It's Sunday and by some tragedy of shift scheduling, Emma has to work. She's not entirely sure why the police department is so well employed at the moment, but she figures people need jobs and she can give them. She stops by the mansion and uses Henry's keys to get in. She didn't even know she had those. Regina is sitting at the breakfast bar, tea in hand and a hot water bottle on her lap, watching Henry make breakfast.

"Woah, Gordon Ramsay" Emma exclaims as she enters the kitchen.

"Hey Emma" he grins over his shoulder, not letting his attention be distracted from the eggs for more than a second. The cloth draped over his shoulder is adorable.

"Good morning" Regina smiles. It must be the remnants of one given to Henry because it's so full of warmth Emma physically feels her mood lift from it. Something feels new and like home at the same time, that's their boy, always surprising her and always home. She smiles back, echoes the greeting and pecks her on the cheek.

"Do I get some eggs?" she asks, leaning on the stool next to Regina's.

She's looking at Henry but can see Regina watching her from the corner of her eye. She only realises what just happened when the kiss replays in her sluggish, pre-coffee mind, and the brief warmth of Regina's skin leaves her lips. She concentrates even harder on Henry's back and hopes the ground will open up and swallow her whole.

The ground stays where it is, Regina's eyes stay on her and she prays for something to crash into the kitchen. A dragon, a chernabog, a hoard of angry dwarves, anything to make them all forget what happened.

Regina turns to look at the clock on the wall "You're already late"

"It's not even 9 yet" Emma protests, momentarily distracted from her embarrassment by being accused of the impossible.

"If you leave now you'll still be 5 minutes late"

"So I might as well make it 10"

"Sheriff" Regina warns

"Fine, Madam Mayor" she emphasis. "I'm glad you're feeling well enough to be a total killjoy. See you, Gordon"

"Get out of my kitchen!" Henry shouts in the worst attempt at a British accent she's ever heard. She's still smiling about it as she hops down the steps of the mansion and along the path. She almost walks straight into a bunch of flowers that are being accompanied by Robin.

"Woah, hey there" she says in a much friendlier tone than she intends.

"Sheriff. I'm glad I caught you, I wanted to apologise for yesterday. You were right, I need to be better to Regina"

"Fuck you, buddy!" Is what she wants to say, but instead she purses her lips and nods. She's in the patrol car a few moments later and watches Henry answer the door with a smile that quickly turns insincere.

"Fuck you, buddy" she says quietly, starting up the engine.


She's hardly been at work for an hour and she definitely hasn't started working yet when Henry calls.

"Oh my gooooood" he complains down the phone

"Henry, I don't think you're supposed to be listening in on their conversation"

"He's saying he'll be all of these thing for her but he's just gonna let her down again! He promises stuff but as soon as it's not convenient it means nothing, and he's like 'oh yeah my code' like he never has a choice in how he fails her! Like flowers can fix what a let down he is? You have to do something!"

She sighs "Kid, it's not that I don't think you have a point, but...your mom has to decide what she wants, you can't do it for her"

"Ugh, you two are the worst! She wants you, we're a family! And you want her too. You suck so much"

"Come on"

"You're not even denying it!"

"We're friends!"

"Yeah. Like Ruby and Mulan are friends"

Emma chokes on the cold coffee she's drinking "Kid" she rasps, legs coming down from where they had been resting on the corner of the desk "Your mom wouldn't be with Robin if she didn't want to be. He's her happy ending, remember?"

"Whatever. You both suck." He hangs up

She blows out a long breath, throws her phone on the desk and leans back in her chair. What the hell is she supposed to do about Robin being there? She has a brief daydream about throwing him out and Regina being grateful and for some reason she has a sword. She doesn't have a chance to rationalise that in her imaginary scenario.

"Henry on at you?" David asks

She just about jumps out of her skin when she sees him at her office door. "Dad, what are you doing here? It's Sunday"

"Your mother asked me to drop this round for you" he puts a tupperware on the desk. Leftovers for lunch, boom. "That sounded like an intense conversation" He smiles that soft dad-smile that she will never quite get used to receiving and she feels like she has time, like he has all the time in the world for her.

"Yeah, he thinks I should go round to Regina's house and throw Robin out"

"On what grounds?" David laughs

"I mean, to be fair" she starts to tell him about what happened the day before. Ten minutes later she's still listing his inadequacies and every time she thinks he let Regina down. David is leaning on the desk with his arms crossed, nodding as he listens.

"...so on those grounds, I guess, I dunno"

"It sounds like you do know"

She sighs. "How can I possibly say any of this to Regina?"

"Regina knows" David says

Her heart jolts in her chest "Knows what?"

"That you love her, honey. Maybe she doesn't know how much, but are you going to tell me that she doesn't know that you care about her? Forget everything else you've been through, you came through for her big time yesterday. Do you think she's stupid?"

It's Emma's turn to cross her arms "No"

"Do you think she's careless or unobservant?"

She rolls her eyes "No"

"Do you think that she would choose anyone over you?"

"Dad, it's not like that. We're friends" she says as a lump forms in her throat

"Ok you're friends. You walked into the grasp of the world's ancient evil to save her from it and she almost died saving you right back. It's not like that now, but maybe it could be. How will you ever know if you don't try?"

Her chin dimples as she holds in tears she doesn't really understand. She wonders what the hell she's on the verge of admitting and when the hell it happened. David pulls her out of her chair and into a hug. He smells like aftershave and home. She feels small in his arms and grounded enough to let quiet tears go. They soak into his shirt like they were never there. Maybe she will go talk to Regina.


She still has Henry's keys, she thought she'd left them behind. She uses them anyway to let herself into Regina's house when her shift is over. She strains to hear as she opens the door, hoping she's not going to walk in on a Robgina make-out session. She grimaces at the thought.

"This part is completely racist and unnecessary, but it's important to be able to critique the things you love" she hears Regina tell someone.

Entering the living room she sees Henry in the armchair and no Regina. He's watching Breakfast At Tiffany's. Audrey Hepburn manages to get back into her apartment and sigh dramatically. She hears Regina's quiet laugh close by and leans over the sofa back.

"Hey" she looks down.

Regina is lying across the settee, not unlike a cat in a patch of sun, in pyjamas. They're different pyjamas from yesterday. They're silk and look like they've been fucking tailored, but still she considers this to be a huge personal achievement for both of them. Regina looks up.

"What about Breakfast At Tiffany's?" she asks, referring to their movie conversation from the day before.

"Well, that's one thing we've got" Emma grins. No one gets it "Nevermind. Tea?"

"I'm making some, there's coffee in the pot too if you want it?" Henry asks

"Yeah coffee would be awesome, thanks Henry"

He hops off to get it and Regina pulls her feet up to make space for her on the sofa. That means something, right? It means she wants Emma to sit there? She does and Regina puts her feet back down on her legs. Emma looks back at her for a lead on what to do. She's still watching the screen and gives her nothing.

"I love Audrey Hepburn. She's so graceful" Regina says, completely absorbed

"Yeah" Emma says, thinking half about Regina's Holly Golightly dress and half about her feet which she has never seen before. She's never had a thing for feet, but like her autopilot kiss from that morning, her hands want to reach for and rub them. She manages to control herself and rests them on her ankles instead, which is better. Right? She has no fucking idea what she's doing. Where the hell is Henry with that tea?

"How are you feeling now?" she asks

"Much better than yesterday, thank you. Today it's mostly just pain, but I'm well stocked for medication" She smiles at her briefly and Emma remembers panic buying enough pain relief to last Regina until her periods come to their natural end. Henry appears with coffee and tea.

"New hot water bottle, mom?"

"Yes please, sweetheart"

Emma's proud of Henry for stepping up, and of Regina for accepting help at all, but especially from him. Henry winks at her on the way out. She's not really sure what it means but she smiles at him anyway. Regina presses on her back.

"Sore?"

"Just stiff" Regina says

"Is it here?" Emma rubs her lower back.

"You don't have t- ugh, yes" Regina closes her eyes and let's Emma rub out the knots she knows from her own experience are there.

She's trying very hard not to think about how easy it is to move Regina (now that she's not thinking about it, she is kind of small) and how she leans into her touch. She's not entirely sure she wants Henry to come back now. She's not looking at her ass in silk pyjamas. She's not looking at the brown skin that's exposed from her top riding up. She's not watching Regina frown and hum at the same time. She stops as she hears the door open.

"Thank you" Regina says, taking the hot water bottle from Henry. Emma's not sure who its to.

"There's a webcast on in 5 minutes that I want to watch, you mind if I go?" Henry asks

"No, just ditch us for something better, we don't care" Emma says with a mock sniffle.

"Of course you can go" Regina says, nudging Emma in the ribs with her toes "the next movie is your choice"

"Cool" He smiles at them both.

"Please don't make it Captain America" Emma sighs

"You love Peggy Carter!"

"I do, I just can't handle any more beefy superhero dudes"

"Moms" Henry rests his hand on Emma's shoulder and looks between them both "you're my favourite heroes, but there's not a movie about you"

"Good answer" Emma smiles as he leaves them alone. Sneaky kid. She leans across the sofa back, resting her elbow in the cushions.

"I used to hate this bit" She says as Holly leaps from the taxi to look for a cat in the rain.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I never really warmed to the guy and I feel bad about the cat."

"I quite like it."

"You big romantic, Regina" Emma says and is ignored.

The credits roll and there's super awkward 1960s kissing in the rain.

Regina turns from her side, onto her back. Emma lifts her hands so her legs can move and realises she's been thumbing circles over her ankle. Her hands settle back on her feet. No circles this time. Her eyes narrow as she fights to keep them on Regina's face and not drag them down her body.

"Did you come round for something?" Regina asks

"Um" she looks down and sees her fingers trailing the tops of Regina's feet, all the way to red polish toes. God damn it.

"Henry said you were coming, but he didn't say why" Regina says absently. That sneaky little bastard.

"You know last night? You said it wasn't the time." Emma decides her mouth needs all the help it can get and stops trying to control her fingers, which start to tug at the hems of Regina's pyjama legs "Does that mean there is a time?"

Regina takes a second to sit up, legs still across Emma's lap.

"A time for what exactly?" Her tone sounds neutral, not threatening like Emma half expects.

"I mean, we're friends, right?"

"Yes" Regina replies without hesitation.

Emma's heart clunks in her chest as she remembers Regina admitting to not wanting her dead. They've come so far. It hurts a little bit. She stops playing with the hem and closes her eyes "I feel like we might be more than that"

Regina doesn't speak for a moment. Emma looks over, just to make sure she is definitely still there and heard her. The look she gets back is slightly intimidating. Regina is watching her with caution and takes her legs back, crossing them in front of her. Is that defensive? Emma asks herself Does she need that core stability to summon fireballs?

"Do you want to be more than that?"

Regina's not exactly frowning, she's just looking at her very hard. Emma looks down at her fiddling hands again, now pulling a loose thread out of her sleeve that she should cut off before she unravels the whole thing. All of her words seem to have disappeared. She knows one word, 'yes', and this would be a great time to use it but she can't seem to get it out of her mouth. Seconds pass and she starts to panic.

"I want to cook for you again" True as it is, it's not at all what she meant to say.

"O-okay" Regina stammers, tripping over words like 'you thought we were friends?'

"This week?" Emma asks, still not looking

"You're working late shifts until Friday"

"Oh yeah. Friday then?"

"Okay"

"Great" Emma gets up with too much energy and shoves her hands into her jacket pockets. A packet crinkles and she pulls it out. "Oh yeah. In case of emergencies"

She holds out a packet of white chocolate buttons and Regina takes them slowly, glancing between Emma and the bag like she's worried one of them might explode.

"See you Friday then" she says and practically runs from the room. She hears a noise behind her that sounds a lot like Regina falling back into the sofa cushions.