Emma stood huddled against the wall of Storybrooke cinema. The rain hit the pavement harshly, splashing against her leather boots. She looked both ways down the street for Belle, but she was nowhere in sight.
She tapped her foot impatiently, and dropped her head back, resting it on the cement wall of the building.
"Why, hello, lass?" A too familiar accent and tone cooed.
Emma sighed, letting out a large breath before lowering her gaze from the sky to the pirate. Hook leaned against the wall, nonchalantly. His arms and ankles crossed, he unashamedly looked Emma up and down. She suddenly felt very exposed despite the fact she was wearing jeans and a large coat.
"What do you want Hook?" Emma said, pulling her arms tighter around herself.
"Do I need to want something to start a conversation with you, Swan?" He rubbed his chin, stepping closer. His blue eyes were brighter against the grey night, and his leather pirate gear looked amusingly out of place next to the back-lit movie posters next to him.
Emma rolled her eyes at his question, "I am actually meeting someone."
Hook looked around them but the streets were empty. "So eager to be rid of me," Hook laughed and stepped closer, his eyebrows wagging.
"Oh, so we are on the same page. Good" Emma said, turning on her heel.
"Swan, wait". Emma stopped, cringing as she remembered the last time he had yelled after her.
Hook stood by a movie poster, his brow was knit together in concentration and his jaw tight.
"What is the purpose of these funny pictures?" He gestured towards the poster between them.
Emma suppressed a giggle when she realized his confusion was, probably, because he didn't know what a movie was. Hook glanced sideways at her, eyebrow cocked, "are you laughing at me, Swan?".
She shook her head, and then the ridiculousness of the situation hit.
She was outside a cinema in a town full of fairytale characters, waiting for Beauty and the Beasts' Belle, talking with Captain Hook and possibly about to explain to him how movies worked.
Emma let the laughter free. It came out loud, carefree and untamed.
"I'm sorry", she said between gasps, holding her now aching side. Her face was wet from tears. "Sometimes the craziness, that is my life, hits me. I… I wasn't laughing at you.
"I mean why would Captain Hook know what a cinema is or a movie? He wouldn't know, right?" Emma was proud that she managed to say that seriously without a inkling of a giggle or sarcasm.
"It's called a cinema. It shows the movies on large screens and people pay to go see them. A movie is, um…" Emma searched for a comparison that he may recognize, "uh, like a play. Did you have plays?"
"Aye, lass. It was one of the only past times we had as children." Hook smiled fondly at whatever memory had been reawakened.
Emma nodded, "well, it is a play that has been filmed on a camera."
Hook's blankly stared at her. "What's a camera?" He asked after a moment.
"Oh. Um," Emma wasn't sure how to explain it. "It's this." She pulled her phone from her jacked pocket and clicked the camera icon.
"See, this is the lens that you point at what you want to film, so here." She took a picture of him, "that is a photo of you. But a movie is like this." She changed her mode from picture to video and pushed record. She spun in a circle and then stopped it. She showed Hook the playback and his eyes went wide.
"This is marvelous Swan." He bounced on the heels of his boots, like a young boy. A grin spread wide across Hooks face, "I'd like to see a movie, sometime."
"You know in this world that could be considered you trying to ask me out," Emma laughed.
"Asking out" Hook screwed his face up as he said the words, "is that another way of saying wooing?"
Emma nodded with a giggle.
Hook took her hand in his, bowing slightly, "Swan, if you would like me to court you, you only have to say so". He winked at her.
"You are unbelievable, Hook", Emma rolled her eyes, a grin teasing at the corner of her mouth.
"Emma?" Belle's voice came from somewhere behind them, and Hook let Emma's hand drop back to her side.