Author's Note: The idea for this came out of some silliness wherein I wanted Emma to catch Elsa and Anna up on everything that had happened since they'd gone back to Arendelle (because holy wow, there was a LOT of stuff that happened). One idea led to another and I ended up with what you see below. Captain Swan and Frozen Swan fluff, ahoy! Feedback puts a smile on my face! Enjoy. :)
With Killian Jones' hand gripped tightly in hers, Emma Swan practically dragged him to her – their – bedroom. A charged energy had formed out of their positively knee-weakening kiss in the streets of Storybrooke following their return from New York, one Emma could no longer resist. The walk to the house had been torturous but now … now they were home and, most importantly, alone.
She didn't even bother closing the bedroom door. No sooner had her feet crossed the threshold than she wrapped her arms around him and drew him into a deep, long, passionate kiss.
The second her lips touched his, colors exploded behind her eyelids like fireworks. Bright whites and yellows, fiery oranges and reds – all hot and heavy and beautiful, perfect echoes of the kiss itself. She was conscious of her fingers roaming through his hair. She was conscious of his thumb trailing along her cheek. But mostly all she felt and all she breathed was him.
Eventually they broke for air, breathing each other in in heavy pants. "I have no desire to ever leave this house again," she murmured when she finally regained her voice.
"Seconded," Killian replied just as breathlessly.
This was the first moment of peace they'd had since Killian's reappearance at his own grave. This was the first moment they'd had to just … be. To revel in each other and kiss each other and hold each other and marvel at the miracle that was Killian's return to the land of the living. To make the most of their second chance.
It was still so … unbelievable. Killian was dead. He'd moved on. Emma had helped him move on. And yet here he was, back in her arms. Where, according to Zeus, he belonged.
The most powerful ruler on Mount Olympus believed that Emma Swan and Killian Jones belonged together. Emma had no words for how amazing that was. (She'd also sent copious silent thank yous up to Mount Olympus because she didn't know how else to repay Zeus for the absolutely miraculous solid he'd done the both of them.)
Emma never wanted to let him out of her sight again. She just wanted to stay with him in this house and hold him and kiss him and take every advantage of his newly minted life and their gifted time together.
Which was how they'd ended up here in the bedroom. Emma could have kept kissing Killian all night long but her stomach, apparently, had other ideas. It rumbled audibly in hunger, making both Emma blush and Killian chuckle. "Is someone hungry?"
Hungry was an understatement … on both sides of the coin. "The last thing I had to eat was a Milky Way I grabbed at a rest stop in Connecticut." Which was hours ago.
Killian smiled, once again brushing his thumb along her cheek. "Sit tight, love. I'll make you a snack."
"I could go with–"
"Not necessary. You just drove your yellow contraption all the way here from New York. You must be exhausted. Stay here and relax. I'll make you a grilled cheese sandwich."
Emma arched an eyebrow at him. Since when did he know how to make grilled cheese sandwiches? "Did you take cooking lessons in paradise?"
He chuckled again. "No, I simply remember the cooking lessons you gave me. I'll be right back." And with a quick peck to her temple, he was out the door.
Only then did she remember that she herself had taught Killian the fine art of the grilled cheese sandwich during those quiet weeks after Belle sent Gold over the town line. Apparently he'd paid more attention than she thought, considering most of those cooking lessons ended up turning into makeout sessions.
Heaving a sigh, she sank down on the edge of the bed. Thinking of those peaceful six weeks inevitably led her to think of Elsa and God, did she miss her. Sometimes it seemed like only yesterday that they'd sent her and Anna and Kristoff back through that door to Arendelle and sometimes it felt like a lifetime.
So much had happened since they'd last seen each other. Darkness, death, True Love ...
Emma glanced up at the full-length mirror in the corner of the room. Maybe … maybe it was time to try Magic Skype with her buddies in Arendelle again. Since, y'know, her pirate had abandoned her to make her food (and was hopefully not burning the kitchen down in the process).
She stared intently at the mirror as she called upon her magic, searching for signs of life. A ripple along the glass, a glimmer of white light, anything. "Come on," she muttered. "I know this works. I've done it before."
Still, nothing happened. Emma let out an exasperated huff. "Okay, okay, calm down," she muttered under her breath. Her magic had become so effortless after everything – Camelot, the Underworld, everything – that she was ridiculously frustrated that this was taking her so long.
Back to the basics, apparently. She took a deep breath in, held it, and let it out slowly. Then she closed her eyes, took another deep breath, and concentrated.
After a moment or two, the familiar sensation of her magic warming up filled her stomach. It felt a bit like butterflies, their flapping wings generating a warmth that spread throughout her entire body. The warmth relaxed her and centered her and made her feel like anything was possible.
She felt her chin drop towards her chest just as the warmth reached her fingers and toes. There. That was perfect.
When she lifted her head and opened her eyes, Emma saw to her delight that the mirror no longer reflected her or the room behind her. Instead, the mirror was a window into another room in another realm. The walls in the other room were covered in rich tapestries. A four-post bed took up much of the far corner, the linens luxurious and the pillows thick and fluffy.
And there, sitting in a chair in the corner opposite the bed, her attention focused solely on a book open in her lap, was the Queen of Arendelle herself. Simply seeing her sent a smile to Emma's face. "Hey, Elsa."
A somewhat startled Elsa looked up at the sudden sound, her gaze instantly locking on the mirror on her vanity. As soon as she saw Emma, her entire face lit up. "Emma!"
Before Emma could say another word, Elsa slammed the book shut, pushed herself up from the chair, and dashed over to the vanity. "Oh, how are you?" she asked as she plopped down on the little stool. "I haven't been able to reach you in what seems like forever! I was getting so worried!"
"I'm fine," Emma assured her through a somewhat self-conscious chuckle. Sure, she was fine now but things had been more than a little dicey there for a little while. "I'm sorry I worried you."
Despite the reassurance, Elsa frowned. "Are you at home? That doesn't look like your room."
Okay, yeah, a ridiculous amount of stuff had happened since she and Elsa last talked. "Yeah, I'm in my new room … in my new house."
Elsa's eyebrows shot to the ceiling. "You have a house?! You have to tell me everything right now."
Emma hid a smile. Sometimes her friend's queen-ish tendencies showed themselves, and this was one of those times. "Yeah. Killian picked it out–"
"You and Killian are living together?" Elsa squeaked in exhilaration. This time, Emma couldn't swallow her laughter. It was going to take her a week and a half to get the story out if Elsa kept excitedly interrupting her. "Emma, that's wonderful news!"
If she thought that was wonderful, Emma could only imagine how she was going to take this next bit. "There's more."
"More?"
Before Emma could even open her mouth to get into the odyssey that had been the past couple of months, Anna came bounding into Elsa's room and Emma's field of vision through the mirror. Her eyes lit up the second she saw what her sister was doing. "I thought I heard you talking to someone," she said, nudging her sister's shoulder as she squeezed in beside her. "Hi, Emma! It's been so long! We were getting so worried! How are you? Are you okay?"
"Hi, Anna," Emma grinned. She couldn't help it; Anna's enthusiasm was infectious. "I'm fine. It's just been a busy couple of months. I'm sorry for making you worry."
"It's perfectly all right. As long as you're okay!"
"Shush, now," Elsa laughingly instructed her sister. This part of the conversation was already old hat for her and Emma. "Emma has news."
"You have news? Do tell!"
Something about this entire activity made Emma feel like the teenager she never was. She felt like she was gushing to her girlfriends after a cute boy had taken her on a really nice date. Part of her felt a little ridiculous at the fact that talking about Killian with Elsa and Anna was making her giddy. But a larger part of her felt like this experience was something she was owed and it was finally coming due. She hadn't had this as a teenager so damn it, she was going to enjoy it now.
Plus, she had to tell someone about what had transpired. Now that they were home from the Underworld and New York, she'd finally had the chance to let everything settled. She was practically bursting with the news. "Killian and I are True Love."
At first, it didn't seem like either Elsa or Anna had heard her. They both blinked at her and for the space of a heartbeat, there was utter silence. Then they both leaped from the chair, erupting into excited squeals and whoops of joy. Emma laughed and teasingly put her fingers in her ears to protect her eardrums from her friends' exuberance.
Queen and princess began rambling at her at the same time. All Emma was able to pick out from the jumble of words and excitement was that they wanted all the details right this very second of how she and Killian had found out for sure.
"Well," Emma started, "it's kind of a long story." Kind of? The damn thing was an epic worthy of War and Peace's word count, for Christ's sake.
"We've got time," Elsa grinned.
Emma hid a smirk; at this rate, they were going to need years. "All right, so, when we were in the Underworld–"
"You were in the Underworld?" That was Anna. Once again, Emma hid a smile. Forget years. They were going to need decades. "The actual Underworld? Why? And what's it like?"
Deciding to go with the easier response and work her way up to the harder one, Emma answered Anna's questions in reverse. "It's … well, it's hell. Or not hell, exactly, but hell-adjacent."
Elsa frowned. "In other words, not a pleasant place to be."
"Exactly. And as for why … well, see, Killian was kinda dead so–"
"What?!"
That was the both of them. All right, so clearly she needed to start at the beginning.
And so she did. She went through the whole Dark One nightmare, Killian's willing sacrifice at her hand, and the trek down to the Underworld to retrieve him. Her voice wavered occasionally and she actually had to take a moment to collect herself when she got to Killian's death in Camelot.
Both Elsa and Anna had tears in their eyes as well, and it was clear as day that they both wanted to reach through the mirror and wrap her in a tight, comforting hug. To her surprise, Emma found herself wishing they could, too.
When she finally told them about the quest to open the ambrosia chamber, Anna said, "So, wait a second. Those doors had only ever opened for two other souls in basically all of human history and they opened for the two of you?"
"Yep," Emma confirmed.
"That's so romantic!"
"So we passed the test. We're True Love." That prompted more excited squeals from the sisters. Emma arched a teasing eyebrow at them. "I haven't even told you the best part yet!"
"There's more?"
That was Elsa. Emma smiled at her and then fidgeted on the bed. While the was indeed the best part, it was also the hardest. She took a deep breath in, let it out slowly, and launched into the rest of the story.
She told them about the ambrosia being gone. About Killian sending her up to her family alone. About having to leave him in that literal hellhole. About working to defeat Hades so he could move on to his paradise. About funeral arrangements and the burial and bringing the flask to his grave.
Elsa dropped her teary gaze down to her hands while Anna swiped at her eyes. "This doesn't sound like the best part, Emma."
No, it didn't, did it? "I'm getting to it," Emma said, clearing her throat to dislodge the lump that had taken up residence there. "It's the best part because … because his paradise? Is here with me. As a reward for helping us defeat Hades, Zeus sent him back here. Killian said that Zeus said he was going to take Killian where he belonged."
Again, they both blinked at her. "Let me make sure I understand this correctly," Elsa said. "The god of the gods thinks that you belong together and gave Killian a second chance at life with you?"
Emma nodded and more whoops of joy went up in Arendelle. "Emma, this is off-the-charts romantic!" Anna exclaimed. "This is … this is ..."
"Like something out a fairy tale," Emma murmured, smiling.
All three of them let that settle for a moment, then Elsa turned a bright smile on her friend. "Oh, Emma, I'm so happy for you. This is the best news I've ever heard."
A light blush climbed up Emma's cheeks. This was why teenagers shared everything with their friends, she realized. They simply wanted to share the happiness.
It was at that point that Emma's magic started to flag. Elsa and Anna faded briefly but Emma shored up her concentration enough to bring them back into focus. "We should let you go," Elsa said, her eyes immediately registering comprehension.
Emma didn't want them to let her go. They hadn't had the chance to catch her up on what she'd missed since they last spoke! But when they wavered out of focus again, she knew she wouldn't be able to hold the magic much longer. (If she hadn't been so damn tired to begin with, she could have held it long enough to catch up properly. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a proper night's sleep, though, so that wasn't helping at all.) "Yeah, all right."
"Will you check in again when you can?" That was Anna.
"I will, I promise. I'm really sorry I worried you."
"It's all right," Elsa smiled. "You most definitely had your hands full! We're just glad to know that you're safe now and happy."
Emma smiled. She was happy now, wasn't she? "I'm glad you guys are safe and happy, too."
They beamed at each other before bidding Emma good night. She returned the good night wishes and as she released the magic, they both gave her exuberant waves.
God, she missed the both of them.
Her shoulders slumped with the release of the magic. She'd forgotten how much maintaining it took out of her, and her energy reserve hadn't been all that full to begin with.
The sound of someone clearing his throat startled her. She looked up to find Killian standing in the doorway of the bedroom, a perfectly toasty grilled cheese sandwich on a plate in his hand. She only had half a second to be impressed with his cooking prowess when he said with a teasing smirk, "Were you gossiping about me to your friends?"
Once again, a blush colored Emma's cheeks. "Um, how much of that did you hear?"
"Not a lot but their shouts of joy were kind of hard to miss." The blush darkened, causing Killian to chuckle. He stepped into the bedroom, handed her the plate, and then plopped down beside her on the bed. "Don't be embarrassed, love. I think it's wonderful that you wanted to share the news with your friends. Of course, I can't promise that I won't let it slip to your parents that you informed your friends in Arendelle of our True Love status before you told them."
"Don't you dare." Oh, the teasing conniption her mother would throw.
"I don't know, I think I should," he teased. "Unless of course you think you can make it worth my while to keep silent."
Looking at him now, all of Emma's exhaustion fell away and her physical hunger was replaced with a different hunger entirely. With a waggle of her eyebrows, she set the plate on the nightstand and drew him impossibly close, their lips almost touching. "I'm sure I can come up with something."