A/N: My entire house except for me has norovirus so I've literally just holed away in my room and written this hahaha.
Childhood and education is my field but I'm not too familiar with the American education system and their bullying policies, so if I make any mistakes please forgive them! This is very Swan-Mills Family too. Well, pre-Swan-Mills family. You'll see what I mean.
I was going to put some sexytimes into this but I'm so awful at writing sex scenes I figured it would be a disservice to this oneshot to even try. But I will leave what happens after the ending to your imagination ;)
I really hope you enjoy, and if you do please review! :)
TW – Mentions and after-effects of bullying.
As Regina walked to pick Henry up from school, she felt a familiar sense of dread overwhelm her. Her son had only began elementary school a few months before, and while she had been worried he would find it difficult to settle in, he had taken it in his stride, and really came out of his shell when it came to confidence. In the past few weeks, however, all of this seemed to have reversed, and Henry was tense, unmotivated and even quieter than usual. He would fake illness to try and get out of going to school, and walk out in the afternoon dragging his feet.
Regina kept both eyes on the doors to the school at all times, and when she saw Henry running out she breathed a sigh of relief. That was until he reached her, looked at her for a second, and kept on running.
"Henry!" she called after him, "Come back here! There's a road up ahead!"
Henry continued to run until he reached the edge of the road, by which time Regina, who had much longer legs than her six year old son, caught up to him and grabbed his hand before he ran again.
"Why are you running away from me, Henry?" she asked, nervously.
Henry shrugged in response.
"There must be a reason. You used to love telling me about your day."
"Nothing happened." Henry responded, as though she had been asking a different kind of question.
Throughout the rest of the walk home, both remained silent; Henry clearly wishing to avoid conversation and Regina thinking desperately of something to say. When they reached the front door, Regina let go of Henry's hand to unlock it, and he ran in the house and up the stairs before she had the chance to stop him.
She decided to leave him for a few minutes before she went to try and see what was wrong, and so took a bit of time to gather her own thoughts and get changed from her work clothes.
When she finally approached his room, the door was open and he was lying, face down, along the middle of the bed, his face resting on his crossed arms.
"Henry, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," he replied, his voice sounding wet with tears.
"Please tell me what's wrong, darling."
"Nothing." Henry again mumbled into his arms.
"If you don't tell me I can't help." Regina began to run smooth, comforting circles on the middle of his shaking back.
"I can't tell you."
"You can tell me anything, sweetheart. I promise."
"You'll be mad at me."
Regina was shocked. "I could never be mad at you. Never. Now tell me, is something wrong at school?"
"Mmm." Henry responded.
"Henry, will you sit up and look at me?"
Henry sniffed and lifted up so he was sat on the edge of the bed, and Regina put a hand under his chin and turned it towards her.
"Do you know what a bully is?"
"Miss Swan taught us. It's bad boys and girls who are mean to you."
"Is that what's happening to you? Are you being bullied?"
"I think so."
"Why don't you…" Regina, now bubbling with hurt and sadness for her son, her sweet sweet boy, took a breath in to calm herself, "Why don't you tell me all about it."
"There's these boys at my school. Big boys. And sometimes they make fun of me because I'm small. And if I'm reading outside they'll laugh at me.. call me names."
"Do they ever hurt you? Do they hit you?"
"No. Just today, one of them pushed me over."
"Did you hurt yourself?"
"I think… my knee."
"Which one?"
"This one." Henry pointed to his left.
Regina stepped from the bed and bent down in front of her son, and lifted his trouser leg. His knee was grazed and splashed with dried blood.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about this at school? A teacher who was outside? Or Miss Swan?"
"I was scared." Henry mumbled, his lip wobbling.
"It's ok. It's ok." Regina kissed his head and went to get the first aid kit from the bathroom. When she returned, she got Henry to lie on the bed as the washed and bandaged the wound.
"Henry, if it's ok with you I would like to come into school tomorrow and talk to Miss Swan."
"What? Why?"
"Her job is to look after you, and I'm sure she'll be very upset to hear about this."
"No, I don't want them to find out I told anyone." Henry raised his voice and sat up, and Regina placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Nothing will happen to you Henry, I promise you. We'll take care of it. Can I ask you one more question?"
The boy nodded in reply.
"Why did you think I would be angry at you? And.. why didn't you ever tell me before? We can tell each other everything in the world, you know that."
Henry looked down. "Because you always say I'm your brave boy, I didn't want you to know I wasn't."
Regina broke. She pulled Henry into her chest, and cried, and sniffed, and buried her head in his hair.
"You're always brave. You're the bravest boy I've ever met, and nothing, nothing, will ever change that."
Regina slept in Henry's bed with him that night, with his hand clutched in hers. The next morning he was again reluctant to go to school, pretending to cough and dragging his feet. Regina agreed to let him stay at home for the day, on the pretence that she be allowed to go in the afternoon to go and see his teacher, Miss Swan.
"What are you going to tell her?" Henry asked wearily as the two ate breakfast.
"Just what you told me. Nothing more, I promise. Bullying isn't ok, Henry, and what these boys are doing to you is wrong."
"Ok." Henry responded into his food.
Regina took the day off work and stayed at home with Henry, indulging him by allowing him to watch cartoons for most of the day so long as he was next to her. Reluctantly, she called his babysitter as the afternoon began and offered her triple pay if she could come to watch him immediately, and set off towards his school.
As she arrived, lessons had just finished for the day, and students and parents alike were milling around the gates, all pushing and shoving to be the first to leave to get home. Regina strode into the school with a sense of purpose, and walked up to the reception desk, tapping her nails against the ledge until she got someone's attention.
"Hello, how can I help you?"
"I'd like to speak to Miss Swan from the 1st Grade. It's about my son."
"I see. Is he a student of hers?"
"Yes. Henry Mills."
"Is Miss Swan expecting you?"
"No she isn't, but it's really quite urgent."
"Alright then." The woman behind reception frowned a little at Regina's tense sincerity, and went into a drawer to retrieve a visitor's badge. "Here," she passed it to the brunette, "If you just wait a moment I'll walk you to her classroom.
The woman was clearly eager to get back to work, and left Regina abruptly at the door to Henry's classroom. The door had a sign reading "Miss Swan's Class, Grade 1" and was covered in fingerprinted colours. The windows were frosted, and Regina couldn't see in them clearly, so she knocked on the door twice. When there was no response, she opened it.
The room was hectic and cluttered, with paintings and displays covering every spare sliver of wall. The desks had been arranged to form clusters around the room, and each was covered in artwork. Regina went towards the nearest cluster and began to study some of the work when she was interrupted by a cough.
"Erm.. can I help you?" A woman, in her late twenties with blonde hair tied in a messy bun, emerged from a storage room at the back of the classroom with a confused expression on her face.
"Oh. My apologies. I'm Regina Mills." Regina, with a stern voice and an even sterner expression, walked over to the blonde and shook her hand.
"Sure, Henry's mom. I'm Emma, Emma Swan. Is there something wrong? We missed him in class today."
Regina took a deep breath. "Henry is being bullied, Miss Swan, and I would like to know what you intend to do about it."
"Bullied? Henry?" Emma looked shocked, and signalled for Regina to sit in the chair behind her own desk. "He seems so well-liked."
"Well people that are liked never get bullied." Regina responded with sarcasm dripping with anger. "It's not the people in your class that are the problem, it's the older children."
"Right, ok.." Emma still seemed shocked, and a little intimidated as she ran her hand through her hair. "When did it start?"
"From what I understand, fairly recently. Yesterday was the first time it got physical."
"Physical? Is he ok?"
"He's fine, but his knee is quite badly hurt."
"Did he tell you who it was?"
"He flat-out refused to tell me."
"Is it just the one person?"
"It sounded to me like more than one."
"I can assure you Miss Mills, we have an absolute zero tolerance on bullies at this school. I will deal with this straight away."
"Well, good." Regina said with an air of judgement, Emma squirming at questioning eyes on her.
"Usually, when kids are being bullied, it's obvious. I mean, they act up, they get a little verbal with you. That hasn't been the case with Henry, I mean if anything's he's been the opposite. Henry's quite an internal kid, I guess maybe he's been a little quieter than normal now I think about it."
"Well, it's all very well noticing it now, isn't it?" Regina snapped, and ran a hand through her hair, "This is your job, Miss Swan! When my son is at school, he is in your care, and I expect him to come home without injuries inflicted by other students!"
"I know, I know. Clearly, I messed up. I want to offer you an apology. I should have kept a closer eye on his behaviour, I should have noticed that he went a little more into his shell. Would you like me to set up a meeting for him with our guidance counsellor? Archie is really great, I'm sure it would be helpful for Henry to talk to him."
"Please."
"In the meantime, I'll need to speak to him before I can start throwing accusations around."
"You don't believe me?" Regina asked, incredulous.
"No, of course I do! It's just policy, I need to make sure that Henry backs up everything you're saying. I'll speak to him tomorrow and see if I can get any names out of him. And I'll report it as soon as possible."
"Good. He shouldn't have to be scared to go into school, Miss Swan. He should be happy. He should be racing in the doors in the morning, and that's what I want him to be."
"Of course. Look, Regina.. can I call you Regina?"
"If you wish."
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Very well."
"You're very protective of Henry, aren't you?"
"Of course I am. Henry is my son."
"Yeah sure, I understand. I just.. I've had kids parents come to me before about them being bullied, and I've never had them be quite so.. passionate about it. I was just wondering what was different about you, I guess."
Regina didn't say anything for a few moments, tapping her fingers against her thigh and looking across to the window. "The only thing that matters to me is Henry, Miss Swan. I've received a lot of criticism in my time for the way I've raised him. Without a father figure, while I work a full-time job, it can leave you open to a lot of judgement. I suppose it could be argued I feel like I have to prove something. Not to other people, just.." Regina looked down at her hands, "to Henry. Henry is everything to me, and I want to prove to him that he doesn't need a father or a large family to be happy and content. I just want to be enough for him." Inexplicably, Regina felt tears burning in the corners of her eyes, and she got up from the chair the blonde had given her and walked towards the window. "Do you know what he said to me, when I asked him why he didn't tell me?"
The teacher waited in silence for the answer.
"He told me he was worried I wouldn't think he was brave."
Emma's face dropped, with her brow furrowed in concern, and she joined Regina stood by the window. She didn't face her, sensing that this wasn't her usual style, and so she instead looked out at the fields on the other side of the glass.
"Look, Regina. You're doing the best you can. And you're doing a damn good job of it. Henry is smart, and funny, and kind. He likes to read and paint, and sure he can be quiet but he loves laughing and joining in games with his friends. He is always dressed in clean clothes with food in his stomach, and usually he runs into school with a big smile on his face on Monday's talking about all the amazing things he did with his mom. His superhero mom who takes him to the zoo and to see concerts and to the park after school. Half the kids in his class are jealous of him. Hell, I'm jealous of him."
Regina let out a juddery laugh, and fiercely wiped tears from her eyes.
"Kids get bullied. It shouldn't happen, but it does. And you've done the right thing by supporting him and coming straight to me with it as soon as you found out. That's how we can get it stopped, and now we can work to get Henry back to his usual self. Just.. please don't be so hard on yourself."
"I'm sorry," Regina took in a few steadying deep breaths to regain composure, "I don't know what came over me. Thank you for your time." Regina turned away from the window to walk away, and Emma put a hand on her arm.
"Don't.. don't keep that stuff bottled up. Talk to someone. A friend."
Regina smiled tightly to her, and left the classroom.
The next day Emma spent her morning considering how to broach the subject with Henry without him clamming up. She considered that he would probably not be in any rush to go to recess, and that perhaps she could keep him inside them to see what information she could get from him.
As she predicted, while the other children ran to play outside, Henry took his time organising his desk and standing from his chair.
"Henry, do you maybe want to stay in with me? I could do with some help setting up for after recess."
Henry smiled, as most young children do at the prospect of being singled-out to help the teacher. She gave him a pile of card, pulled up a chair, and asked him to help her cutting out the shapes for a craft they would be doing later on. Henry started immediately, cutting the lines precisely with his tongue sticking out from between his teeth in concentration.
"So you know your mom came to see me, huh?" Emma asked after a few minutes.
"Yeah. I'm not in trouble, am I?"
"For what?"
"For telling her and not you."
"Of course you aren't, kid. Your mom was worried about you and she knew you were a little upset so she came to see me instead. I'm not mad. I wish you'd known it was ok to come and tell me about this, though. You wouldn't have got into trouble."
"Ok."
"And you know you can tell me if something is wrong at school, yeah? Or even something outside of school, and we can see what we can do about it."
"Ok."
"Henry, I'm sorry I have to ask you but I just have to check before I can start to fix this. You're being bullied, right?"
Henry nodded, looking away from Emma's gaze.
"Do you know who Archie is, Henry?"
"Nope."
"You don't know Archie? He's awesome!" Henry looked up, intrigued, and Emma widened her eyes with excitement, "Archie is at the school to make sure all of you kids are doing ok, and if you're sad or want some help, Archie sees how we can help you feel better. After I spoke to your mom the other day I went to see him, and he said he'd love to meet with you! How does that sound? Would you like to talk to him?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Great! Well I'll speak to him later and I'll call your mom to see when would be good for you to go and see him." The two continued cutting the shapes for a while in companionable silence, while Emma decided on her next plan of action. "So.. do you want to tell me who it is that's been bullying you?"
Henry shook his head vehemently.
"Hey, I understand. I do. When I was little, kids would bully me too. They would call me names and make fun of me. But when I told the teacher on them, they found out how wrong it was, and they even apologised to me. I know you're scared, and I can't promise that they'll become your friends, but if me and their teacher talk to them about their behaviour and how wrong it is, they should stop."
"Would they get in trouble?"
Emma hesitated. "Yes Henry, they would. But not because of you, ok? Because of what they've done wrong."
"I still don't want to tell you."
"Ok. Do you think maybe if I said some names, you could just say yes or no? Because that way you wouldn't have told me, I'd have figured it out for myself."
"Hmm.." Henry considered, "Ok."
"Right." Emma paused to think for a minute, "So these kids, are they in the fifth grade?"
Henry nodded.
"Are they in Miss Blanchard's class?"
Henry nodded again, less pronounced this time. This didn't surprise Emma. Mary Margaret Blanchard was her roommate, and had often spent hours recalling tales of the behaviour problems she came across in her class. As a result of this, she already had a mental-list of children who could be the culprits.
"Peter?"
"No."
"Kris?"
"No."
"Johnny?"
Henry stopped cutting. Emma didn't ask for any other confirmation.
"Ok. Do you want to go to recess? I'll go and speak to Miss Blanchard right away."
Henry shook his head vehemently.
"That's fine, we can stay here. I'll call her."
Without getting any more confirmation from Henry about who the other bullies were, Emma called Mary Margaret with Johnny's name and she immediately responded with the two other children he would most likely be leading. She explained she would speak to them as soon as the lunch hour began, and advised Emma to speak to the Principal, Mr Gold, immediately.
The bell rang for the start of the next lesson not long after, and so while her class worked Emma wrote a long email to the Principal including as much detail as she could; what Henry had said, what Regina had said. Gold replied almost immediately about speaking to Henry about what had happened, and arranged a meeting with Mary Margaret, Regina and Emma about a plan of action going forward.
After the children left for lunch, Emma ate her own before going to the office to look up Henry's details and getting Regina's number.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Regina? It's Emma Swan."
"Oh, Miss Swan. Is everything ok with Henry?"
"Yeah, he's fine. We had a talk earlier, and he's agreed to see our guidance counsellor, and I just wanted to call and see when would be the best day for him."
"He can come any day next week; I get off work on time to come and pick him up so I could leave it a little later. Whenever is good with the counsellor is fine."
"Ok, shall we say next Thursday after school?"
"That would be fine."
"Great. And I managed to get the names of the kids from him, their teacher is actually talking to them right now to see what they have to say. I spoke to the principal, he'd like you to come in at some point in the next day or two so we can sort out a plan for how we're going to sort this."
"So soon? That's fantastic." Regina's voice lit up.
"It's nothing, really. Just doing my job."
"Well, I'd like to thank you all the same for dealing with it so quickly and with Henry's best interests at heart. I suspect he's lucky to have a teacher like you."
"I bet you say that to all the teachers," Emma joked, regretting it instantly when she heard silence coming from the other end of the phone, before a slight chuckle.
"Quite. Oh, and Miss Swan, what you said about… the other things you said to me yesterday. Let's just say they were much needed. And appreciated."
"Hey, any time."
The two were silent for a moment.
"So, if that's all I will speak to you soon?"
"Sure. Thanks, Regina."
Emma hung up without saying goodbye, and immediately set off towards the guidance counsellor's office.
After the Principal heard the full story from a reluctant Henry, the bullies were suspended and formally reprimanded and punished by the senior management within the school. Each were asked to give Henry a formal apology for their actions, which Henry, being the child that he is, accepted.
Before long, it was the following Thursday and time for Henry's meeting with Archie. Emma walked him after school finished, and stayed with him for the first few minutes to make sure he was comfortable before returning to her classroom to mark work.
Regina arrived much earlier than arranged to pick up Henry, and waited in the hallway outside Archie's office trying to listen in.
"You know, listening in on conversations could get you into trouble.." Regina's head snapped up at the voice, and she turned to see Emma walking down the hallway towards her.
She was dressed much the same as she had been when Regina met her, except now her hair was loose and curled, with a rucksack in her hand and a red leather jacket on over her clothes.
"Emma. Thank you for this, again." Regina signalled to the door.
"You should be thanking Archie, not me. Plus I'm pretty sure he wouldn't accept it either. It's his job, and he enjoys it believe it or not."
"You don't enjoy your job?"
"Me? God, I love it! I just meant, you know his job can be a little more draining than mine I guess. I respect him."
"I can understand that."
"How has Henry been at home? Any better?"
"I've noticed a small improvement already. He still objects to going to school, but I no longer have to try and ply him with comic books to get him out of bed in the morning. I dare say he might begin to look forward to it again soon."
"That's great! And how are you?"
"How am I?"
"Yeah. I guess this has all been hard on you; I know I'd only met you once before you came to see me but you seemed… I don't know. I guess I've been a little worried about you."
"Well thank you for your concern. But I'm fine. It was selfish of me to get upset in the first place; it's Henry that was suffering, not me."
Emma didn't know what to respond, so she didn't. Instead, she looked back down the corridor she'd just walked down and then back to Regina.
"You know, they probably won't be done for a while yet. Do you want to come back to my classroom? I could get you a coffee."
"Were you not on your way home?" Regina signalled Emma's jacket and bag.
Emma shrugged. "Nothing better to do."
Regina looked towards the closed door to Archie's office for a moment, before silently following Emma down the corridor towards her classroom. On the way, Emma stopped at a door that read "Teacher's Lounge", and used a key to let them in.
"Coffee?"
"Please."
Emma inserted coins into the machine.
"I can afford my own coffee, Miss Swan."
"It's my treat." Emma smirked, passing the brunette her drink when it was released. After waiting to receive her own, the two women left the room and continued to Emma's classroom.
Emma flicked the light on and pulled a chair over to her desk, and the two women sat for a few moments in companionable silence.
"So what have you been doing today?" Emma asked eventually, taking a sip from her coffee.
"It's a Thursday. I had work." Regina answered with a hint of a smirk evident in her voice, as if the answer was obvious.
"Right. What is it that you do?"
"I work for the government."
"Hmm. I can see that."
"You can?"
"Yeah. There's something about you, a stance. Maybe it's a confidence thing."
"I'm not sure how much of an impression of confidence I could have given you the last time we met."
"When you first came in, I thought you were going to… I don't even know. I almost feared for my life."
"That seems like a slight exaggeration."
"Hey, I get it. It was very 'mama bear'."
Regina laughed. "It's natural for a parent to be protective of their child."
Emma shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
"You don't have children of your own?"
"Nope. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. I love kids. But I guess I just haven't met the right person yet."
"You don't need a partner to have children. I'm a single parent."
"Oh, I know. It's just.. I guess because of my upbringing, I sort of crave that whole 'traditional family' thing. You know, two parents who love each other."
"Well, I suppose there's nothing wrong with that."
Emma looked down at her coffee, before emitting a nervous laugh. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you this stuff."
"Perhaps subconsciously you're trying to even us out in the getting-personal-too-soon stakes."
"Maybe we just bring it out in each other."
"It's a strange thing to inspire in an almost complete stranger."
"What? Honesty? And besides, I feel like I sort of know you already. Henry talks about you all the time."
"Same with you." Regina smirks, "He says you're 'awesome'. His word, not mine. And I'd also assume he learnt that word from you."
"He was bound to learn it at some point," Emma laughed. "Does he really? He thinks I'm a good teacher?"
"Henry is singing your praises morning, noon and night, Miss Swan."
"I haven't been teaching for too long. I guess it's good to hear I'm doing an ok job."
"I'd say you're doing more than ok." Regina sat with her arms crossed over her chest, and Emma turned to give her a tilted-head smile.
"Thanks."
Both women again sat in silence, until Emma took a deep breath in. "I really hope this works for Henry."
"Me too. I have to say, your concern has been, well, above and beyond what I would expect."
Emma shrugged. "I care a lot about my kids. I care about them getting an education, and I care about them enjoying it. Just, so long as you know… he might not get back to normal straight away. It might take some time."
"I know."
"Doesn't mean you can't hope though. You know what I said to you when we were in my classroom that time? About speaking to someone – a friend?"
"Believe me Emma, if I had a friend I would."
"Then what am I – your mortal enemy?" Emma teased, and Regina responded with a small, innocent smile. "Look, um.." Emma hummed for a moment, before seemingly making a mental decision and grabbing a piece of paper and a pen from her desk. "This is my cell number. I'm not saying you have to call me to tell me about your day or anything – you can if you want to – but just, if you need to. You can." Emma wrote a number down in scrawled writing and placed it in front of Regina, who picked it up with two fingers and enclosed it tightly into her hand.
"Do you treat the parents of all your students like this?"
Emma went to make a joke, but changed her mind. "No. No, I don't."
After Henry's initial meeting with Archie, the two continued to meet twice a week. After a month, Regina was sure Henry had begun to make real progress, so much so that in the mornings he would get out of bed even before she went in to wake him. She hadn't spoken to Emma in the interim; just hearing details of her from Henry's school tales, but one night after what sounded like a particularly fruitful session with Archie, Regina decided to call her.
"Hello?" Emma answered, the word raised in suspicion at the unknown number.
"Emma? It's Regina Mills."
Emma's tone relaxed. "Oh, Regina, hey! How are you?"
"I'm fine thank you, and yourself?"
"I'm good. Are you calling about Henry, or…" Emma paused.
"I just wanted to let you know how much better Henry has started to get. He's out of bed by himself, he tells me about his day."
"Hey, that's amazing!"
Emma was sure she could hear Regina smiling. "Yes, it is."
"I still think he seems a little shy in school, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. I've actually had an idea, I haven't ran it past the Principal or anything yet, obviously there's channels I need to go down, but… could I maybe see you to discuss it?"
"Would you like me to come into school?"
"Sure, sure. Or we could meet outside, you know, get coffee or something?"
"Is that not against procedure?"
"Well, I mean, it's not in procedure. It wouldn't be like a meeting or anything, just a chat."
"Emma, I know I'm Henry's mother and obviously our relationship is significant in terms of that, but.." Regina sighed, "we could also perhaps have a relationship outside of school. If you'd be interested, of course."
"Do you want that? Really? Because that's what I want, I was sort of half making an excuse to see you. I do have an idea, but I could have just told you it over the phone."
"I see," Emma heard the smirk in her voice, "You know dear, you could have just asked me outright."
"I didn't want to over-step my boundaries! But hey, if you're cool, I'm cool."
"I can assure you Miss Swan, I'm very cool."
Emma laughed. "So I guess I'll speak to you soon? Arrange a day?"
"Sounds great."
Emma wished there were clearer parameters to determine what fell under the 'date' category. They were going for coffee, which is an almost exclusively friend gesture, but Regina's use of the word 'relationship' had confused Emma somewhat. Did she mean relationship, or did she mean relationship?
When she texted Regina to arrange a time and location for their get together, Emma had said she would pick Regina up, and so she stood now outside what was essentially a small mansion instead of a townhouse, and knocked the door.
After a short while, the door opened, and Emma looked straight ahead to find no-one until she looked down and saw Henry.
"Hey, kid! How are you?"
"Good." Henry answered suspiciously, looking around him as though he wasn't at home. "Why are you here? My mom's going out."
"I know, she's going out with me." Emma responded tentatively, and Henry looked even more confused.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No, god no. Me and your mom, we're… friends. That's all."
"Henry, I thought I told you not to answer.." Regina entered the hallway with a hand up to ear putting an earring in, and she straightened when she saw Emma.
"Oh, hello, dear."
"Hi." Emma answered simply, a smile on her face.
"Henry's babysitter should be here any moment; do you want to come in while we wait?"
"Sure." Emma put her hands in her pockets awkwardly and stepped up into the mansion.
Henry, thrilled at having his teacher come to his house, began running up and down stairs bringing various toys and drawings to show off to Emma. Emma, to her credit, acted just as excited at each one, even after a small pile had begun to build up next to her and was threatening to topple onto her lap.
After a few minutes, the doorbell rang, and Regina stood with a relieved sigh.
"I thought his entire bedroom would be here in a moment." She commented to Emma as the two walked towards the door. Regina opened it and a woman with red streaks in her hair and arms laden with bags smiled brightly.
"Hey, Regina. Is this Emma?"
"Yep, nice to meet you." Emma smiled at the woman, who stepped in from the porch.
"This is Ruby, Henry's babysitter. You do know you're only staying for a few hours, correct?" Regina eyed Ruby's bags with suspicion.
"Yep. Henry likes to have options, so I'm giving them to him!" At the sound of his name, Henry ran into the hallway and hugged around Ruby's waist. "Hey babe, do you want to see what I've got with me?"
"Uh-huh. Bye Miss Swan, bye mommy." Henry shooed the women away as he pulled Ruby into the front room.
"Well, I see when we aren't wanted." Regina smirked, and said her goodbyes to Ruby as the two women exited the house.
For the first half-hour or so in the coffee shop, Emma and Regina spoke about themselves. Regina was aware that she was telling a lot more than Emma was, but the blonde seemed more than happy to indulge her in whatever she wanted to say.
"Sorry, I must sound incredibly self-absorbed." Regina laughed at one point, taking a sip from her drink.
"Nope, I enjoy hearing you talk."
Regina smiled a little. "Anyway, why don't you tell me about this idea you've had?"
"Oh yeah, sure. So.. it's like a buddy system, right? And Henry and a few of the other kids who have been bullied before sort of team up and they can look out for each other and the other kids at recess and if they see anyone by themselves or looking upset they hang out with them? And then they can let me know if they see any kids who don't seem to have too many friends and I can pair them up with one of the buddies."
"Well, I think it sounds like a fantastic idea."
"Really? And do you think Henry would go for it?"
"Absolutely."
"Good. I don't want to make him do something he doesn't want to, but I'd want a younger kid doing it with the older kids, for sure."
"It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into it."
"I couldn't sleep the other night, so I wrote some ideas down. And it spiralled, and I didn't get to sleep until 6am."
"Do you do that often?"
"Not really. I don't tend to have many ground-breaking ideas."
"Well, I think you only ever need one."
"Didn't stop Thomas Edison."
"So now you're the Thomas Edison of the teaching profession?"
"I need to have one idea work out first." Emma laughed.
"I'm sure it will. If you need any kind of backing with the Principal, I'd be more than happy to write a letter endorsing it."
"Thanks, that'd be great."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"What made you go into teaching?"
Emma took a sip from her drink, and frowned as she considered. "I guess it sort of just felt like the natural thing for me to do, you know? I mean, I grew up in foster homes. I loved spending time with the kids, especially when I got older I loved to feel like… I don't know, I made an impact in their lives I guess. Even if it was tiny, even just something like that time I helped them study for a math test. And so I guess when it came to starting college I just had that subconsciously in my mind and that's why I'm here."
"You sound like you haven't thought about it before."
"I mean, I'm sure I have. But I guess when you're doing something, you don't really stop and consider the motivations behind it. What about you? What made you decide to get into politics?"
"I like power." Emma's eyes lit up and she laughed, and Regina smiled smugly to herself at being the cause of the reaction. "To be honest, I don't know my motivations behind the path I chose, career-wise. Though that isn't true - I do; it seemed the easiest route considering my college major. And it had good benefits and financial stability."
"But it wasn't what you wanted to do?"
Regina half-smirked to herself. "I wish I'd been more assertive as a child. Perhaps if I'd chosen a major I was interested in, I wouldn't be where I am today."
"What would you have wanted to do?"
"Truthfully? I don't know. I suppose I would have liked the chance to find out."
"It's not too late to change, you know. There's night classes, schools you can go to. The world is your oyster." Emma noted into her glass.
"I know. I think I'm used to it by now. I like knowing that I can provide Henry with everything he could want, and truthfully it has grown on me. The bureaucracy bothered me a little when I first started, but now I'm higher up in the chain as it were, I don't have a problem with it."
"Hey, maybe you'll be president one day."
Regina laughed, "I think I might have left it a little late to have ambitions of running the country. No-one would vote for an 80 year old president."
"I would! If it was you, anyway."
"Well, I'm very flattered dear, I'm sure."
"You aren't that old, anyway."
"If I wanted to start a presidential-progression route, I am. I'm glad you think so, though. What about you? How old are you?"
"28."
Regina visibly winced.
"How old are you?" Emma asked in a tone of defensiveness after seeing her reaction.
"Older."
"You're really not going to tell me?"
"No."
"Ok then, do we pass the 'half your age plus seven' rule?"
"And what is that, exactly?"
"Is half of your age plus seven less than my age?"
"Yes. Good god Miss Swan, exactly how old do you think I am?"
"I don't know! And less of the Miss Swan, makes me feel like I'm in trouble with you."
"My apologies, Emma. So this rule.. what exactly does it determine?"
Emma blushed. "It's just a.. rule. About age differences."
"But why? What age differences?"
"So.. say if you were going to date someone who was younger than you. You use the rule to see if it's an acceptable age gap."
"And this rule applies to us?" Regina raised an eyebrow, a smirk on her face, and Emma blushed even more.
"Well, no. Not right now. But it's good to keep all your bases covered, just in case."
After a few more meet-ups in the day, a few weeks later Regina invited Emma to dinner in the evening at a restaurant close to her house. Again, they spent the majority of the time getting to know each other in more personal parameters than they already did, and after their meals had been cleared Emma realised there was a topic they had yet to broach.
"So, Henry's dad. I mean, I know he's out of the picture."
"He broke up with me a little before Henry was born. I told him he was under no obligation to care for Henry, and it seems he took the words quite literally."
"Henry's never met him?"
"No. and I daresay he's better for it."
"Well, he doesn't know what he's missing not being a part of Henry's life."
"Indeed."
"And for what it's worth, I don't know what he was thinking, letting you go."
Regina smiled as though Emma was indulging her, and Emma smiled back. "Really?"
"Mmm." Emma responded, nodding. The two looked at each other for longer than they had before, and the smile slowly dropped from Regina's face. Emma noticed this, and looked at her lips briefly. Regina leaned forward slightly, and stopped as if to get confirmation from Emma. When Emma made no attempt to move out of the way, Regina leaned in and covered Emma's nervous smile with a kiss. Regina could feel Emma's lips still upturned as they were against hers, and her tongue played ever so slightly with the gap between Regina's lips. Just as Regina was about to open her mouth further, she became acutely aware of their surroundings, and her eyes fluttered open. Emma felt this, and pulled away.
After a moment of awkward silence, Regina turned back to Emma. "Henry's on a sleepover."
Emma coughed. "He is?"
"I didn't mean to presume anything. Just that.. would you like to come back to my house for a nightcap?"
"Yeah, yeah I would."
Emma was feeling awkward by the time they arrived back at Regina's house, accepting a glass of homemade cider from her with a pseudo-formal nod.
Regina signalled for Emma to sit down, but she shook her head and continued to stand with a bend in one knee, as Regina herself sat on the sofa in her office.
"Emma, I hope I didn't.." Regina stopped.
"Didn't what?"
"Ruin this.. whatever this is, by inviting you here."
"No," Emma laughed, "No. I wanted to ask myself, believe me. I was just nervous, I didn't want to seem out of line."
"I suppose that isn't a problem for me."
Emma takes a swig from her drink and puts it down on the table in front of her. Regina sensed the air tense, and copied Emma's actions as the blonde slowly walked to where she sat. Emma hesitated for a moment, before sitting down on the seat half-facing Regina. The blonde looked at her earnestly for a moment, before a hand went to a strand of her hair, which was placed back behind her ear. Regina then continued to stroke her hair absent-mindedly for a few moments, before Emma finally gained the courage to lean in.
Emma kissed her softly at first, with Regina's hand still in her hair as she moved one of her own around Regina's hip. The other soon found its way to the back of her neck as Regina tugged a little at her lower lip so Emma would allow her tongue entrance to her mouth. Regina deepened the kiss further and hers and Emma's tongues briefly touched as she explored the blonde's mouth.
Feeling confident, Emma stood and re-located, so that she was now kneeling on the sofa facing Regina, and the woman mirrored this by turning to face Emma, her legs stretched out in front of her. Regina smiled, a slight glimmer of nerves evident as Emma once again closed the gap between them, this time moving downwards towards the arm-rest so that she was lying on top of Regina.
It felt childish and immature and Emma laughed into Regina's mouth, the brunette smiling a little at the sensation. Regina lifted one knee to be up between Emma's so she was half-sat on her leg. Emma removed her hands from Regina to take off her jacket, and Regina fumbled with clumsy fingers to help her.
When Emma leaned back down, Regina's lips attached to her neck and began to kiss along the base of it. "I like you." Emma whispered into Regina's hair, feeling her smile against the base of her neck.
"Well, that's a relief." Regina paused for a moment. "I like you too."
Regina continued to kiss Emma's neck for a moment, both seemingly intent to take this as slow as possible. At one point, Regina lightly pushed Emma up so she was sat straight, and used the free space to undo the buttons to her shirt.
Emma smiled. "Parent-teacher conference is going to be awkward."