EMMA

Trouble. By the looks of things they were in deep and probably life threatening trouble. No, it wasn't the fact that there was a ship twice their size heading toward them that gave Emma that idea, or the way the crew were scrambling around the deck like they'd just dropped their balls. They certainly added to the impression but it was the unfaltering look of fear creasing the Captain's eyes that cinched it. He might have tried to hide it from his crew but she was no fool. As if her problems weren't already bad enough…

Cornered against his cabin doors the unknown princess could only watch the pirates' attempts to outrun the pursuing ship, her heart thudding in time with the scurrying feet. This would now be the second time when death seemed to loom on her horizon and it was in no way easier than the first. Her worried thoughts were constantly being interrupted by bouts of the Captain's harsh voiced orders and the odd muttered prayer of some men as they passed her. In theory they had the advantage being the smaller ship and therefore should be faster but the kraken didn't seem to be getting any further away.

'Can't this stupid ship go any faster?' She called to him with increasing anxiety over the cacophony of noise. The Captain seemed to be locked in his own trance, playing to a personal rhythm of the sea as the rudders of the helm counterbalanced in his hands. He still registered her voice however.

'My perfectly hand crafted vessel is going as fast as she can!' He countered through gritted teeth. On the edge of disaster and the man was defending his ship with wounded pride as if it were his child.

'Well the bigger perfectly hand crafted vessel isn't going away!' Emma argued her gaze flickering from him to their pursuer. What would happen if they caught up with them? Would they kill her? Would they kill all of them? Or it could be worse…for her anyway.

'Don't you think I know that?! I'm not blind love,' He yelled back and she took a moment to realise that like her, he used sarcasm as a mechanism to hide what he was really feeling.

'Why can't you just…I don't know, throw some stuff overboard to make it go faster?' She suggested in a flailing panic. Did she mention that she hated the sea?

'Volunteering are you?' He scoffed. That was a no then… 'Now, will you just shut up and let me do my job?' He added and she huffed feeling utterly useless. She wasn't about to stand there and do nothing though. The man that the Captain had named Smee or idiot more than anything really was struggling to fasten a knot at the mast. Seizing the opportunity she rushed over to ease the pressure at the rough tendons of weaved rope. Emma grunted as it burned in her hands but he soon tied it and panted a thanks before carting off to do something else. She rubbed her hands into her not very well fitting trousers but as she did so she noticed something.

'They're turning…' She mumbled in confusion to herself. 'They're turning!' She called louder looking up at the Captain with a laugh of relief. She didn't want to think as to the reason but why else would they turn around if not to leave? Her Captain caught the wheel in his hand for a moment to let his piercing blue gaze rest on her before he looked with a furrowed brow to the sea at his back. His confusion instantly gave way to alarm.

'Get down! Everyone get down now!' He exclaimed and she noticed that his voice was hoarse from all the shouting. Emma watched not quite understanding as he careened away from the helm and jumped down onto the lower deck. She didn't even have the chance to react as his arms enveloped her and he pulled her down with him to the deck.

'What the he-' Emma couldn't finish her protest as what started as a stifled boom from behind them ended with a splintering crack against the mast. A canon had torn right through the thick wooden pole, instantly severing the main sail. She felt his arms around her tighten as she glimpsed from behind the musty leather of his coat the remains topple and crash over them.

'Are you alright?' His gasp was muffled against the collar of her shirt. Emma had a pain in her shoulder from when she had hit the wooden boards but she wouldn't complain. She could have just been decapitated or impaled by a falling mast after all.

'Yeah…' Emma managed suffering from an element of shock. She desperately tried to push aside the fact that he was laying on top of her and looked up at the sail that had blanketed the ship. It shaded the sun casting them in a warm orange glow. It would have been strangely beautiful if not for the fact that they were still in danger of being killed.

'No need to thank me, I couldn't let that pretty face go to waste,' He panted with a grin as he pushed himself up onto his hands. Still a little too close for comfort, the faint smell of rum was on his breath as his chest still heaved but she was captured for that moment in his eyes as he stared down at her. 'Are you picturing this on my bed with fewer clothes on? Because I am.' Moment ruined. Emma shook her head with a scoffing sigh as she pushed him off.

'Ship, broken mast, probable death, remember?' She cursed the Captain in disbelief as she lifted herself up. This man must be insane, he was thinking about sex just as they were all about to die…well actually of course that was what a man like him would think about. As if to remind him another canon fired narrowly missing the ship but it spurred him back into action. He jumped to his feet and his eyes flickered across the broken ship, she noticed a moment of utter loss and defeat. A moment ago this had been his most precious possession and now no one knew if they were going to make it past the next sunrise.

'Arm yourselves lads! We're going to wet our steel with their blood and show them what it means when you pick fight with Captain Killian Greyjoy!' He hollered out to them to raise morals before taking her hand and dragging her along behind him.

'What the hell?! Where are you taking me?' She protested digging in her heels and ducking to avoid the collapsed canvas. She dared a look back and swallowed with fear. The enemy ship was close enough now to see the men aboard waiting for a bloody sea battle and they battered their weapons at the side to create a monstrous sound. If the survived this then it would be a miracle.

'You are still in my care love and I'll be damned if I let you die on my watch.' His smirk had faltered down to a grim but determined, hard set frown. She finally managed to struggle out of his grasp once he had pulled her to his cabin that was still accessible.

'If everyone else is going to fight then I want to as well!' Emma objected to his back as he rummaged in his chest.

'You'd make a good pirate,' He glanced back to smirk faintly but sighed as he seemed to have found what he had been looking for. 'But no, I can't risk you dying unnecessarily. You're obviously important to someone otherwise they wouldn't have gone through all this trouble.' He tossed a small bottle in his hands and then his face became unreadable to her.

'What's that?' She asked crossing her arms against her with a gesturing nod toward the bottle. 'I sure hope its some magic potion that will solve all this shit we have to deal with.' It must be something serious otherwise he would have smirked at that…but he didn't. Before he answered the shout from outside were getting louder.

'I don't have much time. Listen, there is a good chance that we'll all die, a small chance that we might not.' His voice lowered as he stepped toward her. 'You will stay here, on y orders you will stay. If they break in here then you know that I'm dead…and if that does happen, you have to take this.' He handed her the bottle with a solemn expression.

'I d-don't understand…' Emma's brows furrowed as she turned the liquid in her hand. She didn't like where this was going at all. He had been full of fierce tenacity outside but away from the crew he had deflated and it scared her rigidly.

'There are some fates worse than death,' He muttered before walking past her. Poison. He had given her poison so she could kill herself if they got to her? Emma wanted to protest that she would never do such a thing, she would never give up no matter what. Yet he was right, she didn't even want to imagine what would happen if a crew full of bloodthirsty men found her alive…

'What do they even want? If they're pirates then shouldn't you be friends or something? I don't understand why all this is happening!' She argued weakly pushing back the threat of tears in her eyes. This was a time to stay strong and that was exactly what she was going to do. He didn't even answer her questions, as if he knew but didn't want to tell her. A reason that she wouldn't like to hear.

'When all this is over maybe you can then tell me your name?' He said quietly instead from behind her. She turned just in time to capture that brief flicker of a smile. There was a moment of silence, excluding the rhythmic beat of steel and shouts outside and Emma bit her lip as she looked down at her hands.

'Killian wait, my name…' She started and looked up to find that he had already gone. She rushed up to the door and pushed on it but the bastard had moved something in front of the doors so she couldn't get out. 'You stupid pirate let me out!' She kicked at the door but it was no use. She ran to the porthole at the end of the cabin and peered out to try and see what was happening. The sea had gone and in its place were the weather worn boards of another ship.

The roars from outside were suddenly louder and it felt as if the ship dipped with the weight of the arrival. Words couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling but she had nearly thrown up with the nerves as she seemed to just wait for death to come knocking on the door. With every passing moment that seemed to stretch interminably she paced, clawed at her hair with bursts of fear and had ended up curled on Killian's bed with his musty, salty scented blanket wrapped around her.

The sound of battle was diminishing and finally Emma let herself shed a tear in a soft whimper as they couldn't have possibly been victorious. Her heart caught in her mouth as blood curdling cheers that she didn't recognise rattled from beyond the doorway, the only thing that was keeping her safe. They were dead…he was dead…and now she would die. She could hear a muffled, sure sounded voice and then slowly, a grinding scraping of wood. They were coming into the cabin, they would find her…she swallowed and sat up with shaking breaths that she couldn't control. The bottle tremored in her hands as she removed the cork. Tears streaked down her face as she raised the bottle to her lips.

'Take it! Please say you've taken it!' Killian's guttural cry cut through everything and seemed to echo in her ears. The bottle lowered… He was alive? They hadn't killed him and yet he was telling her to take it? She put the cork back into the bottle and tucked it into one of her boots.

Not knowing the reason as to why, she charged toward the door; picking up a spare sword from the chest. Shaking away the last of her fears she kicked the door as hard as she could. She was rewarded with an almighty cry as it seemed to have connected with someone who was standing behind it. Pushing her way out of the cabin she was met with the aftermath of their war at sea. Corpses littered the floor of men she recognised and those she didn't surrounded her with harsh lined faces. There was one face that she recognised and he was alive, she caught his horrified eyes at seeing her there. A gash at his head had streaked down his face and he was trussed up against the stump of the mast. Emma brandished the sword but it was taken from her before she could even do anything and she winced as her hair was tugged into unknown hands.

'What is this woman to you Greyjoy?' The gritty owner of the hands mocked him, spitting blood at her feet. It was him she had hit then.

'A poor excuse of a whore from Pentos.' He answered tearing his gaze from her. She resisted the urge to object knowing that he was trying to protect her in some god awful way. A whore though? That was just asking for the whole crew to grind themselves into her.

'You're lying!' The man spat pulling on her head harder and she bit on her tongue to hold back the pain.

'What reason do I have for lying?!' Killian bit back struggling against the bonds that tied him. It was honestly a heart breaking to see the same man who had laughed with his crew only this morning in this position. Now surrounded with the dead bodies of his crew, his ship in ruins and his life hanging in the balance of the men who did it.

'I'm a bastard corrupted with the magic of the undying.' She answered for him, knowing that the pretence wouldn't last. His eyes flashed angrily to her and Emma looked away but mouthed an apology to him.

'Why are you here?' The man was addressing her now, his threatening voice rough in her ear. She saw only one way to possibly save them both. If she deemed them valuable them perhaps they would see the situation differently.

'Don't.' Killian's voice warned her but she ignored him. He was greeted with punch across the face from a nearby man however and she closed her eyes as she spoke next.

'The Captain was transporting me as an important passenger to Westeros, as order by Saan.' She had remembered the name but had no other information about the man or the deal. The greedy faces of the other men looked to the man holding her. He was in charge? It made it even better that she had hurt him. He had come to a decision although he hadn't voiced it.

'If you know what's good for you boy, you'll tell us the truth from now on,' He snarled at Killian as he dragged her over to him. 'And you're a good little girl aren't you? I'll be seeing you later.' He smirked, not like the playful smirk of her Captain, no this was darker and it made Emma's stomach turn. She was thrust from him and she stumbled to the floor beside Killian before the victorious leader sauntered away to bark orders.

'Why didn't you take it?' Killian whispered to her but it wasn't a question that she could answer. She huddled closer to him, her knees drawn up to her chest. She rested her head against his shoulder and she felt his tenseness soften.

'Emma, my name is Emma.'