First off, let me just say, when i had posted this on Tumblr (my account name is black-wolf066 there if anyone is interested) this morning it was 8am, and I had been working on the better part of this little shit that wouldn't leave me alone i mean piece since 9pm last night…. I swear i can adult right sometimes… just not today apparently…. so keep this in mind as you're reading cause even though I've proof read this thrice, I'm sure some (or many) things have escaped my brain's notice.
anyway….
Here is the comment on Tumblr that inspired me to write this one-shot:
timetravelingpotatoast said: All I really want from this season is for Killian and Henry to become good friends and talk about Lucy's "conspiracy" only for Killian to ask who she thinks he is. However, somewhere in the translation it's lost that Killian is his step-dad, so Henry just says his dad, leading to a "well you do have my chin," commentary from Killian. When the curse breaks they just squint at each other for a really long time.
Now, for the sake of the prompt, this is gonna be very heavily AU from season 7. This is by no means a "fix-it fic" because I really am enjoying season 7; I'm only writing this because I really wanted to see something like this be a thing after reading the comment. I absolutely love father/son bonding fics between Killian and Henry and I need more of it in my life… (Seriously there aren't enough Captain Cobra centered fics to satisfy my craving for it). And I know that I said on Tumblr that "I wish I was creative enough to contribute to the fandom of Once Upon a Time", but after posting my last little snippet; I figured "what the hell I'm gonna do it anyway" because that's what fandom is (I still feel like I suck terribly but *shrug* if you're having fun doing it than screw being good at it, right?). However I feel like i should say that yes English is my first language but to quote Markiplier "I don't word good" nor do i "Grammar good." I will happily fix mistakes pointed out to me, but please know that mean comments will be fed to my cats. (((Also something that should have been maybe 2000 words or less, ended up running away from me toward 4000 (my brain projecting my need for more Captain Cobra moments I guess)… I realize a lot of it is probably considered filler and I could have done away with it, but I kinda wanted to build that relationship between cursed Killian and cursed Henry much like the relationship between Snow White and Emma in season 1)))).
Anyway, here's a bit of backstory that I came up with for the AU universe of this fic…. If you don't care and simply just want to read the story, than you can scroll down to where the story starts.
So in this AU, I've pretty much figured that Rumple, Killian, Regina and Emma came to save the day for Henry (Henry may have asked for Killian, Regina and Emma, but the three probably went to Rumple for help or something and Belle urged him to go). I'm thinking the timeline in the realm Henry is in moves faster than the timeline that is Storybrooke, so Henry might be 25 and not 18, but to the rest of his family only 1 year has passed since Henry left in search of his own story((((wondering if this is actually canon considering how shocked they were at seeing him so grown and I don't believe for a single second that it took Emma and Killian that long to have a baby)))). Emma wasn't pregnant at the time but eventually as they all stay and help the resistance against Tremaine and Drizella (after finding a way to send word back home that everything and everyone is alright and that they're staying to help… maybe Rumple being pushed by Belle to stay and help them too), she and Killian end up having twins, and barely a year later Henry has his own kid with Ella. When the curse comes and separates them all, the curse spans the whole state of Washington (Tremaine or Drizella wanting to separate as many of them as they could and not keep them all in the same place… especially the true love couples. But they didn't bank on Lucy remembering or Rumple finding a loop hole so he didn't get cursed along with everyone else), so HH is the main hive so to speak but the fairy-tale characters are scattered across other cities and towns. Emma is off in one city (maybe Walla Walla), their twin daughters are in a group home in another city, Henry lived somewhere in Olympia (which is close enough to Seattle and HH), Robin (because I need Regina to be happy damn it! And I figure maybe they found that his soul wasn't destroyed but simply stuck in the crystal, even across all alternate versions of said crystal in any realm, so he ends up getting freed) is also scattered somewhere, and Rumple, Killian, Regina, Ella and Lucy remained in HH where Tremaine and/or Drizella could keep an eye on them and make their lives a living hell. When Lucy finds Henry, and Jacinda steals his car (much like in the show and what not), he decides to stay at a motel for a week, finding the place interesting (and spurring a bit of creativity that he hadn't felt since his failed first book) and eventually that week turns into him finding an actual place to stay once he gets to know the people in the neighborhood (made hard by the outrageous prices being asked). When Detective Rogers hears about his search, he offers to turn his den/office into a spare room (the only reason Regina/Roni didn't offer is because she lives in a small studio apartment above the bar with the only closed room being a bathroom)…. Eventually Rumple as Weaver manages to get everyone back into the neighborhood (((he was the one to give Lucy the book. He was the one to find and bring back the cursed versions of Robin—Kevin Adams, who is a struggling lawyer that ends up helping Jacinda, by Rumple/Weaver's prompting, get custody of Lucy back—and Emma—Danielle "Dani" Stevens, who was a sketch artist for Walla Walla police department. He was also the one to find which group home the twins were staying in and try to adopt them, since he wasn't sure how long it would take to break the curse, and he didn't want them staying there… Rumple and Killian might be civil borderline grey area friends, but he likes the twins and it'll get them back to their family that much quicker once the curse is broken if he does it like this…)))) and the curse gets broken the same as in season 1 with Henry and Lucy (cause I'm unoriginal and my brain can't think of anything else right now) ((((That should be enough of a background right? I don't know… I'm terrible at this… don't question the plot holes too much okay? You might get sucked into its black hole…))))
(((also note that I took this site: average-rent-in-seattle-rent-trends/ as a guideline for apartment averages in Seattle… and even though almost 3000 is very high for a one-bedroom apartment that Henry was looking for; I figured that Tremaine and Drizella were trying to weed out the people in the neighborhood slowly so they could bulldoze and improve and bring forth a 'richer' environment and a "richer" culture of people to surround themselves with, therefore causing more suffering and separation for those cursed and gaining something else for themselves….))))
((also when it comes to ages, I'm probably way off from canon, but these are my head canon ages for them here so… Emma was 28 at the start of season 1; Killian was 29, Regina 32. Adding 9 years considering Henry left at 18 and only a year passed in Storybrooke whereas 7 years passed where Henry was, that would make them 37, 38, and 41. With another 11ish to 12ish years they are now 48ish, 49ish, and 52ish with Henry being 37ish.
Anyway, without farther ado, i give you this Captain Cobra one-shot in all it's (step)father/son bonding glory!
Well, You do have my chin
Word count: 4203
Rating: pg-13 for my potty mouth
The din of Roni's bar was oddly relaxing to Henry as he searched on his laptop for available apartments to move into, but after another site herald the same results, he sighed, closed the screen, and dropped his head into the crook of his arm. Was it too much to ask for a place within his price range? Hell, he was sure he could find something cheaper in the heart of Seattle than he could here.
But no, he stubbornly wanted to stay in this part of the neighborhood. There was something about Hyperion Heights, something that spoke to him, and not just Lucy's crazy theory that his book was real and they were all fairytale characters scattered across the state (never mind the even crazier theory that he was her father—there was no way he could ever forget meeting a beautiful girl like Jacinda or be stupid enough not to fight for more than a one night stand with said woman).
The scraping of a chair across from him brought Henry's attention up to that of the arrival of Detective Logan Rogers. The cop's eyebrow was raised at him in silent question and concern as he sat down and nabbed the untouched bear claw from his plate.
"Bad day?" he asked finally with a tilt of his head as Roni approached with his usual beer.
When Henry still didn't move to answer, simply groaning and hiding his face back in the crook of his arm, Roni supplied. "He's looking for places to stay… and failing by the looks of it."
"The asking prices are outrageous! How do you guys survive here?" he griped into his arm.
Roni snorted and Henry peeked up at her with a perturbed eyebrow raised. "You've seen the state of the neighborhood and the state of my bar before I decided to fight back. Isn't that answer enough for you?"
"What's your budget?" Logan cut in with his query before Henry could snark back and start an argument with the ornery bartender.
"Well," Henry's eyes shifted to him just as the older man took a bite out of the pilfered pastry. "With Seattle, I kind of figured I'd be lucky to find something for twenty-two hundred, but there is no way I'm paying almost three thousand for a place that's barely in the city's limits."
"Welcome to the land of Belfrey greed." chimed Roni as she walked back to tend the bar and the new arrival of customers.
Henry scowled un-amusedly at her back as she went.
"I have space,"
Startled, Henry gazed, wide eyed, back at the Detective. "What?"
"Well, it's not really a 'room', but the den can easily be turned into one." Logan continued, his good hand going up to scratch nervously behind his ear.
"Wha—Why?" Tilting his head and narrowing his eyes, Henry pressed on. "I know the three of us are 'kinda' working together, but we barely know each other. Hell, for all you know I could be a serial killer." at Logan's snort and raised brow, Henry rolled his eyes and said defensively. "Shut up, you know what I mean."
"I trust you." Logan relented simply with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, I have a gun I'm not afraid to use, and you look to be out of options, mate."
Still eyeing the older man with suspicion, not used to blatantly kind gestures from others, he asked. "Can I swing by to look at your place before I decide?"
"Of course." taking a swig of his beer, Logan gestured with his head to the closed laptop. "Now, what was it you wanted to show me?"
(***)
Walking into the apartment after Logan, Henry took in the sparsely decorated living space with a familiar pang beating against his chest. It was neat and orderly, everything he considered the detective to be, even after a week of working covertly with him and Roni. But seeing it so bare, devoid of… well, devoid of life and personality; it all just resonated with him. There wasn't even a single picture or photo on the walls or table tops (Henry knows there are photos of Logan out there. He's seen the pictures Roni hangs proudly on the walls of her establishment, knows that the picture of Logan and Roni—two best friends, he's come to learn, that grew up together in the neighborhood—has a special place right behind the bar where she works). There was nothing, other than the books neatly tucked into a shelf, to give Henry a glimpse into what made this man Logan Rogers.
Walking through the 900 square foot space, he knew it wasn't just the home of a bachelor; it was the home of someone who was just as lost as Henry himself felt. A space made entirely out of necessity rather than be made to feel like an actual home. It reminded him of his years after the foster system, before he had met his late wife, where he had had nothing of that old life worth keeping. Anything he had gained afterwards had been destroyed by the fire that took his wife and daughter three years ago, and after that he had just never bothered to start over (it wouldn't bring them back and honestly they were all Henry wanted, not materialistic things).
As Logan led him through the kitchen toward the open den, Henry wondered what kind of past the man must have had, wondered if he too was an orphan looking for a place to belong.
"Here it is." Logan stated with a flourish of his hand and ultimately cutting Henry out of his thoughts.
His eyes roved over the small space, at the neat and tidy desk underneath the window and the wall lined with more bookshelves and books and a single three-drawer filing cabinet.
"Sorry, I know it's not much… doesn't even have a door."
Henry's eyes cut to the older man just as he saw his good hand go to scratch behind his ear (a nervous tick he'd come to realize early on in the week). "No, it's perfect," He reassured as he walked around the opened room; envisioning where his stuff would fit. "I don't really need that much space anyway." he moved back to the opened archway and gave the man a small smile. "And privacy can be fixed with a curtain,"
"Does that mean you accept my offer?"
"If you don't mind me for a roommate, than yeah, I'll take it."
(***)
A little over one month since his move into the neighborhood, and not once did Henry regret his decision (well, maybe a little; after all, Victoria Belfrey and her daughter are a force to be reckoned with… and good god did those two give him a headache sometimes). He genuinely liked it here; he liked most of the quirky people and he could clearly see why the neighborhood was worth trying to save. He also found rooming with Logan to be better than he originally expected. Sure they had their moments (like the kitchen incident that nearly gave the detective an aneurysm, or how scarily grumpy Logan could get when he's had a bad day at the station), but their camaraderie was easy going between them, and for once after three years, Henry felt like he had a true friend again.
It was because of this easy camaraderie that Henry and Logan, one Saturday morning, found themselves planning a Star Wars marathon and arguing over the order in which to watch it ("They're my movies, Rogers!" "And it's my TV, Mills.").
Somehow Henry won the argument, which found Logan sitting on the couch with the large popcorn bowl settled on the middle cushion and a beer in his hand, while Henry squatted down in front of their combined movie collection to find the first disk.
As he skimmed the neatly ordered DVDs for the one he wanted, his finger froze on a particular title and could barely contain the Cheshire cat grin as he pulled it out and pivoted to face the detective.
"The Princess Bride: Special Edition."
Logan scowled and pointed his finger at him as he defended. "Shove off, mate, it's a good book and a good movie; leave it alone."
The grin on Henry's face turned impish as he pivoted back and added as he went, "As you wish."
The couch pillow thrown at his back did nothing to curb his mirth.
(***)
It was almost three months after his move to Hyperion Heights, that Henry managed to work the nerve enough (more like getting the quadrant that was Roni, Logan, Sabine and Lucy to shut up, and to stop hounding him to try and move on and be happy) to ask Jacinda on a date.
Glancing at himself in the hallway mirror, and trying to ignore the grinning idiot leaning against the wall a few paces behind him; he felt the bubbling of nerves roiling in his stomach as he finally turned to face his roommate.
"You'll be fine," Logan soothed with the utmost confidence. "You didn't have any problems when you were flirting with her, one date isn't going to kill you, mate. Just be yourself."
"Yeah, be myself." Henry snorted and rubbed his sweating palms against his jean clad thighs. "Cause any girl would swoon at a failed writer, a widowed husband, and a nerd for all things 80's, Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Tolkien related."
"Henry," Logan stepped forward than, placing his hand and prosthetic firmly on his shoulders as he earnestly stated. "You've told Jacinda all of this already and yet she still accepted to go to this concert with you. So cut yourself a little slack, give her a little more credit than that, and go out tonight and have fun."
(***)
It was almost six months after his move, and during one of their covert meet ups at the bar, when Henry felt a little friendly revenge against Roni and Logan was in order (because dear god, if they didn't stop and take their own damn advice, he was going to go crazy… or take Roni's bat and beat himself or them with it… really, he wasn't picky).
It hadn't been long after his and Jacinda's first—or even their second— date that Jacinda decided enough was enough and it was time to try and win custody of her daughter back from her step mother. Detective Weaver had recommended a Lawyer from Spokane, and ever since Kevin Adams stepped foot into Roni's bar, the two had done nothing but snark at each other.
Within the same month, a missing person's case had popped up that apparently Weaver thought required the work of a sketch artist from Walla Walla… or so Logan kept griping to him to no freaking end. Honestly, Henry thought Danielle (or Dani as she asked to be called) a rather nice woman, maybe a little too bubbly and Chatty Cathy at times, but if Logan was to be believed than she was the worst woman he had ever had the displeasure to work with.
Yeah… right…
Denial, she is a river, and both of them are currently drowning at the bottom of it.
"So," He began innocently around a mouthful of pizza. "When are you both going to stop pussy-footing around and ask Dani and Kevin out?"
The soda Logan was drinking and the pizza Roni was currently chewing, both ended up spat out on the table and floor, and the word vomit that followed as they tried to deny it had Henry rolling his eyes so hard he was surprised that they didn't just roll right out of his head.
"Uh-huh," putting his slice back down on his plate, he folded his arms across his chest and stared them both down, feeling for all the world like the no nonsense father he should have been to the daughter that would have been thirteen now. "Guys, I'm not stupid… and the last I checked my vision was perfect, so not blind either." He cut them off before they could rush to deny it any farther. "If I have to sit here and watch you two continue with this charade a moment longer, I will either be checking myself in somewhere or Detective Weaver will have not one but three missing person's cases to contend with."
They didn't try to feed him any more bullshit after that, which he was grateful for, because seriously there was only so much a person can take.
And if he caught his roommate dressed (rather nicely) in a blue button up shirt, black iron pressed slacks, and trying to rush past him and out the door before Henry could say a word with a bouquet of pink and yellow roses in hand.
Well… he could only thank whatever deity listening for small miracles.
(***)
It's at elven months since his move, that Henry felt for all the world a content man. Jacinda had won her battle against her step-mother, and Lucy had become a constant presence in the apartment, especially since he had offered to watch her after school while Jacinda worked. He loved Lucy and her precocious nature, found her imagination beyond incredible for an elven year old and even began to look forward to hearing her crazy theories about them being cursed.
Sometimes they would be alone, with him helping her with her homework and other times Logan would be there, smiling and humoring her and her theories like they all had agreed to do.
It was during one of these nights, after Jacinda and Lucy had eaten dinner with them and left, that Logan's curiosity had gotten the better of him. They were in the kitchen, Henry washing the dishes while his roommate dried them, that Logan broke the comfortable silence.
"Who does she think I am?"
"Huh?" Henry glanced over with a brow raised.
"Lucy," he elaborated. "With her theories, who does she think I am? She never tells me when I ask."
Henry snorted out a chuckle as he handed over the plate and proceeded washing the next one while answering. "Captain Hook."
"You're kidding." The dry look Henry gave him caused him to roll his eyes. "It's the hand isn't it?"
"Probably," Henry shrugged. "Or it could be the fact that she thinks you're my dad."
"What?" Logan froze mid swipe with the towel and Henry could practically feel the man's eyes burning his profile.
"Yeah, crazy, I know."
"Mate, if she is to be believed and you are my son; I would have had you when I was 11…"
They both chuckled at that.
"Again, crazy, I know."
They went back to the comfortable silence as they worked, but the occasional contemplative side eye he would catch Logan giving him in his peripheral as they cleaned up the rest of the kitchen, eventually had Henry turning to stare blatantly at the man's profile with an eyebrow raised in question.
"Do I have barbeque sauce on my face or something?"
Startled, Logan shifted his attention away from the stove top he was wiping down, and met his eyes with that contemplative expression still in place.
"No, you're fine." He distractedly answered.
"Than what's on your mind? And don't tell me nothing; you've been staring at me off and on for the past five minutes?"
"I was just thinking."
The other brow rose to meet its twin as he deadpanned. "Clearly,"
Logan rolled his eyes and elaborated. "I was thinking about what you said, about who Lucy thinks I am."
"Logan, none of that is real."
"No, I know that… but—now that it's been said, I can't help but see it. Hell, Henry you can't tell me that you can't see it, not even a little bit."
Henry tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at him; his eyebrows practically at this hairline now.
"We do look a little alike, mate; long lost cousins or brothers or something. I mean you do kinda have my chin, our noses are almost similar and the brow structure too…" he trailed off.
With a snort, Henry joked. "You've been hanging out with Dani too much, you're even starting to sound like a sketch artist."
"Shut up,"
He dodged and caught the wet rag thrown at him, before tossing it back; both chuckling at the ridiculousness of it all as they finished up and moved to the couch to see what was on TV.
Expect, as the days and weeks progressed (and Weaver shockingly adopted two pre-teen girls from Aberdeen that looked eerily like Dani and Logan), Henry found that he couldn't stop thinking about it too (no matter how hard he tried to shake the insane notion from his head each and every time it sprung back into the forefront of his thoughts).
He'd often catch himself staring at Logan when the older man was distracted and—illogically enough as it was—could practically see what the other man was talking about.
It was crazy.
It wasn't conceivable.
But damn it all if Logan wasn't right.
They did share the same freaking chin, and though his nose was a bit larger than Logan's, it was the same freaking shape.
Maybe he needed to check himself in somewhere after all…
(***)
Sixteen months after moving to Hyperion Heights, the curse was broken.
It had been an emotionally exhausting week beforehand, with Lucy suddenly falling into a coma that the doctors couldn't medically explain. Jacinda had rightfully been beside herself with worry, and all Henry could feel was the crushing feeling of losing another loved one… another child. It had been the very reason why he didn't like opening up, didn't like taking these leaps of faith when it came to his heart and feelings. Yet he had stupidly allowed himself to get close to all these people, and stupidly thought he could have a second chance at a family, but those dreams had gone up in flames the first time and now plummeted back down from the stars a second time with the flat lining of the heart monitor as Jacinda brokenly wailed her heartache.
He didn't feel the hand of his roommate trying to console him as he numbly watched Jacinda break down in the waiting room they had been forcibly moved too when the doctors came swarming into the room. Didn't hear the words being spoken as Jacinda fought and then bonelessly collapsed in Sabine and Roni's arms; her wails gut wrenching and shredding his already scarred heart to pieces. The flood of his emotions and his own tears didn't come until after the doctor told them that their precious, precocious little Lucy was truly and utterly gone, that the defibrillator failed to restart her heart.
It was Logan who caught him when his legs refused to hold his weight any longer, when the world suddenly came crushing down around him and nothing felt right anymore. And it was Logan who helped him into the chair; the warm presence of his roommates hand at the back of his neck guiding his head to lean on his broad shoulder. And he took the comfort and sobbed for all he was worth. Sobbed for the loss of the wife and daughter he had had to bare losing and moving on from all on his own, sobbed for Jacinda and how much she didn't deserve to know the gut wrenching pain that losing a child brought, sobbed for Lucy who had been robbed of her own dreams, who had been robbed the chance to live and grow.
His heart hurt as he followed Jacinda into the room to say goodbye, the tears blurring his vision at seeing the white sheet lying over Lucy's little body; so final in its position that it made him want to collapse all over again. But he couldn't, he had to be strong for Jacinda as he was the one to hold her upright as they moved toward the bed.
Her sobs as she pulled back the sheet to view her daughters pale face tore at him even more, her words a broken, jumbled mess as she climbed onto the bed and wept onto her daughters unmoving chest.
Running on autopilot, Henry's feet moved of their own accord; one hand going to Jacinda's shaking back and the other to card the bangs off of Lucy's forehead.
"I'm sorry Lucy, I'm so, so sorry." He whispered as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her crown.
The whoosh of wind startled him and before he could right himself to wonder where it came from, the overwhelming flood of memories came next; slamming everything back into place and causing the air to deflate right out of his lungs. The watery, startled gasp from Ella (his wife, his true love) told him she remembered too, but it was the choked rush of life from his daughter, his daughter (his beautiful and very much alive little girl, his other true love), that was bloody music to his ears and heart.
"Papa? Mama?" she wheezed out as her eyes foggily and confusedly took them and her surroundings in.
"Baby!"
Everything was alright.
Everything in the world was right again.
(***)
The moment Lucy was cleared to leave; the overdue reunion of their family came afterwards. The battle was far from over; not with Tremaine and Drizella currently in hiding and no one knowing where they had run off too, but they were together again, and at the moment that was enough for them all as they celebrated at the bar that had been his adoptive mother's home for the last eighteen months.
Henry had his wife and daughter back, his half-sisters, both his mothers, both his step-fathers and his grandfather. To say he was over the moon would have been an understatement as the din of fairytale characters and his family filled the industrial styled establishment.
It was all so overwhelming still that he had to take a seat at one of the tables; simply content to watch as he sipped at his beer. Killian soon joined him with his own glass, rum he was sure now that the man remembered who he was, and the thought of step-fathers in general had his mind venturing to their conversation once again.
It must have been on Killian's mind as well because before either knew what they were truly doing, they were starting at one another, eyes narrowed and the rim of their drinks to their lips as they tried to see what apparently their cursed selves had been able to see.
"Man, I hope this is the last curse we ever have to face. I've lost count at how many cursed memories we've had forced into our heads at this point." Emma groaned, yet her arrival didn't completely break their staring contest as she dropped into the chair next to Killian; her eyes not yet looking at either of them but at her daughters who were laughing along with Lucy near the corner of the bar. She blindly but efficiently snatched her husband's glass out of his hand and downed the last shot of the dark amber that was left as she continued. "Seriously though, can you imagine the identity crisis we'll have in our old age if we get Alzheimer's?" Finally glancing over at them, and realizing she had neither her son nor her husband's attention, she raised an eyebrow and asked with trepidation. "What's up with you two? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah love," Killian briefly met Emma's eyes, before he was squinting back at Henry as he continued. "Apparently while cursed, and thanks to our lovely granddaughter, the two of us got it into our heads that we were blood related; something about seeing similarities in our features and what have you."
Blinking once than twice, Emma's eyes bounced from one to the other, before she was tiling her head and squinting at them as well. Satisfied with what she saw, she nodded to herself, shrugged, and stated. "I can see it, especially when you wear your hair like this and stop shaving." She grinned and chuckled and leaned forward to ruffle her son's gel slicked hair, which Henry swatted away with a scowl as he tried to fix it back into place.
However her statement only proceeded to have them squint even harder at each other, and Emma could do nothing more than laugh at her first two goofy true loves.
As the celebrations began to die down and people started heading home, Henry and Killian simply shrugged and let it go as they hugged each other goodbye for the night (each having every intention of spending this night with their loved ones).
"Well," Killian began softly. "Blood related or not, you're still my son Henry; always have been, my boy."
The smile that stretched Henry's face, nearly threatened to split his skin from ear to ear as he replied just as softly but no less sincerely. "Thanks, dad."
And if they hugged each other just a little tighter and their eyes shone just a little brighter with emotion, no one that witnessed the moment commented on it.