Disclaimer: I couldn't just stick to one chapter for tonight. I own nothing. I hope you enjoy! :)

When the two parted from lack of oxygen, Killian rested his forehead against hers as they fought to regain their breathing.

"That was…" he began.

"Perfect," Emma answered.

He smiled as he brought his hand to her face and began to stroke her cheek. "I'm leaving."

Emma's breathing stopped. Her heart leapt in her chest and the floor felt like it had been pulled from under her. "Now?"

"Yes."

"Because of what I just told you?"

"Yes."

Emma pulled away from his hold, taking a few steps backwards. "Did I frighten you away? I could kill my tongue." She shook her head, "Well, it's done. You've made your decision and you're leaving. I don't know what Cora can offer you that I can't. Well, I guess there are a few things, experience for one. But I will not take you back when she's done with you."

Killian rose an eye brow and smirked. "I'm not leaving for good. I'm going to join the King's Navy." He turned around and reached for the book he had been reading. Emma followed him into his room as he turned around and handed it to her. His book on sailing. "I've been doing a lot of reading on sailing and the Navy. I've been training myself. I'm going to be in the Navy and earn my nobility and honor."

"If you think Cora is going to be happy with some sailor for another King's Navy, you're crazy."

Killian rolled his eyes. "Will you stop talking about Cora! Before you drive me maaaad! Don't you understand? I'm doing this for you! So I'll be worthy of you!"

Emma bit her lip as she tried to hide her wide grin. "Do you love me, Killian? Is that it?"

"Do I love you?" he asked, astonished. "My gods, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches!"

Emma took Killian's hand, "I don't believe it."

He shook his head. "I have stayed all these years in the stables because of you. I have taught myself languages because I thought you might be pleased with a strong mind. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids. You say my eyes shine like the sea on a clear day, but the truth is: you are the sunshine that brightens my eyes. Do you want me to go on for a while?"

"Never stop."

"There has not been -"

Emma held her hand up, "If you're teasing me, Killian, I'm just going to kill you."

He chuckled, "How can you even dream I might be teasing?"

"You haven't once said you loved me," she replied, looking down at her feet.

"That's all you need? Easy!" he exclaimed. "I love you. Ok? Want it louder? I LOVE YOU! Spell it out? I ell-oh-vee-ee why-oh-you. Want it backward? You love I."

Emma playfully pat his chest, "You are teasing now!"

"A little, maybe." He smiled as he wrapped his arms around Emma's waist. "I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Stable boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard."

"I hear you now, and I promise you this: I will never love anyone else. Only Killian."

Killian pulled Emma's hands to his lips as he kissed the backs of them. "I must be off to join the Navy. I will return in a year or two and tell you of my experience. We will sit in the stable and I can tell you my stories and you can tell me yours. I do so love your tales. And while I'm out to sea, I will write to you. And I will think about you at all hours. Presently, I will kiss your hands," he kissed the back of her hands again. "And I will kiss your cheeks," he kissed both her right then left cheek. "And I will kiss your forehead," he kissed her forehead, his lips lingering on her skin.

"And I will kiss your lips," she whispered as he tilted his head down to hers. She kissed him long and slow, savoring the gentle tug, the taste, and the emotion that dripped from those lips. When they pulled apart, she smiled. "Good luck, Killian. Be the best sailor I know you are."

"As you wish," he smirked.

Killian was accepted into the King's Navy. Throughout the months, Charming would often rave about the skill their young stable boy possessed. Emma had always hidden away her smile, not ready to expose her interest in the man just yet. Though she had a feeling her mother was catching on. Emma had been far too happy, far too smiley, far too clean for everything to be normal.

The day after Killian left, Emma (for the first time since she was little) looked at her reflection in the mirror. She began thinking about what would happen if Killian met some woman in a local port or tavern. Or another princess or dame in a neighboring kingdom. What if she was prettier than her? Smarter? More cultured? Funnier? Told better stories?

That's when Emma decided to broaden her skills. She would ride Buttercup in the morning, clean her stable, clean Buttercup, and then meet her father to work on her sword fighting and fencing lessons or her mother to work on her archery lessons. By the afternoon she would work on her studies. She was learning the history of her kingdom, languages, mathematics, science, geography, and writing. Surprisingly, she found a deep interest in these studies, and soon she even stopped complaining whenever she would have to move on to yet another textbook. After she would meet with her mother for princess lessons; learning how to not only behave like a lady but work like a queen. In this time, Snow and David would teach her proper kingdom economics and politics. By the end of the day, Emma would take a long bath. She made sure to clean her face, her body, and her hair with extra care. Her long, golden hair grew shinier and fuller after just a few weeks of this routine and her wavy curls would bounce with each step she took. Before bed, Emma would read from a story book. She wanted to be well schooled in not only her textbooks and scrolls, but literature and fiction as well.

As Emma neared nineteen, she was rapidly beginning to grow and develop. Her baby fat began shedding to expose a lovely figure which began filling out those awful fancy gowns that she still hated wearing during important events. Her well grooming and aging revealed such a beautiful young woman that could soon trump her mother's legacy as the fairest in the land.

Emma's beauty and brains became legendary throughout the kingdom and even to other kingdoms. But it was after a letter from Killian arrived that Emma's beauty would shine so bright, everyone in the kingdom would grin with second hand happiness. And that's what really did it for her more than anything; her love for Killian would not stop growing.

When her father came to the dinner table one night to announce that Killian had been named Lieutenant of the Jewel of the Realm, Emma's joy for the stable boy knew no bounds. She leapt out of her seat and threw her arms around her father's neck in a hug.

"Emma, sweetheart," Snow began with a sly smile. "Is there something you've been meaning to tell us?"

Emma composed herself and sat back in her seat. "What do you mean?"

Charming cleared his throat, "Ever since Killian left, you've… changed. Not that that's a bad thing. But it just seems you've gone from this duckling and transformed into a beautiful swan."

"And your father and I believe it has something to do with the stable boy," Snow added. "With each letter that he sends, you grow even more joyful and more beautiful than the last."

Emma sat in her chair and bit her lip. She was a woman now, but she still felt like a small child whenever both of her parents were scrutinizing her. She sighed, but slowly a smile began to grace her face. "I'm in love with him," she simply stated.

Both of her parents had different reactions. Snow smiled knowingly as her eyes began to water. Charming's brow creased in shock as if the news had come from nowhere.

"That's why he joined the Navy," Emma admit. "To earn his honor and prestige within the kingdom so that one day you both may find him worthy enough to take my hand. I was willing to give it to him then and there, but he insisted this was the way it had to be. But I am in love with him, completely."

Snow looked to Charming, who was listening intently to his daughter's words as she spoke. He looked down at his meal as he thought. A few slow and painful seconds later, he cleared his throat and looked up at Snow. With a warm smile and a loaded nod, Charming turned his attention to their daughter. "If this is who you love, then we give you our blessing."

Emma couldn't believe her ears. For the second time that night, she leapt from her seat and threw her arms around her father's neck. Then she ran over to her mother and did the same, giving her an extra squeeze of appreciation for her understanding.

"But with his new ranking, Killian won't be back for a few months. They will be embarking on a journey, one that I'm sure will offer many stories after he returns," her father explained.

A letter arrived for Emma the next day, explaining everything her father had told her the night before: his new position, his journey, and his excitement. He told her about how beautiful his ship was, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It was raining today and I love you. Say hello to Buttercup and I love you. Like that.)

She eagerly wrote him, telling him how proud of him she was, how excited, and of her own good news. Their good news. She told him about her parents blessing, and she loved him.

Emma could not wait for Killian to come home to her; for them to live out the rest of their lives loving each other and being with each other always. She felt like she could never get enough of her dear, sweet Killian. The only way she could have been happier would have been if he were in her arms right then.

Which was why Killian's death hit her the way it did.

A month without a response turned into two months. Emma understood that he was at sea, it was natural for mail to travel slowly. But two months turned into three months and there wasn't a response at all from the Jewel of the Realm. Finally, after Charming sent another ship out to find out what happened, they learned of the vessel's fate.

Snow and Charming entered Emma's study with a gloomy step.

Her mother started, "Off an island coast."

"Without warning, at night," her father added.

Emma looked up from her book. "What?"

"Pirates."

Her heart dropped. "He's – he's been taken – taken prisoner, then."

Snow shook her head, a tear falling down her cheek.

"It was Hook," her father said. "Captain Hook."

"The one who never leaves survivors," Emma whispered.

Her father reluctantly nodded.

The room was quiet.

Suddenly, Emma was talking very fast. "Was he stabbed?... Did he drown?... Did they cut his throat asleep?... Did they wake him, do you suppose?... Perhaps they whipped him dead…" She stood up then. "I'm getting silly, forgive me." She shook her head. "As if the way they got him mattered. Excuse me, please." With that she hurried to her room.

And that is where she stayed for many days. Her parents tried to lure her out, but she wouldn't have it. They left food outside her door, to which she only ate a few bites, enough to stay alive.

The pain was in the silence. There was never noise coming from her room: no wailing, no bitter sounds.

When she finally came out of her room, her eyes were dry. Her parents gaped at their daughter as she approached them at the breakfast table. Her mother started to rise from her chair to help her, but Emma held up her hand. "I can care for myself, please." They watched her closely as she pulled out her chair to sit down and began to eat.

In point of fact, she had never looked so well. She had entered her room as just an impossibly lovely girl. The woman who emerged was a trifle thinner, a great deal wiser, an ocean sadder. This one understood the nature of pain, and beneath the glory of her features, there was character, and a sure knowledge of suffering.

She was nineteen, and she was the fairest one of all throughout the entire Enchanted World.

She didn't seem to care.

"Sweetheart," her mother began, "are you alright?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?" her father asked.

"Yes," Emma replied. After a long pause, she continued. "But I must never love again."

She never did.

"trustpixiedust: This is BRILLIANT! it's like my two favorite shows combined in one. I can't even handle it. I LOVE YOU. okay. This story is amazing (: I love love love it" I'm so glad you like it! I also cannot handle how excited I am to write it! I hope you continue to enjoy it! :) love love love you for your kind words and encouragement!