#And Crocodile did have his poison hook so like. Sure

[moongothic]

You know. If Crocodad Real. How would Luffy even react if he found out. Like really, how the fuck would he feel about it.

'Cause like how I went over in this post (briefly at the end), we don't even know how Luffy feels about Crocodile as he is right now, so can you imagine how that bombshell would impact things

Like my running theory is that Luffy still hates Crocodile but maybe not quite as much as pre-Impel Down since he kiiinda owes him etc

And Luffy does not seem to give a shit about blood connections, at least not that much. Like don't get me wrong, Luffy's family are the people who were there for him when he was a child, those are the people he cares about and his bio-parents don't really matter. But also, honestly, I think the reason Luffy doesn't give a shit about who his parents are is because he doesn't know them. Luffy cares about people who he knows and likes, and while he doesn't give a shit about Dragon right now, it's arguably because he simply just doesn't know him. If the two actually get to meet and know each other, like if Luffy takes a liking Dragon, he'll probably accept Dragon as his dad and as his family. But on his own terms. It's up to Luffy to decide

And that's why like. How would Luffy react to finding out he has another dad and that one is fucking Crocodile. Because he already hates the man. It would not be happy news for him I'm sure

The other thing is that normally Luffy does not give a flying fuck about people's sad backstories. He didn't care to hear what happened to Nami and her village for example, because what really mattered was that there was a person he cared about who was deeply hurt and in danger and he wanted to help said person. And that's where I'm so torn. Because on one hand, it would be perfectly on-brand for Luffy to not give a shit of Crocodile had a sob story to tell. But also, I could imagine Luffy being so fucking confused over the news that he'd want to hear the truth of like, who what where how why, in detail. So that, you know, he could make his own decision and figure out if he wants to considder Crocodile is other dad or disown him.

Like, both feel like things Luffy would do

So really, would the real deciding factor might be just... the circumstances where Luffy finds out???

God knows, I can not imagine Crocodile himself telling Luffy anything ever. The kid already hates him, he knows it, so he'd probably think it'd be for the best if Luffy never found out

So how else could Luffy find out then?

As far as we know, the only other person who could confirm it would be Dragon himself, and considdering how he probably feels about his ex (see: Alabasta Coup Attempt), I can't imagine him wanting to talk about Crocodile to Luffy in lenght or in a positive light. Like I can't imagine Dragon wanting to tell Luffy at all is the point, not unless he wanted to like apologize to Luffy because it is arguably his fault Luffy and Crocodile fought in Alabasta to near-death to begin with. (Sidenote since we don't know how the break-up happened to begin with, it's totally possible Crocodile could've asked Dragon to never let their kid find out what happened to his "mom")

And now, this is where I'm gonna go completely off the rails, but. As I was wondering if there was any other way Luffy could find out...

S-Croc is made with Crocodile's DNA.

(And actually before I even go into S-Croc, super quick sidenote: If Kuma can extract memories out of people and allow other people to literally see them... Like I can't tell if Kuma's memories got absorbed by Bonney when she looked into them or if Kuma's Memory Bubble is still on Egghead, but if viewing the memories isn't the same as having them inserted into a vessel permanently... Like if Kuma isn't turbo-dead, could there be a scenario where we have Kuma (or S-Bear) yeet out Croc's memories and have Luffy just look into them? Because god knows Crocodile might just refuse to speak about it and that could be the only way to get The Whole Truth if Dragon doesn't want to talk about it either?) (Of course, Crocodile would understand just How Persistent Luffy is so if Luffy just kept on annoying him about it, Crocodile could maybe give up eventually because he knows he can't get Luffy to piss off until he spills the beans)

So currently the Strawhat's plan is for them to go and escort the Vegapunks to Elbaf (if nothing goes funny after the flashback is over, which remains to be seen)

2. There is the mystery of what sex S-Croc is going to be, because there is a possibility that if Crocodile is trans then his Seraphim could be pre-T (though this entirely depends on whether or not Ivankov's HRT changes even the DNA of person. Since it's MAGIC HRT I would prefer it to, not gonna lie, and I would not appreciate any "you may look different but your DNA will tell the truth!" rhetoric in the story but I may be asking too much from Oda)

3. And there's also the mystery of what Devil Fruit ability S-Croc might have, since all the Seraphim have been given Fruit powers, and we know Vegapunk can't replicate Crocodile's Sand Logia.

All things considdered, I think the actual, most likely known ability S-Croc might end up with would be like, Mr 3's wax powers (hilariously), mainly because I could imagine it being flexible enough to work in Crocodile's fighting style, so it'd be the easiest for S-Croc to adapt to (like if you can make anything from wax, then why not sharp blades to fling at people) (Also we know Vegapunk would have access to this power since Mr 3 was in Impel Down, when they also got Daz' powers)

But also I had joked before how it'd be funny if S-Croc was a Crocodile Zoan for no reason. Like it'd be fitting since Crocodile was already the Only Logia of the OG Shichibukai, so making his Seraphim the Only Zoan would be funny as hell (if it's even possible, which we can't say if it will/won't be). Additionally, making him a Crocodile Zoan would be hysterically on-the-nose.

(Sidenote: If there was a crocodile Zoan Fruit, what sub-category do you think it'd fall into? Like would it be Ryu Ryu like all the dinosaur-themed Zoans are, or maybe even a different model of Uo Uo (same as Kaidou)? Since "wani" could be considdered a different type of serpent-dragon, and if Vegapunk was researching how to recreate Kaidou's fruit, it's plausible he might've accidentally recreated some other related-fruit in the process or afterwards?? (Also since Kaidou's Uo Uo is a specific model (Seiryu) it would make sense if there was another Uo Uo model Fruit, and this could be an excelent opportunity to use it))

The thing about Zoans though is that, as it's been brought up once or twice before, Zoan fruits can kind of have a "mind of their own" and influence the user in unexpected ways.

And as all we Crocodad Truthers know.

Crocodiles are protective of their babies.

ALSO: The Seraphim do have enough personal will-power that they may (slightly) disobey orders they've been given. Case-and-point, S-Snake undoing the Petrification on the Strawhats after Luffy asked her to, since S-Snake is fond of Luffy just like Hancock is

Sidenote, it was kind of made a point how Vegapunk considdered his artificial replica of Kaidou's dragon fruit a compete failure simply because instead of a blue dragon, the user would turn into a pink one instead. So if Vegapunk tried to make a Seraphim of Crocodile, knowing full-well he couldn't even give the Seraphim the same ability as the OG, and then the Seraphim turns out the wrong sex for no reason?? I could see him being confused as hell and considder S-Croc "a failed Seraphim"

So really, all we'd really need to happen would be for the Strawhats to somehow encounter the remaining three Seraphim while escorting the Vegapunks to Elbaf. Mind you, IDK how that could even happen since as far as we know they've been deployed the Emptee Bluffs

And then just have S-Croc either disobey orders to hunt Luffy or even even have him be protective of Luffy (following that Zoan Instinct, one even he can't explain, it's just Instinct). Have Sanji be like "hey why the fuck is this one a girl, isn't it supposed to be Crocodile", followed by Vegapunk explaining this Seraphim was a failure for reasons even he can't understand

Then have Jinbei remember the conversation Crocodile and Ivankov had at Impel Down (suspicious considdering Ivankov's abilities and this "failed Seraphim"), and maybe if Crocodile had any involvement with the Revolutionaries and Robin was suspicious of him she could even bring that up

Along with any other minor details that may be bothering the crew about the whole deal

And so if the Strawhats and Vegapunk just put all their braincells together and rubbed them real hard, they could maybe come to a hypothesis as to why S-Croc is a "failure" and protective of Luffy, and maybe even a potential explanation as to why The Real Crocodile was protective of Luffy in Marineford for no fucking reason

And maybe, just maybe, Vegapunk could confirm that suspicion with a DNA test. All he needs to do is check Luffy's and compare it to Crocodile's.

Not sure Luffy would want to do the DNA test, like knowing Luffy he might prefer to just ask Crocodile in person if they ever ran to each other again

But boy, if he somehow did agree to a DNA test, and there was a match... oh boy

But again. This entire scenario is BEYOND off-the-rails. Technically plausible! But honestly if Luffy is ever gonna find out (assuming Crocodad Real) then it's gonna be from Dragon

I just wanted to get the theoretical scenario out of my system okay, I had to get the brainworms out of my brain

#Moon posting #OP Meta #OP Spoilers #Crocodad #Sir Crocodile #Long post #You know I wasn't going to yeet this out of my drafts for a while but since I brought up S-Croc in the last post I figured why not #Since I went off speculating about S-Croc here in detail #Let's just get it out of my system #I'm so facinated by S-Croc I want to see that little shit in action so bad #My other assumption for what ability S-Croc could have would maybe be Magellan's Venom Fruit #Since that one is shockingly a Paramecia! AND Vegapunk would have access to it! He could replicate it! #And Crocodile did have his poison hook so like. Sure #I'm still putting my money on Doru Doru though #ALSO to circle back to the original subject (how would Luffy react if he found out) #It's entirely plausible that he might never find out even if Crocodad was real #Like there's that whole thing about Oda telling Mayumi Tanaka that Luffy's mother wasn't important to the story YEARS ago #And like. It's possible it was a white lie. It's possible Oda could've changed his mind. OP was meant to end at Alabasta at one point #It's possible that if Luffy doesn't have a mom but two dads then Oda's statement would still be true #But it's also possible Crocodile could be Luffy's other dad and it could never play into the story in a meaningful way #Like we the readers could find out just to understand the beef between Crocodile and Dragon etc #And Luffy never finds out #Nightmare scenario. I will cry. #But frankly might be just the most likely one

[alexa-fika]

Antidote for one ( Crocodile x gn!pigeon!reader)

A/N: Do I have any idea where this is going now? But I still love writing them, because fics like this just make me feel some type of wayyyy, the type of way where you’re on the edge of your sit wanting more, you know what I mean?”

Pt 1, Pt 3

Doflamingo Version

Dividers by @/saradika

Crocodile smiles, taking another drag on his cigar

“Now we are getting somewhere. There is a marine base on the South Sea. We need you to infiltrate in and retrieve a marine captain, dead or alive.”

They slam their hand on his desk

“What the hell is that? I do deliveries; I am not an assassin.”

“You deliver messages and letters, do you not?You bring things for me to the destination I specify.” He mockingly tells them

“This is no different, the delivery just happens to be more alive, or dead depending on how you want to do it.” He said shrugging his shoulders

“Do not worry; the Marines will believe he was killed by a pirate that they are searching for. So, is this a yes or no?”

“Have you lost your mind?! No!” They exclaim

“I do deliveries. Not killings”

Crocodile stares them down

“What part of this did you not understand?You either deliver the goods or lose your wings. Is this clear enough to you?”

They lean in closer to him

“I call bull, im not doing it.”

Crocodile smirks sharply as he leans as well and glares back at them with a menacing aura

“Give your answer again, pigeon….”

They glare at him, not backing down

“No.”

“Wrong answer” Crocodile smiles

“I will give you one more last chance, so listen up,.

As you know, when working for the Cross Guild, your wings are not yours. And I have every right to take them away.”

“They are not! These wings are mine, they are a part of me and I don’t belong to you, hell I tecnically don’t even work for you”

Crocodile stands up and, in one swift movement, wrapping his hand around them, the sharp edge of his hook hovering over their wings

“This again? Im getting tired of this. Are you going to change your answer now?”

They still glancing at the hook, breaths away from their wings but remain firm

“I will not. I agreed to do deliveries, not murders; matter of fact, im not doing any deliveries for you; I call bullshit on your threat. Would you really just destroy the wings that carry your deliveries, great amount of your gains around?”

Crocodile keeps his hook on their wings with a sharp gaze

“I never make empty threats,Reader.” He warns

“You are correct in saying that your little wings are valuable to me, but you underestimate me,. Did you think my only solution was to destroy your wings completely?” he said, removing the golding covering on his hook and hovering it above their wings again

“No, Little Pigeon, I am more than capable of teaching you a lesson, removing your wings without me losing my valuable asset,” he drawls

“Oh please, what could you possibly do to achieve something like that? Nothing.”

Crocodile grins

“Let’s find out, shall we?”

He digs his hook into their wings, creating two minor lacerations in each wing

They wince at the quick jabs but grin at him

“Is that all? Just some little pokes?”

Crocodile smirks at them,

“Are you sure Thats all there was to it little pigeon?”

“What are yo-

Their eyes widen as they quickly figure out the meaning behind his words, finding themselves unable to open or even move their wings

“Are you seeing the light now, little bird?” Crocodile’s grins with a cruel expression

“I do not have to destroy your wings to keep you in line. Simply paralyzing them keeps you as quiet as you should be.”

“What did you do”

He laughs mockingly at them as he puts the golden covering over his hook again and sits back down, leaning back on his chair, letting out a long cloud of smoke as he exhales from his cigar.

“I originally had deadly poison in it from scorpions in Alabasta. But I am more than able to complete the job more easily than poison would, so I replaced it with something different, a paralyzer.”

“If it is a paralyzer, Then I will simply wait for it to go away” they grit their teeth, backing away and heading for the door, putting their hand over the handle

Crocodile shakes his head as he smirks

“You clearly are not understanding the severity of your situation, Reader,” he drawls lazily blowing another puff of smoke

“Did you think I would store some measly paralizer? No, it is a special kind, one that needs an antidote to be lifted” he said, holding a vial in his hand and shaking it mockingly

They still, their hand still over the handle

“Then I will find my own antidote,” they mutter

“Oh, I’m not sure you can do that,” Crocodile said with a sadistic grin, staring at them

“You have no idea what the paralyzer is; therefore, don’t know what antidote you need, will you just start consuming different ones, hoping for the best? For all you know, I could’ve crafted it myself.”

They stand still for a while, their hand eventually leaving the handle, letting it fall back to their sides, not turning around to the man behind them

Crocodile smirks at them, putting the vial back on his desk

“That’s what I thought, Little pigeon. Your little brain seems to be working better than your mouth.”

Crocodile's grin turns sadistic, his eyes shining like the sun from behind his cigar.

”Now, are you going to take the job?”

“Give them back.”

Crocodile laughs at them before blowing a puff of smoke from his cigar

“You really are entertaining; if you have not been so damn stubborn about this, I would almost grow to like you.

But unfortunately, that is not the case; your wings are still mine till you fulfill the job.”

“Give them back,” they growl, turning around to face him, grabbing an ornamental sword hanging upon the wall, and storming his way

“Ah, you think you’re going to fight me and get the wings back? A bold pigeon, aren’t you? But I would be rather disappointed if that is the case….”

Crocodile stands up and slowly walks across the room

“Because little bird, it would be a shame if I had to resort to the less friendly methods for dealing with you.”

Crocodile’s expression remains calm and nonchalant as he walks ever closer to them, staring at them with a piercing gaze

They growl raising the sword and quickly bringing it down upon the former warlord.

In a swift motion, his hook comes out and grabs the blade in spinning it out of their grasp, falling to the ground with a loud clang

Crocodile’s grin widens

“Now, have you had enough of this charade? Or do you want to continue making a fool of yourself?”

They grit their teeth, glaring at the man before them

Crocodile stares back, his grin widening as he laughs at them.

“So much defiance for a small pigeon like you. Very well, you have chosen the less friendly option.”

Crocodile’s hand slams them against the wall pinning them against it.

They struggle against his grip

“Give them back!” They growl

“You still wish to play this game? You really need to know your place, little bird.” Crocodile said in a harsh, cruel tone

His face inches closer to theirs

“Your wings are not yours; they belong to the Cross Guild, and thus they belong to me. Your pride and ego is rather amusing to watch, but you need to know when to bow your head.”

Crocodile holds them still, with no intention of letting them go

“This is a nice feeling…, to see you squirming like a small bird stuck in a hawk’s talons” he laughs cruelly

“You know what I want,” Crocodile said, his voice dropping in volume to a whisper

He leans in closer to them, his voice turning menacing and terrifying

“Agree, and the antidote is yours.”

“I’ll do your damn deliveries but im not killing anyone!”

“Ah ha, so you do have the slightest of common sense buried beneath that dense brain of yours,” Crocodile said, smirking

“I’ll change your assignment to your usual deliveries, and no complaints will come from you when doing it, right?”

They simply glare at him

“It’s a simple question, Reader a yes or no question” Crocodile’s smirk turns into a sadistic grin

“Will I hear a single word of complaint from you from now, yes or no?”

“No” they grumble

Crocodile smirks, his grin growing wider than before

“Good little pigeon. And let me be clear this time: You complete your assignments on time, or you lose the antidote for good.”

“And how will I do that without without the antidote? Without my wings?” They hiss

“I will give you a diluted antidote; it will contrast the paralyzer for enough time for you to do your delivery and come back.”

“You can’t be seri-

“Perhaps this will teach you to stay in your lane; if your a good little messenger, I will give you the full antidote; until then, you will only go where I tell you to, when I tell you to”

“Now, do you understand, little pigeon?”

“…”

“Are we clear?” Crocodile glares at them

“Crystal,” they snap

Crocodile grins and tosses the small glass vial containing a diluted bit of the antidote over to them

“Take the antidote; you have till the sun sets to deliver that package

And don’t think about taking the antidote and trying to sneak off; it will not work; you will crash to the ground if you do not come back for more.”

Again im not sure where this is going but I love writing stuff like this lmao, do you guys like reading stuff like this? How does it make you feel?

Taglist:

@imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

#one piece x reader #one piece #one piece x child!reader #one piece fluff #one piece imagine #sir crocodile x y/n #sir crocodile x you #crocodile x y/n #crocodile x you #cross guild #sir crocodile x reader #crocodile x reader #op crocodile #crocodile one piece #crocodile #sir crocodile

[countrymusiclover]

16 - Hook to the Heart

Part 17

His Golden Princess

@fanficismydrug @misskitty1912-blog @alanaangie24

Neal and Henry entered a pizza shop talking with I stayed outside with my sister and Rumple. "I need you to speak to him. Try and convince him to come back to Storybrooke with us." He explained leading onto something more.

"If I recall, there was only one favour I owed you, and I think I'm paid up." Emma said thinking her deal with him was done.

He shakes his head watching the boys inside getting pizza. "This isn't about me anymore. You'll do it for Henry." Where she just stares in silence. "Well, because if you don't, you're going to wake up one morning, and discover he's hopped on a bus back to New York. He ran away to Boston to be with you. He'll do the same thing for his father."

"Until Neal lets him down - which he will. It'll be a hard lesson, but then at least Henry will understand that I lied to protect him." My sister scoffed crossing her arms over her chest.

He tilts his head to the side speaking. "Someone's beginning to sound a lot like Regina. I think the real reason you lied was to protect yourself." He stared directly at her. "From getting hurt again."

"That's not happening." She shook her head no.

Leaning up on my toes my sister wasn't good at hiding her feelings from her own sibling. "You want a second chance with that man."

"What makes you think that?" My sister asked looking between the two of us.

Rumple smirks intertwining his freehand with mine. "The look on your face." Before she could say anything the boys came back outside walking back to Neal's apartment building.

Pulling my jacket closer together I walk beside Rumple glancing his direction with a raised brow. "Did you mean it earlier. What you said about finding your true love...with me?"

"My love life hasn't been the best but...I feel the best version of myself when I'm with you. So possibly. What's say you?" He glanced back at me with a small smile waiting for my answer.

Rubbing my hand down my arm I avoid his gaze feeling embarrassed. I've never told anyone else except my sister that I love them. "I - I'm not sure. It's just that I've never - I've never said it to anyone..." Before he can say anything I opened the door to the lobby watching Henry and Neal head upstairs.

The door opened before I see the crazy pirate running up knocking my sister out of the way and into the wall. Opening my hand I suddenly remembered I didn't have my sword with me. "Not so brave without your sword now are, sweet blonde?" Hook shoved me against the wall where I slammed into the metal bars right before he pushed Rumple back. He then plunged his hook into his chest making him gasp. Grabbing my chest I collapse onto my knees feeling harsh pain in the same place.

"Tick tock. Time's up, crocodile. You took Milah, my love, my happiness. And for that, I now take your life." Hook holds Rumple back with his bloody hook hand.

My sister regained her surroundings grabbing something and knocking the pirate over the head with it. She rushes over to him seeing Rumple's panting for breath. "Gold, are you alright?"

"What the hell is going on?" Neal and Henry rushed outside.

I groaned feeling something racing towards my heart causing my sister to rush to my aid. She grabs my shoulders trying to find out what is wrong. "What's wrong. What hurts?"

"It's - its - ugh - something's wrong. I - I can feel where - he was stabbed somehow!" I grunted laying my head against her chest death gripping her forearms.

They managed to help us both upstairs to his son's apartment as I winced feeling the pain getting worse. Rumple groans looking weakly as I moaned in pain. While his stabbed wound was turning a yellow-green colour. "What the hell is that?"

"It's poison. It's one of Hook's own making. There's no antidote in this world. It's... It's not from here." Rumple explained moaning in a pain alongside me on the couch.

Neal looked terrified for his father. "Hey, hey, hey, hey. There's got to be some way we can save you...the both of you." He finished looking my direction.

"Storybrooke. There's magic there now. We need to get him back." My sister said pushing hair from my face since I was starting to sweat from the posion.

Rumple shakes his head no reaching out for me with his other hand that I grabbed weakly in my grasp. "No, no, no. There's not enough time. We need something faster. The Captain's ship."

"The Jolly Roger instead of a car?" My sister questioned his solution not seeing how we would get a pirate ship out of New York.

Rumple didn't back down from his plan. "It's the fastest vessel in all the realms."

"Well, that's great, but who's going to captain it, since the only guy qualified wants you dead?" She rebuttals as I grabbed where my heart is gasping sharply.

Neal immediately spoke up. "I can do it."

"You know how to sail a pirate ship?" My sister eyed her ex not knowing that.

He simply replied back. "Yeah. I do."

"Even though I am in agonizing pain right I have to ask sis - why on earth did you dump him?" I chuckled through a dry cough. Neal and my sister both weakly smiled down at me. Until she got a text and I saw the horrific look cross her face. "Em...what's that look for?"

Rumple eyed her after my question. "What, worse than incurable poison?"

"I don't know. You tell me. You got a dagger hidden somewhere in Storybrooke that's the source of all your power?" She spoke hand on her hip.

Rolling over on the couch I pointed to the necklace around Rumple's neck. "It's his dagger...the dagger of the Dark One...it can control him according to Henry's book."

"Cora's after it. The only way to stop her, is have David and Mary Margaret get to it first." My sister revealed to the four of us.

Rumple spoke in confidence that we would be fine. "Yeah, let Cora try."

"You can't seriously be willing to risk this. Not with your son coming back with you to Storybrooke." My sister raised her brows at him trying to convince him that it was a dangerous situation.

Rumple glared at her not afraid of Regina's mother. "Miss Swan, that dagger has not left my possession for centuries. It's not about to now."

"Here's the thing. You're dying. And right now, we are your best hope. Time's come for you to start trusting someone. And, if I were you, I'd start with family." My sister glared at him seeing that I am still morning in pain and she couldn't do anything to help at the moment.

Emma and Neal were trying to call a car as I hold myself up on my elbow calling to my boyfriend. "Rumple..." I gasped closing my eyes at something flashing through my mind. Something that looked like another future vision.

I'm standing inside his pawnshop with Rumple weakly sitting on the cot in the backroom. My mother holding a candle with a light and dark end. "I wouldn't use this to save my own mother. What makes you think I would it for you?" My mother spoke.

"Because you're all grown up now. And for once our interests are allinged." Rumple said clutching his cane pointing at me. "I have a theory...if I die...so will Astrid...your daughter."

Shooting my eyes opened I clutch my chest I started having a panic attack. Rumple lays with his eyes closed trying to save his strength. "No...I'm going to die!"

Comments really appreciated ❤️

#his golden princess #robert carlyle #oc : astrid swan #margot robbie #ouat rumplestilskin #ouat rumplestilskin x reader #rumplestilskin x reader #ouat rumple #rumple x reader #ouat mr. gold #mr. gold #emma swam x sister reader #emma swan #snow white #mary margaret blanchard #prince charming/david #david nolan #prince charming #henry mills #regina mills #the evil queen #the dark one #ouat #once upon a time #ouat fic #ouat fanfiction #ouat fandom #wattpad fanfiction #comments really appreciated #storybrooke

[once-upon-a-pirate-ship]

it would kill me (if you didn't know)

I know. Trust me, I know. But I've been working on my novel, and when this fic slapped me in the face last night, I just went with it. And so should you.

Neverland AU - canon divergence for somewhere in 3a

(Blatant disregard of canon to follow--don't make me rewatch the show, please)

They saved Henry but all got separated in the process, and when they finally made it back to the ship, Emma realized that they were down a man. She's just gonna have to save him.

This features some pretty awesome Emma/David bonding, too.

This is a classic 'Killian's been taken while saving them and now he's being tortured and Emma isn't gonna stand for it' fic. I've read them all, and I just needed more. POV switches 3rd person between Killian and the others.

Thanks in advance for accepting the sidestepping of canon that I love to do.

Rated M for language and violence

length: 5k+

Read it on ao3

In retrospect, it wasn’t the greatest plan he’d ever had. But it also wasn’t the worst. Well, it could hardly even be called a plan, really, given that the consideration for it occurred in approximately three seconds, but he was hardly going to worry about it now. There were other things to worry about.

The thing that Killian Jones, pirate captain of the Jolly Roger and unofficial Neverland guide to Swan (and the others), needed to be worried about was the little demon child Peter fucking Pan who stood over him with that stupid evil smirk on his lips.

“Seems like you’ve finally lost, pirate,” Pan spat, but the amusement in his tone only sharpened the anger in his eyes.

Killian’s gaze flickered from the child to the grove in the distance, and when he saw not a trace of the others, he returned his attention to Pan. “Aye, I suppose so,” he said, his voice rough though calm and certain.

Pan’s brow furrowed. “Really? No witty remark? No promise to skin me alive?” he taunted. “You’ve changed your tune, Hook.”

He resisted rolling his eyes, instead gripping his wounded shoulder a little tighter. The arrow wasn’t poisoned—he’d have felt it working by now—but it wasn’t helping his predicament at all. Neither was the sizeable gash on his abdomen that Felix had been kind enough to gift him when he’d been distracted.

“Have I?” Killian asked. “I wonder what you’ll do with me now,” he added dryly. He knew. Oh, he knew.

Pan’s eyes flashed, and in an instant he was crouching towards Killian, his hand grasping the protruding arrow. “Now, I get to have my fun,” he declared with a cruel twist of his lips and an even crueler twist of the arrow.

But Killian Jones was no stranger to pain. They were intimately acquainted. That’s how he grit his teeth and buried it until nothing but a tiny grunt sounded from deep within his throat. Pan wouldn’t consider his torture much fun if he didn’t scream in agony, so he would keep playing until Killian could fight it no longer. And he’d let him. Because egging him on would make him lash out, and ensuring him of Swan’s victory would put her and the lad in danger. Pan had spent his time since their arrival playing games with them, distracting them from the important things they’d come there to do. It was only fair that Killian would return the favor.

So the demon could pull out all his toys, could whip him and carve into his flesh, could burn him until his skin was blackened ash, but nothing would stop Killian Jones from protecting his loved ones. And gods above, he loved Emma Swan.

--

All she wanted to know was how the fuck this happened. Their plan had been so perfect that even she couldn’t doubt it, but somehow the winds had shifted or their luck had run out or her luck had run out, and when they returned to the Jolly Rodger and the groups had reunited, they’d been down a man. Down a captain.

Neal, for all his talk of fighting for her, didn’t seem to mind not fighting for something that she actually cared about. He was running for president of the Let’s Leave the Pirate Here Club, and that wasn’t exactly a great way to get into her good graces, though that would’ve been hard enough as it was.

Regina, predictably, prioritized Henry to a fault—Emma was always for prioritizing her son, but not when it came to sacrificing her values or her morals or whatever, fine, she just didn’t want to sacrifice him. Henry was okay, he was safe, and they could take precautions to ensure that he would stay that way, but Regina just didn’t care or didn’t think it was worth it. A good option for Neal’s vice president.

In all her silent canvassing of the group’s feelings regarding Operation Save Hook (Henry was asleep, okay? He could come up with a better name when he woke up), Emma blatantly ignored Gold. For obvious reasons.

Tink was mostly for saving him, but not confident enough in any plan she could offer to make it stick. She’d tried to sway Regina, but that had been less than successful.

Then it was her parents. And, for once, they weren’t in total agreement.

Mary Margaret was sympathetic, to be sure, but not enough. She wasn’t in the Let’s Leave the Pirate Here Club, but she was Queen of Save My Kid and Her Kid Kingdom, so that was that.

But David—that’s what had caught her attention.

When they’d first discovered Hook’s absence and began discussing their options, Emma had held back and held her breath, unwilling to reveal her hand without knowing where the others stood. She’d gone into full Observant Mode, and that’s when she saw David, her father, and his reaction.

His face stiffened, an automatic move to hide his feelings, but Emma saw through it, even when Mary Margaret didn’t (or didn’t want to see it). It was a set jaw, a twitching lip that was almost a frown, tensed shoulders that eventually gave way to firmly crossed arms because apparently, Emma had gotten her Observant Mode from her father, and that’s what he was doing.

A few minutes into the conversation had nothing decided, but Emma shifted her stance, and her father looked her way. Their eyes locked, and while the others continued their pathetic excuse for a rescue discussion, father and daughter exchanged practically imperceptible nods, and then they were allies.

It’s what gave her the strength to step forward at last and disregard whatever half-assed ‘it’s too late’ speech Neal had been giving with a pointed clearing of her throat.

“David and I will go back for him while you guys get the ship ready,” Emma announced. Regina did that haughty half-step back that meant something between ‘I don’t care’ and ‘do whatever you want,’ and Mary Margaret’s only response was to look questioningly at her husband. Tinker Bell gave an enthusiastic nod of approval before busying herself with some bit of the rigging she may or may not have actually understood how to work.

Neal, however, was predictably Neal. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ems,” he said, that stupid nickname that he had no fucking right to use.

Emma’s head turned slowly to her ex, regarding him with the coldest gaze she’d ever offered anyone. Regina had some competition as head of the Looks That Could Kill Committee. “Hm, okay. Well, you don’t have to think it’s a good idea, because you’re staying here.”

“Emma—”

“There’s no discussion, Neal. No discussion from anyone, but especially from you. You have no right to talk, or interfere, and you especially have no right to argue against saving the man who is the reason your own son is alive and safe now.”

Mary Margaret was staring at her when she turned away from him, her eyes wide and openly confused, but she said nothing. David, however, had his eyes cutting into Neal, narrowed and calculating and damn, he was putting pieces together and he wasn’t liking the picture.

“Ready?” Emma asked her father.

He forced himself to look away. “Just have to grab one thing,” he told her, shaking his head at something Mary Margaret had said before he disappeared below.

Neal had huffed away after Emma’s little scolding, and he pouted at the exact opposite end from where his father pouted. Regina looked disinterested and mildly irritated, but when Emma glanced at her, she nodded towards Gold with a raised eyebrow.

Emma’s lips curled in something like a grateful smile, and she passed her bewildered mother on her way to the Dark One.

“You have something,” Emma said as soon as she stood in front of him. “Something to get Pan.”

“I do, Miss Swan,” he replied, that stupid tone that told her he had tricks up those stupid sleeves of his.

She hummed. “No, there’s no deal this time. No price. I’m done with games. So you can either give it to me, or I can take it from you.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Take it from me?” he asked, entirely amused by the concept.

“I’m done with your shit, Crocodile. You can play Dark One with me all you want, but we both know it’s just easier to just hand it over.”

He glared at her for a long moment, but eventually he cracked, and he glanced at his son who looked out at the water and away from them both. “Fine. But only because I’ve no use for it anyway.”

She took the box he offered, resisting the urge to mutter, ‘yes, that’s why,’ as he explained how it worked. When he’d finished, she offered him a simple but genuine “thank you,” before joining her father once more.

“Here,” David said, passing her another cutlass, one she hadn’t seen before. “You need a new weapon,” he added.

“And I’m borrowing…”

“Hook’s. An extra,” he said. “Figured he wouldn’t mind.”

“Right,” she mumbled, taking it with a frown and securing it quickly. “Well then, let’s go.”

--

For all his talk of being intimately acquainted with pain, Killian Jones was doing a piss-poor job of hiding it. The cracks in his resolve were starting to widen, and when hums and grunts became groans and low growls, he knew it was only a matter of time before Pan started to truly have his fun.

He’d been more clever this time around, to be sure. It had to have been at least a century since Killian had gotten cozy with the demon’s knife (or arrowhead, or branding iron, or whatever particular weapon he’d chosen to use that time), but Pan had certainly honed his skills quite a bit since then.

But Killian was sure that Swan had taken her lad and the others far away by now, and the knowledge that he’d helped her, that he’d kept his word, allowed him the strength he needed to keep the screams from coming.

For a while.

Pan, though, had used a trick on him he’d never experienced, and the shock alone was enough to get it working for a little while.

That trick came in the form of her, of Emma Swan, and the name had fallen from his lips like a prayer, hope that he’d never felt before rising like a rushing tide in his chest, and she’d smiled at him, a radiant, lovely thing that he’d never imagined could’ve been gifted solely for him, useless pirate that he was.

But then she’d started talking, and he knew it was a trick (tides always come back, because when there’s a rise, there’s also a fall). Not at first, he’d give Pan that, because it was easy enough to believe that the smile hadn’t been for him, that she resented him, that she hadn’t meant to save him, that they were better off without him. It wasn’t what she said that tipped him off, it was how she said it. Because Killian Jones had studied her since the moment she uncovered his pathetic hide in that pile of bodies, and he knew her—more than she knew herself, to her dismay—and he could read her. She was an open book, after all.

When her eyes didn’t burn like he knew they should’ve when she spoke of anger and hatred, he knew. When her lips didn’t quirk in that one specific way when she mentioned abandoning him, he knew. And then she spoke about her parents and Baelfire, and it was all wrong, because Emma Swan had walls, and even Neverland wasn’t enough to break them down so quickly.

Wherever she was, Emma Swan wasn’t about to run into her parents’ arms and live happily ever after with them and her True Love, because she wasn’t there yet. He knew her. He knew how hard it was for her to open up to him, someone who understood her from such shared experiences, and that wasn’t something she could just overlook as soon as she returned home. They’d hurt her—here, in Neverland, with assumptions and confessions and automatic behaviors, but also before. And if she did wish to ride off into the sunset with Baelfire, Neal, it wasn’t going to happen right away, because Killian had watched her while she shifted away from Neal when he’d moved towards her. He’d seen the way she recoiled at his touch, how she’d narrowed those jade eyes at his words, how she didn’t trust him, not anymore.

No, the Emma Swan that stood before his beaten and bruised body was a copy, and a bad one. When she hadn’t achieved her goal, she disappeared, and Pan took her place, and though he knew the demon was mocking him and prodding him with insults and hoping they’d smash the last of his resolve, he wasn’t ready to give in just yet.

Killian Jones was waiting for something. He just couldn’t figure out what it was.

--

“What’d he do?”

Emma faltered, the blade missing the piece of jungle shit in her path she’d been trying to cut down. “What? Who?”

“Neal,” her father said, clearing the vines for her before they continued on.

“Oh,” she sounded, pulling her lips together as she considered what to say. He’d noticed it before, and she knew that. He wasn’t stupid, nor was he as hope-prone and naive as Mary Margaret could often be. And they had another few miles to go, at least. “He left,” she said.

David stopped, a hand on her arm that was more than just an attempt to stop her from walking, too. “He left you?” he asked, his eyes somehow tight with rage and tender with something she wanted to dub dad-ness, because no one had ever looked at her like that before.

Emma huffed, because now was definitely not the time for Feelings, now was the time to rescue a goddamn pirate from whatever the hell Peter fucking Pan was doing to him. “He set me up to take the fall for his crime and let me go to prison instead. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until I was already in jail.”

David blinked once, twice, and then his expression was consumed by dad-anger (because it was just a different brand of anger that she’d also never seen before). “Emma—”

“It was a long time ago, dad.” They both started at the name, dad, because she’d never really used it before. A few times she’d said it, but it was something she’d had to force, a correction or a pointed joke, sometimes a near-death thing, but this was different. Authentic. Slightly heartbreaking.

“We don’t have time for this,” she muttered as she turned away, but neither was surprised, and even her dad wasn’t hurt, because Emma had her walls, and that was okay, because she’d needed them to survive this long. And if he had to put in a little time and effort to help take them down, that didn’t bother him one bit.

“I was kinda surprised that you wanted to come,” she said after a while, unable to bear the tense atmosphere any longer.

David gave her a half-smile, slicing another thicket (because they’d grown over since they’d returned to the ship. Fuck Neverland, honestly). “He did save my life, you know. And he was saving Henry when an arrow hit him—before your mother and I got separated from the group. I wasn’t about to leave him for dead after he took an arrow for my grandson.”

Emma froze, nearly dropping the cutlass that wasn’t hers. “He saved Henry?”

Her father’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you knew that,” he said. “So why are you so eager to help him? If you didn’t know.”

Her lips parted only to press together firmly, and when she spoke, they both knew it wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. “Because I don’t leave people behind. And even without the arrow, he still saved Henry. He brought us here.”

David studied her for a moment, and these pieces were coming together faster now, and quite suddenly, the picture made a lot of sense. “He came back.”

“For Henry. And Neal,” she replied.

“And you.”

She couldn’t deny it, and he knew that. But it surprised him that he didn’t mind it as much as he had before. Emma’s walls, no matter how much he wished he could change it, were in part because of him and Snow. They saved her, yes, but they abandoned her when they did it. And Neal had likely been the cause of the other fortress that surrounded her, because he’d abandoned her, too.

So if the pirate had gained her trust and her respect because he hadn’t abandoned her, then that was good. David had seen plenty of love and devotion in his life, but he’d never seen loyalty like the kind that burned in Captain Hook. Centuries in search of revenge for the one he’d loved and lost. That wasn’t the man who would turn around and abandon her the second the opportunity arose.

No, without him or the pirate realizing it, he’d pretty much gained his blessing. Because David knew damn well that if the roles were reversed, not even if Emma herself were in danger, but if Hook were here in his place and someone she loved was being tortured, there’s no one he would trust more than Captain Hook to help her. Neal had barely batted an eye. But he was apparently quite skilled at leaving people to rot.

David was just beginning to contemplate how to handle that particular situation when the screams started.

He took his daughter’s hand, meeting her huge and watery eyes, and they ran.

--

He’d held on so long, but it was worth it. It was worth it. No, she was worth it. Emma Swan was worth it.

Emma. Emma. Emma.

Her name became a mantra, a song in his head to fill the space between screams.

Killian Jones had loved Milah. He never doubted that, and his love for another didn’t negate it, either. He wasn’t sure what made his love for Emma Swan sharper, deeper, but it was just different. His working theory was that they’d both loved before, both been hurt before, both lingered in something that was slightly less than pure. Whatever had happened with Baelfire couldn’t have been perfect, because it hurt her. And she’d been so young when she’d had Henry. Milah wasn’t faultless, either. Ironically enough, that point was proven by Baelfire.

Killian had spoken to her about it for hours. She’d spun tales of rescuing the lad, taking him from his pathetic father and bringing him aboard, but it never happened. It wasn’t until Henry was taken from Swan that he realized the downfall of his Milah. He’d known it, truly, but nothing would have stopped Swan from getting back her son, and it should’ve been the same with Milah.

For a moment, the pain of his guilt overwhelmed the pain of Pan’s lash that sliced into his back.

But that was what made his love for Emma Swan different.

Try something new, darling. It’s called trust.

Be a part of something.

Too bad he’d never have the chance to explain it all to her.

--

Emma had seen so much in her life. So much pain, so much ugliness—it had made her start to believe that there was really nothing else. But then Henry showed up at her door, and things changed.

Now, standing in her hiding place with her father, she was forced to watch as the demon child inflicted brutal and unrelenting torture to Captain Hook—no, no, he wasn’t Hook anymore. Not after this. He was Killian Jones, and she was going to save him.

She just couldn’t jump in and do it. Not without a plan.

Once they’d decided who was the distraction and who was taking the box, they were ready, but she wasn’t. Each scream pierced her heart, and by this point, the tears were just a permanent fixture that neither of them acknowledged. You couldn’t listen to that kind of pain and not feel it down to your goddamn soul. And she knew that as much as it hurt to hear it, Killian was hurting a thousand times worse while he endured it.

It had only been hours, maybe, but she’d never seen a person look so broken and not be actually dead, and it felt like her fault. Because maybe if she’d been strong and reasonable enough to let go of Henry’s hand for even a second, she would’ve realized that he wasn’t at her side like he was supposed to be. Sure, they’d all been separated into groups that slowly returned to the ship, but she should’ve known. She should’ve been there. He shouldn’t have been here.

None of that mattered now. It was time to save him, and then she could worry about everything else.

Her father kissed her forehead, brushing her tears with his thumbs and offering her a reassuring nod that said we’ve got this, and then he disappeared to play his part. When she stepped into the clearing, she was much more confident than she had any right to be.

“Pan.”

The kid snapped to attention, whirling around to look at her. “Really? You’ve come to rescue the pirate?”

His words, his face, his stupid grin pissed her the fuck off, but what really sold it, the thing that solidified everything for her was the sight of Killian’s hook tucked into Peter Pan’s pocket like it was a fucking souvenir.

“Well, you know what they say about us hero types,” Emma stalled, keeping herself from glancing at Killian where he lay in the dirt. “We don’t leave anyone behind. We come back for everyone. It’s just in our nature.” She had no idea what she was actually saying, she was just talking, just waiting until her father got into place.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you take the pirate, Emma. He’s mine, you see,” Pan told her, and she thought that he’d never looked less than a child with the straight-up evil in his eyes and the weapon in his hand.

She folded her arms across her chest, pulling on strength she didn’t have. “Hm, no, I don’t think he is,” she said, letting some of her anger seep into her voice. “He’s a pirate, sure, but you and I both know that he’s pretty determined about that good form nonsense, and he made me a promise, you know,” Emma continued. “He told me he’d see to it that Henry gets home safely. He can’t do that if he’s here.”

Pan’s shoulders shifted as his chest puffed out, and he wanted something. “How about this,” he said, “the pirate in exchange for your son.”

Emma scoffed. “As I told the Dark One earlier, I’m done playing games. No deals. I’m leaving this island with my son and my pirate and everyone else, and that’s it. You lose, kid.”

Peter Pan grinned, and if she hadn’t just seen David out of the corner of her eye, she would’ve been terrified. “How’s that? I’m not going to let you leave with Henry or the pirate, no matter how much you’re convinced I’m going to,” he said, almost petulant.

“Sorry, I should’ve been clearer,” Emma smiled, “I should’ve mentioned the part about you being captured. Whoops. Too late.”

Emma surged forward, snatching the hook just before Pan was sucked into Pandora’s box from David’s outstretched hand. Neither he nor Emma hesitated for a second before they rushed to Killian where he was no more than a pile of cuts and bruises on the ground, stripped of his coat and his vest and his bravado.

David rolled him onto his side carefully, shooting her a concerned look when he didn’t even flinch.

The hook fell from her grasp and onto the ground beside them. “Killian?” Emma said softly, her hand reaching out to ghost across his sweaty forehead. If she didn’t see the rise and fall of his chest in time with the shuddering breaths he took, she would’ve been certain he was dead, because anyone else would’ve been dead.

“Emma, I have no idea how we’re going to move him when he’s like this,” her father told her, and if he were someone else, that would’ve meant that they’d run out of options, but hope was the family motto.

Emma pushed out a breath, bringing her hands back to her face, running them over her hair and locking a few fingers around her necklace. “Alright, okay, lemme think,” she said, but of course that was when her brain turned to absolute mush.

Time, nonexistent here though it was, was marked with Killian’s shaky breaths, and several minutes passed before David spoke. “Emma…” he began, and when she looked at him, that family motto was shining in his eyes. “Emma, you have magic. You can heal him.”

“I—” I can’t, she wanted to say. But it didn’t matter that she’d never done it, that she had no idea how to, because she’d do it. She’d do anything to save this stupid, ridiculous, insufferable, amazing pirate. He promised that he’d win her heart, and she wasn’t about to lose him right when she finally had a chance to let him.

“How?” she asked, hoping—yes, Emma Swan did things like hope now—he’d know something helpful.

David hesitated, as if he were gathering everything he’d ever learned about magic. “Okay, your magic is about emotion, right?” At her nod, he continued, “Well, that’s good, because you’re feeling a lot of things right now. You want to help him, to heal him, so maybe think about why?”

Emma chuckled, and it was a watery thing, but she wiped the dampness from her cheeks. “I don’t think I’ve cried this much since…I have no idea when,” she confessed.

David met her gaze, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “Use it.”

She took a breath, her eyes slamming shut so she could focus, but her hand didn’t leave her father’s.

Why was she crying now, this much, after everything? She wasn’t a crier (you couldn’t be in the system that long and still be a crier), so what had changed? All at once, she knew.

Captain Hook is what changed. Killian Jones had towered her walls, and now she was crying over him. Because she felt things. Things with a capital ‘t,’ and it was the first time in her life that she was finally, truly letting herself feel Things, the first time she honestly wanted to. There hadn’t really been a choice with Neal. He was just there, and that’s why she’d loved him. She was young, and he offered her this tiny piece of security and she’d latched onto it, and that was it. It wasn’t even about him, not really, not when she broke it down like that. Everything she felt for Killian Jones was about him.

Right from the start, he’d terrified her, because he could see right through her walls like they were made of glass. He read her because he already spoke the fucking language, but she hadn’t let herself understand that piece until later. But how many times had she been standing beside her family (she had that now), knowing that things were off or just not feeling right because they didn’t quite get it—but then she’d looked over and he’d been watching her because he got it. He knew. And he came back.

Killian Jones had never abandoned her. Well, there was that one time he locked her in a cell, but that was only because she’d just chained him up on the top of a beanstalk and it was honestly only fair, so that was different. Every moment when she waited for him to race off while in Neverland, when leaving her to her fate would’ve been the smart and easy thing to do, he’d proven her wrong (but she wasn’t really wrong, because she didn’t really believe it. She’d trusted him right from the start, and each time he didn’t leave her was somehow both totally surprising and totally predictable).

But it wasn’t just that. It was everything she saw in him when he thought no one was looking. The shadows that crossed his face when they ran into something familiar, the hesitance when offered assistance by anyone, the mysteriously filled waterskins that appeared by her bedroll after his watch. Everything he did for her and her family was a promise that he was no longer a villain—that maybe he’d never actually been one—and she could doubt everyone else (except for Henry), but she couldn’t doubt Killian Jones.

She was falling for him. Hard. She probably already would’ve fallen if she’d let herself, especially if she’d gone with her gut at the top of that beanstalk and trusted him, so she wasn’t about to let him die.

Emma raised her free hand, feeling all of her Feelings and thinking all of the Things, and she healed him, because she needed to. She felt the warmth that radiated from her palm, and when her eyes flickered open, there was a brilliant light that washed over his face and followed the path of her hand as she hovered along his body. The cuts shrank, sealing themselves while the blood seeped back into his skin, and when his breaths were no longer labored, she knew he was healed.

Her father gave her a proud smile (it was watery, too), but their attention was quickly brought back to the groaning pirate.

Killian’s eyes took several fluttering blinks before they focused correctly, and when he spoke, it was no more than a disoriented grunt. “Swan?”

“We’re here,” she said, releasing David’s hand to take Killian’s. “We trapped Pan, Henry’s safe on the Jolly Roger, and now all we need is for you to take us home.”

His eyes were stormy when he looked up at her, and his rough palm lined up with her soft one, and for a single, fleeting moment, it was as if he’d never felt pain in his life. The warmth, the ease, the life he felt holding Emma Swan’s hand made him briefly forget the hours of torture from Pan, and for what may have honestly been the first time in his life, Killian Jones felt safe.

There were many questions that he needed to ask, ones he hadn’t had the chance to think of with his present exhaustion, but he pushed them aside, because she was smiling that smile, the one he’d never imagined could be directed and him, and it lacked the tightness that Pan’s version had. Where Pan’s version had pranced around words, the real Swan was straight to the point and not flowery about anything. But what was most comforting about this Swan was that even though her smile was warm and lovely and nothing like he’d ever seen on her lips, he could see her walls hidden in her gaze, that lingering hesitance, and he knew. She’d come back for him.

“Think you can walk?” David asked him, and it almost made the pirate jump (centuries of always being on his guard, always prepared and aware of his surroundings, and Emma Swan gave him one smile and held his only hand and that was enough to block out the rest of the realm).

Killian nodded, and with some careful maneuvering by Swan and her father, he was upright. He wavered slightly—blood loss, he reasoned, because Emma had definitely healed him with her magic, but there was only so much magic could do—but they secured both of his arms without delay.

“Oh,” Emma paused, bending down to grab his hook. “Thought you’d want this back,” she added with a smile that was almost sheepish.

It was the way she held it that made him lightheaded (not at all related to the blood loss). Her hand was wrapped around the metal like it was nothing but also everything. She didn’t fear it, didn’t scrunch her nose at it—the way she held it was like the way she held his hand: a part of him, something she couldn’t quite bring herself to let go of.

“Thank you, Emma,” he murmured, and all three of them knew it wasn’t just for returning the hook. He gestured for her to attach it, and after a glance of confirmation, she did. And he couldn’t help but feel whole.

#once upon a time fanfiction #ouat fanfic #captain swan #captain swan fanfic #cs ff #captain swan fic #ao3 #Neverland fic #ouat neverland #this is me avoiding my novel and my other actual wip

[killiansprincss]

Never Forget You ch.14

Season 6A Canon Divergence.

Emma is happy. Finally happy with her parents, son and boyfriend. But this happiness is taken away from her when the Evil Queen curses her and turns her into a toddler.

Heartbroken and angry, Killian and Henry run away to Neverland to wait for Emma to break her curse.

But when she does break it and comes looking for them 25 years later, she soon realises this Neverland is very different now it is no longer under Pans rule.

Will she be able to save Henry and Killian in time, or will this new ruler of Neverland keep them hostage forever?

Hi all here is the newest chapter in Neverland fic and it is angsty from here on out ;)

this fic means the world to me it brings me such joy writing it so if you liked it please let me know I’d love to hear what people think of it!

Link to AO3

“So I still don’t understand why she wants to keep the two of you?” Snow asks the next morning at Henry’s treehouse.

 Killian and Henry look at one another, “You want to tell them the truth, Lad, or should I?”

Henry looks over at his family, “It’s my blood that has allowed us to stay for so long, I’ll tell them.”

“Blood? Excuse me?” Emma asks ready to murder the fairy.

“It’s okay love. Listen.” Killian says putting his hand on her back. It felt like normal again, with his hand finding the spot on her back that always managed to calm her. David and Snow were glad to see them all working together again.

“Gold told us that because I still have the heart of the truest believer, a few drops of my blood would restore the youthfulness of this place. So when we came here, I gave a few drops, but it needed more. I sorta passed out because a voice was telling me it needed more blood.” Henry explains, but seeing the look on his mother's face, he then quickly adds, “But I was totally fine, Killian saved me before it was too late. But now I think our time is running out, if I don’t give this Island more of my blood then the fairies can’t stay here and the magic will be gone.”

“Not too dissimilar from Pan then.” David comments. “So how do we defeat her?”

“I have a theory I’ve been sitting on for a while, but it’s dangerous, and I don’t want a repeat of History.” Killian says gesturing towards David.

“No. No. No.” Snow yells. “I almost lost my husband once, we can’t risk it.”

“It might be the only way.” David tells his wife. “Do you want to get off this Island as a family?”

“Okay someone fill me in please. Unless you forgot, I was not born when this happened!” Neal interrupts.

“Dreamshade.” Emma tells her brother. “It’s Neverland's most deadly poison. Dad got infected last time and almost died.” She turns back to Killian, “But the water saves you as long as you stay on the Island, so how does that help us?”

“Wait hold on-Dad got poisoned? And almost died?” Neal suddenly realises there is so much about his family that he didn’t know about.

“I have a concentrated dose on my ship that I’ve been working on. In theory, even if she does drink the water, she can’t leave, she cannot try and stop us.” Killian explains.

“A concentrated dose like the one you gave Gold in New York?” Emma asks, smiling fondly at the memory.

“Aye. Except, a much stronger dose. Hopefully to a fairy, the dose will reach her heart much faster than it did the Dark One.” He looks over to David and Snow. “I’m fully aware that it could go wrong and I don’t want to put you in any danger.”

“We’re aware of the danger, but it’s nothing we haven’t faced before. We can handle a fairy.” David says confidently.

“With all due respect Gramps, these fairies aren’t like blue or any of the other fairies in the Enchanted Forest or Storybrooke.” Henry explains, worrying about their newfound confidence. “In Neverland they play by different rules, they use dark magic, darker magic than mom used as a dark one.

_________

Cecelia was angry.

She didn’t like visitors. Especially if those visitors were the ones trying to take away the magic that kept her alive in her home.

She needed a way to stop her new visitors, especially the blonde who was taking the pirate away.

Normally she would spend her nights in Pixie Hollow with her sisters, but she had a feeling the blonde wasn’t going away. At the end of the night, she flew over to the Lost Ones clearing and what did she see? The blonde with Hook. This could not happen. She needed a plan to separate the two of them, get the blonde back to wherever she was headed, and keep Hook and the boy here.

—

Pan was a nightmare. He was ruining her Island, though he called it ‘his Island’. He had been here a hundred years and already the Island had changed, the pixie dust was running out, in another hundred years or so the Island would likely die. Pan was apparently searching for a boy that would save the Island, but Cecelia didn’t buy into it-prophecies are 99% of the time wrong, if this boy ever did show up she wonders if he would save the Island.

Thankfully Pan was not able to enter her safe haven. And neither could Tinkerbell since her wings and magic were gone. She could easily avoid her, and if she did see her again, what could the little green fairy do anyway she was powerless. But it did affect her access to fairy dust, he used most of it on his pack of Lost Boys who were typically using it to fight with real weapons, or use it to battle the Pirates that were now stuck on this Island.

Cecelia decided she was sick of hiding in Pixie Hollow, she wanted to see what Pan had done to her home, and see if she could stop it. That’s when she saw him for the very first time. The Pirate. With a Hook for a hand. He was dressed in all leather, a red vest with a large black leather coat and leather pants. He had scruffy black hair and eyes as blue as the sea in Neverland cove.

She transformed into human size so she could follow him. He was with another pirate, this one short and stocky, blue and white striped shirt and a red hat. Not nearly as gorgeous as the man with the silver Hook. She tried to understand what they were saying, something about a weapon, a dagger.

“The dagger is the only weapon that can defeat him. If I can get my hand on it I can skin myself a crocodile at last. I just need a way off this blasted Island.” The one with the Hook said, he sounded angry, whatever this crocodile was, was sure to be a force to be reckoned with.

“Even if Pan gives us a way off this Island, how do you plan on getting the dagger? Baelfire said-“ the shorter man begins to say before the Hooked pirate cuts him off.

“Don’t say his name.” Whoever this Baelfire was, he clearly made a lasting impact on the Pirates lives, the way he sounded upset by the thought of him.

“Sorry Captain. But say we get back to the Enchanted Forest, how do you plan on getting the dagger if he has it on his possession?” Ahh it made sense now, the Hooked Pirate was a Captain, the way the smaller one almost quaked with fear when speaking to him.

“I have a plan.”

One moment Cecelia is walking a fair few paces behind the two pirates, hiding in the darkness so they don’t see but still within earshot, and the next moment the leather clad Pirate had a dagger to her throat and her back against the nearest tree.

“Who are you and why are you following me?” The Pirate asks. It was the leather clad Hooked pirate, the smaller one had scurried ahead leaving just the two of them in the hot Neverland Jungle.

Cecelia laughs as she clicks her fingers and the dagger against her throat disappears and reappears in her own hand.

“A fairy.” The Pirate states, not asks, as he takes a step away from her.

“You know of my kind?” Cecelia asks him with a seductive smile.

“I’m not fond of fairies. Especially the ones I’ve met on this Island.” The Pirate sneers.

“Let me guess Tinkerbell?” Cecelia asks, she assumed Tink was the only fairy who would run into a pirate, but she couldn’t be sure, she needed to protect herself in case there was someone working for Pan who would report her.

The Captain laughs in a husky tone, “not a fan of her either I take it?”

Cecelia shrugs, “she’s not my friend, but she may see me as an enemy.”

“Whatever did you do to the poor girl?” The captain asks. He was very handsome, Cecelia had encountered many pirates in her life, yet none quite like this one.

“Well like Pirates I’m sure, a fairy never reveals her secrets.” Cecelia was flirting, the Captain was sure of it, so he decided to flirt back.

“Hmm secrets are a delicate thing. Is your name a secret too, or do I get the pleasure of knowing it?”

“Cecelia.” She replies with a glint in her eye. “And yours? I can’t just call you Captain now can I? Or would you like that?” She whispers the last part into his ear.

“Hook.” He tells her smirking as he uses his Hook to bring her closer.

“Clever.” She muses. “You’re a pirate, I assume you have a ship.”

“The Jolly Roger, she’s the most powerful in all the realms.”

Cecelia fondles with his Hook for a moment, “Would you like some company?”

Hook grins. “Are you offering?”

________

Her talk with the blonde Hook was in love with, didn't go down well as well as she had hoped. Cecelia threatened her, told her to leave and she didn’t. She was a stubborn stupid human, but she needed to take it to the next level.

Show her what Hook and her had, how it was nothing compared to what the blonde experienced with him in her land. She couldn’t kill the blonde right away, not with her whole family here. No, she needed to make her leave and she will get Verena to help kill them all if necessary.

____

The next two nights Cecelia watches the blonde with the Lost Ones. She sees how Hook looks at her, and how she looks at him. It makes her sick. The Lost Ones even look happy, they’re never happy. What was it about this girl that made her so special? Why of all the women, this plain girl was the apple of her Captains eye.

“You know you kissed me for the very first time right around here.” The Captain tells his blonde. She listens in, to see what she can find out, and what she can use against them.

“I remember. You were annoying me, I thought I would just kiss you to get you to shut up!”

“And you realised you’d made a huge mistake as you fell in love with me?” Cecelia couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not, their relationship was still a mystery.

The blonde hits him playfully, “you’re such an ass. If you recall your confession in the Echo Caves, you were the one you realised you couldn’t live without me.”

“Now, now Swan whose rewriting history. I am amazed that you still chose me, you love me after all I’ve done.”

The blonde runs her fingers through his hair, “hey. Stop. We talked about this, you’re not that man anymore, I fell in love with you because you chose to change, you said you wanted to be a better man and that’s exactly what you are. I don’t care what you did on this Island while I was cursed, it doesn’t matter, you’re still the man I fell in love with who risked everything for me, who is selfless and chooses to do the right thing.”

Cassandra turns away as they start to kiss, she doesn't need to see that. So, the Captain has insecurities, that she can take advantage of.

The Echo Caves.

Cass hadn’t heard of those in centuries. She knew Pan liked to use them to trap his unwelcome visitors, but she hadn’t known her Captain was a victim.

They were used in the olden times of Neverland to reveal the darkest secrets of fairies who were going bad and had to reveal the truths of their actions, but Pan ended up using it as a trap and to cause a rift between friends. And that’s exactly what Cecelia was going to plan. She would cause a rift by making them reveal their darkest secrets, and the blonde would go back home.

“Verena! Verena! Wake up!” Back in Pixie Hollow she decides to let her sister know of her plan, and how she can help her.

“The Echo Caves? Are you serious Cecelia?” Verena had heard the stories of the caves, how fairies were forced to reveal their darkest secrets and it was never pretty.

“Whose side are you on?” Cecelia was suddenly starting to doubt her sister, it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Yours obviously! But is it safe?”

“I heard the Pirate talking to the blonde, they went through it before when Pan was still in power. If it didn’t break them before, this time it will.” Cecelia feels confident, Hook had been here for 25 years all alone, his desires had clearly changed.

“So what’s the plan?”

_____

On the fifth night of watching the Pirate and his blonde, Cecelia decides this is the time to intervene. She’s sick of seeing Hook, a fearless and deadly Pirate turned into a “hero” by his lover.

The Lost Ones are finishing up, slowly disappearing back to their beds. Hook luckily is still in conversation with the young boy, the blonde however had finished talking to her lost girl, she was all alone.

Shrinking down to fairy size, she flies into the Lost Ones clearing, and freezes Hook and Henry before returning to human size.

“Cecelia.”

Cecelia smiles at the blonde, “the one and only.”

“What do you want? I already told you, I am not leaving this Island alone.” She was brave. But bravery almost meant stupidity.

“You and Hook just look so happy together. But I’m afraid he’s been keeping secrets from you.” She says, in a sweet but also malicious tone.

“What secrets?” Emma was convicted this fairy was just trying to mess with her head, Killian had been honest the past few days since they reconciled, no way would he be keeping secrets.

“I trust you’re familiar with memory magic?” Cecelia asks as a dream catcher appears in her hands.

Emma nods, all too familiar with dream catcher magic.

She watches as Cecelia makes the dream catcher glow as scenes of her in Neverland start to play out.

“I really don’t need to watch your life story.” Emma says rolling her eyes. But then.

Killian. She sees Killian in those memories. Well, he was in Neverland for 300 years and their paths were surely to cross. The dream catcher doesn’t have any sound, but she doesn’t need sound for what she sees next.

It’s Killian and Cecelia. Together. Lips on one another, bodies pressed together and legs tangled up.

Emma feels like she could vomit.

“You’re lying. This is, this isn’t true.” She manages to say, thoughts whirling around in her head.

Cecelia smirks. “You’re familiar with memory magic, you know how it works. I couldn’t tamper with it even if I wanted to. I guess Hook hasn’t been as honest with you as you thought, such a shame.”

Emma stands there for a few moments, resisting the urge to bring up everything in her stomach. Cecelia just flies away looking satisfied with herself.

“Everything alright love?” Killian appears a few minutes later, completely unaware of the situation.

“I don’t know. You tell me.” Emma feels betrayed, how could he do that to her?

“I’m not sure I understand love.” He says, giving her a puzzled look, “are you feeling okay? Want to take a sail on the Jolly, clear your mind a bit?”

“The Jolly? Where you’ve been fucking Cecelia? I’m good thanks.” She spats.

Killian is lost for words, “Emma what the hell are you talking about?”

Glaring at him, she tells him of Cecelia’s visit to her, and the memories she saw of the two of them.

“Emma, please understand. That was a long time ago. It-“

“Oh so you’re not denying it happened?” She cuts him off, how dare he.

“I would never lie to you Emma. But whatever she showed you, happened a long time ago, long before I met you.” This was all part of Cecelia's plan to drive them apart, Killian was sick of her tricks.

“Just because I was cursed doesn’t mean I’m stupid. How am I meant to believe it was before you met me?”

Killian takes a step toward her, to take her hand but Emma snatches away. “I can’t prove it, but you’ve gotta trust me.”

“I’ve been cursed for 25 fucking years, Hook. That doesn’t give you an excuse to fuck the first woman you see just because I’m not around.” Her voice was getting louder the angrier she was getting.

“Emma I love you. Don’t act innocent though, like you said you were cursed for 25 years, you’re telling me you didn’t jump into bed with a man that isn’t me?” Killian was now just as angry, sure it had been 25 years but he expected better of her.

Emma doesn’t answer his question.

“I thought you said you saw me in your dreams.” Killian says tremulously. “That you were always seeing me. Was that all a lie to get me to go back with you?”

“No! Of course not! I did see you in my dreams, but that’s the thing you were a dream. I had no idea who you were. But don’t change the subject, I was cursed I could sleep with as many men who weren’t you and it would be okay. You on the other hand, slept with the fairy while you were waiting for me. You clearly don’t love me, so I think If we defeat Cecelia, I’m taking Henry and my family back with me, you fsnnstau here I really don’t care.” Emma’s voice was wobbly she felt like the was about to burst into tears.

“Emma. I do love you, whatever she’s shown you is a lie. I never touched her while you were here, I would have never do that to you.”

He tries to call out after her, but it’s no use, she’s walking back to her camp angry and upset, he was going to kill the fairy.

#never forget you #Captain swan #cs fanfic #cs ff #fanfic #cs fic rec #my writing

[captain-emmajones]

in this life, we do not meet

Soulmate AU: The first curse never happened. Killian died 300 years prior to Emma's birth. They both live a life of loneliness, haunted by a love they never met, until death comes knocking at their door.

in which i made an angsty text post and people requested a fic out of it, hope you guys will like it <33

2000 words 🔱 angst 🔱 ao3 

dedicated to my dear friend @b99peraltiago because you’ve always been so supportive of my works i had to write you a gift :’) (sorry it’s not peraltiago :’)) 

The lyrics in italics come from Sarah Bareilles Once Upon Another Time, I had it on loop while writing and I really recommend it for the mood™️.

ORESTES: Where have I seen you before?

MOIRA: In a dream.

ORESTES: A thousand years ago.

.

Once upon another time, Before I knew which life was mine,

As Captain Killian Jones stands at the end of his life, on decks of his ship, still terribly proud in spite of everything, the waves tenderly cradling his boat are his last companions.

His crewmen were reluctant to leave him behind. They had all wanted to go down with the ship. With him. He couldn’t allow it.

“You are a part of my crew, mister Smee, and therefore you are also required to leave this ship –”

“— but Captain, I am your first mate –,”

“— I am well aware of that fact, Mister Smee. However, this is my last dying wish: to be left in peace.” To die alone.

His hooked arm guides the ship’s wheel, as always, while he presses a bottle of rum firmly against his lips. To distract himself from this poison inside of him, this hellish burn radiating from his chest – not only loneliness but the poison the Dark One infected him with.

It was yesterday. Or a week ago, difficult to be certain.

A seagull lands in front of him, completely unaware of his inner struggle. She sings.

He had been so close to killing him, after years, and years, and years…. And then she had appeared.

(He thinks he saw her first the day Milah died. Well, he didn’t properly see her.

But, as he lied sobbing in the safety of his own cabin, he did feel the warmth of a hand over his closed fist.

And it had suddenly felt a little less terrible, the hole in his chest, less terrifying the future to come, without her.

Perhaps is there so much loneliness the human heart can take before it begins to manifest something, someone, that doesn’t exist.)

She is an angel he has seen in so many of his dreams, visions, whatever bloody curse he is under.

Back on this very ship, the crocodile had come to taunt him and the blonde woman had begged him not to kill him. She said there would be repercussions beyond this life, and he wanted to believe her. Perhaps there was no other choice but to believe her.  

From the first moment he had laid eyes on her, years ago, he had known he was supposed to love her.

Perhaps not in this life. Perhaps one in which he is nobler, better, good.

The burn of a knife plunged into his chest had cut his thoughts short, and he had fallen down on his knees in front of his whole crew.

“Enjoy the ride, dearie! Your death will be slow and painful, just like you made my life when you took away Milah!”

The giggles of the Dark One still echo in his ears, but it is a fight he has definitely lost. It is a fight for the living, and he is dying.

He clenches his jaw as a brighter ray of sunshine plays on his eyelids. He frowns. He is drunk enough to numb the pain in his chest but not this gulf roaring within his throat.

As he is about to die, the sum of Killian Jones’ life is a lot of pain and wickedness.

(There is a tear at the corner of his eyes, one he firmly wipes with his hand.)

Dying alone is, after all, more challenging for the nerves than expected by the brave Captain.

A deep breath, to fill in his lungs with the salty sea air, one he’s loved his entire life.

Perhaps is he not so alone after all.

He has been haunted all his life by this angel of beauty, of love, perhaps of death. As if, maybe – just maybe –  things were supposed to end differently.

Bloody nonsense.

A flash of pain. The bottle of rum escapes his hand as his eyes shut in agony, a fire he knows sent from Hell overcoming him. His knees bend down, and his hand tries to hold on to the wooden wheel.

“Bloody hell, can’t it be a quick death?”

He chuckles to himself. What did you expect? The comfort of a loved ones’ arms?

Soon enough, he is unable to see clearly, and his head hits the floor, a muffled sob he isn’t aware of echoing on the ship.

Be quick. Be quick. Be quick.

And then, somehow, as darkness engulfs him and there is nothing but pain, a relief. A cold, white hand on his face – there must some comfort in death.

A smile splits his face open. “Oh, there you are… just in time, love…”

He thinks he sees tears on her face, and his heart screams: someone cares, someone cares,…  

One last breath, one last pang of pain, and he is gone.

(When the Jolly Roger is taken back by pirates with bright eyes and hopes, rumor has it that it is now a haunted ship.

The crewmen avoid at all cost to walk along the corridors at night, for a white figure lingers there.

She has blonde hair and translucent eyes and she seems to be waiting for whom will never come back.)

.

Truly, it is a happy life.

Although King and Queen of Misthaven, Emma’s parents offer her nothing but softness and love. She grows up sheltered by their good heart. (The one they share).

Oh, she does live a good life – one of very few heartaches.

(The few she endures are fighting against Regina, but it is never a lonely fight. Emma’s light magic is too powerful for the Evil Queen and she bends the knee. They evict her from the kingdom.)

Except perhaps when she wakes up covered in sweat, heart about to explode in her chest, eyes filled with tears, and she aches for whom she cannot reach.

It is not for a lack of trying. She feels like she’s dreamed of him her entire life.

Her mother has a knowing smile when she confesses her worries. Together, they decide to create an enchantment to find him, whoever he is.

(His eyes are of a forget-me-not blue, his hair of a dark brown, and there is so much pain in the absent smile he paints upon his face.

She wants to save him. Little does she know she is too late.)

It is truly a good life, except for that one moment, maybe, when she finds herself near the sea and she thinks she has finally found him and she discovers a tombstone with his name on it.

(“How can you tell it’s really him?” her mother asks.

She finds no shame in her heart when she replies: “He told me in a dream.”)

If she can make out anything in between her tears, it is the date: 1755 - 1789.

“He’s been dead for three hundred years,” she whispers in this foggy morning, one hand over the marble.

The sea breeze is cruel against her cheeks.

“Some things are just not meant to be”, Snow White tries to comfort her.

There is a moan that she muffles against her palm. But we were.

Being brought up in this environment of true love and happily ever after makes this burn over her heart even more painful.

(The pain comes from the birthmark she’s got under her breast, the shape of a knife enchanted with poison.)

But it is a good life.

It is however a short one.

The birthmark seems to infect itself, and the poison takes her over in a week.

Their princess is twenty-eight-year old when Snow White and Prince Charming lose her forever.

.

Killian Jones has always been a man of action and this after-life is a long agony of waiting.

Tik tok, tik tok,… Times flies but never towards the future.

At least, there’s still rum.

Rum has no taste back there, but there is a comfort in the habit.

One look at the clock. 8:15. The time of his death. As always. He drinks a mouthful of rum, waits for the burn that doesn’t come.

It is incredibly lonely there. It never gets more comfortable, warmer, it is forever dull and cold.

.

He is sitting in Granny’s when the air shifts. The door opens, and he instinctively looks up from his drink.

And then, a miracle occurs: the clock ticks forward.

There she is.

After all these years. He swallows down, tries to remain composed. His heart is about to burst out of his chest. The woman of his dreams is wrapped up in a dark red dress, a crown on her head, and void in her green eyes.

His blood becomes cold as his gaze meets hers and something within him urges him to stand up.

Welcome her.

There’s a flash of light in her eyes and he knows she recognizes him too.

“Killian,…”

It is awful to hear his name in the mouth of someone who cares for him, after all these years of heartache.

It is freeing.

The ghost haunting him for centuries is finally in front of him, in the flesh, and they are both dead.

A smile. “Well, I sure as hell have been waiting for you, your grace.”

Her smile then doesn’t reach her eyes but does break his heart.

.

“So, you are a royal lady?” a roll of his eyes.

He is playful to hide his discomfort.

They are both sitting outside of Granny’s, echoes of once upon another time dancing all around them.

She’s gazing at the furniture, surely taken aback, and no vision allowed him to fully grasp a glimpse of her beauty. Nor her kindness.

“Was,” she smiles, looks up at him and dives into his eyes.

She takes his breath away.

“And you are a pirate?” she enquires back, playfully.

Something hurts, in his chest. His blood turns cold. “That I am.” He is disappointing her.

You disappoint everybody.

“Well, my mother was a thief,” she quickly adds, she is perceptive.

Tough lass.

He smiles at her. And it is terribly tempting to fall in love with her in the blink of an eye.

.

As things turn out, she is so willing to love him and he is unable to believe he deserves that kind of love.

“I’ve known you my entire life,” she assures him as they sit on a bench by the underworld sea.

She wants to reach for his hand but he is cold and distant and terrified.

The air in this goddamn hell is unbreathable, and perhaps is it because they are not supposed to be breathing. It constantly smells of smoke and ashes, and she still smells like her old self, vanilla and cinnamon, and hope.

“You don’t get it,” he mumbles, remains as far as he possibly can on this tiny bench. He stares at his knuckles. And exhales: “You were the only flicker of light in an ocean of darkness.”

So many times, the only reason he had hold on to life was her face under the sky of a starless night.

A pause. “But I never deserved hope.”

I never deserved you.

.

She surely doesn’t expect him to believe he is a villain. In her visions, she has never seen one. She’s only seen somebody incredibly lonely.

She knows she cannot save him unless he wants her to.

She understands. He wasn’t raised with tales of true love and happy endings – and for heaven’s sake they are both dead and their skin is cold, but lord is her heart beating for him in spite of everything.

He’s waited three centuries. She can at least wait for the rest of eternity.

.

It takes a lot of patience, and kindness, and affection, to melt the ice around Killian Jones’ heart.

Hades doesn’t help her, mind you, is quite determined to keep them both in the Underworld.

“We can move on,” she tells him, still by the sea, “Together. Start over on the other side. Be happy.”

He nods. It isn’t much, but it does give her hope.

And when she grabs his hand, he lets her.

.

It is a very bright light, moving on. For the first time in this life, they do so hand in hand, ready to face all of eternity together.

But mostly, I believed in yellow lights, and tire marks. Sun-kissed skin and handle bars, And where I stood was where I was To be… No enemies to call my own, No porch light home to pull me home, And where I was is beautiful Because I was free.

#captain swan #cs ff #cs fanfics #my stuff #so i kinda wrote everything today #i did i wrote everything today #i apologize for any typo #my french brain is tired #hope you guys will like what i came up with #dont hesitate to leave a comment i live of them :'))) #amy babbles #tbh this premise deserved a multichapter but i do not have the courage to do so #i am completely unable to write more than 2 thousand words #if anyone is down to take over this universe tho #please do so

[ohmightydevviepuu]

our little life (rounded with a sleep) / chapter 11

our little life (rounded with a sleep) chapter eleven [11/12] AO3

--

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful detective. She had blonde hair, green eyes, no family, and she was good at finding people; in fact, she proclaimed this on her office door. “Swan and Humbert,” it said. “Private investigations, missing persons, and bail bonds.”

Only lately, she’s been thinking that maybe it should say “Emma Swan: Loner, Loser, Complicated wreck.”

Her partner’s been killed on a case after she made a deal with her landlord to find what had been taken from him. But when she tracks a possible perp to a bar on the outskirts of town, Emma will find out exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes.

--

major, major shoutout here to @distant-rose​​ and especially to @justanotherwannabeclassic​ who shared with me something they were working on that S was writing while i was struggling with this part.  i felt so inspired by what they had done and by S’s words that i knew immediately how i wanted to write this bit of the story.

to @thisonesatellite​​, @profdanglaisstuff​​ and @katie-dub​ who were all treated to MULTIPLE drafts of this chapter, with extra gratitude to poor katie who hadn’t even read any of it before having this shoved under her nose ❤️

to @captainswanbigbang​​, who made all of this possible

to all of you screaming at me after the last chapter, i hope i prove worthy of your time and patience and attention today--particularly @carpedzem​ who is trusting me 💕

--

cw: canonical character death rating: T/M (implied violence, language) word count:  ~5k AO3 chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven | chapter eight | chapter nine | chapter ten

--

It felt like it happened in a second.

Maybe less.

But in retrospect, as she stood there staring at Killian’s lifeless body on the floor of the station, it was more like a slow-motion trainwreck.

(Killian would have had a Shakespearean reference on the tip of his tongue, something sad and depressing but also beautiful. He would quote it, and she would roll her eyes, and he would explain it and wink and she thought it annoyed her but really--she kind of liked it.) 

(She liked him.)

read the full chapter on AO3

chapter eleven

“Hey, Leroy,” David called, “I didn’t order this apple turnover.”

“Do I look like I care?”

--

It’s not that she hadn’t noticed Gold’s comment.

A pirate who pines for you.

Or Cora’s.

Love is weakness.

It’s just--there was a lot going on, and Emma thought--maybe if she could just get her parents to remember, somehow, that would help her figure out the whole curse situation.

(She hadn’t noticed.) (She hadn’t noticed.)

--

Henry said: “Wait, Grandpa, did you say apple?”

And looked at Killian.

And then at Emma.

And then back at Killian.

--

“It’s a trick,” Henry said. “As long as she’s alive, Emma is a threat to the curse.”

“Henry,” Regina said, “You’ve got to stop thinking like this. I’m your mother and I love you.”

“It’s my usual order from Granny’s, Henry. Nothing sinister.” David’s smile was persuasive and warm.

Charming, even.

“I’m very grateful to you, mate,” Killian said, “that you left off the bologna this time.”

--

Emma couldn’t see the future.

But Gold could, he claimed, and this, this--it was impossible, but he had somehow planned for exactly this.

“I’m quite pleased at the level of your devotion to Miss Swan. More than you could possibly know.”

--

It had been there, buried in the layers of conversation between the two men; in the history that they were excavating with each word.

“She’s the mother to your grandson.”

“I need Miss Swan. Surely you understand that.”

“You get what you wanted either way, don’t you, crocodile?”

“I’m a man who likes to plan for any contingency.”

“And when it doesn’t work?”

“It matters not. It might even add a little fuel to the fire.”

(Emma had missed it.) (Emma had missed all of it.)

--

Henry said: “You can’t eat that. It’s poison.”

It was pastry, Emma thought, but Killian--

He just looked at Henry, and she didn’t know she knew it, knew that Killian was looking at her kid and seeing the boy he had loved two hundred years ago when he said: “It’s going to be fine, lad. Your mother is going to be safe.”

(She knew it because she knew him.) (Open book.)

--

His eyes were on the chain.

Emma hadn’t even realized she was clutching it. Again.

“I think it might be the reason I’m still alive,” he’d said.

“Get Lacey,” he said. Killian’s lips were barely moving, his voice so low that only she could hear it. “Bring her here.”

“What?” Emma said. “When--?”

“For once, please,” he said, “just do as I ask, Swan. Promise me.”

--

Apples.

The apple tree was dying.

“If you do not succeed in breaking the curse on your own, killing you breaks the curse just as well as anything else.”

But Regina didn’t want the curse broken.

“I’ve found a solution to my Emma Swan problem.” “An old, reliable solution.”

--

Henry was up against the bars of the cell door, agitated and angry.

“Swan,” Killian said. “You weren’t wrong about me.”

(Henry had known.) (Emma should have known.)

--

She should have known.

It was there, in his expression, in the tilt of his head. It was the lost look in his eyes again, buttressed by something determined. And angry. And--

--hopeful.

--

“There’s hope, Swan.” "All you have to do is believe.”

--

Killian reached for the pastry, picking it up off the tray.

Regina twitched--started to say something, opening her mouth and closing it again.

Gold giggled.

Something stirred in Mary Margaret. “It must be taken willingly,” she said.

Which was pretty fucking creepy.

And then--

Oh.

Oh.

--

“Regina’s not going to let all of her hard work burn.”

--

It was just one bite. One. Bite.

--

Hook was on the floor, his eyes closed and his body unresponsive.

(And her dreams, her goddamned dreams, she’d known this was coming, and yet--) (She hadn’t known.) (Not until it was too late.)

--

Emma’s knees hit the ground almost before he did.

“KILLIAN!”

--

Hello, beautiful.

I find I quite fancy you.

I love a challenge.

I haven’t lived a good life.

I’m not much for loyalty.

I was hoping it would be you.

I believe in good form.

I’m going to tell you a story.

Everything you think you believe is wrong.

Did I tell you a lie?

That’s the thing about revenge, you see: it’s an end, not a beginning.

I don’t dance, anyway.

We make quite the team.

You should know as well as anyone that Lost Ones recognize their own.

I am a man of honor.

Milah wouldn’t have wanted this.

My reasons are my own.

A reminder to both of us.

Don’t you know, Emma? It’s all for you.

You weren’t wrong about me.

--

The tray and its contents clattered to the floor, a mess all around her as David and Mary Margaret--her parents--startled at the noise, as Regina pulled Henry away.

“Killian,” Emma said. “Killian, can you hear me? Come on, Killian, come back to me.”

(He didn’t answer.) (Somehow, she had known that he wouldn’t.)

--

David unlocked the cell doors.

Fucking finally.

Mary Margaret came rushing in, her fingers jabbing uselessly at Killian’s wrists and neck for any indication of a pulse.

“He’s not dead,” Henry said, but he didn’t sound too certain, her son the Believer. “It’s just--”

“It’s a curse,” Emma said. She almost couldn’t make herself say the words, as she looked up at David, at her father, and forced him to look her in the eyes.

“Help me get him up,” David muttered.

“Aren’t you a real Prince Charming,” Mary Margaret said, putting an arm around Emma’s shoulder.

--

It was impossible to tell if he was breathing.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this, Miss Swan,” Gold said.

Liar.

--

Emma pushed Regina up against the wall, desperately wishing she had her gun. Or a pair of cuffs. “You did this,” she said.

“It was meant for you,” Regina said. But her smile, the sickening smile, suggested that she wasn’t entirely disappointed with the outcome.

“Wake. Him. Up.” Emma punctuated each word with a shove against the wall, only--

Regina laughed. “That’s not how the magic works, Miss Swan.”

--

Emma was on the floor.

Her back up against the bars, her feet flat against the floor, and it kept her eyes level with his, and Henry was there, just--

“It’s going to be okay, Mom.”

Mary Margaret was holding her hand, stroking her thumb soothingly against Emma’s palm.

(Emma did not get emotional over men.)

--

“What--” Henry gulped. “What’s going to happen to him?”

But Emma remembered this part, the story where Snow White had eaten the apple. His body would be like a tomb, and he would be in there with nothing, nothing but--

“Dreams formed of your own regrets,” Mary Margaret said, and Emma nodded.

(God, Killian had so many regrets.)

--

“Wait,” Emma said, blinking away tears. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing,” Mary Margaret said, but she had that look in her eyes, that far-away look, that haunted, cursed look--

--

“Just look at me,” he’d said, “and believe.”

--

It was under the bed.

Emma was sure it hadn’t been there before.

Oversized brown leather binding with old-timey script.

Once Upon A Time.

--

When Emma reached for the book she felt the power rushing through her, and she stood up.

It was time to end this.

“Henry,” she said. “I need you to go to The Rabbit Hole. Bring Lacey. Run.”

--

All curses can be broken. Think therefore on revenge and cease to weep.

--

“He’s not dead.”

That’s what Emma said when Liam rushed into the room and looked around, his face pale and his eyes wide as they landed upon his brother.

“He’s not dead.”

Emma said it again as Lacey, resplendent as ever in her t-shirt-micromini-stilettoes combo, rushed in two steps behind Liam. She was saying it for them, but she was reminding herself, too.

She was reminding Henry, as well; Henry, who had refused to leave her. “I’m not leaving you.” That’s what he’d said when she told him to go, this small person she had helped create, who was somehow stronger than both of his parents combined. “I’m not leaving you here with them,” he’d said, biting back tears and pulling an old flip phone out of his pocket.

“Who are you calling, Henry” in Gold’s smoothed-over accent overlapped with “That phone is for emergencies only” in Regina’s acidic tone and Emma had snapped.

“I think this counts as a fucking emergency,” she said, somehow still clutching the storybook to her chest. Once Upon a Time. The rush of power, she could feel it on the edge of her consciousness, but it was something just out of her reach. She had no idea how to wake him up. How to wake any of them up. Mary Margaret and David--it was as if they were on the precipice of something, only Emma couldn’t push them the rest of the way.

“Mom,” Henry had said, “give me the book,” and then pulled it from her hands and gone to sit next to Mary Margaret.

He’d read her a story.

...they didn’t need words to express what they felt in their hearts, for it was here, in the shadow of the troll bridge, where their love was born--where they knew, no matter how they were separated, they would always…

Emma should have thought--should have realized--that Liam would come running just as quickly as Lacey would. In fact, it was probably Liam whom Henry had phoned; after all, they were friends. Liam was Hook’s brother.

“Liam is not the first brother of mine to bear that name.”

It was getting difficult to look at him, to look at Killian and to imagine what it must be like, to be trapped in a prison formed of his own regrets. But Emma also couldn’t look at Gold, who was watching Henry with something in his eyes that frightened her.

Neal was Gold’s son. Gold was Henry’s grandfather. Neal had known Hook, hundreds of years ago. Somehow, they had all ended up here--in a Land Without Magic.

Graham was dead. Gold had killed him over a dagger.

“Baelfire saw it as the source of all of his problems and I saw in it the solution to all of mine.”

It was Gold’s curse, and yet he had used Regina to cast it.

Had Gold--had he been looking for Neal?

It made a twisted kind of sense, Emma decided, watching Gold watch her son. As for her own family tree, well--

No one spoke as Henry’s words bounced around the station, through the bars and off the concrete brick walls. “Whatever she did to you,” Henry said, “I know Snow White is in there somewhere.”

Something stirred in Emma at the words, and in David, too, and then--

Liam. And Lacey.

And Gold’s cane clattered as it hit the floor.

--

Emma was shocked when Lacey came straight up to her and gave her a hug. “Is Jamie okay?”

Jamie--who the fuck was--oh. Right. But also, why was this woman hugging her?

“Belle?” Gold’s words were breathy, broken and disbelieving in a way Emma had never heard from him before. In that brief moment, there was nothing reptilian about him; nothing that glinted or leered, nothing powerful or all-knowing. He was just a man, and he was looking at Lacey as though he had been in a desert and she was water, half-afraid that she was an hallucination, but even more afraid that she wasn’t.

“You think the maid is some kind of chess piece?” “Given the circumstances, it seemed wise to acquire some leverage.” “She’s the only thing that can break him.” “She’s my friend.”

“You’re real,” Gold said. “You’re alive.” It was practically a whisper, one that Lacey acknowledged with a smile--the small, tight kind that showed no teeth as she stepped forward, bending to pick up the fallen cane.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Do I know you?”

“No,” Gold said, accepting the cane from her. “But you will.”

Lacey cocked her head, looking at him, managing somehow not to look terrified at the prospect as the moment ended and Gold’s expression turned murderous and he growled, “Which of them?” His accent thickened as he glanced first at Regina, and then at Emma. “Which of them did this to her?”

Emma instinctively put herself between her landlord--her son’s grandfather, Rumplestiltskin, the fucking Dark One--and Hook. “Hook rescued her, you asshole. From an asylum. Where Regina had her locked up for the past twenty-eight years.”

Regina hissed as Gold stiffened, and something like a shudder overcame Lacey. Belle. “Regina,” she said faintly. “Regina locked me up.” Her eyes--

Shit. She had that far-away cursed look, too. “I was told to find you, and tell you that Regina locked me up. Does that--does that mean anything to you?”

Gold moved, his arms outstretched, only something about the movement triggered the curse again as Belle--Lacey--snapped out of it.

“Lacey,” Liam called softly from inside the cell. Emma wanted to yell, to scream, there was no reason to be quiet--Killian couldn’t hear any of them, or any of this, trapped in a tomb of his own regrets--but she couldn’t. Not when Liam was all long limbs and uncertainty as he hovered over his brother’s body, looking for the same signs of life Emma had tried--and failed--to find. Lacey gave Emma’s shoulder a squeeze, running her hand down Emma’s arm and gently pulling her into the cell with the brothers, and with Henry, who left the storybook on the floor as he stared up at Liam.

“I’m so sorry this happened,” Lacey said, also keeping her voice low in a way that made Emma want to scream. “Are you okay?”

Emma blinked. Lacey’s smile was sad but genuine. “I saw the two of you together,” she reminded Emma, “and Jamie told me about you. He said to bring you this if anything happened to him.” She dropped Emma’s arm and twisted, pulling the crossbody bag slung over her shoulder from her back to her front.

“He’s not dead,” Lacey muttered.

“He’s not,” Emma echoed. Then, “Do you even understand what is happening?”

“Emma,” Lacey said, “Do you?” She was holding something in her hand, about the length of her forearm, wrapped in paper. “But he trusts you. So I trust you.”

Emma took the parcel. She could feel the twisted blade inside, crinkling the paper as she gripped the handle. She turned so that Mary Margaret and David--her parents--couldn’t see it. They sat on the other side of the bars, almost frozen as they watched her with Henry, and with Liam, and with Lacey, the storybook still open in front of them on the concrete floor, an illustration of a minutes-old baby girl tucked into a hand-knitted blanket with purple trim covering both pages as a man shoved her into a wardrobe with the last breath in his body.

“How did this happen?” Liam asked.

Of course, that he said loud enough to carry.

Regina smirked. “Miss Swan,” she said, “why don’t you explain to this young man why his brother is comatose and possibly dying, all because you put him in harm’s way?”

Because apparently, reading people at their worst was a family trait. But Cora was gone, dead by Killian’s hand in her defense, and Emma was not responsible for his choices.

She kept telling herself that, too.

Even though she should have known.

Even though her dreams had warned her.

Liam’s face fell, and Emma braced herself, wondering if anger was a family trait for the Jones men the same way it was for the Mills women. “You’re the one,” Liam said, “who got him--and got me--involved in all of this.”

“And if you had listened to me,” Regina said, “he might not be in this position. Miss Swan would have been long taken care of.”

“Listened to you?” And there it was, the flash of his elder brother, in the harshness of his consonants and the icy coolness of his rage. “You wanted me to spy on him, to tell you about her. But I know, Regina, what you did to him, and what you did me, and--”

Emma put her hand on his shoulder, an echo of Lacey’s gesture, in an attempt to give him comfort. “Liam,” she said, “you didn’t do this. As for you--” she directed her glare at Regina, grateful for anything to focus on beside the unmoving body mere feet away “--I’m locking you up.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Regina spat.

“Let’s see,” Emma said, pretending to think. “The sheriff is literally standing right next to you, so we could start with whatever the hell your game is with Kathryn Nolan. But we have so many other choices: you’ve committed false imprisonment, theft, and, of course, attempted murder--”

That’s when her voice caught.

Because Killian was there, unmoving, mere feet away.

Emma closed her eyes, so she heard instead of saw David push Regina into Mary Margaret’s cell; she didn’t open her eyes again until she also heard the door close and the lock click.

“I’m going to fix this,” Emma said. She said it for herself as much as for Liam, or for Lacey, or for Henry. She said it because she needed to hear it, too.

“It happened,” Henry said, “because your brother is a hero.” There was so much conviction in his voice--Emma could hear how much he wanted Liam to believe. “It happened because he didn’t want me to lose my mom, the way you lost your dad. He didn’t want to see another family broken up.” Lacey nodded, but Liam just shook his head and looked mournfully at Henry. “My mom is going to fix this,” he said. “I promise, Liam.”

Gold cleared his throat. His gold tooth was glinting again as he grinned, all traces of the human man with human emotions gone as he was every inch Hook’s crocodile once more.

“I wonder, Miss Swan,” he said. “What exactly do you intend to do about the magical ailment that has befallen my old friend? To fix it, as you say.”

Slowly, Emma advanced on him, emerging from the cell. The dagger--the Dark One’s dagger, the thing that Graham had fucking died for--was still in its wrappings, and his eyes followed her, and it, with speculation.

“All magic comes with a price, dearie,” Gold said.

“He shouldn’t have had to pay it,” Emma said. “Not this time.”

“That’s debatable,” Gold said, “but let’s agree to disagree, shall we?”

“Cut the bullshit, Gold,” Emma said. “You obviously think you still have a plan here, so what is it?”

“I, Miss Swan,” he said, “always have a plan.” Emma’s hand clenched around the dagger so tightly that she could feel the curved edges of the blade and wondered that she hadn’t cut herself yet. “If you had listened to me prior to the Captain’s unfortunate incident--” he gestured with the cane “--we might not have been in this position.”

Emma stared, waiting.

Finally, he said, “True Love. The only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse.”

Emma very carefully did not look at Killian, but was still rewarded with another one of Gold’s giggles. “Luckily for you,��� he said, “I happen to have bottled some.”

Regina stirred. “You did?” Her surprise was evident.

“Oh, yes,” Gold purred. “From strands of her parents’ hair, I made the most powerful potion in all the realms. So powerful, that when I created the Dark Curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment.” For the first time since Lacey had entered the station, Gold moved. Two slow, deliberate steps until he was standing directly in front of Regina, and he leaned forward. “Just a little safety valve,” he said. His cane tapped the bars for emphasis.

“You twisted little imp,” Regina said. “You--”

But Emma was finished with her--with all of it. “You still don’t get it, do you?” Emma said impatiently. “He planned all of this, he and Cora, and it’s not about you at all, or me, or any of us. We’re here because he wanted us to be here. I’m the Savior so that I can break the curse--so that he can leave Storybrooke and go find his son.”

Emma tore the paper from the dagger and held it up by the handle, brandishing it at Gold. “Stop me if I’ve got this wrong,” Emma said. “But I’m not, am I? Neal ended up in Neverland because of you. He left me, pregnant and alone and in jail, because of you. He abandoned his son, your grandson. Because he was afraid of you. Because he hated you.”

“Tell me something, love. If a woman begs you to take her away, is that theft?”

“She left you,” Emma whispered, “because she hated you.”

“Emma,” Lacey said, trying to pull at her arm. Emma shrugged her off, keeping her eyes on Gold. She wasn’t sure if it was the sound of Lacey’s voice or the sight of his precious object, but a change had come over him. He looked--older, suddenly. Angry, and defiant, and--for the first time--scared.

He hadn’t planned for this.

The anger Emma felt bubbling up within her, the hatred, it was like nothing she had ever felt before. Not even when Neal had left--not even when she’d gone to prison--not even when she’d had to give up Henry. She pushed forward, walking toward him, crowding him, continuing her recitation: “And this? Your magical, mystical dagger. The source of all of your power, that you thought was hidden. The reason you killed Graham--but he was smarter than you gave him credit for. Both of them were.”

Emma took the last step toward him, forcing him against the bars and holding the dagger almost against his neck. “And you?” she said. “You’re just a coward.”

There was nothing powerful about Gold, not then. Not with his own dagger pressed almost into his skin, the tip of it very nearly piercing his flesh--there was only fear. The thing might be a paperweight in this realm, in this Land Without Magic, but it was sharp as fuck and ready to cut.

“So tell me, crocodile,” Emma said, “what do you know of True Love?”

True Love is the rarest magic of all.

And all Emma felt was fury--and how easy it would be to push the knife farther into his throat.

He was struggling against her as he spoke, but Emma had him completely pinned. Letters Emma hadn’t even noticed made themselves visible, spelling a name: Rumplestiltskin. It flashed for a second and then just as quickly began to fade away, one letter at a time beginning to disappear.

“You--” Lacey said. “You loved someone?”

Gold licked his lips. “It was a brief flicker of light amidst an ocean of darkness.”

That’s when Emma noticed the blood. He was bleeding from a wound she had made--

“All magic comes with a price." "The price of this magic is--unspeakable.”

Emma’s grip faltered; her shoulders sagged and her head felt suddenly heavy.

“Mom,” Henry said, looking at her with pleading eyes. “Don’t. Please--don’t.”

“Vengeance is tempting." "The darkness always is.”

Emma turned, and she could feel them--the tears--burning at the edges of her eyes.

“It creeps up in you. Resist it.”

“Emma,” Mary Margaret said. “You can’t give in, or your life will be just like his. Bleak, and empty, and full of darkness. I gave Henry that book to give him hope.”

“Heroes do what’s right,” Henry said. “Not what’s easy.”

Something in Emma broke, as she suddenly felt everything, all of it--the grief, the anger, the helplessness, the sadness--all at once. She fell backward on unsteady feet, taking one step after another until her hands felt the wall behind her, and she sank to the floor.

Sobbing.

“Why couldn’t you?” she’d asked in her dream. “I didn’t have anything to live for,” he said, “to keep me on my path. Use whatever it takes to stay on yours."

But what did Emma know about True Love? Nothing--less than nothing--less than the goddamn Dark One. She had been abandoned by her parents, or sent through a magical wardrobe; either way she had grown up alone. She had been abandoned by Neal and she, in turn, had given up her kid--afraid to let herself love Graham, afraid to love Mary Margaret, afraid to love Kil--

“Mom.” Henry was barely taller than her shoulder because of the way she was sitting. “You can do this, Mom. I believe in you.” Emma reached for him with the hand not still clutching the dagger, wrapping him in a hug and pulling him down to the floor next to her. Henry nestled into her side as if he had done it every day of his life and Emma instinctively shifted so that her head lay atop his.

Even after everything, his hair still smelled sweet and clean. It was the first time Emma had smelled it.

“Emma,” Mary Margaret said. Her friend--her mother--was kneeling on the floor in front of her, one hand on Emma’s knee, looking as though she was actually trying to restrain herself from pulling Emma into her arms.

“Mom,” Emma whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you down.”

She hadn’t broken the curse. She had been attacked, kidnapped by a madman who had vanished into a magic hat and imprisoned by the fucking Queen of fucking Hearts. Graham was still dead. Killian was--gone.

What was she going to tell Liam?

What had any of it even been for?

Emma Swan wasn’t a savior.

Emma Swan wasn’t some fairy tale princess.

There were no fairy godmothers in this world.

“You didn’t, Emma, shhh,” Mary Margaret said. “I don’t care what you do or say, I will never stop trying to protect you, and you could never let me down.”

For the first time in her life, Emma let herself be gathered up and held by someone, by her best friend, by her mother.

“I love you, Emma,” Mary Margaret whispered, and Emma felt her mother’s kiss on the crown of her head.

...And, yes, she was beyond hope. Beyond saving. This was her end. When Prince Charming saw his beloved Snow White in her glass coffin, he knew all that was left was to say goodbye. He had to give her one last kiss. And when he did, True Love proved more powerful than any curse. A pulse of pure love shuddered out and engulfed the land, waking up Snow White and bringing light to the darkness.

--

@kmomof4​ @shireness-says​ @optomisticgirl​ @scientificapricot​ @captainsjedi​ @carpedzem​ @mariakov81​ @stahlop​ @eirabach​ @snowbellewells​ @searchingwardrobes​ @spartanguard​

#cs fic #cs ff #captain swan rewrite a thon #our little life (rounded with a sleep) #canon divergence #s1 divergence #cursed!killian #an alternate theory of the curse

[transmascfrankiero]

um thoughts on hamlet?

i’m sobbing thank you and i’m sorry in advance because this is going to be LONG

so my hottest take on hamlet (i have many, many hot takes on this play) is that ophelia’s suicide was a hoax, and that gertrude, the queen, straight up murdered ophelia instead. why do i believe this? many reasons:

1. throughout the play, gertrude and ophelia have almost no relationship in terms of interaction between them. many, if not most, stagings of the play place ophelia and gertrude on opposite sides of the stage when a scene has both of them in it, and gertrude’s dialogue toward and about ophelia heavily suggests that she doesn’t really care for ophelia at all. at best, she tolerates ophelia, and at worst, she treats ophelia like an interloper in her court, a flighty girl who drives her son to distraction and has as much to offer to gertrude as her father. (gertrude’s famous line, “more matter with less art,” is an annoyed outburst directed at ophelia’s father polonius, whom gertrude outwardly loathes.) in ophelia’s last scene before her death, she appears to have lost her mind to grief in the wake of her father’s murder, and wanders through a royal meeting handing out flowers and singing. however, she gives gertrude fennel and columbines, which represent adultery in flower language, and TELLS GERTRUDE AS MUCH, TO HER FACE. in case you’re unfamiliar with hamlet, one of the big conflicts in the play is that gertrude, hamlet’s mother the queen, married claudius, the king’s brother, approximately thirty seconds after the king died and there’s a rumor floating around court that they were hooking up LONG before hamlet senior fell victim to the classic poison-in-the-ear trick. (later it’s confirmed that claudius himself was the one who murdered the king. whoops!) so ophelia accusing the queen of adultery is of course a HUGE slap in the face, and ophelia only gets away with it because ~~~she’s mad with grieeeeef sob cry~~~ which is GENIUS and i have more theories about that particular action on ophelia’s but that’s another post for another day.

2. ophelia dies offstage. she is never seen or heard from again until her funeral in act V. the only reason we find out about ophelia’s death - and in fact, the only way we know how she died - is because gertrude tells us about it. yes, gertrude, weirdly enough! gertrude gives a monologue which describes in excruciating detail exactly how ophelia died, right down to the kind of plants that were getting caught in her dress as she drowned and what songs she sang as she slipped into her watery grave. the sort of details you would only expect a person who was there to witness the death could provide. sketchy, right? what’s even sketchier is that gertrude makes no mention of having heard this from someone else. she’s not like, “oh, this is the hot village goss, take a sip babes,” she doesn’t offer any explanation at all as to how this information got to her. she just dives straight into her ultra explicit account of the drowning. SUPER weird! and furthermore, why is gertrude of all people the one giving us this information when there is clearly no love lost in their relationship? couldn’t this have come from one of those rando shakespeare characters who show up for one scene, deliver a message, and then vanish again? well, sure, but it didn’t. it came from gertrude. and that was intentional on shakespeare’s part - he wants you to be suspicious of this information, beCAUSE...

3. the play itself tells us that the conditions of ophelia’s death are VERY SUS. the very next scene after gertrude’s macabre monologue is act V scene I, wherein two gravediggers are preparing ophelia’s grave for her burial and discussing between themselves why they’re preparing for a christian burial if she killed herself. (in shakespeare’s time, suicide was a sin, and people who committed suicide weren’t given proper burials because of it.) the dialogue goes like this:

GRAVEDIGGER 1: Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she willfully seeks her own salvation? (translation: Why is she getting a proper burial if she killed herself?) GRAVEDIGGER 2: I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial. (After examining her, the coroner said she should get a proper burial.) GRAVEDIGGER 1: How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? (So what, she drowned in self-defense?) GRAVEDIGGER 2: Why, ‘tis found so. (That’s what they said she did.)

the text here indicates loud and clear that something about ophelia’s death is complicated, enough that there’s DOUBT about it being a suicide. and what’s more, there’s so much doubt that her death was a suicide, she gets to be buried for real in the eyes of God. but the text does not explicitly state what, exactly, is so weird about ophelia’s death. it just wants you to know that the whens and wherefores about it are strange, and that characters who are not emotionally involved believe it’s strange, too. it doesn’t stop there, either! the priest who’s going to perform the funeral ceremony says, in as many words, to the royal family, “Her death was doubtful.” interesting!

4.  gertrude has this TOTAL crocodile tears thing going on at ophelia’s funeral. after spending the entire play openly disdaining ophelia as a silly little airhead, here’s what she has to say at her grave:

GERTRUDE: Sweets to the sweet. Farewell! I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife. I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, and not have strewed thy grave. (I thought I’d be covering your wedding bed in flowers, not your grave.)

kind of a weird, sudden change of heart for her to have about ophelia, right? you could argue that it’s grief-driven, that people gain new perspective after someone dies and maybe she’s just now realizing that ophelia was really a great person all along. but given just how few fucks she gave about ophelia when she was alive, it doesn’t make sense for her to be sad after ophelia’s death, unless she’s being performative about her grief. and yeah, she’s the queen, people are paying attention to how she reacts to shit and therefore on some level everything she does is performative, but it’s in particular how she relates her grief back to ophelia being her son’s girlfriend that gives me pause, beCAUSE...

5. there is, of course, that whole Oedipal reading of hamlet, where the reason hamlet and gertrude’s relationship is fifty shades of fucked up is because they’re sexually attracted to one another. while this reading of hamlet is mostly a freudian analysis that is treated as a sort of embarrassing joke nowadays by scholars and theatre folks alike, when you read the scenes between hamlet and gertrude - in particular the famous closet scene, from which the bulk of this analysis derives - you DEFINITELY get the sense that this relationship is weird and toxic for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that gertrude married hamlet’s uncle. gertrude is really, really, really wrapped up in her son. but not in a loving, maternal sort of way - instead, it comes across as a narcissistic parent desperate to understand why their child has not turned out exactly the way the parent wanted them to be. gertrude continually accuses hamlet of acting out of pocket specifically to hurt her, and does not consider any other motivation for his actions. when he acts out of turn in court, it embarrasses her. his strange behavior reflects poorly on her as a mother and as the queen, and she doesn’t like it. she has a nervous breakdown over it in the closet scene, where she basically begs hamlet to be normal for her sake.

now with all of this in mind...

i believe gertrude, having gotten fed up with her son acting Weird and making her look bad all the time, decides that in order to exert SOME means of control over the situation, is going to take it upon herself to eliminate anything that could be the cause of his bad behavior. and the most obvious cause, at least to her, is ophelia. why would gertrude believe this? well, in act one, polonius encourages ophelia to break up with hamlet, because he’s worried hamlet’s gonna steal his daughter’s virginity (which, gross, but whatever, we’re not here to talk about that today). because ophelia’s an obedient daughter, she does so. then, in act two, ophelia runs to tell her father polonius about an encounter she had with hamlet in her bedroom, where he did a bunch of weird creepy shit and then left her a letter that expressed how desperately in love with her he was. polonius decides that hamlet’s gone nuts because ophelia dumped him, and the two of them tell the king and queen about their theory. claudius asks gertrude if she thinks the theory holds water, and gertrude responds that it might. later on, in act three scene one (i.e. “to be or not to be”), this theory is apparently confirmed - at least to polonius and gertrude - by the way hamlet treats ophelia.

so, the very first theory posited to gertrude about why her son’s acting weird is that it’s because of ophelia. and we’ve already established that a) gertrude doesn’t like ophelia, and b) gertrude is a narcissist. she’s desperate to make hamlet stop his bad behavior and therefore stop making her look bad. the worse hamlet’s behavior gets, the worse gertrude’s desperation gets to stop it. and everyone else in this play solves their problems with murder, so it tracks that gertrude would solve her problem with murder, too!

gertrude killed ophelia hoping that it would make her son would go back to normal. (and, if for some reason you like the Oedipal reading of hamlet, it could be argued that she was also jealous of ophelia. but i don’t really love the Oedipal reading, so i’m choosing to ignore this argument.) the fact that ophelia was apparently insane at the time just made it easier for her to make up the suicide alibi. that’s why she knows so much about the circumstances surrounding ophelia’s death - because she was THERE and she CAUSED IT. that’s why shakespeare has gertrude delivering the news of her death. that’s why the play tells us, repeatedly, that the circumstances of ophelia’s death are suspicious. because ophelia didn’t drown herself. gertrude totally straight up drowned her!

thanks for coming to my TED talk everyone

#hamlet #this is a full on ESSAY #i even cited the text

[sound-of-addiction]

Crocodile. What a man. I admire him... in a “that's absolutely despicable” and “what kind of depraved maniac plans in such detail” kind of way.

Like him or hate him you have to give him credit where it's due. He has backup plans for his backup plans. Because he trusts no one, he plans to get rid of everyone. I'm sure he has plans for every single Agent in this operation should they betray him.

Let's think back. Crocodile lured the Straw Hats into his territory, ordering Robin to invite them into the VIP room. They took the right path labeled Pirate and fell into a trap.

While we have no way of knowing what was in the left path, I have no doubt it was a trap. Especially considering how Crocodile specifically invited them to the VIP room. He made it seem like a choice but there was no real choice in that situation.

When Crocodile sees Smoker in the cage, he instantly figures out that Smoker was acting without government orders, and plans to write off his death as an “accident” with the Straw Hats.

Then, he overkills his plan to kill them. Not only is the cage made of Sea Stone, he floods the room with water to drown them AND releases Bananawanis into the room. Creatures ferocious enough to be natural predators of Sea Kings. The only way the Straw Hats can escape is if they get a key and fight through the Bananawanis.

And what does he do with the key? He tosses it into the Bananawani cage where it is swallowed by a Bananawani that looks identical to all the other Bananawanis.

If Smoker did not recognize the growl of the Bananawani, there was no way they could've found the one that swallowed the key.

And after all their efforts, guess what? The key was fake. Crocodile went through all that planning for a fake key. It was an impossible task. If Mr. 3 was not there to make a key using his Devil fruit ability, they would have all died.

Because that plan isn't detailed enough, Crocodile goes even further. Before ascertaining the death of “Mr. Prince” outside the casino, he goes back to knock Vivi unconscious. The Vivi who has no real fighting ability who he lied to about the key.

If Vivi had not woken up and found Sanji, she and the crew would have died.

Crocodile ran outside and was fooled for a short period of time by Chopper acting as a decoy, allowing Sanji to run in and free the Straw Hats. If Crocodile had known about Sanji's existence, who Bon Clay did not meet, they would have died.

One round of Luffy vs Crocodile later. Crocodile impales Luffy and buries him in quicksand. Again, overkill for a rookie pirate. Unfortunately for him, he was too arrogant to confirm Luffy's death and Luffy survived. If he did, Luffy would have died.

To be fair, only a protagonist would survive that.

Jumping to Alabasta. Let's remember what Crocodile did. He set up Baroque Works to earn money for him, planted suspicion of using Rain Powder on the King, purposefully sent a major trade town into drought, kidnapped the King, and ordered Bon Clay to disguise as the King and burn down a town. He did so much to bring the Royalists and Rebels into conflict. He also went through the additional effort to stop Vivi from meeting Kohza, the rebel leader. In the present, he stops Vivi from blowing up the palace and gaining the people's attention. (It makes me tired just analyzing all his plans.) In short, he wants the country to war.

His goal succeeded and the Royalists and Rebels are killing each other. When Kohza finally meets up with Vivi, Crocodile purposefully enrages Kohza so that he will tell the people there is a bomb in the square—throwing the people into further chaos. Plan 1 fails because Vivi stops Kohza.

So Crocodile plans to kill them to stop Kohza from stopping the rebellion.

Plan 2 fails because Chaka stops him.

But guess what? None of his previous plans were actually necessary. Kohza is shot while proposing peace. Crocodile has double agents on both sides to intensify the conflict.

His final of finalest plans is for a bomb to kill everyone involved which his two unknowing suicide Agents will set off. But guess what? The two Agents were never necessary. The bomb runs on a timer. They only stopped the canon.

Vivi's words represent my sentiments perfectly at this moment. They were sent on another impossible task by Crocodile. I'm certain it was part of his plan to get rid of the Straw Hats in the explosion.

Do you see a pattern here?

Crocodile has intense trust issues. He trusts no one but himself (and the dead) so he overkills every single one of his plans. That's because he expects to be betrayed.

This man has an insane amount of backup plans (and trust issues). Don't look at me, look at his hook. Inside his metal hook is an poisonous hook. Beneath the poisonous hook is a dagger. Without the dagger, the base still works as a mace...

Frankly, he's terrifying. At this point in time, Crocodile genuinely believes that those that know any of his secrets are better off dead. If Crocodile was less arrogant and Luffy had a little less luck, he would have succeeded. It took Luffy three tries to beat Crocodile. If Crocodile confirmed any of Luffy's “deaths,” that's it. Crocodile would have killed everyone involved in his plot and taken over Alabasta.

What do you guys think about him?

#look at all the red #crocodile is insane #the only people he trusts are the dead #one piece #character analysis #crocodile #manga reread

[moongothic]

To be honest I can kinda see how having a hook instead of a hand prosthetic has its benefits

Hook is easier to mantain than a hand with lots of small moving pats, especially when you don't know shit about it. If something happens to it and it gets broken, it's much easier to replace a hook, even with all layers and poisons

And depending on when in time Crocodile lost his hand he may have just got used to it already

But also yeah, Crocodile is just the type of guy to choose a hook instead of a new hand because looks and aesthetics lol

(sorry for typos btw)

Crocodile's hook is kind of fun because it's a reflection of so many things in the story. Like there's the in-universe lore and character stuff we can look at, but also we can look at it from a meta perspective

Like we know Oda wanted to give certain important characters in the story the Iconic Pirate Traits; the peg leg for Zeff, the hook for Crocodile and an eyepatch he has seemingly been saving up all these years for a special someone (my money's on Mr Burns but that's a different subject). And so Crocodile having the iconic hook is a part of an old pirate-y "vision" Oda wanted to fulfill with One Piece, an OG "goal" from waaay back in the day

But another thing is that Crocodile is very much from The Olden Days of One Piece, more specifically, very much pre-what I'd call the sci-fi era of OP. I'd say One Piece started truly dwelling deeper into that genre and its tropes during Punk Hazard, but Oda didn't even really dip his toes into it until the CP9 Saga (with the introduction of Franky and the namedropping of Doctor Vegapunk). Sure, Oda did already hint at the existence of Vegapunk and his scientific developments back in Alabasta (when Miss Merry Christmas explained that Lassoo was a gun that had eaten a Dog Dog Fruit, this being "the Latest Science from the Grand Line"*), but One Piece was still very much in its more classical fantasy element/genre at this point in the story, so the science fiction that was to come years and decades later was not even present at this point

*(Thinking about it, honestly, how the fuck did Mr 4 get his hands on Lassoo if Lassoo was created by Vegapunk?? Was he a gift from Vegapunk/the WG to Crocodile, maybe????? That Crocodile just secretly gave away to Mr 4????)

In other words, in hindsight it might seem odd Crocodile wouldn't have taken advantage of his position as a Warlord and gotten a prosthetic arm to replace his hook. But Crocodile is a One Piece character from a different era in the story, when advanced prosthetics, cyborgs, robots, clones and so much more were nothing but a twinkle in Oda's eyes. So expecting Crocodile to have lived up to the sci-fi future One Piece wasn't originally going to even get to would be unreasonable.

But the fun thing is that we can actually look at Crocodile and his silly little hook, and spin it in a way that does actually complement his character. We can find in-universe reasons for him to have stuck to a hook over an advanced prosthetic, and they make sense. The most obvious would of course be that Crocodile does not trust anyone. It would be very much unlike him to go to Vegapunk and/or the World Government requesting to be given a prosthetic, because that would mean 1) Leaving himself vulnerable for a period of time so that Vegapunk could actually give him a prosthetic (dangerous) 2) Knowing the WG they would not just give out something like that for free, surely they'd want something from Crocodile in exchange. And, while we know what would become of Kuma eventually (a fate so cruel I'm sure even Crocodile could not have imagined) I'm sure he could have suspected the WG could want to use him for a science experiment or two, something I'm sure Crocodile would never have agreed to. Or maybe the WG/Vegapunk would've wanted Crocodile to pay them an obscene amount of money in exchange for a prosthetic, and/or have him do some other favors. Whatever the case, I'm sure none of these options would have seemed worth it in his mind.

And yeah, what you said.

Maintaining and taking care of a hook would be easier, like if Vegapunk's prosthetics ever broke or malfunctioned for any reason Crocodile would have to make a horrifically long hike all the way from Alabasta to Marijoa, cross the Red Line (to be fair his Shichibukai Status would allow him to go over which would be more convenient than passing through Fishman Island), go to Punk Hazard (or Egghead later on), and then hike aaall the way back to Alabasta again. And Vegapunk's inventions didn't always work as intended, the man had to refine and develop his creations to get them to work the way he wanted them to.

So if the option get a prosthetic was ever brought up to Crocodile by the WG like 10+ years ago, he might've been far more cynical about Vegapunk's ability to actually create a decent prosthetic that worked and wouldn't malfunction/have issues etc. And as you suggested, by that time he probably would have become used to his hook, to the point that he didn't mind keeping it.

And yeah, it would be just a big ol' Luffyism if he preferred the giant, golden, gaudy-ass hook

#Moon posting #Asks #OP Meta #Sir Crocodile #To be fair as a sharp pointy thing the hook IS good for intimidating people. #Like the size of it is pretty inconsistent as is the height of Crocodile in the actual art but in theory #Like. The size of just the base of that hook is fucking massive (and indeed the base is great for pludgeoning people too) #It just. Like the hook just works for Crocodile (because it's Crocodile) and I love that. Like the writing is so good there

[reading-hub]

BATMAN VILLIANS - Calling them Daddy/Mommy in a non-sexual situation:

Ft. Bane, Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, Two Face, & Killer Croc

BANE

It was during your private self defense classes with Bane. You thought it’d be piece of cake. There’s plenty of women taking classes in order to defend themselves walking alone during such dark nights. Banes’ idea of self defense classes was that, cranked up to 100.10%.

You were sweating bullets, body feeling numb, and all you wanted was the sweet release of death.

Bane, seeing you face planted on training mat, he lifted you to sit up with those big hands of his like you barely weigh anything.

Your face got droopy from exhaustion, your shoulders could barely hold you to sit up straight, making your upper body rock back in forth.

“Can you stand?” His deep accent brought you back from semi day dreaming. Your head lolled back dramatically and responded in the most childish-pouty way, “No...!” His eyes scanned your state of body at that moment. Was he judging you??

Before you could figure out what he was doing eyeing you like that, he stood tall and was about to walk off. Until you pushed your body back on the mat, both hands barely grasped his ankles but he stopped moving. Good.

“Wait—! Daddy help me up!” Pause. What just slipped from your mouth just now?

You froze, making it easier for Bane to lift his foot up, then again, he could’ve done anytime he wanted. His knees bent down to your ground level, his finger pushes away a strand of hair from your face. You could barely register what was going on. You suddenly yelped in surprise as Bane lifted your whole body close to him, walking out the training room with him.

POISON IVY

You felt embarrassed afterwards. It was like that one time when you accidentally called your teacher ‘Mom’; everyone had a good laugh, it was overall embarrassing for one whole day, and it rests in the back of your mind for the rest of your adult life.

You and Ivy were very good friends. You honestly don’t know how this weird friendship came to be. You told her about some of the small plants you have at in apartment, shyly admitting that you’ve even given said plants cute nicknames.

The next thing you know, you’re visiting her tropical lair once a week, heck, sometimes you just spend the night there during weekends.

You felt like you can talk about anything with her. There was something about the way she spoke to you, like you mattered. It flattered you really. Insecurities that you’re afraid to tell to your own parents, you’ve told her. Deep repressed thoughts and feelings you have that you would never say openly, she’s listened to.

It was getting late, you rambled on to her once again and you didn’t even notice how dark it was outside. You shifted awkwardly, wanting to say something. Before Ivy could notice, you blurted out,

“Mommy, is it okay if sleep here tonight?” Ivy looked at you at that moment with a fluttering gaze. The best thing you could do to make this less awkward was laugh nervously, in the hopes of her laughing too. But she didn’t, she just stared at you. She gave the most faint smile she could make to you, “It is late, if you’re lucky, you might end up sleeping next to me tonight.”

Heart just sank. Exe.has stopped working.

MAD HATTER

It was quiet, too quiet. Even being in the back of Mad Hatter’s hat shop, it was getting too boring. Jervis was preparing another tea party for tomorrow night. Said it will be a night to remember, especially with you by his side.

You offered to help in anyway you could. Perhaps you could score some extra scones for going to such lengths, and besides, Jervis just looked the cutest when he was concentrated on a certain task.

While people like Gothem citizens always poked fun on how short he was, you found him to be unique and partnership material all the more. Even if he gets small tantrums when things aren’t going his way, or that one time when he bitch slapped you after refusing to put on that itchy blonde wig and small blue dress for him. Looking back you’ve should’ve known better.

You helped him organize any tea cups and utensils that would be needed during the tea party. Then, something caught your eye, “Should I wash these tea cups for the guests, Daddy?” you coughed with embarrassment and cringe. “They...look pretty dirty..”

Jervis came to your side immediately after, his hand placed onto your own gently. “No, no, my dear, use the cloth I gave you instead.” He suggested. Did he not hear what you just addressed him as???

Before you could sigh in relief from that embarrassing stunt you pulled, he spoke soon after. “While I am not your father, the thought of you addressing me in such a manner has got me all fluttering.” While his back was turned from you, you felt as though he was smiling gleefully as you continued cleaning the tea cups.

TWO FACE

Harvey wasn’t exactly ‘husband material’. His mood swings were as unpredictable as they came. He’d hold onto you tenderly, rubbing your back late at night, the next morning you’d wake up to harsh yelling and a slap in the face.

A relationship like that came with a lot of things, angry sex, tender loving, fear. And yet, you chose to stick around all the more.

It was midnight, he was lashing out once again. You couldn’t even sleep though that noise, no one could. You got up from your queen bed, go up to Harvey to see what got him so angry this time. You scoffed at yourself, what could you do if you went to his study? Calm him down?You really didn’t think this plan through.

His study was open, a small crack was left to peek inside without disturbance. Without thinking, you opened the door, the sound of creaking could be heard. You cringed at the sound, hoping to not have Harv hear, he heard.

In response, he threw a book at the door, to get you to leave him alone. The book was close to hitting you in the face, only to miss by a few inches, but the surprise caused you to yelp in fear.

“Get out, bitch! We don’t need you.” His harsh and blood curdling tone almost made you cry whenever he directed it towards you, it was hard to get use to for the most part. “This is the only way I can lash out without harming you, leave us.” His soft tone also made you cry because of how rare he spoke to you in such a way. It showed he was still sane in your eyes. No matter how many doctors in Arkham say to you otherwise...

Before you could respond back. He threw another book as a warning. “What part of leaving don’t you understand?!” His burnt hand clenched in anger. And all you could do was sit there, frozen in fear. He stormed towards you, you had a bad feeling where this was going.

Before you could process the situation you put yourself in, you flinched before him, arms covering your face so he couldn’t hit there. “Please don’t hurt me, Daddy!!” You cried out. Not even realizing what you said to him, you still braced yourself for any pain that came to a part of your body.

It was silent. You open your eyes, cautiously. “What the hell did you just say?” He was confused, trying to wrap around his head of what made you say that. You looked shocked too. Why wasn’t he hitting you? Oh no..

You opened your mouth to try to explain yourself, but Harvey beat you to it. “Don’t answer...” His still harsh tone was still present but deemed down for some reason..

“I need a drink...” His soft voice came afterwards, grabbing whatever available alcohol was lying around in his study right now. You just sat there, eyes wide like a deer in front of headlights. You should probably sleep now.

KILLER CROC

You honestly thought that Arkham was basically sending you to your death whenever they decided to send you to bring his meals.

If only they knew that sending a decently attractive human to his lair, would cause some disturbances. Especially a giant crocodile man who hasn’t experience intimacy in quite a long time.

“Waylon! I’ve come to bring your meal for tonight!” You shouted. “Don’t try and eat the hand that feeds you.” You said under your breath.

“Bring it here and I won’t!” The sudden jumpscare from him, shook you to your very core. Shook was an understatement, though. “Waylon, that isn’t funny. It really scared me.” You held onto your chest, trying to compose yourself.

You gave him his scraps food through a small hole that was similar to a dog door, making easier for anyone to transfer Croc’s food without the fear your hand getting chewed up.

Croc smelled and inspected the food for a while, similar to a wild animal, making sure there wasn’t any sedatives mixed in his food this time. Before he could make the decision of eating, “Don’t worry, no medicine was put in it.” You just had to open your mouth, now he’s really not gonna eat it!! Damn it.

“I don’t want it anyway. Take it back!” He commanded you. No, you weren’t gonna take this. “No Waylon, I can’t do that.” You rejected him. Maybe you were too harsh sounding...No! He needs to learn that using fear to bully someone into submission is not gonna work this time!

“Gett’n too confident with me being behind this cell.” Cheeky. He’s trying to break you when your trying to stand up for yourself.

“Don’t get me wrong, Waylon, you terrify me to my very core. But I’m not gonna stand here and be walked all over.” Wow, you’re really proud of yourself right now.

He was silent, time to hook him in! “Come on, Daddy, eat your scraps, pleeease...” Except for that. You were not proud of yourself anymore. Oh shi—

He chuckled loudly, you swore his whole cell and where you were standing, was vibrating from his loud excessive laughing. It was embarrassing.

“Shut up!” Your voice was too meek compared to his loud chuckles escaping him. “Now that was funny, lunch lady.”

You stormed off, not taking the food with you. Oh well, hopefully all that laughing got him to eat his food. Spoiler: it did :)

#batman x reader #bane #poison ivy #harvey dent #two face #mad hatter #killer croc #jervis tetch x reader #batman villains #hubbywritings #batman/reader

[thesschesthair]

A prompt, you say? Something like... Dark One Old Hook?

oooooh!!!!!!! thankyouthankyouthankyouuuu!!!!

It was by chance that he’d found it. The palace long abandoned since King David and Queen Snow had been killed by the returning Evil Queen; Prince Henry and Princess Emma had since vanished, no one knew to where.

It was tucked away in a forgotten secret cabinet amongst the library. He’d been tearing the books apart, flipping page after page in his desperation to find a cure. In his frustration he’d turned once again to the liquor left collecting dust (much like he) and sought comfort in its burn. 

Yet there it sat.

The Dark One Dagger.

It took a long time for him to touch it. He’d spent what felt like hours staring at it, wondering if it were just a mirage teasing him in his drunken haze. But once the cold metal touched his fingertips, he grasped it and made haste for the darkened caves below. 

The crocodile had become madder than he, taunting him with ramblings and riddles all resulting in the same conclusion. 

Rumplestiltskin didn’t have a cure. 

His anguish bubbled inside him as the imp’s taunts continued, nothing but the magical bars separating them from one anther.  It was the threat of death that revealed just how desperate the Dark One himself had become. 

“Do it. Please. It’ll finally end me- you’ll get both your wishes-”

“ENOUGH!”

He could see how low he’d become. If he did it, he’d become the thing he’d most despised…. but his heart could be cured. He’d also finally be getting a revenge he’d long since put behind him.

Killian stared at the monster before him. He himself may be old, drunk, desperate and at rock bottom… but Rumplestiltskin-  he could see he was at his end. He could feel his desire to go- to finally be put to rest.

“Are you sure? That i’ll be cured.”

“Yes, my old friend yeeessss” he sing songed as if healing him with his reply. “The world will be rid of me, and you can finally be with your bonny lass of a daughter.”

He couldn’t believe he was considering it. But what else did he have? He’d scoured thousands of books, bartered with hundreds of healers, witches, warlocks and mystics. No one and nothing could find him the cure he needed. What if this was the only way? Would it be worth it?

For Alice it would be worth it.  The price, the burden. He’d pay it for her. 

“Come on, pirate.” Rumple continued to goad. “Stop being such a coward… you’ve wanted this for so long, haven’t you? End me. Do it.”

“I don’t…”

“What are you waiting for?!” Rumple began to lose his patience, his own adrenaline surging. “Do it, old man!!! COWARD!!! KILL ME!! DO IT!!!”

And so he did.

He’d swear later it was pure desperation that lead him to make the biggest mistake of his life, but it was foolish curiosity- the wonder of whether an equally dark resolution would be better than no resolution at all. 

As the darkness swirled from Rumple to Hook, gratitude graced the man’s eyes as he whispered “thank you.” His eyes closed and he succumbed to the peace of eternal rest as Hook’s old bones dropped to the floor; the weight of his choice surging through him to fill him with the ultimate darkness.

He’d come to regret it.

The realisation that he’d be stuck with a mirage of his mortal enemy angered him. 

The realisation that Alice neither feared nor shied away from his new condition broke his heart. She truly was pure of heart and full of love. 

She was his saving grace in his darkest hours. When the darkness would become too much, when it’d talk him into a frenzy, when it’d feed his paranoia and rage and he would be seconds away from snapping some bystander’s neck… she’d be there, ready to bring him back to reality. 

But it soon dawned that they’d swapped the curse of the poisoned heart for a new curse. Still meant to keep them apart.

It was cruel to burden her with his mistakes, his responsibilities and his liability. She was growing older, falling in love- she needed to live her own life without having to worry about him not giving into the darkness.

And so he departs. He promises to return once he’s rid himself of the darkness and she swears to help find a cure. 

His comfort is knowing Robin will take care of her, and she does. They settle in a small cottage in the woods and live contently.

He returns one summer evening to a bittersweet welcome.

“Have you heard of the Guardian, papa?”

He recognises the name. A title he learned of during his time searching, but near impossible to find.

Her watery eyes smile at him.

“It’s me.” she tells him. 

Of course. Someone pure of heart to take on the burden of the darkness-

“No.” he whispers. “No, Alice I won’t- I wouldn’t dare-”

“But I could save you, papa! I’m strong enough I can-”

“No!” His word is final.

He refuses to even entertain the notion. 

They rest with tension between them but there’s a light that shines through in the shape of Robin.

“I wanted to ask your blessing... before I... I want to ask Alice to marry me.”

He feels joy for the first time in years and the darkness suddenly doesn’t feel like it’s going to win.

He’ll find a way without risking his daughter’s happiness.

But every day he feels the pressure from the evil within. 

Maybe i’m just not meant to have a happy ending, he ponders.

He decides to leave again, promising to make it back for the big day.

And he does.

It’s a beautiful setting. Flamboyant and rustic, both women look absolutely stunning in their dresses. Lights and streamers hang from every surface and flowers fill every gap they can. 

He ignores the stares and slight gasps from guests, and only focusses on his starfish.

“You came!” she cries as she envelopes him into a tight embrace.

“I promised you I would. I’d move heaven and earth to be here to walk you down that aisle.”

“I’m glad.” she smiles, trying not to let her happy tears fall.

The ceremony is brief but wholesomely loving. They exchange vows, share a joke and a tear, and with the last words from the officiator, they are married. 

The celebration moves to a decorated garden area with lights and decorations strewn all around. 

He can’t pass up the chance to dance with his daughter on her special day, and so they take to the space in the centre. 

“I’m so proud of you, starfish.”

“I’m proud of you too. No matter what people say or think, I know who you really are. You’re my papa.... no matter what. and i’m glad you came. It wouldn’t have been the same without you, but with you here? It’s perfect.” 

“You really are the purest of heart- You know... i’ve made many mistakes and come to have a lot of regrets. But you, Alice. You will always be my greatest achievement. With you, I know there’s at least one thing in my long life I did right. You’re amazing and i’m so glad I got to be with you today.” 

“I love you, papa.”

And with a simple kiss to the cheek.... his world stopped.

Light began to lift, surrounding him as his glittery skin began to fade. The darkness inside screamed as it was lifted from his bones, his soul feeling lighter as the curse lifted, banishing the darkness from him forever.

“An act of true love... of course.”

#wyntereyez #it's not even finished but i doubt i'll finish it #thank you for the prompt! #wish hook #alice jones #knightrook

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 185: Home Again

As they enjoyed breakfast with their children, extended family, and new friends, Snow and David regaled just a bit of their lives to newcomers, Joe and Frankie, with the help of the book, allowing them to page through it, as they told the tales.

"So...the tabloids and their story about you thinking you're Snow White and Prince Charming?" Joe asked.

"It's true...just not like it happened in any of the movies," David replied.

"Wow...so that rainbow light we saw…" Frankie said, as he looked at the illustration of Snow in a glass coffin and David arriving on horseback.

"That was the breaking of the curse with true love's kiss. This time, it was our children that saved us," she said fondly.

"This is something...and all this happened?" Joe asked, as he flipped through the book.

"All of it...our lives are never boring, that's for sure," David joked.

"But it's nothing like the Disney version," Snow reiterated.

"Yeah, no singing at a wishing well. She hit me a rock," David complained.

"You tackled me," she reminded.

"Because you stole my mother's ring," he reminded in return.

"And then you trapped me in a net," she retorted. He smirked and pointed to chin.

"Exhibit A. Scar...still there after almost forty years," he presented to them.

"Oh please...you love your scar just as much as me," she cooed, as she kissed him. He kissed her back.

"When you're right, you're right," he agreed, as they kissed again. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Here we go…" Leo complained.

"Guys...we're eating," Emma whined. Their lips parted and they shared a smile.

"I take it they do this a lot?" Frankie asked in amusement.

"Oh, you have no idea," Summer replied.

"So...how did you go from armed robbery to true love?" Joe asked. They smiled.

"Well...I sort of sold the ring to some trolls and we teamed up to get it back with the promise that he could have the ring and I could have the rest of the jewels to make my escape from the Kingdom," Snow explained.

"He saved me from some Black Knights," she added.

"And she saved me from the Trolls. And I got my ring back," he stated.

"So you were together after that?" Frankie asked. He chuckled.

"Not even close. She tried on my mother's ring and I fell in love. But we parted ways," he replied.

"He was trapped in an arranged marriage and I was still wanted. But we couldn't get each other out of our heads," she confessed.

"Oh...then you broke off your engagement," Frankie said, as he flipped ahead.

"Yes, but only after the evil King George threatened to kill Charming if I didn't lie to him and tell him I didn't love him," Snow replied.

"Oh…" Frankie said in disappointment.

"Then by the time I went on the run after abandoning the engagement, Snow had taken a potion to forget me, because she thought we could never be together," he added.

"Mmm...fortunately, he found me and stopped me from going down a dark path. Without love in my heart, I became a dark version of myself. But true love's kiss restored my memories," she said, smiling at him.

"Then you were together," Joe guessed.

"No...I was arrested by King George's Knights and slated for execution," David replied. Their eyes widened.

"Thankfully I stepped in and stopped that. You're welcome," Regina chimed in.

"Only to use my life to get Snow to eat a poison apple," David retorted.

"You're focusing on the negative," she quipped.

"The next thing I remembered after that was waking up as he broke the sleeping curse with true love's kiss," she said fondly, as she caressed his face.

"Please tell me you were together after that," Frankie pleaded.

"Yes...we were finally together then. There was no separating us that night, but that part isn't in the book," David said, as he gazed back at her fondly.

"Seriously?" Emma asked in annoyance.

"We don't need to hear about those parts," Leo complained and they chuckled.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg though and all before the first curse," Snow added.

"And you don't age?" Frankie asked, trying to wrap his head around that.

"Not during the first curse, which lasted twenty-eight years, despite the fact that Emma returned our memories when she was ten. Then there were more curses, but even without that, Aphrodite told us that the Chalice slows time so much in Storybrooke that it appears that no one really ages," Snow tried to explain.

"Quite...time passes about three times as fast in Andresia," Fandral interjected, referring to their kingdom.

"And about twenty times as fast than in the nine realms I hail from. To me, it's been nearly twenty-years since I fell through that portal, but to Heimdall, it's only been days," he added.

"Same here in Starcomb," Henry confirmed.

"But you and your wife don't look any older than they do," Joe commented. Fandral chuckled.

"Ah, that's the Asgardian lifespan. I'm the eldest person in this room; something around fifteen hundred thirty if my arithmetic is correct," he replied.

"My Kingdom guards the largest library in all the infinite realms. It houses all books and historical accounts of not just this nine realms, but all realms," Rose explained.

"During my Uncle's tyrannical rule, the library fell into disarray. To make sure that never happens again, Hermes granted me an Asgardian lifespan so our family can maintain the library for centuries to come," she continued.

"Fifteen hundred years?!" Frankie exclaimed.

"For once, the Crocodile and I aren't the oldest persons in the room," Hook quipped.

"Afraid so, gent. I've seen more foes and villains than I care to remember. I was also quite foolish in my youth and frivolous in my love life, before my Rose," he confessed.

"You are not that man anymore, my love...you are a wonderful husband and father," she confirmed, as she pecked him on the cheek.

"Take it from me, mate...you're not the only one that has shameful things in their past," Hook offered.

"This is all incredible…" Joe mentioned.

"If you want us to take you back, we'll understand. We wouldn't be able to take you back to 2018, but we'd let you leave Storybrooke and return to Seattle in 2023 if this is too much for you," David offered. The two exchanged a glance.

"No...we've never felt quite right in Seattle, other than being together. We're ready for a fresh start," Joe confirmed.

"And we want to hear more," Frankie agreed, referring to the book. Snow smiled.

"I promise we'll tell you more and you can read for yourselves as well," she said, as she exchanged a glance with David and he gave her a nod of encouragement.

"But right now...there is something that I want to discuss with everyone. And it's big…" Snow said, as the room gave her their undivided attention. Regina gave her a nod and David squeezed her hand, urging her to continue, as she began to tell them of their vision and plans for the future.

~*~

Upon awakening in this strange realm, the Queen wandered aimlessly through the desolate land. There seemed to be nothing but gray skies and rocking outcroppings. She wandered for what seemed like a lifetime, but she had a feeling that time really didn't move much at all in a place like this. Wherever this even was. She was about to think that she must be completely alone...until she heard a peculiar hissing sound. Instinctively, a fireball appeared in her palm and she was glad it seemed that her magic was still intact here. Out from behind a rocky outcropping rose a very large, bulky dragon. It roared and breathed fire down upon her, for which she dodged, before launching her own attack. The beast didn't seem bothered much by her magic and growled, as his fangs dripped with saliva. She became genuinely frightened until a man appeared and raised his hand.

"That is enough, Fafnir," he commanded in a gravely voice and she watched the dragon shape-shift back into a humanoid form. In this form, he was still a very large man, with green-tinted skin and a haggard appearance.

"I apologize...he's not much better in this form," the figure offered, as she regarded him this time. He was a thin man that stood no taller than she did, but somehow commanded a frightening presence. Perhaps it was his eyes...for they were like pools of emptiness. Looking into them, she could feel the malevolence in his being and she knew evil when she saw it. But she would not show that she might be intimidated.

"I'm inclined to agree...what exactly is he?" she asked.

"Fafnir was once a frost giant. He encountered Asgardian warriors and got himself cursed with a dragon form, before they cast him out of Nastrond. He found himself here," he explained.

"Nastrond?" the Queen asked, as she was unfamiliar with such a place.

"An extra dimensional realm on Asgard," he added.

"Are you Asgardian?" Fafnir growled. Regina scoffed.

"Don't get your tail in a knot...I'm not Asgardian," she responded, as the being relaxed slightly.

"Perhaps you will tell me who you are," the shifty man stated.

"Where I come from...the identity I was born with has long been stolen from me and to them, I'm simply now known as the Evil Queen," she offered.

"Hmmm...I title I sense that you have earned," he commented, indicating that such impressed him. She smirked.

"I like to think so...though my only regret is not causing more pain and killing the ones responsible for casting me out," she growled. He smirked.

"There is a lot of that going around in this place," he mentioned.

"And what exactly is this place?" she questioned.

"It is a realm of the fallen...a place where some of us find ourselves when we have been cast out by so-called heroes and not granted the sweet release of death. We have come to call it Nephilim," he explained.

"And who exactly are you?" she asked. He smirked.

"The Devil," he replied with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"The Devil?" she deadpanned. He chuckled.

"Some have called me that, but I prefer Mephisto. I am mistaken as Satan, because I used to tempt troubled people, ordinary and heroes alike, into selling their souls to me in exchange for various favors. But as you can imagine, owing me their souls never worked out well for them," he replied.

"And who cast you here?" she questioned. He smirked.

"That's a complicated tale, as I sense yours is as well," he responded, as he seemed to be able to gaze right through her and there was a beat of silence between them.

"Come...there are more here like us. You will find yourself in good company," he stated, as she followed him and the hulking frost giant.

~*~

"And essentially, that's our plan. Of course, it requires approval from many lands. David and I plan to travel to those Kingdoms with our proposition, but we have the heads of three Kingdoms here right now," she said, as she finished her lengthy explanation.

"Mom...you really think uniting the Kingdoms is possible?" Leo asked, with hope in his voice. She smiled and nodded to her son.

"We think so. This wouldn't be a normal curse. The concept would still be the same, but by using the Chalice to facilitate the magic of the curse, it would bring us all together," she replied.

"And essentially, since this curse would be using light magic, there would be no need for any fail safes or requirements for breaking it," Regina explained. Elsa and Leo smiled at each other.

"Not to speak for my sister or anything, but I think she loves the idea," Anna said.

"Yeah, I think you can count Arendelle in," Kristoff added. Snow and David smiled at them.

"Definitely...this is a wonderful idea and for more than just us," Elsa agreed.

"Fandral and I agree wholeheartedly. It only makes sense to bring us all together, especially if your vision is true and the realms were all one in an ancient past," Rose chimed in.

"We agree as well. You can count this Kingdom into the mix," Tiana said, as Lucy ran up and hugged her great grandparents.

"That means I can see you all the time!" she said excitedly, as David lifted her onto his knee.

"That's exactly what it means," he agreed, as he hugged her.

"David and I plan to rest for a few days when we get back to Storybrooke, before we set out for the other Kingdoms, starting with Agrabah," Snow told them.

"And we need to tell Aphrodite of our plans. She'll have to sell the idea to the Gods on Olympus, but she can be pretty persuasive," David added.

"Maybe Aphrodite or Hermes can even tell us how the realms were torn apart in the first place. Now that's a story I want to know," Henry mentioned curiously. Rose gasped.

"I bet we can even find it in our library. It would be a very old and ancient text, but it's possible," she offered.

"It is, but in our experience, texts that old have either been in Greek or worse, Lunarian," Belle reminded.

"Translating the Greek is fairly easy for me, but Lunarian is a dead language. No one still living speaks it," Rumple added.

"It doesn't hurt to find the texts though," he added and Rose nodded.

"Then I guess we should get home now," David mentioned, as they rose from the table.

"At least we know that our separation won't be so long this time," Ella said, as Snow hugged her tightly.

"No...soon we'll all be together for good. I truly feel that's the way it's meant to be and we're going to make it happen," she promised. With that, those returning to Storybrooke gathered their things. At the same time, Rose and Fandral rounded up Carina, Ben, and Ari. Summer and Carina said goodbye and there were no tears, since they knew they would soon be living in the same place. Ben and Ari also shared a goodbye with Bobby, whom they had become fast friends with as well. They bid goodbye for now and returned to their Kingdom through a portal. The Charmings said goodbye to Henry's family for now, with Emma lingering back, holding her son tightly.

"I'll see you soon, Mom...really," he promised. Emma nodded and swiped a tear away, before she joined hands with Killian and they followed their family through a portal back to Storybrooke.

~*~

Andresia

Several hours later

Rose glanced up from her book, as she sat in the library that evening. She had kissed her babies goodnight and let Fandral have the task of reading a bedtime story to their young ones. She smiled at her husband, as he found her there, having finally completed the task of getting their precocious twins to sleep.

"How many did it take tonight?" she asked fondly.

"Three," he answered and she quirked an eyebrow.

"Four," he admitted and she giggled.

"Ari just bats her eyes and you are like putty, my love," she teased.

"Like her mother," he teased back.

"I cannot deny it and our son is very good at knowing just how to get me to regale them as well," he replied. She smiled, as he sat in the chair next to hers.

"More adventures of the warriors three and the mighty Thor?" she asked.

"Mostly about Thor and the other Midgard heroes. Though, I have to say, I think they enjoy my story about the time I battled the fearsome dragon Fafnir," he commented fondly.

"Mmm...I like that one too, though I love any story that stars the man I love," she cooed, as she caressed his face lovingly.

"And in my youth, such words would have only served to inflate my ego. But with you, they humble me and make me realize how incredibly lucky I am," he mentioned, as he kissed her tenderly.

"I daresay Volstagg, Hogun, and Sif would hardly recognize me," he added.

"You miss them...and Thor," she surmised.

"At times...but I would never trade this life, for it is everything," he promised. She smiled.

"I know...but that doesn't mean we can't quench your thirst to know what became of your people," she replied, as he noticed the book she was reading. It was in Asgardian and over the years, he had taught her to read it. She was now fluent in both reading and speaking it.

"It was extremely hard for me to get through the part where that demon woman ran you through with a sword...but I haven't gone further," she mentioned. He sighed.

"I've avoided asking about the details of the battle for all these years and Heimdall seemed less than willing to be forthcoming," he said. She gently ran her fingers through his hair.

"He knows you're happy and I think he wants to preserve that. We don't have to continue reading, my love," she said. He nodded.

"I know...but I think you were right. My mind will not rest those memories until I know," he replied, as she got up and he pulled her down into his lap so they could read together.

~*~

Storybrooke

2023

The portal opened and deposited all of them in the park by the lake. Snow's grin was contagious, as he smiled indulgently at her. They were finally home and it felt really good.

"We made it," Snow said, as David pulled her close and kissed her forehead. Leo grinned at Elsa and then whistled. Their friends from Arendelle had decided they would come back to Storybrooke for the day, before returning to Arendelle the following day. It did Snow and David's hearts good to know that they soon wouldn't have to be separated at all.

They weren't surprised when Graham and Wilby came running toward them and a bird flew over head, before diving and landing on Leo's shoulder. Joe and Frankie, not for the first time, were flabbergasted.

"How…" Joe uttered. David smiled.

"Leo has a gift with animals. We'll have to take you to the wildlife reserve later. But first, we should probably let Granny know we're back," he said.

"And the dwarves," Snow added.

"Then we can work on telling the town about our plan," Regina said. There was a lot of work ahead, but the most important thing was that they were finally home and it felt like a new beginning.

~*~

Rose glanced at her husband and her heart ached at the disbelief and sorrow on his face. When they had decided to read the story of what became of their people, they had expected some heartache, but not this much. Though he had been vague, Heimdall had revealed that while Asgard was lost, the survivors, including himself, Thor, and Loki had escaped aboard a ship. There was great loss, but their now King had set the course for Midgard or Earth and the survivors would settle there in peace. After an event like Ragnarok, it was the best possible outcome he could have hoped for his people.

Unfortunately, it seemed while they were in Seattle, much had occurred since Heimdall had helped them travel through the bi-frost, including Heimdall's own demise.

Fandral was in shock. He already knew the fates of his fellow companions were probably grim. Volstagg had been with him at the moment Hela arrived through the bi-frost and through the story, he learned that Hogun had fallen later in battle with her.

But he never expected more loss and despair to hit the survivors of Ragnarok after escape. But it seemed that is exactly what had occurred.

"Heimdall is dead...how do we tell the children?" he lamented. Tears gathered in her eyes, as she lay her head on her husband shoulder and consoled him with a soothing hand on the back of his neck.

"I am so sorry, my love…" she cried.

"I just can't believe this…" he uttered.

"We can summon Hermes...I would say this event would warrant an emergency visit," she said.

"Absolutely not...there is no way we can go there now," he refuted. She gave him a questioning look and he sighed.

"That ship being invaded wasn't just bad luck or routine space pirating, my angel," he said, as he brushed a strand raven hair behind her ear.

"Because of this name here...I could never risk going there with you and the children. To do so would be reckless and jeopardizes all of our lives senselessly, for there is nothing I could ever do in hopes of fighting this being. Thor and Earth's mightiest cannot even stand against him," he explained.

"Who is this man?" she asked, reading the name.

"Oh, he is no man...I would call him a monster, but even that is understating it," he replied. Clear alarm showed in her eyes at that statement.

"He is quite possibly the most powerful being in the nine realms that I hail from and it would not shock me in the least if he was one of the most powerful being in all the infinite realms," he continued.

"He is a titan and he is quite mad. He is the worst kind of evil, because he believes he is good. He believes he's some kind of prophet," he spat distastefully.

"Under no circumstances can we go there," he added sadly.

"Do you think that's why the writing has stopped?" she asked softly.

"I don't know…" he replied.

"Even if bad things were happening, the writing should still have continued, even if things are happening as we speak. But it just stopped here. No ending or anything," she lamented.

"And I think I may know why," a voice stated. They looked up and found the Goddess Hermes before them, looking extremely troubled.

"Can you tell us more?" Fandral questioned.

"Yes...will the children be safe here for an hour or so?" she asked. They exchanged a glance and nodded.

"The staff is here to tend to them if needed," Rose said.

"Then I need to show you both what has occurred. This may not be in our cluster of realms, but since you two guard the library for all the realms, you must be aware of this kind of story disruption," she replied.

"Story disruption?" Rose asked in confusion.

"Yes...as you know every author has a realm and even upon death, a new one immediately takes up the pen. To have story stop like this means an event of cataclysmic proportions has occurred. There is nothing we can do except hope this realm that has suffered so greatly can recover...but as guardians of the realm of infinite story, you must be aware when something so incredibly devastating has happened," she explained. They nodded.

"We're ready," Fandral confirmed, as she put them in a bubble and they traveled to Olympus with her.

~*~

Seattle

2018

Nick and Angela stared at Cecily Clayton through the window, as she sat in the interrogation room. The residents of Storybrooke had repaired the damage done to the city and then disappeared without a trace again. But this time, unlike New York, it was not going away. Social media was still blowing up and they expected someone from the military to arrive anytime to take over.

"You think she'll spill what she knows about Storybrooke, Maine?" Nick questioned. Angela scoffed.

"If the deal they offer her is good enough...of course she will. They better hope they've hidden their crazy little town well enough," she replied.

"There's no stopping this now…" he mentioned.

"What's the craziest theory out there?" she asked curiously.

"Aliens, angels and demons, reptilian overlords...you know the usual cuckoo stuff. But this time, they're getting some traction. People are putting on their tinfoil hats," he replied. She rolled her eyes.

"And the military won't let it go...they'll want to weaponize what they saw," she said.

"What do you think we should do?" he asked.

"There's nothing we can do, Nick. We need to move on with our lives and stay away from this. They're on their own, unless we want to end up in prison ourselves for helping them," she whispered. And he knew she was right and hoped for their sake, they never stepped foot outside Storybrooke again.

The door swung open and a woman entered. She was dressed in a military dress ware and had military decorations adorned her jacket.

"Agents…" the woman greeted, as she walked in.

"I'm Major Patricia Donovan and I'll be taking over this interrogation," she stated. The two agents exchanged a glance.

"With all due respect, Major...we haven't received any orders from our superiors," Angela refuted. She smirked, just as Nick's phone rang.

"It's our boss," he muttered.

"I'm sure he'll be telling you that this is now a military matter. Your assistance is no longer needed," she replied. Angela rolled her eyes and started to walk away.

"Oh...one more thing, agents. You're also being ordered to turn over the files you have on the Nolan family," she said.

"That's a classified file," Nick replied.

"Which now belongs to us," she retorted.

"We'll send it right over," Angela said.

"Good...and just to make sure there is no evidence tampering, my Captain will be following you back to Quantico to take custody of that file," she replied, as she went into the room with Cecily.

"Ms Clayton…" she greeted, as the dark haired woman looked up at her.

"You want information...then I want a deal," Cecily replied. Patricia smirked.

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement that we can both live with," she stated.

#snowing #snowxcharming #Charming family #OC Charmings #AU #Snowing & Charming family centric season 7 #Season 7 AU #The United Realms #original season 8 storyline #Dashing Rose #Rose Red #Fandral the Dashing #Rumbelle #CS #Outlaw Queen #romance #family #Adventure #finding you always #the epic continues #truest love in all the realms

[enjoylove42-blog]

The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not Protect you

God’s Will… What is it? Why is God’s will sometimes so damn hard to figure out? How do we as mere mortals even begin to determine what His will for our lives is just for today, much less for our whole life?

A few years ago I did some real bad shit. I was stuck in a chaotic life running rampant in My Own Self-Will. I woke up one day, went to breakfast with friends, laughed, enjoyed the beautiful warmth of the sunshine, and was enveloped in God’s beautiful world of love and joy. Later that afternoon, I shot up heroin for the first time. It was actually the first time I put a needle in my body. Unfortunately, it would not be the last. I was 35 years old. It was a good day up to that point. I thought I was living a purposeful life. I had joy in my heart and wanted to share my inner peace with others. I was happy. I had absolutely no valid reason to put the poison in my veins. Or did I?

Back up to those three words, “I was Happy.” My sick demented mind probably assumed that if I was happy and life was good , how could anything possibly go wrong? Boy, it was the beginning of a lifestyle full of the three D’s. DECEIT, DESTRUCTION, & DESPAIR. I’m not sure if it was the drug or the needle, but I immediately spiraled down the rabbit hole. I was hooked instantaneously. I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t get high enough, stick myself enough times, or just attain the level of out of body freedom i was desperately searching for every minute of every day. The level of insanity and chaos that ensued from that day on until I went to jail can only be described as pathetic, disturbing, deplorable, disgraceful, and wretched.

Within one month of the first rush, I had lost every morsel of inner peace, joy and rays of fucking sunshine I previously described to you. I lost all sense of ME. The woman I had known for 35 slipped away. All of the core values instilled in me since birth vanished. I no longer had the capability to differentiate between right and wrong. The only thing I could comprehend was, “I have to maintain. I HAVE TO do whatever it takes to pull that red rose bud back and push the enervating drug into my dwindling dehydrated veins. Be damned laws, morals, or spirituality. I had to invite the toxic venom into my body as many times a day as I possibly could.

I loved the venom, but I also loved the point. The repeated pricking and sticking of my skin. My track marks were like a map of misery no one seemed to even notice. I was bruised black, blue, green, and purple. A mental and physical avow of what I had to endure to remember I was still human. The pain was good. When all my veins knotted and dried up and the only place left was my neck to inject the forbiddenfruit, I welcomed the misery with open arms. Just one more stop on the road to my madness.

During this time I did the most selfish act of my entire life. I ABANDONED MY CHILDREN. It wasn’t until five years later in rehab, that I stepped out of denial and realized just how shitty I was to my own flesh and blood. My Babies!!! They needed me to pull my wicked shit together and be their mother, but my sick fucking mind convinced myself, they were better off anywhere on this planet but with me. Until the day I die, the look of disbelief and fear on their faces, as well as, the huge crocodile tear that rolled down my youngest son’s beautiful cheek as I dumped them off, will forever be embedded in my mind and heart. In that moment, i honestly believed I was doing the best thing I could for them WAKE UP LINDA!!!!! What would have been best for those precious innocent children was for me to quit fucking up our lives, quit banging dope into my veins, get over myself, turn around scoop them up, and be their fucking Mom. I cannot ever begin to express with words the guilt and shame I carry within myself for this inconceivable action. Yes, it was an action. I drove away that day impregnated with two feelings: grief and relief. I was full of self loathing and self pity. However, I was also discharged from a duty I was no longer capable of performing. As long as my children were with me i was not able to fully bow down to my selfish obsessions and compulsions. I was required to feed them, clothe them, keep utilities on, and provide a seemingly stable environment for them. Finally, I was able to think only of My next attempt to mainline my newfound god. I could feed my desires and fuck whoever dared step onto the pavement leading me down the highway to hell. If you have ever been in full blown addiction, you understand that I was incapable of providing them with their needs for very long. I didn’t love myself anymore and no longer required anything other than my next dose of smack. I was as previously stated, deplorable.

At this juncture in my life, there were absolutely no holds barred. Please understand, I was beyond help. I was in the inner rings of hell and my life point blank fucking sucked. No amount of prayer, tears, or pleading could relieve me of ME. I stole from every single store I walked into. I slept with men for crumbs of dope, I lied to every single person who crossed my path. I was so diabolical in my methods that when someone encountered me, they were meeting a twisted sick chameleon who could and would convince you that what we did was your idea and that it was critical for everyone’s survival in the world. People gave me money, drugs, food, a place to sleep, etc.. and I always made them believe whatever they did for me was actually for them, and it was in their best interest to do it. I was a conniving incorrigible cunt. I hated myself. I hated you. I hated God, I hated the fact that I had to work so hard at being a constant mastermind of corruption. Inside my head, I honestly believed that I deserved to have whatever it was my addiction desired. I believed I was an entitled HBIC, but truthfully, the only thing i really deserved was contempt and mistrust. I had become what my father once said, during my childhood, he hated more than anything: A thief and a liar.

I will never forget the night before I went away. I was lying on some asshole’s couch, and in an instant complete and total desperation engulfed my entire being. Deep down in the core of my soul the real “Angie” cried out a long and sorrowful plea. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I commenced to pray. (Some individuals would argue this fervent prayer to be a foxhole prayer.) That being said, It was as if I had split into two people during that time and the evil diabolical “me” had taken over my body and suppressed the real “me” deep into the depths of my bowels. I had been trapped in the darkness and my spirit broke free with a mighty jolt. I wanted all of the irrational absurdity to end. I prayed for God to help me. To relieve me of the demons that controlled my spirit, for God to take me into His arms and hold me close, to save me from me. I prayed that he would get me out of the situation by any means necessary, but not jail. I didn’t want to go to jail. (At this point I had no idea I was a wanted woman.) I felt in that moment a spiritual awakening, because i felt, for the second time in a few short months, RELIEF. I had just admitted to myself that I was powerless over the drug and lifestyle I had designed and my entire life was undoubtedly and undeniably unmanageable. It was like the ceiling of that crusty one room hole I was sharing with three other people, opened up and God covered me in a hedge of protection for the night.

Do not ever doubt that the God of my understanding has a sense of humor. He does. He also knew the only way to remove me from that “modus vivendi” was to lock me up and sit my junkie ass down. I had charges pending in four mid-Tennessee counties. I had been on the news for theft at multiple large retail stores in Nashville and the surrounding areas.

Please understand, I deserved to go to jail. I had been doing ”the Most” with all disregard for consequences. It was as if in my mind I didn’t comprehend that “I” was breaking the law. I was doing what I had to do to maintain. I couldn’t work with track marks all over my body, I could not pass a drug screen, and first and foremost had to keep myself off sick every morning. How could I possibly maintain the requirements for an honest job during this time? I could rationalize every despicable behaviour until all the king’s horses and all the king’s men figure how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I was, as so straightforwardly stated in the rooms of AA, in a state of spiritual, moral, and physical bankruptcy. In order to help relieve me of my will and help me better do HIs, God saw it fit for me to do 15 long months in various county jails. I took this time and severed myself from a sick toxic relationship I had been in for years. I took every class the jails offered. I did two rehabilitation programs in two different county jails. I reconnected myself spiritually and slowly regained my morals. God began providing me with miracles. My father and I reconnected through letters during this time. I did not get visits like all the other inmates, but I got mail everyday. I began to walk for at least a couple of hours each day in the small pod we were housed in, and my body started to feel better. After a whole year of incarceration my track marks healed and my obsession for the venom of heroin left my mind. When I was finally released on November 7, 2016, i returned home physically, mentally, and spiritually healed. Not cured, for a true mentally disturbed sick addicted individual like me, there is no cure. Only a daily reprieve that is dependent on my spiritual and emotional well-being. At the end of this chapter of my life I learned that God answers prayers. He gives us exactly what we need when we can and will receive it. Ultimately my self will run riot led me into a cold dank jail cell where God’s will began to take over my life and send me down a path I would not believe I deserved, at that time. WIth that being said, I will end this period of my life with one last thought: “Be ok with not knowing for sure what might come next, but know that whatever it is...YOU will be ok.” -author unknown.

[chloefranco]

Deadly Mermaids

A Peter Pan x Reader imagine.

Summary: You were quite new to Neverland. Peter brought you there after you heard him play the pipes. It felt right to be there but you were still getting used to being on the island and learning about everything there like which plants were poisonous and where everything is but Peter forgot to mention that you shouldn’t trust the mermaids in the lagoon. 

  You were new to Neverland. And apparently the first lost girl they ever had. Peter and the lost boys have taken a soft spot for you and would do anything to protect you. Some times you missed your home but it didn’t hold enough love for you to want to come back. You were glad you heard Peter’s music that night. You were free. Since that day, he’s been showing you how much fun Neverland is and to always stay away from pirates. Especially that one-handed pirate that he keeps talking about. Captain Hook was it? He’s showed you around but he hasn’t brought you everywhere yet so you thought you could go exploring by yourself. 

  You sat at the campfire, smiling at the lost boys who were dancing around, listening to Peter’s music. You had your head in the palm of your hand, bored out of your mind. It seems like all they ever do is dance and Peter’s always playing the pipes. You wanted adventure. You yearned for it. So, without telling anyone, you sneaked out into the woods to go explore hidden parts of Neverland. You hummed to yourself, thinking no one had noticed your absence. 

  Then, after about 15 minutes of walking around, you stumbled upon a lake. It was so beautiful that it almost felt like a dream. Suddenly you began to hear singing. It sounded so beautiful and enchanting, and sounded like it came from the lagoon. “Mermaids? It couldn’t be.” You thought to yourself. You have never seen a mermaid before and you are not quite sure if you want to meet one. You’ve heard many tales and legends about them but don’t know which to believe. You walked nearer to the lagoon to see about 2 mermaids sitting on a giant rock, combing their hair with their fingers. You looked at them in awe of their beauty and you hoped they wouldn’t catch you staring at them but one saw you and gave a very enchanting smile. She bumped her other mermaid friend on the shoulder and they too looked at you with a rather alluring smile. You were too distracted to not notice the mermaid in the water right in front of you so you stumbled back in shock and fell on the ground. “Hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” She said. “It’s alright.” You said cautiously. 

“Who are you? You’re new, aren’t you?” Another one asked, smiling enchantingly once more.

“Yes, I am. My name is (y/n). Peter brought me here three days ago.” You answered them still on the ground. At this point you weren’t sure if they’re nice or deceiving you in some way. 

One held out her hand for you to take, again with that alluring smile. “Here, let me help you.”

  You took it without thinking and at first she took a hold of your hand but then began pulling you into the water with her. She started to push you harder into the water and every time she pulled you up for a while, you could hear their laughter and mermaid shrieks. Your first instinct after you got pulled up for a while was to scream Peter’s name, “PETER!” You screamed just in time. You clawed and kicked at them but they were too strong. The one drowning you started to get angry after you called for Peter and she let out an angry shriek, “NO!” 

  She pulled you down until you were face to face with her, and then she screamed underwater, revealing her jagged and sharp teeth. 

  Your eyes widened but you still fought and kicked until you felt somebody grabbed your shoulders from the back, pulling you out of the water. You landed on the grass, soaking wet and coughing out all the water in your lungs.You turned over and coughed again, feeling somebody’s hand on your back. You looked up to see Peter looking at you with worried eyes. “(Y/N), are you alright?” You couldn’t really talk at the moment after all the pushing and clawing at you. You looked at your arm that was stinging like crazy and saw bloody claw marks. 

  Peter noticed too and his eyes grew angry. He turned to look at the mermaids and they began to swim back with innocent eyes and smiles. “Why did you hurt her?” He demanded, fist balling at his side. “We’re sorry, Peter. We didn’t mean to.” One of them said. “One thing all of you should know is that (Y/N) is off limits and if I ever see you try to hurt her again, you’re all dead. I’ll let the crocodiles infest your lagoon for all I care.” He said angrily.

  They looked at Peter is shock and then at you in anger. Then, they swam away furiously. Peter rushed to your side and carried you in his arms back to the campsite. You were shivering and you decided that you didn’t like mermaids at all. “You’re okay, we’re almost there. Hang on.” He looked at your pale skin and made a run for it. “Peter, what’s wrong with (y/n)?” One of the lost boys asked. “Mermaids.” Peter hissed. “Why would she go to the lagoon?” 

  He didn’t answer knowing it was his fault. He layed you down on one of the makeshift beds and covered you with blankets to warm you up. Then he kneeled down beside you and caressed your face with love in his eyes and guilt. “I’m so sorry, love. Why didn’t you tell me you were going there? I would have followed you.” 

“It’s okay, Peter. Really.” You answered with a small smile.

“No, it’s not. I should have been paying attention to you, They hurt you.”

“You don’t have to.” Right after you said that, he crashed his lips on yours with gentleness and warmth. For a moment you were taken aback and he was worried you didn’t like him back. But soon you melted into the kiss and you kissed back. Peter smiled into the kiss and so did you. Then you looked away in embarrassment. He turned your head to look at him with his hand resting on your cheek. “What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” He asked worriedly. “No, I just hope my lips didn’t taste like fish.” You laughed and he chuckled and said, “They won’t harm you ever again, love. And don’t worry, you don’t taste like fish.” 

“You know what, Peter? I’ve decided that I don’t really like mermaids.”  You laughed. 

#Peter pan x reader #Peter pan #Robbie kay #once upon a time #ouat #imagine #one shot #Peter pan imagine #Neverland #Robbie Kay imagine #peterpanxreader

[captainswanandclintasha]

Awake and Alive - Chapter 5 (5/20)

Summary: While Emma and the other Nevengers are leaving Storybrooke for Neverland to search for Henry, a misterious and unkown woman comes in Storybrooke, looking for a long lost man and some answers about herself. Meanwhile in Neverland Emma and Hook discover something about themselves that is going to change their lives forever.

Rated M for future chapters and HA for HARD ANGST. Yet no one is dying. I promise. Thought I can’t say the same about the readers (or the writer) and F for fluff (also for future chapters)

Many many thank to Cathy (@ultraluckycatnd​) for her help in betaing this story!

Tumblr: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

FF.NET | AO3

Hello!! So. I wanted to post this chapter on Wednesday, but because today has been a really, really, REALLY, good day for me (I FOUND OUT I WILL RECEIVE A SCHOLARSHIP FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR! *also my last year of uni*) I decided to post it today. I want to thank everyone for the feedback, especially to @captainswan-shipper88 who is making me cry with every message she is leaving me. I love to hear what you are thinking so far and I especially love to see you yelling at me!

We are still in Neverland this chapter and we are also meeting Pan! I wonder how that goes.

Keep telling me your opinions on how you think Milah is alive! I am still curious about what you believe! Also please don’t worry. No one is dying in this story! 

Tagging @cinnamonduckling, @captainswan-shipper88, @tirsu, @tomeandflickcorner. Let me know if you want to be tagged for future chapters!

_______________________________

The next day, when Emma woke up, the first thing she did was to look for Hook. He was laying on his coat on the ground, staring at what had been their fire for the night. But the thing that Emma absolutely hated was the fact that he looked just as pale as he did last night. She didn’t know how they were going to keep the fact that he was dying a secret, especially in front of her parents, but she hoped Hook had a good explanation in his mind.

When she rose from the ground, she looked at him with a questioning look that was meant to say ��are you okay?’ Hook nodded slowly just for her to see and tried to put on a smile. But his smile disappeared the moment he raised on his elbow and a look of pain appeared on his face. She wanted to go and help him but Mary Margaret was quicker and saw him.

“Are you okay, Hook?” she asked him, getting closer.

“Yes, of course. It’s just from the wound from yesterday. It will pass,” he explained to her mother.

“Are you sure?” Hook nodded at her this time with a small smile. “Okay.”

“Are we going to move, today? Or are we going to stay here all day and make sure the pirate is fine?” Regina snapped at all of them.

“He’s hurt Regina!” Emma snapped back at her.

“So? He’ll live. Now let’s go.”

“If only you knew!” Emma screamed at Regina in her mind.

But instead of really yelling at her, Emma took her things from the ground and started to walk with the others.

They walked in the forest of Neverland for what seemed like hours to Emma. Snow and David were in front of the group with the map, Regina behind them and Hook bringing up the rear with Emma a few steps behind him. She saw him struggling to move all day and she could see that it was harder and harder for him to move around the forest, so she hastened her pace to be by his side.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine, Swan.”

“No, don’t lie to me. You might be able to lie to Mary Margaret by smiling at her and telling her that you are fine, but she doesn’t know your condition.”

“I’ve had better days,” he said with a sigh.

“We can tell them to take a break,” Emma proposed.

“Regina would burn me if I even suggested that. I will be fine.”

“Fine then, I’m staying here, with you,” she said determined.

“Okay.”

They continued to walk in the forest, towards what was now marked as Pan’s new camp, until even Regina got bored. They stopped in a little clearing to take a break and think about a better plan than walking toward nowhere all day.

“We have to find a way to get to Henry faster!” Regina yelled at them when they stopped.

“In case you didn’t notice, that’s what we are trying to do”, Emma told her.

“Are you sure that’s what you are doing, Emma? Because it seems to me that you are spending more time with Hook than actually looking for my son.”

“Should I remind you, Regina that he is my son, too?”

“Should I remind you Miss Swan that we are here for Henry, not for you to flirt with the pirate?”

Emma was prepared to answer to her when Mary Margaret came between them.

“Enough!” Mary Margaret started. “You are right, Regina. We have to get to Henry faster, but do I have to remind you that he doesn’t know that we are here? If he knew, maybe he would be able to stop Pan from moving his camp until we get closer.”

“How?” Regina asked her.

“Henry is a smart boy; he can find a way.”

“And what do you propose to do?” Emma asked her mother.

“I have a plan, to send Henry a message. Do you have a mirror?” Mary Margaret asked Regina.

“I do, why?” Regina asked her confused.

“We can use it to send him a message!”

“Neverland’s own Skype?” Emma asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Exactly!”

“But how are we going to get it to Henry? This forest is full of Lost Boys.” David asked his wife.

“We catch one!”

“You want to catch one of those boys?”

“Yes.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?”

“Hook?” Mary Margaret said turning to face him. “Do the Lost Boys hunt in these woods?”

“Yes. They are either hunting or looking for fruits around these woods, usually.”

“That’s good. We can make a trap using those vines,” Mary Margaret explained, showing them the trees behind them.

“How exactly are we going to do that, your highness?” Hook asked her.

“I wasn’t always a princess. I know how to do such things.”

“And she’s quite good at it,” David added, smiling at her. Mary Margaret smiled back at him.

Looking at them, Emma remembered reading in Henry’s storybook about Bandit Snow as she was called back then. She was good in situations like this one, and her plan might be the best plan they had so far.

“Okay, what do we have to do?” Emma asked her mother.

“We need vines. A lot of them.”

“I can do the trap using my magic,” Regina suggested.

“You should take care of your magic, Regina. You never know when you’ll need it,” Emma told her.

“Well, we wouldn’t have to worry about that if you were willing to learn how to use your magic.”

“It’s not the best time to play with magic, Regina.”

“But it is to flirt with the pirate?”

“Regina,” Emma said behind her teeth.

“What? Isn’t that true?”

Emma wanted to answer her, tell her to fuck off, but she felt Hook behind her.

“Leave her alone. We have better things to do,” he told Regina.

“Hook is right, we don’t have time for that. Hook, David, do you mind getting some vines?” They started to walk in the direction of the vines Mary Margaret pointed at earlier. “Regina, maybe you could help them?”

“To get vines?”

“To protect them.”

“Why? They are grown up men.”

“There can be Lost Boys,” Emma snapped at her.

“Fine. I’m going to protect your boyfriend,” Regina said, rolling her eyes and then starting walking in the direction David and Hook went.

“I guess you wanted me alone?” Emma asked Mary Margaret as soon as Regina was far away.

“Yeah. What Regina said about-“

“I don’t care what Regina said about my magic,” Emma interrupted her.

“I know. I wanted to know what Regina said about you and Hook.”

“There is no me and Hook.”

“Are you certain?”

“Mary Margaret!” Emma said half exasperated.

“I know, I know, it’s not my business.”

“It really isn’t,” Emma agreed.

“But I’m still wondering if there is something between you two. Because you seemed pretty worried about him this morning.”

“I’m worried for everyone.”

“Yes, but you are not looking at Regina with the same worry in your eyes as you look at him.”

“Look, Mary Margaret, he’s here because of us, for us. He’s helping us and he just got hit by an arrow yesterday while trying to protect me. Regina has magic, he has a hook and a sword. Of course I am worried about him, but there is nothing else.”

“Okay, okay. I will stop asking you questions.”

“Thank you,” Emma said as the others came back with the vines they needed.

They all worked in silence while making the trap. From time to time, two of them would go back into the forest for more vines.

“We need more,” Mary Margaret said when she realized there were just a few left.

“I’m going,” Hook offered.

“I’m coming with you,” Emma said, starting to walk after him.

Hook didn’t comment when Emma started to follow him into the woods. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, especially with the hellish pain that was spreading through his body. He was wondering why he wasn’t dead already, because Liam died on the spot when he scratched himself with the poison. Maybe that was the problem? If his memory served him right, Liam scratched himself on an important vein so maybe that’s why he died immediately. He hated to think about that time, especially now that he was in the same situation.

He also hated the idea of dying. It was strange for him because he had 300 years to get used to the idea that one day, if he was going to find and kill the crocodile, he would die. But now? Now it seemed useless and somewhat ironic. Back then, he had nothing to live for and he was fine, more than fine; for 300 years he was a survivor. Now that he finally found something worth fighting for, he was dying.

Fucking irony, he thought to himself.

“You’re very quiet,” Emma’s voice stopped his thoughts.

“Aye.”

“We can stop. We have time to get the vines,” Emma suggested.

“No, let’s continue,” he said leaning to take a vine that looked good for what they needed. But when he moved back up, the pain in his body hit him hard and he let out a groan.

“Hook,” she said coming closer and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. Please take a break,” she said, looking into his eyes.

Maybe it was the pain, or maybe it was the worry he saw in her eyes, but he listened to her and sat down on the ground, resting against a tree. He took out his flask to take a sip of rum but once the smell of the rum hit him, it made him feel worse.

“Here,” Emma said giving him a bottle of water.

“Thank you,” he replied taking the bottle from her hand.

“Hook?”

“Aye?”

“Um… how… how serious it is?”

He wanted to ask her what she meant but he knew what she meant just with a single look at her. She was asking him how much time he had left and he didn’t know how to answer. He knew deep down in his heart that he didn’t have much time left, not if he was judging by his condition, but he couldn’t tell her that he had a week, at most, left. She had her son to worry about and now him too.

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh, throwing his head back onto the tree.

“You are lying to me again,” Emma pointed out.

Smart lass, he said to himself.

“You know I would never try to lie to you willingly.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“You shouldn’t, Emma.”

“But I do!” Emma contradicted him.

“Oh don’t worry, Savior. You won’t have to worry about him for much longer,” a voice said behind them.

They both turned to see Pan watching them with a grin on his face.

“What do you want?” Emma asked jumping to her feet.

“I just wanted to see how our dear Captain was feeling.”

“Fuck off,” Hook said, not bothering to rise from the ground.

“Is something bothering you, Captain? Are you sick of me?” Pan asked mockingly.

“Go to hell!” Emma yelled at Pan.

“Oh, I will. I will do it once your captain does it. In a few days, actually, since he doesn’t have too much time left.”

In that moment, Killian wanted to jump towards him and cut off his head. Fortunately for Killian, Emma was quicker. With an impressive move, she took out the cutlass and run towards Pan. When she was close to him she prepared to hit him with the cutlass. Just as she got close, the bastard moved and disappeared from in front of her. Emma almost ended up hitting a tree.

Pan appeared again seconds later in front of Hook.

“It looks like something finally got the best out of you, Captain. After all these years. It’s quite sad that it’s finally happening, you know?” Pan asked him with sarcasm in his voice.

“I’ll take you down with me,” Hook threatened him.

“I doubt that. I don’t plan on dying so soon. You on the other hand,” Pan said studying him. “You don’t look very well. But don’t worry, Captain, I don’t think you’ll suffer for more than five days.”

Before Killian could say something else, Pan stood up and looked at Emma again.

“Your son is very good, by the way. He’s a nice boy.”

“If you touch him, I am going to kill you.”

“You both are very good at threatening me today, aren't you?” Pan said looking at both of them, laughing.

“Stay away from my child!”

“We are his friends here, Savior. He doesn’t even know you are here. We just have to keep him away from you a few more days and then he will be one of us. He won’t even care about you anymore. In fact, right now, to me it looks like you are more worried about your dear captain here than your son.”

“I care about both of them. I will save both of them and then I will make sure that you won’t see another day on this fucking island,” Emma told Pan.

“I doubt that,” Pan mocked her.

Killian watched Emma as she raised her hands while holding the cutlass and with a quick move she rotated it above her head and then threw it in Pan’s direction. As the cutlass got closer to Pan’s head, the little demon was watching with a smile on his face. When it almost hit him, Pan disappeared, leaving nothing in his place.

“That was impressive,” Hook tried to tell Emma.

“Don't,” Emma started to speak. “I will kill that son of a bitch.”

“And I will help you”

“Will you? Will you be here to do that?” Emma snapped at him.

“Don't do this Emma. I already regret all of this. Do I seem like I like this situation?”

“You don't. I'm sorry. Killian I really am.”

Hook was tired of sitting on the ground and doing nothing. He had enough rest. He tried to rise from the ground alone but Emma saw him and helped him, putting a hand around his neck and another around his waist. When he was finally back on his feet he felt nauseous but preferred to keep his mouth closed.

“Can you walk?” Emma asked him.

“Aye. Lead the way Swan.” He made a gesture making it clear for her to walk in front of him.

Emma took the few vines they collected before their break and started to walk in front of him.

Hook was behind when he felt his head starting to spin. He wanted to tell Emma that he wasn't feeling good, but his eyes were misty as well.

“Emma,” was everything he could say before the world around him faded and turned to black. The last thing he heard was Emma’s angelic voice screaming his name.

#Captain Swan #cs ff #cs au #cs fanfics #cs fanfic #cs neverland #neverland renaissance #awake and alive #captainswanandclintasha