Alternate Universe
Prompt: "We're at the mall when there's a severe weather warning over the loudspeakers, guess we're spending the night here"

"Swan aren't you finished yet? You do realize that storm is going to be here in a couple hours," Killian Jones followed behind his best friend. Her arms were full of shopping bags to the point where she must be losing circulation in her arms.

"Almost, Killian. I still need to find something for Mary Margaret," she called over her shoulder, her blonde hair falling down her back. "God that woman is hard to shop for," she muttered, more like an afterthought to herself.

Killian groaned because they were going on four hours in the mall with an insane crowd of last minute shoppers and she had said thirty more minutes an hour ago. It's not that he didn't like spending time with her, or that he hated the holidays, it's just that he could only take so much at a time.

The things he did for Emma Swan.

"Just get her a new kitchen gadget, or find her a sweater you know she'll like, or add to her clock collection. She's probably the easiest person to shop for, Emma," he complained. He knew he sounded like a child, but he had finished his shopping a week ago and the only reason he was braving the mall the Saturday before Christmas was because Emma had given him her sad eyes and asked if he loved her.

(The answer was yes, just in a different way than she thought)

"Her clocks, Killian, this is why I bring you places," she said, grinning widely.

She rushed off in a different direction, and he stared at her back before traipsing after her. He really was too far gone for this woman.

They had met their freshman year of college when their roommates had started dating and would frequently end up in either his room or hers whenever David and Mary Margaret needed privacy. They had become best friends and probably the most important people in each other's lives. He had fallen in love with her sometime around the end of their freshman year, but had been in the process of it since the first time he met her. There were times he thought perhaps his feelings for her were reciprocated, but she never made any move to change their current relationship so neither did he.

Emma was browsing through a display of antique clocks in a store he had never set foot in when an employee walked up to him. "Is there anything I can help you find?" she asked pleasantly.

"No, thank you," he smiled, brushing her off.

"Okay, well, let me know if you need anything," her smile became something more coy and she tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked back towards the registers.

Emma came up next to him, a small black clock in her hand and nodded in the direction of the employee. "What was that all about?" she asked, and if he didn't know better he'd think she sounded slightly defensive.

"She asked if I needed help with anything, I said no, she walked over there," he stated simply.

She nodded, her expression slightly strained. "Trust me, she was asking about a lot more than if you needed help finding a gift."

A grin spread across his face. "Now, Swan, you know you're the only woman I have time for in my life, don't you?"

She rolled her eyes in the way she always did when he was being ridiculous, nudging him toward the registers with her shoulder. "Careful Jones, or I'll start to think you have a crush on me," she said and he nearly stopped breathing.

At the register, the girl tried to flirt with him again, and Killian could make out the tense line of Emma's jaw and the set of her shoulders. As they were getting ready to leave, he took the bag and put his other arm around her shoulder. "Where to next, love?" he asked, catching sight of the employee's change in demeanor.

Emma understood his intent perfectly. "I think we're done. Ready to go home and help me wrap everything?" she asked, leaning into him.

They were outside the store but he didn't remove his arm from her shoulders and she didn't make any move to shrug him off. To anyone walking by, they looked the picture of a happy couple and he liked it. A lot. He was about to open his mouth to ask her what she wanted for dinner when an announcement came over the loudspeakers.

"Attention shoppers, we would like to inform you the severe winter storm that was forecast has hit the area ahead of what was predicted. For your safety, we are allowing everyone to remain in the building until the storm warning lifts. Thank you."

Killian sighed, "Well Swan, looks like we're staying here for a while."

"What do you mean? We can totally make it, it's just some snow and wind," she insisted.

"Your car doesn't have a heater, you didn't let me put snow tires on it, and it is an older model beetle. There's no way I'm letting you drive that car in a blizzard," he protested.

She grumbled and they settled down on the ground beside the escalators. Other people were getting the same idea and soon there was a crowd. Killian and a few other people tried to make light of the situation and talk with some of the people around them, but Emma was not enjoying being stranded at all.

At one point he went to the vending machine to bring food, and when he sat down she wrapped his arm around her shoulder again. At his raised eyebrow she said "A group of girls were staring at you when you were walking back."

"I didn't take you for the jealous type, love," he grinned, kissing her forehead for good measure.

"Only when it comes to you. If you get a girlfriend you won't have time for me anymore," she mumbled the last part and he wasn't entirely sure he was meant to hear it.

"I'll always have time for you," he whispered into her ear and she shivered.

She settled against him and the extensive shopping must have taken its toll on her because soon she was asleep on his shoulder.

"You make an adorable couple," an older woman walking by said. He looked up and thanked her. It wasn't the first time someone had told them they had been mistaken for a couple. "How long have you been together?" she asked.

"We met six years ago and I've loved her most of that time," he said truthfully.

The woman nodded understandingly and raised an eyebrow at him. "You should maybe do something about that," she winked before shuffling off. He saw her link hands with an old man who gave him a smile as if his wife did this kind of thing often.

Killian looked back at Emma, who was slightly drooling on his shoulder and he couldn't help smile at her. She told him all the time that he was the only one who really understood her and he said it was because she saw him just as clearly. He raised a hand to push her hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear.

"I do love you, Emma. One day I'll tell you how much."

A couple hours later the storm had lifted and Killian had let Emma drive them home. It was a struggle for her to pretend that she hadn't heard his conversation with the old lady that had walked by, but she played her nervousness off as uncertainty about the road conditions and the upcoming holiday. If he suspected anything, he didn't say.

He loved her? And not the way she thought he did?

She felt a little bad for brushing off his offer to help her wrap everything, but she did just have a bomb dropped on her.

He loved her too.

Almost immediately after she got home she called Ruby, who was the only person Emma had told how she felt about Killian. If anyone knew how to handle the situation, it was her. She picked up on the second ring.

"What's up, buttercup?"

"Killian said he loves me," she didn't bother with preamble.

She could tell the moment Ruby became serious. "Wait, like the way you love me or the way you love him?"

"Ruby, be serious, would I really be calling if he meant it the way that I love you?"

"Okay, wow, I need details. Tell me everything, did he say it to you, was it intentional, did he just let it slip?" Ruby spoke hurriedly and Emma launched into the story. Ruby was quiet for a few moments after she finished telling her about the old lady.

"Emma, I think it's time you told him how you feel. He would probably be thrilled, I told you that you weren't imagining things," Ruby encouraged.

"But what if-" Emma began, all her old fears rising in her chest.

"No. No buts. You need to tell him Emma," Ruby scolded. "March over to his apartment right now. I'm going to call you in half an hour and if you haven't I'm going to call again. You'll thank me for this at your wedding," and then she hung up.

Emma stared in disbelief at her phone screen because Ruby was never this straightforward with her about anything except what clothes she should wear. It was a bit unnerving. But was she right? Emma had relied on Killian for years and he had never abandoned her, had always been willing to talk about whatever she needed. He had been there for all of the bad breakups, even helping her through the ones she had before she realized she loved him but apparently after he loved her. He had never made a move on her when she was vulnerable and it only made her love him more. She was still pacing thirty minutes later when Ruby called her.

"Have you left yet?" was the answer she got when she picked up the phone.

"I'm walking out the door now, Ruby. Cut me some slack, it's a lot to work through," she said.

"I'm calling in another half hour," was the reply and the call disconnected.

Her drive to Killian's apartment took longer than usual from the snow that had piled up during the storm, and as usual everyone became horrible drivers when there was snow involved. She spent the time telling herself that she was doing this and that of course he wasn't going to reject her, but she still ended up lingering outside his door for a few minutes after she arrived.

She knocked softly and was about to turn and run away with the excuse that he wasn't home when the door swung open and he was right there. "Emma? I thought you were going to be busy, is something wrong?" he asked, once again proving how absolutely amazing he was.

She knew if she didn't say what she had come to, she would never tell him so she just blurted out "You told the old lady at the mall you loved me."

He froze, and she could see the panic just behind his eyes. "Aye, Swan, you know I love you," he said, with the smile she knew meant he was hiding something and it all but confirmed that he felt the same about her.

"I know, but you meant it in a different way than the way I love Ruby or Mary Margaret or David. You meant it the way…the way that I love you," she forced herself to meet his eyes and saw every emotion that flitted across them. Confusion, realization, disbelief, and finally hope. His mouth was hanging partially open in shock as she stepped forward, wrapped her arms around his waist, and finally kissed him.

It only took him a second to reciprocate before he tugged her into his apartment by her waist and she turned to pin him against the door. A few seconds later her phone rang from her back pocket.

"Shouldn't you get that, love?" he asked, breathless from their kiss.

"It's just Ruby, ignore it," she said. He pulled the phone from her pocket and she groaned when he broke away from her again, instead trailing her lips down the column of his throat and across his collarbone.

He pushed the answer button on her phone and held it to his ear. "Ruby this isn't a good time, go away," he said, hanging up and tossing her phone on to the couch.

"Considering she was calling to make sure I came to talk to you that will definitely shut her up," Emma giggled.

"Oh so Ruby knew before I did? How is that fair?" he asked, pulling her lips back to his before she could answer.

"I'll make it up to you," she whispered coyly. "Now that I have you here, don't think I'm letting you out of my sight."

"I would despair if you did."