Ok, so major apologies for this being so ridiculously late after Halloween, but I am the slowest writer ever because my muse is always wanting to write a million other things which is also why multi-chapter fics are going to be my ultimate downfall. I'm a little sad because I had plans to continue this and make it a bit longer, but alas, Halloween is now over and apparently my muse felt like ending it tonight, so I sat down and started writing, struggled a little at first to get the inspiration going, and then I think it ended pretty well, so I hope you all enjoy and I certainly hope you're not disappointed in what the secret Halloween experience was because this was always one of my favorite things to do around Halloween time when I was younger!

"I still think you're mad, Love," Killian said when they finally reached the end of the dirt road.

"Part of Halloween is being scared, but in a good way. It's like an adrenaline rush," Emma said with an ever-growing smile before adding with a raise of her eyebrow: "I know, you prefer to do other, more enjoyable activities."

"If it makes you happy, I prefer to do this," he answered, his blue eyes bright with a look that Emma had become all too familiar with, though it never failed at taking her breath away. She'd never had anyone in her life who put her first…who cared about her happiness. But to her own constant surprise, Killian proved the exception to the only rule she had ever known.

"I love you," she said, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before taking his hand and pulling him towards the entrance.

"So there are…people…with weapons…hidden among these crops?" Killian asked as he took several cautious steps inside, his fingers intertwined with Emma's.

"It's a haunted corn maze. Just go with it," Emma replied as Killian wrapped his hook around a stalk of corn, eyeing it suspiciously. "The weapons look real, but they're only meant to scare you…and it's in a maze so that you can't see them coming. Technically, the point is to find your way out before you encounter any of them, but the fun of it is that they rig it so that's impossible."

"So no matter what, we lose?"

"It's not win or lose. It's just…hard to explain, I guess. You'll see," Emma said as they reached their first fork. "Which way?" Killian glanced down one path, leading further into the ever-growing darkness as the sun dipped below the horizon, before spinning on his heels and casting his gaze back down the opposite path, lit with a path of artificial lights hanging from the stalks.

"This way," he said, pointing his hook towards the darker path with a smirk.

"I like the way you think," Emma said, leading the way.

They walked in silence for several minutes, Killian scanning the deeper parts of the maze for any movement while Emma chose to enjoy his reaction to the experience, anxious for the first moment when…..

Suddenly, the roar of a chainsaw filled the silence as a man in a hockey mask jumped out from behind the pair. Killian turned first, eyes wide, his hand instinctively going for his sword before he realized that he no longer wore it and that the man wasn't actually a threat. Emma squealed with a combination of fear and delight, grabbing hold of Killian's hook and pulling him away from the pursuing scarer. As they ran around a nearby corner, the man suddenly stopped and, walking backwards with his eyes still trained directly on them, disappeared into the maze.

"Where did he go?" Killian asked curiously, squinting his eyes as if to regain visual contact.

"They're supposed to stay in certain areas of the maze, spread out," Emma explained, her smile so bright it seemed to light the darkness around them. "What did you think of your first scare?"

But just as Killian opened his mouth to answer, a blunt machete fell with a crash between them, causing them both to jump back in fear as the masked man wielding it sliced the air around them. This time it was Killian who wrapped his arms around Emma's waist, lifted her off the ground, and carried her off into the darkness, not bothering to look as the thundering footsteps of the maniac with the machete chased them down. The sound was soon drowned out, however, by Emma's hysterical laughter, the loudest and most joyful Killian had ever heard it, as he finally came to a stop apparently just beyond their fake attacker's territory. He had stopped several feet away, as if held back by some impenetrable force, and rather than return to his original post, he remained there, slashing his machete at the two of them.

"Bit of friendly advice, mate," Killian said as he held up his hook, holding it out so that the machete just barely missed hitting it. "You might want to sharpen your blade a bit."

Emma burst into another fit of uncontrollable laughter as the man finally retreated, mumbling something about "Halloween costumes looking more and more realistic every year".

"I think I've got the hang of this, now, Love. What other less-than-terrifying villains might we encounter tonight?" he asked, brandishing his hook with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Before he could look to Emma for a reaction or an answer, however, her lips were on his, her hands gripping tightly to the more modern leather jacket she had picked out as a part of his "real world wardrobe," as she called it. With just a second's worth of shocked hesitation, Killian deepened the kiss, his fingers tangling in her windblown curls. Expecting her to pull back at any second and suggest that they continue on their way and that there'd be time for more advanced activities later, he was shocked to find Emma tugging on his jacket so that they stumbled together clumsily off of the marked path of the maze and into a thicket of corn stalks, sliding her own dark blue leather jacket off of her arms once there. Knowing what reaction it would garner, Killian allowed his hook to latch onto the fabric of her thick white sweater, sliding it slowly up her chest as he pulled his lips from hers and pressed them to her neck. The second that the warmth of his lips combined with the coolness of the metal of his hook touched her skin and the soft moan escaped Emma's lips, Killian couldn't help but grin at his own success before he allowed his lips to crash against hers once again.

Suddenly, a scream from directly behind them sent them both tripping over each other and falling to the ground, Emma landing on top of Killian with a hard thud. They both quickly turned to find the source of the scream, a young girl, probably around Henry's age, surrounded by a group of boys around the same age, as well.

"A hook? Cool! Last year, all they had was the same old weapons they always use," one of the boys said as they caught sight of Killian's hook shining in the darkness, the moonlight hitting it just right.

"And an actual staged attack from the guy with the hook? Awesome!" another one of the boys said as the group continued down the path, all of them sharing their excitement about the "new addition" to the corn maze.

Killian and Emma, meanwhile, turned to glance at each other, their cheeks both bright red with embarrassment, before losing themselves in a frenzy of laughter that had them rolling together on the ground. When they finally caught their breaths and recovered, Emma sat up as Killian remained lying down, his eyes fixed on her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked after a moment, faking annoyance as best she could, though she couldn't seem to hide the smile on her face.

"You are so beautiful," he said softly.

"For one, everyone looks better in the dark, and there are leaves in my hair. I don't think beautiful is the word you're looking for," she said with a playful roll of her eyes as he suddenly sat up and reached up to pull one of the leaves from her hair.

"For the record, you will always be the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on, no matter the lighting or what you may have in your hair. And it isn't just your outward appearance that I find beautiful, Emma," he said, tilting her chin up so that their eyes met, his the deepest blue and hers the brightest green, two lights shining in the darkness. "It's your laugh, a sound I thought I knew quite well but that I felt as if I heard for the very first time again tonight. And your spontaneity…no matter how convinced I am of the choices you'll make, you are a mystery that I will never quite solve but one that I will spend my life dedicated to deciphering. I love every bit of you, exactly who you are, who you were, and who you will become."

"All that I am?" Emma asked, her eyes glistening as a single tear traced a path down her cheek that Killian quickly kissed away.

"All that you are," he answered softly.