Rain cascaded down from above creating a thick blanket all around us as we navigated our way through the forest. We had came to land in search for Emma's lad and hoped the Piccaninny tribe would give us assistance. Some things were too good to hope for apparently as the bloody Crocodile lost patience with the cautious yet still gracious chief. Being the Dark One didn't always make a man exempt from the rules and customs of the tribe. It was generally good form to show the utmost respect towards a gentleman's host especially if you were going to request their aid.
Emma and I turned to look at one another at the Crocodile's unusual loss of composure and patience with a mixture of confusion and exasperation. We knew immediately what the other had been thinking and the subsequent feelings about the whole affair that was playing out in front of our very eyes like a scene of gruesome horror no one could stop. Of course he would pick that time of all times in all the realms to show his damn arse.
Things took their natural course and during the resulting fight, we became split up. The Prince sprinted off in the center with the Crocodile towards the beach. Snow and Regina diverted off to the right towards Marooner's Rock. That left Emma and myself veering to the left into the forest nearby. The strong storm began not long after the separation complete with deafening thunder crashing overhead.
We ran through the forest weaving in and out through the dense foliage as the sounds of the tribe in pursuit rang in our ears. I knew of a tiny abandoned shelter hut not far off just outside of the tribe's territory that we could use as refuge until the storm passed. I came to a halt to obtain my bearings when I realized Emma was no longer with me. I quickly rounded on my heel around back towards the tribe's village with only a single thought in my mind. Please don't let them catch her.
I could feel the ugly, roaring monster deep within my chest rearing up at that mere thought. I violently and ruthlessly shoved him back into his cage. I gave him up and laid that down for her. He's not coming back. He will if anything happens to her. I shook my head to banish those thoughts from my mind and forced myself to focus and began doubling back; taking great care to scan the surrounding area through the torrential downpour. The sheets of rain pouring down and covering my face made it difficult to see as searched.
I heard muffled grunting just off to my left as I felt the panic and the monster within push against the cage bars in my chest and mind. Without a moment's further of hesitation, I followed the sound to it's source. Within a matter of a couple of minutes I found her lying on the ground on her side as she struggled to free her ankle from the confines of a vine. The rustling of the soaking wet leaves under my boots and the snapping of a twig alerted her to my presence. Her head speedily flew up to look at me as I approached her. She was thoroughly soaked through to the bone. Her long, blonde tresses plastered itself to her head, face and shoulders.
"Hook?" she questioned softly in awe; her mouth gaping slightly open and her sea colored eyes widening fractionally.
"Yes, darling. You can't tell that it's me?" I countered.
"There is a tribe of Indians after us, it's raining cats and dogs making it hard to see and, if you couldn't tell already, this damn vine doesn't want to let me go because it apparently thinks it would be funny to watch me drown," she replied deadpanned. She glanced to my hook then back up to my face gently squinting her eyes against the water flowing down her porcelain face. "Do you mind?" she asked, gesturing to my hook.
I jerked forward the moment her request registered in my mind. I leaned forward and quickly sliced the tangled vine from her slender, black boot clad ankle. Not wasting a second, she grasped my hand and I pulled her up onto her feet. We once again moved in unison in the direction we original traveled.
"There's a small hut just up ahead. It's just past the boundaries of the tribe's territory. They won't follow us there. We can wait for this to finish blowing over before getting back to the Jolly Roger!" I called to her as loud as I dared.
"Are you sure it's still there?" she inquired just as the hut came into view. "Well, that answers that question," she said a moment later after laying eyes on it.
We sped up our pace breaking out into a sprint all the way to the small, arching door. I shoved it open then grabbed Emma's wrist gently pulling and guiding her inside before hastily closing the door behind us. For several minutes, their was only the sound of our harsh, rapid breathing as we began to slowly recover from the trek. Emma looked around the small confines of our shelter taking inventory of what it had to offer us as we waited out the storm.
"Guess we're roughing it," she breathed. I gave her a questioning look in which she gestured around us. "No way to make a fire so we can at least dry off a little and keep warm while we wait. No dry wood nearby and no safe place to build it without setting the whole place on fire."
"Oh," I answered. The flash from a lightning strike nearby illuminated the room. A thin line of blood stretched from her right palm to her wrist disappearing under the cuff of her jacket. "You're hurt," I murmured as I began to close the distance between us and reached for her hand.
"What?" she asked. She looked at herself until she gazed upon the hand in question and noticed the wound.
"Your hand. It's hurt. Again," I responded as I took her hand into my own. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything to wrap it in. A certain person kept mine. She wrapped my hook in it after she took it from my rightful possession then placed it in the top drawer of her desk at her place of employment."
"It's fine," she said even though a beautiful blush blossomed on the visibly cool skin of her face.
"No, it's not."
"Killian, leave it," she huffed out as she rolled her eyes in exasperation.
My eyes leapt to lock with hers without a moment's pause. She froze where she stood clearly taken by as much surprise by what she had said. She slowly raised her wide, shocked eyes to met mine. We stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity. The air heated as time passed. Prickly tingles raced across my skin leaving the sensation of tiny flames in their wake. The sound of my name coming from her lips unshackled something deep within my heart and mind that answered the call she had sent to it.
Fingertips ghosted up the length of her arm from wrist to shoulder. They continued onward in their ascent until they reached their intended destination. With the lightest of caresses, they traced the contours of the silky soft flesh of her cheek as the treasure found upon its plains to memory. Emma's breath hitched slightly at the tentative and gentle exploration.
Time and movement seemed to slow a snail's crawl as she took the tiny step forward towards me. I felt her hand grazed on my left wrist and embarked on it slow journey up my arm mimicking what I had done to her. The only difference had been she glanced down at her hand as it made the climb for a brief moment before returning her eyes back to mine.
She let head head fall a touch to the side as she craned it up the tiny distance there had been between us. She pressed her lips lightly against mine sending a jolt of heat through my body. My eyes drifted close as I savored the feel and taste of what I had found myself longing for since she had tied me to that bloody tree.
Her hand found its way to my cheek and began massaging my cheek as we allowed our lips to communicate in a language all their own and we somehow understood completely. The hypnotic rhythm they created both soothed and inflamed by turns. Shivers sped down my spine as her hand fell from my cheek down to my chest. Fingertips grazed the exposed skin my shirt didn't cover making me tremble as our mouths continued to move in tandem.
A faint moan escaped from one us. Who it had been, I couldn't tell. All I knew at that moment was the tip of Emma's tongue tracing a slow arc across my bottom lip as I felt both of her hands at make contact with my stomach. I instinctively parted my lips granting her gentle request and was rewarded with the feel of her tongue against my own.
My hand moved to the back of her head as I drew in a shaky breath. I felt my long, black leather jacket being pushed wide and began to slide off my shoulders. I released her head only long enough to allow it to glide down my arms. Her arms slightly waved out behind me as soon as the jacket had became free. I vaguely heard it land on the floor with a soft thud as my hand plunged back into her hair.
A louder moan resonated in my ears but I knew who made it that time. I had and I clenched my hand around the nap of her neck as I deepened the kiss. The restraint I had been exercising snapped at the loosening of my vest. My hand flew to her jacket and began working the buttons free. She shrugged it off and tossed it careless to the side before responding in kind by yanking my vest from off my shoulders. I used the momentum she created to fling it in the general direction of her jacket went.
Cold, soaking clothe flew as we divested them from each other in haste. When we collided once again, there was nothing between us. Soft, silky skin moved against mine as we collapsed to the floor. The feel of wet leather against my exposed flesh broke the enchantment I had fallen under for a split second before I realized it was my jacket. I gazed down at it then to Emma. She gave me a nonchalant shrug.
"Bloody brilliant, love," I whispered as I began to pull her back to me.
Instead, she firmly placed a hand on my chest over my heart and gently pushed me onto my back. She threw a tone, slender leg over my hip resulting in her straddling my hips. I reclined back keeping my eyes locked with hers as she cupped my left wrist in her open palm and raised it towards her. The hand that had been on my chest joined her other and mine. She lightly glided a finger over the hook. She watched her finger as it traveled slowly from sharp tip to its base. My breathing became ragged witnessing her action above me. Once the fingertip reached the base of the hook, she met my gaze with tempestuous eyes of her own.
"This is a part of you," she stated, voice strong and passionate. "But it's not who you really are...Killian," she finished.
She wrapped her hand around the hook and twisted it. The click of it unlocking resonated through the room as she pulled it free. She let it drop beside us as she kept her eyes dead locked with mine. I knew what she meant. She saw right through the colorful moniker I had adopted all those centuries ago. She understood why I had done it and it's sole purpose. I had let that purpose go when I laid my revenge down at the Crocodile's feet. The past weeks I had been slowly allowing that armor to fall away from me piece by little piece and she had seen it. The man it once hid and protected had been taking his first real yet cautious steps out from behind it and breathing fresh air for the first time in over three hundred years. She was then beseeching me to finish it and to rid myself of it entirely and allow that man his full identity once more. She had been giving me one more choice, one more offer.
I gave her the answer to that offer the most powerful way anyone could. I bolted up as hard steel clanged onto the floor pulling my hookless arm free from her grasp and wrapped it around her back crushing her to me. My hand flew into her hair cementing her position as I slammed my mouth onto hers. She wrapped her arms around me and answered in kind.
My hand released its hold on the back of her head to ease down her spine with my palm. Shivers racked her frame as it trailed downwards and she pressed herself even closer to me. Just as my hand reached neat the small of her back, it veered off course and glided to her side. She nipped at my bottom lip as a means of relating her opinion of the new destination. My lips turned into a tiny grin which earned me a low growl.
She had never been one to be outdone and she gave me a reminder of that fact. She rocked her hips over my length declaring she had accepted my challenge. A groan rose from deep within my throat and my hand pressed harder into her flesh as it slid up to encase her breast. I squeezed it gently molding it over and over again in my palm. Her breath began to become ragged as she continued to rock against me with increasing insistence. I couldn't stop the thought from forming in my mind. Quite passionate, Swan. Yes, she very much was my passionate Swan.
Well, if she wanted it passionate. I had never been one to deny a lady. I removed my hand from her breast and encircled her body in my arms again as I leaned slightly forward. It sent her body a little off balance and I used the momentum to flip our positions. It had taken her off guard by the widening of her eyes as she gazed up at me. I pressed her into the jacket and floor with my body as I leaned on my left arm to keep from crushing with my full weight. I gently signaled for her to wrap those marvelous legs of hers around me with my other. As always, she quickly got the idea without any further prompting.
I turned my head only long enough to grab her hand with that same hand and lace our fingers together. I gently pushed our hands down onto the floor next to her head and made sure my weight was firmly supported by my other arm once more. When I returned my eyes to hers, first confusion then understanding shown in their sea colored depths.
I slowly slid into her as our eyes remained locked. I felt the warm resistance of her body as I gently pushed. Emma threw her head back against the floor and closed her eyes as her back slightly arched. A sound from the back of her throat filtered to my ears. It had been more of a pleased sigh than a moan or simple breathing. The hand that held hers shook at the sensations assaulting both of us. I held my body still as I could as I allowed her to adjust. The warmth and tightness of her body hadn't made it easy and my breath came out in ragged pants.
"Look at me," I whispered hoarsely. I hadn't trusted it to be any louder in volume. "Please, Emma, look at me."
When she finally did, she must have seen something in my eyes as they bore down into hers. Many things flashed within her eyes with lightning speed. She seemed to be searching for something, some kind of answer, before she craned up neck up the fraction of distance to place a gentle kiss upon my lips before lowering her head back down.
"I love you," I whispered against her lips.
"I love you, too," she replied simply in the same hushed tones.
My hand tightened hard around hers at her words. I began to move, drawing myself achingly slow out of her. The sweet sensation flooded through both of us as her body began moving of its own volition and her eyes remained locked with mine. The pace our bodies set was both delicious and maddening. Fluid, silken and undulated. Our movements together were as we were in every other situation and interaction we had together; complimentary and functional.
Memories flooded my mind. Of the beanstalk where I drew the giant's attention and led him to a position she could hit with the poppy powder from her vantage point on the towering statue. She placed the magic bean into the palm of my hand then I threw it out into the bay creating the portal that brought us to Neverland. Her moving the stern back and forth as I steering the wheel while sailing the Jolly Roger. Words past said echoed through memory. Ooo...tough lass. You'd make one hell of a pirate. I hate to upset you, Emma, but we make quite a team.
It was instinctive in the ease of which we moved. She knew just how to elongate my strokes to deepen my pleasure as she arched her back to deepen her own. At the same time, I knew just how deep, hard and fast to thrust to make her breath catch in her throat and tremble both inside and out as it did the same to me. We were already synced to the rhythms of the other.
Our breathes were still even and controlled as hers was hot on my lips and mingling with my own deep exhalations. All too quickly I began to feel the mistakable coiling of tension deep in my belly as I felt the tension in hers became taut. The shiver that ran through her thighs as she squeezed me close. But our pace didn't increase. It stayed steady and measured. She didn't pointedly arch herself into me to force me to speed up or doing anything for either of us. Instead, she rocked with me at that slow, sweet and almost melancholy pace our bodies had predetermine for us. The only tell of the tempest raging inside either one of us was the crushing of our hands by the other as they remained laced together beside her head.
Our eyes remained locked with one another as I felt every nuance of her beautiful, living breathing body under on mine. As I rocked down, she rocked her body gently up. Every hot breath from both of us mingled together between our lips and made our desperately clenched hands quiver. The trembling racking both of our bodies grew to a fever pitch. Her eyes widened slightly and my real name tumbled from her lips on a whisper as her back arched slightly. Her hips met mine once more as her head fell back against the floor and her eyes fluttered closed. Her inner muscles vibrated around me snapping my control.
I whispered her name as loud as I dared. She opened her hazy, sated eyes to lock them back on mine. One, two, three more thrusts and I shuddered spilling myself inside her. Her hand squeezed mine almost hard enough to break it as my head fell to her shoulder. She hugged me to her as I ragged breathing evened out. We laid like that for a long time, my chest rising just as hers fell. I lowered a hand to help hoist some of my body weight off her as I lifted my head from her shoulder. I gazed down at her for several moments longer. She reached up and began stroking my face gently. I carefully rolled off of her and gathering her tightly into my side.
She rested her head in the indentation of my shoulder. Her arm wound itself across my chest as she snuggled and settled into my side. We laid there letting our heartbeats and breathing return to normal in silence. I found my hand gently stroking her arm. It hadn't been long before I felt the gentle, even rise and fall of her chest against my side alerting me to the fact sh had fallen to sleep.
I couldn't stop the grin that formed on my lips as I looked over to one of the back corners of the room. I decently sized white fire blazed warming the room comfortably. Not only had she given me hope but she really was magical after all. The sound of rainfall guided me to my own slumber.