The Porceline Bed
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Pairing: Swan Queen/Remma
Summary: Emma and Regina get into a fight, and both Regina and Henry fears that Emma will leave. Based off of THIS gifset
Disclaimer: ABC owns these characters
It had been a vicious fight, one of the first really bad ones. It was far worse the passion of figuring out how to parent Henry and no where near the slight bickering they did on a constant basis. This was huge, almost to the point of calling it quits. Regina almost bit back such a comment during the argument and forced herself to just leave the room. She was lucky Emma allowed her to. Despite the saying 'never got to bed angry', that was exacty what they had done. Regina had waited nearly two hours for Emma to join her before she had fallen asleep, figuring that the blonde had simply gone to Granny's before last call, or out for a walk and would be home soon. In the night, however, the argument seeped into her dreams, and flashes of angry faces filtered into Regina's subconciousness. She awoke with a start, her body shaking in rage and her heart pounding. She felt the cold of the sheets beside her as she reached out for the comfort of her lover, but Emma wasn't there. This made her jerk to her side; her eyes confirmed exactly what she didn't want to think. Emma was gone. Regina threw the blankets off of her, the cold of the night hitting her skin immediately.
"Em?" she called softly, not wanting to wake up her son. It was a school night after all, and she already felt badly that he had to hear them screaming at eachother in the kitchen. When the mayor didn't get a reply, she felt her heart sink. 'She left me,' was all she could think as she searched for signs of this fact, but there were none. Other than the broken toaster in the kitchen, there were no signs of her lover either. That was until she reached the downstairs bathroom, where soft music was playing. Regina hurried to open the door after setting her ear to it. There, Emma slept in the bathtub, her body covered almost haphazzardly with a blanket with rockets on it, and the music that played was from a familiar cassette toy Regina remembered buying almost six years ago for Henry's sixth birthday. Soft sounds of Regina's old Sade' tape played at a low volume, and Emma slept on. It appeared that Henry had come to tuck his birth mother in. "Em?" Regina said softly as she leaned against the doorframe.
Regina's voice woke the blonde, who blinked rapidly and looked around her, confused. She lifted her hand to her eyes and saw the blanket on her. She then glanced at the tape player and then at Regina somewhat sheepishly. "Hey," she said as a way to test the waters. She saw fear and relief on her lovers face, which told her that maybe she wasn't in trouble at the moment.
"Why...? Why are you in the bathtub?" Regina managed after she forced her heart to calm down now that she knew that Emma hadn't, in fact, left her.
"Oh, well... um..." Emma stretched and winced. She knew better, but she always ended up doing this. She looked at the tub's faucet and then locked eyes with Regina. "When I was little and my foster parents used to fight all the time, the only place I coudn't hear it as loud was their bathroom. Sometimes I would just sleep in there, and they let me, knowing it was probably for the best. I... I guess couches haven't been comfortable since," Emma explained.
"The bathtub can't be much better," Regina replied.
"It's not," was all the blonde said.
"I thought... I thought... you left," Regina admitted, touching the doorframe with her index finger and looking away from her lover.
Emma's eyes went soft, as did her voice. "Oh honey, I thought you knew by now that it takes a lot to get me to leave." She wanted to add some sort of comment like, 'I never left Storybrook before,' but the fact that Regina was about to speak stopped her. Something told the blonde that what was to come next was important, and her 'superpower' detected that she needed to hear it.
"When you didn't come to bed..."
"I didn't think you wanted me there," Emma said when it seemed as if Regina wasn't going to continue on.
"I do. I always will," Regina told her.
Emma slowly lifted herself out of the bathtub, her legs and buttocks sore from the proceline. She felt greatful for the pillow that had materialized in the night, otherwise she knew her neck would have been sore as well. She made her way to Regina, slowing her movement when she got a couple of feet from the mayor. When Regina connected their bodies in a desperate need to hold her, to feel Emma hold her as well, the blonde's heart constricted to know how much the woman in her arms was scared of her leaving. "I'm here," she said into Regina's ear as she heard a small sniff. All she could do was repeat "I'm here," as many times as it ended up taking before Regina backed away from their embrace. There was a slight silence. "I broke your toaster," Emma offered with the same look and tone of voice she had used when she first said 'hello' to the mayor when they first met. Regina couldn't help it. She let out a small laugh through her tears, which sounded a little more like a whine. Emma's heart broke a little more at the sound.
"We'll argue about that in the morning, I suppose."
"I guess so," Emma said with a small smile, even as her eyes were sad and sympathetic. She brushed a tear from Regina's cheek.
"Please Em, come to bed."
"I will, but I need to return a few things," Emma replied, tilting her head to somehow indicate their son's stuff. She leaned in for a kiss, and was almost suprised, though really she shouldn't have been, when the mayor in her arms returned it hungily, as if it was the last kiss. Emma almost couldn't let go of her now, but was soon released. She pushed brunette hair back, and then with a small nod, Regina turned and went back to their bedroom.
The sheriff went to work gathering the bedclothes and cassette player, and left the bathroom, turning off the light as she did so. She walked up the stairs and saw that Regina and her bedroom door was closed save for a crack, and the lamp inside was on. She turned towards their son's bedroom and slowly, soundlessly turned the doornob. There was a small glow under his blankets, which turned off as soon as he saw the light from the hallway through the material. Emma placed the cassette player and bedclothes on Henry's dresser to be put away in the morning, and then she went to the bed. She knelt beside it and crawled partially under it. The light of the flashlight in the boy's hand turned on again, and it illuminated wet streaks on Henry's face. "Thank you for tucking me in," Emma murmured. "You are very good at it." Emma thought about how she hadn't heard the door open or even felt the pillow go under her head, let alone the cassette player as it started up.
"Are you breaking up with Mom?" he asked.
"No, Henry," Emma said, placing a hand on his chest to soothe him, as she had seen Regina do a few times. This seemed to reassure the boy. "I'm sorry you heard us."
"I've never known you two to be so angry, not even when you hated eachother," Henry admitted, even as he seemed less scared and worried.
"People fight, Henry, but it doesn't mean there is no love there. It is just something we need to work on, and we will get through it."
"Good, because you can't have broken the spell if you weren't her true love, and I can't imagine you two apart now that you've found eachother."
Emma smiled at this. "We aren't breaking up," she said again, "and even if we were, neither of us would leave you. You know that, right?" It took a couple of seconds as if the boy had to think about it, but he nodded. "It is past all of our bedtimes, and you have school in the morning, Kiddo." Emma backed out of the blanket and Henry lifted it off of his head, his hair now tousseled, and Emma noted as she did on a daily basis that no matter how old he got, he would aways be adorable. She lifted the blanket so that he could get comfortable. Like the boy had done for her, Emma had tucked him in, putting on the Jaon Mraz CD at a low volume to help him get to sleep as quickly as possible. She went back to the boy, kissed his forehead, and wished him a goodnight. Then she went to Regina and her room, where the mayor sat under the comforter while she waited for her. Emma slipped off her socks and changed into a tank top and shorts before she got into the bed as well. She looked over at Regina before she shuffled closer and rested her head on the older woman's chest. She sighed when she felt Regina's fingers through her hair, right before there was a kiss on the top of her head. Emma looked up and the kiss was then on her forehead.
"I don't know what I would do if ever you left me," the darker woman said softly.
"I won't," Emma reassured her again.
"I love you. Perhaps a little too much," Regina said almost wistfully.
"Impossible," Emma said. However much Regina loved her, it was exactly what she needed. She never wanted any of it to change. How could she ever think of leaving this very spot? She would spend every single day fighting with Regina if it meant every night she ended up here, and Emma vowed that she would spend the rest of her life proving this to her lover.
End