This wasn't meant to be a date, but we've had such a good time and now it's 2 a.m. and I should really go home…


Emma takes a deep breath as she lines up her shot, refusing to let herself get distracted by the fact that Killian is standing so close to her that he's practically pressed against her back.

"That's it, love," he murmurs, just barely loud enough for her to hear over the buzz of the arcade.

"You do realize that I'm winning and don't need the help, right?" she retorts, glancing at him over her shoulder.

Technically, she's only winning at this game, not overall. Killian had taken their best-of-three contests in both racing and foosball and she was damned if she was going to lose to him at skeeball too.

"Who says I'm trying to help?"

His breath is hot in her ear and she huffs in response. Not a date, she reminds herself. She's here to ease Mary Margaret's nerves at meeting her first online dating match, not flirt with the hot Englishman who'd also been dragged along to the carnival. Never mind that flirting was exactly what she'd been doing ever since Mary Margaret and David had decided to ditch their respective friends at the merry-go-round. Or the fact she and Killian hadn't even tried to track them down for the last hour or so — first because they were too busy riding the pirate ship over and over again and then because he'd gone and challenged her as they wandered through the arcade and she's going to win this one, damn it!

Killian takes a step back and she re-sets herself to toss her last ball of the round. Even though she's made this shot a hundred times before, her breath still catches in her throat when the ball hops up, over, and then wobbles on the edge for a moment before finally falling into the 50-point hole.

"Ha!" she whoops, throwing her arms up and spinning around to rub her victory in his face. Which would have worked out perfectly fine except her heel slips on the linoleum tile and then her hands are on Killian's chest and his hands land at her waist to help steady her and not a date, not a date, she chants silently.

Her hands twitch as he sucks in a breath and he's holding her so tight that she can feel his fingers digging into her flesh through her sweater, his eyes darting back and forth across her face like he's repeating the same mantra that she is and… fuck it.

Emma surges forward, swallowing his grunt of surprise and pressing the advantage while she has it, holding him tight by the shirt with one hand while her other moves to the back of his head. It takes him a second to recover and then he's pushing back, matching her fervour like he's been wanting to kiss her all day and hell, if she'd known it was going to be like this maybe she would have done something about it sooner.

Except they're making out in the middle of a very public place with probably zillions of kids around and someone whistles at them and shit.

Emma breaks the kiss but can't make herself step back yet, justifying her decision to keep her forehead pressed to his by rationalizing that she'd probably just trip and fall onto the skeeball machine otherwise.

"We, uh, we should probably try to find Mary Margaret and David," she manages.

Killian tilts his head, the tip of his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he considers her words then he nods and takes that crucial step back. "Aye, you're probably right."

With a little space between them, all of a sudden she can't meet his eyes so she focuses on fixing her appearance instead, tugging at the hem of her shirt and combing her fingers through her hair.

"Emma?"

And this, this is why she couldn't look him in the eye right away because he's watching her like he still wants to devour her on the spot and she's supposed to be here supporting her friend, not wondering if she can skip out and go home with the guy she's still definitely not on a double-date with.

She tries to tell him as much, really she does. Instead what comes out of her mouth is a blurted, "We should probably start at the ferris wheel."

Killian grins and moves to her side so he can link arms with her, leading them out of the arcade. "I think that sounds like an excellent idea."