Sorry this has taken so long - complete writers block. This is for the prompt : Emma mumbles Daddy in her sleep and Charming hears and teases her when she wakes up (in a cute way obv)
Enjoy!


Charming reclined exhausted in one corner of the sofa. Both he and Emma had been working flat out in order to clean up after the Snow Queen's curse. There had been a lot of damage to property from people fighting – but there had also been a lot of new arguments sprung up from the hidden hate, which had been revealed during those few cursed hours. Charming had a feeling that Archie would be having a busy couple of months. They had only recently got back to the apartment, having stayed late to at least start on paperwork during a rushed late dinner of takeout from Granny's. Charming sighed as he thought about all the paperwork that was still piled upon the two desks. It would definitely take them another week to get through, and that was if they didn't get any call outs.

After they had arrived back at the apartment Charming tried to get Emma to go to bed , however made the error of phrasing it as a command. Which had caused Emma to stay up to watch TV, out of spite. Charming had simply sat next to her, he was damned if her was going to leave his daughter to sleep on the uncomfortable couch when she had a comfortable bed upstairs. He settled for shooting her disapproving glances every now and again, and sighing a lot – hoping she'd give up and go to bed.
Charming shot her another glance, and waited for her shoulders to tense – like they normally did when she was defying rules or her parents. It took Charming a few minutes to realise she was now fast asleep, curled up with her head on her shoulder.

Charming took in her features; his blonde hair, Snows chin, the way she looked so young whilst she slept – so unguarded, so unlike her guarded restless sleep whilst they were in Neverland.
As he stared at her he was cast back over 30 years: Snow telling him she was pregnant, him picking her up and spinning her around, before placing her on the ground and kneeling before her. He had stroked her barely there bump and whispered 'Hey there baby, I'm your Daddy. I'm gonna take good care of you, I promise. I won't let anyone hurt you.'
His mind started to replay his battle with Regina's knights as he raced to the wardrobe, and the fear that filled him when the wardrobe was being forced open, as he lay powerless to stop them. His wife's words played in his head during all this 'Take the baby to the wardrobe… We have to give her, her best chance.'
He dodged the black knights, trying to hold onto Emma tightly enough to make sure she didn't get hurt, but also gently enough that she didn't get hurt. He ran into the nursery taking her over to the wardrobe which should have carried her and Snow, the wardrobe which should have taken her to salvation – but instead had treated her so cruelly.

'Daddy…' The sound of Emma's voice pulled him out of his reverie. Did she just? No she couldn't have.
'Daddy,' she repeated.
Charming certain of what she said this time. He knelt down in front of her, seeing that she was tossing her head from side to side – obviously in the midst of a nightmare.
'Kill the dragon…' She murmured.
Charming's heart did back flips as his hand automatically went to her cheek, stroking it to calm her down.

'Looks like you've got the magic touch.' A voice came from behind him which would have made anybody else jump – but after being married to the bandit for so long, Charming had managed to resist.

'You hear what she said?' he questioned, moving over to where Snow stood – being careful to talk in hushed tones so not to wake up their now peaceful princess.

'Yeah.' Snow smiled, noting the twinkle in her husband's eye. 'But sadly now you need to go wake up daddy's girl over there. It's getting pretty late and I'm guessing you're both back in work early tomorrow.'

Charming turned to look at his daughter, who was looking so much more peaceful that he'd seen in a long time, and cocked his head. He turned back to his wife, grinning at her.
'Go and pull back the covers on her bed?' He requested.

Snow smiled fondly in return, then headed upstairs.

Charming walked over and picked up his daughter, much like he had done so many years previous. She was almost worryingly light to pick up, however any worries melted away when her hand held tightly onto his shirt and she nestled her head into his chest.

Snow was waiting by the side of the bed as Charming carried their daughter in, obviously wanting to say goodnight to her. Charming bent over slightly to lay Emma down, but found her grip upon his shirt tighten.
'Daddy.' She huffed in her sleep.
'Help' Charming pleaded to his wife, who was stifling laughter. Together they managed to free Charming, and Snow pressed Emma's baby blanket into her hands before she attempted to grab Charming again. They both pressed kisses onto her forehead and bid her sweet dreams, before heading to their room themselves – to get as much sleep as possible before their other child needed them.

Emma woke up with a start the next morning, already smelling the breakfast, and more importantly coffee, being made the floor under hers. She climbed out of bed surprised to see herself wearing yesterday's clothes. Had she been that tired that she'd fallen asleep in her clothes? She tried to remember the previous night, well the early hours of the morning technically, but all she could recall was a strange dream involving a dragon. She quickly showered and dressed before heading downstairs.

'Morning princess.' her dad called over to her as soon as her foot hit the last step. His voice had a slight teasing tone, she looked over to see her mom and dad involved in one of their silent conversations. She sat down at the table where her coffee already sat before bothering to comment. 'Can you two not eye sex each other at breakfast?' she shot sarcastically.

'We're not eye sexing each other.' Charming said before adding slightly quieter, 'Trust me Em, if we were eye sexing each other you'd know.'

'Dad.' Emma groaned, dragging out the word, allowing her head to hit the table.

'Emma, you realize you have a baby brother right?' her mom added, putting emphasis on the word baby, putting a bowl of cereal before her eldest. 'We don't need to have a how babies are made chat do we?' She quipped. Causing Charming to almost choke his coffee out with laughter, and Emma to glare daggers into her mother.


'Okay.' Emma huffed 'What the hell's going on.'

'What do you mean?' Charming asked, puzzled as he looked up from his paperwork.

'Well since we got to the station two hours ago, you've been acting really freakin' weird. You kept asking if we've had any problems with Maleficent or dragons, or joking about dragons. And you keep referring to yourself as 'Daddy', like saying 'Aw, do you need daddy to go get us some coffee?' and it's just really freaking me out. So what is it?' She demanded

Charming smiled slightly, 'It's nothing Emma, everything's fi-'

'Are you ill?' Emma interrupted. Charming sat with his mouth agape at Emma's sudden question.
'Because if you're ill we can get help, and if it's something to do with Neverland then we can figure it out – I mean I know Gold's gone but we can…' Emma rambled, her voice breaking, only coming to a stop when Charming came over and perched on her desk.

'Emma, I'm not ill. At all.' He reassured her, his heart breaking at how worked up she seemed to be getting. 'And I would tell you, because if I learned anything after Neverland, it's that I shouldn't lie to you or your mom.' He stared her in the eye, reassuring her that he was telling the truth.
'Earlier I was just teasing you slightly.' He looked guilty as he admitted it 'Last night when you feel asleep downstairs, you were talking out loud in your sleep. You begged daddy to kill the dragon' He smirked as her face grew red as he finished his last sentence.

'Oh god.' Emma cringed. Putting her head in her hands.

'Don't worry princess, daddy will always be here to slay dragons for you.' He only half joked. 'Although you know you have helped me win a bet.' Emma's head shot up, curious. 'I bet your mom when she was pregnant with you, that you'd be a daddy's girl.'

'Oh, so what do I get for you winning the bet?' She inquired, not bothering to protest being called a daddy's girl.

'Hmm.' Charming pretending to think. 'How about lunch on me at Granny's? And me not telling your mom about all the candy you have in your drawer for when she's on your 'sugar interventions'?' He proposed raising his eyebrow.

'Deal.' Emma accepted instantly, she would have done it for the drawer staying secret – lunch was definitely a bonus.

He shot his trademark charming smiles back at her, before helping her up and leading her out of the station.

'Wait, what do you get for winning?' Emma asked as his arm around her shoulder pulled her against his side.

He chuckled softly, 'I'm nighty nine percent sure you don't want to know that, Em.'

Emma groaned as he led her out the doors. Yep she would definitely need to bleach her brain.