"So we tried to fight a magical monster and got sucked into a time portal, it happens," Emma stumbled through the unfamiliar woods following hotly on Regina's heels. "Come on, at least this time I had my cell and got ahold of mom, she's getting Ariel and a backup bean and she'll come fetch us."
"Emma, we don't even know what time or place we're in. And keep your voice down, you have no idea what sort of creatures lurk in these woods," Regina grabbed her arm and dug her fingernails in, which worked against her point to stay quiet as Emma immediately let out a loud, "Ow!"
"Great, you idiot we're going to be discovered and for some reason my magic isn't working here," Regina stopped and gave a long exasperated sigh, placing one hand on her hip, while rubbing her neck in worry. "We don't even know what time or place we've landed in; how is that little red snapper going to find us."
"Okay, Regina, I know you're just cranky cause the day turned out like this, and you decided to wear heels and a pencil skirt to another magic battle, but we have to work together and figure this out," Emma tried to reason with her friend, but her heart was pounding and the heat was really getting to her. She never felt quite so disoriented, and she had skipped lunch. She hoped whatever era and realm they were in at least had some decent grub.
"We need to find a person to… observe, and try to figure out where and when we are," Regina ran her fingers through her hair and Emma could tell she was trying to keep a level head. The pair kept walking until they came across a break in the woods and crossed an open field. They were both sweating and in desperate need of water by the time they reached the edge of what appeared to be some sort of ancient village.
Regina narrowed her eyes as they approached the village and saw merchants with stands of herbs and meats. "You know portals are usually powered by thoughts. Do I dare ask what you were thinking about when we went through?"
"Oh, um… let me think," Emma drew a circle with her toe in the red dirt alley they had wandered into to hide for a bit. Their clothes didn't really match the cloaks and leather outfits of the villagers. "Okay, so you were like looking all crazy eyed and blasting that sinister yet agile elf beast when I thought about…. Oh… not good," Emma sobered with realization.
"What is it? Emma, what did you do?" Regina asked again, growing suspicious and cross.
"Xena- I was thinking about how you looked like Xena Warrior Princess right between the thing and the flash... and now we're here," Emma didn't want to admit it, and she felt extremely embarrassed, but Regina simply nodded trying to take in and process the information.
"I've seen a few episodes, we could be here at a dangerous time, but if we can get ahold of Mary Margaret and let her know, Ariel shouldn't have too much trouble getting to this realm," Regina reasoned, and to Emma's relief seemed to be taking it rather well. If Emma wasn't' mistaken the obstinate woman was even preening a little at Emma's comparison.
"Do you think Xena is actually, like, here?" Emma asked quietly, looking around a donkey stand at the passing villagers as they went about their day.
"Why? Do you want to meet her?" Regina hissed in mock anger, she seemed to be smirking at Emma's star struck demeanor a little.
"I dunno, she's just pretty cool and I like Gabrielle too," Emma muttered, hanging her head and kicking at the dirt with her boot again.
"One thing is certain, we shouldn't travel. We need to find a safe place to lodge and wait for the mermaid. We need some less modern clothes and money…"
"I just have a twenty," Emma thumbed through her wallet, wondering where the currency exchange was located.
"Don't be stupid, we need to barter for something," Regina looked over each of them and her eyes landed on her own Gucci watch with a glint of sadness. "It's last season anyway."
After approaching the first wealthy looking merchant they saw, Regina was able to trade her watch for a healthy sum of coin and some rough spun robe things. Luckily, everyone in fictional ancient Greece spoke perfect English. They were able to get directions to the nearest B&B. Emma called her mom and let her know when and where they were, and luckily Ariel had a siren friend who was featured in the episode "Ulysses," so they were golden.
All they had to do was sit back and wait. Mary Margaret had told Emma to think of it as a little vacation.
It was a long journey and would probably take a day or two for Ariel to cross time and space, but Mary Margaret promised that she would swim fast.
The Chakr-Inn was rather small and quaint looking, and the roof looked a bit leaky, seeing as it was made out of brush and brambles.
"Some vacation," Emma muttered as they entered. The ruddy brown ponchos were hot and smelled of old goat, but at least they didn't attract too much attention. They approached the innkeeper and Emma asked for a room, she placed a handful of big old coins on the counter.
"We're all booked up, but for…500 dinar I think we can accommodate you," the old man said with a gleeful yet scrutinizing look. Regina's eyes hadn't stopped darting around, and she was clearly uneasy and looking super suspicious.
Emma was at least trying to fit in with the customs and culture.
"Yeah, mucho dinero," Emma looked around and her eye caught a delicious looking trough of food that some other patrons in the downstairs bar were munching on. She pushed the coins closer, "Think we could get one of those meat and cheese boards and something to drink?"
"Of course," the innkeeper said as scooped the money into his coin purse greedily. Emma smiled weakly at Regina, "Oh, and maybe a fruit plate?"
Emma knew Regina liked her fruit, and Regina leaned over and asked, "Two wine skins, red. Do you have Bordeaux? "
"Please," Emma added as she swatted Regina back and gave her a glare. It was no time for her natural royal uppity-ness to shine through. "Whatever wine you have is fine, and some bottled-I mean a pitcher of water."
Regina raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, but soon they were being led up the rickety stairs to the one available room. It wasn't exactly the Ritz, or even a Motel 6, but there was a bed and a bath. All right there out in the open. The innkeeper's daughter said it was the finest suite in the Inn as she picked up the chamber pot and dumped it out of the window onto the street.
With a promise that their libations and food would be brought up shortly, the nervous young girl, shut the door and left them to it. Regina was already kicking off her heels. Emma felt her heart start to pound. She hadn't really been nervous before, but now that she was alone with Regina she started to feel funny.
They were friends and had gotten quite close, but being in an intimate space for an extended period of time had set Emma's nerves on fire. And it wasn't just worry of running out of conversation topics. There was something seeing Regina in her element that threw Emma for a loop. She brought a regalness to the even the dingy room and seemed to spruce it up with here mere presence.
Emma, being the proactive type and getting stuck like a bird in a cage waiting for rescue for her embarrassing time portal incident was rather humbling and embarrassing.
Regina was busy getting comfortable, she looked at Emma and scrunched her nose. "Tell the servant girl to fill the tub when she comes back, I need to get this goat smell and dirt off of my skin."
Emma looked around the candle lit room, and saw something scurry in the darkened corner. "Regina, are there bugs in here?"
"Ugh, probably football sized cockroaches. This sort of place is always infested. When I get home I'm going to take a long hot shower and spritz myself with boiling Lysol."
Emma's skin was already crawling, but she realized she was worried less about the cleanliness and more about the open floor plan and single bed. It was a tiny thing, overstuffed with something that resembled popcorn under the sheets. She grudgingly lowered herself down on the bed and frowned as it immediately gave way and pulled her ass towards the center.
"Maybe I should sleep on the floor. The bed looks kind of small," Emma offered as a growing lump formed thickly in her throat.
"Did you already forget about the extra-large cockroaches? No telling what other manner of scum and filth is down there," Regina shot that idea down immediately.
Before Emma had a chance to protest, a knock sounded and the girl came back with a huge plate of food, a large flask of wine and a pitcher of water.
"Dear, will you please bring hot water for the bath, we wish to relax," Regina drawled politely.
"Of course, would you care for some scented oils and herbs?" The girl asked, as Emma did a double take confused by the fact that Xena-land apparently offered aromatherapy soaks.
"Sandalwood and jasmine would be nice," Regina drawled already looking halfway relaxed as made her way to the tray of wine and food.
"Yes, right away, M'lady," the girl ducked her head and left the room. Emma watched Regina smile and hum as she poured a large wooden cup of wine. Regina offered it to Emma.
"What?" She asked her face falling.
"You're really calm here," Emma sat up to take the wine, and then sunk back down on the lumpy mattress. She took a long chug as their maid came back a minute later lugging up two huge buckets of steaming water. She poured them into the bath, and retreated.
Regina shrugged and took long pull from her own cup, as she reached around with one hand and unzipped her skirt. "I'm trying to make the most of a strange situation, which is what I recommend you do as well."
"Yeah, okay," Emma was still nervous, but the wine helped and then she started on the chunks of creamy farmer's cheese. She didn't care what mammal had been milked to make it, she just ate. When the bath was full, and the oils added. Regina tipped the maid with another coin as a thank you and stripped off all of her clothes.
Emma gripped her wine cup in one hand and shoveled cheese into her gaping mouth with the other. Regina was standing in front of the hot bath naked and piling her hair up on her head, little tendrils fell down and framed her face, but Emma was still stuck on the defined lines of her back and the rich tanned curves of her ass. Regina hung her clothes including her lacy panties and matching blue bra over a rack.
She stepped into the tub and sunk down in the water, moaning at the feel of enveloping wet heat surrounding her tired body.
"Come, join me?" Regina cracked open one eye as she rolled her long neck languidly side to side.
"Uh, nah…" Emma pursed her lips. She knew she could do with a bath, but the water looked a little bit too inviting with Regina soaking in it especially when she splashed the water up over her clavicle to slide down her chest in tantalizing rivulets. Her breasts were hidden beneath the surface, but every so often a nipple would break free and crest over the water, not like Emma was looking or anything.
The small room was heating up quickly, and Emma was starting to feel like she couldn't breathe.
"Could you get me a towel?" Regina asked after a long moment. I suppose I'll have to sleep in it, since I only have the one outfit and the robes aren't fit to be worn by humans.
Emma chewed on that image: towel wrapped Regina in the tiny sinking bed. There was no way Emma trusted herself to sleep next to her and just sleep.
"Yeah, totally…sure thing," she forced herself to her feet, and felt the wine already dizzying her from its strength and the high rate of consumption. She dashed out of the room thankful for the moment to breathe.
After locating a couple towels in the dingy hallway, she took a deep steadying breath and returned to the room only to find Regina rising from the bath dripping water all down her naked body, with the strong intoxicating scent of jasmine and sandalwood filling Emma's nostrils.
Regina then did the unthinkable; she lifted her hands over her head and stretched out her back while yawning. She then reached forward and snagged the towels from Emma's frozen outstretched hand. By the time Emma had picked her jaw up off the floor, Regina had dried and fastened the other towel around her body. She then slinked over to the food tray and selected the full bunch of ripe grapes. She laid down gracefully in the middle of the bed, turned onto her side and started eating the grapes one of by one. She wrapped her plump lips around the dangling fruit and plucked them off the stem, while Emma watched her chew and the muscles of her throat work to swallow.
"Aren't you going to lay down, it's getting late and you must be as tired as I am?" Regina asked innocently.
"Uh, maybe I'll sleep in the bath tub," Emma suggested feeling like she was going mad with lust and pent up sexual tension.
"Don't be absurd, come here and lay with me," Regina insisted.
"I snore," Emma blurted.
"So?" Regina grew suspicious.
"I hog the covers," Emma added desperately.
Regina stilled in thought, her brows furrowing. She looked at Emma through worried eyes and asked haltingly, "Did Henry tell you that I'm a snuggler?"
"What?" Emma choked out.
"Oh, it's nothing," Regina blushed furiously and Emma found the sight adorable, her damn heart was melting and she was powerless to stop it. "I have a tendency to cuddle while I'm sleeping…anything within arm's reach: pillows, stuffed animals, and people."
She caught Emma's gaze and met it with her admission. "I wondered if maybe Henry had said something. He used to have nightmares and come to my room when he was young."
"No, Regina, he didn't tell me about that, but that's…" Emma sighed and when she continued in a rush, her voice came out high and squeaky, "I think I'd just be more comfortable curled up on the robes on the floor. I haven't seen any cockroaches or vermin for a good half hour."
Emma was so busy lying she didn't notice the way Regina's face had crumpled and her mood had fallen. She interrupted as Emma started to gather up the goat robes for her impromptu nest. "Are you scared of me? Are you disgusted by my past crimes that you think I'll hurt you? Or you can't stand to be next to me, is that the reason you are acting so adamant about this?"
And it wasn't the reason, Emma rushed across the room to reassure Regina that it wasn't it at all, but she couldn't think of any more believable excuses as she why she was going against every convention of logic and reason to avoid sharing a bed. It shouldn't be such a big deal, but Emma's heart was pounding painfully and she was losing her breath. She couldn't bear letting Regina think that she was afraid or disgusted by her when the exact opposite was the truth.
So she just blurted it out, "I'm SUPER sexually attracted to you."
The room filled with silence. Regina gaped, she straightened up. The towel slipped down. Emma grimaced.
"Oh," Regina nodded silently to herself, trying to make sense of it, and Emma was sure she was going to die of mortification in Xena-land and never have the chance to ride a mermaid through a portal on the trip home.
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to make things awkward," Emma tried to smooth things over, but there was nothing she could say as a follow up that would compare. Did she have to say she was super sexually attracted to the woman? She could have said something a little classier like the only Greek goddess she was worried about was the Aphrodite currently warming the bed… No, too cheesy. Emma was spacing out and reliving the moment over and over, until a soft hand brushing her forearm brought her back.
"Emma…" Regina started slowly, her voice quiet over the rip roar of Emma's chainsaw heart. Regina was drawing closer to where Emma was on her knees, her elbows on the edge of the bed, her toes tucked under her and her head lowered.
She felt Regina grip her arm a bit tighter, bidding her to look at her, and when Emma finally found the courage she was surprised by the softness in Regina's face. She looked almost pleased and if Emma wasn't mistaken: relieved.
"I'm so glad you feel that way too…" Regina started in a low voice as her hands raked higher up Emma's arms and she coaxed her seductively into bed.