CHAPTER FORTY
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i. changing tides !

storybrooke maine .

— KILLIAN WASN'T QUITE SURE WHICH WAS CONTRIBUTING MORE TO HIS LABOURED BREATH: his bruised and battered ribs with unhealthy splotches of yellow hues and lavender purples displayed upon his skin, or the gentle forgiveness of an arm wrapped carefully around his waist, providing a sort of comfort that was entirely foreign to him.

Sparing a brief glance down at the wonderful woman who so kindly allowed him to lean a small portion of his body weight against her, he couldn't help but believe it was the latter that had left his lungs practically gasping.

All the stories he'd heard about the woman couldn't possibly hope to compare to the real thing. Winnifred Robin was a sight to behold, with her rose-pinched cheeks and the essence of sunlight seeping through the stitches of her very soul.

In her eyes there was nothing but love and tender affection, and Killian found the corners of his lips quirking slightly as he followed her gaze towards the excitable boy a few steps ahead of them, practically skipping as he recounted his eventful morning to an indifferent dwarf.

"We had to use the hose to get all the flour out of Kenai's fur." Christopher giggled, one of the cookies they'd brought for Killian resting half eaten in his hand. "He looked like a polar bear."

Leroy's eyebrows raised as he nodded, the faux interest upon his face not-so-subtly hiding his discontent for having been stuck listening to the young boy's endless chatter. As was the opinion of any typical grump. Killian, however, who failed to realise how much he truly missed the boy, found it almost endearing.

"Perhaps paws aren't the most convenient when attempting to bake." He voiced jokingly, stifling a groan at the sheer effort it took to do so, his ribs alighting with a dull, fiery ache as they rattled along with his words.

Yet, when Christopher turned to him with that boyish grin, and the woman at his side chuckled light-heartedly, Killian decided he'd willingly die a hundred times over to defend those smiles that seemed to have been forged by all things warm and wonderful.

"Keep walking." David muttered uninterestedly from behind the pirate, urging him further towards the docks as the concrete beneath their boots became sturdy, creaking wood.

Killian refrained from rolling his eyes as he limped forwards, the pain flaring in his chest causing an unusual gait which the sweet-hearted Winnie was doing her best to remedy. Her careful hand rested at the small of his back, tucked between his vest and leather jacket. Though he was grateful for the support, he actively chose not to lean against her offered shoulder, not wishing to burden the woman with his weight.

"You didn't even ask me about my recovery." Killian gritted his teeth at the shifting of the skin around his own abdomen as he spoke, though he buried the pain beneath layers of bravado and sarcasm.

Mary Margaret chuckled unamusedly, her bow tapping against her thigh as they all stopped to face one another, "How are you feeling, Hook?"

"Well, I can definitely say your presence is doing wonders, love." Killian smirked, directing his words to Winnifred, his eyes flickering over the seemingly permanent flush of her cheeks, and the subtly brilliant light that reflected off her golden framed glasses, causing her own eyes to sparkle in such a way it felt as if the stars themselves had willingly found a far more worthy and comfortable home.

"Hey." David demanded his attention, stepping forward and aggressively nudging the man away from Winnie, forcing a groan of pain from the pirate's lips, "You wanna lose the other hand?"

"David!" The woman scolded, moving her free arm out in front of them so as to defend Killian from the prince's overprotective nature, "That's hardly necessary."

The man sighed with a reluctant, half-hearted apology, backing off slightly as he glanced at the open water surrounding them, searching intently for something that refused to appear. "Where's the ship? Come on, Archie told us. It's shielded somehow. Isn't it, mate?"

"Aye, that it is. Follow me." Killian decided to humour them as he piggybacked off the pirate jab, clutching his side and turning back to the water, "I don't know what you expect to find. Cora won't be there."

"Well, maybe she left something behind that'll tell us where she went. Let's go." The prince rushed, pushing forward and avoiding Winnie's gentle disapproval of his unwarranted harshness.

Resisting yet another eye roll, Killian shifted over to the side of the dock on which they stood, abandoning his annoyance as he gestured for Christopher to join him, "Come here, lad."

Christopher grinned, moving towards the pair before being stopped by Leroy's arm extending out across the boy's chest, his face twisted into a distrustful glare, "No funny business. I'm watching you, pirate."

Before Killian could spit out his own retort, Winnie carefully parted from him, her comforting hand pulling away to be placed on the grumpiest dwarf's shoulder, grateful for the display of protectiveness towards her son, "Thank you, Leroy, but it's alright. He wouldn't hurt Christopher."

A large weight shifted in Killian's chest, differing from the constant ache, but similar in its purpose. A reminder of who he was, what kind of person he had known himself to be. A thief. A scoundrel. A pirate. It all coloured him with the same brush, in the same blood red paint. He wasn't one to make friends. He didn't ooze happiness and delight and contentment in the way many others did in this impossible little town.

He knew who he was- what he was, and he knew many would doubt his loyalty to the small boy who had quickly and shockingly climbed the ranks of importance in Killian's mind, but to have Christopher's mother place her faith in him so instantaneously, and so willingly- he could never dream to have a bond so alight with love and trust.

"Yeah, we'll see." Leroy huffed, reluctantly lowering his arm and allowing Christopher to hop up next to the pirate.

Killian brought himself out of his head, and gestured to the air before them with a mischievous smile, "Go on and take a step."

The boy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, not quite understanding the situation, but nonetheless lifting one beaten up sneaker-clad foot onto the air and cautiously placing it where he'd been told, surprise crossing over his features when he was met with a firm, albeit invisible, stair, a ripple coursing through the veil of magic where his leg passed through.

Christopher looked up at the adults surrounding him in excitement, his eyes falling on Killian as he awaited an encouraging nod from the man, barreling onto the invisible steps as soon as he gained the permission to do so, grinning all the way.

Before David could hurriedly follow, he was nudged away from the magic veil by a clearly annoyed pirate, who looked at him in a pointed and irritated manner before extending his one good hand out for Winnifred, "You next, love."

"Why, thank you." Winnie smiled kindly, hiking up her canvas bag before grasping the man's hand and allowing him to guide her to the stairs, his watchful eye remaining glued to the ground, careful that she wouldn't misplace a step.

As she passed through the cloaking magic, a magnificent ship appeared before her eyes, Christopher peering at her from the painted yellow ledge with an exuberant glow that rivalled the bright colour beneath his elbows.

"Mama, look!" He gestured around at the ship deck as Winnie came to join him, the other members of their party following close behind.

The rustling waters beneath the ship compared very little to the sea that calmed in Winnie's own heart, finding that the salty scent and creaking wood filled her head with sticky nostalgia that dripped from her fingertips, marrying with the rigging and ropes as she carefully ran her hand along the siding, admiring the magnificence of the weathered vessel.

"The gunnel matches my sweater!" Christopher exclaimed, holding his sweater sleeve up to the yellow-painted ledge, before pointing at the red siding beneath it, "And the bulwark matches yours!"

Winnie chuckled slightly, looking down at the cherry red sweater beneath her dungarees and realising he was quite right- together they matched the colour scheme of the ship almost perfectly.

"Bulwark? Gunnel?" Killian voiced from behind the two, avoiding the Charming's suspicious glances as he moved to Winnifred's side with a pleasantly surprised smile on his face. "You know your ship terms, mate."

Christopher nodded proudly, "Mama taught me all about them."

Killian turned to the woman, an eyebrow raised in silent question, to which she laughed quietly and laid her hand to rest against the siding, "My father had a ship like this one, meant mostly for cargo, and a right bit smaller, but... he made an adventurer out of her."

The way she spoke, as if there were a lifetime of fairytales and wondrous stories beyond her words, it inspired a fluttering in Killian's heart- not the sort of dizzy, flustered feeling he'd grown accustomed to in the short time he'd known Winnifred, but a different feeling entirely. The sort of fluttering only gained when you feel soft, warm sunlight soaking into your skin, or when you look out upon an endless meadow of waving grass that reaches towards the brilliant blue sky in its improvised waltz with the breeze.

It was the feeling of falling, and being so utterly in love with the wind in your hair and the leaping of your soul that one could hardly care to know if there was anything beneath to catch you.

Quickly, he's pulled from his somewhat tranced mind as Leroy calls out to him with thoughtful curiosity laced in his gruff voice, "You sailed this ship from our land... Can you sail it back?"

"My ship? She's a marvel." Killian sighed, his good hand once again finding its way to his chest, hoping to ease the pain that flared up there as he tiredly leaned against some of the ship's rigging, "Made from enchanted wood. We've weathered many a storm together, seen many strange, glittering shores. But to travel between lands, she must go through a portal."

David spared a glance towards Christopher, who was tucked beneath his mother's arm as they joined the group in the journey up the damp wooden stairs to the quarter deck, "Yeah, what do you know about Cora's plans?"

Winnie and Christopher had been informed of the goings on in the town as of late- how Cora had found a way into their little corner of this new world, and how she had already begun to poison it. After everything that Christopher experienced in the Enchanted Forest, both Snow and David had pledged to look out for the mother of bears and her sons.

"Cora's not the most communicative of lasses." Killian uttered dryly, not yet letting on that he had no interest in Cora's plans. His loyalty lay in his thirst for revenge on the man that took his hand, and in the boy that first showed him kindness despite the harsh climate he'd been thrown into. "But I will tell you this, whatever malice she has in mind, her weapon of choice is in here."

He gently padded a sheet-covered box, the metal of his rings quietly thumping the wood and iron crate before he stepped back and allowed David and Leroy to uncover the mystery that lay beneath.

A soft gasp left everyone's lips, their eyes falling upon the revealed man sleeping silently and almost serenely within the cage, his head resting against some of the bars as Mary-Margaret nervously uttered their thoughts, "Who is that?"

author's note

akabsjdk i am so sorry that i disappeared for so long omg, pls accept this double update as a sincere apology for taking an unannounced hiatus

a lot of changes and losses came about this year and i just up and decided to take a break from wattpad for a bit, and then I got hit with a strong case of writers block for literally anything I have published so it was an uphill battle but I'm hoping to get back into updating semi-regularly 😭
wish me luck, and pray that I banish the new fic ideas from my mind so I can continue working on the pre-existing ones lmao that was a big part of my problem

I'll chat with y'all more in the next authors note, no need to drag this out too much when there's a ✨second chapter✨😏

But I will say thank you to all of y'all sticking with me, I love you guys so much 💕