A/N: And so begins my submission for the 7th bi-annual SwanQueen Week. I'm creating an eight chapter mini-story rather than separate one-shots though. Each chapter will focus on the daily prompt however. Hope you like it! Also, it's AU and there's no Henry, sorry!
"It's not you, it's me."
Emma cringed herself as she said the corny line but pressed on with her explanation. She needed to confess how she had been feeling for months now.
"I'm just not ready for the next step, Killian, and I don't think it's fair to make you wait until I am. You want to get married and settle down and have a family and I'm not there yet. I don't think I'll be there ten years from now, to be honest. We're only twenty-four, after all. I just," she cast around for the right words, "I don't think I've experienced enough of the world to make that sort of decision yet."
The man sat beside her on the park bench said nothing. He was staring out over the duck pond, watching the few people milling around the water's edge, feeding the ducks and enjoying the peace and quiet. Emma turned to watch as well, waiting.
"I never asked you to marry me," he said after a while. "I just thought we'd both want that soon, that's why I mentioned it."
"But that's the thing, Kil," Emma sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever want that. I don't think I'm a marriage sort of person, to be honest. And rather than wasting both our times, doesn't it make sense just to leave things here?"
"But I love you," Killian said, turning back to look at Emma. "Don't … don't you love me?"
"I … I'm not sure any more," she confessed. "I know I did. When we first got together I was completely in love with you. But that was three years ago and I can't help but feel we've both changed so much since we were twenty-one and now I want something different."
"Someone different," Killian remarked, a slight bite in his tone. "Have you met someone?"
"No," Emma said firmly. "It's nothing like that. I just think we might be happier if we weren't together any more. I'd still like to be friends with you though, Kil. I still want you in my life."
Killian sighed and scratched his beard before standing up. Emma stood too, reaching for his hand before he could walk away.
"Please, Killian, know that I'm really sorry," she said.
"I know," Killian said. "And I want to be friends with you too, Emma. But I'm going to need some time. I'll call you when I'm ready to talk, ok?"
He pulled gently from her grasp and walked away through the park. Emma watched until he was out of sight but he didn't look back. She sat down on the bench again and pulled out her cellphone. Tapping the screen several times, she put it to her ear as she rang her best friend.
Regina tapped her chin with her finger as she surveyed the tangle of bikinis she had found buried deep in her wardrobe. Extracting a simple black top and deciding it still fit her, she began to search for the bottoms which matched it. A bright red set also got thrown into the suitcase before Regina turned towards her closet and began rummaging around for some flip flops.
"What are you doing?"
"Jesus! Emma!" Regina said, sitting upright at once and placing her hand on her chest. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Well I did call to say I was coming home," Emma said, pushing aside the mountain of clothes on the bed and sitting down crosslegged. "Why didn't you answer?"
Regina stood from the floor and walked to her bedside table where her cellphone lay. There were indeed three missed calls from her best friend. And it was on silent.
"Sorry," she said, offering Emma a small smile. "How did it go?"
"As well as can be expected," the blonde shrugged. "He said he needed time to think about if he wanted to be friends with me."
"Hmmm, I know the feeling."
Emma grabbed some balled up socks and threw them at her smirking friend. Regina caught them easily and sat down beside her friend, looping an arm over her shoulders.
"I'm sorry," Regina said. "You guys were good together."
"You never liked him, admit it," Emma remarked, looking sideways at the brunette.
Her cheeks flushed a little and Regina stood to resume her footwear search. Emma snorted at the silent answer. She didn't blame Regina. Killian had never been particularly friendly with the brunette, always preferring to speak only with Emma when the three of them hung out. And since Regina hadn't dated anyone in the time they had been together, there hadn't been any opportunities for double dates. In that moment she wasn't sure why she had spent three yeas with the man, nor why it had taken her so long to finally end things with him. She had been expressing doubts to the woman now kneeling before her about their relationship for months but hadn't found the right way to tell her boyfriend. Ex boyfriend, she amended quickly.
"How long are you gonna be gone?" Emma asked as Regina turned to the case beside her with three different pairs of coloured flip flops.
"Just a week," Regina said, tucking the shoes neatly down the sides of her bag.
"God I'm going to be bored," Emma sighed. "Why did you have to go the one time of the year I actually don't need to be at work."
Emma's job as a school soccer coach kept her busy year round as she was always roped into summer school activities. But the first week in July was always a vacation for everyone involved with summer camps in the area and she was suddenly remembering that her plan to go hiking with Killian would probably not be happening.
"Well I did invite you," Regina reminded her.
"You did," Emma said slowly. "Does the invitation still stand?"
Regina looked up from packing her almost full case in surprise and cocked her head towards the blonde beside her.
"You want to come?"
"I'll be bored here on my own without Killian to distract me, and Ruby's off somewhere with Belle for the week."
"And you want to spend time with your awesome best friend, right?"
"That too," Emma laughed. "Come on, Gina, please."
"Of course you can come, Ems. If you can pack in," she glanced at her cellphone, "fifteen minutes. I promised Ma I'd be with her before nightfall and it's a five hour drive."
Emma leapt from the bed and raced out of Regina's room. Sprinting down the corridor she entered her own bedroom and jumped onto the bed to pull her case from the top of her wardrobe. Flinging it open, she began to pull clothes from her wardrobe and tossed them inside. Bikinis and flip flops followed. She bumped into Regina in the bathroom where both were collecting their toothbrushes and wash items. Regina rolled her eyes at Emma's haphazard methods as she carefully placed each item into her new wash bag. Emma, on the other hand, simply piled the bottles up in her arms, a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth and a mumbled request about borrowing Regina's hairdryer.
"Why couldn't we have left just a little later?" Emma asked, tripping over the dangling arm of a sweater as she walked awkwardly outside and deposited her overflowing case in the boot of Regina's Mercedes.
The car had been a gift from her father when she had graduated college. It was also the last thing he ever gave her before his untimely death eighteen months later. Regina had been visiting her mother much more often over the past year since that fateful day.
"She doesn't like me driving in the dark," Regina said as she came up behind Emma with her own, perfectly packed, suitcase.
"Hang on," Emma puffed, leaning on the edge of the car. "Your mother won't allow you to drive at night?"
Regina scowled at her friend as she slammed the trunk shut. Emma let out a peel of laughter as she made her way around to the passenger side of the car and climbed awkwardly into the low seats.
"Gina, you're almost twenty-five. You're still letting your ma tell you when you can and can't drive?"
"Shut up," Regina said as she turned the key in the ignition, "or I'll revoke your invitation."
"No you won't," Emma said, reaching for the AUX chord dangling from the car's radio system. "Because you know full well that I have the best road trip playlist ever on this." She waggled her phone before plugging it in. "Now, you get to choose first. The Clash or The Ramones?"