Anonymous asked

Mad Swan prompt: Emma and Jefferson walk around the forest together. Bonus points if you add some Jefferson kissing her against a tree.

~o~

After Jefferson had reappeared in Storybrooke he seemed to have mellowed out. He started appearing in town frequently. Making stops by the Sheriff's office, with food, offerings of apology, and even flowers once. He started to become a regular at the diner, he was visiting a psychiatrist, and he'd even applied for a job at a laundry mat, mending garments. He was trying his best to fit into Storybrooke and he continuously said it was thanks to Emma.

"Would you like to go on a walk with me?" Jefferson questioned Emma, sitting down in the chair across from her desk. He wore a stupid grin, the same one he hadn't lost since he'd come back from wherever he'd been to.

"Okay, before I agree to anything, I want to know why you've suddenly decided to become part of Storybrooke. You were an outsider when you held me hostage and forced me to make you a hat. Now you've reappeared as a gung-ho citizen. What happened?" She was skeptical about his change of personality.

"You happened. You're magic happened." Jefferson's expression faded, "And you don't believe me. Come on the walk and I'll explain everything to you."

"Jefferson-"

"Come with me." Jefferson stood up, extending his hand. "Come on."

"Fine, Jefferson, fine."

~o~

Emma wanted to snap at Jefferson for the fact that he was practically walking on her with how close he was walking. "Are you going to explain or are we going to just walk deeper into the forest?"

"Well, you brought a gun and a pair of handcuffs, so I feel like you don't have to worry too much about the latter part of that." Jefferson retorted, grinning at her. "Are you going to believe me?"

"I'll try." Emma replied, sighing heavily.

"I went to Wonderland." Jefferson answered.

"You're insane."

They were silent, Jefferson stilled. "I'm sick and tired of everyone saying that."

"What?" Emma asked, turning back to look at him where he'd stopped.

"The people at the diner whisper those words, I was denied the job because of those words, Archie writes those words, and you of all people have to keep reminding me."

"Why me of all people?"

"Because you have been the only person to make me feel slightly normal. To make me forget about the insanity." Jefferson gritted his teeth, bitter to the fact. "I'm sick and tired of hearing 'you're insane'."

Emma narrowed her eyes, "But you are insane." They were the wrong words to say to him. He charged at her, knocking her off her feet and sending her to the ground. He removed the gun from her belt, tossing it across the clearing, disarming her. They rolled, she gained the upper hand for a fraction of a second before he pinned her to the ground.

She kicked at him, pulling her arms out of his grip, and then her lips found his. It was strange, it was her doing, and it was needy and desperate. It was releasing the tension they'd had pent up ever since she met him on the side of the road.

He rolled them over again, his weight pinning her against the mossy forest floor. His hand cupped her check, the other supporting his weight above her. Jefferson pulled away, breathing heavily and rising to his feet.

"I'm sorry I don't know what came over me." Emma confessed, dusting off her dirtied jeans and staring at him as he walked away from her. Her chest was heaving, trying to get oxygen into her deprived lungs. Why had she kissed him like that? What came over her?

"Jefferson?" Emma called, picking up her pace to catch up with him.

"Emma, don't kiss me to take pity on some 'Insane man'?"

"I didn't." Emma's brows furrowed and she was caught off guard as he pushed her against a tree and kissed her again. They kissed, hands fumbling along the curves of one another, the tree scratching against exposed flesh of Emma's back.

"We can't do this here." Emma rasped as she pulled Jefferson close to her, fingers fiddling with the buttons of his shirt, prying his cravat from his neck. His hands pulled at the hem of her shirt, pushing off her sheriff's jacket and fingers tangling in her hair.

"I need you." Jefferson hissed, his lips heavy against hers. "You make me feel sane, you make me feel… normal."

"And you make me feel.. insane." Emma relinquished control, let the insanity overwhelm her, let the belief in magic swell around her, and gave into the ache to trust in a fairytale.