She grabbed his arm tighter as they walked, and laid her head on his shoulder, like reassuring herself he was there, truly there, and that it wasn't just another of her nightmares, in which he was painfully ripped from her to never come back. In response, he pulled her even closer, as they both relished in their mutual silence. Since they came back from the Underworld a few hours ago, everything felt unreal. He had been warmly welcomed back in the town, and for the first time, she saw how fully he had become a member of her family.
She snuggled on his shoulder, covered by the leather jacket. They shared a heart. She had truly done it, splitting hers in two, and giving him the one half that would breathe new life into him. The thought didn't abandon her head. For the past days, before entering the Underworld, she kept imagining scenarios in which she did it, placing one half in his chest, and his eyes opened to her, alive again, ready to enjoy the life and the experiences that darkness had stolen from them. And, surprised, she noticed, fear was nowhere to be found; nor when she decided to do it, neither when she actually did it. The overwhelming pain that had taken over her since he was gone had finally started to fade away, replaced by the hope that he soon would be by her side again, and their happy ending could finally be theirs forever. Emma's surprise at her lack of fear had soon becobme certainty. There was no place for it anymore, because what she dreaded the most had finally come true; the reason she had erased everyone's memories and pretended to have been engulfed by Darkness irrevocably, bearing the rejection and fear of those she loved most.
She knew he would have done the same for her. Doubts never found a place in her head, as it had so many times before. There was nothing to think about, nothing to object. She had to do this. But this time, it wasn't just about duty. She wanted to do it. She needed it. She needed him. And that had been proved over and over again, helping her to understand the real nature of true love. That same true love her parents had fought so hard for, that made happiness impossible without each other, and that she hadn't known until Killian came along.
After all, it had been four times. Four first meetings. And they could still fall in love. How can be explained that in each encounter, they felt it? She smiled at the thought of the first time she laid eyes upon him, when she could never have imagined how things would turn out; how he would become someone she couldn't live without. She tied him to a tree and threatened him with a knife, offering him as an ogre's dinner, until his carefully built façade failed him, and he admitted defeat. Their first adventure together proved already the spark, the undeniable connection between them, as he read her so clearly, so precisely, that seemed to have known her for years. But soon, she discovered that his flirty attitude and his innuendos were the mask that hid his true self. A brokenhearted man whose every step was an attempt to get closer to the punishment that would finally soothe his pained soul. A man who, in despite of the life he had lead, had remained loyal to the only woman he had ever loved, dedicating her centuries of life, determined to avenge the brutal end of their happiness together. Emma discovered then, that he was not the only one who could read her like an open book, because also she had known the sorrows of shattered hopes, and short-lived joy.
That spark turned into fire the first time they kissed, like the first lightening in a storm after the slow but intense gathering of the clouds, and the increasing electricity in the air. And how much it scared her! How she tried to run away! Although when the second curse was cast over them, and she and Henry had to leave the town, as everyone else was taken back to the Enchanted Forest, she couldn't deny the pain in her heart, a pain that surely was breaking his too. And though she tried to deny it to herself, how she had wished for the chance of one last kiss! That look on his face, that sad smile… It was so easy to lean forward and briefly press her lips to his, in a soft goodbye, full of the promise of what it could have been…
A year later, during a morning as any other, as she had breakfast with Henry, a stranger knocked at her door, and she opened it to meet him for the first time, again. And though she rejected him when he tried true love's kiss on her, she couldn't forget his smile when he saw her, so pure, brimming with sincere happiness (was that even longing?), and neither the way he unhesitatingly cradled her head and briefly captured her lips… She didn't considered him more than a crazy stranger then, a creepy stalker, but when she finally got back her memories, and everything started to fall into place, so did those inevitable feelings she struggled to stifle, reminding her of her heart and the life that still beat in it.
The smile on her lips widened as she remembered their third, awkward encounter. As if time travel weren't strange enough, she had to forcefully entertain his past self, so his present self could make the passage deal with her no-yet-mother. She would never forget his face when he said she had to keep his other self entertained, and her hand went straight to the ties of her bodice. He knew that, in the past, he would never had treated her like nothing else than a random bar wench, only a body with an unimportant face, and without a heart to be careful with. And though their encounter was brief, and suddenly cut, she understood the deep change he had went through. The Killian she knew, the one who defended her, was no longer that man, and, as he confessed later, their brief encounter that night could have been destined to change him forever, if he had remembered anything the next day, because he knew the touch of her kiss, the way his body responded as he let himself sink in the moment, and as he did from then on, his arms wrapping around her, holding her as if nothing else was left in the world…
But the fourth, and last one, had been decisive. They had been taken to another world, a different land inside the pages of a book in which everyone's memories were gone, and the only reminder of what they had been was a twisted, evil version of who they were. She could barely recognize her parents, and even they tried to kill her. But him… She didn't expect to find him, though she wanted it with all her soul, aching to know his fate in that horrible reality. Locked and chained up in that tower, in the middle of the Bottomless Sea, guarded by a fierce dragon and slowly losing her sanity, her hopes relied in the only person who could find her and free her, Henry. And he finally came, but not alone. As she ran downstairs, trying not to trip over the skirt of her blue, beaded dress, she didn't saw him coming and stumbled upon him, falling right in his arms. She felt happy to see him, and amused, because she probably wasn't what he had in mind as Henry's mother. But one contact, one look to her eyes, and he was a lost man. Again. Even in that dull, stupid version of himself, he ended up startled, and puzzled by the feelings that stranger awoke inside of him. She was beautiful, brave, and all the sudden made him feel she was worth everything, even his life, a price that wretched storybook actually took.
It was destiny. Something not even the darkest magic could alter. The true love her parents always talked about and lived every day, since the first time they laid eyes upon each other, and which also had taken them through so many obstacles... But no curse, no different land, or lack of memories, were enough. In none of his versions, he could overlook her, or ignore her, as neither she couldn't help the stirring in her heart and soul at the sight of him… And she didn't need another proof that they were meant to be together, something he knew from the very start, but let her discover by herself. He had always been the other half of her heart, and now, literally, it beat inside his chest, in a slow cadence, finally at peace.
They reached the house, at last. Their house, and at the thought that they could finally share it and be together, made her heart beat faster. They were finally home. And by the expression of his face, he must have thought the same thing. She opened the door, and turned on the lights, and she was dropping her keys and her phone on the kitchen table, when she felt it. His breath in her ear, his scruff against her neck, and his arm going around her waist, and holding her tight.
"Forgive me", he whispered. She shivered, knowing it was the first words he pronounced in confidence, since their heart had started beating together; it was the first moment only for the two of them after their return from the Underworld. She closed her eyes, relishing in their closeness, and slowly turned around to face him. There was a pained look in his eyes, and he avoided her gaze. But she cupped his cheek, and made him look at him.
"The past is the past", she said, also whispering, in despite of being alone. "I don't care anymore; not tonight, at least."
And as their eyes met, they both felt in their shared heart how much this had cost, but also, how their love slid like a balm through them, healing all the wounds they had caused to each other. In a mutual, brief moment, they lips captured each other's, as his arms encircled her waist, and she threw hers around his neck, in a searing kiss. Tenderly, but hungrily, they sought for each other, making sure this was real, that he was really back, with her, touching her, loving her… Staying.
She loved him so much… So much that her chest could barely contain it. She had lost him to darkness, and to the Underworld and its unknowable torments. The emptiness in her days, the void in her heart that nothing could fill, had been unbearable. Even tears had abandoned her. The pain had been numbing, as if her soul had been taken over by an early, permanent winter frost, filling her nights with nothing but nightmares, and the thoughts of what it was, and how it ended. But now the frost was quickly melting as the heat of life came back to the two of them. Because being without him had been like being dead, too. A permanent lack of warmth that could only be chased away by someone who would never come back, forever taken by the cold embrace of death.
"I love you, Killian", she muttered, against his lips, although feeling that the true words she needed to express its true immensity didn't exist just yet. As an answer, he felt his arms tighten around her, bringing her impossibly closer, resting her forehead against hers, as their lips eagerly found each other again. He loved her too. There was nothing left to say their actions hadn't already.
"It is never too late", her mother told her once, some time ago. And she finally understood it, clearer than ever, as she felt their heart beating as one. She and Killian had defied the boundaries of death itself, and gone beyond sacrifice, tears, and pain, only to find each other, and claim a happiness that nothing would ever take away from them. Because, after four times, four encounters in four different lives, what other proof did they need? What else was left to discuss? She was his, as much as he was hers. Utterly. Completely.
She felt him smile against her lips, but kept her eyes closed, as she smiled too.
No. It was never too late. Never.
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