A/N: Thanks to my beta, Ari (swanedmills on tumblr). You make my stuff readable tbh.

I tried to make this a oneshot, but failed, so this fic will be three chapters long in total. It won't have that much to do with pride until the last chapter, but I promise it'll be there and this was 100% prompted by this Swan Queen Week. This is super late, though, and I'm really sorry for that.

Anyway, this is my first AU, so I really hope it's not a total mess.

I don't own any of the characters etc.

Emma's lab partner is infuriating.

That's the word said lab partner uses on her one day, which makes Emma huff in response. The feeling is mutual.

"I don't know what your problem is," Emma says. "I misread one little thing, and I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you are, Miss Swan. Hand me the scalpel. I'll just cut this heart out myself."

"Stop calling me Miss Swan," she responds as she hands her lab partner the scalpel. "My name is Emma. You talk like you're sixty."

"Thank you for your input," a cold voice responds.

Emma exhales loudly as she fights the urge to run out of class. She's tried that before, which only got her a visit to principal Gold's office.

Her lab partner's name is Regina, which, according to her friend Mary Margaret means queen in Latin. It honestly suits her quite well because ever since the other girl moved from her old private school to finish her senior year in Storybrooke High, she has been walking down the halls in designer clothes in such a regal manner that she could honestly pass for a queen.

Emma doesn't know why Regina moved to their school in the first place. She's pretty sure Regina's parents could afford a private education — her mother is the CEO of a large company and her father is from a wealthy family — but Emma isn't dumb enough to ask Regina about it. In fact, she isn't dumb enough to try to talk to her at all unless it's completely necessary.

"She won't even call me Emma. I don't know what her problem is," Emma vents to her friends on their lunch break. She's eating a dry sandwich her foster mother gave her in the morning. Her current family isn't the best she's had, but they're not the worst either. They mostly just don't care about anything she does, which is better than those few downright abusive families she's spent periods of time with.

"Oh, let me guess. We're talking about Regina again," her friend Ruby says. She's smirking, seeming way too amused for Emma's liking. Why can't she just take this seriously?

"Ruby, seriously. She's making those classes hell. She hates me for no reason. I honestly don't know why."

"Didn't you spill coffee on her once?"

"That was one time!" Emma retorts.

"I'm just saying it doesn't make a great first impression," Ruby points out before popping a grape into her mouth.

Emma sighs. She finds it incredibly unfair that she's being punished for being clumsy.

"You know, if this were a romantic comedy, you two would be together by the end of the movie," their friend Mary Margaret says dreamily without raising her gaze from the book she's reading. "I wish something like that would happen to me too."

"You want someone to spill coffee on you?" Ruby almost laughs. She's the complete opposite of the calm and timid Mary Margaret, although they are both strong-willed and kind.

"What? I don't like Regina," Emma says right after realizing what her friends are saying. She most definitely doesn't. Just because Regina looks like a goddess from the high heavens doesn't mean Emma likes her or would ever feel that way about her. Regina is a pain in her ass. And Emma is straight.

"Sure, Emma," Ruby says, smirking at her again. Emma is getting tired of Ruby's smirk.

"I don't. She's a nightmare!"

"You talk about her so much you could fool me, but okay." Ruby shrugs before she eats another grape. "Anyway, you two wanna go to Aurora's party this Saturday? She asked me in math. I think she may just be grateful because I keep her awake every time she's falling asleep in class, but maybe we could be friends. She said I could bring you two."

Storybrooke is a small town where nothing really happens, but Emma is actually quite content there. She was sure she would be going back to Augusta before she'd know it, but she's stayed with two families in the small coastal town, and her current family is alright. Sometimes she can't believe she's been here almost two years and is about to graduate high school in June.

What makes Storybrooke bearable is the fact that she's actually made some good friends. She's been alone her whole life, an orphan no one's really wanted, tossed from one family to another, but here she has Ruby and Mary Margaret. She can't remember having close friends after she and Lily separated at the age of fifteen.

She'd met Mary Margaret on her second day in town. The girl had immediately taken Emma under her wing and offered to show her around Storybrooke. She met Ruby later that same day when Mary Margaret's tour had taken them to Granny's, a diner Ruby's grandmother owned.

Now, the three of them are knocking on the door of Aurora's parents house (no, mansion, Emma corrects herself) and are soon greeted by the 17-year-old redhead.

"Ruby! I'm so glad you came," Aurora says when she opens the door. She's holding a red plastic cup as she gives a scantily-clad Ruby a one-armed hug. "And you brought your friends. Welcome!"

"Hi, Aurora" Emma says awkwardly. She's not sure why she agreed to go to this party. The fact that someone lives in a house this big just seems unreal to her. She's been a child of the foster system all her life meanwhile some kids who actually go to her school live like this. For a second, she wonders why Aurora even goes to public school with them, but then she remembers that the closest private school, Brocéliande Academy, is nearly two hours away.

"Emma, right? Nice to have you here!" She gives Emma a hug too, which Emma responds to awkwardly. The usually stern and stubborn Aurora is quite different when she's drinking. "And Mary Margaret!" Aurora hugs her next. "It's been too long. I haven't seen you outside school in ages."

"Yeah, it's been a while," Mary Margaret smiles. Emma remembers Mary Margaret telling her their parents would have playdates sometimes when Mary Margaret and Aurora were young, but they had kind of drifted apart without any hard feelings.

"Anyway, I hope you enjoy the party. If you need anything, you can ask me, Phil, or Mulan," she chirps and flies away to greet more guests.

"Okay, so Phil is the boyfriend?" Emma asks Ruby.

"Yeah, and Mulan is the best friend of the boyfriend who's also become friends with Aurora."

"Yeah, got it," Emma responds. She has seen Mulan at the school gym and the trio in the hallways. They seem rather inseparable.

"Oh, my God. Look who's here," Ruby points towards the doorway on the other side of the hall.

Emma raises her gaze from the punch bowl and spots three girls who go to Brocéliande Academy. Emma isn't really sure why they're at Aurora's party, because if she's correct, one of the girls (called Mal, she thinks) and Aurora had some sort of feud in the past. She still isn't sure why Ruby is making such a big deal of their arrival until Emma sees there's a fourth person in their company: Regina.

"I thought she kept to herself and didn't come to any of these parties," Ruby continues. "Although she just started at the school, so maybe that's why we're only seeing her here now. Look who she's with, though."

"Regina and I used to be such good friends when we were younger. She wasn't much older than me, but I still saw her as a big sister," Mary Margaret says wistfully. "I don't know what happened. She seems to be so irritated with me now and doesn't talk to me unless she has to."

"Yeah, well, I don't know if that's really your fault, Mary Margaret. She seems to be that way with ev…" Emma starts, but Regina seems like a different person around Mal and her gang. She's smiling and smirking, her annoyance completely gone. She looks really good, completely objectively speaking, of course, the cleavage of her expensive-looking dress almost reaching her stomach and her heels making her taller than usual. Her lips are dark red and Emma doesn't know why she can't stop staring.

"Be careful not to get any drool on your shirt," says Ruby, pulling Emma from her thoughts. She downs the rest of her drink and gives Emma another one of her smirks.

"What?"

"I said your crush is showing. Keep it cool, Swan," Ruby continues as she pours herself more punch.

"I don't have a crush!"

"Sure, Emma," Ruby responds. "I'm just saying I see what you see in her."

"Ruby, please," Emma says.

"So you don't mind if I try to hit on her, then?" Ruby asks playfully.

Emma thinks Ruby wouldn't do that, even though she recently broke up with her boyfriend and has told Emma she doesn't really care about gender when it comes attraction. Ruby just jokes like this all the time. Emma knows she wouldn't actually go after someone she thinks Emma has a crush on.

Not that Emma has a crush. She totally does not.

"Of course I don't mind," Emma responds, but her voice sounds fake and too high even to her own ears.

"Oh, my god. David is here," Mary Margaret interrupts them.

"David?" Emma says. She can't remember any David.

"Wait, that David?" Ruby asks. "The one you fought over that book with, but then he let you have the book?"

Oh, that David. Emma had been infuriated with Regina when Mary Margaret had been telling the story, so she couldn't remember the guy's name, even though Mary Margaret had seemed inexplicably charmed.

"You should go talk to him," Ruby says, and Emma nods. David seems like a nice enough guy.

"You think so?" Mary Margaret asks.

"Yeah," Ruby whispers. "He and Kathryn broke up, as you know, and she's dating Fredrick from the football team. Go!"

"Okay," Mary Margaret says, her fingers white from gripping her purse. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "I'm going."

Mary Margaret leaves them, and they can see her reach David on the other side of the room. He seems to be pleasantly surprised by her arrival. He smiles at Mary Margaret and laughs at something she says, and yeah, maybe their friend who's always reading about finding true love and watching romantic comedies will find her Prince Charming there.

Emma shakes her head at the expression, but it's the one Mary Margaret uses. Finding her Prince Charming.

"So, I think you should go talk to Regina," Ruby says after a while.

"Do you want me to get brutally murdered at this party? She'd probably rip my heart out for even trying to talk to her." She thinks of the frog heart Regina dissected two days ago in lab with a smile on her lips. "Or maybe poison me. Besides, I don't want to talk to her. Why would I wanna talk to her? I don't like girls, and she's the worst. She's…"

"Excuse me, Miss Swan, but if you're not taking any more punch, it's rude to block the way so other people can't either."

Emma turns around and finds Regina's standing right behind her. Just her luck. Ruby seems to be fighting a giggle. Traitor.

"Hey, you're Emma's lab partner, right?" Ruby says as nonchalantly as she can manage. Emma is getting ready to strangle her friend.

Regina nods as she pushes past Emma to the punch bowl. Her movements seem a bit less graceful than in lab, so Emma guesses she'd already had something to drink before arriving at the party.

"Emma has told me so much about you," Ruby continues.

"Has she now?" Regina says, her eyebrow raised as she takes a sip of her drink. Emma wants to disappear. Whatever Ruby has planned, it can't be good.

"Yes. I get the idea that you're very efficient and smart and good at lab. And that you're pretty. It was somewhere between the lines there," Ruby shrugs and waves her arm, almost splashing alcohol on Regina, but unlike Emma, actually managing to hold the beverage in its designated cup. "Emma has taught me to read between the lines."

Emma wants the ground to swallow her up. What the hell is Ruby doing? She could potentially make her lab classes even worse than they already are.

"Is that true, Miss Swan?" Regina asks, her perfectly sculpted dark eyebrow still raised. She seems almost amused, which really looks good on her, her lips curving —

Emma, focus.

"Well, you're very efficient." Emma shrugs and hopes the conversation is over. She can feel her face getting redder by the minute, and she really hopes the dim light of the room will cover her blush.

"I see. Well, if you don't mind, I need to go to my friends. We have less time to see each other now that I've transferred." She takes a look at the trio sitting on the leather couch in the middle of the room. "See you in class, Miss Swan."

"She likes you!" Ruby whispers after Regina has sat down on the couch next to her friends.

"Did you just hear the conversation we had?" Emma asks. Ruby is being ridiculous.

"Yes. She does. I have a sixth sense." Ruby nods as she plays with her wolf-shaped necklace. "And you like her."

"I do not!" Emma is getting really tired of this. Why would she like Regina? She's a pain in the ass, and a girl, and…

"What are two pretty ladies like yourselves doing standing here all alone?" a heavily accented voice asks from behind Emma.

"Well, we're standing here together, so we're not really alone," Emma asserts after turning around and seeing who she's dealing with. It's Killian Jones, the guy who sits in front of her in history. Another pain in her ass, although he takes it to another level. Where Regina is a rude control freak who can't stand Emma, Killian doesn't seem to want to leave her alone as he keeps asking her out on a date on a weekly basis even though she declines his invitation every single time. He uses stupid penis metaphors that he thinks are funny and never forgets to mention how dashingly handsome he is.

"Aye, you've got that right, Swan," he responds, but shows no intention of leaving. He pours some punch into his cup before pulling a flask out of his pocket. "Some rum to spice the drink up," he explains and Emma fights the urge to roll her eyes. Killian has a weird pirate fixation, only he would carry rum around. "So how about that date next Friday?"

"For the hundredth time, no, Killian," she sighs. What does she have to say to make him understand he does nothing for her? She doesn't want go on a date with him, and she can't understand why the guy can't understand that no means no, not "try harder."

"We could leave this party now, too. I'd show you a good time at my place. Interested?" he asks. He winks at her in a way he must think is irresistible, making Emma fight a scoff and eye roll. He doesn't even have his own place.

Before Ruby and Emma can think up an escape plan, Regina walks over to them. She rocks her six inch heels even though she doesn't appear particularly sober.

"Is there a problem here?" she asks, her eyes fixed on Killian.

"There's no problem," Killian replies, a dumb smirk still plastered all over his face. "Would you like to join us for an afterparty? The more the merrier. I've always wanted to be with a Latina."

He probably really shouldn't have said that, because the next moment, Regina is face to face with Killian. Despite her drunken state and the fact that she's shorter than Killian, she sounds absolutely terrifying when she tells him, "Leave this party and my friends alone, or I'll destroy you if it is the last thing I do."

Emma isn't sure how Regina can pull off a line like that and still be taken seriously even though she's drunk, but it works because Killian leaves surprisingly fast without even saying goodbye. Emma feels both grateful and impressed.

"So, we're your friends now?" Emma asks when Regina has finished refilling her cup.

"Don't push it, Miss Swan," she says as she leaves, but her tone doesn't have its usual malice in it and Emma could swear Regina almost smiles at her.

Emma dreams of Regina that night. She dreams of her smile and the scar on Regina's upper lip and how it would feel to press her mouth against Regina's. She dreams of the dress that looks really good on her body and her smooth olive skin. She dreams of her breasts and how it would be to bring her hands on them and touch them. How it would be to feel her bra and her nipples underneath the fabric and what Regina would smell and taste like if they kissed.

Emma wakes up from her dreams breathing heavily. She shakes her head and blames the alcohol and the ideas Ruby has been putting in her head. People have had weirder dreams. She has had weirder dreams. Once, she had a dream that Mal turned into a dragon and she had to fight her with a sword. There's nothing weird about having a sexual dream about someone attractive. Even if they're a girl.

That's what Emma keeps telling herself until she's in lab next Monday and Regina sits down next to her. She shoots Emma a small smile, something she's never done before, and Emma feels her stomach flip and her cheeks get all hot. What's going on? This is ridiculous. She curses her dreams and Ruby.

Regina's shiny black hair smells like apples (not that Emma is paying any attention to that) and her perfectly manicured short nails are dark red. She's wearing a… ring on her ring finger, and before Emma can stop herself, she's asking, "Are you engaged?"

When there's no answer, Emma turns to look at Regina. She seems startled by the question.

"Sorry, that's none of my business…" Emma starts apologizing, hoping her question hasn't ruined all the progress they've made so far.

Why is it so important to her that Regina doesn't hate her?

"It's a promise ring," she responds, not looking at Emma. "His name was Daniel. He passed away. I still wear the ring… I guess I'm not ready to let go yet."

Emma is shocked by both what has happened to Regina and the fact that decided to share it with Emma. "Um, I'm really sorry. That's terrible."

"Yes, well. Thank you."

They sit in silence, waiting for the class to start. Emma isn't sure why she got there 10 minutes early, anyway.

"How about you?" Regina asks, her tone lighter.

"How about me what?"

"Are you seeing anyone? I'm guessing not Killian Jones, at least. You seem to have better taste than to go out with him." Regina almost chuckles, and Emma is enthralled by the sound.

"Um, yeah, no. He's gross," she responds, confused by why Regina wants to know anything about her romantic life. "I used to go out with Neal. You know, Neal Gold? The principal's kid. Yeah, we sorta had a thing in sophmore year, but we worked better as friends." Emma is happier as friends. She had felt like there had been something missing. Neal is now dating one of the girls from the swim team, Tamara, who's quite possibly an actual goddess and also the best swimmer on the team. Emma is happy for them. "We got a goldfish named Bug, and he still has it."

"Why did you name a goldfish Bug?" Regina seems surprisingly interested.

"Um, well. There was this yellow Volkswagen Beetle. You know, a Bug, that we once saw and contemplated stealing. We didn't, but we named the goldfish Bug instead. It would've been that or Henry."

"Henry is not a name for a goldfish," Regina says. Emma isn't sure if she's appalled or amused. "My dad's name is Henry."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, I actually moved to this school because he's sick and it's closer to home. Mother was distraught. She told me I couldn't possibly go to a public school after everything she's done and planned for me." Regina rolls her eyes. "But I'm not leaving dad right now."

Emma nods and waits for Regina to tell her more about herself. She keeps talking and answers so many questions Emma's never dared ask. Emma finds out Regina has a lovely father and mother who wants to make all of Regina's decisions for her. She also has an older sister who's moved to London and is currently working as an assistant stage manager for Wicked.

Regina's situation is so different from Emma's. Emma's been tossed from one group home and foster family to another without really being able to grow roots. Even though she now has Ruby and Mary Margaret and they're like family to her, Emma is more than aware of her abandonment issues; she feels like no one really wants her around for long term.

"So, why did he get Bug?" Regina asks her when Arthur, a classmate Emma would want to go nowhere near, slouches down in his usual seat in front of her.

"What?"

"You said he got your fish. Why didn't you?" Regina specifies.

Emma is amused Regina is even thinking about that. "Oh, I was just about to move to a new foster home back then, so it was better that way," she admits truthfully.

"I see," Regina responds. Her expression doesn't change after Emma mentions she's a foster kid, but she changes the topic. "I would like to name my son Henry. After my father."

"You want kids?" Emma asks. She hasn't thought about that for herself yet. She feels like she wouldn't know how to be a mother because no one's really been a mother to her.

"Definitely," Regina responds as their teacher, Mr. Whale, walks into class to begin the lab.

HONESTLY I feel like this is a total mess and I'll never write an AU again, but I suppose I have two more chapters to publish, so let me know what you think if you made it this far?

It's 2AM, so feel free to let me know if something seems off, too.