Summary: Killian sees a beautiful girl at the library and accidentally introduces himself. Modern Lt. Duckling and Library!AU. ~950 words.
Written by @the-reason-to-sail-home. Requested by @thejollypirate. Fic #1 of the 120+ listener celebratory fic prompt night! There’s still some time to send a prompt of your own!
He’d almost missed her sitting there, which would have left his tally of heads in the building fairly inaccurate. If it weren’t for the glimmer of light off the rim of her black glasses, Killian would have walked by completely unaware of her existence. At least those dated fixtures that half dangled from the ceiling were good for something.
Killian watched as the girl’s focus locked onto the fine print of her textbook, the end of her pencil pressed between her teeth in concentration. From an empty gap on the packed bookshelves, he could see her sitting at a hidden table behind the neglected collection of VHS tapes. She tilted her head up to think, and his eye’s widened.
She was probably the most beautiful woman that had ever stepped foot in the whole damn library.
Somehow, the girl had managed to find the only nook of peace and quiet that existed in the place. With renovations happening on the two lower levels, it seemed the entire population was crammed into a single floor, struggling to cram in their midterm studying.
Well, the entire student population minus him, the sole library assistant on duty at this late hour, and this girl, who was more and more breathtaking as the seconds passed.
It wasn’t his intention to stare, and it certainly wasn’t his intention to tiptoe on his unsteady feet so that he could get a better look at her.
“Can I help you?”
Killian nearly dropped his clipboard. Maybe it was the sudden shock of a voice in the silence of the library, or the startling emerald color in her eyes that positively lit up the entire room, but he felt his palms sweating as he clenched his pencil. She was looking right at him.
Glaring, actually, he noted. She’d definitely caught him staring. If he didn’t come up with some sort of excuse right at this very moment, his humiliation would stain the carpet as it trailed behind him all the way back to the circulation desk.
“Didn’t mean to interrupt, love,” he said, summoning every ounce of confidence he had left. “I was just trying to find materials for a patron.”
She wasn’t convinced. Not even his best pseudo-librarian voice could sway her.
“A VHS tape?” she questioned, skeptical gaze narrowed. His brows shot into this hairline. Maybe he didn’t expect her to believe him, but he definitely had not anticipated that she’d call him out on it. He kept his smile plastered on his face, though she could probably sense the fear that he felt seeping off of his skin. “I don’t think anyone has used a VHS tape in ten years.”
“It isn’t my place to ask why someone needs the things they ask for,” he insisted. For the sake of appearances, he skimmed his gaze across the shelf, then grabbed a tape that looked vaguely interesting. Flipping it so the cover was facing her. “I’m only the retriever of such fine films.”
“If you say so,” she replied, dropping her amused eyes back to her notes and bit her lip to keep from chuckling.
Just before she could go back to studying for real, he heard himself declare, “I’m Killian, by the way.”
Setting down her pencil, she looked back up at him with a strange expression. For a second, he wondered if he had overstepped the boundaries that made polite social interaction tolerable. But then a smile a lifted the corners of her lips, and he couldn’t help but grin right back.
“Emma,” she introduced.
Killian stuck a hand out to her. Somehow, it had slipped his mind that it was the hand still holding the dusty tape until she grabbed the other end of the case and shook it with an amused smile.
In retrospect, it was fairly amusing, but the blush did heat his cheeks until closing an hour later.
* * *
Three days later, Emma found him much the same way he had found her. One sharpened pencil was tucked behind his ear, and a highlighter tapped incesstantly against his lips. Three meticulously kept notebooks were spread across the table in front of him. How could a person look so attractive when they were neck deep into cramming for a midterm?
And since fair was fair, she let her eyes linger on his charming features a few seconds longer than was appropriate. Then, without so much as a simple “hello,” she slid into the chair beside him.
He didn’t almost drop everything he was holding this time, but he did still give that same small gasp that almost made her believe that she was as unexpectedly pleasant to him as he was to her.
“Mind if I sit here?” she asked quietly. It was a library, after all. Killian gaped at her, blinking rapidly, as if her presence had made him forget where he was.
“Not at all,” he replied, once he came back to reality. “Actually, I’m glad you decided to join me.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because I’ve been wondering if perhaps once we finished midterms if you’d care to join me for dinner and a movie. After all, one can only spend so long in a library.”
Emma didn’t know how she was supposed to focus on her work now. Not with him looking at her with those sky blue eyes and enough hope to make even her believe in the possibility of loving again. So of course, the only answer was…
“Sure, but I’m picking the movie. We’re not spending our first date watching a VHS tape on botany.”
• @podeverafter is a OUAT rewatch podcast. Alana ( @starlessness ) and I are big Captain Swan shippers, fans of captain charming, and are very interested in the Swan Believer mother-son dynamic. Since we’re in season 1 at the moment, we’ve also been focusing a lot on Prince Charming and Snowing. If those are in your interests, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy listening to the pod!
•You can search and download the podcast on any Apple product and any other device with iTunes. If you download using wifi, you can listen anytime you’d like without using your data.
•The podcast is available in almost all countries.
•You don’t have be rewatching OUAT with us to listen to the pod! We’ll tell you what happened in each episode.
•You can also listen on soundcloud!
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message! If you’re feeling good, please give us a like or reblog to help signal boost! xo
Hello, friends. Just a quick announcement, due to some unforeseen personal circumstances, as well as the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no new episode of Pod Ever After this week. Sad face.
But we will return Wednesday, November 29th with a discussion of episodes 1x17-18. Have a nice holiday, all!
Hello, sweet friends. As I mentioned in a previous post, because summer is ending and Tessa will be returning to school, we realized that we’d need to do some non-specific episodes related to Once Upon a Time, and we’d need some themes or suggestions from you. We still would like to hear about those ideas, so please let us know!
In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to do an episode interviewing my fiancé, who rarely watches this show and can’t make heads or tails of it, all about his dumb opinions. These can range from funny to serious, but I have a feeling it’s going to mostly be funny.
The questions can be related to specifics about the show (from any season) or about OUAT fandom. Remember, he knows very little about anything, but that’s what makes it fun.
My turn! I answered some questions about Once Upon a Time, the same as Alana, but if you forgot, here they are:
1. has the show changed the way you think about things?
2. fuck, marry, kill: robin hood, killian jones, and david nolan. this listener tried to imply that there’d be no sex in marriage, which i disregarded.
3. how do you watch the show? alone? with friends? if you could change one thing about the show what would it be?
4. what are your fav show dynamics?
5. what tropes do you like? what tropes do you not like? i assumed this was a fanfiction-related question.
6. has watching ouat gotten you through some tough times?
7. how do you feel about the new season?
We’ll be back this Wednesday, August 2nd with a new pod! I already listened to it and it’s hilarious. Hope to see you then!
