Hideaway
Feeling lighter than ever, Regina stepped outside after bidding Ruby goodnight.
"I can't believe I've just poured my royal heart out to a werewolf," Regina had said before she left.
Ruby nodded. "We have an irresistible charm about us," she assured.
Regina chewed the corner of her lip. "Listen, Ruby...can we...?"
"Keep this between us?" Ruby asked. "Of course! Nothing wrong with a little bit of girl talk," she winked, and her eyes went wide with sudden thought. "Actually, I probably will tell Belle. I tell her everything though," she said honestly, her face lighting up again.
Regina sighed. "I can't have Rumpel-"
"No, she won't tell him," Ruby assured, and Regina left not feeling a speck of regret for sharing her feelings.
It was still dark, and Regina looked at the enormous city clock: 3:28 A.M. She wondered where Emma was and if it'd be worth it to go looking for her again. She decided against it, but she'd be giving Miss Swan a serious talking to next time she saw her, and of course there would be a next time.
She knew in her broken heart that she would never forsake Emma, even if it eventually got her killed. Regina Mills was not afraid to die, especially for her family.
Yet as she walked to her house in the still of the night, she was astonished to discover Emma standing on her front porch waiting. Regina crossed her arms, stopping twenty feet from Emma, narrowing her eyes at her.
She was shocked when, without a word, Emma zoomed forward and placed a wooden stake in Regina's hand, pressing the point to her own chest.
"Emma," Regina breathed. She pulled back, holding the stake the same way she had clutched the Dark One's dagger: a thing she didn't want; white knuckles all the way.
"You've been drinking," Emma said.
"Can you blame me?"
Emma looked away sadly. "I want this to be over, Regina," she said. "Destroy me."
Regina examined Emma and saw several holes in her clothes, not to mention there was a hole in her chest still healing. Regina tilted her head and realized she could see through the hole, and it suddenly closed up slowly before her eyes.
"What happened to you?" Regina asked.
"I got the ass kicking I deserved," Emma said. "It doesn't matter...about earlier-"
"What were you thinking threatening me like that?" Regina asked, arms crossed, and eyes blazing. "After all I've done, were you pushing me away...trying to hurt my feelings?" Regina asked. "Because if so: you've succeeded," she said, her expression going from wide eyed pain to pouty to finally cool indifference. "Fortunately my feelings regenerate five times faster than a human woman's. Comes with being an other worldly Queen," She added vainly tossing her hair and looking away dramatically.
Emma scoffed laughing softly, marveling at Regina's ever expressive face.
"What are you laughing at, Miss Swan?"
"I'm sorry," Emma said still smiling, unsuccessfully stifling a giggle. "It's just...you made me feel like I was myself again just now," Emma said smiling brightly.
"Emma, you're still you," Regina said. "You're just-"
"Actually, without you I'm not me at all, Regina."
A pause: a breeze that froze time as it passed slowly.
"I'm in love with you, Regina," Emma confessed suddenly. Okay Swan, that's way too many times you've said her name, she thought looking down, brow furrowed, hands adjusting her belt or something.
Regina froze like a gazelle caught in headlights, her coffee eyes wide. A long twenty seconds passed as she tried to reconcile hearing the thing she wanted to hear most from Emma.
"I can't hide it anymore," Emma explained innocently. "With my new hunger, this new power, the fact that I literally died...fuck me Regina I just...I love you. I love you like the day is long! Like Shakespeare!"
"Who's Shakespeare?" Regina breathed, eyes still wide with amazement.
"No one important," Emma went on. "I love you like I could never have loved Hook! He wanted me to, but...I just couldn't, but you are so happy with Robin I just...clung to the nearest option." She said breathlessly.
"I think about you constantly. One time Snow, my mom, caught me reading a book about how to raise a child with another woman. I learned magic just to impress you," Emma admitted.
"Fuck! I hate magic," she went on. "But more than anything I want to make you happy, I know you thought it was just some silly phase with Henry, but truly all I've ever wanted was to make you happy, Regina. Now everything is just so fucked up! It's not fair! I know you must think it's absurd, but every long, cold second I have spent dead I have just been wishing so hard I had told you how I felt when I was alive," Emma confessed, as scarlet tears began to run down her face, creating an exquisite contrast against her cool blue eyes.
"So please," she knelt before Regina, taking her hand and pointing the stake at her own chest. "I know I'm pathetic. Please just put me out of my misery."
Regina Looked down at Emma with the stake in her hand. She lifted the point high in the air, and suddenly set the wooden stake ablaze in her and, crushing the coals and letting the cinders fall to the earth. She took Emma by the shoulders of her dirty, red leather jacket and pulled her up, finally kissing her with every ounce of passion she had been holding back through all the years.
Emma was amazed to feel Regina holding her, kissing her, and she closed her eyes and surrendered to the sweet feeling, wrapping her arms around Regina's waist. They kissed like they were starving for one another, and time stood blissfully still.
"Emma," Regina breathed, looking down.
They weren't standing on the ground, but hovering twenty feet in the air.
Regina laughed softly, enjoying the feeling of being weightless in Emma's arms.
"Is this another dream?" Regina asked, her eyes wide and vulnerable.
"This isn't a dream," Emma answered softly.
Regina suddenly pulsed with joy in Emma's arms as they floated slowly through the air. "It's really true?" Regina asked. "You love me?"
"I love you," Emma said again. "I, Emma Swan, love you: Regina Mills."
"How long?" Regina asked, and Emma couldn't believe the bliss of hearing the high sweet tones of Regina's sultry, breathy voice. She had spent years admiring Regina's expressions and tone changes. Her low tone power voice: sexy and authoritative, threatening and violent.
"Do you remember the day we met?" Emma asked.
"Yes: all I could think was who is this woman here to ruin my life, and why does she have to be so damn intriguing," Regina confessed, holding Emma a little tighter. "Not to mention incredibly sexy with a style unlike any other's."
Emma smiled shyly, and if it were possible she'd have blushed. "Well, all I could think was: yes, yes this woman is the mother of my child. I used to get so frustrated around you because you clearly had no interest in me, and I...have been hopelessly in love since Henry brought me to you," Emma said.
"No interest?" Regina said. "Emma, there were some days I couldn't go five minutes without thinking about you. I told myself it was hatred...and then...I used the word friendship, but...in my heart I always knew you were the thing I wanted most."
They kissed passionately hovering through the starlit sky.
Down below, two were watching. One was Ruby, who admired the full moon through her wolf eyes, and she caught Regina and Emma's sweet kiss silhouetted against the moon. She grinned, threw her head back, and gave a joyful howl.
Not fifty yards away Robin stood in Hook's apartment and looked at the moon through the window, watching Regina and Emma kiss. A rage filled him. He suddenly threw the half empty bottle of rum he'd been drinking against the wall with an angry howl.
Though Regina and Emma did not hear them.
"Let's go home," Regina said, as Emma slowly set them on the ground.
"Home?" Emma asked, a single red tear falling from her cool blue eyes.
"Home," Regina assured again, taking Emma by the hand. "Henry's inside sleeping. He's missed you."
They crept slowly up the stairs like cats, and Regina turned and wiped the blood tear from Emma's face before knocking softly on Henry's door. "Moms!" They were both startled when he suddenly opened their door. He hadn't been asleep at all! He rushed into Emma's arms and held her tightly. "I missed you!" he said.
"I missed you too," Emma breathed, her eyes filling with red tears, which she frantically tried to blink away. Henry looked between Emma and Regina.
"Are you home now?" he asked hopefully, looking at Emma. "You'll sleep here all day, right?"
"Is that what you want?" Emma asked, a red tear falling despite her efforts. She quickly wiped it away. "Even though I'm a monster?"
"You're not a monster," Henry said definitely, looked at her with the pure love of a child's. "You're my mom."
He took Emma's hand and lead her into his room where there were shelves and shelves of books on vampires. Regina stood in the threshold leaning her head against the door jamb watching her family, and she realized she felt a total peace unlike anything she'd ever experienced.
This is happiness, she thought. Finally.
"Here, try this," Henry said as he handed Emma a lavender blossom. Emma inhaled it and felt and instant soothing rush run through her. She was calmed in a way that made her feel human again.
"What's that?" she asked, totally amazed.
"Lavender," Henry said. "It's like cat nip for vampires. Oh! And look at this!" Henry opened one of the oldest looking books on the shelve to a picture of a ring that looked like a serpent swallowing it's own tail. "This is the Ring of Avalon," he said.
Emma narrowed her eyes at Henry. "That's kind of sweet, kid...but I'm not so into jewelry."
"What about jewelry that lets you walk in the sunlight again?" Henry asked smartly.
Emma's eyes widened. "Henry that's brilliant!" she said, and Henry beamed proudly. Henry took Regina's hand, then Emma's and lay on his bed reading from books together, sharing facts. Emma and Regina made eye contact as Henry read to them, and Emma squeezed Regina's hand behind Henry. Eventually Henry yawned.
"Ok, kid," Emma said, getting up and tucking him in. "Only one hour until dawn." Henry nodded sadly.
"You promise you're staying here," he said.
"I promise," she said firmly, kissing him goodnight.
"Operation Family has been a total success so far," Henry said to Regina as she leaned in to kiss him goodnight.
"Yeah," Regina said softly. "Listen, I haven't slept in a week, and I know we usually get together in the mornings, but how about we sleep in today. Have breakfast in the afternoon?" Regina asked.
Henry nodded with a yawn. "Sounds good, mom. "I've been up all night keeping watch for you," he said giving a sleepy smile, and Regina felt her heart lift with pride. He must get that from his mother, she thought. Henry turned over on his side as Regina shut his door, and just before it closed Henry saw Emma take Regina's hand in the light of the hall way and turned over, smiling with relief into his pillow.
Regina ran Emma a warm bath and added Lavender oil, after learning it soothed vampires. She turned the lights down low in the bathroom.
Emma stood completely still, her blue eyes locked on Regina's chestnut eyes, as Regina slowly undressed her. Gently taking her torn red leather jacket off, Emma raised her arms as Regina pulled her ripped, dirty, bloody white tank top off. Unzipping her jeans, kneeling and pulling her boots and socks off.
They never took their eyes off one another as Regina stared passionately up at Emma, when she hooked her fingers into the waist of Emma's jeans and pulled them down. Emma stepped out of them and kicked them to the side, standing before Regina naked. Regina pulled her body against her and kissed Emma softly. It was a thrill for Emma to be completely bare while Regina still wore her black pants and button down.
Regina took Emma's hand and guided her to the bathtub, laying her down in the soothing water, and kneeling beside the tub lightly pouring warm water over Emma, washing the dirt and the blood from her arms and back. She washed Emma's hair and poured warm water over her scalp and Emma closed her eyes in ecstasy. When she was finished, she drained the tub, rinsing Emma one last time before wrapping a soft towel around her.
Regina peeked her head out into the hallway and could see the sky outside was turning gray with the first light. She waved her hand and blackout curtains appeared everywhere, shielding Emma from the sunlight as she followed Regina, holding tightly to her hand, into Regina's bedroom.
"You know," Regina said. "You'd be safe here, but there's an even safer place where no one will ever be able to find you," Regina said. "I've never told anyone about it."
Emma nodded solemnly. "Show me," she said.
Regina held her hand out to Emma. "Bite me," she said.
Emma hesitated.
"My blood is the only way to open the door," Regina explained, and Emma sank her fangs into Regina's palm as gently as she could, stealing a taste: Regina tasted like sweet apples and wine. "I've never done this outside of my vault before," Regina said.
She closed her eyes concentrating, and Emma watched curiously as she reached blindly forward, summoning her hidden realm. Regina felt static as she brought the door closer, and finally her bloody hand clasped the doorknob and she opened it. She took Emma's hand and lead her side the invisible door, closing it behind them.
They may as well have been gone from reality.
"What is this place?" Emma whispered into the dark.
"It's a hideaway I built for myself after I lost Daniel," Regina said. "I've never showed anyone, and it can only be accessed with my blood."
Emma pricked her finger on one of her fangs, taking Regina's hand and healing her puncture wounds. "Thank you," Regina breathed.
"Here," she took Emma's hands. "While you're sleeping here: this place is yours. Close your eyes and listen to my voice. Feel the ground you're standing on: fell it hum with life."
Emma concentrated, found Regina was right: she seemed to be standing on a buzzing floor, and felt herself suddenly connect to the room as if it were a faithful servant.
"Now manipulate it: create anything you want."
Emma envisioned a perfect place to sleep, and suddenly a double wide, purple coffin with velvet plush for lining appeared.
"Really?" Regina raised her eyes. Emma gave a dark smile, and suddenly the coffin turned into a heart-shaped mattress. "Ok, the coffin was better," Regina said, and Emma stifled a laugh changing it back.
"Anything you need can be created here," Regina explained leading Emma to her coffin.
"This is amazing," Emma said, climbing in and Regina smiled proudly, pulling a lavender flower from the room and placing it beside Emma in the coffin. . "Thank you, Regina," she whispered. "I am going to fall asleep now, and when I do you won't be able to wake me until nightfall. Don't be alarmed if I appear well...dead."
"I understand," Regina said, pulling a black satin sheet up around Emma's naked body.
"Stay with me for a little?" Emma asked. Regina nodded, slipping her clothes off. Emma held her hand out for her and Regina stepped into the coffin, as Emma wrapped her arms around her from behind and held her tightly. The lid dropped slowly on its own and Regina felt Emma's body stiffen. "I love you," she whispered into Regina's ear, and then she was gone.
Regina closed her eyes, setting an alarm to be woken by 1 PM, and finally, blissfully, fell into sleep.