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It feels like he is breathing her back to life.
The sun is warm on her skin, his hand heavy around her waist, his lips soft as they draw her into him, deeper, deeper. The breath in her lungs comes easier even as he steals it away, her body growing heavier, her feet sinking into the ground as he brings her back to herself.
The voice in her head, the demon hiding in the corner of her eye, the power struggling to burst out of her skin, the whispers in the night calling to her. They had made her feel less, like she was insubstantial in her body, like all the parts of her that made her Emma Swan now lay locked up in a corner of her soul, stowed out of the way for her fight with the evil that now lived inside her. Her skin turning pale, her heart beating a steadily weakening rhythm. The battle beneath her skin is clearly visible now.
But, he brings her back. With the taste of his mouth, with the solidity of his presence.
She feels the weight of her bones, the slight roughness of his hand as he drags it soft and slow, up her collarbone, her neck, into her hair. She feels the rush in her blood, the blush in her cheeks, the hot breath between them as they push and pull and sway in their embrace. She clings to him, her arms locked behind his neck, her hand curled around the stem of the flower he had given her, in a bruising grip.
She pulls him closer still, bringing his head lower as she chases his lips. He stumbles forward, his arms tightening around her as if trying to keep his balance. She feels a tugging sensation as he steps on the end of her ridiculously long cloak and just like that, she is on her back. His hand beneath her head cushions her fall, his hook buried deep in the earth a little ways from her, anchoring him as he hovers above her. A laugh bubbles out of her as she watches his hair hanging over his eyes. He looks down at her, his eyes wide in concern even as his lips are flushed and swollen, curving into a soft smile to mirror her own.
"Alright, love?"
Her hand moves up to push his hair out of the way, watching it spring back immediately as she bites her lower lip, her smile never leaving her face.
"Yeah, I'm good."
His smile broadens.
"Good."
She can't stop from looking at him, touching him. There is no one here now but him and her, no room for the demons in her soul between the blue of his eyes and the heat of his skin. She kisses him then and it is as though her slowly rusting heart begins to beat again, less creaky than before, less jagged.
Again, she pulls him to her, wanting to feel the weight of him, the scent of him surrounding her. She wants to kiss him until the centre of her universe realigns itself, until her world is perpendicular once more, until she can see the sun high in her sky again. She looks for the light hidden in the corners of his mouth, her hand wandering up his back and into the depth of his hair, so much longer now. Her other hand traces his jaw, his neck, his cheek.
She feels the kiss change, soft caresses turning into hungry hands looking for warm skin, mouths opening, hips searching. His hand under her head moves to her opposite shoulder, pulling her closer as his weight shifts more to his hook, his body tilting slowly sideways, his leg resting heavy between hers.
When her lungs begin to burn with the lack of air, she breaks apart from him with a gasp. Their breaths are shallow and harsh, their eyes still closed, their foreheads touching. She scratches gently at his scalp, smiling at the low groan rumbling from his chest at the contact. Her eyes open then, craving for the sight of him.
And when she meets his gaze, she knows that in this moment he is her anchor. His eyes and his skin and his kiss, keeping her here on the ground, keeping her here in the sun. His eyes look more blue somehow, glowing almost. Perhaps it is the kohl. He has been liberal with it, the darkness around his eyes thicker, more diffused. Perhaps it is the way his pupils are blown wide as he looks down at her. Perhaps it is the love, the faith that lives in them tempered with the desire, the want for her. She traces the edge of the shadow as it disappears into his cheek, her hand moving back into his hair, pulling him down to her again.
His kiss is now heavy, wet as his lips drag and pull against hers. He breaks away from her mouth and her half-formed protest turns into a moan as he moves lower down her neck, pressing open mouthed kisses at her heated skin. He reaches the clasp of her cloak, unfazed by the obstacle, his teeth closing around the closure, he unhooks it easily. He noses the fabric away, his teeth descending upon her exposed collarbone. Her back arches at the slight shock of pain, her belly tightening in pleasure.
His head is lowered between her breasts now, his lips tracing winding patterns upon the swells of them as her hips rise higher, reaching for the heat of his own. She raises her head to pull his mouth back to hers when she feels a tugging in her hair. It is a sharp stinging sensation that only intensifies when she tries to get herself free, making her exclaim out loud.
Killian lifts his head from her skin, his hair disheveled, his eyes hazy. It takes him a second to notice that her hair is caught on a stem of one of the flowers in the field and that she is desperately trying to get it free, her hands raised awkwardly above her head as she struggles with the plant.
His eyes wides comically for a moment before his forehead falls to her collarbone, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. Her hand comes out to swat him on the head, her other still trapped in her tangled hair.
"Killian! This isn't—"
Her laughter gets the better of her before she manages to finish her sentence, her hand falling away from her task to lie on his shoulders instead as their bodies shake, their laughs filling the air. When Killian finally regains his composure, he removes his hand from underneath her, rising gently to move up to where her hair is trapped by the offending plant. He presses a soft kiss to her lips, an errant giggle escaping both of them as he moves higher. He can't really reach his intended destination without leaning heavily so he moves to stand, lifting his hand to press against the ground in leverage. He only manages to get up to his knees before he is suddenly tilting sideways, his hook still stuck in the ground, pulling him rapidly towards it.
And she is laughing again, her hands reaching for him as her knees fold towards her stomach, her body turning to the side to face him even as breath comes in shallow gasps, her joy loud and uninhibited in the quiet.
He laughs too, a deep, throaty sound that fills her entire world. His toothy smile as bright as the sunlight filtering through the trees behind him. He falls flat on his back, dislodging his hook from the earth with a jerk of his arm. His head turning towards her, he smiles a soft smile, a chuckle escaping him when his eyes wander up to her hair, still entangled.
"Seems the flowers don't approve of our intentions."
She feels a giggle bubble out of her, her hand pulling on his hook, coaxing him on to his side until she can catch his lips in her own again, their smiles bumping together in a messy kiss, their breaths punctuated with little gasps of laughter.
"Doesn't look like it."
He looks at her with a tenderness that makes her heart ache and grow behind her ribs, his smile still wide and happy. He presses one last soft kiss to her lips, to her forehead before sitting up and beginning to release her hair.
His hook makes quick work of the flowering plant and she is free again, her hand warm in his as he helps her stand. He bends to lift her cloak, making a show of whipping it around her shoulders before clasping the fastening at her neck. She rolls her eyes at his theatrics even as her lips curve into a wide smile that softens when he presses a soft kiss to her neck right above the clasp.
And she feels the locked box in her heart open, feels her soul breathe for the first time. He has given her the sun, the wind in her hair, the heat in her cheeks.
He has brought her back.
And even if it is for a moment, the darkness fades in the face of his love.
