Let Me Be Your Happy Ending
Emma took a shaky breath as she wiped her clammy palms on her jean-clad thighs. She adjusted the bottles of root beer under her arms, and walked through the doorway. The first thing she noticed when she spotted Regina, was the vein in her forehead that protruded whenever her emotions were running high.
Regina. Emma has lik- no. Emma has loved Regina for a while. She's been hiding it as well. With everything that has been going on with all the villains from basically every fairy tale in existence popping up to have a go at the town, there has never been a right time to try and face her fears by confronting Regina. Then Robin- fucking- Hood has to show up and crush her beautiful heart. Damn him.
When Regina didn't notice her presence, Emma quietly made her way to her desk and laid her kale salad down in front of her. "How do you feel about kale salad," she piped up. Oh God. Please let her not hate it!
"Looks like someone found someplace other than Granny's for take-out," Regina replied while only glancing up from the book. Emma smiled and teased, "I'm fine with her grilled cheese, but I know it gets to you."
Regina chuckled and said, "You eat like a child." They carried on playful banter, and Emma felt a light begin to grow in her chest only to be extinguished when Regina disdainfully muttered something about meeting dead end after dead end. Goddammit! Why can't she see what's right in front of her?
Then, Emma made the mistake of going through Regina's drawers in pursuit of a bottle opener only to find a page from the book. Wait. What's a page doing here? This isn't part of Regina's story! What the hell?
Regina must have noticed the confused look on Emma's face because she piped up that it was something Robin had found and said it was hope for Regina to finally get her happy ending. And Emma had to go and dig herself into a deeper hole by asking if she had heard from him. When Emma saw the tears, she felt herself deflate.
All of the sudden, Hook and Belle arrived in a frenzy, screaming about them figuring out how to free the fairies and needing Regina's help. Hook. God. Why am I even with this drunkard? Why do I pretend when I know I love her?
Regina stated her approval, and Emma knew she was just glad for the distraction. When they arrived, Belle handed Regina the Dark One's dagger, and the ceremony began. After Regina finished, the blinding beam of golden light sprang forth and brought all of the nuns with it.
Everyone was checking on the fairies, but only Emma noticed Regina walk away shaking. She decided she would ask about it later. She wanted to give her space.
Later on, Emma talked Killian into going to celebrate in hopes that Regina would be there too. She was standing at the counter when she heard Regina talking to Blue.
Emma made her way over and told Blue about how they found it, but when Regina said that she was hoping that the author would write her a happy ending, Emma's heart broke. Look at me. I love you. It's me. It always has been. It always will be me. It took everything in her not to tell Regina then and there that Emma was supposed to be her happy ending.
That's when things took a turn for the worse. Thank goodness Regina made light of the situation when she snarkily commented, "I suppose we should go out and see what's killing property values this time."
Emma welcomed the thought of working side by side with Regina again, but this wasn't what she intended when she wanted to get closer to her. No. A massive bat from Hell isn't really what she wanted, but they had a town to protect.
When they combined their magic and the beast took off in the opposite direction, Emma wanted to congratulate herself, but Regina stomped on that when she said that it wasn't over and that the amount of magic they used should have killed the beast.
Afterwards, when Ursula called and told them what the beast wanted, Emma knew she had to protect Regina at all costs. So when they planned to throw the beast through the town line, Emma was willing to die to keep Regina from it.
Emma was trying her best to keep the bug on the road and keep the hell bat from tearing them to shreds. She decided that if she lived, she would immediately tell Regina how she felt.
The snarky comments about her car, while made in panic, did piss Emma off though, but she wasn't mad. At least, not until Regina said that she wasn't going to let them both die in the "metal coffin" and poofed herself out in front of the town line. The thing took the bait though, and soon enough it was gone.
The smile Regina gave Emma melted away the anger she felt towards the brunette for being reckless, and Emma couldn't help but run over and wrap her up in a bone-crushing hug. "NEVER EVER do that to me again, Regina! I don't know what I would have done without you! What if you had gotten hurt or worse, killed," Emma half-yelled, half-whispered into the apple scented hair.
"I'm fine Miss Swan. Emma, I'm fine," Regina replied while returning the hug. They held onto each other until Snow and Charming pulled up in the cruiser. Regina looked up at Emma with watery eyes and a watery smile to match it, and said, "Emma. I think we need to talk about something I've been keeping inside for a very long ti-" Then, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed.