First of all, I'm very sorry that this has taken me so unbelievably long. In my defense, life is a bitch and I'm a very busy person. Not in my defense but still relevant, I'm bad at the whole regular update thing. But here's one more try, as a surprise for my best friend. Happy birthday!

Reluctantly, Regina did as she was told and slowly got up from her bed, setting her feet on the floor carefully, as if still afraid that there might be something else lurking around. She was definitely not in the mood for writing a paper, much less one that was not her own, but the young woman had given her word, and that was important to her. So she allowed the other girl to lead her to the other side of the corridor and into her bedroom.

Actually standing on ground level made her realize that the blonde was a whole palm taller than she was. Having to look up to face her felt strange, since their first interactions had been held with her a couple of feet from the floor. She found that somehow fitting, however; for some reason, she found comfort standing next to the taller girl – if anything, because her being taller meant she could reach higher when trying to kill unwanted animal company.

Emma, on her turn, also noticed the height difference. She herself was not exactly tall, but the other girl was petite, tiny even, and definitely not too physically strong. It hit her her as soon as the brunette stood up, and for reasons she couldn't really even start to understand, she was overcome with a sudden rush of affection to her as she caught herself thinking that life must be hard when you're that small. At least it would have been for her, since being fit and certainly not weak had come in very handy when in foster homes: there were always fights and people wanting to steal her things or simply take them by force, and being able to defend herself had been a very useful ability to have.

Seconds later, however, the blonde reminded herself that a girl like that had probably never needed to be big or strong at all, so it's not like it probably made much difference to her; either way, her life must have been a lot less hard – after all, she had probably never even had to kill her own insects. With that, any sympathy or affection were quickly gone; it wasn't like those came easily to her anyway. Opening the door to her room, the blonde simply nodded for her companion to enter before briskly doing the same.

The very first thing Regina noticed was the mess: clothes thrown all over the floor, papers covering half of the desk, an overflowing trash can, some food wrappers scattered around it on the floor to make things even worse... To her, it seemed like a miracle that anyone could survive in such an environment, and that was not exactly a sentiment she could hide. Even if she held her tongue, the frown on her face was enough to let the inhabitant of the room know there was something wrong.

"What? Got a problem, sister?" Of course Emma knew the state of her room was not exactly the best, but she had been way too caught up in softball practices and exams and papers to really have the time to clean, and she hadn't exactly received any visitors for at least a few weeks, so tidying up certainly hadn't been a priority... And yes, of course she knew that was probably the reason for the dissatisfied expression, but making the girl admit it would be way too much fun to pass.

"Obviously I do! When was the last time you emptied your trash? And has your floor ever seen a broomstick? Do you even have any clothes left inside your wardrobe? Or maybe a better question would be... how on Earth are you able to live inside this room? This is disgusting!" Sure enough, the brunette's face had gone from sporting only a frown to extreme disgust, making Emma stop on her tracks for a second to realize how much of an effort she must have been making before to not be showing all that disgust until she was actually asked about it.

The blonde simply smirked at the obvious discomfort, not-so-secretly happy to be able to push the other girl's buttons that easily, without even making any effort. "Well, sister, I don't exactly look like I have a maid to clean my room, now do I? I'm not really going to apologize for not being tidy enough for your royal standards, I have other priorities in my life than pleasing Your Majesty."

"Firstly, would you stop calling me those? I am absolutely not your sister, biologically or otherwise, and I hold no nobility titles either. Secondly, I have been cleaning my own room since I was 5 years old, there are no maids involved in the process, and if I can find the time to keep my dorm room impeccable, you are certainly capable of maintaining yours at least inhabitable." Regina huffed, wondering to herself whether getting rid of a spider was really worth all of the following hassle that it was causing her.

If Emma were to be honest, she would have had to admit that she was surprised to find out her companion actually took care of her own cleaning. She definitely looked like the type to have... help. That actually left her without a plausible excuse for the situation of her room, however, and she sensed she would quickly lose that argument if she allowed it to continue.

"Whatever, okay? I have a messy room. What're you gonna do about it? Just get over it, pick a seat and let's get to work, there's a shitload of stuff to do."

"Starting by working on your language, I suppose. How many minutes can you go without speaking a foul word, have you ever clocked that?"

Emma rolled her eyes yet again, and wondered whether it had really been a good idea to strike that deal. Spending the next few hours around the other girl seemed like it would be absolutely torture. Then again, that was exactly how trying to write that paper had been feeling like to her before the interruption, and she could really, really use the help, so it looked like dealing with the company was still her best bet if she didn't want to fail the class. That wouldn't stop her from at least answering to the brunette's provocations in kind, though.

"I apologize for my use of language also not being up to Your Majesty's standards. If you're so interested in calculating the frequency of my cursing, though, you're free to use your own stopwatch for that."

Regina let out an exasperated grunt and sat on the bed, which, in spite of the messy sheets, still seemed like the cleanest place. The blonde was somehow managing to get on all her nerves at the same time. "I have already asked you to stop calling me that way. God, you are-" Stopping herself from exploding just in time, the young woman took a deep breath. That banter was taking them absolutely nowhere, and she figured the sooner they actually started working, the sooner they'd be done with it and she would be free to go back to her room and give continuity to her day, and hopefully never have to spend another minute in the other girl's company again. "Nevermind. Let's just get started, shall we? What is your paper about?"

"Uhm... it's about waves of immigration and their impacts on the constitution of the population. It's for US History."

The brunette smirked. That was definitely something she could work with, being a pre-law student and having taken that class in her freshman year already. She'd have to admit it could have been much worse: she would probably not be much help with a paper for Advanced Physics or anything similar. So, all in all, that was still mostly lucky, and she suddenly felt rather confident that she'd be able to get this whole thing over with soon enough.

"Here, this is the mandatory reading for the paper." Emma proceeded to dump a completely unorganized jungle of textbook copies and books onto the other girl's lap, effectively wiping the smirk away from her face as she scrambled to gather all of it before it fell to the floor.

"Okay, well, how many pages does it have to be? And how many do you have?"

Emma sat at the chair in front of her desk and looked down at her feet, a very sheepish expression plastered all over her face. "It has to be between 8 and 10 pages." And she went no further. Regina waited for a few moments, but realized she had no intention to answer the other question without at least being prodded.

"Alright, that's not the easiest thing but not impossible either; we're aiming for at least 8 here. How many are still left until we reach that mark?"

A few moments of silence passed, the brunette huffing and shaking her head, and wondering why that was such a hard question, until the other girl finally mumbled something that sounded a lot like "eight". "Really?!", Regina thought to herself, "Will I really have to write the whole paper for her?"

"Excuse me... I couldn't exactly hear what you said. Did you just say 'eight'?"

Emma still would not look at her, and instead simply bit her lower lip and nodded. Which, in all honestly, had a very conflicting effect on Regina: on one hand, something inside her stirred at the lip-bite, and she couldn't really stop herself from taking a deeper breath; on the other hand, however...

"What the hell? Have you written absolutely nothing of your paper, which, as far as I remember, is due tomorrow?!"

Finally looking up to face her, the blonde exhibited an even more sheepish look, if that was even possible. "I wrote one paragraph..?"

Closing her eyes, Regina took a deep breath, willing herself to bite her tongue and not say anything further. It was useless and it was not going to change the fact that she'd have to basically write the whole thing, and arguing wouldn't help with that either. "Okay… here's how this is going to happen: I will start writing it from what I remember; I've read about the topic before. Meanwhile, you start skimming through your texts and trying to get a general idea of what's in each of them. After I'm done with what I know, I'll tell you what things I need reference on to make further comments, and you'll tell me where to find those references."

She didn't even wait for Emma to respond before snatching her laptop from the desk, going back to the bed and starting to type furiously. The blonde just stared at her for a few moments, astonished at how quickly she had figured out what to do and how to do it, before finally deciding to follow the instructions and start reading, for once not at all upset about someone telling her what to do.

Something between four and five hours later, Regina triumphantly handed the laptop back to Emma, almost beaming with pride in her own self. It was an excellent paper – especially considering the little time she had had to write it - and she knew it. Emma, still mildly shocked at the fact that the other girl had really managed to write eight pages in just a few hours, grabbed it from her and quickly read through it. She would have never written something that good herself, even if she had had months to do it. Hell… she had had months to write this one and all she could produce was one paragraph… that Regina had promptly deleted, apparently. For a moment, she was scared that her professor would know right away that such a paper could have never been written by her and she'd get in trouble for it. But then again, she would also get in trouble for not handing anything in, so she might as well try her luck.

She'd hate to admit it, but even though she thought the other girl was absolutely insufferable, she surely had done a really good job on that. It was a lot more work than Emma herself would have ever put into a paper – especially someone else's paper – and she couldn't help but be thankful. Which, if she were to be honest again, was not exactly an emotion she was either used to or good at dealing with, and even less so towards people she was nowhere near fond of… which meant that, in practical terms, she has absolutely no idea of what to say. So she simply stared blankly at the screen for a while after she had finished reading it, and then looked up to stare at the other girl, who was still sitting on her bed and waiting for a reaction.

After a few moments had passed and said reaction had absolutely not come, Regina started getting impatient. "So..? Do you like it or not?!" She didn't know why she cared; she knew it was infinitely better than anything the blonde could have written by herself, judging by what she had actually written. But for some reason, she still wanted her opinion, and she still wanted her to have liked it. She told herself it was just her constant need for validation, but the truth was that the lack or response was really making her anxious.

Emma shrugged almost imperceptibly, trying to shake herself out of the astonishment. "It's fantastic… Better than anything I've ever written. Better than anything I'd ever be able to write too, to be honest." Looking down, she added, in a quieter voice "Thank you… this is a lot more than you needed to do."

Regina felt something tugging at her heart, and immediately tried to push it away. The girl was annoying, irritating, petulant, possibly lazy and irresponsible, and could get on every single one of her nerves without even trying. But somehow, every time she showed the slightest hint of vulnerability, the brunette couldn't find it in herself to be mad at her anymore. And more than simply cease being mad, it actually made her almost, almost care. It wasn't a welcome feeling, though; it wasn't anything she had agreed to feeling, and it wasn't anything she was comfortable with. So she shoved it back down yet again and stood up from the bed, looking awkwardly at the other girl sitting by the desk. "So… I guess that means my work here is done. So I'll just get going, it's getting pretty late and I still have a lot to do."

Emma looked up at her and nodded, thankful for the slight change of subject. "Alright… Thank you again, sorry it took so long." Regina smirked the slightest bit, nodding once in acknowledgment. "Good luck with finals. Try to start writing your papers sooner next time, will you?" The blonde rolled her eyes yet again, secretly somewhat glad to go back to being annoyed by the other girl. "Good luck with the spiders. Try to not yell that loudly next time, will you?" The only response Regina bothered giving was a scoff, before turning around and walking out the door, promptly closing it behind her. As she walked back to her own room, she shook her head slightly, the faintest smile forming on her lips.

I hope you have enjoyed this! Please let me know what you think of it so far. :)