Just a little post-Underworld bit from a fic prompt.
The Jolly Roger had seemed like the safer choice for their first night back, free from the taint of the darkness that seems to be everywhere she looks at their house. No shed hiding memories, no basement with a sword-less stone, no couch where she'd lain awake missing him in the hours after his sacrifice.
She'd been naive to think she could hide from it though. Even here, snug in the bed of his cabin, Killian pressed to her side from shoulder to knee, memories of her time as the Dark One (a Dark One, she reminds herself) seem to choke the air from the space.
The whispers of the dagger don't help.
Killian can't hear them, thankfully. Apparently it's one of the perks to dying. The leash it gives her on Gold is handy, she can admit — the ability to track down the dagger no matter where he hides it, an advance warning when he's plotting something. (Always, he's always plotting something.) But they've just escaped from the Underworld, she's just gotten back the man she loves. And Emma would give anything for a peaceful sleep in his arms.
She slips from the bed instead, moving to look out the window at the stars and the water, hoping to find that calm he'd helped her with once. But the horizon is hard to see in the dark and her finger winds up trailing along the hilt of his cutlass, a fresh wave of memories washing over her.
"Do you remember when we were in the storybook and I taught you how to swordfight?"
It would be easier to deal with if she regretted it. But the guilt she feels isn't for anything she did — it's for not feeling bad enough over it. Because everything she lost, she got back. They're both free of the darkness. They still get to make a future together. It was worth it. It was worth it not to let him go.
"Swan," he croaks from the bed, stretching an arm out over the side towards her. "Come back to bed."
She complies easily, sliding in beside him and resting her head on his chest. His arm comes around her and yes, so worth it, she thinks as he holds her close.
"I love you," she murmurs into his skin.
Emma feels him press a kiss to the top of her head before he lets out a contented sigh. "Love you too."