Treasure

Chapter 75

The captain smiled as her fighting personality returned. She seemed to forget the fear that ran through her mind and it made the duel all the more enjoyable, "I'm counting on you to best me again." He said as he swung a sword at her.

Emma was quick to deflect his move and swung her sword back at him. The wind blew her hair in her face and she scolded herself for not tying it back as he took another swing at her. To her surprise, she was a bit rusty and could already feel herself being overpowered, "Remember what I told you." Killian shouted as their swords continued to clash, "It's not about who's stronger, it's about who's smarter. You've got two swords, use them!"

She let out a sigh of frustration as sweat ran down her forehead. She hated when he pushed her because she was never one who needed motivation from someone else to succeed. It made her feel weak when someone tried to help her. Above all, she was her own worst critic. She didn't need someone telling her she could be better, she already knew that. With the help of her anger, she clashed both her swords at him, taking him by surprise. "If I wanted to be criticized I would've asked my father to teach me." She murmured as she brushed her sweaty hair out of her face.

"Yes..." Killian whispered to himself with a wicked smile, "There's the fight I love." He praised as he picked up the pace.

The two continued to duel for what seemed to be a long time. Much of the crew was cheering for Emma as she was beginning to overpower the captain. But just as she started to become confident, she became sloppy with her moves. Her counterattacks became weak, her form became poor, and she was much too distracted. Killian knew she knew better than this, she was taught better than this. Emma wasn't fighting as she used too and oddly enough, it bothered him. Typically she was the one always correcting him, not the other way around. And even though he promised not to go easy on her, he found himself disobeying her wish because he desperately wanted to awaken that spark in her. The spark she had when she was passionate about winning, especially over a man.

As he was lost in thought she took a good swing at his head, causing him to duck, "Good form." He compliments as he took note of her poor foot placement. He smiled to himself as he grabbed her leg and flipped her onto her back, "But not good enough."

Emma's face showed nothing but frustrations as she knew she could've done better, but her heart just wasn't in it at the moment. The captain offered her a hand up, but she refused to take it and proceeded to help herself up. "I'm done for the day." She commented as she handed her father's sword over to Killian.

"Swan, what bothering you now?" Killian asked all too knowingly.

She shook her head, prepared to walk away. The captain was quick to grab her arm. She looked up to see his sweaty face showed nothing but seriousness and a hint of worry, "I'm just tired."

"Tired of what exactly?" He pushed as he released her arm, "You were doing well until you decided to give up in the middle of the fight." He paused, searching her eyes for any signs if she cared, "You're more than aware you can't do that in an actual fight."

"I am well aware of that!" She snapped as she folded her arms, "I just don't want you to be my teacher." She said quietly, "I liked how you treated me before." She looked down.

The captain hitched his breath. She had noticed his treatment towards her had changed. Granted it wasn't a bad change, but certainly one that didn't go unnoticed. "Would you care to explain or am I going to have to guess what you mean?" He asked uncomfortably as he clenched his jaw.

"When we only did things like this for fun." She clarified with pleading eyes, "Not because you wanted to teach me how to be better." She walked away to the side of this ship as he quickly followed, "And yes, sailing the Jolly Roger is fun, but I know the only reason you wanted to teach me was because my father asked you to keep me safe."