AN: Set during s4, probably, but no one's dating anyone.

I don't own OUAT (sadly).

A big thank you to my lovely beta, Ari. She's my Savior.

It all started with Emma touching something she wasn't supposed to.

She was in Regina's crypt to learn more about magic, but clumsy as she was, she unintentionally ended up touching something small but powerful.

She really didn't mean to touch anything without permission. She knew better than to disobey Regina's orders, but then she was casually leaning on a table and it happened: she dropped a small locket from the table and tried to put it back without Regina noticing.

She should've just told Regina, because the next moment, she felt a pull similar to that of a portal toss her somewhere with such force she was sure she'd have bruises the next day. Funnily enough, she was still in Regina's crypt, but Regina was nowhere to be seen. Her first thought was worry: what if something had happened to Regina?

She soon realized that couldn't be the case, because she was obviously the one who had moved. Maybe she was in another dimension. Who knew?

Emma was relieved to notice that she could still get out of the crypt without much trouble. Her top priority was finding Regina. She had to be somewhere; Emma couldn't have just made her disappear. She didn't want to live in a Storybrooke, or in a world, where Regina didn't exist. Regina was her… friend, co-parent, someone whose feelings towards her were something of a mystery. She really couldn't imagine life without her anymore.

Things sure had changed since her arrival in Storybrooke.

She made her way to 108 Mifflin Street on foot as she was unable to transport herself magically for some reason. The thought of losing her magic made her anxious. What had happened to her?

She walked through the steel gate of the manor as usual, her thoughts elsewhere, and knocked on the door. After a while, she could hear a familiar click of heels approach. Regina was inside. Thank God.

She was so relieved to know Regina was home that as soon as the door opened, Emma rushed forward and flung her arms around her in a hug. They had never actually hugged before, but they had established that they were friends, very good ones who fought side by side and shared a child, so, in the heat of the moment, she thought that she might as well give Regina a hug.

The woman in her embrace seemed to disagree. Before Emma had time to say anything, Regina's form stiffened and she pushed Emma away with more force than necessary.

"Miss Swan, have you completely lost your mind?" Regina barked.

That's when she saw it. She really should've taken a longer look at Regina before rushing to hug her. In addition to her irritated, flustered expression and tense posture, Regina's hair was much shorter than it had been in the crypt. Really short.

Emma's mouth fell open. She had seen enough movies and watched enough television to know what had happened. She had also traveled back in time before and met Regina's past self, so she didn't know why she was so surprised, but she was. Seeing Regina before they were friends, or even people who tolerated each other, was peculiar. Peculiar and heartbreaking, because she really wanted to talk to her friend and go home, but her friend wasn't there.

This time Regina wouldn't be sentencing her to death like she had in the Enchanted Forest, so at least this was an improvement from her previous time jump.

"Miss Swan? I'm waiting," Regina spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I…" Emma didn't know how to finish her sentence. She really couldn't tell Regina what was going on, could she? That would alter the past. Would Regina ever give her that apple turnover if she knew the curse would be broken? "I thought you were Mary Margaret."

Had Emma not been so uneasy about the situation, Regina's shocked expression would've made her dissolve into laughter.

"Excuse me?" Regina said, her voice high and incredulous. "I bear no resemblance to Miss Blanchard. Why would you think she's here, anyway?"

Emma really should've tried to play her part better and taken this situation more seriously, but she couldn't stop her lips from twitching into a smile. Regina was adorable.

"Must've been the… hair color," she answered as nonchalantly as she could. She tried to hide her smirk, but Regina must've seen right through her.

"The hair color? Do you honestly expect me to believe that, Miss Swan?" Regina crossed her arms and looked unimpressed, her irritation only growing.

Emma went through her options. She really couldn't tell Regina she was from the future. Since the curse was still far from breaking, Emma guessed there weren't any memory potions she could use on Regina lying around. Would a memory potion even work? She wished she had asked Regina about these things, or maybe Regina had told her, but she was just a bad student.

How would she get back to her time without telling Regina what was going on or asking someone else for help? There was no one else other than Regina and Rumpelstiltskin to ask, anyway.

"There's something different about you, Miss Swan," Regina said when she got no answer, her brow adorably scrunched and her voice menacing in a way Emma hadn't heard it in ages. This banter almost made her feel nostalgic, which was worrisome to say the least.

If you only knew.

"Yeah, well, people change," she replied and mentally smacked herself on the head. People change? That was what she was going with?

"Not like this, they don't," Regina said as she walked closer. Emma got a whiff of the expensive perfume she hadn't smelled in years, Regina having worn it only before the curse broke. "So, Miss Swan, refresh my memory. What did we discuss the last time we talked?"

Emma shut her eyes. No.

"Henry," she answered, even though it sounded more like a question, her intonation rising at the end of the word as she opened her eyes and tried to look normal.

"Uh-hmm," Regina muttered and pulled a cell phone from her pocket as she walked back into the mansion. "Do come in, Miss Swan. I'm sure we have loads to talk about today."

Emma couldn't remember when she had last wanted in run to the opposite direction of Regina this much, but she obliged and walked in, hearing Regina close the door behind them and call someone.

"Graham," Regina started, and Emma could feel her heart clench in her chest. "Is Deputy Swan there by any chance?" Regina paused, and Emma couldn't look at her. "She is? Could you please put her on? Thank you."

Regina walked in front of her with a confused yet victorious face as she put the phone on speaker. Emma felt a lump in her throat.

"Madam Mayor," she heard her own uncertain voice say on the other end of the line. "How can I help you?"

"Nothing, Miss Swan. Something just came up. I'll let you know," Regina said and hung up.

Emma remembered having that phone call and never thinking much of it, which made her think of something new entirely. This meant that this had happened before and she had managed to make Regina forget, didn't it? She didn't know if she should've felt relieved or more nervous now that she was certain this was real. What was even going on in Regina's head right now? She was sure Regina knew this had something to do with magic.

"Any day now, Miss Swan, or whoever it is you are," Regina said with a sweet smile that was somehow threatening at the same time.

Emma felt like she was going to burst, the pros of telling Regina what was going on outweighing the cons. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hoping that her next words wouldn't make the situation more difficult than it already was. When she opened them, she was ready to talk.

"I'm from the future. Magic. All that," she started, waving her hand nervously under Regina's gaze. "I'd really like to get back, and I probably shouldn't tell you more because we don't want this to affect anything."

"Magic?" Regina said incredulously, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. Emma fought the urge to groan and put her face in her hands. Why on Earth was Regina still playing this part? What did she think she was, an identical twin sister of his son's birth mother?

"Yes, magic, Regina." She decided to drop the formal title she had heard herself use on the phone. "Can we just… try to get me back? I really don't wanna be here and mess stuff up."

Regina stayed quiet for a moment. She had her politician face on, which made her harder to read. Emma really wished this Regina would get over the hate towards her momentarily for the greater good.

"Also, can you like… make a memory potion or something so you won't remember this?" she asked cautiously.

Regina's calm expression cracked then, and the corners of her mouth turned into a sad sneer. "I suppose that means magic is back in the future, then? The curse breaks."

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell you what happens," Emma replied, although she doubted it mattered now. Regina knew that she was from the future. It couldn't get much worse. She had broken a handful of time travel rules already, and she hadn't even been there for an hour.

"I think that doesn't really give anything new away, Miss Swan," Regina asserted.

"Well, yeah," Emma said quietly and nodded as she put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. She felt awkward talking like this. Past Regina had never treated her like this before, like there was a quiet understanding and a sense of defeat in the conversation.

"Does Henry…" Regina started, her voice barely louder than a whisper. "Does Henry hate me? Do you take him away?"

The way Regina said it completely broke Emma's heart. There was so much fear in her voice, so much hopelessness and pain. She really wanted to hug Regina, but decided against it, figuring the Mayor wouldn't welcome her hug more now than she had ten minutes ago.

"What? Regina, no, of course not!" Emma said with so much care in her voice that she surprised herself. "You're his mother. He loves you."

"Are you playing me? Because if you are…" Regina snarled at her, looking suspicious but also a tiny bit hopeful when Emma looked into her eyes.

"No, I swear. It takes you time, but you'll get there…" She tried to think of a way to make this Regina trust and believe her like the one in her time did. Emma grabbed her phone, wondering if everything was still intact despite the jump in time. She went to her photos folder and found what she had been looking for. There were several pictures of Henry, Regina, and her together; goofy pictures where they looked like they were all very happy.

"Look," she said and showed Regina some photos. One of them was the three of them eating at Granny's, another one was them having a movie night, a third one was all three of them trying to fit into the frame for a selfie… She turned to look at Regina as she held the phone, finding that the photos had an influence on her. Regina's smile was a mixture of relieved and confused, but Emma supposed that was normal. Both Emma's involvement in the pictures and the proof that things would actually work out would've left her past self open-mouthed, too.

"Thank you," Regina whispered after Emma put her phone back into her pocket.

"Sure," Emma shrugged and smiled at Regina. She was happy she could talk to her again without the hostile atmosphere.

"So, judging by your pictures, I assume that in the future we are… involved," Regina said as she brushed away an invisible tear from her cheek. "That would explain the hug."

"Involved?" she repeated. Yes, they shared a son. That was more involvement than most friends had.

"Yes, Miss Swan, like parents of a child often are," Regina specified as she crossed her arms again and raised an expectant brow.

"Um," Emma started, realization dawning on her. Did Regina think that they were a couple in the future? Did she actually mean that? "Um… Well… I didn't know you..." she mumbled, unable to form a coherent sentence as she was feeling a dozen emotions at once. If she was completely honest with herself, she did have a bunch of one-sided non-platonic emotions towards Regina, but she had learned to live with them. She could feel herself blush. "Really?"

"I was the one asking you a question, Miss Swan," Regina said as she rolled her eyes.

She didn't have time to answer, because that's when she heard a fast click of heels approaching them. She could see Regina's eyes widen before she turned to see who had arrived, only to be met with the same face she had just been looking at. Only that this Regina was the one from her time, wearing the same clothes she had when they had been in the crypt. Her expression was filled with relief and she walked quickly towards them.

"Emma, I found you," she breathed out and hugged her without any hesitation, which surprised Emma. They had never greeted each other like this before, but Emma wasn't about to start complaining. She brought her arms around Regina and enjoyed every second of the hug. "I was observing and overheard some of your conversation, so I knew I had found the right you," Regina muttered into the hug. "I told you not to touch anything."

"Yeah, sorry. I really didn't mean to," Emma mumbled, very reluctant to let go.

"Oh God," the younger Regina said, and Emma could practically feel her roll her eyes despite the woman standing behind her. "So, I think this answers my question."

"What question would that be?" the older Regina asked as she broke the hug and turned to look at her younger self without a flinch.

"You don't know?" Emma asked. That was good news. "That means we somehow make it work and make you forget! I remember the phone call I got, but you don't remember any of this."

"Yes, well, I brought a memory potion with me in case it would be needed. I know this me has the resources to make something, too, but I had some in store. I thought you might reveal some future information without thinking, so I figured I should be prepared," Regina shrugged. She didn't look particularly mad about the turn of events, but just treated them as fact.

"Hey! I didn't mean to. She figured it out, so I just thought I'd tell her and we'd sort it out somehow. I didn't know how I'd get back so I had to do something," she tried to defend herself. She really had remembered that she wasn't supposed to meddle in past events, but she had been caught.

"But of course I'd come to get you back," Regina said with a confused expression and brought a hand to her arm. "I couldn't just leave you to who knows what time."

Emma was speechless for a moment. The emotion in Regina's eyes caught her completely off guard; there was so much care there that she didn't know how to react. "I'm sorry, I'm…. I'm not used to people coming back for me." The truth came out of her without thought.

"Well, get used to it," Regina said in a sweet encouraging voice after a moment of silence. "We're going back to our time before we meddle in anything else, and we'll be having dinner with Henry before you know it."

Regina smiled at her and she felt like she could melt. After the uncertainty and slight panic that had followed her ending up in the wrong time, she finally felt like everything would be okay. Regina made her feel safe and like things would work out.

"Sounds like a plan," Emma said contently and turned around to face the other Regina who had been incredibly quiet the entire time. "You need to drink your memory potion first, though," she reminded her.

"Yes. I suppose you're right, Miss Swan." The short-haired woman uncrossed her arms and sighed loudly. "Finally, something we can agree on," she continued as she walked closer.

Emma turned to her Regina as she fought a snigger and was met with knowing eyes. Some things never changed.

The other Regina saw their reaction to her words, but chose not to comment on it. What came out of her mouth instead was something Emma wouldn't have expected to have to explain in front of her Regina.

"So, before you go and I take the potion, I have… Well, I would have quite a few questions, but I'd better not ask those in case the potion doesn't work for some reason. Everything's so unpredictable in this realm. But tell me this: how long?" she queried with disbelief in her eyes. "And… just… how?"

"I'm not following," the older Regina admitted to her past self. "What is it that you're asking?"

The younger Regina looked from her older self to Emma with puzzled eyes, her cool composure starting to falter. "Miss… Emma, you didn't deny it before."

"Um, well," she managed to get out. She really hadn't had time to address Regina's false implication because that's when the other Regina had arrived. "I never actually…"

"Emma, what are you talking about? What are you talking about?" the long-haired brunette asked herself.

"I'm asking," the short-haired woman started, uncertainty dawning on her face, "when you and Emma became a couple."

"What? Where did you get that idea?" future Regina barked. She stopped for a moment to stare at herself, but soon continued, "Emma and I are best friends, sure, but there's nothing else between us. And yes, we have learned to mend our differences and care for one another, but just as friends."

Emma looked at Regina rushing to explain how there was nothing going on between them until she saw past Regina nearly sniggering at herself, her eyebrows raised and her chest rising as if she was trying to keep herself from laughing. Emma had a hunch as to why past Regina was laughing, because she too could easily tell that future Regina wasn't being completely honest.

"I can't believe what I've become..." past Regina said as she shook her head. "Well, I have Henry back, and I don't seem unhappy… There's something I see in Miss Swan, apparently…"

"Yes, we are friends," future Regina repeated.

"I'd like to remind you that I am you, and even though I am not quite where you are, yet, I can still see right through you. Emma, I found you. Really?" the unimpressed Mayor sighed.

Silence filled the room. Young Regina was shaking her head, half amused, half disbelieving, old Regina had a blush creeping onto her cheeks and she looked like a deer in the headlights, and Emma… Emma just felt incredibly surreal standing there with two Reginas. She really hoped they would be able to return to their time soon so she would have time to breathe and think about what everything meant.

"Um, Regina?" she asked and two heads shot to look at her. "We should probably go."

Her Regina nodded as she took a flask out of her pocket. The woman walked to her past self and handed her the flask in silence, and Emma watched the two women interact without words, amazed by how similar yet different they were.

"Best of luck to you," the young Regina said to herself as she walked away from her. She stopped next to Emma and brought her mouth right next to her ear, causing goosebumps to spread across Emma's body despite the warm temperature of the manor. "She wants you so badly it's not even funny. I never knew our banter would result in this," she whispered. "But she is so deep in her denial that you will have to make the first move. She won't. I've become too soft."

Emma didn't know how to reply when the short-haired woman pulled away and smirked, so she just ended up nodding and gulping loudly. Her cheeks were burning and her mouth was dry.

"Good luck, Miss Swan," she said and walked to the living room without looking back.

"Thanks," she replied in a hoarse voice, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"What did she say?" Regina asked when her past self had left the room.

"I'll tell you later," she replied. She really didn't want to have a serious conversation about feelings then. She had no idea what she should say. "How do we get out of here?"

"Well," Regina said and pulled a familiar locket out of her pocket. "I just need to set how much time we need to go forward. I think I have it all figured out. It took me a few hours of time jumping to find you, so I should be an expert by now."

"It took you hours?"

"Luckily. It could've taken much longer," she replied without looking at Emma, her focus on the locket. "Okay, take my hand."

Regina held out her hand until Emma took it. She closed her eyes when she felt the same force as in the crypt push her.

Her hand never left Regina's as they were pulled forward in time.

I'm kinda conflicted... I don't know if I wanna continue or not, but this could technically work like this, too. Let me know if you want me to write a second chapter!