Ho Yay / Once Upon a Time

"It's like my whole life is darkness, and when you're around, things are brighter."

Examples of Ho Yay in Once Upon a Time.

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Emma/Regina (Swan Queen)

• Regina and Emma have numerous eyebrow raising moments, including the infamous "How to get the Savior to taste my forbidden fruit" line.
• As early as the second episode, Emma and Regina were having eyebrow raising moments. Such as the scene where Emma answered the door for Regina in only a sleeveless undershirt and her lacy underwear.
• When Henry is trapped in the mines, Emma desperately asks Regina to trust her to bring him up. Regina's response is to lean her face real close to Emma's, look at her lips, and softly ask her to bring him back to her. The scene became famous among their shippers as the "almost kiss scene".
• In "Desperate Souls", there is a scene where Emma, after having been fired from the Sheriff's Department, confides her frustrations to Gold. This eventually leads Emma to say "I don't know what chance I have. She's mayor, and I'm... well... me." when describing her rivalry with Regina, which raised more than a few eyebrows in the fandom.
• When Regina saves their lives, Emma invites Regina to her and her mother's return party proudly proclaims this when someone asks why Regina is there and chases after her when she tries to leave. The two then have a sweet conversation where Regina thanks her twice nervously. When the two end up fighting, Regina tries to apologize by saying, "I am sorry I snapped at you", which coincidently is the same line she says to her love interest, Daniel.
• In Neverland, Regina attempts to teach Emma magic where the two get into an argument. Following the argument, Regina points out that the fire that Emma had failed to ignite is now lit. The tension between them was so intense that it created sparks.
• In one Season 3 episode, Zelena has framed Regina for cursing the town, so she and Emma come up with a plan to fool the town into thinking Emma blamed Regina as well. Regina later comments that it must have been difficult for Emma to believe her, to which Emma responds by saying that it wasn't. Emma makes it clear that while her "superpower might not be perfect", she always knows when Regina is lying. After Regina expresses her disbelief, the two proceed to simply stare at each other smiling for a while, while the camera zooms in on their faces.
• Regina's jabs at the tension between Emma and Hook often borders on jealousy. With comments like "You think it’s the best idea because your boyfriend came up with it," or "You might not yearn, but he does." When she finds out that Emma has trusted Hook with Henry, she acts like a jealous ex when a new suitor tries to replace them in the family after a divorce.
• Following Emma accidentally bringing Marian back, Emma goes to great lengths to reconcile. Including proudly proclaiming that she will get Regina her happy ending, joining the plan to find the Author almost as soon as hearing about it, and happily smiling when it looks like it's in reach, despite having been crying a few hours earlier due to Hook dying in that realm.
• Elsa tries to get Emma to not give up on reconnecting with Regina by saying that, "When someone is important to you. You don’t give up on them." Later that same episode Emma describes the bond she shares with Regina as "…unique. Or maybe even special." and says that Regina can understand her better than even her parents or son.
• In the season 4B premiere, Emma brings Regina some lunch and the two have a playful argument. Emma knows that Granny's grilled cheese gets to Regina. Regina playfully says that Emma eats like a child. Emma brings Regina a root beer, to which Regina says that she is a bit more refined to be able to open it on her own. If not for Emma finding a picture of Robin not soon afterward it would be easy to forget that Regina already had a love interest and mistake them for flirting.
• In "Enter the Dragon", when Emma discovers that Regina is undercover, she proceeds to act like a worried girlfriend, snapping at both her parents and Hook, her boyfriend, for answers as to why Regina hasn't called back yet. When they later meet up, Snow tells Regina that "they" were worried about her, while nodding her head towards Emma.
• In one deleted scene from season 6, Emma and Hook reunite and share a kiss, to which Regina looks away with a pained expression, giving the impression that she was jealous.
• The episode "Wish You Were Here" is a goldmine of shipping fuel for Emma and Regina:
  • When Regina finds Princess Emma in the forest, Emma is initially terrified of the "Evil Queen". In order to convince Emma to trust her, Regina brings up that they share a son, which makes Emma pull a confused face. While the audience knows that it is because Regina adopted Henry, it's a little a bit of an eyebrow raiser that it was literally the first thing Regina thought of.
  • The curse on Emma is so strong that Emma is unable to break it to save her Wish Realm parents from being killed by Regina. However, right when the Wish Realm version Henry throws his sword to kill Regina, Emma snaps out of it in time to save her. After Emma thanks Regina for coming to save her, the two smile at each other for a while before getting on with business.
  • Before the two make the portal to go home, Regina spends a good while playfully teasing Emma about her Princess makeover. When they open the portal, Regina holds her hand out for Emma to hold, which Emma does without hesitation. This leads to the image of the two holding hands, after what comes across like flirting. This almost makes the Wish Realm version Robin Hood seem like a Mood Killer and an attempt from the writer to make it clear that Regina is straight.
• After everyone in town is convinced that Hook abandoned Emma before their wedding, Regina tries to comfort Emma by trying to get her out for a night at a bar. However, this unintentionally comes off like Regina trying to ask Emma out on a date, with the bubbly way she asks and how proudly she holds up the two for one coupon. When she does manage to trick Emma into going for a drink, Regina proceeds to stare intently, before getting caught by Emma and seemingly attempting to play it off as her trying to figure out how to get Emma to open up to her.
• In the final episode, it is revealed that Emma and Regina left town to take their son Henry on a graduation road trip. While this was done to explain why Emma is not in the final until the end, the fact that it seems to have just been the three of them, due to Emma's husband not being referenced to have gone, raised a lot of shipper's eyebrows. 
• When Regina is about to be crowned the Queen of the United Realms, she looks around for Emma in the crowd, looking disappointed when she can't find her. She tries to play it off by asking Snow if "everyone" is there, but Snow sees right through it and tells her where Emma is. Her expression is suddenly way happier once Emma finally does show up.

Emma/Others

• From 4x05, the story between young Emma and Lily sounds a lot like a case of first love breakup. Teen girl ran away, met someone who understood her, lived together under the same roof, promised to be forever together. And then when finding out the truth, heart-broken Emma turned and walked away, never to see her again. Doesn't help that Emma now sees her relationship with Regina, another famous Ho Yay, as similar to her situation with Lily and is determined not to make the same mistake (refusing to forgive her) again.
• The Snow Queen's desire to have Elsa and Emma as surrogate sisters can easily come off as Stalker with a Crush behavior instead. It also helps that Emma and Elsa have plenty on their own when Elsa helps Emma to finally accept her magic as a true part of her.

Regina/Others

• At one point, Regina bribes the Severe Nurse with a rose.
• Season 3 has Tinkerbell and Regina. Tinkerbell defends Regina against the Blue Fairy and seems awfully invested in Regina finding true love and getting her happy ending, and Regina doesn't want her to darken her heart by killing her (which she doesn't) and seems genuinely sad that Tinkerbell lost her wings. Not to mention the support they had going for them before the episode even aired.
• Before they even meet, Regina is a huge fan of Maleficent. When Rumple finds her reading Maleficent's spellbook, Regina excitedly exclaims that Maleficent can turn into a dragon, acts like a fangirl talking to her celebrity crush when they meet, and at one point Maleficent leans her head real close toward Regina's. Regina is also the one to inspire Maleficent to take up her evil ways again when she is in her stupor and helps her turn into a dragon again.
• After being separated from Regina, her Evil Queen half spends most of the second season coming off like a jealous ex to a lot of viewers, what with her hatred of Emma and Regina's friendship and constantly trying to get rid of Emma being not too dissimilar to what one might find in a love triangle. Plus, the Evil Queen has a nasty habit of constantly getting in Emma and Regina's faces for no reason.

Others

• Snow and Red during the flashback sequences when they were fighting Regina's rule together. For a while, Snow/Red/Charming was also one of the show's most popular poly ships.
• Rumplestiltskin smelling Charming's coat after he makes a deal with him for it sure was... interesting.
• After a scene of relatively strong Ship Tease in "Child of the Moon," we now have Red and Belle.
• The canon bisexual Mulan is now helping Ruby find her family, resulting in the rather creative ship name Mulan Rouge. Upon seeing Ruby she is just about panting.
• Hook and Charming, come Season 3.
  • Less subtlely in The New Neverland:
    David: You think I'm interested in Hook? Emma, I'm a married man.
• Peter Pan and Felix, "You need to be punished."
  • Felix is the one Pan loves most. Make of that what you will.
• Aurora/Mulan. Sure, their meaningful glances can be chalked up to awareness of each other's feelings towards Phillip. Mulan's introduction to Aurora directly mirroring Snow's introduction to Charming, however... The end of "Queen of Hearts" with Mulan bringing Aurora's heart back to her and Aurora saying, "Have you ever done this before?" as Mulan leans over her to put it back, is overflowing with subtext.
  • As of Quite a Common Fairy, it's canon from Mulan's side, when she rushes to tell Aurora that she loves her, only to have her announcement cut short by news that she's not thrilled to hear.
• Cora and Eva. Sure, Cora murders her but that kiss on the fingers caused a few eyebrows to be raised.
• Ariel and Belle as of "Dark Hollow", fueled especially by a scene of them tied up back-to-back together.
• Ursula and Cruella act quite a bit like a former couple being forced to work together, particularly Cruella saying to Regina "We're back together." Also helped by Cruella's tendency to call people "Darling."
• Merida looks blown away when the soldier who just defeated her is revealed to be Mulan, which is immediately followed by her just staring at Mulan with a wide smile while Mulan promises to teach her to fight better than any man.
• Hook and Arthur, considering that as soon as she sees them together at the Underworld diner, the Blind Witch offers them a "table for two", and when they come back again later she says she knew she'd see them again because they "had a bromance thing going."
• Henry and his best friend Nick, Aka Jack from Jack And The Beanstalk and Hansel.
• Rumple and Wish Hook in the last season.
  • When they are searching Henry's house, Rumple's cursed self Weaver gets extremely close to Rogers' face, asking how far he's willing to go to complete their task and if he can trust Rogers to be loyal to him.
  • Rumplestiltskin outright admits that everything he's doing in Rogers' favorite cold case investigation is trying to protect Rogers, even if this may not seem like it for the memory-less Wish Hook.
  • Their relationship is a core part of the series finale, with Rumplestiltskin claiming he's the closest thing he's ever had to a friend, and giving his heart to Wish Hook to save him, even though it (as far as he knew) meant dying in a way that wouldn't allow him to see Belle again.
• Wish Realm Rumplestiltskin has some with his main reality counterpart when they first meet, getting close to him and talking about how it's time they become better acquainted while raising his eyebrows.

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