This chapter is for amywood.581 with the prompt: "Ikea"

"You know, we need to go shopping for your dorm room," Emma said to Ava.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Ava said. "My roommate sent me a picture of the things that she bought already, so we can match that."

"Perfect," Emma said. "Let me see the picture."

Ava handed Emma her phone, and Emma looked at the picture of the things that Ava's roommate had already bought. "This'll be easy to match."

"Where are we going to get stuff at?" Ava asked.

"Ikea," Emma said. "It's a furniture store outside of town."

"Not sure that mom will like that idea," Ava said. "She already doesn't like the idea of me leaving for a college out of town like Henry did. I doubt that she's going to like the idea of leaving to get furniture."

"There's no store's here that have what we're looking for," Emma pointed out. "I'm sure that she'll be fine with it."

"Then you can be the one to ask her," Ava said. "Unfortunately for me, I do not have the same puppy-dog eyes that you and Lola do."

Emma laughed. "You make a good point. I'll talk to her."

"No," Regina said. "She's already leaving town for college. There's no way that we're going out of town so close to when she's going to be leaving."

"She's not leaving for another few months," Emma argued.

"Not the point," Regina said. "The point is that it's not worth it. I'm sure there's a store here that will have what she's looking for."

"That's the problem," Emma said. "There isn't one. Trust me, I wouldn't suggest leaving the town if there wasn't a good reason. Come on Regina. This is for Ava."

Regina sighed. "I don't like leaving town."

"Because of your magic?" Emma asked.

Regina shook her head. "Because every time that I leave this town, or someone that I love leaves, things always go wrong."

"That's not true," Emma said.

"But it is," Regina argued. "You and Henry left, and your memories were erased. Henry came back and had no idea who I was. Robin had to leave with his wife and son, and Zelena got ahold of him. Now Henry left, and I hardly see him anymore. People leaving this town never ends well for me."

"Ava's not Henry," Emma said gently. "I don't know if you remember, but she was in the system. I can guarantee that she'll call every weekend."

Regina sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Once she leaves, all we have is Lola. What happens when Lola leaves?"

"She's only 8," Emma said, chuckling. "I think we have some time before we need to start worrying about that."

"Time flies," Regina mumbled. "Before you know it, we'll be getting furniture for her dorm room."

"If it makes you feel any better, Ava wants to get frames for a bunch of family photos to take with her," Emma said.

Regina laughed. "I guess that makes things a little better."

"So we can go?" Emma asked hopefully.

Regina sighed. "We can go."

Emma laughed at the amazement in Regina's eyes at seeing the store. "Once we get back to town, I am putting one of these there," Regina said.

"You can do that?" Emma asked.

"I created the town," Regina said, shrugging. "Of course I can add things to it."

"So where do we start?" Ava asked. "This place has a lot more stuff than I was expecting."

Emma smiled before grabbing her and Regina's hands. "It's not as big as it looks. We'll start in the bedroom section."

"How do you know this place so well?" Ava asked.

Emma blushed. "I may have...uh...snuck in here at night to have a place to sleep when I was on the run."

Regina snorted. "Only you."

"There are some really comfy beds in here!" Emma said. "And it wasn't hard. All I had to do was hide from the security guards after hours. They never did a thorough search or anything."

"Did you ever get caught?" Ava asked.

"Me? Get caught?" Emma asked. "Course not. This was the place that I stayed at until I stole my bug and met Neal."

"So no one here is going to recognize you?" Regina asked.

Emma bit her lip. "We might want to be a little careful, but I think we should be okay."

Regina rolled her eyes affectionately. "This is what I get for marrying a criminal."

Ava burst out laughing as Emma's cheeks turned bright red. "Shut up Regina."

Regina chuckled before kissing her cheek. "I'm kidding. Kind of."

"You two are dangerous to shop with," Ava said. "We're never going to get everything done."

Emma and Regina laughed. "Sorry," Emma said. "We'll concentrate now. What does your roommate's stuff look like again?"

I didn't realize how far apart age-wise that Lola and Ava were until I did the math. Oh well, Lola's my baby.