A/N: Life is quieter now. Updates should be almost daily again! Also no sex in this because it just didn't work out, sorry!

"Come on Henry, let's go home," Regina said, steering her son out of the diner.

Emma hesitated for a moment before calling out. "I'm coming with you."

"What?" Regina asked, a little incredulous, as she turned back to look at the woman before her.

"I want to be near Henry too. And make sure he's safe in case any Lost Boys remain loyal to Pan and try something. You've taught me magic, right? I can help protect Henry," Emma reasoned.

"Because I'm not capable of doing so myself?" Regina asked, a little defensive.

"Because everyone can use support," Emma said.

Regina paused for a moment, her grip on Henry's shoulder tightening a little.

"Fine," she acquiesced. "But you're taking the night shift."

Emma grinned and turned to kiss her parents on their cheeks before she jogged after the brunette and their son who were already making their way down the path of Granny's to Regina's gleaming Mercedes.

"Can I help?" Emma asked, leaning on the doorframe of the kitchen an hour later.

"No, thanks," Regina replied, not turning away from the stove where she stood stirring something which was making the entire mansion smell divine.

"Ok. Well Henry is in his room reading. He seems a little shaken, quieter than usual, but ok I think."

"Thank you," Regina said, placing the spoon down and finally turning around to face Emma.

"Any time," Emma replied. "Anything for Henry, right?"

"Right," Regina nodded with a grim smile.

"You had to do it, you know. Control that lost boy's heart, team up with Gold, trap Pan in the box."

Regina visibly bristled at Emma's statement: her eyes narrowed slightly and her shoulder tensed. She had never been one who needed her actions validated, so why did Emma's comment affect her in such a way. As Regina watched, the blonde crossed the kitchen and hopped up onto the island counter opposite Regina, sipping her glass of red wine.

Regina decided not to respond, instead levelling the blonde with a steely gaze.

"I mean … I didn't mean. Shit," Emma breathed out. "I was trying to make you feel better," she finished lamely.

"And what makes you think I need you as an emotional prop?" Regina countered.

"Because I know you," Emma said. "I know you better than you think Regina and I know what happened in Neverland was necessary and it helped us get Henry back but I also know you're trying to change. You're trying to be good and stop using magic for evil. I'm sorry we put you in a position where you had to do so again but I think we both know our son wouldn't be tucked up in bed upstairs if you hadn't used dark magic. You saved him, Regina. You saved all of us."

"At what cost?" Regina asked, her body sagging as she leaned back against the counter.

"What do you mean?" Emma frowned.

"I can feel my heart blackening again. It's been a hard, shrivelled, useless thing beating in my chest for so long but before we left, it was healing. Slowly but surely, it was lightening. I was letting love in again. And now, now I'm back to where I was when the curse broke. An angry, bitter, washed up sorceress with no hope of finding a happy ending."

Emma slid down from the counter and crossed to stand right in front of Regina. Reaching for the brunette's right hand, she gently lifted it and placed Regina's hand, palm down, on the Mayor's breast. Her own fingers curled lightly around Regina's hand, holding it in place.

"Feel that?" Emma asked.

Regina nodded but said nothing, transfixed to the sight of her hand covered by Emma's hand pressed to her own chest.

"Your heart beats inside your chest, Regina. It's strong and loving and it will find its happy ending. You've come too far and lost too much for this to be it for you. Despite everything you've done, despite all the mistakes you've made, you still deserve happiness."

Regina raised tear filled eyes to look at Emma. "How do you know?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"Because I have hope," Emma replied. "I believe happiness is possible for you again, Regina. You just have to believe it yourself."

"I thought it was, once," Regina said, tears spilling down her cheeks at last. "I thought Daniel and I were going to be each other's happy endings. I thought I'd found the love of my life."

Emma pulled Regina into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around the sobbing woman as she stroked her hair and waited patiently for Regina to regain her composure.

"Can I say something?" Emma said after a few minutes.

"What?" Regina asked, pulling back and wiping her face.

"I don't think Daniel was the love of your life."

Anger flitted across Regina's face for a moment before she sighed heavily and moved past Emma to sink into a dining chair.

"No, he wasn't."

"How do you know?" Emma asked, following the brunette and taking a seat opposite her.

"Why did you think he wasn't?" Regina countered.

"Because in every fairy tale I've ever read, True Love wins. And yours didn't," Emma said simply. "If you were meant to be together, it wouldn't have been so easy for your mother to rip his heart out and destroy what you two had."

"I found out through Tinkerbell," Regina admitted. "She had some pixie dust she used to show me my true love, except I never met him. All I saw was a tattoo of a lion on his wrist through the window of the tavern but I couldn't bring myself to destroy another man's life. Tink told me it was selfish, that I'd ruined his life by not going in. But how could anyone who loved me have a good life? I mean, I'm the Evil Queen. I poison everything I touch. Being in love with me is a curse I wouldn't wish upon anyone."

"Not even me?" Emma asked.

There was a pregnant pause. Emma held her breath, waiting for Regina's reaction.

"What?" the brunette whispered at last.

"Don't ask me how it happened because I've been wracking my brains for a long time trying to figure it out. But somewhere between you trying to run me out of town, your mother trying to turn Storybrooke against you, and rescuing our son from an evil sixteen year old, I fell in love with you, Regina."

Regina stared wide eyed at the blonde before her, stunned. Emma waited patiently, watching a plethora of emotions flicker across the beautiful face. After a full two minutes of silence, Emma reached down to her left wrist and rolled up the sleeve to the black polo sweater she was wearing. The tattoo was revealed slowly, uncovered petal by petal as the fabric slid back. Regina's eyes rested on in, her mouth falling open slightly.

"Is that-,"

"Yeah," Emma nodded. "I got it on a whim when I ran away from my last foster home. I've always loved lyon flowers."

"But … the man … it was an animal."

"Parallel worlds or something?" Emma shrugged. "I don't have all the answers. In fact, I have very few. But there is one thing I am sure of. And that's how my heart feels about you."

"What … what do you want from me?" Regina asked, her mind struggling to understand what was happening.

"Nothing," Emma said. "Except a chance."

"A chance?"

"A chance to take you out on a date. A chance to get to know you, really know you. A chance for us."

"You … you want to date me?" Regina asked.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Emma said.

"No one has ever dated me before. I went from a teenage romance to marriage to a man thrice my age to, well, let's just say no one could have had a real relationship with the Evil Queen."

"And now?" Emma asked.

"Now … now I think I've been alone too long to remember how this sort of thing works," Regina said with a small smile.

"Do you think you're willing to try?" Emma asked. "I know this is all out of the blue for you but it's not for me. And although it took me a really, really long time to wrap my head around how I felt for you, I have now and I think we could be really, really good together."

"Do you?" Regina asked.

"I do," Emma nodded. "I've never felt like this about anyone, Regina, and that's scary but it's also exciting and I really want to see where we could go, what we could be. Don't you?"

"How?"

"Let's start with a date, talking, getting to know each other. Properly I mean. I want to know Regina, not Henry's other mother, not the Evil Queen. I want to know you. So what do you say? Do you want to know me?"

Regina hesitated for a moment before answering. "Yes, I think I do."

"Great. So I'll pick you up at seven on Friday?"

"It's a date," Regina said with a smile wider than one she had worn in a long time.