And I'd choose you…

"I have an idea…"

Emma looked up from the fire, but Bae was (purposefully, she could tell) avoiding her gaze.

"What is it?" she asked, shifting closer to him.

"About how to break your curse."

Emma inhaled sharply, and tried to fight the hope that flared inside her. She'd been stuck transforming into a swan during the day for so long. She couldn't even imagine what it'd be like to be free.

"What is it?" she asked, almost breathless.

Bae took a deep breath, and seemed to resign himself to something.

"I think we should talk to the Dark One."

…in a hundred lifetimes…

"How long have you been here?" Emma asked, looking at all of the tally marks in the cave Baelfire had taken her to in order to escape from Pan.

He frowned. "I'm… not sure. You're from the Land Without Magic?"

"I think so?"

"When I left there it was 1904, but time passes differently here."

"Oh."

He frowned. "What year is it for you?"

"...1997."

His eyes widened. "That's…"

Silence.

"I'm sorry," she finally said.

"For what?"

"That everyone you know is probably dead."

He looked away. "They had each other."

She grabbed his hand. "And now you have me."

…in a hundred worlds…

"How'd you end up in foster care?" Emma asked as they hid upstairs, doing their homework as their foster parents screamed at each other below.

Neal shrugged. "It's complicated. My father… He abandoned me."

Neal was usually very closed off, but Emma took a chance and pushed for more. "Is he alive?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I think so. Probably."

"Would… would you ever go back?"

He shook his head.

Emma wondered what was worse. To know who abandoned you and why, or to constantly wonder about it.

But Neal changed the subject, and she pushed the thought away.

…in any version of reality…

"I think that's the last of them," Neal said, coming back into the empty apartment, sweat covering his face from carrying boxes.

Emma nodded, taking one last look at the place where they had settled down. Where they had had Henry. It looked so much emptier with their stuff in the moving truck.

"It's so weird," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"To be sad about leaving somewhere."

Neal shrugged. "It's just an apartment, in the end."

"Yeah."

It had been home, but that was only because of the people in it.

"We'll make more memories," he said, and Emma smiled.

…I'd find you…

"Hey."

Neal looked up from where he was sitting in his dad's shop, smiling when he saw her. "Hey. Everything alright?"

"Yeah," she said, hesitantly sitting down near him. "It's just… After Pan and Zelena and everything, we never got to have that lunch."

His face split into a large grin, before he pushed it down.

"Yeah," he said, almost breathless. "We can have lunch. Tomorrow, maybe? Noon at Granny's?"

Emma let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. "It's a date."

She didn't know what their future would bring, but she was ready to find out.

…And I'd choose you.

In case you're confused, the AUs are, in order:

Swan Princess/Enchanted Forest AU
Neverland AU
Foster Care AU
Tallahassee AU
Neal Lives AU