Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC.

So I've been writing this on and off for like... ages. It started out as a oneshot about Snow and Charming attending Abigail and Frederick's wedding, and then it morphed into this somehow. I still might revisit that original idea though... I dunno...

Anyway.

Snow White and Prince Charming had been riding all night to get back to their camp from Midas' kingdom. They had, through a great deal of planning, attended Abigail and Frederick's wedding without Regina or George finding out about it. At least until they were on their way back.

They were ambushed by Regina's men on the road and had taken to the forest to lose them. Lancelot had met them near the camp to inform them the sentries had seen them and the border guard had dispatched their pursuers, and they spent the rest of the ride to the camp chatting idly about how lovely the wedding was.

When they finally reached the camp, they were both tired. It was the middle of the night and they'd been chased by the Queen's army, so no one would be surprised if they appeared exhausted. No one would notice if Snow were to stumble a bit as they walked through the camp.

No one but Prince Charming.

Charming stopped dead in his tracks, staring at Snow. "What's wrong?"

Snow frowned at him, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. Lancelot stopped and looked between the two of them, concerned.

Charming turned to face her fully. "You just stumbled," he pointed out.

Snow shrugged, glancing away. "I tripped," she muttered.

Charming's frown deepened. "You really expect me to believe you tripped?" he asked. "You, who knows every rock and twig in this whole forest?"

He didn't give her a chance to respond. He stepped around to her right side and tugged the long skirts of her jacket aside to reveal her breeches. On the outside of her right leg, just above her knee, was a horizontal tear in the fabric surrounded by a slowly spreading red stain.

"Snow, you're hurt," Charming blurted, immediately falling to his knees and grabbing her leg to take a closer look at the injury. She gasped in pain and Charming quickly let go of her leg. She blushed in embarrassment as Charming leaned in to look closer at the wound without touching her.

"It's nothing," she insisted hurriedly. "I was just nicked by a crossbow bolt, that's all."

"Nicked?" Charming shot back as he studied the cut. "Snow, you need to have this looked at."

"Please, Charming, it's not that bad," Snow sighed.

Charming ignored her. He stood back up and looked at Lancelot. "Where's Doc?" he asked grimly.

Lancelot shook his head. "The dwarves are still away negotiating with the fairies," he replied. "We have two other medics, but they're both attending to the critically wounded."

Charming exhaled heavily in frustration and Snow rolled her eyes. "It's not that bad," she said. "I'll just wash it and-"

She stopped, cursing in pain as she took a step forward. Charming started to look frantic.

"What about Granny?" he asked.

Lancelot shook his head again. "Full moon," he said simply. "She's out with Red."

Charming thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll take care of it," he decided.

"Charming, please," Snow began, irritated, but he just gave her a look and she fell silent with another roll of her eyes. As such, she didn't notice him slip behind her and scoop her into his arms bridal style, carefully keeping her right leg facing away from him and avoiding touching the blood stained section of her breeches. She let out a yelp of surprise, which he ignored, and grabbed him around the neck to steady herself. He turned toward Lancelot, who was clearly trying not to laugh.

"I'm taking her to her tent to clean her up," Charming said seriously, and Snow could only blush and try not to meet Lancelot's eyes. "Could you-"

"I'll have hot water and clean linens sent ahead of you," Lancelot cut in, turning and gesturing for a passing squire.

"Thank you, Lancelot," Charming smiled.

"Kill me now, Lancelot," Snow sighed.

"Oh don't be so dramatic," Charming admonished as he started toward the tents, walking slowly so he wouldn't jostle her.

"I'm the one being dramatic?" Snow laughed incredulously. "You're the one acting like my leg is about to fall off. It's just scratch, Charming."

"It's a cut, and it's deep," Charming replied patiently, nodding at a pair of guards that openly stared as they passed. Snow blushed, mortified, and buried her face in Charming's shoulder. "And beside that, we know our enemies have poisoned their arrows before."

Snow lifted her head from his shoulder. He wasn't looking at her, just focusing on where he was stepping so he wouldn't stumble. But this close, she could see the fear in his eyes that she hadn't noticed before. A lump formed in her throat. He was afraid he would lose her the way he had lost his mother.

"David," she whispered softly, and he met her eyes with a smile.

"Shh," he hushed her gently and kissed her forehead. "James, remember?"

Snow didn't think she had ever loved anyone or anything as much as she loved him in that moment.

So she nodded and laid her head on his shoulder, and she didn't make another sound the rest of the way to the tent. As promised, a pail of hot water and a pile of clean white bandages were waiting for them just inside Snow's tent. The lanterns were already lit as well, filling the small space with warm yellow light. Charming sat Snow gently on her trunk, the only item in the tent besides the pile of blankets and pillows that she slept in.

Charming stood up straight and gave her a long look with his hands on his hips. She just sat there on the trunk, leaning back a bit on her hands and holding his gaze innocently. He sighed and shook his head.

"Settle in, I'll be right back," he said quietly, and he left the tent.

Only then did Snow allow herself to curse in pain. Her leg was bothering her much more than she wanted him to think. She clenched her jaw and took off her gloves and jacket, leaving her in a plain white blouse. She stared moodily at her boots, knowing it would be no easy task to get the right one off. She kicked off her left boot and tried to kick off her right, thinking doing so quickly would lessen the pain. She was wrong. Her leg seared with pain, and even with her teeth clenched she still let out a string of extremely unladylike language.

She took a few long breaths to try to calm herself, leaning back on her hands again and stretching her legs out in front of her with a grimace. It was quiet in her tent, somewhat removed from the noise of the main camp. The only other tents clustered near hers belonged to Granny and Red, Lancelot, the dwarves, and Charming. Granny was always careful to place her tent between Snow's and Charming's, of course, because as far as anyone knew they were still unwed.

Snow and Charming had elected not to tell anyone about their impromptu wedding, so no one was aware of their impromptu wedding night, either. Nor was anyone aware of the nights they had spent together afterward, made possible by Snow's nearly supernatural ability to move silently in the woods and Charming's intimate knowledge of the guard schedule. Plus they'd had a whole weekend alone together for Abigail's wedding, as they had traveled without guards to avoid drawing the attention of their enemies.

So really, Granny's tent placement was a bit superfluous at this point. But they weren't about to tell her that.

"Snow?"

Snow opened her eyes as Charming walked back into the tent and closed the flap behind him. She noticed he had deposited his gloves and his heavy traveling cloak in his own tent, but she knew that wasn't the only reason he'd left. He had scouted around all of their tents to make sure they were alone and safe. He always did that when they returned to camp, even if there were guards in plain sight. Her heart fluttered a bit at the thought. He always wanted her to feel safe, even though they both knew they weren't.

"All quiet?" Snow asked him with a fond smile. He just nodded silently as he knelt down in front of her, his eyes glued to the bloodstain above her knee.

"You don't feel faint or sick or anything?" he asked, his voice quiet but urgent.

"No," Snow said quickly, pouring as much reassurance as she could into that single syllable. "But I will need some help getting my pants off."

His eyes snapped up to hers and she grinned mischievously at the way he blushed. He rolled his eyes, exasperated, but he couldn't quite keep himself from smiling.

"Snow," he said quietly, shaking his head again. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Snow leaned forward and took his face in her hands, thumbs brushing his cheeks as she tilted his head up to meet her eyes. She held his gaze carefully.

"It's just a cut, David," she whispered. "I haven't been poisoned. We can just clean it and bandage it and I'll be fine."

Charming sighed and reached up to take her hands in his. "You know I can't resist you when you call me David," he muttered, drawing her hands to his lips and placing feathery kisses on her knuckles.

Snow blushed at the intimate gesture. It was the little things she was still getting used to, quiet words and gentle touches that gave her pause. She had been alone in the forest for so long, it was the smallest things that hit her deep in her carefully guarded heart.

She cleared her throat, hoping he wouldn't notice her blushing. "So, are you going to get these pants off or what?" she asked lowly, and he burst out laughing. She grinned at the sound.

"Alright, alright," he acquiesced at last. "Up, please."

Snow lifted herself up on her hands and Charming reached for the waistband of her breeches. With a few deft movements he unlaced her pants and slid them down enough for her to lower herself back onto the trunk. She shivered a bit, the wooden lid of the trunk cold beneath her now-exposed undergarments.

"I find it a bit funny that you blush when I kiss your hands," Charming remarked as he tugged her breeches down toward her knees, revealing the pale skin of her thighs as he went. "But here I am, pulling your pants off, and you barely bat an eye."

Snow shrugged. "I'm a difficult woman to figure out," she said airily.

Charming laughed a bit, but then he met her eyes seriously. "This part is going to hurt," he said quietly. "You ready?"

Snow nodded shortly and clenched her jaw. Charming held her gaze for a moment, then quickly slid her breeches over her injury and down past her knees. Snow inhaled sharply through gritted teeth as Charming carefully slid her breeches the rest of the way off.

"You okay?" he asked gently.

Snow nodded, but she didn't quite trust herself to speak as her leg stung with pain. Charming reached for the water and the linens without pause. He could see she was in pain, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. He dunked some of the cloth in the water and wrung it out while Snow tried to prepare herself. This wasn't the first time she'd been wounded, and it wouldn't be the last, but she knew this part was the worst.

But her thoughts were drawn away when Charming suddenly grabbed her hand and placed it on his shoulder. She met his eyes, confused.

"I have to clean it," he said calmly, though she could hear the strain in his voice. The idea of causing her pain, even it if was necessary, was a bitter prospect for him. He took her other hand and placed in on his other shoulder as he spoke. "It's going to hurt. Squeeze as hard as you have to, okay?"

Snow smiled gratefully and nodded. Gods, she adored him. And sitting here, alone in her tent with him in nothing but her undergarments and a blouse… well, it gave her other thoughts to focus on beside her bleeding leg.

Again her thoughts were forced away, however, when he laid the warm cloth on the wound. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and sank her teeth into her lower lip to keep from cursing again. She screwed her eyes shut as he worked, deciding that getting hit by the crossbow bolt would have been less painful than this. But the pain lessened slightly when she realized he was speaking.

"Try to focus on my voice, okay?" he whispered, his voice low and reassuring. "Do you remember the first moment our eyes met? I know it's kind of sentimental… especially considering you were robbing me at the time… but I remember that moment like no other moment in my life." He paused to dip the cloth back in the water and Snow had a chance to breathe. He met her eyes briefly, as if asking permission to continue, and she just loved him so much the pain didn't matter anymore, so she nodded. She clutched his shoulders again as he continued, so he kept speaking. "I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the exact moment I started falling in love with you. I had knocked you from your horse and had you pinned to the ground, and all of a sudden your hood fell back, and the first thing I saw was your eyes. Those beautiful green eyes. And it was like time stopped."

He finally finished cleaning and patted her leg dry with another cloth. Snow loosened her grip on his shoulders and opened her eyes, but just barely.

"I remember," she gasped, trying to focus on him, his eyes, his voice, his touch, anything but the pain. "I remember it too." He smiled at her, and she glanced down at her leg. The sight surprised her and she glanced away, wincing. "It looks a lot worse than I thought it would."

"Not to say I told you so…" Charming began in a somewhat sing-song tone, and Snow glared at him. He just gave her a smile. "Alright time to wrap it up. Just keep listening to my voice, okay?"

Snow nodded and closed her eyes again, preparing herself to block out everything but his voice. Just his voice. The voice she loved more than any other sound in the world. But then he started wrapping the clean bandages around her leg and oh damn that hurt.

"I wrote it off as surprise later, the moment that time slowed down and all I could see was your eyes," Charming continued gently. Snow knew her grip on his shoulders must be painful, but she couldn't hear it in his voice. "I had just been surprised you were a woman. Plus you hit me with a rock, so brain damage wasn't out of the question." Snow let out a pained laugh. "But I threw all my efforts into finding you, finding out who you were. And I wouldn't admit it to myself, but I wanted to know you. I wanted to be close to you. I wanted to find you. And then after our little adventure with the trolls, I just wanted. I wanted you so badly. I wanted you to be mine."

Charming fell silent, and Snow cautiously opened her eyes. He was finished, her leg perfectly wrapped. His hands were resting lightly on her bare knees, waiting patiently for her pain to pass. She took a few deep breaths, releasing his shoulders from her iron grip so she could slide her hands to the back of his neck and lean her forehead against his. She closed her eyes, still breathing deeply, and let herself relax.

"You okay?" Charming whispered.

Snow smiled, but she didn't open her eyes. "Thanks to you, yes," she whispered back. "And I am, by the way."

She finally opened her eyes to meet his, his expression curious but confused as she sat up and smiled at him.

"You are what?" he asked.

"Yours," she replied simply. "And you're mine, too."

She kissed him hard before he could respond, parting her lips and coaxing him closer as the adrenaline in her veins finally started to taper off. The kiss slowed, going from urgent to leisurely as Snow began to realize she was exhausted. Charming felt the change before she even noticed it, drawing away from her and eliciting a groan of protest that made him smile.

"Let's put you to bed," he said quietly, and he picked her up in his arms again before she could complain. Even in her current state, exhausted and half-delirious with pain, she felt her skin tingling where he held her bare legs. He laid her gently in the tangle of blankets she used as a bed and stayed crouching beside her as she settled. "Is there anything I can get you? Anything you need?"

Snow thought a moment, gazing at him through lowered eyelashes. "I need you to sleep with me tonight," she said at length.

Charming sighed as if he had expected that to be her answer. "You're hurt, Snow," he said patiently. "You need sleep. Even if you are already half-naked and I am extremely tempted to take advantage of that."

Snow gave him a cheeky smile. "I meant just sleep, Charming," she teased. "Honestly, what kind of girl do you think I am?"

Charming rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "I think you're my wife," he replied as he put out the lanterns, plunging the tent into cool darkness. By the time Snow's eyes adjusted to the dark, Charming was sitting beside her, pulling off his boots and jacket. She grinned.

"Wait," she said quickly before he lied down. He gave her a look. "Take your shirt off."

Charming huffed at her. "Snow…"

"Oh come on, I'm half-naked, so should you be," she pouted.

With a final roll of his eyes, he removed his shirt and lied down beside her. She immediately cuddled up to him, running her hands idly over his bare chest and burying her face in the space between his neck and shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her carefully and let out a long, slow breath. He always did that before he went to sleep. Like he was sighing the whole day away to make room for the next one.

"I love you," Snow sighed, allowing her eyes to close and the tension to leave her body as she relaxed into his embrace. She felt him laugh lightly and kiss the top of her head.

"And I love you," he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Her leg throbbed dully, but she barely noticed it anymore. She was too busy trying to grasp how much she loved this man. Too much to put into words, too much to fully comprehend. And she couldn't help feeling he was thinking the exact same thing as she drifted off to sleep.