Saturday mornings were Emma's favorite part of the week. There had never been a particular reason; weekends were inherently good, but there was something magical and pure and wholesome to Emma about waking up late on a Saturday morning and realizing that it was, in fact, finally Saturday.
Green eyes slowly cracked open to bright early day sunshine that flooded in through the window shade that hadn't gotten pulled down quite far enough the night before. Emma stretched and her back cracked deliciously as she made a sound low in the back of her throat that was something akin to pleasure. The floor was cold from the air conditioner running during the night but Emma didn't mind as she got up and padded across the floor to her closet. A racerback tank top and leggings were thrown on and socks were grabbed from the top of a laundry basket as Emma headed down the stairs.
"Good morning Emma!" Mary Margaret called over her shoulder from the kitchen.
"Morning Mom." Blonde locks were gathered into a loose bun and secured with the perfectly stretched hair tie that lived on Emma's wrist as she bent down to kiss Neal's forehead.
"And good morning to you too." David smiled at his daughter's baby voice from the couch.
"Still don't want anyone to join you on your run?"
"Like you could keep up." Emma smirked. She plopped down on the floor next to the shoe rack that housed her dirty, worn running shoes.
"I think anyone could keep up if you're wearing those." Emma stuck out her tongue, then pet a sneaker.
"There there, don't listen to him he's just being a di-"
"Are you going to want pancakes when you get home sweetie?" Mary Margaret interrupted, turning around with a streak of flour across her forehead. Emma suppressed her snort and David managed a sneaky picture from behind Neal's crib. "I want to know if I need to make any more batter."
"'Nah, I should be good. If I'm hungry I'll stop at Granny's on the way back."
"Alright sweetie, enjoy your run."
"Thanks Mom." Emma hopped up from the floor and cracked her neck as she popped her ear buds into her ears.
"Be back later!" She called as she closed the door behind her. She paused at the bottom of the apartment building's stairs to start her music playing, only to be interrupted by a text from David.
I won't tell her if you won't
You better not! I wanna see her face when she realizes
I'll keep her distracted as long as I can. Might wanna make it a fast one today
Emma smiled to herself as she hit shuffle on her workout playlist and headed out the door of the apartment building.
The sensation of her feet hitting the pavement that traveled up Emma's spine was one of her favorites, one that she could never get enough of. And once she rounded the corner to head for the docks, sunshine began to beat down on her face and sweat to form on her forehead and the wind off the sea started to blow through the stands that had escaped her fingers and made Emma forget the sweat was even there; Emma Swan was in bliss.
Saturday mornings were Regina's least favorite part of the week. There was never a real substantial reason; just the fact that in Regina's mind, weekends were only full of idleness and mindless loads of laundry and Henry doing nothing but play video games and cesspools for bad decisions (like eating Chinese food with the Charmings), but there was something that was just terrible and boring and tedious to Regina about waking up on a Saturday morning and realizing that it was, in fact, Saturday once again.
Goosebumps appeared on Regina's arms as she got out of bed, suddenly regretting that she had left her air conditioner on while she slept. But as she stepped into the hallway, she began to regret her decision less and less. It wasn't even 9:00 am and the summer heat was already beginning to become unbearable. Regina took a few steps down the hall and knocked on Henry's door.
"Henry? Are you awake?" No answer. "Henry?" Again no response. Regina sighed and opened the door, only to find her son still sound asleep and the room dark. "Henry you need wake up."
"Ngh?" Henry started to roll over, then fell back on his stomach.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he groped for his phone, only to come up short.
"Ah dunno, early o'clock?"
"It is past 9:00 it is time for you to get up."
"Mom," He whined. "It's Saturday." He pulled the covers up higher.
"You've slept in long enough." Regina walked across the room and pulled her son's covers off his body, eliciting a screech and a mad dash to retrieve them. "Come on, you've got things you could be doing." Regina dropped the blankets on the floor at the foot of the bed as she walked away. "And make your bed before you come downstairs." She called over her shoulder as she headed out the door. Henry groaned, flopped back into the bed and covered his face with his hands as he grumbled after his mother.
"You'd think the freaking evil queen was back -"
"I heard that!" Regina called from the bottom of the stairs. Henry groaned again.
Saturdays, like like every other morning, started with coffee that filled the house with the intoxication aroma of Regina's motivation to live. Soon, Regina had her hands wrapped around the largest mug she owned full of straight black coffee, which was the only real way to drink coffee in her mind, and was taking a seat in front of the bay window which overlooked the neighborhood.
The sidewalk was already full of children riding bikes and owners taking dogs out for walks. Regina took a long sip from her coffee as Henry came down the stairs dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, socks in hand. Regina raised an eyebrow and he froze. "And where do you think you're going?"
"Charlie and Matt invited me to go hang out with them and Marcia."
"Marcia, huh?"
"God, Mom, it's not like that!"
"Mhm." Regina took another sip of her coffee.
"You are absolutely insufferable!" Henry stormed off to find his sneakers.
"They're in the hall closet."
"No they're not! I left them over here!" There was a moment of silence before Henry emitted what was almost a scream and came storming back, now with his socks on, and stepped into his sneakers that were, in fact, sitting on the floor of the hall closet. "Hate it when you're right..." Henry grumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" Regina tilted her ear towards him.
"Nothing."
"Oh no, it was definitely something."
"Mom, stop..." Regina rolled her eyes and smiled.
"Oh, alright, I'll leave you alone."
"Ok... bye!" Henry grabbed his backpack off the floor and headed for the door.
"Wait!" Regina called. Henry deflated and turned back. "Where are you going?"
"I dunno."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Henry sighed.
"Probably Granny's."
"Do you have money?
"No."
"How were you planning on paying for Granny's?"
"I dunno." Regina sighed, got up, and went into her purse that was hanging on the coat rack.
"Here's $20, pay if someone forgot money, but I want change back."
"Ok bye." Henry disappeared out the door before Regina could fit another word in. She sighed and returned to her seat by the window as she listened to the garage door open then watched Henry take off down the street.
"He didn't close the garage door..." She shook her head
Emma stood at the top of the slide on the playground, watching the water wash up against the sand. She smiled, the memory of her first time sitting in the same spot with Henry and his book making her nostalgic.
"Why'd you have to go and grow up, kid?" Emma spoke aloud to herself and let her head fall back against the wooden post she was leaning on. Her phone buzzed with a Words With Friends notification and saw that it was only 10:00 am. She sent Henry a text.
Hey kid, you up for donuts?
She waited several minutes to give him a chance to reply, but he never did. She sent another text, but still got no response.
"Kid, I swear to god..." Emma pushed off the pole and jumped off the ladder. She took off running across the field towards 108 Mifflin to get her son out of bed.
Regina made toast for breakfast, and topped it with avocado that she had mashed with some lemon juice, salt, and pepper. She ate sitting back in her window seat that overlooked the road. She had never called herself a stalker, but she supposed that's what she was, always trying to spy on the neighbors from the front windows and inquiring about their lives. Her mind had just started to wander when she watched Emma running down the sidewalk past the house.
"Ooh..." Regina found herself saying aloud, her bottom lip disappearing between teeth as chocolate eyes drifted down Emma's body. Emma paused and cocked her head at the open garage door, then up at Henry's bedroom window. "Come on..." Emma checked her phone, then turned her back and started to jog away from the house. Regina frowned. "Well that's not going to work." With a turn of Regina's hand, Emma had disappeared from the sidewalk and was appearing in front of Regina.
"What the hell?" Emma nearly crashed into a china cabinet as she looked around disoriented before her eyes came to rest in a glare aimed at Regina.
"If you think you can come running by this house looking like that," Regina gestured to Emma's outfit. "and not stop by for the first time in over a week, then we're going to have a problem."
"What kind of -" Emma was stopped by Regina pressing her lips against Emma's.
"You know exactly what kind of trouble I'm talking about." Regina smiled devilishly against Emma's lips and poofed them up the stairs and behind a locked bedroom door.
"We have to start being more careful about what we're doing here. Anyone could see us," Emma spoke softly and ran a hand through Regina's hair as she stared at the ceiling.
"Well I would hope no one could casually see in through my second story window. I think we're safe for the moment dear." Regina slid over and started pressing kisses to Emma's neck.
"It's the middle of the morning on a Saturday and you poofed me off the street, Regina. You know exactly what I meant." A tanned leg slid between pale ones.
"We can stop if -"
"We both know that we wouldn't stop even if I said I wanted to." Regina smirked and began tracing light patterns over Emma's bare chest with her fingernails.
"You're not wrong..." Her lips traced up to Emma's jawline. "I certainly wouldn't be too eager to give you up." Regina pressed her lips against Emma's neck again and suddenly green eyes were fluttering shut and half a moan came from low in Emma's throat as Regina left a dark mark that wouldn't be going away anytime soon. "Especially when you look this good." The way the words slowly emerged from Regina's throat in their low timbre did something to Emma she couldn't explain, but she could have spent the rest of her life laying there, listening to Regina seduce her again.
"I'd just prefer crawling in the window when I know no one will -"
"Yes, we all know how daring and ninja - like you can be from your hardening days as a criminal; it's quite impressive. But we're all aware and right now you're in my bed and that's all that I care to be aware of at the moment." Regina's fingers trailed over a toned stomach then up between pale, pert breasts longer than Emma's brain could handle.
"We can't risk Killian getting -" Emma started, but she was stopped by Regina kissing her full and hard as she rolled to straddle Emma's hips. Regina pulled away and Emma couldn't help but clench her legs as her eyes drifted up toned abs to full, pert breasts that bounced deliciously as Regina ground her hips into Emma's thigh. Emma moaned and slid her hands up smooth thighs to curvy hips, biting her bottom lip as her arousal darkened eyes met with Regina's even darker ones.
"He won't." Regina's eyes caught Emma's with such ferocity, Emma found herself frozen, gazing into dark brown pools that only pulled her in deeper.
"Good." Emma barely managed to choke out the word before Regina was grinding her hips down on Emma's thigh and Emma's brain nearly short circuited from another round so soon. Regina was intoxicatingly sexy and sometimes Emma found herself wondering why Regina didn't throw herself at something infinitely more appealing than herself.
Regina let out a low moan and Emma flipped them over, and the bed moved a half foot against the floor.
"Mom, what was that?" Henry's voice came from downstairs and had Emma flying off of Regina.
"What the fuck?" Emma whispered, panic evident in her voice. "When the fuck did he come home?"
"I don't know, I never even heard the door close." Regina whispered back as she scrambled to pull the bed covers over herself.
"Mom? Are you ok?" Henry called again from the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm fine Henry." Regina answered, her eyes never leaving Emma's panicked ones.
"You sure?" The sound of footsteps headed up the stairs had Emma ducking behind the bed.
"I'm fine! There's no reason to come up here!" Regina bit her lip and prayed to every god she knew.
"You're sure? It sounded like something big fell." Henry stopped.
"Yes. I just knocked into the bed and it moved."
"Ok..." He sounded unconvinced, but headed back down the stairs anyways. Emma let out the breath she had been holding and sat back on the edge of the bed as Regina collapsed back into the pillows.
"Holy shit..." Emma whispered as she rubbed her face with her hands.
"In this instance, holy shit is quite correct." There was a beat of silence before Emma's whipping around to look at Regina.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about Regina. Do you have any idea how close we both just were to being completely and utterly screwed?"
"Of course I'm aware, I'm not an idiot." Emma got up and started to get dressed, angrily flipping her hair out of her face. "What are you doing?"
"Leaving."
"Why?"
"Because our son almost caught us having sex."
"But he didn't..."
"We're getting careless Regina."
"No we're not we're doing just fine." Regina got up and walked across the room to Emma who was shimmying into her tank top. She wrapped tan arms around a pale waist and looked up into Emma's eyes. "We've been safe up until now, and we won't come that close again." Emma looked down at Regina and found herself getting pulled into her brown eyes.
"I can't hurt anyone-"
"Shhhhhhh." Regina leaned up on her tiptoes and pulled Emma closer. "Everything's going to be ok." Her voice got soft as she brought her face closer to Emma's and pressed their foreheads together.
"How do you know?" Emma's voice was barely above a whisper, her lips almost touching Regina's. Regina tucked a rogue piece of blonde hair behind Emma's ear, her brown eyes never leaving the green ones opposite her.
"Because you need me to." Regina pressed her lips to Emma's with the forceful gentleness that she always seemed to exist in. Emma found herself kissing back and her hands finding their way into Regina's hair.
"I should get back... they'll be wondering about me." Emma pulled away. "And I'm supposed to see Killian today." Regina's face fell as she nodded and took a step back, wrapping her arms around her own waist. Emma grabbed her leggings off the floor and stepped into them.
"Can I expect you Monday?" Regina bit her lip, the fear of Emma's instinct to run still in the air. There was silence as Emma put her hair back up in its ponytail.
"Yeah. Yeah you can." Emma couldn't help but smile when she saw the small one break out on Regina's face. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and forced her feet into her still laced sneakers before heading for the window.
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving?" Emma stopped and looked back.
"You can't just climb out the window."
"Well I sure as hell can't walk out the front door." Regina rolled her eyes.
"Are you telling me that the world class criminal can't figure out how to sneak her way out of a house without breaking a leg?" Emma feigned insult.
"I wouldn't break my leg."
"You can barely walk up the stairs, dear." Emma rolled her eyes.
"You're impossible." Regina smirked.
"Perhaps..." Regina walked into the bathroom, retrieved her robe and wrapped it around herself. "Just wait a minute before coming downstairs. You're dropping by to pick up some papers." Emma raised a skeptical eyebrow and opened her mouth, but closed it again when Regina's look told her to. Regina disappeared down the stairs and Emma could hear her talking to Henry through the floor. She found herself daydreaming about living life with Regina Mills but was interrupted by the realization that her two minutes were up. She crept down the stairs as quietly as she could, the knocked on the front door and made it sound like she let herself in.
"Hey kid, you home?"