I know its been a while and I'm sorry :/ Once again, this isn't as proofread as I would like, but I hope you enjoy.
There was only one word for it. Emma was frustrated. Luckily the weather had cleared up enough for the guests to venture outside, but the roads were still blocked and Emma and Mary Margaret were trapped for the foreseeable future.
Mary Margaret, of course, didn't quite see it as "trapped." She had almost recovered from her cold and was spending every waking moment with David. Not that Emma wasn't happy for her sister. She couldn't think of anyone else who deserved it more. But her sister's effective abandonment meant that most of her time was spent in the company of Graham and Regina (she avoided Killian and Kathryn like the plague).
Graham reminded Emma of a big exuberant puppy. A bit of a flirt at first, but he seemed to get the idea that Emma wasn't interested and was content to keep their friendship platonic. Emma felt almost as comfortable with him as she did with Ruby.
Regina, however, was an entirely different matter.
She barely said a word to Emma, which was enough to put her on edge. However, Emma could have dealt with the silent treatment if it wasn't for the staring.
Emma thought it was in her imagination at first. Literally every time she chanced a glance at Regina, whether they were all watching a movie, playing pool or just sitting around the fireplace, those dark soulful eyes were focused on her. But when Emma made eye contact with her, Regina seemed to quickly look elsewhere, her poker face giving nothing away. Emma couldn't understand it. She hardly thought Regina looked at her in admiration considering their rather acrimonious relationship. The only reasonable conclusion she could draw was that something about her - her clothes, her manners, her existence - offended Regina somehow. Not that she cared...much. She liked Regina too little to value her opinion.
But while she did despise Regina 99% of the time, she couldn't forget that conversation she overheard between the woman and her brother. How in those few moments, one of the coldest and most closed off women she had ever met became so...soft and dare she say, affectionate. She guessed it made sense. After all, everyone alluded to how close the siblings were, despite their age difference. Apparently, Regina used up all her humanity with her brother.
Regina, for her part, was equally as frustrated. Her editors called her every waking moment, investors were on her case and her next plans for the business were hitting snags with the Board of Directors. Not that she wasn't going to get her way in the end, but not being in New York and having to deal with this was enough to give anyone a constant migraine and a sour attitude. She also very determinedly avoided all thoughts about a certain bright eyed blonde, someone definitely not worth her time. But it was difficult to avoid completely, especially since they tended to run at the same time each morning.
Regina had been stretching along the beach and putting in her headphones when Emma strode up in a sports bra and shorts, bobbing up and down on her toes as she prepared herself for her run. Regina found herself involuntarily glancing down at the washboard abs on display.
"Ms, Swan," Regina said stiffly. "You don't strike me as the type to wake up this early in the morning."
"I'm not," shrugged Emma. "but I guess its something about not being at home. I can't seem to sleep past 7. Didn't see you as much of a runner though. Thought yoga or pilates were more your style."
"Well, I suppose you don't know me very well," said Regina rolling her eyes. She puts on her headphones and starts off, setting a pretty unforgivable pace in case Emma wants to actually run with her. But Emma keeps up and the two of them silently make their way down the beach.
"So," panted Emma. This was certainly faster than what she had expected to run that morning, but Regina had clearly challenged her and she was not about to lose to the likes of Regina Mills. "How's Henry?"
"Fine."
"Is he having fun at school?"
"I imagine so."
Emma gave up. "You don't like to talk when you run, I take it."
"What on earth gave you that idea?"
Emma huffed angrily and ran a bit faster, prompting Regina to keep pace this time. Regina smirked to herself. The blonde was so easily riled up.
They kept silent for a while as they passed the 4 mile mark. But apparently Emma was incapable of staying silent for more than half an hour at a time.
"Read any good books lately?"
"My job revolves around reading 'good books."
"And not so good books." Emma countered. "You reject what, 75% of manuscripts that come your way?"
"Probably higher," Regina allowed, still keeping them at a fast pace along the sand.
"Jesus," Emma muttered. "That's a lot of dreams you're crushing."
"I have a business to run and a reputation to uphold," said Regina flippantly. "I can't publish the incoherent musings of every wannabe writer living in their parent's basement." Emma tried not to wince at her harsh words.
"Yeah, but don't you feel any remorse over the hundreds of people who want to be writers and end up with a string of rejection letters from publishing houses?"
"It is not my job to humor those who simply don't have the skill. It is my job to identify good literature that is marketable. That is all."
Emma didn't say anything more and tried very hard not to take Regina's words to heart (though that was pretty difficult when she thought of her very own Mills publishing rejection letter somewhere in the bottom of her desk).
In addition to these awkward running sessions where very little was said, there was a lot of downtime with the whole group, and Emma decided that besides her sister, Graham and David were the only tolerable ones of the group. Killian oscillated between leering at Emma and drinking rum out of his flask. Kathryn refused to speak to Mary Margaret or Emma, and appeared to spend most of her time sucking up to Regina and what seemed to be downright flirting sometimes. Not that Emma thought Kathryn was gay, but she certainly seemed more than willing to earn Regina's approval in anyway necessary.
"Not that she would be successful." thought Emma. Regina blatantly ignored the woman. In fact, she seemed utterly disinterested in everything around her and instead spent most of her time typing furiously on her computer, even in the company of others.
"She's always been like this," Graham sighed dramatically one night as he gestured to Regina in the corner armchair on her laptop. "Even when we were kids she could never let loose."
"Well, there was spring break our junior year in Cancun," David smirked from his position next to Mary Margaret. Graham laughed in agreement.
"What happened on Spring break?" Emma asked with interest.
"Nothing," interjected Regina, her face bright red. "And anyway, I just finished." To emphasize that, she closed her laptop and put it to the side.
"So what shall we do?" asked Graham enthusiastically.
The rest of the room looked at him blankly. "Seriously, you guys? I understand cabin fever but this is a bit much."
"We could just enjoy our drinks in peace," said Regina wryly as she stood up to pour herself a healthy dose of scotch.
David scoffed. "You would suggest that."
"I'm sorry," retorted Regina. "By all means lets play juvenile drinking games instead. I'm sure we have Bud Light and red solo cups somewhere in the house."
"You know, I don't know a more uptight person than dear Regina here," cried Graham. "If you need financial advice, good literature recommendations or hell, someone to do your taxes for you, she's your girl. But bring her anywhere that actually requires her to have fun, and she'll throw a hissy fit before avoiding all human interaction and falling asleep at 9:30."
David laughed while Kathryn objected to this unflattering image of her friend. Regina for her part smirked as if she hadn't a care in the world and sipped her scotch.
"How about a game of 'Choices'?'" said Graham suddenly.
"What's 'Choices'?" Asked Emma curiously.
"Essentially, you give someone choices between two different things and see which one they would choose." explained David. "It's like a complicated game of 'would you rather'.'"
"You're joking right?" said Killian skeptically. Emma had to agree with him. It did sound pretty lame.
"Trust me. Regina, David and me used to play it all the time." said Graham. "You'd be surprised by what you find out about people."
"Yeah," said David. "For instance, Killian. Would you rather sleep with Kathryn or Emma?"
"Emma, obviously," Killian replied without hesitation and grinned lasciviously at Emma. Regina suddenly felt the uncontrollable urge to punch him in the face. Kathryn scowled at Emma as if it were her fault.
"Ok, now you ask someone something Killian." explained Graham.
"Emma, do you prefer being on top or bottom?" There was a collective groan in the room as Regina clenched her fists. Control yourself, Regina.
Emma, for her part, rolled her eyes. "Depends on the day. Regina, Beatles or Rolling Stones?"
Regina looked surprised at the relatively innocent question but answered readily enough. "Beatles. Graham, would you rather give up women or the woods?" Emma suppressed a laugh as Graham looked seriously conflicted by the question.
"I suppose I would have to say the woods," he muttered. "But that's a seriously evil question!"
And the game continued like that with questions that ranged from extremely raunchy to completely random. Emma subconsciously cataloged every minute thing she learned about Regina, who was saying more to the group than she had all week. So far, Emma learned that Regina liked good scotch over every other kind of alcohol, preferred Pemberley Vineyards to her New York apartment, would rather be bitten 100 times by fire ants than spend the week alone with her mother, and would rather sleep with Graham over Killian.
"No surprises there," grunted Killian, trying to hide the hit to his ego. "Not like you guys haven't before." Graham sputtered a bit as Regina turned red. It was true that they had one ill advised night all their freshman year. It was a testament to how close they were that the event had not broken their friendship nor had the awkwardness lasted for long. But Regina still didn't like to be reminded of a night she had felt so broken as to make such a mistake, and one look at Graham told her that he felt the same way.
"Moving on from things that happened almost 10 years ago," said Graham firmly. "Regina, your turn to ask something." Regina nodded gratefully and looked at the blonde across from her. Emma's face held an expression of shock and some other emotion that Regina couldn't place.
"Emma," Regina paused as Emma looked at her. Regina had had an inkling all week and decided to see if she was correct.
"Do you prefer men or women?" There was a sharp intake of breath from the room as they all looked at her.
Emma took a deep breath as Mary Margaret smiled at her encouragingly. God damn Regina for putting her on the spot like this. "I'm surprised. Most don't really guess. Women, all the way."
"Ha! I knew it!" Graham pumped his fist. "Anyone else would have succumbed to my charms." And that was that. Everyone, even Kathryn, seemed completely unaffected by this piece of information. Regina smirked as she sat back drinking her scotch.
"Regina," Emma searched her head for a question and was coming up blank. "Would you rather give up...cheese...or oral sex?"
There was a pause. Then, the room burst into laughter.
"That wins the award for best question! Hands Down!" cried David, wiping his eyes as he put his arm around Mary Margaret. Regina for her part, simply looked confused.
"Do I prefer," Regina said slowly as if the question didn't compute in her head. "cheese or oral sex?" Suddenly her phone buzzed with a text. She glanced at the screen. Henry. No doubt he needed an escape from their mother, who was still up at his school. "Sorry everyone, I have to deal with this." She stood up to leave.
"Wait," protested Emma, almost petulantly. "You have to answer the question."
Regina smirked as she walked towards to door. "I'm lactose intolerant, Ms. Swan."
Eventually the roads cleared, and everyone was able to leave the house. Regina was greatly relieved. She had spent more time with people than she generally liked (even when they are some of her closest friends), but more particularly, she had spent more time with the infuriating blonde than was advisable. Regina still couldn't pinpoint what it was about the blonde that intrigued her so much. The woman was beautiful, no denying that. And intelligent. But there were a lot of good looking and intelligent people out there who weren't nearly as...combative...as Emma. People who didn't seem to linger so persistently in Regina's thoughts. Regina ran her hand through her hair in frustration. She was already on a private plane back to New York where she had much more important things to deal with. She had paid too much attention to Emma and had to watch herself in any future interactions with the girl. Not that she wanted to go back to Storybrooke, but David seemed completely infatuated by this Mary Margaret girl, which in her experience was always dangerous. While he was an idiot who fell in and out of love faster than anyone she knew, she felt a sort of responsibility for him. She wouldn't allow him to be taken in by a fortune hunter, no matter how sweet she seemed.
"I'm telling you Ruby, that woman puts me on edge." said Emma as she wiped down the diner countertops. It had been about a month since Emma's stay at David's home. Since then David had been coming to his Storybrooke home regularly and spending virtually all his time with Mary Margaret. Emma was truly happy for her sister, who was all pretty blushes and smiles these days. Regina had only been back once with David for a couple of days and Emma had hardly any interaction with her aside from a curt "Ms. Swan," when they ran into each other on the street.
Ruby smirked as she poured coffee for a man at the bar. "Is that what they call it these days?"
"I'm serious! She refused to have any sort of real conversation unless you count that stupid game. Instead she just stares at me." Emma shuddered. "She's probably just trying to intimidate me."
"Or she was checking you out. I'm telling you Swan. Someone that uptight is probably a complete freak in bed. Based on what you're telling me, it sounds like she wants you."
Emma scoffed. As if the beautiful, prickly publishing mogul would want anything to do with her. She might be a bitch, but even Emma knew she was one of the country's top bachelorettes and probably had men and women fawning over her everywhere she went.
"Girls, stop gossiping and start working!" barked Granny from the kitchen. Emma and Ruby simultaneously rolled their eyes as they both went to their respective tables to take orders.
During a lull in traffic, they both found themselves back behind the counter.
"So Emma, have you decided what you want to do now that you've graduated?" Ruby asked nonchalantly.
Emma tensed. This was definitely something she didn't want to think about.
"I don't know," she muttered. "I guess the writing thing isn't working out for me. Maybe I'll look into jobs with newspapers or magazines." It wasn't quite what she wanted, but she needed to do something and the only thing she really felt qualified for was writing. Ruby just looked at her sympathetically. But then brightened.
"Maybe you could ask Regina if she has something available! And then you could really mix business with pleasure." Ruby winked at Emma who scowled at her.
"No way would I want to work for her." She thought back to the rejection letter.
Suddenly Aurora came into the diner. Emma suppressed another groan. Aurora had become even more annoying recently if possible. "I just met our newest visitor," she singsonged as she helped herself to Ruby's cookie. Ruby scowled.
Are you going to tell us who?" she asked as she grabbed her cookie back.
"Ashley's cousin. His name is Victor Whale. He's a doctor and lives in the city." Aurora grinned.
"Which city?" Emma asked. Aurora looked at her like she was particularly dim.
"New York City, obviously!" Aurora sighed pityingly at Emma as she looked her over. "You should probably spend some time with him. He's kind of slimy looking, but he's rich and its not like you have any other prospects."
Emma scowled. "He's probably not my type." Emma definitely didn't want Aurora of all people to know about her sexual preferences. Aurora simply shrugged as she looked at her nails, disinterested.
"Just wanted to help you out. Also, apparently Gold is going to have someone visiting him for a couple of weeks. Some hot shot political guy from DC."
Emma's brow furrowed. Even though he lived in a sleepy seaside town, Gold's numerous special interests meant he'd made some interesting friends over the years.
"Any particular reason this guy's visiting?"
Aurora shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they're old family friends or something."
"Do you know if this guy has a name?" asked Ruby.
"Daniel, I think. Daniel Wickham."
Finally, I can advance the plot a bit with Coll - I mean Whale and Wickham. Luckily I have the next chapter halfway done some the wait shouldn't be nearly as long.
