Title: Just Like Lightning
Summary: In another time and another place, maybe this could grow into something. Maybe she could let herself fall … but not right now. Not right now.
Word Count: 1132, so sayeth OpenOffice.
Spoilers: Everything up through 3x11, "Going Home."
Characters: Emma Swan and Captain Hook.
Rating/Warning: K. Angst and sweetness and Emma being her typical stubborn self.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just playing with their toys because this ship is very quickly taking over my life, and I don't know how I'm going to survive until freakin' March.
Author's Note: I know I still owe a couple of you stories. I haven't forgotten, I promise! This is just another of my prompt-based, post-with-no-edits writing exercises. Prompt for this was Vertical Horizon's "Half Light." I promise I do listen to other bands and this is not at all what I intended to come out when I sat down to write, but I can't help which lines speak to the muse. ;) Feedback would thrill me to pieces. Enjoy!
There's something chemical in us,
And it's just like lightning.
"I quite fancy you from time to time, when you're not yelling at me."
It's just a line, Emma had told herself at the time. Just a joke to release the tension weighing down on the five of them. A joke at her expense, sure, and she'd glared at him for it, but he hadn't really meant it. He'd simply been trying to lighten the mood, trying to keep mortal enemies from tearing into each other.
He hadn't meant it.
"Perhaps I would."
That one, he'd meant. His voice had turned serious, and his posture was different, more inviting. He'd absolutely meant it, and the way her heart had skipped a beat and her knees had begun to weaken had scared the absolute crap out of her. So she'd done the only thing she could think to do: shut it all down by turning away.
"You think it's the best plan because your boyfriend came up with it?"
Oh, great, so even the Evil Queen considered Hook her boyfriend now. Fantastic. As if she needed this crap when her kid was missing and Peter freakin' Pan was evil and just holy crap. Thank goodness her mother shut Regina up by mentioning Neal because Emma did not have time nor the patience for the pettiness and the verbal swipes and just … ugh. Hook was not her damn boyfriend, for crying out loud.
Then again, the "attachment" that gave the guy his nickname was quite useful for poking holes in coconuts. He had that going for him, at any rate.
He was so … comfortable around her, and she didn't really understand why. Even when he handed her the newly opened coconut, he looked relaxed and just happy to be doing something for her. It was disconcerting but Emma was finding, to her utter shock, that she sorta kinda maybe liked the attention.
She wasn't sure when she started noticing that his eyes were always on her. Maybe it was in that moment, when she took the coconut from him and he only took his eyes off her long enough to grab a coconut for himself.
In another time and another place, maybe this could grow into something. Maybe she could let herself fall … but not right now. Not right now.
"Perhaps you're the one who couldn't handle it."
She'd tried to show him up. Hook had saved her father's life, and Emma had still tried to show him up. Perhaps she was just giddy, but she grabbed him and laid it on him.
The second their lips met, she felt it. Her heart throbbed, her blood rushed, coursing through her veins with a roar she could hear thrumming in her ears, and her knees threatened to turn to jelly. The second their lips met, she saw it. Sparks, colors bursting behind her eyelids like fireworks. She felt her fingers scrunch in his hair, she felt his hand caress the back of her head. The humidity of the Neverland air and all the sounds of the Neverland jungle faded away, and there was just the two of them. And she felt every single second of it.
No, perhaps she couldn't handle it after all.
She forced herself to pull away even though everything within her was screaming at her to stay, stay, stay here in this moment. But no, her son was out there somewhere and this was wrong and she needed to stop. She didn't need this right now, didn't need it at all.
So she pulled away and told him it was a one-time thing and told him not to follow her. And he replied, "As you wish."
Which made her smirk. He might not know what that response meant, but she certainly did. Apparently he couldn't handle it, either.
"So when I win your heart, Emma – and I will win it – it will not be because of any trickery. It will be because you want me."
Emma hated that she adored the way her name rolled off his tongue. She hated that she loved hearing her name in his pleasant accent. This was not the time and not the place. She told him as much, told him she could only focus on getting Henry back. This war for her heart could come at a later date, though she preferred it not come at all.
Henry came first. Because, as any parent knows, a kid always comes first.
And then. Then Hook told her, with utmost certainty, that she would get Henry back. She would succeed because he'd never seen her fail. As far as Hook was concerned, she always succeeded. And oh holy crap, how she'd needed to hear that. Gold had told her she was going to fail. Regina had long since lost patience with her. She'd needed to hear someone tell her that she could in fact succeed.
Fireworks behind her eyes. Sparks when he ventured too close, which was becoming more and more frequent. A cocky smile that no longer raised her hackles. It was all boiling down to the same thing, and it terrified her. And, if she was being honest with herself, it kind of thrilled her, too.
"That's quite the vessel you captain there, Swan."
Why a joke was the thing that broke her, Emma would never know. She'd remained strong through the goodbyes and the hugs but it was Hook's mocking of her car that made her drop the facade long enough for her face to crumple slightly as she sniffled. He sensed it – because damn, he was so good at reading her – and shifted tone. He knew what she needed now, and what she needed was reassurance.
So he told her that not a day would go by where he didn't think of her, and she'd replied immediately and the only way she could: "Good."
And he understood. From his little smile at her, she knew he understood. She was something of an open book, was what he'd once said to her. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.
Maybe, just maybe, he did win her heart after all. Maybe, just maybe, she wanted him to think of her, wanted him to want her, wanted him to find his way back to her. Somehow, against all odds, he could do it. When the dust had settled and when the smoke had cleared, he could find her again.
Couldn't he?
And as Emma watched him turn away, it wasn't sparks and fireworks she saw in her mind's eye. No, it was bolts of lightning. Strong and electric and powerful enough to light up the darkness, if only for a moment.