All characters, plot, etc. goes to the writers of Once Upon A Time and ABC! Enjoy!
"Did you really save his life?" Emma asked.
Just a few hours earlier, Emma thought she was going to lose another member of her family. David had nearly succumbed to the poison-tipped dart fired at him by Pan's lost boys a few nights before, but yet again Hook had decided to surprise them all by traversing half the island to find the cure.
Anyway, they'd been celebrating ever since his recovery, and were so excited that they hadn't even noticed when the firewood was out, so Hook had volunteered to go pick some up, but not before throwing a 'Savoir, care to give me a hand?' over his shoulder.
Now that they were a decent distance away from the rest of the group, Emma decided it was the perfect opportunity to try and figure out what exactly Hook had in mind. Of course she knew he'd never open up as much as she hoped. They were alike in that way, after all. Still, she thought he deserved some recognition. After all, they wouldn't even be in Neverland if it weren't for him, and now he'd saved her father, too.
"Does that surprise you?" replied Hook, glancing over at Emma.
Emma stretched out an arm to hand back Hook's rum. Apparently sharing a celebratory drink was a tradition for them now.
"Well, you and David aren't exactly, how do you say it, mates."
"Doesn't mean I'd leave your father to parish on this island," Hook replied with a nod of his head.
Well, Emma thought, that was nice of him.
Not that he'd been nothing but cruel since she'd met him, but he was right. It really did surprise her. She supposed that all there was left for her to do was what she'd come with him for. Emma looked up into Hook's eyes.
"Thank you," she said.
"Well," Hook began as he reacted with feigned modesty by brushing his ear and the side of his face before flirtatiously touching his lips with one ringed finger. "Perhaps gratitude is in order now." If he meant to draw Emma's attention to those lips, he succeeded. Not for the first time, she noticed how attracted she was to them, although the fact that she was thinking this now when Neal, the man she'd loved for so long, was dead, was a little alarming. It actually frightened her sometimes.
"Yeah, that's what the thank you was for," she said with a smirk. It was clear what Hook was doing. At least she thought he was breaking the slight tension of a serious moment with flirting, just like he always did, but the truth was that he was having as hard a time concentrating on his words as Emma was at the moment.
"Mm, that's all your father's life is worth to you?" Hook said with a smirk. He stepped closer to Emma so that her mouth was about at his chin, but their eyes never left each other's. She could actually feel the warmth coming off of his chest, and the scent of his sweat mingled with the rainy smell of the forest that was hanging around them. She knew what he was hinting at, but she had no intention of following through.
Really, this is almost worse than those insufferable 'give me a hand' jokes he likes so much.
Emma snorted. "Please," she said. "You couldn't handle it."
Hook actually had the nerve to laugh, and although it was more like an amused inhale, Emma was surprised at how much it angered her, not to mention what he said next.
"Perhaps you're the one who couldn't handle it," Hook said matter-of-factly. The way his teeth drew out the last "t" almost made Emma scream. How dare he challenge her this way? She was tempted to just turn around on her heel and walk back to her parents. He wouldn't dare bother her in front of them, especially not in front of her father, and leaving him to pick up the firewood by himself would be the perfect punishment. He really had it coming.
But then, Emma realized, he really didn't. Despite all odds, he had changed her life forever, and so far it had all worked out for the better. Ever since he'd come back with that magic bean, things had been different. Of course he was perfectly capable of evil, and maybe he even was evil, but they were turning out to not be so very different at all. In a way, they were both just lost children who'd had almost everything taken away from them. They might need each other, after all.
Emma hadn't taken her eyes off of Hook for almost their entire conversation, and he'd hardly looked away either, but Emma wouldn't have had it any other way. She was finally starting to see what she'd been avoiding all along. Hook had a heart, and a good one at that. Sure, he'd done some evil things, but were they really that bad? Was he really so wrong? She was frightened to know how much she felt for the villain of her childhood, but he wasn't just a cartoon character, nor was he just a villain, either. Right now, he felt like so much more.
That's when she decided to grab Hook by the collar and pull him into her. She realized he really did feel like more, and that maybe she wanted to feel him more. Feel who he was, both inside and out. Honestly, she was as shocked as he seemed. Clearly, he hadn't actually expected her to act on his invitation.
However, the moment their lips touched, all the tension and fear Emma had had in her body for the last few weeks was rinsed away, replaced by a tingling warmth she could never even remember feeling. Her blood began to rush in her veins like rivers and it felt as if she were more alive than she had been since they'd gotten to this island. She was awake.
She began to think that she should have just walked away like she'd thought of doing before, but if she had, she would have missed this. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, and before she knew it, she was kissing him again. She let herself fall into him, body and soul. Their lips were colliding like they were two parts of a whole, and that feeling of completeness flickered so briefly in her that she just decided to deny it. There was no way this actually meant something. She was just proving a point.
But after a few more moments, she couldn't even remember what they'd been discussing a minute ago, and the thoughts of his lips on hers, his hand in her hair, her hand in his, had fully consumed her. She was on fire.
After the fourth or fifth kiss (she'd lost count somewhere in between) she finally made the decision that it needed to stop. She couldn't get attached like this. There would always be that feeling in her gut, as if there was a rope tied to the pit of her stomach, that would yank her back to reality, often quite harshly. No matter how much she told herself all of this was real, or how much she tried to believe that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming, or that she was the savior of their story who came into this world alongside Pinocchio, and now they were all battling Peter Pan in Neverland, her loneliness would always be her reality, and Captain Hook just didn't fit. Not now. Not while Henry was out there, away from her.
Emma realized she hadn't let go of Hook's jacket, and while their foreheads were still pressed closely together, their breath intermingling between their gasping mouths, she heard Hook.
"That was…" he began, his eyes still closed.
" A one-time thing," Emma said as she pushed away from him. Letting go was surprisingly difficult, and she could barely look him in the eyes. What had they done?
"Don't follow me," she continued as Hook still stood there, mouth ajar, watching her turn away from him and leave him behind.
"Wait five minutes, go get some firewood or something," Emma added as she kept walking away from the pirate. Her heart was pounding so hard, it was the only thing she could hear. She could've sworn she even heard Hook's heart racing along behind her, too.
"As you wish."
The words were spoken softly, but they resonated through Emma like she'd been hit over the head with a frying pan. All she could do was smile.
Did you catch the Tangled reference at the end? I couldn't resist, there are too many parallels. Anyway, please leave a review so I can know what you think! Thanks for reading!