He brushed by her and out the door, and a sudden anger rose in her chest and caught her off guard. She made a snap decision, turning on her heel and slipping out the door behind him. He was already hurrying down the sidewalk, away, and Emma wasted no time following him.
"Hook!" she called and he froze before hesitantly turning to face her.
"Swan," he greeted her with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Quit being an ass," she snapped, crossing her arms and watching him cooly. She debated a moment, but the annoyance flamed suddenly in her chest and she didn't have the damn patience to beat around the bush. "You're avoiding me. Why?"
She caught a flash of something she couldn't quite place deep in his eyes, something reminiscent of fear. But it was gone as quickly as it came and she wondered if she'd imagined it.
"I assure you I'm not avoiding you, lo—" he caught himself with another fearful look, "Lass."
Her heart knotted painfully and she bit the inside of her cheek.
"You're not telling me something," she accused cautiously, and if she wasn't sure before the way his eyes fell confirmed her suspicions entirely. Her stomach sunk.
"I'm not?" his voice crumbled slightly at the end and she clenched her jaw.
"Don't pretend like I can't tell!" her voice grew more aggressive as she spoke, until she was nearly yelling.
"Emma—" he muttered, and the regret was plain on his face.
"Tell me what's wrong, Killian!"
"Gods Emma, don't you think I bloody would if I could!" he finally growled, folding away from her, closing himself off to her. She could feel the way his eyes shot over her, pleaded with her, and it made her stomach flip.
"I think you should tell me no matter what, Killian," she managed quietly. He was broken, it was so apparent to her now. She was angry with herself, that she hadn't realized it before. His eyes flickered cautiously over her face and again she felt the pressure of everything he struggled to hide behind his calm facade.
"I can't," he repeated, shaking his head softly.
"Why?" she asked, throwing her arms out in defiance, "Why can't you tell me!"
"I have my reasons," his tone is soft and cool and she feels the annoyance rising in her stomach again.
"Dammit Hook, wo-"
"She'll bloody kill you, Swan! She'll kill you and your family and I refuse to be responsible for that!" he finally broke, voice tearing angrily from his throat, eyes pooling, hand dragging angrily through his hair.
She feels sick and her head is pounding and she knows who 'she' is but she has to ask anyway.
"Who?" the words crumbled on her tongue.
His eyes fell to the ground with resentment, cold and empty.
"The witch."
Her thudded against her chest as a million accusations flooded her mind and she tried to ignore them but the nagging was too much, too much to breath around.
"You're working with her?" she could hardly get the words around the lump dragging at the back of her throat, the burning pressing against her eyes.
His own eyes widen in shock.
"No!" but he knew it wasn't enough and growled a curse at the ground, meeting her eyes again only to clench his jaw in resign. "She cursed me, Emma," he told her under his breath, eyes flickering around them uneasily.
The realization tightened in her stomach uneasily and she searched his face with fear.
"How? What did she do to you?"
"I can't bloody tell you," he repeated through clenched teeth, and her heart thudded as her eyes lingered on his lips.
He was protecting her family.
He was her family.
"True loves kiss," she told him softly, fighting her voice to hold it up. "It breaks any curse."
"Swan—" he began to protest.
She reached out cautiously, curling her fingers over the leather of her shoulders without hardly thinking, stepping into him, trying to ignore how her heart seemed to be trying to fly out of her throat.
He tensed immediately but then let out a heavy stuttering breath, bowing his head towards her until their noses brushed and she could see something churning in his eyes that was off and wrong and resenting and angry and just as their lips had nearly met he pulled away with a start, stumbling backwards.
She felt an angry blush immediately burn into her cheeks, because she was wrong, wrong, wrong, and how could he ever have loved her?
"Swan…" he began, but she cut him off with a shake of her head, chewing the inside of her cheek and forcing the lump back down into her throat over and over again.
"I'm… Sorry," she managed through a tight smile and forced herself to turn, to just walk so she didn't have to see him and his damn puppy eyes that pleaded with her.
"Swan!" he repeated, and he was following her and he was grabbing her wrist and holding her there. She tugged her arm from his grasp and hurried on, but then he took her shoulders and held her until she was forced to turn around.
He broke again when he saw her tears, and it didn't make sense, he didn't make sense, and she wanted to scream.
"I trusted you," she said, and her voice was so shaky and weak that she almost cried harder. "What the hell do you really want, if it's not me after all?"
She knew her words were selfish but she couldn't find it in her to frigging care because he was all she ever bothered being selfish about, because he wanted her to be selfish (or so she thought).
She swallowed the afterthought that she should've known someone loving her, really loving her, was too good to be true.
"Gods, I do want you. Of course I bloody want you!" Tears shone in the corners of his eyes and that pain he'd fought to hide earlier bore into her.
"Then tell me the truth, Killian!"
"I've told you all the truths I can, you know that Swan. I haven't lied to you but I cannot tell you more. She will kill your family… Henry…"
And there he was protecting her again, protecting her family again. Protecting Henry.
"That's exactly why I need to know," the words come off her tongue quivering and his eyes search hers in fear. But she knows she's cornered him, and he lets out a heavy breath.
"She cursed my kiss," he told her slowly, voice hushed and eyes hooded, "To drain you of your magic."
The words sunk into her and her heart stuttered and a painful chill ran down her spine, mixed eerily with a wave of relief.
"Kiss me, Killian," she ordered gently, eyes begging. She felt resigned and frightened, of course she did. But there was only one option.
"Swan…" he was startled, eyes wide, "Emma, she'll kill you."
She shook her head softly.
"I can't put my life above everyone else's," she told him, nearly shivering at how steadily his eyes stared into hers.
"She's right," a voice clucked beside her, and she jumped at the sight of Zelena, emerging from the shadows of the alley beside them. "Oh dear, did I startle you? Sincerest apologies." She smirked and Emma moved to step in front of Hook and the same moment he did for her. She glanced sideways at him for half a moment, meeting his defiant eyes for a fleeting second.
"You're really getting on my bad side, witch," Emma spat, and Zelena's grin only widened.
"Pity. I can relate, dear, as your pirate is rather on mine," her smile melted into a tight line, eyes flaming with annoyance as she turned on him. "Couldn't keep a secret, could you?"
"Love isn't about keeping secrets," he muttered, voice dry and hoarse and Emma's heart ached.
"Love?" the witch rose an eyebrow and let out a soft spurt of laughter, "You think she loves you? A pirate? Her true love is dead. Your love for her? That is weakness, pirate."
With every word the witch spat, Hook folded further in on himself, further away from her, from the witch, from himself. She felt hollowed out and cold and part of her—no, all of her… couldn't bear it. His visible pain surged through her angrily and it was the last straw.
She turned sideways and grabbed his shoulders, running a hand up his neck and twisting her fingers into his silky hair and before he can react, dragging his lips down, down, down until they were pressed gently to hers. And she kissed him. He protested at first, but she could tell when he sunk into her that he thought it was too late, that the witch would kill her the moment they parted. He captured her lips between his and kissed her fiercely, hand tangling in her hair and holding her there and as she deepened the kiss and sunk further into him she thought he might never let her go, and she might've been okay with that.
Power swirled around them and a teensy part of her wondered if it was her magic— but a much larger part knew, simply knew, it couldn't be.
When their lips finally, hesitantly, parted, his breathing was shaky and her mind spun. But she forced herself to turn on the witch.
"You're wrong," she said firmly, coolly, and took a step towards her instinctively. She wasn't scared, not even a bit. She felt Hook touch her shoulder cautiously but hardly noticed it. The witch didn't look frightened either, but her stance and expression were both uneasy. "Love is strength, you bitch," her voice was icier by the moment, and now the witch began to cower, if ever so slightly, away from her, "And my true love is alive."
Her power was buzzing through her now, and thanks to Regina's lessons she isn't losing any of it to uncontrolled outbursts of wind. She feels it prickling in her fingertips, roaring in he stomach, burning in her heart, and she takes one final look at the woman who'd completely broken Killian and that was all it took for all of it to tear angrily from her hands and shoot towards her— there was a crack and a cloud of smoke, and the place in the alley where she'd stood burst into flames where her magic hit, burning and crackling away to reveal only charred concrete.
Emma could only stare for a moment, swallowing hard and struggling to soothe her racing heart until he suddenly touches her shoulder again, coming around in front of her. His eyes are soft and hopeful and so, so blue.
She wants to be angry with him, for keeping the curse from her, for not believing she loved him, for thinking she ever possibly would rather him suffer than risk honesty.
"I thought—" he began, and her heart skips a beat and her mind goes blank as she tugged him in for another kiss.
"You were wrong."