· after all of my running ; emma & neal
They had their routine, usually they had breakfast at their apartment but once in a while she would treat them to breakfast at the small coffee shop nearby. The food was pretty good, though she always had this nagging feeling that she had better somewhere. But she usually brushed it away, focusing on the fact that Henry seemed to enjoy his pancakes or whatever he chose that morning. He was telling her about this school project he was kind of excited about, and how he needed to spend the afternoon at a friend’s house, which she understood. She had met most of his friends that he had made since their arrival in New York and they were a good group of kids. The type that she wanted around her kid, no one gave her that bad kid vibe which was good. She finished off her breakfast while Henry went on about his project, and she smiled as she watched him. It really was them against the world most of the time, but she was glad that Henry was happy here. Maybe this was the place they’d stay in longer than a year.
Once he finished his breakfast, she checked her watch and made a point that he was going to be late to his bus. He nodded, hugging her quickly before racing out of the coffee shop. They chose this coffee shop because of the closeness of Henry’s bus stop, and she could still keep an eye on him even if she didn’t walk him to the bus anymore. Even though a part of her always wanted to, and she did sometimes, but usually she tried to stay back. After all the kid was thirteen, he was hitting that age where it wasn’t cool to be so close to your mom. She polished off her second cup of coffee, and paid the bill checking her phone to see if she had anything to work on. Nothing but the cases she already had been working, so she pocketed the device before she spotted him. She found herself freezing, no, she was imagining things. It couldn’t be, not Neal. Not now. She shook her head, maybe she was just imagining things. One last glance in his direction and she made her way to the exit, maybe he hadn’t noticed her.
In the time that had passed since they had said their goodbyes to each other and Regina had cast a curse upon all of them -a curse that, sadly, had taken away the larger part of Emma’s memories-, Neal had often mused upon the possibility that she might still remember him. After all, Regina had specifically focused on her and Henry’s time in Storybrooke, and there was no doubt she hadn’t expected for Neal to find his way back to his little family, so why would she hide the truth about him being Henry’s father?
Oh, he didn’t doubt even for a second that, if anything, Emma would have nothing but bad memories of him as of now. They would have to start all over again, if he was going to get re-acquainted with her, and everything that had come to pass, including the long-winded search for their son, would have been lost in translation. He didn’t mind, however; even though it was a bitter pill to swallow, if he was going to make the decision to talk to her again, he would own up to his actions and tell her the truth about things. And then things would start all over again. Was it really such a good decision? They seemed so happy, then—
But good grief, he missed them.
It wasn’t until Emma finished off her drink and decided to ask for the bill that he found himself in the position of having to make a quick decision. Was he going to draw her attention, call her name, follow her? No, no, definitely no following. And just as he was having this very same inner discussion whilst glancing in Emma’s general direction, Emma’s eyes fell upon him as well. There was eye contact for the briefest of moments…but it was enough for him to make his decision.
“Emma…”
No, not like that. Act surprised. Pushing himself up from where he had been seated, he dragged his steps out towards her, not wanting to seem like he was in a hurry to follow after her, meanwhile trying his very best to push a somewhat surprised expression onto his features.
“Emma? What—what’re you doin’ here?”
Oh, nice opener. Because that wasn’t suspicious in the slightest.
(Source: magicaedestruit)
