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killiansprincss · 4 years ago

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We Found Wonderland

Summary: Trapped in the past after the S3 finale, Killian and Emma are forced to fade into the background as a newly married couple in a village while Rumplestilskin works on the portal to send them back to the future. (No Marian) What challenges will they face, after all it’s only pretending to be married after all right? Inspired by Taylor Swift ‘Wonderland’

Due to tumblr word limit I’ve had to post this in 2 parts, find part 1 here

Also on AO3

“It was so lovely to meet you Emma, I love that I finally get to see the woman who keeps Killian on his toes. I hope we can do this again sometime.” Cassian says.

“Good luck with your child, I can see he or she will be brought into a loving house.” Emma tells them as they leave, not even looking in Killians direction.

____

“What the fuck was that all about back there?” Emma practically screams as they enter their home.

“What do you mean love?” Killian asks dumbfounded,

“Don’t play dumb with me Hook. The proposal story.” She uses his moniker, she’s angry with him, she’s pissed off.

“Touching didn’t you think? Really brought a tear to their eyes.” He smirks, he knows he’s winding her up but he doesn’t care.

“You want to know what I think? I think someone’s getting a little too comfortable in this life, you know pretending to be married and all. I think someone is forgetting. We are not actually married! We are not from here, we do not belong here. You’re in love with me but I’m sorry, I don’t feel the same.”

“You want the truth Swan?” Killian said through gritted teeth. “Fine. Yes I am getting comfortable with this life, for once you’re not always yelling at me when I’m trying to help. I won't lie and say I don’t enjoy you flirting with me for once instead of it always being me. And I don’t believe for a second my feelings for you are one sided.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Emma asks, the anger building up inside her.

Killian scoffs. “You know what I mean. When we were getting your parents together, at the ball. You looked at me different that night, like you were seeing a new side to me. You could’ve said something when we danced together over and over, but you didn’t. You got closer and closer to me over those 2 days, and when I rescued you from that blasted prison you acted like we were lovers and they didn’t question it. Ever since we found out we were stuck you’ve only been flirting with me more and more.”

“Because we are technically married. And it’s not flirting. It’s-“ Emma begins.

Killian moves closer, closing the gap between the two. She can practically feel his heartbeat as he looks into her eyes, “it’s what? Because I think you’re trying to ignore that gut feeling that you feel something for me. You don’t want to admit how you truly feel. What I feel. I’m not an idiot, you kissed me back in Neverland for a reason, and you felt something as I did. Bloody hell, I gave up everything for you Emma, I traded my ship to Blackbeard to get a magic bean to find you in New York even though you had no idea who I was. I-I” he couldn’t quite finish his sentence.

“You did what? Your ship?” Emma’s tone suddenly changes, “as in the Jolly Roger?”

Killian nods. “Aye. It was the only thing worth a magic bean.”

“You traded your ship for me?” She asks, still in shock. Nobody had done that for her before, he literally gave up his home for her. Everything he had. And she was a bitch to him.

Killian just nods. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it important.”

His ship. His home. Killian traded his home to find Emma. She had no idea who he was, he didn’t know if the memory potion would even work, but he did it anyway. He came and found her, brought her home.

Instead of saying anything Emma takes another step towards Killian closing the already small gap between them and captures his lips with hers.

They both didn’t know how much they had been longing for this, it was similar to their first kiss back in the Neverland jungle, hot and fiery. It’s filled with passion and wanting. Killian breaks the kiss for just a second to move positions and when his lips are back on Emma’s small moans escape. For in this moment, in this kiss, nothing else mattered. They forgot about their argument, about the angry screams and cusses from before. All that mattered was each other and that they were together now.

Emma wraps her legs around a Killians waist as he leads them over to the bed. Suddenly only having one bed and having to share didn't seem like such a problem.

The moans escaping from each other’s lips were getting more frequent and louder with each kiss. These enchanted forest clothes were a lot harder to remove than modern ones, but Killian was happy to oblige the removal of the dress.

“God's you’re beautiful.” Killain says taking in the sight of the almost naked Emma.

“Just shut up and kiss me.” Emma tells him. She wants him, she needs him.

Killian happily obliges, kissing her lips and her cheek and her neck leaving marks that will need covering up tomorrow. He sucks on her neck and leaves hot kisses down from her neck down her body, paying close attention to her breasts and then her stomach and inner thighs causing her back to arch and more moans start to escape.

“Killian I need you please.” Emma pleads, she wanted him.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes please. Please.”

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

After that night of pleasure, they never had to argue over the bed or awkwardly untangle themselves in the mornings. The next few months are spent exploring each other’s bodies every night, and finding out new things about each other every day.

Their relationship took a turn from pretending to be real and pretending to be in love, to not being so pretend anymore. They fell into the routine of a happily married couple.

There was also something else magical about that night. It seemed Emma’s magic had returned. Sparks flew that night in one way or another. It was electrifying.

___

“Hmm something smells good.” Emma says as she walks through the door after another horrible day at work.

Killian comes out from around the corner and presses a kiss to her lips.”I’m glad you’re home. I made you a surprise for dinner.”

“You know I hate surprises.” She whines

Killian chuckles, “I promise you are going to love this surprise.”

Emma sits down at the table as Killian puts a blindfold on his ‘wife’. “Whatever this is it smells good.”

Killian removes the blindfold as he pieces the plate of food in front of her,

“Is this?” Emma asks as she sees what seems to be a grilled cheese in front of her.

“My attempt at an Enchanted Forest Grilled Cheese. I went to the market and got the finest bread and the best cheese imported from Agrabah. I then made it into a sandwich and heated it up. I couldn’t figure out how to make the onion rings, which you so enjoy too, but this is the best I could do.”

“You did this for me?” Emma is shocked that he did this for her, he didn’t have to, but he did.

“I know you’re missing home, I can’t go to Granny herself and ask her to make you one, but this is the next best thing.” Killian gives her a smile. It wasn’t to get points or anything, he did it because he was really enjoying their time together but she was always talking about Stortybrooke, so he thought he’d bring a little bit of it to their home.

“Oh.My. God. This is incredible.”she says as she takes a bite “I love you.”

Realising what she just said, they’re both taken aback.

“Slip of though don’t worry I’ll pretend you didn’t say it.” He says awkwardly scratching behind his ear, a sad tone in his voice.

“No. No, I meant it. Sure it was a slip of the tongue but I don’t regret saying it. Killian, I love you.” She finally admits. “I didn’t admit how I was feeling for the longest time, but you stayed with me and helped me through it all. You didn’t have to come find me in New York but you did, you didn’t have to help me make sure my parents met but you did. You even became my fake husband so that we can slip through the cracks until we can go home.”

Her walls were slowly coming down each day she spent with Killian. He wasn’t running away, and Emma didn’t want to run when it all became real either. And for each wall he crashed through, she didn’t feel the need to build another.

“Gods I’m so pleased to hear you say that Swan.” Killian grabs her by the waist and spins her around, releasing laughter from Emma. “I love you too Emma. So much.”

_____

So we went on our way

Too in love to think straight

All alone, or so it seemed

But there were strangers watching

And whispers turned to talking

And talking turned to screams

Emma and Killian had been in the Enchanted Forest for around 10 months, hopefully Rumplestilskin would keep his word and have the portal so that they could go back to their world in 2 months time.

10 months in the Enchanted Forest, and Emma was still not used to the clothes or the food. Cassian and Maeve had invited them round a few more times, and this time they didn't need to lie about their relationship or their feelings as much anymore. The two of them had welcomed a baby girl, and Maeve had returned to work at the tavern, so at least Emma was no longer alone in battling off the creepy men.

Although, Emma couldn’t completely control her magic so there were times it spiraled out of control and she had hoped nobody would notice it was her. There was one time she was pouring drinks, it was a really busy shift, and she accidentally made the barrels explode and beer went everywhere. It took a lot of effort not to laugh at the beer that practically drenched the guy that had been trying to touch her up all shift.

“This happens all the time, don’t worry about it.” Maeve tells Emma as she grabs a rag to start cleaning up.

Phew. She got away with it. For now.

Except it kept happening.

Emma didn’t know why or what was happening, but her magic was uncontrollable.

“It’s happening again, I don’t know what to do.” She confides in Killian. She knows he will want to help, and not just because it will keep their secret safe.

Killian trusts her, he knows her magic is never intended to harm anybody. “Why does it keep happening at work, you don’t seem to have outbursts at home.”

“I feel safe at home.” Emma admits. “When I’m with you, I feel safe, I can pretend it’s just us and the rest of the world doesn’t exist. When I’m at work I get nervous because you’re not there and I have to do it all alone, keep up appearances. You’re so much better at it than I am.”

“I have something for you then.” Killian says as he pulls a chain from around his neck, with a cool silver ring attached.

“Wow, wow wow.” Emma’s heart suddenly starts to race, she loved Killian, but if this ring was his way of proposing they were moving way too quickly.

“Calm down Swan, I’m not proposing.” He realises he should have led with that before pulling out a ring. “You know I’m a survivor, and this ring is why. It belonged to my brother, a better man than I am. It’s kept me safe all these years, and now it’s going to keep you safe. At the very least it’s a reminder that you’ve got a smouldering piercing eyed pirate at home who loves you.”

She kisses him and smiles. Her smile is so bright, nobody has ever cared or loved her the way Killian does, and it’s kind of scary, but Killian hasn’t left her, he stuck by her and she’s slowly realising that being in love, especially with Killian, is nothing to be afraid of. “I love you too.”

Now when she was at work and felt her magic or became overwhelmed, she would hold the ring on the chain, and breathe. She would think of Killian and how they would be going home soon.

______

For the first couple weeks after clinging to the ring, Emma was fine. Her magic did become slightly overwhelming but she took the ring and held it for a few seconds, thought of Killain, and she was fine.

But then their story started getting poked at.

“Where did you say you came from again?” A girl at work would ask.

“Crestbourne, just north of here.” Emma says, hoping the subject will change soon.

“Crestborune? Isn’t that South?”

Emma plays dumb, “Right, I meant South. Sorry my head is spinning today, too much rum after work last night,”

Killian experienced the same thing.

“You say you were in the Royal Navy Jones?” Someone at work would ask.

“Aye, me and my brother. Under King Elijah.”

“Only because I have a friend currently in King Elijah’s army, and he hadn’t heard of a Jones in that army for over a hundred years.”

Killian didn’t know what to say, he didn’t expect to be caught out like this. So he just laughs and says, “Well I guess I didn’t make much of an impact if nobody remembers me.” It’s the best he can do.

That night at home, Emma and Killian discuss their situation.

“What do we do? Go back to Rumple? Work for him for the next 2 months?” Emma suggests, despite the fact that she doesn’t want to do this, maybe they had no choice.

“No. Absolutely not. I still don’t trust the Crocodile. If we go to him now before the Portals is ready- who knows what he’ll do with us?” Killian had every right to be afraid, especially as this Rumpelstiltskin was not the Mr. Gold they could threaten in Storybrooke.

Emma was worried, how much longer could this go on? “Then what do you plan we do?”

Killian takes Emma’s hand and pulls her in for a kiss. “We’ve come this far together. As long as we stick together, we can wager any more storms that come our way.”

Emma can’t help but smile at his sea analogies. But he was right, they had survived ten months together without any complications, they just needed to survive 2 more. As long as they were together, they could do this.

____

The next day Emma heads to work with Maeve, they both have an afternoon shift and she appreciated the company. Poor Maeve is working 3 days at the tavern and 4 days at the market. She and Cassian can barely afford clothes for their baby girl who is growing every day. Emma wishes she could tell her that it gets better, and that soon she hopefully wouldn’t have these problems. She’s pretty sure all jobs in Storybrooke pay a decent living wage.

“What’s happening up there?” Emma asks Maeve as they see a crowd start to form outside the tavern.

“I’m not sure.” Maeve looks equally as confused as they approach the growing crowd.

“WITCHES! BURN THE WITCHES!” They hear.

Oh no. No. This was not good.

This wasn’t like Storybrooke, people didn’t always accept magic here. And if they found out about Emma, who knows what they would do to her.

“I know there’s a witch here. Strange things have been happening, I know magic when I see it.” A man with a pitchfork says. Emma recognises him as a regular. A regular who likes to touch the girls that work there.

Emma’s heart is suddenly racing. Last night she made the barrels explode again. She tried to think of Killian and his ring, but she heard the name ‘Henry’ and her emotions, and therefore her magic was spiralling. The lights flickered before they cut out immediately and goblets started to shatter-despite being made of a heavy duty material.

Maeve looks at Emma, “Go. Go now before they find you.

Emma gives her a confused look, “what do you mean?”

In a quiet voice, she tells her, “I know you have magic. I see it, but you can’t control it. You would never use it to hurt anybody, but they don’t know that. Go now, escape while you still can.”

Emma gives Maeve a hug, “Thank you.”

“I know you don’t belong here. So I hope you can get back to wherever it is.” Maeve whispers.

Emma nods, Maeve was smart. “Things will get better. I promise.” Before she runs away back to their home.

Bursting through the door, she sees Killian taking a nap, he’d been working a lot more shifts lately, in his attempt to slip through the cracks.

“Killian! Wake up! Killain! We need to get out of here. They know. We need to find Rumple. I don’t care that it's only been 10 months. I need to be safe. I can’t do this anymore.” She’s rambling, Killian can’t understand what she’s saying.

“Swan calm down. What’s going on?” Killian asks, in his half sleep state.

Emma takes a deep breath and explains the Witch Hunt going on outside the tavern and how Maeve knows she has magic, and has given her a head start.

“THE WITCH LIVES HERE! I'VE SEEN IT!”

Suddenly there’s a pounding on their door. Emma and Killian look at one another. “Swan if you have a way of getting us out by magic, do it now.”

The door breaks down and there’s a crowd of angry villagers with pitchforks and spires, “There’s the witch, I’ve seen sparks and white fog coming from their house time and time again. She’s practising magic.”

“Killian I can’t control it, I don’t know how to get us out.” Emma whispers, panic setting in, her fists are glowing, letting the angry villagers know they’re right about their assumptions.

“Swan. Look at me.” Killian says, using his one hand to turn Emma’s face to his.”Your magic is inside of you. I understand you can’t control it, but I’ve seen you do it before. You can do this, I believe in you.”

Emma takes Killians hand in hers and thinks hard about what she wants. She wants to get home to their family. Killian has been by her side through it all, he’s been her rock, she thinks of his ring and how much she loves him. She feels her power, and focuses on escaping.

Her fists glow brighter, and a second later they disappear in a puff of white smoke, and appear into the great hall of Rumple's Castle.

Emma opens her eyes to see the results of her first time really using her magic.

“You did it Swan!” Killian wraps his arms around her. “You’re bloody brilliant you know that!”

Emma breathes a sigh of relief as she hugs Killian. She did it, she actually did it.

“You wield in magic. I’m impressed.” Rumples' voice tears them from each other’s thoughts about what just happened.

“The villagers found out about us lying. And we were at the centre of a witch hunt. Is there any way the portal can be ready early?” Emma is practically begging, which she never thought she would. This Rumple was far less likely to help them than Gold.

The Dark One just laughs. “Oh I haven’t been working on the portal.”

“Please tell me this is a joke.” Killian half laughs, hoping it wasn’t true.

Rumple raises his eyebrows, “I don’t joke. I’ve been working on a memory potion for myself. I already know too much about the future, can’t know anymore.”

Pressing her lips together to stop her from wringing her hands around his neck, Emma simply asks, “so how do we get home?”

“With this.” He says as a wand poofs into his hand.

“I don’t understand.”

Rumple rolls his eyes at Emma. “You have proven yourself powerful enough these past few months, you are the only one who can replicate the spell that brought you here.”

“So you’re telling me, these past 10 months have been a test? That we didn’t need to make up a fake life and live here?” Killian asks, anger building up.

Rumple laughs. “Of course it was a test! You needed to prove you were powerful enough. And like I said, there was no use for you in my Castle, I already had help.” Emma notices the Castle isn’t as clean as it was 10 months ago, assuming Belle had been captured by Regina by now.

“I’m gonna kill him when we get home.” Emma whispers to herself.

/\/\/\/\

Rumple poofs them into the basement, or the dungeon of his Castle, filled with what was most likely the most dangerous magic and weapons.

The glamour Rumple had put them on had vanished, and they were back in their other clothes, Emma’s leather jacket, her armour was back on and she felt somewhat safe. The wand felt heavy in her hand, it was powerful magic, also likely dark magic if it were able to replicate any spell or curse.

“How do I do this?” She asks Killian.

“You’re the magic one Swan not me.” His tone was cold, what was up with him?

“Are you okay?”

“Fine. Just eager to get home.” He says looking around at the magical objects

Emma lowers the wand and turns to face Killian. “What’s wrong with you?

Avoiding her gaze, he simply says. “Everything changes when we’re home.”

Emma furrows her brow, “What’s changing?” She grabs his hand and forces him to look at her. “Killian, what is going to change?”

“Us, Everything. Your feelings for me. It was nice while it lasted.”

“You think I’m going to leave you when we get back home?” She asks, slightly hurt that he would even think that.

“I’m a Pirate Swan. You think your family of royals and heroes are going to accept me?” Killian was afraid of going home, it wouldn’t just be him and Emma anymore.

“Killian, I love you. And that’s not going away when we get home. I don’t care what my parents think, you have stayed with me all this time. You have a mark in the hero column.” She kisses him, letting him know that while things will be different, things aren’t going to change between them.

As she kisses him, the wand In her hand begins to glow white. Holding Killians hand tight, she raises the wand in the air and thinks of home, and her family.

“You did it Swan.” Killian says, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, looking at the golden shimmering portal which had opened.

“Let’s go home.” She says as she places the wand on the table and grabs Killians hand as they jump into the Portal.

/\/\/\/\

They come through the Portal with a bump. Storybrooke. They’re home.

“We did it! We’re home!” Emma can feel tears coming from her eyes, she didn’t know when she would see home again.

“You did it Swan. You’re bloody amazing.” Killain says picking her up and spinning her around, the same way as when Emma told him she loved him.

“Let’s go. Let’s go find our family.” Killian could almost cry at the way Emma said ‘our’, they may not be married anymore, but she still loved him and they were in this together. Whatever they face next, they face it together.

And so they walk hand in hand to Granny’s to find everyone.

In Storybrooke, only a matter of days had passed, thankfully they hadn’t missed almost a year. But she did miss the official name ceremony of her baby brother, Prince Leo, named after Snow's father.

“So you’re Princess Leia?” Snow asks, as they flick through Henry’s book to find Emma and Killians adventure now in it.

Henry chuckles, “Nice alias Mom!”

“I guess that means you’re finally one of us. A fairytale princess at last.” David says as he muses the picture of Emma and Hook dancing together at the ball.

“So what happened after that? You were there almost a year? What was it like? Did you slay a dragon, or get caught in the ogre war?” Henry asks, wanting to know all about her Enchanted Forest adventure.

Emma rolls her eyes, “Sorry Kid, no dragon slaying or ogres. Gold, or uh Rumple. He wanted to test us, test my magic. So we had to pretend to be a married couple living in a small village out of sight, and I had to work in a tavern for 10 months until my magic returned and I was the focus of a witch hunt.”

“Witch Hunt?”

“Married to Hook?”

Her parents clearly had different reactions to her story.

Emma just laughs, “It was a scary experience all right. But I couldn’t have gotten through it without my ‘husband’. It wasn’t so bad, but I’m so happy to be back at Granny’s, I missed her onion rings.” And she gives Hook a knowing look that causes them both to smile at the memory.

“Wait-are you two?” Henry asks realising the looks and smiles his mother was sharing with Hook.

Emma doesn’t quite know how to react, she wasn’t ashamed, but her family didn't know Killian like she did.

“I’m happy for you Emma. Really.” Snow says, holding out her hands to both Emma and Hook.

“I guess the Pirate isn’t so bad, as long as you don’t hurt her I’m happy.” David fights the urge to say something worse, but in all honesty he was happy for Emma.

“Does this mean Hook can teach me how to sword fight?” Henry asks his grandparents with a grin on his face making Emma smile.

Her family was reunited. She wasn’t alone anymore. She had a family who loved her and wouldn’t leave her. It may have taken time, and a curse, but it was worth it. Henry didn’t bring her to Storybrooke to break some curse, he was bringing her home.

#Captain Swan #cs ff #captain swan fanfic #emma swan #killian jones #my writing

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theclaravoyant · 7 years ago

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AN ~ Happy @aosficnet2 Midyear Exchange @pizza-is-my-buziness! It’s been a pleasure to finally write for you, my favourite Skimmons author! I’ve still got a couple of your ideas up my sleeve, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a little shameless fluff! I hope you like it <3

Sometimes you see a pretty girl and pour lemonade all over her. Sometimes, she forgives you. First impressions are overrated, after all.

Rated G/K+. Skimmons/Bioquake. College AU, Meetcute, Fluff. Read on AO3 (~2500wd)

Primrose & Pink Lemonade

Daisy was quite happily lost in her own little world as she made a bee line up the cafeteria stairs to her usual sitting place. She had a lunch tray in one hand – bearing a cheeseburger, fries, and an egregiously sized pink lemonade, all well-balanced after months of practice – and her phone in the other, tapping away enthusiastically as she toyed with new ideas for the video game she was creating. Nothing like a boring-as-hell Art History class to get the juices flowing.

Her mind spun with the possibilities and she couldn’t bear to wait those precious few extra minutes for her computer to load. Why bother waiting, after all, when she knew what to get and where to go and just how she liked to set up? She didn’t even need to raise her eyes from her phone to duck around somebody who walked a little too close and brushed her arm, or to raise her tray and swerve aside when somebody spilled their drink on their own table and leapt after it with a cry of despair. No, Daisy was well accustomed to her routine, and to not having anyone else to do it with, and as such it barely even occurred to her that this entire two floors of cafeteria was a public space. It certainly did not occur to her that somebody else might be using the booth she had designated to herself, until she was half a second away from sliding into her seat and realised that somebody else was already there.

And not just any somebody else either. A girl. A beautiful girl, about Daisy’s own age by the look of her – so, a young woman really, not that Daisy was used to thinking of herself as such. Either way, she was apparently a massive nerd, with stacks of books and photocopied pages piled like a nest around her. She had music in her ears, humming along under her breath as she read and highlighted and took notes. As Daisy watched, the girl swept a lock of hair behind her ear, revealing hazel eyes and a whorl of freckles across her face. Her eyes lit up and she giggled to herself at something one of the theorists had written. From what Daisy could tell, these were biology textbooks, and so she found herself thinking how this woman must have a bizarre, adorable, terrible sense of humour, and then she found herself thinking, what a nerd, I love her, and very shortly after that, there was no more time to think. The magic of the moment erupted into chaos when Daisy’s distracted, slackened, love-struck hand upset the careful balance of her lunch tray, and sent her pink lemonade flying.

Daisy screeched, helplessly embarrassed and desperately trying to stop the rest of her tray from jumping ship in the opposite direction, and her phone from flying into the mess.

The girl screeched, jumping in her seat and scrambling to save as much as she could of her work from the sugary sweet, irreparably sticky assault.

Time, space, and every long-forgotten, mildly embarrassing moment in Daisy’s entire life flashed before her eyes, and then, even after the longest split-second she had experienced in some time, she still hadn’t worked through it far enough to remember that she should probably be helping. By the time her bodily awareness had returned to the present, the other woman had already shunted all her books away from the puddle of lemonade, had stripped off her sugar-spattered cardigan, and was forlornly dabbing at her shoulder-bag with her scarf, as lemonade dripped on down to the seat of the booth and over everything she owned.

“Oh, Jesus,” Daisy groaned. “I’m so sorry. Here. Take my napkins. Uh. I’ll go… get more napkins.”

After a moment of back and forth, she put her tray as daintily as possible down on the end of the table, right in the middle of the lemonade pool – it’s not like there was anywhere else she could put it, anyway, and what was she going to do? Take it with her? It was already full of lemonade anyway – and then she jogged over to the table full of condiments and cutlery, and grabbed napkin napkin napkin napkin… She kept guilt-pulling napkins until she started to wonder if she was stalling the return to the table, and then she decided that she was, and gritted her teeth, and slunk back to the beautiful woman she’d just made a complete ass of herself in front of and ruined forever.

She held the napkins out as an offer of peace, with an appropriately chagrinned expression.

“Oh, thank you,” said the other woman, removing her sopping scarf and sighing in defeat. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

“No, no, it’s my fault,” Daisy insisted. “You don’t have to think of anything. I just- I didn’t see you and I thought –“

You’re beautiful.

She cleared her throat instead. “The point is, I’m… uh… I’m really sorry. I’ll wash your scarf. Does it wash? I don’t know. And your jacket. And your bag, oh god-”

“Oh, no, it’s alright. It was an accident. And it’s just the outside, no drowned electronics or anything. All will be well, with a little elbow grease, I’m sure. Come sit down, please, mi booth es su booth.” The woman waved a distracted hand, inviting Daisy in, and then blushed and looked up at her. “Oh, dear, how rude. I’m Jemma, by the way. Jemma Simmons. I’m on exchange from England, busy recontextualising, so sorry about the mess. Pleasure.”

She held her hand out and, helpless, Daisy shook it. She was still far too mortified to pull off Hi Jemma by the way Jemma Simmons, I’m Daisy, with any degree of swagger, and she couldn’t think of anything else even remotely clever. She kind of just wanted to say You’re English because that voice – but of course, Jemma already knew that. So Daisy just laughed. A really, really uncomfortable laugh, so painful it made even her wince, so she quickly steered herself out of it and cleared her throat instead.

“Uh, Daisy,” she returned. “And I would love to take a seat but I don’t think there’s an inch left down there that’s not swimming in lemonade. I’m just gonna go. But uh, if you like, I could show you the other places I go around here? If you liked this spot, maybe you’ll like those. And I’ve run out of lemonade, so, you’re good there. I mean, assuming you don’t want to rip my throat out. Which would be fair.”

Jemma narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, studying Daisy as if to work out what angle she might be trying to come from. There was no doubt, theirs had been odd as far as introductions went, but Daisy’s bounce back was remarkable, and Jemma was rather determined to extricate herself from this sticky pink nightmare as soon as possible without making Daisy feel too bad about the whole thing. Convenient for both of them, then, that it seemed she had happily presented the perfect opportunity.

“I’ll tell you what,” Jemma proposed. “Forget the scarf and the bag and all of it. You can buy me a cup of tea on the way to these other wonderful places and we’ll forget the whole thing. Oh and – if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate some help with these books?”

“Sure.” Another uncomfortable laugh, but this one more breathless than scarred for life. Beaming ear to ear, Daisy felt suddenly aware of her heart thundering in her chest, and she gathered Jemma’s books toward herself as if she was picking armfuls of flowers. Carrying books for the pretty, quiet, nerdy girl. Wasn’t that the dream?

All but floating on air, Daisy led Jemma through the campus, past a coffee shop where she picked up a tea, coffee, and an everything bagel – a girl had to eat, after all – and on to an old brick amphitheatre. They talked the usual university fare; who they were, what they were studying, what they liked and did not like about various aspects of their courses. It seemed that much, at least, was international. By the time they reached Daisy’s second-favourite place to eat on campus, the lemonade incident was rapidly becoming a humourous memory.

“I don’t usually come here when it’s cold out,” Daisy explained. “It’s miles away from the computer labs and basically all my classes, and the wifi is crap, but I figured, you’re English, you can handle it.”

The amphitheatre was nothing special: a small installation for a class to practice projection, or perhaps for an intimate poetry reading. It was a concrete stage and red brick everywhere else. Fairly ordinary in and of itself. Yet Jemma found something wondrously unique about it. Perhaps it was simply the thrill of being let in on somebody’s secret, of being invited to belong, but there was a little piece of magic here that the cafeteria, and even the library where she usually felt at home, had lacked. Of course, there were also trees and sun above them, which Jemma had always loved.

“Oh, primrose!” she exclaimed, catching sight of some and running to admire it without a second thought. “This used to grow back at home, I do love them so. They’re marvelous flowers, you know.”

“What’s so special about them?” Daisy wondered. For a moment, Jemma scowled, feeling defensive of her favourite flowers. Then she realised that, though in somebody else’s mouth those words may have been dismissive, Daisy was watching her attentively, and when she did not answer immediately, began to approach as if to see them for herself. She knelt beside Jemma, and for a moment the words of explanation caught in Jemma’s throat. From the get-go it had been clear that Daisy was a fun person, a bit of a character, and judging by the rock band t-shirt and the jeans and boots and dozen or so political cause pins dotted over her computer bag, a rather passionate one too. But in their brief time together Jemma had noticed a streak of understated intelligence that she had to admire, and it shone through now as Daisy studied the flowers with a sense of inspiration about her.

“You really want to know?” Jemma wondered, hopeful.

“Yeah,” Daisy snorted, but was beaming back when she looked up. Her expression said that if she had not wanted to know, she would not have asked, and Jemma found herself feeling rather bashful all of a sudden.

“I- it’s just, well, I tend to ramble about these sorts of things. A lot of people lose interest fairly quickly. I wouldn’t blame you.”

“No, please, explain away.”

But alas, they had whiled away their seemingly endless time together. Jemma’s phone vibrated, again and again and again, and chimes began to ring out the alarm she had set. She pulled it out of her pocket, and checked it, and gaped in affronted surprise.

“Bloody hell!” she cried. “It’s three o’clock! I’ve got to get back to class!”

“Okay. Okay. Uh. Biology’s this way. Quick!”

They sprinted down the amphitheatre steps so fast that Daisy had to catch Jemma’s hand to stop her falling. They barely noticed the contact, frantic as they both were, and it was gone in a moment anyway as they scrambled to scoop up the books, climb the other side of the amphitheatre, and sprinted across campus with the wolves of poor time management at their heels. When they reached Jemma’s class, she paused a moment to catch her breath, adjust her hair and the lay of her bag and her shirt and all, and then she turned to Daisy.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Perfect. Great. Good,” Daisy assured her, nodding emphatically. In truth her hair was a little windblown and there was a tiny smear of dirt on her knee where she’d knelt to look at the flowers, but just because Daisy had catalogued every inch of her, didn’t mean anyone else would. And didn’t mean it wasn’t good, great, perfect. “How- how are you feeling?”

“Nervous,” Jemma confessed. “Blimey, what a terrible first impression.”

Daisy huffed, and smirked at the irony as she helped Jemma arrange her copious books into a manageable pile in her arms.

“Personally,” she said, “I think first impressions are overrated.”

Jemma’s eyes sparkled as she smiled back. “Perhaps you’re right. Either way, I should go. No need to make things worse.”

She turned on her heel and spun, and the book that Daisy hadn’t finished passing back fell to the floor with a light thud. Daisy’s eyes followed it for a brief moment, and she yelped-

“Wait, you forgot-“

But when she looked up again, Jemma had already disappeared inside. Her heart beginning to fall, Daisy bent to pick up the book. It was thin, and it looked old, with a rough-textured, mint-green cover and a broken spine. On the front, there was an embossed illustration of a daisy and below it, the words: Flowers of the English Countryside. Daisy smiled down at it, and flicked through its pages. She had some time to kill after all; perhaps she could take a look before returning this to the library. She really was curious about primroses now, after all.

Not as curious, though, as she was about the slip of paper that fell out from between the covers and into her hand. It had been torn from a photocopy, by the looks of things, of a book called An Introduction to Conservation Politics in the United States. It had been, unmistakably, dipped in pink lemonade. And it had been scribbled on – no doubt, Daisy knew, by the hand of a woman running across campus like her life depended on it. This was Jemma’s number, and it was meant for her.

Daisy smiled. She smiled so widely that she had to bite her tongue to stop her grin consuming her entire face. She pumped a fist and let out a skittering jump of delight, before turning and walking back the way she had come with as much decorum as she could bother to muster. She had to play it cool, after all.

(But not so cool that she didn’t spent the rest of the afternoon wondering if that was a 4 or a 9, a 1 or a 7, or if it would be weird for her to just go back to Jemma’s classroom and meet her when they wrapped up for the day.

Surely not as weird as someone you’d just poured lemonade all over, giving you her phone number, right?)

#skimmons #bioquake #skimmonsfic #aosficnet2 #pizza-is-my-buziness #aosfic #aos fic #bioquakefic #aosfemslash #clara's fic tag #agents of shield

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