DISCLAIMER:: do not own ouat or its characters. just borrowing for purpose of creative expression. no profit obtained.

A/N:: thank you for all the well wishes. you guys are wonderful.

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Chapter 14: Do You Have Any Seahorses?

Mary Margaret stared at the large trash bag of clothes, the vase of flowers and the sealed box that Emma had set near the door before trudging back to the kitchen to grab herself a banana. "So... that was fast."

Emma raised an eyebrow as she slid onto a stool and began to peel her banana. "What was fast?"

Mary Margaret pointed to the items by the door. "It didn't take long for her to convince you to move in." She tried to hide her disappointment. She really liked having a roommate; it was refreshing not being so alone all the time.

Emma took a bite of banana and glanced back at the stuff as she swallowed. "I'm not moving in, not completely anyway. Just four nights a week so I can watch Henry. I've negotiated weekends to myself that I will be spending in the room I'm actually paying rent for." She took another bite of banana. "Besides, I'm staying in the guest bedroom. It's not like it means anything; I'm an employee."

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes as she finished the last of her tea and washed the cup out in the sink. "Keep telling yourself that lie and you might actually begin to believe it."

Emma frowned petulantly. "I'm not lying. This is strictly a business arrangement."

"Yea, but a business arrangement becomes slightly less professional when you've seen the other person naked."

"Says the woman who woke up next to David Nolan, a very unclothed, very married David Nolan after a crazy night of drinking." Emma raised a challenging eyebrow.

Mary Margaret's cheeks coloured and she looked down at her hands in submission. "You're right. I have no room to talk. But I also am not the one who's in denial. At least I admit that I love David. Can you say the same about Regina?"

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"Emma, you're here!" Henry slid across the hardwood as he ran in from the living room into the foyer, the fleece feet of his pajamas having a serious lack of traction on the polished floor.

Emma grinned as she closed the door. She set down the box from her closet and the bag of clothes in the lower part of the foyer and the vase on the foyer table, walking up the four short steps to the elevated half. "Hey kid." She scooped him up.

He wrapped his small arms around her neck and hugged her hard. "Miss Nolan and I have been playing Go Fish."

Emma carried him back into the living room, where Katherine sat crossed legged on the couch, shuffling a colourful deck of cards with pictures of cartoonish sea creatures on them. She sat down on the cushion on the floor on the other side of the coffee table, where she assumed Henry had previously sat. He adjusted himself until he was sitting in her lap like he had been when they were watching the movie last night.

"Miss Nolan's really good at Go Fish. She almost always wins."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "She does, does she? Well we'll just see about that." She looked at Katherine, playfully narrowing her eyes. "Deal us in."

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Regina was pleased to see Emma's car parked in front of the hedge gate when she pulled onto Mifflin. She quickly pulled up the driveway and into the garage. This was their first night truly all together, where Emma wasn't merely their guest but a member of their household. Henry had been over the moon when she'd told him that morning, hugging her as fiercely as his minimal strength would allow and chattering about how Operation Cobra was proving to be a success so far.

She had squared everything away with Graham over the phone. He had agreed easily enough to the arrangement; he knew his place. Besides, the station never saw much action beyond Leroy's constant string of drunk and disorderlies and the occasional accident here and there. She kept her town in complete working order and the crime rate was nearly non-existent. The deputy position had always been slightly more provisional than truly necessary.

She came out the side door of the garage and up the side walk to the front door. What she assumed were Emma's possessions were stacked just inside the door. She eyed them curiously. Why hadn't the blonde taken them upstairs yet? It was after six; she should have been here for at least four hours, if not longer.

She heard Henry's delighted giggle from the living room and followed the sound, setting her purse and car keys on the foyer table. When she stepped into the living room, she was greeted by three people. Katherine and Emma only gave her an incline of recognition before returning to their game. Henry waved excitedly before his eyes shifted back to the hand Emma held up before both of them. "Do you have any Seahorses?"

A bummed look crossed Katherine's face and she handed over the card reluctantly. Emma pulled the pair and put it in her scoring pile. Henry took a sip through the straw of his juicebox. He held it over his head and Emma leaned in without looking and took a sip. Henry put it back on the table. Their eyes never left the cards.

Regina shook her head with a smile and returned to the foyer, pulling off her coat and hanging it in the coat closet. She grabbed Emma's box and bag and carried them upstairs, depositing them on the bed in the guest bedroom. Then she made her way down the hall to her own room to change.

She had just unbuttoned her shirt and was pulling it off when the knock came. "Come in."

Emma peeked her head around the door and stepped in. If she had any adverse reaction to seeing Regina standing there in her bra and slacks, she didn't let it show. She closed the door behind her. "How was work?"

Regina undid the fly on her slacks. "The usual." She pushed the slacks over her hips and the curve of her ass and gravity did the rest, pulling them down to pool on the floor. "I brought home a surprise for you and Henry. The bag's in the trunk. I'll grab it after dinner."

"Speaking of dinner, I already started it. Henry finally has somewhat of an appetite. He was asking for pizza. I know the bread is a no-go right now, so I'm making a small one for him out of a tortilla. I don't know how it'll go over, but I thought he deserved to indulge a little after the past couple weeks."

Regina stepped up to the blonde, wrapping her arms around her neck. "You should be careful. I may become accustomed to all the royal treatment and then I may never want to do anything for myself ever again." She placed a soft kiss to Emma's lips.

Emma closed her eyes to ground herself; the proximity of the brunette was sending her senses into a frenzy. "I'd like to cook at night. You're working a full day; I'm not. It seems only fair that I help out in any way I can."

Regina placed gentle kisses along Emma's jaw. "You're not the maid, Miss Swan."

Emma smiled. "Of course not. I would be an awful maid anyway. I don't do floors and my laundry skills equate to that of the typical laundromat patron, since that's the only place I've ever washed clothes. But if you need to know how to rig a commercial sized washing machine, I'm your gal."

Regina chuckled and finally drew away from the blonde to slip into more comfortable clothing, or clothing of any kind for that matter. "Tell you what, you stick to the cooking and I'll do the laundry."

Emma followed the woman with her eyes. "Sounds like a plan."

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Emma adjusted the porcelain vase on top of her bare dresser as she tucked the clothes she'd brought over into the empty drawers. She couldn't help feeling like a child in the middle of a joint custody situation between divorced parents. She knew she should just pick one or the other, make life easier on everyone, but something was holding her back. She loved spending time with Henry, and she couldn't bear to turn down the brunette when she had suggested that she live-in. It really was ridiculous to go home every single night so late. This way, she'd be available to help Regina if there was an emergency. But on the other hand she couldn't bear to give up her freedom completely. She had little doubt that if she told Regina she'd just like to move in, that the brunette would agree and even allow her to live there rent free. It was a waste to pay rent to the schoolteacher when she wasn't even living there three full days a week, but she needed a place to go, to feel like she wasn't tying herself down.

She closed the last drawer and bunched the empty trash bag up, tossing it on top to remember to throw it away later. She crossed back over to the bed where her box was waiting. She carried it over to the closet and set it inside on the empty floor next to the white Christmas box with the photo albums. She closed the door and turned to look at the empty room. She rested back against the closet, staring at the blank walls. It was impersonal, just how she normally liked things. Except this time, she didn't.

"Knock knock." Regina stood in the open door way, holding a large bag.

Emma gestured around. "All unpacked."

Regina gazed around the room, scrutinizing everything. Her face softened as her eyes found the vase of flowers. She set the bag flat on the bed and walked over to the arrangement, leaning in closely to smell their scent. "He was surprised when I called this in. It's not my usual order."

"Yea, Mary Margaret accused me of receiving special treatment."

Regina turned back to Emma, a soft smile on her face. "Something special should be treated as such."

Emma blushed, looking down at her feet for a moment. When she looked back up, she was once again composed. "So, what's in the bag?"

Regina walked back over to the bag on the bed. "I didn't know you'd be living here at the time, but it seems a fitting welcome home present." She pulled out a large frame. Positioned inside was the completed New York puzzle that Emma and Henry had done together.

Emma stepped up, taking it from Regina's hands and holding it out in front of her so she could get a good look at it. "You got it framed?"

Regina nodded. "It was something special, for all of us. I thought it might be nice to keep the memory around, of the first thing we did as a family."

Emma stared past the frame at Regina for what seemed like several drawn out seconds before she gently set the frame back down on the bed. She grabbed Regina's hand and drew the brunette to her, pulling her close until their bodies were pressed against one another. She lifted the brunette up to sit on the dresser next to the vase. Her hands slid up and down the brunette's thighs as she hungrily attacked her neck.

"Emma." It was a breathy whisper as it escaped the brunette's lips. She tangled her fingers in the golden hair of the younger woman. "Henry's not asleep yet. We have to stop now." Despite her protests, she didn't try and push Emma away, instead wrapping her legs around the blonde's waist and drawing her against her body.

Emma pulled back almost reluctantly. "You're right. We shouldn't do this now." She stole another kiss, taking advantage of the surprise to skim her tongue gently through Regina's mouth before she was pulling back again. She lifted the brunette off her dresser, setting her back down. "I should go slice the pizzas."

Regina watched her go. She had no room to object. Henry was awake and waiting downstairs. The homemade pizzas were cooling on racks in the kitchen waiting to be sliced for dinner. It would have to wait. She closed her eyes and forced away the ache between her thighs. Soon. She would have Miss Swan soon.

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"But I want to stay up with you and Momma." Henry pouted in her arms as she carried him upstairs, Regina following closely behind.

"Nice try, but it's already an hour past your bedtime." Emma marched into his room and laid him down on the bed. He'd been stalling all night. She should have known something was up when he'd been excited for his cloth bath. Regina had looked at her in shock as if he never got any joy out of being bathed with a wash cloth. Turns out he didn't. He'd taken extra long to eat his two slivers of his specially made pizza. He'd insisted on having Regina detail her entire day and then had begged the same of Emma, despite the fact that she had spent most of it with him. But he was desperate to try anything that would allow him to stay up.

He tried giving her the puppy dog eyes, but she was resolute. "We'll both be here in the morning and I'll be with you all afternoon tomorrow. They're will be plenty of time to have fun together then. Besides," she tapped the end of his nose, "I'm just going right to bed after this. I'm beat. Don't tell me you want to stay up to watch me sleep." She tucked the rocketship blanket up around his little body.

"Will you tell me a story Emma?"

Emma nodded. "Now that, I can do."

Henry moved over to make room for her and she sat on the bed with her back against the headboard. Regina leaned against the doorframe to listen.

Emma tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's see." Might as well put her odd dreams she'd been having to good use. "Once upon a time there were two kingdoms, run by two royal families. These families had history with one another and were at war. In one, a proud King and Queen, in the other, a lonely Queen, left to rule alone. And in the middle of this war was a Princess..."

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Emma checked the doors and windows before turning off all the lights on the ground floor. Henry was asleep and Regina had gone to bed. It was time for her to do the same. She had a big day tomorrow. Friday loomed ahead of her, her date with Regina right on the horizon. She needed to be well rested.

She looked down the hall to the left, to Henry's closed door and around the curve in the hall to Regina's closed bedroom door. Both were dark under the door, no lights on inside. They were already off to dreamland. She turned right and went down to her own room.

When she opened the door she was surprised to find the light was already on though she could have sworn she'd left it off when she'd gone down to dinner earlier. She closed the door.

"Took you long enough darling; I thought you'd gotten lost."

She smiled at the playfully teasing voice. She should have known it wouldn't be this simple. She turned to the bed, where Regina was lying in one side, her arms crossed across her chest, a delicately arched eyebrow raised.

Emma pulled a pair of flannel pajama pants from a drawer. "I believe it is you who've gotten lost Madam Mayor; your room happens to be a few doors down at the end of the hall." She slid her jeans down her legs, kicking them off and away.

Regina's eyes were wide and watching her every move. "Miss Swan, our agreement was simply that you would not sleep in my bed; it said nothing about me sleeping in yours." Her hands fisted in the duvet at the sight as Emma turned around, exposing her backside to the brunette's gaze.

Emma pulled a new shirt from the drawer. Normally she slept topless, but she wouldn't be doing that tonight, not while Regina was sharing her bed. She pulled her sweater up and off, followed closely by her shirt, and finally her bra.

Regina's mouth was dry as she watched the muscles in the blonde's back ripple. She imagined dragging her fingernails along the delicious expanse of back, of settling her hands along that firm backside and pulling the woman tightly against her. But Miss Swan was quickly dressing, leaving it up to her imagination with no hope of satisfaction tonight.

As if reading her thoughts, Emma turned and gave her a stern look. "If you insist upon leaving your bed to spend the night in mine, I won't stop you, but there will be no inappropriateness tonight. I need my beauty sleep." Her face lost its hardness and she grinned playfully. "See I have this date tomorrow night, with the mayor, and it's kinda a big deal."

Regina nodded. "Oh yes, I see. Well we must make sure you get a full night's rest then. I heard she has big things planned." She settled down onto the pillow, smiling at Emma as the blonde turned the light off.

Emma walked back over to the right side of the bed and slipped in, turning her back to the brunette and closing her eyes.

Regina had heard 'no inappropriateness', not 'no touching at all'. She reached out and pulled the blonde woman back across the bed and against her body. She draped her arm over the woman's hip, her hand sliding just under the woman's shirt, absentmindedly stroking the bare flesh of the woman's abdomen.

Emma tensed, her hand stopping the brunette's. She withdrew it from her shirt and Regina feared she would push her away. Instead Emma pulled it more tightly around her and snuggled back against the brunette.

Regina smiled, nuzzling the back of the blonde's neck as she finally let her eyes drop closed.

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"I need Henry's overnight bag packed by the time I get home."

Emma nodded. "Is he going somewhere?"

Regina smiled, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "He's spending the night at Katherine's."

"Is that so?" Emma raised an eyebrow. This was the first she'd heard of this. She pulled her hair up into its long golden ponytail, wrapping the hair tie that had been around her wrist around it and then figure eighting it until it was tight.

Regina met the eyes of her reflection in her bathroom mirror. "I'm not sure how late our night will run and I didn't want Katherine to be stuck here overly late."

Emma grinned. "Aren't you being overly presumptuous Mayor Mills? What if I have a curfew?" She batted her eyes innocently.

Regina rolled her eyes. "Oh please, like you'd even obey it if you did."

"Touche." Emma turned around, leaning back against the bathroom counter, her arms crossed across her chest. "Still not going to tell me where you're taking me?"

Regina bit her bottom lip and shook her head back and forth. "It's a surprise."

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Emma went through her meager selection of clothes for what seemed to be the billionth time in the last half hour. It had never really been an issue before. When she was younger, she'd never really had a say in how she dressed. As a child in the group home, she got the older kid's hand me downs. Then, at her foster homes, her foster parents had shopped for her. Lillian had been the only one to ever give her any input into what she wore. She had believed in a child's freedom of expression. Then, when she ran away, she bought what was cheap. That's what started her love of A shirts, more commonly known as wife beaters, though she hated the term. She could buy a five pack at Wal-Mart for thirteen bucks and they would last her for quite some time. By the time she had enough money to spare on frivolous things like clothes, she was already so set on going for comfortable that her 'fancy' clothes consisted of two dresses that she wore on dates when she was trying to corner a male mark.

Regina deserved more than those dresses, and she certainly deserved more than Emma's everyday selections. This wasn't a night at home; it was a date, a real one. She hadn't been on a date in... as long as she could remember. Not since... She closed her eyes. She didn't like to think of that brief period of time when she'd been too stupid to tell the difference between love and an adrenaline rush.

"Having trouble?"

Emma whirled around at the sound of her roommate's voice. Mary Margaret stood in the bedroom door, peering in at the mess Emma had made of the small bed. Clothes from the closet were strewn haphazardly across it.

After Katherine had shown up to Regina's for Henry and agreed to wait with him until Regina got home from work, as they'd originally planned, she'd returned to Mary Margaret's flat, where she'd left half of her everyday clothes and the two date dresses. But now, as she stood there staring at the entirety of her wardrobe, she felt a serious panic setting in. For the first time in her life, Emma found herself with nothing adequate to wear.

"Nothing is good enough. I'm going on a date. With Regina Mills." She collapsed onto her bed amidst the discarded clothes with a sigh.

Mary Margaret had heard Emma tossing things around up here for nearly forty five minutes searching for something to wear. Her hair and subtle make up looked fabulous, but they were in stark contrast to the towel she still wore wrapped around her from the shower she'd taken over an hour ago. "I think I may have something. Come on."

Emma followed the schoolteacher back downstairs and into her room on the first floor. She sat on the bed when Mary Margaret pointed to it and watched as the brunette dug through her closet. After a few long drawn out moments, she emerged holding a green satin dress. "Ruby bought this for me a few years ago, back when she was on this campaign to find me a man. I was never meant to wear something so... this. A point that was made clear when the only thing I managed to snag was Dr. Whale."

Emma had never met the good doctor herself; his hours at the hospital were too long that he was hardly seen out except at night, and she'd spent every night indoors with the mayor and her son. But she had heard plenty about him from the town's citizens and he was known for being quite the sleaze. She couldn't imagine poor Mary Margaret, soft spoken as she was, having to fend off anyone in town, let alone someone like that.

She took the dark green dress, holding it up to her figure in front of the mirror. The colour was beautiful. It would certainly make her eyes pop. The length was appropriate, ending just above the knee. It was strapless which would work to her advantage. It would do. She hugged Mary Margaret. "Thank you. You're a lifesaver."

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Regina pulled her coat tighter around herself as she got out of the Mercedes. The snow crunched underneath her heeled boots as she walked over to the front door of the small stone building. She climbed the stairs to the second floor, hesitating a second to take a deep breath before she knocked.

Mary Margaret Blanchard opened the door with a smile. "Mayor Mills, come in. Emma should be down in just a second."

Regina slowly stepped into the flat, watching as the schoolteacher closed the door behind her.

"So, when will you have her back by?"

Regina suddenly felt like she was the young suitor on prom night, come to take the prettiest girl at Storybrooke High to the dance and this was the awkward moment before the daughter came down where the parent was drilling her about her intentions with her daughter. Although- a smirk crept onto Regina's face at the thought- her intentions with Miss Swan were very far from pure. "Don't expect Miss Swan back until very late. You shouldn't wait up."

"Regina."

The brunette whipped around to face the stairs where a heeled foot was just touching down into her line of sight. The black pumps gave way to a expanse of bare calf and slowly satin, a deep hunter green in colour, was revealed to her. Finally, Emma's smiling face came into view, her hair left down, but pinned gently back away from her face and shoulders so that the strapless effect of the dress wouldn't be diminished. The make up on her face was light, just a sweep of brown eyeliner and mascara to highlight her green eyes. She tried to hide her smirk when she saw that a coat of make up had been applied to the mark she'd left on the pale flesh of the blonde's neck. It was already fading of its own accord, but the make up almost concealed it completely from view.

Regina felt all the breath leave her lungs. Emma was so beautiful. "Emma." She had to fight the urge to go to the blonde. Their intimate moments were not something she wished to include Miss Blanchard in yet. She'd heard the rumours around town, the small whispers speculating on the nature of the relationship between her and Emma. Soon enough, those rumours would come to light as being true, but not until she was sure the blonde wanted something more, wanted to be more than they were. It certainly wouldn't do for the mayor to be having a frivolous fling with a woman she brought into town. No, if they wanted it to be public, then it had to be something more solid first.

Emma pointed to the couch, where a wool coat was draped over the arm of the sofa. "Just let me put on my coat. I'm sure it's freezing out there."

Regina grabbed the coat, holding it open. "Allow me."

Emma paused a moment before she turned her back to the brunette and allowed the woman to help her slide the black wool coat up and on. "Thank you." She turned back to Regina, looking at the brunette as if she were the only person in the room.

Regina stroked her fingers along the back of the blonde's nearest hand. "You ready to go?"

Emma nodded.

Mary Margaret cleared her throat, finally earning her Emma's attention and an annoyed glare from Regina.

"I'll be back sometime late, possibly tomorrow."

The schoolteacher nodded and raised a hand in farewell. "Have a good time."

Regina didn't let them chat anymore. She grabbed Emma's hand and led her to the door, anxious to be alone with the blonde. She didn't feel like lingering and making social niceties with anyone, least of all Mary Margaret Blanchard.

Emma couldn't keep the smile off her face at Regina's take charge attitude. She had just enough time to through a mouthed goodbye over her shoulder before the mayor had her out of the flat and was leading her down the stairs. Her hand felt good cradled in the warmth of Regina's. Their fingers had entwined naturally of their own volition. The brunette didn't release her grip until they were standing beside the Mercedes. Regina dropped it to open the door for her and she slid in with a smile. Good to know chivalry wasn't dead.

Regina walked around the car and slid into the driver's seat. "You ready?"

Emma nodded shyly. Her first real date. She couldn't really count her times with him, though he'd called them dates. This was something different, something important and special, a night to be appreciated and remembered. It meant more than any of his spontaneous little 'dates' ever had.

Regina reached out, stroking the back of one finger down the blonde's cheek before she put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb. She drove the two turns to Main, and then, much to Emma's surprise, she turned right and began to head out of town.

"You're driving me out of town on a road surrounded by nothing but wilderness... should I be afraid?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "This is the way back to the interstate if you remember correctly Miss Swan."

Emma shrugged and looked out her window. "I'm sure that's what all the serial killers say."

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It had been a long time since Emma had been in Portland. It was a place of her past, a place that held many lessons learned, but also more bad memories than good. Her hopes had died here, her dreams and beliefs in the existence of fairytales. She had learned disappointment, hurt, and pain here. In short, she had learned the truth. And she'd been running from it ever since.

She stared down the streets as they drove past, her mind going back to days when she was young and still believed there was something out there waiting for her, some greater destiny than the nomad's life she'd ended up with. They drove past places she hadn't seen in years, memories that were over a decade old but as she saw the places of her childhood now, it seemed only yesterday.

"You're quiet." Regina glanced over from the driver's seat, before turning back to the icy roads. Emma had barely said anything to her since they'd reached the interstate. She had thought it would be good for the blonde to get away from the small town life for a night. She knew it couldn't be easy for her, someone who had lived most of her life around buildings over five stories tall to spend day after day in the confines of their little sleepy hideaway. But she had never really pegged Emma as being the silent type.

"I'm remembering." Emma's voice was flat, leaving it open to interpretation whether she was happy or saddened by that fact.

"Tell me?"

For several long moments and more than a couple blocks, Emma remained silent. Finally, she sighed. "There, that building on the corner there. That used to be this small shop called Ye Old Towne Gift Shoppe. The owner, Roberta, used to make these bars of clear soap with all these different shapes in the middle, anything from bright orange tigers to beautiful purple castles. They were only two bucks a bar, but we never had any money. Still, she'd use them like currency, having us run errands for her after school, and she'd pay us in those bars of soap." It was some corner drug store now, the windows holding no traces of the floral hand-painted signs Roberta used to put up in the windows, advertising her homemade products. She could still remember the last bar of soap she'd ever received. It had contained a muti-coloured carousel horse, made specially for her by the robust kind-faced woman in her sixties, whom Emma had adored. She'd even took Emma back to the back of her shop once, showing her where she made all her wares. Emma had always thought of that place as somehow magical, back when she still believed in stuff like that. That one bar of soap, a going away present for when she'd finally left Portland for good, had stayed with her for a long time. But eventually, like most things she cherished in life, it began to fade, the clear crystal of the soap had begun to cloud over with the passing of time, the colours of that carousel horse dulling with age, until she'd had to toss it out. Just more evidence that even good things ended in loss.

The sadness in Emma's eyes as she turned back to the window did not escape Regina's notice. She reached over and squeezed the blonde's hand, resting on her lap, earning herself a small smile from the blonde, as Emma's green eyes turned back to her. "You look so beautiful tonight Emma." That earned her a genuine smile. She returned her hand to the wheel to make a turn at the next stoplight.

Emma's eyes didn't return back to the window. For the first time since she'd gotten in the car, she truly focused on the woman beside her. Regina's hair was its perfectly coifed self, her make up done a little darker than usual, but not drastically so. Her coat blocked her dress from Emma's view, but she wore black heeled boots that ended just below her knee, mere inches from where her coat ended, exposing her bare knee and just the smallest hint of thigh. Even with the bulky trench coat, she looked stunning. Without a second thought, she leaned across the distance between them and kissed Regina gently on the cheek. "I love it so much when I'm with you."

"Love what?" Regina felt the tingle where the blonde's lips had just been pressed against her skin.

Emma smiled. "Life."

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A/N2:: so i promised myself that if i reached 25 reviews on the last chapter i would post again tonight. i still have several updates that just need to be typed up, so maybe reviews would make me type faster? *shrugs innocently* why don't you review and find out? :)