Chapter Text
The snow was falling slowly as she looked outside at the ocean beyond. The sky was growing darker as the days grew shorter and yet in the continual darkness everything seemed warmer. It was some strange side effect of the season, and she had to admit that she loved it as she could see the reflection of the room behind her as she looked out at the ocean.
It didn't seem real. The white lights on the Christmas tree refracted into pulsars on the window pane; the smells of cinnamon and pine pleasantly pushing on nauseating. The thick layer of snow weighing down the branches just like the picturesque images on Christmas card. When she was little the idea of that perfect white Christmas with presents under a tree and the warmth of family was something that she tried to avoid ever dreaming of. But that was an impossible expectation for a child. Even as she got older even as the day would come and pass with little meaning to her she still wished that maybe that perfect image of a day, overhyped by the media and the sentimentality of the season, would be a reality for her at least once in her lifetime. Now it was her reality, and it would likely be the only reality of the holiday which her children would ever know.
She saw his reflection approach her, Killian wrapped his arms around her kissing her gently on the neck. Breathing into her as he seemed to let go off all tension. She turned in his arms kissing him on the mouth, so used to the feel of the scuff against her face as she drank him all in.
"This is all new to you isn't it?" She muttered as they made their way to the couch both sitting down exhausted.
"What do you mean?"
"Christmas."
He laughed "I don't think Christmas is exactly new."
She tapped him lightly as she moved to learn across his chest. "No, I mean Christmas like this. With the tree, presents, all the traditions. Do pirates even have traditions or holidays?"
"They have traditions….superstitions really." He replied remembering the many tales of tempting sirens, cursed voyages which set off on Fridays, the reminder to never kill an Albatross, always have a black cat aboard a ship. "Haven't you had Christmases before?"
She nodded, her eyes falling upon the tree. He had laughed when both she and Henry explained the practice of placing and decorating a dead tree within ones home for a month. But he had agreed, he had even helped her lug the things into the living room and place it in a stand. They had then argued about how to light the thing. Was it better to start at the top or the bottom? Then there was the untangling and somehow re-tangling of the light strands. But in the end the tree had been decorated and even Killian had to manage a smile as he looked at the tree beginning to see the value in it.
"But not like this." She added. Even in the time since she had come to Storybrooke Christmas had just been her and her parents in the loft, sharing Henry between herself and Regina. This was different this was hers and hers alone and she could do whatever she pleased. "This is our first Christmas, Caroline's first Christmas..." She whispered as she wrapped her fingers in his. "We get to make it what we want. Choose our own traditions, make it unique to our family."
He was at her mercy as he looked into her shinning face. There were some things in this modern world which he didn't understand, often she was able to explain it to him, but this was something more. He could tell in her expression, to her the idea of Christmas was something more than just understanding traditions. The idea of having a family meant so much more to her. He had grown up with both his parents, with a brother; but she had none of that and there was nothing else she wanted to do than to forget that sometimes.
"Yes we will." He muttered
She turned and looked at him with a smile. "You haven't told me what you want?"
He pulled away rolling his eyes. There had been buy presents for Henry and Caroline, but he hadn't thought about himself. "Is that really necessary?"
"Yes." She replied scorn. "You can't have nothing to open on Christmas morning. Think of something, it can be anything?"
He looked at her, she was giving him the eye as if it were some sort of challenge. "Anything?" He echoed. "The Jolly Roger."
He loved the expression on her face as she laughed. "Yeah ‘cause that's really going to fit under the tree so well" She replied as she closed her eyes and nestled further into him. As much as she enjoyed the warmth and magic of Christmas it was exhausting to put it all together. Between Caroline crawling all over the house, Henry's teenaged inclinations and trying to coordinate holiday activities between her parents and Regina it seemed there was hardly any time to manage to sit down.
"Mom." She heard the pounding as he ran up the stairs and she was tempted to scorn him for being so loud when she wished that Caroline was asleep in her crib, though she knew full well the infant was probably not taking a nap. "Mom." Henry repeated again as he came into the room.
"What?" She hissed at him. He was pointing out of the window and she turned to see what he was making such a big deal out of.
Through the snow and all the darkness there was a familiar and unmistakable outline on the horizon. The three of them rushed to the window faces pressed to the glass as they looked at the ship on the horizon. Henry looked at it in awe, but both Killian and Emma had knowing smiles on their face.
He looked at her, with a tear in his eye. That ship meaning as much to him as the idea of a family was to her.
"You did it?" He whispered just as surprised as she was.
"Yeah I did." She replied, in shock that she had done it at all. She must have through about it somewhat in order to just make it appear. She didn't think that her magic was that powerful but when she saw the expression on her husband's face it was all worth it "Merry Christmas." She replied as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him once more.