A/n: Based on Prompt on Tumblr, also major credit to Haleigh(onceuponajollyroger or navykillian(on tumblr)) & her fictional turtle Wendy from her CS fic When one Door Closes, with much thanks for letting me borrow Wendy for a day for this fic. Also big thanks to my beta Shaina(skyewardswan).
Emma pulled up to the outside of the apartment complex in her little yellow bug that she's had since high school and watched and waited for the rest of the group and her stuff to get here with the U-haul. Mary Margaret and David had offered to drive it from Boston where they all shared an off campus apartment to Hershey where she was hired as a deputy in the sheriff's department. The drive was a six hour one and they had all let the night before, staying in Hartford to cut the drive in half. OF course there was one other party member she needed to account for as well.
Her college idiot boyfriend, Killian Jones. He had actually gotten a job in Pittsburgh as a marine engineer that had an office on the Delaware River which opened up in to the Atlantic Ocean. A marine engineering job that specializes in shipping freights and sailboats. Of course he considers himself a pirate due to his minor in history that gave him the opportunity to work on restoring old ships and making them seaworthy. But he had moved into his apartment the other day and had promised to be there today to help her move into her apartment.
As if sensing what her thoughts were, just as Emma was getting out of the car and pulling her phone to text him and David to find out their whereabouts, Killian in his jet black Sentra pulled up into the parking lot.
"Fancy meeting you here love" he called from his window, parking next to Emma.
"Bout time there grandpa. I was getting age spots just waiting for you to arrive." She retorted, accepting his greeting kiss on the cheek. "Your apartment all moved in?"
"Come now lass, you haven't been waiting that long. If you had I'd have twenty messages from you. And yes it is, just waiting for you to come and break the bed in."
Emma just rolled her eyes, completely used to her boyfriend's innuendos by now. "In your dreams, Jones"
"Aye, constantly love. Now let's begin moving you in, perhaps later we can break in your bed once the fairytale couple has left us all alone."
The fairytale couple of course was their close friends David and Mary Margaret. Both Emma and Killian had witnessed their relationship from the start. It was love at first sight at the diner they all frequented their freshman year. They had both gone up to order a piece of cherry pie and the rest was history. Naturally Emma and Killian met through the couple, clashed and eventually became friends and then a couple on their own. Not that Mary Margaret ever stopped bugging Emma about David's attractive, British friend that seemed to be taken with her.
Five years later, the two couples were still going strong and David had finally proposed to Mary Margaret at graduation. Though Emma and Killian had been together for a few years, they had both agreed to take the jobs offered in Pennsylvania with the possibility of factoring the other in once settled. But mostly, Emma just didn't want Killian to turn down the job offer in Pittsburgh. It had been perfect for him. Allowing him to be on the water, restore old boats and make a good living. They were only going to be a couple hours apart, an easy drive to visit on weekends. What Emma didn't know was that Killian already had a ring picked out for her, hidden away in his apartment in Pittsburgh for some far off day when it was time to take that step.
Emma watched as the U-haul finally appeared at the end of the street from where she and Killian were leaning against her car, his hand playing with her hair. She righted her position and headed to where the u-haul was about to pull in, a big smile on her face as she prepared to embrace her newest adventure.
"Hey guys, you find it alright?" Emma called out to David and Mary Margaret as they climbed out of the truck.
"Yeah, wasn't too bad. Which floor is your apartment on?" David replied, looking up at the tall complex building that had to have at least 6 floors.
"Just the second floor Nolan, don't worry. You won't have to carry my stuff up too many flights"
"That's good. How about we get some of the bigger stuff up first and then unload the boxes from yours and Killian's car as well as whatever is left in the truck. Come on Jones, we've got some stuff to carry." David shouted that last bit at the raven haired man still leaning against the yellow bug.
"Calm down there Dave, geez. The apartment isn't going anywhere and we have all weekend. Not ever task needs a battle plan there Prince Charming."
David just stuck out his tongue and walked to the back of the truck to pull the door open.
"Killian play nice. Or else he may end up dropping a chair on you." Emma scolded him before grabbing some boxes with Mary Margaret grabbing an end table before walking up the flight of stairs to where her apartment door awaited.
Emma and Mary Margaret got their few pieces up and out of the way when the shouting reached the open door and window.
"JUST TURN IT AROUND THE CORNER! NO MY LEFT!"
"I AM! WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME CONCENTRATE!"
"THIS SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD! ITS A BLOODY TABLE!"
Emma and Mary Margaret exchanged glances and then went out to help their boys begin the long struggle of getting a bed, kitchen/dining table, couch, recliner and a couple coffee tables from the U-haul in the parking lot, up a flight of stairs, and into her apartment and into the correct room. It took longer than Emma felt it should have thanks to a bickering match between the two males for every piece of furniture that required more than one person. David wanted to come up with a specific way with every piece of how to get it up the stairs where as Killian wanted to just get them up and placed.
After taking a break for pizza and coke, the group then tackled the number of moving boxes that littered Emma's bug, Killian's Sentra, and the back of the U-Haul. It seemed to be a never ending stream of going up and down stairs, grabbing a couple boxes, hauling them up to her apartment, trying to figure out what room was written on it, ultimately give up and dump all the boxes in the living room and kitchen to be sorted later. It was a well honed system by the end of it and they were able to get basically everything out of the vehicles and into apartment with some extra time to begin unpacking before dinner.
David and Killian left to return the U-haul, David driving the truck to a local return spot with Killian following behind in his car so they could get back to the apartment together while also picking up Chinese food take out for dinner. While the boys were gone, Emma and Mary Margaret began sorting boxes into their correct rooms and began unloading. The first room they tackled was her bedroom so she could actually spend the night there tonight. Since the boys had already put the bed together, all the girls had to do was make it and decorate the room as well as unpack her other bedroom things.
Emma put a couple boxes labeled trinkets and books to the side by her tall bookcase near the wall for later and then began unpacking a couple bathroom boxes that held towels and what not. She was just finishing up the first bathroom box while Mary Margaret was unpacking in the kitchen when she heard the boys return and greet the petite brunette in the kitchen.
"Ah there you are Swan, Dave and I brought sustenance." Killian greeted her as she entered the kitchen. The group had already begun unloading the Chinese on to plates that Mary Margaret unpacked earlier.
"It looks great, thanks again to all of you for helping me move today. It would've taken a lot longer if I had to do all this myself, especially all the furniture." Emma spoke, taking her plate and looking around at all her friends.
"Of course we would help, Emma. It's our pleasure" Mary Margaret chirped.
"Yeah it was fun, for the most part," David agreed, subtly side-eyeing Killian with his last statement. Not that anyone missed his not subtle dig.
Killian just rolled his eyes and dug into his Cashew Chicken while they all stood around, chit chatted about various things. Emma and Mary Margaret began talking the few beginning details of the wedding. She had already asked Emma to be her maid of honor and they were talking about when they would go out dress shopping with Elsa and Ruby, their other friends from college. Elsa was currently on her way to Seattle where she had a job interview and Ruby was in LA with a make-up and costume gig for a small indie film.
Once the Chinese was consumed and the girl talk exhausted, much to the boys delight, they began to tackle the boxes in the living room before calling it a night. David had began unpacking some books and movies into the TV stand and bookcase along the wall, while Mary Margaret began hanging some of the paintings and picture frames Emma had for the living room. It wasn't until a few boxes had been finished that Emma noticed that killian had wandered off in to a different room. After looking a bit, Emma found him unpacking a box in her bedroom by the bookcase.
"Babe everything okay?" Emma asked as she entered and headed toward him.
"Aye, just wanted to unpack in peace. I hope you don't mind love." Killian responded, smiling slightly.
"Alright, do you want some help? I think David and Mary Margaret are almost done in the living room."
"If you wish to help love, though when I opened up one of the boxes, I found something intriguing at the top. Care to explain?"
Emma looked curiously at her boyfriend, wondering what he could have found at the top of one of the boxes. She even racked her brain trying to think of what each of the boxes held and didn't come up with anything unusual. "What did you find?"
Killian then held up a small stuffed animal, just a tad bigger than his hand. It was her stuffed turtle that she's had with her for a few years. 'Oh, that' Emma thought looking down at the turtle in his hand. "Swan, what is this little turtle? IT seems familiar."
She blushed slightly as she took the turtle from Killian, "It should be because this is the turtle that you won for me a few years ago, back when we went to the carnival with Mary Margaret and David at the end of our freshman year. I thought she was cute so I kept her. Her name is Wendy."
"Wendy?"
"Well during that date was when you told me all about your obsession with Peter Pan and Captain Hook and the name just seemed to fit her."
Killian wrapped his arms around his blushing girlfriend and gave her a peck on the cheek, "I never knew you were a sentimental one, love."
"I'm not sentimental, I just like stuff animals."
"Of course love, whatever you say. Now how about we finish your unpacking, as you know we make quite the team and could knock it out quickly."
Emma smiled and nodded, extricating herself from Killian's arms to put Wendy on her bed before returning to where Killian had gone back to unpacking books and knick knacks she had accumulated on to the bookshelf. It was quaint and easy way to spend the evening.
Once Mary Margaret and David had finished up in the living room, they unpacked a couple more things in the kitchen before Emma drove them to the hotel where they had a room rented for the weekend before a flight back to Boston the next evening.
Killian had indeed stayed over, under the pretense of it being too late for him to drive back to his own apartment and that Emma just had to be kept safe and would need help putting the finishing touches in her bedroom.