Also why does Hook think Emma is avoiding him when it’s only been “almost a full day” since their kiss (basing that time frame on Rumple saying he and Belle had been married “almost a full day” and the CS kiss happened at the same time as the wedding). Was Hook expecting Emma to suddenly be attached to his hip?
Of course he was. His experience with women is having them fall at his feet, (sometimes because they had too much booze in them to actually be able to stand, but falling for him nonetheless), and his last actual meaningful relationship, Milah, ditched her husband, her kid, and her home at the drop of a hat to devote herself to being with him 24/7. It may annoy me how he’s bugging Emma, it annoys me to see him act pathetic with the puppy eyes, but at least it’s true to character in the sense that he honestly wouldn’t be expecting her to be so resistant, given his previous experience with women.
So I decided that 401 with Neal would have gone mostly the same, but instead of Hook pestering Emma, Neal would have been understanding and kind and sympathetic and told her to take her time and get her bearings. And when Emma said have patience, he wouldn’t have made an off hand comment about being patient until a monster came and killed him. Neal would have understood.
Neal wouldn’t have tried to come onto her in the first place because he understands that that’s not a thing she needs on top of the current situation.
Also, I wonder if Neal might have gone to seek out Regina? He’d care about her being messed up because that has the knock on effect of Henry (and Emma) being upset, so after giving her some time to chill out a bit, he might have gone to find her and been all, “Look, it sucks when your parent is going all evil and lashing out at everyone, you and I both know that, and our kid shouldn’t have to deal with that, so I know it’s not always easy to make the right choices, but please just think before you do anything nuts and end up alienating Henry for 300 years.” Of course, then they couldn’t have her go and do the nutty thing without it making her look worse, so that might not have worked in the grand scheme, but it woulda been nice to see Neal and Regina almost bonding over the evil parent situation they both know so well.