Well it's been quite a day for me :/ aaand we all know there's some heavy Captain Swan stuff coming soon...Brace yourselves, mates. That being said, here's a little reminder to everyone of how far our ship has sailed.

Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT or any of the affiliated characters.

12. Trust

"Try something new, Darling. It's called trust."

He spoke as if he expected her not to be familiar with the term, and there was a fairly large part of him that actually did think so. It had everything to do with the time she'd been in love, he was sure of it. Whatever had happened, it had left quite a scar. She tried to hide it, to bury it deep down and forget it existed, but he knew where to look; after all, he had a scar of his own. Much different, though, of course. Hers was newer, fresh, still healing, and she had channeled that frustration and doubt into building walls around her heart.

He, on the other hand, took all that pent up rage on a revenge mission.

Which was what he had to focus on now. He was used to people not trusting him; it was part of being a pirate, part of the revenge business. Still, something in his chest twinged when she returned the compass to her pocket. He understood, of course, given the suspicion surrounding their relationship and her obvious trust issues. It shouldn't have stung. Distrust hadn't bothered him in quite some time.

But it did. And he couldn't shake the desire to fix it.

He extended his hand to her. "Come on, let's go."

There was a moment of nothing, and then she took it. The sting eased, a grin spread across his face - he couldn't help it. He was remembering what it felt like to be believed, to be trusted, to be -

Shackled?

"What are you doing?" he muttered in astonishment. He blinked at the metal around his wrist. How had she bested him? Was she that good that he'd missed her plan from the beginning?

From the way she backed up, hesitation on her face, he knew that hadn't been the case.

"Emma, look at me," he practically begged. Since when did he beg? "Have I told you a lie?" He should have just shut up, or played the situation like the pirate captain he was. She already didn't trust him, why did anything else matter? "I brought you here, I risked my own safety to help you," he tried to reason. "The compass is in your hand, why do this to me now?" Why do this at all?

But he was sure he knew why. His guard had been falling, and hers was too well built to come down.

"I can't take a chance that I'm wrong about you."

He couldn't say anything. She trusted him so much that she didn't trust him at all.

For anyone who may be having a rough day, I highly recommend watching some of the more recent CS videos. The ones with scenes from 4B focus so much on Hook's face when he's looking at Emma and it's more than enough to make your heart melt