Once Upon a Time in Neverland

dreadpirateemma:

CS AU WEEK, DAY 7: Free for All

on ff.net

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“You think I have powers?   Like Harry Potter?”

“No.  Emma, that’s fiction.  What you have is more real and more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”  Emma stared at Ingrid hard.  She wasn’t lying; but just because you believe something, doesn’t make it the truth.

“Great,” Emma responded.  “I should have known the only person willing to adopt me would turn out to be a nutjob.”

Ingrid felt as though she’d been punched in the gut.  “No, Emma…” she stared sadly, reaching for the smaller blonde.

“Don’t touch me!” Emma cried, wrenching herself from Ingrid’s reach.  “I thought…” she started, but like always words failed her in that moment; and then she did what Emma Swan did best… she ran.

It wasn’t until much later that night, with her stomach empty and no idea where she was going to sleep that night that Emma began to regret running from Ingrid.  She was bat shit crazy, sure, but she wanted Emma.  No one ever wanted Emma, and now she’d gone and ruined it.  What was she going to do?  Where would she go?  Minnesota was not the most forgiving of climate either.  

She let Ingrid in; lowered her walls and cared for the woman who was the closest thing to a mother as she’d ever known.  Well, this is what she gets.  This is what she gets for believing.  Cold, hungry, scared.  She dropped to the ground, pulling her knees into her chest, with arms crossed over her knees, she lowered her forehead down and started to cry.

Playing ever so slightly louder than her own sobs, was a pan flute.

It grew louder and louder until it filled Emma’s ears.  The lithe figure playing the instrument was across the street; a green hoodie was covering his face, but Emma could swear she saw the boy’s eyes shining like gold.  She didn’t realize she had even picked herself off the floor until she was standing right in front of him.  The boy, her age maybe a year or two older, stopped his music and a fog she hadn’t even realized she had been in lifted from her mind.

“Hello Emma, I’ve been looking for you.”

“Who the hell are you?”

The boy smirked, “Peter Pan.”

“Yeah, right, funny.”  She started to walk away but the boy called after her.

“Your foster mom was right… about the magic.”

She froze at that.  This boy had to have been on the road and overhead them, followed Emma, and was now being cruel.  She was certain that at anytime, his friends would jump out and tease poor orphan Emma.

“You heard the music, it called to you.  Do you know what that tells me?”  Emma didn’t say anything, and the boy took it as an invitation to continue.  “That you’re lost, Emma.  And Lost Ones belong on Neverland.”

“Yeah well, hate to break it to you Pete, but even if I believed you, I would never be able to fly.”

“Why’s that?”

“No happy memories.”

“I’ve memories enough for the both of us,” the stilled hooded figure told her. He kicked off the ground and Emma was speechless when the boy’s feet didn’t hit the ground.  He was hovering six inches off the ground in front of her very eyes and she still could not believe that it was real.  He must have read the disbelief on her face because he reacted by pulling higher into the air and doing a backwards somersault in the air just beyond her reach, before coming back to land in front of her.

The aerial maneuver caused his hood to finally fall back and Emma got her first real look at Peter Pan.  He looked close enough to the Disney version she supposed; he was cute, with an impish quality to him, distinctive ears, and blonde hair that  was a mess from the hood.  Peter freaking Pan.  She believed then and immediately felt something spring to life within her.  A low rumbling under her sin that vibrated through her.  Pan smiled.

“Second star to the right,” he said, taking her hand in his and her feet left the ground, “And straight on through morning.”

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