Until I Met You

One

A/N: hope you enjoy! This is for a contest again for travels_with_ouat because I love once contests and now I think about it I should of put it into a book of contest entries for ouat. It takes place during season 3 episode 6 if you're wonder what episode the echo caves were :).

Throughout the whole time Killian was confessing his secret, he didn't look at anyone but Emma. It was as if he wasn't confessing it to everyone else, he was confessing it to her and more to himself.

"I never thought I'd be able to let go of my first love, my Milah to believe I could find someone else..." He trailed off as he forgot about the rest of the world and also what he was about to say as he stared into Emma's emerald eyes. "That is, until I met you."

Her breath hitched and bit her lip, "Hook, I..." She whispered, but she couldn't say anything, she was left speechless by what he said. Her eyes looked at him with sympathy but also with an understanding in her eyes.

All a sudden they felt the floor shaking and part of a path had been formed to go over to where Neal was.

After everyone but Emma had admitted their secrets, with Charming not able to leave the island and Snow wanting another baby because she never managed to witness all the things of being a first time mother.

She began walking over the path to Neal that went from where they were at the beginning of the echo cave to where Neal was.

As soon as she began walking, she turned to Hook to see him. He looked so upset and she couldn't help but want to kiss him, to make him feel better. He admitted what the kiss meant to him, and she realised it wasn't "just a kiss" to her either unlike what she had said.

He gave a look that said go see Baelfire, let Henry have a father, don't let him grow up any longer without him.

She nodded silently at him and made her way to Neal.

At first she tried to get to Neal by using her sword but he stopped her, "Emma, stop!" He said, "you know what you have to do." He whispered. She swallowed hard her mouth suddenly dry.

"When I heard you were here, that you might be alive, I knew I should've been happy, but I wasn't. I was terrified. I didn't understand why until now, from the moment I saw you in New York, from the instant you came back into my life, I knew, I knew I had never stopped loving you, before I had ever had the chance to take a breath, I lost you once more and all that pain that I had pushed down for all those years, just came rushing back, I don't know how to go through it again. I love you, I probably always will. But my secret is that I was hoping this was a trick. I was hoping you were dead, because it would be easier to put you behind me, than to face all that pain that we went through all over again." She said it to him, and she was crying, tears falling down her cheeks, one after another, they just wouldn't stop.

Suddenly part of the cage Neal was in, magically disappeared and he was free. Before she knew it he was grabbing ahold of her and hugging her. She hugged back but she kept crying.

When they pulled away he got out of the cage and they started walking back to the front of echo caves.

They reached the end of the path where everyone else was. They all silently started to leave, but as Killian was leaving Emma grabbed his hand.

"Was that true?" She whispered, "what you said about me?"

"Of course it was, like I said, it was my darkest secret." He replied, he voice croaky and rough as if he didn't want to speak.

"If I knew you felt that way I wouldn't have said what I did, when we kissed." She admitted. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "when I said that 'it was just a kiss' I didn't mean it." She said, "I don't know why I said it, it's just I..." She trailed off as he pulled her to him and he tucked a hair behind her ear with his hook and cupped her face with his hand.

"It's fine love, no worries." She rested her forehead against his chest, "you should be with Baefire, your lad needs a father in his life." He said, "you have no idea what it's like to have you father abandon you when you're just a lad. But you do know what it's like to live without a father, give him this. Henry needs his father."

She sighed, "Henry can still have his father around, but it doesn't mean that I have to be with Neal to let Henry see him." She said, "I don't love Neal anymore." She whispered, "I haven't loved him in a very, very long time. My heart moved on. A long time ago. My heart belongs to someone else." She said, staring at him straight in the eye, telling him that it was him.

"Who does it belong to?" He asked, in an almost whisper.

"You know who it belongs to." She whispered, "I think you've known for a long time, just like how long you've known who your heart belongs to."

"Aye." He said. "You're right, but why me? I don't deserve you."

She shook her head, "you're the only one who's really understood me, from the moment we met, you could read me like an open book. You believe in my power. Not even Neal believed me that I had a superpower. You know me better than I know myself sometimes and I don't understand, because for years I had these walls up, that no one could bring down, and then I fell in love and got my heart broken and then somehow even with my walls up you found me out. You knew what I was like even when I never even told you. I was scared because I didn't understand how someone could do that." Emma said, "and now I realise that... That, I..." She trailed off and Killian raised an eyebrow.

"That you what, love?" He asked, still cupping her cheek, and she leaned into his hand and closed her eyes.

"I... Love you." She whispered so quietly he could hardly hear her, but he did.

He smiled at that and brought her even closer before ever so gently lifted her chin up and kissed her. She kissed him back and smiled through the kiss.

They rested their heads against one another. It was Killian who spoke first.

"We should really go catch up with the others." Emma nodded.

"Right." She replied, then looked up at him, "let's go save my son." She said, grinning at him before they started walking out of the caves, separately.

What they knew and what they confessed, was for their ears only and no one else had to know. At least for now it would be their little secret. That is until they were ready to tell everyone how they really felt about one another.

A/N: hope you enjoyed! If you did don't forget to comment and vote and I'll see you guys when I update whatever I update next!