Precariously balancing her thermos on top of her teetering pile of textbooks, Emma Swan took out her reading glasses to peruse the copy of the campus map presented before her. First days were always hard, but they were a lot harder when the semester had started a week ago and you'd only arrived yesterday because your grandmother had an operation. Emma wasn't too great at making friends, and she'd already gotten a load of weird looks for being new in every class.

She also wasn't getting anywhere with this goddamn map, and the way her coffee was positioned was giving her anxiety, so she teetered over to the nearest bench and set it all down so she could look at the map better. She still had ten minutes until her next (and last) class for the day, but the campus was huge and orienteering had never been her strong suit.

"Where's the goddamn law building?" She groaned. She supposed she could always ask a passer-by, but she was, realistically, far too proud for that. Emma peered closer and finally found the square marked in tiny black lettering labelled 'Law'.

"Yes!" She sighed in relief. She was about to get up and start making her way over when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. Strong arms encircled her middle and an unfamiliar voice whispered in her ear: "Going somewhere?"

Reflexes took over.

Rising from her position on the bench, she grabbed her assailant's forearms, leaned forwards and ducked violently. The man was flipped over her back and landed on the ground with an impressive thud. Students all around stopped to gawk at the man who lay spread-eagled on the concrete and the furious blonde who stood over him.

Clearly winded, the man who grabbed her stared up in evident confusion. Emma stood, hip jutted out with her arms crossed, waiting for him to recover and, hopefully, explain.

After a few moments, the man seemed to regain his breath a little and he managed to manoeuvre himself onto his hands and knees. He looked up at her, clearly about to say something when suddenly an expression of horror crossed his face, soon to be replaced with total and utter embarrassment.

"You're not Tink…" He stated in a low, accented voice. His eyes were extremely blue and his extraordinary jawline was accentuated with a smattering of dark scruff. Hot damn.

Emma raised an eyebrow questioningly. The staring students began to dissipate, and the guy on the ground rocked himself backwards so he was sitting on his feet, then covered his handsome face with his hands. A groan escaped through his fingers, and a pitying smile took over Emma's face.

"Oh my god. Oh god- I'm so bloody sorry love, I…um, well, I thought you were someone else."

Emma snorted and the guy took his hands away from his face to look at her questioningly.

"Well, it's not every day you get groped by a stranger and end up flooring him in front of twenty gawking students, but I'm sure I'll recover." The whole situation seemed very funny indeed, to Emma, probably helped by how sexy the man was. He got up and stood there awkwardly, clearly not knowing what to say or do.

Taking pity on him, Emma walked forwards, hand outstretched.

"Emma Swan." She announced. The man blinked. Then shook her hand.

"Uh, Killian." He cleared his throat. "Killian Jones, and please, love, I cannot apologise enough, I'm so so sorry. I-"

Emma waved his apology away airily.

"It's quite alright, you just gave me a bit of a shock, and I dare say you came off rather worse in the whole encounter."

Killian smirked sheepishly and looked at the ground.

"Who did you think I was, anyway?"

"Uh, my friend, Tink. We, um, prank each other… and stuff."

There was a short silence.

"Well, Killian, I have to be getting to my next class."

"Yeah? Which one's that, love? Maybe I could walk you, and possibly prevent you from being assaulted by any more strange men on the way."

Emma grinned. "Law. L7, Dr Humbert."

Killian smiled back at her. "What a coincidence! That's my next class, too. And afterwards, maybe I could take you out for coffee by way of a formal apology?"

Emma smiled and tilted her head.

"Apology accepted."