milliways_bar | (no subject)

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OOM: This is something she really can't handle before coffee.

"--is no way there is a bar in the backyard, Emma. Are you sure you haven't been spending too much time with Hen--"

The voice had drifted closer and closer until a young woman, with short black hair, appeared in the doorway, looking from over her shoulder to the wide expanse of the room in front of her.

"Emma," Mary Margaret hissed. A completely failed stage whisper. "There's a bar in my backyard."

[Two pups, two muns. One semi-new, one brand new.
Tiny Tags: Emma Swan, Mary Margaret Blanchard]

Sadly, we must call slows for sleep after this last round of tags. We might be back for an hour tomorrow night, but definitely on Wednesday night to pick right up where we left off. Thank you, one and all, for your very Once Upon A Warm Welcome. This night has been full of magic and delight.

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"Not unless construction around here is really quiet."

She glances over her shoulder at Mary Margaret, and her grin fades a little, twists into abashed concern.

"Uh, hey, you okay? I know it's kind of a shock. I couldn't believe it last night, either."

Mary Margaret almost said she was okay, except there was a bar where her backyard and outside should be. "You found it last night, and it was just, still here, this morning?"

She nearly wishes she'd been woken up for it then.

"Uh, yeah."

The look she gives Mary Margaret could definitely be described as shifty.

"I really didn't expect it to show up again."

"I haven't had enough to drink in my whole life for a shared delusion," Mary Margaret said, looking at the wide room again. "This wasn't normal back in your old home, either, right?"

Er. The one before her car, you know. Where the boxes would be shipped from.

"Believe me, Henry's story would be a whole lot easier to swallow if it had been."

She gives Mary Margaret a gentle nudge with one elbow. "Come on. I'll get you a hot chocolate, or something. I promise, it's fine."

Random room in the backyard and it's fine. She does at least move with the nudge. Holding a cup with hot chocolate would be comforting at least, and Emma didn't look worried.

But, honestly, little seemed to ruffle Emma. Including The Mayor. Who was far more formidable than a room suddenly appearing, where a room shouldn't be able to. "How did this happen?"

They can't just leave the door hanging open, so Emma gives it a push with her boot as they go further into the bar, swinging it closed behind herself.

"Got me," she says, shrugging, an easy lift of her shoulders. "People here pretty much just said it showed up kinda randomly for all of them."

Which brings here to the next question of importance, because none of them look familiar. Except the woman standing to her side, getting her into this room and shutting the door.

"Who are all of these people?"

"Well, they're..."

She trails off, looking around the bar. No one here is from Storybrooke: she doesn't even see anyone she met last time.

"They're, uh, kinda from all over. Like Miami. Or...Nottingham."

She pauses, then gives a little shake of the head, like she's flicking a thought away. "I guess we'll have to introduce ourselves and find out."

Miami or Nottingham, really, Emma? Even without being a teacher, that second one is not real, and she was saying it like it very much was. But then bars shouldn't appear in the backyard. Which one very much had taken over.

Meeting new people seemed huge. Daunting and somehow, very, unknown even. "How many people come here?"

"Um, a bunch?"

She looks over. amends.

"A whole bunch? Look, it's not like you have to meet all of them. You're just hanging out with me. And you were doing that anyway."

Mary Margaret was still very much looking around. Almost like children did. The longer moments seeming to make her less hesitant to look, at everything. If it didn't uncurl her arms from her center.

"It doesn't seem too bad. A lot bigger than Granny's."

Where she actually liked Ruby's presence when not on a date.

"Yeah."

She drags it out.

"No offense to Granny, but this place kinda has a lot more going for it."

At least Mary Margaret's looking a little less like a deer in headlights, though she's still got that uncertainty in every one of her steps, in every half-frightened, half-intrigued glance she gives the room.

Emma gets a sympathetically patronizing look at the words about Granny's. Pretty direct for how uncertain she is on the rest of the room.

"Storybrooke wouldn't know what to do with someone this big."

"Hey."

She gives Mary Margaret an amused glance.

"Give Storybrooke more credit. Ruby would eat this place up."

Mary Margaret tried to remain serious, but her mouth moved first, into a a reluctantly, true smile, dragging the rest of her face with it. As she shook her head.

"Ruby would love every bit of it." Leaving, without really leaving.

There's the smile she's looking for. It's the one that makes Mary Margaret light up like a cute little Christmas tree, brings laughter and humor into a face that is too serious too often.

"See? It's not so bad. No trip to Boston required."

Mary Margaret laughed. "No gas expense, or packing, either."

"There you go. All the comforts of home without it actually being home."

And Mary Margaret could use it. She might be the one who thought Henry needed an escape, but as far as Emma can tell, she's been just as lonely as the kid.

Why else would she invite a perfect stranger to come live with her?

"Come on, let's check it out."

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