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I've edited the previous chapter to make it consistent with this.

This chapter is betaed by the lovely N.a. Brun.


Emma promptly produced a list from her jacket pocket.

"I see that you came well prepared."

"You should know me by now. I never come unprepared for a heist."

"Yeah, right. Who taught you that?"

"Well, your techniques are stupid anyway. Why couldn't I whistle so you had the chance to run? Why must I hit the door which, by the way, was less conspicuous?"

"Really, Emma? Do you want to discuss about this now? Don't you have another pressing matter to attend to so you can release me?"

"Oh yeah, right." She unrolled the list, the bottom of the list hit the floor.

Neal's mouth was wide open. That list reminded Neal of the deal produced by his dad in the Enchanted Forest. "Gee, how many techniques did you put in that list? We're going to be here the whole week, aren't we? Did you get the scroll from my dad?"

"I'm not telling how many I have. Isn't that part of the fun? Not knowing? Yes, I got the scroll from your dad."

"Wow, you two get along really well. You must be the daughter he really wanted."

"Shut up, Neal! Don't let David hear you say that. As your father said, two people with a common enemy can accomplish a lot."

"Do you think it's fair to treat Tamara as your enemy?" Seeing Emma's miming the gagging gesture again, he quickly shut his mouth.

Emma promptly slapped his left cheek and right cheek once consecutively. The impact was so hard, he felt the stings for more than five minutes. He could practically see stars. Emma apparently also hurt her right hand as she shook it.

After the stars swam out of his vision, he finally said, "Emma, I was already quiet. Was that necessary?" Emma rolled her eyes. He continued, "Is your hand OK?"

"I'm OK now. Actually that's plan number one. I guess it's not working, And yes it was very necessary." True to her word, she crossed the first line of the list using a quill.

For goodness sake, where did she get the quill from? Must be from his dad's shop.

"You bet it isn't, although I kinda deserve that after all I've put you through. If you want to hit me more to make you feel better, you're more than welcome to. But not the face. I need it for my work."

"You're incorrigible. What kind of work do you do that you need your face unharmed anyway?"

"Actually, I'm a ..."

"Actually, shut up Neal, I don't want to hear it. Now onto the second one."

"May I ask the logic behind the first one first? Not that magic usually follows logic."

Emma replied shyly, "Sure, it's cognitive recalibration."

"Emma, are you kidding me? That's from The Avengers."

"Well, if it works for Hawkeye then I didn't see why it didn't work for you."

"Do you know that was from a movie, right? Did my father give you the idea? I can't imagine him watching a superhero movie." He shuddered at the thought of his father getting ideas from the super villains.

She crossed her arms defensively across her chest. "Well, how should I know? I'm the daughter of freaking fairy tale characters. Frankenstein, Mulan, and Lancelot are real. For all I care, Loki and Thor might be real too. This is my own idea. I've initiative too, you know."

Neal smirked. "Sure, Emma. By the way, isn't cognitive recalibration referring to hitting someone's head really hard? At least that was the movie version."

"Really, Neal? Do you want me to hit your head? I don't have a death wish as your father is downstairs. Besides, given your life choices, I don't think you can afford to lose more IQ points."

"Hey, there is nothing wrong with my intelligence." It was Emma's turn to smirk. He continued,
"Except for living you in jail, I don't regret any of my life choices. Well, perhaps that and also stealing the watches in the first place. Listening to August, giving him the money, not coming here when the curse broke. Oh gosh, I'm an idiot. I hope Henry doesn't take after me."

"Don't worry, I think he takes after your father."

"Emma, that doesn't make me feel better!"

"I mean in term of intelligence. He's quite heroic and self-sacrificing like David. Resourceful and brave like Mary Margaret. He has more tact than me."

"Emma, everyone has more tact than you."

"Shut up, Mr. I-trust-Pinocchio-with-my-money. OK, now we can move on to plan number two."

"There is no we in this plan." He then noted with trepidation as Emma went to the bed to retrieve all his scarves. He nearly had a stroke seeing Emma carried them to the roaring fireplace. "EMMA? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON'T BURN ALL MY SCARVES!"

"Gee, Neal, I don't think Dr. Whale in the hospital heard you, perhaps you should yell louder. Thanks for reminding me about all your scarves!" She eyed the scarf worn by him.

"NO, EMMA, NO!" He tried to move away from Emma but with his hands cuffed, he could only move the chair a couple of inches by dragging it back. Emma was onto him too quickly. He tried to wiggle so it was harder for Emma to take off his scarf but Emma managed to take it off quite easily. She walked away with a triumphant smirk, which was attractive on any given day but not right now, and threw his last scarf into the fire.

He closed his eyes to avoid this atrocity. He thought he knew now how Gollum felt parting with his ring. He tried very hard not to cry. They were only scarves but those were some of his possessions he truly cherished. As usual, his curse stroke so he lost the things he loved again.

Emma looked at him closely. Finally she said, "Gee, Neal, I didn't know you treat your scarves like your firstborn child." Neal opened his eyes and stared at her incredulously, still speechless.

"OK, bad analogy. I hope you love Henry more than your scarves." He nodded. "Don't you know you can still buy more scarves? We just think that it's best to remove all traces of magic on you." He winced and nodded again.

"You know, I thought it was going to be fun to gag you. However, I'm really not used to you being quiet like this." Neal answered her by closing his eyes again, looking away from the fireplace.

Emma didn't expect him to be so hurt over his scarves. She recalled that his apartment was pretty sparse so he didn't have much in term of possession. He seemed to really like his scarves. Now she felt bad burning all of them. She assured him, "You know what, after all of this is done, I'm going to buy you a scarf. I'll even ask Henry to buy you one as a present. I'm sure your dad can buy you the whole shop if he wants to."

"I don't want anything from him! Thanks for the offers though, I appreciate it."

Well, of course, he hadn't forgiven his father yet. Emma hated to admit it but she didn't like the quiet resigned Neal, she enjoyed their banters. Of course, she'd never mention any of this to him, she'd had enough of his insufferable smirks.

"At least Henry knows what to give you for Father's Day." Neal smiled weakly. She continued, "How about if I inform the whole Storybrooke to give you a scarf as a present?"

"Thanks again for the offer, Emma! However, I don't think people welcome me here in Storybrooke. I'm after all the son of the guy who cursed them out of their homes. The reason the curse was created."

"You helped us fighting Cora and protecting this town. That should count for something."

"Well, she wouldn't be a witch if my dad didn't teach her in the first place."

"She made her own choice, Neal. Same as Regina. That's the difference between you and them. They showed no remorse."

"I still sent you to jail, didn't I? I haven't apologized to you. How could I? When I couldn't forgive myself yet."

Emma was shocked to hear that. This was the first time he ever mentioned of his guilt. In Manhattan, he only spewed about the fate crap. She was so not ready for this talk right now.

It was typical of Neal to choose this moment to be depressed when she needed him to be the strongest. She often wondered why the man with so much humor could also had so much sadness in him. Now she started to see where it originated from. There was one way she thought would get him out of depression, more challenges.

"You can start making up to me by collaborating. Now we, hey, don't stare at me like that, OK, I will continue to item number three. The dream-catcher!"

Emma didn't really expect his reaction. His whole body shook and he said, "Emma, please, don't burn the dream-catcher. I'll do anything you ask for. You can burn all my clothes and other possessions, but please don't burn the dream-catcher. You can keep it if you think it affects me."

"Wow, someone really loves his dream-catcher," she thought, "I'm going to have fun with this. But perhaps not too cruel after the scarves."


Disclaimer

I don't own Once Upon a Time and The Avengers.

Notes:

-I hope I'm not too cruel and they're not too OOC. Somehow, I always end up writing some angst when I try to write humorous stories for these two. Neal will be back to his normal self next chapter, at least that's what I hope for, since this story keeps growing longer. I've given up hope to make this story as only a two-shot or even three-shot.

-Please let me know what you think.