A/N: Time for all the parents to find out about Emma & Bae's true love...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Book 2, Chapter 4
Something was different about Emma. It was likely that most people wouldn't be able to tell. Her behaviour had always been a little wild, as she craved to live the kind of adventures her parents had known when they first met each other. Emma was never going to be content to wear a pretty dress and sit in the castle with her needlepoint and pianoforte. Snow was glad for the most part. She wanted her daughter to be strong, to have the ability to stand against any enemy she must face, either now or later. She had to be ready for when she one day ruled the kingdom, and Snow had no problem with Emma's headstrong nature because it might actually help he as she grew up.
It was no surprise that she skipped out when grounded. The excuse that her horse had bolted and it wasn't her fault really wasn't going to fly with Snow and Charming, though they let it go because it wasn't worth the fight. They had no proof Emma wasn't telling the truth, and so they let her be, accepting her awful excuses. Still, she was different since her 'accidental' excursion into the forest, and that was what had Snow intrigued. The smile on Emma's lips as she apologised for her behaviour had a certain dreamy quality that could only mean one thing, Snow was sure, and she planned on finding out if she was right.
"Emma?" she called, tapping on her daughter's bedroom door. "Can I come in?"
"It's your castle," Emma huffed, turning over on her bed as she continued to scribble in her diary.
"Really? We're going back to the sulking of a twelve year old now?" her mother sighed. "You're sixteen now, Emma, this is just beneath you."
With an eye roll and a huge sigh, the princess dumped her diary and pencil on the nightstand and turned back to face Snow. Her mother's kind eyes and concerned expression was always enough to break Emma's resolve. Seriously, her parents could be a lot more strict if they wanted to be. She had heard of princesses that were practically locked up in towers, never allowed to see anyone, and all in a bid to keep them safe. That was no life for anybody, and Emma knew she should be grateful she was granted as much freedom as she was. Still, it felt hard sometimes, when all she wanted was to feel normal, to not be watched twenty four hours a day.
"What's really going on, Emma?" asked Snow as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I know you've always been adventurous, and we've never really tried to stop you doing or being exactly what you wanted," she shook her head. "You know all the tales of the past, about me and your father. We've had you learn sword-fighting, bareback riding, archery, all skills that most princesses have no use for, and would never be permitted to learn," she explained. "You see your friends, we allow you all kinds of privileges..."
"And I'm not complaining," Emma insisted. "Honestly, Mom, I swear, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, and I don't want you to be mad at me, I just..."
She faltered then, words escaping her. She didn't know how to tell her mother her reasons for running today, about Neal and everything. It wasn't like she and Snow never talked about boys. They had the talk already about some guys and what they wanted from women. Emma was far from naive to what was involved when it came to love, and relationships that were based on nothing but physical attraction. She told Snow years ago that only true love would make her want to be with any man. As a child and a young teen she had thought herself in love before, but it was never serious, just crushes and such. This was different, this was so real that it made her heart ache.
"Emma?" prompted Snow when her daughter was quiet too long. "Whatever it is you want to tell me, I promise to not over-react," she said, putting her hand over Emma's own. "The not knowing is making me worry and..."
"I met a guy," she blurted out, and watched the shock appear on her mother's face.
It shouldn't be such a crazy scenario. Emma was sixteen, which wasn't much younger than Snow had been when she first met and fell in love with Charming. Still, it was a first for her, telling her mom something like this, and that meant it was a first for her hearing such a thing.
"You... you met a guy," said Snow shakily.
If Emma just met him then it was clearly nobody they already knew. That eliminated every eligible bachelor in the known kingdoms, since every single one of those had been at the ball last week. Snow didn't want to be a snob, but she would like to think her daughter would meet and fall for someone worthy of both her affections and her status in life. That was so unfair, and she knew it. Inside her own head she berated the thought process that led her to such a conclusion. David was not of noble birth. Though King George had adopted him, he was born of a farmer and his wife, raised as a shepherd well into adulthood. If this man Emma had met was lowly, that would be okay, even if she did end up wanting to marry him. Snow shook her head, she was getting way ahead of herself!
"I wish I could explain it, Mom," said Emma desperately, clasping her mother's hands in her own. "I literally just met him a couple of days ago but he's just... he's different. He makes me feel something I can't even describe and when he kissed me..."
"He... He kissed you?"
Snow didn't mean to look so shocked or in any way mad, but she must have come across that way from the way Emma reacted.
"Mom, it's not like it sounds," she said quickly. "Please, just hear me out, let me explain how it happened."
Snow took a deep claiming breath and nodded her head.
"Okay," she said. "Let's start simple and easy. Does this mystery man have a name?"
Emma's face took on a strange expression.
"I'm sure he does," she said awkwardly. "I'm also pretty sure that the name he gave me isn't his real one," she explained, at which Snow looked ever more unimpressed. "But I wasn't exactly eager to give him my name either. He only knows what it is because he heard Dad yelling for me in the woods."
"In the woods," Snow echoed. "You met this man, who goes by a fake name, when you were walking alone in the woods?"
She was speaking calmly, at least she seemed to be, but there was a slightly hysterical edge to her voice that Emma recognised too well. It wasn't that she didn't understand. She wasn't exactly explaining well, that much Emma knew from the way her mom repeated it back to her. It sounded so bad, like she just threw herself at some pervert creeping around in the forest, but it wasn't that way at all, and she had to make Snow see that. Emma wasn't sure how she was going to manage it, but she did have to try.
"Let me start from the beginning," she urged her mother. "Okay, so I went out into the woods to practice my archery, and there was somebody there. I was a little wary, so I had the bow raised all ready to fire. This deer, it just shot out of nowhere, it startled me. The arrow left the bow, and then this guy screamed."
"You shot this man?" her mother checked.
"No," Emma insisted. "But he pretended I did. I think he was trying to teach me a lesson about being more careful or something, I don't know, but he... he made me laugh, and we got to talking. I asked his name and he said it was Neal."
"Neal?" Snow echoed, a little confused by the odd sounding name.
"Yes, which is why I think it's a fake but everything else about him was so... real," said Emma thoughtfully. "It was like... there was this truth in his eyes, and I know that sounds insane, but Mom, I swear, he was so genuine in everything else."
Snow didn't know what to say. She wanted to be mad at her daughter for running around in the woods with a stranger. She wanted to go find this guy and threaten him with the worst kind of violence if he ever came near again. Unfortunately, everything Emma was telling her was a little too familiar. Meeting a man that made her laugh, trusting he was genuine even without proof, feeling things that could never be explained in any actual words. Yes, it was all extremely familiar.
"Oh, Emma," she sighed, her hand at her daughter's cheek. "You really are growing up."
She sounded happy and sad all at the same time, and Emma wasn't sure how to take that. She did appreciate that her mother was at least smiling about all this, not calling for the guards to go hunt down Neal and cut parts of him off for daring to touch her. That would really suck.
"So, it's okay that I like this guy, right?" she checked. "I mean, it's not like I can actually stop liking him. In fact, I was wondering if you could help me. Mom, what does true love feel like?"
Snow opened her mouth and then closed it again a total of three times, still with no words making it out. There was no way in the world she knew how to describe such things to her daughter or anybody else for that matter. It seemed crazy to think that Emma could be in love after just meeting a man two days ago, a man who's name she wasn't even certain of, but Snow recalled that in the beginning she thought Charming was Prince James and she had been in love with him from the second he chased her down for the jewels she stole out of his carriage.
"Honey, I wish I could tell you," she shook her head. "But true love is... it's a magic all of its own. I don't think there are really words to describe it, but if you feel it, and it genuinely is real, I'm sure you'll know," she promised.
Leaning in, Snow planted a kiss on Emma's forehead and then got to her feet. She told her baby girl, who really wasn't such a baby anymore, to get herself ready for dinner because it wouldn't be long now. Emma nodded and watched her mother leave before flopping back against the array of pillows on her bed.
"Is it true love?" she said to herself, thinking of Neal and the kiss they shared just this morning.
Her eyes closed as the memory washed over her, the feel of his lips against hers, his fingers in her hair. True love is a magic all its own, that's what her mom had said. If that were true, then yes, Emma certainly had found true love, and with a man whose real name she had yet to learn.
"Baelfire!" cried Belle joyously as she spotted him by the castle gates.
She ran like a girl half her age to meet him, flinging her arms around him the moment they reached each other. It had been scarcely a month since he left the Dark Castle this last time, to live a little in the world he had been out of far too long. Still, Belle had come to miss her step-son and from the way he hugged her back, he clearly missed her too.
"I was just tending to the roses when I thought I saw someone on the path," she said as she pulled back to look at him. "I couldn't imagine who else would be coming to visit but you."
"It's good to see you, Belle."
"And to see you," she agreed, putting a hand to his face. "Look at you, all rough and manly," she teased his lack of shaving. "Living in the woods clearly hasn't done you any harm."
"No harm, only good," he agreed as they set off up the path to the castle doors, arm in arm. "I actually plan to go back soon, but I needed to come see you and Papa, tell you some news."
"Good news, I'm guessing, from the smile on your face," she grinned, echoing the expression he had been wearing since he arrived.
"Very good news, at least I think so," Bae promised her, unable to keep it in any longer. "I think I'm in love."
To Be Continued...
