Updated
With less than a week to finish the project that a certain Scottish history teacher placed squarely on several young shoulders, the entire campus was abuzz with panic. Students who waited until the last minutes flocked to the library, filling every available computer and free table they could get. The display that a certain young library assistant worked on weeks in advance was almost completely demolished. The library's sudden change in traffic did not waver, not even for the weekend, and thus Emma Swan found herself spending her Saturday working on a project that was slowly getting on her last nerves.
She was sitting at one of the wooden tables in her usual skinny jeans, but traded in her tank top for a black long sleeve t-shirt. A book was opened in front of her but she ignored it in favor of glaring in some degree at her partner, the high and mighty Regina Mills. In Emma's mind it was Regina's fault that they were wasting a perfectly good Saturday in the library of all places, working on something that was all but finished.
"We have to keep to the schedule Ms. Swan. If we don't then there wouldn't be the point of having one." Regina said with her pearly white political smile that made Emma want to bash her head against the nearest wall. In fact, everything that she had learned about Regina made her want to scream until she turned blue in the face. It infuriated Emma that so much falsehood can come from one person. What infuriated her more was that she cared about being lied to by Regina of all people. So, in the mean time she will sit there, and wait to be ordered around by the class president like a common servant to appease said girl and to finish this god awful project without incident.
Regina was sitting across from her at a slight angle so that her perfectly crossed at the knee legs peaked ever so out from under the table. She wore a pair of slacks, the first time that Emma has seen the dark hair brunette in pants, or even out of uniform, which hugged her perfectly toned calves. She paired the slacks with a matching blazer and a plum button down, leaving the two top buttons undone. Two stacks of note cards were in front of her along with a sheet of paper that had all of their final points on them. A silver pen tip tapped for a moment on white card stalk emulating a dull 'tap' before a smooth tan hand glided effortlessly from one end to the next leaving behind tightly woven lines of black ink.
It went on like this, neither girl speaking a word to the other, and in Regina's case not even looking up at her partner, far too long for Emma to just sit there any longer, twiddling her thumbs. She closed the ignored book that was in front of her with a hefty slam and stood, the wooden legs of her chair making an ungodly screeching sound when she did. Her actions apparently caught the attention of the class president, amber eyes slowly looked from the stark white note cards to her, clearly annoyed by the unwanted distraction.
"And where do you think you are going Ms. Swan?" Even though Regina's voice was hushed to a whisper the sneer was still evident.
"To return the book that you made me fetch for no apparent reason, so if I may?" Emma matched her sarcastic tone with a dramatic wave of her arms, the only reply she got was an eye roll, and Regina turned back to her note cards. Just to push the other girl a bit more, Emma purposefully stomped away, brown boots making a satisfying sound as she walked away.
When she was a few feet away Emma ducked into one of the back rows of the library that were made with bookshelf's taller and longer than the smaller ones that littered the more open area of the library, relaxing her shoulders and knees. The balls and heels of her feet gave out a dull throb as the blood came back to her feet from her stomping. Taking slow deep breaths, she pushed away the boiling anger that was just waiting to burst her at the seams. Her breathing exercise was working, until she bumped into someone. The anger that she was suppressing came back tenfold, her fingers curling tightly into a tight fist gearing for a fight. But when her emerald eyes fell on a familiar figure she relaxed, her fingers leaving small angry red half-moons on her palms. Her red loving roommate with her own anger behind brown eyes stood in front of her.
"Ruby? What are you doing here?" The long hair brunette played with the red scarf around her waist, tightening it to a point that had to be uncomfortable.
"I had to get away from Sydney Pathetic Glass before I wrapped my hands around his twig of a neck!" She took a breather, pulling down the black tank top that she layered with a light red leather half jacket with quarter length sleeves. "What about you? Is there a reason as to why you are hiding in the depths of the library?"
"Regina. Is there any other reason to hide?" Ruby snickered and took a step back, her hand on her hips, cocking her right hip ever so slightly.
"Oh? And what has our esteem Class President been demanding from that high horse of hers?"
"She's nuts Ruby. We are completely done with this crap of a project, and yet here I am on a Saturday of all days. And let's not talk about the book that she made me get for no apparent reason." Ruby pointed to the book and Emma handed it to her, the brunette turning it in her hands.
"Why are you bugging anyway? It's not like you have anything better to do."
"Okay I am going to pretend you did not just say that, but in fact there was something that I had to do today thank you very much." The long hair brunette looked at the blonde over the book that the other girl gave her.
"What did you have planned today?"
"You know that work thing we all have to do?"
"Yeah and?"
"And I don't have one yet. So I got a letter from Cora," Ruby fixed her with a glare and Emma rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Headmistress Mills, that said that I needed to find a job by the end of the month, and everything on campus except for the library and the mess hall at certain hours are opened. So unless you can find me a job by the end of the day I am eternally screwed."
"Ah, I see your problem." Emma hummed in agreement. Just before she was going to ask for help from her roommate she felt a tap on her shoulder. Behind her was a girl around her age head bowed down slightly, casting loose chestnuts curls across half her face.
"I'm sorry." The blonde moved to stand next to the reading brunette.
"No, it's quite all right. I just need to pass by real quick, please excuse me." Ruby looked up from the book she had in her hands when the soft voice reached her ears, the same voice that haunts her in her dreams.
"Belle." The chestnut brunette turned back around, arms wrapped tightly around the two books that were pressed against her chest.
"Yes?" Ruby opened her mouth and closed it, doing her best impression of a fish out of water. Emma looked from the girl to her staggering roommate giving Ruby a good slap on her shoulder.
"Hi! Castaways!" And then Ruby ran, as much as you could in a library, her own book tucked under her arm. Emma just stared at the back of her retreating roommate, baffled and with one question on her mind.
"What just happened?" Belle shrugged, for it was not her place to comment, and returned to her place behind the large wood desk. Emma followed her, her brain still trying processing her roommate's strange reaction to the girl. Her first guess was that the other girl threatened Ruby, but that was ridiculous right? Ruby was the type of person to go down kicking and screaming, and not to judge a book by its cover, Belle didn't look physically, or morally, capable to shake someone down. "So Belle is it?"
"Yes, how can I help you? If you are looking for books about the US from 1863 to 1877 I cannot help you there. Our last book was just taken off the shelves."
"No it has nothing to do with books."
"Then what Ms..."
"Swan, Emma Swan and this is about Ruby, the girl that did her best fish impression and then ran away like her pants were on fire."
"Ah yes, that was kind of strange wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was, especially if you know Ruby." Belle looked to the side for a moment; it was clear on her face that she was remembering something.
"Ruby... Ruby... that's right, she was here a few weeks ago for a book for her English class or something like that. Acted the same way as well."
"Really? Huh." The pieces in Emma's head started to click together, the picture becoming fuller. "Belle, do you remember what day that was?" Another down ward glance, the light in young brunette's eyes, light blue Emma realized, flickered in and out as if there was a single lit candle behind them.
"A Wednesday, I think."
"Okay. Have you ever notice if she was here on any other Wednesday's or another day?"
"Yes, actually, now that I think about it she's here almost every Wednesday. I know I work Monday's, Wednesday's, Friday's, and the occasional weekend. Why?" That was it, the final piece that Emma needed to come to at least some sort of conclusion, rather if it was right or wrong. Hey, at least it was better than the last one she had.
"Belle I do believe my roommate has a crush on you." The librarian assistant blushed and looked away from the blonde, her fingers playing with the space bar on her keyboard.
"Um, wow, I'm flattered, but I am just not the dating type, and the last date I went on didn't go very well." That was the understatement of the year, her date went horrible. Her date might have been nice, but Gaston, her date, had zero personality to speak of and he was just looking for an easy girl to sleep with.
"Look, I'm not trying to set the two of you up, I am just saying how it is, but if you are uncomfortable with the whole Ruby thing just tell her, and even though she will be totally crushed she will respect your decision and back off."
"No, don't do that. I..." She looked at the book case that was closes to her desk with mournful eyes. As much as she loved the library and books, she couldn't live day in and day out in one place, not if she wanted to be truly happy. It was the harsh reality that she lived in. So, she picked up the small pad of paper that sat next to the pen holder and scribbled down something before tearing off the page to give to the blonde. "If what you say is true than give this to Ruby." Emma took the paper and stuffed it in her back pocket.
"Will do, and it was nice meeting you Belle." The chestnut brunette gave her a small smile before turning her attention to a female student that approached her desk.
Satisfied with her accomplishment Emma started for the door, feeling a little too cocky that she could just walk out of the building without being spotted by Regina. Sadly, luck was not on her side as the class president stood next to the door, with a visible scowl on her face. Emma walked out the library, knowing full well that the enraged brunette was behind her.
"I will have you know Ms. Swan that I do not like being made a fool, and the fact that you were openly flirting with library assistant of all people instead of helping me on our project that is due in three days' time is-"
"What Regina!?" Emma turned around to face the class president, her own face flushed with anger. "Distasteful? Because I find it interesting that you automatically thought that I was flirting with, in your own words, 'the library assistant of all people' when it's her fucking job to know that library inside and out. So, as far as you know, I could have been getting help on our project that we finished two days ago! So tell me Madam President what made you think I was flirting with Belle?" The left side of Regina's lips twitched, showing glimpses of pearly white teeth.
"I do not have to explain myself to you Ms. Swan, and before I can leave your irritating presence, we still have not settled on a presentation date, and I am not risking a failing grade because of you. So if we may?" Emma let Regina take the lead, stepping a few paces behind the brunette.
Between Mr. Gold's project and the hallways being repainted, the normally locked building that housed the majority of the schools classrooms was left unlocked, making the simple trip to the second floor, via main staircase, easy. Just like he said, the signup sheet was in a small clear plastic bin attached to a clip board. Presentation spots were broken up into two days, five on one day and four on the next, each date having the appropriate amount of blank lines corresponding to it. As she figured the first spot for day one of presentations was still open, which was perfect for them since Emma pegged Regina to be the type of person to always go first, to create a strong first impression. The spot worked for Regina and they left, this time down one of the side staircases closes to Mr. Gold's door.
"For the record, I wasn't flirting with Belle." Regina stopped for a moment, smoothing down the flaps of her blazer.
"I could honestly care less about what you were or were not doing with Ms. French." Emma scoffed and licked the side of her lips.
"Yeah, sure you do, that's why you were making such a big deal about it before." Regina turned around this time, hard amber meeting cool emerald.
"I will make this very clear Ms. Swan, I do NOT care about your personal indiscretions, but you wasting my time, and once this project is finished I assure you your dating habits will be the last of my problems. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal." Regina turned away from Emma, taking the last short flight of stairs to reach the ground floor, Emma a few steps behind her. However, when Regina touched the nob to the door that would lead them into the main hallway the door blew up in such a force that it knocked both girls down onto the steps. A severed piece of metal railing that was leaning next to the door fell on top of Regina's spewed legs, enticing a small scream from her. Smoke and soot started to fill the room along with burning heat. The building was on fire.
Adrenaline coursed through Emma's veins and an old survival instinct kicked in, springing her into motion. Rotten or not, Emma was not going to let Regina burn to her death, so the first thing she did was lift off the piece of railing, tossing it aside. Climbing back up the stairs Emma held out her arm for the class president to take.
"Come on lets go. We have to get out of here." With a hand on a wooden step and with Emma's help, Regina tried to lift herself to a standing position, but the excruciating pain from her ankle made her stop.
"I can't move. You have to get me out." Emma looked from the fire, to the second floor, then Regina, and what she saw pulled at her gut, amber eyes filled with fear. "Help me." Regina's usual strong confident voice was shaky and laced with fear. Emma's brain was going a mile a minute: save Regina... don't save Regina... no time... no other way, but she was determined, and her determination yelled at her to save them both, or at least protect Regina until help came. She had a plan, it was stupid and it could get her killed, or severely burn her, but it was better than nothing. Emma climbed to the bottom of steps, mentally preparing herself, but a hand on her forearm made her turn back to Regina. "You are going to leave me aren't you?" To anyone else it sounded like anger, but it was pure fear. And it was that same fear that watched as Emma yanked her arm back and jumped into the flaming door way.
The fire danced and cracked as it started to eat away at the wood and oxygen that was in the building, making Regina feel suffocated. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears and she wondered what will kill her first, the fire or carbon monoxide. Either way it was damned or be damned, and she wasn't going without a fight. So she tried one last time to get up the stairs on her hands and one good leg. When her upper body reached the top of the stairs she was engulfed by a large, thin white cloud.
Emma, the only girl she knew who was stupid enough to jump into a living breathing fire, stood there with a fire extinguisher in one hand and her face covered in soot. With her arm around red leather clad shoulders and an arm around her waist, she hopped out of the building, protecting her face with her free arm from the heat. The outside door kicked open easily, the rush of the cool October night air rose goose bumps on heated skin as the two girls stumbled out of the burning building, Emma losing grip on the fire extinguisher and almost on Regina herself.
"OH! Ow! Ow my ankle! Set me down gently!" Emma placed her hands on the class president for a moment until she regained her balance.
"Seriously? You are complaining about how I saved your life?" A fire truck with flashing red lights and sirens came zooming around the corner.
"The firemen are here. It's not like we were really in danger." Emma coughed and whipped at some soot that was under her chin, making it worse instead of better.
"Fine... next time I'll just... I'll just... oh you know what? Next time I'll do the same thing, and the time after that, because that's what decent human beings do. That's what good people do." She walked away, releasing a cough or two as she did, leaving Regina in front of the burning building.
It didn't take the firemen too long to put out the fire, and none of the girls suffered any real injury, the most major one being Regina's sprained ankle from the piece of railing falling on it. Emma stood next to a low brick wall with Mary Margaret next to her and her roommates and Mrs. Lucas standing in front of her.
"I cannot believe you did that Emma, jumping into a fire like that. You could have been seriously hurt, or killed!" The hold that the teacher had on the teen tightened, making Emma already more uncomfortable than she was already.
"Yeah Emma, neither can I, it takes a really strong person to save Regina of all people. Ow!" Ruby rubbed the back of her head where her grandmother had slapped her.
"That was rude Ruby." The young girl opened her mouth to object, but her grandmother just held up her hand, clearly not wanting to hear it.
"It takes a strong person to save a friend, and an even stronger one to save an enemy." Mulan added with some sort of weird Chinese wisdom.
"Yeah, well, jumping into a fire wasn't the only dumb thing that I did today." Tink snickered and played with the green ascot that was around her neck.
"What could be more stupid then risking your life by jumping into a fire to save the schools most feared and hated person?" Emma reached into her back pocket to pull out the now yellow slip of paper.
"Here Ruby." The red streaked brunette took the slip with hesitant fingertips. "I uh... sort of talked to Belle... and she told me to give you that." Ruby looked from Emma, to paper, then back at Emma, a strange sort of look in her eye. Without warning she lunged at Emma with a scream that closely resembled a banshee. It took both Tink and Mulan to hold back the enraged brunette. "Look Ruby I'm sorry, I thought you liked her. I'll talk to her and tell her it was a mistake, that I was wrong, okay?" When Ruby seemed to have calmed enough Tink and Mulan released her, but stood on standby just in case.
"No, you were right. I kind of have a crush on her, and I was you know..."
"Too much of a chicken to ask her yourself." The murderous glare that she once had trained on Emma she fixed on Tink's smirking grin.
"Yeah that. So thank you, but seriously, taking to another person's crush is not cool man."
"Yeah, someone might think you might be interested in the same person." Tink said with a nod.
"That's what Regina thought." Emma said in a low grumbled to the ground so no one could hear, if no one was standing right next to her like Mary Margaret was.
"What?"
"What?" Mary Margaret raised an eyebrow but let the thing go.
"When I said to find a proper work study I didn't mean this." Cora walked over to the small group; stiletto heels clicking on the stone walk way.
"Are you suspecting that Emma set the fire Cora?" There was fear in the teacher's eyes, but the headmistress doubt it was fear over a certain type of punishment.
"No, we already have an idea on who set the fire, but I would like to know what happened?" Emma told Cora everything, the reason as to why she and Regina were in the building, and what happened when they were trapped in the stairwell. "Okay, thank you Emma. Mary Margaret may I borrow you for a minute?" The teacher shared a quick nod with the elder secretary and Mrs. Lucas started to lead the girl's home.
"Is Regina okay?"
"Yes, she fine, thank god, just a sprain ankle, thank you for your concern. I talked to the fire chief and he has cleared the building safe, and tomorrow I will talk to Marco about replacing the fire damage wood, but I kind of wanted to talk to you about something else."
"Is this about that second dinner thing?"
"Yes, unless this is a bad time?"
"No time like the present, I guess."
"I was thinking next Saturday. We have a nice dinner at my townhouse in Storybrooke, if that is all right with you?"
"That is just fine Cora. If you excuse me I have to go and check in on my girls."
"Of course Mary Margaret." She gave the teacher's small hand a reassuring squeeze. "Give Emma my best."
"And Regina mine." The young teacher walked away, tears silently sliding down her cheeks as she walked home.
That night, Emma couldn't sleep. She gave up around three A.M. and chose to sit outside on the front steps, throwing on a pair of jeans as she did. She watched the stars that were in Neverland's inner ring of trees slowly fade away as the sky started changing from black, to dark blue, than to blush pink. When the sun hung nicely in the sky in a soft orange circle, the young blonde lift her head from the wood steps, rubbing the back of her neck as she did. In the distance, standing next to an orange leafed oak tree, was none other than Regina Mills.
The short hair brunette was not dressed in her normal pressed slacks and button down blouses; instead she wore a pair of black yoga pants and a sweater. Her arms were crossed but not in her usual hard closed off way, her back was kind of slumped. It was Regina's eyes that made Emma pause, for those amber eyes that she has seen a palette of emotions flicker across a few hours before, were soft, but they held almost no life.
"Regina."
"Emma." The two girls looked anywhere but at each other, the only sound coming from the newly awaken birds.
"You couldn't sleep either huh?"
"No." The blonde scooted over inviting the brunette to join her. Regina sat next the blonde, tracing patterns on her raised knees. "Thank you." Regina said in a quick deep breath, breaking the silence that fell upon them.
"No need to thank me. I told you that it's what good people do." Their eyes met, and the light that was previously absent in Regina's amber eyes flickered, making the gold in them shimmer. Emma's heart tightened in her chest in a way that frightened her, in a good, or bad way she couldn't say. Maybe it was the lasting effect of adrenaline, or the fact that she escaped a life or death situation, she did something that probably more stupid than the all of the other things combined. She kissed Regina Mills.
Regina's lips were soft like butter, and carried the ever so hinted taste of apples. Emma pulled back, and was a second away of apologizing, but a warm hand on her cheek made her pause. With a soft fingertip the brunette traced the curly blonde's round but strong jaw to her scalp, tangling slender tan fingers in messy curls. It was Regina who kissed Emma this time, taking the blonde's thin pink bottom lip between her slightly plumper ones. Emma's eye lids slowly came down, a warm feeling washing over her.
"I'm sorry." A voice whispered, and when Emma opened her eyes she was alone, the only signs of life coming from small winged animals. A lonely feeling settled deeply in Emma's stomach, like a large jagged rock. The wave of sudden pain made a tear slip from one emerald green eye. Was it real? Or a figment of her imagination? Either way it hurt more than she ever thought it would, and so she cried away whatever pain it was she felt, storm clouds rolling in to join her, as the rain fell onto the earth in a sad light melody.
A/N: So, obviously the fire scene and dialogue belongs to Once Upon A Timeand it's writers but everything else is mine