Still don't own once upon a time.
Just to make it all a bit more clear: the enchantment Emma is under has partially transfigured her mind, so to speak, thus some of her behavior is cat-like. Like head-butting .
Warning: short mention of Regina's marriage. It's not very suggestive or anything, but it's still there so judge for yourself whether you can read it without being triggered.
Also, I might change this later because I don't know whether I like the ending. Enjoy for now!
Regina finds the cat huddled on her porch, shivering and soaking wet, and letting out pitiful meows.
She sighs and glares at it until she gives in to the sorrowful green eyes and bends to pick the tiny thing. She feels the vibration of its purrs against her chest as the cat snuggles into her. It's shaking and the wet fur isn't exactly pleasant against her skin, but she isn't going to have the thing trot in her house leaving wet and dirty paw prints everywhere ( it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the cat has big green eyes and is absolutely adorable even when her fur is slightly dirty).
So she allows it to press against her for warmth, still purring, and carries it to the bathroom. As soon as she enters the rather large room, she puts the softly purring cat into the bathtub and closes the door . She turns back towards the cat and looks at the tap for a moment ; should she risk scratches in order to actually clean it? No, she decides.
" Don't you dare scratch me or walk away" she mutters as she approaches the cat with a towel. The cat's ears are in its neck and the purrs are menacing now ( they're probably telling her 'back off, no towels wanted here' but well it's a cat. And Regina is the feared Evil Queen. Sort of). After the initial soft hissing and protests, the cat relaxes.
As soon as Regina has finished drying the cat, she takes it in her arms again, rolling her eyes when it practically buries itself in her chest with its tiny paw resting on her breast.
" Let me guess, you're male.." she says, trailing off and gently pulling the cat's tail up. It growls deeply, glaring at her as if to say "he! That's private" .
Regina ignores it, already dropping the tail, and the cat is purring again when she scratches it under her chin. " so you're a girl. And what is a pretty girl like you doing outside in this horrible storm? " she talks to it while walking down the stairs, back to her study. Where she was before she heard the most agonizing, banshee-like meows during one of the breaks in between thunder claps.
Now, with the cat purring up a storm cradled against her chest, she feels sort of glad that she found it. It really is rather adorable, though Regina would never actually voice that thought. Instead , she keeps scratching it under the chin as it purrs louder and louder.
When she enters her study, she puts the cat down on the couch and walks over to the stack of paperwork she was working on. It is quiet for about five minutes. Then the cat starts to meow as piteously as though she were still outside, in the storm.
Regina grits her teeth and ignores it. The cat waits for a minute, then meows even more piteously. Like its mother has just died. She tries to concentrate on the paper in front of her, but the words are apparently suddenly in a foreign language. Her eyes drift to the cat. Her ears are folded back, her mouth is opened as she meows softly and she seems to beg Regina to just pick her up again…
she throws the paper work down on the desk with a loud bang! , picks it up and stalks towards the cat. The cat seems smug (but maybe that's just Regina's tired mind) as she climbs on Regina's lap and tries to get to her chest again. Regina pushes her away.
" I might've sat down next to you, you disruptive miscreant, but don't think for a minute I will allow that again. You can sit next to me".
Naturally, the cat is sleeping on her lap about three minutes later.
That's just the start of the disobedience. When Regina finally puts down the paperwork (by then she is so tired that her eyes feel like someone has dumbed a beach's worth of sand in them and the night is dark as Death) and goes upstairs to take a quick shower, the cat follows her. After she put her in one of the spare room on a summoned cat.. bed.. thing. Finally , after seven failed attempts , she just ignores the cat and walks upstairs. Then , of course because why would the damn animal not do that?, she trips over the cat winding around her legs. When she finally manages to reach her room and walks into the closet , she comes back to the cat laying on her bed.
On her pristine bed that shouldn't have dirty cat hairs on it.
Using one of the breathing techniques Archie taught her, she calms down and walks over to the cat. It opens one eye as she picks her up, two as she walks towards the closet and has her hairs standing up by the time she pushes it outside her room and closes the door. Regina smiles triumphantly; that will teach the animal not to jump on her bed or be generally annoying.
Regina ends up opening the door in only a towel with wet hair.
She glares and fumes at the cat and keeps telling herself it's just because the damn thing was being so loud.
" Really?" she exclaims when the cat just.. stands there, staring at her like she is covered in catnip or something (really, she could swear that the cat is looking at her with awe and shock and something else, but she is probably just hallucinating from exhaustion because cats don't have emotions, right?)
She scoffs and marches back to the bathroom, only just quelling the desire to slam the door.
When she leaves the bathroom after a very hot shower , she finds the cat kneading her blanket and ruining the very expensive, very soft, not-meant-to-have-tiny-holes-damn-it silk. However she is just too tired to get angry or even really annoyed, so she just glares briefly at the cat and slides under the covers.
At the exact moment she turns off the light and sinks into the mattress, a light weight climbs unto her chest, turns around a couple of times and settles down with a satisfied prrr.
" Get off" she mutters, surprised when the cat actually listens and instead lays down next to her. She doesn't further scold her: she is soft and warm and really, the damn animal is the most disobedient creature (apart from a certain Sheriff) ever so what's the use. She just closes her eyes and hopes for a restful night, for once.
When Regina wakes with a pressing weight on her chest, she thinks she is just having another nightmare about the king and- but no. This isn't a snoring, oppressive weight with horrible breath and wrinkly hands that grab her. It doesn't even feel like a nightmare, more like-
She opens her eyes.
For one moment, the soft morning light paints Emma Swan's hair golden and Regina can only stare at this woman with a halo made from sunlight, on/above her hair. Emma's eyes flutter and then open fully. She smiles sleepily, snuggles closer. Regina isn't just breathing with difficulty because of Emma's weight half on her anymore.
That's when Emma head-butts her cheek softly. It's like an enchantment breaking, a mirror shattering, fireworks and gunshots.
" Miss SWAN" she pushes her away and Emma is cursing and explaining (or her version of explaining anyways). " Fuck Regina, didn't mean to, magic, and I was trying to tell, and I just didn't want to sleep on the floor, magic" before she even lands on her feet.
Regina cradles the blanket to her chest and it's kind of ridiculous because she isn't the naked one. Wait. Emma. Naked. In her bedroom.
Emma is standing next to her bed and still rambling on about enchantments and apologies and something with the word 'fuck' . Regina clears her throat. She forces herself to think, and react appropriately (smirk? Indifference? How do you react to the woman you've started to fall for so completely that you feel like you've come down all the way from Heaven, standing naked in your room?)
She settles for indifference, as far as she manages. " Miss Swan". Her voice is slightly husky, from sleep ( of course). She clears her throat before she speaks those fateful words " You're naked"
" So I don't know, I was still me but I also was a cat in my mind I guess. Like , I wanted to do cat st- what". Emma rambles on, then interrupts herself to say " did you just say- " glance at her chest and groan. " Fuckkk"
" Quite".
" Ehm. Regina?".
" Hm? Yes?".
" Blanket? Clothes? Something?".
" Oh. Right. Here" Regina hands her the clothes, forcing herself not to look at the abundance of skin on display. She only loses control once.. twice… okay three times. But they are fleeting glances, fleeting enough that Emma won't even no-
" Enjoying the view, huh?"
Damn the universe, magic and my life.
" The morning is quite beautiful , yes".
Emma smirks. The blanket covers most of her now , but that doesn't make her less attractive. In fact, she looks absolutely breathtaking standing in the middle of the room with her hair down to her shoulders in curls and a blanket all that covers her.
Then Emma saunters towards her and Regina ends up feeling a little ridiculous (amongst a lot of other things) when her brain basically goes _ error.
" You. Were. Enjoying. ME" Emma says , now somehow leaning over Regina again with those eyes close enough that Regina can see her pupils drown the colors and those lips like true love itself (does that even make sense? Probably not) and Regina's brain is still _Error and then Emma presses her lips perfectly softly against Regina's , like butterfly wings touching them or the wind and it's so beautiful.
For a moment, Regina just revels in the feeling of soft lips pressed against her own and her heart skipping one, two beats before she opens her mouth and gently bits down on Emma's bottom lip. They kiss slowly, like a lazy morning in bed. They kiss till Regina's chest starts to ache and little spots creep into her sight and she has to pull back.
She opens her eyes and is faced with a small, shy disbelieving smile on the face of the savior.
"Emma" she whispers and the savior's little smile grows. " Emma" she repeats and the smile grows even more.
She doesn't say 'I love you' or 'You're my happy ending' or 'You're infuriating and a bit of an idiot and always sacrifice yourself and you're perfect'.
Sometimes you don't need words. Sometimes, an entire story has been told through eyes and touches. Sometimes you've told someone you've loved them with slightly mournful eyes and a little smile. And you've said 'thank you' and 'you're amazing' a thousand times by touching their arm briefly, patting it. Most of all, you've used different words.
Sometimes, in the case of rare unexpected fairy tales with lots of heartbreak and suffering and evil,
'I can give you one (happy ending)' means,
I loved you &
I was too late with telling you.
….
..
.
Then she returns and the idiot somehow manages to turn (or get turned?) herself in a cat and you somehow get the chance to be kissed like this thief wants to steal your air & you just know what she is telling you.
'you would do that?' means,
Can you love me &
I might love you,
or am starting to