"Are you always so shameless when it comes to displaying your nudity to others?" Regina asks Emma as their horses slowly walk together side-by-side, the guards just a few steps ahead of them on their own horses. Emma looks at Regina with a brow raised and an amused smirk playing on her lips. Instead of rewarding the brunette's question with an answer, Emma turns her face forward, focusing on following the trail ahead of them. Regina glares at the blonde's profile, trying to get the woman to face her again. Instead of bending to the brunette's will, Emma simply keeps her face turned forward, the teasing smirk only widening as she feels the brunette's eyes burning into the side of her face. "Miss White, you will answer me when I am talking to you!" Regina whisper yells at Emma, causing the blonde to turn to Regina with a look of amusement.
"Yes, Your Highness," Emma says to the other girl, mockingly. Regina's eyes narrow dangerously at the blonde and instead of feeling intimidated, Emma simply laughs at the other girl's expression. "You have never been able to intimidate me, Regina, might as well quit while you're behind. And to answer your question: no. I am not always so shameless; to be quite honest, I have always been extremely modest but seeing as how our bathhouse arrangement has left no room for modesty, I threw all sense of insecurity to the wind. I hate this whole arrangement as much as you do, probably even more so, but I am trying my best not to let it get to me. Our parents obviously care little for our comfort and judging by the fact that they easily married us to one another, against our wills, I might add, it seems that they care very little for us. We're just going to have to deal with seeing each other nude, Miss Mills. Unless you want to come up with a bath schedule we can follow in order to reduce the amount of eyesores and alarmed states that we will undeniably find ourselves in…" Emma trails off.
"I think coming up with a schedule would be a wise idea. Let's get right on that when we're back at the cottage," Regina says, nodding to herself.
Emma nods at her and turns her face forward again, noticing for the first time that the guards are now more than 30 feet away from them, their horses galloping wildly through the forest. Emma turns to Regina and flashes her a challenging smile.
"I bet you three pieces of silver that I can pass the guards on my horse within the next five minutes," Regina turns her face forward again and sees that the guards are even further away than they were last time. She turns her face back towards the blonde princess and eyes her skeptically.
"You're on," Regina says, accepting the challenge.
With a smirk, Emma squeezes her leg around the horse, making it break out into a trot, then she kicks the horse with her heels, making it gain speed, she yells out a few gentle commands to her horse and kicks it a little more with her heels. The horse breaks out into a wild gallop and next thing Regina knows, it shoots forward like a rocket and within two minutes, Emma, is directly behind the two guards and then less than two minutes later, she has managed to surpass them completely. Regina stares after the girl in amazement and decides to get her horse to gain speed so she can catch up to the 3 ahead of her. Within minutes, she manages to grow a closer distance to the trio, all three now slowing down their speed. As Regina's horse approaches Emma's, the blonde offers her a cocky smirk.
"That will be three pieces of silver, please," Emma says while fluttering her eyelashes at Regina. Regina grumbles to herself and eyes the blonde princess with a scowl, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
"Whatever."
"Your Highnesses, I think we should head back to the cottage now, it looks like it's going to rain," Archibald says with his faced raised towards the sky. Emma and Regina stare up at the sky and see dark clouds starting to form over them. They nod their head in agreement at the man and set off towards the cottage.
As soon as they reach the stable located near their cottage, Emma and Regina put their horses in their rightful stall and bid their guards farewell, quickly making their way out of the stable and towards the cottage. After a fifteen minute walk, the girls reach their cottage just as the rain begins to pour down. The moment they reach inside, the rain begins to pour harder, lightning and thunder now accompanying the heavy rainfall.
"That was a close one," Emma says as she and Regina walk into their bedroom, Emma now stripping off her blouse without warning. Regina blanches at the girl, her eyes widened in panic as she takes in the sight of Emma's toned abs and perky breasts staring back at her for a second time today. Emma pays no attention to Regina as she strips off her red riding pants, leaving a slack-jawed Regina gaping at the perfectly round buttocks clad in silky black underwear. Gathering her bearings, Regina clears her throat uncomfortably, causing Emma to turn back to her with a curious expression.
"I don't understand why you continue to undress in front of me in such a shameless manner," Regina complains, averting her gaze from the toned muscles of the blonde's thighs and calves.
"I don't understand why you keep watching me undress. If it makes you so uncomfortable maybe you should turn your head, close your eyes or just leave the room altogether," Emma says in a flat tone as she pulls on a clean red blouse, leaving her bottom half completely bare, with the exception of her underwear. Regina's eyes widen as she watches the blonde brush past her and go out into the living room.
The nerve of that girl! Strutting around this cottage half naked as if it isn't a big deal. Now she's practically forcing me to stare at her toned legs. She is insufferable! Regina thinks to herself as she goes through her wardrobe and pulls out a purple blouse and crop pants. She quickly changes out of her riding clothes and slips on the new clothes before heading out to the living room to join Emma on the sofa. As soon as she sits down, the blonde offers her a cup of tea. Regina takes it and thanks the blonde quietly before taking a tentative sip of the warm liquid. She hums in delight at the soothing feel of the warm liquid massaging her throat.
"So would you like to make that bathhouse schedule now?" Emma asks Regina before she takes another sip of her tea. Regina nods her head and Emma produces a piece of parchment, a feather pen, and a tiny bottle of ink. "Okay, how do you want this to go, your royal bitchiness?" Emma asks her teasingly. Regina rolls her eyes in annoyance at the blonde and snatches the pen and parchment from the blonde, writing down the schedule she had in mind. After about an hour of arguing, the two finally worked out a schedule that works for both of them. "Now that we've got that problem out of the way, is there anything else you have a problem with?"
"Yes. Your lack of clothing. Put some on for gods' sakes, it's distracting and just makes me downright uncomfortable," Regina says with disgust and a visible shudder. The blonde rolls her eyes at the brunette's dramatics and shakes her head in the negative.
"Sorry, but that request is nonnegotiable. You must be forgetting that I live here too, I have the right to walk around the house as I please," the blonde princess says sternly, leaving no room for argument, which automatically makes Regina want to argue.
"How would you feel if I decided to walk around this house in the nude? Are you saying that you wouldn't find that bothersome?" Regina asks with a raised brow. Emma shrugs at her.
"I already saw you naked this morning in the bathhouse. If you want to walk around here naked, then go right ahead. It's nothing I haven't seen before," Emma replies in a deadpan voice, though her eyes are shining with amusement. Regina blanches at the girl for the third time today, left completely speechless. Emma smirks at the girl and gets up from the sofa, peeking outside the window for a moment before turning back to the brunette. "The rain doesn't like it'll be letting up any time soon, so I think I'm going to take a nap," with that being said, the blonde walks into the bedroom leaving a, still gaping, Regina behind.
"The nerve of that girl," Regina whispers under hear breath.
Later that night
"Stop hogging the covers, Regina! Are you seriously going to do this every night?" Emma asks in frustration, tiredness clear in her tone.
"Yes," Regina answers back, an equally tired tone in her voice. Regina snuggles further into her pillow, pulling the covers around her body tightly, leaving little to none for Emma. She sleepily smirks to herself as she hears Emma's groan of frustration. She feels a shift on the bed before, suddenly, the cover is being ripped off of her. "Hey!" She yells as she turns to Emma, who is smirking at her victoriously.
"Either you share the cover with me or you get none at all." Emma says sternly. The brunette narrows her eyes challengingly, Emma matching her look. Regina quickly grabs the cover and tugs on it, only for it to be tugged back in the opposite direction by Emma. The brunette growls dangerously at the blonde, pulling on the cover more forcefully this time, causing Emma to lurch forward and the blonde's lips to land on the brunette's. Their lips make contact for half a second before they pull back quickly and stare at each other in bewilderment.
"I'm going to go sleep on the sofa!" Emma loudly, too loudly, declares, before getting up from her spot on the bed and walking out of the room swiftly, leaving behind a frightened Regina. Regina stares at the open bedroom door for a few stunned moments before shaking her head and snapping out of the trance she seems to have found herself in.
Gross, my lips have been tainted by Emma White. Just what I needed. Regina thinks to herself in disgust, completely ignoring her wildly beating heart and sweaty palms as she makes herself comfortable on the bed and forces herself to sleep.