*Based on the mobile game by Voltage Inc. with the same title*
Regina Mills has a pretty simple and routinely life. She wakes up, goes to work, maybe hangs out with some friends after work, and goes home. And rarely does anything interrupt her routine.
Of course the day she thinks this, fate (or God or the universe or some higher power) makes sure that the next day is an absolute mess. And apparently that higher power decided to the start the day with the cliché of her alarm not going off at the right time.
But Regina doesn't wake up to any alarm; instead, it's the sound of boxes moving in the hallway. Who the hell moves in first thing in the morning? Roused, she checks her phone for the time. Oh god, it's NOT six? It's eight?! Work's in a half-hour!
Now completely awake, she gets dress, collects her purse, wallet, files, and her bike lock keys. She decides to fix her hair and make-up later when she gets to the office. She forgoes taking the elevator and runs down six flights of stairs (this is a rare time she's glad she lives on the third floor). She exits the building to get her bike, but she runs into Mrs. Lucas, the landlord, who appears to be gardening the front.
"Good morning, Regina," Mrs. Lucas stops her.
"Hello, Mrs. Lucas," Regina hopes this is all the pleasantry the woman will force on her this morning.
"What happened to you? You're a sight for sore eyes this morning. Your hair is standing up!"
"Yes, well, as you probably can see, I'm running late and didn't have time to make myself pretty," she snaps and Mrs. Lucas frowns a bit.
"A bit unnecessary, but before you go, you should know that there's a new tenant moving in on your floor today," she says as Regina unlocks her bike.
"New tenant, got it," Regina says while she's walking away.
She's about to get on and pedal for her life, when another neighbor stops her. It's the Nolan couple from the floor above her. Snow's the one to approach her first.
"Good morning, Regina!" Snow (her first name is Mary Margaret, but for some reason she insist on going by Snow) says.
"Hi," she courtly says. She hopes for once that the sickening sweet couple will realize that she's in no mood to talk.
"Off to work?" David asks. Regina doesn't say anything, but she does give him a 'what do you think?' look. And he laughs, "Right, well… we just got back from our honeymoon, right Snow?" he cups her cheek and she smiles back.
"Is that so?" they're in their own world now, so Regina takes this chance to leave. "Well, I need to go…"
"Oh, before you do," Snow snaps out of her trance, "I have a souvenir for you!" she reaches into her purse and hands Regina a thin wrapped box.
"Thank you?" she appreciates the thought, but last time Snow gave her a souvenir, it was an apple with an arrow through it. Regina's not quite sure what Snow was trying to tell her.
"Make sure you save this for a special occasion, okay? Have a good day!"
"Right…bye…" Regina leaves the couple before they start fawning over each other. What does Snow mean by a special occasion? Well, whatever…I need to get to work!
Finally, Regina's ready to kick off and start pedal, but another voice startles her before she leaves. A man, she thinks lives in the same building as her, is walking towards her while talking on the phone. The man is dark blonde, about her age (maybe a bit older), has bright blue eyes and a scruffy beard and mustache (and doesn't look too bad on him… which is something Regina would notice if she wasn't running late), and… a lipstick stain one his shirt collar. Okay Mister-clearly-I-had-a-hot-date-last-night would you mind doing your walk of shame somewhere else! But if the man's call is anything to go by, it seems like he's having a bad day too. He's been yelling at the same person for a while now. "Huh?! I told you I'd be there! I'm on my way to the shoot right now!…No I didn't forget!…I'll be there in ten minutes!" The man ends the call and sees her. "Oh, hi…"
"Hi. Can't talk," she simply says before passing him and finally leaving the complex.
She decides to take some less crowded back roads to shave off some times. Thankfully, it works. She makes it to her desk seat with three minutes to spare. Unfortunately, her hair is more of mess than it was before and her boss is coming towards her. Behind her boss, Mallory, is her other friend Kathryn. Regina's not quite sure what Mal wants to talk to her about, but Kathryn is obviously distressed about something.
"Please do something about her," Mal says when she gets to Regina's desk. Kathryn is glaring at some newspaper article.
"What happened?" Regina asks.
"Have you read the news?" Kathryn looks up at Regina.
"What is it?"
"Just look!" Kathryn shoves an entertainment article in Regina's face. She's a bit crosse-eyed when reading it, but the title is clearly reads "BAEFIRE GOES ON HIATUS? COMEBACK DATE'S UNCERTAIN". Why does the name sound familiar…?
"Oh!…Isn't that your favorite…" Regina starts to asks Kathryn.
"Yep! It's the ratty musician she loves," Mal interrupts Regina.
"Hey! Baefire is a true artist! He hits you right in the guts with feelings!" Kathryn says.
"Whatever you say," Mal 'tries' placates her.
"I can't believe he's taking a break!" she whines. The clock strikes 8:30. Time for work…"Alright! Let's get to work, Regina!" Kathryn mood instantly bounce back. Both Regina and Mal are surprised by the quick switch of emotions. But soon after Mal looks resigned.
"If I'd know you'd perk up for work, I would've set the clocks forward five minutes," Mal mutters. "By the way, Regina," her boss turns to her, "I'd fix your hair fast. You and I have a meeting with the president in a half hour."
"Since when?" she looks down at her desk calendar. All that's marked is an afternoon meeting.
"The president called for it this morning. You're moving departments tomorrow."
"This is the first I'm hearing of it!" She never applied for a transfer, so where's this coming from?
"Well, with the recent downgrade, we're low on workers, and some departments are really struggling with fewer employees. So you're needed elsewhere," Mal explains and leaves Regina to her desk. Kathryn says goodbye and leaves for her own desk too. And Regina is left wondering which department she's being moved to.
Thirty-five minutes later, Regina is now a member of the imported goods department. As much as she likes her company, import goods was never a department she thought she'd be working in. For the last two years, she's been the star worker in the produce department. So by the president's logic, she's the perfect person to put into a struggling department. She applied to the company to work in the produce department because she loves the recipes the company published. And writing her own recipes was the best thing about her job. But now that's gone. It'll definitely be a challenge, but nothing she can't handle. The work doesn't seem all that different from the type she was doing before. And a definite plus is that she's still working under Mal. So at least she doesn't need to conform to new boss' style.
"It's not your speciality, but I still want your focus on this new job," Mal says after the meeting. The two are walking back to Regina's desk.
"Don't worry. I intend to give it my all," she confidently grins and takes out her files from her purse. But the second act against her is afoot. She forgets that Snow's present is at the top, and so it falls out.
"Ooo… What's that?" Kathryn quite literally appears out of nowhere.
Mal jumps back, "Where did you come from?" Kathryn just waves her off and looks at Regina.
"Just a souvenir my neighbors brought back from their honeymoon," she replies.
"Like a t-shirt?" Kathryn asks.
"The box's a bit too thin for that," Mal observes.
"Knowing Snow, it's nothing good," Regina says as she attempts to put the box back in her purse.
"You should open it!" Kathryn stops her. And Regina knows Kathryn won't leave her alone until she does. Reluctantly, but not without gives Kathryn an angry glare, she rips the wrapping and opens the box. But she immediately closes it again. Of course she would…Well at least that explains the special occasion comment…
"What is it?" Kathryn eggs her.
"Nothing! Just Snow being Snow," she said. She really should've seen this coming.
"It doesn't look like nothing! Come on, let me see!" Kathryn gets closer to her and Regina waves her back.
"We are in the office, remember? The place where we're paid to work," Regina says. But Kathryn ignores her and reaches for the box. Unfortunately, Regina is caught off guard and Kathryn is successful at getting the box. She moves next to Mal, who looks amuse, and opens the box.
"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" Mal dryly says.
"Wow! It's been a while since I've seen a lace thong!" Kathryn loudly says.
"Please Kathryn, announce that a bit louder. I don't think the temps heard you," Regina says and takes back the "souvenir".
"You do know that a purple thong like this is serious, right? You've got to save this for a special occasion!" Kathryn excitedly smacks her on the back and she frowns.
"Whatever," Regina ends the conversation and turns to her desk. Mal snickers as she drags Kathryn away.
The rest of the day is uneventful, outside of the few unwelcome comments from Kathryn, and Regina wraps up her last project in the produce department.
She's on her way to the bookstore when Kathryn's voices floats into her thoughts. A special occasion, huh? I haven't had any opportunities like that in a while… Well, that doesn't matter anyways, I need to focus on work.
She arrives at the book store and hoping to be quick about buying basic books for imported goods and marketing. But a pair of high school students block her way to the marketing section. The girls are fawning over a photography magazine and from the cover, it's featuring a photographer. She clears her throat and the girls sheepishly move away. She picks a few marketing reference books and goes to pay for them.
But on the way to the register, she passes by the magazine rack that the high school girls were looking at. And she finds the one that the girls were reading "A memorable collaboration by Aurora and Robin Locksley". It's a swimsuit edition, and surprisingly none of the photos are offensive or perverse. So… Robin Locksley took those photos? At least he's not a complete pervert. Regina doesn't dwell on the magazine for much longer and goes on her way to pay for the books.
Whichever higher power exists, he/she/they/it still seems to have something against her because when biking home, it starts to rain. Usually, when it rains, she takes the train and bus home. So now she's pedaling faster to get out of the rain to protect the books.
POP!
Her bikes slows down and she nearly falls off. No, no, no! A flat tire now!? She looks at her front tire and sees shards of glass in the middle of the bike lane. The glass' color and thickness resembles the kind for bottles. Her apartment is only a few blocks away, so she could run. But a voice calls out and Regina doesn't feel rain on her anymore. She turns around to see a young blonde woman wearing a peach apron with a paw print standing with an umbrella over the two of them. "You okay? Got a flat?"
"Excuse me?" Regina steps away from the strange woman. Some raindrops softly brush against her as she's only partly under the umbrella now.
"I heard a loud noise from inside and came out to check," the woman pointed towards the pet store behind her.
"Oh, I just ran over some glass," she points to the glass shards.
"Here, hold this," the woman hands her the umbrella and kneels down in front of her bike.
"What are you doing?" Regina suspiciously asks.
"Checking your tire," the woman says with an "duh" tone.
"Obviously it's flat," Regina says and the woman gets up with an annoyed look. "I'll just take it to a repair shop," She gives the umbrella back and grabs the handlebars.
"In this weather? Good luck," the woman sarcastically says. "The nearest shop is 20 blocks from here."
"Then I'll go tomorrow," Regina replies.
"I could keep your bike here for the night. I work here," the woman offers. That would explain the odd apron.
"Thank you, but I'll take care of it."
"Well at least take the umbrella," the woman gives her the umbrella again. "It's yours."
"Thanks," Regina nods at the woman. She walks at a slower pace now that she's protected from the rain.
She makes it to the apartment complex without incident. When she walks in, Mrs. Lucas is her office doorway talking to a man that Regina's never met, but looks oddly familiar. And for some reason he's wearing sunglasses at night and inside….
"Welcome back, Regina," Mrs. Lucas says when she sees her. "Perfect timing. Let me introduce you two. Neal, this is Regina Mills. Regina, this is Neal Cassidy. He just moved in across from you."
"Huh?!" Neal Cassidy…damnit, another familiar name from somewhere…Wait, a new tenant? When did that happen?…Oh right, Mrs. Lucas might have said something about that this morning…
"Would either of you like hot chocolate?" Mrs. Lucas asks and then goes to the common area without hearing their answers. Regina's the first to walk with Mr. Cassidy behind her.
"Here you are," Mrs. Lucas hands both of them a mug of hot chocolate when they get to the common area.
"Thanks," Regina says as she takes a sip.
"What is this place?" Mr. Cassidy asks.
"It's the common area. Feel free to use it as much as you like," Mrs. Lucas smiles.
"Ok…Thanks," after he says that he takes his first sip of the hot chocolate.
Mrs. Lucas looks like she's about to talk about the other tenants, which Regina only assumes from the way the Nolan's names come up, when a female voice interrupts her, "Oh! There you are, Mrs. Lucas."
The three of them turn to see a blonde female walking from the elevator. It's the same one that tried to help Regina earlier. Except now the weird apron is gone now.
"What's wrong Emma?"
"The gas isn't coming to my apartment…" Emma says.
Wait, if she's my neighbor, how did she get to her apartment before me? I left before she did and there hasn't been anyone walking through here to the elevator…Oh! She might've come from the back door, but that's usually locked…
While Regina is busy puzzling out how her neighbor mysteriously teleported, Emma and Mr. Cassidy are introduced. The two shake hands before Emma notices who he is, "You're Baefire, aren't you?" Oh… that's right his pictures are all over Kathryn's desk…Kathryn is going to go ballistic if she finds out…Note to self, never ever mention this to her in a public place… Or ever.
The discovered musician doesn't say anything.
"What's a famous musician doing here?" Emma bitingly asks.
"Maybe he just loves my hot chocolate," Mrs. Lucas says warningly.
"That's a good point, but not a selling point, Mrs. Lucas," Emma says but drops the subject of Mr. Cassidy.
Regina wants to leave, but another tenant walks in, "Do you people have any idea what time it is?!" This time it's the man with the bad phone call and lipstick stain on his collar. He's now wearing a black tank top and sweatpants.
Before anyone answers him, Mrs. Lucas smiles and claps her hands. "Since most of are all here, we should introduces ourselves!"
"Introduce ourselves?" Regina asks. She doesn't think it's a bad idea given that she didn't even know most of them lived in the building, but she really wants to go home.
"Of course! It's not often that everyone's in the same place at once."
"Unfortunately I don't have time for this, I'm in the middle of work," Mr. Lipstick-stain says.
"What are you saying, of course you do Robin," Mrs. Lucas sweetly smiles at him, but everyone can see her sharp eyes. Mr. Lipstick-stain doesn't say anything, but he does stay. "Let's start with Neal since he just moved in."
"I'm Neal Cassidy," he says somewhat sheepishly. He doesn't say anything more and no one else is quite sure how to follow up.
"…And what do you do, Neal?" Mrs. Lucas asks.
"…Unemployed," he again is very sheepish in his answer.
"Oh!" Mr. Lipstick-stain speaks up, "That's right, you're the musician who quit all of a sudden."
"Technically, he didn't quit. He's just on a break," Emma says.
"Oh? I didn't take you as a pop fan, Miss Swan," Mr. Lipstick-stain teases her.
Emma smiles back at him, "What about you? How did you know, Mr. Cool?"
"Know the right people in the industry, Miss Swan, and you're privy to the truth behind many rumors," he says and actually WINKS!
Emma opens her mouth to retort, but Mrs. Lucas tells her to introduce herself next. So whatever words she wanted to say, she had to swallow. "I'm Emma Swan. I'm college student studying to be a veterinarian." And no one has anything to say to short and simple intro.
"Alright, next?"
"Robin Locksley. I'm a photographer," Mr. Lipstick-stain says. Emma looks like this explains a lot things. And Regina is inclined to agree…
Wait, Mr. Lipstick-stain and Robin Locksley are the same person? "How does a person like him take that Aurora collection?" Regina mumbles, but Robin hears her anyway.
"You know my work?" his full attention is on her, which is a bit unnerving with his clear blue eyes. He also looks kind of giddy.
"I saw the magazine in the bookstore today," she says.
"What did you think?" he says. He looks like he's on the balls of his feet waiting for her answer.
"The photos were gorgeous," Regina honestly says.
He smiles, "Thank you!" With his smile, he looks completely different from the annoyed man she saw this morning. He looks like a little kid, dimples and all.
"And last but not least…" Mrs. Lucas puts on the spot.
Regina's just now realizing how much this feels like a group blind date. And Mrs. Lucas is the ringmaster of it all. The only thing needed to complete this picture is Snow… She clears her head of these thoughts and introduces herself, "I'm Regina Mills. I work at a mail-order company."
"Is that everyone?" Robin asks Mrs. Lucas.
"There's still the Nolans on the fourth floor and one more person," she replies.
"Ah... right... that person," Robin sighs and looks a bit resigned at the mention of 'that person'.
"And aren't you going into introduce yourself," Emma teasingly ask Mrs. Lucas.
"Me? Oh, alright, I'm Mrs. Lucas, the landlord of Storybrooke Apartments. During the day I'm in my office, and at night I'm on the fifth floor. If there's any issue, please come find me."
Everyone gives their various thanks. And Neal is the first to leave the group. Regina soon follows him, but first she talks to Emma.
"Thanks again," once again she hands Emma the umbrella.
"No problem. I'm glad that you got back while being some what dry," Emma smiles and takes the umbrella. "You know, when I said the umbrella's yours, I meant it."
"Well that was before we found out we're neighbors. And besides, I hate owing people."
"So you're paying me back with my own umbrella?" Emma teasingly says.
"You can't say I didn't give it back and hold it against me," Regina flatly says.
"True, true," Emma concedes. "But it is finally nice to meet you," she extends her arm.
And Regina takes her right hand, "Likewise." The two say their goodbyes and she goes home.
When she enters her apartment, she realizes how exhausting this day's been. First I overslept, then I got transferred, then I got a flat tire…and then there's "gift" from Snow. With the "gift" on her mind, she goes to find it in her purse and pulls it out. The thong isn't bad quality, she thinks, and the color isn't bad, but it's still not something she'd wear right now. She plans to keep in her small dresser, but her door bell interrupts her. Multiple rings interrupts her. Whoever's at the door really wants her to answer and really wants to piss her off. I heard you the first time! She walks up to the peephole and looks through. For some reason, Robin Locksley is at her door looking madder than he did this morning.
"Regina! Are you home?" he yells.
"Yes!" she snaps back.
"Then open up! I need to talk to you!" he yells. What happened in the last twenty minutes since I saw him?
"What are you going to do?" she asks. He looks like he's ready to attack the first person he sees. And that's mostly likely going to be her.
"Just let me in!" he sounds even more annoyed and mad. "If you won't open the door, I'll break down the door!"
"What?!"
A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfic in a long time and first OUAT fanfic.
My hope for this is to follow the major plot points from the game, but keeping the rest true to the characters as much as possible.
Thanks for reading!