Title: Once Upon a Kiss

Fandom: McKono / H50

Disclaimer : H50 is the property of CBS etc. & created by Leonard Freeman

Rating : T for now but might go up later

Spoilers : None (so far)

Summary : A (not so) fairy tale-like take on McKono.

AN: I had started a darker H50 fic but keep having second thoughts about it and as I was writing that the idea for this one suddenly popped up. It's semi AU I guess, as it takes some liberties about how they first meet. Writing codes take precedence over writing fics these days so apologies in advance for slow updates - but this will only be a couple of chapters long and I will try my very best to finish this as quickly as possible (if muses allow) – and no, I have not abandoned my two other ongoing fics (for different fandoms) just that the muses for those are more flighty.

Once upon a time in a (pineapple-infested) land far away, there lived a princess who loved to take magical carpet rides.

Well, not really – more like surfboard rides. But then again, she's not really a princess, nor a damsel in distress. But that's okay because this is not a fairytale.

She doesn't believe in fairytales.

But her story does start with a kiss...

Prologue: The enchantment

The first time she sees him, he's in a bar. She is months shy of legal but she manages to get in without being carded. She knows it's foolish to go alone in a bar much less one that is miles away from home but all her friends are in school and it's a week night and she just wants to celebrate her good fortune in landing a major pro surfing contract without people recognizing and telling on her.

By the time she realizes she might be in trouble, she finds she's way too unsteady on her feet and she bumps into someone on her way to the bathroom. She briefly registers his concern for her wellbeing before all the drinks she's consumed make a return trip back up her throat so she is forced to stumble quickly away and proceed to get sick inside a private stall instead of on the hallway. While her upchucking is gross and quite disgusting, it does make her feel a little bit better afterwards. She wishes for mouthwash but it's her fault she's in this mess so she makes do by gargling with water from the bathroom tap (keeping her fingers crossed that it won't make her even more sick).

She is surprised to find the same guy she bumped into earlier still loitering in the hallway and she realizes he's been waiting for her when he immediately asks if she's okay. She just nods because despite her foolishness in actually coming here alone, she at least knows enough not to talk to strangers (no matter how attractive they are), and makes her way to the bar's exit. She is considering calling her cousin to pick her up when he sidles up next to her and offers her a ride.

She is about to refuse when he smiles at her and she finds herself having an OMG moment because his level of attractiveness shoots up to 20 on a scale of 1 to 10. And she tells herself it's because she's still a little bit intoxicated that she accepts his offer and not because his smile just about makes her want to throw herself at him, if you know, she'd been the type to do so – which she's not (more's the pity, the voice in her head tells her). In her (added) defense, she's been around law enforcement types all her life (one might say it's the 'family business') that she can almost smell them a mile away. She thinks he's not exactly law enforcement but he's close enough as his neat appearance, crew cut and bearing screams soldier instead. But she still makes a production of calling her friend Kelly (to tell her she's on her way) in front of him so he knows that someone will be out looking for her just in case her instincts are wrong and he is in fact some psycho on the loose, even if he does offer her his ID, which she ignores because she doesn't want to be tempted to track him down later on.

They don't talk at all after she tells him where to drop her off and she's surprised at how comfortable the silence between them is. She must have drifted off because the next thing she knows they're in front of Kelly's house. She thanks him and is about to get out of the car when she impulsively turns back and gives him a kiss. But what's meant to just be a peck suddenly morphs into something else because the minute their lips touch she feels electricity shoot up her spine and she gasps and it's all the invitation he needs because his tongue is suddenly in her mouth and she is letting him.

He tastes of toothpaste and mint and she has a brief moment of lucidity as she wonders if he can taste that lingering 'after-puke' in her mouth and she thinks maybe she should feel mortified. But then he makes a hum of pleasure and she forgets everything – and not even the thought that they might be giving Kelly's neighbors a show (if you know, they're still awake at this hour) or that she really doesn't know him, is enough to make her stop. And it's only when breathing becomes imperative that they finally break apart.

She stares at him in confusion for a spell and registers an equally flustered look on his face before she finally snaps out of it. He tries to speak but before the words can come she is scrambling to get out of the car because she knows that if he asks she is likely to forget that she's a good girl after all and you know, just drive with him to wherever. It is to his added credit that he doesn't stop her and then she's running to Kelly's front door like a bat out of hell and not looking back for fear of changing her mind because losing one's virginity to some hot stranger is the kind of cliché she doesn't want to be part of. And when Kelly opens the door as soon as she knocks she tells herself she is grateful because then she is not tempted to go back out and at least ask for his name or you know, memorize his plate number so she can do the very thing she had told herself earlier she shouldn't - and that is to track him down later on.

Of course she lives to regret this because she has taken to comparing all other kisses with that fateful one and she finds all of them falling short. She thinks perhaps she's idealized the whole thing in her mind – like he's some prince who's awakened her (or perhaps enchanted her would be more accurate) with a kiss.

But then again, she doesn't really believe in fairytales.

And this is not a fairytale.