(A/N) So I have the entire story planned out, so hopefully that will avoid all writing blocks, the next update will hopefully be Tuesday, enjoy!

Henry had gone to play with Grace for a while after breakfast, leaving Neal and Emma alone in Snow's apartment. They sat in virtual silence, each nursing a cup of coffee.
"I just thought.." Neal broke the silence
"Thanks for the heads up." Emma replied quickly, a small smirk playing across her features.
"Regina lost her mother literally a couple of days ago, the fact that not only did she leave her home today, but she also agreed to let you and Henry come over for dinner seems like a miracle." He pondered. Emma thought for a moment.
"I guess, that if she locked herself away to grieve, people would think she was weak..."
"And she doesn't want people to think that." Neal finished. Emma nodded and finished her coffee. She left her seat to walk over to the pot to refill her cup.
"So when do you plan on telling your parents that you're in love with the evil queen?"
"I don't, not yet anyway." Emma replied stiffly.
"And Henry?"
"I don't know. But if he's as observant as you? He'll work it out soon enough." Emma shrugged as she turned to face Neal.
"So how long?" Neal asked, he couldn't stop himself, he had so many questions, but judging from the look on Emma's face, so did she. They held a steady eye contact for a moment before Emma let out a dejected sigh.
"I had a crush on her since the day I met her I guess, I didn't really start developing a crush on her until the mine incident..."
"The what?"
"Henry and Archie fell down a mine shaft, and she got right up in my personal space you know? I seriously thought she was going to kiss me there and then." Emma chuckled. "But when did I fall in love with her? I've asked myself that for weeks now, but honestly, I think it was the day the curse broke. Seeing her so broken over Henry, how we put our differences aside to save him. And then later on that day, Gold sent this wraith thing after her. All I remember is doing everything in my power to save her from it, and ending up in fairy tale land in the process." Emma shrugged. "It's been so hectic since then I guess I never gave myself the time to dwell on it."
Neal nodded slowly as he took the information in. Emma's eyes never left him as she moved back to sit beside him.
"So... Are you gay?" He turned to face her with a grin. Emma laughed despite herself
"I don't know, I guess? I've definitely had more crushes on girls than boys."
"So I was an exception?" Neal winked.
"Don't get so full of yourself." Emma laughed as she slapped his arm before becoming serious. "I think... I think that I did love you, but looking back, it isn't the same as what I feel when I think of Regina." She sighed, giving Neal an apologetic look.
"It's cool" Neal shrugged "We're not each others true loves, I can deal with that. But you need to promise me a few things."
"What?" Emma replied apprehensively. Neal held up a finger
"One, make sure that you don't mess it up. Be happy." He held up another finger "Two, don't let anybody stand in the way of your happiness." He held up a third finger "And finally, I call dibs on the role of Les-bro" Despite the serious look and tone Neal had taken up Emma doubled over in laughter.
"You got a deal Les-bro" She winked as she punched his shoulder.
"Now then. Let's move onto a more serious topic. Tonight."
"Right..." Emma felt a slow build of anxiety.
"I'll cover for you and Henry, I'll tell your parents that we're going out for dinner and then I'll go into hiding or something."
"Personally I can see that blowing up in our faces but we don't really have any option."
"Okay so long as you're both out of the house when they get back it'll work. Next, what are you going to wear?"
Emma stared at Neal before looking at her outfit, boots, tank top and red leather jacket.
"What's wrong with this?"
"What's right with it? That jacket should have been burnt a long time ago" Neal prodded Emma's shoulder with a frown
"Well at least you and Regina can get together and bitch about my jacket..." Emma mumbled.
"You need to dress up without making it look obvious you're dressed up." Neal replied.
"And what do you suggest?"
"What do you have?" They stared each other down for a moment before Emma sighed and gestured for him to follow her to her room. Upon entering Emma dropped down onto the bed and pointed to a small closest. Neal raised an eyebrow and began to look through.
"You really need to branch out on some more outfits..." Emma heard him grumble from the closet.
"Been kind of busy, you know breaking the curse, falling into a portal to another world, sailing a boat and what not." She shrugged. As she watched Neal pulling out clothes and frowning at them Emma found herself seeing him as more of a brother now than an ex-boyfriend.
"Here" He said simply, placing some clothes down beside her.
He had chosen her brown boots, that cut off just below the knee. A pair of black jeans and a fancy looking red shirt that Emma could not remember ever buying.
"You'll look good"
"Don't I always?"
"Don't get so full of yourself" Neal replied with a wink.

It was 5:55pm. Emma and Henry stood outside the mansion in silence, as they had done for the past ten minutes.
"Stop messing with your clothes, you look fine" Henry groaned as Emma smoothed out a non-existing crease. "Why are you wearing different clothes anyway?" the boy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Your mom hates my red leather" Emma shrugged as she stared at the door. She turned to face Henry "You nervous?"
"Nope" Henry shook his head. "I thought about what you said this morning. She loves me and I need to give her a chance." Emma couldn't hide her proud smile even if she tried. She ruffled his hair in approval.
"Let's do this then." Emma took a deep breath.

Regina had seen Emma's excuse of a car pull up outside her home ten minutes ago. She watched as her son and Emma walked up to the front door, they had yet to knock however.
"Probably having second thoughts" She whispered to herself as she walked back into the kitchen. Regina checked on the lasagne, smiling to herself as she found it to be done. As she pulled it out and set it on the side to cool for a moment, she pulled out two wine glasses from the cupboard above her. Regina set them down but didn't move. Her thoughts drifted to the two figures stood outside her door. Emma had at least had the decency to dress decently, she had to owe it to the blonde that despite what has transpired over the past few days she was allowing Regina to see Henry.
"I'm sorry ok! I'm sorry that I took Henry from you, I'm sorry that I took the only source of happiness you had away from you." Emma's words still rung out in Regina's mind, the blonde had sounded so desperate, her eyes had looked as though they were burning straight into Regina's soul. There had been no hatred there. She thought back to the tomb. Emma had hugged her, pleaded with Regina to not see her as the daughter of Snow White, but as Emma Swan.
The sound of a shatter broke Regina's trail of thought. Looking down she saw that one of the wine glasses had shattered in her hand, despite the brunette having a loose grip on it.
Then she felt it, the remnants of magic. Had she done this?
Before Regina could asses the situation any more the door finally knocked, leaving the glass as it was she crossed the hallway and opened the door wearing her finest smile.

The first thing Emma noticed when Regina opened the door was the smile. It was forced. The second thing was her outfit. Emma knew Regina had a kick ass wardrobe but the black dress she had chosen to wear showed her figure off perfectly. The third thing Emma noticed was Regina's eyes, they looked pained, that was when she saw Regina's left hand, more specifically the blood that was slowly leaking from it.
"Henry, Miss Swan come in." Regina moved to the side to allow them both entry "Go and take a seat, dinner will be ready in a moment." Henry silently ran into the dining room, both parents watched as he did so, as soon as the boy was out of sight Emma grabbed Regina's left wrist.
"Miss Swan, can you not manhandle me?" Regina hissed. Emma stayed silent and pulled Regina into the kitchen and turned the sink tap on before pulling Regina's hand underneath the cold stream of water. Regina realised what Emma was doing and opened her hand, allowing the water to wash away the cut along her palm.
Regina said nothing as she watched Emma stare at her hand, making sure there was no glass inside, before grabbing a nearby dishcloth and holding it to the cut with such tenderness it was as though the cut wasn't there.
"Thank you Miss Swan, I can handle it from here." Regina nodded her head towards the dining room, effectively telling Emma to leave. Thankfully the blonde obliged and left Regina alone, who in turn let out an agitated sigh and removed the dishcloth.
The cut was gone.
She knew Emma had magic, but there was no way she had learnt any healing spells, especially from Rumple.
As always Regina pushed it to the back of her mind and settled on handling dinner.

It was awkward. So awkward. Emma felt the need to stay silent to give Regina and Henry a chance to catch up. Since they had all sat down all Emma had said was how good the lasagne was, a compliment Regina accepted with hesitance. From then she had listened to Henry tell Regina all about how Charming was teaching him how to care for his horse, how school was going and that he was still one of the best in the class despite Emma not being very good at helping him with his homework. Emma watched Regina soak in the information, her eyes were bright. She was happy, in turn this made Emma happy, to know that by bringing Henry for something as mundane as dinner, it had literally lightened up Regina's world.
"And Gramps is teaching me how to use a sword!" Henry exclaimed in the middle of a mouth full of food.
"A wooden one!" Emma interrupted as she saw the horrified expression on Regina's face.
Regina was about to reply when the door was kicked open, Charming, Snow and Neal storming through.
"Speak of the Devil..." Emma sighed.
"Emma get away from her!" Charming's voice took over, Regina, Henry and Emma had jumped from their seats upon the door being kicked open. Snow ran past him and grabbed Henry, pulling the boy out of the house. Emma glared at Neal who silently replied with a apologetic look.
"No." Emma dead panned.
"Go home Miss Swan, clearly your family need you" Regina spoke curtly as she collected the dishes and moved into the kitchen. Emma ignored Charming and followed Regina, who emerged from the kitchen. "Go. Home." Regina's voice had dropped several octaves.
"No" Emma folded her arms.
"LEAVE." Regina flicked Emma's forehead, unable to stop the magic from surfacing and exploding from her fingertips, sending the blonde flying like a rag doll, past a slack jawed Charming and Neal and through the open door.
"Emma!" Charming ran after his daughter, Neal in pursuit. Emma managed to lift her head in time to see Regina slam the door shut. Charming tried to help Emma to her feet, only to have her shove him away and stand up on shaky legs, using Neal as support.

Neal drove Emma back to Snow's apartment, they remained silent the entire journey, he kept glancing towards the blonde who was too busy staring out of the window to even attempt a conversation.
As soon as they stepped inside the apartment all hell broke loose.
"What was you thinking?!" Snow yelled, her voice becoming increasingly higher.
"She deserved to see her son!" Emma retorted
"No she doesn't! She's evil!" Snow shot back. Emma just stared at her mother. Henry had been sent to bed as soon as they had gotten home.
"Fuck this." Emma walked out of the door, leaving her parents and Neal alone.

Neal found Emma an hour later, sat at her desk in the station, her beloved bottle of Jack beside her.
"Room for one more?" He asked quietly. Emma didn't reply, instead she opened her draw and pulled out another glass, setting it on the desk. Neal took this as a good sign and approached her and poured a glass of his own, before pulling up another chair as to sit opposite her.
Neal watched Emma stare into her drink as though she would find all of the answers to the universe inside. As soon as she finished her glass she poured herself another one and placed the glass against her forehead, letting the coolness soothe her aching head.
"That's going to leave a nasty bump" Neal remarked
"No thanks to you." Emma shot back, malice evident in her voice. Neal sighed and put his glass down.
"When they got back they asked where you and Henry was, I told them you had both gone out and I was going to meet you for dinner. They bought it, they did. So I went to Granny's for an actual meal and they showed up! When they realised you weren't there they figured out where you both had gone, I tried to stop them Em, really I did." Emma looked up and saw he was telling her the truth. She just nodded and continued to drink.
After several minutes she spoke up again.
"I'm fed up"
Neal waited for her to elaborate. "Every argument is the same, no matter who I have it with. They always say "She's evil" and it's really fucking pissing me off"
Neal tried to supress a chuckle
"She isn't perfect. She's far from it. But neither is anybody else!" Emma's hands shot out, spilling some of her drink on the floor. "Snow killed Cora, I stole cars, Ruby ate people. Yet we're seen as the good guys and I can't fucking deal with the knowledge that no matter what Regina does it will never be enough for them!" Emma yelled before dropping her head onto the desk, letting out a moan as her already sore forehead came into contact with the metal surface.
"Yin and Yang" Neal spoke suddenly, his voice seemingly distant.
"What?" Emma mumbled, not bothering to lift her head.
"Yin and yang, good and evil, light and dark."
"Are you going somewhere with this or-"
"You and Regina, you guys are Yin and Yang. Light and dark, the balance, you can't exist without her nor can she exist without you. By extension it also means that nothing is black and white, nothing is one hundred percent good or bad." He looked over to Emma to see her fast asleep, her head still on the desk. Neal sighed and wrote a note on a spare piece of paper before leaving the blonde alone in the station.