Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time or its characters; I only borrow.
Henry fell asleep on the couch a little after nine, not even halfway into another of those reality-ish survivalist shows. Emma was only vaguely aware of Killian pulling off Henry's shoes and covering him with a blanket before starting to clean up the popcorn-and-soda mess they had made. He occasionally brought her snacks and glasses of water, but stopped after she growled (yes, actually growled) at him for distracting her. He just raised his eyebrows, somewhat amused, and cleared the table of everything but the water. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Emma was aware of him moving about the apartment, quiet though he tried to be. About midnight she noticed that the apartment had grown still.
Emma was able to de-glowify her hands after a solid eight hours and forty-three minutes (not that she was keeping track or anything). Upside: she had finally succeeded in pulling Kyle's magic from her hands (transferred from the gloves he had originally enchanted) and sort of absorbing it into her own magic. Downside: it was nearly four A.M., she was very hungry, and she really had to pee.
After a mad dash to the bathroom and scarfing down another bowl of spaghetti, Emma realized that Killian had fallen asleep in Henry's usual spot on the bed. After briefly considering waking them both up to switch places, she decided against it (not fair of me to deprive them of sleep, too) and changed into her pajamas. Lifting the covers slowly, she slid under the blankets as gently as she could, taking care to leave a considerable distance between her and Killian. It's not that I don't trust myself. I just wouldn't want Henry to wake up first and think something was going on. Yep, that's 100% the reason. Tired as she was, Emma barely noticed when an arm snaked around her waist and pulled her towards the other side of the bed. She was asleep before she could realize that, instead of protesting, she had nuzzled into Killian's chest.
-.*.-.*.-.*.-
"Mom, wake up! Breakfast is almost done."
"Wake me up for lunch," Emma muttered into her pillow… which smelled suspiciously (and deliciously) like Killian.
"Can't. You're supposed to train with Kyle all day today, remember?" Henry pulled the pillow out for under Emma's head and whipped her blankets off. She whimpered and curled into a ball in an attempt to stave off the relatively cold morning air. Henry poked her in the shoulder a few times before letting out an exasperated sigh. "Fine," he told her as he headed back to the kitchen. Victory.
A moment later Emma tumbled onto the floor. Now thoroughly awake, she glared up at Killian. "That wasn't necessary," she grumbled.
"Apparently it was. Come and eat. You'll need to leave for your training in less than an hour." He offered her his hand to help her up, which she accepted after another few seconds of glaring. He pushed her towards the table, pulling out a chair for her. She sat down and watched Killian and her son in the kitchen. It was a small space, but they never bumped into each other or even had to ask the other to move. It reminded her that they had already been on this quest (Henry still liked calling it that) for nearly two months. They had all gone from bumping into each other and trying to do (or avoid doing) the same things to being a well-oiled machine.
Henry walked into an open drawer as he was bringing plates and silverware to the table. Well, almost well-oiled.
"Did you sleep well, love?" Killian tossed a sly look over Henry's head at her.
"Yes, if not for long enough." Excellent not reacting, self. "Did you cook the entire kitchen?" Henry and Killian were setting down dishes of bacon, sausage, eggs Benedict, fruit, hash-browns, toast, pancakes, and veggie omelets.
"If you can't be well-rested, at least you can be well-fed," Killian told her.
Henry shrugged when she looked at him. "We've been up for a while. And we couldn't decide what you'd want after working on your blue-hands thing all night." He loaded sausage on his plate as he surveyed the table. He looked up at Killian with an almost panicked expression. "We forgot the-"
"I've got it," Killian cut him off as he opened the fridge. Returning to the table, he set the carton of orange juice in front of Henry. "Something wrong, Swan?" He asked after seeing Emma's expression.
She shook her head, as much to clear it as to answer his question. "Just that someone's going to have to roll me to Kyle's when we're done eating." And you two spent who knows how long making a ridiculous amount of food to make me feel better. And seeing you work together kinda gives me the warm-and-fuzzies… And these hash-browns are very hot. Ouch. "What are you two up to today?"
"I was thinking perhaps we could accompany you to your training." Emma recognized that expression. It was one part worried she'd be annoyed at the request, one part hoping she wouldn't ask why, and four parts trying to hide the other two.
So, of course, she asked why they wanted to go. "After you guys watched the first session, you both decided it was boring and your time could be spent better looking for the List-o'-Stuff."
Henry was the one to answer, though she couldn't miss Killian's uncomfortable shift in his chair. "We can't really do anything else until we get those last two ingredients. Maybe Kyle can help with those, too."
"He already said he doesn't know anything about them."
"Yeah, but now that we know what tergemmon is, maybe he'll know how to get it. And maybe he'll let us look through his library for the other one."
They always called the last ingredient 'the other one' or 'that last one' or something similar. 'Flmbrbogn' didn't exactly roll off the tongue. They'd checked other languages, even treated it as (bad) phonetic spelling and transcribed it into languages with non-Roman alphabets. Nyet. Emma was worried it wasn't something that existed in this land, and that Gold and Regina either hadn't realized that or hadn't bothered to mention it.
Killian still looked uncomfortable. Remembering how he had let David do the talking in Neverland to avoid lying, Emma nodded at Henry. "Alright. Go shower and get dressed. We'll clean up." As soon as she heard the shower running she faced Killian. "And the real reason is?"
"Why would you think-"
"Please. My lie detector might still not be up to snuff, but I can still read body language. Why the sudden desire to watch me train?" The annoyed Emma he'd been worried about surfaced. She threw leftovers into containers more forcefully than was strictly necessary as she talked.
"I wanted to have a word with Dr. Mattison regarding the direction your training is taking. He did give you glowing Smurf hands, after all." Killian was only slightly less violent in his cleanup.
"First of all… you need to stop watching morning cartoons. Second… Smurfs is still on TV? Third, stop with the half-truth thing." She slammed the fridge shut, all leftovers tucked safely away from her rising temper, and leaned against it to give him her don't you dare bullshit me face.
After watching her for a moment (stop gauging my mood and give it to me straight), he demanded "How did you get that bruise on your hip?"
That threw her for a second. Hmm… defensive, apologetic, snarky, indignant… which way to go?
"Perving on me in my sleep? How gentlemanly." Snarky it is, then.
"I'm hardly to blame if those things you call clothing don't move with you when you toss in your sleep. How did you get the bruise?"
Emma sighed. "A few days ago Kyle wanted to see if I could catch energy balls."
Killian's eyes did that narrow, angry thing. "He hit you with a magic energy ball?"
"No! I missed most of them. When I caught one I fell back on my hip. Hence the bruise." Yeah, that doesn't seem to make things any better. At his stubborn expression she let out another sigh. "Fine, you can come. But no threatening to kill him, okay? I think that first time was enough."
His eyes softened at her acquiescence. "I make no promises." He brushed her hair behind her ear and ran his thumb along her jaw. She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.
"I need to go change," she murmured when she heard the shower shut off. "Be ready to leave in ten minutes."
Killian only nodded before moving his hand from her face, brushing his fingers across her neck as he did. Emma held back a shiver as she went to get her clothes. Totally because I'm in my PJs and it's kinda cold. Yep, that's 100% the reason.
"We're leaving in ten," she told Henry as he came out of the bathroom.
"'Kay. I'm packing snacks."
She smiled at her son. "Pack some chips for me. And chocolate. And sour straws."
A/N: I'm sorry for the long stretch in between updates. New semester, new boss, new joint damage (word of advice: don't be an idiot. Gradually work up to the hellish workouts). I have a good chunk of the next chapter written, and I plan on having it out by Sunday night.
Reviews are favorite clothes, and constructive criticism is the pair of totally demolished sweatpants I've had for six years. (And can't replace... Why must they discontinue the awesome stuff?)