A/N: Enjoy!

Chapter 17: Dance or Flop

Emma and Regina were in the living room, sitting across from Zelena and Ruby. Henry had taken Robyn upstairs to put her to bed a while ago. There was a long silence as they let Emma wrap her head around the news.

"So let's go over this again. I just wanna make sure I'm understanding you correctly. So this started two months ago, correct?" Zelena and Ruby nodded. "And it was just casual flirting then right?" They nodded. "And then you started sleeping together….two weeks ago?"

Ruby shook her head. "The week before you guys went on your vacation."

Emma turned to Zelena. "So that's the reason you said you couldn't come with us on vacation?" Zelena nodded. "So you could bang Rubes?" Zelena rolled her eyes but nodded anyway.

"So when did you two actually get together?"

Ruby smirked. "The day after you texted me about your little competition with Regina." Ruby said.

Regina hit Emma's arm and glared at the blonde. "You told her about that?!"

Emma scoffed. "As if you didn't get help from Maleficent?" Emma asked, already knowing the answer, which made the brunette sit back in defeat. Emma turned back to the couple in front of her, her eyes falling on Ruby. "Rubes, why didn't you tell me?"

Ruby frowned. "Dude, I did. I literally texted you that exact day!"

"What? No you didn't." Emma pulled out her phone looking for the messages. "Ruby, all it says is, "I hooked the green." How was I supposed to know that's what you meant?"

"Bruh, what else could it have meant?!"

"Dude, I thought you were talking about weed!" Emma half yelled, remembering the sleeping toddler upstairs.

Ruby sat back, her mouth making an 'o' shape. "Okay…I can see how you would have gotten that. Which explains your weird request to save you some."

"As fun as this is to watch," Regina cut in. "I would like to focus on the fact that you all are under the assumption that you're staying here?"

Zelena rolled her eyes. "Oh dear sister, please spare us all the fight. We all know you're going to give in and let us stay here." She proclaimed, fixing Regina with a knowing stare.

Regina met her sister's glare with a glare of her own. There's no way I'm giving in without a fight. She has to remain in control. She can't give in. She can feel Emma looking at her and she knows that if she turns her head, the blonde will be looking at her with puppy dog eyes and she'll break. She can't break. Regina keep her face of defiance intact, refusing to break. Finally Zelena sighs, and Regina knows she's won.

"Fine. We'll pitch in and help around the house. Anything you want."

Regina smiled widely, satisfied with her sister's answer. "Well, if you insist."

Monday Afternoon

"No we can't sit them next to each other." Emma shook her head furiously. She and Regina were currently working on the seating chart for the wedding and Regina was attempting to put Jonah and Archie at the same table.

Regina frowned. "Why not?"

Emma shook her head again. "Jonah has a thing about people like Archie."

"People like Archie?"

"Yeah. You know how he's always attempting to give advice or his input when it not asked for. Or like the way he talks to everyone as if he's the smartest person in the room, when it's obvious he's not. Yeah, Jonah hates people like that."

Regina nodded, partially from amusement and partially from understanding. "Okay, then what about sitting him at table nine with Eric and Ariel?"

Emma looked it over and nodded slowly. "Yeahhhh, that'll work well."

Regina caught the look on her fiancée's face. "What are you thinking?"

Emma turned to Regina, her face thoughtful and hesitant. "Can Jonah be in the wedding? I mean I know you barely know him and it's random and stuff but, he's basically my only family outside of Storybrooke. He means a lot to me and I really would like it if he could share this moment with me. He's my big brother."

Regina smiled at Emma as she tucked a piece of blonde hair behind the woman's ear. "Of course he can be in the wedding, sweetheart. He's really important to you. And I may not know him as well as you do, but I did get high with man and spent two weeks with him. I feel as though that constitutes some level of closeness. Plus I really like him. I think he's a pretty good influence on Henry and he got along well with your father. I'd be happy to have him as my brother-in-law." Regina stated with a reassuring smile.

Emma grinned excitedly and pecked Regina on the lips. "You're too good to be true, ya know that?"

Regina shrugged nonchalantly. "All in a day's work."

Emma rolled her eyes teasingly and turned her attention back to the seating chart. "Okay so that means Jonah will be sitting at the head table, so we can sit him right between Henry and Dad. That work for you?"

Regina nodded as she moved the little chair and name tag to the head table of the 3-D seating chart. At the head table, Zelena, Belle, Snow, and Maleficient were seated next to Regina, while Ruby, Henry, Jonah, and David were seated next to Emma. "Perfect. Now I have a request."

"Anything."

Regina closed her eyes and let a deep breath. "Iwanttotakedanceclasses."

Emma tilted her head to the side, imitating a confused puppy. ""Huh?"

Regina let out another sigh, finally looking Emma in the eyes. "I want to take dance classes."

Emma's eyebrows raised in shock. "Oh! Okay. That's fine babe. We can do that!"

Regina eyed her fiancée suspiciously. "Really? That easy?"

Emma frowned. "Of course, baby. You don't have to be ashamed of it."

Now it was Regina's turn to frown. "Ashamed of what?"

Emma's frown deepened. "Ashamed of not knowing how to dance. Isn't that what we're talking about?"

Regina's eyebrows shot up and her mouth fell open in disbelief. "I-I can dance. You're the reason I want to take the classes!"

Emma looked at Regina in shock. "Wha-What?! Regina I can dance!"

Regina folded her arms, giving Emma an 'are you kidding me' look.

"Regina, I'm serious! I can dance!"

"I don't mean your usual sexual grinding and mediocre robot."

Emma shook her head and pointed her finger at her fiancée. "First of all, mediocre? Psh, you know that's not true. Secondly, I actually can dance, babe."

Regina looked at Emma with disbelief.

Emma huffed. "Ruby!" Emma marched into the living room where Ruby and Zelena were watching tv.

Ruby paused the tv and turned her attention to an annoyed looking Regina and her determined looking best friend. "Yeah?"

"Tell Regina I can dance!"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Emma-"

"No, Ruby tell her!"

Ruby nodded her head aggressively. "Yeah Reggie, she can really dance. She taught me quite a few dances. She's really good."

Emma turned to Regina looking smug. "See? Told ya."

Regina rolled her eyes again. "Ruby backing you up means nothing. No offense Ruby. Also never call me that again."

Ruby raised her hands. "None taken. And yes ma'am."

Emma shook her head, letting out a huff. She took her phone out of her back pocket and headed over to the stereo system. She plugged in her phone and pressed play, her selected song feeling the room.

Regina snorted as the sound of 'Beauty and the Beast' filled the room. "Really? This song?"

Emma shrugged. "I like the movie." Emma snapped her fingers, changing their outfits and clearing out most of the furniture in the living room. Regina was dressed in a golden dress that stopped right above her knees and flared at the ends. Her 4-inch heels were navy blue and surprisingly comfortable. Emma, on the other hand, was dressed in a navy blue suit, white shirt, and a gold tie. Her oxford shoes were navy blue as well.

Ruby let out a whistle. "Damn."

Regina nodded in agreement. "Damn indeed."

Emma smirked extending her hand to Regina. "May I have this dance?"

Regina nodded, taking Emma's hand. She let out a gasp when Emma immediately pulled her close and began gliding them around the room. Regina had learned to dance when she was a little girl, a requirement of her mother. However, no instructor she had ever had was this good. She'd never felt like she was floating when dancing. How Emma was doing this was completely beyond her. She closed her eyes as she let the woman glide her around the room.

When the song came to an end, Emma snapped her fingers again and the music changed. Regina recognized the rhythm and knew exactly what dance they were about to do. Salsa. Regina looked at Emma's held out hands, raising her eyebrow at the blonde. The question in her gaze was clear. Emma nodded confidently. Regina grabbed Emma's hands and they both started moving to the rhythm. Regina was once again impressed with how smoothly Emma moved. Her hips moved as though it was something she had been doing all of her life, same for the way her feet moved. Emma spun Regina out quickly and watched with a smile as the brunette spun back in doing a quick split. Emma pulled Regina up, still keeping with the beat of the music.

Zelena and Ruby watched in awe as Emma picked Regina up and swung the brunette around her body as if she weighed nothing.

"Did she teach you how to do that?" Zelena asked, not taking her eyes off of the dancing pair.

Ruby shook her head. "I didn't even know she could do that."

When the song came to its end, Regina and Emma were standing with their foreheads touching, both breathing heavily.

"Remember that time you said I couldn't dance?" Emma joked.

"Shut up" Regina commanded, pulling Emma in by her tie and kissing her soundly.

Regina played with the ends of Emma's hair as she laid on top of the naked blonde. "Where did you learn to dance like that?"

Emma sighed. "Jail."

Regina's head popped up. "Really?"

Emma nodded. "Yeah. There was this woman named Lydia and I met her my second week there. She was in for killing her mom's abusive boyfriend. Though she never really did it. Her younger sister did, but she took the blame for her. She's an amazing person."

"Agreed."

"Anyway, before she got thrown in jail, she was a dance instructor. So one day, I pass by one of the rooms and I see her waltzing around by herself. She was moving so freely and she looked happy. She was in jail for a crime she didn't commit and she was dancing and happy. It made me a little sad, though. To see her dancing alone. I figured I didn't have anything to lose so I asked her to teach me. That way she didn't have to dance alone anymore, and I learned a new talent."

Regina smiled down at the blonde. "Ever the savior. Was it hard to learn?"

Emma chuckled. "Each dance had a different kind of difficulty. With the waltz it was the lightness."

Regina tilted her head. "Lightness?" She asked, intrigued.

Emma nodded. "Being light on my feet. It was hard to perfect. I don't know what it was but for some reason when it came to dancing, I had to be perfect at it. I needed to be. I think it's the fact that my life had been such a mess and I was craving some kind of structure. So when Lydia told me to stand up straight, keep my head up, and glide, I did. When she told me to lead, I did. When she told me to trust her and trust myself, I did. When she told me to breathe and finally take control, I did. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was actually in control. No matter what dance I do, whether I'm joking around and doing the robot, or doing the Tango, I feel in control. I feel my best. I feel like I can't be taken down. And once I gained that feeling and that confidence, it made me feel lighter. Which resulted in my feet becoming lighter."

"Salsa dancing was a completely different feat. It wasn't necessarily hard, I just had to work on reading my partner. Sometimes Lydia would go out for a spin, but it would catch me off guard. Or there were times were she would do the splits and I thought she was going to spin out. It was hard to predict what would happen next."

Regina hummed. "And how did you learn how to do that?"

"Instead of getting caught up in every move, I just let the music lead me. There are some dances where you can kind of just move to the music and not really pay attention to it. But not with salsa dancing. It leads you. Think about it. If you were gonna salsa dance with no music, how would you start off?"

Regina thought for a moment. "I'd have to get a song in my mind first."

Emma nodded. "Exactly. You have to feel the rhythm of it. You have to be there. Within the notes, within the melody, within the rhythm. Once I gave the music the power to lead, it was easy as pie."

Regina nodded, taking in the information. "What else did you learn from her?"

"Quite a lot actually. I learned swing dance, latin dancing, ballroom, street dancing, Indian dancing, ballet, tap dancing, and on and on and on."

Regina sat up looking at Emma in shock. "Seriously?"

Emma nodded with a grin. "Yup!"

Regina shook her head. "You learned all of that why you were in jail? Pregnant?"

Emma shrugged. "There's a lot of time to dance when you have nothing else to do. Plus when I got out of jail I started taking more dance classes to perfect what I had already learned."

Regina stared at Emma for a while before leaning in and giving her a kiss.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's torso and laid her head down on Emma's shoulder. "You're amazing and I love you."

"And I love you….So does that mean no dance lessons?"

Regina snorted. "No dance lessons. Your son on the other hand…"

"Oh God. I promised he got his lack of rhythm from Neal. It actually scares me, Gina."

Regina chuckled as she sat up. "It'll be quite the task, but I think we can teach him a thing or two. Now, let's get up because I'm hungry."

"Well, I wasn't the one that dragged me upstairs for mid-day sex." Emma teased.

Regina got up from the bed and started walking towards the bathroom. "So I'm guessing that means you wouldn't want to join me in the shower?" She asked innocently, turning with a questioning look.

Emma quickly got out of the bed and was in front of the brunette in an instant. "I never said that."

"Mhmm."

"I'm home!"

Regina, who was sat on the barstool next to Emma, turned to look at the woman. "He gets that from you."

Emma shrugged. "We're home too!" She yelled back at her son, grinning at Regina's eye roll.

Henry entered the kitchen, kissed both of his mothers on the cheek, and immediately went to the refrigerator. "How are you guys home before me?"

Emma shrugged. "We didn't go into work today."

Henry looked up from the sandwich he was making and frowned. "What? How did I miss that? I thought you guys had already left the house when I texted you saying I was going to the library."

Emma shook her head. "Nah, we decided to sleep in. We didn't get up until about 10am."

Henry hummed. "So what did you guys do today?"

Regina smiled as she remembered the events of the day. "Well we started out by working on the seating chart for wedding."

"Oooo, can I see it later on?"

Regina nodded. "Of course dear."

"So what else did you all do?" Henry asked, before taking another bit of his sandwich.

"Well, I proved to your Mom I could dance. She was extremely impressed." Emma boasted.

Henry looked between his mothers in disbelief, his eyes ending on his brunette mother. "Really?"

Regina nodded, a dreamy smile coming over her face. "She's terrific, Henry. We ballroom danced and did the salsa. I've found myself thinking about it quite a lot this evening."

Henry hummed. "How have I never seen you dance?"

Emma shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you'd seen me dance around the house."

"Yeah Ma, but you're usually doing the moonwalk or something."

Emma shrugged again. "But speaking of dancing, we have something we need to talk to you about."

"Go for it."

"Well, we'll obviously be having our first dance as a married couple at the wedding. But both of us also want to have an individual dance with you. How does that sound?"

A large smile spread across the young teenager's face. "That sounds awesome!"

Regina smiled widely. "We glad you feel that way, Henry! You start dance lessons tomorrow." She said, getting up and heading to the refrigerator.

"Wh-what? B-but I can already dance!" Henry sputtered.

Emma and Regina looked at each other and then back at their son.

"Then show us." Emma challenged.

Henry looked between his moms again before his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine. I dance like a fish." Henry said, causing his mothers to laugh.

"Aw, sweetheart don't compare yourself to a fish." Regina said, as she patted her son's shoulder.

"Yeah, a fish is a lot more fluid and smooth with its motions. You're more like a fish out of water….just flopping around."

Regina began laughing hysterically as Emma started imitating a flopping fish. Henry huffed as he crossed his arms and scowled.

"I can't believe this. Parents aren't supposed to make fun of their kids! Come on, stop laughing! Are you guys gonna teach me or what?" Henry grumbled.

Emma and Regina finally stopped laughing and Regina ran a comforting hand down her son's back. "Yes yes dear, of course we'll teach you."

Emma leaned across the counter and ruffled her son's hair. "Yeah sport, don't worry about it. We'll make sure you don't embarrass your fish-like self." She assured with a chuckle.

"Mooom, make her stop!"

Zelena and Ruby sat on the sofa watching the cringe-worthy scene in front of them. Regina had gotten off of work early and came in the house to her son who was itching to start their dance practice for the wedding. Which is what led to Zelena and Ruby sitting down and watching the show as Robyn watched from her play area. Henry had stepped on Regina's feet over a hundred times in the past hour.

"This is absolutely awful." Zelena mumbled as she took a sip of wine.

Ruby nodded. "Where the hell did he get his rhythm from?"

Zelena shrugged. "Darling, I have no idea. It must have been from his father."

Ruby snorted. "Yeah, I could see that. Neal didn't seem like the type that could bust a groove."

Zelena chuckled. "I bet it takes more than a month for him to finally waltz properly."

Ruby grinned. "A month? No no no, I'm sure it'll take less than a week. He's working with Regina Mills here."

"Yes, but you're overlooking the fact that she is a perfectionist and won't settle for less."

"Wanna make a friendly wager?"

Zelena smirked as she looked at her lover. "Always."

"If I win, you have to give me a back rub anytime I want one for the next month."

"And if I win, you're on diaper duty for the next month." Zelena countered.

Ruby stuck her hand out and watched as her lover shook it. "Deal."

Just then, Henry went and turned off the music. "Mom, I'm not getting this." He said, very frustrated.

"Awh, sweetheart, it is okay. You'll get it. Maybe you just have to think about it in a different way." Regina said comfortingly.

Henry tilted his head to the side. "In what different way?"

Regina thought for a moment before glancing at the bookshelf in the corner of the room. She turned to Henry with a smile. "Think of it like writing a story."

"A story?"

Regina nodded. "Exactly like a story." Regina turned the music back on and made her way back over to her son. "Now, you're going to lead me, like you would a story. You know how you want the story to go, what turns you wish to take, and what message you want to get across to your audience. Now, just put it in the language of dance. When you dance, you're telling a story. The floor is your paper, you are the author, and I am the pen. Now write."

Ruby and Zelena watched as Henry took a deep breath and begin to lead his mother around the room. They looked at each other in shock as the boy slowly but surely started to dance like a human being.

"Well I'll be damned." Zelena mumbled, as Ruby smiled widely.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We're getting closer and closer to the wedding and I'm excited about it!

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