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There’s something Regina Mills loves doing: saying no.
Maybe it’s to show her ability to identify what is actually important and what is not.
Maybe it’s to show how resolute she can be, particularly when a powerful no comes out of her delicate lips.
She can be polite, kind and honest, and heaven knows how much time she needed to learn that particular behavior.
Sometimes the particulars of her reason for saying no make very little difference because, especially with a certain someone, her no is just a simple display of power.
A fight for dominance.
A game.
But some people just don’t give up so easily, and that’s Emma Swan’s prerogative.
She, being Regina Mills’ girlfriend, always gives herself the permission of being as pushy as her lover is resolute.
Emma Swan loves asking questions, like a tedious kid sit on the back seat of a car repeating every 20 seconds “Are we there yet?”.
But there’s a thing they both have, helping them dealing with this endless, sometimes funny and sometimes not, verbal battle between a blonde sheriff and a brunette former Evil Queen: courage.
When Emma Swan finds enough courage to ask a question, Regina Mills must find even more strength to say no, so the game can eventually start.
“Would you go out with me on a date, Regina Mills?”
“No”. The brevity of this monosyllable cannot even begin to cover the shock in Regina’s eyes. Or in every fiber of her perfectly shaped body.
After three days and almost two thousand no, Emma simply knocks at the white door of the breathtaking mansion at 108, Mifflin Street.
With a pizza and a bottle of red wine in her hand, she simply states: “You said no to my question about going out with me. I respect it. And you technically aren’t going out with me. You don’t go out at all, to be precise. But now I’m coming in and we’re going to eat and watch a movie together. And this is not a question”.
Their first date starts with the impossibility of a refusal.
Moving in together takes even more time and application to their game.
But it’s when Emma begins to appreciate driving her girlfriend’s car that their bantering gets tough.
“Could you lend me your car?”
“No”. No one drives her Benz.
After a week and almost three thousand no, Emma thinks that stealing every morning Regina’s car key, waiting for her on the passenger seat and forcing her girlfriend to drive her around Storybrooke can be a good compromise and, again, a good way to respect her no.
Not to mention they will never admit how much they love those moments spent together.
But there’s a question Emma needs to elaborate in a perfect way; a question which cannot stand the torture of sustaining endless verbal battles for days.
Or a fight.
Or a refusal.
“Regina Mills, would you refuse if I asked you to marry me and say no exclusively to me for the rest of your life?”
“No. Definitely not.”