The Jolly Swan Surprise.

[itsapirateslife]

Ever since he'd started putting the finishing touches on his boat, Hook had been planning this party. When he realized it would line up perfectly with a certain someone's birthday, the plan was immediately modified.

The food he'd arranged from a local cafe was fairly simple, cut up fruit and vegetables with a variety of different sandwiches and meat pies, as well as some modern snacks like potato chips and the curly fries from the boardwalk. To drink, there was a juice and sodas as well as a fully stocked bar, all courtesy of funds from Hook's new job...not that he'd told anyone he'd gotten a job. It wasn't like there was any piracy to be had in Darrow and he would rather not have to put Emma in the position of having to arrest him.

He'd conspired with Henry, Charming and the others from their realm to make this a surprise for Emma. Some of the food was sitting on the table on deck but must of it was in the galley by the bar. In the center of the table under the deck was a cake made by Henry surrounded by cupcakes (There were some apple tarts, donated by Regina, but that had mysteries disappeared. Overboard. It's what the queen got for trying to clean his boat. It was perfectly clean thank you very much).

Hook had made sure to invite has many of both of their friends as possible and had them all gather on deck at the time Henry was supposed to bring Emma to the docks. There was a drape covering the name on the back of the boat. He was dressed in his pirate best, with his red waist coat and hook polished to a shine as he stood on the dock, two glasses of champagne perched next to him on a post.

[backdated to October 23rd. The boat looks like this yacht though the furnishings inside are much more rustic and only half the cabins have beds, the others are storage. The plumbing and electricity do work, but there are no TVs or anything by way of modern convenience outside of the galley.]

Comments

[princehonorable]

David shifts, settling Neal down into his carrier on the ground before he stands and stares fondly at Emma, thinking that she shouldn't have had to hold this tradition. He thinks back to his own birthdays as a child and knows, more than anything, that he would've given her the world. His heart seizes to think that he hadn't been capable and he tries hard not to feel guilty.

"If we weren't on a boat and I weren't so terrible at it, I would've baked you the biggest cake. I have twenty-eight years to make up for, don't I?" He still readily accepts the cupcake with a warm smile on his lips.

[storybrooke_savior]

Emma bent down quickly to kiss the top of Neal's head. "It's okay dad, you don't have to make up for something that wasn't your fault." She took a bite from the cupcake, made a face as frosting dotted the end of her nose. "And if you bake like I do, it's definitely okay, I'll pass. I'm awful. Ask Henry about the time I tried to make chocolate chip cookies for his school bake sale. It was a disaster." She might've been trying to change the subject, shift it somewhere a little more lighthearted. It had been a nice party so far, no sense in getting sad about the past.

[princehonorable]

"I do, though, even if only to satisfy my own internal guilt, I do," he admits, thinking of those nightmares he'd experienced back in the year they'd forgotten (temporarily) and how hard he'd tried to get away from them. "I'm not great," he admits. "Your mother's better," he says, missing her all the more for it. "Sometimes, I think how lucky I am to know that you carry on some parts of me, even if I couldn't raise you the way I wanted."

[storybrooke_savior]

"Maybe there is something to that whole nature versus nurture thing," Emma quipped, bumping her shoulder against David's. "Come on, dad, it's a party. No heavy thoughts allowed. It's supposed to be fun, you're Captain Buzzkill over here."

[princehonorable]

There's still delight every time she calls him 'Dad', to the degree that David flushes with the happiness of that. "You're right," he says decisively, trying to convince himself to move his mind away from darker, depressing thoughts. "Which means that I should find out where they're hiding the drinks, the cake, or both, and treat you to a few, huh?"

[storybrooke_savior]

"I think they're over here," Emma said with a quick grin, taking a bite of her cupcake and dotting the end of her nose with frosting in the process. "It's nice, isn't it? The boat. You should've seen it a few months ago, Killian put a lot of work into it."

[princehonorable]

"Killian?" he echoes, while he hides a fond and bemused smile. "Well, if Killian has put so much effort into it, maybe I'll ask Killian for a tour of it later." He's not sure he's said the man's name enough times. If Emma isn't red as a beet in a few seconds, he might have to say it a few more times.

[storybrooke_savior]

"Okay, first of all, stop saying his name like that," Emma replied, wrinkling her nose and cringing (and unfortunately turning a fairly impressive shade of pink). "Actually stop saying it, ever. I might have to stop saying it too, that's how weird that was."

[princehonorable]

Well, he's not sure if he's ever going to stop saying his name like that if that's the reaction he gets out of his daughter. "If you stop reacting like that, I'll stop saying it like that," he barters, but he's grinning and it's a fairly good sign that he's probably not going to stop. "What," he laughs. "I'm happy if you're happy, but I can make him and you squirm a bit, can't I? A father's owed that much."

[storybrooke_savior]

"As long as the squirming doesn't involve swordpoints and threats of a curfew," Emma allowed with a half-smile, figuring for anything else, well, Killian could handle himself.

[princehonorable]

"I'd like to think we left all that behind in Neverland." Which, saying that out loud makes him remember just how strange his life really is. "I'll save the curfews for your younger brother," he promises. "Maybe he'll turn out to be like his mother. ...before the bandit phase."

[storybrooke_savior]

"Oh yeah?" Curious now (and happy the subject was steering away from her personal life) she took another bite of her cupcake and wiped the unavoidable frosting dot from the end of her nose. "What was she like? I only got to see her in the past during the bandit phase."

[princehonorable]

"I only know stories," he reminds her. "After all, I first met her when she was robbing me," he points out. "But she told me about her mother and her childhood, how she was her father's daughter, absolutely and utterly. Of course, then Regina came along," he says, his voice even as he tries to remember that they're allies, now.

[storybrooke_savior]

"That seems to be how most of the stories go," Emma admitted, checking to make sure Henry wasn't anywhere nearby. They weren't really saying anything that wasn't true, but still. "And if it isn't Regina it was Gold--er, Rumpelstiltskin." Seeing everyone in the Enchanted Forest had created a huge divide in her mind, between Regina and the Evil Queen, Gold and the giggling reptilian psychopath he'd been back in the day.

[princehonorable]

"As strange as it sounds, I'm probably slightly more forgiving of Gold," he says, though slightly is a bare measure and it's only barely. "Between saving me from the dreamshade and giving me the locator to find Snow, there's at least something in there to keep me from immediate rage, though he does like to stress that, doesn't he." And David is all too aware that things only happen because Gold wants them to.

"Maybe we should focus on the here and now?" he suggests. "Past errors don't make for good current friendships."

[storybrooke_savior]

Emma wasn't interested in being friends with Gold, truth to tell. Something about him had never sat well with her and never would. But David had a point. "I gotta admit, seeing Regina in the past, it really made me realize how far she's come."

[princehonorable]

"From nearly killing you with her soldiers when you were a baby in my arms?" David poses, the bitterness long buried, but still there. He wishes he could be as forgiving as Snow, but he's not. He's still too stuck on aspects. "Then again, King George is just as vile in my mind. Our family really has a lot of enemies, when it comes down to it."

[storybrooke_savior]

Emma wasn't about to make excuses for Regina's past behavior, she so she merely gave her dad a quick side-hug. "She saved Neal," she did point out. Maybe it had been a group effort, but it had been Regina's use of light magic that'd won the day.

[princehonorable]

"I know," David promises with a firm nod of his head. "Trust me, it's complicated and I'd much rather it be simple, but I understand that Regina has a place in our family and I definitely want to encourage her to be on our side. Things are better that way."