Feeling creative, I was looking through my personal CS prompts today and I discovered one that I thought I wanted to take on, just to see how it might turn out, and although it's dialogue-heavy, the outcome really surprised me. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

"Do you ever think about fairy tales?" Killian asked, breaking a silence that had fallen on deck since everyone but he and Emma had departed below deck to get some sleep.

"Considering I'm in several of them right now, I guess you could say that I don't have any other choice," Emma replied, somewhat confused as she turned to look at him standing at the helm. "Why?" He kept his eyes on the sea out ahead of them, his hand resting on the wheel and his hook hanging at his side.

"I'm a villain. In my fairy tale. Am I right?" he asked, finally looking down at her, his blue eyes burning as they lit the darkness of night between them.

"Yeah…" Emma trailed off, still not quite following him.

"And throughout the course of my life, with no knowledge of fairy tales or what they said about me, I became a villain. I became a living version of the stories about me." He opened his mouth as if to continue, but then slowly closed it again, thinking. After a moment, he ran his fingers through his hair, tightening his hand into a fist, and finally loosening it as he replaced it back on the wheel. "I started my life as a boy who was abandoned and sought refuge at sea. I became a pirate because it was the only way to survive, and one fateful night, I walked into a bar and had a drink with a woman. It could have been any woman. But she was the unhappy wife of a man who would later go on to wield the power fueled by the rage to rip out her heart in front of me." Emma noticed that his voice threatened to break when he spoke of Milah, of what became of her, but he never faltered. "That began my 300-year journey for vengeance…and nothing else. I was willing to do anything, to hurt anyone to reach my goal. And I knew that at the end of it all, I would have nothing else to live for. But I chose that path anyway. Every choice I made, everything that has ever happened in my life led me to become a villain. So how could I ever escape that fate? If I am the man in the fairy tale, the true Captain Hook, how, then, could I rewrite this story that's been written since before I even knew what it was…who I was?"

Emma studied his face, from the darkness that had fallen like a mask back over the features of the man that she knew, the man that she had come to trust…to the sadness hidden deep beneath that darkness.

"When I came to Storybrooke, and Henry was so convinced that I was the savior, I fought it. With everything that I had. I wanted to rewrite that entire book, every word, every line…write any story but mine. But I couldn't…and I thought that it was because every choice I'd ever made, everything that had ever happened in my life had been pre-planned by Rumplestiltskin and that I was destined to be exactly who he said I was and to live this life that was already written. But then I discovered that I'm the savior not because the story said that I was or because Rumplestiltskin prophesied it, but because of exactly who I am. I saved the town, my family, everyone…because I chose to. I had to believe. If I hadn't, it would never have worked. And you, Killian Jones," she said, watching as the use of his name pulled his eyes away from the sea and back to her. "You've never been a villain. When you left me in Rumplestiltskin's cell, it wasn't because you're evil. You were hurt…because you trusted me, and I abandoned you. And when you shot Belle, you could have killed her…could have taken from Rumplestiltskin what he took from you. But you didn't. Why? Because you aren't a villain. And when you took the bean and were totally free and clear and able to leave and go anywhere to save yourself, you came back. You risked your life, offered to help us find Henry who you've only seen once and have never actually met, and gave up the quest for revenge that you've been seeking for 300 years, letting Rumplestiltskin on your ship. Why? Because you chose to. Because you're writing your own story."

He left the wheel in its fixed position as the ship sailed through smooth waters, descending the stairs to the lower portion of the deck where Emma was standing, and came to a stop right in front of her, his blue eyes boring into hers.

"Do you honestly think that I made those choices on my own?" he asked as her eyes narrowed in confusion.

"I'm not sure what you mea—" she started before he interrupted her.

"What I mean is that before I met you, I was a villain. But then all of a sudden, something was different. I trusted you from the moment that I laid eyes on you, and I couldn't explain why. Even after you left me on that beanstalk, I still felt this connection…this bond with you. And when I took the bean and I was totally free and clear and able to leave and go anywhere to save myself, I came back. I risked my life, offered to help find Henry who I've only seen once and have never actually met, and gave up the quest for revenge that I've been seeking for 300 years, letting Rumplestiltskin on my ship. Why? Because when you look at me, it's like you're the only person who sees Killian Jones before Captain Hook. Because you know what it feels like to have no one who cares for you…to grow up without a family. Because you gave me the chance to be a part of yours. Because the moment that I left the diner with the bean, knowing that you'd trusted me to return it to you, I became the man I've been fighting against my entire life. A coward. And because without you, Emma, my story isn't worth writing."

They stood unmoving for what felt like an eternity, the sea still and quiet, without a breath of wind. Suddenly, their eyes, both of them having kept them pointedly trained on the ground, met. Before either of them realized what was happening, Killian's hand was tangled in Emma's hair, one of hers resting on the back of his neck while the other was pressed against his upper chest. They paused ever so slightly just before their lips met, shocking them both with an electrical pulse that seemed to hang in the air around them. They tangled themselves in each other's arms, urging their bodies even closer together. When they finally pulled away, both of them breathless, Emma burst into a fit of laughter that rang out in the silent night.

"I know it's been a century, give or take, but I can't be that bad," Killian said as Emma shook her head, finally recovering enough to speak, though her hand held tightly to a stitch in her side, the widest of smiles draped across her face.

"We were so worried about rewriting our own fairy tales that we never realized we'd started writing a new one," she said, her green eyes bright as his lit up in the very same way, a genuine laugh issuing from his lips for the first time in far longer than he could even recall.

"I don't believe we could rewrite this story even if we wanted to, Love," he said. "Captain Hook and Emma Swan. Captain Swan," he teased.

"I like the sound of that," she said with a grin.

Suddenly, his amused expression shifted as he looked out at the sudden rush of waves that pushed the ship forward, closing his eyes for a moment when a burst of wind filled the sails before turning back to look at Emma, a confident gleam in his eye. "Our story will change everything."