Thank you soooo much for all the lovely reviews! Seriously, they make my day!

Also, this story will have 10 chapters so almost at the end :)

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Chapter 7

They ignored each other the next day. Well, as much as they could whilst still putting on a show for her parents – teasing and joking, kissing each other's cheeks, smiling while making eyes.

Emma pretended to not see her mother's suspicious look as she offered to go alone to the bakery to check on the cake instead of tagging Killian along with her. She left swiftly then, not wanting to explain herself or argue with her mother about taking Killian along.

As the door shut behind her, Mary Margaret rounded on Killian with a concerned frown. "Is everything alright?"

He gulped. "Yes, m'lady"

"I just..." She exhaled loudly. "Are you guys okay? I tried to talk to Emma last night too… We just want you both to be happy, Killian. You're a part of this family now."

Killian blinked. He hadn't associated himself with the word family for ages now. His mother, Liam, and Milah were little more than fading memories at this point. A year ago he was beginning to think Emma might change all that. That together they could be a family, have a family, but she'd shut that down pretty quickly.

But he never realized or even imagined that Emma's parents might consider him so. And to think that this entire thing was a charade, and that in actual fact he had no place in Emma's life, and consequently theirs. Guilt flooded through him suddenly, making his chest ache.

He was so consumed with the idea of Emma finally calling him, Emma needing his help, and the chance to just be around her, that he never actually pondered over the fact that they were betraying her parents.

"I'm gonna go for a run," he announced.

~~xx~~

Emma had checked out the cake situation almost half an hour before. She had no reason to delay returning to her parent's house, and yet she still found herself driving aimlessly around the outskirts of town, near the forest.

Emma liked driving. Something about the purr of the engine and the steering wheel solid under her fingers had always calmed her, made her feel in control. But there was no kidding herself this time, no amount of unnecessary detours that would change the truth. She wasn't in control. Not even a little bit.

Regina had tried to warn her, and dammit, Emma should have listened to her. But it had seemed like a solid plan at the time. Then, she was quite honestly expecting him to not even take her call, or answer with a "who is this?", or laugh in her face, or yell at her.

She hadn't actually really imagined that he might say yes. That he might actually go along with all of it.

Emma deserved some kind of medal, for sure. Maybe the kind they gave out to people who died pulling stupid stunts. This had been a stupid stunt. Lying to her parents had been bad enough. Recruiting Killian to be complicit on her deception after the way she'd treated him? It was bordering on cruel.

She never should've asked him. And now she was ignoring him like a petulant child, when he'd been nothing but nice and kind to her? Very grown up, Emma.

With a sigh, Emma turned back to the house, deciding it was time to make things right.

~~xx~~


Her mother seemed busy on her laptop when she entered.

"He's gone out for a run," she said absently, eyes intent on the screen of her Mac, answering Emma's unasked question

"Alright. Everything's good with the baker, by the way. There will be zero cake related drama." Emma informed her.

Her mother looked up from the laptop, her face softening in a way that spelled danger. "Emma, we need to talk."

Were there four scarier words in the English language?

"Yeah. We should catch up!" she said, trying to lighten the mood a little. By her mother's frown, she figured she hadn't bought it. But Emma knew what her mother wanted. She wanted to talk about Killian, about Emma's mini-freakout the night before when the topic of Killian and their future came up. "I'm just gonna take a quick shower"

Mary Margaret nodded, "I'll be waiting."

~~xx~~

Emma was just taking out her clothes from her bag when Killian's cell on the dresser binged, the device lighting up, making her eyes drift towards it. The message notification popped up from a girl named Katie –

Wanna meet up for drinks again tonight? I miss you ;)

Emma froze. The offer was friendly enough but the winky face at the end gave it a whole new meaning. And again? She couldn't help the jealousy that crept up within her, followed by the anger. Anger over the fact that he's here with her pretending to still be together for her parent's sake, when back home in their real lives, he was seeing someone else.

She knew that she was being irrational, that they were broken up, and done, and of course he should move on and find someone else who could actually love him, and be committed, and talk about their future and family –

But one thing that Emma Swan had always been good at was anger. Not feeling anything is an attractive option when what you feel sucks. But anger was good too.

So she got angry.

~~xx~~

Killian thought the run might clear his head, but all it had really done was given him too much time alone with his thoughts. Even with his headphones blaring hit after hit from his favorite band, he couldn't quite quell his growing sense of guilt. By the time he'd hit his second mile, the guilt had turned to shame, his shame to anger.

He was angry at Emma, but he was also angry at himself. Sure, it had been her idea, but his brother had raised him to be a good man. An honest man. And yet here he was, lying to Emma's parents, who had been nothing but kind to him. Who had trusted him to look out for their only daughter.

When the self-loathing didn't dissipate after the third mile, he gave it up and headed back to the house. He let himself in the back door, Mary Margaret's greeting swallowed by the blare of the headphones. He gave her a cursory wave before heading upstairs to their room.

He wasted no time divesting himself of his sweaty clothes, yanked open his suitcase, and after retrieving a clean pair of clothes to wear to Ruby's party and his towel, pulled open the bathroom door.

It took him a moment to register the warmth in the bathroom.

And then he saw her.

~~xx~~

Emma heard the bathroom door yank open and in panic, she opened the glass door of the shower with the detachable shower head raised in her arm to attack. And froze.

There stood Killian. Naked. And his eyes were glued to her breasts, her nipples involuntarily peaking. His eyes travelled lower, and she couldn't help but lower her own gaze down his body too, down his smooth skin, the dark trail, and then his dark curls.

They stayed like that for a moment – gazing at each other's naked bodies. Which was ridiculous since they'd seen each naked plenty of times. Had done things to each other's bodies which used to leave Emma blushing for whenever she used to remember them.

"Emma," he breathed out. "Bloody hell."

She looked back up at him. His eyes had widened, staring back at her with unkempt lust. She heaved loudly and her eyes darted back towards his now half-hard cock, and it was all the incentive Killian needed to walk towards her.

Emma didn't even realize when she had dropped the shower head, but her back was now pressed to the cold tiles and Killian was standing mere inches in front of her. So close that she could feel the heat radiating off of him, could hear the way his heart was beating erratically matching hers, and his warm breath was fanning over her lips.

Emma was the first one to touch.

Her fingers trailed over his chest, stopping to circle his nipples. She looked up at him, his teeth coming out to bite his lip and damn, he knew she loved it when he did that. Suddenly, she tweaked his nipple, making him gasp and in moments, one of his hand was curling around her jaw while the other was around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. She expected him to kiss her, but instead, he positioned her head upwards with a firm hold on her jaw, and his lips then latched onto her neck, sucking a spot just above her pulse point.

Emma moaned, her own hands now wandering down over his body, stopping just where she could feel his erection bobbing over his stomach. As she palmed him, he released an infernal grunt and his hips thrust into hers, pressing their bodies flush against each other.

Killian let out a grunt as Emma grasped him firmly in her hand, moving it up and down, eliciting more moans from him. His own hand then came down to grab her ass, squeezing it before it drifted to the back of her thigh. With a sudden pull, her thigh was over his hip, leaving her exposed to him. Just as her hand tightened on him, his slid down to circle her clit, making Emma yelp in surprise.

"Killian." Emma gasped as two fingers slid inside her, his thumb circling her clit. He brought his other hand from her jaw to her breast, squeezing it tightly as his thumb brushed against her nipple rhythmically. She was so close to her peak, and by the way he was throbbing in her hand, and breathing erratically she knew he was too. Their minds were filtered with nothing but lust, this want which had taken over their senses and focused all of their energy and thoughts into this one moment.

Wanna meet up for drinks again tonight? I miss you ;)

Emma's hand stilled, her eyes snapping open. Suddenly her mind started working again. What the hell was she doing? This Katie woman might be his girlfriend, or at the very least someone he was sleeping with. A flare of anger surged through her – not only was he supposedly seeing someone, he was also cheating on them with her.

She detangled her leg from where it curved around his hip and pushed him back, his fingers sliding out from her abruptly. His face was masked in a confused frown as he quirked an eyebrow up in question. She saw the moment it hit him too, the realization of exactly what they were doing. His jaw clenched tightly and he looked down at the ground.

Emma grabbed her towel and headed outside.

~~xx~~

The car ride to Ruby's was perhaps the most awkward thing that Emma had to ever face in her life. And that included the time during high school when her mother once found her topless with an almost naked Neal in her bed.

She could feel that the air wasn't just tense from awkwardness but also anger and some residual lust from their activities in the bathroom. Before leaving, her mother had once again asked Emma to chat, but she'd blown her off using Ruby's party as an excuse.

She hated doing this. She wanted to talk to her mother too, have one of their mother-daughter bonding sessions, but she couldn't bear to lie to her all the time. When she'd cooked up this little scheme, this entire ruse with Killian, she had never realized the guilt she would feel about the whole thing.

She wondered if Killian felt guilty too. He used to feel guilty about the littlest of things before – losing a case, bumping into someone, taking too long to decide what he wanted to order, hell, he even hated being the last one to buy something from the store.

Mercifully, Storybrooke wasn't a big place, and the trip to Ruby's took no time at all. When they pulled up, Emma got out of the car quickly, and waited for Killian to take his place by her side. Ruby and Victor might know the truth, but the others didn't. And in small towns, news traveled fast. It was better to be safe than sorry.

He walked up to the door by her side, keeping his distance and only at the absolute last moment when they were walking through the door did he rest his hand on the small of her back.

Emma would be lying if she said it didn't hurt.

~~xx~~

Ruby greeted the pair of them with tight, bone-crushing hugs, and quickly introduced them to the people around her. Most of them were people with whom Emma had gone to high school.

She made small talk with them all, asking about how life was and all that jazz while Killian was busy with Victor, nursing a glass of rum in his hand. Her gaze kept drifting to him, watching how relaxed he looked but she could tell by the set of his shoulders and the whites of his knuckles grasping the glass that it was an act. He wasn't alright.

"Wow, where can I get me one of those?" Tink asked, a friend from back in high school, fanning herself "You look disgustingly cute together."

Emma smiled politely. "He makes me happy," she replied, the safe answer.

"You can't keep your eyes off of him," she noted, and after smiling, Emma excused herself.

Could she be anywhere without people telling her how great he was, or how good they looked together, for fucks sake?

She looked back at where Killian and Victor were, only to find some random guys there instead, both men and Ruby nowhere to be found. Heading out to the backyard, from where she could hear music blaring and the sound of people yelling and splashes, she quickly spotted Ruby and Victor already in the pool.

Killian was standing with a few men whom she didn't really recognize and didn't care to. Her option were to either go in the pool with Ruby, or go to Killian.

She chose the former.

It was a good thing she'd been prepared enough to put her bathing suit on under her dress, if it could be called a dress. It was more a cover-up than anything, and it didn't cover much. She had ignored the way Killian's heated gaze had ran on her body for just a moment when he joined her downstairs. The front was pretty modest with a zipper from the belly to the neckline which Emma had zipped almost all the way up, but the back was almost non-existent and the hem was pretty short too.

(It reminded her of the little black dress he used to love on her – how he used to be unable to stop touching or kissing her when she wore it.)

(She still has it buried somewhere deep in her closet. The memories attached with it too painful, but she could never bring herself to throw it away.)

Reaching the pool, Emma pulled the zipper down from the front of her dress as much as it would go, and slipped out of it. She didn't need to glance towards Killian to know he was staring at her, could feel the heat of his gaze from all the way across the yard.

She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit, not interested in wearing a bikini to a pool party with people she barely knew. But her one-piece's neckline was very low and had deep cuts on the side, so to be honest, it wasn't modest at all.

Quite the opposite really. And if she were to judge by the few appreciative glances she got from men and women as she walked towards the pool, it was a good choice.

Emma dipped inside the pool, the cold-water bliss against her warm skin. Carefully avoiding a couple who were engaged in a heavy make-out session, she made her way towards Ruby, the other woman bringing her arm around Emma's shoulder.

"I'm just getting us drinks, do you want one Emma?" Victor asked, already halfway out the pool.

"A beer should be fine, thanks."

Once Victor was out of earshot, Ruby raised her eyebrow at her, prompting her to spill.

She did.

She left some stuff out. The scene in the shower, for instance. But she told her about the guilt, and the confusion, about the Katie woman. Only after she was done did Ruby speak. "You want to get back together with him," she said, matter of factly.

"What – no!" Emma insisted, to which Ruby snorted.

"It's written all over your face. We all knew this breakup wasn't going to last – it was just a matter of you guys talking this out."

Emma bit her lip. "He probably has a girlfriend. Remember that girl texted him to meet again?"

Ruby snorted. "Oh please. He's still so in love with you."

Emma rolled her eyes.

"Emma," said Ruby, fixing her with her most serious look. "Do you still love him or not?"

She turned her head to the other side, ignoring the question.

"Emma!"

"Yes, okay? I do, of course I still do!"

"Then you need to go talk to him, figure this all out! And quite honestly, my money is on yes you can get back together!"

Emma hesitated. "What if I break his heart again?"

"You won't."

~~xx~~

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