A/N: Hello there, cupcakes! Before you ask, no I have definitely not forgotten about Far Away and I already have the skeleton of the next chapter all written down just waiting for me to add some flesh to it. This is my story for my CS Secret Valentine on tumblr, and I hope you enjoy all the Jones family feels :)
Edit: I've made a few changes on the bit about Milah and Killian's relationship after a lovely reviewer pointed out the little discrepancy there. *hands over cupcake with a post-it note that reads Thanks for the heads up! xx*
Chapter One
And in the wind of a heavy choice love has a quiet voice,
Still your mind, now I'm yours to choose
She was still holding the small card filled with his curly writing between her fingers as her arms were wrapped around his neck. They're sitting on a bench at the docks and she's got her legs over his, half-sitting on his lap, his hooked arm is around her waist holding her firmly in place while his fingers play with a few strands of her hair. A beautiful arrangement of pink and white orchids with a white ribbon neatly tied around the plastic pot sits just beside them on the bench.
("Perhaps gratitude is in order now, Swan." He'd tapped his lips with his index finger, eyebrows wiggling suggestively, just as he'd done on their very first kiss.
"Do you really think you can pull that off again?")
(As it turned out, her adorable idiot pirate boyfriend most definitely could.)
"So, any special reason behind the flowers or are you just surprising me with your gentleman ways again?"
"I did tell you time and again that I'm always a gentleman, love." He chuckled, twirling another lock of her hair around his fingers. "But I thought I should give you something special after Henry told me about a tradition of this realm called Valentine's day."
"Oh, did he forget to mention Valentine's day is not actually for another couple of days?"
"He did mention the exact date, Swan. I just wanted to give you a gift to enjoy your day off your duties as sheriff - which should be a more common occurrence, if I may add."
"Thank you, I love them." She placed a kiss right above the scar on his cheek before tracing it with her thumb. "And I'm afraid this town needs the Saviour-Sheriff Swan on daily duty otherwise all hell would break loose right under our noses."
"Well perceived, love." He added with an eye roll mimicking her trademark that earned a light shove on his shoulder.
"Did you have anything like Valentine's day to celebrate love back in your land?" Emma suddenly asked him, averting her gaze to hide the blush stealing upon her cheeks when she realised she'd said the word to him. Which, of course, he noticed, but he didn't want to press her on the topic, giving her the time and space she needed instead, so he simply tucked it away along with his happiest memories of them being together.
Killian stayed silent for a moment, visibly concentrating to search through his 300 years worth of memories. "Not exactly, but we did celebrate anniversaries quite like you do over here."
"Did you? Ever celebrate an anniversary, I mean." Emma asked looking deep into his eyes. She didn't want to pry, and if he didn't wish to talk about it then she wouldn't insist, but she was curious to know.
"No. Milah always felt it would be wrong in some ways given she'd ran away from a marriage, albeit an unhappy one. She didn't regret leaving the crocodile, but she naturally felt remorseful for abandoning Baelfire with such a father." He said with a wistful sigh. "Had we been together under different circumstances, though, I believe we would certainly celebrate our anniversaries together."
He lifted his eyes to find Emma's understanding gaze, only to quickly turn away and stare at the water. She could see how he wanted to share more but the memories seemed to form a lump on his throat, one he needed a little more time to swallow before continuing. In the mean time, she thought she could offer him silent caresses hoping it would help soothe his silent pain a little.
She pressed feather-light kisses along his jaw and neck before letting her head settle on his shoulder, her right hand coming down from the nape of his neck to trace mindless patterns along his collarbone over the fabric of his navy button down.
"My- my parents always celebrated their anniversary every year without fail." He said, his voice barely above a whisper, while his arm came around her shoulders to bring her closer to his side, as if he feared she would run away the mere mention of his troubled, tragic past.
She was definitely done running from him, but she was not expecting this.
"Every year my father would bring my mother flowers for her garden. She would smile so bright and cook us an amazing dinner those nights." He swallowed hard. "After he left us she- she would pluck the most beautiful flowers from the garden and leave them outside our front door. Every year. She never stopped hoping he'd come back eventually."
Emma looked at his profile with tears prickling her eyes, but she couldn't see meet his gaze as he seemed transfixed by the surface of the water. Bringing her hand up to cup his cheek and gently turn his face to her, she felt her heart sink when she saw the devastated look in his stormy blue gaze. She pressed a soft but firm kiss to his lips and leaned her forehead against his, feeling his entire body still under her touch.
Killian had walls of his own, alright, but she'd be damned if she would give up tearing them down, brick by brick, just as he'd relentlessly done for her until she finally let him in.
After a beat or two, he sighed against her lips and she could almost see the tension gradually slipping from his shoulders. He wrapped both arms around her, holding on to her like a captain keeps a white-knuckle grip on the helm of his ship during a storm. And then slowly - tentatively, as though he was afraid of her not wanting him anymore - his lips finally found their way home to her warm, welcoming kiss.
Apparently taking a day off is definitely not in the cards for the Saviour, Emma thought as she kept her hands in tight fists on her sides getting ready to run into the woods with Killian on her right, David, Regina and Philip respectively on her left.
The dwarves had barged into Granny's to alert David and Mary Margaret of some suspicious movement they spotted in the forest, and the Charmings had immediately called the Sheriff and her second deputy out of their day off to join them on the ambush.
"Let's go in." Philip said, with a mask of confidence hiding his nervousness as he unsheathed his sword, Killian and David following suit and promptly sticking their blades out as well. "We can't waste any more time waiting for dusk. What if Maleficent's already hurt her?" He added, his voice on the verge of breaking.
"The prince is right." Regina said, nodding at Philip. "I'm sure the baby is safe, but we can't risk letting them have enough time to open the portal and change everything about our lives as we know them."
They charged avidly into the woods and it didn't take longer than five minutes for them to reach the clearing where Maleficent stood in front of some tracks forming a circular shape on the floor. Cruella and Ursula were standing on both her sides - the former held Philip and Aurora's baby in her arms with a grimace as the chubby little girl tugged at the hairs in her fur coat.
"Give us the baby now." David's calm voice echoed between the trees surrounding the clearing, the Queens of Darkness turning around at the sound with less than impressed expressions on their faces.
"We can't do that, darling." Maleficent explained calmly. "This brilliant little girl here is going to be much more useful to me than both her parents." She added, nodding at Cruella, who moved a few steps back and carefully put the baby down on one of the baskets situated at four perpendicular corners inside the circle - the other three contained a golden replica of the Dark One's brain, who was nowhere to be seen, an iron shield with the family crest of Philip and Aurora's kingdom, and a red beating heart with a light dark stain inside it.
"What do you plan on doing with her?" Philip demanded in his best royal tone.
"Why, we're about to open a time portal." Cruella announced proudly. "Don't fret, dear. We're just going to correct a few mistakes that were made along the way and take our happy endings at last."
"I wouldn't worry too much about the baby if I were you," Ursula added, "in a few minutes you won't remember you ever had a daughter, or a wife."
"Go!" Emma suddenly shouted. Killian charged at Ursula with his sword while Regina quickly took his place at Emma's side, both women raising their arms to shoot white and red rays of magic at Maleficent, who easily countered them with her own powers.
Philip and David ran to Cruella and surrounded the fur-clad woman, bringing both their swords to her chest when Ursula's voice stopped their movements.
"Hurt my friend and you'll be down one dirty pirate." Ursula's deep chuckle rang in their ears as she raised Killian up from the floor, her tentacles wrapped tightly all over his body. "Look, ladies. It seems I've caught a codfish."
"I am no codfish you monstrous octopus." Killian managed to say before Ursula tightened her grip on his throat making him gasp for air.
"Killian!" Emma shouted from her where she stood still beside Regina, paralysed as she watched Killian wriggling in the tentacles of the sea witch (though, in her mind, she'd always change the last word for one more appropriate that sounded quite like the original term), the white rays coming out of her palms starting to flicker as her face contorted into panic. Maleficent was quick to use the opportunity to intensify her blast of magic, knocking both Emma and Regina down to the floor.
"Now, where were we?" Maleficent said turning her back to them, waving her arms back and forth above the circular tracks until a purple flame appeared in front of the basket with Philip's stolen shield, quickly moving along the tracks passing by the Dark One's brain, the baby, and the heart respectively, at which point the circle was all lit up with fire and a portal opened right in the middle of it.
Maleficent smiled triumphantly, admiring her creation and letting out a maniac laughter, effectively making the blood of every single good-hearted person on that clearing run cold in their veins.
"Swan, now!" Killian shouted inadvertently before biting down on Ursula's tentacle, kicking and elbowing her as she started to loosen her grip on his body.
Emma raised her hands again, Regina following her movements after coming to terms with her own thoughts and emotions to produce light magic this time. Together, the two of them sent out a powerful blast of bright white rays that quickly brought Maleficent down to her hands and knees in front of them.
Charming proceeded to hold his sword against Cruella's throat and trap her against a nearby tree, while Philip rushed to take his baby from the basket and hold her in his arms, using his cape to protect them from the flames as he jumped over the fire tracks and swiftly made his way out of the circle.
"No!" Maleficent screamed, still on her knees, watching the flames going out as the portal started to close, her cheeks burning red with anger.
Suddenly Ursula growled and wrapped a tentacle around Killian's foot just as he had finally managed to escape the loop of her slimy inhuman limbs, lifting his lower body from the ground and haphazardly tossing him into the centre of the closing portal before five pairs of shocked eyes.
"Killian!" Emma shouted. She scrambled up to her feet and ran to the small opening on the floor, jumping straight into it without thinking twice before the portal closed up after her.
Killian landed on his back in the middle of the woods with a reverberating thud. He was in the process of raising himself up on his elbows and scanning his surroundings when a warm body and golden hair that smelled of wildflowers collapsed over him, bringing them both back down.
He couldn't help the chuckle that fell from lips as he felt their bodies pressed together from head to toe - quite literally - and he let his hands wander around her lower back, slowly going up to the nape of her neck and her hair. He asked if she was okay, only to get a low moan in response as she pushed herself up to face him, her hands finding support on his shoulders.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here, Swan?" He tried his best to sound angry but he was powerless to fight the smile tugging at his lips at the sight of her bright green eyes searching his face with so much concern he could swear his heart was doing a little flip inside his chest.
"Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry, I didn't know I'd land right on-"
"Swan, breathe. I'm alright." Her golden tresses were cascading around them, enveloping their heads and making it seem as though the entire world was just the two of them right now, their faces so close that their breaths mingled, and he brought his hand to her cheek before speaking in a more serious tone. "What are you doing here, love?"
She beamed at him in response. "I guess I just missed you too much." She said with a nonchalant shrug. "What does it look like I'm doing? Of course I came after you."
"That I can tell, Swan. In case you've forgotten," he said and kissed the tip of her nose after she scrunched it up sending him a mock glare, "I'm still quite perceptive."
She rolled her eyes and pushed her body up from his the rest of the way, bringing her thighs to his sides and straddling his hips. He sat up and let his arms dart to her hips, holding her impossibly closer to him.
"Why did you do this, love?" He asked her with a sigh. "You of all people should know just how dangerous it is to travel back in time. We almost wiped away your existence the last time this happened."
"Did you actually think I'd leave you to find your way back on your own?"
"I was sort of hoping that you would."
"Absolutely not. Killian, you are my family. I'll never let you go so long as I have a say in the matter. Which I did. And-" She held his face with both her hands and hoped her eyes would somehow convey all the sincerity in her words to him. "I choose you."
Reading three quite different words in her eyes - an open book as always his Swan - he found himself at a loss for words, so rare an event that he could count on his fingers how many times it'd happened before. Completely unable to speak, he decided to give her a taste of his feelings and crashed his lips on hers, the breathtaking mixture of heat, tongue, and quiet desperation, plus the familiar prickling of magic radiating from Emma's skin enough to make their heads spin when they finally pulled away.
"So, any idea when your mind took us?" Emma asked him after taking a few moments to regain her breath while resting her forehead against his. "You were the first to come through the portal this time."
"I was thinking of us when Ursula hurled me in the air and I fell through." he said with a thoughtful look on his face as he stood up, holding Emma closely against him with his hooked arm on her lower back and his hand supporting one of her thighs, keeping her legs wrapped firmly around his waist. "But I believe we would have come to a much more suitable location than the middle of some woods had the portal read my wishes correctly."
Emma bit her lip trying to reign down the adrenaline coursing through her veins at the way he was looking at her like he simultaneously wanted to tear her apart and worship her every inch. "Before we get to that, maybe it'd be a good idea to start moving and see if we can find out where we are." She said, climbing down from him with clear reluctance and rolling her eyes at his subsequent pouting.
They trudged through the muddy ground and made their winding way around the trees until it seemed they had reached the end of the woods.
"What about us exactly were you thinking of before?" She asked as they stopped to take in the view of a small village surrounded by a few stables and crop fields.
Emma then realised her particular choice of words and braced herself for his typical innuendo, but when none came she got actually worried. She turned to face him finding a shocked and devastated expression on his face, noticing the way his chest was suddenly heaving. "Killian?"
"I was thinking about the conversation we had earlier about my-" He finally torn his gaze away from the village to meet Emma's concerned gaze. "I was thinking about my home."
PS: I haven't given this to my cssv yet, so I'm quite anxious about this story and any comments would be really appreciated :)