A/N: Hello, so if you follow me you know I'm in the middle of writing 2 other fics; Broken and Creating Ecstasy. Don't worry I am still very much writing those. I love them. However, I have an addiction to writing. Also, this fic idea would NOT stop bugging me so I HAD to begin writing it in order to focus on anything of importance. So, I hope you enjoy. This is a complete AU and the characters may break character a little, but I promise I'll still try and keep them the Emma and Regina we know and love. Also, this is going to contain other character hookups. I'm sorry, but I gotta. SwanQueen is endgame I promise.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters. (As much as I wish I did!)

Disclaimer 2: I do not have anything against any of the characters that may be represented negatively. I respect the writers of the show and I do not wish to offend anyone. However, if the way I write any of the characters displeases you, please stop reading. However, I hope you respect my artistic outlook and enjoy the story. Also, I have no idea what the dorms or campus look like for University of California, so this is based off of my own Uni/College life experience. Thank you and enjoy, Saving Emma.

The Beginning

This was not at all how I expected my senior year of college to go. I don't even think I could have imagined this would of happened. Actually, I wouldn't have ever imagined this to happen, because it would mean that someone I cared about more than anything would be hurting. It would mean that I let down the one person I vowed I would always be there for, that I would make sure was never hurt. I failed her. I failed the girl I love. I failed Emma Swan.

Now I guess I should back up and tell you how I failed her, even how I fell in love with her. But, first I want to tell you who Emma Swan is to me. Emma is my best friend. We have been best friends for, oh gods, how long have we been friends. I guess, wow, has it been 10 years already? It has, well, we have been best friends for 10 years. We met when we were just 12 years old, now we are 22 if you can do math, we met at a foster home. I had been staying with this family for a few months and then they informed me that a young girl was going to be staying with us. I was happy because the other kids in the house were all boys. We instantly hit it off, and even though she wasn't around for very long and we both ended up being moved to other homes we still somehow found a way to contact each other.

When we turned 18 we both happened to end up at the same University. Okay, so that was not a coincidence we actually had planned it. It seemed fitting and we both were going for similar majors; I am an English Major with a focus on literature hoping to one day run a publishing company, and Emma is an English major with a focus on creative writing hoping to write a book or work for a newspaper/magazine she didn't really care as long as she got to write. She even secretly hoped I would publish her book one day. Anyways, like I said before this was not how I expected my senior year of college to go. I was not expecting to not only fall in love with Emma Swan, but fail her. Again, how did I fail her? How did I fall in love with her? Well, I will tell you.

Summer 2017- July

Emma and I were laying by edge of the water, beach goers all around us. Families laughing and playing, friends drinking and having fun. But, Emma and I, we were just content to lounge on our beach towels and watch the waves, occasionally dipping in the water to cool off. We were only four weeks away from school starting back up and neither of us were ready. As we sat and soaked up the Long Beach, California sun, it was the perfect moment of destress. Both of us happy that we decided to only take summer 1 classes.

We had been out here for about four hours and I could see Emma's pale skin begin to redden. I turned on my side and looked towards the blonde to my right. Emma was beautiful, she had long honey like blonde hair, pale smooth skin, and a toned body that could flat line anyone with a weak heart. With her coral bikini, she looked like the stereotypical blonde, but Emma was anything but that. She was a tomboy of sorts and never backed down from a fight, and she for sure could hold her own in a fight. She was a strong independent woman, similar to me but still her own, and she for sure didn't fit the dumb blonde stereotype. Emma was very wise.

I was very feminine, I loved the whole doing my hair and make up every morning, wearing skin tight dresses and skirts, with my heels. I loved it all, Emma and I were always very opposite in our fashion. But the independence, we were similar in those aspects, we both hide away and didn't talk about things that bothered us. Thankfully, after 10 years of friendship we always came to each other for everything, or so I thought.

As I turned towards my best friend I squinted as the sun shined in my eyes, and despite my sun glasses, it was almost painfully bright, "Emma? You ready? I think you're going to turn into a lobster if we stay out any longer.

Emma didn't even move, the just groaned into her crossed arms her head was resting on as she laid face down. "5 more minutes, I don't want to move."

"Emma Swan, I'm not negotiating. You are going to get burned, and then get skin cancer." I always tended to take on the role of the 'adult' because I was in fact older than her. By 2 months. My birthday being in August and Emma's being in October.

Emma looked towards me and raised a brow, "Skin cancer? Really Gina? I put sun screen on."

I rolled my eyes, "Come on, your burning. Now get your ass up before I make you get up."

Emma furrowed her brows and sat up to look at me, she rolled her eyes. And I could see she knew I wasn't joking that I would in fact make her. I smiled when she stood up and groaned, "Fine." She said her next word very quietly, but I still heard it and couldn't help but laugh when she mumbled, "Bitch"

I threw my towel at the blonde and walked towards Emma's yellow bug. "Come on Emma, get your ass up. Time to go home, my little lobster."

Emma chuckled and I could hear her approaching quickly, before I knew it I was being swept off my feet and thrown over Emma's shoulder. I groaned and let out a scream, "Emma put me the fuck down!"

I hit her back and she laughed, then put me down, but punching my arm and running away. The punch wasn't hard but since my shoulders were burned as well as my upper arms it wasn't the best feeling in the world. I chose not to feed her games and just climbed into the bug, but not without letting out a 'fuck you' to her. She hopped in shortly after me laughing and teasing me, then we were off and back to the dorms. I did get a good shoulder punch back at her, so to me it was a success.

It wasn't long before we were back at California State University, of course the one located in Long beach. We pulled up to one of our assigned parking spots, my Benz parked right next to her bug, then headed up to our building and to the fifth floor, to dorm number 505. Our dorm was one of the nicer ones on campus, it had an apartment vibe to it. It had a small kitchenet that flowed into a small living space. Then to one side of the dorm was Emma's side, the right, and my side, to the left. We each had our own bedroom and our own bathroom. I thanked all the gods freshman year when we opened the door the first time and I noticed we had two separate bathrooms. I mean I wouldn't have minded sharing a bathroom with Emma, she was very clean. However, both of us always took long showers and days coming back from the beach and being gross, it was nice to just come home and immediately jump into the shower.

After about an hour and a half of cleaning up and getting dressed we decided to go to the student center and get something to eat. Our dorm was located on the outskirts of the campus and the student center was in the center. It was a large building, three floors. The first floor, aka the ground floor, was where all the food was. It was set up like a food court with tables and booths in the center and restaurants of all kinds on the outside. The very center of the large build held large wooden steps, they took you down to the basement from the ground floor, and you could hang out on these steps and do homework or some students would even sing or play guitar or both. It was always a fun time when a group of friends would start singing filling the large area with song.

The basement had a coffee shop and an arcade where you could play pool, or bowl, and if you were of age there was even a bar. The second floor was very basic, all it contained were meeting rooms where clubs or staff would hold meetings for their groups. It was a newer student center and had just recently been remodeled and still smelled of fresh paint. I sometimes would come here and just sit on the large steps and read a book, while I people watched a little.

Emma and I decided on Chinese, we walked over to one of the restaurants and stood in line. Emma turned towards me and began to speak, "Hey did I ask you what your schedule for fall looked like? And if I did can you tell me again because I don't remember it. I finally got my schedule finalized and I want to see if we have anything together this semester."

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and smirked, raising a brow, "Really Emma? I've told you like twice." I rolled my eyes when she shrugged and then I continued, "So, Monday/Wednesday I have English 4319 at 8 am, with professor Hopper. Then I have English 4341 at 1pm, with professor Deon. Then I'll be working at the library 5-close, so midnight. Then Tuesday/Thursday I have my electives, which I know you'll be proud I chose creative writing classes, English 4399 at 9 am with professor Lucas and English 4355 at 3 pm with professor Alexander. Then I'll work from 7pm-until close. Friday's, I work at the library noon-6pm. Sat and Sun I have off this semester since the whole senior thing."

Emma was silent for a moment clearly going through her course load and schedule to see if ours matched any. When we were freshman and sophomore's and only taking our prerequisites, we did everything we could to get almost every class together. Now even though both our degrees were in English, our tracks led us two separates ways and we no longer had many classes together. However, since I was taking a few creative writing classes as electives I was hopeful we would have at least one class together.

Emma finally spoke and smiled brightly, "We actually have Tuesdays/Thursdays together this semester. I am taking both of those classes. We also have same work schedule this semester so that's cool! Monday/Wednesday I have English 4350 at 8 am with professor Lucas again since she teaches both classes, and then I have English 4356 at 2 pm with professor Blanchard."

I smiled brightly, I was actually really excited that Emma and I had similar schedules this semester it had been a year since we had any similarities in our schedules and last spring we had the exact opposite schedules. All my classes were in the morning so I worked in the afternoon and all of Emma's classes were in the afternoon and so she worked in the morning. We hardly saw each other except the occasional lunch or dinner date. "Awesome! This should be a really good semester then."

We finished our discussion just in time to reach the front of the line. We placed our orders, neither of us straying from our usual's; I ordered general chaos chicken with white rice, an egg roll, and Thai tea with Boba (which if you don't know what Boba is, it's these black tapioca balls and they are amazing!). Emma ordered spicy shrimp with fried rice, an egg roll, and also got a Thai tea with Boba. Since the food was set up buffet style for the people serving the food it took no time at all to receive our dishes. We sat down at a booth not too far from the restaurant and began to dig in, starving after a long afternoon at the beach.

While we ate we sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before Emma broke it after looking at her phone, "Hay so Tink and Killian just texted and they want to hang out tomorrow. They said that there is some band coming to one of the clubs downtown and it's supposed to be pretty awesome."

I thought for a moment. I wouldn't mind hanging out with Tink and Killian, Tink was actually a nickname because she looked like a real-life version of Tinkerbell her name was actually Tiffany. They were brother and sister, and Emma and I had met them in one of our government classes our second semester of sophomore year. They were pretty cool to hang out with and always were good laughs. We even would pick on Killian because when he first spoke to Emma he tried to hit on her and asked her out, but was instantly shut down when Emma told Killian that she bat for Tink's team.

I decided it would be good to get out of the dorm and hang with some friends, "Sure, what time?"

"7pm. They said they would pick us up and we could carpool together. Sound good?"

"Perfect!" We had just finished eating our food and so we stood up and headed back to the dorm.

When we got back we watched and movie and by the time it was over it was 11 pm. We both decided that we were worn out and headed to our beds for some sleep.

The next day

"Emma, have you seen my blue heels?" I peeked my head out of my bedroom and yelled to the other side of the dorm.

Emma peeked her head out of the bathroom and yelled back at me, "Oh, yeah sorry I borrowed them that one weekend, um they are under my bed."

I rolled my eyes and went to walk into her bedroom. I bent down to my knees and looked under the bed. I quickly found them, since Emma kept her room very clean. I always appreciated that about Emma, she enjoyed organization just like me. I walked out of Emma's room and past the blonde's bathroom, I paused for a moment when I caught site of blonde flipping through the air. I leaned on the door frame and watched as my best friend flipped her hair, moving it side to side. The blonde locks flowing through the air like rays of sunshine through clouds. Emma truly had beautiful hair.

Emma stopped and turned to looked at me, she tilted her head and smiled, "Yes?" She chuckled and leaned towards the mirror to touch up her makeup.

I chuckled and turned to walk away, "Nothing, just the way you get volume to your hair is always fun to watch." I walked into the living room and sat on the small black fake leather couch. I put my heels on and waited for Emma to finish getting ready. It was almost 7 and Tink and Killian would be here soon. I finished getting on my simple navy-blue heels and walked to my bathroom to double check myself. I wore a tight deep red cocktail dress; my hair was in loose curls that fell to my right shoulder and my lips matched my dress. I looked hot and I was hoping to pick up a date tonight.

I found out that the club we were going to was a gay bar. I was feeling pretty excited about this since it would be much easier to pick up a girl in the LGBT+ community scene. So, yes, in case you were wondering I am gay, I am a very open lesbian. Emma is also very open about her sexuality. It was nice being friends with someone who was open and honest about themselves.

I checked my phone and noticed Tink had texted, Hay R. Kil and I are downstairs, get your hot asses down here!

I smiled and shook my head, I texted Tink back first, Coming chill out biatch. Then I yelled to Emma, "Emma, come on they are downstairs we need to go!" I stood in the living room and waited for my blonde friend to appear.

Emma appeared shortly and walked into the living room wearing a tight, blue lace, cocktail dress, one long sleeve over her left shoulder and arm. She wore black heels and she looked very different than the tomboy Emma, but Emma always enjoyed dressing up when she went out. She said that was the one exception to wearing makeup and a dress. Any other time was jeans, and a t-shirt, and if was colder, then it would include a red leather jacket.

I smiled, "gorgeous! You ready?"

Emma nodded and grabbed her clutch, "yup! Let's go."

I grabbed my own clutch and we were out the door and down the stairs. When we reached the club, there was already a long line to get in. Tink went up to the bouncer and whispered into his ear. I could see the blush on his face and then she waved us over, and we were instantly let in.

Killian and Emma were already heading to the bar for a round of shots, while I stayed behind with Tink. I turned towards her and tilted my head, "what did you say to the bouncer to get him to let us in?"

Tink chuckled, "I told him that I slept with his brother and that I wouldn't mind moving down the blood line."

My eyes widened and I nudged her shoulder, "are you serious?" I giggled, "what a slut."

Tink's eyes widened and her mouth gapped, she gasped and hit my arm, "shut up! You know me, I like to have a little fun."

I shook my head and laughed, then we met up with Emma and Killian at the bar, who already had two shots. When we approached the bar, we were immediately handed shots. Tink said she was only going to have one since she was the designated driver for the night. We told her we didn't understand why we all didn't just take a cab. She said it was okay, that she didn't mind and had a small headache anyways.

We were there for an hour before it was announced that the band would start performing in 15 minutes. I had already had three shots and was now drinking a martini. Emma was on her 5th shot and occasionally was sipping from a beer bottle. I knew that Emma was most likely already feeling the effects of the alcohol because of the way her attention span was short and her body swayed ever so slightly. I was thankful when she decided to stop the shots and just drank her beer.

It wasn't long and the band made their way onto the stage in the middle of the back wall. The band was an all girl's band. The drummer was a beautiful black woman with bright pink highlights. The bass player was a brunette with bright blue eyes you could see them across the room. The lead guitarist was a blonde with a blue streak in her hair and her eyes were blue green, she reminded me a little of Emma, she was toned and very striking in her appearance. She had a cut off shirt that exposed her stomach and a what looked like, a dragon belly button piercing. The lead single was a brunette, with dark eyes. She almost found a way to look into your soul with those daggers of hers, but she for sure was beautiful in her tight leather jeaned and shredded black shirt.

The band began to play and Emma and I began to dance together, it was something we always did when at a club. Grinding into each other and feeling each other move against one another. It was always a lot of fun, especially when Tink and Hook (that was a nickname for Killian, because he had a mean right hook.) would join in, making a 4-person sandwich. The band was really good, they called themselves The Dragon Souls, it was a pretty cool name in my opinion. The lead singer had a beautiful voice and she moved in a way that was very appealing. However, my eyes hardly ever left the blonde guitarist. The way she held the guitar and moved her body and even her voice, it was all very intoxicating. I was determined to get her number by the end of the night as if my life depended on it.

After about an hour set for the band they left the stage. I noticed Emma walk over and begin talking to the lead singer, they clearly hit it off right away. I noticed the singer grab at Emma's blonde hair with the tip of her fingers, leaning in closely, clearly flirting.

Tink nudge me, noticing I was staring at the interaction of my best friend and the singer. "Hey, R. You alright?"

I shook my head and cleared my throat, "oh, yeah. I was just watching Emma and the singer. Looks like they are hitting it off."

Killian now approached us and put an arm around my shoulders, leaning into me. "Oh, yeah. Looks like Emma might get some tonight. What about you R?" He nudged his elbow into my ribs.

"Well, um. I thought the lead guitarist was pretty cute." I looked towards the blonde I had been admiring as she ordered a drink from the bar. I couldn't help but trail up and down her body, staring at the toned ass in the tight denim jeans.

Tink pushed me towards the bar, "Well, go talk to her."

I inched forward and turned around slightly, looking back at my friends who were gesturing for me to keep going to talk to her. So, I did. I walked up to the bar and moved next to her and ordered another martini. She looked towards me and smiled. I thanked the bar tender when he put down my drink. I took a sip and then directed my attention to her, "great set."

She turned to look at me, "huh?"

I cleared my throat, "um, I said great set. I really liked the vibe, of your band."

The blonde smiled, "oh, thanks. Have you ever heard us play before?"

I took another sip of my drink and shook my head, "Nope, first time. I really enjoyed it. You have a cool sound. I also really like the name."

She laughed, "oh, yeah. That would be Lilly. She is the one that came up with the name."

"Oh, cool. Which one is Lilly." I tilted my head slightly.

She turned and pointed to the singer talking to Emma, "Lilly is our lead singer."

I smiled brightly, "awesome! And what is your name?"

She held out her hand, "Mal, you can just call me Mal."

I took the hand, amazed at how soft her hand was, "Regina, it's nice to meet you."

What did you all think? Let me know in the comments/reviews! Till next time!