Chapter Text
Badass warrior princess Emma Swan is an unstoppable beast. She hacks through her enemies without hesitation, cutting them down before they can even think about fighting back. Knights and rogues alike quiver in fear as soon as she takes to the field.
She is the Swan Princess.
Well, SwanPrincess24 (her favorite number is fourteen but that was taken).
Anyways, SwanPrincess24 and her guild are notorious throughout the servers of the Enchanted Forest. An exclusive club of lady do-gooders. Always willing to lend a newbie a hand, always ready to help out a struggling player. The White Knights Guild is friend to all (except for James and his stupid 'Fight Club' Guild because he's an idiot asshole and everybody hates him and his stupid face and he totally doesn't even get the point of that movie anyways).
Where there is injustice, the White Knights shall be there to fight it.
Especially when there's rare loot involved.
-
"You sure you don't want to wait for anybody else?" Emma pops her lips as she trails her avatar after her friend's. It's late on a school night so, as usual, there's a noticeably smaller crowd in the fictional world of their game.
"Who knows when Mary Margaret is gonna be finished with her Ken doll," Ruby's voice sounds over her headphones, "and Belle said after she's done studying she's gonna call it a night so she'll be well rested for that test."
"Aren't you in her class?" Emma wrinkles her nose, following Ruby's character towards the cave they discovered last play session. "Shouldn't you be studying?"
"Eh, we've been working on this unit for three weeks." Emma can practically hear the shrug in Ruby's voice. "If I don't know the material by now I figure that's more a reflection on the teacher than me."
"Wow," Emma drawls into her mic. "Is that what you tell your grandmother when you show her your report card?"
"Oh sweet, naive Emma. You think she can beat me to the mailbox? She hasn't seen my report card since middle scho-" Ruby cuts off suddenly. "Hey-oh, who is that?"
They're in an isolated area of the map far from the towns and villages that dot the fictional landscape, so they haven't run into many players tonight. Now though, just by the mouth of the cave they're planning on tackling, a female avatar stands.
Emma clicks on the newcomer so that her profile pops up. A lot of the optional info is blocked so all she gets out of it is that the person is a black mage, they've been a member for just under two weeks, and that their username is EvilQueen2003.
"Woah, this is crazy. She's pretty high leveled considering she's barely been around."
"Who cares about that." Ruby lets out a long, low whistle. "She's hot. I'm into that."
Emma snorts. "Rubes, it's a blurry computer model."
"I have a good imagination. I can fill in the blanks. Let's invite her along so we have something nice to look at in the cave."
Though she doesn’t appreciate how much Ruby can sound like an dumb frat boy sometimes, Emma can admit it would be nice to have another player around while the rest of the gang is MIA. Belle especially. So, even as she's rolling her eyes at Ruby's idiocy, Emma opens the general text chat.
SwanPrincess24: Wanna tackle the cave as a group w us?
The words pop up above her avatar for everyone in the immediate vicinity to see.
...
No response.
Nothing.
The mage turns though, and heads towards the mouth of the cave, so Emma takes that as a 'yes' and moves her character to follow.
Ruby chuckles in her ear. "Not very chatty is she?"
"Guess not." Emma follows at a cautious distance. There are always assholes like James who are ready to attack fellow players for no reason. Best to be on guard.
"Hello?" Mary Margaret's soft voice fills her ears.
"Look who's back," Ruby shouts loud enough for Emma to wince. "How was the date, hot shot? Did you wear your finest poodle skirt? Was there one milkshake with two straws enjoyed at our homely, local diner? Some heavy over the clothes petting at the town drive-in?"
"Leave her alone," Emma manages without laughing. Mary Margaret is an incredibly old fashioned grandmother trapped in the body of a modern day teenager, it's true, but Emma can't bring herself to tease the girl over it. She's too soft and innocent and pure. It's like kicking a puppy.
Ruby on the other hand has no such qualms.
"For your information," Mary Margaret grumbles, "we had a fantastic dinner at a beautiful restaurant and he was a perfect gentleman."
"Obviously he is if you're home by ten." Ruby gags. "Lame."
"I'm glad you had fun," Emma cuts in before the bickering can start.
She's only half paying attention to the game now. So far the caves have been nothing but low level goblins and this 'Evil Queen' has some pretty intense fire spells that have left her and Ruby trailing her rather uselessly with their swords.
"Thank you." Just listening to her voice Emma knows Mary Margaret is glowing. "He really was so sweet."
"He's pretty," Ruby begrudgingly allows. "Too bad about the evil twin though, you sure you wanna marry into that?"
"We're fifteen," Mary Margaret splutters, scandalized.
Ruby's boisterous laughter is loud and harsh over the mic. Emma lowers the volume on her headphones.
"Nevermind," Mary Margaret mutters. "Where are you guys anyways? The teleport brought me to the edge of the river but I don't see you."
"Can't teleport in caves or dungeons, newb," Ruby drawls.
"We don't use that language unironically," Emma sharply reminds them and her friends laugh. "Follow upstream towards the mountains. The cave is pretty easy to spot. Let me know if you can't find it."
"We made a new friend," Ruby adds.
"Ooh," Mary Margaret coos, "who?"
"This hot fire chick. She won't talk to us though." Ruby shuffles about over the connection. "Hold on, I'm gonna try again."
"Don't piss her off," Emma warns. Ruby can be a bit off putting when you're not used to her. She's a lot to handle on a good day.
"A black mage is something we don't have, Ems. If she plays frequently enough we should lock her down and complete the team. Think about it, next time James tries to fuck with us she can just light his ass on fire. That's the dream."
Emma follows from a healthy distance as Ruby gets her avatar all up in the black mage's business.
MissRidingHood: So, u play often?
"Oh my god," Emma groans. "You worded it like a bad pickup line, you loser."
"I don't even want to know," Mary Margaret says. She's still far enough away she can't see the chat bubble, lucky her.
No response from the Queen. She merely keeps moving forward, shooting line after line of fire towards the onrushing goblins before Ruby and Emma can even think to lift their weapons and make contact.
"Wow, okay," Ruby says.
MissRidingHood: Do u have a guild?
Still nothing.
Emma snickers.
"I'm in," Mary Margaret says.
"Just follow the dead goblins," Emma replies. "Hurry and you can watch Rubes get completely shut down with me. It's awesome."
"I got this," Ruby spits back. "You know I can charm the pants off of anybody. She's just playing hard to get."
MissRidingHood: We R looking 4 a black mage and u seem pretty good.
EvilQueen2003 has logged off
"Bitch!" Ruby screeches when the Queen’s character disappears and Emma busts out laughing.
"Oh did I miss her?" Mary Margaret's frown is clear in her voice as her avatar finally catches up to the group.
"Wow, Rubes, you charmed her right off of the internet," Emma manages through her giggles. "Inspirational, really. Tell me again how you're still single?"
"Shut up."
Without the Queen's fire to hide behind, warding off goblins is a lot more tedious. They make their way through the winding tunnel path though and eventually come across a massive stone door, etched with a fictional language that glows with a blue mystical light.
"Du-du-dungeon," Rubes sings with glee.
"We should wait until everyone can come on and tackle it together," Emma says.
"Yeah," Mary Margaret agrees, "it's pretty late anyhow."
They say their good nights and log off for bed.
-
Emma does her best to stifle another obnoxious yawn while Mr. Glass drones on and on about the wonders of economics. She's gotta stop letting Ruby talk her into staying up so late playing that dumb game. It's making focusing on schoolwork near impossible.
"We only have about fifteen minutes left so instead of starting the next segment why don't you pair up with your stock project partners and work on anything you're behind on."
The class groans and grumbles as students slowly comply, kids pushing past one another to switch seats and group up. Emma doesn't move. Like always, her partner comes to her.
Regina Mills is a bit of an enigma. She's an obnoxious know-it-all during class, but as soon as the bell rings she clams up and keeps to herself, a complete and total loner.
Originally, Emma had cursed her rotten luck when Glass had randomly assigned partners and they'd been paired together. She had about a half dozen acquaintances in class she'd have preferred. Not to mention Regina seemed like a real hard ass about work ethic and grades. The stocks project is a semester long assignment and you didn't want to get stuck with a workaholic asshole.
But pretty quickly Emma found that working with Regina isn't so bad. Sure, she's focused and takes her schoolwork seriously. But she did indulge Emma on more than one occasion.
They're supposed to be tracking and recording the rising and falling stock values of a handful of companies over the course of a semester and while most groups went for Google and Apple, Emma had been rather enthusiastic about picking out her favorite snack and candy companies. Surprisingly, Regina hadn't resisted. She'd merely rolled her eyes before nodding along.
She does that a lot when she's talking to Emma.
They trade their notes from the week back and forth for a few minutes, but they're done relatively quickly. Regina makes a point to keep them as up to date as possible. It's a new feeling for Emma, not having to scramble around to get everything ready for class in the eleventh hour, but not necessarily one she doesn't enjoy.
Anyways, there's still a good ten minutes left of class when they run out of busywork.
Emma slumps back in her chair and heaves a heavy breath as she watches Regina across from her, dutifully writing something or other in her homework planner.
"So, got any weekend plans?"
Regina blinks at her blankly. "Um, no. Why?" She rolls her pencil between her fingers, fidgeting.
"Uh," Emma shrugs, put off by the nervous response, "being friendly?"
"Oh." Regina nods. "Right." Her eyes fall back on her notebook. "What about you?"
"Just hanging out with the usual suspects. Nothing exciting. And you know," Emma says very solemnly, "dutifully tracking stocks and bonds."
Regina just huffs and rolls her eyes while Emma grins. They sit in companionable silence for awhile, Regina reading from her notebook while Emma doodles a cat in her own, until their time eventually runs out.
Itching for freedom, Emma's on her feet with her stuff gathered up before the bell even finishes ringing. "See ya Monday," she throws back over her shoulder, but leaves before she gets an answer. She's only got one thing on her mind right now, the fact that it's Friday.
A whole weekend to fry whatever is left of her brain cells however she pleases.
No greater joy in the whole of the world.
-
Emma grumbles as the goblins surround her, jumping about her avatar and prodding it with their tiny spears. They don't do much damage, but there's enough of them she could be in trouble if she's not careful. "Belle, can I have some juice? I'm kinda locked in over here."
"Maybe if you weren't so slow," Ruby taunts over her mic, "you wouldn't keep getting swarmed.”
"Maybe if you weren't such an a-"
"Ladies," Belle calmly cuts off Emma's snotty response with her smooth, soft voice, "let's behave." She casts a protective shield on Emma and then returns to buffing up Ruby's character because she totally plays favorites.
Shield in place, Emma is able to push through the swarm and rejoin her friends. They've been at it for a little over an hour, tackling the dungeon one room at a time. The end is in sight and Emma is beyond ready to slay whatever fantastical beast is guarding the treasure and warp out of there so she can log off and have some dinner.
"So, I have a question." Mary Margaret's voice is more timid than usual and Emma is instantly on high alert. "David really enjoys playing, but he hates being in the same guild as a bully like James."
"That wasn't a question," Emma sighs out, already knowing where this is going.
"Oh, you know what I mean," Mary Margaret squeaks. "What do you guys think?"
"I dunno," Ruby drawls, "we kinda got a ladies vibe going on."
"It would really piss off James though," Emma admits. She might not love the idea of a near stranger coming in to mess up the group dynamic, but she certainly loves the idea of how annoyed it would make the town asshole.
"Yeah, and then he would come after us even more," Ruby counters.
That's probably true.
"David's class is a knight," Mary Margaret chimes in, a little whiny and a lot desperate. "We don't have one. He'll help balance out the team."
"Yeah, but-" Ruby starts but Belle cuts her off.
"They harass us because we're girls and close their group off to female players. The one's they're not interested in, at least. Do we really want to be like that?"
"No," Ruby grumbles, petulant like a small child. "We don't want to be like that."
"Emma?" Belle prompts.
"It's fine by me as long as you guys don't make the chat all mushy and gross with declarations of love."
Mary Margaret giggles. "We'll keep it strictly professional."
And so ShinyArmoredHero joins the ranks of the White Knights. It's a little awkward at first. At least it is for Emma. Ruby is ready to rib anyone and Belle is naturally quiet, but Emma has some trouble adjusting to the new voice on her headphones, kind as David is. It takes her some time to get back to normal, but by the time the weekend is over they're all jiving fairly well together. Even if Emma keeps rolling her eyes every time she has to hear a, "Great shot, sweetie!" or a, "I've got your back, darling!"
Seriously, sometimes it's like a bad romance novel.
-
Emma sits on her desk, back to the chalkboard, feet on her chair. Mary Margaret sits at the desk behind hers and they chat as usual before class starts.
"It's going to be right when summer vacation starts, just outside of town," Mary Margaret presses. "We could all go."
"You really want your friends to crash your cute fairground date?" Emma chuckles. "You know Ruby will make it hell for the both of you."
"That's why I'm counting on you to keep her in check." Mary Margaret pouts a bit. "Come on. We never all hang out offline anymore. It will be good to have some face to face interaction outside of school that involves the whole group."
The bell rings before Emma can argue any farther. She settles properly in her seat and half-listens to the teacher greet their class while lamenting the fact that in a few weeks she's going to be dragged an hour and a half out of town to suffer through an overpriced and under staffed carnival.
Yay.
-
James finds her during lunch while Emma is sat between Ruby and Belle, pretending not to notice how they keep catching each other's eyes before shyly ducking their heads. Even if she's happy that they're getting closer to working out the whatever-it-is that's between them, it's pretty nauseating to be caught in the middle of. And Emma's stomach drops as it suddenly hits her that between them and Mary Margaret and David, this is going to be her life now.
The perpetual fifth wheel.
Oh god.
After that sudden realization James’ assholery comes as an almost welcome intrusion.
"See you ladies finally caved and found a big, strong man to protect you." He's standing over their table, grinning down at them like a total douche, Victor Whale and Killian Jones at his back. They almost look like a washed up boy band. "At least maybe now you'll actually be a challenge."
Ruby scoffs. "As if we weren't already kicking your ass every time you try and start shit."
Actually, when you tallied up the numbers they were fairly evenly matched at the moment. The boys would harass low level players and the girls would swoop in to put a stop to it, the boys would ambush them later in return and so on in an endless cycle.
Emma isn't about to admit that though, so she sneers up at them and nods along.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Ruby asks. "You're bordering on obsessive now. Honestly, we're all getting a little embarrassed for you."
James' grin only seems to widen. "We'll see how much of a difference your new shield makes." He backs away with his friends and leaves the girls to huff and pout over what's left of their lunches.
"What a dick," Ruby sighs out, chin in palm.
Even Belle nods at that.
-
Glass gives them the last eight or so minutes of class to 'catch up' with their partners for the stocks project yet again. Emma's starting to think it's just an excuse to cover up the fact his lesson plans keep running short. Not that she minds, free time is free time.
"I caught some of your drama from across the lunchroom today." Regina's at the desk next to her again, though she's got most of her attention on whatever impossible math equations are spread out before her while she speaks.
"Ugh, don't remind me." Emma scoffs, leaning back in her chair, hands behind her head. "Nolan is such an ass."
Regina hums her agreement, still not looking up. "Hard to believe he and David are related, let alone twins."
"Tell me about it." Emma's brow furrows after a moment. "You're in my lunch period?"
Regina shrugs. "Sometimes."
"Cryptic," Emma lets out through a laugh.
"I spend a lot of time in the library." Regina clears her throat. "Anyways, we should meet up this weekend."
Emma blinks. "Yeah?" Regina's always seemed to tolerate Emma at best, it's not as though they've ever had plans to hang out before.
"For the project," Regina clarifies, apparently sensing her confusion. "We need to start making our graphs."
Oh man.
"Can't we do that at the end?" Emma whines. "It's all just typing in numbers, it's not like it will take that long."
"You want to scramble to finish the night before?" Judging by the snotty look that overtakes her features, Regina is less than impressed. "If we get the meat of it started now, we'll only have to do light maintenance until the end of the year."
All Emma can do is glare. "Why do you have to be all efficient and sensible all the time?"
Condescension oozes from Regina's tight smile. "Must be in my blood."
"Sure."
"So, Saturday?"
Emma scratches at her neck with a grimace. Honestly, sacrificing time with her friends to input data about stocks sounds like the worst torture imaginable, but it would be pretty shitty to refuse, no? Emma hadn't asked for hyper anal Regina Mills as a partner, but Regina hadn't asked for slacker extraordinaire Emma Swan either. Everyone's making sacrifices.
"All right, fine. You win. We'll shoot for the damn 'A'. Though I still maintain you're really underestimating the hearty stability of a solid 'B'."
Regina rolls her eyes, but she's totally fighting back a smile so Emma figures she isn't in too much trouble.