A/N: I'm already apologizing for the lack of Emma in this chapter, but do not worry she's back in the next. It's just that this fic is a Killian PoV fic and when Emma's not there, she pretty much isn't there. So yeah. Enjoy!
Killian walks towards the couch in the middle of the shop and tries to convince a persistent Will that he needs to leave.
"Come on, mate. It's 8. That's the hour that we close, remember?"
"Look, I know, but such a great night for coffee, innit?"
"Will, out! I still need to clean up here and I would like to be home before ten."
"Alright, alright. I'm going. Luckily enough is The Rabbit Hole still open,"
he says with his very accented English.
"That is indeed an interesting fact. Go rejoice their establishment," Killian suggests while walking Will towards the door.
It's like this every evening shift he has.
He doesn't understand how Aurora does it because it takes him nearly 15 minutes each time and Aurora is far smaller than he is. He would have to ask her sometime soon, maybe she has a trick that advances everything.
Killian turns the open sign, so that it now says closed for anyone walking by. He locks the front door, goes to the back and takes a broom back with him. Killian sweeps the entire room, cleans the counter, makes sure the coffee machines are turned off and checks whether or not the dishwashers are set to run twice. One time overnight and the second time at 6 am, right before the shop opens.
When he sees everything is in order, he dims the lights and closes the shop a second time.
His apartment is about 7 minutes by car, but the Bostonian morning traffic usually turns that into half an hour or maybe even more.
After experiencing the jams several times, he decided to go by foot.
It takes him about twenty minutes and he soon discovered that the time of his walk is a calming exercise before and after work. He empties his mind and only focuses on walking.
Before Killian knows it, he has reached his home and goes upstairs. He nods his next door neighbor Billy good evening and disappears in his flat. He turns on the light and his quite empty apartment becomes visible.
Since Killian moved in here, he hasn't changed a lot.
The walls are still the same gray as they were in the first place.
He added some furniture and his precious coffee machine.
The only pictures that could be found are a picture of a raven haired woman and one of two men with the exact same hair color.
The first one was his mother; a picture taken a few months before her death.
She had taken him and Liam to the zoo and Liam, who had decided that he was going to become a photographer, claimed the camera and took pictures of her. It is still Killian's favorite picture.
In the second picture frame, he put a picture of Liam and him.
It was taken at the opening of "A Cup of Jones". Liam had flown out especially for the event and they had spent 4 wonderful days. Sadly enough, Liam had to return to his business in London and Killian couldn't come with because of his own newly founded business. A local newspaper featured the picture on their website and Killian had instantly printed it.
It was a great memory.
His stomach decides to show its discomfort and Killian walks to the kitchen in search of something to eat. He scans his entire fridge and knows it's time to do some grocery shopping, but there is still some leftover pizza and while he puts that in the oven, his mind travels back to the thought of Emma.
She asked him out. It took him forever to understand that that is what he wanted, but now he's overjoyed.
He searches his coat for something.
A napkin.
She gave it to him before she left for home the day she came searching for her son. Emma Swan is written on there with next to it a mobile number.
He inserts the number in his phone and hesitates.
Should he already send something?
Or maybe he should wait until tomorrow?
His timer goes off and he takes the pizza out of the oven. While munching on his slice, he makes a decision. He writes about a dozen texts. He deletes them all. It cannot seem like he's desperate. He tries one more time.
Hello,lass. It's Killian. I hope Henry is well and that you've patched your differences. About that date. If it should happen, would you be okay with me organizing it? I know that you're away on a trip soon, but that gives me some time to plan it. Let me know what you think of it.
-Killian
Killian likes this version, it's casual, but also a bit serious.
This is the one.
He sends it and then turns off his phone.
He won't turn it back on for a couple of hours and after that, he'll see if she has responded. Tinka has the early shift tomorrow and Killian is only expected at work around 9 am, so he can stay up late.
A handy feature of being his own boss. He decides the schedule.
Less handy is the fact that he's there for eleven hours working and doing paperwork, but he doesn't really mind the long days.
It's better to work than to just sit alone at home.
His pizza is finished, his stomach is full and he doesn't want to go to bed already. He picks up a book that has been lying on his living room table for ages and starts reading.
Ring-Ring-Ring!
Killian wakes up by the annoying tone of his alarm.
He stretches and looks around. His neck feels tensed.
Killian finds an explanation for the stiffness, he fell asleep on the couch last night. Apparently, he was more tired than he realized.
The clock above his television shows that it's 7:30 am, so he gets up to prepare himself.
He takes his time to shower, wash his hair and brush his teeth and by the time he's ready and dressed, it's 8:15.
Killian checks the mail.
There is a letter from Liam and some bills he should probably pay soon. He reads the letter.
It seems that business is booming over the pond and that Liam actually found a lass that can stand to be with him. He wants to tell Liam that the same happened with him, but Killian knows that it far too premature to say that.
He can still keep on dreaming.
The bills are put in his satchel, next to his mobile, to pay at work and at 8:30 he finally decides to leave for work.
He turns the corner and the red letters of the café come into sight. There are a lot of people standing before the entrance. Weird, they obviously have a morning rush, but not one where people line up before the door. When he approaches even closer he sees a new kind of red.
Fire trucks.
Killian starts running to get there as soon as possible.
He sees a woman dressed in green with the shop's apron over her clothes. Tinka.
She's frantically waving at him and shouts.
"Killian, oh my god! I'm so sorry, I don't know what I did wrong. I called 911 and they're inside, but they can't tell me anything and..."
She stops to breathe and Killian sees that the tears are nearly spilling out of her eyes. He looks at his shop but doesn't see anything wrong.
"What happened?" he asks with great concern.
"I was serving a customer and then there was smoke coming out of the back. I tried to go look, but there was so much smoke, I couldn't see a thing. The smoke was coming into the shop with such a speed that I told everyone to leave that instant."
Killian looks back at his employee.
"Why, in the bloody hell, didn't you call?"
"I did! I tried to call, I probably called you a hundred times, but your phone kept on going to voice mail and I freaked out."
Huh? Was his phone turned off?
Fuck! He forgot to turn his phone back on this morning.
Idiot!
He opens his mouth to say something to Tinka, but he's interrupted by a firefighter.
"I understand you are the owner of this shop?"
Killian says yes and the woman signals him to follow. He leaves Tinka standing there. He would come back to her shortly.
Killian follows the black haired woman until she stops at the truck and starts talking.
"Hello, my name is Lieutenant Mills."
They shake hands and she continues talking.
"After doing a thorough sweep of the building, we have found the cause of the fire. You have a dishwasher in a back room?"
She didn't wait for his response.
"It overheated and started a small fire. Gladly, we got here before anything bad happened. There is quite a lot of smoke damage, but nothing that can't be fixed. I would advise, when you buy a new dishwasher, not to let it run unattended. Chances that this happens again are low. but there it can't hurt to be precautionary. I don't want people getting hurt next time."
The firewoman ends her explanation and Killian is impressed. She obviously knows how to do her job and he'll take her advice.
He's convinced that if he does it again, she'll probably destroy him.
He is so relieved that no one got hurt. He has Tinka to thank for that. If she hadn't acted as fast as she did, there probably wouldn't be a building to return to.
"Thank you, lieutenant. If you or your team ever want some coffee, I'll gladly provide you of some, free of charge."
"First you need to fix your coffeehouse because I am not drinking in there."
She gestures across the street.
"Can I go in to look?" he asks the woman.
"I would recommend waiting for another half hour so that the smoke has cleared, but after that, you are free to enter."
She makes it clear that the conversation is over.
Killian checks the street before crossing again. Tinka is standing there with worry in her look and ask him:
"So, what caused the fire? It was my fault, wasn't it? I'm so sorry, Killian, I know that doesn't change anything, but I really am. I'll make everything easier for you and just quit."
"Tinka, relax. It wasn't your fault. It was mine. You actually prevented a much worse outcome. Thank you. I need to apologize for not answering my phone and making you stress out more, no doubt. I'm afraid it was turned off."
"No problem and I was only doing what I thought best."
Killian replies, "And that was very smart. Do you want to go look inside in a bit? I want to see the damage."
"Sounds good. Oh, and by the way, you can just call me Tink. I kinda hate the name Tinka."
"Okay, I will, Tink."
Killian smiles at her and it seems that she finally stops blaming herself.
They walk in and Killian is glad to see that the back wall is still intact.
The wall is filled with maps Killian collected. There are maps of the Ancient Roman Empire under its emperor Augustus and maps that show the routes of the oriental nomads. A South-American map on which he placed marks to display the places they get their products.
It is Killian's personal project and the wall grows with each time he goes to a flea market. He has seen plenty of people pointing out a place on the American map or staring dreamily at the map he found of Europe.
Killian always says he has the best view. He looks at the world from behind his counter.
"It's still here," he says while he touches on of the maps.
The smoke mustn't have reached this far.
"Luckily," Tink replies, "I love that wall."
"You do?" Killian asks.
"Yes, the maps are one of the best features here."
She then continues talking about the decoration.
It looks like Tink has quite a passion for interior design as they keep on scanning the room. She suggests several actions that could be taken to redesign the place. She points at a wall that has turned completely black because of the smoke.
"What if we turn that wall into some kind of Persian green and we keep the rest of the walls plain."
"Really, green? Well, that's an odd choice for you, lass," Killian says while grinning.
"Haha, it's not even that green of a color. I'll go to the store and bring a sample with me."
"I'd love that. You can go home now, Tink. I'll take care of the rest and if you'd like you can write down your plans and give them to me. I'm going to call Aurora to tell her everything."
"Alright, I'll do that. Again, I'm sorry, Killian," she says and Killian knows that his earlier thought was wrong.
He tries to make it clear again.
"Tink, stop it! I've said it already, it's not your fault. You did what you could. The best thing now is going home and to take your mind off of it."
Tink goes home and Killian starts writing a sign to hang in front of the entrance.
Closed for an indefinite period of time due to renovations.
He finally turns on his mobile and indeed, the calls come in. He has 78 calls from Tink, she wasn't exaggerating when she said she called a lot.
In midst of all the misplaced calls, there is a text from Emma's number, sent only minutes after he sent his message last night. Killian reads it.
I know how to plan a date! -E
He quickly replies.
I don't doubt your dating skills, Swan. I merely want to have something nice arranged when you return.
It only takes a minute before his phone beeps.
I know, Killian. Go ahead, but it better be good ;) See you in a couple of days -E
Extra A/N: This chapter's song is Heart's on Fire by Passenger