A/N: I've had this written for awhile, but I didn't want to do two back-to-back updates of this one while neglecting my other fics. I finally updated Queen to Play this morning, so now I can post this one.

I originally planned for all of the "day five" events to be one chapter, but it ended up being over 10k words. I like to keep my chapters relatively similar in length, so I split it into two. Here is the first half. Stay tuned for drama, fluff, and a little humor. From here on through the rest of the story (about five more chapters after this one), a lot of stuff is going to happen quite quickly. Enjoy the ride :)

Day Five: August 25, 9:30am

Emma stretched her arms above her head and enjoyed the way the cool satin bedsheets felt on her bare skin. As she twisted her torso to crack her back, it was then she noticed the woman curled up next to her, a bare leg thrown across her own. She gasped in surprise as she realized they were both, in fact, divested of any clothing. She tried to remember the night before, but it was hazy. She remembered borrowing a short red dress from Regina to wear to the club, meeting Regina's friends, and taking shots with a drag queen named Misty Haven. And lots more drinking. She had no idea how they got home last night, or why they were completely naked, but she could venture a guess.

As she was trying process more of her disjointed memories, she heard footsteps running up the stairs and giggling. Before she had time to question why she was hearing such things in an empty apartment, the door to the bedroom flew open and two blondes she remembered as Kathryn and Ella came barging in. "Wake up, darlings!" The one with an accent and black streaks in her hair shouted.

"What?" Regina sprang up when she heard the noise, clutching the sheet over her chest to try to steady her heartbeat.

"Holy shit!" The other blonde called out, after noticing that Regina was naked.

Emma looked over at Regina in panic, and the brunette's eyes were wide as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened in the last 30 seconds. "Fuck, I'm hungover," was the first thing she managed to say. As her consciousness slowly came back to her, she continued and turned to address her friends. "Uh, can you give me a few minutes? We'll be down in a few."

Ella raised a harshly sculpted eyebrow. "Of course, darling. Take all the time you need," she winked before shoving Kathryn out of the room and closing the door.

Regina fell back against the bed, as the dumbfounded blonde sat up and finally spoke. "Umm…"

"Yeah."

"So…"

"I don't know."

Emma sighed, trying to find the words to have an actual conversation. "What happened last night? I don't remember anything after like 10pm."

Regina rolled onto her side, rubbing her temple to try to massage out the headache. "I have no idea. Based on how I feel right now, I'm imaging there was a lot of liquor involved."

"Yeah, I got that part."

The brunette rolled over to reach for her nightstand drawer and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. She poured out a few tablets, handing two to the blonde as she tossed two into her own mouth. She sipped the bottle of water she kept on her nightstand as she swallowed the pills. "The last thing I remember was you getting on stage with the queens when the Britney Spears tribute came on."

"Wait, what?" Emma's eyes opened in alarm. "I did what?"

Regina laughed. "I don't remember the details, but yeah, you definitely got up there. God, I hope I had the good sense to film that."

Emma covered her face with her hands. "Oh, God."

"I'm sure it was great," Regina laughed, wincing when the action caused her headache to increase.

"So at some point we came home, and your friends came with us."

"It seems so, yes."

"And, um, why are we naked?"

Regina looked shocked, as though she hadn't realized that they were. She quickly peeked under the covers to check, and when she looked back up she was blushing. "I, uh, I'm not entirely sure."

Emma hesitated. "Do you think we did anything last night?" Emma could not remember, and she hoped they hadn't, because that wasn't how she wanted her first time with Regina to be. Sure, they had escalated their physical relationship the previous night, but there was still a lot of uncharted territory. And truthfully, Emma was kind of sad that this was the first time they had actually seen each other naked, and they don't remember it happening.

"I'm sorry, Emma. I don't know. I don't think so? I mean, it doesn't really smell like sex in here," Regina said, trying to grasp at straws to comfort the other woman, as she herself had no idea what happened.

"Right."

"I think we maybe just fell asleep and were too drunk to change. But, maybe the two downstairs know more."

"What are you going to tell them? They did see us naked together in your bed."

"Well, they know about Mal, so they won't be surprised."

"You're going to tell them truth?"

"If I need to, yeah, or at least a version of it. They've been my best friends for nearly 20 years. I trust them. But if they'll buy that we just passed out, then I'm not going to offer anything more," Regina said, rolling out of bed and padding her way over to her closet to grab some clothes. She laughed to herself when she saw Emma shield her eyes, trying to give Regina some privacy.

While Regina was in the confines of her walk-in closet, Emma quickly got up and grabbed a random t-shirt and pair of shorts out of her suitcase that still laid open on the floor in the corner of the room. She then walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth, where she noticed a few bottles of shampoo on the floor of the open shower and several bath towels thrown on the ground. "Regina?" she mumbled, toothbrush still in her mouth.

"What is it?" Regina asked as she walked in, adjusting the hem of her tank top as she finished getting dressed. She saw the blonde gesturing to the uncharacteristic mess. "Oh," she frowned, walking over to the shower and picking up one of the bottles, sighing when she saw that nearly half the bottle had spilled on the tiled surface. She silently cursed because that had been a nice bottle. "It appears at least one of us had a party in here last night."

Emma shrugged after spitting out her toothpaste and putting the brush back in the cup Regina had put out for her to use. She smiled at the domesticity of the situation. "Maybe that's why we were naked?"

"Steamy shower sex?" Regina raised a brow.

"Well, perhaps. But I was thinking more like maybe we showered and were too lazy to get dressed afterward."

"Seems possible," Regina nodded, walking behind the blonde to quickly kiss her cheek before she bent over to pick up the discarded towels. She followed the trail over to the back wall as she found another hand towel back there. "Oh, gross," she said, dropping it immediately.

"What?"

"I think I can say we definitely didn't have sex."

"What, why?"

"Because at least one of us couldn't hold her liquor last night. There's dried vomit on this one."

Emma scrunched her nose. "Eww."

"Yeah. I'm just going to toss that," Regina said, fighting back the urge to gag as she carefully picked it up and threw it in the trash can next to the toilet before rushing over to wash her hands. "I don't know if it was me or you, but it's safe to say that if it was you, I wouldn't have had sex with you after that, and if it was me, there's no way I would want to. There's nothing I hate more than vomit. I can't even be in the same room when Roland or Henry has the stomach flu. I can assure you that even while drunk that characteristic would still be present in every aspect of my being."

Emma laughed and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm with you, there."

The two women walked down the spiral staircase and joined Ella and Kathryn in the living room. There were two large pots of French press on the coffee table, one of which was more than half gone because Kathryn and Ella had started drinking it already, and two empty mugs waiting for Regina and Emma. "Thank you for this," Regina said as she poured a cup and reclined back against the sofa. "I'm hungover as hell."

"Yeah, we know," Kathryn laughed.

"So umm, what happened last night?" Regina asked, sounding more shy and insecure than Emma had ever heard her in real life. Sure, her character on Frozen Mirror had had her moments of doubt and self-loathing, but Emma had never heard Regina sound anything except confident. Regina sounded almost frightened, and it broke her heart a little bit.

"You really don't remember?" Ella looked up, surprised. "It looks like you lost your tolerance, darling."

"Ella, we aren't in college anymore. I don't go out binge drinking five nights a week these days."

"Well, we could tell you, or you could see for yourself," Kathryn suggested as she smiled behind her coffee cup.

"What?" Regina deadpanned.

Kathryn said nothing but slid her own phone that had been sitting on the coffee table to the woman.

She picked it up hesitantly, as Emma shifted closer to her so she could see as well. The blonde gave her a supportive nudge, and Regina looked down at the screen. "What am I looking for?"

"Start with Instagram. Our stories and your own. Then move to snapchat, though it's more of the same."

"Shit," Regina said under her breath, sending a worried glance to Emma. She had no recollection of even using her phone last night, aside from taking a few photos when they arrived at the club, but she hadn't posted them yet. She generally avoided posting pictures she took while she was out somewhere until she returned home, or at least left the venue, in an effort to avoid having fans come find her. Regina let her thumb click on the Instagram icon and opened the app, clicking on Kathryn's story. The first few photos were innocuous, mostly a few selfies of the four of them in a booth at the back of the club labeled'#girlsnightout'.

"Oh God, is that me?" Emma asked, her eyes wide.

"Uh huh," Kathryn confirmed.

Emma grabbed Regina's wrist and pulled the phone closer so she could see it. Indeed, she was on stage with two drag queens performing Britney's choreography to "Slave 4 U".

"How do you even know the dance?" Regina asked.

"Don't act surprised. You know I was all about Britney back in the day," Emma said, thinking back to when Regina had crashed at her apartment in Storybrooke and borrowed Emma's Britney Spears concert t-shirt to sleep in. "I spent my free time in high school studying her music videos. In case the ballerina thing didn't work out, my 'Plan B' was going to be a career as one of her backup dancers. But then 2007 happened to Britney, so it's a good thing I was offered a ballet company spot."

"Even drunk off your ass you're amazing," Regina commented, tapping on the next story. "Whoa, there was a snake?"

Emma gasped as she watched a drag queen wrap a very real albino snake around her shoulders on stage. "I must have been really out of it. I hate snakes."

"Well, you handled it like a pro," Ella added. "One of the drag queens offered you a job there."

They continued tapping through the stories — Ella alone had posted nearly 40 throughout the night. "Well, this isn't too horrifying," Emma said.

"Just wait," Kathryn cautioned.

They watched themselves take more shots, including Regina taking a body shot off one of the drag queens on stage, and then Emma and a drag queen both taking one off her. She cringed. It wasn't pretty, but it wouldn't be a total PR nightmare. When they finished going through Ella and Kathryn's stories, they pulled up Regina's. She had gone "live" during the night and had left the story up after the livestream ended. The first part was Emma on stage again performing with the drag queens, so it was nothing they hadn't seen already on Ella's story. The camera broke away from Emma briefly to capture Regina and her two college friends taking shots and screaming, before turning the camera back on Emma, just in time to see her dancing with the snake. Fortunately it was loud, so the recording couldn't pick up much of Regina's commentary as she filmed it, because she knew she was probably saying things that would get her into trouble. A few minutes later, all hell broke loose. "Toxic" started to play, and Emma and the drag queens busted out the choreography in perfect synchronicity. "Oh God, what am I doing?" Regina asked as a drag queen extended his hand to Regina and they watched her hand her phone to Ella so she could crawl on stage.

"Just wait for it," Ella said.

One of the drag queens helped Regina on stage, as Emma and two others continued to perform. By the time "Me Against the Music" came on, a few other people had been pulled up on stage as well by other drag queens, and they were all dancing. Regina and her queen, who was dressed as Cher, started grinding. As they watched the video, Emma looked over at Regina, who looked horrified, and gently squeezed her thigh in support. On camera, one of the servers had brought over more drinks, so Regina took two and handed one to Cher. They clinked their glasses and downed the shots, before Regina took Cher's face in her hands and pulled the drag queen in for a quick, but still hot, kiss. "Oh my God!" Regina put her hand over her mouth in mortification, and looked over at Emma, hoping she wasn't angry. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly, her words muffled by her hand.

Emma, however, was trying to suppress a laugh. She knew Regina was embarrassed and that this would piss off the network, but she found it hilarious. "It's fine, Regina," she whispered and smiled. "You kissed a guy, who I'm guessing is probably gay, dressed up as Cher. I'm not worried you're going to go run off with him. And it was barely a kiss… It's not like you shoved your tongue down his throat."

It would turn out, though, that Regina's on-stage moment with Cher would not be the social media highlight of the evening. As the song continued, the two drag queens dancing with Emma pulled Regina into their group center stage. At the end of the song, Regina pulled Emma toward her and kissed her.

"Oh shit," Emma exclaimed, just as she heard Regina mutter "Fuck."

Unlike her kiss with Cher, Regina's on-stage kiss with Emma lasted longer, and Regina had grabbed Emma's ass. It didn't appear to be particularly romantic, but it certainly was heated. Emma had been the one to break it, and at least they both burst out laughing afterward on stage. She hoped they could play it off as a performance thing.

Regina handed Emma the phone and stood up, storming over to the island where her own phone was charging. She had three missed calls, a voicemail, and five text messages from Gold. "Shit," she sighed. She scrolled through the texts and sure enough Gold was raging, demanding that she call him immediately. She ignored his requests, as she was still too hungover to deal with it, and she still needed to piece the rest of the night together before she spoke to him. She hesitantly clicked on her own Instagram, and her notifications had blown up. She sighed when she saw the screencaps and reposts of her livestream, especially since the vast majority of the posts were of her kiss with Emma.

"Why did you guys post this?" Regina asked her friends as she sat back down on the couch.

"You told us to film it, Regina," Kathryn explained. "And it was a livestream. It's not like we recorded it and uploaded it later. And we had never thought that you were going to go all lesbian on stage."

"Why didn't you delete it immediately?"

"We were going to, but over a thousand people had already seen it when it was live anyway. We figured it would still be worth deleting to prevent more from seeing it, but you stole your phone back from us before we could delete it. We told you to delete it but you ignored us."

"I was clearly wasted. You should have done it anyway. You guys know more than anyone the shit that went down after people found the Facebook photos of Mal and me, and how I have to constantly go on the defense about that and be so careful when I go out."

"Regina, there's no arguing with you when you're drunk like that. We kept telling you to delete it but you wouldn't listen to us. We even tried to hack into your phone after you went to bed last night but we couldn't figure out your passcode."

"Speaking of last night, why are you guys still here?" Regina asked. When Kathryn and Ella both feigned offense, Regina clarified. "You know what I mean. Why didn't you go home afterward?"

"You drove to the club and we were not going to let you drive back, so we drove your drunk asses and your car back here. We were going to call and Uber to take us home afterward, but you told us to stay," Kathryn explained.

"Oh. What happened after we got back?" Regina asked.

"You were both really drunk, and Emma said she was going to go shower because she was 'sweaty and gross' from dancing," Kathryn continued. "She went upstairs while we force-fed you water and crackers. You eventually went upstairs as well. We heard some strange noises a little while later, so we went to check on you."

"Oh God," Regina said under her breath.

"Emma was passed out on your bed, naked, I might add, and you were puking in your bathroom," Ella elaborated.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Emma said.

"After you seemed to be doing a little better, you kicked us out and said you were going to shower. Emma was still asleep or unconscious, not really sure which. We made sure she was breathing for good measure and carefully maneuvered her under the covers, making sure she was on her side in case she needed to puke while she was out," Ella said.

"Thanks," Emma said, embarrassed. It seemed everyone had seen her in all her naked glory.

"After we heard you get out of the shower, we figured you were at least alive so we went back downstairs. That's the last we saw you until this morning," Kathryn said.

"And you didn't hear anything else?" Regina asked.

Ella raised an eyebrow. "Should we have heard something else?"

Regina shook her head. "No, I just don't remember anything so I don't know if I puked again or if I just passed out."

Kathryn shrugged. "If you did, we didn't hear you. You were barely conscious when you got into the shower, so I'm pretty sure you just went to bed."

Regina nodded, relieved.

"So, are we going to address the elephant in the room or just pretend it doesn't exist?" Ella spoke up.

"What?" Regina asked.

"You and Emma," Kathryn clarified.

"What about us?" Emma asked, trying to feign confusion.

"You being naked in bed together, for one thing," Ella rolled her eyes.

"You just said that Emma passed out after taking a shower and that you put the blankets over her last night. And clearly I was blacked out and went straight to bed without getting dressed after my shower," Regina shrugged. "To be honest, I probably didn't even know Emma was there." It wasn't a lie. It sounded like she was so intoxicated the night before that all three of the other women could have been in her bed and she wouldn't have noticed.

"You just didn't seem particularly shocked to see her there this morning when we barged in," Kathryn added.

"We were both hungover. I know my brain wasn't processing much of anything at that point," Regina defended.

"And your kiss on stage last night? That didn't look like it was your first time kissing each other…" Ella pressed.

Kathryn interrupted her friend. "Look, Regina, we love you. But, this is out there now, so you're going to need to do damage control. And we can help if you tell us the truth, so we can all get our stories straight. And Emma seems great, so if there's something going on between you two…I mean, I don't condone you cheating on Robin, but I know the public scrutiny has gotten to you—"

"I'm not cheating on Robin," Regina interjected.

"Regina…" Kathryn continued.

"Fine. Yes, there's something going on between Emma and me, but I'm not cheating on Robin. He knows about it and is fine with it."

"What?" Both Ella and Kathryn looked surprised.

Emma looked at Regina, deciding to let her take the lead because she wasn't sure how much Regina wanted to reveal. "Robin and I have an open marriage of sorts. We're both away from each other for long periods of time, so we have given each other permission to see other people when we aren't physically together," Regina explained. It was close enough to the truth.

"So this whole story about Emma being your dance instructor?" Ella asked.

"Not a total lie. She is helping me regain my technique for an upcoming project. But that was mostly to help explain why she was here and being seen with me, yeah."

*.*.*

Kathryn and Ella left a little after noon, after agreeing to help Regina clean up her online mess from the night before. All four women posted a slightly different version of a casual group photo from the night before, making the caption play up the friendship aspect of their relationship. Ella and Kathryn also staged a photo of them kissing each other, hoping to downplay the significance of Regina and Emma's. Regina didn't want to address her kiss at all, but she was outvoted. Kathryn had said it would look like she was trying too hard to avoid it if she ignored it entirely, especially because there were going to be more videos turning up from other people who had been there. Regina compromised and said she wouldn't do it, but that Emma should. Emma reluctantly agreed after confirming with Regina that she was okay with it, posting a clip of them dancing on stage and the first two seconds of the kiss. She added an image to the post, taking a quick screenshot from the infamous Britney/Madonna onstage kiss and putting it side-by-side with a screenshot of their own. She captioned it: 'The Madonna to my Britney, putting those dance lessons to use. Who did it better?' She added:'#theresafirsttimeforeverything' to it as well, hoping to make it seem like it wasn't a regular occurrence.

Regina commented on the photo a little while later to make it look like was just a harmless night out: 'No contest. Britney and Madonna have nothing on us.' Regina had also talked to Robin late in the morning, filling him in on the situation, as he had been avoiding going online as much as possible while camping. He played his part and quickly commented on Emma's post, writing: 'What did I miss and can I get a raincheck?' with a laughing emoji. She still refused to respond to any of Gold's messages, deciding that he would certainly see the posts and that she had nothing more to say to him on the matter.

"Okay, now that that's done, can we not talk about social media anymore today?" Regina said as she set her glass of water down on the table and plopped down on the couch.

"Fine with me," Emma agreed, grabbing a snack out of the fridge. "Have you decided what to do about dinner tonight?"

"Shit, my mother. That's right. No wonder I got so drunk last night," Regina mused. "We have some chicken in the freezer, so I can throw that in the oven along with some veggies. Honestly, I really don't want to deal with her so I'm not going to make a lot of food to encourage her staying any longer than necessary."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"If you want to make that Caesar salad again, I wouldn't argue."

"That I can do."

"And I still feel hungover, so want to come cuddle with me?" Regina whined from the living room. Emma laughed and happily joined her, laying down in the space Regina left for her on the edge of the cushions and letting the brunette wrap her arm around her so she wouldn't roll off. Emma relaxed into Regina's embrace, both almost immediately falling asleep.

Regina woke nearly an hour later with Emma still securely in her arms. She knew the blonde was awake, because she was running her fingers across Regina's hand. "Feeling any better?" Emma asked when she felt movement behind her.

"Much," Regina confirmed, kissing the back of her neck. Neither woman spoke for several minutes, just taking solace in a bit of quiet. Regina could sense something was bothering Emma. "What are you thinking about?" she asked quietly.

"Hmm?" Emma hummed as she was pulled out of her thoughts. Since she had woken from her nap, she had let her mind drift to her conversation with Lily the previous afternoon. "Oh, yesterday Lily and the artistic director asked me to join their company. Apparently one of their dancers is leaving for a gig in Vegas and they haven't had auditions yet to fill her slot, so they offered it to me after seeing me in class yesterday."

Regina gently squeezed Emma's abdomen a little tighter. "Oh my God, Em, that's amazing! Congratulations. Why didn't you say anything yesterday?"

Emma looked over her shoulder at the brunette. "I was blindsided by it, honestly, and I wanted to let it sink in before I said anything. If I knew I wasn't going to even entertain the idea, I wasn't going to mention it to you."

"So does that mean you're considering it?"

Emma shrugged. "I guess. I don't know. There's a lot to think about. I don't know if I'm ready to leave my company yet. Plus Maine is technically closer to Nova Scotia, so living here wouldn't really solve our long-distance issue, if you're still wanting to pursue 'us' after this week," Emma said, suddenly feeling worried that maybe she shouldn't have mentioned their relationship as an influencing factor.

Regina pulled Emma so they were facing one another and then leaned in to kiss her. "Of course I want to, Emma," Regina said seriously. "And, you're right Halifax is closer to Maine as the crow flies than it is to Montreal, but it's only a 90 minute direct flight here, which is better than the 5 hour ferry ride to Portland. I come back here quite often because of Robin and the kids, so it might make things easier so that I wouldn't have to split my time between all of you when I do get time off. Plus, I've lived here for quite awhile. It's my home base and probably will be until I have to relocate somewhere that isn't a quick flight away."

Emma smiled. "That is true."

"But, I don't want to sway your decision, because I am gone more than I'm here. You need to do what's best for your creatively and professionally."

"Yeah."

"When do you have to give her an answer?"

"This weekend. She emailed me the contract last night but I haven't had a chance to look it over yet, what with my drag show debut and all," Emma laughed.

"And what a debut it was," Regina smiled. "Okay, my back hurts because this couch is not as comfortable for napping as it looks. I need to sit up," she said, tapping Emma's ass to encourage her to let her up.

"What time is your mother coming over?"

"6:30," Regina said noticing the time as she stood up and stretched. "I have an hour and a half before I need to start preparing dinner. Want that guitar lesson I promised you your first day here?"

Emma stifled a yawn and looked up in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that suggestion. "Umm, sure."

Regina smiled. "Okay. Come on," she said as she turned to walk toward the den.

They sat down on the loveseat as Regina took the vintage acoustic Gibson off the wall and handed it to Emma. "Okay, show me what you know so I know what I'm starting with."

"I told you I've only really played a few times on a friend's guitar, and that was ages ago, so don't judge me."

"I promise. Just play," Regina smiled. Emma managed to pluck out a G, C, A, and D chord with relative accuracy, as Regina made slight adjustments to her finger positioning. "That's actually all you really need to know to be able to play any song from the 90s. With that alone you can play everything we sang that night at karaoke back in Portland."

After fifteen minutes of instruction and singing along to some easy songs, Regina pulled out Robin's iPad that was sitting on the desk and opened it to a guitar music app that would let her play along to popular songs while showing her which chords to play and proper finger placement. "I want to shower before I start prepping dinner, so I'm going to head upstairs. You're welcome to keep practicing. If you get locked out of the ipad, the passcode is 0804."

"Isn't your birthday in February?"

"It is," Regina smiled. She had never mentioned it to Emma, so the woman must have looked it up online. "That's actually Robin's and my fake engagement anniversary."

"Ah," Emma nodded. "Got it."

*.*.*

"Here," Regina said, handing Emma a glass of garnacha before taking a long sip of her own.

"Starting early?" Emma asked as she accepted the wine glass.

"Yes. I need it, and so will you," Regina said, just before a forceful knock was heard on the front door. "Oh, good, she's five minutes early." Regina rolled her eyes as she set down her glass on the island and took a deep breath. Emma lovingly glided a hand across her back, trying to soothe her. Regina turned around and leaned into Emma for a gentle kiss, explaining, "I needed one more to get me through dinner since we won't be able to do that again until my mother leaves."

Emma smiled. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

A/N: So, now the gradual process of Regina and Emma's relationship being revealed to someone other than Robin has begun. Baby steps, for now. But there will be strides to come.

The dinner party will be posted next weekend at the latest, as I already have it completed. What could possibly go wrong at a dinner that includes Cora, Regina, and Emma? :D It might be one of my favorite chapters.

Thanks for reading!