The next morning Regina woke up slowly with a smile as she felt completely encased in warmth. She wiggled in further to Emma and buried her face in her neck. Inhaling the scent of vanilla and sandalwood, sighing in comfort.
In the little movement, Emma had woken up and she smiled, "You know you'd expect me to do that more than you do but somehow you outdo me every day."
Regina playfully smacked her side, "Then you're just rubbing off on me. It's just surprising that even with how dirty you get every day, you always smell good."
Emma chuckled, her eyes still closed, she pulled her closer and inhaled. "As do you, my love. And after all these years, it'd be surprising not to have rubbed off on you. Especially now." she opened her eyes and wiggled her eyebrows
"You're terrible" Regina laughed and moved to get out of bed
"And you love it." the blonde stretched and watched her walk to the bathroom
"That I do, now are you going to be lazy and stay in bed or are you going to take a bath with me before we go to breakfast?"
And just like that, Emma was up and out of bed, running into the bathroom to follow the chuckling witch, as the sun was just peaking over the treeline
An hour later they made their way down to the dining room for breakfast with the others to see that they were still the first ones there of their friends and only their parents there. The maids still just setting up the table as their parents sipped their tea and chatted amongst themselves
Emma rushed forward and pulled out Regina's seat for her. As she sat next to her, they looked to see the rest of the table smiling at them.
"You all are so sappy." Emma teased
Regina smacked her arm as Henry, Hestia, David, and Rumple chuckled.
Snow and Cora smiled and narrowed their eyes at her.
"Let us gush over the fact Regina has been dealing with you since the day you were both born and still wants to spend the rest of her life with you in close quarters." Snow teased
Emma gasped and feigned hurt at her mother before turning her head to the snort that came from her girlfriend
"Not to mention have her little spawns that you already know are going to be hellions." Cora included
Emma gasped again, ignoring the burst of laughter coming from next to her.
"We might have to get Merida's clan to come live with us. That whole "takes a village to raise a child" isn't going to cut it with just our village. Those little tikes will have it up in flames by the time their three." Rumple added
"Or hire more maids, you remember how much mud that child came back with every day? You could probably make a village of mud huts with how much we had to wash off her over the years." Hestia said
"Guys," Emma whined
"That's one way of putting off a pregnancy any time soon." Regina laughed
Emma turned to her with a pout,
"I said a pregnancy, not putting off sex. Just keep your baby maker away as you have been." Regina smiled and delicately cupped her chin.
"No, if anything, it should be the fact that we have twins in our family. It skipped Emma, it'll most likely go to her children next. " David smirked
Emma lowered her head to the table as Regina's eyes had widened
"You win! It's too early for this type of conversation" she whined
"Don't start if you can't finish honey, especially with us old people. We have dirt on you that started at your birth. We've been tallying it up for moments like this for years." Snow smiled
"I'm just happy to see my daughter being taken care of, with someone with manners. Rather than those other royals, we had to put up with while you were gone on your mission" Henry commented
"Kiss ass," Cora said and caused the whole table to break out into laughter
As they all calmed down and the sun started to rise higher in the sky, the rest of the family came in. First Belle with a rough-looking Ruby who grumbled her good-morning. Then Roni, who looked tired even though she had actually gotten sleep. And the rest of the Mills children. They all sipped their tea as breakfast finished being brought out when Mal finally walked through the door.
Just from her eyes alone, one could tell she was hungover. And just as last time, she went and kissed Emma and Regina's head, but this time knowingly kissed the top of Roni's head and sat next to her.
She looked up to see the majority of their party from last night hungover but when she saw Regina perky and not affected at all, she asked, "why don't you look like the rest of us? You were drunk too."
"I kept her up a little bit longer and made her drink at least a quart of water before we went to bed so it flushed out of her system," Emma responded
"Ugh, maybe I should have gone with you instead of staying and drinking more with Ruby. I probably needed a gallon of water last night to flush my system." she groaned
Hestia waved her hand and in front of Roni, Ruby and Mal sat a mug of green juice.
"Here, this may taste strange to you but it's the miracle drink that your mothers and I drank the morning after a girls night."
And in unison, they all took and sip and gulped it down with difficulty
"One of the main ingredient is ginseng isn't it." Roni grimaced
"Practically a cure-all plant." Cora smiled at the faces of the children
"That drink could take all the hair off your chest with just a sip." David grimaced at the smell
"Oh hush you baby, I remember a few times you had to drink this too." Snow tsked
"And that's exactly what made me watch how much I drank for now on. To keep from having to drink that thing" he joked
The table chuckled and began to eat their food. Talking about the night before. Halfway through the meal, the zombies of the table looked as if they weren't hungover at all in the first place.
"Told you." Hestia had smiled when Ruby had mentioned how good she felt.
They finished and were all making their way out for the day when Emma and the rest of the wolves lifted their heads and looked at each other as they were called to their construction sites for the new homes.
Emma looked at Regina, "We have to take care of this. I'll be back soon, why don't you take Roni and Mal for horse riding?"
"Sounds like a lovely idea" Mal smiled
Emma regarded her with suspicion. She had a bright glint in her eyes, her body almost buzzing, and seemed almost too excited about a chance to be with Regina without her around. The dragons' fingers twitched at her side, feeling the side of her leg where she knew the inner hidden pocket lay.
Emma nodded, to them. Kissing all three of them on their cheeks.
"Be safe. If there's trouble, just yell, I'll come running." She spoke to all of them, but at the end of her sentence, she eyed Regina, who nodded.
Regina knew what Emma really meant was to signal her if there was any trouble with Mal.
Mal chuckled and threw an arm around both women. Emma bit back an instinctive growl, knowing this was an innocent act.
"I'll keep them safe furball, don't worry." She winked
Roni scoffed, "as if anything I'll be taking care of you two. I got them, Wolfie."
Emma nodded and with that, she followed her pack.
"So why don't we just ride to the waterfall?" Regina suggested as they made their way down the trail in the forest around the castle
"Sounds amazing right now with this heat." Roni huffed
That particular day was hotter as spring came closer to summer, even in their light clothing. Forgoing the heavy riding coats and instead of wearing their leather trousers, boots, blouses, and vests.
As they came up to the waterfall, they dismounted their horses and lead them to the water to drink.
"I'm going to go ahead and start swimming," Roni informed them.
Mal and Regina nodded. With that, she went over to the rocks to undress before diving into the water.
"Come on Reggie, this water feels amazing!" Roni yelled
Regina shook her head and discreetly waved her hand. Laughing at the yelp that sounded from the wave of water that rolled over Roni.
The woman came back up, spitting out some of the water,
"I told you not to call me that." Regina chuckled, starting to take off her boots
"But its cute, Reggie and Roni, which is which? Gotta catch us to find out."
"Do you expect us to be committing a crime and have that as our wanted poster moniker?" Regina raised an eyebrow at the woman
Roni smirked, "You never know? Gotta have your shit ready to go. We have too many friends dating right now. Their partner hurts them, then guess who has to get rid of the body."
"You're ridiculous." Regina laughed
Roni just shrugged and laid back in the water doing backstrokes
Mal came up as Regina got her boots off, "Hey Roni. I wanna show her behind the fall. You okay out here?"
Roni looked at Regina for confirmation that it was okay. When she got a nod, she shrugged, "Yeah, if I scream it's more likely I'm just trying to see how fast Emma really can get to us."
The duo chuckled and made their way behind the water barefoot.
"Mal you know how many times we've been back here? I don't think there's anything new." she voiced
"Oh I know, but I thought this would be the best place to ask you something." she smiled
Regina shrugged and followed her to the back of the cave where the fluorescent crystals glowed. Their calming place as kids other than the paradise. They would have their camping nights in here, talking and giggling until they saw the front of the cave light up with sunlight.
"Everything okay?" Regina asked
Mal smiled and reached to her leg. "Of course. I just…. Wanted to let you know how much I truly missed you on my mission. You know I love you…"
Regina smiled and reached out to squeeze her shoulder gently, "I missed you too Mal, me and Emma both did. And We love you too."
Mal laughed nervously, "Well I know Emma loves me, she's my sister. She promised to look after you while I was gone as I did for her. Because we love each other. And you"
Regina tilted her head in question, "Mal what's going on? Are you okay?"
Mal reached for her hand and kissed her knuckles. "I'm okay darling. I asked her to look after you because I love you. Not just as a sister though. I truly love you. When I was on this mission, I just wanted to be snuggled up to you again in bed. Or hear your laugh, see your smile. While my Uncle and I were patrolling, I came across this jewelry merchant. And I saw this."
And finally why she was twitching and reaching for her leg pocket was revealed. In the twinkling lights of the crystals was a dragon blood crystal, cut down to form a ring.
"A dragon blood crystal. Made with dragons fire from blood and magic of my kind. I was drawn to it. And it made me think about how perfect it was. How perfect you are. How perfect it would look on you…."
Regina's eyes widened at the realization of what was happening. Her breathing picked up in a panic, her heart beating frantically in fear and sorrow.
On the other side of the castle, Emma was running around in just her vest and her trousers that she had ripped off at the knees when she was younger.
When they had arrived after getting the call that morning, they had discovered that one of the homes that they had been working on, hadn't been strapped down and set right, causing the whole thing to collapse overnight.
While she was helping with lifting the frame up with the ropes they attached, they had just set it the correct way when she felt it.
Nausea in the pit of her stomach and the racing in her heart.
Something was wrong with Regina.
She raced to the castle, ignoring the worried looks and calls of her name from the rest of her pack and only slightly hearing the second set of footsteps behind her as she ran. It was Ruby. She had let the others know that she got Emma, just to finish everything else.
She raced straight to Cora
"Do you know where they went?" Emma panted
Cora looked up from her potions book and took in the blonde before her. From the heaviest breathing, she has ever seen her do, to the panic in her eyes.
"They went to the falls. Dear is everything alright?"
Emma simply shook her head and said, "Regina." racing off again in that direction, Ruby again on her tail
Regina tried to swallow down the knot in her throat. Blocking any of the words she wanted to say, to come out as she watched Mal smile and get down on one knee.
"Regina, Will you marry me?"