happy endings | ouat (slow updates)

the thing you love the most

s01ep02 & s01ep03 - the thing you love the most & snow falls 

"I'm impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon on my cocoa, but I don't want or need gifts from you," Emma informed Graham sharply. He blinked, looking sleepily from the blonde with her eyebrows raised to the offending cup of hot chocolate.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, Emma, but I didn't send you that," he replied with a soft chuckle, taking a sip from his own coffee: loaded with an unhealthy amount of sugar, judging by the array of empty packets. She narrowed her eyes at him, but her instincts told her she still had yet to catch him in a lie.

"Well, who did? You're my only friend here," she grouched. The complimentary drink genuinely wound her up, like all the other inexplicable quirks of Storybrooke, only this was a case she intended to solve.

Graham shrugged. "You do seem to have made quite the impression on everybody."

Emma snorted at his sincerity. "Yourself included?" She almost wanted to see if he'd break their pattern in his answer.

"Actually... I'm your secret admirer," a small voice said sheepishly. Emma looked over and involuntarily smiled at the sight of Henry dressed in his stripy scarf and oversized raincoat. He grinned back at her, backpack held in one fist.

"Wait a second..." she said, at the same time as Graham jumped up and forcibly turned Henry around.

"You, young man," Graham said, his tone firm, "should be at school."

Henry pulled a face. "You guys can walk me to the bus stop?"

The town was hardly big enough for a school bus.

Emma agreed only after reading Graham's silent plea, remembering what both he and Regina had recounted about Henry skipping school.

The boy practically galloped down the street, his shoulder often bumping into Emma or Graham's arm. Along the way, he pointed out several more of Storybrooke's residents and named their fairytale counterparts: Marco the handyman was Geppetto and Mother Superior was the Blue Fairy from the very same story.

"So... you know everybody's fairytale counterpart, then?" Emma asked, guiltily hoping to find a flaw in Henry's logic.

Henry barely considered it. "Almost."

Emma smiled to herself. "If I'm meant to be the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, then who's Graham? My dashing animal sidekick?"

For the first time, Henry faltered. "I think that you should get to know him before I tell you that."

Frowning, Emma looked up to Graham, who shrugged before he spoke. Attempting to be at ease was not something he looked accustomed to. "I'm not allowed to know who I am either."

"Is he a villain?" Emma asked curiously, carefully watching her son's face, but it lit up at the sight of someone else.

"Hi, Ms. Blanchard!" Henry yelled enthusiastically, running from between the pair towards his teacher.

He had tricked her into walking him all the way to the school gates, and she'd been too wrapped up in his tall tale to notice.

Emma rolled her eyes as the boy was escorted inside with a smile. "Nice save."

She felt Graham sigh at her side. "Do I look like I'm a bad guy?"

Emma involuntarily checked him out. Graham had a friendly face and a wide smile, but it wasn't the charm of a villain, it was the nature of a good, reliable man. Accompanied with his police uniform (shirt, waistcoat, tie and big leather jacket) he looked more endearing than storybook menace.