A/N: Here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed the first one xx


Emma just stood there for a few seconds, not really knowing what to do as she gaped at the two people seated beside her assigned seat. Her instincts told her to go back and to leave the plane immediately but there were people waiting behind her and also, she had to be on this flight if she was going to make it home for Christmas this year. She watched as the brunette from the Starbucks fastened her son's seatbelt.

"Mom I can do it myself." He complained.

"I know you can." The woman responded softly, and continued to fasten her own. Emma noticed that the brunette had undone her coat and placed it around her shoulders. Underneath she was wearing a red blouse and black dress pants. Emma felt underdressed in her own red pea coat, jacquard sweater and jeans.

"Excuse me there are people waiting behind you." An uptight, nasally female voice said from behind her.

Emma had to refrain from rolling her eyes at the middle aged woman. Couldn't anyone see that she was having an internal emotional crisis? "Sorry, I just wasn't sure if this was my seat." She lied.

The woman huffed, clearly not excepting the apology.

The talking drew the attention of the brunette seated in 5B. She had an expression of soft surprise on her face when she saw Emma, and Emma took it as a good sign that the woman did not seem disappointed.

Emma gave her an awkward smile and a shrug before lifting her suitcase into the overhead container and placing it beside a Luis Vuitton. With that Emma edged past the middle-aged lady who was standing much too close behind her and squeezed into her row. Emma flopped down beside the brunette a lot less gracefully than she had intended, further adding to her shame from earlier. She couldn't turn her head, she couldn't look at the brunette, but she could feel the other woman's eyes on her.

"And so we meet again." The woman said smoothly, with a hint of amusement.

"Yeah, hey." Emma tried to be normal, finally forcing herself to look at the woman again.

The brunette's smile was dazzling, and Emma actually found herself comforted by it. She didn't know what it was about this woman that had her acting like such a freak all of a sudden but Emma knew it was time to get her shit together.

The brunette held out her hand. "What's your name?"

Emma looked down at the woman's perfectly manicured hand before taking it gently into her own. "Emma." Oh god her hands are so soft. Emma said to herself.

"Emma..." The brunette repeated with a graceful incline of her head. She pressed her lips together as though tasting the name. "It's nice to meet you Emma. I'm Regina, and this is Henry." She said, turning to introduce her son.

"Hey again," Emma returned the young boy's smile. Henry was already halfway through the juice she had given up for him. She was glad to see that he was enjoying it more than she probably would have anyway.

The three settled back into their seats and Emma did up her own seatbelt and allowed herself to relax. She sipped at her coffee, which for some reason tasted even better than usual. Perhaps the brewers were just exceeding expectations today, or maybe it was something to do with the fact that Regina had bought it for her.

Regina. What a beautiful name, Emma thought. She looked sideways at the brunette, who had an iPad sitting on her lap but which remained unopened.

"Thanks again, for the coffee and stuff." Emma raised her cup a little in indication. "You really didn't have to do that."

Regina turned her head again. "But I wanted to. You did something nice for Henry, I thought it would be nice to return the favor." She nodded towards the coffee. "How does it taste?"

Emma sighed gratefully. "Amazing. Completely hit the spot. I was kind of having a shitty day and then – oh." Emma placed a hand over her mouth as she glanced at Henry. "Sorry, I was having a... a not so good day. But meeting you guys made it better. I mean you did." Emma could smack herself. "I mean your coffee di – I mean. The coffee. You bought me... made my day better." Emma was screaming internally.

Awkward and awkwarder.

Regina laughed, her eyes twinkling. "I'm glad to hear it."

And now Emma was blushing again. Regina's laugh was like music. She took a somewhat too big gulp of her hot coffee and now there were tears in her eyes as well. Oh my god pull yourself together Swan.

Emma lucked out when Regina's attention was taken by Henry as he showed her something outside of the window. Emma used the time to straighten herself out. When she was a passenger on a flight this was generally around the time when she would put her headphones in, but she already had a feeling that this trip was going to be different. She found herself watching Regina out of the corner of her eye. Emma had never seen anyone like her before. She was beautiful, elegant, friendly, she was clearly really good with her son... Emma had to look away as Regina turned towards her again. She didn't want to be caught staring. Emma leaned her head back against her seat, actively avoiding looking sideways.


Once they had taken off, Emma considered putting her headphones in after all, but as she was searching her phone for some music to listen to Regina's voice intercepted her.

"So... are you from California or are you heading home for the holidays?"

"What?" Emma lifted her head up again. "Oh... both actually."

Regina raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"I'm currently based out of California but my parents are actually from Charleston South Carolina. I'm going to see them for the holidays."

"Oh that'll be nice." Regina smiled.

"Yeah. It's been a few years since I've gone. Usually around Christmas I'm working and I can't get the time off. It's been nice though, I've been able to spend Christmas all over the world these past few years."

"You travel the world for your job?" Henry's voice asked, suddenly interested. "What do you do?"

"I'm a flight attendant actually. With a different airline. I was supposed to fly with them today but with all the cancellations and delays and stuff I ended up getting bumped. I had a heck of a time trying to find a replacement flight let me tell you."

"You got bumped from your own airline?" Henry asked with a frown.

"I know! The nerve right?!" Emma feigned anger with a smile. "We get to fly for free whenever there are seats available but another passenger needed my seat. I was lucky to find this one. It seems this was the last available seat on any flight going over to the east coast today. What about you guys? Are you from the Boston area?"

"We live in Maine," Regina responded with a small nod.

"Oh nice! It's beautiful there. Were you visiting family here for Christmas?"

Regina shook her head, giving a slight amicable shrug. "Not unless you count Snow White and Mickey Mouse as family. Although I'm sure Henry would love it if that were true." At Emma's confused look Regina laughed. "We went to Disneyland." She explained.

"Ohhh nice! How was that?" Emma asked Henry.

"Amazing! It's smaller than Disney World but I liked it a lot. The rides were different here too, neither park is really better than the other they're just... different."

"What was your favorite ride here?" Emma asked, leaning her elbows forward onto her legs to get a better view of him around his mother.

"Umm..." Henry thought. "I guess Pirates of the Caribbean. Or the Big Thunder Mountain. Maybe Space Mountain."

Emma grinned. "Well it definitely sounds like you had a great time! Did you go on all of the rides too?" Emma asked Regina, not being able to imagine this classy, well-dressed woman spinning around in a teacup.

"Of course I did," Regina responded a little proudly. "Henry couldn't very well go on the rides alone now could he?"

For some reason that comment had Emma feeling the warm and fuzzies inside. "What ride was your favorite?"

Regina's brow furrowed in thought and her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "I don't think I have a favorite."

"She liked the Haunted Mansion." Henry answered for his mother.

Regina smiled at him, giving a sigh. "I suppose I did like the mansion, but there were quite a few really good ones. I'm not much of a ride person though to be honest. I much preferred the Christmas shows and the fireworks... The music, the restaurants, that sort of thing. I just find that the ambiance in the parks around the holidays is just so festive and uplifting."

"Yeah Disney really knows how to do Christmas." Emma agreed. "That's something else I haven't done in a really long time."

"You should go," Regina commented softly, "it'll bring out the Christmas spirit in anyone."

"You guys didn't want to stay for Christmas Day?" Emma asked.

"Oh no," Regina responded with a small wave of her hand. "It would be far too busy and besides, we like to be home for the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth don't we?" She asked her son, who nodded in agreement. "Our town also has a lot of festive events in the days leading up to Christmas and we would hate to miss them all."

"Oh nice. Events like what?" Emma asked in genuine interest.

"We have a holiday celebration in the square every year, there are lots of treats and hot chocolate and all the kids can meet Santa. There's some carolling, games, that sort of thing. Sometimes we have Gingerbread house competitions at the town hall, a Christmas dance... it's all really nice. It brings the whole town together and it's like spending the holidays with one big family."

"That does sound nice." Emma said in longing. "I haven't had a Christmassy Christmas like that in well, forever. My parents did well in the gift-giving department, but they were always so busy with work that we didn't really have time to do that many holiday events."

"You should come to our town!" Henry said in excitement. "It's called Storybrooke and you would love it. There's carolling and ice skating and hot chocolate and cookies and snow ball fights...you would love it!" He repeated.

"It certainly does sound festive. I usually just spend Christmas lounging on a beach or at a hotel or something."

"A hotel? That's not how you should spend Christmas. Come to Storybrooke with us!"

"Henry," Regina's voice scolded. "Emma has her own traditions, and she has her own plans for this year. Just because her Christmases aren't like yours does not mean that she doesn't enjoy them. Don't be rude."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Emma said kindly. "Your town certainly does sound like a nice place to spend Christmas and I really do appreciate the invite. Your mom's right though, I can't come. I have to get to Charleston to see my parents remember? Thank you so much for the offer though. It was really sweet of you." Emma winked. Kids were great, she loved that he didn't think it weird at all to invite a complete stranger home for Christmas. All he wanted was to spread the Christmas spirit.

Henry smiled, going back to looking out the window.

"I am glad you were able to get a flight today." Regina changed the subject. "It would have been a shame if you couldn't get home. Henry and I had a bit of a difficult time as well. Our original flight was out of John Wayne but most of the flights to Boston were cancelled from that airport. Our flight was actually cancelled last night. When I saw a direct flight to Boston from LAX I jumped on it. I hadn't even heard of Ajira airlines before now."

"I didn't really know much about it either to be honest. It's nice though," Emma said, looking around the airplane.

"What airline do you fly with? Oh... if that's not too personal."

"It's not. I work at Oceanic. It's a pretty nice company I think. We fly all over the world so I've been able to see a lot of places for free. I like working with them a lot but I have to admit I am a little peeved with them today."

"Oceanic? What a coincidence, our original flight was with them too." Regina responded.

"So they gave us both the boot." Emma said with an eye roll, causing the brunette to give a small laugh and a nod.

"So it would seem. Isn't it funny how we ended up sitting side by side?"

"Yeah, it's actually weird that these three seats were available. Usually it's just middle seats or the back of the plane that's left... I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found this flight. I swear Ajira Airlines is my fairy godmother."

"Either that or we have a little Christmas magic to thank." Regina said with a smile.

Emma grinned at that, holding the brunette's gaze for a few beats. "You know, I think a little Christmas magic is exactly what brought us here."


A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think so far! I don't have much more written yet but if you like the story I'll continue working on it! Take care xx