Chapter 2: CASUALly Nervous

6:15pm

Emma: Is everything ready?

Rubes: I just rolled my eyes sooo hard. YES! Dude it'll b fine! Ur going above & beyond. Im sure she'll love it.

Emma: I hope so. Im so nervous.

Rubes: Emmaaaaa! 2day u tld me that Regina…REGINA EFFIN MILLS, tld u she was in love w/ u! U kno what that means?! It means she's already accptd u! Just b urself. Take a chill pill.

Emma: You're totally right! I could show up in sweatpants and a t-shirt and she would still love me right?

Rubes: I didn't say tht

Emma: …Oh

Rubes: Dude, plz tell me tht u r dressed & not sittin in sweatpants & a tshirt.

Emma: …I cant tell you that.

Rubes: DUDE WTF! It's almost 7!

Emma: Idk what to wear! She should accept me as I am. Clothes dnt make the woman! Plus I told her the dress code was casual, so technically what im wearing is fine.

Rubes: …I'm coming over.

6:30pm

Regina begins to get nervous. Emma would be there to pick her up in 30 minutes and she still wasn't ready. She stood there in her robe and looked through her closet for the 4th time. She already had out her black low-top Chuck Taylors that Henry had gotten her last Christmas in an attempt to get her to "loosen up and chill", so she figured those would work. She didn't have any jeans, but she did have some black leather pants that we're most definitely casual. She just needed a shirt to complete the outfit.

She heard the front door downstairs open and close, which only meant one thing…

"Mom! I'm home!" Henry knocked on her door and entered.

Regina rolled her eyes and went back to her search. "I see that you've picked up yelling and barging in uninvited from your other mother. How was school and studying with Grace today?"

"Sorry Mom." Henry plopped on the bed and looked at his mom looking in the closet. "and school was school. Studying went okay. We studied at Granny's as always. But speaking of Ma, I saw her earlier when she stopped by the diner and she told me to tell you that you better be ready and CASUAL! She told me to over exaggerate the word "casual" when I said it. Soooo, why do you need to be CASUAL? What's going on?"

"Well, Henry we're going somewhere this evening. Where? I'm not sure of the whereabouts simply because Miss Swan refuses to tell me."

Henry stared at the pants and chucks on the bed. This is weird. "Mom?…what's going on? There's something you're not telling me."

Regina pinched the bridge of her nose and stopped to look at her son. He was staring in disbelief, yet had an inquisitive look on his face.

"Henry, I'll tell you when Emma gets here. Right now however, I need to find a shirt to wear."

"Emma?..." the young brunette muttered to himself. He rarely ever heard his mom call Emma by her name. This was a big deal. Henry went to his room and got one of his nice white v-neck shirts that he never wore anymore, since he had grown out of them. He then retreated back to his mother's room.

"Here Mom." He threw the shirt on the bed. "Wear this. It'll fit you perfectly and it goes with the pants and chucks." He went to her closet and pulled out her black vest. "And wear this on top of it. It'll look good. And let's face it. This is about as CASUAL as it gets for you right now. But I think you can pull it off."

Regina picked up the shirt. She would need to iron it, but it would have to do. "Thank you sweetheart. This will do perfectly." She watched Henry leave and started to get dressed. She had 10 minutes to spare.

6:45pm

"What are you looking at?" Emma asked as she put on her shoes.

Ruby grinned. "Just admiring my work. You look bangin! I'd do you myself if you weren't my bestfriend." Ruby winked.

Emma chuckled. "Thanks Rubes, really." She picked up her jacket and headed to the door. "Maj is downstairs right?" Ruby nodded. "Okay cool. Well here I go!" Emma opened the door to leave. "I'll text you when I get there. Do you remember what you're supposed to do?"

Ruby scoffed. "Yes! Bring the food. Bring headphones and music so I can't hear you guys' conversation. And don't speak. Got it. NOW GO!" Ruby pushed her best friend out of the door.

6:55pm

Luckily the pants didn't need ironing, so she slipped those on and her shoes. She hated to admit it, but the Chucks were more comfortable than she anticipated. She was fully dressed with 5 minutes to spare. Perfect. She headed downstairs and made her way to the kitchen with her purse in one hand, while putting on her other earring.

"Woah!"

Regina turned around to see Henry looking at her with a slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth.

"Does it look that bad Henry?" Regina started to straighten out her shirt.

"No no no, Mom you look great! You should wear CASUAL clothes more often. Be honest, it feels good to be dressed down for once right?!" Henry kept eating but looked at her expectantly.

Regina nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yes it really does. This t-shirt is comfortable and so are these Chuck Taylors. I may wear these more often, as soon as I-"

The doorbell rang, cutting Regina off mid-sentence. She instantly became nervous. She was so worked up about her clothes, that she hadn't thought about the fact that she was about to go on a date with her new girlfriend. Emma Swan. Her girlfriend. Who she was in love with. Who was in love with her. Emma.

Henry ran to open the door.

"Hey Ma! Come on in!"

"Is your Mom ready? How does she look? How do I look? God I'm so effin nervous!"

Henry put his hand on her shoulder. "Ma! You look fine! Mom is ready. She's in the kitchen, and she is CASUAL, don't worry. Gesh, you act like this is a date or something."

Emma cleared her throat and walked forward. She wanted to tell Henry with Regina, not beforehand.

"Wait…is this a date? Oh my Gosh it is! You're blushing!"

"Who's blushing?" Regina entered the foyer with a glass of water in her hand.

Emma froze. Regina was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, which gave a little peek of cleavage, a black vest, tight leather pants, with… Emma's eyes widened. BLACK CHUCK TAYLORS?! Regina looked drop dead gorgeous. Emma had to catch her breath a little bit.

"Woah…Regina you look…Woah"

Regina rolled her eyes, but noticed the butterflies swarming in her stomach. "You already said that dear. But I must say you look "Woah" yourself."

Emma was wearing her dark blue skinny jeans, a skin tight black t-shirt that showed a little of her stomach, a black blazer, and her black Doc Martins.

Emma and Regina both started walking towards each other. Both having in mind one thing, until they heard a throat being cleared.

They both turned to see Henry look at them.

"Yeah, Hi. So are you all gonna tell me what's going on?" Henry knew they were about to go on a date, but he wanted to hear it from them. This is too good to be true.

Emma looked at Regina, and Regina looked at Emma.

"I'm telling my parents. You could at least tell your son." Emma said to the older woman.

"He's your son too dear, but fine." Regina sat her drink down on the nearby table, turned to Henry and smiled. "Henry, earlier today your mother and I discovered that we have romantic feelings for each other. So now my girlfriend is taking me on a date. That is what's happening."

Henry stared at them for a long time before a wide grin spread across his face and he jumped in the air.

"YES! Finally! It took you guys long enough! Now listen, I know this is new for both of you so take your time and don't rush into anything before you're ready. I expect you back by 11 o'clock and not a minute later. Ma, keep your hands to yourself, Mom you too. Now get out of here and have fun. Love you, bye." Henry pushed his two mothers out the door and locked it.

Emma stared at the door and then turned to Regina.

"Did he just…give us a speech?"

"Did he say finally?"

Emma grabbed Regina's hand and started walking down the pathway.

"Well…that's our son. So are you excited about our first date?"

Regina leaned her head on Emma's shoulder as they walked. "Well I am, but I would be more excited if you told me where we were going."

Emma smiled. "Well gorgeous. The best things are worth waiting for. And speaking of waiting, your chariot awaits."

They turned the corner to see a beautiful black horse.

Regina touched the horses face and smiled when the horse stepped towards her.

"This is Maj. He's my horse. I've had him for about 4 months." Emma said.

"Emma he's beautiful. Why and when in the world did you get a horse? And how am I just now hearing about it?!"

Emma mounted her horse and held her hand out for Regina. "Well join me and I'll tell you."

Regina got up behind Emma and wrapped her arms around Emma's waist. After she was settled, Maj started walking in the direction Emma wanted.

"Well, about 5 months ago, I was out on patrol one night in the woods, looking for Pongo unsurprisingly. I ran across Maj here, and he was weak and sick and pretty hurt. I took him back to the stables, which Ruby had to tell me where the stables were because I didn't even know we had stables. But anyway, I took him back and Joe said Maj had been missing for days. After that night, I started going to see him every day. I wanted to make sure he was getting better."

They stopped and Emma got off helping Regina down afterwards. Once Maj was tied up, they started walking towards the docks.

"Day by day, Maj started to get stronger. Joe said it was because I was spending time with him. I would go out there during my lunch break and eat with him. About a month later, Maj was back to normal. Well better than normal according to Joe. But by then I was so in love with the dang horse that I just couldn't leave it. So I bought him from Joe. He didn't want me to pay on account of everything I had done, but I insisted."

They walked in silence for a while before Regina spoke up.

"So why the name Maj? What does it mean?" Regina watched as a grin spread across Emma's face.

"Well because he reminds me of you, Your MAJesty."

Regina's eyes widened and her eyebrows flew into her hairline.

"And in what ways does this horse remind you of me?" Regina asked.

"I'll answer that later, because right now we're going to have dinner."