A/N: Inspired by the wonderful responses by @thegirl20 and malefistache I got for my question of if Ruby/Red’s wolf form was big enough for Regina to ride. This is my first try for anything OuaT, and be aware I’ve only actually seen the pilot when it first aired (and read Red Queen fics) so… I’m not expecting this to be completely in character at all.
A/N2: This got way, way, way out of hand and way, way, way longer than I originally intended. But don’t they always? *sighs* Yes, yes they do.
Regina’s eyebrow twitched. “You. What?”
“Yeah…” Emma swung the side of her fist into her palm, low and in front of her hips, coming back to alternate which hand was curled and which hand was open, only to stop when Regina’s glare sharpened. For that, she had to raise her hands up. “It was an accident!”
Regina advanced another step towards her. Her voice lowered, dangerously so. “An accident.”
“I was trying to show Henry - ”
“You were using unstable magic around Henry?”
“We weren’t alone so I figured if anything were to happen - ” Emma cut herself off, waving her hands, trying not to shrink from the death glare bordering on almost purple leveled at her, “Okay, look, I know I messed up. And I take responsibility for that. But I just. I miscalculated and.” Groaning, she looked away, shaking her head before running her hand through her hair. “I shrunk Ruby. Red. The werewolf. I shrunk the werewolf.”
Regina was practically seething with anger. In a cold and unforgiving tone, she took the last step between her and Emma, her finger slashing out to point at Snow and Charming’s bathroom door, “You mean to tell me that when I open that door, I am going to find a dog-sized version of my werewolf?”
“Hey!” Snow interjected from where she’d been barely able to keep herself away and uninvolved, holding onto Henry, “She’s her own person. She’s not just a - !”
Emma twirled around, shaking her head wildly. “It’s a thing! It’s their thing!”
“Ms. Swan,” Regina didn’t bother to look at Snow or acknowledge she’d said anything, keeping her livid gaze on the blonde. “I won’t appreciate having to ask again.”
Giving up completely at the extent of how utterly unamused the older woman was, Emma sighed. She stepped aside.
Not easing her glare at all, Regina pushed past her, keeping her eyes on Emma until her hand was on the door knob.
“Uhm, we only put her in there so you wouldn’t see her first thing,” Henry piped up, his first statement after having immediately apologized and lunged at her for a tight hug as soon as Regina had entered into his grandparents’ apartment, making Regina’s shoulders stiffen for a second before she pushed the door open.
“And, well, we weren’t sure if she tried to shift back her… Normal, well, human size wouldn’t have been effected.” Emma cleared her throat, voice trailing off, “Either.”
Regina practically slammed the bathroom door shut behind her.
Snow, Emma, and Henry didn’t move, barely breathing in their attempt to try to hear anything in the ringing silence left by the lessening of Regina’s smoldering presence. They looked at each other, Henry finally hurrying forward to press his ear against the door. Emma and Snow tiptoed up behind him.
Listening for at least a minute, Henry frowned and pulled back, shaking his head. “I don’t hear anything.”
Emma and Snow exchanged concerned glances.
“You think they’re okay in there?” Snow whispered.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t they be?” Her expression one as if she were trying to convince herself, Emma made a faltering step towards the door, but stopped before it would be comfortable to reach out and open it.
Less than a second later, she was glad she did as it sprang open, crashing into the wall as Red stomped out, red hood whipping around her. Running her hand through her hair pushed in front of her shoulder in half-serious agitation, the tall woman was speaking ardently over her shoulder at a following, still stern-faced Regina. “No! I don’t understand. If you didn’t find it at least somewhat funny, you wouldn’t have felt the need to tell me,” she affected her voice in mimic of Regina’s, spinning on her heel so she could face her, “’Maybe we should keep you this way for the upcoming Storybrooke dog show.’” She raised her eyebrows, grinning triumphantly.
Emma gaped. “You didn’t,” while Henry, eyes wide, nodded, and Snow scowled, her lips pressed tightly together.
Throwing the blonde a glare and moving her gaze over her son and Snow to her smirking girlfriend, Regina didn’t answer. Instead, she crossed her arms, lifting her chin. “I would prefer to conduct this conversation elsewhere. And,” she turned to Emma, “After we have another chat about how and what to keep away from Henry. And how you even managed to shrink the wolf in the room instead of duplicating your gun or whatever else dangerous, ill advised, idiotic item you picked!”
“Candle,” Red happily supplied.
“Yes. Candle.” Regina’s voice dripped disdain. “I’m surprised you didn’t manage to burn it and this whole building around you instead.”
Wincing, Emma swallowed back a sharp retort. “Alright. Fine. I’m sorry, and I’ll pay more attention to what I’m doing, but,” she looked between Red and Regina, “Is she fine, now?”
Regina gave her an unimpressed frown and, “No,” at the same moment Red muttered under her breath, “If you were using it in another way.” She smiled innocently when Regina looked at her, then winked at Henry and Snow when her girlfriend’s attention moved back to Emma.
“As I was saying,” Regina said pointedly, “No. When she shifts again, she’ll still be smaller than an Irish Wolfhound.” Her jaw set. “It’s up to you, unfortunately, to return her back to her original size.” She looked as disgruntled as she sounded, “Think of it as an extra magic lesson. That I do not appreciate having to oversee.”
“And… I would prefer it to happen sooner rather than later.” Jumping in before Emma could get her protest out, Red tilted her head, making sure the blonde was going to take what she was going to say seriously, “It’s not as comfortable shrinking than it is to grow. Surprisingly.” Lifting her hands, she put her palms up in a subdued sweeping out motion, “As well as I have no practice with being so small, so… You saw me. I was tripping over my own paws.” She wrinkled her nose, “Like a puppy.”
Regina sounded like she had to stop a laugh, clearing her throat as she put a hand to her mouth; she used her other to redirect Red with a soft, supportive pat on her shoulder.
“What?” Red raised her eyebrow, smile growing.
“Nothing. That just sounded… Awkward and ungainly.”
“No. You thought it sounded cute.”
Averting her eyes, Regina studied the picture opposite her with practiced disinterest. “I don’t find things ‘cute’.”
“You found Henry as a baby cute.” Red shuffled closer, wrapping her arm around the older woman’s shoulders, leaning in to whisper suggestively, “And I know you find some things I do cute.”
“I don’t need to hear this.” Henry abruptly started walking towards the living room, slightly flushed from embarrassment at a mixture of the mention of him as a cute baby and growing old enough he didn’t want to see any type of intimacy his mothers were wont to have.
Emma hurried to catch up as Red went in for a kiss. “Or see it. Count me in.” As she passed a faintly nauseated looking Snow, she snagged her arm, snapping her enough out of her still conflicted feelings about Red and Regina dating to nod and follow her daughter and grandson out of the hallway.
Pulling back, Red smirked at the newly vacated space around them. “Happened again.”
Regina sighed through her nose, rolling her eyes. “And yet no one cares when Mary Margaret and that insufferable husband of hers do far, far worse than we do in public.”
“Eh.” Red shrugged, conveniently ignoring the dig at her friends, “I understand Henry. He’s a kid. Not to mention your kid.” She moved so she could grip both sides of Regina’s waist, pushing her back towards the bathroom with a locking door, stealing kisses along the way. “But before you say anything,” she said between kisses, “He’s resilient and loves you and eventually will get over it.”
Pulling back before they reached the doorway, Regina raised her eyebrow at the taller woman. “I know what you’re doing.” She slipped her arms under Red’s to splay her hands on her back under the hood, gently combing the brunette’s hair through her fingers.
“You mean trying to distract you from being able to continue confronting Emma before you have time to digest your anger? I know.” Red leaned in, kissing her firmly; then, lightly biting down on Regina’s lower lip, eliciting a low moan, she smiled, their mouths barely brushing as she added, “It’s still going to work.”
Regina’s frown barely lightened as she questioned darkening green eyes, “You have just as much reason as me to be angry.”
“Oh, I am.” Red bumped her nose against Regina’s, sliding her lips along her cheek and mouth and jaw. “I still have one night of wolf’s time left that I do not want to have bumble my way through. I’m just…” She nipped the taller woman’s jaw before laving the spot with her tongue, “More interested in this right now.”
Regina dug her fingers into Red’s back. Red’s hood, whenever she came in contact with it, always made her skin hum, her own magic rising to meet the old, powerful enchantment. That, coupled with the feel of Red, herself… “Fine,” she temporarily capitulated, sighing after finding Red’s mouth with her own, “But only this once.”
In the kitchen doing her best to write down all the steps she’d taken in preparation for Regina to read over, Emma looked up, grimaced, and picked up the notepad. “Red,” she poked her head into the hallway, speaking loud enough that the woman behind the bathroom door would hear but her family in the living room would not, “Thin walls. I repeat, thin walls.”
Satisfied her message had gone through at the sound of a choking laugh, thump, and second laugh summarily getting cut off, Emma turned to make her way to the living room, avidly distracting herself by frowning down at her notes. Okay, so, where had she gone wrong?