"Emma, wait! Emma!"
The blonde girl turned her head around only long enough to stick her tongue out at him before taking off again.
Killian groaned, glancing back at the stables one last time and running after her.
"Emma!" he had almost caught up with her when she came to a stop, panting but smiling her annoying little i-bested-you-again smile.
Truth be told, princess Emma had had prince Killian wrapped around her little finger ever since they were 2 years old and he let her play with all his toys, even his little ship. There was nothing on earth she loved more than running around with him and creating mayhem. They were every servant's nightmare from the moment they started walking. Which Emma found a lot more amusing than the fond smiles and the whole 'youngest true loves' everyone was going on about. Adults could be so gross sometimes.
"Come on," Emma grinned at the blue-eyed boy. "It's not much further."
"Where are we going? I have a riding lesson!" Killian ran a hand through his unruly hair, looking behind him, expecting to hear him name shouted throughout the whole kingdom any moment now.
"You promised to help me get my compass back," Emma put her hands on her hips, a perfect imitation of her mother when Charming was trying to weasel out of helping with the preparations for the latest ball.
"I will. But does it have to be right now?" and his whine was a perfect copy of his dad's when Ariel was trying to tell them the sailing lesson was over.
"Yes," replied Emma, feeling no need to further explain herself.
She turned around and continued through the tall grass, towards her destination. Sure that Killian would follow.
Which he did.
"You know," he said. "You can just ask my dad to give you another one."
The little princess bit her lip nervously, glancing down.
"It's no big deal that you lost it."
"I didn't lose it!" she whirled around, golden hair flying and green eyes blazing.
Killian took a step back, raising his hands in surrender.
"I told you," she said, taking a deep breath. "The bird came out of nowhere and just grabbed it! I ran after it but I can't exactly fly now, can I?"
She huffed in annoyance and they walked in silence for the next 5 minutes before the blonde came to a sudden halt, Killian crashing into her back and almost falling on his ass. She glanced behind her, rolling her eyes at him, and pointed toward one of the three highest trees in front of them.
"There. I'm sure it dropped it on this one," she nodded, face set in determination even as her eyes shone with nervousness. "We just have to climb and find its nest."
"Oh, is that all?" asked Killian sarcastically, lifting an eyebrow and stepping in front of her to expect the enormous tree. "No giants on top to make it more interesting?"
Emma rolled her eyes again.
"Don't be such a drama queen. We've climbed hundreds of trees," she said confidently even as her eyes wondered up anxiously.
"We haven't climbed this one," replied Killian, following her gaze.
The blonde tucked her hair behind her ears, licking her lips nervously. Killian sighed. This girl was gonna be the end of him.
"Tick tock, princess. I'd like to get on my horse sometime today," he said, moving to the tree and quickly choosing a side to start climbing on.
Seeing the boy already a few feet off the ground, Emma shook her head, gathered her courage and proceeded to follow.
15 minutes later, both of them were sitting on a couple of strong thick branches and eyeing the huge nest in front of them.
"How are we gonna find anything in this mess?" growled Emma.
"By looking," came Killian's reply as he was already aligning himself so that he could rummage around the nest with one hand while holding on to a branch with the other.
"Hey, look! Our eye-patches!" exclaimed Emma after a minute, waving two black pieces of cloth in front of his face.
"And my hook!" cried Killian, grabbing onto the toy he had made for himself out of one too many kitchen utensils, to the great displeasure of the cook. "And your sword!"
Emma's eyes lit up.
"Throw them down on the grass. We can play 'pirates and knights' tomorrow!" she said excitedly. "Oh, look, my tiara. Mom has been looking for that for the last two weeks."
The princess gave the hated object a dark look. She could never understand its purpose and Killian constantly made fun of the way she tried to eat without bending her head when she wore it.
"Yeah, let's leave that here," she decided, throwing it back into the pile of random objects in the nest.
Killian grinned but kept his mouth shut. He didn't need to be dealing with a pissed off Emma while trying to keep his balance on a very high tree. Suddenly, the sun fell on something in the furthest end of the nest.
"Emma!" he pointed towards the golden compass, shining in the light.
"I got it!" she yelled in excitement, moving to grab it since she was closer.
"Wait! Wait!" but before he could say anything else, the blonde was reaching over with the hand she had been using to hold onto the tree, steadying herself on her legs.
"It's ok. I have it!"
One second Emma was proudly waving the compass in the air and Killian was grinning at her with pride, the next - her leg slipped.
"EMMA!" Killian heard her knees hit the hard surface as she started falling and saw her hand desperately grab onto the thick branch closest to her.
"KILLIAN!" Emma cried out in fear as she tried to reach towards the tree with her feet but only managed to strain her arms further.
The boy jumped on the branch next to him, almost losing his balance too, and dropped to his knees on the one that Emma was holding onto, his legs making a sort of bridge between the two. He grabbed her hands.
Emma was trying hard not to cry out but her arms hurt and she was just realizing exactly how high that damn tree was and Killian was holding her hands but there were tears in his blue eyes. Suddenly she wanted to wear that stupid tiara for her mom and have a fight with real swords with her father and ride her horse again and have 'the youngest true love' and never ever let go of Killian's hand but her arms hurt so much and there were tears in her eyes too.
"I'm gonna pull you up!" said Killian, his voice full of confidence except for the way it broke on the last word.
"Find something to hold onto!" yelled Emma but he ignored her.
"Grab my arm!" he instructed her, bending his left arm so that his elbow was resting on the branch, while he reached with his right one to grab her own elbow and pull her up. "Bring your leg up! Come on, Emma! You can do it!"
"I can't!" she cried out, her nails digging into his forearm.
"Emma," his voice cut through her panic. "Look at me! Have I ever lied to you? I'm telling you, you can do this!"
The little princess clenched her teeth, holding onto the boy who had pulled her half up, and brought her leg as high as she could, hooking it on the branch. Killian pulled one more time, nearly falling over backwards, and then she was up on the branch next to him and her arms were around him. He hugged her, squeezing the life out of her.
"Killian! Air!" Emma pulled back, keeping her hold on him with one hand and whipping away her tears with the other.
"This is why you should never be the one to decide what we do," he growled at her but the corners of his mouth were twitching upwards.
"Oh, please, it could have just as easily been you hanging off that branch."
"Actually, no." he smirked at her. "I'm just more stable on my feet."
Emma narrowed her eyes.
"This is all you get, you know that, right? Next time I'm pushing you off that tree, life-saving or no."
"Aye, aye, keep telling yourself that, princess," he finally let go of her, eyeing the branches beneath them and trying to figure out the best way down. "How are you legs?"
He frowned at her bleeding knees but Emma shrugged it off.
"I'll survive. Let's get down before someone finds out where we are."
Half an hour later Emma was scrubbing the blood off her skin, mentally picking the longest dress she had and praying that Snow didn't notice the wounds. Suddenly, a glass was stuck under her nose. She took it from Killian's hand, lifting an eyebrow at the juice inside.
He shrugged. Their parents had learnt to keep the alcohol, and especially the rum, under lock after one particular incident a few months before.
"To our first adventure!" he said triumphantly, raising his own glass.
Emma grinned, clicking her glass against his.
"To the many more to come!"