Shaya

Chapter 28 - Never trust a mercenary

The lock clicked open and Emma and Henry got into the house.
" We're home!" Henry yelled taking off his scarf ad jacket. Emma imitated him, frowning. Home. That was Henry's home, yes, but not hers. Where was her home? At Mary Margaret's she felt good, but it wasn't so good to say that it was home. She was a guest, for how her parents could deny it. Boston? Needless to say that her apartment was just a place where to sleep. Maybe the place closest to a home for her was her car.
Regina came smiling out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a dishtowel.
" Hey, sweetie, how's been the afternoon?"
" Cool! I've been with David and Mary Margaret when Emma was with Hook, and they told me of when they were in the forest and they fought with the trolls! I wanna see a troll, mom! And then David taught me a secret move with the sword, it took a bit before I understood how to do it, and then Emma joined us at the beach and he taught her too, and Mary Margaret said that she could try to use her bow too, and..."
" Okay, Henry, okay, I got it, you had fun." Regina softly laughed, caressing his cheek. " You'll tell me better while we dine. Now go wash your hands, the dinner's almost ready."
The kid brightly smiled. " Okay!" he exclaimed before running to the bathroom.
Emma gazed at Regina.
" Lemme guess: lasagna." she sneered.
Regina though looked suddenly serious, almost worried. What the hell...?
" It's my fault, Emma, not yours. "
The Savior furrowed her brow, confused. " What?"
" You can't feel home because you're not. " the brunette said before turning and going back in the kitchen.
Emma, after a moment of surprised hesitation, followed her. " Whoa, why, wait, were you reading my thoughts? Hi, Shaya."
The warrior just nodded at her. She was standing in the kitchen, leaning with her hips against the shelf next to the sink, arms crossed and a worried face.
" No, but your emotions were so strong that I heard them. You were basically... magically shouting, Emma. "
The Savior arched an eyebrow. " Well, we need to find a solution to this problem. I'd rather not hear other kind of shouts."
With a glance to the warrior, Emma found out that she was violently blushing, as she suspected. The Savior couldn't hide a smile, but it disappeared when's he noted that Regina was glaring at her.
" Don't worry, dear, I have the control of my power."
" Hey! I'm a beginner!"
Regina grinned. " Yes, and I have some homework for you. " she said while waving her right hand in the air. A book appeared on the table from the purple fog. It was an old one, with silver decorations, gold clasps, and a red stone shaped as a heart in the middle of the cover. Emma warily glanced at the brunette.
" I ain't gonna read that thing."
Regina raised an eyebrow. " You most surely will, dear, or you'll never learn anything." she said with those tone and gaze, the ones that made her feel young, ignorant and stupid.
" Y-you can teach me, I don't need that book! Don't you have another one, at least?"
Regina pursued her lips and furrowed her brown in a half disappointed, half amused face. " I've learned from that book, Emma..."
" Well, yes, exactly, that's the thing."
Regina looked confused. " Sorry?"
Emma sighed. " Okay, don't take it the wrong way, but... who gave you that book? Cora? "
Regina clenched her jaw. Okay, maybe she was taking it the wrong way. " Rumplestiltskin." she answered lowering her voice in a sort of growl. Emma swallowed.
" Yeah, and things didn't exactly go good since you had this, isn't it?"
Regina glowered at her. " Oh, I would say quite the opposite, dear. Magic saved me. Maybe the wrong way, but it did, when anybody could or wanted to do it. So, no, Emma, it isn't. It's not the book, it's how you use what you learn from it. Your fear is senseless. " she harshly said, clenching something inside Emma. Regina could try to hide it, but Emma felt that she was hiding her feelings, and so she knew that she was suffering. She suddenly regretted her words.
" Emma, Regina is right. " Rapunzel softly said stepping forward and leaning a hand on the book. " This is just a book. Quite a precious one, let me say. Here there are the most useful and powerful spells that ever existed. If you don't want to listen to the most powerful witch of any realm, alright, be my guest, you may have your reasons." Shaya smirked, making her blush and glance down. Young, ignorant and stupid. Fuck. " But listen to this: you are power, Emma. If you don't learn to control yourself, you'll always be unstable. You'll always risk to hurt someone without wishing it. Think about Red. She was about in your same situation. "
The Savior locked gaze again with the warrior. She was right, Emma knew it. But what she had done to Finnegan... She hadn't needed any spell, any book. She had just thought it. Emma told them. Shaya looked impressed, but Regina had a weird expression that Emma couldn't work out.
" I know, Emma, I saw it. You were angry, I suppose, and frightened. Your instinct worked for you. But what if you aren't angry enough? What if you're not afraid and you need that power again?" Regina questioned, making a step towards her.
" If I ever need that power again, I bet that I'll be hella scared, again."
" Aargh, you're so annoyingly stubborn!" Regina growled, angrily passing before her and going next to Rapunzel. She then bent and opened the oven. Shaya handed her a hot pad. Regina grasped it and took off the baking tray. " Henry!" she shouted, walking out of the kitchen to reach the dining room, followed by the two women. The table was set so elegantly that Emma stared at it open-mouthed for a while.
" Shaya did it, if you're wondering. " Regina harshly said glaring at her while putting the baking tray on the table, between silver, flowers, stem glasses and an exaggerate amount and variety of food. The large table looked ready for a royal banquet. Not that it was anything else, Emma thought with an inner smirk.
" If you didn't want me to..." Rapunzel began to say, but Regina stopped her with a glance.
" It's just a bit too much, dear. This ain't a castle. We're just four, and there's food for twenty..."
The warrior shrugged. " Twenty... Twenty what? Twenty ladies afraid that their corset could get too tight, maybe, but bring here a couple of dwarves, you'll see how much of this will remain..."
" I'm not going to bring in my house those hateful miners, dear."
" ... Or just me. I can eat much, really. And I bet she can do it, too. And children do eat much. And we come from a wearying day, I figured that we'd all be hungry, despite the lunch, and..."
" Okay Shaya, alright, I got it, don't worry!" Regina stopped her, smiling at her. The warrior blushed and glanced down, nervously playing with a knife. Regina stopped serving sizes and approached her. " Hey, really, I got it. And I appreciate that you cooked for us. I was rude, as always. We'll eat tomorrow the leftovers. I'm sorry."
Emma watched the warrior frown and gaze at the brunette. There was only silence for a bit. Then Rapunzel gave a smirk. " I'm just afraid to annoy you." she shyly murmured, making Emma goggle. Annoy? No, seriously? Shaya was clearly weary, and despite this she had cooked for an army, probably only to have more probability to get Regina's taste, and she thought that she could be annoying?
Regina, fortunately, looked to have the same thoughts. She chuckled and went back serving sizes. " Annoy me? Really? Because you give me too many attentions?" Regina asked raising an eyebrow, her lips slightly pursued.
The warrior nodded once. " Here it is, you see? Too many, you said it. I was..."
" Wrong! Shaya, think! You know me!" Regina bursted out, staring at the blonde. " Do you really think that someone I love, taking care of me, could ever annoy me?"
Rapunzel looked away, slightly blushed. She sighed, frowning. Something was wrong, Emma knew it, but what was wrong, that was a mystery. Regina suddenly grabbed Shaya's face and turned it, forcing her to look at her. They stared at each other for a while, the Regina clenched her jaw.
" You still don't really believe it, uh?" the brunette asked with a low, dark voice. Emma swallowed. Shaya's eyes were getting wet. Regina's too. The former Queen leaned forward, pressing her fingers against the fair skin. " I do love you!" she snarled, gritting her teeth. Shaya tried to reply, but Regina's voice covered hers. " Why can't you believe me? Why can't anybody believe me?" she asked in an angry whisper, a couple of tears that made her cheeks shine.
" I..." Shaya was saying, but Emma talked, without even realizing it.
" I believe you." she said, making the former Mayor look at her with that same astonished face she always did when Emma supported her. Sometimes she wondered how alone she had had to be in her life. Even if it was half of how she herself had been, it was enough. " And she does, too, but, Regina, I think that she's afraid that this is all just a dream? And if she really believes you, I guess that she thinks that she could wake up, and not find you there, and that would destroy her."
Rapunzel was looking at her with wide open eyes, and her jaw dropped. " What... How can you know it?" she astonishingly asked, leaning her weight on her right hand, grasped around the chair she had in front of her.
Emma gave her a slight smile. " Because it's what I would think. I know how it feels when the person you love sends you in a place where you can't reach them for a long time, and then you see them again." Emma's voice lowered, as her gaze. " You don't want to lose them again." she whispered. The Savior gave a start when two little arms hugged her from behind. She turned and raised her left arm to look at Henry, who sadly smiled at her, making her smile in turn.
" Maybe he's still alive, momma. He's Rumplestiltskin's son! He hates magic, but maybe he could use it to save his own life!"
" Henry..."
" Henry might be right, Emma. You said that he was still alive when he fell in the portal, after all. " Regina said glancing at her son. " There's still hope." she added with a soft but still tensed smile. Henry brightly smiled at her.
" Yes!"
" But we could be wrong, kid. You have to accept it. He didn't come back, and we don't know if he ever will." Emma objected, as delicately as she could, while her heart was breaking into pieces. She was truly afraid that it could actually break, like Shaya's did. But it didn't. It hadn't broke it when Neal had handed her over to the police, and it didn't now. There was just one possible explanation: Neal wasn't her True Love. She loved him, but he wasn't it. Emma wondered how was it possible to love someone more than she loved Neal. She gazed at her son, and smirked. Maybe she knew the answer, after all.