A/N: Look, a new story! Reviews or comments always welcome :) Enjoy! - M

This town was too freaking small. Emma also had an unfortunate skill of being able to spot him in just about any situation. She wondered if she could make it over to the counter to get her coffee before he saw her. Or maybe she should just turn around and make do with the station's coffeemaker. It wasn't so bad was it? But no, her hesitation at the doorway meant he had seen her too. And now he was waving her over. Good Lord, she couldn't catch a break.

"Killian, hi."

"Emma, hello." He smiled as if he was mocking her. She reigned in the urge to roll her eyes. She would be pleasant in these situations if it killed her.

"How are you?" She hoped he couldn't hear the bite behind her words.

"Oh, I'm grand. I'm really, really well. How are you?"

"Good. Just heading to work. Wanted to say hi."

"Well, hello." Geez, this conversations was so stilted. She could try harder, probably, but would that really be better? Probably not.

"Well. It was good to see you but I should head to work." She slowly backed away from the table, hoping to make a break for it over to Ruby, who would hopefully be standing by with her coffee ready to go.

"Good to see you too. Bye, Emma." He nodded, smiling again and Emma quickly turned around. Ruby was standing behind the counter, shaking her head but blessedly holding a to go cup in her hand.

"That was weird," she whispered as Emma took her coffee from her.

Emma couldn't really disagree but she also didn't want to discuss it right then, with Killian no doubt looking on, so she just shook her head and walked out the door.

~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~k+e~

The door shut behind Emma and Killian sagged in his seat. That small encounter with her had been hard. They had only broken up yesterday and he really hadn't expected to see her only twelve hours later. He should have known better than to come to Granny's at this time though; she stopped by everyday for coffee and he knew that but apparently his sleep deprived mind had forgotten. But the reality of actually seeing her this morning triggered something for him.

They would probably always be running into one another. Storybrooke wasn't that big and their friends and acquaintances overlapped in too many places. Was it always going to be this hard, this awkward? The actual breakup had been brutal but Killian didn't like facing the prospect of never again having a pleasant, simple conversation with Emma.

Before he could change his mind, he jumped out of his seat and ran outside. She had only made it to the entrance of Granny's courtyard when he called out, "Swan, wait."

She whirled around, obviously surprised he had followed her out here. There was an awkward pause before he realized she waiting for him to speak.

"Look, Emma, I just…" Now that he had her attention, he wasn't sure if this was the best idea. He scratched behind his ear, and decided to keep going. "That was extremely awkward in there and this is awkward. This town is so small, and its hard for me to imagine that we will be able to avoid crossing paths with each other. There are only so many places to get decent coffee here after all. I just think there is a better way to deal with our inevitable run-ins than that sham of a conversation we just had inside."

Emma couldn't really see where he was going with this. "So, do you have an idea for how to deal with our encounters?"

"I think we should be friends. We were friends for a long time before we started dating and I think we can handle going back to just friends."

"Just friends? Killian, we just broke up. Last night, in fact. How do you see that working?"

"I know it will be a challenge and maybe we need to agree on some ground rules, but, we just have so many friends in common and I think it would be unfair to ask them to pick a side. How many dinner invites or karaoke nights do you want to miss because you feel like you can't go because I'm going to be there? I'm just proposing we keep things amicable and friendly."

"Killian, I don't know…"

He cut her off, "Look, you probably want to think about that, and that's fine. This is my offer, and you can decide what happens next. If the next time we run into each other, you don't say hi, I'll know to keep my distance. Does that sound fair, Swan?"

Emma wasn't sure how to respond so she just nodded. It wasn't a crazy idea, but she wasn't sure if she was cut out to be friends with her ex, but then again, she had never really tried.

Killian nodded back at her and headed back inside Granny's. Emma saw Ruby standing in front of the window, a bewildered expression on her face. Emma felt the same way, but she pulled out her phone and sent Ruby a text.

I'll explain later. Girls night? Will you tell Mary Margaret?

Sure, but I want ALL THE DETAILS.

Emma smiled at Ruby's enthusiasm and headed off to the station, thinking about Killian's offer.