Hook, Line & Sinker [Once Upon A Time, Captain Swan] (Valentine's Day contest winner!)

Hook, Line & Sinker

Emma grins playfully as her boyfriend looks up at the hook hanging from the almost leafless tree. His expression is a mix between shock, annoyance and amusement, but when she sees his brow furrowing in a way she often finds adorable, the savior only feels the latter.

"I can't believe you actually agreed to give me your hook." She pauses. "You fell for it hook, line and sinker," Emma finishes, unable to stifle a laugh at the look in his sea blue eyes when he hears her comment.

"Very funny, Swan," Killian tuts whilst he stands up from the park bench he was sitting on. His gaze follows from the curved piece of metal to the blonde cracking up besides him, and he is unable to stop the corners of his mouth from turning upwards. "Now how will I get it back?"

"Well, that's easy." She replies. The full-blown grin on her lips has now faded to the smallest of smiles, and she is finding it quite difficult to refrain from laughing at the reaction she'll get from him in a matter of seconds (and thus making him realize she's not done with this yet). "You just have to catch me."

With that, Emma sprints away from him and allows herself to laugh carelessly amidst the silence in the cold yet beautiful afternoon. She feels tempted to look back yet knows that doing so will only make it easier for him to catch up to her quickly, but when she hears him chuckle with obvious delight, the savior can't help but to turn around for just a second, and she doesn't regret it once she contemplates the sight in front of her.

Killian is just a few meters behind her and after having to run alongside her boyfriend so many times when battling evil villains or trying to escape from them, she knows his legs can move faster than that. He's slowing down for her sheer enjoyment, but now that she stopped jogging for what ended up being more than a second, he realizes she'll know what he's doing if Killian doesn't act as though he's desperate to get his hook back, completely oblivious to the fact that she knows he isn't. Thereby, he finds a way to trip over his own two feet accidentally-on-purpose.

"Killian?" Emma asks, a hint of amusement in her voice (but she's a little worried about him). She walks towards him, kneels down and when he touches his ankle and flinches, she suspects he isn't faking the pained expression in his face. She immediately feels alarmed and her eyes widen when she thinks of all the possibilities. Maybe he sprained his ankle, maybe he won't be able to walk for a long time, maybe he blames it all on her.

Or maybe, just maybe, he's fine. But of course that seems like the least likely outcome as her heart races and she struggles to keep calm.

"Are you okay?" Albeit that now seems like a pretty dumb question in her head, when he nods in response she feels a wave of relief and lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"You can stop fretting about me, love." Killian looks at her and realizes he worried her more than he should have, and even though the whole point of clumsily falling down was to give her a head start, she looks so gullible and adorable he can't help but grin mischievously. "But I cau-"

"No, you didn't," Emma says smugly.

She had disappeared into thin air and now reappeared standing by the tree in which his hook was still hanging. He gawks at her for a second or two as she smirks.

"I told you I'm pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me."

He smiles as he walks up to her, shaking his head and thinking that he should have known she wouldn't believe him in the end. "Ah, yes. Your superpower."

She smiles as he gets close enough for their lips to touch if they want them to. Her back is laying against the tree and his arms are wrapped around her waist. She looks into his blue eyes and says, "It worked twice when I first met you. Haven't you learnt?"

"Aye. I was stranded in that beanstalk for ten hours after all." He chuckles.

"But you survived." Emma retorts. He hasn't gotten over what happened in the beanstalk just yet, but now that they're together and happy, Killian only brings it up jokingly.

He stares at her, a smile still plastered to his face, knowing how lucky he is to have her. Not too long ago, he was completely hopeless and revenge was the only thing that could make him feel at least a little happier. That is, until for some reason he fell in love with Emma, and strangely she learnt to love him back.

She is stunning, she is selfless, she is amazing. Emma Swan is the only person that made him care so much about somebody - he didn't even love Milah this much. It scares him to think of what he would become if he lost her, but so far, she stays with him even after everything they've been through.

"I did so much more than that, love."

Then she kisses him, and of course he kisses back, and she wonders why she let him go so many times, why she didn't realize he genuinely cared about her, and why he stayed.

And right now Emma knows she's in love with him. Not in the way she was in love with Neal, or the way she would have been in love with Graham or Walsh. This is completely different and new and wonderful. She's found it so hard to let go and risk being heartbroken once again, but there's a small voice in her head telling her that it's worth it.

So she lets go.

"I love you, Swan," he whispers, scared of her reply, but knowing that he had to say it sooner or later. "I've fallen for you hook, line and sinker," he says jokingly in hopes of at least hearing that beautiful laugh of hers before getting pushed away.

And she does laugh, absentmindedly making his heart skip a beat. But thankfully, she doesn't push him away. "I love you too, Killian," she replies, and before he can say anything else, she kisses him again.