So I know all of you want to kill me for the long long wait, I know I've been away for ages and I'm sorry, my career is a fucking bitch when talking about free time, like seriously, free time for me is practically inexistent and the very little I have it's to replace hours of sleep that I have lost animating, also I think my muse dies when I'm in uni, which is awful, frustrating and hilarious since my career is like 90% creativity.
But to finish with alll the excuses I know you dont care shit about, here is the chapter... Enjoy.
Chapter 10: Of Sad Memories, Pizza & Fairytales.
Emma untangled herself from Regina's body and got away from her grip, which wasn't easy at all, since the brunette's limbs would better be compared to octopus tentacles, never letting go of their prey.
But as worrying as it was feeling like some sort of fish starring on a "NatGeo" documentary, there was this other major issue, sitting in the couch, that made her feel more concerned and trapped than what an octopus strangling the life out of her could do.
Emma stepped heavily around Regina's bed delaying the inevitable as much as possible, while trying to decide what were her options to sort this situation out and which of them would be the wisest one to follow, whether go directly to face the well-known evil director while being partially nude or whether excuse herself into the wardrobe, get dressed and carve her way out through the wall with the first plastic spoon, mint or napkin she could find in any of her jackets pockets.
"If you excuse me for a while, director Mills" Emma said motioning to the wardrobe, while pulling her baggy Pink Floyd shirt as much as she could, to cover her bare legs.
"You are home dear, no need to excuse with me, I'm just paying a visit to my daughter," Cora said without lifting her gaze from her reading not even once, her tone cold and her lips pursed tightly.
Emma nodded even when she knew the woman was not looking at her and somehow she was glad for whatever the director found so interesting in her reading.
If God really existed this was clearly his compassion showing to the blonde, but considering how embarrassing the situation was itself. The fact that Regina's mother was ignoring her or even just pretending to do it, was more like just a sunny spot in a stormy black sky. But God is never completely merciful, right?
The blonde literally run into the wardrobe closing the door right behind her, she leaned against the shelves, breathing fast and with her gaze fixed on the wooden door, because she was almost one hundred percent sure that some kind of monster was going to jump through the door and attack her any moment.
She squeezed herself in a pair of dark skinny jeans and threw one of her leather jackets on, at the same time she cursed her reduced personal wardrobe for being so Swan like and not at all Mills material.
Just minutes later she walked out again and plopped herself on a chair in front of the feared director.
She tried to copy the director's stiff and refined posture, but it just felt so out of place and quite out of her comfort zone, that she limited to keep her legs together instead of spreading them as much as the chair allowed like she used to do, she also kept her back as straight as all the years of bad posture allowed her and she used all her concentration and patience to avoid any possible attempt her brain could come with to gain the woman's attention.
"So, now that you are decent, Ms. Swan, I would like you to tell me—," Cora started closing her book and fixing her gaze right in Emma's eyes, after five frustrating minutes of complete silence, "what are your intentions on dating my daughter?", the blonde gulped audibly. The director's gaze seemed to get sharper with every second she kept silent, as sharpen as one hundred knives on her bare and fragile neck.
Emma couldn't help the shiver that crossed her spine, but she answered a second after she zipped her jacket covering her neck as much as the zip allowed, she blamed her imagination for giving her vivid images of games of thrones' wargs ripping off her aorta in a fast and deadly jump.
"I—, I'm not Int—," was everything Emma was able to say before the director interrupted her again.
"Will you deny you are dating my daughter Ms. Swan?" Cora asked with threatening eyes and a cocky smile.
Regina's mom was quite terrifying, Emma had to admit, she also had to admit that she hadn't felt that way in a very long time. Not since she was a kid running from a bad foster home to a worse foster home, her fate always depending on the same bad social worker, with personality issues and very early alopecia.
"I'm not denying anything but I'm also not accepting it. It's not like I'm saying we haven't gone in a date. Because we did, but—," Emma started babbling quickly, and once again she couldn't finish before the director talked again.
"I didn't came here to creep you out, otherwise I came here to get acquainted with my daughter's most recent source of interest," Cora started, "I got quite interested when the coach told me she had picked her supposedly bigger enemy at the campus as her roommate," Emma kept silent despite of the real surprise that affirmation supposed to her,"but I really began to feel the urgent need to meet you when I found out of this little date of yours, don't get me wrong, I have no call in my daughter's romantic decisions, I raised her well enough to know she does not make choices without a good reason, that is why I am so interested in learning about you Ms. Swan, I can't quite discern what is that my daughter sees in you."
Emma tried to don't get offended with that affirmation or anything else, but then
She saw the way Cora looked at her, the director knew the only thing she had never told Regina not because she didn't want but because they hadn't had the right moment or been in the right place so she could tell her, she had mentioned it the day before to the brunette, but they never got to really talk about it, after the movie, came the alcohol and they started with that so fast that they quickly forgot they were going to talk about important matters of their lives, Cora knew about her origins, the woman had apparently digged into her past without even bother to meet her first, she knew everything about her and that made her visit a taunt. She tried to don't make it personal but she could not stop herself when she said.
"I'm glad for your visit director but I think there is nothing you can learn about me that you did not already know, if you feel so taken aback by your daughter's choice," by that time Emma's tone had raised considerably and she had jumped up from her chair, finding impossible to keep her fake stiff posture any longer, "you should ask her why she picked this girl that came out of nowhere, with no parents and nothing to offer her, I'm afraid I cannot help you with that."
"Emma?" Both of them turned around when a dozy and worried voice came from where the brunette was, sitting up in bed with dizziness all over her face, "mother what are you doing here?" Regina shook her head trying to clear her mind, but her pounding headache, made it very hard to concentrate, it was then that everything came to her.
Regina had heard the blonde's speech, everything. She didn't know what her mother had done to Emma but whatever it was she wouldn't approve, the blonde's words keep repeating in her head.
I'm glad for your visit director but I think there is nothing you can learn about me that you did not already know, if you feel so taken aback by your daughter choice, you should ask her why she picked this girl that came out of nowhere, with no parents and nothing to offer her, I'm afraid I cannot help you with that.
By the moment her drowsy mind could give any sense to all of this words, the brunette jumped off bed getting in front of Emma in seconds. She took a moment to appreciate the blonde's anger and shock expression, but she also found pain hiding behind those emerald eyes. Regina took Emma's hand in hers and turned around to face her mother, taking a protective pose in front of the other girl.
"You have nothing to do here mother, please leave," she said with edgy tone as she dragged Emma near to her back.
The blonde couldn't see it from where she was, but she was completely sure Regina's expression was as grave and her gaze as sharp as her mother's was just minutes before.
"Careful dear, you are talking to your mother," Cora warned.
"And you're talking to my girlfriend and you had no right to do it, so I think I have the right to talk to you as I find appropriate and right now this is it, leave now mother," Regina warned too.
"How splendid," the woman said clapping once as a huge sincere smile plastered on her lips, "now dear that is real love," was the only thing she said to none of them in particular, before she picked her book and started to walk to the door, "by the way i'll be waiting for you tomorrow afternoon, be in time for tea Regina, you too Emma" she said motherly, "and Ms. Swan it was really nice to meet you," having said that the director disappeared behind the door.
"What's wrong with her!?" Regina scowled.
"Well—, She's from your family," Emma laughed, "there must be a technical name for that, Mill's bipolar syndrome or something."
"Hey! Shut the hell up, Swan."
"Not gonna happen, Mills"
"Emma?" Regina said turning around again, her eyes were now two melted chocolate wells, as she took both Emma's hand in hers and made the blonde sit in the couch in front of her, "can we talk about what you said to my mother?"
The blonde looked away from the brunette eyes and she fixed her gaze somewhere in the wooden floor.
"Emma, it's okay you can talk to me about anything you want, you know?" Regina tried drawing soothing circles with her thumbs on the back of the blonde's hands.
Emma's jumped right back to chocolate wells.
"I know, Regina, it's not that, I know I can trust you, it's just, it's only that I would have wanted to tell you this in other circumstances not screaming it out to your mom while you are sleeping in the same room, I know I mentioned it yesterday, but we never got to talk about it and—," Emma half smiled with sadness in her eyes, "I never found the right moment, I mean we have only be friends for barely a week, it's been everything so fast."
"Well my mom it's not longer here, you know? The circumstances have totally changed now that the devil left the house," the brunette smiled back to the blonde.
"Are you sure? Cause I'm completely sure, I can still spot the devil in this room," Emma laughed.
"Emma!" Regina scolded, but laugh along with the blonde, "I'm talking seriously, you can tell me anything, I want you to trust me, but if you don't want to tell me, it's completely fine, I don't want you to feel obligated, so if I'm pressuring you too far, just tell me and I'll stop."
"Hey, Regina, of course I want to tell you, and it's no pressure at all," Emma assured, "come here Mills, I will tell you everything, but first I think you could use one of the coffee cups that your mother very kindly brought for us," she added standing to go pick the Starbucks' cups placed on the counter, "here you go princess," Emma said handing the cup to the brunette, while she gave Regina her well known 'Your Majesty the Evil Mills' reverence, a smirk widely printed on her lips as she bowed.
She used to do the same reverence to the brunette very often in the past, as she completely loved the instant rage sparkling up the cheerleader's eyes when she did so.
Regina was renowned along the campus as the NYU princess, everyone knew she was the untouchable only child of the university's director and as it was nothing else but the truth, everyone thought she had won her place in the campus by family leverage instead of her own merits, which was completely false, and in that matter Emma could testify thanks to all the times she had hacked the university system, to 'get acquainted with the enemy' as she called it when Ruby tried to talk her out of the idea. Emma knew everything that was in the system to know about Regina Mills, including the cheerleading scholarship of which her admission in college depended.
On the other hand the brunette knew what everyone thought about her, but she never really cared about anyone's opinion. Emma's opinion and her deliberated mocking bow however was a completely different story.
"I'm not a princess dear, I'm the queen!" Regina answered giving Emma the smirk back.
"The Evil Queen, I'd say—," the blonde replied.
"If I'm the Evil Queen then who are you? Snow White?" the cheerleader laughed.
"I don't think I'm fairytale material, but in case I was, I'll remember to never bite an apple you have been anywhere near to".
"You better do," Regina said with a wicked smile.
"Okay, your majesty, what about sharing with you, how a peasant's shitty life is like?"
"Emma!" Regina's expression instantly changed, as she pulled the blonde to lay beside her in the couch.
"You do notice you're partially nude right?" Emma mocked as she settled in the cozy leather couch.
The blonde was practically cheek to cheek with the brunette, in order to not to fall off the couch.
"Oh come on, Swan," she answered rolling her eyes blank, "are you telling me you want me to go and dress up?"
"If it was up to me, you could get more comfortable and take the rest off," Emma said without thinking, her cheeks now flushing a soft trace of pink.
"If it was up to me, you could start taking the rest off," Regina smirked fascinated with the blonde's shock expression and blushed cheeks.
"Here," Emma said grabbing the blanket on the back of the couch and giving it to the brunette, "you will get a cold".
"And we don't want that to happen," Regina laughed, covering both the blonde and her with the blanket and hugging the blonde as she placed her head on Emma's chest.
She wanted the blonde to feel her close, but she knew Emma was the kind of person that worked better when no one is looking right in her eyes.
"Okay so, I guess everything began on the side of a freeway in Maine," Emma started hugging the brunette back.
...
The two girls spent the rest of the day together in their room, mainly cuddling in the couch and talking about their very unlike childhood and yet as surprising and impossible as it was, they found very similar experiences in their past.
"Maybe you persuaded me at lunch, with your puppy sad eyes and your cuddly hug at the couch, but there is no way we are having junk as pizza again for dinner," Regina stated crossing arms.
"First of all, pizza is not junk! And just so you know, you could get murdered in the street for that statement," Emma retorted crossing arms as well, "but okay, you win order me a tray of the better healthy Shit you know, anyway, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"
"Oh god you're like a little pouting kid, come here little baby, mommy will give you the healthiest salad ever made," the brunette mocked at the blonde's expression with honeyed voice.
"Agh! I swear you are impossible Mills!" The blonde grumbled darting to the wardrobe, "I'll go have a bath while the food arrives," she added just before she left the room with her toiletry bag, some clean clothes and a rolled up green towel.
Regina was literally incapable to stop herself from rolling her eyes to the dramatic way Emma left the room.
"Drama queen!" She whispered to the air with her brow arched.
Seriously, how does a guy that forgets his own name get a job where he can screw everyone's order and fuck up the establishment reputation at the same time? Mysteries of the life. Regina shrugged hanging up the phone.
So what was she supposed to do during forty or more minutes that the delivery would take to arrive?
Maybe it was time to do something thoughtless and completely reckless, in the very same Regina Mills' style.
Regina's lips curved instantly into a dangerously evil smile.
...
From all the things Emma hated in life, sharing the bathroom was once of the worse, she had had to share bathroom with strangers all her life, and it was awful not to say awkward and sometimes even disgusting.
The blonde was surprised to find that the building's east side shower room was completely deserted, since she had gone to the west one first and it barely could take one more person, as it was usual. She shrugged to that and just got in one of the shower stalls, grateful that for the first time since she got in the university, she had no need to stare at the thin curtain feeling paranoid that someone would simply pull it back.
So she finally relaxed closing her eyes and letting the warm water sweep along the stress from a tiring week. She stopped the water barely ten minutes later more out of habit than necessity. Being a foster kid in a house with eight or more kids and one simple bathroom, made ten minutes of warm water a real privilege.
She had to admit that once you take all the noisy crowd and the impossible to breathe thick steam off the place, common shower rooms weren't that bad, at least they had hot water all the time and there were not any little kids almost peeing their pants, while your angry foster mom tries to knock down the door making you jump out of the shower to open it, with a non correctly wrapped towel around your naked body, and shampoo foam dripping into your eyes. So later the same peeing kid, that was actually twelve years old can describe to all your other almost teen foster 'brothers' how your growing boobs look like.
Emma felt the need to say out loud 'all the previous images are courtesy of bad foster homes productions and are based on real life facts from a non important teenager we already forgot the name of', as she almost always did when remembering the time she spent in the system.
She wrapped her towel around her body and thought she could get used to the east shower rooms if they were always like this, whatever the reason was anyway.
She was about to start dressing up when someone pulled her curtain back.
"Guess who's having you for dinner Swan?" Regina singsonged as she cornered the shocked blonde so she couldn't get away.