Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Shinning Knight
"Seriously?" Lily's eyebrows rose. "A zombie?"
Henry grinned. "Yeah!" he mused for a bit. "Well, it wasn't exactly a zombie. Not like in the TV. You know, green and stuff. But it was my mother's dead fiancée so…"
Finn also smiled. "That's so cool!"
"It almost killed him!" Grace scowled at the two giddy boys. "That's not cool! Ty, back me up on this."
Lily frowned. "As much as I'd like otherwise, the dead are dead for a reason and so they should stay that way," she turned to Henry. "You've now seen why. And David wants me to learn to ride a horse in that place," she muttered the last part to herself.
Grace looked almost surprised to see that Lily was agreeing with her. "What she said."
"Okay, guys," David appeared from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. "I think it's time for you to go to sleep."
They all pouted at the same time. David's lips twitched but he tried to hold his stern façade.
"But we still have the last one to watch," Henry gestured to the DVD box of Return of the Jedi on the table.
"You all know how it ends," David noted.
The four kids made noises of distress. "But we're watching them all!" Henry said.
"Yeah, we've been binge watching them all afternoon. We even started with Episode I."
Henry scowled at that. "I still believe we should have left the first Episodes until the end. It's the right way of watching them!"
Grace groaned. "Please, not this again," she looked at David with despair. "They've spent half an hour arguing which one we had to watch first."
David was too amused to cut their fun short. "Okay, you can watch this last one," he looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. "But don't tell your parents, alright? They'll kill me."
And he sat with them to watch the movie because in the tiny TV because, after all, it was Star Wars. And Prince Charming may not have known what on earth a movie was, but David Nolan was a huge geek on the inside.
.
.
Lily tried not to make any noise as she opened the fridge and poured some cool water on her glass. The only lights came from the streetlight on the outside, but it was enough for her.
David had been the first one to fall asleep, only a few minutes into the movie. They hadn't even rescued Han Solo yet!
Paige, who in the end didn't really care for Star Wars, was next, and then Finn followed her not long after. Henry even made it until Luke tells Leia she's his sister, or sometime around that, before also falling asleep.
But Lily couldn't blame them. It was, after all, well past two in the morning by the time the credits started rolling. But she refused to go to sleep. The nightmares clouded her dreams each night, without fault, and Lily didn't fancy another repeat or her mother's death or her father's abandonment or her own sins.
She had enough with her walking moments.
"Are you planning on sleeping anytime soon?" David's sudden voice on the silent house made her jump and almost drop the glass she was bringing to her lips.
"You almost gave me a heart attack!" she accused turning to glare at the man.
David's smile was sheepish. "Sorry. It's just… It's late," he said. "And it doesn't seem like you even have tried to sleep," he added with a hint of reproach on his voice.
Lily looked over the kitchen counter. They had pushed the big table against one of the walls and three mattresses were on the floor with Grace, Finn and Henry sleeping heavily on them. Behind the mattress was the loveseat where David had fallen asleep and the armchair full of jackets and schoolbags. Right in front of the mattresses was the coffee table where they had set the tiny Blanchard TV and where most of the wrapping papers of their different sweets had ended up.
The three sleeping kids had a blanket each, and they were comfortably wrapped around them. Lily's, though, was still perfectly folded and clearly unused on the edge of the left mattress, next to Grace.
"I'm not tired," she lied.
David eyed the circles beneath Lily's eyes with skepticism. He opened his mouth, probably to berate her, when Henry awoke screaming.
"Whoa, Henry! It's alright!"
"You're okay, you're okay," David whispered to the boy. "You're alright."
Henry sat up and looked at Lily and David, who loomed over him. "I just had the worst nightmare," Henry said.
"It's over now," David told him. "It was just a dream."
Henry breathed in deeply to calm himself. "Okay."
"Okay? Here," David went back to the kitchen and rummaged for some moments while Henry and Lily exchanged a confused glance. "Look, here you go," he came back with a candle and set it next to the TV. "It was something my mother used to do," he said lighting the wick. "to keep the nightmares away," and he looked at Lily when he said that.
"A candle?" Henry asked.
Lily just nodded at David in acknowledgment and his lips curled into a soft smile. "Now, do you want to tell me about it?"
After Henry explained his dream about a burning room, David soothed him once more. Then he looked at both of them and at the still sleeping Finn and Paige with amusement.
"They could sleep through an earthquake," Lily told him.
David softly shook his head. "Maybe one of you should go back to the bed?" he pointed at the big bed behind him with his thumb. "You'll be more comfortable there."
Lily huffed. "You're missing the whole point of a sleepover."
"I thought the point of a sleepover was to sleep," David said challengingly.
"Touché."
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X
"Faster, Jim! Go faster!"
Lily cackled as Jim sped up and, seeing that she was holding onto the seat of his bike, dragged her behind. The girl hooted and threw her head back.
"Yeah, baby!"
Jim grinned. "Hold on tight," he warned. "Let's hit it up!"
Main Street was thankfully empty of cars as both cousins barreled by at top speed. The few pedestrian walking by stopped to stare at them with amusement and some of them, like Ruby cleaning the outside tables or Belle just opening the library, waved happily at them.
"Woo-hoo! This is what I was talking about!" Lily beamed at her cousin's back.
They were passing by Storybrook's Centennial Park when they saw David and Henry practicing with wooden swords and Jim slowed down.
"Having fun, I see," David beamed at them.
Lily grinned back. "Yeah. Just got out of my session with Archie and Jim was trying to cheer me up."
Henry frowned at her. "Archie? You're still seeing him?"
Lily kicked her skateboard and it flew into her hands. "There's a lot of stuff in my past I need to deal with," she said walking towards them. "And I didn't realize that before, but when I went, well, Tayler did, to the sessions they helped me. And, well… after Gold I thought it would be a good idea to go back."
"Well, I'm proud of you," David told her with a smile. He, after all, had been there when she had confronted the Dark One.
Jim, who had dropped his bike on the floor, looked at the swords curiously. "Are you practicing?" he asked.
"He's teaching me how to swordfight," Henry declared proudly.
Lily and Jim shared a fond look. "This brings back so many memories," he said.
Henry's face light up. "You know how to?" But he was staring mostly at Lily.
She faked modesty. "I know how to handle myself."
Jim snorted.
"Are you any good?" Henry wondered.
"She's the best," Jim said. "I bet we could teach you a thing or two," and he grinned at David. "How do you feel about a little duel?"
David stood up at the challenge. "You think you can beat me?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm not the one who's going to try," he beamed. "I believe you owe my cousin a duel."
David looked at the young girl uncertainly but Jim's smirk made him set his features with determination. "Okay," he said. "It's on."
Lily smiled like her cousin, also feeling the excitement. "It's about bloody time."
"You think she can beat him?" Henry asked Jim as they sat on the grass, watching the two swordsmen readying for the fight.
"Do you want to bet?" Jim smirked at the boy. "Ten dollars?"
Henry held out his hand. "Deal," he said when Jim shook it.
The older boy sniggered to himself. "Oh, this is going to be a slaughter."
.
.
David had fought with a lot of people since the day he had to slay a dragon. And he had found himself a natural with the sword, or at least Sir Richard, the knight who had been in charge of his training, had told him so.
And yet he found himself struggling with a mock duel with and eleven year old. Tiger Lily was very fast and she was never in the same place for more than one second. She danced around him with her sword deflecting each one of his blows with ease.
At first he had gone easy on her, she was just a kid after all. But then she had just evaded his blows without even raising her sword and with a smirk on her face. It had tugged on his manly pride and he had stepped up his game.
"Now that's more like it," she had said confidently.
But even when David was doing his best, Tiger Lily parried each of his blows and attacked with more of her own. In no time they were both sweating and out of breath without a clear clue of who would be the winner.
"Quit playing with him, Lils!" Jim shouted from the sidelines where he was sitting with Henry.
Tiger Lily rolled her eyes and then started to smile. David deflected her blow but felt a bad feeling starting in the pit of his stomach.
"Why are you smiling?" he demanded.
"Because I know something you don't know."
The words sounded strangely familiar. "What's that?" he panted.
Tiger Lily backed away and threw her sword up, catching it with her right hand. "I am not left-handed," she said.
David gaped at her and almost dropped his own sword. "What?"
He could hear Jim's laughs and Henry's shouts encouraging him and it made him get back into the fight. Which was a good thing because Tiger Lily was coming back at him with the wooden sword held high.
The little girl started a series of complicated maneuvers that had him struggling to deflect. Far too soon she sent his sword flying through the park with one quick move he had never seen before.
Henry ran towards them, his eyes wide. "That was awesome!" he was bouncing from excitement. "Oh my god! The last move you did right there? Holy cow! You have to teach me that."
"Hey!" David pouted at his grandson. "I thought I was the one teaching you."
Henry looked at him with guilt in his face. "I'm sorry, Grandpa… But did you see that?" he was back to being excited.
Tiger Lily was laughing happily at she stared at them. "That was a very complicated move," she told Henry. "It took me years to learn it. I'll teach you when you know something about swordplay."
"And to believe I've spent years avoiding the promised duel because I was afraid I would hurt you," David shook his head. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"
Jim draped his arms across her shoulders. "My uncle taught her. He taught me too, but she was always better than me. Now," he ruffled Tiger Lily's hair. "We have to get going. I promised this one I'd teach her how to windsurf and we don't want to waste more daylight."
"I should probably go check on the dwarves down the mines," David said. "Do you want to come with me?" he asked Henry.
"Duh!"
David laughed. "Okay, okay," he nodded at Tiger Lily. "That was fun," he said. "We should do it again."
She beamed. "I'm counting on it."
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X
Lily dropped her head on her father's shoulder, her eyelids closing tiredly. She tried to hold back a yawn but it escaped anyways.
"You should go to sleep," he said. "You have class tomorrow."
Lily scoffed at the reminder of school and the few teachers that remained and tried to teach her things she already knew. "I'm over two hundred years old," she huffed. "I don't get why I have to go to school."
"Because you still look like an eleven-year-old," Marco reminded her. "And you need to do something with your time. Otherwise you would spend all your days in the sea."
Lily grinned. "And would that be so bad?"
Red ran past their house once again, Silver quick on her heels. Lily's smile turned softer as she stared at the two wolves.
"I'm glad it all turned out alright," she told her father.
Marco smiled. "Me too. Granny was so worried."
"Uuhhh Granny," Lily moved her eyebrows suggestively. "Hasn't she told you to call her for her real name?" she paused. "What is her real name?"
Marco hesitated for a few seconds but relented in the end. "Beverly."
"Beverly, huh? Do you call her Babe?"
Marco made a face. "Please, shut up."
Lily snickered. "Red!" she called. "Red!"
The wolf came bouncing towards them with a wolfish grin. Lily had spent enough time around Silver to recognize some of the expressions on her face and she could see Red's curiosity.
"We're going to be sisters!" she squealed and Marco groaned next to her. "Marco and Granny are in loooove," she sang. "Wait… no! I'm going to be your aunt?"
"We're just friends," Marco denied.
Even Red's face was skeptic.
"He calls her Babe," Lily mock whispered.
"I do not!"
And even if it was well past midnight and Lily was so tired she felt her head in a cloud and she hadn't slept in the past few days (or even weeks) she still felt herself laughing and smiling under the full moon with the Huntsman's Wolf, werewolf Little Red Riding Hood and her father, Geppetto.
As Tayler she couldn't help but be amazed by the way her life had turned out, so weird she couldn't ever have even dreamt it. But as Lily, as Tiger Lily, she felt like it was the most normal thing in the world.
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X
"And I'm always a gentleman."
Hook opened the bottle with his mouth and then spit out the cork. His hook around her wrist tugged her hand closer to his chest and then poured some of the liquid into her hand.
Emma wasn't expecting it to sting. "What the hell is that?" she asked and then blew on her wound to relieve the burn.
"It's rum," he answered lightly. "A bloody waste of it," he added.
He contemplated the cut hand and seemed to consider it needed a bandage. Without releasing her wrist he grabbed his scarf and started wrapping it around her hand.
"Here's the plan," he said and Emma's eyes flittered on his face for a second before settling back to his movements over her wound. "We wait for the giant to fall asleep. When he does, we'll sneak past him into his cave. It's where the treasures are, where the compass lies."
Emma had been wondering how he would tie up the makeshift bandage seeing that he only had one hand. Hook surprised her once again by lowering his head and wrapping his lips around the cloth and tugging with his teeth.
Her hear did not flutter. But God, those lips…
"And then?" Emma asked trying to get her head back on track.
His eyes were burning on hers and Emma had the suspicion he knew exactly what was going on in her head with his little trick. "Then we run like hell."
"I don't have time for a giant to fall asleep," Emma said tiredly. "The powder Mulan gave us...we need to use it. We gotta knock him out."
Hook looked around. "Well, that's riskier," he noted.
"Than waiting for a giant to fall asleep when we need him to?" Emma let the skepticism cloud her voice.
"Point taken," Hook smiled.
Emma wasn't expecting him to concede so easily and she blinked at him, surprised. Which only made him smirk even more.
"Ooh, you're a tough lass," he said and reached into the satchel without taking his eyes off of her. "You'd make a hell of a pirate," he handed her the powder.
Emma's gaze fell to his arm and the two tattoos sprawled in there. One was a heart with the name Milah written over it and a strange wavy dagger going through it. Just above the heart, half hidden by the dark sleeve, was a white flower with big, wide petals stained with orange.
She wanted to erase the smirk on his face. "Who's Milah on the tattoo?"
His face fell and he averted his eyes. "Someone from long ago."
His tone said he didn't want to keep the conversation going. But Emma had never been very good at listening. "Where is she?"
He started to walk towards the Giant's castle. "She's gone."
"Gold," realization hit her and she turned to look at him. "Rumplestiltskin," she saw him nod to himself. "He took more than your hand from you, didn't he?" that made him spin around to face her. "That's why you want to kill him," she stated.
"For someone who's never been in love, you're quite perceptive, aren't you?"
Emma suddenly felt strangely vulnerable looking at his eyes. "Maybe I was, once."
Hook stared at her long and hard. "He was an idiot for leaving you, Swan." he told her.
"How did you-?" her eyes were wide and she mentally kicked herself for revealing too much.
And the smirk was back. "I've told you before, love," he walked, no, he strutted towards her and leaned in, invading her personal space. "You're an open book."
That made her angry with him once again and she narrowed her eyes. She looked down at his arm but the sleeve was covering it once again. But she knew what was there.
Emma looked him in the eye defiantly. "What about the flower?"
His whole face hardened and Emma expected him to walk away in silence. But he surprised her once again.
"That's for my daughter," he said.
Emma's eyes widened in surprise: Captain Hook had a daughter? She was about to ask him where she was when she saw the pure agony behind the pirate's eyes. Her heart broke a little for him; she had felt the loss of a kid once, when Henry ate Regina's fucking turnover, but he had awaken not a day later.
But this guy… this guy had the look of someone who had lost hope so long ago revenge was the only thing that kept him going. And Emma understood him a little more because she knew what that could be like.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"So am I," he said.
He was a kindred spirit. Someone who could see through her because he had been her. And Emma couldn't allow that.
So that's why she left him tied up next to an angry giant.
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It's kind of a filling chapter, but Hook/Killian is here. And we're getting closer to the reunion, wohooo!
I hope you liked it!
MW.