Storybrooke was bloody awful. If Killian had known how awful it was, he might have reconsidered his plan for revenge.

Maybe.

And worst of all, there was no way back now. Well, that wasn't quite true. There was no way back for him. There were people in town who could reopen the portal, as dangerous as it was. But none of those people were inclined to help him.

Nobody in Storybrooke was.

Considering hoe feared and disliked Rumpelstiltskin was by everybody, the captain figured he'd receive a bit more goodwill for his plans to take the sorcerer down. But his failed attempt bought him no friends, and his other actions canceled out any positive feeling the people of the town might have had for him.

One action in particular. Stealing the princess's heart. Once that little piece of information came to light, everyone started looking at him with disgust and disdain. Everyone but the princess.

She didn't look at him at all.

Aurora had hoped that Storybrooke would awaken some kind of wonder in her. Snow had told her stories around the campfire, of horseless carriages and flameless lamps and all the information anyone could need at one's fingertips at all times. It all sounded like something out of a fantastical tale. And she'd hoped that the sight of it would move something in her.

She was unsurprised that it didn't. It's hard to feel things without a heart.

Or at least that's what she thought. She'd felt so disconnect, so empty. When she found out what Captain Hook had done to her, how he'd taken her heart while she slept, she figured that explained it.

Until she heard Snow and Emma whispering to each other in their kitchen.

"I don't understand. Regina had Graham's heart and he was still able to feel," Emma had argued.

"But he thought he couldn't, remember?" he mother shot back.

"But that was just in his head. He really could. I know he could."

"Sometimes these things are more psychological than physical. I can only imagine that it's quite the burden, knowing that your heart is gone. Plus she was under that sleeping curse for so long, and then she lost her true love. The poor thing has been through so much. It's no surprise that she just shut down."

So, Aurora thought, it's my brain that's broken. Not my body.

She wasn't sure there was much of a difference.

Ruby finally took pity on him.

"You lost someone," she said to him one afternoon, sitting on the bench next to him.

"How do you figure?" he shot back with considerably less charm than he would have used before.

"I know the look. It's one I'm pretty familiar with."

She convinced Granny to let him rent a room, in exchange for him doing whatever odd job she needed done. At least it was better than her previous decree that she'd never let a monster like him under her roof.

So the once fearsome Captain Hook spent his days cleaning bathrooms and changing light bulbs while the townsfolk looked at him not with fear and awe, but disdain. He finally learned that to protect what little pride he had, he needed to just ignored them all together.

That was when the princess started watching him.

Aurora was surprised that he was still in Storybrooke. She knew he couldn't go back to the Enchanted Forest, not without the help of several people he was on the bad side of. But the curse that had kept the town isolated had lifted when Emma returned. He could have gone anywhere. Stolen a boat and just sailed away. It would have been easy.

And yet, he stayed.

She'd ignored him completely for a long time, unable to even muster hatred for him, and not wanting to give the captain the satisfaction of seeing what he'd done to her.

But the longer he stuck around, the more interested she became in what he was doing. Working for Granny, staying above the diner. She didn't know what, but she felt the need to watch him, to see him live. She was almost fascinated.

It wasn't quite a feeling, but it was close.

He felt her eyes on him all the time.

It had taken Killian two weeks to realize that Aurora was spending hours of everyday just sitting in a booth at Granny's. It had taken another day for him to realize that she was watching him.

He was embarrassed by how much his skills had slipped.

He wasn't the cocky, charming Captain Hook that Aurora remembered.

She figured that made sense, though. Defeat at the hands of Rumpelstiltskin was probably a self-esteem killer.

"Eat with me."

The voice startled him. It had been so long since he'd actually heard it.

Killian assumed she was talking to someone else, but when he turned around, Aurora was looking right at him.

He'd spent so long trying not to look at her that he was shocked by the empty looking in her eyes, her face a complete blank slate.

Had they been back in the Enchanted Forest he would have had a clever retort. But here in Storybrooke, he just looked at her, dumbfounded, and then sat in the seat across from her.

She stared.

Sometimes they ate, sometimes they simply sat there staring at each other, sometimes they didn't look at each other at all.

After two weeks, Aurora wasn't sure why she invited Hook to sit with her ever day.

But she was surprised by how comfortable she was in his presence.

Finally, Killian couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you just trying to torture me into insanity with your silence? Is that your plan for revenge."

A look that was almost surprised crossed Aurora's face. "No."

"So, what, are you just trying to get up the nerve to ask me why I did it? If it was worth it?"

"No."

"What is this then?"

She looked at her plate.

"I don't know."

A week later, she had it figured out.

"We're alike."

If she could feel anything, she would have been amused by the way he choked on his water.

"Excuse me?" Killian coughed out.

"You and me. We're alike."

"How do you figure?"

"You've been hanging around Storybrooke for months now with no purpose. You could take off at any time and you don't. You haven't tried to take revenge a second time. You haven't headed for the sea. You've just stayed here and performed menial labor. Do you really think I believe that you feel anything anymore?"

He arched an eyebrow, clearly not liking the way the accusation tasted. "But I still have my heart."

Aurora shrugged. "Apparently it's not the lack of heart that's left me without feeling."

His slowed chewing was the only indication that her words had any effect on him at all.

He couldn't get their conversation out of his head.

If it wasn't Aurora's lack of a heart that had turned her into a shell of a person, then he didn't need to feel guilty.

It was hard for him to admit that he felt guilty about stealing the girl's heart at all, because he had, after all, gotten what he wanted for it.

But he did. She had been different when he'd rejoined the girls, eyes dead and face empty in a way that he was surprised to find disturbed him deeply. He had never realized how much fire had really been inside of her until it was gone.

Knowing that it wasn't the lack of the heart that had killed her soul should have alleviated that feeling, though. If he wasn't responsible, he shouldn't feel guilty.

But he did.

Well, I guess you're wrong, Princess. I do feel something.

Aurora wasn't sure when it happened, but when she thought of Killian, there was… something. She wasn't sure what it was. When she thought of everyone else she knew in Storybrooke, the only thing she felt was a spark of recognition. Her brain telling her Yes, this is a person you are acquainted with. But when she thought of the former captain, something else sparked.

She didn't know what it was, but she wanted to find out.

Killian thought he couldn't have been more surprised to find Aurora at his door late one night.

Until she kissed him.

To complete the surprise, he kissed her back.

As she laid on her back next to Killian, Aurora tried to pinpoint a feeling beyond the pleasant numbness of her body.

Finally, the man next to her asked, "What was that all about?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"How old are you really?"

The sound of Aurora's voice startled Killian. "I'm sorry?"

"I know you spent time in Neverland. So how old are you really?"

It was such a simple question that it took him off guard. After weeks and weeks of loaded silences, the simple "get-to-know-you" talk made him feel oddly uncomfortable.

"I don't remember, actually," he responded after a moment.

Silence feel between them once again, so he was surprised when she turned over onto her side to face him. "You lost the person you loved," she whispered.

"Yes…" Killian replied, not sure where she was going.

"You lost the person you loved, spent decades waiting to get your revenge, and you failed."

"What's your point, Princess?" he bit out, not happy about being reminded of how badly Rumplestiltskin had beaten him.

"Everything you planned fell apart. You lost everything but you still had no choice by to keep going."

"And?"

"That's how we're alike."

He looked over at her then, studying her face. In the dark, the blankness looked almost like sadness. He wanted to touch her, to hold her to him. Instead, he turned away from her.

"So this was just an experiment, right? To see if you felt anything?"

Silence.

"Well? Did you?"

"I don't know yet."

He didn't tell her what he felt.

When Aurora woke up, he was gone.

She felt something.

Killian detested poetry, but he couldn't help but see the poetry in this.

He stole her heart, so she took his in turn.

The least he could do now was get hers back.

She spends a week eating lunch alone at Granny's before Belle seemingly takes pity on her.

"He was in the pawn shop early one morning last week talking to Rumpelstiltskin. They made a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

The pity in Belle's eyes was almost too much to take. "To go back."

So he had made a deal with Rumplestiltskin and gone back to the Enchanted Forest to get away from her.

She wished she felt nothing.

It seemed like such a simple deal, a favor in return for passage back to their old world. But Killian knew he was making a bargain with the devil.

It was worth it, as far as he was concerned.

As was the trip across the ravaged, dangerous land.

He knew that having he heart back wouldn't fix her.

But he hoped the gesture would at least help.

If she hadn't been through all that she had, the desperate pounding on her door at 2 in the morning would have frightened her.

A wild-eyed Killian Jones standing at her door, satchel in hand, was the last thing she expected to see.

He held the satchel out to her. "I thought you might be wanting this back."

She opened the bag with trembling fingers, wanting to see what she had been missing for so long, despite being able to hear the strong heartbeat.

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Aurora smiled.

She was beautiful.

Of course, Killian had always thought her to be beautiful. But before it was a sad, broken beauty.

Now, as they laid in bad watching each other, his hand trailing up and down her spine, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. More beautiful than the sea, more beautiful than the Jolly Roger. A small, quiet smile graced her face.

He had caused that.

Her smile grew as she brought her hand to his face and he turned his head, pressing a kiss to her palm.

"I'm finally awake," she said, her smile spreading over her face.

THE END