Summary:
Regina huffed, "I'm always charming."
"No, I'm always charming... Literally, I'm a Charming." The blonde smiled at her own joke.
"Actually, you're a Swan," Regina corrected, thankful she wasn't on this trip with a Charming.
Emma laughed and glanced back to the brunette, wiggling her eyebrows, "And you know what they say about queens loving their swans."
Notes:
Here's chapter 2! I finished it quicker than I anticipated, hopefully I can be so quick with the rest of the chapters.
Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated!
Enjoy :)
DAY 2
They walked up to a tiny diner that was freakishly similar to Granny's. It had a bunch of round tables outside in front of the entrance and it looked like it had even fewer seats inside. The building was clearly old and in need of a spruce up, but it's patrons appeared to be pleased.
Emma peeked down at the piece of paper Lily had used to write down the diner name and location, "Mel's Diner, this is the place," and they resumed their approach.
Regina glanced over at Emma briefly. "I can't believe you chose to wear that."
"Wha- What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" The blonde suddenly feel completely unsure of her typical skinny jeans and leather jacket.
"Nothing." She shrugged her shoulders, "I just thought you wanted to make her jealous."
Emma let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding, "Oh. I don't know. I just want her to know I'm doing just fine without her. And plus, not everyone can look runway ready every second of their lives," she gestured to the brunette.
Regina's eyebrows lifted, "Well, if you don't want to make her jealous, I shouldn't be here." She jokingly turned around and started walking away.
Emma rolled her eyes, "Hilarious."
She paused and turned back to the blonde with a wide grin, clearly pleased with herself.
Emma opened the door for the older woman and waved her inside, "After you, Your Majesty."
"Emma!" A woman's voice came from one of the outside tables.
Brown eyes narrowed, "Well, this feels like déjà vu."
Emma closed the door and glanced around, finding Lily waving at them and Rachel looking less than pleased. They had walked right by their table without even noticing.
"Time to turn up your charm," Emma whispered as she walked past Regina, leading them to their new/old friends.
Regina huffed, "I'm always charming."
"No, I'm always charming… Literally, I'm a Charming." The blonde smiled at her own joke.
"Actually, you're a Swan," Regina corrected, thankful she wasn't on this trip with a Charming.
Emma laughed and glanced back to the brunette, wiggling her eyebrows, "And you know what they say about queens loving their swans."
"Maybe in this world, but not the Enchanted Forest."
"They do in every world." Emma stated as they reached the table. "Right," she asked Lily.
Lily hadn't heard anything Emma and Regina were talking about. "What?"
Emma raised her hand, "Just say yes."
"Don't say yes," Regina warned the other brunette.
Lily looked back and forth between them as the three of them stood at the table. "Um, what are we even talking about?"
"Fairytale Land," Emma stated as if it was as normal to discuss anywhere in the country as it was in Storybrooke, "And whether their queens love their swans as much as in our world."
Lily thought they were joking and was more than willing to play along. "Oh, definitely," she said, nodding her head.
The green-eyed blonde turned to her pretend girlfriend with a smug smile, "Told you."
Dark eyebrows shot upwards and hands darted to her hips. "And she would know better than I would," Regina questioned.
Emma shrugged her shoulders, "Some people can look at things more objectively than others." She turned her attention to her other brown-eyed friend, hoping Regina wouldn't make her explain her last comment. "Hi, Lily."
Lily chuckled and glanced briefly at Rachel, who had been sitting in complete silence the entire time. "Hi," she responded, hugging the blonde.
Emma nodded to the other blonde, "Hey, Rachel."
"Hey." Rachel barely even tried to pretend that she was happy to see her fiancé's ex.
"Regina," Lily hugged her, "Nice to see you again." She was all smiles.
"You as well," she replied. "Hi, Rachel."
Rachel said nothing, only waved.
Regina twitched a single eyebrow before moving to sit down, and found that Emma was pulling out the seat for her next to Lily. She gave Emma a shy grin of gratitude before both women took their seats.
"So what brings you here to Tallahassee," Lily asked as she folded her hands on the table. "You said you were only visiting? Gosh, I don't even know where you're visiting from."
Regina and Emma looked at each other before Regina answered. "We live in Maine. A town so tiny it's virtually nonexistent." She couldn't help but grin at her own joke.
"I hear Maine is beautiful," the younger brunette nodded. "So why are you guys all the way down here?"
This time, Emma offered an answer. "Uh, I've wanted to come to Tallahassee for a long time actually and we both needed a break. So, we decided it was time and took a few much-needed vacation days."
"Mm," Regina hummed in agreement as she reached for Emma's hand on top of the table. Her brown eyes locked onto green orbs gazing back at her, "I think we're really finding something here, you know?"
"Yeah," was all Emma mustered.
"Can I get you ladies something to drink?" The waitress popped up out of nowhere, and Regina let go of Emma's hand when she was startled.
"Sparkling lemon water," Rachel didn't bother looking up from her phone as she voiced her demand.
Lily at least had more manners. "Iced tea, please."
The waitress looked at Regina, waiting for her to order. "Just a water is fine, thank you."
"I'll have a root beer, thanks," Emma squinted at the woman's nametag, "Melanie."
"Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves. Now," Lily leaned forward in her seat, "You said you had a son, Henry? Where's he? I would love to meet him."
"He's actually staying with his grandparents back home," Regina gave her an apologetic grin.
Rachel scoffed, "You ditched the kid to go on vacation?" She stared at Regina, making it clear what she was implying.
Lily still seemed oblivious to Rachel's passive aggression directed at Regina, which seemed unlike the Lily Emma knew. Either way, Emma noticed Regina tense up immediately.
Regina may not have been perfect, but if there was one thing the blonde never doubted, it was that Henry was lucky to have Regina. She knew the older woman already felt guilty leaving him out of the road trip; the last thing she wanted was for Regina to feel any worse. In no universe would she ever consider her son's other mother to be anything less than an amazing parent.
She scooted her chair closer to Regina, and placed a hand on the brunette's leg under the table, which seemed to relax her a tiny bit knowing that she had support. Emma stared Rachel down, "We didn't want to pull him out of school for a week. They've had so many snow days this year, they're already really behind. We weren't about to make it any worse. What kind of parents would we be if our child's education didn't come first?"
Regina placed her hand over Emma's and gave her a gentle grin as a silent thank you.
Thankfully, the waitress picked a good time to bring their drinks and dispel some of the tension at the table that Lily was still somehow completely oblivious to. The four women place their orders and discussed a range of topics while waiting for their food to arrive. Fortunately the chatting was kept civil, which Emma attributed to the fact that Rachel played on her phone and rarely participated in the conversation. They talked about Emma's past and how she wound up in Maine (with obvious necessary alterations to the story), what it was like for Regina being mayor, and how Rachel and Lily met, along with other small talk. It was much more pleasant than Emma anticipated and it seemed like their food was ready in no time at all.
"Salad with Italian?"
Regina raised a finger, "Here, thank you."
"Turkey club?"
"Right here, thanks," Lily spoke up.
"Burger?"
"Mmm," Emma raised her hand and smiled. "Thank you."
"And the other salad," the waitress stated as she set the bowl in front of Rachel. "If you need anything, let me know."
Regina looked over at Emma's plate, "Of course, you got a greasy burger and fries."
Emma crinkled her nose, "Of course, you got a boring salad."
"Do you ever eat anything healthy?" It was an honest question that Regina had been pondering for years.
"Do you ever eat anything delicious?" The blonde snapped back.
Regina rolled her eyes, "You're infuriating."
"I love you too, Babe." Emma leaned back in her chair and rested an arm on the back of Regina's as she munched on her fries.
Rachel watched as the brunette she wasn't so fond of poured dressing all over her salad. "Actually, the salad dressing is where all the carbs are, so really you're not being as healthy as you think. That's why I eat mine dry… I have a wedding dress to fit into."
"I don't really have to worry about that," she shrugged her shoulders. "I've weighed the same for the past twenty years or so." She took a sip of Emma's root beer and stole a fry without thinking twice.
Somewhere along the way, Emma and Regina's seats had shifted around the table until they were side-by-side, almost touching, which allowed Regina to lean back into Emma quite comfortably.
"Speaking of the wedding," Lily said excitedly, "Are you sure you can't make it? I would really love it if you guys could come."
Emma opened her mouth to once again decline the wedding invitation, but Regina spoke up faster. "We would love to."
Emma scrunched her brows and glanced quickly at her pretend girlfriend, "Bu-"
"We were able to sort things out to stay an extra day; so of course, we'll be at the wedding."
The green-eyed blonde just smiled and nodded.
"What the hell was that," Emma whispered in exasperation as she and Regina left the diner. She had a hard enough time getting Regina to pretend to be her girlfriend for two minutes when they first met Lily, and then had to beg her to agree to lunch. Now, all of a sudden, Regina was all gung-ho for the wedding.
"Relax," the brunette stuffed her hands in her blazer pockets as they continued walking.
"Relax? Regina, weddings are whole-day affairs with lots of poking and prodding questions that are completely inappropriate for strangers to ask, but they do it anyway."
"I'm aware. I had one, if you recall," the older woman stated with bitterness.
Emma began waving her hands around, "Okay then you know this isn't just some hour long lunch where we can wing it and leave."
"We did just fine today. Lily and her dead-weight will never figure out your little secret," Regina spat.
Emma gently grabbed Regina's arm to stop their walking, "You don't have to do this. I thought we went over this; you don't owe me anything."
"Oh, this has nothing to do with you," Regina assured her.
"Huh?" The blonde stood in her seemingly natural state of confusion.
"This has nothing to do with you," she repeated. "This is personal. This is between me and Rachel." She was determined as ever. "Rachel has this need to be better than her fiancé's ex, and by extension, her fiancé's ex's girlfriend."
Emma furrowed her brows.
Regina exhaled as she shifted her weight on her feet, "As soon as she met you, Rachel tried to establish that she was better than you, and when you didn't respond to it and I made you look good, she realized that wasn't going to work. So her next plan is to make herself look better than me, except I can't simply ignore it and have the same effect. If I ignore it, it seems like she has intimidated me; like, out of you and Lily's break-up, Lily won because she got the stronger woman."
The younger woman narrowed her eyes, "Okay, but we're not actually together, so what do you care?"
"I'm the queen; I don't like to lose." Regina folded her arms in front of her body.
Emma laughed, "You feel like she won at lunch, so you need to win at the wedding. That's why you want to go."
"No."
"No?"
"No, I definitely won at lunch, but she doesn't think so. So I have to show her at the wedding," Regina clarified.
"Regina," Emma paused for a moment before continuing. "It's her wedding day… Probably not the best time to convince someone they've lost."
The brow-eyed beauty dropped her arms and looked a bit offended, "Well, she started it."
"Is that how you handle all the town's problems, Madam Mayor," Emma asked jokingly.
"I'm ending what she started, Sheriff." The deep voice was dripping with sarcasm.
Green eyes searched amber orbs for the real reason behind the childishness, "Regina."
Regina rolled her eyes and looked away. "I'm not going to ruin her happy ending, if that's what you're worried about."
"Please," Emma chuckled as they resumed walking, "You're not the Evil Queen anymore; you're Regina. I don't think you could bring yourself to do that if you tried."
The blonde stared forward, but Regina stole a peek of the sincerity on her friend's face. It was nice for someone besides Henry to have a vote of confidence in her, for once.
