The biggest storm to hit the city in years will cause closures, cancelled flights, and massive delays. People are informed not to travel during the next two to three days until the storm has passed and roads have been cleared…
Emma groaned for the umpteenth time hearing the announcement on the radio. It had been an impromptu trip down to New York City to visit Henry since he was unable to come home to Storybrooke over Christmas due to the part time job he had and claimed he needed. Christmas had come and gone and there she was, in the middle of January, stuck in her son's small studio apartment with his other mother during what officials were calling the storm of the century.
They always called storms that when the city got hit hard, each one worse than the last.
It wouldn't have mattered that her two-day trip would be prolonged for a few more days if it weren't for the very fact that Regina had decided to come along as well. It wouldn't have mattered if either of them could've made it back to their hotel rooms if it weren't for the fact that there was now a foot and a half of snow out on the streets and Regina's car refused to start and the Bug was buried under twice as much snow due to the plows that had passed and hour before.
It wouldn't have mattered if she had to stay in her son's small studio apartment for the next two days if Regina wasn't stuck there either. They were friends, most days, but that didn't mean sharing a small space was anything less than ideal. It also wouldn't have mattered if Henry wasn't halfway across the city and stuck at his girlfriend's apartment, leaving her and Regina alone in his place.
With one bed to share since the couch less than ideal, and next to no food in the fridge or cupboards—a typical Henry move these days since his time was split between classes at NYU, his job at a local, family-owned bookstore, and staying with his girlfriend, it was going to be a few interesting days, to say the least.
Regina hadn't said a word since discovering her car had died on her and had taken to sipping from a glass of red wine while she curled up on the uncomfortable couch and read from one of the hundreds of books scattered around the studio that she'd found. Emma stood at the window, watching the snow fall heavily outside and she turned to look back at Regina, her gaze lingering on the older woman who looked the complete picture of relaxation with her black-rimmed glasses on, book in one hand, glass of wine in the other.
"You can wish the storm away, Swan, but out here in the real world, wishes and magic unfortunately do not exist. It looks to be that we're stuck here for the next couple of days," Regina said, not even taking her eyes from the book she had open in front of her.
"So, we're like temporary roommates now?"
"Emphasis on the word temporary," Regina replied with a snap. "It's not an ideal situation, but really we have no other choice."
"Unless one of us walks to the hotel?" Emma suggested and she caught Regina rolling her eyes at the notion of trekking out in the storm when neither of them were remotely prepared or dressed for it. "Yeah, it's a shitty idea," she muttered under her breath when Regina didn't respond.
Deciding she needed some kind of distraction from the storm outside, she wandered around the small studio apartment. Henry didn't own a TV and the MacBook that usually sat on his desk was with him halfway across the city. The radio was tuned to a news station and Regina had already warned her earlier not to change the station, so that left her with either finding a book to read herself or continuing to watch the snow fall outside and she really didn't want to spend the next handful of hours doing what she'd been doing since earlier that afternoon.
"Would you find something to do?" Regina asked, peering over the edge of her glasses at her.
"Why, is my standing at the window being bored out of my mind bothering you?"
"Yes."
"Whatever," Emma muttered. "It's not like I'm doing anything to actually bother you, Regina. I'm just standing here."
"And sighing and mumbling to yourself. It's quite distracting."
Emma rolled her eyes and headed into what barely passed as a small kitchen. She sighed loudly, on purpose just to further annoy Regina because it was just something she was so good at doing, and she pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge while examining what food their son actually had. She'd lived on less for a week and she was seasoned when it came to just barely scraping by, but she had a feeling Regina wasn't going to be too fond of eating leftover pizza that was god knows how long had been in the fridge and sandwiches with bread that looked iffy and some mystery meat that sat in a clear container.
She sat down on the opposite end of the small, uncomfortable couch and sighed loudly once again. Just out of the corner of her eye, she saw Regina subtly shake her head and pull her feet under her as she continued to read and sip her wine.
"What are you reading?" Emma asked, the book jacket long gone and the way it rested on Regina's lap prevented her from reading the title on the spine. "Regina?"
"To Kill A Mockingbird," Regina replied listlessly.
"I've never read it," Emma said and Regina rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Look, I'm bored and I'm sorry for bothering you, but can't we at least change the station on the radio?"
"No."
"You're a horrible roommate," she muttered.
"And you're just as annoying as your mother."
"You're never going to not find her annoying, are you?"
"It's highly unlikely, dear."
"What about me?"
Regina closed the book slowly and stared at her for a moment, almost as if she were thinking of the answer thoughtfully. "I find you annoying when you're bored and fidgety," she said simply.
"That's it?"
"What else do you want me to say, Swan?" Regina snapped and Emma frowned. It wasn't often that Regina called her anything other than her name and she'd already called her Swan twice. "Can you please find something to do and let me get back to my book in peace?"
Emma frowned, watching Regina open the book back up and continuing where she'd left off. It was going to be a long couple of days, that much was for sure, and Emma wasn't sure how she was going to survive being Regina's temporary roommate.
Not when there was only one bed, minimal food and zero entertainment at hand.
[X]
The power went out just before nine that night and without power, the heat shut off as well. Emma lay curled up on the uncomfortable couch an hour after everything went dark and cold, wrapped in a blanket while Regina laid in Henry's bed, sound asleep. Her teeth chattered as she tossed and turned on the couch, muttering quietly about how selfish Regina had been when she all but demanded that Emma take the couch and allow her to have the small, double-sized bed all to herself.
"Fuck," Emma groaned, pulling the blanket around her head in an attempt to starve off the slight chill in the apartment that was growing colder with every passing hour it seemed.
The wind howled outside as the snow came down harder and Emma wondered if it was ever going to stop. She hated winter, but she hated being cold even more, and she made a mental note to ask Regina in the morning—if she even survived the night—why she didn't choose for Storybrooke to be somewhere where it was warm year round when she cast the first curse.
She guessed it was sometime around midnight and she was just about to give up on sleep when she heard Regina yawn in the bed.
"If you're going to do that for the rest of the night, Swan, I'd say I'd kill you in your sleep, but you're obviously not sleeping."
"I'm freezing over here and the couch is lumpy."
She heard Regina sigh in an overly dramatic way. "You can come to bed on one condition," Regina said after a moment. "You stay on one side at all costs."
Emma leapt up from the couch and hurried across the dark apartment to where the bed was neatly tucked away into a small alcove. She crawled under the heavy blankets and lay down on the right side of the bed with a grin plastered on her face.
"You also keep your hands to yourself," Regina muttered under her breath as she rolled over on to her left side and turned her back to Emma.
"Are you implying that I wouldn't want to keep my hands to myself?"
"Emma, shut up and go to sleep."
"Yes, your majesty," Emma muttered, but the smile stayed in place and her body began to warm up a little under the heavy blankets that smelled like they'd been very recently washed.
Emma quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep and when she woke a few short hours later, it was to the feel of a warm body pressed up against her back and a soft breath against her neck. Not to mention the fact that there was an arm wrapped firmly around her and a leg firmly snuggled between her own. Then there was the very fact that the hand attached to the arm around her was dangerously close to her breasts and it was moving, slowly yet surely, straight for her right one.
Emma froze, barely breathing as the hand did it and cupped her breast while the body behind her snuggled in impossibly closer to her. She slammed her eyes shut and opened them again, wondering if she was dreaming and she quickly found when she opened her eyes again that it was anything but a dream.
Regina was spooning her in her sleep and the feel of Regina's body pressed up against her own, the feel of her hand lightly grasping her right tit and the thigh that was between her legs moving slightly higher with every inhale and slow exhale that slipped passed Regina's lips and landed over her neck was causing her to grow impossibly turned on in a matter of minutes.
Emma had to put a stop to this because she knew when Regina woke up, she'd be absolutely furious and likely blame her for the position they were in despite the fact that Emma was the little spoon and Regina's hand was caressing and grasping her tit like she had every damn right to touch her like that. Emma had to move, but the power and heat were still off and the room outside of the warmth of the blankets was cooler than it had been hours before.
"Emma," Regina murmured and Emma could swear she felt her lips just lightly brush against her skin. "Don't you dare."
Emma swallowed thickly. Maybe she'd been wrong about Regina being furious about their current position and the precarious place her hand still lingered. It didn't make her feel at ease at all either, not with the throb and sexual ache that now settled between her legs.
There was no doubt now in her mind that all the signs she'd seen over the years had be so very clear and yet she'd always chosen to ignore them. There was no doubt that there was some form of mutual attraction between them—she wasn't going to deny for a second that she didn't find Regina attractive because she did have eyes and she could appreciate the sight of a very beautiful, confident, sexy woman.
This whole temporary roommate situation was rapidly approaching a dangerous point, one where Emma just knew that if she made the next move, they'd never come back from it, in a good way or a bad way. There were plenty of different ways to keep warm and due to the constant throb between her legs, Emma's mind veered to only one.
"Regina?"
"Hmm?"
"What are you doing?" Emma asked tentatively.
"Trying to sleep and to stay warm, she replied, her voice slightly husky as she spoke. "Do yourself and I a favor, Emma, and go back to sleep."
Go back to sleep, how could she go back to sleep when Regina was practically molesting her in their son's bed?
To be fair, it wasn't exactly unwanted as she was enjoying the feel of Regina pressed up closely against her, and she most definitely was enjoying the feel of her hand grasping, kneading and caressing her tit in a way that implied Regina was most definitely not attempting to fall back asleep. Emma licked over her lips slowly, debating whether or not to make that next move.
"Regina, your hand is—"
"I'm fully aware of where my hand is, dear."
"Why?" Emma asked nervously. "Is this some weird way of seducing me?"
Regina was silent for a moment, her hand stilling. "And if it is?"
"I'm not about to stop you," she whispered, her voice so quiet she wasn't sure Regina had heard her, at least not until she most definitely felt the soft, warm lips press against the skin on the side of her neck firmly.
Emma closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of Regina's lips kissing over her skin slowly and she turned in her embrace as her lips trailed over her jaw and came to a stop just shy of her lips. Even in the darkness Emma could see a hungry, lustful look in Regina's eyes and she swallowed her fear of rejection, of thinking it would be a huge mistake, and took the leap into the unknown and kissed her hard in yearning.
"This is just about staying warm, right?" Emma asked breathlessly as she parted from the kiss as suddenly as it had started. "Generating body heat and all that, right?"
"If that is what you want to call this," Regina murmured, her hand sliding into her hair and grasping at the back of her head before pulling her in for another hard, passionate kiss.
"And what is this?" Emma asked, breaking their second kiss just moments into it. "Regina?"
"Are you really an idiot or do I have to spell it out for you?" Regina asked, her tone sexy and dangerous all at once as she moved to lay fully on top of her. "This is about sex, dear, or do you have an objection to having sex with me?"
"I—I—what?"
"I want you to fuck me," Regina implored and she rolled her hips down against Emma, eliciting a breathy and surprised moan past her lips.
Emma definitely didn't have any objections when it came to sex, but this was unchartered territory, this was Regina Mills, the other mother to her son and a friend—on most days—and they had been thrust into a temporary roommate situation not by choice, but by a literal force of nature.
As their lips crushed together for a third time, Emma decided to dive right in and worry about the complications that would surely follow in the days to come.
[X]
The power stayed out for nearly twenty hours and in that time, they never left the bed. When the power was restored and the water back on, they showered together until the hot water ran cold and they were right back in bed, bringing each other over the edge again and again. By the second full day of their temporary roommate situation, Emma realized that once they returned to Storybrooke she was most definitely going to want to continue having sex with Regina.
And she had no doubt in her mind that Regina wanted the very same thing as she did. She was almost disappointed when they turned the radio on and the announcer informed the citizens of New York City that the streets were nearly clear and that the storm had safely passed. Life was slowly getting back to normal and that meant that their temporary roommate status was coming to an end and fast.
By the time their son returned home, they had both mapped out and memorized every last inch, every dip, every curve and contour of the other's body. They remained as calm, composed and as indifferent as they could as Henry asked them how they coped throughout the storm.
"I bet the heat being off made things horrendous!" Henry laughed and he shook his head. "How did you guys get through that?"
"We shared the bed," Emma muttered under her breath as she cast a glance over at it and wished they had spent some time washing the sheets and blankets instead of having sex once last time.
"You and Mom shared a bed?"
"Well," Regina said with a smile curling over her lips, "we had to make the best out of our small stint as roommates after all. One could say the experience brought us closer together."
"Being roomies for two days brought you two closer together?" Henry asked with his face scrunched in confusion. "If you say so."
"It's amazing, isn't it, how a force of nature can bring two people together," Regina mused and she winked at Emma as their son shrugged nonchalantly, his eyes now focused on his phone instead of the two of them. "We should go, dear," Regina said as she placed a hand on Henry's shoulder. "We have a long ride back to Storybrooke. Once my car has been towed and fixed, we would like it very much if you came home for a weekend visit."
Henry just looked at his two mothers and nodded with a slight roll of his eyes. "Fine, just let me know when, but if you two are going to act weird like this the whole time, you can forget about it. Being roomies made you weird. I don't think I like it. But whatever. It's better than seeing you two fight all the time."
Henry was right. It was better like this, them being friends, or rather more than friends now that they'd been heavily intimate with one another, but Henry didn't need to know those details. Nor did he need to know that his mothers had created and became a force of nature in his bed, over and over again.
Being temporary roommates had started out with dread and yet it ended with a sense of hope for things to grow between the two of them in the near future.
And Emma saw nothing but visions of them spending the next few days holed up in Regina's house and in her bed, recreating the sensual storm that had sparked between them. Over and over again…