Need Your Arms, Need Your Love
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing here. I'm mere letting my imagination run wild with ideas.
Summary: Long relationships were never Emma's strong suit, but Archie was constantly proving her very wrong on that front and, for that, she was grateful. Set directly after season 1.
Recently (as in, the last few weeks), a very good friend of mine and I have discovered that we have a mutual fangirl crush on Raphael Sbarge. (Be still my heart!) Said fangirling got me thinking and I realized that I really needed to write another "Once Upon A Time" story based on my crack (but hopefully, if the gods love me at all, eventual canon) OTP.
So, since we have no idea what the heck is going to happen in Season 2 yet, I'm merely going on basic speculation. This story immediately follows "And The End Is Where We Start From."
I hope you all enjoy this newest addition to the Archie and Emma romance.
It honestly didn't take them very long to find Mary Margaret and David – or rather, Snow White and Prince Charming. Times like these, Emma thought that her life seemed to be a lot like a clichéd story book, not it wasn't really, given that the fairy tales actually existed.
Pongo was dancing around them, barking merrily. The dog had been the first to see the duo and had gone racing down the street, circling them happily, though Emma figured that the dog had an odd sense of protectiveness about his master, mistress, and the young boy in their embrace.
Now that they had their memories back, the blond man and the brunette woman were more than eager to rekindle their old lives together and to find their long-lost (and, until very recently, long-forgotten) daughter. Once that cloud of purple smoke had cleared from town, Emma stayed close to Archie and Henry because, to be frank, she was too afraid to lose either one of them, even if Henry was perfectly alive and Archie chose to stay Archie instead of reverting back to Jiminy Cricket entirely. She just wanted to make sure that her son stayed alive and that her boyfriend stayed human.
Yeah, that one was still a major doozy, even for her, a recent convert.
The whole town had their memories back and Emma was still reeling a lot from the fact that, save for Henry and herself, every citizen of Storybrooke was a fairy tale character – for real. Yes, she became a believer when Henry's book had forced the memories on her, but that didn't mean that she had processed it easily. She had had to put that particular thing off initially because, well, she had other problems to worry about, namely a dragon, a dying (and then revitalized-by-the-kiss-of-true-love) son, an Evil Queen mayor, Rumplestitskin (who still hadn't shown his face around Storybrooke yet), and the fact that her boyfriend was also Jiminy Cricket (but in human form).
All in all, Emma had a lot to deal with.
Which was why she was decidedly less than thrilled with Mary Margaret and David – Snow White and Charming, her parents – came rushing towards them, hand in hand, their feet slapping against the sidewalk. She saw the way they acted around each other (giddy and lovey-dovey) as they hurried toward Henry, Archie, and herself, while still looking at her with concerned, parental expressions.
Sometimes, fairy tales sucked majorly. This was one of those times.
If her experience with Archie was anything to go by, Snow White and Charming – ugh, this was so confusing! – remembered what life had been like in Storybrooke. Emma grabbed Archie's hand for support and squeezed tightly, wrapping her other arm around Henry protectively.
Archie squeezed her hand and she looked at him. He gave her a small, but reassuring smile. She was going to need his reliability and quiet strength more and more.
"You can do this," he whispered, reassuringly.
Henry looked up at her with his big eyes and smiled that wide, truly happy smile of his. "Yeah, Mom, you can do it."
Something inside of Emma lurched forward, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, and reformed into something bigger and stronger.
Henry called her "Mom."
It was the first time that he had done that – ever. A slow smile crossed her lips. She was his mother and Regina was so far out of the picture right now that the former mayor and life-long evil queen could not be considered Henry's maternal figure in any way, shape, or form. Emma pressed a kiss on the top of her son's head and looked back up to her parents as they drew in close to the trio.
"Emma!" Snow White cried breathlessly, even as Emma tried to shake the image of her one-time roommate and Henry's schoolteacher from her head. "You're – you're . . ."
"Alive? Grown up? Blonde?" Emma supplied, arching an eyebrow.
Okay, the last one was from her own odd sense of humor, but Archie had to cover his laugh with a snort.
Snow White – Mary Margaret – smiled and broke away from Charming – David. It was an awkward hug that she gave Emma, awkward mainly because she had to shift around Henry, who squirmed from being squished between his mother and his grandmother (and schoolteacher). Archie had the good sense to step away, though Emma shot him a glare that promised torment later. He merely gave her a level, if encouraging, look.
She was seriously going to need his insight later on. This was a major mind-trip.
"My baby," the dark-haired woman said, tears in her voice and eyes, "we missed so much of your life."
Emma really had to suppress a laugh. "Well, yeah, no one likes to be an orphan in foster care."
"Your father and I are here now," Snow White promised. Henry finally managed to worm his way out from between the two women, giving a disgruntled noise – which (thankfully) drew the attention away from Emma and to him. "Henry! Oh, my dear!"
A stab of sympathy shot through Emma as Snow White wrapped him up in a tight hug.
Charming chuckled, as if sensing how weird this was for Emma and for Henry. He reached for his (newly-remembered) wife. "Snow, I think Emma and Henry already have enough to worry about at the moment without you doting on them. Give them some time to adjust to the idea of having us as a family."
With that, Snow stepped back and Emma saw a little bit of the Mary Margaret she remembered.
"Silly me," she replied, "this can't be easy for either one of you."
"Understatement of the decade," Emma said with a snort.
Henry laughed. "This is awesome though! We can be a family now, Mom," he added, looking between Emma and Archie. "You, me, Archie, Snow, and Charming – a family!"
Emma caught his enthusiasm and looked over at her boyfriend. Archie smiled, obviously happy to be included in Henry's declaration. Her heart swelled. Yeah, now he could be that father figure she always wanted him to be for Henry, without the pressures of dealing with Regina. In that, Henry was right. That bit was going to be awesome.
She returned Archie's smile as he slipped behind her and wrapped an arm back around her waist in an intimate gesture that declared a lot.
The way that both Snow and Charming looked – glared – at Archie was telling.
"Excuse me?" Charming said and Emma figured out exactly where she got that tone of voice from.
"And how do you mean that, Henry?" Snow added, frowning, her jaw set.
"Emma and I have been together for a while now, Your Majesties. You both remember that," Archie said, in his backbone-of-steel voice that Emma secretly thought was such a major turn-on. His head was held high and there was a knowing smirk on his lips. "We love each other and we both love Henry, who both knows about our relationship and approves of it. I don't think that any other opinion besides ours and Henry's matters in that regard."
Both Snow and Charming were in shock and Emma saw the Mary Margaret and David in them.
Emma wasn't used to having to wait for parental approval, especially when it was her parents and said parents had (up until very recently) been under the control of a curse that she didn't believe in until a few hours before – and said parents were also roughly the same age as Emma herself. Oh man, she was going to need more time to sort out the ramifications of the curse. That, and a drink.
All of this was giving her a massive headache.
She saw Snow studying Archie, jaw tight in an uncomfortably familiar way. Emma raised an eyebrow.
"You have a problem with Archie and me now too?" she asked, her voice a bit defensive.
The brunette shook her head. "No, but I don't know where I know Archie from. He seems familiar but . . ." She trailed off, cocking her head to the side. "I can't place him."
Charming seemed to catch his wife's drift and nodded.
"How do we know you?" he asked honestly.
The question may have been directed at Archie but it was Henry, being the best-versed in the link between the fairy tale land and the very real world. The boy was smiling as he said, "He's Jiminy Cricket . . . but in human form." Henry beamed up at Archie. "He chose to stay human instead of reverting into grasshopper form because of Emma."
That floored the two fairy tale characters.
"But," Snow said, her tone confused and worried now, "won't that disturb the release of the curse? We're supposed to go back to who we were, right?"
Archie shrugged.
"Being Archie Hopper gave me the best things in my life, more than being a grasshopper ever could, so I want to stay human, if not for myself, but for Emma and Henry," the bespectacled man said, with much conviction. "I want them to be happy and I'm happy being human."
"And I would much prefer that my boyfriend stays human," Emma said, giving her (okay, sure, she'll admit it) parents an even look.
"Me too," Henry added. Four sets of eyes looked down at him. The boy shrugged. "Mom and Archie are good together. Why should a broken curse change that?"
Emma exchanged a look with Archie.
"Yes, why should a curse change that?" Archie affirmed, leaning over to kiss the side of Emma's head.
She chuckled and looked back to Charming and Snow. Emma Swan normally wasn't one to give into her mushy, girly side, but damn did Archie bring it out in her – not that she was complaining. Archie just had that gentle way about him.
Emma heard a soft chuckle from Snow.
"Well, this certainly was not what I was expecting when we sent you to this world, Emma," Snow said, smiling brightly, "but you're happy." The brunette nudged Charming in the side. "You've found True Love and that's the most important thing."
Charming smiled, looking directly at Archie now. "I suppose I don't have to remind you that Emma is Snow's and my daughter and, if you hurt her or break her heart in any way, you'll have both of us to answer to."
There was a threat there, Emma could hear.
"I'm well aware of that fact, Your Majesty," Archie replied, grinning, "but Emma is your daughter and, if something happens, it's her I should look out for."
Emma laughed and gently hit him in the shoulder. "Stay human, stay you, and we won't have a problem."
"Now that's a promise."
They both understood the meaning there.
The curse was unraveling and they had a lot to do, but that was okay. Everything would work out in the end. She knew it. Because, for the first time, Emma knew that she had a loving family and the boyfriend for her standing her to face the future.
I apologize if things seem a bit OOC here. I was trying to imagine what the next season is going to be like, so I'm treading into fresh waters.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this. Hopefully, the Muse will like me and will let me write something else about Archie (be sill my heart) and Emma soon.