He awakes to a sound across the hallway. He lets out a short groan, moving his arm and seeing all the marks from sleeping with it under his pillow. He rolls over lazily, dropping his head back onto the pillow, his arm under it and his legs crossed beneath the blankets.

The noise happens again. He sits up, waiting to see if he'll hear it again. He can't tell if it's coming with a rhythm or not, knowing that it could just be Emma's computer in her room or someone walking around in the kitchen downstairs.

After a few more seconds of listening to the shuffling around, he hears a voice cry out and he's out of bed, running down the hallway and not caring who else it wakes up. He opens the door to her room quickly, closing it behind him and hurrying over to her.

"Hey, hey," he says, putting his hands on her shoulders and keeping his eyes on hers as she stares up at him, her eyes wide as she tries to breathe the way that her mother taught her to, like Dr. Hopper taught her to when she was suffering from the effects of the sleeping curse.

These nightmares aren't of the Netherworld, though. They're purely of her imagination, and the way that she describes them, more terrifying than anything he's ever heard of. The reason why they both think they're so fearsome is beyond him. It may be because he understands her, or because he's been scared to lose her, too, but he knows that he definitely understands how scary they probably are.

Neal breathes with her until she's calmed down some, though her heart is still pounding at a furious pace. "Was it the same one as normal?" he asks, still looking her straight in the eye. She nods, reaching up for him, her arms shaking along with her whole body as he pulls her into a hug.

She lets out a cry, her arms going tighter around him, burying her face in his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay," he cooes, rubbing his hand up and down her back, his other hand cradling her head to help her stay up if she wants to. They stay like that for a good few minutes until Emma lets go of him, still crying, but wanting him to lay down with her on the bed.

Though she was the one who let go of him, the second he moves over so he can lay down, she lets out a sharp cry and reaches back up for him. He stops what he's doing the moment he hears her and turns back to her, reaching down and hugging her the same way again.

After his first attempt that went wrong when he was trying to move, he decides that it would just be best to not let go of her. He sits back just for a second, not completely letting go of her (he's still holding her hand,) and gets into a comfortable position against the pillows. He then pulls her into his arms and onto his lap, one of her hands going onto his chest and her other arm snaking around him, holding on for dear life as he lies back.

He takes her hand with the one that he previously had cradling her head, holding it tight and kissing the top of her head. "I promise it's gonna be okay," he whispers, tilting his head and craning his neck down so that he can see her face. She nods, reaching up and kissing his cheek.

Well, that's random, he thinks as he kisses the top of her head once again, relaxing against the pillows, providing Emma with a wonderful moving sensations that makes her grip the back of his shirt like a lifeline. He can't decide whether to wince in pain as it pulls on his neck, or to chuckle at the sudden response to such a small movement.

She squeezes his hand tightly, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Stay with me?" she asks and he nods, hugging her a little bit tighter. "It'll make me feel better. Also in the morning. I like waking up and seeing you smiling," she whispers. He nods, kissing her temple and chuckling.

She falls asleep a few moments after that and Neal falls asleep soon after her, neither of them having any more nightmares or things to disrupt them from having a good night's sleep.

Emma starts to wake up, her eyes adjusting to the light from her room as she realizes that she's now lying beside Neal instead of pretty much on top of him.

She doesn't like the nightmares she gets on a nightly basis, but she doesn't know what to do to stop them and Neal comes to be with her whenever they happen, which help, considering the nightmares are about him. Actually, when he almost died. Part of her must still be terrified that he'll do something stupid and his body will try to sacrifice his soul again.

Emma turns her head to look at him, seeing that he's already awake and smiling just like she told him she liked the night before. She moves closer to him and gives him a short, sweet kiss on the lips. His arms go around her, one of them resting on her waist and the other underneath her neck. "Thanks for staying last night," she whispers, her forehead against his. He smiles at her, not wanting to say something and not be able to feel her soft breath every time she exhales against his lips.

After a second, he moves his forehead off of hers and detangles his arms from around her. He leans down and kisses her on the side of her head. "Waffles or Pancakes, princess?" he asks, using the nickname in a teasing manner in order to just piss her off a little bit. She hurls a pillow in his direction and he chuckles, looking back at her.

He walks back over to the bed, kissing her one more time and she smiles, once again happy and no longer frustrated. "Alright, alright," he whispers as she kisses him once again and grabs his arm, trying to pull him back to the bed. He gives her a hug before standing once again. "Seriously, though. Waffles or Pancakes?" he asks. "Not frozen waffles like you make either, but the real ones. There's a reason your parents own a waffle iron," he tells her. Her eyes light up and she nods, sitting up in bed.

"Wait a sec," she says, climbing out from under the blankets and turning him around at the foot of the bed by his shoulders before wrapping her arms and legs around him, his arms going under her knees to keep her up and carrying her out of the room on his back, downstairs to start making breakfast.