SQ Fix 7
You've been Swenned!
Break Ups and Make Ups
Her magic was out of control. She had hurt Henry, for Christ's sake. It had to stop. She needed it to stop. She needed...
The blonde waltzed into the vault stealthily. She was about to call for Regina when she saw Robin Hood lifting her up in the air and kissing her passionately. She inhaled sharply and, as dread set on her chest, left the vault to wander back into the night.
"Emma, I am so proud!" Elsa danced her way around her in the Sheriff's office. "The way you faced your fears and got a hold of your magic... so wonderful!" She had stars in her eyes. "You know what we should do? We should throw a ball. That's right! As soon as we find Anna and find a way back to Arendelle, I'm throwing a ball in your honor. And, and knighting you. Yes!" She seemed really pleased about herself.
Emma found it all very amusing until that last idea. "What? Forget it, you don't have to throw a ball for something like this."
But Elsa didn't hear her as she was on a roll. "And you'll meet Kristoff and Sven and Olaf - we should do this soon now that it's winter, or he'll leave a water trail wherever he dances- wait. " The Queen's eyes almost left her sockets as she (finally) registered the other woman's words. "Emma! Of course we have to celebrate! Don't you see? This is really important. It's a milestone. It's a day that shall never be forgotten. It's-"
"Not really that big a deal." The Savior deadpanned.
Elsa lifted and eyebrow and took a seat across the blonde. "Okay. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Eyes gazing at the horizon.
"Emma."
"What?" She was getting defensive.
"You're a bad liar, just like Anna. Can't fool me." She smiled, hoping to get Emma off her edge. "Why aren't you happy? What's missing?" she inquired.
A pair of brown orbs appeared like a flash in Emma's mind, followed by a kiss she was actively trying to forget. "I am happy." She answered, folding her arms around her chest. "No one's missing."
No one, Elsa noted. Interesting.
"Did you fix things up with Regina?"
Emma nearly fell off her chair.
"And what does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing. It's just this look in your eye. You get it everytime you are thinking about her." Emma remained frozen in her spot like a deer caught in headlights. Elsa took pity on her and backpedaled. "I'm kidding. It's just, I'm curious, I thought you had patched things up but I haven't seen her around lately."
No wonder, Emma thought, as she was avoiding her like the plague since that fateful night.
"We had. I thought. Whatever." Silence.
Elsa threaded lightly as she felt she was walking on broken glass. "She did brew a locator spell to find you." She chewed on her lower lip. "The one I stole, actually."
"And I'm glad you did." The tiniest of smiles graced Emma's features.
The Queen made a mock curtsey that bolstered her friend's smile. "At your service." Then she pushed the subject again. "I was kind of surprised when your parents and Henry showed up and Regina wasn't there. " She saw Emma square her jaw. "I figured she was with them."
"She was." A steely gaze directed anywhere but at her. "But she got a call and left."
The princess looked like she was about to blow a fuse, but Elsa dared to continue the conversation. "I wonder who call-"
"Hood." came the murderous voice.
"Oh." Oh indeed. "I see." Emma remained stoic. She had to lighten the mood. "Well, you know men... they can be so needy sometimes." She wouldn't know, as she had never dated one, but she had heard it somewhere back in her land and she hoped it rang true in this other world too.
Her words worked her magic as Emma snorted. "Tell me about it."
"Hook seems very serious about you." The Queen observed, relieved to steer their exchange from dangerous territory .
"Yeah. He is a... good ally." Emma seemed more interested in doodling on her paperwork than on continuing their discussion. Elsa drew herself forward on her chair to focus on the other blonde's writing, nearly bumping their heads in the process. She found out Emma had scribbled ally in a small, close-knit script on the page's edge.
"A good... ally." The Arendellian repeated, looking at the princess questioningly.
At that moment, the Dept.'s door slung open, startling the both of them, and revealing Regina in all her black wintercoat glory behind it. "I hope I am not interrupting something." She announced, her voice bringing the thermostat inside the office down by a few degrees.
"Regina!" Elsa's face swelled with excitement as she rose to greet her. "I'm so glad you are here! You have to help me convince Emma about throwing a ball in her honour."
"A ball?" The former queen steely inquired under a raised brow directed at Emma, who made her best efforts in order not to squirm under it.
" Yes! To celebrate her control over magic! It's a coming of age of sorts, wouldn't you agree?"
Emma seemed so against the idea that Regina had to get behind it. "I wholeheartedly do." She smirked, satisfied at the eyeroll the blonde granted her.
Elsa perked up at her newfound ally. "Magnificent! Well, I shall get to the planning while you get to the convincing. See you later, Em!"
"Elsa, wait!" She would not be left alone with Regina after all she'd been through in order to avoid her. "You can't go, we have to do the... thing, remember?" She looked at her meaningfully.
"Thing? What thing?" Had they discussed a thing?
"You know... the thing." She was one second away from winking at her.
"Ohh, right, the thing..." Elsa knew then there was no thing whatsoever. "Don't worry, I'll manage alone. Bye!" She said, winking at Emma and flying through the door to the Savior's chagrin.
I'm gonna kill that snowflake, Emma promised, as soon as she found herself alone with a certain brunette.
A full minute went by without one of them uttering a sound until Regina decided to stop the awkwardness and speak. "You and Twinkle Toes sure seem cozy around each other. Didn't know you had a new BFF, Em." she mocked her. "Well, I have no way of knowing, really, since I never see you around anymore."
She swiftly dodged the question. "Twinkle toes?"
"She has a certain twinkle to her step." the brunette noted. "Emma." She held the blonde's gaze. "Why are you avoiding me?"
The princess chose to answer something else entirely. "About the BFF bit, yeah, Elsa and I are friends. She has helped me a lot lately. Had my back. Heck, even saved me from a couple of bad choices down the road." The sentence carried an accusation within it, even though Emma didn't want to convey her inner feelings to the other woman. She realized too late that she couldn't help herself.
Regina acknowledged the blow and replied grimly. "It should have been me."
"What?" The princess' heart skipped a beat.
"The one to help you gain control over your magic. It should have been me." Her eyes found Emma's. "I know that."
The blonde fiddled a bit on her chair to try and jumpstart her heart again; she even thumped her chest a couple of times. It didn't work; she needed a change of subject. "I figured you had other things to do. Or people to do. Whatever."
"Excuse me?" Regina's soft gaze was quickly replaced by a murderous one. "I fail to see how who I do or do not do is any of your business, especially since you have been avoiding me nonstop. You made a big statement about us being friends and then you practically disappeared." She spat. "Didn't you even think about coming to me for help when your magic hijacked you? How long have you known Twinkle Toes anyway?"
Oh, no. Oh-no-no. Emma was not going to let her turn things around. "What? Seriously? Of course I came looking for you, Regina. I thought you would walk me through my issues. Because, you know, I thought you got me. I told you so. But you were really " air-quotes " 'busy' getting your mack on with Hood so, obviously, I left."
That startled the brunette. "Oh."
"Oh indeed." The blonde was far more angry that she was entitled to.
"So you've been avoiding me because... you saw me with Robin?" Came the tentative inquiry.
Emma rolled her eyes into oblivion. "I haven't been avoiding you!" She would deny it until her death.
"Emma, I haven't seen you in a week! Don't take me for a fool!" Regina was also far more angry than Emma could have expected. Scratch the 'until her death' parth. She had to relent.
"Well, yeah, ok! I have been avoiding you! It's just... I hate the guy!" She did. Not because she caught him with his hands all over the brunette. Not at all.
"Why? Because he cares about me?" The sorceress upped her defenses.
"Care? Are you freaking kidding me? Don't you realize you're his side chick? While his loving wife is freezing to death. You should know better!" Emma was furious and she could feel her magic crackling under her skin. She had to calm down, but Regina wasn't going to make it easy for her.
"Who gave you the right to take a stand in the matter? It's my life and I am the only one who has a say in all of this!" She yelled at her, but then lost her fighting spirit and slightly bowed her forehead. "Robin has been pursuing me non-stop and I caved, okay? It was wrong, but if that is all the happiness I will be able to get out of this screwed up soulmate situation then-" She spoke in soft undertones that made Emma rage up instead of calm down.
"He is not your happy ending!" Roared the blonde.
Regina'a anger rose again. "What do you know about happy endings? Who died and made you the expert on all-things happiness? You're wasting your time with a leecherous pirate who will revert back to his old treacherous ways in the blink of an eye. And I'm the one who should know better?"
"This isn't about Hook. Don't make this about Hook."
"I'm making this about men?" She lifted an eyebrow at her. "I'm pretty sure this isn't about Robin either."
Emma's lips protruded in a stubborn pout, but remained otherwise silent.
Regina sighed and grabbed her purse, which she had previously hung on the back of the chair Elsa had sat on. "Fine. If you don't want to talk about it I'm not going to force you. But you can't keep avoiding me forever, Emma. Don't be a child about this. It isn't becoming on you."
One, two, three steps towards the door.
"Regina, wait." The brunette turned around, expectant. "Don't leave." Emma lowered her eyes to the ground. "I wanted it to be you."
The air was heavy between them with all the words left unsaid. Regina walked closer to Emma, who stood up from her desk.
"I know." Longing looks were exchanged.
"Good." Emma mumbled, bringing her fingers to mess with her hair as she was overcome with the awkwardness and bareness of the moment. She felt kind of naked before the other woman.
"We are not going to hug it up, are we?" Regina tried to lighten the mood, but the blonde seemed suddenly determined.
"Try and stop me."
Regina inhaled sharply as the Savior obliterated their distance and held her tight by her midriff. Against her better judgement, she buried her nose in Emma's shoulder and started to wonder. What were they doing? Why did being next to the princess feel so good, so right, so... it, while everything else, everyone else, Robin and Guyliner and tattoos and ships, soulmates and pirates, felt so wrong?
"I'm sorry." Came the soft apology from the brunette's lips.
The blonde took a deep breath near her left ear that made her tremble a little bit in response. "Yeah. I'm sorry too."
"This has to end."
Of all the greetings she could muster, Robin thinks as he enters the vault.
"Well Hello to you too, my love." He answers, catching her by the waist.
"I think you did not hear me. Do not call me that." She squirms out of his grasp.
The thief sighs. "Okay... What happened?
"I came back to my senses, Robin. You are married. You have a kid. Your wife needs you to save her right now. We may have been soulmates a long time ago, but things have changed. We shouldn't see each other like this anymore." Her furrowed brow translates the turmoil in her heart.
Robin doesn't get it. "Regina, this last week has been wonderful. I thought you felt that way too, but now you change your mind out of the blue. What happened?"
"Nothing." Comes the swift reply.
He is not convinced and looks at her suspiciously. "What were you doing today at the Sheriff's station?"
"Wait, what? You were following me?" She is appalled. Frankly.
He denies it. "Nah, just a coincidence. But I bet this change of mind of yours isn't one. I had hoped Swan would have butted out since that night she came to see you, but I guess I was wrong."
The brunette stops breathing and pierces him with her gaze. "Wait... you saw her?"
"Well, yeah." Cue the ass grabbing and body lifting that ensued. Emma was far too interested in Regina's life for his taste and he wanted to get his point across to the so-called Savior: Back off, she is mine.
"And you didn't think to tell me?" She asks in outrage.
"Should I? We were busy, Regina." He shrugs.
"She was having a magical breakdown, Robin." She states, losing her patience.
The thief isn't impressed. "And that is your problem how?"
"You wouldn't understand. It's complicated." She dodges the question. "But she needed me then and I was not privy to that. You kept me from aiding her." The sorceress blames him.
"Oh, so she needed you. Um. Interesting. Say, Regina, do you need her too? Anything else I should know about your relationship with the Sheriff?" He's really upset now, but the former Queen doesn't mind.
"She is not just the Sheriff. She is family. And you getting in the way of my family is not something I'll abide by, tolerate, condone, nor put up with. It starts with Emma and next thing I know, you'll have a problem with Henry too. And that is just unacceptable." Her statement is final.
Robin laughs without smiling. "This is not about Henry. This is about Em-"
Regina's eyes are cold and match her voice as she interrupts him. "As of this moment, it isn't about you either. I'll help you get Marian back but that's it."
He gives her his signature boyish grin. "You may try to keep your heart locked up, but I'll steal it right from under you again." He gets dangerously close to her before adding, "Now that I know you have a type I'll not lose you to another blonde former thief."
Regina freezes and, before she can react, Robin steals a kiss from her and leaves the vault with a rogue walk. The brunette ponders throwing a fireball at him but thinks of Roland and desists.
Once in the open, Robin sighs again. Bloody hell, were all the Sheriffs out to get him?
Notes
Hope this fixes - at least partly - that hot mess of a double-episode. I don't think Robin would cease in his attempts to woo Regina (even if he is a douche by doing this and forgetting about his wife) and he may even enjoy a little competition with Emma.