Author's Note: Hi again. I realise this is yet another relatively short chapter, and i think i'm going to stick to this format. I find long chapters exhausting to read sometimes and so i decided to make mine shorter. This way, i can update more regularly. If all goes smoothly, i expect this fic to consist of many many chapters. I know i just posted the prologue a couple hours ago, but i figured it was too short and managed to type this up in time. Hope you enjoy! (:
Emma. How that horribly infuriating woman managed to get under his skin, he would never understand. She was obnoxious and bull-headed, with serious trust issues. She tried to feed him to an ogre, for heaven's sake! But he figured if he was going to get stuck with anyone, it might as well be her. She was tough and distant, but that was what she wanted you to see. Killian had enough experience with pain to know exactly what that woman tried so hard to hide – her broken soul. Sure, Emma put her walls up. She was skeptical and perceptive. But that just made her all the more intriguing. She was a princess, but she carried herself quite the opposite. The woman was full of surprises and it wasn't hard to see how she wormed her way into Killian's attentions. Of course, her good looks made her harder to ignore.
However, that didn't mean he lost sight of his mission for a second. He knew what he was here to do. He wanted vengeance. He didn't like to admit it, but a small part of him hoped exacting revenge would ease the guilt he's carried since Milah's unfortunate passing. He'd let his 'comrades' believe his revenge had to do with the loss of his hand, but for some reason he had a nagging feeling Emma didn't quite fall for that. He didn't know why it bothered him that she could read him about as well as he could her. Why, he was Captain Hook after all! She'd already bested him once, which really should have hurt his ego, but only intrigued him further. How someone could anger, humiliate yet excite him at the same time is beyond him.
Having women tie his hands (hand?) together and push him around would, under normal circumstances, not be possible, but he figured nothing about this situation was remotely ordinary. Captain Hook would never let four women subdue him and give him orders, but somehow it didn't seem to faze him. He rather seemed to enjoy it.
"Why, princess. However did you spot my lie? I pride myself on my ability to spout fibs and yet you are amongst the first to have seen past them." He quickened his pace to catch up with her blonde tresses a few feet ahead of him. Staying a few steps behind offered him a great view, but he wanted to strike up a conversation. Killian hoped to evoke a response in her, just as she did him.
"I've met my fair share of men like you. Sleazy and cunning. Now stop invading my personal space, and don't call me princess again if you treasure your pretty face." The pirate walking beside her unnerved her, and she didn't have a clue why. Emma always thought she was calm under pressure, but having this stupid Hook around made her uncomfortable. Why couldn't he have been uglier and creepier like the movie set him out to be? Not that she'd ever admit to finding him attractive in a dark, handsome and mysterious kind of way.
"Ahh, so you do find me attractive! I always knew my charms were difficult to resist," he smirked.
Damn it all, she cursed internally. How could she have let that one slip? Stupid, stupid mistake. She'll never hear the end of this one.
"Oh, shut up, Hook. Or I'll really cut you," she growled, mustering up the most menacing snarl she could under such circumstances. She never fell for these antics before, and she sure as hell wont now. Just because he's a handsome pirate doesn't mean he's not like the other douchebags she's met. Emma was determined not to let this annoyingly charming man affect her more than he already has.
"Ooh. I like it when you're all fired up," he chuckled, even as he backed away. As much as he liked to provoke Emma, Killian wasn't planning on getting involved. He swore off relationships for a reason and this ball-of-fire woman was no exception. He just liked to push her buttons and relish in her reactions.
Trudging through the dense forest in relative silence made it easier for Emma to ignore the lewd glances that damned pirate threw her way and she made it a point to glare at him out of the corner of her eye every so often to keep him in his place. After an excruciatingly long period of exchanged looks, they finally made it to their destination...in the middle of nowhere.
"Let me guess. The compass is up there." Emma managed to force those words out of her lips even as she feasted her eyes on the sight before her. Just like 'Jack and the Beanstalk', there was a humongous mass of vines sprouting up from the ground into the clouds above. Only in reality, the beanstalk looked a lot more morbid and had a threatening presence about it.
"Oh yeah," the pirate replied, obviously amused by Emma's astonishment.
"So how do we get to it?" she enquired cautiously.
"Its not the climb we need to worry about. Its the giant at the top," Hook answered. He couldn't resist scaring the princess with the prospect of a large, menacing giant. Emma always acted so tough and he wondered if she really lived up to it. He loved seeing the fiery woman squirm. After all, she was his only source of entertainment until he could reach Storybrooke to exact his revenge on a certain unsuspecting crocodile.