27/06/17
We regret to inform you that due to a schedule change, Emma Swan will no longer be able to attend the Saturday, or the Sunday of our convention as planned – any photo ops bought for either of these days should be refunded within the next couple of weeks. #LCC2017
There had been this one, and three others before it – complete replicates of one another and Regina had half a thought that the cons were just copying and pasting the apology tweets so to save energy. They probably had them already drafted and ready to tweet, giving a knowing sigh after being informed that their suspicions had been proved to be correct – Emma Swan would no longer be attending their convention.
And unfortunately, not all cons had the luxury, or the will for that matter, to refund every single photo op or autograph sold. That had been something Regina had had the joy of witnessing first-hand, her mentions on social media having been filled with tweets of outrage, as for some reason she had always been dragged into the anger and torment meant for Emma and the event planners as if there was anything she could do.
A sigh was dripping lazily from her lips and her eyes were drooping with a tired kind of drag. She hadn't had much rest, for the end of one con only meant the start of another. She'd driven from London to Birmingham within the same twenty-four hours of having finished her first and only day of London Comic Con and the insistent chattering and joking and whining from her son had caused an exhausted strain to tug with its nimble fingers at her throat and arms and legs and every inch of her body that could possibly be manipulated in some way or another.
She hadn't as of yet lost her temper with him, once or twice she would find herself snapping but would have to recite a gentle reminder in her mind that this was his first time being outside of America, so it was only natural for a boy as young as him to be filled with adrenaline and be pumping with excitement – but she had just wished he would do it silently.
This con was a lot smaller than the comic cons she had been touring for what felt like months on end, this one being limited to her show – not that it made the weekend any less draining and she hoped to god they would be allowed ten minutes to rest or she might actually find herself personally ripping the heads off of anyone who would even mildly, and inevitably, piss her off.
Henry was bouncing off the walls, greeting the hotel staff and leading his much less enthusiastic mother through the lobby as they were quietly led to their room.
Although, the tight hold on her hand and an even tighter grin on his chubby cheeks was melting through her tired exterior.
As they settled into the room, Regina sighed once more. Feeling a little more excited about being in Europe with her absolutely favourite person in the whole world and seeing him so genuinely happy and so full of life brought nothing more than a glow of content to echo into her mind. Slowly the tiredness was draining with a gentle trill until she was left with only a kind smile to bring into the conversation she had drearily entertained her son with.
"I've booked a table for half 7," she proposed in reply to Henry's sudden crying out for food, standing from where she had fallen and pacing over to her suitcase as she began to unpack the mountain of clothes. She had never quite learnt how to pack less than six different outfits for a single weekend no matter how many cons she continued to attend.
Regina had made sure her son had eaten before they had set off for the separate con, but his 2-hour long nap meant he was bursting with energy and had a sudden need to be fed again, for some annoying reason. The jet lag couldn't have been much help either.
"That's so long away," he groaned, falling deep into the bed he had been sat on the edge of for the time they spent in that little room. A muffled thump accompanying his fall as the rocket he could never seem to part with had retreated into the sheets in the same defeatist manner.
Regina scoffed a little under her breath at Henry's sudden attitude, hands gluing angrily to her hips as she took small steps to stand over her son.
He had made it clear he was huffing, his arms crossed firmly across his chest as he avoided eye contact with his just as stubborn mother. Regina couldn't hold back a laugh as she leapt forwards to jab and tickle his ribs, attacking his body without mercy and receiving such a heart-warming string of laughter that was erupting loudly from his small body.
He was struggling to push her hands away, gasping for breaths with each tug. For a moment his laughter went silent and Regina was worried for a short second before Henry had eventually scrambled to freedom from his mother's unforgiving hands. He'd scrunched right up to the opposite end of the bed, trying to make the distance as large as possible between himself and Regina.
"It's half an hour Henry, I think you'll manage," she replied with that playfully warning tone lacing her words, Henry was cautious of the hands that sat between them – preparing himself for another surprise attack as he tried hard to regain the breath Regina had taken so quickly.
But she tiptoed back to her bag, and she heard her son sigh a small sigh of relief as the threat was no longer active. She continued to unpack with a smile loyal to her cheeks before her phone had vibrated on the bedside table. Henry reached to get it first, trying to read the name out but was very clearly struggling.
"Where are you glasses?" Regina questioned disapprovingly, bending forwards over the bed to retrieve the phone.
"You never wear yours," he whined.
"I wear them when I have to Henry."
Henry rolled his eyes to himself as he tried to be discreet in giving any more attitude, but the brunette chose to ignore his mood this time, blaming it on how tired the poor boy must be. Her eyes danced over the message and an acidic kind of dread was slipping down her throat and burning any moisture left in her cheeks.
"I'll be right back" she offered instead, looking briefly up to the boy who had pulled focus back to the plastic rocket. Henry hadn't replied so she continued. "Don't move."
Again, he hadn't replied, but Regina slipped easily out into the hallway. Shutting the door with a gap large enough that it wouldn't lock but small enough Henry wouldn't hear the conversation she was about to have.
The phone hadn't even rung for half a second before the receiver was picking up at the other end.
"Regina!" the voice cooed into the phone, and the sound of the woman's voice sent a shiver of anger to rattle disruptively through her bones and before she had gathered the energy to reply she swallowed the lump in her throat and shut her eyes tight.
"Mother," she was squeezing the word out through clenched teeth.
"How are you? How's Henry" she asked so casually, and it boiled a rage so thick in Regina's stomach she was sure she could just combust any minute now.
"We're fine," she mumbled. Her words melding into one as it was proved hard to speak full sentences with a tongue that seemed so unwilling to reply to the woman and teeth that wouldn't budge from the prison they had built.
"Good, I'm glad." There was a beat of silence.
"Can you just cut to the chase mother, I have things to do," Regina barked out, finally feeling her jaw loosen as that anger was spilling so impatiently into her words. There was a critical sigh before the brunette had received a reply.
"I just think you should meet him before you make any chaste decisions," she instructed down the phone. Regina bit down hard on her lip, holding back from spilling all the poison filled insults that were eagerly waiting on the tip of her tongue and instead tried hard to think of a rational response.
"How many times must I tell you mother I-" but her mumbling was cut short with a shush from her mother, Regina just knew she was wearing that same stupidly smug smile she always seemed to be wearing whenever the two would argue.
"Yes, yes I know you've explained that in great detail before. But Regina, he might be the one to change it!" Regina was gripping onto the wall, her breathing thick and heavy and for a moment she had to pull the phone from her ear, so her mother wouldn't hear.
She was rocking on the balls of her feet, ready to reply but unsure on what it was she wanted to say. There was never any point in arguing with her mother when she was so certain she had already won.
"Henry needs a father figure in his life, you should be thinking of him instead of acting so selfishly," and that had drawn an anger so violent to erupt from Regina's lips, a scream muffled by her hand was echoed down the phone. She had been too angry to even realise what it was her mother was continuing to say.
"What Henry needs is frankly none of your business. I have to go, I'm busy," and she hadn't held the line long enough to hear what it was her mother had wanted to reply.
"Everything okay?"
Regina turned to face the voice, hiding the phone behind her back and plastering a fake smile onto her burning cheeks. Only that same smile had been long forgotten when the brunette had seen who stood opposite.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, taking that anger from before and plastering it out onto the blonde idiot who stood with a dumfounded look on her face.
"Killian," Emma finally pieced together his name, taking a gentle step back as Regina had looked about ready to dropkick her so far into the ground she would fall through the floor and into the lobby.
"Right."
"You didn't answer my question," Emma motioned for Regina to stay as she watched the brunette turn to go back to her room without another word.
Regina took in deep breath before tuning to gesture for the blonde to continue, throwing her hands out aggressively. She was very obviously holding back a vicious rage, but Emma hadn't seemed to care for she continued to poke the already angry bear.
"Are you okay?" she asked again, and Regina laughed out a sigh. Pausing to think and purposely leaving Emma to squirm in the silence.
"I would wait for the day you realise my business isn't your business Miss Swan, but I'm fearful I won't live to see that time come," Regina answered firmly. "Besides I have no time for your stupid questions now," she muttered under her breath, and although her hand was resting on the door knob, she hadn't taken the cool metal into her grip. She hadn't made any attempt to re-enter the room, and instead she turned once more. Folding her arms around her waist and taking a tiny step towards Emma who wore a blank expression on her face and seemed strangely unphased by the brunette inching closer.
"The real question is, are you?" Regina questioned, Emma looked a little confused as her eyebrows were knitting subtly into one another. Regina took a step back, so she could lean against the wall, relaxing a little as questions were popping one right after the other into her mind. "Care to communicate on why you've suddenly cancelled every con you'd agreed to attend with next to no explanation?"
But that had forced something to dull in the blonde, and suddenly an ugly frown was tugging aggressively at her lips and her face was flushing with a white so pale, Regina was scared the blonde was about to pass out. She edged a little of the wall in preparation but hadn't gotten any closer to the unmoving Emma.
"I'm glad you're okay" Emma's voice was mouse like, so much smaller than Regina had ever heard her before. And that sent an unnerving feeling to course through her, what the hell had happened to the Emma who ruthlessly cut into her day after day, who had absolutely no boundaries in ripping the brunette apart, who had at one point enjoyed getting right under Regina's skin. Regina hadn't seen that Emma in a while, and the longer she thought about it the more she realised it had been so much longer than what was deemed as a "normal" amount of time.
Regina acted on instinct when Emma had tried to dart away, tugging gently at her arm but was greeted with an even sharper tug back.
"I'm already late, I'll see you around Regina."
Regina stood in the hallway, not really sure on what to do with herself. So, she stormed, rather angrily, back into her room. The slam of the door making Henry jump a little, but upon seeing his mother had crawled right to the edge of the bed.
"Whats wrong?" there was a small wobble in his voice that instantly sent a pang of guilt to ripple in her chest, and Regina turned with a soft smile before going to meet him. She cupped his face and kissed the highest point of his head before pushing him back down gently onto the bed.
"Absolutely nothing, now get ready for dinner."
28/06/17
The next day at the con had been just as busy as the cast had expected, and Regina was careful not to spend any longer with Killian than needs be. Which was a little difficult when they'd been placed together in a panel, but she forced her best fake smile onto her cheeks before jumping on in front of the crowds and more or less ignored his entire presence on stage, which meant she could reply to questions with a little more ease and a little less hate.
That was until one fan had asked about a certain blonde idiot. And no, Regina hadn't particularly enjoyed those questions, but it was Killian's response that had thrown her completley off course.
"So, someone thought they saw Emma with you here, and we all just wanted to make sure she was okay because of the recent cancelations and because she hasn't really been out much," her questions had been met with a giggle and a shy kind of I love you thrown in at the end. Regina's eyes widened as she sat patiently waiting for some bullshit excuse.
"Emma's perfectly fine, but sadly she's not here with me, she got mixed up in some work affairs," he replied, winking that same sickening wink Regina would forever grow tired of. He faked a sad puppy face, and a cry of sympathy from the crowds was called out in response to his answer.
Regina twisted uncomfortably on her chair, she knew full well Emma had been with Killian. She'd seen her with her own eyes, and she was definitely not going crazy. She slowly felt her mouth drying and her mind fizzing with a whole load of questions that she knew were going to be left unanswered.
She tried to keep focus during the rest of the panel but was secretly holding out for the end, so she could question the man beside her till his mind would bleed.
"What the hell is happening with Emma?" she swung her hand out to bat at Killian's upper arm as soon as they had left the sights of the audiences, in which he had playfully acted like it genuinely hurt – his lower lip quivering as he edged forwards.
"There's no need to play rough Regina, but if you insist all you have to do is ask" he was purring in that disgusting way he had done since first meeting Regina, and it made her skin crawl so uncomfortably she wanted to pull every inch of it off just to get the feeling of his glare completley ripped off her.
"Answer me" she ordered, taking a larger than large step backwards so that she was out of his reach.
He smiled a lopsided smile, taking his thumb to rub at his bottom lip in a, what he must have thought, seductive way, but it only forced an eye roll and swell of sickness to pool in Regina's stomach.
"What's it to you?"
Regina blinked nervously as she shrugged off the comment.
"I just want to know why you're lying," she bit out. Because really, it wasn't any of her business. But she couldn't help but feed the niggling curiosity that was peeling in the back of her mind.
"And I'm asking. What has that got to do with you?" he took a step forwards, backing Regina to the wall slightly without actually physically pinning her to it. He had a dangerous kind of glint in his eyes, the unspoken threat was trickling from his stare and for a moment the brunette felt stuck in his presence. She felt sick, and she felt a thick pit of anger tingling once more at her fingertips as the moment started to pass by them.
Killian beamed a sinister kind of smile, stepping back a little before continuing on to follow the security around the convention.
Regina could only stand still for the seconds he spent stepping out of the room, a wash of air finally taking home in her lungs as the room felt slightly bigger than it had before. She couldn't place the feeling, but she knew full well she hadn't liked it one bit.
The evening couldn't have come sooner, and it was now that she sat in a moments silence that she truly felt that pang of sadness erupt so unforgivingly, wrapping its menacing fingers around her heart and squeezing until she was sure it would give way. She was slumped over the bathroom sink, hands limp at the wrists and her head just as loose.
Henry sat playing innocently literally two centimetres away from where she was standing, so unknowing of the crying fit she had just silently let out for the past ten minutes that she had been reassuring him they would be leaving for dinner soon.
For a beat the woman allowed herself to wallow in that self-pity, but after the moment had passed, she stood to face the mess in the mirror. Wiping under her eyes and powdering her nose a little to hide the tear stains. She straightened out the jacket she wore and wound a smile through her lips before re-opening the door to the bedroom.
Henry bounced up instantly, a smile wide and a hand holding out for his mothers. She took it willingly, leading the two out of the room so they could finally go get some food.
The table had been pre-booked, and it hadn't been a long wait for the two to finally be seated.
"What did you get up to today?" she asked, glancing over the menu. Her eyes tearing off the words to meet her son who had started fidgeting uncomfortably at the question. "Henry?" she asked warningly, she knew he was hiding something, and nothing had irritated her more than being kept in the dark.
"I was with Emma," he mumbled, taking his hand from the menu so that he could fiddle at the cloth draping the table. Regina felt her eyebrows knit together as a flurry of mixed emotion was swirling through her mind. She really had hated it when her son spent time with that woman, but for some reason something was clouding her usual judgements. "But don't be mad, she already seemed sad enough," he continued reading Regina's stifled expression as anger. His eyes pleading with her to make peace with the statement instead of letting all hell break loose as she would often do.
She took a moment to think of some sort of reply, but Henry's eyes had soon sought out something to stare at other than the beady glare. She couldn't for the life of her understand why she had felt curiosity burning the tip of her tongue, as the question she wanted to ask was itching at her lips. But she had been too stubborn to give into temptation.
"I see," was all she could reply. Turning her attention back to the menu and hoping the matter would just be disregarded. But Henry continued, taking the lack of punishment for spending time with Emma as an opportunity to keep talking.
"I think she'd been crying, and she looked really tired. Like really tired" he emphasised the second really, leaning forwards a little as he tried to gain the woman's attention.
"It's none of our business Henry," she silenced him, but instantly felt regret creep over her as her earlier conversation with Hook was soon flooding into memory. She cleared her throat out of the sheer thought of him being so close and so demanding in his staring.
"But we can make it our business," he was speaking softly now, retreating back into the chair as he knew Regina wasn't going to take lightly to his sudden request.
"And how do you propose we do that" she asked finding that firmness settle in the conversation, placing the menu gently onto the table as she leant forwards to rest her intertwined hands in the space between them.
"You could be her friend."
"Miss Swan has plenty of friends, Henry," she sighed, only muttering her answer.
"But I don't think she does. She looks lonely," he paused, and Regina went back to read the options on the menu as if she hadn't already memorised every inch of the paper. "She has that same look you have when you get lonely," the boy was almost whispering his words, but Regina had heard the tip of every syllable. The sentence hitting her like a vicious slap, with the sting lingering still after the initial hit.
"I'm not lonely. I, have you?" she questioned taking his hand in her own, a nervous kind of laughter marrying her words as panic was slowly starting to settle between the two, Henry sighed looking over to where his mothers' hand had so daintily rested on his own.
"Well then why do you always look so sad?"
"You think I look sad?" she asked, her hand flinching off of her sons for a single second before she had retracted it completely as a frown was melting the plastic smile. He nodded in response, shrugging before re-adjusting himself awkwardly in his seat.
"Henry, I'm not sad," She smiled again, when inside all she had wanted to do was cry but for a completley different reason now. She wanted to cry because Henry had been so right, her son, her perfect little boy had been so right, just as he always was. But she was in no state to admit that to him, he was so young, he shouldn't have to deal with the burden of whatever this was Regina had been going through.
Henry looked as though he wanted to reply, but immediately sucked his lips into his teeth so not to let anything slip. Regina beamed another wide smile.
"I'll be right back," she hushed, tapping at his hand before excusing herself from the table. She hadn't wanted to leave, she knew how that made his accusations look and how it might just prove it to be right, but she felt that if she sat there any longer, she would have another legendary break down. And she was in no way willing to share that with her son.
So young, she kept beating into her mind, he was so young and all he had to look up to was his slowly deteriorating mother that left him for work more than she had spent time with him in his eight years on earth. She burst through the door ready to let everything out in the quiet space. But her eyes were met with a sight so strange and unfamiliar that any thoughts of herself were shot out of the open window.
"Emma?" she asked taking gentle steps forward to the woman hunched over the sink, but she hadn't moved, and Regina thought for a second she had the wrong person. But those curls were unmistakably Emma, and that hideous jacket she had insisted on wearing was strapped tightly around her upper body.
The blonde was snivelling, her hair carefully covering her face as the brunette was left waiting for some sort of reply.
"Has something happen-" but she hadn't been given opportunity to finish her question because Emma had already spun around fast enough to give Regina whiplash.
"So, when I ask if you're okay I'm stupid, but suddenly you ask me and it's fine?" she was borderline shouting and for a second Regina got worried that they might not be alone, or that the whole rest of the restaurant could hear her yelling from behind the door. Her eyes were dripping over the room and upon finding it empty, she continued to reply.
"I didn't ask if you were okay," Regina scoffed, for a single moment not caring that she had seen such pale cheeks flooded with a waterfall of tears.
"Don't act all smart and pretentious Regina. I'm not in the mood."
"What the hell is wrong with you at the minute?" she spat out in a whisper, taking another step so that the two were getting dangerously close enough that they could actually hit one another at any given minute.
"What the fuck does that mean?"
"I think it's a pretty self-explanatory question," Regina mocked, taking her hand to rest on the bathroom side so that half her weight was shifting to her right.
"Why is that any of your business?" her words were met with an eyeroll, but this time the blonde stumbled backwards a little. Regina shifted forwards to grab at the woman but then she realised, Emma was completley drunk. She was getting used to seeing Emma like this now that it was unusual to see her in her usual sober self.
"Funny you should say that, Killian argued the exact same," she bit her lips, claiming her hands back to wrap them neatly around her waist.
Emma sighed a little, eyes filling with a pool of water, but Regina hadn't got chance to see the tears fall as Emma was turning before they escaped. Wiping furiously at the wetness with the sleeve of her top.
"You're drunk." Regina bit out as a sharp slap of de ja vu was wafting over the conversation, it was only last month that they had had this exact problem, this exact conversation – but this time there where was a heated anger knocking in each of their words.
"Yeah no shit Sherlock," Emma taunted, rocking a little on her feet before taking the cabinet beside her into her grasp to use it as a resting post.
"What's going on?" Regina was a little sterner in her approach now, and in return she got an obnoxious laugh from an Emma who still ironically had tears spilling like rain down her already puffy cheeks.
"You don't get to just demand to know everything about me now. It's not like we're friends," the blonde sounded a little bitter in her remark and Regina hadn't been sure what it was the blonde was implying but thoughts were racing like cars through her mind and suddenly she was talking before her mind could stop her.
"If you're really going to tell me that all of this," she motioned with her hand to trace up and down Emma's body in the air between them before continuing. "Is because I'm a little mean to you, then you really need to get a grip Miss Swan."
Emma's face scrunched up tight, glaring so sinisterly towards the brunette. She shook her head, taking small and careful steps towards an unmoving Regina.
"You are so ignorant Regina," she was whispering now, her voice had become incredibly calmer. Regina was all sorts of confused and she really wasn't sure how to handle the situation, so like an idiot she just stood as the blonde continued to approach her side of the bathroom.
"You really think you hold that much power over me?" Emma was laughing almost hysterically now, and at that the brunette was backing up to the furthest point of the bathroom, but Emma only followed. And there it was again, that recollection of the months prior conversation was rudely washing itself into Regina's mind. "You really are that self-centred to think I can't have problems that expand further than you?"
Regina was breathing heavy as she felt her back press firmly against the wall, but the blonde was all the more eager to keep taking steps closer. This hadn't happened before. Before Emma had just seemed sad, but all she seemed to hold now was a desperate kind of anger.
"You're a mess," Regina muttered, she felt suddenly helpless, which was extremely rare, but she had felt a little tender recently.
"Just because your life is oh so perfect Regina, doesn't mean we all have it under control" she jeered, stopping inches away from the brunette's body, glaring into the darkened pupils and noticing now the slight height difference. And that only made the blonde laugh a little more.
But Regina had had enough, and she shoved at the blonde, her life was far from perfect and it was obnoxious and ignorant and just stupid for Emma to have even suggested such a thing.
"You know absolutely nothing about me, how dare you say anything about my life," she was the one shouting now, and loudly at that, but she hadn't seemed to care because the blonde had done just enough to enrage her. And maybe she was using the blonde as an excuse to take out the anger she had been burying for so long because it was easier than having to face whatever the hell was actually wrong, but in that moment she hadn't cared.
"The issue is Emma, you think you're the only one with problems. And I'm supposed to be the selfish one?" she scoffed, and with the shove and how genuinely upset Regina had sounded Emma's own anger was draining like paint in the rain from her body, she looked guilty.
There was an awkward silence as Emma figured out what she could even say now.
"I'm sorry," was all she could muster, and as pathetic as her apology had sounded Regina's tension was visibly melting from her stance, but she still wore that same frustrated frown on her red lips.
"You've been acting so strange recently," Regina whispered after an unbearable amount of silence.
That lulled a laugh to gently cut through Emma's sobs as she diverted her eyes from Regina to her fumbling hands.
"I really am sorry," Emma added in such a small voice Regina felt an almost immediate instinct to step forwards, so she did. But she stopped herself before her arms had flung themselves around the frail body.
"For what?" Regina still had a natural sternness to her voice, and Emma had sensed it instantly because her eyes fluttered to meet Regina with a worried look – and for that the brunette could only feel guilt, but everything about her read anger, from the way she stood to the half frown she still had plastered on her cheeks to the distance that was larger than needed between them. And Emma had picked up on it all, stepping back as a hand shakily wrapped itself into the curls to pull them out of her face.
"For everything, I don't know. I just," she paused sucking in a tight breath. "It doesn't matter."
Regina wanted to hear more, she felt almost a little worried. And that terrified her beyond belief, she had never not even for one second felt so protective of the blonde who stood so shakily vulnerable in front of her. She had a need to fill and a curiosity that was still biting at the edges of her mind, but she said nothing. She acted on not one of the thoughts that were pushing vigorously to be heard.
"I've gotta go."
Regina was starting to get a little tired of the blonde cutting their conversations short.
Emma spoke quickly as she stumbled passed Regina, causing their arms to gingerly brush against one another. That stilled the brunette more than she had been still before. A frozen sort of static energy was trilling nervously through her body, and then all at once she remembered Henry was still sat waiting and God knows how long she had been stood here with Emma.
She waited a moment before taking a breath and continuing to exit the bathroom. Being met with a surprisingly cheery Henry.
She smiled down to him, hoping he had either chosen to ignore their earlier conversation or had magically forgotten it in the time she'd been gone.
"Did you make friends?" he asked expectantly, nodding his head towards the bathroom door as his fingers clasped onto the lip of his seat.
Regina chuckled a little, genuinely confused at his remark but continued to sit down and wait for him to elaborate.
"With Emma," he rolled his eyes playfully as a laugh tingled his words. Regina frowned at his further comment, wishing she hadn't been so willing to hear this conversation through. "I saw her leave the bathroom?" he was quizzical in his response, edging forwards a little as he sat impatiently waiting for Regina's response.
"She must have left before I had a chance to talk with her," she lied, biting her tongue so that a smile would form forcibly. Henry dipped a sigh into the conversation, not looking entirely pleased or convinced with her answer but hadn't delved deeper into the topic. As even he, an eight-year-old boy, could sense when his mother had had enough of a conversation.
So, they ate in an almost silence, and Henry filled Regina in with the events of his day, carefully skirting round the parts where Emma had been involved. And although she had been listening to her son, and she had more then twice had to remind him to not talk with his mouth full, the thought of Emma looking so fragile and run down and just not her usual self-had been circling around her mind for the entirety of dinner.
But then Regina thought about how she didn't really know Emma, of course physically she knew her but that was only with small encounters at events. She didn't know the small things, she didn't know her favourite colour, or what her favourite season was or what had made her so incredibly sad. And knowing that was a heavy thing to know, and it dampened her mood horribly.