A/N: This is part two to Letters of Note, which I recommend reading (or at least skimming) before reading this for context. This website doesn't let me include links, but you can find it on my list of works (near the bottom - it's from 2013).

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Chapter one

When Regina pulled back from the kiss, Emma's eyes were still open. She was watching her in a strange way – not quite shocked, but more curious, like she hadn't expected Regina to actually go through with it. Now that she had, she wasn't sure how to respond.

Regina herself was feeling slightly confused. As much as she'd tried to push it aside, she'd been thinking about kissing Emma for months. Any time they'd found themselves alone in a room together – battling about town policy over Regina's desk, or sniping about Henry on the path leading up to her house – she'd found herself overcome with a perverse urge to grab the front of Emma's too-tight shirt and tug her in for a kiss that left her reeling. She could almost picture it – Emma's flustered, slightly annoyed face, and the way that her sharp words would suddenly vanish from her like the wind being taken out of her sails. Regina had longed to try it, just once.

This hadn't exactly been what she'd expected.

The kiss had been closed-lipped and tentative, and it had ended because there was no way to move it forward. Regina had felt how rigid and uncertain Emma's body was even without putting her hands on it. The second their lips had met, she'd wondered if she was doing the right thing – Emma hadn't exactly demanded it, nor did she look particularly thrilled now that it was over. Instead, she was watching Regina with her forehead furrowed and her teeth digging into her freshly kissed bottom lip. Eventually, Regina had to be the one to break the silence.

"Was that okay?"

Emma's cheeks instantly turned pink. She stepped back.

"Yeah," she said, glancing away. "Yeah, of course."

Regina frowned. "Are you sure? You don't look very pleased."

She was forced to watch as Emma's face turned even redder. She took another step back, her right hand unconsciously drifting up to graze over her lips. Regina waited for the inevitable.

Instead, she was shocked when Emma blurted out, "I'd never thought about you like this before."

"Oh. Okay."

"I mean, I knew something was up," Emma continued, her index finger still dancing against the corner of her mouth. "I knew I should want to kill you and I didn't, which was weird all by itself, but I didn't think... I didn't think it meant this. But then I started getting those letters and at first I just assumed someone was messing with me, but the more I read them, the more confused I got. I mean, you're Regina, right?"

Regina blinked. "Right."

"Right," Emma repeated. "And as far as I was aware, you weren't even capable of having feelings. But the letters sounded so much like you and you were so confused and sad and they just made me confused too. I started wanting to get them and to find out more about you and how you felt about me. And then before I knew it you were here and they were over and I—"

She suddenly realised she was rambling and ground to a halt. Regina was watching her with her eyebrows raised and her hands clasped in front of her like she didn't trust herself not to reach out and do something reckless with them.

Emma swallowed and tried again at a slightly slower pace.

"I've known for a really long time that I didn't hate you the way I probably should," she said, relieved that Regina didn't look offended by that. "And I knew that whenever you showed up in the sheriff station or appeared at Granny's just to yell at me, I was always kind of glad to see you. I liked arguing with you. I liked seeing you get all mad at me. And I liked... I liked knowing you were thinking about me, even if it was just because you wanted to choke me a little bit."

Regina felt like she should interrupt there and correct her, but she didn't.

She watched Emma give her a little nod before she continued. "I think I just need to get my head together a bit. Is that okay?"

"Of course. You can take all the time you need."

"Cool. Thanks. And..." Emma swallowed. "Once I've had some time to think, maybe we can have a proper conversation about this? Just the two of us. Privately."

Heat surged through Regina's body like the building had gone up in flames. "Absolutely. Let me know when you're ready and I'll find a way to get rid of Henry for the night."

Emma automatically rolled her eyes. "God. That kid is such a menace."

"I'm going to make sure he's punished for this for a very, very long time. Don't worry."

There was a beat, and then at the exact same moment, they both smiled. It was the first time they'd ever shared one together. Just the sight of Regina tentatively beaming at her made Emma's fingers go prickly, and she swallowed hard so that her own smile didn't accidentally turn into relieved tears.

"I guess I'll head off," Regina said eventually. Emma was still only a few feet away and every part of her wanted to step forward and try that kiss again. She wanted to know what it felt like when Emma melted into her and sighed happily into her open mouth. She wanted to feel those soft blonde curls with her own hands and know what noises Emma made when they got gathered up and yanked backward.

Emma watched the way her body twitched, and she knew what she was thinking. Part of her wanted it too. Their kiss had been short and unsure, and although she had no idea what was going to happen next, she already wanted to experience something more than that. She'd felt just from the pillowy softness of Regina's lips, and from the slight break in pressure where the scar on her mouth cut into the picture, that Regina had the capacity to completely undo her. She was terrified of that – and yet, she wasn't. Not at all.

When Regina half reached out, then hesitated and pulled back, Emma wanted to cry. But instead she nodded, knowing that was probably the smartest move for now, and watched as Regina walked away.

Henry had spent the entire day vibrating in his chair. At lunchtime, he'd even sought out the only payphone at school to try and call his mom to find out whether she was okay. It had rung out, and he'd been forced to spend his afternoon not listening to a word Miss Blanchard was saying, and then getting bitterly reprimanded whenever she noticed.

He ran back from the bus stop and threw open the front door. Normally, Regina didn't get home until six. That day, at not even four, she was sitting at the dining room table waiting for him.

Henry tossed his backpack to the floor and barrelled toward her, only noticing her expression when he was a few feet away. Her arms were folded on the table and her spine was rigid. He hesitated before sitting down opposite.

What he didn't know was that beneath her steely expression, Regina was still shaking from what had happened that morning. She'd had the whole day to replay the entire incident in her head, which meant she'd been shooting back and forth between feeling stupid, relieved, angry and panicked for the past seven hours.

But she didn't have a chance to tell him that, because the second he was seated, he opened his mouth.

"Mom, I'm sorry," he blurted out. "I was mad at you and about my book and I thought Emma would want to know, so I just did it and I didn't think about you and I didn't know you'd be upset. I didn't mean to make you look bad or anything."

"Henry—"

"And I thought Emma would be happy! Was she? Did you talk?" In the same breath, he continued, "I can go and talk to her, if you like. I don't mind. I can say it was a joke or that we were playing a prank on her. Then she'll be mad at me and not you."

Regina sighed. "Henry..."

"And for what it's worth, I actually liked what you said in those letters. I always thought you hated her and when I realised that you don't, it made so much sense. I think you would be really good together, and it would be so cool if we could all go out together as a family and you wouldn't be fighting anymore or arguing about whose son I am, and—"

"I think you're getting a bit carried away," Regina finally managed to interrupt him. "Also, please don't even remind me that you read what I wrote ever, ever again."

"Why not?"

Regina glared at him. "Because it's humiliating, Henry."

"Why?"

"Because it's—" Regina cut herself off with a wave. "I'm not getting into it. The point is, you're in big trouble. We need to talk about your respect for other people's personal property and where the boundaries lie."

After a long pause, Henry tentatively pointed out, "But this only started because you took my personal property."

Scowling at the fact that he was making a perfectly valid point, Regina said, "You know you shouldn't have sent them to Emma."

"Yeah, I do. And I really am sorry. I just thought... she'd probably want to know, and it might help you both. You know, eventually."

He did look like he was sorry – his hair was a fluffy mess, which Regina knew meant he'd been digging his fists in it all day, and his hazel eyes were much wider and glassier than usual. He was watching her pleadingly, not like he was scared of her blowing up at him, but like he was worried she was actually hurt by what he'd done. She wasn't sure he'd ever looked at her like that before.

She sighed and reached across the table. He grabbed her hand immediately.

"I know you thought you were trying to help," she said slowly, "and I forgive you. But you're still going to get punished, because you did something really, really bad."

Henry nodded solemnly. "I know."

"And you're never going to do it again, are you?"

"Not unless you have any more letters hidden somewhere," he replied, risking a grin. Regina rolled her eyes.

"If I did this morning, they'd all be in the fire by now."

Relief made Henry's entire body sink. The rage on his mother's face had faded now – instead, she just looked tired.

"So," he said slowly, still holding onto her cold hand. "What did she say?"

He wasn't entirely surprised when Regina looked flatly back at him. "Excuse me?"

"Emma. What did she say about the letters?"

"Henry, do you seriously think I'm going to share that with you?"

"Why not?! I want to know!"

Regina released his hand so that she could reach across the table and tap his nose. "I'm aware that you do. But, as with everything else that's happened, this is absolutely none of your business."

He scowled back at her. "Was she mad at you?"

"Henry."

"Or was she happy? I bet she was."

Just like that, Regina was thinking of how it had felt to have her lips pressed against Emma's, even just for a few seconds. It had made her go warm all over. Even the confused, slightly panicked expression on Emma's face had been soft and comforting, because anxiousness was so much better than the rejection she'd been expecting. Emma had wanted to explain, wanted to talk, and wanted to work through this together. That was far more than she'd allowed herself to hope for.

She knew her cheeks were going red long before Henry grinned and pointed at them. "She was! I knew it!"

"Henry."

"What did she say? Are you going to go out? Did you kiss?"

"Henry."

"I can't wait to talk to her about this! It's so—"

"You are absolutely not going to talk to anyone about this," Regina snapped. "Don't you think you've interfered enough?"

"But it worked!"

"That is not the point! You meddled in something that had nothing to do with you, and now I'm having to clean up your mess. Now, I need you to promise me you won't go badgering Emma for information when she's already got enough on her plate."

Her son threw her his most pleading look, but she was immune to them by then. Eventually, he gave up. "Fine."

"Good. And, just so you're aware, at some point Emma and I will be discussing this further. But," she continued quickly when Henry's face lit up again, "only to work out exactly what this means and what needs to be done about our interfering child. It's as simple as that, and I don't want you to start mentioning it at every possible opportunity just because you've gotten yourself overexcited. Understand?"

As expected, Henry completely ignored her. "This will be so great! Is she going to come round for dinner? You should cook that pasta you made last week – the spaghetti thing with the chicken? She'd like that a lot."

Admitting defeat, Regina collapsed back in her seat with a groan.

"And dessert too, obviously. Emma loves chocolate. Whenever she takes me for ice cream, she always gets rocky road. Could you make something like that?"

"Please, can you stop?" Regina asked weakly.

"And while you're cooking I can show her our photo albums so she can see how cute I was as a baby, and how good you were at—"

"What?" Regina interrupted bluntly. "Henry, there is absolutely no way you're invited to this."

"Why not?!"

"Because it's your fault we need to have a serious, grown-up talk in the first place, and neither of us need you there sniffing around and making things even worse."

Henry pouted at her. "But I'll be good."

"All you've shown me recently is that you're incapable of being good," Regina said, reaching out and ruffling his hair. "Besides, you're being punished. I've already spoken to Granny and she's agreed to babysit for the night."

"Granny?" Henry demanded. "Why not Kathryn? Or Ruby?"

"There's that punishment thing we keep talking about," Regina said cheerily. "Part two is about to show up, as well."

"What's that?" Henry asked sulkily.

"An apology letter," she said, "for Emma. I've left some paper and pens on your table upstairs. Once you've finished your homework, you're going to sit down and write a letter to her saying sorry for getting involved and sticking your little nose in where it wasn't welcome. And I'll be checking it once it's done, so don't get any clever ideas about mentioning her coming over."

"Mom," he whined. "What's writing an apology going to do?"

"Well – since you're so interested in other people's letters, I thought it would be good for you to get some practice at writing your own," she said. "Now, you'd better hop to it if you want to get it finished before dinner. And no, you're not getting dessert anymore, so don't even ask."