winter-by-the-sea:

AU set shortly after Neverland, in which the gang
find themselves in the Enchanted Forest trying to defeat the Wicked
Witch – and, in Emma’s case, trying not to admit her feelings for the pirate,
until circumstances conspire to admit it for her. Based on this post.

---

She doesn’t meet his eyes after the ogre attack that nearly
kills her. She lets her mother hug her, reassures everyone loudly that she’s
okay, she’s fine, but she doesn’t look at him.

She doesn’t run to him when they rescue him from the Wicked
Witch’s minions, his shirt ripped and his cheek bloodied. His eyes do meet
hers, though, and she remembers thinking she’d never see him again. She
remembers how she fought, with quiet, deadly determination and flat-out refusal
to accept any other outcome than this.

She leaves the room once she’s healed his wounds after the
skirmish with the flying monkeys, the claw marks and the blood imprinted on her
memory. She doesn’t want to be there when he wakes up, and she leaves it to her
mother to check on him. She knows he’s healed. And she knows that she doesn’t
want to see him with his shirt off when he’s not hurt—or rather, she does, which is exactly why she
shouldn’t.

He follows her lead and does not reach out to her, does not
take her hand or hug her the way she sometimes thinks he wants to.

But they are still on the same team, and he does not hold
back with his opinions.

And that’s how they end up here.

“Swan, I really don’t think that you want to do this.”

“Yeah? Well, I
think I do, so we’re doing it.”

“I’m not.”

“No one’s asking you to!”

“I know th—I’m merely voicing a concern.”

“Oh, now you’re
concerned?”

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