"You are officially the mother of a King," Killian said, leaning in to nuzzle his wife's ear. "How are you feeling, love?"

"Exhausted," she said, leaning into his shoulder. "I can't believe we pulled it off."

"If it hadn't been for the magical assistance of you, Regina, and Rumplestiltskin, you'd have never gotten it all done in time," Killian pointed out. "And of course, your mother's excellent planning helped it all go smoothly." He reached around her to a passing footman, and grabbed two goblets of wine off the man's tray.

Emma gratefully took the goblet. "He looks good, doesn't he?"

Killian nodded, smiling over the rim of his cup. "He does indeed. The crown suits him."

"I think Neal will split in half if he gets any prouder. And it looks like Aibelle has her happy ending, too," Emma replied, gesturing to the couple as they waltzed across the dance floor.

"It's definitely all come full circle," Killian agreed. "Everyone's gotten their happy ending."

Killian looked down as he felt a tug at the bottom of his jacket. Rood and Franjean, swaying slightly on their feet after a night full of festivity, waved their arms for attention.

"Hey!" Franjean shouted. "Biglings! We need to talk to you!"

"Hold on," Killian said, passing his glass to Emma so that he could squat down and offer his hand as a platform. The brownies climbed aboard, and he straightened, lifting them up to the mantle of the nearby fireplace until they were eye-level.

"What can we do for you?" Emma asked.

"The way I see it," Franjean continued. "You owe us. We found the ugly witch's tapestry, and you would have all been stuffed into it if we hadn't saved the day!"

"Debatable," Killian countered. "Still, we do owe you a debt of gratitude. Your service was indeed fortuitous."

"He's using big words again," Rood sighed. "I love how he does that..."

"Eeediot!" Franjean smacked at him. "We are doing business! Pay attention!"

"You were saying?" Emma prompted.

"We think we will offer you a business proposition: you supply us with happy water, and we will sell it."

Emma's brow wrinkled. "How does that benefit us, exactly?"

"Wait - hear them out," Killian said. "If we supply you with rum and you're selling it, you'll need to travel around to do so, correct?"

"Well, how do you expect us to sell it?" Franjean scoffed. "Set up a shop? Of course we travel! We are brownies!"

"Done." Killian agreed immediately. "I'll supply you with a cask of rum every other fortnight, you sell it, and we all win."

"We begin tomorrow!" Franjean said, extending his hand - which Killian grasped between his fingers to shake. "First thing in the -"

He was interrupted by Rood, throwing himself forward and hugging Killian's thumb with his whole body.

"Don't make me leave you!" he implored. "We were meant to be together!"

"Fool!" Franjean said, yanking his friend off of Killian's hand. "Do you want to blow the whole deal? Get off!"

"We could be so good together!" Rood insisted.

"Hey!" Emma said, biting her lip to keep back a smile. "Back off. He's spoken for."

"If you change your mind about that..." Franjean looked up at Emma, waggling his brows.

"Hey!" Rood said, smacking Franjean back. "Who do you think you are? Leave her alone!"

"Why don't both of you come with me," Meriel said, stepping between her parents to lift the Brownies up before she placed them in the basket on her arm. "I'm taking some pie to my brother, and you can come along."

"Thank you, Meriel," Emma said, putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder. She paused to look around. "Where is your brother, anyway?"

"He went to the ship."

"Finn is on the ship?" Killian asked, raising a brow. "Unsupervised?"

Meriel shrugged. "He wanted someplace to launch the fireworks from."

"The fireworks?" Emma's voice raised in alarm but Killian was already in motion. "Meriel, don't let him shout too much," Emma cautioned. "Last time he lost his voice entirely!"

###

Killian closed the door and leaned against it. "Alone at last," he sighed, bending over to take off his boots. "I thought that party would never end."

"You have to admit, my mom and Regina got their money's worth."

"It's two o'clock in the bloody morning," Killian complained. "And we've been up since the crack of dawn hanging bunting and strewing flowers about."

Emma stepped over and put a hand against his face. "Poor baby. Guess I'd better put you to bed."

He leaned down to nuzzle her neck. "My thoughts exactly."

Emma smiled, tilting her head to give him better access. "You're not too tired for this?"

"I'd have to be dead to be too tired for this," he assured her, as his fingers nimbly unfastened the back of her dress.

"Hmmm," she said. "What if I'm too tired?"

"I'll wake you up," he said, slipping the dress off her shoulders as she unfastened his belt and breeches. "And I promise you'll sleep like the dead afterward."

Emma gave a laugh as he maneuvered her over to the bed, pushing her down. It wasn't long before the clothing was gone and all semblance of fatigue was forgotten. His hands played across her and she touched him, the light dancing across the planes of his chest and the hollows along his hipbones. She found her fingers trailing after it, tracing its shadows with her hands and lips and tongue.

Killian's hands fisted in her hair as she tormented him, drawing him into her mouth deeply and stroking him with her tongue and fingers before he pulled her beneath him, his mouth tearing at her breasts and belly with savage intent. He pushed her legs apart, holding her down as he repaid her in kind, torturing her with flicks of his tongue and the suction of his lips, pulling sounds from deep in her throat as her belly tightened and her heels dug into the mattress beneath her.

She burst around him just as he slid into her, driving deeply and riding her hard. Emma gave a convulsive shudder as Killian pinned her down, whimpering as he ground himself harder into her, wringing every ounce of sensation out of her, then backing off, gentling his pace and touching and kissing her softly until she was moaning and pulling him in more insistently.

They rolled, and Emma ended up on top, impaling herself slowly as her breath let out in a rush. Killian's jaw tightened as he arched up into her, demanding that she meet his pace, and Emma tightened her thighs around him and rode him hard, taking them both over the edge.

The room echoed with the sound of their breath, and Killian pulled her in to face him, draping a lazy hand over her hip, where his thumb stroked back and forth.

"That," he said, kissing the tip of her nose, "Is all the adventure I'll ever need."

"I'd be very happy to limit our adventures to right here," Emma agreed.

Killian arched a brow. "I didn't say we had to limit ourselves to bed, love. I'm happy to have this sort of adventure just about anywhere."

"We'll work on that first thing in the morning," she said. Then she gave a groan.

"What's the matter?"

"I promised my mom and Regina we'd start on the wedding plans tomorrow."

"What a pity," Killian said, barely suppressing a grin. "I promised your father, Neal and Robin that we'd go fishing."

"When did you set that up?"

"Your father asked me shortly after your mother started talking about the wedding."

"Not fair."

"If you expect any of us to retain our sanity, it's best to let the men have a day of frivolity," Killian advised. He gave her another kiss. "I promise, I'll make it up to you."

"Mmmm." She kissed him back. "You are awfully good at making up."

"He's dreamy, isn't he?"

Emma's squeaked, yanking the covers up as Killian sat up in bed. Rood waved at him, smiling from his vantage point on the windowsill.

"Bloody hell!" Killian snarled, rolling to his feet.

"I'm going!" Rood shouted. "Goodnight Killian!"

"Get out!"

Rood quickly hopped down, and ran for the balcony, where he scrambled down a vine.

"Sweet dreams..." His voice called out as Killian slammed the balcony doors.

"Now, where were we?" Killian asked.

"You have a beautiful backside for a bigling!" Rood's voice carried faintly through the doors.

Emma pulled the covers up to cover her mouth so her husband wouldn't see her laughing. His thunderous expression made it clear that he knew she was anyway.

"He's right, you know," she finally managed. "I've been thinking we need to replace that tapestry in the main hall. Maybe we could commission one of that beautiful backside."

Killian pulled the covers back and slid in next to her. "I daresay Rood would indenture himself for the next twenty years to weave it thread by thread."

Emma snuggled in, putting her head down on Killian's chest. "Well, since he's leaving in the morning, maybe we'd better just commission a local artist to do one of the whole family."

"You think we can get Finn to stand still long enough? And will we make room for Meriel's imaginary friend?"

Emma chuckled. "They're a pair, aren't they?"

"So are we, love," Killian replied, kissing her forehead. "So are we."

Thank you, Readers, for coming with me on another adventure - and thank you SO much for your patience with my tardy updates! This professional writing stuff is very time-consuming but oh-so-worth it. I hope to have another fic up sometime over the summer - not sure what I'm doing just yet, but keep a weathered eye on that horizon!