Chapter Seven

Emma looked around the kitchen as the yellow smoke dissipated. Regina was gone, though she could hear her voice from the other room. She listened, and it only took a moment for Emma to realize that it was her mother Regina was talking to.

"Fucking wonderful," Emma murmured, rolling her eyes.

She glanced over at the stove and saw the pan of half-cooked pancakes there, and pouted a little. She'd really wanted those pancakes, and she felt bad that Regina had wasted her time and food making them just for her to poof away without warning. She picked up the pan and scraped the remnants into the trash, figuring a little cleaning was the least she could do.

She looked at her torn up knuckles as she worked. The blood was dry now but her hands were still a little swollen and hurt like a bitch, but she kind of liked it still.

Emma was about to head into the other room to face her mother and Regina, when she suddenly became very aware of how hungry she was. She was never one to skip breakfast, but right now, she was starving. It reminded her of times when she was young and there just wasn't enough food for all the kids in the house. She hadn't felt this hungry in a very long time.

She supposed a little breakfast before facing Regina couldn't hurt. She wasn't sure if her body and mind would betray her again, so she decided she should at least eat something first. She pulled open Regina's fridge and smirked at all the perfectly labelled Tupperware containers of left-overs and other food. Her eyes immediately landed on lasagna.

She shrugged and decided lasagna for breakfast was acceptable, as there was much worse she could be doing at the moment. She opened the container and used her magic to heat it instantly, before grabbing a fork and digging in. She ate it so fast she barely registered the taste, and when it was gone, she was still starving.

She wondered if this was another moment of herself, magnified and she dug through the fridge for something else. She found some sort of macaroni salad that smelled delicious, and returned to her spot at the kitchen island, tossing the empty lasagna container into the sink with a small thudding sound before digging into the salad.

"Emma?"

Emma looked up to see her mother and Regina standing in the kitchen now. She guessed they must have heard the sound from the tossed Tupperware container.

"Hey," Emma mumbled, through a mouthful of macaroni salad.

Regina glanced at the sink and then back at Emma. "Did you already eat the lasagna?"

Emma shrugged. "I'm so hungry," she said, taking another bite of the salad.

"Well, I was going to make you pancakes," Regina reminded her.

"Yeah… sorry," Emma said, dropping her eyes immediately. "I just needed some air."

"Emma, what's going on? What happened?" Snow asked, not able to keep silent anymore.

"What's going on?" Emma repeated, feeling the annoyance rising inside her. Apparently that was an emotion she could still feel. "I'm cursed. What the fuck do you think is going on?"

"Emma!" Snow gasped. She knew her daughter could use some colourful language, but she had never said that word directly to her.

"Emma, what happened to your hands?" Regina cut in, just noticing her mangled knuckles. She reached out to take Emma's hand but Emma pulled back out of her reach.

"Nothing. I'm fine," Emma said, refusing to look at her. She could feel that same attraction from earlier this morning building up again, and she wasn't sure she could take Regina's physical touch at the moment.

"Let me heal them for you," Regina offered.

"No!" Emma cried, grabbing at her knuckles and squeezing one of the deeper abrasions. The searing pain grounded her and helped her focus. "I need it."

Regina was about to object until she saw the look of pure desperation on Emma's face. She wasn't entirely sure what Emma had meant, but she was quite sure that whatever it was, Emma really did need those wounds for something.

"Okay," Regina said, simply, and Emma breathed a sigh of relief. "Your mother was just telling me that the fairies have some more information on Merlin, and she was going to meet with them now. Do you want to go?"

Emma bit her lip and shook her head. She wasn't ready to see Blue again just yet.

Regina followed Snow back out into the foyer, leaving Emma alone in the kitchen again. She put her fork back in the macaroni salad bowl, only to realize that was now empty as well. She tossed the bowl into the sink and went back to the fridge.

"Seriously, Miss Swan?"

Emma jumped at Regina's voice, and spun around looking a little guilty. "I'll give you some food money," she offered with a shrug.

Regina smirked and shook her head. "And I thought living with a teenage boy was bad. Now I see where Henry gets it from."

Emma shut the fridge and sat back down at her stool at the kitchen island, idly scratching her fingernails over the cuts on her knuckles. "I literally can't help it. It's like I feel like I can't get enough… I need to devour, like, everything."

Regina narrowed her eyes on Emma as she took the seat next to her. "Want to tell me what the hell happened this morning."

Emma shrugged. "Not really."

"I think you should," Regina pressed.

"I don't think you'd want to know, to be honest," Emma admitted. She could feel her heart rate picking up again. Regina was way too close. She slid her stool back a couple inches, hoping Regina wouldn't pick up on it.

But, of course, she did. She always picked up on everything.

"Emma, please, whatever it is, just tell me so I can't help you," Regina insisted.

Emma smirked. "You're not gonna want to give me the help I need right now. Trust me."

"Emma," Regina said again, putting her hand on top of Emma's. The touch shot through Emma like wildfire, igniting every nerve in her body. Emma's breath hitched in her throat and she felt all that heat surge straight to her core and she knew she was in trouble.

"Emma?"

"Iwanttofuckyou," Emma blurted out, so quickly it even took her own mind a moment to process what she had just said. She watched Regina's eyes widen in shock, and she knew that was likely the last thing she ever expected to hear from Emma's lips.

"Wh-what?" Regina stammered. It was rare that Emma ever saw Regina at a loss for what to say. She couldn't think of a single incident off the top of her head and she knew that she was screwed now.

"Regina, I don't… I can't explain what's happening to me. It's like every normal urge a person would have is amplified by a million and it's overwhelming. It's like… I want to punch my mom and I want to fuck you and I want to eat everything I see and the third option seems the safest, you know?"

Emma's eyes pleaded with Regina, hoping that there was some possibility that she did know.

Regina drew in a deep breath, trying to process everything that Emma had just confessed. "Well, I suppose I should be honoured that at least I'm not the one you want to punch."

In spite of everything, Emma laughed. She wasn't sure exactly what reaction she had expected, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn't that.

"I had to get out of here this morning because I was this close to grabbing you and pushing you up against a wall and just…" Emma let her voice trail off, as she was pretty sure that Regina already knew what she just wanted to do. She held up her hand, showing off the wounds. "This helps. The pain… helps me focus, in a fucked up kind of way. It's a good distraction."

"Okay," Regina acknowledged, and Emma had to wonder if she was accepting her mode of coping, or accepting the thing she needed to cope with.

"So… sorry if I just made everything hella weird between us. If you want me to go, I'll go," Emma said, tentatively, waiting for the rejection that she knew was coming. She knew there was no way that Regina would be okay with this, and her head was already formulating a dozen back-up plans for when the inevitable happened. She'd been kicked out of so many homes, what was one more anyway? And it wasn't like this was really her home, so why should she care at all?

"No. I want you to stay." Emma's eyes snapped up, in confusion. That, she really wasn't expecting. "I know you're fighting a difficult battle, Emma, and I told you, you don't have to face it alone."

"Would you still be cool with it if I told you I'm probably going to be thinking about what you might look like naked… like all the time?" Emma asked, wanting to make sure Regina knew just how serious this was.

Regina smirked. "Well, I'm sure you wouldn't be the first."

Emma sighed. "They're wasting their time with the fairies. Blue said once the curse took over, it would be too late. It's taking over, Regina, I can't feel it. I can feel myself slipping away."

"Then you need to fight harder, Emma. You're a survivor and you're a fighter and this is just another battle. You can win this," Regina stated, before glancing down at Emma's battered knuckles again. "Will you at least let me clean those? You're going to get an infection."

"Fine," Emma sighed, laying her hands out flat on the countertop, palms down and fingers splayed. She could see bits of wood splinters lodged in the wounds, and she guessed Regina was right. At least the alcohol would sting.

Regina waved her hand to conjure up a selection of first aid products on the table top. Emma licked her lips unconsciously, tasting the magic in the air around her. As redeemed as Regina was now, Emma could sense the darkness that still lingered in her magic, and it seemed to call to her. Emma could feel her heartrate quicken and her breath getting shallow.

"Emma, are you alright?" Regina asked, as she took stock of Emma's suddenly agitated state.

Emma nodded slowly, closing her eyes and willing herself to calm down. "It's… your magic," she whispered. "It's got some sort of effect on me."

"Okay," Regina said, as she grabbed a cloth and got up to wet it at the sink. "Then I won't use it around you anymore."

"Thank you," Emma breathed, as Regina began wiping the dry blood away with the cloth.

"You really did a number on your hands," she commented, as she picked up Emma's right hand in her left hand, and worked at getting the wood splinters out.

"Yeah, well you should see the other guy," Emma laughed. "Or, you know, the tree."

Regina raised an eyebrow but didn't comment as she reached for the alcohol. "This is probably going to sting."

"God, I hope so," Emma sighed, before she realized what she was saying. And it did sting. She hissed and then relaxed into the feeling. Again, the physical pain was enough to pull her out of her head and back into reality, and it was exactly what she needed. It made her feel human, once again.

Regina watched Emma's face as she cleaned out her wounds. The younger woman had her eyes closed, and she looked to be almost in bliss as Regina worked. Regina started to wonder if she was spending too much time with the ever-hopeful Charmings. She had been so busy trying to convince Emma that everything was fine, that she had been oblivious to how bad it had already gotten.

She realized that Emma knew better than any of them what was going on inside of her own head, and no amount of good vibes or reassurances were going to stop this curse from taking over.

"Emma," Regina sighed, as she began wrapping her knuckles with gauze, "if this all gets to be too much for you, tell me, alright? And we'll get out of Storybrooke."

Emma opened her eyes, meeting Regina's gaze. "You'd leave with me?"

"Well, I'm not about to let you go alone," Regina said, replacing Emma's right hand on the island, and picking up the left to get to work on cleaning that one out.

"What about everyone else?" Emma asked, quietly. "My parents and Henry?"

"Henry would come with us," Regina said, thinking her plan through as she went. "Your parents would have to stay here and run the town until we could come back. And they'd have to keep working on coming up with a solution. I'm not saying this has to happen, Emma, but please just remember that it's an option."

Emma nodded. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Please, stop thanking me, Emma," Regina sighed. "If you want to show your appreciation, do it through your honesty, alright? I know that opening up and talking about feelings isn't your favourite pastime, but I need to know what's going on with you, alright?"

"Okay," Emma agreed. "But talking about feelings isn't going to be an issue."

"What do you mean?"

Emma shrugged. "I'm not so sure I have emotions anymore," she said, flatly. "Yesterday I was scared and today I'm… nothing. Completely indifferent. All I feel is hungry. And a little horny. But mostly hungry at the moment."

Regina smirked and shook her head. "You know where the fridge is," she shrugged, as she finished wrapping Emma's other hand.

"Ugh," Emma groaned, dropping her head into her hands. "I don't want to have to figure out how to magically stretch out my jeans. Maybe I should just go out for a run. It might help me burn of some of this nervous energy. Wanna come?"

"Running?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not really my thing."

"Suit yourself," Emma shrugged, waving her hand to magically change herself into tight black jogging pants and a light blue tank top. She pulled her hair up in a high ponytail and winked at Regina before heading to the door.

Regina watched her go, dumbfounded. She sighed as she started cleaning up the first aid products, and replayed her previous conversation with Emma over in her mind. It occurred to her that Emma hadn't even been cursed twenty-four hours and she was already devising an escape plan.

But what else was she supposed to do?