"It's nice to meet you Regina." Emma says once Regina reluctantly lets go of her hand.

"So how did this happen? The bike looks band new." Emma takes the bike and starts pushing it towards the neighborhood.

"I bought it yesterday. I don't know what happened." Regina looks away. For some reason she is finding it very difficult to lie to the other woman. However the last thing she wants is for Emma to think she is a klutz.

Emma stops walking and looks at Regina disbelievingly. The other woman's eyes focus on Regina's leg, which Regina only now realizes it bleeding a little.

Regina sighs and attempts to walk again so she can avoid looking directly at Emma. "In a valiant effort to save a lizard's life, I may have hit into that sign." She explains and motions to the sign several feet behind them now.

Emma chuckles a little. "Those lizards are everywhere!"

They fall into a comfortable silence for a few steps before Emma notices Regina is walking with a slight limp.

"Are you okay to walk?"

"I should be fine." Regina said trying to downplay how much her ankle hurt.

"I could carry you."

Regina's startled expression is enough to make Emma burst into laughter. Regina looks at the woman's arms again, entirely sure the other woman COULD carry her if she wanted to. The idea of that is enough to make her blush though.

"You said you didn't live far, right?"

"I actually don't live here at all. I'm staying with some old friends for a few days.

Daddy, the amount of disappointment I felt at those words was inappropriate. I didn't even know this woman!

"Oh"

"You sound surprised."

"I suppose I am. I saw you the other day on the beach and this isn't exactly a destination spot."

Seriously what the hell was wrong with me today?! I was terrified she was going to think I was a stalker or something.

Emma thankfully didn't seem to notice my blunder.

"Yeah, it's nice and quiet here. My job has me traveling a lot but whenever I'm in Florida I always make sure to visit."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a Nascar mechanic."

"Really?"

"Now you sound even more surprised." Emma says amused. "Is it because I'm a woman?"

"No...I've just never met anyone who did anything like that before. Wait, the races start this weekend right?"

"Yes, I came over early but the series starts soon."

"That's very interesting."

"It is. It's my first year working in the big-leagues. I was woking for a team in the development series before this."

Of course I had no idea what she was talking about. Rest assured I will look up everything there is to know about Nascar tomorrow.

"Well, congratulations then"

"Thanks" She looks embarrassed by the praise. "What do you do?"

"I own a restaurant."

"Wow, where?"

"In Daytona. It's actually not that far from the racetrack."

"I'll have to check it out sometime."

"I actually just bought it. The food is great but the atmosphere...not so much. I'm planning a small remodel to be done in the spring."

"That sounds ambitious."

"I guess, but it really needed to be done."

By that time they had arrived outside of a house with a large open garage and a very unsafe balcony on the second floor.

"We're here." Emma announces and steers the bike into the small dirt/sand driveway.

"We're actually neighbors then. I live on the row of houses behind this one."

"You can afford a restaurant but not beachfront property?" Emma teases.

"Seemed like an irresponsible purchase. The taxes and upkeep are more too."

"Yeah I guess that's why five of the brothers live here."

"I can't imagine having five sons!"

"There were actually eight sons. One died though before I even met them. So now I call them the seven dwarves."

"Does that make you snow white?"

Emma laughs while trying to route through the messy garage for the tools she needs. Regina leans against the wall to take the pressure off her ankle.

"God no! I would be like some random woodland creature that they fed so I kept coming back."

Just then a short man with a black bead and a beer-belly came stomping into the garage.

"Hey Blondie, what are you routing around for?"

Emma glares at him.

"Regina, meet Grumpy." She says sarcastically.

Regina tries to give the man a small smile. He barely nods his head in acknowledgment.

"I told you to stop calling me that." The man grumbles.

"Then stop fitting the part. And by the way, why is this place such a mess?!"

"Because you're not here to clean it." He says with a shrug.

"Ah ha!" Emma says when she finally finds an allen key the correct size. Then she turns to Regina and explains, "Leroy and his brothers are the ones who first taught me about cars when I was like 14. They use to help out in their shop but mostly that meant just cleaning up after them."

"Sounds more like Cinderella than Snow White then."

Regina tries to watch what Emma is doing to the bike so she can fix it herself if she ever needs to but all it looks like is twisting and turning to her.

"This one? A princess? Ha!" Leroy says sarcastically.

"Can you leave?" Emma asks him like a teenager demanding their parent leave their room.

"Fine Fine." He grumbles and leaves the garage.

Silence falls for a few moments before Emma claps her hands. "I think that should do it." She gets on the bike and rides in a circle in the driveway to test it out.

"Thank you so much." Regina says and hobbles over to the other woman.

Emma looks at her disapprovingly when Regina takes the bike from her hand and starts walking. Emma walks alongside her until they are a few houses away.

Regina doesn't know why Emma is coming with her but she certainly wasn't about to complain.

"Are you sure your ankle is okay?" Emma stops walking.

"I'll put some ice on it once I get home."

"Here." She says and turns around.

"What?"

"Get on my back"

"No!"

"Why not? I promise not to drop you."

"I barely know you." Regina tries to reason.

Emma turns back around and seems to think for a minute. Then takes a deep breath like she's nervous and sticks out her hand again. "Hi. I'm Emma Swan. I'm 28 years old. I'm a mechanic for race cars. I'm naturally competitive but I'd like to think I'm not a sore loser. I was raised in the foster care system and got into some trouble in my youth but don't worry I was never convicted of a felony."

Regina slowly processes this information and shakes her hand again. Then Emma turns around and this without thinking about what she's doing Regina awkwardly gets onto the other woman's back.

I haven't had a piggy-back ride since I was six and you gave me one. My house really wasn't far but this was beyond what normal people do right? And what did she mean by trouble in her youth? It surprisingly didn't turn me off though. I don't think anything could have turned me off while I was pressed up against her back for those 6 minutes though. It took all of my will-power not to press my face into her neck and smell her skin. These were crazy thoughts that I was unaccustomed to. Although I could see how spending time with her would force me to grow accustomed to them.

We got to my house all to soon and way too slowly.

"And here I was thinking I was too big for piggy-back rides." Regina says when they reach her house and she gets off.

"Nah. I was training to be in the pit crew before I moved teams so compared to the working out I had to do, carrying you was nothing." She assures me.

"Well, thank you again. Could I give you something for the bike?" She asks and takes the handle bars from the other woman.

"Absolutely not. The whole point was to save you money."

"Can I at least buy you lunch then? I would offer you something here but I'm ashamed to say I don't have any groceries at the house."

"You really don't have to."

Normally I wouldn't have even offered something like this in the first place but I was beginning to realize how lonely I was. And her declining seemed like it was more to be polite than because she didn't want to come. So (because I seem to have no filter around her) then next words were more truthful than I'm use to being.

"I insist. To be honest it would be nice to have lunch with somebody too. I still don't know many people here so it's been a little lonely"

Emma smiled reassuringly. "How about I come by in about a half hour. I should probably take a shower before going anywhere."

It was only then that I remembered how gross I was. I can't believe I touched her feeling that sweaty. I still had blood on my leg too!

"Yes that sounds like a good idea." Regina responded with a blush. Thankfully she was tanned enough for it not to be obvious.

"See you soon.

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