Chapter Text
Thick, sooty lashes stirred in the stygian dark. They slowly blinked opened to reveal eyes the clear bright blue of an October sky. Awareness seeped into them, and they narrowed. “Where the bloody hell…?” He rolled to his side, hampered by the bonds on his wrists. Straining to see anything in the complete darkness, he blinked again. “Not on my ship…” He could hear the gentle wash of waves against wood, but whatever structure he was in, it was not floating. He tried moving his legs, and rejoiced to find them unbound. Sliding carefully into a sitting position, he pulled hard against the rope that held his wrists behind him. Sweat or his own blood dripped onto his right hand, and he strained to slip it through the tough fibrous knots that held him fast. A quiet thump sounded somewhere to his left, and he stilled to listen.
“I hear you moving. Could you help me get loose?”
He was pleased to recognize the gender and the accent. “Aye, Lass, I’ll gladly do that, as soon as I work free m’self.”
“Oh… sorry…I can’t see a damn thing.” Though softly voiced, iron determination laced every word.
Thinking ‘I do love a challenge!’ he smiled into the darkness, “Since I cannot see any better in this cursed gloom than you can, my love, could you tell me if you are sitting or lying on this wretched plank?”
“Sitting and my hands are tied behind me, but my legs are loose.”
“As am I…” He swung his feet in the direction of her voice. “How close are…oh there you are.” He smiled again, rubbing a boot-clad foot against her shapely leg. “Did I bruise you, Lass?”
“No, not at all.” She purred, lifting her own foot to stroke along his leg in return. “Soooooo, how do you think we ended up here?” She blinked against the darkness. “Wherever here is.”
Killian almost pulled his shoulders out of their sockets when he felt her foot travel up his leg, her toes gently kneading the muscles through his soft leather breeches. He tensed as her toes crept higher. “What do you intend, there, Lass?”
“My intentions are completely… dishonorable…” she laughed softly. “Pirate…”
“Ahhhhhhh, Emma, you do know how to distract a man from his troubles!” He twisted his right hand and tried to slip it free, but the knot held fast. “If I had m’ hook, I could pull this knot apart.” He groused.
“You don’t have your hook?” Emma questioned. “That seems strange.”
That comment surprised a laugh out of Hook. “I find it even stranger that the two of us are trussed up like so much booty, and left in the dark.”
“Have you any ideas as to who might have done this? Or even where we might be?” Emma asked the question while still caressing Killian’s leg with her foot.
“Nay, Love, I do not.” Hook sounded disgruntled. “I truly believed we had settled all our differences with the fine folk of Storybrooke. I cannot begin to imagine who might be behind this situation.” He heard her grunt, but could not determine what she was doing. “Swan? What are you about?”
“I’m trying to get my hands in front of me…If I can just… pull them under my …“ She thumped the floor, and he heard a scrape, then her very satisfied sigh. “Got it! My hands are still tied, but they are in front of me now…Turn your back to me, Killian, and slide a little closer if you can, I think I can undo the knots on your wrists…”
Hook immediately swung around, and scooted as close as he could to the sound of her voice. He felt her fingers working the knots, and tried ever so hard to be still as she tugged and pulled.
“There, I think I have it.” She said. “Can you get your hand out, now?”
Hook could feel a slackening in the rope around his wrists, and tugged hard with his left arm, and without a hand or his hook to impede the progress, he managed to work the loop off. As soon as his left wrist came free of the ropes, the right was loose as well. As the ropes dropped to the floor, he swung around and reached for Emma. His fingers gently clasped her ankle as he pulled her towards him.
“Killian, what are you…” He stretched her out on the floor, her arms now above her head, and she trembled when she felt him push her legs apart. “I need my hands free, too, Killian….”
“Pirates always take advantage of fair maidens, trussed helplessly in front of them.” Killian softly informed her.
“I’m certainly counting on it…” Emma whispered under her breath.
“I’m sorry, Love, I didn’t hear that…”
“MMMMMMM nothing…” she answered. “Mmmmmmmm, Killiaannnnn.” She stretched out the last syllable of his name on a low hum of desire. Electric tingles raced over her skin from the caress of his lean, strong fingers on her left hip. Her belly contracted when she felt those same fingers stroking up and down the outside of her bare leg.
“Apparently, you were already preparing for bed when the scoundrels took us.” Killian noted. “This is one of those scandalously improper night rails, is it not? Swan, Love, you know how difficult it is for a pirate to resist a temptingly garbed wench…”
He settled his weight comfortably in the cradle of her thighs, still using the talented fingers of his right hand to stroke and smooth her silky skin. She raised her lips blindly, seeking the perfection of his kiss. Killian wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, transferring the soothing touch of his questing fingers to the nape of her neck. His lips met hers with possessive passion, his dancing tongue slipping deep inside to parry with hers. She raised both legs to encase his hips, rubbing her feet along the backs of his thighs. Killian pulled away from her tempting mouth. “Darling, one of us is constricted by our garments.”
“Well, Captain!” She chuckled. “You should take care of that little problem straight away.”
She sighed again as he raised to his knees, and quickly dealt with his leather breeches.
“Now come back here.” She demanded with a laugh. “And don’t be afraid to really, you know, get into it!”
Their soft laughter turned into sighs and moans as the darkness enfolded their loving embrace.
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Hook’s arm was protectively around Emma’s shoulder as they pushed into Granny’s Diner early the following morning. Their eyes were soft with love, and their flushed faces told everyone inside just how charmed they were with each other’s company. Mary Margaret and David motioned for the entranced couple to join them at their favorite booth. Killian seated Emma with a gentle hand, and slid into the booth close against her side.
“I am aware I have no right to ask, Emma, but where were you all night?” David did his best to sound gruff. “Your Mother was extremely troubled.” He cast a stern eye at the Captain.
“Not to worry, Mate.” Killian raised his eyebrows and gave a suitably impressive leer. “I would protect Emma with my very life.”
“But where were you?” Mary Margaret asked again. “I truly was upset…”
Killian turned serious eyes to his love’s parents. “We were captured, and left tied in a warehouse down at the docks…” He met David’s concerned glance with puzzlement. “I cannot for the life of me, imagine who would now do such a thing.”
The four of them exchanged ideas and notions but no one had a solid lead. Regina was of course, their first suspect, but she had been so quiet of late, seeming to be set on a course of redemptive behavior. In spite of her past forays into evil, the four truly did not see her as the villain. Mr. Gold was also out of the running, since he and Belle seemed to spend all their time billing and cooing at each other in the grips of one of the most heartfelt romances in Storybrooke. It had been a quiet fall, and no new nemesis had appeared, but the Charmings and the Swan-Joneses were ever on the alert.
The bell over the door rang as Ruby rushed in, her eyes bright and her generous mouth smiling happily. “Did it work?” She cheerily asked a frantically motioning Emma. Hook turned in time to see Emma making a slashing movement at her throat.
“Swan…” His voice was that of the imperious, ruthless pirate Captain. “Would you care to explain?”
She raised clear green eyes to meet his keen blue gaze. “Par-ley?” She squeaked.