"Robin said this morning you were to move in your old house soon." Emma said it, but it was clear that there was a giant question mark behind the statement.
"Oh, thank God," Hope exhaled relieved, but her face quickly turned serious. "No offense, though." She looked innocently at her mother and her teacher, before she continued eating.
They were all sitting at the table, enjoying their dinner. Emma smiled at her daughter, though she wasn't amused by her comment. She was just glad Hope was okay.
After worrying a night and day - though some say it was really unnecessary, she was glad to see Hope doing well. Apparently, she and Nicholas had had a heartfelt conversation.
Nicholas had gotten some sense into him over the past few months and he seemed more okay with the fact that Hope was pregnant. He hadn't told his parents that yet, but he now was actually willing to meet the baby when it's born.
Emma fixated her attention on Regina again. She still needed a response to her question, though she actually already knew it.
From the moment Regina knocked on the door to ask if she could stay here for a while, Emma had known it wouldn't be too long before she'd move back. But now that the time was actually there, she realized just how much she'd miss having Regina around.
"As much as I enjoy living here, I can't stay here forever. You two need your space as well, especially with a child on the way," Regina said and she was surprised to see Emma somewhat disappointed.
Hope looked confused at her mother and she raised an eyebrow. Her mother just looked at Regina with a faint smile, but didn't reply. "Mom, you know she's saying reasonable things, right?"
"Yes, yes, that's true. I'm going to miss you around here," Emma said. She was going to miss Regina. Their long, midnight talks, someone next to her in bed, their comfortable hugs.
"Me too," Hope said, overly sarcastic. Regina chuckled and looked at her student.
"I know it couldn't have been fun to have your teacher in the house, but I want to thank you for allowing me to stay here."
Both Hope and Regina had grown accustomed to the other. They liked each other much more than in the beginning, although Regina had never disliked Hope. The girl wasn't going to miss Regina, but she didn't deem it the worst month ever.
~~~~
"Regina?"
It was dark in the room, but Emma had a feeling Regina was still awake. They had skipped their talk before that - which had become a usual part of the routine - and instead they had played board games, with Hope.
Emma looked at the figure next to her and hoped that she'd turn around, so that she could see Regina's face, but the woman didn't move.
They were lying in bed, but Emma just couldn't fall asleep. Too many thoughts were haunting her mind. "Don't you want to talk about what happened today with your mother?"
She still didn't hear anything from Regina, until the woman beside her turned around. Though it was dark, Emma could still see that she had her eyes open.
"Yes. I'm sorry my mother spoke to you like that. She really shouldn't have done that and I hope you don't take anything she said seriously, because she's just trying to manipulate you," Regina said. "I hope you're okay."
Emma shrugged and bit her lip. "I am okay, I'm just worried about you. What she said was awful."
Regina sighed and shrugged as well. "It's not that bad anymore. It's like.. jumping into ice cold water. For a moment, it stings, but then you get used to it and it's okay."
"This is so not like jumping in cold water. What Cora did was horrible."
Emma simply couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Regina thought this kind of behavior was acceptable. Though she herself didn't have the courage to stand up to the woman either.
"Do we have to talk about this? It's two a.m., we should get some sleep," Regina said. Emma knew she wouldn't be able to sleep, but she didn't want to be the one to keep Regina awake, so she kept her mouth shut.
She stirred in the bed, trying to find the best position to try to sleep in, until Regina wrapped an arm around her, to make her stop moving. Emma felt her heart pounding loudly as Regina's arm touched her body and she stayed still.
"I'm going to miss you when you leave," Emma said after a while. She didn't know if Regina had already fallen asleep, but she figured she'd try to start a conversation again.
"I'm going to miss you, too," Regina replied and moved her body closer to Emma's. "And I can't thank you enough for letting me stay here all those weeks. It truly means a lot to me."
"If you ever need a place to crash, you're more than welcome here," Emma said and finally felt herself getting tired. She felt Regina's hot breaths against her shoulder and sighed contently, before she fell asleep.
~~~~
As the weeks passed by, Emma spoke less and less with Regina. She became more focused on her job, the gallery was doing better than ever, and she spent time with Hope as much as possible.
Hope was more grumpy every day. She was completely done with being pregnant and she hated the way she appeared with her big belly. It was heavy and she was tired, most of the time.
She was over eight months pregnant now and didn't go to school anymore. She made all her homework at home and the teachers were all supportive of her situation, at least in front of her.
Hope was quite a dedicated student and she did make her homework as well as she could, because she didn't want to get behind on the rest of class.
Tilly and Margot were the only ones who knew the real reason as to why she was at home and they frequently visited her. Those moments were the light in Hope's days, because she needed the support of her friends.
It was exactly a year ago that Killian passed away and Emma was in a foul mood all day, as was Hope. The girl informed Emma that her friends would come over soon and Emma was glad that she was finding some sort of distraction.
Someone knocked on the door and Emma opened it, expecting to see Margot and Tilly, but Regina was standing there instead.
She felt like she hadn't seen her friend in over a month, but frankly, she'd quite lost the concept of time. Everything seemed to be going so fast lately.
Regina smiled faintly and handed Emma a single rose. "I don't know what is appropriate to do on occasions like these, but I wanted to show my support."
Emma looked confused, but opened the door further. "What do you mean?"
"It's been exactly twelve months, right?" Regina inquired. Emma inhaled deeply before she nodded. She looked at her friend and led her to the couch.
"Do you want anything to drink? Tea? Water?" Emma offered, but Regina shook her head.
"No, thank you. How are you doing?"
Emma sat down beside Regina on the couch. "Could be better," Emma responded. "But it's going better than a while back."
Regina smiled and looked lovingly at Emma. It was somewhat unsettling for Emma. She hadn't had anyone look at her that way since forever and she smiled nervously.
"How's Hope? Everyone at school is speculating about her absence, I heard."
"She's.. trying to stay strong. She's tired, but.."
"I thought you two never talked about me," Hope said as she waggled to the door. "So, stop it."
Emma laughed softly and looked at Regina. The front door opened and Tilly and Margot entered together. Hope greeted them ecstatically, pointed out that their teacher was in the room and took her friends to her bedroom, without looking at Emma and Regina.
"What about you? Still enjoying the life as a single woman?" Emma asked with a slight smirk. She subtly scooted closer to Regina.
Regina shrugged, but nodded. "Nothing too special."
She'd gone back to her usual way of living, but she hated that it wasn't like it used to be anymore. Every day, Regina taught history, went home and on some nights she'd visit the bar to meet up with people.
But it didn't go as easily as it used to go anymore and she hadn't been able to figure it out. Though, now that she saw Emma, she knew exactly why picking up people at the bar hadn't gone as smoothly as before.
No one could ever compete with Emma Swan.
~~~~
Regina's eyes scanned the bar. It had been three weeks since she'd last seen Emma and she hoped that today she'd be able to get the woman out of her mind. She'd kept thinking about Emma day after day, twenty four seven, and she wanted to change that.
She feared she was already getting feelings for Emma and although she had no idea how she'd let that happen, she didn't know how to change it.
It was weird, especially since she hadn't seen Emma that often, recently. They spoke regularly on the phone and they texted often, but Regina still felt deeper feelings for Emma than before.
Baron was standing next to her at one of the tables in the bar and observed her. "You're smitten, Regina," he said and Regina rolled her eyes.
"No.. I am not. I don't need that love trash in my life right now." Samdi cocked an eyebrow, showing how much he did not believe his friend. "In fact, I will prove to you that I am not in love with Emma."
"I didn't mention any name. You did.."
"Sshh.." Regina hushed and walked away from the table, holding her drink. She walked up to a guy, sitting with some friends at the bar, and smiled.
When she arrived near him, she "accidentally" spilled her drink all over her shirt, wetting her cleavage. She sighed and frowned.
"I am so sorry," Regina said as she grabbed a napkin from her pocket and she started rubbing her chest, trying to wipe the liquid away. "I just wanted to say that you're an attractive man, but apparently I am.. way too clumsy to be talking to anyone right now."
She sighed exaggerating and peered up in the blue eyes of the man. "I'm sorry for bothering you. I should just leave," Regina said, sounding disappointed.
She turned around, knowing exactly what was to come now. "Wait," the man said behind her and Regina smirked before she turned around. She blinked innocently at him. "Were you.. a girl.. making a move on a man? Isn't that a man's job?"
Regina raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "If you're homosexual, it's certainly a man's job to make the first move. But.. I guess you caught me."
The guy smiled and looked at his friends, who were watching the encounter in amusement. Regina walked closer to the man and looked intimidating at him. Although, he obviously thought high of himself, it was abundantly clear that Regina was the dominant one.
She slid her hand up his thigh and smiled. "I'm sorry if I made you feel less like a man by flirting with you. Too bad you didn't come to me first," she said in a husky tone and she saw that the man was enjoying her touch.
The man kept his eyes on hers and smirked. "Can I kiss you?" he asked and Regina nodded.
She leaned in to kiss him, but right when their lips were about to touch, she moved away. "Crap.. I can't do this. Why the fuck can't I do this?" she cursed out loud. "I'm sorry."
She turned around and looked at Baron Samdi, who'd been watching her conversation with the man as well. "Samdi, why can't I fuck or kiss someone? Every time I close my eyes, I see Emma. She's all I can think of and we're in no way together and I just cannot sleep with anyone else. I don't want anything with her romantically. She's my best friend and I care so much about her, but I'm falling in love, Samdi. God dammit, I'm falling in love."
Samdi chuckled, which earned him ice cold glare from Regina. "That is not funny. I got divorced like three months ago, I have a perfect friendship with Emma, I don't want to commit to anyone, but I'm falling in love. You're not allowed to laugh."
"You're making too big a deal out of this," Baron said and shrugged. "It's just a crush it will fade in like three days, don't worry about it. You're not gonna end up with her, you and I both know that."
Regina smiled slightly, but with a frown. "I don't know if that's what I want to hear right now. I feel so conflicted and everything is so complicated, yet there's nothing going on."
"Just.. stop exaggerating. There's too many things in life to enjoy to let it get ruined by some woman," Baron said, but Regina rolled her eyes.
Often, Baron was a good friend, but when it came to complicated feelings, he was of absolutely no use. She didn't know how it had suddenly hit her, but she was certain. She felt more for Emma Swan than she should and she really didn't know why.
Probably because Emma was kind, loving, caring, simply put, beautiful. But she didn't want to be having these feelings. She didn't want to be crushing on Emma and she didn't know how to get rid of these feelings.
"Maybe I should just call her. Talk to her about this," Regina said and wanted to retrieve her phone, but Baron stopped her.
"That's the worst thing you can do right now. Emma's got a lot on her plate, if what you said is true. Her daughter is close to her due date, she's still grieving over her husband and she really doesn't need you to confuse her feelings and emotions."
For the first time this evening, Regina found that Samdi actually made sense. She wanted to retract her hand from the pocket her phone was in, but it started buzzing.
"Speaking of Emma.." she muttered softly as she watched her phone screen light up and showing Emma's name. She answered the phone and before she could say anything, Emma started talking.
"The baby's coming."