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"'Bunny Hunt'? Are you kidding me?" Regina raised her eyebrow so high that it almost disappeared into her hairline as she eyed Emma as if she had lost her mind.
Although it was quite warm for the time of year, it was still actually a little too cold for the white tank top Emma was wearing along with her jeans as she lay on the kitchen floor doing sit-ups. "Believe me, my enthusiasm is limited too," she gasped without pausing her exercise routine. "And if I could, I'd cancel, but you know my parents. They'd be disappointed for weeks and blame it on you again."
"Let them," Regina grumbled, turning the pancakes with apple chunks in the pan she'd made them for breakfast. Over her blouse and black cloth pants, she wore her baking apron, which was supposed to protect her clothes but which she knew Emma found sexy on her.
Sighing, Emma jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend from behind. "Come on, for my sake?" she asked with a sweet smirk, pressing a sideways kiss to her cheek.
"Get away, you're all sweaty!", Regina only replied coldly.
"Is that a yes?" Emma grinned.
Regina rolled her eyes. "No, that's a 'get under the shower, then maybe I'll think about it.'"
Laughing, Emma broke off a piece of one of the finished pancakes and shoved it in her mouth before chewing and disappearing up the stairs to take a shower.
The day before, she had met with her parents to discuss how they were going to celebrate Easter. Actually, their intention had been to spend it separately this year, since Henry was truly too old to hunt for eggs by now and wanted to spend the holidays with Violet, but the conversation had totally backfired and she had had to confess to Regina that their weekend together at the spa hotel had come to nothing, since her parents wanted to organize what they called the 'bunny hunt', a kind of Easter paper hunt, in which the participants were to compete in teams of two. However they had persuaded them to it, Zelena and Hook had already agreed and they automatically assumed Henry's participation. The only uncertain variable in the equation, according to them, was Regina, so Emma had been tasked with getting her on board. Regina's enthusiasm was, however, as expected, very limited, but Emma was sure that she could somehow soften her up.
When the blonde arrived back in the kitchen, freshly showered and now dressed in a sweatshirt, a plate with a stack of fragrant pancakes was on the table, but there was no sign of Regina anywhere in sight. "Regina?"
"Living room," she replied.
So Emma crossed the foyer of the house to check on her girlfriend. "What are you doing?"
Regina was lying on her back, head first, in one of the closets where she seemed to be looking for something. "I was hoping I have another cold-potion in here. But it doesn't seem so," she commented, promptly bumping her head as she reappeared. Cursing, she rubbed her forehead.
"Do you have a cold?" Emma replied puzzled, who had noticed no sign of illness on her part.
"No, I don't have a cold," Regina answered her tensely. "This potion is for giving me a cold!"
Emma stifled the laugh that was brewing in her throat and tilted her head. "Oh, come on, Regina. It won't be that bad. And if you have a cold, we can't go to the spa either. It's much better if we just get the few hours over with and then make ourselves comfortable at home."
Regina's pouted lips didn't match the rest of her serious demeanor one bit.
So Emma had to laugh after all and reached for her hand. First, she pulled her closer to press a kiss to her lips and grin at her; then she dragged her with her into the kitchen. "These wonderful pancakes are getting cold and I'm hungry."
Sighing in frustration, Regina dropped into her chair and watched Emma falling upon the food with an appetite. "How can you even think about food right now?"
Emma shrugged her shoulders. "'m -ungry!" she repeated, a few crumbs of the pancake falling out of her mouth.
Rolling her eyes, Regina grabbed a napkin, unfolded it in a quick shake of her wrist, and handed it to her across the table. "You're worse than Henry was when he was five!" the brunette complained.
A grin crossed Emma's face and she swallowed. "Yeah, well, Henry enjoyed your parenting. My excuse is that I never had a real home."
"Not the pity tour, Miss Swan. It doesn't suit you one bit!"
"Okay, no pity tour," she nodded. "But I solemnly promise we'll make up for the spa weekend. Honestly!"
"Tell me, Emma," Regina began, returning her gaze stoically. "Why do you always have to do what your parents want you to do, anyway?"
"Because..." she began, raising her hands helplessly. "They're my parents, after all, you know? They organized this, and I just don't want to disappoint them. I know your relationship with your mother was never good, but it's different with me. I haven't had parents all my life and now they've turned out to be good people and I plead guilty to not being able to deny them a wish," she said, looking pleadingly at Regina from wide green eyes. "Just don't do it for Snow and David's sake, do it for my sake," she then suggested innocently.
Regina shook her head and speared a piece of pancake on her fork as if to murder it. "I hate it when you use your puppy-eyes!"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Emma cheered in return, jumping up from her chair, circling the table and pressing a fierce kiss to Regina's lips.
Regina's face remained unmoved, but she knew full well that she would live to regret agreeing to this madness.
Snow was beaming with a mile-wide smile as the participants for their paper hunt gradually showed up on Easter Sunday. "There you are, Emma!" she cheered enthusiastically when her daughter and Regina stepped out of the expensive Mercedes.
Both women were wearing sportswear and while the sight was normal on Emma, many pairs of eyes immediately focused on Regina, whom most only knew in business outfits or Evil Queen dresses.
"Tell your mom to close her mouth," Regina murmured to Emma as she registered Snow's surprised look.
"Hi, Mom," Emma greeted Snow instead, giving her a quick hug. "Where's Dad?"
"Taking care of the snacks. I'm sure you'll be hungry by the time you reach the finish line," she said, her eyes shining.
Emma stifled her pained expression and looked around. "Isn't Henry here yet? He was supposed to come with Violet."
"Oh, they're both not coming," Snow said with a shrug.
"What?" That one, short word from Regina cut through the air in such a way that both Emma and Snow winced and stared at her. "We're having a damn paper hunt, and the only participants who could halfway pass for kids are canceling?"
"Well, they... I guess they had other plans for today after all," Snow stammered.
Emma gave her mother a curt look to indicate that she'd better shut up now, and then turned to Regina, whom she put her hands on her upper arms. "Hey, look at it this way: it's nice weather and it's going to be some kind of Easter walk through the woods. That can be romantic, too. You and me and all around the chirping birds..."
"Well, actually we'll draw the teams," Snow said cautiously behind Emma's back.
Regina's expression, which had relaxed slightly at Emma's words, immediately darkened again.
Now, however, Emma spun around quickly as well and stared at her mother in horror. "Excuse me? It can happen that I have to walk through the forest with Hook? Over my dead body!"
"More like over his," Regina grumbled, gloomily staring across the meadow at the edge of the forest where they had come together, arms folded in front of her chest. When she caught sight of her sister, who had taken a seat in one of the deck chairs with sunglasses on her nose and a cocktail in her hand, she stomped over to her and stood right in the sun.
"Hey, what the... Oh, Regina." Zelena sat up and took off her glasses. "To what do I owe the honor, sis?"
"What is this charade, Zelena? Why did you agree to this madness? If they hadn't had participants, I could have been lying in a spa with my girlfriend right now getting my back massaged! What do I do instead? I'm running through the woods looking for the Easter Bunny!" she raged, snatching the cocktail glass from her hand as Zelena tried to put it to her lips.
"I thought it might be fun," the redhead grinned, completely unfazed by her sister's tantrum. "Besides, I miss adult company. It's not like you've had any time for me since you're glued to Emma. And there are even drinks with alcohol in them, can you believe it? Snow and David are actually serving alcohol!"
Stunned, Regina stared at her, unable to keep her mouth from literally falling open. "Tell me, are you drunk?"
"Oh, let's not call it drunk... A little tipsy, maybe," Zelena grinned, where one could clearly hear that her tongue no longer fully obeyed her when she spoke.
"You're coming with me now," Regina decided, and it was clear from her tone that she meant it. "Come on, move!" With that, she dragged her protesting sister to her feet by the elbow and literally dragged her back to the small group, which by now had been joined by David and Hook.
"Ladies, what a wonderful day," the pirate immediately said, who grinned broadly and whose gaze darted back and forth between the two sisters. "Well, there's our first team, I'd say!"
Emma took a breath to protest; after all, she was aware that he was only saying that to be able to form the second team with her, but before she could make a biting comment, Snow already intervened.
"No, that's not the rules. The teams are drawn by lot. Which brings us to all the other rules," she said seriously, as if it were the Olympics.
Hook raised a brow and looked around the meadow. "Aye, rules I think are good. But if I might venture to make the following comment: maybe we'd better wait until all the participants have arrived?"
"All have arrived. You four are participating," David said, who at least had the decency not to act quite as joyfully excited as Snow.
"The three noble ladies and I?" Hook asked, raising his eyebrow before his lips twisted into a sly smirk. "Well, this is going to be interesting."
Emma rolled her eyes and pulled Regina to her, who then finally let go of Zelena's arm. "Has she been drinking? She never drinks!" she hissed at her.
"Let's not talk about it, please," Regina sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the back of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.
"Alright!", Snow drew the full attention on herself again. "The rules. Rule number one: no cell phones and no magic! That goes especially for you, Regina."
Outraged, the brunette looked at her. "What's that supposed to mean, especially for me?"
"Rule number two," Snow continued unmoved, as if she had never been interrupted. "The teams don't help each other. Normally you shouldn't run into each other anyway, but you never know. And rule number three: partners will not be swapped. The lot decides and you keep who you get!"
The reactions to the last rule were the same for all four. A collective eye-roll showed on their faces.
Snow clapped her hands and was beaming once again. "Good, wonderful. What you have to do is simple: each team will be assigned a color. You'll find puzzles and tasks in the forest marked with your respective color, which you must complete in order to advance. If you do everything right, you'll get to the finish line at the end and the winning team can take the prize. Any questions?"
"I have a question," Regina commented, "Is this a kid's birthday party or something?"
"Regina, it's about having fun and building team spirit. Something that would be basically good for you to be honest!" Snow countered.
Emma sensed Regina boiling next to her and put a hand on her back to calm her down. "The evening is going to be great," she whispered to her, reminding her that in a couple of hours it would all be over and they could their hair down on the couch at home, since Henry would be spending the night at Violet's house.
Regina's gaze slid to Emma and when she was sure Snow was looking at them, she pressed a long kiss to the blonde's mouth. During the hug she pulled her into afterwards, she murmured in her ear, "Don't screw up the draw!"
Emma sighed, as neither of them had any influence on it, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I love you too." Beside her, she heard Hook make a retching sound, but paid no attention to him.
"Well then!" Snow said solemnly, who approached with a basket containing four pieces of paper rolled up tightly. "Your team's respective color is on the lot and assigns you to your partner."
"Ladies first," Hook stated as Snow held out the basket to him first.
"Oh, a gentleman!" Zelena exclaimed excitedly, who had leaned against the post of a pasture fence to keep her balance.
"You're welcome to have him directly," Emma said, grabbing one of the slips of paper.
Finally, the basket was empty except for the last slip of paper left for Hook.
Grinning, Hook grabbed the lot and unfolded it without taking his eyes off the three women. "Red Team," he then announced after a quick glance at the lot. "Well, ladies, to whom do the honors belong?"
"Mine is green!" Zelena triumphed at that moment, completely stoked that she had drawn her favorite color.
Groaning, Emma closed her eyes. At least this already established that she and Regina would not be on the same team. Annoyed, she glanced at her lot. "Okay, no way, forget about that!" she exclaimed in response.
Regina looked over her shoulder, whereupon her expression darkened. "There's no fucking way I'm running through the woods with that pirate!" she raged without even unfolding her own slip of paper.
"Your sister hates me!" Emma retorted in response.
"Even if she did, she's way too drunk to even realize what's actually going on. I have to go off with that smelly lout!" Regina exclaimed indignantly.
Hook raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "It's nice to hear you guys scrambling to get me, but maybe I can point out that I'm not drunk as a skunk and I understand what you're saying?"
The looks from Emma and Regina probably could have killed, but before the situation could get any more out of hand, Snow intervened.
"Wonderful, so now we have our teams. Now give me your cell phones, if you please." Prompting, Snow held out her hand.
"Um, Mom... aren't you overdoing it a little bit now?" Emma stated cautiously, who was used to her mother's tendency to go overboard on such matters, but this was over the top even for her.
"Honey, I just know you," Snow said in a sweet voice. "And it's supposed to be fair."
Visibly amused, Hook was the first to hand over his phone and proceeded to the start, which was a ribbon David had placed on the ground. "Come on, Your majesty. I want to win this prize."
Regina was boiling more and more as she unfeelingly smacked her phone into Snow's hand and stood on the line as far away from Hook as she could get. Her body language couldn't have been more dismissive.
"Zelena, give her your phone," Emma said annoyed after a while, who had dragged the redhead along to Snow.
"Don't even have it with me," she said with a shrug and a giggle. "Everyone who could call me is here anyway."
"All right," Emma grumbled, grabbing her arm again to take her to the start. "Let me tell you one thing: It's not my fault if your sister breaks her neck on the way," she then hissed to Regina.
"She's probably the only one of us who was smart enough to get drunk. There's no other way to get through this," Regina grumbled.
"Green Team goes left, Red Team goes right," David's voice intervened at that moment. "On my command. Ready, set, go!"
Emma wondered if they were expected to run now; in fact, though, she was walking briskly toward the left path while dragging a stumbling Zelena along and Hook turned right, Regina a few feet behind him with her arms folded in front of her chest.
"Zelena, what the hell has gotten into you? You usually don't drink anything!" Emma said annoyed after a while, who was more or less dragging the staggering Zelena along in her green cardigan and black jeans than that she was walking herself. While Emma had solved the first puzzles - a tricky math problem, an optical illusion, a secret language, and two picture puzzles - Zelena had sat on a fallen tree trunk and admired a beetle with dedication that had crawled over her shoe, combed her hair with her fingers, or simply stood around looking for pictures in the clouds.
The red-haired witch shrugged her shoulders and let out that unfamiliar giggle again. "I was bored and I knew you'd all be in a bad mood," she countered, "And it tasted good. Yikes..." The toe of her shoe hooked into a root, and only thanks to Emma's quick reaction did she avoid falling.
"Yeah, pretty great," Emma muttered, rolling her eyes and listening for the ever-increasing splashing sound. "I think that's the creek up ahead. According to the last puzzle, that's where the next task will be."
"You can handle this," Zelena nodded, shrugging her shoulders indifferently.
With the goal of ripping Regina's clothes off in a few hours in mind, Emma trudged on doggedly and soon had found the next envelope with the green marker.
Zelena lowered herself to the ground and lay down. The sun shining through the canopy made her hair glow fiery red as it spread out like a fan on the forest floor, shreds of moss and needles tangling in it.
"Get up," Emma said in a commanding tone, who joined her only a minute later.
"Did you solve the puzzle so quickly?", Zelena wanted to know in surprise, opening one eye blinkingly.
"We have to get to the other side," was all that Emma answered, who looked down doubtfully at the drunken woman. "It's not a puzzle, it's one of those team-building things my mom talked about," she then added, annoyed.
"Then we'll just go back now," Zelena said shrugging her shoulders.
Emma raised a brow and eyed the shallow stream. "Why? There are rocks in the water over there. We just have to walk over them."
"I can't swim," Zelena said, looking at her challengingly. "And I don't want to drown because of some stupid paper hunt."
Emma didn't know why, but when Zelena's true spirit finally flashed through the good-humored facade of drunkenness, she had to grin and immediately felt a little better. "I won't let you drown. Come on, move. I want to finish this nonsense today."
Visibly anxious, Zelena stepped up next to Emma. "I know you don't like me. Who's to say you won't let me drown?" she started again.
Emma looked at her from the side. "Even if I did, Regina likes you just fine and I'm sure she wouldn't think it was funny if I let you drown. Besides, the water here isn't three feet deep. Not even you are drunk enough to drown in it," Emma said dryly. "Come on, I'll help you." With that, she jumped onto the first, wide stone and then turned to hold out her hand to Zelena. "Come on, it's easy. Take a little run if you think it's too far."
Zelena shifted from one foot to the other, finally took a deep breath and jumped over the section of water about a meter wide. With a shrill screech, she landed right in Emma's arms.
"There you go, what did I tell you?" the blonde asked, "Simple. That's how we'll do the next jump, too, and over there the stepping stones will be closer together." After Emma helped Zelena onto the next stone as well, she hopped the last short distance to the other bank. "Come on, once you make it across, we should be through with the tasks and can follow the markers to the finish, if I understood correctly."
By now more bored than scared, Zelena ran across the stepping stones. When she reached the last one, however, she slipped and her brain, befuddled by alcohol, prevented her from regaining her balance. Instead, she landed in the stream with a big splash and a loud screech. "Emma!" she squealed, flapping her arms in panic in the shallow water.
"Stop it! Zelena, stop fucking acting like a crazy person, you're making me completely wet!" Emma roared, who had long since grabbed her under the armpits and dragged her to the shore.
"I'm completely wet too!" she screeched.
Emma couldn't help laughing, though, as she eyed Zelena like that, sitting in front of her, dripping wet and with dripping hair. Although it wasn't cold, she knew she had to get her to dry clothes as quickly as possible so that she wouldn't catch her death sooner or later in the early morning breeze.
With chattering teeth, Zelena stood up; the involuntary bath had at least one advantage: she was sober from one moment to the next. "Where do we have to go?"
Emma nodded toward a green arrow that had been pinned to a tree. "That way. I think I know where we are now, too. If there are any more puzzles, we'll skip those and take a shortcut back to my parents. I don't want to be to blame if you get pneumonia."
"After you, Your Majesty," Hook grinned as he held aside some fern fronds to let Regina pass.
"Bite me with your gentlemanly crap, Hook," she merely retorted angrily, pushing past him with a snort.
"Why so aggressive?" he asked, running a few steps to catch back up to her. "Why don't you admit that you don't actually think I'm that bad?"
Regina stopped and glared at him with her hands on her hips. "And if you were the last person on earth, I still wouldn't get involved with you. How's that, anyway? If Emma or my sister had drawn that ominous second red lot, would you have used the same chat-up lines?"
Hook laughed softly for a moment. "Not in the slightest. But before you get any ideas: There's the next envelope up ahead." With that, he nodded to the red paper hanging in plain view in a treetop.
The two had silently divided the previous puzzles between them. Regina had devoted herself to the more complex arithmetic problems and formulas, while Hook had cracked the picture puzzles and optical illusions in no time. Had their collaboration not been so forced, they could have been a very good team, complementing each other.
"Are they serious? The last five tasks were just on the way, why is that darn piece of paper hanging ten feet off the ground?" Regina raged, craning her neck to look at the envelope dangling amusingly in the wind by a thread.
Hook shrugged his shoulders. "We could have solved the puzzles alone. After all, the Charmings had attached such a high value on teamwork. So here we are, Your Majesty. Who would have thought that one day I'd give you a leg up?" he grinned audaciously.
"As if a leg up would get us up there!" Regina cursed.
"Maybe not up there," Hook countered, "but up to where the lower branches on the tree begin."
"You don't seriously think I'm going to climb up there, do you?" Regina asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
Hook shrugged his shoulders. "If you want to finish this game today," he said, shoving his hook right under her nose. "I'm certainly not climbing a tree with this."
"I hope I never have to see you again after today!" Regina growled, stepping up to the trunk where she braced herself against the bark. "Now get going before I change my mind!"
"At your service," Hook grinned, forming a tread for Regina's foot with his hook and hand. No sooner had she found some footing than he lifted her into the air until her fingers could grasp the branches she was pulling herself up onto. "All respect. I didn't think you had that many stomach muscles!" he said.
"Not another word, or I'll mute you!" Regina shouted down to him, crawling on her belly over the branch, one arm outstretched for the envelope.
"No magic. And that was supposed to be a compliment!" Hook retorted.
"I don't need your compliments," she screeched, snatching the envelope from the tree and dropping it down toward him.
Hook shrugged and picked it up. "Whatever you say." While Regina was making her way down, he was already tearing open the red paper to see what the next task was, when Regina gave a short yelp and then hit the ground beside him with a thud.
"You fucking idiot!" she screamed at him, holding her ankle.
Spreading his arms, Hook stared at her in disbelief. "How can I help it if you don't hold on properly?"
"You're down here to help me down! That's why it's a two-person job!" she raged, levering herself from the ground before sinking back down with a sound of pain escaping her lips.
"Let me take a look at that," Hook said, crouching down next to her.
Regina flinched, however, and slapped him on the forearm. "Get your hands off me!"
Hook's brow twitched upward. "Okay, do you want me to leave you here then?"
"I don't need your help!" she snapped, but screwed up her face again as she moved her foot.
"It says we've made it now and to follow the red markers to the finish," Hook said, waving the note around. "So now I'm either going to just follow the red markers and go home, or I'm going to take you with me. It's your choice."
Regina gave him a murderous look, but didn't talk back. She hated the fact of needing help. Even worse was the person whose help she had to accept. "If only someone had invented a device to call people that are far away!" she hissed ironically.
Gently, Hook untied her sneaker after all and pulled it off her foot.
Regina clawed her fingers into the soft forest floor and bit her lower lip, but made no sound.
"I'm no doctor, but I think you've sprained your foot at least," Hook said, eyeing the darkly discolored swelling.
"Right, you're not a doctor, so cut the diagnoses, will you?", Regina sneered, thinking to herself that it couldn't all be true. "Just help me up, I've had enough!"
"David, they're coming!" Snow shouted enthusiastically, as she could make out the moving dots of four figures in the distance at the edge of the forest. "This is going to be a real neck-and-neck race!"
"Somehow I don't think they're going to race," David stated slowly as the four approached, two from the left, two from the right. With brows raised in surprise and mouth agape, he saw his daughter, dressed only in bra and sweatpants, had one arm around Zelena, who was clinging to her, clearly wearing her shirt. Even crazier, however, was probably the sight of Regina sitting on Hook's back. "What the..." he muttered.
"Your hook is pricking into my thigh!" was the first thing the Charmings could hear.
"I can throw you down now, you'll be able to crawl those last few feet!" was Hook's quick-witted reply.
"Emma, I'm so c-cold."
"Then keep running and you'll be warm," Emma replied in annoyance.
Stumbling and panting, the four finally came to a simultaneous halt in front of Snow and David.
"What happened?", Emma and Regina wanted to know as if from the same mouth, Emma being worried about her girlfriend and the latter about her sister.
"Zelena fell into the creek. She just needs dry clothes and something hot to drink. Preferably no mulled wine," Emma replied, draping the blue-lipped Zelena in one of the chairs.
"I fell out of the tree and twisted my foot," Regina responded, who was put down by Hook in a chair next to her sister. As soon as her foot touched the ground, she winced and lost the last bit of color from her face.
Emma was with her in an instant, putting her arms around her, "I'm taking you to the hospital."
Defensively, Regina shook her head. "I just want to go home."
With raised brows, she let her know that this was out of question and then turned to her parents. "Thank you for a great Easter Sunday. It will be unforgettable!" she said sarcastically and then, under Regina's weak protest, lifted her girlfriend in her arms to carry her to the car.
"What about Zelena?" Regina asked quietly.
"My father is already taking care of her," Emma replied, who had seen him wrap a blanket around her and put some tea in her hands before they left.
"Why are you half naked anyway?", Regina then wanted to know, leaning her head into the crook under Emma's chin.
Emma snorted and carefully slid her into the back seat of the Mercedes so she could elevate her foot there. "Because Zelena needed something dry to wear."
"My heroine," Regina grinned, but drew in a sharp breath as Emma slid a pillow under her leg.
"Wait until I save your foot," she laughed, then sat behind the wheel.
"I hate your parents so much," the brunette muttered as she drove, letting her head sink against the back of the seat.
Emma had to laugh. "No, you don't," she answered, "and it was kind of fun, too." She met Regina's scowl in the rearview mirror. "Your foot isn't fun, of course. But think about it: none of the teams particularly liked each other, but despite the mishaps and accidents, we helped one another to the end."
"Yes, because that's what decent people do," Regina agreed.
"Exactly. And that's basically what such events are all about. Not about looking for Easter eggs or making presents, but about being there for each other and helping each other and being a family," Emma confirmed, turning into the hospital parking lot.
"We could have had that more comfortably by meeting for a picnic, for example," Regina grumbled.
Emma had to laugh. "You would have lowered yourself to go on a picnic with Hook?"
"Do you always have to be right, Miss Swan?"
"Is this better?"
"Yes, of course."
At home, after helping Regina into bed and elevating her plastered leg, Emma leaned her crutches against the wall and then slipped under the covers with her. "Are you still in pain?"
Regina shook her head and pulled Emma closer to her. Gently, she buried her fingers in her hair and pressed a demanding kiss to her lips. "I've wanted to do this all day," she whispered, looking into her eyes.
"Not only you did," the blonde grinned, kissing her back. Gently, her fingers ran over Regina's neck and further down her side. When this triggered goose bumps as she had hoped, she grinned with satisfaction and traced the trail her fingers had made earlier with her lips.
Regina made a contentedly sigh and was lolling pleasurably under the touch. "It was all worth it," she said blissfully, closing her eyes.
"I'm trying hard to push away the thought that we could have had this without all this strain," Emma grumbled. "Do you know how Zelena is?"
"She's fine, I called her earlier," Regina explained, sighing as she stared at her leg. "Three weeks in a cast," she groaned, "Did I mention that I hate your parents?"
"I think you did. In the car, in the ER, during the X-ray, after the X-ray, and while you were getting the cast. Oh, and on the drive home," Emma smirked, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Look on the bright side, I'm going to be spoiling you a lot in the near future." A teasing smirk played around her lips before she kissed Regina again, burying her fingers in her dark, silky-soft strands of hair, which smelled pleasantly of apple shampoo, as always.
"Then I guess I should throw myself out of trees and break my ankle more often," the brunette nodded, wrapping her arms around Emma's neck.
"If you think that's worth striving for," Emma laughed, snuggling up to her. "By the way, my mom dropped off the prize earlier while you were sleeping off the effects of the painkillers on the sofa," she then remembered. "Turns out there was never supposed to be a winner, we were all going to get a prize anyway. How did she put it? 'We're all winners and we've grown closer because of the paper hunt,'" she repeated her words in the best imitation of Snow's voice.
"Oh, and what did we win? A spa weekend?" Regina asked sarcastically, who eyed Emma with raised brows.
Emma shook her head and couldn't help grinning. "We are now the proud owners of two rabbits."
Regina's expression froze. "You can't be serious now!"
"I'm completely serious. The 'bunny hunt' was obviously meant to be taken literally. I've made a makeshift enclosure for them in the shed for now," she informed her.
"Emma?" Regina responded.
"Huh?"
"I hate your parents."