Opposites attract. Kind of.
Her mom is the quintessential romantic. Your first love is your true love, you'll always fine your way together, and the fates will intervene as they see fit. But it'll all end happily ever after. It's how her life twisted and turned to reach the current chapter of her story.
Her father is a realist. Sort of. He, too, believes in happy endings, but understands life is about choices you sometimes don't like making. He'd been married once before, been in love once before, albeit under confusing circumstances, before he found his way to her.
She needs her father now. It's not a topic a daughter usually discusses with her father, but he'll tell her the truth instead of what she wants to hear.
They're at the station one day, catching up on paperwork and each other's lives. How her brother's doing now that he faces the terrible twos and how she's acclimating back to a lighter world. It's been difficult to find time for just the two of them to talk, even though they work together. Killian's hardly left her side since she returned and David, she can tell, understands. She'd gone dark, then gone altogether. Her sacrifice took her to Camelot, where she'd hid out and torn herself apart for a few weeks before they'd found her. Before he'd found her. It'd nearly broken him, broken them, but when he finally answered her declaration of love with equal fervor, the darkness within melted into the night.
Their wounds, mental and physical alike, were still raw, leading to their rare separations, but Killian had to keep his plans with Henry. They'd taken to sailing together, escaping reality for a few hours a week, in her absence. Loathe was Emma to be the reason the former deckhand and lieutenant got off schedule.
"Dad," she starts off slowly, shifting around in her desk chair. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything, Emma," he answers. David's not really paying attention to her, shuffling papers across his desk.
"What d'you think about asking Hook to marry me?"
That stops him dead in his tracks. Now all his attention's on her, from his booted toes to his piercing blue-grey eyes.
"What was that now?" he asks. Dropping all semblance of actually working, Charming rolls his chair next to his daughter's and takes her hand.
"You heard me," Emma says. "What if Killian and I got married?"
"Did that pirate already ask you? Because if he did, he didn't ask my permission-"
"And he doesn't need to," Emma firmly says. She glares at her father and his old world tendencies, but at least he has the decency to look sheepish when he shrugs. "No, he didn't ask me. I asked about me proposing to him."
"I don't know Emma," David muses. "Shouldn't you talk about this stuff with your mother?"
"She's just going to insist I wait for him to make the moves, but then we'll never move forward." She sighs and spins so she looks directly at Charming. "I love Killian, I really do, but the man's so gentlemanly he won't sneeze without asking if I'm okay with it."
David chuckles, but Emma continues. "And I don't want to be one of those girls who tries to subliminally message him into proposing because (a) no, that's not me and (b) that's rude to him." She slides deeper into her chair, legs bending to avoid hitting David's, and heaves an enormous sigh. "But, I mean, I've done everything first so far and as unconventional as our story is, I kinda want this part to be…normal."
Moving his hand to rest on her knee, David gives it a tight, reassuring squeeze. "Why don't you ask him about it?" he suggests, only to be met with his daughter's moan. "Just bring it up in conversation and see what he thinks of it."
"Because he'll do anything to make me happy, regardless of how it makes him feel."
"And how do you want him to feel?"
"I want him to be happy."
A grin stretches across David's lips and he squeezes her knee again. "Then you guys are on the same page," he assures her. "You want the other's happiness because it makes you happy."
Emma rolls her eyes. "David, this is not the time for your riddles."
He laughs. "You're both afraid even through you shouldn't be."
Her ears perk at the word 'both' and straightens her spine in her chair. "Wait, both? You mean he's talked to you about this before?"
Standing up, Charming runs his fingers across his lips, mimicking a zipper. He rolls his chair back to his desk. "I say if you want to marry the pirate, marry him. God knows waiting will just give another villain time to push it off."
Smiling, Emma tilts her head to her shoulder. She recognizes a change in conversation topic, especially a poorly handled one such as the possibility of Killian already discussing their marriage with her father, but lets it go. For now. "Really? You think it's a good idea?"
"Are you happy?" he asks simply.
"Incredibly."
"Then I think it's the best idea you've ever had." David winks at her from across the station. And, as nonchalantly as possible, adds, "Besides, I want to see my girl beat that pirate to the punch."
a/n: and part two done. some daddy charming to start off the weekend right.
as always, feel free to leave a word or an idea. i can't tell you when the next part'll be up because i'm not finished editing it yet.