The One Thing
by misscam
Disclaimer: Not my characters, just my words.
Author's Note: Post 2x22. Based on a comment Josh made saying that the one thing Charming would bring to a desert island would be Snow. I mentioned that this gave me fic ideas and then suddenly I was getting Tumblr demands. So this one is for you, and for Sheena's flu. Thanks to Angie for the beta work.
II
This really isn't what she had in mind for a rescue mission, Snow thinks. No. Not what she had in mind at all, being the one who needs rescue. Well, one of the two need it, her husband crawling up on the shore next to her.
A deserted island. She and Charming and nothing else. Where the Jolly Roger is, she has no idea except that it's nowhere on the horizon. The storm might have sent it far off; the same storm that knocked Charming overboard and with her diving in after him.
At least she can see a stream cutting through the rocks and the sand to join the sea when she lifts her head. So they have fresh water. There are a few groves and a cliff as well, she can see, meaning they might find something to live off for a while. And they are alive.
They're just separated from their travel companions, and while not seeing three of them ever again (or at least two) wouldn't worry her unduly, she has no desire to be parted from Emma ever again.
She lifts herself onto her hands and feet and coughs. Charming immediately reaches out puts a hand on her back.
"You all right?" he asks, his voice filled with worry.
"Just sea water," she murmurs. She did swallow quite a bit of it while fighting to stay afloat, and even if she has managed to cough up most of it, her mouth tastes of salt and her throat feels scratchy.
"Come," he says, and steadies her as she rises to her feet. He looks as wet and weathered as she feels, but at least he is alive. She leans against him as he unsteadily walks them both over to the stream. She sinks down on a stone and he cups water in his hands and holds them up for her to drink.
The fresh water is cool as she swallows, and Charming immediately scoops up more for her. Only when she shakes her head does he drink himself. She leans her hands against her knees as he does, just breathing.
She is shivering, she realizes, the wet clothes clinging to her. Numbly, she begins pulling them off to dry them in the sun. Charming does the same, she sees, spreading the clothes across the hot rocks. The gun holster too, though she imagines the sea water has made the gun rather useless.
She finds a spot of warm grass to sit down on in the sun. Charming sits down next to her, putting a hand on hers. She watches their entwined fingers as he presses a kiss to her knuckles.
"Emma is going to find us," he says confidently. She can only nod, though Emma will probably have to get the help of Rumpelstiltskin, Regina and Hook. But she has full confidence in Emma getting just that.
"Then we'll find Henry," she says as confidently as she can.
"Yes," he agrees. "Then we'll find a way home."
Whether he means the Enchanted Forest or Storybrooke, she isn't sure. Perhaps either of them. Wherever they go, Snow knows she'll consider it home as long as she has her whole family there. Charming very much included, and she glances over at him.
He meets her gaze and smiles faintly as if he knows what she's thinking.
"I'm glad you're here," he says softly.
"On a deserted island?" she asks, giving their surroundings a doubtful look.
"With me," he says, squeezing her hand. "So yes, on a deserted island right now. I don't want to have to find you again, even if I always will."
She smiles and leans in as he cups her cheek with his free hand and leans in to kiss her. His lips taste of salt, and she imagines hers do the same as he draws his tongue across her lower lip. As she parts her lips, his tongue brushes hers and he moans just as she does.
He shifts position to face her, his legs going on either side of her as she lifts her hands to his neck to deepen the kiss even more. Her eagerness seems to remove any restraint he might have felt, pulling her roughly against him. She finds herself entirely in agreement. Stuck on a boat with Rumpel, Regina, Emma and Hook and bunks that don't allow for much privacy means their moments together have been stolen quietly while everyone else sleeps.
He eases them both down slowly until she is lying on the grass and she is lying on him. The sun is as warm against her back as his skin is against her front and his lips are soft tugging at hers. Worth going overboard for, she figures, provided the Jolly Roger finds them in good time. Just a small Snow and Charming adventure in the meantime, and she loves adventures with him.
He loves her, and she can feel it as his hands move up her sides reverently. His thumb brushes the side of her breast, the moves to circle the nipple. She can feel him smile into the kiss and she pulls back slightly to look at him. With the sun at her back, he still manages to look at her as if she is far brighter. She draws her thumb across his cheekbone slowly, watching him intently.
"What?" he asks.
"I love you," she tells him sincerely. Here he is, going to Neverland to rescue their grandson, being strong for his daughter and being the heart for his wife (who fears her own heart darkening) and a moral compass for them all. She loves him and she will always love him, but sometimes just how much seems to overwhelm her.
He kisses her again in response and she grinds her hips a little against his. She can feel his bodily response to that against her leg and it makes her smile into the kiss. He makes a low noise at the back of his throat as she continues, then suddenly flips her over so that she is pressed into the grass.
He pulls back and she lifts her hands to reach for him, but he locks them in a grip with one of his hands instead. Before she can protest, he has lifted them above her head and lowered his head to encase her mouth with his. She moans in half-protest, half-encouragement and even more so when she can feel his free hand move slowly down her stomach, her hips, the side of her leg and then up again on the inside of her thigh.
She arches into his body as much as she can as he presses his hand against her at first, then slowly slips one finger into her, then another. She groans into his mouth and he lets go of her hands, allowing her to lace them through his still wet hair. Her own is probably a mess from a combination of sea water and the grass and the ground, and she doesn't care one bit.
She lifts one leg as he continues his determined pleasure-torture, pushing it against his side. She can feel his erection hard against her stomach and he seems to find her pleasure all the foreplay he needs.
"Charming," she gasps as his mouth moves to her neck and a spot just behind her ear. As he sucks lightly on it, she closes her eyes and feels the sun on her face. That's not the only thing bringing heat to her cheeks though, and certainly not why she can hardly breathe for gasping and moaning.
When he lifts himself off her and stops touching her, she whimpers in protest at the loss of his skin against hers. She lifts her head, seeing him look at her through lowered eyelids.
"Lie back," he says, his voice husky. She does, and he smiles a touch wickedly before he lowers his head between her legs. At the first touch of his tongue – a teasing flick – she grasbs at the grass and then pulls at it.
This is probably payback for the handjob she gave him yesterday while Regina was snoring in a hammock just a few feet away, she figures. He bit his lip to keep himself quiet so hard it drew blood then, and she watched the many expressions on his face with and found it a pleasure of her own.
At least she doesn't have to be silent, and isn't. He puts a hand on her hip to keep her steady as he continues, using the fingers on his other hand occasionally to apply light pressure and make her close her eyes.
"Charming," she warns him weakly. She is close, so close that if he touches her one more time... Then he does, and the light of the sun seems to pale as her mind goes blindingly white and everything is overwhelming.
As she steadies her breath, she watches Charming walk over to the stream through lowered eyelids. He cleans his hands, then has a drink before scooping up water and carrying over to her. She drinks from his hands, then watches him as he lies on his side next to her.
"Snow," he says fondly.
"You haven't called me that in a while," she observes.
"I know," he says. "You seemed to want a life in Storybrooke and to go by Mary Margaret, but jumping into the water after me and being stranded on a deserted island in Neverland... That's Snow."
"Charming," she says fondly, lifting her thumb to his lips.
"Yes," he says intently. "I am. That's the one thing I will always be because it's your name for me."
She sucks in a breath, the lifts her head and catches his lips with her own. She kisses him leisurely as she lifts her hands to his chest, drawing her palms down his smooth chest and abdomen. She can feel the muscles and scars of years of fighting for the kingdom and for her – and for Emma.
She draws a sharp breath at the memory of him on the floor, bloodied and not waking to true love's kiss. But he did live, he does live and he's right here. She can feel it, but the need to feel it even more rises in her.
He groans as her hands dip down to stroke him, breaking the kiss for a moment to adjust position. He presses his forehead against her as he presses into her, and she rests her thumb on his lower lip as he parts his lips in a soundless moan.
"Snow," he murmurs, kissing her thumb before lowering his head and kissing her. She lifts her hands to his chest again as he moves, sliding into her and almost out again in long, languid strokes. She can feel her own body respond to that, meeting his thrusts when his pace quickens.
She can feel his heartbeat against her palm as his chest rises and falls while he pants; the sound swallowed by the lingering kiss. Slowly, she moves her hands to go around his neck and get closer. She presses against him and he snakes and arm around to lift her up slightly from the grass. It changes the angle between them just a touch, but enough that it's a new sort of pleasure as his thrusts quicken.
He tenses above her, then shudders and collapses against her. She feels his shallow breath in the quick rise and fall of his chest against hers, while he lowers his head to the grass above her shoulder. She moves her hands up and down his back as he recovers, closing her eyes against the sun.
When he finally pulls back, she smiles at him and he smiles back. She lifts her head to glance at the horizon, but there is no ship to see there yet. There is only sea and sky, the line between them blurred in the bright sun.
"How long do you think it will take them to find us?" she asks. He shrugs.
"As long as it takes," he says and she rolls her eyes at him. He just smiles. "Maybe a day. We should be able to make a fire. The smoke will bring them here eventually."
"Eventually," she sighs, knowing that word can mean all sorts of things.
"There is one good thing about that," he observes.
"What?"
"I know exactly how to pass the time," he says and kisses her greedily. She would protest, but they are stuck on this island until the Jolly Roger finds them, after all. She and Charming on a deserted island, all alone between the sea and the sky.
Might as well enjoy the one good thing about it.
FIN