A/N: I definitely had fun when I wrote this long chapter. I think you'll understand why :)
Chapter 7
After Emma, Regina and Henry had made their way to the grocery store and got everything Regina needed, Emma offered to walk back to the mansion with them. She had felt it was the least she could do. Regina had taken great care of her after all since Friday evening. And they bought so many things that Henry and Regina could use an extra pair of hands.
Unfortunately, the roads weren't cleared yet, the snowplough of the city had a defect and the parts the car mechanic needed to fix it couldn't be delivered for another week. So driving still was impossible.
As the two brunettes and the blond made their way to the mansion, each carrying a grocery bag, Henry wondered if they could have some fun on the road.
"Hey mom, can we make just a little detour before we go home?"
"That depends on what kind of detour you have in mind Henry", Regina answered while switching the bag she was carrying from her left, to her right hand.
"I was hoping we could go to the park"
"What do you want to do in the park, kid?"
"I was just thinking, it would be cool to have a second snowball competition and the park seems like a perfect place to start the game". To this both Emma and Regina raised an eyebrow while looking at the shy expression on the boys face.
"What do you mean kid?" "Well, you and I have got the competition with Grandma and Grandpa, but I would like it very much if I could also have a shot at beating both of my moms in one of our own" Henry's face was now full of glee.
Regina let out a little cackle, "And you think you can beat me or Emma? Rather confident, are you?
I'm not one to walk away from a little challenge, are you miss Swan? What do you say, shall we show our son how to win a battle?"
Emma was amused be Regina's desire to win, "Sure, I accept the challenge. What are the rules kid?"
"I figured for the first round of the battle we are all on our own. The first one to get hit by 5 snowballs is out. Then the second and last round will begin with the two people who were left standing in the first round' "And I'm so gonna make sure it will be my mothers, I have no intention of winning this game."
Emma and Regina both agreed to the game and the rules as they arrived at the park. It was really quiet in the park. Not a soul to be seen and a fresh pack of snow ready at their disposal.
"Wow, Emma said, I can't believe no one is here, it's just so beautiful out here."
"I think they are all inside their warm homes. If I wasn't out of food I wouldn't have gone outside either" Regina commented, "but you're right it's very beautiful out here."
They walked towards one of the park benches and put down the groceries they were still carrying, after wiping the majority of the snow away.
"I'm glad I still had a pair of good walking booths in my closet somewhere", Regina said.
"Yeah, you should be, you wouldn't even have made it to the store in your heels, Emma said laughing.
"You don't know what I'm capable of miss Swan, the brunette replied in a playful tone."
"Well, you can educate me during this battle, your Majesty, Emma took a bow when she said that.
"Indeed I shall, princess, watch and learn…. watch and learn". Regina then turned around and walked towards her son, adding a little sway in her hips as she moved, making Emma's mouth fall open and eyes widen, just a little.
When Henry had instructed his mothers to hide somewhere in the park before they started the game, he himself picked a spot too. The signal that started the match would be made by Henry by whistling on an acorn cap, he had kept in the pocket of his coat since the fall.
After he blew on the cap, he quickly put it back in his pocket again and started to move, while carefully listening if he could hear his mothers somewhere.
For his plan to work he had to make sure he would end up with just one of them in view.
After 5 minutes of tension building in the park because nothing had happened yet, he finally saw his first victim. Up in a tree there was Emma. She had climbed it and sat with her legs hanging left and right from a think branch, waiting to spot either Henry or Regina.
Unbeknownst to her, Henry had spotted her and he crept through some bushes to get closer. When he was positioned just about under Emma, he made a nice big and compact snowball. The kind that would hit you hard.
Henry aimed for his mothers back, he pulled back his arm, swung it hard and fast and released the white ball in his hand.
It was a direct hit, one so hard and unexpected to Emma that she fell of the branch onto a fresh blanket of snow under the tree.
"Holy sh…Emma started saying, before she heard a rustling noise in the bush behind her and turned her head to see who was there. As Henry crept out of the bush to see if his mother was okay, he was met by a glare that could have killed him, provided that looks could kill.
"Henry, o my god, was that kind of force really necessary? Emma spat as she tried to get up on her feet again. She brushed of the snow that stuck to her jeans with her hands.
"Well, this is a battle mom and I want to win, Henry said with a little smirk that reminded Emma so much of Regina. "He really is her son", Emma thought to herself. "Besides, you're fine".
"Yes, indeed I am."
"I have a proposition for you, ma"
"And what kind of proposition might that be?"
"You and I will, from now on, work together to defeat ma", he smiled as he thought of the true reason for his proposal.
"And why would I do that?"
"Well, because if I know you, and I do, you want to beat my mom just as much or maybe even more than I do. She practically told you to your face you would be incapable to do so. Surely you must have the need to prove her wrong".
Emma let that sink in for a moment while rubbing her fingers over her chin.
"You are right about that, but she will kill us if she finds out we have made a truce only to gang up on her".
"That's why she won't find out, ma." Emma looked at Henry with a questioning face, so he elaborated.
"We won't actually be together when we work together. We will find mom separately and try to hit her with snowballs. But when we see each other, we won't throw snowballs, so we won't risk getting to 5 hits so fast, they would all have to come from mom, you see?"
"Yes, I get the picture Henry", It would be great to see Regina lose after her 'watch and learn' comment, I'll do it. I'm gonna join the kid. This is going to be so much fun. "I will join you in your quest to beat your mother in the first round. But after that it's you versus me, kid''
"That's what you think mom…"
"Okay, great, let's do this' And then they were both off in opposite directions, to find Regina.
"For my plan to work it would be great if I found mom before Emma does, let's hope it will all work out".
As Henry walked in the direction of more trees he suddenly heard a twig snap behind him which made him turn around. Before he knew it, he was hit in the chest with a snowball. For dramatic effect he let himself fall on his back and closed his eyes a he lay there. "I hope her maternal instincts kick in and she takes the bait".
As Regina saw her son fall down, laying on the ground, with his eyes closed, she was sure it was some sort of ruse to get her back. Maybe he would surprise attack her if she went to make sure he was ok.
However, Regina couldn't just let her son lie there, what if there was something wrong. So she decided to take the gamble and walked to her sons' body in the snow and tried shaking his shoulder.
Thankfully Henry's eyes fluttered open quickly and a smile appear on his face, 'good, nothing is wrong with my son' and as Regina prepared to make herself scarce she heard him say "Mom, I would like to propose a deal". With surprise she reacted, 'what are you talking about?'
Henry sat up, extending an arm to his mother. She took his hand and pulled him up.
"Well, I would like to help you defeat ma."
"I don't need help to do that. It would be cheating you know", her voice a little strict.
"The rules of the game didn't state there couldn't be alliances, her son stated seriously."
"And why would I form an alliance with you?"
"Because I'm your son and I'm just to cute to refuse?" He said with a lopsided smile.
This made Regina chuckle and say, "You are cute, but that really isn't going to work, you know?"
"Fine, what if I promise you I will clean up my room myself for a month?"
Regina carefully considered this and wondered why her son would offer her that, "he must want this alliance badly, but why? Maybe she could try to make a better deal if Henry truly had his hearth set on this..."
"No, that's not enough, I will only team up with you if you not only clean your room for a month, but also do the dishes for a month as well", an evil little smirk accompanied the offer she just made her son.
"Pfff, mom drives a hard bargain. But if I have to suffer a little for operation Tiger to work out, I will. I want my moms to finds their happiness, the happiness they have earned and truly deserve and I want them to be together, to realize they both want the same thing. And I want a real family more than anything."
Henry stood up straight, looked his mother in the eye and said "It's a deal".
He then gave Regina the same explanation as he gave his other mother as to how the alliance would work and then they went their separate ways, looking for Emma.
Ten minutes had past since Henry and Regina had separated. As Henry carefully moved through the trees in the park he spotted a small clearing. He decided to walk to the edge of the clearing to see if someone else was there.
Henry wasn't the only person who had that idea. Both Regina and Emma were near the edge of the clearing too. Thankfully Henry spotted them before he stepped over the edge into the relatively small open space. He saw Emma was approaching from his right and Regina was approaching from the left.
It was Emma who crossed the line first and headed slowly to the centre of the clearing. Henry was sure Regina must have spotted her by now. He quickly turned his head to the left and saw he was right. Regina was now creating a snowball, while looking at her prospective victim with a smile on her face.
He was sure his mother was too far away from Emma to be able to hit her from that distance. And that was a good thing. It meant that his mother had to move into the clearing as well, leading to a face-off between his mothers.
Not a minute later the very thing he hoped for happened. Regina crossed the line, stepping into the open space. Emma had caught her from the corner of her eye pretty quickly.
Henry had to act now!
He took the two snowballs he had prepared earlier into his hands and stormed towards his mothers. Both of them thinking he was there to help them. How very wrong they were…
Emma and Regina looked at each other, both huge smirks on their faces believing Henry would knock out the other woman for them.
Henry was almost where he wanted to be, he moved swiftly, getting closer to his targets. At the time he completed a triangle in which the three now stood he raised his arms, then let them launch forward, and gave it all he got. One to the left, one to the right….
One hitting Emma at her left side and one hitting Regina on her right.
Both women didn't comprehend for a while what had happened here. Henry was supposed to be on their team, was he not? Why would he hit them?
As he revelled in the feeling of his mission succeeding, or at least this important part of it, and the surprised and confused looks on his mothers' faces, he yelled "I told you guys I was going to beat you both before we started this little game", followed by a laugh that could easily be described as evil.
"Hey kid, I thought we were a team, Emma said in a whining tone. How could you betray me like this?"
"You were a team? I though we had pledged allegiance, Henry?", Regina said in a disbelieving voice. Her own son would surely not double-cross her like that, would he?
When Henry said nothing the two women looked at each other. They finally realized that Henry did in fact double-crossed them.
Henry got a little nervous now. It looked as if his mothers were having a silent conversation right there, in front of him. That actually reminded him of his grandparents for a moment, they did that too….
His nerves only increased as his mothers nodded towards each other and turned their heads to look at him with a certain fire in their eyes.
Then he heard it, Emma yelled "attack!". As he saw his mothers getting closer to him, magic-ing snowballs in their hands, ready to attack him, there was only one thing on his mind 'RUN'.
Henry turned on his heal, trying his best to get away from his mothers, but it was to no avail.
Before he could reach the trees and bushes again he felt something, or better said, someone, tackle him. Emma had caught up with him and took him down. They both fell into the snow and Emma managed to hold him down as Regina approached them.
"So, Henry…...Regina said in her Evil Queen voice, just to scare him a little more because he really deserved it…you double-crossed you own mothers to win a silly game". A wicked smile on her face and the magic-ed snowball still in her hand, she bends her knees so she would be on the same level as Emma in the snow. Both hovered over their son now.
"What do you have to say for yourself young man?"
"Guilty as charged, he said" He knew it was practically suicide but he had to be the one to lose this round.
"In that case you deserve this", and just like that Emma released her hold on him. Both his mothers got up and together they magic-ed an avalanche of snowballs above him, hitting him everywhere, except in the face.
When the avalanche passed Henry was barely visible under all that snow. Only his head was sticking out of the mountain that had formed on top of him. His mothers couldn't keep in their laughter; it was just too funny.
"Who's sorry now", Emma said grinning at their son.
"I am", the defenceless victim answered softly.
"What was that Henry", Regina commented while putting her right hand behind her ear and tilting her head a little towards the boy.
"I AM", I'm sorry, please remove the snow from my body mom, it's not very cold, surprisingly, but I can't get up, it's too heavy.
Emma and Regina looked at each other once more and silently agreed their son had been punished enough. They cleared the snow from his body and Emma helped the kid up.
"It's clear that we won this round, Emma, so the next round will just be you against me. But first we'd better check if our groceries are still at the bench where we left them."
And so they walked back to the bench only to find that there still wasn't another soul there.
Regina told Henry to sit and wait right there on the bench next to the bags. He's wasn't allowed to play anymore, nor watch his mothers commence the final round…
And it was going to be an interesting one, because his mothers had agreed that they were allowed to use a little magic against each other.
Henry didn't care at all, "mission accomplished".
Before the two women went to hide from each other again, Regina walked up to Emma.
"Are you ready Em-mah? I will destroy you if it's the last thing I do, you know that, right?" As she spoke those words in a low voice, Emma couldn't suppress a shiver that went from the tips of her toes all the way to the crown of her head.
Not missing the trembling of the blondes' body Regina said, "Scared already?" An evil smirk had formed on the former Queens face.
Emma quickly composed herself, and retorted with a lot of feigned confidence "Not a chance, bring it on!" "I hope this will end well for me, Regina is way better at magic. I don't even have 'poofing' under control yet though I have been practicing" ….
"All right, it's time for the final round to begin, Henry announced. Go hide in the park somewhere, in 2 minutes I will give you the start signal".
Emma and Regina both moved swiftly in opposite directions, while they could still spot each other, Regina had already formed a plan of attack. As soon as Emma was out of sight, she would double back and go in the direction Emma had followed. She would be the hunter in this little game, she mused to herself.
As Regina made her way back carefully through the trees, she heard the start signal. This made her step up her pace a little. She was determined to find the blond first and then hit her hard and fast with the 5 required snowballs, all for the win.
Meanwhile Emma had no idea as to how she could make sure to beat Regina. She was heading into the direction of the small clearing, where Regina and her had taken their revenge on Henry.
Because she had no strategy yet, she decided to climb up a tree again. This time near the edge of the trees, but not too close to the open space. She wouldn't make the same mistake again and try to cross the clearing again. That had led to her first confrontation with Regina after all.
She was going to sit this one out, wait patiently, hoping Regina would take on the hunters' role. She was fairly certain that Regina would, she didn't have a lot of patience for these kind of things and she was definitely someone that would rather attack than sit around and hide somewhere. The woman's desire to win was far too great.
Regina tracked the footprints of the princess in no time. "Emma, isn't always as clever as she thinks she is, she hasn't even taken the time to hide her prints. This is going to be too easy..."
Emma had learned from her experience with Henry though, she kept a better eye on any activity near her tree.
And this time she was in luck, she heard a minor sound, some sort of a rustle in a bush close to her left. Could it be Regina?
It was Regina, Emma saw a sole of the other woman's booth sticking out just a little. So without hesitation Emma magic-ed herself a snowball and threw it down to her left.
Regina had spotted Emma just as she released the white orb from het fingers. She had to avoid getting hit, so she ran out of the bush and headed quickly in a zig-zag motion to the clearing.
"Shit, Emma muttered to herself, I missed", while gritting her teeth.
But from up in the tree Emma could see where Regina was heading. Emma figured this was a golden opportunity to reverse their roles. And so Emma jumped out of the tree and ran after her target.
When she spotted Regina, just standing there, in the middle of the small open space, she stopped her running abruptly. "Why in the world would Regina make herself an easy target? She must be up to something…"
As always, the former Queen was up to something. She was hoping Emma couldn't resist going after her, just wait until the blondes' determination not to approach her caved, because she was certain Emma would be suspicious of her current action. And when Emma would appear in sight she would create a magic snowball canon, to deal with the blond and then claim her victory.
After 5 minutes of waiting, Emma finally ran out of patience. "What to do now, I can't bear to wait any longer…." Then an idea formed in her head. She was going to try and do a surprise attack on Regina, with the help of her magic. She just hoped it would work the way she wanted it to.
Emma stood up straight, closed her eyes, concentrated on the magic within herself, balled her fists in front of her body and thought only of Regina, and how she wanted to 'poof' in front of the other woman.
As she felt the magic engulf her, she knew it was going to work. She braced herself for the confrontation and then disappeared…
Out of nowhere Regina felt something crashing into her and she fell down on her back in the snow with a thud.
When she lay down in the snow she felt a weight on her, keeping her form moving. She opened her eyes, only to see that not something had taken her down, but someone.
"Miss Swann, what do you think you're doing, she berated. Looking very annoyed.
Emma was a little shocked with the minor magical mishap that had just occurred. She wanted to appear in front of Regina, on on top of Regina.
"O my god, I'm straddling Regina", she thought as realization dawned on her. "What do I do now?" …
A little smirk now appeared on the blondes face, she was going to take advantage of this mistake. Regina was not in the position to go anywhere.
Regina looked at Emma's face, first seeing the shock, then the contemplation, followed by that smirk.
"O no, you don't princess, you're not winning so easily."
Before Emma knew it, somehow, someway Regina broke lose from her hold on her and now the brunette was on top of Emma. It didn't go quite as gracefully as the queen had hoped, Emma was strong, but so was she. She wanted to straddle the blond, like she had just done to her, but instead she couldn't keep her balance and fell forward.
This caused the women to lie flush against each other.
Both women could feel the breasts of the other pressed against their own, and heat emanating from each others bodies. Emma's arms lay beside her, flat on the snow. Regina's hands however were clutching Emma's sides just above her hips.
The former Queen let her head down just a little bit, so her lips were close to Emma's ear, and she whispered "I told you I would get you, princess". A warm breath of air escaped her mouth and touched Emma's ear.
It was all too much and at the same time, it wasn't enough.
Regina raised her head and gazed into the blondes' eyes. Both were shocked to see dilated pupils, turning brown and green eyes nearly black, filled with want, need, fire, lust and love.
Their breaths hitched, they both felt heat reaching their cores and a throbbing between their legs.
They couldn't hold out any longer. Regina wondered how it would feel to kiss the blonde, she wanted to find out desperately. Emma was thinking the same thing; how would those full, mauve coloured, lips feel against her thinner, pink ones.
As both women finally leaned in, feeling their breaths one each others faces, their lips almost touching…. they heard none other then Snow White calling out for her daughter, not too far from them.
Totally destroying the moment, they just shared…...and making Regina jump off of Emma within a heartbeat….
A/N: Was it as fun for you, as it was for me? Or was I too mean at the end? :p
Damn Snow White…
