Mayor Mills sat at her desk gripping her temples. She'd just sat through the worst meeting ever listening to the latest crisis to hit Storybrook. Since the barriers came down, it seemed as though her quiet little town had become the must visit place of the year for ravers and hippies. A pop up rave had happened last night in the forest and this morning, a few party goers had wandered into Granny's seeking sustenance and warmth. The forest had been trashed and it seemed that nobody other than the sheriff was willing or able to do anything about it. Miss Swan was currently clearing out the remaining illegal participants by flashing her badge to scare them off. They needed to put the barrier back up as soon as possible but the rest of the townsfolk weren't too keen on the idea. She'd tried to reason with them logically and explained that if they valued their privacy and didn't wish to become anything more than circus performers, they'd allow her to restore the cloak around the town. There were grumbles of 'well I don't have magic so I'm fine,' and 'I've got nothing to hide.' She'd very nearly summoned a fireball and charred the imbeciles but she was already in their bad books and trying very hard to redeem herself. To top it all off, she was having one of her stress induced migraines. She poofed a plastic pill tub on her desk in front of her and was about to take one when a loud knock battered her door.
She huffed and gritted her teeth. "Come in."
Emma bound into the office as if she owned the place with a huge smirk on her face. "Hey, just came to let you know that the last of them are gone. If you aren't too busy I was thinking you and me could head back out there before it gets dark and do a bit of magical cleaning."
"Surely that is job for the sheriff's office Miss Swan, or are you not familiar with how a garbage bag works?" Regina slurred and quickly shoved the pills in her bag so as not to appear weak in front of the bane of her existence.
Emma looked a bit hurt but instantly covered it with a shrug. "Those garbage bags are tricky!" She laughed at her own joke but blushed slightly when she saw the look on Regina's face that said she was an incompetent fool. "I guess I could get Leyroy and his gang to help out but honestly, it's probably gonna take days to get the forest looking less like a landfill. Besides, I thought it'd be kinda cool to uhm, get a few more magic lessons in." She looked down at her feet and scuffed the toe of her boot on the carpet. She knew the mere mention of the dwarves would get the mayor's hackles up and she was hoping she'd focus on that rather than the fact Emma actually wanted to spend time practicing magic with her. The fact was, she'd grown quite fond of spending time alone with the woman and getting to know her layer by tricky layer.
"Fine." Regina said as she pushed herself up off the chair. Emma had a point. It was much quicker and guaranteed to be done to a high standard if she herself sorted it out. "Lead the way then Miss Swan or would you prefer we teleported to the location?" It came out much sassier than she'd intended. It was a genuine question but sounded more like a criticism.
"Patrol car is right outside so we may as well enjoy the drive." Emma walked silently out of the mayor's office and plodded outside to the patrol car. She opened the passenger side door for the mayor who just quirked an eyebrow in fascination at the gesture but chose not to say anything. Emma shook her head and ran around to her side of the car. She smiled gently as she got in and fastened her seat belt. "So how did the meeting go?"
"Terribly. Those idiots are quite happy to have any stranger wandering about through town with little regard to the fact we have magic. It isn't safe to have outsiders coming and going as they please." Regina huffed and smoothed a hand over her brow. Emma caught the action and gave her a concerned look.
"Don't get me wrong, I mean I don't particularly wanna have to run around town dealing with regular criminals and ravers and stuff, but would it really be so bad to have a few different faces around here?"
Regina pursed her lips tightly in a frown. "I've seen The X Files Miss Swan. I know what people from this land do to people like us. We'd be locked away in cages and prodded at until we were a gibbering mess. I don't know about you dear, but I'm not prepared to hide my abilities whenever the next magical crisis decides to hit town."
Emma grinned then laughed a bit.
"What exactly do you find so funny about that scenario?" Regina shot her a look of disbelief.
"No, God nothing! It's just funny that you watched The X Files is all. I used to love that show. But you're right. It's hard enough fighting off dragons and wraiths without having to explain ourselves to the public. I guess we need to convince the townsfolk to put the barrier back up just until we come up with a better solution."
Regina couldn't help but warm to the woman and the 'we's' and 'us' didn't go unnoticed. They had started to slowly tear down some walls between each other and if she were honest with herself, she quite enjoyed spending time with the blonde tornado.
"Good luck with that! As far as they're all concerned, I'm the only one with anything to hide and they aren't exactly thrilled at the idea of protecting me."
Emma frowned and saw Regina grip her head again. "There's some aspirin in the glove box if you want it." She pulled up and parked on the edge of the forest and got out.
Regina debated with herself but decided if she was going to teach the savior how to use her powers, an aspirin would be sensible. She opened the glove box and saw a plastic zip lock bag with some pills in. She took two pills out and swallowed them down without water and got out of the car.
Emma turned around and let out and exaggersted sighed. "See what I meant about the mess." She gestured around the clearing.
Regina's eyes went wide as she took in the sea of plastic water bottles, a burnt out car, the remains of what appeared to be a stage and a lot of other junk. "What happened here?"
"Weĺl from what those two kids I had in custody told me, someone had announced an underground rave on social media and they all piled in to this location after dark last night." She bent over and began picking something out of the sea of plastic bottles. It was a flyer for the event. "DJ Dalliance, Dizzy Beatz and Flick da Curfew have come together for one night of epic tunes in the magical haunted forest of Storybrook. Get ready for spooks, sex and sauciness in a rustic forest atmosphere. Travel back in time and party like the pagans." She guffawed at the idiocy of the paper and was about to pocket it when Regina grabbed it out of her hand.
"Give me that!" She examined it closely and shook her head. "You mean to tell me a bunch of kids organized this and caused this much damage?"
Emma nodded sadly. "Welcome to the noughties."
Regina let out a long sigh and pulled up her sleeves. "Well let's get started Miss Swan before the sun goes down and we are left stranded out here."
Emma walked over and stood beside the brunette.
"What do I do?"
"Concentrate on an item you wish to move and envision in disappearing into oblivion."
Emma frowned. "Is that safe? I mean, what if it turns up in the middle of Main Street and falls on someone?"
"Oblivion, Miss Swan. Do pay attention."
"Right. Okay here goes." She raised her hands and concentrated on the object she wanted to move. One single bottle vibrated and then disappeared. "I did it!"
Regina quirked an eyebrow. "One bottle... really dear? If you think that..." She stopped talking and looked panicked. A hand came up to her mouth and she quickly turned her back on the blonde as she vomited behind her into a bush. Had she not suddenly been feeling herself rising up as if on air, she would have been embarrassed but all she could feel was pure joy. She wiped her mouth and broke out into a huge smile.
Emma rushed over and placed a hand on her back. "Regina, are you ok? Do you need me to drive you home or to the doctor?"
Regina turned around and Emma saw the uncharacteristic grin. "And why on earth would I want that dear? It must have been something I ate. I'm fine now. Come on, let's do some magic!"
Emma looked at her strangely but reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. "Ok.. want one of these at least?"
Regina's grin widened further and she took the stick of gum excitedly. "Have you suddenly acquired mind reading skills, savior?" She stuck the gum in her mouth and chewed it loudly with a sigh of satisfaction. Emma was dumbfounded.
"Better?"
"Ah ha."
She decided to ignore the strangeness. "Ok... so how do I move more than one object at a time?"
Regina started taking off her suit jacket, exposing her tanned arms. She slung it on a branch of a nearby tree and cracked her neck and fingers. She needed to loosen up. "Ok, you wanna look at the whole thing like it's one object and uhm concentrate on it like you did before." She was talking a million miles an hour and smacking her jaw with each chew. Her whole body was tingling with warmth and she felt the sudden urge to move about. She tucked her hair behind her ear and raised her hands gracefully in front of her. "Watch this!"
Emma couldn't take her eyes off the woman as she shot out her magic from her fingertips and wiggled them joyously. The thousands of water bottles rose from the ground and danced in circles, crashing into one another and spinning like liquid. Emma could have sworn Regina was swaying her body sensually in time to the pulses of magic and she began to put two and two together. She bit her lip trying not to laugh at the possibility.
Regina was too lost in her own magic to notice the way Emma was looking at her and the water bottles were taking on a different form. As they crashed together, she molded them as if they were clay and when she stopped her magic, she looked over at her work with a satisfied smirk. "I love doing magic!"
Emma looked back at the pile and her eyes widened. Regina had constructed a giant statue of horse completely out of plastic bottles. "Wow Regina! That's amazing!"
Regina giggled. "Oh don't flatter me Emma. It's nothing. Okay what's next?" She looked around at the other junk and began almost skipping through it to coo over all the bits and bobs she could upcycle. Emma stared at the transformation of the woman. She kinda liked this version of Regina without all her barriers and hard outer shell. Even so, she needed to check she was ok.
"Uhm, Regina. How's your head?"
Regina skipped back to where Emma was stood smiling with watery eyes. "You are so sweet to worry about me dear. It's absolutely fine! I feel amazing! Thank you!" She hugged Emma tightly and ran her hands up and down the red leather jacket. The blonde started to feel a bit guilty now.
"Uhm, come show me which pills you took Regina." The brunette nodded and laughed as she took Emma's hand and led her to the patrol car. She leaned in through the open passenger side window and pulled out the zip lock bag.
"These ones. Do you have a headache too dear?"
Emma snatched the bag and sighed. "Regina, these aren't aspirin."
The brunette caught the worried look on Emma's face and her paranoia set in. "Wh, what are they?"
Emma didn't want to bring Regina down and she instantly regretted telling her. She'd dabbled in recreational drugs herself as a teen and knew how awful the paranoia could get if you didn't keep a positive frame of mind. Even so, she needed to know the damage done. She wasn't about to let the mayor OD. "It's fine Regina. They are ecstasy pills. I confiscated them off the kids I had in custody this just make you energetic and, uhm, happy." She led out the other negative side effects and any that might cause the mayor embarrassment. "How many did you take?"
Regina looked worried but still felt amazing. "Two."
Emma bit her lip. "Ok cool. Well, don't worry, you should be fine. Just, try and enjoy yourself and if you need anything, just ask ok." Emma pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to the brunette. "Sip this. You need to stay hydrated but don't drink it all at once."
Regina took the bottle and chugged it. "Is anything bad going to happen to me? Is that why I vomited?"
Emma placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Yeah you vomited because you double dropped. It's a lot for a first timer but you seem to be handling it well. You're gonna be high for the next 8 hours or so though. All you can do is just enjoy it and don't think about anything negative."
Regina looked at her in panic. "But Henry.."
"I'm gonna call Mary Margaret and get her to babysit. I can keep you company tonight if you want so you don't get on a downer."
"Oh will you? Please, I'm a little scared." Regina grabbed Emma around the waist and looked at her pleadingly. "I don't want to be high on my own. I mean honestly, I feel so good but 8 hours is a long time."
Emma froze as she felt Regina's arms grip her tightly around the waist. It was so nice to feel this hot woman's hands on her body. She dismissed the thought. It wasn't right to take advantage of a loved up Regina, even if it was probably the only chance she'd ever get. She respected her too much. Regina stepped in closer and whispered. "You seem to know alot about the affects of this particular drug. Sounds to me as though you have some experience and you don't seem too worried. I think you should take some too, beings as it's your fault I'm high."
Emma cleared her throat which had suddenly become very dry and pushed herself out of arms reach. "Uhm, I don't think that's a good idea. Someone needs to keep to some normalcy and you're right, I did dabble when I was younger so you don't need to worry."
"Then get high with Emma. It could be fun."
Emma smirked and shook her head. "I don't trust myself on X." She added to herself mentally, 'around you.'
Regina grinned. "I trust you. Please Emma. I'd rather not be feeling like this alone. I'll be paranoid and afraid you are just lying to me that I've nothing to worry about. If you took one too then I could relax." She approached and twisted Emma's collar playfully between her fingers. Something in the back of her mind scolded her for showing her more sensual side tothe savior but she reasoned if Emma were high too, it would be much easier to chalk up to the drug afterwards.
To her surprise, Emma grabbed the bottle of water and the zip lock and downed one of the pills. "Fine Regina but I'm only doing this to out your mind at ease. I can't be held responsible for anything I might say or do under the influence. Promise me that whatever happens tonight goes no further than between us."
Regina smirked evilly. "My lips are sealed."
