Captain Swan moment coming up! Hope you guys enjoy Please remember to review if you've got something good to say or some helpful feedback for me!

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time

Chapter 3: Advice

Work went by excruciatingly slowly. It was horrible. Everytime she pulled out a new file full of paperwork she would read the same sentence twenty times before it even made sense. She had already stuffed herself with three bear claws in the span of three hours. She kept telling herself they weren't comfort food, but everytime she asked David to go get her one as he went out to run an errand he would look at her with eyes that said more than his words ever could. She was already dreading the father-daughter pep talk that was sure to come. As close as she felt to David, she wasn't used to getting fatherly advice. It was still weird to her, and she never really knew what to do with the advice after he gave it to her.

She heard the door fall shut and she desperately tried to hide herself behind her folder. She heard footsteps in her office and a few seconds later another bear claw was lowered in front of her face. She slowly lowered the file and sheepishly glanced up at her father, Prince Charming. Yet another thing she wasn't used to.

"I overheard your conversation with Mary Margaret this morning." He said after a few moments of silence.

"You do realize I don't really want to have this conversation."

"You really think that I'm going to let you off that easy?" David gave Emma his easy going smile and she couldn't help but let her guard down.

"Exactly how much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you could use some of my incredible fatherly advice." He looked down at her expectantly, and grabbed a chair to sit down next to her.

"I don't really know how to start these things."

"Neither do I, but I think we've done okay so far. Why don't I start, and we'll just see how this goes."

"Alright…" Emma didn't look convinced, but her father decided to plough on ahead anyway.

"I understand that you're confused between these two guys. Honestly, I'm not too pleased with either one of them, but that's probably just because I'm your father and I don't really want to see you with anyone anyway. Neal hurt you, and I won't forgive him for that, but I can understand if you can. You guys have history, and you can't forget that. Just like your mother and I couldn't forget that we had some kind of history even when we weren't able to remember where we were from or who we really were. As for Hook…"

Emma cut him off. "You're just going to tell me to stay away from him, aren't you?"

"Not neccesarily. Hook isn't as bad as I thought he was. Coming from me, that's saying something. He really did try to help me when we were over in Neverland. And yes, before you stop me, I know that he did that mostly for you, in fact he pretty much told me so, but that doesn't matter. If he's willing to do that for you… I can't fault him for that."

"Well that was suprising." Emma was sort of astounded.

"Look, I believe that life is made up of moments. And sure, most of the time it seems like there are more bad ones than good ones. I've been there myself. But you've got to find the good ones in between the bad ones. Because otherwise, what are we even doing? If you can't find one good moment with one of these guys to outweigh all the bad ones, that's when I would say that it's not worth it."

"How do I know you're still not trying to keep me away from Hook? I can feel a slight 'bromance' brewing between you too."

"Emma, you forget, I'm a married man." Emma chuckled at her father's ridiculous words. Although she hadn't been kidding about the bromance.

"Emma, look. All kidding aside, do you understand what I'm trying to say to you?"

"Yeah, I think so. But to be honest, I think it's safer for me to stay away from both of them for a while."

"That's your choice. And I'll support you in it no matter what."

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As Emma was headed over to the diner to pick up dinner, she reflected on her day with slight disdain. It had been emotionally draining, more so than she had thought possible, and she couldn't wait to get home, eat Granny's lasagna in front of the TV with Henry, and head straight to bed. When she walked up to the door she heard a huge cry of laughter and wondered what was happening inside. As she opened the door and the familiar bell rang, she saw the dwarves surrounding a man dressed in head to toe leather. There was only one man dressed like that, and she wasn't mentally prepared to run into him today. Ducking her head, she walked swiftly to the counter and asked Ruby to get her food as quickly as possible, already getting the money out of her wallet. As Ruby headed into the kitchen, the laughter from the group died down and she heard the familiar sound of people shuffling out of booths to let someone else pass. Desperately hoping it was Grumpy or Sneezy, she focused all her attention on the no-smoking sign behind the counter.

"Wasn't expecting to see you here tonight, Swan. I'll admit, it's quite the pleasant surprise."

Emma mentally cursed her luck and turned to face the pirate. He had his all-too familiar smirk on his face, and he was clearly checking her out. Emma rolled her eyes at him, and he smiled infuriatingly at her. She couldn't help but look up into his eyes, which seemed to be turquoise blue tonight, and she sucked in a deep breath before mentally slapping herself and averting her gaze. He chuckled, and shifted ever so slightly, but just enough that their arms were touching as they both leaned against the bar. Emma hated to admit it, but she could feel the warmth emanating from his body in waves, and she couldn't help but feeling a twisted kind of pleasure at his proximity.

"Waiting for your take-away, I see. Too bad you asked the lovely Ruby to go get it, I quite like the look of her behind the bar." He said, still with that devillish grin on his face.

"Oh really? Maybe you should tell her that, I'm sure she'd be pleased to be hit on by a man who has literally worn the same clothes since the day I met him. Which, incidentally, is what, a bit more than a year ago now? Who knows, maybe she likes the smell of dead fish and year-old sweat on a man." Emma said, quite proud of herself for sounding so self-assured. Honestly though, she could feel her hands shaking.

"So you've noticed what I've been wearing, eh, Swan? I can tell you that I've most definitely reciprocated that favour myself more than a few times."

"Oh just shut up and get back to your new friends. I'm sure they're just pining for you company."

"As you wish, miss Swan." He winked at her, grabbed her hand, and planted a light kiss on her palm before letting it drop. "As you wish."

Emma was trying desperately not to sputter some bad retort, so instead she just stared at him with wide eyes as he once more smiled that smile and walked back to his table. She followed him with her gaze as he walked away , and only turned back towards the counter once he sat down again at his booth. She was faintly aware of Ruby talking to her, but all she could focus on was the warmth still coming from the place where his lips had touched the skin on her hand.

"Emma, Emma? Hello, earth to Emma? I've got your food ready. You might wanna grab onto it before it gets cold."

Emma snapped out of her daze and looked at Ruby expectantly.

"Right, right! Thanks, Ruby. Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it. Hook may be an ass, but he's a good looking one at that, and I'd probably be a little dazed too if he said goodbye to me that way." Ruby winked at her, which only made Emma think of Hook winking at her, which just made her all the more confused.

"Right. Okay. Well thanks for the food, see you soon."

As Emma made her way to walk out the diner, she could have sworn that she could feel Hook's eyes following her out the door, much the same way his eyes had followed her when she had walked away from him in Neverland.

I'm sorry, I just really needed to add in the bromance between Charming and Hook. Couldn't help myself. I hope you guys like it so far, and I'll update ASAP!