The first time it happened it took them both by surprise; completely unexpected it sent Emma's brain into a spin and Regina's into anger that she could let someone like Emma Swan get under her skin in such a way.
They'd been in the blonde's cabin under the deck of the Jolly Roger, and the brunette had been attempting to teach Emma magic – attempting because, to put it simply, the blonde had absolutely no penchant for it at all.
Sure, she was powerful. Of course she was – she was the product of true love, a love so true and pure that it had given rise to someone who could shatter the curse that Regina had so painstakingly cast.
But, apparently, potential did not lend itself well to practice.
"God dammit," Emma had hissed when her fifth attempt to create a fireball like the ones she'd seen Regina use in the past failed, as her hands had curled into fists at her sides, completely and utterly frustrated.
"I told you, Miss Swan," Regina drawled, leaning coolly back against the wall with her arms across her chest. "That we should have started with something simpler."
"And I told you that if you're going to teach me anything, it's on my terms. Besides, a fat lot of use I'm going to be in a fight if I can't help."
"What's that saying? Defence is the best offence?"
"Aren't you supposed to be teaching me?" Emma had replied, speaking through clenched teeth, and she'd seethed with anger at the tiny smirk that crossed Regina's lips when she realized how worked up the blonde was getting.
They'd been getting on surprisingly well, all things considered. Well – there hadn't been any murder attempts yet, at least. And Emma kind of felt sorry for Regina, a little. She had no-one else aboard the ship, not like she did –and besides, when it came down to it, sometimes Regina was a little easier to bear than Snow, with her overly-motherly persona and permanently-worried expression.
Emma knew that she meant the best, but… that didn't make it any less overbearing.
"I'm trying to teach you dear," the brunette replied, titling her head to one side as she appraised the blonde before her. "It's not my fault that you're proving to be rather incompetent."
"I am not incompetent!" Emma all but screamed back, taking three quick steps forward until she and Regina were just a few inches apart. She watched the brunette's head raise, her eyes going hard as she steeled herself, ready for a fight be it verbal or physical. "If you would just fucking teach me properly - "
"Are you suggesting that I'm purposely setting you up to fail?" Regina actually sounded a little offended.
"It wouldn't exactly be a surprising outcome, would it?"
"And what would that get me, Miss Swan? Absolutely nothing. I agreed to these poor excuse for lessons not to taunt you, not to annoy you, not to sabotage you – but because if you can look after yourself, even be of some use in a fight, it will help me to get my son back."
"Our son."
"Oh, for God's sake - " Regina was cut off as the ship lurched suddenly to one side, the momentum causing the blonde to tumble forwards, and it was only Regina's hands catching at her waist that kept her from falling flat on her face.
Emma's heart raced, her eyes widening when she realized just how close to the brunette she actually was – closer than she had been in a long, long time. She could feel the heat from her body through the thin shirt she was wearing; feel the warmth of her hands at her hips, the press of her fingertips digging slightly into her skin to steady her.
When she glanced down her eyes met Regina's and her breath caught in her throat at the conflicting range of emotion she saw dancing in their dark depths – she was captivated, frozen completely still, sure that she'd simply just forgotten how to move. Her own hands had gripped the brunette's arms tightly when she'd nearly fallen, but she felt no desire to let her go.
Emma was seized by the sudden and inexplicable desire to step even closer, to press herself flush against Regina and kiss her – she didn't know where the urge had come from, but it was overwhelming, almost like she was caught under a spell, and seeing as Regina wasn't moving either, perhaps she felt the same.
It was only the sound of hurried footsteps that finally snapped them both to their senses, Emma all but leaping backwards, as though the touch of Regina's skin burned. By the time Snow came barrelling through the door she'd managed to school her face into a neutral expression, despite the internal panic she felt at what she'd almost done – she'd nearly kissed Regina, the other mother of her son, the woman who probably wouldn't mind if she were dead, and who had tried on multiple occasions to kill her mother.
"Are you okay?" Snow's eyes were on Emma's face, completely ignoring the other woman in the room and the blonde merely shrugged, running a hand absentmindedly through her hair.
"Yeah, fine. Why?"
"Just with the boat moving like that… I wanted to check."
"Are you sure you just didn't want to check that I wasn't teaching her anything… unsavoury?" The way Regina murmured the last word made Emma shiver, and suddenly she decided that she really, really needed to get out of there.
Fast.
"I need some air," she spoke before Snow could answer the brunette, and she brushed past her mother and into the tiny hallway without another word, wondering just what the hell was happening to her.
Ships, she decided, did not mix with her.
x-x-x
When it happened the second time, Regina broke her hand.
She hadn't meant to punch Hook in the face, but after hearing him saying something incredibly suggestive towards Emma as she'd walked past, she just couldn't help it – she tried to tell herself it was simply because he should be paying her attention, and not perfect Emma Swan, but a niggling voice at the back of her mind told her that that wasn't the case, at all.
She'd waited until after Emma had left the deck, of course – if she'd have seen Regina lose control in such a way she didn't know if she'd be able to look herself in the eye ever again. No, it had only been Charming and Snow who had been around, and neither had seen the exchange between Emma and Hook, or the words exchanged between him and Regina before she'd socked him one in the jaw.
She'd never hit anyone before, properly, with just her fists, and the explosion of pain down her arm made her gasp, clutching her hand close to her chest and biting her lip hard in order to stop a tear of pain escaping her eye.
Hook went down hard with a cry, and then Charming and Snow rushed over, both shouting, and then Regina had been banished to her cabin until they decided what to do with her. She appreciated the time alone, if she were to be honest – while it was nice, sometimes, to be surrounded by conversation, when those conversations were being had by some of the people she disliked most in the world things grew old fast.
She had been trying to force her fingers to straighten when there'd been a knock on the door, Emma's face appearing around the frame a moment later, concern written across her features.
"What happened?"
"Nothing that concerns you," Regina replied easily, flexing her hands automatically in response to Emma's presence and hissing when the movement caused another flare of pain.
"Is it broken?"
"I'm not a doctor, Miss Swan," the brunette had spat through gritted teeth, resting her injured hand across her lap awkwardly. "So I don't know."
"Can't you like, heal it?"
"Magic doesn't work that way. Or mine doesn't, anyway. I was aware of some who could heal, but… Dark magic is meant for destruction, not the miracle of healing."
"Well… let me get you some ice, then." Before Regina could begin to mount a protest, Emma was gone, and she cursed her bad luck – she'd been doing so well at avoiding the blonde at all costs and now she wanted to take care of her, or something equally as ridiculous.
Since that day, she'd barely been able to keep her mind away from Emma freaking Swan. There'd always been something captivating about the blonde, but she'd pushed it down and away, terrified of what it could mean. It was easy to bury it under the rage she felt towards her lack of control over her life, which had started when the blonde had first come to Storybrooke. But she couldn't even be truly angry about that – her happy ending hadn't been working for a long time before then, ever since Henry had gotten ahold of that damn book. And besides, it was almost refreshing, to never know what Emma was going to do next, where her next challenge would come from – it was a hell of a lot more interesting than reliving the same day over and over again, effortlessly, even if she hadn't always (or rarely ever), gotten her own way since.
When Emma came back she was clutching a small towel in her hands, and she came to kneel in-front of Regina wordlessly, pressing the homemade icepack gently against the brunette's right hand.
"You don't have to do this, you know," Regina murmured after a few moments of comfortable silence, unsure how to act in this situation – no-one ever took care of her, and she was uneasy, on edge. "I can look after myself."
"Oh really?"
"Yes. I'm perfectly capable."
"So why'd you do it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Emma was too close – they hadn't been alone in a room together since the other day, and there was a reason for that. She could barely think, not when she remembered perfectly the way the blonde felt under her fingertips, the way her breath had hitched when their eyes had met, the way her shampoo smelled, mixed in with the salt of seawater.
"You hit Hook for some reason – what was it?" Regina bit her lip, looking away pointedly away from curious green eyes. "Okay, well if you're not going to tell me then I'm just going to assume that it was over me."
"What?" Regina's voice came out a pitch higher than she'd wanted, and she tried to force her heart to stop racing. "That is ridiculous, why would you possibly think that?" But Emma merely smirked before she straightened up, leaving the ice on Regina's lap. "Where are you going?"
"You said you didn't need my help," the blonde shrugged, and Regina tried not to flinch at how she would so easily leave her alone. "And for the record," she continued, smirking, "I think it's sweet that you'd hit him because of me."
"I did not - " But Regina's protest fell short as Emma leant closer, her sudden presence right there, cutting off her words, and she was unable to speak, her eyes fluttering closed as she felt Emma's breath against her lips.
"But just for the record," the blonde murmured, mouth tantalisingly close to the brunette's, "I can also take care of myself just fine."
And with that Emma turned and walked away, leaving Regina staring after her, open mouthed, the pain in her hand all but forgotten in the wake of the yearning that had been left behind for the one woman that she absolutely, one hundred percent, could not have any feelings for whatsoever.
x-x-x
The third time it happened, Regina was completely aware of what she was doing, but she couldn't quite manage to stop herself.
Every opportunity Emma had had over the last several days to try and drive Regina crazy she had, whether it had been with lingering looks or subtle touches, or even just pressing herself close to the brunette whenever she had the chance – and it was all just too much.
Regina had enough to worry about, with Henry being in unknown hands, and with Neverland fast approaching – an island that none of them knew very much about. It could even be without magic, or with a different kind of magic to the one they were all used to, which could lead them afoul of whatever awaited them on shore.
It was enough to keep her mind occupied for every minute of every day, especially with so little to do on the ship apart from prepare – and yet she could barely turn her mind away from thoughts of Emma for long enough to concentrate on any task she set her mind to.
It was infuriating, and it left her feeling vulnerable in a way she hadn't felt for years, just waiting for someone to notice and exploit her weakness. So she pushed Emma away, refusing to so much as glance her way – which, it seemed, only seemed to spur the blonde's thinly-veiled advances on even more.
Eventually it got to be too much, and she stormed into the blonde's cabin with one thought on her mind – to reprimand her, to tell her to stop and just leave her alone, but when she crashed through the door to find the blonde wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear all thoughts flew from her mind.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Regina tore her eyes away from Emma's legs to meet her gaze, aware that she was flushing slightly. "Not that I mind."
"Stop that!" Regina hissed in reply without thinking, grimacing when it only made the blonde smirk.
"Stop what? Because you barged in here unannounced, Regina – I've not done anything wrong."
"I… need to go." She couldn't be there when Emma was showing so much skin; she didn't trust herself not to do something stupid. She was the very epitome of calm and controlled usually, but Emma Swan tore down all of her carefully constructed walls, effortlessly, and left Regina standing alone in the rubble.
"Regina, wait!" A hand caught Regina's wrist as she reached the door, and it was slammed shut a moment later, the weight of Emma's body pressing the brunette into the wood. She felt completely and utterly trapped – and the thought shouldn't have turned her on as much as it did.
"Miss Swan," she hissed, trying to fight against every nerve of her body that wanted to surrender herself to Emma, because she knew that there was no possible way back from that, not really, not ever, and she didn't know how to deal with that. "Get off of me."
"Do you really want me to do that, Regina?" Emma's breath was warm against the side of the brunette's neck and she shivered despite herself, barely able to think with the way they were pressed so close together. "Because I don't think you do."
"Please." It came out pleadingly, and she hated herself for sounding so weak, but it was all she was able to muster as the fingertips of Emma's left hand trailed lightly down her side – she didn't even know if she was asking the blonde to stop of begging her to continue.
She also didn't know if the sound of Mary Margaret's voice from up on the deck, echoing loudly down below in her obvious excitement, was a welcome or undesirable distraction, as Emma's hand dropped from the brunette's side in shock, and Regina felt a faint stirring of worry start in her stomach – it hadn't really felt real before, when it was so far away.
But it wasn't anymore – they'd finally reached Neverland.
x-x-x
They spent all night going over the plan for the following day, and by the time that was over the sun had risen well into the sky, and Emma was just about ready to sleep for a week. But they only had a handful of hours before night fell again, and then they'd be mounting an attack on the island, and besides, she wasn't sure she'd even be able to get any sleep, no matter how exhausted she felt.
She stayed up far longer than the others – even Hook, who so rarely seemed to leave to hull of his beloved ship, disappeared below deck for some rest before she did. Eventually though she grew tired of the sight of the sea and made her way down the tiny stairway.
She'd been sharing a cabin with her parents (not entirely by her own choice), with Hook and Rumple sharing one (she suspected that was also an excuse for Hook to spend so little time down there), and Regina had the remaining room.
She heard the low sound of Snow and Charming's voices coming from below the door and sighed before deciding to give them a few more moments privacy and headed for the last door down the hall.
She couldn't say how, or why, things had changed so much between her and Regina, but she knew it had started (or she'd noticed, accepted, it for the first time), when they'd nearly kissed for the first time, and she'd been pushing the brunette ever since, trying to gage whether it had been just a onetime fluke, or whether there was actually something there.
And she was pretty sure there was something between them – she didn't know what, and she figured that Regina was probably too terrified to know, either. She knocked lightly on the door before walking in, to find the brunette curled up on the bed, her chin resting on her knees.
"Can I come in?" Regina merely nodded, and Emma closed the door behind her, perching next to the brunette on the bed. "Nervous?"
"Nerves are for the lesser prepared." Emma's lips quirked into a smile despite herself, already starting to feel slightly more relaxed. "Do you need a last minute magic lesson?"
"Well, you haven't exactly been the best teacher, lately," the blonde pointed out, and a hint of regret flashed across Regina's face. "Gold isn't as patient as you."
"I… I am sorry that you had to go to him." The brunette's eyes were apologetic as they met Emma's, and the blonde wondered how often it was that people heard an apology from the Evil Queen herself. "But I couldn't…"
"It's okay," Emma reassured her, shrugging one shoulder lightly. Though she would have much rather it have been Regina opposite her, teaching her, she could understood the brunette's reluctance – she understood Regina even better than she understood herself, some days. "I get it."
"Do you?" Regina's gaze was heavy, her eyes guarded as they met green, and Emma itched to reach out and reassure her, to tell her that she wasn't going anywhere, that she was just as scared by whatever was happening between them, but that she was willing to give it a shot, but she didn't know how to voice the words – instead she reached out and hesitantly took the brunette's hand, twisting their fingers together.
"More than you think," she replied, her voice quiet, and she watched as the brunette's eyes dropped to their linked hands, waiting for her to pull away – but her grip only tightened, and Emma bit her lip to hide her smile. "What do you think will happen tomorrow?"
"Probably nothing good," the brunette answered honestly, her expression grave.
"Well, in that case – if I don't get the chance again - " Emma leant across the short distance between them and pressed her lips to Regina's before she could change her mind, and before something interrupted them again.
It was supposed to be chaste, but she quickly forgot herself she felt Regina kiss her back, her lips turning hungry as she hands moved to grip at the blonde's shirt, yanking her closer. It was a better reaction than Emma had been hoping for, as the brunette's mouth opened to her searching tongue, and she groaned as Regina's fingers dug into the skin of her hips.
When they pulled apart the only sound in the room was their ragged breathing, and Emma could feel her heart pounding in her ears. She watched Regina warily, ready for her to demand the blonde to leave, but there was no trace of animosity in her eyes.
"We should try to sleep, at least for a little while" she murmured, finally, breaking the heavy silence that had fallen between them, and Emma took it as a dismissal, beginning to rise to her feet when she felt Regina's hand wrap around her arm, pulling her back down. "Where are you going?"
"I thought that was my hint to leave." Unless she was mistaken, the brunette sounded panicked, and Emma wondered, not for the first time, what on earth had happened to her in the past.
"No, I… I'd very much like you to stay." Emma nodded, settling back down, and when Regina lay on her side with her back to the blonde, she wrapped an arm around the brunette's waist, pulling her close and pressing her face into her neck, letting the quiet sound of Regina's breathing lull her to sleep.
x-x-x
"Regina?" Emma's voice echoed loudly in the hallway of the brunette's home, and she cursed herself for being so rash in coming here in the first place.
They'd only been back from Neverland for a couple of hours, and yet she already missed the constant presence of the brunette by her side. Retrieving Henry hadn't been straightforward by any means, but they'd managed, eventually, to make it home with him in tow, with only a few minor injuries.
It had been torture, plain and simple, to be aboard that damn ship with Regina so close after what had happened that last night, and not be able to do anything about it. They'd barely had a moment alone, even to just exchange words, ever since, and it had driven Emma crazy – she'd snapped at Snow a few too many times on the return trip, and locked herself in their cabin on more than one occasion, too.
"Emma?" Regina's voice called back at her, and the brunette appeared a moment later, leaning over the side of the bannister at the top of the stairs, her hair mussed with sleep and wearing a robe, but her eyes were alert as they sought out the blonde below her. "What are you doing here?"
"I just… wanted to talk."
"And there wasn't a more appropriate hour for you to do that?" The brunette enquired, but there was no malice in her tone, like there would have been just a few months ago.
"I guess." Emma stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans, suddenly feeling awkward, and wishing that she'd just stayed in bed, after all. "Look never mind, it was stupid of me to come here, I'll just…"
"No, wait, don't go." Regina's voice stopped the blonde in her tracks, and she turned to see the brunette's eyes boring into her. "We can talk. I'd like the company – while I can't say I enjoyed the crowdedness of that ship… it's an awfully big change going from that to being alone."
Emma's heart twisted in her chest, painfully, at the brunette's words. Snow and Charming had refused to let Henry come and stay back at Regina's - at his home – until it had been discussed in detail, despite Emma and Regina's protests. Henry himself had been too tired to partake in the conversation, but the blonde was kind of glad for that – she was half-afraid that he'd say he preferred to stay with Emma and co, and she didn't think she could stand to see how that would affect Regina.
She shuffled out of her shoes and left them beside the front door, hanging her leather jacket on the hook beside her, earning an approving look form the woman who stood waiting for her. She'd never been in Regina's bedroom before, and as she followed the brunette inside her eyes moved around the room, trying to take in as much detail as she possibly could.
It was pretty plain, with little decoration aside from a couple of paintings and several photographs of Henry – her eyes lingered on some of them, an ache starting in her chest as she was reminded yet again of all the parts of his life that she'd missed. She walked closer to the dresser where the frames lay, and felt Regina come up behind her, her breathing quiet in Emma's ear.
"That was taken the day I got him," the brunette murmured, reaching out to trail her fingers over the tiny bundle, swathed in blankets, that she was holding in her arms in the photo. "His first birthday." She indicated the next, which showed a tiny Henry in-front of a huge cake, a teddy clutched in his podgy little hands. "First steps, first word, first day of pre-school, first day of school." Regina indicated each photo with a wave of her hand as she spoke, and Emma could hear the longing in her voice and took her hand, squeezing gently.
"Thank you," she murmured, grateful for the opportunity to see at least some of the ten years that she'd missed. "And I'm sorry that he couldn't stay here with you tonight."
"It's alright – I know that it wasn't your decision that he not. Why did you come here, Emma? The real reason." Regina arched a questioning eyebrow, and the blonde sighed at the change in subject – then again, she supposed Regina wouldn't want to dwell on the topic of Henry, considering her tenuous relationship with him lately.
"I told you, I wanted to talk." Her earlier nerves came rushing back as she suddenly realised that she was in Regina Mills' bedroom, alone, with no-one around to put a stop to anything that might occur between them that night, aside from the two of them – and she doubted that either one would be able to resist the pull they felt towards each other for much longer.
"Oh?" Regina shifted so that she was stood opposite Emma instead of beside her, her tone suggestive as she leant closer. "And is that all you wanted to do?" Emma's breath caught in her throat, unable to speak, to think, with Regina finally so close.
"No," she managed, eventually, the word little more than an expulsion of breath as her free hand curled around the back of the brunette's neck, tugging her closer as she pressed their lips together. She'd barely been able to think of anything else since the first time she'd kissed Regina, but this time definitely topped the last, as the brunette dropped her hold on Emma's hand in order to once again fist her hands in the blonde's shirt, dragging her until they were pressed flush together, and Emma could feel the frantic pounding of Regina's heart in her chest, echoing her own.
She allowed Regina to pull her back towards the bed, stepping between the brunette's legs when she sat on the edge of the bed, and she groaned when hands slid down to cup her ass, roughly, causing her to fall flat on the bed, pinning Regina beneath her.
When a warm, wet tongue slipped into her mouth, claiming her, followed by the sharp nip of teeth against her bottom lip, Emma knew she was done for. She could feel arousal pooling between her thighs and she knew that she wouldn't be able to stop, not easily, in any case – and judging from the wild look in Regina's eyes when she pulled back, the brunette felt the same way.
Hands scrambled to undo the button of her jeans, and Emma laughed at the flash of frustration that crossed the former Mayor's face when she failed to shuffle the denim down the blonde's legs. Still grinning Emma pulled back and climbed to her feet, keeping her eyes on Regina's face as she yanked the tight material down and stepped out of them, pulling her shirt over her head a moment later and smirking when the brunette's gaze immediately zeroed in on her chest.
Regina shuffled backwards on the bed, and Emma moved to drape her body over the brunette's once more, hands untying the sash of the robe the brunette was wearing – she bit her lip when she realised that all Regina wore underneath was a slip of black lace.
The brunette was impatient, though, and quickly pulled the blonde down for another heated kiss, moaning in appreciation when Emma let her hand wander, tracing lightly over the brunette's soft skin, purposefully avoiding the brunette's chest. That earned another sharp bite to her lip, and she groaned –she always had liked a little bit of pain mixed with her pleasure.
"Don't tease, Miss Swan," the brunette murmured when Emma pulled back, her breathing laboured, and Emma shook her head at her wording.
"Oh, so it's back to Miss Swan now, is it?" She splayed her right hand across Regina's stomach before dragging her nails across the taut skin. She lowered her mouth to press kisses to the brunette's neck as her hand finally moved to one of her breasts, and she rolled one of Regina's nipples between her thumb and forefinger, her mouth moving to the brunette's ear. "I don't mind as long as it's my name that you're calling later."
Regina merely groaned, her hands at the blonde's waist, fingers digging into her skin hard enough to leave a mark. Emma could barely believe that this was actually happening, that it was actually Regina beneath her, as she trailed a line of kisses back down the brunette's neck and down over her chest.
She took a nipple into her mouth, teeth grazing across the sensitive flesh gently, and groaned in appreciation when Regina's hips bucked, a thigh falling between Emma's legs and pressing against her heated core.
"Emma," Regina gasped, one hand twisting in the blonde's hair as her back arched under the ministrations of her tongue on her chest. "Please."
Usually, at any other point in time, she would have dragged this out for a hell of a lot longer – but she'd been waiting for this for what felt like an age, and Regina must have been, too. She could feel how wet Regina was against her thigh through her underwear, and her hands shook with anticipation as they peeled away the thin material, pushing them down the brunette's legs eagerly before moving back up her body.
She kissed Regina hard as her fingers moved between the brunette thighs, and a moan escaped her lips at the little resistance they met as they slid through wet heat, slipping against the brunette's clit before she pressed two fingers into her centre, pulling away from Regina's mouth in order to watch her face.
Dark eyes flew open as Emma's fingers set up a slowly building rhythm, and whenever her thumb grazed against her clit Regina's eyes fluttered, and her hands – one fisted in blonde hair and the other digging half-circles into the small of Emma's back – would tighten their hold.
When she felt Regina start to tighten around her fingers, and when she gave up trying to keep her eyes closed, her hips pressing upwards into Emma's hand harder, she stopped, moving her hand away and fighting a smirk when Regina's eyes, furious, snapped open to land on Emma's.
"What the hell are you - " she cut herself off as the blonde moved quickly down the brunette's body, her hands wrapping around Regina's thighs as her mouth replaced her fingers. Both of Regina's hands moved to tangle in blonde locks – they gripped to the point of pain when she pressed two fingers back into her centre, hard, as her tongue flicked across her clit with increasing speed, matching the thrusts of her hand.
She didn't stop when she felt Regina spasm around her, coming with a moan followed by a mantra of Emma's name, gasped, and it was only when she felt the brunette's thighs quivering on either side of her head that she pulled back, moving lithely back up to Regina's mouth to kiss her softly.
She could feel the brunette's heart racing and moved to curl up beside her, waiting for her eyes to open. When they did they were shining with tears, and Emma's heart wrenched, fearing she'd done something wrong – her hand moved to cup the brunette's cheek, thumb stroking across the skin in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.
"Hey, hey," she murmured, a frown forming on her face. "What's wrong?" The brunette didn't answer, and Emma bit her lip, fearing the worst. "Look, if you want me to go…"
"No." Hands moved to grab at her waist, keeping her in place, and there was an edge of desperation to Regina's voice and touch. "Don't go. It's just…"
"What?"
"Whenever something good happens to me it always gets taken away." There was a vulnerability to the brunette's voice, and that coupled with the haunting expression in her eyes, was enough to let Emma know, definitely, that whatever she was starting to feel towards Regina, she was feeling it, too.
"Hey, look at me." She titled the brunette's face up gently so their eyes met, and Emma tried to make herself look as sincere as she possibly could. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? No matter what. I promise."