"Do it now," Henry whispered, trying to covertly look over to the counter at the brunette ordering her coffee-to-go.
Emma instantly felt her throat constrict at what he was suggesting and began to vehemently shake her head, "in what world would Granny's be the best place for this?"
"What would be the best place?" the boy shot back with a grin on his face. Since he had first met Emma, he had always seen her as the completely fearless saviour. She had travelled to the Enchanted Forest, Neverland and even through time without a single hint of nerves, let alone fear.
"Somewhere more private…where everyone won't see the rejection," the blonde mumbled, looking down at the table.
"What are you two talking about?" another voice asked before Henry could yet again try and convince his mother that she wouldn't be rejected.
The boy swallowed hard and smiled suspiciously at his other mother, "we were just talking about who would win in a fight, Hulk or Loki…"
Regina tilted her head and looked between them with narrowed eyes, "the answer is obviously the Hulk."
"That's what I said," Emma said far too quickly to be considered normal.
"In the Avengers, it was after the portal was closed and he didn't have his sceptre, so he wasn't technically at his full power," Henry said quickly, hoping desperately that his brunette mother would buy it.
She clearly didn't, but when she looked over to the blonde on the other side of the table, she saw that she was uncomfortable with the topic. Instantly, she decided her best friend, or whatever were to each other, would tell if she wanted to. The mayor saw no need to pry, as long as neither of them were in danger, they were entitled to some lies.
"Very well, I'll leave you to your debate and I'll see you after work," she said with a small amount of amusement in her voice as she rose from her chair. Simultaneously, she grabbed her coffee and planted a kiss on her son's forehead, the woman offered the blonde a smile by way of goodbye, before making her way to the door.
Once the bell rang out to confirm that she was truly left, Henry turned back to his other mother and shook his head.
"What?" the saviour asked dramatically.
"How is it that we can have breakfast as a family, but you can't even ask mom out on a date?"
The blonde felt her throat constrict again and she just shook her head, "we've been through this Henry. Her relationship with Robin only just ended…"
"Three months ago, ma, it ended three months ago. Plus, mom was planning to break up with him anyway, she thanked you for bringing Marian back, remember?"
The sheriff blew out a breath and looked away from her son again, sometimes she really hated how astute he was. The real reason that she had refused to cooperate with Operation Mongoose was because she was afraid. Henry was convinced that his mother wouldn't need to find the author anymore, not that she was really looking anyway, if Emma would just ask her out. In his mind, they made the perfect couple, though the saviour had a feeling that it had something to do with him being able to refer to them as his parents. Even if he would never admit it aloud (mostly because he didn't want to hurt Regina again) the boy longed for a stable parenting unit, probably even more so since he lost his father.
The bell over the door rang again and Emma felt her palms begin to sweat at the thought that maybe Regina forgot something. She often worried that Henry would take it upon himself to arrange their date and he certainly seemed in the mood to do so right now.
However, her shoulders instantly relaxed when she saw that the new arrival was no other than Killian Jones. Though the pair of them had explored a possible romantic relationship, it had quickly fizzled, especially since he had far more interest in Tinkerbell. It was for that reason that the pirate was now her unofficial best friend. He often complained about not being able to hold the title officially because the saviour wouldn't just ask her 'actual' best friend to be her girlfriend.
"Hey Swan," he said with a smirk, instantly knowing that the expression she was wearing meant that Henry was nagging her about asking Regina out.
Emma blew out a breath of frustration when she realised that she was now out-numbered as the pirate fell into the seat next to her son, "I'm really not in the mood to talk about this, Hook."
Hook and Henry exchanged a look, before the younger of the two asked, "do you not like mom?"
"You know that I more than like her," Emma shot back quickly, obviously insulted by the insinuation that her feelings were not real.
"Then why are you avoiding the inevitable, Swan?" Captain Hook asked, his smirk having fallen away when he realised that she was genuinely upset about this.
"Because if she says no, then nothing will be the same again," the blonde whispered with crossed arms, her eyes firmly staying on her food.
"And nothing will be the same when she says yes," Henry replied, suddenly feeling bad for not noticing his mother's insecurities.
The saviour just remained in silence as she considered this, but she just shook her head again, "when I brought Marian back, I thought I had lost Regina as a friend. Before she thanked me, I was so worried that she would never talk to me again. I just wouldn't be able to handle it if things got awkward between us because I can't deal with a stupid crush."
"It's not just a crush, ma," the brunette boy argued, "you told me that you love her, so why can't you just tell her?"
Emma swallowed hard and looked up at Killian, hoping that he would understand that she didn't want to have to explain what she mentally called 'orphan issues'.
The pirate instantly understood and said, "I believe that sheriff has a shift to get to, lad."
Henry opened his mouth to protest, but the man stood up, motioning for him to do the same.
The boy rolled his eyes, though he wasn't too frustrated. At least when Killian watched him during the school holiday, he didn't have to deal with spending the day listening to his uncle cry.
"I'll see you later, ma," he mumbled, kissing her on the cheek.
Killian smiled at the blonde who mouthed 'thank you', before he put his hand on the lanky boy's shoulder and led him out of the diner.
"Why did you do that?" Henry grumbled once they fell into stride with each other on their way to the harbour.
"If Swan's love life was as simple as you're making it out to be, the two of them would already be married, lad," the pirate chuckled.
Henry let out a huff, but still nodded his agreement, "so what do you suggest I do?"
"Well, you know that Emma loves Regina, but do you know for a fact that madam mayor feels the same way?"
The teen furrowed his brow in thought.
He hadn't really questioned whether his brunette mother felt the same way, since in his mind, their relationship made complete sense. There was no real reason to question it, since they were so obviously meant for each other. But he now saw that telling the savour that they made a good 'story' probably wasn't the best way to help her get past her nerves.
"I guess I don't know for a fact," he sighed, "but you can just tell when they look at each other, you know?"
"Oh, I definitely know," he chuckled, "I believe that the whole town knows. Emma has finally found a family, Henry, I'm sure that she wouldn't want anything to change how things are now. Even if there is a chance that things would be better, there is also the chance that things would be worse…."
The boy frowned, but still nodded, "okay, so what do you thing we should do?"
Killian raised his eyebrows, usually he would question why he was automatically involved. But since he had become a kind of father-figure for the boy, he had become pretty used to it.
"How about…Operation Wingman?"
"Wingman?" the brunette asked in confusion, he had heard the term before, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure that he knew what it meant.
The pirate laughed lightly, and replied, "I suppose the first step would be ensuring that the wingman knows what a wingman is."
Henry looked between his mothers as they talked about their days at work over their usual family dinner.
In that moment, he thought about how odd it would be for someone who didn't know them to find out that the three of them weren't really a family. They were supposedly two best friends/co-parents who shared a son. Which was something that he fully intended to change.
Thinking back to what Killian had told him, a smile spread across his face when he realised that he could easily check step one off the list right now. The pirate had pointed out that one of the issues might lie in the fact that Emma didn't know for sure what the former Evil Queen's sexuality was. Most people knew for sure, since it wasn't as if she was trying to hide it, but it seemed as though the blonde was trying to come up with excuses for not risking their friendship.
Swallowing a bit of mashed potato, he decided that now was as good a time as any.
As soon as there was a silence if the blonde and brunette's conversation, Henry said, "mom, can I ask you something?"
Regina looked across the table at the boy, she was confused for a moment since he never asked permission to ask a question. Then it occurred to her that he sounded slightly timid and his age registered in her mind.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to convince herself that she was ready for this, but the fact was that she wasn't. She had actually been putting off talking with Emma about the issue, she didn't know whether she should be the one to broach the subject or wait for Henry to come to either one of them.
"Of course you can, sweetheart," she replied in a rather uneven voice.
Emma eyed their son cautiously, she had a feeling that what Regina thought he was going to ask wouldn't be coming up, at least not this year. She only hoped that whatever he had planned wasn't to just come right out and tell the truth. That hope didn't stop images of Regina trying to explain to their son why she didn't want a relationship with the saviour and anxiety began to build in her stomach.
Henry smiled at Emma, before he looked back over to his brunette mother and asked, "what is a bisexual?"
Regina's eyes widened for a moment, she wasn't quite sure whether she was relieved or not. There was no reason that her son shouldn't get the answer that he wanted, but at the same time she was rather curious who introduced him to that term.
"Well, it's a word that describes a person who is romantically interested in members of both sexes, what brought this up?"
The brunette nearly let out a frustrated sigh when her words neither confirmed nor denied her sexuality, but he realised it would have been a rather for her answer to be 'me'.
It was for this reason that he knew he had to keep the topic going until he could naturally find a way to get her to say the words for Emma's benefit.
"Someone in the grade above me came out as gay so it made me curious about how accepting people in the Enchanted Forest were. I asked Killian and he said that you made being gay and bisexual legal when you became queen…I didn't realise that I didn't know what it meant until later…"
Emma rolled her eyes as she felt her 'superpower' go off. It wasn't like she needed it to tell her that the boy was lying, she had no doubt that this was exactly what Killian had told him to do.
However, after a moment, her eyes widened and she looked back over to Regina in a sort of awe. "you made it legal?"
The brunette tilted her head at the woman's surprise, "it was an archaic law that needed to be abolished," she shrugged, "I didn't really see it was a big deal at the time since there were not many who actually followed it anyway…"
The woman allowed the implications to speak for themselves, obviously the Evil Queen had bigger plans than abolishing out-dated laws, which most likely involved find new and inventive ways to murder Snow White.
"I guess that's one thing that makes the Enchanted Forest better than here," Emma laughed, trying to hide the fact that she had just found another reason to find Regina perfect.
"Just one?" the mayor asked, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow in amusement.
"Electricity, in-door plumbing, Wi-Fi, TV, no bandits, no ogres, no beanstalks…"
The brunette held up her hand and laughed, "I get it, Emma, you didn't like the Enchanted Forest."
"I liked chimera," the blonde replied with a smirk, "is there any way you could get me some for my birthday?
The mayor just shook head and laughed while she picked up her glass of wine and took a sip.
Henry looked between them and rolled his eyes, it was honestly amazing how quickly the pair of them could get off track.
"I still don't get it, mom," Henry pressed, instantly receiving a warning look from his blonde mother, "is it like a fifty-fifty split, or do some bisexuals like one gender more than the other?"
Regina frowned, she wasn't exactly sure why he was so interested in this topic, but it wasn't a bad thing if she could stop him from believing common misconceptions.
"It's not about percentages, Henry, it's about the person. Being bisexual does not automatically mean that a person will be with more people than a straight or gay person. It just means that they are open to attraction to with a greater number of people, they still have to find the right person for them like anyone else has to."
The boy nodded slowly, covertly grinning when he thought of the perfect question, "I get it," he replied, "but how do you know so much about this, mom?"
The former Evil Queen tilted her head, she was sure that everyone in town knew, but then it occurred to her that she hadn't been with a woman in her son's lifetime and she like to believe that he wasn't old enough to pick up on the clues.
"I…I know because I am bisexual, Henry," she said slowly, trying to gauge his reaction, not that she had any idea what she would do if he disapproved.
The boy was about to smile and reassure her that it was more than okay with him, but he was interrupted by a choking sound.
Looking over to the saviour, he couldn't help but smirk as she held her hand over her mouth, trying to swallow her bite of food as gracefully as possible. There was a rather obvious hue of blush forming across her cheeks. Hearing Regina admit it out loud did make her dreams far less unlikely, but she there were still a million other reasons that she could think of why Regina would say no.
"Are you okay?" Regina asked.
The blonde just kept her mouth shut and nodded.
Regina tilted her head, she would have questioned her further if she hadn't just told her son something important.
Looking back over to the boy, she received the smile he had wanted to give her a moment ago.
Her shoulder's instantly relaxed and she rose from her chair, "I should go and get the dessert out of s
the oven."
Once she was out of ear-shot, Emma finally unsealed her lips and said, "was that Operation Mongoose?"
"Nope," the boy replied smugly, "Operation Mongoose was to find mom's happy ending, which I'm pretty sure I already have. So this is an operation to make you stop being so stubborn."
Emma blew out a breath of frustration and shook her head, "I'm not stubborn, I'm just realistic."
Before Henry could say anything in return, the distinctive clicking of heels alerted him to the returning of his mother, who slid regally back into her seat.
"The pie should be cooled soon," she announced looking between the pair.
"Awesome!" the other brunette replied somewhat over-enthusiastically, "can ma stay and watch a movie with us?"
Regina looked over to Emma, who seemed like she was contemplating something, and replied, "of course she can…"
"Actually, I had a really long day, I think I should just go," the blonde replied, shooting up out of her seat. "Thanks for dinner, it was really good…"
"…okay…" the brunette replied in confusion, looking over to Henry for an explanation.
The boy just shrugged as his blonde mother left and he fell back against his seat, letting out a huff, he realised that he would have to report that Emma might be even more stubborn than either of them thought possible.
Regina tried to focus on her laptop, but her mind seemed intent upon making the words on the report blur together.
It was almost as if her eyes knew that she would much rather be spending her time reprimanding Emma for getting popcorn on her couch. It was also rather a disappointment that she hadn't had the chance to 'accidentally' fall asleep on the younger woman's shoulder.
Instead, Henry had decided to go to bed early, no doubt he working through a new operation, and she had decided to go into her study and try and make a head start on her work for the next day. Now that she was looking at a page of numbers though, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about far more important things, i.e. her love life, or lack thereof.
With a huff, the woman closed her laptop and rose from her chair to go and pour herself a tumbler of apple cider.
She honestly had no idea what could possibly have made Emma run away so quickly, without having dessert no less. It hurt more than she had expected it to, mostly because she had yet to admit the depth of her feelings towards the sheriff, even to herself. She knew that she had certainly been attracted to the woman the moment she had laid eyes on her, but really, who wouldn't be? It was for this reason that she had spent much of her time disregarding what were quickly developing into a fully-fledged crush.
After Neverland, though, she found that it wasn't as simple to deny that it was more than mere physical attraction. During the missing year, she found that it wasn't just Henry she had missed with all of her heart.
However, she had met Robin and become convinced that she wasn't really in any position to deny fate. In her mind, being with Robin Hood made more sense than the Evil Queen ending up with the Saviour. No matter how close she was to admitting that she truly loved the woman, she had been constantly reminding herself that the blonde deserved better. It was for that reason that she had resigned herself to covertly stealing moments with the sheriff, which was why she was so peeved to have one of their family nights stolen away from her for no particular reason.
Downing the spicy liquid, she took a moment to compose herself before she went back over to her desk and grabbed her phone.
For a full five seconds, her finger lingered over the call button for the first person in her speed dial, but she quickly changed her mind and called the next person.
After two rings, a voice on the other end of the line said, "are you okay, Regina?"
The brunette let out a sigh of relief and nodded, before her slightly drunk mind remembered that the other woman couldn't see her, "I was wondering whether you would want to come over for coffee…."
"At half-eight at night?"
Regina blew out a breath and in frustration, "it doesn't have to be coffee, Kathryn."
A slight chuckle on the other end just made the mayor huff and roll her eyes at the same time.
"Why can't you have 'coffee' with Emma?" the blonde replied after a moment.
The brunette just rolled her eyes and waved her hand.
A moment later, purple smoke bellowed throughout the room and a very surprised blonde woman appeared, clutching her phone tightly to her face.
Kathryn blinked a couple of times before she took in her new surroundings and just sighed as she brought her phone down and ended the call.
"You could have warned me," she breathed, making her way across the room to pour herself a drink.
Regina threw her phone back onto the desk and followed the blonde over to get a refill.
A moment later, they each took a seat and Kathryn took a sip, raising her eyebrows at the silent woman. Regina made no move to empty any of her own tumbler, and instead simply sat staring into the amber liquid as if she was contemplating something profound.
"Is there something you wanted to talk about?"
The brunette finally looked up at her guest, almost as she was surprised she was there and said, "is there an issue with me wanting company?"
The blonde rolled her eyes and placed her drink onto the coffee table, "you only poof me here when there is something really bothering you, which means that Emma did something stupid…"
"She didn't do anything stupid," the mayor sighed, "the sheriff is not bound by any kind of contract to stay after dinner and watch a movie with me and Henry…"
Kathryn smirked at the bitterness in her tone and replied, "I'm guessing that you want her to have to stay?"
"Of course not!"
The other woman held up her hands to placate the brunette and just smirked harder at the defensiveness in her tone, "okay, so you want her to have wanted to stay?" Kathryn took the mayor's lack of eye contact as confirmation and continued, "you can't act like her girlfriend without asking her out, Regina."
"I have never said that I want to be with the saviour, Kathryn," Regina said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the eruption of butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought. "There is no logical way that the relationship would ever work…"
"Love is not logical."
The brunette finally made eye contact as she narrowed her eyes at her friend, she only narrowed them further when she saw the full on smirk on her face.
"I don't love Emma; I merely have strong feelings for her that will go away with time."
"Perhaps if you expect these feelings to go away, you shouldn't be hurt when she doesn't want to spend time with you."
Regina swallowed hard and nodded. It may have been a harsh truth, but it was precisely why she often called Kathryn when she was having Emma Swan related issues. In all honesty, she would much rather talk with her closest friend about all of this, but that obviously was not an option.
"If she says no then everything will change," the brunette whispered, looking back down at her lap.
The smirk fell away from Kathryn's face and she tilted her head as her friend brought the apple cider up to her lips and took far more than a sip. Though she had been warned about continuing her friendship with the mayor after she curse had broken, she had found that she had actually missed the woman during the months that she was isolated from the town. It was for that reason that she had been one of the first people outside of the Charming family to approach her. Simple run-ins turned into planned lunches and coffee and she now found that she liked being the person that former Evil Queen would turn to when she was having a non-magic related crisis. However, she also wished that there was some way that she could physically drag the woman to the sheriff's station and force her to ask out the saviour so that they could end their stupid façade of friendship. They were so obviously meant for each other and she knew that she wasn't the only one who was frustrated with the way that they danced around each other.
"Do you not want everything to change?" the blonde asked softly.
The brunette bit her lip, going back to staring into her drink.
For a second, she considered why she wanted Kathryn to be here, since every time this had happened, the conversation always went the same way. The other woman would just try and convince her to ask Emma out and they would end up going in circles until Regina had reminded fully of all of the reasons as to why she could never be with the saviour.
Kathryn looked at her expectantly for another few moments before she rolled her eyes.
This was exactly what she had expected to happen, though she was rather confused about the circumstances. Usually the brunette called her over after she had spent too much time with the object of her affections and was having a hard time maintaining her indifference towards her feelings. Now, though, Emma had left and that clearly hurt Regina more than not having her around.
"Have you asked her why she left?" the blonde asked softly.
The brunette looked up in surprise, almost as if she hadn't expected the conversation to continue and she shrugged.
"Henry asked me what bisexual is, so I explained it to him and admitted to him how I know so much about it…"
Kathryn watched as she worked through the implications, the former queen's eyes widened for a moment, before she dismissed the possibility. Emma had been in awe of the fact that she had legalised the right to gay and bisexual in the Enchanted Forest, there was no way that she could be homophobic…or at least she hoped.
The blonde across the couch from her began shaking her head as it occurred to her what Regina was probably thinking, "you can't honestly believe that Emma is uncomfortable with you being bisexual?"
The brunette shook her head, though she still had a worried expression etched upon her face.
Kathryn let out an exasperated sigh, before she tilted her head in thought. It seemed odd that Henry would have just randomly asked. It was especially weird that he would have asked at the dinner table, almost as if he wanted to ensure that both of them were there.
Instantly, she began forming theories about what was going on and after a few seconds, she began wondering what Henry's newest operation could be called.
A/N So this was just a random idea that I had and if you guys like it, I'll definitely continue it as a two-shot XD
Let me know if you have anything that works against SwanQueen being together that Henry could fix haha
As always I need to thank my beta, QueenApples for being overall awesome and PerditusFic for always listening to my very random ideas haha