Emma just got comfortable on the couch, settling in with a bottle of apple juice and some of her unhealthy snacks mixed into the pile of James' healthier choices when the big guy came back into the library. His features had relaxed from the idea of a quiet evening at home and looking up she was greeted with a warm, happy smile. He looked like a kid on Christmas as he unloaded the stack of cardboard boxes in his hands on the table in front of her.

“Are you ready for this?” James asked, acting like a giddy child as he looked from the colourful boxes and over at her. Whenever sleepovers allowed it she always had a game night at least once a month. Most of the time Hunter and Stephanie would join as well, but this time it was just the two of them.

Which, if she was being completely honest with herself, she didn’t really mind… Sure, volleyball was always a good sport and the angel in a trench coat’s multiple questions about the game of the night always made for an interesting evening. But having some alone time with James. Just Emma and the man she loved. Well that was something else completely.

Of course, the big guy was completely unaware of her feelings for him, but even spending an evening as his friend was enough to make her overjoyed. Just think… A whole evening of secret glances and laughter with the man she was  too much of a coward to verbalize she loved. It might have seemed like torture for some, but she loved spending time with him. Even from the, oh so torturous position of a friend.

So as James let himself drop down on the couch beside her, his blue eyes sparkling at the idea of an actual quiet evening, the smile she shot at him was real, and possibly a little goofy. Damn, God might not be around all that much anymore, but he did a hell of a good job with the man next to her.

Shaking her less than innocent thoughts away she drowned out her own heartbeat with her words. Emma's excitement not faked, as she was more than happy just being his friend and having fun together like this.

“Alright! What are we playing?” Emma asked, her eyes leaving him to look at the stack of board games in front of them to decide on one, completely missing the warm look James gave her as his eyes wandered from where her shoulders were touching, and up to her smiling face.

“Well, there's only two of us so poker’s out of the question,” Emma said, picking up the deck of cards on the top of the board games and placing it next to the stack. When it came to card games she only knew blackjack and poker, so the twelve members of the royal courts waiting within the deck would just have to sit this one out.

“Chess?” Emma asked pointing to the wooden box he’d snuck into the pile of colourful cardboard boxes. He’d barely spoken the words before he started chuckling at the thought himself. Maybe that, or maybe it was the grimace she threw him. She'd never been very good at chess. He’d tried to teach her before, and it didn’t go very well. Turning slightly in her seat so that she was facing him, fully realising how close he really was, she decided to remind him of his former attempts at teaching her chess.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea? Don’t you remember the last time you sat me down to teach me chess?” Emma asked, a happy smile still on her lips as she raised an eyebrow towards the by now laughing man. “I just don’t have it in me to learn it,” she added, sticking her tongue out at the man who was clearly remembering the last time he’d tried.

“If I remember right you got so bored you assigned them all roles in a story instead?” James chuckled as he hit his arm with a pillow. Dodging another hit and retaliating by letting his fingers play across her waist. Making it impossible for her to speak or seek revenge as her laughter filled the room until she finally had to say uncle.

“Y-Yeah...” Emma gasped when his hands finally fell from her sides. Leaving her with only the memory of his touch as her whole body felt warmer. “My queen was in love with your king and she sacrificed herself for him. Her knight stepped in to protect her last moment in what was the most epic love triangle chess has had since Chess the Musical,” Emma said, throwing the young man a blinding smile as his hand went up to mess up her hair.

“All right, we won’t play chess,” James chuckled, turning his attention back to the games. Well part of her attention anyway, as James' hand stayed on Emma's hair, making it hard to concentrate about anything else. “How about scrabble?” James asked, his fingers playing with a few strands of her hair as she tried to convince her heart to calm down, that they were just friends.

“Yeah! I’d so totally kick your ass in that,” Emma said, grinning as she reached for the game. James' hand left her head as he lifted the other boxes above it up. Letting her pull out the dark green box from the pile. She somehow managed to keep her smile on her features as she busied herself with setting up the game, pretending not to notice how much she'd wished he’d touch her again.

“I don’t think so Emma,” James said, laughing at her excitement. His own smile grew as his hands brushed against hers when he snatched the bag for the bricks from next to where her hands were setting up the board. “I’m pretty good at this,” he added, and she could have sworn that his hand lingered on hers a little longer than what it needed to. But as usual, Emma brushed the silly notions away and blamed it on her lovesick mind ruining her perception of things as she continued setting up the game whilst James placed the other games on the floor.

“You’re on Standford man. I’m gonna give you a verbal ass kicking,” she grinned as she reached for her apple juice, touching the glass bottle against James' big, warm hands with a smile. Her game nights were always dead serious. If she weren’t prepared to lose every friend she ever had over a board game she wasn't playing it right.

“Bring it on,” James smiled over his own drink, his eyes staying on her as she brushed her brown hair out of her eyes and pulled her letters out of the small bag with a look of concentration of her features.

~~~~

“Emma… Sauron isn’t a word…” James sighed as she tried to give him her most innocent smile, looking up from the word she had created using white tiles against the dark green background.

Oh and EMP is?” Emma asked, raising an eyebrow as her eyes met his questioning ones.

“Yeah,” James grinned, his hands reaching for the scrabble dictionary he’d used several times that night to show he actually was schooling her in the board game. Sticking her tongue out she rolled her eyes at him as she grabbed at his wrist to stop him with a little exaggerated pout.

“All right.. I’ll think up something else,” Emma sighed, her eyes going back down to look at the seven tiles she had at her disposal without dropping James' wrist. “Can we use different terms?” Emma asked looking up at the man with a smile.

“What do you mean? If they’re real words, then yeah. Not things like gank though. Or Sci-Fi/Fantasy words okay?” James grinned his eyes flashing to his wrist just as she dropped it and played iron. The first thing that came to her mind as her hand still felt warm from where her fingertips brushed against his skin.

“That’s all?” James asked incredulously looking up at her before focusing on his own tiles again. Damn, it was harder than expected playing a game that forced her to think when that was close to James, and alone on top of it all.

“Yeah that’s all,” Emma shrugged before busying her lips with her bottle to not kiss the big dorky guy when he got that look in his eyes again. That focus that made his eyes sparkle whilst he considered his next word. He took this stuff so seriously, and he looked absolutely adorable when he did. “Drowned? Are you kidding me? You have the best letters. You must be cheating,” she frowned as James put down his tiles with a winning smile.

“And what about you with your cakehole earlier huh?” James said laughing and ducking as Emma playfully threw a scrabble tile at him. “I’m still not convinced that’s a legal word,” he said as he reached into the bag and threw a random piece in her direction.

The game was forgotten as she busied herself having a full on letter war in the men of letters bunker. Fitting? Maybe. Emma didn’t really care about that though. She was just happy, truly happy as she barely dodged a flying W and tackled James where he was sitting, stealing the bag from him to get some letters for herself. Needing ammo now that their game had become a battle of words instead.

~~~~

Emma loved James. And she loved spending time with him like this. Which was probably why she couldn’t tell him she loved him. To not ruin a good thing. Cowardly, yeah… But James was more than just her crush. He was her best friend and she didn’t want to lose him. So she smiled and played along silently as their scrabble battle calmed down and she was almost sitting in James' lap as he tried to steal the letter O from her, insisting he needed it.

“Noooo, it’s mine,” Emma laughed, her breath catching in her throat as her pulse rose from his proximity. His dexterous hands easily steal the piece from her with a smile and a wink…  But he didn’t move away from her when he got the tile. Not straight away anyway. She could feel his arms tighten around her as she tried to fight the urge to just lean back and melt into his arms, though it would probably reveal her feelings for the man.

“I have a final word,” James' words were barely a whisper as she felt his hot breath against her ear and the man finally let go of her and moved a little to the side to place the word on the long forgotten and basically empty board since they had sacrificed the pieces as ammunition is their earlier scrabble fight. “It’s the best one, I promise,” he smiled, the smile looking less like that of an excited child and more careful… Softer somehow.

“Yeah? You better not be cheating Douglas! No made up words,” she laughed. Emma's laughter was met with a nervous attempt at a happy laughter from the man as his hands shook slightly, spelling his word with the tiles he’d kept during the scrabble fight, but finally he seemed done. And as his big hand moved out of the way her eyes saw the word he called the best one. Four white tiles rested against the green board, spelling out L-O-V-E.

Looking up from the eyes she sent the man a questioning look. “That word doesn’t really score very high,” The stupidly dry words were all that could manage to leave her as her  mind tried to think of his reason for keeping those letters and spelling that word.

“Maybe not… B- But it’s true…” James stuttered, her eyes staying on him even when he hid his face by looking down at the scrabble pieces in front of him. Yet a faint blush was still visible where his ear peeked out from under his soft brown hair. Emma's heart did a few flips in her chest as she kept her eyes on the guy awkwardly shuffling in his seat next to her. His hands lifting and dropping pieces; as if he needed to busy himself with something.

“What do you…?” The sentence died on her lips as she kept her eyes on the man who stubbornly refused to meet hers. James' large, tanned hand went to the back of his head as he cleared his throat, clearly looking for the words he wanted and hoping he could jump start them that way.

“I think… No, wait…. I m-mean I know that I… You know?” James started, not really explaining anything as he finally looked at her with those warm eyes of his. The confusion and slight fear in his eyes made him look like a cute, lost, little puppy dog and melting her heart as she found herself hoping she really did know what he was talking about. “I kind of… I mean really… I Love You,” His final words came out rushed, yet perfect, as James lost some of his built up courage and looked down again at the four letters he had spelled on the board, but could not really manage to speak himself.

"Thank you…" she replied, placing a hand on his shoulders nonchalantly.

"That's it? That's your answer? I thought you were going to say I love you back." he chuckled softly looking into her emerald green eyes calmly.

"I know, but do you think we're moving too fast? I've only known you for two months. Can we please remain as just friends?" Emma asked politely as she gave Emma a small smile on his face as he agreed with her.

"I won!" Emma exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air with excitement.

"No, you cheated and I won…" James replied back smiling, folding his arms around his chest vigorously.

"Nu-uh, I won and that means dinner's on you Douglas." she laughed as she got up from the floor and went to the kitchen.

"Hey, that's not fair, Campbell!" he shouted as he left the living room and joined her in the kitchen.