A magical Christmas
Emma Swan wasn't used to spending Christmas in family, actually she wasn't used at all to Christmas nor to family, and together they were proving to be a destroying combination for her. Furthermore, Neal, with his constant attempts to make those holidays perfect, wasn't of any help.
"Neal, put off that hairband!" she exclaimed, exhasperated, watching him trying a pair of reindeer horns on.
She had been looking for him around their new house for almost ten minutes and, honestly, she had far more urgent things to do than finding herself involved in that sort of improvised hide and seek.
"Relax, honey" he said chuckling, but still obeying immediately to that command.
"Your father and Belle are already here and basically the whole Storybrooke will arrive soon" she simply noted, sighing tiringly.
Splendid, the night had not even started yet and it was already a potential disaster!
"I just wanted to make this Christmas magical… I have thought about dressing up as Santa Claus, but Henry is too old for this things now"
He pronounced those words with the sweetest of the smiles, but maybe it was exactly that surplus of tenderness to allow her to see the hidden bitterness. And maybe it was only in that moment that she realized that it was a first Christmas for him too, after all.
"Neal…" she started, approaching him more.
But words seemed to have suddenly disappeared from her mind and so, she just returned that strange smile and let herself fall into his warm arms.
"I just want it to be a magic Christmas…" Neal murmured, holding her in that embrace and placing a kiss in her blonde hair. "Let's go downstairs, com'on!" he added then, taking her by the hand and heading to the stairs.
They were about to make their enter in the living room, when an invisible force forced them to remain still at the doorjamb.
"What the Hell…?"
A well-known laugh was all the couple got as an answer. The mischievous smile on Henry's face and the apologetic expression on Belle's one did not let predict nothing good.
"I was just showing my grandson how to have fun using magic" Mr Gold spoke up, clearly amused.
"Yes, enchanted mistletoe is a genial idea!" Henry exclaimed, proving to be his unsuspected partner in crime.
"Kid, we'll deal with you later!" Emma reproached him not too seriously, before turning to her fiancè.
Not that she didn't like the idea of kissing him, after all.
Neal leant over kindly and, as soon as their lips touched, the spell was broken and they were able to move again.
"You know, Em" he whispered, giving her another kiss and then glaring at his father, "when I said that I wanted a magical Christmas… I did not mean it literally"
"Getting angry is useless, dearie! The spell can be broken only by the person who casted it…"
Regina rolled her eyes and murmured some imprecations.
"What am I supposed to do then?"
Rumplestiltskin widened his smile and hit the ground with his cane.
"Waiting for someone to kiss you of course…"
"Mmm…" Hook's voice murmured, appearing from behind the mayor's back. "I didn't understand very well what's happening, but if you need a volunteer for a kiss, love, I am here"
The woman turned around abruptly and glared icily at the new arrived.
"Don't even think about it, pirate!" she said, underlining the appellative with apparent contempt, which had the only effect to make his confidence increase and his smile grow.
And Gold and Belle were smiling too watching the amusing scene, even if for completely different reasons.
"You know, Rumple, I have to admit that they would be a good match" she commented with convinction.
"Yes…" he agreed, nodding. "I totally root for the captain" he added then, surprisingly.
She couldn't help but frown, suspiciously. "I don't understand… Isn't he your worst enemy?"
"Exactly… And if you knew Regina's past relationships as well as I do, you would know why I am wishing him with all my heart to become her new flame!"
In the meanwhile, the other two villains had become protagonists of a scene that didn't seem to have a quick end.
"Com'on, Regina, you can't stay there for ever!"
"Oh, smelling your stink from here is enough, thank you!"
"That's not true… I smell good, smell yourself!"
"No! Don't you dare come any closer, Hook!"
That warning had the form of a yelling when the pirate had tried to pass from words to act. However, the last threat was soon stopped. Suddenly, the spell was in fact broken, the mayor started to move again and the reason of that argument did not exist anymore. But, it wasn't Killian the author of that little magic; it was all Henry's fault instead, who, after attracting her mother at his level, had placed a kiss on her cheek. A cheerful smile was now on his face and the very same one – with the addition of a hint of relief – was on Regina's one.
"I have always said that you were my little hero" she said tenderly, giving him a hug. Then she started to move toward the kitchen, answering to David and Mary Margaret's general call.
Hook, instead, received only a double glare from the Mills and an unberably mocking laugh from the Golds. A confused and disconsolate expression formed on his face, as a single question was running through his mind in that moment.
"What have I done now to the boy?"
Regina and Snow were talking and smiling as if they were two old friends; David was playing cards with Henry in the – well succeeded – attempt to make it up for the lost time; Rumple and Killian seemed close to create a strange alliance under Belle's amused and yet careful look: that was the scene that appeared to Emma's eyes some hours later, while she was leaning on the door of the living room. Maybe the most appropriate reaction would have been to laugh incredulously, but instead a simple smile appeared on her face and a tear escaped spitefully from her control.
"Hey, honey, what's wrong?"
She smiled at the question and maybe even more at the caring tone that had been used to pronounce it. She turned into her fiance's embrace and closed for a moment her eyes, enjoying the rare feeling of serenity that she was living in that moment.
"I'm happy, Neal" she confessed, giving him one of the best smiles she had ever made in her whole life.
She was happy because that Christmas was really magical, including the unusual family they had.
She was happy because in the end she had found her Tallahasse.
Everywhere in that embrace was Tallahasse.