Once Upon a Time 1. Killian and Freya

"How do I look?" Killian asked, giving princely twirl in his new overcoat. Freya, his Osprey daemon, looked up from where she was  
doing her own preening to give him an unimpressed look.  
"What? Is there something wrong?" the Captain frowned a bit, looking down, personally, he thought his new coat was quite  
ravishing. It was a dark reddish brown with golden buckles along the neckline and, according to Belle, it brought out his eyes.  
The Osprey sighed, and put down her wing and took a look at her human.  
"Nothing, it's just, don't you think she'll notice if you  
suddenly start dressing up for your meetings?" the bird asked,  
tilting her head at his surprisingly groomed hair and trimmed beard.  
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to fancy up every now and then" he defended, straightening his coat. The bird made an  
annoyed squawk before doing a jump-flap to land on his shoulder.  
"I'm not saying there is, but I do think she'd get a little suspicious if you brush your hair down so flat. Besides, I don't think it's very becoming" she hummed, using her beak to scruff his hair a bit more. The daemon pulled back a little to examine her  
human entirely before nodding.  
"See, that's much better. At least now you look a little more like yourself"  
"Like myself?"  
"Well, when you flatten your hair and trim your beard to low, you begin to look like her father, the Prince. And I don't know about you, but I don't find that very attractive" Freya giggled, placing a few stray hairs into place.  
Hook scrunched up his nose in distaste,  
"You're right. I don't think she'd like that, scruffy hair it is then?" he asked, tilting his head to look at Freya with  
affection. She nodded and Hook took one last look in the mirror.  
"Well, off we go then, to see our dearest Swan" he smiled  
"Not to mention the ever-so-handsome, Julius"  
"Of course"


	2. Snow White and Evander

Snow sat at the edge of her bed, twiddling with Evander's fur nervously. Evander sat on the floor by her side, head on her lap, gentle brown eyes looking up at her with sympathy.  
"Are you sure about about you saw?" she asked him, her voice shaking. The albino deer lifted his great head.  
"Lovely, you know I wouldn't lie about such a thing" he  
replied. Snow searched his face for any sign that he would, though she knew he was telling the truth.  
"I know you wouldn't. I just... Sometimes I still see her as the little baby that we had to put in that portal... I just..." she trailed off, tracing patterns in his white fur.  
"I understand, Lovely, first time I saw Julius, he was barely formed, blink of an eye later and he's settled. It's a bit of a shock to the system." the daemon crooned soothingly, nudging her with his nose.  
They were silent a few moments, human and daemon, both lost in reminiscent thought.  
"What will Henry think about having a new little brother or sister?" Evander pressed jokingly, Snow laughed at the thought,  
"He'll be a good big brother... but the question is, will he be a good uncle?" Snow thought out loud, she still had yet to tell either of her children about her expectancy, though her husband was already aware and thrilled about it.  
"I'm sure he'll be great, he was with Neal. No reason this babe should be any different" Evander snorted playfully.  
Snow looked down at her stomach, which was already beginning to swell with child. The pendant her mother-in-law gave her said it was to be a girl. Her daemon softly pressed his nose to her side and closed his eyes in attempt to find any sign of spirit. When a flicker of light dashed behind his eyelids, he grinned.  
"She's going to be a wild one. I can feel it" he hummed  
"Well, we better prepare"  
"We absolutely must"


	3. Henry and Hera

"You're going to put your eye out with that thing" Hera piped from where she was currently coiled on a nearby bench.  
"No I'm not! You sound like Grandma" he called back,  
tossing a wooden sword from hand to hand, trying to twist it in his grasp. The stick twirled a bit far and smacked his shin, it wasn't heavy, but the impact stung.  
"Ow!" he yelped, leaning down to rub the soon-to-be bruise.  
"Told you" the snake hissed, lifting her head to watch.  
"I didn't put my eye out, it just hit my leg" Henry  
muttered before grabbing the wooden toy and standing back up.  
"Do you think I'll ever be a knight, Hera?" the boy asked, pretend-jabbing at an invisible enemy. The daemon was silent for a few moments to consider,  
"I suppose if we ever get back to the Enchanted Forest you might. You'll be a Prince, but I think you'll train as knight, since the throne will go to your mother." she said, tongue flicking thoughtfully.  
Henry chuckled at the thought of his mother ruling a fairy-tale Kingdom. Hosting parties and going to diplomatic meetings, that just didn't seem like her.  
"I don't think Mom will ever rule the kingdom, by the time Grandma and Grandpa are old enough to pass on the throne, she'll be about the same age" he told the snake, twirling around to  
begin attacking another enemy behind him.  
"Doesn't that mean the throne will go to baby Neal?" Hera asked, blinking her black eyes at him.  
"Or Rose, she might become Queen" Henry added, in a moment of distraction, the sword once again fell from his grasp,  
thankfully this time it avoided his leg.  
With a defeated sigh he went to join his daemon on the bench. The narrow snake immediately curled around his arm and wrist, head comfortably nestled on his shoulder.  
"One day, Hera, we'll get to finally see this home we were meant to be born in" he sighed, looking up at the sky.  
"That is, if your mother ever gets around to sending us back there for good" Hera responded tartly.  
"She will. I'm sure of it."


	4. Emma and Julius (And Hook)

Everything had been going fine, everyone sitting round a table at Granny's, planning on how to stop Zelena. It had been going great, that was, until Julius strolled up to Hook and pressed his head to the man's side. Hook seemed not to see anything wrong with this and merely placed a hand on the daemon's head and scratched affectionately.  
Emma, on the other hand watched, slack jawed at the easy way the two interacted. Now, she knew that in Storybrooke, people touching other people's daemons weren't that much of a big deal, not like in the real world; and she had barely gotten used to petting Eros's back, or giving Evander a gentle stroke on the nose, but she had made it very clear that she wasn't comfortable with people touching Julius, at least not yet.  
However, here they were, with Julius was practically fawning over the Captain, placing his head in the man's lap and purring loudly enough for everyone at the whole table to hear. Snow, who had been sitting next Emma, watched the whole situation go down, holding back a giggle. Great, now her mom was watching her daemon make a fool of himself.  
"Julius! Julius, get over here" she whispered angrily out of the corner of her mouth. The rest of the residents at the table continued on, as they saw nothing amiss with the way the Caracal was acting. The daemon turned his massive head, green eyes half closed with content, and hesitated a moment before shaking his head no.  
Hook, feeling the movement, glanced down to see Emma anxiously trying to get her daemon back to her side. The Captain thought about it a moment, if the sensation of being touched been uncomfortable or unpleasant, he doubted the Caracal would have come up to him in the first place. Being the instigator that he was, the pirate ran his hand down the big cat's spine, scratching at the base of his neck before returning his hand to the cat's head.  
Emma narrowed her eyes at Hook angrily, sure, having Julius being touched wasn't painful, and it certainly wasn't unpleasant but she wasn't going to stand with the blatant disobedience and lack of help on his part.  
_'Fine' _she thought  
_'Two can play at that game'. _With a huff, she turned her gaze to Freya, Hook's Osprey daemon, and quietly beckoned the bird forward. The Osprey hop-flapped under the table, climbed up Emma's leg and made herself comfortable in the woman's lap.  
Hook shivered a little, it has been a while since someone had interacted with his daemon without the intent of trying to kill them, and the touch was a bit of a shock. Still, he relaxed a bit, turning his eyes to look at Emma, who was looking down at Freya and petting gently down her back.  
Both caught each other's gaze, and instead of looking away, like the Captain usually did, he held it. The two stared at each other a few long moments, neither giving away any emotion in their face before someone at the table cleared their throats.  
Emma and Hook turned to see that everyone at the table was looking at them, holding back laughter. Emma looked down to see Freya smirking, as much as a bird could, and turned to see Julius giving her a similar smile. She coughed embarrassedly, both her and Hook's faces going red with embarrassment.  
"You were saying" she mumbled quietly, everyone at the table gave a quiet laugh and continued with the conversation, stopping every once and a while to chuckle or glance at them.

* * *

When the meeting had finally come to an end, Emma told her family she'd walk home, which was actually just a bad excuse for trying to escape from talking about what had just taken place. As Emma parted from the group and started down the sidewalk that led to her apartment, she turned on Julius, putting her hands on her hips and giving the cat a scolding look.  
"What the hell was that about?" she growled, the daemon gave her a nonchalant look and lifted his paw to groom it.  
"I've no idea what you're talking about" he said, voice muffled as he groomed his fur.  
"Damn well you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you going up to Hook and giving him doe eyes the whole night" she huffed, crossing her arms angrily.  
"And?"  
"And nothing! We agreed we'd slowly build up to people touching you"  
"What can I say, I'm impatient" the cat drawled, switching legs to clean.  
"That's a dumb excuse and you know it" she retorted. The Caracal gave a sigh and placed his paws down, looking up at his human, annoyance glittering in his eyes.  
"You need to stop denying your feelings, you can be a little indulgent every now and then, no one's going to kill you for it" he growled, tail flicking back and forth.  
"I'm not denying anything!" she shouted, throwing her arms out for emphasis. The daemon sighed and rolled his eyes, walking past her.  
"Denial"  
"I'm not in denial" she mumbled  
"That's exactly what someone who is in denial would say" he purred,  
"Shut up" she grumbled, following him begrudgingly. The cat smiled up at her and pressed his head to her leg as they walked.  
"Whatever helps you sleep at night."


End file.

Once Upon a Time, Family, Humor