Shaya

Chapter 15 - First day

She woke up at sunrise, as always, but she didn't move from the bed. She just listened to the house for a while and, as she suspected, heard no rumors. She was still sleeping. Rapunzel tried to fall asleep again for a while, but eventually she realized that she just couldn't do it. And that she couldn't just stay there waiting for Regina to wake up, because it hurt too much: as she tried to close her eyes, the fantasy of herself going to Regina's chamber to wake her up in the proper way immediately hit her brain. And, as she managed not to think about it, another flash of herself hugging the brunette and kissing her forehead killed her. So she just couldn't stay there. She had to move.

Silent as a cat she stood up and put a nightgown on. There was Regina's scent on it, but she tried not to think about it. She focused on the fact that it was really short and tight on the shoulders for her. She walked out of the room in the most silent way possible, cursing herself for her incapability to just stay on the bed.

Regina woke up at the annoying sound of her alarm clock. She shut it with a moan and a wave of her hand, that made the clock crush on the wall. " Ooops..." she murmured with one eye open. She had to remind herself that in Storybrooke magic was different than in Neverland. Neverland. She buried her face in the pillow, hiding it from the blinding morning light, and began to think about that place. The Lost Boys.... They attacked them just once. Yes, they defeated them, but it was still weird that, after that they had sent Greg and Tamara to Storybrooke, they didn't even try to take back Henry. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Maybe they followed them. Perhaps they didn't want Henry, but just a way out of Neverland! Regina suddenly stood up and put on her nightgown. She warily opened the door, looking outside to see if anyone else was awake. Rapunzel's door was opened. Henry's was still closed. She exited her room and silently closed the door, in order to keep dark the hallway. She silently went downstairs and reached the kitchen, finding there a cascade of golden hair intent on preparing an excessive breakfast. The table was full of food, including bread, honey, marmalade, bacon, cheese and a dozen apples. Two cups were on it, one already filled with milk. The warrior was cooking something else, something Regina had no idea from where could come. She left poor food in the house when they sailed to Neverland.
" Good morning!"
Rapunzel's sudden voice startled her. She gazed at her. The warrior gave her a bright smile, then went back cooking.
" Sit down, Regina, it's almost ready."
Regina, speechless, simply obeyed. She looked at the blonde woman, but all she could see were her unleashed hair.
" Rapunzel what...?"
" Breakfast!" she smiled, pulling the pan and putting something on the plate she left next to the burner. She then put the plate on the table, showing the mysterious food: an omelet. " It's called breakfast." she repeated with a smirk.
Regina was still speechless, and a little embarrassed, too. " You shouldn't have..."
Rapunzel shrugged. " Why? I was awake and with nothing else to do. "
" Sit down and eat at least!"
" That's for Henry. And I've already eaten."
" But all this food could be enough for an entire army!"
Rapunzel rose her eyebrows. " As long as I remember, that's the tiniest breakfast that has ever been served to a Queen..."
Regina's face darkened. " I'm no longer the Queen. Stop..."
" I was just kidding, Regina."Rapunzel softly interrupted her. She had the kindest eyes she had ever seen. None had ever looked at her that way. " I'm sorry if it hur..."
" No, no. I am sorry. I was rough." she swallowed, and took some bread. " I appreciate this, really. And I guess you know. My story, I mean, that I never wanted that title, or you'd just see me as anyone else does. "
Rapunzel sighed. " I'd see you exactly as I see you now, but, aye, I know indeed."
Regina looked at her with a challenging smirk while eating. " You wish you didn't, isn't it?"
But Rapunzel didn't smile. She just looked sad. " No. Wish it didn't happen. I want to know. Someone has to."
Regina almost choked on the bread. She filled her cup with the milk, even if was coffee what she needed. Not that Rapunzel could know what coffee was. She gazed at the warrior. She still had that look. That one that had always made something crunch inside her chest.
" Snow knows." she replied, almost voiceless. She drank another sip of milk.
Rapunzel put on a tiny smile. " Snow knows nothing, and even if she knew, she couldn't understand. She's too ingenuous. It's her nature, it's not her fault."
Regina stayed silent for a while, taking her time to think. She wanted to ask her how the hell she came to know about her, and how much she actually knew, and a thousand of other questions. Yet she had just woken up, and she really wasn't in the mood for that conversation. Another time, she promised to herself.
" You seem to know her well." Regina finally murmured, watching Rapunzel above the cup. The warrior's eyes never changed their expression.
" I don't, but I have this... capability to understand people at first sight."
A moment of silence filled the air while a sort of anxiety started to fill Regina's heart. " As you did with me?" she hesitantly asked. She wasn't sure that that was true, but she didn't have another explanation for everything that had happened. She didn't know when exactly the warrior had first seen her, but she was sure that it hadn't been in her throne room the day that she had killed the Bogeyman, and she was also sure that she had never met the blonde before that day. And Regina never went out of her castle when Leopold was alive, but one time in the earlier period of that cursed marriage, when they went outside to visit the people... And when he died, she exited the castle only with her guards (and she knew each one of them, she couldn't have hidden between them), and only to find new ways to kill Snow White. So, either the woman had secretly spied her, or she had seen her during that only visit to the people.
She looked at the warrior and she saw her swallow and blush lightly. The answer came before the words. " Aye." she whispered. Then she cleared her voice and glanced down. " And many other people. It's probably what kept me alive through all this time." She pretended to smile.
Regina's heartbeat was absurdly fast, and she didn't even understand why.
" Yes, probably. " she smirked distractedly, pointing her eyes on the apples. Those were her apples, she thought. She stretched on the table and took one, looking at it as if it was her worst enemy. There was just one word in her mind: shit!