A/N: Just a quick SQ thing I wrote. Set a little while after Neverland I guess.
Disclaimer: SQ wouldn't be "unintentional".
Loving you is like climbing a mountain. First we're strong, constant messaging, touching, kissing, getting off on the simplest thought that we belong to each other now, and that the sneaking around, hiding from the world- mainly my parents-, we think adds a flare to the relationship. Our secret honeymoon phase, forbidden and glorious, filled with really, really intense, emotional, sticky, hot sex.
But after the first few forks in the road, decisions we make wrong, things get harder. Telling the world that the Savior, the role model and the sheriff, has fallen head over heels for the Evil Queen, beautiful may you be, blackened hearted, who's curse I'd broken the year previous, isn't exactly the smallest bump in our relationship. Snow White & Prince Charming -rightfully, in this situation, idiots- try like hell to push us apart, as the entirety of Storybrooke and the Forest question us. Of course they have their suspicions about you, your motives in this situation. People who are informed of your past want to know how you could love, truly, after Daniel (which is a dick move on their part to even bring him up), and those who haven't been caught up to speed want to know if it's about Henry, if you is doing this to get him back, for your own selfish good. They poke and prod and harass you, they ask me "How could you be so dumb? Don't you know that she is just using you to get to your son?", and for a few short seconds I question your motives as well. But when you smile at me from across the booth at Granny's, your teeth gnawing at that intoxicatingly red lip, stocking covered leg rubbing my skinny jeans, all of those thoughts go away. I know if someone's lying, and your beautiful brown eyes in this moment spell out one word, love. Here, I know I'm safe.
This is the point in the climb where we've stopped to get a water break, before strapping on our harnesses and climbing the hundred meters to the next ledge. When people stop with the verbal abuse, they try to physically rip us apart. No one understands us, how happy we are together. How we lean on each other, not just for Henry, but for us. You heal me, and I like to think that I'm helping you heal too. It seems that the kid is the only one that's the least bit happy for us. Snow- Mary Margaret, whatever- Ruby, and Ella insist on taking me out a few nights a week, trying to get me to flirt with guys, acting like the love of my life isn't sitting at home, waiting for my call and reading some crazy novel that's way to deep for me to understand. When they don't take me out, they stall. Meeting you for lunch in the park from Granny's? Nope! Sorry Emma, huge order at Granny's before yours that must be finished in two hours and will be all hands on deck, but no, don't leave Emma, stay, have some cocoa and try to not be rude when you have to rush out because my pointlessly dumb conversation just made you 20 minutes late. Then, if you're cooking me dinner? Nope, sorry Emma, your father and I got last minute plans that we "can't refuse", and so you have to find Henry a sitter while you're changing, because you have to leave for your date in a few minutes. No, it's ok mom, it's not like it's the twelfth time in the past three weeks that I've been extremely late to my dates because of you guys. No wait, IT IS…It's ridiculous really. All I want is to spend quality time with my girlfriend of six months today, and of course they have plans. I haven't seen you outside of the twenty minute or less windows we get on dates, and my phone "broke", so I can't text you. But at this point, I'm so fed up that I'll do anything to see you. So I do the only thing I can. I slip away, with heavy protest from the idiots, and drive right up to your mansion, and tell you straightforward, we're moving in together. Because I don't care what everyone else says, I just need you and Henry. So by the end of the week I live at 108 Mifflin Street, Belle as acting mayor -one of the only people who actually approves of us, her situation with Gold being so similar- having to approve of the change of address and get me a new license, as no one in the makeshift DMV will change it on my license. That's the next ledge, standing on top, feeling so good but so bad.
Trying to convince the entire town of our love, our true love, is possibly the hardest part, the straight vertical climb. Tired of all the fighting and prodding, I just want us to be happy, to be able to love in peace. We start out slowly, dinners with my parents are the first thing, and possibly the most interesting. Henry insists on having Neal join, making the situation increasingly awkward. I try to keep my mind off of the fact that you were at a point, a mother figure to my mother, a role model for her, but on the fact that they are actually getting along. You've truly changed since the curse broke. After what happened in Neverland, it's hard to think that any of us would be the same, but you've changed for the better. Your heart is red now. I know because you showed me it, much to my discontent. I'd like to think that I've played a part in that, the making it red part, not the rip it out of your own body part. That still grosses me out. So the dinners are better, as they become a ritual. Tuesday you pick Henry up from school, and take him to my parents'. About a half hour later my shift ends and I come over. You and my mother try to perfect your lasagna recipe, which is perfect already to me, and after dinner, you make various pastries and desserts. You are yet to make an apple turnover though, I don't blame you (but you've made them for me, and they're seriously delicious). We are more comfortable in public, now that my mother has approved of our relationship, hesitantly, but she approves nonetheless.
And we've almost reached the top. Walking down main street to Granny's one morning, a few days before our one year (dating) anniversary, you intertwine our fingers, and lean your head into the crook of my neck, whispering a soft "I love you", before kissing the side of my neck softly. It is the first time you've ever done something like that, so domestic, so cute, so…vulnerable, in public. I rest my hand on your hip as we walk into Granny's, whispering those same words in your ear, nipping the soft flesh with my teeth, eliciting a tiny, sexy giggle from you. As the entire diner turns and stares, I don't care, because you do something to me, you have me wrapped around your little finger and I love it. And this is how it is up to now, us back in our honeymoon phase, but not so secret anymore. The subtle touches come back-not so subtly I might add, and the sex is more frequent, more passionate. I instantly see a change in you, you're once again the snarky, sarcastic, sassy woman you were before, but you also have more of a lighter tone to you, like a panda. You have your dark, and your light, and together you're just irresistible, like the day we met, except more…fluffy. As the town grows to accept that we're in this for the long haul, the comments die down, and slowly, we just blend into the scenery. It's beautiful.
We've made it to the top of the mountain, and unlike a real mountain, it only goes uphill from here.
Fin