You & me... Neverland (SWANQUEEN)

Chapter 9

"Air Regina, the most effective airline" Hook seems like an advertisement as he jiggles himself out of the last remains of purple smoke that are still covering him. "You are foolproof" Murmurs smiling crookedly at the Queen.

"Thank you" Regina grumbles as she looks around her. With different variation of surprise everyone looks at each other and stare at the ship's deck in which Regina had made them apparate. Emma is the only one who doesn't count her limbs nor looks around her fascinated. Her interest lays on the Evil Queen who had just poofed seven adults and an asleep child even if her shoulder is still wounded. The dark grey circles under those chocolate eyes are more pronounced than before and she doesn't have a good color on her cheeks.

"I just miss my beautiful boats..." Hook exclaims, nostalgic, as he looks at the beach. Regina seethed and moved her hands towards them. Obediently, they start plowing through the water as if they were motorized. "Thank you your majesty"

"I won't put them up here"

"Of course" Nods, almost doing a courtesy, as happy as a little kid.

Emma breathes deeply. Hook doesn't know the magic the mayor is wasting nor how that affects her so is not fair to imagine the pirate transforming himself into a slug. Is Regina's fault for not being honest. Looks like is being too much asking the proud obstinate woman to be honest if that implies looking vulnerable. Emma takes a deep breath once again and tries for Regina to leave her mind for a second. Since Henry's well-being is not in one of her top-preoccupations the mayor has much more space to be there and is frustrating.

David and Hook take care of the boats and Regina reclines herself against the gunwale impatiently.

"We throw the bean now?" She asks once the knots securing the boats are made.

"I'm afraid to say no, your majesty" Hook closes and opens his hand, number after having had to lift the two little boats to the ship. "Neverland has one of the strangest fauna I ever had seen and it spreads all over the island and around it"

"Sum up"

"The vortex will drag the ship and everything around it. I don't want to risk it and carry with us a creature of this land to Storybrooke, it could be a disaster"

"What do you suggest?" Regina's growl is so dark that Hook shudders at it. He doesn't understand why the Queen is angry with him, he didn't come up with the rules after all.

"A day, we will have put enough distance between the island and ourselves"

Regina doesn't answer, she only stares at him before turning to look at the sea that can be seen beyond the ship. Hook feels as if he had been pardoned, of what he isn't very sure.

"We shouldn't delay it longer" Emma proposes, witness of how Regina has almost liquefied Hook with a glance "We should put Henry to rest and head back home" She tastes the words, feeling them strange. Truthfully, she doesn't believe that they are going back home. Everyone talks about Storybrooke but now the city sounds more like a simple stop in the trip and not like the ending of it.

None of her comrades have said it with those same words, she doesn't know that's because of her or because the lack of habit. However, the way they have to talk about Maine leaves the city like an inn where they can rest and keep forward. Emma can't avoid the vertigo that has settled itself on her chest. Is not an unpleasant sensation, more like a daunting one. How linked she is to the place she was born? How is that she can think on living in a place in where she only lived for a few minutes and not feel afraid?

Her father, carrying Henry, walks pass her and makes her return back to the present. She leaves her thoughts behind and walks pass David towards the dorm room. The wound of the ship creaks when they descend the stairs and creaks once again when a third set of footsteps follow them. Emma turns because of that and gapes. Neal walks towards them and joins the retinue with a pleasant "I will walk with you"