Hey guys! First time writing for Swan Queen Week so we'll see how this goes, I'm not that great at updating daily but I'll try for you guys :)

"You what?" Regina asks, as she looks up from her book in shock.

"What?" Emma questions with wide eyes.

"What did you say?" Regina asks again, still trying to wrap her head around what Emma just said. Could it be?

"Ummm," Emma stalls, trying to come up with an answer that would make Regina forget this ever happened. Yeah right she thinks with a huff.

"Did you mean it?" Regina asks quietly.

-5 hours earlier-

"Hey kid, when's your mom coming to pick you up?" Emma asks as she moves around the kitchen, cleaning up from their late-morning breakfast.

"2 o'clock, just like every Sunday she comes to pick me up," he says as if he's talking to a 2-year-old. "You should know that Ma, she's never picked me up at another time."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Emma murmurs distractedly.

"Are you okay, Ma?" Henry asks with concern as he sits back down at the island.

"Hmmm? Oh yeah kid, I'm fine, just a little distracted I guess," Emma says, finally looking up to see her son giving her a strange look.

"Work?" he asks.

She breathes a sigh of relief at the out he gives her an out, "Yeah, guess I should've left that at the station huh?"

Henry just shrugs and gets back off the stool. "It's okay Ma, I know you're busy with work. I'll just go read some comics 'till Mom comes to get me." He moves into the living room and plops onto the sofa.

Emma internally groans, aaaaand the mom of the year award goes to…. She sighs as she finishes cleaning the kitchen and sits back down at the island with her head in her hands, "what am I gonna do?" she whispers to herself. Or so she thinks.

"You could just tell her," Henry says from the next room.

Emma lifts her head from her hands in confusion and turns to look at her son, "What?"

"You could just tell Mom. It'll be better for everyone, especially you, if you just tell her. Mom hates being lied to," he says simply.

"But what if this makes everything worse?" Emma asks cryptically, "What if this ruins everything?"

"What if it changes everything for the better?" Henry pushes back.

Emma looks at her son, trying to figure out if he knows what's really going on or if he's just trying to help her out so she doesn't get in trouble with Regina. Because we all know when I'm in trouble with Regina, everyone's in trouble with Regina. Emma thinks with a huff.

"Come on Ma, do you really think I'm that stupid?" Henry asks with a signature Mills eyebrow raise.

"I don't think your stupid, Henry. But I'm also not entirely sure what we're talking about right now," Emma says warily.

Henry rolls his eyes and discards the comic in his hand as he stands and walks toward his blonde mother. "Ma, really? Everybody knows you love Mom. I actually believe you and Mom are the only two that don't know…well, maybe Gram and Gramps don't know but Mom doesn't call them the two idiots for no reason."

"Henry," Emma chides half-heartedly as she tries to wrap her head around what he just told her.

Henry holds his hands up in a placating manner, "I'm kidding Ma. Well, a little. I mean I know they're both heroes and everything but they're both very dense. Like, Gram is super naïve and Gramps just likes to focus on what's in front of him. But they've got to have at least an inkling of what's going on between you two. I mean, come on Ma the entire town is in on a bet on when you guys are going to figure it out and who's going to figure it out first."

"What?" Emma asks breathlessly, realizing now that she hasn't taken a breath since Henry started his rant.

With an eye roll only his brunette mother could have taught him he says, "There's a town-wide bet on who was going to figure out their feelings first, who was going to make the first move, when it would happen, when you'll make the announcement, and when you'll get married."

Emma stares blankly at her son as if he's speaking a foreign language, probably Elvish, she thinks sullenly; everyone knows that language is impossible to read or understand. She blinks her eyes once, twice, three times.

Henry looks up at her blank stares and says, "Oh! And there's a bet going on about when you guys are going to have more kids."

Emma's mouth drops to the floor, suddenly brought out of her stupor. She jumps from the bar stool, knocking it to the ground and startling Henry enough for him to step back, "WHAT?!" she exclaims.

Henry shrugs, "A lot of people thought it would happen by now, but some knew you were both too stubborn to act on anything. Hey, do you know when you'll talk to mom now? Because I think I could win this whole thing. I think my dates are coming up soon actually."

"You bet on us?" Emma asks as her eyes widen.

Henry doesn't look like he regrets it, he merely shrugs and says, "I want you guys to be happy."

"We are happy, Henry. You make us very happy and we are friends."

Henry rolls his eyes, "Yeah, okay Ma, and you're also super awkward around each other and you stare at each other for wayyyyyy too long. It's actually disgusting."

Emma releases a chuckle at Henry's look of repulsion. "Okay kid, this is getting really weird, even for living in a town full of storybook characters. Let's just stop talking and pretend we never had this conversation, okay?"

"Are you going to talk to her?" Henry prods.

"I don't know kid," Emma sighs.

"I'll only pretend to forget if you promise, Ma."

"Henry…." She starts.

"No Ma! You have to tell her!" He stomps his foot and continues, "You both deserve this. Stop being a scared little baby and TALK TO HER."

"Alright, kid, alright! Fine! Let's just forget this ever happened…and I'll promise to talk to your mom. But not until I'm ready and you can't say anything until then. Got it?" she asks with raised eyebrows.

"Ugh. Fine," he groans as he walks back to the couch. He sits down and watched his blonde mother walk up the stairs to her bedroom. He smirks and quickly grabs his phone. "Ruby?" he starts when the voice on the other end picks up. "Yeah, it's Henry. I think I want to change my bet on my mom's." He pauses to wait for her response, "No I don't know anything…No Ruby, I'm not using any magical powers I have as the author…No, I promise Ruby. Come on, I wouldn't do that. I just have a really good feeling about this."

Henry sits on the couch and reads his comic-or at least pretends to when Emma comes down the stairs 5 minutes before his other mom is supposed to show up. He had been on his phone texting his friends and writing some stories that he was planning on posting later that night but now his blonde mother's nervous energy was radiating throughout the entire room and even making him nervous.

"Seriously Ma, chill out. Mom's gonna know something is up right away."

"Right, calm down. Got it." Emma continues to pace around the room, waiting for Regina to show.

At exactly 2 o'clock, Regina knocks on the door and Emma opens the door with a little too much force, "Hello…?" Regina says as she feels the nervous energy flow off the blonde, "Is everything alright?"

"Yup, everything's fine," Emma says with a forced smile, "Just gotta head to work soon."

"Oh, I hope I didn't keep you waiting," Regina says, as if she wasn't perfectly punctual like always.

"Yeah right Mom, you know it's exactly 2, just like every other time," Henry says with a fond smirk.

Regina returns the smirk, as if they're in their own little world having a silent conversation, "Come along dear, let's not keep Emma from work any longer. Good luck with...whatever is going on Emma."

"Uh, yeah. See you guys later," Emma mumbles as Regina leads Henry out the door with an arm around his shoulders.

"What's going on with Emma?" Regina asks when they start walking down the sidewalk toward the mansion.

Henry shrugs, "I don't know. I think it's just work stuff. Maybe you should call her later and make sure everything's okay," he drops the hint with satisfaction.

"I think I might Henry. I mean, I wouldn't want there to be a magical emergency and have her try to face it by herself because she thinks she has to," Regina adds on so it doesn't seem like she's desperate to call the blonde. I was a queen; a queen is never desperate.

"Of course not," Henry says sarcastically. It has nothing to do with the fact that you're in love with each other! Nope, not at all. He sighs internally; I'm going to have to do all the work here aren't I?

-Present-

"Well?" Regina asks again, "Did you mean it?"

Emma looks up and studies Regina's face, noticing how open it looks. She doesn't think she's ever seen the brunette looking so exposed and unguarded. There have been times, the blonde thinks to herself, but those were accidents, right? Maybe not. Maybe Regina feels the same way. "I meant every word. I've loved you for a long time Regina Mills. I've always had strong feelings for you. At first it was the rush I felt when I challenged you; it was always exciting when we would argue over things-never a dull moment," she chuckles and thinks back to all of their fights early on. "But I don't think I ever hated you, even if I wanted to."

"You wanted to hate me?" Regina asks quietly.

"I thought I had to. You lied to me. You're the freaking Evil Queen and you did all of these horrible things and then you adopted my son and took care of him in ways I could only hope for and when I met you I knew you loved him with all your heart. You made it so hard to hate you. I wanted to; I mean I thought I was meant to. I was supposed to be the Savior. Something I never wanted, and then I realized that you were in the same boat. You never wanted to be the Evil Queen but circumstances chose for us. We've always been unique Regina and we've always been too close; there's been too much emotion and fire between us to be just friends."

Regina looks at the sincerity the blonde is showing her. She chuckles at Emma's nervous hand gestures, always knowing she found the blonde too endearing for her own good.

"So what do you say?" Emma asks nervously.

"Okay," Regina whispers.

"Okay?" Emma tries to keep the hopefulness out of her voice but fails miserably.

"Okay," Regina repeats, allowing the beaming smile to take over her face. She steps toward Emma and they connect their hands, neither knowing who initiated the contact-neither caring-both just content to be near each other.

"Okay," Emma echoes.

"Stop saying that word and kiss me you idiot," Regina mutters, pretending to huff in anger, but the brilliant smile on her face says otherwise.

"Okay," Emma whispers and then laughs before pulling Regina to her and molding their lips together. When they break and rest their foreheads against each other Emma jokes, "I think you like that I'm an idiot."

"My idiot," Regina says fondly, initiating another kiss.

"Yours," Emma says breathlessly after another moment.

"I'm so glad Henry talked me into this," they both murmur at the same time.

They both start giggling and Emma says, "I think our son's had a new operation and neither of us knew about it."

"Oh I knew about it, I just let it run it's course this time. I don't need anymore of his operations for a while," Regina admits.

"You knew?" Emma questions. When Regina nods Emma asks, "Do you know the name?"

Regina nods again and says, "Operation SwanQueen."

"I've got to admit, kid's real good at coming up with code names," Emma declares.

"Mhmm," Regina agrees as she wraps her arms around Emma's shoulders, bringing their noses together so they're sharing the same air, "But this one's my favorite," she whispers conspiratorially.

"Mine too," Emma whispers back just as quietly.

They share a kiss but it feels like so much more to them. It's a promise. A promise of tomorrow, a promise of a future; a future they'll share together.