Happily Ever After—ch. 5
CS Genre: Rival bakers/enemies to lovers/online dating au
"So without further ado….The winner of the first annual Storybrooke Fall Festival Apple Baking Contest is…"
Emma waited with baited breath, surprised at how very nervous she was. This contest meant a lot; more than she was willing to admit, even to herself. If she lost, well, it would feel like she was letting Ingrid down. She was the one foster mother she'd had who actually gave a damn about her—at least until Ruth and Robert adopted her. Emma had adored her, believing that she would finally have a forever home. One of the best childhood memories Emma had was making the Dutch apple pie with Ingrid for Thanksgiving the first year she lived with her. It had been a day full of fun…and messes…and laughter…and some of the best apple pie Emma had ever eaten.
But things were not meant to be. In the third year Emma was with Ingrid, her guardian died suddenly, and Emma was plunged back into the system..
She took a deep breath, letting it out. Now was not the time to dwell on the painful past. Emma hadn't told a single soul about her reasons for entering the pie in the contest, but in her mind it was clear. By winning the contest, she would honor the first person to ever make her feel like she mattered.
The time dragged on, Leroy clearly enjoying all the people hanging on his every word. He was milking this for all he was worth.
"If he doesn't announce the winner soon," Killian whispered to her, "I'm going to take this spatula and shove it right up his dramatic arse."
Emma barked a laugh, and Leroy shot her a dirty look.
"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted…" Leroy said.
Emma rolled her eyes.
"The winner of the first annual Storybrooke Fall Festival Apple Baking Contest is….Mayor Regina Mills!"
There was a smattering of polite applause as Regina stepped forward and accepted the blue ribbon and then placed it on her shirt. Emma felt a stab of disappointment.
Disappointment that she didn't win, of course, but also—and this made no sense to her—a little disappointment that Killian hadn't won. Their bet was silly, but if she was honest, part of her wanted to find out if his kisses lived up to his self-proclaimed hype.
Beside her, Killian sighed, and then shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose there's no accounting for taste. Shall we transfer our bet to the winner of second place?"
Emma felt her heart rate pick up at the possibility she would still get to…er…have to…kiss Killian, but this was a day of celebration, so why not? "You're on!"
"Second place goes to…" Leroy continued, "believe it or not, we have a tie for second place. Second place goes to Emma Swan and Killian Jones!"
Emma was not disappointed to have once again dodged a bullet by not losing to Killian.
One of the perks of entering the apple baking contest was the free food. As the judges had consumed less than a slice of each of the desserts, the rest was offered to the contestants themselves. Contest organizers divvying up the apple dishes so that each contestant got a taste.
Emma and Killian took their loaded paper plates full of apple goodness to a nearby picnic table. For several minutes they sat in silence, Emma enjoying the sweet and spicy flavors of apples and cinnamon on her tongue.
"I must say, Swan," Killian said, after patting his mouth with his napkin and washing his dessert down with a swig from his water bottle, "I call shenanigans.
Emma laughed. "Shenanigans? Killian who even talks like that?"
"People with large vocabularies and even larger brains," he said, nodding sagely.
"That's not the only thing about you that's big," she muttered.
He gave her a wicked grin. "Why Swan, however would you know about my…assets? Imagining the mast on my Jolly Roger, are we?"
Emma's face flamed, and she covered it with her face. "Oh my gods, that's not what I meant!" She said. "Your ego. I was saying you had a big ego, not…wait, did you just use a ship metaphor for your…? Who even are you?"
He laughed again. "Well at any rate," Killian said, "before I was interrupted by your filthy mind, darling…."
Emma grinned and rolled her eyes. She hated to admit it, but their playful banter was kind of fun.
"Shenanigans," Emma said. "I think you were talking about shenanigans."
"Right you are," Killian said with another nod. "After tasting our offerings, I call shenanigans. Mayor Mills' apple turnover was perfectly adequate, but it didn't hold a candle to either your pie or my cake."
"You know, for once, you're right," Emma said, laughing, when he gasped and dramatically clutched his heart. "I'm thinking contest meddling. Definite contest meddling. I'd demand a recount, except there were only 3 votes, so it's kind of hard to miscount those."
"You never can tell," Killian said in mock seriousness. "You know what I think happened? I think the game was rigged. As both the mayor and the sponsor of the contest, Regina was never not going to win."
Emma nodded. "Of course she was going to win. Can you imagine what would happen if she didn't? That woman can go all 'evil queen' on everyone faster than I can say shenanigans. I say we ignore the results and just declare ourselves co-winners."
"Indeed," Killian said, "good form demands it."
Emma laughed, but then sobered, a sudden idea striking her. She was having one of the best afternoons of her life, and she felt good, and it had been a while…
Or maybe she was just curious.
Before she could think better of it, she leaned across the table and planted a quick kiss on his scruffy cheek, just to the side of his mouth, before pulling back and resuming her dessert.
Killian looked stunned, eyes blown wide, color staining his cheeks, his hand coming up to cover the spot her lips had touched. "I'm far from complaining, darling, but to what do I owe the honor?"
Emma shrugged. "Good form, as you call it," she said simply. "If we both won, that means I owed you a kiss. And you owe me…well, I haven't decided what you owe me yet. Let's just say you owe me a favor."
"One that I'll gladly pay if the cost is as pleasant as that."
Emma laughed. "I'm going to make it good."
"I shall count on that."
"Besides," Emma said, taking another bite, "win, lose or draw, I have to admit your cake was awesome."
Killian sighed dramatically and then tapped his lips again, "But not 'awesome' enough, it would seem, to merit the kind of kiss for which I truly longed."
Emma smirked. "Keep baking like that, and you never know what might happen."
Emma and Killian stayed to talk (flirt?) for another half an hour before they went their separate ways. Emma slowly headed back to the loft to prepare for the masquerade ball that would begin in just over an hour.
To say the day had been different from what she'd expected was a major understatement. She'd actually had fun spending the day with Killian. There was no question; she'd misjudged him.
Emma put on her white dress—sleeveless, fitted through the bodice, with a full skirt covered in layer after layer of feathers—and then sat down to touch up her eye makeup, making it more dramatic for evening.
On the nearby nightstand, her phone buzzed.
She swiped at the device, feeling an odd mixture of joy, anticipation and guilt when she saw she had a text from The Captain.
The Captain: Swan, I can't wait to see you tonight. :-)
She quickly typed back.
The Swan: Same.
Her phone was still for several moments before it vibrated again.
The Captain: Swan? Is anything the matter? You're normally far more loquatious than this.
How to answer that? Was anything the matter? She hardly even knew herself. What kind of a person was she? She'd spent an entire day talking, flirting and enjoying the company of Killian, and through it all, she'd almost forgotten The Captain even existed. Who did something like that? This man was the man of her dreams, wasn't he? She'd fallen for him and fallen for him hard over the months they'd been talking. He was the one she should have been flirting with. He was the one she should be daydreaming about while she applied eye shadow and mascara. Not Killian.
What had even happened to her today? Killian was….Killian. Yeah, maybe he was less of a womanizing ass than she'd thought previously, but come on! She'd had reasons for keeping her distance, hadn't she?
So why the hell had she been fantasizing about kissing Killian—really kissing him—when she heard her phone vibrate? He would be a good kisser, lips soft but firm. He'd follow her lead, but he'd eagerly open for her the moment she signaled that she wanted to deepen the kiss. It would go on and on….
Emma growled, falling on her back on the bed, bouncing a bit as she hit the duvet. She was a total mess. She had chemistry with Killian; there was no denying it, the man was basically sex on legs, but that's all it was. Chemistry. What she had already with The Captain was real and lasting and beautiful.
She was not going to ruin her big night with him by thinking about her brother's idiot best friend. Sitting up she deliberately grabbed her phone and typed her response.
The Swan: Not at all. I'm just a little nervous about us finally meeting. I can't wait; really, but this is something I've never done before.
The Swan: Listen, I've got to go for now; got to finish getting ready. I'll see you soon!
The Captain: I can't wait either. I shall await you by the gazebo, as we planned, Swan.
Tonight was going to be one of the biggest nights of her life. It was time she put Killian from her mind; he was not going to invade her night with The Captain—even if that invasion was only through her thoughts.
Notes:
-Okay, I didn't quite get as much accomplished in this chapter as I planned. The big reveal will just have to wait until next week. (But hey, that means I won't leave you on a cliffhanger about Emma's reaction to the reveal like I was planning to do, so that's a good thing, right?)
-In the reviews I got to the last chapter only one person guessed the winner of the apple baking contest correctly. Congrats to the anonymous commenter who got it right! But considering how everything worked out, I'd say they were all kind of winners in their own right.
-Up next: The masquerade ball. The secrets of The Swan and The Captain's identities are finally revealed! What do you think Emma's reaction will be? I'll give you a slight hint: her reaction is taken directly from something that happened in canon…
-This story will either wrap up next week, or if the masquerade ball takes longer to write than anticipated, there will be a short epilogue the following week. Then it's on to winter and Christmas!