The first time Princess Emma Swan met Killian Jones, she punched him in the face.

When Queen Snow White reached her twenty-eighth year, a magnificent ball was held in her honor. Four-year-old Emma was overjoyed when Mama and Papa had informed her she would be allowed to attend the ball—at least until bedtime. She'd been deemed too young to attend any of the previous balls the king and queen of the Enchanted Forest had thrown, but she'd always wanted to. Sometimes, after her nursemaid, Johanna thought she was asleep, she'd creep to the balcony and looked down at all the beautiful ladies and dashing gentlemen as they twirled to the music of the string orchestra her papa always hired for their balls.

Now that she was four, Mama and Papa had finally realized that Emma wasn't a baby anymore, and she was old enough to go to the ball. She couldn't wait.

The night before the ball, Emma was so excited she couldn't sleep. After checking carefully to make sure Johanna was nowhere around, she crept out of her bed and decided to go exploring the castle, but as she was passing by Mama and Papa's bedroom, she heard them talking—and her name was mentioned. Curious now, Emma drew back into the shadows and unabashedly listened.

"Can you believe it, Charming?" Mama said excitedly. "Bridget is finally coming back for a visit!"

"It's been what? Six years since we last saw her?" Papa answered.

"Exactly," Mama said. "She and her husband Brennan—and little Liam came to our wedding. Have you heard that she has another little boy? Killian, apparently. He's a year older than Emma."

Emma had never met Bridget, but she knew the story. Bridget had been one of Mama's favorite ladies' maids back when she was a little girl, but not long after Grandma Eva had died, Bridget had met a sailor—Brennan Jones—and they'd fallen in love. After they got married, they decided to sail the seas together.

"Is that right?" Papa asked somewhat absently.

Emma heard her mama's skirt rustling, and she knew she was moving closer toward Papa. "Wouldn't it be lovely if Emma and Killian were to…hit it off?" she asked in a soft voice. "Maybe one day they'll agree to a betrothal!"

"Now Snow," Papa said, "you know we agreed to allow Emma her own choices in the matter. We endured a fair amount of difficulty to ensure our True Love would win out in the end. Can we truly even think about doing any differently for our little girl?"

"I didn't mean to force them into a betrothal, Charming," Mama said. "I merely thought…well, if we were to, say, provide the conditions for them to meet every so often…maybe they'd eventually come to the conclusion that a betrothal is exactly what they want. It would give us a chance to finally do something for Bridget and Brennan without bruising his pride. I know finances are tight and it's difficult for them, but if their son was to become the crown prince, they would have all they could possibly need or want."

Suddenly Papa moved toward the door, and Emma turned quickly, hoping to get away before she was discovered, but in her haste, her leg bumped the table in the passageway, and Emma watched in horror as the vase Grandma Regina gave Mama went crashing to the floor and broke into a million pieces.

Emma stood rooted to the floor, her mouth open in shock, and so she appeared when Papa rushed out of his bedroom to see what the commotion was. When he took in the site of his tiny girl next to the broken vase, he let out a long, relieved breath that it had been nothing more sinister causing the ruckus.

"What are you doing out of bed, my Swan Princess?" He asked, crouching down so he was on Emma's eye level. (Papa had been calling her his swan princess for as long as Emma could remember, insisting she was as lovely and precious as a swan.)

"I'm sorry Papa!" Emma said, throwing herself into her father's arms. "I didn't mean to break Gramma 'Gina's vase! I was just excited about the ball tomorrow. I couldn't sleep."

"It's alright sweetheart," Mama said, crouching beside Papa and patting Emma's back. "The truth is, I never really liked that vase anyway. I know it's hard to sleep when you're excited, but you're a growing girl and you need your rest. How about your father and I tell you the story of how we met and fell in love until you fall asleep?"

It was Emma's favorite story, and she never tired of hearing it. Pulling back, she nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, Mama."

~c~c~c~c~c~c~c~c~c~c~c~

Emma's eyes widened as she and her parents made their grand entrance at the ball, announced, of course, by their majordomo, Grumpy. As beautiful and glittering and magical as balls looked from the perspective of the balcony, they were infinitely better from the ball room itself.

Everyone seemed exceedingly happy on this night to honor her mother…and everyone who came to greet the king and queen stopped to oo and aww over what a perfect little lady the princess was in her pink dress and sparkly tiara.

But Emma's patience with sitting still and quietly only lasted so long. She loved to run and play, to ride her pony, Buttercup and feel the breeze in her face, to follow the servants around and pester them with questions, to be young and free.

"Alright Swan Princess," Papa said when he saw her start to fidget, "you may go join in the dancing."

"Just don't get into any mischief," her mother added. "And don't get in the way of the other lords and ladies here to dance."

"Yes, Mama," Emma said with a huff, already heading for the dancefloor as the string orchestra struck up a lively tune.

Emma danced three quick dances, before the musicians slowed things down and the dancers around her began to seek out partners. Emma didn't have a partner of her own, of course, but it was no matter. Boys were gross anyway. Who wanted to dance with them?

Emma put one arm in the air, as though placing it on a partner's shoulder, and she hooked the other as though holding her partner around the waist. And as the music swelled, she and her imaginary partner danced in perfect contentment.

She noticed as various couples swirled around her, chuckling down at her or making comments about how cute she was, but it was no matter to her. Let the grown up ladies dance with boys. She just wanted to dance by herself.

"Excuse me," a young voice said as Emma felt a tap on her shoulder, "could I cut in?"

Emma turned around to find herself face to face with a little boy near her age. He had black hair and bright blue eyes, and he seemed polite enough.

It would be rude to turn him away, Emma supposed, so she reluctantly allowed the real boy to take the place of her imaginary one. They danced silently for a moment or two (and the "Aww!"s and "Isn't that just adorable"s, if anything picked up in intensity around them, although Emma couldn't for the life of her understand why.)

Maybe if they'd remained silent, disaster wouldn't have struck.

"You're the princess, Princess Emma, right?' the boy asked.

"Yes, but my papa calls me Swan Princess," Emma said with a nod. "Who are you?"

"My name's Killian," the boy answered. "My mama and your mama were great friends before she met my papa."

"Oh, you're Killian!" Emma said, as they continued to dance. "I heard my mama and papa talking about you last night! They said they hope you and me get 'trothed, whatever that is."

Killian rolled his eyes. "Don't you know anything? It's not 'trothed'! It's 'betrothed'. It means you promise to get married."

Emma tossed him a skeptical look. "Are you sure? Why would mama and papa talk about that?"

"Course I'm sure!" Killian said, "And of course your mama and papa were talking about it! That's what mamas and papas talk about when they're royalty. But don't feel bad you didn't know; when you get as old as me, you'll know things too."

"You're not much older than me!" Emma said in outrage.

"I turned five last year, that makes a whole hand," Killian said holding up one small hand with its five digits to make his point.

"Well I'm four!" Emma said. "That's almost a hand! And I don't want to be 'trothed to you! You're just a…just a smelly boy!"

"Am not!" Killian said in outrage. "I'm not smelly! I just took a bath! But you're a…you're a girl and you have cooties. And guess what? Four isn't almost five! Four-year-olds are just babies!"

In the world of young children there is no greater insult. It was the five-year-old version of declaring open warfare.

And Emma was never one to back away from a fight. She stepped out of his arms, pulled her fist back, and walloped him as hard as she could.

"There!" she said, "that'll teach you to call big girls babies!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Emma could already see her mother heading in her direction—stern look in place—and she knew she was about to get into trouble, but thinking back to the shock on Killian's face as she decked him, she decided that all in all, it was worth it.

Notes:

-So it seems I'm incapable of writing AUs (either modern AUs or LD ones) without them turning into MCs. This one won't be terribly long. Right now, I'm planning on about five chapters, but Emma and Killan as babies (excuse me, BIG boys and girls) just took up way too much space. In the coming chapters they will grow up—and dare I say, their opinions of each other will—eventually—improve.

-While the story is called "The Swan Princess", it's not really based on the animated movie (or ballet). I suppose you could say it has some major parallels to the first part of the animated movie, but that's about it.

-The dance was based on 2 real-life events. The first I mentioned in the last chapter—the little girl I saw dancing by herself at a wedding last year and the little boy who came to dance with her. The second happened long ago. When I was 5 years old, I was the flower girl for my aunt and uncle's wedding, and I remember dancing by myself at their reception. Like Emma I was perfectly content to dance with my imaginary Prince Charming, but one of the adults—I think it was my new uncle's brother, took pity on me and asked me to dance. All in all, I would have preferred continuing my dance with my imaginary partner, but I didn't want to be rude, so I danced with him. (Luckily he didn't call me a baby, so I didn't feel compelled to punch him in the face, lol.)

-Up next: The story continues. Emma and Killian continue to not get along, but when a series of tragedies strike in Killian's life, Emma's compassionate side starts to come out.