It's Always Sunny in Storybrooke!

CHAPTER 2

"Oh..."

Neal bent down to rummage through his suitcase. "Here," he said, tossing something over his shoulder. Startled, Hook caught it and looked down.

"It's red!"he said, looking up indignantly. Neal raised his eyebrows.

"So...?"

"So, I don't like red," Hook said, tossing it back with a little more force than necessary. "I like black."

"Well—" Neal tossed it back, also forcefully—"I don't have black. I have red."

"But I—" Hook smiled through clenched teeth as he passed it back—"don't like red."

"Well, that—"Neal threw it back—"really sucks for you, doesn't it?"

For a moment, they eyed each other, testing the other's will power. Hook raised his eyebrow; Neal twitched his eye.

"Fine!" Hook relented finally. "My God, you're stubborn."

Belle shot Hook a sideways glance as she started the car: he was wearing the familiar tense expression that appeared every time he rode in "the metal beast". For once, though, she was as tense as he was in the car. There was something unnerving about seeing Hook in modern clothes. It just seemed... wrong.

Honestly, the entire morning had seemed wrong. Neal's voicemail hadn't seemed real, and she had been convinced it was an elaborate prank—right up until the minute she'd pulled up to Granny's and an extremely unhappy Hook sat on the steps, glaring at the road.

Ruby had been too stunned to press him for the I.O.U. money from his late-night binge-drinking, but that had done little to cheer him up. He regarded the hoodie with a strangely intense hatred, as though it had personally offended him. Even as they pulled into the parking lot, he glared down at it, still squirming against the foreign fabric.

"We're here," Belle said, looking at him cautiously. Hook shook his head.

"I can't be seen like this," he muttered.

She sighed. "Everyone dresses like this. You have to cooperate, sooner or later."

"Why?" he said petulantly.

"Killian Jones," she said sternly, and he flinched at the sound of his full name, "you are a grown man. Stop. Whining."

He fumed silently, glaring at his folded arms.

"Now stop stamping your little feet, and walk them into that store, so we can find something that doesn't look so damn silly." Belle slammed the car door shut and walked around to Hook's side, yanking it open. She cleared her throat; he didn't budge. Belle raised her eyebrows. She cleared her throat again, more deliberately this time. He squeezed his eyes shut, muttering curses.

"Fine!" He swung himself out of the car, gritting his teeth. Belle tried to keep up with his furious strides, but her heels slowed her down too much. She was forced to scurry forward on tiptoe, her feet cramping against the narrow tips of her shoes.

Hook stomped all the way up to the entrance...until a very pretty girl walked out, bags hanging from her hands. Oh, for the love of God, Belle thought, rolling her eyes as he slowed considerably, straightening up. She caught up to them as he flashed a smile, "shyly" ruffling his own hair. Just as he extended his arm to take one of the bags, Belle hooked her own elbow around it and whirled him inside.

"Belle!" he sputtered, nearly tripping over her.

"What?" she said innocently, wincing against her aching feet.