"Beautiful, aren't they?" A voice cut through Killian's thoughts as he tore his gaze from the bursts of light in the sky for the first time since the display began several minutes before. He didn't need to look to know who was standing next to him. He couldn't seem to escape her…in his thoughts, his dreams, his very being…not that he'd ever want to be away from her, even if he had the option. Still, he turned…because the reality of seeing her was always so much more breathtaking than any thought he could dream up.
"Aye, Lass, that they are," he said softly as he turned and met her gaze. But they're nothing compared to your beauty, he thought as he lost himself yet again in the emerald pools of her eyes.
Loss. It seemed to be a common theme in his life. He lost his parents at such an early age that he didn't know what it meant to have a real family. He lost Milah, the first woman he'd ever loved, before they ever had the chance to create the family that he so longed to know. He lost Baelfire, a consequence of his obsession with revenge, and with him another failed chance at a family. But then, of course, there was Emma. The orphaned princess who knew a life of loss as well. And for the first time in his entire life, he found and lost himself in the very same instance.
"Seems strange, to be celebrating the country's independence in a town full of fairy tale characters," Emma joked, pulling him from his thoughts.
"What I don't understand is how explosions in the sky represent an entire nation's victory over another," he mused, though his eyes drifted back up to the sky regardless as yet another burst of light filled the night sky over the harbor.
"They're called fireworks, and they once represented the 13 original colonies," she explained as Killian shot her an incredulous look. "Don't look at me like that. At least I'm not old enough to have been there when the country was founded." He felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as she stepped up next to him on deck.
"Touché, Love," he said as she turned her head up to the sky and he suddenly became aware of her arm brushing against his, sending sparks as hot as the fireworks streaming throughout his body.
"It's almost like magic," she whispered, almost to herself, before quickly shaking her head and adding, solemnly: "I wonder what the price would be for this."
"When used for the right reasons…to celebrate independence, for example…or in the name of true love," he paused, casting a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. "Whatever price that may come would be worth it."
"Because magic worked out so well for you and me in the love department," she scoffed, walking several steps away from him then as the fire inside him began to dissipate at the loss of her touch.
"Emma," he said, catching her arm with his hook and spinning her around to face him again. "I don't know about you, but I would gladly accept the price of the magic that took one love to be standing where I am today with the truest love I've ever known. With you." Her hard expression softened, her green eyes filling the darkness as she placed each of her hands on the back of his neck, pulling him forward so that their lips touched at the very same moment that the final flare of fireworks lit the star-filled sky, making a magic all their own.
