Calendar

Simple Chemistry

At 2 pm, the doorbell rang and as Regina opened the door, she was greeted by an overly enthusiastic Emma.

"Is the pie already finished?"

Regina rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it is, but we need to do some work before we can eat a piece."

At that moment, Henry came to the door to greet Emma with a half eaten piece of pie in his hand.

"Hi Mo-"

"Regina! Why is Henry allowed to eat pie when I'm not?!"

"Well, technically he isn't allowed...", Regina said with a reproachful glance towards Henry,
"but I guess it seems fair now that you get a small piece too..."

With a winning smile, Emma got rid of her jacket and walked purposefully towards the kitchen.

A coupon for a pie of Emma's choice might be a good idea for the calendar, Regina thought before she followed Emma to keep an eye on her pie.

When she entered, Emma was already eating while looking at the utensils they would need for the volcano.

"Do we need all of this stuff for the project?", Emma asked with a full mouth.

Regina nodded while cutting herself a piece of the pie. Now that everyone had a piece, she might as well have one too.

"We are going to make two volcanoes, one as a test and one for Henry's class."

"Shall I already take this to Henry's room then?"

"This is probably going to get a bit messy, so we'll definitely stay in the kitchen."

"And you expected me to work right next to your pie without getting a piece?"

"I thought it would motivate you if you saw your goal in front of you."

Emma snorted.
"I can tell you that this wouldn't have worked."

At some point, Henry must have joined them in the kitchen, as they heard him say:
"You know, you sound like a totally married couple right now."

Regina immediately grew silent and stared at Henry in shock.

"Whoa, Mom, don't worry. I won't tell anyone you two get along well and destroy your reputation.", Henry said jokingly.

Regina took a cautious glance at Emma, but she didn't seem to mind Henry's comment. Instead, she just said with a wink towards Regina:
"If I'd have a wife who could make such great pie, I would be the happiest person in the word."

"Then a one handed pirate might not be the best choice.", Regina said without thinking.

Emma furrowed her brows but didn't comment on Regina's remark.
What the hell was she thinking? Regina figured it was best to change the topic and started explaining how to make the volcano.

"So, first we'll need to cut off the cover of the coke can-"

"They're empty?"

Regina rolled her eyes at the interruption.
"Yes, Emma, they're empty. So after we cut off the cover, we are going to put dough around it and maybe decorate it a bit to make it look more realistic. Then, we only have to fill in the chemicals and hope that it will explode."

"Sounds simple enough."

"I told you it's not that hard."

"Except for the chemical stuff. But luckily, Henry and I got you for that."

Regina smiled mischievously.
"About that... I was actually thinking that Henry and you are going to figure it out together as it's his project and I already know how to do it. Did you forget that you need to be able to explain the reaction to your class, Henry?"

"That's not fair!", Henry and Emma exclaimed at the same time.

"You might get a little bit of help if you two behave.", Regina added at the sight at the two shocked faces.

Emma rolled her eyes while playing with the dough.
"How generous of you, Madam Mayor."

"Stop playing and cut off the covers of the can, Sheriff."

While Emma tried her best to prepare the cans, Regina explained to Henry how the chemicals work together to create an eruption. After all, she couldn't watch Henry screwing up the project.

Suddenly, she heard a scream from where Emma was standing. She turned around to see Emma's hand covered in blood and one of her sharpest knives lying on the counter."

"Emma! What the hell are you doing?! Why are you using a knife for this?", Regina exclaimed while hurrying towards Emma.
"Fast, put your hand under some cold water."

Being pulled to the sink, Emma tried to explain what happened.
"Stay calm, it's not that bad. I just tried to cut through that damn thing... It didn't work with your scissors, so I thought that knife looked rather sharp... Well, and apparently, it is."

"Yes, apparently it is. But using a knife for this, seriously? What were you thinking?"

"Mom, are you okay?", Henry asked from behind.

"Sure, it's just a little cut, nothing what nurse Regina couldn't fix.", Emma replied with a wink.

Nurse Regina. Regina tried to contain the rather inappropriate images that were popping up in her head. What the hell was wrong with her?!

"I- I think it's not that deep, so you should be okay. If you still wanna see Whales, I can drive you to the hospital."

"Are you kidding? I definitely won't see a doctor because of a paper cut."

"Hm. Do you still want to continue with the project?"

"Yeah, of course. But... do you have anything else to remove the cover?"

With one little flick of Regina's wrist, the cut on Emma's finger was gone and the cans were open.
Emma blinked slightly surprised.
"Sometimes, I really forget that magic is a thing.  Why didn't you do it like this from the beginning?"

"Because I consider it cheating... If I wanted, I could just create two perfect volcanoes with a flick of my wrist. But that's not really the purpose of a science project, is it? It's just not fair towards the other children whose parents don't have magic. And it wouldn't be a real achievement."

"Yeah... Yeah, that makes sense."

"It does?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Good."

Emma and Regina smiled softly at each other until Henry cleared his throat behind them.

"You guys know I'm still there, right? Can we form the dough now?"

Slightly embarrassed by being caught staring at each other, the two women turned towards their son.

"Sure kid."

"First, we are going to try out our chemical reaction. A simple can will do for this."

The experiment worked and two hours later, they had a quite realistic looking volcano and two jars with the required chemicals in front of them.
Regina was really happy with their effort and without further thinking she invited Emma to stay for dinner.
Before Emma could give an answer, Henry already nodded excitedly and told them he was setting the table for the three of them.
Emma gave Regina an almost shy smile.

"Well, it seems like he has already decided I'm gonna stay."

"Apparently", Regina said with a small smile. "But I only have some leftover lasagna from yesterday. So if you want to have something different, I won't force you to eat with us."

"No, lasagna sounds perfect! ...Unless you would rather want me to leave, of course. I don't wanna be a burden to you."

"I wouldn't have asked you to stay if I wanted you to leave. You are never a burden to me."

"Okay."

"Good."

"I am going to heat the food."

Regina shook her head about herself. These moments between them had to stop for both their sakes. But somehow, every time Emma Swan was around, her brain just stopped functioning properly.