A/N: I've counted votes on both sites and PMs and tweets. Over eighty votes in total. Which is kinda scary! There was a clear winner and I promise you you'll like the way I end this even if you wanted the other option … This chapter is NSFW.
Regina didn't believe in clichés but if she could pat herself on the back without awkwardly bending her arm and looking a little crazy, she would have. Instead, she settled for thanking the travel agent and slipping the thick envelope into her purse. Once in her car, she couldn't help but pull it out again and flicked through the glossy brochure. Her thumb rubbed absentmindedly across the embossed tickets, each name printed precisely and making her heart flutter with excitement.
By the time she reached the diner that Friday night, she was late even by her standards. But, not wanting to spoil the surprise and admit she had left the office over two hours previous, she told a tiny white lie about a meeting running over by way of apology to Emma and Henry. In fact, it was so late, Emma was easily able to persuade the brunette to allow them to eat dinner at Granny's rather than waiting until they got home and rustled something up. Regina wouldn't admit it to anyone but she did sometimes crave Granny's grilled cheese sandwiches, a horribly unhealthy but delicious meal Emma had introduced her to some months before.
Henry was more than pleased to be granted permission to order a burger, although he wasn't allowed any more milkshakes after he admitted he'd already had two. Emma herself ordered a grilled cheese and smirked when Regina parroted her order. Little by little, she was encroaching her guilty pleasures on the stickler for health that was her girlfriend. Regina just narrowed her sparkling eyes when Emma snorted into her half-drunk milkshake after the brunette asked for a plate of fries for the table.
It had only been two days since Killian Jones was found guilty of attempted rape but Emma was a changed woman. Despite her reservations about her ability to move forward on Wednesday night, Regina was pleasantly surprised by how upbeat and smiley Emma had been. She wasn't quite sure of the reasons but she suspected it had a lot to do with Henry. After all, who could fail to feel happy around her perfect son.
"Oh Henry!" she admonished as her newly arrived cup of tea flooded the table.
She and Emma jumped up and scooted away from the brown liquid, Emma tugged Henry out of the way of the cascading hot drink just as Ruby appeared with a cloth.
Ok, Regina amended in her head, almost perfect.
Regina waited until Henry was tucked up in bed later that night before she presented Emma with the envelope. The blonde was typing away on her laptop and looked up in surprise when a hand appeared in front of her face.
"What's this?" she asked, taking the envelope from Regina and opening the flap.
Regina didn't answer and simply sank down beside the blonde and watched as Emma pulled out the travel brochure.
"You want to go on vacation?" Emma asked, glancing up at Regina.
"Yes, but more specifically than that," Regina said, reaching over and tugging the tips of the tickets which she'd slid between the relevant pages.
Emma allowed the magazine to fall into her lap and opened it on the marked page. Slowly, her fingers extended and she picked up the three tickets she found there, taking in the details before her eyes drifted to the stunning photos on the pages beneath.
"Barbados?" she asked, in a whisper.
"What do you think?" Regina asked, unsure quite what was going through Emma's mind.
"I think …," Emma began, her fingers caressing the glossy page where a deserted white sand beach rolled into a turquoise ocean with a brilliant blue, cloudless sky high above it, "I think I don't have a passport."
"I know," Regina said. "I thought we'd get you one. If you want to go, that is."
"Of course I want to go," Emma said, looking at Regina for the first time since she had seen the tickets. "I've never been on a proper vacation before. Aside from a couple of camping trips with foster families, anyway."
"Then I think this is long overdue," Regina smiled. "I haven't taken Henry on an airplane before so that will be a little interesting but we always go away somewhere during the summer. I want to get him used to flying though and since he's nearly five, I thought we could start."
"I'm sure he'll be fine if he has Marlo," Emma remarked. "I didn't fly until I was twenty. Scared the shit out of me. Still does actually."
"I'll hold your hand," Regina said, reaching over and entangling their fingers as she spoke.
Emma smiled at her but the grin suddenly faltered and faded.
"There's only one problem … I mean, I don't have any money."
Regina smiled softly. She knew this would come up. She wasn't sure whether it was just the way Emma was or because of her time spent on the streets but the blonde was not someone who liked to take hand-outs. Ever since she started working, she had been paying fifty dollars each week towards their food bills. Regina had tried to protest at first but eventually gave in. Both women knew the brunette payed for the vast majority of their lives but it seemed to offer Emma some comfort to know she contributed a little even though Regina insisted she didn't need to. Therefore the older woman wasn't at all surprised when Emma's first thought about the holiday was money-related.
"It's your birthday present," Regina said.
"But you've already given me my present," Emma said, her fingers coming to stroke the swan pendant which she had not taken off since her girlfriend presented it to her five days before.
"It's your other birthday present," Regina amended. "And also a summer vacation for Henry. And myself, come to that."
"Regina, I can't let you pay for all this," Emma said.
"Honey, you know I don't mind. You also know I get paid a ridiculous amount of money and I'd like to spend some of it. On us. As a family. This is a trip for all of us, Emma. What's mine is yours."
"You make it sound like we're married."
There was a long silence. Emma bit her lip, realising too late the implications behind her words. Regina eventually cleared her throat and continued.
"I want to pay for this for us. I want to give you and Henry a great vacation and I really don't want you to be worrying about money. I know I've had a privileged upbringing and I've never really had any financial concerns so I can't understand your feelings on this. But I would like you to try and recognise that this trip is one of the ways in which I would like to spend my money. No, it's not cheap, but I think it's worth it."
Emma hesitated before nodding her understanding. Regina beamed at her and leaned forwards, kissing her deeply. Emma fell backwards with an eager Regina on top of her, fingers tangled in her hair as her thighs cradled Regina's waist.
Half an hour later, Regina was scanning through a case file and Emma was once more typing on the laptop. She had surprised herself with the new routine into which she had fallen. After telling Henry his nightly story, she would fire up Regina's laptop and record what she had said. She'd embellish a little as she typed, adding better or more varied adjectives and giving the story a little extra detail. She already had a dozen Marlo tales saved in a folder entitled 'Henry's stories'. Regina hadn't commented on the new habit but she was secretly pleased. Emma seemed at last to be recognising that her stories were worth recording. Regina also hadn't mentioned why she first wanted Emma to begin noting down her imaginative tales. She was trying to think of the best way to bring it up.
Regina herself was supposed to be working but she kept glancing over at her girlfriend. Emma's brow furrowed slightly as she typed and occasionally her tongue poked out between her pale lips, the concentration evident and adorable. Regina's eyes snapped back to the file in her hand when Emma caught her staring and she refocused on the briefing paper she had received that day from Robin Locksley. Working with him and his law firm had become far more bearable over the past few months. Ever since her relationship with Emma had hit the papers during Killian Jones' trial, her mother had stopped trying to set the two of them up. In fact, her mother had stopped talking to her outside of work altogether. Regina wasn't too saddened by this loss.
"Ready for bed?" Emma asked, closing the laptop lid minutes later.
Regina glanced at her watch. "It's barely nine. Are you tired?"
"No," Emma said, a glint in her eye. "And I asked you if you were ready to go to bed, not if you were ready for sleep."
Regina felt her insides tighten slightly at the sultry tone of Emma's voice. She tossed her papers onto the couch beside her and at once felt the blonde's hands cup her jaw, pulling their lips together in a heated kiss.
By the time they stumbled into the bedroom, Regina's blouse was unbuttoned and Emma's shorts unzipped. They knew they were being careless and that Henry could have walked out of his room at any moment but both women were too turned on to care. It was the first time they had been together since Emma's birthday night. Before the trial verdict came in, Emma had been too preoccupied and afterwards she had still been somewhat distracted. Now however, her hands skated confidently over Regina's sides and down to her hips where she grasped the pert ass through the brunette's slacks.
Emma found herself being pushed gently onto the bed. She sat on the edge of it and watched, her heart racing, as Regina slowly removed her open blouse and dropped it carelessly onto the floor. Her slender fingers hooked next into the top of her pants, pushing them down her legs until she was stood only in her underwear. It wasn't a matching set but from the look on Emma's face, she couldn't care less about the fact that her bra was pale blue and her thong was black.
Pale hands reached out and tugged Regina towards her by the edge of her thong. The brunette chuckled and stepped forward, climbing up to straddle Emma and kissing her softly. She could kiss Emma for hours, days even. The soft, thin lips moved pliantly with her own, the hot mouth welcoming the swish of her tongue before Emma took control herself. Sharp teeth bit gently on her lip and a tongue swiped the pinched flesh. Regina groaned, her hips rocking forwards, trying to relieve some of the growing pressure in her core.
Emma lay back on the bed, pulling Regina down with her and continuing the kiss. Her hands tangled in the brown hair which fell forward, pushing it back and allowing her fingers to play with Regina's ears as she did so. Regina shuddered in delight and Emma smirked into their kiss. She loved how well she knew her girlfriend's body. Over the months they had been together, Emma had diligently explored every millimetre of Regina's skin, peppered every centimetre with a thousand kisses and soft caresses. She didn't think she'd ever get enough of the brunette above her.
With a practiced flick of her fingers, Regina's bra fell from her back, and Emma pulling the straps down her arms, slid it out from between their bodies, and flung it blindly away. She kissed Regina again, her hands sliding up and down the uninterrupted expanse of smooth skin of her back now available to her, fingers gliding over each of the slight undulations which marked out Regina's ribcage, sliding around the delicate jut of her shoulder bones and running over the notches in her spine. Regina shivered as the tips of Emma's fingers dipped just below her thong, tracing the top of her ass before returning to her bare back.
"You're overdressed," the brunette mumbled against kiss-swollen lips.
"I know," Emma replied, her words equally muffled since neither woman wanted to create any significant distance between their mouths.
The kisses continued until Regina's urge to feel Emma's skin against her own was too great and she pulled away, despite a whimper of protest from the blonde. Emma fell silent however when her tank top was tugged quickly over her head and her sports bra followed it seconds later. Her nipples strained against the sudden rush of balmy June air and Regina's fingers ghosted over the tight tips before moving to Emma's stomach and on to where her jeans shorts lay unbuttoned but still in place. She removed them quickly, the fabric tumbling unnoticed to the floor as both women focused only on the other.
Regina sat astride Emma's hips, her still-covered sex pressed tightly against Emma's pubic bone. Her fingernails raked tenderly up and down the flat planes of the blonde's stomach, teasingly running along the underside of each breast before returning southwards once more. Emma's muscles tensed and fluttered with each delightful touch.
"Regina," Emma stammered as the heat low in her belly coiled to an almost unbearable height.
The brunette smirked and swung herself off Emma. She removed both their underwear and then returned to her position, the smooth skin of their sexes now touching. Emma reached up and pulled Regina down on top of her, kissing her lips fiercely as she rocked her hips upwards. Allowing Regina to dominate the kiss, Emma surprised the older woman by flipping her over, laying between her now spread thighs and palming a breast roughly. Regina gasped into the kiss and pulled away, her eyes dark with lust. Emma grinned coquettishly back at her before slinking down Regina's body until she was nestled between her legs.
Regina propped herself against the pillows at the head of the bed. She loved to watch Emma feasting between her thighs. Emma's green eyes met her own and she blew her a kiss just before pale lips dipped to her aching sex. The tip of Emma's tongue parted her folds, tracing over her entrance and sliding up through her already slick core until it reached her clit. Her mouth covered it, a tender kiss to the sensitive bundle before she retreated, licking another, stronger line. Regina shuddered in delight.
For her part, Emma wrapped her arms around Regina's upper thighs, her hands splayed wide on the soft skin, easing her legs even further apart. She used the flat of her tongue to lave her girlfriend's glistening core, the addictive taste making her feel light-headed and extremely aroused. She focused that night, not on Regina's clit which would have brought the brunette to orgasm within minutes, but her entrance. She ran her tongue around the small hole, collecting the juices which gathered there before she dipped inside. She couldn't reach as far as with her fingers but she loved the feel of the tight muscles clenching and unclenching around her tongue as she pumped. The hot, slippery flesh surrounded her, the tip of her nose buried close to Regina's clit and as she rocked forwards, mewls of pleasure reached her ears.
Emma sucked slightly, her tongue still inside as she curled it against the front wall of Regina's channel, her lower face was covered in her girlfriend's essence already and she could feel more coating her tongue. Thighs began to quiver, Regina's body climbing steadily towards its pleasure high. When she heard the breathless plea, Emma obliged, replacing her tongue with two long fingers, pumping hard and deep at once as her tired tongue moved to lave attention to Regina's neglected clit, wriggling and twirling around it until the brunette exploded. The stifled cry and the clenching passage made Emma moan in delight and pride, her fingers buried deep inside the older woman and her mouth sealed hotly around her clit.
After a few seconds, tender fingers on the top of her head told Emma that Regina was too sensitive for any more. Somewhat reluctantly she lifted her face and licked her lips. Sliding her fingers free, she sucked each one clean, never once allowing her eyes to leave Regina's flushed face.
"Wow you're good," Regina panted, pushing her sweaty hair back from her face.
"Thanks," Emma smiled, crawling back up Regina and kissing her.
The brunette's hand wrapped around Emma's neck when she tried to pull back and the kiss deepened, Regina always enjoying the taste of her own pleasure on Emma's tongue and lips. When at last she did let the blonde go, she shuffled herself down the bed and beckoned Emma towards her face. An eyebrow rose.
"Really?" Emma asked.
"Why not?"
Emma shrugged and was already rising onto her knees and moving upwards towards Regina's head as she answered. "Just thought that of the two of us you're the one more likely to be the queen," she remarked as she settled her knees on either side of Regina's ears.
"Oh but my dear," Regina said, her arms encircling Emma's thighs and tugging her girlfriend down so her sex was millimetres from plump lips, "who's to say I'm not the one in control?"
Emma cried out and fell forwards, her hands gripping the headboard hard as her girlfriend's tongue swiped aggressively across her core. She knew she was aroused. Eating Regina's cunt always made her throb with pleasure but at that moment she realised she could climax embarrassingly quickly. And Regina knew it too. The clever tongue moved deftly towards her tight bundle of nerves, drawing a random mixture of patterns against the tender nub before a hot mouth enveloped it. Emma's body shuddered, her back arching as she subconsciously pushed down onto Regina's face. The muffled moan only turned her on more and she rocked herself back and forth as her girlfriend's tongue danced against her core.
Regina didn't care that it took Emma less than two minutes to come. She didn't care that the scream which reverberated off the walls might have woken her son. She didn't care that her lungs were burning with a need for oxygen as her girlfriend's sex pressed hard against her mouth and nose. Regina didn't care about any of it. All she cared about was Emma's pleasure. She licked and sucked and drank down everything Emma poured out against her mouth, the taste of her orgasm combined with her need to breathe making her light-headed. Just as she was about to tap Emma's ass and ask her to move, the blonde collapsed to one side, panting and sweaty and Regina took in great lungfuls of air before rolling over as well. She watched as Emma recovered, her chest rising and falling, a brilliant blush on her skin and her legs lying limply open. Regina had to restrain herself from diving back in but she sensed that the blonde needed a moment to recover.
Eventually, Emma sat up and twisted herself around so her head lay beside Regina's on the pillow, her eyes half-closed in post-coital bliss and a dopey smile on her face.
"Well, that was amazing," she murmured, kissing Regina's lips lightly and throwing an arm over a slender waist.
"Yes it was," Regina nodded. "Although if Henry asks what we were doing last night, you're making up an excuse this time, ok?"
Emma bit her lip. "Was I that loud?" she asked.
Regina nodded. "And I loved it."
Emma chuckled. She liked how Regina enjoyed her vocal performances in bed. It was a good thing, really, since Emma wasn't exactly a quiet lover. Neither, come to that, was Regina.
Over the next few weeks, Emma and Regina planned their upcoming vacation. The youth centre had given Emma ten days off work and Regina had simply emailed her mother to say she wouldn't be available for the last week in July. Henry was very excited and would sit in front of Regina's world map in her office and trace the line between New York and Barbados, marvelling at the distance which could be covered in just a few short hours by air. There had been no less than four separate shopping trips. Emma hated shopping but even she had enjoyed the time they spent in Bloomingdales picking out bikinis. Regina had modelled at least ten for her and the two of them had ended up in bed seconds after getting home from the store. Luckily Henry was on a playdate that day.
Acquiring Emma's passport caused a little stress however. As a foster kid with a criminal record, she had run into a few snags when applying but since she had a birth certificate (not the original but one she'd had for almost twenty-three years) eventually it was granted. She hated the photo in it but Regina assured her that was something which came with the luxury of international travel.
"You look amazing in yours," Emma had protested when Regina had shown her the snapshot.
"No, I don't," Regina had admonished. "My eyes have bags under them and my hair is completely flat."
"I look like an escaped mental patient," Emma had retorted. "Look! My eyes are all stare-y and my teeth look like I want to bite you."
Regina had raised her eyebrow and winked at the comment and that evening had quickly moved into the bedroom too.
"Ready?" Regina asked on a Saturday morning towards the end of July. "We need to leave or we'll be late."
She was standing in the doorway to their bedroom and watching as Emma tried to zip up her suitcase.
"Almost," the blonde replied, kneeling on the lid of her case in an attempt to force it closed.
Regina crossed the room to help her and between them they got it shut. Emma thanked her and then disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door. Regina lugged the suitcase into the hallway where Henry was standing beside his own luggage and Regina's. She bent down and rubbed the raspberry jam from Henry's cheek with her thumb and then double checked that she had all three passports and the tickets in her handbag.
"Where's Emma?" Henry asked.
"I'll go and find her," Regina said.
She walked back down the hall and into the empty bedroom. Frowning, she knocked on the bathroom door and heard a grunt in reply.
"Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.
There was silence and then the sound of the lock scraping back and the door opened. Emma looked rather pale and her skin was damp. Regina immediately held a hand to her forehead, which felt a little hot. The blonde ducked away.
"What's up?"
"Nothing, I'm fine. Let's go," Emma said, pushing lightly past Regina and out into the hall.
"No. Stop, Emma," Regina instructed.
The blonde did, surprising both of them in her obedience. She waited until Regina rounded her and then shrugged her shoulders in an almost teenage-like manner.
"What?"
"I was going to ask you that," Regina said, eyebrow raised at the sulky tone. "What's wrong?"
Emma looked down at the floor, her flip-flop clad foot running backwards and forwards over the carpet. Regina reached for her hand and squeezed. She hadn't seem Emma like this in months. She seemed so … shy, nervous unsure of herself. It reminded Regina of the woman she had met on that cold January day which had changed both their lives.
"I don't like flying," Emma mumbled eventually, raising her green eyes to meet Regina's concerned gaze.
Regina could have kicked herself for forgetting what the blonde had told her the day she had presented the tickets. The two of them had talked several times about how best to entertain Henry during their hours in the air but neither of them had ever mentioned the fact that Emma wasn't exactly thrilled about being off solid ground.
"It's very safe," Regina began. "Remember all those things we looked up to reassure Henry if he needs it? All those statistics. And think about how many thousands of flights take off every day. Every minute, even. People travel by plane all the time, Emma. It's going to be fine."
"I know," Emma said, wiping away a stray tear angrily. She hated showing weakness. "But I still don't like the idea of being in a massive metal box hundreds of metres off the ground held up by two puny wings. I mean, how can that possibly work?"
"Do you really want a physics lesson?" Regina asked.
Emma managed a smile. "No," she said. "And I'm sorry. I know we're going to be late if we don't leave now. Come on."
She moved past Regina and towards the door but before she could step into the hallway, a hand encircled her wrist.
"Wha-?"
Before Emma could finish her question, a mouth covered her own, kissing her softly as arms wrapped around her body. Regina hugged her close, trying to convey her love through her lips and tongue.
"I'd never, ever let anything happen to you, Emma," Regina murmured when they broke apart. "And I promise you it won't on this flight."
"Ok," Emma whispered back.
"Ok," Regina replied with a smile.
Their hands clasped and together they walked back into the hall where they found Henry waiting for them, one hand on his hip and a finger from the other tapping his newly gifted watch and frowning.