In the twenty-nine years of her life, Emma has always hated mornings. Not once, has she ever denied that she would love mornings, if they happened around noon. It was no surprise to anyone who knew her, that the second she awoke, she greeted the day with a passionate snarl and hissed at life, like she was some sort of vampire who'd been forced out into the sunlight. At one point during their journey, Regina had in fact made that comparison.

This morning, as Emma was pulled from the blissful clutches of her subconscious, she did not snarl, nor did she hiss. As she slept peacefully throughout the night, a change had occurred. Where she had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped around the firm body of her sleeping companion, she awoke to find said companion hunched beneath the blankets with her head resting on Emma's torso and an arm wrapped securely around her waist.

So it was to her great displeasure that her mother chose this moment to barge into their room without so much as knocking, and completely ruined any chance of her enjoying the warmth that such a sight instilled within her.

Were Emma not angry, the shocked and somewhat confused expression on her mothers face would have been comical. Unfortunately, even that was ruined when the expression turned into something likely meant to instill guilt, but only served to anger Emma even more. "What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

When Emma opened her mouth to deliver what would likely be a hurtful retort, Regina nuzzled into her stomach and effectively short-circuited her brain.

Rather than attempting to jump-start her thoughts, she chose to throw an arm over her eyes, sigh dramatically and hope Snow would just leave.

Luck apparently wasn't on her side, because instead of taking the gesture for what it was, Snow seemed to think she was given permission to continue. "Are either of you going to explain this?"

Emma's stomach jumped as she suppressed the snort when Regina growled out a "No." and pulled the bed-spread over her head. After a torturous few minutes, Snow seemed to realise that Emma had no intention of responding and finally stormed out of the room in a huff.

Her relief was short-lived when Charming stuck his head in the room. "Emma, why is your mo..." His eyes widened and he blushed before yanking his head back out of the room, his voice slightly muffled behind the door. "Nevermind. I'll uh.. try to calm her down, you two take your time."

At the noticable shake of their bodies, Emma lifted the blanket covering Regina and raised an eyebrow. When Regina looked up at her, brown eyes were brimming with amusement. "That wasn't funny."

Uncurling her body, Regina slid up the side of Emma with a grin and pecked her cheek. Throwing off the blankets she tossed a "Yes it was." over her shoulder and left the bed.


When they were appropriately attired, Emma and Regina made their way toward the kitchen, halting outside the door as they heard Charming's voice from inside. "You have no idea what they were doing, do you?"

"It's rather obvious, David. They were in bed together! A bed that, might I remind you, didn't even exist before last night! That in there looked a lot more than just two people sharing a bed." The screeching quality of Snow's voice seemed to increase with each syllable, it made Emma's head throb with sympathy for her father.

"So you just assume they're having sex?" Emma sighed and nodded her head towards the stairs, gesturing for Regina to go ahead while she took care of her parents.

Regina gave her hip a sympathetic squeeze before brushing past. Deciding to wait awhile longer, Emma leaned against the wall and continued to listen to them talk. "Last night I found them hugging each other! You wouldn't believe what Emma said to me."

"Let me guess, something about minding your own business?" Almost giving herself away by laughing, Emma bit her lip and fist pumped the air instead. It was nice to know that at least one of her parents wasn't overreacting to.. she had no idea what. The relationship between her and Regina had changed, but it's not like either of them were doing anything wrong.

"Charming!"

"What? She's a grown woman, Snow. Even if you're right and they are doing... that, she's capable of making her own decisions." The sound of his exasperation caused Emma to smile and she chose then to save him and make her presence known.

Pushing open the door, she immediately crossed the room to her father and kissed him on the cheek, then expressed her gratitude. "Thank you, Dad." She completely ignored Snow as she set about preparing breakfast for herself and Regina.

She grimaced at the pot of warm porridge on the stove, wondering if they'd make port any time soon to re-supply, she was getting tired of slop for every meal.

From the corner of her eye, Emma could see her mother open her mouth every once in a while and wisely close it seconds later as she seemed to think better of voicing her thoughts.

Once she had finished cutting the fruit she knew Regina would appreciate and placed it on the serving tray with their bowls of porridge, David stopped her with a hand on her arm and picked up the tray himself. "Grab the coffee, I'll bring this up for you."

Sighing, Emma couldn't ignore the slight pang of guilt she felt about what this might be doing to her parents. While she was grateful for his support, she didn't really want them fighting each other over it. that talk between mother and daughter would have to happen sooner, and not later.

For now though, Regina was waiting for her.


A/N: Why can't I stop writing this?! Now I'm just NEGLECTING LWC.. I'm going to go and get a life for a bit, I refuse to be a recluse who stays inside all day to write fanfiction and talk to my cats.. who are absolutely GORGEOUS by the way.