Emma nodded and ran her fingers through her golden hair then before sighing in resignation. She was anxious, finally ready to tell Regina how she felt about her and what she thinks happened.
"Okay, when I woke up I was in shock. Not because I was in bed naked with you but because I couldn't believe we might have….you know….and I couldn't remember it, any of it. So I was freaking the hell out, thinking that maybe you would remember and either hate me or wake up, not remember and avoid me altogether. " Emma blurted out, the verbal dam finally breaking, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
Regina was stunned into silence temporarily by Emma's confession, "Wow, well that's a relief of sorts."
Emma just looked at her like she didn't hear what she had said. She shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of her impending tears, "A relief? How?"
"Well I felt the same way. The possibility that we had had sex and that I didn't remember, I was scared that you would remember, hate me and never talk to me again." Regina admitted.
"Oh I could never hate you Regina, never in a million years."
"So what do you think happened?"
"I personally feel like I took advantage of you. You were drunk and vulnerable because of your feelings for Robin and I took advantage of the situation. I'm so sorry." Emma hung her head down in shame.
"Emma Swan! You never took advantage of me! I may have been a little drunk but I was in full possession of my faculties! And may I add you were drunk too! I could say the same about me taking advantage of you!" Regina spewed verbally.
Emma rolled her forest green eyes dramatically, "Please, I don't think you could take advantage of me if I was completely unconscious. You're not that kind of person."
"So I have an important question for you then," time seemed to stretch out as she paused. "Do you have feelings for me?" She hopefully inquired, biting her full lower lip between pearly teeth.
Pulling her shapely legs up toward her chest to essentially steady herself for rejection, hands starting to sweat Emma proffered, "Yes, how could I not have feelings for you. We've been friends for years, we know almost everything about each other and we've experienced some of the hardest moments of our lives together."
"Please Emma, you know what I'm talking about!" The brunette was getting upset with Emma dodging the question. "Do you have romantic feelings for me?" She implored dramatically.
"YES ALRIGHT! YES I DO! There I said it!" Emma shouted flailing her arms in the air. She began to get up from the blanket but Regina grabbed her wrist, pulling her back down.
Regina started to tear up, "Really?"
"Yes, really. I have for a very long time." Emma quietly whispered while looking intently at her crush and reaching out to wipe the tears from her dark eyes with her thumb, "Why do you think I've been distant these past eight or nine months? I couldn't stand seeing you with Robin, happy with him and not me."
"Oh Emma. I have feelings for you too. I have for years I just didn't know how to tell you and I didn't want to lose your friendship if you didn't feel the same way. Then when you found Killian I thought all possibilities went down the drain."
"So since we feel the same, what are we going to do? I don't know where to go from here, do you?" Emma contemplated the options out loud.
Thinking intensely, Regina answered cautiously, "I think that we should….take things slowly, since we don't really remember everything that happened that night. And until we do shouldn't we tell our friends."
"Well," Emma started, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand nervously, "Ruby and Belle kind of already figured it out. I guess I wasn't very good at hiding my feelings," She shrugged.
"Yes well, I had no idea," Regina smirked crookedly.
"Well now you do," Emma said facetiously, as she returned the smirk with her own lopsided grin.
They sat silently together in their revelations and absorbed the information the other provided as far as their feelings go. They were not saying a word but not feeling like they needed to either. Scooting over toward the brunette, Emma stretched out her hand and cupped her unblemished face, with the exception of a small scar above her lip, her palm gently holding her cheek.
Feeling butterflies in her stomach for what she was about to suggest, "Would it be okay if I kissed you?" The blonde whispered into the air just loud enough for Regina to hear.
An enormous smile graced the brunette's perfect face, feeling her heart starting to race like a runaway freight train, "Of course you can, I would like nothing more," She said losing her breath.
Leaning in painstakingly slow, Emma paused once she was mere centimeters from her friend's luscious lips. Feeling her breath on her lips Regina couldn't wait any longer and pounced into Emma's arms crashing their lips together for the first time since that fateful night. Wrapping her hands around Regina's hips, Emma squeezed them tightly trying to restrain the unbridled passion that was looming. Regina wove her hands through the wavy golden locks of her crush's hair. Lips sliding smoothly against one another, Emma felt Regina's tongue swipe the crease of her lips begging for entrance which was granted more than willingly. Their soft, velvety tongues dancing with effortless comfort like they were meant to be doing this all along. Pretty soon air became an issue so they broke the kiss off, breathing hard. Emma was still holding the raven haired beauty's hips close to hers and the latter woman curling her petite hands behind Emma's neck, foreheads touching. Trying to catch their breath they looking into the other's eyes, divulging their needs and wants. Emerald orbs dove into the deep brown ones threatening to drown in the emotion in them.
"Oh wow," Emma muttered while leaning back, "That was...that was indescribable." She was not ready to let go of the woman's hips just yet. Stretching a pale arm up from Regina's hip toward her face, Emma softly ran her thumb across her lipstick smudged lips before slowly tucking a strand of ebony hair behind a perfect earlobe.
Regina hummed out loud from the nerve tingling touch, leaning into the other woman's hands, "Yes it was." Pulling away further from Emma, "So what do we do now? I mean tonight. Do you want to go get something to eat or just go home?"
"I would love to go home and maybe paint...with you. If that's alright with you? It's been forever since we've just painted."
"Sounds nice, let's do it."
Getting up off of the sandy, pale pink, beach blanket they brushed themselves off, picked it up, shook it out, then folded it. Packing up the Bug really quickly, Emma was smiling like a fool. She couldn't believe the turn of events and her luck in finding out Regina feels the same way about her that she feels for Regina. Rushing to beat the brunette to her car door, she reached out and opened the door for her, acting like a perfect gentlewoman.
"How chivalrous," Regina taunted and winked at her.
Feeling her face redden, she just nodded her acknowledgment and closed the door behind Regina as she got in. Running around to the driver's side door she clambered in the vanilla freshened vehicle, put her seatbelt on, and they took off into the night.
As they were driving to the flaxen tressed woman's dorm Regina remembered more from their previous 'encounter' but decided to hold off on telling Emma the x-rated content until she remembered more herself as to not scare her off. Blushing furiously, she smiled, small at first then it got much larger as the remaining memories replayed through her head as Kelly Clarkson's latest hit boomed through the car speakers….
Love So Soft
Yeah Every kiss is a door
Can I knock on yours?
Can we knock a little more?
If a touch is a keep
Keep on twisting, keep on locking, keep on turning me
Let me in
I wanna be closer to you, let you under my skin
If I let you in
You gotta be careful with it
Let me tell you again, hey
Love so soft, you ain't had nothing softer
Break it then you buy it and it sure gonna cost ya
Love so soft that you can't rub off
You gon' love it if you try it
Got you hooked, now you're caught up
Love so soft, so soft
Love so soft, so soft
If a thought was the truth
We'd be doing all the kinds of things I know you wanna do
But I need, need to know (need to know)
Will you protect me, respect me if I let you close?
Let (oh, let) me in (let me in, let me in)
I wanna be closer to you, let you under my skin
If I let (if I let) you in (let you in, let you in)
You gotta be careful with it
Let me tell you again, hey
Love so soft, you ain't had nothing softer
Break it then you buy it and it sure gonna cost ya
Love so soft that you can't rub off
You gon' love it if you try it
Got you hooked, hey you're caught up
Love so soft, so soft
Love so soft, so soft
If you want this love, got to hold it tight
Never let it go, baby, let it give you life (give you life)
If you want this love, got to hold it tight
Never let it go, baby, let it give you life
Love so soft, you ain't had nothing softer (you ain't had, you ain't had)
Break it then you buy it and it sure gonna cost ya
Love so soft that you can't rub off
You gon' love it if you try it
Got you hooked, now you're caught up
If you want this love (if you want), got to hold it tight (if you want)
Never let it go, baby (no) (Love so soft, so soft)
(Love so soft, so soft)
Love so soft, love so soft, love so soft (oh oh)
If you want this love, got to hold it tight
Never let it go, baby
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
If you want it, baby
So soft, yeah