Just a little fluffy ficlet for lenfaz who needed a cheer-up.
"Off to bed we go," Emma said firmly and mentally braced herself for the usual debate. And, as foreseen, the blonde little girl's face crunched in whiny disgust.
"Mo-hom!" she protested and furrowed her eyebrows in her best attempt to look grimly. Her mother bit back a grin; even for a six-year-old she could produce quite the impressive death stare. Okay, she admitted to herself that she was secretly proud. A little.
"Come on, quack," Killian came to her help, and Emma rolled her eyes, because she could foresee her daughter's reaction to that, too. She hadn't been allowed to call her daughter "baby" since the day the little Evil Queen had turned five. But of course daddy was allowed to call her by the silliest nicknames, and the little shrew was even proud of it.
In fact, the girl giggled. "Okaaaaaay," she gave up without so much as the tiniest fight and wiggled her expressive eyebrows at her father. "Lie down with me, daddy?"
Killian joined the game and raised his eyebrow at her. "But only for five minutes."
The little pirate princess squealed with delight and grabbed her father's hook, pulling him with her. "To the bunks, bilge rats!" she yelled.
"Killian, you're spoiling her," Emma grumbled.
He tilted his head in an apologetic shrug. "Only five minutes, love," he repeated. Emma rolled her eyes.
When he hadn't returned after twenty minutes, she went looking for her missing husband and found him crumpled in their daughter's bed in what looked like a very uncomfortable position; both were sound asleep. The little girl was curled up in his right arm while his left with the hook was dangling outside the bed.
Emma shook her head and smiled fondly. "Bilge rats," she murmured.