A/N: I'm very excited to participate at this week's themes! AU worlds are really my favorite topic! I hope you all enjoy reading these small stories as much as I enjoyed writing for them. Viva La Swan Queen! ;)

Celebrity AU: Golden lights

Emma bit down her bottom lip as the soft "click" of the camera's shutter filled her ears. Her emerald eyes glinted under the sunrays of the first hours of morning and she tilted her head to her left, looking at the view that stood in front of her.

The sun played with the sea and sand of the beach that stood at the other side of the fence that headed towards the first meters of the private place. The blonde photographer had definetely seen views that others could have described as more breathtaking but as she clicking sound of the shutter continued she took a step backwards, admiring the view through the view finder, teeth now trapping her bottom lip while she tried to adjust the lens as perfect as possible under the quickly varying light.

"Everything is packed." A voice came at her back, making her jump slightly before she lowered her hands. She blinked her concentration away and turned, a smile appearing on her mouth as she took on a very different kind of view; A beautiful brunette looking at her with her hands up her waist and an amused glow on the back of a pair of beautiful brown chocolate eyes that had been described in far too many magazines as "full of secrets". "I knew you were going to be here." Finished Regina, stepping closer and taking her camera away after sharing a quick look with her, asking for a permission Emma had already granted multiple times, ever after the first night they had spent together. The brunette, however, asked every time she came closer to the camera and Emma -grateful- always replied. "Saying goodbye?"

Emma nodded and pointed at the sea, the sound and smell of it-something she hadn't taken into consideration mere minutes before, hitting her senses once again.

"I'm going to miss it." She finally spoke, her voice slightly rough after having been silent for so many minutes.

Neither of them said anything but the truth, the realization that now that her relationship had been discovered the amount of time they were going to be alone, truly alone, was going to dwindle dramatically, hovered over them like the cries from the seagulls that seemed to fill the little silence left by the waves.

Fiddling with the shutter Regina raised the camera to her eye level and looked at Emma towards the lens.

The blonde photographer had her face turned towards the sea, the sunrays hitting her nose and lips and the brunette actress realized that even if they hadn't really been outside for long periods of time the pale skin of the other woman seemed to have taken a slightly darker tone that made her smile. For all the time the blonde spent behind those same lenses she looked beautiful in front of them. A statement she hadn't needed a lot of time to make the very first time they had seen each other.

Regina could still picture it vividly; the day her PR had told her the need to do a new photoshoot in order to keep her fans interested.

"It's so early..." She had half muttered as the car with both Mal and herself had approached the place where the photoshoot was going to take place. She had been in need of a coffee and she had winced at the needy tone that had come from her mouth. Mother would have never approved such tone and for a second she had chastised herself before she had managed to get a grip on her old custom. Cora Mills had been, still was in some circles, considered one of the most elegant actress of her time. Poised and beautiful she had accompanied dozens of amazing directors during her career and during her first years as an actress Regina herself had had found herself following the whims and desires of the old star. During that cold day of September, however, Regina tried to not react as her mother would have wanted her to act but, rather, as she herself would have. The result, however, wasn't as perfect as it could have been and she had felt Mal's piercing stare before the woman had blinked what had seemed to have been her surprise away.

And truth be told it was very early in the morning, early enough for her tiredness being justified.

Mal had crossed her long legs before looking at her up and down in a look that Regina never knew if it was appraising or downright worrying.

"It has been almost a month of the premiere of your last film." She had explained. "We need new photos and the new photographer couldn't make it later today. Plus, you had already booked yesterday's afternoon with that other premiere of Mida's daughter."

Regina had felt that whatever strength she could have had starting to fade under Mal's tone and she nodded, defeated. She knew it wasn't her position to be complaining. In truth she enjoyed her job and almost all her aspects a lot, minus the pressure that came accompanied to the fact of being a woman in the industry, but sometimes, most of the time really, she would have preferred not to be judged by her mother's merits and only by her own.

So, defeated and tired, the first time she had entered into Emma Swan's reigns she hadn't felt very chirpy when the blonde had introduced herself to her with a wave of hand and what seemed to have been a blush covering her cheeks. The second action wasn't all that new to Regina but she had kept staring to the long gracious fingers of the blonde as they worked with the camera that soon enough would be directed at Regina, once make up finished with her of course.

Those fingers, as well as the blonde herself, were precise and mesmerizing in a way Regina had been unable to pinpoint how until she had been in front of the her, channeling into the kind of persona she pretended to be whenever she needed to be Regina Mills, the actress, and not Regina Mills, the woman. Later, she would learn that the first time Emma had seen her she had had the impression that Regina had been, to put in the blonde's words, a bitch but those days had still been a month away and in that moment Regina had done her part acting like the actress she was as the shutter of the camera had clicked away.

Neither the blonde and herself had met until a week after that, for another event and this time Regina, dressed with one of the less overelaborate dresses she owned -a slight fuck you to her mother's own tastes-, the kind of ones she truly liked, had approached the photographer that with the sobriety lines of a suit seemed to be even more mesmerizing for Regina than the week before. They had talked for a little bit over flutes of Champaign while the allowed press fluttered between the guests, asking questions and looking for everything that could be a story. That night Emma had told Regina that she loved people to take pictures of but, truly, nature was all much more mesmerizing to her, much more beautiful. They hadn't saw each other for two weeks after that until, due to a meet up she had had with Mal she had crossed with Emma down the hall that directed to the office of the older blonde. Emma hadn't look happy, her eyes stormy and hard in only the way jewels can be, but when her eyes had met Regina had seen how the blonde had tried to mellow the thunders that echoed on those pupils, even for a little bit.

That had been the day she had asked to grab a coffee, together and in one of the most secluded coffee shops she knew, one of the ones that they wouldn't be bothered, nor by the press or by the fans. Emma had accepted.

The rest, as one of the directors Regina had worked with, could have been narrated in a set of several dates that could have gone terribly wrong but didn't. Until they had looked at each other in the bedroom of the very same house they both were standing in front now and had known that whatever they were they couldn't be labeled as fuck-buddies.

They both had run after that, for at least a week where Regina's new year's calendar was being set up and Emma's own work had swallowed her whole. They had eluded each other, tried to hide the fact and search for clues of the why and where, the how and what. It had finally been Mal of all people who had approached Regina with a sigh on her red lips and a look that, as always, could be very things, before placing one warm hand slightly closer to her thigh that necessary before saying that either she needed to have sex or sort whatever mess she had with that "pretty blonde photographer" before the story hit the tabloids.

Of course, the very same day Regina had asked for Emma to come over the tabloids had indeed showed up a blurry image of Emma parking in front of Regina's loft. Their chat had needed to talk the backseat as Regina called to Mal and asked what had happened. After that… everything had been a blur of screams and words and Emma's warm hands taking her phone away with only one question on her lips; "Do you want this?"

And Regina had looked at those green eyes and muttered a yes that had put them both into Emma's car and into the road that ended in that very same house with the world muted for a day and everything else as far away as possible.

The sound of the shutter broke Regina's concentration and, as she looked at her hands, she realized that she had taken a picture of the blonde without realizing, blonde that was now looking at her through her long eyelashes and a smile on her lips. It was going to be tough. Regina knew that. She was permanently on the public eye, her mother was probably going to ask for her head on a plate when she heard that the rumors were true and Emma's run impulse was probably going to be a tough enemy to fight against but, as she looked on the warm lights of the sun, those that made the blonde's tresses glow, she realized that even as difficult as it was going to be she wanted to jump.

And so she took another photo, noticing the way Emma's cheeks reddened and her eyes glowed, jaded and beautiful.

"I love you" Was far too quick, far too soon but she found herself rehearsing the words on her tongue, for the moment, the time, where those were going to be right. She could wait, she would, for Emma, for herself.

And so the day kept on.