Flu Love's Kiss 15
A/N: There will actually be three Epilogues. Yes, I know that's weird. Just go with it!
Also I've posted the start of a new fic Double Trouble ... you could say it's got twice the Swan Queen ;). So you might like that too.
Thanks for reading!
Epilogue 1 - I wanna marry you
Emma hummed along with the music as she and Regina swayed on the dance floor cheek-to-cheek. She was amazed she'd even managed to get the woman in her arms to dance at all since Regina hated PDAs, especially given the amount of people around who knew they were one of the many couples who had gotten together in the months after the Love Flu thing. As soon as the DJ started up the wedding guests had been drawn to the dance floor but at first Regina had been reluctant to join in, sitting at their table watching quietly. Emma had finally been able to cajole her by saying:
"Come on, I was hoping for a dance with the most beautiful woman in the room."
Regina appraised the pretty blonde. "Indeed. So was I."
"This is gonna be really awkward if we're not talking about each other," quipped Emma, leading her onto the dance floor.
The lights had been dimmed this late into the night but coloured spots from the disco balls lit up random parts of the room at various times. As the music reached the chorus Emma got into it, singing along in a overly dramatic way in her off-key voice.
"We've got two strong hearts, we stick together like the honey and the bee...You and me..."
"Your mother chose the DJ didn't she," said Regina with a grimace.
Emma chuckled and placed a kiss in the brunette's hair. "Don't you like cheesy 80s love songs?-"
"You're the one that likes cheese."
"-Or do you just have to hate everything Snow White likes on principle?"
"Yes." Regina smirked. "Except you and Henry of course."
"Well, I'll consider myself lucky then," Emma teased, brushing her hand low across the bare skin exposed by Regina's near-backless dress. "Or three times lucky this morning, as I remember correctly."
"You're certainly pushing your luck right now," said Regina, glancing at Mary Margaret who was flitting around the wedding cake trying to shoo the children away from the icing.
"Apparently my mom is friends with Kathryn, go figure..." said Emma, also directing her gaze towards her mother who was wearing a purple bridesmaid's dress. "She's really into weddings isn't she."
"Don't get any ideas."
Emma flinched but covered it up with a nervous laugh. "Course not."
The pair continued to dance off to the side watching the other couples swaying around them on the dancefloor, including the bride and groom who only had eyes for each other.
"I guess the Love Flu epidemic brought happiness to some people," said Regina. "Kathryn told me they were only stuck together for a day before Fred proposed."
"When you know, you know," Emma smiled and shrugged her shoulders where Regina's arms were resting around her neck while they danced together.
Mary Margaret went to the wedding party table and announced they would be serving cake soon and having speeches. The music died down and the dance floor crowd started to make their way back to the tables. Emma took up Regina's hand and led her towards their table where Henry was waving at them to hurry up.
"Let's go sit down. I'm dying for a piece of that cake."
After dessert, Regina made her way to the cloaking room becoming increasingly annoyed at the woman she was looking for, who was apparently nowhere to be found. Emma had abandoned her to a dull conversation with Mary Margaret and Kathryn about wedding dresses after she'd been trapped at the wedding party's table. She had only just managed to escape semi-politely, half tempted to Cone-of-Silence them for going on and on about lace and tulle.
Regina frowned seeing that the cloaking room door was closed.
Henry had told her that Emma had gone to get something from her coat. Regina decided if the blonde intended to blow off the rest of the party without her she was going to be in big trouble. She opened the door to check inside. Suddenly she was pulled into the room by a surprisingly warm slight body who pressed her against the wall.
"Emma! Where have you been?"
"Hi, gorgeous," said Emma, placing kisses on her lips. She tasted like champagne.
They hadn't been together for that long really but when Regina felt Emma's hands move to her waist in that way she knew what her intentions were exactly. "We can't do this here. The wedding-"
"-is still going on without us, don't worry."
"Emma, has it escaped your attention that we are literally in a closet right now?" said Regina dryly.
Emma burst out a laugh, trailing her hands across the other woman's satin-covered middle and higher. "I didn't even think of that."
"Your hair will get ruined," Regina warned. Emma's curls were piled precariously on her head in an up-do with a complicated structure of pins holding it together.
"You'll fix it."
Regina sighed, becoming slightly breathless as Emma pressed her hips against her hard and kissed her neck. "They're going to know what we've been doing in here-"
"Don't care."
Emma ran her hand up the outside of Regina's smooth thigh raising the satin hem of the dress as she went. "You say 'not here' but this dress says 'easy access'. Did you wear this for me?"
"Yes, but for after the party. Not during," chided Regina lightly.
Emma continued to assault her neck, moving her way upwards till she placed a kiss right on a sensitive spot below her ear. She heard Regina gasp and her heart raced tellingly. That'd be the last of the half-hearted protesting. Emma drew back slightly with Regina's hand cupping her cheek. She was thrilled to see eyes darkening with anticipation.
"Aha! I got you." Emma moved her hand lower again and started up a rhythm.
"You got nothi-Oh!" Regina's words become a cried moan.
Emma pinned one of Regina's hands above her head and laced their fingers together. She kissed her deeply and then whispered in her ear. "Regina?"
Regina felt the heat on her cheek and her eyes slipped closed. "Hnm?"
"I'm going to need both hands for this." Emma's wicked grin said it all.
"David, have you seen Emma? I can't find her anywhere and it's almost time for the bouquet toss." Mary Margaret plopped into a chair next to David at the table where he and Henry were making a game out of stacking bonbonnieres on top of each other.
David shrugged. "No, I haven't seen her in a while. Mar, don't push it with the marriage thing."
"I'm not going to!" Mary Margaret was slightly offended.
David gave her a look. "Sweetheart, I know you love happy endings but just leave them be, ok?"
"Fine," Mary Margaret sniffed and then illuminated her real reason for wanting Emma. "But I'm her mother. Embarrassing my daughter is part of the job so she is going to be in this bouquet toss whether she likes it or not."
Henry piped up helpfully. "Mom went looking for Emma where the coats are."
Mary Margaret jumped up and raised her voice over the music. "Okay, everyone! We're doing the bouquet toss and garter throw in five minutes!"
Just as she left to find Emma, the boys' tower of bonbonnieres toppled over, sending chocolate hearts covered in purple-coloured foil wrappers all over the table.
Mary Margaret frowned, wondering why the cloaking room was closed. She pushed the door open and stopped in her tracks when she saw them. "Emma, are you in here- oh my god!"
"Mom!" cried Emma, hastily pulling the hem of her dress down where it was bunched up at the waist. She was sitting on the counter of the cloak room with Regina standing in front of her trying to repair the damage to Emma's hairdo.
Regina froze with the hairpins in her mouth while pinning up blonde locks of hair.
They were both dressed again, but from the wrinkles in the satin and the just-been-had hairstyles the pair now wore Mary Margaret knew exactly what'd been going on.
"But - you- I-" Mary Margaret gaped at them.
Emma cringed. "It's not what it looks like?"
Mary Margaret took in a deep frustrated breath and closed her eyes to count to ten. "Bouquet toss. Now!"
Regina put the last pin in Emma's hair, hoping it'd hold and that it didn't look too obviously different to before. "I am not participating."
"Oh yes you are. Both of you," insisted Mary Margaret, propping her hands on her hips.
"Leave her alone please. This was my idea," said Emma, referring to their cloak room tryst and trying for a bit of chivalry.
"Like I don't know whose idea this was, Emma Evelyn Swan."
Mary Margaret marched the guilty pair out of the cloak room without attracting too much attention and sent them to the dance floor where all the other unmarried ladies were gathered.
Kathryn stood on the stage in front of the DJ holding the bouquet up. "Have we got everyone here?"
The crowd of women huddled closer and got ready for the toss. Some of them merely waited patiently while others jostled at each other playfully promising a fight. Emma stood at the back with Regina, who had her arms crossed looking supremely irritated.
"I don't care if it hits me in the face," said Regina sourly. "I am not catching that bouquet."
"It's just a stupid tradition," Emma said with a wry side glance. "It's hilarious how superstitious you're being."
Kathryn turned her back to the crowd and then sent the purple posy of flowers sailing over her shoulder into her air...
… where it landed predictably on the floor in front of Regina's formal dress shoes.
The brunette merely glanced at the obnoxious object and stubbornly refused to budge. A few seconds passed while everyone waited to see if she'd pick it up, and when it became obvious that was never going to happen, two of the other women dove to the ground to fight over it.
An auburn-haired girl in a yellow dress crowed in victory, holding the bouquet over her head. "I've got it!"
"Belle, you totally grabbed it out of my hands!" complained Ashley.
Emma was amused at the thought of the next Storybrooke wedding being Mr Gold's and she turned to tell the woman at her side but she was gone. Emma looked around, furrowing her brow, wondering where Regina had disappeared to.
Emma found Regina in the chilly night air, outside the double glass doors that led onto the function centre's patio. The stars were out and especially bright since it was such a clear night. She could tell Regina was a little cold, holding her bare arms with her hands.
"Hey, where'd you go?" said Emma, joining her at her side. She rubbed her hand down the brunette's upper arm feeling the goosebumps.
"I just stepped out for a moment," murmured Regina.
Emma took a deep breath and fiddled with something behind her back. 'Listen, there's something I want to say... I don't know, um, if I'm doing this right or not and I know we haven't even been together that long… but there's something I want to ask you."
Regina's eyes snapped in alarm, taking in Emma's behaviour. The blonde raised her eyebrows hopefully but was fidgeting nervously.
"Please Emma, don't," said Regina worriedly, realising what was about to happen.
Emma just nodded like she expected that reaction and frowned a little. "You don't even know what I'm gonna say yet."
"You're going to ask me to marry you."
"You're spoiling the ending." Emma whined softly.
Regina bit her lips before whispering painfully. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Then don't. Say yes." Emma cradled Regina's face with both hands and ran her thumbs across her cheekbones. They were pressed close, thigh-to-thigh and hip-to-hip.
"Please understand. I can't get married again." Tears filled Regina's eyes and she tried to blink them away.
Emma nodded sadly and pressed their foreheads together. "I know why you're afraid. You were only in love once and never got to be with the one you loved. It breaks my heart to think of what your first marriage was like but I promise this will be nothing like that. We will be the same as we already are. Trust me."
Emma placed a light kiss on her lips and then smiled lovingly. "Two strong hearts, remember?"
Regina laughed once at the stupid cheesy line and nodded her permission to go on.
"I um... I," Emma stammered, horror dawning on her as her mind went blank. "I can't remember what I going to say."
"Emma." Regina shook her head in that 'you-idiot' way.
"Hey, you threw me off! I had it all planned out what I was going to say and now it's gone."
Regina pulled away intending to go straight back inside but she gasped when Emma grabbed her hand and spun her towards her. The blonde wrapped her arms around her from behind and held up her right hand at Regina's eye level against the backdrop of the night sky. There were two gold rings on two of her splayed fingers. Emma's was already on her ring finger where she intended it to stay and the other gold band was stuck at the second knuckle of her index finger since it was too small.
Emma's voice was close to her ear when she spoke in a soft voice. "I love you."
"We don't have to get married if you don't want to... but I have the ring and I was hoping that by tonight you'd be wearing it."
Regina could hardly contain the smile that twisted her lips. "Liar. You were hoping that I'd be wearing only the ring."
"That too," admitted Emma. She swallowed nervously and took a deep breath before going on.
"So. Tell me the truth. Don't think about the past. Don't think about the problems or what could go wrong. Just tell me honestly, do you want to marry me?"
Regina looked down and with a shaky hand took the ring from Emma's index finger and slid it onto the ring finger of her own left hand. The simple action made Emma's heart flutter like wings in her chest.
"Is that a yes or you just like pretty things?" joked Emma, causing the brunette's hair to tickle her cheek.
"What do you think. Yes." Regina turned her head to capture Emma's lips in a deep kiss.
Some time later, Henry poked his head out of the glass doors and called them several times. "Moms. Moms! The party's over. Can we go home now?"
Regina drew back smiling beautifully and went to follow her son back inside. Emma joined their hands yet again in the Love Flu way now bearing identical gold rings, so they could go in together. Her actions earned her a raised eyebrow.
"Uh uh," chided Emma with a grin. "You're stuck with me now."