For months Emma had taken to studying at night at the Storybrooke docks. The sounds of the waves slamming against the rocks and the ships seemed to calm her mind when it kept running in every direction. There was a strange comfort in the night that Emma couldn't fully understand. She wondered if it was the perfume of sea salt and the crisp night air that brought on the feeling or was it the sweet smile of Killian Jones as he passed her almost every night on his way home from checking the boats at the far end of the dock. Emma and Killian had known each other for a few years but he had a way of making her feel like the only girl in the world who mattered. Vividly she remembered the day he and his brother Liam came to Storybrooke in there beautiful boat oddly named the Jolly Roger. When around each other they couldn't help but talk about books, how boring the town was, and finding adventure beyond the town line. They hadn't seen much of each other recently between school and Killian's mysterious increase in hours split between his shifts at Granny's and The Rabbit Hole.
Sitting cross legged on the bench, Emma fidgeted with the corners of her very old copy of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Her cold lips mouthed the words as she read them, hoping that she would understand the appeal of the ancient play. It wasn't that she hated Shakespeare, she just didn't agree with the archaic idea of falling in love at first sight and then killing yourself because it didn't work. The only reason Emma was taking the Shakespeare course was that her mother, the school teacher, claimed it would be easy. Emma regretted taking her advice the first day of the class but couldn't drop it.
"Come, night. Come, Romeo. Come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night whiter than new snow on a raven's wings. Come, gentle night; come, loving black-borrowed night..." Emma muttered as a whisper.
"Give my Romeo, and when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun" Killian interrupted, adding the next few lines of the infamous soliloquy.
"You know your Shakespeare." Emma said very impressed and happy to see Killian in front of her.
"A bit." He handed her a cup of hot chocolate that seemed fitting for the unusually cold and windy autumn night. "Not much to do in Storybrooke expect read at night." There was a shakiness in his British accent. Emma wondered if it was nerves or the night air. "My brother has a collection of classics the Library of Alexandria would have envied."
"Does he have an idiots guide to Romeo and Juliet in his library?" Emma sipped the hot chocolate, letting it warm her from the inside.
"Perhaps I may be of some use Swan." Emma gestured to the empty spot on the bench next to her. "What seems to be the issue with the play?"
"I just don't fully understand the point of two teenagers killing themselves for love. It's a little over the top." Emma slid closer to Killian as she splayed the book open.
"Well that's the problem." Killian put his cup down on the ground. "Most people think this is play about horny teenagers who die at the end. Shakespeare never wrote romantic plays like we think of romance. He wrote about the fight for genuine true love and the lengths people go to have it in their life. For Shakespeare what is life without love" Killian turned his body towards Emma. "We can believe Hamlet spoke to his father's ghost but can't believe two people had an instant connection so strong it was the start of love." Emma listened with not only an open mind but an open heart. She loved hearing the passion in his voice as he talked about love. This was new to her, and she found herself wondering if Killian had ever been in love. "The tragedy of the play is that the two families couldn't get their shit together for their children, who paid the ultimate price in the end." Killian caught Emma's eyes with his own. "Even though Romeo and Juliet died, true love lives through death. See love, true love is undying and will cross time, realms and even death." He broke his gaze. "It's shame they died because of a feud the Montague's and Capulet's had been for so long they had forgotten why. Kind of like how your father doesn't seem to get along with me and my brother."
"Killian, my father..."Emma's voice was low and apologetic.
"I understand love. He is not too keen on his daughter being around a man whose only prospect is a lifetime managing the docks." Killian slid away from Emma to the other end of the bench creating a gap between them.
"I love my father, but he's wrong about you." Slowly Emma reached for Killian.
"How do you know?" Killian asked , his tone was light but the set of his jaw belayed a bitter resignation.
"I choose to see the best in you." Emma whispered the words into the air loud enough for Killian to hear.
It was true. Emma loved seeing the best in Killian despite what her father thought of the youngest Jones brother. Her father only knew Killian from the couple of times he had thrown him in the drunk tank with Will Scarlet. Her father couldn't see everything she did behind his lost blue eyes.
One of the many reasons Emma enjoyed talking about books with Killian is that she learned new little things about his life and him. She knew when talking about pirates or the sea Killian would get a high pitched excitement in his voice that made Emma want to listen to him for hours about sailing techniques she knew nothing about. If it was a book about family Killian would close up and choke on his words as he even tried to form one sentence about his mother. Emma's father knew nothing of this. He based his judgment on a few stays in the drunk tank and lies Mr. Gold liked to create about Killian trespassing on his boat when he knew well he had asked him to inspect minute issues for him that very day.
Putting down her hot chocolate she picked up the old book and skimmed to the start of the book to find where Romeo and Juliet kiss for the first time. Splaying the book open she placed in the empty spot between her and Killian hoping to entice him back towards her. Her gentle fingertips rushing across the rough paper looking for the exact line that made her laugh the other day.
"You have to admit Romeo giving Juliet the saints and prayers line to get a kiss from her is kind of cheesy even for them being 13." She found the line in the book and began to read. "O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Come on. This is a little much."
"Not when there's an instant attraction." Killian moved the book to his lap and slide next to Emma. "All Romeo did was find the words that would appeal to Juliet to allow him to kiss her. Also Shakespeare needed to move the play along to show the spark of love." Emma rolled her eyes. "You've never had a man tell you a beautiful truth to encourage a kiss from you?"
Killian smiled out of the corner of his mouth. Finding a loose strand of her hair he tucked it behind her ear and looked at her moonlight green eyes. " I know you will leave this town one day and become something great. You know how I know this Swan? It's because I have yet seen you fail at anything since I've known you."
Silenced by his words, Emma's eyes moved from his eyes and down to his lips. Never had she heard something so perfect and encouraging in her life. It was true, words could spark the want to kiss someone.
"Emma..." inching closer to his face her lips were a breath away from his. "Emma, I think we should..."
"Yeah." The chocolate aroma of her breath seeped into Killian's mouth.
"Continue with the play." Idiot Killian thought to himself as the words exited his mouth. He knew what Emma wanted and he wanted the same.
"The play. You're right." Snapping out from her daze Emma grabbed for the book in Killian's lap. "I see what you're saying about words sparking feelings. I guess I just never really understood that feeling, or even had it."
"You know Swan, for a girl whose parents are the epitome of love, you do have a pessimistic view on the emotion." Killian said with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know. They have this whole Snow White and Prince Charming, fairy tale love and all I ever think is yeah it works for them, but there's no way it would happen for me." There was a sadness to her words.
"Then write your own fairy tale, one where you are a princess and instead of marrying the arrogant prince, you marry a dashing naval officer." Killian said offering an alternative version of the classic fairytale.
"Oh really, a naval officer." Emma hid the smile on her face behind her cup.
"Aye. I hear they make fine husbands." Killian leaned in and whispered in her ear.
"I bet." Emma began to laugh and Killian followed.
Unable to control the laughter they let it out in full force. Emma began to lean into Killian the harder she laughed. Burying herself into his side she felt a surge of emotions she had never felt before. There was a feeling of familiarity about fitting perfectly into his side. It reminded her of a dream she once had of him. The two of them in covered in white sheets with the sun beaming into a room she knew wasn't hers but felt like it was. With the happiness from the remembering the dream and being tucked into Killian, Emma looked up at him from under her lashes and smiled so hard that the apples of her cheeks began to hurt.
Once the laughter had died down Killian took the book in his hands and just began to read the infamous balcony scene. Emma tucked her feet under as she settled herself into Killian, any further into his side and Emma would have been in his lap, not like Killian would have minded. The words she hadn't originally found any realistic love in, soon began to warm her heart. She took the lines of Juliet and dramatized just a bit so that Killian wouldn't see how she was starting to care for the play and even him.
Care for him, she repeated it in her head. This wasn't a thought or feeling new to Emma, but one that she hadn't acknowledged until that every night. They never really had enough time together for Emma to decipher the feelings that rose when he was around her. In a short span he made her comfortable, laugh, think of love and want to kiss him. Emma felt the urge to kiss him like she had never felt in her life for anyone. Watching his lips move as he read, she imagined he tasted of sea salt and rum that he kept in a flask in his coat pocket, or maybe vanilla but she wasn't sure why vanilla. She just needed to kiss him and stop resisting the urge.
"Thank you for helping me Killian." Emma placed her hand on his opposite cheek as she pulled his face down to kiss the side closest to her.
The press of Emma's lips burned into Killian's cheek. He raked his brain for something to say for the sweet gesture but all thought escaped him. "Bloody hell!" Killian pulled out the ringing phone from his pocket and slide his finger across the decline button.
"Do you need to go?" Feeling the moment gone Emma lowered her head.
"No. It's just Liam." Killian rubbed his eyes. "He just wants to yell at me some more."
"Why would he want to yell at you? You haven't paid my dad a visit at the sheriff's station in a while." Emma said trying to lighten the moment.
Killian got up from the bench and shuffled his feet. "I was thinking of leaving Storybrooke and joining the Navy. Liam found out."
"The Navy? Really? Don't you need..." Emma was shocked to hear he was trying to leave Storybrooke. It explained him picking up shifts at Granny's and the Rabbit Hole.
"It was just a thought. I just need out of this town." Killian started to become agitated and raised his voice. "Sorry lass. I didn't mean to yell. I just don't want to stay here and manage the docks. There's something in me that says I need to be at sea."
"No it's ok." Emma stood up and grabbed his hand. "I understand that feeling of something else is out there for you. Like you don't belong here but know why. That there is another life out there waiting for you but you can't seem to get there because something," Emma was talking so fast she couldn't stop. "or someone is missing."
The echo of her name being shouted out came from behind her. Immediately her entire demeanor changed. Emma let go of Killian's hand and turned up to the parking lot behind her. Standing outside of an old Buick was her boyfriend Neal. They had been together for as long as Emma could remember. He never made her happy or feel the way Killian did. It was more of a relationship of convenience than it was of romance. Neal's father owned the town and her father was the sheriff, so in some strange world it made sense that they dated. Emma tried to break it off with him countless times, but each time she couldn't. Often she wondered if some outside force kept them together and only an outside force would be able to break them apart.
"I'll be right there." Emma shouted back. She noticed Neal smiling while something dangled from his hand.
"You're still dating Neal." Disapproval dripped from his words. Killian waved hello. There was a scowl on Neal's face when he say Emma talking to Killian
"Yeah." Emma began to gather her things. "I have tried to break up with him but every time I do something gets in the way. His brother recently died from some sort of heart failure and I just couldn't break up with him after something like that. And on top of that he told me about his mom running out on them. I just... " Killian cleared his throat. It was obvious Neal was making Emma feel guilty so she would never leave him. "Don't say anything Killian, I hear it enough from Ruby when I see her. I know that you think I deserve better than Neal, ok?"
"Ruby has some choice words about him." Emma glared at Killian, dropping her Romeo and Juliet on the floor. "But, I will say nothing since you asked, love."
"Thank you." Emma smiled briefly. "Seriously?!" The sound of Neal screaming her name rang in her ears. "I'm coming." Killian handed her the book. "Thanks. I better go before he wakes up all of Storybrooke."
Emma checked the bench to make sure she had everything. "Thanks again for the hot chocolate and helping me with the Shakespeare."
"Anytime . Maybe next time we can talk about Shakespeare using Greek gods in his play." Killian scratched behind his ear. "In the come, night soliloquy you were reciting he talks about Phaeton and his carriage."
"Any day now Ems!" Neal dangled the chain some more hoping to rush Emma.
"I'm sorry Killian, I have to go." Emma began to walk away from him but stopped and turned to him. "Maybe the play will be easier to finish knowing it's about fighting for a love you feel strongly about." The pair smiled at each other before mouthing bye.
Killian stood in his spot watching her walk towards Neal. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to follow Emma, grab her and just run into the night. There was something about that idea that felt right even if her father would hunt them down, but Killian didn't move. Emma reached Neal and he went for a kiss. Quickly she moved her head to the side as she dodged Neal's lips from landing on hers.
Quietly Killian laughed at her rejection of Neal. Effortlessly his thoughts travelled to how Emma pressed her lips into his cheek and the look in her eyes when he told her she could do anything. Killian knew Emma wanted to be kissed in that moment but he just couldn't. A voice inside told him not yet and like a fool he obeyed. Killian began to walk away but looked back up at Emma, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her. Neal was putting a necklace around her neck. There was a polite smile on Emma's face as she touched the pendant that hung from it. Unable to deal with the pain it caused to see her with Neal, he grabbed the cups from the bench and tossed them in the trash as he began to walk home.
"Killian" Hearing Emma shout his name made him stop and look at her. "Tomorrow night you should tell me about Phaeton and his carriage." Emma bit her lower lip. The words struck a familiar cord in both Emma and Killian. It felt like that had been said before in another lifetime.
"As you wish" Killian yelled back. A wide smile sprung to his lips not only of the sight of Emma's blond hair being swept by a wind but her wanting to see him the next night. A strange happiness came over him as if that was the moment he had been waiting a lifetime for.