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agentmarymargaretskitz · 6 years

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Happy Holidays

The latest in the Roommates AU from @incendiaglacies and myself. Enjoy!

AO3

“Mroow!”

Caitlin lowered her gaze from the tree branches where she was putting up ornaments. The tree had been neglected since Gideon’s food poisoning/not-pregnant incident. Since Lily and Felicity had the Hanukkah decorations put up on half the apartment, Caitlin was stepping up to fill the role of Christmas decorations. She wasn’t counting on the possible difficulties that could come up though.

“Oh, how did you do this?” she sighed, bending down to the bottom of the tree.

Schrodinger was tangled in the lower branches of the tree. Part of the string of lights was wrapped around his middle. He was pawing at the branches, barely missing the dopamine structure ornament. Caitlin shook her head and untangled the cat. In return, she got a grateful purr.

“You’re so welcome,” she replied, scratching behind his ears.

Cisco leaned around from the other side of the tree. “How many more times do you think he’ll do that while the tree is still up?”

“He might have learned his lesson once,” Caitlin countered while she set Schrodinger on the couch.

“Or at least you hope so.”

She shook her head as she unwrapped the last of the ornaments from the box she had. The one in her hand was a circular frame with a photograph of her roommates, plus Cisco and Ray, standing on the dock by a lake. It had been one of the last times that they had all been together before Gideon and Ray had graduated and they had slowly started to lose contact with each other. Caitlin was thankful that she’d picked up the phone all those months ago when Gideon called asking her if she was interested in getting an apartment with her and a few others. It had brought her back to the rest of her friends, although she’d never fallen out of touch with Cisco and Lily.

“Remember this?” she asked, holding up the ornament for Cisco to see.

Cisco grinned. “I remember tipping out of the canoe with you and Felicity. Gideon almost got poison ivy when we went hiking earlier that day. Lily got one of the worst sunburns ever.”

“Poor girl,” Caitlin shook her head. “She was so miserable.”

“Who was miserable?” Felicity asked as she and Lily entered the apartment.

“Lily,” Cisco and Caitlin said together as the latter held up the ornament. “We found the lake photo.”

The woman in question groaned. “I have never gone through so much aloe in my life before. That was a nightmare.”

“Gideon told you to wear sunscreen,” Felicity sing-songed as the fourth roommate came in with the mail.

“Who didn’t wear sunscreen?” Gideon asked as she passed Felicity her mail.

“Lily.”

“They found the lake photo.”

“You were miserable for weeks,” Gideon remembered. “By the way, I picked up some more things for the holiday party.”

“We got poppers,” Felicity grinned. “And we picked out everything that doesn’t scream Christmas.”

“Which was easier said than done,” Lily finished.

“That reminds me,” Cisco clapped his hands together. “I brought you guys some stuff for that.”

He retrieved a green bag and tossed it over to the girls. Gideon caught it and opened it up. Immediately, she frowned.

“Mistletoe?” Gideon was pulling out the mom glare. “Are you insane?”

“We can’t have that here!” Felicity cried. “Don’t you know it’s poisonous to cats?”

“Yes, I know, I looked it up,” Cisco sighed. “It’s all fake, so don’t worry. I’ll never do a thing to hurt Schrödinger.”

At the sound of his name, the cat mewed and leapt from the couch to the floor.

“You can string it up for your party,” he continued. “Maybe it could finally get two certain people to-”

Caitlin stepped on his foot.

“-once again make out like teenagers,” Cisco finished quickly. “I mean, Barry and Iris are coming, right?”

“Yep,” Gideon nodded. “But what can you expect from two people who are head over heels in love with each other? Still, they behave at parties.”

“As long as they go somewhere outside the apartment if they want to get super intimate,” Lily muttered under her breath.

“Back to the party for a moment,” Felicity spoke up. “You guys remember Oliver and Thea from Halloween? They were the bartenders from Verdant.”

“Yeah,” Caitlin nodded. “They were really nice.”

“Well, I invited them to the holiday party,” Felicity explained. “Oliver called me today to say that they’ll both be coming.”

“Oh fun,” Lily smiled. “It’ll be great to see them again.”

“It will,” Gideon agreed. “Rip told me on my way up that he and Jonas will be there too. Also, he’s coming over tonight for Secret Snowman drawings.”

“I’m glad you two are back on good terms again,” Caitlin told her. “Actually, I’m glad that we’re all getting along with him again.”

“Me too. It’d be a horrible holiday season if he was still mad at us.

“Plus, now you have someone to talk to at the party besides me,” Lily teased.

“And she won’t even have you because you’ll be too busy talking with Ray,” Cisco muttered.

Lily ducked her head and took the groceries they’d purchased to the kitchen. Caitlin elbowed Cisco for the remark.

“Pass me another ornament,” she asked as he rubbed his arm.

At her feet, Schrodinger was eyeing the lower branches of the tree.

Felicity sighed as she walked out of another store. She’d used her lunch break to go investigating possibilities for her Secret Snowman gift. Three nights ago, she had pulled out Lily’s name from the hat. Ever since then, she had been struggling to think of a gift for her friend. Ugh, it shouldn’t have been this hard, right?

Her phone chimed in her pocket. Felicity pulled it out and smiled when she saw Oliver’s name on the screen.

Thea wants to know if we need to bring anything to the party.

Felicity slipped her gloves off and typed out a response. No need to unless you want to.

“Felicity?”

She froze in her steps and looked to her right. “Ray?”

“Hi,” he grinned as he walked over to her. “Are you shopping for Secret Snowman too?”

“Yep,” Felicity nodded. “I’m not having much luck. I don’t have you, by the way. Just letting you know, so you’re not going to be spoiled or anything. You don’t have to tell me who you have though, unless it’s me and then you definitely shouldn’t.”

“Don’t worry, Felicity, I don’t have you,” Ray chuckled. “I’ve actually got Caitlin.”

“Nice. I’ve got Lily, but I can’t figure out what I’m going to get her.”

“Ah,” Ray gave a nod. “Well, you need to find something she likes and expand on it.”

“I know, I know,” Felicity sighed. “But I don’t know what.”

“Well, she likes Star Wars and Star Trek, but the latter slightly more,” Ray said. “So you can get her something related to that, like a USS Enterprise mug or some Star Fleet pajamas. There’s also coffee, so you can get her something like that. Maybe get her a green mug, since green’s her favorite color? Oh, or something crafty!”

Felicity shook her head through the whirlwind of information. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah,” Ray nodded. “During Halloween, she made this amazing webbing for Cisco’s party. It looked like the real deal. So maybe you can do something like that?”

“Huh,” she mused, remembering something from years ago. “I think I’ve got something now. Thanks, Ray.”

“Anytime,” her friend nodded as they passed another store. “I’m going to look in there to see if there’s something I can get for Caitlin.”

“Good luck,” Felicity said as they parted ways.

“I can’t believe that happened,” Lily uttered as she and Gideon entered the apartment. “I think I’ve still got goosebumps from the ending.”

“We just walked back here from the movie theater in the cold,” Gideon reminded her. “And honestly, how did you not see this coming?”

“Because I choose to have faith in humanity,” Lily defended. “Sometimes I expect that things are going to work out happily. Even in real life, good things will happen.”

Gideon shrugged. “Well, it was as realistic as you could get for such a complicated scenario.”

“Well, I need something to cheer me up now,” her foster sister muttered.

“Maybe we can do that?”

Both girls yelped and whirled around. However, their fright turned into joy as soon as they saw who was behind them.

“Ronnie!” Gideon cried, throwing her arms around him.

The doors to the complex opened again. “He’s not the only one who showed up.”

Lily’s face split into a grin. “Jax!”

She dove at him in a hug as Ronnie spun Gideon around. Ronnie Raymond had been fostered by the Steins along with Gideon, although he’d been there longer by the time Gideon had been placed with them. Jefferson Jackson, although he always insisted on being called Jax, lived next door to them with his mother. They were like brothers to Lily and Gideon while they were growing up, and all of them kept in touch as regularly as they could as adults.

“I thought you were still in Ireland,” Gideon exclaimed to Ronnie as she let him go and went to hug Jax. “And shouldn’t you still be in your classes?”

“Hi, Gideon, I’m doing great,” Jax laughed as he hugged her. “Exams wrapped up for me yesterday. I’m free for the next few weeks.”

“And the engineering exchange wrapped up last week,” Ronnie added, tousling Lily’s hair. “We’re all back to Mercury Labs after New Year’s. But Jax and I thought we could stop up here to see our two favorite sisters.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Gideon said as she fixed her askew hat. “How long are you staying for?”

“We wanted to see if you guys wanted to grab dinner tonight?” Jax told them. “Unless you guys have something planned.”

“We actually have to set up some stuff for our holiday party tomorrow,” Gideon replied. “You two should stay for it. It’s going to be wonderful.”

“If you want, we could just have takeout in the apartment,” Lily offered. “You can say hi to Cisco and the other girls. Oh, and you can meet Schrodinger!”

“Yeah, you guys got a cat,” Jax nodded. “I’m down for it, but Ronnie’s my ride back home.”

“I’m fine to stay if you want to,” Ronnie assured him. “It’ll be nice to catch up with everyone again actually.”

“Wonderful,” Gideon smiled as she got their mail out. “If you two want to stay over, we’ve got a couch. Or I can give one of you my bed and sleep elsewhere.”

A wicked smile crossed Lily’s face before vanishing a moment later. “We can work things out. Plus, it’s cheaper for you to stay with us than in a hotel.”

“Thanks, guys,” Ronnie smiled. “We’ll help out with all we can for your party.”

“It’s no trouble,” Gideon told them.

“You two should have been here for Thanksgiving,” Lily said as they walked up the stairs. “Gideon told everyone the turkey story!”

“Like when Ronnie…” Jax gestured with his hands.

Lily nodded, and the boys began to laugh.

“My only regret is that I never got to see the look on Lily’s face,” Ronnie lamented.

“Awfully nice that you only have one regret from that,” Gideon grumbled. “I have several.”

“But Gideon,” Lily pouted. “You wouldn’t have such a great story to tell Rip then.”

“Who’s Rip?”

“You’ll see tomorrow.”

Rip tugged the green sweater over his head. He had no idea what the dress code exactly was for the girls’ party. At least with the sweater, he could pass for casual or somewhat dressy. To an extreme, it could even reach ugly Christmas sweater in terms of having no décor at all. He doubted that was the kind of holiday party the girls were shooting for, although he didn’t doubt Cisco would show up in an ugly Christmas sweater.

“Jonas!” Rip called out to his son as he left his room. “Ready to go?”

Jonas hurried out of his bedroom. His son was wearing a red sweater that Miranda had bought for him recently on her last visit. Despite the ongoing custody battle, Jonas was still getting along with both him and Miranda. The last thing Rip wanted was for his son to be bitter towards one of them. At least tonight was a night he could temporarily forget about that struggle and spend time with Gideon and the girls.

“Don’t forget the gift, Daddy,” Jonas said as he pointed to the gift bag on the couch.

“Of course not,” Rip plucked his Secret Snowman gift for Ray from the cushions. “Can you get one of the cookie trays for me?”

Jonas nodded and picked up the tray of gingerbread people. “Got it.”

Rip held the door open for his son as he carefully carried the tray out. They’d had a fun afternoon together decorating the cookies for the party. He’d volunteered to bake the gingerbread when he’d drawn for Secret Snowman with the girls. All of them had agreed he could do so after the pies he’d brought for Thanksgiving. It had been fun to make the gingerbread after nearly a year, but it had also given him time with Jonas. He wasn’t certain how the custody battle would pan out, but at least he’d have these moments to look back on if he lost.

As they reached the apartment of the girls, Rip knocked on the door. To his surprise, none of the girls answered. A tall man with dark hair and a blue button-down opened the door and looked at them with confusion as sounds of the party filtered out of the room.

“Are you here for the party?” he asked slowly.

“Yes,” Rip nodded. “Rip Hunter, and this is my son, Jonas.”

“Rip?” Gideon ducked underneath the man’s arm. “Ronnie, I told you what Rip and Jonas looked like, don’t let them keep standing out there.”

“Sorry.” He stepped aside to let them in. “Didn’t know if my sister invited you or not.”

“Foster sister,” Gideon corrected.

“Still a sister to me.”

Rip raised his eyebrows. “You must be Ronnie Raymond then. Lily and Gideon have told me about you.”

Ronnie nodded. “All good things, I hope.”

“Gideon told us about the turkey,” Jonas piped up.

Ronnie shook his head. “Of course she did.”

Gideon smothered a giggle. “Jonas, I know Schrodinger’s around here somewhere if you want to go play with him. If that’s okay with your dad, of course.”

“He can,” Rip agreed. “I know he’s been looking forward to that.”

“Yay!” Jonas handed him the cookie tray and ran off in search of the cat.

Rip smiled as he watched his son go in search of Schrodinger before taking in the rest of the apartment. Lights were strung up along the walls and ceiling. There was food on the island in the kitchen and a few pitchers filled with different liquids. Rip was able to catch sight of a few familiar faces in the party guests who were laughing and mingling about.

“Everything looks beautiful,” Rip told Gideon. “You and the girls did a great job.”

“Cisco and Ray helped out too,” Gideon replied with a shrug. “I’m glad you were able to make it.”

“Me too,” Rip agreed. “It’s good to get a break from everything that’s been happening recently.”

“I can only imagine,” Gideon said, leading him to the kitchen so he could set the gingerbread men down. “If you don’t mind me asking, how are things going with the custody battle.”

“As well as they can be. I hope this won’t be my last Christmas Jonas and I will be able to spend together, but lately I’m starting to worry that it might be.”

Gideon reached out and wrapped her hand around his. “Things will work out, Rip. You won’t lose Jonas.”

“I hope not,” Rip gave her hand a squeeze. “Thank you, Gideon.”

“Besides,” she picked up two glasses of punch and handed him one of them. “It’s the season of miracles. Anything could happen.”

Rip lifted his glass. “If you say so.”

Lily slid the blindfold into place. “Okay, someone spin me.”

“Gotcha,” Ray’s voice preceded his hands settling on her shoulders.

She smiled a little as she was moved around in a circle. When Ray stopped her, Lily stretched out the hand that wasn’t holding the fabric with Velcro. She took baby steps forward, waving her hand about to serve as a guide to where she was going. After bumping into Amaya, she finally felt the edge of the fabric. Lily tapped her hand across it before sticking the Velcro onto the larger fabric.

Cisco chuckled. “Nice, Lily.”

Lily pulled the blindfold off to see her handiwork. Instead of attaching the carrot to the snowman’s face, it was in the center of his body.

“It’s not so easy when you can’t see,” she blushed as she retreated to hand the blindfold to Cisco.

“You didn’t do too bad,” Ray assured while pulling the carrot off to hand to Cisco. “I didn’t even get it on the body.”

“That was on your second try,” Lily reminded him. “The first time you had it sticking out like an ear.”

“Whatever happens, I’m going to nail this,” Cisco declared as Caitlin started to spin him around. “May the Force be with me.”

Lily sat on the edge of the couch so she was right next to where Ray was now standing. “Think he’ll get it?”

“Probably going to get it on the hand,” Ray predicted.

“That’s specific. I’m betting it’ll become a foot.”

“You two are ridiculous,” Caitlin said as she came over to them while Cisco took tiny steps forward. “If anything, he’s going get it in the middle.”

“Don’t worry, kitty,” Jonas climbed to his feet as Schrödinger looked in the direction his ball had gone. “I’ll get it back.”

The boy ran in the direction where the cat’s ball had gone. He hadn’t meant to bounce it that hard, but it had flown over Schrodinger’s head and down the hallway. Hopefully it wasn’t going to roll into the living room. If someone tripped on it, that would be awful, especially if they got hurt.

Jonas caught sight of the small blue ball resting against the wall. He hurried over to it and picked it up. Using his sleeve, he brushed a bit of the dust it had collected off. When he got back up to his feet, Jonas turned and saw something very interesting.

He had learned all about mistletoe from various other Christmases. A spring hung from the ceiling straight ahead of him. Felicity was underneath it with another man. Jonas didn’t know his name, but he remembered him vaguely from Halloween. The two of them were kissing and they didn’t seem to be stopping. Gross.

Jonas wrinkled his nose and went back to find Schrodinger. After all, he needed to give the kitty back his ball.

Once all the guests had left, the Secret Snowman participants remained. They spent some time taking down the decorations and packing away the food and drink. Oliver Queen, the Verdant bartender, stuck around for a little while to help them get the lights from the ceiling. Thea had left earlier, but both siblings had invited all of them to a New Year’s Eve party if they were interested. Felicity had already agreed to stop by, and the rest were considering it. As for Ronnie and Jax, they had gone out for a while so the others could have their gift-giving session.

“Gather around,” Felicity said once her roommates, Cisco, Ray, Rip, and Jonas were the only ones left. “It’s presents time.”

Everyone brought out their gifts and set them on the coffee table. Once everyone except Jonas had put their parcel forward, they all sat down on the couch or in one of the chairs. After a few moments of silence and no volunteers to begin, Gideon finally pulled out a dice and had everyone pick a number. She rolled it after they all picked their number. The number five came up, which was Felicity’s.

Caitlin picked up the small box with Felicity’s name on the tag. “Here you go.”

“That’s from me,” Cisco said from beside her. “I hope you like it.”

Felicity unwrapped the ribbon and pulled the top off to reveal a necklace with various electronic bits on it. “Did you make this?”

“Yeah, remember how your computer died a few weeks ago?”

“That was a sad day,” Felicity lamented. “It was the first one I ever repaired and enhanced.”

“Those are the pieces from it,” Cisco explained. “I know I told you that I would get to the guy who could properly dispose it, but I didn’t get around to it. Then I drew your name and figured this could work as a way to remember it. I took apart the pieces, cleaned them up, and then made them into the necklace.”

Felicity fastened the necklace around her neck before diving forward to hug Cisco. “Thank you.”

Felicity gave her gift to Lily next, which consisted of a few yarn skeins, some knitting needles, and a book of patterns. Lily squealed excitedly as the rest of the girls remembered how she had used to knit all the time in college. Her Secret Snowman had completely forgotten about it until Ray had reminded her. As a result, he and Felicity would be the first recipients of her new knitted goods.

Lily then turned to give Gideon a gift bag filled with various kinds of hair dye, a callback to her rebellious youth. A smirk crossed her face, giving the others the idea she planned to use it later. From Gideon, Rip received a sampler of different kinds of cocoa. There were all kinds of types in the package, from normal to a peanut butter chocolate blend, along with a bag of marshmallows. As Rip unwrapped it, Jonas bounced up and down excitedly.

“Can we try it tomorrow, Daddy?” he squealed. “We can have it when we watch the movie we bought.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Rip nodded. “Ray, I picked you out. I took some recommendations from Lily for this.”

Ray pulled the wrapping paper off to find a stack of DVDs of different musicals. Rip had even included Singing in the Rain, which was one of his favorites. That was declared to be the next pick for movie night, which thankfully didn’t draw any protests. The discussion of musicals went on for a while before Ray remembered to give his gift to Caitlin, which was a paid vacation for her that she immediately blushed at.

“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” Caitlin told him.

“It wasn’t a problem,” Ray shook his head. “I hope you’re happy with it.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, her eyes falling to the last gift. “Cisco, I hope you like what I got you. It’s nothing like Ray’s.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it even more,” he replied, peeling back the wrapping paper.

When he caught sight of what Caitlin had given him, Cisco’s eyes widened. His mouth fell open in astonishment. Caitlin had given him a few new vintage comic books. However, she’d picked out the ones he had been searching for in a certain story arc. With these new ones, he owned every comic book in the arc now.

“Cisco?” Lily frowned. “Are you crying?”

He nodded. “It’s worth crying over when you now have every comic in a story arc.”

Everyone made appreciative noises in favor of it. Cisco turned to Caitlin with a smile. “Thank you, Cait.”

Caitlin embraced him. “Merry Christmas, Cisco.”

“And happy holidays all around!” Felicity cheered as she hugged Ray and Gideon on either side of her.

Ray and Cisco left a little while after they opened presents. Rip then returned to his apartment with Jonas shortly after since the boy was getting sleepy. Felicity now sat on the couch, running her finger over her new necklace with a smile. Lily was sitting cross-legged beside her, casting on stiches with her new needles. Caitlin had Schrodinger in her lap and was stroking his fur. Jax and Ronnie were now back and playing cards.

Gideon emerged from the bathroom, a towel around her shoulders and the tips of her hair dark and damp. “The dye’s in.”

“All you need now is a gray hoodie and it’ll be like teen Gideon’s back,” Lily remarked.

“Don’t forget the eyeliner,” Ronnie added.

“I think it’s better for all of us if I don’t regress too far back into those years,” Gideon replied with a shudder. “I was a nightmare.”

“Yeah, but we still loved you,” Jax grinned. “By the way, Ronnie and I were talking, and we’re planning to head home tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll be sure to be up to say goodbye,” Caitlin told them as Schrodinger purred in her lap. “It was great to see you guys again. It’s been too long.”

“We’ll have to come back and visit again,” Ronnie smirked. “I didn’t get enough time to beat Cisco and Lily in Mario Kart again.”

Lily set her knitting down and huffed. “I still don’t think it counts when you cheat.”

“How’s it cheating?” Ronnie protested.

“You were distracting us!” Lily accused.

“It’s your fault for getting distracted.”

“So a dog walks into the room and cuddles up in my lap and I’m not supposed to take notice?”

“I was dogsitting, how could I control that?”

“Calm down, children,” Gideon chided.

Caitlin giggled and shook her head. “I’m heading to be. Night.”

“Night, Cait,” Felicity said.

As Caitlin rose from her seat, she noticed something odd. On the side of Felicity’s neck, there appeared to be some kind of red mark partially obscured by her hair. It took a few seconds before Caitlin realized it was a hickey. Clearly Felicity had gotten up to something at the party earlier. Whatever it was, Caitlin figured she should mind her own business and let the mystery be.

That or she could wait and see if anything else happened before telling Lily and Cisco.

Once she had changed into her pajamas, her phone buzzed on the nightstand. Caitlin padded over to it and unlocked it. Cisco had sent her a picture of all the comic books in his favorite arc, which was now totally complete. The caption read ‘Best gift ever’. She smiled and set a reply before shutting out her lights.

It seemed that the holiday season was shaping up to be great for everyone.

#roommates au #arrow #the flash #legends of tomorrow #felicity smoak #gideon #caitlin snow #lily stein #cisco ramon #rip hunter #jonas hunter #ronnie raymond #jefferson jackson #ray palmer #incendiaglacies #au #timeship #olicity #oliver queen

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justanotherwannabeclassic · 7 years

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Finding Neverland (1/?)

A/N: Months and months ago, I received a prompt asking for me to write the CS movie but with the Captain Swan offspring. I came up with an idea, and then promptly distracted myself by writing Roses in December. But, finally, I feel as if this story is ready to be posted. So, here's the story I've been talking about: Romeo and Juliet in Neverland. Special thanks to @thegladelf and @sambethe for being sounding boards months ago.

Summary: History has a funny way of repeating itself. Juliet Jones learns this the hard way as she finds herself thrown decades into the past, and tasked with ensuring that her parents fall in love. (CS movie redux)

“We can sail away tonight On a sea of pure moonlight We can navigate the stars to bring us back home In a place so far away We'll be young that's how we'll stay every wish is our command We will find ourselves in never Neverland” -- Finding Neverland

You can also read this on AO3! Additional Chapter: [2] [3]

Chapter 1

It begins with a villain, a stolen child, a portal – heroes rallying in barren Storybrooke farmland to save the day. It’s routine.

(Funny how life-and-death experiences become routine, isn’t it?) And, as always, they succeed. The villain loses, the baby is passed into the arms of her terrified father, and their party breaks away to celebrate and take comfort in one another. Except—

“Shouldn’t you be back at the hospital?” Juliet looks over her shoulder to see Gideon approaching her from behind. In his hands is an overlarge canteen that he hands to her without preamble. It’s hot chocolate, with just a hint of cinnamon – her favorite. He stands next to her, not saying anything, clearly waiting for a response. She takes a long pull of her drink before answering.

“Someone should watch the portal to see if it reopens.”

She expects him to argue that her reason is silly. Instead, he simply huffs out a sigh, and she watches how it crystalizes in the cold, winter air. “Yeah, but it’s your niece who was kidnapped today.”

“Your niece too.” Juliet casts him significant glare, to which he shrugs in response. “Look, that’s exactly why I’m here. My mom and grandpa clearly wanted to be at the hospital with Henry and Cassidy, and Neal is dealing with the rest of the Storybrooke shit, so that’s the entire police department otherwise being occupied. So, viola, here I am.”

“You do realize you’re an art dealer, and not a cop,” he teases, bumping into her side. She only glares. It’s true that back in New York, she works in a gallery, but they both know life in Storybrooke is different. Her occupation doesn’t matter here – her blood and magic do. Gideon turns to her, suddenly serious “Why don’t you head back to town, and I can babysit the portal. Give Cassidy a big kiss for me.”

“You do know you’re a medical resident, not a portal babysitter,” she replies, mirroring his tone from earlier. Her statement earns a smile, and Juliet wishes she could mirror it, and revel in his steadfastness. Instead, he hugs her drink tighter. “Do you think life will always be like this for Cassidy? Like it’s been for us?”

Gideon doesn’t answer, and his expression turns grim as the weight of her questions settles over him. Life hasn’t been particularly easy or normal for either of them. Him, practically living a life in the dark realm before some magic mumbo jumbo righted his age. Her, the product of True Love – a girl who always grew up with target on her back. In New York, it’s easy to forget the tumultuous nature of the lives back home, but the moment they cross the town line – as they did when they received Henry’s excited call about his daughter’s impending birth – they are fiercely reminded.

“I don’t know, but she has us if things inevitably go to shit,” Gideon says, reaching out and twining his fingers with her own. She doesn’t shy away from the show of affection, but instead allows it to ground her. “Now, go on now, go see your family.”

“They’re your family too, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m sure your dad would agree with that,” he insists with a roll of his eyes. “Now go before we both freeze to death.”

She doesn’t get a chance to heed his words, because the next thing Juliet knows is that the ground is shaking, and the world is erupting in a blast of light. She drops the canteen, the hot chocolate spilling over the ground and her jeans. Juliet hears Gideon call for her, feels his hand tighten around on hers, and she is overwhelmed with the sensation of falling. As she is pulled into the portal, she thinks how she is grateful she isn't alone.

-/-

Neverland is nothing how Emma Swan imagined it to be. As a child, she had fantasized about it quite a bit, dreaming of the fictional (or so she thought) land as sort of a respite from the horrors and darkness of her disappointing (to put it mildly) childhood. Never growing up in a land with mermaids, pirates, pixies, and boys who could fly sounded infinitely more interesting than growing up bouncing from home to home of families who didn’t want her. As it stands, Neverland, like all things in her life, does not turn out how she expected.

Peter Pan is a menace, one who is trying to harm her son. The Lost Boys are lost – truly lost – and nothing like the fun-loving children she once envisioned befriending in her younger years. Not to mention the fact that Captain Hook is equal parts intriguing and infuriating, a man who somehow manages to get under her skin in more ways than one, ways that she certainly can’t ponder during her mission to rescue Henry.

But what strikes her as the strangest in this rather strange land was the fact that people can apparently fall from the sky out of mysterious orange portals that appear out of nowhere.

“Is this normal?” Emma asks Hook, her cutlass raised, unsure if the young man and woman in front of them are friend or foe. Judging from the alarmed expression on Hook’s face, and the speed in which he draws his own sword, he iss just as surprised by the whole ordeal.

She feels her stomach lurch, and a bubble of worry forms. Hook is the one person she can trust about the island, and if he is worried…

“What the fuck,” the man groans out, only to cut himself off as he looks up to notice that he is staring down the pointed end of a blade. ““Please tell me I’m hallucinating.”

“If it’s a hallucination, it’s mutual,” the woman replies, eyes darting between Emma and Hook. Emma studies them carefully. She can’t help but notice that they are dressed in clothing from her world. A sick thought comes to mind. “Are you working with Greg and Tamara?”

“Who?” Their confusion doesn’t register her lie detector, but she tightens her grip on her blade nonetheless. It’s entirely possible that Pan could have minions anywhere. “What about Pan? You know him?”

“Wait—Pan? As in Peter Pan?” The woman’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh my God, are we in Neverland? This is Neverland. We’re in Neverland. Oh my God.”

The unfamiliar woman looks as if she is about to hyperventilate, while her companion looks equally unhappy. In Emma’s opinion, they seem more afraid by their location than the blades. She senses that they’re not working with Pan, but clearly the idea of Neverland bothers them. Could they potentially have bad blood? She casts a sidelong glance to Hook. His face is drawn in consternation as if he’s thinking the same thing as her.

“Yes, love, you’re in Neverland,” he says with a sneer. “And that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Not too many people simply end up here by surprise.”

It was the man who gives an answer. “There was a portal back home, but we didn’t summon it. Someone else did, and we fell through. Prior to that, I was wishing for a place I could take my girlfriend away, and we ended up here. Neverland’s a place you run away to, right?”

He casts a significant glance to the woman by his side – his girlfriend, apparently. That, too, doesn’t raise any of Emma’ instinctual alarms. She stares at the woman – who looks no older than twenty-five – and she feels an unbidden wave of sympathy.

“Okay, so you aren’t dealing with Pan,” Emma says evenly. “So, who are you?”

“I’m—I’m…”

The man cuts in. “We’re Romeo and Juliet.”

Emma’s jaw drops. Of all the things she expected in Neverland, this is not it.

#captain swan #cs ff #cs fic #captain swan ff #cs canon divergence #ouat ff #s writes fic

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