A/N Comments are always appreciated! ^^

-Silly Little Thing-

Regina saw as yet another former noble closed the door of the office while muttering angrily at her and closed her eyes as soon as she felt herself safe enough to do it. Pinching the bridge of her nose and picking up the glasses she had taken off the second the meeting had started she put them on and glared at the far too many papers she needed to finish before one of the final meetings that were scheduled for the morning.

Incompetents, she thought angrily as she read the first line of a budget she already knew she was going to dismiss. That's what Storybrooke seemed to be full of; peasants and wanna-be-heroes.

The idea made her think about Emma, the image of her fiancé leaving her with a bitter taste on the back of her mouth. A feeling she tried to bury under the anger many meetings had left her with. Tapping her fingers against the pen she was holding she focused on her magic, bubbling just a few centimeters below her skin.

It had started a few hours ago with a cup of tea and a sleepy Emma. Albeit, if Regina needed to be honest, it had all started days ago, back when Snow had looked at her above the cup of coffee she was drinking back at Granny's and pressed her about a wedding she insisted that it needed to be grand, marvelous and something neither Emma or herself really wanted. Regina had glared at the petite woman and said something scorching enough to let the other brunette know her opinion about it but Snow's answer had been a beatific smile and something close to: "That's not what Emma said."

The knowledge that Emma seemed to have agreed with Snow had Regina speechless and as her future "mother-in-law" smiled and left Regina had been abandoned with hundreds of questions she didn't really know how to digest. Being, however, the practical woman she was, her first thought had been to actually ask Emma about it but the past days had been a mess in where neither the blonde or herself had actually been alone long enough for that kind of conversation and so the questions and somehow anger for having been left out of such decision only grew until that morning in where Emma had been cleaning the mugs Regina and Henry had already used and, accidentally, she had chipped one. Barely a speck but the noise and the sight of it had made Regina canalize her doubt in a silly little thing that had made her lash out at Emma with some snippy and cruel words before she had poofed herself to her work instead of taking her Mercedes with Emma like they had planned.

Which she knew it had been petty but still.

The day hadn't exactly been an easy one as well and with every new discussion and every slur she caught whenever some of the visitors murmured under their breaths whenever they thought she wasn't listening had her falling down into more anger.

Why? She asked herself as she had the urge to light the paper she was reading on fire. Why Emma hadn't asked her about such a thing? She knew that the blonde probably had said some vague things to Snow just to shut the woman up and probably forgot about it but it still made her doubt about not only Emma but herself as reliable. Something she had been struggling to be seen as ever since the first curse had been broken down.

Sighing and feeling a migraine starting to appear behind her eyes she left the reports she had been reading next to her and instructed her secretary to let her new meeting come in.

There were more important things than a mug and Snow's words, she decided as she nodded towards the man that had entered with a scowl on his face. Possibly already dissuaded by her former meeting about either her mood or her own previous words.

This, she decided as she began to enlist what she wanted to discuss with the newcomer as she did her best not to flinch or turn him into a toad as he started to attack her, was going to be a very long day.

-.-

The keys echoing on the hall was what greeted Regina as she opened the main door of her mansion, her expression forlorn as she took off her blazer and shoes in one motion more accord to Emma's than her. The day, she concluded as the last bits of the magic she had used in order to apparate in front of the house disappearing in the form of purple glints on her brown tresses, had really been long and as she closed her eyes-her migraine seeming to jump inside her brain like it had been doing ever since her last morning meeting left- she let out a soft sigh, her anger slightly smaller but not mollified.

"Mom?" She heard as Henry came down the stairs strangely quiet for what he usually used to do as she descended them.

"Yes, I'm here." Regina answered, smiling warmly at the teen. Henry was already taller than she was but she still liked to think of him as his little prince and for a second she let her bask into the sight of the boy as he approached her with a look she had learnt to read ever since Henry had been big enough to form a whole sentence; he was scheming something. "How was your day?"

"Long." Came the laconic answer. He was still sporting a calm demeanor than even if it wasn't unusual was strange enough for Regina to frown at. "Not as long as yours though."

The cryptic response made Regina pause as she stood in front of the boy, neither of them moving inwards. Henry was looking at her from his now taller frame and for a moment Regina had the desire to just close her eyes and nod. She, however, didn't do that and so she arched one brow, asking silently what made the boy thing such a (true) thing.

"We saw grandpa, he told us she had needed to have a few words with some of his friends back at the Enchanted Forest. Something about you…" The troubled expression the boy suddenly sported was enough clue for Regina to wonder what had been the exact words of those men.

"It has been a complicated day." She admitted while finally moving towards the kitchen, mentally thinking on what she would do for dinner. Emma had the night shift that week so she wasn't thinking on her when she opened the door of the room, Henry's voice at her back agreeing with what she had said halting as she looked inside and saw no other but Emma cooking with her head slightly moving up and down to some music she seemed to be the only one able to hear. "Emma?"

Hearing her name, the blonde turned and nodded in the shy smile she used to give after Regina and her had an argument.

"I made you soup." She said before glancing at the in fact bubbling liquid. The smell of the food was now reaching Regina's nose and for a moment wondered if Henry hadn't block the way moments before in order to prevent her to discover Emma's presence a little earlier. Of course he had. And some chicken breasts. We heard…"

"Yes, Henry already told me." Regina replied with slightly pursed lips. She was extremely tired and sad as well but as soon as she saw Emma the same doubts about the why's resurfaced.

"Yes so… I asked David when he told me that to cover my shift today. Help you a little around, you know?"

The question, made as Emma scratched the back of her neck while looking at Regina with the same shy expression than before had Regina sighing before sitting at the kitchen's table, at the same place she had been seated during breakfast hours before.

"You didn't need to do this." She stated, smiling despite of her anger. Emma could be a lot of things but she was thoughtful and she was glad that the blonde had done something like this for her. Even with her anger and sadness inside of her.

"But I did." The blonde replied as she sat in front of her, her hands flat against the table. Regina looked at the ring that glimmered in one of Emma's fingers before pursing her lips, realizing that, at some point, Henry had left the kitchen. "I thought that it was the least I could do. After the mug."

The two of them stared at each other. Regina knew that Emma already suspected her foul mood hadn't been for the mug alone and so she crossed her arms, trying to feel as sure of herself as she definetely didn't.

"I…"

"I know, you don't want to talk about it and I won't push if you really need the space." Emma declared as she fidgeted with her fingers, the ring winking at Regina every time she moved. "But your day has kinda suck and if we were just friends I would ask you for a drink so… how about that drink? Dinner is already ready but I told Henry that we were going to need a few more time before actually eating."

The mention about her friendship struck Regina. Her relationship with Emma had always been complicated, jagged and full of perhaps not misunderstandings but too many details that left so many things unsaid whenever they both even tried to explain it that it almost made them exhausted. Friendship, however, had been the first thing she had learnt to relish on the woman in front of her. That and her frankness. Perhaps not at the end, before the two of them had decided to make the jump to become something more, back when everything hadn't been about Emma or Regina but about the expectations others had with them but the blonde had always been truthful with Regina. In ways neither of them couldn't really comprehend but still. Perhaps it was for that that she decided not to take the drink Emma was already standing up to pick up and, instead, she grabbed the wandering hand with the ring before looking at her-

"I talked with your mother this Monday about the wedding."

Emma sat and nodded. "I know, you told me you were going to meet her. I wanted to ask you about how it had go but…"

Yes, Regina knew, the Lost Boys had started to wander around Storybrooke at night destroying property and Emma's shifts had started to be longer and more complicated. It was something funny that even without a great evil in town things always seemed to manage to deprive them of a timeout.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette stared directly at the blonde's eyes and managed to draw a smirk, a gesture that had always worked on her Queen days but not so much with the woman she had in front of her.

"She told me that you wanted a bigger wedding when I reminded her that we have decided to have a small one."

The inflection on the word "we" made Emma's brows to shot up and for a second she sat in front of Regina. Once she realized what the woman was saying, though, she closed her eyes and muttered something that seemed far too close to "Damn it."

"I didn't say that." She finally said while opening her eyes again, reaching for Regina's hands and closing hers when she saw the way the brunette's were still clasped and crossed in front of the former queen's chest. "I saw her the day before you met her, remember?"

Regina nodded, remembering when Emma had told her about it as they both started their nighty routine.

"She pestered me about something the fairies had asked her to do it and I told her that we weren't going to need that. She said something like…" Changing her voice so she could imitate her mother Emma finished the sentence with glinting eyes. "But have you never dreamt with something like this? This is important Emma! And not only for Regina and you but for Storybrooke as well. You represent hope!"

Regina made a face at the words even if she needed to hide a smile from Emma's impersonation of her mother. Snow had remained the hopeless romantic she had always been and somehow she still needed to understand that her daughter wasn't her.

"I told her that yeah, perhaps if she was talking with my five-year-old self… But I wasn't really keen on the princess-like stuff to be honest. Either way I told her that since I wasn't that girl and that I wanted to marry you and not the town she could say to the fairies to shove their fairy dust upon their…"

"Emma…" Regina warned eliciting a small sigh from the blonde.

"Okay then, but you know I'm right. Either way I left her there before she could say anything else. I'm sure she decided to read what I said as a challenge instead of a plea."

"And then she told me to just see if I let her go with it." Regina finished before closing her eyes, her anger slowly being redirected to Snow and her scheming. If the woman hadn't become… an ally -family- she would probably already be thinking about her demise.

Emma stared at her and bite down her lip, her hands going back to their fidgeting.

"So… I fixed the mug." She finally said. "It took me a couple of tries but I found the book you taught me at first, the one in elvish, and even though I didn't understand it at first I managed to fix the crack. Good as new."

Regina chuckled and put her hands up on the table, grabbing Emma's and caressing them, squeezing just a little before finally feeling the sadness going away as well, being replaced by extreme tiredness.

"We need to keep talking." She found herself muttering at Emma, the blonde listening to her with rapt attention. "It has been a stressful week and your mother didn't help but no matter how busy we are we need to keep making time."

"Seems good to me." Emma replied as she moved herself closer to the table enough to be able to kiss Regina's knuckles. "I'm sorry for not having made it sooner."

"I'm sorry for having said those things this morning."

"All forgotten. So… want to eat something? I'm sure Henry is already eating the back of his bed by now."

Laughing now Regina stood and kissed Emma's cheek as the blonde stood as well, warm eyes looking back at her as she nodded.

"Go and call him. I will get everything ready."

Yes, Regina thought as she watched Emma close the door of the kitchen behind her, her voice rising as she called for the boy, it had been a stressful day, a horrible day.

But no matter what she had Emma, and Henry. Always.