day 1 - 6.8.2014 - awkward situation

summary - shaving cream, toothpaste, pregnancy test.

that certainly wasn't on the list

"It's not a big deal, kid. C'mon," Emma says into her cellphone as she holds her free arm across her body and leans against the brick wall outside of Dark Star Pharmacy. "I'm not going to invite her over for dinner. I already said that."

"But ma, seriously, it'd be a good idea to just try here."

"No," Emma responds, more firm than she expected to sound, but it felt kind of good being a mom. "I just don't want to deal with this now."

"Okay, so after you bring back Marian in your freaking time-traveling Delorian, you think it's a good idea to just leave my mom to fend for herself? I think that's really crappy."

"Henry Mills! You watch your tone of voice with me," Emma says pushing off the brick wall with her foot and straightening up. "I am still your mom. Even if you've chosen to side with Regina this time."

"Whatever. I'm hanging up. Invite her to dinner."

And the line goes dead.

"What the hell?" Emma looks at her phone and then shakes her head, wondering where the hell her kid got that stubborn fight streak from. And then she remembers.

Regina.

Man, she really fucked things up this time. Her mind flashes back to Regina's face in the diner after Marian and Robin and oh, god, Roland…

Mama? and his voice and dammit.

Emma's stomach ties into a knot and she swallows, and swallows, and swallows. This is not how she expected things to play out.

Emma turns, takes two steps and pushes the door to the drug store open, striding through, her boots hitting the linoleum with a scrape. She reaches over to grab a basket to carry her items. She immediately pulls out the list of products that are needed.

First line: aftershave.

Seriously?

Second line: shaving cream

She rolls her eyes.

Third line: men's deodorant

Emma's not going to lie. That one is all her. There is no way she's going to enter into a relationship - no, it's not a relationship. It's a fling. It's a stupid fling with kissing and maybe sex and why would that be bad? It wouldn't be. It'd be okay. Right? Because there isn't anyone else she has feelings for. At least no one else she can be honest with herself about.

Anyway.

He needs deodorant.

Like, yesterday.

Fourth line: toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss

That's Henry's teenage scrawl on the note and it makes her smile. She takes off down the first aisle, grabbing the sixth and seventh items on the list: sleep aid and Breathe Right Strips. Because it doesn't matter how much she might need some companionship, she certainly doesn't need his snoring ass keeping her up every time he spends the night.

She pulls up short next to the aisle of feminine products. Her eyes move casually over the condoms. It's been awhile, but she's not dead and honestly, the last fucking thing she needs is to get pregnant with a pirate baby.

Would it come out with an eye patch and peg leg? And maybe a bottle of rum?

A smile comes across her face and she finds herself stifling a chuckle before she reaches forward and grabs a box of Trojan condoms.

Two steps and rounding a corner and all of a sudden she's plowing straight into someone. Their baskets drop to the floor and when she looks up to see who it is, her mouth goes instantly dry.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" The voice comes out as a hiss and fear is, well, it's instantaneous.

"Regina, I - I - I," Emma stammers as she looks at the brunette, her face is flushed and there's an urgency in her movements that Emma has never seen before.

"Stop stuttering, you fool," Regina murmurs as she kneels down and starts picking up her items from the floor. "I'm not picking up your," she picks up the box of condoms, glances up at Emma through the veil of her dark hair and then tosses them at the blonde's feet, "your things. Feel free to help me."

Emma almost falls to her knees to help, still not saying a word, when she notices why Regina was in such a rush to pick up her items. "Regina," she finally whispers. She didn't mean to whisper it, but her voice really has departed. "Umm…"

Regina looks down at her basket of items and quickly covers what Emma has seen. "Mind your own business."

"Regina." Emma reaches out to touch the brunette's arm.

Regina shrugs the touch away before standing and taking off towards the register, leaving Emma still kneeling on the linoleum, her items scattered on the floor, a box of condoms at her knees. She stands and follows the brunette, jumping over the can of men's spray deodorant and then leaping the couple of steps to the door.

"Wait, Regina!"

"Miss Swan, this is none of your concern. Please just leave me alone."

"No, absolutely not." Emma grabs onto Regina's elbow and feels it being ripped from her grasp.

"Unhand me this instant!"

Emma reaches out again, this time hands up, in mock defeat, "Okay, okay! I won't touch you again, but dammit Regina, that's a fucking pregnancy test." She points at the plastic bag Regina is now holding onto for dear life. "You have to tell me what the hell is going on."

"No, I do not need to tell you anything. I've never had to tell you anything and I certainly am not going to start now that I know I can't trust you!" The last of those words come out with a sob and even though Emma knows Regina will not allow herself to cry in the middle of town on the main drag, she can sense tears are on the horizon.

"Regina," Emma whispers, taking a step towards the older woman. "Are you…?"

Regina stops looking around and locks her eyes onto Emma's. "I think so," she says, finally, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. "And now…"

"I'm sorry," Emma cuts in, her voice shaking with emotion. And she really is sorry. She is so sorry. "I never meant for this… I mean, I just didn't want her to die, Regina. That's all. And I didn't know. Do you really think I'd hurt you like that on purpose?" Regina's tilt of the head and eyebrow raise response could mean so many things. "I saw you there, you know? In the Enchanted Forest. And you were such a bitch. But dammit, I still saw you and I can't unsee you, and fuck…" Emma pauses, looks down at the ground, her boots, Regina's open toe heels and red toenails. "I couldn't see you kill someone, Regina. I couldn't bear to see that." Emma brings her eyes up to lock onto Regina's, feels the beginnings of a spring breeze whip between them. "I still see you, Regina. I always have and apparently I always will."

"Why are you telling me this, Emma?"

Emma's breath catches in her throat at the use of her name, those four letters slipping past Regina's mouth and into the wind. "Because…" I can't do this without you, Regina. I can't… "I don't want to…" lose what we've gained and… "Go back to hating each other."

"I never stopped hating you," Regina murmurs under her breath, trying to sound menacing, tossing her longer hair over her shoulder, reaching for the Evil Queen, but always coming up short when it comes to Emma.

Emma whispers Regina's name again as she reaches out, wrapping her thin fingers around the brunette's wrist. "Yes, you did," she responds. Their magic connects, like it always does. Emma knows that Regina feels it by the look that washes over her eyes, the quick dilation of her pupils and a blink before they're back to the normal dark eyes she's come to be so fond of. The scent that happens from their touch is swirling around them, lavender and apples and spice, and Emma knows and wonders how this has happened. She squeezes once, twice, and then says, "Why don't you come to dinner tonight?"

"Miss Swan-" Regina starts.

"At the apartment."

"Miss Swan-"

"I'm cooking…"

"That doesn't intensify the desire to come over," Regina says curtly.

"Mac and cheese and grilled chicken breasts and green beans and it's even slightly healthy." Emma sees Regina's intake of breath and then watches as she looks around, across the street, behind Emma, anything to not make eye contact. "And Henry really wants you to come over. And you know that."

Regina lets out a puff of breath and raises both of her eyebrows almost to her hairline. "It's completely disgusting that you would use our son to win me over." Regina's dark eyes stop and lock onto Emma's green and a slight upturn of her lips is revealing the tiniest of smiles. "What time?"

"5:00."

Regina glances up at the clock tower. "It's 4:45, Miss Swan."

"Then come now. We can," Emma looks down at the bag and then back up at Regina, "find out together."

"That sounds absolutely horrifying," Regina whispers, her voice catching in her throat at the word horrifying, but as Emma takes a step in the direction of her downtown Storybrooke apartment, Regina doesn't not follow.

Emma lets go of Regina's wrist when she feels the other woman follow her, the clack of her heels sounding on the cement sidewalk. And for the first time since Hook and time traveling and Marian and Robin, Emma feels her heart stop aching.

Except what if Regina is pregnant?

Shit.

That certainly wasn't on the list.