A hero's journey.
Sometimes, if he stood quietly on the Jolly and closed his eyes, Killian could sometimes hear his brother's words echo back through the centuries.
A hero.
Killian learned to read by a book of poetry he had found on the ground after falling off of a cart. For years after, he had felt a tad bit guilty about that. It would have been far more noble to attempt to find the owner. However, he had been so young at the time, so he eventually let go of that guilt.
Looking back, he knows that snatching that book from the dirt had been one of the best things that he had ever done.
Many a dark nights alone on the Jolly he had read the tales in that book. He read of all sorts of things. But the tale he read over and over was the story of Iris and her Demitri. The tale of a beautiful lady and the dashing knight who rescued her. They fell in love, and even though they faced hardships, they always found one another.
He would never admit it then, but he was a romantic through and through.
He had met Milah when he had protected her from a creepy man. He had done that for many a fair maiden in his long life. Milah had later told his he was like a knight in armor to her that first night.
Emma had entered his life like a windstorm. It knocked him over how bloody brilliant and amazing she was.
Emma didn't need a hero, she didn't need a knight in shining armor to save her. Hell, she was a savior in her own right.
Killian loved and admired his strong woman. He loved that they were a team. She was perfect to him. But there was still a tiny part of him, a tiny piece that formed as a longing youth that desperately, silently, ached to be that knight in armor for his Swan.
Killian didn't want to a hero, he wanted to be her hero.
"Belle, why do you like that book so much?"
Belle looked up from her place at the stack of tombs she was going through, "I'm sorry?"
"Your book, the one you gave Gideon. Why does it mean so much to you?"
"Well, my mother read it to me, it's really all I have left of her."
"But it's more than sentiment, you like the story right?
"Of course! It's so romantic. You see, my favorite part is when she meets Gideon, but doesn't realize just who he is until chapter three….
She began prattling on about details but Killian didn't hear it.
That evening, Killian was lost in thought, tidying up the kitchen while Emma went upstairs to take a quick shower. Suddenly, he heard a crash followed by a high scream.
"Hook! Hook, come quick!"
He sprinted up the stairs, finding Emma in the hallway pacing in a circle.
"Swan! What's wrong?!"
"There's a mouse in the bathroom!"
Killian's eyebrows shot up on their own. "Pardon?"
"There is a mouse in the bathroom! Can you get it out!? Please! But don't kill it! Just get rid of it!"
Killian slipped into the bathroom and indeed there was a tiny mouse, as long as his thumb in the bathtub. It took about a minute to sweep the tiny creature into the trashcan. He walked it out and dumped it into the street.
He came back into the house and set the bin down.
"Crises averted, love. The beast is in exile as we speak."
Emma sighed but still looked thoroughly horrified by the encounter.
"Ugh. Thank you so much. Mice creep me out."
Killian smirked at, "Didn't you slay a dragon once?"
"I'd take a dragon over a mouse. I HATE mice!"
Killian's eyes roamed down the notebook in his hand, brow furrowed in concentration. He slipped the pencil from it's place behind his ear and circled a few figures. He then slid the notebook to Henry who sat next to him at the kitchen table.
"Here is the problem lad," Hook said, pointing with the pencil. You forgot to multiply these two figures."
Henry sighed, "Thanks Killian."
Emma looked up, from her paperwork from the sheriff's station "You're a lifesaver, I never had a head for math."
"You'd be surprised what they teach you in the Royal Navy."
"How about we got on a trip?" Emma asked Hook as he was taking off his waistcoat for bed.
He quirked an eyebrow? "A trip?"
"I need to go to Boston, where I lived before I moved here. There is this thing I am going to, it's sortof a big deal." She hesitated. " Would you maybe want to come with me?" She bit her lip nervously.
Killian beamed, "I am delighted to accompany you on this quest, love."
She sighed her relief. "Thank God, I owe you one."
"No!"
Killian started awake to his the sound of his love's distress.
The room was black and Emma was thrashing in her sleep, whimpering.
"Killian! No, no please, no! Don't leave me!"
"Emma, love, wake up!"
He shook her gently, and she started awake and gasped, her eyes wide with fear.
"It was just a dream."
Emma was shaking, and her arms went around him.
She burrowed her face in his neck, Holding him tightly as her sobs began to overtake her.
"Shh, love it's alright."
"I lost you."
"No, you haven't. I'm right here." Killian's hand cupped the back of her head.
"You'll never lose me."
Killian walked up the stairs with the plastic grocery bag from Doc hanging from his hook. He could hear noise from Emma's laptop playing, so he quietly stepped inside.
Indeed, she was right where he had left her; lying wrapped around a pillow, with the computer in front of her.
She looked up from where she lay, and winced as she sat up. He handed her the bag and sat down next to her on the bed.
"How are you feeling, darling?"
She made a face as she opened the package labeled Midol. "Not great." She admitted quietly, sounding a bit embarrassed.
"The first day is always the worst." Emma smiled softly at him. "Thank god you're here. I don't think I could've gone to the store by myself."
"I'm sure you would've managed. You always have before."
She gave him a strange look at that, but said nothing as she swallowed down the pills.
"Anything else I can do?"
"Stay with me for a while?"
"As you wish."
Killian had sent Emma a text at noon saying that the weather was going to turn quite foul. The air thickened as he instinctively sensed something worse was coming.
He would be a poor excuse of a pirate if he couldn't sense a storm from a mile away.
She hadn't replied, so she would be caught unaware.
So, he had tossed their dinner in an ingenious invention called the "slow-cooker" and gone to the store to gather groceries, in case they were holed up for a few days.
By the time Emma's yellow car pulled up to their how, the sky was grey and the snow was falling steadily. He was throwing a few more logs in the fireplace when a shivering Emma entered their home.
He greeted her by pulling her in front of the fire and wrapping her in a blanket.
"Tonight's dinner is soup. But get warm first."
"Emma sighed, looking at him gratefully as she took the hot mug from his hand.
"What would I do without you?"
He kissed her head as he handed a cocoa with cinnamon. "You'll never need to find out."
He was lying on his side in their bed, when he felt slender arms snake around his waist, and Emma's sweet scent surrounded him.
She was warm and pliant, having just emerged from a hot bath. He brought his arms to meet hers and he felt her forehead rest on back. She sighed as she snuggled into his warmth.
"You're like my knight in shining armor, you know that?"
Killian's heart swelled at he words, but he choked a bit.
"What? You are."
"I'm hardly a knight, love." Killian argued softly.
Emma's embrace around his middle tightened "Killian Jones, when are you ever going to stop being so hard on yourself?"
He rolled over to face her.
"Hook, even if we don't consider how many times you've died for me, or all things you have done to fight evil. It's like everyday you are a better man. I mean, you take care of me. Like, really take care of me, every day. You bring me my lunch and help Henry with his homework…"
"A grilled cheese and some geometry is hardly an act of valor."
"I never had anyone to do those little things for me before. You know that."
She brought her hand up to stroke his face as she tried to find the words.
"You're the one person in this world who has never, ever let me down."
She smiled, "In any life, in any world, you're not just a hero, you're my hero."
Killian felt a prick at the back of his throat. In that moment, Killian was that young man again, sitting up reading poetry by candlelight, and it was like a piece of him was healed.
A tiny part of him, the young Killian from centuries ago was finally, finally made whole.
"Aye, love." He pulled her in close enough to brush his lips to her forehead.
"And you are mine."
A bit of hiatus fueled angst drabble. No beta. I do not own these characters, just taking them out to play for a bit.
Prompt included "The air thickened as he instinctively sensed something worse was coming."