Hi there - reposting a very old, but well-loved story among SQ fanfic readers, FindLove. I'll do my best to re-post chapters on an ongoing basis as this is a complete story of around ~200K words (roughly 450 pages). For those concerned, I appreciate you, but I am the original author, please see bio.

For new readers of this story, FindLove is about a MTF trans woman beginning her dating life. I'm not trans, but worked with a fantastic beta and group of individuals to vet this material as it was being written many many moons ago.

This is the original, unedited story. I will not be re-editing it or re-reading it. Furthermore, this was once to be published and is no longer scheduled to be and as such, I'd rather it live with the people who loved it to begin with rather than stored away deeply hidden in my files.

With love, please enjoy.

August Booth wasn't going to relent. His two firm hands steered Emma Swan to the office chair as he made his case.

"Would ya just look at it?" He argued, his hand pointed at the laptop screen.

Emma unwillingly opened up Safari and pulled up her new dating profile on the newest website called, FindLove. "I can't believe you did this without my permission." She grumbled out loud and dejectedly asked, "What's the login?"

After the landing page had loaded, she had to admit they had a good team who created an attractive website, despite the presumptuous name. Maybe it had more to do with the attractive couples smiling while holding hands.

Typical dating sites.

"You're EmmaSwan88975. I figured when you logged in that you may want to make it something more flirtatious like EmmaLuvsU or SexyXOEmma." August enthusiastically smiled. Emma nearly broke her neck as she craned it to the side to look at him. "Also, your password is Augustisthebest."

Emma laughed, finally, at this, "You're kidding, right? I'm going to change it to Augustsucksass. Can't believe you did this behind my back." She quirked her brow up at her friend. "What if someone at work see's this?" She complained as she gestured towards the screen.

"What do you mean, you work with two men, and this website is strictly for lesbians. I mean, they could be catfishin' ya, but I, but, uh I highly doubt it." August stumbled a little.

She huffed. "August, I seriously don't need a relationship to be happy." Emma knew she was whining, but dating sites? Was this what had come to? Was she that desperate person now?

Despite her mental dilemma, she navigated through the backend of her profile, clicking on the different links. She selected the bio link and began to read to herself, what her friend wrote about her. Most of it was solid material and took the hard part of talking about herself away. Thank God.

Let's face it, I'm not Cara Delevinge and I'm not a famous actress, but if what you're looking for is someone who is down to Earth that's me, Emma Swan, the not-so-famous Floridian. Don't think I'm tan because I live in the sunshine state, my small amount of Irish heritage cursed me to burn forever. I have blonde hair, and my green eyes are what people notice first about me.

I work for a divorce lawyer and his assistant to track cheating couples. While some may think my work is for the restless, it is a chaotic lifestyle that I have come to love. I know one of these days, I'm going to end up with a new version of the show, Cheaters. Let's hope I won't get stabbed.

In my free time, I like to try and blog about my workouts. I have one best friend who I often meet to hang out with in my free time. I'm adventurous, yet I love the comfort of my home and my neighbor's cat, Weezy. Let's be realistic, I don't have my own cat because I've been too afraid of commitment.

I'm sure this is wildly entertaining and reading this is probably as much fun too. I could charm you by telling you about my dreams, love for baseball, and beer, but what I would love more is for you to ask me questions and get to know me better. Everything outside of this bio is much more entertaining, I promise.

"Why did you have to bring up my failed workout blog, beer, and baseball? That doesn't need to be in my bio if I have any chance at dating someone!" Emma frowned. Her lean body practically shrank into the desk chair. "It makes me sound like a dude, which I'm not," She added a little too quickly as she squinted trying read the text. "When did you even create this?"

"I made it last night after you spent the whole freakin' evening staring at that hot chick at the bar." He pointed out. "Come on, you know ya want to get out there. Why not start with online dating? It's safer than in the past and this way you can build a relationship with the person before you meet them, to take the edge off." He pitched to his friend. "Besides, if you hate that bio, you can change it. It was a placeholder really." He said in his defense. "I thought it was pretty damn good, dontcha think?"

Emma bit her lip as she listened to her best friend. It was true, she did need to put herself out there some more. Emma had only been with one person her entire life. Lily, who was she met in college became her best friend, and the accepted her for who she was. There was one other girl, but that didn't work out. She ended up being far from her actual type, brunettes with power complexes.

Lily was exactly that, hell; she was even the student council president. Emma met her at a meeting complaining about, of all things, the lack of vending machines in the different buildings around their campus. After that, they spent most of their time together, except years ago on the night Lily was hit by a drunk driver. She'd lived for a few days until her mother pulled the plug on her life support. While Emma was sad that she had lost her best friend and girlfriend, she knew that Lily had given her hope that people like her existed in this world. Though, it took her a long time to come to that conclusion after Lily's death. It was one that changed Emma's perspective one life.

That was nearly four years ago. Maybe a dating site wasn't the worst way to reemerge into the dating world. She never even considered it to be an option. She was still waiting to bump into the girl of her dreams in the grocery store produce aisle, picking out vegetables. She could picture herself trying to flirt while holding some inanimate object like a cucumber awkwardly making sex innuendos as an icebreaker. She was a charmer in that way.

"Okay look at this one here, she's sexy," August said as he pointed out a blonde.

Emma scrunched her face when she clicked to enlarge the photo. "Ew, no. I like brunettes." She waved her hand at the screen with distaste. "I have zero attraction to blondes. God, do you remember that one time I tried and dated that blonde, Ashley?"

"Oh my god, the one that vomited on you because she was so drunk from the bar one night, yeah I remember her. How could I forget Linda Blair." He cringed as he wiped his face from the unflattering memory. "Look, I get that she was a bad example, but don't cut out all blondes. They're fun in bed and easy on the eyes." He said with a smug look. "What about redheads?"

She shut it down, "I don't like redheads." It wasn't like she had anything against redheads, she just had a real attraction to brunettes.

Then Emma suddenly worried on what photo had August used. Perhaps that's the first thing she should have considered. Emma was so particular about photographs of herself. She hadn't even changed her picture on Facebook in over a year. "What photo did you pick me?" And yes, the worry in her voice was evident. It did that awkward screeching sound when she got nervous.

August's eyes widened from his friend's sudden panic. "Uh, I remembered that you liked your LinkedIn picture. Ya know, the one with your hair all up and fancy with that tailored suit that's in black and white. So I stole that and uploaded it."

Emma nodded in appreciation. She did like that one. However, it wasn't how Emma typically dressed. She felt like it was false advertisement. Normal Emma was in a t-shirt and jeans. Maybe, maybe, if it were a special occasion, she'd wear something more girly and do her hair. On an average day, she'd prefer comfort over style.

What she wanted in a partner, was someone who was stylish, her complete opposite, appearance wise. Not just that, though, she also wanted someone that was confident. While Emma was sure about many things, she still failed in some areas. She always connected better with women who were well-spoken and ambitious. Hanging out at bars with August was fun, but the chicks there were just desperately throwing themselves at people. She didn't like that. A genuine connection is what she desired with another woman.

"I hate to say it, but thanks for putting this together for me, even if nothing comes of it." Emma looked at her friend closely. "I don't think I could have done it on my own. I'm stubborn and the idea of putting myself out there is just…" She paused, "Nerve wracking, I guess. Like, what if I meet someone who I like, and they don't like me back? And what if I go on dates, and she seems interested, and then we get to the sex part of things, and she finds out that I'm different and freaks out? My biggest fear is being looked at differently. I, like what if she just can't handle who I am? I don't know if I could stand the rejection from someone, I had a crush on."

And there it was. She had finally admitted her fears out loud to August. It wasn't like he wasn't aware. With the potential of dating someone, she feared rejection and being viewed as unnatural.

August was a complete asshole when it came to women. But, with Emma, he was more delicate and as such, he worked hard to build her confidence up. "Not every girl is supposed to work out. Hell, look at me. I can't even find one, and I'm normal, I guess. You'll find the right one when the time comes. And I think this will help." He gestured to the screen. "As I mentioned, it will help take the edge off. You can save yourself having to do the first date mumbo jumbo and get all your dirty laundry out there in messages. I think you'll feel better doin' in that way."

"I mean, I guess," Emma said, she tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. "I-" She was cut off.

August leaned over the top of the chair and moved her hand from the trackpad. "Look, there's an interactive feature that allows you to 'quick match' yourself to other women. You can see what things you have in common."

"How does it know what we have in common?"

"When I started your profile, I had to do a survey on what you were lookin' for. If you click on the profile link, you can edit the initial information that I put in."

Emma's eyes scanned down the page and noticed that her friend did know her more than she realized. He had accurately selected all the traits in a woman that she was looking for, despite being insistent on her dating another blonde. Evidently, blondes were his type.

"I also took the liberty to type in your favorite TV shows, movies, and music." He carried on as Emma scrolled down the webpage to view the different options.

"Yeah, Breaking Bad was so amazing." She nodded her head as she also mentally cried because it was over. "Hey, but you forgot the Bond movies." She pointed out.

"That's okay; you can just click the edit button right there." He showed her as he towered over the desk chair to show her. "And add it."

Emma quickly typed in the different movies and then commented, "Music also looks good, which reminds me, there's a concert next week I want to buy tickets for."

"What concert?"

"Hall & Oates," She said as she opened a different tab for TicketMaster. She quickly selected their seats and typed in her credit card information from memory. She clicked pay now and turned to August. "You better be ready for it. I can't wait to see them live."

"Well, Swan, I think we need to add 'spontaneity' to your profile." Emma laughed as she closed the tab and pulled up her profile again. It felt addicting to look at already and it had only been half an hour.

"So now what?" She said, tapping her fingers against the aluminum of her Macbook.

"Now you go find a lady friend," August said as he turned to walk into her cluttered kitchen. "Can't be that hard. We live in Florida." He said as if Florida was progressive.

She heard him open her fridge and a few seconds later, a Bud Light too. "You need to have seriously better standards, dude. Maybe we should do a beer tasting. I think you'll like other things if you branched out. Bud Light is a poor man's beer." Emma said criticized as she clicked on her quick matches.

Her friend pulled up a stool and sat next to her as she scrolled through different girls, none of which seemed at all interesting. She sighed because of course she'd have such a specific type that it may be a little unrealistic.

"So is this like a Florida thing only or can you expand the search to other areas?" She asked.

"It's set to a forty-mile radius around Orlando." He moved her hand away from the trackpad and changed the parameters in her settings to the entire United States.

"There. Now you can see everyone in the US with a profile." He sat with his elbows on his upper thighs all hunched over as he watched Emma scroll through more profiles.

"Look, I'm not one to make fun of girls, but she looks like a clown." Emma pointed out. The bleached blonde woman in the picture had some silicon help and too much blush on her cheeks. "Who taught her that was okay? She looks like a walking nightmare."

"Yeah, she'd be a good fuck, and that's about it," August said, nodding in agreement.

Emma's hand pressed down on the trackpad as she slapped her friend's shoulder, "Okay, now I feel better that I didn't say that, you jerk." August played along and pretended the slap hurt, but honestly, her punch was equivalent to a cotton ball hitting him.

"Whoa, whoa, go back, I think I just saw someone that looked like your type of girl."

Emma turned back to the computer screen and did notice she skipped a few people, accidentally. She hit the left key arrow to go back.

"Stop, that's her." He pointed.

Emma's jaw went slack as she looked at the woman's picture. "Shit, you weren't kidding. She's...she's gorgeous." Emma stuttered out. She sat there for a few minutes, just stunned by this woman, who looked impeccable. Her dark hair just barely touched her shoulders. The tight dress she wore left little to the imagination.

"Would you just click on her profile, already?" August impatiently pushed her. He must have noticed how incapacitated she was.

"Hold your damn horses. I'm just soaking her in. She's breathtaking. Like look at this, is she even real?" Emma pointed at the screen.

She clicked on her screen name, RegalRegina80. She skimmed her profile and boy, did Emma feel butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

Proud business owner and Mayor of Westbrook, Maine. Emma's eyes immediately stopped.

Her shit eating grin was replaced with a deep-set frown. Quite honestly, Emma, looked like a kicked puppy as she spoke, "She lives in Maine, and she's a mayor." She said leaned closer to the screen to read her details.

"I guess expanding the search maybe wasn't the best idea," August said as he tried to take control of the trackpad to exit out of her profile.

Emma shoved his arms away, slapping at him playfully. "No, stop. What are you doing?"

"I'm closing it." He brought both of his hands up hands up in exasperation. "Clearly it doesn't make sense for you to entertain the idea of talking to her. She's too far away!"

"I can do whatever the Hell I want." Emma dared.

"Fine then, Ms. Cockypants, feelin' so confident then, why don't you message her?"

Emma stared at him long and hard. "Fuck you."

"Not my type tonight."

Ignoring her idiot best friend, she turned to the woman's profile and continued to look through her photos. She was everything she wanted in a woman, except one that was closer to her zip code.

She clicked the message icon and typed out a short, but thoughtful email that she wasn't sure if she'd send.

Hi. I'm new to this, but I saw your profile, and while you live in Maine, I'd love to get to know more about you. My name is Emma. I work for a law firm in Orlando, Florida. How do you own your own business and make time to be a mayor? That's pretty impressive.

She looked over to her guy friend for reassurance, and he smiled and nodded, "Maybe add, I'd like to know what it would be like to get in your pants, too."

Emma elbowed him in the gut, "Seriously, why am I even letting you help me? And why are we friends, you perve? You're a nightmare when it comes to girls on your own."

"It's good, Emma." He shook his head to confirm. "I read once that asking them a question about their profile is pretty important. So, that's good."

She felt a surge of excitement intertwined with a rush of nerves. In her head, she repeated, shit, shit, shit. And as if she had a trigger finger, Emma Swan hit the large, blue send button.

"It's sent. Jesus Christ, that was so intimidating." She said as she jumped from her desk chair. She walked over to her fridge and pulled out a piece of pie and her beer, none of that cheap shit August drank.

She twisted off the bottle cap and chugged the bubble-infused beverage trying to drink away her nerves. The carbonation burned her throat as she guzzled it down. She opened one of her counter drawers and pulled out a fork to dig into her favorite, key lime pie. The green color could turn many people off, but the tart flavor was too delicious to deter Emma away from eating it.

"She email me back, yet?" She asked from the kitchen. It had been a total of two minutes and her headspace was already filled with 'what ifs.'

"Nope. Chill. She'll get back to you when she does. She's a mayor, remember? She's a busy woman." He said, trying to hold back his laughter as swapped to sit in her desk chair. August was a gamer and had already preoccupied himself by opening a new tab to login on some geeky site.

The knots of nerves in the pit of her stomach started to turn from sending that message to RegalRegina80. While eating her piece of pie was a distraction, she needed something to distract her further. She grabbed a medium sized orange ball of her floor and tossed it towards a basketball hoop, conveniently hung on her front door. Her aim, as usual, was flawless. Satisfied, she picked up her beer, threw some more of the amber fluid back, and picked the ball back up.

"Hey, would ya open the window for Weezy?" She asked her friend who sat at her desk, playing a game.

"You really need to get your own cat." He snarked as he paused his game to get up.

"No, I like Weezy."

August cupped his hand around his ear and pretended to hear something, "Oh, what's that? Oh, that's Weezy's owner calling him to come home, you crazy cat thief."

Instead of the basketball net that she was going to aim for, she aimed for her friend's head. She laughed hysterically, from the kitchen, when the ball rebounded off his tough noggin. Served August right.

August was a good guy, but God was he bad with the girls. He was every straight girl's dream come true. He was born with what she thought were some of the most beautiful, ocean blue eyes. Unlike most guys with blue eyes, his hair was dark brown. It helped him win over the girls. Not only did he have incredible looks, but his sizable bank account that was also appealing. His father owned his own business that was bought out by a larger corporation. When he passed, all of his hard earned Ben Franklin's were inherited by August. He'd been pretty respectful of the money. August only made one irrational purchase, a small boat that he never used. He thought he'd sail off to sea, except he didn't even know how to operate the damn thing. Ultimately, he lost money on the boat itself, the upkeep, and fees for having it docked at some fancy yacht club.

"Maybe we should go to the pub across the street. I'm so nervous that my adrenaline has me wanting to get out and do something besides be cooped up in this apartment."

August stood and stretched. "Fine, change out of those ratty pajama bottoms and then we'll go somewhere. Drinks on me."

"Hey, I like these, these are comfortable." She looked down at her cat covered bottoms that were baggy. Coincidentally, it was the same time Weezy jumped into her window.

"Weezy!" She said in a very high-pitched tone that made August cringe.

"You need to never make that sound again." He pointed out.

"Shut up," she said as she picked up the friendly, fluffy gray cat. She rubbed her fingers through his soft fur. Instantly, he started to purr in her arms.

"I love this cat so much," she said out loud as she shuffled back to her room to change into some jeans. Weezy was still perched in her arms, purring.

Emma could hear August get up and toss his beer can in the recycling bin from the other room. Shortly after that followed the sound of the fridge opening along with one of his watery beers. One would think since he was a made man, that he'd drink something a little classier.

"Why the Hell is that cat's name Weezy?" He yelled to her.

"Because I liked it," She yelled back. Emma tried to hurry up and change. The night was young, and she knew he still wanted to score some hot babe at the bar. Emma loved August like a brother, but he wasn't exactly transparent. He even made a few passing comments on making her a dating profile so she could double date. She didn't think he'd actually go and make one. The past few weeks he had really been on her case about her dying alone. A bit dramatic if you ask her. He even often told her that she would end up with not one neighbor's cat, but the entire subdivision's.

"Hurry up, you look fine," He yelled.

Emma's supersonic hearing picked up on him pulling back her chair to her desk where her laptop sat. She had no idea, however, that while she was changing, her bastard ass best friend sat there drooling over RegalRegina80's photo. Nor did she know that RegalRegina80 had actually messaged her back yet.

It was about three minutes after he had previously yelled when she started suspected he was up to no good. Whether he was snooping or playing a game, she was bound to find out. It was in those final touches of her makeup that her best friend twiddled his thumbs back and forth before giving in to his curiosity and clicked to read the new message. Unknowing of this, Emma walked into the room, "Come on, let's go. I want top shelf whiskey, tonight." She went to grab her wallet when she realized her friend wasn't making an effort to move.

"August?" She asked, but that's when she realized he was reading something. It clicked. She must have gotten a response.

"Oh shit, you asshole, did you read her message before me?" She rushed over. "What's your problem?" Emma smacked him and pushed him from her chair.

She clicked to enlarge the message and let her eyes read from line to line.

RegalRegina80: Hi Emma, I'm Regina. Thanks for your message. I haven't had much luck on this website. Most of the messages I have received weren't what I was expecting. I'm happy to see a change for once. I saw that you work for a divorce lawyer, sounds stressful. I had owned my own business before I was Mayor. I worked up from there, plus it's a small town. I love being a business owner, but now I'm looking forward to the financial benefits of selling it to a larger company. Being acquired would be a dream come true, and I'm getting there. I would love to get to know you more.

She felt an intense warmth spread throughout her body. She didn't expect any good to come from this website, let alone this fast.

"What do I say?" Emma asked, her face hurting from smiling too much. At this point, she forgot he read it before her. RegalRegina80 was his saving grace from being yelled out.

"Be yourself, that's all you need to do. You're an amazing girl with so much heart. Just show her that." He told his friend honestly.

Emma nodded and turned to the screen and noticed an icon by Regina's name. "What's the green dot mean? Is she online now?" She eagerly asked, no longer a kicked puppy.

"Yeah, it looks like it. You should message her back sooner than later, so she doesn't think you're ignoring her."

Emma danced her fingers over her keyboard, brainstorming what to say, but it didn't take long. Suddenly, the words flowed through her mind, and her fingers almost fought to keep up.

Regina is a beautiful name. I haven't been on here long. In fact, I hate to admit it, but my best friend had to create it for me. I don't really have any experience with online dating sites, so this is all foreign and new. I hope my honesty doesn't offend you. Speaking of my friend, August's father was acquired. He got a huge check, so in my eyes, you can't go wrong. Besides, what's to say you don't start another business? All jobs have their stresses. I love mine, though. It's demanding, yes, but I make my rules and schedule. I think it would be nice to get to know you more, too. If you ever find yourself in Florida, let me know. I'll show you a good time.

Emma quickly read and re-read the message, checking for spelling mistakes, comma splices, and run-on sentences. After the fourth go-round, she bravely hit send.

She cracked her knuckles as she relaxed back into the chair. She saw three little dots pop up that she assumed meant the woman was responding back to her.

"Swan, let's go."

"Nu uh." She pointed towards her laptop, forgetting to use her words. "Not in a moment like this."

"Oh come on, you can read her message when you get home."

Emma brought her hands up against one another, as if she was praying, and said, "You facilitated all of this, why take it away now? She's messaging me back." She said, trying to have her friend understand her position.

"Yeah… I guess I'm going to head to the bar and do my own thing. Call me tomorrow, or get coffee with me, to fill me in on your lady love."

Emma smiled. She knew he'd see it her way. "She's not my lady love, yet."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," he said as he winked at her and closed the door behind himself.

As if on cue, a ding notified her of a new message.

RegalRegina80: Thanks for the compliment. My parents would thank you too. I've always hated my name. How many girls have you messaged? I read your profile some. Seems like I fit the bill for what you're looking for, except the distance is a small problem. I envy you being able to make your schedule. I, on the other hand, can barely make sense of my schedule these days. My assistant keeps my head on straight. He even set this up for me, as your friend did for you. He's a treasure. I will coincidentally be in Florida at the end of the month in the Orlando area. I have some meetings over the weekend. If you're interested, I'd love to have dinner one evening?

Emma's grip on her chair turned her knuckles white. She realized how strained her hand was and wiped her eyes to see if she was reading clearly. She read and re-read the block of text. Regina was flirting with her. Hell, she even asked her on a date.

Running her fingers over the keys again, she typed out a response. This time, she was a little more confident and liked where this was heading.

To say that she thought something would come of this dating profile would be completely dishonest. Let's say she had small hopes, so to speak, when August told her what he had done the night prior. Now, however, she realized that this was her chance at being able to actually meet someone worthwhile. So maybe, it was worth a shot, even if she was in Maine.