Alternate Universe
Prompt: "We're the only two staying in this dorm over the holidays"
AN: So I'm sorry I updated this way late. I've been home the last couple days and getting ready for Christmas and catching up with friends I haven't seen in a year. Plus yesterday I got sick and didn't feel like writing. I still intend to post 25 fics, it's just highly likely I will not be finished by Christmas.
The holidays really aren't great if there's no one to spend them with and it's hard to be festive and happy about spreading good cheer when you don't have anyone to love. At least that's his Emma had always seen it. She had forged her way to Boston University in a scholarship, fighting everyone who told her she couldn't make it. Her determination meant little in the way of a social life and her only friends were her roommates but she didn't mind. People had a tendency to leave her anyway, so all the more reason to not get attached.
That was how she ended up the only person on her floor spending the holiday in the dorm. Elsa, Ruby, and Mary Margaret had all offered to take her home with them, but she had refused. She didn't particularly feel like being surrounded by their loving families when she had never had one of her own.
After she had helped Mary Margaret load the last of her luggage into the back of her car, she walked back into the building and instantly felt the emptiness set in. The common area, usually so full of activity, was completely empty. She walked silently to the elevator, intending to hide away in her room for the next three weeks.
"Hold the door, love," a voice called, and she instinctively held her arm out to stop it from closing. "Why thank you, Swan," the person said as they stepped inside and she cursed her luck because of course it would be Killian Jones of all people. He was notorious for being extremely charming and flirty with everyone, but especially her. He lived on the same floor as she did and they had mutual friends so it didn't make it any easier to act like he didn't exist.
There also was the fact that she had a tiny bit of a huge crush on him, but that was beside the point. "Jones," she said as civilly as possible. "I didn't think you would still be here."
"Yes well, my closest family is an ocean away and I do have a job. Makes things difficult," he said.
She hummed noncommittally, wishing for the elevator to move faster so she would be able to escape the heat she always felt around him. Getting involved with him wasn't worth the risk, so it was better to not get too attached. The door opened to their floor and she was stuck in the awkward predicament of walking in the same direction as him but not knowing what to say.
"When do you leave Swan?" he asked nonchalantly as they reached her room. She unlocked the door and stepped inside.
"I'm not," she said, closing the door before she could read too much into the look in his eyes that looked a whole lot like understanding. Except he had just mentioned he had a family, people that loved him unconditionally. He couldn't understand being an orphan that was never enough for anyone.
Two days later she was preparing for a late night alone in her pajamas when there was a knock on the door. Confusion swept through her because she was positive that she had signed up as one of the people staying over the break and so it couldn't be that. Then again the RA, Regina, seemed to have some vendetta against her for some unknown reason, so really it wouldn't be a surprise if the RA had come to berate her for something.
It wasn't Regina, but rather Killian that was on the other side of the door and as much as she had been expecting Regina she had not been expecting him.
"What?" she said shortly.
"I was bored and wanted to see what you were doing," he smiled as if she hadn't just been very rude.
"I was about to watch Netflix and eat pizza rolls. Nothing particularly interesting or fun," she crossed her arms over her chest.
He smiled at her and it startled her that it was completely genuine, not the typically flirty grin he wore when he spoke to her. "That actually sounds like a marvelous time. Can I join you? It's better than staring at my ceiling all day," he asked and she could see the hope in his eyes.
She hesitated momentarily. Being alone with him was exactly the kind of thing she would normally avoid. It could lead to serious conversations about pasts and broken hearts and she was not willing to go there. But then again he was standing in front of her, shifting nervously on his feet and he looked so goddamn cute when he was shy that she stood back to let him in.
He was elated, his eyes dancing with light as he walked past her. "Your suite is so much cleaner than mine," he observed, looking around the living area. "We have pizza boxes and dirty laundry piled on our couch."
"We're girls what did you expect? We actually do our dishes and own a broom," she teased.
"Hey, I am very tidy. I do dishes quite frequently, thank you very much," he said, pointing a finger at her and tapping her on the nose. "It's probably Mary Margaret that cleans up after all of you don't try to lie.
"I resent that. And here I was about to offer you pizza rolls." She said sarcastically.
"Woah woah woah, no need to be hasty, Swan. I apologize for any slight perceived or otherwise," his tone was light but she felt the sincerity in his words. She just rolled her eyes at him, shoving his shoulder to move towards the tiny kitchen area.
Two hours and a box of pizza rolls later, and Killian was still on her small couch with her. They had made it through the first season of Parks and Rec and she was in the process of falling asleep on his shoulder.
"I'll head back to my room love. You look like you could use some sleep and I don't want to overstay my welcome," he whispered, sliding away from her slowly.
She couldn't help the pang of disappointment that he was leaving. "You can come back to you know. You're right, it does get kind of boring being alone all day," she said softly, trying to come off as nonchalantly as possible.
He seemed to see right through her. "You know Swan, if you want to get close to me you just have to ask," he raised an eyebrow at her, the flirty grin that set off the butterflies in her stomach stretching across his face.
She did her best to hide how affected she was by him. "Please. I just don't like being here all alone," she scoffed. She didn't realize until after the words were already out that she probably didn't want him knowing that. To his credit, he just smiled at her and nodded before standing to leave. She really tried not to notice the way his shirt rose up to reveal the strip of skin above the waistband of his jeans when he stretched his arms over his head. Hey, she was a young college student and he was insanely attractive so she gave herself a pass.
He turned around as he walked out the door, facing her as he backed into the hallway. "Goodnight, Swan."
"Night," she said softly as the door swung closed.
The next few days passed similarly; he would come over to her room and they would watch Netflix or he would talk about work or their roommates (but never their pasts, she noticed). She once borrowed a sweatshirt from him and she wore it all the time. She would deny it to anyone that asked, but she kind of liked the way it smelled like him.
It was Killian's idea to see how many rules they could break. They turned up their speakers as loud as possible, stayed in each other's rooms past midnight, they went in the public bathrooms to see which one was more disgusting. He came to her door one day and held out a pair of roller skates to dare her to race down the hall. She fell and ended up losing the race, but when he took her to his room so he could take care of the carpet burn on her palm it didn't feel like she had lost at all.
Christmas Eve arrived and brought with it a blizzard that turned the city into a ghost town. Killian's knock on her door wasn't unexpected, but the face he wore when she answered the door was. He looked more distraught than she had ever seen him, his hair sticking up at wild angles.
"Killian, are you okay?" she stepped back, pulling him into her room.
"Aye, love. I'm just not particularly fond of storms, of any kind really. I'm sorry to have bothered you," he said softly, scratching behind his ear.
She shook her head and nodded towards the couch. "It's no trouble at all, Killian. I was actually about to go over to your room anyway," she said truthfully. She had in her head an image of the two of them on the futon in the living area of his suite with mugs of hot chocolate waiting for midnight and Christmas to arrive, but that could just as easily be recreated in her own room.
She busied herself making the hot chocolate and handed him a mug when it was done. She reached across his lap to get her computer and turn on Netflix to continue their marathon tradition. They were almost done with Friends and he had talked her into watching Lost when they were done. At some point, she was curled up with her head on his shoulder and his fingers drawing lazy circles on her arm.
The wind thrashed the branches from the tree outside the window and he startled against her. He startled and his hand gripped her arm. "Killian, are you sure you're okay?" she asked, laying her hand over his chest. His heart beating rapidly and she saw the tension in his jaw.
"I'm fine, Emma. Like I said, it's just that storms bother me," he tried to relax, but she could still feel the tension in his shoulders.
"You know you can't lie to me," she said, reaching up to run the back of her fingers over his cheek. She could see the furrow in his brow as he considered what she said. Eventually he sighed and spoke.
"Back before I came to school here, I was living near London. I had my brother Liam and a girlfriend named Milah and they were the most important people in my life. One winter, we were all coming back from town and a storm came out of nowhere. The visibility was horrible and another car came around a turn too fast and hit us. I was the only one that survived," he finished, his voice growing thick towards the end and he refused to meet her eyes. She was reeling from his confession and there was an ache in her chest for him.
"But you said your family was in England though," was the first thing she could think of to say. He let out a humorless laugh.
"I didn't say they were alive though," was his response. He stood suddenly and she felt the loss of contact immediately. "I know you're not particularly fond of talking about the past so I can just go back to my room-" he started to turn away from her and she grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"I grew up in foster care," she blurted out. He turned back to her, shock written on his face. She had never shown any sign of wanting to talk about her childhood or anything that happened prior to college. "My parents left me on the side of a road. I had a family until I was three and then they had their own kid so they sent me back. I had no one and it's why I'm not used to people showing interest in me," she finished.
He sat back down next to her. "I can't imagine, Emma," he started, and she cut him off.
"I didn't tell you so that you could pity me, Jones, I told you so that you would understand you're not alone," she said quickly. Her voice was maybe a little stern, but he didn't seem too bothered.
Instead, he leaned in and brushed his lips softly over hers, so gently that she wondered for a moment if he had actually kissed her at all. She leaned into him and kissed him more firmly and tangling her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck.
He broke the kiss first, both of them breathless. Emma was the first of the two of them to form words to speak. "Isn't there some quote about broken edges of two people fitting and making a whole?" she said, only half joking, and nudging his nose with hers.
"If I can make you believe one thing, it is that you are not half. You are a whole all on your own, maybe with a few cracks but those only show that you've survived," he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Her watch beeped, signaling midnight had arrived, bringing the holiday with it.
"Merry Christmas, Killian," Emma whispered.
"Happy Christmas, Emma," he answered, leaning in to kiss her again.