When she looked into the woman's eyes she saw something broken, very nearly beyond repair. She saw hurt and fury and trauma and some degree of helplessness. But more than anything there was an odd twinkle in her eye that seemed to be calling for help.
Regina closed her hands around the heart.
Beating.
Dark.
And cold.
When she looked up again, a new—new for that moment anyhow—emotion came to gleam in the other woman's eyes.
Hatred.
Pure and deep hatred.
Regina chewed the inside of her cheek, her stomach fluttering with pangs of sorrow. It had always been there, that hatred. And for as long as she could remember. The woman snarled at her, "I hate you." Another twinge in her belly, this time hurt of her own. Not that the hurt wasn't her own to begin with.
It was one thing to feel such loathing—both towards others and herself—and another to see a physical manifestation of it. Somehow it made it more real. She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving rapidly. Those furious eyes—perfect mirrors of her own soft brown stare—fixed on her. Challenging her to do anything more.
She, this version of her, was all hatred.
Regina felt it without actually feeling it. Sensed it was the right word. Regina knew exactly what her other half was thinking. Every single thought was full of dark. "I hate you." She repeated in a low growl. And the worst of it was that Regina knew that the Queen meant it. She truly did hate herself, and not just her lighter half.
She reached her hand out.
The Queen flinched. Regina didn't doubt that she would have backed away from her touch if she could have. Regina squeezed her other half's shoulder and mustered up a half smile. "I don't." She replied at last. It was true, she didn't. Her half smile grew into a full one that reached her eyes. Because, she realized that it was true. Somehow she had finally found a way to love the woman she became…
And even the woman she once was.
The broken woman seething in front of her.
To the shock of the woman in question, Regina took hold of her own heart and held it against its darker counterpart. It was so pure, the heart she had taken from herself. So pure and bright and untainted. She almost didn't want to soil it. But she had to, she knew that she did. Because she knew that the heart she held wasn't whole. It was missing something very important.
It was missing the pain and the darkness that made Regina who she was. So she lifted the twin hearts and pressed them together, allowing the dark and the light to merge and mingle. In its own way it was beautiful.
Just as she put her own heart back into place, she returned the Queen's. The woman was trembling, her eyes watering. She unraveled the vines binding the Queen to the wall. At her new-found freedom, she barely moved. Confusion mingled with her hurt in the same way the dark had mingled with the light.
"What's happening to me?"
All Regina had ever wanted was for someone to hold her close and tell her that it would be alright.
"I gave you some of my love and took some of your darkness." Regina replied. She took her other half into an embrace—awkward and one sided at first. But slowly the Queen's walls collapsed, what had she to hide anyways? Nothing that Regina didn't already know. The Queen leaned into Regina. "Now I love myself, which means so should you." She mumbled to her other half. To her surprise, she felt some of the tension leave the Queen's body. She would hold the embrace for as long as the Queen needed.