Archive of Our Own ^beta

James Hook was fucked. He really was. 

It all started a couple months ago when his parents randomly announced that they got him a job at some lame antique shop. He forgot the name of it almost immediately, it wasn’t like he was going to show up anyways. He would rather sit through an hour long lecture of his father just yelling insults at him than do manual labor on his own.

He was pretty sure his mother had convinced his father that it would be a good idea. That he would get more responsible if he had a job. That he wouldn’t get detention so often or that he would get better grades. Basically, that he would be less of a disappointment.

But he couldn’t care less, if his father called him a disappointment he might as well live up to that name. It was already set in stone that he was going to end up in Maleficent's basement after his parents would eventually kick him out. So why waste his time surrounded by dusty shelves and old stuff?

It wasn’t that long before he changed his mind though. In hindsight you could say it was fate, but Hook didn’t believe in that. Fate was something only happened in fairytales, movies or books. Not in real life. And definitely not in his.

But still he changed his mind. Because of Maleficent, not because of some other stupid reason like fate. 

“You’re not going to do it?” She had asked. They were supposed to participate in P.E. but their teacher gave up on them long ago, so they just spend time sitting on the grass at the edge of the forest.

“Hell no” He’d replied while laying down on his back.

"Why? I mean you’d probably get paid for doing nothing”

“So?” Hook turned his head to look at her. But she had just kept staring at the field where their classmates were running laps. He continued, “it’s not like I’ll get my life back on track because I wasted time in a dusty store”

“Whatever, do whatever you want” Maleficent said. And after that a silence had fallen between them. James didn’t know if it had been a comfortable or uncomfortable silence but he hadn’t tried to break it. 

But for some weird reason he still became curious about the antique shop. The kind of curious a little kid would be about locked cabinets or doors. The kind of curiosity that would make you come up with stories about ghosts, talking mice or hidden treasures.

But he was eighteen. He knew that ghosts, talking mice and hidden treasures didn’t exist. 

That didn’t mean that he stopped being curious about the place though.

So he decided to show up anyway.

When he’d opened the door he saw a middle aged woman basically running around the store after, what looked like, customers. But he didn’t know for sure, so he just awkwardly looked around the store until he got confirmation that she was indeed working in the store.

“Um, hey, I’m here for the job” 

“James Hook, right?” The woman had asked, and Hook had nodded in response.  

“Okay, well welcome! My name is Morgana. But as you might see I’m kind of busy now, but my son can show you around. I’ll get him”

The woman, Morgana, opened a curtain behind the counter and yelled out a name. He hadn’t been able to hear the name well back then, but later that name would be in his head every waking second. 

“He’ll be down soon, just wait here” she’d smiled at him and put her hand on his shoulder for a second before quickly walking after a customer with kids, who were touching every object they could touch.

Hook’s attention quickly turned back to the curtain behind the counter, but this time because of the banging noises he heard. A couple seconds later a boy his age appeared from behind the curtain.

“Hi!” The boy said while fixing his hair. “I’m Morgie” He extended his hand for Hook to shake.

“James” he replied as he shook Morgie’s hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just fell down the stairs, no big deal” 

“If you say so”

The rest of that day was spent with Morgie showing Hook around the store, teaching him how to use the cash register and the two of them getting acquainted.

When Hook finally got home all he could really think about was Morgie’s smile and the way the boy had been so excited to meet him. It was needless to say that he was glad he’d decided to show up.

“What are you staring at?” Maleficent had asked the following day. It was lunch time but instead of sitting in their usual spot at the end of the forest, James had been able to convince her to stay on school property. 

Because the day before Hook had been able to figure out that Morgie attended Merlin academy like them, so with a bit of luck he hoped to see him during school hours. And he had that luck. Because sitting on the other side of the courtyard was Morgie with his friend.

"Remember that my parents got me that job?”

“That’s not an answer to my question, but yes”

“He works there too. I’m pretty sure his mum owns the place”

“Hades?”

“No the other one Morgie” he replied turning to her. “Not everything is about Hades”

She’d just rolled her eyes in response.

But that was months ago. At this point in time Hook and Morgie were friends, but if he had to be honest, James wanted to be so much more than that. 

Most days they would hang out in Morgana’s store. Which was convenient for Hook of course, he just had to come into work and he could spend time with Morgie. Which he did basically every day, because over the course of those few months he had fallen hard for the other boy. 

Next to that, Maleficent and Hades had started dating, so naturally the four of them formed a friend group. The couple would even occasionally come by the store when both boys were on shift. 

But because they were a couple, there were also days they didn’t, like this particular day. And because Morgana had something to do around closing time, the two boys were alone in the store. The last customer left about fifteen minutes ago, and they didn’t expect any new ones to come in. So they were sitting in the lamp section in the store eating candy. 

“No, but like, I think I would survive a snake attack. Like it would feel my wonderful vibes and accompany me on my quest” Morgie said, his head laying on Hook’s lap, who let out a laugh.

“On your quest?” He asked while reaching for the candy bag.

“Yes, you could come with if you want to”

“Nah, I’m good”

“Please?”

“Fine, I’ll go with you on your quest”

“Thank you” Morgie said, drawing out the ‘u’.  

“Of course, there has to be someone to protect you”

“Of what?”

“A crocodile, perhaps?"

“You would fight a crocodile for me?”

“I would do a lot of things for you Morgs” it came out more sincere than he had meant too. It was true, but that didn’t mean he was’t shocked by the words out of his mouth.

All of a sudden Morgie sat up, making Hook worry if he said something wrong. If what he said could’ve tipped Morgie off about his feelings for him.

James looked at Morgie,waiting for him to say something. His thoughts were racing, hoping that he could come up with a joke to explain it away. 

“I mean—” Hook had started but he was cut off by Morgie who finally looked up from the floor.

“Okay so this probably isn’t a smart idea, but I just need to say it. I think I’m in love with you”

Hook just stared at him, with his mouth slightly agape. He didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like he hated hearing the news, of course not, anything but that. He was just surprised. He really hadn’t expected that Morgie liked him back.

But the lack of response must have made Morgie think he did hate the words that Morgie had spoken.

“I’m sorry, just forget that. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen” the blond boy said, returning his gaze to the floor.

“What if I don’t want to?”

“I get that, but please, I don’t want to lose you James” Morgie said looking up again.

“You aren’t going to lose me”

Silence fell between them, they just stared at each other while Hook was trying to formulate a coherent sentence that could express his feelings. But it felt like his brain stopped working, and all he could think about was how pretty Morgie looked under all the different coloured lights, how the green light made his hair appear to be another color, how the yellow lights made his faint freckles stand out more. And soon the only thing he could think about was how badly he wanted to kiss the other boy. So the only sentence he could come up with was:

“Can I kiss you?” 

Morgie nodded in response. And James almost immediately leaned in and let their lips collide. He put his hand on the back of Morgie’s neck pulling him closer and Morgie’s hand found his cheek. 

Hook could feel the other boy smile into the kiss and then he just started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” James chuckled when Morgie pulled away because he was laughing too much.

“Nothing, I’m sorry, it’s just” the blond boy replied while wiping a tear from his eye. “I don’t know” 

“Okay” James replied, grinning.

“Okay” Morgie replied back with the exact same smile as when they had first met.