So, here we are. Finally, I've decided to get my lingering love and adoration for Captain Swan and Once Upon A Time in general out in the open and not only write Fan Fictions for myself, but to publish them, too. If you find any major spelling mistakes, I apologise in advance, though I hope my office programme went over it thoroughly enough to be readable.
Please let me know what you think!
Prologue
"I'm so not calling you Mom and Dad", Emma stated as she watched her parents (which still sounded weird in her head given the fact that she was technically older than them) pack their belongings, which seemed rather futile to her – why would the King and Queen need cell phones and walkie-talkies in a land where technology wasn't even a thing? Their wardrobes in the palace were surely still filled with clothes; though, on second thought, the moths must have gotten the best of those during the last 28 years.
"And noone's forcing you", David scolded. She could tell that he was sort of disappointed, especially since Henry had taken to calling him Gramps the moment the curse had been broken. It was just too much for Emma to wrap her head around, and the fact that she was going to be 'next in line to the throne' didn't make matters any better.
Princess. Her Royal Highness, Princess Emma of Misthaven, if you wanted to be exact, making Henry His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Misthaven, and Regina Her Highness, Dowager Queen, though Emma didn't know how she'd take the news of being deprived of her rule. Though she shouldn't have reason to complain since she could be happy to be returning with the people, after all. Had Emma been in Snow's place, she'd have left the witch behind, tied up in her house or elsewhere, just tight enough to keep her in Storybrooke as everyone else stepped through the portal home.
Emma's bag had been quickly packed, just a few things being important enough to join the journey to the Enchanted Forest. A dream catcher, a few sets of clothes, nothing fancy – except for her baby blanket, that was. As she had stated before, she was not the sentimental type, save a few exceptions, the key chain hanging around her neck being one of those.
"So this place..." Emma stuttered, struggling with the names and places and kingdoms.
"The Enchanted Forest?", Snow suggested, stacking a few shirts into a suitcase. "Misthaven?" Emma shook her head.
David cut in, stepping between them and looking from one set of eyes to the other. "You mean the palace?" She nodded and soon found herself fumbling with the key chain. "Beautiful place. Though I'm sure it will need refurbishing after twenty-eight years of not being dusted." Furrowing his eyebrows, he searched his daughter's face for some sign of what she actually wanted to know.
Clearly uncomfortable to even think about the childhood she could have had, Emma hesitated, not realising how Snow slowed down her packing and turned to her. "My nursery... is it there, too?" She didn't figure the quivering of her lower lip and chin until she saw the dumbfounded looks her parents gave her, and quickly shook her head as if to just shake away the tears welling up in her eyes and making that terrible sound only she could hear, biting into her consciousness with a cruel sting.
"Well... if noone changed anything, probably, yes", Snow said softly, ducking her head and looking at Emma from below. "But you don't have to see it if you don't want to, right, David?" Not even letting him speak up, she went on: "You'll have other quarters until we've redone your rooms. After all, the crib is probably a bit too small for you."
She couldn't deny the smile tugging at the corners at her mouth as she watched her mother go on and on about what should be changed around the palace and how she wanted things to look, at some point just turning away and trying to make sense of everything. She would have to learn a great deal of things in what seemed to be no time at all, and since she knew she wouldn't fit in as a typical princess, taking very much after her parents, she hoped they would take to teaching her swordfighting and shooting arrows instead of dances and etiquette.
When Blue opened the portal the next morning, Snow and Charming were the first to step through, and Emma, deciding to wait and make sure everyone made it through before following, watched Regina – her step-grandmother, she reminded herself – and Henry follow suit, then the dwarves, Ruby and Granny, Mr. Gold and Belle, and at some point the reassuring smile she'd forced herself to put on wore off as the realisation that these were now her people hit. She might not be responsible for them as much as her parents, but being the Savior, breaking the curse, hat made her as much their mascot as Snow and Charming.
It was only when the Blue Fairy lightly touched her arm that Emma woke from the frozen expression she'd shown the last minutes and passed through the already shrinking opening with her.