storybrooke_savior | for hook: i'd rather make sandcastles instead of these wide-world decisions

Being a kid again was in many ways like having a kid: it was a near daily exercise in 'I've actually always wanted to do this, and now I have an excuse to'. Unfortunately there were a few very obvious trade-offs in the 'being a kid again' situation. Loss of fine motor skills. And muscle tone. And patience (which, admittedly, Emma Swan had not possessed in spades even as an adult with more impulse control and a more even temper). And it turned out that building an impressive castle out of sand was a lot harder in practice than it actually sounded. The sand couldn't be too wet, or too dry, the buckets were useless, and Emma had collapsed the same tower at least twice by knocking into it with her elbow or her knee, because she was a clumsy preschooler and they kept getting in her way. Her first attempt the day before had pretty much ended with her scowling at a shapeless pile of wet sand.

She had a plan, though.

She was enlisting the pirate's help.

All right, sure, she had no idea if Hook knew anything about sand castles, but he was a pirate and therefore had spent a lot more time on beaches than Emma had, so it seemed perfectly logical to her. She spent the walk to the shoreline giving him the highlights of her very strange week. "It hasn't been all bad," she admitted, swinging her buckets and kicking at sand with her tiny feet. "When you're short and cute people practically throw ice cream and candy at you. I'm the right size for the swing sets and the slide at the park. But it's really weird to look at Roland at eye-level. And Regina smiling at me, all warm and maternal and sweet? That goes beyond weird. That's scary."

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This was the strangest thing Hook had experienced in the city. Here was the woman he loved walking beside him, in the body of a four year old. Emma was a beautiful child, and Hook couldn't help thinking back to his attempt to be a father to Baelfire in Neverland. He'd loved the boy then and it hadn't gone away when he'd seen Neal again, even while dueling with him for Emma's affections. This was...the exact opposite. He already loved Emma...and it took everything he had not to father the four year old version. She already had her father here for that.

It hadn't taken much for her to talk him into building sandcastles with her. He'd never built anything like it, but he had used sand as a defense before so had some idea how to construct with it. He was dressed in my casual cloths, though still with long sleeves to protect the socket and hook.

"I can imagine where Regina's sudden change in demeanor would be alarming." Hook said, shuttering at the very idea. While he'd see the look on the queen's face when he looking at Henry, having it directed at him would be rather strange. "And I should think you will miss your father's devout attention when you are grown again."

Emma twisted her lips into something resembling a pout, as she was trying not to think too hard about that. "It's been kinda fun," she agreed, sighing a little and crouching down to pluck a broken sand dollar from the ground and deposit it into one of her buckets. She could use it for decoration. "Though I gotta remember to punch Delsin for laughing at me when I can actually put something behind it, the punk. He thought it was hilarious."

She was quiet for few moments as she kicked at sand to unearth shells and sand dollars and various bits of debris she could use. "Can I ask you something that's personal and probably really inappropriate given the situation?"

Big words were never not going to sound weird in her cutesy little preschooler voice, but she'd spent the last few days getting over it. Amongst other things.

Hook had observed her picking up things up and made a note of what things caught her eye. Occasionally, he's pick things up to put in her bucket, but some were palmed into his pocket. "You have to admit, it is amusing. And Charming's wish come true." The his chuckle turned dark. "I'll hold him if you like." No one laughed at his Emma.

Her question drew him to raise his eyebrows and consider his pint sized companion. "Aye. Go ahead." What on earth could he ask him that would by inappropriate while she was a small child? Actually, he could think of a lot of things and suddenly he was had an ominous feeling.

"Traitor," Emma huffed when Hook pointed out the hilarity of the situation. It would've been funny to her, admittedly, if it'd happened to someone else. Now, however, it never would be, she'd only ever be able to sympathize and pity anyone else that fell under this weird...whatever it was.

She smiled a little, wiping some sand from a hunk of green sea glass and holding it up to the sunlight. "Dad's definitely having fun being Superdad. He'd buy me a pony if he could, and I wouldn't outgrow it as soon as this...whatever it is is over. Anyway," she added quickly, waving off the sticky and uncomfortable subject of her dad and all the things they'd missed out on because of Regina and Gold, "I was just wondering, if you and Milah ever talked about, um. You know. Children. And having them, ever."

She may have waved off a sticky and uncomfortable situation for her but she brought up a gut wrenching one for him. It was about the opposite of what Hook had expected her to ask and he faltered in his steps beside her for a moment from shock.

He was silent for a moment and he closed his eyes, biting back the pain that still came at the thought of his beloved Milah, his first true love. Finally, Hook drew a deep breath and spoke softly. "We did. We wanted to have our own children, eventually. But she was still harboring guilt over leaving Baelfire and wasn't ready quite yet. I was willing to give her all the time she needed but we both know how that ended."

Hook cleared his throat and took another deep breath. "Why do you ask?"

It hadn't been Emma's intention to hurt him, but then, save for a few occasions when she'd intentionally tossed out barbed words that were absolutely intended to cut, it never was.

"Just curious," she replied quietly, wriggling her fingers to dislodge the sand grains sticking between them. "I know you don't remember it yet, but you were really good with Henry, back in Storybrooke. He liked hanging out with you--though I don't think Regina appreciated you teaching him how to steal boats and cheat at dice."

A fact that Regina had been quick to let Emma know, but as she had then, she rolled her eyes and waved it off. Emma had done a hell of a lot worse than that in her time, and she didn't have any concerns about Henry taking to piracy or hustling pool at the Rabbit Hole.

More of Emma's words hurt more then intended then she thought. But Hook was used to heartache so he hadn't held it against her.

Hook couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of him teaching Henry how to steal and cheat. "He's a smart young lad. All lads should learn how to have a little fun and I think he would be smart enough to know when not to engage in such behavior." It was a testament to Regina and Emma. They had birthed and raised a fine young man. It had hit home how much of Baelfire he'd seen in him once he'd learned the parentage of the boy.

"I'm not worried about him getting into trouble," Emma remarked with a fond, proud smile, plopping down in the sand and digging in with her shovel. "Sometimes I actually wish he'd get into a little trouble--the normal kind, not the kind involves witches and kidnapping and the stuff that always seems to find us no matter where we go or what we do. Normal pre-teen boy trouble."

"He's the grandchild of Snow White and Prince Charming and the grandson of Rumpelstiltskin." Hook pointed out with a small amused huff. "Abnormal trouble of that nature is his birthright. And yours too, come to think of it." The huff turned into a chuckle again. "Though the normal kind does have it's advantages. It sounded like you and Baelfire embraced it once."

Emma scrunched up her nose and groaned, because she knew Killian was exactly right. They were probably going to have that kind of trouble for the entirety of their lives. "Oh well. At least I can dream." Her smile was quick and a little mischievous when he brought up her misspent youth with Neal. "We made it work for us and we were actually pretty good at not getting caught. It was even fun sometimes."

"I am hardly going to be the one disapprove. That kind of trouble is always fun." There was a certain rush to stealing and scamming, especially those that deserved it. It was a special kind of justice.

He stopped as they walked and probed a patch of sand with his foot. "Here. This will be a good place to start." It was just the right mix of dry and wet with little to no debris.

"I guess you'd know," Emma remarked with a soft giggle. "Do you miss it? I know you stole a boat and all but that's not exactly the same as hardcore privateering."

Beaming, Emma plunked her bucket down and followed his example of testingly nudging at the sand with her toes. "Okay. What do we do first? Make the foudation? Do I go get some water? Do we dig a hole? This is my first day on the job, none of my foster families were that big on taking trips to the beach."

for hook: i'd rather make sandcastles instead of these wide-world decisions

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