Sofa Woes
Many thanks for last week's reviews. A special thanks goes to XoxPhoenix10 for the wonderful idea she had given me. Apologies for the last of mention, but I didn't want to give anything away ;)
Emma looked proud of herself as she presented Killian Jones with her gift for him.
"Tadaa!"
The man next to her, however, looked unimpressed.
"Lass, this is just another one of those sofas. And it's smaller than the one you had me use. Have I done anything to displease you recently?"
Emma sighed and tried to think rationally. Killian Jones had been good. He had not gone after Gold at all, had been very polite to Lacey and even tried to steer her back to Gold, to everyone's amazement. He had been helping around town, to the point where parents no longer pulled children across the road when he came towards them. Thanks to Ruby's help, he even had some business as an emergency repair worker, unafraid to go patch up roofs during a storm, and plenty of business maintaining orchards on the southern outskirts of the town. He was even doing some forestry, and Emma was going to suggest to Regina that since he could leave town, they made him the local Ranger, with no danger of him losing his memory.
But he still knew that people did not trust him completely. And he did not know everything about the world. So it made sense he had no idea she was rewarding him.
"Actually, it's a present for you. Let me show you how it works."
"Emma, lass, I think you underestimate me. I know that you sit on…" He trailed off as he saw that her leaning forward, pressing some hidden lever, and the sofa folded itself out into a large, wonderful bed.
The man beside her was struck speechless, while she continued to gloat. "It's called a sofa bed. We use these here to allow guests and such to sleep in comfort when they visit. That way people don't need to keep a spare bed in storage."
Killian decided to test it out. He was on it, gingerly, and discovered that while it was not the most comfortable bed he had ever encountered, it had a pronounced advantage on the sofa he used to sleep on. For one, he would no longer have an imprint of flowers on his face…
Emma joined him, and after a moment flopped backwards. He followed suit. A few minutes of silence followed.
"Killian, can I ask you something?" The fact that she had asked, and not demanded an answer. She took the silence as confirmation. "Why are you no longer going after Gold? Don't get me wrong, I am glad, but it's not like you. The Captain Hook I know always has an agenda and would not give up revenge easily."
Killian scoffed at the suggestion. "I'm not giving up." Seeing Emma's face, he hastily amended. "I mean, I am not going to hurt him anymore. I figured I'd already done enough, actually. And it had occurred to me that maybe I had been manipulated."
Emma continued to look at him.
"Let's just say that I had met Neal before." And there it was, the little bit of light going out of her eyes, thinking he lied again. "I only realised a week or so ago, when I heard him tell Henry about Neverland. I used to know him as Bae, you know?" Now his companion's face looked incredulous. He continued. "After Milah was murdered, I went there. And found a young boy, who told me about being abandoned by his mother and then his father. I took him under my wing and taught him to defend himself, pick locks, the like. Told him about how horrid the crocodile was. Took me a while to work out who he had been." He fell silent. "Milah had not mentioned him. Even once. When I had asked her who the child I had seen with her husband was right after I took her away, that first day, she shrugged and said it had been a child Rumplestiltskin had adopted to inherit his trade."
He fell silent.
"How could she just disown him like that?"
Emma had no word for him.
"The Crocodile is still a coward. But even I have to admit that casting a curse that could kill everyone, including oneself, in order to find your most precious person? Live 300 years in despair to do so? I cannot forgive him, but I do think he is punished enough. The son he loved and risked everything for has been turned against him by me, the woman he truly loves has forgotten him. And yet, he does not give up."
"And then, Henry lent me his book. Imagine how I felt when I found out that the only reason she left him was because she didn't want children? She had affairs, even after she joined my crew. And I was too blinded by her to see."
Emma looked on, holding her breath.
"So, lass, I do not plan to hurt him, unless he rips the heart of someone out again." He stopped talking and rolled over to face the saviour. Their faces were only a few inches apart.
She swallowed.
"It appears, princess, that you have found yourself in my bed." One of the eyebrows went up suggestively, and his usual grin spread over his face. "Since I am such a good host, how would you like to me entertain you."
The last words came out as she had expected - a breathy innuendo. She was surprised, however, to find that her throat was dry and her face slowly turning red. She pushed away and sat up.
"Well, I ll leave you to settle in. The switch is over there." She walked out, and towards the apartment door, heading out for the office.
So, how did this thing work again. Killian figured that if he wanted to manoeuvre around the flat, he would need to fold the thing away. However, since he had no idea how to do it without breaking the thing, he decided to follow Emma's instructions. Right, switch on the side, somewhere under the cushions.
He reached around the side, and tried to find the button.
Nope, nothing.
He tried again. Still, he felt nothing.
The logical solution was to look for the button rather than searching blindly. So he climbed onto the bed and felt around with his hand.
And then he found the button. And pressed it.
Emma came home several hours later, intent on having lunch and seeing how Killian was getting on with his new toy.
The flat was incredibly quiet, nothing stirring. This was strange, as the presence of boots suggested that someone, at least, was in.
She walked though the flat searching. There was no one downstairs, and he was not in her room or in Henry's. She checked the bathrooms and came up empty.
She checked the back garden and the roof, but those were empty as well.
Perplexed, she wondered to their 'living room' and sat herself down on the sofa.
A second later she was promptly off it, having heard an "OW!"
Everything was silent for a second, as she looked around for the source of the voice.
"Lass, are you going to help me out?"
The sofa just spoke.
It took her only a second to reach the conclusion of what must have happened. It took her only one more to spring into action and work her hand to the button, releasing her flat mate.
Killian Jones lay at the bottom of the sofa cavity, looking rather uncomfortable, having been squished by all matter of metal parts.
"Am I to assume that you are still unhappy with me, for what ever reason? I have not gone after the Crocodile or his lady, as promised. And yet, this is your reward to me?"
It took her several hours to get him to safely work the sofa, but come night, he refused to sleep on it for fear that he would be swallowed by it.
In the end, she ended up changing to pyjamas and joining him with her own pillow and covers to convince him of its safety.
That, she figured, must have been his plan after all. He was certainly mastering the tech and doing so in cunning ways.
AN: Unfortunately, I am down with both a cold and writer's block. But I can promise you that the next chapter will be here on Sunday, as always. ^_^
