Okay, Swanfire darlings... this one's for you!

"Thanks, guys," Whale said as they huddled near the door, holding the bundle of coats in his arms. He started passing them out as each person filed out the door with a nod and a, "Thanks for coming."

Neal gave Whale a brief smile as he took his coat, shrugging it on as he walked out the door. After a ten-minute-long discussion on carpooling, Neal had agreed to drive Regina and Robin home, since neither were in a safe-enough mindset for late-night driving; then he and Hook would take Neal's car, which was still parked in Regina's driveway, and head back to Granny's—but only after a safe fifteen-minute buffer zone, which would give Ruby and Granny time to get home and out of sight by the time Neal and Hook arrived, so that Hook could avoid the awkwardness of bumping into the two of them.

So, since he had to wait, anyway, Neal decided to hang back and wait for Emma to emerge from the house. He didn't have anything to say in particular, but she'd been kind of quiet when they were cleaning up in the dining room together and Neal really didn't feel like staying up all night to ponder what her silence could have meant, dissecting every gesture she made. It wasn't like he was going to ask her for a huge, in-depth discussion on where she was at now, after everything Regina said—he just wanted to test the waters.

Emma looked mildly surprised to see him hanging back and hovering near the end of the porch. "Hey," she said, flipping her hair out of her coat as she walked down the steps.

"Hey…"Neal said hesitantly, suddenly forgetting why exactly he needed to talk to Emma. Was this a mistake? This felt like a mistake. Maybe he should just go home, not worry about it, try to ignore the awkwardness as best as he could—

"Are you okay?" Emma asked, stopping on the step above him.

"I've been worse," he shrugged, feigning nonchalance.

Emma gave him a strange look, smiling faintly. "Okay. It's just…you look like you have something on your mind."

" Meh… Just thinking about everything that happened today. It was pretty dramatic."

"Oh. Yeah."

Neal rocked back on his heels,while Emma shifted uncomfortably, looking at her feet. Why was it suddenly so hard to talk to her?

"Sorry about all the yelling earlier," she said finally. "Things got ugly fast."

Neal waved a dismissive hand. "At least we got everything out in the open now."

Emma's eyes widened briefly. "Right," she said. "Everything's out in the open."

Regina's words hung heavily between them, making the air thick, almost solid. Neither of them seemed able to say anything more; at least, Neal couldn't. He had already screamed out all his frustrations and anger. There didn't seem to be anything left to say.

"Man, that Regina says some crazy things sometimes," he said finally, forcing a chuckle.

"Oh, yeah," Emma said, smiling uncomfortably. "Crazy."

"Just…says things."

"She does."

"Things that—"

"Neal," Emma said suddenly, talking over him.

"Hmm?"

"I just want one-word answers, okay?"

He blinked. "Okay."

Emma blew out a breath, putting her hands on her hips. "Did she get everything right?"

"Uh…" Neal anxiously scratched his head. He didn't like this. he didn't like talking about feelings in any capacity, they were so messy and disorganized and uncomfortable—

"Just answer the question, Neal," Emma said, looking at her shoes.

"Yes."

Emma nodded. "Okay," she said carefully. "Me, too."

"Okay."

That seemed to be all they were going to say on the matter. And even though it wasn't much, it felt like enough.

"Just so you know," Emma said after a while, "I think I'm going to keep my distance from Graham for now."

Neal raised his eyebrows, nodding slightly. "Probably a good idea, he doesn't look like he's in the best place right now."

"Yeah…" Emma fiddled with her sleeves: she seemed to be waiting for Neal to say something, but Neal wasn't quite sure what she was waiting for him to say. Had she been dropping a hint? Had she just been stating the fact for general interest? Had she been testing to see how he'd react?

"Hey, guys," Hook said, saving him the trouble of thinking of something to say. He stopped on the steps next to Emma, looking between the two of them with a frown on his face. "What are you doing?"

"Just talking," Neal shrugged.

Hook raised an eyebrow. "Awfully quiet for talking," he remarked.

"Well, we sensed your presence, and we were so overcome with awe, it just struck us speechless," Emma said seriously.

"Right," Hook said, as if he wasn't really listening. "You almost ready, Neal?"

"Nearly. I thought you wanted to wait anyway?" he frowned.

"Yeah, wait, not have a sleepover here," Hook said, shifting his eyes around. "I'm so sick of this house right now. Can we just go?"

"In a minute. I'm talking to Emma," Neal said, gesturing to her. "You can wait in the car, it's unlocked."

"All right, then." Hook blew out a breath, and turned to Emma, pulling her in for a hug. "See you tomorrow, love."

"Bye."

Hook turned to Neal, heaving a sigh. "Neal, I'd hug you, but your eyes are saying, 'Go away, Hook. Go far away.'"

"Just as far as the car'll do," Neal said cheerfully. Hook held up his arms in surrender.

"Point taken, I'm going. Hug before I go?"

"Goodbye, Hook."

Hook hopped off the stair, running his hand over the top of Neal's head to annoy him as he passed by. Emma snorted, watching him go.

"He's so immature."

"Pain in the ass."

Emma smiled at Neal, somewhat apologetically. "Can I apologize on his behalf for earlier?"

"The…extremely detailed Neverland anecdote?"

"Yep."

"Ah." Neal smiled uncomfortably. "Yeah, it's fine."

"You're sure?" Emma said, raising her eyebrows worriedly. "Because I'll kick his ass for you, if you want."

"That's okay."

They lapsed back into awkward silence, both painfully aware that the conversation wasn't over, and equally reluctant to be the first to try to break the silence.

"So," Emma said finally, her voice probably a little louder than she intended. "I-I know what you said about the whole…the bro-situation thing, and how you—-" she waved her hands nervously—"you know, how you don't want to jump back into anything, but…"

Neal kept his expression nonchalant. "Well… I mean, there's a difference between jumping back into things and…easing back into things." He looked up, trying gauge her response: her eyebrows lifted slightly, her mouth hanging barely open.

"You're right," she said finally, taking on his casual tone. "Yeah, easing back into things is completely different than jumping back into things."

"Right."

"Okay."

"So…so maybe we could hang out…around each other sometime."

"That sounds…fine."

Another silence fell between them: different, this time; less awkward, although still plenty awkward. Both of them made sure to retain their nonchalance, ridiculously loyal to the "easing back" principle. After a minute, Neal found the silence unbearable.

"Yeah, so…" He kicked the ground with his toe, trying to look casual. "I don't know. Maybe next time you're having a cup of coffee at the diner, you'll see me having a cup of coffee at the diner, and we could…like, drink coffee at the same time."

"That would be good," Emma said, nodding slowly. "Uh—you know, maybe we could—" she waved her hand, shrugging—"like, sit in the vicinity of each other while we drink our coffee."

"Yeah, we could do that," Neal said, bobbing his head. "And, maybe, we could—I don't know—talk or something, if we get bored."

"Yeah," Emma shrugged. "And you know…maybe we could hang out similarly during other mealtimes, like… like lunch or dinner or something."

"Yeah," Neal said nonchalantly. "Dinner would be fine. I mean, we got to eat dinner at some point anyway, so…you know, might as well eat it at the same time."

"Whatever," Emma said, looking off to the side. "And maybe…maybe we could, like, do a thing where we only we do that with each other, or something. Like a—" she flopped her hand—"you know, similar to a date-kind-of-thing."

"Hmm," Neal said, nodding his head thoughtfully. "That would be okay."

"Yeah?" Emma said, examining her fingernails. "Okay, we could do that, then."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They stood there for another moment, shifting their eyes around between their shoes and their surroundings, the picture of indifference. Because it wasn't like it was a big deal or anything. There was no reason to get all… feeling-ish about it, it was just two grown-ass people hanging out together like grown-ass people did sometimes. Nothing weird, nothing to see here. No jumping back into anything. Just…yeah.

"Okay, so I'll see you," Neal said finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, sure," Emma said, looking up. "Probably, like…I don't know…nine-ish tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, I'll probably be drinking coffee around that time," he shrugged, making a mental note to set his alarm.

"Yeah," Emma said, twisting her hands in her pockets. "That works out okay, because I'll probably be drinking coffee around that time, too."

"Probably would be sitting in the diner for a while… might order some toast or something."

"Toast is good. I might get in on that."

"But it's kind of boring, so…like, we could talk…while we eat our toast."

"Yeah, that would make the toast more interesting probably," Emma nodded. "Also jam."

Neal frowned. "What?"

"Jam?" Emma repeated, a little nervously "To make the toast more interesting?"

"Jam isn't interesting," Neal scoffed.

"It's more interesting than butter," Emma said, frowning slightly.

"Not really."

"You can have a variety of jams," she argued. "Strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, apricot—"

"So what?"

"So, how many different kinds of butter can you have?"

"Why do you need various butters?"

"You don't need. It's just, it would make it more interesting. That's my argument—that the jam is more interesting than the butter. I never said it was more essential."

"Well, good. I prefer butter on my toast. I think butter is more essential than jam, hands down."

"As do I."

"Good."

Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, guest and non-guests alike! Please, continue to leave reviews, they bring joy to my heart. It increases my entire joy level, overall, but especially in my heart. Okay, stay awesome.