5. eyes on the road

A/N: Short fluffy road trip fic, because I'm currently on a road trip and I'm missing my daily dose of Captain Swan.

"Killian, no." Emma waved his hand away from the CD player.

"If we're going to be stuck in this yellow contraption of yours for hours in a row, I would at least like to put on some music." He sat back in his seat with an expression reminiscent of a child who'd just been denied his fair share of ice cream.

"If I have to listen to "drink up me hearties" one more time, I'm making you walk the plank myself." She deadpanned, not planning on letting him have his way. She was currently really regretting her decision to teach him how the "magic music box", as he had dubbed it, worked.

Killian feigned a shocked and offended expression, but before he could get another word in, Emma continued.

"Besides, we're not 'stuck'." she added in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone. "We are on a road trip. This is one of the few times when there's no curse preventing us from crossing the borders of storybrooke. We shouldn't let that opportunity pass by without taking advantage of it."

"Fair enough, Swan. Although we could've gone on a sailing trip on the Jolly Roger too."

"I know, but I wanted to show you something… normal people in this world do. And that usually doesn't involve centuries-old pirate ships." Emma glanced over at him, offering a cheeky but sincere smile. Killian was truly settling into the way of life in Storybooke, and now that it had been relatively peaceful for a while, it was time for him to see a bit more of the land without magic.

He nodded in understanding before bringing up another suggestion.

"You know, your father has been teaching me how to drive, perhaps I could take the wheel for a bit."

"Forgive me if I don't trust my dad's driving lessons." Emma scoffed, thinking back to the last time he'd thought it was a good idea to let someone drive. "I haven't forgotten about the incident with Henry and the mail box yet." They both had a good laugh at David's expense.

"Did you know that was partially your fault, by the way?"

Killian returned her questioning look with a confused one, prompting her to explain.

"A little while ago he admitted that he simply couldn't accept the fact that his grandson thought that a certain pirate was more fun to spend time with."

Killian's face lit up with a mischievous grin. He'd no doubt use that information to tease David mercilessly. And Emma would be lying if she said that didn't amuse her greatly.

"It's not my fault I'm so charming. Maybe that name even suits me better than him, wouldn't you agree, Swan?" Okay, he was laying it on pretty thick now.

"Right. Anyway, I'll check your driving skills sometime when we're not on a busy highway."

"Sounds good to me. Actually…" The way he started the next sentence, with a low whisper and a raised eyebrow, immediately warned her of what was coming. "…I'm certain there's some other skills worth exploring further."

Yep, there it was. It earned him a barely surpressed chuckle and an expected eye roll. Satisfied with the results, he smiled and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to her temple. "Eyes on the road, love."

"You're making it very difficult."

"Aye, that I am."

—

They sat on the grass in a field filled with daffodils, a decent distance away from the road, enjoying the lazy sunlight of the late afternoon.

He made a show of cutting the bread with his hook, which turned out to be a pretty complicated process, and probably more beneficial for the ants and birds than for them. They ended up mostly eating just the slices of cheese. Easier to cut through.

Spending hours with only each other as company was a rare gift, and they treasured every minute of it, although admittedly they'd stopped caring about their PDA a long time ago. Still, it was nice knowing there wouldn't be any panicking dwarves or drunk thieves around to crash their date.

"We should probably get going sometime." Emma said, but her eyes told a vastly different story as she glanced up from her glass of wine to let her gaze rest on his lips.

"Probably. Sometime."

But from the moment he captured her lips with his own, they didn't even notice the sun going down and painting the sky various hues of red and orange until the first stars appeared in the dark blue night sky.

—

They stood near the yellow bug, their intentions of driving back home at a somewhat decent time interrupted once again. Killian stood behind her, guiding her hands, showing her the patterns in the constellations above them.

Wasn't it odd, playing a game of connect-the-dots with galaxies millions of light-years away from them? How could people have ever started to see a connection between those bodies of light, whom by all rights should never have found each other?

Then again, whenever the soft clang of her ring touching his hook rang through the quiet darkness, she found that she did understand. Some things were simply meant to be together as one unit, despite the time and distance the universe decided to put between them.