You're Not a Prince and I'm Not a Bar Wench
Emma kept silent as she listened to the sounds of the castle become quieter and quieter as everyone went to sleep. She watched as the full moon illuminated her room in its pale light and once she was sure the castle was fast asleep, save for the few palace guards patrolling the halls and grounds, she quietly got out of bed and rummaged in the back of her wardrobe for a cream colored blouse, brown front laced corset, and skirt made of various colored fabrics stitched together. In those clothes and with her long blonde hair braided out of her face she was no longer Crown Princess Emma of Misthaven, she was but an unassuming barmaid at the local tavern. Emma dressed quickly in the dark and pulled her brown traveling cloak around her shoulders and snuck out of the castle using the secret passageways she had discovered on her many restless midnight wanderings as a child. Emma moved quickly, ducking out of sight of any one who might pass her and pulled her hood up to conceal her face as she walked into the little village by the docks and made her way to the tavern that was already filled with people.
"Ella! About time you got here, we're swamped tonight," the barkeeper Robin tossed an apron at her, Emma caught it and tied it around her waist, "Take this to the table in the back," he presented her with a bottle of rum and several shot glasses. Emma placed them on a tray and made her way to the back of the pub and stopped once she saw exactly who she would be serving. The large group of men had attracted a good amount of attention with their hearty laughter and games of chance but Emma's eyes focused on the one at the center of the action. He was perhaps the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on; his dark hair ruffled and falling over his forehead, piercing blue eyes that stood out from the dark kohl that lines his eyes, dark scruff that covered a sharp jawline and his body wrapped in black leather save for the red brocade vest. Emma's eye caught sight of his pirate's luck that hung from a chain around his neck and the hook that peaked out of the end of his left sleeve. She knew instantly who he was, Captain Hook scourge of the high seas and there he was sitting in his seat as if he owned the place. Feeling bold Emma rolled her shoulders back and made their way over to his table, setting her hands on the table as she set her tray down.
"So what are you boys playing?" she asked in a low voice, feeling a lick of excitement run up her spine. Hook looked up at her completely dumbstruck, his tongue poking out to wet his lips before he spoke.
"Not a game for a lady such as yourself love," he played with the dice in his hands.
"We'll see about that," Emma challenged and sat down across from him, raising an eyebrow at him. He chuckled and shook his head, but gestured for one of his friends to deal her in. It took a few rounds but Emma soon had a pile of winnings in front of her, she smirked at the dark haired man. He looked from her to his cards and shook his head, smiling ruefully.
"I fold," he admitted and pushed his pile of coins towards Emma, "Count yourself lucky love, not many men can say they've beaten me in a hand of cards."
"Well it's a good thing I am not a man then," Emma quipped.
"A very good thing indeed," he cocked an eyebrow at her and waved his hand and the rest of his crowd dispersed, "How about a drink to celebrate your victory?"
Emma looked from his face to the bottle of run he had in his hand and moved so that she was sitting next to him, "To kicking the ass of Captain Hook's crew."
Hook smiled and raised his glass to her before they both knocked back their drinks, "So you know who I am and yet I don't even know your name."
"What fun would that be?" Emma poured him another drink, hoping to get off the subject of her name.
"So we're just two ships passing in the night then?" he asked.
"Passing closely hopefully," Emma shifted closer to Hook, feeling all the weight of her crown melt away. She lost herself in conversation with Hook, smiles and laughs falling easily from her lips, their fingers finding each other in conversation, and their eyes glued to each other's. The candles had burned low by the time Hook grabbed the half empty bottle off the table, "Now love, what would you say to a night cap?" Emma looked from his face to his outstretched hook before taking it and standing. They had only made it a few steps outside before they ducked into an alley, he pressed her against the wall of the tavern, their lips crashing together and her fingers sinking into his hair. This wasn't the first time Emma had kissed a man while on her nightly excursions to the tavern but it was never like this. His kisses were full to the brim with passion and fire and Emma could only just keep up with him.
It was only when the church bells started ringing that Emma came back to her senses, she broke the kiss and saw the hint of pink on the horizon signaling dawn was on the way. Hook buried his face in her neck, obviously unaware of the impending day. Emma reluctantly pushed on his shoulders to get him to back of, he took a step back and looked at her.
"Everything all right love?" he asked.
"I'm sorry I need to go," she said sliding out of his arms and walking towards the woods.
"What? Lass, what's wrong?" he caught her wrist in his hand, turning her back to him.
"I just can't do this right now," Emma said quickly trying to get back to the castle before anyone woke up.
"Ah I understand," Hook let go of her, Emma stared at him, "It's bad form to take an unwilling woman back to a man's ship. Go on lass it's okay."
Emma opened her mouth to say she wasn't leaving because of that but she decided to go with it, "Who knew a pirate could be a gentleman?"
"I think you'll find I'm always a gentleman," he smirked before turning and walking in the direction of the docks. Emma ran through the woods and just barely made it back to her room and change out of her clothes before her handmaids, came in to wake her.
"Cutting it close Princess," the lead handmaid, Marian, whispered in her ear.
"But I made it," Emma quipped before yawning.
Marian set a mug of coffee in Emma's hands, "You'll regret that late night, did you forget about the ball tonight?"
Emma took a long sip of her coffee before answering, "Perhaps?"
"Well drink up, you're in for a long day today," Marian pulled back the covers, "There's to be many eligible bachelors here tonight, perhaps you'll find someone to your liking."
"Marian you know it's the same people at all of these things. The same people making the same conversation and dancing the same dances every damn time. It's enough anyone mad," Emma pushed herself out of bed, "That's why we agreed that I could work at your husband's tavern, I need a break from being Princess Emma all the time."
"I agree you need a break from the crown every once in a while, but I did not agree to this arrangement so that you could make conversation with pirates." Emma's eyes widened as she turned to face Marian her mouth opening to ask, "Robin tells me everything, it's a perk of being married to him."
"Well tell Robin I'm sorry, but I just couldn't tear myself away from him. I've never talked to anyone like that before," Emma explained, her cheeks slightly flushed.
"Perhaps you can find something like that tonight, just promise me you'll try?" Marian pleaded.
"Okay, I promise," Emma sighed.
Emma stood in the ballroom after being brushed, poked, prodded, and dressed to perfection, or rather her mother's version of perfection.
"Smile Emma, at least try to look like you're having a good time," Snow said before nudging her none to softly towards the dance floor. Emma rolled her eyes beneath her mask but fixed her face into a pleasant expression as she continued in the direction of the dance floor.
"Excuse me Princess may I have this dance?" a voice asked. Emma turned to see Prince Eric of Maritime Kingdom extending his hand towards her. Emma smiled and allowed him to escort her to the dance floor; they had known each other since they were three and we're quite good friends something Emma didn't want to change despite her mother's continued reminders that a marriage with Eric would join both their kingdoms and give them access to Maritime's sizable navy. Eric lead her into the quadrille, turning her this way and that until it was time to hand her off to another man in their set. Emma grasped the hand of her new momentary partner and felt it stiff and unnaturally hard underneath a leather glove, she turned her head to look at her new partner and found wide, shocked and very familiar blue eyes staring back at her from behind a black mask.
"You are not a prince," she murmured to Hook, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that a pirate had somehow made his way into the castle.
"And you are not a bar wench," he replied before handing her back to Eric. Emma tried to focus on the complicated steps before she was handed off to Prince Philip of Glowerhaven and then Lord Frederick of Camelot, she felt Hook's eyes on her for the entirety of the dance and she couldn't help it if her eyes wandered across the set to him as he danced with an unfamiliar red head.
"Do you know who those two people are? I don't think I've seen them before," Eric asked as they danced in the center of the set.
"No but my parents made an effort to invite new people tonight, you know how it is with these things when everybody knows everyone else," Emma covered quickly as he lead her back to the edge of the set and watched as Hook and the red head copied their moves in the center. The dance ended with them all bowing to their partners and Emma saw out of the corner of her eye as Hook approached her.
"Excuse me Princess but would you do me the honor of dancing this next dance with me?" he asked eloquently.
"I'd be happy to," Emma answered with a strained smile, the band started up a waltz and Hook pulled her close.
"So it would appear we both have some explaining to do," he whispered in her ear under the pretext of small talk.
"You go first, what are you doing here?" Emma asked trying to act casual so as not to cause a scene. "What do you want?"
"I've heard tales of an impressive library, thought I might take a look around," he answered, "Now, how is it that the bar wench I kissed last night is also Crown Princess Emma of this land?"
"I needed a break," Emma responded, "You have a bounty on your head and you're trying to sneak into a library? You are either vastly over confident or incredibly stupid or both."
"I was managing just fine until you spotted me," he grinned at her. "What is it you needed a break from?"
"Just all of this, from being Crown Princess Emma" Emma gestured to the ball going on around them, "When did you learn how to waltz?"
"Well I've found that with the waltz there's only one rule," he spun her out and pulled her back into his arms, "Pick a partner who knows what they're doing," he whispered so close to her ear she could feel little puffs of breath along her neck. Emma felt a shiver run along her spine and she tried to ignore it.
"You never answered why you wanted to break into my castle's library, surely there are other libraries that would require much less work to get to," she said breathily.
"Well it turns out that your library has some... volumes that could be very important to me getting what I want," Killian explained. Emma squinted her eyes at him, she knew exactly what he had to be talking about. Her parents had spent years gathering every text, every scroll, and every scrap of information that could bring down the infamous Dark One.
"You still want to get to that library?" Emma asked.
Killian blinked at her in surprise, "Erm love, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"I may be mad, but as the saying goes 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' And we can use all the help we can get in bringing him down," she pulled him in the direction of the hallway.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are an extraordinary woman?" he asked as she lead him towards the library.
"I could stand to hear it more often," Emma smiled and pushed open the heavy door to the library. Hook took his mask off, his face in awe at the sheer number of book that surrounded him, and looked back to Emma.
"Princess this is incredible," he turned on the spot craning his neck trying to see everything.
"Come on, what you're looking for is through here," Emma pulled a false book from the shelf and stood back as it swung out revealing a small room crowded with books and papers. She lit the lanterns and candles around the room with a wave of her hand.
Hook took a step back from her, "You have magic?"
"Is that a problem for you?" Emma asked defensively. She knew that ever since the reign of the Evil Queen some people were still cautious of magic, but it didn't stop her from feeling slightly hurt at Hook's reaction.
"No, apologies lass I didn't mean to offend you," he shook his head. He stepped into the room and started pulling things from the shelves seemingly at random, "Bloody hell, there are things I've never read about or only heard whispers of in here."
"You'll never have enough time to go through all of those," Emma observed, looking at the clock by the door.
"Then I'll take them with me," he huffed, "Nothing is going to stop me from bringing down the bloody Dark One."
"And what do you expect is going to happen? You're going to just march out of here weighed down with half of my parent's secret library that is check up on everyday to make sure nothing is missing? Because somehow that doesn't seem like that'll work."
"You forget I'm a pirate love, this wouldn't be the first time I've walked out with my pockets heavier than they were when I walked in," he shrugged at her.
"And you forget that while you can sneak a few books and scrolls out under your coat, I have access to all of this whenever I want," Emma quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Just what are you suggesting?"
"You got into this part pretending to be a prince correct?" he nodded, "Would it be so unexpected if I started writing to a certain prince who danced with me and who I spent a significant amount of time not at the ball with?"
Hook stared at her, "You're going to write all of these out to me? Princess forgive me but that seems a risky even for me."
"Do you think I'm daft? It'll be a coded message, anyone else would think it's a simple message to an admirer, nothing to pay attention to," Emma explained. "And for gods' sake just call me Emma."
"Well Emma, you would make a hell of a pirate," he said with an impressed tone.
"Maybe in another life, now come on. We've been gone too long for everyone to ignore," she quickly extinguished the lamps and candles, plunging them into darkness.
"I look forward to your message love," he whispered to her, he must have gotten close to her in the dark. Emma shivered, feeling his warmth radiating off his body just as it had the night before, her tongue darted out to moisten her lips before she took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Who should I be making it out to, I doubt you introduced yourself as Captain Hook?" she asked deflecting his advances.
"I introduced myself as a Prince Charles, but you can make out your messages to Killian Jones," he said as they reached the hallway, he caught sight of her surprised face as he put his mask back on, "What? You didn't think I was born 'Captain Hook' did you?"
"No, of course not. Just come on, someone has to have noticed we've been gone by now," she tugged him back into the ballroom.
"Remember Emma, you're so smitten with me that you just have to keep in contact with me," he winked at her before guiding her back towards the dance floor for the last court dance. Emma tried to ignore the way his eyes continued to follow her even after he handed her off to a new partner, and the comfort she found when she was back in his arms.