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All Henry wanted for his birthday was a party at the local laser tag arena and Emma had always had a hard time saying no to the kid. That’s how she ended up where she was now; watching over ten thirteen-year-olds, arguing with her family, and trying to ignore the bedroom eyes that the leather-clad pirate in the corner of the room was throwing her way.
“Emma, this is not the type of celebration that should be thrown for a prince!” Mary Margaret whined for what seemed like the twentieth time in the last ten minutes. “He should have a ball in his honor and the whole town to celebrate!”
“For the last time, Mary Margaret, this is Henry’s birthday and this is what Henry wanted. He’s only thirteen. He wanted to spend time with his friends and family here. He’s a boy that was raised in this world and these traditions, not your world.” Emma argued, tired of the same old argument. Emma realized that her voice was probably too sharp though, because Mary Margaret’s face quickly dropped.
“It’s your world too, you know. You may not have grown up there but that doesn’t mean that it is any less yours.”
Emma sighed. “The point is that it just isn’t Henry’s. Not yet.” After rubbing the bridge of her nose in partial frustration and partial annoyance, she adds, “Can we just change the topic and enjoy ourselves, please?”
Mary Margaret nodded quickly. “Sure, we can change the subject. Mind telling me why Hook is here if Henry only wanted friends and family? Is there something I should know about there? Is Hook Henry’s friend?” Her face was sincere, but Emma knew that she was digging. She refused to give her the satisfaction of getting to her.
Emma shrugged nonchalantly and answered honestly. “Henry asked who he could invite and I said anyone he wanted. He asked me if he could invite Killian and I said if he wanted to then he could. I really didn’t think that he would show up to a thirteen year old’s birthday party but he did and Henry was happy so who am I to complain?”
“He showed up for you, Emma,” her mother sing-songed.
“He did not. I told you over and over again that there is nothing between us.”
“Why is that exactly,” Mary Margaret questioned. “He’s made it quite obvious that he likes you and it’s not as though he is a bad-looking man. He seems to have atoned for past wrongdoings. He runs whenever you call. Why don’t you go after him?”
Rolling her eyes, Emma quips, “If you like him that much, why don’t you go after him?”
Mary Margaret gasps indignantly. “I would never—”
Thankfully, a sweaty, wild-eyed Henry runs right up to Emma and cuts Mary Margaret off.
“Hey, Mom! The next round is about to start. Will you play a round? Pleeaasee?” he whines dramatically.
“Sure, kid.” Emma smiles and ruffles his hair, which was getting harder to do now that he was almost as tall as her.
“Sweet!” Henry cheers. “I’ll meet you out there in a couple of minutes. I wanna see if I can get some other people to play too.”
Chuckling to herself, she turns around to get geared up. As she walks away, she hears Mary Margaret say, “We’ll pick up that conversation later.”
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A couple minutes later, the arena goes dark and a loud voice over the PA system tells them that the round has begun and that there are fifteen participants. Emma crouches down in a nice little corner area that she found that sufficiently dark enough to hide in. After a couple of minutes without any activity, she slowly started to creep around the various objects until she saw a shadowy figure that was taller than she assumed Henry’s friends would be. Smiling to herself, she stalked the figure and waited until she had a good shot. Eventually, the figure made a mistake and walked down a dead-end hall. Rather than turning around like Emma assumed the figure would, he spoke.
“You can stop chasing me now, darling.”
Emma looked closer as the figure turned around and realized that it was in fact Killian.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked harshly.
“Well, the same as you I suppose. The lad came and begged me to play a round and I couldn’t say no. I will admit though that I have no clue as to how this bloody game is played.”
Emma stopped hiding then and stood in front of Killian as she explained. “It’s easy. You take your gun,” she pointed to the device, “and you shoot at the harnesses.”
Killian’s eyebrows went up almost comically. “And this is a safe game for young boys to play? How do they not get injured. Surely this harness isn’t enough to stop one of those projectiles you shoot from guns.”
“No, no—it’s not a real gun. They shoot laser beams, hence the name of the game, at the harnesses. Not bullets.”
“And these laser beams, they aren’t dangerous?”
“No, they’re like these invisibles beams made fro—you know what? Forget it. It’s safe. Nothing is actually shot from the guns.”
Killian nodded in understanding, but Emma was overcome with feeling for this man that she provided nothing but a hard time for and yet here he was with concern for her son. And he was standing there with his stupid honest eyes that were just so damn blue and she glimpsed down at his lips and suddenly he was close, wow he was close and she could feel his breath and see his chest rising and then his lips were on hers and they were kissing and it’s amazing. All she could think about was how amazing he was at this. Her head was spinning and she went to put her hand on his chest to steady herself when her hand bumped into hard plastic.
Right. The harness. She was at her son’s thirteenth birthday party making out with a pirate bad boy in the dark corner. Who was she?
She broke off the kiss and rested her head on his forehead. He broke out into a wide smile and said “About time, luv.”
Emma took a step back and in one fluid movement, raised her laser gun and shot his target, making it turn red and effectively knocking him out of the game.
Killian looked down at his chest and looked back up at Emma gaping.
“What the bloody hell was that for? That wasn’t fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” Emma said saucily as she turned around and walked away.
Killian just stood there and smiled. “I think she just said she loved me” he muttered to himself.