Emma Swan had just gotten off an 18-hour shift at the police station and wanted nothing more than to go pick up some food from Granny's, for her and her son Henry, go home, eat, and sleep.
The second she walked into Granny's though, that all changed.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see, in a booth toward the back, Ruby, the waitress who knew no boundaries, was basically flashing Hook her goodies - bending over his table at just the right angle in her too-deep-to-be-worn-in-public top.
Emma tried to avert her eyes, not wanting that image seared into her brain, but her head would not shut up about what it just saw.
Why should I care? Emma thought herself. I don't care. Yes you do, her gut told herself. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the voices up there.
She walked up to Granny and ordered two grilled cheeses, with a side of fries, to go, and then sat down at the counter, watching those two perverts in the corner.
By now, Ruby was basically sitting in Hook's lap with her chest at his chin.
Oh, for the love of Christ, Emma thought, getting up and sauntering over toward them.
"Ruby!" she yelled at them, taking them both off guard. "We are in public! If you're going to do what you're doing," she said pointing her up and down, "go do it somewhere more secluded or I'll have you arrested for public indecency."
Emma turned to go sit back down, but not before Hook could pull Ruby off of him and grab Emma by the arm, pulling her toward him.
"Swan, what is your problem?" he asked, staring her in the eyes.
"She was basically straddling you!" she said, pointing at Ruby.
"She's just being friendly."
"Friendly, right. That's what they call it these days," Emma scoffed.
"Why do you even care?" he asked her, done with this idiotic conversation.
"I don't!" Emma said with a huff and returned to her seat at the counter.
Emma could feel herself getting queasier by the minute. To distract herself, she pulled out a menu and studied it, seeing if there was anything at the diner she hadn't tried yet.
That was for naught, as her light reading was interrupted by loud giggling coming from behind her.
Sick and tired of not being able to get any peace, Emma jumped out of her seat, sauntered back over to Ruby, and literally pulled her off of Hook.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear!" she yelled at no one in particular. "He is mine!"
"Excuse me?" Ruby asked innocently.
"Oh, don't play that naïve game with me. He is mine! You know it! He knows it! The whole bloody town knows it! The only person who doesn't seem to know it is… me."
At that moment, Granny came out of the kitchen with Emma's order and called for her. In haste, Emma grabbed her food and ran out, too embarrassed to stick around any longer. As she ran out, she tried her best to hold back the tears that were swelling up in the corners of her eyes.
Not walking too fast, Emma could hear the bell at Granny's as the door reopened. Hook was running down the street, calling after her.
"What?!" she yelled at him, as she kept walking. She was too emotionally exhausted to care anymore. She didn't know whether she wanted to slap him or cry into his shoulder.
"What you said in there, did you mean it?" He asked her, honestly, following her down the street. "That I'm yours?"
"So what if I did?"
"So what? Emma? Look at me?" he said, pulling her back with his hook around her wrist and his hand at her chin, so she could look nowhere but in his eyes.
"Did you mean it?"
"Of course I meant it!" she said letting go of him and continuing down the street. "But obviously that doesn't matter as you'd rather have the slut of a waitress."
"Oh no you don't!" he said grabbing her around the wrist by his hook, pulling her back into him. "You do not get to just dismiss this!" With that, he kissed her wantonly. Even if this was going to get him slapped, he needed it. They both needed it.
Emma pulled back and slapped him hard across the face. "You asshole! You do not get to just… just…"
"Just what?" he asked, his cheek stinging, but not as bad as his heart.
"Just…" And with that she let go, slamming her lips into his as hard as she could, dropping the bag of food she had in her hand on the ground. She poured everything she had into that kiss, proving to him that she really did mean what she said.
A meek moan escaped Emma's lips as he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.
"You are mine and I am yours. That's it. No more running. No more games. Just this. Just us." He said, grabbing both her hands in his and motioning between the two of them.
"Just us," she said, looking up into his eyes.
They stayed like that, just looking into each other's eyes, on the corner of Main Street, until they were taken out of the moment by the bell at Granny's.
"Hey Hook," Ruby called, as she walked out of Granny's, "How'd it work?"
"Like a charm," he replied.
What the –, Emma thought, looking between him and Ruby.
Emma Swan was speechless, defeated. She had just been seriously played.
"You asshole," Emma said, pushing her and Hook's clasped hands into him, realizing what had just happened.
"What? It worked, didn't it?" He said, innocently, looking at her.
He pulled her in close to him and pressed his lips into her hair.
"You asshole," she muttered under her breath, laughing to herself.
