Ample Proof
by misscam
Disclaimer: Not my characters, just my words.
Author's Note: Set after 4x10. Written for everyone who asked me to do a post-curse 'making up' between Snow and Charming.
II
Another week, another threat of a curse or spell having loomed over them.
Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration, Snow considers, but it's not that far from the truth. Not long ago it was Zelena and her spell threatening their lives. In fact, she can still remember the heartbreak of her baby vanishing from her arms, the sheer agony of it happening all over again.
Before that, it was Pan's curse, and the heartbreak of having to let Emma go once again, and before that again, the near-destruction of Storybrooke. And of course, there is the original curse, 28 years of knowing something was missing and not knowing quite what.
And then there was this one.
Emma defeated this one, and their daughter is now safely asleep in her bed upstairs. Their brilliant, brave daughter, saving the day once again.
It could have ended very differently.
Snow shivers slightly, pressing a kiss to Neal's forehead as she puts him down into his crib. He is sleeping, blissfully unaware of the danger he faced today. She almost wishes she could be as well. She is so tired of her family being threatened. Tomorrow, she will be ready to fight again, but tonight, she just wants to find her husband's arms and rest in them.
She nearly lost him, she thinks painfully, just emotionally this time. She can still vaguely remember looking at him and not feeling the love for him that by now feels as much a part of her as her very bones. Not seeing the love in his eyes that makes her feel more alive than anything else.
She shivers again, and with a last brush of fingers against Neal's forehead, she leaves him sleeping and goes to find her husband. She needs him, needs to assure herself she still has him. She kissed him in the middle of the street for an indecent amount of time to assure herself of that earlier, but she needs more.
She needs him.
Their bedroom is dark, with the curtains drawn, and for a moment she wonders if he's fallen asleep already. But no, the bed is empty and...
A hand snakes around her waist, pulling her back against a warm body. Charming, she realizes, relaxing. His hands link across her stomach, while his mouth settles on the side of her neck. He's bare-chested, she realizes, feeling the heat of his skin against the cotton of her shirt.
She sighs happily, tilting her head as he presses a trail of kisses down her neck. His hands seem to have sneakily slipped underneath her shirt to find skin, his thumbs making slow circles while his mouth has found just the right spot where her shoulder meets her neck.
Her lips part in a moan, and she can feel him smile in response. Then he is sucking, and even biting lightly, and her moan turns into a continued series of them. She draws her fingers across his arms, wishing she could touch more of him, but he has her firmly locked against his body.
"Charming..." she murmurs. His hands shift lower, and she arches slightly. Somehow, he seems to have unzipped her pants without her even noticing, and now they're pooling by her feet while his hands are warm against the silk of her underwear.
"Mmm," he says. "I love you."
"I love you too," she says, then has to bite her lip to keep from make an utterly undignified sound as he presses his palm against her just right and yet not enough. "Charming..."
"Yes," he says, and sounds quite satisfied. "I do know that part of you."
She blinks, then remembers one of the insults she threw at him through the bars while under the spell. 'Whale's a doctor. At least he knows which part is which!'
Oh. Oh dear.
"I didn't mean..." she begins, and then he finally turns her around in his arms to face him. Immediately, he's kissing her, tugging at her bottom lip until she parts her lips and his tongue is brushing hers. She tiptoes to meet the kiss and deepen it even further, and he makes encouraging noises at that. His fingers are working the buttons of her shirt, and he makes a triumphant growl into the kiss when he pulls it off her and lets it fall to the ground.
She can feel his hands shift downwards to lift her up, and then she is being carried the few feet to the bed and being gently lowered onto it. He follows her down, shifting his weight onto his elbows to keep kissing her. She lefts her hands roam his chest, tracing his smooth skin across muscles and scars.
When he finally breaks the kiss to gaze down at her, his eyes bright with love even in the dark, she presses a finger against his lips.
"Charming," she says, her voice slightly breathless. "I wasn't..."
"I know," he says gently, kissing her fingertip. "It's okay. We were under a spell. But..."
"But..." she prompts, and he smiles a touch mischievously.
"A bandit once told me she preferred taking actions over words. So I thought I might prove my knowledge of... Your parts."
He punctuates the last few words by curving one of his hand around her breast, letting his thumb pull the lace of her bra downwards until he can brush her nipple. She arches into that, his satisfied grin making her want to growl at him and kiss him at the same time.
She goes for both, crashing her lips onto his, growling his name into the kiss in a way that makes him bite her lower lip lightly. She wants him, wants him now, and from the bulge in his pajamas pants that is pressing against her, she has ample proof he wants her just as much.
He shifts her slightly to unhook her bra more easily, his hands soon cupping her breasts instead. They're fuller than normal these days, with her breastfeeding Neal, but Charming has large hands more than up to the task.
He knows her breasts, she is happy to admit. Oh yes. He knows that part of her. He has caressed every inch of them many, many, many times over, with his hands and mouth both, from that first time in the meadow when they were both learning to know each other to last night, when they made slow, quiet love under the covers until Neal woke up.
He really has nothing to prove. But still, if he's determined...
He is, of course. He's Charming, giving her another firm kiss before moving his mouth downwards. She lets her head fall backwards against the mattress, listening to her own ragged breathing as he peppers kisses across her breasts, occasionally catching her nipple between his teeth in a way that makes her bite her lip.
He seems determined to lure noises out of her, though. Not even biting her lip can keep her from half-moaning, half-whimpering when his mouth settles on one breast and a hand on the other. He knows that, the bastard, knows just how that makes her feel and want and...
"Charming!" she hisses, and he lifts his head to give her a hard, brief kiss, far too brief for her taste. Still, she lets him pull back to begin a path of kisses across her stomach. She understand that he needs this, needs this like she needs to feel near him. They were under a spell, yes. What was said were twisted things, as twisted as the reflection of a broken mirror. They both know that.
They still need to feel it. Feel together again, feel like Snow and Charming again, feel like the two halves of a heart they now are.
So she will let Charming have this, to feel the proof of something he actually knows. That he knows her, in every way.
He knows how much she enjoys his nimble fingers, that's for sure, and she digs her fingers into her mattress as she feels him pull her underwear off, then brush her fingers lightly between her legs. Even if she is ready for it, her breath still catches, and then again, as his thumb makes a slow circle.
He legs seem to part further of their own accord, and he bends down to kiss the inside of her thigh while his gently slides two fingers into her. The friction of it is wonderful and frustrating at once, being too much and not enough. She needs more, she needs...
That, she thinks sharply, as he starts moving his fingers inside her while his mouth moves across her skin, her increasingly breathless moans encouraging him. She presses against it as much as she can as well, feeling the sharp jolts of pleasure becoming like electricity in her veins, coursing through her until it becomes white light in her head – and explodes.
It feels like coming apart and being put back together, wonderfully so. For a while, she can only breathe and feel adrift, her limbs feeling too heavy to move. She can feel Charming kiss her cheeks and her lips while caressing her ears with his fingers, slowly anchoring her back to him and her body.
"Snow," he murmurs. "I love you."
"Mmm," she agrees, too breathless to say anything else. Her heart is still pounding in her chest, and when she pushes her palm against his chest, she can feel his heartbeat match her rhythm.
One heart, she thinks. Hers, but it's also been his since the moment she tried on his mother's ring and realized she wanted to keep wearing it, wanted to keep him.
As if he knows what she's thinking, Charming puts his hand on hers, smiling down at her.
She lifts her head to kiss him, slowly and leisurely, enjoying the way he makes something akin to a hum when his tongue brushes hers. It also allows her to distract him enough to put her hands on his shoulder and flip him around.
He laughs into the kiss, then watches her with laughing eyes as she trails kisses down his chest, all the way to the waistband of his pajamas pants. She can see his erection straining against the cloth, even more so when she closes her hand around it.
She can see him swallow. "Snow..."
"I know this part," she tells him, trying to give him a mischievous smile and probably succeeding from the way he looks at her. "Shall I prove it?"
He can only nod, lifting himself up enough to help her yank his pajamas pants off. His underwear follows, and then he is hard yet soft in her hands and she is stroking him.
He makes the sort of noise at the back of his throat that she knows so very well, and could spend a lifetime happily listening to. Charming's noises of pleasure, and to know she is the one causing them... Yes. It pleases the dark, possessive part of her that likes to think him hers, as well as every other part of her that loves him more than life itself and want him happy.
When he growls her name, she knows he is so very close, so she moves to straddle him. He lifts himself to kiss her, cradling her head in his hands while she lowers herself on him; they both moan into the kiss at the sensation.
She can feel the tension in his arms as he wills himself to stay still and not move, to try and make it last for her even as he is hard and straining inside her. She doesn't make it easier on him by rocking back and forth on him, rotating her hips and clenching her inner muscles around him until his moans have almost become pleas.
They can drive each other equally mad, she thinks happily; equals in bed as well as everywhere else.
He comes with a deep shudder into the kiss, and she breaks the kiss to cradle his face in her hands and watch. His cheeks are flushes, his lashes are dark against his skin, his lips swollen and pink while parted and soundlessly mouthing her name, and his whole face seems bright with pleasure.
He blinks at her a few times before his gaze seems to focus, and then he smiles. Gently, he leans forward to kiss her, putting his hands on her back and easing her down onto the bed with him. It takes a bit of effort to pull the covers around them with the slight mess they've made with vigorous moving, but they eventually manage.
Charming sighs happily as she drapes herself around him, resting her head on his shoulder where she can reach him for a kiss, if she wants. His hands are making slow patterns on her back and occasionally her buttocks, and she feels wonderfully, wonderfully warm.
"Was that poof enough?" she asks, and he chuckles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Oh no," he says decisively. "We don't want to jump to conclusions. We need ample proof."
"Charming," she says, trying to sound stern and failing quite badly, by the sound of her own voice. "Ample? I have to be able to walk tomorrow!"
"I'll carry you," he promises seriously, and she laughs before kissing him impulsively. His arms close around her, pulling her closer, and she can already feel her heartbeat quicken, and knows so is his. (It's hers, after all.)
Ample it is, then.
II
She is able to walk in the morning after all, as it turns out; Charming still insists on carrying her to the shower to share it, and manages to walk them both into a coffee-seeking Emma in the kitchen.
Strangely, Emma just rolls her eyes at them, then impulsively hugs them both. It makes Snow wonder if maybe Emma too, might like proof that the spell is truly broken, that her parents love each other again, that she did save the day.
Maybe just not ample proof, given the look she gives them an hour later when she catches them necking in the hallway.
FIN