Sorry for the late and very short chapter, hope you like it though!

"You know, starting a message saying you're not coming when you actually mean that you're running late because of car trouble is not the way to go. My heart can't take it." Regina said as Mal walked up to them an hour later.

"Aw, did you think I stood you up?"

Regina looked a little insecure of herself when she answered, "Yes." Of course she and Robin had thought Mal was standing them up after that message which only contained the words 'I'm not coming.'

Up until this point, Mal just thought the situation was quite funny. I had been just a misunderstanding, after all. But as she saw an insecure Regina gripping Robin's hand on the table, she realized it probably hadn't been as funny for them as is had been for her. They really thought she had reconsidered the whole dating thing. Mal leaned forward over the table and grabbed Regina's free hand in her own. "I'm sorry, I was behind the wheel on my way to the garage and I thought you two were probably thinking I was on my way, I just wanted to let you know I wasn't. Probably just should have left you waiting for another ten minutes until I could send you the whole explanation."

"Probably," Regina pouted.

After a rocky start, their little get-together went splendidly. They talked, laughed and drank a few drinks until their words became somewhat slurred.

After about an hour Mal and Regina had come back with another round of drinks only for Mal to steal Regina's spot, so the rest of the evening was spent with Robin and Mal cozying up to each other.

When Regina had seen Mal leaning into her husband's side, she felt a strange sense of calmness. No jealousy at all. Because all the while Robin had still smiled at her lovingly and she'd known there was nothing to be worried about if it came to his love for her. And aside from the touching of their sides and the occasional hands brushing, nothing happened.

Right now, they were sharing a cab home at 1am, feeling as though they could continue this night together for many more hours to come but knowing it was best if they did not stay too late or get too drunk. Who knows what their drunk selves would be up to?

Because of their decision to go out with each other and see if they all clicked before they went any further, having drunken sex after their first date was not the best idea. Plus, Regina wondered, how would they even go about it? She had no idea what it was like to be intimate with more than one person at a time. Now that she was really thinking about the logistics of having three people in the bedroom, she became quite nervous.

But she did not have long to fret about this because, squeezed on the backseat of the taxi as they were, Regina became quickly distracted from her nervousness. If it was not by Mal's hand in her own, it was by Robin's on her thigh or the heat radiating off both of them that she could feel even through their clothes.

"You should come and try it sometimes," Regina heard Mal say. "We'll have a little private party." Regina had no idea what she was talking about since she hadn't been listening to the conversation for the last few minutes.

"Try what?" She asked.

Mal chastised her for not listening to what she and Robin had been talking about and then said, "my jacuzzi. I have one at home."

"Wow," Regina responded.

"I totally agree. We should come and try it. I've always wanted to have one." Robin said.

Regina whipped her head to the side to look at Robin. "Since when? I have literally never heard you say that you want a jacuzzi."

Robin spluttered a bit for a few seconds and then said, "Since forever. Maybe I just forgot to tell you."

"Oh please, we have a normal tub but whenever we use that you can't keep it in your pants for more than five minutes. Getting a jacuzzi would be a waste." Regina rolled her eyes. Normally she wasn't one to speak freely of her sex life or anything related to it in public or with a stranger near, but after a few drinks her words flowed freely. She didn't even notice the taxi driver looking back at them through the rearview mirror.

Robin's eyes narrowed, "That's not true."

"Okay. Maybe ten minutes then. Tops."

Mal was just bemusedly listening to their exchange and watching the couple interact. She liked the more free lipped Regina she had been seeing all night.

"Anyways, I just think we should accept the offer and take a dip at Mal's place, since she so graciously offered."

Regina rolled her eyes again and laid her head on her husband's shoulder but laying it so she could look at Mal. "Apparently this one here gets real excited at the prospect of both of us in a bikini." She quipped.

"Oh dear," Mal said, "I don't usually wear bikini's while I'm bathing in my own home." She knew exactly what kind of image that conjured up in her companion's minds, and she grinned at their lack of answer. Their minds were most definitely in the gutter.

Their shared ride, unfortunately, came to an end when the taxi pulled up to Mifflin Street.

Robin and Regina got out of the car while Mal stayed in. "Do you want to come in? For a cup of coffee, maybe, to sober up a bit before you go to sleep?" Regina asked.

The whole reason for their going home 'early' was that they wanted to go slow and so, with great reluctance, Mal declined. She knew that if she went inside with those two right know, it would probably result in some action that would be classified as 'going too fast.'

Regina did lean in to press a quick kiss to the other woman's cheek, one Mal could still feel all the way home.

DOQDOQDOQ

The following day the three of them all spent their morning nursing a headache, hungover from the 'few' drinks they had.

"I never used to be this hungover," Regina complained while taking some medication for the headache. She'd woken up around nine, that being sleeping in for the brunette. Since she felt so miserable, she figured she'd wake Robin up as well so they could at least be miserable together.

"Well, you're getting older love, it was bound to happen sometime." Robin always had had hangovers, even from a young age and he was always envious when Regina would wake up, feeling fine, while he spent the whole day getting over the night before.

Regina threw him a murderous glance. "Do not call me old."

"I'm not calling you old. Just saying you're older." Robin stroked Regina's cheek with the back of his hand in a affectionate gesture and then went to grab some medication for himself.

"Well, you are too, dear." Regina watched Robin going about in the kitchen and mentally catalogued all the changes about her husband that had occurred over the years they'd been together. There were some laugh lines around his eyes that never used to be there, and quite a few grey hairs at his temples and in his stubble. She liked those changes, though. It reminded her of the time they'd spent together already and the promise of a lot more. There were so many more grey hairs and age lines to come.

"I know." He smirked as he closed the distance between them again, drawing her against him. "Not too old for you though, right?"

"Never," she put a lingering kiss to his lips and put her hands on his cheeks to caress the greyish stubble there before pulling away to begin making breakfast.

When they were both almost done eating, their phones pinged. Robin's from the kitchen island and Regina's from next to her on the breakfast table. She wiped her hands on her napkin and grabbed the phone. They both assumed they knew who was texting both of them. It was probably Mal in their newly made group chat.

'Good morning dears, how are you this morning? I know how I feel.' Mal had added a photo of herself holding her head with the hand that was not taking the picture. Clearly, she was not alcohol resistant either. Although apparently feeling just as bad as the two of them, Mal still managed to look beautiful.

Regina smirked and quickly snapped a photo of Robin with his bedhead and altogether hungover demeanor and sent it with a text of her own: 'Oh dear, that's not good. I'm afraid Robin's the same. I feel fine though, must be the younger genes ;)'

Robin snatched the phone from Regina's hands to see what was going on. When he saw what Regina had sent, he scoffed. Quickly he took a photo of her and sent that too. 'She has it just as bad as we do, Mal.'

When Regina saw Robin took a photo and was typing a message, she'd tried to get her phone back, in vain. Now that the message was already sent, Robin relented and gave the phone back to his wife.

'I'm happy to see both your faces this morning. Take care of each other while I can't. And play nice.'

Regina was originally planning on revenge after that photo that Robin had sent, but when she saw this sweet but playful message she stopped. A goofy smile crossed her face and she typed back: 'No promises. You take care of yourself, too, and I look forward to seeing you again on Monday.'

In the meantime, Robin wanted to know what was going on, too, and had gone into the kitchen to retrieve his own phone. He smiled at the text messages and suggested: 'Meet up again next weekend?'

Regina looked up from her phone when she saw Robin's message and raised a brow. "Eager to see the pretty blonde again?"

Robin just shrugged his shoulders and sat back down at the table to wait for a reply.

'You're on.'

"I guess we're going on another date," Regina said.

Robin looked at her and smiled. "I guess we are."