After the Kiss

Note: A canon divergent take on what might have happened after the Neverland kiss if Emma hadn't walked away and insisted Killian take five minutes. Rated M for almost smut. This story doesn't quite venture into smut territory, but it comes about as close as you can get without actually going there.

-Because of the almost smut, I'm rating this chapter alone M. If you aren't interested in/comfortable with reading smut, you can skip the section near the bottom between the two ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ signs. You won't miss any important plot points.

Enjoy!

Pulse pounding, Emma pulled her lips away from Hook's and then rested her forehead against his, fighting with everything within her not to go in for seconds. It was harder to pull back than she'd expected it to be, and that alone freaked her out.

Kissing Hook wasn't supposed to be like this. Kissing Hook wasn't supposed to happen at all. It's just that he made her so crazy with his stupid eyeliner and his stupid leather pants that left little to the imagination and his stupid shirts that might as well have not even had buttons.

Not to mention the stupid feelings he'd started to make her feel over the last few days on the tropical hell hole that was Neverland. He'd come back with the bean, willingly taken them to the last place he ever wanted to return, been her constant support and help, her cheerleader. He'd believed in her in these last four days more than anyone in her life had ever believed in her.

And then he'd gone and saved her father's life. For her. He could say what he wanted, but she knew he'd done it for her.

He was a different man than she'd believed him to be. He had a depth and loyalty and devotion that she couldn't have imagined.

And it didn't matter how hard she tried to refortify the walls around her heart. The walls that had kept her alive and functioning since Neal broke her heart were slowly eroding under his onslaught.

It was terrifying.

"That was…" Killian said in a voice as breathless and wrecked as she felt.

"A lot," Emma said, taking a step back, needing to put some distance between them so she could think straight again. "That was a lot."

He chuckled. "Aye, it was. Darling you can thank me in that manner anytime you want."

He was just as affected, just as off kilter as she was; she could tell in the way he determinedly put the flirtatious note in his voice. They were both out of their depth here.

"I…um…" she began, not even knowing what she was going to say. She took another step away from him and then another.

And then the guilt set in. What the hell was she doing making out with Captain Hook when her son was being held captive by a teenage psychopath somewhere on this island? He was alone and scared, and though they'd managed to get the message to him that they were there, there's no telling what Peter freaking Pan was doing to him. And instead of looking for him, she was standing in the middle of the jungle kissing someone. What kind of a mother was she!

"I've got to go…" she said, abruptly turning away.

"Emma wait!" Hook said, taking a step forward and gently snagging her arm with his hook.

She stopped but didn't turn around.

"This was a mistake," she said, hating the tears in her voice. "I need to be out there looking. I need to find my son."

Hook stepped around her so that he could look her in the face. "And you will."

He looked so sincere, so convinced, like he knew it as well as he knew the sun would come up in the morning (at least in all the places that were not this God forsaken jungle).

"You really think so?" Her voice was small, and she hated the vulnerability in it, but she needed this. She needed someone to believe in her.

He smiled gently, took a step closer, and then cupped her cheek with his good hand. "I know it, Swan. I've yet to see you fail, and when you do succeed, when we do get back to that Storybrooke of yours….well, there's no telling what may happen then."

Her heart pounded as her thoughts ran toward forbidden territory. Her, Killian, privacy, clothes discarded in haste, lying everywhere, kisses, caresses, passion so hot they might suddenly combust….

Emma closed the distance between them once more, letting her lips caress his, letting her hand fall to the open v of his shirt.

"Swan," he breathed as he wrapped his hooked arm around her waist and brought his hand up to tangle in her hair.

This kiss was far different from the one they'd shared only moments before. This one was soft and sweet and thorough. So very thorough. Killian turned his head, angling to better deepen the kiss. When she felt his tongue swipe against the seam of her lips, she opened for him, letting him in, letting him explore, letting her own tongue tangle with his.

He groaned as his grip on her tightened and Emma felt the slow burn between them flare up, turn to a raging wild fire. She let her hands roam as the kiss grew more passionate, slipping beneath his shirt, tangling in his thatch of chest hair.

He responded in kind, moving his hand from her hair slowly down her back, until he was cupping her backside. She brought her legs up to wrap around his waist, her feet hooking behind him as he propped her against a tree with soft, smooth bark. She could feel the hard length of him against her steadily dampening center.

They were both rapidly approaching the point of no return.

Killian broke the kiss this time, breathing as hard as if he'd just sprinted a mile. "Tell me to stop, Emma, and I will. If you don't want this…"

"I want this," she said, tilting her head back to look up at him, "it's just…Henry. I shouldn't be taking time away from looking for him…"

Hook's eyes gentled, as he brushed a tendril of hair from her face and hooked it behind her ear. "Love, I know you're concerned for your boy, and I can't tell you your concern is unwarranted…"

"But…"

"But you know as well as I that there's nothing more we can do for him tonight," Hook said. "We all need rest, a chance to regroup and replenish our strength. Our search in the morning will be all the better for it."

He was right; she knew he was right, but still… "I know," she said, "But this, what we're doing now…how can I be so selfish, thinking about my own wants when I could be with the rest of the family planning our next move?"

He leaned forward and kissed her gently, just a ghost of his lips against hers. "If you wish, we can stop now, return to your family and discuss strategy until fatigue takes us, but Emma, don't for a moment think you're selfish. There's not a selfish bone in that delectable body of yours. You are permitted to take a moment for yourself. And who knows? Maybe blowing off a bit of steam with a devilishly handsome pirate will help to clear your mind and give you a fresh perspective."

She let her legs fall back to the ground and stepped away from him. His eyes fell, disappointment he refused to give voice to covering every feature.

Emma laughed. "Don't look at me like that," she said, raising her hands and concentrating on the warm, electrical feel of magic just below the skin. "I'm just putting up a shielding spell. Things might get a little…awkward and murdery if my dad were to walk in on what's about to happen."

His eyes sparkled with delight as she turned her back to him, let the magic flow from her fingertips, trapping them in their own little bubble.

"Now," she said, stepping back toward him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "where were we?"

His grin turned wicked before he surged forward, kissing her with a heat and passion she'd never felt before. "I believe, love, you were just about to let a pirate have his way with you."

She laid on the soft jungle grass, pulling him on top of her as she smiled. "So stop talking about it and get started on the pillaging and plundering."

"With pleasure."

She brought his head down for another long, heated kiss, as their hands began to roam, hers pushing the heavy leather coat from his shoulders and going to work on the clasps of his vest, while he slid a hand beneath her shirt, caressing her skin as he moved toward his prize, cupping a breast, letting his thumb glide over the hardened tip.

Emma groaned at the sensation as she sat up and slowly pulled her gray tank top over her head and tossed it to the ground before shimmying out of her boots and pants.

The way he looked at her when she was finally bare to his gaze brought a rush of heat straight to her core, made her feel as though she was the most desirable woman on the planet.

"You are…" he began, ghosting his hand across her bare flesh, leaving goosebumps in its wake. "Beautiful isn't a strong enough word, nor exquisite. You are perfection itself, my Emma."

Her heart pounded at his words. She felt a rush of lo…well, strong affection…for him as she brought him in for another kiss, pushing his vest from his shoulders and pulling his billowy black shirt from his pants.

"What I'm wondering," she said as she pulled back again, "is why I'm the only one who's naked here?"

He chuckled, an indecent sound that made her anticipate things to come. Sitting up, he pulled his shirt over his head and reached for the laces of his breeches. "It is something I plan to remedy right away love."

A long time later Emma and Killian returned to the camp, hair mussed, clothing a bit rumpled, a delicate blush painting Emma's cheeks.

David knew better than to ask what took them so long to come back to camp when the rest of them had been there for a good forty-five minutes.

The pirate had saved his life that day, after all. It would be a shame to have to kill him.

Notes:

-As stated above, this is a "rerun" of sorts. It was written last year and posted on Tumblr.

-Up next: (in 2 weeks) 6b deleted scene (plus a bit of canon divergence) that will take place just before the CS wedding. Emma can't sleep on the night before the wedding, because she's no longer used to sleeping without Killian. (And Killian can't sleep for a vast number of reasons that will be explored.)