A/N: Weird that I would write my first Sleeping Hook fic after Into the Deep. But this whole heart think just makes the relationship more screwed up. And I do like my ships to hurt.

After nearly an hour of silence, he wished the princess would say something.

At first, Hook had been scared of the words. He could normally put up a good front when it came to the emotions of others. But, dammit, it had been a mistake to travel with the women after he'd stolen the Princess's heart, because the ladies, and the Princess in particular, had worn him down. Of course she had. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to get her heart back.

So he was actually scared of what she was going to say to him. He didn't think he could handle the look on her face or the tears that would inevitably come with the words that would surely cut him deep. But Aurora had just sat down in front of him, where Emma had chained him against yet another tree, and stared at the ground. At first he was relieved, but the better part of an hour had gone by without any words being spoken, and the silence, along with his guilt, was eating him alive.

But he didn't dare speak first.

Eventually, Aurora scooted closer to him, pushing his sleeve up. Hook glanced at her quizzically, trying to catch her eye, but she still refused to look at his face.

Her fingers traced the name still etched on his skin. Milah. "How could you do to me what was done to her?" Aurora's small voice finally asked.

Wincing, Hook recalled the time he'd sat with Aurora by fire during one of her sleepless nights, when he told her the one thing he hardly ever told anyone - the thing that had broken him. She'd been so sweet, so sympathetic, had grasped his hand and looked at him with such earnest kindness. That was when the guilt had started to consume him, when he'd started plotting how to get the Princess's heart back to her.

Aurora's fingers were still gliding over his skin, sending sparks up his arm. "How could you do that to me? To anyone? When it was done to the only person you ever loved?" She looked up then, finally meeting his eyes. The look of sadness and anger on her face made him want to look away, but he knew he deserved this. "How could you take my heart?"

Hook swallowed. "I got it back," he responded weakly.

Holding his gaze, she moved back to her spot in front of him. "I wondered why you spent so much time talking to me. Nobody else cared all that much. I was only good to Emma and Snow when I was sleeping, and Mulan only cares about protecting me. You were the only one who wanted to talk to me. It didn't make any sense. I understand now, though. You wanted to keep close tabs on me. Protect your investment."

Survival instincts kicking in as his guilt grew, Hook bit out, "What, are you going to ask me now if it was all real? If our talks actually meant anything to me? Or if I was just acting?"

Aurora looked back at the ground and responded quietly, "No, I know it meant something."

"And how do you know that?"

She met his eyes again, still sad and angry, but he thought he could see her relenting, just a bit. "Like you said, you did get it back."

This time it was Hook who couldn't keep looking. He moved his eyes to the sky behind the Princess's head, uncomfortable with the things he was feeling. They lapsed back into the terrible silence.

Finally, Hook couldn't take it. "So what are you going to do with me?" He looked back at her to find that her eyes were sadder now than he'd ever seen them.

"I don't know."

THE END.