This one's a little shorter than the others, just to keep the ball moving :) Let me know what you think so far if you get a chance :)
She smiled tiredly when she felt gentle fingers thread into her hair and scratch soothingly at her scalp, the smell of leather and coffee a welcome addition to her morning. He'd been patient with her whilst she'd worked through her guilt, had welcomed her onto his ship without question on the nights when she couldn't bear to sit in the apartment knowing what her Grandfather had done and without word from her son.
"I got you decaf, love" he bent to press a kiss to her curls, nodding to the cup he'd already set down in front of her in order to touch her, "I know you haven't been sleeping too well." and he would know for she'd spend most of the evening and the better part of the early morning with him before she'd return home and even then sleep evaded her most nights. She was exhausted, bone-weary but still she couldn't sleep.
Emma smiled softly, gratefully, as she leaned into him a little when he pressed another kiss to her temple before moving to sit opposite her. She stopped him with gentle fingers on his stomach, indicating for him to sit beside her instead with a pointed look down to the space she created as she shuffled further into the booth. He smiled affectionately before dropping down and pulling her into his side with an arm around her shoulders.
Her head instantly fell to rest on his chest and she exhaled a long breath through her nose when he began playing with the ends of her hair. It was as soothing as his scent and his mere presence, her eyes automatically falling closed after a succession of heavy lidded blinks. "Thank you for this week," she whispered quietly, almost drowsily.
"You don't have to thank me, Swan" he replied just as quietly as she, glad when she didn't argue but instead nuzzled in closer to him with an arm draped across his lap. He let his hand slide down from her hair to rub soothingly at her back, hoping to lull her to sleep in all honesty and he believed she was halfway there when the bell above the diner door rang out, making her jump slightly in his arms - awake once more then.
He felt the blonde at his side perk up the moment her son walked through the door, Roland attached to him at the hand as he spoke rather excitedly about something neither Killian nor Emma could hear from their booth. Henry listened intently, face expressive as he nodded and answered where necessary, his eyes never leaving the boy as they made their way over to the counter. Killian's soothing hand continued on Emma back though this time he hoped to offer comfort. He knew how her son not speaking to her was affecting her, hurting her. "He'll come around," he leaned in closer to whisper in her ear and though she nodded, he knew she didn't quite believe it.
He was watching her, smiling sympathetically when her focus changed completely, her lips parting softly in shock as her eyes widened. His brow furrowed first in concern but when she merely continued staring, clearly watching something, he followed her line of sight to find she was actually looking at someone - Regina.
Killian's expression coloured with surprise as he watched Regina enter the diner, Robin following close-by with a palm on the small of her back and the little finger of his free hand linked loosely with hers. It was a simple display of affection but he was quite sure, looking at the tense Queen, that it was one of the only things holding the brunette together at the moment.
The diner wasn't full nor was it particularly busy but still, as the eyes of others fell upon the new additions, the background noise seemed to fade to nothing. Henry's eyes rose from Roland - the young lad now sitting happily on a bar stool at the counter, quite oblivious to the change as he looked through the milkshake menu - his expression hard as he looked over those staring at his mother and it looked as though he was about to speak, to say something but he was swiftly interrupted by the arrival of Granny from the back kitchen.
She beamed at the family as Robin and Regina grew closer to the counter - it looked as though it took a little gentle coaxing on Robin's part with the rigidity of the brunette's spine - before shooting a quick look of warning to those watching the exchange and though the noise level didn't return to what it had been, some at least had the decency to pretend not to be listening.
They couldn't hear much else from their booth, gathered that Robin was ordering for the four of them and watched as Henry began pointing out various different flavours of milkshake to an enthralled Roland. Regina remained quiet but, having looked over to the boys as well, found herself moving closer to them, placing her hands on Henry's shoulders and smiling down at him when he seemed to lean into the contact. Instantly a smile lit Regina's features.
His hand fell to squeeze Emma's jean clad knee beneath the table, glad when he felt her hand come to fall over the top of his as her fingers curled around and into his palm. She lay her head back down on his shoulder and closed her eyes as a single tear trailed down from her eye, over her nose and down to wet the back of her hand resting on his still. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before laying his own against it.
He wasn't sure how long it had been when he began to feel a strange tugging sensation, the feeling making him a little dizzy and almost nauseous before, almost instantly, it dissipated completely. When he opened his eyes once more, he found himself more than a little shocked to be looking at his own bedroom walls rather than those of the diner and, looking down, he found Emma to be deeply asleep on his chest. It was only with the arrival of a newspaper that appeared in a plume of purple smoke did he realise what had happened. Regina had transported them both back to his ship.
He could see something circled in red on the page of the newspaper that it had fallen open to but he was loathe to wake the blonde practically laying on top of him and so, instead, he shuffled down a little further on the bed, wrapped his arms around Emma - quite amused to find that Regina had done him the favour of removing his hook and magicking it to rest on the table beside his bed - and allowed sleep to take hold of him.
They would discover later once they'd awoken a little more refreshed than they had been that morning, that Regina had circled a number of available apartments in town, a short note written on a patch of blank space in the Queen's script - do yourself a favour, Miss Swan.