"What the hell was that about?"
I growled following Emma onto the ship. Most of the men stayed back at another pub celebrating a brand new journey. I, on the other hand, had to find out how she knew my worst competitor. Emma clutched the map in her hands like it was her own soul, as if the map itself would combust into flames if she loosened her grip the slightest.
Emma sighed placing it delicately on her desk before turning around, her face held no emotion that I could recognize. That was Emma, though; she was the best at keeping her thoughts and her feelings to herself. But right now, I didn't care if I was hurting her feelings. She ran a hand through her hair while shrugging her shoulders and turning back to her desk.
"What are you talking about?"
I could feel my blood starting to simmer; she was purposely lying and acting like I didn't hear a damn word that Snake told her. She was a familiar to him; every look he gave her was a look of longing. She knew Blackbeard and my gut was telling me it was in a way that I didn't want to even hear about.
"Don't you dare lie to me; you tell me the damn truth, Emma!" She turned with a smile on her face, a laugh passed her lips. My blood then went from a simmer to a straight boil. She was acting like a damned child.
"I don't think you understand, Hook, I don't have to tell you anything."
Those words sliced through me with a sharp twist. She was right, I was barking at her like she was still my wife and my beloved. How far away she and I were from that stage now, but that didn't stop me from pressing the subject.
"You may not be my wife anymore, but you have an obligation to tell me why you and Blackbeard knew each other." I hissed, her expression solidified and she turned on her heels toward the map. My feet were melted into the floor boards; I was afraid what I was about to here.
"Pirates know each other, Hook, he and I traded together, nothing more." She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she turned back to me. I knew she was lying by the way her eyebrow twitched, a habit she had whenever she felt guilty about lying to me. I managed to uproot my feet and I stepped close to her, closer than comfort.
"I've seen men stare at women with hungry eyes after a day, but Snake's eyes held hunger that was more than just 'trading' expeditions, Emma."
Her breath caught in her throat, in that second I grasped my map off the desk and paraded off her ship. I wasn't going to let this subject crash and burn easily. She and I were nowhere near done with that conversation but I wasn't going to listen to anymore lies, but that was for the fact that I couldn't stand to hear her lie.
When we had finally spent the first day on the seas, and after my blood had returned to the normal temperature. Emma and I met in my quarters to decide to where to lead our ships. Which meant there would be more arguing and more bickering, it was only fun when you actually liked to banter with the person you're supposed to be bantering with.
Smee sat in the middle of the desk while Emma and I argued over the courses to take. This argument had spawned when she was completely avoiding a course that would take us out of the incoming storms way. It would be faster to get to the next destination than have to risk it in a tsunami. She wasn't having it; nevertheless, she kept her knife planted onto the course that she wanted.
"We're taking this course; this is what the map wants us to take!" Emma growled placing her finger on the map.
"I'm not leading my men into Dead Man's Waters; you know ships never survive through those storms!" I hissed. I wasn't going to lead my men plus her crew into a storm that would very well be the death of two of the greatest pirates of all time. My title was more important than her.
"Blackbeard made his way through those waters!"
I felt that pang of jealousy strike me once again, ignoring the feeling and trying to keep my blood at a steady level. "If your memory is wavering out Emma, let me remind you that his ship still went down." Her eyes started to burn with anger. I had hit soft spot; damn did it feel good to strike her right where it hurt.
She slammed her palms onto the table, causing Smee to nearly jump out of his skin. Cringing back, I could see that he was trying to doze through our bickering. I began to wonder if he was starting to miss when Emma and I spent countless hours arguing on courses to take when we were married. Did this almost normal for him?
"We're going to follow the damn map, because the map has the damn directions, we're avoiding your route, write the coordinates down already."
"I'm not writing anything down until you consider that you're leading both our ships into a bloody tsunami, you ignorant wench!" I yelled, my irritation had flown off the ship and I wasn't going to sit here and have her tell me what to do, on my own damn ship nonetheless. Emma' eyes narrowed with seething fury as her face slowly started to turn scarlet.
"I considered your route, I didn't like it and we're going to follow that route, you stubborn arise!"
"If I may interject," Smee said suddenly, it was merely a whisper but it both caused Emma and me to twist our heads toward him. Smee drew a line intersecting between the map's course and mine; it led us right out of the storm and back onto the course.
"This is probably the easiest route to take, and it won't cause you two to argue for another hour." He said almost proudly. Emma and I opened our mouth's to object but Smee had already flown out the door and was barking orders. The room filled up with silence, Emma finally broke from her frozen state and immediately slipped out of my quarters.
A day later, Smee and I lead the ships to an island that would be a good place to start gathering fruit and food for the long voyage. Emma swung into my quarters where Smee and I stood deciding what course to take. One look at her angry face and shaking body sent Smee scurrying out the door. So much for a first mate, I thought before giving her a fake smile.
"Why are we stopping on this island?
"Because we need the men to take a break and relax for a day before we head into 'Seafaring Haunt'"
"You don't get to call where to take the ships, the map does."
"If I have to lead my men into dangerous waters like this, I shall make whatever call that keeps them alive. If you see that as an unfit decision then you can freely take your ship the way it's supposed to go."
"So, you're going to lead us to this damned island?"
I looked up at the island, and saw nothing wrong with it. There was no spewing volcano, rapid beasts coming from the bushes, or undead pirates rising out from the water. The water was clear and there was no sign of a storm, the island was a perfect place.
Then, it hit me like a bullet to the chest. The clear skies, the white sand, clear water, and beautiful trees. I hadn't recognized the island without a piece of a broken ship on the front of the island. Which is why I made the mistake of choosing this island, a sigh escaped my lips as I turned to her.
"I had no intention to bring you here, if I knew it was this island-"
"Forget it," she hissed and stormed back out the door. I groaned, sinking into my seat, I stared at the damn island. How had I been so foolishly blind? How had I not noticed this island was the same island that Emma and I married on? Where our names were carved into a distant tree on the island, or where the very bungalow she and I first made love was still there?
"Brilliant, bloody brilliant, Killian." I muttered.
Emma and I stood far apart from each other as the crew swapped ship stories and pirate tales. Smee could see the divide between us and gave me solace in it. He could see I had considerably wronged this situation and I had no intention of trying to fix it.
"Aye, when I was a 'mere lad and I was sleeping wiff the farmer's daughter and the father caught me jimmin' into 'er bedroom window."
"Not as bad as me, I nearly got me balls seared off with a bloody pitchfork 'ecause the missus 'aught me wif the preacher's lady."
This caused a round of laughter even Emma cracked a smile. For some reason I found nothing funny, so instead of being a stick in the mud I stood up and excused myself to go find more firewood as an excuse to keep the good times going for as long as they had.
I found solace beside a fallen tree and stared at the hook that was a makeshift hand. I sighed tracing the sharp edge. Every knick and small scratch had a memory engraved into it. While the damned hook was a constant reminder of a past that I never wanted to remember. My heart was beating painfully against my chest.
"I always liked you with the hook, it made you sexier." Emma's voice broke the silence. I didn't move nor did I look up to meet her eyes. I half smiled and held it up to the moonlight. Where it glimmered, I could see Emma staring at it as well. She came over and sat next to me. She popped open her flask and took a long swig before handing it to me.
"It's been so long since we were last here, don't you agree?" She whispered staring down at her bloodied knuckles. Her head turned towards me as I brought the flask to my mouth. Not answering I took a large sip, letting it slide down my throat holding back the things I so desperately wanted to let out into the open.
"It seems that this island has more haunted memories than you and I." I said handing the flask back over.
"Nothing has more haunted memories than you and I, Hook." She sighed, taking another swig. I could see that every time she took a sip it was like another lifetime ticked by in her eyes. I could almost see what she was thinking and it made my heart ache worse. She was right, no one, not even a pirate that lived on the sea for all his life could compare to the things we've seen and done.
The silence filled the space between us as I tried to recall a star I needed to follow. I found Orion's Belt and then counted to the second star to the right. I stood holding my eye on it as it twinkled brighter than usual. I could see Emma tilt her head to the side and look to where I was seeing. I held out my hand to her and gave her a half smile.
"Humor me, will you please?"
Emma gave me a look but grasped my hand and let me lead the way.
Finally, after an hour of walking around Emma and I had finally found the tree. It was the highest and the biggest of the island. Emma walked in front of me, inspecting the tree closely before placing her hand on part of the tree. I knew she found the spot where she and I had marked our names. Engraved it with the hook that I had now, I had just gotten used to the damn thing when she and I got to this island.
She dropped to her knees and dug her hand underneath a raised root. I kept my eyebrow raised while she dug out something from the ground. It was a wooden box with her initial carved on the front. She flipped a small cover and pulled out a bottle. A grin spread across her face and she swished around the liquid for a moment into the moonlight.
"It's that bottle I stole from that wine maker," she grinned opening up the bottle. She took a long swig before handing it over to me. I sniffed the bottle letting memories flood into my mind. It was from the village that she and I first met. She had stolen the bottle to celebrate our escape plan together. Who knew down the sea that she and I would become pirates?
"We were so young and so foolish back then," she said sitting against the tree. I joined her taking a sip from the bottle. "We were kids and just needed to get the hell out of that damned village." She let out a small sigh before turning her head toward me. She placed her hand on my hook; she gave it a long look before looking at me.
"How did you fall for me when all I had was one hand?" I asked, it always confused me to how a woman like Emma would fall for a one handed pirate but the look on her face made my heart begin to pound into my ears.
"I would have been in love with you if you had one leg. It was the man with the iron heart on the inside that I fell for," She admitted taking a long sip from this bottle this time. I began to wonder when the last time I had seen Emma like this, to be so close with her and actually feel her next to me. I felt like it hadn't been that long ago, but I had countless dreams about her since she walked off my ship so many years ago.
"Love is petty and useless nowadays, isn't it?" she mumbled looking over at me. Part of me wanted to disagree that love wasn't useless but enjoyable but then another part of me, the part that was torn in shreds, said that it was useless as fake jewel; pretty on the outside but empty and worthless on the inside. I didn't answer, I just took another sip of the wine and let agreed to whatever answer came first.
[A/N]
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