AU. In this universe, Emma went with Lily at the bus stop and they've been together ever since. The Apprentice never showed himself to Lily and the two girls grow up full of questions about their parents and their beginnings. One day, August the mysterious writer moves in next door. He is determined to take the girls on a trip that will change all of their lives forever. His mission is to get the girls to accompany him to Storybrooke so that they can break a curse. But what of this magnetic attraction he feels towards Emma? Will the mysterious stranger come between the two best friends forever?
Chapter 1
Things That Go Bump In The Night
9 a.m.
Emma was getting ready to go to work as a bail bonds person. She was nice and ripe with sweat from her morning workout and had yet to step into the shower for the morning. The sun had just rose over the horizon and she was in the kitchen, preparing bagels and cream for breakfast for she and her lover. There was a soft white towel draped over the nape of her neck and she wiped her temple with it.
Her sleepy eyed girlfriend shuffled into the kitchenette in nothing but sock clad feet and a flimsy, floral night top moments later with her dark hair in total disarray. "Morning," she mumbled as she padded up the blonde and kissed her on the cheek. Emma smiled and placed a plate of prepared bagels on the tabletop. "Here you go," she said, and bit into her own serving of bagel and strawberry preserves.
Emma was satisfied by her lover, but she sometimes found herself wishing for a more stable life partner. Lily was prone to mistakes and little white lies that eventually turned into more hurtful, bigger ones. She had a history for flirting and cheating but Emma always felt guilty for wanting to leave her. Lily would beg her not to leave for her own sake, pleading what would she do and boo hoos so hard that Emma always relented to her tearful requests. She didn't stay because she wanted to, she stayed because it was comfortable and she wanted to spare her long time friend's feelings.
Lily had seated herself at the kitchenette's small bar and was eating her share. She hummed in approval at the tasty treat and smiled at her girlfriend. "I gotta be going," Emma said, and dropped a kiss on her lover's dark head as she passed to go to the bathroom. After all, she had to wash the stink of her intense boxing session off of her before she showed up at the office.
Freshly showered and dressed in a white button down blouse and gray pants, Emma was on her way out the door and noticed a moving crew right away. There were some burly men hauling a wine red couch and a long, solid wood book case from down the hallway, but no one seemed to be directing them. She supposed someone was finally moving into the apartment next door, which a young college tenant had suddenly vacated when they decided to commit suicide.
"Any idea who's moving in," she questioned another neighbor on her way down in the elevator. The man in a three piece suit shrugged his shoulders, none the wiser than she. "Whoever they are, they must be quite the book worm," he observed conversationally, noticing just how many book shelves were being emptied from the moving truck. Emma Swan shrugged and bid her neighbor goodbye, bounding down the stairs energetically.
8:15 p.m.
At the end of a very long day at work, Emma was ready for a night cap. She'd been cramped up in her yellow bug on a stake out for the past several hours, waiting for a very influential congressman to exit the home of her mistress and snap a couple pictures. With evidence, she would be paid handsomely and her work for the evening would be done. She had waited an eternity for the man to finish up, only to realize too late that he had slipped out the back door and beat a hasty yet discrete exit. This particular case was requiring quite a lot of forward thinking on her part because her target was always so careful. She'd have to pick up the investigation in a couple days once he worked up the hunger for his pretty young secretary once more.
Defeated and feeling a little down, Emma dragged herself to the local watering hole just down around the block from her apartment. Lily would no doubt be at her job bartending across town until late, so she wouldn't miss the blonde. She hadn't missed her in awhile, Emma darkly reflected to herself as she found herself seated at the bar, nursing a whiskey sour.
She drank in brooding silence for about twenty minutes before a leather clad gentleman slid onto the stool next to her. She was in no mood for cheesy pick up lines, even if they were delivered by a guy with a chiseled jaw covered in stubble and beautifully striking, ice blue eyes. In spite of herself, she found herself throwing glances out the corner of her eye at him when he gave no indication of her presence. He was drinking a dark lager beer with a white paper napkin stuck to the side of the frosty beverage by its condensation. "Long day?" She finally asked, breaking the pregnant silence that had stretched between them. They were the only two at the far side of the bar and she thought a little small talk wouldn't hurt. "Nah, I wouldn't quite say that. I work for myself, so work rarely gets in the way for me," he explained. Emma rose an eyebrow curiously at his cryptic answer. "What kind of work do you do?" she asked. She ordered another cocktail and waited for his response.
The air was thick with stale cigarette smoke, and the handsome stranger reached into a bowl of nuts. He started breaking peanut casings and Emma watched as he accumulated a small pile on the sticky bar top as he talked. "I write for magazines, do interviews, tell behind the scenes true stories," he explained. "Like for a band, Behind the Music?" she asked him, a little teasing flirtation creeping into her tone. She clearly didn't think much of programs like MTV and the stranger flashed a wolfish grin her way.
"No, not like behind the music. Shoot me if I ever have to catalog the many groupies and STDs of a so-called great band member, will you," he joked. He clearly shared her opinion that such insipid details were not worth reading, let alone writing about. "What do you write about then?" she questioned.
The stranger paused to look around the bar, and leaned in conspiratorially towards the beautiful, green eyed blonde. "Heroes and Villains," he said in a stage whisper, and drained the rest of his dark lager. He went to stand and pulled a bill out of his wallet in his hip pocket and placed it on the bar top. "It was nice to meet you...?" he trailed off so that she might supply her name. Emma found she was a little disappointed he was leaving so soon. "Emma," she told him. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Emma," he reiterated, and started towards the door suddenly.
"Hey!" She called after him. He turned towards her, and she noticed for the first time he had a motorcycle helmet with him and it was curled in the crook of his arm."I don't think I caught your name," she asked, and the handsome stranger smirked. "That's 'cause I didn't give it," he retorted and swung towards the exit without another word.
Rude, Emma thought to herself and scowled over her drink. It was about time she head home, even though Lily wouldn't be home for a couple hours. She was still pretty beat after her long day. Emma walked the short block back to her apartment with a slight buzz and when she got home, she shed her leather jacket and tall boots and peeled off her tight jeans, ready to fall into bed. She wrapped a fluffy turquoise robe around herself and burrowed in under the covers in the dark of her and Lily's shared bedroom.
After 12 a.m.
Later that night, Lily snuck into the apartment quiet as a whisper. She unbraided her long dark hair and it rested in waves on her shoulders as she got ready for bed. She changed into a light purple nightgown and slid some knee high socks on to battle the cold of the apartment's wood floors. She slid under their bright yellow duvet covers behind Emma and spooned her from behind, wrapping her arms around her exquisite girlfriend. She kissed the side of Emma's ear before she drifted off to sleep.
Not long after she fell asleep, the couple were awakened by a very loud bang next door. Their new neighbor was already a nuisance past 2 in the morning. They could hear what Emma swore was the sound of someone hammering next door on the wall near the head of their bed. "No way," Emma growled, irritated to be deprived of her beauty sleep. "I'm putting a stop to this right now," she snapped after a second and third thump on the wall. Clearly, this tenant had no manners or sense at all! They were going to get an earful from her and a piece of her mind if it was the last thing she did.
"You stay here," Emma reassured her groggy lover and dropped a chaste kiss on her chapped lips. She squeezed her shoulder as she climbed out of bed in her turquoise robe. Her hair was disheveled from sleeping so long and she didn't bother to run a comb through it so determined she was to stop the incessant banging going on next door. She slammed her door a little too hard behind her as she stepped into the hall and started hammering on the new next door neighbor's door with both her fists to gain their attention. She could bang just as hard as them, she'd show them!
The door swung open to reveal the handsome stranger from earlier. "You!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger at him. "First you're rude to me in the bar, now you're banging on walls at 3 in the morning?!" she demanded, hand resting on her cocked hip with attitude. The stranger blanched and looked at the offending hammer in his hand. "My bad," he said, and his voice had a bit of a slur to it. His eyes were glassy and his smile widened toothily. "If I'd known you'd stalk me and bang down my door to learn my name, I would've spared you the trouble and told you earlier," he teased. Emma colored at his accusation, and rolled her eyes, pointing at her front door next door. "I live there, you idiot," she exasperatedly said.
The stranger chuckled at her insult and opened his door wider, offering her passage into his new home. "Let me make it up to you, I didn't realize I was being so loud. Let me pour you a drink," he said. He gestured behind him and Emma saw he had a fully stocked bar in the corner of the living room. She also noticed he had unpacked little else thus far. She considered him suspiciously for a minute, but ultimately accepted his invitation and shuffled into his apartment. She didn't have to be into work until the afternoon the next day for an ongoing investigation, so she figured one drink wouldn't hurt.
"What'll you have, Ms. Emma?" her host asked, and for the first time, she noticed he was favoring his right leg as he made his way to the bar. Perhaps it was only because he was drunk, she thought, as she sank down onto the red couch she'd seen the moving men carrying in earlier. It was plush and velvet textured, and she watched fascinated as the material left a groove after her fingers brushed it. "Whiskey, neat," she replied and her host obliged her, limping over to the couch and seating himself on the far side with his own drink after he handed her her own. He was seated a comfortable distance away and Emma felt at ease enough to sip her own beverage.
"Well, are you gonna tell me your name or is this some kind of annoying guessing game," she asked, teasing him. "August W. Booth," he finally replied. "Really? With the middle initial?" she asked incredulously. "W is for Wayne," he said with a pleasing grin. "Is that your pseudonym, or your real name?" Emma asked after a long, thoughtful sidelong glance at him. He took a sip from his own drink and relished the vodka burning its way down his throat. Emma could always tell when someone was holding something back, and she sensed this mysterious stranger had more to tell than meets the eye. "That's my real name," he claimed and Emma leveled a shrewd look his way.
"Look, you're new here, so I'll go ahead and tell you now," she said, leaning in close conspiratorially as he had done her only a few hours prior. "But I kind of have this super power, and I can always tell when someone is lying." She said with a superior grin, and August gave her a tight lipped smile in return. "Is that so?" he asked, and his eyes looked clear through her despite the fact she knew judging by the scent of him that he'd been binge drinking since she'd last seen him until now. In the bar, she hadn't noticed his smell mixed with all the other bar odors, but he definitely had the stale body odor of someone whose pores emanated the stuff.
August was dressed in blue plaid pajama pants and a grey t-shirt that hugged the planes of his chest. Emma could clearly make out the shape of his pecs as the grey shirt clung to him and she became acutely aware of what a mess she must look all of a sudden. When he went to get a refill, she hastily clawed at her messy hair with his back turned and sat her half-finished tumbler on the ground, since he didn't have any other furniture in the living room besides unpacked boxes. She noticed on the ground were multiple boxes labeled books and he had a few dozen already strewn around the apartment. She felt attracted to the knowledge he was well read and yearned to get a closer look at the titles of his books. What was he interested in, what was so interesting about this stranger and his cryptic style of talk? Why did she get the feeling this was not the last time she would be in this apartment?
Emma cleared her throat and stood up. "I'd actually better get going, August," she said rather formally and held the neck of her robe tightly closed as she approached the front door. "I'll see you around," he said, almost sounding like a promise. "I'll try to keep it down." She closed his front door behind her and left him to his night owl hours, slipping back into bed with her long time girlfriend.
Lily rolled away from Emma when she got back into bed and hogged all the covers. Emma slept fitfully the rest of the night and sleep came hard as she considered her sexy next door neighbor. She had gotten shy all of a sudden, and that was rare for Emma. Self conscious was usually not her style, but she'd gotten the feeling he was studying her far too intently and she was all too aware of the state of her undress. Emma fell asleep figuring she'd figure him out later in the sober light of day. It's not like he was going anywhere.
A/N: What do you think about this angle? I absolutely ship Dragon Swan (eh? catching on anybody?) LilyxEmma is so cannon to me, feel free to let me know any constructive criticism or ideas. This story is going to span season 1 with a few tweaks and diverge season 2. I've been updating this story at a pace of every 7-10 days, so keep that in mind while you read/follow/favorite :)