Shaya

Chapter 27 - Troubles in paradise

" Regina! Why didn't you tell me before?!"
" I just forgot to do it, dear. So many things happened and I..."
" No, you don't understand! Have you an idea of how much I missed him? I thought that he was dead! I need to see him!"
" Did you really think that I would have killed him?"
" No, but, for crying out loud, it's been forty years! For how strong he could be..."
" He is, dear. He's fine, I can assure you."
Shaya sighed, leaning against the back of the chair, crossing her arms and shaking her head. " You... you should have told me." she said, feeling a slight resentment contract her muscles. She angrily stared at the table, not willing to look at the brunette until the rage would go away. She didn't want to be enraged with her, it was just a waste of precious time spent together, but this thing...She had never felt that way towards Regina since the utter day she had threw her to Neverland.
Regina's hand entered in her field of view, gently touching her arm. " I'm sorry, Shaya."
The warrior looked away, swallowing. It was hard not to look at her when she had that sorry tone, it was hard not to jump on the other side of the table and just hug her, actually. " Stop calling me that way. My name's Rapunzel, and..."
" If your name's Rapunzel, then mine is Evil Queen."
Shaya gazed at her, ready to object, but her tiny smile stopped her. She closed her mouth, then glanced down.
" I know that you're sorry. I'm just... irritated. I thought that you knew how important is a steed for his rider." she said, locking gaze again with Regina. The pain she saw in her eyes made her immediately regret her words. The former Queen gave a gentle squeeze at her arm before leaning back against the seat-back.
" For irritated you mean disappointed, don't you?"
Shaya opened her mouth to protest, but Regina was faster speaking.
" No, you're right. And it's about time that you notice my flaws, isn't it?"
" Regina, I didn't mean..."
" Shaya, it's all right! I... Just... I know how much one can love their horse. I just didn't think that you cared so much about yours. I thought that warriors didn't care about them, as you bring them in battle. But I didn't consider that it was your horse, and not anyone's."
Shaya sighed again, terribly sorry for having got angry. That argument was somehow painful for Regina, and she surely didn't want to see her suffer again. She leaned on the table, reaching for Regina's hands.
" Rocinante isn't here, right?" she asked in a murmur, afraid of the answer. Regina's eyes filled with tears while she nodded once.
" Right." she answered.
Shaya closed her eyes, bowing her head. " I'm an idiot." she grumbled, wishing to disappear. Unfortunately she didn't know that spell.
" No!" Regina said with a sort of laugh, making Shaya gaze back at her. " I am." she added with a sad smile, still holding back the tears, totally confusing Shaya. There was something she didn't know, and it made her go crazy. She had always known everything about Regina. It had to be something that had happened after the execution of her sentence.
" Regina..."
" Guys, you remember that we're here, do you?"
Emma's voice startled the warrior. She turned to look at the Savior and her son, together with Regina. The warrior gave a bright smile at them. " Sure!" she said, making Henry laugh hard. She frowned. " What? Why are you laughing?"
Henry aimed a finger at her while laughing. " You're lying!"
Shaya alternated her gaze between him and Emma, who had an excessively satisfied smile on her face. She was looking at Regina, who was staring back at her, her left eyebrow arched.
" See? My genes are always visible." Emma said, making Regina stifle a laughter.
Red rushed in the diner in that moment after having screeched to a halt her car in front of the entrance. The werewolf headed to the counter giving them a glance. " Sorry, I made as fast as I could. " she said to Granny, who simply nodded handing her the red and white apron. As she put it on she went to their table, taking their empty dishes.
" Hey, are you okay guys?" she asked while blowing away from her face a disobedient lock of dark hair. She was mostly giving worried glances towards Regina, who looked pretty surprised by it.
" Yes." the brunette hesitantly answered.
" Yep." Emma said while eating the last fried potato before that Red could take her plate.
Shaya just nodded once at her. " How are you?" she asked, slightly narrowing her eyes while she concentrated in order to notice any sign of lie. Because she would have lied, she knew it.
" Fine!" she enthusiastically said, smiling brightly. There it was. The nervousness was more than justified, but there was no reason to lie to them.
" Red."
" Mh?"
" It was more like a rhetoric question."
" Oh."
Shaya smiled at her. " It's fine, cub. I know how it feels."
Red hesitated a second, then sighed, frowned. " You know how it feels when your friends, the people you shared your whole life with, risk their life to protect you from a stupid man and his stupider brothers who only want to fuck you?" she blurted out, but under her voice. Hers was a perfectly controlled anger, as it had to be.
Shaya pursued her lips, stopping Regina immediate reaction quickly crossing her fingers with hers.
" We were fighting for you and for ourselves. You're forgetting the larger part of our enemies, the Lost Boys..."
" I'm forgetting none of the lives I took, Rapunzel." she whispered, her nostrils and pupils dilated.
Shaya had to bow her head. " Pardon me, it wasn't my intention to offend you. But, friend, you have to realize that what we did was necessary, and it's not your fault if..."
" You're telling me that you'd have forgiven me if she'd died?" Red interrupted her, her voice louder than before, but still calm, as her gaze. Shaya had to swallow back the pain. She couldn't even think about it. The warrior involuntarily glanced at the former Queen, who was staring at the waitress.
" Miss Lucas..."
Ruby went on, unwisely ignoring the warning murmur of the former Queen. " Because it wouldn't have been my fault, uh? We'd be friend, all as before, all fine?"
" Red..." Shaya begged her with her eyes. She would have never answered to her until Regina was listening, so it was just an unnecessary painful argument to speak about.
" What? If Steven..."
" Miss Lucas!" Regina repeated raising her voice. Shaya looked at her. There was danger in her eyes, and Red had to notice it too, because she silenced and stared back at the brunette. " I am here, I would be grateful if you'd be so respectful to speak directly to me." Regina tightly continued, her stare firm on the werewolf. " But, more than this, I'd like you to stop talking about the battle I so hardly tried to keep my son away of. He's already suffered enough because of me, don't you agree?"
" Mom..."
" And so Shaya did. "
" Regina..."
" And Emma, too. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to just sit here, and have lunch with my troubled family in peace, without your awkward and unnecessary reminder that today we could have lost one another. Because we didn't. We won, and we must enjoy our more than well-deserved rest."
Red was open-mouthed, as any of them actually, but Shaya was even sniggering. Why was Regina so beautiful when she had that authoritarian behavior?
The brunette confusedly looked at her. Shaya just shook her head, gazing at Red.
" Forgive yourself, Cub. And remember that we were just defending."
The girl's eyes wetted. She glanced down before basically run away towards the kitchen.
Shaya loudly sighed, glancing at Regina before gazing at Emma.
" It appears that we won't have that dessert you were talking about." she said with disappoint, making Emma and Henry stifle a laughter. The blonde stood up.
" Gotta save the day." she said winking at Henry before walking towards the counter.
Regina rubbed her son's shoulder. " Hey, are you okay?" she asked, sweetness and worry in her dark eyes. Shaya had to look away, or she'd have jumped beyond the table to kiss her. She was simply adorable with that motherly gaze in her eyes.
" I'm fine, mom, don't worry." the child answered " But one thing." he added after thinking a bit about it, totally looking like her when she was thinking.
Regina frowned. " What is it, sweetie?"
" It's just that..." he hesitated, slightly blushing. " Are you okay? Because I can't get it. " he finally said, narrowing his eyes.
Regina, after a moment of surprised hesitation, pressed her lips together in a smile, her eyes wetted, and caressed his cheek. " I've never been better."
" Watch out guys, I've got four fat ice creams and I really don't know how I could carry them till here without pouring them over..." Emma announced, carefully placing on the table the four glass bowls.
Shaya took hers, analyzing its unknown contents. The color wasn't particularly inviting, yet the flavor was mouth-watering.
" Why is it brown? " Shaya asked, skeptic.
Regina shook her head smiling. " It's just chocolate, dear. All types of it. A caloric bomb, in other words..." she added, mysteriously glaring at Emma. The Savior grimaced at her.
" We need energy." she said like if it was some kind of justification to something.
" What's a "caloric bomb"? Should I be worried?" Shaya asked, really confused.
Emma stifled a laughter.
" Only if you're afraid of getting fat." she answered half laughing.
Shaya gazed at the mountain of ice cream before her. " Fat?"
" Or diabetic." Regina scoldingly said towards Henry, who had already almost emptied the bowl. The boy brightly smiled at her.
" I feel very ignorant..." Shaya murmured, looking again at the ice cream. " Must read a book." she added in a sigh, making Regina softly laugh.
" So the great warrior is afraid of an ice cream?" Emma picked at her lifting her brows.
Shaya looked at her. " I'm not afraid, I'm suspicious. As any royal before any food."
Emma frowned. " What do you mean?"
" Well, poisoning is always a real danger for a royal, especially in young age. So, in my kingdom, we used to have a taster since we were children, and we would never complain, because the stories they told us about poisoned princes and princesses were enough convincing to wait a bit before eating. It's not a thing that goes away with time, trust me. It was quite scary."
" Goddammit, it's traumatizing!" Emma exclaimed, taking a great spoon of ice cream then and managing to eat it all in a once.
" I guess..." Shaya commented, taking the spoon and distractingly taking a little of whipped cream with it.
" But it was necessary, Emma. Better have a scared son than not having one at all."
Regina said the last sentence almost in a distracted murmur, as if she was thinking about something else while talking. Shaya raised her eyes on her, seeing that she was looking at Henry with a guilty face. Fortunately, the boy smiled at her.
" Sounds right." he said, gaining a tiny smile from his adoptive mother and a huge one from his natural one.
The warrior smiled in turn, finally taking a bit of the soft, brown food and tasting it. She googled in surprise, looking astonishingly at the bowl.
" Whoa! This thing is really good! And damn cold, but good!" she exclaimed. Everyone laughed at the table but her, who began eating the ice cream as if it was the only food she was eating in months.