It's my best friend, Wapomeo Huntress's, birthday, so I whipped up a one-shot for her to celebrate! :D Hey, Em, hope you like this!
Note: Jabin is best non-canon, OC-ship. Accept it.
Another note: Sorry Outlaw Queen fans. As much as we (meaning I) ship it, Jabin is cuties. I strayed from canon a bit to write this, but hey, my fanfic, my rules.
Disclaimer: I own none of the Once Upon a Time characters, or the song where I got the title for this from. Jace belongs to the friend listed above – I just stole her for this.
"Robin?" Jace asked as Robin led her further and further into the forest. "Are you going to tell me where the hell you're taking me, or am I going to have to bribe it out of Roland?"
Robin chuckled. "You can't, for three reasons. One, you might know the streets of Storybrooke, but I highly doubt you know the woods like I do. Two, he's with Marian today." He paused before continuing.
"Valid reasons," Jace said. She hesitated just a bit before continuing, not sure what to expect. "What's the third one?"
"I already bribed him not to tell you."
"Damn it!" Jace swore, causing Robin to laugh. She looked at him. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head and taking her hand. "Let's go, it's not much farther now."
Jace tried not to think too much about whatever his surprise was as they walked through the forest, their boots crunching the freshly fallen snow. It was hard to grasp at times – that he'd chosen her; that after Regina sacrificed herself to beat Zelena, he'd still chosen her; that even when his wife came back from the fucking dead (thanks Emma), he'd still picked her. Jace liked Marian, and Marian respected Robin and his choice. They had come up with a rather nice agreement, Jace thought, where Roland stayed with Marian a few days of the week, and she and Robin got him the other. Well, Robin did. Jace just tagged along when she wasn't helping Killian build a new ship. Emma had insisted that her boyfriend –gods, how pleased her brother had looked when Emma had called him her boyfriend for the first time, you'd think he was a child at Christmas – have one to replace the Jolly Roger, and Jace had agreed, since the Jolly was at one point hers, too. They'd been working to build a new one, and though she and Killian had intended to do it themselves they found that the whole bloody town was pitching in. The Charmings, in particular, did quite a bit, including getting them some rather nice enchanted wood to use, in case they needed to make a quick escape with a rather large number of guests aboard, she suspected. Why else would they need a ship that could fly? Then again, in this town, who knew what would happen? Jace suspected they'd had to bribe Rumplestilstkin for help, as he'd never do it willingly.
They continued walking for quite a ways through the woods. Jace pushed some of her raven hair back that had come loose from her ponytail and saw that Robin had stopped a bit ahead of her. Jace walked up to meet him and saw that he was looking down at a cabin there.
"What's down there?" she asked.
"You'll see." Robin continued down the hill and Jace glared at him as she followed. Why the hell was he being so damn secretive?! She couldn't for the life of her guess what it was that he was hiding, and it frustrated her to no end. As nice as it was to be with Robin, it was bloody cold. She'd rather be working on the ship, which was almost complete, or sitting in Granny's with Wendy, who loved hearing the stories of Jace's travels as a pirate. A cup of coffee does sound rather nice about now….
"Jace! Over here!" Robin's voice pulled Jace out of her thoughts and she followed him over to the house, where he leaned casually against the door.
"Okay… Now what?"
"Stand there," he directed her, pointing at a spot in the snow. "Perfect. Now cover your eyes and wait." Jace rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath but Robin didn't seem to hear. She covered her eyes and heard the sound of his boots as he walked through the snow. "I swear, if you're just going to leave me out here–"
"I'm not!" he said, laughing a bit. "Just-just wait, okay?" There was the sound of more walking. "Okay, get ready." She heard the sound of him opening the door to the cabin, and she heard rather loud barking. Jace barely had time to uncover her eyes before she was being pounced on by a large mass of red fur. She fell back from the sudden weight and landed in the snow, the creature on top of her and looking rather pleased with himself. Off to the side, Robin did, too.
"Is this… a dog?" she asked, struggling to sit up and get a better view of the animal that was currently flopped down on her.
"A hunting dog. I thought you might like a companion," Robin explained, walking over so he was standing next to where she lay in the snow. Jace looked up at him, then back at the dog.
"Help me up."
Robin shooed the dog – a rather cute one, if Jace was being honest, and quite energetic – off of her and helped Jace stand. The dog trotted over to her side and sat at her feet, waiting to be petted. Jace knelt down so she was at his height and the dog promptly licked her cheek, causing her to laugh.
"I like him," she said, nodding as she wiped her cheek with the sleeve of her jacket. "What's his name?"
"He didn't have one. You get to pick," Robin said, clearly pleased that she liked the surprise.
Jace thought for a moment. At first she thought of typical dog names, but then she thought of the way he was easily pounced on her, and that made her think of storms she'd weathered and monsters she'd fought and suddenly it came to her.
"Leviathan," Jace said firmly. "His name is Leviathan. Levi for short."
"A strong name," Robin said as he took her hand and she stood. "I like it."
Jace grinned, and said, "Levi!" and the dog immediately looked up at her. "That settles that."
They walked back through the forest and into Storybrooke, Robin and Jace hand-in-hand with Leviathan trotting alongside them.
Talk about cuties, huh? I hope you enjoyed it! If you want to see more of Jace, go check out Wapomeo Huntress's story, "Purgatory? No, this is High School". Trust me, it's absolutely worth it.
