Emma strolled down the streets with her hands stuffed in her pockets of her red leather jacket and pout on her lips. After the day she had all she wanted to do was go home and binge watch her favorite show along with a carton of ice cream. She just couldn't seem to wrap around her head around what had just happened. She was just about 98% sure of herself earlier but apparently she had been wrong.
"Go get your girl, Emma!" Ruby called from behind the counter as Emma walked out the door of Granny's.
After months and months a deliberation Emma had decided that today was the day that she was going to ask out the girl of her dreams. Her feelings for the mayor of Storybrooke had been growing ever since she had made her way into the town and now every time she saw the brunette she felt like her heart was going to explode. Emma's hands were shaking nervously as she made her way to town hall. She never had to ask someone out before, people usually came to her.
As she stood outside the door of Regina's office she took a deep breath. She's chased grown men down the street before but for some reason the thought of asking out Regina gave her endless nerves. Her hesitant hand knocked on the wooden door, it felt strange, she had never knocked before. A muffled "come in." came from the other side of the door, her voice sounded distracted. She's probably reading some documents, a goofy smile slid onto her face at the thought of her behind her desk, glasses sliding down her face as she read over some paper. Gathering up whatever confidence she had, Emma walked into the office.
"Ms. Swan, I'm surprised you knocked instead of just barging into my office." Regina smirked playfully as she glanced up at the woman before returning back to her reading.
"Y-Yeah well, I wanted to ask you something and I figured you'd prefer it if I knocked just this once." Emma replied with a nervous smile on her face, for once she was grateful Regina wasn't looking at her so she couldn't read the anxiety on her face.
"Well, out with it." The mayor placed down her paper, giving her friend her full attention.
Emma bit her lip, "Regina, I-I wanted to know if…?" I can do this., Emma reminded herself, she didn't want any longer to know if Regina felt the same. She steeled her expression and looked directly into the gorgeous brown eyes. "I want to know if you would like to go on a date with me."
Regina's jaw dropped, out of a million guesses she would have never guessed that Emma would say that. Her body tensed and her heartbeat and breathing picked up. She cleared her throat before replying. "I-I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea about what was going on here, Ms. Swan. But…" The older woman looked down at her desk with an unreadable expression before looking back at Emma with a blank expression. "I don't feel that way about you."
Emma's expression dropped and she swore she felt her heart actually shatter. Was it possible that she read the signs wrong? Emma shook her head and ignored the knot growing in her throat. Of course she had, there was no way that Regina would ever have romantic feelings about her. "I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll show myself out."
She had walked around for like an hour after that moment, making a stop at Granny's to tell Ruby the bad news. She seemed empathetic enough but Emma refused to allow her to take the rest of the day off just to comfort her. Her hand ran its way through her long blonde curls, had she really read the signs wrong? The lingering touches, the secret telling, the times she had been caught staring, the times she had brought Emma lunch or dinner during particularly rough days, had those all meant nothing? Maybe she was just reading too much into it. She needed a drink.
/ Meanwhile later that night at Regina's /
"What do you mean you told her no?" Kathryn practically yelled from the seat across from Regina aka her best friend. "You've been pining over this girl for months and when she finally asks you out you say no?"
"I do not pine." Regina answered evenly before taking a long sip of her large glass of wine. "Given our jobs and positions as Henry's mothers I thought it would be best if we kept our relationship platonic."
"Yeah right. You can use all that logical shit on everybody else but not me." The two women glared at each other for a moment, deep down Regina loved that Kathryn could see through her walls. "Now tell me the real reason you rejected her."
"I'm serious, that's why."
The long-haired brunette glared at her best friend for a moment before smoothing out her expression. "Fine, let's just change the subject and drink some wine." If there was one thing Kathryn knew it was that Regina couldn't hold her liquor. After a couple glasses of wine the woman was more honest than Abraham Lincoln.
/ Two o'clock in the morning /
Emma jumped awake from her couch at the sound of someone banging on her door. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and grumbled to herself as she walked towards the door. Who could possibly be at her door at this hour? Emma gasped as she opened the door to revealed a disheveled Regina leaning against her door frame, hand raised to knock again.
"Emma!" She yelled happily at the sight of the blonde, throwing her arms around her neck in a hug.
"Regina?" The blonde stumbled back but held her grip on her waist. "What're you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you!" The woman replied in the most 'duh' tone that she could manage in her state.
"Are you drunk?"
"Just a little bit." She whispered before busting into a fit of giggles.
"Regina, don't you think it's a little… inappropriate for you to be here this late?" Emma sighed and tried not to look too much into the fact that the mayor had stumbled all the way to her apartment in the middle of the night just to see her.
"Is this about what I said earlier?" She pulled back and stared deep into the blue eyes. "D-Don't listen to sober Regina, she's no fun and a liar." The woman said as serious as possible before busting out laughing again.
Emma pulled them into her house and onto her couch before they could disturb her neighbors anymore. "What do you mean, Regina?"
"I lied to you earlier." She said sheepishly, "I do like like you."
"Then why did you lie?"
"I was scared, all my relationships have ended horribly. I didn't want to lose you too." A sad pout slipped onto the inebriated woman's face and tears seemed to well up in her eyes.
"Don't cry!" Emma yelled in a panic. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
"Okay." She sniffed and rubbed her eyes much like a child would.
"We should get you home."
/ The Next Morning /
It had taken a while for Emma to process what happened the night before. At one point she was even sure that she had dreamt the entire thing after an ice cream overload. She almost convinced herself it didn't happen except she could still smell Regina's scent on her couch and in her car. She smirked as she walked into Granny's and ordered to coffees, one with milk and the other black, something told her that a certain mayor probably had one hell of a hang over.
Much like the day before the blonde walked as confidently as possible to town hall, she still couldn't deny the nervousness that came with seeing Regina. Ignoring the secretary telling her that Regina wasn't accepting visitors today, Emma walked into the office. She small smile slid onto to her face at the sight before her. Regina looked exhausted, barely visible dark bags were under her eyes, her hair looked flat and just as tired as her, and her head, that was probably pounding, rested on her hand. However, Emma found her just as beautiful as always.
"I brought you coffee, I thought you might need it after last night." Emma said quietly, hoping to not cause the older woman any unnecessary pain.
"Thank you and how do you know what happen last night?"
"You don't remember?" She laughed lowly to herself, "A certain drunk mayor decided to pay me a little visit at 2am and chat."
Regina groaned, covering her face with both her hands. "My apologies, Ms. Swan. I hope you don't think that anything that we did last night has changed the dynamic of our relationship."
Emma smirked. "Of course not, Madame Mayor. I'll see you later."
Normally Emma would have been crushed to hear those words leave Regina's mouth. However, if there was one thing she had learned from that entire experience it was, Don't listen to sober Regina.