Everything had been going fine, everyone sitting round a table at Granny's, planning on how to stop Zelena. It had been going great, that was, until Julius strolled up to Hook and pressed his head to the man's side. Hook seemed not to see anything wrong with this and merely placed a hand on the daemon's head and scratched affectionately.
Emma, on the other hand watched, slack jawed at the easy way the two interacted. Now, she knew that in Storybrooke, people touching other people's daemons weren't that much of a big deal, not like in the real world; and she had barely gotten used to petting Eros's back, or giving Evander a gentle stroke on the nose, but she had made it very clear that she wasn't comfortable with people touching Julius, at least not yet.
However, here they were, with Julius was practically fawning over the Captain, placing his head in the man's lap and purring loudly enough for everyone at the whole table to hear. Snow, who had been sitting next Emma, watched the whole situation go down, holding back a giggle. Great, now her mom was watching her daemon make a fool of himself.
"Julius! Julius, get over here" she whispered angrily out of the corner of her mouth. The rest of the residents at the table continued on, as they saw nothing amiss with the way the Caracal was acting. The daemon turned his massive head, green eyes half closed with content, and hesitated a moment before shaking his head no.
Hook, feeling the movement, glanced down to see Emma anxiously trying to get her daemon back to her side. The Captain thought about it a moment, if the sensation of being touched been uncomfortable or unpleasant, he doubted the Caracal would have come up to him in the first place. Being the instigator that he was, the pirate ran his hand down the big cat's spine, scratching at the base of his neck before returning his hand to the cat's head.
Emma narrowed her eyes at Hook angrily, sure, having Julius being touched wasn't painful, and it certainly wasn't unpleasant but she wasn't going to stand with the blatant disobedience and lack of help on his part.
'Fine' she thought
'Two can play at that game'. With a huff, she turned her gaze to Freya, Hook's Osprey daemon, and quietly beckoned the bird forward. The Osprey hop-flapped under the table, climbed up Emma's leg and made herself comfortable in the woman's lap.
Hook shivered a little, it has been a while since someone had interacted with his daemon without the intent of trying to kill them, and the touch was a bit of a shock. Still, he relaxed a bit, turning his eyes to look at Emma, who was looking down at Freya and petting gently down her back.
Both caught each other's gaze, and instead of looking away, like the Captain usually did, he held it. The two stared at each other a few long moments, neither giving away any emotion in their face before someone at the table cleared their throats.
Emma and Hook turned to see that everyone at the table was looking at them, holding back laughter. Emma looked down to see Freya smirking, as much as a bird could, and turned to see Julius giving her a similar smile. She coughed embarrassedly, both her and Hook's faces going red with embarrassment.
"You were saying" she mumbled quietly, everyone at the table gave a quiet laugh and continued with the conversation, stopping every once and a while to chuckle or glance at them.
When the meeting had finally come to an end, Emma told her family she'd walk home, which was actually just a bad excuse for trying to escape from talking about what had just taken place. As Emma parted from the group and started down the sidewalk that led to her apartment, she turned on Julius, putting her hands on her hips and giving the cat a scolding look.
"What the hell was that about?" she growled, the daemon gave her a nonchalant look and lifted his paw to groom it.
"I've no idea what you're talking about" he said, voice muffled as he groomed his fur.
"Damn well you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you going up to Hook and giving him doe eyes the whole night" she huffed, crossing her arms angrily.
"And?"
"And nothing! We agreed we'd slowly build up to people touching you"
"What can I say, I'm impatient" the cat drawled, switching legs to clean.
"That's a dumb excuse and you know it" she retorted. The Caracal gave a sigh and placed his paws down, looking up at his human, annoyance glittering in his eyes.
"You need to stop denying your feelings, you can be a little indulgent every now and then, no one's going to kill you for it" he growled, tail flicking back and forth.
"I'm not denying anything!" she shouted, throwing her arms out for emphasis. The daemon sighed and rolled his eyes, walking past her.
"Denial"
"I'm not in denial" she mumbled
"That's exactly what someone who is in denial would say" he purred,
"Shut up" she grumbled, following him begrudgingly. The cat smiled up at her and pressed his head to her leg as they walked.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night."
