Once Upon a Ball

"Captain, captain!"

Hearing his title, Killian Jones slowly lifted his head away from the crystal blue waters to let his gaze rest upon one of his crew running towards him.

"Yes Smee?"

"Captain," he wheezed, practically keeling over from running all the way to the docks from the town square after finding the announcement.

"Yes," Captain Hook repeated, slowly this time. "Smee."

"This, you, Cinderella's," Smee managed still wheezing.

Arching a dark brow, Captain Hook took the proffered scroll from his crewman's sweaty and clammy hands. He slowly unrolled it, feeling no hurry before the whole crème parchment was unfurled, thus his reading began. But the first sentence was already enough to alarm Captain Hook enough for his normally easy going stance to go rigid.

~!~!~Past~!~!~

"Princess!"

Emma didn't even glance up from putting her sword back into the wooden chest at the foot of her bed.

"Ahhh," Johanna cried in horror at her dirt covered, only a few places but still, and sweat drenched Princess. "Princess Emma! Tonight is your coming out ball!"

Emma slowly turned around guiltily at Johanna. "Hi Johanna,"

"Princess," The older maid in waiting said again, distress coloring her facial features. "Must you practice with the soldiers today of all days? Your cuts!" She said in horror, finally spotting the cut that went several inches up her forearm. "Princess Emma you just live to slowly kill me."

"Johanna, please not so dramatic. I didn't even want this-" She wasn't able to finish as Johanna none too gently pulled her tunic over her braided head.

"Johanna!" Emma cried as she crossed her arms over her exposed bandaged chest.

"Bath now princess, we have our work cut out for us if you are to be presentable for tonight!" Johanna fussed, ignoring her charge as she pushed the princess she had known since said princess was a mere babe closer to the tub. "Lilac oils!" She called out to the other maids whom had been silently waiting for their cue while Johanna maneuvered the princess into the bath tub. An hour later, Johanna was finally satisfied when her princess no longer smelt of sweat, dirt, nor horses.

"I am almost eighteen Johanna, this is demeaning." Emma scowled at the maid in waiting that was more like family as she held a cloth against her dripping nude body.

"Yes, which is why," Johanna smiled fondly as she pushed Emma down to sit on a small bench. Gently she grabbed Emma's water drenched blonde locks, almost as long as her mother's, Snow White, and squeezed them with another cloth. "You must have all eyes on you tonight. You will be the most beautiful woman at the ball when we present you to your kingdom. I must work all the magic" She gave a small laugh because she was quite magicless but it was the perfect word for the moment. "I can. After all your mother is Snow White, fairest of them all and that will be a magical feat in itself."

"Johanna," Emma cried. "I will never be more beautiful than mother!" She exclaimed, turning her head to face Johanna. "Nor do I want to be." She shuddered at the thought. The trials her mother went through, sometimes still had to endure because of the renowned title, the jealous women, the curses, even the men who wanted to claim her mother as theirs, butterfly wings clipped on the wall. None of that she wanted, thus she was fine without ever being the most beautiful at the ball. She loved her mother but Snow White could keep the title of fairest of them all.

"Now dry off and put on the gown I have laid out on your bed while I go to get your jewels for tonight Princess Emma."

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