Disclaimer: I think we all know that I don't own these characters, but did you know that King Albert II of Belgium is planning on abdicating the throne in favor of his son, Prince Philippe? It's true.

Rumpelstiltskin was drunk and crying.

It was an activity he usually saved for the early hours before dawn once or twice a week, and everyone else presently aboard was experiencing a perverse secondhand embarrassment that he had chosen the late afternoon to do it instead, to recount to himself all of the little ways in which Belle had made his life a brighter place, and all the ways he could have been a better father. It was made all the more embarrassing by the fact that he was in the privacy of his own cabin and was unaware that it had a grate that extended to the deck above, and therefore carried his entire soliloquy out into the open sea for everyone to hear.

It was hard for many to measure how much rum was "enough". It was sweet and warm and hardly tasted like alcohol at all. It filmed your stomach and left an aftertaste that could only be abated by more rum, and as his senses no doubt pleaded with him to ease up, his voice rose louder to drown them out.

And it happened to be one of those days where there was simply no hiding from the sun. It fried the water into grains of salt and brine as soon as it splashed aboard, and packed the cabins below with an air that cauterized the lungs. It was one of those days when one's rage is only capable of being impotent and spiteful, and it really was a wonder Regina held out as long as she did to snap.

"That's it." she hissed, standing up from her seat on the stairs to the helm. Snow and Emma had been having a hushed argument in the shade of the galley as to who was to walk down to Rumpelstiltskin's cabin and take the bottle(s) away, and they turned to her with a mixture of anxiety and relief that they wouldn't have to do it themselves, but Hook called from the helm, "Just let him mourn, love."

She ignored him and moved to walk through the door to the cabins below, but was stopped by Emma's hand on her arm. "He's right, Regina, maybe just give him a bit more time." the woman said apologetically, and perhaps it was Emma taking Hook's side, or the fact that in her opinion they'd given the imp enough time already, but the woman's words only stood to make her angrier.

"I just want a single minute of peace!" Regina yelled, wrenching her arm out of the other's grasp, but also noticeably didn't move any closer to the door.

"Well I'm sorry this freaking schooner isn't big enough for you!" Emma said, louder than she'd been meaning to.

"It's not a schooner, it's a ship!" Hook called.

"They're kind of right, Hook," Charming said through a grate that connected to storage cabin where he was busy gathering nets in need of repair. "It's a pretty small boat."

"It's not a boat," the pirate corrected again. "it's a ship! And trust me, Ms. Swan, like many of my other prized possessions, it's more than big enough to get the job done."

"Oh, will you stop with your innuendos?" said Regina.

"No," he said, "I don't think I can." and like a floodlight her eyes widened and she showed the full brunt of her anger at him, firing threats that he returned with insults that only served to spur her on.

In the long weeks since setting out, trying to mediate any arguments that Regina was involved in had revealed itself to be virtually impossible. She never let things go and she pushed and pushed and the thrill of the fight only fueled her. Though she had clearly been trying to hold herself back from having them during their weeks at sea, and though their relationship had progressed to something beside amicable, Emma could still only tolerate Regina's self-indulgent temper tantrums for short periods of time, and today's argument would likely carry on for the better part of the evening if no one did anything to nip it at the bud.

"You know what? I am done!" Emma shouted over them from behind her. Regina whirled around to give her a more singular piece of her mind, but the anger crystallized into alarm as she watched Emma begin to climb over the ship wall. "You guys are gonna stop fighting or I'm jumping ship."

"Ms. Swan-"

"I'll swim to Neverland and meet you there." Emma said. She sat on the edge of the deck with her arms held out at her sides and her legs dangling over the water, a hard, daring smile playing on her face as she stared out into the horizon. "Let go, please." Regina had her by the back of her shirt.

"You're being stupid." the older woman said, too caught up to let go of the bite in her words. Though she was certain that the woman was bluffing, they were miles out in the middle of the ocean with no idea what creatures may be lying close under the depths, and she simply would not allow Emma's own reckless behavior to be her downfall.

In a sing-song voice she replied, "You say that all the time." and swung forward and backward over the water, daring the woman to call her bluff.

"This time I mean it." Regina said. "You need to grow up and climb back over here and complain about whatever Snow is making for dinner with me. Right now."

"Heeey..." Snow whined and was promptly ignored.

Regina fists tightened around Emma's clothes and her mouth drew into a hard line. Finally, the blonde sighed in mock defeat. "As long as you give egging on Hook a rest for tonight." Emma said as she turned, Regina keeping a constant hold on her as she swayed against the tossing sea. Emma gave a soft chuckle as she threw a leg over the rails."Because it's gotten super ol-"

But before she could finish her sentence, one of those out-of-nowhere torrential winds ripped over the hull and into the sails, lurching the ship sharply on its toes. Her already precarious grip slipped across the sea-damped railing and - reaching blindly in front of her for something to catch hold of - took Regina with her as she dropped into the water below.

They hit the water before they could comprehend what had happened, losing hold of each other as bubbles rushed in around them. The roar of the ocean cut off into a deep silence and for a while, until her mind could gather itself back together, Emma sank. Then she kicked out in a direction that she hoped led skyward, her eyes squinted open against the stinging saltwater. Though she hadn't swam for a number of years, she'd been a lifeguard for a few summers after high school and the skill seemed to be like riding a bike. As she moved her arms out like a fan to best propel her up however, something grasped at her ankle and tugged her back down. Expecting to have gotten herself caught in the net Snow had thrown out not fifteen minutes before, she at first bent to untangle herself from it before recognizing the emerald-gemmed ring on the hand gripping her bootstraps. Wrapping an arm around Regina's wrist and pulling her up so that they were level with each other, she swam upward. Her lungs leaked air like a ruptured tire and she still couldn't see properly in those foreign waters, but eventually she broke the surface, gasping for breath and doing her best to hold Regina up.

It was clear the older woman couldn't swim. She coughed up half a stomach's worth of water down the front of Emma's shirt and bunched up her legs, frantically trying to climb up Emma's body like a makeshift raft. The blonde soon found herself in an inner battle between throwing the woman off completely and getting herself drowned by not getting Regina under control.

"Paddle with your arms." Emma said around the palm pressed into her cheek, and that apparently meant next to nothing, as Regina extended both arms to her sides and tried to use them like boat paddles, moving them in small circular patterns that quickly put her under again.

"Oh my goodness!" Snow called from above. "Emma?"

She got a firm hold of Regina again before answering. "Yeah! We're fine! Get a ladder or something!"

"Regina can't swim!" her mother called down.

"Yeah, I know, thanks!"

"Oh!" Snow exclaimed. "Okay, Charming brought a ladder. We're about to lower it down. We're lowering it down."

"That's goo - stop it." Emma said. Regina was kicking her in the knees.

"I'm -" Regina tried and fell into another coughing fit.

"Just let me support you, okay?" Emma asked, and apparently that only made the other woman upset, because she started flapping around even more.

" - fine! I'm fine -"

Emma ignored her, looking upward to see if the ladder was far down enough to reach as she moved Regina to her side to swim more easily. The death grip the former queen had on her shoulders and neck was taxing at best, but contrarily amusing as Regina vainly tried to flip the hair out of her eyes and clamored around Emma like the koala she had no doubt been in a past life. When the ladder was within reach she passed it to Regina, who testily told her to go first and who started up after she threatened to let go.

She waited until the other was halfway to the deck before climbing up herself. They had fallen on the side opposite of where the sun was starting to sink and above them Snow held out a lantern to better see the rope ladder while Charming held onto it at the railing. He held a hand out for Regina before being resolutely declined and soon after reached for Emma's hand instead.

Though Snow was quick to cover her with the blanket from her bunk, she saw that the same consideration hadn't been extended to the mayor. The woman surreptitiously peered around for the second blanket that they must have brought - because surely it would occur to them to bring one for her - and finding nothing, stalked down the stairs belowdecks to change her clothes and probably mouth curses under her breath.

"Oh, Emma, what happened?" Snow asked, fretting over the blonde in a way that, quite honestly, still made her mildly uncomfortable. She did allow herself to lean into her mother's hand in her hair though.

"I fell in, accidentally took Regina with me." Emma explained shortly, still trying to gather her breath while sitting cross-legged on the deck.

Snow quirked her head to the side and Charming said in careful tones, "Are you sure she didn't push you?" which brought a sigh out of Emma before the man had finished his question.

"Yes, I legitimately fell in, dad." she whined. "She tried to catch me and we both fell."

"Well, that was nice of her." Snow said as she tussled Emma's hair with a stray corner of the blanket.

"I guess..."

"Do you want dinner?" Snow asked, and Emma blanched all over again. Her mother's food truly took a level in inedible.

"Um. I'm gonna change first."

"Oh, right, of course." she said. Charming helped her off the floor and they descended to the main deck together before splitting paths, her parents to the galley and her belowdecks. Brushing the door open with her hip, the squelch of her boots smacking the floorboards caught Regina unawares, making her jump with a new shirt halfway over her head. She struggled hastily with it, not bothering to turn away from the blonde but otherwise speeding up. Emma, in turn, kept a respectful eye on her own side of the room.

She was unlacing her boots and Regina was on a fast march for the door when she finally asked if the woman was okay. "Perfectly fine, Ms. Swan." she said. She stopped as she noticed her own shoes squelching and turned back to take them off.

"Because you can let me know." Emma said. "I know you've been trying to be more friendly with me - with all of us and I... don't want you to think that it's for nothing."

"Oh, clearly." Regina said, her tone making it more than evident that she found her efforts for naught. Though the folds in her brow were doing their best to appear angry, Emma could see the downturn of upset at the corners, the waver in her sneer that dropped at the edges.

"I at least appreciate it. And I'm sorry that I kind of pulled you into the ocean." Emma said. She had gotten her boots off and was pulling her shirt over her head. "What?"

Regina was shaking her head. "What else was I to do? Let you jump?" she asked. "Don't apologize for me having to be the perpetual sane one of the pair. I take to the role too well to mind."

"Perpetual sane one... you do know that you tried to poison me with an apple turnover once, right?" Emma said. "I'm pretty sure we switch roles on the regular."

"Regardless of that statement's validity -"

"Cause no offense," Emma began, bring a knee-jerk eye roll out of the former queen. "But I think we both know that you can be pretty rash."

"Are my flaws the point you're trying to make?" Regina asked.

She hadn't denied it, so Emma worked back to what she was trying to say. "I just meant to say that I'm here if you want to vent or anything. Neutral ground type of thing, won't judge."

"So you're the Cricket now, I take it?" Regina asked.

"You know what I mean." Emma said. "You can't keep everything bottled up inside without it bursting out later, so, maybe let it leak out just a little with me. If you want."

Regina tried for a derisive laugh that fell just short of its intended effect. "Believe you me, Ms. Swan, if I need to vent you're the first I'd come to."

"Good."

"Good, now will you put on a top so we can go and retch over your mother's horrid cooking?" Regina asked, standing up and starting for the door.

"Well, the thing is," Emma said, acquiring her signature frown and peering at the ceiling. "Can I, um, borrow another one of your shirts?" she asked, glance cutting back to Regina.

The other rolled her eyes and turned to the chest that she'd magicked onto the ship a couple of days into the journey. "Do your laundry, Ms. Swan." she sighed, tapping a pattern on the side of her thigh as she waited for Emma to button it up and follow her to the galley.

"Volunteer for cooking duty more and maybe I'll have the energy to."

"Heeey." Emma quietly greeted Regina the next afternoon. She immediately wanted to kick herself as Regina leaned slightly away and eyed Emma like the blonde was about to pull a prank on her. Of course she'd be suspicious, Emma never said Heeeey. "Sorry, that was weird. Hi. I was wondering if you'd go with me somewhere."

"Where?" the brunette asked, eyes narrowing. "Five feet over to that section of flooring I've never stood in before?"

"Ha. No, I wanted it to be a surprise, but now I realize that that's sort of impossible, so just come with me." Emma said, taking the wide broom in Regina hand and leaning it against the wall.

"I'm not done swabbing." Regina said, tugging gently against the hand Emma had on her wrist. "You know how slippery the deck gets when it isn't washed everyday."

"I got Charming to cover it when he's done repairing the nets." Emma said, taking Regina's hand with both of hers and guiding her forward. They in fact did walk five feet, but to the side of the boat rather than the corner Regina had gestured to. Leaning over the edge, Emma presented the lifeboat floating in the water under them.

Regina eyed the small boat with trepidation, not even allowing her upper-body to bend over the railing and craning with her neck instead, arms folded stiffly over her abdomen. "Don't worry," Emma said, "I won't let you drown or anything."

"I have spells to protect myself against the water if given warning, Ms. Swan." Regina quipped, rubbing her upper arms to sooth a nascent cold.

The aforementioned Ms. Swan held herself back from saying that if a protection against drowning was effective you wouldn't need much warning at all, and instead began her descent down the rope ladder instead. "I figured you might like a trip away from the schooner for a while."

"It's not a-"

"No one cares!" Charming yelled from the stern-board.

So quietly that only the wheel in his hand could hear him, Hook muttered, "I care, you hear me, Jolly? I care."

Regina followed the blonde down, steeling herself for the worst boat ride ever. Fumbling to set foot in the ever-rocking boat, she stiffened as Emma held her by her waist to help her down, but otherwise allowed it. She sat primly on the edge of the center seat, hip to hip with Emma as she detached the oars from the side of Jolly Roger. "Now, you demonstrated yesterday that you know to work these," Emma joked as she handed a paddle to Regina. As the other didn't seem to get her joke, she coughed and moved on, "so, uh, I guess we'll start out?"

"This is your plan, Ms. Swan, I'd imagine you'd know whether we 'start out' or not" she said, using one hand for quotation marks while the other kept the oar from sliding into the ocean.

"Cool, let's start out." They spun in a circle as they both began to paddle in opposite rotations. "You rotate it counter-clockwise." she said helpfully as they slowed to a drift. Regina sneered and began rowing the other way, picking up a rapid pace to compensate for her embarrassment. They stretched the distance between themselves and the Jolly Roger in moments, but soon slowed as neither could maintain the pace Regina had put them on. The distance was lengthened nonetheless, until the Jolly Roger's creaks couldn't be heard over the roar of the waves and Snow, Charming, and Hook were doll-sized silhouettes against the dark blue sky.

They put up their oars and Regina wordlessly looked to Emma for a clue as to what they were to do. Instead, the blonde yawned, closed her eyes and laid down in the boat lengthwise, propping her hands onto her stomach and basking in the late afternoon sun. Though Regina couldn't bring herself to lay down beside the woman, she followed suit in turning toward the sun and closing her eyes with her hands perched on her knees.

The rocking of boats had become natural by now, and rather than rile up nausea like it had in her childhood, the ocean and its voiceless roar drowsed her, running a warm hand over her itching nerves and tying off the frays in her mind. Finally being away from the constant chatter on board the Jolly Roger was almost a luxury.

She opened her eyes when Emma tapped on her leg and passed a bundle of cloth up to her. The blonde had brought the usual bread and fish along with them, and they ate it cold and in a comfortable silence. The sea had calmed to a flat blue Regina could see her face in, and she decorated her reflection with fish bones. Unfortunately, the pale splinters began to resemble a cracked, quaking mirror as they drifted apart and sank. They flattened an already depressed image and were disquieting, tipping toward a part of Regina's mind that she was very careful to keep far from the forefront, and she schooled the emerging scowl off of her face and ran her hands over the water to get rid of them faster.

"You're wearing my shirt again today." Regina said softly, eyes still fixed on the water her fingers were running through below.

"Hm?" Emma said. She repeated what she'd said. "Oh, yeah. Well, the way you taught me to get the salt out of the water I'd use for it still kind of has me confounded."

"Practice makes perfect, Emma."

"It's really hard, though. The grains are really small." Emma said. She wasn't usually one to complain, but honestly this particular lesson was one of the few she actively avoided, though she wouldn't admit it. Fireballs she had garnered within days. Even redirecting wind into the sails to help the ship move faster wasn't as time or energy consuming. But she supposed that there was a reason Regina had halted her progression since she'd started asking for the woman's shirts. She was most certainly aware that though Emma could power the impulsivity-driven, emotional spells, the more subtle, objective ones would still evade her, and that trying to perform them would doubtless get someone hurt.

"Which is the point, to strengthen your attention to detail and nuances. Magic without accuracy, without precision, will quickly run awry." Regina said. "It's best when you do it with small loads of laundry. How much do you have to do?"

"Uh, a hell of a lot more than a small load." Emma laughed.

"Hm." Regina conceded, but there was a slight lift in the corners of her mouth that softened the brevity. So enamored was she in her water designs that she didn't feel Emma sit back up.

The blonde could see how much Regina seemed to visibly relax out here. The iron weights that usually hung stiff on her spine and shoulders had been taken off. The constant pressure she put onto every moment that wasn't spent furthering a goal had been put aside, if only for the moment. They sat together, Regina staring out over the water, Emma staring at her and feeling the frown on her own face grow deeper and deeper as her fingers tightened on her knees. She wanted to kiss her, so much it felt like her ribcage was falling in. Instead she turned north, where both the Jolly Roger and the woman with her were hidden from view.

It wouldn't be fair. The strain of preparing themselves for Neverland, the stress of living in such close quarters with people Regina had seen as interminable enemies only a month before, the constant worries for her son and the nightmares that Emma knew rampaged through the woman's mind every night was more than enough for her to already be dealing with. Heaping whatever she felt for Regina onto that wouldn't be fair to either of them.

So she sulked and hoped the other didn't notice and chewed on stale bread so dense that toasting it turned it into a brick. "I um..." Regina said behind her. Emma turned around, forcing her frown upside down into a face she hoped was encouraging. "I um, appreciate you, too."

"Oh-" Emma began before Regina cut her a glance, and just like that, the steel returned to the former mayor's spine and she was as stiff as ever. 'It's hard for me to say this' the look said. 'so don't interrupt me or you'll never hear it as long as you live.'

"For...not being as grudging as your parents to see that I've tried to change." she said, "And for taking me off of that godawful ship for a while. And for making this journey halfway bearable, I guess."

"No problem." Emma said through a tight throat.

"I suppose we should be getting back now." Regina said. The blonde turned to the horizon where the sun had its toes in the water, bleaching the ocean a milky orange with slips of black in between. She handed an oar to the brunette and they paddled back to the Jolly Roger, finding comfort in the silence between them and the rhythm of the lifeboat jogging forward. Maneuvering right under the rope ladder, Emma tied the oars back to the inside of the lifeboat's walls and helped Regina to her feet.

Voices drifted down from the deck above and the sun was halfway under. After securing the reels to the lifeboat to reel it up after they had climbed back aboard, Emma straightened back up and found that Regina had yet to ascend the rope ladder.

It seemed like she had something to say and was fighting herself against it again as her mouth smushed itself into a hard line and her eyebrows worried together. She looked from Emma to the water and back, blew a hard sigh out of her mouth and reached across the short distance between them to cup Emma's cheek. Emma's brain skittered and stalled as the woman's face closed in. 'Oh my god oh my god she's gonna kiss me oh my good gracious fuck this is happening this is happening oh my fuck shit.'

"Thank you." Regina said, kissing the corner of Emma's mouth before turning and racing up the ladder.

When her spirit finally returned to her body Emma followed her up, empty of thought and excited and trying very hard not to lose grip of the ladder and fall back into the water below. She could run a marathon right now. She could kill five dragons. She could punch Hook in the throat. She reeled the lifeboat up and tied it against the ship's hull, repressing a happy hum and reminding herself that it was very likely that the Regina who had been allowed out in the lifeboat might not be the Regina of tomorrow morning, that things would certainly retreat back to a place that Regina felt comfortable to show, and that that was perfectly fine.

Emma decided that, for now, it was enough that this afternoon had happened.

A/N: There are two very different versions of this story that begin the same way: the one which you just read where they made it out of the water after Emma pulls them in, and another in which - for reasons that will spoil the plot and therefore can't be told - they don't. I might end up finishing and posting the other version as a second chapter(s?). Just saying. Just thought I'd mention it. It says "Complete" but it may not be, is what I'm saying.

Also, question: Is Emma out of character with her ease of consideration for Regina? I feel like that's slightly out of character. I really need to rewatch season 2 but I've been waiting until it's put on Netflix. But yeah. Thoughts?