THE FUN BET
By Red Charcoal

Author's note: I know I said the last chapter was the end but everyone asking me for an epilogue made me dash out this on the train on the way in to work this morning. And yes, this really is The End. Enjoy.

EPILOGUE

Emma Swan woke up in a world of soft. Soft skin under her cheek, her arm and one leg. It felt deliciously indulgent. She cracked an eye to find the Mayor of Storybrooke tangled around her and, even more tellingly, watching her with an affectionate smile tinged with a slightly dazed look.

It quickly vanished, replaced by a startled expression, when she realised she was being watched.

Emma smirked. "Morning," she said, shifting her head lower onto a rather impressive chest that her tongue had spent more than a few hours mapping out in detail last night.

"Miss Swan," Regina replied with an amused rumble that Emma heard directly under her ear. The blonde felt a hand questing south, sliding to her hip, then across, fingers fidgeting hopefully.

"My god woman, you are insatiable," Emma chuckled. She shifted position slightly though to allow the fingers easy passage to their destination. For all her protestations, she had been delighted by the discovery of just how passionate Regina Mills was beneath all those uptight suits and bitchy comebacks.

Things were just getting interesting again - Emma's breath hitching at a certain mayor's exceptionally fast-fingered talents - when the bedroom door flung open. And for one brief second there was utter chaos.

Henry stood, framed by the door, a bag over one shoulder, peering in.

Emma dove under the covers instantly as if hearing some imaginary submarine commander's bark of "DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!" ringing in her ears.

She may or may not have uttered a crude, shocked, obscenity on the way down.

Regina, meanwhile, had wrenched her hands out of forbidden territories and simultaneously wrenched the sheets up high under her chin, covering any bare flesh and her disappearing bedmate.

Their expanse of bed now looked like one frazzled mayor was sharing it with a lumpy Loch Ness Monster.

Henry lifted a hand cheerfully. "Hey Mom, hey Emma. Nick's dad got called into work early so he dropped me off on his way. He said he hoped you wouldn't mind."

Regina stared dumbly at her son, her mouth opening and closing.

The lump in the bed began to shake with laughter and Regina scowled, her leg lashing out, kicking it in gentle warning.

However the lump's shaking grew more obvious and Regina sighed, eyeing her son's curious expression worriedly.

Finally the lump gave up hiding and worked its way up the bed. A laughing, red face popped above the edge of the covers.

"Hey kid," the blonde finally said. "I was looking for quarters."

Regina rolled her eyes in perfect symmetry with her son.

Henry shook his head. "Mom doesn't keep her quarters down there, Emma." He gave his best 'duh' tone. He paused and gave a lopsided grin. "I hope you guys had a good time while I was gone."

There was silence as the two women desperately tried to work out what exactly he meant by that, and exactly how much he had put together.

He took pity on them and shrugged. "Geez, I'm ten not blind. Why do you think I put you both up to the fun bet? And asked to sleep over at Nick's last night? I know you both like each other and needed to admit it. That way."

He was impressed at their perfectly identical shocked expressions. Really, he did not want to think too hard about what they had been up to, (come on, eww, parents), but he knew enough that he didn't want to stick around right now in case he found out. "OK, moms, I'm going downstairs to watch cartoons really, really loudly. I already had breakfast. So you know, don't rush to get up. 'Kay?"

He turned and left, carefully closing the door, trying not to laugh at the looks of astonishment passing between his moms.

Grown-ups. Honestly - who did they think they were kidding? Emma had been way more obvious than his mother, but he had watched them taunting and playing with each other for months now. He knew every expression, twitch and reaction of his adoptive mother - actually he knew her better than anyone in Storybrooke. So all the standing too close and staring at Emma for ages? He knew what that meant. He'd had to put up with enough of it from watching his teacher and Mr Nolan when they thought no one knew what they were up to.

Besides even his book had suggested there was more than one way to defeat an evil queen. So if true love was the path, he'd get on board with that. One thing he was sure about - this was definitely true love, no matter how clueless they might be.

Anyway, it was really cool finally seeing his mom looking this happy. She had seemed sad for such a long time. This morning though, he had seen a glimpse of something he'd never seen before. Joy.

He flopped on the sofa and turned the TV on, making sure to lean on the volume. Loud enough they'd hear it upstairs. He grinned gleefully.

Ruby so owed him a double chocolate milkshake for winning this bet.

THE END