Summary:
"Fine," she caved as she retrieved the hoodie and wrapped herself in it, absent-mindedly snuggling into it and taking a deep breath.
"Better?" The blonde asked with a smug grin.
Regina tried to suppress a smile, but as usual around Emma, she couldn't hide it.
"Shut up."
Notes:
Last day before the wedding! A bit more cuteness and fluffiness because there is no such thing as too much Swan Queen adorableness.
I love when you guys leave your thoughts in the comments!
Enjoy :)
DAY 7
Regina slowly crept into consciousness as she stretched her body, arching her back into Emma, but the blonde didn't budge. She breathed deeply and moaned in contentment before opening her eyes barely enough to register the light pouring through the window.
It was brighter than normal.
For as long as she could remember, Regina couldn't sleep passed 6:00am. In her younger years, it was because her mother would wake her up – sleeping in was for the lazy. After she moved into the castle, she never slept well, and often rose before the sun.
She lifted her head just enough to read the clock on the nightstand – 9:19 – and squinted her eyes before looking at the sleeping woman who still had an arm wrapped around the brunette's torso.
"Get up."
When Emma still didn't budge, Regina nudged her with her elbow and tried again. "Get up," she spoke a bit louder in her sleepy voice.
The younger woman grunted and tightened her grip.
Regina gently pushed away and moved to get out of bed, "We're going to miss breakfast."
"Time s'it," Emma asked as she rolled onto her back, not yet fully awake.
"9:20," Regina switched the shorts she was wearing for a pair of sweatpants, which also belonged to Emma. "Breakfast ends at 10:00; we'll be lucky if there's anything good left by the time we get down there."
Regina brushed her teeth while Emma took a deep breath, rolled out of bed, and threw on hoodie and a pair of slippers she hid in her bag.
"Ready?"
Running her fingers through her dark waves, she nodded her head.
"Sweet," Emma opened the door for Regina. "Let's go get some free food."
A few minutes later they stepped up to the only remaining table with food on it, plates in hand.
"I told you there wouldn't be anything good left."
"Excuse me, Your Majesty, but as I recall, I am not the only one who slept in this morning. "And plus," the younger woman held up an apple filled danish, "Not all the good stuff is gone. "
She set the danish on her plate, reached for the cinnamon shaker at the end of the table, and sprinkled it all over her breakfast pastry. "Perfect."
Regina scrunched her nose in disgust at Emma's choice as she scooped the last of the fruit salad.
"Just wait," Emma nodded. "Try a bite and you'll wipe that look off your face."
Dark brows rose in disbelief while the two of them made their way to an empty table.
"Remember the hot dog? I'm never wrong about food."
"Ok." Regina set down her plate down and looked the blonde dead in the eye with a smirk gracing her lips. "Whose lasagna is better – mine or Granny's?"
Emma shrugged at the simplicity of the question. "Yours, obviously," she answered as she set her plate down and seated herself.
Madam Mayor eyed her for a moment before taking her seat. "Good answer."
Almost instantly, Regina began rubbing her arms.
"Cold," Emma inquired with food in her mouth.
"I don't remember it being Greenland down here yesterday," the older woman spat.
"Yesterday, you were fully clothed; today, just a tank top and sweatpants," she said before swallowing her food. "Do you want my hoodie?"
"No, thank you," Regina brushed off Emma's chivalry as goosebumps covered her arms. "I'm fine."
"You're not; you're shivering." She unzipped her hoodie and held it out to the stubborn Latina, "Here, just take it."
Regina looked at her like she was stupid, "Now you'll be cold." She shook her head, "I'm fine. I don't need it."
"Ok well, if you don't want it, then it's gunna sit right here on the floor," Emma dropped the sweatshirt. "'Cause I'm not putting it back on."
Regina pursed her lips and gave Emma the same look as every time she told the blonde she was acting like a child, but Emma remained strong. "It's up to you."
Regina rolled her big brown eyes dramatically.
"Fine," she caved as she retrieved the hoodie and wrapped herself in it, absent-mindedly snuggling into it and taking a deep breath.
"Better?" The blonde asked with a smug grin.
Regina tried to suppress a smile, but as usual around Emma, she couldn't hide it.
"Shut up."
Knowing she should take the win and run, Emma laughed at her companion and she changed the subject. "So what's on the agenda?"
Regina leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs, "I think maybe we should just take the day off." She played with the hem of the sweatshirt, "We just keep hitting a dead end everywhere we look. Maybe we should just… take today and tomorrow to regroup and we can start with fresh eyes on Sunday."
"Ok. But, uh," Emma seemed almost hesitant to mention it, "Speaking of tomorrow… we need to come up with a solid story."
"Why?" Regina popped a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth.
"So how did you two meet," Emma asked in some weird voice she was obviously using to denote she was pretending to be someone else. "Oh, it's a funny story actually," she began answering sarcastically. "My son brought me to a town that doesn't really exist in this world to break a curse that the Evil Queen cast on all the people of the Enchanted Forest, who you would know as the characters in fairy tales, trapping them in our world and freezing time for twenty-eight years-"
Regina began to speak over Emma in a serious tone with her own answer. "I adopted Henry as a baby and when he was ten, he sought you out and brought you home. That's how we met." She crossed her arms, "Our story is our business. Why does anyone need to know more than that?"
"They don't," Emma spoke gently, realizing Regina was getting defensive. "But you know people ask questions like how you met and how long you've been together, how you fell in love."
"This," Regina gestured between them as she began answering the theoretical questions again, "Is still new." She crossed her arms again. "It was a bit rocky when you first came to town; I thought you would try to take Henry from me, but we became friendly after a while." Brown eyes fell to her plate and her deep voice softened, "I fell in love with you when I realized you were a good person who genuinely cared about me; when you put yourself in harm's way to protect me and Henry."
There was a pregnant pause.
Regina refused to look up and Emma refused to look away.
"You can make up your own," Regina picked up her fork and stabbed a piece of honey dew melon.
"Ok, yeah. That's… good."
Regina's eyes remained glued to her food while Emma opened her mouth but couldn't seem to form the words on the tip of her tongue. The blonde closed her mouth and exhaled before opening it again to speak.
"Uh, so now that we have tomorrow all settled, what are we gunna do with our free time today? We should do something fun." She was trying desperately to lift the tension at the table and apparently it worked because Regina finally looked at Emma again.
"Like what?"
"I don't know," the blonde started waving her hands in circles, "Something outside of your comfort zone."
"Outside my comfort zone," Regina repeated. "Is that code for 'You're boring and we need to work on changing that'?"
Emma knew she was being facetious, so she answered lightly, "I'm not suggesting you need to change anything, Regina; there's nothing wrong with you." She slowed her speech thinking about what she had in mind and how it could very possibly backfire. "I'm just saying that I think we would both have fun today if we just did something different. Something we wouldn't ordinarily do at home."
The older woman narrowed her eyes, "Mm-hmm. Good save."
It took a good amount of persuading, but Emma somehow managed to get Regina to play a game of laser tag. At first, Emma was surprised at how good Regina was, but when she considered how many fireballs the queen had thrown in her life… it was a bit less shocking.
It was an amazing sight, really.
Everyone knew Emma was a child in a grown woman's body, but seeing Regina running around, having fun… Emma had never seen her laugh so much and so unapologetically. It was beautiful.
After laser tag, was lunch, then a few hours walking around a wildlife refuge, which turned out to be a lot of work for Regina.
For the amount of times she had to tell Emma "no" when the blonde asked if they could take one of the animals home because they were so cute, she should have simply recorded herself saying no once and pressed play every time Emma broke out her puppy dog eyes.
They sat in the bug as Emma drove after their very successful day off when the blonde looked over to find Regina lost in thought.
"What's up?"
She didn't expect to get much of a response, but was pleasantly surprised when Regina gave her an honest answer instead of a fake "nothing".
"It seems like so long ago," the brunette shook her head as she continued to stare at her reflection in the window, "But just like yesterday. Everything that happened in the Enchanted Forest: Daniel, my mother, being dead set on revenge." She paused. "Being… evil."
As much as Emma hated when Regina called herself evil, she knew it would always be a part of the reformed villain, and while she understood that fact, she wished Regina didn't have that hanging over her head for the rest of her life.
"Painful memories can sometimes have a way of sticking stronger in our minds than good memories," she reasoned as she glanced over. "Especially with the amount of crap you went through."
"Or that you went through… because of me."
Their eyes met briefly before Emma looked back to the road and Regina continued. "And now, here you are trying to help me find my happy ending."
"I promised you I would," she stated very matter-of-factly.
The older woman tipped her head, "You shouldn't feel obligated to help me."
"Regina, I'm not here out of obligation." She was willing to drill that into her friend's mind until it stuck. "I'm here because I care about you…" She pulled the car into a parking spot and put it in park. "You're Henry's mother," she turned to face Regina, "And I genuinely want you to be happy."
"Where are we?" Regina surveyed their surroundings, but didn't recognize anything. "It's already getting dark out."
"At our next stop," the blonde smiled as she exited the car and Regina followed suit.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious."
Regina's phone rang just as she shut her door and turned around to find that they were at a park. Thankfully, it was night time, so there were no little kids to scream while she answered the call.
It was Henry.
Regina put him on speaker like normal so the three of them could talk as the women walked to the nearby swing set and sat on the swings.
The phone call didn't last long because Henry had plans to get to, but it had become an unspoken agreement that he would call his moms every night and they looked forward to it.
As they exchanged their "I love you"s and hung up, Emma couldn't help but notice how utterly sad Regina was.
She placed a hand on the other woman's leg and gave her a grin full of understanding.
"I miss him," Regina sniffed and blinked back tears. "So much."
"I know. Me too." Emma began rubbing soothing circles on the brunette's skin.
"I think I did ok with him." For all the confidence the mayor showed on a daily basis, it sounded much more as if she was looking for reassurance than as if she was sure. "He turned out to be a good kid, right?"
The blonde squeezed her leg. "He's an amazing kid, Regina, and that's all on you," she answered firmly, but sweetly.
Regina placed her hand on top of Emma's and gave her a sad grin. "I'm just so tired of having to do everything alone, you know? It's exhausting never having someone on my side, never having support."
"You have me." Pale fingers entwined with smaller, olive-skinned digits before green eyes met amber. "I'm not going anywhere."
Neither one knew how much time had passed before Emma ended their moment.
"Come on," she said excitedly as she jumped up and tugged Regina's arm.
"What now?"
She waved her arm, "Just come on."
Regina finally stood and allowed Emma to lead her to the monkey bars and the jungle gym, where the blonde mysteriously got the brunette to have fun like an innocent child in the cool air of the night once more before the day ended.
