Chapter 6: Basics Be Damned

Emma was getting her things together before heading to Killian's. It had only been two days since she had seen him and it felt like it had been a month. They were doing a movie night again, this time he was cooking and hosting, while Emma brought the movies along. She grabbed her movie cases, her purse and headed out the door.

Driving her beat up bug she found parking about a half of a block from Killian's building. As she approached the door, she blew out a low whistle, this was nice. Way nicer than hers even though she only lived about 20 blocks from him. Feeling out of place, she approached the elevator and took a deep breath. Seventeen floors later Emma was knocking on his door, fighting every urge that was telling her to run, that she didn't belong here.

Killian answered the door with a big smile on his face. He was wearing dark blue jeans, a grey v neck t shirt and he had a towel thrown over his shoulder, something he normally did when he was cooking. His eyes were drinking her in, she wasn't dressed in anything fancy. Black boots, black leggings and her favorite red sweater. He always had a tendency to look at her like she was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on.

"Welcome to my humble abode Swan,' He held the door open for her, giving a regal bow.

Emma giggled and stepped inside, "Why thank you good sir," she mimicked, dropping into a curtsey.

Killian smiled and pulled her in for a hug, "You can set everything on the table here. Let me check on dinner and I'll give you the grand tour."

Emma set her things down and looked around the condo. Everything was light and open, decorated with an array of blues and nautical decor. Similar to the shop but so much more intimate. Everything screamed Killian and it made her feel at home.

"What are we having Capitan?" Emma asked as she walked to the kitchen.

Killian turned, handing her a glass of wine, "Lasagna and garlic bread."

"Homemade?"

Killian nodded and winked, turning back to building his lasagna and popping it in the oven.

"Oh Kil, you spoil me."

"You deserve to be spoiled." He came around the breakfast bar where she sat and hugged her again. Emma wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest, in no hurry to pull away. He smelled of his cologne, a musky rum sent with a little salt in there, he had worn the same thing since high school, and he always smelt so good. Killian kissed the top of her head and pulled away first. "Come, let me show you around." Emma took his hand and followed.

Killian showed her the living room adjacent to the dining room, the bedrooms, the hallways and told her the bathroom looked like any other bathroom which made her laugh. The hallways and the second bedroom, or as he called it, his home office was covered in artwork he had done in school and recently. Emma was in awe, the paintings were gorgeous, some of ships, of the sea and some abstract. She couldn't get over how insanely talented this man is.

"Do you have an art studio?" Emma asked while looking at a painting of the sunrise.

"I do." He drawled. "It's above the shop."

Emma turned to him and smiled, "Would you show me sometime?"

"Of course," He cleared his throat. "But I will warn you, it's a bloody mess."

"I don't care about that, Kil. I love seeing your creative space." She followed him back to the dining room. "Can't be as bad as your basement was when we were in high school."

"Oy!" He turned, feigning hurt. "That was not messy, that was organized chaos."

Emma giggled, "Could have fooled me."

They sat down at his kitchen table, talking and laughing. While playing a card game to pass the time, Killian decided to ask something that has been bothering him.

"Em, you always wanted to be a writer, what happened?"

She took a deep breath, "It's a long story."

"We have time, love."

For a moment she stared at her wine glass. Talking about this meant talking about August and she wasn't really sure if she was ready for all of that yet. But Killian had been so honest with her, so upfront about his past and what had happened. It was only fair if she gave a little too.

Taking a big gulp of wine, she met his gaze. "So, as you know I went to school in Amherst, I graduated with a double major in English and event planning with a minor in business."

"Overachiever as ever, Swan." He gave her a small smile.

"I knew my book was going to take a while, so I started working at a small event planning firm in Amherst and I worked on my book on the weekends. I worked for this nice older couple..." She took another drink of wine. "But then I met August."

"Your ex-husband?"

"Soon to be, yeah. He owns one of the largest event venues in Amherst and we had a lot of overlapping clients. He wasn't very supportive of my writing, and I wanted to make him happy so the book I started kind of got placed on the back burner. Since I left, I've tried to pick it back up again but..." She took a deep breath, "It's just been hard."

"Why didn't he support your writing? I've read your short stories, and you are a wonderful writer."

She gave him a sad smile, "He said it wasn't a viable career."

Killian took a drink of his rum, this guy sounded like an asshole. "Em, why did you leave?"

She got up from the table and grabbed more wine and sat back down. She didn't really want to talk about him, but Killian was her safe space.

"We got married after only being together for like, six months or so. Stuff was fine at first. We became business partners when my old bosses retired. They gave the event business to me and with him owning the space things were pretty steady for a while. And then I started noticing things..."

"What things?"

Emma took another large drink of her wine, "Money missing, he was gone a lot, things were just not adding up."

Killian didn't like where this was going, "He was having an affair."

"Try like 20 that I know of but yeah. When I confronted him, things got nasty."

He leaned forward grabbing her hand, being the support she needed to finish telling him, "Nasty how?"

"I approached him with all of the proof, bank statements, receipts, text proof you name it. He got angry, I lost my temper and said some things I probably shouldn't have said. He turned away when I was trying to talk to him, and I grabbed his arm to turn him back so I could get him to listen to me and he..." She took another drink of wine. "He hit me on the right side of my face and told me I was worthless to him for anything other than money and he left. I didn't see him again until three days later."

She looked up to meet Killian's gaze and her breath caught at what she saw. He was MAD. Like mad, mad. She hadn't seen him that mad since she was falling apart about Neal. Emma squeezed Killians hand in hers, trying to break him out of his murderous gaze.

Killian shook himself and cleared his throat. He was fuming, and if he ever met August, he was going to kill him. "How did you get out?"

Emma finished off her glass of wine, "I sold off the event planning business, since that was all under my name I could do it without his input. I took the money from that, found my apartment here, packed my car, left him a letter and I haven't looked back. I filed for divorce at the beginning of January, but they are still trying to get him served so I have a feeling it's going to take a while."

Killian was going to say something, but his oven went off, alerting them both that dinner was ready. Killian got the food out of the oven and Emma grabbed plates as they both headed back to the table.

"I'm sorry Killian," Emma began, "I didn't mean to put a damper on the evening."

"Emma don't apologize. I asked."

"I know but…"

"Swan." He said with a warning tone, "Considering you haven't talked about it at all, I knew it was bad, but I am glad that you were comfortable enough to trust me and confide in me."

Emma reached over and grabbed his hand, "You are my safe space, you have been for a long time." She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and returned to her meal.

"How did your parents take all this?"

Emma barked out a laugh, "Yeah… have you met my father?"

He let out a small snort, "That's why I asked."

"About as well as you would think."

Killian smirked, "I always knew Dave liked me the best."

She rolled her eyes and threw her napkin at him playfully. Killian was always the closest thing David had to a son, and he had told her multiple times. Their dinner conversation led to lighter topics, mostly about her family and their past adventures. After dinner they cleaned up and headed to the living room, where Emma's movies were sprawled out on the coffee table. Emma watched as Killian perused her collection, an ache in her chest. She had missed this man so much, and him asking about her parents made the ache throb even more. She hadn't talked to them since she filed for divorce from August, and they had no idea she and Killian found each other again. She knew her parents would be over the moon.

"Em, did you hear me?" Killian's voice cut through her thoughts.

"I'm sorry I didn't, what did you say?"

Killian tilted his head at her, "You, ok?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking."

"That's dangerous."

Emma rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him. "What did you say?"

"Is starting with Count of Monte Cristo, ok?"

Emma smiled, "Of course. You know I love that one as much as you do."

Killian put the movie in and settled on the couch next to Emma, once again each of them in their corresponding corners. Killian was watching the movie, but his head was still reeling about everything she had told him. Emma was the kindest, most fiery, most loving person he had ever met. She deserved so much better, maybe even better than him, but he wasn't quite ready to give that up yet. Killian looked over at Emma, and his heart started to ache, she was so close but too far away all at the same time.

"Em." Killian spoke up

"Hmm?" She was engrossed in the movie.

"Your spot is open."

Emma's gaze met Killian's face, down to his lap and back up. She gave him a warm small and crawled over eagerly, laying her head on his thigh as Killian rested his hand on her hip and they watched one of their shared favorite movies. Killian kept glancing down to the blonde goddess in his lap. He just wanted to scoop her in his arms and protect her from anything and anyone trying to hurt her. He was kicking himself for his stupid back to basics idea, what the hell was he even thinking. The movie ended and Emma stood, stretching as they selected the next movie to watch.

"Swan come here, I want to show you something." Killian extended his hand to her. Curious, she grabbed it and followed him to the balcony. Killian led her to the doors and out the balcony of his condo, showing her the view of Boston harbor.

"Oh Killian," She gasped. "This is incredible."

"This is one of the biggest reasons I chose this place, do you see that white boat with the navy-blue sails just there?"

Emma squinted in the dark, but saw the boat he was pointing at, "I do."

"That one is mine."

Emma looked up at him behind her, "You have your own boat too?"

Killian nervously scratched nervously behind his ear, "I do. I would love to take you sometime if you want?"

"Killian I would love that." She stood on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips without even thinking. Her eyes grew wide, and he froze in place on her, trying to figure out if she actually just did that or if he was just dreaming.

"Shit, Killian I'm sorry," She cursed. "I know we're trying to be friends and all of that and I just…" She shook her head. "I'm going to go, I'll see you later."

Emma turned to go and Killian's hand held her wrist firmly in place. She looked up at him and saw want, need, and something far scarier in his eyes. "Emma, stop trying to run from me."

"I'm not." Determined green eyes met his, "I'm just trying to respect your wishes on what you want." She gathered her courage and moved closer to him. "Back to basics is what you said."

Killian looked down and slid his hand from Emma's wrist to her hand, interlacing their fingers, he let out a small chuckle, she was never going to let him live this down.

"Basics be fucking damned."

Killian wrapped his right hand in Emma's hair just at the base of her neck and pulled her in with his left hand as his lips crashed against hers. Her hands came up gripping his shirt by the v in the neck as his tongue tangled with hers, even strokes of his tongue against hers in her mouth sent shockwaves all the way down to her toes. She fought back for dominance, as her hands came up around his neck, bringing herself as close as she could possibly get. They only stopped when neither of them could breathe, staring at each other as the stars danced above them.

"Fuck." Killian rested his forehead against hers. "You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that."

"Probably as long as I have."

Emma tested the waters and stood on her toes and kissed Killian again. This time softly, slowly, like she was trying to memorize how his lips felt on hers in that moment. Killian ran his hand down to her hips and kissed her back just as slowly, wanting this moment to sear into his brain. Kisses never breaking, He picked Emma up in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her inside and sat her down as they approached the couch, the movie they left behind still playing.

Killian sat down and pulled Emma into his lap. She curled into him and set her head on his shoulder.

"I missed you." She whispered.

"I missed you Em." Killian tilted her head up and kissed her lips softly. "Now you are back where you belong, and I have no intention of letting you go again." He took a deep breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Always."

"Will you go out to dinner with me next week on Valentines Day?"

Emma looked up and him, her eyes sparkling, "As a date?"

"Aye love, as a date."

Emma pulled herself up to Killian kissing him hard. She didn't need to tell him her answer, he already knew.

And Emma couldn't remember the last time she was this happy.