The Music of the Heart Soulmate Finder—pt. 2

CS Genre: CS soulmates au

One month later…

Emma grinned in spite of herself as she woke up in her loft bedroom to the sound of Mary Margaret making breakfast and singing…was that "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Snow White? Her roommate must have had a far more pleasant date last night than she'd had.

Not that that would have been hard. Walsh was…well, to put it charitably, soooooo far from her soulmate that Emma doubted it would be possible for the mixing of her heart's song to clash that badly with anyone else's. She should have known better than to go on the blind date her latest skip—Zelena Mills (or as she privately called her while she was tracking her, "The Wicked Witch of the West") had set her up on. Among other truly bizarre things, Walsh had this truly creepy obsession with monkeys.

"Take it from me, Emma," he'd said while evidently savoring his banana split, "one day monkeys will rule the world. They're smarter than all of us. Best make friends now before they take control and then go all 'evil flying monkey' on your ass."

More than a few screws loose inside that man's head.

But Walsh was just the latest in a long string of dates where Emma most certainly did not find her soulmate…unlike Mary Margaret, who had had her own personal soulmate soundtrack playing on a continuous loop ever since her first (very successful) date with David Nolan.

"Oh Emma! You're up," Mary Margaret said in a ridiculously chipper voice for 7 am on a Saturday morning. "Hope I didn't wake you. I just woke up brimming with energy and decided I couldn't lay around in bed anymore on such a beautiful day."

Emma took a glance outside to see dreary gray skies and a light (probably really cold) drizzle. She grinned again. Love was doing quite a number on Mary Margaret Blanchard.

"No problem," Emma said, grabbing a mug and pouring herself some coffee. "I was hoping to get an early start this morning. Just got a new case, and I want to get a jump on it. And trust me. You'll never hear me complain about you trying to get rid of excess energy by cooking a big breakfast."

Mary Margaret merely smiled and then went back to flipping her pancakes.

"So," Emma said, after taking a sip of the strong, hot brew, "I'd take it from your perma-smile that last night went well?"

Mary Margaret sighed in what could only be considered ecstasy. "Emma, there is nothing like dating your soulmate. It's like everything just clicks. But enough about me; how was your date?"

Emma groaned and buried her head in her hands. "It was a total nightmare."

Mary Margaret listened and tutted sympathetically as Emma described the date the Wicked Witch had set up for her.

"I'm tempted to just toss this soulmate finder," Emma said in annoyance. "You found your soulmate, other people have found their soulmates, but clearly the stupid device doesn't work on me."

"Now don't give up yet," Mary Margaret said, sliding a huge stack of pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup onto the table and then taking her seat. "You can't hurry love. Sometimes these things take time. Besides, the soulmate finder wasn't a total waste. You had a good time with Sheriff Humbert."

True enough. One of the first dates Emma went on post-soulmate finder was with the town's number one lawman, Graham Humbert. They'd had a nice time together, and Graham's song had sounded reasonably pleasant mixed with hers, but the "spark" had just not been there. She could see becoming really good friends with Graham, but she just didn't see it going beyond that.

Emma made some non-committal answer to her best friend, and then the conversation devolved to other topics (generously interspersed with observations about how utterly perfect David Nolan was), and Emma found herself enjoying the meal with Mary Margaret.

"Oh no!" Mary Margaret said finally, looking at her watch, "I'm late! I'm supposed to meet David down at the toll bridge for an early morning nature walk."

"Go," Emma said, taking her plate to the sink, "I'll knock out these dishes then go get started on some research downstairs."

"Now remember to rinse the plates before putting them in the dishwasher."

"Yes, mom," Emma said with a good natured roll of her eyes as she shooed her roommate toward the door.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Emma grabbed her laptop, locked the apartment, and then headed downstairs to the Bookmark Café, a little coffee shop her friend Belle French had only recently opened in the corner of her bookstore. The café was a popular spot in the mornings, and Emma found she did her best work surrounded by the hustle and bustle of people going about their days.

The first thing Emma noticed upon opening the doors of the Bookmark was the strumming of a guitar, followed closely by a lyrical baritone voice as smooth and comforting as molten chocolate.

Emma took her accustomed secluded table in the back and then scanned the café for the source of the music she couldn't help but tap her toes to.

She suddenly found herself looking into (tumbling into, falling into) a pair of the most stunning blue eyes she'd ever seen. For a moment those eyes took her breath away. And when she looked at the rest of the man attached to them—slightly messy black hair, long, dark lashes, ginger scruff, long, dexterous fingers plucking the strings of the guitar—her heart stuttered…before pounding as though it wanted to come out of her chest.

Emma had never had such a swift, sure and powerful reaction to anyone before. She stared openly at the man until the song came to a close and his eyes connected with hers. He looked startled for a moment, before a slow grin turned up the corners of his mouth and he very deliberately winked at her.

That was enough to snap Emma out of it. Turning away quickly, she focused all her attention on the laptop in front of her.

"He's good, isn't he?" Belle asked, stepping up to Emma's table and pulling out a pad of paper.

Emma shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess so," she said. "Never seen live entertainment here before. This a new thing you're trying?"

Belle colored prettily. "Well, yeah, you could say so. The guitarist is Liam's brother, Killian. Liam asked if I'd give him a chance, and suddenly it just…happened."

"Liam, huh?" Emma asked with a grin. "That the guy you had a date with a week ago?"

"Yeah, that's him," Belle said. "Even before I turned on my soulmate finder, I could tell that Liam was different, special. He literally took my breath away. And then when I heard our music mingle…" Belle sighed in happiness. "Emma, there's nothing like it. Anyway, Killian just got here from England, and I wanted to help him acclimate however I could. Then I heard him play, and asking him to provide live entertainment a few mornings a week was a no brainer."

Another soulmate finder happy customer, apparently. Was Emma the only woman on the Eastern sea board who'd had absolutely zero success with the damn thing? Of their own accord, Emma's eyes wandered back to the musician—only to find his eyes already trained on her. He smiled tentatively, and she felt her face flame. His smile broadened as he turned back to his instrument and started up a new song.

That smile set Emma's heart to racing yet again. What was up with her? She had a sudden, intense temptation to reach up to her ear and turn on the soulmate finder. What if it was more than just a normal hot-blooded woman's reaction to a handsome (drop-dead gorgeous) man? What if this musician was actually her soulm…

"Emma?" Belle asked, and Emma's runaway thoughts ground to a halt as she suddenly realized the bookstore-owner-turned-barista had called her name a number of times before she heard her.

"Uh," Emma said, feeling decidedly flustered, "you say something, Belle?"

"Yeah," Belle said with a grin. "I asked what you wanted to drink this morning."

"How about a hot cocoa with cinnamon?" Emma asked, her eyes turning, almost of their own accord to watch as Killian's nimble fingers plucked the strings of his guitar.

"Coming up," Belle said, turning to look in the same direction as Emma. "He's handsome, isn't he?"

"Handsome as hell," Emma muttered under her breath before coughing delicately and then turning toward Belle, shrugging in feigned nonchalance. "I mean…yeah, he's not bad on the eyes."

Belle openly laughed at that. "No he's not. He's a nice guy too. You ought to go talk to him when he's finished with his set."

Emma was sure her face was beet red by now. Bad enough she was having this…weird, almost irresistible reaction to musician man over there, did she have to be so transparent everyone could see it, too?

"Uh, yeah, probably not," Emma finally said, turning resolutely back to her laptop. "Got a new case, and I'm gonna be busy with research all day."

"Suit yourself," Belle said, knowing grin still in place as she walked off to fill Emma's order.

Emma took a deep breath and turned determinedly to her work. Hot musician or no hot musician, she had a job to do and he absolutely would not let him distract her.

And, yeah. She wasn't about to turn on her soulmate finder either, no matter what her traitorous heart may be urging her to do.

Notes

-Happy Black Friday everyone. Good luck to anyone who decided to venture out into the madness. After having worked in retail for several years during college (and just after), I think I've had enough Black Friday-ing to last me a lifetime.

-So, the Bookmark café—that was patterned after a real place. I work in a university library, and we have a little café of that same name near the main entrance. It is a wonderful place…but alas, it does not have live music, and even if it did, I doubt Killian Jones would show up and play there, lol.

-So, obviously this story does not come to a close with part two. One more chapter to go, and then I think it's going to be necessary for me to go on a mini Fluffy Fridays hiatus. As the music coordinator at my church (on top of a full-time job), I am ridiculously busy this time of year. I'll be back for a Christmas fic of some kind on Dec. 23 (any requests for a genre for a holiday themed fic?), but after next week, I'll be taking a two week break.