AN: I don't own OUAT etc.

Thanks to my beta, Jess.

TW: mentions of Regina's s2 torture.
Probably not a very CS/OQ friendly fic.

Regina sighed. The conversation she had just had with Robin had exhausted her, and she wanted to get out of the woods as quickly as possible. She went back to the ice cream truck for some peace and quiet, only to find Emma there.

The Sheriff was sitting on a log with a pile of papers in her lap. Regina was glad to notice that the pirate wasn't with Emma, but walking away, which gave her a chance to breathe. Everyone's presence seemed to annoy her that day. There was a chance, however, that Emma would not annoy her as much as the others did, so she sat down on a log that didn't look too dirty.

"Did you hear from David? Are you ready to go back to the station?" she asked after a short moment of silence.

"Yeah, we'll go soon," Emma answered and flipped through the papers she was holding.

Regina didn't say anything. After a while, Emma took a deep breath and filled the silence.

"I don't make eyes, you know," Emma muttered and put the papers down. Regina raised an eyebrow. She had been expecting Emma to talk about how she felt about what they had just discovered. Maybe she had talked to the pirate already and didn't need her. Regina shook her head. Why would she care?

"I think you do, Emma," she responded.

"I don't," Emma shrugged and concentrated on the papers again, a pout forming on her lips. Regina rolled her eyes.

"Why are you so quick to deny it, anyway? He is your boyfriend, isn't he?" she snarked back. Emma was being ridiculously defensive about Hook not having any effect on her.

"Well…" Emma started. Regina tilted her head in wonder. The blonde was doing it again. "Well... Why are you calling him Captain Guyliner and acting like a jealous ex?" Emma finally retorted.

That took Regina completely off guard. She laughed. "Don't be preposterous!" She couldn't believe what Emma was implying. She had most certainly not acted in such a way.

"I'm not! You keep rolling your eyes at him and calling him stuff like that. You called him handless wonder. And you blamed us for yearning looks and… what was it? Doey eyes?" Emma stumbled on her words, but kept going, which made Regina shook her head. "Yeah, you blamed us for those before. I don't yearn! But you surely seem to care and wanna see it that way… I just don't understand why you have the constant need to tell me how much my relationship with Killian disgusts you and then make me feel bad." Emma said. The last sentence surprised Regina.

"I make you feel bad because of that?"

Emma raised her gaze from the papers she had been focusing on during her rant. She didn't say anything, so Regina continued.

"Well, I'm sorry, dear, but Hook didn't exactly make me feel good when he left me on that table to be tortured and was worshipped by all of you the next minute," she shook her head and sighed. She almost regretted what she had said, but she decided to keep speaking her mind nevertheless. Emma had surely spoken hers in the mausoleum. "I know I'm hardly the one to judge, but the fact that you were so quick to trust him, how all of you were, is beyond me." She shrugged. Emma stayed silent, mouth slightly agape, studying her face. Regina turned to look at the trees because she didn't seem to be able to look Emma in the eye anymore.

"Once again, I'm not the best person to say this, given the fact that my soulmate's wife, the woman I once ordered to be killed but am now trying to save, is frozen and cannot be saved by him because he tells me he's in love with someone else." Subtle.

Emma still wasn't saying anything, so Regina finally turned to face the blonde. Emma was wearing the same confused expression as she had when Regina had last looked at her, and she seemed to want to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth.

"Emma?"

"I… leaving you tortured?" Emma's words didn't form a perfectly coherent sentence, but Regina could tell the pirate must have left that part of the story out.

"Yes, so I hope you understand why I am not head over heels in love with him, like some people. Well, that is one of the reasons." Regina could've listed quite a few more, starting with Hook's disgusting coat and some other things he had done, but she decided to leave it there. It wasn't her fault if Emma decided to see only one side of him.

Emma covered her face with her hands.

"I can't do this anymore," the blonde groaned. She exhaled and got up. Regina watched the Sheriff walk towards the group of merry men and the pirate in the distance.

"Hook!" Emma yelled. The pirate flashed a smile at Emma, probably followed by a line such as "What's the matter, love?"

Regina snorted. She sat on the log, fighting the urge to get up and hear what Emma had to say to the man.

Emma kept motioning with her hands as she shouted at Hook, and the pirate's smile faltered rather fast. By the time Emma was done, the pirate seemed to have given up. He groaned and walked away. Emma walked back to where Regina was sitting, and she tried to put on a neutral face.

Regina watched as Emma avoided eye contact, sighed, and sat back on the log. Then the Sheriff's eyes turned to meet Regina's.

"So, you said that Robin is in love with you?" she finally asked as if nothing had just happened.

Regina stared at Emma for a few seconds, not knowing what to say.

"What did you just tell him?" Regina asked instead of answering Emma's question.

"I told him that he would have to eat his dinner alone tonight and every night from now on for that matter. I can't believe he did that to you and pretended nothing happened. What else has he left out? And then he had the guts to be an ass about it, so that was the last straw… At least with you I know the shit you've done, you know," Emma shrugged. "Besides, I know he's been lying about other stuff, too."

Regina didn't know how to respond to that. Emma had just left the pirate without a second thought mainly because he had left her to be tortured.

"So, you didn't answer my question," the blonde continued. "Did Robin say that he's still in love with you?"

Regina tried to concentrate on the subject at hand and remember how to speak normally. "Yes, he wants me to find the cure and tells me he's in love with me." She felt the words leave her mouth before she had planned to say them.

"Well, I know it's not really my business, I mean, he's supposed to be your soulmate and whatever, but that's just weird. He gets his wife back and doesn't feel enough love for her to wake her up? I guess those stories about Robin and Marian in Henry's book left something out. I would've imagined that he'd be overjoyed…"

Regina looked at Emma. She could tell the blonde wasn't thinking what she was saying until Regina decided to clear her throat.

"Oh, shit, Regina, I'm so sorry," Emma said right away. "I didn't mean it like that… And to be completely honest, he seems like a douche. At least when it comes to women. That was kinda my point there, you know? You deserve someone who doesn't make you feel like loving you is something they don't really want to do. Someone who loves you for you, and not just because pixie dust told them to. Oh, and someone without a wife, probably." The blonde kept stumbling on her words again and shrugged. "I'm sorry, the whole thing just doesn't make sense to me."

Regina knew she should've probably at least scolded at the Sheriff, but she just couldn't. The woman was just so… Emma. She let out a laugh instead and met the other woman's green eyes.

"Yes, well…" Regina halted for a moment and scrunched her face. "I'm sorry, too. I should've probably given Robin a piece of my mind and yelled at someone else than you at some point. The only way you could ruin my life would be by taking Henry away, and I think we both know that."

Emma smiled at her, her expression so relieved that it made Regina feel… what? She shook her head and decided not to analyze her current emotion further.

"You can find love again, you know. There are people who see you for who you are," Emma said. "You know, the good things."

Those words suddenly hit Regina. Love again.

"What are you thinking?" Emma's asked.

"Sorry… it's just…" She wasn't sure if it was wise to let Emma know more about her. She seemed to know too much already. But at the same time, Regina felt an inexplainable need to confide in her. "It's about Daniel. He told me to love again." Regina tried to shrug it off as a small deal, which it evidently wasn't.

"The stable boy?" Emma asked. It was more of a statement than a question. "You wanna talk about him?"

"No," she responded. "At least not today."

"Okay," Emma said. They sat there for a while until Emma broke the silence.

"Neal told me to go find Tallahassee."

"Tallahassee?"

"Yeah, kinda our way of saying finding happiness and love again, you know." The blonde met her gaze and smiled wistfully. How had they even gotten here? One moment they had both been fed up with each other, and before she knew how, Emma was smiling at her like that and they were talking about past loves, which felt very ironic and wrong since…

Oh no.

She had feelings for Emma Swan. Emma Sheriff Savior Snow White's daughter Swan.

She must have frozen on the spot because suddenly she could hear Emma's voice calling out to her.

"Earth to Regina," Emma said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "You okay? Where did you go?"

Regina shook her head. It didn't matter. One more thing she couldn't get in her life. "Yes, I'm quite alright."

"Okay, well, good. So, anyway, I was thinking that you could maybe teach me some more magic now that we're on speaking terms again?" Emma said and raised an eyebrow. "You know, if you want. Our magic together is so powerful, it must help defeating the Dairy Queen."

"Yes, of course, I'll teach you," Regina said without much thinking, her thoughts completely elsewhere. How had it even come to this? She needed to put an end to these feelings before they even started since it was clear Emma wouldn't be feeling the same way, anyway.

"Why is our magic even so strong together? Like. Why? Remember when I touched your arm and it opened the portal?" Emma pondered and pulled Regina back from her thoughts.

"What?"

"Why is our magic so strong?" Emma repeated.

She didn't know since she had never found an answer to that. One obvious explanation would've been true love, but that was absurd, especially considering how they had started out as. Regina shook her head and brought her eyes back to meet the blonde's, only to be greeted with a smile again. This was getting too much.

It had been a long emotional day.

"I don't know. Henry must be waiting for us, so we should probably get back," she said eventually and cleared her throat. What could she have said? What should she say?

"Would you like to have dinner with Henry and I?" Regina blurted out before she could stop herself. To her relief, Emma smiled at her.

"Yeah, sure, if you want me there, I'll come over." the woman beamed and reached out her hand to grab Regina's. They left the woods in a puff of their combined magic.

Regina's jealousy inspired by this gifset virrginsuicidess tumblr com/post/101671395859/regina-isnt-even-trying (I can't add an actual link there, and that frustrates me).

(I can't remember all of Once canon, so I'm not actually 100% sure if Emma knew about Hook's part in Regina's torture, but just roll with it...)

Not the best piece of writing I've come up with... I think I was just really frustrated because of the show when I wrote this (like half a year ago). I hope you liked it anyway :D