Chapter eight
"She had a notebook?" Regina repeated while she deftly continued to chop vegetables.
Emma sighed in exasperation and nodded as she brought the mug of hot chocolate closer to her body. Even if her body didn't exactly register the difference in temperature, she still found it strangely comforting to have the beverage nonetheless.
The brunette frowned and the knife in her hand stilled for a moment before she asked, "and it was a…bad thing that she had so many questions?"
"Well…no…I was happy that she was even willing to talk to me…even if it was a little awkward for a while…but it's just that…"
The blonde trailed off and Regina quirked an eyebrow at her curiously. When her girlfriend had first announced who she'd had lunch with that day, Regina had been sure that she would have to comfort her if it didn't go as well as she had wanted it to. Of course, the mayor had no doubt that Snow would eventually come around to the idea of her daughter being a vampire, especially if the alternative was completely losing her relationship with said child, but she had also been sure that the princess was very good at putting her foot in her mouth. It wasn't really a stretch that she could have said something that offended the saviour, but now it seemed that it was something deeper that was bothering her than a simple faux pas.
"It's just that?"
Emma blew out a breath and ran a hand over her face, "I think I'm just being unreasonable…I mean…at least I know now that she doesn't hate me…"
"We already knew that she doesn't hate you and you didn't answer my question, Emma."
"None of her questions involved…you…" Emma sighed and refused to make eye contact with the older woman.
At this point, Regina had completely forgotten about the knife and was giving all of her attention to her girlfriend. It wasn't as though she was too worried about Snow not accepting their relationship, at least not yet. Before she met Emma, she would have never thought that she would have the opportunity to actually be understanding of her former nemesis but she could fully understand that the reformed Evil Queen dating her daughter wouldn't be the top on her list of worries considering that she had recently found that said daughter was a supernatural creature.
"You know…that could be a good thing," the brunette replied after a moment of thought.
Emma frowned deeply and looked up curiously from the countertop. The saviour tilted her head in confusion and Regina had to stop herself from thinking just how adorable she looked. This wasn't the time to think that, this was supposed to be a serious conversation, which wasn't very common with the younger woman.
"If she hasn't asked about it, that could mean that she doesn't believe there is any issue with it," Regina said in response to the other woman's silent request for an explanation.
"I guess…" Emma frowned, "but it could also mean that she doesn't want to know about it…"
The brunette raised her eyebrows and resisted the urge to sigh deeply, "are you telling me that you would have cared in the event that Henry had a girlfriend straight after it was proven to you that the first curse was actually real?"
The blonde blew out a somewhat unnecessary breath and nodded, "why do you always have such good points?"
Regina smirked and reached back to pick up the knife with a little laugh, "it's a gift."
"Like a superpower?" Emma smirked as she reached forward to steal a piece of carrot piece from the pile of chopped vegetables.
"No," Regina quickly shot back in a semi-serious tone.
The blonde just shook her head with a smirk as she ate the carrot but the smirk fell away again and Regina let out a small sigh.
"You could just try asking your parents how they feel about it," she suggested.
"Dad seems okay with it but I'm not sure about mom…plus, we didn't exactly make it all the way through all of her questions about the vampire thing…"
"Perhaps…" Regina began but she quickly faltered.
Emma raised her eyebrows at the older woman, "were you going to suggest inviting them to dinner?"
The former Evil Queen closed her eyes in frustration and quite literally bit her tongue. After a moment to compose herself, she took a deep breath and nodded, "I'm sure that Henry would like to have dinner with his grandparents…it's not as if we've never had dinner together…as a family."
Emma's smile broadened at the prospect that this could actually work. However, she knew that it could go horribly wrong, that was not something that occurred to her in that moment. She was just shocked that her girlfriend would even suggest this considering that the meal was completely guaranteed to be painfully awkward.
"Are you sure about this?" the saviour asked, trying to detect whether the other woman was lying about how comfortable she was with the prospect. Though, judging by the look on her face, she didn't even need her superpower to know how the brunette was feeling.
"It's not as if this is something that we can avoid forever…and if it is something that will improve your mood then I don't see any reason to put it off…" Regina replied tightly. She had never exactly had the opportunity if her life to experience the 'meet the parents' ordeal and she was sure that it was going to be made ten times worse by the fact that she had already met the parents in question. "But if I am going to be cooking and hosting, then you will owe me."
Emma smirked and slipped off the stool so that she could walk around the counter so that she was standing behind her girlfriend. In one swift motion, she brought her arms around her waist and brought her closer to her body.
"How would I owe you?" she asked with a wide grin as Regina just completely gave up on the knife and threw it onto the counter. She shouldn't really be surprised that she wasn't going to have the opportunity to get ahead on dinner before Henry returned from work. This did always end up happening one way or another since the blonde had started staying at the mansion.
"We'll see after how the meal goes…" she replied as she tilted her head back.
"How about a quick down payment?" the blonde whispered.
Regina sighed contently and instead of replying verbally, purple smoke engulfed both of them to take them to what was quickly becoming their room.
Emma huffed as she pushed her key into the door. If she was mortal she was sure that the irritating sticking would make it almost impossible to move the lock. But as it was, she was able to turn the key and push her way into the apartment.
It had been a year since her whole life had been turned on its head and she was now beginning to think that she couldn't take this for the rest of her very much immortal life. The prospect of living from pay cheque to pay cheque was something that she had always expected since she was old enough to know what it meant to work for a living. However, the idea of doing this for the rest of time and moving every time there was even the slightest chance of hunters was not something that she could really stomach. Of course, she didn't want to bring this up with Talia. Her friend was quite obviously distraught about the fact that she had done this to the woman who had thrown herself in harm's way for her. In the short year since it had all happened, they had lived in Chicago and San Francisco and now they were currently residing in Seattle.
"Hey," the blond called as she made her way down the hallway, "I got Chinese food."
Talia appeared from her bedroom with a grin on her face, "have I mentioned lately that you're amazing, Swan," she laughed as she jumped over the couch to accept the paper bag full of containers.
"I don't think you say it nearly enough," Emma shot back as she made her way over to the kitchen to grab a couple of forks and a couple bottles of 'milkshake'.
Talia fell onto her couch with a small laugh and started pulling the containers out of the bag and onto the coffee table.
"What do you want to watch?" the brunette called over her shoulder.
Emma shrugged and sat down next to her.
Talia frowned at the look on her friend's face, but she decided to push past it and just turned the TV on to whatever channel they were watching last. She knew how it felt to realise that you had eternity ahead of you, which was exactly why she couldn't stand the fact that she had passed on her curse to the only friend that she'd had in quite some time. But then again, she also knew that there was no way that she would be able to live for the rest of time knowing that she had allowed that very friend to die for.
The pair sat in silence for a while with the sound of some advert being the only sound filling the apartment. When the two of them were sure that there was no one trying to kill them in the immediate vicinity, this was how they spent most of their nights. Somehow this was not how Emma had expected being a vampire to be, she thought it would be one never ending adventure. But from what she could tell, as long as they were free from any hunter (which was the case more often than not since she had met Damon), it was mostly just like normal life, which would certainly be awesome if she could afford to live for the rest of eternity. Right now, they could barely even afford to live until the next pay check.
"You know…I was thinking…" Talia began, but cut herself off when she suddenly thought better of it.
Emma frowned at the break in their usual silence and looked over to her curiously, "what's up?" she asked.
Talia bit the inside of her cheek and wished that she had kept her mouth shut. Since she'd had her day off from work and Emma didn't, she had spent the entire day dwelling on what she had done to the blonde. She knew that the blonde would never tell her that she was miserable and that was what was bothering her the most. It was for this reason that she had thought about what she could do to help their situation.
"If…we could get the hunters off our back then we wouldn't have to hide anymore…"
The younger vampire tilted her head with her brow furrowed. She had of course considered how much easier her life would be they would never have to move again. Of course, they could have just rolled the dice and hoped that nothing would happen, but Talia was far too anxious for that to even be an option.
"Would that even be possible?" she asked slowly, though there was a tinge of hope in her voice.
"Well, the order is worldwide…so it wouldn't be easy…but we're not the only vampires in the world."
"You said that you would never consider joining a clan…" Emma replied. She had respected her friends wishes on that decision because she had faith that she knew what she was talking about. But she had naturally allowed her mind to wonder at some points and wonder what it would be like to be part of a clan. Since she was a child, she had longed to become part of a family and she couldn't help but think that's exactly what being part of a clan would be like. Talia was the only experience that she'd had with that so far and as much as she loved her best friend, she knew that she could be so much happier if she were to be surrounded by people who would love and understand her.
"That was before I had the rest of entirety ahead of me…it would be exhausting to live like this forever..."
Emma sat stunned for a moment. The other woman had clearly been having the same doubts about vampirism that she'd been having and she couldn't help be grateful for that fact. It was strangely comforting.
"Okay…but…how…" the blonde tried, only to be cut off by the other woman.
"There's a clan the New York…I thought about joining them a few years ago but then you answered the roommate ad and never left."
Emma scoffed at this, which caused a genuine grin to come over Talia's face.
"How are we supposed to get to New York? I think I have like $16 and a button in my wallet…"
Talia looked down at her lap, with a sudden sombre expression wiping away her grin. As Emma continued to look at her, wondering whether she should be saying something, but before she could even open her mouth, the brunette brought her eyes back up to look into the concerned emerald pair.
A moment later, she brought her hands up to her neck and undid the first button of her blouse. A split second later, she removed she unclasped the necklace from around her neck that Emma had no idea was ever there.
"What's that?" the younger of the pair asked.
By way of answering her question, Talia handed the piece of jewellery over and it didn't take Emma long to realise that it was a locket. The locket itself was clearly pure gold, but it was the intricately carved symbol that made it all the more impressive.
"Is this…"
"My family's coat of arms, "Talia replied, "it represents the most respected heritage within the order…I can only imagine that its image has been removed from all but the resting places of my parents and ancestors."
Emma furrowed her brow further, "why would they have removed it?"
"I have no doubt that our master would have killed Damon for his last failure. It is one thing to fail a mission, but it is something else entirely to be responsible for the creation of another vampire…"
The blonde's mouth fell open and her stomach twisted at the thought. As much as she was sure that she should have burning hatred for her friend's brother, the thought of being the reason for someone's death didn't quite sit well with her. Even if she hadn't been the one to physically pierce a blade through his flesh.
"Okay…" she said after a moment, "but that doesn't really answer my question…"
Talia nodded and sighed deeply. This was not something she wanted to say out loud, no matter how often she spent thinking it.
"I am most likely the final living person of my bloodline…and I'm not exactly alive. All of my ancestors would be ashamed if the order continued to hang the symbol in anything but respect for their memories…they would definitely want to tear me limb from limb if I wore that while joining a clan…"
"Talia…" Emma began, but said woman held up her hand to cut her off.
"It's okay, really it is. Selling this will get us enough money to start a better life and no piece of jewellery would ever be worth more than that…"
The blonde sat stunned for a moment, but once the moment passed, she launched forward and grasped the other woman in a bone crushing hug that would have probably killed any mortal.
However, the hug was short-lived as the take-out box slipped off her lap and onto the floor.
Emma leaned back and pouted at the fallen food.
Talia rolled her eyes and handed her own box of chow mien over to her.
"So…why do you breathe if you don't need to?" Snow asked.
Emma finished chewing the bite of bearclaw currently in her mouth and swallowed.
"Mostly not to freak other people out but sometimes it's just nice to breathe," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
Snow nodded, though she was sure that she didn't quite understand, and looked down to tick that question off her list.
"Snow," David laughed next to her, "can we please have breakfast without that notebook? Maybe you could actually eat your food before it congeals?"
The brunette looked between her husband and her daughter and let out a sigh as she snapped the book shut.
"I suppose…" she replied and turned her gaze to the untouched porridge set behind the notebook.
Emma smiled over to her father by way of thanking him. It wasn't as though she didn't mind answering any question that either of her parents had (though it was usually Snow asking more questions than David) it was more that this seemed to be all they ever talked about at this point. She completely understood why her mother was focusing on this right now, but it was becoming tiresome. Even Henry was capable of talking about something else sometimes, which actually helped her to feel normal for like two seconds. Well, as normal as the vampiric daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming could possibly feel anyway.
Granted, she didn't spend nearly as much time with her parents and brother now that she was basically living with her girlfriend and son. The two of them had not really been given as much time with her to realise that being a vampire didn't really make her that much different from the Emma that they had known since the curse broke. However, she had been genuinely surprised that her father was dealing with everything so well.
"So…how's work been?" the blonde woman asked after the silence almost became deafening.
Snow looked up from her porridge in somewhat surprise, she wasn't exactly used to talking about the mundane at this point.
"It's been…normal…" she replied with her eyebrows knit together. She was desperately trying to think of something particularly interesting that had happened recently, but since she had such a good class, there was never really much to discuss when it came to work. She thought for a moment that she could ask about how it was going at the station, but she knew that David would have already told her if there was anything worth talking about. She already knew that Emma was currently winning at trash bin ball.
Emma nodded at her mother's response and tried to think of something else to talk about, but even she couldn't think of a topic that could possibly take attention away from the elephant in the room. She swallowed hard, though, when one potential topic popped into her mind. It had been two days since her conversation with Regina about a family dinner and she hadn't yet gotten the courage to bring this up with her mother. There were times during shifts at the station that she had considered asking David, but she figured that this would be the coward's way since she already knew that he would say yes and then happily go and convince his wife as to why they have to go.
An image of Snow turning her lip up in disgust at the mention of her ex-stepmother's name flashed into Emma's head and she bit the inside of her cheek hard, just about managing not to draw any blood as a result.
"You know…I was thinking that you guys haven't really spent much time with Henry lately…" Emma said, deciding that this would be the best way to broach the subject.
Snow nodded in thought as she wondered when the last time she had seen her grandson outside of school was, and David hadn't seen him at all.
"Did you want us to babysit him?" David asked, sounding quite excited about the prospect.
"No…not exactly…I was thinking more family dinner," she replied slowly, hoping that they would both understand what she meant.
Both of the royals nodded, but Snow's stopped when the implication dawned upon her.
"As in the whole family?" she practically squeaked.
Emma was about to open her mouth to confirm the other woman's worry, but she was interrupted by the sound of the bell over the door announcing the arrival of another patron.
Ordinarily she would have ignored the sound and continued her conversation, but there was just something that made her look over to the door.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the brunette strolling over the threshold. Her first thought should have been how a new comer had gotten over the town line, but her mind just went blank.
She rose from the chair slowly, not even hearing her parent's questioning of who the woman was.
The woman smiled over to the blonde woman's shocked expression and walked over to the sheriff.
"There's no need to look so shocked, Swan," she laughed with her arms crossed over her chest.
Emma finally snapped out of her surprised and launched forward. In one quick motion, she grabbed her by the arm and slammed her against the table.
With her eyes glowing a deep shade of crimson, she growled, "why are you here, Talia?"
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