A/N: Your reviews were as lovely as always, thank you! To Emma fan, that's such a wonderful compliment, thank you - I always hope that these seem as believable as possible haha. To HPPhoenix07, I don't know how to not write Alex being adorable so I'm glad it's appreciated. To JRB, forehead kisses are my favourite so expect as many as I can possibly write! And all the holiday pictures were fantastic, they inspired a few of my holiday drabbles! (The reviews for that were great too, so happy you guys liked it!)

On to the fic: I started this shortly after watching "Practice Date"(which I have since rewatched at least 12 times), not to mention the last episodes plus a month long hiatus?! Essentially, I needed some fluff in my life. So that's exactly what this is! It actually turned out being my favourite chapter so far (not that I'm not still open to heavy criticism) but I really hope it's adequate for all of you too.

Usual lack of ownership applies, including any mistakes related to sailing (I know so little I'm sorry).

P.S: This form of storytelling is a bit confusing. Anything in brackets is present tense dialogue, the characters saying them should be obvious. Otherwise, I hope you can follow along!

Beautiful comes from reflection

Whenever they are asked to retell this story, they argue about who tells it best. The person asking usually thinks this is adorable, but it's a serious issue they have.

"You're awful at telling stories, you always skip all the minor details and jump straight to the ending without any build up!" Emma argues.

"Ha! And you tell it better with your in-depth description of the outfit you were wearing at the time or the colour of the sky when it happened?" Alex rolls his eyes, though he's smiling good-naturedly.

The argument could continue for at least another ten minutes, depending on who actually asked the question in the first place. In this case, William Darcy actually feels apologetic about interjecting fifteen minutes in with, "Perhaps you should tell the story together?"

Emma and Alex stare at him, not sure whether to be angry that he interrupted their foolishness or glad that he came up with an adequate compromise. In the end, Alex shrugs, Emma rolls her eyes, and they both mutter "Fine."

So the story goes something like this:

Emma had been avoiding Alex all week. This was particularly weird because they had actually been getting along really well the week prior. Alex can't remember a better time in their friendship, actually, and that's saying something since there had once been a two week period after Emma had gotten her tonsils out when she hadn't been able to speak. (Watch yourself, Mr. Knightley.)

Nevertheless, all week, Emma had kept her office door closed, had sent Harriet to get whatever information she needed from Alex, and had avoided any common office spaces like the plague. Alex had attributed it to her taking a serious interest in their new client, although he knew that this client's agenda was not quite that extensive.

This was how he found himself knocking on her door after a week of silence. He heard shuffling behind the door and waited for her to open it. There seemed to be a bit of hesitation, perhaps Harriet had a special knock he hadn't mimicked correctly that signified it was him knocking, but eventually the knob turned and Alex came face to face with his best friend.

He was overcome by her beauty. (Emma, seriously?) Well, it had been a week and he was really just glad to see her at all that she seemed to look even better than usual. (Happy?)

"Hi," they say in unison, both a little breathless. Then they both laugh, trying to ease the tension a bit.

"What are you up to?"

"Oh, you know, life-coach things. You?"

"You know, business things."

"Are you mocking me?"

"Completely," they grin at each other. Alex wasn't surprised that their easy rapport could return to normal even after being out of practice for a week.

"So," she asks, looking like she was itching to close her door again.

"So, I wanted to know if you were free this weekend?" which really sounded like him asking her out. (Which was totally his intention.)(No it wasn't, shut up, Emma.)

In response to the question, Emma curled her lips inward and took a deep breath. Alex starting becoming worried with what that meant in terms of an answer.

"I don't think I have any plans, why?"

Surprised, Alex smiled, "I was going to go sailing, thought you could join me?"

Emma made a face like she was considering the idea. It wasn't surprising that she had to think it over; her and sailing didn't have the best of relationships. It was one of the few things that Emma didn't actually excel at and unlike Knightley, who worked at it once he realized he had no natural skill for sailing, she quickly gave up after her first few attempts. As a result, young Emma hated sailing and only went on a sailing boat when Alex was the one at the helm. (It was fun because he was terrible at it.)

Eventually though, Emma seemed to concede to the fact that she actually hadn't been out on the water for a while and agreed.

"Great, Saturday at six then" and Alex's smile was so infectious that Emma was still grinning when he left and she closed her office door.

Now, there was, of course, another reason why Emma had hesitated at the idea of weekend plans with Alex. It was the same reason she had been avoiding him all week.

It had started last month, when one of Alex's old college buddies had found her on facebook, likely due to her slight fame in social media as her business took off. He had messaged her and they had actually started a pretty good conversation. He, Matt, had achieved his goal of becoming a lawyer and now practiced with a large firm in Los Angeles. He and his wife were about to celebrate their second anniversary. In all honesty, Emma was proud and surprised to see him so well off; she remembered him from college and had never thought of him as the settling down and becoming so successful type. (What? He still holds that keg-stand record on campus, doesn't he?)

Anyway, Matt had also seemed happy for her and her own success. Then, a few days ago, they'd somehow gotten on the topic of her love life and Emma had been confused to hear that he was surprised she was single.

"Did Knightley move out East or something?" he asked.

"Alex? Out East? Please, that boy is more homegrown than California grapes," but she still couldn't see the correlation between his questions, "No, he's helping me run my business."

"Oh, well I guess that explains a thing or two."

"What do you mean?" she asked, which was followed by a long pause where she wondered if he had signed off.

"Well he's probably warding off any potential dates again ;)" he added a few minutes later.

"?"

"I remember he did that to me and Lyle at that party at Madison's. He wasn't a physical guy but I'd worked out with him once or twice so I knew to stay clear of his fist lol" Matt typed out in response.

Remembering the party, well as much as she could under the haze of alcohol (That's a polite way of saying you were beyond wasted, Emma), she had figured Matt meant that Alex had been playing the overprotective brother again. "Yeah, he gets like that sometimes."

"No, it's fine. Now that I'm married, I get it a bit more. When you're that in love, you aren't afraid to go the extra mile," to which Emma almost spat out her drink. Now it was her turn to pause and consider how on Earth she was meant to respond to that.

Matt beat her to it by saying, "Don't worry, Emma. I'm sure he'll get around to saying it eventually," as if Emma was already aware of her best friend's feelings.

She found herself staring at the conversation long after Matt said goodbye and logged off. It was getting increasingly hard to hear her thoughts over the sound of her overactive heart in that moment. All she could think was What do I do now?

Needless to say, after a week of avoiding Alex to get her thoughts straight, she still didn't have a suitable answer to that question. She had to accept that things between her and Alex had been pushing past platonic over the last little while. But now that she recognized it, she had to decide whether she was going to push it further, or reel it back in. What was worse was that every time she thought to pick up the phone to call Annie, all she could imagine would be a reversal of roles from the whole Weston-wedding fiasco. She imagined Annie telling her that the answer was obvious before picking out flowers for the centrepieces at their wedding. Was that what it was like when she became certain of a couple? (Yes.)(Shut up, Alex.)

This all meant that Emma spent a lot of time hitting her head against her desk and taking breaks from work to shop, for therapeutic purposes. When Alex knocked on her door Thursday, she had been about to call Annie to arrange another spa day. God knows she needed one, plus she figured if they were both relaxed, the two friends could discuss the Alex situation without getting fanatical about it. And then, naturally, Alex had to ruin that plan with his date. (It wasn't a date!)(I'm afraid it really was, Knightley.)(See, even Darcy knows how to recognize a date when he hears about one.)(Please, don't encourage her.)

Anyway, this is how Emma ended up with a coffee in her hand at six o'clock on a Saturday morning, looking out her kitchen window and waiting for Knightley to pick her up. She kept looking down at her phone, both to check the clock, and to contemplate texting Annie for the hundredth time. At 6:15, she almost did just that, when she saw Alex's car move into her driveway.

Alex knocked on Emma's door with one hand while carrying a paper bag in the other. When she opened the door and he saw her disgruntled face, Alex beats her to the punch by saying, "I know I'm late, but I thought I'd pick you up breakfast from that stupid Bistro you like on the other side of town. It would have been inconvenient to drive there since it's in the opposite direction of our destination," he finishes, taking a deep breath and marking the air with his hotter air. Emma had ended up smiling through his explanation and felt the strange urge to kiss him when he finished, but chose to take the food from his grasp instead. (I still don't appreciate that, you know.)

"Excuses, excuses," she offered over her shoulder as she made her way to the other side of the car.

He chuckled as he grabbed his own door handle and stepped into the vehicle. "Not everyone can be as punctual as you, Emma."

"Everyone should still try, nonetheless," she watched him start the car, studied him putting his gloved hands on the steering wheel. "Is it going to be that cold?"

Alex followed her eyes to his hands and promptly took the gloves off and handed them to her before backing out of her driveway. After a few minutes of driving, he noticed her expression and offered, "I have extras in the back. I figured you wouldn't be prepared," she swats his arm at this.

"Hey, no harassing the driver," he laughed.

"He brings me breakfast and gloves and thinks he can ridicule me to boot?" she's laughing too, of course.

"Yes, I don't think anyone would argue with that trade of," he smiles at her at a red light and takes a sip of his own coffee.

"But yeah, are you sure you don't want to turn back, it's supposed to be a bit cold this morning," he gestures to her obvious lack of anything other than a short windbreaker before focusing back on the road.

"No, it's fine," she stretches out in his car, fighting off a yawn, "besides, if I get really cold, I'll just steal more of your stuff." She smiles sarcastically at him and holds up her now-gloved hands.

He shakes his head with a smirk on his face. They both let the conversation slip into easy topics like work, clients, their families, etc. for the rest of the drive.

It's almost another two hours before they actually get the boat in the water. Not that it was a particularly tedious two hours, in fact, they both end having enough enjoyment getting the thing into the water and ready to sail that they almost forget that they still get to sail the thing.

Funnily enough, Emma's so engrossed in the activity she only notices in retrospect that the platonic side of their relationship has been completely blown out of the water now. (Pun intended.) Like Alex demanding that he put her life-jacket on for her. (That was for safety purposes….) Or him picking Emma up around the waist to move her out of his way when he tries to check the sails for tears, enjoying the giggles it forced out of her. Or when he turns around to brush the hair out of her eyes repeatedly until she pulls her hair back in a ponytail.

In fact, there were a lot of moments that signified this change. But the pair of them spent too much time laughing and making fun of each other to really notice.

"You ready?" he asks, before pulling a hat down over his ears.

She nods and Alex helps her onto his father's boat. His family actually owns a lot of sailboats, well, more than was strictly necessary for wealthy families of the West Coast. This one was his favourite though; it was the one he learned to sail in back when he was a teenager. He held a lot of memories in it, mostly from times out with either his mother or Emma. The former rarer than the latter.

They sailed for three hours. It was a really good day for sailing with the wind being constant but not heavy enough to tip the boat if Alex was careful. And that was pretty questionable with Emma on board.

"How cold is the water?" she asked over the wind.

"Colder than the air, generally, why?"

"If I fall in, due to your lack of coordination, I just want to know what to expect," she winked over at him from her spot at the back of the boat.

"You'd be better off than before, now that you've stolen half my stuff," he countered, not admitting that he liked the sight of her in his old college sweater. She laughed and he suddenly wished there was someone else on board to steer the boat.

Alex turned back to face the water, hoping to turn the boat back around towards the harbour. He thought they'd both had enough of the water for one day. Then he felt a tug on his head before he felt the chill of the air cutting into his ears.

"Seriously?" he asked, without turning around.

"My ears were cold," she protests, and he knows she's not even trying to hide her smile just then. When he's finally able to turn back to throw another comment back at her, he gets a full glimpse of her wrapped in his clothes almost from head to toe. His comment dies in his throat and he returns his focus to the boat and getting them back to the shore as soon as possible.

When they finally do get back to the harbour, he helps her out of the boat and back onto the wooden blanks of the dock. And since his boat is being looked after, Alex focuses his attention on Emma, who still manages to be shivering despite the fact that temperatures have risen and she's wearing at least three layers.

Alex finds himself absentmindedly moving his hands up and down her arms while watching his boat get secured to the dock.

"We should get lunch or something," he suggests, still not looking at her, his hands' movements slowing down unconsciously.

"Alex," she says quietly, catching his attention nevertheless. Then he notices what he's doing and blushes cherry red before slowing his hands to a stop at her elbows. (Over-exaggeration at its finest, Miss Woodhouse.)

His apology is cut off by Emma's, "Thanks, my arms were still cold," to which he nods and takes a step back from her, slipping his hands into his pockets.

An awkward silence falls between them and neither is sure how to move past it.

And then Emma seems to realize for the first time how stupid this is, the fact that they can flirt with each other all day and only become awkward the moment one of them mentions it. Then she realizes something totally different, and that was that she wanted him to kiss her. (Very much.)

"Alex?" he lifts his eyes to meet hers, looking thankful that she brought them out of the awkwardness.

"My lips are still really cold," and she doesn't try to hide her grin when he inhales sharply.

But Alex Knightley doesn't let Emma Woodhouse get her way that easily.

So he moves forward and promptly places his gloved hand against her lips, titling his head to the side and asking, "Better?"

Emma laughs into his hand, her eyes sparkling. She reaches up with her own hand to pull his off, but he holds it there, making sure to allow her to breathe. Alex is grinning at her and she's rolling her eyes but he can still feel her smiling under his glove.

And then, she bites him.

"Hey!" he shouts, removing his hand and searching it as if for blood (As if there'd be any, you baby.) Emma's laughing at the display and he scowls at her, even though his eyes are still smiling.

"Your hand wasn't helping," Emma manages to get out through her laughs.

He nods, as though expecting this, and then leans forward. Emma closes her eyes in expectation, but Alex has no intention of kissing her. (Yet.)

Instead, he pulls the sweater she's wearing over her mouth and then ties the strings on the hood to secure it in place.

"There you go," he says to what little of her face he can still see. She narrows her eyes at him, muttering something about it not being funny as she undoes the strings and pulls the sweater back down.

"I'm running out of ideas here, Emma. Got any input?" he raises an eyebrow at her and doesn't even have the decency to hide his smile.

She huffs at him, looking very much like she wanted to stomp her foot. (I hardly think I was acting that juvenile.)(Whatever you say, Emma.) It doesn't help that he makes his face look very confused, as if he has no idea why she was so affronted.

"Oh, I got it!" he says, moving closer to her and wrapping his hands around her waist. She looks decidedly skeptical but asks, "Okay?"

"I don't know how I didn't think of this before," he chuckles, "it was obvious from the moment you mentioned it."

She narrows her eyes at him, "Okay?" and he leans in further before adding his final comment, "Coffee!" and he moves to walk off the dock when Emma tugs him back by the hand.

"I'm going to kill you," she says before she raises herself up on her toes to kiss him.

Alex chuckles before kissing her back, bringing his hand up to catch her face. His other hand is intertwined with hers from when she grabbed him, but Emma drops it to slowly raise her own hand onto his shoulder, pulling him closer. He drops his hands to her waist to help them get even closer and Emma responds by slipping her tongue into his mouth. The desire to breathe is increasing but Alex doesn't care, he'd never breathe again if he could stay this way forever.

They're jolted apart by the sound of a horn from one of the boats around them. And then they're laughing and Knightley's pulling her under his chin and holding her as close as possible.

"You warm now?" he asks, somewhat hoping the answer is no so he has an excuse to kiss her again.

She laughs, though, and nods her head in his chest, "Thanks. So...lunch?"

"Lunch," he agrees, before steering them towards his car.

And that's mostly what happened.

"Not that it compares to yours and Lizzie's, the internet's still talking about that one," Emma adds as Darcy relaxes back into his seat.

William chuckles before stating, "I believe there are far more benefits to privacy than you realize, Emma. Besides, I hear you had your own share of world-wide embarrassment a few weeks ago?"

Both Emma and Alex blush at the memory of him kissing her on a camera as she began wrapping up one of her videos. He hadn't meant to do it, but he'd gotten into the habit of kissing her whenever he could, especially when he left a room without her. That day he'd just forgotten about the camera.

"Yes, well, at least that one wasn't our first," Alex shrugs, trying to imagine how terribly awkward he would have been if he hadn't expected it. Or worse, he had engaged it without knowing how she'd react.

"Well, it is a wonderful story. Perhaps you'll share it with your fans, one day," Darcy offered, before noticing the time and offering quick goodbyes to the pair as he was going to be late for his meeting.

As Alex helped Emma shrug into her jacket, he stated, "It's an interesting idea, you know," which was met with confusion on Emma's part. "Telling the story, I mean. They'd really love to hear something like that."

Emma watched him button up his own jacket before responding with, "I don't think so," and she knew he'd wonder why. So after he'd pushed in their chairs and slipped his hand into hers, Emma continued, "I think it makes our story a little better, that not everyone knows the details. Kind of makes my life feel like my own again, after all that 'filming'."

He smiles as they leave the café. Of course now that the cameras have left the office, Emma develops a particular disdain for them; having moved onto the next big thing already. But he, too, was glad that some things could just be theirs.

So when they stopped at a red light on the walk back to their condo, he kissed her, hoping to make as many memories as possible just between the two of them.

Well aren't they both just disgustingly adorable? Hope my Darcy was okay, maybe I'll bring Lizzie in later. Any other characters you want to appear? Reviews are just the place to suggest that haha!