Last one! Thanks to everyone who followed, favourited, and reviewed. It really means a lot!

This one is Captain Swan centric, so if you don't like them together, you may not enjoy this. In my head, they're the best drinking buddies; I was really excited to write this!

I'm also going to rate this one as "T" just for a couple of references that may be not as appropriate for younger audiences. However, it's only a couple of hints and a few kisses... nothing explicit or smutty. :)

Lastly, I forgot to do this for my last chapters so I'll just say this here: I don't own these characters. I'm just playing!

Thanks again for reading!


As the stars danced in the sky above him on his walk back to Granny's, Killian Jones was in very good spirits. Against all odds, he was alive. Alive enough to smell the salt on the air from the ocean, a smell that always lifted his spirits with the promise of adventure. Alive enough to be able to appreciate little things, like natural starlight mingling with the strange captured starlight - called "streetlamps"? - on the street. Best of all, he could feel his heart beating steadily within his chest, although he could swear that it skipped a beat whenever he thought of Emma. The best part of being alive was definitely the promise of being able to spend another day with Emma.

It was while he paused to admire the night sky that the woman in question emerged from Granny's, her blonde hair sparkling like gold even in the dim lamplight.

"You look happy," observed Emma, moving towards him with her hands stuffed casually in her pockets.

"That's because I am," Killian replied honestly, almost surprised by his own admission. "How did you fare with Regina?"

Emma shrugged. "She still seems pretty miserable, but at least now she's a little bit tipsy as well as miserable. Henry went home with her, so at least she won't be alone."

"Aye, and your boy can work wonders when it comes to Regina," Killian agreed, smiling affectionately at the thought of Emma's son.

"Where have you been? I didn't expect to see you out here," Emma said, looking at him quizzically. Killian took a moment to daydream that Emma had been in Granny's looking for him, but brushed away the thought afterwards. Regina and Henry either hadn't left yet, or they'd left out the back door. Still, the chance to see her was enough to boost his mood even further.

"Well, I've been making a sympathy call of my own," Killian admitted, scratching behind his ear in embarrassment.

Emma's eyebrows shot up. "To?"

"Belle," Killian replied.

Emma's face flickered with a variety of emotions for a moment before she shoved them away. However, Killian knew her well enough to quickly read at least some of them: surprise, guilt, anger, and sadness. Her eyes flew to his chest, where his heart was now safely restored, then back to his face. "How was she?"

"She was understandably distressed, but some rum and company helped to at least partially remedy that. She was in reasonably good spirits before she retired for the evening."

"You mean before she passed out?" Emma read between the lines with ease, biting down on an affectionate smile.

"Naturally. Ensuring her a long rest was the least I could do," Killian replied with a wink.

Emma's smile faded and, once again, her eyes were drawn towards her pirate's chest.

Tenderly, Killian pulled Emma into an embrace, bringing her hand up to rest over his heart.

"Still there, love," he promised gently, placing a small kiss on her forehead.

Emma's eyes filled with tears as her jaw clenched. "I should have realized. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't even try to find out today after you grabbed my arm. You were trying in every possible way to tell me, and I missed it. You would have died if Belle hadn't-"

"But she did, love," Killian reminded her softly. "There's no use in blaming yourself for this. There was no way that you could have known what the crocodile was up to. He fooled everyone. The fault lies with me, if it lies with anyone. I let it happen in the first place. Fortunately, because of Belle, there's no need to dwell on such thoughts."

"That's the point, though! It shouldn't have been Belle who saved you. I failed, and I'm so sorry." A tear slipped down Emma's cheek, and she wiped it away angrily.

Killian gently lifted her chin to look into her eyes. "Being the saviour doesn't mean that the safety of everyone lies on your shoulders alone, Emma," he told her earnestly. "Requiring assistance isn't something to be ashamed of. You can't always have the pleasure of saving my sorry life, Emma, and I believe we both know that you've done that already in more ways than one. Really, it was someone else's turn."

In spite of herself, Emma smiled, before leaning in for a soft, caressing kiss. Both Emma and Killian felt the reassuring thundering of his heart in response.

When Emma finally pulled away, it was with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

"You know, I'm surprised that you aren't wasted right now after drinking with Belle. From what I remember, you're a little bit of a light-weight," Emma teased.

Killian's eyes narrowed in confusion, and Emma saw the exact moment that comprehension dawned.

"From what I recall, it was hardly a fair contest, was it? I believe you poured out your beverages instead of consuming them, did you not? Bad form, Swan," he chided teasingly.

"You must have been plastered to not notice that," Emma cut in.

In a moment, Killian's eyebrow quirked upwards and a positively sinful grin crept onto his face. "Perhaps this calls for a rematch."

He wasn't really expecting her to say yes, unless she'd already had much more alcohol with Regina than he'd imagined. Therefore, her response caught him completely by surprise.

"You're on," she challenged, looking equally as confident as Killian felt.

Killian looked so taken aback that Emma couldn't hold back a laugh. "What? Scared of losing?" She taunted.

"No, merely surprised that the fair Emma Swan would lack the sense to surrender now," Killian recovered quickly, eyes sparkling with laughter.

Emma's own eyes narrowed. "You are so going down."

She half-dragged the smirking pirate captain to The Rabbit Hole, where they found a small table in the corner and ordered a large supply of shots.

"Bottoms up," Killian said. "May the best man - or lady, as it may be - win."

The competition continued uninterrupted for some time, until the last person either expected to see in the Rabbit Hole sauntered over.

"Emma! My baby! I loooove you," an intoxicated Snow cooed.

Emma looked at her mother, mortified, while Killian looked impressed.

"Hey, sister," Grumpy said to Emma... grumpily. "Come on, Snow, we've got to get you home."

"Oh! Are you on a date? Are you going to kiss? You two are soooo beautiful together! Oooh, you would have beautiful children," Snow sang as Grumpy half-pulled her to the door.

"I'd wager that means I have your mother's approval," Killian chuckled while Emma groaned in mortification.

"Do you think I'm too young to be a grandmother?" Snow slurred to Grumpy as the door slammed shut behind them.

"That's going to be you in about a half hour, I'd wager," Killian commented.

"Shut up and drink your shots," Emma ordered, pushing away her embarrassment in face of the competition. She would really have to get the story as to why on earth her mother was in a bar getting drunk tonight, but that could wait for later.

Soon enough, Killian could see that Emma was clearly close to Belle levels of intoxication. He himself was feeling affected, but it was clear who was going to win this competition (though he doubted Emma would remember his victory).

"Should we stop now, love?" He asked in concern as she rested her head heavily on her hand before almost falling off of her chair.

"Stop? You 'fraid, sailor?" Emma slurred.

"That's captain to you, love," Killian corrected, eyeing her in concern.

"'nother," Emma ordered, eyes half-closed.

With a sigh, Killian picked up another shot. Emma did the same, but spilled about half in the process. It was then that Killian had a brilliant plan.

They drank their shots, and as soon as they were done, Killian groaned and lay his head on the table.

"Y'win, love. I concede," he copied Emma's slurred speech with ease.

He would never have tried such a trick on Emma while she was sober. He knew for a fact that imagining she would ever fall for it was an insult to her intelligence. It almost seemed risky while she was drunk, but he was becoming very concerned about her now. With guilt, he wondered if it was really fair to have a drinking competition with anyone considering how used to alcohol his body must be; after all, he'd had over two hundred years to work on his alcohol tolerance.

"Boom! Tol' you," she slurred triumphantly, starting to fall off of her chair again.

Killian quickly dropped all pretense of drunkenness to dart to her side and catch her before she fell on the floor.

"Come on, love, let's get you home," he murmured, supporting her weight against his own. He quickly dropped money on the table to pay for the drinks before leading his stumbling Swan to the door.

Once outside, Emma giggled - something so rare that Killian was certain he could count the number of times he'd heard it on one hand - and threw her arms around him.

"Your eyes are sooo blue," she laughed.

"Um... aye. Come on, Swan," he replied, fighting back a smile.

She leaned forward and kissed him messily, although he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the spontaneity of the gesture. Kissing Emma Swan in any state was wonderful...

Killian broke away from the kiss fairly quickly, though. Emma really did need to get home, even if her pout over the kiss ending made him want to dive back in.

The walk back was quite difficult because getting Emma to walk in a straight line was impossible, and Killian was more than a little bit drunk himself. Emma hummed somewhat tunelessly to herself after that as Killian supported her on the walk back to the Charming home. Killian didn't recognize the tune, but he soon started humming along with songs that his mother used to sing around the house. It had been a long time since he'd thought of those.

"I love your voice," Emma slurred. "It's like dark choc'late."

Chuckling, Killian shook his head. Drunk Emma's looser tongue was rather endearing. Everything about her was, though, now that he thought about it.

"I love your voice as well, sweetheart," he replied, guiding her to her front door and extracting the keys from her jacket pocket. It took him a moment to find the lock in the dark, and that moment was all it took for Emma to start kissing him again.

"Swan!" Killian whispered sharply. It wasn't that he wasn't enjoying kissing her. However, considering that the were both drunk, he didn't want kissing to lead to something they might regret while sober. He was a gentleman, after all.

"I looove you," she murmured against his neck.

Killian froze to stare at her in the dim light, feeling truly overwhelmed and frankly undeserving of her sentiments.

"I doubt that you'll remember this, love, but there is no one in this world that I love more than you," he told her softly.

He felt rather than saw her smile against his cheek as he guided her into her bedroom.

"Killian? Stay?" She slurred softly.

"Apologies, love, but not tonight," he replied with a chuckle.

He pulled off her shoes carefully before laying her in her bed and pulling the blankets gently around her. Finally, he brushed his lips against her forehead and left.

Perhaps it was the drinks or the starry night or the euphoria of being alive, but Killian hummed all of the way back to Granny's. It had been a great evening, and he hoped to repeat at least some of it in the future. He hoped that Belle would feel better soon, of course, and no longer require a drinking buddy, but he felt secure in the promise of a potential friendship. He had learned that Emma could hold a lot of alcohol, which impressed him, even if he didn't want that part of the evening to be a regular thing. No, the next time he went drinking with Emma, he hoped to keep the drinking somewhat minimal, so that when he told her he loved her, she would remember it.

Oddly enough, though, he wouldn't mind her triumphing over her drinking 'victory'. In fact, he was rather looking forward to how happy it would make her to have won. It was well worth a bit of teasing.

In addition, he had learned a wonderful thing this evening; there was no one that he would rather drink with than Emma Swan.