Just a bit of fun and games really :) I will try to get the next update done and posted before I leave for New York but I also have a drawing to get done so I'm not making any promises! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)
"So," she stepped back from him and quirked her head at the large doorway, "ever seen a giant before?"
"No," he laughed quietly, his nerves still fried as he watched her add distance between them, "have you?"
Regina shrugged and laughed a little, "I've been around."
"Well you are just full of surprises," he nodded his head at her once with a shocked and intrigued expression and a low laugh rumbled in her throat through her teeth.
"Try not to do anything stupid dear," she smirked and looked him up and down, his proposal still nagging in the back of her mind. What would happen if they did play it out? Would they simply get it out of their system? Would they fall harder for one another? Would it work? Would it hurt?
"Hello!" She called up to the giant in friendly greeting and he looked down at her, "we were wondering if we could speak to you? It would only take a-"
"You!"
"Me!?" David questioned and pointed to his chest doubtfully.
"Him!?" Regina furrowed her brow and looked to David.
"How dare you come back here!" He leaned down and snatched up the small man in his fist, "after what you did to me!? After what you did to all of us!? Who do you think you are to come back here!?"
"What are you talking about?" David asked through gritted teeth as the giant's fist clenched tighter around him.
"Okay David when I asked you if you had ever seen a giant I expected you to tell me the truth and not complicate things by not informing me that you single handedly pissed them all off!" She shouted angrily up at him with her hands flinging around as she spoke and then finished with them clenched at her sides.
"Regina!"
"This was supposed to be an easy job David!"
"Regina he's crushing me."
"Up the beanstalk and down the beanstalk! God! It makes me want to just kill you myself!"
"Regina!"
"What!?"
"Can you maybe finish your rant when I'm not being crushed to death!?" He growled and squirmed in the giant's vice like grip.
"He is lying to you too!" He informed the woman standing furiously below him.
"I know he is lying to me you fool! Now let him go so I can strangle him myself!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"He deserves to die for what he did!"
"I agree!"
"Regina you are so not helping!"
"Shut up David!" She waved her hand angrily and he groaned and jerked around in the giant's hold, thoroughly furious.
"God damn it Regina stop fucking magic slapping me!"
"His name is not David!" The giant boomed and squeezed the man a little harder.
"What are you talking about!?" She yelled and threw her arms around furiously.
"His name is James! And he killed my family! And left Jack for dead!" He glared at the man fighting for air but stopped squeezing him so hard and snapped his attention to the woman when she started laughing, her hands on her hips and her weight on one foot.
"Regina I swear to god if you don't stop laughing I will kill you! This is so not funny!"
"Oh no as a matter of fact it is quite amusing," she nodded and cocked her head with a greatly amused smile, "stuck in the shadow of your arrogant brother once again."
"Get me down from here Regina!" He growled and fought the giant's grip once more.
"What do you mean his brother?"
"David here had a twin brother named James. He's long dead now however. Only one person truly misses him but really that one man makes James seem like a saint so I don't really think it counts for much."
"Who is to say that this man is any different then!? I should just kill him anyway!"
"Sure go right ahead."
"Regina!"
"Kill the harmless shepherd because of the brother he has never had any contact with whatsoever. Because you really just never know who you may be dealing with," she spoke slowly, enunciating every word carefully as she looked up past the giant and cocked her head in mock thought before meeting his gaze once more and holding it steady.
"Is she telling the truth?"
"Yes," he breathed out, relief closing his eyes at the giant's relaxed tone, "yes she is telling the truth."
"Why are you here then? Gold? Beans? Because-"
"There are none," she finished for him and then motioned to David with her arm, "let him go and we will be quite happy to explain our presence here," after a few seconds longer David was released from the giant's grip and placed safely on the ground, "thank you," she nodded and smiled a little when David hurried to her side with an unimpressed glower aimed at herself.
"Now why are you here? No one comes up here unless they need something and they are always ready to take it by force if they are denied permission."
"May we have your name?" She asked gently with a duck of her chin and eyebrows slightly raised.
"Anton."
"Anton you would be correct in your assumption that we need something from up here, it is quite a trek for any other reason. Just a simple trinket, a compass that will lead us home to our families. I do not expect you to give it up right away and that is quite alright we can touch on details later but if you would be so kind to allow us to stay the night we would be very grateful as we are quite tired and could use a break from the dangers hunting us down at ground level."
He simply stared down at them with his mouth pressed in to a thin line that she analyzed quickly and gave him the words he didn't know he wanted to hear until she said them, "I am feeling free to assume a little company wouldn't hurt," she started with a small smile and his eyes immediately focused on her own, "you have had no one to talk to but yourself for years now. You can only comfort yourself for so long before loneliness and solitude leave you hopeless and insane. We are not here to hurt you Anton and I can assure you the two of us will make you laugh again. I know what it feels like to forget how."
Anton held her soft and painfully honest gaze for just a few moments longer before he gave a solemn nod and pointed over his shoulder, "I suppose I could feed you. You aren't very big so you won't eat much..."
"That would be wonderful," she smiled up at him and he gave another quick nod, "thank you Anton."
When Anton turned around and began walking back inside David walked alongside Regina and took his time studying her, "you are amazing."
"David I don't-"
"No," he cut her off gently and shook his head and she glanced sideways at him with nervous eyes, "I didn't mean it like that. You just talked down an angry giant and then proceeded to get him to invite us inside for dinner. Not to mention you saved my life," he smiled and she dropped her eyes to the floor with a small shrug, "now while I am still prepared to make you squirm the next time you need my help I am no less impressed by the fact that you only used words. No magic, no weapons, no force."
Regina hummed a quiet laugh and lifted her head, turning it to look him in the eye, "words have plenty of power David. Words can calm, words can anger, words can fight, words can heal, words can hurt, words can control," she smiled a just a little and then quieted her voice to a soft slow whisper that had him soaking in every piece, "words can wring tears from the very hardest of hearts."
Her last sentence stole his breath and he could not look away from the intensity of her sad dark eyes. Slowly he came to a stop and then softly pulled her head in to a kiss. A gentle kiss, a tender and heartfelt kiss that had her quivering silently against him. He broke the kiss only seconds after and kept her close, pushing the dark hair from her closed eyes as she rolled her lips in to her mouth and tried her very hardest to keep herself together. "I am not very good with words," he whispered and she kept her eyes closed and her head bowed as he tucked the soft strands behind her ear, "but I have found that sometimes all one needs is a kiss."
...
Regina walked across the top of the wooden table examining the large items sitting upon it. When she came upon a large spoon resting upon the edge of a plate she grinned mischievously as she reached up and tested the difficulty to move the large piece of silverware to find it to be easier than she had thought. She climbed up on to the plate and looked to the other end of the table to assure David was still occupied with Anton before rolling an oversized pea on to the spoon.
Pivoting the spoon on the fulcrum the plate provided she laughed under her breath and after a moment of rough calculation she jumped on the end of the spoon, launching the pea in to the air, "hey David!"
"Yes? Oh my g-" the air was forced from his lungs and he went flying backward, landing on his back with his arms wrapped around as much of the green sphere as he could. He groaned as he let the sphere roll from his grip and heard Regina laughing loudly and clapping her hands, "what in the hell," he groaned and tried to catch his breath, "was that!?"
"A pea," Anton chuckled a little and watched Regina walk up to David with a skip in her step.
"A pea!?" He questioned as he sat up and rubbed his neck, "Regina...why!?"
"The real question is why not?" She smirked and rocked her head on her shoulders.
David simply shook his head and laughed at her, wonderfully happy at finding yet another side to her. Just when he thought that perhaps he had seen all of her she would turn around and show him something new so now he resigned himself to stop waiting and claiming to know all of her and instead happily watch and learn her. He should be thinking about Snow, about how to get back to her, and be looking forward to holding her in his arms once again but Regina had a funny way of accidentally stealing his heart.
"So," Anton started and placed a plate with the smallest chicken leg he could find in front of them, "what is your story?"
Regina smiled up at him in thanks and pulled her dagger from its place tucked in her belt and began cutting a small piece off but it was David who answered, "well Regina is a queen and I am a king. Although the title of prince has seemed to stick better."
"Oh so I'm the queen again?" Her voice holding a light laugh as she looked over her shoulder at him with a smile.
"You will always be the queen," he shook his head and laughed a little, "even when you were dethroned you were still referred to as the queen."
"Poor Charming just can't win," she pouted playfully and paused her cutting.
"No I can't!"
"But...you said he was a shepherd," Anton questioned suspiciously and eyed over his guests.
"I was," he confirmed with a nod, "but when James was killed I was recruited to take his place and act as prince. I then married a princess and now my title is king. A dark curse and a wraith later we find ourselves here trying to get back to our families."
"Well look at that, our whole lives summed up in three whole sentences," she chuckled sarcastically and handed him a piece of chicken.
"So you two weren't always together then? I mean a royal and a shepherd wouldn't have crossed paths right from the beginning."
"The two of us never actually got along until less than a week ago," Regina chuckled and sat down to try and tackle eating the chicken in her hand.
"That would probably because you tried and basically succeeded in killing everyone you came in to contact to."
"Not true!" She scoffed and laughed in his direction.
He nodded enthusiastically with his eyebrows raised, "very true!"
"I saved your life," she motioned toward him and he rolled his eyes.
"Okay that doesn't count because it was for your twisted benefit!"
"Does so count!" She argued and then looked up at Anton who had sat down and rested his chin on the backs of his hands that laid flat on the table, "I kept him from losing his head via guillotine and you know what he does for me in return? Tricks me in to getting trapped by fairy dust, locks me in a tower, dresses me in rags, ties me to a post, blindfolds me, and proceeds to line up four of his guards to shoot me in the heart."
"Hey now I took an arrow for you so don't get all high and mighty."
"What? When?" She laughed curiously and he waved his hands around as he tried to form the words.
"Snow took some weird potion or something that kept her from loving and she went after you on your travels to the winter palace."
Regina hummed with a wicked smile on her closed lips as she looked up a little at the wall behind David, "I would have loved to have seen her like that."
"Twisted," he pointed at her and looked to Anton who smiled a little and breathed out a quiet laugh, "so the life saving was even and only our murder threats and attempts are left askew from one another.
Regina furrowed her brow and laughed as she shook her head, a quiet laugh lacing her tone, "very askew. I don't recall once going after your life."
David placed his hands on his hips and opened his mouth to answer with an amused smile but found his mind was empty of examples and he had to face a Regina who was having too much fun with the conversation as a smirk played on her mouth and she cocked her head with a raised eyebrow waiting for an answer she knew he didn't have, "huh."
"That's what I thought," she laughed and shook her head in amusement.
"Well I apologize for accusing you of trying to kill me."
"Thank you dear."
"But there were all those times you went after Snow so," he shrugged his shoulders and breathed in through his teeth.
"Well that was her own fault. Had nothing to do with you," she smirked and slowly sucked the flavour of the chicken off her finger, her smirk only growing in to a toothy grin when a look of lust flashed over David's face. "We need a photo for Henry!" She exclaimed and pushed herself back on to her feet while David snapped back in to reality.
"Who is Henry? And what is a...photo?"
Regina and David laughed quietly as he pulled out his phone, "Henry is my son and a photograph is sort of like a painting only it can be painted, or taken rather, instantly and it looks exactly as it should. Here," she smiled and took the phone from David and took a picture of him laughing at them before turning around and walking up to Anton and on to his hands, "can you see?"
"Whoa! That's insane!" He grinned and squinted at David's face on the small glowing rectangle Regina presented him, "where did you get that!?"
"They're a common possession in the land we have been living in, practically everyone owns some form of camera," she smiled at him and then jumped down before tossing the phone back to David, "do you mind if we take your photo? Perhaps even a video?"
"What is a video?"
"It is a moving photo," David answered happily and Anton's face brightened with a new curiosity and he started a video, "hey kid!"
"Hello Henry!" Regina waved with a grin to the camera and settled against Anton's hand.
"We made it up to the top! And after a little bit if a misunderstanding we have befriended Anton! Oh one second," he laughed and then jogged backwards with his head turned so he could see behind him and not trip. When Anton's head was almost entirely visible in the screen and Regina was but a small shadow he stopped, "the giant living at the top of the beanstalk. Say hello Anton."
"To the box?"
"Yes," he laughed and with a quizzical stare he obliged.
"Hello box," it resulted in both David and Regina laughing and then he too started to laugh, "oh no wait I was supposed to say hello to the kid wasn't I? Oops, sorry! Hello Henry, I'm new to this. Do these moving picture videos remember the sound too?" He was answered with a nod from Regina, "like all sounds?"
"Yes all sounds," she laughed quietly and nodded as she folded her arms across her chest.
"How old is Henry?"
"He is almost eleven."
"Well I would imagine that a ten, almost eleven year old boy would love to see a giant giant's room full of gold," Anton grinned and Regina laughed a low hearty laugh that had him laughing with her.
"Oh yes I would have to agree."
...
"Look at the sky!" She whispered and ran to the edge of the stone edge to look at the clouds. They were above the clouds they were so high and now that the sun had sunk beneath them they had changed colour in to variations of pinks so that it looked like a quilt covering the earth beneath them, a continuation of the stone she stood upon as some of the clouds licked the edge around her feet.
"It's beautiful isn't it," Anton smiled as he stopped behind her and David stopped beside her, "I like it when it's orange."
"It's amazing," she smiled out at the colourful horizon and then turned her head to look at David to instead find the camera pointed at herself. She smiled a little and cocked her head at him but he only smiled wider, "take a picture of the sky David," she laughed quietly and looked back out in front of them.
After another breathtaking moment of the short video he ended it and switched it back so it would take a picture instead and proceeded to take a picture of the clouds before taking one of her. He waited to push the shutter button until she gave in to the smile that started curling her lips when out of the corner of her eye she saw him return the camera back to her. When white teeth were visible beneath soft pink lips as she bowed her head a little and breathed out a laugh he took the picture quickly so as not to miss the soft beauty that she kept many from seeing. A stunning sight just as her bold and striking beauty was that she couldn't help but show.
"It's cold up here," she whispered but did nothing about it, simply turned her head to look back out at the clouds.
"Altitude," David smiled and she nodded with a playful smirk because she knew the answer and was just speaking her thoughts. She paid no attention to his movement when he shrugged out of his leather jacket for she seemed to be lost in thought and was startled when he placed the heavy jacket on her small shoulders. She tried to step out of it but he kept it in place with his hands on her shoulders and a smile on his face, "just take it Regina."
It was the gesture that caught her by surprise and made her uncomfortable not the warmth his heavy jacket provided. It had been a long time since a man had removed his jacket and given it to her, sacrificing his comfort for her own. She didn't quite know what to do with herself. The way he looked over her with a soft smile and a slightly cocked head lead her to believe that he knew exactly why she was struggling and that made her all the more uncomfortable.
But the jacket was warm...and it smelled like him...
"Thank you," she whispered and dropped her eyes down and away from his as she slowly slipped her arms through the oversized sleeves.
"Of course," he whispered his reply and rubbed her back between her shoulder blades, "anytime," he didn't think such a simple common act would make her stumble and leave her so stuck. With further thought however he found that if she had reacted in any other way than she had then it would have been odd. Poor woman was running backwards and and upside down when all she really wanted to do was run forward and right side up. She just didn't know how.
"Oh I forgot that you guys are so small," Anton frowned as he lowered himself on to his knees, "you get colder faster."
"Quite alright," Regina smiled and hugged the large jacket closed around herself as she twisted at the waist to look up at the giant, her hands covered by the long sleeves, "we've lived through so much worse than a little chill in the air."
"Even still I should probably take you guys back inside where there at least wont be a breeze...I've got a few small crates and I know I've got a few beds in my collection of human sized objects. I could make you a room. Or a room for each of you if you'd prefer that?"
The pair remained silent at the offer, the both of them wanting the same thing but both unwilling to admit to themselves let alone in front of the other. So Regina compromised with a deal, "if David can catch me before I make it back to the dining room table then I think we can manage with one bed," she gave a devious grin to Anton who grinned right back and then without another word she turned around quickly and gave David a hard shove sending him stumbling backward with a panicked yelp over the edge and in to the clouds only to shoot right back up again and land back on the stone with comical grace.
"What the fuck Regina!?" He bellowed, his angry voice shaky with terror as was the rest of his body while his fingers dug in to the stone and he ignored the ache in his knees because of his weight on the hard cold rock.
Regina laughed and Anton laughed loudly behind her, entirely amused by the shaking prince, "minor manipulation of a boundary spell," she chuckled down at him, "oh that was satisfying."
"What!?"
"You'll never fall David. The spell keeps you from leaving except for down the beanstalk."
"But did you know that for sure!? Did you know one hundred percent, without a doubt in your god damn twisted mind that you weren't about to just kill me!?"
"Yes," she laughed and Anton continued to laugh loudly behind her from deep in his belly.
"How the fuck could you have possibly known that!?"
"Because I know what it feels like to be trapped by this spell," she answered simply and his eyes met hers for the first time since the shove, "now do you want one bed or two?"
"I can't feel my legs but I swear to god Regina I'm going to push you off the edge with plenty of doubts that it will catch you!" He pushed himself to his feet and after a few stumbles he was running as fast as ever after the laughing brunette still wearing his oversized jacket.