"Emma!"
She woke abruptly at the sound of his shout, the feel of him shooting up in their bed. It had been a month since Killian had saved her with true love's kiss. A month since everyone had returned from Camelot. A month since the darkness was destroyed for good. But Killian still had regular nightmares.
Emma sat quickly and took Killian's face in her hands, her thumbs rubbing gentle circles along his cheeks.
"Hey," she said soothingly, "I'm here. I'm right here. I'm safe; everything's fine."
His eyes opened, desperate grief and fear shining out at her from their blue depths. She felt the racing of his pulse beneath her fingers as she continued caressing him, soothing him. Slowly the fear faded as the effects of the dream slowly wore off.
He crushed her to him, burying his face in the crook of her neck, holding her so tightly it was difficult to breath. She clung to him, whispering wordless sounds of comfort, needing to soothe, needing to heal.
Eventually Killian leaned back enough to look into her eyes, then abruptly surged forward, crashing his lips upon hers, kissing her with enough heat it was a wonder the bed didn't go up in flames. He nipped at her bottom lip and she opened for him, allowed his tongue to shoot forward, tangle with hers.
It was all heat and passion and desperate need, and when Killian tumbled them back onto the bed and began fiddling with the buttons of her pajama top, she moaned deep in her throat, the desire for him welling up inside her.
But this isn't what he needed, not yet.
So she moved her hand from its perch at the nape of his neck, and gently pushed at his chest. He stilled, slowly pulled away and closed his eyes.
Waving her hand lazily, Emma lit the bedside table, and sat up. Her hand went back to his face, the caresses continuing.
"Talk to me, Killian."
He closed his eyes, bowed his head.
"It was the same, Love," he said, his voice, deep and gravelly, "always the same. We were back in that moment. I watched as the light, the goodness, the life slowly drained from your eyes, as the darkness took control. Merlin stood waiting, prepared for the moment the darkness left you. I kissed you, focused on how very, very desperately I love you, but…but it wasn't enough. I wasn't enough. I watched as the brightest light of my life, the greatest gift I've ever been given was destroyed."
She took him into her arms, her hand rubbing gentle circles into his back. "But that's not what happened. You're kiss did save me. Everything is fine."
He rested in her embrace for a moment, accepting the comfort she offered, slowly relaxing, and then he pulled away. His hand came up to cradle her face and he kissed her again, softly, gently this time. He pulled away only far enough to rest his forehead against her own.
"You once told me you couldn't bear to lose me, Emma," he said softly, his eyes still closed, "but I feel the same. If I ever lost you…my entire world would crumble. My heart would wither and die. I love you to the very depths of my soul, my Emma, and if anything ever happened to you…"
"But it didn't," she said gently. "Killian, I know what you're going through. When I watched you die in the alternate universe…there are no words. Suddenly the world drained of all color. I wanted to die with you. If it hadn't been for Henry, I probably would have. But the thing is, the two of us, we're kindred spirits. I'm a survivor just like you; always have been. But now, now that I have so many people to live for—my parents, my son, and a man I love so much he's like the blood running through my veins—I'll be damned before I let anyone or anything rip me away. I'll fight like hell to come back to you. Always."
He smiled, softly. "As I'll do for you."
"Look, I have no idea what's coming at us next in this damn town, but I can promise you this. You've won my heart. It belongs completely to you. It'll take a hell of a lot more than villains or darkness to rip it away."
"I love you Emma," he said softly, his eyes alight with wonder.
She grinned, waved her hand to turn off the light and laid back against her pillow once more. "Care to show me just how much, pirate?"
His hand went back to those buttons as a feral grin lit his face. "Oh, darling, you've no idea how much."
Notes:
-Participating in the Tumblr cs writing challenge has made me unusually prolific! Basically, I've been writing a CS story every day (which is kind of awesome, but kind of exhausting!) I'm not posting ALL of them here, because…well, that would be ridiculous, but I was rather fond of this particular one. The prompt for the day was "I'm right here".
-I kind of enjoyed writing a little angst for a change. I've been feeding you all a steady diet of the fluffiest of fluff, and, well, fanfiction readers cannot live on fluff alone. As a writer I'm kind of required to make you suffer every once in a while. Luckily…this one ended happily enough. Maybe at one point I'll throw in a story where things just remain angsty and sad…you know, just to mix things up a little bit. *evil author laugh*
-And for maybe the first time ever, I actually managed to write a story (including the notes section) that remained under 1000 words!