I hope everyone is liking the story so far because I want to continue it. I am having a lot of fun with this! Alright here is the next chapter!

Chapter 2: His Cynicism

Emma woke to the feeling of someone gently touching her head. It was a warm hand that also brushed through her hair. Part of her didn't want the hand to stop, but as reality set in, she was confused why someone was touching her so gently like that.

She rolled her head over, slowly opening her eyes. Her vision clearing, to see the face of a man looking down at her. He was very attractive. No, more like dangerously, because him staring at her was causing her to forget how to breathe. He had these crazy blue eyes that if she could give it a name, were the color of the ocean, of the sea before a storm. His brown hair, messy, but gorgeous looking. And he had stubble on his face that Emma kind of wished she could feel against her skin. Wait. What was she thinking? He was a stranger.

Just then, more of the bridesmaids rushed over behind the man, looking down at her worried.

Emma touched her head, groaning a bit, never taking her eyes off the blue-eyed man. She noticed the light from the chandelier above his head was creating this glow around him, making him look almost magical. Emma pushed the crazy thought from her head. She tried to sit up, but he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, love." He reached to take his hand to cup behind her neck, setting her back down on the floor. Emma felt her skin spark at the contact, an almost electric charge. "You don't want to move around too much."

The man turned to look at the women hovering above him, "Okay this is a serious injury," He pointed to each of them, giving orders. It reminded Emma of a Captain giving his crew orders on a ship, "I need you darling, to get me some ice. I need you to get me some alcohol - and not that watered down shrill they call whiskey, I need some rum. And you get something for the lass to bite on. Now go!"

The women hurried off, and the man stared back down at Emma.

He turned the corner of his mouth slightly up, a smile threatening to creep on his lips, "Alright come on."

He helped her sit up, then looked around the room at the staring people, "She's fine ladies and gents, just a little bump on the head. Carry on."

Emma huffed, touching her head again, then looking at the man who helped her, "You a doctor?"

"No, but tweedledee and tweedledrunk need to bugger off so..." He shrugged, smirking down at Emma.

Emma just nodded, not blaming the guy for trying to get rid of the crowd. She was almost thankful for it. She didn't really want an audience to her humiliation (well ones hovering over her).

"Though I do hope they bring back some rum. I was serious about the watered down stuff they are trying to pass as alcohol."

Emma chuckled in spite of herself, and her breath almost caught again as she saw the man smile. He was ridiculously handsome.

"Do you know your name?" The man asked her, interrupting her thoughts.

It took her a second to remember, and she thought sourly it might not be completely because of her head injury, "Emma."

"Emma," The man said, almost caressing her name on his tongue, "I'm Killian," He held out his hand, which Emma shook, giving him a small smile.

"Well, thank you for helping me."

"It was my pleasure," Killian said.

Emma tried to stand up, Killian right beside her, making sure she didn't fall. He really wasn't a doctor, so he hoped she was alright.

"Alright there, lass?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded, staring at him. He seemed fine with that answer, until she almost fell back, catching her around the waist.

"You are clearly not," He whispered, a little too close to her ear, as Emma could feel the warmth of his breath, "Why don't we get you a cab?"

All Emma could do was nod, as her head was killing her.

Killian took her hand in his, ignoring the warmth and how it slid so easily in his, he guided the woman outside and away from the party.

As they shared a cab, a bouquet of large flowers separating them, rode in silence until Killian spoke up.

"I loved your thong by the way,"

Emma eyes shot up as she turned to the man. He didn't seem ashamed or embarrassed by his words at all, only amused at her reaction.

Killian decided to have mercy on the poor woman, who was still confused by his comment, "You whizzed past me earlier. I saw you changing gowns. You were in two weddings in one night. A little upsetting, don't you think love?"

"Well their both really, really good friends of mine, and their weddings happened to be on the same night," Emma shrugged, "What was I supposed to do?"

"No that's not the upsetting part. I mean how do you stand it?"

Emma furrowed her brows in confusion, "Stand it?"

"Aye, I mean isn't one wedding bad enough?"

"I love weddings. I always have."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Killian started to smile, but it didn't reach his eyes, "Which part. The forced merriment, the horrid music, or the dreadful food?"

Emma scoffed, seeing where this conversation was going, "Actually it's meeting upbeat people like yourself."

"Love is patient, love is kind," Killian mumbled, rambling a moronic saying of love. He couldn't help but be annoyed at how blind this woman was. It was a shame people couldn't see marriage for what it really is, "Love means slowly losing your mind."

"What is it that you do again?" Emma interjected, trying to change the subject, even though she didn't want to keep speaking to the man.

"I am a writer." Killian added more cheerfully as the conversation changed a bit.

"Right." Emma said, nodding, glancing out her window.

Killian watched her face, looking slightly peeved. It was cute he had to admit. He let a chuckle slip through at how funny this Emma woman was.

The cab pulled up to Emma's place and she was glad to get away from this man so she wouldn't have to see him again.

"This is my building." She said to Killian, before reaching to grab money to pay the driver.

"I got it," He reached to grab his wallet.

"No it's fine, I got it."

"You sure?" Killian asked, he looked at Emma, and she was surprised to not see any snarky meaning behind his words, especially after the comments they traded earlier. He was really trying to be nice.

"Yeah." She went into her purse to pay the driver as Killian got out with her flowers, "Here one hundred and forty, you know what you did."

She didn't wait for him to argue, before she stepped out of the taxi, just realizing Killian got out.

"Hey wait," She rushed out to meet him. He held onto her flowers, still looking as attractive and smug as when Emma first saw him.

"Don't you think it's a whole lot of ritual for something that, let's face the truth, has a fifty-fifty shot of making it."

Emma sighed, knowing he was back on his cynicism of marriage.

"How refreshing, a man who doesn't believe in marriage." She tried to reach for the flowers in his arms, but he pulled them back from her reach.

"Now, now, lass. I'm just trying to point out the hypocrisy of the spectacle."

"Oh look at that, a man of honor. Tell me do you go around telling small children that Santa Clause doesn't exist. Because someone needs to blow that shit wide open," Emma tried to grab the flowers again, but still Killian kept it from her.

He was getting amused at the way this conversation was going. Emma was feisty, he'd give her that. But she did something to him. She was challenging, and he hadn't had that in a while. And Killian always did like a challenge.

"So you do admit, that believing in marriage is kind of like believing in Santa Clause?"

And if he wasn't attractive enough, after that statement, he bit his lower lip, raising his eyebrows slightly, as he gave her a nod for her to agree with him. Emma almost distracted, as her eyes flickered to his mouth, almost stopped focusing for a moment. She blinked, shaking her head, going back to the conversation.

"No. I...look I don't know why I'm arguing this with a perfect stranger, but yes marriage, like everything good and important, isn't easy, but cynicism on the other hand-"

Emma took the moment to finally grab the vase of flowers from Killian, "Always is."

"Quiet passionate aren't you Emma?"

"You have no idea buddy, now-"

She reached as best as she could to shake his hand, since she couldn't see with the flowers in her face. Killian looked down and grasped it, feeling again that warmth like earlier when he first touched her, "it was very interesting meeting you."

"Bye," He said quickly and cheerful, like he was a five-year old, as he watched her cross the street. He moved his head out the way, when one of the leaves of the flower almost smacked him in the face.

"So are you going to be in more wedding's next weekend?" Killian shouted. He didn't know why he asked, but the woman intrigued him. She was almost as snarky and feisty as him, but she didn't have, as she called it, cynicism about marriage like him.

"I have to go!" She called back.

"How many have you been in by the way, lass?"

She turned fully around, a smirk gracing her pink lips as she looked at him from across the street, "Goodnight!"

A truck zoomed by, and Killian couldn't see her anymore. He begrudgingly got back in the cab and drove off. Smiling to himself slightly in the back as he thought of Emma and how she was something else, he noticed something on the ground in the cab.

He reached down to pick it up. It was a brown leather planner, with papers sticking out from being so stuffed. Killian realized this must've been Emma's.

"Mate, can you-" Killian was asking the driver, but a thought crossed his mind

"Yeah?" The driver responded.

"Never mind." Killian mumbled as he sat back and opened up the planner.

Just as he thought it was a planner. Emma had marked down wedding dates of people and locations. Killian was stunned, she was booked up with weddings. One week with six weddings, with only one free day! It was insane!

Killian closed the book. Overwhelmed by what he just saw, but then he started to smile. This little book of Emma's had wedding locations he could use for his paper column. He could be one step ahead and get into these weddings to make the articles first. And not only that, she gave him a story idea. The story that would get him out of the hell hole known as "commitments."

"Thanks lass," He mumbled, smirking, as he looked down at the book in his hands.

After getting inside her apartment, Emma was currently stuffing dress twenty-seven into her bridesmaid dresses closet. After managing to shut it, and it still opening as she walked away, Emma took a well-deserved rest on her couch, curling up with the newspaper.

"Let's see, death, destruction, yes, wedding vows." Emma said gleefully, as she pulled out the commitments section of The New York Journal newspaper.

Emma enjoyed coming home to read this article by her favorite writer of this section, K. Jones. She enjoyed his pieces so much, as he captured how happy people were. Emma had to admit she wasn't sure about her own happy ending. Though she was in love with Neal, the idea of love still frightened her. Still she couldn't ignore the love she saw other people had, it made her feel good, but part of her did wish she had some happiness, but she pushed those feelings back, putting walls over her heart. Why give herself false hope? Opening her heart fully would just lead to more pain. Her having a wedding just wasn't meant to be. Though she was glad she was not as cynical as that Killian guy, she kept herself from not expecting her own happy ending and rather just enjoyed reading stories of others.

This is really fun and if you guys have seen the movie you can kind of guess what will happen next with Killian and Emma's planner. *snickers*

Another chapter will be up soon!