Of Pirates and Princesses
Chaptre One: What Stokes the Fires of Revenge
A/N: Prompt based fic- Emma is a pirate and she kidnaps Regina during a plot of revenge. But during the course of this, they end up falling in love. This is a G!P Emma story.
"Do you have to go?" the busty brunette pouted from the rumpled sheets of the bed, arm reaching out to grab the slender waist of one tall blonde that was currently pulling on her trousers.
"Sorry, love," the blonde chuckled, buckling up her belt and escaping the hold of a pale arm. "But I've got work to attend to. Gotta fix up Miss Garder's fence."
The brunette longingly looked on at the blonde woman's toned stomach and perky breasts before they too were covered up by clothing, a tight top with a corduroy jacket. Not just ten minutes ago she had been sucking on those very breasts. She licked her lips and fluttered her eyes enticingly. "She can wait."
The blonde chuckled, pulling her long blonde strands into a messy ponytail. "Insatiable, are you."
"I can't help it. You make me this way."
"I would love to spend all day with you in bed but unfortunately some of us have to work hard for a living." She ducked down to kiss the brunette on the mouth to soothe the unhappy turn of her lips. "I'll see you around."
The brunette huffed out, finally relenting. "Fine. I'll see you around, Emma."
Emma left the house of her latest bed partner, greeting townsfolk that were walking around to get to their jobs just as the sun had risen.
"Good morning Emma!"
"Hello, Emma!"
They all waved at her, or offered her smiles. The women's were more coy than the men's. Emma had a habit of sleeping with many women- with being able to seduce them easily, though she made it a fact she never slept with married women because she didn't need a pitchfork mob coming after her head. She liked her quiet life in this inland town. She had settled down here about ten years ago and made something of herself. She finally had a proper house to rest in, a proper reputation in town. Everyone knew they could count on her to help them with any of their needs. A fence that needed repairing, a lost pig that needed to be found, a squabble that had to be settled with fists- she could do anything and everything for the right fee.
She hadn't always lived this way but with Henry in her life now, she needed to have a steady life for him, especially if his other parent didn't want to make that sacrifice for him. Emma would be the one to do it, to raise him proper. To make sure he didn't have to turn to crime like they had. To make sure he wouldn't have to suffer the deaths of those he knew all too well.
"Get your news! Get your daily news here!" shouted out a young boy on the street corner and Emma handed him a nickel for the paper. She took it to peruse and continued upon her walk to Garder's house when she froze in her journey, eyes going wide, breath rattling in her chest like something broken, and stomach plummeting to her feet.
Naval Commander Graham Finally Hangs the Dreaded Pirate Light Footed Lily! Merchants Rejoice, the Seas are now Safe Again!
After a long, harrowing chase and naval battle, Commander Graham, he who works for the highest crown of our esteemed Queen Cora, was able to capture all of Light Footed Lily's crew along with the notorious Lily herself. In a trial last Tuesday morning, Lily confessed to her crimes of pillage, murder, pirating, and contempt towards the crown. And on the behest of Queen Cora, Lily was hung by the neck until dead.
Emma has to lean against a lamp post in order to stop the world from spinning around her. She can't believe it.
Lily is dead.
Dead.
Emma absentmindedly stumbles back home, devastated and job forgotten. She and Lily might not have ended things on the right foot but there was too much history between them for Emma to brush over this information like it was nothing. She sits down heavily and stares at the paper, blank eyed as she tries to cope with this. As her brain whirls with how to remedy this. She sits there for a good four hours, never moving once, only breathing and blinking and thinking.
Henry wakes up and finds Emma sitting at their table, the newspaper in front of her, eyes glued to the picture of Lily hanging. "Ma what's wrong?" he's only ten but intuitive enough far beyond his age.
She sighs out heavily, her good mood from this morning entirely destroyed. She hasn't shed a single tear for Lily and she refuses to do so. She will not let those bastards responsible for her death make her suffer like this. In fact, she will make them suffer. She will avenge Lily's death. It is the way of their kind. A way she had long thrown away, sworn off, but not for this. This warrants retaliation, warrants her going back down that path.
"Sit down Henry, there is something I must tell you." Her tone is grave.
Henry did as asked, sliding out the wooden chair with a scrap and sitting across from his mother. He waited patiently for her to gather herself. She rubbed her face and raked a hand through her hair.
"I do not even know where to begin," she admitted in a frustrated sigh. "There is so much I have not told you Henry because I wanted to protect you. But I suppose the time has come I can no longer hide things from you. You are ten this year. Aye, you are mature enough for it, for lord knows you are certainly older than the ten years that marker your body."
"Whatever it is Ma, I will not hate you for it," he said solemnly, noting the serious nature of this conversation about to incur.
"Do not say that for you may change your opinion yet," she breathed out and clearing her throat, began.
"When I was younger, Henry, I did not always have this job. I did not always live in this town. I had no set home, and was not guided by any morals or laws except the ones I put on myself, except the ones my kind roughly had. I was a pirate, Henry."
She waited for his reaction here but he only looked on at her, eager to know more.
She continued on. "I was...I was a pretty fearsome pirate. I robbed many towns, destroyed many naval and rival ships and I hurt people. I am not proud of what I did, but I did what I had to to feed myself and my crew. I had no parents growing up and so I lived on the streets. They taught me how to survive. When I was old enough I signed up to be a cabin boy. This way I grew used to thriving on ships. I learned everything I could about them- and then one day I was kidnapped by some pirates when our ship was over run.
"The pirate who captured me was an old grizzled man by the name of Long John. He took me under his wing and taught me the ways of pirating. He was like the father figure I never had. He inspired in me a hatred for the crown for he was once a victim of it. Queen Cora had done horrible things to his family so he turned to terrorizing the seas in order to pay her back for that. When he passed away due to a bullet wound, he handed down the ship and crew to me and I took to carrying on his legacy for him before my own legacy on the seas arose. I had many who feared and respected me.
"Along those journey's I meet many friends and villains. One such person that I came across was Lily. Do you remember aunt Lily?"
Henry nodded his head yes. He recalled when he was a bit younger a woman with striking blue eyes and raven dark hair and who smelled of the sea come to visit him. He called her auntie.
"Yes, well Aunt Lily was a fellow pirate like me."
"She was? That is amazing!" Henry cheered. When Emma scowled at that, he added. "Ma, I don't care about your past-"
"But you should, Henry. I hurt a lot of people during my days of pirating."
"Still, you were some mighty pirate. Pirates are cool-and I know they do some terrible things but you're my Ma and I know you would never truly do terrible things if you could avoid them." Living in this day and age it was unavoidable hearing about some pirate or another that had wronged the crown or committed some sort of crime. There were those who reviled the pirates and those who admired them. Henry was one of the admirers. He found them brave and longed to go like them and adventure all around the world. He had a romanticized view of them. He didn't so much like the killing and stealing they did- but he did want to take a ship and be able to sail anywhere he wanted. To see the discoveries and treasures of foreign worlds.
He imagined his Ma had seen many amazing things that he could only read about in novels.
Emma nodded her head. She had to partially agree to that. She never killed directly if she could avoid it. Unlike those other pirates, she had scruples. "Anyways, Lily and I met on the seas, as enemies first off. But as time went on and we kept getting in each other's paths, we became friends."
Emma can still recall all those heated fights between their ships, the smell of powder and the boom of canons in the air as pirates swung on ropes to board the others ship.
Or the fights where they were sword to neck and gun to throat. The tension that arose between them, that tension that translated to something else entirely later. They eventually found out they could work better together than they could apart and so they began raiding naval ships together and over the course of that a heated relationship arose.
They fought almost as often as they made love and then one night everything had changed between them.
"Swan, I'm carrying your child," Lily had said.
Those words filled Emma with immense pride and happiness. To hear that she was having a child- sure, she had not planned for one or even considered having one, but now that it had happened, she was ready, ready to hold a tiny babe in her arms and cuddle it to sleep.
"We need to give our child a future. We need to quit pirating," Emma said in pure excitement, ready to settle down with Lily and start a whole life with her in a house in some small quaint town. There would mornings waking up together and dinners at the same table. For once they could be together longer than a few days at a time before long stretches of not seeing each other, vaster than any sea, could break them apart.
"No." Lily got up from the bed they had just spent a delectable evening on. She began to pull on her clothes, back to Emma. "I will not give up this way of life." Those words shut down Emma's joy harshly.
"But...you are with child. And it's dangerous." Emma got up, trying to appeal with Lily as she wrapped a sheet around her nether regions. "Is that not the right thing to do?"
"I will carry the child to term, Emma, but I will not settle down for it," Lily said as she turned around to face Emma now, a shirt and pants on her, covering up the skin Emma had taken to marking possessively with her teeth and lips, thinking Lily was her's to have. It had only been an illusion. "The sea is a demanding mistress and she has my heart and soul and body. There is no way I can dare part from her." Lily cupped Emma's cheek in her hand, voice gentle and trying to get Emma to understand her.
"More so than me?" Emma asked and she hated how her voice wavered. She was the one who broke hearts, not had her own heart broken.
When Lily didn't say anything for a long time, Emma swallowed harshly and turned to get her things. She needed to be alone right now.
"Emma..." Lily sighed out as if Emma was being the unreasonable one. "You have to understand. I...the sea and I are one. And it does not hold-"
"I understand perfectly, Lily. Just take care of yourself while you are with child and when they are born, write me a message and I shall sell my ship and give up my pirating ways so I can raise it. I will not let it be abandoned or given over to some orphanage." Her voice was hard steel, hard enough to cut. Lily winced at the indifference Emma was treating her with.
Emma knew all too well how it was to be abandoned and she would not do that to a child of hers. She would take care of them. Give them a stable home, a proper youth, even if Lily could not be there.
Momentarily lost in her memories, Emma had to pull herself out so she could finish telling Henry the truth. "Henry, you're aunt Lily wasn't your aunt. She was...she was your other mother."
This time her words had an impact on Henry. His face scrunched up in deep thought. "My other mother? But I thought only a man and woman could have children."
Emma did not want to get into details with her son, so she tried to brush over the issue. "Well, there was a special bond between us that allowed us to conceive. So we are both your mothers."
Henry pondered over it. He had never expected his missing parent to be a woman. He always imagined it to be some tall handsome man that had been killed off in battle or who had run away when he could not carry the burden of raising a family. With the way Ma sometimes talked down upon Henry's missing parent, it seemed that way.
And in the end it turned out his 'father' was actually his mother. And a pirate of all things. Both of them actually pirates. That explained his love for traveling, for the way he would dream of going to the ocean, and for watching the waves lap away as he watched the horizon dip.
He was shocked by the truth coming to light, but he would process it later; currently his curiosity to know more pushed him to seek more surprising revelations.
"What are you going to do now Ma?" Henry asked, child eyes wide in wonder as his mother stood up.
"I'm going to avenge Lily's death," she vowed, emerald orbs clouded over with anger.
"I don't want you to hurt anyone, or anyone to hurt you," he said, subdued and worried for his mother.
"Don't worry. No one will be harmed if I can help it. And I know how to take care of myself. I shall be fine." Emma didn't have a plan yet but all she knew was she was going to strike Cora where it hurt most. "In the meantime, you'll be staying with Belle." That was their bookworm neighbor. Timid and with her head in the clouds but someone they could trust.
He wrinkled up his nose. "Ma, no. I want to come with you. I do. I want to be out on the seas, adventuring. You know how the water calls to me, and this makes so much sense now. I'm the son of two pirates. The salty sea is in my blood. I have to come with you."
Emma hated to deny her son anything but she would not get him involved in a scheme of revenge. She knelt next to him. "I promise you I will take you another time but not on this quest. The seas be dangerous now." She kissed him on the forehead.
"Ma-"
"No," she got up, sternly shaking a finger at him. "This is not up for debate. Pack your things and get ready to go to Belle's."
"When will you come back?" he asked sullenly, hanging his head.
"I do not know."
"Just promise me you'll be safe."
"Aye," Emma said. "Your other mother may be hanging from the gallows, but I promise I will return." She ruffled up Henry's hair and he opened his arms to hug her to him.
Emma had to get her old crew together first. She could not do this alone. That much was clear to her. One woman could only do so much in the way of revenge.
Quickly, she packed, throwing everything she would need into a knapsack. She got out an old ornate key and opened up the trunk at the bottom of her bed. Inside she pulled out items she had not touched in over ten years, swearing to herself they would stay there forever, as relics of her checkered past.
Now, it turned out, she would need to use them once more. A small brass spyglass, a compass, a pocket watch, her trusted flintlock pistol along with some powder and iron balls, and at the bottom of it all, her pirate outfit. She took the red jacket out, blowing some dust off of it. It had been a long time since she'd worn this. She wondered if it would still fit her. Rolling that up, she added it to the bundle in the knapsack, and then loaded the pistol before tucking it into the waistband of her trousers.
Henry was currently asleep. She figured it would be best if she left in the middle of the night, to spare him from having to shed tears at her departure. She would write to him so he wouldn't have to worry over her, and there was enough money saved up that he could comfortably live for the next three decades without her aid if he was cautious with it. And he was a smart boy. He could make ends meet, and he could get a job working if need be.
She dreaded leaving him behind but there was no way she could stand the insult and devastation Lily's death had brought her. The pirate code still reigned in her veins and it demanded reparations to be made. It demanded to make Cora suffer. How, it was not yet known, but Emma would find a way. She would seek her revenge, seek Cora's hurt, and then return back home to her son, able to continue her normal life with him.
Trying to push her worry for her son aside, she stepped out the door and into the inky dark night.
Her first stop was August, her second in command. If she found him, she could find the others. Luckily she knew where he liked to haunt. It wouldn't be too hard to find him. She walked the whole night, her feet taking her out of town and down a long empty winding road. The next town wasn't too far over but it took a while to get there on foot. She didn't want to spend any of her saved up coin unnecessarily if she could avoid it. She'd need every last cent to buy gear and a ship.
By early dawn she had made it, her feet sore and eyes drooping with tiredness. She decided she could take a nap on one of the benches in the public square. She placed her knapsack behind her head and threw an arm over her eyes to block out the rising sun. She slept heavy and woke up to see the square had started to fill up. No one paid her any mind. Wandering and homeless travelers were not an uncommon sight.
Her limbs felt a bit cramped from sleeping on such a hard surface so she got up and stretched, smiling at the pleasant cracks in her bones. It was almost evening now and that meant August would be at the local bar.
Over the years, they had sent the occasional letter to each other to keep updated on what was happening in their lives. After their last major score- robbing a Spanish Galleon of nearly half a crown's money's worth, they split the treasure up before splitting up. Each had a share that would ensure their lives would be comfortable for many decades to come, if spent wisely.
August had taken to spending his on booze, women, and games.
He'd used to do it all over the coastal towns but then decided for a more settled way of life by doing it only in one town. He must be the sole source of revenue for that bar.
Emma picked up her knapsack and went on her way to the bar. It was a nicely decorated thing. Good to see that his money was being put to good use by the owners. Inside it smelled of ale and roasted chicken and it was boisterous even now.
A crowd had gathered around the middle where a man was talking loudly.
"Come and join me. See if you can best me in a one on one match of strength!"
Though it had been years, Emma recognized that voice anywhere.
Though he kept his hair shaven now, down to the skin, his beard was full and luscious and decorated with beads of silver and gold. His outfit too was made of finery, rich purple colors and shiny buckles. Life had treated him well. Emma, though secretly rich as well, liked to dress simple and not flaunt her wealth. She never took joy in robbing others, unless it was warranted.
"To the victor goes the spoils of this chest filled with gold," he challenged, patting the small personal chest he had on the table. "And if they lose, they give me their wives." That drew a few chuckles out of the men, thinking August was joking. He was not.
Emma pushed her way through the crowd, shouldering a few of the eager men aside. "So this is what you do with your spare time, is it August Booth?" she gave him a crooked smile and his own dropped as his face opened in shock.
"Looks like his wife found him and heard of his exploits," one man whispered to another.
"Aye, he's going to get the lard cut out of him for sure for that," was the reply.
August recovered from his shock and smiled jovially at her. "Well well well. I suppose a reunion is in order." He grabbed his chest and addressed the crowd. "Excuse me gentlemen. Perhaps another time. I have business to attend to." He grabbed Emma by the elbow and steered her out, the crowd grumbling at the lack of opportunity on being able to make some money.
"Business my ass. He's gon to enjoy her in his bed."
That comment angered Emma and normally she would have placed the fine tip of her sword against the neck of the man who'd uttered it, but she did not. She had more pressing issues than a low brow man.
August took Emma to his table, a secluded place in the back. "I did not expect to see you. Why the appearance on such short notice? Missed me and couldn't wait for me to come back?" he asked but when she shook her head sternly, his smile dropped. "Bad news?"
"Very bad. You remember Light Foot Lily?"
"How could I not. The two of you had some real sparks in the old days," he raised a hand to the waitress, motioning her to bring them two large kegs of pale ale. He took his and swallowed down a large gulp. He didn't particularly like Lily. She was the one who made Emma break up the pirate band and he had enjoyed pirating with the blonde. She had an unparalleled approach to raiding ships and pillaging towns that others did not.
He had tried to join other crews after he had left hers but it wasn't the same. They were all uncouth, barbarians, and they had no respect for human morals. Emma did. And she did it all with a certain flair that no one else could.
He respected her for it and looked up to her with considerable loyalty. He considered her one of his better friends, if not his best friend.
"Yes, well she is dead," Emma leaned in and slapped the newspaper clipping to the top of the table. August read it over, frowning. He knew of his captain's love for the woman even after they had ended on a sour note. This would not bond well.
"You want revenge," he said evenly and she nodded her head slowly.
"I cannot do it alone. I need you. I need all of the old crew back, for one last adventure."
He sighed. While he cared for Emma's feelings, he had never much cared for Lily. Not after she had broken his captain's heart. Privately, in his soul, he had sworn that if he ever saw the dark haired woman again, he would give her a piece of his mind. But he never ever did after all that ended. "Emma, do you think this a good idea? You have Henry now, and a stable life where you are respected and not feared by countless people. Do you want to give that up? All for Lily?"
"This is more than just Lily. It is about Queen Cora and her damned huntsman of a naval commander, Graham. The two of them have killed too many pirates we have cared about."
"For God's Sake Emma, we're bloody pirates. No one cares about us except us."
"And you think it's alright for us to be killed then? Just because not all of us had the option to have a better life and had to turn to pirating as a means of living?" she slapped a hand onto the table.
"I didn't say it's alright. I said maybe you shouldn't go killing others because of Lily." He knew this statement would get him a lot of flack for and he was right.
"No matter how things ended between us, Lily and I swore to have each others backs-"
"And look how that turned out. She left you to raise your child by yourself. Where was she to help you then?"
"She visited," Emma hurried to explain. "And she cared for him-"
"She just didn't care enough to stay," August said and he could see the way it deflated Emma even after all these years. Emma cared for her no matter how cruel Lily had been to her.
"Lily was still my friend after all that. And I need to avenge her death. I need to hurt Cora for this. Lily wasn't one of the bad ones. She wasn't a scoundrel of a pirate like Hook or Hood. And yet they are still alive and she is not. And it's because the Queen takes corrupted coin. She lets those two bastards loose because they prey on other nations ships and take the haul back to the queen."
This much was true, August knew it, and he looked down into his ale, thinking as Emma continued to speak.
"Think about it- we've lost so many others. I lost my only father figure to her damned navy! I won't lose any more. This needs to stop."
"Emma, what could we possibly do? We are nothing compared to her might."
"That is why I need you," Emma said fervently. "We need to teach the Queen to stop messing with us. We need to strike back at her. It's time we pirates took a stand."
He shook his head, laughing at her. "Have the years of being soft made you soft? This is madness you speak of!"
"No. I've always thought this of the Queen but I was coward enough to not do it before because all I thought I wanted was to simply get away with my heists and not have to worry about anything else. But now I realize I can do so much more. Do you remember Aladdin?"
"Aye. The little thief." August thought back to a young lad with tanned skin, exotic facial features, and dark hair. He had approached them once, asking for their help in taking down the Queen and they had said no and that had been the end of that.
"He told me he was in a resistance group to fight against the Queen and that he needed more people to his cause. People like us pirates that could take back the sea while he and his workers took back the ground until the queen was boxed in and trapped for an attack. He wanted the two groups to work together so we could throw off the Queen's oppression. And don't act like the land lovers don't suffer under her rule too. You know her modus of operandi."
He knew it all too well. He had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing it firsthand when on his travels after the crew broke up, he saw her rip the hearts straight out of a man who could not pay his taxes.
"What if we could do something against her?" Emma poised. She was sick and tired of the Queen, holding no love for her. And Lily's death had been the trigger she needed to act upon it.
"Once again, Swan, you have a son you need to go back to," he pointed out and she shook her head. "And starting a war we can't finish is a guaranteed way to never see him again."
"No one said anything about killing the Queen. I've had a lot of time while walking here to meet you and I've come up with a solution. A way to control the Queen's actions. To perhaps get her to resign her post."
"And how is that?"
Emma leaned back and with effect, said, "We're going to kidnap her daughter."
A/N: First three chapters are going to be a bit world building, just cause I need to get that out of the way. Additionally, updates will be every other Wednesday for this story.