Fic: The Lesser of Two Evils - Chapter Six
Title: The Lesser of Two Evils
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Mr Gold/Emma Swan, Henry (and later on August and Regina)
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for everything surely XD
Summary: My new Golden Swan continuing drama. Emma and Gold's complicated relationship takes a turn for the worse when potions and magical artifacts become involved. Written from ideas presented by the lovely missbreese
X-Posted to FF.net here
Chapter One :: Chapter Two :: Chapter Three :: Chapter Four :: Chapter Five
Chapter Six
In some ways, it might have been easier if she had just been cruel and amused by having control of me. But helping me back into my seat, touching my face, watching my every moment in case I am about to speak. It's more difficult to handle than I had imagined.
It was one thing to have some sense of desire towards her, and one thing to consider the possibilities of a forbidden fruit scenario. But to have her feel something towards me that is below the simple surface of desire is rather different.
I chance a look at her face, and find that my conclusions are too correct for me to handle. I can see it in her eyes. She's caring about me.
"Are you sure you won't let me take the dagger?"
Emma rises from where she was crouched to study my face. She sits back on the edge of her desk, casting her eyes to the blade on the floor.
"What would you do with it?"
"I... I don't know."
"Would you destroy it?"
A shudder runs through me at the prospect.
"No," I reply. "I wouldn't like to think what could... happen to me, if I did."
"Oh."
I try another look at her face, and find her looking away, lost in a thought. Shock still seems to be the primary emotion in her features, though her body language is less shaky than it was before.
It's difficult to believe that my day started with a conspiracy to play games with her. I was hoping to catch her embarrassed by my presence, perhaps try my luck with a little less cryptic flirting than before. She had kissed me once of her own accord, after all.
Almost twice.
Though the second attempt could have happened under better circumstances, it happened nonetheless.
"Do you think we could talk about that kiss now?"
The sentence snaps her vision back to me. A more familiar expression crosses her features, and suddenly I feel a little more comfortable than before.
"Just when I thought that nothing else could surprise me today."
"I thought we may as well get everything on the table at once."
Emma stoops to pick up the dagger, handling it much more cautiously than before. She passes it to me. I rest it on my lap, looking expectantly to her face. She eyes me curiously.
"Emma," I begin, trying not to smile too much, "You can't blame a man for wanting to know where he stands."
She stands at the desk and fidgets with a coffee mug behind her absently.
"You're telling me you don't already know?"
"You're a difficult woman to read."
This last phrase of mine is a lie, of course, but one I know she'd like to believe.
"Fine," she says, adopting a more matter-of-fact tone. "I can't help the fact that I think you're... attractive." It looks like she has to spit the last word out in spite of herself.
"And that's all?" I press, realising almost instantly that I sound too eager for my own good.
She cocks her head at me.
"I just found out that magic can be real. Give me a break here."
I nod quietly, and my thoughts drift back to the dagger for a moment. She follows my eyes.
"How about I lock that up here for you? There's a safe hidden in that wall."
I follow her indications to a set of posters about police policy.
"You can have the key," she adds.
I rise from the chair, handing her back the dagger. She takes it, and I see her face is turning a little red.
"I'd appreciate that," I say.
She turns her gaze away, but she nods. There is more than one confidence between us at this moment. The strangeness of our situation has bred a kind of trust I hadn't anticipated. And though I know that this would be an apt time to lock away the blade and leave, something almost as strong as the dagger's magic is pressing on me to stay.
I step towards her, and she does not move away.
When my face is level with hers, she seems determined to keep her head down. But she still doesn't try to get away.
So I raise a hand to her chin and turn her head up for her. Her eyes remain closed. Without the hesitation that I can imagine her eyes must hold, an odd relaxation sinks into me.
I lean in, so close I can hear her lips parting, feel her soft breath against my own lips. She finally makes a move towards me.
"Wait," I say.
"What?" She asks in a breathless whispers.
"Could you put the dagger down?"
And something amazing happens. Emma laughs. Her eyes flicker open and fix on my face, and she laughs in a small, honest way. I hear the blade clatter to the ground for the third and final time of the evening, but I cannot look away from her face even to see where it lands.
I am still holding her face in one hand. She leans into the touch, and then beyond it, grazing her lips against mine for a hesitant moment. She almost makes to move away again, but I force the grip a little, keeping her beside me.
The kiss is nothing like I expected, nothing in any way similar to the passionate, almost desperate affair I might have expected a few days ago. A kiss borne of teasing and anger it is not.
Her lips are earnest, and I can feel a small smile in the muscles of her face.
And then she pulls away more forcibly, and I let her go more from surprise than willing. I watch her look away, considering, watch her suck her bottom lip in for a second as she thinks. I can taste her coffee on my lower lip.
Then she meets my eyes again, and I know that our moment has passed. Her hesitant gaze, the uncertain slump in her shoulder. It's easy to know what she's about to say.
"I can't do this right now."
She stumbles to the dagger, and then to the desk for a key to the secret safe. I turn on my heel, stepping slowly to the doorway of her office. She spies me as I am almost through it.
"Don't you want this?"
I turn, see her holding up the key, the safe behind the posters exposed.
"Keep it," I reply, turning to leave again.
"Gold-" she begins, but I can't bring myself to hear what she wants to tell me.
"I trust you," I say as I walk away.
Chapter Seven