Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything to do with OUAT.

Announcement: Being posted especially for Worryingly Innocent's brother, who has been looking forward to this chapter. PM me your thoughts ;)

Hook on Toast

"Is there any reason why you are still keeping me in here, Princess?"

That particular morning found Captain Hook back in his cell, hook on, attempting to bait his jailer. He had been in here for just over a week, and being stuck in a small, magical cell was starting to annoy him.

"You had broken into a car."

"And Ruby had decided to not press any charges."

"You shot Belle."

"Funny. She does seem to be much better for it - not involved with the Crocodile anymore; no one will come after her at all. Really, I have done her a favour. And she too has not pressed any charges."

"The Crocodile, as you so nicely call him, is after your blood. And as he agreed to not interfere with the sheriff station, so this is the safest place for you right now. There is also the small matter of your working with Cora."

"Really Swan, I think that you just want to keep me to yourself."

"Fine!" Emma Swan sat up and walked over to the lock up, pulled out her keys and threw the door to his cage open. "Enjoy." With that, she turned around and stomped back over to her chair, picked up a magazine and proceeded to studiously ignore him.

For a moment, the pirate stayed where he was. Then, slowly, he stepped out of the cell.

Then, without warning, he made a dash for the door.

Emma did not move.

Less than a minute later, Hook came back in, with a rather sour expression on this face. "You had it enchanted." His tone was almost accusatory. "You gave me false hope, lass, and I don't appreciate you tricking me."

Emma looked up. "You could have asked, you know. I would have told you the truth. But no, you chose to run." She smiled at him. "Never mind. Let's get some breakfast, shall we?"

Hook admitted that this was a small improvement - he could now move around the building, and he had his hook, and could do SOMETHING OTHER than polish it and stare around the room. Maybe he could talk his captor into bringing him a few books so he could learn about this strange world. Or watch that strange box that kept making noises of people talking in the evenings when David was on call and kept him company in the station.

"What do you want?" When he did not respond, Emma turned around and walked to the kitchen. After only a moment's hesitation Killian walked after her. She looked behind her and motioned him to the open cupboard.

Inside was some bread. "Aha," the pirate thought, "something I can do." From his cell he could just see into the kitchen. As a result he would often see one of the Charming family making what they called toast. They would take a piece of bread, cut off a slice and put it in a big contraption called the toaster. They would then press the leaver and in a few minutes later the bread would pop out - crispy and warm. He had discovered he quite liked it covered in a sweet paste called 'Nutella', which seemed to be some kind of chocolate butter.

Dutifully, the pirate walked over to the toaster and fitted two slices of bread into the two slots. He then pressed the lever and was rewarded with the little pop that he knew the machine was supposed to make, and smiled at the success when he was the little metal bits heat up red.

So far, so good.

After a minute or so, the machine whizzed and Killian prepared himself to catch the pieces of bread. Nothing. He waited a moment longer, but the bread remained where it was, and did not jump out. The coils also started to slowly turn back to their dark grey.

"This is fine," thought the pirate, "clearly it takes experience to make the bread jump out." The next logical step would have been to turn over the machine and have the bread fall out.

The annoying hunk of metal was, unfortunately bolted to the countertop - quite reasonable he had to admit, as it could probably be used as a weapon, and it was unlikely to be something that the sheriff would encourage to be used as such.

Nothing for it. Hands, apologies, hand and hook, it was.

The metal was still too hot to touch, so Captain Hook did the reasonable thing and attempted to get the bread out with the hook.

At first, it went remarkably well, with his first attempt yielding him a nice, crispy piece of bread. Emboldened by the success, he stuck his hook in the second time.

Unfortunately, he had never really understood the concept of electricity.

Sparks flew as his metal hook touched one of the electrical parts of the toaster innards, and the Captain learned what it felt like to be struck by a tiny bolt of lightning. He tried to disentangle himself, but the toaster was, as he had previously noted, bolted to the table, and therefore the poor captain found himself stuck down even more firmly, electricity coursing up into his body all the while.

Emma gave a little surprised yelp and moved to the wall. Hook quickly though that she was abandoning him, just like on the bean stalk, when she reached for a black cord stuck to the wall and pulled it out.

The electricity stopped.

"Seriously, Hook! Can you not work anything without getting yourself half-killed?" the rushed over, sat him on the ground and checked his pulse. Electricity jumped between them, but she ignored him and got to work on taking off the harness that held the hook in place. Once she got it off, she checked his stump, "No sign of burned flesh, you got extremely lucky there. Just stay on the floor for a minute, I'll get you a drink."

She stood up, while Killian's eyes followed her around the room.

"One thing is for sure though - when I am coming back from New York, I will be teaching you just how to use electronics. I really do not want to explain how you died to the state authorities."

AN: Thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed this so far. It has been lovely to be motivated again and make people happy. WI, you are a star for putting up with my mad ideas. ^_^