Emma helped to lower Killian onto the couch as he tried to get comfortable in the plush fold out cushions.
"Mind the hook love," he warned her as she ducked her head carefully from under his arm, "wouldn't want to hurt you with it."
"You ever accidentally cut yourself with that thing?" she asked as he leaned forward and began to remove his boot. She watched his nimble fingers dance with the laces of his boot as he undid them, Emma had never actually spared a thought to how he must get on doing things with one hand. Seriously, how long it must have taken him to gain the skill he demonstrated now.
"A few times in the beginning," he admitted, watching her right back though she didn't notice at first. "almost took off my own ear trying to scratch an itch the first week."
"Ever think about getting something less, I don't know, sharp?" she asked, almost a bit mesmerized by the quick efficient movements of his hand.
"Wondering about those alternate attachments I offered Swan?" Killian asked, wagging his eyebrows. Emma jerked her eyes back up to his face at that.
"Why? Is the original not up to snuff?" Emma asked cheekily. Hook tittered at her as his grin widened.
"Emma Swan, it's going to take better double entendre's than that to seduce me."
"Damn, guess I'll just have to admit defeat," she sighed sarcastically.
"Nice try, " he said shaking a finger at her as if he'd caught her in some sly trick "but a lively lass like you never gives up on a challenge." He tried to pull off the boot but winced, the injury making the attempt painful.
"After all we both love a conquest do we not?" he asked, a spark of warmth in his eyes when he looked at her.
"I'm not your conquest Hook."
"Oh never Swan, but I do so love the idea of being yours," he purred in response.
"God, I should have left you in the hall," Emma muttered, impatiently kneeling down to pull his shoe free, a little harder than necessary.
"Ah! Damnit Emma!" he hissed between clenched teeth. Emma ignored him and removed his sock a little more gently, seeing that the swelling was becoming quickly noticeable.
"I'll get you some ice," Emma told him, standing to go to the kitchen.
"Seems all our encounters require a means to numb injury," she heard him grumble under his breath. She walked away shaking her head and he enjoyed the spectacle. Not lewdly mind you, rather he enjoyed watching how Emma always carried herself, like she was comfortable in her own skin and confident in her every move. A rare trait in any world, and he'd know, he'd traveled his share he thought while absently removing his other boot. That's when a faint sound caught his attention, piquing his interest. He stilled himself, listening more carefully for the very strange noise…
Emma opened the freezer and took out a bag of frozen peas, wrapping it in a tea towel before hitting it a few times with the heel of her hand to break up the bigger clumps. She'd help him get the swelling down and in the mean time continue her evening as semi-planned until he was good to go. Emma would cook herself some dinner, have a glass of wine, maybe she'd even paint her toe nails she thought as she returned to where Hook was sitting. Or rather where he had been sitting. Now there was just an imprint of where he'd been moments before and his boots abandoned on the floor.
"Oh come on, Hook!" she called out, forced to go in search of him.
Carrying a bag of frozen peas around her apartment while looking for an injured Captain Hook, who appeared to be trying to engage her in a game of hide and seek - it must be Saturday.
"Seriously?" she asked loudly, peering into the bathroom before continuing her search.
"What are you, nine? Get out here."
"Emma."
She turned in the direction his voice called out from and nearly burst a blood vessel - her room. She stormed down the hall and shoved the door open violently, ready to immolate him with her glare alone. Yet once more Emma found herself being pulled up short by the scene before her. She wasn't going to lie, she fully expected him to have some ridiculous scene prepared for her to walk in on, like him on her bed with a rose in his teeth. If that had been the case his ankle would have quickly become the least of his injuries. However instead of trying to beat him upon entering her room she found herself confused by the lack of one.
"What in the bloody hell is this contraption?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the strange thing before him. It looked almost like a sentry as it swept slowly back and forth on a pole, round blades inside a cage spinning so fast they disturbed the air violently like a small gale.
"It's a fan," Emma told him, like that should be obvious. She watched him stand there virtually on one foot in front of the fan pointed at her bed, a wary bafflement on his face as he carefully clocked its every movement. He almost looked like he thought it just might attack him while it swept from side to side, whirring gently. Emma sometimes forgot Hook wasn't exactly from around here, but still, it was just a fucking fan.
"Why are you in my room?" she asked, exhaling exasperatedly.
"What is a 'fan' exactly?" he asked, ignoring her question. "Is it a sentry of some kind?" What could she require protection for? She could have come to him, he would be a thousand times better than this twig of a 'fan' as she called it.
"No," she answered, sounding annoyed and amused all at once.
"Is it a weapon?"
"It's about to be in roughly ten seconds, get back to the couch," she ordered, pointing out the door.
"Doesn't look like a terribly effective one," he observed, reaching for it with his hook to prod the cage experimentally. "Creative perhaps, that does count-"
"It's for when I get hot at night," Emma interrupted him, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Now out."
He looked to her as if about to give her one of his straight from the heart of the sun smiles designed to melt a woman right to her socks, some innuendo almost certainly on his lips. However he didn't get a chance to deliver either as he was interrupted when his hook 'hooked' onto the cage of the fan. When he pulled his arm back he consequently tipped it over, and since he was mostly balancing on one foot, it took him cursing down with it. Emma watched him struggle to get his hook free for a full five seconds before she lost it.
"That is startlingly unhelpful Swan," Killian snapped at her as she laughed at him, trying fruitlessly to yank his hook free, .
"That was startlingly ungraceful Captain clusterfuck," Emma managed to get out before submitting to another fit of laughter. Another jerk meant to free him bumped his hook against the still moving blades of the fan with a loud clacking noise.
"Emma!"
She should really take just a little pity on him.
"Ok, calm down," she said, still giggling as she reached down to pull the cord and pop the plug in out of the wall. Grasping the cage in one hand and his wrist in the other she pried his hook free.
"Curiosity keelhauled the pirate Killian." She put Hook's arm over her shoulder once more and pulled him up for the second time that night.
"Oh wonderful, more pirate jokes."
Emma found herself helping him limp along all over again before re-depositing him on her couch and slapping the bag of pea's into his hand.
"That should bring the swelling down, think you can refrain from being attacked by any other mundane piece of tech in my apartment while I make myself dinner?"
Instead of replying with sarcasm he looked as if her words had piqued his interest.
"You cook?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, not much admittedly-"
"But you'll be doing so now?" he interrupted.
"Nope, next week."
"Bit late," he observed while ignoring the snark of her reply.
"I keep weird hours, besides I haven't eaten all day" she explained. His eyebrow inched a little higher, as if he didn't approve of her lack of attentions to her own needs.
"I was busy today," she said, sounding weirdly defensive at his wordless admonishment.
"Interesting," was his simple reply.
"Just stay on the couch and stop getting into trouble for five minutes," Emma ordered, shaking her finger at him. Killian held up his hand and hook in a gesture of surrender before she went back to the kitchen, smiling at her back. Five minutes he could manage, after five minutes he made no promises.
...
*Content Sigh* It's good to be back in the humorous flow of a story :D Much luvs you guys!