A/N The original idea for this fic belongs to HiddenTreatmentSilentThoughts from the fic 'Sometimes, Silence Means Everything' so please check it out if you want to XD

Mute Swan

Emma watched Regina as she laughed with her friends.

If she had made a sound in the last five years, she knew she would have sighed deeply at how beautiful the cheerleader looked. That was exactly the issue, however, Emma hadn't spoken since the car crash that had killed her parents and left her traumatised, it was for that reason that nobody at Storybrooke High knew who she was. Even the friends that she'd had at her old school before the accident had fell away, it turned out that being unwilling to speak made friendships pretty difficult to maintain.

So she spent more of her time studying and observing people. She had a pretty good idea of why people were the way they were. Killian Jones was a jackass because his older brother was mean to him. Ruby Lucas dressed the way she did because she was desperate for attention. And Regina Mills was failing her classes because she wanted to be popular.

As if to prove her final thought, she heard an e-mail alert come to her phone, and instantly brought it out of her pocket.

Her eyebrows rose as soon as she saw that it was a message from the principle, the basis of which was asking 'Emma Swan and Regina Mills to come to the main office.'

Grabbing her backpack, she began to make her way to the office, but not without hearing Regina shout, "who the fuck is Emma Swan?"

The mute blonde began to blush profusely, mostly just because her crush had actually said her name, she simply ducked her head and made it past the cheerleader hoping she wouldn't notice the girl walking in the direction of the office.

"You can't do this to me!" Regina almost shouted at her step-father.

Mr Gold just replied dismissively, "I am the principle, Regina, and your mother agrees with me. You cannot be a cheerleader with your grades and your teachers have offered you a chance to redo some of your tests and assignments."

"How am I supposed to do that?" she sighed, "I can't take the whole year in four months."

"That's exactly why I asked Miss Swan here, she's the best student in your grade. If anyone can help, it's her."

Regina turned to the seat next to her as if she only just realised that there was someone there, and gave the nervous blonde a withering look. She was sure that she'd never seen the girl before, and she was also sure that she didn't care.

"You?"

Emma nodded and grabbed brought up her phone, after a second she showed Regina the note that said 'hi'.

"What the hell is this?" Regina sighed.

Mr Gold rolled his eyes at his step-daughter's insensitivity, and explained, "Miss Swan is unable to talk, but that doesn't change the fact that she can help you."

Emma waited for the remark that she got from the few people who did notice her, the most popular so far had been 'retard'. This didn't usually bother her, but she knew that coming from Regina Mills, it would hurt more than it probably should.

Instead Regina just huffed and stood, "fine, whatever."

With that she stormed out of the office and Emma turned to the principle who offered her an encouraging smile.

Handing her a post-it note with an address on it, he said, "meet her at about half five at this address."

"Where are you?" Cora asked in a scolding voice.

Regina looked down at the stable boy whose lap she was sitting on and sighed deeply, "I'm with Daniel, since when is that a crime?"

"You shouldn't be spending time with your boyfriend when you should be studying with Emma. She's been patiently waiting for half an hour, now if you come home now I'll consider not punishing you."

Regina sighed and agreed.

Hopping of his lap, she gave him one last lingering kiss, and said, "you should really get back to work anyway."

Daniel laughed and stood, Regina distinctly heard him whisper something like, "tease."

"This is moronic," Regina finally saidas she finished Regina a long note on Russian History, "you might as well just written me a text book!"

Emma frowned and Regina suddenly felt bad, but she determinedly pushed it aside.

"How are you supposed to help me?"

The blonde bit her lip in thought, and wrote, 'do you have a laptop?'

"Of course I do, don't you?"

Emma just shook her head and offered no explanation, she was pretty sure she didn't have the energy to write the story of the poor little foster child.

Once Regina had handed the device to her, she opened it and began browsing intently, hoping that she had the correct program.

Regina couldn't help but notice how adorable the girl looked with the tip of her tongue sticking out as she concentrated on her task.

Finally, Emma found it and typed 'hello' which the robotic voice on the laptop promptly repeated.

Regina rose her eyebrows as Emma looked at her for a reaction, and finally said, "Fine I suppose that could work."

The blonde smiled broadly the girl's response and Regina found herself smiling back, before she blinked and looked back down at the essay title that she was supposed to be redoing.

-One week later-

Regina stared at the clock on her phone as Emma checked through one of her assignments.

Her mother had agreed to finally let her see Daniel if her tutor agreed that she was improving, she hadn't seen her boyfriend since the first day of tutoring because she believed that he was too much of a distraction. Regina found it weird that she didn't miss him as much as she thought she would, but as the captain of the cheerleaders, she couldn't exactly dump the star quarter back, even if she was beginning to enjoy studying with her mute tutor more than she enjoyed being around him.

'It's good,' the robotic voice announced.

Regina sprang up with a huge smile on her face, "so I can go?"

Emma nodded, hoping that Regina didn't notice the look of pain that flashed across her face.

The brunette did however notice, and she instantly furrowed her brow, "do you not want me to go?"

The other girl opened her mouth as if she had forgotten that she couldn't speak, and then quickly grabbed the laptop, 'why would I care?'

"Well that's rude," Regina replied in faux hurt, though a small smile was tugging at the corner of her lips. Since the blonde had started using the laptop to talk she seemed to be getting more and more confident. She could certainly type fast enough that it never truly interrupted the flow of the conversation, and Regina was baffled as to why her parents wouldn't have brought her something that could make her that happy.

Emma rolled her eyes and stood to leave.

A knock at the door interrupted Emma's attempts to leave, and Zelena popped her head around it without even waiting for permission, "your boyfriend is here, Regina."

"Tell him I'll be right down."

"I'm not your messenger," Zelena replied.

"Then why did you come to tell me?" Regina sighed.

"Because mom told me to," the older sister said before ending the conversation by walking away.

Regina rolled her eyes at her sister's back and turned to Emma who was checking the time on her phone, the brunette noted not for the first time that Emma didn't have a smart phone. She was so sure that everyone in this town had at least moderate fortune, certainly enough to at least afford the last generation of iPhone.

"Now that I'm officially allowed out of the house, would you mind meeting me at Granny's for our session tomorrow? I'll bring my laptop."

For a moment, Regina could have sworn that she saw an intense blush pass over Emma's cheeks, but she just decided to ignore it and wait for her answer, which came a moment later in the form of a nod.

Regina smiled genuinely at her and walked over to the door, not noticing how the blonde was trying not to melt at the thought of being out in public with Regina.

Emma took a second and then promptly shouldered her messenger bag, following Regina to the front door.

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, let me know if you're interested in more XD