Deadly Class

Class Five: Alcohol is not Water

Emma wakes up with a dry mouth and a hammering in her head, a soft weight on top of her. She is confused by her surroundings, unsure as to what is going on. Why the hell is she on a white couch? Whose house is this?

She sits up as alarm fills her and looks around wildly, smelling the scent of frying bacon coming from the kitchen. She recalls it being evening and not morning, which it is, judging by the light coming through the blinds.

What had happened? Slowly some events trickle in. She pushes the white blanket off of her and carefully goes into the kitchen, hoping her professor could explain. She found the woman there, back to her and working the stove, legs entirely bare.

Emma momentarily forgets her confusion as she just stares, throat going tight. Regina turns around to get something and sees Emma, breaking the blonde from her mindless ogling. "There you are. How do you feel?" she asked, something soft on her face.

"Um, confused?" Emma says, bringing her eyes up.

"You drank alcohol last night Emma."

Emma's eyes bulge. "I did?"

"I was so worried when you suddenly collapsed on me. I was about to call the paramedics. But then I saw that half my pitcher of homemade sangria was missing and I connected the dots. Have you never drank before?"

Emma shook her head. She wasn't a drinker, no matter how Ruby tried to sneak alcohol into her food and water. "I didn't know." Emma feels a flush of mortification fill her. Her first time at a professor's house and she gets drunk in front of them.

How embarrassing.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," Regina winks slowly and Emma feels her thudding heart skip a beat. It should be illegal to look that good when winking. Regina turns to a coffee pot where some lukewarm coffee sits. "I kept you here. Thought you wouldn't appreciate campus security knowing an underage student got drunk. Plus, word would get back to your parents."

"Thank you," Emma stammered. "I'm really embarrassed."

"Don't be. We all make mistakes. Some worse than others." Emma must haven imagined the slight edge to Regina's tone there. The professor turned around, two mugs of coffee in her hand. They smelled great but Emma's attention was diverted to the low cut of the white robe. She could see down into Regina's chest as the woman leaned over, and Emma didn't think her professor was wearing anything underneath.

She felt hot and jerked her gaze up from the tops of the breasts before she could get caught. Regina had been looking directly at her, but had she noticed? Emma took the mug gratefully and took a sip of it. It tasted vaguely vanilla-ish. She didn't take the professor for liking those sorts of soft tastes.

For lack of options, Emma merely watched Regina cooking. "I hope you don't mind. I took the liberty of making you some breakfast. How do eggs and bacon sound?"

"Amazing," Emma breathes out as she watches Regina bend over to get something from a lower cabinet and the robe slips further up her thighs. Emma's not really talking about the food anymore. She absently goes to take a sip of her drink, but with her eyes trained on her professor's ass, she ends up misjudging and it spills down her front. The coffee isn't hot enough to scald but it's made a right mess and Emma shakes her hand off where some has spilled, uncertain as what to do because she's got it pooling in the folds of her shirt. "Damn it," she swears under her breath but her professor hears her because she comes over with a towel.

"Stay still," she instructs and begins to dab at Emma's shirt which has now been ruined. This gives Emma yet another glance down Regina's neckline and Emma can feel her clit throbbing this time as her arousal kicks in. She jerks her head up to avoid this, to avoid arousing herself further and tries to keep her breaths even as Regina dabs the towel all the way up to her chest. She's sure the professor doesn't mean for it to be inappropriate but it sure as hell feels this way with Emma's hormones pumped all the way to a ten.

All too soon the torment is over. "There. Not all the stains are out, but I fear a towel can only do so much against coffee."

Emma is inclined to agree, but also in regards to her heart being too weak to handle all these interactions. She didn't know how she could deal with the rest of her stay at the professor's house.

Thankfully, or un-thankfully, Regina keeps her distance from Emma for the rest of the morning. They sit down at her large dining room table and share breakfast. "I hope you don't mind, I like to watch the news as I eat," Regina said, turning on the TV and giving it her undivided attentions.

Emma is grateful for this because it spares her from having to make conversation, one she would surely flub in her heightened state. The meal is delicious and when it is over, Regina turns down Emma's offer of helping to clean up. She then goes upstairs to change and Emma tries really hard not to think about Regina taking off her clothes and how she'd look underneath it.

Emma has to sit on her hands on the couch, thighs squirming as she tries to ignore her own thoughts and watch the TV. Regina descends down the stairs, looking as regal as ever, having an all black ensemble on today.

It makes it even harder for naughty thoughts to keep out of Emma's mind and she jiggles her foot to try to chase them away with distractions. "I have some time to talk over your project; sadly we didn't get to do much last night. Unless you have class?"

"No, I don't have any weekend classes," Emma clarifies. She does, however have a work shift but honestly, spending extra time with Regina is worth skipping it.

"Good. This shouldn't take too long then," Regina settles down on the chair in front of Emma, spreading out her papers on the coffee table there.

Finally, Emma gets some help on her project. She settles on choosing an obsessive compulsive disorder because in a way, she feels like her feelings for her professor are like this. Taking over her mind and intruding her thoughts pervasively when she least wants them too. And then Regina's driving her back to campus after their conversation is over, far too quickly for Emma's likes. She could spend all day and night listening to the professor talk about psychology because it's clear she has a passion for it.

As Emma swings the passenger car door open, for one crazy moment she can imagine herself leaning in and kissing Regina as a goodbye. In the way couples do when leaving the car. But she manages to stop herself before she can do this, says her thanks to her professor, and leaves the car to go to her dorm.

There, she's too giddy to sit still and do her work. Deciding to quit, she calls up August because she needs someone to share this crazy story with.

"We bow before you, all holy one," August said, mock bowing to Emma when they saw each other across the common. She flushed as people gave them odd stares. "Cut it out," she hissed.

She had told him the whole story and he had been as excited, if not more, than her.

"Seriously. You're living all of our wet dreams right now. Maybe we should get you to introduce the rest of us to her."

She gave him a wry look.

"Kidding. Kidding," he joked but there was a tinge of seriousness to his words. "So, where does she live?"

Emma snorts as they pick their way through the grassy field to the library. "Like I'm going to tell you."

"I swear I won't stalk her there," August slashes a finger over his heart, flashes her his charming smile.

"No, dude. Like seriously. You went to therapy for this, I am not enabling you."

He frowns, kind of hurt. "But I'm fine now."

She shoots him a look.

"You're in the same club as me, so you're not any better."

"You made me join it," she points out, shaking her head at him. Honestly, he was too much sometimes.

They met up with Belle inside, who helps them with some class work before she heads out to her aerobics club. Emma thinks of joining one but that would require her having to actually move around and exercise and she would rather not.

Although maybe...maybe if Emma had abs Regina would pounce on her. She snorted. A girl could wish. But she can't get the foolish idea out of her head and decides to go to the gym anyways.

After that drink incident, there's a new sort of...dynamic between Emma and Regina. A teasing one, that leaves Emma flustered and excited and just feeling like a child again from the sheer amount of joy it brings her.

Regina gives back Emma's presentation score with little inside comments like, 'maybe drink some water before you present' or 'hope you have a good break next week with appropriate beverages'.

When Emma glances up to see Regina's reaction to this, the professor has one side of her lips curled up, making sure to meet Emma's eyes before looking away. Emma wants to respond to this, and decides to do so after class is over, once enough students have left so as not to make it too obvious to others what they are talking about.

"Professor, I just want you to know that I drink lots of water, in fact. I love water. Call me a water nut," she said, because she wasn't entirely certain which direction her professor was making these comments from. Was she going to hold this over Emma's head? Or was she only jesting?

"Well, I would hope so. I wouldn't want you collapsing again before we even get to the good part," Regina looked up from her seated position at her desk, a coy look on her face.

Emma's neck suddenly felt on fire. Wow, that statement could be taken suggestively. But most likely it wasn't meant that way because Emma was just dirty minded about anything the professor meant. "No, of course not."

"And do have a good thanksgiving break," Regina said. "Any plans for it?"

"Well, I do live close to the college so I'm not going to go anywhere far for it. I'll probably have dinner with the 'rents and then hang out around town. What about you?"

"I'll probably be here too for dinner. I have a couple friends coming over."

"That's nice," Emma said for lack of knowing what else to say. She was happy that the professor would be in town for the holidays, because this meant Emma might have a chance of bumping into her, despite how rare it might be. "Well, have a good break then."

"You too."

And Emma left at that, wishing she knew how to extend conversations with her professor more but not knowing how.

Thursday morning found Emma and David at the local grocery store, only because Mary had forgotten to get cranberry sauce for the dinner. Normally Mary was a planner and already had everything. But David had said there was cranberry sauce without actually looking to confirm for it and now he was forced to go get it. Emma tagged along because she didn't wanna help in the kitchen when Mary was holiday crazed. It became a hell there, Mary on a warpath with the turkey.

David went to go get the sauce, winding his way through the crowded store. They would undoubtedly have to wait hours on the long lines for their one item. While David did his job, Emma found her feet moving her to the wine section. She wondered what it was that she had drank at Regina's place. It had been such a good drink that she hadn't even known it was alcohol.

"I thought I told you to stick with water?" an amused voice said behind her and Emma swirled around so fast she nearly knocked some off the shelves.

"I'm not buying it, I swear!" Emma said, thinking it was a sales staff. But it was only her professor, looking casual in a pea coat and matching blue scarf and hat. She had no makeup on and yet that made her look even more beautiful.

"Oh," Emma breathed out when she realized who it was. "Hi."

"Last minute shopping?" Regina asked.

"Uh, yea. Dad forgot the cranberry sauce so we had to go get some last minute."

"Happens when you're a busy adult. I too forgot some things and had to go get it. But these lines are horrid. Maybe I'll go without turkey today."

"It wouldn't be the worst idea," Emma commented, starting to ramble so she could keep the professor engaged. "Neal, my friend, was telling me about how last year he tried to hold a Friendsgiving with his friends and they hadn't taken out the turkey to defrost on time and so they ended up putting it in the dirty house tub to defrost it that way, only to end up not cooking it thoroughly later on and having no turkey at all in the end."

Regina gave a little chuckle at this and Emma's heart soared at the sound. "Well, I'm certainly not doing that with the turkey." The professor's eyes shifted to the right a bit and then she was saying, "I'll see you on campus, Emma."

She left and Emma was disappointed to see her go. A second later David came up to her, carrying several cans of cranberry sauce.

"Dad, I think that's too much."

His forehead wrinkled up, "yea, but you know how she gets and it's better to be safe than sorry."

Dinner was...an affair as always. Both David and Mary chastising Emma about her grades and worrying over her class with Regina. Emma wasn't in any mood to be put down, so when dinner was done, she helped clear up the dishes and went to her room to embrace her angsty inner self.

She texted back and forth with Ruby who had stayed on campus because flying back home was too expensive for her college budget. Ruby suggested they go out clubbing on Friday, and because Emma was upset at her parents, she decided she would go, despite not liking clubs.

She dressed up warmly, not really caring to attract anyone when she went out. She just wanted something to distract herself with. Ruby was dressed up in a party outfit and all ready to party hard.

"Girl, I even made us drinks!" Ruby said to which Emma frowned.

"Ruby, I don't drink-"

"I know that. That's why I got you an apple cider," she said, handing it over to Emma. Oh, that was nice of Ruby to do. Emma took it and they drank in Ruby's dorm room to the low sound of some music.

Emma made a face as the taste hit her buds. "This is...fizzy. Is it supposed to be fizzy?"

"It's a hard apple cider," Ruby clarified. "Also, I have some friends coming over as well. It's gonna be a bunch of us out together."

"Okay," Emma nodded her head. She didn't mind Ruby's friends. They were quite interesting.

The aforementioned friends came in intervals. Merida, Tamara and Greg showed up, all with their own bottles of alcohol. "We getting turnt or what?" Tamara said, whooping loudly.

Soon, the room was awash with the glow of good times: people chatting happily, laughing, and drinking to the music that blared from Ruby's speakers now. Emma finished off her first, and then second bottle. Huh, this stuff was pretty good, once you got used to it. She wondered what ingredients were in it. But as her slightly unfocused eyes looked at the label- boy, was she feeling warm- she saw that there was an alcohol percentage on this.

She made a comical expression of shock and turned to Ruby who had an arm slung over Greg's shoulder.

"Ruby, there's alcohol in this?" Emma hissed, sort of upset her roommate hadn't said anything about this.

"Uh, yea," Ruby said, looking confused. "It's a hard cider, Emma."

"Why didn't you tell me it had alcohol?" She really didn't want to drink any especially since she'd embarrassed herself last time after two glasses of wine.

"I did tell you," Ruby stressed. "I told you it was a hard cider. That means there's alcohol in it."

"We-well I didn't know that."

"Now you do." Ruby took the empty bottle from Emma's hands. "Just don't drink anymore and go get some cold water from the sink. It should help."

Grumbling, Emma went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. She stared at her reflection. She didn't look drunk. And she didn't entirely feel it. She just felt a bit buzzed was all.

She closed her eyes, a bit annoyed. Why was it so hard to avoid drinking on campus. Emma didn't enjoy it. She liked being in control of her mind and body. But it was almost impossible to avoid. Especially since Ruby was her roommate and made it a game to see if she could get Emma drunk. Though Emma hadn't known if Ruby had purposefully tried to do that this time. Ruby had genuinely seemed surprised Emma didn't know what a hard cider was.

Whatever. Emma would just stay away from drinks.

And then half an hour later she found herself chugging down from a flask in the club. She didn't know what was in the flask but it burned down her throat like a bitch. She coughed when she pulled away from it, shaking her head as if that would get the flavor out. She had gotten a text from her mother berating her about five minutes ago and to spite her, she had drank from the flask and now she sort of regretted it.

"Oh shit, Swan," Ruby had said when she saw Emma doing that. "Why did you do that?" She looked slightly impressed and worried.

Emma shrugged but said nothing, handing the flask back to Greg from who she had ripped the flask from as he'd been about to drink. He had snuck it into the club so that they wouldn't have to buy drinks. Also, they were underaged and couldn't buy it at the bar, constrained to wearing wristbands that showed they were under 21.

"Do you want anymore?" he asked.

Emma shook her head no. Her mouth tasted awful now. She needed to go get some water. She went to the bathroom and turned on the sink, gargling with water. There were a couple of girls in the bathroom, just like there were only a couple of people at the club. Most of the patrons were sitting at tables or at the bar, while a few danced on the floor. Most students were gone for the holidays so it was mainly Storybrooke residents who were out here tonight. Ruby's hopes of getting tail were dashed when she saw the paltry offerings.

Emma left the bathroom, starting to feel the affects of the hard liquor hitting her. She hadn't drank a lot, she hoped. She was worried she'd fall asleep again. And she did not want to do that in front of her friends, on the dance floor. Man, why had she done such a stupid thing? But she was just annoyed with Mary who was always telling Emma to be better. It almost seemed like she was never happy with how Emma currently was.

And that was stressing Emma out. She just wanted to be average. To do the things she liked.

Why couldn't Mary respect that?

Emma went to rejoin her friends on the floor, taking more care to walk slowly as she felt the alcohol settle into her bones and make her heavy. A sloppy smile crept onto her face and she had to take a moment to lean against the wall because the room was slightly spinning around her.

Fuck. She had fucked up drinking beer and then vodka. Maybe she should go home? But she didn't want to ruin her friends fun.

Through the haze of alcohol, Emma was able to make out a familiar face, sitting at a table not too far away.

She squinted, surely thinking she had imagined it. But no...it was her professor!

What the hell was Regina doing here?

And who was the creep hitting on her? Some guy was clearly bothering her, from the way she was glaring at him angrily and tensing up her shoulders as he leaned in too obtrusively to her. Something twisted in Emma's stomach.

Stupidly, Emma decided to walk over to her, despite being underaged, despite knowing this wasn't a good idea. She just didn't want anyone bothering her professor. She didn't stop to think that Regina was a grown woman who could take care of herself when she wanted to.

She strode up and barged in. "Excuse me," she slurred and then grabbed Regina by the wrist, not registering the look of surprise on both her and the man's face at this sudden intrusion. All she knew was she wanted to get Regina away. She didn't stop pulling until they were both outside, Regina's skin warm and soft under Emma's hold. Emma shivered when she realized she was outside without a coat.

But then she got distracted when she saw that Regina was wearing a very sexy outfit. A low cut black dress with high heels. Why was she dressed so fancy for a club like this?

"Emma, what is going on?" Regina said, tone neutral for now. But questioning.

Shit. Shit. Shit! Emma had clearly not been thinking when she had done this. Her professor was probably just trying to enjoy a drink at the bar and Emma had interrupted that.

"Um, there was a guy- and uh, he was you know- I thought maybe you could use some help-" Emma stammered, slightly swaying.

"Emma, are you drunk?" Regina sounded aghast, eyeing Emma with concern.

"I may have...accidentally drank apple cider that was not apple cider," she admitted.

Regina looked disappointed in this. "Emma, are you here alone?"

"I'm with friends."

"Can you get them to take you home?" Regina asked.

"I'll be fine," Emma said, disappointment in herself and shame for being found out again, roiling in her stomach. She felt like she was going to be sick. She couldn't bare if her parents found out. If she got kicked out from school. "I'll just drink some water. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Regina looked touched at Emma's concern for her. "I was fine, Emma. I'm worried that you won't be."

"I will-" Emma cut off here as she felt an odd sensation crawling up her throat. Oh no, she thought with building horror and then stumbled over to behind a parked car on the street and threw up.

"That's it, Emma, you're going home." Regina's tone brokered no argument.

"No, don't take me home," Emma whined, still bent over. "I can't- my parents can't see me like this."

Regina was silent a moment before she let out a heavy sigh. "Where is your dorm, Emma?"

And then Regina hailed a cab for the two of them, and took Emma back to her dorm.