hunnyfresh - Letters from War

"Yeah, that's just 'cause I'm at home."

Ruby smiled softly, pausing her painting to examine Emma thoughtfully. "Home, huh?" Ruby wiggled her eyebrows knowingly.

It was Emma's turn to blush, but she didn't want to deny that that's what the mansion felt like, that Regina and Henry meant so much.

"I think it's sweet," Mary Margaret chimed in. "It's nice to see Regina open up to someone."

"Could have been you if you didn't lose her kid," Ruby gibed in a sing-song voice.

She threw a cotton ball at Ruby and glared, but all the waitress did was bat it away like a ball, making Emma laugh at their interaction.

"Aren't you a teacher?" She questioned Mary Margaret. "How'd you lose him?"

If Emma thought the pink she turned minutes ago was deep, it was nothing to the red she was sporting now. "I can't remember," Mary Margaret stammered, buttoning up her cardigan under her chin.

Ruby grinned knowingly but continued to paint her nails silently. Under Emma's hawkeye gaze, the school teacher folded like a house a cards. "David, that nice handsome deputy, he walked by and said hello, and we got to talking, but it was only for two minutes!" she insisted in a single breath.

"I hope he was worth it," Emma muttered with a restrained eye roll.

"He's married," Ruby eagerly provided.

Emma had undergone training to school her expressions under the most torturous of circumstances, but the train wreck that was Mary Margaret's life had her eyes widening a fraction of an inch. She blinked and it was gone, but damn, did she sometimes forget that even roses have their thorns, or rather even chaste-looking school teachers have their crushes that tested their strength.

"Thanks, Ruby," Mary Margaret glared darkly at her friend.

"It's not like she wouldn't have found out. If she and the Mayor start cozying up, she's gonna see a lot more of this place," the waitress argued.

"You know I'm sitting right here, right?" Emma said with a laugh. "There's nothing going on between me and Regina."

"Right." Ruby went back to her painting while Mary Margaret smartly said nothing, though the brief look both brunettes shared with each other spoke volumes.

"So what is she up to?" Emma asked bluntly and suddenly, ignoring the waitress's presumption in favour of getting some information. She knew a ruse when she saw one, and despite Regina being quite the master manipulators, the two brunettes in front of her were not.

Her insight was correct when they both paused, Ruby with the brush to her nail as a drop fell onto her finger and Mary Margaret accidentally putting too much force behind the cuticle pusher.

Ruby was the first to get her bearings and shrugged casually. "You live with her."

"Do you really not know or did she force you not to tell?"

"I think we could all use some more cocoa." Mary Margaret stood with a tight grin on her face as she hastily moved to her kitchen alcove.

"Will I like it?" Emma asked Ruby quietly when Mary Margaret made herself busy with warming the milk.

"Oh yeah."

It was nearly three hours later before Ruby suddenly called their day to a close, after a well-timed message from her phone, Emma noticed. She was rather impressed and a little amused that once Emma had called them out on their secret, they had clammed up about Regina entirely. The blonde tested their resistance, Ruby's especially, when she made a comment that she caught Regina spooning the pillow. Ruby had to physically bite her knuckle and get up from the couch to reel herself in. By the time the message arrived, Ruby and Mary Margaret had done their nails, and they had all eaten a light lunch and sat in front of Mary Margaret's small TV to watch a movie.

The movie wasn't quite over before Ruby suddenly stood and announced that they should bring Emma home before Regina threw a fit. The blonde rolled her eyes at that but didn't argue. It was her last weekend here, and despite spending the last three and a half weeks with the Mills, she was already to miss them. Plus, she was eager to know why she had been kicked out of the house. She liked surprises just as much as Regina did. So by the time the trio got into Ruby's Camaro and headed back toward Mifflin, Emma was looking forward to it. But by the way the two women remained unnervingly quiet, Emma had to wonder what the hell was up and how the hell Regina of all people managed to con their help into taking her out.

Emma was surprised when they pulled up to the mansion and both Ruby and Mary Margaret got out of the car waiting for her.

"It's such a nice day," Mary Margaret said with a beam, pulling her cardigan closer around herself.

"Yeah, if not just a tad bit strange," she muttered the last part to herself.

She walked up the pathway steps, wary of the two trailing behind her but figured asking questions would be moot. Her keys fiddled in her hand before she found the spare key to the mansion and opened the door.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but the empty foyer was sort of anti-climatic after the imaginary build up in her mind. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and it simply looked as if Regina and Henry were out for the day. She was about to turn and question the women behind her, but it was the faint sound of Henry's suppressed giggle that had her raising an eyebrow and following the source of the sound.

She moved quietly, her boots soft against the hardwood flooring as she kept to the walls. The dining room up ahead was as it was, if for a few of Henry's misplaced toys. The parlour to her left was immaculate as always. One more step and she peeked her head into the family room and gasped out loud.

"Surprise!"

Emma froze at the entry way of the living room where thoughtfully decorated streamers were hung about the room. But that wasn't what drew Emma's attention. It was Regina with Henry in her grasp standing front and center in front of a 'Happy Birthday' banner, bright matching smiles adorning their faces. Her mind could just barely process that on the coffee table in front of them was a rather large cake that said both Happy Birthday and We'll Miss You , Archie and Ms. Bell and Graham were standing around the Mills with wide smiles as they clapped her entrance. She looked suddenly when Ruby nudged her with a knowing grin as she and Mary Margaret stepped into the room. She was about to turn back to the Mills when in the corner of the room she saw August, sitting in his wheelchair with a smug smirk hidden behind his scruff.

The room quieted down as they waited for Emma to move, but all she could do was stand there paralyzed, her breathing halted as her eyes welled up. Without another thought she turned and sprinted from the room, needing just a minute to get her bearings. She only realized that she had opened the front door and stepped outside when she placed a palm against a pillar to support herself as a single tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.

"Emma." A warm palm cautiously rested on her shoulder and slid down to her forearm. "Emma, I- I'm sorry, if I've overstepped-"

Emma turned suddenly and engulfed Regina in a tight hug, burying her face into brown hair, inhaling her lavender scent. This was all too much, she was feeling so much, but she didn't care because it was such a good yearning that even though she constantly reminded herself that it wouldn't last, she would always take this option that maybe, just maybe she found a place that feels like home, people to call her family. A place where she could stay and be wanted.

Emma pulled back slowly, tucking Regina's hair back behind her ear when their locks became entangled, but she kept her forehead pressed against the older woman's and closed her eyes, breathing in the moment for as long as it would last.

"You did this for me?" It was phrased as a question, but Emma already knew the answer to it.