A/N: This is short. But I hope, still satisfying.

18. Just A Little Peril

Ah, Ariel. From lackluster office administrator, to corporate spy, to the aspiring first lady of the criminal underworld.

Emma had to admit, it was quite a leap for anyone to make, least of all the girl who'd sat at her desk for the last five years, filling out crossword puzzles and getting Killian his coffee. Now she was starting to think he was lucky the girl hadn't decided to stir a little strychnine in there as well, for good measure.

"You have to hand it to the lass," Killian said with a begrudging smile. "She's certainly ambitious."

Emma scoffed at him. "Ambitious is not the word I would use. Dangerous, maybe. I mean, how?"

"You mean, how can a girl go from idealistic college grad with suspected flower child leanings, to that?" He pointed back down at Ariel's picture on his phone, and shrugged. "I admit, my line of work hardly brings out the best in people, but I don't think I can entirely take credit for that transformation, Swan."

"No," said Emma, shaking her head. "I mean, how do you convince your boyfriend to kill his own father? I get being whipped. I get being suggestible. I've played that card. But this, it's a whole other layer of manipulation."

"Well, that depends," Killian began, something darker creeping into his tone. "Not all fathers are shiny beacons of parenthood, love. By all accounts the man was no saint. He was the head of a small but successful criminal enterprise, after all. It wouldn't exactly be hard to imagine his having a difficult relationship with his son. A man like that... Ariel probably only had to nudge him in the right direction."

His words smacked of bitterness, bringing a lump to Emma's throat. Sure, she'd had plenty of crappy father figures in her life, that was true. Neglectful, mean, sometimes downright dangerous foster fathers. But they were none of them her actual Dad, whoever he'd been. He probably never even knew Emma existed. But Killian's father? His real father? He'd been a real piece of work.

Unbeknownst to Killian, Emma had tracked him down once, curiosity getting the better of her. Brennan Jones. She never quite managed to pin him to any one location, but he'd certainly left a trail. Outstanding warrants and unpaid debts all across the United Kingdom. Some in Spain. Portugal. Even Ireland for a bit. Emma wasn't sure which was worse; never having father, or having a rat bastard for one. Sometimes she suspected the latter.

"Okay, fine," Emma said, trying to change tack. "Ariel maybe does not actually possess magical sex powers that turn men's brains to mush. That's good to know. What would be better to know is where we can find her."

"That might be a little difficult, Swan."

"How is it difficult? We know who her associates are now. I doubt very much her boyfriend's usual hangouts aren't common knowledge. Hell, Graham probably has a fat file sitting on his desk right now, with this very information inside. We pay a visit to his usual haunts. We find Ariel, and then we can trade. August's debt, for not going to the cops about what she did to Jones Investigations. It's a slam dunk."

Killian looked bemused by her basketball reference, but he didn't seem as excited as Emma was. Hell, maybe this would all work out. After all, they had something on Ariel. Even if they never made the charges stick, they could still drag her to court over industrial espionage. Taking off with most of Killian's confidential client files and selling them on to the highest bidder hadn't exactly been on the up and up.

"No, seriously, what's the problem?" Emma asked, when Killian expression still remained pensive. "Because this kinda seems like good news to me."

"Aye," he said, one hand carding through his hair. "Good news with only one teeny, tiny hiccup."

"Hiccup?"

"She's expecting us. Whatever else she is, Ariel isn't stupid. I think that's become abundantly clear. She knows what August means to me. By now she surely knows that I intervened yesterday when her associate came to call on him. I'd wager there would be a veritable phalanx of armed tough guys standing between her and us now. We'd never get close enough to make a deal. And even if we did, there's no inducement for her to accept it. Either way, she loses out. Loses what August owes, or loses whatever a lengthy court battle might cost her. It'd be much easier for her to just... silence us and be done with it. That way she still gets everything she wants."

Emma hadn't considered it quite like that. She hadn't considered that their lives might actually be in danger. But now that she had, she felt a cold shiver run up her spine. A creeping coldness that faded when Killian's gloved hand suddenly clasped her own, his thumb tracing gentle circles into the back of her hand.

"It won't come to that, Swan. You know I won't let it." She glanced up at him then, at the warm certainty in those blue eyes.

"You won't let it, huh?"

Like he had some say in the matter. Like this wasn't all a crapshoot where one wrong move might actually get them killed.

"Aye," he replied, his grip on her hand tightening. "I won't let it."

It wasn't a lie. But neither was it a promise he could deliver on.

"Killian..." She leaned forward then, bracing her other hand on his shoulder, drawing him in. He was much closer now, they were practically nose to nose. It had only been two days, and already she could feel that familiar temptation to close the gap between them, to lose herself in the certainty of his kiss, in the warm safety of his arms.

She didn't want to die. She especially didn't want to die in service of expunging her brother's idiotic debts. August probably wouldn't take it all that well if she did. The guilt and all, eating him up from the inside out. Graham probably wouldn't mind. Hell, he might even be secretly pleased to see the last of her. No one else would really care. Not really. Just Killian.

Killian. The very man whose heart she could feel thrumming in his chest, as her hand trailed downwards. It was reassuring to feel the beat of it under her fingers, just as it had been last night, reminding her that he was still there. That he was with her. That he was safe. The same man who then reached up and closed his other hand around hers, holding it still to his chest.

Fuck it. If they were going to die for something stupid, she might as well be honest.

"It meant something," she blurted out, out of nowhere. And when she saw his face screw up adorably in confusion at her sudden words, she pressed on, in a predictably awkward ramble. "Sleeping with you. And sleeping with you. It meant something. To me. You mean something to me."

He didn't say anything at first, just let his mouth fall open a bit, Emma wondering if she'd broken him. If she'd broken them.

"This would be a really good time for you to make with the words..." Emma prodded, nudging him a little where their hands were still clasped at his chest. He seemed to awake to himself then, closing his mouth and blinking a few times.

"Err..." he began, the beginnings of a smile forming on his lips. "Something?" he prompted, one eyebrow raising as if of its own accord.

The sight of that stupid eyebrow was enough for Emma to feel the knot in her stomach starting to unfurl. Enough to give her a little hope.

"A lot," Emma clarified, though the bastard hardly deserved it, with the wicked smirk he was starting to sport.

"A lot?" He repeated, cheekily.

"A little less now you're being such an ass about it!" But her frown didn't last long. Not with the way Killian leaned forward, and met her lips with his own. Not with the way he smiled against her lips as he pulled away, his eyes shining brighter than she'd ever seen.

"I'm guessing that means it's mutual...?" Sure, she was fishing. But since all he was doing was grinning like a lunatic, she figured she had a right.

"Christ, Swan. Yes! It's mutual! I know I can be a grumpy git sometimes, but I'm bloody mad about you. I don't know when the fuck that happened exactly, but it did. And I know the timing is..."

"The worst?" Emma supplied.

"Aye. That'll do. Bloody awful timing. Everything is a fucking mess, including us. But I do want this. With you. I want..." He trailed off, searching for the right words.

"Sex?" Emma teased.

A dark chuckle. "I think that goes without saying. I've been having the most delightful flashbacks these past two days, but they really don't quite live up to the reality. But I'm a greedy man, Swan. And I'm sorry to say that I want far more than that from you."

"Oh?"

"Aye," he breathed, closing the distance between them again to trap her lips in a bruising kiss. One which came to an abrupt end when a passer-by knocked on the window and started yelling at them in what seemed to be rapid-fire Vietnamese, the two of them untangling in a hurry back into their respective seats, each trying their best not to laugh too hard.

"Busted," Emma said, as she set about fixing her hair where Killian's fingers had tangled it.

"Worth it," Killian grinned back, his own hair looking a little worse for wear.

"I guess that wouldn't be so bad," Emma admitted shyly, gaze drawn to the window, watching the man who'd yelled at them disappear out of sight between a row of cars in the lot. "Having something with you. Having more with you."

"Wouldn't be so bad?" he repeated, in an incredulous voice.

She just rolled her eyes, until a flicker of red caught at the corner of her eye, drawing her attention back inside the car. The rose. Her rose. Killian had picked it up from wherever it had fallen, and was holding it out to her now, in a very different way than he had earlier. It wasn't a ruse anymore. If it had even been one at all. Now, with that look in his eye, she saw it for what it really was. A promise.

"You won't let it come to that?" Emma repeated his earlier words.

"I won't let it come to that. We're going to approach this intelligently. Strategically. And no one is going to get hurt. Not you. Not me. Not August." His eyes crinkled a little in the corners, when he smiled at her. "Especially not now I have so much to look forward to."

"You have an idea?" she asked, hand stretching out towards the bloom.

"Aye, I have an idea."

She took the flower.

Whatever Emma thought Killian's plans might be, she hadn't anticipated they might include bluffing their way through the labyrinthine hallways of a downtown law firm, dodging interns wheeling around carts stacked high with books. And yet there they were, on the 16th floor, searching out a very specific office. Killian was the one who knocked.

"If you think I'm babysitting your dog again, you've come to the wrong-" Her opening volley trailed off immediately when Killian pushed the door open wider to reveal Emma standing at his side, their hands entwined.

Whatever Emma thought Tink's reaction to this news might be, it wasn't what she got. Which was a a rather loud squeal of excitement, as Tink launched herself at Killian, enveloping him in a rather fierce looking hug. And then, much to her consternation, followed it up by hugging Emma herself, who could do little more than wait for it to pass, her arms trapped at her sides. She shot Killian a look, but he seemed to be too busy laughing at her expense.

Having apparently gotten all of her boa-constrictor urges out of her system, Tink at last stepped back, fixing Killian with a sly smile. "Oh yeah. Not your type at all."

"Fuck off," was his elegant reply, giving Emma's hand a reassuring squeeze.

The exchange between Killian and Tink was friendly. It was fond. And more than that, it made all her imaginings about how drinks might have gone down between the two of them seem kind of ridiculous.

"Hang on," Emma said, putting up a hand, "You guys have... talked about this?"

"Well," Tink shrugged. "I talked. He pretended I didn't know what I was talking about. But obviously..." She motioned between the two of them, "I'm always right."

And modest too, Emma thought with amusement, as the smaller woman finally stepped back to let them into the office, securing the door.

"So," she said, taking a perch on the edge of her desk. "As much as you know I'm thrilled you two knuckleheads have made things official, I don't think that's what dragged you all the way up here to the 16th floor. So, what is it? I meant it about the dogsitting. I am done with that little monster."

Emma felt Killian bristle beside her, but she just rolled her eyes.

"Smee's with Killian's downstairs neighbor today," she cut in. "Your throw rugs are safe. We were hoping you could do a favor for us though..."

Tink gave an eye roll of her own, fixing her attention squarely on Killian, arms folding over her chest. "A favor?"

"Aye. I'd like to sue someone. I hear that's right up your street."