Regina didn't know how or when it started, the looks, the soft touches or the explicit thoughts about a certain sheriff but what she did know was that they had become more frequent throughout the years. She didn't notice what was happening at first, or what it meant, nor did she believe Emma knew what was going on between them either. Surely it was just what friends did when they spent a lot of time together. But were they even friends when it all started?br /Over the years the two went from hating each other to some form of mutual respect with the frequent case of annoyance, to friends to more than friends but less than romantic partners./p
-
It was Thursday evening and the annual Swan-Mills dinner was under way. Emma had turned up 10 minutes late as per usual, the former Mayor still hadn't figured out why she was always late and of course Emma would never give her a reason other than "I'm useless with time Gina, you know that".
There it was again, that monstrosity of a nickname Emma had thrust upon her one evening sometime ago. Gina, no Regina, had fought against it the first few times, stating that it was ridiculous and childish but Emma stuck with it and two years later here they were. Regina secretly thought it was adorable but would never reveal that to Emma.
Even though the meal was always different, the evening played out almost like clockwork. Regina was in the kitchen, keeping her eye on the potatoes and cleaning up as she went along, Emma entered the kitchen at exactly 6:11pm, an 11 year old bourbon in one hand and a bouquet of purple lily's in the other.
"These are for you, the house, your house-shit" brushing her hand through her hair and avoiding Regina's eyes at all costs "these are for you I mean" you'd think after all these years Emma would be completely comfortable around Regina.
'Jesus Swan, you've literally just arrived and you've fucked up already' Emma internally shouted at herself.
"And that?" Regina questioned, pointing towards the bottle of bourbon as she took the flowers and starting looking for a vase. Normally the Queen would taunt Emma for stumbling over her words, asking if she was illiterate, but this time she let the sheriff mock herself. Although she did let a small smile form on her red stained lips as she turned
"This? Oh this is for me. I know how much you hate drinking so I thought I'd save you the trouble by drinking the whole litre by myself" even with her back to Emma, Regina could practically feel the sarcasm and the toothy grin on the younger woman's face. As she turned to face Emma, she tilted her head to the side and allowed her eyes to effortlessly roll "Your ability to produce sarcasm at any given moment never seizes to amaze me Miss Swan" A throaty laugh escaped Emma's mouth as she set the bottle down and grabbed a seat at the island, she allowed herself to look right into Regina's eyes.
"Coming from the Queen of sass?" Regina suppressed a laugh, taking this opportunity to taunt Emma. She slowly walked towards the sheriff, her face neutral, showing no emotion. Stopping as she reached a very nervous looking Emma, Regina curled her index finger towards herself a couple of times, signalling for Emma to stand up.
Emma was mentally kicking herself for the comment, she thought it was funny but judging by Regina's reaction, she was starting to think There was no point in trying to back out now as Regina had the upper hand and they both knew it, so despite all her instincts telling her to run, Emma stood up and faced Regina.
Once she was fully up right, all personal space between the two women had now disappeared. Regina smiled, not her warm smile, or the smile she uses when Henry compliments her. It wasn't even her forced smile used for Snow. No, this smile was one that could only be described as 'holy fucking shit scary'.
Emma had only seen this smile five times since she had met Regina, and each time it had scared the hell out of /As Regina leaned towards Emma's face the blonde hair woman gulped. She wasn't sure if Regina was about to either kiss her or literally bite her head off. Emma froze, staring forward and praying to god it wasn't the latter. The younger woman felt the former Evil Queens breathe on her ear and the words that followed allowed her to breathe properly.
"Sass and sarcasm are two very different things, my dear" Regina purred, almost like a cat taunting it's prey. As she stepped back, Regina let a laugh escape her mouth, knowing she both scared and turned Emma on. Emma tried to hide the blood that was rushing to her cheeks but she knew Regina had already noticed. Regina had won this round, but they both knew Emma would get her back somehow.
This had become a natural setting for the two mothers, dinner, bourbon and a mountain of innocent arguments that mimicked flirting. As the two women stared at each other, neither knowing what to say as the sexual tension filled the air, feet running down the hall then down the stairs could be heard in the background.
"Ma!" Henry all but shouted as he jumped down the last three steps and landed with a thud. "Henry please don't run in the house, if I have to tell you aga-"
"Ok ok I got it mom seriously" Henry cut off his mother but she got a chance to scold him. Emma embraced their son, rubbing his head slightly and whispered in his ear "come on kid don't be rude to your mother".
The two separated and Emma gave him a look that he knew all too well. With a quiet sigh, the not so young Henry turned towards Regina, his hands deep in his pockets and a slight look of regret caressing his face "Mom do you want me to set up the dining room?" a muffled laugh could be heard coming from Emma, at least he attempted to sound thrilled about it.
"That would be great Henry, you know where the plates are" Regina replied, a slight smirk forming on her face, knowing that Emma had given him that look that they both believed she hadn't noticed.
Henry left the kitchen to retrieve the plates "NOT THE FINE CHINA!" Regina shouted after him, causing Emma to cover her ears, "Ow! Woman please".
Mocking the older woman was not the best idea after what happened but Emma couldn't help it. It was like a reflex for.
"More woman than you could ever get" Regina stated as she walked out of the kitchen.
-
Regina closed the door of her office behind her, leaning against it as she tried to calm herself down. She wasn't sure why she had said those things to Emma, part of believed that she was just joking with the sheriff and the other part was in pure denial to the obvious flirting.
Running her hands through her hair, Regina began to count to ten in her head. Arriving at 10 she pushed herself off of the door and started pacing back and forth whilst having an inner monologue with herself.
'God! where did that come from? This was supposed to be a nice evening and you've gone and made it awkward. How are you even going to be able to sit across from her at dinner Regina!?'
As she stopped pacing, her eyes fell onto her alcohol collection, walking towards she grabbed the nearest bottle, twisted the cap and brought it to her lips. The alcohol slid smoothly down her throat, leaving a painful yet satisfying burning sensation "Right Regina, when you go out there you have two options, you can carry on this ridiculous and unorthodox flirting with Miss Swan or you can have a normal evening like every other Thursday. Pick one" Regina sternly told herself. Placing the bottle down, she walked over to the mirror to examine herself before exiting her office.
-
Meanwhile, in the kitchen Emma just stood there with her mouth opening and closing as if she wanted to say something even after Regina had left the room.
After around five minutes she finally stopped gaping and sat down at the "What the fuck just happened Swan?" Emma whispered to herself, just in case Henry or god forbid Regina heard her.
"That was flirting wasn't it? Oh I don't know" She carried on debating between herself, her hands were slightly shaking and she was sure her cheeks were still bright red. Just as she was about to say something else, Henry walked in. "The tables set, I didn't touch the fine china don't worry mo- hey where's mom?" Emma turned to her son and went blank, where did Regina go?
"Erh I don't know Hen, I thought she went to check on you?" She tried to sound somewhat confident, given the circumstances. "Oh, no I haven't seen her".
Just then Regina walked into the kitchen, she didn't acknowledge Emma as she kissed the top of Henry's head "Thank you for setting up the table Henry"
"No problem, I'm gonna go hang out in the den. Shout me when dinner's ready?" Henry didn't know what had happened between his mom's but he knew better than to stick around for the aftermath.
-
After dinner the three gathered in the living room to watch a film, but as they were deciding what to watch Henry interrupted them "Guys, I told James that I would go over to his house tonight because we have a project due tomorrow and I completely forgot, I'm sorry but it's really important and I need to pass if I wanna go to college" Regina raised her hand to stop her son from rambling on anymore "Henry it's fine, you can go but I want you back here before 11pm ok?"
"Yes yes that's fine thank you!" He said as he started to head upstairs to grab his stuff "No later than 11 ok kid!" Emma shouted after him.
Once Henry had left the two women alone, it suddenly became awkward. The two stared at each other for a while, before Emma decided to be the first to "So film?" She asked, a shy grin forming on her face. Regina just nodded as Emma started looking through the collection of DVDs Regina had impressively collected over the years.
As she looked, Emma started to think what life was like for Regina before she arrived in Storybrooke. The amount of DVDs she had gave an indication of how Gina had entertained herself, Emma wondered if the brunette had watched all of the films she had. Why she never asked her this before was unsure to the blonde.
"What genre do you fancy tonight Gina?" Emma tried to act normal as she scanned over the horror section. Of course Regina had organised her collection by genre andbr /placed them in alphabetical order. Though Emma couldn't fault the system, it made this process so much easier.
"Which ever, you're in the horror section so one from there will do" came the reply, Emma noticed that Regina's voice was rather mundane which was strange. The brunette had a hard time hiding her emotions especially around Emma. When she turned around Emma noticed that Regina had gotten herself a glass of red wine and changed into yoga pants and a large grey t-shirt. The blonde loved when she dressed like that, even though it wasn't often, she couldn't help but think Gina was the most adorably hot woman she'd ever seen. Turning back to face the DVDs, Emma picked the first one that caught her eye. 'Evil Dead' the 2013 remake.
Once she placed the film in the DVD player, Emma joined Regina on the sofa. Once settled the brunette passed Emma a beer that she had retrieved from the fridge when pouring her own wine. Emma took the beer with a small smile and quietly whispered "Thanks Gina".
Halfway through the film Emma was slightly disturbed because Regina was sat with her body and head leaning forward, and was grinning like an idiot. She noticed that the more blood, gore and death the film produced, the bigger Regina's grin got.
The two had placed a blanket over themselves to share as the film went on. Regina sat in the corner with her legs stretched out in front of her and Emma sat next to her. Not too close but not far away where it would be weird. Something happened in the film, Emma didn't know what as she was sneakily staring at the gorgeous woman beside her but Regina sure did know what happened as she screamed and grabbed Emma's hand for safety.
They both froze, but for different Emma felt a shock run through her body, her heart started to speed up and she felt her hands tingling. Whereas Regina felt as if she had crossed a line.
Friends don't hold hands, not where she was from. Friends don't flirt or make inappropriate comments like she had earlier in the evening. Ripping her hand away as fast as she could, Regina moved as far away from Emma as the sofa would let her. The sheriff's heart sank as soon as the contact was lost. Picking up the remote, she paused the film and turned her whole body to face Regina.
"Ok spill. What's up with you tonight?" The brunette just stared ahead, not daring to look at Emma right now, causing the blonde to become more stern.
"Seriously Regina, what the fuck is up?"
The use of the curse word caused Regina to snap her head towards Emma. Her lips were no longer full as they created a tight line that Emma had never seen before. Regina looked as if she was about to cry or scream, tears filled up her eyes, but she was damned if she was ever going to let them
"No you can't give me the silent treatment Regina, you can sit there and shout at me, scream if needed. You can cry, you can throw a fucking fireball if it makes you feel better but I'll be damned if you think you can give me the silent treatment!"
Her voice was louder than usual but quieter than a shout. Regina just stared at her, not even flinching. After a few seconds silence, those red plump lips returned as the older woman let out a heavy sigh.
"Look it's nothing, let's just finish the film"
"Bullshit" Emma stated, this time they were going to talk, Emma was adamant. Still, regina didn't move so Emma folded her arms and started talking, "Ok I'll go, so first of all that shit in the kitchen when I arrived, what was that about? You looked as if you were going to kill me then you whisper in my ear words that on their own I wouldn't bat an eyelid but pair them with the cat like demeanour and purring and you'd think it was flirting" as Emma rambled, her face started to change colour, becoming a light shade of red. She reminded Regina of Henry when he was trying to get out of punishment, his face would turn red and he could never stop rambling, even when Regina would cave. She gulped as she knew Emma was right but what could she say when she didn't know what was happening herself?
"Then you shout after Henry about the freaking fine china, which by the way I have no clue why you have fine china when I swear you've never used it? I know you were a Queen in your world but you never use them so what's the point in having them?"
At this point Regina was extremely confused, was this about the weird flirting or the fine china? Instead of saying anything she just coughed and sipped her wine as Emma stood up and started pacing the floor as she went on.
"But this isn't about the china, after that I called you 'woman' and you thought that was the perfect moment to turn an innocent comment into some sexual innuendo, why? Then you left the room and came back and acted as if nothing had happened! So tell me Regina, what is wrong?".
The younger woman had finally stopped pacing, her face was now a deep shade of red and her breathing was elevated. She stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips as she waited for Regina to say something, anything.
Regina realised that if she didn't say something soon Emma would leave and this could force them 10 step backwards. She placed her wine down and patted the seat where Emma sat earlier. As she sat down Emma picked up her beer and downed what was left.
"Emma I'm sorry but I don't know what's going on with me, maybe I'm pmsing or something" Regina forces a laugh in an attempt to make the tension disappear but the look on Emma's face proves otherwise. "I really don't know Emma, I wish I had a straight answer for you but for once I don't".
Emma had never witnessed Regina look so defeated. Even after everything that's happened to the former Evil Queen, the look on her face in this moment was one that was completely new to Emma. "Look I'm not mad ok?" Emma sighed, but Regina didn't look convinced.
"Gina I'm not mad at you, I'm frustrated sure but only because I want you to be ok and you don't look ok right now" the blonde knew if she pushed Regina any further then she could end up pushing her out of her life for good.
"Come here" Emma said as she leaned back into the sofa. "What?" confusion filled Regina's eyes, but Emma just opened her arms and repeated "Come here Gina" she offered the brunette a sincere smile.
Despite her hesitation, Regina scooted closer to Emma where she was embraced with a hug. This wasn't new for the two women as they hugged quite often but this one was different. This one was Emma's way of telling Regina that it would be ok, everything would be ok. Regina closed her eyes and allowed her body to relax and a couple of tears to fall down her face. The evil queen inside of her was shouting, telling her this was wrong and that she should kick the blonde out but for once Regina didn't listen. She had never been this close to someone before, including Daniel and Mal. Mal wasn't a friendship nor was it a relationship, it was more like a dragon and it's play toy. Emma could feel the wheels in Regina's head turning, knowing she was probably arguing with herself inside but she kept her arms around the older woman and allowed herself to place a light kiss on top of her head. It was a risky move after Regina's reaction to holding Emma's hand, but it felt right.