A/N: Hey everyone! So we are back, and as you might have guessed, it's full moon night (or day, as it were). Obviously I am writing this, so Killian and Emma are always going to choose love and be fluffy. But… I may have a few tricks up my sleeves that we have to get through before we can get to the good stuff. Emma has to talk to her Dad and get things straight, and that's going to be quite a hurdle for her to get over so there's less CS than usual in this installment. Originally I was going to combine this chapter with the next, BUT I didn't want to rush things, and I actually have a new POV that needs including too, if you can believe it. To make up for the fact that you all have to wait for the good stuff, however, I am posting the next chapter next week instead of in two weeks. Anyway, really looking forward to hearing what you all think about this, and I hope you enjoy the chapter! Thanks so much for reading!
Sleeping soundly through the night after being told that the man you loved was a wolf shifter proved to be as difficult as one might imagine.
After Killian brought her back home last night, Emma found herself unable to go to bed easily. She was thinking and pondering about all she had learned, letting it all play over and over in her mind until morning rolled around. Everything she'd discovered and all the new parts of the truth she never realized before were so remarkable, she couldn't shake the feeling of excitement enough to sleep. Killian was a shifter. He could physically shift from a man into a giant, beautiful, somewhat menacing and yet still serenely beautiful wolf, and somehow, seeing him do that had taken the already raging inferno of want Emma had for him and turned it up even more.
Meeting Kalian's animal was profoundly impactful. It shifted something inside of her that she didn't realize was out of place, but in the light of a new day she realized that feeling was prompted by the fact that she finally understood. Discovering the truth gave Emma another layer of Killian to know, and that layer was something so wrapped up in who he was that she felt she could finally see him and know him in his entirety. It was an amazing sensation, and whether it was the fact that he'd been her hero and saved her all those year ago in Boston, or whether it was his undeniable strength and prowess that came with being a shifter that turned her on, Emma didn't know. Whatever it was, the result was the same: she'd been restless all night, lusting away for a man who loved her and who she so dearly loved in turn.
It seemed silly to Emma in so many ways that they couldn't just be together. She knew that she wanted Killian and nothing that she found out today would change that at all. Beyond being silly though, it was also somewhat painful. Emma was so wound up with wanting that it was terribly uncomfortable. She was constantly aware of this aching want to be close to Killian, to her mate. God even the word made another shiver of desire course through her. She'd never been in such a state and she hated the fact that she knew what would ease it and she couldn't just give in. This was the looming 'mating heat,' at least that was what Killian called it, but according to him this wasn't even the worst of it. Somehow, these urges and desire were going to grow. Emma was going to crave him in ways she couldn't understand, but she was already doing that, so how could it possibly get stronger than this?
Clinging to him last night, Emma knew she had never been so wanton. He was only intending to drop her off at her door and maybe kiss her quickly goodnight, but Emma had seen him starting to bolt and she pulled him towards her. Once her hands were on him and their lips crashed together, Killian was right there with her. He pressed her into the front door of her apartment, which remained closed, leaving her body caught between the sturdy wood and the hard lines of his body. Emma reveled in the feeling and the force of it, moving towards him, trying to take everything that she wanted, but alas, Killian was a man of tremendous will power. He pulled back, through some sheer force Emma couldn't imagine. She was totally and completely his, ready to commit right in that moment, but Killian was firm in his reasoning…
"You know I'd give you anything, Emma, and I promise you I will. Tomorrow, when the time comes, we can have it all. But for tonight you have to trust me. It has to be this way."
"I do trust you," Emma said, her breaths still a little uneven from the exertion of that kiss. "I just…" She let her words hang there. There was no need to say them. She'd said them already plenty of times – she hated waiting, and that was what they had to do, at least for tonight.
"Some might say we're blessed, love," Killian murmured with his hand coming to cup her cheek, his eyes tracing the corner of her mouth as it twisted with confusion. He smiled at her and explained. "We've had less than a month of anticipation, and come tomorrow this will all be sealed. We'll have forever, if that's what you want."
It's what I want, Emma said, but not aloud, because she knew deep down in her heart that Killian needed this last bit of time. She might not fully understand why, but just as he was willing to give her anything and everything, she wanted to do the same for him. She'd suffer the separation just a little longer, and then hopefully all his promises of always would come to pass.
"You will feel the shift, tomorrow, Emma. A moment will come when the call will be too strong. It aligns with the tides, since the tides are brought on by the moon herself. When the moment comes you'll need me, desperately, and you'll know where to find me," he said as he kissed her goodbye last night.
"And what about you?" Emma asked, teasing him for she did not know how much he was already affected by the lunar cycles.
"Saying goodbye to you even now is the hardest thing I've ever done, love," he said, his voice a harsh growl that spoke to pain wrapped in something almost desperate. His hands tightened on her again, as if he was rethinking the whole thing, but she watched as his features hardened, and he knew he was back to his original intentions. "I'll have to take steps to keep myself away from you, and I don't know if they'll work but I have to try. Only then can it be your choice, and it has to be your choice, Emma. It has to be yours."
As much as she'd tossed and turned wishing for relief from the sexual frustration and wanting him to just come back and take her already, Emma respected his thoughts on this. It meant everything to Killian to have Emma choose to be his with all the facts in hand. For some reason, her being human and her wanting him outside of the mating bond mattered to him even though it wouldn't matter for an ordinary shifter match. He confessed to her that he hated to think that Emma was stuck with him just because nature wanted things that way. But that was because he couldn't see what a good, kind, and wonderful man he was. Yes, Killian had told her of his past. Killing his father… losing his mother and brother… that was a darkness that no soul should have to bear. But it hadn't changed Killian's core nature. He was still a man worth loving, the only man she could ever really love, and if it took waiting a little while longer and then finding him to make him see that so be it. Emma would submit to the torturous separation so that Killian found his peace in the end.
In the meantime, Emma's only other distraction came from trying to figure out her parents' knowledge of shifters and their world. Killian had kept mum about what he had learned about her father specifically, saying nothing beyond the fact that Emma should speak with her Dad, but Emma got the sense Killian didn't know much himself. There were things her Dad was hiding, secrets he'd been keeping close, and before she took this next step with Killian, Emma knew it would be best to know exactly what those were. It was the only way to be fair to her and to Killian, and now that Emma knew of shifters in a legal way, she could maybe be a safe space for her father who had to hide what he knew.
Getting ready for her day, Emma should have been exhausted. She slept so poorly that she should have no energy to do anything at all, but there was more pep in her step and energy inside of her than any day that had come before. This was likely thanks to the charge of tonight that was already all around her. The moon made Killian and other shifters strong, and he believed it would make her strong too. It would certainly call them to come together tonight, but in the meantime Emma was in need of motion and action. She couldn't seem to sit still, and she was at the clinic at a record time after getting breakfast and coffee at home. This morning she and Killian couldn't see each other, and though her heart felt the loss of missing out on that special bonding moment, Emma knew it was right for both of them as soon as she walked into the clinic doors.
At this time of morning there was usually quiet at the clinic, so it surprised Emma when she walked in the front door and found lights on and the sound of someone working in the back. It couldn't be Gus – there was no way that he would have already come in when he lived a ways away – so it stood to reason that it must be her Dad. As Emma walked further inside, she found that hunch was correct, for there, moving about with a clear sense of anxious anticipation in the back exam room, was her father.
"Dad?"
Her father immediately turned to face her and Emma could see from the look in his eyes that he knew what was coming. It was a relief that at least she wouldn't have to spell it out for him, and she trusted her Dad to tell her the truth when she asked it head on, but in an automatic act of bolstering herself, her arms crossed over her chest. Try as she might, she couldn't help feeling a little defensive. This was supposedly her clinic too, but her Dad had a whole other business and line of work he'd never thought to tell her of. Some might call secrets so big a betrayal, and though Emma wouldn't say that, she couldn't ignore that part of her was hurt by this.
"I want to start by saying this was never how I wanted things to go, Emma. I thought about telling you a thousand times, but you finding out like this… it wasn't a part of my plan."
"How could it be? You probably never thought that I would have a mate."
The word felt foreign on Emma's tongue. Humans didn't refer to each other as mates, but as she said it aloud her spirit was comforted. Just the acknowledgment of what she was to Killian and what he was to her calmed her down, and that was something she was grateful for in the face of this difficult conversation. She also clung to that word for other reasons too, using it as a reminder that she and Killian were together no matter what her parents or any body else might have thought would come. All this talk of plans made her ill, because any life that hadn't led to Killian would have been one of lesser happiness. If things had been 'normal,' if she had fallen for an ordinary man… well she just couldn't see it. Deep down in her heart, she knew it had to be him.
"No, I can safely say the possibility never crossed my mind. I've never heard of such a thing. Shifters and humans together…" her father trailed off, and though Emma was at some level grateful for the fact that her father wasn't lecturing her away from Killian or warning her about falling too quickly, she was also impatient, and she wanted to know the truth.
"You should have told me, Dad. This secret is… honestly it's ginormous. Plus it's not just yours. It effects all of us – the whole family, heck all of Storybrooke even - and you kept it from me."
"I'm sorry for that, Emma. Truly I am. But you have to believe that I did it to protect you."
Emma closed her eyes briefly as she let his claim sink in. As far as excuses went, it was a good one. From what Killian had told Emma of the council, they were incredibly hostile to outsiders knowing about them. An entire species of humans who could turn into animals didn't manage to go for millennia without real widespread detection without eliminating would-be threats. Still it was hard for Emma to swallow this down. Her Dad was an honorable, honest, and open man, and so this huge secret didn't sit well in the context of the father that she knew.
"Killian told me about the risks, I think you did what you thought was best."
"But you don't agree that it was," her father said, no hint of question in his voice, only resignation.
"I think it was an impossible decision. Either you tell the truth and put as at risk, or you hide it and… put us at less risk?" Emma's tone hinged up because she was realizing that either way they were in danger. Why keep them in the dark if he was still going to do this all these years?
"If the council ever found out, they have a process. Some shifters have gifts, ways of knowing if a human knows. You never being told would have saved you and your brother."
"So Mom knows then. That mountain lion at the clinic… that was real?" Emma asked. Her father's face let surprise slip out openly, and she realized that whatever happened next in that memory she had, her parents must not of realized that she had seen what she did.
"Yes. A local shifter was badly injured. They brought him here, despite the fact that I never see patients in house."
Her father explained a bit more about the particulars. Some might have called his fast pace and the seemingly innocuous details rambling, but Emma took it all in. It turned out that his practice that was off site was almost always visiting shifters. He didn't actually take pet work or farm animals outside of Storybrooke; all of the cases that he had were for shifters. It meant that he had to know both realms of anatomy – that of people and of animals - but the problem was that Maine, sparsely populated by humans and filled with shifter-suited lands as it was, didn't have many healers. Truth be told, her Dad was kind of the only one.
"Why do you do it?" Emma asked, not wanting to beat around the bush. There had to be a reason, and the least her father could do was tell it to her after all of this.
"Because they're people, Emma. People who deserve help, and I have the skills to help them, so I feel like I should."
That sounded exactly like her father, and Emma took comfort in the response. She knew deep down all along that this was something he did because he was generous and kind. He cared about everyone, would do anything to see another person's life made better. It was what made him such an incredible role model for her whole life, and it was something she would always love about her father, even if these revelations were difficult to process.
"How did you find out about shifters in the first place?" Emma asked, and though the whole encounter so far had been filled with fascinating details, this was the first confession from her father that truly shocked her to her core.
"I've always known about them. The Nolan family has always been aware of them, at least that's what my Uncle always claimed."
"Your Uncle that raised you?" Emma asked genuinely not understanding.
Her parents never really spoke much about their childhoods. Her mother's mother had died when Mary Margaret was still very young, and her father had died soon after, leaving her mother alone so much earlier than she should have been. That loss was something that her parents had in common though, because according to the stories she'd heard before, her father's mother had died in childbirth, and his father had never been in the picture. He lived with his uncle until he was of age, and then he left home, never looking back or bothering to stay in touch.
"His name was George, and I wouldn't call what he did 'raising.' He trained me, prepared me, groomed me for what he called 'the family business.'"
Emma's stomach sank at the way her father bit out the words. Whatever the business was, it was bad. Real bad. "Let me guess. It's not veterinary work."
"We were hunters, Emma. Have been for centuries. There are other families like us – humans who know the truth – and they hide their identities just like shifters do."
"But why?" Emma asked, the horror in her voice matched only by the indignation. It seemed so stupid. Hunting? Why would you ever want to hunt shifters, and further more why would you need to? "If humans have been chasing shifters for years – killing them for years – wouldn't you have proof? Wouldn't you be able to expose them and get rid of them like that?"
"That's what the council has always feared, but hunters…" Her father's eyes took on a thoughtful quality, as if he was pulled back to those early days of his life and was reliving the memory of what all of it had been like. "They're paranoid by nature, and they're dedicated to their rituals and traditions. Hunters are skeptical, not just of shifters, but of other humans who are ignorant. People who don't know the truth are deemed stupid and unnecessary. Hunters only care for each other, and in that world there are certain expectations. You are born into a hunter's life, and there is no leaving. It just isn't done."
"But you left," Emma acknowledged. "You got out somehow."
"I was disowned, written off. There was no staying for me, not after everything that happened."
Hearing her father tell the tale, Emma felt like she was there, living through his remembrances too. She could picture it all, her Dad as a teen, unsure of himself and his place in the world, but constant in his want to do right by others. He told Emma about his friend from school, his best friend, his only friend. They'd known each other from the time they were boys, and they'd bonded because they both lived lives without any real family, her father with his unfeeling uncle, and his friend within the foster system. Because of their common experience, their friendship was strong, they formed an unbreakable bond, like brothers, but when his friend turned eighteen the truth was revealed. He was a shifter – and Emma's father had never realized it until the first full moon hit.
"You just didn't know?" Emma asked. "I thought you trained for this."
"I did, but shifter children are impossible to detect. They need their first phase to come into their abilities, to start leaving traces in the way a full shifter does."
"So what happened when you found out?"
"I did the only thing I could think. I told Lance the truth. I told him about my family, what we did and who we were, and then I did everything I could to get him as far away from us as I could."
"Wait, Lance. You mean Uncle Lance?!" Emma asked, completely flabbergasted. Her Uncle Lance was not her father's brother – but he was the closest thing that her Dad had anymore. They actually lived pretty close to them. Only an hour or so away, closer to the deep woods and mountains than the coast down here. And Emma had grown up feeling they were real extensions of her family. She never had any idea of their true nature, but now that she did, she found she was excited and awed all at once. "Oh my gosh so Aunt Gwen and Aerelya… are they?"
"Shifters, yes." Emma let that wash over her. It was such a revelation, but there were still more questions that needed answering.
"Well clearly you saved him then."
"Yes," her father said, proudly. "He made it out. He's how I ended up in Maine in the first place. He found Gwen and she brought him here. She was from a small clan, and Lance was looking for a new pride after losing his own. When I finally escaped my Uncle, it's the only place I could think to come. That night, the night you saw me helping that shifter, it was Lance. There'd been a scuffle near his home. A rogue bear shifter looking for a fight, and Gwen was desperate, so she brought him here."
"How did you get away from your Uncle? I mean he's still alive, right? When you talked about him, you never mentioned that he was dead."
"He's alive, last I heard. But that is another long and complicated story, Emma. Too complicated for today."
"But you will tell me someday," Emma said, knowing that he would even before he nodded in agreement.
"I will. I promise. But today there are other things to see to. The full moon is tonight, I'm sure Killian has explained what that means to you."
Emma blushed and suppressed a groan. Talk about awkward! The full moon meant mating, and the last person – as in the very very last person – that she would ever want to talk about that with was her father. The thought alone sent a wave of repulsion and embarrassment through her.
"I didn't mean like that. I just meant that if you do this, if you choose to be mated to him, it will be forever. That's how things are with shifters. They never do anything by halves."
Emma barked out a laugh at her father's attempt at a joke and she nodded that she did understand the repercussions of her choice. If she and Killian cemented their bond tonight, they would never again be apart. They would be two parts of one whole, and Emma was ready for that. She craved it and wanted it, more than she could ever say.
"I'm ready for that," Emma said, trying to reassure her father, who had taken on a worried paternal look over the last few minutes. "But I kind of need to tell Mom still."
"Oh she knows," her father said evenly. "She's known as long as I have, and she guessed at what would come to be even when I told her it should be impossible. She's already talking flowers and cakes and wedding dresses."
"That might be a little premature," Emma said, her heart falling as the reality of this whole morning's revelation set in. "I might be ready, but I don't know if Killian will be. What you've told me… it changes things. Maybe he won't feel the same. Maybe it isn't his family he had to worry about. Maybe it's ours."
"I won't pretend to know everything about your relationship, Emma. Despite your mother's army of lookouts, and despite the rumors about the Jones pack that even I have heard, there's more than enough I'm in the dark about, and I'd like to keep it that way," Her Dad said, almost pulling a smile from Emma's lips. "But what I do know is that there is nothing that would change the way he feels for you. A man who looks at a woman the way he looks at you is certain. No matter what happens, he'll be there, shifter pull or not."
"I hope you're right," Emma said, accepting the hug her father offered her and closing her eyes as she took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Well there's only one way to find out. You go talk to him yourself."
"Do you think Mom will be mad if I do this without talking to her?" Emma asked and her father shook his head.
"As long as she gets to be there for the wedding and the grand kids she'll be happy," her father said assuredly, before looking mortified and back tracking a bit. "Not that you have to rush on that. You're young. There's still time."
Emma laughed at her father's stern retraction, and she didn't have the heart to tell him that she didn't think his comments would make much difference. If Killian was still in this with her after all these revelations, Emma didn't believe either of them could wait long for marriage or the rest of it. This was a fast paced romance to be sure, but if Emma's understanding of shifter culture was clear, that was the way these things often went.
"Thanks Dad. I'll keep that in mind."
Moving forward, Emma came to give her father a hug, and when she did she felt his immediate release of tension. "I really am sorry, Emma. You know I love you. You're my little girl. My princess."
"I know," Emma said as she chuckled quietly at the tone in his voice, the one reserved for overly adoring parents. "And I forgive you. Just, please, from now on if there's any huge, life altering things you find out…"
"You'll be the first to know," her Dad said, and when Emma's eyes narrowed comically he corrected himself. "The second. But you're Mom was a given."
Emma smiled at that, knowing that her parents love, which was as true as human (or any kind of) love could be, was such a fundamental given in all of their lives. The two of them were a perfect pair, and Emma was happy to also know in her heart that she had found such a love for herself. She now had her 'given' and she'd given him her heart from the moment that they met.
Before they could say much more to each other, the jingle of the overhead bell alerted them to a new presence in the clinic, and from the whistling that came, Emma knew it was Gus right away. That meant the day was starting – it was time to get to work, but the thought of working was abhorrent to her, and now that the dust had settled of all her father had said, that pesky need was back again, and it felt like maybe – oh crap – no it was definitely, growing stronger. Shit, shit, shit! Emma looked out the window in the direction of the coast, as if somehow the forest would suddenly disappear. Was this the moment? Another tug came at her chest, like her heart was trying to launch out of her body. Yeah, this appeared to be it.
"Morning you two. You're both here bright and early. Busy day?" Gus asked, checking the schedule with some confusion as Emma tried to fathom how to even form words right now. She should be mortified, but honestly she was just desperate to come up with a plan of escape.
"Not at all. Emma was just leaving. She's taking the rest of the week off."
"Thank you," Emma murmured to her Dad, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before barely saying goodbye to him and Gus.
Within seconds Emma was out the front door, moving at a speed that was just short of running, and not giving a damn who saw. All she knew was that her path from there was clear: She had to get to Killian, because finally, blissfully the time was upon them, and Emma had never, ever been more excited or elated in her entire life.
…..
Staring out the window of her classic Victorian home, right off the main street in Storybrooke, Elsa took in all the splendor of the world around her without really going deeper than the surface. She saw everything of course, but her mind was elsewhere, far from the grass and trees and blossoms that surrounded her family's historic home.
Years ago, when her parents passed away, Elsa debated leaving this place. It was so full of memories, so thick with remembrances of her parents and their lives before the accident, but it was also the only home she and Anna had ever known. She couldn't throw that all away. It was a part of them all, and with time those wounds that memories inflicted became little bits of light. Having moments where she thought about her parents made her happy. She missed them, more than she could ever say, but it still felt like they were here, watching out for her and Anna, and Elsa didn't know if that would be the case somewhere else.
Whether their watching them from beyond the grave was true or not, Elsa didn't know. She didn't pretend to understand the afterlife or the grand design of the cosmos or anything, but she had a gut feeling that her family was always with her, and her gut was oh so rarely wrong. Her gut was also acting up a storm lately, and today of all days, it was bound to be chatty as all get out.
For whatever reason this strange gift of intuition that Elsa had, the dreams that seemed almost real and the visions that came and went in a flash, acted up most at the high times of the lunar calendar. It took Elsa a long time to make that connection, but it was her grandmother who planted that idea in her head when she was a girl of only nine or ten. Nana Rose was a lovely woman, if not all there at the end. She loved each of them so much, but she would spout these things – crazy things, that while beautiful and exciting just couldn't be true.
"We have magic in our blood, Elsa dear, always have. But you – my darling girl – you have the real gift. A gift not seen in a hundred years. Don't be afraid of it. Keep yourself open, and always, always speak your truth as you see it."
Elsa knew magic wasn't actually a thing, but she took her Nana's advice to heart, even when it was hard, as it was today. For this morning, Elsa had woken up from a series of dreams that while vivid, were almost impossible to describe. They were so unbelievably life like, but there were pieces missing. It was like she had walked through a world built on puzzles and secrets, but the lingering parts that she did remember were ingrained in her head. The dreams jumped between the soft summer glow of a forest meadow, with moss and flowers, and the perfect blend of shade and sun. It was so vivacious, so alive, and so green it almost didn't feel real, but Elsa knew that it was. In the end, the places in her dream were always real. Every single time.
This was a place she had never been though, and that usually meant that it was a place she would one day see. Elsa didn't mind the thought, but the other place in her dream world was almost the opposite. One moment she was in the woods and sun, and the next she was plopped in a completely different environment. It was rainy there, so terribly dull and gray, and it was a cityscape too. The natural world wasn't present at all. It was the heart of a concrete jungle, and though Elsa loved a good city, and she lived for a cool rainy day, she had felt… defeated, and sad. It was unlike her to experience those emotions, and when she woke up, after what felt like days of wandering those streets, she woke up knowing she hadn't found what she was looking for. And to top it all off, the final moment was even more mind boggling, for in that darkness that came at the end of a dream and right before waking, she'd heard the distant cry of a wolf. It was a howl, low and deep and it haunted her, as such howls had done for the past few years.
The sound of feet pounding down the stairs at the pace of a dead out run pulled Elsa from her thinking. She had come down stairs to make a leisurely breakfast, not having a shift at the hospital today, and since Anna was off from the school, she was prone to sleeping in herself. This was the norm for them in summers – brunch more than breakfast really – but it was unusual for Anna to be so energized this early. She hadn't been like that since they were kids, and the sudden burst of enthusiasm meant only one thing: that she recognized what day it was.
"Full moon day!" Anna said giddily as she slid into the kitchen, her socks taking her across the floor and almost ending in an accident, but barely scraping by. "God I've been waiting for this forever. Ever since Killian got here I've been begging the days to come faster and faster. I mean you've seen them – it's love love love like to the end of the universe in back. Big love. Once in a life time love. With that kind of love, you have to have seen something. Tell me! tell me! tell me!"
Elsa laughed in the face of her sister's hugs and jumping up and down, along with the words that spilled past her lips so quickly most people wouldn't know how to make heads or tales of it all, and she felt some of her earlier anxiety dispel at Anna's joy. There was nothing like the sunshine Anna brought to Elsa and to the rest of the world. It always eradicated any kind of cold that came into her life, something Elsa was beyond grateful for.
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," Elsa said coyly, pulling away from her sister's tight squeeze as she got the last of the eggs out of the pan and plated for them. Anna grabbed the final elements to help set the table, but her silence, which was very rare, told Elsa that her patience had grown as thin as it could get without flat out revolt. "Okay fine, yes there was a dream."
"Only one?" Anna asked, confused no doubt by the fact that one was an unusually low number for Elsa any time of month.
"Only one you really really want to hear about."
"It's a wedding, I just know it. Please tell me it's a wedding!"
Elsa allowed three heart beats to pass before her face broke and she smiled. "Yes, I dreamed about a wedding."
The squeals and screams that came from her sister at that moment were almost ungodly and she sprung up from her seat and danced around the room like a kid at the most magical Christmas ever.
"I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! So where does it happen? Are we talking beach, or the gazebo, oh or maybe the woods? I don't know what it is about Killian but he's got that vibe. Like an 'I will totally have my way with my woman under the stars vibe.'"
"Anna!" Elsa said, chastising her sister who ignored the attempted language check completely.
"Oh please. The man practically growls when other men look at Emma. It's so totally hot. I want one for myself."
"You say that like you can add it to your Christmas list and a comparable man will just appear," Elsa said, scoffing at the very thought.
"Well obviously not my Christmas list, besides that's way too far away. But Nana Rose always said that when in doubt you have to wish. I'm putting every last ounce of my wish power out there. You and I need men like that."
"Oh you're including me too, are you?"
"Yup. It's time, Elsa. I know you're the one with the magic -," Elsa gave Anna a look that had her sister correcting herself, "sorry, instincts. But I know this time. My gut might not talk all that much, but she's here and she's saying it's your turn to find love like Emma and Killian have. You deserve to be cherished and adored. You deserve a man who walks around Storybrooke a little aimlessly because he's just hoping that he'll see you. You deserve a man who looks at you like you're everything, because you are. You're the best person in the whole world, Els. Emma's a close second, because she is our sister too, without a doubt, but you're so strong and so kind and so selfless. You've given up so much for me and for everyone you meet. So it's time for love to happen for you, and I can't be the only one wishing. You need to start wishing to."
"Anna."
That was all Elsa said, just her sister's name with an inflection that said it all. There were tears in her eyes at the thoughtfulness, and though part of her thought her sister was certifiably insane, she couldn't help the feeling in her chest that was so flattered and happy. It meant the world to her to know Anna loved her so much, even if her sister showed her every day. And somewhere, underneath all those worries and responsibilities she'd been shouldering for years, there was a part of her that mirrored her sister. It was a hopeful part, that wondered if maybe Nana Rose might have been right and if maybe wishing could make a difference.
"Just promise me you'll be open to it, okay?"
"I promise," Elsa said, finding she actually meant the words.
"Good," Anna said, settling back to her breakfast. "Now. Let's talk business – this wedding is coming, and it's coming fast, and we need to make sure we get our say. Mary Margaret is awesome, but she's totally going to take it all over. We gotta stake a claim to planning stuff early so we can make sure Emma gets everything she really wants."
Anna continued on speaking about what needed to be done to make a wedding perfect for Emma, and Elsa relaxed into the conversation, finding that she herself thoroughly enjoyed the topic despite how bizarre it was. There absolutely had not been a proposal or an announcement or anything, but here they were with Anna droning on about floral arrangements and bridesmaids dresses. This was all based on a dream, and yet in her heart Elsa knew that it would come to pass. Because in that dream – in that glimpse into a future Elsa truly believed Emma would find – it wasn't any of the details that mattered to Emma. All that mattered to her friend was the man who stood beside her, and luckily every outlook Elsa had seen included them together and happy, for now and in the very distant future.
Post-Note: So there we have it! This chapter has set us up for the fluff and smut that has to come with a mating heat, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it. Like I said, minimal CS direct contact – but there were ways I tried to include the fluff. Also writing from Elsa's POV was a fun new challenge, and it's very important to my story and what will come next. There will be a few more POV's from other characters too in the future, but rest assured, this is a CS story and it will ALWAYS be a CS story. Anyway thanks so much to all of you for reading. I am thrilled you continue to join me on this journey through what is fast becoming one of my favorite fics, and I can't wait to see what you all thought!