A Change In The Wind: Captain Swan

Heading Ashore

Chapter 4: Heading Ashore

It is surprisingly difficult to get dressed on a ship. After a couple collisions with the dresser and the table, Emma manages to get her mostly dry clothes back on. The next challenge? Walking through the door, out onto the ship. Odds are the rest of the crew has heard about her and Hook, not that there is such a thing, but still, pirates talk. If the stories she heard growing up are true, then pirates essentially have locker room talk all the time.

Emma glares at the door. "You can do this. You've tackled all sorts of low life scum before. Of course that was in the real world, but hey, pirates are a kind of lowlife, right? And now I am talking to myself, great." With that, Emma walks out the door.

She doesn't get far. Not to fall into the stereotype of women don't know where they are going, but, Emma is sort of lost in the sense that she does not know, well, which direction to go. Hey, it's her first time on a pirate ship, so it really shouldn't be that much of a shock. It's not like the US offers Pirate Ship Layout 101 in school.

"Oi! I mean it! If you aren't back on the ship in time, I'm leaving ya!"

When in doubt, follow the sound of an angry pirate. It takes her a minute, but she finally spots Hook.

"About bloody time woman!"

"Well you didn't exactly leave a map now did you?" Emma retorts. Unfortunately for her, she still isn't quite used to life on a ship yet, and she stumbles a bit as she walks over to him. Hook reaches out and grabs her arm, steadying her. His fingers begin dancing along her pulse point on her wrist.

"Ah, no sea legs I see. Don't worry, Swan, I've got you." He winks as he pulls her in closer to him, giving her hand a reassuring kiss.

Emma's eyes linger on his. "So, um, you said something about heading ashore."

Hook smirks, realizing that Emma hasn't tried to pull away from him. He lowers her hand from his face, holding it to his chest, his fingers still tracing patterns on her wrist. "I've got an important meeting in a tavern in town."

Emma scoffs. "A tavern? You know you could just say bar."

"Pirate, love."

"Am I going to get my hand back anytime soon?" Her voice comes out softer than intended. She can't decide the safest place to look. Either Emma looks at his eyes and risks him reading her, or she stares at him holding her hand. Right now, she just alternates between the two.

Hook laughs and gives her hand a squeeze. "And risk you injuring yourself as we walk off the ship? I may be a pirate, lass, but I'm not cruel."

This warrants another eye roll. "Lead on then."

"Right this way, milady." Hook kisses Emma's hand once more before dropping it in order to place his hand at the small of her back, guiding her to the ramp off the boat.

"Since when did you become such a gentleman?" Emma decides against trying to get away from Hook's touch. Odds are that it will not do any good. Plus, his hand feels nice there, radiating warmth that trickles up and down her spine.

"Oh, Swan, I'm always a gentlemen." His breath is hot on her ear, but what's worse is as quickly as it is there, it's gone in a flash. Hook chuckles at Emma's reaction. He steps in front of her, offering his hand to help her walk down the ramp.

For the rest of the walk, Emma tries to focus on anything other than his shoulder brushing up against hers. The scenery becomes a good distraction. Wherever they are, it doesn't look cursed. Due to the way Regina talked about it, Emma pictured a dark abyss or just nothing but scorched earth. However, currently she is walking through a town. It's a small town that reminds her of an earlier time, mostly due of the use gas lights and torches that are lighting up the dark sky. Nevertheless, it still looks like a town full with various buildings. If this town was cursed, they certainly recovered nicely.