A/N: Hey everyone! I just want to say a quick apology to the reveiwer that I told I would be updating on Sundays. I still plan on updating weekly (most likely Sunday) I was just unable to do so this last week as my father was rushed to the hospital because his appendix had ruptured. I've been taking care of him the last few days, so I haven't been able to update, but I would like to thank you all for continuing to read and (possibly) review.
With all my love,
~R
"So….What should we do for the next hour, Professor Mills?
If it weren't for all the scenarios running through the professor's head at the sound of "Professor Mills" being spoken in such a breathy way, Regina would scoff at the question. What gave this blonde student the idea that they were now friends?
But, God, She thought with an internal moan, what I would not give to have a woman like her to be my friend… or in my bed. It's been so long, and she's cute in a shy, ramble-on-when-I'm-nervous way, she has the body of a model, she brings cupcakes when she's worried someone may be upset. I love cupcakes. It's as if she were made for me. But, She sighed, she's a student, of course.
"Why, Miss Swan, we're very presumptuous, aren't we?" Regina purred with a wicked grin on her face.
"Presumptuous?" The blonde mulled over the word choice for a second before giving a frantically-paced answer, "God, no, Professor Mills. I wasn't asking it like that. I'm not trying to get you into bed or anything. That would be ridiculous…. not saying that you're not attractive or anything because, well, damn, but… I….I wouldn't sleep with a teacher. Not even for good grades. It goes against all my rules and… I..."
"Dear, I meant you were presuming that we were friends," the professor interrupted, trying to hold back her humor at the situation.
Did she just call me hot? Regina questioned.
"Are you saying we aren't friends, Miss Mills?" Emma asked, furrowing her eyebrows and pursing her lips, pretending to be in deep thought. "Because I brought a cupcake for a certain professor, but if we're not friends, I could find another person to give it to. Everyone jumps at the chance of receiving food from a culinary student."
Regina matched Emma's giant smirk with a haughty tone, "Well, Miss Swan, I would love to have you know that I never make friends with my students. It's one of my rules. They are here to learn, and I to teach. It's my duty to improve you as students, not to hang with you for a few hours each day," the brunette started to grin as Emma dropped her head- and her smirk- at the obvious reprimand she was receiving. "However, if this cupcake you speak of is any good, I may have to make an exception dear."
"Oh, it's good. Everything I make is good. Everything I do is, in fact, good," Emma winked, then topped off the sentence with a smirk.
"I'll be the judge of that, Miss Swan."
Emma set the container down in front of her new professor and held out her hands, gesturing for the woman to take a bite. She didn't have to tell Regina twice. Cupcakes were her favorite of all deserts, and this one looked delicious.
Regina grabbed the tiny pastry before removing the paper wrapper. She slowly moved it towards her mouth, then took a giant bite out of it. The brunette in question moaned. Loudly.
"This is delicious."
"So, we're friends then?" Emma questioned, sporting a giant grin and trying not to look aroused at the sound the older woman made.
"For now, yes. I am able to change my mind at any given moment, though," Regina replied with a grin.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Professor. If we're friends now, though, we have a few things that need to change."
The brunette professor raised one eyebrow, clearly not used to being told how things work, "And just what would that be, Miss Swan?"
"That's exactly it," noticing the look of confusion the blonde elaborated. "This whole 'Miss Swan' thing isn't going to work, Professor. It reminds me too much of a mom I had once."
"A 'mom you had once?'" The brunette questioned shocked, "I wasn't aware mothers were able to switch at the drop of a hat."
Emma sighed, "They are in foster care."
The professor's eyes widened and her mouth formed an 'o.' "I apologize, Mis- Emma. I apologize, Emma. I had no idea."
"Ehhh," the blonde shrugged, "it's no big deal. Just something you learn to deal with over time."
"May I ask what happened to you real parents?" Regina inquired.
"Since we're friends now, I guess you could ask," Emma teased.
A silence dropped over the room before Regina smiled and questioned, "You're going to make me ask again?"
Emma smirked, "To be fair, you never really asked the first time, but you asked if you could ask. And I have already responded to that question, Miss Mills."
"I cannot believe this," Regina sighed and added an eye roll to make sure the blonde woman knew how ridiculous she was being. "Fine, Emma. What happened to your birth parents that ended in you being in foster care?"
"I'd rather not talk about it," Emma replied. "It's kind of a sad story, and we're right in the middle of the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"So we are, Miss Swan. So we are."
"Okay, class," Professor Mills addressed her audience with a loud, authoritarian tone, "one more slide and then you can get started on tomorrow's assignment in the remaining time, and I can sit down. It sounds like a win-win situation from up here, it you ask me."
The class all responded with small comments thrown in here or there, all of them bored out of their minds at this point. Emma sat in the front row staring at her professor and new friend for the last half an hour as she gave the annual teacher's spiel on classroom etiquette. She never once looked at the slideshow, but continued to openly ogle the brunette at the front of the room.
Dammit, Swan! Get it together! There's no way that you are going to make it through the semester if you don't!
"Alright, then, class. The rest of the time is yours. I expect three pages tomorrow," Regina nodded before stepping away from the screen and sitting at her large, wooden desk, and beginning to do some work of her own.
What work could she be doing already? It's, like, the first day of school. Emma wondered. Well, I heard she was a bitch, so maybe she gave a test or something. That is kind of a dick move, like this homework on the first day thing.
Suddenly, Emma bolted upright with the realization that she had no idea what she was supposed to be writing. Smashing her hand between her knee and her desk, she making a loud, clanging noise. "SHIT!" she shouted grabbing her hand that was now throbbing.
Everyone around her looked up, including her brunette teacher, who raised an eyebrow "Miss Swan?"
Turning a bright shade of red at not only being caught as a clutz, but interruptin the entire class, Emma muttered, "Yes, Ma'am?"
"Must I remind you of rule 23, and the punishments that come along with breaking such a rule?"
The whole class stopped what they were doing now. Some stared at Emma with empathy in their eyes; others at the professor with fear.
Rule 23… Rule 23… Why the hell do I not remember rule 23? Emma searched her thoughts over and over, looking for a clue as to what the teacher was talking about. Okay… Rule 22 was something about having loud foods in class and 23 was… well rule 23 was when Professor Mills bent over because she dropped her pointer stick. Yup. Well, that explains why I can't remember. That ass, though. And in that tight skirt. And that tight blouse that accidentally lost a button at the top when the teacher bent down to grab the stick. Mmmmmm….
At the sound of Emma's barely audible groan, Regina had to keep her laughter in check. She had dropped her pointer on purpose, and while bending down to retrieve it, she unpopped a button on her blouse. She was no fool. She knew Emma was attracted to her, and she to Emma. She also knew that Emma would probably break rule 23 at some point, and might need punishment. A little flirting would do no harm as long as she never acted further upon it.
"Miss Swan?" she asked again, eyebrow firmly locked in a deadly arch that told everyone that she meant business.
"Um… No, Professor. I've got it. Won't let it happen again."
"You better not," and just like that, the beautiful brunette went back to her work as if nothing had ever happened. However, minutes later, the professor looked up, catching the blonde staring at her, and gave a devilish smile. Topping it off with a wink, the woman returned to her work, though she was sure a set of two bright emerald eyes were on her the rest of the class.
RIIIIIIIIIIIING!
The shrill ringing of the bell signaled the end of the class.
"Goodbye, everyone, and do not forget your paper for tomorrow. I want to see you all succeed in my classroom. Got it?"
Mumbled answers came to the professor's question as the students filed out one by one. Regina watched them go, wondering if this class was going to be as painful as last year's. While watching the remaining students dwindle down, she caught a flash of Emma's bouncy, golden curls.
"Miss Swan, if you could stay after, please."
Ah, shit. She wasn't kidding about rule 23.
Emma walked over to her teacher's desk and stood across from the brunette. Regina never spoke until she heard the last student leave.
"Miss Swan, please tell me rule 23," the professor requested in a cold, business like tone, never once stopping her paperwork to look up at her new friend.
"You may eat food, but not food that disrupts the class?" Emma questioned, knowing very well that her answer was not rule 23.
"That would be rule 22, dear. I asked for 23."
"Ummmm… Don't act like an idiot and disrupt class when you realize you've spaced off for a really long time and don't remember the assignment, but you don't want to ask the teacher because you're afraid of looking like a fool in front of your new best friend?"
"That's not it, either, though I should add that one in for next semester's class." the brunette bit back a smirk before continuing, finally looking up at the blonde beauty in front of her, "Rule 23, Miss Swan states that there shall be no foul language used in my class, followed by rule 24 that states all students should pay attention while the professor is speaking, and never disrupt the classroom under any circumstances unless they are life or death. Are those rules clear to you, Miss Swan?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Emma answered, staring down at her feet and scuffing her right combat boot across the floor.
"And, furthermore, I would like you to remind you breaking one- or both- of these rules is reprimandable by whatever punishment I, your professor, chooses." She waited for Emma to nod her understanding before continuing, "So I guess there is only one more question, Miss Swan: Do you want to be punished for today's outburst?" the brunette smirked and emphasized the word punished, a bucket load of scenarios playing out in her mind.
Emma matched her friend's smirk with one of her own, "Depends what you had in mind, Professor Mills."