Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters, and this is made with entertaining purposes only.
She was still in shock with everything she'd just went through hours ago, and the words Regina kept repeating haunted her from the first second following the clumsy incident, if that could be actually called that. When the flame first abrupt form the man's forearm she took few seconds to mind. And that's how boring her hot date was going. She couldn't stand a second more of the craziest talk about how they made to get herbs to grown at the extremely infertile grounds of the fairy-tale land. Most boring night she ever had.
Mary Margaret was definitively hearing from her after being obligated to go out with strangers for consolation. Maybe one of them actually is your soul mate. She argued just previously to Emma's decline. So much for soul mates, she should have stuck with her no. But then there was the talk of how Snow White just wanted her daughter to know the happiness she had with Prince Charming, so when Emma noticed she wasn't giving up, had been insisting for a month or so, she just thought it would be a good idea to show why not. This was her second arranged date and she almost threw fire over the poor guy. A man to die for. She really wanted to kill herself. And almost an hour through listening she wished he'd, slightly, burn and stop talking. An innocent wish, she could almost visualize it. And the flames came alive suddenly.
She spent part of her night at the hospital feeling the guilty of her thoughts. And Regina's words. Practice is the only way to control it.
Till very recently she only lacked need for knowledge into her powers or anything related to magic and the fantasy world. She refused to even talk about it, but the first incident came. Sure she just burnt the chicken she tried and failed cooking out of frustration. Before it happened she didn't consider for a fraction of a second she could be the cause of a potential accident, she thought white magic was different, and she was entirely wrong.
When finally one of the nurses came by the waiting room with comforting words saying her companion was fine she rested peacefully with the situation.
The apartment of her parents, now a bigger one, was where Emma and Henry, well mainly she as her son did have a room at Regina's, were staying until Emma found a place for herself. When she looked the watch over the nightstand the late hour startled her. She was so screwed.
Without carrying for anything but the boots and belt, she threw her body on the bed and just slept in.
The phone alarm was programmed to sound at exactly 7 a.m., but when her eyes stroke open she was fairly sure the sunbeam invading the room was too strong to be as early as she expected.
"Emma, didn't you scheduled practice with Regina for this morning?"
Practice. Practice? Fuck! The clock announced the hours, was almost 10 a.m., Regina would kill her. She cursed the alarm as many times as she could. Fucking date, she remembered what caused her loss of time. Remembering the flop date, the magic accident, and the fact that she couldn't leave the hospital till very late, because apparently the staff was not coming to give any information on her date's state, she already set the man on fire, literally, the least she could do was to stay and guarantee he was okay.
She should have arrived the meeting with Regina about two hours before Mary invaded her room to open the rag and wake her. Great, she missed her lesson, which Regina would certainly call a strike three even knowing that strike two wasn't actually her fault.
By the advanced time there wasn't much to do, except wait till lunchtime came so she could collect her shame and walk in the mayor's office with a pack of things to make the mayor happier and her apologies.
And that's what she did. She went to Regina's first thing in the noon, but not before swinging by Granny's and grabbing one of Regina's usual treats. With a spacial add of black coffee. Granny herself gave Emma the tip, when she first had to bring in apology meals for the mayor, always add coffee to whatever you are taking her.
And there she was on the hallway, knocking on the woman's door and holding the pack of food in front of her chest with her best smile when Regina opened.
"Hey."
The smile, the pack, and the soft tone used to greeting was much more than what Regina needed to know why Emma Swan dared come knock on her cabinet door on a Saturday.
"Can I come in?" The blonde pointed inside and quickly held back to grab the package unable to sustain singlehandedly.
She rolled her eyes, even if knowing Emma was on a point of not minding the action any longer. Regina did it so often that when a fairly long while went by without the gesture Emma even missed it.
"May." Regina said correcting the sheriff's use of words, "And n-" afterwards as usually happened Emma simply passed by Regina, and walked to the giant table and cleaned some space to rest her pack.
"Thanks." She said on her way in.
As per usual Regina was dumbfounded for few seconds and began to explain she hadn't really invited the blonde, "I didn't actually, oh, never mind." But gave up on it, Emma always played her into that trick and when she saw what happened it was too late. Somehow the blonde always got what she wanted.
"I brought your favorite," Emma happily started unpacking the food, and of course she not only brought Regina's usual but her own. She hadn't have a decent meal since the prior day.
"What is this for, Miss Swan?" Regina collected the cup that was offered, if Emma wasn't leaving her she might just enjoy the goodies she was offering after all.
When Regina swallowed from the cup she immediately pouted over the flavor, this was far from the black coffee taste she expected. When Emma made similar wrinkled nose, frowned brows, with disgust all over her expression they switched cups with a sip of relief.
Emma cleaned her throat and prepared herself for whatever she received after the apology section she could just feel was coming.
"I'm really sorry for this morning." Her words came out so meaningfully she was surprised herself, she really meant it. And she really needed Regina to cope and anything she could do would be done to afford it.
Regina didn't change the pleased expression from getting her cup of coffee when Emma froze waiting the worse to come. "It's alright, dear."
"Is... it?" She was completely lost. Regina should be freaking out by then. Why wasn't she freaking out about compromise, commitment, accomplishment or whatever word she could find to say the same thing. That Emma was nothing but irresponsible.
"Yes," she waved a hand like it was nothing while drinking the coffee. "I just hope you're able to acknowledge the fact that I'm not even considering the mare possibility of a fourth chance." And she smiled, it was the most devilish smile Emma had ever seen, because Regina was aware of how far Emma would go for another chance.
"Third!" Emma knew she'd count the arrest she had to do the prior week when a junk was disturbing the piece of a sleepy night on Storybrook.
"Third chance was last Saturday, and you were past half hour late for our meeting." Regina calmly pointed the situation once again.
Emma could still visualize the fierceness over her lateness.
"But that wasn't fair, I really tried to be there on time-" Emma's whining was cut off by the wave of a single hand of Regina's. And she thought better not to extend the subject, she already heard all of the lecture once and it was enough for a life time.
"As you said so the first time and I was sure you'd say about today's failure." Regina briefly reminded the first lesson's excuse. "I won't be made a fool, Miss Swan. I gave you three chances and you wasted them all, my time is far too precious to throw away with your lack of commitment."
"I need this!" Emma pleaded, and Regina could almost recognize the flavor of desperation.
"Not my problem." Regina snapped back right after.
"Please, Regina! I really need those lessons." Emma watched as the woman walked around making her way back to her chair and sat with all the posture Emma would never reach in such comfortable seat.
"Why should I?" She asked in a kind of challenging way looking up to see the blonde's eyes.
"Cause I'm kindly asking you." Emma pointed simply, as if the possibility of Regina saying yes only for her good manners was actually existent.
"Not enough reason." This time Regina didn't bother looking at the blonde, she only started collecting and organizing her papers into a pile.
Before Emma spoke again she left a tiresome sigh come out. "I need to control it." She closed her eyes in a rather long blink while speaking.
"Why, Miss Swan?"
Regina still hadn't displayed any kind of interest or change in her carelessness.
Ever since the first time the subject was brought on the table by the blonde, there was nothing but mocking, and that's why she avoided any references to the theme whenever Regina was around. She had no interesting on giving the other more reason to badmouth her actions. But the cause asked for it, so she spoke it fast, as a band-aid being ripped off. "I had an accident yesterday I was on a date and..."
"The blind date with one of the random despicable strangers your mom picks up from the newspaper dating section. I know." Emma couldn't help but notice the strong mockery when she used such word to refer to Mary Margaret.
"It's not like I had much of a choice on that."
"See," Regina's eyes searched Emma for the first time after she sat and the pile was finished with a small quantity of papers that Regina guarded in a folder, "your problem is that you're always trying to blame someone else for your failures. I expected more from the Savior."
"Oh... As if you could judge me, you did much worse than I." She knew she had to win Regina, but sometimes she couldn't help, she just needed to fire back, it happened more often than she could keep track of.
"I was actually referring to the desperate resource to find a suitor."
"Look, I'm not here to be given tips on how I should live my life. I'm here because I truly need your help with this stupid magic shit, and you're the only one who can help me. So please, just, please? There was accident, I was mad, furious, I couldn't control it. Not that I'd care if he burnt out, but what if-" in her desperate call Emma hardly noticed how she switched from irritated to preoccupied and her voice went from slightly louder than she wanted it to be, to much lower than she expected to sound. "I don't want to hurt the people I care about." Fear was vivid into the green eyes, but still she hoped this would not became an add for Regina's list of Things I Should Mock Emma About.
"You've set someone on fire?"
"Almost! Wanna hear the details?" Emma asked hoping that maybe if Regina knew how it happened she could start planning the training with a better perspective of the situation.
"Oh, I would certainly love to hear about your wonderful love life with the yellow page men. Then, maybe we can exchange dating advice and make one of those magazine tests to discover who's our perfect match."
"A simple no would suffice!"
"But it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?" She actually waited for Emma's response, but the blonde was so absorbed in some kind of analysis trance she decided to move on. "Last chance, Miss Swan! You have one hour to get there. And don't forget you have to pick Henry up in about... forty minutes."
How was she supposed to get there in time? Was Regina out of her mind? She needed to run from completely opposite sides of Storybrook in less than a hour. "You know it would be much easier and not impossible to get there if I knew how to puff."
"You'd have learned how to puff if you had attended to our meetings." Emma took a first bite of her sandwich. "If I were you, Miss Swan, I'd consider leaving this sandwich for later."
The success of the magic lessons was truly unexpected, Regina was slightly proud of the new found commitment Emma displayed. She was always already waiting for Regina mindless of where the mayor chose the lesson to be. So far everything was working well, at least nothing had blowout or any uncontrolled magic experience happened. Emma even took her free time to read about it, and she always came back for the next meeting with great questions about the content she'd found in the books.
On the other hand, she just needed a break off the whole have a date thingy, she just wanted to make Mary Margaret understand that she needed to stop at least for a short while. Five completely bloomer dates was enough for the time being. But when the woman insisted she simply started a discussion, and they yelled at each other.
Emma wished she was far away from the house, as much as she wanted to avoid a fight with her parents she just wasn't holding anymore of their expectations for her. She just wanted to live her own life, in the real-world expectations and take her own time.
And that's how she found herself at Regina's porch in the middle of the night. Henry was spending the night this weekend and she just thought maybe now that her interactions with his other mother developed into a friendlier relationship, why not?
"Can I spent the night?" She said internally smiling because the line always worked, Regina couldn't help but correct her and that's when she went inside even when uninvited.
"May, and-" The woman passing by the doorstep cut off her words.
"Thanks!" Emma spoke putting her jacket on the holder and walking farther inside.
"You do it on purpose, don't you?" Regina asked not really carrying for the obvious answer.
"What?" Emma pretended she hadn't followed the question.
Regina just sighted shaking her head before loudly announcing to her son while walking to the TV room. "Henry we have a guest- Henry! You slept already!"
The boy startled with the call and shamefully sat straight on the couch rubbing his eyes.
"Sorry, this part is too boring." He apologized after knowing he was the one insisting to watch Lord of the Rings after all, even when Regina argued that they weren't rested enough for this particular trilogy.
"You said you'd not sleep this time."
And also, he slept all the other times they tried to watch it.
"My bad."
"It's not even ten minutes through, kid." Emma mocked him and her presence was finally noticed by the boy.
"Emma!" He sounded happy to see her and surprised, so his eyes wandered to Regina with silent plea for the sheriff's stay.
"Miss Swan is... Spending the night." Regina reluctantly explained.
Regina restarted the movie and added a pot of popcorn and a cup of soda, as Emma insisted. She knew even if Regina wasn't a consumer she kept at least couple of bottles and cans on her fridge.
"Mom! Mom! You said you'd not sleep!"
Movie was about to finish, it was only the first one, they clearly weren't watching the three in a single night. Emma and Henry stoped watching when the blonde noticed Regina asleep on her side of the couch. And the boy shook her awake practically.
"Yeah, Regina, shame on you... At least Henry is hanging on now." Emma spoke with her ridiculous mockery tone and blinked for Henry.
A while went by before the recently awake Regina noticed the closeness of the other woman. And another while passed until she voiced any discomfort concerning it.
"Miss Swan, are you familiar with personal space?"
"Yeah?" Emma was honestly misunderstanding the implications.
"You are intruding mine." Regina made it clear.
And for the first time Emma actually noticed she was nearly resting her head in Regina's shoulder, while her body slightly tilted on the other's direction.
"Oh, sorry." She straightened up on the sit uncomfortable with the situation.
They both were grateful that Henry chose the moment to excitedly announce a good scene just started.
A/N: This will be a short one, I've got just 2 chapters to go. It's the product of some notes I kept for like forever, so I gathered them and that's the result. Hope you guys like it and R&R please? :-)