chapter 5

Killian shook his head a little. "I've never met a pirate before." He said with a shrug, he didn't know why he was being honest with her, perhaps it was just because he knew that it was only the two of them on the ship. "So no...that's not why I hate pirates." He said with a small sigh, he felt a little better though, and was slowly getting used to the rocking of the ship. "No...I've never been on a ship, don't really get out much. Besides. I much prefer horseback." He said with a shrug, much more trustworthy than a ship with the dangers of the sea.

"It can be hard sometimes...to work with others. I understand wanting to work alone." He said with a little smile and ran a hand through his hair with another slight shrug, perhaps if he'd have distanced himself from his brother, he would still be at the Castle, but he knew that the castle life wasn't for Liam and he probably would have left anyway. "So...you've had this ship a while then?" He asked just trying to make a little conversation with her.

Killian nodded slowly and gave a smile. "well...just don't get us lost." He said and gave her a small smile though as the ship turned slightly some water splashed onto the deck and he lost his footing falling flat on his ass. He groaned slightly and sat up, one arm reaching up above him to hold onto the railing but saw that Emma still seemed steady on her feet. "I'm definitely not made for this." He said shivering a little, his chest hair rustling slightly with the wind. "I'll sit." He mumbled keeping himself sat down on the top of the deck. "well...maybe they don't exist then." He said with a small shrug, though he still did wonder if they were real, he couldn't help but wonder sometimes.

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Emma turned to face him, a curious look in her eyes. "You've never met a pirate before?" Then why hate us if you don't even know us?" She asked, she was just curious and at least it was better than any awkward silence. She nodded hearing what he said about horseback. "I've never learned to ride a horse." She said, which was true. She didn't mind being on one, she's just never learned. She hadn't ever had anyone teach her and she preferred to travel by ship anyways.

Emma nodded slightly hearing what he said but offered a small smile back in return but hearing him ask about the ship, she nodded a little bit. "Since I was a little girl." She told him but before she could stop herself, she found herself telling a little more than she had wanted to. "The ship belonged to my father.. he always said it would be mine someday. Just happened to be mine a little earlier than we expected." She said, she didn't normally talk to people about her parents or childhood, but seeing she had the wheel steady and that there weren't any rocks or cliffs to worry about crashing into, she stepped away from the wheel.

"I won't get us lost." She told him, sailing on the ship at night is one thing she for sure knows how to do. She turned to face the prince but saw him fall. She tried not to but she couldn't help the laugh that escaped, covering her mouth to stop the laugh, she knew she probably shouldn't have laughed and knew she should have asked if he was okay or something but she hadn't been able to help it. She studied him a moment before she walked over to a door and opened it, walked down into her cabin, and grabbed a blanket as she came back up and held it out to him. "Here," she said. "No, we won't see one I don't think. Unless other pirates are out in the water or else it decides to storm, we shouldn't have to worry about any danger." She said trying to make him feel better.

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Killian's eyes snapped to her. "Don't ask questions you know you won't get the answer to, mate." He growled a little bit, to hell if she thought that he was going to discuss Liam with her because he wasn't. He groaned a little bit rubbing his hip and sighed a little bit. "I don't need to know you to hate you, you're all the same, you're filthy scoundrels who mean nothing to us." He said, more so in his father's cold and stern voice than in his own, he'd had that drilled into him since his father had caught him and his brother in the bedchamber.

Killian turned to look at her slightly. "You've never ridden one? It's like this...the wind at your face, the power you feel, you control the horse, no, yours one with it. It's a bit like your ship...though a horse is a much better companion than a ship." He said with a little smile at the thought of his childhood pet. "You should try it, what are you...scared of the land?" He scoffed with a small chuckle, though by now he'd turned to look out at the waves that he could see hitting the sides of the ship, he was feeling quite seasick but he didn't want to show it, his face a little paler than usual and he knew that it would still be some time before they reached the next town he just really hoped that nobody would be there waiting for him at all. "So what, you inherited it?" He said with a scoff, she could steer a ship but that didn't mean anything, maybe she was an amateur pirate and he'd made the biggest mistake of his life.

He looked up at her a bit hearing her laugh and he raised his eyebrow. "Glad you find it funny." He scowled though he tried to ignore how sweet her laugh sounded, how it cut over the waves and the wind so clearly. He clenched his jaw, he couldn't let his walls break down. "Been waiting long to see a prince fall on his ass?" He asked with a grunt as she came back up, though he reached up and grabbed the blanket from her, no way was he going down to a cabin, or hers. He shuffled back so that his back was against the side of the ship and his knees pulled up against his chest as he draped the blanket over himself. "Good...I don't want any trouble." He said, the less attention he had on himself the better.

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Emma narrowed her eyes slightly at him when she heard how he spoke, jaw clenched. She didn't like people thinking they truly knew her, it made her angry that people would think they did and yes, she may have a reputation, but that didn't mean she didn't like people making their minds up about her before they even actually knew the real her. She raised an eyebrow, suddenly a little angry. "So what? just because I'm a pirate you think you know me? That gives you a right to hate me when I have done nothing to you? Because you don't. Not everyone gets to grow up in a palace surrounded by guards and a nice bed." She said, her voice coming out slightly snappish. "We may have chosen this life on the sea, but not all of us are bad like you so clearly think so." She told him, she gave a small shrug when she heard him ask if she inherited the ship but she closed up about her ship and her family.

Emma listened when he talked about riding a horse and rolled her eyes slightly. "I'm not scared of land. I grew up on this ship. Never seen any reason to learn to ride a horse, and not everyone can have someone teach them." She mumbled to herself.

She smirked a little with a shrug. "Maybe I have. It was certainly fun watching." She said as she walked to the door and turned to face him. "I haven't met a lot of princes but now I know. You're all the same, acting like you're better than anyone else in this world, that we don't mean anything." She told him with a shake of her head: "Don't touch the wheel, I don't want us going off course and ending up crashing. Stay up here or don't, there's another cabin you can sit in." She said before she walked down to the cabin although she had left the cabin door open but honestly, she didn't care as she took the sword off from around her waist, laying it on the table she was standing by.

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Killian rolled his eyes a little and clenched his jaw a little. "Yes because growing up in a palace is great." He said slightly snappish back, he didn't know why her defending herself had gotten under his skin so much, maybe because she had a point. "Yeah I just live a life of luxury, seems you've made up your mind about me just because I'm a Royal, so how is this any different?" He asked but stood up and took a step closer to her. "You want to know something about my life? I'll tell you." He said, jaw flexing slightly as he spoke. "My palace was so good that my brother ran away, that's who we're looking for, my father hates me, he locks me in my room sometimes on a night and he's hit me more than once, my mother is dead and the one person I love more than anything has been missing for a year. But yes, you're right...I'm Royalty so I must have everything." He said and took a slight breath to calm himself down not wanting to get too angry when he needed her help.

He clenched his jaw a little seeing her walk away but decided it was best that he didn't touch the wheel or anything like that. He grits his teeth together and shakes his head and leaned against the side of the ship. "Whatever." He said under his breath and watched as the water rolled by and gently hit the sides of the ship. He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and sighed a bit running his hand through his hair. He could have ranted a lot more to her about his life but he had already said too much than he'd meant to.

He would have stayed out the entire night if he could have, though the blanket did a little bit to stop the wind from hitting him directly, it didn't do much to stop the chill starting to set into his bones, but Emma had been right, perhaps being a Prince did give him some protection growing up, some fake idealization of the real world, but that doesn't mean he wanted it, he didn't ask to be born first. He sighed and slowly stood up still thinking about what she had said. Perhaps he was a royal, but it's not like he didn't see poverty in the realm, the violence, how children and families starved on the roads while carriages rolled through flaunting their wealth, unfortunately, until he was king, there was nothing that he could do about it. With that, he walked down the small set of stairs onto the deck below and he saw a cabin door slightly open.

He knocked on the door which pushed it open a little more and he looked inside, softly clearing his throat. "Swan?" He called out and held the blanket around his shoulders with one hand, feeling a little more vulnerable around her now, like he was getting judged. "Where's...where's this other cabin then?" He asked in a much softer tone than usual, he didn't know why but he felt a little annoyed with himself that he'd upset her and he absolutely had no idea how to put it right.

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Emma listened hearing his rant and knew maybe she shouldn't have gotten too angry with him but she couldn't help it. She hadn't liked him thinking that way of her and didn't know why it had seemed to upset her but she tried to just ignore it although she thought about what he had said about his life at the palace but she hadn't wanted to say anything else. She walked into her cabin and sighed a little bit as she pulled the pendant from under her shirt and looked at it when she spun around hearing his voice, slightly surprised by it, and looked at him quietly.

"I'll show you." She told him and walked over, walking out of the cabin and down to the other cabin, pushing the door open. "If you need any extra blankets, there's some in the trunk over in that corner." She told him and turned to face him, she studied him for a moment. "I may not know about your life but you don't know about mine either, like you said to me, you seem to have already made up your mind about me. Whatever you've been told, not all pirates are like that, so don't go saying you hate me before you even know me." She told him before she turned to go back to her cabin.

The cabin was mostly cleaned up, the only things in the cabin were a trunk she had mentioned, a bed as well as a small table. Emma wouldn't say it, but that cabin had been hers when she had been with her parents, but she hadn't been able to sleep in there after her parents were gone so she just stayed in her cabin, although there was a picture on the table that looked to be dusty like it hadn't been touched or anything for a while now. So she often let others who needed a ride use that cabin.

Emma paused slightly and looked at the prince, she was quiet for a few moments. "I don't know much about how to really.. assure someone." She admitted. "But.. we will find your brother.." she said hoping that sounded a lot more reassuring than she thought it did, she wasn't used to trying to give people hope or make them feel better.

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Killian felt a little bad for intruding but he felt that urge to feel bad for someone getting pushed away, almost as though it was a built-in mechanism. His eyes fell to the pendant around her neck but quickly looked away. "lead the way." He mumbled slightly and he walked over to the cabin with her. He looked around, it wasn't exactly the best-looking room but he didn't expect much for a pirate ship. He nodded and walked over to the blankets getting another one and putting it over the bed, a little bit of dust flying from the covers. "guess you've not sailed with the crew for a while?" He asked. He stripped off his tailcoats and his shirt leaving him standing in just his leather breeches, black boots, and the sword hung at his hip.

He didn't care if she stared or felt uncomfortable, he wanted to be able to sleep and he was more focused on finding Liam. He gave a little nod to her and then looked around the room seeing that all the surfaces seemed to have several layers of dust. He walked slowly to the edge of the room and walked to the table seeing the photo frame. He picked it up and looked at Emma for a moment before looking back down at the photo frame, curiosity getting the better of him. He brushed his thumb over the photo and saw the photo clear of dust. He blew on it a little before he walked to the bed and grabbed his shirt cleaning the photo. "Are these your parents?" He asked curiously though wondered why this room had been empty for so long.

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Emma shrugged slightly hearing what he said. "It has been a while." She agreed. "But no one used this room.. the crew often sleep up on deck or if we're docked they sleep in the taverns. This room isn't used too often." She admitted. "Sorry, it's a little dusty." She said knowing how long it had been since anyone had been in the cabin, but seeing his shirt off, she felt her eyes linger on him for a few minutes before she pulled her eyes away. She didn't want to be caught staring at him.

She looked up when she heard his words and looked at the photo for a moment seeing her parents there but she stood in the cabin doorway a moment before she nodded. "They are." She said and looked at Killian. "And before you ask.. they aren't dead... At least I don't think so." She said, which was true. She hadn't seen her parents since that night she was last alone on the ship so she didn't know if they were even dead or not. "You have a quest looking for someone. Well, now you know that's my quest, trying to find them." She said figuring if he told her about Liam then she should tell him just about herself and he asked and for some reason she found herself wanting to talk to him.

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Killian nodded a little as he listened, taking the chance to have a look around the room again, he didn't mind the dust, honestly, it wasn't too much different than his room in the Royal Castle either, and as long as he had a bed to sleep on her didn't mind.

He nodded at what Emma said and he looked back down at the photo, Her parents looked pretty decent, pirates of course. He set the photo back down on the table and he slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. "I guess you need my help then to find them." He said with a slow nod. He ran a hand through his hair and he laid down on the bed folding his hands under his head so that he was looking up at the ceiling. His muscles flexed slightly and he sighed a little. "Thank you, for the room." He said slowly and closed his eyes shifting a little to pull a blanket around his legs.

He cracked his eyes open a bit to turn his head to where the pirate was in the doorway and he scanned over her for a moment. "Emma...if I can help you find your parents. I will." He promised softly and then he gave her a small smile. "how long until we're at the town?" He asked gently, though he guessed he was only speaking softer because he was starting to get tired, not because he actually cared.

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Emma nodded a bit. "Maybe I do." She said about hearing if she needed help looking for them. Though there was this slight feeling in her that she was thinking maybe he would just stab her in the back once they found his brother but decided not to think of that too much. She just hoped they wouldn't run into any problems in the next town. Whether it be by her reputation being recognized knowing she had enemies or by his father finding them.

Emma watched him for a moment but seeing him lay down, she looked away and stepped back, then panning in leaving when she paused a little. "That is if we find them. I've been searching for so long." She said, her eyes glancing at the picture frame. She wanted answers. She wanted to know why it had felt like her parents just abandoned her, why she had been left alone. And if they were out there where were they? She had too many questions nothings been able to answer them. She also wanted to know about that night, not being able to remember too much.

"We should be able to reach town by morning or even by lunch tomorrow. That is if there are no storms and we have no trouble." Emma told him. "Goodnight." She said before she turned and headed back to her cabin she closed the door slightly and slipped off her boots before she walked over and fell onto her stomach before she rolled onto her side with a small sigh knowing for now the wheel was staying straight and she's sailed this course many times before that she didn't have to worry about any rocks and knew they both could get some sleep.