looking forward to it.