A/N: Original prompt:
It could start with FrozenSwan and Emma is this wealthy kid (well snow and charming are) and her gf (Elsa) went to visit her sis. Em sees Regina skating and Cora is scolding her cause she did some wrong move. It starts as a friendship (Em offers to train her) and they fall in love! But Em refuses cause she's not a cheating ass. And Elsa sees the love in her eyes and she can't stand her best friend/girlfriend being sad and she asks Em to go for Regina but then Forest face shows up or something and there's a little angst but it all works out in the end!
Disclaimer: I don't own them, sadly, because I want to write something with a whip and Regina and...well, you get my drift xD
There is something I need to tell you
"Emma?" the clear pure voice made Emma smile a little before turning, one of her brows raised as she watched the paler girl enter in the room with her bottom lip between her teeth.
"I thought you would have go by now" The blonde said, frowning for a second as she approached her girlfriend. The other girl nodded and exhaled, shrugging and rumpling a little the blue sweater she was wearing. Grabbing Emma's hands between hers and giving a reluctant squeeze to Emma's long finger Elsa looked at her feet, her blue eyes slightly clouded.
"I wanted to see you once again, I'm going to miss you" She finally admitted, making Emma smile bitterly a little herself.
They had been friends since they both were ten years old and Elsa's parents had decided to send her abroad in order to make her improve her English. Year after year the girl had returned with new tales about her home and her little sister and year after year Emma had waited for her friend to tell her the new pranks they would pull either on her parents or in the boy's that lived a few minutes away; Neal Cassidy. The three of them had been almost inseparable until Neal's father decided that it was time to move to another location.
The two girls, now roughly touching fifteen, had slowly but surely started another path on their friendship that after many bumps and twirls had ended up with them starting a tentative relationship with each other. Almost four years after their first kiss Elsa was standing there, unsure and nervous of going back home to see her little sister and Emma was looking at her, months away from the beginning of her classes on the university.
"I'm going to miss you too" Emma finally answered, touching her girlfriend's cheek with one of her hands, kissing the other blonde's forehead when Elsa refused to look at her. "It's only going to be a few weeks"
The girl nodded and sighed, she was ecstatic to see Anna once again; their parents had decided that Anna, being the younger, didn't need the same education Elsa had had and so the girls barely spent as much time together as they would have liked. Anna was normally the only thing that kept Elsa feeling welcomed in her own house after all since Elsa sexuality and other things had soon enough started to clash with her conservative parents.
That time though, everything was going to be different once she returned to De White's mansion. Emma's parents were what everybody would say filthy rich and the two families knew each other from the time both Mary and her own mother studied in the same college. Sadly, Emma and herself weren't going to be that lucky and once the girls hit the beginning of their respective academic years they were going to be in a different universities, alone.
And that was something that Elsa despised.
"Hey" Emma said, making Elsa look at her, her eyes now hidden behind her unruly blonde hair. "We will figure everything out yes? You are my best friend and my girlfriend, seeing each other once a week will be piece of cake once we start our classes. You will see"
With that the blonde kissed the other, a chaste kiss that made Elsa blush a little when it turned into something more heated for a second.
"Go" Emma finally said with a wink "I will skate while you are in Arendel; I'm going to be as good as you when you return"
Elsa laughed at that: although Emma was quite good in skates she would never be as good as her and her friend-turned-girlfriend had long ago declared that Elsa either had sell her soul in order to be part of the ice or she had been born with skates glued to her feet.
"You can try but you will never manage to beat me" She said before pecking Emma on her lips once again and turning, Emma pouting for a second before she followed her towards the main gate of the house.
"We will see of that" She said, her smile loosening her brightness when the car that was going to bring Elsa to the airport finally exited her parent's property leaving a cloud of direst behind him.
-.-
A few hours after that Emma found herself looking at the ice rink that had been built by her grandfather more than fifty years before. The place had been constructed as a way of telling everyone in Storybrooke how powerful the old patriarch of the White's family had been. Once the man had died his wife had decided to open the rink to whomever that wanted to try their luck on the skates. So far the place had never been closed, nor in winter or in summer. This actually explained the amount of people that kept skating inside trying to fight the heat that July brought with him outside the cold walls of the rink. They weren't enough to fill the rink but more than the five or six people Emma had been seeing during June when both Elsa and her had go there.
Tapping her long fingers against the fence that circled the rink the blonde looked at the ceiling of the place, letting out a sigh before she moved towards the changing rooms. Elsa would be arriving at Arendel's airport in less than an hour and a part of her wanted to call her as soon as the she landed even if Elsa had asked her numerous times to not do it worried about her parents reaction if they ever found out their relationship. "I know that sometime I will need to tell them the truth" The blonde had explained the first time she had asked for that "But I'm not sure when I'm going to be ready to do it."
So far Elsa hadn't told her parents any change on their relationship and even Emma's meddling parents' had agreed to keep their mouth shut just in case.
That didn't help with Emma's situation though and so there she was, reading herself for skating and trying not to think too much on Elsa and how she was feeling.
"C'mon Swan" She thought, calling herself the nickname Neal had given her so many years ago when she had had a complete obsession over the animals. "Just a few weeks, nothing else, nothing more"
Sighing inwardly and trying to smile to a few people that were already on the changing room, the blonde grabbed her own skates and put them on, smiling a little at the thought of Elsa before she walked awkwardly towards the door that communicated with the rink.
Once she was finally there she let herself inhale, her noise filling with the cold, limpid odor of ice. Something that she had become not only familiar but also comfortable with it. Starting to move around the rink she did a few backspins eliciting a few applauses here and there for the people that were looking from the other side of the rink. Soon enough she let the ice took her, the pain and sadness fading a little after she tried and managed to do a camel spin without pulling out her leg. Once she returned to her former position she turned around, almost expecting to see Elsa watching her from ajar with a smile on her lips and a teasing look on her eyes before she doubled (or tripled) the pirouette she had just mastered. Unfortunately, she found herself alone and her mood dampened a little once again at the realization.
Sighing, she resumed doing a few pirouettes here and there, mentally calculating when she was going to be able to call Elsa. Biting her bottom lip she scratched the back of her head, her blonde tresses bouncing unruly after that.
Then, as she approached the entrance of the rink once again, she heard a rather high-pitched voice that made her narrow her eyes and look at the source of it, blinking in surprise when she saw a middle-aged woman eying warily from the other side of the fence at a young woman that looked as old as her. The first woman, who Emma decided that could be the mother of the second, was dressed with the most expensive clothes Emma had ever seen on market and for a second she looked self-consciously at the warm and comfortable clothes she herself wore. She didn't look like her parents' daughter and that was actually something that she had been told quite a few times as she grew up. However the woman scolding the young girl, as new in town as she looked, was someone ready to be on some fashion show.
"Regina, I can't believe that after everything I'd done for you, you are still unable to do some simple change-foot spin" The older woman was saying with a scowl on her face as the girl at Emma's side of the fence swallowed nervously.
She looked almost the opposite of how her mother looked and even if she too was clothed in expensive brands it looked more like a costume than anything else. The brunette girl had a defiant glimpse on her eyes though and even if she wasn't exactly saying anything Emma immediately felt a wave of sympathy towards her.
"It's actually a little tricky to preform that pirouette" She heard herself saying as she skated towards the two women. The two brunettes looked at her, startled, but before the younger, Regina, looked at her mother apprehensively once again the blonde could have sworn to have seen a grateful smile curling her lips for a second.
"And you may be…?" The mother said with a disrespectful voice, making very clear her opinion about Emma's interruption.
The blonde, never one who would turn down a challenge, smiled as sweetly as she could and shrugged.
"No one"
"You are the girl who were doing the camel spin a while back" Regina provided, her voice deeper than her mother's and with a timbre that made Emma blush for a second realizing the rich accent she possessed and liking it.
"Yup" She answered, trying to hide her deepening blush. "I'm quite good at skating" She provided to the mother in an afterthought with a cheeky smile.
She had decided that whereas the daughter appeared to be interesting the mother was anything but a snob and she had her own share of those to know that she didn't want to be polite with her.
"I see" The woman said, her eyes narrowed and looking almost as if she was mentally thinking on the best way to slice Emma's throat while she wasn't looking. Gulping a little the blonde jumped startled when Regina's voice sounded again at her side.
"Maybe she can help me mother" Regina provided, smiling sweetly at her mother's suspicious eyes. The blonde didn't say anything at that, feeling that she didn't exactly had the real opportunity so say something against Regina's words.
"What's your name girl?" The mother asked, her chin rising as if she was some kind of mighty queen about to pardon one of her servants.
Emma despised being from a rich family, not only because of what that meant for her but also because she was always needing to remind herself that people tended to see her on a different light whenever she said who was her family. Her parents weren't exactly as snob as the woman she had in front of her but they also behaved like the kind of people who had been rich since they had been born and even if Emma had been raised the same way she didn't have the same way of behaving or thinking about herself and the ones who surrounded her. Because of that she smiled grimly at the woman before saying her name, knowing that the woman, whoever she was, was going to connect quickly her name with the one that named the rink.
"I'm Emma De White ma'am" She finally replied, sighing mentally and biting her bottom lip as she moved a little on her skates, just a few inches at her right that made her bump her shoulder against the other girl's who stumbled slightly, her brown eyes still focused on her.
The woman frowned before blanching, her eyes darting quickly towards the entrance of the rink where the name of Emma's family was displayed on red letters.
"You…" The woman mumbled for a second before smiling, her lips forming a fake smile that made Emma want to gag. However, Regina kept looking at her, a mix of interest and resignation towards her mother present on her pupils. "Pleased to meet you Miss White"
The fawning look the woman gave to her almost made Emma laugh, the fakeness of the woman so obvious that Regina at her side seemed ready to open up a hole on the ice and hide herself in it.
"Call me Emma" The blonde replied, looking pointedly at the woman, hoping she took the hint.
"Sorry, my manners" The woman finally said, laughing a little as she moved her right hand around, as if trying to get rid of some kind of mosquito. "I'm Cora Mills and this is my daughter, Regina"
The two girls looked at each other and nodded, neither of them really interested on the obvious display Cora was trying to make in front of the heir of one of the most well-known families all over the country.
The blonde looked at her hands as she thought on Elsa once again, the girl was still going to need at least a few hours of talking both to her parents and her sister before being able to call her or just skype for a little, she could be with Regina for a while and keep her away from her obviously snob mother.
"About what Regina said" She said towards Cora, an easy smile on her face, "I volunteer to help her; I've been skating since I was big enough to put my own skates so maybe I can help her with a few tricks"
Cora looked reluctant but after a few minutes of pondering she nodded, looking at Regina with an icy glare that made even Emma swallow a little before turning and seating on one of the benches that circled the ice rink.
"You don't need to…" Regina started, turning around slowly until she was inches away from Emma. She was slightly shorter than the blonde and for a second the girl blinked before adjusting her stance once again, her legs wobbling a little. "I mean, I told her that to make her stop, I don't want to bother you if you want to be alone or…"
Emma shook her head: albeit that day wasn't one of her best she hated the parents that treated her children like some big mistake they needed to correct with off-handed comments that only affected the children's way to perceive themselves. And Cora Mills was exactly that kind of parent.
"Don't worry" She smiled "I'm quite used to skate with someone so it would be nice to be with paired up with you today"
Regina smiled at that and nodded, tentatively starting to move as Emma moved away from her, the skates grazing the ice of the rink as slowly as possible to make the other girl feel comfortable enough to keep going. The rink was still quite empty so almost no one looked at them as they started to do the first round; Regina needed a few seconds here and there to readjust her stance whenever she needed to turn her body in order to keep herself standing but, otherwise, she wasn't as bad as she had looked when her mother had been screaming at her.
"Relax your pose" Emma said softly, touching the other girl's shoulder blade when she noticed how Regina kept looking at where her mother was seated. They were by now at the other side of the rink but the woman's presence was something that Regina kept around her, like an odor that managed to linger no matter what. "Look ahead and don't over think it, swift movements, just like that"
After a while and a few stumbles Regina started to feel comfortable enough to actually look at Emma while moving her hands not curled up in fists every time they did a curve.
"I'm sorry about my mother" She finally said, a light blush dusting her cheeks "She can be… like this whenever she recognizes a name"
Emma shrugged, moving her right hand to indicate Regina where they were going to turn. "Don't worry" She answered "I've already known a few people like that before, no harm done"
The brunette girl nodded pensively and this time it was Emma the one who kept looking at her as they skated. "I've never seen you here before" She finally said with doubt ringing on her voice as she touched the back of her head, dubious. And it was true, Regina and her mother looked like completely strangers for her and she had quite the good memory for faces.
"We are here because of father" The other girl answered, her full bottom lip trapped between her fingers as she carefully managed to do a little twirl without falling "The company sent him here and mother thought that this place could be a very interesting one for me to live"
Emma nodded at that, Storybrooke was a little city but one famous enough for the celebrities that lived there. Cora was probably going to have the time of her life meeting important face and names during the time the Mills lived there.
"How do you do that?" The brunette asked when Emma did a little twirl, nothing too obvious but complicated enough to leave an interesting pattern on the ice below them. Emma smiled at her, it was obvious that Regina knew the basics and names of the sport but apparently her knowledge ended there.
"How about we met tomorrow and see what you can do?"
….-….
That night, after telling her parents about how she was going to go to the rink with a new friend the next day, Emma grabbed her laptop and called Elsa, knowing that the other girl would probably be in the middle of her day in the other side of the world. A smiling, yet tired-looking blonde waved from the other side of the screen as Emma finally seated on her bed, feeling more alone than ever when the realization that she was not going to be able to sneek up to Elsa's room anymore during the summer downed on her.
"I miss you" She said with a smile, making Elsa nod at her, her eyes dull and lacking her natural glow. "Problems with your parents?"
"Nothing important" The other blonde answered hugging her legs and looking at Emma, her hair, that she normally braided and let her bangs remain free, was now carefully brushed, none a single hair out of place. "You know how they are"
Emma nodded, the comment reminding her about Regina and their little chat they have had that afternoon under the piercing glare of Cora.
"Speaking of that" She said "Today I met a girl, Regina, she was having a few problems with her mother on the ice rink and I'm going to teach her how to skate while I'm still here"
The smile on Elsa faltered for a second but ended up nodding "That's great" She said, a tiny lopsided smile on her face "Try to not kill some poor child like you did the last time we were there"
Emma rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue, making Elsa giggle "That was an accident and you know it"
"Yes, that's what you say" Elsa replied, winking at Emma, and although her face was slightly pixelated the blonde could feel the warmth radiating from Elsa's eyes.
"I…" She started, her voice becoming weaker when she realized what she had wanted to say. As much as she wanted to say it she didn't want to tell that kind of thing to Elsa through pc, not the first time, and so she merely shook her head and laughed with her, falling asleep once Elsa disconnected the call.
…..-…..
Turned out Cora didn't show up the following day. The woman needed to do some important errands that couldn't be postponed anymore and thanks to that the blonde heir found herself looking only at Regina when she arrived at the rink, skates on her hands.
"Look at you" She said with a cheeky grin that was met with a huff "Ready for another round?"
"No" Regina admitted, laughing a little. Now that her mother wasn't with her she looked much more at ease, her eyes glowing like embers. "But I don't have any other option, do I?"
"We could always skip the lesson but that wouldn't be very professional" The blonde retorted, making Regina the one who rolled up her eyes this time.
"I'm good at riding horses" She finally admitted as they entered in the rink. The blonde waved briefly at the girl guarding the entrance when they walked in front of her, her eyes focused solely on Regina. "But ice skating…"
"Some people say that if you are good with normal skates skating on ice is a piece of cake" The blonde replied as she opened the door of the changing rooms and let the other girl enter before her, closing the door as soon as she walked inside.
"I'm not good on that either, mother is always saying that ice skating is something I need to master, she doesn't like my obsession over horses" Regina shrugged at that, almost apologizing at Emma for her mother's behavior.
"Well, I would be delighted to see you sometime riding" Emma said, fastening her skates and waiting to Regina until the brunette was ready. "My mother loves riding but I'm not patient enough to raise one and ride them, last time I tried I ended up covered in mud and something that I hope was only water."
"I bet you looked stunning" Regina replied, making Emma chuckle at that as she remembered that time and the look on her mother's face when she had entered home sporting several bruises and the firm resolution of not going to try the awful idea of riding one of those animals ever again.
Today, however, she almost wished she would have had.
…..-…
As days transformed into weeks Emma created a timetable in where she found comfortable in; waking up late after talking with Elsa as much as possible over the phone or over the laptop the night before, helping on the house and therefore making her parents nervous because of her will of helping, readying herself for the university she would soon be attending and going towards the rink to spend her afternoons with Regina. Sometimes Cora was there, looking at her daughter and giving fake smiles at Emma whenever she was able to and some other times the girl was alone. Emma preferred those days since not only Regina did everything better but the girl was more like the woman Emma suspected she was under everything her mother pretended to throw at her every time she was around her.
During those quiet moments and between silly attempts of trying to make a pirouette and failing (Regina was still as bad as she had been the first day but at least much more comfortable with herself) Emma knew about Regina's now ex-boyfriend; Daniel, and how Cora had managed to divide them before the girl's father managed to get the new job in Storybrooke. Emma also learnt about Cora's obsession of pretending to be the best on absolute everything. From her part Emma told Regina about her own snob parents, the way they always looked at her like some kind of princess. She also told her about Elsa but with a soft voice full of longing and confusion that made Regina hug her tightly with the inconvenience of making the two of them fall on top of a hild as they tried to skate.
During those days she also found in the brunette –who was indeed 20- someone in who she could confide and even if they had met each other in some quite strange circumstances their friendship bond grew strong with every passing day.
At the end of their third week Regina asked Emma if she wanted to change the rink for the stables that were at the other side of the city and even if Emma was a little more than reluctant she finally agreed, swallowing nervously as they walked to the wooden cabin that hold the horses. The place was managed by the , some friend of her mother, and so the woman didn't had any problem when Emma, in a tiny and shaking voice, asked to ride some of the beasts she kept there.
"Just pick the ones you want" The woman smiled at her, looking at Regina from the corner of her eyes whenever she thought the young woman couldn't see her. It was obvious that Blue didn't know about Emma's attempt of riding a horse years ago and so Emma found herself looking at the big animals feeling dreed and fear as Regina merely petted every single one of them with a tender smile on her face.
"Daniel was the one who taught me how to ride" She finally said touching gently one of the horses, the soft caramel color of the beast making Emma think about Regina's changing eyes for a second. The brunette's mood was easily recognized by the way her eyes shone and in that moment, looking at the horse and giggling a little whenever the beast tickled her hand when he tried to eat from it, her eyes looked almost like melted caramel instead of the chocolate pools she was accustomed to see.
"And you are now going to kill me" The blonde answered after swallowing "How fitting"
The brunette woman shook her head and looked at Emma as if she was ready to say something because of Emma's remark. Letting it go she turned and went to the horse that was peacefully eating at the left side of the one she had been touching until now. It was almost white and a looking a little bit younger than the other one.
"I think this one suits you" She finally said, smirking a little when she saw the way Emma's eyes widened. "Don't worry, it looks very easy and I will be with you in this one"
Emma licked her lips, not sure of what to do.
"It's not like you can do something" Regina pointed out "You are the one who tries to murder me every single day when we are at the rink"
"Touché" The blonde admitted, a brief smile appearing on her lips before she focused again on the horses in front of her. Sighing and approaching at the one Regina still had near her she extracted her hands from her back pockets, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds her right hand trembled a little when she raised it, mentally readying herself.
"Don't worry" The brunette repeated. "There is nothing you need to be afraid of"
"No mud?" Emma asked, her voice trembling a little and making Regina nod at her, a soft smile curling her lips, her hair-that had grown quite a bit in those three weeks-moving alongside with her, brown tresses shadowing her eyes a little.
"No mud"
That day the blonde discovered that she wasn't as bad riding a horse as she had thought about herself and even if she needed a little bit of help to start and another bit of help to keep on the horse instead of falling she enjoyed quite a bit the day, laughing at Regina's playful remarks whenever the other young woman felt like it. That was the first day she truly saw what kind of person Regina Mills was and she found herself liking the girl even more than she already did.
That was also the day in where she dreamt about kissing her instead of Elsa.
