Title: Just the Two of Us
Summary: Okay, now David wanted Emma to pick the dad and daughter activity? She wasn't all that great at stuff like that. She'd never had to come up with things for parent/child time before and was now completely drawing a blank. And then it came to her. "Could you maybe give me some pointers on the sword?"
Spoilers: Up through 4x11, "Heroes and Villains."
Characters: Emma Swan and Prince Charming, with cameo appearances by Henry Mills, Snow White, and Killian Jones.
Rating/Warning: K+. Please have a toothbrush on tap because this is Daddy Charming cotton candy.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just hanging out at the cool kids' lunch table.
Author's Note: Anonymous prompt on Tumblr: "If you like maybe to write a fic where snow and Henry (and maybe Neal) go away for the weekend and Emma and charming are home alone and it's both mischief and craziness and emma seeing her fathers serious side?" I am so sorry it took so long for me to get this out for you! For reasons entirely unknown to me, I struggled to make this one come out in a way I actually liked. Hopefully y'all will like it too! Feedback makes the world go 'round! Enjoy. :)
"All right, I think we're ready to go," Snow White sighed as she plunked an overstuffed backpack down at her feet. Her nervous gaze traveled to the bassinet where her infant son lay napping and then drifted back to her husband. "You're sure you're going to be okay for the night with Emma and Neal?"
"Hey!" a mildly offended Emma Swan cried. She was an adult, for crying out loud! She could take care of herself just fine, and she was well beyond making an evening without his wife difficult for her father, thank you very much.
David gave her a calm smile before turning that same smile on his wife. "We'll be perfectly fine. Our oh so exciting plans for the evening include making dinner and watching a couple of movies."
And Killian coming over later to watch those movies – or pretend to watch the movies, depending on if and when David left them alone – but that was beside the point.
"I'm more worried about you and Red taking a bunch of twelve-year-olds on an overnight nature lesson," David continued.
"We'll be good, Grampa," Henry promised solemnly as he descended the stairs from the loft. Slung over his shoulder was his own overstuffed camping bag, which he unceremoniously dumped on the floor beside his grandmother's.
"It's not a question of whether you'll be good, kid," Emma gently informed him. "It's just that ten twelve-year-olds on an overnight in the woods with two adults isn't exactly a promising match-up."
Then again, the two adults in question were Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. Both of them had at one point considered the forest a second home and neither one was a pushover. Maybe this whole thing was a bit more evenly matched than it seemed.
Of course, just how Snow had managed to convince Ruby to chaperone this little overnight science class field trip with her remained a mystery. Emma had every intention of dragging what was sure to be an amazing story out of her mother ... once she survived the night, of course.
Snow looked around the room, her anxious gaze flitting from place to place as if she were trying to ensure she hadn't forgotten anything. "There are bottles in the fridge for when Neal gets hungry," she informed her husband, apparently unable to resist giving him some last-minute reminders.
The only problem was that she'd given him said reminders three times already. "And extra packages of diapers and wipes in your closet," David finished for her, an indulgent smile on his lips. "I also know that Neal sleeps most comfortably his lamb pajamas. We're going to be fine, Snow."
The uncertainty refused to budge from Snow's face. After a brief moment of hesitation, though, she nodded. "Okay."
"Okay," David repeated, giving her a soft, encouraging smile.
Inhaling deeply through her nose, Snow stepped over to the bassinet. She pressed a kiss to her fingers and then touched them to her sleeping baby's forehead. "You be good for your daddy and your big sister," she murmured, smiling down at little Neal.
It took a couple of seconds and another deep breath for Snow to pry herself from her baby boy's side. She walked back over to the rest of her family, picked up her backpack, and hooked it over her shoulder. "All right, then, I think we're ready to go."
"Finally," Henry muttered under his breath, much to Emma's amusement. Her poor kid was itching to go. Their sleeping bags and food for the night were already in the car because Henry had felt the need to do something while Snow got herself ready.
He himself had been packed and ready to go for an least an hour.
With relief and excitement lighting his eyes, Henry turned to wrap his mother in a quick hug. "Good night, Mom."
"You be good, kid," she warmly instructed as she hugged him back.
"I will."
She knew he would but as a mom, she felt she should still give him the instruction. Setting expectations and all that.
They let go just as Snow decided to give David his own good night kiss. Despite the relative chasteness of the little peck on the lips, both Henry and Emma averted their eyes. "I gotta tell you," Emma murmured to Henry, her nose wrinkling, "I'm not going to miss the PDA around here tonight."
"Same here," Henry agreed, his nose wrinkling as well. Then his expression of mild disgust morphed into one of teasing cheekiness. "On both counts: their PDA and yours with Killian."
Emma swore her heart skipped a beat. Then she felt the heat rushing to her cheeks and knew she was blushing. "We're not that disgustingly sweet around each other in public, are we?" she asked, vaguely horrified at the thought. Because Emma Swan did not do disgustingly sweet. Not in public, at any rate.
After all, she had a reputation to uphold.
"No," Henry chuckled. "I was just teasing you."
Okay, good.
"All right, it's time to go," Snow said, seemingly oblivious to the conversation her daughter and grandson had just had. Her eyes found David's again. "As long as you're sure the three of you will be all right by yourselves."
"My God, Mom, we'll be fine!" Emma cried, wishing so very hard that she could go bang her head against the brick wall. It would be far less painful than Snow's continued overprotective-mom thing. She wasn't even going to be gone twenty-four hours! "You and Henry, out! Have oh so much fun sleeping outside."
That got both Henry and Snow to smirk. Emma absolutely hated sleeping outside, which was the main reason Snow had asked Red to chaperone this little excursion instead of her own daughter.
At long last, Snow opened the door to the apartment. Henry darted out the door before Snow could change her mind, his cry of, "Meet you down at the car!" fading as he ran down the stairs.
Snow stepped over the threshold and grasped the doorknob. Just when Emma thought she was finally going to pull the door closed, Snow turned a smirk on her husband and daughter. "You two behave yourselves."
And then she was gone.
Emma heaved a sigh, her eye-roll reflex in overdrive. David simply chuckled.
Without Snow and Henry, the apartment seemed awfully quiet. Emma sighed again and asked, "So now what?"
"I know you have plans with Hook later" – and boy oh boy did she not mistake the slight wrinkle of David's nose as he said it … dads – "but I was thinking that the two of us could do something together until he gets here, if you want."
Emma's heart caught in her throat. He was offering dad and daughter time. She was surprised to discover that both parts of her – the lonely, unloved little girl and the independent adult – were extremely touched. She and her dad didn't get a lot of free time together, just the two of them, and he apparently wanted to make the most of it. "Like what?"
"That's up to you."
Okay, now he wanted her to pick the dad and daughter activity? She wasn't all that great at stuff like that. She'd never had to come up with things for parent/child time before and was now completely drawing a blank. What the hell could she and her dad do for a couple of hours? Something special, something for just the two of them, something to pass the time until Neal awoke from his nap.
And then it came to her. "Could you maybe give me some pointers on the sword?"
He blinked at her in surprise. Then she watched as a touched smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "You really want me to teach you?"
"I picked it up out of necessity, not because I had any idea what I was doing," she shrugged somewhat shyly. "Killian's been working with me but I just thought … I mean, I've seen you with it and I just–"
"Emma, I would love to," he interrupted, his voice soft and gentle. He smiled at her, which relaxed her enough to smile back. "We can't take your brother outside, though. There would be no one to watch him."
Emma's face must have visibly fallen because David winced. His gaze darted around the apartment, and Emma could practically see the wheels in his head turning. "You know what we could do?" he asked after a moment of thought. "If we push the furniture aside, we could create a space large enough to move around in."
She blinked at him. "You want to sword fight in here?"
"Why not?" He grinned at her. "Although, I highly doubt that sword fighting in the living room was what your mother meant when she told us to behave ourselves."
Man, her father had quite the mischievous streak, didn't he? Emma grinned back. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."
Emma had far more fun than she wanted to admit helping David shift all the furniture to one side of the room or the other. It was the little girl in her who was having the most fun, she decided. The little girl who'd never gotten the chance to push the furniture out of the way so some normally outdoor activity could take place indoors. She'd never had the chance to just have fun like this.
"I think we've cleared a decent area," David said as she set the last kitchen chair behind the island. "I'm going to go get the swords, all right?"
"Okay."
David smiled at her before ducking around the corner into his bedroom. Emma took the moment alone to check on her baby brother. He was still sound asleep, his little arms flung up on either side of his head. Smiling, she ran her finger across his little forehead. "Sleep tight, squirt," she murmured.
Her dad returned then, Henry's wooden swords firmly in hand. Emma's heart sank in her chest. Considering that she'd slayed a dragon and everything, she'd been expecting to use real weaponry during this little lesson.
Her disappointment must have been written across her features because David swallowed a chuckle. "This is just until your brother wakes up," he assured her as he offered her the hilt of one of the wooden swords.
Well, she supposed she could allow that. The last thing they needed was for the clanging metal to wake up the squirt. Then they'd have a cranky baby on their hands and there would be no lessons at all.
She accepted the sword with a smirk. "Plus, we're less likely to accidentally slay the furniture with these," she quipped. David's smile turned sheepish. "Wait. You aren't afraid of Mom, are you?"
"You're not the one she'll, uh, speak to if we do accidentally slay the furniture," he reminded her, much to her amusement. He cleared his throat, an indication that he was now getting down to business. "I know you've been working with Hook on technique so I won't interfere with the lessons he's been giving you. How about we work on footing and stance today?"
Emma smiled at her dad. Only he would have figured out a way to make this activity special for them while allowing for her to have special little moments with Killian on the same subject. "That works for me."
And so she and David worked on footing. He showed her how to stand, where to place her feet, and how to move while retaining her proper stance.
It was a lot harder than she anticipated.
Having to think about where to place her feet while making sure that David didn't knock the sword out of her hand and that she wasn't exposing herself to attack was way too much. "Switch your feet, kiddo," David said for what must have been the fiftieth time.
"Every time I do this with Killian, I kinda just … move," she grumbled, her frustration beginning to rise.
But David, ever patient and understanding, just smiled at her. "You're doing great. If you relax a little bit, it'll feel more natural."
Which was all well and good but relaxing was kind of hard when there was so much to think about and so many motions to coordinate.
"Switch your feet," David gently instructed after Emma successfully executed a spin block. Emma huffed, causing David to take mercy on her. "All right, stop for a second."
She stopped, panting slightly, her disappointment with herself clear on her face.
"No more frustration, all right?" he continued, looking her in the eye. "You're doing great." She must have looked unconvinced because he sighed. "Look, Emma, I wanted this to be enjoyable, so you know what? No more thinking about trying to perfect this stance or that stance. Let's just have fun."
Somewhere inside her, the lost little girl was leaping for joy. There was something special in learning from her dad, of course, but there was something even more special in just being silly with her dad. "I'd like that," she softly admitted.
So they had fun. There were thrusts, there were parries. David knocked the sword out of her hand, she knocked the sword out of his. There may have even been some giggling, though Emma would deny it until the cows came home.
And wonder of wonders, she was actually using the proper footing. She smiled when she realized it, causing David to grin. "I knew you'd get it once you stopped trying so hard," he said proudly.
David was winning this latest bout, forcing her to take steps backwards with each swing of the sword. It was then that Emma spotted the weakness, a tiny shift in his stance that she could exploit to turn the tables on him. Planning to shift her weight onto her more dominant foot, she stepped backwards. She realized a moment too late that she'd stepped right onto a sneaker of Henry's that they'd neglected to kick out of the way.
She stumbled and went down hard. She instinctively put her hands down to break her fall, which turned out to be the worst thing she could have possibly done. Her left wrist bore the brunt of her fall, wrenching painfully as her hand bent backwards toward her forearm. "Ow, shit!" she cried as hot tears sprang to her eyes. She immediately lifted her left arm and cradled it in her right, her wrist positively throbbing.
David was by her side in an instant. "Emma, are you all right?" he asked, his voice slightly frantic. Once he saw the tears in her eyes, something magical happened. David the frantic father disappeared and David the in-control father and prince took over. "Let me see it, kiddo."
His voice was soft and comforting and Emma wanted so badly to obey but she couldn't. She couldn't. It hurt too much to even think of letting go long enough for him to look it over. Her own hand wasn't keeping a lot of pressure on it but it was something.
With a skill and grace she hadn't been aware he possessed, he very gently pried her hand off of her wrist. "I need to examine it, Emma," he said, his tone now infinitely more tender.
Emma found herself complying almost against her will. She offered him her arm and watched as he very gently examined her injury.
Her wrist was already beginning to swell up. David winced at that but he continued his examination without comment. After running his fingers over her wrist to check for lumps or bumps that shouldn't be there and making sure there was no lingering sensitivity in her hand, he said, "It doesn't feel like you've torn anything. It's probably just wrenched, maybe sprained. We'll get some ice on it and then get it wrapped, all right?"
Emma nodded. David smiled at her and then helped her stand. He walked her over to the couch, all the while explaining that she'd be a bit more comfortable there. Once she was settled with her left arm resting on the arm of the sofa, he disappeared into the bathroom to grab the Ace bandage and some Advil and then headed to the freezer to retrieve the ice pack.
Emma watched him with a sense of wonder. How did he know how to do all this?
David poured a glass of water at the sink and grabbed a dish towel from the kitchen drawer on his way back to Emma on the couch. He wrapped the ice pack in the dish towel and tenderly set it on his daughter's injury. She gasped at the temperature shock, startling him. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No," she assured him.
"Good." He sat down beside her, giving her the Advil and the water. "You need to keep that on for twenty minutes and then I'll wrap it."
She nodded and swallowed her medicine down with a gulp of water. She set the glass on the coffee table and slumped back into the couch cushions. A somewhat awkward silence fell between them. "How do you know how to treat this kind of thing?" she asked, mostly to fill the silence.
"I didn't grow up in a land where you can just go to the doctor's office when you hurt yourself," he reminded her. "There are things you just learn. Plus, as an active little boy on a farm, there were plenty of opportunities for injury."
She smiled at the implication of his last sentence. "A little accident-prone, were we?"
"We were," he admitted. "I sprained my wrist once by falling out of a tree my mother had forbidden me to climb."
Emma chuckled. "Sounds about right."
This time, the silence that fell between them wasn't awkward. Emma closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the back of the sofa. After a moment, she felt her dad sling a comforting arm around her shoulders. She smiled.
She was on the verge of dozing when the ice pack disappeared from her wrist. She opened her eyes to find David reaching across her. "Sorry," he said, cringing at having disturbed her. "It's time to wrap it."
Emma nodded and wordlessly held her arm out to him. He applied the Ace bandage just as gently he'd done everything else. "Is that tight enough?" he asked when he finished up.
She nodded again. He set the metal clips over the end of the bandage and smiled at her. "All right, kiddo, you're good to go."
"Thanks." And as Emma looked down at her bandaged wrist, it suddenly hit her: she'd injured her hand. "Killian's never going to let me live this down," she groaned.
David chuckled. "You think dealing with Hook is going to be bad? Wait until your mother finds out you sprained your wrist while sword fighting with me in the living room. She'll never leave us on our own again!"
Killian arrived later that evening to find David bouncing a fussy baby Neal and his Swan at the stove, stirring the pasta for their dinner. Sure enough, upon noticing his Swan's bandaged wrist, the first thing out of his mouth was a teasing, "There are easier ways to become a pirate than injuring one's hand, love."
And sure enough, when Snow came home the next day to find her baby girl icing her definitely sprained wrist, she whirled on her husband. "What part of 'behave yourself' did you not understand?! Honestly, Charming!"
Emma and David shared an amused, indulgent smile over Snow's head as she fussed over her daughter's injury. They hadn't behaved themselves at all but despite the unfortunate way their mischief had ended, it was worth it.