Hey!
First of all, apologies to all of you Golden readers who are patiently waiting for your update- I simply ran out of ideas (but I'll fix it, don't worry).
This story, however, was sitting in my head, nagging me for days now. I finally gave up and wrote it down, thinking it was going to be a one shot. But as it turns out, this is more of a multi-chapter kind of fic.
So this is how it's going to work: this is the first part out of a three –part series called 'Third time's a charm?' Where Emma and Regina meet/run into each other on three different occasions. Despite it being a total AU you'd find their banter and love/hate relationship.
If you like the concept and the story, please let me know by commenting and liking it so I'll know whether or not it's worth writing.
"Are you kidding me?"
"I'm so sorry Emma, I really tried. This flight was fully booked and you have to be in New York tomorrow morning."
Emma huffs in annoyance and places her feet on table, not something anyone would do in the premium lounge. Unless they were Emma Swan of course.
"Fine" she grits out and run her hand through her locks, already imagining Ruby grimacing at her 'ruined' hair. "But they're better not be batshit crazy"
She can hear her assistant quickly hum in response.
"Oh," she says right before she hangs up "and if they're a fan, you're fired."
She ends the call, not bothering to wait for Mary Margaret's response.
She lets out an angry sigh, re-places the earphones in her ears and hits play. She grabs the beer that was neglected in favor of shouting at her assistant and takes a large gulp. The ice-cold beverage seem to calm her down a little.
She turns to look at the large glass window and stares at the awaiting planes.
"Fuck" she mumbles to herself, realizing she got railed up and lost it again. She retrieves her phone from her bag and quickly types a massage.
Emma- Sorry. Not fired if they're a fan.
The response comes in immediately.
MM- It's all good, I figured.
Slightly calmer, Emma glances at her expensive watch. Only ten minutes left for boarding. God, she hates planes. She hates the long waits, the violating scans and checkups and most of all, the flights themselves. There's nothing worse than the stomach-churning, ears-blocking sensation at take-offs and landings.
Another shortcoming is the closed space. Not that she is claustrophobic or anything but it does make avoiding fans a whole lot harder.
You see, Emma loves her job, she truly does but if there was any way for her to create her music and act without the whole fame thing she would go for it in a heartbeat.
At first, it was thrilling; turning from a foster kid that everyone kept throwing away to this famous artist producers wanted to work with. Then came the fame. For some reason people went crazy over her and in a matter of months she became one of the most famous singers/songwriters/actresses in the industry. Her story didn't hurt either, a foster kid moving to LA to wait tables for living getting discovered by Brandon J in the flash and offered a record deal in his label 'J tunes'.
After her first big hit 'Walking away' the offers just kept coming; from a lead role in the huge blockbuster 'Hit and Run' to a special collection and cooperation with 'American Eagle', Emma's course to success was paved for her.
The only downside of it all was the fans. Don't even doubt the fact that she loved them with all of her heart, since she is only where she is thanks to them. But the attention, the attention is too much; too much people, too much cameras, too much crazy love-struck fans. Too much. Emma needs her quiet, her sense of normalcy, her boundaries, her privacy for fuck's sake.
So tries to avoid it and mostly, she is pretty successful. The problem starts in places she can't have control in. Airports are a part of those places. Moving her make-up team, assistant and security across the country only to have them go back two days later is unnecessary and expensive. And despite having all this money Emma remained a foster-kid at heart and she will not throw so much money on unnecessary luxury and comfort.
"Miss Swan?" one of the lounge workers asks politely and Emma takes out her earphones.
"Boarding for first class has started." She informs kindly, nods curtly and walks away.
First class is her best bet; filled with rich people or hard-working business man, Emma has a better chance of dodging unwanted fangirl moments.
She grabs her makeshift handbag and throws it over her shoulder. She heads out of the lounge towards the main area and makes her way to the boarding gate. She immediately feels the change of atmosphere, spotting people around her frowning, trying to decide whether it is Emma Swan herself or merely a really convincing look alike. Those doubts are her guarding angle since most of the time it keeps people from jumping over her.
She keeps walking, acting normal and ignoring their whispers.
She makes it to the flight attendant safe and sound. Letting out a breath she fishes her ticket out of the back pocket of her ripped jeans and hands it over. She checks out the flight attendant, Joanna is the name on her name tag while she scans the ticket and wait for approval.
She smiles while having a quick look-over, from the fitting skirt to the almost too tight blouse.
Joana hands the ticket over to her.
"There you go Miss S-" she stops and re-reads the name again. Her eyebrows go up and she looks up at Emma, realizing it is Emma Swan. Usually Emma would roll her eyes at the extra attention but Joana is hot and flirting with hot girls is always on her mind.
"Miss Swan" Emma fills in the gap for her while flashing her charming smile her way. Joana clears her throat and pulls the collar of her shirt. Emma smirks at the show of uneasiness. That's one of the plus sides of being famous; girls throw themselves at you and even the so called 'straight ones' would dabble with you if you just winked their way.
"Yes" Joana says and her cheeks flush a little. "Err, I like you music" she blurts out awkwardly and Emma chuckles. Titling her head to the side she smiles again.
"Thank you. Are you going on this flight?" she asks when Joana hands her the ticket and their hand brush. Seemingly distracted by the touch, Joana looks at her blankly before coming to her senses.
"I'm afraid not" her face crumble at the prospect "I'm a ground stewardess" she points towards her tag that indeed says the same. Emma lingers on her breast for a short while before locking eyes with her.
Joana opens her mouth to add something but someone behind Emma clears his throat quite bluntly. That seems to snap Joana out of her gaze. She smiles professionally and gestures toward Jetway.
"Enjoy your flight" she says politely and Emma nods her thanks.
Damn it. What a waste.
She reaches the airplane and hands her ticket once again, this time to the flight attendant. She is being directed towards the front portion of the plane where extra directions would be given. She walks through Business class, earning a few surprised looks.
She enters the first class section and a blonde stewardess approaches her immediately.
"Hey," she greets cheerfully "may I see you ticket?"
Emma hands it out and the woman directs her to one of the two seats in the middle raw.
"Are you sure I'm not a window?" Emma frowns, she specifically asked Mary Margaret to put her next to the window.
"I'm afraid not Ma'am, I'm sorry."
"That's okay" Emma dismisses her. Disappointed, she takes her seat in the spacious section.
Emma knows she looks so out of her element here; with her ripped jeans, wife beater and large hoodie. Yes, the jeans might be a 200 dollars designer-jeans, as well as her tank top but at the end the cost doesn't change the fact that she looks like a troublesome teenager. Well, she chuckles to herself, that's because she probably is.
She looks around what might be called her seat but is basically a small living room; there're a TV in the wall in front of her as well as a an adjustable table and enough room to make her loveseat a bed.
The blonde woman, Tania is her name, approaches her again.
"May I get you anything to drink Miss Swan?" Tania, probably used to high-profile clients isn't stars truck in the least.
"Err" Emma looks around her, trying to think if there's something she would like.
"Maybe a beer?" she asks eventually and Tania smiles.
"Of course, here in the cabinet'" she hovers over Emma and opens a cabinet Emma haven't even noticed "you have cold water as well as orange juice, a small bottle of Champagne and Corolla." She points the bottles and straightens back up.
"If you're not a fan of Corolla we also have Heineken, Paulaner and Strongbow."
"Heineken is just fine" Emma smiles, since she has no idea what the other beers are like. Apparently Europeans have their fair share of beers.
"No problem" Tania goes away and Emma goes for her phone again.
Emma- I changed my mind, you are fired.
MM- What? Why? What happened?
Emma chuckles, messing with Mary Margaret is too much fun, she can't help herself.
Emma- Middle row, really?
MM- I'm so sorry, they had no seats left!
Emma- Fine
MM- Fine what?
Emma- I'll think about not firing you.
MM- Emma!
Emma laughs out loud at the response just when Tania comes back with a cold bottle of Heineken.
"Thank you"
"Gladly"
She takes a sip and tries to think of how many beers she had so far. Was it three? Four?
She shrugs and takes another sip, worst case scenario she'll sleep damn fine and the flight will be over in a heartbeat.
She checks her social media accounts for the lack of anything else to do. If it was up to her, all of her accounts would be private or non-existent but her manager insists that it is part of her job as a celebrity. She tried explaining a hundred times that she is an artist but his answer is always the same; you can't be a successful artist without being famous, you fans pay your bills, remember that.
After nothing interesting pops up, she closes her phone and places it on the table. She starts scanning the people around her, trying to gauge what their deal is.
To her right there's a blonde woman, tall and impeccably dressed, her face is all done and Emma grimaces and immediately goes for the 'girl who grabbed a rich man but now is aging and trying to fight it' type.
To be honest, Emma never really got all the fuzz about blonde bombshells. She has done a few of them, just to get the vibe and maybe see the light about the whole blonde girls are hotter but the only conclusion that she reached was that it was a straight up lie. The dyed hair alone gave them this fake aura, they were too tall for Emma and there was something really off-putting in their lack of flaws. Usually they decorated it with an intelligence level of a squirrel. They also lacked the curves of a woman; if Emma wanted slim, tall bodies she would go for a skeleton or a man. Emma wanted the curves, the softness of the padded areas. And most of all, she wanted flaws. She wanted the scars, the birth marks, the freckles in unexpected places. She wanted it because she had those too and feeling inferior to someone based on things that you were born with is never nice and also because it was nature's way of telling this person's story.
This inner monologue she was having stirred all kind of emotions in her so she retrieved her notebook, the one she has at all times, and started scribbling down words. First it's just a bunch or words, un-related sentences and then she will grab all of them and make it a song.
She glanced at the empty chair to her left. Maybe this person is a no-show. A girl can sure hope.
She got back to her notebook, trying to figure out the rhythm in her head, tapping her pen rhythmically on the chair handle while singing the words in her hand. The parts that seemed fit were instantly written down in the form of chords and next to it were numbers Emma used so she can remember the tempo. She scribbled furiously, trying to write everything down before if flees her head.
She doesn't even notice the person claiming his sit next to her.
She is close to finishing the first draft of the story before hearing Tania chirps happily.
"Good afternoon Miss Mills, how are you?"
To be continued…
Let me know what you think, will you? :)