A/n: Cuz I got a prompt for Captain Charming + baby shenanigans and I felt like fluff (but beware the angst to come in future chapters of Fractured Moonlight and other assorted oneshots cuz allt his fluff lately has to let up SOMEWHERE lol!)

Review?

Killian hadn't felt like this before - not really, not before the newest royal child was born anyways. Every muscle was tense, nerves twitching, itching to do something though he wasn't entirely sure what. He leaned back against the kitchen counter, trying to relax the tension in his shoulders and failing, the urge to help rising in him as the seconds passed.

David was bouncing rhythmically with every step and cradling a bundle of blankets to his chest, making silly shushing noises with every bounce (to no particular end, seeing as the bundle in his arms continued its wailing).

"You're just gonna watch?"

"And what exactly is it that you wish me to do?"

David grumbled under his breath and didn't answer, either because he didn't have one or because he was too exhausted. Dark circles rounded his eyes, red and puffy from lack of sleep and his shoulders were slumped like a man barely holding himself upright.

He looked terrible.

Hook might enjoy the scene more if something else wasn't stirring in his gut, but he shrugged off the feeling when David groaned loudly, switching from the bouncing to a rocking motion.

Hook's eyebrow quirked and he tipped his head to the left playfully as he watched. "You know it's your own doing, mate."

David only glared and fumbled for his littlest daughter's blanket draped across Snow's rocking chair, tucking it around her as he rocked - the crying didn't stop.

"Just remember that in moments like these, Dave," Hook went on in a thoughtful tone, chewing his lip through a thinly veiled smile.

It was odd, watching his friend with a newborn child. Hells, it was odd being around one to begin with, but strangely enough not unwelcome. He found himself hanging around the house more often than usual, dropping by earlier for plans made with Emma, keeping a safe distance but watching her, taking her in - her tiny little fingers connected to miniature hands that flailed haphazardly, her fuzzy tufts of chocolate hair that was still coming in, the deep, grey-blue eyes that they told him would probably turn the bright blue of her father's… she was odd and she was terrifying and she was fascinating and he hoped no one had noticed the way that he watched.

He wondered in absent moments if he'd ever have something like this.

Charming looked back at the pirate with another glare that could kill, his patience wearing thin with his friend's jokes.

"Shutup, Hook," David growled and continued to cradle her warmly in the crook of his arm, murmuring quiet comforts to her as he walked.

Hook seemed unperturbed, his attention caught by the almost comically small hand that struck out of the bundle, something near to an early act of defiance at having been wrapped so tightly against the chill of the apartment.

"I'm only saying that it takes two, and she clearly got her pretty looks from her mother and her personality from her father," Hook went on cheekily. "You can't be frustrated with the lass for acting your daughter," he shrugged, pulling up a chair as if to watch the show.

David shook his head. "Yeah, laugh now, pirate, you just wait until it's your-" he cut himself off abruptly (or maybe his daughter's cries did it) and chuckled to himself as if he were being ridiculous for even thinking it. "What are you doing here, Jones?"

"Waiting for Emma. She said she had to go to her mother's appointment with her and asked for me to meet her here."

"Oh," he paused, frowning. "She said she was going somewhere with Emma, but I didn't think that she-" David stopped himself for a second time, a look of surprise dawning in his expression. He shook his head, as if to shake the thought away as he turned back to Hook. "She's not sick or anything?"

"Just a touch under the weather," Hook quickly shook his head, recognizing the look his Charming's eyes and raising a halting hand. "Emma has assured me that we've not got a wee one on the way. She was quite adamant about it in fact…" he added in a cross between a shrug and a sigh. "Unlike some, it appears we've quite mastered the art of avoiding procreation thus far."

Though he assumed that the mastery of such arts had more to do with the little pills Emma insisted on taking rather than letting nature take its course as it willed. She'd seemed rather startled when he'd suggested leaving it all up to fate (they had been each other's for some time now) and he hadn't pushed the issue, but now, watching David cuddle his sweet babe, a mix of his own face and his wife's staring up at him, he felt unsettled himself.

He wondered if Emma felt it too. He'd seen the way she looked at her new sibling, previously hesitant about the entire pregnancy and now so immediately in love with the child you'd think she was Emma's own. He couldn't understand how a woman so full of love and natural maternal instinct could believe herself unfit.

Unless it was him she thought was the unfit one.

Another piercing scream rose from David's arms, this time accompanied by wriggling, edges and folds of the blanket falling to the sides. "Evie… what do you want, sweetheart?" He groaned, sinking into the sofa with a whimper. "She won't stop. It's been almost an hour now and I can't get her to stop."

Hook hesitated, unsure if he was talking to him or just talking.

"I-I never had to do this with Emma," he confessed with another heavy sigh. "I never got to and I- I don't know what to do sometimes."

The pirate swallowed hard, pursing his lips into something of a reassuring smile. "You seem to be doing just fine now, mate. Maybe she's hungry?"

"I'll try it," he nodded. "Snow left a bottle for her. Could you keep an eye on her while I heat it up?" David asked, already standing and placing his child back into her crib without waiting for his reply.

Hook froze, his eyes suddenly wide, his mouth feeling dry. "I-"

Teasing and even admiring from afar was one thing, but having the responsibility of a human being thrust upon him was another entirely.

Especially such an angry one.

"Do I look as if I know how to calm an infant?"

"All you have to do is watch, Hook. Just one minute, please."

David left the room and after a brief moment of consideration, Hook cautiously stepped towards the crib.

In his younger days, Hook had once voiced the thought that nothing had terrified him more in his life than a thoroughly enraged lover (Milah, in particular. Gods, he had loved her with all of his heart, but the woman had a temper. The barmaid had touched him, after all. It wasn't his bloody fault the woman had been intent on bedding him). He'd had to revise that statement after he'd lost her, and now, as he stared down at the squalling child who had no other means of survival, who in this moment, looked to him and him alone for everything in the world that she could need - he was terrified.

Terrified and absolutely enthralled.

It was true, Emma had voiced little interest in having children of their own (though he was beginning to believe that it had more to do with her offhanded comments about failing Henry and needing to be there for him than anything else) and as often as he made it a point to toy with his mate over his very planned bundle of joy, he couldn't help but watch with a touch of longing when he saw Emma smiling down at her new younger sister or pinching her tiny, rosy cheeks. He couldn't help the thoughts that she could make a lovely mother to a wee babe or picture one of their own, attached to her breast or resting in their bed between them.

"What shall I do then?" He called, hoping his plea reached the kitchen.

"Just talk to her, Hook!" A pause. "And don't pick her up with the damned hook on! Actually, don't pick her up at all."

"You mean to say that I shouldn't skewer your child with a hook? I had no bloody idea!" he called back with a slight growl. "And I'm not wearing it!"

Truth be told, he hadn't worn it since the day at the hospital when Emma had brought him along to visit her parents after Baby Eva was born and the nurses had insisted on him removing it. He just… hadn't put it back on. He spent enough time with Emma at her parents' home and it felt wrong to wield something so dangerous and full of dark memories around something so fragile and innocent and pure.

"Hello little Lass," he began keeping his voice low and himself well away from the crib. Her face grew red with her cries and he heard Charming drop something in the kitchen, only to shout a very un-prince-like curse. Hook rolled his eyes and took a hesitant step closer. "Giving your father quite the run, aren't you, little love?" He chuckled, leaning gingerly against the wooden railing that Charming had carved himself as the baby continued to wiggle. Her cries slowly began to ebb, dissolving into fussing whimpers. "You know he's been up all bloody day and night because of you, don't you now? Cheeky little thing." The words came easier the more he spoke. "Between you and me, Darling, I think it's good for him," he chuckled again, and on a foolish whim, he reached out with his good hand to touch her outstretched clenching and unclenching fist. "Gotta keep the future king on his toes, aye?"

"Hook?"

Hook jumped back sharply, cringing and bracing himself for a verbal beating. He may not have been wearing a hook, but he still felt dangerous, something not meant to be around such a breakable, perfect thing like her.

"Sorry, I just-"

"No! Do that again, Jones."

His face contorted into a puzzled frown. "Do what?"

"Talk."

"About what?"

"Anything, just talk, talk, Hook, I think she likes your voice," David hissed, standing still in the center of the room, bottle clutched in hand as he waited.

"What? Like this? Why would she…" he looked over to see her eyes opened wide, her tear-stained cheeks pink and full; her gaze was fixed on him intensely as her lip trembled and her chest heaved. "Is that what you like then? My voice?" He grinned, half proud, half amused, just a hint of an ache in his chest.

A full minute passed and Hook easily fell into another awkward conversation with the infant, commenting on her pretty brown hair and telling her that she was going to be a princess, but not one of those pretentious princesses that lived for riches and snobbery - not with a sister like hers. He got lost for a moment, amused by the way she stared back at him as if she were actually listening to him. Hook jumped slightly when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Wow, that was… thanks, Hook," he paused thoughtfully. "You know, you're gonna be fine," David said finally in the sort of tone that you could hear the smile in his voice. "When it's your turn," he clarified with a soft, nervous laugh.

Hook stiffened. "Are you… giving us your blessing?" His lips curved into a smirk of amusement.

"I'm saying," David replied firmly, "that you're… not all that bad at this after all."

Hook smiled, shaking his head. "I'm not sure I'll get the chance, but… I appreciate the sentiment, Dave." He looked back over his shoulder once more. "I truly do."

The prince shrugged and gently picked up his calmed daughter from her crib, walking across the room towards the empty rocking chair.

"Oh, I don't know, Hook."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you implying that you know something that I don't, mate?"

"Only that Snow didn't have an appointment today."