Author Note: Three apologies - for the length, for the start (No so much, ha) and for the end (100% regretting that - you can blame FairytaleArchtype)

Enjoy!

"Miss Swan, if you don't behave then I'm afraid I'm going to have to send you to bed without dessert." Regina purrs, pressing herself back so that her ass grinds against Emma's crotch.

Emma hums her approval into Regina's ear, slipping her hands beneath the apron covering the otherwise naked brunette in her arms and raking blunt nails across a taut stomach. "How 'bout sending me to bed with a different kind of dessert."

Regina turns in Emma's arms, forcing the hands around to her back where they immediately drop to encase firm cheeks, squeezing as Emma uses her hold to pull them more tightly against one another and captures Regina's moan as their mouths fuse together in a searing kiss.

Emma wakes with a start, disoriented by the fragments of the dream still etched within her thoughts. Her confusion increases tenfold when she opens her eyes to the unfamiliar surroundings, her mind fighting her every step of the way as she tries to make sense of something, anything to explain where she is because she is most definitely not in her apartment where she should be.

It's only when she sits up that she notices the scent of burnt wood that assaults her sense of smell and her eyes quickly dart around the room, attempting to find the source while her head remains content within its sleep-induced haze where explicit images play on a continuous loop.

Growling, Emma shakes her head in the hope that it will dislodge the thoughts but it's only when her eyes land on the scorch mark marring the back wall of the room that her brain decides this is the perfect moment to awaken fully, reminding her she had stayed the night at the mansion and that she was now in some serious shit for vandalizing Regina's guest bedroom.

She isn't sure how long she sits there, staring at the damage she'd caused while unconscious as she tries to come up with ways to explain it to the woman who is more than likely going to kill her and then end up lynched for it, leaving Henry to be raised by the two idiots even though Emma's death will be completely justified.

Sighing, she stands from the bed and rubs at her temple where a dull throb has made itself known, no doubt from all the cider she'd been plied with the night before. She remembers that being the reason Regina insisted she stay, so she makes a mental note to thank her for that if she somehow escapes her violent execution.

Her stomach grumbles loudly and she chuckles as she pats it fondly. "You won't be hungry for long, we're about to be brutally murdered." she says and bends over to retrieve her boots, which seem to be the only thing she managed to remove while drunk before she passed out on the insanely comfortable bed.

Once she has them back on, she makes her way from the room, throwing one last glance at the wall and cringing. Shoulders slumped and looking more pitiful than ever, Emma wanders into the kitchen where Henry is stuffing his face with pancakes and Regina is sipping what could only be coffee from an outrageously large mug.

"Morning Ma!" Henry shouts, drawing a groan and wince from the blonde.

"Do you always look like this is the morning or is this the Savior with a hangover?" Regina asks, sounding positively amused by Emma's miserable appearance.

Emma drops down on to the only other stool available at the counter, which just so happens to be across from Regina. She shakes her head and sighs, here goes nothing. "This is how I look when I have to tell you something I'm pretty sure you'll be mad at me for."

"Oh?" Regina's expression turns curious as she continues to sip at her coffee.

"Before I confess, I should probably tell you that ever since we returned from -" she pauses and looks to Henry, not wanting to bring up any painful memories for him but he shrugs and ducks his head, signalling that it was fine for her to continue. "- Neverland, my magic has been acting strangely and sometimes it.. does things that I have no control over."

"Let me guess, one of those things happened while you were asleep." Regina offers, not too worried about it as the house is still standing and hasn't crumbled around them. She's been wondering about Emma's magic ever since their movie night.

Emma nods. "I think I may have conjured a fireball and thrown it at the wall." she braces herself for the shriek she's sure to come, or maybe Regina's own fireball directed at her head.

Rising from her seat, Regina moves over to the cupboards and pulls out another coffee mug, filling it before placing it in front of the blonde as she says, "I assume the bedroom is still intact and isn't burning as we speak."

Confused, Emma glances between the steaming cup of coffee and the brunette as her mind tries to convince her this isn't a trick where Regina is lulling her into a false sense of security before providing her with a slow, painful death.

She jumps when Henry kicks her leg and she realises there had actually been a question asked of her and Regina's words finally register. "Uh, the wall took some damage but aside from that? It's.. fine?"

Removing a plate of pancakes from the oven, Regina places them next to Emma's coffee and pushes the syrup across the counter before she sits back down. "That can easily be repaired. I think we might want to deal with your problem before something worse occurs, but we can talk about that later."

When Emma opens her mouth to say something, Regina waves dismissively and picks up the newspaper. "Eat your breakfast." she smirks as Emma's mouth snaps shut and she complies with the command without argument.

Emma got a call from Regina that afternoon when she went back to her apartment, with an offer to teach her magic and a warning against telling anyone due to people still looking for the smallest of reasons to hang the former Evil Queen. It wasn't the kind of warning Emma needed, considering all the calls she continued to receive throughout each day with people panicking whenever Regina so much as sneezed in public. They used to annoy her, but after a while she pretended to take the callers seriously merely to amuse herself.

A habit that to this day causes her father conflict, a daily struggle where he's caught between wanting to laugh at her antics and feeling as though he should scold her. She knows, they've talked about it on numerous ocassions.

It's been a week since that day, a week that has left Emma feeling useless, frustrated, tired and ready to give up on the idea entirely. The only thing they've accomplished so far is a list of brand, spanking new insults to throw at each other while Regina tries to make her angry enough to do something useful – the only thing that garnered was a well-placed fireball to one of Regina's rose bushes. Which would have been a good thing, if the spell wasn't one of the simplest and required the least amount of effort to cast. Also, setting fire to the garden only served to release Regina's anger and that was never a good thing.

And now here they were.

Part of her wishes she could switch places with Henry because she's fairly sure she would rather be taking a maths test than learning to teleport, at least then if she failed it wouldn't mean the potential doom of the town she lives in due to a spontaneous magical explosion created by none other than the supposed Savior.

"Don't!" Emma holds out her hand when Regina tries to move closer and before she can say anything, Emma starts rambling. "I know I need to do this and I know you're trying to help but if you come any further then there's a good chance I'll end up burning your house down and you'd kill me."

She stops to take a breath, squeezing her eyes shut as she continues because she doesn't want to read whatever feelings appear in Regina's eyes or the defensive scowl as her words tumble out of her. "I know fuck all about magic but I do know that whatever is going on with it right now – it's tied to you. I don't know why or what it means, I just..."

Shaking her head, her hand drops to her side and she opens her eyes as she takes a step back, breathing a sigh of relief as she feels the intensity of her magic lessen. "I don't want to hurt you so whatever you need to say or do just.. do it from over there."

"It does explain the night you fell asleep on my couch." Regina paces as she speaks, her mind concentrated on attempting to understand rather than the bewildered look appearing on Emma's face. Suddenly she stops to face the blonde, a smirk curling her lips with a glint of curious amusement in her eyes. "What were you dreaming of, I wonder."

Emma's eyes widen as images flash through her mind of all the possible things that could have been involved in whatever dream she had that night, the brunette starring as lead role in each and every one of them. "Uh.."

"Oh my dear Sheriff, I had no idea." Regina grins mischievously, her tone indicating that she did in fact, have a very clear idea. Not that they had ever hidden their attraction from one another, more. - refused to acknowledge its existence beyond the privacy of their own bedroom doors.

She sighs when her only response is in the form of the blonde folding her arms in what she knows is a protective gesture. The woman could be so confident when she wanted to piss Regina off, yet closes up as tight as a clam after a little sexual teasing.

"You can be such an insufferable twit some times." she says with a roll of her eyes.

Ignoring the frown her comment receives, Regina directs them back to the lesson while walking toward her. "We've been over this; magic is emotion and in your case, rather than anger, yours seems to feed from your desire." she shakes her head. "Don't interrupt and don't deny it. Accept it. If you don't then you're never going to gain control of it."

Walking behind Emma, Regina places a hand on her shoulder and waits for the blonde to relax before she continues. "For those of us with natural magical talent, the magic is a constant inside of us. It is always there, building, waiting beneath the surface to be unleashed."

"If it goes too long without release then what you're experiencing occurs." as she says this, she positions her other hand on Emma's opposite shoulder. "So Savior, embrace your trigger and -"

Before she can finish, Emma disappears in a swirl of golden smoke and Regina feels a burst of pride that confuses the hell out of her, but at the sound of the voice from behind her, she smiles and turns around.

"I did it." Emma laughs as she looks from her hands to where Regina stands. She didn't believe she could, even though she had done it once before, even after she saved the morons from the shadows in Neverland, she'd thought maybe her magic was more of an instinctual thing that would be there when she desperately needed it, she never imagined actually being able to control it.

Regina could pin-point the exact moment Emma's mood shifted from joyous surprise to confused panic. She knew as soon as those emerald eyes met hers that the lesson was over. When the smoke reappears to whisk away the blonde, she sighs heavily, uttering a single word loud enough for the blonde to hear before returning to the mansion.

"Coward."