A/N: This chapter is a bit on the frisky side. I'm trying to keep it clean-ish, but I'm writing about teenagers, and they are going to get their groove on, so to speak. If that's not your cup of tea, I'd skip this chapter.
Begin rant. The OUAT season 4 finale [well the entire season 4 (esp 4A)] was so disappointing to me, I didn't want to think about the stories I'm writing. An alternate reality where villains win by becoming the heroes? The heroes are still winning, then. Grr. I expected Henry to be the next author. Kinda surprised that Emma is the new Dark One. And I'm not happy at all at the way they treated Rumplestiltskin. Is he powerless now? Or did removing the Dark One's taint simply remove the attachment to the dagger?
The Emma piece is so easily resolvable without finding Merlyn; the sorcerer's apprentice takes Emma and Hook back to the EF where they kiss true love's kiss. This breaks the Dark One's Curse. End of story arc.
I'm also not happy with the spoilers I'm reading about the Camelot characters. This cast is so huge right now without adding in anyone new. They need to concentrate on solving the problems facing the existing cast before bringing in any more major characters. End of rant.
As always, thank you for reading. Any comments or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Merida stood up straighter, a testament that at least one of her mother's lessons in deportment had become habitual. But her stride towards the makeshift target was her normal loose limbed walk instead of the boneless, gliding motion that was the epitome of a lady's walk. She pulled the arrows from their circle and carefully placed them in her quiver, which she removed from her waist, before heading to PJ still sitting on his trash bag. She sank cross legged onto an empty section of his trash bag, and held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Merida, daughter of the Laird of Dunbroch."
Jack took it with a grin. "Jack, former stable hand for King George and Prince James. But I think I like PJ better than Jack."
"I guess this means the Curse is over then."
PJ leaned sideways, bumping shoulders with Merida. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," he grinned.
"Be serious, PJ. We're still here. In Storybrooke. Not that I'm complaining, but I wonder why we didn't go back?"
"Dunno. Why wouldn't you want to go back? You're the daughter of a laird? You must have lived in a castle! With servants at your beck and call."
"Yeah, I grew up in a castle. But it wasn't all bowing and scraping and getting my way, you know. Dad's an accountant here, but there? There he was the very definition of Laird: loud, boisterous, brave, able to fight with any weapon, or even no weapon at all. His men were just like him, forever burping or farting when they weren't getting into fights. Dad gave me my first bow and taught me how to shoot when I was four. I wanted to be just like him. I even learned how to burp the alphabet to be more like him. But Mum, she was a lady; she could have put Emily Post out of a job. And she was determined to make me just like her." Merida flopped backwards onto the still wet grass in protest of being a lady. She regretted her action immediately; the wet ground was cold. "Mum strangled me with corsets and gave me lessons in walking with books on my head. I hated it, hated her for a while, too. I knew she loved me and wanted what she thought was best for me. But getting engaged at 16 to a complete stranger? I wanted to be more than a brood mare…. And I really wanted to know more about my future husband than just that he was the son of the Laird of some clan or other and knew which end of a sword you held."
"I know what you mean. My mom worked in the kennels at the castle." PJ leaned back and rolled slightly so he was lying on his side, one hand supporting his head. The other hand itched to slide under Merida's shirt and explore how soft her skin was. "And for years she would bring me my lunch and we would eat together. But then about a year before the curse, girls started delivering my meals. Kitchen maids, laundresses, once even an upstairs maid. She finally admitted that these were girls she thought I might find to be pretty and she thought might be an acceptable daughter-in-law. I thought about running away and joining the army, but by then the war was over. I knew why she was looking; my dad had been a gambler and he left before Jillian, that's Penny's other name, was born. And even with the three of us working at the castle, money was tight. Having another person with an income would be an immense help…. Especially once Jillian got married herself."
PJ stopped thinking about the past, and started thinking about his trash bag. It was one of the really large bags…. If the ripped the side seams and opened it, they could both lay almost full length on it. They'd have to be really close together. He was about to suggest this when he saw a curl of purple mist winding about a tree. "What the hell is that?"
Merida turned her head to look where PJ was looking. More tendrils were creeping around the trees, snaking through the grass. And behind them was a roiling cloud. "Magic," she whispered. Then more urgently, "PJ! This must be the cloud that takes us back to the Enchanted Forest!" She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "Clan Dunbroch is about a three day journey by horse in the mountains north of the Dark Castle. All the clans live there; you can ask any of them for directions. My parents probably won't let me go look for you. Come find me. Please!"
"I promise. I will find you." He sealed his promise with a kiss. The teens realized this might be the last time they kissed, and this lent desperation to their actions. As their tongues tangled with each other, their hands roamed the other's body, sliding under shirts and for the very first time exploring the various ridges and bumps and relative smoothness of skin of their lover. Mouths soon followed hands; shirts were shoved up and off exposing pale skin to the morning sun and the other's ardent gaze.
The magic cloud bubbled across the field, sliding over and around the lovers, continuing its journey from the well where it was born until it had filled every corner and crevice of this little town of Storybrooke.
The sun warming his naked back gently intruded into PJ's conscious mind. A mind that was already overloaded with sensations: touch, taste, scent, and hearing were all focused on the girl lying beneath him, her jean clad hips and legs mindlessly caressing his. But eventually the intrusion was enough to make him raise his head and open his eyes to see that the magic cloud was indeed gone.
"Fiona. Fee. Honey," he whispered between more kisses. "We've got to stop. The cloud, it's gone."
"Gone?" Merida looked up at PJ and then around the clearing in confusion. "But we're still here…." PJ moved slightly, adjusting his weight on his arms; Merida snapped out of her confusion realizing that she was half naked, lying underneath a half naked boy, in the middle of a forest and people investigating the purple cloud could be walking towards them. She felt as if her whole body was blushing; and given the suddenly grin appearing on PJ's face as he gazed at her breasts, she probably was. She pushed PJ off, grabbed her T-shirt and wiggled her way into it. "We need to get back to town. Find out what's happened."
Merida was right about people walking through the forest. But it wasn't people heading in to where the cloud originated. Mr. Gold was walking out of the forest about 50 yards ahead of the teens. And he wasn't alone. He was escorting a woman wearing the most dreadful looking coat and shoes on the planet. And her brown hair was as ratted and messy as Merida's on a good day. Their heads tilted in towards each other as they walked and they looked at each other almost as much as they looked at the path ahead. She touched him constantly, his arm, his face, cupping his neck to draw his mouth down for a kiss. In one hand he held his ever present cane; the other was resting on the woman's back in that sweet spot between 'friend' (just below mid-back) and 'gross' (cupping her butt). That spot where the spine curved creating a natural resting place for a lover's hand. Taken all together, the picture the two presented screamed out to any observer 'he's/she's mine; stay away'.
Interesting, Merida thought. Mr. Gold has a girlfriend….
The main streets of Storybrooke were crowded with people hugging and crying and laughing. It was utter madness as friends and families reunited with each other and rejoiced in the Curse being broken. And worried over those not yet found. Over and over they asked, 'Have you seen so and so?'
Marcie pulled PJ into an embrace with the arm not already hugging her daughter Jillian. "Jack, my darling boy. You're OK. I was so worried. Jill and I couldn't find you…."
Merida looked past the Johnsons to see if her own family was amidst the throng. But as she wound her way in and around the various groupings, she realized that the only members of the upper nobility or royals in sight were Princess Snow White and her husband Prince James. Here and there she saw a baron or knight or lady she recognized from her travels to Snow White's and James' wedding. But the lairds, dukes, princes, kings and their ladies were suspiciously absent. She supposed it might be more than slightly humiliating for the royals to wake up and realize how far they had fallen. Mum was a very proud Lady with servants attending to every whim. And she's probably cut and colored their hair and sucked up to them so they would come back to her shop. And Dad! From warrior Laird to accounting nerd.
She supposed there was one other good thing about the Curse being broken. Not a single person looked at her strangely as she walked home wearing a quiver full of arrows on her hip and carrying a recurved bow.