Emma watched as the servants set the dinner table, her stomach flipping when she saw them set an extra place for Hook. She was relieved when he had agreed to come but the closer the dinner got the more nervous she became. Her relationship with Hook was new and came as a complete surprise to her and she was still trying to figure it out, so letting her parents see that made her anxiety level go through the roof.

What made her heart beat the quickest however was the fact that if everything went well tonight, her father would most likely give Hook his blessing to marry her. Royal couples tended to move fast and leave the 'getting to know you' part of the relationship until after their nuptials, but this was anything but a conventional royal pairing. Hook was a pirate to start with, one she had known for less the two weeks at that.

Voices from the hallway pulled her out of her thoughts, and a distinctly accented one made her smile. 'Killian!' She exclaimed when she saw him shrugging off his coat, ignoring the sideways glances from the servants bustling around them. He was wearing a red vest that brought out his blue eyes and she wondered how she had possibly denied his good looks when they first met.

'Good evening, Emma.' He said politely, bowing to her with a smirk before pulling her into his arms when they were alone. 'I missed you.' He whispered as he played with the curly strand of hair at the side of her face.

'We've been away from each other for 3 hours, you seriously couldn't handle it?' Emma snorted but looked up at him with interest.

'Well, to be fair, you spent a good amount of our time together sleeping.' He teased, kissing her cheek and lingering briefly.

'Hey, that was not my fault! Grace's house is cozy, and her story made me sleepy and-'

'And you were using me as a human pillow?' Hook finished with a laugh. Emma bit her lip and could feel her cheeks reddening from embarrassment.

'Don't worry lass, I didn't mind one bit.' He whispered, lifting her chin to look at her eyes. She smiled and stretched her arms around his neck to embrace him before exhaling and looking back at his eyes.

'Listen, I was hoping we could talk after dinner…alone. I have a feeling my father will probably start talking about marriage tonight and I don't want to overwhelm you with that because hell I'm overwhelmed just by the thought. We've only been together for a few days and this is sort of a unique situation and-'

'Emma, calm down.' Hook laughed, pulling her into a hug and kissing her neck and jaw and finally a gentle kiss to her lips. 'We will figure it out, together and in due time. But right now we are going to dine and talk and have a good time with your parents and not worry about the future, okay?' Hook smiled at her, brushing his thumb across her cheek bone. She nodded and he took her hand as they walked into the dining room and took their seats beside each other.

'And I was yelling at her to get off because I knew it would end badly, but she didn't listen and just kept swinging faster and higher. Then Emma's friend came over and she got distracted and fell off the swing, right into the swamp of mud below. I panicked, as a mother would, but as soon as I knew she was okay, I just burst out laughing. I will never get the image of my daughter having a mud bath out of my head now.' Snow laughed, setting down her cutlery and wiping her eyes with her serviette.

Hook saw Emma scowl at her mother, but the corners of her mouth turned upwards as she reminisced over her childhood.

'I of course was completely confused when my wife and daughter trudged back into the castle covered in mud, one of them laughing hysterically and the other pouting and stroppy. I had a lot of fun throwing buckets of water on them before they could even get into the bathroom to clean up.' David chimed in, shaking his head in amusement. Hook looked between the three of them, red-faced with laughter and affection in his eyes when his gaze rested on Emma.

'What can I say, I've been oppositional since birth.' Emma joked, and Hook had an overwhelming desire to hold her hand or embrace or kiss her (mostly to kiss her).

They hadn't talked much about her relationship with her parents (or anything really, their mouths had been put to another use when they were together) but he knew it had been strained since she had returned. But seeing her smiling and laughing with them was beautiful, and probably the most relaxed he had ever seen her.

The laughter died down as everyone recovered and David turned his attention to Hook.

'So, Killian, any embarrassing stories from your childhood? As enjoyable as it is to embarrass my daughter, we should perhaps share the target for being mocked.' If anyone else had said those words to Hook, he would have thought they had a hidden agenda, but with David everything he said sounded gentle. It was hard to imagine him as a fearsome king, but he didn't want to get on his bad side all the same.

'Well, there was one incident with my brother and I when we were young. We had heard that the children in the village were jumping from the cliffs into the water and we wanted to join in. Of course my father would never have agreed, so we ran off in secret, or so we thought. We reached the edge of the cliff and took off our clothes just as the other children were doing. We were just about to leap off the edge when we were yanked back by our ears. It turned out that our maid had known what we were up to and followed us. She made as walk back to the castle stark naked for everyone to see, and for the other children to laugh at. It was humiliating, and I could never look any of the villagers in the eye after that.' Snow and David laughed and joked about how they should have hired that maid to keep Emma in check, but he felt her watchful eyes on him.

He didn't look at her, instead taking a drink from his glass and smiling at her parents. He suddenly felt her hand on his thigh, but he knew it was a gesture of comfort and not flirtation. She knew next to nothing about him, but she somehow knew that somewhere in that story was a painful past. He placed his good hand over hers and squeezed a silent thank you.

Hook had a desire, a need, to confide in her in ways he had never done with anyone before. His mouthful of chicken went down painfully as his throat closed up at the thought of talking to Emma of such intimate things.

Emma gasped when their waiters brought through the plates of dessert, the mountain of chocolate on her plate sure to induce numerous cavities.

'Wow, I haven't had one of these since I was 7!' She exclaimed as she eyed the heap of chocolate ice cream mixed with cookies and hot chocolate sauce.

'That's because you were sick afterwards and your mother banned it from the kitchen. But we thought it would be nice for you to have it again, and maybe keep it down this time.' David said with a sweet smile at his daughter. Emma rolled her eyes but smiled back before looking over at Hook.

'You know you're going to have to help me out with this right?' She said with a grin. Hook laughed and pointed to his plate that had a modest amount of strawberries and chocolate sauce.

'I have my own dessert, lass. And I honestly don't want to get in the way of this lovely reunion.' He teased, and Emma laughed. Her parents had already started eating their own desserts but watched their daughter and this man interact with interest. The majority of the dinner so far had consisted of David and Snow asking Hook questions (Emma had to interrupt at one point before it turned into an inquisition rather than idle conversation) so Emma and Hook hadn't spent much time talking to each other.

'I know you have a sweet tooth, Killian.' Emma said as she scooped up a spoonful with all the layers of her dessert. She smiled as she ate it, the taste being just as good as she remembered. She felt his eyes on her and decided to lick the chocolate off her lips slowly but subtly.

'Indeed I do.' He answered before clearing his throat and scooping up a few strawberries himself. Emma was only slightly embarrassed that she was teasing him so openly in front of her parents, but the little wiggle his did in his chair made it worthwhile.

(He did end up helping her with the mountain of chocolate in the end, both of them playfully battling each other's spoons as one of them stole the pieces of cookie the other had their eye on.)

Emma helped her mother return the dishes to the kitchen (it was important to Snow to not have others do everything for them) and Emma suddenly regretted eating so much, the churning in her stomach making her nauseous. She knew what would happen if she left Hook alone with her father, and although she had warned him about the dreaded conversation of commitment, she was nervous.

She wondered if perhaps she shouldn't be nervous considering it meant that her parents approved of him, and although they didn't know the entire truth, she really believed Killian had allowed them to see a true side of him, one they clearly liked. Maybe one day, when they found out the truth, it would help that they had gotten to know him as a person and not as pirate.

'Killian is quite incredible I have to say.' Snow piped up, and Emma jumped at her mother's voice behind her. 'He's polite, well-mannered, kind and most importantly, he treats you with respect.' Snow continued, and Emma leaned against the kitchen counter in an attempt to look nonchalant.

'Mom, do you have a checklist of personality traits that you tick off when you meet people or something?' She joked, trying to ignore the guilt that hit her every time she thought about lying to her parents.

'Not exactly, but being the queen means that I meet people on a regular basis that act a certain way when they're around me. I can tell a fake personality just from assessing the way they smile or the look in their eyes when they speak. Obviously Killian wants to impress the parents of the woman he is courting, but he seems genuine. And I see the way he looks at you.' Snow added, and Emma rolled her eyes.

'Seriously, Mom?' She groaned. Emma considered herself a realist (to say she was cynical was too harsh, she didn't not believe in love) but Snow was a certified romanticist and her optimism admittedly irritated Emma sometimes.

'Honey, I'm being serious. His interest in you goes far deeper than marriage for kingdom alliance, or heirs or anything like that. In fact he doesn't even seem interested in the political aspect of your relationship. He is here for you, Emma. I know that after being hurt before you're hesitate to let anyone in, but Killian is someone I have a good feeling about. I know that doesn't mean anything, and I don't want you to get hurt again either, but you're also stopping yourself from experiencing love. Be cautious with your heart, but don't close it off.' Snow took her daughter's hands as she spoke and smiled warmly at her.

Emma smiled back, fighting the tears that her mother's words induced. She nodded and Snow pulled her in for a hug. Although the conversation about boys was a few years overdue, Emma appreciated her mother's advice, and found comfort in knowing she was there for her.

'Come on, we should get back before your father actually provides Killian with the ring to propose with.' Snow chuckled, fighting back tears of her own. Emma laughed and shook her head, reminding herself to talk with Hook about the commitment ladder and how far down she actually was.

'I love you, Mom.' She said quietly, and Snow stopped trying to hold back the tears then.

'I love you too, honey.'

A/N: I got totally caught up in the excitement for the new episode so I haven't written as much as I wanted to but hopefully all those gifsets of the cute CS scene will fire up my muse :P