"Ems, you here?"

Killian was expecting the silence that followed his words, but he couldn't deny that a small part of himself was hoping he'd come home to find his best friend waiting for him once more.

After spending a couple of weeks in Los Angeles, going back and forth on studio negotiations for the script she was planning to sell, Emma had finally gotten the message she'd been waiting for. The Spielberg piece that she'd been cast in was ready to start production, and she was needed at the studio bright and early on Monday morning. The production crew wanted to spend some time going through the wardrobe that had been assigned to Emma's character, making sure that each piece fit her figure perfectly before filming would begin the following week. And between wardrobe fittings and meetings with her new co-stars, table reads had been scheduled to allow for any last-minute changes to be made to the script.

It was a process every actor went through when they were hired for a new job, and it was one that usually never failed to get the adrenaline flowing.

When she left the house that morning with a fresh green smoothie in one hand and her car keys in the other, Killian hadn't expected to see his friend again until late that evening.

But the absolute silence in his home still felt strange.

It was odd how Emma had managed to fill the house with so much life in such a short space of time - and it wasn't just through her persistent singing. There were large vases of fresh flowers in almost every room of the house, filling the space with a beautifully fresh fragrance that never failed to bring back memories from his childhood. Next to the vase on his coffee table was a trashy romance novel she'd been reading. The corners were dog-eared from where she'd turned down the pages to mark her place in the book, and along the back of his couch was a big, neon-pink, fluffy blanket that she always used to cover her legs while she read.

They were only small touches, but they were the kind of small touches that made his house feel like a real home, for the very first time since he'd picked up the keys from his realtor.

Killian sighed as he made his way through to the kitchen to grab the takeout menu for his favorite Chinese restaurant. Emma probably wouldn't make it back in time for dinner, and he didn't much fancy trying to make himself something to eat. He'd either end up with a salad and deep regrets or burning down his home. So with his regular order placed, Killian kicked off his boots and made himself comfortable on the sofa as he turned on the television.

He was ten minutes into a Yankees game when the buzz of his front gate sounded and assuming that it was his food delivery, Killian hit the button to allow the driver entry to his community. However, when he pulled open the front door he found himself face-to-face with a different kind of delivery driver, and he couldn't quite stop the look of confusion from spreading over his face.

"I have a special delivery for Emma Swan."

"She's at work," Killian replied carefully. "But I can take it for you."

"Name?"

"Jones. Killian Jones."

The bored looking driver scribbled something down onto a piece of paper, before turning his clipboard to tap his pen against a box at the bottom of the sheet. "Sign here, please?"

Killian did so as neatly as he could, then printed his name and the date into the corresponding boxes before he handed the document back over. He'd signed enough of them in his life to know just how important they were. The delivery driver reached back into a messenger bag looped over his shoulders and withdrew a large Manilla envelope. "Enjoy your night," he told Killian, as he handed the package over.

"Yeah. You too," he replied distractedly, already pushing the door closed.

Killian managed to wait until he was back in his lounge before he flipped the envelope over in his hands. He knew what he was expecting it to be, but seeing it in person was still more startling than he ever thought it would be.

Emma's name had been printed above his address and stuck in the very center of the package. The words PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL were stamped across the top and bottom of the envelope in bright red ink, and the Lionsgate Films logo was printed across the top left-hand corner.

It was the revised draft of Emma's script.

She'd told him that she was expecting a copy with the studio's additions to the piece so that she could approve and decline what she did and didn't like. But neither of them had thought it would arrive so soon.

Lionsgate clearly wasn't messing around.

Killian fired off a quick message to his friend to let her know what had arrived and then dropped the package down onto the coffee table next to Emma's book. He was determined to put the script out of his mind, but it didn't really work. As he ate his dinner he found his eyes drifting back to the package, wondering what Lionsgate would have wanted to add or remove to bring the piece up to their standards.

He tried so hard to focus on the game that was playing on his screen while he waited for his friend to get back, but if Killian were being brutally honest he wouldn't have even been able to tell you what sport he was watching that evening, let alone which teams were playing.

When the sound of a car pulling into the driveway finally met his ears, followed by the scratch of Emma's key in the door, Killian sprang to his feet and reached for the envelope, before hesitating and sitting it back down on the coffee table. The last thing he wanted to do was make his friend feel like he was pressuring her into sharing something with him that she wasn't ready for him to see. But he also didn't want Emma to think that he wasn't excited for her achievements, so he reached for the folder once more.

"Whatcha doing?" Emma asked with a slight chuckle, and Killian turned to see his friend lingering in the doorway.

"I uh… you have mail." He picked the package back up and held it out to her, hoping that she hadn't been standing there long enough to see how much he'd fiddled with it.

Judging by the look on Emma's face, she had.

"Ahhh… and you really wanna see what's inside of it but you don't wanna seem like a snoop," she reasoned, as her eyes lingered over the logo at the top of the envelope. When she turned the package over and found that it was still fully sealed, she was a little surprised. Given how much support Killian had thrown behind her for the piece, she could imagine just how hard he'd had to fight down the instinct inside of himself that wanted to rip it open and read the new additions that had been made. But she couldn't really blame him for that. After all, it was his natural curiosity that had resulted in her multi-million-dollar deal to begin with.

Emma used her keys to slice open the top of the envelope, and then shook the script and covering letter out into her hand. After a quick scan of the note, she set both it and the envelope aside, before dropping down into what had become herspot on the sofa.

"Shall we?" she asked, patting the space next to her.

"Huh?"

"Do you wanna read the damned thing or not?" The brow she arched in his direction had Killian sitting down beside her almost instantly, but he still looked a little hesitant about the whole thing.

"Don't you wanna read through them yourself first? I mean, what if you hate them? Or what if they took out a part that you really love?"

"Maybe the parts I hate will end up being the parts you love? Maybe you can help me understand why they've made these changes, or why different parts have been cut or moved," she explained. "I know this is my screenplay, Killian but that means I'm never gonna be the most objective person when I read through it. And while you're definitely biased, I know that your bias is only towards things that mean the best for me. So no, I don't wanna read this alone. I wanna read it through with my best friend, who will give me his completely honest opinion on the changes that have been made. And not because I'm paying him to, but because he cares enough about me to want what's best for me."

Killian turned wide eyes towards his friend, touched by her words. She was going out of her way to include him in virtually every aspect of the process that had taken place since he'd convinced her to pitch her screenplay, and he wasn't sure he'd ever have the words to thank her for that.

While he was certain that he would never find himself in her position at any point during his career, Killian was so grateful that she was giving him a chance to live it out through her.

"Besides," she added, with a sly smile that told him he probably wasn't going to like the next few words out of her mouth. "It's good practice for when you audition for the role of Officers Andrews."

He chuckled along with his friend as she shifted over a little more until her thigh was pressed tightly against his own, and the script was resting over both of their legs.

Deep down, Killian knew he would end up auditioning for that role. He'd never been able to refuse Emma's wishes, and he certainly wasn't going to start now. But the more adamant she was about him being the perfect person for the lead in her movie, the more he started to believe that she might actually be right.

Of course, the moment he stepped into that room to read for the role, he knew his confidence would fly straight out of the nearest window.

"Ready?" Emma asked lifting the cover just enough to give them both a little peek at the opening page of the script.

"Ready," he agreed.

For the next hour, Emma and Killian sat mostly in silence as they read through the changes that had been made to her very first screenplay. Most were only minor details that had been either added or removed to improve the flow of the piece, and Emma was relieved to see that. Somehow, seeing so few adjustments made her feel more confident in her own abilities. And Killian certainly didn't hesitate to reaffirm just how talented he thought his best friend was when they came to the end of their second read.

But there was one section that featured a few major changes, and Emma wasn't entirely sure how she felt about them. She'd deliberately left the romance out of the piece when she'd been drafting it, insisting to herself that it was more about self-discovery and recovery than the need to find love in order to heal. So she was surprised to see some background added on Officer Andrews's past love.

"I think it's a good thing," Killian argued. "I think it tells us how much he's lost, and I think it will show the viewers just how far he's come by the end of the film."

"You really think so? It kinda reads to me like they added a sex scene for the sake of adding a sex scene."

"Well, if I'm being honest, they probably did," he snorted out. "You know the old adage as well as I do, Love. Sex sells. But I don't think it's a detriment to your storyline."

Emma still didn't look convinced.

"How about we read it through?" he suggested. "You used to make me do that with lines for Agent Sloane when I didn't like what the writers had put down for him. We could read through the scene and see how you feel when you hear it aloud?"

"Okay," Emma agreed, as she stood from her place on the sofa. Killian followed her lead, turning to face her so that he could deliver Officer Andrews's lines as they would be delivered on camera. "Do you need the script?"

"Nah, I'm good," he chuckled. "Excellent memory, remember?"

Emma had always hated how easily he was able to memorize his lines with so little work on his part. It was unfair to everyone he worked with.

However, the moment her best friend slipped into character, all of her thoughts about his unfair advantages flew from her mind. She knew that she'd been right to stick with her gut and accept the offer from Lionsgate for the piece. But with his new physique, Killian fit the role of Officer Andrews even better than she'd originally imagined. And his delivery of the lines she'd written was so flawless, she felt a little breathless every time his eyes met hers - which made it difficult to read the words printed onto the page in front of her. It was probably the worst performance she'd ever given in her entire life, but Emma didn't care. She was pretty sure Killian's own was the best she'd seen him deliver.

They were about halfway through the scene when she finally realized what was coming next. The studio had written in an intense love scene between Andrews and his former lover, Julie.

An intense scene that began with one hell of a kiss.

A kiss that she was pretty sure her best friend was expecting her to give him, as they made their way through the scene. After all, it was standard practice in the industry to follow the stage directions throughout rehearsals, so that everyone involved in the production could get a feel for the flow of the scene they would soon be shooting. That way, they wasted less time and money on botched takes.

"I uh… I'm sorry. I can't do this." Emma tossed the script down onto the seat she'd been occupying early that evening before she reached up to rake her hands through her hair.

"What? Of course you can," Killian chuckled. "This is the only way you'll know for sure how you feel about these edits, Emma. And I know you've shot scenes like this before." He cocked his head ever so slightly as he watched her pace the length of his lounge until realization suddenly hit him square in the face. "Is it because it's me?"

"Of course it's because it's you," she scoffed. "Look, it's no big deal, Killian. Can we just… let's forget about this. Please?"

Killian snorted out a huff as he threw himself down onto the sofa. "Is the thought of kissing me really that repulsive to you, Emma? I mean, it's a fucking scene for Christ's sake. I've watched you kiss dozens of guys on camera before."

His last statement came out a little harder than he had intended, but Killian wasn't just angry about how she was reacting. He was hurt too. Emma wasn't some newbie in Hollywood, stumbling her way through her first job. She knew that these kinds of scenes meant nothing. So her refusal to finish the one they'd started stung more than he ever thought it would.

"Oh please, like you don't get your own fair share of hot women to kiss on camera?" she threw back at him.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous about that, Swan." Killian wasn't sure where the words came from. All he could think about was hurting her the way her rejection had hurt him. And if the look that flashed behind her eyes was anything to judge by, he'd certainly achieved that.

Emma shook her head as she whirled on him once more, but instead of the burst of anger he was expecting, she seemed to deflate under his heated gaze. "You don't get it, do you? Jesus, you've never got, Killian. You've… you know for someone so smart, you can be so fucking dense at times."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Emma chuckled bitterly as she turned her eyes down to her toes, and took a moment to watch as she flexed her feet in the carpet. She knew that once she opened her mouth to reply there would be no going back. And that thought alone almost made her take the easy way out.

But she was tired. So fucking tired of lying to herself and everyone around her about how she felt. She'd thought living with Killian would be easy, like their friendship had always been. She'd thought she could keep pushing aside how she felt about him, and focus instead on being the friend he so desperately needed.

She'd been wrong.

So very wrong.

The feelings she had for Killian weren't going away, and they weren't getting any easier to manage. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, Emma knew that if she kept pushing them down as she had been, she'd only end up destroying herself.

And she'd probably take Killian down with her.

"I don't wanna kiss you for a scene, Killian because it means more to me than it's ever gonna mean to you. And I… I'm barely holding this together as it is. I can't keep doing this if we do that. I can't keep pretending that you're just a friend to me when I know how you kiss. So please… don't ask me to do that."

All of Killian's anger fled instantly at the sight of her tears, and he made his way around the coffee table separating them both to reach out for her. But the moment his fingers were in touching distance of her damp cheeks, Emma took a large step back and out of his reach.

"Don't," she warned, wrapping one arm around herself as she held another up in warning.

"I don't… I don't understand what's going on here, Emma. What's happened? What's changed?"

"Nothing," she laughed bitterly. "Nothing's changed. It's always been this way."

Killian looked so clueless that it was almost adorable.

Almost.

"Don't you get it yet, Killian? I love you. I'm in love with. And I always have been."

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