If there was one thing Emma Swan didn't do, it was clichés. That and procrastination. She just didn't get it when Ruby constantly complained about not having enough time to finish her projects. You had a task and a deadline. How hard was it to finish one before the other arrived? According to her best friend – very. So, no, Emma Swan did not do clichés or procrastinating. Which is why she decided that someone upstairs must seriously hate her when she crashed, a dozen books and papers in her arms, into the one guy in the whole world in front of whom she wanted to avoid looking like a complete idiot.
Her belongings ended up scattered all over the floor and the only reason she didn't join them were Killian's lightening reflexes and the unbreakable hold her hands took of his arms. Mmm, Killian's arms.
"It's about bloody time," he grinned down at her.
Emma immediately let go of him, almost losing her balance again in the process.
"Yes, I suppose I am the very last girl in this town that hasn't fallen into your arms," she fired back, annoyed at her uncharacteristic clumsiness and even more infuriated by the smirk on his way-too-handsome face.
The world really hated her.
"Jealous, Swan?" he lifted a challenging eyebrow, looking her up and down.
Emma frowned. What the hell was that all about?
Killian Jones was the definition of the handsome smug bastard who flirts with everything that walks. Yet, for some reason, he had never used his infamous 'smoulder' on her. Sometimes she actually wondered if he wasn't feeling just as awkward and nervous as she was whenever they were around each other. Most of the time she just felt left out and stupid about that. How pathetic was it to want a guy to treat you like one of his numerous conquests?
But today neither of those applied. Today obviously she was finally interacting with the Captain.
The blonde rolled her eyes. She found it absolutely ridiculous that everybody called him that. And she got physically sick at the way the term rolled off the tongues of girls like Ella and Milah. Yes, you have it bad for the sex-on-legs captain of the football team. Who doesn't? At least Emma prided herself on being good at hiding it.
"You got me, Killian. I spend every moment antagonizing over your latest conquest and wishing I was the one blessed with that glorious privilege."
Instead of backing down the brunette leaned forward until his lips were brushing her ear and whispered.
"Perhaps you will be, Swan."
Before she could manage to get her brain working again he pulled back, winked at her and walked away.
The bastard! Where did he get the nerve to-
/
"RUBY!" Emma slammed the door of her dorm, glaring at her best friend who had made herself at home on the blonde's bed and was going through her photo album, seemingly without a care in the world.
"Well, hello to you too," said the brunette, popping her gum.
"Ruby, have you talked to your brother recently?"
"Sadly, yes. We do live in the same house, you know? Which is, if I have to be honest, part of the reason why I'm hanging out with you in this cubicle an-"
"About me, Ruby!" said Emma, hands on her hips and voice like steel. "Have you talked about me?"
"Oh!" Ruby scratched her nose, looking away from her friend. "Umm, no, I don't think so. Why wou-"
"Oh my God! You have!" Emma slapped a hand over her mouth, pure horror entering her eyes.
"I said NO!" yelled Ruby, panic slowly seeping into her eyes.
"Oh, please," Emma waved her arms around in frustration. "I've been working on my body language project for days! I know what it means when people scratch their nose. What is more, you looked right! People look left when they're trying to remember something and left when they're making stuff up. You are lying!"
"Ugh," Ruby's shoulders slumped. "Science crap. Would you stop getting smarter and smarter? What, I can't even lie to my best friend now?"
Emma lifted an eyebrow, arms crossed in front of her chest and features set in a not-playing-around expression.
"Fine," the brunette sighed in defeat. "I slipped, I'm sorry."
Emma's mouth twitched nervously, her teeth biting slightly into her lower lip.
"What did you tell him?" she asked in a small voice, the fight going out of her.
"That you think the sun shines out of his ass?" tried Ruby with an apologetic smile.
"RUBY!" Emma made two steps toward her best friend before whirling around and burying her head in her hands. "Kill me. Kill me now."
"It's not that big a deal!"
"Not that big a deal?" the blonde faced her friend, her eyes blazing again. "Ruby, I'm the outcast orphan with A's on everything but actual life, who's in love with the damn football captain, who, for his part, happens to have the whole town kissing his ass. You can make a romantic comedy about my life only it would be pathetic rather than funny and the 'romantic' ending will consist of me, tons of ice-cream and cats! Oh God, I'm a walking cliché."
"Well, that is actually kinda funny considering how much you hate those," muttered Ruby, sneaking a glance at her aggravated friend.
"I had one advantage in that fucked up situation and you took it away!" groaned the blonde.
The other girl frowned in confusion.
"He didn't know!" yelled Emma in frustration, running her hands through her hair. "I'm not saying that was gonna get me the guy or anything, ok? I know better than that! I'm not completely delusional! But at least I wasn't one of the other two hundred girls that have 'Idiot#189 Jones' written all over their notebooks. At least I was… different. Special. Fuck. That's ridiculous. I don't even know. Forget it! Doesn't matter. One more person to avoid in the hallways so what, right?"
But her eyes were shining in a way that Ruby had only seen once. The time Emma had invested every penny of the prize she had won in an essay contest in tracking down her parents, having narrowed it down to Maine thanks to her numerous attempts before that, only to come up empty-handed and heart-broken. It had been the last time she tried, she said.
"Emms…" Ruby stepped forward but refrained from hugging the blonde.
Emma Swan wasn't a hugger. The brunette had had a hard time accepting that but she had learned her lesson eventually. She reached over though, grabbing Emma's chin and raising her so that she could make eye-contact.
"You are special," she said sincerely.
"Oh, Ruby, come on," Emma pulled away, rolling her eyes tiredly. "Drop the pep-talk."
"I'm serious!"
The blonde lifted a challenging eyebrow and it reminded Ruby of her brother so much that she sighed in resignation and decided that there was no way to go but forward.
"Just do me a favour, ok? I want everybody dressed in brown on my funeral. Black makes people look slim and elegant and if I'm gonna be dead, the rest of you have no right to look good."
Amusement flickered across Emma's face even as confusion remained the dominant emotion there.
"You're special 'cause he likes you too," said Ruby with great solemnity, as if she had just revealed the world's biggest secret.
"Huh?" the other girl just stood there, staring at her, mouth hanging slightly open.
Ruby turned her gaze upwards, praying for patience and muttering about being surrounded by idiots.
"Look, as I have pointed out many times without any result, my brother is an utter loser. I guess he had to be for me to be so fantastic"
Emma came out of her stupor enough to roll her eyes are her best friend.
"However," continued Ruby. "I admit that he has game."
"You think?" said Emma, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"Yes, yes, Killian is God's gift. Everybody worships the ground he walks on. Blah, blah. Believe it or not, he hasn't let it go to his head. He doesn't think the sun shines out of his ass. I'm pretty sure he believes it shines out of yours."
Emma opened her mouth to protest but a perfectly manicured hand stopped her.
"I'm getting there! Anyway, he is still a college guy and he knows what he has and how to use it. However, when he really gives a shit about something, he is as far from the swashbuckling captain as possible. Trust me! I'm the one who sees him freaking out over his math tests and the latest game before going out of the house and putting on the Captain mask."
"I know that," interjected Emma. "That's why-"
"That's why you like him," finished Ruby with a smile.
It was true enough. Not having any family of her own, Emma had been a frequent guest at the Jones' ever since their first year of high-school together. It was why she knew the real Killian better than anyone, except his sister. It was why Ruby was betraying her brother's trust for the first time in her life. Because Emma and Killian weren't teenagers anymore and apparently it was her task to get them to stop acting like ones.
"And that is why I'm telling you this. My brother is his loser self around one person and one person only. That's you."
"Well, sorry to disappoint," said Emma, unwilling to take her friend's words to heart. "But he had plenty of game today when I crashed into him in the hall."
Ruby grinned from ear to ear.
"All with the books flying everywhere and you clutching his oh-so-muscular arms?"
"Shut up," muttered Emma, doing her hardest not to blush. "The universe hates me. I have made my peace with that."
"Well, the universe might but Killian certainly doesn't. I slipped so now that he knows you like him, he doesn't know how to react. Hence, the leaning back on his usual methods. Which won't work on you. Which he would realize. And then, the fun begins."
Emma still looked unconvinced but there was a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth so Ruby allowed herself a triumphant grin.
"I just hope you two appreciate my sacrifice and don't make killing me your first date."
