And that's exactly what Regina was planning to do.
Emma was constantly doting on Henry and Regina, but Regina was determined to make tonight about Emma. She resumed her original task of making a light snack for them both, pleasantly surprised to find August's cupboard stacked with various spices and ingredients hailing from different countries. Glass noodles, galangal, curry paste, fish sauce, rose water, baharat, and a whole shelf full of chocolate YanYans. Spices she had never even heard of. She examined the labels curiously, and her intrigue spiked. She never took August to be much experienced in the culinary arts, but after hearing his stories of how he travelled in his off-time, was stationed in Korea, Germany, Syria, it didn't surprise Regina that this curious man would bring back with him food from the world.
Foregoing the snack, Regina tested her own culinary skills, sniffing and tasting spices, rifling through cupboards to find pots and pans, and was blessed when she found vegetables in the chiller. By the time she heard the inevitable argument in the washroom with Henry's "I can't go! The squid captured me!" followed by Emma's wry "I'm pretty sure you're just helping the squid by splashing me." Regina had brown rice cooked, a beef bouillon base sauce simmering, and vegetables seared in the frying pan. Intending to open up the bottle of wine from yesterday, Regina was certain date number three would go off without a hitch.
Just as she was pouring the sauce over the rice, the washroom door opened and a soaking wet Emma stepped out with a towel-wrapped Henry in her arms.
"I thought it was Henry's bath time," Regina quipped turning back to garnish the rice with veggies.
"Henry thought otherwise." With that, the wet pair disappeared into the bedroom where Henry's giggles resonated throughout the apartment.
As she plated the food on two bowls and began to rinse the used dishes, Regina could hear hurried footsteps on the other side of the closed door. No doubt Henry was giving Emma a run for her money, evading changing into his pyjamas and hopping from bed to floor to bed again faster than any jack rabbit. Usually he was a sweet tempered, good-natured child, but when excitement, or worse, sugar caught up with him, Regina considered chasing after him to be her exercise for the day. Just as she was setting the clean dishes on a rack, a heavy weight collided into the back of her legs, and Figaro, who had been weaving himself in and around her ankles, screeched in surprise before darting back to his couch of safety.
Regina glanced down to see Henry, pyjama-clad and hair sticking up every which way with Rexy tucked under his arm. He lifted his hands in a gesture to be picked up, and wiping her hands, Regina crouched down and lifted him under his arms. "Did you give Emma a hard time?" She asked in a near whisper.
He grinned with an innocent mischievous smile before Regina smirked and high-fived him. She carried him into the bedroom and stopped at the threshold where Emma, with her back turned to the Mills, was pulling off her soaked t-shirt, presenting a defined bare back and the beginnings of a pink bra. Henry ducked his head into his mother's neck instinctively with a loud "ew!" causing the blonde to turn her head and smirk at his childish response.
Regina usually would have noticed the raised amused eyebrow coming from the younger woman who had successfully stripped off her shirt, but her eyes were drawn to the faded bruises lining pale sides that disappeared to Emma's front just under her ribs. The hazards of Emma's job had always been some far off myth that only truly showed itself in calloused hands and intense nightmares, but seeing evidence on her body made Regina hurt and angry and sad.
"See something you like?" Emma teased, unaware of the thoughts running through Regina's mind.
"You're naked!" Henry giggled into his mother's neck, sufficient enough to make her pull her eyes up to Emma's face and see that she had donned a fresh shirt and a pair of running shorts at that.
"Yes I do," Regina said sincerely in a way that threw the blonde off enough for her to look down and hide her smile. She stepped further into the room and placed Henry on the bed where he crawled to the head and shimmied under the blankets right in the middle. "And you have to sleep, mister."
"But I get a bedtime story," he reminded her then looked to Emma. "You tell me one please?"
"A bedtime story," she repeated, coming to sit on the edge of the bed beside him. She smiled and nodded knowingly before holding her hand out for Regina to take and encouraged the older woman to sit with her as they both looked upon Henry tucked in for the night. "Once upon a time, there was a White Knight and an Evil Queen. . ."
Like their phone calls, Henry jumped in to fill in gaps of the story, but sometimes his excitement got the best of him, and for a few solid minutes, Sir Henry was jumping and galloping around the room fighting off Rexy the dragon, but he eventually tired himself out, and by the end of the story, as the White Knight broke the Evil Queen's curse with True Love's kiss, Henry fell sound asleep.
"I saw your present," Regina said as they exited the bedroom hand in hand once Henry was sound asleep.
Emma frowned. "No you didn't."
"Well it wasn't a very good hiding spot." Regina led her to the fridge and pulled out the rose and card, playing with the stem between her fingers and smiling shyly before leaning up and pecking Emma on the cheek in a chaste kiss. "Thank you."
Emma grinned, weaving an arm around Regina's waist to hold her close. "I was gonna get you those earrings you were looking at in that store today."
"I'm glad you didn't," Regina said sincerely, bringing her arms and rose up Emma's shoulders and around her neck to dangle lazily there. "I'm just happy you're here," she said honestly.
"My presence is your present?" Emma sassed earning a groan and an eyeroll from the brunette who peeled herself away.
"I made–" Dinner died on Regina's lip, or rather it was currently residing in Figaro's belly as the plates were bare save for the few stray vegetables lying on the plates. The feline had no shame as he licked his paws clean on the table, gave the plates one final sniff, and sauntered to the edge where he leaped from the table and washed down his helpings from his water bowl.
"I told you," Emma guffawed. "He's a fatty."
Regina scowled, her jaw tensing as she crossed her arms and leered at the cat. "This is why I don't have animals in my house."
Emma snorted and steered Regina away from glaring holes on Figaro back to the couch. "You love animals."
"Not that one."
"Just like how you don't like Pongo?"
"Pongo has never eaten food off any of my dishes."
"Right," the blonde dismissed quickly but knowingly, lounging in the corner of the couch and tucking an unsuspecting Regina into her.
The brunette toppled gracelessly onto the soldier and huffed out of surprise more than annoyance before suddenly lifting herself over Emma, hovering on her arms with an expression of concern on her face. "Did that hurt you?"
She wrinkled her brow. "No?"
"It's just that I saw your back."
"You must have liked it a lot," she laughed, trying to get Regina to rest against her, but the brunette wouldn't budge.
"You have bruises," the older woman stated simply.
Emma's laugh quieted as she frowned in understanding, but it was the green eyes that darkened in memory that had Regina all the more worried. "Yeah," Emma said finally, though her voice was quiet.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Nails digging into Regina's waist and a lip tugged furiously between her teeth, Emma frowned before nodding so minutely Regina wasn't even sure she was answering her question. But Emma did. She talked about Spencer and those two prisoners–one dead and the other, well she wondered if his fate was worse. She talked about how she found herself doing the grunt work or the most dangerous jobs even if there were better qualified people around. Sometimes she got leers. Most times she heard whispers. She wasn't sure which was worse.