I'm still working on my main storie's next chapter; hopefully, it'll be up soon! But, I also hope you guys will enjoy this little piece.

A/N: I don't own anything in relations to ONCE, or any other familiar and recognizable themes.

I hadn't been capable of taking my eyes off of her since the moment I'd seen her step foot inside the restaurant. Coincidences of life, huh?

'Rora beside me had long ago turned to chat animatedly with our waitress, who had sat down several minutes ago when I had ignored her. I had decided against ordering anything else, but the whiskey I loosely held between my hands.

She wasn't here alone; of course she wasn't, I found myself sneering to myself.

A beautiful woman like Emma deserved never to be alone again.

Suddenly the last memory of us together stung deeper than ever, and I couldn't help but feel as I more than deserved these years filled with solitude without her.

I hadn't seen her in over six years; when she had violently tossed whatever had been in her path at me, while she screamed and cried, before walking out of my flat (and my life).

And I had deserved every single one of the vases, cups, and shoes she had fling at me; I just regret the fact that I'd been too much of a coward to let any of the items hit me.

I'd been too unkind as well as uncaring towards her; not only that night, but it'd been happening for way too long now. I had just been too much of an idiot to have thought she would ever take more of my insolence.

I couldn't help but trail my lips down her collarbone in a slow manner, my hands gripping her hips determinedly as I climbed on top of her and pinned her down.

Knee firmly in place as she rubbed my back in a desperate manner, and dragged her nails over my shoulders, demonstrating her want and need for me.

"Come now, Regina," she murmured to me, moving her legs to wrapped them around my waist as I pulled her down to have better access to her more than pale neck; biting and nipping rather hard, but not enough to hurt, "stop torturing me and just take me."

I could only growl against her collarbone before my hands began descending towards her belly button and lower towards the anticipated destination.

She'd been taunting me for days now, and I couldn't wait to taste her once more. Last time we'd been in bed had been two weeks ago, and I'd thought I could stay away. Because I was not hers to be with, and I could care less if she kept coming to me at night.

I pulled her skirt down purposefully as she excitedly rolled us together, finding her place on top of me before claiming my lips heatedly with hers; her hands reached up to imprisoned mine over my head as her tongue sought mine out.

Her hands never found mine, and her lips ceased their movement.

She pulled back away an inch or two before she frowned and grabbed whatever it was she was staring at, her dark hair streaked with red framing her face as she looked down at me, a forgotten garment in her hand.

"I thought you said you weren't sleeping with her anymore," she half asked me, half told me as she stretch the flimsy underwear in her hand , and let it sling back towards the pillows.

I sighed before I pushed her off of me more than a little dismissively.

I'd already told her what this was, and her jealous episodes were not wanted, nor needed.

Buttoning up my shirt I turned to her.

"We aren't," I told her roughly as I got off my bed and began swinging back her clothes towards her, "I haven't had sex with Emma in weeks."

And we hadn't. I'd been at work too much, and Emma had begun spending her weekends at Storybrooke Academy with Mary Margaret and doing homework instead of coming home to an empty apartment.

I was already dressed when I heard the soft clink of keys outside the bedroom and froze in place, turning towards my girlfriend's best friend which sat on the bed, mouth gaping as she stopped fumbling with her bra.

My finger flew up to my mouth in a hushing gesture to Ruby. Why I'd thought fucking my girlfriend's closest friend would be a good idea, I would never know.

The lights were all off in the house, except the front door one, which I had left on in case Ms. Lucas left too late.

"Regina," I heard Emma call out, and her footsteps stopped for a second when she didn't hear anything.

"Babe!" she sung out as she began moving around again.

The bedroom was on the second floor, so it wouldn't do to have the wolf flung herself out the window, and another look at her let me know not to even mention it.

The door pushed open slowly, and I rushed to move in front of the opening.

She stood there, smiling up on me, and I quickly understood she couldn't see beyond the bedside table.

Her arms flew around my neck as she reached up on her toes and laid her lips on mine.

"Baby, were you sleeping?" she asked once my arms had come around her waist, her tongue dragging across her lower lip in confusion as she noticed my disheveled appearance.

"Si, cariño," I whispered to her as I tried to push us out of the room, and towards the kitchen in an effort to let the woman inside the room somehow sneak out.

Emma's cheeks were orangey-red as she let me pull her towards the lit kitchen.

"What are you doing here, Emma?" I asked her softly as her arms rested around my shoulders and she leant in to kiss my cheeks, her gentle lips tenderly making contact with my cheekbone.

For a second, there was that confused look once again in her eyes when she looked at me, but she was fast to recover.

"Well, I got done quicker than I thought with a few things at school, and I just thought you would like," she began as her hands slowly came down to my buttons and began to push them through the holes, "if I came and spent the night with you," she finished, as I stood in place like a statue, my arms still around her waist.

"Maybe not tonight darling," I told her while I stilled her hands with one of mine and she looked up at me.

I just wanted her to leave the house, so I could right everything with Ruby, and prevent her from seeing anything. Acting dismissively would achieve that. It should've been easy.

"Is something wrong, Regina?" she asked me, taken aback by my actions and slowly pulling away from my arms.

I brought my hand up to the bridge of my nose, and found myself pinching it, sighing while I rolled my eyes. But nothing with Emma was ever easy.

"Should there be anything wrong?" I asked, a small chuckle leaving my lips (I was trying to hide my nervousness) as her eyes narrowed, and the bedroom door clicked shut. I'd only hope I'd been the only one to have heard the sound, but that was too much to ask for.

Her eyes narrowed for a second before realization fell upon her.

She was far from being unintelligent.

"Oh, my God," she gasped quietly, her hand coming up to her mouth as she turned just in time to see the waitress grab her coat at the door, "Rubes?"

Said girl only looked guiltily at Emma; some of her buttons still undone.

"I'm so sorry, Emma," she mumbled, hesitantly, before she slipped out the door; what a friend she was.

The room fell silent afterwards.

She'd turned away from me, and I didn't know what to say.

Well, I knew what to say, but maybe I didn't want to say anything. I was rather embarrassed I had been caught, in a way. Even back then I had known I'd loved Emma. But…

At that time, I'd been too arrogant, too uncaring as a woman who knew she could have anyone she wanted. But I had yet to know that loosing Emma would be my undoing.

"Look, Emma, this is nothing," I began, taking a step towards her and laying my hands on her shoulders; noticing their slight trembling, "nothing happened."

"Nothing happened?" she inquired, walking away from me and directing herself towards the bedroom, pushing the door open, "Then, what the hell was she doing here?"

I could hear the tears in her voice as I followed her; my footsteps quick behind her.

Red had left the bed undone, Emma's bra still on the pillows where she had swung it, and she had forgotten her knickers by the small bedside table.

I couldn't help but curse in Spanish the second I saw the garment, and Emma by it.

To say I had picked an ignorant woman to sleep with was an understatement, but the girl in front of me was not an idiot who disregarded minor details.

"That is not proof of anything," I spit at her while I crouched down to get the damn thing, angry with my own self for the situation.

"Look at me, and tell me, that you did not sleep with her just now," she dragged out, sadness and anger evident in her voice.

I couldn't help but look at her with a smile, which I knew would rile her up even more.

"I did not sleep with Ms. Lucas tonight," I told her, throwing the panties into the trash bin at the corner of the room.

"Don't lie to me, Regina!" she screamed at me, and for a moment I felt coldness envelop my heart and grip it tightly, her tone desperate and fed up.

Dropping myself on the bed, I laughed; one of those laughs people use when they know they're hurting someone, when they know they are humiliating a person they love, and losing them in the process.

It was a haughty sound, and I knew it from the moment I released it.

The tears were evident in her face as the light from the small window slipped in and lit them up.

"What happened to us?" she began once again, sniffling and quickly swiping at her shed tears in an effort to stop herself from crying.

I hadn't wanted to talk about this with her, I'd only want her to forget it.

"Nothing happened," I told her dismissively, "drop it, Emma."

The first item had almost hit me, had I not dodged it by instinct.

Slamming against the wall behind me came the glass vase gifted to us from Emma's parents a year ago; the thing bursting into chips and pieces throughout the carpeted floor.

"You are so full of it," she sneered at me as she began throwing various other items, but they never hit me.

Back then, I'd thought the fact that she was hurling things around the room at me was good; that she was letting out steam before I could take her to bed and make her forget about the whole fiasco.

But the moment I realized I would be the only one picking up the pieces when she was gone had yet to dawn on me.

"Emma," I remember calling out to her, while I dusted some of the glass off myself before approaching her, a shoe firmly in her hand as if it was the next thing to be launched at me.

I could see it in her hands that she was trying to control her emotions.

"We can talk about this, dear," I reasoned with her as my hand stopped to rest on top of hers; moving the shoe away from me and closer to the ground.

She gripped it harder.

"You will stop lying to me, and tell me everything?" she asked of me while she for a second, lowered the offending thing and relaxed slightly.

Taking advantage, I nodded and opened my hand to her when she dropped the heeled shoe.

I tried to sit with her at the bed, but she wouldn't, and sighing I pulled her to living room, sitting us on the couch.

If I played the cards correctly, this conversation would never arise again, and I could have Emma back at the palm of my hand; as I had believed I had.

"I'm so sorry, Emma," I murmured to her as I brought her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles, "but nothing happened."

She began shaking her head, her eyes turning furious as she let my hand drop and got off the couch; a hurt look invading her eyes.

"You would dare…"

"Por Dios," I exclaimed in disbelief as I brought my hands to my forehead, and began to think of what else to say, "Don't be stupid, Emma! I could have anyone I ever wanted in this world. Why would I sleep with her if I didn't want to be in a relationship with her but with you?"

And I asked myself that each time I'd let Red in.

Still shaking her head, her lips thinned out into a straight line, and her eyes seemed lost.

"I'm not being stupid at all. You would be an idiot to believe me one to think, for one second, that nothing happened, Regina!" she screamed at me; one finger pointed towards the bedroom. "Just tell me the truth. Stop the cheap excuses… stop wasting our time."

"Time is something I wish not to waste," I found myself murmuring.

"Oh, I bet!" she declared, "I'm gone for a month, Regina, and you definitely don't waste any time finding someone to warm up your bed…" she trailed off beyond reason, and I found myself protesting.

The arrogant part of me could not shut its mouth and before I could stop myself, the words slipped out quicker than falling sand.

"At least Ruby does warm up my bed."

Pause.

She held fixed, her arm dropping down to her side abruptly, her eyes dimming; anger dissipating a bit, but despair evident.

I just kept digging deeper, didn't I? Rubbing it in her face that her leggy best friend could somehow replace her if I wanted her to… I couldn't be more of an asshole.

"Is that really how you've felt these past months?" the blonde softly breathed out, her voice slightly cracking, brows furrowed.

My hands flew up to my face as I covered it and heavily sighed out for the millionth time today.

I couldn't believe those words had come out of my mouth.

"Well, is it or is it not?"

Shaking myself, I got up off the couch and directed my eyes towards her yet again.

I could see it in her posture that she thought I was about to apologize, to get on my knees, and beg her to forgive me for my infidelity, but she could not be more wrong.

I was an idiot, and when I lost her, that fact would finally sink in.

"Whatever, Emma," I sneered at her this time, "think whatever you want to think."

"I should have known from the beginning that this would not last," she told me while she walked to the kitchen, "That this could never work out."

Acting as if I didn't care if she left, I turned to walk inside the bedroom. We were done with the conversation; my naïve self was done listening.

The hurled cup hit the door before I could reach it.

Looking over my shoulder, I found her at the kitchen's door frame; in her hands another coffee cup.

"You're a bloody coward, Regina," she whispered to me; the next item flying over my shoulder and bouncing off the wall into large chunks of glass.

She was speaking the truth.

But I laughed.

"This is funny to you, then?"

A smile now on my lips; large and defiant.

"Ask whatever else your little head might want to know, dear," I quickly said to her as I blew my bangs out of my face, "Today has been a very tiring day," the emphasis from my arrogant self was needed.

The young woman choked on her fresh tears before she openly sobbed.

"I never want to see you again!" the girl cried at me before she rushed from the kitchen to the front door, stopping to pull her jacket on, then swirling to face me.

"You'll be back, Emma," I promised her.

My heart clenching within my chest.

"I won't," her voice croaked, "I know when to take the hint that I'm not needed anymore…or wanted."

The whiskey burned the moment I tossed it back; the cool, yet warm liquid rushing down my throat.

She looked happy, at least, as she sat there.

The man she had been sitting with had gotten up, and directed himself towards the bathroom it seemed, as she nodded with a smile and drank from her almost full glass.

The moment he was gone, her smile dissipated and her eyes dragged down into her lap.

"When exactly are you planning on going over there?" I suddenly heard someone ask me; looking up I saw Lanny beside me as 'Rora just sat next to her, her hand enveloped in hers.

When had the Asian girl gotten here? I actually didn't know, so I only gave her a confused look before turning back to Emma.

"I don't even know if I should," I murmured to the both of them.

I haven't spoken to her in years, I reminded myself, just in time to see the man return to the table, his hands rubbing on his pants as he dried them up.

He said something to her, and she looked up, her smile back on as he leant across the table to peck her on the cheek hastily before throwing some money on the table and rushing away.

Now I found myself getting up and making my way towards her. She was looking down again when I got to her; fumbling through her wristlet.

I didn't really know what to say, and seeing her close made me feel even dumber.

"Emma," I breathed out.

She froze in place; her head left inclined toward her lap, her shoulders tensing up.

I know she knew who I was; the effect my voice used to always have on her never ceased to amaze me.

For a tiny moment, I thought she wouldn't look up, and would just pretend to not have heard a sound. But when her eyes met mine, I was the one who wanted to pretend I hadn't come over to speak to her.

Hard blue, green eyes gazed up at me; not glaring, not staring…

"Regina," she said, sounding clearly, but restrained.

The hand on her purse tightened slightly as if she was prepared to hit me with it any second. But glancing around the table, I realized she had other weapons to take into consideration…

Finishing a sip of wine, she softly place the glass back onto the mantle; s forced smile upon her beautiful lips.

"It was nice talking to you," she began in a hushed voice, "but I really must be going now."

Dropping some bills atop the table (her share, I guess?), she pulled back in her chair and got up, directing herself towards the exit.

I tried calling her, but I found that my voice wouldn't let me.

Seeing her leave the restaurant hit me just as hard as when she had left the first time.

"Regina!" I turned around to 'Rora; her arm around Lanny's waist while both of them lounged on the booth.

Now I noticed Lanny's waitress uniform…

"Don't waste time, Mills."

Lanny smiled as she spoke; that dreamy little thing that had probably hooked Aurora from the very beginning.

"Go get her."

If I could have ran after her, I would have. But all I could manage at the moment was to speed up my high heeled feet, and wish to myself that by some weird chance Emma was close by or luckily, still outside the establishment.

I'm not sure if this will just be a one shot, or if I'll write a continuation; but, anyways, thanks for reading! :)