Written for the Once Upon a Captain Swan storybook. The Neverland Kiss.

The guy is absolutely incorrigible. He's standing there with that cocky grin on his face that – dammit – is working, pointing to his lips in a subtle (obvious) suggestion that her thanks should take the form of a kiss.

She knows she's smiling because, really, she's got to give him a little credit for persistence, when she replies, "Yeah, that's what the 'thank you' was for."

He swaggers forward in that flirty way of his, the picture of innocence he paints completely at odds with his next question, "Is that all your father's life is worth to you?"

He's ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. His eyes twinkling like a fucking kid on Christmas, asking Santa for a long coveted toy.

"Please. You couldn't handle it."

There, gauntlet thrown, she thinks.

(Even though somewhere in the back of her mind it also occurs to her that this is the first time she's ever actually flirted back with the too-blue-eyed pirate. Oh, he's flirted with her. He's flirted with her plenty. But she's never returned any of it, no matter how tempted she was. But today, after being able to see Henry's face and assure him that they're here and coming for him, she's feeling a little too good to resist giving him a little of his own back.)

Not to be outdone, he simply leans in. "Perhaps you're the one who couldn't handle it."

He pops that 't' at the end and she would swear that's what causes the buzz that suddenly runs through her veins. Then he gives her a smoldering look of challenge and, well, she's never been one to back away from a challenge.

At least that's what she tells herself when she reaches forward and grabs the collar of his coat, yanking him forward in a move that she hopes catches him off guard.

And it does. She can tell it does by the way he draws air in through his nose.

She feels one instant of triumph at that but it doesn't last, because he's kissing her back and everything gets a little hazy around the edges. And when his hand runs softly across the back of her head, it doesn't feel like a challenge anymore, it feels like something completely different… a little too gentle, a little too close. And that's a little too terrifying, especially when he dips his head in an effort to break the kiss. And she can't allow that, not when his fingers are still running gently through her hair in that tender way, so she chases his lips and dives in for more, gripping demandingly at the back of his head to get this back to the challenge it was supposed to be.

Still, by the time she breaks the kiss, they're both breathing heavy and it occurs to her that they'd both proven the other right – neither of them could handle it – and the way he lets his lips linger in front of hers tells her that he knows it, too. But he doesn't seem to care who won or who lost which terrifies her even more because that's what makes her realize this has stopped being about a challenge for him.

"That was…"

"A one-time thing," she finishes, releasing his collar with a little tug that pushes his all too tempting mouth further from hers.

She wants him to look annoyed but he doesn't. Instead his features read confused and hurt and she realizes she's got to get out of here – like now.

Turning away from the question she knows he wants to ask, she starts walking, her voice showing only the barest bit of the breathlessness she feels, when she says, "Don't follow me. Go get some firewood or something."

"As you wish," he replies, not bothering to cover his own breathlessness and, since he can't see her face, she lets a smile light her features. He'll never know, anyway, just how sweet she thinks it is that he keeps proving one of the first things he told her about himself.

He truly is a gentleman.