Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT, nor its characters, I just have fun with them...

Emma could remember that day perfectly, it was a sunny morning of September, around a month before her 7th birthday. The day Killian Jones arrived at the castle with his brother. They were escorted by two guards to the library, where Emma and her parents were, Snow and Charming studying a map on the enormous table in the middle of the room and her reading a book about dragons in a corner. When she heard the door was open she leaned forward to see the incomers.

-"Your Majesties, these young boys are asking for an audience", said one of the guards pushing two boys in front of him. They both had ink-black hair and eyes as blue as the sky that morning. They must be brothers was the first thought that went through Emma's mind when she saw them. The oldest one introduced them.

-"Your Majesties", he said while bowing slightly, "my name is Liam Jones and this is my little brother, Killian." Emma was sure she had heard his said brother muter 'younger brother', to more to himself than to his sibling. His brother continued, as if he hadn't heard him: "I came today to ask you a favour, in the name of my father. One day, some years ago, he rescued you one his boat after your ship had been attacked, and you said you owed him for that."

-"I remember your father. And I remember we owed him for saving us, my wife and me. Is he well?" asked Charming in a calm and warm voice.

-"I don't know, your Majesty, for he has left us some months ago." He looked pained when he said that but he quickly got back to his impassive self. "I stayed and took care of my brother during that time, but I have to take the sea in some days now and I wondered if maybe, in memory of what my father did, you would take my brother at your service." It's only then that Emma looked at the older boy's clothes (a navy uniform); too busy looking at the younger boy before. She guessed that he must have been around the same age as her, maybe slightly older. He was standing at his brother's side, proud and quiet. For a moment, his eyes met Emma's, she smiled at him, feeling sympathetic to the boy but he didn't reply and looked away.

-"Of course, it would be a pleasure" said Snow, not going deeper in the subject of the boys' abandonment, with a smile. The exact same smile as the blond girl thought Killian. "Actually, it's a perfect timing, we lack one kitchen boy. Would that suit you, Killian?" Emma knew that it was not true, but she didn't say anything, wondering why her mother had lied…

-"Uhm, I, I guess, yes." He replied. "Thank you, your Majesty…?" he added, unsure, after his brother poked him discreetly with his elbow.

-"Good, then! Emma? Would you mind going with Killian to show him around? Then going to the kitchen to ask for some tea on your way back here?" asked Snow to her daughter, knowing she was listening attentively.

-"No problem, mom." Emma got up, marked the page where she stopped reading and put her book on the big table on her way out. "Are you coming?" She was looking at Killian, who hadn't shown any sign of movement at all.

The two children exited the library and Emma lead their way around the palace, naming the different rooms they came across and giving Killian an awful lot of unnecessary details about them. It was always like that when she was unsure of herself or of what to say or in this case, both. She was unable to stop speaking. They kept walking, Emma, talking of history facts she had gathered about the palace and Killian looking around him only half listening what the princess was saying. About thirty minutes later, they arrived in the kitchen, where Emma asked Sookie, her favourite chef, for tea, biscuits and a hot chocolate. Killian, who had been following her for the past half-an-hour, was now lost in his thoughts, looking at his surroundings. All the way long, he had been constantly amazed by every new room they went by, always trying to figure how many times his entire house could fit in each of them, the minimum was once and a half and he hadn't even bother to try to find out the maximum. He only went back to the present when he realised that Emma had talked to him.

-"I said: Do you want some hot chocolate? I prefer that to tea." she repeated when she saw that he didn't respond to what she had just said.

-"Uhm, yes, your uh..." he didn't finish his sentence, unsure of which title to give her. Liam had given him some advises on the way there, telling him what titles to use, and things like that, but everything was a bit of a blur now.

-"You can call me Emma if you want." She said that with a smile, not exactly the same as earlier, more sincere this time. Then turning to Sookie, she asked for a second chocolate and demanded for everything to be brought to the library.

On their way back, Emma spoke about the people in the castle, giving him some of the most important names like Carson, the major-domo, or the chef cook, Luigi. She also talked about the dwarves, and Ruby and Graham. She ended her talk, near the library, by saying, with sympathy, that he should get on very well with the others servants and that if he needed anything, he could come and ask to her parents.

Unfortunately, Killian misunderstood Emma's kindness for pity... "I don't need your charity, you know! You can keep it; I don't need a speech from a spoiled little princess about what I should do or about her palace either! I don't care about anything! I don't want to be here, I want to go with my brother!" There they were the words he had forbid himself to say aloud, not wanting his brother to feel guilty about leaving him. It was all her fault if he had said that. I hate her he thought.

-"I am not spoiled! And I just trying to be nice, it is not my fault if you are here! Go with your brother if that's what you want so much!" Emma was now almost screaming, at the boy in front of her. She hated people assuming that because she was a princess, she was automatically a spoiled little brat, it was unfair, because these people judged her on her rank and not on who she was. She was furious at the boy for calling her a 'spoiled little princess'. I hate him she decided.

In the library, Liam, Snow and Charming, were talking about Killian and Snow was just saying that she sure he get on like a house on fire with Emma. The three of them jumped when the doors flung open revealing a red-faced Emma followed by a frowning Killian. When asked what was wrong, neither of them was willing to give an explanation.

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-"Hey, Swan! You might want to focus on what you're doing instead of daydreaming. What is so important that you don't even pay attention to your lesson?" asked Killian when entering the library, carrying a trey with two cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits. "I brought you sustenance, thinking you might be in need of a break after all that hard work, but obviously, you didn't need me for that..."

-"I was just thinking about the day we met. It seems to me like it was ages ago" said Emma, sighing. She closed her geography book..

-"Not ages, just 9 years..." he told her with a crooked grin. "How about that break huh?"

She had been studying for the past two hours, but then, she looked outside the window and saw the blue sky that reminded her of her best friend's eyes and it lead her to think about the day she had decided she hated the boy in front of her. Idiot she thought