AN: Hello lovelies :D This will be fairly short, probably about 6 chapters. If any of you are reading Tangled Destines, I know that it's been a while since I've updated, but I promise I'm still working on it. This one is just going first bc the amazing and perfect Annie at coolandwittyurl (check out her tumblr because she's awesome) is drawing fanart for it! She'll probably be publishing that tomorrow, so make sure to watch out for it. Anyways, tell me what you think of this chapter because reviews make my heart jump for joy. The next one will come out some time in the next few days.
Killian Jones was awoken, as usual, to the sounds of a fight breaking out on the deck of his beloved ship.
"Bloody pirates," he muttered, thinking half-longingly of how peaceful the crew had been and how much better they had smelled when they had been honest sailors. He rubbed some sleep from his eye, got dressed in his usual leather ensemble, and finished by clicking his metal hook into place.
He climbed up the stair to see just what he expected. His whole crew was huddled around two men, egging them on in whatever skirmish they had started this morning. Probably Starkey and Noodler again, he thought mildly, while also questioning who could possibly be cruel enough to give their child that name. "Alright you scurvy rats, back to work!" He shouted over all the commotion. To make his point, he turned dramatically from his place on the deck to take the wheel.
Surveying their location, he truly had to consider what their destination would be. He knew of a weapon that would help him kill the Dark One, but he didn't have any leads on where to find it, which made it difficult to choose a target location. They were currently anchored fairly close to the shore of a thick forest. They had not seen any people around the area as far as they could see in any direction.
"Where to, Captain?" Smee, his first mate, asked, coming over to him after scolding Starkey and Noodler about their behavior.
"Where's the closest sizable harbor?" Hook questioned.
Smee glanced over at a map and traced a short line with one, pudgy finger. "Probably about...an hours journey east," he responded, gesturing down the coast. "But if we stay close to land it'll be a bit longer."
"Fine," he said shortly, nodded at Smee to take the wheel, and paced absentmindedly toward the bow of his ship.
Normally he wouldn't be this passive toward his first mate and his crew in general, but they had woken him at a very bad he past 300 years, he had become very accustomed to his nightmares about chasing after Milah and being forced to watch her die all over again as soon as he caught up with her. It no longer alarmed him to wake up in a sweat, heart racing out of control. This time, however, it had been different. He had been sure that if they had woken him just a moment later, maybe he would've been able to catch her. Maybe he would've...
Shaking his head a bit to wake himself up from his Milah-induced trance, he focused his eyes on some of the gigantic boulders that were scattered along the shoreline. There was a big red spot on one of them and he was trying to make out what it was, until he realized that the red spot was attached to a body. A human body.
Hook pulled his spyglass quickly out of his jacket and located the red spot again. Wait no, he had been wrong. It was only partly human.
A mermaid was sunbathing on the rock that he had found. She was facing down, but he could tell that she had a long, gray tail that slowly became black toward the tail. Her top was half red, and was what has attracted his gaze to begin with. It did not fully cover her midriff but was still more modest than what her kind normally wore over their chests. One side was blood red with a sleeve that came down to her forearm. The other side was black with a purple strap going over her shoulder. Long, golden hair fell in loose waves all around her.
As if she could feel his gaze on the back of her neck, she looked up right as he began to lower the spyglass, and the mermaid and pirate's eyes suddenly met.
Nope, he thought, wrong again. Not a mermaid. A bloody siren. Her face was exquisitely beautiful, but he could her eyes in particular were practically burning into his brain as he stood. They were shockingly green in a way that couldn't help but remind him of the ocean. Sharp and analytical, he could feel them x-raying him and his ship. Her completely unimpressed expression surprised him though. When they had happened upon sirens in the past, they had began trying to seduce the sailors in the blink of an eye. He had never seen one that tried playing hard-to-get before.
That was the first thing that struck him as odd. The next was when he lifted the spyglass once again, he saw her look directly at him, smile in a sarcastic way that was practically screaming, 'fuck you". And as if that wasn't enough, she decided to phrase it in an even more obvious way by lifting one slender middle finger in his direction.
Lowering the spyglass, he couldn't help but laugh. Something was strange about this creature, and what kind of pirate would he be if he didn't pursue every mystery and adventure that came his way. Fully knowing that this could be part of her trap, he shouted over to his first mate. "Smee, change course!" Hook pointed at the creature's rock.
"Captain, isn't that a siren?"
As they approached her, Hook saw that for the first time, her face seemed to truly be showing honest emotion. It could only be described as unbelievable shock.
Once they were closer, he shouted out to her. "You know lass, I don't think anyone has every been brave enough to give me such an obscene gesture."
She looked at him, unimpressed. Clearly she had masked her surprise quickly. "First time for everything, I suppose."
He smiled at her response and decided to jump straight to the point. "Hope you aren't offended by my asking, but being a sailor and all it is a bit of a concern: are you a siren or a mermaid?"
"Siren, obviously." She laughed breathily, and sat up slightly on her rock, giving him a seductive smirk. "And now that I've gotten you this close, my sisters have already begun tearing apart your ship. You'll be dead in a matter of minutes."
Hook and his whole crew drew their swords at lightning speed as if to defend themselves, only to see the creature laughing at them from her spot on the rock. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked when her nose was scrunched up like that.
"Damn, you're easy," she drawled. "But, technically I'm a mermaid."
"Technically?" He raised an eyebrow to her as well, but not in a particularly threatening way. He sheathed his sword again and leaned over the railing so he could be more in her view.
"I wasn't always."
"Care to expand on that?"
"Nope," she smiled, popping her lips on the 'p'.
So she wants to play it that way? He thought. With a pirate? Bit of a mistake there, lass. "Huh. I might be losing interest," he sighed and theatrically started to turn away, until-
"Wait!" She called. He smiled and turned back. She grimaced, seeming to be disassembling her self-respect brick by brick in her mind. "I wonder if you could do me a favor."
"A favor? I'm not really in the business of doing things out of the goodness of my heart."
She hesitated and then said, "my family could give you money if you brought me back to them. A lot of money."
He hesitated, but decided that some money for him and his crew was worth a bit of a risk. "Well then, in that case," he smiled, "welcome aboard the Jolly Roger."