"Papa, are we giants?"

"Whatever made you think that, Starfish?" he asked, one eyebrow perched in amusement, putting down his bag of produce and taking in deep breaths, his climb up the tower still knocking the wind out of his lungs despite doing so every week.

She walked from him to her bed, retrieving an opened tome that was on the blankets, the book about half her height when held in her tiny hands, before slowly making her way back to him. As the distance was a small one, Alice's excitement got the better of her and she ran, hoping that it would shift the book's heavy weight and get to him faster. That it did… until she collided with him, stumbling when she tried to get to a standstill.

"Woah, careful there!" Killian said, catching her with a firm grip of her shoulders, so that she didn't topple over. While her head may have impacted the middle of his body, his legs weren't so lucky. The maroon hardcover of the book's edge hitting his shins might leave a bruise, he thought, assessing the dull pain that was emanating from his legs, but he was glad she was safe.

"Thanks, Papa," she said beaming, the joy of the news she had to share filling her up, the fear of falling and nervousness from bumping into him quickly dissipating.

He grabbed the book with his right hand from her outstretched hands. "Giants in the Clouds. I forgot I had this. Wait, you've been going through my things again," he playfully chided, gently ruffling her hair with his hook.

Alice moved his hook away, fumbling with her hair in hopes of tidying it again. "You were gone for the whole morning. What was I to do? It just so happened to keep me company and your treasure chest was half open, begging me to take a peek," she complained dramatically.

Although Alice was at the tender age of seven, she wasn't without the aptitude for learning and mischief. Her soul always seemed hungry for knowledge and ravenous to be part of the world. One glance at the wooden chest he stored his things in nearby his hammock showed that she had explored the vast number of items it contained, the contents strown in disarray on the wooden floor, before settling upon the book he now held.

Killian laughed, remembering that he had forgotten to close it in his rush to grab his compass from it and to get to the village at the edge of the forest before the wives had gotten all of the spoils. While the markets were open every day, he had learned quickly that on certain days that sales happened on items he wanted, the women were more than happy to buy products like a pack of wolves devouring livestock. When he was pirating, anything he wanted was a matter of buying or threatening. However, having given up those days to become a single parent had taught him that rationing what money he had was important, especially on weeks when he wasn't working odd jobs or selling art, himself eventually becoming a silver haired fox, smoothly getting what he needed without being part of the pack or drawing attention to himself.

"Either way, you know what I've said about privacy. You could have waited and asked, doing other things in the meantime," he said, gesturing with his metal attachment at the toys and objects placed around the tower, "I would have said yes."

"I'm sorry. I'll ask next time," apologizing as she rocked on the heels of her feet. Alice knew for a fact it was wrong to snoop around through things she was told not to, but her curiosity always got the better of her. Seeing as he wasn't truly mad, the twinkle in his eye betraying him as much as he frowned in discontent, she smartly asked, "How was I supposed to ask for the book if I didn't know it was there?"

He paused, her cheekiness, only heightened by her smile and cheerfully defiant stare, before replying, "Just ask to look before looking. Otherwise, you might find yourself opening Pandora's box."

Alice, nodding as he handed the tome back to her and taking caution as she was reminded of the myth, asked, "So are we?"

"Are we what?"

"Giants."

"No, not that I was aware," the former pirate walked her over to the pile of things she had emptied from the chest. "Help me clean this up."

Having both sat down, she placed the book on the stool nearby and started folding his clothes that she had earlier moved out. "How come?"

"We just aren't," he said, carefully rolling some ink pots back into his stockings for safe keeping.

"But we live above the trees and the clouds, don't we?"

Killian said with a small and sad laugh, "Indeed we do in a sense, Starfish, but usually people live in houses on the ground like in stories and your dolls, not towers."

One by one, she dumped the folded long sleeved blouses onto the layer of books still in the chest. Alice replied with a heavy sigh, "The book may have not mentioned towers, but they lived in giant houses, above people and clouds as ancient and tall beings that grow magic beans and horde treasure. Maybe they have towers too."

The man watched as his daughter organized quills and knickknacks into separate piles, her shoulders scrunching up in tension despite her concentration to sort objects. It occurred to him that although he had mentioned humans, fae, fairies, and other creatures in his simplified tales to Alice based on his past from things he had heard of or encountered on his journeys across realms to find a way to seek his revenge, he hadn't explicitly told her or thought there would be any question that they were of the human species. Not that he could be sure the witch that he had conceived her with was human as well with the disdain she had expressed on humanity and the questionable morality she had with abandoning Alice as just an infant, Killian took his best guess and replied straightforwardly.

"I see why you think that, but I'm human, making you one too."

He didn't look like he was lying but she felt like he was hiding something from her. "You have treasure and gold," Alice recalled, connecting a detail from the description of the giants.

Seeing as how she still seemed to be in denial and grasping at the straws she had pieced from the book, Killian decided he had to explore each prospect of her thoughts. "Only because I used to steal from others and find buried ones from treasure maps," he said, waving a treasure map in front of her before carefully folding the old pieces of paper or rolling scrolls around them. "I also think you're forgetting that we don't grow magic beans."

The girl ignored him, aware that the only things that grew in the tower were some flowers or potted plants that they cultivated in an attempt to bring the ground and nature closer to her. She rebutted, "You're tall. Super tall! I can barely reach your elbows," she motioned, touching the top of her head and moving her hand up and down as if to show the displacement of height and how short she felt.

Killian couldn't help laughing at that. "Is that what this is about? You'll grow into a tall young lass soon enough. It will just take time and as long as you eat your fruits and vegetables."

She placed the quills in a rectangular case before setting it in the sea chest. Racking her brain for any other evidence she could recall, Alice stated lastly, "You're ancient," without remorse and instead with intense pride that she knew what the word meant and how it rolled off the tip of her tongue.

He dropped what he was doing and clasped at his chest, dramatically crying out, "You have wounded me!" Killian pretended to die as he laid on the floor, eyes closed and tongue sticking out. The former pirate tried to steel himself of breathing and moving until he heard her laughter and opened an eye to see he had pleased her.

Despite him thinking it was the best joke yet, as he sat up and got back to folding maps, his lips pursed in seriousness, a bit disgruntled by the idea of the young girl calling him ancient. In order to retain what dignity he had left, Killian rebuked, "I'll have you know, I'm not that old. Not more than a little over three hundred considering what reign we're in."

Alice's blue eyes bore into him with suspicion, her words sparked with amusement of being right. "The dictionary said ancient meant very old and sometimes past existence. The book said that giants live life spans longer than humans, more than seventy years old."

"I admit, love, you're right. However, I wouldn't be this old if it weren't for Neverland."

He put the folded maps and rolled scrolls back in the chest, Alice helping him do the same.

"Where you worked for Pan and lost Uncle Liam? You're not making sense."

His eyes looked forlorn at the mention of his brother, grabbing the pouch that held Liam's sextant from Alice's organized pile and gently putting it in the chest. "Aye. I never told you this, but do you remember how I warned you that if we ever go on a trip outside of here to never go to Neverland?" She nodded, her hands idly on the ground and gently leaning forward, and he continued, "Well, I left out the part that besides getting trapped there unless Pan lets you leave, the island's magic stops you from physically aging. As you can see," he said grinning, "I've retained my youthfulness."

Feigning unhappiness and sourly looking up as if he was confronted with a fly, he ran his hand through his hair saying, "Although having left there, my hair has gone gray through the years and I age naturally like I was meant to humanely do, just like you on your birthday," happily ending with a boop on her nose.

Alice laughed. Wistfully in awe at his past, it didn't take much before she came up with another question, this time her eyes quickly filling with tears, "When is your birthday, Papa? We always celebrate mine when the second star to the right is in the sky, but we've never done yours."

He said flustered and honest, "Poppet, I don't keep track anymore. It's not like it mattered when I was at sea."

Alice's arms crossed and her brows furrowed. She thought that no matter what the situation, nobody should have a celebration go missing, especially when they turned another year old. Papa always made her feel special, showering her with gifts and letting her eat sweets and tea for breakfast instead of the usual bread and oatmeal. He even made a cake at the end of the day before putting a small candle on it and telling her to make a wish, the kind that 'eventually comes true if you believe in it and don't say it aloud'. Of course, it was always the same, the wish of being free of the tower, to explore the world that Papa always spoke about and even the places he didn't like in books. Alice looked forward to when the stars shone as if to say that it was hers. For him to say his birthday didn't matter enough to remember stoked a fire in her.

She got up, putting her hands around his, declaring, "Well, we're not at sea. Everyone deserves a birthday. We'll make up for all the ones you missed. Even if you've forgotten yours, today's as good a day as any!"

The objects having been piled neatly into the chest, nearly everything back in its place, he questioned, eyebrows raised in surprise, "Today?"

"Yes, today! It's only fair after all."

From out of nowhere, her papa hugged her and started crying, his breathing hitched and his tears dampening her dress's sleeve on her shoulder.

Alice paused for a moment, quieting down, rubbing his back in small swirls like he would for her when she had a rough day, "Unless you'd rather it be some other day."

As soon as he had steadied himself, Killian pulled back and shook his head, a smile appearing on his face as she wiped tears from his eyes.

"No, it's not that," his words still shaking from his heaving sobs mere minutes before. "How did I get so lucky to have a sweet angel like you?"

It wasn't because he had missed celebrating his birthday, but rather how moved he was that his little girl wanted to do this for him. They had been through a lot together, probably more than any parent and child should have, but simple things he shouldn't have had to think about still surprised him.

"Probably because you're the best papa."