"I still don't like it," David said from his big armchair in the living room as Emma and her mother Mary Margaret stood in the kitchen waiting for Emma's date to get there to pick up Emma.
"David, your daughter is 16 years old, she can go on a date if she chooses, she's not a princess locked in a tower," Mary Margaret said.
"I know dear, doesn't mean I still have to like the idea of our daughter dating," he said.
"Well get used to it," Emma said as someone knocked on the front door, she rushed to open it before either of her parents could to see Killian Jones standing on the porch with a somewhat nervous expression.
"Hi Emma," he said a nervous smile spreading over his face.
"Hey, you ready to go?" she asked grabbing her bag and a jacket, he nodded and Emma started walking out the door.
"Hold on young lady," David commanded rising from his chair and giving Killian a once over.
"Hello Mr. Nolan, nice to meet you," Killian said extending his hand for David to shake.
"That's Sheriff Nolan to you," David said and Emma saw Killian's smile falter slightly.
"Right, er sorry sir," Killian responded his hand scratching behind his ear, Emma saw her mom walking up to them and gave her a pleading look.
"Now what exactly are your intentions with my daughter?" David asked and Emma felt like she wanted to melt right through the floor and into nothingness.
"All right David lets lay off the third degree and let them go have fun," Mary Margaret said placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay fine, but have her back by midnight, and not a minute later."
"Okay bye, love you," Emma said grabbing Killian's hand and pulling him out the door, "I'm so sorry about my dad, I didn't know he'd go full sheriff on you," she said to Killian as they walked down the driveway.
"It's all right, he's your dad of course he's going to be protective," he said as he opened the door to his pick up truck and helping her into it. Emma looked back up at her house and saw her father standing in the living room window watching them, Emma waved to him and he jumped quickly pulling the curtain back and stepping away from the window.
"So what are we doing? Movie? Dinner?" she asked him when he was behind the drivers seat.
"Nope something much better," he said turning the key in the ignition and the truck roared to life. He drove them past Main Street, past the movie theater, out to the docks Emma turned to him and gave him a questioning look when he pulled into the empty parking lot and turned off the engine.
"We're here," he said brightly. Emma looked around at the empty docks and the surrounding darkness.
"This isn't the part of the date where you kill me and make me into fish chum is it?" she asked raising an eyebrow at him.
"No I usually save that for second dates, just trust me you'll love this," he said opening his door and jumping out of his seat Emma also hopped out still skeptical.
"Wow you're right I just love spending time in empty parking lots at night," she said sarcastically.
"Try something new and just trust me. Now look up," he said pointing up towards the sky. Emma looked up and felt herself gasp, the stars were shining so brightly and there were so many of them.
"It's amazing how just a few minutes outside of town can really make a difference in how you can see the stars isn't it?" he said smiling at her. He opened the flat bed of his truck and put down towels, blankets, and what looked like couch cushions that we stuffed into the back seat of the cab making a comfortable place to lay down and look at the stars. "Um make yourself comfortable, I'll grab the food," he said patting the back of the truck. Emma scrambled into the back and tried to comfortable despite the nervous butterflies flying around in her stomach. Killian hopped into the back carrying a small picnic basket.
"I hope you like grilled cheese and tomato soup," he said taking out the food and handing her a sandwich and pouring some soup into a small bowl from a thermos.
"I love grilled cheese," Emma said with a smile, "You brought quite a spread," she said gesturing to the picnic basket containing plates, silverware, an extra thermos, and some soda.
"Yeah well my brother Liam told me to go big or go home," he said shyly.
"I didn't know you had a brother."
"Yeah he's a few years older than me and he goes to West Point," Killian said before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"That's cool does he want to go into the military?" asked Emma dipping her grilled cheese into her soup before taking another bite.
"Yeah the Navy," Killian answered leaning back against the side of the truck bed. They settled into easy conversation as they ate, Killian surprising her with hot cocoa with cinnamon and admitting that he specifically asked her best friend Elsa what her favorite hot drink was for this date his cheeks turning a brilliant shade of pink. Emma sighed and settled back on her hands and looked up at the stars still in awe at how many she could see. She saw Killian clear the picnic basket out of the way and lay down on his back to look up at the stars.
"This is my favorite spot you know?" he said to her, "I like to come out here and think or just clear my mind, it's a good thinking spot."
"Yeah I can see why, it's so quiet out here," she said as she laid down next to him, careful to keep a couple of inches between them and gazing up at the night sky, "I wish I knew some constellations, I only really know Orion since that's the easiest to find," she sighed.
"I know a couple," he said pointing up at a couple of stars next to Orion, "See that long line of stars ending in a kind of hook shape? That's Scorpio. Over there is the Big Dipper."
"The one that looks like a big spoon?"
"Yes the Big Spoon," he laughed "If you look at the stars around it, you see that it makes up the constellation for Ursa Major, which is this big bear," he explained.
"How do you know so much about stars?" Emma asked.
"I'm in the Sailing Club at school and you can use the stars to navigate at night," Killian said.
"Couldn't you just use a GPS?" Emma joked.
"I suppose but then I wouldn't have this vast knowledge of the stars to empress you with," he said smiling at her.
"Here let me show you my personal favorite, you see that grouping that looks like a big cross?" he asked pointing to it.
"Yeah," Emma nodded.
"That's Cygnus, the swan," he said.
"Why is it your favorite?" she asked turning onto her side to look at him.
"Well I like the stories behind it, there's a bunch but I think my favorite is about Phaethon, he wanted to drive the sun chariot across the sky but he lost control and Zeus had to destroy the chariot and he ended up falling to earth and into a river. His brother Cycnus was so heartbroken that he dove into the river everyday to try to bring his brother's body up to the surface so that he could be given a proper burial and the gods were so touched that they turned him into a swan and made him a constellation," Killian explained, "I guess I just always identified with the brother, I would follow my brother to the ends of the earth if I could."
"Wow you guys are really close aren't you?" Emma asked.
"Yeah our dad walked out on us when I was around 4 or 5 and after our mom moved us out here so we could stay with her sister he became like a dad and brother to me," Killian said not meeting her eyes. Emma grabbed his hand and he looked up at her, blue eyes wide.
"You don't need to feel bad, everyone has family drama. I mean my step-grandmother pretty much hates my mom and they haven't spoken in years, not since my mom and dad's wedding," Emma said.
"Damn I'm sorry," he said lacing his fingers threw hers.
"It's okay, she doesn't sound like that nice of a person anyway," Emma shrugged "Enough about our families, you're in the Sailing Club? I though you were on the swim team with Ariel?"
"I can do both, can't I?" he answered smiling brightly, "And what about you Miss "I'm on the track team, boxing club, and head of the Princess Project?" you're going to make the rest of us look bad with all the things you do," he teased. Emma laughed and took another sip of cocoa and looked back at Killian who had not taken his eyes off of her.
"Emma can I ask you something?"
"I mean you already have, but sure."
"Can I kiss you?" he asked scratching behind his ear and not meeting her eyes. Emma was surprised and happy that he asked instead of just doing it and she smiled.
"Sure," she said and his head snapped up his blue eyes glinting with happiness, he started to lean in, his hand ghosting up her side to cradle her face before their lips touched. His lips were so soft and he started off gentle making sure to let her take the lead. Emma leaned into the kiss gripping onto the lapels of his jacket to bring him a little closer. She felt his arms gently circle her waist as he deepened the kiss and she ran her fingers through his thick black hair. He broke the kiss, looking deep into her green eyes and smiled softly.
"You're a good kisser," he said tentatively.
"Thanks you are too," she responded leaning her head onto his shoulder to look back up at the stars. He followed her actions and started pointing out more constellations but occasionally kissing the top of her head. Emma was extremely comfortable snuggled up against him listening to his accented voice tell her stories from lands far far away and she felt her eyelids begin to droop.
She jerked awake to find a sleeping Killian's arms wrapped around her and she smiled before realizing it might be getting late. She sat up and reached for her purse to pull out her phone and let out an audible gasp when she saw the time and the amount of missed calls from her house, she was definitely dead as soon as she got home.
"Killian! Killian we need to get back right now or else my dad may kill me and then and then me again," she said shaking his shoulder.
"What?" he mumbled blinking blearily at her. She shoved her phone in his face showing him that it was already 1:12 in the morning, "Oh shit," he said jumping up and gathering up the blankets, pillows and picnic basket to toss in the back seat, Emma helped gathering the rest and closing the truck bed and leaping into the passenger seat. Killian hurried into his seat and pulled out of the parking lot quickly getting to the main road, everything closed and dark as if to emphasize how late it was.
"Oh god I can't believe we fell asleep," Emma said massaging her temples.
"Yeah I didn't expect the back to be that comfy, listen if on the off chance your dad doesn't have me arrested do you want to go out again sometime?" Killian asked cocking an eyebrow at her.
"Let's just focus on getting me home and not killed and we can cross that bridge when we get to it," Emma said.
"Point taken," Killian said focusing on the road. He pulled up to her house and Emma leapt out of her seat and ran up to the front door. It opened before she even touched the doorknob and she was greeted with the very angry and worried face of her father.
"Hi Daddy," she smiled hoping to ease the tension.
"No that is not going to work this time young lady, you are in so much trouble now get in here," said David.
"Sheriff Nolan, if I may say something. This isn't Emma's fault, I lost track of time and forgot about her curfew, this is all my fault," Emma turned to see Killian standing on the porch.
"I don't even want to see your sorry face around here, don't even think about coming anywhere near my daughter!" David yelled at Killian, Emma saw him clench his jaw but he said nothing just stood his ground.
He looked over David's shoulder at Emma "Emma I had a great time tonight and I'll see you in school on Monday," he said before David angrily slammed the door in his face.
"Look Dad I'm sorry for being late but I'm here now and I'm fine," Emma started to say before David turned on her.
"That may be the case but I had no idea where you were for an hour and 38 minutes, you could have been dead in a ditch for all I knew Emma. What were you even doing that made you over and hour and a half late for curfew?"
"We were just star gazing and talking! Totally innocent!" Emma said starting to get annoyed.
"Right and I was born goddamned yesterday, star gazing that's a good one!" David thundered at her.
"I'm telling you the truth! Why can't you trust me? When have I ever given you a reason to not trust me?" Emma yelled back, "Nothing happened I swear!"
"Would you two stop yelling at each other? You are going to wake up Leo," Mary Margaret said sternly coming down the stairs and shrugging on a robe.
"Right sorry," David said to his wife before turning back to Emma "You go to your room, you are grounded until you are 28," he said to Emma. She rolled her eyes and stomped upstairs to her room before collapsing on her bed. She felt her phone vibrate and saw that Killian had texted her.
"Your dad seems pretty pissed you okay?"
Emma sighed before typing her response "Yeah I'll be fine, my mom was able to calm him down but I'm apparently grounded until in 28 years old."
He responded almost immediately "Well I can wait that long :) I'll call you when you're free again."
She smiled at her phone and pondered her response. "Good :)" she sent, before the door to her bedroom opened and her mom entered.
"So how was the date?" her mom asked sitting beside her on the bed.
"It was good until Dad slammed the door in his face," Emma said.
"Emma you know your dad has a right to be a little bit angry, he was driving himself crazy with worry when he couldn't get a hold of you, I know that doesn't excuse the way he yelled at you and Killian but I talked to him and he's cooling down in the kitchen," Mary Margaret said.
"We really were stargazing, he has a spot down at the docks where you can see them all really clearly and we fell asleep just talking," Emma said clutching her stuffed duckie to her chest.
"Sounds very romantic," Mary Margaret smiled.
"He even had a picnic basket with grilled cheese and tomato soup and hot cocoa," Emma added.
"With cinnamon?"
"Of course," Emma giggled a little and her mom smiled widely.
"That's great sweetie I'm glad you found someone who obviously cares about you, but you two did break curfew and you can't get off completely free. So you are grounded for 2 weeks and you can't use your phone or the non-academic side of the internet, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr, until you are finished with your homework every night," Mary Margaret said.
Emma considered the terms of her punishment for a moment "Okay deal, it's better than being grounded until my 28th birthday I guess," she said and hugged her mom. Mary Margaret rose from the bed and walked to the door before looking back at Emma.
"Oh and if your dad gives you a hard time just remind him that when he and I were in high school your grandfather once caught him trying to climb up the drainpipe to get to my room," she said before closing the door with a small laugh.
