Twenty-Three Pages

Chapter 6

Authors Note:
I FINALLY UPDATED! Im so sorry it took this long, but it's here now and fingers crossed I'll have another chapter up before Christmas.
Also a quick warning: there's a chunk of smut at the end of this chapter - please let me know if you didn't like it/thought it was too long because I won't put it in again/will shorten it next time (or on the other hand if you did like it let me know as well). I just want to see how it goes down. Thanks everyone!

"I put the kettle on, hope you don't mind." Zelena sauntered past Regina and out of the kitchen, hips swishing as she made her way into the living room, and finally perched on the end of the sofa. Regina followed, shocked disbelief colouring her features as the red haired woman made herself so comfortably at home.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Regina's words were dripping venom, leaving her lips with a disgusted snarl that lowered her voice by several octaves.

"That's no way to speak to a guest, Regina." Everything about her was false, sickly-sweet, sarcasm rolling off every syllable, fuel for the already burning flames which erupted inside her the moment Zelena came into view. Regina scoffed, her hands clenching at her sides, lips pressing together in a hard line as she glared at her, silently demanding to know why she was here. Zelena rolled her eyes, slamming the mug down on the coffee table when she stood up, her heels allowing her to tower over Regina as she approached. Regina didn't falter; she kept her eyes firmly locked on target, barely able to contain the sudden rage which rose up like smoke from an explosion.

"If you expect me to unfold my plans before your very eyes then you're sadly mistaken." She hissed, the wicked smile on her face fading into a grimace of barred teeth and wild eyes. She was edging closer, every word a gateway to her next step in Regina's direction but Regina didn't move, didn't flinch in the presence of such confrontation - "to show fear is to show weakness." Her mother's words played their oh-so familiar tune in the background - she just lifted her eyebrow in a perfect arch.

"So why are you here?" She repeated, slowly, enunciating each word as she brought a hand up to rest casually on her hip. Zelena laughed, a shrill and high pitched cackle that bounced off the walls of the small room.

"It's a warning, dear." She said, standing right in front of Regina, the silence around them in her pause almost deafening. "Back. Off." And with those final words, she brushed past Regina, their shoulders grazing, to the door. She strode out, leaving Regina gaping, her brow knitted and feet firmly frozen to the carpet.

---

"And she just...walked straight out?" Mal's hand dropped from her cheek and reached forwards to her laptop, fingers frantically tapping on the keyboard as her brows knitted further and further together.

"She said it was a warning, whatever that means." Regina folded her arms across her chest. She stood at the side of Mal, watching as her colleague scrolled through pages of text faster than she could read it. "But we know for one thing that Zelena is planning something." Mal hummed her agreement and flicked her eyes across to Regina, biting down on her lip as she looked back to the screen in front of her.

"The question is what." Mal spun the laptop around so Regina could see the screen, a grainy photo of the woman in question with dark, blood stained hands holding a dagger in one and something too blurred to see in the other. Regina felt a surge of nausea rising in her gut, because she knew what was in her other hand, she just knew and the thought had her pushing away from the table, stumbling on the chair that dug into the back of her knees before she left the room, leaving Mal calling after her.

She rounded the corner and slumped into the wall, the wooden beam that ran across the middle jutting into her back as she rested her head against the white surface. Her heart was pounding. This was beyond unprofessional, to storm out of a meeting with Mal, but she needed space, needed air, something to give her distance between her and the threat of Zelena.