A/N: This was for the Summer Swan Queen Big Bang for art by Cbem. You can see it at /works/1871070.
***Mentions of OQ & CS*** but this is a swanqueen fic.
Shout out to my lovely beta: Onceuponagryffindor!
Lastly, in the amount of time I had, I got six chapters written. Since they are all already up on Ao3 where the bigbang was hosted, I'm just going to post them all at once here. Feedback is appreciated and thanks for reading!
Emma had left Killian's side and was searching the busy diner for a familiar petite brunette. It was Granny's birthday and most of Storybrooke was milling about the diner. Where was she? Her blonde hair flicked off her shoulders as she turned her head towards the sounds of her parents calling her name. Emma waved off Mary Margaret and David as she headed towards the back patio, but before she could reach the door knob, she slammed straight into a solid wall of muscle backing out from the bathroom.
"Oof," the blonde let out. She started to lose her balance and stepped back; the heavy step of her favorite boots sounded on the floor with a dull thud.
"My apologies," a deep accented voice inclined.
"You're good," Emma automatically said and motioned to move past the archer.
Robin set a loose hand on her forearm. "Have you seen my Marian?" he asked. "I seem to have lost track of her," he said with a touch of humor lacing his words.
The possessive 'my' did not escape Emma's ears. "No, I was just going to check the back for—" the jigsaw puzzle of Regina's missing whereabouts was starting to form into a recognizable blur. "I have to go!" Emma said suddenly without further explanation. She pushed past the slightly taken aback thief and hurried out the back door.
Her green eyes took a second to adjust to the evening light; the sun hinting at disappearing across the horizon at any second now. Emma quickly scanned the vicinity of the diner's patio, and her heart sped up when she saw it was empty.
Marian and Regina were both currently missing.
She could put two and two together easily enough and quickly jettisoned off the wooden steps. Her momentum came to a daring halt, practically skidding her heels into the pavement when she reached the street.
Left or right? Left or right?
She looked down the empty street both ways and like a cat hunting a mouse, she turned her ear to the sounds of faint but mounting protestations.
Right.
She took off at a dead run. "REGINA!" She called out, searching down the narrow alleyways as she ran closer to the sounds of someone whimpering.
Emma ran past some shaded figures in one alley and immediately hightailed it back around to its opening. One might've easily mistaken the shadowed figures at the end for clandestine lovers by how close the two women were to each other. Regina's back was to her and she was towering over a frightened Marian. Mere inches were all that separated the two as Regina hissed at the younger girl. Emma could hear the low tones of the dominant brunette but couldn't make out what was being said.
"What are you doing?" Emma demanded with all the authority she could muster as she closed in on the pair. Marian's frightened eyes locked on Emma and she opened her mouth, but Regina's hand snaked out around her throat, cutting off her pathetic plea for help like a python.
"Regina, stop!" Emma said, just a few feet behind her, but it was as if she didn't hear her. "This isn't you!"
Emma saw the way Regina's right arm swung back and the blonde lunged forwards, knowing full well what the rage blinded brunette was about to do. "No!"
Emma's fingers barely brushed against Regina's shoulder, and as if noticing her for the first time, Regina viciously admonished her with a deep growl. "Stay. Out. Of. This." Her eyes were an eerie purple, a shade so dark, they were nearly black as they seemed to look straight through her. With the flick of her wrist, Emma was sent flying away from her. Her back crashed into the hard brick wall. Emma let out a loud cry and crumpled to the ground. She gritted her teeth and dug her fingers into the loose earth speckled with sparse gravel. Emma wearily stood up and shook herself out.
"HE-hhh!" With Regina's grip still around her throat, Marian's anguished cry was muffled, and her other hand sunk deep into Marian's chest. Tears made their way into Marian's eyes as Regina's grasp on her heart tightened. With a singularly rough yank, Regina released her hold on Marian, and she slumped down the wall to the dirty ground, silent.
Regina marveled at the girl's heart, pulsing and pumping a most violently bright red. A sneer ghosted across Regina's lips at her pureness. She tested her grip on the heart when she squeezed it once. Marian writhed from the floor, pawed at her chest where her heart would be, and screamed in agony.
"HEY!"
Regina whirled around having forgotten the blonde only to be overtaken by surprise as Emma launched her own hand into the brunette.
Emma felt her hand jam straight into the plump heart beneath Regina's skin; enough so that her hand bounced off of it and almost slipped out of her chest. Emma cursed as Regina faltered and the blonde had to steady her weight against her. She quickly opened her grip to fish her digits around Regina's heart. When she had it, Emma gracelessly yanked until it seemed to grudgingly release itself from the brunette's ribcage. As soon as her heart came free, Regina stilled.
Emma was breathing hard from the effort. She'd never taken anyone's heart before and she was terrified of doing it wrong, of hurting Regina. Her attempt was a travesty at best. Cora had tried to rip Emma's heart, but hadn't succeeded; her only guidance was having seen Regina perform the act on the Neverland boy. It was a lot harder than the queen made it look. Maybe it gets easier over time, she thought.
Still huffing, Emma brought Regina's heart closer to her mouth. "Put—her—heart—back," she panted out. Regina stood stock still, her muscles moving in minuscule spasms as if she were trying to fight the hold Emma had over her. "Now," the blonde added.
The brunette rigidly obeyed, sinking to her knees to become level with Marian who was still sprawled on the floor and panicking with wide eyes. She let out a yip when Regina's hand sunk into her chest once again, this time to redeposit her heart back into its proper place. When she was done, Marian hauled herself upright.
"Get back to the diner," Emma commanded her. Marian nodded and scampered off back in the direction of Granny's. "Now what to do about you," Emma returned her attention back to the angry brunette. Her heart still held hostage, she took a step closer to Regina.
"Regina?"
She didn't answer but continued sneering at the blonde. Emma hardly recognized her, her face was so contorted with rage. It scared her. Emma's grip on the woman's heart tightened. Dull rose barely exhibited through an ugly, inky black that covered her heart like a checkerboard with half of the red squares missing. Emma brought it back up to meet her lips again, ready to give another command, when she pulled up short.
Emma took a minute to simply look at the brunette that used to be hers. At least before Mr. Fairy Dust came to town; fairy dust that turned out to be total bullshit. Regina had been so convinced and believed so fully that the fairy dust would lead her to her happy ending, a happy ending away from the blonde, Emma could do nothing but let her go. Now that all was said and done, Emma didn't take in any pleasure in Regina and Robin's failed relationship.
Having sought out the Blue fairy's opinion on the matter since Tinkerbell had made herself pretty damn scarce, it was technically her fault for bringing Marian back and causing Regina and Robin's breakup. She never meant to hurt Regina like that. Never.
Upon further explanation, Blue had said that because Marian had been previously dead, Robin's new soul mate was Regina. Bringing Marian back, very much alive, reverted his soul mate back to Marian who must have been his stronger match.
"But what about Regina? That fairy dust said her first soul mate was Robin."
"I'm afraid magic favors the masculine in these matters." Blue had wrinkled her nose as she eyed Emma's flannel button up, mud crusted boots, and tangled hair.
Emma stared at the heart in her hand. How she wished the literal was figurative. Regina had been giving her the cold shoulder ever since she appeared in the diner with Marian. Even after she broke up with Robin she still didn't want Emma, furious she had ruined their relationship, and because of that, Emma saw no reason to end things with Killian. He was someone to ease the ache when Regina left her for Robin. And what could she say, he was a decent fuck.
Emma shook the thoughts off her coat like a wolf in the rain. She had a heart in her hand and the immediate danger of someone getting killed had passed. She had to return what didn't belong to her. The blonde hesitated and readied herself.
Emma thrust her arm forwards and roughly into the brunette. Regina lurched into her as she struggled to put the heart back perfectly from where she had thieved it from, an even harder feat than removing it. Emma bumbled and blindly tried to place Regina's missing piece back. She was reminded of the children's game Operation when she knocked into the edges inside of the brunette before finding her heart's home. Emma's fingers danced over the curves of Regina's heart, a single stroke of her index over its beating surface before she ripped her hand from the brunette's chest. Sans heart.
Regina staggered with the removal; a jolt as everything inside her reconnected. She let out a grunt of pain and grimaced as her hand shot to where Emma's digits had previously been inside her chest.
"Oh shit," Emma said. Regina's breathing became labored and she doubled over, still clutching at her bust. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Emma repeated. She fumbled for her cell in her back pocket and hastily dialed a number, holding it up with her shoulder to her ear and scrambled to help a writhing Regina.