Title: Routine Meetings (Chapter 1)
Rating: T for language.
Summary: Emma's daily routines are a matter of habit. When she wakes up late one morning, her routines all change for the better. Killian doesn't care about routines, but he does care about Emma.
Chapter 1: Emma and Killian get more comfortable in their morning routines, and see each other outside their commutes to work for the first time.
A/N: So I don't know if Emma's job actually exists. But if it did, I would happily spend my time transferring handwritten surveys into a computer program to compile the data. Because I'm a nerd like that. This chapter has a little more meat on its bones. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1: Routine Meetings
Emma's amazed at how quickly her day turns around after officially meeting Killian Jones. Her boss isn't even mad when she shows up late, just happy that she's finally sitting in front of her computer working on an endless stream of data entry.
She finds her thoughts drifting to the man she only knows the name of several times throughout the day, and she wonders how this is going to change her daily routine. It took them a month to even speak to each other. She wonders how much this little thing means to him, too, if he looked so out of sorts when she was late today.
Running a hand over her face, Emma looks back at the survey she's supposed to be typing up. The handwriting looks more like a toddler tried to fill it out, and she decides it's time for coffee. She pushes away from her desk and peeks over the top of the low cubicle wall to see her friend and coworker, Belle, still hard at work.
"Coffee run. You want to come with, or should I just bring back the usual?" Emma asks, knowing that talking to Belle won't interrupt her efficient typing.
"Give me just a second," she responds, fingers never stopping their smooth movements. With an enthusiastic flick of her wrist, Belle finishes the last question on the survey and saves her progress. Her pile is significantly lower than Emma's, even this early in the day. She grabs her purse out of a drawer in her desk and steps out of the small cubicle she's decorated with famous quotes from her favorite authors.
Emma never got around to really decorating her bleak work area. She has a picture of herself with Belle and Ruby in a frame next to her computer. Next to that is a picture from college graduation with her parents standing on either side of her. David and Mary Margaret are beaming with pride while Emma looks like she's about to bolt from the courtyard they had all gathered in after the ceremony. Other than those two personal items, the short walls remain blank.
"So, why were you late today?" Belle asks when they reach the elevators.
"Alarm malfunctions," Emma responds, as if there could be something besides human error to blame. Belle just nods as they wait for the next elevator car heading up.
While the gym on the top floor is a regular pain in the ass, Emma would never complain about the coffee place that sits one floor below it. It's especially handy on days like this when she can further her favor with her superior by bringing Regina coffee. The first two months, the woman barely even looked at her, thinking she was just another turnover statistic. But Emma was desperate when Belle convinced her to apply for the job, and she would be damned if she gave up on it before she'd put in a full year. When Regina realized that, their relationship was a little easier. Still, better to be safe than sorry, and coffee would ensure that any hard feelings about her tardiness this morning would be completely forgotten.
Belle keeps up a steady stream of conversation as they make their way for their coffee fix. It's still a little too early for Emma to contribute much to the conversation, but Belle has known her since they were freshmen in college and knows this about her friend. Ruby is the same way as Emma, but Belle has always definitely been a morning person. She's patient enough to wait until her friends can string together a full sentence and has no problem filling in the spaces of silence with whatever she can think of.
Back in college, those topics were usually limited to dorm gossip, homework, and upcoming exams. Now, the dorm gossip has changed to the office variety. She's talking about some kind of survey results they'll be getting for their next batch of work when the coffee finally starts to hit Emma's system, and she battles whether or not she wants to tell Belle about her morning encounter.
Both her friends have her best interests at heart, but she's afraid they will get too excited about her finding out the name of the extremely attractive man she's used to seeing every morning. Hell, they don't even know about him at all, because then they'll start asking about dates, when the wedding day will be, how many kids they'll be having. In the middle of her thoughts, she grimaces, and realizes Belle is staring at her.
"Have you heard anything I've said in the last three minutes?" Belle asks with amusement. Instead of answering, Emma just blushes and stabs at the button on the elevator to take them back down to their floor. "I asked if you were coming out with us on Friday," Belle repeats.
"Maybe. You guys know how much I like to wear sweatpants and eat ice cream on Fridays."
"At least you're honest," Belle says as she heads back to her cubicle to work while Emma goes off to deliver the extra coffee.
When she gets to Regina's office, the door is open. She taps the doorframe with a finger to get Regina's attention, not wanting to interrupt the phone call the other is having. By the set of her jaw and the furrow between her eyebrows, Emma's not sure she wants to stick around long for fear that some unknown wrath will be unleashed on her. She steps in when Regina waves her in and mouths "Thank you" to Emma before paying attention to the call again. Emma is almost out the door when Regina wraps up the call and hangs up.
"Swan, a moment please," she calls out. Emma backtracks and sits in one of the plush chairs across from the other woman. "We're getting in a new batch of survey information from that small publishing house. Happy Endings or Happily Ever After—"
"You mean Neverendings?"
"That's the one," Regina says. She takes a long drag at the coffee Emma brought her and sighs when she brings the cup away from her lips. "Anyway, I'm going to have you working with them. They're trying a redesign on their website and they need someone with graphic design experience to translate the customers' requests. I seem to recall you had a fair amount of experience with that?" Regina raises an eyebrow at her, referring to the portions of her resume that most people ignored.
"Uh, yeah. Actually, that was my original job choice, but no one was hiring." She tries her best to hide her excitement at finally getting to use her knowledge, then remembers that her cubicle is still buried under a mountain of paperwork. "But I'm still working on the surveys from the college orientation."
"Finish out the week with those. Whatever you have left over can get switched over to Belle. She'll join you on this assignment after she's finished. I figure her library science degree will come in handy with anything that deals with books."
"I'll let her know," Emma responds, and rises from the chair to head back to work.
The next morning, Emma is back to her impeccable schedule, so she is calm and collected when she strolls up to her side of the crosswalk. Only minutes later, Killian walks up to his, eyes trained on his phone, earbuds playing music that he nods his head in time to. She takes the moment before he notices her to appreciate the view a little, to take in the dark gray slacks he's wearing, and the white shirt and matching gray waistcoat. The sleeves on the shirt are rolled up and she's distracted for a solid minute by his forearms. The entire look is completed with an emerald green tie, tucked into the waistcoat but gleaming in the morning sun.
He looks up, then, and smiles at Emma while he curls his fingers in a wave to her. She hesitantly waves back, small smile finding its way to her lips. She just can't help herself when he's looking at her like that. The okay to cross comes on and they walk across their respective sides. They turn toward each other and Killian smiles a little brighter, nodding at her as they approach.
"Good morning, Miss Swan," he says as he gets closer.
"Morning, Jones," she responds, dipping her head in a nod to him as they cross paths. She turns her head after they've passed to see him smiling over his shoulder as they both keep walking. She can feel the smile on her face getting wider, so she turns to look at where she's going instead of risking the possibility of running into something while he watches.
It becomes a new routine for them. For the rest of the week, they get to their spots and wave. They cross the street and pass each other with a smile, a nod, and a simple good morning. Her heart nearly stops beating on Friday when he greets her as 'Emma' instead of 'Miss Swan' and she can't figure out why it means so much to her. She stutters out her greeting, still referring to him as 'Jones', and waits until she's safely around the corner before the grin splits her face. She rubs at her cheeks, trying to wipe the expression off before walking into the building. She does not need any questions about why she looks so damn happy.
Belle is already at her cubicle when she walks in, holding out a cup of coffee for her. At Emma's questioning look, Belle points to the last of the college surveys sitting on her desk.
"C'mon. Between us we can have that hammered out today. That way, we can both start the publishing account at the same time," Belle says. It sounds so easy coming from her like that, but she has been dealing with the thing these college kids call handwriting for two weeks now, and she wonders how some of them got this far in life.
Sucking in a deep breath, Emma takes the coffee from Belle and stashes her satchel in her desk.
"Let's do this," she says, before dropping into her chair and pulling the stack closer to her computer.
By the end of the day, Emma's eyes are burning and she's wishing she didn't wear her contacts to work. She rubs around her eyes, careful not to dislodge either lens and stretches her hands above her head to stretch. Just as she hears the angry pops from her spine, she also hears Belle's victorious sound from the other side of the separator.
"Done?" she hears the brunette call to her.
"Fucking done," Emma responds. A moment later, Belle's head appears over the partition, smile wide on her face.
"I think that means we get to celebrate tonight. You're coming out with us," she says, leaving no room for argument. "Now come on. I think we've earned an early Friday, since we skipped lunch."
At the mention of food, Emma's stomach growls loudly and she happily logs off her computer. With their work for the week finished and a new project starting on Monday, Regina should have no problem with them leaving an hour early. Still, she stops in at Regina's office before they leave. She's on the phone again, but when she sees Emma, she waves her away and gives her a thumbs up. Her work done, Emma gladly joins Belle at the elevators to await their ride to freedom.
Emma and Ruby walk to the bar down the street later that night. Really, Emma is allowing herself to be dragged, her arm linked with Ruby's. She still wants to be on the couch, ice cream in hand, watching whatever trashy movie they find on Netflix. She's still in the outfit she wore to work, only swapping out the low heels she wears for a pair of flats, and her glasses are perched on her nose. She pulled the contacts as soon as she walked in the door and there was no way they were going back in, especially when there is alcohol in her very near future.
Tonight, the occasion is not just to celebrate the end of the work week. It's also Belle's boyfriend's birthday. Emma and Will have a tentative relationship built off their mutual love of Belle, and the burning passion to annoy the shit out of each other. As long as they aren't killing each other, Belle is more than happy to let them do their thing.
Emma and Ruby are greeted with various levels of enthusiasm and drunkenness. They're not even late, but it seems as if some of their group has already taken to shots like fish to water. Emma is intent on joining them in this endeavor, so she slips to the bar. She attempts to flag down the bartender several times and takes a moment to take a deep breath when the woman just walks right by her money, yet again. She's a half second from throwing a tantrum, but also because someone has just jostled their elbow into her side and she is no longer amused.
"Alright then, Swan, what it'll be? My treat," a voice says off to her right. It's not a voice she's expecting, so Emma spins and damn near crashes into Killian in her surprise.
"You?" she asks, eyes wide and she wants to just wire her jaw shut because she should not be this flustered around the man.
"Aye, me. It seems we have mutual connections, love," he says as he motions for the bartender. Of course, he's able to get her attention without even trying, whereas Emma was invisible to her. "Well?" he asks again.
"Gin and tonic," she says. She catches the put-off look the bartender gives her. Killian has barely even glanced her way, even when ordering his beer.
"Like the spectacles," he comments as he taps one of the black frames. Emma's still having trouble wrapping her mind around her stranger, who isn't much a stranger anymore, being here and buying her a drink. She backs up the conversation a step.
"Wait, mutual connections?" she thanks the bartender, who promptly turns up her nose at Emma and takes Killian's money.
"Wow, she does not like you, Swan. What did you do to her?" Killian grabs his beer and her drink off the bar and starts walking back towards the table where her friends are trying to out-drunk each other.
"Ha ha," she responds dryly. When they reach the table, Killian heads for a chair next to Will. The only other chair left is the one next to him, so she slides into it, entirely too close at the overcrowded table.
"Oi, Jones, what are you doing talking to the bloody likes of her," Will says, gesturing to Emma. She's too frazzled for a comeback, plus she's noticed Belle and Ruby with their heads bent together, and she can feel their scheming already.
"Shut it, mate. I'm talking to someone much prettier than you. No need to be jealous," Killian responds easily, turning his attention back to Emma and winking at her. The wink does things to her stomach that no one has managed in years.
"Knowing Will Scarlet has just knocked you down several pegs in my book," Emma says, fighting to not smile when she says it. "But you did just call me pretty, so I'll let it slide. Just this once."
"You are a gracious woman, Swan," he says. He doesn't wink again, but she can hear it in his voice.
She discovers over the next hour and several drinks that Killian works with Will at Neverendings, which explains why Belle was already talking about the new surveys they would be getting in. Emma forgot that she knew the name of the small press because he works there. Of course, most things dealing with him she tends to filter out of her brain as quickly as they enter.
Just about the time the bar is closing and most of her friends have wandered out into the night, Emma and Killian start walking. They find themselves talking about what they do in the city, where they grew up, who they know. It isn't until they stop that she realizes that they've walked to their corner, which means she's accidentally gone almost a mile out of her way. At the look on her face, Killian raises an eyebrow.
"What is it, love?" He looks genuinely concerned, and she laughs.
"I live a street over from the bar. I didn't realize how far we'd walked," she says, gesturing back the way they came.
"Would you like me to walk you home?" he asks, reaching back to scratch at a spot behind his ear. She's not drunk, but she has the craziest urge to do something like kiss the guy, and that is not okay.
"That would be out of your way, then." He looks as if he's about to protest, probably along the lines of being a gentleman and not letting women walk by themselves this late at night, but she holds up her hand to stop him. "It's okay, Jones. Believe me when I say I know how to take care of myself. And if I can't, that's what the pepper spray in my purse is for." She gives him a cheeky grin in reassurance, and he seems to accept it.
"Well, then, Miss Swan. I bid you goodnight." She's not sure when they shifted to stand so close, so it's a surprise when his fingers run over the back of her hand. He looks like he thinks out his next move for a moment, then bends to kiss her cheek before pulling back. "It was lovely to meet you," he says as he walks backwards a few steps.
"Likewise," Emma manages to say, and she's proud that it's not the strange squeaky voice she usually gets when she's thrown off-guard. He glances down the deserted street once before starting to cross, heading east towards the direction he always comes from. When he gets to the other side, he pauses once more to waggle his fingers at her one last time.
"I'll see you Monday," she calls out as an afterthought, and Killian smiles and winks at her again before turning in the direction of home. She turns south and starts the walk back to her apartment, rubbing the spot where his lips touched her cheek. She misses when Killian turns one last time to watch her go, absently running his fingers over his lips.