Killian pushed the heavy door of The Rabbit Hole open and scanned the dimly lit room for his drinking companions. Spotting Charming and Robin at the end of the bar, he made his way over, narrowly avoiding the dwarf he could never remember the name of on his way.
Robin clapped him on the shoulder as he sat down on the barstool.
"Jones, what took you so long?"
"Sorry mates, I ran into Archie on the way here and he wanted to see how I was doing after the whole heart thing. Man, that cricket can really talk, huh?"
Charming chuckled at that. "Yeah, it's his job…mate."
Killian motioned to the bartender for his usual while Robin and Charming resumed the conversation they were in the middle of before he arrived.
"So, yeah…I woke her up from a sleeping curse. Rainbow light show lit up the forest after that. It was pretty spectacular, if not incredibly stressful."
Pointing to the tattoo on his arm, Robin quipped, "Well, I guess I was lucky then. All I had to do was get inked. I haven't had to test it yet, but Tink assured Regina we were the real deal."
"Oh great, are you two swapping True Love stories again?" Killian grumbled and took a big swig of his rum.
Glancing to the pirate who was brooding into his glass, Charming reluctantly admitted, "Your time will come, Jones. Hopefully not any time soon though, as I'm not relishing living through another curse in the near future."
Killian scratched behind his ear, his tell that something was making him nervous. "Er, don't hold your breath, mate. Been there, tried that. It didn't work."
Charming choked on his beer and Robin stared incredulously at the pirate.
"You what? When? You tried True Love's kiss on my daughter and I am just hearing about this now?
"Well, I wasn't exactly keen on sharing the tale, to be honest. But yes, when I went to retrieve Emma in New York I kissed her at her door. She didn't remember a thing, except how much she likes hitting me, apparently. Or kneeing, as the case may be."
Charming rose at this and came over to Killian, sitting down to his right and patting him on the shoulder. "Killian, in all the times you've been subjected to my love story with Snow, have you ever really paid attention?"
"I bloody lived part of it mate, or have you forgotten your old friend, Prince Charles?"
"No, I haven't forgotten. But our story went on much longer than that. I tried True Love's kiss on Snow once and it didn't work for me either."
"Wait…how is that possible? You just told Robin here about the rainbow light and sleeping curse breaking you two shared."
"Yeah, that was the second time. The first time, Snow had taken a potion to forget me. So, when I kissed her, well….she knocked me out and tied me to a tree."
Killian couldn't help but remember back to a time when Snow's daughter had him tied to a tree, and then later…knocked him out. Like mother like daughter. "So are you telling me that True Love's kiss won't work when one of the people doesn't have their memories?"
"Yeah, you have to remember that you love the other person in order for it to work."
Killian pondered this for a moment, swirling the remaining rum in his glass. He honestly thought he and Emma weren't True Love's, but he was content with what they had. The hope he had cast away was suddenly back, full force.
Killian turned to Robin with a mischievous look in his eye. "Hey, any chance you can convince Regina to cast a curse so I can give this another go?"
David slammed his beer on the table at that. "Jones, I will punch you in the face….again."
"What? I just want to be a member of your "True Love Club", that's all. You have t-shirts, right?"
