"Your mom literally searched every single room in this place," sighed Ruby as she led the group up to the attic of the B&B, pulling the light cord as she emerged through the hatch. "This was the only place she didn't look. I don't think she knows it exists so we should be safe up here." She pulled the ladder up after Emma, the last of their little group to clamber through, placing the hatch back over. "I cleaned it up and pulled some of the old furniture up so we'd have somewhere to sit."

Regina smiled at the brunette. "Thank you Ruby. Really."

The girl merely gave a shrug and a wolfish smile. "Well we had to find somewhere to hide away otherwise we'd never see you."

Katherine nodded. "It's just too risky coming round Mary-Margaret's all the time. We can't have your mom getting suspicious. I'm amazed you've managed to evade her this long."

Regina nodded. "I don't think she quite expects me to be travelling in the trunks of people's cars and hiding in attics though."

"Even if she does, I'm still not letting her take you," said Emma, slumping down on the worn old sofa next to her girlfriend and letting an arm snake around her waist.

Regina leant into the blonde. "I know."

"Has she come round at all?" asked Ruby, perching on the arm of the sofa.

The brunette shook her head with a sigh. "She's come round to Mary-Margaret's a few times and it doesn't sound like it. She keeps saying that when she finds me she's going to keep me where no 'horrendously corrupting influences' can reach me, so I can only assume she means to keep me locked in the house."

"It's just so sad that she can't accept you two," sighed Katherine as she settled into an old rocking chair opposite.

"Let's not talk about my mother," decided Regina, sitting up a little straighter. "How are things with you and Belle?"

A fierce blush crept up the other brunette's cheeks. "Fine."

"Fine?" grinned Regina. "I think your face suggests more than just fine..."

"They finally done the deed," Katherine chipped in, gaining herself a glare from the still blushing girl.

Ruby did, however, break the glare to meet Emma's waiting high five.

"You know I don't mean any disrespect by that," said Emma.

"Of course I do!" laughed Ruby. "And I'm almost embarrassed to say, that it turned out to be me holding out on her." She took in the other three girls' raised eyebrows. "I know, I know! All this time I thought she wasn't ready...she practically pounced on me the other day!"

"I guess we don't need to ask how it went?" grinned Emma.

"As first times go, I think it was pretty damn good," smiled Ruby, blushing further. "I just can't believe it took us so long."

"Neither can any of us!" exclaimed Katherine. "But at least you guys didn't rush into it."

The brunette nodded. "Yeah, you're right. And we can always make up for lost time," she added with a grin.

"God, you're going to become as bad as these two. Rabbits, the lot of you!' laughed Katherine with a nod at Emma and Regina, rolling her eyes.

Regina merely shrugged. "I don't see how it affects you. It's not as if we force you to come and watch."

"And I bet you and Frederick are hardly innocent!" added Ruby. "Besides, we can't help it if we're all incredibly attractive people."

"Exactly," agreed Emma, pulling Regina into her lap. "Some of us are just irresistible."

Katherine merely rolled her eyes. "I dread to think what Mary-Margaret has been subjected to with you two living together now."

"Yeah, how is that going?" asked Ruby. "Driven each other nuts yet?"

Emma shook her head. "Not on my part. I knew she was impossible before she moved in," she added with a grin, wrapping her arms tightly around her girlfriend to avoid the elbow to the ribs she knew would be coming. "I'm only kidding! It's actually been great, for me anyway..." She looked up at the brunette in her lap. "But I'm sure I've driven you insane by now."

Regina merely smiled. "Actually, you haven't...I mean you could be tidier, but since I can't exactly go to school right now it actually gives me something to do during the day."

"She even cooks," added Emma with a grin.

"Regina Mills, from head girl to housewife in less than a fortnight," quipped Katherine. "Although, now you mention school, I have those notes you asked for to catch up with in my bag. Remind me to give you them before I go."

"The teachers aren't asking any awkward questions, are they?" asked Regina. She didn't like having to ask her friends to always cover for her, even if it was the only way she could manage to not end up dragged back home by her mother.

"Not since Emma talked to them," said Ruby, realising from the look on confusion on Regina's face, and the blush on Emma's that the blonde hadn't told her about the little chat she had had with all of Regina's teachers.

"Emma?" Regina waited for the blonde to meet her gaze. "What did you do?"

The blonde shrugged. "They started asking questions about where you were, and I knew they would start to question what we told them, especially when your mother had been in a few times, so I just talked to them. Said you and your mom had had a disagreement, and it was just better that you didn't have to see her for a while. So they all know you're fine, they just don't know why you can't face your mom," she explained quietly. "And I asked them if they could put together some stuff so you could keep up with your classes, because I knew it was starting to really get to you and you were worried about letting your grades slip."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Emma shrugged again. "I didn't think there was much to say."

Regina reached out and clasped the blonde's hand in her own, her thumb stroking the skin softly. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know you were worried about letting your grades slip, and I figured it didn't hurt to ask," said Emma with a small smile.

"You two are so cute sometimes I want to hurl," said Katherine, bringing chocolate and green eyes that had previously been staring lovingly at each other to glare at her. "What? I said you guys were cute!"

"Yes, apparently sickeningly so!" smirked Regina. She moved so she could sit with her head on Emma's shoulder. "But right now, I don't care. I'd rather be sickeningly cute than locked up in my room."

"You really think she'd do that?" asked Ruby, her voice full of concern.

"That's the least of what I think she'd do," admitted Regina quietly. "Anyway," she said, forcing thought of her mother from her head. "I didn't come here to talk about my mother. I want to hear about you guys."

"Yeah, she's bored of hearing about me," chuckled Emma, pressing a kiss to Regina's temple, glad to see the worry ease from the brunette's face as Ruby and Katherine continued their playful teasing. If only it would always be like this, she mused.