AN: Sorry it's been so long since I updated! I feel like I promise this every time I update, but I will try to get better.

I went back and edited the first few chapters a bit. The writing is far from my best, but I am too excited to get on with the story to rewrite the whole thing. I might recommend going back and reviewing what has already happened though, and hopefully the writing will be slightly better from here on out!

I apologize for Victor not being in this chapter. he will definitely be in the next one, and he will be joining up with these three pretty soon.

Please leave reviews, they make my day 1000 times better!

Chapter 3
There were few times in Red and Emma's lives that they had truly been at a loss for what to do. Probably the biggest factor in that was that their lives had consisted of little to no important events, but it still says sometimes that the presence of a one-handed leather-clad man was able to fully render them speechless. After nearly three whole minutes of just staring at his body, Red spoke up.

"What the hell are we supposed to do with him?!"

Emma looked at her, aghast. "Do? Is that a question? We don't do anything. Mother can tell us what to do when she comes. It's almost morning, she should be here-"

"Why would you want to tell mother?" Red asked, just as confused as Emma. Apparently the man arriving in their tower had a very different influence on both of their thoughts. "He's from the outside world!" She gestured to him, as if trying to prove that point. "Look at his hand and his outfit: he's a pirate, Em."

"Yeah, Captain Hook from the looks of it! You've heard as much about him as I have. Remind me why we would want to make friends with him?"

"He could tell us stories! He could bring us on adventures! He could teach us about all of the dangers that are out there. Why would we hand him over to mother?"

Emma took a step back and considered him, as though these thoughts hadn't even occurred to her. "Adventure..." she murmured, so quietly that Red couldn't hear it.

Emma often tried to stay unemotional about things. She tried to not have a strong opinion on anything, because she had found that having a strong feelings about something just made her get hurt if things didn't work out. At least that's what she had always tried to remind herself.

In this case, however, she didn't try to hide from emotion. She chose to embraced it. Seeing the unconscious, handsome stranger on the floor struck something in her, and that one word echoed in her mind: Adventure. There was no way she was letting her mother take this away from her, she decided. When she looked back to her sister, it was with renewed vigor.

"Where can we hide him." It wasn't a question. It was Emma clearly telling Red that their lives, their stories, were about to begin, and they would start with this man leading them out of their tower once and for all. There was a long silence, where the two of them seemed to let the idea of running away really wash over them for the first time. Being presented with a guide had been one thing that had never occurred to them, but here was their opportunity. They had to take it. Finally, Red responded in a hoarse voice.

"My closet. It's big enough to fit him and one of us, and still be able to walk around. One can stay in there to make sure, if he wakes up, he doesn't draw attention from mother. The other one can stay out here and wait for her." There was drive in her voice, and Emma entered a plan-making mode as well. She nodded succinctly.

"What'll the person who is out here say to her?"

"They'll..." Red paused. "They'll ask her one last time if she'll take us to the lanterns."

"And if she says no?" Emma said, sounding stressed. "We just run away with this man? We don't know him! He could be crazy, or a maniac!"

"Nah, look at his face," Red smiled for the first time, nudging his face with her foot, causing his head to roll over. "Maniacs don't look like that," Red simply said.

For the first time, Emma got a good look at him. And holy shit, was he attractive. He looked like the type of person that she read about in her books, who came and swept girls off their feet, using flattery, charms, bravery; the whole package. He looked like the perfect mysterious hero, with his dark, windswept hair, and utterly gorgeous face. There was something about him that spoke of danger. Maybe it was the abundance of eyeliner, or the metal appendage where his left hand should be, or his general clothing. The leather gave off a very bad-boy vibe.

It was his danger that intrigued her more than his good looks (though they certainly didn't hurt). Because wherever danger went, adventure of some sort would follow.

Emma shook herself a bit, drawing herself out of her careful observations. She giigled a bit at Red's words. "Maybe it doesn't even matter if he's crazy," she laughed back. "But can we really just run away like this? It's so sudden..."

"LIsten Emma, it's now or never. We aren't going to have someone willingly wander in here again, or at least not for a long time. We've been waiting to finally have real lives for 21 years! Yes it's sudden, but we just have to...jump. And not be afraid to fall," Red replied, without a hint of questioning in her voice. Emma finally nodded.

"Okay, I'll stay in the closet with him."

"Oh, of course you will," Red said mockingly. "Let's hope he doesn't have a sexy voice, or else I don't even want to know what might happen in there..." Emma shoved her playfully, going to grab his legs, while her sister took his arms.

It was about an hour later when Hook finally woke. He jolted up with a start and sat up, rubbing the back of his head slightly. Looking around, he saw that he was no longer in the same room. Though, judging by the fact that the floor looked like it was the same pattern, he guessed he was still somewhere in the tower. He also noticed that he was surrounded by racks of dresses and skirts, most of them red. There were a few white dressers as well, with red flowers painted on them. From the looks of it, he was in a large walking closet, belonging to a girl with an affinity for the color.

"Hello?" he said into the air, hoping he wasn't talking to an empty room.

From behind one of Red's many racks of clothing, Emma closed her eyes, and came horribly close to sighing. His accent was spectacular, just like Red had predicted.

"Hello," she said back, with as much calmness as she could muster, attempting to make herself sound confident. "Why have you come to our tower?"

Hook looked around, trying to find the source of the feminine voice. "Um, could you come out, please? I prefer to be face to face with someone who has knocked me out cold and left me in a closet." He didn't know what prompted him to say what he did next, but he just somehow sensed that this girl or woman cold be goaded into revealing themselves by the mere words, "unless, of course, you're too cowardly."

This guy has some nerve, Emma though viciously, before stepping out from behind it in a split second's decision. "Over here." Hook, who was facing the other way, whirled around, when he heard her voice.

Hook took in his opponent in only a second or two, studying her as best as he could. She was..beautiful. There weren't many other words he could use. Her long, golden hair was in a messsy braid, and she wore a purple pastel colored dress. No shoes, he noticed briefly. Must mean she lives here. He also noted that there was not a hint of red in her outfit, and deduced that the closet they were in didn't belong to her.

The captain had always been a quick thinker. He was able to turn a situation around speedily with just a few words. Blondes do tend to make these things more fun, though, he thought with an inward smirk, beforeplastering on his best confused and innocent face.

Surprisingly, she didn't soften at his expression. "So? How did you get here?" She prompted, jutting one hip out and placing a hand to rest there, completeing the perfect 'I'm bored with you' look.

He cleared his throat modestly, and spoke, getting into character. "Forgive me for tresspassing, miss. I was traveling for a long time, all alone in the woods. I didn't know this tower was occupied."

The woman scoffed. She actually scoffed. This was definitely a first. "And what are you supposed to be?" She laughed, with very little humor in her tone. "A blacksmith or something?" She took a few steps forward, eyeing him with suspicion. "Yeah, I doubt it. So tell me three things, pirate," she sneered the last word, and Hook realized that this might not be quite as easy as he had hoped. "Who are you, why are you here, and what could you possibly want with this?" On the last word, she swiftly pulled the Dark One's dagger out from behind her back, and he felt his back stiffen. Taking that from his satchel had just made this personal. He didn't know who this woman was, but she couldn't be nearly as strong as she was pretending. Still, he decided to play along for a bit, and this time be (somewhat) truthful.
He smiled in an almost genuine way, but with a trace of mocking. "Good for you, you bested me. I can count the amount of people who've done that on one hand!" She merely glared, clearly not amused with his joke. "But in responce to your questions: I got here because I was running through the forest, and this was the first place I found to hide for the night." He paused, considering stopping there, but figured that he should give her more details. Giving details tends to make people believe you. "I am Captain Hook, from-"
"Captain Hook?" The woman exclaimed, loosing her icy persona for a moment. "As in from Neverland? What's it like th-" She cut herself off, and her face became guarded again.

Hook smirked a bit, knowing he had found a weak spot. He had seen hundreds people come in and out of the bars in Neverland, all of them consistently impressed that they were meeting the famous Captain Hook. His reputation often proceeded him, and most of the time, it helped him him. It struck fear into men's hearts, and lust into women's. He wasn't trying to brag (much), but he had been told those very words by countless people. He suspected that his reputation would help in this situation, but not how it normally did with the fairer sex. He could tell by the way her eyes lit up when she had been talking. It was adventure that this woman craved.

"Never mind," she said cooly, pretending nothing had happened. "Now why do you want this...thing?" She questioned, holding the dagger between herself and the pirate, observing it closely. Hook made a grab for it, just to test if she was stupid enough to let her guard down, but she yanked it away almost the moment he made his move. He knew he should only be focusing on getting the dagger, but he couldn't help but be a bit pleased. Perhaps she would offer some form of a challenge. She was obviously intelligent.

She. That's all he could call her.

"I'll tell you, on the condition that you tell me your name," he responded smoothly.

She huffed, then pulled her chin up and said with pride, "Emma Swan."

Emma... He was sure he had heard that name sometime recently, but he couldn't quite put his finger of what it's context had been. The Swan part of it, however, rang no bells.

"Well Emma, my uses for that dagger are my own, and I'll appreciate it if you merely hand it back, and I'll be on my way," he smiled.

She gaped for a second, and then said, looking totally affronted, "You tricked me!"

"Pirate," he whispered mockingly without missing beat. When Emma didn't move to return the dagger, he steped forward a few feet. Emma took a move back, and, grinning to himself, Hook contined approaching her. Soon enough, he had her backed into the side of the closet, the only wall surface which wasn't obscured with some form of clothing or closet. Her breath hitched in her throat, he noted. Feeling slightly put out, he realized that she probably wouldn't be that much of a challenge. She, just like everyone else, was giving into his good looks. At least this will make getting out of here quickly all the more easy he thought, but could he was still unable to hide his disappointment. "Now I'll have my property back, love," he whispered, his lips a few inches away from her face.

Meanwhile, Emma was in shock. She had never had any real interations with people other than her mother ro Red. Did they all have this same lack of regard for personal space? Did all of their lips loko as tantalizing as his? No, no, no, she thought to herself frantically, hoping that he hadn't seen her eyes on his mouth, though she guessed he did.

She noted the look in his eye, and Emma could tell he thought she was just some innocent, feeble young girl. Well, I may not get out much, but I'll show him, she thought viciously.

She pushed her head back until it bumped against the wall, pretending to be extremely nervous. He follwoed her movements, keeping them the same distance apart. She glanced down, and saw that both his arms were on either side of her, trapping her against the wall. As well as that, since she had both hands firmly gripped against the dagger, he had rendered her arms useless. Passingly, she hoped that, if they succeeded in getting him to bring them on a journey to see the lanterns and run away from home, he would learn what personal bouandries were okay to cross, and which were not.

Emma considered just asking him to please move away, but she figured that doing it her own way would be much more fun. Instead, she stared straight at his chest and sharpened her eyes. Before she could believe it, he had jumped away from her, letting out a shout. Oops. Hopefully mother didn't hear anything.

"What...the bloody...hell...was that?" He heaved, holding his remaining hand up to his heart.

"Magic," she snapped without missing a beat. "I don't use it very often, but I suppose I makes it easier to remove unwanted pests." She smirked in triumph.
Hook appraised her from the corner of his eye. "Come now darling, unwanted? Let's not lie to ourselves, shall we?" He shot back. She has magic. Huh. He hadn't seen that coming.

"Let's not kid ourselves into thinking we're more charming than we are, shall we?" She said mockingly.

"Oh, fiesty," he grinned, licking his lips with a sensual manner that, in Emma's opinion, should simply not be allowed. He was about to say something else, but Emma cut him off.

"Hook, you need to not say anything, okay? My mom is in the other room, and she can't know that you're here."

"Oh I don't know, would your mother be happy to know that you're keeping strange men hostage, and then torture them with magic?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Or do you do this type of thing a lot? I didn't really peg you as the kinky type, but if that's what you're-"

"Shut the hell up!" She whispered, running over to him, this time taking it upon herself to back him into the wall. SHe placed one hand over his mouth, and stared sraight into his eyes. His very very very blue eyes, she thought, her inner voice taking on a dreamy quality, before snapping out of it. "Our mom would most certainly not be happy, and no, in responce to you insinutation, we don't do this often. Now it would be great if you could just stay quiet until she leaves."
He raised his eyebrows again, but didn't move. At least, Emma didn't realize he was moving until after a few seconds, when she felt something damp moving quickly and softly across the palm of her hand. "Ergh!" SHe exclaimed, though still staying quiet, as she jumped away from him. "You licked my hand? WHat are you, eight?"

"Nope," he replied cheekily, shaking off the slight dizziness he had felt from standing so close to her. Her hair smells really nice. That's all it was. "Just good at getting what I want. But now Emma," he said her name with condescending contempt, "who's going to stop me from getting as loud as I want?" As he spoke, his volume increased steadlily, until she was sure Regina would be able to hear him if she was really listening. Thank goodness these walls were thick.

"Me," she practically growled back, and without thinking, she tackled him to the ground, pinning him there with both her arms on his and her legs on either side of his, effectively trapping him. Though she wasn't exactly sure how she had managed to knock him off balance, or more importantly whether the thump would be heard from the other room, she felt a certain level of pride. She had just taken down the world's most famous pirate.

Much to Emma's surprise, he didn't look at all affronted. Instead, he just smirked up at her. "Can't say I object to this chage in position, but as much as I'm enjoying the view..." he glanced pointedly down, and it was then that Emma remembered that it might not be the wisest move to pin one down while you're wearing a dress. She glared at him, but still struggled a bit to cover herself up when she suddenly felt her back hit the floor. Dazed and confused, she realized that he had flipped them around after distracting her. "Well, as much as I was enjoying the view," he continued, "in my experience, women tend to prefer me on top," he leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Not that I don't enjoy a woman who takes charge," he added.

"Would you just stop?" She muttered, while struggling to get her arms out out of his grip.

"Sorry, no can do. I'm a pirate, remember? It's in the job description."

"Oh my deepest apologies. Can't believe I forgot. Would you please get off of me?"

He consdiered it for a second, and without worning, leaped off of her. He went quickly to the spot where Emma had dropped the dagger when she tackled him, snatched it up, and then nodded. "Yes, I will. I have everything I need, so if you don't mind I'll just be on my-" But before he could finish, the dagger went flying out of his hand and right onto Emma's. Damn magic.

"Yes, fine, leave. I'll just be keeping this," she smiled.

"Okay, you win lass. Is that what you wanted to hear?" He sighed. "I'll just sit in here with you and wait for mummy to leave and be totally silent, and talk to your, I'm sure, equally charming sister."

Emma considered him silently. "You put all that together? The sister, the wanting to talk to you?"

"Yes sweetheart, I did. Give me some credit." She nodded, and slumped against a wall, and he mimicked her action. "Plus, it helps that you're something of an open book," he whispered as an afterthought. She opened her mouth to argue with that, but Hook merely help a finger up to his lips. "Mustn't alert mother to our wereabouts, correct?"

She replied with a glare that could kill.

Red paced back and forth in the main room of the tower. She could faintly hear Emma speaking, along with another voice that she could pretty much not make out at all. She stared at the door longingly. If only Emma hadn't volunteered to guard the pirate, maybe she wouldn't be stressing out about the idea of having to ask Regina to let them go again.

"Darling, what's wrong?" Came a voice from behind her. Well, speak of the devil...

"Mother!" Red said happily, though the tone did not reach her eyes. She hugged her, and took the food that she was carrying out of her hands, placing it gently on the table.

"You two haven't eaten the fruit I brought you?" Regina scolded, noting that the other basket was still on the table, and still completely full. "And where is your sister?"

"We're sorry about that, we just got kind of distracted with...you know...girl stuff," Red came up with, ending her sentence like it was more of a question. Nonetheless, Regina bought it, and nodded for her to continue. "Emma is changing in the closet."

Just then, there was a shout, coming loud and clear from Red's closet. Even worse, it was clearly a male's voice. Red grimaced, preparing herself to come up with an excuse, until she noticed Regina walking curiously toward the door. She jumped in front of her mother, tugged on her arm gently, and said, "no, don't worry about that, Emma said that she wanted to try of some of my clothes. She must've just tied some laces to tight or something."

To Red's disbelief, Regina accepted this as well, though she did continue throwing questioning looks toward the closet door.

"But mother, we did want to ask you something..."

"Anthing, my dear!" Regina smiled.

"So, about leaving to see the lanterns, we thought that maybe you could-"

"No," Regina stated simply.

"...No?"

"No. You aen't leaving this tower." She sighed heavily, and then said in an condesending tone. "How many times am I going to have to tell you two for you to understand what a horrible place the world is?"

"But you go out there all the time!" Red burst out before she could stop herself, feeling anger bubbling up in her. "Maybe if you had to live like we did, you wouldn't-"

"Enough!" Regina souted out, cutting her off again. "This is final. And continuing to press the issue? It makes you an ungrateful, bratty, little girl, and that's not the young women I though I had raised you and Emma to be."

Unable to mask her anger, Red merely spit out, "fine." However, she had to keep the plan in mind, so put on a calmer front. She repeated the word with a much kinder tone. "Fine. You know best mother." And she even smiled shyly at her to really sell it. "But, if we can't do that, would you mind if Emma asked you for one thing for her birthday? She already told me what she wanted."

Regina sighed again, massaged her head lightly, and then said, "of course. Anything."

"Well, she really loved those mushrooms you brought home with you after you visited Wonderland..."

She looked up. "That is a very long trip. Realm jumping is no easy task."

"I know that, and so does Emma. We just figured that...they would be the next best thing, if we can't see the lanterns."

As she watched her mother's face, she knew it had worked. Regina didn't want to go, but if she thought that this was the only thing she could do to get her daughters to stop talking about leaving the tower, then she would do it in a heartbeat.

"I suppose I could make the journey," She finally conceded. "But that means I won't be home for at least three days."

"That's fine. We can manage on our own, and you just brought us a ton of food," Red pointed out, gesturing at the table.

Regina gave a half-smile. "Yes, I know you can manage on your own. I worry that you're growing up too quickly."

After a few goodbyes and Red's assurance that she would make sure to tell Emma how much Regina loved her whenever she got out of the closet, their mother disappeared into a cload of purple smoke.

She didn't want to flatter herself, but Red couldn't help but smugly think, nailed it, as she watched her evaporate.

Quickly, she ran over to the closet door, and opened it.

"All clear." She stated, as she glanced in, expecting ot see Hook knocked out again by Emma after his loud exclamation. Instead, she was greated by the sight of the two of them on opposite sides of the room. Emma was glowering at him, while he seemed to be practically mentally undressing her. "Oh. Am I interupting something?"

Hook's gaze shot over to her, and she could tell he appreciated her looks as much as he appreciated Emma's. "Nothing at all, darling. perhaps you'll be a bit more welcoming that your charming sister here." The way 'welcoming' rolled off his tongue made it sound like a dirt word, and Red was about to throw back a responce when Emma snorted.

"Keep it in your pants, pirate. We need to talk to you." And with that she got up, strolled over to him, yanked on to his hook, and marched him out of the closet.