Chapter 3:

A Gentleman

Something was off with Killian, since the little incident with the robbers, he's been distant, lost in thought, he still held her, still went with them, but he seemed cold through it all, almost as if he wasn't sure if he wanted to kiss her or push her away and bolt.

He'll get over whatever is bothering him. She reasoned. He'd been through a lot in these last few days, so it was no wonder he wasn't normal, or whatever normal was for him. They still had a lot of things to figure out, and one of those things was figuring out what normal would be for them.

But now wasn't the time for that, now was the time to find her friend.

Her friend, who was in all ways that mattered, was Henry's mother. Emma just gave birth to him, but her friend, she raised the amazing boy before her, cared for every runny nose, dealt with every tantrum, every bad dream. Emma knew she'd picked right with how brave her little prince was, just like his mothers.

The two of them went through the home, a small cabin that had been the perfect place to raise a child.

"Walls"

Emma had wanted a castle, with tall walls and gates, perfect with keeping out trespassers should they break the enchantment.

"A cabin." The elder woman insisted, a hand on Emma's shoulder, a gentle smile on her face. They were both watching the same sight. They were both watching an infant Henry in his new mother's arms, a yellow baby blanket with his name stitched on the outside. His tiny fist grabbing for stands of straight dark hair from her, his adoptive mother. It practically tore her up inside, but Emma couldn't stop watching.

"Walls may keep out pain, but they keep out love too. You gave Henry to my daughter and I to raise. You gave him to us because you didn't want him raised like you were." She reminded Emma. "We need something warm and simple. A cabin."

Emma agreed.

It was obvious who was right now, the cabin was in absolute ruin. It was obvious that serious magic had been flying, the earth was scorched, shelves knocked over, things crushed, sword swings embedded in the wall.

Her mother, the queen, had stolen the mother and daughter pair out from their home, leaving all else to ruin. Despite their powerful magic, despite all the precautions Emma had taken through the years, to protect her son's family. She stayed away for years of his young life, only returning when drawing the conclusion between the pair was near impossible! She did it all for this? She did it to keep Henry from hurting, but looking at him now, she knew she had failed.

She could see the pain in Henry that he tried to hide, the way he bent to look at a mass of broken glass; it was obvious he knew what it used to be, while Emma was clueless. He thought she didn't notice him picking up keepsakes as he went a little sleight of hand. Henry didn't like being sentimental, but he was.

Just like her.

She saw her boy whipping the tears from his eyes. She sometimes forgot how young he was. This was supposed to be a safe place for him. He wasn't supposed to lose it so violently. She made a promise in this instance to do whatever it took to get his family back together.

His family, the one that didn't include her.

And it starts here. She touched the wooden walls, feeling the magic she herself had embedded in its frame, she felt her friend's magic, weak and broken but still there. She searched for her own magical charms, but they were gone, whipped away clean. It was just as she feared, another magic had taken its place. Something that had everything she wasn't. It was unmistakable.

"I know why the seal broke." She voiced aloud, wanting to make sure that she wasn't mistaken, she turned to the grieving boy curiously. "Henry, tell me, what do you remember about this day?" She asked her son, he kept his back facing her.

"I remember eating breakfast; I was arguing mom over how the girl in the village had a crush on me. Mom thought I should be nicer to her…" He started; Emma pulled him in close, smoothing his hair down, but he shook off her touch. "Then Grandma said that Mom and I had to get out of here; that someone had broken through, she'd hold them off for as long as she could. Mom started to take me but when we started running, something stopped her, a man with a golden sword hit her in the leg." He explained.

Damn it. Emma wanted to be wrong. She wanted it to be anyone but him.

She'd never met him, but knew of his magic, his reputation.

"A golden sword?" She pressed he nodded.

"She told me to run and I did. I ran and ran, hid in the woods until night fall. Then I went back. They were gone." He turned back towards me. "Why? What's so important about a golden sword?"

She wanted to laugh. Everything was significant about the golden sword. But it was ok if Henry didn't know that, it wasn't exactly common knowledge, it was more like…Dark One knowledge, no Dark One legend. It was her opposite in every way.

She could practically hear the Dark One voices screaming at her to seek him out and kill him, rid them of their eternal foe.

"It means that we have a way to figure out what the Queen is planning, what she wanted your family for. Come on; let's go back to where Killian made camp. We'll head out at first light." She explained with a hand on Henry's shoulder. He tried to complain but he gave a loud and tired yawn before crossing his arms and muttering unhappily.

"Mom, please, we can do this by ourselves, why bring your new boyfriend?" Henry groaned.

"He's not my new boyfriend." She said with a sigh. "But he's important to me. He wants to help, truly." She explained.

Henry rolled his eyes, but left the matter at that.

They passed through the barrier just in time to see Killian roasting something on some sticks. She didn't really care for caught prey so she let Henry and Killian split her portion. It wasn't like she needed to eat anyway.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Killian asked, eyes on his meal. She made note of the lack in endearment in his sentence. She actually quite liked when he called her love.

"There's a man in a village nearby, a sorcerer, he was the one who broke the charm, we need to talk to him, convince him to cut his allegiances with the Queen." She explained. He blinked at her in confusion, so Emma sighed and figured that she might as well give him a magic lesson.

Emma picked up a stick drawing a star on the ground. "The charm works like this, imagine this is Henry's home, right smack in the middle of the forest." She drew a circle around it. "One layer of magic keeps it hidden from sight, makes you walk right through it, as if it isn't even there." She explained. "But if you had magic, you could probably feel the glamour spell, perhaps attempt to break it. This is the result of Henry's grandmother's magic, it's not as pure as mine, but its special, a breed of its own. Only blood magic, or extremely powerful similar magic can break it."

That was where Henry's jealous aunt came in, always so jealous of the magic her younger sister had. It made her sick with rage at the life she'd thrown away for petty revenge.

"But when you add in my magic." Instead of drawing another circle, she intertwined her magic with the circle. "You'd need to be able to break them both." She insisted. "It couldn't be done. Only equal and opposite magic can penetrate mine." She insisted. "We need to find the Sorcerer, cause of this equal and opposite magic, it's only a few days walk from here." Killian looked up.

"A sorcerer? I thought-"

Emma shrugged. "Magic can only be inherited by the female line, but it can be acquired by any male." She replied, knowing his question already.

"I'm guessing his magic is of the light variety?" He said simply, dryly even. "I recall you mentioning that Ingrid's light magic could harm you as well." It made her flinch as his tone caught her off guard.

"Yeah? So what?!" She exclaimed, standing up. Who did he think he was questioning her about magic? It was her specialty after all!

Killian didn't flinch, but he brought his eyes to her face meeting her harsh gaze with his own.

"You can't just go in there blindly. You need a plan Swan." He replied, getting to his feet as well She let out a low growl, Emma didn't like how dark that sounded, how it seemed to be edging towards sounding like an order.

Emma didn't like orders.

"Or what?" She dared, inching towards him. He flinched slightly, but kept his gaze level.

"You'll get your boy and I killed." It was brutally honest, so brutally honest that Emma felt his words suck the fire right out of her. He didn't budge, his own anger flaring intensely.

"Killian…" She said softly. But he didn't calm down, especially not when she reached for his hand. He pulled away sharply, giving her his back

What the hell is up with you Killian? She questioned. He looked back at her uncertainly, before muttering something about going to get fire wood.

Emma knew a convenient excuse when she heard one.

"Seriously Mom? How did he survive this long?" Henry droned. "Did the seas really have such a calming effect on you that he didn't even realize never to get you angry?" He bit into his meat hungrily. "And how did he get you to calm down so quickly? And storming off? Its hilarious when you can just order him back."

Emma chuckled. "Henry, I don't have his heart. He gets me angry because he doesn't want me to push him around, he can calm me because he isn't afraid like the others." She explains.

Henry rolls his eyes. "It's ok if you have his heart, honest, I don't care."

But he does care, she knows it.

"I promise you Henry, he is in control of his own actions."

Her son didn't believe her, he just threw out the parts of his meal he didn't want to eat. "You should go find him then. He'll probably hurt himself out there." Henry snickered.

Emma laughed, he probably would. She stood up and followed the crumbled branches, soon hearing his muttered cursing. He was talking to himself. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Damn it Milah!" He shouted. She stopped at that name, his first love. "How in the world were you able to do this so easily?" Emma hesitated, wondering if she had a place in his thoughts when he was thinking about her.

She peered closer, seeing him with half a bottle of rum and a bandage tied around his wrist and hand. She rolled his eyes, remembering what Killian had told her of Milah, she was a healer in her seaside village and he was thinking of her because he was currently trying to get to the back of his neck, but was having trouble. She listened to his string of increasingly violent curses as she approached.

"Killian?" She said softly, coming closer. He jumped in surprise, tipping the bottle over. He cursed some more as he tried to pick it back up.

"Swan." He said in a controlled voice before sighing. "My apologies on rushing off like that, just trying to cool down, I apologize for my temper lately, I don't know what's come over me…"

She chuckled, telling him to turn around so she could see what he was trying to patch up. He hesitated, but he could tell that she wasn't taking no for an answer. "Henry told me I should come after you, said you'd probably hurt yourself out here all by your lonesome."

He didn't respond, barely flinched as she touched the nick in his neck with the alcohol and put a small cloth over it, The cut wasn't deep, but it was bleeding more than expected.

"What exactly did you do out here to hurt yourself?" She asked casually.

He didn't respond.

"That embarrassing?" She asked with a snicker.

"I'd rather not say." He said carefully. She didn't like that answer, it was vague enough that she couldn't tell if he was lying, it made her suspicious that he had something to hide.

"Killian, look at me." He turned to face her. He was still angry, but worse, he was distant, avoiding her eyes, keeping his eyes downcast. She just didn't understand. "What's wrong?"

He held his position forcing a smile. "I'm fine Swan." He still didn't look at her, making it hard to believe that. He was lying to her.

He tried to shove past her but she gripped his arm lightly, pulling him in for a close embrace, her head on his shoulder. She felt him going ridged, not expecting that. She could feel his body shudder slightly before he melted against her, his eyes closed as she felt his arms tighten around her.

"I know you're holding something back from me, and that's ok, we all have secrets, we all get things stuck in our heads." She started, cupping his cheek gently as she pulled down a fraction. "My parents were always suspicious of everyone and everything. They taught me, practically made me into what I am, walls and all. But I'm going to do what my parents never could; I'm going to choose to see the best in you."

His breathing caught as he placed his hand, over hers.

"And I you." He promised. "I'm sorry. There is so much I want to tell you, but it's just hard to do that right now." He pressed his forehead against hers. "Everything has changed in these last weeks and I'm not sure exactly how to move forward, how to do anything at all actually."

She could understand that, Emma knew that he had spent most of his life, all of his adult life, serving a corrupt and horrendous Captain. He had finally found the courage to confront the man and had taken back his ship. Emma had been so proud of him.

What she also knew was that his memories of losing his brother had become distorted of the late, he didn't tell her the new version of the story just yet, but she knew it was much worse than just being abducted from Neverland by said corrupt Captain. She had a suspicion it had something to do with an action his brother had taken, something very bad that her sailor was trying to deal with himself before talking about it with her.

"How about we start somewhere small? How did you cut yourself in the back of the neck?" She asked, hoping that the funny story could lighten the mood a bit. She quite liked her sailor flustered.

He flinched slightly, his voice getting gentle, calming even. "Do you promise not to over react?" He started. "Do you promise not to get angry?" She narrowed her eyes.

"When a man says that, I find myself never in a pleasant conversation." She replied. Emma was suspicious now, what the hell happened?

"Promise?" He urged. Emma nodded.

"Our friends the robbers paid me a visit while you two were gone." He admitted. She pulled away.

Her eyes widened. They attacked Killian!

She could feel her anger bubbling up, the thought of what could have happened playing out in front of her, returning to a dead Killian Jones, or worse, a dying one. To hear his last words, feel his last breaths-

She was going to make them pay, she was going to burn the forest to the ground, rip out their hearts and make them watch her turn them to dust.

"Swan. I'm fine." He insisted, bringing her back to the present with his voice, with his touch on her hand. "So fine in fact that I got a little information for my troubles." He said with a smirk.

She looked at him with disbelief. "Seriously? How'd you manage that?" He laughed, pulling her close.

"Well Swan, it turns out that when I'm not hunched over, a mop in my hands, I can be quite persuasive to a lass." He snickered. "Present company included of course." She frowned.

"I don't like the idea of you being persuasive with anyone but me." She said back, not caring for the slight possessiveness in her voice. She remembered back at port a few days ago when she thought another held his heart, remembered the burning in her throat at seeing her embrace another blonde like he was embracing her now. She had wanted to kill her, wanted to claim the sailor, her sailor-

"Do I detect a bit of jealousy Swan?" He snickered.

"What do you think sailor?" She responded, pulling at the lapels of his jacket, pulling him towards her. "You're my sailor." They crashed in a flare of heat and passion, nothing like earlier, it felt real this time. His hand was around her waist and in her hair. Her own were over his chest, sliding under his jacket towards the buttons of his vest.

"Swan." He moaned, hands weakly trying to stop her fiddling with the devices. "I meant what I said before." He said breaking apart their embrace slightly. He wanted to wait. He wanted to court her properly, but didn't he know that he already held her heart? That he didn't need t go to the trouble?

She moaned a complaint as she pushed him against a tree. "You're not the only one that can be persuasive Sailor." She said instead, hoping to break that gentlemanly will of his. The sailor was just a man after all.

"Bloody hell Swan." He said in a sigh, holding her hands still. "You're making it bloody impossible for me to be a gentleman, you know that love?"

She laughed, pressing her palm over his heart, hearing its gentle beating.

(Ok not gentle since she had her own body pressed against his at the moment)

"Oh I know." She snickered. "That's the plan." He looked at her softly, so softly that she stopped her attempts. She chose to respect his decision, but it didn't mean she couldn't speed it up a little. "So Killian Jones, will you go out with me?"

He raised his gaze, looking at her questioningly. She suppressed a sigh. "Courting. Sorry." She said quickly. Emma didn't often get her terms confused.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking to court you?" He questioned with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes.

"Please, you know I'd only agree so that we could do more pleasurable activities." She said cheekily, fingering his jacket, running her hands down it, smoothing the wrinkles she had created when she had grabbed it. Emma absolutely adored that jacket on him, she rested her forehead against his shoulder.

"Fine, but only if you let me plan the evening." He responded smoothly, taking her hands in his again.

She pulled her head away, wanting to look at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" He took her moment of distraction to switch their position so her back was against the tree, letting out a triumphant chuckle as he went.

"In all due respect Swan, if it's fighting knights or witches, I'll admit, you are the expert, but I have a bit of experience in the matter of courting a beautiful lass, I've learned from the best." He said.

She practically melted under his gaze.

"Okay." She said. Emma wanted to say her voice didn't waver under him, didn't betray her, didn't sound like the love sick lost girl she'd always been deep down inside. "As much as I'd like to stay here, we should head back." She said simply, catching her voice this time.

Killian nodded. "I wouldn't want to give your lad the wrong idea." He added.

Emma laughed. "Always the gentleman."

A little fluffy resolution to their internal issues here, just in time for Valentines day, unfortunately I wanted to get to a spot where a Valentines day chapter would fit in quite nicely, but I was too slow. Maybe, if I get the chance, I'll stick it in Love of All Kinds as a little bit of a teaser. No promises.

This starts off a little rough, but bear with me, its just a bit of vague set up that's absolutely necessary so you can go "OH THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE HINTING AT!" later.

Posting a little earlier due to a busy weekend, in the future, I hope to post on Fridays or Saturdays, until Once comes back, then I might just post on Mondays because I may need to vent and speculate.

Guest review(s):

andria: All your questions have been answered (I hope). I was probably being a little too vague with the specifics about Henry's background, which I may tend to do after rereading chapters too many times, hopefully I cleared that up. It will be covered a bit more later on.

Don't forget to review! Helps me know what you know, and what to clarify, no beta reader here.

~Luna