Chapter seven

Regina rolled her shoulders and heard a slight crack in her neck and she blinked a few times to try and focus on the video she was watching on simple phrases in ASL.

She had decided that she should try get out of the house because everything in her room reminded her of Emma, honestly, she was surprised that she was able to study in there at all, so she went to the public library.

Bringing her hand up, she tried to mimic the action and looked at it intently.

Her deep concentration prevented her from recognising that someone had joined her until a note was placed on her iPad.

She quickly looked up to see a smirking brunette and looked down to see what Henry had written, 'who are you telling to fuck off?'

Regina's eyes widened and she quickly dropped her hand, she was about to speak before she closed her mouth and tilted her head thinking how best to ask this question.

Henry tried not to laugh at her indecision and wrote on his pad, 'I can lip read.'

Regina let out a relieved sigh and replied, "it was supposed to be 'okay.'"

'It was,' he wrote with a smirk and Regina rolled her eyes.

"This is already difficult as it is, why are you making it worse?"

The boy shrugged and wrote, 'you looked like you need a distraction, you look really tense.'

"I'm not…" she trailed off as he raised his eyebrow at her and she relented, "it's more difficult than I thought it would be."

'Why do you need to learn? I thought Emma usually uses the laptop.'

The female brunette bit her lip and said as evenly as possible, "she looks happier when she signs to…someone."

'Someone?' he wrote frantically.

Regina just shook her head and refused to answer, forcing him to hazard a guess, 'Ruby?'

The girl slightly inclined her head and Henry fist pumped the air.

He quickly grabbed his pen when he saw her bewildered face and wrote, 'you like my sister?'

"Errr…"

Henry smiled broadly as he took that as confirmation.

Why are siblings so intrusive? Regina internally grumbled, she knew that there was no point denying it and, to be honest, she didn't want to anymore.

"You want Emma and me together?" she asked, and subconsciously held her breath as she waited for the reply.

'Not as much as she does.'

Regina re-read the words about five times before she decided that she was seeing properly and replied, "but she's with Ruby."

'She likes Ruby, but she loves you,' he scribbled with a smirk.

"Love?" she stuttered and quickly shook her head, "that cannot be possible, she doesn't even know me that well."

'Do you not want her to like you back?'

"Well if she does, why is she going out with that…Ruby?" she sighed as she tried to remember that Ruby hadn't actually done anything wrong.

'Because she thinks your straight and she's been in love with straight girls before, it didn't go too well.'

"But I am straight…kind of…"

Henry closed his eyes in frustration, he knew that Lily had been a difficult chapter in his sister's life, especially with all of the other crap she was dealing with at the time, there was no way that he was letting her confused crush experiment with her.

'When will you be sure?' he wrote almost angrily.

Regina opened her mouth to reply and closed it as she realised she didn't know.

Henry relaxed his shoulders as he saw that she was actually slightly frightened and wrote, 'sorry, I don't want her to get hurt.'

The cheerleader nodded and wished for a moment that she could assure him that she wouldn't hurt Emma, but she knew was not a very wise promise to make, at least when she was this unsure.

"What do you suggest?"

'Try going out with a girl,' he suggested.

"Wouldn't that be unfair on the girl?"

'Not if she was aware of what was happening,' he returned.

Regina tilted her head with a smirk and said, "and what girl would agree to that?"

'Someone who is equally upset with Emma's new relationship,' once Regina had finished reading, he pointed towards the librarian.

"Belle?" Regina laughed.

'Everyone knows that she has a crush on Ruby,' he wrote, and then added, 'except Ruby.'

"I'm not sure I understand what that would achieve."

Henry shrugged and wrote, 'its better than whatever you came up with.'

"I haven't come up with anything," she retorted.

'Exactly.'

Regina rolled her eyes and fell back against her chair.

Belle came over a second later and handed the other brunette a book, "this is all we have on sign language, it may be pretty out of date."

After a small prompt, Regina handed it to Henry and he quickly flicked through it, 'this would not be that easy to follow,' he wrote.

"Thanks anyway," Regina said with a smile.

Belle was about to walk away, and Henry looked expectantly at the girl.

Regina took a deep breath and said, "hang on, Belle."

The librarian turned around with an inviting smile and said, "you need something else?"

"Emma is going out with Ruby tomorrow," she began, hoping that she would know what this was really about, "would you be interested in helping me study at the diner?"

Belle tilted her head and thought about it for a second, "are you sure that it's me you really want to 'study' with?"

"Well my tutor is unavailable."

Henry rolled his eyes and wrote, 'stop talking in code, if you two go out on a date, it will make them jealous and they'll realise what they really want.'

"How long have you been thinking about it this?" Regina laughed.

'About as long as you have been learning sign language, which I am going to help you with by the way.'

Regina narrowed her eyes at him and said, "have you been talking to Zelena?"

He shot back a grin and wrote, 'she has everything planned, as long as Belle agrees.'

They each looked up at the librarian, who managed to blink away her surprise, she didn't actually know that people knew about her long standing crush.

"What makes you sure Ruby likes me back?"

'Do this and you'll know for sure,' Henry answered.

Belle bit her lip and said, "okay."

A/N I need to thank my beta QueenApples for most of the ideas in this chapter, your awesome as always XD

Hope you guys enjoyed, I would love to hear what you thought of the chapter XD