Chapter Text
15:07 - fifteen minutes, seven seconds.
She has spent 28 hard years ignoring the timer on her wrist. Not necessarily because she was opposed to the idea of a soul mate, it just didn’t matter when she was five or 13. She wasn’t fated to meet him until she was 28 years, and it wasn’t like she was going to meet him anytime soon.
But suddenly she turned 23, and it was only five years away. And then she was 26, two years. When she turned 28 last October, it felt like her wrist burned every second that passed. It was now only a matter of months until she was going to meet the person she was “destined” to love, and she didn’t know how she felt about it.
On the one hand, she had never felt loved. Abandoned at birth on the side of a highway, then shuffled from foster home to foster home, she had a brief lust that she mistook for love at 18. Feeling loved might complete her in a way she never knew.
Then again, love lead to heartbreak. If she has such a difficult time when she didn’t know what love was, how would she handle when this mystery soul mate broke her?
And finally, she’d think about how she didn’t want the universe to determine who she was. She became who she was without the universe, why did she suddenly need it for a boyfriend?
09:34. Nine minutes and thirty-four seconds.
She didn’t know what to expect. Would they run into each other on the sidewalk and fall on top of each other? Would they both reach for the last doughnut at the gas station? Where should she go to look for him? (Or, in all honestly, avoid him?)
She decided that there was no use actively seeking out him. That seemed like a recipe for trouble. She would go about her day as usual, and if they met? Well, it’s destined to happen.
She walked out her door and started strolling down the street to on a Saturday morning. She looked at the men who passed by, trying to decide which one was the one she was destined to marry. A man with curly, light brown hair was jogging across the street. Was he the man? Or, just turning slightly, there was a man with a scarf and brown hair sitting on a bench, a turtleneck hiding his neck from the world. Was it him?
04:42. Four minutes, forty-two seconds.
There was less than five minutes left until she was supposed to meet him, and her heart began racing even more. She wasn’t ready for this, will never be ready for this. What if he ended up being a psycho? Or a killer? This could only end in disaster.
Trying to trick fate, she turned into an alley between her favorite diner and a flower shop. She found the back corner – hidden by the garbage can but not directly sitting by it – and curled into a ball on the pavement. No one could find her here, not even her soul mate. She was literally in the middle of nowhere!
She refused to look at her wrist now and closed her eyes, shut tight to block out everything. If she didn’t know how much time was left, it couldn’t happen, right?
A loud crash sounded beside her, and she immediately turned her head to see where the noise came from. A one-handed man attempted to open the garbage can, clearly frustrated that he wasn’t able to do it. Feeling sorry for the poor guy, she stood up and went over to help.
“Here, let me help you—“ she said, opening the black cover and giving him access to the garbage can.
“Thanks,” he replied, tossing the white bag in and turning towards her. “Do you make it a habit of hiding in alleyways?” The left side of his lips tilted up in a teasing smile.
“Only when…” she trailed off, sucking in air and looking at her wrist to see 00:00 slowly fading into her skin. Slowly, she turned back to stare at him. She tilted her head slightly, studying him closer than she had before.
It seemed like the man realized as soon as she did, because he looked at his own wrist. Furrowing his eyebrows, he turned back to face her. “Killian Jones.” He offered his hand to her, clearly as nervous as she was.
“Emma.” She swallowed, taking his hand and shaking it. “Emma Swan.”