Chapter 5

As the days went by, the three girls grew into women and with that transition comes all sorts of new problems. Regina was spending most of her time learning from scholars and royal advisors. She tried her best to please her mother, but every day she found new reasons her mother couldn't be happy enough with her. Her hair wasn't soft enough, her legs weren't long enough. She loved riding horses, hated carriages. But Regina tried so hard. She excelled at her studies since that was easy for her and seemed to make Cora nod in approval. The moment she was told to be done for the day, she would sneak off to the stables. She said it was to tend to Rocinante, but really she went to take riding lessons from the stable boy there.

Cora knew Regina wasn't in need of lessons, but she allowed it. Regina seemed to try harder if she thought there would be free time to spend with her boy after her duties were done. Eventually, Regina would need to be cut away from him but for now, it was allowed. Cora did however take Lorelei aside to remind her of her duties.

The sirens silver eyes were as wide as they could go and she was pale. The shiver she felt had nothing to do with the weather. "Why?!" She had shouted this question many times in the last hour as Cora spoke to her.

Cora closed her eyes and counted to ten to try and keep her temper in check. "Because, you idiotic thing, that is how humans reproduce!"

Lorelei ran a shaky hand thru her short hair and was breathing heavy, trying not to get sick. "That's… that's the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of in my life!"

Cora threw her hands up, "How do you not already know all of this? My god child, you are fifteen years old! Surely someone has explained all this to you by now?" Regina had been given extensive lessons in the human reproductive system. She knew how women got pregnant and she knew that a woman who had sex before marriage was absolute trash and worthless. This conversation with Lorelei was only supposed to take five minutes. All she had needed to tell her was to make sure that filthy peasant wasn't allowed to touch anything below the waist on her daughter. The questions had started rolling off her lips halfway thru Cora's very simple instructions. 'what would he be touching?' 'Why would he want to touch that?!' 'Why would Regina want him to do that?' Of course once the basic questions stopped, the intense ones began. 'Stick what in where?' 'But there is nothing he could stick in there!' 'Boys have a what?!' 'What does it look like?'

Shrugging, Lorelei was still trying to get past the part where Cora told her boys have some giant dangling finger between their legs. "I don't know, I guess I never asked?"

Cora shook her head violently, "done. Very done. Stay right here." Cora made sure she would stay and headed to the hall way. She grabbed the first servant she found and told them to find Regina. The servant looked terrified but had to tell her Regina was out on a riding lesson and wouldn't be back for some time. Cora ground her teeth and finally told her to go get Red then. She waited impatiently but before long the lanky peasant came skidding around the corner. She gasped and toppled onto her backside when she nearly ran into Cora. With a displeased frown, Cora waited for her to right herself before speaking. "Do you know how babies are made?"

Red cocked her head and looked around warily, "uhm… yes? I mean, I'm not five…"

Cora grabbed her arm and shoved her into the room with a very sick looking Lorelei sitting on a chair. "Good. Explain it to your friend. She, apparently, missed the conversation!" With that, Cora slammed the door and walked away quickly.

Red stared at the closed door for a bit then slowly turned to Lorelei who was staring blankly at the wall. "Son of a bitch…" Red muttered.

It took nearly another hour for Lorelei to run out of questions for the very red faced Red. Eventually, the woman seemed to understand fully. She stood and stretched and looked down at Red sitting in the chair, "well, I am absolutely certain that I will never let a man have sex with me."

Red giggled, "you don't have to, I promise."

Smiling she said, "can you have sex with women?"

Red stopped giggling very suddenly. She felt her face grow hotter and took a few deep breaths to clear her mind. "Uhm, yes. It works a lot differently though… obviously."

"How so?"

Red stood up shaking her head. "No, I cannot explain that to you. I'm not even sure, actually."

Lorelei nodded, "so have you ever had sex with a man or woman?"

Red thought she would very much like to run away right now, but no, she couldn't do that to her friend. "No. I haven't."

"Do you want to?"

Red stared at her friend, trying desperately to decide how she meant that question. Was she asking if she wanted to with someone, sometime? Or was she asking her if she wanted to with her? Finally she spoke again, choosing her words carefully. "I would like to, someday. Not with a man though, maybe with someone I loved very much. Someone I knew very well. I think it would be a very nice thing… to do."

Lorelei nodded and smiled at her, completely naïve to her friends struggle. "Yes, I think I would like to try it someday also. With a woman I think. Must I court her first? Because I don't want to."

Red was laughing again, her friend always made her laugh even when she was stressed beyond all reason. "I don't know. I think you should just trust that it'll happen naturally. Just sort of wait for the perfect time and I think you'll know when you found the right one."

Lorelei smiled at her and pulled her in for a hug. She held her for a few moments more than she usually did and when she let her go she was still smiling. Red was looking at her strangely. She glanced at her lips and then back to her eyes.

Red couldn't believe her heart was still working. It was beating so hard and fast in her chest she thought she should have died by now. Here she was, arms wrapped around Lorelei and she was just looking at her with her charming eyes. Red glanced at her friends lips and thought she might actually kiss her finally, but it wasn't the time apparently.

Lorelei released her and turned to the door, "I need to go find Regina. I should make sure Daniel doesn't try to impregnate her until they are married."

Red let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Some day maybe she could stop being so chicken. But not today. Her heart was still beating too hard. She told Lorelei to go ahead and sat heavily back in the chair. She leaned forward and held her head in her hands. She was ridiculously in love with her friend. She wasn't sure how or when it had happened, but she very much was. She finally left the room and went to find her grandmother. Maybe she knew how to approach someone…

Lorelei raced thru the woods and found Regina easily. She could always run a straight line right to her. Regina had suggested the names on their chests bound them and gave her that ability. She stopped just short of the horses tied to the tree. She could see Regina and Daniel. They were kissing. Lorelei waited quietly, thinking she shouldn't interrupt them. She watched as they kissed, frowning at how they held each other and had their eyes closed. It did look like they enjoyed it. Maybe she should try kissing someone. She was deep in thought when the couple caught her eye again. Daniel had his hands on Regina's lower back, but one of them was slowly shifting downwards.

He reached just below her hip, his hand was right on her butt and Lorelei jumped up and shouted, "HEY!"

The couple sprang apart and stared wide eyed in fear towards Lorelei. Regina saw her and nearly collapsed from the shock she had. "Lorelei! Why would do that? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Lorelei puffed herself up, shoulders back, head up and walked towards them. Staring at Daniel as he swallowed hard and back away until his back hit a tree. He had his hands up in defense. "Lorelei, I wasn't hurting her I swear it!"

Regina put her hands on her hips and watched her guardian thru narrowed eyes. She knew Lorelei wouldn't hurt him. "She knows you didn't hurt me. She would have felt it and blasted you into next week if you had."

Lorelei got close to the poor boy and looked him up and down in a threatening manner. "I have been informed that boys try to impregnate women before marriage."

Regina blushed and pinched the bridge of her nose "Lorelei, what are you talking about?"

Glancing at Regina, Lorelei pointed to Daniels crotch area, "there's a penis in there Regina. He has one, probably."

She could not possibly have blushed any harder. "Yeah, I imagine he does. Thank you for that."

Daniel smiled shyly, "you imagine it?"

Regina frowned hard at him and his shy smile, "that is not what I meant and you know it." She turned her attention back to Lorelei. "Who told you all these things?"

Staring Daniel in the eye an inch from his face, she said, "boys think about sex all the time Regina. You must be wary or they will try to impregnate you."

"Oh my god!" Regina grabbed her friend and drug her away from the very uncomfortable Daniel. "Stop it, right now. Who talked to you about all these things?"

She gave Daniel a final glare before smiling at Regina, "your mother. But she wasn't very good at answering questions, so she made Red explain everything."

Regina was laughing in spite of her anger. "Oh, poor Red. I can't believe she survived it."

"Why wouldn't Red survive? She explains everything to me."

"Because…" Regina pursed her lips. She couldn't tell her Red had a massive crush on her since about birth. "Because she doesn't like talking about this sort of thing. When we were taught all about it she never stopped blushing and I thought she got sick later."

Lorelei threw up her hands, "you took a class together? Where was I? I could have learned this too!"

Regina raised a brow at her, "we were 13. You were told you had to go to a class and you ran off screaming and throwing things until the servants left you alone. I guess they didn't feel like trying to convince you. Red and I were going to come get you but mother insisted we sit and learn and not worry about you. As I recall, after the class, Red went to her chambers to be sick and you were passed out from eating a bag of Granny's sugar."

Nodding in agreement, "I remember. Granny was so mad at me when I woke up. I tried to save some for the two of you but ended up eating the whole pound of it."

Regina laughed, "yeah. Well, I need to re-educate you I see." She turned to Daniel, "you should probably head back. I just feel like this is going to take some time."

Daniel smiled sweetly and made a move to come kiss her good bye but Lorelei growled at him loudly. "Move along boy! No one here wants your babies!"

Regina covered her face and apologized to him again before he said it was alright and rode off towards the manor again. Taking her friends hand she moved them to sit on a log and took a deep breath before explaining everything all over again. Apparently, Cora had basically told her that boys would stick their thing in any woman they came across and then high tail it to another town when the girl got pregnant. Red had told her that they would do that, and also that it would hurt very badly the first twenty or so times that a man and woman had sex.

Finally, it seemed to have been made clear and Regina finished with, "so. I know why you're concerned. But, I swear to you, I would never have sex before Daniel and I were married."

Lorelei smiled at her. She wasn't going anywhere near a man, but Regina seemed to want to. "Okay. When are you getting married?"

Regina blushed and looked around quickly before whispering, "we are going to run away together. Just as soon as he has saved enough money to marry me and build us a home."

Panic set in very quickly, "run away? Where are you going? How far away? When will you come back?"

Regina grabbed her face and met those silver eyes, "you're coming with us dummy."

Sighing in relief Lorelei added, "Red too?"

Smiling Regina nodded and stood to get her horse, "of course."

Lorelei was quiet for awhile as they walked back to the house. Finally she nodded as she seemed to come to a conclusion. "We can go with you and Daniel, and I will marry Red."

Regina grinned at her naïve friend, "I think maybe you should try courting her and asking her before you decide you're getting married dear."

Lorelei waved off the suggestion, "nah, Red said you don't have to court someone if you have known them awhile and you get along well enough. You can go straight to kissing and then get married and have sex. And before you ask, you can totally have sex with women also. Red said so."

Regina laughed at the thought that Lorelei hadn't really heard Red at all. "Maybe you should make sure you want to marry her before telling her though. You should spend time with her."

"We practice swords and hand to hand fighting all the time. The only time we're really apart is when I have to bathe. She won't bathe with me, I keep asking but she just blushes and refuses to talk anymore. She won't go swimming anymore either. It's been annoying, but that's fine."

Regina sighed and decided she was going to have to take matters into her own hands. Red was obviously not willing to make a move and this woman didn't know what the hell a move was.