Chapter Thirteen
Regina fidgeted nervously with her napkin as she sat in the diner with Tink. Tink had seemed a little too relieved for Regina's liking when Snow informed her she would only have one charge that day, and while Regina had enjoyed sitting and reading in the library while Tink helped Belle again, she couldn't help that her mind kept wandering back to the clock tower and all that had occurred the night before – the alcohol, the kissing and the magic. Mostly the kissing.
When lunchtime had rolled around, Tink had brought Regina back to the diner. Since they didn't have Emma's car, they had walked, and Regina couldn't help but notice all the odd looks she received along the way.
"Did you know me before?" Regina asked, startling Tink, since she had been so quiet up until this point.
Tink looked at her across the booth. "I've know you for a very long time, long before Storybrooke."
"When I was the Evil Queen?" Regina asked.
"Who told you about that?"
"David."
Tink rolled her eyes. "Figures. No, I knew you before that."
"Oh," Regina nodded.
"Look, don't worry about any of that, okay? It was a long time ago and you're not that person anymore, and you're certainly not that person right now. Just try to relax, and enjoy being young again, okay?"
"Okay," Regina agreed, just as an unfamiliar man walked up to their booth. This man, however, didn't have the same look on his face as the rest of the town people she had encountered.
"Regina?" he asked, looked at her, astonished.
Regina looked at Tink, nervously.
"Regina, this is Robin," Tink said, smiling. "He's… well, he's your boyfriend."
Regina's heart skipped a beat. She remembered Emma saying she had a boyfriend. And she remembered how that boyfriend had a baby on the way with another woman. This was all too much. She wished Emma was here.
"Hello," Regina said, politely, as Robin slid into the booth next to her. Unconsciously, she moved away a bit.
"David told me about what happened with you and Emma," Robin said, shaking his head in disbelief, "but seeing you in person, Regina, this is so bizarre."
Regina just stared, unsure what to say or do. He was her boyfriend, but she hoped that didn't mean he expected her to kiss him. She didn't even remember him. If Emma were here she'd know what to say or do. She'd step in with some profanity or witty comment and Robin would leave and Regina would be able to breathe again.
But Emma wasn't here, so Regina looked to Tink instead, her eyes wide with apprehension.
"She doesn't remember you," Tink said, and Regina was mildly relieved that the fairy seemed to pick up on her nervousness.
"Ah," Robin nodded, "alright. I'll be on my way, Regina, I don't want to upset you."
"Thank you," Regina said, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She had been there when Emma ran into her boyfriend, and Emma had known exactly how to handle it. Why had her mother had to shelter her so much? She spent so much time and effort grooming Regina to be a Queen, that she forgot to teach her how to interact with regular people.
"How long will she be like this?" Robin asked Tink. Tink just shrugged, and Robin sighed and walked away.
"Emma said Robin has a child on the way with another woman," Regina said, quietly, once Robin had left the diner.
"How would Emma know that?" Tink sighed, rolling her eyes.
Regina shrugged. "I think Henry told her."
"Well, either Henry doesn't know the whole story, or Emma doesn't. It's true, but it's not what you think, Regina," Tink said.
"Emma said I don't need 'baby mama drama' in my life," Regina continued.
"Can we talk about something other than what Emma thinks?" Tink asked, "like maybe what you think?"
"I don't know what to think," Regina admitted. "You don't like Emma, do you?"
"Adult Emma? Yes. She's a wonderful, kind, caring person. This teenage version? Not so much. She's conniving and manipulative. Thank goodness she grows out of it, at some point, because if this was our savior…" Tink let her voice trail off.
"I don't think she's conniving and manipulative," Regina said, defensively.
Tink smiled. "You're free to think whatever you want to think, that's the beauty of this realm."
Regina nodded, and went back to picking at her lunch. She didn't care for the diner food on a good day, and on a day like today when she missed Emma and just wanted to tell her about meeting Robin and how awkward it was, she really had no appetite.
"You okay?" Tink asked.
"I don't feel so good," Regina said. It wasn't really a lie. She didn't feel well, at all.
"You look pale," Tink commented. "Let's go back to your house."
Regina shook her head. "Can I go back to Snow and David's house? Please?"
Tink sighed, and nodded. She knew that Snow wanted Regina and Emma to spend some time apart, but she figured with Granny there, and Regina clearly not feeling well, Emma wasn't going to be able to get Regina into very much trouble this afternoon anyway.
She used magic to poof them back into the loft, and Emma and Granny both looked up, surprised, at the commotion. Granny stood, as Emma still had Neal on her lap, and walked over.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Regina's not feeling well," Tink said.
Granny nodded, and placed her hand on Regina's forehead. "You don't feel warm," she commented. Regina looked like she was about to cry. "Why don't you head upstairs and lie down? It's probably the alcohol from last night.
Tink shot a glare over at Emma, who rolled her eyes. "She had one shot. She's not hungover."
"Go, child," Granny said, ushering Regina toward the stairs.
Granny and Tink chatted for a few minutes by the door, while Emma bounced her brother on her knee, impatiently, waiting for Granny to come and take him back.
"Can I go check on her, please?" Emma asked, after Tink had left and Granny returned to her side on the couch. "She's not sick, she's upset. I can tell."
Granny nodded and took Neal back, after Emma gave him one last hug. Emma then headed off towards the stairs, taking them two at a time until she reached the top.
Regina was on the bed, on top of the covers, curled up in a little ball, her back to Emma. Emma sighed as she saw Regina's shoulders shaking, and walked over. "Hey," she whispered, as she climbed onto the bed behind her, and scooted up close to her, wrapping her arms around her. "Wanna tell me what's really going on?"
Regina wiped the tears from her cheeks quickly. "Nothing. I'm fine. The food at the diner just makes me feel sick."
"You know," Emma said, lifting one hand to stroke Regina's soft, dark hair, "I have this kind of superpower, and I can always tell when someone is lying. And right now, you are being a lying liar. What happened?"
Regina took a shaky breath, and rolled so she could face Emma. Emma smiled, and kept running her fingers through Regina's hair. "I met my boyfriend at the diner today."
Emma's smile faded. "And?"
"And… I don't know. He was just like any other person, I suppose. I didn't feel anything towards him, because I don't even know him, but… he's supposed to be my boyfriend. And one day I'm going to be an adult again and I'm going to remember him. But you like me and I like you and…"
"And you're afraid of what's going to happen when we're not sixteen anymore?" Emma guessed. It wasn't hard to guess, since she'd been worrying about the same thing.
"Yes. What if I remember him and I'm in love. And what if you remember your boyfriend and you're in love?"
"Well, what if we both remember and decide we're not in love with them?" Emma countered. "There's no way to know what's going to happen, Regina, and there's no way to know how long we're going to be like this, either. You can't spend your whole life worrying about what's going to happen next. Not everything is going to result in disaster, you know."
"But most things do," Regina pointed out.
"This doesn't have to," Emma replied. "We can make a pact, right now, to live like we're just sixteen, and there's no spell on us, and when we grow back up, we can decide then what we want to do. Maybe we'll want to return to our old lives, or maybe we won't. There's no way to know, so it's not worth worrying about."
Regina nodded, slowly, considering it. "I was worried that he was going to want me to kiss him, but I only wanted to kiss you," Regina said, finally, her cheeks flushing at the admission.
Emma smiled. "Good. Because I only want to kiss you," she agreed, as she leaned forward again. The kiss was long – much longer than any they had shared before – and Emma couldn't help but notice how good Regina was getting at kissing, considering this was only her fourth kiss, ever. She was a natural, and Emma liked that.
She wondered what her parents would think, if they knew they were letting her share a bed with the girl she was kissing. She wondered what they would think if they knew she was kissing a girl at all. For once, she actually didn't want to get caught, because this thing that she and Regina shared was so deeply personal and intimate and she didn't want it to be destroyed.
Not everything good had to be destroyed, right?
She thought about the man she had met on the boat a few days ago. The man who had given rum to a minor. She thought about Regina's boyfriend who was clearly screwing around on her. She was reasonably sure neither of them were going to choose those men over each other. How could they?
She was sure this wouldn't end in disaster. She wouldn't let it.
Granny had said she wasn't doing her adult self any favours, but Emma had to disagree. She was sure that starting a relationship with Regina was the best favour she could do for her adult self at this time.
When they finally broke off the kiss, Emma and Regina just stayed there for a while, looking into each other eyes.
"Eyes don't change, you know," Emma said, finally.
"What?" Regina asked.
"When you grow up, your face changes, your skin changes, your hair might change, but eyes… they always stay the same," Emma explained.
Regina nodded. "So, what you're saying is, once we're back to our normal selves, and everything is different, our eyes will still be the same?"
"Exactly. No matter what age we are, we can lie like this and look into the same eyes. It's kind of comforting to think about, isn't it?"
Regina smiled. "It actually is," she agreed.
"That's how we'll know what to do. When this is all over, if we can look into each other eyes and feel the same way that we feel now, then we know."
"I can't imagine not feeling this way," Regina admitted.
"Me either," Emma agreed, and she leaned forward to kiss Regina again.
They only had about an hour before Snow returned from work and Henry returned from school. Emma wanted to get in as much kissing as possible before then, and Regina didn't seem to have any objection to that.
Emma broke away from Regina's lips and rolled onto her back when she heard the door open downstairs. Regina looked a little flustered as she tried to straighten her hair, and Emma couldn't help but laugh.
"Don't worry," Emma said, rolling her eyes, "none of them are going to suspect that we just spent an hour making out, I promise."
Emma listened as her mother talked to Granny for a few minutes, before calling the girls back down stairs.
"How are you feeling now, Regina?" Snow asked, as the girls reached the bottom of the stairs. Emma rolled her eyes as Snow put her hand on Regina's forehead, which earned her a warning look from Granny.
"Better, now," Regina nodded, smiling. "I just needed a rest."
"I see," Snow said, before turning to Emma. "Granny says you were very well-behaved today."
Emma rolled her eyes again. Her mother seemed to have a knack for talking to her like she was six. Or a dog. "She made me do chores, and I did them," Emma shrugged.
"Good," Snow said, smiling.
"I don't want me and Regina to be separated again tomorrow," Emma said, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest.
"You know that wasn't a punishment, right?"
"Either way, it's not fair to separate us," Emma insisted.
"Fine. Don't sneak out tonight and I won't separate you tomorrow," Snow bargained.
"I thought it wasn't a punishment?" Emma retorted.
"Today, it wasn't. Tomorrow, it might be," Snow replied.
Granny shot Emma another warning look, before heading out for the day. Emma decided against challenging her mother further, at this point. It had been a long time since she'd had something that she didn't want to be taken away from her, and she certainly didn't want to be punished by having to be separated from Regina again tomorrow. It had been far worse on Regina, though Snow didn't know that, and she didn't want that to happen again.
Regina needed her around. She wouldn't sneak out tonight.
She was pretty sure she and Regina could find better ways to pass their time, anyway.