I know there are already a thousand post-date drabbles and one-shots floating around (seeing as we're all in a frenzy and this week has been the looooongest of our lives!) but I just needed to do the thing!
(Also, RE: Lilac Wine - I have no laptop currently seeing as mine decided to die a few days after I last updated it! I've got a chunk of the next chapter written but need to steal a laptop from somewhere - probably university - to get it finished! Thank you being so damn patient, I love you all!)
-Even The Metal Parts-
She finds him by the docks.
(Of course that's where he'd go.)
He's sitting on a bench, shoulders slumped, the picture of defeat. (And she won't deny that it wrenches at her heart a little).
She says nothing at first, simply takes a seat beside him and waits. Waits for him to explain. Waits for him to tell her what the actual fuck was going through his head when he decided making a deal with Gold was a good idea (because she's not stupid, that's obviously how he came to have both working hands again).
Long moments of silence stretch between them, and it'd be awkward if they hadn't already seen the absolute best and worst of each other. But then he speaks, voice quiet and laced thick with emotion, a hardness to his edges that she hasn't seen in a long time.
"I was a fool."
(She's not about to disagree.)
"I just wanted to…I wanted to be whole for you," he takes a shaky breath but she remains silent, "You deserve to be courted and held by a man, Emma. You deserve the world and…"
And that's when she snaps. (Her voice sounds foreign even to her own ears).
"Could you please shut up?"
His head finally turns then to meet her gaze. Even in the low light his eyes (those blue, blue eyes) - void of the usual fire and sparkle she's used to seeing aimed at her - are striking and cause her to falter.
"Just shut up," she repeats, voice weaker now, fingers knotting together in the lap of her beautiful (wine-soaked, ruined) dress, "You're so wrong about this, Killian."
Heavy silence settles once again (and he's scratching his ear), and she can tell he doesn't believe her, doesn't know how to ever see himself the way she sees him. (Though she's sure she'll never truly understand how he sees her either).
Every bit of anger dissolves and then she's reaching for his hand (the one that shouldn't be there) and threading her fingers through his. She feels him stiffen, his jaw twitching as he watches silently.
"I don't care whether you have one hand or seven, I want YOU, Killian Jones. All of you. Even the metal parts. So stop thinking for a second that you're not…enough. Because this, us, is what I want. What I deserve. What both of us deserve."
He finally, finally lifts his gaze to hers again and then she's leaning forward, brushing her lips tentatively against his in an unspoken promise, a plea, a demand.
You are more than enough.
