Teacher's Pet (OUAT)

Chapter Twenty

Then she was heading towards the front door, the heels she wore clicking on the wood as she moved to pull open the front door, instantly greeted by the fakest smile she had ever seen

"Hello, dear. It certainly has been a while, has it not?" Cora's cool voice sent shivers down Regina's spine as she stepped into the foyer. She had stood on the porch, clad in a black business suit with slacks similar to Regina's and a blazer that matched. Her brown hair was straight and let loose to cascade just passed her shoulders.

"Yes, it has." Regina ground her teeth together and moved to shut the door. Sharp, brown eyes landed on the older woman in front of her. "What has it been? Three years or four?"

"Has it been so long?" Her mother clucked, shaking her head as she brought a hand out to brush across Regina's cheek. The dark brunette turned her head from the caress, her jaw grinding as she tried to keep her composure. She couldn't let her mother take her by the heart again.

Cora recoiled, a wounded expression on her face. "Oh, don't be that way, my love..."

"You never called me back." Regina muttered coldly, turning towards the kitchen. "Would you like something to drink? Eat?"

"No. I am fine. I would like to catch up with you, my dear daughter." Cora smiled when Regina turned back around to face her mother, the brunette forced one on her own face before taking off across the foyer.

"Then why don't you join me in the sitting room?" She pointed in the direction even as she headed there, her mother on her heels.

Once they got settled on the leather couch, Regina taking the opposite end as her mother, she started up the conversation.

"What had made you decide to visit me after disappearing for so long?"

"How have you been, Regina?" Cora countered the teacher's question with her own as she casually crossed her legs, a light smile on her crimson lips.

"I have been getting by." Regina answered, playing with the envelope still in her hand. "But I know your true intention behind that question. I am not blind, mother."

"Oh?" Cora blinked. "And what might that be?"

"You want to know if I had met anyone." Regina glanced up. "I know you, mother. You cannot fool me with your advertence towards the topic."

Her mother just sat there with the same smile on her face, though she hadn't said a word in protest to the brunette's statement.

"I have met several people."

"And by people, I am sure that you mean women." Cora shook her head with the disgust that Regina had become all too familiar with. "Honestly, Regina, I simply do not understand this fascination that you have with women. They cannot give you what a man can."

"You mean children, don't you?" The younger woman scoffed, averting her gaze from her mother.

This was something that she had heard so many times from her mother and had learned to just ignore it. If not, they would argue about it for hours until one of them left in an angry storm- and if that happened now, her mother would be the one to leave and probably never come back. Regina should be happy at that thought, since the woman had wounded her so many times, but the thought only sent her heart sinking. Despite all of the things that Cora had done to Regina, she still loved her mother dearly and that was simply crazy. But nothing in her life was normal. It never had been, and more than likely never will be.

"And so much more, Regina dear. How can you not see that?" One of Cora's hands found its way on Regina's thigh and she gave it a squeeze. "How can you even love a woman the way you would a man?"