Emma Swan was a sweaty, panting, red-faced mess. As she tried to pull in a full breath she wondered how the hell she had ended up in such a ridiculous position. The answer came from a chuckle at her side.

"Come now, princess, we're only halfway there."

Killian Jones gave her a wide grin as he passed her on the trail. She scowled at his back and didn't bother adjusting her face when he turned back to look at her. His laugh echoed around them as she growled and pushed herself forward.

It all started the weekend before when she'd had one too many beers at their friend's, David and Mary-Margaret, house. They'd gotten together to watch the World Cup final and Killian had made an offhand comment about how he'd be able to run up and down a field for ninety minutes, no problem. She'd laughed and stupidly suggested that she was in better shape, mostly because from what she knew of his gym habits as compared to hers were laughable. His eyes had flashed with the unspoken challenge as he set the terms of a bet: they each had to drag the other to the activity of their choice and whoever waved the proverbial white flag first won. Both David and Mary Margaret had merely rolled their eyes at their squabbling and counted themselves out.

On Monday she had gone first and thoroughly trounced him in the ring. He had complained loudly and repeatedly how unfair it was when she practically lived at the facility they were sparring in when she wasn't tracking down bail skips. When she had knocked him on his ass with a well placed kick the complaints had stopped and instead the innuendos he was annoyingly known for had practically poured out of his mouth without stop. He also hadn't conceded.

Tuesday Killian had taken her sailing but not the relaxing weekend trips around the harbor she was used to. Somehow he'd convinced a friend to loan him a smaller, faster boat that required her to move things and tie things and practically sprint from one end of the boat to the other. When they'd returned after only an hour out on the water her arms had felt like noodles and her ass hurt only a little less than her pride after her third fall that'd forced him to turn around and her into a life vest. Even as she'd gingerly stepped back on the dock she'd refused to bow out.

Wednesday was her turn again and she couldn't hide her smile when he'd met her in front of her yoga studio. He scoffed at her choice, ribbing her under his breath for going easy on him just so she wouldn't have to torture herself after the sailing mishaps. The teasing had cut off abruptly when he stepped into the one hundred and five degree, humid yoga studio. She'd felt terrible when she'd had to help him out of the studio forty-five minutes later after he'd nearly fainted from dehydration and heat exhaustion. Once he'd felt better he agreed that both sailing and not yoga were a wash and after a day of rest he'd be ready to truly test her.

It was Friday and she'd stupidly believed that going for a hike would be a piece of cake. What she hadn't accounted for was the fact that he was forcing her straight up the side of a mountain that seemed to have no peak. The trail was so steep she felt as though she'd been hiking on her tiptoes for nearly the entire time.

"I've never even heard of this hike," she wheezed, "Are you sure you didn't just pick the tallest mountain nearby and start walking up it?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Swan, we're currently on a well marked trail," Killian said with a laugh. "Be glad you're not doing it with a hundred pounds of equipment on."

"What?! You had to do that?" She asked, trying to imagine wearing a full firefighting get up when she was already sweating profusely.

"Of course, how else would we train for wildfires on mountains or rescuing damsels in distress?" He said, clearly teasing as he paused to wait for her.

"I'm not in distress," she ground out. She reached him and weakly pushed at his shoulder to get out of her way so she wouldn't lose what little momentum she had, "How many times have you done this hike? You've barely broken a sweat."

"Oh, I can break a sweat if you truly wish me to," he said and she could picture the leer on his face. Then he cleared his throat and fell into step behind her, "To answer your question though I've done it three or four times for training but I try to get out here at least once a week on my own."

"Once a... but you don't even like the gym," she said incredulously.

"There's other ways to exercise, luv, as we've demonstrated this past week."

She hummed in agreement and kept trudging on.

They made it to the top with only a pitiful amount of water sloshing in her bottle and Killian grinning at her like a fool. Just as she was about to collapse to the ground in a sweaty heap he grabbed her hand and tugged her along the trail that continued along the ridge.

"You haven't even seen the best part yet, Swan! I promise it's worth it."

She trudged along behind him for nearly a mile, finally catching her breath when she became aware of two things: she could hear the rushing sound of fast moving water and Killian was still holding her hand. Before she could decide how she felt about the latter they came upon the source of the former and the beauty of what looked like a fifty foot waterfall.

"This is amazing," she half yelled over the cacophony of falling water. "Come here with your firefighter bros often?"

"We usually hike the other direction to go back down the mountain," he said hitching his thumb back the way they had come. Then he ducked his head in a way that she could only think of as bashfully, "You're the first person I've shown this to."

"Oh," she whispered, her breath catching and her heart rate speeding up in an entirely new way.

"Have a seat, luv," he implored as he sat down at the edge of the cliff they were on, gently tugging on her hand.

"Yeah, okay."

As she sat next to him she began to wonder how she could have missed the signs of Killian actually working to impress her. He'd always been a flirt, from the moment she'd met him at a party she'd been dragged to with Mary Margaret in college and he'd crawled out from the bottom of a drunken dogpile to slur at her that she was beautiful. It had taken a few months before she'd stopped rolling her eyes at him in annoyance and did it in a kind of resigned fondness. Nearly eight years later he was one of her best friends and with a shock she realized she wouldn't really mind if he became something more.

"Penny for your thoughts, Swan," Killian murmured into her ear as he playfully nudged her shoulder with his.

She fought against a blush as she cast about for something not related to her current thoughts to say.

"Just wondering how I'm going to torture you tomorrow," she said weakly.

"Whatever it is it'll have to wait until late afternoon or early evening if that's alright. I'm on overnights for the next few weeks."

"Yeah," she agreed absently, a plan forming in her mind. "That's perfect."

The next day Emma found herself pacing nervously in front of the address she had text Killian the night before. She'd deliberately chosen a block with several different work out options to try and throw him off the scent. What she hadn't thought through as he came around the corner was that he was wearing an old tee and basketball shorts and she was wearing…

"Why are you in a dress, Swan? Is this a Shall We Dance situation because I have to warn you I'm fairly adept at the waltz."

"Not exactly," she said quietly, wringing her hands in front of her.

"Oh, I see," he murmured with a slow nod. He gave her a half-hearted smile, one that didn't reach his eyes, "You could have just text me to cancel instead of coming down here before your date."

"My date?" She repeated dumbly, wondering how in the hell he'd figured it out.

"That's not one of your skip catching dresses and you've done something fancy to your hair," he pointed out glumly. His eyes widened as he seemed to realize he might have offended her, "I mean, you look marvelous, stunning really but it clearly isn't for me."

She tilted her head slightly, blushing from his compliment and asked, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because I'd never get so lucky," he stated matter of factly as his hand reached up to scratch at the back of his neck.

"Well, it looks like you've won the lottery, Jones," she teased, rocking on her heels so her floaty pink dress swayed around her knees.

"I… wha?"

Emma paused to savor the dumbstruck look on his face. It was rare that she could catch him on the wrong foot and even rarer that she could render him speechless. He blinked owlishly at her before dropping his gaze down to his own clothes.

"I look like a bloody frat boy," he grumbled barely loud enough for her to hear. She giggled and he looked up at her with suspicion, "You're not pulling my leg are you? You… this… us-"

"No joke," she said with a soft smile. "I'm here to ask if you'd like to go on a date with me, right now."

A large grin threatened at the corners of his mouth, "Shouldn't I be the one asking?"

"Why? 'Cause you're, like, a million years old?" She said with a grin of her own.

"Har, bloody, har, Swan. Fine, but perhaps you'd allow me the chance to change first?" He asked as he stepped towards her.

"Nope, you're perfect just like that," she said, grabbing his hand and lacing their fingers together to stop whatever flirtatious remark was on the tip of his tongue. "Come one we have reservations."

"Uh, right, yeah," he stuttered, staring at their intertwined hands. He looked up at her and shook his head slightly, "Lead the way."

Their secluded picnic on the roof of the dance studio was better than she could have imagined and their night did end with a bit of a waltz before Killian had to leave for work. He also made sure to leave her slightly breathless from one hell of a kiss and a promise that it was his turn to pick the activity.

On Sunday Emma found herself a sweaty, panting, red-faced mess but, then again, so was Killian. Neither one of them ever really ended up waving that white flag.

A.N.: Where I live there are a few hikes that firefighters use for training and one of them is pretty much a hike straight up the side of a mountain. It was on that very hike that I got the inspiration for this little one-shot and by the time I was trudging back to my car it was half written already. Hope you enjoyed it!