Immediately, Killian went to Emma's aid, proffering her a fistful of napkins.
"You alright then, love?"
"Yeah, yeah." She brushed him off.
"'Love?'" The stranger echoed incredulously. "Who exactly are you?"
"Killian Jones." His expression was schooled to neutral. "You might know me better as Captain Hook. Most relevantly, you should know me to be Emma's paramour."
Emma shot him a mixed look as the man fought to regain composure.
"I knew…I knew things would be—different—here, the sorcerer warned me as much, but I never imagined you could take up with one such as he in any version of reality."
"Watch yourself, mate." There was no ghost of Hook's former ruthless self present, but the quiet warning was more than enough. "Now are you going to insist upon keeping us at a disadvantage, or shall we be enlightened as to who you are and who you mistake Swan to be?"
"Swan?" Emma was jarred by the man's sudden grin. The expression was so quick and bright and genuine, it got to her. "Now that's a lovely bit of irony. I'm King Siegfried. Though I'm more renowned as the Hunter of the Wiled Marshlands." He gauged Emma's reaction, face falling at her lack of recognition.
"The Wiled Marshlands?" Killian repeated. "I've heard of you, then. But I know you to be a prince, barely out of the royal cradle."
"I'm not even late to this party I haven't even arrived I don't even know this party exists." Emma said.
"It's a neighbouring land to the Enchanted Forest." Killian explained with a flickering glance.
"Yes." The man said eagerly, leaning on the table. "One with a longstanding alliance with the rulers of the Forest—your parents—ah, Emma." He tripped over the foreign name. "Prince Charming and Snow White."
"You know my parents?" Emma asked skeptically.
"Quite intimately, yes."
"They've never mentioned you. How do I fit into this, then? I don't have any real ties to that land. I've never spent time there, aside from a few misadventures."
"Where I'm from, you are inextricable from the realm."
"I don't understand. I'm only—there's only one me. And I've always been here." Emma stressed.
"Yes. Only one you, at once unfortunately, and miraculously for me. Which brings me to my point, though I regret my earlier haste—I'd imagined a much different way of broaching the subject. I'm not from the Wiled Marshlands your—companion—is familiar with. I've come from an alternate reality—the reality you were meant to fulfill should the Evil Queen's curse not have been devised, should your role as Saviour been foregone."
"What are you saying?" Killian interjected.
"I've crossed over from the world you were meant to be a part of, Emma. The world in which you are my queen."
Emma looked at the man for several seconds, jaw popped open. Then she huffed out a laugh.
"No. No, you're kidding. Did Regina put you up to this?" She shook her head. "I've been a sport for the existence of magic, the existence of multiple realms, I've even done my time as Marty McFly, ok? Do you know how much of a mindfuck time travel is? A big one. But multiple—multiple universes? I'm—I'm out." Suddenly her voice dropped into silence, an alarmingly distant look on her face. She rose and both men leaned forward, caught in her orbit.
She moved passed the stranger, patting him weakly on the shoulder. "Good one, okay? Tell Regina it was a good one."
"Swan." Killian said emphatically as she began to stride away.
"Odette—ah, Emma!" Siegfried called out.
But Emma didn't hear them, not really, not through the filter of how hyperaware she'd become of the diner, the clatter of dishes, melting pot of voices, low hum of appliances. The bell above the door cut through her as she crossed the threshold.
She didn't know where she was going, just that she needed to be gone.