That's a sentiment that Hook can understand. He might not be so aggrieved to see Milah, if it were not the look in her eyes. Hatred, resentment, anger. Blame. His head was quick to fill in the blanks as to why. Wasn't there a hundred and one reasons Milah could hate him, if she could see what she'd become now? What he'd done to her son, how he'd treated Belle, the things that had darkened his heart in the name of revenge. . . there were all too many reasons, and it triggered all too many guilty confessions that didn't make any difference. This wasn't a ghost, there was no finding redemption in these flickering visages of people they'd loved and lost. They were to frustrate and torment.
And he couldn't begrudge Neal a bad reaction when he'd stopped sleeping, stop functioning, stopped doing anything but lingering with the face of his dead love until Emma had come to snap him out of it.
Killian isn't entirely sure what he can give Neal in this moment. He's not exactly practiced in this sort of thing, he wasn't practiced three hundred years ago. It was safe to say he hadn't gotten any better at reassurance because he'd tried not to be around any children to make it an issue. He doesn't know how to do this, doesn't know how to properly navigate the minefield he's made of them, but instead of evading he wanted to try.
"It isn't your fault." If there's anything he can understand, sadly, it's the desire to be loved. Captain Hook carried a lost boy in him too, though he kept him stowed and stifled most of the time. "You believed in love enough that everything else didn't matter." Hook had done that a time or two, like when he'd told himself that running away with a married woman with a son at home was the right thing, because he was in love. Milah had never betrayed him, but that didn't mean he hadn't blinded himself to realities that were painfully clear centuries later. Milah's love had come with restrictions; no marriage, no children, no taking to shore and making a life together, and he'd told himself that was enough. . . because he'd been so desperate for the same things Neal had. "But not seeing it doesn't make it your fault, Baelfire. She would have found her way with or without you. She had a pirate tied up in a trailer that would tell her anything if she brought up a certain crocodile. If we're going to point fingers, it makes more sense to point them in the right direction."
A perhaps faulty strategy, hate me instead of yourself, but to him it sounded fair. Neal had made a mistake hoping he'd found a future, Killian had made it with both eyes open and knowing the consequences of his actions.
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And he couldn't begrudge Neal a bad reaction when he'd stopped sleeping, stop functioning, stopped doing anything but lingering with the face of his dead love until Emma had come to snap him out of it.
Killian isn't entirely sure what he can give Neal in this moment. He's not exactly practiced in this sort of thing, he wasn't practiced three hundred years ago. It was safe to say he hadn't gotten any better at reassurance because he'd tried not to be around any children to make it an issue. He doesn't know how to do this, doesn't know how to properly navigate the minefield he's made of them, but instead of evading he wanted to try.
"It isn't your fault." If there's anything he can understand, sadly, it's the desire to be loved. Captain Hook carried a lost boy in him too, though he kept him stowed and stifled most of the time. "You believed in love enough that everything else didn't matter." Hook had done that a time or two, like when he'd told himself that running away with a married woman with a son at home was the right thing, because he was in love. Milah had never betrayed him, but that didn't mean he hadn't blinded himself to realities that were painfully clear centuries later. Milah's love had come with restrictions; no marriage, no children, no taking to shore and making a life together, and he'd told himself that was enough. . . because he'd been so desperate for the same things Neal had. "But not seeing it doesn't make it your fault, Baelfire. She would have found her way with or without you. She had a pirate tied up in a trailer that would tell her anything if she brought up a certain crocodile. If we're going to point fingers, it makes more sense to point them in the right direction."
A perhaps faulty strategy, hate me instead of yourself, but to him it sounded fair. Neal had made a mistake hoping he'd found a future, Killian had made it with both eyes open and knowing the consequences of his actions.