A/N: Wednesday updates are back!
A smile spread slowly across Regina's face the following morning as the memories of the previous night returned. Her fingers trailed across her lips, as if trying to recall exactly how it felt to kiss Emma. Magical, frankly. Or miraculous. After all, who would have thought the two women would have not only found one another again but started to … what? Were they dating? Were they in a relationship? Were they exclusive? It was only then that Regina realised she and Emma hadn't defined what they were.
Perhaps it was too early for all of that anyway. There was still a long way to go for both women before any sort of 'real' relationship would be possible. Regina had to deal with the breakdown of her abusive marriage. And Emma had to deal with the fact that Regina had bullied her for two years.
The happiness which had consumed her since the moment she woke up faded slightly as the memories of guilt washed over her. How was this ever going to work? She thought to herself. How was Emma ever going to forgive her? Or even get to a place where she could move on? But, that said, judging by the previous night, Emma was already moving on. It had been the blonde who had initiated their kiss, it had been the blonde who had wanted to take that step. Maybe Emma was further along the path to dealing with the past than Regina. Maybe it was Regina who needed to address their history.
"Mom, I'm hungry."
Rolling onto her side, Regina smiled at her son who was sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Hair stuck up at random angles and Regina made a mental note to make an appointment with a local barber as soon as possible.
"Breakfast time, my little prince?" Regina asked, throwing back the covers and swinging her legs out of bed.
"Can I have fruit loops?"
"Do we have any?" Regina asked. "I thought I bought cornflakes."
"Cornflakes are boring. Emma has fruit loops in the cupboard. Can I have some?"
"If you have a piece of fruit as well, sure." Regina had been giving into most of her son's demands since they arrived at the shelter, but now she was starting to reinforce some basic rules, including healthy eating. Good parenting was not only about ensuring her child was safe from his abusive father but also that he was getting enough nutrition too.
"But there's fruit in fruit loops. That's why they're called fruit loops," Henry argued, himself now climbing out of bed and following Regina in pulling on his dressing gown, fumbling the tie together around his belly.
"I can promise you that no fruit loop has ever seen a real live apple," Regina said as she led the way out of their room and towards the common area. "One bowl of fruit loops and one piece of fruit, do we have a deal?"
"Fine," Henry huffed. "Can I have chocolate milk?"
"Regular milk," Regina replied. "You'll have sweet milk left at the bottom of your bowl as it is."
"No fair," Henry pouted. "Dad would have let me have chocolate fruit loops and no apple."
"Yes, well, Dad isn't here, is he?"
Regina spoke without thinking, her brain sluggish without its coffee. Henry however was wide awake and jumped on the opening at once. It wasn't that he had been consciously avoiding bringing up his absent parent but what with starting a new school and making lots of new friends, it had quite slipped his mind until his mother mentioned his father.
"When can I see Dad?"
Before she answered, Regina helped Henry up to sit on one of the bar stools beside the kitchen island so he could watch her prepare their breakfast. The act also bought her a little time to try and cobble together some semblance of an answer.
"I don't know," Regina admitted. "Things with me and your dad are a little complicated right now. Do you remember the conversation we had in the park last weekend?"
"About Dad hitting me? And how he hit you too?"
Regina nodded. "Yes. Well, I don't want to see your father because of what happened which means it might be a while before you see him too. We'll need to make sure he knows that what he did to us is not ok and he's going to need to promise to never do it again. I don't want to keep you from him forever. He's your dad and he should be in your life. But what's really important first is that you and I are going to set up a new life here and make sure we're safe and happy. Maybe then we can talk about setting up a time to meet your dad."
"How long will that be?"
"I don't know," Regina sighed as she poured fruit loops from the pack she had found in the cupboard into a bowl. "A few months?"
"And then we'll move back home?"
"No," Regina said. "New York is going to be our home now. You like your new school, right?"
"Yeah," Henry enthused, bouncing up and down in his seat. "And Roland is my new best friend. So if we stay here, we can be best friends forever, right?"
"Absolutely," Regina nodded, latching onto the positive which Henry seemed to have identified about their new location. "So what's going to happen now is I'm going to start looking for a job. And then we'll be able to look for an apartment."
"So I can paint my own room like Emma said?"
"Maybe," Regina replied. "But wherever we end up living, I'll try to make sure it's really close to your new school so you can stay there and keep learning with Roland."
"Ok," Henry said, appearing to be satisfied with the conversation. Or perhaps he was just distracted by the bowl of colourful cereal which had appeared in front of him. Either way, the boy was silenced as a mounded spoon was stuffed into his mouth.
Regina set about brewing some coffee and making a bowl of fruit for herself. Just as she was spooning some yoghurt onto the top and adding a sprinkle of granola, Kathryn sidled up beside her, Emily perched on her hip as usual. At the long dining table, Amy and Rose were already squabbling over something.
"Morning," she yawned. "How was your evening?"
"Um, fine, good, you know, just normal," Regina garbled. "How was yours?"
"Well, it was pretty boring after you left. But then Amy had a nightmare, so I spent about half an hour trying to settle her again. What did Emma want last night?"
Taking a page out of her son's book, Regina shoved a huge spoonful of her breakfast into her mouth, trying to buy herself some time to formulate an answer which would satisfy the curious blonde without getting Emma into trouble.
"We were just talking," Regina said after she had swallowed her mouthful. "You know, about my future plans."
"Weird time for a counselling session," Kathryn remarked.
"Busy week," Regina shrugged. "What are your plans for the day?"
"Meeting my dad again. He's taking us out for lunch. I think he's going to offer to set us up with a house again."
"That would be very generous of him," Regina said.
"I don't want to be indebted to anyone," Kathryn replied stiffly. "I want to make my own way in the world for me and my kids."
"Yeah but this is your dad. It's not like being dependent on a husband." Regina and Kathryn had exchanged a brief overview of the relationships which had led to them being in Swan's Shelter. Kathryn's ex had been a big shot businessman and had used his wealth to control his wife even more than Leo had. But the blonde also came from money and her father had already offered to buy a property for his daughter after the marriage broke down.
Kathryn just pursed her lips however, clearly resistant to the idea that she needed anyone to provide for her children. While Regina understood that, she also knew that if her father was around to support her, she would gladly accept his assistance. She stared into her mug of coffee, sadness suddenly crawling into her very bones at the memory of her deceased parents.
"Hey, you ok?" Kathryn asked, noticing the change which had come over her friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Is it your ribs?" Kathryn had also become privy to the last injury Regina had sustained from her husband after the blonde caught the wince of pain as Regina reached for a high shelf earlier in the week.
"No, they're fine. Almost healed, actually. I was just thinking about my parents."
"Are they back in Maine?"
"In a manner of speaking," Regina nodded. "They died four years ago. Road accident."
"Oh, Regina, I'm so sorry," Kathryn gushed, reaching out to pat Regina's arm. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's fine," Regina sniffed, forcing herself not to cry. She wasn't afraid of her own emotions but she did want to keep herself in check as much as possible in front of her son who was now tipping his bowl to dry and drink the stained, sweet milk which remained at the bottom.
"No, it's not fine. I'm sorry I was so insensitive."
Regina shook her head and tried to curl her lips into a smile for her friend. "You didn't know. It's ok."
"Yeah but still. Foot in mouth, right? I need to actually start thinking before I speak."
"Don't we all?"
Regina and Kathryn whipped around to see Emma standing behind them, smiling slightly. As Kathryn greeted the counsellor and enquired what she meant by the comment, Regina's eyes drifted leisurely down Emma's body. The blonde was wearing her usual white shirt and black slacks but suddenly the curves beneath the clothes appeared more pronounced. Perhaps it was because you had your hands on them twelve hours earlier, Regina's mind supplied just as a prod in the arm from Kathryn jolted her back into the conversation.
"What?" she asked, turning away from Emma and looking back at her friend.
"Emma was just saying her autism makes her speak before she thinks too but I don't agree. In my experience, Emma's always given very measured responses, don't you think?"
"Um, yes," Regina nodded. "Measured. Very much so. You always know the right thing to say," she added, raising her gaze back to Emma's to find the blonde smiling at her.
"Thank you. I'm working on it," Emma said, rounding the kitchen island and moving to wash up her travel coffee cup which had held that morning's drink. "What have you two ladies got planned for today?"
Kathryn filled Emma in on her plans as Regina focused on Henry who'd managed to dribble milk all down his front and now needed to get dressed, his pyjamas destined for the laundry hamper.
"And you, Regina?" Emma asked just as the brunette climbed down from her stool and helped Henry off too.
"No plans," Regina replied. "I'll probably just hang around here. Henry's got big playdate plans with Roland."
"We're going to build Lego!" the boy announced, tuning in only when he heard his name. "Emma, can you join us and play Lego too?"
"Maybe later," Emma laughed. "I've got work to do first. In fact, Regina, if you're not busy, would you be able to come to my office once you and Henry are ready for the day," the unspoken words 'once you're dressed', made Regina pull her dressing gown closer around herself, "and we can have a quick meeting."
A sparkle in Emma's eyes which Regina recognise from the night before told the brunette what sort of meeting Emma was alluding to. Considering she had been pondering herself how she and Emma were going to manage to spend any time together, Regina was relieved at the blonde's suggestion.
"Of course," she nodded. "I'll come down at about ten."
"Great," Emma smiled before picking up her now clean coffee cup and leaving the common room.
The knock on the office door drew Emma's attention away from proofreading the finalised grant application. Her brain breathed a sigh of relief at the excuse to stop staring at the screen for a moment. "Come in," she called.
Mulan's head appeared around the edge of the frame. "Regina to meet with you," she announced.
Emma nodded her consent and closed the lid of her laptop just as the brunette entered the room, the door shutting behind her as Emma's staff returned to the front desk.
"Hello," Regina said, suddenly shy despite feeling excited about meeting Emma since the moment the blonde had left the kitchen over an hour earlier.
"Hi," Emma replied, standing up from her chair and circling the desk. "I hope you don't mind me inviting you here. I wanted to see you."
"I wanted to see you too," Regina assured, allowing Emma to step right into her personal space as the blonde's hands landed on her hips.
Their lips met without another word, a gentle good morning kiss as if they'd been exchanging affections for years. Regina felt her body melt into the contact, leaning closer to Emma until their torsos were pressed together. Emma slid her hand around Regina's side, coming to rest in the small of the woman's back, feeling the dip of her spine as the woman curved into her own form.
Although the kiss didn't deepen, it didn't stop either and it was several minutes before they finally broke apart.
"Hi," Emma breathed, fingers brushing some stray hairs from Regina's forehead.
"You've already said that," Regina smirked.
"What can I say? You make it hard to think straight," Emma replied, placing another chaste kiss onto those irresistible lips before stepping back and gesturing for Regina to take a seat.
She did so, crossing her legs as Emma brought her own chair around, the pair resuming the same position as they had been in the evening before.
"So," Emma said, becoming unsure of her plan as soon as the initial goal, kissing Regina, was accomplished. Now she felt awkward. She had never been much good at dating. She knew how she felt and she had told Regina that the night before. What now? She had kissed her. That had been amazing. But what is the next step? What should she say? Emma felt her mind begin to panic but luckily Regina's simple reply grounded her before she lost control.
"So," Regina nodded.
"How did you sleep?" Emma asked, reverting to a question she often asked women who stayed at the shelter, knowing nightmares often plagued the dark hours. It was a simple question; safe. It showed she cared.
"Well, thank you. You?"
"I always sleep well. I used to be very restless as a kid but one of my therapists taught me a great technique for clearing the mind before I get into bed. Now I'm out like a light."
"Henry's like that too. Head on the pillow and he's gone. I've always been jealous of his capacity to sleep anywhere."
"How is Henry?" Yet another safe question. But not very date-like, Emma reminded herself. They appeared to have slipped back into counsellor and client mode. Was that a bad thing? Was this a date? Once again, Regina's answer pulled Emma's spiralling mind back to the present.
"Good," Regina smiled. "With school organised, I just need to start looking for a job and somewhere to live. I think he's going to be just fine."
"You're already thinking of looking for a job?" Emma asked. "You've only been here a week."
"Yeah and look how much has changed in that time," Regina pointed out.
Emma's forehead creased. "Is that a bad thing? Are you saying we've rushed this?"
"No," Regina replied at once. "I mean, it's not exactly been slow, but I have no regrets about what's happened between us. If I didn't think I could handle it, I would have stopped what happened last night. Actually, I think you're the one keeping me grounded, giving me something to focus on."
"What about Henry?"
"Of course, Henry too. But you, Emma, you've given me hope. You've reminded me that I can have a positive relationship with another adult, that I'm worthy of being in a relationship which is based on trust and mutual respect. I've just got to work on that mutual respect thing because right now, I feel like we're a little unbalanced."
"How so?"
"In the past, I mean," Regina clarified. "I respect you now, immensely. But I didn't when we were teenagers and I have to make up for that."
Emma wheeled her chair closer to Regina's and took the blonde's hands in her own. "You are respecting me," Emma said quietly. "The fact that you're acknowledging our past and trying to make things right tells me that. But can we not talk about Maine today? Can we just talk about the fact that I woke up with a smile on my face today because of you?"
"Really?"
"Truly."
"Me too."
A/N: I know, it went sappy.