Double Trouble 17
A/N: Don't worry if you were confused by the time travel stuff in last chapter. Time IS confusing :) but I promise there is an single explanation for what's happening in Storybrooke. I meant to post this on Monday but then I wussed out because I'm kinda nervous about this chapter. At some point I broke 1000 followers for this story which is absolutely amazing, so thankyou to everyone for reading/following/reviewing!
Here's a secret for you: the original story only had about eight chapters and had a completely different reveal.
Chapter 17 'Too much'
In the hideously floral guest room at Granny's Bed and Breakfast Em sat backwards on the bed, giving Ri a beckoning look. She pulled her by the hand, stretching their arms between them and took her glasses off with one hand.
"Em, maybe we shouldn't have run away..." said Ri.
"Aren't you sick of being good all the time, Ri? It's no fun," said Em with a laugh.
Ri smiled uncertainly. "It isn't, is it."
Ri sat next to Em on the edge of the bed and they were so close their thighs were touching. So close they could see the detail of each other's eyes and feel the breath on their skin when the other spoke. Em's heart was pounding as she leaned in to give Ri a soft kiss.
"I love it when you kiss me." Ri blushed.
"How about when I touch you?" Em whispered against her lips. She trailed a hand down the delicate skin of her cheek.
"Y-yes."
Em revealed as if from nowhere a glass bottle with red writing on it and held it up to Ri's mouth. "Here. Drink this. It'll make the butterflies go away."
"Do I want that?"
They both had a hand on the bottle as Ri tipped it up to her lips to take a mouthful of the clear liquid. She swallowed with a wince and coughed roughly.
"Ugh! Em, what is it? It tastes awful."
"It'll taste better in a minute," said Em, holding it up for Ri to drink again.
Em took long swigs of the bottle herself, feeling the heat of the vodka burn her throat all the way down. It only took minutes for her to feel the buzz since she didn't weigh much and was unused to drinking. She reached down to put the bottle on the floor beside the bed and when she straightened she saw Ri's darkened eyes watching her.
"Do you want to feel good?" murmured Em.
Instead of answering Ri grabbed Em's face in both hands and quickly brought their lips together for a kiss. Em took control and opened her mouth, pressing Ri to do the same and the kiss rapidly went from fairly innocent to searing hot. They could taste the alcohol on each other and it was heady and intoxicating.
After a while, Em broke first with a gasp and began to kiss her way sloppily down Ri's neck and collarbones. Ri shivered and a wave of something started low in her hips and rolled up through her spine to her neck where Em was massaging and threading her hands through her long hair.
Em groaned. "I want to feel your hands on me."
"Em," Ri panted. "Show me what to do."
Em sat on the bed on her feet with her knees slightly splayed and had Ri sit in front of her. She unbuttoned her jeans and took Ri's hand and showed her how to touch her. The first touch sent desire racing through her veins and she let out a whimper when Ri kept it up by herself. Em kissed Ri again and unbuttoned her blouse, letting it slip half-off her shoulders before running her hands over the bare skin there.
"Is this right, Em," said Ri, watching her face carefully.
Em gasped. "Yes, yes. Don't stop, please."
Ri felt hot just from watching Em's reactions and hearing her murmur words over and over. She remembered back to the last time they'd kissed this way and snaked her hand up Em's shirt to palm her gently. She tried switching the rhythm of her other hand a little and the effect on Em was immediate.
"Oh! Yes, like that," slurred Em, closing her eyes and arching into it. "That's so good, Ri."
Ri smiled and felt Em wrap her arms around her so she could bury her face in her neck. She could feel Em's breath hot against her skin.
"Ri," gasped Em. "Can I touch you? Want you to feel it too."
Ri started placing kisses again on Em's lips and moved up to straddle Em's thighs. Em pushed the shirt fully off Ri's shoulders and slipped her arms free of the sleeves, letting the blouse fall anywhere. She ran her hands down the soft skin of Ri's back and then moved in the opposite direction from the bare skin above the girl's knees and pushed the skirt up as she went.
Em managed to break through the alcohol-soaked fog of sensations with a question in her eyes. "Ri, are you sure?"
But Ri's only answer was to kiss her deeply again. Em grabbed her by the hips and pulled her to meet her own, encouraging her to move against her as she lowered them to the bed. The blonde shifted her thigh between Ri's legs and was thrilled by the sounds she elicited, something like a gasp of pleasure and a sighed moan.
The door to the guest room slammed open with a bang, causing the girls to jump in fright. Emma, Regina, and Mary Margaret followed by Ruby burst into the room shocked by what they saw. But they were not as shocked as the teens were at being caught.
"Em!" "Ri!"
Ri's eyes went wide and she yelped when Em sat up, causing her to fall backward onto the bed. Em held her hands up in an innocent 'I didn't do it' gesture which nobody bought for a second.
"What the hell is going on here?!" said Emma angrily.
"Uh if you hafta ask that-" started Em, ever the smartass.
"I'm sorry!" blurted Ri, pressing her hands to her lips worriedly.
Emma let out a rough breath of frustration and placed her hands on her hips. She glared at the two girls on the bed, one with jeans half-off and one without a shirt on. She could smell the alcohol and sweat in the air and from the glazed look in Em's eyes it was extremely obvious to her what'd happened so far.
"Argh! I swear this is like herding cats! If it's not one or the other of you running away, it's both. Every time I turn my back you've disappeared, or stolen something, or snuck off to have sex! No wonder nobody trusts teenagers, you're IDIOTS."
Emma scrubbed her hands over her face and then peered at Regina. "If Henry gives us half this much trouble in a few years I'm gonna lose my mind."
Mary Margaret gasped in dismay, noticing what was on the floor. She picked up the half-empty bottle of vodka and looked at Ruby disapprovingly.
"You gave them alcohol?!" said Mary Margaret to her friend.
Ruby denied it defensively. "No. That is mine but I swear I didn't give it to them."
"But you gave them a room. What'd you think they were gonna get up to?" said Emma, annoyed.
Ruby sighed sympathetically. "Hey, I just - come on, don't you guys remember what it was like to be a teenager? No-one lets you do anything. I'm still not allowed to do anything."
"Perhaps there's a reason for that," pointed out Mary Margaret.
Ruby shrugged. "I took a shine to Baby Emma. She's alright. I just wanted them to have a little time to themselves. Y'know, I'm like the cool aunt or whatever."
"Ha," said Em with a sodden smirk. "Cool? You are hot."
Ri's face fell a little but nobody noticed except Regina who went over to drape the discarded blouse back over her teenage self's shoulders.
"Em, you are so incredibly in trouble right now," said Emma deadly serious, pointing at her younger self who was still trying to pull off an innocent face.
"Me?! Why you do you always assume everything is my fault? How do you know it wasn't Ri-"
"Knock it off. This has you written all over it."
Em raised her chin stubbornly. "Ri's idea. She started it."
Ri gaped incredulously. "Em, why would you say that!"
Emma narrowed her eyes and turned at Ri next, who cowered under the tone. "Oh, don't worry. You are in trouble too. You let everyone walk all over you. Stop letting Em talk you into things!"
Em butted in indignantly. "Hey-"
"You shut up," Emma rounded on her.
"I didn't talk her into it!" cried Em.
"I can smell the alcohol on her, Em!" said Emma angrily. "Were you trying to get her drunk enough to have sex? What is the matter with you! You can't just take whatever you want. How could you do that to her?"
"I would NEVER hurt her like that," insisted Em, tears pricking her eyes. "I love her!"
The air in the room slammed still like time had suddenly stopped. Every single one of them was stunned into silence by Em's accidental confession. This was extremely bad, what they'd been afraid of was already happening. The girls were falling in love with each other instead of their historical first loves. This changed everything for them and possibly everyone else.
Was their relationship causing changes in the future timeline and threatening the existence of Storybrooke - and Henry?
Ri looked dismayed so Em snuck a glance at the older Regina to see her reaction, but her expression was unreadable. The blonde teen knew how this must look, everyone knew it was her that was the troublemaker - and now, she was a callous heartbreaker as well. This would certainly cost her her only ally among the adults not to mention the girl she loved.
Ri was the first to break the silence for once, though her voice trembled. "Em. I think if you cared about how I feel you wouldn't have gotten me in trouble."
Em's stomach upended itself in sickening dread. "No. No. I never meant to-!"
When she reached out for her, Ri shrank away and held her unbuttoned blouse together with one hand. She felt self-conscious under the stares of the adults. She stood up next to Regina and kept her eyes on the floor.
The young brunette gulped in panic, murmuring to herself. "What've I done? If anyone finds out I'll be ruined."
"Please, Ri," said Em, trying not to cry. "I didn't mean to say it like that but I did mean it."
Ri's lower lip quivered and she closed her eyes. "I didn't know it could hurt this much. Please, I need to be away from here."
Regina heard the unspoken request behind the plea. She placed her palms on her younger self's shoulders and the two of them disappeared into a mist.
Mary Margaret's apartment, the next morning
"Ri certainly picked a hell of a time to finally stand up for herself," said Emma, despondently eying her hot chocolate which was rapidly cooling. "What a mess."
Emma and Mary Margaret glanced in the direction of the open bedroom where Em was still lying on the bed on her side, she wasn't asleep but she had her eyes closed. The teen was hugging the skyblue riding jacket that Ri had been wearing when she'd first arrived in Storybrooke. They'd never seen Em so quiet and subdued - normally she could fill a room with her wacky charm and boisterous energy.
"I feel bad for them both," said Mary Margaret softly. "Maybe we shouldn't have tried to keep them apart. All we've done is made things worse."
"Em brought this on herself."
"Emma," sighed Mary Margaret. "She made a mistake. I don't think she meant to hurt Ri."
"I know. But Ri isn't from this world, she's a frightened young girl who doesn't understand what's happening half the time. If I have to protect her from myself I will. Em has to learn that just because she can take something doesn't mean she should," insisted Emma with a frown.
"Is that what you had to learn? Because your magic lets you get away with things easily?"
Emma nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's why Em's so uncontrollable and impulsive. She's not consciously accessing her magic, things just happen to her and around her. The world bends itself to her will. Eventually I learned to calm down and figured out how to control myself, but it wasn't easy. Especially because I didn't know why."
"You realised after the curse was broken?"
"Sorta. I didn't want to believe it was real. I only realised I could consciously use magic when I helped Regina open the portal for the wraith and again when I used magic against Cora in Fairytale Land. Gold said it was because I'm the product of True Love."
"What about when ... you said there was a time you couldn't get yourself out?"
"When I went to prison and I was pregnant with Henry. I couldn't get out, for some reason I couldn't access my magic or maybe it was that I didn't want to. I'm not sure which, maybe both. I had nowhere to go anyway."
Mary Margaret gave her a searching look. "Where do you think they went? Regina and Ri."
Emma sighed. "They're at home. I hope she's ok. Apart from the fact that Ri's had her heart broken for the first time that is."
"Regina certainly knows what that's like. Who better to help her through it?"
108 Mifflin St
"Why does it hurt so much," Ri gasped.
"I don't know," said Regina softly.
She knew exactly what Ri felt and reached under the covers to place a hand on the girl's back. She'd given Ri the guest bedroom but as soon as she'd gone to bed the night before, Ri had come in and crawled into bed beside her. The teen had tried to be quiet but she'd ended up crying herself to sleep in Regina's arms and slept fitfully until morning.
Ri was sobbing. "It - it - hurts and it won't stop, it's not going away."
Regina swept Ri's long hair away from her face and laid it behind on the pillow. "I never realised other people didn't feel it that much. I feel everything strongly. I don't know why. Perhaps because Mother removed her own heart a long time ago, before I was even born."
"C-can you take out my heart? It's too much. I don't want to feel like this forever."
"I know why you're asking but you don't want that. You haven't yet seen the effect that it had on Mother. Don't ever give up your heart - not for anything. It's the only thing you truly have."
Ri started to cry again. "B-but it's full of her!"
"Em didn't mean to hurt you. Sometimes she doesn't think before she speaks or acts. She's like Emma, but at her age she has an even less developed prefrontal cortex - that's the part of your mind that is responsible for impulse control and understanding other people. She doesn't know the world you come from. She may not realise why you were hurt."
"She tried to say it was my fault that we got in trouble! I can't determine whether I did something wrong. If this happened at home and other people found out, I'd lose my reputation for certain. Such girls never get married and are shamed and scorned for life. I'd lose everything. Everyone was going to blame me and then they'd hate me like they hate you."
"They don't hate you. Your fear makes you overly cautious."
"But Emma was really mad! It must have been wrong."
"No," said Regina softly. "Emma has a slight hero-complex. She was only worried for you because she knows herself. She was afraid that Em would push you before you were ready."
"Em wouldn't do that. She said she loves me! I love her too and I wanted to be with her. But how can she care about me when she knows what I did to her - to everyone?"
"I'm not sure, but I know Emma cares about me too," Regina admitted.
Ri swiped at her wet cheeks, her chest was still wracking with little gulps from crying so much. She knew what Regina was saying was true, she had asked Em to take her away and all she'd done was grant her wish. But when they were together it had felt so overwhelming and Em had been flippant at exactly the wrong time.
Em said she loved her and the thought of it made Ri's heart fill to overflowing. It was scary though, because she wasn't brought up that way. She'd been raised and groomed for a different life. She'd dreamed of love without ever expecting it to happen to her and now that it had she wasn't sure that she could live without it again.
Mother would be furious if she knew. Ri would get in so much trouble over this and she was afraid of what the consequences would be for her disobedience. What would Mother do to Em? Probably anything to keep them as far apart as possible.
"Mother's not here," reminded Regina softly, apparently knowing just what she was thinking.
Mary Margaret looked at her daughter with concern. "Emma, you know how Em feels don't you?"
"She thinks she's alone now that she's lost them both," explained Emma.
"Maybe she thinks Ri doesn't return her feelings? Can you talk to her?"
"She doesn't want to hear from me."
Mary Margaret pleaded with her whole face. "Emma, you must know what it's like to have your heart broken... you must know what she's going through."
"I do know what it's like to have my heart broken. I even know what it's like to be rejected by Regina," Emma confessed quietly.
"What happened between you two?" blurted Mary Margaret.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Um -"
"Because you are curious? Or because you want to know me better."
"Emma," entreated Mary Margaret gently. "Of course I want to know you. I want to know anything you want to tell me."
"Are you sure," said Emma, listening carefully and testing her out. "Even if I tell you how I feel about Regina?"
Mary Margaret suspected this was a 'cookie' question and any hint of a lie would cause Emma to clam up and shut her out. They'd been friends and talked freely last year before finding out they were mother and daughter, but ever since the curse broke their relationship had become strained. Emma must be afraid now of being found out to be Not The Ideal Daughter and she obviously felt that she had a reason to expect rejection - like an attraction to her parents' arch enemy for instance? Mary Margaret considered the weight of her response before answering, but her tone was certain when she did.
"Yes. I want to help my daughter - both of you. I can see you need to talk."
"I kissed her."
Mary Margaret peered at her searchingly. "When? Is that why she left the other night? Did you two have a fight?"
"Yeah. We always fight, at any age it seems. The girls are just like us sometimes." Emma's smile was tinged with sadness as she started her story. "But no, this happened a while back last year..."