This was supposed to be a fluffly, AU, one shot, featuring English Teacher Mills, a MILF Mal and a matchmaker Lily, but it turned out dark, longer and angsty. It's not sixty-chapters-long slowburn, but I can assure you Mal and Regina are not goint to be together soon either. It contains depression, lesbian romance, character's death and more tags to be added, so you've been warned, but fear not, light will come eventually. Now, time to read!

Heels clicked nervously on the floor, the sound filling the empty, quiet room. Waiting outside, Lilith Page knew a few things about Regina Mills:

a) She was the best English teacher she had ever met.

b) She wanted to speak with her very busy mother.

c) That meeting could end in burning flames or paradise.

But, what Lily didn't know, was what did Ms Mills wanted. She knew a few rumors about the woman, but she wasn't sure those were true; Lily was tempted to go inside and soothe her teacher, who looks nervous and about to cry. Was it because of her? Something was wrong, wasn't it?

"Honey, I'm sorry I made you wait, I tried to-"

"Yeah, whatever" the brunette said, her green brown eyes bored. It was always the same with her mother: work, work, and more work. After her mothers got divorced, when she was seven, Malia Page had changed, diving herself in work, courts, lawyer crap Lily didn't mind much, while her other mother, Briar, went on with her life, her new husband and her baby. Last time Lily saw her mother was when she was fourteen, and she was about to be sixteen soon.

She understood her mother, and how hard she had to work to get back the life they had after going bankrupt and being betrayed, and, to top it all, having to take care of a little girl, but Lily was tired of Mal only caring about her when things were on the edge.

They entered the room, where Ms Mills had sat on her desk, legs crossed and glasses on, reading what looked like Lily's academic record.

Crap.

The woman didn't seem to notice the intrusion.

"Ms Mills, I'm Ms Page, Lilith's mother" Mal said, reaching for the brunette. That's when the teacher reacted, blusing and jumping out the desk, straightening her skirt and dropping the file.

"Oh, I am so sorry" she said, shaking hands with the tall blonde before her. "Please, take a seat" she added, gesturing at the two chairs in front of her own. The woman, apparently no more than thirty, sat in front of the Page girls and grabbed the file, adjusting her glasses.

"Is everything alright?" Lily said quietly, worry in her voice. Ever since she found out she was adopted, she was afraid of Malia abandoning her, just like Briar did, just like her birth parents did.

"Oh, no, don't worry! It's actually the opposite" she smiled, and Malia's puzzled look was enough for her to continue. "I summoned you both because I need the legal tutor, I would like to discuss something with you" she focused her attention to Malia. "As you know, I've been Lily's tutor since she entered middle school, and with the new scholar year begun, I'd like to offer the girl the possibility of attend PAL."

"What's PAL?" asked Lily, and Malia just got closer to the teacher.

"It stands for Preparatorial Advanced Lessons. It's a program to prepare advanced kids in their strongest areas, to improve their grades and to give them more chances to attend a good college. I've noticed that Lily is remarkable in History, English, Spanish and Philosophy. The lessons would be chosen by the student, as well as the days and the hours of it. All the information is inside the folder, I wouldn't want to bother you anymore-"

"Actually," Lily said, smiling, "you could come over, had dinner with us and tell me all about this program. Right, mom?" the young brunette added. Startled, the blonde could only nod.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to interrupt" the woman said, feeling like a bother. Always like a bother.

"I insist" Lily replied, with her best soft smile, and with that face, Regina could only look at the tall blonde who smiled apologetically.

"In that case, I shall gather my belongings and leave with you" she smiled back.

Mal was speechless. Since meeting her, Lily only talked about how smart her teacher was, how kind, and funny, and pretty, and Mal had never met the woman personally, but her daughter's ranting and rambling about the stunning woman made her an expert on Miss Mills. However, seeing her in person made her shiver: well mannered, well spoken, soft, kind hearted, Malia understood then why everybody seemed to love the woman, despite hearing bad things about her, like how she became evil and guarded after her son's death, which was still a mystery. In fact, not many people knew she had a son until he died.

Curious about the mysterious woman, Mal followed the two brunettes, and both connected so well, Lily was so happy around the woman… that Mal felt jealous and sad; ever since Lily found out she was adopted, at the age of twelve, she had changed and their relationship didn't feel the same. Mal herself wanted Lily to learn Spanish since she was Latina, but the girl didn't want to learn her parent's language, refusing to get closer to them in any way, but now she was choosing it as the foreign language and Mal felt confused, even hurt because her little girl didn't tell her a thing about it.

On the other side, Lily was thrilled. Inviting the woman over was her way of staying closer to her, avoiding her mother's questions about what would she do and what did she wanted to study and blah blah blah and dah dah dah dah dah. Her eyes sparked whenever her teacher talked about anything: it wasn't a crush, as her friends said, but it was more like a maternal role for her, someone to admire and follow; honestly, she didn't care much about being the teacher's pet, because that woman felt nice, supportive, caring, and was amazing. Talking about books with her was so cool, and she was really helpful with her Spanish. She felt a true connection with the Cuban woman, she wouldn't deny it.

"How do you feel about some McDonald's?" Mal suggested, trying to enter the conversation they were having about horrible torture methods, like the Spanish Inquisition ones or the Nazi ones.

"I'd like to go home and get changed, and then I'll join you" Regina said, fingers twitching nervously.

"We'll head there and wait for you!" Lily said happy, hugging the woman unceremoniously and grabbing her mother's hand to go, while Malia glanced one last time at the woman's back.

End of chapter! They're not going to be long because I prefer short chapters and frenquent updates. THis one is the introduction, something lighter... or not. Whatever. Soon, the "date". Stay tuned for more, and any complain, question, or feedback, is welcome! Just tell me via review/comment or in my twitter (strngrmills). Thanks for reading, I hope y'all like it!