Emma and Regina were ecstatic about Mulan and Belle. ECSTATIC. The excitement was boiling over the next morning at breakfast.
By 8AM both Emma and Regina had been wide awake and drinking their coffee together for quite some time, making two cups to bring back upstairs to drink in private before moving to the kitchen for breakfast.
Henry found them dancing around the kitchen to music that must have only been in their heads, doing a call-and-response chant they seem to have made up themselves.
"Who's the best?" Emma chanted.
"WE'RE THE BEST!" Regina answered.
"Who's the best?"
"We're the BEST!"
Henry watched them dance and chant around the frying pan a few more times before coming all the way into the kitchen, making his presence and interest in breakfast, only in breakfast, not dancing, known.
"I guess you guys are happy? From last night?"
"Hey! Henry's up! Hey Henry – who's the best?"
"Don't be a downer, Henry! You're either with us, or you're against us!" Regina's warning was farther from threatening than any other she had ever issued, her grin betraying her.
Henry couldn't stop himself from laughing. He had never found either of his moms happy enough to morning dance, much less together.
"Henry, you have to understand how exciting this is for us," Regina began explaining as Henry pulled a stool up to the center island, "Not only do we love your girlfriend, but Mulan is with Belle now. That means…" Regina looked over at Emma, before they both answered together.
"DOUBLE DATES!" The two women high-fived while Henry happily started on the giant pile of bacon in front of him.
"We could just invite her over to hang out. It's not like she didn't live with us a couple of years ago. We don't have to bribe her over with dinner or some sort of reason to have a party. Honey, we can just call her." David fully intended to start the weekend off by keeping a level head. He knew that Snow being home with him all weekend meant that resolve was going to be tested.
"I know we can, but I want her to open up to me. I remember Archie telling me once…" Snow had to stop for a moment. Losing Archie during the war was one of the hardest loses for everyone. Rumple made his choices and lost, and even though he had done a few good things here and there, in the end his fate had been determined by his own hand. Archie was a casualty. It was still a soft spot for everyone.
Charming took his wife's hand so she could continue. He knew that it helped them to bring him up naturally in conversation, and not just stop and forget him. Snow took a breath.
"Archie once told me that when doing child therapy, the children wouldn't just naturally open up. They would talk if they were both playing together, and start telling him things like a playmate might."
"So if you find something to do with Emma that's like playtime to her, she might open up to you?" Snow nodded.
"Actually that's a great idea. No shopping Snow, something Emma thinks of as playtime. It shouldn't be that hard. Everything is pretty much playtime to Emma. She loves work. She loves working out. She loves everyone. She loves every place in this town except the Laundromat. Just pick something."
David was right, she was going to have to cross "shopping trip" off the list. Damn. She was going to be Emma's "playmate" friend, and she was going to be fun. She would do anything Emma wanted. Laps around the track in the hot sun? Sure. Fingerpaints? You betcha.
She was going to be so amazing, that Emma would come out to her.
"I hope that Tink understands that for all of us to agree to a meeting on a Saturday, it means she's a really, really good friend." Regina and Emma pulled into the University parking lot in the Mercedes.
"Well, whatever she wants, I say we just agree and get the hell out of there. Otherwise, this is going to turn into an all day, all night situation. Especially if Tink is considering this a workday and it goes past five o'clock."
"Don't complain, dear. You're the one who dated her for weeks."
"Oh, like you didn't date her? And newsflash, I didn't know I had other options. Not a lot of gay bars in Storybrooke. I was a step away from one of those life-sized blow up dolls. I was going to name her 'Dolly'."
"Oh please. I would hardly call the couple of times I allowed that Fairy to speak with her mouth full in my presence 'dating'." Regina huffed. However, it was good to know that her potential competition for Emma could be undone with a knitting needle.
"We're early. Everyone else won't get here for at least ten minutes."
"More, if they stop for coffee."
"And we know that Ruby is always late for these."
Emma and Regina were clearly on the same page, which is why Regina parked them far from where everyone else would, behind the hedges.
It took Regina less than three seconds to rip off her seatbelt, and attach her lips to Emma's. Emma smiled into the kiss. Regina wasn't wearing lipstick.
She made them early on purpose.
Emma, Regina, Snow, Ruby, Mayor Tinkerbell, and town Comptroller Grumpy made their way around the room to greet everyone on the IronFairy Exploratory Panel.
Unfortunately for everyone in the town, they had assumed that the fact that Grumpy usually lived up to his name also meant he would be stingy with the town's budget. Just the opposite seemed to be true, and between Grumpy and Tinkerbell working together to party away every last dime on made-up town holidays, the town would actually be in need of an event to provide some revenue. They really shouldn't have rented that ferris wheel for "Garden Gnome Appreciation Day". The fact that Tink actually wanted to do it to attract admirers was just a happy side effect as far as everyone else was concerned.
"We all know IronFairy rules. In order to make the event official and use the IronFairy name, we have to select three events for the competition to be completed back to back: One excruciating physical test, a next-to-impossible mental challenge, and a totally made-up magical requirement that we ourselves will not even be sure is possible. Forum open for ideas." Snow motioned for the discussion to begin. Even though Tink was the Mayor, they were meeting outside of town hall, and she knew to defer authority to any royalty present.
"I have an update!" Ruby volunteered excitedly. "Tink and I have been working tirelessly to make sure this is financially possible, and we've secured two major sponsors!"
"That's right! First, we have a sponsor to pay for any upfront costs of putting the event together, as long as we advertise the product. FairyFire is now the official whiskey of the Storybrooke IronFairy competition!" Ruby and Tink clapped for themselves.
"Tinkerbell, do we really think it's a good idea to have an alcohol company sponsoring an event emphasizing physical and mental fitness?" Of course, Regina couldn't just let that one go. Emma rolled her eyes, assuming they were now in for the day. Actually, if she let them bicker long enough, she could probably squeeze in a nap. Or slip out to find a way to cover the hickey that she new Regina planted on her just moments ago on purpose.
"I don't see the problem. All of the professional sports in this world do it." Grumpy scowled at Regina. "And they're giving us free samples." Tink and Ruby also smiled between themselves.
Grumpy continued, "And since we expect this to cost them a lot, we may have also promised them an official holiday on our yearly calendar."
"Okay, fine. Let's throw the FairyFire name in front of a bunch of under-aged students on their campus. Who's the second sponsor?"
"The Main Street Portal Agency! They're willing to put up the $25,000 prize, as long as we include portal jumping in the competition events!" Regina's eyes flashed little purple dollar signs at that one.
Twenty-five thousand dollars was a lot of money. Perhaps enough to remodel the outside of a house into a castle. She wondered if Emma knew how to dig a moat.
"Excellent! I'm in!" The entire table turned to stare at Regina. "What? You think I can't compete in an IronFairy? The magician who only cast THE DARK CURSE? I swear I feel like if Michelangelo had to continuously remind people about the Pieta. For heaven's sake."
"Regina, we haven't even picked events yet. How do you know they're events that you even want to train for?" Snow was just as surprised as everyone else.
"I can train for anything. And anything that I'm not good at, Emma can train me." Emma smiled at her girlfriend, letting her know she would indeed trade training sessions with her. Maybe Regina would be able to train her magically in exchange.
Of course, Tink thought. They have the unfair "couple's" advantage. This is why I needed an IronFairy in the first place!
By the time the meeting ended an hour later, which by Tink's standards meant it was a speed meeting, the events were chosen. They decided to stick to a traditional marathon for physical endurance, the mental test would then be a quiz-off on Fairytale Land subjects, with anything from Fairytale popular culture, history or literature as fair game, and the magic competition would be a scavenger hunt through multiple realms, using the portals provided by the portal travel agency.
A 26 mile run, followed by a mental test like nobody in the room had ever taken, and then an all-realm scavenger hunt, where contestants can use any magical means necessary without endangering others to find their items, all back to back in one 24-hour time limit.
At the end of the meeting, Emma and Regina realized they had some serious training to do.
As everyone was about to scatter, Snow cornered her daughter. It just occurred to her how to make "play time".
"So Emma, I don't think I could handle a marathon, much less a full IronFairy, but I was hoping you'd be able to help me out with something. I know you're going to need to train a lot, but I think I could do with some exercise too. Any chance I could maybe pull you a couple of times a week for some personal training? You train all of the new recruits, and everyone's picking up and throwing cars within their first semester."
Emma was shocked. Not once, in the entire time Emma and Snow had known that they were related and Snow ever showed a common interest with Emma. Snow was more of the "tea party" team, less of the working out crew.
"Sure, Snow. I'd absolutely train you. Anything in particular you want to work on?"
"Oh, whatever you think is a good idea. I'm already the best archer in town, so maybe just physical training and some of that hand-to-hand combat stuff from when you made us all work out hung over? This time I won't threaten to puke on the track. Mother's honor." And maybe, you'll have so much fun now that we're having quality time, you'll want to talk to me more. About many things.
Snow was so excited that her idea was working. It was so easy – why had she never just done stuff Emma liked with Emma before? Her plan was definitely in phase A.
Now, off to find a rainbow sweatband.
"She's so perfect, Emma." Mulan and Emma were side-by-side at the Rabbit Hole, enjoying a soccer match. They had no idea who was playing, and it didn't matter. Buddy bonding just required a game on, and a bar.
"I figured you were okay when you handled almost everything yourself. You just need to have a little confidence. Why wouldn't she like you? You've got this under control."
"You can tell Henry and Lilo that the park idea was a good one. I didn't know about half of the things that this town brought over from our land. Did you know that Belle had all of the books in the library enchanted? They will automatically translate into the preferred language of the reader. Except the spell books, they don't want those falling into the wrong hands without the proper training."
"Yeah that was another one of Belle's ideas. Nifty, isn't it? Especially since I have no intention of learning Elvish anytime, ever."
"I'm going to text her when we're done and see if she wants to go back to the spot in the park."
"Actually, since Henry made it clear he would be out until exactly his curfew, I think he might have the magic fish spot occupied. Apparently there's something also magical about the waterfall down there too, which I'm sure he's using to woo his current girlfriend. It's still so strange to say. 'My son's girlfriend'. When I moved here he was still drinking juice boxes. Now he just chugs from the entire container."
"Hey. I chug from the container." Mulan and Emma both chuckled.
"And Regina was thrilled to help. We're, umm, I mean, She's already planning future double dates. We can't double date with my parents, because that's just weird. And Tink is chronically single, and that would also be weird, and Ruby's blazing through the town's single population in an attempt at the 'most one night stands' award, so…we really, really need you to stay with Belle. Really."
Mulan suddenly shifted from humor-derived laughs to her nervous laugh. Emma noticed.
"What? Too much? Should I not tell you how we, I mean Regina, may have already been looking at double-couple brunch coupons?"
"I'm still nervous, about, you know…" Ah, she did know. However, anytime Emma was nervous about sex, it usually went right out the window as soon as Regina's lips were on her. Yum. Regina's lips.
Mulan suddenly looked serious, and let her beer know she meant business by finishing it.
"I'd be her first."
Emma looked at her, confused. "Um, no, Mulan. Not so much…I thought she told you about Rumple."
"No, I know about that. I mean her first woman."
"Ooohhh. Wow."
"Yeah, wow. Apparently, she's always been open to the idea, but nobody really sparked her interest until I came here. Well, nobody that requires a sports bra to go jogging."
Emma's eyebrows were up to her hairline.
"Wow, buddy. That's just, wow."
"Yeah. No kidding."
"Do you want to go over the book again?"
"Very funny."
"I mean, I thought you were just nervous about going on an our-world-style date. But wow! Now we're talking about two lady-virgins. I mean, it's bad enough when you're all nervous because it's your first time. Not knowing how to take off a bra, or if what you're doing with your mouth is right. Never mind when it's your first time and you're the memory that your date has forever as 'the first one'. I mean, Mulan – Mulan?" Emma noticed that at some point during her rant, Mulan disappeared.
She looked down the bar and found her ordering a tray of shots, and made her way back to Emma.
"Yeah. We just entered shot territory."
"Of course she freaked out, Emma. Like she wasn't already under enough mental pressure! You can't get her all twisted up like that. They have to discover each other naturally. Really, how bad could she mess up? Is she going to start going down on her and get lost?"
Emma really didn't like that they had to have these late night conversations on the phone. The only upside was that Emma could use her feety pajamas when Regina wasn't around.
"I know; they'll figure it out. I understand where she's coming from though. I'd be nervous if I were dating you, and I had never been with another woman before, and then I found out you hadn't either, and we both had to figure it all out…it's just a lot of pressure."
"I'd look at it as an adventure. It's exciting, knowing you're both unwrapping someone's body for the first time." Regina was already in pajamas, laying on the couch on her back.
"So then why aren't you over here unwrapping my body? Lots of wrapping to undo here. Layers."
"I can't. Henry comes home in a half-hour. I want to make sure he's home on time. I like Lilo, I just don't want them making us grandchildren anytime soon." Hmm. How far had Henry gone with Lilo? That was a pile of nervousness that she brushed off for the moment. That would have to be a talk, eventually. No grandchildren yet, Henry.
"So sneak over when he's in bed."
"He never goes to bed on Saturday night. And how do we know that he wouldn't hear me leave and invite the girl over, or if I tell him I'm leaving, he might invite the girl over. Emma, no grandchildren. All of this ends with him inviting the girl over with no supervision."
"To be fair, they were sneaking around for quite some time, so if they were up to attempting to make a little Hen-lo, it would've happened by now. I don't think they're even thinking about that yet."
"Well, I still don't want to leave him alone overnight."
"And we still aren't 'unwrapping' each other when he's home?" Emma understood the rules, but the amount of sneaking around they had to do for intimacy these days made her feel like the teenager. Sometimes it was fun. Other times, like tonight, it was a frustrating barrier.
"How are we supposed to do that? Without him knowing? Even if he's in the den until one in the morning, he'd hear us on his way to his bedroom."
"You mean he'd hear you?" Emma couldn't help teasing.
"Well, dear, that's how you know you're doing it right. It just so happens you're always doing it right."
"Is there a spell that can sound-proof the room?" Emma now had on a backward baseball cap with little rabbit ears that matched the feety-pajamas, and was sticking her finger directly into a jar of peanut butter. She had clearly given up any hope that she needed to appear sexy in any way this evening.
"Yes, but that makes me nervous. What if something was to happen, and we couldn't hear him yell for help? Or hear him yell 'fire' or any of the other numerous things that could happen?"
"Okay, is there a way to make him stay downstairs? Sometimes he falls asleep on the couch from gaming all night anyway. I think he actually plans for that, because he always has a pillow and blanket."
"Hmm. I think I can work with that, actually. There's a terrible parenting spell that can enchant a book, puppet show, play, television show or movie to be your child's babysitter. It engrosses them and they won't leave it. It really is for the lazy magician parent."
Emma stopped with the peanut butter finger mid-way to her mouth. "Regina, I can't tell if you're being serious."
"Unfortunately, I'm dead serious. It's magic from our world. That's how Barney took over every child's TV set, before the makers of the Teletubbies bought it for an undisclosed amount. I hear these days it's in the hands of Dora the Explorer, but I still have my suspicions…Emma, come over. I think I can make CastleStorm so engrossing that Henry will be in his mancave for the evening, and we'll just have to try to keep the volume to a reasonable level. Just be prepared, dear, because a side-effect of the spell is that if you use it enough, it makes them want the merchandise."
"Seriously?"
"Emma, in twenty minutes the front door will be unlocked, Henry will be so involved with the video game that he won't care if you drag a parade through the kitchen, and I will be naked in the bedroom. It's up to you if you're joining me."
Emma couldn't believe this was working. They had checked on Henry a couple of times, just to be sure, but he was engrossed with the video game, and tuckered himself out before midnight on the giant couch, with his pillow and Batman blanket.
Upstairs, the women had decided that when Henry slept in the den, it was far enough away that they could enjoy each other, as long as they kept the volume to a reasonable level. It was a difficult task, one that Emma decided they were just going to have to practice it to master. A lot. Lots of practice.
They were now naked, with one low lamp still on. Emma was on her side with Regina's laptop open, and Regina was reading over her shoulder. She was kissing Emma's shoulder, and stroking her side with care. Not enough to turn her back on, she knew they needed the break, but just enough so Emma felt cared for.
Regina looked at Emma laying bare on her side, and was struck by how feminine Emma's form really was. Sure, she was all rough-and-tumble during the day, and Regina loved the muscles she felt flexing against her body, but Emma also had some gorgeous, soft curves. Regina also spent a fair amount of time stroking Emma's hair. How did she keep it so soft when she spent most of the day running through the mud?
"What about this one? It has a double strap. That's supposed to be more stable than the regular single thong-style."
It still amazed Regina to no end that Marco had thought to carve primarily dolls, and open Storybrooke's first toy store, and nobody thought about the adults who might have toy shopping needs too.
"I don't know how I feel about that, Emma. It's still like you're wearing clothing. The point is for us not to be wearing clothes. At all." They had thrown a few things into their check-out cart already, but couldn't stop browsing. Regina returned to kissing Emma's shoulder, running her hand up and down her Savior's arm. How that arm was still able to move, Regina had no idea.
"Well, let's see here…what about this thing?"
"Buy it."
Mulan knew Belle must still be in the library. She was always there until late, losing track of time. She tended to the stacks the way a gardener cared for the most fragile of flowers.
On the way to the library, while walking through campus Mulan passed a rosebush, just starting to blossom. She used her tactical knife to snipe off a long stem, and continued on to the library.
Belle was in "Folklore", sitting right in the row on the floor. She devoured as much of this section as she could, as more and more of what were thought to be "myths" ended up being tales from realms they just weren't familiar with yet. Mulan crept in quietly, not wanting to jerk her out of her focus just yet.
Belle smiled up at her visitor, approaching in the dimmed night lighting.
"I was hoping you'd be here." Mulan had a way of saying something that was so truthful, it didn't sound like a pick-up line at all. It was dazzling.
"I guess it's lucky for you I'm not the hop-all-around-the-town type." Belle smiled, and Mulan gave her back her own shy grin.
"For you." She handed her the rose that Belle immediately smelled and smiled into. Mulan noticed what Belle was reading.
"There's a book about me?" Mulan was amazed. She had no idea anyone had heard of her adventures, much less cared enough to write them down.
"Apparently so. I was going to check it out, and you could tell me if it's accurate? I think I should probably move it out of here and over to the biography section. Looks like you're quite the hero, and I'm only in chapter three. You gave me an overview, but this is amazing." Mulan sat next to her, putting her arm around Belle so they could both see the book. Belle loved Mulan's scent. She had first noticed it the night Mulan walked her home from the library. It must have been some sort of essential oil blend, not quite a perfume, not a cologne, but it was noticeable. Belle put her head on Mulan's shoulder, inhaling Mulan.
"Hmm looks like this chapter is just when I was in training in the Army. Wait until we really get into it."