Author's note: Just a short sweet fluffiness that occurred to me. Inspired by a photograph I saw on instagram that I swear looked like Lana had fallen asleep over some reading. Gorgeous, and I thought Emma would think the same if she caught Regina the same way.
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
by LZClotho
Emma let herself in the front door of the mansion with just the tiniest click of tumblers in the deadbolt. Regina had taken to using it, despite the magic barrier she had also erected, not trusting any of the magic users now roaming Storybrooke to honor her self-imposed separation. However, she had given the sheriff a key.
The hour was nearly midnight. The lights on the first floor were all extinguished and Emma navigated by the dim influence of a night light on the second floor hallway as she moved carefully up the staircase. At the end of the second floor corridor, Emma could see the light on under the door to the mayor's home office.
Grasping the knob Emma turned it completely before pushing the door inward. She scanned the space beyond as she took a step over the threshold. Her quarry had taken a leather-bound book to the white leather sofa. It lay open on a bare right knee pulled up almost to the bountiful chest, one delicately boned hand remained on the open pages, dark head tipped downward as she reclined into the corner cushions. Dark lashes lay peaceful against flawless cheeks, and red-tinged lips parted on even breaths.
Silently moving closer, Emma lowered herself to her knees alongside the sofa and stared up into the delicate features. Her heart swelled with the powerful emotions this woman always stirred in her, and which had, since the breaking of the curse, transformed from volatile to protective and intimate. This was the mother of her son. Even if Henry was still having trouble with that, Emma would always know it to be true. She'd seen Regina's heart flayed open by his death, and the unsteady giddiness when Henry had been returned to life.
Up close now Emma could see dark stains under the eyes and pinching at the corners of full lips. In the year Emma had known her, Regina had always appeared to bear strain rather regally, covering it with anger, both bombastic and terse by turn. Since the breaking of the curse, her strains had multiplied as she struggled to find a place in the new order of things. Most didn't want to give her a chance, and those who did still could not hide their remaining suspicion or disbelief. All Regina had ever wanted was to be able to give love, and receive it back.
Emma looked down at the open pages as she reached to move the book, to carry the dark-haired woman across the hall to their bed and wrap her up in the relative safety of her arms. But the look of the pages made her pause. Even upside down she could tell it wasn't English. The markings didn't look like they belonged to any language of this world. Why Regina was studying a book from the other world? Where had she gotten it?
Regina had once told her she had a few things from the other place. She never referred to the fairy tale world as home. Storybrooke was home, the only place Regina had briefly grasped happiness. What would make her look into the past?
Slipping the book from beneath the delicate hands did not awaken Regina. Emma moved it to her own lap, looking at the illustrations. Her fingertips traced the lines of symbols which were clearly letters and words. She had begun to wonder about the other world. It was hard not to when everyone around her longed to return there, lamenting their confusingly layered memories of the last several decades with their true selves.
Emma had been born there, but within an hour of her birth her father had placed her in the magical wardrobe made by Gepetto and Pinocchio to escape the effects of Regina's curse. Her father, David - King James - had told her the details, like nearly dying from the injuries inflicted by Regina's soldiers. Her mother, Mary Margaret - Snow White - had told her of finding James on the floor as Regina entered the nursery and they had all been taken within the swirling mists and wind destroying the castle which were the curse's manifests.
She had grown up in this world, schooled with an American education, barely graduating. The fairy tales had always depicted that world as medieval, a caste system, feudalism, kings, princes, merchants, peasants. Agricultural. Emma had become an expert at computer forensics, internet searching, electronic databases, cell phones. Hell, indoor plumbing. Even her derided mode of transportation, her VW Beetle with its dents and peeling paint, didn't exist in the world of fairy tales, only horses and carriages, and carts drawn by plow animals.
What would her future be like in a world where she knew nothing of how to get around, nothing of the rules of society? She might be a princess, but privilege would only go so far for people to forgive her missteps. Emma's stomach twisted. Setting the book aside on a low table, she covered her face with both hands.
Soft hands slipped over her shoulders, circling slowly. "Emma?"
Lifting her chin, Emma met the brown eyes that searched her face. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"I think the absence of the book did that." Regina maneuvered to sit straight on the sofa.
"Sorry."
"Don't be." Regina tipped her head to meet Emma's forehead with her own. "What's bothering you?"
"I don't... know anything about that world. As messed up as it is, this is home."
"Storybrooke?"
"Yeah."
"I once accused you of never having roots. But that's not true anymore, is it?"
"I guess not." Emma lifted Regina's hand from her shoulder and cupped it between both of her own, tracing over the tendons and skin. When Regina curled her fingers toward the touch, Emma placed a kiss on the palm. "What's the worst that can happen if we end up staying here? If there is no way back?"
Regina shook her head. "I don't know. Time has started moving again. I'll grow old, and I'll die. Henry will grow up, probably move away."
"I know you agreed to help figure out how to return everyone," Emma gestured at the book. "Is that what this book is?"
"It may have something useful."
"Why are you doing this?" Emma asked. "I know you don't want to go back."
"Because you deserve it. Because Henry wants it. So much. It was something he mentioned today on our walk after school that sent me searching through my old books."
"So, you talked?" Emma had informed Henry that his mother would be walking him to the apartment from school, every day. Obviously the constancy had finally worn the kid down and he'd started talking. Emma knew he needed to. He needed his mother, and no matter what Snow or James, or anyone else ever said, Henry was Regina Mills' son, and he always would be.
Regina smiled shyly; it was a beautiful look on the dark-haired woman, making Emma think of the innocent young girl Regina must have been once. Emma might be the Savior who ended the curse, even saved Regina from the vengeance of those who were more hot-tempered than cool-headed, but she couldn't undo the history of choices or the abuse that had caused Regina to make those choices. All she could be was the one Regina could hold on to when it all just got to be too much.
If anyone knew exactly how complicated it was to live with bad choices, it was Emma Swan.
"Good?" Emma asked.
"Yes, it went very well." Regina kissed Emma's palm as Emma reached up to cup her cheek.
"I'm glad. Maybe you should stay over for dinner tomorrow. The kitchen's not as kitted out as yours, but I can make a mean salad and spaghetti. I still have Mary Margaret's cook books what with her having moved in with David, and Kathryn moving in with Frederick." Emma humphed. "You know, this place sounds like a crazy game of musical chairs."
Regina slid her fingers through Emma's hair, setting up a tingling down Emma's spine that made her sigh happily. Warm breaths caressed Emma's ear, laced with soft laughter. "When the music stops where do you want to be?"
Emma leaned back to meet brown eyes in the low light. "Why do you think I keep coming over here, or trying to get you to the apartment? Wherever you and Henry are is my happy ending, Regina. It will happen."
Emma cupped the back of Regina's head and fitted her lips to the brunette's for a slow and tender exploration.