A/N: So, I know I should be working on the last chapter of TLHE, but after the mid season finale(EMMA´S STILL WEARING THE SHOELACE!) I had this idea and I just had to write it, even if it was almost 3 AM, to see how it would end up and here´s the final product. I´m still working on TLHE, though in a not-so-quick-as-I-had-hoped pace, and since it´s been so long since I update I thought it would be nice to give you guys a little something. Again, many thanks to Kristy, who took a look into this and told me it wasn´t as awful as I first thought, and if you would let a review to tell me what you thought of this kind-of-an-experiment-on-writing of mine I would really appreciate.
You couldn´t say that Emma Swan lived happily ever after. That´s not exactly how her story ends. Oh, she did have a happy ending, one in the form of her children, but her life wasn´t exactly a happy one.
What is happiness anyway?
For Emma, it was her son´s smile and her daughter´s laugh. It was a hug from her mother and a kiss on her forehead from her father. Hot cocoa with cinnamon, the sight of leaves falling on autumn, an old comfortable pair of pajamas, mint ice cream on summer days, breakfasts with her entire family, the sound of rain falling, blanket nests on cold winter nights, chocolate, old movies, a cup of coffee in the morning and the smell of flowers on the spring.
Happiness was on little moments, but it was not a constant.
That still wasn´t her how story was supposed to end.
She was supposed to be glowing like her mother or smiling as bright as Belle.
Oh, there were days that she glowed too and that her smiles were bright, but they were fewer and it wasn´t as much as the other two.
No one noticed.
Or if they noticed, they choose to pretend otherwise.
(Ignorance is bliss)
If you believe in something long enough, it´ll become true eventually, right?
Emma´s life was a never ending make believe game.
The truth was that she wasn´t happy.
But she wasn´t sad either.
She was merely content.
(The Savior was supposed to be more than just content)
Her life was good, great even. She had her parents again after all this years. She even had her twin brothers that she loved so. There were her children, a son and a daughter, and they were, without a doubt, her happy ending. She, the lonely foster girl, had friends as loyal as the imaginary ones she once had.
Besides all that, the girl who never thought that marriage was in her future, she had a husband too. They share a life together and they raised their children together and they grew old together. He was there when her daughter was born, and when her son got married and he held her while she cried at her parent´s funeral.
(Snow and Charming died together.
Even death couldn´t separate them.
The epitome of a fairy tale life)
She loves her husband.
She loves his gentle hands, the sound of his laugh mixed with their children laughs, his smell when he comes out of the shower , the look in his eyes that is all for her and she loves how he touches her when they´re in bed.
She loves him, there´s no doubt about that.
But she´s not in love with him.
(And that´s an important distinction)
Besides, how could she, when she´s in love with someone else?
Oh, there wasn´t a lover, she never cheated on her husband.
It´s kind of impossible to cheat on someone with a ghost, wouldn´t you agree?
I don´t think there´s a need to tell you the name of the ghost. You already know that story, don´t you?
Because not all stories end with a happily ever after.
Graham´s didn´t.
Neither had Emma´s.
Oh, I know it´s been said before, but it seems necessary to repeat it.
Emma Swan loved her husband, she didn´t loved him less or more than she loved Graham, she just loved him different.
Their story was the love story that you´ll find in a somewhat sappy movie.
Graham and Emma´s story though, it´s the one that has been told many times before, usually in the form of a fairy tale.
The story of True Love really is a tale as old as time, right?
A story without an end.
Oh, you might think that there was one.
A tragic one even.
But Emma and Graham´s story didn´t end with tears, sirens and a heart that stopped beating.
Of course it didn´t.
The question isn´t how the story ended, it´s how the story begin again.
At the beginning, there was a sheriff trying to stop the owner of a yellow bug to leave town.
Then there was talk about a wolf, a misunderstand involving hot cocoa, bad jokes, looking for an amnesiac man, police sirens ,a job offer, banter, a quick hug, flirting, lies with a bear claw, another misunderstand, a fight, a kiss, weird flashes, floral abuse, dreams, looking for a heart, a break up, a punch to someone who deserved it, taking care of a cut, low walls, another kiss, forgotten memories that were remembered, a sincere thank you, a gasp, a fall, a cry and a death.
After that there were violent sobs, nightmares, a shoelace turned into a bracelet, a funeral for an honorable man, a leather jacket hanging on the Station and no more saying his name.
(Except in dreams)
There was an uncommon love triangle that ended when Emma married her future husband, and later had her daughter.
And then there was a cold autumn night, when almost all of the leaves had fallen, and when Emma´s parents had already died, when her children and brothers were not only married, but her grandchildren and nieces were already teenagers.
That night, Emma Swan met Graham Humbert again.
And there were tears, only that this time were of joy, there were laughs, bright smiles, and hugs and kisses that were anything but quick.
Emma was glowing.
Emma´s smile was incredibly bright.
Her funeral was when the leaves had all fallen, in on even colder autumn morning that looked more like winter. Her husband made her a heartfelt eulogy, tears streaming down his face, and was applauded when he ended. He loved his wife, as much as she loved him, and he´ll miss her so. But he won´t be able to forget the happy little smile on her face when she passed away. He knows the reason behind that smile.
(He knows, but he pretends that he doesn´t.
It hurts less that way.)
Because of that, it was only her son, her Henry, which saw the unusual presence at his mother´s funeral. Though, if he was being honest with himself, it shouldn't have been a surprise at all.
The ones reunited around Emma Swan´s grave though, they were surprised with the howl that the wolf with the red eye emitted the moment the funeral was over.
Emma Swan didn´t live happily after ever, she didn´t even live happily in the first place.
She had a good life, and she was content with it.
That was more than she ever thought possible.
But her ending, oh her ending couldn´t have been a happier one.
Emma Swan didn´t live happily ever after.
But she was happy ever after.
Her happiness just took a while to come.