AN: This is my Captain Swan Secret Valentine gift to tumblr user haleigh91! It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you over the course of these past few weeks. Funnily enough I was also the one who gave you the prompt for "If You Can't Take the Heat" which is one of my favorite CS fics and in honor of that I wrote another CS food fic. I hope you like it and you have a great Valentine's Day!
Emma furrowed her brow, concentrating on getting the outside of the grilled cheese sandwich she was making nice and crisp and the inside nice and melty for the waiting customer outside of her and her 14 year old son Henry's food truck, Grill It! She flipped the sandwich onto a piece of paper and cut it diagonally and filled up a paper bowl full of her special tomato soup and the order was ready to go.
"Order up!" she called out to Ruby, her best friend and roommate who helped man the front of the truck with Henry. Ruby called out the customer's number and handed the soup and sandwich to the hungry looking college student.
"We got a good spot today," Ruby observed looking out at the large grassy quad filled with Boston University students lounging in the grass, playing frisbee, and forming a line in front of the truck and giving their orders to Henry.
"Yeah mom, people are loving your grilled cheese," Emma's fourteen year old son said to her as he stuck the orders onto the little clips above the grill and deep fryer.
"Thanks kid," Emma smiled at her son before turning back to the grilled cheese breakfast sandwich she was in the middle of making. The three of them worked as a well oiled machine, getting the food to the hungry customers quickly and easily and people seemed to love it according to the yelp reviews.
"Uh oh," she heard Ruby say under her breath. Emma looked up at the tall brunette and saw her looking out the window of the truck at something.
"What is it? Did someone spill their soup?" Emma asked. Ruby pointed out the window and Emma left her place at the grill to see what was going on.
"Really?" Emma asked in exasperation when she saw the black truck with the skull and cross bones emblazoned on the side pull up a few yards away from her truck and the handsome dark haired owner hopped out and began setting up. The Jones brothers' were nothing if persistent to put her out of business Emma thought as she felt anger surge through her body. She swore to God the one brother, Killian, was determined to invade her food truck space. Emma tore at the strings to her apron and took it off, handing it to Ruby.
"Man the grill, I need to got tell this guy to find his own spot," she said stomping out of the truck and over to him.
"Why hello love, come to lend me a hand?" he said with that stupid shit eating grin her always gave her as she walked over to him and waved his prosthetic hand at her.
"First of all, I'm not your love. Second of all, can't you find your own spots to sell your Brit food? Boston's a big city why do you always encroach on my territory?" she said crossing her arms in front of her.
"Well I can't help that you find the best spots in the city and I wasn't aware that you had a territory," he said raising one of his stupid eyebrows at her.
"Jones, you are insufferable, you know that?" she said before turning on her heel and started marching back to her truck.
"Oh come on lass, I'm the very picture of good form," he said innocently. Emma turned and rolled her eyes at him.
"Well is it 'good form' to constantly poach my customers?" she asked folding her arms in front of her chest.
"I don't need to poach your customers Swan, they come on their own terms," he smirked and gestured to the queue of people already forming in front of his truck.
Emma sighed in frustration and ran her hand through her hair, "Look what will it take for you and your fish wagon to stop showing up at all my spots?"
"How about a wager?" he asked and cocked an eyebrow at her.
"And what are the terms of this wager?"
"If you earn more profits from now until let's say, 5 o'clock, then I have to stay out of your quite lovely hair," he flirted.
"And what if you win this wager?" she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You have to have one date with me," he smirked and swayed towards her, coming into her personal space.
Emma stared at him in disbelief, who does this guy think he is? She didn't step away, instead standing her ground and looking into his unfairly blue eyes.
"Fine, prepare to loose," she extended her hand to shake but he instead brought her hand up to his lips.
"May the best truck win," he said with a wink. Emma tutted and marched back to her truck and yanked on her apron.
"Henry I need you to add something to the menu board," she said and she assembled her ingredients and fired up the deep fryer.
"What are you making?" he asked, grabbing a dry erase marker.
"My mac n cheese croquettes," she said forming the mac n cheese into small balls.
"But those are only for Saturday nights!" he said staring at her.
"I know but we need them today," Emma said, Henry hurried out of the truck to put the item on the menu board. Emma focused on prepping the croquettes for frying and tried to ignore the (admittedly delicious) scent of fried fish permeating the air. She knew the croquettes were her best way to win this bet especially in this neighborhood, her truck had a loyal following on late Saturday nights since that's when she put her mac n cheese croquettes on the menu. She, Ruby, and Henry worked tirelessly getting the orders out until business started winding down and the students started clearing out of the quad. Emma was wiping down her station when she heard a knock on the door of the truck, she sighed and turned to Ruby.
"I have to go do this, can you take Henry home for me?" she asked.
"Sure, you going to be okay?"
"Yeah I've got this, be ready to never have to see the Jolly Roger ever again," Emma smiled and let herself out of the truck. Killian was waiting for her just outside, a plateful of fish n chips in his hand and a grin on his face.
"So love ready for our date?" he asked.
"Only if you're ready to pack up all your stuff and leave," she said walking up to him and stole one of his fries, "now come on, how were your profits?"
"All this talk of wagers and profits? Don't you want to get to know me?" he said "Instead of stealing my fries?" he raised his eyebrows at her as she stole another one.
"What like you want to get to know me?" she asked while munching on her fry.
"Perhaps I would," he said nonchalantly but he didn't meet her eyes when she looked at him, a flush creeping up his neck.
"Well let's see how much profit you made, maybe you got your date," Emma encouraged.
"All right fine, I made $342 try to beat that," he dared her.
"Damn it Jones, it was so close but I made $376," she smiled triumphantly.
"Bloody Hell! How did you manage that?" he gapped at her.
"Macaroni and cheese croquettes and the boys of Lambda Sig who live for them," Emma remarked and explained how one Lambda immediately texted any available brother that she had the macaroni croquettes and they came in droves.
"Damn frat boys, give them something deep fried and cheesy and they will swarm the place," Killian grumbled.
"I never expected them to be so popular but they love them," Emma chuckled.
"Well it looks like I'll have to step up my game then," Killian concluded, "Although my chips seem to be to your liking?" he added.
"I will give you this, your fries are damn good, what do you put on these?" Emma asked as she snatched another fry.
"My own special blend of spices, do you just want this? I can go make myself another batch," he raised an eyebrow at her.
"No how about we trade? I try your fish and chips and you try some croquettes and some tomato soup," Emma suggested.
Killian smiled and nodded and followed Emma into her truck and watched as she made his food.
"How did you even come up with the idea for these?" he asked as she dropped the croquettes into the deep fryer.
"Macaroni and cheese is one of my son's favorites and during a late night Food network binge I came up with the idea to deep fry them and serve them and they got super popular with the late night college crowd," Emma explained while she ladled some tomato soup into a bowl and took the croquettes out of the fryer. She placed them on a cardboard serving plate and handed it to Killian along with his soup, they went back outside to enjoy their food.
"So you have a son? He's the one who works the window with your friend?" he asked before having a spoonful of soup.
"Yeah, his name's Henry and we started the truck together so he insists on helping out where he can; working the window, writing up the menu board, making sure we have enough utensils and cardboard serving plates, that kind of stuff," she took a bit of her (his) fish and had to suppress a moan, the fish was fresh and the batter he used was crunchy and crispy without being too heavy.
"I see you're enjoying the fish," he observed with a chuckle.
"It's pretty good, you and your brother make a mean fish and chips I'll give you that," she admitted, "Why don't you work in a restaurant?"
"I don't like working for anyone other than Liam, and well it's a lot cheaper and simpler to open a food truck than a pub," he explained with a shrug of his shoulders and took a bite of the croquette, his eyes closing languidly, "Bloody Hell Swan, I can see why these have a following," he exclaimed.
"Thanks, you should tell the Lambda Sigs that, they may even let you rush," she joked. Killian frowned and shook his head.
"Oh God no, I cannot imagine spending anymore time with fraternity brothers than I have to. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to tell them that I can't serve them the beer in our beer batter," he rolled his eyes, "So tell me, besides the frat boys, why open a food truck?"
Emma thought for a moment, thought about how far she wanted to go into her past, "Well I was a bail bonds person for a while but after Henry came along I just couldn't do it anymore, I couldn't do the long inconsistent hours and potentially dangerous jobs. So I became a waitress at a friend's diner, got pretty good at cooking and decided to take a chance and start a food truck," she said rather quickly.
"A bail bonds person, that's pretty badass if you don't mind me saying," Killian said scratching a spot behind his ear.
"Thanks," Emma said her smile widening and she let the conversation just flow with Killian while they finished their food. She didn't realize how late it had gotten until she looked around and saw how dark it had become, "Um I think it's time I get back home, but this was nice," she said.
"Aye, your boy is probably wondering where you are," he said, getting up off the ground and offering her and hand in getting up. Emma took his hand and tried to ignore the little sparks of electricity sent up her arm, "I guess this'll be our last time seeing each other," he gulped.
"What?" Emma remarked.
"Our wager? You won, so I'll keep my truck away from you from now on," he explained.
"Oh right," Emma remembered and looked into his blue eyes and trying to remember the last time she had been that open with anyone, "I guess it wouldn't be so terrible if we ran into each other now and again," she suggested. His smile spread slowly across his face, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
"Are you sure you want that Swan?"
"Yeah I'm sure, I'll see you around Killian," she started to walk back to her truck.
"As you wish Emma" he called after her, Emma smiled softly to herself and got in her truck, hoping that she wouldn't have to wait long to see that black food truck pull into her next spot.