Summary: Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.
Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.
A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.
Rating: M
Content Warnings: Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content.
Chapter Notes: Okay y'all, the reunion that you all have been waiting for is finally here! But things aren't always what they seem. Thanks to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for helping beta this monstrosity and helping me write (good) angst for the first time these last couple of chapters. Also huge kudos to princesse-swan for being an amazing artist. More art from her to come in the following chapters!
Chapter 13
Emma burst through the doors of the planetarium, cursing soundly when she didn't initially see Killian in the room.
This was the most likely place where he would have come to, she was sure of it. Killian had always said it was relaxing and peaceful to be back under the stars, but considering that it didn't seem like he was here, she was at a bit of a loss as to where he could have gone.
Emma whirled around as the doors opened behind her.
"Emma. Is that you?" Killian asked, walking into the room.
Emma sighed in relief. "Killian, thank god you are okay." She said, rushing up to him and pulling him into her arms.
Killian's arms came around her in a crushing hug. "I was so worried about you Swan," He said, his hand coming up to touch the top of her head. "No one had any idea what happened to you."
"Riggans happened to me." She whispered, shivering a bit remembering the cold of the ICE block. Killian gripped her tighter in response.
"That's what we were all worried about," He murmured, burying his face into her neck.
"We?" She asked. Her brief conversation with David didn't give her any idea as to how long Killian had been locked up for either. "How long did they lock you up for?"
"I only got released this morning." He said, pulling back from her a bit. He held his hand out between them, what she now realized was a suppression glove was different than when she had last seen him. "Apparently that's how long it takes to outfit me with a new one of these."
"Where did they put you?" She was concerned that they had locked him in some super max wing like they had done with her.
"I was locked in my dorm, where were you Emma?" He asked, searching her eyes like they held the answer.
"They put me on ICE," She said.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" He asked. The look in her eyes must have been enough, because he cursed soundly, pulling her back into his arms. "That explains why you are still shivering love. I didn't think you could get cold," Killian chuckled a little bit, trying to lighten the mood.
Emma wasn't in any kind of laughing mood. Far from it actually.
"You saved me." She said, pulling back from him again.
He looked down at her in confusion. "What?"
"That fight with Gaston, you saved me. I wasn't doing well. If it hadn't been for you. I don't know what would have happened."
"It was really nothing Swan." He said, shrugging his shoulders a bit uncomfortably.
"No, it wasn't nothing. You didn't have to do that."
"Yes I did." He said.
"Why?" It was all the questions that she had been scared to ask wrapped up in one. Why save me? Why use your powers like that? Why didn't you just leave after I had been so horrible to you?
"Because I couldn't just sit by and let that bastard hurt you. And I couldn't just sit back and not do anything. I had to help you, however I could. I don't really know how my powers work, but I knew the one thing that I could do to help so I had to try." He explained.
"I don't know what to say." She said, getting lost in the way he was looking at her.
"You don't need to say anything Love. Besides. I should be apologizing to you anyways." Killian pressed a finger to her lips to silence whatever she was about to say. "Yes, I do. So just let me get this out. Okay?"
He waited until she nodded her head silently before removing his finger and taking a step back.
"Look. I didn't mean what I said to you before Emma, back over break. I was scared, and frustrated. And I took that out on you when you were scared and frustrated too." He sighed, moving his hand from her elbow where it had been resting to run it through his hair. She belatedly noticed he had gotten it trimmed since the last time they spent any real time together. Too much had happened too fast that day back in the commons for her to have really taken any notice of it anyway. "You don't own me anything, especially because I have told you virtually nothing about myself. It was horribly rude and selfish of me to demand that you have to tell me about things that you can hardly think about, let alone voice. I'm truly sorry about that Love."
Emma smiled softly at him, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. She was unbelievably touched to say the least. He gave her a small smile in return.
She pressed up on her toes and leaned her face in towards his, hoping he would get the message and meet her halfway.
He did.
Every kiss with Killian felt like the first kiss to her. They were all the same and yet completely different at the same time. Some were flames, burning and rushing under her skin. Some were quiet, and soft, like a sleeping baby. Others, like this one, were tender and warm, like standing in the sun on the middle of a cool fall day.
Emma wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping his mouth on hers as she dropped down from her toes and planted her feet back on solid ground. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, his hand coming to tangle in her hair while the left arm wrapped securely around her waist.
She pulled back before the kiss became any more intense. She still wanted to talk with him about what she had seen with his brother.
"I missed you, so much." She said, staring at his sky blue eyes. She didn't want to think about those long days down on the block, not knowing when, or if she would be released. When her next meal would come. What had happened to her friends.
It had been the hardest to think about Killian. Not knowing if she would ever get to speak with him and begin the process of repairing what had been broken those weeks ago.
He squeezed his arms around her and buried his face back into her hair. She tucked her nose into his neck in return, enjoying the safety of being in his arms.
"Besides," Emma started, "I wanted to tell you that I understand."
Killian pulled back from her abruptly, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "Understand what?" He asked.
"I understand what it is like to come here under...Not the greatest circumstances." She said, struggling to find the right words.
"Not the greatest circumstances, what are you talking about Emma." He asked, even more confused than before.
"Well, after what your brother said….."
"My Brother?!" Killian said, sounding alarmed. "When have you ever talked with Liam?"
"Just a bit ago, I went over to find David…" She started, not understanding his reaction to what she was saying.
"How much of that conversation did you hear Emma?" He questioned, gripping the tops of her arms, this wild look coming into his eyes. She pulled back from him a bit, his reaction starting to concern her, for a number of reasons.
"I heard enough, but it was more of what Liam said to me after you left…" She trailed off as Killian pushed away from her and shoved his hand into his hair, groaning in frustration.
"So you know." He said, looking back at her after a few heart stopping minutes.
"I don't know everything, but he told me enough to-"
"To what Emma! You know enough about me now to know that I am not the sort of man that you want to be with anymore? Is that it?" He asked, growing more agitated as he lobbed question after question at her.
"What? NO! Killian, I'm not explaining this well. Let me explain." She pleaded, moving to grab his hand.
He pulled away from her, putting both arms up next to his head in frustration and walking around the room.
When they had both arrived, the room had been dark. Emma's eyes had adjusted some to make out where he was and the expression on his face when he was close, but she marveled at the way he avoided running into any of the mechanics and other objects in the room.
She supposed for someone whose powers were darkness, that granted him a bit of an advantage.
"Killian-" She started again, trying to salvage what was happening in front of her eyes.
"What do you want me to say Emma? That I'm okay with everything happening to me? Because I am not."
"I'm not saying-"
"I have never been farther from okay than I am right now. Not everything around here is like those books Emma." He said, whirling around to look at her.
"What books?" She asked.
"All that Shel Silverstein crap. The world isn't all butterflies and rainbows." Killian said it with such viciousness, he might as well have slapped her.
She reared back as if he had, feeling a sharp stabbing pain flare in the middle of her chest.
"Oh don't look at me like that Emma." He said, exasperated. "You know what I mean."
She didn't. Yeah, life hadn't been all butterflies and rainbows for her, far from it actually, but she didn't let that cloud her view point.
Most of the time anyway. She knew she was guilty of letting her past experiences change how she would have reacted to something or how she would have approached a situation, but that didn't make a difference in how she saw other people.
David had been helping her with that since they had met. Killian helping her more recently, more that he seemed to have realized.
"Yeah, I get it. But that doesn't mean you have to talk down to me Killian." She said.
"I'm not talking down to you Emma. I am trying to get you to see the world the way that I have experienced it. I haven't had it easy Emma." He said, still yelling at her.
"Well I wouldn't know anything about that, now would I! Since you don't tell me anything." She hurled a point from their last argument back at him.
"No, you just go to my Bloody Brother to learn all of my darkest secrets!"
"Like you don't go and get all of your information about me from David behind my fucking back." She yelled back, feeling her flames; which had winked out earlier, come roaring back to life.
"Now don't you go accusing me of going behind your back Emma."
"Why shouldn't I, you just threw the same accusation at me!"
"Because how in the bloody fuck would my brother know that I was here? I haven't had any form of communication with him since I was deployed on my last mission."
"How the fuck am I supposed to know that? I was on lock down for the last week and a half, or have you forgotten about that" She said, getting angrier with him by the minute. She couldn't remember a time she had been so angry.
"By your own fault." He said, stabbing a finger at her.
Emma could have sworn smoke was coming out of her ears, she was so angry. Her mouth tasted like ash.
Smoke must have been coming out of her ears, because the sprinklers in the room began going off, drenching both her and Killian in a matter of seconds.
She lifted her eyes to the ceiling, screaming her frustration.
How had everything gone so wrong?
Dr. Hopper burst through the door not even a minute later.
"Is everything okay up here?" He asked, catching sight of the two of them as he turned the lights on.
"Just fine Doctor. That was all my fault. Sorry for triggering the sprinklers." She said over the rush of the water.
Dr. Hopper moved to a panel on the wall and flipped two of the switches, turning off the torrent of water.
"Anything you two want to say about this?" He asked, crossing his arms, looking at Killian more than her.
"No." She said, both pairs of eyes whipping across the room to look at her. "I don't have anything more to say. It's pretty clear what just happened. So I am just going to leave if that's alright."
She wrapped her arms around herself as she turned to leave the room. Feeling hurt and lost at what just happened.
She made it out of the building before Killian caught up with her. She heard his shoes squelching along the sidewalk before she saw him.
With the full intent of ignoring him, she pressed on faster, trying to make it back to her dorm.
"Swan." He shouted, his watery footsteps getting louder before she felt his hand latch onto her upper arm.
She yanked her arm free before turning on him. "What do you want Killian? Don't you think you have said enough already?"
Killian looked down at her, his hair dripping down into his eyes, clothes plastered onto his body. He looked downright miserable. Emma had no sympathy for him.
None at all.
After another agonizing minute of waiting for him to do something other than stare down at her, she had had enough.
"If that's all Killian, I am going to go back to my room now." She said, not bothering to hide the hurt and anger in her voice. "Don't follow me. I don't think I want to talk to you for a while."
Emma turned her back and made her way across campus. Ignoring the curious looks that the other students were throwing her sopping wet appearance, she made her way into her building and climbed the stairs up to her room.
David was waiting for her when she got to her door, a bottle of rum in his hand.
Tears welled up in her eyes without her permission. "I really don't want to talk about it." She said, wiping a wet sleeve under her nose.
"I wasn't planning on talking about anything." He said, raising the bottle. "I thought you could use a drink."
He didn't say anything further as she opened the door to her room. She held the door open and gestured for him to join her.
After changing into a dry set of clothes, she sank down onto the floor next to David, skipping the offered glass and taking a swig right from the bottle. It burned it's way down her throat, offering some relief from her feelings.
"Today sucked." Was all she said, a few silent tears falling down her cheeks.
David just nodded and took the bottle from her, taking a swig of it himself.
Emma leaned her head against his shoulder and finally allowed herself to cry.