The Enchanted Forest never had the natural cynicism of the Land Without Magic, creeping in your blood, numbing your happiness like the poison of the deadliest snake. And Killian Jones may have turned bitter and cold, Captain Hook may be sarcastic and heartless, but it doesn't change the fact he grew up on the Enchanted Forest's value and beliefs, and they always come back to slap him in the face, no matter how much he tries to deny them.

Values of honour and chivalry, of comradeship and selflessness – years in the Navy making him better than those knights everybody praises. He grew up with the familiar idea of love at first sight and true love. He knows it exists, but only ever associated it with kings and princesses and people with clothes that could feed a whole town. It is a concept as familiar as it is foreign to him, like some legend, some stories whispered in the dark of the night.

By the time he meets Milah, he's enough of a pirate to think, with a chuckle, that it is love at first drink. The woman holds her alcohol surprisingly well for a housewife and, before he knows it, he's falling head of heels for her and stealing her away from her life like the pirate he is. And even if Milah stays with him until the Dark Ones steals her back for good, Killian never really thinks about her like his true love – his lover, yes, surely, but true love, really? He no longer is the wee boy believing in happy endings, thank you very much.

He grows old and bitter and absolutely not ready for the storm that is Emma Swan.

They talk of her sometimes, the survivors, while he pretends to be a blacksmith between two secret meetings with Cora. They whisper of the Saviour who will bring its ancient glory back to the Enchanted Forest, who will save them all. They talk of her parents, Snow and Charming, with awe and devotion in their voice. They talk of the babe as a product of true love, and all he can think is that it's a lot of pressure to put on the poor and delicate creature that is a princess. He also thinks how stupid it is, to believe in such things – the product of true love, the Saviour of the realms. It all sounds like a pretty story in a book, and Killian knows they are only that – stories.

He's not ready for Emma Swan to turn his live upside down.

Maybe he hates her a bit for it, how easily it seems to be for her. She doesn't even need a smile or a flutter of the eyelashes. It just works, with her determination and the flame in her eyes – he would gladly burn in them, like a fly attracted to the light in the middle of the night. He would burn his wings and burn his soul for her – he wouldn't even think twice about it.

Killian Jones doesn't believe in love at first sight – and it sure as hell doesn't happen with her, because he's too focus on his mission to think about anything else at first – and Killian Jones doesn't believe in true love – but, damn, does that kiss in the Neverland jungle taste like it.

Someone had explained to him, once, a long time ago, how to boil a frog. You don't throw it in the hot water, because it will immediately jump out of it. Instead, you put it in cold water and heat it slowly, for it to get used to the hotness. It is a trick used by Captains thinking about battle plans, and he learnt it when he entered the Navy.

That's what happens with Emma Swan.

He doesn't realise he's deeply in love with her until the water is too hot, and then he's just drowning, unable to reach shore. He drowns, in her eyes, his heart melting, his soul reaching for hers in desperation. He drowns but doesn't die, and it just hurts. More than Milah – and, oh, does he hate himself for even thinking that – and more than the Queen squeezing his heart in his chest. Nothing compares to having Emma Swan next to him and only meeting her wall of insecurities and cynicism and lack of trust. He just wants to reach out to her and hold her and never let her go, just wants to prove he isn't like the others, he would never ever abandon her like they did. He'll stay, until she grows tired of him, stay by her side and love her love her love her.

(Things would have been different if she had grown up in the Enchanted Forest. She would have grown up waiting for her own Prince Charming, would have believed in all those lovely little values, and he would have been able to sweep her off her feet like the gentleman he is.)

(He wouldn't have stood a chance, like the pirate he is.)

"I still don't believe in it," she tells him once, as her parents are sickly adorable by the other side of the room at Granny's. It makes him gag a little, how bloody perfect they are for each other – he'd rather read his feelings as aversion than jealousy because, damn.

So instead he focuses on her, eyes bright and oh-so-green, so open and confused. Whatever she's thinking, she snaps out of it with a shake of the head and looks back at him instead with a weak smile.

"Even back in our land…" he ignores her little face when he says 'our' as it is supposed to include her, "some people have a hard time believing in true love too. It's a normal reaction."

"Do you believe in true love? Love at first sight?"

He only shrugs at first, thinking of the sensitive thing to answer. Something crosses his mind then, grin curling up his lips, and he leans against their table, leans toward her until she does the same, as if sharing a secret.

"Want the truth, darling?" She nods, almost eagerly, and he winks at her. "I believe in love at first beanstalk."