Teacher's Pet (OUAT)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Emma stirred from her slumber, the cool breeze caressing her backside had the blonde groan and roll over. And when she had, she had expected to find solace in Regina's warmth but, instead, she found an empty bed and cold sheets.

The blonde's eyes snapped open as she felt around, just to be sure that the older woman wasn't curled up somewhere further away. Sometimes that happened in the middle of the night, or in the early light of morning. She would awaken to find herself cold and find what appeared to be an empty bed next to her. Regina sometimes made her way to the very edge of the bed, forcing Emma to wiggle over to her and try to pull her back.

But she wasn't there. Not even at the edge. So the blonde found herself quickly sitting up, eyes roaming wildly around the room in search of her brunette lover. The immediate room was empty, as was the en suite bathroom.

"Gina?" Emma croaked from the bed, pushing the blankets off as she checked the clock, and gaped. It was well past noon and that meant Regina must have been up for hours because of her mother. And that very thought had only panicked the blonde teenager more, forcing her naked tush out of bed to get dressed.

This definitely wasn't a good impression to give to Cora. She slept in and so late. Why hadn't Regina woken her up when she had gotten up? Why just let her sleep? There wasn't anything more like a teenager than a girl who slept late.

"Shit..." Emma mumbled as she sheepishly inched her way from the room, donning one of Regina's fluffy robes over her pajamas before she made it to the hall.

As soon as the blonde had hit the top of the stairs, she smelled something cooking from the kitchen. Stomach growling, she decided to follow the scent trail in hopes that it was Regina who was cooking and not the older woman's mother. That would be quite awkward to walk into and after last night's failure to keep quiet, she didn't exactly want to show her face in front of the eldest brunette woman.

So it was just her relief when she had spotted her brunette lover moving around the kitchen, balancing a pan in one hand and a plate in the other, which appeared to be transferring a fried egg. Quirking a brow, Emma walked into the kitchen and kissed Regina on the cheek.

"Where's your mother?"

"She decided to go on a walk before lunch." Regina turned from the stove with a smile, her arms snaking around the blonde's waist. With a kiss to Emma's forehead, she continued. "She will be due back any moment."

And just like that, Regina had pulled away from Emma and shoved the plate that she had been holding in her face. "Eggs? Sausage? Pancakes?"

"... I thought it was lunch?" Emma blinked, tentatively grabbing the dish full of breakfast foods and looked over it, almost warily.

"Mother, luckily, got up rather late. She missed breakfast and wanted it for lunch instead." Regina sighed softly and returned to the stove once again, cracking an egg over the pan. "But it would be just my luck that she would come home and decide to crave something else."

"Does she do that often?" Emma quirked a brow, sticking a forkful of egg in her mouth.

There was a momentary silence as the brunette stared at the sizzling egg, a frown floating across her features as she contemplated the answer. "Sometimes. Usually she gets up early, so it wouldn't be anything like this, but... She might suggest one thing, or a certain place, for a meal and change her mind perhaps not even five minutes later. It's rather tedious, but I do have meals for the next day, I suppose."

"Well, that's kinda shitty of her." The blonde frowned, leaning against the counter as she had continued to slowly eat her lunch.

"Yes, but that is my mother and I'm afraid that I cannot change it." Regina sighed, scooping the finished egg up and onto a plate.