"So do you believe that it is an obligatory attraction that you are feeling for Regina? Because of the pixie dust?"
"Well yeah," she answered far too quickly, "…at least I think I am…"
Archie smiled sympathetically at the Sheriff, she'd gone back and forth in her decisions, her opinions, her feelings and he couldn't blame her. It didn't take a scientist to work out the ways of the mind when it came to facts. If we are told something is true, no matter how much we suspect it isn't, we often find ourselves simply accepting that it is true. In this case however, he couldn't form his own opinion and therefore was finding it difficult to help the blonde sat fidgeting before him.
Many, if not all, of Storybrooke's residents had witnessed the sheer velocity of heat between Emma and Regina. Feelings ran deep between the pair, be they anger or possibly something else and, though he was surprised when Emma had first come to him with her problem, he couldn't say he hadn't thought a little about it before. The sheer fire that always ignited when the blonde and brunette were in a room together was hard to ignore and who was he to argue with pixie dust? That being said, Emma needed to work through the answers herself and decide what it was she wanted and needed to do now.
"I believe it may be beneficial for you to write a list of pros and cons," Archie began, Emma looking up from the coffee ring stain on the table in front of her, green eyes full of confusion as she listened. "The pros and cons of pursuing a relationship with Regina Mills, and before you say anything," he laughed whilst holding up a hand to stop the blonde from talking, "just try it, humour me."
—
"I'd say that you've had quite enough there Hook," Granny's arms were crossed over her ample chest as she stood looking down over her glasses at the highly inebriated pirate barely keeping himself upright on her countertop. "Maybe you should go back to your ship, sleep it off."
He laughed sourly at that, "gave up my home frmph…" the hiccup that erupted sounded more sickly than the old woman cared to think about, her brow furrowing in disgust and slight worriment. Sure, the man had a penchant for alcohol and a constant desire to be drunk but she'd never seen him so…there wasn't even a word for it.
"Come on my boy," she spoke softly now, the pain evident in blue eyes that looked but saw nothing for he was lost in his own head, his own misery, "go for a walk, clear your head and we can talk about getting you a room until you decide on what to do okay?"
He breathed deeply, both to stop the drunken dizziness threatening to send the room spinning and to fill his aching lungs. He nodded dumbly then before standing, his legs loathe to carry his weight as he stumbled slightly before readying himself and heading towards the door.
So lost in his self-pitying thoughts, he didn't hear the doorbell nor the laughter coming from the wolf girl and the fairy until he had walked straight into them.
"Woah," Tink laughed as she used her hands to push him back and away from her, "had a bit too much there Killian?"
His lips curled into a scowl as he focused on her, anger raging through him that she did not deserve. "You!"
Her brow furrowed quickly in confusion, her eyes following Ruby as the girl gave an apologetic smile and moved to where her grandmother stood scowling due to her lateness.
"Me what?"
"S'your fault," he slurred, "she be mine weren't for stupid fairy powder!"
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to work through the sentence spoken, his inebriated mind not allowing him to say what he really wanted to. Tink's eyes widened slightly before the meaning came to her, then sadness filled them as she realised what he was really saying.
"You're not her true love…"
He swallowed back the lump that rose instantly into his throat at the statement spoken out loud by another, the same words that had been taunting him for the past however many days, he hadn't been sober enough to count how many had gone by and didn't care to anyway.
"No," he breathed out bitterly before pushing past the fairy and into the cold air of the outside world, "I'm not her true love."
—
"This is so fucking stupid," she huffed before scrunching up the paper, a line through the middle, two headings on either side reading pros and cons, a title reading Do I really want to love Regina Mills?
She'd been sat for hours listing reasons not to love her yet for every reason she had a rebuttal.
She's insane.
She understands me…might be the only one who does.
She's my son's mother.
We could be a family.
She's evil.
…but, she's actually not.
The list went on and on and ended in just the same way it had begun.
I don't love her.
…I do love her.
Do I?
She groaned out loud before throwing the paper ball across the room, her eyes had closed in frustration as soon as she felt it leave her fingertips, she had a headache, her brain heart, her heart hurt…all this soul searching was exhausting and she was still just as confused as when she had started.
Mercifully, she was saved from anymore thinking when the door to the apartment opened, turning around and resting and arm on the back of the couch, she found her son walking in. So lost in her own confusion she had forgotten that it was his weekend with her.
"Shit."
He merely raised an eyebrow at her, looked towards the kitchenette which was bare of any signs of dinner and looked back to her with an eye roll that would make Regina happy…Eurgh, Regina!
"You forgot didn't you?"
"No," she gave back unconvincingly before standing from the sofa and walking towards her son, her hands instantly finding his shoulders and pushing him towards her previous place of rest before she moved towards the kitchen, praying that it was stocked with something relatively edible, "just a little behind, that's all."
"Yeah, yeah."
She couldn't help but laugh at Henry's reply, his sass inherited from either of his mother's. The telltale click of the television gave her some relief, when the, almost, teenager became engrossed in one of his cartoons there was no bringing him back to reality, she had time.
Opening the cupboard door she found taco shells within, shivering slightly as she remembered the last time she'd made them and what her parents had been doing when they come home, she recalled seeing a pack of minced beef in her refrigerator thankfully.
"Tacos it is then."
It was as she rose to begin laying out ingredients on the work bench that all blood seemed to freeze within her veins, her heart coming to a stuttering halt and her stomach dropping sickeningly.
"Uh Ma?" Henry began, his brow furrowed in utter bemusement as he rose with the paper, now pulled out as flat as was possible, the words burning into Emma even from where she stood, "what the hell is this?"
Do I really want to love Regina Mills?
