I've had this in my notes for a while now, and well I just thought I'd upload it just to see where it goes. I haven't given up on My Voice, the next chapter is coming up soon; probably sometime before the month ends, or somewhere during the beginning of August.

A/N: I don't own ONCE; any recognized material or known characters aren't mine either. And well, if you catch from what film sort of inspired me, then you should know that the story won't go exactly according to it...like at all.


Wine and Kids Don't Mix

"So, why didn't you guys ever even try to get together?"

...


"Neal, get back here this instant!"

The blonde had been chasing after the toddler for nearly ten minutes; the little boy running up and down the apartment as if it was the McDonald's playground.

While she occupied herself in chasing Neal, the other two girls she'd also been looking after decided it'd actually be funny to draw on whatever space they could reach of her living room walls.


...


"Lets have a baby together."

Silence.

"What?"

"I said, lets have a baby..."

"Uh, like you and I both get pregnant at the same time?"

"More like, you get pregnant and we'll raise the little thing together."

Her blonde friend merely chuckled, but her laughter died as she caught the glint in Regina's eyes.

"You're serious? I'm sorry to tell you this, G, but you lack the equipment for that," Emma told her suggestively, her eyes quickly glancing down to the woman's lap.

"Well, duh, I know that. It's not like we don't live in the modern world," she said, her eyebrow skyrocketing, "These are not the eighteen hundreds, Emma dear."

"You are not serious," the blonde stated with her eyes wide as she got off the couch, and began making her way over to the kitchen.

Maybe they'd had too much wine for one night; and as she felt her brunette friend's hand grip her arm suddenly to twist her around, she rolled her eyes.

"I am dead serious, Swan," Regina murmured as she tipped back the remaining of her wine. "Don't you want children?"

"Of course I do, Regina! I just, I guess the right person just hasn't come around yet..."

"What if we don't need the 'right' person? Isn't it enough to have two people that love each other already?"

Emma took the glass from her friend, and gently pushed her away from her.

"You're drunk, Regina."

"Far from it, dear. Why is it so hard to believe? So difficult a request?"

"I know we have had so many failed relationships, too many one night stands," the blonde chuckled, "and you might not be getting any younger," at that she received a playful smack from her brunette friend, "but am I really the woman you would like to have your kid?"

"Emma, you're my best friend. Who else better to carry my child? And perhaps, while we raise the little monster, maybe we could even take advantage of some coparenting sex?"

"Alrighty! Well, I think it's time for you to go home."

"I'm slightly tipsy remember?"

"Then, I'll go fetch you some pajamas, and you can have the guest room."

"Emma," Regina called out to her, "I don't want things to be weird between us, okay? Just please tell me you'll think about my proposition, yes?"

Emma nodded to her, then turned back to the room to go get her best friend some sleeping clothes.

When the blonde was done, and had the clothes in her hands, she turned to find her brunette friend watching her from the door.

"G, you scared me," she said quietly as she extended the pajamas to Regina.

"Didn't really know I was frightening enough," her best friend told her, a smirk on her red lips, "Thank you."


...


Emma was halfway asleep when she heard the door to her room quietly click shut, and seconds later felt cold feet meet the back of her calves as her best friend slid in behind her; rolling underneath the covers to nestle herself against the blonde's warm back.

The close proximity was indeed proof that the brunette was more than just tipsy.

And Emma froze a little when she felt cold finger tips settle against the flesh of her sides as Regina slithered her arms around the blonde woman's middle.

"I know you are awake, Em," the brunette breathed against her spine, "You went rigid the moment I laid my hands on you."

Emma hummed, and Regina chuckled throatily as her friend turned in her arms and looked up into her dark eyes.

"Why are you doing this, Regina?" the blonde whispered to her, hands gripping her upper arms as if to support herself as they laid there together in bed.

"You are my best friend, Emma..."

Em shook her head, cutting her off, before her fingers shot up and she was cupping Regina's face.

"Why are you doing this, G?" she demanded once more as she tried to make the brunette see the real purpose of her question.

Her and Regina had done so many crazy things throughout their time together; the brunette taught her how to shave her legs at fifteen as they shared cheap beer and a pack of cigarettes, they had both gotten matching tattoos by the time Emma's eighteenth birthday had rolled in, and by the time the younger girl had turned twenty-one, twenty-eight year old Regina had gotten her drunk and landed her the worst hangover of her life. That said, never once had the brunette made passes or advances at her—never. Sure, Emma had always known Regina was gay, but the older woman hadn't ever tried anything with her. Yeah, she was pretty touchy, always hugging the blonde, kissing her cheek whenever they saw each other, but the brunette had never tried to take advantage of her in any sense of the word.

"I was always so blind, dear," Regina murmured as she dipped her head further and delivered a kiss to Em's rosy cheek bone, "Tell me something—be honest, yes? You are not the only one who knows when someone is lying."

The blonde hummed, followed by a nod; her hands shaking a little as molten, chocolate eyes bored into hers.

"Why didn't I ever—God, Emma; all these years you were right in front of me. How come we never actually tried being together? You like women to some extent, I know you do; why didn't you think to give me a chance? You're so beautiful, Em and sometimes I get so goddamned jealous of those idiot men who think they are at your level...because they're not. None of them are, I was—I still am, Emma."

The blonde's fingers played against Regina's cheeks as she stared up at the woman; mouth slightly agape, and eyes a little wide at the brunette's words.

She had never imagined those words ever leaving Regina Mills' mouth; so, when her friend's hand slid down to grasp her chin between her forefinger and thumb, Em's throat went dry.

She felt exposed, and frightened when the brunette tilted her head further down and dove to claim her lips, but the blonde was too afraid...

Regina's bare lips landed on the corner of her mouth, a tired sigh escaping the older woman's lips as rejection set in.

"Gin, I love you," Emma whimpered as her arms wrapped themselves around the brunette's shoulders; Regina felt too ready to hear the blonde's 'but', "but I'm scared," she admitted; her heated cheek pressed into the side of the brunette's cool neck, breath tickling her skin.

Regina lay a kiss to the girl's shoulder, her lips lingering there a second too much before she felt the soft, yet delicious shiver that coursed up Emma's spine.

"I just don't wanna be another girl who's had the pleasure of being between the sheets of your bed," Em told her, face pressing further into Regina's throat.

"Who says you will?" the brunette huffed, as her fingers slipped within wild, blonde tresses and pushed Emma's head up in the process; forcing her to look back at her.

"Lets face it, Regina," Emma began with a pointed look, arms still wrapped around the woman's shoulders, "I more than anyone know how many women have actually graced your bed; let alone, how many actually stuck around long enough before you were seeking another's affection—"

"But that won't happen with you Emma," the brunette insisted, and Em's heart broke a little at the admission before she started shaking her head, and began to turn around in the woman's arms.

"To how many girls have you said that to?" she snorted slightly as she asked, even though her voice came out as barely a whisper; Regina's hand making its way down from her bare shoulder to her finely clothed hip before her fingers began a slow ascend from her belly button and sternum all the way up to the hollow of her ivory colored neck.

"I've never made such promises before," she murmured as she used her index to tilt Em's face up to hers once more, her thumb caressing the dent just below her bottom lip.

"And why is that?" Emma asked, her tone very much as a matter of fact.

"Because I've never meant to keep such promises until now," Regina vowed before she dropped her head down and captured her best friend's lips swiftly in case the younger blonde decided to escape her attentions in the last few seconds leading up to their gentle lip locking.

Regina relished the delicate moan that slipped from Emma's lips, her tongue too eager to trace the fine lines of her pink lips.

"Regina" the blonde whimpered, and the brunette could do nothing but bite down on her lip to merely silence her.

Emma could taste the wine on her best friend's mouth; the dark chocolate tinged cherry flavor clouding her judgement as she contemplated whether Regina was too drunk to actually know what she was doing to her—how she was really making her feel.

"I love you," Emma murmured against her mouth when they finally broke apart for air.

"I love you as well, Em, so fucking much. God, I want you so badly right now too..."

The blonde giggled nervously at the brunette's words.

"I don't think I ever thought, if that even make sense," Regina chuckled, amused with the girl's fretting, "that I'd ever hear you express such sentiment."

"Well then, know that I desire you more than anything, more than anyone," Regina drawled as Emma settled her back into her chest, a girlish smile on both their lips as she did so; though the brunette's eyes held a soft fire that had the blonde gazed deep into her brown orbs, she would have trembled with fearful arousal and that is why Regina made it clear to her.

"But this is something I wish not to rush into," she stressed, although her fingers slipped beneath the material of Emma's top, and teasingly caressed the younger woman's sides.

Em giggled before her hands came up to cease their movements, stopping the brunette's fingers just below her perky breasts.

"For someone who wishes to go slow, you sure have quick hands," she told her friend as she turned in her arms, and glanced up into her eyes, sure to find amusement dancing within the deep pools of warm chocolate.

"I always wondered just how soft your skin truly was," the brunette breathed as she leant down, and delivered a heated kiss right behind Emma's flushed ear; her fingers interlacing with the blonde's as she respected the girl's wishes for no further explorations.

Em sighed as she felt her best friend's mouth touch just below her earlobe before it blew cool air against the area.

"It's not any different from my hands and arms, silly," she explained as Regina slipped her fingers into her golden curls, and silenced her with another kiss; this one much more firmer, and more insistent.

Emma slid her hands down to the older woman's waist before she gave herself entirely to Regina's demands, a strong yet delicate leg slinging atop the brunette's hip.

"I still think you're drunk," Emma whispered, and the brunette chuckled.

"Had I truly been drunk, I wouldn't have hesitated to plunge my fingers deep into your dripping heat, dear," the blonde slapped her arm with a glare...

"You're being crude, Regina, and you never are."

"I had to make my point though," she stated with a shrug.

"Which is?"

"Had I really been drunk, I wouldn't have been able to keep control, and your beautiful legs would be wrapped around my neck with my tongue far imbedded within your surely gorgeous—"

"Regina!" Emma cut her off, her eyes wide, and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment, and she knew the woman was speaking the truth. The brunette was even more quiet when drunk, but her resistance to keep from doing inappropriate things wasn't strong; she usually dove head first without warning before any actual conversation.

"I'm just saying, Emma."

"Well, don't, or I'll be sending you back to the guest room!"

"Don't you dare, darling or I'll just rip your panties off, and have my wicked way with you," Regina smirked, and Emma had to bite down on her bottom lip in order to just not burst out with laughter.

"Hold your horses tiger, I've yet to agree to anything with you," she reminded with a cocky smile, and Regina scowled down at her, "I know you too well, I know how you are with women," she reminded the brunette once again with a knowing glint in her eyes, "I need to be cautious. I don't want to get hurt, Regina..."

"Do you really think I would hurt you?" Regina sounded offended.

"I don't want to loose you," Emma implored, and the brunette saw the way her cerulean eyes turned glassy, "We're best friends; lets not ruin it because of raging hormones," she said with finality as she cocked her chin up, and placed a chaste kiss on the brunette's cool cheek, "Sleep tight, Regina. We can talk about this in the morning if you still feel the same way..."

"I will," Regina told her, and the annoyance in her tone was the least of Emma's worries.

"Then, a few hours of sleep won't be haste to change your mind."


...