Chapter 18 and 19 were supposed to be one but it was becoming quite lengthy
and even though I'm sensing a lot of you do enjoy long chapters… I feel bad for keeping you guys wait so long in between updates…
so then I rather just make 'em a little shorter and update a bit more regularly… Makes sense? :)
This one was a bit challenging for me to write because of the number of different characters speaking at the same time
but I hope it still turned out okay.
CHAPTER 19
Oh my god
Who the hell has this happen to them twice?! Of course it's gotta be the girl with the penis…
Emma painfully realizes she's left the bathroom door open. Entirely open.
That's not necessarily a problem, since she's supposed to be home alone, right?
Yeah well… But from the looks of it, She's got a visitor.
She can feel her face turn beet red as she desperately wills herself to stop peeing but fails because of how badly she'd had to go.
When she shamefully looks to her left and notices how none other than Kathryn has got her eyes completely transfixed on her urinating privates Emma winces, tries to rotate her body awkwardly as to obscure the woman's sight and loudly exclaims "Fuck. Kathryn!"
"Uh" Kat seems to be too shaken to be able to react at all, let alone properly. She stares a moment longer until her eyes finally find Emma's.
"Stop staring! Get out of here!" The girl has now finally stopped peeing and has turned around completely standing with her back towards the intruder.
"What? Of course! Yeah." Kathryn's startled voice breathes out as she tries to regain at least some of her composure.
Emma groans in embarrassment and quickly makes work of pulling her pants back up and tucking herself away.
She very quickly puts her hands under the faucet, splashes some water onto her face and exits the bathroom.
"I am so sorry…" Kathryn's looking anywhere but at her now.
Oh now she can look away.
She grimaces apologetically and then awkwardly starts to explain.
"I locked myself out and I thought I'd use your bathroom while I wait for Ruby to arrive with the spare key but then"
Yeah, Emma knows all too well what happened next.
"Yeah of course... I just. I… the door and… Wait, don't we have a spare key for your place?"
"No… well yeah… you used to… but this isn't the first time this happens and I forgot to return it." Kathryn admits a little shamefully.
"Oh. Okay. Well, the bathroom's free… you can go now."
"I don't actually have to go anymore." The older blonde shakes her head.
"Oh" Says Emma while furrowing her brow a little.
"But it has nothing to do with you… just, it wasn't that urgent to begin with and now it's gone so, thanks but I'm fine." Kat quickly adds…
not wanting for the younger woman to think that the fact that she's not using the bathroom doesn't have anything to do with what she saw in there.
Emma nods and softly exhales.
"So, how did you get in here?" She suddenly wonders and asks.
"The door was open." The older blonde shrugs.
"You mean the front door?" Emma asks and inwardly winces when she thinks back of that other door that had been -or rather, she'd left- wide open.
"Yes."
"Stupid lock probably broke again." The girl takes a mental note to have a look at it later.
"Yeah maybe."
"It's been a while since it's done that."
Okay so now, Emma's making a poor attempt at smalltalk. Just please don't let there be an awkward silence… The girl silently pleads.
"Uhu."
Aaaaaaand awkward silence. Great.
"So euhm…" Kathryn carefully begins and Emma painfully realizes that the older woman's curiosity is weighing out her embarrassment.
She sighs and gives her a half smile that looks more like a grimace.
"I can explain…" Emma shyly offers.
"Oh. But it's okay. You know… you don't have to" Kathryn says but the way her eyes keep finding the girl's crotch tell Emma a different story.
The looks may be fleeting but they are reoccurring and interested.
"It's how I was born." Emma explains, not that it's much of an explanation. Or enough for Kathryn to understand.
"Okay. That's cool." The woman's atypical word use is yet another painful reminder of how uncomfortable this is for both of them.
It's why both women are especially grateful when a certain brunette appears through the front door.
"Yoo! Can I come in?" Ruby smiles at Emma "I…" and then stops dead in her tracks.
"Okay what's up with the vibe in here?" Her eyes travel from Emma to Kathryn to Emma and back to Kathryn,
they narrow into slits of apprehensiveness and question.
"Vibe? There's no vibe!" Kathryn blurts over-nonchalantly in a way that wouldn't fool a living soul. Or a dead one.
"I Euhm…" And Emma just stands there. Fidgeting with her hands and looking even more pale than she usually does.
"Say something you're freaking me out." Ruby's confusion only keeps growing.
"Something?" Emma lamely jokes though her brunette friend can't help but laugh anyway.
And for a moment it kinda lightens the mood, which absolutely everyone is grateful for.
It's Kathryn's queue to try and start acting normal again as she smiles and says "Okay… I'll be out of your hair then. Ruby do you have the key?"
"Uh-uh" The girl snorts in a way that tells them: not gonna happen- and shakes her head to emphasize that further.
"Not before you guys tell me what's up."
"Nothing. Why would there be?" Kathryn puts on her best -which is still horrible- pokerface causing for Ruby to just stare at her in annoyance.
"Yes. And I am actually adequate to clean houses for a living." She sarcastically rolls her eyes and snorts.
Emma lightly chuckles but well, that only draws her friend's attention back on her and honestly, that is the absolute last thing she needs right now.
"What are you laughing at? Come on… spill."
They don't. Neither Emma nor Kathryn utters a single word.
They do make eye contact though, as if they're silently communicating and trying to figure out what to do.
Emma is speechlessly gaping because she doesn't want to have to explain what just happened and further embarrass Kathryn with it.
She knows that if Ruby learns about this, it's gonna follow the both of them for at least a couple of decades.
The brunette turns her attention back onto the older blonde and raises a thinly manicured eye brow "So?"
Kathryn too stays dead silent because… Well because she's got no idea of if Ruby knows about Emma's unique body at all.
The blonde girl's silence kind of makes her lean more towards the idea that perhaps she doesn't know, indeed.
That Emma's so very private about this that even her best friend is kept in the dark about it.
The soft beep of the elevator opening down the hallway announces another presence.
The gradually louder sounding click of regal heals confirm exactly who's home.
"Hey! Oh…" Regina smiles in pleasant surprise upon seeing the visitors.
"Hello to all of you…" She says while leaning into Emma and giving her a quick peck on the right corner of her mouth. "What's going on here?"
And then, somehow… something about seeing her girlfriend makes Emma just blurt out the truth.
"Kat walked in on me when I was using the bathroom."
"I locked myself out and I was waiting for Ruby and had to use the bathroom and your front door was open.
But then the door to the bathroom was open too and… and well…" Kathryn immediately starts to explain and then fails to continue.
"Oh darling, again?" Regina's eye brows raise as she cutely curls up her nose.
She feels kind of bad for her lover to have found herself in that situation… yes, once again.
Although this time Emma seems a lot more embarrassed than she is in panic.
The brunette lightly shakes her head while making her way to the kitchen.
It's warm in here and everyone must be thirsty.
"Okay but… in my defense… I thought I was home alone."
The pale faced, chest flaked blonde girl awkwardly offers while holding her arms crossed against her body… not really knowing what to do with herself.
"What do you mean again?" Kathryn asks in confusion.
"That's how Henry found out too about her penis." Okay so, someone has actually said it out loud.
To no one's and certainly not to Emma's surprise that someone turns out to be Ruby.
The girl winces at her friend's straight forward explanation and just by looking at her,
Kathryn notices it's ironically visible how badly Emma wants to be invisible.
The latter awkwardly clear her throat and goes to help her girlfriend with those drinks. Perhaps busying herself will make this more bearable.
"I'm the only one that didn't know about it?" Kathryn now suddenly realizes and speaks up in what sounds like slight disbelief.
Regina's eyes are narrowed as she on her turn looks in disbelief at Kathryn and flatly says
"Seriously? She's my girlfriend. Of course I know what's in her pants."
"I'm her best friend!" Ruby defensively shrugs and rolls her eyes at Kat. What had she actually expected? To know such an intimate thing about Emma?
"Okay now we can all stop talking about it, right?" Emma hopefully asks.
At least she isn't impossibly pale anymore… not paler than usual… as she cutely curls up her nose.
She sort of shyly holds out two glasses of whatever it is Regina's poured for them to drink.
Both Kathryn and Ruby take one and nod. Ruby smiles reassuringly at her friend,
actually finding the blonde extremely adorable when she gets so fucking shy and embarrassed.
"Of course. I'm sorry... I just hadn't expected to see…"
Emma doesn't really need to hear it again and thus quickly interrupts the rambling older blonde.
"Yeah. Don't worry about it." She lightly chuckles.
"Actually." Regina takes a hold of Emma's hand and squeezes it before gently pulling her towards the couch.
The other two women wordlessly follow as well.
"We were going to tell you soon anyway…" She smiles while calmly telling Kathryn.
"You were?" Ruby's pretty surprised by that admission…
"We were?" As is Emma, who instantly finds herself growing more nervous again.
She turns towards Regina as she sits next to her girlfriend and intently searches her face for an explanation.
Regina turns her head to look back at Emma and raises both of her eye brows while softly smiling.
It's enough for Emma to be reminded that… recent events have indeed made it quite impossible to keep it a secret any longer.
She thinks of Henry and relaxes. Her entire posture changes instantly as her confidence and self-worth come back in tenfold.
Turning back towards Kathryn she now chuckles and jokes with ease
"Yeah I wouldn't have offered you a long look though."
The older blonde's cheeks turn rosy pink as she shakes her head and snorts at her own awkwardness. At least Emma's able to laugh about it.
Clearly they're past the worst stage of this.
"You stared?" Ruby flatly deadpans. Her opinion on the matter made very clear.
"I didn't mean to!" Kathryn snaps back at her and looks at Regina to make sure at least she believes her.
It's Emma who quickly reassures her though.
"I know, I'm sorry. I was just messing with you."
Kathryn gratefully smiles at her and inhales long and deep before taking a sip of what seems to be homemade iced tea.
Ruby on the other hand, just rolls her eyes and leans back against the back of the couch.
The tall legged brunette's behavior is more than just a little strange
and Emma's just about to ask what's up when Kathryn beats her to speaking up with another question entirely.
"So, you're actually a guy?" She asks, choosing her words rather unfortunate.
"So, you're actually an idiot?!" Ruby venomously spats back into her direction.
"Of course she's not a guy... Look at her! Is Regina straight? No she's into chicks... hot chicks like Emma…."
She's sitting straighter now and making wild hand gestures as if she's ready for attack.
Kathryn blushes brightly, realizing how her question sounded rather simplistic and might be hurtful to Emma.
She furrows her eye brows and looks over at the blonde girl to make sure that's not actually the case.
Which it isn't. Emma's got thick skin and can definitely understand Kathryn's confusion.
"I'm sorry that was very very poorly worded." Kat sighs before trying again
"I just meant, were you born a boy?"
But before Emma's able to answer that question for herself Ruby's already sighing loudly again and starting to shed her light on the situation.
"She was born herself. Just like you were born an idiot."
"Rubes." Emma quickly scolds her, kind of shocked by her friend's reaction.
"She's being offensive." Rubes immediately counters, curling her lip in distaste while looking at Kathryn. Her boss. In case anyone's forgotten.
"I'm sorry. I really don't mean to be. I'm just not familiar with these kinds of things... I'm not judging, I swear."
The older blonde woman is clearly becoming highly uncomfortable and more so by the second. The longer Ruby is glaring at her the redder she gets.
"It's okay Kat." Regina softly tells her, offering her a kind, reassuring smile.
"Yeah it is. I get it…" Emma nods and carefully speaks… hoping to not further ignite the flame of Ruby's anger towards Kat.
"It's a little weird… But I'm actually fully female apart from my reproductive system."
"Wauw." The woman looks at her while listening closely. She nods while letting the information sink in.
She's about to ask more questions… nothing judgemental, just out of interest, when the young brunette to her left snaps, again.
"So, you stared?"
Emma closes her eyes and inhales slowly, trying hard not to snap back at Ruby for acting so damned bitchy.
She's anything but helping the situation.
What the hell is going on with her? Even for her, this isn't normal behavior.
"What? No... I mean... I was startled... I really didn't mean to... I'm sorry Emma."
Kathryn rambles uncomfortably… her eyes traveling from Emma to Regina, back to Emma and down at her hands.
In an attempt to lighten the mood, Emma says "Don't worry about it Kat. I know I'm quite impressive."
It's just a joke, of course … she doesn't actually find herself all that impressive… but hey, a joke can only help right now, right?
Kathryn chuckles and nods "Oh yeah that too of course." So it does work.
But only until…
"Gross." Ruby huffs loudly and frowns in annoyance.
"What is?" Kathryn turns her attention towards her and asks, feeling confused…
Ruby is not all of the sudden saying that Emma is gross, is she?
Because that would make no sense whatsoever.
"Just... You horning over Emma. It's gross." The tall legged brunette sharply specifies, and gets three pairs of wide eyes in return.
"I'm not… doing that… over Emma. We were just laughing." Kathryn is now starting to raise her voice.
Because, well yes… it is quite exhausting the way Ruby is coming after her.
Both Emma and Regina are thoroughly confused as to what Kathryn could have possibly done to deserve Ruby's unwavering wrath upon her.
Had the girl missed cleaning a spot and received whiplashes on her bare back as a punishment?
Because, judging from Ruby's current reaction to whatever comes out of Kathryn's mouth… it must have been something at least similarly horrible to that.
"Yeah well I don't get why it has to be so sexual all of the sudden. She shouldn't, all of the sudden, interest you any more cus she's got a penis."
The dark haired girl goes on… making everyone in the room feel extremely uncomfortable and tense.
Plus, making Kathryn feel extremely defensive. It's only logical she doesn't keep her mouth shut and raises her volume further.
A discussion was bound to take place with the rate at which Ruby is deliberately trying to get her on her horse.
"She doesn't. And what are you even talking about? You always make everything sexual!"
They're facing each other now. Both women are making large hand gestures as they speak…
Both are sporting red faces and wide eyes. Both have heaving chests and tense shoulders and neither seems to be willing to back down anytime soon.
"Not with Em. She's not like that. She's a good person and you should respect her." Ruby spats. Pointing at her friend as she mentions the girl's name.
Emma, who understands shit of what is going on and would much rather just crawl into a corner
and listen to Rebecca Black or something else entirely brain-numbing to not have to think about any of this at all anymore.
"I fucking respect her! What's your problem? This isn't about Emma is it?"
Kathryn is close to shouting at this point.
Regina winces because, even though she's always known her friend to be a passionate woman,
she can't really recall ever seeing her like this and hearing her speak at this volume without it being because there's music blasting loudly around them.
"No… You're right… It's about you lacking respect for my friend."
Ruby venomously throws back at her.
And Emma just wishes she would just stop mentioning her already…
It's really not that big of a deal…
"No. It's about you being frustrated." The older blonde shakes her head and laughs humorously… frightening everyone…
Expect for perhaps Ruby because, looking at her...
it seems that whatever Kathryn says or does is fueling some kind of fire that's about to erupt as she straightens her posture further
and practically yells as if she's microphone-lessly addressing a sold out Madison Square Garden.
"Oh I'm frustrated? And why would I be frustrated?" She looks like she's about to jump Kathryn and rip her to shreds until there's nothing left of the woman.
She's baring her teeth, curling her fingers and Emma would swear she's just heard an unnaturally low growl coming from her friend's chest.
The blonde girl momentarily remembers a time when she'd insisted for Ruby to finally get acquainted with Harry Potter
and the brunette had come to read the Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time… It's as if Ruby's world had opened.
She'd been completely obsessed with the whole werewolf plot and had sworn that if she'd be a wizard she'd surely be a shapeshifter. A werewolf at that.
Witnessing her now, Emma is 100% positive that that would definitely be the case.
"You want me to spell it out for you?"
Another cold laugh from Kat and both Emma and Regina hopelessly pray in silence for Ruby to just answer 'no' to that question and for that to be the end of it. Although, this doesn't seem like it can just end now… Some kind of explosion is near and it is going to be ruthless and very very unpleasant.
If the fore-signs are anything to go by.
"What is going on between you two?" Regina suddenly interferes before Ruby can yell whatever she was about to.
Emma is startled at first but not ungrateful for the change in energy as her girlfriend obviously is speaking a lot less hateful and judgy
but in a rather curious and calm tone. Although her question does obviously still demand an answer.
When neither Kathryn nor Ruby provides one of those, Emma decides to jump in as well and guide the conversation into a less aggressive direction.
Where they may actually be able to resolve whatever is going on here.
"Yeah chill guys... I mean… Rubes, I love you for being so protective of me but Kat wasn't saying anything wrong
and we were just getting out of the awkward stage of what happened." She calmly says and offers everyone a soft smile… hoping for it to be infectious.
Regina returns it.
Kathryn returns it meekly.
But Ruby just huffs, rolls her eyes and then stubbornly has to try to have the last word.
"Whatever. She still could have been more respectful."
Well fuck.
"I am!" Kathryn defensively exclaims again. "Emma, honestly... You know I respect you, right?"
She tiredly sighs… her face contorted into and expression that looks like it's going to give her a headache if not an aneurysm anytime soon.
It's scary to say the least and Emma just really wants for everyone to walk out of here alive so she quickly nods and reassures the woman once again.
"Yeah of course."
"Ruby... Kathryn…" Regina clears her throat… audibly starting to run low on patience.
"I'm going to ask one more time... What's going on between the two of you?"
Someone is going to have to answer the woman soon or Emma's afraid there will be no survivors at all.
Or well, maybe that's a little too dramatic… But surely no one will be in one piece.
"Nothing." Kathryn was already walking on almost non-existing thin ice and is now practically jumping up and down on it.
Regina sighs dangerously low and loud.
Fucking Rubes and Kat. Jeopardizing all of our lives. Emma fears.
"This doesn't feel like nothing guys…" She softly says… hoping for anyone to say something useful.
But no one does. Everyone stays silent for a while until suddenly, Regina nods and hums pensively…
She inhales while nodding in what looks like understanding and levels her gaze with Kathryn's.
"How long has this been going on for?" She surprisingly calmly asks.
"What?" Emma's nose curls up in confusion.
Did she miss something? Did someone say something in some kind of creepy frequency that she can't hear?
"How long?" Regina asks again and her blonde girlfriend is wondering if perhaps it's the brunette that has lost it and is hearing things that aren't there.
What conversation does she think she's having and with whom? Because no one has said anything even remotely useful, right?
"A while... It's not supposed to be serious or mean anything." It's actually Ruby that answers.
Flatly and accompanied by a nonchalant shrug that Emma finds rather risky to try on Regina right now -or ever, if not meant playfully- but it's something… Wait… This must mean she really did miss something.
A while? What are they even talking about?
"But it does, Ruby! You just keep denying that! You're so fucking stubborn." Kathryn whines exhausted but still shakes her head wildly from side to side.
Whatever it is… it's something the older blonde has a passionate opinion about. And a very different one from Ruby's.
"And you're delusional!" The latter defensively counters with narrowed eyes and a dangerous scowl.
"You refuse to communicate about anything! How do you expect to be happy?! It's called talking, Ruby."
Kathryn now pleads, a hint of hope detectable in her eyes… but its light is tiny and threatening to die any second.
"Yeah well I know I suck." And yeah, Ruby ruthlessly kills it entirely.
"That's not what I fucking said!" Kathryn instantly spats back, taking the blow hard and seeing no other way to deal with it then shout in Ruby's face.
"You're seriously infuriating!"
It's too much… She's been thinking it for a couple of minutes but Emma's positive that at least someone is going to get injured.
She's itching to find a solution and fix this. Make this stop and make it better.
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" She yells feeling desperate because there's really nothing else that she can do, is there?
These people are talking in riddles and on foreign frequencies and it's messing with her heart to see her friends this messed up and upset.
Regina sighs and takes her hand, sensing Emma's stress of course and wanting to relief it. She offers the blonde a soft smile and simply says it like it is.
"They're sleeping together…"
Emma's eyes and mouth widen a little as understanding dawns on her.
So it had just been Regina's empathy and the woman's ability to read people that had offered the brunette extra intel on the situation.
"Oh." The blonde girl softly gasps and slowly nods
as she's thinking back on everything that's been said during the last ten minutes that had felt like ten long hours instead.
Ten long hours of someone scalping her skull.
"Were…" Ruby flatly clarifies with a voice that's laced with blame directed at Kathryn. "We were sleeping together."
To those of you who've mentioned missing Rubes and Kat…
Your timing couldn't be any better because as you can read: The girls are back ;) AND THEY BRING DRAMA. :p
Thanks for all of your support :3
To all of you who've reviewed and I haven't gotten back to... I'm really sorry...
Something is up with the website and I get notifications for your reviews and can read them in my email inbox
but when I try to find them on the site through my account I can't seem to find some of them anywhere...
It's pretty random and those of you who know me, can probably imagine how frustrating that is for me
because I wanna thank you all personally.
Anyways... I'm hoping it'll be solved soon!