A/N: Enjoy! (Also, I know having separate recycling bins and collection isn't so common in some places in the states, and I debated whether to include a mention of it, but I figure Regina's pretty slick at running things and would hopefully have the good sense to be green, evil or not, so I kept it in there :p )
Flicking through one of the cookbooks piled on the edge of the blonde's kitchen island, Regina looks up when Emma pads over and takes up a stool beside her.
"Have you ever used any of these?"
She asks doubtfully, and the blonde shakes her head.
"Nope. They were a Christmas present from my mom. A very unsubtle suggestion that I might like to try making things other than pancakes and pasta wrapped up to look like a gift."
"It's the thought that counts."
The brunette smirks, and the younger woman yawns and muses
"In that case, I'm fairly sure the thought was 'please stop eating our leftovers every time you invite yourself over, you're thirty years old'."
"Mm. Perhaps... Though, if I'd thought that might work, I'd have bought you some myself by now."
"What, and put a stop to me coming over for dinner with you and the kid?"
"Oh, I'm sure you would have found other reasons to bother us."
Regina sighs dramatically, nodding affirmatively when the blonde pushes herself up to fetch a bottle of red wine from her pantry. Studying the soft fall of pale curls, she frowns as she understands what has kept the younger woman busy up in her room for so long.
"Did you blow dry your hair?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"... My dear, I've seen you in all manner of states. You really don't need to start trying to impress me when I know full well it's a good day when you bother to even locate your brush."
"I'm not trying to impress you, I've done that already."
Emma chuckles, pouring them each a glass of pinot noir and placing the half-empty bottle beside the hob.
"So why the effort?"
The brunette frowns.
"You know, you're asking a hell of a lot of questions that some might consider kind of offensive given that the subtext is that you're highly surprised I look decent."
"Some might take offence, you won't, dear."
Regina shrugs.
"Mm. True. Not your best attempt."
"No attempt at all on my part, Saviour. If I mean to hurt you, you'll know it."
"Flirt."
The blonde sighs wistfully, before running a hand through her freshly washed curls and offering the Queen her answer.
"I just figured it would be nice to have dinner without Henry picking up on the fact that we've both showered while being here together."
"I really don't think he'd jump to any conclusions, Miss Swan."
The brunette wrinkles her nose, and Emma raises a brow as she reasons
"I'm not so much concerned that he'd jump to the right conclusion, rather that he'd think we've been up to something interesting and dangerous that we're keeping him in the dark about. We don't need the kid to start an intelligence mission that might lead him hell knows where."
"Alright, that's a fair point... Although, I would argue that our time together has been plenty interesting and dangerous."
Regina muses, earning herself a wicked grin from the blonde that suggests she's hoping for more where that came from.
"To be continued..."
The Queen promises as a loud knock sounds on the front door, and Emma's grin widens as she slips from the kitchen to go and let Henry in.
"Hey."
She fixes the boy with a more appropriate smile, and Henry reciprocates as he ducks past her and takes off his shoes. This is not a practice she has ever requested of him and seems simply to be a habit, and she smirks accordingly before remembering what Regina had said about the Queen snapping at the kid for his manners while wearing her guise.
"That dirty, are you?"
She teases, and Henry shakes his head and informs her seriously
"No, I wore my rainboots when helping at the stable."
"I meant more... Never mind."
Emma sighs as she leads them through into the kitchen where Regina greets Henry and raises a brow as she catches the uncertain glance he throws towards the blonde, her unlikely scolding back in their mansion seemingly still on his mind. Watching as the Sheriff pulls herself up to perch cross-legged on the counter so that the boy might take her seat, she hides a smirk, imagining that all normality might well be restored in a manner of minutes now that it's really Emma back in control of her actions.
"Did you have fun with the horses, dear?"
She asks, tugging pointedly at the thick folds of Henry's scarf to remind him that he shouldn't wear his outer things inside.
After all, from myself, such common sense is simply expected...
"Yes, it was nice."
Henry replies, removing striped wool from around his neck and folding it on the counter along with his coat.
"I actually-"
"-You know where the closet is."
Regina interrupts, and she catches the small grin the younger woman offers her and cordially ignores it.
"Fine."
Henry huffs, collecting his things and taking them out into the hallway to be put away. Returning to the kitchen with a puzzled frown, he turns to Emma.
"What happened to the inside of your closet?"
"Huh?"
"There are dents in the wood and it's a mess in there."
He elaborates curiously, and the blonde's confused expression suddenly breaks into one of understanding and she clears her throat.
"Oh, nothing... I shut myself in there when hanging my coat up and knocked the door, I guess."
Emma explains awkwardly, her mind racing with images of the Queen wearing her guise to seduce the Mayor. Now that she's not terrified of the repercussions and damage to her friendship with the darker woman in light of her cruel charade, she finds the situation a great deal more amusing, but she struggles to find a suitable answer to Henry's inquiry.
"Really? It looks like you did more than knock the wood, there are scratches... And how did you shut yourself in? There's no lock..."
"Yes, Miss Swan, how did that happen?"
Regina chips in from her seat at the table, smirking over the rim of her glass.
"I... I wasn't wearing my contacts and it was dark."
Emma suggests lamely.
"Why were you putting your coat away in the dark?"
Henry frowns.
"I-... Look, do you want to order food, or are we all just going to starve?"
Emma growls, shifting uncomfortably in her seat and knocking her wine over to spill down the counter and onto the floor.
"Fuck."
She sighs.
"Sheriff!"
Regina snaps, glaring at the blonde before looking pointedly at Henry.
"Sorry, kid."
The younger woman mutters, and the boy shrugs and offers her a grin, unsure why she seems so flustered; her cheeks flushed uncharacteristically pink.
"It's fine. It's nothing I haven't heard before."
"Mm. I wonder where?"
The Mayor muses silkily, her eyes never leaving the blonde, and Emma lowers her own gaze uneasily as she mutters her thanks to Henry who wipes away the spilt wine with a swatch of kitchen towel.
"Use something to clean it properly or it will stain."
Regina speaks up, and the Sheriff nods as she slips down from her perch and takes the ruby-soaked tissue from the boy along with the rest of the roll.
"She's right. I've got this. Go have a look in the drawer of the table in the hallway. There should be some takeout menus in there. Have a look at what you might like."
"Okay."
Henry agrees, watching the blonde search beneath the sink for something to clean with, before padding off to fetch the well-used take-out menus stacked alongside the younger woman's important documents.
"You weren't wearing your contacts?!"
Regina scoffs once the boy walks out of earshot, rolling her eyes at Emma's ridiculous explanation offered for the state of her closet.
"Well, what did you want me to say?!"
The blonde hisses as she scrubs at the floor.
"Honestly, dear, if you hadn't made such a fuss in the first place, there wouldn't be an issue now."
The Queen shrugs, smirking as this earns her a growled expletive from the Sheriff, and she sips delicately at her wine as she considers the younger woman's knelt position favourably.
"That's a good look on you..."
She murmurs, and Emma glances over her shoulder at her curiously before narrowing her eyes in understanding.
"You've enjoyed it plenty of times before."
She sighs as she pushes herself up and pours herself a fresh glass of pinot, and the darker woman makes a see-saw motion with her hand and points out
"Half of me has. The other half hasn't given it a great deal of thought until now..."
"Thought about what?"
Henry asks as he reclaims his seat at the table and fans the colourful offerings out in front of him to be met with a dutiful sigh from his mother.
"Yeah, Regina, thought about what?"
Emma plays the brunette's cruel game back at her, and the Mayor raises an eyebrow.
"Thought about what dismal choice of cuisine I'm in the mood for tonight."
She shrugs, staring the blonde down witheringly over the top of their son's head as Henry leans over the table and studies the menus.
"Emma said I could choose."
He reminds her boldly, and the Sheriff hops back up onto the counter and wrinkles her nose.
"Well, sort of. I didn't say that exactly, I just told you to have a look at what sort of thing you might like... And if your mom carries on with that attitude, she'll be lucky if she gets anything tonight at all."
"Hardly a threat, Miss Swan, I've had plenty already."
The brunette replies silkily, looking down at her wine as though bored.
"Are you full, then?"
Henry asks, looking up at the Mayor.
"She's full of something..."
Emma mutters down at her own glass, and the Queen throws her a warning glower, before smiling at the boy and shaking her head.
"I can eat. What looks good, dear?"
"Pizza?"
Henry suggests hopefully, and Regina pulls a face simply because she knows it's expected of her, but doesn't put any effort into arguing when she knows it will make the others happy.
"Pizza?"
The boy asks again, looking over his shoulder at the blonde, and she nods agreeably and slips down from her perch to find her phone.
"Same as usual?"
She asks the others, catching the Mayor's dark stare for a moment and imagining that somewhere in there, the Queen is positively reeling at the realisation that they've reached such a level of comfort with one another that she needn't say any more than this.
Shit... And we were both really still playing our 'totally not in the least way at all interested in you' card...
"The usual."
Regina agrees, a tic to her jaw suggesting that she's struggling with her own thoughts on the matter; in no way helped when the blonde offers her a knowing smirk.
"Is everything okay?"
Henry asks quietly as Emma retreats into the corner to place their order.
"Okay?"
The brunette frowns, before realising that she'd bid him farewell earlier with a warning that he would do well to leave the blonde be for a little while as she would be dealing with a couple of things and might not want company.
"Emma's alright... Well, as you know, with Miss Swan, I use that term loosely. The woman is wildly unhinged and then some, but... She's okay."
Regina smiles, her tone taking any bite out of cruel words, and Henry simply rolls his eyes as he has grown used to each of his mothers slandering the other with ever more exotic accusations since the two have become friends. He loves and knows each of them well, and he is fully aware of what to look out for in order to deduce whether their words are meant in jest or out of spite.
It's hardly ever anything unkind anymore...
He muses, thinking back on the last couple of days in particular where Regina had seemed increasingly concerned about the blonde with seemingly very little cause, and her promise that she would check in on her this afternoon to make sure everything was okay. He has his suspicions that there might be something else going on as it is unusual that his grandparents might be asked to babysit rather than simply offering to do so out of their own interest in spending time with him, but he knows better than to ask questions.
If I ask Regina, she'll tell me to mind myself and stop being nosey. If I ask Emma, she'll pretend not to know what I'm talking about, or just grin at me saying nothing.
History has taught him so, and so he simply makes a mental note that something seems afoot and smiles at the blonde as she pulls up a third chair and tells them dinner will be with them in around thirty minutes.
"It's snowing!"
Henry yells as he lets himself back in through the door and stamps his feet inside Emma's boots to remove some of the virginal flakes, before slipping out of them and reentering the kitchen.
"And your recycling is almost full."
He greets the women sat at the table, and Regina frowns as she scolds him
"Don't shout, we're right here."
Before turning to the blonde and offering her a smirk.
"Impressive, though, that you live alone yet you've accumulated that much recycling, dear. Busy week?"
"It's mostly boxes!"
Emma protests, pointing at Henry and reminding the Mayor
"The kid just put our empty wine bottle in there, and other than that, it's mostly the boxes I emptied out of the shed from the other day! And it's every two weeks they come and collect it, anyway."
"Mm."
Regina offers, relishing the irritation that finds green eyes and her subsequent memories of rough leather, panted threats and aggression.
"It was mostly cardboard."
Henry chips in, taking the blonde's side, and this doesn't surprise the darker woman in the slightest.
She's got that child wrapped around her little finger...
The Queen speaks up irritably in light of the boy's undesirable show of loyalty, but the Mayor simply sighs and lets the matter go.
In many ways, she does, but that's not why Henry does it. He does it because Emma teases, whereas you bite, and sometimes you bite too hard and realise too late.
"I'm fairly sure a couple of the bottles that are in there are mine, anyway."
She chuckles to call an end to the matter, and Emma nods in agreement as she leans across the table and tops up her glass pointedly.
"Aren't we going home?"
Henry frowns, glancing over at the clock to see that it's a little past nine.
"Oh... Yeah, I guess you should."
The blonde stops pouring, looking from the finger of pinot in the Mayor's glass to the woman in question with a slightly bemused expression; thrown to be caught out as she has been, but recognising a similar expression of wary realisation mirrored back at her.
I wasn't even thinking about that... Wasn't even thinking about the time and that we'd be calling it a night as we always have before...
"Henry should get some sleep in his own bed before school."
The Mayor agrees in a curiously bland tone.
"Mary Margaret always makes sure I'm on time."
The boy pipes up, but she ignores this assertion with a dismissive shake of her head.
"It's still getting late for a school night."
She states firmly, pushing her wine glass towards the blonde with a pang of regret that sits strangely in her gut.
"You better finish that, dear, I still have to get us home."
"Yeah, sure."
Emma agrees, running her finger distractedly over the darker woman's lip-print on the rim.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
Regina replies, pushing herself up from the table and gathering her things while Henry does the same. Waiting for the boy to disappear into the hallway to put on his shoes, she leans down swiftly and steals a kiss; the act sweet, but her teeth dangerous. Teasing. Bold.
"Goodnight, Saviour."
She hisses, her hand finding the younger woman's throat as it had several times in the Enchanted Forest, and she presses her thumb purposefully against the bruise left by her earlier affection through the black wool of the blonde's turtleneck sweater.
"Night."
Emma smiles, meeting the malice in dark eyes with caged savagery, and the affection shining brightly through with kind mirth.
"See you tomorrow, kid!"
She calls, following Regina out into the hallway and seeing the others off into the snow.