A/N: I spent all my day writing, wanting to re-create these two new chapters for you all to perfection. I'll admit- as I've mentioned before- that I couldn't visualize our beloved SQ mixed into the Twilight universe, but I have been absolutely beyond floored re-creating this for you all that everything has flown so quick and so naturally. :) I included some of my favorite moments from the book into these two chapters, mixing them up with film moments. I hope you all love it as much as I do.
Everyone thank my girlfriend, for she's a huge twilight fan- as am I- and convinced me to write this series lol. Happy reading, all!
Regina awoke that morning with an entirely new view on life. Who knew vampires were real and what's more that she would be in love with one. Questions circled her mind to ask Emma about. Emma promised her she would answer them when they were asked. Of course, first they would have to get through school, which Regina could imagine would be entirely different now. Everything would be entirely different if not better.
Regina finished up fixing her hair. She stuffed a few books inside of her backpack when a honk outside of her window caught her attention.
It was Emma, standing outside in her jeans, light gray shirt and red leather jacket. Looking irresistible as always. And she's come to drive her to school again.
Was this how it will be from now on? Regina smiled at the thought- at Emma- seeing her smile back from below the window.
Regina slung her backpack over her shoulder and ran down the stairs as fast as her feet could carry her. "Bye, dad! I'll see you later!" She waved, rushing out the door.
Henry blinked, baffled. He marched over to the door, and looked out the window, seeing his daughter and Emma Swan sharing another smile between them.
"Hi," Regina breathed through her smile.
"Hello." Emma gave Regina's favorite little smile. Her eyes looked up toward the front door of the house.
"What is it?" Regina whipped her head around, catching her father starting at them through the window. She groaned as she faced Emma again.
"He's wondering about my intentions toward you." Emma chuckled, her golden eyes locking into Regina's.
"Should I be worried?" Regina's brow lifts. The action alone floors Emma.
Emma brushes back a loose strand of jet black hair away from Regina's face, tucking it behind her ear. "I come from a different era. I'm nothing if not respectful."
"So… You've never…" Regina is shocked. Not that she's slept with anyone either, but she couldn't believe that someone as gorgeous as Emma hasn't had sex yet.
"It's not for lack of wanting." Said Emma.
"Okay. Question answered."
Emma grins as she pulls open the passenger door of her Volvo.
"I still have a lot of questions." Said Regina, climbing and strapping herself in.
"Of course, you do." Emma shuts the passenger door and walks at normal speed over to the driver's side.
"A casino theme? Really, M?" Zelena grins, holding a flier for their school prom.
"Mhm. Gambling, babe. Casinos and Bond. James Bond." Mulan winks.
"How exciting!"
Ella holds her camera up, catching sight of Regina exiting Emma's Volvo after Emma held the door open for her. "Oh. My. God." She grins.
Mulan's mouth dropped to the floor, Robin and Zelena both wore deep frowns. Everyone's eyes looked to Forks High School's newest and now exclusive couple.
Emma slung Regina's backpack over her shoulder, while her other arm slung over Regina's shoulders, holding her close as they walked together. As much as Regina loved being this close to Emma after dreaming about it for the past couple of months since her arrival to Forks, she couldn't help but blush, feeling like the complete center of attention as all eyes threw shocking and/or envious glares in her direction.
"You know, everyone's staring." Regina said to Emma in a low voice.
"Not that guy," Emma points to a student as he walks by. "Oh, he just looked." She inhales, picking up Regina's scent. "I'm breaking all the rules now, anyway. Since I'm going to hell." She grinned.
Regina's eyes look over to Emma's siblings as they sit in Kathryn's bright red convertible. Kathryn was the most unhappy looking one with their new situation. "Your siblings don't look too happy."
"They'll get over it." Emma shrugs, keeping her arm around Regina. "You've certainly given me a new experience to look forward to."
"What do you mean?" Regina looks up to Emma.
"Back in my era, I never would have dared to hold a girl's hand out in public like this. It was forbidden. Times certainly do change." Emma grins, flashing her pearly white teeth.
After school, just as Emma promised, she took Regina into the forest, giving her a ride along her back- which Regina soon discovered to be her favorite- when Emma climbed up a rock wall where a field of grass lay. She sat Regina down until her feet touched the floor, and they sat along the edge of the wall, overlooking a river.
"This place is amazing." Said Regina.
"I like coming here when I want to get away from everyone's day to day thoughts." Emma smiled.
Regina could spend her entire life staring at Emma's beautiful smile. "So, how old are you, really?"
"Does it matter that much to you?" Emma asks.
"No, but I still wonder." Regina shrugged.
Emma breathed in, looking at the scenery ahead. "I was born in Chicago in 1901." Her eyes look to Regina. Emma smiles at the surprised look in the brunette's eyes. "Mal found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, dying of the Spanish influenza."
Regina exhaled sharply, surprised but intrigued. Emma was a hundred and eight years old. Crazy, but very real. "And how does it work?" She asks. "I mean, does a person have to be dying to become like you?"
"No," Emma shakes her head. "No, that's just Mal. She wouldn't do this to someone who had another choice. I don't remember it well now- it was a very long time ago, and human memories fade." She was lost in her thoughts for a small while, attempting to recollect each and every one as she carried on. "I do remember how it felt, when Mal saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could forget."
"And your parents? What happened to them?" Asks Regina.
"They had already died from the disease. I was alone. Mal knew my mother, which is why when she saw me in that hospital she decided to reveal to me what she was, and save me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would ever realize I was gone."
"How exactly did Mal… Save you?" Regina asked.
Emma took a few moments to answer Regina's question, choosing her words carefully. "It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Mal has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us… I don't think you could find her equal throughout all of history." She paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful. The venom was excruciating."
Regina enjoyed listening to Emma's tranquil voice, how highly she spoke of Mal. She admired her, Regina could see that on the spot. And she loved her.
"I was the first in Mal's family, though she found Kathryn soon after."
"What happened to her?" Regina tilted her head quizzically.
Emma shrugs, "She's never really spoken about it. At least not to me. Mal possibly knows, but if she does, she's kept it an ancient secret. All I know was that she was brought into the morgue and somehow her heart was still beating. Mal says it's easier, though, to turn someone when they are dying because their blood is weak."
The way Emma spoke not only of her mother figure, but her brothers and sisters, was profound.
Emma chuckled and shook her head as if a long lost memory entered her mind.
"What?" Regina asks, eager to know more.
"When Mal brought Kathryn into our family, I didn't realize till much later that she was hoping she would become my mate." Emma chuckled again. "Mal was always very careful with her thoughts around me."
Regina's brow lifts, "And did you wish for that, too?" She feels a sting of jealousy inside of her chest. Kathryn and Emma? She couldn't see it.
Emma shakes her head, allowing a small laugh to escape her. "No. Kathryn wasn't interested and neither was I. She has never been more than a sister to me. It was only two years later that she found August. She was hunting- and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him back to Mal, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself. I'm only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for her."
Regina froze once Emma's hand came up, the back of her knuckles gently stroked along her cheek.
"But she made it," Regina whispered, feeling a brush creep up along her cheeks from the beauty in Emma's eyes as they looked down at her.
"Yes," Emma murmured. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks seemed perfect, so we all enrolled in high school." She laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to their wedding in a few years, again."
Regina smiled, her heart fluttering at the sound of Emma's laughter. "And Lily and Jefferson?"
"Lily and Jefferson are two very rare creatures. They both developed a conscience, as we refer to it, with no outside guidance. Jefferson belonged to another… Family, a very different kind of family. He became depressed, and he wandered on his own. Lily found him. Like me, she has certain gifts above and beyond the norm for our kind."
"Really?" Regina was fascinated. "But, you said you were the only one who could hear people's thoughts."
"That's true. Lily can see the future, but her visions aren't always certain. It's very subjective. The future isn't set in stone. Things change." Said Emma.
"Do you think she saw me coming?" Regina asks, intrigued to know the answer.
The corner of Emma's lip tilts into a small smile. "If she did, she made sure to keep that from me. Lily and I look out for one another the most, we keep each other grounded."
"What other things can Lily see?"
"She saw Jefferson and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself. She saw Mal and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans. Lily can always see, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near. And any threat they may pose."
Regina wondered just how many others of Emma's kind were there. How many others could walk among humans undetected? "Was it other vampires that killed Waylon?" She asked.
Emma nods, her lips set in a frown. "Yes." She looked down to their joined hands, her thumb drawing circles along the back of Regina's hand.
"And are there a lot of your kind?"
"No, not many. But most won't settle in any one place. Only those like us, who've given up hunting people-" Emma threw a shy glance in Regina's direction. "Can live together with humans for any length of time. We've only found one other family like ours, in a small village in Alaska. We lived together for a time, but there were so many of us that we became too noticeable. Those of us who live… differently tend to band together."
"And the others?"
"Nomads, for the most part. We've all lived that way at times. It gets tedious, like anything else. But we run across the others now and then, because most of us prefer the North." Said Emma.
"Why the preference?" Regina asks.
Emma smiles teasingly, "Do you think I could walk down the street in the sunlight without causing traffic accidents? There's a reason why we chose the Olympic Peninsula, one of the most sunless places in the world. It's nice to be able to go outside in the day. You wouldn't believe how tired you can get of night-time in eighty-odd years."
"And what of Lily? Did she come from another family like Jefferson did?"
Emma chuckled, "No. Lily is a mystery. She doesn't remember her human life at all. And she doesn't know who created her. She awoke alone. Whoever made her walked away, and none of us understand why, or how, they could."
Regina felt a sting of sadness over Lily.
"If she hadn't had that other sense, if she hadn't seen Jefferson and Mal and known that she would someday become one of us, she probably would have turned into a total savage." Said Emma.
It was a lot to take in, but right now Regina's brain was like a sponge. There was so much more she wanted to know, so many questions she still wanted to ask, but to her embarrassment, her stomach rumbled.
Emma's eyes looked to Regina's stomach, "I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from dinner."
"I'm fine." Regina shook her head, not wanting her day with Emma to end.
"I've never spent much time around anyone who eats food. I forget."
"I want to stay with you." Said Regina, betraying her own hopeless addiction for Emma.
Emma smiles, lifting their joined hands to caress along Regina's cheek with the back of her knuckles. In her hundred and eight years of life, Emma never imagined ever finding love at all. Especially with a human that felt equal toward her affections.
"Come. I'll drive you home." Emma placed Regina's arm along her shoulder, and lifted her up with such ease to carry her along her back, effortlessly jumping off the cliff and landing on her feet.
Emma slowed her Volvo down along the road, stopping in front of Regina's house. The porch light was off, and Regina remembered that her father had mentioned to her about going fishing after work with Ruby's grandmother.
Regina turned to look into Emma's eyes, saddened by the thought of saying good night. "Will I see you tomorrow?" She asks, eager for their new day to arrive.
A small smile settles along the corner of Emma's lip, "If that's what you wish, yes."
That's what Regina wished for all the days of her life, was to be with Emma. She smiled.
Emma exited the driver's side and in a nanosecond, she was holding the door open for Regina to step out of the passenger side.
"That's very human. I have neighbors, you know." Regina chuckled.
Emma grinned, walking alongside Regina. She waited until Regina's eyes were on her again to ask, "Could I come inside?"
Regina's breath caught in her throat again, "D- do you want to?"
"Only if that's alright with you." Emma nods.
Regina couldn't picture a goddess-like creature like Emma Swan, casually sitting along her father's couch, or up in her bedroom. "Yes." She breathed.
Before Regina could open the door, Emma was already twisting the door knob for the brunette to enter first.
"Was the door unlocked?" Regina asks, her brow furrowing, remembering she had locked it before leaving for school this morning.
"No, I used the key from under the flower pot." Emma answered casually as she stepped inside Regina's home.
Regina's brows raise as she turns to look at Emma. She didn't recall ever using that spare key in front of Emma before.
"I was curious about you." Emma shrugged innocently.
Regina's brow arched, "You spied on me?"
"What else is there to do at night?"
Regina scoffs out a chuckle. She shrugs herself out of her jacket- the same one Emma bought her- hanging it along the coat rack before she heads into the kitchen. Emma is there before she flips on the light switch, needing no guidance around the house, giving Regina the indication that Emma has been inside before. Pulling open the fridge, Regina pulls out the leftover lasagna, cutting a piece and serving it on a plate before placing it in the microwave. Emma is sitting at the breakfast table, waiting patiently.
The microwave dings, and Regina joins Emma by sitting at the breakfast table. Her eyes are focused on the food before her as she pops a piece of lasagna into her mouth and chews. She catches Emma watching her, fascination sparkling in her golden eyes.
"Have you ever… Been in my bedroom?" Regina murmurs, too shy to look up from her plate of food.
"A couple of times." Emma answers.
"Do you do that a lot?"
"Almost every night." There's a small smile along the corner of Emma's lip as Regina dares to look up at her. "I like watching you sleep. It's very fascinating to me. You talk in your sleep."
Regina's fork clanks loudly along her plate as she lets it drop, her eyes staring at Emma widely. "I do not!"
Regina knew she talked in her sleep. Her mother liked teasing her about it quite often.
Emma smiles teasingly, but doesn't say another word. She just sits patiently and watches Regina eat before she's walking with Regina out onto the porch again.
"Are you upset about my revelation?" Emma asks, walking down the three steps of the porch until she stops in front of Regina. While standing on the last step, Regina was equally the same height as Emma.
"That depends on what you heard." Regina's cheeks color red. She feels Emma's hand cup along her cheek, feeling her cold touch along her skin that takes her breath away, and whatever little anger she felt. Especially when Emma's eyes locked onto her and they were at such close proximity.
"You miss your mother," Emma whispers, her thumb drawing circles along Regina's cheekbone. "You worry about her. And when it rains, the sound makes you restless. You used to talk about home a lot, but it's less often now. Once you said, 'it's too green.'" She laughs softly, picking up on Regina's small wave of embarrassment.
"Anything else?" Asked Regina, reveling in Emma's gentle touch. Her hands were so soft.
Emma knew exactly what Regina wanted to know, "You say my name."
Regina sighed, "A lot?"
"How much do you mean by 'a lot,' exactly?"
"Oh, God!" Regina shoves Emma's hand away from her cheek, hiding her face behind her hands.
Emma laughs a rich laugh and suddenly is pulling Regina into her chest, so naturally. She dips her head until her lips are along Regina's ear. "Don't be self-conscious," she whispered softly. "If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it."
Regina's gaze looked up at Emma, completely floored. "You're doing it again," she whispered.
"What?"
"Dazzling me."
Emma smiles delicately. Her fingers gently capture Regina's chin, forcing her to lift up her head. Regina's heart stops as soon as she sees Emma began to slowly bend forward, Regina leans in, her hands never moving from their comfort along Emma's arms. Their lips barely brush when Emma exhales sharply through her nose, scrunching it in disgust.
"What is it?" Regina asks, disappointed with Emma for pulling back.
Emma's eyes hardened angrily, "Minor complication. Your father's coming shortly, he probably shouldn't see me here."
Regina bit her lip, savoring the light brush of Emma's lips on her own. "Okay."
Emma's hand comes up, stroking Regina's warm cheek. "Till next time, then." She smiles. "I'd very much like to take you to my place tomorrow."
Regina's breath caught in her throat, "Do you mean meet your family?" Her heart accelerated.
Emma nods. "If that's alright with you."
Regina smiled a little, feeling it vanish from the knot of nerves that now formed on the inside of her stomach. "And what if they don't like me?"
"So, you're worried- not because you'll be in a household full of vampires but because you think they won't approve of you?" Emma chuckles.
"I'm glad I amuse you." Said Regina.
Emma reached for Regina's hand and brought it close to her lips, pressing them down along the skin. "I'll pick you up tomorrow." With that being said, Emma turned, walked and then drove away, her eyes glared up into Eugenia Lucas' eyes as they glared down at her while they drove past one another.
Eugenia's truck pulled into the driveway, smiling at Regina as she waved. "Hey, Regina! How's that old truck treating you?" She taps her cane along the hood of the truck.
"It's treating me well." Regina smiles, her eyes move to her father. "How was fishing?"
"We caught some great ones. Eugenia here is bragging about making us dinner."
"I hope you brought your stretchy pants, Regina." Eugenia walks along.
"Hey, Regina." Ruby grins.
"Hey, Ruby." Regina smiles.
"So, how's that Waylon case coming along, Henry?" Eugenia asks.
"Nothing's known yet. But for now put the word out, will you? Keep the kids out of the woods." Said Henry.
"Will do. We wouldn't want anyone else getting hurt," Eugenia's eyes look sternly into Regina's. "Do we, Regina?"
Regina frowns as Eugenia crosses the entrance. It crossed her mind if maybe Eugenia knew more than she let on, but it wasn't a question she would be asking.