The phone rang, and Regina sprung apart from Emma, only then realizing how close they had been, not just then but in the last twenty-four hours. She flushed and cleared her throat, apologizing for no reason as she walked to the phone on the kitchen wall.

"Yes?" She answered the phone hastily, briefly catching Emma's eye as the blonde leaned against the counter looking just as flustered as Regina felt. She shook her head when she realized who was calling. "You forgot your cell phone here, Ms. Bell? No, I will return it to you on Monday."

She hung up the phone and leaned against the wall, tilting her head at the blonde.

"So," Emma began, crossing her arms over her chest with a playful smirk on her face, "want to watch an adult movie?"

Regina rolled her eyes but lead the way back to family room, a pleased Emma trailing behind her.


In the week following their hang out, Emma and Regina found themselves spending nearly every waking moment, and even a few sleeping moments together. Emma had an inkling that what she felt toward Regina was something more than a physical attraction long before their makeshift date, but now she was sure. She loved Regina's mind, the way her nose wrinkled when Emma said something idiotic or the way her normally dark chocolate eyes lightened to a golden brown when she was happy. The fact that more than a few of those smiles were directed at Emma had the blonde throwing one of her own.

With each passing day, they allowed to let whatever it was between them flourish. They cuddled on the couch during television time, Emma's arm draping the back of the couch before it eventually fell across Regina's shoulder, hugging her protectively though Henry squished himself between them when he wasn't dancing to the songs playing on the current Disney movie of the week. More times than not whenever they entered a room, Regina would always be one step ahead, taking Emma by the hand to follow until eventually they'd allow their fingers to clasp naturally. They spoke longer and longer, well into the night where they had fallen asleep on the couch. More little touches were shared between them, a hand on the back or grasping at hands to gain attention, and without fail they would smile knowingly, feeling the electricity course through them. By the end of the week, Emma was back in Regina's bed simply to continue their conversation where the women yearned to make the night last longer.

It scared her how much she liked Regina. More than liked Regina most of the time, but whenever that thought flourished she pushed it down because how could she feel like that in just under a month? But it wasn't a month. Not really. She'd known Regina, really knew her, for years. Emma let out a breathy laugh at that thought. Who would have thought Emma Swan of all people could get through to Storybrooke's Mayor?

It'd be wrong to start anything with her now. Emma was going back to Georgia next week. But when she got back, maybe they could explore things together. Maybe their little innocent touches would have more significance placed on them. But not now. Now it was too late to do anything except enjoy what they had.

The first Saturday of May had Emma without the brunette who constantly filled her thoughts. She wasn't even with Henry, which raised red flags for the blonde when Regina encouraged Emma to hang out with Ruby when the young waitress called on her suddenly, and to Regina's dismay, Mary Margaret as well. She'd have to figure out the story behind Regina's undisguised mask of disgust when Emma mentioned she and Ruby would be at Mary Margaret's loft.

But for the time being, she was at Mary Margaret's apartment sitting around an old wooden table with mismatched chairs and more nail polish in front of her than she had ever seen in her life.

"Are you sure you don't want me to give you a manicure?" Mary Margaret asked while Ruby filed her own nails into cat claws.

Emma shook her head, continuing to nurse her hot cocoa. "I don't like to have them painted while in service."

"Really?" The waitress asked in surprise. "Why not?"

"In case anything happens, the medics can use your nails to check your vitals," the blonde explained. She picked up spare file and examined her nails. "I can shape them though."

"That's so crazy," Mary Margaret oohed in amazement. She leaned closer to Emma, her elbow resting on the table as her hand held up her chin. "What's it like?"

"Pretty sure that's confidential, MM," Ruby snorted and dropped the file to put a base coat on.

Emma laughed. "You two make it seem like I'm a secret agent."

"Henry calls it a knight," Mary Margaret informed. At Emma's questioning look, she continued. "I babysat for him once."

"And only," Ruby snorted.

The pixie-haired woman flushed a deep pink and fiddled, momentarily forgetting about the wet paint on her nails and frowned. "It could have happened to anybody, and we were at the park, and-"

"Oh my god, that was you?" Emma exclaimed half amused and half angered. "You're the one who was watching Henry when he got lost in the forest?"

Mary Margaret stammered, baffled, ashamed, and embarrassed all at the same time.

Ruby just laughed and blew on her nails. "You should have seen Regina. She was livid. She got up and left her meeting and rounded up everyone she saw on the way to the park to start a search. I swear, she was going to rip Mary Margaret's heart out of her chest for losing Henry."

"He was hiding in a bush. It was only for half an hour," reasoned the school teacher.

"He was two!" Emma argued, her voice rising an octave. She was protective of Henry when Regina had written about the experience and she hadn't even met him. Now that she knew the landscape of Storybrooke and just how vast those woods were, she was just as protective as Regina if not more so.

Mary Margaret ducked her head as Ruby spoke. "That's why Mayor Mills always brings Henry into her meetings now or schedules them while Henry is at daycare. Until you came to town that is."

"Yeah, that's just 'cause I'm at home."

Ruby smiled softly, pausing her painting to examine Emma thoughtfully. "Home, huh?" Ruby wiggled her eyebrows knowingly.

It was Emma's turn to blush, but she didn't want to deny that that's what the mansion felt like, that Regina and Henry meant so much.

"I think it's sweet," Mary Margaret chimed in. "It's nice to see Regina open up to someone."

"Could have been you if you didn't lose her kid," Ruby gibed in a sing-song voice.

She threw a cotton ball at Ruby and glared, but all the waitress did was bat it away like a ball, making Emma laugh at their interaction.

"Aren't you a teacher?" She questioned Mary Margaret. "How'd you lose him?"

If Emma thought the pink she turned minutes ago was deep, it was nothing to the red she was sporting now. "I can't remember," Mary Margaret stammered, buttoning up her cardigan under her chin.

Ruby grinned knowingly but continued to paint her nails silently. Under Emma's hawkeye gaze, the school teacher folded like a house a cards. "David, that nice handsome deputy, he walked by and said hello, and we got to talking, but it was only for two minutes!" she insisted in a single breath.

"I hope he was worth it," Emma muttered with a restrained eye roll.

"He's married," Ruby eagerly provided.

Emma had undergone training to school her expressions under the most torturous of circumstances, but the train wreck that was Mary Margaret's life had her eyes widening a fraction of an inch. She blinked and it was gone, but damn, did she sometimes forget that even roses have their thorns, or rather even chaste-looking school teachers have their crushes that tested their strength.

"Thanks, Ruby," Mary Margaret glared darkly at her friend.

"It's not like she wouldn't have found out. If she and the Mayor start cozying up, she's gonna see a lot more of this place," the waitress argued.

"You know I'm sitting right here, right?" Emma said with a laugh. "There's nothing going on between me and Regina."

"Right." Ruby went back to her painting while Mary Margaret smartly said nothing, though the brief look both brunettes shared with each other spoke volumes.

"So what is she up to?" Emma asked bluntly and suddenly, ignoring the waitress's presumption in favour of getting some information. She knew a ruse when she saw one, and despite Regina being quite the master manipulators, the two brunettes in front of her were not.

Her insight was correct when they both paused, Ruby with the brush to her nail as a drop fell onto her finger and Mary Margaret accidentally putting too much force behind the cuticle pusher.

Ruby was the first to get her bearings and shrugged casually. "You live with her."

"Do you really not know or did she force you not to tell?"

"I think we could all use some more cocoa." Mary Margaret stood with a tight grin on her face as she hastily moved to her kitchen alcove.

"Will I like it?" Emma asked Ruby quietly when Mary Margaret made herself busy with warming the milk.

"Oh yeah."


It was nearly three hours later before Ruby suddenly called their day to a close, after a well-timed message from her phone, Emma noticed. She was rather impressed and a little amused that once Emma had called them out on their secret, they had clammed up about Regina entirely. The blonde tested their resistance, Ruby's especially, when she made a comment that she caught Regina spooning the pillow. Ruby had to physically bite her knuckle and get up from the couch to reel herself in. By the time the message arrived, Ruby and Mary Margaret had done their nails, and they had all eaten a light lunch and sat in front of Mary Margaret's small TV to watch a movie.