This part was only written because I'm on a road trip and this idea has been with me the whole time. Enjoy!

There was only one thing that was appealing about going on a road trip with her entire family. Everyone knew that they only reason she even agreed to go was that she knew that if the whole family was going, Neal would be there.

They had been spending the last few weeks talking and getting closer together to the point where she was confused whether or not they were best friends or if they were sort-of dating. Maybe it was both? She couldn't tell. She just knew that she was stupid in love with him either way and that wasn't going to change.

To top it all off, her mother put the two of them in the back seat together, which was totally against her better judgment and totally with David's. It was either that or she would be next to Hook and Neal would be with Henry but Emma had vetoed that the second it was suggested on the little seating chart that was apparently necessary for this Charming-family road trip.

The second they got in the car, they were all over each other, laughing hysterically at old memories and cuddling up together to keep warm with the AC blowing at full power from the vents. After a few minutes, they found themselves leaning in a way that looked awkward but was actually really comfortable.

Neal was leaning against the window and the cup holder, one of the pillows from in the trunk behind his back and Emma was leaning against him, her head resting on his chest and her hand resting below it. "What are we even doing right now?" Neal chuckled and Emma just laughed, resting her head down and cuddling up further into his arms.

Within just a few minutes she was falling asleep, his hand moving to rest on top of hers. She smiled as her eyes closed and she slowly fell asleep. Snow looked to the back of the car through the rearview mirror, smiling at the sight of Neal reaching over and grabbing his sweatshirt from the backseat and draping it over Emma's shoulders as she began to shiver.

The trip was going to take a long time, seeing as they were going to try to drive from Maine to the beach in California. It was supposed to take a few days, seeing as they were going to stop and spend the nights in a hotel. Nobody really liked driving at night and half the people in the car weren't allowed to drive because they didn't know how.

They had left at around eight o'clock in the morning and it was already almost lunch time. They weren't really planning on stopping to eat, just going through a drive through to have minimal stops. After a while they decided to actually go get lunch at some Jack in the Box they found in a small town.

Emma was still asleep on Neal and he was still awake. When they came into sight of the little restaurant, he woke Emma up, shaking her lightly. She sat up a little bit but he held her there, putting his hand on the back of her head so that it didn't hit the back of the seat while they made a sharp turn into the driveway of the restaurant.

She looked up at him, furrowing her eyebrows up and he looked over at her, holding her tighter as they made yet another sharp turn into the drive through. "We're gonna get lunch, I thought I should wake you up so you could eat. You want a grilled cheese?" he asked. She shakes her head, putting her head back down and burying her face in his chest.

He knew that if she wasn't going to get a grilled cheese, she had no intention of getting anything, though, and that wasn't gonna work. "Em, you gotta get something… you can even save it for later, but it'd suck if you're hungry in an hour and we're in the middle of nowhere," he said but she shook her head again, cuddling up with him and he sighs. Snow passes back a small strip of paper, seeing as they have seven people in their little Ford Explorer and she wasn't gonna be able to catch everybody's meal the right way if she didn't have it written down.

By the time it gets to them, Emma was already half asleep on him. He smiled, taking the hardback book from Henry and writing down both a cheeseburger for him and a grilled cheese for her, figuring that she'd be pissed if she woke up and realized exactly what was happening when she was half asleep on him.

So, they pass everything back and Neal gets a strip of paper from Snow, writing a little message on it before using a piece of tape to stick it to the little box the sandwich came in. Here ya go. You were half asleep and I'm not sure you'll completely remember denying lunch but someone wrote something down on the thing for you. P.S there are curly fries in the container, he wrote, eating his lunch before leaning back against the thing a little bit better before falling asleep, holding onto her loosely enough for her to be able to let go if she wanted to.

Emma woke up, feeling Neal's soft breathing under her. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and getting a bit confused when she saw that everyone has some sort of food container next to them. Did they just forget to wake her up? She wasn't exactly sure what went on while she was asleep beside half the people in the car falling asleep, including her best friend beside her, and the other half of them were lost in some type of electronic.

She rubbed her eyes again, leaning over and finding a container in the little cup holder, seeing a note taped to it that was very clearly written in Neal's handwriting. She read over it, smiling at the sweetness of the goofy idiot beside her before taking the thing out of the container and eating her lunch.

She then leaned over back against Neal, which successfully woke him up, even though she just really wanted to cuddle up with him again. He smiled, pulling her into his arms and squeezing her tight, smiling at her sleepily. "Did you eat yet?" he asked and she smiled, nodding and looking up at him.

She wrapped her arms around him, sighing contentedly and relaxing against him. "You're sweet. Thank you," she whispered, burying her cheek against him. Her arms shook as she sighed, her eyes closing lightly. He nodded, stretching his neck up to kiss her head.

They sat up a little while later, messing around a little bit in the backseat, laughing a little bit while screwing around, fully distracting Snow in the front seat, who had to tell them multiple times to shut up and sit down all the way.

What pulled them out of their little fun haze wasn't Mary Margaret, though. It was a loud roar of thunder. The second Neal heard it, he tensed up, but it wasn't because he was scared of it. It was because the lovely girl sitting beside him was absolutely petrified. He reached over and pulled her back into his arms like before.

She laid with her head buried in his chest for a few minutes until the thunder started getting louder and louder and she began whimpering against him. He didn't know why she was so scared of storms and frankly, it wasn't important to him to know. All that mattered was that she was and it was his job to protect him, even if it couldn't hurt her.

He took out his headphones from his little cup holder and his phone along with them, handing it to her and helping her put them in before she leaned back against him, closing her eyes tightly. He turned on her favorite song, letting her just listen to it while they waited for the storm to pass. It was funny because just a few minutes after they didn't need the phone anymore, it died.

The music stopped and Emma sat up, looking at it in confusion. Neal made a short face, taking the headphones away from her. She grabbed her backpack from behind her, grabbing out a portable battery and handing it to him, letting him plug his phone into it before she leaned back into his arms and sighed.

They didn't let go of each other for the whole rest of the three-hour drive to the hotel -except to get a drink because while Neal didn't want to let go of Emma, he knew that it was bad for her not to drink anything. When they got there, they were both sweating because of the excessive body heat from being cuddled up together for so long in the car.

They both got in the shower before they went and ate what David brought back from KFC before going to bed, cuddling up beside each other once again, ready for yet another day the next day like the previous one.