AN: Written after 4x07 and published on AO3 then with a note saying IT MADE NO SENSE THAT EMMA DIDN'T GO TO REGINA AFTER THE INCIDENT, so here's something I wrote.

I don't own OUAT (unfortunately).

Thanks to my beta, Jess x

This fic includes a mention of Emma's current relationship with the guyliner dude and some forest man angst by Regina, but it's very Swan Queen overall and especially in the end.

Emma walked into the mausoleum and brushed away the tears on her cheeks. She saw Regina sitting on a chest, a book in her lap. Emma thought about turning back, but realized it was too late now.

"Knock, knock," Emma said, uncertain how to begin.

Regina turned her attention away from the book. "Emma. This is quite a surprise. What are you doing here?" she asked. The woman didn't have any malice in her voice and seemed purely intrigued.

"I… I don't know how I really ended up here."

Regina put the book away and stood up. Emma assumed the brunette had spotted the strain in her voice because her expression changed from curious to worried.

"What happened?"

"I mean… I was running away. The Snow Queen, she… She got to me. She knew how to push my buttons, even though I promised myself I wouldn't let her," Emma sighed. "She talked about me being angry at my parents… She knew what I had felt because I had told her, Regina."

Regina didn't comment but seemed to be waiting for the rest of the story, so Emma continued.

"My magic got out of control and somehow a lightpost hit David... I did that."

"Is he…?"

"Oh, he's okay, but you should've seen their faces… Mary Margaret, she… She seemed so angry, the way she shouted my name. I don't know. Scared and disgusted, even. And I just ran. I had to get out of there before I hurt anyone else. So, I got in the bug and drove around. I didn't know where to go, but eventually I ended up here." Emma shrugged. She wasn't even that surprised she found herself where Regina was.

"It seems natural, really. You're the one who understands me like no one else. You know how it is having powers others don't. And I know I said before that it makes us special, but after today, I really don't feel like it anymore… Maybe she was right, maybe I will become a monster." Emma knew she was holding back tears now, but she refused to cry more.

"Emma, please, you will never…" Regina started, taking a few steps towards her, but Emma hadn't finished talking.

"She said you can't love somebody you don't understand, and yea, well, that really got to me. That they don't understand me, someday something bad will happen, I screw up, and they'll stop. They all look at me differently already." Emma shook her head as she remembered what had happened just a few hours ago. "Today, before we caught the Dairy Queen… Ashley, Aurora, Mary Margaret… They all looked at me differently. Regina, she… She hesitated giving my little brother for me to hold because she was afraid of me."

"What?" Regina asked incredulously.

"Yeah…" Emma muttered, not sure how to continue.

Regina took a few more steps towards her and seemed to wait until she was looking her in the eye again.

"Emma Swan, you are good and you are enough. Don't you ever let anyone make you think otherwise."

Emma laughed and shook her head. Who would've thought they would be here one day? Neither of them, if the way they had started out as was anything to go by. Emma exhaled and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she took another look at the mausoleum.

"So, what were you reading?" she asked Regina.

Now that she had calmed down, she saw Regina better. The woman was clearly upset about something else than her arrival.

"What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?" Regina asked, furrowing her brow.

"You're upset. I can tell. Why?"

Regina looked at her for a moment and sighed. The brunette walked back to the chest and sat down.

"It's Robin. He came here today, confused about his feelings," Regina rolled her eyes and seemed infuriated. Emma followed her to the chest, and since she met no resistance from the brunette, sat down next to her.

"He doesn't love his wife enough to give her a true love's kiss, and at this point, I'm not even sure if he wants to try anymore. And as much as I'd just want to be selfish and stop telling him to fall love with his wife again, I can't do that. I've been a wife, and living in some other woman's shadow… Well, I wouldn't want that for anyone. It's not right, and he's Marian's husband. Even though my marriage was something I never wanted, what made it even worse was the fact that I was never good enough because of Eva's memory." Regina shook her head and fidgeted with her hands.

Emma couldn't quite grasp why Robin was so conflicted about his feelings, anyway. He had gotten his wife back, and now he would rather spend time with the woman who, albeit once upon a time, had ordered her executed. The whole thing just didn't make sense to her.

"He's got some nerve. You're trying to be a better person and decided you don't wanna be someone who kills anymore, but helps to wake up his wife, and this is how he repays you? Making you feel hope for a relationship that won't be? Regina, let me tell you, you deserve more than to be the other woman. You really do. For once."

Emma was about to take the woman's hand in hers but pulled back when she remembered what her hands had done earlier. She expected Regina to pull back, too, but the brunette took Emma's hand in hers instead.

"See? You're controlling it already," Regina beamed and turned to look at their hands.

Emma laced their fingers, not really sure what she was doing, but just following her instinct. She gave Regina's hand a small squeeze and smiled. She knew that she wouldn't hurt the brunette with her magic; Regina was the one who could help her control it, after all. Holding someone's hand after the day she had had was oddly soothing. They sat there for a while like that, holding hands, until Regina broke the silence.

"Oh, and Emma. I really do understand you. You can always talk to me."

She turned her head and her eyes met Regina's. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere of the room seemed to change. They weren't smiling anymore, but their eyes were locked, both of them waiting for the other to do something. Regina's eyes fell to Emma's mouth, and the brunette licked her lips.

Emma gulped. She really had not been expecting her visit to the mausoleum to play out this way. But Regina was there, in front of her, rather obviously giving her signals she could not and did not want to ignore. Emma finally did the thing she had been wanting to do for quite some time now and closed the distance between them, her lips brushing against Regina's.

Emma could feel the woman tense for a second, but then relax and respond to the kiss. She let go of Regina's hand and moved hers to the brunette's neck, deepening the kiss and eliciting a content sound from the former Mayor. Her lips kept moving against Regina's, and from that moment on Emma knew that she wouldn't want to kiss anyone else anymore. Everything seemed to have fallen into place in such a short time, and she just hoped that Regina felt the same way.

Emma pulled back. She searched Regina's face for any sign of distraught or blame, but the woman just kept looking at her, her expression illegible. Emma started to feel nervous, but then she saw a smile tug at the corner of Regina's mouth. Emma let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and laughed.

"Jeez, Regina! I half expected I screwed everything up again."

Regina let out a laugh and smiled at her.

"Emma, you never could and you never really have… screwed everything up, like you said," the brunette said.

Emma smiled back, but then realized something.

Hook. "Oh, shit."

Regina furrowed her brow. "What was that?"

"I need to break up with Hook. I just told you you deserve to be more than the other woman… Or, person, in this case, I guess," she sighed. "Sorry, Regina."

The woman just looked at her. "You're going to leave the pirate?"

"Well, yeah, it wouldn't be fair to any of us to keep that up," Emma shrugged. "It wouldn't last, anyway, if we're realistic. Besides, if I had known this was any kind of option, I would've certainly kissed you sooner."

Regina didn't say anything, so Emma got alarmed again.

"If this is an option, I mean. Your choice, totally. I'll break up with him anyway, though."

Emma was half expecting Regina to tell her that they should never talk about this again, so she was relieved when the most beautiful smile she had ever seen broke over the woman's face instead.

"Yes, Emma, I say this is an option, and we definitely give it a try," Regina laughed and brought their lips together once more.

Feel free to review, thanks for reading!