It starts like any other story starts. Emma met Killian, an exchange student, in her junior year at college. He was majoring in literature and she was looking into making a career in graphic design. They met via mutual friends one night when they were all hanging out at the local bar. They hit it off and all of the sudden they were a thing. A fling. Nothing serious. You can't get serious with an exchange student. Those things are meant to be for fun and nothing else. They are never meant to leave you heartbroken.

Which was, unfortunately, what happened.

One morning, when they'd been together for over three months, Emma woke up and looked at Killian's form, still asleep, snoring softly. She realized then that she was past 'infatuation' and 'just a good time' with this guy and that he was leaving in less than a month.

So Emma made the most rational decision a person can make. She broke his heart before he could break hers. When he brought up the topic of a possible long distance relationship, Emma shut him down by telling him it had been just a college fling, nothing more. She could see the way his face fell at her words, as Killian didn't even try to mask his feelings. He looked at her and told her he knew she was lying, but Emma remained strong in her decision.

Long distance relationships never worked. This was supposed to be a fling. Nothing more. Better keep it as a good memory than risking something else that would end up badly.

Killian lowered his head in defeat before leaving her room that night. He got trashed that night, pouring his heart out to David about 'those damn walls' and 'what does a bloke have to do to prove he won't hurt her, mate'.

The next day, he tried to talk to her, but she refused.

He tried the next, she refused again.

The third day, she begged him to leave her alone.

Finally, that day, he did.

He buried her deep in a corner of his heart before getting on that plane and flying back home. Back to the flat he shared with his brother, his job at the local public library and his medieval English literature courses, wondering why his life couldn't resemble more a fairytale, where the hero kept trying until he rescued the princess and they'd live happily ever after.

The years passed and he moved on: to his own flat, his teaching lessons at the local school and his writing. He published his doctoral thesis and one more theoretical book before finally making the jump into fiction. He didn't sell millions, but he didn't sell dozens either. It was a nice middle that left him comfortable. Like his life had been for the past few years.

Comfortable. Quiet. Uneventful.

A few lasses here and there, nothing major. There was no point in putting his heart out there, only to risk it to be crushed again. He'd been that road before, he'd left his heart at the feet of Emma Swan on that fatidic third day in Boston, only to have her stomp on it.

And that was just about it.

Which is why he had to take a triple check when his eyes spotted her across the street from the local school one day.

Yeap, there she was. Emma Swan, in the flesh. And she was looking at him with a mix of curiosity and reticence. She crossed the street to go to him and he realized, in that moment, of two things.

One, this had not been completely random. She seemed to know he still lived there. And that he worked at the school. He silently cursed David and his inability to keep any information from his wife.

And most importantly, two. He was in danger. Big danger. Because he was still utterly and completely in love with Emma Swan. As much as that third day he'd asked her to give him a chance and she'd refused him.

He needed to build some fucking high walls before this ended badly for him.

They greeted awkwardly, both standing in the street as she told him that she'd taken a new job with a local cutting-edge digital company and had arrived a few days ago. She nervously asked him if he wanted to grab dinner and catch up.

He said no, claiming he had plans.

He ran into her when he and Liam were at the street market the next Sunday. She's smiled and shook hands with his brother before she gave him a sad look. She bit her lip before asking him if he wanted to have a cup of coffee.

He said no, claiming that he and Liam needed to get back.

On Wednesday night, someone knocked on his door. Killian opened to find Emma standing before him, her face filled with tear stains.

"Hear me out." She pleaded, before she looked at him and told him she'd made the greatest mistake of her life that day, seven years ago, when she begged him to leave her alone. That she thought that if she ended things there, there'd be no heartache. But that she'd been wrong, because all there'd been in those seven years was ache, and regret for making a terrible decision, for not being brave enough to take a chance with him, with them. For not believing they could have conquered all obstacles life had thrown at them.

So when she'd seen the job ad she'd sent her resumee and for the first time in a long time, she'd hoped for something. And it came true. She'd coerced David for information on him and she'd talked to his brother that same afternoon over a cup of tea to get his address.

Now, here she was, by his door, asking him not to make the same mistake she did, and give them a chance to start over. To start again. To see if there was still something there, because she knew now he was worth fighting for and she was trying very hard not to give up, not to lose hope.

She was standing there, trying to be everything she hadn't had the courage to be seven years ago.

She was there, laying her heart at his feet on that third encounter.

Killian did the only thing he could think of. He crashed his lips to hers, kissing her fervently, promising her to never let her go if she was willing to do the same.

She agreed.

He never let her go again.