Anonymous on Tumblr prompted: " 33. Childhood sweethearts AU and Lily/Emma/Neal if you can, please!"
It starts off with a babysitting arrangement. David is a stay-at-home dad, tending to his 1-year-old daughter during the day while his wife works. When the local daycare shuts down due to black mold, parents all over town are scrambling. David sees his neighbors that live on either side of him. Both single parents. Both in a bind. They need to work but any available nanny has been scooped up by half of the parents from the daycare, the rest filling the vacancies at schools in the nearby area. Each have an infant just a few months older than Emma. She could use the socialization.
So, he offers up his services. Free of charge, he takes care of Lily Page and Bailey "Bae" Gold while their parents work. Emma, a preemie who previously was behind on all milestones, thrives as she tries to catch up with the bigger kids. Mallory and Samuel swear it's temporary, they'll find alternative care soon. But a few weeks turns into months, months become a full year. The kids do well. They play, eat and sleep, all on the same schedule. Emma's first words are an excited "Lily! Lily!" one morning when Mal wrangles the older toddler through the door. David and Mary Margaret beam with pride.
It's decided they'll keep the arrangement until the children go to kindergarten. David takes them to the park, story time at the library, even the zoo. The three are close as can be, having play dates at the Gold's and Page's houses on the weekends. They have sleepovers, their parents grow closer and host various parties.
All three happen to be in the same kindergarten class which helps ease the transition. They meet other kids but the Big Three remains as close as ever. Their parents carpool. When Mary Margaret and David welcome a new baby, Lily and Bae are there as soon as he comes home.
"He's our little brother too," Lily proudly announces.
"Yes!" Emma agrees without hesitation. "I can share him."
It's a promise they keep to. Once he's old enough to keep up with him, they include him in the fun. Mallory brings both Nolan children and Bae on a trip to the Cape the summer become the Big Three start fourth grade. While Mal and her fiancé, Ursula, tend to Neal one night, the older kids play on the beach.
"Your mom's gonna be my teacher," Lily says as they collect seashells along the shore. She picks them up, hands them to Emma to clean and Bae dutifully carries them in the Iron Man bucket he brought.
"She says I can't be in her class," Emma replies, dusting off a pale pink shell. The sand sticks to her wet fingers. "It's a rule, I guess."
"Dumb rule. It's the first time we won't be in the same class."
"I know. Miss Jasmine is going to be my teacher. She's nice, I guess." Emma shrugs, passing the shell back to Bae. He's been quiet but that's not new for him. She and Lily talk, he listens. "Who did you get, Bae? Miss Jasmine or my mom?"
Bae stares down into the bucket. "Neither."
"Oh, so you have Mr. Newtown? He smells like fish sticks." Emma wrinkles her nose.
"No, um. I'm not going to be at our school next year."
Lily halts and Emma tumbled into her. Matching frowns fall across their lips. Bae doesn't look up from the shells.
"What? Of course you are." Lily shakes her head. "There's no other school nearby."
"I'm moving," Bae whispers. "My mom is moving to England with Killian. They wanted me to go with them. My dad said no but the judge said I have to."
"England!" Emma's eyes bug out of her head. "But that's…" She tries to remember the globe that sits on her mom's desk at home. "That's far away. We won't be able to see you."
"I'll be here in the summer and Christmas to see my dad. We can see each other then."
"We're The Big Three," Lily says. "We can't be apart."
"I don't have a choice."
Emma tries not to think of it, the rest of the trip. When Lily insists her mom do something about it, Mallory and Ursula tell them it's not within their control.
"Adults make choices for kids, even hard ones they don't understand, my little Drake," Mallory whispered as soon as Lily burst into tears after being told no.
The moving date approached faster than they expected. When Killian's shiny white truck pulls into the Gold's drive, Emma convinces Neal and Lily to hide in her treehouse. Surrounded by Polaroid photographs, books and board games from countless summer sleepovers along with the good chocolates from Mallory's "secret stash" that Lily found. They'll live up there. The treehouse has everything they need, even sleeping bags.
"We could get married," Emma offers from the top of her Rainbow Brite bag. "My mom and dad said they got married so he could move out of Grandpa George's house."
Lily stuffs three chocolates into her mouth at once. "Married? We're only 9."
"So?" Emma leans over to grab a piece. "My mom also said she married my dad because he's her best friend. You're both my best friends."
A small smile creeps up on Bae's face. "We could live in the tree house and have chocolate for dinner."
"Do we have to kiss?" Lily wrinkles her nose. "'Cause that sounds gross."
Bae shakes his head. "Nah. We can just watch movies and go to McDonalds whenever we want. And we never have to go home."
"But we could, right? I mean we'll miss our parents." Emma hugs her knees. She can't picture a life without her mom and dad, even Neal, despite him getting on her nerves.
"My dad sees his aunts all the time. But they won't tell us what to do anymore. They do what they want, when they want."
"That sounds nice," Lily mumbles around a mouthful of chocolate.
"So it's settled," Bae says, copying his father's phone calls with his tenants. "We'll get married."
He lays out his hand and Emma takes it, Lily's resting upon hers.
Mary Margaret's voice wavers up the tree house. "Neal! Emma! Lily! Are you three up there?"
Despite staying quiet, she climbs up there. Their plans are squandered for the moment but they all whisper promises of seeing each other soon.
They don't last. Bae comes back to Storybrooke for Christmas but after the New Year, a for sale sign goes up on the Gold's lawn. Samuel says he can't be this far away from his son. He's bought a house not far from Milah and Killian.
Despite not being in the same class, Lily and Emma try to see each other everyday. Emma meets Alexandra and August, but they don't get along with Lily so her time is split. When it's time for 6th grade, Emma goes into Storybrooke Middle School while Mallory decides Storybrooke Academy will suit Lily better and help her get better grades. Soon, the remaining two of the Big Three only see each other in passing. Their parents have drifted apart as well.
The summer before 9th grade, another for sale sign goes up. This one in front of the Page's. Mary Margaret reports that Ursula got a new job in the square, they're moving to be closer to there and Lily's school. The day the moving truck arrives, Emma sits on her porch, her abandoned summer reading at her feet. Lily doesn't even look her way as she helps her mothers load the truck. Eventually, once everything is packed, Emma calls out to her. Lily looks up, her face caked in dark makeup that match the turtleneck she wears in spite of the summer heat. Anything Emma can think to say sounds babyish or uncool. So instead, she waves. For the first time in years, Emma sees her former best friend smile and wave back.
Emma enters high school and throws herself into various sporting teams. There's boyfriends and girlfriends, including a very awkward prom date with August. Emma has plenty of friends but often feels alone. They think comic books are childish. They don't get why she collects shells whenever they go to the beach. And so, she slowly gives up the quirks that made her, her. Emma already lost two friends. She can't lose more.
She doesn't see much of Lily anymore. The rare sightings are of her hanging out with kids in equally dark clothing outside the mall. Around their senior year, there's rumors she got expelled from Storybrooke Academy for selling drugs. Others say she got into a prostitution ring. Either way, Lily is rarely seen around town after that. Emma wants to reach out but doesn't know how.
The postcards and letters from Bae have long since dried up. Emma is friends with him on Facebook, thankful he has one unlike Lily. The page is splattered with his beautiful photography of the tiny countryside town he lives in. Occasionally he's tagged in pictures by someone named Wendy. Baby fat long gone, toned arms. Facial hair coming in nicely on his chin. The most communication the two share is on their birthdays but even those have become impersonal now. On Emma's 17th, all she gets from him is a Minion cake gif. Spying shows her that Wendy got a tagged photo and a sweet message. Emma ignores the envy that threatens to creep up onto her skin.
Mary Margaret, David and 12 year old Neal accompany Emma the day she moves into Wesleyan. Her mom piles her with sweets and hugs. Her dad grumbles about the dorms being co-ed. Neal won't stop asking if he can have her stereo or TV. She's tuning out the noise as she looks around her dorm. Two beds set up, LP hasn't arrived yet, so she has her pick. Just as she's setting up on the one closest to the window, Emma hears a familiar voice.
"Of all the gin joints…"
She turns around and sees her. Icy blue streaks paint her dark locks and she's not nearly in as much black as before, but Lily stands in the doorway with two camo duffels remain swung over her arms.
"LP," Emma beams. "Who would've thunk?"
The bags drop to the bag and Emma channels her mother, giving Lily a big hug. It takes her a minute to return it, but once she does, comfort takes over. A piece of home is here to stay.
Their parents get to catching up as they help the girls unpack. Once they finish, it's decided they'll get lunch together to continue the conversation. Just as they shut the door, another familiar face comes headed down the hall. Head full of curls, the facial hair Facebook spoiled.
"Bae!" A full on grin takes over Lily and Emma's faces. Samuel is a few feet behind, already trying to worm around his now giant son to reunite with his former neighbors. "You go here?"
"Nah, just broke in." He winks. "You two are on this floor?"
"We are."
They go to lunch together, all nine of them. It takes nothing at all to fall back into old habits. Teasing Bae for being quiet and Lily for her dramatic eyeliner. Neal insists on sitting beside Bae, stealing everyone's fries.
After their families leave and they return from freshman orientation, they gather on the floor of Emma and Lily's dorm, catching up on the things they didn't want to discuss in front of their parents. Turns out, Lily didn't get expelled at all. She chose to be homeschooled after voluntarily spending some time at the hospital for bipolar disorder. Baelfire loathed England, his parents fighting only got worse. He felt his one escape was a college in the states.
"I hate my friends back home," Emma says.
It's a bit of an exaggeration but Lily and Bae listen to her rant, just as she did them. It's nice to be heard without someone interrupting to talk about the game or their own life.
"I just...really missed you guys," Emma whispers. "And I didn't realize how much until now."
"Same," Lily says, taking her hand.
Bae lays his atop Lily's. "Well, we have four more years together."
Tears of joy burn Emma's eyes. "Yeah, we do."
And as soon as those four years were up, they'd make sure to never leave each other's lives again. They get an apartment in Storybrooke where they get McDonalds whenever they want. They eat chocolate for dinner. Visits to their parents every Sunday are mandatory.
Marriage isn't an option, at least not yet. America isn't progressive enough for polyamory. But at the very least, they share a bed.