Disclaimers: I admit it, I don't own anything but a really messed up imagination.
Bars. She was never one to frequent those establishments, always filled with the kind of people she hated mostly. The flirty easy girls, the less brains more muscles kinda guys, the louder groups, the drunken ones causing a commotion now and then.
No wonder why she received such glares from the people when she set foot in the place. Ignoring the ones she still considered mare part of the rabble, Regina walked straight to the bar and asked for a double whiskey. The barman was still in awe for a couple seconds before fixing her drink.
Soon the looks and the constant gossip stopped and everyone was back to their activities. Some playing billiard or just betting on the match, some wasted already laughing randomly at anything, some to the darkest corners of the bar, some playing the darts, few simply enjoying the music and the drinks.
Regina was getting her third glass when the song she knew and grew attached to thanks to certain blonde started playing and she turned around only to have her heart crushed a bit more. She didn't even think that to be possible but looking at them, Neal and Emma dancing to the slow song was killing her, but not more than the smiles on Emma's face when once in a while Neal would whisper anything on her ear.
It's not that she didn't see that coming, she totally did. Neal would take her out to dance, of course. And maybe Regina came here because unconsciously she wanted to see this, maybe this was her head telling her, screaming to her that she'd have to get used to this.
The more she tried to get her eyes away from them the more she looked and the more she stared the more she couldn't bear. Not being able to stand it any longer Regina decided to pay for the drinks she had and leave.
"She's gonna regret that later." A voice carrying the heavy accent said while the pirate walked closer to Regina's seat at the bar.
Of course she should expect to find him at this place with his beloved bottle of rum.
Regina smiled at the drunk pirate but not at his comment. "Yes, because she's meant for you, isn't she?" The sarcasm was there but it didn't seem to affect Hook one tiny bit.
Certainly he was still with high hopes with the blonde, after all Emma herself had told her about their kiss, she also claimed it didn't mean anything. Regina just assumed this had to do with Neal. The more it hurt she had to admit that they were meant to be, if this guy made Emma happy she'd never stand on their way.
She deposited money on the counter not carrying the slightest for how much it was and collected her purse to leave.
"You're wrong, luv'!" His words were loud enough to reach her ears, but she decided not to take it in 'cause in the end Hook was just a one handed pirate with a drinking problem and a broken heart, but not as broken as her own.
The mayoral mansion had became one of her favorite places in town since the very beginning, she never really came that often she didn't really had a reason. For days she was walking and ended up on this very sidewalk looking at the white magnificent house. Regina's home, and it didn't matter how much time Henry spent with her and her parents, this was his home too. Perhaps the reason she always ended up here was because she felt the comfort to be closer where two of the most important people in her life lived.
Though this night she knew why her path ended up in this place. She wasn't walking with no direction, Emma was exactly where she wanted, where she needed to be. All the way she assumed she'd be angry even if just a little bit, but had to admit the truth. She was happy to be there, it annoyed her that she took so long, but she was happy.
She thought about what she was to say, and how to tell the things she was supposed to Regina before making a move towards the porch. However she stopped once sighting the brunette woman sitting on the stairs looking up to the sky observant of the stars, fascinated with them.
The lights of the house were off and the moonlight illuminated Regina making her slightly glow, but that only was enough to make her even more beautiful through the blonde's eyes.
Resuming her path, Emma walked and hesitated to sit by Regina's side. She was taken by surprise when Regina peeked at her with the brightest dark brown eyes and that gesture was all she needed to feel welcomed and take a seat.
They fell in a silence, Regina kept looking up and Emma followed her eyes searching for whatever had her attention. But the quiet moment was over when Regina decided to ask, "Weren't you supposed to have a date this night, Miss Swan?" It didn't matter how much progress they made, 'Miss Swan', 'Sheriff' or even 'Savior' always came back as much as she tried to correct and tell the woman to call her by simply 'Emma'.
Emma wanted to get away from the question, she wasn't there to talk about her excruciating date with Neal, even if she knew that it wasn't excruciating at all. "I was." She said with a lack of enthusiasm.
"Seems to me that it wasn't a pleasurable date." Regina stated, trying to figure what could've gone wrong and mentally cursing Neal for whatever mistakes he made.
But much for her surprise and for her doomed fate Emma made sure to state otherwise.
"Actually, it was technically the perfect date." She started explaining. "He was perfect, he did everything right. We went to this nice Italian restaurant I've been dying to go since I got here, it was romantic and we ordered different kinds of pasta, there was a good fancy wine while we engaged in a comfortable conversation. Then he took me to dance, we went to this bar and he asked them to play my favorite song. He was a gentleman all the while, but in the end there was something missing. There was something missing all the while."
Regina didn't have the nerve to face the other woman right away. She knew the plan, all of it, and as Emma described she just assumed that everything went as they arranged. Everything except one detail, she frowned immediately knowing what went wrong, the flowers, she thought.
"The flowers." Emma confirmed and she inner cursed Neal and smiled at his stupidity. She precisely said he should in no circumstances forget them. "He brought me flowers." And that moment Regina finally looked to the blonde with a question mark all over her face.
Regina was desperate to know what kind. That must be it, he brought the wrong kind, she never imagined Emma to be so picky with flowers though. "It must be a huge disappointment to received flowers from the person you're dating." She threw the comment attempting to make the blonde develop the subject.
Emma knew Regina, and sure as hell she was trying to get her to speak more about it. There she saw her chance to say what she needed. "I can't say how disappointed I was to see the white roses with the red tips." Regina was lost again. Those were Emma's favorites, she had never been gifted with them but they were still her favorites.
When Emma noticed the other woman's confusion she went on with a lower tone, "I was so disappointed that it wasn't you whom gave me them." Regina started to slightly shake her head side to side but Emma just proceeded in her speech, "That was when it all clicked, why I was having the perfect date and I was being so miserable. And it wasn't fair with him or me or you, so I had to end it and come here and tell you how I felt."
Regina was wordless when Emma finished, but she had some time to put herself together and say a couple of words. She never thought it would ever hurt her as much to say two simple words as in that moment. "You shouldn't."
Emma decided it was time to leave, that Regina would need time to process the new piece of information. She needed time and Emma would give her all she necessitated because in the end it would be worth the wait. So she got up from her seat at the stairs and turned looking down to Regina and said with all the assurance she could. "I know what you did, you were the only person I ever told about the flowers, precisely this kind. I would never imagine that you heard any of the silly things I babbled about in the ship but you did. And you even planned me a date with a guy you don't even like only because you thought this was my best chance. You got it all wrong, I told you all that because you're the one I wanted- the one I want to do all those things with, because you are my best chance."
While Emma left Regina only stared blankly at the exit.
In the silent night Regina kept her eyes back to the stars for quite some time, she didn't trust her voice to speak anything or her words to make sense so there was no much to do. She kept repeating in her mind for countless times that Emma was not meant for her; that somewhere in this world or another there was a man destined to her just as much as there should be a good soul better than herself for the blonde. Someone that would love her as she deserved, and take care of her, make her happy, give her a family. But if so why was she crying for all those wrong reasons, why was she feeling such warming feelings after Emma told her she was the one she wanted, why did the words 'I wanted you' meant more than any 'I love you' she had ever get from anybody or would ever get from any random strange guy supposedly designated to make her happy again? Regina kept repeatedly telling herself that the right person for Emma wasn't her, she was broke and doomed and she'd never be able to love Emma as much as she deserved, even if right now she still loved her with all her being.
The months went by, they were rough ones, and even if Emma thought herself to be a patient person she was beginning to question this virtue of hers because the wait for only one small sign from Regina was taking so long to come. She hadn't heard anything from the woman after that night they last talked at her porch, and each day Regina avoided Emma like a plague. The blonde on the other hand wanted to take the first step already, but she knew she couldn't, Regina needed to get in terms with herself and her feelings.
Each of the times they ended up face to face Emma was bit more miserable to see how Regina was still frightened to even look her in the eye. The woman was trying at all costs to keep her face straight and as much neutral as she could but Emma knew better, she knew Regina, she knew even from the distance that the brunette woman was having a tough time to deal with this situation. She had to ask for a help, one she never thought she'd request, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Regina never before had trouble with keeping eye contact with anyone, but she guessed that Emma Swan wasn't anyone, she had long assumed to herself that the blonde was different even if she didn't actually figured how to deal with this new condition. It was hard to see how insistent Rumple's son had become, he was not giving Emma up, but it was also of much comfort to see the blonde decline all of his attempts. It was selfish, she knew it, but she couldn't help just as much as she couldn't help the slight of happiness each time it happened.
She was now at Granny's waiting for her morning meal, an old habit she decided to renew. Unfortunately she wasn't the only one making new habits, as soon as she sat on the usual spot on the counter Hook sat on a bench too. Much for her surprise he didn't present any sign of having consumed any alcohol, which was strange even in mornings. She always remembered him to be the kind that always had a bottle in hand.
"Morning, your majesty." He was one of the few whom still addressed her by the title, even if it always came with a disrespectful manner. She tossed him a glare not at all friendly to clarify he wouldn't want to be the cause of her bad mood so early in the morning, but the pirate only ignored it. "I have a secret to share."
She gave him another chance not to ruin her morning meal, her morning, and the rest of her day. That was exactly why she avoided eating at the Diner for so long, to avoid this kind of thing, people being friendly or just chatty was annoying to her.
"Not in the mood to talk, love?" He didn't wait for the answer, because he knew which was, "Well, that's good, 'cause you only need to listen."
And he started to tell her, the secret, or the story he had to share. Within the first couple of minutes she was about to shut him up, because really the last thing she needed was tales of a pirate's adventures throughout lands but suddenly things started to seem more appealing and she started to see a point worth sitting and listening to his story.
It was all an accident, he said. He and Emma were in some kind of journey to get a compass in the enchanted forest, the same one that helped her return safe and sound to Storybrook, while in their path they had to stop by a lake to refill the water cans, but the lake was no ordinary one. From it came a siren, they had a fight for the magical creature, but Regina knew that only those whom love a female can be fooled by the sirens because they have the ability to portray their loved ones.
"Swan said 'Regina' so many times she almost had me calling for this 'Regina'. And I had no idea who in bloody hell she was talking about."
Those were his exact words, and his last ones before he got his food and left.
The day had barely started and Emma was already stressed out, she just need some damn coffee before she got to work at the station but it didn't matter how much she looked and rushed Ruby the waitress seemed to take forever to give her what she requested. It wasn't like she asked for anything new or extravagant. She saw the waitress come out of the kitchen with the cup of coffee to go and a rose, another one. Just the same kind she found on her car, the white rose with red tips kind of flower.
"Who the hell is send those flowers?!" She asked completely frustrated by having no knowledge at all of whom was responsible for that even though there were only two options and she didn't even have to pick between them. "It's Neal, isn't it?"
Ruby simply shrugged claiming it wasn't her function to ask, she was only delivering them. Taking the coffee and leaving the flowers behind Emma continued with her day heading to the stations, she actually didn't know if she felt surprised or even more frustrated to find another flower on her desk. She cursed Neal for the flowers, why didn't he send her food? At least she'd enjoy it, and she also hated the fact that those weren't from Regina, and she was also annoyed because the woman hadn't done anything since she asked Hook to have a chat with her. There was another delivery by her lunch hour, this time the flower came with her favorite meal from Granny's, burger and fries.
By the time Emma entered the apartment after her long exhaustive day with beloved paperwork she saw a commotion not at all usual coming from up stairs and Mary Margaret came down with a shocked expression and asking what the hell happened to her room. She frowned finding the question a little bit odd to say the least while making her way to see what was this all about.
Her bed was all emerged in roses petals and there was a bouquet in the center of the bed with a note. She reached it immediately, and the note only said 'To Emma' with the most elegant handwriting she had ever seen, and that detail transported her mind to the one person she wanted the flowers to be from since the very beginning and for the first time in a while she had a small but totally genuine smile on her mouth and as much as she didn't want to admit she had tears in her eyes. She brought the piece of paper closer to her face and took deep breaths as if she could smell apples with a hint of the roses smell too. There was barely time to announce that she was leaving and collect her jacket before she reached the door only to open to a strangely nervous Regina Mills.
Before Emma had the chance speak anything Regina offered her a flower and the blonde's heart skipped a beat and she tried to speak again but could only smile the brightest biggest smile she probably had ever smiled, and the nervous faded away from Regina's face as she too smiled and started apologizing, "I'm sorry that I didn't give you your first rose, but I've never wanted anything more than I want to be giving you all the next ones."
Emma held Regina's hand, the one holding the flower and leaned in gathering their foreheads while she whispered, "I used to like white ones, but you like the red ones the most, so now I like those." She felt silly admitting it, but nothing mattered because Regina smiling the way she was right on the moment was ten times more that she could ever ask, it was the most beautiful portrait of the woman she had ever seen and greater than any other sight she ever had. And finally they shared their first kiss, their best kiss, the one kiss that opened the way to many possibilities of happiness, the kiss that sealed their best chance. Together.
A/N: Thanks everyone for reading this, reviews are really welcomed! :-)