Killian is sprawled out on the floor with four year old Neal while Snow and David are out on a date.
"Read me the pirate book," the boy says, tugging on Killian's coat.
Emma laughs, watching them. She has paperwork from the Sheriff's office she should really be doing but much prefers watching her husband and brother playing on the floor. Killian tolerates her brother's obsession with the Disney version of him, mostly because Neal doesn't appear to have connected the permed pirate with a plumed hat from the film with his sometimes babysitter and playmate who also happens to have a hook.
"Do you have a pirate book?" Killian asks.
"I brung it with me," the boy says seriously, scrambling over and pulling it out of his backpack before jumping back onto Killian's lap.
Killian starts reading aloud, occasionally mocking this version of piracy or decrying the inaccurate depiction of Neverland.
"It's a slander on pirates!" Killian exclaims. Which Emma finds odd, given that he is usually the first to count pirates as villains. She raises her eyes from her paperwork to see Killian glaring fiercely at the book on his lap. He holds it up for her inspection.
"A good pirate never takes another person's property," she reads aloud. "I think they want the book to set a good example for kids or something."
"Then have it be about something else," he says, sounding bizarrely offended. "A badpirate might never take another person's property because he can't manage it. A goodpirate takes everything that isn't nailed down. When the haul isn't great he might even take the nails. The nails that don't belong to him. That's what makes him a good pirate. It's a slander on the whole profession I tell you."
"The book has the Disney version of you, and worse, of Neverland, and your concern is over the fact that they say pirates don't take things that don't belong to them?" Emma asks mildly. She doesn't laugh aloud but laughter sparkles in her eyes.
"Aye. That travesty I have grown accustomed to. This is a new madness." He shakes the book for emphasis. "You know what Lad, you want a pirate story? Then a pirate story you shall have."
He scrambles to his feet and grabs a beautifully illustrated volume from the shelf. It is bound much like the old storybook, but this one contains newer tales, penned by a newer Author. He lies on the floor, book spread out in front of him so Neal can see the pictures.
"Once upon a time, a pirate and a princess both needed to acquire a magical compass from a giant. A compass that didn't belong to them," he adds with a smirk.