Tiny, shimmering droplets of water clung to his hair like starlight in the inky black night sky. Constellations trapped in the ebony strands, slipping slowly across his face, swallowed up in the blue of his eyes. Galaxies caught up in the gravity of her, pulled into her like no force in nature could stop it. Those little droplets of water dripping onto her cheeks, warm and salty while he chewed nervously on his lip. Relieved but still desperate, one low sigh rocked from his chest.
She drew up her hand carefully, pushing back the wild, wet hair from his face. Sea water seeping into her skin and trickling down her arm as she traced the lines in his face. Tried to soothe away the worry in his brow, the squeeze of fear in the corners of his eyes. Down to the taught set in his lips, dragging her thumb along the dent in his chin.
He swallowed thickly, taking her wrist into his hand and pulling gently away, searching her eyes like there was something lost in them. Something he needed to find. "You're alright," he said to her, pushing her own wet hair away from her face. Soft fingertips sending familiar jolts of electricity across her cold skin.
The sand was cool and wet against her back, the smell of the sea, of the salty air and washed-up rockweed, anchoring her to this reality. It had all been a blur, a whirl of energy snapping at her heels and licking down her back. Darkness breathing heavy on her neck as the last vestiges of her soul were sucked up in a torrent of violent, dark malevolence. Then nothing. Just black, calm silence.
She could see the worry set back into his eyes as he watched her, reading the memories play across her face. "Hey," he whispered, tracing his fingers down her arm, stopping to feel the steady beat of her pulse in the bend of her arm. "It's over. We're home."
The beach was quiet, a half moon hanging lazily in the eastern sky as the tide rolled into the harbor. The chime of a far-off buoy mingled with the gentle lap of the waves. The light from the lighthouse spinning slowly at the edge of the rocky shoals. He helped her to sit upright, hand moving an even rhythm up and down her back. Working away a chill that clung to her, despite the muggy summer air.
She blinked up at him as he wrapped her up in his arms, his nose buried in her hair as his lips pressed a pleading but gentle kiss to her temple. Sitting here on the quiet beaches of Storybrooke, it felt like this couldn't possibly be real. There was no breaking the Dark One's curse, no escaping the darkness, no room for love or happiness in a black heart. But here she was, pale pink skin and hot red blood, with a heart that felt like it would burst as it overflowed with a yearning she'd never felt before in the entirety of her life. Real, solid, home.
The battle for Camelot, to slay the beast, to purge the land of corrupt kings and black hearts. Months of battles, inner ones and those fought with curses and steel. And then, through the fog of war, of bloodshed and slaughter: him. Blue eyes, burning through the haze of darkness like candlelight in a catacomb. Soft and unassuming and small, but there. Lighting her from the inside out, filling her with something new, something good. Something that hushed the rage of evil that blazed inside of her and suddenly told her everything was going to be alright.
A son. A father. A mother. A lover. They'd all come for her. Come to save her from the evil that dug deeply into her soul. She could still feel it, the darkness being ripped away, even while it screamed out, thrashed against her. Tore at her with its wicked, white hot claws. Ripping pieces of her away as it grappled desperately for the tether to remain unbroken.
But it broke. In a sacrifice and a kiss, in a spell that shattered the unbreakable. That wiped it away from her pure soul, that snuffed it out in a swirl of something that felt like heaven. Where the Dark One had left hate, fear, greed, malice, and sin, this new thing, this spell, was bliss. Filling her soul with her lost virtue, her honor, her good heart and pure soul. Replacing all the bad days, all the broken hearts, all the painful memories and years of betrayals, with genuine, perfect, flawless, golden love. Wrapping around her and washing the black of her heart away like dust in a rainstorm.
True Love blazed through her, exploded through the air like a bomb. While he pulled her into him, hand tangled up in the glowing gold of her hair, desperate lips drawing the evil from her with every whispered exhale on her skin. Like if he stopped it wouldn't be enough, that his love wouldn't be enough. He kissed her like she'd never been kissed in her entire life. A life-altering kiss that promised her everything. To break the curse, to take away the darkness, to save her soul and his and everyone's. To be a part of her happy ending, to save the woman who was his, to reunite the family he was now a part of and couldn't bear to lose. It promised her a lifetime of love, of devotion, of never ever giving up on her or them. Of fighting for her until the end of his days and promising to never let her go again. It was the kind of kiss children are told stories of, of great knights and their lost princesses, broken curses and happily-ever-after's and the end's.
The shockwave of their kiss, of their love, burst across the sea, across the broken and splintered decking of the shipwrecked Jolly Roger. Across the war-torn Camelot and abandoned castles of the Enchanted Forest. Across land and time and reality. She had reached for him, tugging on his collar, and deepened the already powerful kiss, as the magic swirled around them. Swallowed them up in the sea and drowned them in the power of their love. Before spilling them out together on the warm Maine beach. Where only the wind blew lazily and the waves crashed softly. As if there were no wars, no Dark Ones, no magic trying to always pull them apart. And for once, there wasn't.
Dawn would roll in soon, blotting out the starlight and replacing it with the gold of daylight. But for now, they sat, entangled in one another and breathing in time as the wet, hot reality of their silent vow trickled down their skin. The salty sea clinging to them, aglow in the fading magic of their kiss, the promises of true love seeping into their skin. Morning would come and the portal would open and Emma would find her whole family once again, waiting for her with open arms. And she would be whole. Happy. A woman with so much after being a girl with nothing.
But for now, they sat. Quiet and still, whispering words of comfort and devotion and timeless love into each others skin. Naming the stars for lost friends, lost loves, lost lifetimes. Letting their hurt float away on the warm ocean air as the past slipped into oblivion and there was only here and now and tomorrow.