A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! So at school one day during a free-ish period, my wonderful friend Animeismyforte23 and I decided to cowrite a Swanfire fanfic for fun and it turned out to be really good. So here it is! Merry Christmas my bowls of soup!
As Emma drove to Granny's in her yellow bug, her eyes grew wide as "All I Want for Christmas is You" began to play on the radio. Her thoughts were immediately drawn to her wayward love Neal. Things hadn't advanced much since they had returned to Storybrooke a little while ago, but she couldn't help but think of her feelings as Mariah hit each note.
I confessed…I told him what I truly felt…was that not enough? What else do I need to do? How do I make him mine this Christmas? she thought sadly as Mariah sang the chorus. Still, at the same time, she was scared just as she had told him; she wasn't sure what she wanted. She just felt that Neal…Neal had to be in her future.
At the same time, Neal was with Henry in the house waiting for the next song to come on the kid's Ipod as they baked cookies. Out of the speaker came the same song, though he didn't know it, as the one that played on Emma's radio. Neal smiled, but he started to have feelings of Emma inside, while Henry tried to hide his smirk: his plan was going perfectly.
He had purposefully created a playlist on his Ipod and planted a CD in Emma's car to activate operation Mistletoe. Both included songs such as the other "All I Want for Christmas is You", "Blue Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas".
Emma stared at the radio as it started to play "Blue Christmas." She knew she loved Neal, and she knew he loved her, but they had faced so much, was a new relationship really right?
The radio obviously thinks so she thought, glaring at it.
Blue Christmas finished and was followed by yet another Mariah Carey song "Christmas (Baby please come home).
"What the hell is with this thing?" she said aloud.
Neal glanced at the radio quickly when Mariah Carey came on again.
Are these the only kinds of Christmas songs this kid has? he thought, looking at Henry, a brow raised in question.
"So dad this is really nice, the three of us making cookies and all. Once mom gets back I mean" Henry said, knowing just how to manipulate his father further.
"You got it kid" Neal said, immediately shrugging off the idea that this was any kind of plot.
"I mean that's something families do right?" He knew he had to build this up carefully, then go in for the killer when his mom got back with lunch.
"Course kid! We are a family after all" Neal said, ruffling his son's hair.
"Ya it's really nice to see you and mom together all the time now that you live with us" Neal smiled down at him, but inside he thought
Me and Emma together? But sometimes it just feels she's so far away…"
10 minutes later came a Taylor Swift song that Grace had played for Henry "Christmases when you were mine" Neal looked up from cutting cookies and seemed to come to terms with something.
He remembered the one Christmas he had spent with Emma before this, all those years ago, not much, but together, so definitely special. He knew he had something he had to do, for Henry, for the Charmings, for Emma…for himself.
"Henry are you okay here by yourself for a few minutes?" he asked.
"Course Dad!" Henry said, smiling widely, knowing his plan had worked. Neal smiled and walked out the door, planning to meet Emma at the diner.
Henry waited for a minute, then grabbed his backpack that had his camcorder in it and pulled out his cell and texted Rumple. In his backpack, he had his fake school assignment Snow had prepared and he called ruby to tell her to prepare the special song.
Emma drove up to the diner, finally parking and walked to it, still lost in thought about Neal.
"Emma!" Neal shouted. "We need to"
"Talk" Emma said. "Ya I know. Neal I-I…I need to know…if we can ever" Emma bit her lip, not able to say the rest.
"Be together again?" Neal asked, as tears began to well up in his eyes.
Emma nodded, looking down at the ground, away from his teary face, not being able to look at him. He saw her pain and gently grabbed her hands.
"Hey Emma. Emma look at me" Emma shook her head and tried to pull her hands back, her eyes prickling with unshed tears.
"I love you" he said. "And we're both scared but…" he didn't know what to say.
"A-all I know is that…this Christmas…I don't want to be alone…I want…I want to spend it with you" Emma said. Neal smiled and nodded.
"Ya me too" Henry had the camcorder in his hand recording every moment from a safe distance and chanted softly.
"Kiss…kiss! Come on Dad!" He watched as they grabbed hands and walked into the diner. He knew it was time for the grand finale. He spotted Rumple and Belle walking towards the diner hand in hand smiling. He waved as he ran over after them, determined to catch the kiss.
The three got inside and Ruby gave Henry a thumbs up, telling him that she was ready.
"Hit it!" Henry yelled smirking as his birth parents jumped in surprise at having such a loud voice behind them.
A soft intro began to play and Henry walked up to his parents with the fake school assignment. Neal and Emma looked down at their son in confusion.
"What are you doing here Henry? I told you to stay in the apartment!" Neal said.
"He's our son. Do you honestly think he'd stay there?" Emma said, rolling her eyes and batting Neal playfully on the arm.
"Anyway" Henry said. "I wanted to show you this cool project we're doing in school about state capitals"
"State capitals? Which one did you do?" Emma asked, turning back to her son.
"Tallahassee. It's the state capital of Florida." Just as Henry said this, the main lyrics of the song came on
I'll be Home for Christmas
"T-Tallahassee?" Emma asked, eyes wide. He couldn't have known. And the song she thought. How did it just happen to…how could this…right after everything had…
Neal was thinking along the same lines as his narrowed his eyes fractionally on his son. With the mention of Tallahassee, Emma felt the tears on the verge of falling
"Could we just talk outside a minute?" she said. Neal dragged his eyes from Henry, looked at Emma and nodded silently, taking in her tearful face, and put his hand between her shoulder blades, guiding her outside.
Once they had left, everyone in the restaurant, with Henry, Rumple, Ruby and Snow in the front, gathered by the door to try and see what happened.
"So…Emma…" Neal started, not sure what to say.
"I…I love you s..s..so much Neal" Emma said, shaking. "But I'm still just so scared." Neal sighed and pulled her into his arms, ignoring her start of surprise.
"I'm scared too, but only of hurting you again." He squeezed her tighter in his arms. She closed her eyes, accepting the love, not knowing exactly what to say, not because she was afraid to tell him, she just wasn't sure of anything herself. Neal continued.
"I never want to be the reason you cry again. I love you too much for that. You are my love…my life…my soul. Please Emma let us try again." Emma managed to smile at him.
"I want to try again…I love you with everything but…there are still just so many feelings I need to talk about." Neal smiled and said quietly, still holding her
"Then talk. I'll listen"
"I just…the whole eleven years, especially the first few, I tried so hard to hate you. I tried to tell myself I did, because I was in jail and I had to give up Henry and I should hate you but…I just couldn't." Neal bit his lip but said nothing, rubbing her back urging her to continue.
"Even when I saw you again, in New York, I wanted so badly to hate you, to tell myself I wanted to leave you behind, but I couldn't" Emma wiped away a tear.
And I'm so glad you couldn't Neal wanted to say, but wasn't sure if it would be right.
"I just…" Emma continued to cry. "I love you so much, and I have no doubt of that, I've been with you for so long…so why is it still so scary and so…" she broke down.
"Because it's love. Because it's throwing yourself over to someone who's already…already broken your heart. It's completely warranted for you to feel like this" Neal's voice was pained, but he knew he had to say this.
"But isn't love having no fear? Shouldn't I be able to have no hesitations? Shouldn't we be able to be like my parents like…I just want you to have the best and what I that's not me?" Neal held Emma at arms' length and looked at her eyes fiercely.
"Don't you ever think you aren't good enough for me! If anything you're too good for me! Got it?"
"No you're too good for me. You love me so unconditionally and you've waited so long and…"
"And I'll wait as long as I have to. Because you're perfect, you're strong, you're beautiful, you're smart…you're my Emma" Neal said softly, taking his hand off one of her arms and stroking her cheek.
Emma smiled. She didn't deserve him, but he obviously thought otherwise; this was their love.
"Now anything else you need to get off of your chest?" Neal said quietly, slipping his hand down her face, purposefully brushing his finger against her lips.
"No…no I don't think so" Emma said, her voice growing more serious. Neal leaned in by her face, his trademark flirty smile plastered on
"Wanna give them a show?" he said, indicating with his eyes to the bystanders all crowded at the windows. Emma smirked and saw Rumple whisk his hand, just before a sprig of mistletoe appeared above their heads.
"Don't have much of a choice now do we?" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, gesturing up at the growing mistletoe with her eyes.
"It doesn't matter" Neal said, glaring at his father. "I would do it anyway"
Said father looked away from his son whistling as Henry pushed the camcorder on the window, zooming in on his parents. Emma saw this and, smirking at Henry, placed her hand over the window. Neal smirked at this and finally leaned down and softly captured Emma's lips with his own. Emma as still crying, because even in the amusement of the eavesdroppers, this was still so emotional, so full of fear, but the moment his lips met hers, she knew that there was nothing more right.
Henry whined in frustration trying to find a better angle, but his mom had the view completely blocked. Finally, Emma released her lips from Neal's "I suppose we have to go in there now huh?" she said.
"Now one says we have to…" Neal said. "…I mean at home we have cookies in the oven and I know for a fact that there are some tortillas at home. Why don't we make some tacos?" He smiles at Emma, oblivious. Emma kissed him quickly and smiled
"Not just yet" she said. Neal stood there confused, but shrugged and opened the door for Emma to walk inside. Everyone rushed to spread out, as if the couple now walking in hand in hand had not seen them,
"Really? Seriously?" Emma said, annoyed at their antics, but still smiling.
"You know the strangest thing happened on my way here" she continued. "All the Christmas sons that played on my radio were love songs, and there was no commentary from the DJs"
"Really? The same thing happened after you left with…Henry's I-pod…" Neal said slowly. Slowly, they both looked at Henry and he chuckled as he moved behind his grandmother.
"It had to be done" Snow said with a grin, patting Henry on the head.
"And I suppose you made the school papers?" Emma said. Snow nodded, still smiling
"Guilty as charged!" she said. Emma laughed, then acting serious, kneeled down and placed her hands on Henry's shoulders.
"Thank you" she said. Henry smiled at his mother brightly and said
"I just want my parents together again" Emma cried again and hugged her son. Neal smiled and pulled them both into his arms, completing the family hug. Finally, they were a family.
Epilogue
It was Christmas night and the Charming family was sitting around the tree, enjoying the home - made cookies Henry and his parents had made. There was a tree that Charming and Neal had chopped down from the forest and dragged back to Storybrooke, decorated lavishly in the living room.
Emma and Neal were sitting next to each other, the tips of their fingers touching gently. Henry sat on the floor, leaning on their legs, fast asleep on the floor covered by a blanket Snow had tucked him in with. Wrapping paper and toys littered the floor.
Emma smiled as "I'll Be Home for Christmas" came on again and fully intertwined their fingers together thinking
The perfect Christmas; finally. Neal remembered that day, maybe the happiest day of his life.
"Hey Emma" he said. "That night at Granny's, what did you mean when you said 'not just yet' after I suggested Tacos for dinner? Couldn't you just have said you weren't in the mood for Mexican?" Emma stared at Neal then snorted and started to laugh, muffling herself so as not to wake Henry.
"Inside joke. Let's just say it involves my parents…getting reacquainted" she said.
"EXCUSE ME?!" said Charming, glaring at Neal. Snow batted him on the arm.
"A bit late for you to get all fatherly protective now isn't it?" she said pointing at Henry, who somehow managed to stay asleep.
"You don't think I haven't thought about that do you?" Charming said.
"Then what's the problem if you know we already did it once?" Emma said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head at her father trying to calm down a confused and frightened Neal.
"I still don't get it" Neal said. Emma whispered something in his ear and his eyes grew wide. He looked Charming in the eyes.
"I promise you that is not what I meant! That's for Valentine's day maybe" he said, only half joking. Charming narrowed his eyes and Emma playfully slapped him on the arm.
"They're in love. Leave them be you big oaf." Snow said, shoving Charming playfully.
"She's still my daughter" Charming said.
"She's mine too! I'm not getting all crazy am I? I want another Grandkid! They can play with their soon-coming aunt!" Snow said, smiling happily.
"Come on everyone its Christmas" Emma said.
"Speaking of that…you haven't gotten your gift yet" Neal said grinning at her.
"What do you mean?" Emma said, wondering if maybe he had had too much to drink. "You already got me the sweater."
"No that wasn't it at all. This is what I really wanted to give you" Neal said. He pulled out a long black box wrapped in gold ribbon.
"Neal!" Emma said in shock and slight annoyment. "I thought we talked about not spending too much money on each other. I don't need a lot"
"I know, I know, just open it" he said smiling. Emma sighed and pulled off the ribbon, shaking her head, but when she removed the top and saw the gift, her hand instantly flew to her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
"You remember this?" Neal said with a soft smile now watching Emma.
"You kept it." she said crying.
"Of course I did" he said, wiping her eyes with the pad of his thumb. "It's a part of us, a part of our past….Can I put it on you?" Emma still couldn't believe it.
"You kept it after all this time, even after I ripped it off right in front of you"
"Well…really…I thought-I-thought I might not see you again…so if I at least had this, I could remember my beautiful swan" he said, slightly embarrassed.
Emma cried and turned around, handing Neal the necklace. Neal slowly reached around her and fastened it around her neck and pulled her into his arms, holding her close. She squeezed him, not knowing what to say, because she knew no gift could ever compare…to the gift of his love. This was the best Christmas she had ever had.
A/N: Merry Christmas my bowls of soup and firethieves! Hope you enjoyed. As I type this it is the eve of the winter finale, and I'm preparing for it to be emotionally fatal. So if you're reading this and it's already premiered *hugs* Merry Christmas again!
-Kingdomkeepers365