Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT in any way, shape or form.

Eyes stretched wide and a mouth falling open greeted the former Queen, the blonde before her too helpless with shock to react to the revelation Regina had just unintentionally spoken.

A certain rhythm always dictated their arguments, one would grow louder and the other would follow, and eventually the battle would tire itself out. It was a safe mold, and one to which both women had become comfortably accustomed.

Regina cursed herself for breaking the pattern. Blinking quickly in some small attempt to regain her equilibrium, the brunette drew herself up, working to appear more confident than she felt.

"You..what?" Emma asked incredulously, sure that she must have just had a mini stroke and that she hadn't just heard the regal woman confess to.. Even the idea was unbelievable. Curling back into the shell from which she had only begun to emerge, Regina drew back as if injured and vanished into a cloud of scattered smoke, unable to handle what she was sure was going to be a rejection.

Emma stood still for another minute, and then another, incapable of reconciling reality with what Regina had just..

They were arguing, right? That much she could be sure of, but the rest seemed unreal.

"I think we can agree that if it ever came down to a choice, you'd save Henry. He's younger, a kid, so it's best." Emma spoke matter-of-factly, no longer amazed but expecting another danger to arise. Shaking her head, Regina had responded with her usual firm tone, "I'd save you both, Emma."

The blonde rolled her eyes, though she could not help but enjoy this Regina, the one that would rather use her bullheadedness for good, rather than destruction. "Fine, yeah", she said, "but if you had to choose, it has to be Henry."

Again Regina said, putting down her coffee and favoring Emma with a stern glare, "I could save you both." Lifting her hands in a mock surrender, the blonde nonetheless pushed on, "But you need Henry more!" Regina bristled, ire raising.

"I need you both, Swan", her voice came like a growl, and Emma couldn't stop now in the face of this. "Okay" Emma said, "but you love Henry!"

"I love you both!"

Rubbing the sides of her head with her palms, Emma had no other choice after contemplation but to accept what Regina had said at face value. And what was worse, she realized, is that now Regina likely thought she had been rejected.

Guilt formed a puddle in the blonde's stomach, burrowing down and making a home that she was sure would be hard to get rid of.

Well shit.

Pulse picking up as she walked towards Regina's vault, the most logical place to search for the woman, Emma practiced the words she would say. However, she should have expected that the moment she found the former Queen, those beautiful words would flee her mind, leaving her staring at a slightly frightening looking and wounded Regina.

There was a silent pause in which they merely looked at each other, before Emma asked in a small voice, "Want to go out to dinner sometime?"