Aurora sat in her office looking over the reports that had been given to her. Reorganizing a destroyed land, making sure everyone was taken care of and that everyone had what they needed to rebuild, was a large and tiresome effort.

It was distracting and that's what Aurora desperately needed.

Yet in the middle of reading a missive from the east, she found herself staring out at the mountains, the parchment wrinkling in her hands. She was done crying, Aurora didn't think she could waste any more tears.

Tears are for the weak, Aurora her mother would say. Strength shows no tears.

She caught her lip between her teeth, chewing absently as was habit of hers. Queen Talia, her dear mother, had been an inspiration, someone she wanted to be like. The perfect queen. She'd never seen her mother shed a tear, never, and surely that was strength a queen should have, was it not? She did not see Snow White burst into tears and lock herself in a room after a quarrel with her husband. Emma and Mulan? They were stoic and fierce.

Aurora shut her eyes for a moment before looking back at the letter in hand. Her birthday had happened. It had past. It was all in the past and she could only move on from it. Move on.

Let me kiss you awake

"Insufferable," she hissed, crumpling the letter. "Infuriating. Uncouth scoundrel!"

"Uncouth scoundrel? That's awfully specific."

Aurora spun, her deep blue skirt whispering around her ankles and she saw Snow White in the door, still in breeches and riding coat. The older woman looked at her wryly and pointedly at the crumpled parchment. "I hope that wasn't anything important."

She blinked and looked down at her hands. "Oh, this... no, it's fine. No harm done." Snow nodded and moved to sit on the edge of the desk. Aurora wondered when the queen would come to her and she steeled herself for whatever was to be said.

"Have you heard from the 'uncouth scoundrel' lately?"

Well, that certainly wasn't what she expected. Aurora went over to the desk and picked up one of the glass orbs she used as paperweights. "I've never done something like that before," she admitted. "I do apologize-" Snow stopped her with a finger to her mouth like a mother to their child.

"I'd rather see you get upset about something instead of you squaring your shoulders all the time," Snow said. "You keep bottling things up. I've noticed that lately. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't seem very like you." The queen was quiet, playing with one of the curls that rested on Aurora's shoulder rather fondly. "It was more than just what he said, for that kind of reaction. I get it, and there's nothing to apologize for."

It was a continuing marvel how intuitive the queen was and how she didn't pull any punches and for someone who had grown up in a very different environment, it was just another thing that had Aurora feeling out of her element. She bit her lip, rubbing her thumb over a colored swirl on the paperweight. "If I don't keep my chin up, I fear the sky will crash down all around me," she said quietly.

"You care for him, don't you?" Aurora nearly dropped the paperweight and she looked at Snow White and wished she was able to control her surprise. Snow did not look surprised at the reaction, just knowing and Aurora wasn't sure how she should feel about that. Snow White always seemed to know everything, some innate ability that she had like Emma's ability to tell when people lied. "That's what has everything turning upside down, isn't it?"

"He just said some things and it caught me by surprise, that's all," she said lightly and the denial was clear, writing on the wall to them both. "He was drunk."

"Mmmm, drunk men do stupid things. Drunk women do stupid things. People in general do stupid things when they're drunk. Are you sure you don't me to throw him in a dungeon?"

The earnest look on Snow's face actually got a smile out of Aurora but she shook her head. "I like to think that he's doing his own punishment and he feels bad about things." Snow didn't look like she exactly believed that course of action would work but Aurora thought he might. "Killian isn't cruel, not by nature and he's never cruel to me. Pirate or not, he's a better man than he thinks he is, or pretends to be. No matter how many times he's proven himself, he'll never admit it."

"Well, I can't argue with that." Snow White sighed heavily and reached into her vest and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. "Here." Aurora looked at the paper and took it curiously. "It was just one of the couriers. No one I recognized."

It was a short note, hastily scribbled. The writing wasn't familiar but the location was. "Sorry about your birthday. Let's try again. Moonrise on the iRoger/i." Aurora looked up at Snow with what was probably meant to be a smirky smile but Aurora always looked too sweet and it didn't come off as one. "See? I knew he would feel guilty."

"I don't know if I want you going alone..." Snow started to protest but Aurora would have none of it.

"It'll be fine. The ship is docked and Mr Smee won't let him sail away with me." Aurora folded the letter back up and tucked it in a drawer. "I can't wait to see how he'll grovel."

Snow White chuckled and shook her head. Sighing she turned to the door but stopped, pinning Aurora with a look. "Phillip wouldn't want you to live a life of sadness, Aurora. He wouldn't want you to be alone."

It stunned the younger woman into silence and she could only look at Snow White as she left the room.

"And then – then she hits me in the face with a rock!" Killian snorted into his cups as David flailed his arms about. "And there I'm just standing there yelling after her while she rides off with my horse. I will find you! Ahhh!because of course she just absolutely kicked my ass."

"But," Killian pointed out with his half empty cup. "She underestimated you."

David slapped the table and clinked his cup to Killian's. "Damn straight she underestimated me. Well, I continued to underestimate her." The King tossed back the rest of his beer and grabbed another bottle to crack open. The two men had long since retreated to the castle kitchens, sitting in a corner with the cook keeping a watchful, disapproving eye on the two of them.

Killian was not particularly fond of the Misses Potts but the last time he'd pulled David out for a night of drinking, well... It was the first and last time that had happened, given that there had been a rather spectacular brawl and Snow White had shown up with Emma at the tavern as the two of them had been getting their heads dunked in the watering trough by the pair of gentlemen they'd been playing cards with.

Killian took the bottle from David to top off his own mug. "Women are bloody insane," he muttered sourly before he took another long draught. "You know, your wife keeps giving me all these threatening looks? What have I ever done to deserve that? It's like she doesn't trust me."

"Of course she doesn't trust you. You're - what did I hear earlier today?" David looked completely innocent over the rim of his cup. "Uncouth scoundrel."

The pirate looked offended. "Uncouth scoundrel?" he asked incredulously, only the slightest slur to his words. "Uncouthscoundrel? Never heard that before." He frowned with disheartenment. "Ruffian and insufferable and frustrating I've heard but uncouth scoundrel?" Blue eyes narrowed he pinned David with a look. "Now who would go and call me that? That doesn't sound like your queen or your princess."

"Oh, you know how bluebirds talk."

"I bet it was that Blue Fairy. She doesn't like me around those girls of hers."

David gave him a look that was quite similar to the ones that Emma tended to give him and it was always a bit unnerving. "No one likes you around their girls."

"You wound me, mate! I am a damn bastion of integrity. Did I not ensure Emma and Snow White's survival back to that infernal place? Was I not the most perfect gentleman?" That he was and he smirked at David as the man began laughing into his mug.

"Oh that! That is," but David trailed off amidst -

"Are you snorting?" Which only caused David to snort even more and the two of them fell into a fit of laughter rather unlike a pirate and a king. Killian's shoulders shook as he too began to snort into his cups and eventually he laid his forehead on the scarred up table, pounding it with a fist as he tried to get a hold of his laughter. Their guffaws began to calm but then Misses Potts muttered something about 'silly boys' from where she was working on the next day's items and David snorted loudly. Thus the laughter began again.

The moon was only beginning to rise when Aurora left the castle. She left the back way, not wanting to go where there were many people. Even in her lack of finery, the courtiers and others would recognize her immediately. She looked through her wardrobe and skipped past all her finery, choosing to don a dark skirt and and bodice that was not as restricting as her usual choices. The night was cool and the long sleeves of her blouse were more appreciated in their practicality, as was the dark cloak she wrapped around her. Outside the castle there was little chance of being recognized in this and while she didn't have anything to hide - didn't have a real need to sneak out as she was, Aurora wanted to bask in the anonymity after the debacle of her birthday.

Even though it was close to the sea, the docks of Starlight Lake were not expensive by any means, the only real transport being a few barges and, of course, the Jolly Roger, which Killian wouldn't leave even if the coast wasn't all that far away. She passed the tavern on her way in, the raucous laughter and light spilling into the street and Aurora caught sight of Mr Smee singing drunkenly. Well, that was interesting. Killian and her would be alone on the ship, wouldn't they?

"You like him, don't you?" Snow asked the question, but Aurora was still unsure of her answer.

Killian Jones was a scoundrel, the very kind of man her mother told her to be wary of, but she couldn't bring herself to doubt him any longer. Killian was the first person to see her. To understand what her sacrifice was like and respect it. Yes, he did tease her and frustrated her to wit's end, yet Aurora saw that he was a genuine man at heart, regardless of what others thought. He wasn't outwardly a kind or compassionate man, a pirate captain still had a reputation to keep, she mused, but he tried to do all he could.

Like the children who ran wild through the docks, who snuck away from their parents to play. He didn't ignore them. Instead Killian would send them on errands. The Foster boys to help the baker with her deliveries. The twin girls from the tailor shop to help old Mrs Havers with her garden. The children were both drawn to and afraid of the pirate and he was surprisingly good with the children, running them no different than ship hands. He was still this fearsome man but then they'd find bags of toffee in their letterboxes and come back again they would.

It kept the children from getting hurt and helped the ones who needed it most. Aurora had stumbled upon the endeavor when little Tommy Foster brought her butter cakes and told her that Mr Jones was putting them all to work and then Killian showed up sheepishly in the night and made her promise not to tell. He had a reputation to maintain after all.

Stupid, frustrating man.

With Phillip it had been so easy, she reflected as she stepped through the alleys down towards the docks. With Phillip it had all been laid out beforehand. They would be married when she turned eighteen. Their summers until then would be spent together and while at first it was strange, trying to befriend the boy that you would eventually marry, they had become friends. It had been a simple love, between them, that first youthful warming of one's heart when there were no other options. An innocent thing bourne of the innocence of youth.

Yet with Killian... With Killian it was a decision made on her own. It was something she found when she was trying to find herself in the strange broken world after the curse. She wasn't the same girl, she knew that in more ways than one. Would Phillip have been able to love the girl she had become?

You're so cold now, princessit seemed everyone kept saying that and yet even if she'd become cold, Killian warmed her, lighting a fire inside her that she was having an increasingly difficult time to deny. He was crude and crass at time, despite his insistence that he was a gentleman with manners. The way he teased her as if they were children and he made fun of her dolls and tugged on her curls. Not literally, of course, but he pushed her buttons, insinuating dirty things or talking in circles that made her head spin and lose her temper and hit his shoulder. And he would pretend she'd actually injured him and walk away laughing as she seethed.

"It's a birthday, not some state affair. Birthdays are supposed to be fun, not about traipsing around making sure we don't all kill each other because everything's gone to hell."

Aurora looked up at Killian with a shrewd look where he sat across the round table in the council meeting, lips thin and pressed together. "That's ridiculous. My grandparents didn't invite certain fairies to her christening and she ended up cursed to sleep for a hundred years. If we don't invite everyone, who knows what will happen."

"And that's why I should just take you down to the tavern and get you so drunk on mead you won't even know your own name instead of risking 'offending' the wrong person." Killian grinned at her in what she was sure he thought was a charming and winning manner. "You could let your hair down and we can see where the night takes us."

Aurora had felt pleased with herself when she was able to stomp on his foot on the way out. Childish? Yes, but the effeminate yelp he let out made up for her lack of decorum.

She hurried the rest of the way down the path to the docks. The Jolly Rogerwas only lightly lit by a few lanterns on the main deck and she could see a figure standing on the gangplank. At first she thought it was Killian but as she drew closer she saw that it was the burly quartermaster, Tom. "Mr Smee have the night off?" she asked with a smile.

Tom gave her a bit of a grin along with a bit of a bow, even if time and again Aurora had asked the crew not to. "He works hard enough, thought I could let him loosen up a bit." Tom gestured up the gangplank. "Cap'n's on his way. He said he had a few last minute things to get and wanted me to assure you that you're to make yourself quite comfortable, milady."

Aurora gave him a small smile over her shoulder as the two of them headed up on deck. "Well, I'll just let myself in then, shall I?" At Tom's nod, Aurora headed into the Captain's quarters, biting her lip at the sight. The lanterns were lit, giving the room a soft glow and the table usually reserved for Killian's maps had been cleared off and held food. A bowl overflowing with fruit, plates set out for two, and a chilling wine glass. Aurora's stomach growled at the sight and she realized she hadn't eaten that day and the sudden parchness she felt had her reaching for the uncorked wine bottle. The oddity of that was lost on her when all she wanted to do was have a nice drink and she poured herself a glass. "He won't mind," she murmured.

Swirling the wine in her glass out of habit, she felt eyes on her. She looked over her shoulder as she sipped, seeing Tom standing in the doorway, watching her. How strange. "What's the matter?" she asked and there was a strange tingling in her lips and mouth. Distracted, she licked the wine off her lips and looked in the glass but saw nothing strange. The feeling intensified but it spread as she felt the wine warm it's way down her throat.

A path of numbing tingling radiated from the center of her, racing down her limbs. Aurora dropped the glass as her fingers slackened and stumbled back into the table, knocking the wine bottle to the floor as well. "Tom," she slurred out, her tongue heavy and immovable. What was happening? Everything was spinning. It felt like her eyes were going numb and she grabbed at the table but then everything rushed around her and she fell.

Vision tunneling, Aurora tried to sit up and blinked as Tom swam into her vision before everything went black.

Tom's hands were shaking as he rowed through the dark, silent waters.

The dinghy was small and he had unceremoniously dumped Aurora at his feet. Her limp limbs were bent awkwardly but he could not bring herself to try make her more comfortable. So instead he pulled an old blanket over her and prayed to the gods that she was neither dead and would not wake up until he was long gone. He hadn't expected the poison to work as fast as it did and Tom tried not to let it bother him.

He hummed low under his breath, a jaunty tune and tried to remind himself that he was doing this for the good of the crew. They would be rid of this princess and things would go back to being right again. It wasn't mutiny, he repeated to himself. It was saving the captain and if he decided that he would be done with everything...Well then he'd just have to get rid of the captain now wouldn't he? They would go back to realpirating instead of this ridiculous remapping endeavor and census and whatever else the hell it was that the crown had them doing.

The Rock gleamed on the east horizon. Moonlight illuminated the damp rocks but he could see no sails, no bow of a ship or the sounds of sailors and something cold settled low in him but he pushed it aside. He pushed it away and ignored it because if he dwelled on it-

He wasn't going to dwell on it.

A look back over his shoulder showed how far he was from the Jolly Roger and the port. He could see the dim lights of the docks but no longer could he hear the sounds of merriment. It was quiet there on the water with only the sound of the water lapping at the sides of the dinghy.

His heart stopped when he swore that he saw movement from under the blanket and he stopped rowing to listen. Nothing. He heard and saw no more movement. Just the moon, he reassured himself. Just the moon reflecting over the folds in the blanket.

For as strong as he was, it took him near another hour to make it to the little cove inside the rock. In the dark it was nearly impossible to find the hole in the outcropping and Tom dared not light the lantern attached to the bow. He hugged the rock close as he rowed and nearly missed the opening, so covered in moss and vines it was. The passage was low and lit with an unearthly blue glow from the moon reflecting from water to the glittering rocks inside.

It felt like more hours had passed when he reached the other side and the boat drifted through another curtain of vine and moss. The moon was brilliant on this side of the rock, unimpeded by the outcropping. He could see a little stretch beach. There was no ship to be seen, but there were figures waiting on the sand. The moon was so bright and Tom rowed further in until he reached the shallows. Two of the three men waded over to pull the boat up the sand and Tom looked at the man waiting.

"I've brought her, just as promised," Tom said with only the slightest shake to his voice. Dammit he needed to stop with that. He watched the man come over to peer into the front of the boat. None had spoken, not yet, but he felt that the man was familiar. The outline of him maybe, but Tom couldn't place it. The man, the superior one Tom supposed, reached down and pulled back the blanket to reveal the motionless princess. Moonlight turned her a sickly pale color and her honeyed hair glinted gold in contrast. She was breathing - Tom could see the rise and fall of her chest, slow as it was. He allowed himself a moment of relief.

"Very good," the man said thoughtfully and that voice. Tom knew that voice. The same man from the tavern. Something about this wasn't right. "Here."

Tom looked at the bag held out to him, hearing the jingle of coins as the man shook the parcel and Tom snatched it before he could lose his nerve. The man laughed and gestured to one of his men to pull the princess from the bottom of the boat, hoisting the light body over a shoulder.

Nodding to the other two men he gestured back. "Take her to the ship." In the meantime, Tom tugged the bag of coin open and peered inside. Moonlight caught the silver inside and he looked up, confused. "This was meant to be gold."

His contact sneered with a gold-glinted smirk. "Oh no, I think silver is more than appropriate for mutineers, don't you agree?" The way he said it unnerved Tom and he gripped the bag of silver a little tighter. "A little bird tells me I might run into a spot of trouble here, with the girl."

"My captain knows nothing of you, I swear," but the man was coming towards him and Tom stumbled back into the boat, hitting the back seat hard. He looked up as the man loomed over him. It was worse than it was back in the tavern even if it shouldn't have been. Being able to see the man's face should've made him less frightening but instead it made it worse, for Tom could see every inch of his face, every sign to his lack of mercy.

"Mutiny. Such an ugly act. So without honor," he mused and Tom was frozen as the man's hand came to cup his face, thumb swiping over his eyebrow. "You should be marked for it."

Tom could only scream.

"She hates me."

David began to cut another piece of peach pie before giving up and deciding to just stab at it with his fork. "Aurora doesn't hate you, you just have a tendency to act like a jackass and put your foot in your mouth."

Blue eyes glinted in annoyance and Killian followed David's example with the pie. Living on a ship most of the time meant that simple pleasures like fresh fruit pie were a rarity and he wasn't going to let the king hoard it. "I was taking your advice."

"Don't blame me for acting like an asshat."

"Asshat?" He was going to say more but David pointed a fork at him for his silence.

"You are in love with her, whether or want to admit that or not, but if you don't man up and admit it to her, you're going to lose her and trust me, it's the worst feeling in the world." Killian was silent as he took it in. He scowled down in his mug, frustration etched in his dark features.

"She deserves someone more than just a pirate. She deserves all of this. Castle, gold, jewels, servants at her beck and call. Not a ship and a band of rowdy men and sailing the seas." His voice was low even if it was only the two of them now but Killian felt like saying the words any louder would just twist the knife even more. The man sighed and leaned precariously back in his chair with the wall to brace him so he could kick his feet up. "She deserves a man with title."

David raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You are 'titled', remember? You're a member of the Great Council."

"And trusted advisor to the King and Queen," Killian finished for him. "No, it's not the same. 'Rora's a princess. Or Queen, I don't know how that whole thing is meant to work. The point is that she's too bloody good for me. I have nothing to give her."

"I don't think she's that type of girl," David started but was interrupted this time by the kitchen doors bursting open and guards pouring in. Killian and David looked up in alarm as the knights stopped suddenly, staring at the two of them. Killian's chair lowered to the floor slowly and David stood, swaying slightly. "What is it?" The worried but demanding note in David's tone along with the pale faces of the guard were enough to start pulling the edges of sobriety.

The captain of the guard looked from the king to Killian and it was there he held his look and it was enough to make Killian uncomfortable. "I didn't do it!" he said automatically, figuring that it best to get that out of the way. Still though, the captain looked horrified.

"But Majesty... your Excellency." His voice was practically panicked; a strange tone Killian had never heard before and he rose shakily to his feet. "The Princess Aurora was said to be meeting his Excellency on his ship this night."

Confusion was evident on Killian's face and he looked at David in bewilderment. The king looked just as confused. "We've both been down here since nightfall," Killian said in an oddly strangled tone that was wholly unlike him. "I haven't seen Aurora in days." Which was a lie. He had seen her, they just hadn't spoken but that wasn't the point. He couldn't move, he was just frozen, stupefied. "What's happened?"

The answer was barely out of the man's mouth before Killian was kicking the chair out of his way and pushing past the guards. He took the kitchen steps three at a time, long legs pumping furiously as he made his way up to the apartments. His heart hadn't pounded this heard in as long as he could remember. Blood rushed in his ears, Aurora's face burned behind his eyelids as he skidded to a stop in the hall.

Snow White was standing there, robe clutched around her talking with one of the guards and he must've been louder than he realized because both looked at him in alarm, the guard's hand going to his sword but they froze when they recognized him. The bells rang then, signaling the early morning hour and Snow White took a step forward.

"Killian..." She was gripping something in her hand and he recalled them saying that Aurora was supposed to be meeting him when nothing of the sort was ever arranged.

Amidst the stark horror and helplessness of the initial realization, cold chased away the heat and a calm fury settled into his bones.