Chapter six

Regina took a deep breath and allowed her head to fall to her side.

When her head hit the pillow next to her, instead of the shoulder she had expected, she furrowed her brow and instantly opened her eyes. For a few moments, she ran her hand over the empty space next to her before she shot up into a sitting position.

It had been only a couple days since she and Emma had returned from the hotel, but she still felt somewhat saddened to discover that her girlfriend was not next to her. Swallowing hard, she tried not to look too much into what that meant, she knew that their relationship had been taking a very intense trajectory, but they had already shared a son before they were even friends, so she figured that they hadn't exactly followed the traditional relationship path.

Looking around her, Regina frowned when she realised that it was only seven in the morning, a time that Emma had deemed to be 'evil', mostly when someone tried to wake her up.

The brunette was about to push herself off the bed to further investigate what had happened to her morning cuddles, but she was cut off when the door to her bathroom opened.

Emma emerged with a toothbrush in her hand and an earphone in each of her ears. The blonde was clearly completely unaware of the fact that her girlfriend was awake as she went over to her duffel bag across the room to grab a t-shirt.

Regina continued to watch her with an amused expression as she tried to figure out if she had actually seen what she thought she had.

The saviour turned around and brought the toothbrush up to her mouth as she continued to brush the two extra protruding teeth.

Emma seemed to finally realise that someone was looking at her and she quickly pulled the earphones down while she made eye contact with the former queen.

"Regina," she said, barely intelligible passed the toothbrush that was still in her mouth.

At the sound, Regina couldn't stop herself from actually laughing.

The sheriff blinked a couple of times and smiled for a moment as she watched the brunette laugh so openly. After this continued for a few seconds though, she frowned and took the tooth brush out of her mouth.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you laughing, Gina?" she asked with her eyebrows pinched in concentration.

Regina just about managed to stop herself from laughing and shot back her own question, "were you just…brushing your fangs?"

Emma looked at the toothbrush for a moment longer and said, "of course I am…they are teeth…"

"So…you can get a cavity…in your fangs?" Regina smirked.

"I guess so…which is why I brush them twice a day…why is that so funny?"

"I…don't know…" the brunette replied, "I suppose I've never really thought about it…"

Emma quirked an eyebrow and continued to watch her laugh for a moment longer, before she used her super speed to go into the bathroom and clean out her mouth.

A second later, she came back over to sit next to her girlfriend on the bed and retracted her fangs.

"I never would have thought that you could be such a child, madam mayor," she laughed.

"And I never would have thought that you would be awake before nine in the morning," Regina shot back playfully, her laughter finally decreasing in its intensity.

"I can wake up early, I just choose not to…I didn't choose to today either, but I promised dad I would help him with the mountain of paperwork at the station. I'm sure that he's just worried about returning from paternity leave…"

Regina nodded slowly and shifted closer to the blonde, who automatically brought her arm around her on instinct.

"When was the last time that you talked to either of your parents?" she asked seriously.

Emma sighed heavily and shook her head, "I've texted dad a few times to tell him that I'm okay, but we haven't talked in person since I said I would give them some time…I'm starting to get worried about just how much time they could possibly need…"

"Snow can be stubborn, especially when something changes the status quo. Sometimes the best way to help her deal with it is to force her. If you give her too much time, then she would be too afraid to try and broach the subject…"

The vampire tilted her head to look at her with a smile, she said, "sometimes I forget just how well you know her…"

"Charmings are very predictable."

"Really?" Emma laughed, "did you predict this?" she asked, protracting her fangs for emphasis.

Regina laughed lightly and shook her head, "I suppose you are an exception...though I believe that you may be all out of surprises."

The saviour frowned for a moment as she peered over to the clock. Regina did the same, trying to figure out just exactly what her expression meant.

"I've got about half an hour to prove you wrong," the sheriff said with a smirk.

The mayor frowned and was about to ask what she meant, but she got her answer when Emma leaned forward and moulded their lips in a fierce kiss.

The brunette allowed herself to be pulled closer and could barely hold back the groan of pleasure that escaped her lips.

In that moment, she couldn't wait to be proven wrong.

"Snow…" David tried weakly as his wife paced back and forth in front of the coffee table.

The school teacher completely ignored him and continued to look down at the book in her hands. As she did so, she shook her head as if it would make its words untrue.

David blew out a breath and rose from the couch to grab her arm. The woman seemed to realise that she wasn't alone in the room and she finally looked up from the book and into her husband's eyes.

Tentatively, he reached forward and took the book out of her hands and asked, "what is it?"

Snow swallowed hard and allowed herself to be led to the couch and she took a seat slowly while David looked over the cover of the tome.

"I went to Belle and asked for a book on vampirism…she tried to warn me that I probably wouldn't like it but I wanted to be able to read it all for myself…"

"And what about it has you shaking your head?" the deputy asked with a furrowed brow, "does it have something to do with what happened in the diner?"

"It would take a moron to not realise what the puncture marks mean, David!" Snow exclaimed, completely confused why her husband seemed so relaxed with everything that was going on.

"So Regina and Emma have been…together…" David said, suddenly feeling slightly nauseous as he tried to think about anything but what his words meant, "you can't say that you've never thought that it would happen eventually…"

The brunette blew out a breath heavily and ran a hand across her face.

"I'll admit that I've thought that it would be possible, but I didn't ever think that I would find out about it in the same week as being told that my daughter is a vampire…"

David nodded his understanding and reached over to clasp her hand in his own.

"When it comes to what we imagined for Emma, I think that we both know that things were not what we had talked about back in the Enchanted Forest. We were able to accept everything about her quite easily and we would regret it if we allowed her to grow away from us because we can't accept who she is…how would you feel if you had to spend years pretending to be someone you're not?"

Snow clenched and unclenched her free hand for a moment, before she said, "that thing she is not is human, David. If she didn't feel like she was able to tell us what species she is, we don't know what else she hasn't told us…"

The blond man smiled sadly. The thought had indeed crossed his mind a few times since the last time he had seen his daughter, but he seemed to be far abler to think rationally than his wife was. She was just latching on to every piece of new information and allowing it to throw her further into a frenzy. At this rate, it would be years before they would be able to reconcile with Emma.

"The mark on Regina's neck means that she has marked her as her mate…" Snow replied, looking down at her lap dejectedly, "it means that she's deeply in love with her and will do anything to protect her…"

David's eyes widened slightly and he breathed, "…that's…intense…I didn't even think that they admitted their feelings to each other…"

"I don't think that Regina knows what it means…" Snow sighed, "what if she can't handle the intensity of it and Emma has her heart broken."

"Instead of getting a book, have you thought that maybe we should just try and talk to her? It's not like she's avoiding us, Snow, she's just trying to give us the space that we need…"

"Well…you won't be able to avoid her at work later…" the brunette frowned, "maybe you should try and casually ask her about it?"

David quirked an eyebrow at her and was tempted to ask what her definition of 'casually' was exactly.

"Maybe I could suggest lunch, with both of us?" he asked, trying to hold back a laugh since he knew that there was no universe in which that would help this situation.

Snow bit her lip and felt her throat constrict slightly at the thought, which instantly made her feel guilty. She would have never thought that she wouldn't jump at the opportunity to have lunch with her daughter, but there was a voice in her head saying you would be having lunch with a vampire. Letting out a sigh of exasperation at herself, she allowed her head to fall onto David's shoulder and said, "I think lunch with Emma is a good idea…I need to remind myself that she's still…Emma."

David brought his arm around her and pulled her closer, "I think that we need to just be mature about this…we're all adults here. Researching is pointless when you can just ask her…"

The brunette nodded against his shoulder, but made no attempt to verbally agree with him. She knew that he was right, but she couldn't find a way to say out loud everything that was bothering her about this situation, since she knew that she was wrong. She was wrong to not have talked to Emma in so long. She was wrong for freaking out about the Regina thing, even if it was still bothering her more than she would care to admit. Snow knew that she was being the bad guy in this situation, though knowing that was doing nothing to stop the way she was feeling.

"I'll call you once I've asked her…" David assured.

Emma bit her nails and bounced her leg nervously as she looked around the apartment.

Talia had said that she was going to get her something from the refrigerator, but her racing mind had yet to register what it could possibly be.

When she had first opened her eyes, she wanted to believe that everything strange that had happened mere hours ago had to be a dream and she wished there was some way that she could still believe that it was. However, she just couldn't. Even if she had yet to understand fully what being a vampire entailed, she knew that everything felt different. It was as if every cell in her body had been somehow changed into something stronger. Her senses felt sharper somehow. Despite this though, she also felt an unexplainable sense of fatigue. Almost as if her muscles knew that they should be dead.

The blonde turned her head sharply at the sound of approaching footsteps and she furrowed her brow when Talia didn't instantly come into few. A few seconds later, the brunette appeared at the threshold and it occurred to Emma that she must have heard the moment she had set about returning to the living room.

Deciding that wasn't particularly that strange (even if she wouldn't have been able to do such a thing just a few hours ago) she instead turned her attention to the container in the other woman's hands. She was holding the protein shake that Emma had been told was strictly hers. Looking back, Emma knew that she probably should have been more curious about that rule, but she had been too excited to actually find a place that she could reasonably afford in New York City.

"Your protein shakes are blood," Emma sighed, almost to herself, "of course they are."

Talia allowed herself to grin slightly at that, but it quickly fell back into a grimace. She couldn't say that this was in any way what she wanted to have ever happened. Despite everything that had happened in her life, she had still managed to find Emma to be her best friend and she knew that was something that she would always be grateful for. She had finally found a way to no longer feel completely lonely, even if she sometimes had to stave off the thoughts of what would happen when Emma noticed that she didn't age. Not thinking too far ahead had actually helped her to feel truly happy, but it had also made her reckless apparently. If she had just moved to a new city, as she would have done before meeting the blonde, then her brother would have never been able to find her. More importantly, she would have never had to curse Emma with what essentially amounted to eternal torture.

Slowly, she made her way over to couch and cringed slightly when the blonde sub-consciously moved away from her. It wasn't as if she could blame her, she wouldn't want to be close to the one who had bestowed vampirism upon her.

Talia sank down onto the couch, making a point to leave as much space as possible between her and her roommate.

"Yeah…it is…"

Emma was about to open her mouth to ask another question, but then the smell hit her nostrils. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly, to accommodate for the two extra teeth that had unsheathed themselves without permission. Somehow, it smelt like cinnamon hot chocolate rather than what she knew was truly in the container. Before she could stop herself, she reached forward quicker than she thought she possibly could.

Talia didn't even flinch when her friend snatched the 'protein shake' out of her hand at superhuman speed. She remembered vividly the first time that she had felt the need to consume blood. She didn't have the option to have someone on her side offer her what she was thirsting for. The brunette quickly closed her eyes against the memory of the frightened animals she had chased after in her bloodlust and turned her attention back to the blonde hungrily consuming the new form of sustenance that she would be craving for the rest her life.

When she came to the bottom of the bottle, Emma blinked herself out of her sudden uncontrollable desire. For a brief moment, she considered that she should be ashamed of what she had just done, but with the warm feeling spreading through her every muscle, she couldn't help but feel as though she didn't want to feel guilty for enjoying something so deliciously addictive. Somehow, the warm feeling in her chest made nothing else feel important. Her anger towards the brunette faded slightly, now that it was really that inflamed in the first place. In the twenty minutes since she had woken up, she hadn't actually allowed herself to believe what Talia had told her. In fact, she wasn't too convinced that she would ever be able to call herself a vampire.

The pair sat in silence for about ten minutes, each of them trying to think of something to say; however, neither of them could think of a single thing that would be appropriate. Emma had a million questions and Talia had a million regrets.

Finally though, Emma looked up from the 'protein shake' bottle and ran her tongue along her teeth. She knew that she probably should have flinched when she felt just how sharp her newly acquired fangs were, but she just continued to run her tongue across them as if it would make them go away.

"What now?" she asked hollowly.

Talia's eyebrows shot up and she made eye contact with her friend, which caused her to swallow hard when she saw that her eyes were still golden from her recent transformation. She knew that they would soon go back to green when she wasn't in the throes of bloodlust. After a second, she frowned lightly when it occurred to her that Emma's change into a vampire was going oddly well. It was natural that she didn't believe her, but she wasn't particularly fighting against it and the way in which her body hadn't really reacted violently as of yet made it seem like the blonde was much stronger than any mere mortal should be. Right now, she should be trying to fight off an uncontrollable need to attack someone or something, but Emma seemed to be the only exception that she had ever met. She was eerily calm despite the fact that she hadn't actually believed that vampires existed the day before.

"What now?" Talia repeated.

Emma nodded with a frown as she inspected the confusion on the roommate's face, "what do we do now?"

"We? You don't hate me?" the brunette asked, her mouth falling open slightly out of shock.

The blonde tilted her head slightly and knit her eyebrows together, "you saved my life…well kind of, right?"

Talia nodded slowly, "as a vampire you are technically dead…"

The future saviour swallowed hard and looked down at her body for a moment as she considered how exactly she should feel about that. It was strange to think that she was both technically dead and immortal, but she quickly shook her head at herself and replied, "the point is that I'm more alive than I would have been and that's thanks to you."

"And you would have never been in danger if it wasn't for me…"

Emma bit the inside of her cheek, that had indeed been something that she had considered. If she had been accepted by one of the other many apartments that she had applied for, then this would have never happened. She would still be mortal and there was the chance that she would probably have been to have a roommate with regular secrets instead of those of the supernatural variety.

For a few moments, she thought about simply agreeing with her, but she quickly decided how she would reply to her friend's admission of guilt:

"That is true, but it was my decision to protect you…plus, we can't change what has happened. I would be stupid to just leave. It's not like I know how a…how a vampire lives…"

Talia brought her hand up to her back of her neck and rubbed it nervously. This was not what she had been expecting when she had been waiting for her friend to wake up earlier. She had expected for Emma to storm out of the apartment and then for her to have to try and find her later. She knew that her brother might be slightly terrified right now, but there was no way that he would have just given up in his years long crusade to capture her and he would probably also be looking for Emma now since he knew his sister well enough to know that she would do anything to save a friend.

"Well…so far all I've been doing is trying to evade my brother..."

Emma nodded, but made no attempt to reply.

The brunette watched her for a moment and tried to ascertain what the expression on her friend's face meant, but she knew that this was all a lot for her to take in. Even if she appeared to be taking this extremely well.

Silence stretched on for a couple more moments and Emma finally said, "so we should probably move right?"

Talia laughed lightly and nodded, "yeah we probably should, I was thinking Chicago for this year…"

"That sounds nice…" the blonde replied, "can I have another one of these before we start planning?"

The other woman laughed again as Emma shook the bottle in her hand and she rose from the couch and said, "sure you can, Swan."

A/N Reviews would be much appreciated XD