Emma didn't know how she'd ended up back at Regina's place. There had been a short car ride to drop Regina off after yet another stakeout with little end result. She hadn't come in to see Henry this time, so Emma just drove her home and then made another short trip herself to return to David and Mary Margaret's place and then…
Right back again.
The woman who stared at her, with one hand frozen on her own front door and the other plucking at a thin silk robe, also seemed baffled by the turn of events.
"I couldn't stop thinking about…" Emma faltered. She couldn't stop thinking about the look on Regina's face. How devastated she'd been, seeing Henry without Henry seeing her. Emma smiled nervously and rushed ahead, "I just wanted…" No, don't say 'to see if you're all right.' Regina had to be too proud for that stuff. Also, Emma wasn't sure what she wanted, but she did want to be here. And Regina looked as though she'd been crying and dammit—what to do? "I wanted a drink. Do you mind?" Emma asked weakly, feeling too stupid for words.
"You wanted to drink…here." Regina seemed to accept the odd request quickly, despite her confusion. She moved aside and stood too close to the doorframe, so that when Emma walked by her, their arms brushed together.
The living room had a fire raging and there were already glasses and bottles out, as though Regina had been testing her liquor cabinet.
Emma snorted.
"Well?" Regina's tone was haughty. "I had to make sure that at least some things were in order."
"You also need to sleep." Emma replied. She reached for a bottle of what looked like really old and really expensive cognac. But Regina nudged her hand aside, sitting carefully next to her, and redirected.
"That one had been left open. It's terrible. Try this." The bottle Regina poured from was a lot less dusty and almost full. Next to it, sat a sifter with the remnants of whatever she'd been drinking silently by the fire before Emma showed.
Whatever it was, it was good and it was warming and it finally made Emma relax a little as she drank down luscious gulps of the stuff.
"Pace yourself." Regina laughed mirthlessly. The sound died on her lips and she stared sadly at the fire.
Emma didn't know what to talk about then. It had been a year, a whole lost year, and if she told Regina too much, maybe she'd regret the loss even more than she already did. Regina seemed to be having a similar struggle, looking at Emma every few minutes with her mouth open to ask some question. About school, or marks, or maybe even Emma's work. But Regina wasn't full of questions, not like she'd been in the car, the day before.
"So. Oz." Emma tried the words out. "Weird. And real. Huh." She recalled something about wheelers. No, but that was a fucked up version of Oz. Or, at least she could hope.
"You should know by now, I suppose." Regina shrugged. The conversation may not have seemed complete to anybody listening in, but Emma nodded.
But then Regina suddenly and quickly turned, her hand gripping Emma's leather jacket like a life vest. "Is Henry safe? Without you there?"
"He's with my parents, and Hook, and Robin Hood…" Emma rolled her eyes at Regina's overly dramatic noises of total distaste and sarcastic non-agreement as each 'hero' was named. "Don't be difficult." She said softly. "I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. You're the one who's alone." Shit. Why did she say things so cutting when she only meant to talk to Regina?
But Regina just smiled tersely and faced forward again. It didn't take long for Emma to hear the sounds of a woman trying very hard not to cry. But Regina had already lost the battle.
It felt less awkward than Emma might have guessed, to slide an arm around Regina's shoulders. She didn't expect the tightness of Regina's grip on her jacket and then around her waist.
The crying lasted awhile. Emma didn't try to fix it. Nothing was going to fix it. She just tucked Regina's head beneath her chin and let the woman grieve.
What had been such a fucked up time—before the year they'd had apart—now seemed like such an odd memory. But when Emma really thought about it, Regina's memories were too short and too close together for her to have let go of any of the things that now seemed distant. Like Cora's death. And now this, this…loss of a child.
Emma rushed ahead. "We're going to figure it out. I saw you, I saw how amazing you were with all of that magic and that chemistry set…whatever…you'll figure something out…" Emma started prattling on, she couldn't help it, watching Regina pull together a potion of all fucking things, that had been fucking awesome. "I mean it was a little weird, it looked like gun powder and uhhhh, charcoal, but…"
Her words were cut off when a pair of insistent and damp and slightly salty lips mashed hard against her own.
Maybe the whole thing should have been shocking. Emma supposed it should have surprised her, to find herself kissing Regina back. Kissing. Regina? She pulled away just long enough to look—to see that Regina was ok—but then her hands dug into full dark hair and she gasped, "Oh. Wow," before tilting her head and meeting Regina's lips with her own.
Ok, so maybe this was why she was here. Maybe it had been Regina's adorably clueless questions about stakeouts and how her version of a stakeout had involved staring at Emma while Emma tried to actually watch for what they were looking for. Maybe it had been Regina's perfume and the way her hair had smelled when she'd leaned over and fiddled with the car's console and asked further adorable questions about trips Emma had taken and how fuel-efficient the car was. Or, maybe she was here because she'd found herself staring at Regina's lips while they talked. Staring and staring at full, gorgeous lips, for an entire day…
Lips she now hungrily devoured, swallowing Regina's whimpers and moans.
When they pulled back again, they were both breathless. Regina tore at Emma's jacket while Emma undid Regina's robe. Beneath it were a pair of silk pajamas that slid easily off, finding their way beneath them on the fabric of the couch. Emma's underwear stayed on, but Regina was gorgeous and naked atop her within moments.
"Is this just because you lost your stupid boyfriend?" Regina asked, gasping as Emma's lips and teeth trailed roughly over her neck.
"No." Emma growled, lifting her butt from the couch and sliding her underwear off. She pulled on Regina's hips, kneading them as she rocked against her, beneath the woman who had once been her sworn enemy, but who now…now…shit, who knew? She just wanted to erase that sadness somehow. "Oh wow…" she moaned as their breasts pressed together. Her arms wound round Regina's back, and then, cupping the back of her head with one hand, she pulled the woman atop her even closer. Her lips brushed over one shoulder. She slid a hand down until she could caress Regina's ass. "Did you…" Emma started to ask a question, but Regina's hand was between them, then between Emma's legs. Her touch was gentler than Emma might have guessed it would be.
"Did I what?" Regina paused, holding her palm still over Emma's labia, two of her fingers pressing just within.
"Did you…ummmm…" Failed response. It was hard to talk when Regina started sucking on her nipples. Emma made a mental note to encourage this kind of thing again in future. Good sex wasn't something she necessarily had a whole lot of experience with, and this was really, really good. Even at its early stages. Long minutes went by. She stared in a daze as Regina's lips slid over her breast, her mouth open and her tongue doing the most amazing things to her areola and her nipple. Thrumming against the hardening tip, until Emma sobbed at the pleasure it caused—almost to the point of orgasm, but not quite. Even as one finger slid carefully inside her, Emma hovered just on the cusp. It was like being in a drug induced haze or something, how the sensations washed over her. She pulled with the hand that had been caressing Regina's ass, until she could get the access she needed.
Regina gave a slight grumble of annoyance when Emma interrupted to reposition them on the couch. She wanted to touch, she needed Regina on her knees to do so, and there was a comical moment of having to spin around, back up, then flump back gracelessly on her back.
"Are you quite finished?" Regina sighed. "Maybe this isn't the best idea, I mean…"
Now it was Emma's turn to interrupt. This time, her kiss was gentler. She took her time, brushing her lips over Regina's again and again, until their bodies melted together. Each had an arm held at an odd angle between them, but somehow they fit.
Sex had never felt like something Emma had needed in her life. When it happened, it always surprised her a little. There were moments of question—was this the right timing or the right person—but question always gave way to a need to just be close. This was sort of new though. Emma wanted to talk about it, to ask about it—was this ok, did Regina feel ok? But they just kept kissing and moving together, and Regina's hand felt so good. The pads of Emma's fingers brushed delicately against Regina's pussy—which…fuck…this was heady. The scent of Regina hit Emma's nose and she moaned against the tongue that met her own.
They were locked together, fucking on the couch, and neither wanted to stop. Because things up until this point between them had been so…so…
Pointless. And stupid. Everything about the Curse and the second fucking Curse and the one after that…
"Fuck." Emma growled, pulling away as Regina's cunt clenched hard around her finger.
"I need it a little rougher than you…" Regina faltered, cleared her throat. Her hand tightened around Emma's shoulders, her thumb caressing her neck, but in a way that was reassuring rather than demanding. "…if you don't mind…Not that you're not doing wonderfully…" That last word was underlined emphatically by a sudden gush of wetness against Emma's palm. For a second, she wondered…Regina's eyelids fluttered, but then she took a deep breath through her nose and focused on Emma's gaze again.
"Oh, ok, sure." Emma's voice sounded quiet, hoarse. Her heart did something really weird when Regina stared at her. She used her arm around Regina's waist to brace herself, and then she curled her fingers, moving harder and faster against a now suddenly swollen g-spot, which grew fuller and fuller as their lips met and Emma found a way to grind her palm hard against Regina's clit.
Regina was silent when she came. The proof of her orgasm was in the crushing grip around Emma's fingers, and the wetness on Emma's palm. Those things, and the scratch marks that suddenly decorated one of Emma's shoulders. Emma bit back her protest though, holding tightly as the woman on top of her stopped thrusting. Emma's head fell back on the couch and she stared unblinking at the ceiling.
It took only a moment for Regina to recover and when she did, she continued their little conversation, "…and you need it gentler…"
"In a second…just…do you feel better? Even just a little?" Emma raised her head to meet Regina's eyes. Regina nodded and began to move the finger she'd rested inside Emma's cunt.
She'd never really admitted to anyone before now, just how much she liked it this way. Just teasing, in and out, just brushing barely against the tip of her clit. It made Emma shake and sigh and go right back into that haze, even as her belly started to sweat and her whole body started to tremble.
Her own orgasm was long and intense and her clit ached at one point, but she just kept going, rocking against the skilled touch.
"Wow." Regina whispered. She looked genuinely impressed. "More?" She smiled at Emma's nod and leaned to kiss her neck while she added a finger that pressed slightly against Emma's perineum before sliding lower.
"Oh…fuck!" Emma screamed when a second orgasm overtook. For some reason, her head snapped back and she glanced at the front door.
"It's ok, you're safe." Regina said, reading her mind. "We're ok in here. I'm sure that the Wicked Witch of the West doesn't want to watch." She laughed ruefully and let herself relax against Emma while the latter recovered, pulling her close.
"You should sleep. We both should…" Emma swallowed hard and fought drowsiness. She had to go, to go back home…
"I thought you didn't want me to stay on my own?" Regina smiled sadly and earned a moment's reprieve.
Emma faltered. For whatever reason—stress, or maybe just frustration, after recently losing her stupid fiancé to flying monkey plague—Emma wanted another go. She wanted to stay as well. To sleep, to eat, to escape the mess outside. Her son—their son—was safe. And if something happened to the kid's other mom, he'd never really be ok. Even if he never remembered Regina, he needed her.
In fact, Emma wasn't really sure he didn't remember. What was memory, anyway? The way he'd looked at Regina, sure it had been distant, distracted, but something in his body language remembered something.
"Shhhhh…" Regina quieted her racing mind before she could say anything actually out loud.
Emma dozed off at one point, not noticing when Regina got up to retrieve a blanket before climbing half beside, half on top of her again. It was nearly light out when she woke up, bladder screaming and one leg half asleep. But she didn't move, not at first, instead she watched the sunrise send streaks of brilliance, in orange and pink across the ceiling. Whatever else happened, they always seemed to find one another. The thought made her giddy and laughing about it woke Regina up.
"Why are you laughing? You're a strange Bail Bondsperson." Regina's mutterings made Emma's chest shake harder.
"Come on," Emma slid off the couch and stretched her back a moment before holding out her hand. "Let's go get pancakes. No more liquid breakfasts for you." When Regina sulked, Emma took her hand. "Regina?"
"Yes?" Came the sullen reply.
"It's time." Emma was sort of cold and it felt a bit awkward to have this conversation naked and perched on the edge of Regina's coffee table. But she tried.
"Time for what?" Regina asked politely. Her eyes flitted appreciatively over Emma's body.
"Not time to defeat a witch, or make a potion, or fight flying monkeys." They stood close when Regina finally got to her feet, and Emma swallowed hard before continuing her little speech. "At least…not right now, anyway. Right now, it's time to do normal things. Ordinary things. Like take a shower and go to Granny's and eat pancakes…" Emma stopped short at the look on Regina's face. It was something like adoration. And respect. She'd earned those things from the woman who used to throw her such disdain.
"Ordinary." Regina repeated slowly. Her hand brushed over Emma's arm and hovered over her hand. Emma laced their fingers together and tugged until she followed up the stairs. Regina said, "You mentioned a shower. Was that also a group project?"
"Definitely. Gotta stick together." Emma nodded in all seriousness. "Team Swan-Mills. Stakeouts and um…" It had to be added. Today was the day. "Storybrooke tours."
"Town tours? Ah. All right then." Regina looked pleased. "Shall we take him to the beach first?"
"Naw, the beach is cold. We hit the playground first. I hear there's a ridiculously expensive play structure that he has to see." After nearly evading a well-aimed smack on the ass, Emma ran ahead, needing to pee really badly again. There was a small washroom that she used quickly, while Regina walked ahead to the larger washroom and got the shower going.
A little while later, Regina started worrying again. "If we're not safe? I mean who should we bring along?" Regina was already flexing her hands, as though readying for battle. She pressed close to Emma's back beneath the hot water and waited for the plan. When Emma turned in her arms, she still waited.
"We bring Granny and my father. Granny can sniff out anything weird." Emma spoke quickly. She really didn't want to talk about this, not with a naked woman in her arms. But her own nerves were already alight. Today might be the day they outed the town's latest threat. And then what? She and Regina locked eyes. "We'll do what we always do. We'll combine our magic and we'll save the day. Then, we'll nap."
"Sounds like a plan." Regina smiled again—the second genuinely happy smile that morning. Things were already going well.
"And whatever happens," Emma added, reaching for the shampoo behind her. Regina took it from her hands and uncapped the plastic jug, pouring a little and lathering it into her hair for her.
"Whatever happens…" Regina encouraged. Her fingers were strong, kneading against Emma's scalp.
"Don't believe the bullshit." Emma decided after a moment's hesitation. It was always so easy for them to mistrust, to turn against the right people. There were too many variables, too many characters in play, and too many lies all around. "No matter what it looks like, just trust me."
"Ok. But it's 'don't believe the magic'. Either way. I'll try." Regina said the words resolutely. She leaned Emma's head back and let her rinse out the soap before pulling her close again.
Outside the window, a puff of green smoke spread across the yard, and the Wicked Witch of the West flew off with a very confused look on her face. It was another ordinary day in Storybrooke and Regina and Emma did their best to enjoy it together.