Once Upon a Time One Shots

The Real World

a/n: fanfiction.net cover! please don't be a silent reader, this book has like 150 reads and votes from only two different people (and zero comments)
(thank you btw)
but please at least if you hated it tell me you did so i can re write it and learn from my mistakes
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Even though she would probably hesitate to admit it, Emma Swan felt amazing in the red dress.

Sure, her royal parents abandoned her to protect her from a dangerous curse. It helped all of them and she ended up breaking it, discovering that everyone in the small town created especially for this curse -Storybrooke- belonged in the goddamn Enchanted Forest, a place she never thought she would come from, let alone visit twice in the same fucking month. But by now Emma had embraced "the real world" and her life as a normal human being (except for the part where all her loved ones were fairytale characters and she needed to fight magical villains who somehow made their way to Storybrooke) was pretty good like this. She didn't need a crown, the lack of technology, long poofy dresses (or any dress for that matter) or extravagant balls for her birthday, albeit anything was better than spending it by herself.

Yet now saying she felt great was a complete and utter understatement.

Emma felt gorgeous in those clothes as she danced in king Midas' castle, posing as a real princess. Her feet moved gracefully and her lips curled into a soft smile, because she knew she was doing this too damn well for someone who had lived in a world without magic twenty eight years. This wasn't one of the best moments in her life, but it was new. Fresh. Incredible. And although the ghost of the Boston Emma Swan was screaming at her to back away and get the hell out of this castle, although it should have felt wrong in so many ways, it felt too good for the low expectations she had. She truly didn't know why instead of being disappointed she was blissful. Perhaps it really was in her genes- her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming after all.

Or perhaps it was Hook's arms around her.

He had told her about his feelings for her and she had rejected him too many times. They had disliked each other since day one, until Hook started feeling something for Emma, and now there was nothing stopping him from making her his girlfriend, even though she didn't seem just as eager as he was. When he finally got her to kiss him, she'd called it a one-time thing. When it looked like he was winning her heart, Neal turned out to be alive. Emma kept finding excuses to reject him, but she was so busy doing this that she failed to see that he had changed since they climbed that beanstalk.

And now new-Captain-Hook was dancing with her. (Emma hadn't let that sink in: she had made the Captain Hook fall in love and find bliss at last.) Their movements were perfect and the smiles on their faces helped them look like a prince and a princess who were completely in love with each other.

What about Mary Margaret? She wondered to herself. Her mother had to steal that ring. Otherwise, Mary Margaret would never find true love and neither Emma, Henry or his baby uncle would have ever been born.

She couldn't worry, though. Emma didn't only have to look the part (which was a happy, beautiful princess), she also had to let go once and for all. Screw the real world, she thought to herself as she realized that Hook was dancing with her like nothing mattered anymore and it was just them, not Prince Charles and Princess Leia, just Killian Jones and Emma Swan having the time of their lives.

And as weird as it was, she actually really liked that.