She slipped, once or twice, before she took the real plunge. It showed how far her walls had fallen, that she could use that word so casually as not to even take note of it.
But he did.
Oh, he did.
When she came back to Granny's late one afternoon, freezing from trekking around in the forest with David all afternoon in search of the Snow Queen, shucked her jacket and ordered a hot cocoa with cinnamon and extra hot please. He slipped into the seat beside her, his own mug of tea in his hand, and planted a kiss on her cheek. She smiled a small exhausted smile at him, and without another word he stood up, in full view of the rest of the diner, and began to rub her shoulders.
After a moment, he sat back down and she looked at him again, pure gratitude radiating from her. "You're pretty good at that, for a guy with one hand."
"Years of practice. Sailing is damaging to your muscles at times," he offered.
"Well, thank you very much. I loved it." Her hot chocolate arrived and she busied herself with it, missing the look on his face. Once.
When she collected Henry at the docks one day, the boy a bundle of energy despite having run around on the ship the entire day, cleaning it stem to stern, and he excitedly told his mother every single moment about his day in one breath, barely leaving her a chance to exclaim, "Whoa, kid, save it for dinner, or we won't have anything to talk about!"
And Henry rolled his eyes and bounded off toward the car, while his mother shot Killian the most beautiful smile. "Thank you again for this. He can't wait for the days he gets to go sailing with you."
"Ah, love, he's got the sea in his blood. He's a natural."
Emma smiled at him again, and he could get used to that smile. He was used to that smile, in fact, practically craved it. She leaned to her toes to peck him on the cheek, peeling her wind-whipped hair out of her face. "I love that you and he get along so well."
And she turned and waved goodbye, missing Killian's grin. Twice.
When he finished up a story, a sailor's yarn about some port or other he had raided (for the Navy, he swore up and down at David's scowl), and everyone was in stitches, imagining the captain of the other ship running on deck half-dressed with a woman following. Even David had grinned once or twice, though he always stifled it when Killian glanced in his direction.
He prepared to leave then, as it was late and baby Neal was fussing, so thankfully the Charmings withdrew, Henry disappeared with them to collect his things, and Elsa removed herself to the kitchen to allow the couple to have a moment alone on the other side of the door.
"You know, your dad really needs to relax a bit. Maybe we could get some rum in him?"
He wiggled an eyebrow suggestively. She punched him in the arm, but it was light, and she was giggling, her eyes full of mirth and light. "Trust me, you don't want to hear him sing."
His brow wrinkled at that, and she precluded his question with, "The shower. I really need to get my own place."
He grinned, leaning in to kiss her, and she surprised him by responding with some heat. After they pulled back for some air (and to calm his racing heart and racing… other parts), she leaned her forehead against his. "Don't worry about them. We all love you."
He smiled, adding another to his mental tally. Thrice.
In the end, it just kind of slipped out one night, but in a vastly different way from the others. Emma had turned up at his door at Granny's with tears in her eyes and silently crawled into his bed and buried her face in his chest. These episodes were rare, but he knew how to handle them.
After hours of stifled sobs (it used to bother him that she smothered her own pain, but he understood now it was because of herself and not because of him), gentle strokes of her hair, the wordless comfort offered by his simple presence (but it wasn't simple at all, really, he'd never leave her to suffer this alone), she had finally calmed, looked him right in the eyes, and said, "I love you."
He was shocked, more by her boldness than the words, and it took him a moment (endless lifetimes, Emma later told him) to manage, "I love you too."
He would tell her one day about the slip-ups, but for now, he just enjoyed the feel of the words in his mouth, finally giving a name to the feel of her name in his heart.