Only Be Dark: OUAT/Killian Jones

The Jolly Roger Pt 2

At the dispatch of the woman, that left the two boys to wander off as Hook led Henry to Granny's after a while of looking through the ships that docks at the harbor. He had a grand time with Henry, and even more fun a time when they began gambling away their french fries with the roll of a dice. Hook dropped the dice on the table, laughing when he won yet another game as Henry groaned out in annoyance of losing another french fry. "You want to know the secret to winning?" Hook questioned the boy.

"Practice?" Henry guessed, but Hook grinned.

"No, my boy. Loaded dice," Hook answered with a smirk, holding up the two dice in his fingers as Henry squinted his eyes at the pirate.

"That's cheating," Henry stated matter-of-factly.

"Only if you get caught," Hook responded, taking a sip of his drink.

Henry scrunched his face up in disagreement. "I think it's cheating either way."

"The point is, you win," Hook simplified, but the opening of Granny's door alerted him to David's entrance. The prince nodded his head to speak, so Hook dropped the dice in Henry's hand and left him, saying, "Practice, eh?"

He left the table, approaching David with a closed lip grin. "Ah, Hook, this is a friend of ours, Ariel." Hook paused when he saw the red haired woman walk into the diner, the memories of their time spent together in the Enchanted Forest hitting him harshly. This mermaid, Ariel, had charged Hook with helping her find her lost prince in return for her giving up information on where the Jolly Roger had been hiding. It ended badly, for Hook killed the man that knew where Eric was, Blackbeard, before Ariel could wrangle the information she needed. Hook could still feel the sting on his cheek from the slap she gave him before she jumped off the plank to swim away. "She's looking for someone who didn't return to Storybrooke with the rest of us."

"He's from a maritime kingdom and he loved to sail," Ariel informed him, but Hook already knew this. Hook knew all of this. "Perhaps you came across him on the high seas? His name's Prince Eric."

Hook hesitated slightly, the unwanted memories revisiting him as he looked into her pleading eyes. Giving an apologetic smile, he replied, "Sorry, lass, I wish I could help but I've never heard of him."

"Come on. Think hard, Hook," David added as if telling him to think would help. "Are you sure you can't remember anything that can be useful?"

"My apologies, mate. But if I'd run across a prince during my adventure, I think I'd remember it," Hook said, not exactly lying. He truly didn't come across Prince Eric.

"I just... I don't understand," Ariel spoke up. "How could he vanish without a trace?"

"That's it," Mary Margaret said, gaining their attention. "Maybe he didn't."

"What do you mean?" David asked.

"When the curse brought us back here, it brought our things, too. Gold's shop is filled with them," Mary Margaret answered, and a seed of worry planted itself in Hook's thoughts.

"And if we find something of Eric's, we can use a locator spell to track him," David finished his wife's words.

"Let's go!" Ariel exclaimed, her enthusiasm returning.

"Sounds like a plan. Best of luck with that," Hook dismissed, moving to go back to Henry and his table.

"Oh, wait! No, you should come with us," Mary Margaret said, stopping Hook in his tracks. "You might remember something that we won't, or can't. You'd be far more helpful than us."

"Well, someone has to keep an eye on the boy," Hook stated as he tried to find a way out of this request.

"Well, Mary Margaret and I can take over," David said all too quickly, the former nodding her head in agreement.