First, I want to thank you all who read this and liked it and asked for more. Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing but this sounds so cheesy and I feel like all I'm able to write these days is sickeningly sweet and that's just not me. So if you like it, let me please know, any feedback is much appreciated!
„Are you hungry? Do you want to eat anything? Or drink?" Regina was pacing the room nervously.
"No, thank you, I'm good," Ruby smiled at her and got up. "Come on, just sit, we can talk." She pulled at the older woman's hand and led her back to the couch.
"Aren't you hurt? Did they hurt you? My guards are not very gentle. Which is good but if they hurt you…!"
"Regina! Look at me! What is going on?" The younger brunette forced the other woman to look at her, turning her head with her hand.
"Nothing. I don't know. I'm not like this." Regina's eyes were wide open, she was surprised with herself. When was the last time she felt so many emotions? That must have been a long time ago. She forbade herself to feel any form of affiliation, to feel anything but hate. Having feelings for someone, even when it's just a friend, it usually meant getting hurt, sooner or later. And that is something she couldn't afford. Any form of distraction, anything that could sidetrack her from her revenge on Snow White.
Yet somehow Ruby managed to knock down her walls just with coming back into her life. Did she really come back into her life? And what does all of this mean? Where is this going to? What should she do?
"Do you remember, when we were kids, how I used to lie down on your lap and you played with my hair?" Ruby asked and waited for Regina to nod. "Do it. I mean, if you want to, you can lie down on my lap and I can play with your hair and you can tell me what happened. I mean, if you want to, any part of this."
Regina smiled at her and nodded again, "I do. Let's… sit on the bed, there's more space."
"Is that appropriate for a queen to get in bed with someone who she wanted to kill not long ago?" Ruby grinned at her.
"It's more inappropriate to just talk than to fuck." Regina grinned back at her, starting to feel good again.
"Whoa! Have you done that?" She asked curiously as she climbed up on the huge bed.
"Fucked someone who I wanted to kill? Maybe. But that's not your business." Her voice was suddenly defensive.
"I'm not judging. I don't think I have any right to judge you or anyone. Okay, come on, lie down." Ruby propped herself against the headboard and the pillows and fixed her skirt.
Regina put her head down on her friend's lap. It felt so good! She felt like a little girl again when Ruby's fingers started to caress her hair but it also felt… safe. Like no one could hurt her, like this was her safe place where she didn't have to pretend, she could let her walls fall down.
"So tell me, what happened that made you this way?"
"I'm not sure if you want to hear anything bad about your little friend."
"She's not really my friend. She just… used me to hide away from you."
"And you hid her? You didn't know the queen was looking for her?" Regina asked.
"I didn't know the queen was you. If I did…" She didn't finish her answer.
"You would what?" The older woman demanded, turning her head to look at her.
"Can I take the pins out of your hair?" Ruby ignored Regina's question.
Regina tensed, not being used to people not doing what she wanted them to but then she relaxed again. "Alright."
Ruby started to remove all the pins that were holding Regina's hair in the complicated hairstyle, occasionally running her fingers through it.
And then Regina started to talk. About moving away and her mother having high ambitions for her, wanting her to learn magic and marry well, forcing her to study everything a lady could possibly need, punishing her for her lacking discipline.
About her secret escapes into the nature with her horse, her only friend. About the stable boy her mother hired and whom Regina fell in love with. He was the only piece of normal in her life, keeping her sane, encouraging her not to give up. Then she got to the part when she saved Snow White's life and her mother using the situation to her own advantage, giving her daughter to the old man.
Ruby stopped moving her fingers through the long hair, clenching them in fists, fighting the urge to punch something. Or someone.
Regina went on, talking about the wedding preparations and bonding with Snow and how Snow became her biggest enemy. Her voice broke when she talked about Cora crushing Daniel's heart and tears started to form in her eyes.
"Goodness heaven, I'm so sorry!" Ruby whispered and pulled Regina up on her chest, hugging her tightly.
"It still hurts, but mostly because my mother took an innocent boy's life because of that careless stupid girl." Regina's voice filled with anger.
"I know…" Ruby whispered into the brown hair, tangling her fingers in it.
"How could you know…"
"I… killed my own boyfriend…" It was hardly audible, listening to Regina's story made her feel even worse.
"You did what?" Regina sat up in shock.
"As I said, I'm the wolf," Ruby shrugged, "which I didn't know. Granny never told me, she just locked me up during wolf time and made me wear my red cape. I was never good at listening and I didn't follow her orders, always sneaking out of the house to meet up with Peter. So it happened. I turned and I killed him."
Regina leaned into the embrace again, not saying anything for a while
"How did you… not go all crazy?" She finally reacted to what she's just heard.
"I don't know. I just… tried to go on with my life, figuring out who I was and trying to accept that I was a wolf. But I spent most of the time hiding in the woods in my wolf form. I learned to control it and turn when I want to."
"I guess this makes me even more horrible… You were the one who killed the person you loved yet you are the one who managed to forgive yourself…"
"Well… it makes it easier that the only person I can be mad at is me. And I can't haunt myself so that kind of takes away all the fun. You focused on destroying everyone involved in destroying your happiness, which kept you from destroying yourself physically, yet you managed to destroy yourself mentally. Wow, I think I just overused the word 'destroy'", Ruby laughed lightly.
"Hmm…" Regina just hummed and it resonated through the other woman's chest.
"I never stopped thinking about you," Ruby confessed silently, tangling her fingers in the long hair again.
"I didn't either. That's why I kept that stone. Sometimes I thought I just dreamt it all but it reminded me that it was all real. And then there was Snow, she's your age and first I like her because of that, it reminded me on you but then I hated her for the very same reason. Among others."
They were sitting in silence, just enjoying each other's company. After a while Regina sat up to look at the younger woman. "I missed you." It was a whisper completed with a tender cheek caress.
"So did I," Ruby smiled at her as she caught her hand and pressed a little kiss into her palm.
"We're terrible people, aren't we," Regina chuckled, still looking into the dark brown eyes.
"Probably," Ruby smirked while she made her eyes turn yellow.
"Whoa! You know I have magic, don't you dare!" Regina raised her hand and leaned away.
"I'd never do anything to hurt you. You make me forget all the dead bodies and all the blood. It's like we're the two girls playing by the river again." Ruby smiled.
Regina's returned the smile but it was sad. "Help me forget too?" She asked weakly.
"If you want me to," Ruby cupped her cheek and caressed her lips with her thumb.
"Please," Regina whispered against the touch. "Stay…"
"Alright," the younger woman whispered too, still holding the eye contact. She leaned forward, her thumb still against the queen's lips. She stopped when they were just an inch apart, flicking between her eyes and lips. "Can I kiss the queen?"
"Not the queen. You may kiss Regina."
And so Ruby moved her hand into her hair, pulling her closer and connecting their lips in a soft kiss, just enjoying the touch at first until Regina opened her mouth slightly and started kissing her.