A/N- Same warnings as last chapter (slight mentions of an eating disorder, but nothing too explicit.)

Their relationship is horrible, and explosive, but great all at the same time. Emma thinks of the supernovae, stars that get so hot that they explode, leaving layers throughout space to cool for eons to come.

They do the weekend thing, first at Regina's dorm, then Emma's bouncing back and forth. Emma seamlessly moves the from 'going on dates' to 'dating' in a move so quick Regina doesn't realize it until it's too late. At which point she doesn't even try and complain, because dating Emma is unlike dating anyone else.

One particular weekend in March, Emma finally convinces Regina to have a lazy Sunday in bed. Though 'lazy' means entirely different things for each woman.

Regina scoffs when Emma initially suggests a movie streaming marathon, but the blonde manages to wear her down by saying that they can take turns picking. One and a half movies in (Emma started them off with 'Love Actually'), and the blonde is comfortably snuggled into Regina's dorm room bed, holding her girlfriend from behind while they watch 'The Hours' (Regina's pick) on her laptop, balancing on the desk.

In the middle of one of Meryl Streep's rants, Emma's stomach rumbles loudly, Regina chuckles slightly at the sound.

Emma joins in the laughter, "Do you have any snacks?"

"Unfortunately no."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing." Regina confirms, wiggling in closer to Emma's embrace, her eyes still trained on the screen ahead of her.

"Not even some weird disgusting organic stuff?" The blonde tries, knowing how healthily Regina normally eats.

"I take offense to that."

"You know what I mean." Emma dismisses, "So you don't keep any food at all in your dorm room?"

"None."

Emma's mouth drops open slightly in amazement, she herself has enough food stored up in her room to last for the winter, if not the next three winters. Regina rolls over, nose to nose with the blonde knowing that Emma wouldn't drop the topic until she had a suitable answer.

"Why don't you keep any food here?"

"The dining hall is a short walk."

"You hate the dining hall." Emma accuses.

"That's true."

Emma falls quiet a moment as she goes through the conversation in her head. She had watched Regina strategically build salads in the dining hall each time they went, she saw the large nalgene water bottle Regina always seemed to have with her and filled.

Emma is afraid, of both the implications in what their short conversation has revealed, and of the hollow look in Regina's eyes. So she does the only thing she can, she pushes Regina's shoulder to roll her onto her back, and captures the brunette's lips in a fierce kiss.

Emma hooks her fingers in the side's of Regina's running shorts and panties, pulling them down roughly while Virginia Woolf drowns.

.

Their relationship has its good times as well, like when the weather finally begins to warm up and New Hampshire grows green again. Emma manages to drag Regina out to the main green of the University of New Hampshire.

The grass is full of students taking a break from studying, some playing frisbee, others just relaxing on blankets they've dragged out from dorm rooms. That's what Regina and Emma are doing. Regina is lying on her stomach, looking disgustingly graceful in her J-Crew tank top and khaki shorts while Emma is her usual ungainly self, spread diagonally across the entire blanket with her blonde hair in a wild mane, with some grass already mixing in.

"What are you reading?" Emma asks, lifting up enough to try and catch a glimpse of the cover.

"Rand."

She shifts the book for Emma to see the white and red of the cover. Emma recognizes it vaguely as one of the books normally stacked up on the brunette's desk.

Emma merely hums in acknowledgement, leaning back to take in more sun as the two sit in silence for a while.

"I'm thinking of cutting my hair short." Regina says, out of the blue.

"Your hair is short."

"I mean shorter."

"Oh." Emma props herself up on her elbows to regard the brunette, "I think you'd look sexy either way." She decides.

Moments after the words are out of Emma's mouth, Regina is in motion, marking her place in her book, and placing it down on the blanket. She carefully crawls over Emma to sit straddling her lap, "Oh really?"

Emma's mouth runs dry at the change in position, but she isn't protesting, "Yeah, really."

"Well that's good." Regina smirks craning her neck down to catch Emma's smiling lips.

They kiss there, in the middle of the green with the heat of the sun beating down on them. Emma pretends not to notice the bone press of Regina's hips as they fit against her own. Years later, she will wish that she had the courage then to say something then, but in that second, Emma just tires to capture everything about the moment in living color.

Everything with Regina has such a fleeting quality, even in the beginning, Emma knows better than to expect permanence.

When Regina pulls back briefly, her smile is the same sad one that Emma's learnt quite easily to identify, "You're much worse than a bitch. You're a saint." She whispers, holding a soft palm to Emma's cheek before resuming their kiss.

Because Emma's a literature major, and because she wants to minor in philosophy despite how much she knows it's entirely frivolous, she knows the quote. And she kisses Regina back with so much reverence, tasting the despair between Regina's teeth, and trying to convince herself that this too is temporary.

.

"I don't know, it's different. She's different." Emma shrugs, halfway through a coffee she's picked up from the dining hall. She's slowly collecting her own stash of stolen dining hall silverware and dishes, this makes her second stolen spoon and first mug.

"A good different?" Her father asks. Emma has her phone held against her ear as she makes her way back to her dorm room.

"I'm not sure. I mean, she's different from anyone I've ever met."

Emma hears some distinct shuffling around on the other end of the line before her mother's voice comes over the phone, "Are you bringing her home on summer break?"

The blonde laughs, "Mom, we've been dating for like two weeks."

"Well I want to meet her."

"You want to meet everyone." She can imagine her mother rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone, "Can I talk to Dad again?"

"You never want to talk to me anymore." Mary Margaret practically whines, and Emma supresses a groan of annoyance.

"I just talked to you, Ma. What do you want to talk about?"

"Nothing when you're in such a huff."

"I'm not in a huff!"

"Whatever you say, dear."

Moments later, and a tiny amount of shuffling, and Emma hears her father's amused voice back on the other end of the phone, "What's up, Ems?"

"It's Regina."

"About how she's different?"

"Yeah." Emma pauses as she slips her key into the lock on her door and twists it open, "She's sad. In a way that I've never seen someone sad before."

Emma hears her father on the other end of the phone sigh deeply, "Ems, you've got to be careful."

"I know."

"Alright." He knows that his daughter didn't. Not fully at least, but he knows that she chose to talk to him instead of his wife about this for a reason. Because he used to have an older brother.

He knows that even when you weren't a sibling anymore, you still were.

"I don't know what to do."

David smiles, it's not often that he hears his daughter admit that, "Count to ten."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Count to twenty."

Emma laughs, and it feels good. Like stones being taken away.

"And Emma?"

"Yeah."

"Take care of yourself."

A/N- Someone asked in a review if there would be a happy ending to such an angsty story, and the answer is of course! It's just going to take a bit for our ladies to get there.