Never aging
A guest asked for a oneshot of *7x04 spoilers (ish): Emma staying the Dark One, but being able to be her normal self and control it. As the years go by, and she watches her parents age, she realises she'll outlive them. Henry and Neal too. They talk about it.
This technically wasn't a season 7 request, it was just inspired by season 7. Just remember folks, I'm not writing season 7 :).
JRocks: I'm not sure I'd be able to do that very well.
At first, Emma hardly noticed. They were all still young enough. It was more the kids that Emma felt were growing so quickly, but didn't every parent think their kids were growing too fast? It was only as Henry approached adulthood, and Emma began to notice that her parents were getting grey hairs, that Emma began to feel the effects of not aging. It dawned on her that she was going to outlive them all.
"Emma, we should be older than you." Charming reminded her. "We'll find a way to correct this eventually, but this is just things going back to normal, really…" Emma shook her head, terrified.
"Maybe, if things had gone differently. But they didn't. I am the same age as you. I accepted the fact that I might die before you. In ways, I would have preferred that, because the idea of living without you when we got so little time to begin with is too painful." Emma admitted, her eyes filling with tears. Snow pulled Emma over to her, no longer flinching at the coldness that clung to her skin.
"You listen to us, Emma." Snow said gently. "One way, or another, we are going to find a way to both rid you of this darkness, and get you aging again. You will not outlive Henry and Neal."
"Your mother's right, Em." Charming promised her, kissing the top of Emma's head. "We haven't stopped searching in all these years, we're not giving up now. This family never gives up." He reminded her. Emma didn't respond, she just continued to cry. Her hope was rapidly fading. Overshadowed by the fear of being left alone as all her loved ones passed on. It was bad enough knowing that she would now probably outlive her parents, but Henry and Neal? That was too much. They seemed to have exhausted pretty much every option available. Emma didn't see how they'd find some magic cure now. She still didn't want to think about losing those she loved, but at the end of the day, it was what was going to happen. Whether she liked it or not.
