(A/N: YAY! LATE CHAPTER! :C Yeah, I just started school on Thursday. The day I was SUPPOSED TO POST ANOTHER CHAPTER! I'm mad at myself for procrastinating. I'll update soon. Hopefully.

Warnings: Well, you'll just have to find out for yourself, won't you? :P

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will. ;p;

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Sometimes Emma just prefers to sit alone in a coffee shop. The comfort of the frequent busy bustle of the early morning and the sweet, deep scent of her hot chocolate kept her lost in a trance.

When she thought, others were of no existence. She was in a place of her own. The thing was, there was someone who kept invading that personal space.

She shouldn't be so mad at him for doing so, but she was, because no-one normally did this to her, especially on a regular basis. Like everything she looked at reminded her of him. The book she was reading was introduced to her by him. The mugs colour was the same shade of his walls. Even the scarf she was wearing was borrowed by him. But Emma chuckled on that point. The blonde remembered smiling of how much he apologised for not bringing it back to her and how cute of a gesture it was.

Cute... what words she was using because of Killian. The otaku life.

She shook herself of that thought. See, this is what she meant! Everything just made her think about him! Though she tried to ignore those thoughts with talking to other people and distracting herself with other things, but she just couldn't pry away that strange, unexplainable feeling in her chest, so warm and strong as if it wanted to get out of her body.

And especially after Ariel told them about the kiss. When their kissing partners were revealed, Emma was surprised to look to Killian to find not even the tiniest piece of astonishment or wonder in his eyes. She thought she could read people easily, but it seemed perhaps he was... different. Masking his emotions seemed to be easy for him to do, but at the time she saw a twinge of acceptance in his face for barely a second. He knew something she didn't, but could it be about the kiss? Like Killian knew but needed to confirm his suspicions.

Did he?

Little did Emma know... Killian was thinking the same thing.

Were things going to be different when they finally met again? I mean, they hadn't seen each other since the Ariel incident, and quite honestly didn't feel like anymore. Not because of any misdirected anger or sadness of any kind. It was out of.. fear.

Of risking their friendship. It would be literally the most awkward thing they'd ever experience. And the fact that they had... liked the kiss? Continued it even? That would make the situation even worse.

Emma lay her head in her hands, mug sliding halfway across the table. She remembered numbly that she was lucky that it didn't shatter. She'd never admit it, but ever since Ariel told them what happened, all or most of the memories from that night had come back to her like a slap in the face - sudden, unwanted and seemingly forever an imprint on her mind. And it left distance between them because of it.

Why couldn't they have a normal friendship like everyone else?

She sighed.

And, inexplicably, someone else did too.

With a look of utter astonishment, Emma shot her head up and looked around. What the hell? The blonde scanned the room suspiciously. No-one seemed to be around, not even Granny herself. Looking over to the register made her almost miss a swift movement of blue heading towards the entrance of the little shop. She got up from her seat, eyes widened in search of life when the ring of the doorbell confirmed her doubts and she raced out the door to confront the mystery runner whatever the consequence.

Their figure wasn't too far away, but she couldn't risk the chance of them approaching their could-be vehicle to escape her wrath. They already seemed to know that she was after them, so it was now or never. They looked suspicious, and as a once-bail bondsperson, Emma felt it right to chase this punk to find out about their possible fishy activity. She turned a sharp corner, away from her little runner.

Unexpectedly, that was a shortcut, and so the suspicious man fell right into her clutches, and landed face-first into the concrete. And Emma sat comfortable on top. Her hands planted firmly onto his shoulders and feet secured into the pavement restrained any further movement.

"Who are you?" She asked fiercely.

A soft, pained muffle came from the mysterious dude. Then a loud moan as his face sunk further into the ground as if he just gave up.

Emma rolled her eyes. This guy was hopeless. She got up from her position on the runner's back with annoyance. The blonde waited for him to get up, but apparently he wouldn't do it himself anytime soon. With a sigh, she turned his head over to see his face.

And she realised her mistake.

"Killian...? Holy fuck, what- oh my god I'm so sor-"

He groaned in agony. "Emma, you're... such a..." He groaned in agony. "Psycho..."

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"You IDIOT!"

"EXCUSE ME?! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TACKLED ME!"

"BECAUSE YOU LOOKED SUSPICIOUS!"

"AND YOU GAVE ME A BROKEN NOSE, A BROKEN RIB AND A BLOODY LIP FOR THAT?!"

Emma sighed angrily, silently fuming. "You're hopeless, I swear, Killian." He hmph-ed in reply. "No, seriously," she nudged his shoulder softly with her own. "You are. Why were you running in the first place."

Killian looked away with a cryptic look in his eye. "No reason, although I regret doing so, now that I paid a little visit to Whale."

"You're such a sissy, you doofus." She blew away a stray wisp of hair away from her face busily, a tiny drop of sweat slowing making its way along the side of her face. "You didn't even stay there that long. But so that it doesn't happen again, please make sure not to creep around in coffee shops, okay? What we you even doing there in the first place?!"

Killian daren't look at her. He was, quite frankly, ashamed. He was lucky today that his feelings didn't shine through so obviously like they sometimes did, which he essentially had to train to mask to make it that way. And if he'd tell her how he'd felt now, she'd do what she'd always done - run away, close herself off, even pretend that she never even knew him in a while.

He was used to the pain, and he never wanted it to happen between them.

Emma scanned his features with concern. A silent Killian wasn't a happy Killian. It was strange that she already knew him so well after such a small amount of time, wasn't it? It was something... unexplainable. Like they clicked with somebody for once and everything was right in the world.

She refused to believe that, of course. They were just friends, right?

Yeah...

...Yeah, they were. Only friends, she reminded herself.

Emma got back to patching him up; Whale and the rest of the hospital didn't do such a good job, since today was apparently really busy with injuries and sickness, but for the most part they healed him up. Though it must've been really stressful, but really, at least do the job right! Luckily, she went to a school which taught even a little bit in medicine and bandaging in health class.

Prodding a rib with a steady finger softly, she could feel some bandages unravelling. It didn't even surprise her by now - she'd already fixed up seven wrappings by now. The blonde looked up at him. "Can you unbutton your shirt? Some bandages need to be fixed."

He silently raised an eyebrow. Her gaze travelled down to his also-broken arm. Dammit. His writing arm was injured. How lucky. With that, she sighed.

"You can't, I suppose. It's okay, I'll do it." She slid the blue button out of the light material, remembering it was same shade of his eyes. After the second, third, fourth were removed, she felt somewhat awkward. Emma looked up once more, to see Killian awaiting her. His stare was sharp and asking too many questions.

Flustered and blushing, she gripped his shirt tighter, looking down. "D-Do you mind looking out the window o-or something?"

Emma felt him shrug indifferently and turn his neck to face the outside world, only making her feeling even more embarrassed. Of course he would. He felt that way, after all.

A sharp, pain sensation wracked her body for not even a second. What was that? Was it... disappointment, maybe? Or desire?

Well, whatever she'd just felt, she had to discard it. Right here. Right now. Because ther was no way that this was happening.

Of all things...

Of all feelings...

It was the worst. Made her feel vulnerable because she felt so good and so new to her. She didn't know anything about it and that's why it made her feel so confused and so small.

Emma forced herself to finish the job and push it down.

"Hey, Emma?" His voice rang into her ears as she replaced the old dressing with a new one. "Yes?" She replied.

Killian was silent for a moment. Then spoke. "About New Years... And Ariel... I'm sorry." What he'd said surprised her fully. He was... apologising?

There was a sudden crack in her heart. A chip. A falling sensation. Her blush was gone, features without any trace of whatever feeling or desire she had before, almost angry in a way. "Me too," Emma murmured softly.

He looked down inquisitively. His eyes were widened at the tone of her voice, the absolute nothingness of emotion. "What?" Had he really heard what she'd just said? He hadn't expected it.

"I'm sorry too," she said again, slightly louder so that he could hear her clearer. She couldn't understand why she was doing this. Why she felt so cold again. "It was a mistake, that night."

Killian made the mistake of letting a shard of brokenness flow through. "Mistake?"

"Yeah. Not a big deal, right? A one-time thing."

Silence. Her words were harsh upon him, and then his features replicated hers. He understood now. He'd made a mistake of thinking like that for once. He was ready to lie.

And then, agreement.

"Totally."

She slipped away from him without another word spoken.

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(A/N: That's it for now. Very fun chapter to write, and yes, it took a while to place all the right emotions in it. I kept thinking of A Bridge To Wiseman's Cove, my literal favourite book EVAR, for the ending, like between Justine and Carl (both really bae like idon'tevenknowanymoar). Really good book. I recommend it, though my sister hates it.

Best wishes to you this year, you blessed cuties and get excited for the next chappie of...

~ Looking After You ~