"And this will be where you stay while we're at sea," he says, leading her down the stairs to his quarters.

He had lit the lanterns earlier that night, before Emma came onto his ship, so the room is lit to the fullest and ready for its new guest. She takes a minute to take in the room, then begins walking around the perimeter.

Inside, she is torn: the cabin is beautiful, cozy, everything she needs it to be; but at the same time, it also makes her miss her own bedroom dearly, her treasured possessions she decided to leave behind. She runs her slim fingers along the smooth wooden walls, which draws her attention to the one heirloom she hasn't taken off since her father gave it to her five years ago: her mother's engagement ring, a small but beautiful emerald that brought her parents together for the first time - and while she already misses her father dearly, in this moment she misses her mother more, a loss that still tugs on her heartstrings.

Her fingers reach a large black frame hanging on the wall, which pulls her attention back to the cabin, and more specifically the map hanging in front of her. It is so large that it takes up most of the far wall. It is unlike any map she has ever seen, beautifully hand-drawn, with mountains, valleys, all the waterways - but the thing that makes it stand out the most is not the intricacy of the drawing, but the variety of places shown on the map: not just the Enchanted Forest, but places from other realms, even places she has never even heard of: Camelot, Arendelle, Neverland, The Land Without Magic, all laid out in perfect, uniform calligraphy.

"These maps, they're gorgeous. Where are they from?" She keeps her hand pressed against them for just a moment, until he doesn't answer; then he turns around to face him to find him standing right behind her, reaching his good hand towards to map to lay it next to her. His eyes are on the map, his lips curled up into a half-smile.

"These," he mumbles, running his hand across the lines of the Neverland map. "Are my life's work."

She whips her head to face him. "You - you made these?"

"Aye, love."

After a moment, she furrows her brow. "Why is your life's work hanging in the guest quarters of your ship? My father always told me that the maps are kept in the captain's chambers, where he can watch over them."

"Your father is a smart man, and he's right." Killian comes up with a quick lie in his head, one he hopes the princess can't see through: "But what's the point of spending your whole life hand-drawing maps if no one ever gets to see them?"

Emma turns to him, watching his face carefully, after he says this. Something in his voice was wrong, made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It was her gift, something her parents learned very early on in her life: you can not lie to Emma Swan. But instead of calling him out, she tries to catch him in his lie, hopefully causing less embarrassment to her new comrade, and the man that she will be spending a good part of the foreseeable future around.

"Can I see the ones in the Captain's quarters, then?"

He turns to her, his eyes wide at first - scared, almost - and she knows she is right, though she's not sure about what. "Why? They're not nearly as intricate and exciting as these ones."

"I've just never seen a captain's cabin on a ship before, especially not one as beautiful as this one. And I feel like I've seen the whole ship already, but you somehow haven't even mentioned your chamber yet."

"I saw no reason for it."

Emma narrows her eyes at him, seeing through to his soul - and he feels it, the blazing fire of her gaze, reaching his very core. He has been up against every kind of enemy, has yet to find something he fears enough to render him unable to move, but it is not in a daring swordfight or in the middle of a battle that he finally finds it; instead, it is right here, in his very own chambers, in front of the only reason he had ever wanted a home on land before his brother was taken, locked in a staring contest with the woman that won his heart at fifteen, though he had never told a soul besides Liam, whose memory had been suppressed enough during the last long ten years that he had almost forgotten, locked her away in the deep, dark confines of what was left of his heart.

Locked away until he had heard her name uttered in the tavern a few nights prior, by someone whose heartbreak he could understand, someone whose reason for love was taken from him too soon, who could no longer bare to be in a world where he could not have the one he truly loved.

Killian still remembered what that felt like, having your true love taken away so quickly, and lived with the pain of it every day - but even the vilest, cruelest of villians could not bear to see the pain in this man's eyes, and he offered him a place on his ship. He may not know where he was heading, but after the conversation with this stranger, he knew he could no longer stay in this kingdom, not that he knew what was happening to her, the woman who had been the central figure in his heart for many years, until Milah, whose death he was still seeking revenge for.

But having her in front of him, so close to him for the first time in what felt like a whole lifetime, though it was only ten short years, was by far the greatest and most surprising thing that had ever happened to him. Once he realized it was true, and he wasn't dreaming, he had decided to do whatever it takes to keep her by his side, to protect her and guard her in the ways he had failed to do with Milah.

And that was how he found himself here, in this very situation, with her blazing green eyes seeing right through his masquerade act of trying to persuade her to stay with him. And while he had been planning in his head the whole tour what to tell her to keep her from knowing the truth about his chambers, there is something in her eyes that lets him know that she already knows the truth, that the woman in front of him is not a force to be reckoned with - and he finally cracks.

"These are the captain's chambers, right here."

She nods knowingly, her eyes softening slightly now that he is telling the truth. "Okay. And why are you trying to set me up in your chambers? Where are you going to stay?"

Without meaning to, he smiles at her. "I - actually, I hadn't quite figured that out yet. I just wanted you to be comfortable, and this is the only place available for that, besides the sick bay, and I certainly wasn't going to set you up there."

"That would be perfectly acceptable, Killian. Moreso than kicking yourself out of your own room, at least."

"I'm not budging on this one, Emma. I insist that you stay here for as long as you're on the ship."

"Killian, I - "

"Really, Emma. This is where you're staying, captain's orders."

Her features soften as she smiles up at him. "Well, I guess I can't deny a captain his right to run his own ship and make his own decisions." A beat of silence passes between them, and she turns her attention back to the map, though he finds himself unable to do the same.

After a moment, she says, "I thought you were supposed to be the cruelest pirate on any of the seas, Killian. Why are you doing all of this for me? Giving up your chambers, taking me in as a guest?"

He stares at her for another moment, and when he does not reply, she turns back towards him. He gives her the only response he can think of: closing the gap between them and pressing his lips against hers.

"Don't you know, Emma?" He whispers, leaving their foreheads pressed together, his hand stroking the back of her neck. "I have loved you from the very first moment I saw you."