It’s not an AU (and it’s not really the date either) but I hope you or anyone else will like it anyways!
Thanks to you for the fab idea and also thanks @waknatious for the tip, this is for you:
“Oh dear lord!” Emma exclaimed as she finally peeled off the tight heels that had bothered her all evening. Her feet felt hot and itchy against the cool laminate of Regina’s hallway, and she actually needed the wall for support to prevent herself from keeling over at the sudden pain that shot through her back.
“I told you. You aren’t cut out for those heels,” Regina’s voice came floating from where she was pouring them some, in Emma’s case sorely needed, cider. She balanced on her own set of four-inchers without so much as pulling a face, just like she fucking always did. For some reason it annoyed Emma to no ends.
“Oh I’m sorry,” she replied and maybe she sounded a bit more aggressive than strictly necessary but Regina’s conceit was equally unasked for. “I was just trying to look nice for you.”
Regina only cocked a brow, infinitely infuriating Emma further. “I never asked you to.”
Which happened to be the thing to tip Emma over the edge.
“Not verbally, no, but every time we go out, you get all dolled up and then look at me in my not-as-fancy outfit for like a second before you turn away in disappointment. And every time I take the wrong fork for the first course, or when I don’t appreciate truffles because they happen to be disgusting, or when I don’t sip my wine as daintily. Like, I’m sorry I don’t live up to your standards, but I’ve never been a fucking queen and dined with aristocrats and twenty spoons all the time. And I tell you what, it’s not my fault you chose to date the loser!” Emma was shouting at the end, her chest heaving, and when she fell quiet, the puffs of breath seemed unnaturally loud in the ensuing void.
“Emma,” Regina then said very quietly into the silence. She also said it very softly, almost like a sigh, wavering in the air between them, looking frail and afraid. But then she said it again, “Emma,” and this time it brimmed with purpose, pressing, urging the blonde to listen.
“What?” Emma bit out, her voice breaking at this single word. She felt drained and irritated and frankly, longed to just lie down and cry herself to sleep.
“You were right with one thing in your rant,” Regina stated calmly, seemingly unaffected, indifferent. Emma wanted to flare, to scream that she didn’t need Regina to patronize her, but a lump had formed in her throat and she didn’t trust herself to speak. She opted for groaning instead, hoping Regina would catch the cue.
She didn’t, in fact she continued even more firmly: “This one thing being that I chose to date you.”
“Why,” it all but broke out from Emma and now the tears were streaming down her face. She turned away with embarrassment but couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of her mouth. “Why would you choose me?”
“Maybe I like your not-so-fancy outfits?” Regina still spoke quietly enough for Emma to have trouble hearing her over the sound of her own blood rushing in her ear.
Regina was standing right behind her now, Emma could feel her presence hovering, before a soft hand brushed through her hair and lifted her chin, forcing her to face Regina.
“Emma, has it ever occurred to you that my turning away from your leather jackets and denim trousers, from your fork and truffles habits, has nothing to do with disapproval or disappointment?”
“What else would it be?” Emma whispered, a trace of defiance in her voice. She had been fooled before, hurt before, mistrust was a weapon to her.
Though her vision was slightly blurred, Emma saw the flicker of uncertainty in Regina’s eyes, a brief hesitation in the nuances of brown, before the mayor replied, almost only breathing her answer.
“I didn’t plan to say this today,” Regina grimaced, “And I certainly don’t mean to pressure you in any way, or scare you… I just… You seemed so unsure and I wanted to - ”
“Regina.” It was Emma’s turn to interrupt the brunette’s ranting. The sight of Regina fumbling for words was seldom enough, but the implication of them, the idea that Regina could be in love with her, sent Emma’s heart racing. Small what ifs ghosted through her mind, painfully promising, but with everything she’d been through tonight, she needed confirmation.
“I won’t run, I promise. Just… Tell me.” If Emma’s voice was trembling, so what? So was her heart, and so were Regina’s hands that still held her face. Everything was trembling and for a small irrational moment Emma feared that the whole scene would splinter like a mirror and leave her in a heap of sharp-edged glass shards.
But of course, nothing alike happened. What did happen however, was Regina drawing a deep breath and then speaking:
“Do you remember our first date? You picked me up at nine o'clock, and you were wearing tight jeans and a green blouse. I remember thinking that it accentuated your eyes so well, and I couldn’t look at you all evening because I was afraid of falling in love with you on the spot.
“Emma. Every time I turned away from you, it was of a foolish fear of risking my heart. I love that you don’t know what fork to take, because that allows me to teach you, to introduce you to the manners that were customary in my home. I love that you sort out your truffles, because it shows that you don’t pretend to like things just because others insist they ought to be appreciated.
“So in the end, looking away didn’t protect my heart. Being a fucking queen didn’t protect me. I am in love with you, Emma, and nothing has ever scared me more.”
Somewhere in the middle of Regina’s speech, Emma had started crying once more; her aching feet forgotten she had sunken to the floor, pulling Regina down with her. And there they were, two grown-up women kneeling on the laminate, now pressed against each other as Emma drew Regina in for a kiss, the salty flavour of her tears on both of their lips. They kissed messily, sloppily, Regina never having to ask and Emma never having to answer if Regina’s feelings were shared.
When they broke apart after a long while, leaning side by side against the wall, Emma’s lips lifted in one of her characteristic grins.
“You never told me what you love about the way I drink my wine.”
Regina replied by rolling her eyes: “That’s because watching you chug it down like water is the only thing that makes me reconsider the wish to spend the rest of my life with you.”
