So yesterday's chapter might become its own story instead of the Connected universe simply because the tattoo idea was entirely my own, but the Connected idea was from a friend. I don't know though. Enjoy this chapter!
Regina walked around her bedroom, covering her mouth with her arm as she coughed. She glanced at the door after she had finished, hoping that Emma hadn't heard her. If Emma heard her coughing, she would never get to leave the house.
No one had ever taken care of Regina when she was sick as a child, so she wasn't expecting any care. But she also knew that Emma was an insanely protective person, and would keep Regina cooped up until she was better. Regina hated being cooped up.
Feeling another cough coming on, Regina quickly covered her mouth. Her whole body tensed up, and a loud cough sounded throughout the entire room.
"Did you just hack up a lung?" Emma asked, walking into the room. "That sounded painful."
"I'm fine," Regina said dismissively. "Just choked on my own spit."
Emma narrowed her eyes and studied Regina. "Nice try. Are you sick?"
"No," Regina said. "What I am is late for work, so I should probably get going." She slipped her shoes on before walking towards the door.
Emma reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her escape. "I'm not letting you go that easily. Let's take your temperature," she said.
Regina rolled her eyes. "I have to get going. I have a meeting in 10 minutes."
"And taking your temperature will take about 10 seconds," Emma said. She pulled a reluctant Regina with her towards the bathroom, intent on taking her temperature.
"Emma this isn't necessary," Regina said. "I'm perfectly fine." She cleared her throat to keep herself from coughing; a trick that Emma saw right through.
"I don't even need the thermometer," Emma said, grabbing it. "But this will just prove my point that you're sick and need to stay home."
Regina dodged her hand that was holding the thermometer. "I don't need you sticking that thing in my mouth. I can tell you that I'm fine without needing the proof."
Emma rolled her eyes and stuck the thermometer in Regina's mouth anyway. Regina huffed but allowed it to take her temperature.
Emma took the thermometer and smirked triumphantly. "Told ya. You have a fever."
"I do not," Regina said, turning and leaving the bathroom. "That was pointless, and just made me even more late to work."
Emma sighed before poofing herself in front of Regina. Regina jumped at her sudden appearance before rolling her eyes. "Is this your attempt at blocking my path?" She went to poof her way downstairs, but found that she couldn't.
Emma looked pointedly at Regina's wrist. Regina gasped as she saw the magic cuff there. "You put the cuff on me?"
"Only because I knew that you would try and poof," Emma said, grabbing her hand and pulling her back to the bed.
"Take it off," Regina demanded. She didn't like this cuff. Not at all. Her magic was her power and her protection, and the cuff took it away.
"No," Emma said. She pointed to the bed. "Now sit. You're staying home today, and that's final."
"And what if I decide to just walk out?" Regina asked, sitting down. "Even though you took away my magic, I can still just walk out the front door. Or pick a lock if you try to lock me in."
Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "I thought ahead."
Regina's eyes widened. "Wait."
"I'm just going to the store," Emma said. She put one of the handcuffs around Regina's wrist that didn't have the magic cuff on it, and the other on the headboard of the bed. "Don't go anywhere."
As Emma left the room, Regina pulled on the handcuff to see how tight it was. She winced as she realized that it was tight enough to cut her if she tried to get away.
As Regina looked at the handcuff around her wrist, she was reminded of a time where it had happened before. Not with the same material of course, Leopold had always used ropes. Either way, it had still trapped her and had caused cuts and bruises on her wrists.
Feeling the panic in her begin to rise, Regina started tugging harder at the handcuffs. All she had to do was get them off. But if she got them off, would Emma be mad at her?
Tears started to gather in Regina's eyes as she realized that she was trapped again between her own fear and her need to please. Eventually her fear won, and she settled into a steady rhythm of pulling, trying in vain to get the handcuff off.
Emma set her grocery bags on the island, starting to unpack them. For once she had actually gotten only the items that Regina had written down on the list.
As she was putting some pasta noodles into the cupboard, Emma heard sobbing. Freezing, she listened closely. Her eyes widened as she realized that the crying was coming from upstairs. Where Regina was.
Throwing the noodles onto the counter, Emma ran up the stairs as fast as she could. She threw open the door and quickly crossed the room to where Regina sat on the bed.
"Oh my god," Emma whispered. She stared in disbelief at Regina's wrist in the handcuff, which was now slick with her blood. Thanks to her insistent pulling, Regina had managed to tear apart her wrist.
"Please take it off," Regina whimpered. "I promise that I'll be good."
Emma froze at her words as a chill ran down her spin. She looked at Regina and realized that Regina's eyes looked glazed over, as if she didn't realize that she was sitting in her bedroom.
"Okay," Emma said soothingly. "I'll take it off." She gently took Regina's wrist, pulling the key out of her pocket and quickly unlocking the handcuff and taking it off.
Regina winced and hissed in pain as Emma removed the handcuff. "Sorry," Emma said quickly. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
Regina blinked a few times, and Emma saw as her mind came back to the present. She looked down at her wrist in shock. "What did I do?"
"It looks like you've hurt yourself with the handcuff," Emma said. "Can I heal it?"
Regina hesitated before nodding. Emma smiled gently before using her magic to heal Regina's wrist. "Thank you," Regina whispered.
"You're welcome," Emma said. "I'm sorry for chaining you up to begin with. I didn't know that it would affect you like this."
"Don't worry about it," Regina said. "You couldn't have known."
Emma rubbed her thumb over Regina's wrist. "Want to talk about it?"
"No," Regina said. "I don't. But I feel like I owe you an explanation."
"You don't owe me anything," Emma said. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. I won't make you. But I'm here to listen if you want to talk."
"Leopold used to chain me up," Regina whispered. "I haven't gotten over it I guess. I still don't like being chained up, even with the best intentions in mind."
Emma winced. "I'm so sorry."
"You didn't know," Regina said. "Although I would greatly appreciate if you could remove this cuff." She held up her wrist with the magic cuff still on it.
"Right," Emma said, quickly pulling the magic cuff off.
Regina sighed in relief as she felt the magic return to her. "Thank you."
Emma slightly smiled before setting the cuff on the nightstand. She stood up and went to leave the room, but Regina grabbed her hand.
"You didn't know," Regina said. "So stop beating yourself up. I can practically see you doing it."
"I'm that easy to read?" Emma asked.
"Only to me," Regina said. She squeezed Emma's hand gently, before quickly covering her mouth as she started coughing again.
"And we're back to our previous problem," Emma said. "You're still sick and need to stay home."
"I will if you join me," Regina said, patting the bed next to her.
Emma smiled before plopping down next to her. "I think that can be arranged."