Author's Note - I've written this for Emma. I'm so sad for her. She's poor AND and orphan. I wanted to take one of those out of the equation and at least have her have a comfortable childhood when she gets orphaned. That does not mean that there can't be Captain Swan angst.
Killian arrived at the palace, and went around back to the service entrance. "Home," he thought. It had been 2 years since he'd been here, and he felt a sense of belonging that always came along with seeing the large home, the gardens, and knowing that inside there were at least a few people who loved him.
It wasn't really his home. In Killian's youth, his older brother, Liam, had been friends with the King and Queen. Liam had been a captain in the Royal Navy, and Killian's sole guardian after the death of their parents. Whenever Liam left for sea, Killian was left at the Palace to be watched over by the King and Queen. Killian and their one daughter, Emma, were great friends and the King and Queen loved the rambunctious boy as if he'd been their own. As children are wont to do, Killian and Emma fought like cats and dogs, but at the end of every day the two came in, arm in arm, with any quarrels settled, begging for their dinner and dessert.
Emma was sheltered as the country's princess. When Killian was not there, her life consisted solely of tutors, governesses, and staff. The King and Queen were kind, devoted parents, but they had a country to run, and there were no other children for Emma to play with. She looked forward to Killian's visits as much as she looked to Christmas or her birthday. Killian was always ready with a game, or one of his older brother's stories of adventure at sea. Killian was her everything, and when Liam returned she was always sad to see her friend leave.
It had been when Killian was nine and Emma was eight that the accident happened. Liam had been charged with sailing the King and Queen on a diplomatic mission. The children begged to join the grown ups, but it was deemed too dangerous and they had been left at home. The ship was attacked, and there were no survivors. Emma and Killian had both been left orphans.
Granny, who was not a grandmother to either child, but the oldest, longest serving member of the staff, came in to break the news to the children, they clung to each other. "Poor dears," she thought. "Please don't let them be separated. They're all each other has left now."
Emma was too young to rule in her parent's place. A distant cousin, Regina, was put on the throne, and Emma was left in the Palace, continuing with tutors and governesses, but mainly forgotten about. Killian was sent to a Naval boarding school, always Liam's plan for the boy, a few years earlier than he would have gone otherwise. The day he was to depart, he and Emma spent promising to write each other, crying, and coming up with plans to run away together.
The children's sole consolation was that all parties agreed that Killian was to spend any school holidays at the Palace with Emma. Both spent all of their childhoods looking forward to those visits. Granny would always smile when she would notice her doctored calendar in the kitchen. As soon as Emma would get word of Killian's next visit, all calendars in the house would be numbered, counting down the days until his return.
It wasn't until they were both in their teens that the problems started. The good-natured, youthful fighting turned in to all out war on occasion. Killian's school breaks turned the house in to a battle zone. Granny could never predict what the fight would be about, but she knew when one was brewing. She also knew when the fights were settled, as she would find that Emma would have crept across the hall in the middle of the night and curled up in Killian's bed, the two children holding each other for dear life.
"My dear boy," Granny exclaimed when she opened the door and saw Killian standing on the stoop. "Come in, come in. Why didn't you tell us you were coming? Give me your bag." Killian moved to hand over the duffle, and that's when Granny noticed his hand, or rather, lack of hand. "Killian! What's happened." "The sea is a fickle creature, Granny. A storm hit, and I was on deck as some equipment went flying. My hand was crushed and had to be amputated. The doctors said if I was on land there was a chance it could have been saved, but on the ship..."
Granny sat him down at the large table in the kitchen, and started making him some tea, gathering together a dinner from the refrigerator. "What's brought you home, my boy?"
"What else ever brings me home, Granny? Is she here?"