As You Wish

Another hunk of fish flesh was thrown into a bucket and Estelle grabbed the next one. Some of the crew had spent the early hours of the morning fishing, and she had offered her skills to clean and gut the fish to earn her keep of staying with them. At first they were hesitant, but after seeing how quickly her method was, they invited her to prepare all of the fish while they picked fruit. Estelle ran the knife efficiently across her next fish, removing the scales at a rapid pace. She found that it helped relieve some stress and misery when she pictured Drake’s flesh beneath her blade. In her mind it was a way of inflicting some degree of pain to him, just like he had for her emotionally, even though he would never feel any of her attacks. With an extra hard thrust of the blade, it slipped and almost skimmed across her finger, reminding Estelle to focus more on the fish than Drake.

“You’re good at that,” a voice grumbled from behind her. Estelle glanced over her shoulder and saw Killian stumbling towards the stream with a sleepy expression.

“I know,” she stated as she placed the fish onto a flat rock to start gutting it.

“Why is that?” he continued, not expecting her to dismiss his compliment. Killian crouched upstream and splashed his face with water to help wake himself up.

“It was how I earned money,” Estelle replied while removing the fish’s guts.

“My crew should be doing this dirty work,” Killian stated before cupping his hands into the stream and bringing the water to his lips, satisfying his incredible thirst from his hangover.

“I’m fine. It’s the least I can do to thank you for your help,” she shrugged, plopping the fish into the stream of water to rinse it.

“Us men are supposed to run around after you women, do everything difficult for you, and yet here you are doing the dirty work.”

“All my life, my mother and I have been doing the tough jobs,” Estelle pointed out.

“What about your father?” Killian wondered and her motions slowed.

“He passed when I was young…”

“I’m sorry- I didn’t mean-”

“I know,” Estelle interrupted him with an understanding smile in attempt to reassure him. “You know how I went on a walk yesterday?” She paused her work, trying to focus on the conversation and distract herself from the horrid memory of her father’s death.

“Yes?”

“I realised that the man I left behind never loved me. I truly believe now that I will move on from him, and I just wanted to thank you for talking to me yesterday and sharing your own experience. It can’t have been easy for you,” she said, her soft expression relaxing Killian and confirming that he had done the right thing by opening up to her.

“It wasn’t, but it sounds like it was worth it,” he admitted and Estelle gave a short nod before falling into silence. Killian focused on the stream again and took another drink, Estelle going back to gutting the fish. Afterwards, Killian paused and watched her for a few moments as he carefully considered his next words. “Stay on as a cook aboard my ship.” Estelle laughed in response.

“I would rather stay on land.”

“What, am I not good company?” he asked with mock offence. She smiled and shook her head, tassels of hair falling over her shoulders.

“A kind and honourable man is something difficult to find where I come from. You’re actually a nice change,” Estelle confessed and Killian felt an uncontrollable smile cross his lips. She gave him a grin before focusing back on the fish, and he took the hint and left her to do her task in silence.

“Looks like we’ve finally found you,” a voice drawled from behind Estelle. She gasped as she stood and spun around to face the newcomer, recognising him as the boy who had called the hunt on her not long after she had arrived on the island. Her mouth hung open with surprise and fear, truly petrified about what him and the other boys were going to do next. “Shall we continue the hunt, boys? I can’t remember the last time we saw a woman…” Estelle took a step back but she knew that there was nothing but ocean behind her. She had simply wanted to take a relaxing stroll on the beach to get away from the whoring and drinking that Killian’s crew was doing, but now all she wanted was their chaos back.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” she begged as they closed in on her. Though it was close to dusk, the boys weren’t holding their torches like during their last encounter, but they had plenty of weapons to increase their intimidation.

“We just want to have some fun, and so does Pan,” another snarled, Estelle noticing how quickly her heart was racing.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from her left and her head flicked to see Killian drawing his sword. “What’s going on here?” He confidently stepped forward over the pebbles, approaching the group of boys as if they were no threat to him whatsoever.

“Hook, this has nothing to do with you,” a boy replied.

“I beg to differ,” Killian replied simply, stopping a few feet away from the nearest boy. “Run back to Pan, Lost Boys.”

“He won’t want to hear of this,” the first one warned and Killian gave a shrug.

“I’ll be off his damn island before he knows it. It won’t make a difference to him,” he insisted and most of the Lost Boys glanced back over to Estelle. “Don’t do it-” Killian was interrupted by a boy lunging at him with a spear, and he shifted out of the way. As he fought off the attack, others rushed forwards and seized Estelle, hauling her towards the forest. She kicked and screamed in attempt to break free, but she wasn’t let go until Killian sliced a gash into one of the boys’ arm.

“You missed,” the boy smirked as he clutched his wound, drawing a knife from his belt.

“That was a warning,” Killian countered and the other boys loosened their grip on Estelle as they noticed their friends were injured on the shore. Killian hadn’t killed any of them, just wounded them to stop the fighting. “Leave her!” At his loud command, the few remaining leapt backwards and fled the scene, heaving some of the other boys to their feet and helping them disappear into the jungle.

“Thank you, Killian,” Estelle breathed as the last of them blended into the green shrubbery. Suddenly his arms flung around her and pulled her into an embrace. The fear still pumping through her body made her accept the warm gesture and it calmed her considerably. Killian shifted his hand to the back of her head, cradling Estelle and inhaling her sweet scent. She noticed the change and increase in intimacy and pulled back, confused by the action even though she had noticed over the past few days how much of a flirt the captain was.

As she was backing off, Killian leaned in and passionately pressed his lips against hers, using the leverage of height and his grip to keep them in a rough kiss. Estelle naturally closed her eyes, and then the kiss took over her common sense, forgetting about the man she had left behind in another realm. She remembered how kind and caring Killian had surprisingly been towards her, the seemingly genuine compliments that he insisted on giving her, and how he had just risked his life to protect her. It was a completely different situation to the one she had been in with Drake-

Estelle pushed herself backwards, breaking their heated kiss and gasping for air. Her eyes were wide, studying his face for reasoning as to why he had kissed her, but she only found a soft expression that proved he was patiently awaiting her to speak.

“I- I am so confused,” Estelle exhaled anxiously before running a hand through her locks. “This isn’t exactly an easy situation- I just left a man I loved in another realm, and-”

“You don’t have to explain,” Killian said simply before turning and walking back to camp.