AN: So sorry for the delay! I was sick all last week and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and energy this week. I'm hoping/planning to have the next chapter finished by next Sunday, before the next episode of Once.
Emma pounded on the thick, white door for the third night in a row. The first night she came there was soon after Regina left her phone behind and prevented her from tracking the brunette. Regina had run off with Pinocchio to deliver him to the villainous trio and when she'd ditched her phone, she'd left Emma alone and pissed. Henry had answered the door that first night and said he hadn't seen Regina since they did research in Regina's office for Operation Mongoose. Emma sighed and took Henry back to the small apartment she still shared with the rest of her family, and neither of them were happy about that fact.
The second night Emma returned because Henry was just as worried as Emma. Regina hadn't even come to get Henry or ask Emma where he was or how he was. No one in town had seen Regina all day either. It was troubling to say the very least. But on that night, the third night since Regina left her behind, Emma was done waiting. She pulled a long pin she decided to bring with her in case Regina didn't answer again. She stuck the pin in the lock and swiftly picked it. She shut and locked the door behind her, called out for Regina a few times, and made her way to the kitchen. She poked around and helped herself to a drink and then raided the brunette's fridge. She hadn't eaten much in all the time she'd been worried about Regina and the Queens of Darkness. There was an entire house with food and other supplies and none of it was being used while Regina was away. If Henry had been there, the food would be eaten anyway so it wasn't like she was completely depleting Regina's groceries. But if that's what she did then so be it. It would serve the other woman right after abandoning Emma.
There were a few leftovers in Ziploc containers in the fridge and before she ate one, she smelled it and determined it was still good. Regina, even when undercover, kept a clean house it seemed. Emma dumped the food onto a plate and heated it up in the microwave then dirtied a dish and some utensils that Emma didn't bother to clean afterward. She left the dish in the sink and only rinsed it off for a moment then left it to soak.
She made herself comfortable on the couch and flipped through a few channels on the TV before she found something decent enough. She slowly started to drift off, but tried to stay awake and alert in case Regina finally decided to come home. She only lasted for a couple of hours before she fell asleep in Regina's living room while the TV softly droned on.
She woke up alone, as expected, but the TV was off and there was a blanket draped over her. When she realized someone had come in and taken care of those things for her, she jolted off the couch and ran toward the stairs.
"Regina?! Regina!"
A moment later, her son appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Henry," Emma sighed his name with a little disappointment. "Did you put the blanket on me?"
"Yeah. I came over really late last night. I asked Gramps to drop me off. Neal was up almost every hour and I couldn't sleep."
"He just dropped you off here even though Regina wasn't here?"
"He knew you were here."
Emma furrowed her brow and before she could ask how her dad knew she was there, Henry supplied her with an answer.
"You weren't back yet and he knew you were still trying to talk to Mom so he drove by to make sure nothing had happened and he saw your car out front and some of the lights on inside. He's been worried about you. Grandma, too."
"Yeah. They're more worried about me than they are Regina and she's the one that's so close to all of this," Emma said more to herself and then changed the subject when she looked up and saw Henry's sad and concerned expression. "How'd you get in? I locked the door behind me."
"I always have my keys on me. Mom never lets me leave the house without them, even when I'm not staying with her."
Emma nodded, but continued to frown.
"She has to come home sometime, right," Henry asked. "Even if she has to do whatever it is she's doing?"
Emma looked so sadly empathetic before she answered, "I don't know, Henry. I hope so."
They both stood still for a tense moment before Emma spoke again and motioned for Henry to come downstairs.
"Come on. Let's make some breakfast."
Henry joined her at the bottom of the stairs and she draped an arm over his shoulders as they walked toward the kitchen.
They went through a list of options and agreed on pancakes after a few minutes. She let Henry help her make the batter and especially let him help her find everything they needed. It didn't take long before they made a mess and neither tried to clean it up right away. They left the mess behind while they took their pancakes to the dining room table.
"So," Henry started to talk once both of them were settled at the table. "What is Mom doing?"
"What did she tell you?"
"Just that she was going to have to do things she didn't want to do and that she was the only one who could do it."
"Well, she chose to go undercover with the villains."
"What?"
"She's trying to fit in with her old friends so she can get inside information."
"That's crazy! She's pretending to be evil again?"
"Just for a little while."
Why? She- She's not evil anymore. She promised to be good."
"Henry, she's still on our side."
"But the longer she stays with them, even if she's just pretending, the easier it might be for her to not have to pretend anymore. Aren't you worried about that?"
"Of course I am," Emma firmly stated. "Why do you think I'm here? I'm not leaving her side, Henry. She tried to get rid of me the other night, but I'm still here, aren't I? I'm not giving up."
"Good, because I'm not either."
"The one thing about all of this I know Regina and I can agree on is that you're not going to get involved."
"Too late."
Emma groaned.
"You're stubborn. Just like her."
"Yeah, but she's not the only one I get that from," Henry explained with a raised brow that made him look more like Regina than Emma.
"I guess that's accurate," Emma flashed a quick and faint smile.
"As soon as she gets back, I'm gonna ask her to leave her friends."
"She won't do it," Emma said with a hint of resignation.
"Maybe if I ask her to."
"Who do you think she's protecting by doing all of this? She's not going to stop until she's sure she can keep you safe another way."
Henry heavily sighed out of frustration.
"Why does it always have to be about me? She gets herself into all kinds of danger for me and it isn't fair. Why does she always do this stuff for me?"
Emma smiled at him and moved over a chair to sit next to him. She wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into her side.
"Because she loves you. And so do I. Believe me, if I could switch places with her I would."
"But…why?"
"Because she keeps putting herself in these situations and everyone keeps letting her. None of them seem to understand that the more chances, the more risks, she takes the more likely something's going to go horribly wrong. Someone's got to be there to help out and I'm willing to do that. I won't let anything happen to her."
"You don't even know where she is right now."
"I'll figure it out. She can't get rid of me that easily."
Later, not too long after breakfast was had and the dishes were partially washed, Emma went back out in search for Regina. The woman had to turn up somewhere. It wasn't like any of the villains she was working with had left town. What they wanted was supposed to be in town. When she dropped Henry off at the apartment, however, her parents insisted on coming with her.
"I'm not the one that needs protecting," Emma argued. Again.
But her parents refused to let her go alone so they left Henry at Granny's under the older woman and her granddaughter's watchful eyes. Plus, everyone in town that could look after him that were in the diner would help protect them if needed so he was as safe as he could be if he wasn't at one of his mothers' sides.
Henry made sure to give Emma a big hug and a not-too-gentle squeeze before the Charmings left the diner and started to make their way around the town in a giant circle before they tried to weave through a few streets and trailways from one point in the surrounding woods to another. When Emma suggested they split up to cover more ground faster, her parents only continued to follow close behind her. She was frustrated and while she slept fine on Regina's couch, she was tired. She didn't want to keep searching for Regina. She wanted to find her already. If something happened to the brunette while she took her sweet time tracking her down, she would set fire to the whole damn town. She had to bring Regina home. For Henry and for the fact that the other woman deserved someone looking out of her.
She didn't know a whole hell of a lot about Regina's past, but she knew it wasn't great. She knew part of the reason they understood each other was because Regina never really had anyone stick by her just like Emma hadn't had anyone to do the same. It was how Regina was able to become the Evil Queen so quickly and easily. It was how she had been willing to give up and accept defeat and while Tinker Bell might have come to her aid, she wasn't ready for anything more than anger and vengeance at that moment in time. Well, Regina was stronger than that with Henry in her life and Emma was going to keep it that way. But why did Regina have to make it so damn hard?
Not to mention, Regina had abducted a child and convinced Emma it was okay before she ditched her. So she also had a kid to worry about, too.
"Looks like the tracks stop here," David said as he bent down to take a look at the partially muddy ground, void of any more indentations that would lead them to the villains' hideout. "Maybe if Emma tries a locator spell like the one Regina used in Neverland to find Pan."
Suddenly, Emma felt a shift in the wind and it wasn't some weird sensory thing either. Tree branches blew a little harder in the breeze that hadn't previous existed and tendrils of blonde hair whipped around and curled in front of her face, which not only irritated Emma but also blocked a bit of her vision at times.
"I don't think we'll need one," Emma said as she, and soon the rest of the group, looked around the surrounding area for any indication or hint as to what was happening.
After a moment, she could sense the familiarity of the magic and who it belonged to just before she heard the woman's voice.
"Regina," Emma uttered her name with obvious relief.
A second later, the blonde was startled by a voice more familiar to her than the magic that moved around her.
"I have to make this quick," Regina's voice echoed around Emma. "Pinocchio's fine. Back to his old self—or, older self."
"August," Emma breathed out, shocked.
"There's more. …Gold is here."
Emma's eyes widened and her jaw dropped a little more.
"We're holed up in his cabin and he has a plan, but he won't share it with me. I can only assume that means whatever he's trying to do isn't at all good for us."
"Wait, Regina," Emma called out to the mid-morning air, not sure where to look for Regina's disembodied voice. "Are you okay? Do they suspect anything?"
"If they do, they aren't doing anything about it. They might need me for something, but otherwise I think they trust me enough not to kill me."
"Then why haven't you come home?"
"Emma, I really don't have time to explain everything. I'll see all of you as soon as I can get away."
Emma felt Regina's magic start to pull away, but she wasn't finished.
"Regina!"
The brunette responded with an annoyed, "What?"
"Just…be careful, okay?"
There was a pause before Regina answered, "I'll do my best."
Emma felt the loss of Regina's magic and though she wasn't sure where Gold's cabin was, she at least knew that was where Regina was.
"We have to get her," Emma insisted with a determined look on her face. "And August."
"You just heard her, Emma," David said. "She's fine. No one's on to her."
"As far as she knows. I have a bad feeling about this. Now either you're with me or you can go watch Henry."
Emma stormed off, back toward town, and didn't care if her parents joined her or not as she made her way toward the pawn shop. There was only one person in town that could point Emma in the direction of Gold's cabin and she was also the only person that could hand over his dagger in case the imp tried to take it back.
August was asleep, still tied to a chair in the main room of the cabin. Changing from a boy to a man to a large, wooden puppet to a man again with a nose that grew like a tree branch every time he lied must have drained a lot of energy from him. Cruella didn't mind. In fact, she welcomed his unconsciousness. She was alone in the cabin while Rumple and Regina were with Maleficent on a search for the door that might lead them to the Author and Ursula was off somewhere after she went to stretch out her tentacles over forty minutes ago.
The quiet was peaceful. She didn't prefer to be alone, but Cruella also wanted some room to breathe in the cramped space she had to share for most of the day with four other villains.
If she had been able to go to her room at the bed and breakfast, she would have left in a heartbeat. But she'd been stuck with guard duty with Ursula and that was all the breathing room she really needed. Of course, with Ursula away from the cabin and August asleep she was bored. There was nothing and no one to keep her entertained.
She rolled her neck and shoulders and groaned when she struggled to rid herself of the tension she'd built up over the last few days. Sex with Ursula gave her some relief, but some of the things they did tended to be the cause of her tension.
She uncrossed her legs and slowly stood up before she started to pace the room, not at all content to sit still for too long. Back and forth, back and forth. She rubbed the back of her neck while she moved through the room. She took a deep breath and released it in a long, heavy sigh.
Just as she turned around and started to walk back in the other direction, the door opened and Ursula entered the cabin.
"Darling, you're back," Cruella perked up at the company.
Ursula smirked and closed the door.
"Miss me?"
"Maybe a little," Cruella confessed with a roll of her eyes in an attempt to look dismissive. "Our friend here isn't much of one for conversation."
Ursula glanced over at August for a moment before she refocused on Cruella. She shed her coat and hung it up on the rack before she went over to and wrapped her arms around the other woman. She rested her hands against Cruella's lower back while she clasped one wrist in her other hand.
"Well, I don't know if I'll be much better at it. I don't really feel like talking right now."
"That's okay, darling. I'm sure we can find something else to do that will pass the time."
Ursula chuckled and Cruella leaned in and kissed her neck.
"Or we could just sit and enjoy the lovely day outside," Ursula suggested.
"Yes," Cruella unenthusiastically drawled. "I suppose we could."
Ursula laughed again and then turned them toward the window that overlooked the porch and surrounding pond. She pulled out a chair for Cruella at the table placed in front of the window before she took her own seat across from the other woman.
"How chivalrous of you," Cruella purred in response as she watched Ursula sit down.
Ursula unlatched the window and pushed it open a bit to allow the fresh, early evening air to pass through the stuffy cabin. They sat in companionable silence and stared at the calm pond water and the green leaves and weeds that floated over it. It was the first time since the two of them had teamed up after years of separation in the Land without Magic that they enjoyed each other's company without the need for sex.
For a while they remained quiet and contemplative as they shared the same space. A few birds chirped in the trees and there was a subtle breeze that circulated the cool, dewy air but didn't make a sound and all was peaceful. Both women were content.
After a few minutes, Ursula brushed her leg against Cruella's calf. She slowly ran her foot up and down the lower half of the other woman's leg and both continued to bask in the view of the pond, and occasionally each other, with words left unspoken. It was a rare occurrence and the quiet moment they shared made everything else matter less, gave them a sense of the true meaning of the word happy, and allowed them to grow closer.
Ursula closed her eyes and melted into her chair as she continued to stroke Cruella's leg with her foot under the table. Cruella played along as well and even went as far as to trail her foot up and down over the outer curve of Ursula's knee.
"I'd say this table is in our way. Wouldn't you agree, darling," Cruella asked with a decadent cadence to her voice.
Ursula pulled her foot away from Cruella's leg and pushed her chair away from the table. She remained seated and stared across the table at the other woman for a moment before she patted her lap.
"I would agree," Ursula answered.
Cruella grinned and stood up. She walked around the small table and settled herself in Ursula's lap with one side pressed against Ursula's front, her legs pressed together and draped over Ursula's thighs. It was more for comfort than it was pleasure and she made herself comfortable in Ursula's arms as the darker woman wrapped her arms around Cruella's waist.
Wrapped up in each other they didn't think too much about how sweet and uncharacteristic of villains they were in that moment. They were supposed to want revenge and other people's pain was the only thing that seemed to bring them any happiness. They'd been robbed of their innocence and their happy endings and the world they once lived in compared to the world they currently lived in weren't all that different. They knew only suffering and how to make those more fortunate pay the price for how badly they hurt. They didn't do romantic gestures and their cold hearts rarely felt the kind of love they used to be capable of before someone ruined their lives and made it impossible for them to feel anything other than betrayal and sorrow.
And yet, there they were. Two women curled up on a shared seat by the window as if they didn't have a captive tied to a chair and gaged only a few feet away, as if they weren't in Storybrooke to find the Author and force him to make sure only villains had happy endings, as if they didn't have a complicated past or people who would surely question their affection in their relation to being able to move forward with the plan. None of that mattered, however. In that moment, they weren't villains. They were only women. They gave each other comfort and a sense of belonging even though both had constantly struggled to feel like they fit anywhere. The only place they knew they fit for sure was with each other. And that was enough. That could have been enough.
But neither expressed any of that out loud. Instead they just sat and reveled in the moment, in having each other and having time away from everything else.
"Hmm," Cruella hummed and leaned into Ursula. She pressed her forehead to Ursula's honey blonde hair and closed her eyes. "I missed this. So simple."
"And yet so complicated," Ursula lightly chuckled and started to run a hand up and down one of Cruella's thighs.
"Oh, darling, I don't know any other way to have what we have," Cruella smiled. "And anything else is just boring."
Cruella leaned down and chastely kissed Ursula, but when Ursula hummed into the kiss she bit the woman's bottom lip and pulled on it.
Ursula's hum turned into a soft moan and when they broke away from the kiss, both women brightly smiled at each other.
"Why don't I make us a drink," Cruella suggested. "Maybe a little something to eat while we sit here, too."
Ursula nodded and Cruella slid off her lap before she strutted her way into the small kitchen area against the back wall of the cabin.
"Do you want something alcoholic or should I make you some tea?"
"Tea would nice for this weather," Ursula smiled over her shoulder at Cruella.
Cruella smiled back and replied, "Tea it is."
She grabbed the kettle from the cabinet just beside the oven and turned on the stovetop where she intended to place it. She slid over to the sink not too far from the stove and filled the kettle before she placed it on the stovetop. The kettle slowly started to heat up and while Cruella waited for the water to boil, she admired Ursula from a short distance.
She leaned back against the edge of counter, her lower back pressed against it, and stared at Ursula from head to toe even as she only saw the other woman from the back. She remembered snuggling up to the other woman when they first found each other in New York after they'd been banished to the Land without Magic. She remembered just before they'd been welcomed into Storybrooke how Ursula had chosen to use the words, "We're back together" when she explained their situation to Regina over the phone and how that had later led to them in bed together at Granny's B&B. She remembered Ursula holding her in her lap at a table, like she just had in the cabin, years ago while she rode the darker woman's hand.
They had a history, so much history, and Cruella wondered if Ursula agreed that maybe they'd always belonged together considering just how many times they'd been paired up even after so much time. It seemed that no matter what happened to them they couldn't escape each other. They always found a way back to each other whether or not they even looked for one. If Ursula believed that, believed they'd always belonged together, it made sense that she would ask Cruella to be a part of her happy ending once the four of them made the Author give them the stories they wanted.
The kettle softly grumbled and Ursula shifted in her chair for a moment as she reached over and flicked on the portable radio. She turned the dial and tried to tune it to anything that wasn't static. It took a moment, but eventually she found a station she seemed content with and settled into her seat again as she listened to soft and slightly crackled sounds of opera.
Cruella remembered earlier that week when she'd found Ursula out on the deck with the radio. The woman had been listening to similar music stylings of a woman singing out high notes at a slow, kind of sad rhythm. She hadn't done much of that when they first came to the Land without Magic. Cruella noticed that she'd only recently started to do as much. The closer they seemed to get to their happy endings, the more she listened to the one thing she wanted most. The one thing that, for years, tormented her to be without.
Cruella walked back over to the table and combed her fingers through Ursula's hair from behind from the roots to the tips. She watched as well as felt Ursula deeply inhale and relax. She leaned in from Ursula's side and kissed her temple and then her lips. It wasn't the same as Ursula having her voice back, but Cruella was always happy to give the other woman something to both take her mind off things and also provide her some comfort.
Cruella pulled Ursula out of her chair with her hand on the back of the other woman's neck as they kissed. She turned them around so Ursula's back was to the table and then urged Ursula to sit on the edge of it when she pushed the woman down by her shoulders. She kissed her over and over, less chaste and more passionate the longer the song on the radio played. She peeled Ursula's dark green leather shirt, which was perfect for allowing Cruella an amazing yet teasing view of Ursula's breasts but was much too tight for easy removal. Thankfully, she figured out the trick and Cruella slid her hands up the fanned out bottom of the shirt and pulled it up to Ursula's chest before she gave it a yank. The extra force tugged the shirt up over the woman's breasts and revealed a black bra to match the leather skirt Cruella didn't bother to strip off of her.
"Cru—"
She cut Ursula off before the other woman could say her full name and lunged forward for a searing kiss that could easily compete with Maleficent's fiery breath and Regina's fireballs. She pushed the darker woman's skirt up to her hips and along the way, Cruella nudged herself further between the woman's legs. When she hiked the lengthy skirt up to just where she wanted it, she gently pressed Ursula's legs against her waist before she reached behind the woman and unclasped her bra. She pulled it away from Ursula's chest and exposed bountiful breasts that always made her lick her lips with want. That time was no different.
She slowly ran her hand up one of Ursula's inner thighs while she kissed her lips again and then started to kiss her way from the darker woman's neck to her sternum to her breasts. Just as she licked a hardening nipple, an action which caused Ursula to moan in response, she curled her fingers into the waistband of Ursula's panties and pulled them down her legs.
"Darling, if you aren't too attached to these I'd like to rip them off. Do I have your permission?"
"Go ahead," Ursula breathily purred. "I've got plenty more."
Cruella grabbed at the lacy material with both hands and tore it apart so that it just fell to the floor when she let go. She ran her hand back up the other woman's thigh again and gave it a little squeeze when she was close to the woman's sex.
She kissed and sucked a nipple into her mouth and felt Ursula arch into her. She hummed against the other woman's skin and flicked the tip of her tongue over her nipple before she then moved to give Ursula's other breast some attention. She stopped between Ursula's breasts and kissed just between the anchor charm on one necklace and the chain with both a seahorse and shell charm on the other necklace that she wore. The anchor rested almost directly between her breasts and the seahorse and shell charm attached to another silver chain that hung beneath the starfish on the layered necklace above the anchor.
Ursula moaned and wrapped her arms around Cruella's neck. She sunk her nails into Cruella's back between her shoulder blades and left behind faint red marks, but didn't break skin.
Cruella placed her hand on the table just behind where Ursula was perched on the edge of it and finally slipped her fingers through slick folds and grazed the other woman's clit on her ascent.
Ursula clenched her legs around Cruella's waist and lightly gasped when the other woman made contact with her sensitive bundle of nerves.
Cruella leveraged herself on the hand she had on the table behind Ursula and kissed the other woman before she entered her with two fingers.
Ursula groaned and broke the kiss only a second later.
"What is it," Cruella asked.
"Your nails."
"I filed them down a bit."
"I noticed."
"Was that a good groan then?"
"Definitely," Ursula said before she quickly pulled Cruella back in for another kiss.
Cruella almost never cut her nails. She liked them long and red and used them to claw at Ursula when Ursula did all the right things for her in the bedroom. Most of the time, Cruella only reciprocated for their sexual expliots with her tongue, but when she cut her nails it became obvious just why she had. She did it for Ursula and only for Ursula.
Cruella moaned into the kiss and started a slow, tender pace with her fingers.
Ursula squeezed her legs around Cruella's waist and nipped Cruella's tongue and bottom lip. She sighed and moaned between kisses and held on tightly to the other woman. She broke away from the kiss after a moment and tipped her head back.
Cruella started to kiss, suck, and bite her neck while she sped up her pace. She reduced Ursula to sighs and moans and occasional whimpers and they moved together like the rhythmic rise and fall of the opera music on the radio.
The kettle hissed and soon started to whistle, but neither of them paid it any attention as Ursula's moans grew louder and louder. The shrill whistle and the sounds of pleasure Ursula emitted filled the cabin. Cruella focused only on Ursula and moaned in response to the way the other woman reacted to her. She bit her own bottom lip and moved a little faster before she slipped a third finger inside Ursula.
Ursula sighed against Cruella's neck before she kissed it and Cruella started to rub her thumb in circles over Ursula's clit. It caused the woman to twitch and whimper. She clutched Cruella's arms tightly and tensed around her fingers before a cry tore out of her. In seconds, she relaxed and then let her legs fall from the woman's waist.
The bottom of her boots hit the floor with a thud and Ursula panted out her next several breaths. She gripped the edge of the table while she tried to calm herself and her breathing after such a state of bliss. She opened partially bleary eyes and looked at Cruella while she started to regain focus and come out of her orgasmic haze.
Cruella grinned at the effect she had, still had, on Ursula.
"You look stunning right now, darling."
"You do amazing work," Ursula huskily complimented her.
Cruella failed to hide a blush, but it just barely tinted her cheeks a faint pink.
"That wasn't even my best," Cruella mentioned.
"I know," Ursula suggestively purred and slowly, sensually leaned forward.
Ursula tucked a finger under Cruella's chin and tilted her head slightly as the woman stood up and kissed her good and slow. When she ended the kiss, it still lingered and Cruella stared at the darker woman with awe.
Finally, the whistle of the kettle reached both women's ears and Cruella cleared her throat before she turned and went to the little kitchen area to remove it from the heated section of the stove. As she did, Ursula pulled down her skirt and bent over to grab her panties before she effortlessly slipped them back on over her boots and under her leather skirt.
When Cruella turned away from the stove and in Ursula's direction, she caught a glimpse of the woman with her skirt hiked up all over again as she slid lacy black fabric over her sex. Cruella licked her lips and did her best to fight off a sudden case of dry mouth right when Ursula pulled her skirt down for a second time and looked up to see the reaction her redressing caused.
Ursula smirked as she straightened up her back for a moment. She neglected her shirt and bra, which were still on the floor at her feet, and started to walk over to Cruella. She prowled closer like a predator stalking its prey and devoured the smaller woman with her eyes as she raked them over the woman.
Cruella felt a spike in her body temperature immediately, but she didn't think they had time for another round no matter how badly she still craved the other woman. Her eyes wandered from brown eyes to plump lips to beautiful breasts seemingly left exposed for her benefit.
"Darling, you are wonderful, but I doubt Rumple will want to walk in on us."
Ursula breathed out a little laugh and closed most of the distance between them. She ran her hands down Cruella's arms with a teasingly light touch before she wrapped her arms around Cruella's waist.
Cruella, unable to help herself, placed her hands on Ursula's chest and felt the swell of the woman's breasts beneath her palms. Her eyes drifted downward again and she watched herself graze the heels of her hands over Ursula's nipples.
Ursula appreciatively hummed and the two of them met halfway for yet another kiss, lusty and long. She smiled at the end of the kiss and slowly pulled away.
Cruella saw Ursula's happy and smug smile through hooded eyes and let out a small growl before she quickly gnashed her teeth and snapped at the air to fake taking a rough bite of Ursula's bottom lip. It was unrestrained and animalistic and she very rarely showed anyone that side of her, except for Ursula.
Cruella dropped her hands back to her sides and Ursula stepped back. Ursula went over to the table again and grabbed the rest of her discarded clothes off the floor and then slipped back into her bra and shirt.
Just as Cruella started to pour the boiled water over a tea bag in a mug for Ursula, the front door burst open. August started to wake up, slowly but surely, and Ursula was in the middle of fanning out the collar of her leather jacket when Cruella saw the blonde Savior in the doorway with wide, kind of surprised but mostly wild, eyes and a slack jaw.
Emma immediately spotted both Ursula and Cruella to her right. Cruella stared back at her, half-surprised and half-agitated by her intrusion. She blinked and her surprise was replaced by her typical unamused glare.
Emma looked at the two of them for only a moment before her eyes slid over to find August as he groaned and lifted his head. The formerly wooden man blinked several times and groggily looked up at the blonde.
"August," the Savior breathed out with relief before she rushed to his side and tried to untie him. All she managed to do was pull down the gag over his mouth before Cruella set down the tea kettle and stepped in alongside Ursula.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ursula threatened.
Cruella looked Emma over from head to toe, sized her up, before Emma growled out a reply.
"Where's Regina?"
Cruella cruelly chuckled.
"She's not the one strapped to that chair," Cruella pointed out. "Why does it matter where she is?"
"Whatever you plan on doing with her, I won't let it happen," Emma continued.
"What makes you think we want to do anything with her," Ursula asked. "She offered to help us. We accepted that help. That's it. Unless there's something you two aren't telling us."
"I won't let you use her," Emma amended her previous statement.
Both Ursula and Cruella laughed.
"He's the one that's been tortured, while Regina watched I might add, and you're concerned about her well-being more than you care about getting him out of here," Ursula asked.
"Who says I can't be worried about both of them?"
Emma raised her arms up and back and was about to move them forward in a sweeping motion when Ursula beat her to a magical attack.
Two tentacles slid out from under Ursula's skirt and quickly wrapped themselves around the blonde's wrists. She held the woman's hands in place and prevented any further action on the younger woman's part.
"Ah, ah, ah. Don't even try it, Savior," Ursula admonished.
"What do you say we tie her up, too? Serve her to Maleficent like a tasty steak dinner," Cruella suggested and slowly crept closer to the woman while she raked her eyes over Emma's body again.
"It's tempting. And I'm sure Maleficent won't be the only one that wants to play with her," Ursula replied with a devilish smirk.
Cruella looked from Emma to Ursula and grinned. Ursula's face was the last thing she saw before everything went black.
Ursula's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she watched Cruella fall to floor. Snow White stood behind the place where Cruella once stood and held up a pan she used to knock the other woman out. Ursula's tentacles released Emma's wrists and retreated back under her skirt. She stared and stared at Snow while Emma thought to ask just how it was the pixie-haired woman arrived at the cabin.
"How did you get here so fast? I thought I left you back in the woods about a mile into the search."
"We called Ruby," Snow answered. "She gave us a few tracking tips when we lost the footprints. And you."
"And how did you get in?"
"When I was a bandit on the run from Regina I learned very quickly that the back door is usually open."
Ursula shook her head and snapped back to reality just as Charming followed his wife into the cabin from the back door she had just mentioned.
"If you think I'll just give you what you want, you're sadly mistaken."
"I can always hit you over the head, too," Snow supplied.
Ursula narrowed her eyes at Snow and glared at her. One of her tentacles reappeared and wrapped around the woman's neck in the blink of an eye.
"Mom," Emma called out and took a step toward the two women.
"Take another step and you're mother will need gills to breathe," Ursula growled and tightened her tentacle's hold on Snow's neck.
Snow gasped at the crushing weight against her windpipe and Ursula grounded her teeth together as she tried to enjoy the terror in Emma and Snow's eyes. She didn't get to revel in her evildoings for a couple of reasons, however. The first and foremost being that the last person she wanted to see ever again barged into the cabin in an instant.
"Wait," Hook shouted and held out his good hand in a gesture indicative of surrender.
"How are you still breathing," Ursula angrily and loudly asked.
"I'm good at surviving, or…you're bad at killing," he flatly answered. "Either way, you can let him go."
"I can't let him leave with you," Ursula replied. "Not when the Author is the only one who can give me what I want."
"You don't need the Author for that," Hook explained. "You don't need him either."
Hook gestured to August and Ursula sighed, but didn't release Snow White from her tentacle's grip.
"I know why you couldn't release your voice from that shell," Hook continued. "Only the one who enchanted can do that."
"…Wait," Ursula felt tears build up in her eyes and shook her head. "You don't mean—"
"Aye."
Ursula looked from the pirate to the front door in which two out of the four heroes that stood before her had used to enter the cabin.
"Ursula," her father sadly but a little reverently greeted her as he joined the list of people to walk into the cabin.
Immediately, Ursula threw Snow toward Charming before she let go of the woman's neck. She stepped toward her father, everyone else momentarily forgotten as she focused on him. She never expected to see him again, even before she'd fallen through the portal to the Land without Magic, and yet he was right in front of her. His hair was a little grayer than she last remembered and he had a few more worry lines and wrinkles, but he otherwise looked no different from the day she told him he should fear her and then swam far from home.
"How are you here? In this land," Ursula asked and furrowed her brow as she looked her father over.
"A young mermaid found me and brought me through a portal," he replied. "I need to say something. I'm sorry, Ursula. I never should have forced you to use your voice as a weapon. It's just…every time I heard you sing, I heard your mother. And it was too painful."
Ursula stared at him and felt like the little girl, the little mermaid, she once was. She felt like his daughter again instead of the wicked Sea Witch she'd grown into and had been for years. She pulled the shell out of her jacket pocket and looked down at it as she moved it around and flipped it over a few times in her hand like it weighed more than it should.
"I let that pain fuel my desire for vengeance," her father continued to explain. "But it shouldn't have. It should have reminded me that I still have a piece of her. You."
Ursula couldn't believe it, but she really wanted to. She'd never heard him talk to her that way in such a long time. He was more like a father to her in that moment than he'd been in the time just before she left home with tentacles in place of a tail.
"Let me return your voice," he gently suggested. "So I can hear it one last time."
She took a deep breath and slowly let it out after a moment. Her shoulders fell under an invisible weight as she held out her hand, and the shell, to her father. He took it from her open palm and held it in his own hand with the upmost care.
He waved a hand over it and it glowed green a second before the glow expanded into a stream and her voice filled the cabin as it traveled from the shell to her mouth. It echoed as it made its way back to its rightful owner and as she felt her voice return, the tears that had built over the last few minutes finally rolled down her cheeks.
As soon as her voice was free from the shell, she sang a wordless melody and smiled. She closed her eyes and let the sound wash over her like waves she hadn't felt since she was pulled into the Land without Magic and had no way of being able to get her tentacles wet. When she opened her eyes, she saw her father enjoying the sweet sound of her voice even more than she did with the exception that he wasn't moved to tears quite like she was.
He smiled at her as she ended her wordless song and just stared at her for a moment before he spoke again.
"Now that you are whole again…I'll leave you in peace."
"Wait," she breathily pleaded. She couldn't let him leave. Not yet. She didn't want their reunion to end. She just got him back. He'd apologized and gifted her with her singing voice after all the years she spent angry and miserable without it. "My voice is all we have left of Mother. You took it from me once. I don't want to do the same thing to you."
"What are you saying?"
"I've missed you."
She hesitated for a moment before she closed the gap between him and wrapped her father in hug.
"I missed you too," he breathed into her hair. Ursula heard the smile and relief in his tone.
They continued to hug for a moment, unaware of the others that remained in the cabin with the two of them, before they both pulled away from the embrace. She looked at him again and realized that while she didn't want him to leave her, she also couldn't leave with him.
Ursula looked down at Cruella where she laid on the floor, still unconscious from the frying pan to the back of the head. She shook her head and crouched down beside the woman before she reached out and ran a hand through Cruella's hair.
"I can't leave her," Ursula confessed.
"Seriously," Emma asked, and Ursula tried to burn a hold through the blonde's face with a single look. "You think she's going to stop working with the villains for you?"
"You call us villains, but the only people that have ever wronged me or let me down are so-called heroes."
Ursula shot a dirty look at the Charmings before she looked down at Cruella again with such tenderness and care.
"If you're saying you want to stay here," her father started to speak again.
Ursula looked up at him, but kept a hand on Cruella.
"I'll stay, too. If that's what you want. Just…promise me you won't harm anyone while you continue to work with the others," he finished.
Ursula puffed out a sigh and smiled up at him.
"I want you to stay," she told him.
He nodded and smiled back.
She looked around the room and slight panic arose as she realized there were too many heroes in a hideout for villains.
"You should go," Ursula said to Emma. She looked over at the Charmings and her partial niceness instantly vanished. "None of you should be here when they get back."
The Charmings untied August and the three of them and Hook started to leave, but Emma and Poseidon lingered.
"Take your friend and run. When they find out you got away from me they aren't going to be pleased. With any of us."
Emma nodded and only then did she head out with the others. Poseidon, however, stayed.
"Father, go. I'll join you when I can, but you can't stay here. Find a place in town, but leave the cabin and don't come back."
"Why…can't you leave her?"
"She's a…friend. I can't abandon her. We've been through a lot together and I wouldn't walk away from her. I've never left her before and I don't intend to now."
"You really care about her," he noted. "You've always held a special place in your heart for humans."
"She's not like any other human," Ursula defended the woman. "She's different."
"She's important to you," he reiterated his point.
Ursula gulped and reluctantly nodded in agreement with his statement.
He looked her over for a moment, assessed her like she was a child with a badly scraped knee and he needed to comfort her, and then glanced at Cruella.
"I think I understand," Poseidon said, almost knowingly from what Ursula could tell. "Please, be careful."
Ursula nodded and flashed him a watery smile before he finally made his exit. She looked down at Cruella one last time and stroked her thumb over the woman's cheek before she came up with a cover story. She would need one if she expected to survive.