Work Text:
“Go to sleep, Emma,” Killian grouses as he breathes in steadily. An arm is flung over his face, covering his eyes, and he huffs as he feels Emma shuffles beside him.
“What are you talking about?” she responds lightly. “I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re smiling,” Killian laughs lightly, his voice laced with sleep. “And thinking too loudly. Go to sleep.”
“How would you know? You’re not even looking at me.”
Killian groans in amusement as he removes his arm from over his eyes and flops onto his side to face her. He peeks one eye open, catching her fleeting smile as she immediately attempts to mask her features. He rolls his eyes at her innocent expression, finding that he can’t be annoyed at her despite his severe lack of sleep, before he twines his arm around her waist and tugs her to him. She nestles against his bare chest, the tresses of her hair silky and smooth against his skin. Her breath washes over the heat of him hotly and he melts all over again from the inside out. A smile presses against the skin right above his now beating heart as he lets out a disgruntled noise and adjusts against the overwhelming warmth of her presence.
“I can feel you smiling, my love,” Killian says, his lips grazing her forehead as she chuckles against him. The sound of her laughter is warm, melodic, soothing, and graceful - a cacophony of sounds that resembles the sorrow and angst and hopefulness of a symphony. It’s a sound that he never thought he’d hear again, a sound that he found himself missing and trying to remember, foolishly and hopelessly, when the walls of the Underworld’s caverns had been closing in on him. He had replayed everything there was to her in his head to keep himself sane: her name being a tragic and stark reminder, her laugh being a body-warming comfort, her touch being something to hold onto, something to hope for, something to dream about, and her kiss reminding him of the hard and honest truth - his reason to once live for, then his reason to move on, now his reason to continue hoping, dreaming, and living.
He flips onto his stomach, his eyes still closed, and he lays there comfortably with his chin propped against the back of his hands. He feels the tips of Emma’s fingers, light and teasing, graze up and down the length of his spine. He shudders against the tingling sensation, unable to help himself, and Emma promptly drapes herself across his back, her breasts brushing against his skin as she presses a kiss between his shoulder blades.
Her fingers find the hair at the nape of his neck and she runs them through the silky texture before kneading the tense skin of his muscles. He lets out a low groan of anguish, relief, and arousal, and she pauses her ministrations before lowering herself to hover over him. Her lips graze the shell of her ear, her breathing low, and he resists the urge to wrap his arms around her naked body and have his way with her for the umpteenth time that night.
“Should I stop?” Emma asks gently, concern tinging her tone as she opts for skimming her restless hands over his skin. Killian sighs, feeling exhaustion and weariness creep into his body before it settles into his bones. He mulls over her question for a moment, wanting nothing more than to comfort and reassure her as she fretted over him.
“No,” he replies steadily, attempting to keep his eyelids open as his body yearns for sleep.
It’s Emma’s turn to sigh as she removes her hands from his skin. For a moment he feels nothing - he feels as if he’s been expelled into the air, without a destination or a place to anchor down, but then Emma is wrapping herself around his back, holding him to her as she curls against him. He exhales softly, feeling at peace and at rest as he revels in the feeling of simply being held.
“What can I do?” Emma asks, her voice small yet determined. “What can I do to make it better?”
His soul feels like it’s out of his body for a moment and his mind takes a long moment to consider her question - death will do that to you, she had consoled him earlier, her voice ever so gentle and understanding after he had shied away from her willingness to bathe him in affection as soon as their backs had hit their bed.
“I don’t know,” he admits, hating the way his voice cracks in vulnerability.
She lays beside them then, her head squeezing onto his pillow as she faces him. He opens his eyes, finding hers staring back at his and swimming with an overwhelming sense of love. He wants to drown in this look of hers - all rumpled and affectionate, and he leans into the fraction of an inch between them to kiss at her already kiss-swollen lips. She takes her time opening her eyes as he pulls away, and he cups her cheek in his hand before she nuzzles into his touch. He thumbs at the pout of her lips, exhaling a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding as she bites down on his thumb, allowing her tongue to flick at the pad of it as she flutters her eyes open.
“Tell me a story,” he requests as she kisses his knuckles before lacing their fingers together.
Emma hums, her smile sweet and knowing, “What kind of story?”
He grins, “One with a happy ending.”
“Once upon a time,” she begins, running her free hand through his fringe as he settles the side of his face against her chest. She promptly presses a kiss against the crown of his head. “There was a city that had gone up in flames. No one, not even the wisest of scholars or the most curious of minds, could come up with a reason as to how everything they lived amongst had set itself on fire, and how they were still alive. Little did they know that it wasn’t because of the powers at be, nor was it because of the wrath of witches - it was the power of true love. Something so fierce and so powerful, that it caused even the sturdiest and hardiest of things to go up in flames.”
Her voice is low and soothing against his ear, her presence a great comfort as his heart slows from its almost painful rhythm in his chest. He feels as if this is all a dream - that she is a dream as a whole - and he never wants to wake up from it.
“This couple, who had a love so pure and so enchanting, were two ordinary people destined for greatness and adventure, success and fortune, but together they were destined for so much more than that. They were destined for a long and happy future together, something neither of them thought they’d ever have in all of their life. They both had made mistakes in the past, careless and tiny mistakes, that had spiraled out of control and taken them both to deep and dark places - places that they never saw again as soon as they had each other. And despite their reckless and wild love, that caused flames to spurt from the quietest of places, they were able to find peace. They were able to find love and acceptance and hope - a sense of hope that was so strong and so genuine that it was near impossible to replicate - a sense of hope that extinguished the consequences of their love and allowed them to live together in the here and now.”
Emma pauses, her voice going tight with melancholy as she swallows a ball of emotion roughly. Killian holds her to him, understanding her sentiment all too well as he too feels the pinprick of tears behind his eyes. Emma smiles and his entire world rights itself again.
“Despite all of the solutions and curses that they were offered to solve the restlessness of their love, they knew that no matter how much they wanted to take control over their love, that nothing would ever be able to extinguish the fire inside their hearts.”
A cozy blanket of silence encompasses them like a cocoon and after a moment, Killian voices the question that sits on the tip of his tongue.
“Why that story?”
Emma exhales shakily and he immediately knows that her explanation won’t be easy for her to share. She had vowed, upon his return, that she would leave her heart open for him. He had brought her walls down, after all - he had removed her armor and stashed it away for when she’d have to go into battle - with him she now knew she could be as open as possible, and she wanted to embrace that.
“Sometimes I feel like my heart's on fire when it comes to you,” she begins quietly. “I - I don’t really understand it and I don’t know how to calm it down, you know? And it’s not even in a bad way but the burning - it’s overwhelming and it’s constant. Restless. It never seems to stop or even come down to a simmer and I - I think losing you, really losing you, made me realize that there isn’t anything wrong with this fire inside my heart. I feel like I’m burning from the inside out when I so much as look at you, but I don’t fear it anymore and it doesn’t discomfort me. I should’ve been embracing it - my love for you - because before there was so much uncertainty and hesitation on my part. But ever since I’ve allowed myself to lose you and ever since I’ve come to terms with that possibility - that someday might not be together - and I -” she heaves in a breath as he lifts his head to look at her. She smiles at him softly, a watery and hopeful thing as a tear slips down her cheek. “I’ve never felt stronger.”
“Emma,” Killian murmurs reverently as he traces the curve of her lips with his fingers. Emma hums as she presses her lips against his sweetly. “I love you.”
“Yeah?” she grins, wrapping her arms around his neck as he presses their foreheads together. “I love you, too.”
Killian’s hyper aware of the steady heartbeat inside his chest - his reminder that he’s alive and is exactly where he belongs by the orders of the gods themselves. The once painful thudding of his heartbeat has dulled to a gentle skip, so light and fluttering that it nearly feels like a simmer. Emma’s story echoes through his mind and then the soft-spoken words of her reasoning for telling that story resonates through his entire being. And for the first time since returning from the dead, he feels alive.