"You're sure you'll be alright?" Regina brushed some on Henry's hair off to the side of his forehead and gently held into his upper arms.
"Yes Mom, I'm just going with Grandma and Grandpa." he rolled his eyes and huffed, pulling away from Regina who was still trying to fuss over him.
"Kid, just play along, it'll make this easier for all of us." Emma was leaning against the wall, her arms folded across her chest, waiting for Regina to finished her unnecessary worrying. It was Friday afternoon and Mary Margaret and David were going camping for the weekend and had invited them along. She and Regina had declined, neither one having ever really enjoyed camping in the past, but Henry jumped at the chance; it was all he had talked about all week, but it had taken Emma three days just to get Regina to let him go.
"You have pajamas?"
"Yes."
"Toothbrush?"
"Yes..." Henry replied, his teenaged annoyance starting to slip into his voice.
"Flashlight?"
"Yes! Mom, their waiting..."
"Alright, alright, I'll stop… sleeping bag?"
"Oh my God… I'm leaving, bye!" Henry said as she started to walk out the door.
"Henry Daniel get back here!" he stopped and turned around, looking at his brunette mother, waiting to get yelled at. "You didn't hug me goodbye." He relaxed a little, having expected to have his ear nagged off about walking away from her. She feigned hurt until Henry went over and wrapped his arms around her. She smiled and hugged him back tight, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. They pulled away and she smiled at him. "Stay safe."
"I will Mom." He then looked at Emma who was pushing away from the wall and unfolding her arms.
"Come here Kid." She smiled and opened her arms as he walked into them. She tousled his hair and let him go. "Don't do anything too stupid." She smirked at the look Regina gave her but let it go. "Go have fun. We'll see you Sunday."
"Bye!" he called as he ran out the door and into David's waiting pick up truck, Mary Margaret in the passenger seat. Emma followed him out, walking up to David's side as he rolled his window down.
"Get him home in one piece." she joked. "No bear bites taken out of him." David chuckled and Mary Margaret smiled, turning to look back at Henry in the backseat.
"We'll do our best." He laughed again. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" He had been badgering all week since she and Regina had declined their invitation and every free moment he and Emma had spent at the station had been filled with 'it'll be fun' and 'the campground is gorgeous' and 'it gets you out of town for a couple of days', but Emma couldn't see past her first and last camping trip where she had fallen down a ravine and hurt her leg, only to get mauled by mosquitoes that night. As for Regina, she hadn't even gotten the first few words of her sentence out of her mouth when she had vetoed it and Emma had never brought it up again.
"You guys have a good time." was her only reply to the question and her tone made her answer quite clear. David nodded and rested his arm on the car door.
"You have a nice weekend too Emma, relax. You've been working too hard." That was true. Emma had been working late at the station every night for the whole week. She had been trying to find money in the budget to get several upgrades like a new cruiser and a new desk to replace hers that only had three good legs and was being held up by a couple old manuals, but every time she thought she had found her money, there was a fixed expense in the way that brought her back to square one. On top of that, Regina had registered Storybrooke as an official town in the state of Maine, bringing in all sorts of new regulations and procedures, as well as mountains upon mountains of paperwork and incident report copies that had to be sent back to the state ASAP. She was exhausted and only semi-relieved when David had informed her that he was taking her set of keys of the station with him on his trip, as well as his own, forcing her to take a break.
"Thanks, I'll try." she smiled and folded her arms across her chest, backing away from the car. She gave a final wave to Henry before giving her goodbyes to her parents.
"See you Sunday!" David called with a smile out the window as Emma headed back up the house and Regina's side. Both women nodded and waved, smiling as the trio took off for the weekend. Once they couldn't be seen down the road anymore, they headed in side and Regina closed the front door and sighed, looking at Emma.
"He's gone."
"Yes he is dear." Regina looked at the small watch on her wrist. "I think I'll do my workout now, before dinner. Would you like to join me?" Emma made a face.
"No thanks, I think I'll just go upstairs and take a nap or something. Regina rolled her eyes and snorted.
"If you don't move you're going to get fat." the brunette teased as Emma headed up the stairs, making her pause.
"Hey! I move!"
"Yes dear, but only to get food, and even then, only when it's truly necessary." Emma huffed and continued her way up the stairs. Regina smiled and headed to the basement, where she had her workout room. Emma went into her room and closed the door behind her, walked across the room and fell onto the bed. She ran her hands over her face and sighed. Well now what? She asked herself. After a moment of contemplation, she rolled over and grabbed her laptop and ear buds that were sitting on the floor on the other side of the bed. She pushed herself up so that her back rested against the headboard and set the computer on her lap and headed to YouTube to see what she could find.
An hour and a half later, Regina made her way back up the basement stairs, very sweaty and changed into yoga pants and a cami. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it.
"Emma?" she called into the house. No response. "Emma!" she tried again, but to no avail. With a sigh, she walked over to the counter and got her phone off it, and unlocked it. She sent a text to Emma: get your butt downstairs and stop ignoring me. She hit send and started counting the seconds until she heard Emma's feet pounding down the stairs. She didn't even get to 2.
"I'm so sorry Regina please don't be mad I had my ear buds in-" she stopped when she saw the massive grin plastered on the brunette's face and her worry melted away. "You are terrible person, you know that right?" Emma asked as she went to sit on a stool at the counter across from Regina.
"Would you like dinner?" Emma nodded with a grin.
"Do you even have to ask that question?" Regina just smirked and brushed by her as she walked out the kitchen and Emma watched. "Wait… where are you going?"
"To take a shower Emma, I feel disgusting."
"Then why did you ask me if I wanted dinner?" the blonde pouted, obviously having been very excited at the idea of eating again.
"Because now I know to take a long shower." Regina smirked as Emma groaned. "I'm kidding, I'll be down in a couple minutes." Emma nodded, her face brightening a little bit again as Regina disappeared up the stairs. Hearing the water start to run upstairs, she took her phone out of her back pocket and unlocked it, opening some stupid cat game Henry had gotten her addicted to. She Emma set the table while Regina pulled the pulled pork out of the crock pot and put some of it into a big bowl, setting it in the middle of the table. Next, a salad was taken out of the refrigerator, unwrapped of its saran wrap, and set next to it. "What do you want to drink?" Emma asked as she headed out to the refrigerator in the garage. "I'm gonna grab a beer."
"I've got an open bottle of wine in here, I'm fine."
"Alright." The blonde came back a moment later, trying to pry the top off with her teeth. Regina tsked and took the bottle away from her.
"You're going to break your teeth if you keep trying to open them like that..." She said as she got the opener out of the drawer, popped the lid off, then gave it back.
"Hey, one of these days I'm gonna get it." Emma said as they sat down.
"Yes, but you won't have any teeth left to try it again." Regina replied bluntly as she served herself some salad. Emma just rolled her eyes and got some food as well. They ate in silence for a moment before Regina finally spoke. "Do think Henry's alright? Do you think I sent him with enough-"
"He's fine Regina," Emma interrupted. "My parents are gonna take care of him just fine."
"Emma, you know there's a reason I call them the two-"
"He's fine Regina." Emma's tone was firm and final, effectively shutting Regina up, although her foot never stopped nervously shaking. Emma felt it after a moment and closed her eyes sighing. Reaching across the table, she rested her hand over Regina's. "Regina, he's going to be fine." The brunette nodded, biting her lip.
"Sorry… I just-"
"Don't. I get it." Emma smiled at her as she took another bite. "So, how was work today." Emma teased, sarcasm lacing her voice.
"Don't get me started or I won't stop."
"I feel like I should get started, it's fun to get you all riled up." Regina sighed.
"Well it started with no one showing up for the committee meeting, so I had to call around and have that start three hours late. Then, it turns out the council changed the meeting location from the hall to across town without informing me, so I had to sprint across town for that. Then I had to fix a whole mess of paperwork that Alyssa did wrong on the budget..." Regina trailed off, running a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry, this must be incredibly boring to listen to."
"No you're fine. I'm the one who asked anyways." Regina nodded.
"Any vicious crimes committed today?" she teased, knowing that absolutely nothing ever happened in Storybrooke.
"No! Nothing happened! Not a single call! It was sooooo boring..." Emma complained, dropping her head forward for emphasis.
"I see..." Regina smirked and continued eating her dinner. When they both had finished eating, Emma offered to do the dishes.
"Are you sure Emma? I-"
"You made dinner, I'll do the dishes. It's only fair." Emma could tell just how tired Regina was by how easily she gave in. Emma watched as the brunette disappeared into the den and heard the TV switch on as she started the sink. Since there had only been two of them, the dishes were soon on the drying rack and the left overs in the fridge. She followed where her girlfriend had gone into the den and settled in next to her on the couch. Regina immediately uncrossed her legs, tucked them underneath herself and leaned into Emma, resting her head on the blonde's shoulder. "So now what?" Emma asked as she moved away from Regina and leaned against the arm and poking Regina with her toes.
"I don't know. There was nothing good on TV."
"Well, what do we usually do?" Regina looked up for a moment, thinking.
"Work, eat dinner, help Henry with his homework, then you go home." Regina listed each item off one by one, counting them off on her fingers. Emma's face scrunched up. "What?"
"Is this seriously the first time we've been alone together without Henry around?"
"It appears so dear." Emma's face contorted again.
"Well then I know what we're doing?"
"And what is that?" Regina asked, confused, as Emma got up and left the room.
"I'll be back in two seconds. Go change into something more comfortable."
"Why, might I ask?"
"Just do it and don't ask questions!" Emma whined from the kitchen. Regina sighed and got up, heading up the stairs to her bedroom, where she changed into a pair of leggings and stole one of Emma's old sweatshirts to wear. She finished with fuzzy socks, because why not? Heading back down, she heard the microwave timer go off and headed into the kitchen to see what was going on. When she entered Emma looked over and smiled. "Almost done..."
"And what are you almost done with?"
"Popcorn. And hot chocolate. We're having a movie night." Emma finally took two seconds to take in what Regina had changed into and gave the other woman a look. "I don't know how you do it, but you make an oversized sweatshirt and leggings look so much sexier than it should be." Regina smirked and nodded, stealing the giant bowl full of popcorn out of the blonde's hand and escaping with it back to the den. "Hey!" Emma paused when Regina didn't laugh or tease her over hr shoulder. "At least don't eat it all before I get there..." She finished up making their hot chocolate as fast as she could, then walked as quickly as she could manage without spilling their boiling drinks all over her feet and the hardwoods. She got to the den, finding Regina sitting on the couch, feet tucked under herself, the popcorn bowl settled protectively in her arm. "Hey I said don't eat it all." the blonde teased as she set their mugs on the coffee table in front of them before plopping onto the sofa next to Regina. The brunette made a noise as she moved quickly o as to not get crushed by the less than graceful blonde.
"Careful dear, or I'll spill the popcorn." Emma looked horrified for about three seconds before making grabby hands.
"Speaking of which, hit me up."
"If you want some, come over here and get some." Emma groaned.
"But then I'd have to move..." she whined.
"Well then I guess you're not getting any." Regina pursed her lips before popping another piece into her mouth.
"Fine. Then I get to pick the movie." Regina just nodded as Emma grabbed the remote from the small table behind her head and turned the TV on, first flicking through the on demand movies, then, when she didn't find anything even remotely interesting there, she moved to Netflix, she surfed through section after section, and was about to give up when she finally found a glimmer of hope. "Alright, I got one."
"Good. I was beginning to think you never would." Emma stuck her tongue out at the brunette as she click on her selection and the opening theme song of Sharknado started playing. "Have I ever told you how much I hate you?" Regina asked as she threw a piece of popcorn at Emma's forehead. The blonde moved just fast enough to catch it in her mouth.
"Hah! I-" she was about to continue her gloating when another hit her in the forehead. "Hey! That's not fair! I wasn't ready!"
"You weren't ready the first time either dear, and you still managed." Emma rolled her eyes and growled, sitting up awkwardly, just enough to take a sip from her hot chocolate without making the full commitment of sitting up. Emma had seen the movie a thousand times, but she still found herself laughing at her favorite parts, and occasionally, heard Regina holding back a chuckle as well, despite her frequent detriment of it. Somewhere around a half hour in Regina set the popcorn bowl on the coffee table and rested her back against Emma's bent legs. Emma responded by leaning them to one side and letting Regina cuddle up against her. Then, about fifteen minutes later, Regina got cold, so she pulled the blanket that was folded neatly on the back of the couch over them and pulled it close around herself.
"Hey, if you're gonna throw the blanket over me too, at least share!" Emma whined as she tugged at it. Regina held on for a moment before giving in and letting Emma fix it over the both of the. Ten minutes later Emma had wrapped her arms around Regina and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Five minutes later Regina found herself struggling to keep her eyes open, then from falling asleep. When she felt Emma's head starting to droop on top of hers, her eyes closed for the final time, Emma following soon after.
Regina woke up the next morning to the sound of Sharknado theme music playing. Confused, it took her a minute to figure out where she was. Last night. Stupid movie. Emma. She reached over and got the remote, turning the TV off just as Emma started to shift against her back.
"Ngh… Gina?" Emma's hoarse voice asked.
"Good morning." Regina replied softly. She turned as slowly as she could so as not hit the blonde in the face, but also to avoid falling off the couch.
"What time is it?" Emma squinted at the clock that was on the DVR.
"Almost 9:30 dear."
"How long have you been up?"
"Almost as long as you have."
"Really?" Emma started to wake up a little more. "Regina Mills slept until 9:30? Wow. Someone should write this down or something, make it a national holiday anyth-" she was cut off by a smack in the forehead. "Hey..." Regina just smirked.
"I'm going to make breakfast, and if you want any, you have to be nice." Regina sat up and stretched her neck back and forth a few times, cracking it repeatedly, followed by her fingers and ankles. "Please remind me to never sleep on the couch again." she said as she got up, stretched, then headed into the kitchen.
"Come on, you know you had fun." Emma smiled and followed suit, but without as many popping noises. The blonde followed Regina into the kitchen where the shades were open and she could see that it was pouring rain outside.
"I hope they're alright out there..." Regina was standing in front of the window, nervously picking at her thumbnail. Emma stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist.
"They're fine Regina. If it gets too bad, we both know they'll come home."
"I know… I just-" Regina was going to continue, but was interrupted by a ball of energy coming bursting through the front door.
"Moms! We're home!" Henry came darting into the kitchen, sopping wet. Although Regina was ecstatic to see him, she was not ecstatic about how he was dripping all over the hardwoods.
"Henry! You're dripping wet! Get out of here! Go upstairs and dry off or shower or something!" Henry followed the order without a word, heading back into the hall then up the stairs and straight into the bathroom. Emma turned, watching him go up and noticed that her parents were standing in the hallway, not quite as wet as Henry, but pretty close.
"Sorry we showed up without any warning. The tents leaked through and we had terrible reception the whole way." Mary Margaret explained apologetically. Emma shook her head and smiled.
"It's fine, sorry I didn't notice you were standing in the doorway." everyone laughed as Regina came over as well.
"I see it didn't work out so well." she folded her arms across her chest casually.
"No, but we got as much of the camping experience in for him as we could; it seems like he really enjoyed it though." David said.
"That's good, I'm glad." Emma and Regina said simultaneously, resulting in more laughter. There was a moment of silence before Mary Margaret spoke up again.
"Well, we should get heading home, to unpack and all that." Emma nodded.
"Alright, drive home safe." she called after them as they headed back out into the rain and rushed to the car. Once they were gone, Emma closed the front door and looked at Regina quite similarly to how she had the night before.
"So much for being alone together." Regina teased. Emma rolled her eyes then let out a breathy laugh as she heard Henry making as much noise as he possibly could upstairs.
"Ya know, you're right, but I wouldn't have this any other way."