Best Thing That's Ever Been Mine

Summary: Hook finds himself giving Henry advice in the art of courtship – primarily how to get your woman jealous. It started off harmless enough…until Henry turns the tables on Hook. Jealous!Hook

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! And here is a present. Will be a twoshot. Also, I had been having problems trying to pan out some of the next chapters of my other multifics that I also have going. Thank you to all the lovely loyal readers who are waiting so damn patiently for them to continue. I'm sure some of you know that when you're not feeling a story all of a sudden, sometimes its best to take a step away and try something new, just to get your creative juices flowing again. Well in doing this little ficlet I know better how to carry on some of my other fics. So I will be working on those, and have some new chapters up soon. Again, thanks for your patience guys. Hope you enjoy this random figment of my imagination. Just to warn you, characters may be a little OOC here, but I'm going with it. Songs that inspired this were "Mine" by Taylor Swift and "Jealous Guy" by Gavin DeGraw.

(Revised and edited as of July 2014).

Emma applied the last bits of her make-up before moving back from the mirror. Satisfied with the look, she searched for the heels she'd put aside for the night. Hook was going to be here any minute.

Not Hook.

Killian.

Killian was going to be here any minute.

Holding the black pumps she chuckled at the thought. She - Emma Swan, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming (no she's not joking) had a date with Captain Hook.

Of all the characters...in all the fairy tales…

She didn't know what was more surprising. That she was dating a Disney "villain" or the fact she'd had a number of dates with the devious pirate - and they were going well.

Not that dating the town sheriff had stopped him from having his moments. He still found himself in her jail cell from time to time; though ever since the day she'd conceded to go on a date with him, she'd noticed the incarceration became less and less frequent.

She smiled fondly at the memory.

At the time he'd managed to trick her into it. Going around town causing as much trouble as possible. After Neverland, and finally settling into a semblance of normality in Storybrooke, she had no idea why the pirate suddenly decided to revert to causing mayhem everywhere he went. Of course after three months of constant lock-up, chasing and flirting, he finally admitted that all his little crime-sprees were done in the name of getting her attention.

Shocked at the fact that she couldn't detect any trace of lies on him, he then had the audacity to tell her that he would only stop if she went out on a date with him.

Extortion much?

He all but twisted her arm into going.

(At least that's how she tells it to everyone – no one needs to know that she was maybe slightly excited about the whole ordeal).

And now it was three months later and they were still together.

The saviour and the pirate.

It made headlines.

Literally.

She rolled her eyes remembering how Sidney managed to catch them making out like hormonally ridden teenagers in her yellow bug one night. Her parents had been at her door the next morning with demands of explanation. Henry had been next. Although his questions required more technical clarification, like why the hell Captain Hook was biting her neck like a vampire?

God that was bad.

Regina was not impressed.

Speaking of Henry, "Hey Mum, Killian's here!"

Putting on her shoes and primping her hair a bit, she made her way to the kitchen and was greeted by the sight of Henry and Killian wrestling playfully behind the counter top. Ideally she should have told them to stop immediately, the kitchen wasn't exactly the safest place to start a mini-WWF tournament. Instead she took a moment to just stand there and take in the scene.

It warmed her heart to no end whenever she saw them like this. They'd bonded over time, and Henry had no qualms about adding a pirate captain to his ever growing dysfunctional family. Killian was slowly becoming someone quite important to her, so knowing that Henry approved and enjoyed his company meant a lot. And that Killian felt the same towards her son, well…he did say he was in this for the long haul. And he'd been proving that to her day by day. She hadn't uttered it to a single soul yet, but she was pretty sure that she was falling for the pirate.

She really had come a long way from the loner orphan bail-bonding Emma Swan.

"Alright break it up you hooligans!"

She laughed as they both looked up, Killian playfully holding Henry in a headlock that the boy was fruitlessly trying to get out of.

"You look nice mum"

She smiled at her son's compliment; he was always complimenting her it seemed. It used to make her feel uncomfortable but she decided she never got tired of hearing them from her son.

"Yeah…nice"

Her gaze flicked over to the pirate and if the sensual tone in which he'd managed to make that one word sound like an innuendo all on its own wasn't enough, then she was pretty sure the way he was looking at her was probably banned in certain states. His eyes were glazed over, taking in every inch of her from top to bottom, with particular care to thoroughly ogle everything in between. It thrilled her each time she caught him looking at her like that. The man was walking sex, and to know that she could literally stun him speechless made her more confident in her femininity than she ever had been.

He smirked as he caught her looking back at him.

She was always catching him off guard. Every time he thought that he couldn't get enough of his Swan, she went and blew him away even further, leaving this pirate thanking his lucky stars that she was his and his alone.

And tonight when they were alone, he was going to show her just how much he appreciated that.

Easing the boy out of his grasp as he ran over to talk to his mother, Killian took his time to look over her once again. If he didn't know her as well as he did, he may have missed the slight tinge to her cheeks. Emma Swan, fearless saviour, loving mother, feisty princess…was blushing. And he was the reason for it.

She looked up, raising an eyebrow at the massive grin stretching over his face.

Before she could address it the phone rang interrupting the moment.

Henry went over to kill some time watching T.V. until his grandparents came to pick him up. Killian still hadn't reached a steady ground with the Charming couple yet but the pirate really did appreciate their need to bond with family as much as possible. Their 'never-say-no' policy when it came to Henry and Emma spending time with them made it easier to be able to have these date nights that Emma insisted they go on. He didn't understand the need to go out and eat and have this whole scenario when really they both knew they were going to end up in either his bed or hers by the end of the night. Talking, laughing, ravishing each other throughout the night. Really he'd just rather start the night there and keep going for hours on end. He smirked at the thought; maybe he could convince her to do their next date that way.

"Ok Ruby, I'll be right over"

He frowned as she turned the phone off and made his way over to her.

"I've got to head over to the diner right now. Ruby needs me to help her with some rowdy customers."

He nodded, "I'll come with you"

"No, you need to stay. Someone needs to watch Henry until my parents get here"

He paused. It's not that he minded watching the boy (they got along famously). He just didn't like the idea of her having to go deal with drunk rowdy morons on her own. He knew she could take care of herself, this was Emma Swan after all. Independence and toughness wrapped in a petite blonde package. He himself had been bested and beaten by her on more than one occasion. And drunken scum were nothing next to dragons, evil queens and creepy young kids with a penchant for immortality. But for some reason lately, that didn't stop him from wanting to take care of her. It was this gut feeling inside of him. He knew she didn't need him to be there for her or defend her honour or keep drunken assholes off her person.

But he wanted to.

Simply because she deserved to have someone look after her.

And he wanted to be that person.

Seeing the resolute look on her face, she must've known what he was thinking (she could read him just as well as he could her). Her only reaction was to reach up and give him a swift peck on the lips, promising she'll be back quickly and was out the door before he got a word in edgeways.

Stubborn wench.

He knew her walls were still there, but he was slowly knocking them down brick by brick. One day she will accept that he wanted to take care of her, and maybe even let him do it.

Sighing he turned to find Henry watching the picture box – or T.V. as they called it. He had no idea what the name had to do with what the object's function was, but he'd found a while ago to just go with the tide on most things in this realm.

He was about to go and search for some snacks, when Henry started frowning at the screen. The scene playing out was that of a couple, clearly in love and riding off into the sunset. Noticing the boy's lack of enthusiasm at the 'happy ever after' scenario, he concluded something was up. Henry was the biggest believer of true love he'd ever seen in a person.

The only reason the lad was likely to be less than keen on the concept all of a sudden would be if he was questioning it.

And why would a young boy that was surrounded by True Love couples be hesitating about the notion all of a sudden?

And... it clicked.

Grace.

Of course it would involve a member of the fairer sex.

"So Henry." He got his full attention, the boy not bothering with the television any more. "How is the plan for young Miss Grace coming along?"

Henry frowned slightly. "I'm not sure"

"How is that?"

"I don't think she likes me Killian"

Poor boy looked practically bereft.

Ahhh young love.

Killian sat beside him, "What happened to make you believe so?"

"Well, I did like you said. I followed the plan exactly as you'd told me. Operation Sharkbait" Thinking back Killian should have probably encouraged a better codename considering the topic itself. "I tried being nice to her, then I ignored her. Then I started talking to all her friends and being nice to them. But I think…I think she hates me"

The pirate grinned, "Did she tell you that?"

"Kind of," the boy sighed, "she threw a bottle at my head and called me a jerk"

Hook patted him on the back, "Perfect! You've got her exactly where you want her lad"

"I do?" Henry was so confused. How did Grace hating him, help him get her to like him? "But she hates me! Killian, we're supposed to make her like me"

"Look boy, if you want a lass, the only way to get her is to make her unable to stop thinking about you" The boy listened attentively. Ever since he'd let slip to Killian that he had a crush on Jefferson's daughter Grace, the pirate had put it upon himself to take young Henry under his wing and instruct him on the ways in which to woo a lass.

"You catch her attention first by being nice. Flirting with her, express the natural charm you have."

"Is that how you started with mum?"

The boy's look was innocent but Hook could tell he was genuinely curious as to how Hook and Emma had gotten together. God knows his mother never expanded beyond an "It just sort of…happened." Killian rolled his eyes, he would one day have to explain to the woman how tell a half-decent tale.

"Of course. I charmed the bloody pants off her – on a beanstalk no less!"

"But she hated you"

"Exactly. I got under her skin, pushed her buttons 'til it drove her crazy. And your mum…well she's feisty." He smirked remembering all the times he got her really fired up before they got together. He didn't regret a single argument. After all, Emma Swan was bloody hot when she was pissed. Her eyes sparked with anger, her luscious mouth yelling obscenities one after the other at him, that lovely shade of pink tingeing her cheeks.

She was a sight to behold, his Swan.

Henry whacked the older man on his arm. He'd been staring off into space with a weird glaze in his eyes and a massive smirk on his face. He'd seen the same look on Killian's face sometimes when he'd be staring at his mum, but he didn't get it. Grown-ups were just weird sometimes.

"But how does making her angry with me, help me?"

Henry was at a loss, and starting to wonder if Killian really knew what he was talking about.

"Once she starts realising she may hold affection for you, she will try to get rid of it. Explain it away. Reason with herself that it's not really there."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because my boy, women are bloody mad." He let out a long-suffering sigh. "God knows why they think of half the stuff they do, but for whatever female-ridden insane reasoning they seem to possess, they decide that they would rather be miserable than say I don't know, be having the time of their life in the arms of a pirate."

He dismissed his comment and continued before Henry could interrupt, "Anyway, THAT is when you start to ignore her"

"I did that, but I don't know if it helped"

"Of course it helped, it's to throw her off, confuse her. Remind her that you aren't someone who wastes their time on just anyone. No, you have better things to do, and there's plenty more fish in the sea after all." He gave the boy a devilish grin seeing he had his undivided attention, "She will mourn the loss of your time, but she still won't make a move because she's afraid."

"Afraid of what? I'm not scary!" Henry looked scandalised. How could Grace be scared of him? It's not like HE had a hook for a hand.

"She's not scared of you lad. She's scared of what you a represent. Happiness. She's scared she'll be happy with you and that one day you'll leave her and she'll lose that happiness and be miserable and alone from heart break. So she'd just much rather not take the leap and be alone to begin with"

Hook nodded earnestly as though he had just given the young boy the key to life itself.

"But…that's stupid."

"Exactly"

"She can't just think all that because it might happen."

"You're telling me. When it comes to the lasses, they all think too much. It's a wonder any of them manage to fall in love at all given how much they sit there thinking about it than doing anything"

"So then why did you have me talk to her friends?"

Hook grinned deviously at the boy, "To make her jealous."

"Isn't that…wrong?"

"Oh no, no no young Henry. Jealousy is a completely natural thing. Trust me, a woman jealous becomes a woman on a mission. If you ignore your lass and talk to other women, flirt with them, send a little charm their way, well needless to say your woman will be…what's that phrase you lot say?...ah yes…green with envy. She will see that your attention can be claimed elsewhere if she takes it for granted. So she will come to claim you. And then you have her."

He finished with a flourish of his hands as if to say he'd said all he could and it was now up to Henry to follow through.

"So you're saying that because I ignored her and talked to her friends, she got jealous – which is why she was throwing things at me and calling me names?"

"Yes." Hook sighed, "Alas in the course of true love my boy, you'll have to endure a few hits, a few angry words here and there. God knows your mother did that and more when I was having to court her against her will"

Henry's eyebrows rose at that. He could only imagine the bruises Emma probably gave Hook before she finally caved and admitted that there might be something between them.

"So did you make mum jealous?"

A sly grin adorned the pirate's face. "She'll never admit it but I could see it annoyed her. Whenever I exchanged words with the wolf girl, or that pretty little nun that's always with the dwarf."

"And that got her to like you more?"

"It made her want my attention back on her more. It's a lovely little thing jealousy, forces people into action when it comes to a potential attraction"

"I don't know, it sounds kind of mean"

Hook raised an eyebrow "How so?"

"Well, would you like it, if you were the one jealous?"

The pirate chuckled, "Lad, I have never been jealous a day in my life. Never needed to be" He added cockily.

"So you've never gotten jealous over Milah? Or Emma?"

It was a testament to how much time and feelings had changed the pirate, as he didn't even flinch at the mention of his old love.

"With Milah there was no reason to, she left her husband and came to me. And to put it bluntly lad, I'm the type that women get jealous over, not the type to get jealous over women" He looked pointedly at the young boy who had the idea that Hook really did believe what he was saying.

"And Emma?"

Hook snorted. "Your mum… it took three months to get her to say yes to a date! And I had to pretty much follow her everywhere and break into every store in town." He leaned closer to Henry as though telling him a secret, "I don't think any other man's got the energy to go through all that, so I don't think there's anything to worry about. Besides, nobody would go after Captain Hook's woman unless they've got a death wish."

Satisfied he'd made his point, Hook went to rummage in one of the cupboards for a small snack. Emma was taking longer than expected, and his stomach was paying the price. Surely she had something he could use to temper it for a while. Maybe one of those little brown squared-shaped delicacies she always had lying around the place. Choc—something or other…

"You mean chocolate?"

He turned to find the boy holding out a box of the stuff for him. Realising he must've spoken out loud beforehand, he went to rip open the box when he saw something.

On the packaging there was a note, "Emma, Can't thank you enough for helping with Grace – I owe you, for everything, if you should ever need anything give me a call, Jefferson"

There was a number scrawled underneath.

He couldn't say why exactly but something about the note irked him. There was a wretched feeling in his gut that he couldn't quite place.

"What's this about?"

He handed Henry the note who then smiled.

"Grace's dad, Jefferson. Me and Emma helped bring them back together once the curse was broken."

"Uh huh. What does he mean by everything?"

"Oh that. He's probably talking about the time he kidnapped her."

"He WHAT?"

"When everyone was still cursed, Jefferson knew the truth and he knew Emma was the saviour. So he kidnapped her, tied her up and kept her at his mansion for the night"

"Overnight..." he mutter unimpressed with what he was hearing, "And then?"

"Emma escaped, she broke the curse, we helped Jefferson find his daughter, everyone's happy."

"So why give her food? I would've thought an apology would suffice?" Hook found it odd, was it some strange custom in this world?

Henry laughed, "No he's not giving her food – he's giving her chocolates. It's not the same thing. Chocolates aren't considered like normal food. They're much nicer, they're expensive and they're usually made in fancy boxes so you can give them away to people."

"You mean to say this is a gift? To express an apology?"

"Well yes, but they're not always used like that. Most people usually give them as gifts to friends or someone they like. Like on Valentine's day, you give chocolates to someone you love." Henry shrugged handing them back to Killian, not noticing the way the pirate had just frozen.

He looked at the chocolates he was holding.

Fancy box.

Looks expensive.

With a note.

And a number.

'If you should ever need anything give me a call'

Killian Jones had no idea what was happening with him, but he suddenly had the urge to find Jefferson and punch the shit out of him.

The man was sending love tokens to Emma? His Emma?

And on top of that he sends her a note to call him, for anything. Anything? He didn't even want to think what the hell that meant! To think he actually had the nerve to pursue Swan. She was quite obviously taken. As in not unattached for slimy gits like Jefferson to get his paws on. Besides, why in seven hells would she ever call that mad hat moron?

She had him. Captain bloody Hook. She didn't need some tosser who was mentally incapacitated half the time.

"Killian!"

He snapped out of his thoughts on hearing Henry's voice.

"Are you ok?" He indicated his reason for asking. Hook looked down and found his hook puncturing the box, which now lay in shreds on the counter.

"You know I could have just gotten you a knife?"

He straightened up, "Right, well where's the fun in that?" He smiled at the boy so nothing would seem off but inside he was feeling a world of rage. As soon as tonight was over, he was going to find that damn Jefferson and remind him exactly why you should never covet that which belonged to a pirate.

Least of all his woman.

The git.

"It's okay, lucky for us he sent two boxes," Henry was busy pulling out his pen knife that he missed the murderous look on the pirate's face as he eyed the new box. "Here"

Taking the knife handed to him; Hook tried not to imagine Jefferson's head in place of the cardboard and did a much smoother job of opening it. As he did he noticed something glint off the side of the knife. On closer inspection he saw there was an inscription.

"Remember, believing is half the battle"

Henry noticed what had caught his attention and smiled.

"That was from August." Seeing Hook's confusion he added, "You know, Pinocchio"

"Pinocchio gave you a knife with an inscription on it? Can't see your mum being happy with that"

"She was…but it was for her so that'll probably be why"

Hook's head snapped up at that.

"August gave it to her when he was trying to convince her she was the saviour. He hand-carved it himself in his dad's workshop"

"It. Was. A. Gift?" Hook stressed each word through gritted teeth.

"Yup. He rode her to a hidden wishing well on his motorbike and gave it to her. She didn't believe in the curse back then, but she liked the knife so she kept it"

Hook looked at it again.

Hand crafted.

Beautiful workmanship.

Encrypted with sentiment.

Given in an intimate setting.

He felt the rage starting to simmer under the surface again. His gut was practically tying itself into knots.

Pinocchio? First the Mad Hatter and now a man whose known trait was to lie?

Why on earth would she keep a gift from the manipulative puppet? Did she value it that much? Did she value the man from whom it came?

And what the hell kind of name was August? He had no idea what this motorbike thing was, but from the way Henry's eyes lit up as he talked about it, the boy was no doubt impressed. He snorted, like there was anything to be impressed with where this 'August' was concerned. He had never met Pinocchio, but a man who used to be made of wood was hardly a threat.

And yet, he couldn't stop himself from staring at the knife and wanting to throw it into the depths of the nearest ocean.

Emma Swan was his woman.

His.

She should only ever be receiving love tokens from HIM, and she sure as hell shouldn't be keeping ones from elsewhere.

Where the hell were all these sudden suitors coming from? Surely he would have noticed if they'd been sniffing around the golden-haired lass.

"Killian, I should probably put that back in mum's jacket, before she notices it's missing. She likes to keep it close."

Snapping him out of a trance for a second time, Killian reluctantly handed it back (trying to desperately ignore the latter part of Henry's statement). "Hate to break it to you lad but your mother's wearing her jacket, she's probably noticed by now."

"Not that jacket. This one," he indicated a slightly large black jacket hanging on the door.

"That's a little big to be your mother's," he eyed the cut. It seemed more suited to fit a man than a woman – especially one of Emma's petite frame.

"It's not hers, its Graham's" Henry said matter of factly.

Killian went still.

Who the bloody hell was Graham?

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