Hello lovely readers! Thank you for taking a look here. These have been sitting untouched in a file on my computer since the summer. I never got around to posting them, and then school came and all my time went POOF! And now that I've found a little more time and I'm off my reading binge (if you haven't yet, go read The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. Seriously, go. Right now) and OUAT is on hiatus, I figured I could post some of these.

This drabble and the next were not the first ones I wrote, but I thought it fitting to start off where they did. So enough talk, let the drabbles commence!

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of the affiliated characters :'(

1. Surprise

It didn't make sense for there to be a survivor amidst the chaos. Cora was ruthless and meticulous, a combination of traits that gave Emma a mental image of the woman pleasantly strolling between the corpses the littered the ground, checking to make sure they were all dead.

Something was wrong.

As far as Emma could see, there wasn't anything wrong with this man. The rust-colored smears on his face that she had originally thought were blood had turned out to be dirt. Blood would have made it more convincing. So not only was there a survivor, but he wasn't even injured.

Something was very wrong.

She wasn't buying his story. Her internal lie detector refused to let her believe the cowardly actions he claimed he took. He was an excellent liar, she admitted, but there was a spark in his crystal blue eyes that made her certain there were still things he was keeping from them.

It was so satisfying to hear him admit it.

The one thing she hadn't expected was recognizing his name. It never failed to trigger her cynicism when she met a new fairytale character, but this time was different. Snow White was young and beautiful; Prince Charming was handsome and brave; the Evil Queen was dark and devious. That's how they were.

Captain Hook had chicken legs, a bad perm, and a lavender feather that clashed horrifically with his red coat. This was not Captain Hook. This man had an intelligent, mischievous air about him that would have given the cartoon Peter Pan a run for his money. And his eyes were too pretty. It was a bit of a pity that the ogres were going to make dinner out of him.

And then he started talking again. For a moment, she thought it may have been cowardice driving his pleas, and she was sure the prospect of being an ogre's next meal was some fuel for him, but they really weren't pleas. They were demands. She couldn't help her jaw from dropping slightly; he was tied to a tree and he was trying to negotiate as if he was worth something, as if they needed him and his invaluable services. He wasn't begging at all. In fact, she noted, he was seething when he told them of his reason for going to Storybrooke: Revenge.

And that, she knew, was the truth.

This was most definitely not the Captain Hook she would have expected. This was someone far more dangerous.

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