A/N: This is an AU in which Emma owns the local bakery 'Saviory Sweets' with Mary Margaret and Killian is a local Police Captain. Killian thinks that Emma is dating Graham because the two are so close and so it confuses Killian when Emma flirts with him. A bit of miscommunication eventually leading to fluff and smut, this story will include Captain Swan, Snowing, Red Hunter and others TBD. Originally inspired by the song "Steady" by Hey Ocean! and the song will make an appearance in a later chapter.

"Emma, don't look now but your Captain just walked in." He's here? So soon? But he'd just been in this morning, and Emma couldn't remember him ever coming into Saviory Sweets more than once in a day.

"He's not mine, Ruby." Emma ran her flour-covered hands down the front of her white apron and blew the few loose strands of her blonde hair out of her face. When she finally looked her friend (and favorite employee) in the eyes, she saw that her lie hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Whatever you say boss." Ruby shimmied her hips to the back fridge on a restock run.

Left alone, Emma debated whether or not to go catch a glimpse of him. It was pathetic really, her attraction to Captain Jones, second in command in their small town's police force. Yet, try as she might, she couldn't shake the way he made her feel when those clear blue eyes met hers, or when he ran a hand through that gorgeous hair of his. When he'd transferred into their precinct, the whole town had been talking about the handsome British native on the force. She'd thought little of it until he'd shown up in her humble café looking like all of her fantasies come to life. Now, a year later, she felt just as caught up in him but was nowhere near making him see how she felt.

Screw it, I've had a long day, she thought as she walked into the store front where Mary Margaret, her co-owner, was manning the store. When the other woman saw Emma, she motioned for her to cover the front for a while and Emma silently agreed.

On the other side of the counter Killian stood contemplating which treat to buy. She took the moment where his eyes were averted to take him in again. Emma knew her crush was obvious to practically everyone in town at this point, but he at least seemed oblivious and she'd like to keep it that way. She couldn't risk getting hurt again, even if her name on his lips made her mind race and her pulse flutter.

He looked up at her and smiled brightly. In those eyes Emma swore she could see a perfect day off the Maine coast where she'd grown up all her life. They certainly pulled her in the same way those waves and currents had when she was small.

"Good afternoon, Emma." His accented voice and low tone set goose bumps across her skin. She felt chilled and overheated all at once.

"Anything I can help you find, Captain Jones?" She hoped her voice didn't sound as breathy to him as it did to her.

"Tell me about true love." Emma nearly started choking on air. As it was she was one hundred percent sure her eyes had grown double their size.

"I'm sorry?" He pointed past her at the special's sign.

"True Love Tiramisu.' Where does the true love come into play?" Emma blushed and tried to busy herself by pulling one of the slices of said special out to show him.

"It's the cinnamon."

"Ahh, it's a gesture to how you take your hot chocolate then, love?" She blinked at him for a beat.

"How do you know how I take my cocoa?" He grinned.

"I'm an officer of the law, Swan, it's my job to notice things."

"Things like how the local bakery owner drinks her hot chocolate?" Her sarcastic jest pulled a throaty chuckle from him.

"No, that's just something I noticed on my own. A year of mornings spent in your company has taught me quite a few things." Right as she was about to ask him what that meant, Graham Huntsman walked in and called out to her.

"Emma! Good you're still here. I need your opinion on something." Graham was one of Emma's oldest friends. They'd grown up together and had seen each other through some serious ups and downs (her shitty past relationships, his lackluster parents, and so on). In many ways he'd become the brother she never had. He was now the head of the forest rangers in this segment of the state and protected the Storybrooke state park.

"Graham, you know Captain Jones."

"Of course, good to see you, Captain." Graham extended his hand and Emma noticed the momentary hesitation from Killian. He flicked his eyes back to Emma before plastering on a less genuine smile for Graham.

"You too, Huntsman. I'll take a slice to go, love, if it's no trouble."

"Of course it's no trouble." Emma packed up the slice in a box to go and mourned the happy sort of moment that they'd been having before Graham came. She could never resent her friend, but in this moment she definitely wished he'd come in a bit later.

"What do I owe you?" He asked her.

"My treat, Captain." He raised his eyes up to hers and in them she saw a confusion she wished she could address right now. "For your constant vigilance." The comment brought a small smile back to his face and as she passed him the box their fingers touched. She felt the same charge she did every time they'd made contact in the past. But too soon it was over and he was retreating.

"Thank you, Emma." He nodded at Graham as he left and as he departed, Emma felt a piece of herself go with him. Oh God, Emma, pull it together.

"Did I interrupt something?" Graham's eyes teased her as he asked. He knew of her infatuation with Killian, in fact he'd been one of the first to comment on it. Between him and Ruby, the sad laments of her could be love life were almost constant. Both of them thought Killian would be a good fit, but neither of them could promise that things wouldn't end just as painfully as they had with Neal or Walsh. It was those unfortunately mistakes that held her back. Yet she had to admit, her walls against Killian had all but fallen and if he even kind of asked her out she would jump at the chance.

"No, of course not. What do you need?" She wiped off the countertop and he placed down two different posters, both PSAs about illegal poaching.

"The firm the state hired just sent these up to us and it's up to me to choose between the two. Which one do you like better." Emma considered. One had a grizzly while the other had a North American wolf. Keeping her head down, she moved her eyes up to see Graham looking for something. He was angling as if trying to see the back rooms. He doesn't actually need my help, Emma thought. This was an excuse to see if Ruby's here.

"Hold on a second. Ruby, could you come here?" Emma called into the back and watched as Graham's face went through a range of emotions. There was excitement for sure but also a bit of worry and he nervously put a hand to his hip as the beautiful brunette made her way to the front.

"Yeah boss?" Ruby eyed Graham and Emma watched her regard him with a coolness she rarely saw Ruby give anyone, yet with Graham it seemed to be her status quo.

"Which of these do you like better?"

"The wolf, definitely." Graham cleared his throat before responding to her.

"That's what I was thinking too."

"Same here," Emma replied. "That settles it then. Thanks for the help Ruby." Ruby nodded and headed back to her inventory project. Graham watched her go with a sad sort of desperation clinging to his person. Emma couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"Just ask her out already, Graham. What's the worst thing that happens, she says no?"

"Her saying no is practically guaranteed. She can't even stand to be around me." The depressing bit of honesty from her usually self-assured friend pulled at Emma's heartstrings.

"Maybe it's not what you think." Graham extended a sad little smile.

"I should get going. Thanks for the help, Em." He bent over the counter and gave her a soft peck on the cheek. As she watched him go she thought what a shame it was that two people she loved so dearly couldn't seem to get along. In a moment of impulse, she decided to go find out why that was from Ruby herself. She found her stacking a series of cupcakes on the cooling rack.

"Did Graham do something?" Ruby's head shot up and the alarm in her eyes only made Emma more curious.

"No, why?"

"I don't know you're just different with him." Emma watched as Ruby blushed, Ruby Lucas actually blushed! "Something totally happened, what is it?"

"It's nothing like that. I – I don't know every time I'm around him it's like I can't think properly and my words get all jumbled so I get quiet." Ruby pulled at the hem of her skirt as the reality dawned on Emma.

"You like him!" Ruby blush grew a deeper shade of red and she looked away but she didn't deny it.

"Maybe, I don't know. It doesn't matter though."

"Bull shit. He's into you, you know."

"Who's into Ruby?" Mary Margaret asked as she walked into the kitchen from the back office. "Other than Graham of course."

"Wait, what? But I'm like a freak every time he gets close!" Emma laughed at Ruby's outburst.

"Anyway you could cut back on that? Because honestly if you were nice to him just one time I think it would be enough for him to ask you out." Ruby thought to herself for a moment before nodding.

"Great. One less thing on my to-do list, then." Mary Margaret pulled out her phone and clicked the backspace button. Wait, did she actually have a list?

"You have a list of a bunch of people to set up?" Ruby asked.

"No, don't be silly. The list is far more extensive than that." Emma and Ruby exchanged a glance before springing at Mary Margaret and trying to grab the phone from her, but the pixie haired woman was too quick.

"Oh no you don't. I'll make you a deal, you can see the list when both of you actually get crossed off for good, alright?"

"Mary Margaret, you have us on a fix-it list. If that isn't a bizarre sort of friend ship no-no I don't know what is." Emma was too smart to think she wasn't on the list. Hell, she probably took up most of it if Mary Margaret's worried mothering tendencies were anything to go by.

"I don't want to fix you, Emma. I just want you guys to be happy that's all. The list will get us there. I'm sure of it." It was hard to stay mad at Mary Margaret, even when she was being borderline crazy like this. Especially since a part of Emma knew the list was well-founded. Emma could be happier, and maybe she would be if she stopped holding herself back and started addressing her what-ifs in life. The biggest of those questions involved telling a certain police captain how she felt. Would he feel the same? Or, as she sometimes managed to convince herself, was he just being kind all those times he came into the bakery?

"Alright I'm in." Mary Margaret and Ruby bot gawked at Emma.

"You're in?" Ruby asked skeptically.

"Yup. I could go for happiness. I think I'm overdue for some." Mary Margaret was positively beaming.

"Okay, count me in too." Ruby's acquiescence actually pulled a squeal from their scheming friends.

"You guys are not going to regret this!"

No, weirdly I don't think I will, Emma thought with a smile.