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the-hidden-pages · 2 years ago

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Kinktober Day 2 - Floor Sex - Archie Hopper x Fem!Reader

You know, I don’t think ANYONE on this earth asked for an Archie Hopper fic, but that’s exactly the kind of market I like to appeal to. This occurs after Season 2, episode 11, "The Outsider", and was prompted because I'm rewatching that wild ride of a show and want this sweet man to find true love. I know there's so much more plot after, but I'm not caught up, so allow this to exist in a void of time.

Summary: Moving into a new home, you and your fiancé don't even have your bed assembled yet. The excitement of your future lives, however, leaves the pair of you to indulge on your brand-new floor.

Warnings: NSFW. Floor Sex. Unprotected Sex. Fingering. More fluff than I usually write so apologies if it's cringe.

It felt like life had become curse after curse.

Your life in the Enchanted Forest had been ripped from you the day the Evil Queen cast her curse. While your life in Storybrooke hadn’t been anything terrible, it hadn’t been anything too glamorous either. It was though you were in a stasis before the saviour arrived, doing nothing more than waking up, walking your dog, going to work, walking your dog, and going to bed.

Rinse, wash, and repeat.

Somehow the loneliness and monotony had been the worst curses of all.

On the fated day Emma swan arrived to town, however, something had shifted. That day, you crossed paths with a man you had only seen in passing. That particular meeting involved another meeting as well, the joining of two dogs.

“Perdita!” you exclaim, laughing apologetically as her leash gets tangled in that of the other owner’s.

“Pongo! I- I��m so sorry!”

“Nonsense, look at them, they’re having fun,” you continue to laugh, looking up at the owner.

You were paralyzed in that moment, from nothing more than a glance at his blue eyes, filled with amusement.

“Um,” he hesitated, swapping Pongo’s leash to his left hand and holding out his right. “Archie. Dr. Archie Hopper, I mean.”

He wouldn’t tell you until months later, but that day, your smile blinded him.

At the start, the pair of you might have never taken the leap to meet again. Luckily for you both, your Dalmatians had taken such a shine to each other that it ensured the pair of you to keep meeting.

And so, after several months, a couple of curses, and – worst of all – Archie’s supposed death, there the pair of you stood.

In front of your new home.

“It almost doesn’t feel real,” you muse, standing before the front door. Pongo and Perdita had long since run off, likely marking their territory in the backyard.

“It’s very real,” Archie replied softly, pulling you in to his side. “Our own little happy ending.”

“We’re still in this realm. We’re not in the Enchanted Forest, in some castle, or some magic grove. That’ll be enough for you?”

“My darling, I might be from a world with magic, but back then I didn’t have Pongo. I didn’t have you. Here, I have everything I could ever want.”

You grin. “How charming.”

“I think you have me confused for someone else.”

A startled laugh escapes you as you’re swept off your feet, lifted up into a bridal carry.

“Arch, what are you doing?”

“I’m taking my fiancée to see our new home.”

Carrying you across the threshold, he sets you down amidst the entryway.

You half had mind to tease him for setting you down so soon, but you were as distracted as he was, observing your surroundings.

The pair of you had seen the house, of course, prior to buying it. But there was something now, seeing the boxes of possessions scattered, the furniture halfway in place, that made it seem all the more real.

“This is our home,” you whisper, before turning to grin at your partner.

He matches your smile, grabbing your hand excitedly.

“Let’s look around!”

The pair of you dart around the house, taking in every room. The spacious kitchen, the homey living room. A separate office space for you both, and a sizeable yard for the Dalmatians. Two spare bedrooms, a power room, and a large master bedroom with a private bathroom.

“It’s perfect,” you find yourself saying, unable to wipe the smile from your face.

“It’s home,” your fiancé agrees, pulling you into a hug.

You reach up to cup his cheek, drawing him in for a soft kiss.

He’s quick to deepen it, however, and you’re more than happy to oblige, the excitement for the moment shining through.

When you feel his hand move from your back to your ass, you pull away, giggling.

“Now, where’s my Cricket’s moral compass?”

Archie merely grins, and your heart warms at the way his eyes crinkle, his glasses slightly lopsided.

“I intend to satisfy my fiancée the way she deserves, under the roof of our new home. Now how could that, possibly, be anything less than moral?”

Your head lulls back as he begins to pepper soft kisses and bites down the column of your throat.

“We haven’t even put the bed together yet, Arch.”

He glances up, a shimmer of darkness in the typically bright eyes.

“Who says we need a bed?”

“Our backs, probably. We aren’t as young as we used to be, before the curse.”

“Your love keeps me young, my darling.”

“Mm, I’ll remember that comment when I’m giving you Advil and an ice-pack.”

A soft pinch to your thigh causes a laugh to escape you, and you let yourself relax a bit.

“Now, would you lay down for me?”

You take a step back, kneeling slowly without breaking your gaze.

“Are you going to fuck me on the floor, Cricket?”

“I’m going to do a lot of things,” your fiancé replies, observing you for a moment. He looks away, however, eyes landing on a bag in the corner of the nearly empty room. “But first…”

He steps away, reaching into the back to pull out a small pillow. Returning, he kneels down to your level, leaning you slowly backwards so that you’re flush with the floor, head resting on the plush feathers.

“Such a gentleman.”

“I try.”

“You succeed.”

You pull him down to meet your lips, talking a moment to enjoy the familiar warmth. His hands move up to caress you, one on your hips, one on your thigh. Your own wind upwards in to his hair, carding through the ginger locks at the back of his neck.

It isn’t long before you’re looking to ramp the pace back up.

You drag his head down so your lips meet his ear, enjoying the shudder you feel from him at the sudden hot breaths over his neck.

“I believe you mentioned a lot of things you want to do to me Doctor?”

“Mhm,” he hummed, helping tug your clothes off. “It does involve less in the way though.”

“Really now?”

“Indeed.”

“And once there’s less in the way, what do you plan to do?”

“Well, I intend to break in every room in this house.”

Once the pair of you are finished stripping, he pins you between his arms, the fond smile contradicting the hunger in his eyes.

“You’re going to be Mrs. Hopper soon,” he says, a sense of wonder in his voice as he slowly trails his gaze down your form, taking pause at your breasts, your waist, your thighs.

“Unless you’d rather call me Mrs. Cricket,” you tease, and he smiles, dragging his fingers slowly down to the heat between your legs.

“I’ll call you anything, as long as you’re mine.”

“I’ll always be yours, Arch.”

A gasp escapes you as a long finger is slid in your cunt, his thumb tracing lazy circles on your clit.

“Mine,” he muses, his hand slowly working you open. “My love, my happy ending.”

“And you’re mine,” you reply, your hand moving to pluck his glasses off his face, setting them safely on the ground beside you.

He had already lost one pair in a heated moment – he didn’t need to lose another.

“Always,” he confirms, leaning forward to capture your lips the same moment he slides another finger in.

“Fuck.”

“Such language,” your fiancé teases, working you faster. “Already corrupting our perfect home?”

“You started it – Archie.” Your words escape you as he finds the weak spot on your neck, biting down as his fingers reach a spot that make you see stars.

“That’s it, sweetheart. It’s our home, you can be as loud as you need.”

Despite his words, you feel yourself flush with slight embarrassment at how worked up you’ve gotten. But the high of the new house, the start of the new adventure, mixed with the lewd echoes of his fingers meeting your wetness, amplified by the emptiness of the large room, all fill you with a blazing heat.

“Archie, please.”

“You can cum, darling. No teasing today, I promise. You’re going to cum on my fingers, and then my cock, and then I’m going to carry you to the kitchen, and we’ll do it all over again. And then in the bathroom, and then in the office, and then the other bedrooms.”

He slips a third finger into you and you cry out, one hand clenching in his hair and the other gripping onto his forearm.

“I will love you on every surface in this house, and that’s just today. We have forever, after that.”

You break, reaching your peak with a gasp of his name echoing louder than it should have against the bare walls.

Your fiancé gives you a moment to collect yourself, smoothing your hair against your head, slowly stroking your legs, your arms, your stomach, worshiping you until you come back to your senses.

Pushing yourself up, you situate the pair of you so youre sitting on his lap, shuddering as you feel his hardness pressing at your thigh.

“Don’t we need to unpack the –“

You cut Archie off, toying with his hair.

“We have a house, we’re engaged. Isn’t time we started thinking about…?”

Archie’s blue eyes search your own for a moment, before widening.

“You mean…with me?”

“No, with Mr. Gold.”

A bark of a laugh escapes him, incredulity flooding his voice.

“And the two Dalmatians aren’t enough? You’re ready?”

You smile softly. “I want to try. At least, if you do too.”

“I do, I really do.”

“Then fuck me on the floor, Dr. Hopper.”

Archie maneuvers you back down, supporting you as he guides his length into you.

“As you wish, Mrs. Hopper.”

A contented sigh leaves you as your fiancé groans, pausing when his hips are flush against yours.

“Darling,” he mutters, choosing to nip at your neck again. “I’m not sure I’ll last this time.”

“Me too,” you gasp, reaching to lace your fingers through his. He snaps his hips and a whimper escapes you, clutching his hand as though it were a lifeline. “Please, just…please. I need you.”

“You have me,” he reaches for your other hand, holding both of your own with his above your head, pinning you deeper into the floor as he finds a steady rhythm.

The space of the room allows the sounds to echo pornographically, the added stimulation sending you over the edge far too quickly.

“Fuck, Archie!”

“What do you need, darling?”

You babble, nearly delirious. “Need you to cum, want you inside, want you to fill me up.”

“Fuck.”

The thought of the impeccably polite, innocent doctor cursing shouldn’t be attractive, but it’s that sound alone that has you clenching like a vice on his cock, half shouting as you reach your second orgasm of the night.

Your cries are what send your fiancé over the edge, a near growl escaping the older man as you feel a comforting warmth flood you.

The pair of you collect yourselves, gasping and panting in a heap on the floor, hands and eyes wandering in pure adoration.

Archie pulls out of you slowly, your weak protests cut short when he all but pulls you on top of him as he lays on the floor.

“Hell of a housewarming,” you quip, drawing mindless patterns on his chest.

He merely chuckles, placing a soft kiss to your hair.

As you wrap your arms tighter around him, you glance around the empty room, bare apart from a few boxes and a disassembled bedframe, and can’t help but smile at the mess.

You’ve finally found your happy ending.

The silence is broken several minutes later.

“So…I might have had better ideas than sex on the floor.”

“Your back?”

Archie’s pause tells you all you need to know.

You sigh, a fond smile crossing your face. “I’ll find the box with the ice pack.”

“And I’ll go track down those two troublemakers.”

#kinktober2022 #tppkinktober2022 #x reader smut #x reader #x reader fanfiction #archie hopper #once upon a time #ouat #jiminy cricket #ouat archie hopper #if you're reading this you're admitting you want to sleep with the cricket

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sweetbuckybarnes · 3 years ago

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True Love makes a Heart Split work

Pairings: Captain Killian Jones + Emma Swan

Summary: After Killian's death from Excalibur, Henry suggests something that could make Emma happy over the moon.

Emma had just driven Excalibur in the heart of her Killian, believing that it was killing the darkness forever (they'll find out that Gold had tricked them, and the power went to him).

A white light flashed between them, and the darkness had left the dark ones, reverting Killian and Emma back to their usual selves. Emma with her long blonde hair, red jacket and jeans. Killian in his modern-day pirate getup, black leather jacket, waistcoat, shirt, necklaces and black jeans (no matter how much Emma silently loved his leather pants).

Removing the sword from her beloved, hurt more than putting it in, and Killian crumpled against her, as she gently laid him on the floor sinking with him.

"Stay with me, Killian, I'm not losing you again," Emma begged, as tears began to stream down her face. His head cradled in one of hers and pressed to her chest while the other cradled his scruffed cheek.

"We both know, you should have, let me go," Killian took in a breath, feeling the white light around the corner of his eyes. "In Camelot," his eyelids fluttered shut, but Emma never wanted to lose him.

She shook his shoulder, gently enough not to injure him any further, but enough to keep his eyes open. "Killian, please," her forehead fell to rest on his forehead, looking into the usually sparkling blue eyes she adores. "I don't know how to say goodbye," she whispered.

"Then don't," he looked at her like she was his entire world (which she has become). "If I helped. Take the armour off. Don't put it on. Because you're. Losing me," Killian begged in reply, his hand leaving Emma's grip and reached up for her hair.

"Promise. I love you, Killian Jones," Emma swore, feeling her heart dying with the love of her life.

Killian gave a slight smile, he loved hearing Emma say his given name. "I love you too, my Swan," and with his final words and one last breath Killian Jones, the former pirate Captain 'Hook' leaves her behind.

"Killian?" Emma asked, as his eyes fell shut, and a peaceful look took his face. "KILLIAN?!" Emma shook him and then realised he'd taken his last breath. "Killian..."

Emma dissolved into sobs, curling into a ball, and rested next to her boyfriend. As her parents, "Emma..." Mary Margaret started and was instantly cut off by a hard glare from the woman in question.

Henry walked to the other side of Hook, and looked over at his birth mother, and then to his grandparents. "Heart split?" He muttered, knowing that his grandparents share Snow's heart.

"What, kid?" Emma looked up at her son, tears still streaming down her face. Hoping that she had heard him right. "Heart split?" With a nod from Henry, Emma long hair whipped around as her head did to look at the former Evil Queen. "Would it work?" She asks, her heart thumping rapidly in her chest.

Regina looks between a heartbroken Emma, the body of Captain Guyliner, and Henry's hopeful face. "There's only one way to see," Regina came closer and motioned for Emma to stand up.

Emma took a breath, and Henry took the hand Emma had been holding, her son knew that she didn't want to let him go. Standing in front of Regina, taking a couple of breaths to calm herself down. Knowing that there won't be enough time. "Do it," she nods to Regina.

"You have to let me take your heart, I heard what happened when my mother tried to take it. You have to allow me to take it from you," Regina explained, as she prepared to take the heart of Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter. The Saviour.

Emma closed her eyes and visualised Regina taking her heart for her to share with her Killian. In an instant, Regina's hand was in her chest and out pulled a red heart, with a mix of white and tiny black spots. Emma's eyes opened, when she felt her chest become hollow.

"I've never seen a heart being a mix of pure and darkness," Regina kept looking at Emma's heart. All Emma could think of her heart being slightly dark was that she never forgave Neal for her own selfish reasons. But her heart being white was something new.

With a shake of her head, Regina quickly broke Emma's heart in two, and handed one to Emma for Killian, and kept the other behind Emma's back, ready to slam in when Killian's half went in.

Emma gently put her love's half-heart into his chest, as she feels her half slip back into her chest. A deep breath and she feels back to normal (despite only having half a heart).

When Emma took a deep breath in, as did Killian at the same time, and squeezed Henry's hand. "Mom," Henry took over at the woman who gave him life.

"Is he...?" Her face was full of hope, something that never really happened until she had met Killian (really after he let go of his revenge on Gold, and started to become a hero). Henry nodded and handed Killian's hand back to her. "Killian?" She whispered, resting her hand on his scruffed cheek, the same place when he had been dying in her arms.

"Swan?" He mumbled, his eye creaking open, and seeing the love of his life, wondering when he was breathing again and alive again. "What happened?" He asked as Henry and Emma helped into a sitting position.

"You may or may not share my heart," she smiled slightly, not knowing how her boyfriend will feel about sharing her heart.

His eyebrows wrinkled and pressed his hand to his chest. "A heart split?" Not knowing that was possible, only having heard through what Emma calls 'the grapevine' about true love sharing a heart.

"Emma, I forgot to tell you one thing," Regina spoke up, as Killian began to crush the Saviour in a hug. Emma struggled to look over her shoulder for a second, and with Killian loosening his grip, she looked at the Mayor of Storybrooke. "People who live through a heart split, and share a heart, they're said to be true love,"

With a nod, Regina disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving behind a shocked Killian and Emma, ecstatic Henry and Snow, a slightly disappointed David (but in the end he was happy for Emma) and an angry dark on - who had been silently he could have gotten rid of the pirate that once stole his ex-wife.

"True love?" Killian mumbles, looking down at his hand, and up at Emma with so much love. "You're my true love?" His half heart was fluttering happily in his chest. He knew he had loved Emma for a fair few years now, he honestly doesn't remember when it blossomed from a fair crush to full-blown love, but he'd found it (the one thing everyone hopes for).

"You're stuck with me," Emma shrugs, helping him stand up properly. When he was properly stood on his own two feet, Killian wrapped his arms around Emma's waist and lifted her off her feet.

"I've never been stuck with you, love," Killian says in his smooth accent that sounds similar to the Irish one and pulls her in for a kiss.

#once upon a time #ouat #captain swan fanfic #captain swan #captain hook | killian jones #emma swan #snow white | mary margaret blanchard #henry mills #evil queen | regina mills #excalibur #s05e11 Swan Song

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snowbellewells · 3 years ago

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CS Fic Rec Monday: Fics for a Wintry Day

This week, rather than doing several separate fic rec entries, I thought I would highlight a few snowy day favorites, both old and new. I love when it gets colder and the snow falls, and it really does begin to look like Christmas outside. It makes me want to cozy up with a few good fics and a cup of coffee even more than I usually do! If you feel the same, I hope you will enjoy revisiting some of these, or discovering them for the first time.

“Since We’ve No Place to Go” by: @laschatzi

(the Author’s Summary: After a car accident in the middle of nowhere of rural Maine (where she really shouldn’t have ended up two days before Christmas), Emma Swan almost freezes to death, but is rescued by a three-legged dog named Smee and his grumpy master Killian Jones who can’t seem to get rid of her soon enough to have his self-chosen hermitage back. Alas, the weather outside is frightful, and the fire is so delightful…)

“Merry not Christmas” by: @oubliette14

(the Author’s Summary: Killian Jones has spent the last five years avoiding everything to do with Christmas; a veritable Grinch. Though perhaps Ebenezer Scrooge is more fitting; he's not out to ruin Christmas, he simply prefers to pretend that it doesn't exist. So what happens when he takes a tumble on the mountainside and is stuck for the holiday, cooped up in a small cabin with his saviour, Emma Swan?)

“You Are My Shelter” by: @justanother-unluckysoul

(the Author’s Summary: An unexpected blizzard hits while Emma and Killian are enjoying a quiet vacation in their forest cabin, forcing them to shelter in place until it passes. The temporary isolation probably wouldn’t have been so bad if Killian hadn’t also gotten injured.)

“Decking the Halls and Slippery Falls” by: @hollyethecurious

(the Author’s Summary: Based on the prompt: I just wanted to put Christmas lights up but I ended up falling off the ladder and crashing into you while you were delivering a package to my door but oh god you’re hot. Also utilizes the snowed in trope to great effect)

“Start of Time” by: @searchingwardrobes

(the Author’s Summary: Summary: Killian and his son are driving through a bad snow storm when they find a disoriented woman walking down the road. The question is, how can they help her get home when she has no idea who she is?)

“Deck the Halls” by: @the-captains-ayebrows

(This one doesn’t have a summary on it, but it’s a teachers enemies-to-friends-lovers situation; Emma and Killian are warring educators, both trying to win a school wide Christmas decor contest. It’s genuinely funny and sweet and totally priceless!)

“To Keep it all the Year” by: @profdanglaisstuff

(the Author’s Summary: Killian Jones is a broken man, betrayed by everyone and everything he thought he could believe in. He’s all but given up on life until a fateful meeting with bartender Emma Swan and her son Henry gives him a reason to live again, and a chance to redeem his past.)

*There are tons more, but hope you enjoy these for now!! I don’t want to steer you wrong, but you’re pretty much guaranteed to like every one of these stories!!!*

#cs fic rec monday #csfrm #wintry day fic recs #cs ff #christmas fic #major cs fic recs #so many talented shipmates

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starry-sky-stuff · 3 years ago

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I posted 1,119 times in 2021

476 posts created (43%)

643 posts reblogged (57%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.4 posts.

I added 960 tags in 2021

#answered - 221 posts

#my wips: in want of a wife - 119 posts

#sortinghatchats - 112 posts

#ask game - 85 posts

#ask games - 83 posts

#writing stuff - 82 posts

#my wips: a flame in the forest - 80 posts

#my writing - 66 posts

#romance tag - 56 posts

#asks - 56 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#i wasn't watching the show anymore by that point but i'm guessing they played it more as romantic than as the goddam tragedy/horror story

My Top Posts in 2021

Sorting Once Upon a Time

This is my sorting of the main characters of OUAT. I've only watched the first three seasons so my sortings will be based on that. If you have thoughts on the secondary characters or main characters introduced later feel free to add them.

For the sorting system check out @sortinghatchats and @wisteria-lodge

Thanks for the help sorting @missbrunettebarbie

Emma Swan’s primary motivation at all times is her son. She doesn’t get attached to the town of Storybrooke or her role as the Saviour, the way a Badger or Lion Primary would. All Emma really wants is for Henry and her family to be safe, a very clear Snake Primary. Prior to the start of the series, Emma’s a Burned Snake due to her experiences of being in the foster system and Neal seemingly abandoned her. But over the course of season one she starts to let Henry in and slowly unburn. She probably also has a Lion Primary model considering her constant references to her intuition and gut instincts. Her Lion Secondary is also very obvious. Her first reaction to pretty much every problem is to shoot or stab it. Although she falls into the leadership role she’s never the planner, she’s always the one telling the others to cut the bullshit and work together towards their shared goal.

Regina Mills shares the same primary and motivation as Emma. They’re both Snake Primaries whose main goal is to protect Henry. Also like Emma, her primary’s burned when she lost Daniel and she eventually became the Evil Queen as she lost any and everyone she cared about. Only in season three does she start to completely unburn through her relationship with Robin (she'd partially unburnt before as she opened herself up to Henry). On the surface, Regina looks like the cunning Double Snake who will do anything to get what she wants. But it’s all an act. She puts on a Snake Secondary Model to play into the Evil Queen persona, but the way she gets things done is through plans or magic, making her a Bird Secondary.

Rumplestilskin’s goals in the first three seasons are to get back first Belle and then his son. And when the two people he cares about are safe, he literally does not care. He cannot be moved by moral pleas or arguments. If he doesn’t care then he won’t help unless you give him something he wants. Rumplestilskin did choose power over his son but spent decades regretting that decision and doesn’t justify it in a way another primary might. And his journey culminating in his death in season three is learning to put others before himself. A very clear Snake Primary. On the face of it, he might look like a sneaky and cunning Snake Secondary, and I think he definitely has a model, but he’s actually a Bird Secondary. He’s the one who makes the plans, including having Regina adopt Emma’s son in order to get Emma to break the curse in the future. He literally owns a pawn/antiques shop full of tools he’s acquired.

Prince Charming is the character who puts the most focus on the idea of family and the community of Storybrooke/Enchanted Forest. He also engages in a fair amount of dehumanisation of ‘villains’, treating them like they’re lesser, a clear indication of a Badger Primary. As he said in season two, Snow did the talking and he did the fighting. Like his daughter, he’s a straightforward Lion Secondary who fights his way out of every problem. That would make him a Badger/Lion, the protagonist sorting which I guess is what the show was going for.

Snow White who became a bandit after her father’s death is not a Loyalist. She isn’t attached to the community of her kingdom or it being hers, and makes no immediate attempt to take it back after Regina seizes it. Instead, she’s a Lion Primary who believes wholeheartedly and fervently in the cause of opposing evil, who was probably a little burnt during her bandit period. In season two, her primary burns when she loses faith and her belief that things will work out and very quickly decides that killing Cora is totally justified. Snow’s a Badger Secondary focused on community building. She’s the one who makes speeches and forms teams, even if it’s usually her husband or daughter who actually leads them. She also tricked Regina into killing Cora by playing on her own reputation for being good and forgiving.

Henry Mills who’s known as the truest believer is a shining Lion Primary. In season one, he believes in magic in spite of no one else believing him and his mother actively gaslighting him on the matter. Considering his attempt to destroy magic by blowing up the well in season two and his deep dislike of being lied to, I’m going to go with a Lion Secondary.

37 notes • Posted 2021-06-14 12:08:34 GMT

Sortinghatchats Sortings Findings - Analysis

Finally finished compiling my findings and analysis of my list of sortings. My research was focused on identifying the patterns in different sortings relating to character roles, genre, genre, text type, status of the character (alive or deceased), burned primaries and secondaries, models and performances.

Full list of findings here

Summary of findings:

Part One here

Part Two here

Part Three here

Tagging people whose sortings I used to compile my list:

@wisteria-lodge, @missbrunettebarbie, @laufire, @nectargrapes, @the-phoenix-heart, @paint-the-ravenclaw, @persefoneshalott, @alluringcliche, @quentyl, @montmarayroyal, @everyonewasabird, @yoursummerfrost, @spaceyspaceysarah, @dragonsaredorks, @arizonaraine, @alix-in-july

Cut for length

Method Note:

The character roles are protagonist, antagonist, villain, love interest, supporting character, mentor and parent. Characters can fit into multiple roles.

Fantasy is overrepresented in genre as a reflection of my own interests and has skewed the results, but I decided to still include it as the distribution of sortings across genres is interesting.

Status is based on whether the character is alive or deceased by the end of the text (or most recent film/season/book/etc if the text isn't finished)

General Findings:

Snake/Lion is the most common sorting. Bird/Badger is the least common. Snake Primaries and Lion Secondaries are the most common, which given the high number of Snake/Lions makes sense. Bird Primaries and Snake Secondaries are the least common.

Most to least common: Snake/Lion (79), Lion/Lion (76), Badger/Lion (61), Snake/Snake (59), Snake/Badger (53), Snake/Bird (47), Bird/Bird (43), Badger/Badger (37), Lion/Badger (34), Lion/Bird (33), Badger/Bird (32), Bird/Lion (31), Lion/Snake (29), Badger/Snake (28), Bird/Snake (24), Bird/Badger (20)

Character Roles:

Most of the sortings are majority protagonists. The exceptions are Snake/Bird (antagonist tied with protagonist), Snake/Badger (love interest tied with protagonist), and Badger/Badger (supporting character).

Protagonist:

Most common sortings are Lion/Lion, then Badger/Lion, then Snake/Lion. Certainly seems like Lion Secondaries tend to be the 'heroic' secondary (although protagonists aren't necessarily heroic).

Least common are Bird/Badger and Bird/Snake.

Antagonist:

Most common sortings are Snake/Lion, Snake/Bird, and Snake/Snake. Clearly Snake Primaries are the go to Primary for antagonists.

Least common is Bird/Badger.

Villain:

Most common is Snake/Bird, almost double the number two Bird/Bird, and the third is Lion/Bird. Bird Secondaries must be the go-to secondaries for villains. Makes sense given their planning skills.

Bird/Badger has no villains. @wisteria-lodge has referred to Bird/Badger as a stable sorting and them having no villain characters and the fewest antagonists supports that assertion.

Love Interest:

Most common are Snake Badger, Snake/Lion, and Snake/Snake. Snake/Badgers are definitely the love interest sorting. Snake Primaries double as the most common primaries for both antagonists and love interests, which also makes sense considering how often those character roles overlap.

Least common are Lion/Bird, Bird/Snake, and Lion/Snake.

Supporting Character:

Most common are Snake/Lion and Badger/Badger. The prevalence of Snake/Lions in this category may be the result of them having the highest number of characters. Badger/Badger being among the least flashy sorting would probably make them popular as a supporting character.

Mentor:

Most common: Bird/Bird. No idea why they're the most common. Maybe the Bird Secondary works because they're imparting skills on the mentee.

Parent:

Most common: Snake/Lion. Again, this may just be a result of the prevalence of Snake/Lions.

Bird/Snake and Bird/Badger have no parent characters.

Gender:

Male:

353 out of 685 characters were male

Most common: Badger/Lion, Snake/Lion, Snake/Snake

Least common: Bird/Lion and Bird/Badger

Sortings that are majority male: Lion/Badger, Snake/Snake, Snake/Bird, Snake/Badger, Bird/Bird, Bird/Snake, Bird/Badger, Badger/Badger, Badger/Lion, Badger/Snake, Badger/Bird

Female:

296 out 685 characters were female

Most common: Lion/Lion, Snake/Lion, with Snake/Snake a distant third

Least common: Snake/Badger and Badger/Bird

Sortings that are majority female: Lion/Lion, Lion/Snake, Lion/Bird, Snake/Lion, Bird/Lion,

Badger/Lion was overwhelmingly male. Makes sense given that this is the protagonist sorting and protagonists are often male.

More sortings are majority male than female, which again makes sense given the prevalence of male characters over female characters.

3/4 Lion Primary and Secondary sortings were female, suggesting that it's a primary and secondary common among female characters.

Similarly, 3/4 Snake and Bird Primary sortings and all Badger Primary sortings were majority male. 3/4 Badger, Snake and Bird Secondary sortings were majority male. This may be a reflection of the prevalence of male characters.

Status:

The status of most characters in all sortings was alive. The sortings must likely to be both alive and deceased are Lion/Lion and Snake/Lion, which may be attributed to them being the largest.

Most of the percentage share for both alive and deceased was the same or similar for all sortings. The exception is Badger/Lion, which made up 10% of the surviving characters but only 5% of the deceased characters. This may be because, as the protagonist sorting, they're most likely to survive to the end.

Burned:

Lion and Snake Primaries were the most commonly burned. If one takes into account the prevalence of Lion and Snake Primaries, Bird Primaries being the third (5 behind Lion Primaries and 1 behind Snake Primaries) despite being the rarest primary suggests they may be the primary that burns the most often. However, almost half of burned Bird Primaries unburned, suggesting a certain resilience. Snake Primaries were the most likely to unburn. Lion and Badger Primaries were the least likely.

Burned Secondaries are uncommon

Lion/Lion was the sorting most likely to burn. Snake/Lion was the second most likely, but this might be a reflection of the prevalence of that sorting.

Lion/Bird was the sorting least likely to burn with only one case. Snake/Badger and Bird/Badger only had two cases, and Badger/Badger and Badger/Bird only three. This suggests perhaps a stability in Bird and Badger primaries and secondaries.

Genre:

Lion/Lion, Snake/Lion and Badger/Lion are among the most common sortings across the genres. Given their prevalence both in numbers and as protagonists, this makes sense.

Bird and Badger (both primaries and secondaries) are among the least common.

Snake/Snake and Snake/Badger are common in the supernatural and drama genres, respectively.

Snake/Bird is the most common in the crime genre by a significant margin, almost double the next sorting. Considering Snake/Bird is the villain sorting, having them be both the protagonist or antagonist in crime fiction makes sense.

Badger/Bird is the most common in the comedy genre. No idea why.

39 notes • Posted 2021-07-26 09:43:27 GMT

Current WIPs

These are summaries for my three WIPs I’m currently working on.

A Flame in the Forest

In the frozen wastelands of the Ice Fields, a town struggles to survive the war that has dragged on for years. The draft has left too few hands to bring in the harvest and the stores are dwindling. Faced with starvation, Mariya volunteers to do the impossible. Journey into the forest to find the Witch in the Woods and plead for her help. But the Witch does not give aid without a price. To save her town, Mariya must complete a series of three tasks, before the stores empty and her people starve.

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Setting: The village of Turzno, in a fantasy-style Siberia with the time period roughly equivalent to the 1910s.

Main characters:

Mariya Nikolaevna Churkhova:

All her life, Mariya was told she’d be a wife. And she had been, until her wealthy husband’s death forced her to return to her childhood home. A Pozharni, with the ability to control heat, she’s the only one in the village who can survive the journey through the taiga. Now the fate of the town rests on her shoulders.

Vladimir Nurzhanovich Abaev:

All his life, Vladimir was told he’d be a soldier. And he had been, until an injury left him unfit for duty. A foreigner to the town still, now he must keep hope alive until Mariya returns. But in times of war, hope is a hard thing to keep.

Links:

WIP Introduction

Character Intro: Mariya

Character Intro: Vladimir

Character Intro: Aruzhan

Snippet 1

A Shadow on the Wall

Östenbach is a bustling metropolis and the capital of the Kingdom of Koravia/ With its king ailing it’s the First Minister who truly wields the power of government and seeks to unite all of Masuria under Koravian leadership.

For years, Zilla has worked as the First Minister’s spy. As a Shadow Walker she can move through shadows undetected, a perfect thief of secrets. But it’s the secrets of her employer which she now seeks to steal.

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Setting: Östenbach is a fantasy-style Berlin with the time period roughly equivalent to mid 19th century.

Set in the same world as A Flame in the Forest.

Main characters:

Zilla Yasbeck:

Pressed into government service after a tragic event left her in the First Minister’s debt, there is nothing Zilla wants more than her own freedom. And nothing she will not to do gain it.

Maximilian Reventlow:

An idealist and a firebrand, Maximilian has dedicated his life to his newspaper and the dispersal of his ideas. But as war looms, Maximilian must choose between the people he loves and the cause he believes in.

Wilhelm von Hohenau:

The son of a prince and his morganatic wife, Wilhelm has always straddled two worlds, never fully belonging to either. Now with war on the horizon, he finally has a chance to prove himself to his father’s family.

In Want of a Wife

Impulsive, impetuous, unthinking. Cecily Montgomery has hated Laurence Fairchild ever since the summers they spent together as children at their godmother’s estate. Even as adults, her distaste for him has not abated. Now the London Season is upon them, and Cecily’s mother is intent on her marrying the Duke of Ashfield. If only Laurence wasn’t so intent on distracting her with his antics and ruining all their carefully laid plans.

Genre: Historical Romance

Setting: 1893, London

Main characters:

Cecily Montgomery:

Cecily has spent years learning how to be the perfect bride to find the perfect husband. After a disappointing first season, Cecily’s mother is determined that she will snag the greatest prize — the Duke of Ashfield. And Cecily is determined to make her mother proud.

Laurence Fairchild:

With his family’s estates failing, Laurence is under increasing pressure to find a wealthy bride to save the estate with her dowry. And he just might, if it wasn’t for his childhood friend catching all of his interest. This new Cecily is a stranger to him, but Laurence is adamant at proving that the spirited girl of his childhood is underneath her new, cool reserve.

Links:

WIP Introduction

Character Intro: Cecily Montgomery

Character Intro: Laurence Fairchild

Snippet 1

Snippet 2

Other Links Not WIP Related

Masterpost

43 notes • Posted 2021-05-07 07:48:41 GMT

WIP Introduction: A Flame in the Forest

"Snow fell, and fell, and fell, on the town of Turzno."

Plot Summary:

Genre: adult fantasy

Setting: the village of Turzno, in a fantasy-style Siberia with the time period roughly equivalent to the 1910s.

Status: currently writing the first draft

Tag: my wips: a flame in the forest

Themes: war, heroism, power, change and tradition, corruption and abuse of power, hope, identity

Main characters:

Mariya Nikolaevna Churkhova:

Left penniless after the death of her merchant husband, Mariya was forced to return to her childhood home and carve out an existence for herself. A Pozharni, with the ability to control heat, she is one of the few who can survive the harsh taiga. Desperate to find meaning in her suffering, she hopes that by saving the town she will also save herself.

Vladimir Nurzhanovich Abaev:

After he was discharged from the army Vladimir drifted across the countryside, finally choosing Turzno as his new home. Years later and still a foreigner to the town, he has now been charged with keeping hope alive until Mariya returns. A difficult feat when you have soldiers harassing the townsfolk, troublesome reports from the capital, and no trains delivering much needed supplies.

Taglist (send an ask to be added):

@thelaughingstag, @ofbloodandflowers, @writing-is-a-martial-art, @drippingmoon, @sleepy-night-child, @mel-writes-with-her-dragons, @laurenwordwisp,

Source of 2nd image in bottom row: illustration by Ivan Bilbin from Alexander Afanasyev's Russian Fairy Tales

67 notes • Posted 2021-05-23 10:27:09 GMT

WIP Introduction: In Want of a Wife

Plot Summary:

Genre: historical romance

Setting: London, 1893

Status: currently writing first draft

Tag: my wips: in want of a wife

Themes: love, family, friendship, duty, gender roles, marriage

Main characters:

Cecily Montgomery:

For her whole life Cecily has been taught how to be the perfect bride to find the perfect husband. After a disappointing first season, Cecily and her mother have spent years perfecting her skills and polishing up her manners. This season, Lady Mary is determined to snag the greatest prize for her daughter — the Duke of Ashfield. And Cecily is determined to make her mother proud.

Laurence Fairchild:

With the family’s estates failing, the Earl of Scarborough expects his son to find a wealthy bride. But Laurence has no interest in marriage. Indeed, Laurence isn’t sure what he is interested in, except for his intriguing childhood friend. This new Cecily is almost a stranger, but Laurence is determined to prove the spirited girl of their shared childhood summers remains underneath her new, cool reserve.

Supporting characters:

The Duke of Ashfield:

As a handsome Duke in need of a wealthy bride, Lord Pemberton is truly the catch of the season and Lady Mary’s pick for Cecily’s future husband.

Nellie Stalworth:

As an American heiress, Nellie has come to London for her parents to find a titled husband for their only daughter.

Lady Mary Montgomery:

As the mother of an unmarried young woman, Lady Mary has nothing but marriage on her mind and is determined to ensure her daughter does not repeat her own mistakes.

Taglist (ask to be added/removed):

@thelaughingstag, @writing-with-l, @kishons, @depressedpoetess, @aphaimaniis, @macabretypewriter, @inkovert, @cheerfulmelancholies, @zmlorenz , @ink-fireplace-coffee, @josephinegerardywriter, @halleiswriting, @tiredlittleoldme, @kg-willie

72 notes • Posted 2021-05-30 05:09:11 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

11 notes · View notes

scentedflowersong · 4 years ago

Text

Between The Pages

Hi guys, it’s me again ;)

Judging by your response to 12 Days of Swan-Mills Saga Christmas, you are quite interested in some ‘bonus’ material to The Swan-Mills Saga, so here it is - the complete (for the time being) list of Between the Pages one-shots/deleted scenes.

A big thank you to the ever so sensational @swanqueeneverafter!

Merry Christmas

Rating: T Summary: The Swan-Mills extended family shop for the perfect Christmas tree. Set between 'The Story of Us' and 'After The Sunset'

Distance Is Overrated

Rating: M Summary: Having killed for the first time since becoming a mother, Regina is keeping Emma at arms length. Confused by her behaviour, Emma is nevertheless determined to do her job as Deputy and find out the truth behind Graham’s death. Set between ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter’ and 'True North’.

Consider This

Rating: M Summary: With the vision of her death still haunting her, Emma is visited at the station by the Evil Queen. Although initially reluctant to listen, Emma soon finds the Queen’s words making a lot of sense to her. But what will Henry and Regina think? Set between ‘A Bitter Case’ and 'I’ll Be Your Mirror’.

Guardian Dragon Part 1 and Part 2

Rating: M Summary Part 1: Just where did Regina go that Saturday? We know for certain it wasn’t to a city council meeting. Catching up with an old friend, Regina reflects on the events leading up to casting the Dark Curse and her mixed feelings about Emma Swan. Set during the events of ‘The Price of Gold’. Summary Part 2: While Regina is undercover with the Queens of Darkness, Emma is desperate to make sure she’s all right. During a private rendezvous, can Regina and Emma keep their relationship a secret, or will they be discovered by prying eyes? Set during Season 4 and the events of ‘Best Laid Plans’.

I’m Glad You Came

Rating: M Summary: After that bittersweet kiss outside the diner, Regina walked home alone. Or did she? What follows are the events that took place directly after Mary Margaret & Emma’s welcome home party. Set During ‘The Cricket Game’.

Seduced by Darkness

Rating: M Summary: Finding themselves back in Storybrooke with the Dark Swan up to no good, Emma’s friends and family want answers. Bound and determined to be the one to find those answers, Regina resolves to confront the Dark One for a third time.Will she be successful, or does the Darkness have something planned for Regina that she’ll never see coming? Set during ‘Swan Song’.

The Long Way Back

Rating: T Summary: Having returned to the Enchanted Forest along with the people she once cursed, Regina must face a life without the ones she loves most. Her heart aching with the loss of Henry and her mind filled with memories of Emma Swan, the former Evil Queen must soon face her toughest challenge yet. Chronicling the events of 'the lost year’ through the eyes of those left behind, we embark on a journey to reunite a family torn apart. Set directly after the events of ‘Going Home’.

I Believe In Us

Rating: T Summary: After the kiss that sent Emma back home to the future, Storybrooke’s fate is now uncertain. Can the curse still be broken without the Saviour? Will Regina be able to move on from her latest heartbreak and mend her relationship with Henry? Set during ‘The Once & Future Queen’.

Note that the rating is mostly up to M in BTP, you know what that means 🍑💦

Teasers below cut... ;)

Distance Is Overrated

Deliciously yummy smut in the mayor’s office... Excerpt:

“Laying kisses on the mayor’s stomach, Emma’s hands frantically push Regina’s skirt up around her hips, placing a kiss between the brunette’s thighs before ripping the mayor’s panties from her body.”

Consider This

How will this indecent proposal play out? Excerpt:

Evil Queen: “You were wonderful, Emma. (Emma gasps:) Don’t worry, this will be our little secret.”

Guardian Dragon Pt.1

C’mon, DragonQueen is the quilty pleasure ship we all love... Excerpt:

Maleficent: “You won’t regret this, Regina.” Evil Queen: “Hm. (Smiling:) Shall we seal the deal?” Maleficent: “Absolutely.”

Guardian Dragon Pt.2

A little bit of voyeurism never killed anyone... Excerpt:

“Closing her eyes when Emma’s mouth makes contact with her breast for the first time, Regina arches her head back in ecstasy.“

I’m Glad You Came

Smut (in front of the fireplace) with feelings is the best alibi... Excerpt:

“Leaning in for a kiss, Regina almost topples from Emma’s lap when she feels curious fingers probing beneath her skirt and finding their way inside Regina’s underwear.“

Seduced By Darkness

The Dark Swan and the Evil Queen feasting on each other(’s darkness),go on, say it does nothing for ya, you liars... Excerpt:

“Sinking to her knees, Emma hungrily pushes up Regina’s skirt, kissing her panty-covered crotch before reaching up and tearing Regina’s underwear from her body. Arching her neck with a gasp, Regina struggles to remain standing as she feels Emma’s mouth upon her.”

The Long Way Home

Honestly there’s so much more feels than smut, but it’s so f*ckingly good 4-chapter you won’t mind... Excerpt:

“Gazing into each other’s eyes, Emma moves toward her and they kiss, pouring all of their love into it. The year’s separation simply melting away between them.”

I Believe In Us

Okay, no smut here (at all), but it has Sameen the hammer Shaw in it (and meta!Shoot too) Excerpt:

Shaw: (Flips through the storybook:) “I don’t know, if the people in Storybrooke are even half as hot as they appear in this book…“ Emma: "Don’t you ever think with another part of your anatomy?” Shaw: (Staring at a picture of a fairy named Astrid:) “I know who’s anatomy I’m going to be thinking about tonight.” Emma: (Throws up her hands and grabs her coat:) “I need some air.” Shaw: “Emma, come on…“ (Slamming the door to her apartment closed behind her, Emma pulls on her coat and heads towards the stairs.)

Note: the excerpts were selected to tease but not to show the “very best” parts, also they don’t necessarily belong to the artworks :)

#the swan-mills saga #between the pages #Maleficent #sq #swanqueen #swan queen #swen #emma swan #regina mills #mrs&mrs swan-mills #dragon queen

74 notes · View notes

killiansprincss · 4 years ago

Text

Could This Be Us?

This is my work for @csjanuaryjoy this is my first year taking part and I’m excited to share with you all! I’ve made it my goal to write more this year and this seemed like the best way to do that goal! This is just a cute fluff missing scene that I hope brings you joy!

Also on A03

Summary: set in the few weeks before 4b when everything was clam, Emma and Killian agree to babysit Neal and Emma slowly begins to let down her walls and Killian becomes vulnerable. Pure fluff. Babysitting adventures.

___

Emma was happy. The Snow Queen was gone and Gold was banished to the real world. There was nothing and nobody that could hurt them anymore. They could begin their normal life, well as normal as a town filled with fairytale characters could be. Her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming and her boyfriend was Captain Hook, so it was a little crazy, but for the first time in her life, Emma was truly happy.

She goes downstairs to see her parents cooing over her baby brother. Again, still weird that she was 30 and the same age as her parents, and had a newborn baby brother. Even weirder that he was named after her dead ex boyfriend, but his death did allow them to defeat Zelena. And she couldn’t tell them the horrible things Neal did to her, it would only ruin their sense of hope and belief that everyone could be a hero.

“Morning Kid, want me to drive you to school?” Emma asks her son, as she pours her coffee.

Henry spent 4 days at the Apartment Lot with Emma and his grandparents, and the other 3 days at Regina’s. It was their best attempt at normality, and Henry seemed to like spending time with David, dropping not so subtle hints that he wanted to take up sword fighting lessons.

“It’s okay Mom. I think I’ll walk, Ivy is meeting me early as we’ve got our science project due today so we need to go over everything.” He tells her. He was getting pretty friendly to this Ivy girl, Emma was sure he had his first crush, but wouldn’t say anything in case she ruined anything.

Checking the time and realises she’s late, she takes a final sip of her coffee before saying, “I’ve gotta go. Killian’s helping out at the station today and I’m meeting him at Granny’s for breakfast.” It had become a weekly tradition to meet Killian for breakfast, she was getting him to try everything on the menu, and this week was Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

“Wait, Emma before you leave.” David says, picking up Neal from his crib. “We wanted to know if you and Hook would babysit tonight. We haven’t had a night to ourselves in a while.”

Emma smiles, “We would love to. And since when do you approve of Hook babysitting? Does this mean you like him now?”

David rolls his eyes, but can’t stop the smile from his face. Truth is he was warming to the fact that a pirate was dating his daughter, he was a good guy, he cared for Emma and he was proving day by day that he wasn’t the man he was years ago. “He’s still a pirate dating my daughter, so he’s under careful supervision. But if he makes you happy I’m not standing in your way.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Morning love.” Killian waits for Emma outside the lot, which he really didn’t have to do seeing as he lives in the room he rents at Granny’s.

She gives him a quick kiss, and takes his hand as they start walking. “So my parents have asked us to babysit my brother tonight. I told them we would, I hope that’s okay.”

Killian gives Emma a worried look. “Just so you know Swan, I know nothing about babies, I’m not so sure how helpful I can be.”

Emma smiles at her boyfriend, he could’ve easily said no, but he didn’t. “That’s okay. I didn’t raise Henry, I also don’t know the first thing about babies, so it’ll be an adventure for both of us.”

Killian was so lucky. He truly was the luckiest man in the universe. He never imagined Emma would be with him in the way that she is. He also never imagine he would help look after her baby brother with her. If Liam could see him now, he hoped he would be proud.

They walk into Granny’s hand and hand and sit down in the booth. Emma orders them both Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, and waits patiently to see what he thinks of them. She shows him that he has to cut into the fluffy circle stack and pour the syrup all over them, the more syrup the better.

His eyes go wide as he chews and realises it’s delicious. “It’s so sweet. This is breakfast food?”

Emma laughs as she digs into her plate. “Oh yeah it’s breakfast all right. I don’t know what you eat for breakfast in the Enchanted Forest but we have many sweet options in this world.”

“Much better than the things I was eating whilst at sea.” He says as he pours even more syrup onto the pancakes.

“And what was that, Rum and more Rum?” She teases as she takes a bite off her plate.

“Ha-Ha Swan. Contrary to your belief, I did eat actual food as a pirate. Not nearly as sweet as this though, it consisted of dried fruits and nuts, then once we docked into port, we were able to have bread and other fresh pastry delicacies.” He chooses to leave out that in Neverland his diet did consist mainly of Rum and non poisonous fruit from the Island.

Emma smiles. This is what happiness looks like. Watching her pirate boyfriend eating Pancakes for the first time. She could get used to it.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

That night, Killian comes over around 6. Her parents had decided to go to a restaurant in town that wasn’t Granny’s, but after constant reminding that Emma had their number to call should anything go wrong. Not that it would. Hopefully.

Emma’s donned her leather jacket for some comfy clothes, leggings and an oversized hoodie, hair in a messy bun. Not her usual sheriff, or saviour look. Killian however is still in his modern leather jacket and jeans, not quite understanding that babysitting would be much easier in comfy clothes.

“Here, put these on.” She tosses him a pair of David’s clothes, sweatpants and a grey t-shirt, hopefully her dad won’t mind, he did say he was liking Hook more and more every day.

“Swan, the clothes in your world are utterly ridiculous.” He says as comes out of the bathroom, looking a lot less like a pirate, and more like a man.

Emma smiles, she had to say he looked good in sweatpants. “Trust me if Neal pukes all over you, it’s a lot easier to get it out of an old t shirt that it would out of leather.”

Killian looked vulnerable. For the first time really. She’d seen him in a lot less clothing before, but she never noticed how vulnerable it makes him look. Underneath all the leather, was a man who had been broken before.

He looks down at his Hook, “do you want me to take this off?”

Emma immediately tells him no. “I don’t see why you should. It’s a part of you, and he’s gonna have to get used to it.”

Killian smiles, the little prince will have to get used to it. Because he’s not going anywhere, he’s sticking around. He will never leave Emma like all those before.

“So where is the Little Prince then?” He asks.

Emma leads him over to the crib in the corner of the room, “Do you want to hold him?”

Emma trusts him. Wholeheartedly. So he agrees to hold the baby.

Neal fusses at first in Killians arms, but he fusses with everyone. He just needs to get used to it.

“Am I doing it okay Swan?” Killian asks as he fusses, but he isn't crying which is a good thing.

“You're doing great.” Emma smiles at him. This was a rare sight, Captain Hook in sweatpants holding a baby. Emma was getting butterflies in her stomach looking at it. She and Killian had been together for a few months now but she could already see a future with him. Being with him was so different than it ever was with Neal, even Walsh, despite it being all fake, was so different to Killian. He never tried to shower her with gifts or presents or big romantic gestures like Walsh. Killian was just there, by her side. And that's all she wanted.

“I think the Little Prince likes me.” Kilian beams as Neal starts laughing at the faces Killian was pulling.

It was scary. Emma was sure she was in love with him. She just couldn’t bring herself to say the words out loud. Because as soon as she said them, things would change between them and it would become real. When she told Neal she loved him, he left her. Killian wouldn't leave, she knows that. But it still scares her.

“Oh no. No. Swan. What’s happening, why is the little lad crying?” Killian asks frantically, starting to panic that he was doing something wrong.

“He’s hungry,” Emma tells him, grabbing his bottle from the counter. “This should be warm enough by now.”

Killian takes the bottle and gets Neal to drink.

“You gotta make sure you’re holding his head, it’s sensitive at this age.” Emma says making his arm support her brother's head.

“You’re good at this you know.” He says as she helps him. “How is it you know all this?”

“Just watching my mom do it really. Also, my cursed memories of me raising Henry. Even though it didn’t happen, I remember learning everything from the books. I remember staying up all night when he cried, and learning how to be a mother at barely 18.” She decided to confide in him, she’s never told anyone about her cursed memories, or about her time in prison, but she feels like she can confide in him, tell him anything without being judged.

“I was 17 when I gave birth, cursed or not, I turned 18 a month later and a few weeks after that I was released from prison. It wasn’t my finest moment, but in my cursed memories I had Henry to keep me going. When I woke up and got my memories back, it made me wish I never gave him up. Because those 12 years were the best 12 years of my life.”

It feels good to open up. She’s letting him in slowly, but it feels nice. He doesn’t pry, he doesn’t ask too many questions, he just listens to her.

“After our father abandoned us, Liam practically raised me. I felt empty and hurt, but Liam, he was there even in my darkest days. The best years of my life was when we were in the Navy together, before it all went wrong.”

They were two halves of the same coin, both abandoned and lost everyone they ever cared about. But together they were healing, both themselves and each other.

“I think he likes you!” Emma says wiping her tears away as Neal becomes fascinated with Killian's Hook.

Killian looks down at the little prince in his arms to see him trying to grab his Hook with his tiny little fingers. “Everyone likes me Swan. I’m not surprised your brother does too.”

“I didn’t like you at first.” Emma teases.

“Aye but my charming wits and looks won you over eventually.” He teases back, causing the smile that he loves to see.

It would be so easy in this moment to say the three words. Killian knew it the moment she kissed him back in Neverland, and in the missing year he realised how much he loved her when he thought he’d never see her again. But he knows better. If he said the words right now, it would cause a rift, and maybe cause her to run. So he doesn’t, he will wait for her to say the words first. He’ll wait forever to hear her say it, it doesn’t matter. As long as they’re together.

“I think I’m getting the hang of it Swan!” He speaks too soon as he begins to rock the little prince to sleep, he decides to bring up the contents of his tiny stomach all over Killian.

Emma tries not to laugh, but she can’t help it as laughter fills the lot.

She takes Neal from Killian so he can clean the sick off his shirt, “told you this would be a better idea, imagine trying to get that off your leather vest. There's another one of David shirts on top of the dryer, you can put the dirty shirt in the basket with the other dirty laundry.”

Looking after her baby brother with her 300 year old boyfriend is honestly not even the weirdest thing about her life at the moment. But it’s something that she never thought she would be doing, she was 17 when she gave Henry up and she thought she would never want kids, or even be ready after that. But just seeing how good Killian was with her brother, it got her thinking could she want this life? It wasn’t off the table. A baby with her hair and Killians eyes. Maybe one day.

___

“He won’t stop crying. Why won’t he stop crying?” Emma cries. They had been trying to settle him for almost an hour now and she’s getting tired. If this was a recurring thing then maybe having a baby of her own wasn’t something she wanted. Especially as it was barely 8.30.

“What else can we try?” Killian asks with Neal in his arms trying to send him to sleep by rocking him slowly.

“I don’t suppose you know a lullaby?” Emma asks, half joking, not really expecting him to.

Except he starts to sing, or hum a melody. It’s quiet enough that she can’t hear the lyrics properly, but Neal seems to like it. So much so that it stirs him off to sleep.

Emma’s really impressed. “That doesn’t sound like a sea shanty. Since when does Captain Hook know a lullaby?”

“My mother used to sing it to me and Liam. Before she died that is.” He tells her, putting Neal down slowly into his crib.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don't be, love. It was a long time ago.”

“Can you tell me about her?” She asks.

“I was 5 when she died, Liam was 8. I don’t remember much about her, Liam probably remembers more. But I know she was tough, she wouldn’t have taken my fathers bullshit. She used to sing that to Liam and I every night before we went to sleep. I sang it to myself sometimes on the Jolly in Neverland after Liam died. It comforted me.” He brushes it off as if it’s nothing, similar to how Emma talks about her past. She takes his hand and interweines their fingers as she leads them back to the couch.

“I like hearing stories about your past. About your pre-pirate days. Reminds me you weren’t always cursed.”

She wraps her fingers around his Hook, she’s never been afraid of it. Or afraid of the man attached to the Hook. She can’t help but imagine one day a baby with her hair and his eyes fiddling with his Hook the way her brother did tonight. And that’s scary.

Emma has a way of seeing the good in him, despite his cruel actions she sees beyond it, sees the pain it’s caused him in the past few years as he attempts to better himself. “I certainly was cursed with bad luck but sadly my actions were of my own accord. But I’ll tell you one story of the time Liam and I got caught in a storm at sea. Liam was a Lieutenant at that point and wanted to prove he could handle it, the stubborn arse.”

And so he tells her stories of his time in the Navy. He tells her anything she wants to hear, and he realises this is the first time anyone has really asked about Liam, or his past. The women he spent the night with back in the Enchanted Forest, well they never did much talking. And with Milah, she was focused on forgetting her past so didn’t care much to ask about his.

“I wish you could’ve met him. He would’ve loved you.” It’s nice, speaking about Liam, telling her the stories he hasn’t really ever told anyone-or thought about in centuries.

Snow and Charming return a few hours later, to find their daughter and Hook asleep on the couch, Emma’s head resting on the Pirates chest. Snow smiles at the sight, and even David isn’t appalled at the sight either, appreciating that his daughter is happy. Snow grabs a blanket and covers the two of them.

“Is that my shirt?” David whisper screams at his wife seeing the pirate wearing his clothes.

#cs January joy 2021 #csjj 2021 #captain swan #killian jones #Emma swan #cs ff #captain swan fanfic #my writing

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stark-park · 4 years ago

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Once Upon A Guard

Or, if The Old Guard were characters in Once Upon A Time.

Obviously, these two universes are very different so they’re not exact matches but... 🤷‍♂️ I like to compare my favourite things

David Nolan | Joe

Love their partners and would do anything for them

Met their partners through fighting (granted, Snow and David didn’t kill each other but that’s neither here nor there)

Best hair of any characters (no, I do not take criticism)

Sword!

Cutest smile (again, I don’t take criticism)

Underrated wit

✨soft✨

CHARMING AF (pun of course intended)

Is the fashionable one in the couple (I don’t care if you don’t think David is fashionable, I want his shirts okay? That’s makes him fashionable in my book)

Dramatic entrances on point!

Snow White | Nicky

True Love is David so of course Nicky is going to be Snow

Long ranged attack weapon is their speciality but can and will use other weapons

It’s all about the ✨hope✨

More reserved/quieter than their true love

Just as inspiring and loving as their true love

If you hurt the people they love, you better be prepared for the consequences!

Kindess is their middle names

If Nicky had the time, I fully believe he would’ve been able to talk any of his captors into friendship

Certainly have regrets but use it as a source of strength to fight the good fight

Sweetest smile

If they can help, feel it is their duty to do so

Emma Swan | Andy

Badass 1st, human being 2nd

Main character (bit of a cop out point but still, they are)

Tired of fighting

Memories = suffering 😔

Has a strong relationship with Henry/Nile that is part of the reason they are still fighting

Will do what’s right, even if they’re done with this shitty world

Have both been bounty hunters

✨Sarcasm✨

Have both been inspired and exasperated by their youngling (Henry/Nile) at some point

I need to stress that I do not see Joe and Nicky as Andy's parents in any way, I just think she has the strongest characteristics with Emma out of anyone in OUAT

Emma is The Saviour and Andy saves people

Spent a long time in their lives believing they were alone

Betrayed by someone they love

Trust issues 👍

Henry Mills | Nile

Nile has strong beliefs and Henry is known as The Truest Believer

The babies

A sense that they need to prove themselves? Perhaps. Shows everyone they are capable? Absolutely!

Eager to learn from the people around them

Headstrong, Clever, Resourceful

Successfully rescued their families

✨nerd✨

One of the first things Henry wanted to be taught was sword fighting. I shall not be convinced that Nile doesn't want to be able to sword fight too

I reckon Nile would enjoy naming the team’s missions

Jefferson | Booker

Depressed bastards

Would rather be in any other situation than the one they're in

Has to live with the grief of losing their children (even though Jefferson's daughter is still alive, he is cursed to watch her live happily without him knowing she may not forgive him for leaving her)

Neck related trauma (Jefferson got his head cut off and Booker's first death was via hanging)

So very tired

Kidnaps Snow/gets Joe Nicky captured before doing the same to Emma/Andy

Gets screwed over by the person he thought was helping/he was helping (Regina leaves Jefferson in Wonderland & Merrick decides he wants all of TOG in his lab)

I know there's a point about Henry/Nile and these two guys but I don't know what it is yet

Jefferson's "get it to work" and Book's belief in the potential for Merrick to find "a way to end it" has the same vibe

#the old guard #the old guard as #once upon a time #ouat #tog #david nolan #yusuf al kaysani #snow white #nicolo di genova / nicky #emma swan #andromache the scythian / andy #henry mills #nile freeman #jefferson mad hatter #sebastien le livre / booker #togsource #starkpark

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coldkingduck · 3 years ago

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Hear me out

okay so as we all know, swan queen wasn't endgame because the writers was queer bating, but we not gonna get into more of that.

I am a 17 year old girl who wants to become a director and I've been thinking about what I want to do. So i thought about Swan Queen, and knowing I can't re-right the show, but it would've been good cause our little babies would've been married at this point. why not make it like the two daughter of Regina and Emma fall in love. Hear me out

So as we all know (not all, the ones who seen ouat) Regina and Baron ended up together at the end of season 7, which i'm proud that my baby Regina moved on and got love. So a few years later They have a baby, a baby girl. Few more years the daughter doesn't know she was the daughter of either because they moved from storybrooke (Hopefully that's how you spell that town name). The baby girl (i don't know a name for her yet so bare with me) lives in Toronto Canada because she ran away from her home (I would say because of the consent fighting with Regina and Baron) she lives with her roommate, and she likes it.

So during the time they decided to have a road trip, because they seen the show ouat and decided to go see how it was when they filmed. Once stepping over the town line, she gets weird flashbacks about the Evil Queen and Dr. Facilier and she doesn't understand why. Once she finds out about being the daughter of both and discovering her magic she becomes evil and decided to make a curse over the town because that's what her mother did and she shouldn't have let a blonde change her evil ways (No hate on Emma).

Years have passed and the town is still under a curse, the new evil in town and doing what the evil queen had done years ago, the town thought it would never come to this again. They all wish the Saviour was here to save the town. And a miracle she does, but no, that's not Emma Swan, that's her daughter, Hope swan. She don't take up the name Jones anymore because of the divorced of the mother and father (No hate on Killian)

Once finding out the baby girl she decided her prim subject is to kill hope swan, but more Disney characters children came to help the new hero of the town. But she knew this would come, so she got the big bad of all, Mr.Gold's new son (He had with belle) Baelfire (Lets say he had named him after his first son from the death etc etc). He helps her get the evil children of the villains. Together they fight and fight and fight.

After a while the evil queen's child had split from her evil half (Just like the evil queen and Regina) but the town still consider her as a threat (yk the same way Regina was) but Hope had manage for the town to at least believe her and that she is split. They believe hope but keep a close eye on the former evil queen child.

During the time finding the evil half they manage to feel a type of way with each other, but keep denying the feeling.

(This will be a slow burn)

There would be romance, Rated R for *Cough* sex *cough* - there would be cursing in this, drug use (Weed, that's it) Murder, would be humor, and as always MAGIC

The characters sexuality as well

pansexual

gay

Lesbian

Bisexual

and yes Straight

I would like to say POLYSEXUAL as well because there isn't three people in a relationship on movies or tv shows so why not make history

CHARACTERS

Still tryna figure out the daughter name for Regina and baron

there is Hope Swan

Alex Miller, Olivia Danvers, Daniel Benson (The former Evil queen child bsf's)

Robin jr (Imma say that Robin had another child with his wife- oh shit he died- Okay she names the child Robin jr reminder of him....and his death)

William Jones ( Emma and Killian had another child before the divorced and he named him for a reminder of his BSF)

Baelfire (Gold's son)

Neal (Yup snowing child)

Terry ( Ruby and Dorothy child)

Anthony and Diana (Tiana and Naveen daughter and son)

And i thought about Elsa so Olaf (with a little help with Emma, they let Olaf be a real boy)

There would be extra characters

Now the tittle of the Show I had a few ideas but don't know what will fit

1- The Evil Queen daughter VS The Saviours daughter (This one is to long though)

2- The story that wasn't told (It would fit but not as great)

3- Let her be known

4- Continue of the dark curse (I REALLY LIKE THIS)

5- The ship that didn't sail (It wouldn't fit with the movie I was thinking about my swan queen babies)

6- Once Upon a Time (But in a different format) IDK ABOUT THIS ONE IT'S UHGHGHGHHHHGGGHHH

I NEED HELP WITH THE NAME FOR THE DAUGHTER AND HELP WITH TITTLE AND MAYBE SOME MORE CHARACTERS PLEASE HELPPPPP!!!!!

And let me know how this sounds!

#SwanQueen YoungDirector #emma x regina #pls help

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shardminds · 5 years ago

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fortune favours the brave

pairing: emma swan/killian jones rated: m (for language & depiction of injury & just to be safe) wc: 5189 pacific rim!au

She passes the pseudo-drift but Killian can’t quite meet her eyes afterwards and Emma catches herself wondering, with clenched fists, if it’s all worth it.

just a warning, this is an open-ended work, meaning the ending is up to your own interpretation and i most likely will not be writing anything else to clarify... unless i decide to have another crack at this au down the line and completely rewrite the whole thing but i am a lazy bitch above all else with too many things to do so please don't get your hopes up!

my initial tag for this was "dealing with the weight of a neurological bond that reveals a lot more about yourself than you’d like." but ao3 said it was too long

this was intended as a birthday present to myself but it's 12 days late and i won't apologise.

also available on ao3 ♠

@artistic-writer is my saviour and i love her.

As soon as the pincer hits her spine, the simulation is over. Quicker than death could ever have captured her, quicker than the pain she was expecting in her lower back, quicker than blinking past a fallen beast and thinking it long past dead. If it were real, she wouldn’t have to deal with the disappointment of her superiors as they marked another tally in the opposite column of their tablets.

Kaiju: 3, Swan: 0.

Pixels dissipate into the air, audios and visuals power down as the relay gel leaks from her display, Killian sighs over the comms and the four walls of the training centre scream failure. Unclasping the plug at her neck, she collapses to the floor. Defeated.

“If your intention was to get paralysed, love, congratulations.” He’s exasperated, words clipped, and she knows he’s probably running his hand through his hair in that way he does or rolling his eyes or praying for this to be over. She can picture it so well because she’s been there, supervising rangers through the same process. That had been her job, her safe space. Then Marshal Mills had coerced her into a compatibility trial with the promise of a bigger bunk and a night off with the last bottle of bourbon on deck. Suddenly, nowhere was safe anymore. “It’s just a simple test,” she’d said, rolling her eyes at Emma’s reluctance to even try. “What harm can it do?”

If he catches the curses under her breath as she stands, he doesn’t let on.

Killian had managed to pass her simulated drift space on the second attempt—eviscerating a CAT 3 with ease and ignoring the distractions along the way. He didn’t talk about what stopped him the first time. Neither did she.

She was not so lucky, struggling not to forget herself in the memories of his past. Each step deeper into the consciousness he’d moulded dragged her further away from the task at hand. Each step closer to finding out what keeps Killian Jones awake at night is a step away from truly knowing him. She felt it all. His pain, grief and loss coming in overwhelming waves, only serving to intensify her own. Each time she failed, she understood him a little bit better and lost herself a little bit more.

Robin said it’s the trauma that helps their compatibility and the resilience in light of such pain. Will said it’s because they’re both insufferable cunts.

You can’t choose your drift partner.

“Again.” Adjusting the helmet slightly, she pulls up her vitals on the inner screen. BP a little high, heart rate too, brainwaves stable. Good enough. If she could just get past the random-access brain impulse triggers, the lure of Killian’s fabricated conflicts, she’d be showering the fabricated city in fabricated Kaiju Blue.

(Of course, she’d never really do that. Regina doesn’t need a reason to resent her.)

“Swan, take five.” The comm in her inner ear buzzes. Killian, again. There’s a tension to his tone, as if he could snap at a moment's notice. It’s not easy, having someone else inside your head—even when it’s not real. It’s worse when every inch of it is projected in agonisingly high definition to your commanding officers. Emma’s been living through his trauma while he’s been forced to watch it back, time and time again. She’ll get it next time.

Next time.

Always next time.

“No, count me down.”

“Swan—”

“My vitals are fine! No bleeds, no dizziness, motor function all good.” The CNS link connects to the back of her neck with a twist of her wrist and a dull click. Power vibrates through the plug suit, humming like the anticipation Emma can feel beneath her own skin. “One more try, I’m almost there.”

There’s no response from Killian. No quip or complaint. He’s silent as Emma closes her eyes and opens them to the darkness of the drift. The next voice she hears is Robin’s.

“Five.”

Her world is blue. Warped. Memories zipping past her that she does and doesn’t remember. Emma recognises one woman’s face from her previous pseudo-drifts. She has a name somewhere.

“Four.”

The woman walks off to some kind of middle distance, between nothing and nowhere. She indicates for Emma to follow with the crook of her finger and a smile.

“Three.”

It’s not Emma she’s seeing.

“Stop chasing it, Emma. Two.”

Taking a breath, Emma wills away the apparition, tuning in to the pounding of her own heartbeat and that of someone else’s — Killian’s, strong and steady. It grounds her.

“Prepare for Neural Handshake.”

When the Kaiju pincer swings for her, she slices it clean off.

She passes the pseudo-drift but Killian can’t quite meet her eyes afterwards and Emma catches herself wondering, with clenched fists, if it’s all worth it.

A CAT 3 and two CAT 2’s attack what’s left of San Francisco a week later in the largest triple event in recorded history and yes, it’s definitely worth it.

Ruby and Graham are deployed in Lone Wolf, along with two Jaegers from Alaska. The fight, like all fights, is raw and too close. Always too close. They return half a day later, lucky to have made it out with their lives. The bags under Jefferson’s eyes carry the weight of the world as he reports back to the bridge with the news.

They’ll never pilot again.

Killian finds her later, sat atop Frozen Serenity with a half-empty hip flask and a cigarette. He doesn’t question her or the tears she wears. He holds her, one arm wrapping around Emma’s shoulders, pulling her into his chest. It’s too close, too much but not enough. It’s times like this—times of wordless understanding—that she’s glad of the bond they supposedly have.

Thankfully, he doesn’t waste his words with reassurance. Regina had spent the last thirty minutes on the comms for everyone to hear. The threat was eliminated; victory, but at what cost? Ruby and Graham had been wheeled in on gurneys, surrounded by medics and techs and escorted directly to isolation. Their Jaeger followed shortly after, complete with thick gashes to its middle and a viciously pierced conn-pod leaking rivulets of coolant and Kaiju blood. It didn’t take Emma long to see why they’d ushered the pilots away.

Sneaking off had been a non-issue.

“Next time,” The warmth of his body offers only slight comfort from the chill of the hangar but she’s grateful for it. “It’ll be us.”

“We might not even drift yet. The simulation is nothing like the real thing.” The lump in her throat has her choking around the words. The fragility of it all should frighten her, but it doesn’t. She’s not scared. There’s no time for fear.

“We will.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s called trust.” When he smiles, sad but hopeful, the tears come again.

It’s all worth it, even if she loses herself in the process.

Jolly Roger, a Mark 3 with a history of fallen pilots, had been in pretty bad shape when Emma had seen it come through the east coast bunker a year ago. With a compromised pod and basically no left side, it was a mess.

Will had already sized the wreck up for parts before it’d even docked in the hangar.

“There’s no way it’ll run again. Core to Wolf, pod fixed up for Snow’s Mark 4, shocks to whoever needs them most and the rest for scraps and refurbs.” He’d said, around a mouthful of instant mac and cheese. Emma rolled her eyes, grabbing a bite of her own meagre rations. “Bet as much as you want, you know I’m right.”

After six months, when Marshal Mills announced they needed a co-pilot for Jolly, Emma collected her prize with a smile and a disgruntled “Fuck off.” from the mechanic.

Seeing it now, all shiny and new, with a fresh core, updated weapon systems and a slick paint job was like looking at a different machine entirely. Killian has the same awestruck glaze to his expression that she has.

He says something under his breath that sounds like “I missed you.”

Three days later, atop the bunker looking out at the wasteland the eastern seaboard has become, Killian finds her again. The horizon is permanently tinged green these days, thick with smog rising from the polluted city that used to be Boston. It’s something else now, something new entirely. New York had really done a number on the east coast.

“So,” he starts, a six pack in his good hand and a thick file—her file—in his mechanical one. “It seems that the fate of the earth relies on us getting intimate, love.”

Emma shrugs his comment off with an eye roll. “In your dreams.”

“In my dreams, we wouldn’t be drinking this backwash,” she catches the bundle of cans as it falls to her lap and pulls two free of the casing. Killian slumps down beside her, a welcome warmth against her side. He’s always warm. “And you’d be wearing a lot less.”

“Pervert.” Her cheeks flush from the windchill and not because of the wink he sends her way as he takes a can from her lap.

He shrugs, gulping back his beer. “I’ve been called a lot worse.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

“I doubt anything could, lass.”

He reads in relative silence, which Emma appreciates, only pausing to ask questions at the redacted statements in her story. There’s no point in hiding anything from him now—soon, he’ll see it all. There’s something about Killian Jones that she trusts and she’s not exactly sure why.

“You were there? In New York?” He thumbs the report sheet, filled with more censoring than words. She doesn’t remember much of it; being eighteen, the toils of pregnancy, wrongful imprisonment, the first Kaiju attack on the east coast, holding her child to her chest as the walls crumbled. The memories are all so distant, it almost feels like someone else lived them.

Emma nods. “Unfortunately.”

Killian doesn’t push for the details; all the relevant ones are written on the sheet he’s holding. How they’d found her bleeding beneath rubble and dust, clutching the bundle of blankets and the body within. There hadn’t been time for a funeral.

She’s shaking when he takes her hand.

“It was my first deployment. On a CAT 4, no less.” He traces circles around her knuckles as if they’re anything but strangers. She doesn’t have it in her heart to stop him. “Cataclysm, they called it. The ugliest bloody thing I’d ever seen. Liam, the comedian he is—was, spent the whole fight calling it all kinds of names as we tore it to pieces bit by bit.” He takes another sip of his can, eyes locked on the horizon. “I felt him die that day.”

His thumb doesn't stop tracing its pattern, but she grips his hand tighter—part shock, part understanding.

“Jewel never stood a chance. The emp left us wide open and the blasted thing used its last breath to launch at the conn-pod and—”

“You don’t have to, Killian.” She whispers, beer forgotten at their feet. “You don’t have to relive it.”

“But I do. Every time I step foot in the hangar, I relive it. Every time I drift, or spar or train. Every time I look in the mirror I see his face staring back at me.” He sighs, letting his posture slip further. He’s no longer a Ranger. He’s a lost boy. The grief he carries, the guilt, is something she recognises. “I miss him, Emma, and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Wind blows, alarms ring, sun filters through the murky atmosphere and casts them both in its golden glow and Emma Swan pulls him in for a hug.

He stiffens in her embrace before leaning into it, letting the tension dissipate beneath her touch. It’s intimate in a way that doesn’t need words and her breath catches at the sight of a teardrop on his cheek.

Putting space between them again is hard, but necessary.

“I know you’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but you better be prepared to hear it a thousand more. It’s not your fault. It was never your fault. It will never be your fault. We’re Rangers. We’re disposable. The world is ending and we’re the first line of defence. If we fall—” He’s watching her so intently, hanging on her every word.

There’s no way to soften the blow of a death sentence.

“We’re going to die in a Jaeger, Killian, that much is inevitable. We won’t grow old. We won’t pass in our sleep. We’ll go screaming at the hands of a Kaiju and, I don’t know about you, but I plan on taking a fair share of those fuckers with me in the process.”

A nod.

A squeeze.

A gulp.

He’s still holding her hand when they return to the artificial warmth of the hangar.

He used to drink black coffee, dark and bitter. She hates it, preferring sweetness over caffeination in her warm beverages but getting her own would require a trip to the cafeteria earlier than she’d like to be awake. A few seconds of grimacing over the taste is worth it for the extra half hour of sleep. Killian’s an early riser—of course, he is. It’s a wonder they’re compatible at all.

Killian initially tried to put up a fight over it, hold it out of her reach like kids on the playground or finish it off before Emma could even think of crawling out of her quarters, but she wore him down, little by little.

They’re working on Jolly with Will when she takes a sip, stealing the travel mug from his hand and already half wincing for the unsweetened assault. When surprisingly palatable coffee hits her tongue, she almost chokes. It’s not half bad; no acrid punch of burnt grounds, no grainy aftertaste. Instead, it’s sweet. Creamy. Not what she was expecting at all.

“What’s this?” She takes a sniff at the lid incredulously. Is that… syrup?

“According to Ms Lucas, this is what poses as a caramel latte these days. Filled to the brim with sugar, spice and all things nice, just how you like it.” Will hands him a tablet, outlining the Jaeger’s current specifications. Emma understands enough of it to get by—she’s more attuned to reading neural charts, not the gibberish the engineers put out—but Killian revels in the details. He doesn’t even look her way as he speaks, fully engrossed in the graphs, comparisons and visuals. It also means he doesn’t notice Emma eyeing up how good he looks with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a grease stain on his left cheek. Just the right amount of dishevelled. “Is there any way we can drop a few tonnes to help increase speed and manoeuvrability?”

Will peers at the tablet, overseeing the stats with a critical eye. “No, mate. Not without losing vital armouring.”

“What about swapping out the nuclear core?” Killian hums, swiping to the next screen.

“Don’t be daft, Killian. It’s brand new.”

“The arc-whip?”

“I’m gonna cut in and say no on that one.” Emma interjects, surprised that she even managed to drag her attention away from the warm, sweet beverage in her hands or the enigma of a man that let her take it. The arc-whip is her preferred weapon—combining both distance and close combat, great for the CAT 2’s and smaller CAT 3’s that like to stay just out of reach or dragging back the larger beasts from getting further inland. She’s the one that suggested it be added to Jolly’s arsenal in the first place.

“Come on, love.” Handing her the tablet and tapping a few menus, Killian points out Jolly’s stats without it. Their speed would be improved and their power longevity, but they’d be sacrificing their range completely. “Having an arc-whip and a plasma cannon is overkill.”

The mechanic chuckles, coming to her other side and throwing an arm around their shoulders. “Technically, the plasma cannon is overkill anyway. Massive power drain.”

“Don’t you start.” Killian bats his arm away and Will cocks an eyebrow in challenge.

“Just because I’m right.”

Before either of them can respond, the hangar shudders as alarms blare. The alarm they all dread.

The Breach.

The CAT 2—Axefury—with armour piercing spines and nasty blade-like mandibles, emerges just off the coast of Florida, stalking towards the shore.

Frozen Serenity is deployed, piloted by sisters Anna and Elsa.

The fight takes an hour.

Killian brings her another coffee as they watch the battle from the command centre. He doesn’t say a word, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as she tenses against the cold realisation.

It could’ve been them.

Next time, it will be.

When he knocks her on her ass, straddling her waist with his sparring staff pressed to her throat, Killian’s eyes are the bluest she’s ever seen, and it takes her a second to remember where they are. He smirks, allowing her space to breathe while keeping her thoroughly pinned down.

“Normally, I’d prefer to do other more enjoyable activities with a woman on her back.” With a voice like that, velvet and grit, Emma’s not sure if she wants to push him away or pull him closer. The watchful eye of Marshal Mills keeps her straight. The last thing anyone needs is a show. She struggles just enough to make him cocky before retaliating, using his own weight against him.

In a heartbeat, he’s the one on his back, head caught in a lock between Emma’s thighs. In the time it takes for him to realise what’s going on, eyes widening as he realises where he is, it’s too late. His weapon clatters to the edge of the crash mat, useless.

“For future reference,” She pants, squeezing her legs tighter until Killian taps out against the floor. “I prefer to be on top.”

He laughs and, despite the patrol alarm blaring down the hall and Regina’s eye roll, the world feels a little lighter.

When they drift in Jolly for the first time, the phantom woman from the pseudo-drift is nowhere to be seen. There’s a blip where Killian gets caught up in visions of destruction and earthquakes and rivers of blue eroding the streets of New York, but just as Emma feels the echoes of her memories in his mind, they’re gone. He’s in her head. An uncomfortable yet reassuring presence that she never thought she’d be able to endure again.

“Neural bridge initiated and holding strong. Well done, guys.” Robin chirps over the speakers, dragging them out of the initial drift space and back to their shared reality. She lifts her left arm as Killian lifts his right and they join the jaeger’s metallic palms in a salute that rumbles through the bowels of the hangar.

Cheers erupt from the comm lines as scientists and pilots and soldiers line the walkways and balconies to celebrate their achievement.

She can feel the haze of his irritation through the link.

“We’re another shot at hope for them.” Her uncalibrated right-hand takes his uncalibrated left wrist just above the brace of his prosthetic. He doesn’t flinch but his thoughts stutter, interlaced with images of her soft smile and memories of each time they’d sparred, each stolen hour on the rooftops, each close encounter, each moment that could’ve been an almost, or a maybe. Emma pauses just long enough to imagine What if?

She shakes them away. They owe each other that much.

“We’re a suicide mission.” He’s right and his voice buzzes in the back of her skull. If the comm deck picked up on his words, they don’t respond.

“Yeah,” she lets his arm fall back to his side, making sure her left side—the one that’s wired into the eight thousand tonne government-approved death machine—stays relatively still. “But it’s worth it.”

“Is it?”

She can’t tell the difference between his words and his thoughts right now.

Static crackles in the conn-pod before Robin’s voice calls out again. “Ready to take her for a spin?”

She kisses him, with trembling palms pressed to his chest. Because she wants to. Because she can. Because, more than anything else, she isn’t ready to die. Not now. He is slow to respond, one hand on her shoulder ready to put distance between them at a moment's notice, the other at her waist, pulling her closer. The corridor leading to their quarters is empty and, beneath the harsh light, he tastes like the coffee they’d shared for breakfast.

He doesn’t push her away. She’s grateful for that.

The absence of Killian in her head should be a relief but it isn’t. It feels… empty. The absence of a presence that had made itself at home. She’d worked with rangers for years, ever since the hangar took her in, learning the in’s and out’s of the neural bridge and working to better align pilots with an initial pseudo-drift before putting them through the real thing.

She’d never expected to like it.

It’s exhilarating.

The expiry date they have hanging over their heads is unavoidable now. They’re compatible, truly compatible, doubting that is no use to anyone and despite whatever lead them both to the corps, whatever it is she catches glimpses of when they drift, she trusts him.

Fingers still trembling and head thick with fog, Emma trusts him.

“That was—”

A mistake.

Long overdue.

A one-time thing.

Just the beginning.

“Worth it.”

“Emma—”

“Be quiet.”

She snakes a hand around his waist, using his surprise to yank him closer into the alcove, away from prying eyes. Their dark uniforms blend in the shadows. Chest to chest like this, Emma can barely catch her breath. The cold steel pipe against her back does nothing to dissuade the heat he’s putting out—seriously, how is he always warm? It’s impossible to avoid his gaze either, the intensity of it only magnified with their proximity.

There’s questions there—so many questions—but he doesn’t have to ask them. She knows.

Killian’s tongue darts out to wet his lips.

She knows.

David and Snow walk past none the wiser, caught up in a discussion about something or other. Emma can’t focus enough to listen in, too distracted by everything in her body that screams for her to pull Killian closer and slam their mouths together until they forget about the rest. She holds her breath until the other rangers round the corner at the end of the hall.

“Mills hasn’t cleared Humbert or Lucas for visitation. We’ll be turned away.” Killian whispers, mouth so close to her ear that she can feel his words better than hearing them. His cheek catches hers as he pulls back but he doesn’t get far, her hand still pressed to his side, holding him in place. His brows raise in surprise.

Her palm tingles against the empty air when she lets go.

“Let me do the talking.”

He nods, following as she exits into the corridor, only a half-step behind.

They don’t have clearance. The med bay doors beep dejectedly as Emma’s ID card fails to pass the security check. Will had promised it would work, he’d sworn. Either he lied, already ratted them out to the Marshal or—

Victor Whale.

“Mills already has her reports delivered to her directly every hour,” he sighs, tugging off his gloves, surgical mask and running a free hand through his hair. Emma can see the dark roots coming through. There’s no market for salon-quality peroxide at the end of the world, apparently. “With the intention of alleviating the need for rangers like yourselves to check in. Can’t you go be annoying somewhere else? I don’t have time to file insubordination paperwork, I’m already understaffed.”

Killian reaches out, pleading, his eyes wide and blue and honest. He grabs the doctor’s forearm with his mechanical hand.

“Please, mate. Just five minutes.”

Whale’s brow furrows focused on the prosthetic gripping his arm. The fear of disciplinary action outweighs a lot of things in the hangar.

She’s pale, too pale, and riddled with tubes and drips and monitors that beep along with the pace of her heart. The burns, blistered and seeping, are tinged blue with the toxic sludge that courses through Kaiju veins. Blue burns, as they’re colloquially referred, aren’t uncommon. There are ointments and salves to calm the low-level contact burns and sprays to neutralise the toxins in the acid. What’s left of the governments have put extensive measures in place to ensure that stuff like this doesn’t happen to the general public.

They don’t seem to care for rangers.

As Ruby’s skin sloughs from the slightest friction of the sterile sheets, Emma can feel the first clutches of fear curl around her throat.

Corpselike. That’s the only word that comes to mind. Ruby, once so full of life, has never looked so… not, and Emma can’t help but fall into step with the ventilator that’s currently breathing for her as if somehow it makes a difference. The steady whirr of the machine only working to wind up the anxieties simmering beneath the surface of her skin.

Next time, it’ll be them.

Next time, it’ll be her.

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

“We’re having to keep her under.” Someone —Victor? — hums, ignoring them both to look over the digitised chart at the foot of her bed. “There’s a lot of irrevocable damage that we’re still looking into while repairing what we can externally.”

Inhale.

“What about Gra— Ranger Humbert?” Killian's hand hasn’t left hers since they entered and, for what it’s worth, she’s thankful for the anchor and the ever-present warmth he offers. His presence is grounding and his words reflect her thoughts when she can’t quite reach her own.

Exhale.

It’s too much.

Inhale.

“More of the same”

Exhale.

They never should’ve come

His lips taste of salt.

The inevitability of death.

It burns.

“I don’t want to lose this.” she pants, soft against Killian’s lips as he smiles and steals it away. Like the future they don’t have. That she so painfully wished they could have. “I—”

His kisses trail to her ear, each one as gentle as the last. Too soft, too delicate. It terrifies and excites her how something as small as a kiss can melt her resolve to nothing. Any shadow of doubt disappearing with each step they take closer to the inevitable. After everything that had happened, from sneaking into the med bay, drowning the images with the last of that damn bottle of bourbon that started all this and sparring until they were both bruised and beaten and breathless, sex had been the last thing on her mind. It had crept up on her, crept up on them both, and it was impossible to deny.

That first rooftop rendezvous, first spar, first kiss, all those weeks ago, had cemented this. She can see that now.

Closing what little distance there is left between them, Killian walks her backwards until her thighs bump against the solid table behind them. “You won’t, love. I’ve got you.”

Each touch, each glance, each gasp is another goodbye.

His prosthetic rests on her waist as his other makes light work of the fastenings of her uniform, and she urges him on with a moan. She’s thankful they made it back to his quarters. They won’t make it to the bed.

Emma searches for answers as he pulls off his shirt, praying something in his eyes will reassure her that this—whatever this is—is okay, that they’re not terrible people for finding something worth fighting for at the end of the earth, anything to provide even a modicum of hope that maybe, just maybe, they’ll survive just long enough to have a chance at finding out if it is. She clutches at his shoulders, with nails biting into his skin, and breathes.

She doesn’t find the answers. Instead, she finds herself.

Scared and afraid, clinging to the last comfort she has left.

Three words bloom, fade and crumble in her mind, as fragile as a leaf on the wind and, before she can even speak them, Killian nods.

“I know.”

Somewhere deep inside her chest, behind broken walls and the rubble of a past life, something long since broken, beats.

Emma wakes up to warmth. An all encompassing warmth surrounding her so completely, an aura of heat welding together the cracks that had once debilitated her heart. So familiar, and pure and yet so foreign at the same time.

Each beat of her heart echoed by a shadow.

Each exhale mirrored by that of another, a soft caress against her nape.

The solid and comforting press of a body—his body—against her back, bringing forth memories of the night previous so slowly, like a crack in a dam; first a drip and then a flood. The synchronicity. The passion. The mutual need to just Be.

The absence of all thought except one.

Life is just too fucking short.

As if summoned by her mental recollection, Killian’s arm wraps around her waist. His lips ghost against the skin of her shoulder blade and the kiss he presses to her neck brings a smile to her face.

“Good morning, Swan.” He purrs, voice gravelly and wrapped in sleep. Damn, if Emma had only known he sounded like that first thing sooner—

The thought catches her off guard.

It’s so… normal. Domestic.

She could get used to it. She wants to get used to it.

“Mor—”

The spell shatters. The facade peels away to reveal the truth and the bliss that had wrapped her up in its glow is gone. Reality hits.

The blood-curdling scream of the one alarm they pray will never ring.

The Breach.

Robin’s voice screeches out over the comms in a panicked shout, followed by the calm and commanding call of Marshal Mills. Her own name and rank is called, along with Killian’s. Emma’s blood runs cold when the realisation hits.

A CAT 5.

All units to report.

Approaching New York.

Killian doesn’t move for what seems like an eternity, lips still pressed to her skin in an everlasting kiss, as if time has somehow warped around this very moment, stretching seconds into minutes, hours. Allowing them a chance to come to terms with what must happen next.

Their fates were sealed the second they stepped foot in the hangar.

Emma wrapped in a hospital gown. Killian in a battered, blood-stained plug suit.

“It’s okay.” He whispers, already drowned out by the blaring siren that fills every corner of the room. Emma can’t tell if he’s saying it for her sake or his own.

When she turns to him, pulling herself upright in the process and letting the cold of his quarters seep into her bare chest, he’s smiling. It’s by no means her favourite smile—wide and full of laughter—but it’s something and, for some crazy reason, she believes in it.

She believes in them.

“Fortune favours the brave.”

////

tagging a few of y’all! @thisonesatellite @teamhook @kmomof4 @superchocovian @itsfabianadocarmo @thisonesatellite @darkcolinodonorgasm @carpedzem @hollyethecurious

#cs fic #captain swan fic #ouat fic #ficminds #i'm sorry to anyone that likes once upon a time and pacific rim #this is a mess #but it's my mess

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artistic-writer · 5 years ago

Text

The Paradox of Light :: CS AU : Rated E :: Part 1

Title: The Paradox of Light by @artistic-writer Summary: Imagine having one person, one constant, one love in your life that holds your head when you go under the surface. They will be there forever, holding your hand through everything life can throw at the pair of you, but what happens when a crack forms? What happens when it grows into something neither of you can control? What happens when the one person who was there to guide you becomes an obstacle and rather than hold you up, they pull you down? How do you find your way out of the darkness without your light? Rating: E Warnings: Angst, hurt/comfort, alcoholism/alcohol abuse, sexual addiction, domestic violence, fighting, choking, erotic asphyxiation (use in a non-informed manner), depression, death of Liam Jones, panic attacks, PTSD, attempted rape/non-con/dub-con, stab wounds, bar fights, rehab/AA meetings

- but there is a happy ending to this story, i promise.

Author’s Note: I missed this ficversary because of everything that is going on in the world right now, but its been in the plan to re-release it as a multichapter for some time. It’s A LOT otherwise and whilst I initially always intended this to be a one shot, because I wrote it in one go, its not logical to expect people to stop and read so many words in one go. The lovely fanart by @itsfabianadocarmo features in all chapters, so go show her some love!

PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS!! This fic has a lot of them for a reason. If you want to ask about any, please don’t be afraid to message me.

Part One [ below the cut ]

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At first they had hated each other, with Emma setting her sights on the older Jones brother. Killian was nothing more to her than a thorn in her side. Cocky, arrogant and with a boyish smile that she wished she could slap right off his face, he was not for her. No, Emma Swan wanted Liam Jones, the stronger, more level headed of the two, but with a decade between them, by the time Emma had worked up the courage to tell him how she felt, Liam was announcing his marriage.

When Liam moved from their sleepy little hometown, leaving Emma’s teenage heart in pieces and Killian to continue his roguish antics unchecked, was when Emma began to notice him. He had a certain appeal. He had a car, would take her anywhere at the drop of a hat and puberty had been kind to him, with unblemished skin and a dashingly handsome growth that sprouted from his chin. The more Emma looked at him the more she felt that the bravado and confidence he exuded was more for just show. In private, when it was just the two of them, Killian was different.

One day in high school, they had decided to skip their respective classes and hang out at the edge of the school field. Killian was kind, less presumptuous and respectful when it was just the two of them and Emma liked it. He gave her his jacket when she was cold and his smell made her feel safe, like she was home, which considering she was adopted, was huge. Even the Nolans, her adoptive family, couldn’t completely fill the hole in her heart left by being abandoned, but somehow Killian could.

Killian’s senior prom was the turning point for her. He was a few years older than Emma and had promised to take her to both his and hers. He insisted because if nothing else, attending his with her would be a dry run for her own. Killian taught her to dance that night, holding her close, splayed hand pressed delicately to her lower back, the tips of his pointed ears turning red when Emma had pressed her body further into his, her early teenage yearning for Liam Jones long since gone.

“There’s only one rule. Pick a partner who knows what he is doing.”

Emma had often thought about his words, long after her prom and into her college years, but whilst she had attended a local one, Killian had followed in his brother's footsteps and joined the Army. They never lost touch, sending letters to each other that mentioned everything and anything they could talk about. It was no substitution for the lilt of his accented voice, or the smile on his face that never failed to pick up her mood, but it was all she could get between his visits home.

When he was on leave, the first place he always went was her house. It was familiar to have him near her again, laughing and joking as they did silly things like play cards and swim in the lake. Emma knew he never wanted to talk about what he did in the line of duty, she could only imagine, so she never pressed him and knew that if he ever wanted to, he would tell her. Instead they spent their time poking fun at each other, acting more like a couple than most couples they knew, but with an annoyingly platonic and chaste intimacy that left Emma pining each time he deployed and left her with a seared cheek from his kiss.

But he was a gentleman, and she expected nothing less from him.

Five years went by between Killian joining the military and the day he came home. He was a ranger, the most elite sniper in his class, able to hit a target from over two thousand yards away, but his career had ended when he had been injured in the line of duty and subsequently medically discharged. Shrapnel now littered his torso, had embedded itself in his shoulder joint and had ripped through the muscles of his left upper arm like it was paper. A sniper with the inability to fire a weapon was useless, and rather than push paper for the rest of his life, Killian had come home carrying more than just physical scars and it was the wake up call Emma needed.

She had been beside herself to learn of his injuries. Her heart had skipped a beat in her chest and her blood had run cold through her entire body when she had been informed by Liam via an early morning phone call.

“He’s okay, he just wanted you to know that.”

That was the exact moment Emma Swan vowed to share her feelings that she had kept locked behind closed doors for so long. She loved him and needed to tell him lest she risk losing him with him never knowing how she felt.

The day he arrived home, waiting for him on the military airstrip in her senior prom dress was Emma, hair blowing in the warm breeze that whipped across the tarmac. There was a brief silence between them and people stared at her attire, but Emma did not care. She had finally realised what she had been fighting for so many years. Killian Jones, her best friend and confidant, was the man she loved and wanted to spend the rest of her life with. So she had told him.

“I’ve been thinking…”

“In your prom dress?”

“Shut up and listen.”

“Okay, love.”

“I love you, Killian. I’ve loved you since I was sixteen and you held me at your prom. ‘Pick a partner who knows what he’s doing’ you told me…”

“Aye, Swan, I did…”

“Then I hope to God you know what you are doing because I am petrified.”

“I’m sure we can work it out.”

“Together?”

“Together.”

Eight years later and they shared everything. The transition back into civilian life had been hard on Killian, but Emma was always there for him. She watched him cry, watched him scream and watched him fight with the demons inside of his head on a daily basis. It never went away, but it got easier, and on more than one occasion Killian had told Emma that she was his saviour. Only she knew how to help him, calm the beast and soothe his soul, but Killian’s descent into darkness had only just begun.

The day Killian’s phone rang and a police officer informed him of his brother’s demise was the day that would haunt Emma forever. Liam had been killed in a car accident on his way to visit them, the car having rolled along the highway so many times they had struggled to free his body. Emma would never forget the blood curdling sound Killian made as he screamed Liam’s name, collapsed to the floor and curled into the childlike ball of sobs. She let him cry, she let him shout and she let him smash every door in the house in his rage, and then after everything, she let him drink.

Killian Jones had lost count of the bottles he had seen the bottom of since the death of his brother. Each rum laden glass cask gradually weighed less as it emptied but the sorrow that felt like it was crushing him only got heavier. Liam had died quickly, in a car accident with no clear person to blame, and it had changed Killian forever. Whatever demons he carried from active service were amplified, the voices in his head taunting and eating away at his resolve.

There were no answers to his pleas to God at the bottom of the bottles, and even worse, there was no absolution.

Six months ago

It had been only a short time since Liam’s death, but Killian had spent every second he wasn’t at work at the local bar. He always shot Emma a text letting her know where he was for which she was thankful. His drinking was starting to spiral and it had become pretty apparent that he was drinking more and more to try and quell the voices in his brain. It was wrong, Emma knew that, but it calmed him and helped him sleep, and despite her brain telling her it was wrong to enable him, her heart ached each time he sobbed himself into a slumber, so she let him drink to forget.

Or at least she thought she was. There had been a shift in his behaviour recently and whilst Emma figured he was starting to sober up, clear the niggles in his brain and finally begin to accept his loss, Killian was in fact becoming a functioning alcoholic. His breath reeked of booze each time he returned home, sometimes with bloody knuckles and sometimes with a glassy stare, but each time he was the same. Drunk, and the more he needed to drink to forget, the more frustrated he was becoming with being without his brother.

That night he came home, stumbling through the door and groggily mumbling to himself as he toed off his shoes at the door, Emma simply greeted him as usual without judgement. She was hurting as well. Liam had been her friend too, but as much as she was hurting, she could never compare to how hard Killian had fallen into the darkness of sorrow.

“How was work?” Emma asked, the question becoming somewhat of a code between them. It was something she had devised in order to gauge his level of inebriation and also work out how bad his mentality had been compromised during the day. She shifted her weight, resting a hand to the kitchen island as she watched him struggle with the zip of his jacket.

“It was unusually dull,” Killian slurred sarcastically, his balance suddenly compromised as he tried to pull his arms free from the confines of his sleeves. He stepped sideways, foot landing heavily on the hardwood floor with a thud as he tried to keep himself upright. Finally freeing his arms he staggered backwards into the lounge and sank down onto the arm of the couch with a sigh when the back of his thighs hit the solid mass.

“And your colleagues?” Emma prodded, moving to stand before him. The voices in his head were something he dealt with every day, sometimes successfully blocking them out, but it seemed the demon of drink always gave them free reign to torment him before he had consumed enough to silence them.

Killian screwed up his features, the rosy tint in his cheeks from too much rum hidden under a swipe of his hands as he covered his face with a wavering nod. “Chatty,” he whispered into his palms, inhaling deeply and letting his body hunch over as tears sprang from his eyelids.

“Hey,” Emma soothed, stepping between his parted thighs and pulling his hands from his face. His face was warm beneath her hands as she cupped his head, tilting his head back so he was looking up at her. “I’m here,” she told him softly, searching the clouded grey hues of his eyes with her own. “I’m here.”

Killian couldn’t stop the sound he made escaping his throat as he cried, the wail cutting straight through Emma’s chest and splitting her heart in two. He buried his face in the softness of her sweater, muffling his cries against her body and wrapping his arms around her, desperate to hold onto anything. “Don’t go,” he sobbed. “I need you.”

“I’m here,” Emma repeated, her voice watery from the lump that had begun to sting the back of her throat. “I need you too,” she whimpered, pinching her eyes closed just enough to let a single tear roll from her eyelid and scorch a line down her face. It fell from her chin and down the back of Killian’s shirt, his cries subsiding as he pulled his head back to look up at her.

It had taken weeks for her own grief to manifest enough that she had cried for her friend. Emma wasn’t sure where rock bottom actually was, but she was pretty sure they were both there at this exact moment in time, the silence between them echoing with the words neither of them needed to say. Killian had cried a literal river for his brother, but this had been the first time Emma had shed a single tear, and it had somehow ignited the need within both of them to feel again.

“Emma…” He gulped after her name, his voice raspy and gritty, the emotion in his words all he needed to tell her exactly what he needed as he rested his hands to her hips and gently pushed himself to his feet.

“Killian…” Emma sighed his name, looking up at him through her eyelashes with a prickle of heat that surged over the skin of her neck and through her entire body.

“I want…” he began nervously, unable to stop the way his gaze lingered over her body and his hands toyed with the hem of her sweater. His fingertips barely brushed the surface of her exposed skin but Emma gasped audibly, her eyes fluttering closed and her hand grasping the fabric of his shirt between shaking fingers.

“I know,” Emma said softly, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips as she watched her hand against his chest, the quickening heartbeat beneath her fingertips matching the pounding in her ears. Emma lifted her gaze, blinking away more tears. “I want to feel too.”

The first thing they both felt again was softness of lips slightly salty from tears, mouths sliding against each other haphazardly and clothes being discarded with abandon. There were no words, only the soft pants and heavy breathing that accompanied their ascent to the bedroom, a trail of clothes in their wake. It was like a bright light in both of their lives, neither having made love since Liam’s death, and they savoured every second.

Even drunk, Killian knew every inch of her body, every curve, dip and patch of silky skin committed to his memory. And he knew exactly how to make Emma feel, how to excite every cell in her body the way she needed in that exact moment. Killian never stopped touching her, taking his time to make sure that every hair on Emma’s body was standing to attention for him before he dipped his head between her thighs and finally gave her what she needed.

Emma’s cries were like music to his ears and Killian lapped at her essence like he was hearing her moans for the first time. They urged him on, his own need growing hard between his legs with every gasp she emitted from her slightly parted lips. He didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t need to, because the sounds Emma made as she writhed beneath his assault told him everything he needed to know.

The first time she came, her body stiffening as he relentlessly flicked his tongue over her clit, Killian felt something other than his own arousal surge through him. It was like a drug, a calm washing over his woes and guiding him from the depths of pain. He needed more and when Emma’s cries subsided he surged upwards and impaled her in a single thrust of his hips, watching the way her features twisted in pleasure and loving the feeling of being whole.

“I love you,” he whispered, stilling inside of her and stroking the side of her flushed face with his fingertips.

Emma could barely focus, her eyelids rolling open and fresh tears stinging her eyes once more. She blinked them away and Killian wiped them from existence with a gentle swipe of his thumb over her cheek. “I love you,” he repeated, holding her gaze as he angled his hips a little and sank into her further. Emma’s back arched off of the bed, her body yearning to feel more of the light that only Killian could shine on her.

“Oh God, I love you so much,” she gasped huskily, finally releasing the breath she had been holding and almost losing herself once more with the barest of movements. When Killian began to move and her walls fluttered around him, Emma groaned, more symphonic tones that made him want even more than before.

Killian’s hand found hers, their fingers lacing together and their palms pressing together so firmly that Emma almost couldn’t feel her fingertips anymore. He lifted their joined digits above Emma’s head, increasing his pace as he pressed the back of her hand into the bed, his grip like a vice, tethering him to her and both of them to reality.

Killian’s other hand found Emma’s hip and his fingernails dug into her skin, a sensation she didn’t find unpleasant because like the burning between her thighs and the increasing pressure in her stomach, it made her feel, and that was all she wanted. She wanted the light once more, to bathe in its glow as she lost herself and fell from grace at the hand of the man she loved, the swivel of his hips and the drag of his length along her inner walls delicious and torture at the same time.

Emma was so close it was almost painful, the room filled with the stench of sex and alcohol fading away as the pin pricks of white began to flicker behind her eyelids. She felt Killian’s forehead rest against hers and the warmth of his rum laced breath invade her nostrils as his own body shuddered, his knuckles turned white with his grip and he whimpered her name like a prayer.

“I’m here,” Emma panted hoarsely, her hand finding the side of his face and her lips ghosting over his.

It was enough to send them both into oblivion, their bodies basking in the rays of euphoria and numbing the sting of pain they both felt in the very depths of their hearts. They were lost in each other, swaying in an ocean of pleasure that they would quite happily have drowned in should the waves become tumultuous, but they didn’t, instead gently lapping at the edge of their subconscious, chasing away the agony.

For now.

#cs au #hurt/comfort #the paradox of light #icymi

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sweetbuckybarnes · 3 years ago

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I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

Pairings: Captain Killian Jones + Emma Swan

Summary: Killian and Emma have their proper wedding reception after the final battle, which includes their first dance and the much loved, father-daughter dance.

Heroes all sat at the same table, Killian and Emma were happily reunited and living the wedded bliss of as newlyweds. The final battle had been won, Gideon was back to being a baby (Emma thought he was really cute when she finally got to see him - when he wasn't trying to kill her...)

It had been a good couple of days since the final battle, Emma and Killian wanted to spend some time together (alone), Snow and David wanted to spend some time with their baby Neal as he was starting to grow rather quickly, Belle and Rumplestiltskin wanted to spend time with baby Gideon.

Since arriving at Granny's, Killian and Emma really couldn't let go of each other, even though it was mainly Killian who refused to let go of his wife. He almost lost her to death, he wasn't about to lose her another time. He really wouldn't survive it. Losing Milah was hard enough, he went 300 years to find his 'revenge', but losing Emma would crush his very being, he'd be heartbroken, he wouldn't be able to do anything. He can't live without the love of his life. His true love. His wife. His saviour. His Emma.

But, thanks to Henry, Emma was now sat next to him, his hooked arm resting along the back of her chair, his hook twisting itself lovingly into her long, soft blonde hair.

Every time he looked over at her, he smiled some more, and his eyes got the doe-eyed loved-up look. He adores Emma, and every time, he fell a bit more in love with her. If that was even possible.

"Before we properly start our meal, Regina, if you please?" Snow stood up and looked at her somewhat stepmother.

Regina nodded, and looked at Emma and Killian, with a flick of her hand, Emma and Killian had a change of clothes in a puff of purple smoke. They were in their wedding clothes. Emma was wearing her wedding dress and her veil hanging behind her head. Killian was in his wedding suit and looking as smart as he did when he married Emma.

"Look at you, Swan," Killian looked in awe of his wife, who is stood in her gorgeous dress, smiling happily as he took her hand and gave her a twirl, her dress twirling around her feet. "My beautiful Swan," Killian then cradled her face and gave her a peck on the lips.

Henry was smiling up at his birth mother and new step-dad, ecstatic to see his mother so happy, and even though Killian was a former Pirate Captain, Henry is glad that Killian makes Emma happy.

There weren't many songs on the jukebox, but with Henry and David in charge, they were happily flicking through trying to find a decent enough song for Killian and Emma's second dance as a married couple, really it was their first where they didn't have to worry about villains trying to split them apart.

Killian was tucking a piece of Emma's hair that had fallen in front of her face while they were talking about anything and everything, the hair falling between her eyes, made her focus on that rather than her husband. When 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing' by Aerosmith starting playing, dragging a blushing Emma (even after this time, she still blushed!) to her son who was happily smiling at his mom.

"Your song," He stated, as David and a few of the more helpful dwarfs, the table that the heroes were sat at was pushed towards the bar, enough room for Killian and Emma to dance, and then when proper dance songs came on, for everyone to go crazy.

"Well, Mrs Jones, care to dance?" Killian offered his hand, his face lighting up when she does. No matter how many times Emma has told him that she wouldn't change a single thing about him, he sometimes wished that he had his left hand for things like this.

Emma's hand in his, she was taken to the dancefloor, Killian's hook resting easily and carefully on her dress covered hip. He didn't want to rip her dress to shreds, he had some idea of how long it had taken Emma to find the 'perfect dress'. "I thought you'd never ask, Captain," it would feel funny for Emma to call him 'Mr Jones', as he is the Captain of the Jolly Roger, former pirate as well as a former Lieutenant.

After a short while of Killian and Emma simply going around in circles, she let go of his hand and wrapped both of hers around his neck and shuffled into his chest. Killian wrapped his arms around her waist and rested the side of his head against hers. "I love you, Killian," it was rare that Emma said that first, but when she did, Killian melted.

"I love you too, Swan, my gorgeous wife," just the word 'wife' alone was enough to send Killian to the moon and back with happiness.

And that is how Killian and Emma spent their proper first dance, only for it to be interrupted...

She spins and she sways To whatever song plays Without a care in the world And I'm sitting here wearing The weight of the world on my shoulders.

"Can I cut in?" Emma lifts her head from Killian's strong chest, to see her dad smiling at her with pride but also with tears in his eyes.

"Of course, Dave," Killian took Emma's hand and placed it in her dad's (just like the prince had done, 'giving away' his daughter to her pirate officially). A kiss to Emma's cheek and Killian was stood next to Henry, who had a phone and a speaker playing the song.

Before David and Emma could start dancing, she took the shoes she was wearing to her actual wedding off and proceeded to stand on her dad's feet. "I know you missed things like this," Emma smiled, and David could feel the tears welling underneath where he could see his blonde baby.

Well, she came home today with a ring on her hand Just glowing and telling us all they had planned She says, "Dad, the wedding's still six months away But I need to practice my dancing Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

David never thought he would get to have a father-daughter dance with Emma, after she told them about her vision, no matter how much hope Snow had, he truly thought he was going to lose his oldest baby, the little blonde baby he put in that wardrobe the day she was born, he missed everything and now she was married!

Emma wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, and said quietly to him. "Thank you for teaching me, dad,"

That was when the tears started rolling down his cheeks, "I'd do anything for you, Emma,"

#once upon a time #ouat #captain swan #captain swan fanfic #captain hook | killian jones #emma swan #snow white | mary margaret blanchard #prince charming | david nolan #belle (ouat)#gideon (ouat)#neal nolan #henry mills #evil queen | regina mills #rumplestiltskin | mr. gold #wedding reception

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sprnklersplashes · 5 years ago

Text

i’m coming, wait for me

5B canon divergence- It seems that Hades, like Rumpelstilskin, has an affection for deals, and he offers Emma one; lead Killian out of the Underworld. No looking back, no checking behind her, no laying eyes on him no matter what she hears. But the path back home is fraught with dangers and tricks of the mind-can Emma really trust herself to save him when others stronger than her have failed.

“The rules are simple,” Hades had said to Emma. All she has to do is lead Killian out of the Underworld and back to Storybrooke. and there’s only one catch; she doesn’t look back, no matter what. No matter what she hears or feels, no matter what she thinks or fears, she doesn’t look back at him. There’s two potential winners here; Emma and Hades. If she wins, she gets him back for the rest of their mortal lives. If she fails, if she looks back and lets Hades win, Killian’s his, forever this time. No second chances, no trying again, no way back in. Hades promised that the portal to the Underworld will close behind her. He told her that portal shouldn’t exist, created by the gods millennia ago when they started getting egotistical. There should only be one way to the Underworld, and when she’s finished there will be again.

She hugs her family tightly before they leave through the clock in the graveyard, clinging tightly to her father’s shoulders the way she would have done a million times as a little girl if she could have. She lets her mother wipe her tears and kiss her forehead, lets her whisper an assurance that it will all be okay, that she’ll see her again with Killian by her side. She gives Belle a quick hug, letting herself melt into the girl’s embrace for mere seconds as she wishes her good luck before she moves to hug Killian. She hugs her son close to her chest, telling him she loves him. Henry nods against her and reminds her that she’s a hero, and that heroes always win. She nods, but the smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She loves him, loves his faith and rigid belief in hope and goodness, but she doesn’t know if she believes it. For two years she’s seen good people dying and villains winning, both of a fairy tale variety and from the real world. Still, she tells him she knows and thanks him and promises to see him at home. As they go through the portal together, Emma’s vision blurs as tears burn her eyes.

“Hey,” Killian whispers in her ear, wrapping his arm around her waist. “It’s still open. You can go with them if you want. An easier journey, at least.”

“No,” she says firmly, shaking her head. She turns around to look at him, brushing her knuckles against his cheekbone. “I came down here to save you and that’s what I’m doing.” He smiles at her breathlessly, pulling him closer to her.

“Thank you,” he whispers. “I know it’s a bit redundant but thank you.” She shakes her head wordlessly at him and pulls him in to a kiss, letting a tear slip from her eye and mingle in between their lips.

“Hey,” a reluctant voice says from behind them. They break apart gently, her hands still on his chest, and see Milah looking at them with wide, sad blue eyes, holding Marian’s hand tightly as the other woman rubs her back. Marian still looks as lovely as the day Emma met her in the Enchanted Forest, and it’s no wonder Milah fell in love with her so quickly down here. And the more Emma gets to know Milah, sees her fire and her passion, her bravery and her sadness, she understands more and more why Marian loves her in return. “It’s time.”

They meet Hades in his chamber, Emma feeling dwarfed by the seemingly endless ceiling, icy water dripping from it onto her head, running down her hair.

“Here’s the deal. You go through there,” Hades explains to her, gesturing to an opening in the rock wall, a long stretch of black nothingness that makes Emma’s hands tremble. “You walk. You keep walking and you keep to the path until you find yourselves in Storybrooke again. And if-or when-you turn around, you fail. If you see so much as a fraction of him, even the tip of his finger, he’s mine. Forever. And you don’t see him again until your time comes-agreed?” He holds out his hand, a wicked grin on his face that reminds her of Rumpelstiltskin and his own affection for deals.

“Agreed,” she says, shaking his cold hand. Despite her racing heart, she doesn’t stop looking at Hades, smirking slightly when he turns away from her. She hopes one day it’s known that when Emma Swan and the God of Death locked eyes, he looked away first.

“Emma,” Milah says urgently, pulling on her hand, pulling her away from Hades and moving her head to meet her towards her worried gaze. “Be careful.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” she replies.

“No, I do,” she says. “Emma, that tunnel is still Hades’ realm. He can manipulate everything while you’re in there. Make you hear things, feel things that aren’t really there.” She takes in a shuddering breath. “Or make you unable to hear things that are there.”

“To hear him,” she says, her eyes moving over to Killian.

“Exactly,” she says. “So no matter what you hear or don’t hear, trust yourself more than anything else.”

“You think I can trust myself?” she asks, her voice shaking.

“Of course,” she replies with a small smile. “I don’t know a more resourceful, intelligent woman.” Milah’s cheeks turn pink as she looks over to Marian. “Well, maybe one.” Emma chuckles. It’s short lived and hollow, but it’s nice to have some relief before she goes.

When Killian hugs Milah goodbye, she sees the centuries on him disappear, and for a minute he’s the same twenty something new pirate he was before his dark path. In all honesty, it does hurt her heart more than she will ever admit, that she might not be the one to bring him back to that point, no matter how many new memories they make, but seeing him like that, the glow on his face as he hugs Milah and hands her over to Marian still makes her smile.

“Are you ready?” she asks, looking up at him. He offers a shaky smile, but it’s no comfort at this point. There won’t be any comfort until they’re on the other side of that tunnel and holding each other again.

“Lead the way, Swan,” he tells her. “I’m right behind you. Always.”

Always, she thinks. As she steps into the tunnel, she hopes that’s true.

The light disappears as soon as she steps inside. The blackness stretches out in front of her and there’s no way of telling if it goes on for meters or miles, if it ever ends at all. Just looking at the centre of the long dark path makes her dizzy. The cold winds cut through her jacket and sweater and jeans, nipping at her skin, making little goose bumps sprout up. She pulls her hair back to stop the wind tearing through at and knotting it, but that only lets it get at her neck. All over her body, it feels as though tiny, smaller-than-small soldiers are pricking at her with minute swords.

“Let’s do this,” she announces, her breath coming out in white vapour, stark against the blackness before her. Behind her, there’s nothing, no breath on the back of her neck, no words of agreement. Or maybe there is but she didn’t hear it.

She starts walking, wobbling on the uneven ground. She reaches out to her right and finds a stone wall, as cold as Hades himself had felt when she shook her hand, rife with jagged edges and small sharp stones running down it, beginning to tear skin off her hand, slowly at first, but it build up and up until she feels blood beginning to trickle down her palms and into her sleeve. Still, she won’t take her hand off this wall.

In the silence, she hears her footsteps echoing on the ground, the sound bouncing off the walls and she assumes the ceiling, creating the overlap of dozens of sounds, building up to a drumbeat of her steady walking. One foot, the another. Then one, then the other. One then the other. One then the other. One the other. She tells herself that the lack of noise behind her doesn’t matter, only what’s ahead matters. Home, true love, happiness and safety, waking up in his arms and him kissing her a million times a day. That’s what matters.

“Emma!” he calls behind her, his voice so high and frantic it cuts through her soul. “Emma!” On instinct, she turns her head just a fraction, but claps her hand over her eyes, forcing herself to remember Milah’s words. For all she knows, this is just a trick of Hades’, and he’s right there behind her. He needs to be.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers before continuing. One foot in front of the other, building up a steady rhythm, mirroring the beat of her heart-the beat of his heart, when they get there at least.

She keeps walking-for how long she doesn’t know. It could be minutes, hours, maybe even days. She can’t feel anything other than fatigue and anxiety, and she can’t even remember when she stepped into the tunnel. It might as well be that she’s been here her whole life.

A shadow makes her stop in her tracks- an outline etched in blue of a woman with a hood over her face, the lower half of her body lost in mist, long hair peeking out from her hood. She glares at Emma with piercing white eyes.

“Who are you?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper. “Who are you to think you can save him?”

“Emma Swan,” she replies, licking her dry lips. “The Saviour.” The woman chuckles, bitter and humourless. “Who are you to say I can’t.”

“I was called Eurydice,” she explains. “I tried. We tried to escape. And he failed me. Orpheus was the son of a god. You’re the daughter of a shepherd and a failed Queen.” The shadow sneers at her. “What makes you think you’ll succeed where he failed?”

“I…” her weak voice trails off. What’s a would have been princess to the son of a god? But she tries anyway, not using her words, but the words of the people who love her. “I defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. I defeated Peter Pan. I broke the Dark Curse. I am the Saviour. That’s what I have that he doesn’t.”

“A Saviour,” she scoffs. “Let’s see you save him.” She peers behind Emma and snickers behind her hood. Emma focusses all her attention beyond Eurydice until she fades away, back to wherever she came from, if she was ever really here.

One foot in front of the other. One in front of the other. One in front of the other. Even with the sound of footsteps of someone looming to her right, the echoes of cruel giggles following along her left, the feeling of a hundred thousand eyes on her, she refuses to stop or even slow down.

Behind her, she hears an unmistakable cry of pain, identical to the one that Killian let out when she pierced his gut with Excalibur, and she halts dead in her tracks, her blood turning to ice.

“Killian?” she whispers pleadingly. She clenches her jaw, forcing the muscles in her neck to remain still, her face to stay forwards. “Killian?” All she hears in reply is a feeble grunt, the sound of someone’s life draining from them.

She closes her eyes as tightly as she can, her hand still on the wall after all this time. She pushes herself forward, one shaky step after the next. As she goes, she feels the ground beginning to get less and less solid, her feet sinking into what feels like marshlands, mud slipping into her boots. She dares crack open her eyes and finds there is light now, dim and barely there, just enough to let her see the vast grey lake that stands just before her.

How long can she hold her breath?

She wades into the water; it feels thin and cold against her body and soon comes up to waist and more until she’s paddling through it, Killian hopefully behind her until there’s nowhere else to go, just a stone wall that goes on forever. She cranes her neck to look at it, but unlike the wall that cut her hand a dozen times, this is completely smooth with no way to climb it.

Maybe she’s not meant to go up.

“Follow my lead,” she says aloud, hopefully to him. She takes in as much air as she can and dives underneath the water. Her ears ring as she submerges herself in the murky lake; in front of her all she can see is grey, and the water stings her eyes so badly she closes them. She blindly propels herself forwards with her weary limbs, her arms reaching out and touching nothing as she half swims half paddles her way to wherever she’s meant to be going, wading through an endless stream of the water. Her lungs begin to ache, then the ache turns to a burn as she goes longer and longer without breathing. With no end in sight, she keeps going, even as her throat becomes tighter and tighter, her head spinning and throbbing.

Soon, instinct wins out over logic and her mouth opens of its own accord, her brain too tired to stop it. She gags as the water rushes down and burns her throat, trying to spit it out only to be met with more. She feels her arms flailing before she tries to get them under control and dares to open her eyes just to see how far she has left to go, if she can see anything at all.

To her surprise, she doesn’t see a dark expanse of grey nothingness in front of her-just a few feet ahead, there’s a light, distorted and blurred, but it’s there. She swims towards it, her head throbbing as it gets more and more intense. Still, she keeps going, closing her eyes as her lungs scream with a burning ache that spreads up her throat. She keeps pushing until she feels something solid underneath her hand. She claws at it, feeling what must be mud underneath her fingernails, pulling again and again until she can fit through the narrow opening, damp mud slithering against her chest and torso as she uses her arms to keep pulling herself forwards. It’s so dark inside, Emma doesn’t even know if she has her eyes closed or not.

Finally, her head breaks through and she feels cold air on her face, hears the sweet sound of leaves rustling in an evening breeze, even as her legs float weightlessly beneath her. She opens her eyes and nearly cries at the sight; she’s in the lake. Not the lake in the Underworld, but the one in Storybrooke which she used to first get into the Underworld. She spends a few seconds just filling her lungs with air; even the air feels different here. Cleaner. Alive.

She grabs the bank and pulls herself up, staggering to her feet. She looks down at her hand and finds it almost completely torn to shreds and covered in blood. Funny, she thinks. She had barely noticed it in the tunnel. She wipes it on her jeans, wincing slightly, making a note to fix it when she gets home. She’ll have to fix it the old fashioned way, she’s pretty sure she can’t even conjure up a paper bag right now.

But there’s one thing she needs to know before she goes anywhere.

“Killian?” she asks quietly, so quiet she can barely hear herself. She clears her dry throat and tries again. “Killian?”

There’s only one second of silence but she feels like it’s dragged out forever.

“I’m here,” he replies. His arms come from behind and wrap around her. “I’m here, Emma.” She turns around to see his blue eyes, his stubble, his dark hair, his pointed ears, everything. She buries her body in his; his solid, real body. His heart beats under her hand, slightly erratic and wild, but it’s there, and for now that’s all that matters. They’re far from out of the woods, and they might not be for month, there’s conversations to be had and healing to be done and forgiveness and trust to be earned and re-earned, but they’ll deal with all of that later. For now, all they have time for is holding each other, next to the sealed-off portal to the Underworld, a place they will hopefully not have to see again for a long, long time.

#cs ff #captain swan #emma swan #killian jones #ouat #ouat ff #milah? happy and having a gf? in my fic? it's more likely than you'd think #I'M COMING WAIT FOR ME #I HEAR THE WALLS REPEATING #this is what happens when your timeline is 99% that scene from hadestown #also: me writing cs ff in the year of our lord 2019??? what???

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