hunnyfresh - Letters from War

Regina simply smirked and pushed Henry just a little bit higher, gasping with him as he stretched a hand out to touch the sky.

"So Ms. Tina," Emma began as they took turns pushing Henry back and forth in the swing, "she seems nice."

"She is," Henry answered. "She show us bugs today, and she play with us, and she sings." He cautioned both hands into the air, and when his mother didn't scold him, he stretched them high past his head. "Look, Mommy!"

"I see, sweetie. You're flying," Regina grinned, letting Henry swing naturally without their aid, though she provided a hand on his back now and then. "I suppose she is. Henry likes her well enough. She also runs a youth group for those teenage boys that have been causing you and Graham trouble lately."

"She told me," Emma commended with a nod. "You're not friends with her?"

Regina scoffed, pushing lightly on Henry's back on his return to her side.

"You see her nearly everyday."

"I see many people daily."

Emma shrugged. "Why not? She's pretty and nice."

"I wasn't aware those were the only qualifications I needed when looking for a friend."

"Well..." Emma grinned coyly and motioned to herself.

Regina rolled her eyes and pushed Henry just a little bit harder so his sandy shoes nudged Emma back a step.

The boy laughed at the game and kicked his feet out. "I get you."

Emma shook her head at Regina but played along when Henry returned to her side, feet outstretched with intent. She made a collision noise and clutched her jaw. "Geez, when did you get so strong?"

Henry giggled happily. "Milk and greens."

"Good boy," Regina said affectionately, kissing his head when he swung back.

Emma pretended to get hurt another five times before Henry grabbed at Regina's lapel and used her surprised body to pull himself to a stop. She nearly collided into the seat, her heels not helping her balance in the slightest, but she released her son from the swing nonetheless and watched as he ran to the trike Emma had gotten for him and retrieved a small bucket and shovel from the basket attached behind the seat.

"Seriously though, why don't you be friends with her?" Emma continued her questioning as she and Regina returned to the bench a few feet away from where Henry had perched himself in the sand pit.

"Sick of me already?" There was a playfulness in Regina's tone, but even she could feel the vulnerability in her eyes that she couldn't quite blink away.

Emma smirked and nudged Regina's shoulder with her own. "No way. Just wondering something."

"What?" They sat in the middle of the bench, instinctively sitting side by side.

The blonde bit her lip and outstretched both arms along the back of the bench, unaware that her right arm was mere inches away from straddling Regina's shoulders. In a quiet voice, she asked, "what are you gonna do when I go back?"

Regina squinted and turned slightly to face Emma. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I know what lonely looks like," the blonde sighed and cut Regina off when the older woman moved to speak. "I know, you've got Henry."

Regina pursed her lips but tilted her head. "Well I'm making marvelous friends with the postal workers."

"You know that's not what I mean. I'm just, I'm looking out for you I guess." Emma removed her arms and wrung her hands in her lap. Regina could see, despite Emma's bowed head and falling curls blocking most of her face that her cheeks were tinting pink at the admission.

Regina squinted again, this time in genuine confusion. "Why would you do that?"

Emma let out a snort of derision as she brought her head up and smiled softly. "Come on. I care about you. And I don't know if I'm gonna be halfway across the world this time next month, and I just want to make sure you're okay when I go. I just want to know that someone is gonna be here for you if I can't."

Regina's breath caught in her throat, and she ducked her head to catch Emma's eye, searching the deep green of them for any sign of a lie. Emma was so insistent Regina was sure that there was some ulterior motive behind her words but all she could see was genuine concern and sincerity. Would this woman cease to surprise her? "Why would you do that?" Regina asked again, softer this time.

Emma smiled and let her hand fall over Regina's knee and squeezed affectionately. "I just think the town's missing out."

"On what?"

"On you."

They had spent another twenty minutes at the park, watching as Henry attempted to make the "biggest bestest sand castle ever", but when Regina caught him dampening the sand with his juice box, she had called it a day. They were now walking home, Regina lightly holding onto the handle of the tricycle as Henry, decked out in a helmet, elbow, knee, and wrist pads as per Regina's request, rode on, constantly veering to the left and needing help getting unstuck whenever his tire caught in between the grass and sidewalk.

It was a relatively quiet late afternoon as the trio walked, and it gave Emma the chance to stop and think, something she tried to avoid for it tended to lead to the dark places of her past that she fought hard to avoid. But this time, Emma realized how lucky she had been. Standing in front of the judge giving her the choice between boot camp or juvie had seemed like a death sentence. It wasn't until right now, walking down Brighton and occasionally passing now familiar faces did Emma realize that being sent to boot camp may have been the best thing that had ever happened to her.

It got her here.

She glanced up covertly, using her hair as a shield to glance up at Regina who tsked lightly at Henry who purposely rode through a small puddle. A smile tugged on her lips as she watched the scowl disappear on Regina's face when Henry turned around, nearly bringing the tricycle with him, to grin up innocently at his mother.

Regina was known across town as being rigid, strict, and had a plan for everything that she rarely veered off from, and for some strange reason that even Emma couldn't fathom, Emma was part of Regina's plan.

"Are you all right?" Regina asked, pressing a palm to Emma's shoulder, the weight and warmth of it already a source of comfort to the young woman.

The blonde nodded, and yeah, she was all right. "Are you doing anything Friday?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Friday. Did you want to hang out or something?"

Regina furrowed her brow as if the idea of hanging out was a foreign concept, and Emma realized it probably was. "Hang out?"

Emma shrugged, adjusting the tote around her shoulder but held her head up high. "Dinner? Movie? Just the two of us?"

"Just you and I?"

"You're starting to sound like a parrot," Emma chuckled. "Yeah, I mean, you've been so awesome-" Emma glared at Regina's smirk "-with letting me into your home and sending me all those care packages and gifts. I just want to make it up to you by taking you out."

"It's really not necessary, Emma."

"I know." Emma caught Regina's hand and tugged her a little to halt their walking. Henry hadn't seemed to mind since he couldn't get very far on his own anyhow and busied himself with making car noises. Emma stared insistently into Regina's eyes and squeezed her palm. "Please? Seriously, dinner doesn't even skim the surface of how much I appreciate this."

"Appreciate what?" Regina asked with her hand still in Emma's.

"This." Emma motion between them. "You and me."

"Us," Regina confirmed as she got a feel for the word in her mouth.

"Yeah," the blonde grinned. " Us ."

They remained rooted in the spot as Emma waited, unknowingly with bated breath, for an answer. A car drove by, and a family of robins flew overhead before Regina retracted her palm from Emma's and continued to push Henry in the tricycle. It took Emma another half-second to move, unsure what that meant. Her uncertainty faded and a smile ripped across her face when she saw Regina give an almost imperceptible nod.