Sorry guys! Lol I'm pretty sure I start almost every update with saying I'm sorry but whatever lol! I've got no internet or service where I'm at this week but I'm doing my best to get a bunch written while I'm gone so that I can update steadily when I'm back. Happy reading! Please leave a review!

It was strange to be talking to him but not have it be him. He looked exactly the same and sounded exactly the same but it wasn't her David. It was unsettling to have the man so close. The man who had left his Snow for the queen. It was intimidating.

"What made you stay at the castle after Regina told you you could go?"

"Well I did leave. I left to go find Snow but her voice echoed through my head. Bits and pieces of various arguments and fights over Regina and whether or not she could change. It was incessant and got louder with every step I took away from the palace grounds. So I turned around and went back. I was furious about it but I went back. I had also forgotten my sword so I had to get that too," he tried to joke but Snow only gave him a little hum in return as a tried laugh.

"...But why did you stay?"

"I stayed because I was intrigued. I saw many glimpses of the woman Snow had talked about. They were short lived of course, as glimpses are, but they were vivid and mesmerizing. You couldn't help but want to make those glimpses more frequent and last longer."

"You never fought?" Snow shook her head in disbelief and the king laughed and shook his head.

"We fought more often than we breathed," he laughed and sat back in his chair, "we nearly killed one another on several occasions. But when I stopped fighting her...she didn't know what to do with herself. It was tender and sad. It took her a long time to figure out that being herself was safe. That she didn't have to fight all the time and that she could relax and just be. It was amazing to witness."

"I wish I had seen that," Snow admitted softly under her breath as she picked at her nails. The king didn't say a word and patiently waited for her next question. She still didn't have her answer though, "what made you choose her over Snow?"

"That question does not have an easy answer."

"Answer it anyway," she requested quietly and he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It was not quite a decision. I never sat down and weighed out the options of both women. What I had with Snow I thought was perfect. I thought for certain that there was nothing that could tear us apart. I thought I loved her with every fibre of my being but I didn't know that that wasn't true. I loved her to the greatest capacity that I could at the time. What I didn't know at the time was that perfect things are not always perfect and sometimes it takes something so entirely imperfect to make you see what is truly perfect.

While it is true that many people build a relationship upon happiness, it always seems to be the ones forged in grief that run deeper and last longer. You can share happiness and excitement all you wish but you cannot deny the power of someone being able to share your misery or even simply listening to your misery. Hearing it does nothing. But listening can mean the world to someone. Regina was screaming. She was hurting and she was angry and we all heard her. A deaf man could hear her cries. But it was only a little boy on the road that listened to her. One boy with kind heart full of faith in the Evil Queen. In less than twelve hours he convinced her to lock away her poisoned apple. In less than a week he got her to release her most valuable prisoner. Then he taught the that stubborn and vengeful man how to listen to the queen.

It took a long time but I learned. Every word meant something else, every gesture was tight with distrust and anger and exhaustion, every expression was a mask, there wasn't an honest thing about that woman until you learned what language she spoke. She was hurting and I tapped in to that in a matter of days when I gave her no escape. Her miserable reaction to the idea of intimacy shook me harder than I truly realized.

Falling in love with her was a slow process. So slow that I didn't even notice until it was far too late to ever turn back. I used to miss Snow all the time. Everyday. But over the months I was at the castle my thoughts on Snow dissipated until they only occurred when I felt guilty about thinking so much on Regina. It was never the plan to fall in love with her. The plan was to get her comfortable in her own skin and then bring her and Snow back together. But everything just sort of swung in a new direction.

But to answer your question I did not decide to love Regina instead of Snow. My love for Regina simply outgrew and overshadowed the love for Snow that I once thought was incomparable. Regina fulfilled me more than I ever thought possible and when I went to go and find Snow to see if what I was feeling for the queen was just simply caused by the fact that I hadn't had the company of any other woman for months, I ended up turning around and going back to the home I had made in the palace with the queen and her loyal little boy."

Snow nodded but she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye. It was hard hearing David's voice tell her he loved Regina more than he loved her. She knew it wasn't her David but it was his voice. And she couldn't help but draw countless parallels between the king's stories and what had been happening there in Storybrooke.

"Do you think that it was an inevitable affair," she asked carefully and tried to keep her tone as relaxed and open as possible. When she looked up at the king he wasn't about to say anything. He was thinking and he was watching her with a frown and his brow gently creased with his intense thought.

"I think that I am tired of weaving through your labyrinth of a mind and would very much appreciate it if you would start being more straightforward," he told her plainly but kindly and she huffed and say back in her chair. They were in the park at a small iron wrought table with a chess board on its top. Not many people had come by and no one had sat at any of the adjacent tables since they had arrived. It really was the perfect place for such conversations.

"I just want to know what the relationship is between David and Regina here."

"Why not ask your husband himself?"

"Because I am afraid of the answer," she laughed worriedly as stress tainted her voice, "I am afraid he is going to tell me that he has fallen for Regina just as you fell for yours!"

"And if he has?"

"I don't know!" She cried out and then shook her head with a nervous laugh and quieted her voice, "I don't know. But he...he spends so much time over at that house and you are always there and I just..."

"Wanted me to tell you what was going on when you weren't present," he finished for her and she dropped her shoulders.

"Yes."

"I am not your spy, Snow."

"No, I know that, I just...I'm panicking. I don't want to lose him but I feel that I already have," she pleaded and he let out a long and tired breath.

"I cannot speak for your David, Snow. I do not know the extent of his feelings for Regina but I do know that he loves her dearly. Now if that love extends past friendship, I am not at liberty to say. However I do hope you realize and take the time to understand that together the both of them were at an incredibly low point in their lives, if not the lowest, and they took the time to build the other back up alone. It was hard and it was slow but they did it. They brought one another up out of their mutual grief and exhaustion and that trust and closeness will never go away. Even if he remains at your side up until the day he dies, his love and fondness for your queen will never go away.

She will always be important to him, she will always be dear to him. After all she has done for him you cannot ask him to feel otherwise. She was good for him and he was good for her. What becomes of it now is truly beyond your control. At this point they are either going to find themselves enveloped in an overwhelming love found in the safety and warmth of one another or they will try and simply restrict it to a friendship closer than any other friendship they may have had in the past."

"...But you believe it is inevitable that he will choose her?"

"Honestly?"

"...Yes."

"I do."

...

He was never going to get tired of looking at her and today was no exception as he stood in the doorway of her office with a shoulder leaning against the doorframe. She stood by her desk with perfect posture that accentuated every flawless curve of her body. Her tall black heels only helped with that matter. A tight black pencil skirt and a rich green silk shirt tucked in to it with a silver buckled belt around her waist. He liked that she was wearing more colour now.

She was reading something and whatever it was it was causing her to purse her lips and furrow her brow in displeasure. That only made him smile. She was stunning and powerful and independent. She didn't need him but she chose to have him in her life and that made him happy beyond compare.

So with his smile still in place he pushed himself off the doorframe and began walking toward her. The movement had her attention switching to him and after a moment she smiled back at him and then laughed and looked back at the papers in her hand.

"What are you grinning at?" She chuckled and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth to stifle a laugh when he rocked her back and forth a little with his lazy and heavy movements of wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her back in to him as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Everything," he grinned as he turned his head to press his nose to her cheek as she laughed and hugged one arm around herself and his arms so her fingers could intertwine with his over her side.

"Is that so?" She laughed as she turned her head a little to try and look at him.

"Absolutely," he grinned and kissed the corner of her mouth, bringing a happy laugh from those red lips as she let him hold her, "it can't go wrong when I'm in your company."

Regina laughed again with a shake of her head as she dropped the papers on the desk and he kissed her neck, "I am starting to wonder if you've done something wrong," she chuckled and turned around in his arms, "and you are sucking up to me in hopes that I won't get as angry."

"If that were the case I would at the very least give you mind blowing sex first and then tell you while you were all dazed and hazy like you get so that you wouldn't quite hear me properly," he teased and she grinned wider than he had ever seen as she laughed low in her throat.

"You've just got this all planned out, haven't you," she laughed and he grinned right back and hugged her closer to him.

"Oh you have no idea," he laughed and the kissed those perfect lips, "I have a cooling method for every level of anger you may have," he told her playfully and then kissed her again. And again. Her laughter was muffled against his mouth and when he stopped it was only so he could hear it clearly and uninterrupted. It was music to his ears.

"You're an idiot," she laughed and he simply grinned wider.

"I am taking that as a compliment," he teased and she laughed some more.

"How did things go at the school today?" She inquired with a chuckle and a nod and he shrugged a shoulder as he looked her figure up and down.

"The teachers were quite happy to listen to the fearsome mayor's dispatched right hand man," he nodded and she raised her eyebrows with a smirk and a laugh that said 'oh my right hand, hey?', "with the threat of her mother bear temper, it seems they will do anything to appease her," he grinned playfully and hooked a finger beneath the silver chain of her necklace and dragged the simple diamond pendant back and forth.

"Even listening to boring speeches from her 'right hand man'?" She teased and he laughed.

"It would seem so, yes," he chuckled as he moved his fingers to the buttons on her shirt and began to open them one by one as he spoke and she listened as though he wasn't undressing her in the middle of her office, "I could have had them dancing the hokey pokey for a whole day straight and they wouldn't so much as question it if it meant you wouldn't come storming on to the property with the fire of a thousand suns," he laughed with an open grin and she laughed with him as his fingers opened lower buttons.

"Don't be ridiculous, Charming," she laughed and her belly grew warm and fluttery with his dropping hands, "where would I get a thousand suns on such short notice?"

"Oh yes, how foolish of me," he shook his head and they both laughed and continued to do so when he leaned down and kissed her. They were both smiling through their kiss and laughing where they could as her soft hands cradled his face and his pulled the shirt from the waist of her skirt so he could open the last of the buttons. Damn he loved this woman. She made him so happy and as his fingers moved over her soft skin and firm muscles, he couldn't think of any place he would rather be.

When his mouth fell to her neck she lolled her head back with a grin and a quiet laugh, "quiet day at the sheriff's station?" She teased and let herself enjoy as he did as her pleased with her.

"Very much so," he breathed and kissed her neck again, "and what of the mayor's office?"

"Well things are starting to pick up for the better," she smirked and then grinned a grin that was all teeth as he laughed and nipped at the side of her neck.

...

Red had every intention to go look for Snow when she skipped down the diner stairs and tugged at the collar of her jacket. But her focus was deterred by a queen leaning against her beloved red car. Her beloved red car with a creepy ass gnome on top of it, "what...are you doing?" She questioned with a furrowed brow as she walked slowly down the last couple steps and across to her car.

"I want to know what this is."

"It's a gnome..."

"What is its purpose?"

"To decorate lawns if you're in to that sort of thing."

"Well that is odd and disappointing."

"What did you think it was?"

"I wasn't sure. But I was hoping for something a little more interesting than a horrid ornament."

"Right...and why exactly have you brought it to me?"

"Well, your dear mayor is busy and my husband is still nowhere to be found and I was walking down the street when I saw this ghastly little creature and couldn't help but ponder on how entertaining it would be to animate it and have it shadow the likes of your world's King George," she sighed out plainly as she looked at the gnome with the terrifying smile and a pair of hedge clippers. Then she looked innocently back at the werewolf and was quite happy to see the girl fight a smirk as mischief sparked in her eyes.

"I see," she quirked her head with a smirk that was just dying to be let free, "and you were hoping I would know where to find George?"

"Do you?"

"I do," she nodded and then there was a pause and when the queen let a mischievous grin spread across her mouth, Red was quite thrilled to copy it as she walked to her car with a little more enthusiasm than before.

...

"What do you mean someone stole your Gerald?" Emma frowned in to her cell phone as she walked down the sidewalk, "a gnome? Someone stole your gnome?" She furrowed her brow and tried not to sigh at the distraught elderly woman on the other end of the phone call, "yes, right, of course. I'll keep an eye out...mhm...yes I am sure it will turn up. He, yes, sorry, I'm sure he will turn up at some point. I'll be sure to deliver the proper punishment to the person that stole your gnome. Gerald. Sorry. I'll look in to it. Have a nice afternoon," she nodded with a strained smile and quickly hung up before more questions could be asked.

"How in the hell did she get my cell phone number?" Emma sighed irritably to herself and paused mid step when she saw a very porcelain looking gnome waddle out of the alley in front of her and proceed to waddle across the street while snipping its hedge cutters. "What in the hell?" She breathed as she slowly walked forward after the gnome. This magic thing...she was never going to get used to it.

"Oh, shit! No!" Red panicked under her breath with a laugh as she hopped out of the alley and pulled Emma in. Emma yelped and thrashed but Red quickly put a hand over the blonde's mouth as she laughed and told her to be quiet.

"Well if you let her see your face perhaps she wouldn't continue trying to dismember you," the queen drawled out with a smirk on her lips. At the sound of her voice, Emma immediately stopped fighting. Regina couldn't tell if it was because she simply recognized the voice or had trust in her mayor that she wouldn't harm her. Either way it pleased the queen.

As soon as Emma stilled, Red let go of her with an apologetic smile as Emma turned around with a displeased scowl, "sorry, Em."

"What are you two even doing?" Emma shook her head as she looked between the pair of brunettes and then focused on the queen, "and you! Why the hell is there a gnome walking around Storybrooke?!"

"Why not?" The queen shrugged with a wide smirk and Red laughed quietly beside her.

"Because it's an inanimate object that should remain inanimate!"

"Well for all we know, it could have been a live creature that was affected by your mayor's Dark Curse more severely than the rest of this town. Or when the curse broke, his body was taken from him and he was returned to that terrifying garden gnome," she reasoned with a shrug and Red was trying with all her might not to burst out laughing. Emma simply stared at her entirely unimpressed.

"So what you're telling me is that you are going from house to house stealing people's garden gnomes and bring them to life on the theory that they are all actually people trapped by magic."

"No but it is a grand excuse don't you think?" She purred and then grinned and Red finally let her laugh be heard quietly.

Alright, fine. She couldn't help it. An amused smile started to curve her lips and the queen lifted her chin ever so slightly in approval, "what are you doing with the gnome, Regina?" Emma asked again but this time her tone was lighter and was laced with laughter. Surely her antics were harmless if Red was participating.

...

"I want to take you out tonight," he told her as he watched her put on the green silk of her shirt. He sat on the couch in her office and she stood before him in nothing but her bra and panties and an unbuttoned silk shirt. Her hair was tousled and her lipstick smeared and mostly kissed off. He loved the look of her after sex. He loved the look of her before and during sex too but there was something special about seeing her after he had his way with her and before she cleaned herself up to her ordinarily pristine appearance. And she was his.

"Mmmm. And how are you going to manage that," she purred as she walked toward him with a sway in her hips, "when we are still a secret?" She finished with a smirk and when his hands ghosted over her bare thighs, she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth with a playful grin and moved so she was kneeling on the couch and straddling his lap. She hummed and laughed lightly when he grinned at the change.

Her pelvis was against his chest as she lifted her arms above her head and let her crossed hands fall behind her head. He didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to press soft wet kisses to her toned stomach and let his hands grow a little heavier as the roamed over soft skin and slippery silk panties. If he wasn't careful he was going to end up getting them both fired up again for another round. "I'll think of something," he smiled and then nipped as her sternum just below her black bra.

Another long and satisfied hum rumbled low in her throat in response as she let her eyes flutter shut, "I am looking forward to it."

Then the door handle twisted.

David's kisses stopped at the sound and panic settled quickly in her chest and for a moment she doubted that she had locked the office before starting with David. Someone walking in on her half naked and straddling David's lap was the very last thing either of them needed right now. But despite the jostling of the handle, the door remained shut.

She let out a breath of relief with a smile that matched and David gave a quiet breath of laughter with her and his smile only seemed to grow when George's irate voice was heard on the other side.

"Regina open the door."

"It's locked for a reason, George," she called back in annoyance and he tried the handle again. She moved to get up and get dressed but was stopped by David's grip holding her there and when she looked down she gave him a curious smile at his grin.

When she settled and sat on his lap with her knees still on either side of his hips, he gave a light laugh and leaned in closer as she cocked her head with a growing smile, "I want to enjoy this."

"Enjoy what?" She laughed softly as his hands moved slowly and appreciatively up her sides beneath her open shirt.

"Turning on George in the fullest and most satisfying way," he grinned and she didn't quiet understand but she let him kiss her anyway.

"Regina."

David only grinned against her mouth at George's impatient call of her name. He slid closer to the edge of the couch so that she could remain sitting on his lap with her mouth at his level but now their bodies were pressed together and he loved that. "I can think of no better way to spite that man than to kiss his most hated enemy and take her beautiful body all for myself," he told her quietly against her lips and she grinned and laughed.

"Petty."

"Perhaps. But it is incredibly satisfying," he grinned even wider and then listened to her laugh a little more before he kissed those perfect lips. She was right. It was completely and entirely petty and childish but it was one of the best feelings he had ever felt. George stood angry on the other side of the door while David ignored him and kissed this woman and moved his hands over her soft skin and beautiful figure. The foolish and furious king had caused him so much grief in his life and there were not many people that David hated but George was certainly on the list. And indulging in this treachery against him like this was gratifying beyond belief.

And it seemed Regina was all to happy to oblige as she encouraged him to kiss her harder and deeper. Which in turn had his grip tightening around her, one hand on her thigh and the other on her ribs just below her breast. "You are amazing," he breathed and then kissed her again as she held his head between her hands.

"If you make it quick, I'll come for you before I let him in," she told him quickly and quietly between kisses and he paused for a moment before the widest of grins spread over his mouth. There wasn't a chance that she would deny this playful and spiteful behaviour from him. It was good for him and him pulling a page out of her books was a turn on like no other. She may be selfish about a lot of things but sexual pleasure was certainly not one of them.

Any sexual fantasy, no matter how small or recently concocted, was worth playing out if it made her partner happy. So she grinned right back and when he gave her one final questioning look to make sure she meant what she said, she gave him a quiet laugh and he dove in for a more hungry and fierce kiss that she found herself having to focus to keep up.

...

George was irritated enough by the time he had gotten to her office and now that he was locked outside of it he was absolutely livid. He had driven here in hopes of losing the damn gnome and he believed he had been successful. But as he turned around to try and entertain himself with his surroundings, he jumped and swore when the unnecessarily eery face of the gnome was focused on him. It's head was cocked and it's smile looked stretched and it had its shears up and poised in what looked to be preparation for a murder.

He hated this damn gnome.

"Regina!" He turned and growled at the door but his snarl dissipated in to confusion when he was answered with a sudden but muffled cry. He stepped closer to the door to try and figure out what the lingering sound was but all he could hear were quiet swears and low laughter. Someone was in there with her but before he could gather more than the impression that she was having sex, his focus was caught by David's voice behind him.

"What brings you here?" David smiled as he walked back toward Regina's office door after she had poofed him out of it. He couldn't resist seeing the look on George's face at the news that Regina had a partner. Even if the man didn't know it was him, it was still satisfying as hell.

George looked the shepherd king up and down with a scowl and then glanced around the space in search of the wretched gnome that had been following him all afternoon. It was nowhere to be seen and that made him uneasy. "That isn't your concern, shepherd," he replied bitterly but David merely shrugged and his smile remained annoyingly in place. "You are the sheriff though. You seem to be well enough informed about the happenings of this town. Who is Regina sleeping with?"

David laughed and shook his head, "her personal life is her business."

"But there is someone."

"I've stumbled upon too many encounters to answer a truthful 'no' to that question," David nodded a little with a laugh and before a surprised George could respond, the office door swung open to reveal a very smug and put together Regina. Perfect posture, arrogant smirk, playful eyes, one hand on her hip, and the other on the door as she looked between himself and George.

"Gentlemen," she greeted with a nod and David bit back the full extent of his grin while George looked her up and down with a malicious curiosity.

"Madam Mayor," David nodded politely and she looked back to George.

"Come in," she instructed with a smile as she stepped aside and after a moment's pause, George walked in past her and David followed a couple strides behind with the same smirk plastered on his face that he was trying so hard to hide. "What is it that you needed, George? It's not exactly often that you pay me a visit."

George heard her question. But he was too preoccupied with scanning the expanse of her office for her secret suitor. But he saw no one. As he turned around to face her and answer her, he saw the gnome again and he jumped at the crazed look on its face as it stood peering around the mayor's leg with its shears slowly opening and closing. Regina furrowed her brow at the reaction and he huffed irritably as the tension returned to his jaw and he pointed, "I want to know what the hell this is about!

Regina frowned and then followed his pointing finger to her legs and when she saw what stood at her feet she hopped to the side with a startled, "oh!". With her out of the way, the gnome waddled forward toward George, its stiff knees unmoving as its kilned clay feet clinked on the marble floor of her office while its polished shears snipped at the air. George tried to avoid it but the animated gnome only followed which had her laughing, "you seem to have made an impression on it."

"Enough, Regina," he growled and she laughed in confusion.

"You think I did this?"

"Who else would?!"

"I don't know but I have been otherwise engaged. I haven't the time for such childish games," she laughed with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Yes and how do you think the people will react to their mayor spending her time fornicating in her office rather than working for the people?"

"Well I would imagine they would be lining up outside my office to try and see who is spending their time between my thighs," she replied smoothly with a friendly smile and George scowled while David brought his fingers to his mouth to help stifle his quiet laughter.

"Turn off the gnome."

"It's not my spell. My hands are unfortunately tied," that was not at all true. It was the queen's magic. She could feel it and it only had her more inclined to leave it be and let it run its course just because she found it hilarious.

"That is bullshit."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way I am afraid you are going to have to wait until the spell wears off," she drawled out pleasantly and George gave her one last hard stare before he turned on his heels and stormed off. And the gnome worthy of a horror movie quickly waddled after him.

Only when they were certain that he was gone and not going to come back did David break in to a good hearty laugh and pull her in to his side with an arm wrapped around her neck and shoulders so he could kiss her cheek as she laughed. With each passing day he was finding it harder and harder to find a flaw in this woman.