danger, thy name is | (1/2)

swanisms:

There’s whispers of spreading darkness, 28 years of quiet breaking – and she finds herself sharing an alley with him. The story may have started long ago, but it’s ready for a new beginning. Whether they are is yet to be written.

notes: enchanted forest/captain duckling/canon divergence au. i know i haven’t written anything in a decade but this story hit me and wouldn’t leave me alone until i sat down to write it. i hope you enjoy and forgive me my disappearance and lack of updates. Special thanks to @blondecrowns whose encouragement makes shit happen. Second part is done, should be posted later this week/early next week.

also on ao3

It’s been years since Emma’s taken part
in the song and dance of dashing through the castle, stealthily slipping
through whatever gate isn’t being patrolled at that moment, and evading all the
guards searching the town. She’s grateful for its end, and the guards have made
it more than obvious that they are, too.

Now especially, when she nods at them in
a tacit agreement that they’ll meet at the usual place, and should she be more
than ten minutes late, they’re free to sound the alarms and race to her (most
likely unnecessary) rescue. They’re no doubt assuming it’s just another
“princess’ flight of fancy,” entertaining the notion that only outside her
privileged life of responsibility and duty is she free to be herself.

Now especially, when they would be utterly
mistaken.

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