Flu Love's Kiss 4
Chapter 4 - Sweet on you
"You and her?! How did you get Love Flu?" cried Mary Margaret, but she had a sinking feeling she already knew.
"Wait, Love Flu? I've heard of that but it was fairly rare where I came from," said David, trying to play catch-up. He'd been raised on a farm without much contact with other parts of the realm so his knowledge of the sickness was limited.
"It's a magical illness," explained Mary Margaret. "They say it was brought to our land by Cupid to reunite lovers."
"Hold up, you know what this is?" Emma asked her mother, disbelief turning into suspicion.
"Yes, Miss Blanchard." The corner of Regina's mouth curled up in a grin. "Tell your daughter how you know all about this magical ailment."
"Regina," hissed Mary Margaret, with a shifty glance at David.
"Don't worry, dear. Your secret is safe with me," Regina said with an evil glint in her eye.
Mary Margaret sighed heavily and it was more a growl of frustration.
"Why do I get the feeling 'we were cursed' isn't going to cut it here?" said David.
"Okay, this isn't about me. This is about you two," said Mary Margaret, pinning the guilty pair with her gaze.
"Now, explain."
Mary Margaret flipped open the cupboards one at a time in Regina's kitchen looking for ingredients and mugs. Regina had originally intended to make the coffee herself but as she moved around the kitchen Emma kept bumping into her. Mary Margaret lost her patience with them and ordered the pair to sit at the bench like they were misbehaving students.
Milk sloshed out of the little serving jug when the pixie-haired brunette placed it in front of the other three adults, joining the four waiting mugs and spoons. She poured out the coffee taking more care with the boiling liquid.
"How do you take your coffee, Regina?" asked David politely, offering the milk.
"Black, like her soul," quipped Emma. She clumsily dumped six sugar cubes into her own mug with the tongs in her left hand.
"At least my teeth will last out the year cavity-free," said Regina. "Unlike yours, Miss Swan. I hope that sugar habit hasn't rubbed off on Henry."
"I let Henry have as much candy as he wants when he's with me," said Emma smugly, only slightly exaggerating.
"Of course you do, dear. Anything to undermine me," Regina said under her breath.
Emma pressed her lips tightly. "He seems to have gone off healthy food like apples lately. Any reason why that might be."
The air in the room tensed like coiled springs. Regina didn't react visibly, she merely stared at her coffee mug watching the dark liquid swirl.
Just thinking about Henry's poisoning still brought rage boiling up inside Emma. It didn't matter that Regina hadn't intended to hurt her son, Emma was angry anyway. Like it was any better that she was supposed to be the target of the fatal treat. She was a little surprised though that Regina just sat there and took the well-deserved stab. Emma felt a pang of guilt and almost burned her mouth on her first sip of coffee.
"Okay, so this Love Flu thing...," prompted David to interrupt the awkward silence.
"Here's the thing," said Emma, recounting it like a boring series of events. "I started feeling sick yesterday but I thought it was just the flu. So I brought Henry to Regina's to stay so that he wouldn't catch it. But I ended up infecting Regina and now we're stuck together."
Mary Margaret nodded once and bit her lips together. "But Love Flu is only passed by love or attraction."
Emma's face burned at having to admit it. "Yes, alright. I'm attracted to Regina. She's already made a point of telling me how stupidly one-sided it is. Can we please move on."
Mary Margaret tilted her head shrewdly at Regina and had an 'a-ha' moment. It was her turn to one-up her former enemy since she knew full well that there was no such thing as one-sided Love Flu.
Regina met the triumphant gaze impassively, without so much as a blink.
"Well. That's interesting," said Mary Margaret. "I agree, Emma. Let's move on."
"So, how long does this last?" asked David.
"Mr Gold said a few days maybe," answered Emma.
"Worst case I ever heard of was a couple stuck together for a year," said Mary Margaret with a grimace.
"What," exclaimed Emma. "A year?!"
Mary Margaret nodded sagely. "They were quite stubborn about it but they came around eventually."
"But... a year of holding hands..." Emma considered it, horrified by the details that came to mind.
"Oh, they weren't stuck by the hands." Mary Margaret laughed until she caught David's pointed look and was immediately chastened.
"I can't tell if you're being serious," said Emma, squinting with a side glance. "How does that even work?"
"It's magic, dear," said Regina. "Don't ask."
Once the nosy parents had had enough of the explanations and teasing, Emma and Regina showed them to the door the way they did everything now - like they were paired contestants in some sort of weird three-legged race but with tied hands instead of feet.
Regina started to sway dangerously as she shut the front door and Emma pulled her close to steady her. Regina was a bit behind Emma in recovering from the flu symptoms and was feeling faint again. Emma managed to get the brunette upstairs and into bed before she collapsed.
"Easy there, tiger. Lie down before you fall down."
"You're still here. Thought it was a dream," Regina said weakly.
"You're not hallucinating, no," said Emma giving the wan brunette an amused smile. With her back against the bed-head she sat up next to where Regina was lying on her side, their joined hands lay on the pillow between them.
"But I was starting to feel better..." Regina complained.
"That's the thing with the flu, sometimes just when you think you're over it it comes back. Coughs usually get worse towards nighttime. Have you really never been sick before?"
"Only been in love once," slurred Regina as she slipped away into sleep.
And with that Emma had the answer to a question she hadn't even known she'd asked.
"Argh, no, … come on, yes!" Emma spoke softly to her phone screen in between noises of frustration. She held the phone in her left hand swiping at the touch game with her thumb. Her scores were pitiful with only her non-dominant hand available.
Regina came awake blearily to the jostling of the bed and complained about it. "What are you doing, Emma."
"Playin' Fruit Ninja. Sorry, did I wake you?"
"No, dear," said Regina sarcastically. "I don't mind seeing as it's something so vitally important."
"Wanna play? Come on, it's got apples in it..." Emma offered and held out the phone.
"I'm going back to sleep." Regina made as if to roll over and ignore the annoying blonde.
"Oh no you aren't," contradicted Emma with a shake of the head. She pulled on Regina's hand a few times. "Up! I'm starving and I really need to pee."
Again? Regina groaned in her flu-foggy head.
It wasn't the first time they'd had to go through the awkwardness of bathroom necessities. In fact, it was one of many times since they'd been stuck together. Regina thought Emma must have a bladder the size of walnut and the fuss she'd made about privacy had been irritating yet amusing. "I can't go if you're listening!" she'd said and insisted that Regina use a magic spell every single time. Something Emma called the 'Cone of Silence', which was basically just a silencing spell.
Regina was tempted to put a permanent silencing spell on her and be done with it.
But the first time she'd said that, Emma had yanked her inside the glowing blue magic bubble and said, raising her eyebrows lasciviously, "This could be very useful. No-one can hear us in here, right?"
But now Emma dragged a reluctant and still-sleepy Regina out of bed and into the bathroom. After the whole silent-peeing business was done, Emma tried to pull up her jeans with difficulty and she quickly lost patience. "Ok, I'm so over doing everything one-handed. I can't get them up!"
Regina tsk'd in irritation and used her free hand to pull on the opposite belt loop. "What are you, five?"
"Why are you complaining. You put me in these clothes!"
"Well dear, perhaps if you bought jeans in your size instead of Henry's we wouldn't be having this problem," said Regina, with her eyes down and trying not focus on Emma's underwear only half covered by denim.
After a struggle the jeans were on and Regina's fingers slipped out of the belt loop to accidentally graze Emma's hip bone. Entranced momentarily by the inch of milky smooth skin exposed by the top that had ridden up, the brunette snatched her right hand away quickly. When she looked up Emma was staring at her knowingly and she realised she been caught.
"Like?" Emma raised an eyebrow.
Regina met the piercing green gaze with impressive stoicism, a cool mask slid over her face hiding the rising heat. Their staring contest was only broken by the chattering of the walkie-talkie coming from the bedroom where Emma had left it yesterday.
"Are you there, Mom? Come in, over..."