The arrival of one Emma Swan had been quite the surprise to Regina of House of Vonmil and Oren. It had been just as surprising when she appeared with two of her guardsmen escorting her. Graham struggled to hide a smirk as Regina met Emma in the hall of her estate.

Regina daintily took the document Emma claimed was from her. "An offer of employment," she had said.

When she spied the green ink on its surface Regina instantly knew who was to blame for this.

"Zelena." She huffed under her breathe.

Emma watched her curiously and with concern.

"I must apologize, it would seem my sister has played us both." Regina told Emma regretfully. She could see Emma visibly deflate. It made her her ache to see it.

"This," Regina waved the document in her hand. "Is also not our standard offer of employment."

Emma suddenly looked hopeful. Regina couldn't help that she wanted to somehow make the other woman perhaps happy, even smile if she could. She shook the thought away.

"I will have it revised. Room and board still stand, as do coin and meal. She failed to mention stabling for your horse or even the bathhouse. I also give persons who are servicing my estate time off." Regina beckoned for a servant.

"Have my estate governor draw up a proper employment offer and contract for the winter and bring the documents to be signed to Miss Swan." Regina ordered the Young woman that answered her call. She handed the document over to the servant. "Dispose of this and tell Zelena I would like a word as well."

"I do not want to force myself on you." Emma was apologetic.

Regina gave her a small smile. "There is no forcing. I do still owe you."

"Zelena just enjoys these games with me." She confessed. Emma gave her a puzzled look.

"My sister."

"Oh." Emma wondered what it would be like to have a sibling for a moment. Someone like this Zelena. She didn't know if she would appreciate it or not.

They stood in awkward silence, tension filling the air. Not aware of how they were eyeing one another with a kind of longing.

"I will have a servant escort you to your quarters." Regina seemed to remember herself. She had been mesmerized in admiring Emma yet again.

"That would be g-good." Emma stifled a yawn. Hand over her mouth. It was getting quite late. She had arrived late in the evening.

The two parted ways after Regina had given her orders to a servant. Emma Swan was to be given Serviceman's quarters on a lower wing of the main estate.

Regina went in seas of her sister. She found her in one of her favored sitting rooms, flirting shamelessly with a servant.

"Zelena!"

Zelena ducked her head with a wince. She shooed the servant off. "She's quite cross with me!"

"Why did I find that there was a woodcutter under impression of employment on my doorstep?" Regina began.

Zelena didn't even try to look innocent or at all guilty. She grinned.

"So she accepted the offer?"

Regina sighed. She sat in one of the seats across from Zelena, and threw her head back.

"Yes, Zelena. I am having my governor revise the original offer, however and drawn up for her to sign. That was hardly a contract of employment for my household." Regina glared at her sister.

"I always did say you give those that serve you too many liberties." Zelena told her.

"And you take just as many liberties with them." Regina wasn't ignorant. She had caught sight of the many laborers, servants, even guardsmen leaving her sister's presence or rooms given to her during her stay. She was enjoying quite the flurry of them.

Zelena chuckled.

"You employ a great many talented people. Why shouldn't I enjoy what they're capable of?" Zelena took an apple from the bowl set between them. Green, her favorite.

"Why send for the woodcutter, Zee?" Regina used her childhood nickname. She was feeling quite vulnerable at the moment.

Zelena shrugged.

"It is almost winter. We could use the wood." She was being evasive. Regina raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, maybe I thought you could 'loosen up' as well." Zelen told her with a large grin.

Regina looked appalled.

"I will not use her that way!" A fierceness overcame her. She didn't understand but she suddenly felt the need to protect Emma. Or protect herself? Her feelings? She was getting confused.

Zelena bit into the apple.

"Or fall in love, have fun, whatever it is you do sister." She laughed as she stood. Regina watched her as she left the room, apple in hand.

Regina absolved at that moment to keep her interactions with the woodcutter at a minimum. She would not be responsible for what would happen should they ever try anything. Not again.

Emma Swan woke the next morning to a knock on her door. She answered it without thinking.

"If that is how you answer doors, I'm going to need send my sister down here." A redheaded woman stood on the other side. She looked Emma up and down, grinning widely.

Emma had answered the door in sleeveless shirt and little else. Zelena could see her underwear just beneath the garment. If she hadn't brought the woman here with intentions towards her sister, she knew she wouldn't mind a bite.

"I'm sorry, I'm new here?" Emma had no clue who this woman was. There was a familiarity about her in her features, but little else with her sharp green eyes and red hair.

The redhead offered her hand.

"Zelena of House Wick and Green. I am Regina's sister. Well, half-sister, really." Emma took her hand. It was a firm hold, the woman seemed to be testing her for something.

"Strong hands." She nodded with approval.

Emma gave her a questioning look.

Zelena faked an apologetic expression.

"I came to apologize."

Emma waited.

"When my dear sister told me the story of a dashing woodcutter saving her from that notorious thief, Robin, I just had to meet her myself!" Zelena said with an excited gush. She had a talent for the dramatics.

Emma shook her head.

"I didn't do much."

Zelena held up a hand. "You made sure my sister made it to the party and saved her from a thief. You deserve some credit."

"Was an offer of employment merely a ruse to meet me then?" Emma frowned at Zelena. She was pretty, yes. Just not, not somebody Emma wanted.

"Oh! Merely to thank you, and perhaps get to know you. After all my sister didn't stop talking about you for a week." Zelena only told half the truth. Regina had told her the story. She had repeated it for Henry and then perhaps two other people in the days after. Then she had clammed up as she always did. Zelena had seen the shine in her eyes as she spoke of the woodcutter. The longing. She knew what it meant. She had seen it once before in Regina.

"Oh, umm, I'm not at all that interesting." Emma had become shy. Zelena found it cute, but not something she would want to play with. It was perfect for her sister, really.

If she could just get her to stop being stubborn.

"Oh! I took this from the governor." Zelena pulled a folded document she had tucked into her belt.

"Regina offers those in her employ quite the number of amenities, you should really make use of them." Zelena suggested. "The bathhouse is especially wonderful in the evening during winters, the hot springs keep them very warm."

Emma liked the sound of that. The town bathhouses she visited on her day off usually cost her coin and the water was either cold or lukewarm. Emma sometimes preferred to bathe in a nearby river instead, but that came with its own hazards.

"I shall have to try it." Emma read over the document. She stepped into her room and picked up the pen that she had found within the day before and dipped it into the inkwell on the desk. With a quick hand, she signed the contract.

"Who do I give this to?" Emma asked her host's sister.

"Oh, if you would dress, I could show you the way to the governor."

Emma nodded. She gave Zelena an odd and thoughtful look.

"You're not like most nobles." She remarked.

Zelena chuckled.

"So I have been told. I think that's a good thing."

Emma closed her door with a soft click and turned away to get into proper dress.

Regina had spotted her sister escorting Emma around her household that morning. Emma didn't wear her hair tied back and Regina couldn't help but think, the woman was beautiful with her golden curls falling over shoulders. Princess curls, what some might call them.

She had forced herself away from watching them. Something hard and tight coiled in her stomach at seeing how easily Zelena interacted with the woodcutter.

Regina waited until after their noon meal before confronting her sister. Henry talked about his latest book. Zelena asked him questions about a tale involving a green witch. She seemed genuinely interested.

Once Henry had returned to his lessons, Regina turned on her sister.

"I noticed you were with the woodcutter this morning." She tried to sound inquiring, but she knew a bit of a bite had laced her undertone.

"Oh, I didn't want her to get lost, I gave her a tour." Zelena replied flapping a hand at her sister.

"She also signed the contract. She will be with us for the winter." Zelena told her.

Regina frowned at Zelena.

"You're not going to-?" She cut herself off. She couldn't voice her thoughts, not when they would reveal so much.

"Jealous are we sis?" Zelena teased her.

"No, she's most definitely your type, and thus not my type at all." Zelena winked.

Regina grumbled. "That's not at all-,"

"Oh come on sis." Zelena interrupted her. "It's been 8 years since your husband died!"

"10 years since, well, you know who, and you really should find yourself someone!" Zelena gave her a genuinely pleading and sad look.

"I-," Regina hesitated. She knew why she held back. Why she didn't want to put herself through anything like that again, but she couldn't help but admit that deep down there was a loneliness. A desire for more.

"And look! Mother has been dead for 5 years! Nobody to interfere!" Regina's frown deepened.

Their mother had made their lives miserable, trying to make mad grabs for power and title through her daughters. She had almost married Zelena off to a rather mad count who turned out to be a serial killer. Zelena had been the one to reveal him to court and gained his lands and title as a result.

"There are so few people that could stand in our way of happiness now, Regina. I'm a countess, our Queen is as unconventional, if not more so than her father, and unmarried at that! And her only heir is fatherless!" Zelena remarked upon their Queen, Snow White. It was said that a guardsman had fathered her only child and that is why she never married. She refused any and all proposals and since she did not desire to give any king power over herself, she preferred to stay as she was and kept the identity of the father of her child a secret. The young Prince Neal would rule without anyone to take that from him.

Regina sighed. The Queen had once told her she did wish to see her happy.

She just didn't know if she was meant for it.

"Give me time, Zee?" She offered her sister a sad smile.

Zelena understood. She nodded and took her leave. There was only so much interference a sister could make. It was up to Regina to take the steps towards her own happiness now.