When Emma got to Regina's office the next morning the brunette was on the phone. Emma set the coffees and scone on the desk before walking over to stand beside Regina in her chair. When the other woman hung up the phone, Emma turned the chair the brunette was sitting in so that they were facing each other. Emma placed her hands on the arms of the chair and leaned down, kissing the other woman deeply and slowly. She hummed when she pulled away.

"Good morning, beautiful," Emma whispered.

"Good morning, dear. How was your night?"

"Long and lonely. I couldn't wait to see you this morning. I have a fun gift today. First things first, though; I didn't want to bring it up last night after we had such a good night with telling Henry and everything, but we need to discuss why he was expected to leave Hansel's house early."

"Yes, why was that?"

"Michael caught him and Gretel kissing."

"What?" Regina demanded loudly, then lowered her voice. "My baby is too young for that."

"He's the same age I was when I started being curious about kissing. I hate to say it, but he's going to grow up, I guess it's a lot harder to think about when it's your kid doing it."

"Yes. Do you think we should give him the sex talk?"

"Oh, god, I don't even know. I mean, I guess we should, I just feel like he's so young."

"Yes, however, I would rather him know and think about the consequences than be unknowledgeable. What do you think, Emma?"

"Shit, I don't know. I guess...you're probably right. The thing is, we have a really smart kid and he knows more than he should anyway. Maybe he'll, you know, not be super awkward when you talk to him."

"Oh no, dear, this one we're handling together."

"Together? Really? You want me in on this?" Emma sounded surprised and Regina smiled.

"Of course, you're just as much his mom as I am, dear." Her response garnered affection, in Emma's eyes, so the blonde stood and pulled Regina up into a hug. She put one hand on the back of the brunette's neck, tangling slightly in her hair and the other hand on her hip, rubbing circles with her thumb. She kissed full red lips hungrily, and they kissed her back with the same gusto she gave.

Regina hummed when Emma pulled away. "What was that for, dear?"

"For wanting to include me. I missed ten years of his life and you were here and you're including me and it feels so nice to be part of something."

"Of course I'm including you. We're family." Emma smiled at the word and kissed her again. She pulled away to grab Regina's gift bag from beside her own chair. When she placed it in front of Regina she smiled a dopey grin.

"Now this one is for when we're ready for it, but unfortunately not right now. I do want you to open it now though."

Regina eyed her suspiciously before digging into the bag and pulling out a fire-engine red lace pair of half-cheek panties and the brunette's cheeks burned almost to the same color of the panties. Emma nodded to the bag to let her know to keep digging. She reached her hand in again and pulled out a matching lace and satin corset with very low cups for her breasts. Regina's cheeks flushed even more and she cleared her throat. Little did Emma know, the dark-haired woman's core was burning just thinking of wearing this for the blonde.

"Miss Swan! What kind of gift is this?"

"Like I said, one for another day when we're ready. I could have let you open it at a later time, without me, but I'm really partial to that blush on your cheeks." Regina's blush deepened.

"When should we talk to Henry?"

"I could come over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Sounds great, dear. Now, get to work."


That night when Emma went home, Snow was cooking dinner. Emma set the table for three and helped Snow bring all the food to the table. Charming walked into the apartment and took off his coat, kissed Snow and gave Emma a half hug with his arm around her shoulders. They sat down to eat and Emma cleared her throat.

"So, as you guys know, I've been kind of seeing someone."

"Yes, and you won't tell us who."

"Well, I'm going to tell you today, but I need you to please be open-minded and realize that I'm already in love, I'm certain it's true love and nothing you say will turn me against it."

"Ok. What are you going to tell us? There isn't really anything that could be as bad as if you were suddenly madly in love with my mortal enemy, and since we all know that isn't going to happen, I think we can handle it, Emma," Snow said, trying to make light of the situation. Emma flushed and stuttered.

"Oh, um...well, I uh...I've kinda, um."

"Emma, spit it out," Charming interjected.

"Regina," Emma mustered the name out between two deep breaths. Both of her parents' mouths dropped and Emma quickly continued. "You guys honestly couldn't see that coming? I mean, she's Henry's other mom, I'm the only one who has ever been accepting of her and believed in her. She needed it and we love each other so much. I really need you guys to be ok with this."

"Emma, I…I don't know. I can try really hard to be ok with it, but I'm not sure how I feel about this," Snow replied.

"Emma, I just want you to be happy, so I'll support you," Charming stated, receiving a shocked look from his wife, he continued, "Snow, come on, Regina has saved us enough to make up for it. She had a miserable life before the curse, as queen, I think that she deserves to be happy, and Emma deserves to be happy. You heard Emma, if she is right and they are each other's true love, you know that we can't stop it from happening, so we need to just accept it."

"Anyway, the reason I bring this up, Regina invited all of us over for Christmas dinner on Saturday."

"She did? Snow white asked.

"Yes. She loves me, so she wants to include you to make me happy."

"We'll accept. Find out if she would like us to bring anything, ok?" Charming responded. Emma nodded and helped clear the table. She figured she would give them space to think on her news and headed up to bed early that night. Emma didn't have a good gift for the next day because she was starting to think that the gift she did have was not as appropriate so quickly. Instead, she pulled out a piece of her stationary and wrote a note of her feelings for the other woman.


Thursday morning when Emma got to Regina's office she gave her the scone and coffee she bought and dropped the note on her desk. She kissed the woman and told her she couldn't stay but she would see her that night for dinner. Regina felt slightly upset that Emma didn't stay to visit and wondered if something was wrong. She didn't have to wonder long. She opened the envelope with her letter opener and pulled out the stationary that matched her own.

Dear Regina,

I've told you once I'm terrible with words, but I wanted to express to you my feelings without bumbling over my words like I always do when I'm around you. I love you, and I know we've said as much, but I really, really love you. I want to make a promise to you that I'll always be here for you. If something happens where this doesn't work out, I promise that I'll be your friend. If everything works out the way I want it to, then I'll be here forever to kiss you every time I want to, or every time you want to. I know you lost your first love, and I know your husband was less than wonderful to you, and I won't let us be like that. I'll treasure every part of you for everyday of my life. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. You are the most incredible mother I could have ever given Henry to. I couldn't have asked for a better person to have on my side when we saved Henry. So, this letter is my promise to be whatever you need me to be, whoever you need me to be, until the day we are no longer living. I hope you'll accept that from me. I love you.

Always yours,

Emma

P.S. I have included a list of songs that I want you to listen to and think of me, because they all describe how I feel about us.

Regina was crying when she finished reading the letter from Emma. She looked at the second page to find a list of songs. She pulled out her laptop and pulled up a video music page. She was going to listen to every song that she saw on that list.

Everybody Talks – Neon Trees

Counting Stars – One Republic

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri

Mirrors - Justin Timberlake

Shake it Out – Florence + The Machine

One and Only – Adele

Never Let Me Go – Lana Del Rey

Begin Again – Taylor Swift

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard

Somewhere Only We Know – Keane

Lightweight – Demi Lovato

Don't Let Me Fall – Lenka

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers

Just a Kiss – Lady Antebellum

Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

Perfect – Alexz Johnson

Forever Love (Digame) – Anna Nalick

It Will Rain – Bruno Mars

What Part of Forever – Cee Lo Green

I understand it's a weird collection of songs, but some of them are ones I heard on the radio, some I heard on CDs I owned. A few were ones that I looked up when I was trying to listen to tortured music when I couldn't get you off my mind after Neverland. I hope you enjoy them all.

Regina listened to all the songs over and over and she couldn't decide which her favorite was. She sent her secretary out to purchase some blank discs and she bought all of the songs off the internet and made two copies of the playlist, one for her and one for Emma.


That evening when Regina heard the doorbell she practically ran out of the kitchen to answer it. She greeted Emma with a wide smile and pulled her in for a hug. Emma followed her into the kitchen, where she was finishing up the dinner. Regina had decided to make a homemade pizza, something easy and without too much clean up. After the brunette handed Emma a glass of wine, she wrapped her arms around the blonde's waist, holding her close.

"That was such a sweet, romantic gift. Thank you, Emma."

"It's funny, I was never really romantic until recently."

"Well maybe all of that pent up romance couldn't contain itself anymore."

"Maybe I just needed someone worthy of being romantic towards," Emma whispered, putting down her glass and putting her arms around Regina's shoulders. She leaned in and kissed the brunette slowly, biting the full bottom lip between her teeth.

"Eww, do you guys have to do that?" Henry asked as he walked into the kitchen. The women tore apart and Emma blushed but Regina smiled.

"Oh, so only you're allowed to kiss girls then, Henry?" Regina asked, almost teasing.

Henry's cheeks flushed and he shut his mouth, opening it again like he was going to say something, then closing it immediately, again.

"Ok, Henry, we'll do this now. Kissing is ok, it's completely normal and wanting to kiss is understandable at your age. However, under no circumstances do you kiss Gretel when Mr. Tillman thinks you are hanging out with Hansel. You are to treat girls properly, too. Do you understand? Don't you ever be mean, or call girls names that are hurtful, ok? If you are going to have sex, which right now you are way too young for, you be safe, use protection and you are absolutely never to do that in this house."

"Mom," Henry groaned. He looked to Emma to help him.

"I'm with her on this, kid. I'm sorry, but kissing girls is one thing, doing anything beyond that is a whole different ballpark that we are not ok with at your age. You are too young. On that note, if you're going to ignore our advice that sex makes babies and you are way too young for that, be safe and you can always talk to us. One of us or both of us, whatever makes you more comfortable, ok, kid?"

"Mom, mama, I'm not having sex, and I'm not ready for that, just please don't ever talk to me about this, again."

"The pizza should be just about done, Henry. I'll slice it and if it makes you more comfortable, you can take some up to your room for tonight."

Henry nodded and waited until Regina placed two pieces onto a plate for him and he headed upstairs. Emma waited until he was gone before pulling Regina back toward her for a hug.

"I had an idea."

"What is that idea, dear?"

"We should see if my parents want to take Henry for the night."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Eager to see me in that little outfit, dear?"

"Well, yes, but no, that's not why. I still want to take it a little slowly. You're off work tomorrow, yes?" She took Regina's nod as confirmation and continued. "Well, your gift tomorrow involves a little bit of driving, inside town still, but we will have to take a car. I want Henry to be included, but not when I give it to you because I'm not sure how you'll respond. And I want to do it early because I want to have the rest of the day for family bonding and pre-holiday preparations, so spending the night would be good, and if Henry goes to my parent's place then he wouldn't have to get up early for us to drop him off there."

"Ok, well if your parents are fine with it, then sure."

They made the arrangements and Henry agreed. The women ate while they were waiting for Charming to arrive to pick up Henry. When he got there, Emma let him in while he was waiting for Henry to grab his overnight bag and come back downstairs. Regina walked into the foyer and thanked Charming for taking Henry.

"It's our pleasure, really. He's my grandson, after all."

"Indeed."

"Regina, I just, uh, I wanted to say thanks for inviting us for Saturday. Is there anything we can bring?"

"No, I have it covered, but thank you for your offer."

"Sure. And, uh, thank you for making Emma happy. You're Emma's family, and to me that makes you my family, so welcome to the family, Regina." Regina smiled, she looked mildly uncomfortable with the encounter, but also somewhat touched. Emma however, was ecstatic that he was accepting them as a couple.

After Charming left and Regina cleaned up the kitchen, Emma alongside being batted away with softs hands every time she tried to help, the women headed up to Regina's bed. They curled against each other and slept through the entire night.