Regina hesitated outside Granny's diner on Thursday afternoon. She was behind schedule as her meeting with the council ran over and she was craving her kale salad. Tonight she had a PTA meeting at Henry's school and she couldn't face the thought of going that long until dinner. She took a deep breath and pushed the doors open. Ruby rushed over and took her order chirpily.

"Haven't seen you around for a while Madam Mayor. You must be extra busy lately "

Regina scowled at her and pursed her lips. "Just the salad to go, Miss Lucas. I don't need the side of small talk."

Ruby narrowed her eyes and got a glint there. "Of course you don't. I'm sure you get plenty on the side." She smirked seeing the shocked look on the Mayor's face and skipped off to run the order through.

Regina was fuming. She took out her phone and angrily typed out a long winded message to Emma, then deleted it all in favor of the wolf emoji and a singular question mark.

She chucked her phone on the counter and seethed silently burning a hole in the waitresses back. Ruby caught her glaring and shot her a smug smile. She absolutely loved having one over on the Mayor and she intended to keep her on her toes.

Ruby could smell Emma all over the witch and it was not something she could put down to their connection with Henry. Even if she hadn't heard what had been said, she would have known what was going on. She was pissed at Emma for not telling her and also for implying she couldn't keep her mouth shut, but she was not above making the Mayor squirm.

Regina's phone pinged and she saw the message from Emma flash up on her screen. It was the poop face emoji followed by a donut and the praying hands. Regina's face scrunched up trying to decipher the unintelligible message when Ruby plopped the order down next to her. She eyeballed the phone and grinned. "It means, oh shit! Also, begging you to bring her a bear claw."

Regina hid her phone against her chest and fumed at Ruby. "How dare you! That is crossing some serious boundaries, Miss Lucas."

Ruby shrugged and tossed a couple of bearclaws in a take out bag. "Fine, whatever. I was just translating as you clearly don't read emoji. Here. On the house, peace offering. Tell her to stop avoiding me."

Regina was not going to give in that easily. "I have no idea what or whom you are referring to and I do not need your charity."

"Sure, you don't." Ruby growled and ran it through the til. "Fourteen bucks then, Madam Mayor, if you insist."

Regina banged a twenty down on the counter, her lips snarling and twitching just dying to put the woman back in her place. "Keep the change. Get yourself a new leash." She stormed out of the diner not sure if she was more annoyed at Emma or Ruby.

Ruby watched her go and felt a bit bad that Emma was gonna get the back end of that. What the hell was she doing getting involved with her on the first place?

She drummed her fingers on the counter debating with herself. It was none of her business and Emma clearly didn't want to share anything with her.

'Fuck it.'

Emma was still her friend. She typed out the incoming call emoji, a warning bell and the crown. She added the aubergine, flames and a question mark followed by the crazy face and hit send.

Well, at least she'd warned her.

Across town, Emma read the message and her face fell. What the hell had happened? She could handle Regina, but not Ruby. She ignored the second part of the message and sent a simple thumbs up and muscular arm. She'd deal with that bit after she'd spoken to Regina.

Heels clicked down the corridor and for the first time in weeks, Emma felt nervous and not in the good way. She hadn't seen her lover since Monday and was already on edge. Ruby's message had not done a thing to ease those nerves.

"Miss Swan, Detective." Regina stood over Emma's desk visibly annoyed and shot David a courtesy glare.

David knew something was off and went to stand by his daughter protectively. "How can we help, Regina?"

She forced a smile, realizing she could not have this conversation at present. "I am just here to bring those donuts the Sheriff couldn't seem to shut up about." Her words slurred and Emma knew she was getting blamed for Ruby figuring something out.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Well thank you kindly, Madam Mayor. It was a good job you were there to collect the order. What ever were you doing in the diner? I thought you hated the food."

Regina scowled at her. "I was running late and I am more so now, thanks to you."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well that serves you right then! Not my fault!"

David was about to say something but saw Regina's expression change to one of doubt. She sighed realizing Emma hadn't been the one to spill the beans and gave her an apologetic look. David had never seen her back down so quickly. "Apologies, Sheriff. I had a run in with someone on my way here. I don't mean to blame you for my bad humor."

Emma grinned and wanted to badly to tell her it would be okay. "No problem, Mayor."

Regina cleared her throat. "I believe Miss Lucas would like to see you. It seemed quite urgent."

Emma nodded. "Yup, she just text me. It's nothing urgent. She just wants a gossip."

"Hmm." Regina vocalized and looked down at the floor. David stepped away and busied himself with some papers. The two of them really were breaking down some of those barriers and he could see his fatherly presence was not needed. "I really am late now. I guess I won't be needing this." She slung the kale salad on the desk and was about to leave.

"Hey, sit down for a minute. You can wolf it down and let them wait. You are the mayor, after all. That's gotta have some perks!"

Regina's eyebrow quirked up. "Wolf it down, Miss Swan?" She took a seat opposite the sheriff and clicked the cheap plastic container open. Emma was right, she needed to eat something and the meeting really wasn't that important.

Emma grinned and opened the other bag laughing. "I can't believe you actually brought them. I was just kidding. Didn't think you'd even get it."

Regina shoved a large forkful of salad in her mouth and tried not to laugh. She chewed the contents quickly and swallowed. "Well, I had a translator on hand."

Emma's eyes widened realizing who must have seen the text flash up. They shared a small giggle and Emma showed her the message on her phone from Ruby.

David was watching the whole scene unfold out the corner of his eye.

Regina shook her head and shoveled another forkful in her mouth. "I understand three of those."

"First three?"

"Last three."

Emma's eyebrows wiggled. "Hmm, good to know."

Regina shook her head giving Emma the you just wait eyes. She glanced over just in time to see David pretending he wasn't watching them. "So, I hear you have the day off tomorrow, Detective. Any plans?"

David reddened knowing he was caught out. Emma realized that was Regina's way of making her behave herself and shut up. "Yup. Camping trip. Back on Sunday bright and early."

Regina smiled politely. "How nice for you both. I hope you have good weather." she finished her salad and realized she was still hungry. She licked her lips feeling her mouth water at the sight of Emma's bear claw. Emma seemed to read her mind.

"You know I can't eat two of these. Here." She shoved the sugary treat against the Mayor's lips and smirked. "You gotta eat it now. We don't want your Mayor cooties, do we Dad?"

David chuckled heartily. "Oh, definitely not!"

Regina snatched the bear claw and licked the sugar off her lips. It was heaven. "Well it would be a shame to waste it." She took a large bite and felt much better than she had done all day.

"Gotta keep that energy up. So, PTA tonight? Want me to come?"

Regina looked at her like she'd gone mad. "Do you really want to come? That's the kind of torture even I draw the line at."

Emma laughed again. "Well, then I won't make you suffer it alone. I'll pick you up from the office at six."

Regina shook her head and swallowed down the last bit of bear claw. "Na, ah. We'll take my car. Leave yours here. I'll drop you home after." She stood up and almost leant in for a kiss. Emma was sure that is what she was going to do and her heart pounded in her chest. Regina grabbed the empty packaging and smirked as she threw it in the trash next to Emma on her side of the desk. "See you at six, Miss Swan. Bye David."

Emma let out a breath once the mayor left the station. David felt uneasy all of a sudden, seeing just how different Regina was with his daughter. He really needed to get Snow to tamp it down a bit. They were clearly just as close as Ruby and Snow were. Perhaps he should remind Snow of that little fact. Her, a young princess befriending the big bad wolf. He hummed to himself with a nostalgic grin on his face. Sometimes Emma was so much like her mother.

Emma looked over to see what he was going to say. "Everything okay, Dad?"

"Yeah, just reminiscing."

Emma looked back down and focused on her current task of ticking boxes, her eyebrows wiggling. That went a lot better than she thought it would and she congratulated herself on containing her horn in front of her father. Maybe she could do this.

Her phone pinged again and the skull and crossbones emoji flashed up with a question mark. She laughed and then whined. She sent back the gold medal and trophy icons and hoped that would be enough. She knew it wouldn't. Her phone buzzed again with an incoming call.

"Hey Ruby. Granny's gonna flip if she see's you on the phone."

"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm still mad at you though. I'm just glad you aren't dead."

"I'm actually swamped right now. Can we catch up next week?"

"Em, please stop avoiding me. I miss you! Look, I heard you both talking outside the diner the other day, plus I could smell you all over her. You don't need to lie to me and you don't need to worry about me telling anyone, okay. I swear, it's none of my business who you're banging, but please!! Let me at least talk to you about it! I'm going crazy! I just poked the evil queen for God's sake!"

Emma groaned down the receiver. "Okay. Give me twenty minutes and I'll be there. Just, stop poking shit please!"

"I promise! Okloveyabye!"

Emma groaned again and banged her head on the desk. It wasn't fair. She didn't want anyone else knowing about this. Not even Ruby. She was really enjoying sneaking around and having secret meetings with her queen.

"You okay, Em?"

She forgot her Dad was sat at the desk behind. She had no damn privacy in this town. Not a single moment to herself. Even her phone calls were public affairs, or at least, that's how it felt. She couldn't even take a shower in peace these days.

"It's fine. It's just Ruby stuff. I gotta go be the savior. Again."

She got to Granny's looking less than pleased to see her friend. Ruby spotted her and shouted to Granny she was taking a break. The lunch rush was over. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing too bad. I just snarked back about her choice in side dishes. Then I read your message over her shoulder."

"Ah, Ruby! You are the worst! Seriously, this is why I didn't tell you." Emma huffed as they sat on the bench a little way down from the diner.

"I'm sorry. Did she end it?"

Emma smiled. "No, thankfully she didn't. I would not be talking to you right now if she had. Ugh this is mess. I'd have thought you of all people would get how hard it is not having any privacy in this town."

"Look Em, I get it. She's hot, she's available, why not? But, she's a lot of drama. I'm just worried about you. You know what her reputation is like in the S E X department. She's bad news."

"Well, you know, maybe I'm bad news too. Look, outside of Storybrook, you give people a shot. It doesn't matter what they were like with their exes, or even whether or not they're the one. We date. we get to know each other without all the baggage, at least not so early on. We need time. I need time for that."

Ruby nodded and put an arm around Emma's shoulder. "I get it. I am not judging you and I know exactly how complicated it is. But I know you Emma. You wouldn't even be entertaining the thought if there wasn't something there. You're in for a shit storm and I'm taking about your Mom, not the Mayor."

"Exactly. Can't we just have a few weeks of fun before making this a thing that we have to justify to literally everyone?"

Ruby nodded. "Okay. So tell me how that happened. Who made the first move?"

Emma laughed. "Me, of course."

"Called it. Kinky? Gotta be kinky."

"I'm not talking about that with you."

"Oh come on! You've seen my erotica! Nothing phases me."

"Exactly! Think I'm gonna spill all the juicy details just for you to write it down and make a dime off our asses?"

Ruby howled with laughter. "Oh, honey, you just answered my question! Now you've got my imagination running wild about all those outfits she's got hidden in her closet."

Emma smacked her playfullly. "Hey! That's my girlfriend your imagining! Stop it!"

"Ooh, so you are just as possessive as her! Did not call that one."

"Ruby, please?" Emma pleaded. She really didn't want to do this. Regina was hers and she didn't want to share.

"I'm just fooling around. Sorry. look, I'll help if you want. Try and soften Snow up a bit and I'll lay off the barking too."

Emma toyed with the idea. "You don't need to do that. Regina and I already talked about this. It's best we do the footwork. Just pretend you don't know any different. If this goes anywhere, we'll deal with it when it needs to be dealt with. We haven't even been dating a week yet."

They said their goodbyes and Emma was satisfied Ruby wasn't going to be a problem but as an extra assurance, she added darkly, "If I think for a second you're gonna blab, remember my girlfriend know's her way around a curse. I'm not against going there."

Ruby sucked in a breath. "Ooh, Emma Swan's got a dark side!"

"The darkest." She winked and went back to the station texting Regina the wolf emoji, a green check mark and a zipped up mouth.

As she sat back down to finally get some work done, her phone buzzed once more. She laughed when she saw the message from Regina: A gold star, a gift, and a clock showing ten. Well that was something to look forward to.

"Did you smooth things over with Ruby?" David asked noting her smile.

"Yeah, all good. I think she just wanted an excuse to take a break."

David chuckled. "Sounds like Ruby."

The end of the day rolled around and Emma walked over to city hall. Regina came down and shuffled them into the Benz before letting out a huge sigh of relief. "I don't think I need to ask how your day has been."

"Meh, it wasn't that bad. Ruby isn't going to tell anyone. She was just pissed I was keeping secrets from her. How was yours?"

Regina stared out the windscreen and deadpanned. "It was a fucking shit show."

Emma burst into laughter at the outburst. She'd only heard Regina use curse words when they were intimate. She was usually so eloquent.

Regina cocked her head to the side and grinned. "What? Think you're the only one who can swear like a sailor?"

Emma was speechless for once. "You are just the queenly gift that keeps on giving."

"Why thank you, dear. Now, let's go get this shit out the way so I can give you that other gift." She had a quick glance around the parking lot and surprised Emma with a burning kiss. "I wish we didn't have to hide all the time."

"What? And give up all these secret meetings? Careful what you wish for Regina. In this town, nothing stays hidden for long."