Title: Look After You
Chapter Thirteen: The Way Things Might Have Been
Author: snarkysweetness
Rating: PG-13
Characters: August/Pinocchio, Emma, & Henry (kind of); Emma/August
Summary: August dreams about what life would have been like had Regina never enacted the curse.
Warnings: Fluff and angsty August.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: My poor August is so tortured, it's why I love him.

His hands lay splayed over her growing abdomen as he placed a small kiss on her flesh.

"I forgot how hot you look carrying my kid, Princess."

Emma rolled her eyes before moving her fingers through his hair.

"Don't get any ideas, buddy, this is it. I was good to stop with Henry but you just had to have another one so you could get that daughter you wanted so badly."

"As I recall, it was you who had to have me in your father's carriage. It's not my fault you couldn't wait until we got back to the castle."

She gave him a 'look'.

"It was your fault. Who in the world allowed the tailor to make your trousers so damn tight for that ball? Do you know hard it was to pretend I was a good little princess when all I wanted to do was bite you?"

He smirked and leaned up to kiss her.

"I do have a pretty nice ass, don't I?"

Emma swatted his arm and leaned her head back against the tree trunk.

"Don't let Henry hear you talking like that; I do not need another lecture from my mother about how I need to groom him to be King someday. I think she forgets we're not exactly your typical royal family."

He kissed her shoulder as his arms wrapped around her middle.

"Good, if you were, they would have never allowed you to marry a Carpenter's son."

"Hey, you're a knight."

"Only because you cried to your father until he caved. You're a very effective liar when you want to be, Your Majesty."

Emma smirked.

"Well, some of us don't have a hard time hiding lies, Pinocchio."

"Hush, you'd have a thing about lying if you were constantly afraid The Blue Fairy would turn you back into a fucking puppet."

"LANGUAGE!"

"Dad, look!"

Three-year old Henry ran past them, carrying a white rabbit, but it got away from him and hopped away. Before Henry could run after it, Pinocchio grabbed him, tickling him as he pulled him towards him.

"Come here, kid!"

Henry laughed as he was tickled and squirmed until he can escape his father's grasp and ran to hide behind his mother.

"What's wrong my little Prince?"

"Daddy mean!"

Emma hid a smirk.

"Oh, well, we're just going to have to do something about that, aren't we?"

Emma pretended to reach for Pinocchio but at the last moment grabbed Henry instead and began to tickle him as he squealed wildly.

Pinocchio leaned back to watch the two of them with a smile on his face.

"I love you guys."

August woke up with a groan, pulling his covers over his head. Goddamn sun. Why hadn't he remembered to close the drapes last night? When five minutes went by and he still couldn't get back to sleep, August gave up and tossed the blankets back, throwing his legs over the side of the bed.

He ran his hands through his hair before angrily reaching for his shirt on the floor, slipping it on. He missed sleeping in his boxers since he'd taken to sleeping in real pajama pants to avoid looking at his leg. However, the infection was on his foot now as well and he couldn't avoid the glaring reality that he could very well die soon.

And if he did, who in the Hell was going to help Emma break the curse?

He knew she was more than capable of protecting herself, but that didn't stop him from wanting to be around to protect her should the need arise.

He moved into the bathroom to splash water on his face. When he emerged from the water, he stared at himself in the mirror for a moment before turning away, disgusted by what he saw.

He'd never be the man he wanted to be. The man he would have become had Regina not enacted the curse. If they'd stayed back in their home, he would have never been separated from Emma. They'd have grown up together. He would have completely fallen in love with her rebellious spirit and he probably would have knocked her up at some point.

Of course, the curse had happened and he'd been too afraid to stick with her like he should have, and some other bastard was Henry's father.

Yeah, he really had fucked things up, hadn't he?

August sat down at his desk and pulled his typewriter close.

He couldn't fix the past, but he could finish the kid's book for him.