A/N: Heya. Here's my excuse for taking so long this time: I started university this month which required me to move halfway across the country sometime before starting university and, well, as you can probably imagine, those changes can be hectic. So, sorry. I can't promise consistent updates, but I will try to make time to write as often as possible, I promise.
Anyway, here's the second chapter. I'm sorry for the lack of dialogue, I just felt like I wanted to write out some of Emma's feelings etc before I get to the actual plot.
IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFO:
Firstly; I did mention a hook when I first uploaded this chapter and no, Killian should not have one in this AU, that was my bad. I guess I was thinking of ways to describe Killian when Emma first meets him? Who knows. I'm an idiot. Sorry about that. (I miss the hook.)
Secondly; someone asked if Emma had siblings and if in this AU Bae grew up with Rumple and to answer that: no, Emma does not have siblings. And yes, Bae did grow up with Rumple. I'm not sure about Milah yet, obviously she didn't go with Killian like in the show, but I'm not sure she would've stuck around with Rumple even without Killian. However, she's not a essential character in this story.
Hope this cleared some things up.
Please, please do review, it really helps me write.
Happy reading! -S
Emma was fuming.
She started off with being mad at her parents. How could they do this to her? After everything they've told her about love and adventure... They just took it all away from her? Even the chance of it! From the moment she was born!
Soon though, she realized her father felt like he had no choice. Emma would do anything in her power to save her parents' lives too, she couldn't totally blame her father. It just caught her off guard.
Then she felt burning hatred for the Dark One. All her life she'd heard stories of his power and the evil he spread, but never had it been this personal. A creature she had never even met, had decided her whole future for her, no questions asked, no going back. For the first time in her life, Emma really felt like hurting another living creature.
She felt anger toward Regina, the Evil Queen, who not only tormented her mother for years, but now, though indirectly, managed to ruin Emma's life as well.
She ended up feeling angry towards the world, the universe, the gods that possibly controlled her land. Why did this have to be her life?
She felt angry. Period.
She'd never taken things for granted. She'd always seen people who did not have the luxuries and privilege she did, so she made sure never to take the quality of her life for granted. She didn't get unnecessarily frustrated or upset when she had to do some of the royal duties she hated but was required to do. She didn't complain when her parents were busy with their commitments. She knew her life was good.
But this she could not find a silver lining in.
She was a stubborn, free-spirited young woman and she could not see a potential positive side of being forced to marry someone she'd never met and accept her role as someone's wife as her title. She refused to.
The Dark One was evil. Who knew what his son was like. Besides, she wanted nothing to do with Rumplestiltskin, son or no son.
Emma noticed that while she had been lost in thought, making her way away from the castle, she had wandered into the harbor. It made sense, it was sort of her place of comfort.
Whenever Emma felt like she needed to calm down, to think or just to have some time alone, she would go into the harbor and watch the ships pulling in, the birds flying by, the sailors at work... The calming sea. The men that got to sail away, towards the unknown, the adventure.
Usually, Emma would wear a cloak of some sort to disguise her identity in case someone did recognize her. She loved talking to her people and hearing their stories, but when she came to the harbor to be by herself, she wanted to go unseen. However, she forgot to do so this time, since she left so hurriedly.
On an impulse, the angry adrenaline still flowing through her body, she decided to walk into the tavern, right next to the docks.
She stepped in and immediately felt the air shift. The inside of the tavern was stuffy and smelled distinctly of alcohol. Surprisingly, she did not dislike it.
She did not even humor the idea of walking up to the counter and trying to get a drink, instead she just took a seat in a booth in the corner of the tavern. She tried to keep her head down, trying not the catch anyone's attention. She really didn't feel like putting on her polite princess face, when she felt so much at once.
Ideally, her new surroundings would distract her from the troubling thoughts of her future, but even though the tavern was filled with colorful and eccentric folk, Emma's thoughts were persistent. All these people must have incredible and complicated stories of love, mayhem, excitement and adventure, all of which she would never experience.
Emma took a deep breath, trying to prevent herself from crying. She'd rather no one saw the princess of Misthaven crying in a local tavern all by herself.
Suddenly a pair of leather pants blocked her view. Emma raised her eyes enough to see the scruffy, rather handsome, owner of said pants. One side of the man's mouth turned up into an annoyingly dashing smirk.
"Mind if I join you, love?" He asked, and gestured towards the empty end of the booth with one hand while holding a drink in the other.
Emma stared at him. The princess of Misthaven should not be letting some stranger chat her up in a tavern. She should not be in a tavern at all. This situation was all kinds of inappropriate. Emma got ready to excuse herself and looked the man in the eye, but she saw... Something. Something that she couldn't name, yet something she felt was incredibly familiar.
Oh Emma... She could practically hear her mother's voice, trying to get her to make the sensible decision.
But Emma couldn't help herself. She felt the need to change her life and not in the way it was going to, thanks to her parents and Rumplestiltskin. She just wanted to forget the restricting, unfair future she was going to have to endure.
So Emma smiled warmly at the dark stranger.
"I wouldn't mind at all."
I want to read your reviews almost as much as I want a canon CS baby. -S
