AN: Anyone reading this? No? Okay. Oh, one? You in the corner? Yay, that's one! Hello! This is my first published Swan Queen fic, hope you like it, and that the POV-switches won't be too confusing. They'll get better later on.

Enjoy! Review and I might write a oneshot of your choice. Just ask me nicely.

Don't like Swan Queen, don't read.

Regina sighed. She both hated and loved this, she decided.

She hated it because it mattered so much, but she had to hide it. Neither she or Emma were confident enough to put their relationship on display in school, so they sneaked around quite a lot. Regina also loved it because it was romantic, and it made the moments she got with the blonde even more special.

Except for the problem that was school and the public, there was Regina's mother. Cora was not happy in the least about her daughter being in a relationship with a girl who had nothing, having been in the system all her life. Cora was a lady of high standards, requiring high quality when it came to all, be it supplies, company or entertainment. She wanted the very best, and only the best, for her daughter. A highly educated, rich businessman, perhaps. Someone who could provide for her with everything she was used to having in her life.

The Mills family lived in a mansion just outside of town. Emma lived with her foster parents in an apartment in the city. While Cora had not outright said that she wanted the two to break up, her pointed comments and never disguised opinions said it all.

But unlike her mother, Regina had no desire for herself to ever part from Emma, and she couldn't care less about financial things.

They had met in a class they shared – Expressive Arts. Neither of them were for the stage – having the looks, but not the confidence – and Regina was in the class' offered writing course for the sake of her love for the activity. Emma was in the very same place because she needed the extra points to graduate, having switched schools so much in her past.

Seated next to each other, the second- and the first-year didn't speak for a long time. Once a week they would spend two and a half hours only centimetres apart, both of them tapping away on their laptops, but it wasn't until well into November that Emma ignited conversation.

It all started over a question about what the teacher had said, and as they got onto the topic of writing, what books they liked to read, they were both hooked. Neither would show it in any way, but after their first conversation, they both had the other on their mind for the rest of the week. Regina was the known daughter of the town's most influential people, and quite known for the fact. Everybody knew Henry and Cora Mills – from the newspaper, the business-name, who knew, but somehow, everyone knew. Regina Mills was expected to run the business herself one day, and great hopes were built on her. Her mother was the most demanding one – constantly reminding her that good grades were the key to getting into the school her mother wanted her in, poking and checking to make sure her daughter were always presentable and her manners correct.

Emma Swan, on the other hand, had not had a mother always making sure she behaved. She was a free spirit, though she always did her best to behave around Regina's family. But until she and Regina met, she hadn't always been as keen on that. She wouldn't necessarily care about what was legal and what wasn't, but now, she cared too much about what Regina thought of her, and she saw the point. She had told Gina about her past, and though she frowned upon it, she accepted it and Emma had promised to never do anything like it again.

Her phone beeped in her pocket. Lunch?

Emma smiled, typing back with her phone hidden under her desk. I finish in 10 minutes. Subway?

You know me so well.

Emma hid her bright smile behind her book. Regina secretly loved eating in places as Subway, McDonald's and Burger King, since her mother would never let her. They were lucky there was two malls nearby the school. Most students went to the closest one during lunch, while Regina and Emma enjoyed the walk to the one further away. It was less modern than the popular one, but they were thankful for it. It meant there was a very small chance they would see anyone they knew, and the restaurants were mostly empty.

The teacher called it an end, and Emma quickly gathered her things, hopping off her chair in a hurry. Ruby knew she would be gone whenever she and Regina had the time to spend lunch together. She half-ran to her locker, shoving her books inside, pushing through a horde of girls and hurrying towards their usual meeting spot.

Behind the school, there was an old, forgotten park, overgrown with trees. In the very back of it, in between the pines and overgrown ground, was an old park-bench where they had spent their first few times seeing each other outside of school. And there Regina was, sitting by the far end of it, just like the first time Emma had come to see her there, and her heart beat faster.

Regina heard her approaching, whipped her head around and smiled widely, stood up, pulling her hands out of her pockets to catch Emma's, squeezing her elbows as she leaned forward to give the blonde a searing kiss, which was enthusiastically returned.

Regina pulled away with a regretful look in her eye, smiling sadly. "As nice as making out in the woods is, I'm hungry and we need to get back in time."

Emma pouted, pecking Regina's lips once more before lacing their fingers together and pulling her forward. They went through the opening in the fence, emerging onto a backstreet between an old liquor store and a line of garages. As always, Regina scrunched her nose at the smell, and Emma laughed at her. It was kind of strange, because out of the two, Regina drank alcohol the most – her mother were fond of dinners with wine. While Emma had drank the most by far in her time, occasionally stealing from her caretakers and drinking to forget, Regina drank at least twice a month, but never much, and certainly never intending to get drunk.

Reaching the mall, and the restaurant in question, they saw to their satisfaction that they were indeed alone, as usual. Ordering their usual, Emma watched Regina, amused as always, as the brunette ate the sub with gusto, more enthusiastic than any five-year-old. She shrugged by Em's gaze, grinning widely.

The blonde watched for a moment before tucking in on her own with almost as much energy. The blonde loved all foods, but Regina was happy about getting to act like a normal teenager – eat junk food, go to a restaurant and eat with her girlfriend. It was things that she never really got to do, and her mother had no idea where she sometimes went with Emma.

When they became a couple they had decided that even if they didn't want to show it at school, they should tell their families. Emma hadn't been nervous in the slightest – her foster parents had encouraged her to make friends, and they were really nice. Regina, on the other hand, had been in a slight fit of panic. She told her father without incident, who told her that it was great that she was getting over Daniel – her former boyfriend, who had died in a car-crash a year prior. Regina still missed him, every day, but she knew he would have wanted her to love again, after he was gone. And Emma was the only one yet who had been able to fill the void after him.

Emma didn't speak of sensitive matters with anyone, but she knew it was good that she stopped thinking of Graham, the hot guy from her last school, who she had dated for a few weeks before she'd had to move again. They hadn't been close enough for her to really be upset about it, but she was, and she knew she didn't owe him anything. They had agreed that their relationship would end when she left, but he'd been on her mind a lot, until Regina came along.

Cora took the news well, all matters considered. She didn't yell, didn't make threats. She asked to meet Emma for dinner next week.

Regina remembered it like it was yesterday.

Both girls were fidgety and nervous to the extreme. It was only two hours left, and Emma was turning in front of her mirror, wondering about her clothes. Regina, knowing Cora's dress-code for dinners and knowing Emma's wardrobe, had brought some of her own clothes in hope of making the blonde look acceptable in the end. Now there Emma stood, dressed in wobbling high-heels, black trousers, a white blouse and a black blazer. Regina had pulled Emma's hair up in a professional-looking ponytail. Em looked more like a business-partner of Gina's than her girlfriend, but neither of them cared as long as Cora would be acceptive of her. Regina herself were dressed like she always was at her mother's dinners – a formal, cream-coloured dress, black pumps and her hair fluffed. She looked like the wife of a president, Emma said. Regina responded, blushing, that she wouldn't want to be anyone's wife but Emma's.

Emma had heard the line with a blush matching her girlfriend's, who was rewarded with a shy smile and a firm kiss.

The dinner was a slightly awkward affair. Emma did her best to behave, watching Regina's every move intently as so not to do anything wrong. Regina watched Emma's moves just as closely, infinitely worried about Em having been scared off by her family.

In truth, she wouldn't have had to worry. Even if it had only been a little while – two weeks, in fact – Emma had a feeling she wouldn't want to be away from the brunette for a very long time.

"How many places did you say you had lived in, miss Swan?" Cora fixed Emma with her firm eyes, not intending to scare the young woman, but simply make sure she was suitable for her daughter.

Emma swallowed timidly. "Six, mrs. Mills."

"How come you have been transferred that much?"

"Different things. In most cases, my caretakers turned out to not be qualified for the job."

"And in the remaining ones?"

"One family disliked my behaviour."

Cora nodded thoughtfully, eyes trained on Emma. "And now that you're here, what are your... intentions with my daughter?"

"Mother!" Regina exclaimed.

Emma choked on her food, but hiding it successfully behind a cough.

Regina's head span. Emma's humour was quirky – what could she possibly say? She had no doubt Emma could say 'sex' or 'money' without batting an eye for the sheer fun of it.

But the blonde surprised her by looking Cora straight in the eye and saying, with sincerity clear as day in her voice, "I want to make her happy."

Regina immediately forgot her mother's scrutinizing eyes on them and slipped her hand into Emma's on the table, lacing their fingers together and squeezing lightly.

Emma smiled timidly at the brunette, squeezing back. Regina's eyes were shining brilliantly, and it was enough to make Emma forget that they were at her family's dinner table.

Luckily, Regina's father reminded them of the fact in time. "We can't ask for more than that, now can we?" he smiled brightly at the two girls across from him.

His daughter beamed at him,the blonde beside her smiling shyly, but gratefully. He ignored his wife's disapproving glare and smiled back.

"How's your Geography project coming along?"

Emma's voice awakened her from her memories, and she smiled, if bitterly so. "Finished. Mother has had me locked up in my room all week so that I would be free this Friday."

"Another formal dinner?" Emma sounded disappointed, and Regina couldn't stop the pout revealing she felt the same way. Most couples spent weekends together, enjoying time off school. Most weekends, Cora had some business-partner, friend, sponsor, or the like (occasionally she would even try to set Regina up with someone), and so whatever plans they had been hoping for would be denied.

Gina sighed deeply. "Yes. The Jones family, companions of mother. Shipping business, I think."

"Is it another set-up?"

Emma sounded so disgruntled that Regina had to laugh. "Probably. Don't worry about it."

The blonde on the other side of the table pouted. "It's not you I don't trust. It's them."

Gina shrugged. "They can't force me to do anything. Besides, it's just dinner. We're not going to go to a restaurant or something."

If only she knew how wrong she was.

AN: Oooh, what an original and cliché final line! You've probably figured it out already, but you'll see what I mean next chapter. REVIEW PLEASE!