This is a shorter chapter than the others and I'm not very happy about how it turned out, but I hope you like it. :)

All mistakes are mine.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8

Emma was having breakfast while thinking about the events from the evening before. She thought about how she had snapped at Regina, about Regina nearly killing her, about how Brad had extinguished Regina's fireball just by touching her hand, about how the fire from the fireball hadn't done anything to his arm and he literally had put his hand through it when he had reached for Regina's. She thought about Gold's visit, about everything he had said, but most of all, she thought about how broken Regina had sounded when she cried. 'How can you lose someone twice? Who is the stable boy? Is he the one Regina lost?' Her parents had already left for work when Emma woke up, so she didn't have a chance to ask them about it like Gold had suggested. The thing that couldn't leave her mind was why he had suggested that, how did they know about him, how were they connected. She was lost in her thoughts when her phone buzzed, announcing that she had a message. It was from Regina. She opened it quickly.

'I expect you to be at my place at 11:30 sharp for your lesson. Don't be late."

Emma stared at her phone for a moment not believing her eyes. First she hadn't expected Regina to be up this early after the night she had had, second she hadn't expected Regina to contact her about anything other than to tell her in what way she should expect her death, and third, she had thought that the woman would not want to see her and even less to be near her. But Regina had changed so maybe she shouldn't have been surprised.

'R u sure?' – Emma texted back.

'I wouldn't have texted you if I wasn't.' – came the quick reply.

'K, c u then.'

'Am I supposed to call that a message? I know that big words confuse you dear, so at least don't shorten the small ones you do know.'

Emma smiled despite the insult, she loved their banter, she loved spending time with Regina, and so she really hoped that they would be able to get past the thing that had happened yesterday.

Regina was sitting in the den trying to read a book. She was trying to distract herself with reading so that she wouldn't think about what happened the night before, about what could've happened. Needless to say, she was failing miserably. Even though she had read the same page little over three times, she had no idea what was going on, her mind kept reminding her that she had almost killed Emma, kept reminding her that if Brad hadn't been there to stop her… And that's as far as that thought went every time, she couldn't, didn't want to finish that thought. 'I thought that I was changing, but I was clearly wrong. I can't change. I will never change.' Yes she had been in a very dark place, and yes she hadn't been thinking clearly because of the alcohol, and yes Emma had said a very wrong thing at the worst possible time, but that had not given her the right to react in the way she had. The thing Regina couldn't understand however was why Emma had reacted the way she had.

Regina would be lying if she said that Brad's idea (maybe not the best of ideas) of throwing bottles hadn't cheered her up and got her out of her dark place for a little while, so she really had meant it when she had invited Emma to join in, but instead of joining them Emma had accused her of being drunk. It wasn't the accusation (because she really had been drunk), but the judgment in Emma's tone that had made Regina defensive, and how did Regina do defense? Simple, she didn't. Regina's defense was offense and because of that, she had said the things she had, to Emma. After that things had spiraled out of control.

There was a knock. She checked the time and saw that it was 11:30. 'Hm… She really is improving.' – Regina thought with a smile as she walked to the front door.

"Punctual again?" – she opened the door and teased Emma. She was determined to act like the day before had never happened. As much as she wanted to apologize to Emma about her reaction, she did not want to talk about her feelings, and her feelings would surely come up if they would start talking about the evening before.

Emma just smiled as an answer.

"Focus Emma… Feel your magic…"

Emma was trying, she really was, she didn't want to disappoint Regina, but she just couldn't concentrate. She had been trying to move the damn apple over the back yard for an hour and a half and she was tired and starting to get really angry and Regina was not helping. 'How can Regina act like nothing happened? I mean really? I said some really bad things and she almost killed me… You cannot just forget that happened for fuck's sake!'

"Concentrate!"

"I can't!"

"Well you have to!"

"I CAN'T!" – Emma's had it – "I can't focus because I can't stop thinking about last night!" – she saw Regina's face fall for a second before the mask was back on.

"Maybe we should try something else." – Regina ignored her statement.

"Yes let's. Let's try talking."

"No." – Regina answered.

"What do you mean no?" – Emma asked confused.

"I mean no." – Regina said casually – "We're not here to talk, I'm not you psychiatrist, we're here so that I can teach you magic and that's what we're going to do."

"How can you say that!? How can you pretend that nothing happened yesterday!? How can we just get back to magic lessons after what happened?" – Emma wasn't going to let this go. Regina was clearly upset with her and they couldn't move forward if they didn't clear things out first.

"Look Emma…" – Regina's expression softened – "… I'm sorry, I really am. I shouldn't have reacted in the way I had. I was just not myself…" – Regina turned her face away from Emma.

'Wait, what is she talking about?'

"… I… I nearly killed you… So I understand if you don't want to continue with the magic lessons. I'm sorry Emma." – Regina whispered the last part.

"Are you for real?" – Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing – "That's all you've got to say?"

"I said I was sorry." – Regina faced her again – "I can't change what happened. What else do you want!?"

"I want to talk Regina." – Emma softly said and moved closer to her – "I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too. You wouldn't have reacted the way you did if I hadn't provoked you. I said some really shitty things yesterday, but I was just so angry. I don't know what's happening to me, I get angry so easily."

"Well if you got so angry just because I brought out your past, then I'm afraid that your magic is taking over quicker than I thought." – Regina commented.

'Oh my God, Regina.' – Emma exhaled shaking her head – 'You really are blind.'

"Well please then, open my eyes."

"What?" – Emma asked confused. 'Did I say that out loud? Well shit, how am I going to get out of this?' – "I… well… I…" – she stammered – "… I mean… It wasn't the only thing that got me angry, I was angry from before." – she ended sheepishly.

"You really aren't good at lying, are you? Now tell me the truth." – Regina smirked.

"Just let it go Regina."

"You wanted to talk, now talk."

"It's nothing, really…" – Emma tried again.

"You're lying."

"God, let it go Regina." – Emma started to walk away.

"You're not walking away." – Regina grabbed her hand and turned her around – "So when you want to talk, we have to talk, but when you don't want to, you're just going to run away."

"It was Brad, ok! He was the main reason I got so angry!"

"What? Why?"

"Oh my God… Just don't." – Emma started to turn in order to walk away again, but Regina grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Don't you try to walk away again! Tell me!"

Emma looked in Regina's eyes for a few seconds and then grabbed her by the lapels of her blazer and crashed their lips together.

Emma's lips were on hers. Emma's lips were on hers and it felt so good. Regina was shocked still for a moment, but then it was like her lips had a mind of their own. She started to kiss back and it felt oh so good. Her hands moved to Emma's hips and one of Emma's moved up from her lapel to tangle in her hair. When Emma bit her bottom lip, Regina exhaled a shaky breath and opened her mouth to welcome Emma's tongue in it. Their tongues danced together slowly, sensually, it was intoxicating, it was beautiful. Regina couldn't think, she could only feel, it was like her brain had shut down and the lack of thoughts had cleared a huge space for her feelings. Her thoughts came crashing back though, when her back suddenly hit the bark of her apple tree. 'What am I doing? What are we doing?'

Then it hit her. Regina realized why Emma's thoughts mattered to her, why she felt safe with her, why she wanted Emma to feel safe with her, why Emma mattered to her… 'Oh my God, I have feelings for her. I can't have feelings for her and she can't have feelings for me. She doesn't know me, she doesn't know all the things I've done.' And then she realized something else too. Everything she felt about Emma, she felt about Brad too. 'What should I do?'

And then Henry came to mind. How would he feel about her and Emma, about her and Brad? Regina needed time to think things through. She couldn't have Henry hurting, after all Henry's feelings mattered the most, he mattered the most.

"Emma stop…" – Regina weekly pushed her away. Emma seemed confused for a few seconds, but then Regina saw hurt, fear and rejection flash in Emma's eyes before she made a few steps back in order to get away from her.

"Regina I'm sorry." – Emma whispered and backed away a little more.

"Emma wait…" – Regina took a few steps toward Emma, but the look in Emma's eyes froze her in place. She wanted to tell her that she need time, that she needed to think about everything, but the words were stuck in her mouth.

"I… I'm sorry… I won't tell Brad anything." – was the last thing Emma said before she turned around and ran away.