Hey guys I"m back! (well for now) I'm sorry that I don't update and stuff, but I am just sooo busy currently and I don't have any time to write.
However, my internship is almost over yay! Just a little more than a month and then I'll have time to update again and I promise I will (for every story I still have open).

For now, enjoy this one shot.

Here's the prompt:

Regina teaching Emma how to bake an apple pie (you decide if Emma is terrible at it or not)

"Regina please."

"No."

"I'm begging you."

"I know, you have been for the last week. Quite persistently."

Emma pouts at the mother of her son. "But why?"

Regina rolls her eyes. "I told you, it's a family recipe." Regina starts walking away from Emma, in the direction of Granny's diner where she was headed to what was supposed to be a calm morning. However, Emma's hand on her arm stops her and she's forced to face the annoying blonde again.

"The one with poison included I take it?"

This earns Emma a harsh stare and for a second she's afraid she's taken it too far. Even though her and Regina are on… well what some may call friendly matters, she's still afraid she's going to be blown across the lawn sometimes. "No, but if you continue like this I might consider adding it." Regina says with an angry look on her face, however the twinkle in her eyes tells Emma that she's just kidding.

"Ha ha very funny Regina."

"Who says I was kidding?" This time there's a hint of a smile and it makes Emma beam at the woman standing in front of her. "I am. You're smiling, so okay let's make a deal here." Regina winces. "I'm not so keen on making deals." "I promise this one is one you'll want to make." The brunette seems to be paying attention now. Her whole body is turned towards Emma and her eyes are connected to the blue ones of the blonde.

"Fine, tell me."

Shit, Emma hadn't expected her to accept so fast. "Uh… " She felt her face flush a little as she awkwardly shifted on her feet.

"Really Emma? You're pretty bad at making deals, not a good trait for a savior."

Maybe someday Emma would have been upset by this comment, however now she's proud that they can say these things to each other, knowing that it's not meant to hurt, only to tease. And if there's one thing they're both good at it is teasing the other.

"Yeah well, luckily I'm not Rumpelstiltskin." Regina smiles and it seems honest. "Yes indeed, luckily you are not. So about this deal dear?"

Emma thinks it over for a second before finally saying the best thing she can come up with. "Let's say it like this. You'll learn me how to bake an apple pie and I'll owe you three favors. You can choose whatever you like. For example I could like do stuff for you with cleaning-

"I think I'll leave the cleaning to me, I've seen your place." "Well that's not really only my mess."

"Of course, if that's what you want to believe." This time her eyes shine even a little brighter and it makes Emma's stomach do all kinds of things she shouldn't be feeling. She makes a mental note to remind herself to call Elsa about this later.

"I do so that's what we're going with. Anyways, it doesn't have to be cleaning. You could pick anything, I swear. Anyways, I'm late for work, but can you like let me know tonight or something."

Regina slowly nods. "Yes, I will contact you later. Now go on and do some actual work Sheriff."

"Yes Ma'am Emma says with a smile that Regina easily returns before she turns around and heads to work."

Later that night, Emma is staring at the phone in her hands. It's 11:23pm and Regina still hasn't called or texted her. She's pretty sure she's doing it on purpose because she knows how stressed out about this stupid apple pie baking thing is. Truth is, she doesn't even care about the stupid pie. If it wasn't for her mother insisting – because she is the mayor now or something – that she should deliver an apple pie for the family evening that they have planned together. She also doesn't really likes these family dinners, but Snow thinks they're so important because of some cheesy reason and Emma remembers from last year how upset she got when the blonde got an apple pie from the store. So this year she's going to have to make up for it, and that will only work when Regina helps her bakes the pie. The brunette is invited herself too (after a thousand or so arguments from Emma to Snow as to why she should be here), so Emma doesn't see why she wouldn't want a decent apple pie instead of the disaster pie that's for sure going to happen if the blonde does it herself.

Finally, at 11:46 her phone screen lights up, showing a next text message from Regina Mills. She's immediately pulled from her thoughts and unlocks the thing as fast as it allows her to.

Fine, Emma. I will help you with this damn pie. But only because I do not want you poising our son at the dinner.

Emma smiles at the text and quickly types a return.

Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I owe you! (three times actually). What about you?

What about me? Aren't you afraid I'm going to poison you?

Ms. Swan do you actually think I'm going to eat even a single piece of this devilish pie that you're going to make.

Well maybe now that you're teaching me you could try a piece.

We'll see about that. Good night sheriff.

Good night Regina.

It takes a while before Emma can fall asleep, partly because she stays up till 1 talking to Elsa on the phone about whatever is going on with her and Regina, and partly because she re-reads their messages. According to Elsa she's in love or something, but that would be ridiculous. She just broke up with Hook a few weeks ago.. and besides.. it's Regina. They hated each other…

Emma regrets her decision the next morning when her alarm goes off at 7 am sharp. Her eyelids feel heavy and she can barely get herself out of bed. Which is why she almost falls down the stairs when she sees Regina standing in the middle of her kitchen.

"Good morning dear."

There's a devilish hint in the brunette's eyes, as if she knew Emma was going to feel this bad.

"Morning. What are you doing here?" Her voice cracks a little.

"Teaching you how to bake an apple pie of course."

Emma actually pouts like a child. "And you couldn't have waited till it was like.. the afternoon?"

Regina smiles softly. "I'm afraid not dear, I have a felling this requires quite a bit of work."

Emma walks downstairs and towards Regina, forgetting for a moment that she's dressed in nothing but a tank top and her panties.

"Do you think I'm going to blow up this whole place or something?"

"Why do you think I came down here, do you think I prefer this.. place over my mansion?"

The blonde chuckles. "You have a point." She sighs deeply as her eyes finally land on the stuff that Regina has brought with her. At least 2 of these seem familiar to her, not to bad she thinks to herself. "So where do we start?"

Regina's eyes fall down to Emma's legs and only then does the blonde realize she's standing half naked in front of the woman she has.. well apparently feelings for. "I'd start by getting dressed if I where you."

"Right… I'll be like 5 minutes, is that okay?"

Regina rolls her eyes and sighs as if annoyed, but Emma is getting good at this and she catches the small smile on the brunette's lips.

While Emma goes upstairs to get dressed Regina sits on the couch, forcing herself to take deep breaths to try to calm her body down. Emma shouldn't be affecting her like this, no one should. But then again, why would people with legs like that just walk around half naked? There should be some kind of rule that says they can't or something. Maybe she can convince Snow to make it official. God she has a problem.

Before she can really get lost in thought and unfortunately before her body has calmed down, Emma is standing in front of her again dressed in skin tight jeans (which isn't really that much better but at least they're not panties) and again another white tank top. How many does this woman have?

"Are you ready?" Regina asks, cursing her voice for sounding so shaky.

Emma doesn't hear it, or pretends not too because she only beams at her. "Yeah I am! Let's do some baking."

They're about 5 minutes into this whole baking a pie thing when Emma cuts her finger while peeling the apples. "Shit." She curses as she puts her finger into her mouth, trying to stop the bleeding.

"What?" Regina says dropping the spoon she was holding and turning to her baking companion. She notices the blood on the knife and immediately realizes what happened. "Idiot." She says quietly as she softly takes Emma's arm and drags her towards the couch she had previously been sitting on.

"I told you to be careful." The brunette tells her as she pulls softly on Emma's arm till the blonde stops sucking on her finger. "It's a sharp knife."

"Yeah.. I know." Emma says with a roll of her eyes. She didn't want to seem like such an idiot, but whenever she's around Regina she just can't help herself. It was actually going quite well, she was just finishing the last apple when that stupid knife slipped from her grip.

"You'll be fine, you just need a bandage. Do you have some here?"

Emma was surprised by the softness of Regina's voice. She knew that they were getting along better and better but in moments like this Regina kept surprising her. "Uh.. yeah I think Snow has some in the cabin beneath the sink."

Regina nodded and went to grab some.

"Thank you." Emma said as sincere and honest as possible when the brunette returned by her side with the bandage. Regina frowned. "I just got you a bandage dear, not that big a deal."

The younger woman smiles softly. "No I mean for all of this, helping me and stuff. I know that you have better things to do."

"Like I said, I don't want you risking killing our son with that pie."

The way Regina said it, without her usual sharp edge, made Emma smile. Maybe, and just maybe, Elsa had been right. Maybe there really was something between them, something more than friendship. But then again, would Regina ever risk her heart again? After Robin she probably wouldn't, he had broken her heart multiple times. So Emma brushed the thought off and stood up from the couch.

"Well thank you. I think I'll be fine. We should continue this before Henry and the rest get home."

Regina followed Emma into the kitchen, no picking up the suddenly weird behavior of the blonde. "We don't have to worry about that dear, Snow and Charming are picking Henry up after school and having dinner with them. I already figured that this would take a while."

"Good, that's good." Emma said, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Are you sure that you're okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. We should continue though."

Regina frowned but nodded anyways. "If you're sure."

"I am." Emma answered to quick. If Regina hadn't felt her awkwardness before she sure had now. Luckily for her, the brunette pretended not to notice as she slowly walked back into the kitchen, grabbing the bowl with dough that she had been preparing previously.

Emma took this as a hint that they were just going on as if nothing had happened.

When she finished the last apple (this time without cutting herself once more) she turned to the brunette who was still working hard on her dough. "Regina… what can I do now?" She asked carefully, not wanting to make things any weirder between them or cause any annoyance.

The brunette stopped and turned towards her. "You can tell me what you're thinking."

"What do you mean?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Please. You've been acting weird ever since you cut your finger and I helped you."

The younger woman shrugged. "I guess I'm just scared I'll suck at this."

Regina actually laughed now, a rich full laugh that made Emma feel even worse. Her stomach turned.

"You already do." She said, before sighing deeply and looking at Emma directly. "But you won't, once we're done. And besides, I don't think that's what is really bothering you. I know you, and you don't care about this cake, you just want Henry to think that you can at least do something useful in the kitchen instead of making cereal."

The brunette was turned towards her now as she cleaned her hands with a towel. "So just spit it out."

Emma shook her head. "No. I'm good."

"You're not."

"Since when do you care?" The blonde asked, trying to sound irritated though she knew it's wouldn't fool Regina.

"I don't."

That surprised Emma. For a second she thought that maybe, perhaps Regina did care about what was happening to her. What she was feeling. She got so lost in her thought she didn't hear the brunette talking to her. However, the touch of Regina's cold hand – from recently cleaning it – on her arm startled her from her thoughts. She locked eyes with the for once soft ones of Regina. She had never really had a chance to look into her eyes, so she also never had the chance to notice how friendly there were, how easily someone could get lost in them. In her eyes Emma saw nothing but good and maybe even hope.

"Emma you have to stop this. I think we're.. well .. I don't like to say it, but I think of us as friends. And I've never been really good at this, but I think one of the things that comes with friendship is telling each other what's wrong."

The blonde actually chuckled. "Yeah. Hey do you really think of us as friends?"

"You do, don't you?"

Emma smiled broadly at the gorgeous woman next to her. Unfortunately, or luckily Emma couldn't really decide, she didn't notice as Regina was finishing up the cake on her own, putting the batter and apples in the moldand putting some of what Emma thought of her magic ingredients on top of it. The only thing she recognized was cinnamon. She smiled when Regina's hand moved to put the cinnamon down, but at the last second she added some more. She knew that was especially for her and Henry and it almost made her reach out and pull the older woman into her arms.

Regina put the cake into the oven and walked over the couch. Emma watched her every move and stared at her hopelessly once Regina had taken place on the old but comfortable couch.

" What do we do now?"

" We wait, dear."

" That was it?"

Regina chuckled. " You did almost nothing."

Emma pouted and walked over her. " No, but I watched which is closer to baking then I've gotten in a really long time."

Again Regina laughed. Emma felt like she was already becoming addicted tot the sound. " Yes, however you still don't know how to do this."

The blonde shrugged. " I guess you'll just have to-"

However, her words were stolen from her when Regina suddenly pushed her lips down on Emma's. The blonde was startled, but she could no other than respond to the kiss. The brunette's lips were even softer than she had imagined they would be and when Regina opened her mouth to explore the kiss further, Emma didn't hesitate. Her stomach was turning, and she was sure that if there was a fire around her right now she wouldn't even notice. Everything was about this kiss, this moment.

Finally after a couple of minutes Regina pulled away. " I'm sorry." She instantly said as she looked down.

Emma grabbed her hands and softly stroked them with her thump. "Don't be. I've wanted to do that since.. well to be honest I only realized last night, but I think for a really long time."

Regina laughed. " Idiot."

" Your idiot." Immediately Emma realized her mistake and she blushed. " Uhhh I mean.. if you like want me to be, if you don't that's fine. I mean I don't know maybe you were just looking for distraction or you've like always wanted to do this once in your life and while baking apple pie with your uhhh friend you thought it was – "

Once again lips pressed against hers. This time it was just a few pecks before the brunette pulled back and softly took her face in her hands. " Stop idiot." She paused and smiled. " My idiot."

Emma smiled but then her thought caught up with her mind and it faded. " What's wrong?" Regina immediately asked.

" Can we do this?"

" What do you mean?"

The younger woman sighed. " I mean.. you've just ended a heartbreaking and complicated relationship, me and Hook also ended badly and what will everyone think?"

Regina nodded. " I've thought about that. And that's what has kept me from a very long time to be honest. I've always loved you Emma, I've always known I was destined to be with you. But I didn't want it, I didn't want to risk it and I wanted you to be sure too."

" But then why?-

" Because sometimes you have to accept the love you think you deserve."

Emma nodded in understanding. " And that was Robin Hood."

" Yes. I did really have feelings for him, I didn't fake it. It was nice to be lost and at the time I really needed him to be there for me. I had almost giving up on you, when you were so happy with Hook. I just… I really needed somewhere to be there for me."

Emma didn't even realize she was crying until she felt a tear land on their joined hands lying on her knee. " I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't realize earlier. I should have been there for you…"

The brunette squeezed her hand sweetly. " You were. Just in the wrong way, you were looking so hard to find me a happy ending that you didn't see the answer was so easy al along."

Emma smiled, this didn't make it better of course and she was sure she would always hate herself a little bit for it but for now all she could do was pull Regina into her arms and kiss her head. Which is exactly what she did. Regina immediately buried herself in her neck and hummed her agreement.

" What do you want to do now?" Emma asked after a while of just sitting like this.

Regina smelled the air. " Well… right now I think I just want to be here, with you. After that … I don't know. Maybe make you pay up to these favors you promised me because I think I have some ideas that you'll like."

Emma's breath caught in her throat. " Sounds like a plan." She barely managed to get out before pulling Regina even closer and kissing her once more.

Thanks for reading :)