A/N: I have once again neglected my writing but it's a Onceless Sunday so I thought I'd write something quick. Basically it's just the odd, I had a bad date and need to yell at someone, unfortunately I rang the wrong doorbell AU. Enjoy!


Well, that has gone completely wrong, Emma thought as she tried to make her way back to her apartment, hair in disarray around her face, heels in one hand, bag in the other. It was probably her fourth date in a month and she had just about had enough. She never even wanted to go meet these guys in the first place but Ruby had been very insistent and when Ruby had her mind set on something, not even Emma Swan was able to change it.

Right now, however, Emma had her mind set on changing Ruby's and so she made her way directly to her friend's apartment a block over from hers. Maybe she was a bit intoxicated but who could blame her after the disastrous date she'd just had to live through. First of all, the guy had tried to talk down to her all evening starting with the way he'd looked her up. Then he'd questioned her every choice of food and even the wine was not good enough. By the time the starter had arrived she'd had about enough of his talk of what a big shot he was in his firm and how he would soon make it to assistant CEO or something or other and about how he owned this great car and what not. She'd known pretty much everything she ever wanted to know about his personal and professional life without having asked a single question and he knew nothing about her. Not that she cared, she had no intention of letting the guy know anything more about her than what starter she liked to order but it was by far the worst date she'd ever had. And she'd had a few.

Deciding to put her frustration into something else than stomping along the sidewalk and reminiscing awful past dates she started pressing the doorbell to Ruby's flat as often and as fast as she could. When she finally heard the clicking sound from the intercom she didn't even wait for her friend to say something, instead she just almost yelled, "Open the door, Ruby. You got me into this, now you have to put with me!"

Emma didn't realise she was slurring slightly and when the buzzer sounded she nearly fell over as she opened the door.

Somehow she still managed to summon the elevator and ride it up to the fifth floor, stumbling out and towards her friend's door, feeling the effects of the alcohol more pronounced now. When she made her way down the corridor, however, there was a guy standing in the door two doors down from Ruby's, casually leaning against the frame, a grin on his face and an eyebrow raised at her.

"You must be the lass requesting entrance to Ruby's apartment?"

She stopped short in her tracks, taking him in before gathering her wits and standing up straight. "And who would you be? Cause this sure as hell is not Ruby's apartment."

The stranger chuckled, pushing off from the frame and leaning a bit towards her. His arms were crossed in front of his bare chest and Emma had to take a breath and make herself look into his eyes. Also a mistake because they were as blue as the ocean and seemed to stare right into her soul, making her go weak in the knees.

"Killian Jones," he grinned at her as if he knew about the influence he had on her. "At your service. Although, I'm not used to playing the doorman."

"Well, maybe if your doorbell wasn't so close to Ruby's," Emma started, then realised how ridiculous her argument sounded even to her because what could he do against the arrangement of doorbells. "Oh whatever, thanks for letting me in, have a good night."

With that, she started walking again, wanting to wake Ruby and give her an earful.

"There's no need in waking up two innocent people at 3am, love," he interjected when he realised where she was headed. Emma threw him an annoyed look that made him raise his hands in defence though.

"There's every need," Emma huffed. "My so called 'friend' needs to stop trying to set me up with creeps and morons and self-centred assholes and…" She hadn't realised how close she'd gotten to him but she was now insistently poking him just below his collarbone with every word she said. She was poking a guy she'd never really met before (she'd seen him around and thought he was ridiculously handsome) and, realising what she was doing, she immediately took a step back, a blush creeping up her face as she coughed away her embarrassment.

Killian simply stood there, grinning at the drunken girl in front of him. He'd seen her around before and he knew her friend Ruby quite well by now as she was the one who kept telling him about that friend of hers who really, really, really needed to get a boyfriend. He assumed the stunning blonde in the red dress standing in front of him now was that friend. And if he was right, he had to admit he might be in trouble because the fire in her eyes was visible even through the tiredness and drunkenness and she practically glowed from the inside out.

"I assume you must be Emma?"

"How do you…? Oh… Ruby…" Emma responded, blush intensifying on her cheeks and Killian smiled at her. The blush suited her well and made her glow even more.

Emma swayed a little, exhaustion and alcohol doing little to help her stay awake and his smile looked so dreamy, her intoxicated mind was having a hard time filtering so she just swooned. He caught her by the elbow, steading her, stars dancing in his eyes as she looked up at him.

"Not to sound too forward, love, but you might want to sit down a little. I can call you a taxi to get you home."

Emma shook her head, both as a response but also to make herself look away. "I'll crash at Ruby's," she explained, yanking her arm out of his light grip and finally managing to walk to her friend's door. She started pounding on it but there was, however, not the slightest reaction on the other side. Neither knocking nor ringing the doorbell did anything to wake her friend up and Emma finally decided that Ruby must be out.

When she turned she realised to her embarrassment that Killian was still standing in the doorway, watching her with an amused grin on his face.

"I have a couch," he offered casually, his voice making it sound more like a question rather than a statement.


It took him about two weeks until he finally asked her out. She'd slept on his couch three times by then, always coming to see him so she could complain about her most recent date that Ruby had set up even after she'd gotten a raging fit from Emma.

She was never as intoxicated again as the first time, at least not from alcohol. He, however, did other things to her senses. The way his eyes just looked through her and read her like a book, the way he swayed his hips when he walked over to her placing a fresh cup of tea in front of her, the way his voice had something extremely soothing to it and the way she just felt completely safe in his presence, it all made her stomach do flips. If she was honest with herself she knew that she'd only gone on the other dates to have a reason to see him again afterwards.

It took them one date to realise how much they really had in common, two to see that they were in trouble and three to acknowledge the fact that this was it. Ruby obviously took the credit for the matchmaking and they let her even though they knew the real credit went to drunken Emma accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell in the middle of the night.