Emma shifted nervously while Killian bounced around in excitement. She glanced at the clock. Yup, they had to leave now if they didn't want to be late for the meeting with Archie she had arranged.

Emma, come on! Have a little faith, lass.

Emma sighed heavily and sat on the floor. To hell with it, Archie could wait ten minutes.

"I just have a bad feeling about this, ok?"

The kitten rolled its sea blue eyes at her.

"This isn't about letting you out, I swear. I just… do you really wanna be human again?" she said, only half-joking. "I mean, you don't need to worry about what to wear. And you did love the catnip! And… you have a tail."

Mmm, catnip. Fuck, I really need to get out of this fur trap.

He glowered at her.

"Fine, fine," Emma raised her hands in mock surrender.

Logically she knew that she wasn't being fair. But at the same time she thought to hell with fair. Nothing in this life was fair, certainly not when it came to her. And this was just gonna be another example of that. Killian was going to turn back and be on his merry way. And the rub was that that wasn't even what worried her the most. She just couldn't overcome her need to keep him, to not let him out into a world that he knew almost nothing about. A world that had Rumpelstiltskin in it. She kept that to herself, of course. She knew how Killian would react if he found out that she was doubting the fearsome Captain Hook's ability to deal with anything life threw at him. Which she wasn't. She was just… worried. Hell, she was damn near certain that he had been worried about her too the other night so he couldn't act all superior with her about this. Plus, it made her feel a little better about her own confusing emotions.

Killian nudged her knee and gave her a look which by now she knew meant 'You're being silly, lass, so get off your ass and let's do the thing'. Nearly always 'the thing' was something stupid that she didn't wanna do. Which, of course, meant that he challenged her to do it. Which brought them to her doing 'the thing' against her better judgment. That's how Snow had ended up with half of her curtains missing.

"If you get run over by a car, I'm kicking your ass."

Fair enough.

Emma rolled her eyes but got to her feet anyway.

"Let's go. Want a ride?" she grinned, offering him to jump on her shoulder.

Funny. I'll take you up on that once I'm back to my impossibly handsome self. See how much you will be laughing then.

In retrospect Emma supposed it had been kinda her fault. Henry had been absolutely adamant when it came to coming with them. Shapeshifting was apparently 'wicked cool' and there was no way he was missing it. Killian, of course, had been no help. He took every opportunity to side with the boy against her. So when they neared Archie's office Emma wasn't surprised to see Henry waiting outside and Pongo running towards him. The same, however, couldn't be said about the kitten by her side. She wasn't sure if it was Killian's need to protect Henry or some innate mistrust and dislike towards dogs that drove him forward. Though she doubted many cats had the instinct to jump at a dog's back, dig their claws in and bite. Before she and Henry could jump in, Pongo shook Killian off of him and tried to back away only to have the cat intensify its attack.

"Pongo!" Archie emerged from his office and called for his pet, and the dog immediately hid behind his legs, peaking out at the hissing kitten.

So really Emma thought it was all her fault. She should have put Killian Jones on a leash the minute she met him.

"Hey, Killian, calm down!" said Henry approaching the kitten. "It's fine. Pongo is a friend."

Right. A friend that was running towards you with his fangs bared.

"Henry, let's go inside, ok?" Emma glanced nervously around, she hadn't wanted Killian's name mentioned.

"So that's it, you've got nothing?" Emma huffed and finally sat down, stroking the kitten that was still glaring at Pongo from across the room.

"I'm sorry, Emma. But I willingly turned into a cricket. And, anyway, it was all the Blue Fairy's magic. She is the one you should go to," said Archie apologetically.

"Yeah, alright," agreed Emma but she was still reluctant to do so.

For some reason she didn't feel too comfortable dealing with the Blue Fairy. And she was even less trilled about letting more people in on Killian's fluffy problem.

Swan, let's just go, this guy is of no use and the fucking dog is setting off every warning bell I have in my damn feline head.

He positioned himself even more firmly between Henry and Pongo. So what if he was being ridiculous? He didn't like the sight of anything with sharp teeth near his boy.

"Well, thanks anyway, Archie," said Emma standing up.

Henry grabbed Killian and followed suit.

"And, umm… sorry for Pongo," she mumbled, embarrassed. "Killian gets a little overprotective when he doesn't like someone. It's nothing personal really."

She stressed the last word, glaring at the kitten in Henry's arms, as if imploring him to apologize.

Like hell.

Emma just sighed in defeat, the thought that other people couldn't read Killian like her and she could just lie about what he was thinking never even crossing her mind.

Once outside she looked at the already darkening sky.

"You know what?" she turned to her boys, well, boy and kitten. "I say we leave visiting Blue for tomorrow."

She let herself relax when both Killian and Henry nodded in agreement. However, her relief was short-lived.

"Oh, oh, can we stop at Granny's for some ice-cream?" Henry put on his best puppy dog eyes. "Please? I've wanted to make Killian try some since forever!"

"Fine," Emma looked her son in the eyes. "But for the duration of that little adventure, he is just a kitten, ok? Just your new pet. We can call it operation Kitten, if you want?"

Oh, great, 'cause I feared this couldn't get any more ridiculous.

But Killian didn't mind so much when he saw the boy roll his eyes at his mother, grinning like it was Christmas morning. Yes, Henry had taken a great deal of time to explain all about Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving and all that stuff, putting great emphasis on the gift-giving parts.

"Mom, that's way too obvious. We can call it… operation Mermaid!"

Emma and Killian's eyebrows shot up simultaneously and Henry did his best not to laugh at them.

"Because he is Captain Hook? And he lived in Neverland?" blank stares, adults could be so dense sometimes. "And there are mermaids in Neverland?!"

Killian grinned.

There sure are, lad. Quite deadly too, very hard to deal with. Unless they like you, of course. Few can resist this captain's charm.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure Hook got along really well with the mermaids," muttered Emma under her breath.

Why, Swan, if I didn't know better I'd say you were jealous.

"Let's go get that ice-cream and go home," she said, trying to avoid the all-too-familiar smug look on the kitten's face.

"So what's the deal with him?" whispered Ruby to Emma as she handled her a cup of hot chocolate.

"Henry?" asked Emma with a confused look on her face, glancing at her son, who was currently scooping up some strawberry ice-cream with Killian's spoon, absolutely delighted with experimenting to see which flavours were the pirate's favourite.

"No, not Henry," Ruby rolled her eyes. "The not-really-a-kitten with the gorgeous blue eyes."

Emma choked on her drink.

"What?!"

"Emma," Ruby laughed, handling the blonde a tissue. "Wolf here, remember? If he's a cat, I'm a puppy."

"Well…"

"Trust me, I'm no puppy."

"It's a really long story," said Emma, looking down at her chocolate.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Ruby. Suddenly she was just wondering if, wolf thing and all, the brunette could communicate with Killian, if she tried. Emma felt strangely unnerved by the possibility, like someone was stepping on her territory.

"Look," she looked up at the taller girl, wondering if she would match Killian in height in his human form and then shaking her head to clear that and all the other ridiculous thoughts from her head. "Can we keep this between us? I don't really want anyone to know."

"Sure, of course," Ruby nodded understandingly, her eyes lingering on the little furball that was jumping up and down on the counter, apparently having discovered his favourite frozen treat.

Well, Emma thought that look was downright inappropriate.

"OK, time to go!" she said, jumping up and urging Henry out of his seat and Killian off the counter.

"Emma," Ruby called after her the moment she opened the door.

The brunette grabbed a full tray and came out from behind the counter.

"I might have been wrong," she whispered teasingly when she passed the sheriff on her way to the tables. "You know, thrown off by your scent all over him."

The blonde struggled with closing her mouth all the way home. Her shock might have been part of the reason why she failed to notice the unfriendly pair of eyes watching them from the darkness.