This was written for my friend Kristen's birthday. I posted it on tumblr and decided to put it on here as well. :)

The door slams shut much harder than Emma intended it to, the wind blowing it closed with a force that makes a shiver rack her body. Snow is falling steadily outside, and she has no idea where it's coming from, but she swears it's the damnedest thing.

"You're back soon," Killian says as he walks out of Henry's bedroom, the increasingly taller pre-teen following on his heels. He seems to have gotten over his previous grievance ("Mom, I don't need a babysitter every time you leave the house"), a smile lighting up his features.

The kiss Killian presses to her lips when he reaches her is warm, and she bites back a sigh.

"It's too cold and stormy to really get anything done. Everyone's staying inside, which means you-" She points at Killian firmly. "-are stuck here with us until it gets calmer." Another shiver and Killian is pulling her into him, running his hand up and down her arm.

"You're freezing, love," he tells her, and she rolls her eyes.

"That tends to happen when it's twenty degrees outside." She smiles at him anyway, though, and he places another peck on her mouth. It's so familiar, the taste he leaves with her, and she swears if she didn't know any better, she'd say they'd been together for more than a week.

"We should bake something," Henry says a moment later, grinning from ear to ear. "A cake."

"A cake?" Emma asks incredulously, raising an eyebrow as she rubs her hands on either side of Killian's, still trying to get her circulation back to normal and return heat to her fingertips. "Seriously?"

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun! Right, Killian?" Henry turns on the pirate, tilting his head expectantly.

"It sounds like a quaint idea to me," he says, smirking at Emma, who rolls her eyes as far skyward as they can go. "The lad seems rather set on the plan."

"You two are the actual worst," she grumbles, opening up the cabinet to see if she even has the ingredients for a cake and cursing to herself when she does.

The actual worst.

—

She just knew it would wind up being a disaster. Killian has flour on his nose and she would pay attention to how it's the cutest thing she's ever seen, if she weren't trying to keep Henry from sticking his fingers into the bowl and licking them clean.

"Henry, stop," she commands, exasperated. He raises an eyebrow and smirks (he's definitely been spending way too much time with Killian), his eyes flicking to just over her shoulder before he bursts out laughing.

"Killian." Henry barely gets out the pirate's name before he's doubling over. He makes several attempts to stop laughing long enough to say something, but each time winds up only pointing at Killian and starting the cycle over.

"What is it?" Killian asks, and Emma feels her heart tug, because damn it, he is adorable.

"I think it's because you have flour on your nose," she tells him, reaching up with her hand to brush it off. There's a brief moment where she can see the affection that always stuns her into silence as he wrinkles his nose at her, but then his attention shifts.

"That's bad form, lad," Killian tells Henry, though he's grinning, easing around Emma and toward him. Henry's eyes widen and he takes off just in time to avoid Killian's grasp, but then the two run off into the living room, their laughter echoing through the apartment.

There's a thud, followed quickly by an "I'm okay!" from Henry, and Emma chuckles to herself, pouring what's survived of the mixed batter into a pan and sticking it into the oven.

—

"Killian, if you eat all of the frosting, none of it is going to make it on the cake," Emma says, slapping at his hand.

"I think that the problem is you aren't eating any, darling." Henry nods in agreement at Killian's words, licking a bit of the chocolate off of his bottom lip and then proceeding to finish getting what's left of his steal off of his finger.

"Doubt it," she mutters, focusing for a moment on getting frosting on one side of the cake. Killian's hand is on her waist a second later and she purses her lips, refusing to be distracted. When he whirls her around and pulls her against him, however, the breath leaves her and she almost drops the spreader in her hand. "Killian-"

He kisses her,and she's going to kill him because Henry is literally only five feet from them. She tastes the chocolate on his mouth and against her previous thought process, she swipes her tongue out against his bottom lip to capture more of it, a hum of appreciation sounding at the back of her throat.

It's then that he lets her go, and his eyebrow is raised high. She glares, rolling her eyes and then turning back to the cake. Her face is burning hot, and when Killian chuckles into her ear and presses his lips to her jawline, it only burns warmer. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Henry with another bit of frosting on his finger.

It's only then that she realized Killian's kiss was more than just a ploy to get her to taste the frosting. Henry grins around the chocolate, offering Killian his free palm for a high five, which Killian had only learned the day before, due to Henry's insistence that he become even more familiar with this realm. ("You're obviously staying, so you need to make sure you know as much as possible.")

She doesn't tell either of them how much it warms her heart to hear those words spoken by her son, who smiles at Killian like he's the best thing since chocolate cake. It makes her heart tug affectionately when Killian smiles back in almost the same manner on a regular basis, treating him like a son already, as if it's just natural to do so.

Her attention is pulled back to them when Henry avoids the container this time and reaches straight for the cake, running his finger along the bottom of it and laughing when Emma bats his hand away. Killian is chuckling right beside her ear and she swears, she's going to make Henry pay for suggesting this and Killian for going along with it.

Idiots.

She smiles.

Her idiots.

—-

It takes much more time than it should, but when the cake is finished there's frostingalmost covering the entirety of it, they all fight over who gets the bigger piece when Emma cuts three slices. Somehow, Henry winds up with it and Emma rolls her eyes but sits down between him and Killian on the couch while Henry turns on the television.

"Okay, Killian, today we're learning about Netflix," Henry says informatively as he changes the TV input and starts up the program.

"Mhmm," Killian acknowledges, placing his already empty plate on the table in front of them, wrapping an arm around Emma's shoulders, and giving Henry his full attention. Emma sits back contentedly as Henry tries to explain the process, which takes longer than she expected, considering the concept of television is one Henry's already taught.

Killian presses a kiss to her hair once Henry finally finishes and selects a movie, and she leans into him, her hand finding a place on his knee as she relaxes. She can feel the pressure of his fingers on her arm, and when Henry moves a little closer, Killian flicks his ear playfully. A smile is passed between them and then Henry leans into her shoulder, his head resting just above Killian's hand.

It's overwhelming how suddenly love seems to encompass her from either side, squeezing her heart and making her wish she could press pause and stay with them like this forever.

With their stupid chocolate cake.

—-

"You know I'm going to get you back for the hell you put me through today with this stupid cake idea," she whispers to Killian later that night after insisting ("There's no way I'm letting you go out in that mess") that he stay with them.

A smile pulls up the corners of Killian's lips and he shrugs. "I suppose I'll take whatever punishment you decide to put upon me, love." He pauses, eyes flicking to Henry, who is pouring himself a glass of milk a few feet away. His gaze softens considerably and when he looks back at her, the emotion she sees makes her breath catch. "I thought it was quite fun, actually."

Damn him. "Really?"

He averts his gaze and looks down at his brace — hookless more often than not these days. "I did. I always enjoy the time I spend with you and Henry."

Emma side glances at Henry, who is drinking from his glass at the entrance of the living room, where a different movie now plays. He seems intently focused, but she can see the smile that's pulling up his features and knows he's listening. She swallows thickly, turning her face back to press her forehead into Killian's chin.

"We do, too," she tells him, kissing the underside of his jaw.

His lips finds hers easily, his finger brushing under her chin to tilt her face up. When they pull away, their noses bump and she smiles, reveling in the admiration that shines in his eyes.

"Killian, you have to see this part!" Henry calls, and Killian kisses her once more before walking toward the living room.

She waits only a moment, and then she follows him.

—-

With only a little convincing needed, Killian climbs into bed next to her that night. He hesitates, and she hasn't done this in so long that her muscles tense up because what should she do? What's too much, or not enough? When he shifts just a little closer, however, it all melts away in a rush. She slips a leg between both of his and snuggles against his chest, smiling to herself when his arm wraps around her waist.

His fingers trace circles into her back, and she feels so warm, a contrast to the storm still raging on outside. She feels the press of his lips to her hair and she sighs against him, relaxing completely.

"I love you," she whispers, and then her breath catches because she hadn't meant to say it out loud. She'd barely registered thinking the words and then they had slipped past her lips. However, when he starts running his fingers through the ends of her hair, she realizes that she isn't afraid of the sentiment.

It doesn't make her want to run.

"I love you, Emma," he murmurs against her forehead, and it's real and it's right and she's never felt this light before in her life.

She sleeps peacefully and wakes with him still beside her, still wrapped in his comfort and his warmth, and she knows immediately that it'sdefinitelysomething she could get used to.

—-

Two days later the last piece of chocolate cake disappears, and it's Henry who devours it.

Killian chuckles to himself when he walks in to see Henry half way done with the slice, brushing snowflakes off of his coat before taking it off and hanging it on their coat rack by the door. Emma has to look away, because it's just a stupid coat, but it looks like it belongs there, hanging next to her red one.

"All gone already?" he asks, ruffling Henry's hair and reaching over to break a piece of it off and plop it in his mouth.

"Yep," Henry replies, a grin splitting his features.

"Well, that's too bad," Killian muses, walking up to Emma and kissing her cheek. "We'll have to make another one."

Emma's elbow finds his ribs and he chuckles through a grunt, wrapping his arms around her waist. "No." She pushes his arms away, laughing despite herself. "There is no way."

Killian is grinning at her and Henry has his bottom lip poked out, and she narrows her eyes at both of them, refusing to be persuaded. Killian and Henry seem to make quite the team, however, and looking between the two of them makes a little bit of her resolve fade.

Damn them.

"Fine," she mutters. "Maybe later."

Henry is pumping his fist into the air and Killian is pulling her to him to press a kiss to her lips.

They're bothridiculous and stubborn, and she's going to have to come up with a way to win these stupid things, but when Henry gets up to give Killian a high five (what, is that going to be their thing, now?), she smiles regardless.

They're all those things and more, but at the end of the day, they're both hers and she loves them, and if that entails baking a chocolate cake every single day, then that's exactly what she's going to do.