Chapter Text
"Come on Henry, it's time for school!" Emma called from the kitchen while making pancakes for breakfast.
Henry entered the room yawning but already fully dressed.
"I'm ready" he murmured still a bit sleepy.
"How many times have I told you that you shouldn't stay up late on a school night?"
She approached him and placed the pancakes in his plate.
"Yeah sorry mom I was reading and got carried away" the boy said as he poured maple syrup on his breakfast.
Emma sighed.
"Again with that storybook of yours?" she was seriously starting to regret gifting him that thing.
Henry was completely obsessed with that old tome and she couldn't understand why.
It was nothing special.
"It's not just a storybook! It's-"
"It's all real yes yes" Emma rolled her eyes.
They had had that conversation several times already. Emma tried to make him understand that there was nothing special in that fairy tale book while Henry got angry about it.
This time Henry just frowned at her.
"Yes, it is" he said.
Emma shook her head.
"When will you stop with this nonsense?"
The boy didn't answer, he finished his breakfast quickly, much faster than usual, Emma noted and grabbed his backpack.
"See you later" and with that he left.
Emma shook her head again and started getting ready.
She wasn't working that day and so decided to take a walk in the park in front of her house.
As she walked she kept thinking about Henry and his obsession with her old storybook.
Emma knew that children had a lot of imagination, she was like that too when she was little but Henry had just too much of it for her own liking.
It didn't make any sense to her.
Believing that characters from literal fairy tales were real was crazy!
After a long walk and a few errands, Emma returned to her apartment, her head full of thoughts.
The book was there, on Henry's bed.
Emma suspected that the kid was purposely leaving it in plain sight just for her to notice it.
Henry's ability to annoy her with those stupid stories even when he wasn't home should have been studied.
Whatever was Henry's plan any time Emma noticed the book she felt the inexplicable urge to open it and leaf through it's pages like she used to do when she was a kid.
She sat down on the bed and grabbed the book, she would have read a couple of pages and then put it away and forget about it like she always did.
At least until Henry returned home.
She opened it to a casual page.
It was the story of Peter Pan. A classic. Emma immediately felt the pang of nostalgia she always tried to ignore.
Peter Pan was her favorite fairy tale back then.
Her eyes fell on an illustrated page depicting Captain Hook.
Her favourite character.
To many children her age seemed absurd that she would have liked a slimy character like him but Emma had always been attracted to villains.
And the captain was no exception.
She had always loved the way he had been portrayed in that book.
Dark hair and blue eyes the same colour as the sea he sailed with his Jolly Roger and his crew of fearsome pirates.
Emma had often found herself dreaming of being part of his crew and fighting against Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
At that thought she felt like giggling about the absurdity of her thoughts.
She moved to close the book but something in Hook's face always fascinated her and it wasn't just about his look.
There was something strange in the way he stared at her from the page. It was as if he was looking at her with a way too realistic interest for her comfort.
What nonsense!
The doorbell brought her back to reality.
Emma blinked a few times before quickly hiding the book under Henry's bed.
She got up a little dazed and walked to the door.
She looked through the peephole but saw no one so she opened the door.
As soon as she looked around the landing a man came into view.
Emma immediately felt like she was dreaming.
The man was uncannily similar to Captain Hook.
Her heart started beating faster as she took a better look at him as he stood in front of her.
Any part of him reminded her of Hook.
The dark hair, the mustache, the sparse beard and the blue eyes.
His clothes were exactly what you'd expect from Hook to wear. A black leather vest over tight pants of the same material and color. Over that he wore a long black jacket and a pair of boots.
He looked like he just came out of a costume party with some medieval theme.
"Yes?" she asked.
The man shifted and Emma noticed that he was also missing a hand which had been replaced by a hook.
"Good morning my lady. Are you Emma Swan by chance?" he asked with a small bow and a fox smile.
This man's voice was exactly how Emma had always pictured Hook's. Warm and sensual.
She looked at the stranger again and she noticed he was staring back at her with a puzzled look on his face.
She had lingered for too long and didn't want to know what idiotic look she had been looking at him with all that time.
"Who wants to know?" she asked trying to keep a neutral tone in her voice.
The stranger smirked.
"Capt-" then he stopped and shook his head.
Now it was his turn to linger as he shot her a sharp look.
Then his face relaxed again and the smirk returned.
"Killian Jones" he said.
Killian?
Jones?
Wasn't that Hook's name in her- Henry's book?
It had to be a coincidence and nothing else.
"And what can I do for you mr Jones?" she asked.
The man was staring at her with such intensity that Emma felt almost uncomfortable.
It was really like having captain Hook at her door.
Her child self would have gone crazy with joy though.
"Nothing much" the man said.
"What do you mean?"
"I came here because I'm interested in a certain story book your son owns"
Emma's eyebrows shot upwards.
"What? How do you know what my son owns?" her tone was filled with suspicion.
The man seemed to understand because he raised his hands in surrender.
"I never even talked to him but I know he has one"
"How would you know?"
What a strange conversation.
"Reliable sources have told me about it"
Emma crossed her arms on her chest and stared at the man for a very long time.
That time she was absolutely certain her gaze was anything but dazed.
"Reliable sources?" she asked raising a brow.
"You may say that"
Emma opted for a topic change.
"And are you interested in the book as in buying it?" she asked still suspicious.
Killian shuddered.
"If you'd liked it. Buying isn't exactly my style"
At that Emma snorted.
"It's because you are a pirate?" he did look like Captain Hook after all.
He gave her another fox smile.
"Maybe I am" he said in a teasing tone.
Emma smirked in return.
It was all absurd, but of a kind of absurd that she was starting to enjoy.
Against her better judgement she gestured him to come inside her apartment.
"Let's discuss it" she said.
Hook - Killian lingered at the door.
He looked around at the room in front of him like he had never seen it before.
For a moment a flash of insecurity crossed his blue eyes.
"Of course" he said.
He walked inside and Emma lead him into the kitchen.
"Please have a sit" she gestured stools near the counter.
He did as he was told.
"So, where are you from exactly? You must have traveled quite a long way to get here" of course he did.
Captain Hook came from Neverland didn't he?
Emma was pretty sure that Neverland was quite far away from Boston.
Kilian was still looking around completely puzzled but when he noticed she was looking at him he smiled.
"Yeah, I travelled for quite a long time" he said.
Emma made coffee and sat on a stool next to him handling him the mug.
Killian stared at it for a second then took it.
He was definitely weird.
Emma almost giggled.
"You are generous my lady" he said with a charming smile.
That time Emma giggled out loud.
Killian raised his brows and Emma immediately apologised.
"I'm sorry but it's all so weird. You look exactly like Captain Hook in my son's story book it's crazy!"
"Ohhh" he said with a sparkle in his eyes Emma couldn't understand.
"Yes" she said.
"That Captain Hook can't be this charming though" he said gesturing to himself in an exaggerated way that Emma could just keep laughing.
"Yeah yeah you are definitely better looking" then she stopped and felt embarrassment rising to her cheeks.
What was happening to her? It wasn't like her to joke like that with a stranger.
Killian didn't seem offended though.
"I know it" he said almost in a purr.
Emma composed herself, trying to calm her racing heart.
"Uhm so about the book-" she started.
"Yes" the man said.
Those eyes were truly too penetrating. They made her want more. An adventure. Breaking rules. Breaking hearts.
Suddenly Henry came into her mind.
She couldn't sell his book no matter how she hated it.
"I can't sell it to you. My son loves it, I'm sure it would break his heart. I'm sorry mr Jones" she said.
The man looked at her for a long moment. Way too long for her liking.
Emma expected him to start shouting. To offer ever-increasing sums of money to get the book.
Killian just smiled.
"I get it" he said.
Emma frowned.
"You don't want it anymore?" she asked.
He shrugged.
"I understand you don't want to sell it, and if so, that's fine. I'll settle for just taking a look at it, if you'll allow me" there was something in his voice for which she felt like she couldn't deny him anything.
"Of course"
She went to Henry's bedroom and gathered the book then she returned to the kitchen.
She placed it on the counter and watched carefully as Killian opened it and looked at the pictures.
He saw him stop at the story of Peter Pan and carefully observe the images that portrayed him- well- Hook.
Maybe he, too, was surprised by the resemblance to the story's main villain.
It was as if the artist had painted him as a model for the captain.
After a while in which the man had been uncomfortably silent he got up.
"Thank you my lady" he said. His fox smile returning on his face.
Emma nodded.
He walked away lingering in the hallway as if he wasn't sure which door was the exit.
Emma almost laughed again.
She got up and opened the door for him.
He gave her an almost shy smile and slid outside.
"So all you wanted was to have a quick look at the book?" she asked.
"That'll be all for now, yes" he said.
For now?
He made a small bow.
"Take care my lady" he said and with that he went down the stairs.
Emma thought Mr. Killian was a decidedly strange man, but she only then realized that he was the first person who had made her genuinely laugh in years.