After walking a few hours, in a painful and awkward silence. Hook, breaks it,
"Up ahead. We'll find the compass just over the ridge."
Emma and Mary Margaret fall back, and so you start to slow down to join the conversation.
"Do you get the feeling he's leading us exactly where Cora wants us, that this whole thing is a trap?" Mary Margaret asks
"It's definitely a trap" Emma answers
"but— as long as we know it's a trap..." you comment
"We can stay one step ahead of them..." Mary Margaret continues.
"Exactly." You look into the distance and you see a beanstalk in the middle of a field.
~THAT BLOODY COMPASS BETTER NOT BE UP THERE~
"Let me guess... the compass is up there?"
"Oh, yea." Hook smirks
~OF COURSE, IT IS~
"So how do we... get to it?" Emma asks
"It's not the climb you need to worry about. It's the giant at the top." He tells her, plastering that stupid smirk on his face.
The 6 proceed onward. Before you know it, you're standing at the base of the stalk. You're looking up, just trying to estimate how tall it is. You've come to the undeniable conclusion that it's... tall. Emma is also shocked at its size,
"It's a little freakier than I remember from the story."
"Reminds me of death." Mulan states
~OMG NIIIIICCCCCCEEEEE~
"Encouraging" Mary Margaret utters
"Well, your compass awaits. Shall we?" Hook motions to the large clump of huge green vines in front of you.
"Wait. If these beans create portals, why not just pick one and go home? Why the compass?" Emma asks
~Hey... Emma using her brain twice in one day! Let's get it~
"Because there aren't any more beans. Whatever story you think you know, my dear, is most certainly wrong." He replies
"There was a guy named Jack and a cow and something about an evil giant with a treasure and a golden goose." Emma explains
"Or harp." You add
Hook turns from Emma to you and shuffles closer,
~Ew... stop that... back it up scruffy. You smell like dirt, booze and ugh, there's a hint of dead body in there too. blech.~
"Sounds like a lovely tale, but the truth's a little bit more gruesome. The giants grew the beans, but rather than use them for good, they used them to plunder all the lands. Jack was a man who fought a terrible war, defeating all but one of the evil giants. The beans were destroyed by the giants as they died. If they couldn't have their magic, then nobody could. It's really very bad form."
"Evil giants who made magical portal beans? Why doesn't anyone just go up and grow some more?" you ask
"Because one giant survived... the strongest and most terrible of them all. And we'll have to get past him to..."
"Get the magic compass"
"Indeed. The treasure remains, and amongst it is the compass. Now it will guide us to your land. Cora has the means to open a portal with the wardrobe ashes, but she can't find your land without the compass. Once we get it, steal the ashes from her, we're on our way."
~ Well ain't that just my luck. ~
"How do we know you're not just using us to get the compass for Cora?" Mulan rightfully questions Hook's motives
"Because you five are far safer company. All I need is a ride back. I'll swear allegiance to whomever gets me there first." Hook explains
"Then we'd better start climbing" Emma insists
"Right. So... I failed to mention that the giant enchanted the beanstalk to repel intruders."
"Of course, you did genius." You spit
"Shh. All right, so how do we get up there?" Emma interrupts your insult.
"I've got a counter spell from Cora, if you'd be so kind" referring to the wrist restraints. Mary Margaret frees his hands, and he looks endearingly at her
~EW STOP THAT'S MY MOMMMMMM~
"Thank you, milady. I've got one more of these. Cora was to accompany me. "
~How. Convenient.~
"So... which one of you five lovelies shall take her place, Hmm? Go on. Fight it out. Don't be afraid to, you know, really get into it."
~You'd like that wouldn't you? you sicko.~
The five women move away to decide who should partner with Hook to retrieve the compass.
"All due respect, I'm the best equipped to go. How many wars have you been through?" Mulan starts
"My share." Mary Margaret retorts
"It should be me." Aurora argues
"You? You haven't fought in a battle." Mulan spits
"This is about us getting home to our loved ones. Why would you..." Mary Margaret starts
"Because I have no loved ones. If I fail, you can still go on." Aurora continues
"It's me. I'm going, and I'm not gonna fail." You decide
"You're new here." Your mom begins to disagree, but Emma beats her to it.
"But this is about getting back to Henry. It should be me."
"Which is exactly why it's not going to be you Ems. You need to get back to Henry. Therefore, I'm going, and that's final." You settle the argument at hand. When she doesn't say anything, you look to your mom, "You're not gonna argue with me?"
"Would it do any good?"
"Nope. Anything in that bag that's gonna help me with a giant?" you turn to Mulan
"or Hook?" she adds
"Hey!" an offended Hook exclaims
"Hahaha possibly" you chuckle
"Come with me." Mulan pulls you to the side, "This powder made from poppies. He has to inhale it."
You look down to the sword tied around her waist,
"Your sword... how strong is it?"
"The most powerful blade in all the realms."
"Is it strong enough to cut through the beanstalk?"
"Indeed"
"Give me 10 hours. If I'm not back, you cut it down and keep going."
"Snow and your sister won't like that."
"That's why I'm asking you. If I don't get back, you get her and Emma home... please."
Hook is obviously getting antsy, "Ladies, in this world, we are slaves to time. And ours is running out. In other words, tick-tock."
You hold back a chuckle because of the ironic and unintentional movie reference. You look to Mulan and beg for an agreement with your eyes. Mulan nods, agreeing to your request. You give her a grateful glance and then you turn and approach Hook,
"I was hoping it'd be you..." he flirts
~BLECK~
"Ok Macker, just get on with it." You groan
Hook puts your hand on his shoulder.
"Would you hurry up? I don't wanna get your nasty pirate cooties."
"Put your hand right here. That's a good girl"
"Who do you think you're talking to? Because it's definitely not me... I'm not a dog."
He just throws a shit-eating grin at you and then puts a brown leather cuff on your wrist as he continues to explain the item to you.
"This will allow you to climb. There are other dangers. Thankfully, you've got me to protect you."
"WeLl lUcKy mE" You just return the fake grin and stick your tongue out at him and turn to the beanstalk. He scoffs, you return your attention to him and he is holding his handless arm up,
"I can't climb one handed, can I?"
"Fine..." you turn to Mary Margaret, and she hands you the hook. You walk up to the pirate and grab his handless arm, bringing it up, you attach his hook,
"Don't think I'm taking my eyes off of you for one second"
"I would despair if you did." He replies, slightly leaning in towards you, to which you quickly back up, turn to the beanstalk and call back to him,
"Let's get climbing Cap."
[TIMESKIP A COUPLE OF HOURS]
You and Hook are climbing the beanstalk in an uncomfortable silence. Why is it that ever since Hook has come along on the journey, you always end up in uncomfortable silences? He is about a body's length above you on the beanstalk.
"First Beanstalk?" he asks, looking down at the top of your head.
You don't say anything. You don't really want to engage in "friendly" conversation. You would prefer not to get attached to or grow to like this pirate. Although he could've ratted Cora out immediately, he didn't. But you knew better than to blindly trust a stranger, especially when that stranger is a pirate.
~Call me judgey... but I was raised with that STRANGER DANGER mentality...~
You're caught up in your own thinking, but he tries to speak to you again...
"Well, you never forget your first."
~Is everything a dirty reference with you? He's worse than a high school boy...~
You mentally roll your eyes. His next tactic is to directly addresses your lack of conversation,
"You know, most men would find your silence as off-putting, but I love a challenge."
You decide to respond just to get him to shut up.
"I'm concentrating, but it's very hard with you yapping like a chihuahua in my ear."
"Wait... what's a chihuahua? Anyways, no, you're afraid. Afraid to talk, to reveal yourself, to trust me. Things will be a lot smoother if you do."
~oh, so now you think you know all about me do you?~
"Well Cap, it shouldn't be surprising, you should be used to people not trusting you." You spit back
"Ah. The pirate thing. Well, I don't need you to share. You're something of an open book."
"Am I?"
"Quite. Let's see. You volunteered because you have to get back to a family... specifically a nephew."
"That's not perception dummy, that's eavesdropping." You roll your eyes again for what feels like the thousandth time today, and it probably was.
"Ah, but it's because other than your family, you are otherwise alone, and because you were always the one to take care of your sister, you don't want to leave your nephew to grow up without a mother like you did."
You try to play it off as though he wasn't 100% right.
"Oh, did I now? Well, here's some updated info for your records... I had a mother."
"Ah, that may be, but I would bet it wasn't until after you were... ahm, maybe 11 years of age..."
~What the heck? Ok, who gave this dude my personal autobiography?~
He took your silence as confirmation that he was correct... which he was... somehow
"Like I said, open book"
"and how exactly would you know that hm?"
"I spent many years in Neverland, home of the Lost Boys."
~OF FRICKEN COURSE HE HAS! SO, NEVERLAND IS REAL TOO?~
"They all share the same look in their eyes... the look you get when you've been left alone."
"Sure, but my world ain't Neverland"
"But an orphan's an orphan. Love has been all too rare in your life, hasn't it? Have you ever been in love?"
"Woah bud that's personal... but if you must know... No. I have never been in love..." Man, for someone who can't lie to save their life, you are just fibbing left and right. "I'm not someone who waltzes around "loving" a different guy every night, leaving them the next morning just to never see them again."
What you said seemed to strike a nerve in his body because he suddenly goes eerily quiet and just huffs. Ok... so maybe you MIGHT have gone a little too far in assuming that he did that...
"Sorry... I have a tendency to speak before I actually think about what I'm about to say..." you give him a genuine apology, to which he just huffs again and continues to climb the stalk.
~Crap... I really always gotta take it one step too far. I mean I don't like the guy, but I hate hurting people's feelings when they've done nothing to hurt me. I mean I'd like to say I'm a nice person... but Hook definitely wouldn't agree with that right at the moment...~
Near the top of the beanstalk, you grab the stem to climb and your hand slips, creating a deep cut in the center of your palm.
~OWWWWW MOTHER TRUCKER, BOB SAGGET! I don't do pain very well.~
But after a few minutes, the adrenaline masks any pain that you should be feeling. You reach the top and hop off of the stalk. You look around and surrounding you is just complete rubble and ruin. He wasn't kidding when he said something big went down here.
~"SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING WOAH" ... Shawn Mendes- Something Big?? nobody??? Ok... never mind then~
All that surrounds you are ashes, and what's left of what you think was the bean fields.
"What happened here?" you ask
"It's where the final battle was" he answers
He looks down at your hand and notices that it is cut,
"Give me your hand." He demands
~What? What hand? No, you can't have my hand. Are you insane? Get your own. Wait... I don't think that's what he meant. Why is that where my mind goes? Maybe I need to go talk to Archie about that... Nah, I'm fine~
"What? Why?" you look at it and act as if nothing were there.
"Your hand... It's cut. Let me help you."
~Ooooooooo Thaaaaaattttttt ... hehe yeaaaaa~
This is odd. Since when does he care about your hand??
"No, no, no it's fine."
You notice he's starting to move closer
~OH GOD NOT AGAIN~
"No, it's not."
"So now you're gonna be a gentleman?" you ask trying to keep the mood light. He just continues towards you; he grabs your hand and pulls out a bottle.
~Ew. His hand is sweaty...~
"Giants can smell blood, and I'm always a gentleman."
~Mhm sure.~
He starts to pour the contents of the bottle on your cut. If you were numb to the pain before, you definitely weren't now. Your whole hand and forearm starts to sting and throb. You shoot your eyes to him... and this was the first time you had actually gotten a good look at his eyes... close up.
~Ok, I withdraw my former statement that he was nothing to get twitterpated over. His eyes were kinda pretty... Ngl...~
You pull your eyes off of him and bring them back to your injury,
"OW! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
"It's rum. A bloody waste of it." He looks at your cut and rips a piece of fabric from his shirt and starts to wrap your hand.
His head is tilted down, but his bright blue eyes were locked right on you. You were accidentally getting lost in them...
~STOP! Dang it... Could you not? I don't like him remember?~
You are snapped back to reality when he finishes wrapping up your hand and starts to explain the plan he has conjured up,
"Here's the plan. We wait for the giant to fall asleep. When he does, we'll sneak past him into his cave. It's where the treasures are, where the compass lies."
"And then?" you are slightly out of it, considering he is still holding your injured hand. Why does he have this control over you?! It needs to stop.
"And then we run like hell." He releases your hand, and consequently, his hold on your mind.
"I don't have time to wait for a giant to fall asleep. The powder Mulan gave us... we need to use it. We gotta knock him out."
"Well, that's riskier" he tells you
"Riskier than waiting for a giant to fall asleep when we need him to?"
Hook grins at you, sending unwanted butterflies through your stomach.
~EW EW EW EW FEELINGS EW STOP IT I DON'T WIKE THIS! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING~
"Point taken. You're a tough lass. You'd make a hell of a pirate."
~Of course, that's what his mind goes to...~
you once again roll your eyes as he hands you the powder. You notice a tattoo on his arm, it's a heart with a name written on it.
"Who's Milah on the tattoo?"
You seem to have struck another nerve, because his smirk disappeared, and his stone hard expression returned as he removes his hand from the powder bag.
"Someone from long ago."
"Where is she?" you sense that he is getting more and more uncomfortable with each question,
"She's gone" he blankly states and walks away. You're starting to bet that his hand wasn't the only thing Gold took from him.
"Gold... I mean, Rumplestiltskin. He took more than your hand from you, didn't he? That's why you want to kill him."
"For someone who's never been in love, you're quite perceptive, aren't you?" You decide to go out on a limb and start to let him in, just a little,
~maybe a friend would be nice... BUT JUST A FRIEND!~
"Maybe I was once..." you look at the ground, not wanting to look at his face, knowing, if you looked into those eyes, you wouldn't be able to hold the tears back that were building up in your eyes any longer...
~Now is not the time for my emotional instability... Now is the time to fight a giant.~
~A/N
Ok here's chapter 6! Hope you enjoy! The story for (y/n) and Hook is going to progress differently from Hook and Emma's, once everything is in motion, so at the end of season 2 some things will start to change! Don't forget to leave comments and suggestions!!