Chapter 3
In the morning, Emma was eager to get rid of her pants. By the time they reach the plateau she'd rather not have legs at all. Exhaustion mixes with pain cramps and when she bends her knees she fears they will break. But there will be no rest or truce until they reach the small clearing fixed by Hook. Everyones is exhausted, everyone knows that the others can't carry on either, but there's a pact of silence and endurance, named Henry.
Since the sun began to set, the group discussions have been limited to single words, all forces are rationed with the purpose of reaching the plateau. A plateau that appears after long hours of passing trees, both damp and arid lands and increasingly steep slopes. Emma's sigh of relief and exhaustion resonates as far as on the beach where the boat is anchored.
Dinner consists of berries, stems and the final pieces of dried meat from the ship's pantry; and the shelter, provided by Rumpelstiltskin, is a rough and magically built roof covered by branches and foliage. It's far from a five star accommodation, but it will do.
By the fire, they take the last bites and the first head bumps. The trunk where Hook leans his back on starts supporting his crown too. Snow, meanwhile, rests against her husband's shoulder and the Dark One keeps his eyes open out of sheer stubbornness. Regina, however, remains with her legs straightened but without averting her eyes from the fire, more thoughtful than sleepy. Emma observes them one by one, willing to end this gratuitous torture.
"Time to see how comfy this… three walls 'cottage' is." She pronounces loudly, breaking the evening stillness. Five faces turned towards her and her mother gapes a few times, coming back to herself.
"True, we should rest..." Snow adorns the sentence with a yawn that James admires, dazed, and that makes Regina think of a lion. Not even a lioness. No, a dark haired lion. "Hook, is it necessary to take turns?"
"For precaution." He answers, his voice hoarse. He clears his throat and scratches his forehead. "I'm not worried about humans. Nobody knows we are here and we're not being look for,, but we are surrounded by wildlife."
James nods slowlier than usual and answers at the same speed. "Predators..." He sighs, exhausted. "We can take turns awake two at a time, it will give us time to rest and in pairs we'll keep each other awake." He decides, his voice ever fainter, and yawns. "Who wants to...?".
"I'll take the first turn." Regina answers the unspoken question with a compostura that finds nothing but approval in the sleepy faces around.
"Yes, rest. We'll keep the fire until you relieve us." Now that it's Emma speaking, the other's gestures are a little more hesitant. Except Regina, she just studies her showing no expression.
"Honey, are you sure? It's been a long day... " Snow approaches Emma, still sit by the fire, to gauge their response.
"Sure. Go to sleep and try to regain strength."
"We'll come to replace you in three hours, okay?" James suggests, stroking the blonde's shoulder. Hook looks at Rumpelstiltskin and Rumpelstiltskin looks at Hook and both men deduce at once who their partner on watch that night will be. The Dark One's angry steps barely are barely audible behind the sound of Hook's blasphemies ringing in the air all the way long till all four of them get lost under the wooden shelter.
And then, just the crackle of flames…
"Do you think it's true?"
… and Regina's voice. Emma looks up to face her. The firelight transforms Regina's features and in front of her, the Mayor now shows a reddish skin and her eyes are bright orange.
"What thing?"
"That they don't know we're here." The orange gaze pierces her and Emma knows there's more behind those words.
"Sounds likely..." They go over the events of the past four days, that come back shelled to their memories. They knew we had no beans left and that we had spent a year trapped in Storybrooke. And who would expect Hook would come for us?" She adds, sarcastically and revealing her own disbelief, even if she's sitting on a rock in Neverland thanks to the Captain, precisely. Regina utters a small laugh that comes out half the way and returns her gaze to the fire.
"And Henry?" She whispers while bending her legs, leaning her forearms on her knees and sinking her chin on them. "Does he too believe he's here alone?" She asks, refusing to look at Emma.
The implicit tenderness in her words scratches the blonde's chest painfully and Regina's fear grips her own throat in the form of restrained tears. Emma respects her impassive Mayor aura but takes a seat near her. If this so different Regina needs no comfort, Emma herself does, and she's not afraid to admit it.
"We're talking about Henry here, remember?" Now that the campfire doesn't stand between them, she speaks more softly and contains the tears stinging her eyes. Regina accepts to look at her from her hideout behind her arms. "That kid is damn smart and he always knows everything." She explains with a roughness that soaks Regina and returns to her chest a pleasant warmth she didn't know she had lost. This is a everything's gonna be fine Sheriff Swan style motto, and she wants to keep soaking in it. "Henry knows we're here exactly as we know we will go back home with him, is that clear?"
Regina's arms hide most of her smile, but it's there. She raises a hand to her forehead and says "Yes, Sheriff" and Emma smiles with her. The brunette breathes the smell of the fire. The night dampens everything all around except that sheltered by the little fire, except the two of them. She let the pleasant feeling of comfort warm up her body together with the flames.
"This is not your fault. I never thought so." the brunette mutters, looking at her again. Emma's eyebrows arch, which makes Regina smile. "I know what I said... But I've always been more of a shoot-to-kill person than a thoughtful one." She finishes her confession with eyes back in the flames. Regina has just admitted that she only wanted to hurt her. And, to some extent, she's even apologizing. "If there's to blame..."
"Don't even think about it." Emma's whisper is as delicate as sharp. Not one syllable is tinged by reproach despite having accused her of endangering Henry. Does the Savior think she can go around breaking the rules at will? Regina is the Evil Queen, she's immune to banal words, to the most human and simple comfort gestures and to sentimentality. "They have kidnapped Henry, not you."
She can't hold it no more. Emma's exculpation is a balm that heals and, at the same time, reopens her wounds, reminding her that she's human. Not even her can tolerate so much pain, so much fear of losing her child, without being consumed. Maybe she can break my rules... Regina's response is a small sigh. Small but so wet that it resonates in the air and reaches Emma's ears and entrails. A sigh that smells like tears and pain.
"Hey..." Emma's hand, invasive and yet welcome, caresses her arm. She has never been good at the maudlin moments, never known to behave, she doesn't know how to comfort others... but right now she doesn't remember she doesn't know and she does it. "We have Snow White, Prince Charming, the Dark One, the Evil Queen and a very angry mother with a loaded are unstoppable!"
A Mayor Emma has never seen smiles to her on the verge of laughter from the other side. A frank and honest smile, without the defenses that always surround the perimeter of her personality, devoid of cunning or coldness. Regina, in her eyes, becomes a flesh-and-blood woman with more layers than the Mayor or the Evil Queen.
"What I fear is not to confront them and something... bad happening. What scares me is that nothing happens." She recognizes, shrinking and throwing a piece of wood to the fire. "It tortures me to think that they don't have Henry here, that we're stuck in this island and they have won."
"Rumpel followed his own blood, the same one he shares with Henry, up to here. He's close, I know, and as soon as we come up with that damn shadow we will recover him."
"Are you sure?" This is more a plea than a question. An insecure and fragile swear it to me that wants to be tucked by Emma's confidence until being able to believe fearlessly just like her.
"A very evil queen once told me that good always gets its way, remember? Well, that's your side now; get used to winning." Emma compels her, smirking with her most lovely touch.
Regina smiles with her cornering her fears, but leaves the way clear for other terrifying dreads. Those where Emma is the protagonist. She swallows uncomfortably, accepting that she's looking at the blonde's smile more intently than she should.
"Do you know that your cheesy and overwhelming certainty is maddeningly contagious?" She asks, closing the gap and facing Emma's smile with another one just as wide, but more perverse. This is crazy, a stupidity that will turn against her and she will surely regret, but she needs Emma, she need to kiss her. She can't even begin to imagine how such an idiot desire can turn out into something good, but nobody gets between her and her wishes. Not even herself. And if there are only two roads, to run away or to get lost in her mouth, she opts for the latter.
"I know everything. Whom do you think Henry takes it after?" Emma answers, a few inches closer and with a pride too seductive for Regina's unleashed hormones. It's incredibly insulting that the air still has room to run between them. The Evil Queen doesn't understand what she's waiting for. Until she sees it... Emma gets lost for a second in her lips. It's just a moment, a drop of her eyes, but that's the signal that triggers Regina's predatory instincts.
Emma's collar wrinkles when Regina pulls it and the Sheriff letis herself to be drawn with a malleability that seems rehearsed. "Maddening, Miss Swan, you are maddening."She growls, so close she could bite her.
"And you like it maddening?" Emma insinuates, bringing their foreheads together and devouring with her eyes and boldly the lips she expect to bite her.
"No, but I'm trying to shut you up." She sounds so cold and sharp that when her lips collide with Emma's, she notices the blonde's smile. Damn insolent woman... She clears that smile at a stroke, two licks and a bite. A kiss that calms her thirst and awakes it at the same time. She knows that sooner or later it will end up hurting, but right now she just needs more of it. She pulls the fabric she's still gripping and Emma returns the kiss, letting herself to be carried away until her body meets Regina's heat.
"Well, you're on the right track here." Emma pants, gulping and filling her helpless lungs with air. Regina wants to answer, to have the last word, and opens her mouth to speak. But an expert assault wraps her lips and melts them with a slow and torrentially dangerous kiss. She pulls Emma's neck, forces her to never stop and the blonde's hands decide to get lost around her waist, pulling her even closer.
Regina moans, attacks and defends herself from the kiss with a more overwhelming one. All her skin is at war, bristling and burning, and the fire is no longer a beautiful and bucolic accompaniment. It's a source of heat that threatens to suffocate her, like the heat source scratching her back and closing her hands on her butt.
A first movement of her wrist puts off the flames at once. The second turn of Regina's hand fails to occur. Emma's fingers glide and tangled with hers, stopping the wet kiss and her attempt to make magic.
"What's on your mind?" Emma's deep and strangled voice says more about her state than her feigned self control. Regina enjoys the effect she has on the blonde, trying to forget that she isn't much more composed, and she goes down Emma's neck. She kisses the tender skin eliciting a groan before answering.
"That this..." She smiles and grabs Emma's shirt "... goes out."
"Perfect..." Emma moans at her words and tries with all her might not to jump over the Mayor. "But no magic this time." Regina's eyebrow rises up to her hairline. "Traditional keeps it charming…"
"I don't do traditional." She tries to move her hand again, with the image of Emma's clothes far away from her body fixed in her mind, but the blonde's fingers intertwine harder. Emma shakes her head and smiles innocently. "As you wish, Sheriff." She yields, twists her nose, and Emma's offensive and warm laughter fills the air. She pulls her chin and kisses those smiling lips, invading her mouth and tongue dancing with the maddening Charming. "Traditional shall it be..." She growls, imposing herself over Emma and moving to look at her from above.
The Evil Queen's knees end at Emma's both sides and she practically sits on her lap. A position where distances don't exist and her body shakes with joy against the Savior's. Emma hasn't seen anything more seductive in her life than the image of the Mayor over her showing that passion glow and moving this way. The brunette caresses her neck and goes down to the endless buttons on the Savior's shirt. She gets rid of the first one, kisses her and nibbles her earlobe temptingly. Emma closes her eyes, moves her head to the side, just sighs.
But the pressure of her shirt, which seems to shrink and stick to her body more every moment, doesn't disappear. She looks at those long fingers fiddling and getting rid of the second button, very slowly. Another wet and fleshy kiss on her jugular forces her to squint. But she notices it. Regina's fingers touch the skin next to the button and pull it slowly... so slowly that Emma would rather wear a robe; grandpa style, gray and plush, but as easy to untie as a simple pull.
She gives in and lets Regina untie each button accompanying the move with a sway of her hips over Emma's legs; she lets the exposed skin to be tortured by white teeth and soft lips; she lets Regina's figure meander over her and never finish getting rid of her shirt. She gives in, because every time she's dying to lie her down and carelessly strip herself, Regina comes back to her lips, wipes her mouth and stuns her senses. And Emma moans and gives in, once more.
Kissing Regina is much better than spending all day trying to wipe it out of her mind. And having giving in to her kiss is much smarter to having tried to say no. Why should she say no? She doesn't even remember. Emma just knows that she's unbuttoning the Mayor's shirt, much less patiently, and that the brunette's hands are running all over her back. And playing with the hook of her bra.
"I hope you've been practicing." Emma's joke earns her a sharp bi bit to the edge of her chest.
"Truth is, I haven't..." She pulls the strip and lets it loose in a blow against Emma's skin.
"Ouch!" But she can't help laughing, and Regina's mouth, over her chest, smiles too. "Okay, earned that." She pants, pulling her chin to kiss her. Both shirts open, still on their shoulders and hanging, like Emma's bra, free from its clasp. She looks for Regina's waistband and finds her chest by kissing it. The sound eliciting from her throat doesn't seem human.
She closes her eyes, grits her teeth and subtly invites her to stick to her chest by tangling her fingers in dark locks and pressing her figure against herself. She doesn't notice when they move from sitting to lying on the grass, she notices nothing except for Regina.
And Regina is enjoying as a little girl. Half naked, half on the verge of collapse, but devoted to her task. Devoted to return every mockery devouring a crumpled and tempting nipple and kneading the other breast; to silence each of her concerns with the taste and softness of Emma's skin; to think that if something exceeds what happened last night on the boat, it is to do it again and again.
But she stops thinking. The blonde's throat vibrates with such guttural moan that it runs along Regina's spine. She crawls over her body, both of them shiver, and the skins come together in a mess of half removed clothes and half dying gasps on their lips.
"You're going to scare all the beasts out there hunting." She moans, leaving pecks on her lower lip.
"As long as I don't scare you..." Emma growls, looking for that fits so seductively well with her own. When tongues tangle and dance a tango Emma's head starts to spin, and Regina's do so around those words. A magic spell that hits directly against her chest and warms her body until it concentrates on her lower belly.
"I'm an evil sorceress, it takes more than a few moans."
She lies on her, pulling her neck to force a more languid, wetter and wilder kiss, more like herself. The hand not devoted to the task of provoking every nerve and centimeter of Emma's hair and neck travels over the firm and flat stomach. Without breaking the slow kiss, full of her tongue, where both women's sounds die drowned.
She avoids the waistband of half-unbuttoned pants and sinks without delicacy into those hips that rise to the sky at her touch. Even with the underwear fabric as a barrier she can sense Emma's moist heat. And all calm shown while sticking to 'traditional' disappears. Regina no longer holds herself without coming undone in an orgasm and taking Emma with her. She can't stand it no more and she doesn't see why she has to.
Her hand plunges into the blonde's core. She swallows a loud, outrageous and sensual moaning and gropes her entry without delicacies or preambles. Emma's hips dance in their own and the flood over her fingers is all the signal she needs. Two fingers cross the warm opening and are imprisoned by uncontrolled contractions. Regina enters her a few more times before adding a third finger and licking each corner Emma's mouth.
And the blonde is again forced to give, to respond to that hand and obey to the pleasure that is exquisitely dominating her body and her reasoning. She tries to pull Regina's pants, a last glimmer of logic and strength, before becoming an excited and malleable puppet in the hands of the Mayor. She manages the fabric to go down to her knees. Regina pants when the night wind grazes her skin, but she groans and bites Emma's mouth when the blonde's knee bends and gets between her legs.
She impales herself against her leg, she looks for that tortuous brush that could get to calm her nerves, her blood, her ridiculously runaway palpitations. Everything Emma has caused. So it's only fair that she too is in charge of ending it. Emma's arms wrap around her, touching her everywhere, never being enough. Regina grabs her neck with one hand while plungering the fingers of the other one, deep, fast, intense. Emma's leg responds with the same speed, joining the same prancing rhythm.
They don't break the kiss, they remain a tangle of limbs. Regina thrusts her hip against Emma's leg carelessly, Emma grabs Regina's fingers inside her, and the sounds they both utter when they reach their climax shatter the stillness of the night.
Two entangled, stiff, sweaty bodies. Regina rests her forehead against Emma's with her eyes closed and her body trembling out of control. Emma comes back to herself trying to remember how to breathe. But without letting the brunette go, who collapses and fits against her, by her side, resting on her shoulder, against her neck. Regina tells herself that as soon as he recovers she will move away. Emma wanders aimlessly her fingers on her back and Regina forgets what she was going to do.
"I think I could die from dehydration." Emma's voice sounds more broken than expected due to the lack of saliva, nearing the contralto.
"The canteens are right there." Regina whispers, and she points out the remains of the dinner with a nonchalant movement. Although she really hopes that Emma has no intention to move and go for them.
"I'm just not capable of going." She pants. "I think I could also die of exhaustion" Regina's face leaves the warm shelter that is Emma's neck and turns to look at her. A mocking and incredulous gesture, accompanied by an arched eyebrow. "What? I climbed half an island for hours."
"No!" She feigns a shocked cry. "I made all the way here flying."
"You could have taken me with you..." She whines, displaying a genuine pout. Regina, tongue behind her teeth, tries not to laugh but gives up. She can't with that damn pout.
"Next time, perhaps."
"I know how you could make it up..."
"I'm not invoking those canteens for you, lazy girl" Regina interrupts her, repositioning herself against the curve of her neck.
Emma's voice becomes a suggestive and slow whisper: "What makes you think I meant that?" Regina pulls two inches away to look at her with a smart-ass gesture. "Okay, yes, I meant that..." She growls, knowing she has been caught. "Someday I'll learn to use my magic."
"Someday..." Regina hisses against Emma's tender skin. "What will you do, then?"
"I'll make all canteens of the world come to me." The simplicity of her wish, mixed with the conviction in her words provokes Regina's laughter, followed by Emma's.
The plateau regains its peaceful silence and Emma swears she can hear their breathing, rhythmic like a soft nocturnal melody, much more harmonious than the jungle sounds.
"Do you fear that making magic will turn you evil again?" The question is a buzzing in her ears and itch on her tongue so she ends up leaving it out. Regina sighs and heats the skin next to her jugular, but doesn't answer. "Magic can't do that, not if you don't want it to."
"Maybe it's the other way around, that magic isn't evil itself, but my hands make it be that way." Her words sound accompanied by a resigned laugh. Emma decides at that very moment that she doesn't want to hear something so defeatist from her lips ever again. "I learned to master this power willing to use it to make things right, to fix and not to destroy." She recalls, unwilling and voiceless. "If an innocent girl with good intentions ended subjecting an entire kingdom to her cruel will... imagine what I could do now that I'm not that innocent." She's so sharp in her statement that Emma gets upset at her.
"I don't know... Something as crazy as giving your life in exchange for saving an entire city?" She questions, seeking her eyes and daring her to refute. The laughter Regina lets out that isn't very yet, but at least it's not sadness dressed as laughing. We're improving.
"I keep forgetting how idealistic and dramatic you Charmings are." She mumbles against her neck. Emma smiles, although it's unclear if it's because of the joke or the vibration of Regina's voice against her skin. "It's part of me, I don't deny it. But the magic was also part of the Evil Queen and it's difficult not to feel identified with that title when I turn to it."
"I don't agree with you..." She hears Emma sigh over her hair.
"No one asked you to." She jokes, crossing her gaze with the indigo eyes to make sure her words aren't received as an attack "I just don't want to use magic if there's no need to, that's all."
"But you do use magic with me..." It's a doubt looking like statement. She twists her face and watches Regina.
Because with you I don't feel evil, I don't feel that anything's wrong. Regina down deep, so deep that she engulfs those stupid words and sends them far away from her mouth. "Because you misbehave." She merely answers with a smirk.
"The Evil Mayor told the Saviour." Emma singsongs, imprinting her words with an aura of complete outrage.
"Oh, forgive me, great and gracious Savior." She mutters, peering into her narrowed eyes. "What can I do to apologize?"
The question seems to appeal to Emma. She gives a really happy smile and answers: "I want..."
"... the damn canteen." Regina growls, resigned. Emma nods satisfied and an idea crosses the brunette's mind."It's very basic magic, would you like a little teamwork, Potter?" The blonde's smile grows and lights up when she understands the proposal.
"What do I have to do?"
"It's simple. Close your eyes and concentrate on the canteens." She asks. placing her hand on Emma's stomach, just below his chest. She feel her breathing and the swirl of magic forming with their fingers almost instantly. Emma's an enormous source of power, and she guides it slowly, surprised by the lack of resistance on the blonde's part. "You want them to come to you, to stop being so far away... That's it, a little more... you almost have it." She indicates, with whisper still by her neck and ear, letting both of their magics to work coupled. "And here you have it." She jabbers at full speed.
Emma doesn't know what she notices first: the cold Regina's body leaves when moving away... or the water stream pouring over her. She opens her eyes in shock and a waterfall falls to her face forcing her to close them again.
"What the... ?!" She gets to dry her face in time to see two capless and recumbent canteens lying magically over her head and body.
"You summon them and they come... Didn't you want water?" Emma turns her face towards her, dripping, with her curls glued to her face and the funniest angry look. Regina tries to move further away, but she's still lying on the ground and the laughter shaking her body takes away her strength and speed. Emma's reflexes do the rest. She ends up grabing the brunette's wrist and pulling her. "No, no, get away from me" she demands, still laughing.
But there's no mercy. Emma throws herself over Regina, making sure she doesn't leave a single inch of her skin safe and pressing her against her own body. "No, stop, get off!" Screams mingle with the most tinkling laughter the blonde has ever heard and she can't help but laugh with her and enjoy inflicting a well deserved torture.
Laughter fades moments later but the smiles remain. And they do so in such a way that putting them together looks like the natural next step. Emma stops to contemplate those tempting lips, ever more tempting when smiling, and whispers:
"I'm soaked."
Regina, beneath her and trapped by her weight, rolls her eyes. "And now I am, too! Besides, my pants are down my calves and I feel the cool grass all over my legs." She complains, amused and not moving an inch and stroking her nose against Emma's.
"Karma is fair and wise." She whispers almost against her lips and Regina tries to answer, but something stops her. Emma's patented ways: she leaves Regina with her words trapped in her mouth, kissing her and preventing her from answering. Anyway, the urge to so disappears, providing she can kiss instead of talking.
She groans and croons against Emma's lips, so playful, delicate and bold that they stun her senses. The Sheriff's weight on her ceases to be a prison to become a blessing that she welcomes with open arms, closed eyes and hands buried in her hair.
"Would you be very cold if the rest of your body felt the cool grass too?" Emma keenly asks Emma, biting a fleshy lobe.
Regina acts orderly. First, she pants in the face of the attack, then she bites her lower lip suggestively and finally she tries to answer: "No, no, no... I'm sure I wouldn't… Temperature is wonderful here."
"Great..." She smiles, her voice deep and her intentions heavenly evil. Her hand gets in the gap between Regina's unbuttoned shirt and her shoulder, and her tongue goes down following the natural layout of the brunette's neck. She removes the fabric, covers the exposed skin with kisses, and Regina, her lips pressed, can't but agree with Emma. Great, great, great...
The first time she had sex with Emma was a slip . Wild and uncontrolled. For the second time there's no such excuse. And if they're going for the third round... that's reoffending with malice aforethought. This is no longer a one-time fit of rage or a strange way of comforting each other. This... this ... what is this?
Emma's lips alternate bites and kisses on her jugular and Regina reaches a verdict. This is great... It's not a logical resolution and won't won't be valid for long. But for now it'll have to do, because all that matters currently is to be where she is and discover what else Emma's hands and lips have planned for her.
A noise not emanating either from Emma or herself, nor the nocturnal crickets or the remains of the agonizing fire, slips through her senses. "What was that?"
"What?" Emma's voice is a hoarse and suggestive whisper.
"I heard something." Regina's answer and the tone she uses make Emma react.
"Animals?"
"I don't know... But I haven't heard that before."
The Mayor's doubts are reason enough for the blonde to get on alert. She stretches her arms, and still lying, looks over them, around them. She breathes calmly and returns her attention to the chocolate eyes.
"No worries, it's just my parents..." The chocolate eyes become huge brown lakes when they open wide in sheer horror. "Wait, my parents!" James and Snow. Leaving the wooden hut and walking towards them.
"Shit!"
Emma releases Regina from her weight and they both sit up with more haste than accuracy. The blonde emanates fear when she speaks: "Do something, dress us up, dry me."
And what has Emma so scared is suddenly fun for Regina. At the end of the day... they are still about 50 meters away.
"You said no magic." Emma, trying to succeed in buttoning her shirt, turns around, scared. And Regina has the nerve to be calm and smiling.
"Not during it, but after." She groans, no time or breath left.
"You make up the rules as it goes at your will, Miss Swan?"
"Regina!"
Snow yawns, hugs James and tries to recover some of the heat they left behind with the sheets and the wooden shelter. A few yards away from them, the fire is already visible. She only thinks about sitting down and hopes for the watch not being very long.
She smiles to Emma when they are but some steps away and thinks that at least her daughter will get to rest for a while. A few yards from her, Regina's still sitting in the same position and as quiet as she was during the dinner, like a statue. The get near the blonde and Snow caresses her shoulder.
"Hey, how was the night?"
"Boring." Surprisingly enough, it's brown haired statue who answers. The couple turns to her as if they were watching a puppet talk.
"Yes, very quiet..." Emma corroborates, with a half exhausted smile.
"All right, go to bed." James resolves, smiling fondly at her and pulling her hand to lift her while Regina stands up. Snow gives Emma a tender goodnight kiss, before replacing both women.
They walk in silence for about ten steps. The time Regina manages to contain her smile.
"I even lit the fire..." She states, proud and boastful. "You owe me. A big one."
Emma stops walking and turns to Regina, her arms crossed. "You torture me, you almost manage to get us caught half-naked and wet, you say it has been a very boring night... and I owe you?"
"Yes." And that's it. An affirmation full of audacity, mockery and a so genuine smile that Emma's forced to look forward and breathe deeply to avoid returning a toothy one of her own. Instead, her gesture becomes pensive and when she addresses Regina again, she looks much calmer.
"Regina"
"What?"
"Could you soundproof a tent?"
She opens her eyes, smiles heartedly and twists her nose, trying to sound serious and offended.
"It's a shared, you damn insatiable pervert!" She laughs... but oh god if she isn't tempted by the idea... Emma pulls her chest and pride out, equaling her.
"Who has said that I wanted to do it now or even with you?"
"Just in case..." Regina mutters, separated from the wooden shelter by mere inches. "Although perhaps I could soundproof a sleeping bag..." She whispers conspiratorially, passing the tip of her tongue along the edge of her teeth.
"For rea...?" Emma's eyes brighten rapidly, betraying herself to Regina, who starts to laugh. " We don't even have bags... You're kidding me."
"Oh, that I was..." She hisses, victorious. Emma sputters through her teeth and this time it's Regina who walks a little faster to catch up with her. "One by one, Sheriff. Come on, don't sulk!"
When, minutes later, Regina closes her eyes to get ready to sleep, Henry's face comes back to her. She lets out a sigh, a long and languid sigh, and Emma's words echo in her head. They will find him and go back home... and if Emma's sure that Henry's waiting for them, then it must be that he is. Somewhere in the dark tent created by Mr. Gold, snoring in a corner, she listens Emma breathe deeply and calmly, and she allows to be infected by that calm. When she falls asleep she still thinks about Henry but, even though the pain is still there, there's no insecurity. They will go home together.
Neverland jungle is tricky. Since they left the safety of the plateau they have walked through bogs, places full of vegetation they can hardly set aside, and cliffs hidden by branches and vines. Hook's memories are no longer helpful, because in this part of the island he's almost as rookie as everyone else.
Regina's proposed plan still stands, although it seems never to be the right time to separate into pairs. Hook tried by all means to go with Regina, but without anyone realizing, it's Emma who ends up distributing the partners. She stays with Hook, her mother will march with Rumpelstiltskin and Regina and James will be the third pair. She can't imagine how the experiment will evolve, considering those strange and uncomfortable couples, but she has divided them so that in each pair there's at least one person with magic. If she even counts as one...
For now, they still march together; they don't plan on splitting up until the ground becomes a bit more regular. She avoids a brown puddle and keeps going until a hand touches her shoulder. Her mother's tender eyes smile at her.
"How's everything going?"
"I just wish to get somewhere already; you?"
"Same" She admits, shaking a bit of mud off her foot. "We've been walking for two hours and it seems we haven't covered but a few yards."
"We'll split up and then we'll march much faster, for sure..." Snow lets out a small smile and Emma raises an eyebrow. "What?"
"It's just... I can't imagine how the expedition will be, just Rumpelstiltskin and me." Emma smiles too.
"I think it'll be pretty quiet." She sums up, with a touch of humor. "Would you have preferred to go with Regina?" There's still the option to pair up her mother with herself... but obviously Hook and Mr. Gold couldn't go together, and the Captain would have been paired up with Regina, a combination Emma has decided not be convincing either.
"Not usually, of course." She responds quickly. "But I don't know what to make of this new version..."
Emma wants to answer, she wants to add that this is an improved version, that maybe they could come to better terms. But she doesn't get to open her mouth. Something falls in front of her, so close that she only sees a blur. But the knife on her neck, she does feel it clearly. She raises her eyes, trying to identify what or who's attacking her and she screams. She screams looking instinctively to Regina:
"Don't hurt her!"
Everyone keeps quiet. Rumpelstiltskin lowers his hands and James keeps his gun. Regina has a blunt fireball in the palm of her hand, but it disappears at Emma's cry. The brunette looks horrified at her fingers, where her magic has flamed before. She hasn't been the one to put it off, but Emma, somehow, when screaming and looking at her.
"Mulan?" Emma's question sounds muffled because of the tip of the sharp knife into her neck.
"Emma, Snow! I thought you were intruders!" She shouts cheerfully, putting down the weapon and hugging both women's neck. The rest of the expedition, except for the pirate, wait in confusion. They've heard of the Eastern warrior, but it has no sense that she too is in this other world. "Are you with Hook?" She changes her gesture when she sports the dark man, smiling at her and waving with his hook among the other members of the group.
"It's a long story..." Snow whispers. "But what are you doing here? Where's Aurora?"
"She's with Philip." The smile adorning her face is huge. "We got him back, thanks to you. And they're here with me. We're all here, refugees for now." The warrior's thrill makes her words sound like hurried and disconnected ideas. "You must come to our camp."
Emma and Snow are making a great effort to follow the usually stoic woman's words. The blonde strokes her arm reassuringly and tries to quickly summarize everything she has to tell. "I'm afraid we don't have time to deviate. Do you remember Henry, my son? He's being held captive in this island, we have to get to him."
"The shadow?" She asks, recovering a calmer attitude.
"We believe so."
"In that case, you have two reasons, not just one, to come to the camp." She sighs, aware of the importance of not wasting time.
Mulan's agility when moving is amazing. What once seemed a green labyrinth is now a straight path where they effortlessly dodge the thickest areas and they no longer cross paths with cliffs and bogs. But to Regina what's most surprising is that the warrior gets walk so fast, without any help of maps or compasses, and still talking with Emma at the same time.
The Eastern woman hasn't stopped talking to the Savior and her mother, and as Regina sees it, that's an overly monopolistic behavior. In addition, judging by the snatches of conversation she gets to hear (even though she's not interested in the talk in the slightest), Mulan isn't answering the questions both women are posing. She merely says they'll have to wait until they get to the camp. And once again, she ignores their interrogations and changes the subject explaining how they managed to recover Philip from the 'almost dead' or how they hunt to survive in the island. Super interesting, she thinks, annoyed, while her boots get stuck into the mud of this damn road that never ends.
She knows she's not jealous, because she doesn't give a damn if they discuss boring matters for hours if they want. Her real problem is that they're not focused on Henry's rescue. Nobody even asked her if I she wanted to deviate up to that camp. In fact, they didn't consult it with anyone. They simply decided to follow the petite warrior and that's what they're doing. And she doesn't agree, but nobody seems to care because no one has asked. Hook and Rumpel walk like sheep without uttering a single word, James is following her wifey, and the latter is listening to Mulan and Emma. The blonde turns to face her occasionally. That is, when the Asian warrior remains silent for a second and gives her a break.
Once again, she starts talking. Although at least this time her words are to Regina's liking.
"This is it." She mutters, in front of two twisted trees. Everybody stops behind her, staring at those two pieces of wood with half falling leaves. Mulan, posing boastfully, according to Regina, removes the branches, revealing the sight of a miniature village for which the word camp falls short.
"Home Sweet Home. Come on in!" She adds happily before rushing to a wooden house, one of the 50 that are distributed along the esplanade. If the plateau was a good shelter, this is a engineering masterpiece. The little village is built with pieces of trees and other vegetation and it isn't hard to imagine that from above it will look just like any other forest. All around them, a huge wall of trees covers its existence, mutes the bustling sound of the place and prevents accessing to except for occasional passages like the one they just passed through.
Emma notices that the rush on the huge camp is such that nobody seems to notice the six new people who gape everywhere like actual tourists. Except for four people coming straight to them. Mulan runs back with an overly smiling Aurora beside her. A bit further there are two more people she can't identify. Not that she has the time to do so, because Aurora's arms coil around her and Snow's necks, while she cries their names happily.
But Rumpelstiltskin does have the time. Nobody hugs him, nobody shouts his name to the point of leaving him deaf. So he has time, therefore, to look at the two men who approach them. One of them has the air of a valiant literary Prince. The other one, he has never forgotten.
"Baelfire!"
The cry echoes in everybody's ears and one particular person's chest. There's not an inch of her skin that doesn't stand as a consequence of the chill that runs through her, nor a entrail that doesn't jump and turn in her stomach to the rhythm of little butterflies that threaten to become vomit, nor eyes, mouth or nose that don't fall wide open in shock. Yes... when she hears that name, Regina confirms that what she felt towards Mulan wasn't jealousy. This... this taste of bile in her mouth and the dizzying feeling of being unable to breathe, this is.
To be continued…