Merry Christmas Eve everybody! I originally was not going to write a Christmas one shot, but then inspiration struck and it had to be written. Hope you enjoy it and hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Simple Little Christmas

Storybrooke was as festive as ever during the Christmas season. The residents took the holiday in stride, plunging into the traditions of the tree, lights and endless food. A holiday of cheer was truly a holiday for fairy-tale folk.

Explaining Christmas to Killian was not to hard. That task was mostly left up to Henry, who willingly explained the reason for the holiday and how it was celebrated. This was Killian's second Christmas since meeting Emma, but the first that they would spend together, as the first occurred during the missing year.

Emma was excited for their first Christmas together. This was really her first true Christmas with her entire family, with no villain and no curse threatening to ruin the festivities. Christmas had not exactly been an exciting time in the foster system-the constant bouncing from one house to another resulted in rarely being settled in a house for the holidays or being in a group home with too many mouths to feed and no way or providing gifts to all of them. She had only ever had one real Christmas-the one with Henry during the missing year, but that was based off of false memories. This time would be different though-she was with her entire family and they could celebrate the holidays together.

The plan was for everyone to have to have their own seperate Christmas in the morning, with Henry starting out at Regina's in the morning and coming over to Emma's around lunch to open his presents (which was fine by Emma because she was not a morning person and she was positive Henry would be up at the crack of dawn). Then everyone would go to Snow and Charming's loft for Christmas dinner.

Everyone really deserved this time to be together and relax after everything that they had been through-from Emma being the dark one to the journey to the Underworld. Emma and Killian were still healing from the physical and emotional scars of the past few months. Emma hoped that Christmas would help them both. They could just spend some much needed time together, exchange their gifts and create new traditions for the years to come.

Christmas music quickly became Hook's favorite thing, minus the mistletoe tradition, but music was less scarring for Henry. The house was always filled with tunes, whether it be contemporary music or older classics. Emma found that soon she was humming the songs throughout most of the day, at work and at home.

One day, humming away, Emma was putting away laundry, in a strangely happy mood. She was still at the point where she was having her good days and her bad days. Her bad days were awful-panic attacks, tears, the list went on. But the good days, which were thankfully becoming more frequent, were peaceful.

She was in no way Suzie home maker. Cooking, cleaning, and laundry definitely were not her skill set, but it had to get done. She and Killian split the chores so they would at least get done. He normally would help with washing the clothes, as his leather was a bit more complex, but sometimes, like today, Emma would just do it all so the two of them could spend a bit more time together just relaxing.

While putting some clothes away, she saw something on his side of the closet. A bag was sitting at the top, with the opening facing towards her. She was nothing if not curious, letting herself have a little peak, reasoning that if he did not want her to see it, he would not have put it in plain sight.

Inside was a compass necklace, sitting in a little box, the top most likely having fallen off. Emma immediately put it back, feeling instanly guilty for seeing it. It had to be her Christmas gift. That was why it was hidden-if it was for anyone else, he definitely would have left it somewhere else, but since it was for her, he needed to hide it before he wrapped it for her.

Emma went about the rest of her day trying to forget what she saw. It was probably a necklace for himself, she reasoned. Or it was for someone else. But the significance of it-the compass went all the way back to when they first met. It had to be for her! But it was not her fault that she saw it, he would understand, right?

When Killian got home, he instantly saw something was off. For someone who was the human lie detector, she was awful at keeping things hidden from him. Must be part of that whole sharing a heart thing. He came into their bedroom, and even before greeting her with a kiss like he always did, he asked her, "What's wrong, love?"

"Nothing." She stood and went over to hug him. He reciprocated the embrace, but soon pulled back to look at her.

"Love, don't lie to me. Something is wrong. You can tell me anything, Emma." He comforted her. He most likely assumed she had been wrestling with the demons that haunted both of them often.

She slipped out of his arms and took his hand, leading him to sit on the edge of the bed with her. "I may have seen something." Emma said nervously.

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it, love?"

Emma sighed, knowing she had to come clean. "The compass necklace in the closet." Killian seemed deflated when she said it, so she continued talking before he could say anything. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to.I was just putting away laundry and it was there and I figured if it was anything important it wouldn't be there and-" She rambled.

"In my defense, you rarely put away the laundry, so I thought that was a safe place."

"I'm sorry, Killian. It is beautiful though. I love it know and I will love it on Christmas morning. And I love you know and I will probably love you even more then." He smiled, and placed his hand on her knee, leaning over to give her a quick kiss.

"It's alright, lass. I guess we just need to get better at this for next Christmas." He laughed.

"Yeah, we do."

"I guess it's a good thing I got you something else." Killian let out.

She punched his shoulder, lightly, giggling. "There was something else!? You let me feel bad for nothing?"

"Not for nothing, love? You were snooping a be the pirate in you." He smirked. "I think it is only fair that I get to know part of my gift now."

Emma laughed and stood, then turned around to face him. " I don't think so."

He stood and stepped into her personal space. "Well, maybe you could just give me another gift then?"

"You're impossible." She put her arms around his waist.

"You love me though." Killian reminded her.

"Yeah, I do."

Emma was right-she did love him more on Christmas morning. The necklace was still as beautiful as the day she accidentally found it, but the ring and the promise of being together were her favorite things from the morning. The best gift she got was the promotion from girlfriend to fiancee.