Yes, I know, this story was supposed to have only two parts, but I can't help myself and now I'm not sure if there will be 1 or 2 more parts, but at least the chapters are short, right? My muse has decided to take me down this road, so I rather follow it instead of not writing at all.
This is unbeta'd so apologize in advance for all the nonsense and the many mistakes.
I will explain better the tradition of grapes on New Year's Eve in the next chapter but in case there is someone who doesn't know it, Spanish people eat twelve grapes at midnight to welcome the new year.
As expected, the girls gave her significant glances as they gestured towards the sleeping beauty, even Mary Margaret, clearly tipsy after taking several shots, started giggling quietly, causing the other two to laugh in a not-so-silent way.
Emma shook her head as she rolled her eyes and put her finger to her lips to shush them, waving her other hand in a dismissive gesture to get them out of the room.
Only then did she focus her attention on Killian. She should wake him up and send him to bed, since that couch didn't seem particularly comfortable, but before doing so, she allowed herself a few seconds to observe him.
His long, dark lashes brushed his cheeks as his lips remained slightly parted, letting a soft snore escape between them. This wasn't the first time Emma had watched Killian as he slept, and she would never recognize it before him, but watching his features relax during sleep had a reassuring effect on her. Killian's life had not been easy either, he also carried several demons from the past in the form of abandonment and a broken heart, but at least during the sleep, they usually gave him a break.
A lock of his hair fell rebellious on his forehead, so Emma could not help but bend and reach out to brush it away. It was just a feather touch but Killian might have noticed her presence even in dreams because his eyelids started fluttering as he stirred slightly.
"Hello, beautiful." He murmured through a soft smile without bothering to open his eyes. Then he moved a little to make room for her on the couch.
Emma deliberately ignored the flutter of her stomach caused by the fact that Killian was aware of her identity when she hadn't spoken yet and he kept his eyes closed. But she couldn't help Mary Margaret's previous words echoing in her mind. "Shouldn't you be sleeping? In your bed?"
"Was watching TV and I fell asleep," Killian muttered hastily and then continued, changing the subject, something that didn't go unnoticed by Emma. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, it was ... a quite interesting night."
This time Killian did crack an eye open and glanced at her. "Should I be worried?"
She was tempted for a moment to continue on the path of flirting. Banter and innuendo had always been a constant in their relationship, but the previous conversation in the bar had somehow had an effect on her. Although she wasn't that drunk, just a bit tipsy, she didn't trust herself, fearing that alcohol would have caused her defenses to go down enough to expose her feelings when she wasn't ready. After shrugging, she offered a brief summary. "Nope, we've had some drinks sprinkled with the usual gossip and we've danced for a little bit."
"Dancing, huh?" His eyebrows swayed suggestively, while he smirked at her. "Now is when I'm beginning to regret not having accompanied you, Swan."
"It was a ladies night." She reminded him. "And how about you in the grape-thing event? Did Henry have fun? Did you have a hard time making him go to sleep?"
"If we ignore the fact that we almost suffered several panic attacks for fear of losing the lads in the crowd, it was a pretty enjoyable event. The kids were quite excited when they managed to eat all the grapes during the rehearsal." There was a hint of pride in his voice, but Emma decided not to read much into it, since, after all, his nephews were there too. "Well, he was a bit hyperactive when we got here, but after taking a shower he seemed to relax. We did a storytelling session for all the kids and, although he resisted a tad more than his cousins, he ended up falling asleep too."
Emma's heart melted a little while she listened to Killian talking about her son. Not only did Henry adore Killian, but the feeling was also reciprocal. Far from reassuring her, that thought caused the butterflies in her stomach to flutter with more force. What was wrong with her today? Emma held back a groan while inwardly cursing the girls for putting those thoughts in her head.
They chatted between whispers a few more minutes, Killian offering more details about their evening and how Henry was nervous while eating the grapes and couldn't wait to repeat the operation, but this time with all of them.
"So are we going to do the grape-thing tomorrow?" Emma asked as she wrinkled her nose slightly, since she was not a fan of grapes and did not see the point in eating twelve grapes quickly to welcome the new year. "I don't get that tradition."
"Technically it's today, it's past midnight, love, and admit it, you don't like grapes, that's why you're reluctant about this tradition, but I think it will be fun. You have to try new things, Swan."
"Yeah, whatever..." She huffed causing his lips to curl up drawing an incipient smirk that was truncated by a yawn that he tried unsuccessfully to contain by covering his mouth.
A sensation, mixture of guilt and something she didn't know or didn't want to identify, grew inside her. Killian had been waiting awake for her until he had finally succumbed to sleep. No one had forced him, that was true, but the fact that she was in someone else's mind in that way caused that strange sensation to increase.
She acted before it was impossible to control that wave of feelings, standing up and offering her hand to Killian to help him get up. If she felt an electric shock when he took her hand, she ignored it completely. "Come on, it's time to go to bed."
"Finally, Swan, I thought you were never gonna ask."
It was just an innuendo, something she should already be used to, but he accompanied his words with a gesture, his tongue darting out to wet his lips in an almost indecent way, which wasn't helping at all.
"You wish."
"Perhaps I would."
He was grinning at her, as if he were playing down his words, but the hint of longing that crossed his gaze did not go unnoticed by her. Seriously, what was happening today? Was it perhaps the air of Madrid, which had the power to make feelings that would otherwise remain buried begin to bloom and threaten to surface? Was her state of light drunkenness that made her imagine things?
She pulled those thoughts away with a shake of her head while rolling her eyes, pretending to ignore his words.
Tomorrow —or today, whatever — was the last day of the year, time to set new year resolutions. But until then, it was better if they both go to sleep, in different beds — and rooms, just in case.
That did not stop the embrace they shared before parting ways from lingering more than was strictly necessary, but she refused to abandon the warmth and security that his arms always offered her. Only when she entered her bedroom looking for the shelter her agitated heart needed she let out the breath she had been holding.
"What are you doing here?"
Ruby's unexpected voice caused her to wince. "Jesus Christ, Rubs, shouldn't you be asleep?" She muttered, as she groped her way to her bed and lay down, not even bothering to take off her boots. "This is also my bedroom, we've been sharing for a couple of days.."
"But shouldn't you be with your man?"
"If you mean Henry, he's already asleep."
Her eyesight hadn't yet adjusted to the darkness, but Emma could feel Ruby's eyes rolling. No way was she going to have this conversation again. Nope.
"I gotta go… to the bathroom." Emma clarified and sat up again, grabbing the sleeping clothes that were under her pillow. "Don't even think about being awake when I come back."
"Okay... but just one more thing, you should channel that unresolved sexual tension into other more pleasurable activities, instead of taking it against your friend who is only trying to help here."
Ruby's speech ended with a cry of surprise after receiving the impact of a pillow on the head. That was one of Emma's skills, her good aim. If she had to resort to drastic measures to silence her friends, so be it.
The next day, the last day of the year, Emma woke up with a hangover that she found perhaps a little disproportionate if she considered the amount of drink ingested. To her consolation, the rest of the girls — Especially Ruby— weren't in better condition, so the guys, again, took pity on them and led the boys out to do some tourism, so that they could recover. Bless them.
Once her mind had cleared enough, Emma was able to take stock of the year that was now coming to an end. It had been a good year, she concluded, similar to the previous years, a quiet one, without too many emotions, but she enjoyed that security offered by having a stable job and a group of people around her who would always have her back. Despite the insistence of her friends, she hoped that the new year would continue the same, without surprises, without fears, without risks.
Maybe her heart had other ideas, even her body betrayed her in the most unexpected situations, her skin tingling, her heart racing, butterflies fluttering in her stomach every time Killian was in her presence or she heard his voice, but she was going to try to keep her cold mind. She was fine like that.
The boys did not come back for lunch, so she just spent the day lazing around, lying on the couch with Ruby emulating her same position on the other couch. The other two girls didn't seem to accuse the effects of the hangover so much, since, before the boys returned, Mary Margaret and Elsa put themselves in organizational mode, finalizing the preparations for the last dinner of the year.
"How is it possible that Mary Margaret has so much energy?" Ruby grumbled under her breath.
Emma cracked one eye open to glance at her friend who looked miserable, curled up and hugging a cushion without even bothering to open her eyes.
"She's older, maybe that gives her experience to tolerate alcohol better." It was a poor excuse, but her brain felt still like cotton, preventing her from thinking clearly.
Ruby scoffed. "That's bullshit, Ems. I'm only five months younger than her, I have no responsibilities, no children to wake me up in the middle of the night, and here I am, my head about to explode and yet those two irritating women don't stop whispering and warbling."
Emma pressed her lips together holding back the laugh that bubbled in her throat. The situation was certainly ridiculous, since Ruby was usually the soul of the party but there must be something in these Spanish drinks that made them feel like crap. Maybe they should have opted to stay in their usual drinks instead of trying new things, like Spanish sangria — the original, not those horrible substitutes they sell out there, as the waiter had pointed out on several occasions.
"It could have been worse." Emma reminded her. "Right now the house could be full of four children of overflowing energy shrieking and bouncing on the couches."
The groan that Ruby released was so loud that it managed to alert the other two.
"Great. I see that you have already returned to the world of the living. Come and help us, there is still much to be done." Mary Margaret called out from the kitchen. "We have to make sure we all have the grapes ready."
This time it was Emma the one who let out a pitiful groan. So it seemed that they were serious, that they were going to carry out that stupid tradition with grapes involved. "It's six in the afternoon, Margs. How the hell do you want us to prepare the grapes?"
She should have known better. Mary Margaret didn't take especially well that someone contradicted her and she didn't hesitate to show it by going to the living room, holding a spatula with one hand while placing the other on her hip and gave them a disapproving look. "You two behave like adults and come help. Now."
"Yes, mom." Ruby scoffed, but she rose from the couch with languid movements and followed her friend to the kitchen, so Emma had no choice but to do the same after letting out an exaggerated sigh.
Once in the kitchen, they met Elsa who was making great efforts to suppress a smirk. Without a word, she handed them a bag full of grapes and several small plates, so Emma and Ruby had no choice but to resign themselves to the laborious chore of distributing twelve grapes on each of the plates.
While doing the task, a somewhat mischievous idea popped into her head, while she wondered if karma would act against her if she casually forgot to put one or two grape on some of the plates. After all, there couldn't be much difference between eleven and twelve grapes, right? Hopefully, she would get for herself one of the plates with fewer grapes.
In the end, it turned out that her attempt to cheat was unsuccessful since the first thing her dear son did when they arrived home around eight was to make sure that the grapes were prepared by counting each and every one of them in each plate.
"Hey guys, there are not enough grapes in some of the plates." Henry announced, wrinkling his nose in a confused expression as he grabbed the bag of grapes and replaced the ones that were missing.
Emma immediately felt Mary Margaret's eyes on her. She gave her a sideways glance as she bit her lower lip, her eyes meeting with a glare from her sister-in-law. She crossed her arms over her chest and her lips pressed together into a thin line. Despite her sweet appearance, Mary Margaret could be very intimidating when something bothered her. Emma had the decency to gave her an apologetic look in return as she shrugged slightly.
Why the hell everyone was so obsessed with this grape-thing? Maybe it was true and she was becoming The Grinch of the group...
"You can relax darling, your secret is safe with me." Killian whispered in her ear and then winked at her, causing goosebumps to spread all over her body. Bastard!
"I do not..."
"Open book, remember? And this was a poor attempt to cheat, Swan. But not to worry, I've been told that some children here substitute grapes for olives or even for jellybeans, in case you prefer it too."
His lips curled into a stupid smirk and she felt the desire to erase it even if she had to use her own lips for that. Nope, you better not go down that road ... Get a grip, Emma! This trip had been a terrible mistake. She could not wait to return to Boston and go back to their usual routine.
Thanks for reading :)