Emma awoke the next morning and realized she was the little spoon. Her eyes fluttered open as she calibrated herself to the weight on her waist that could only have been the brunette's leg. She glanced down without moving and saw the delicate curve of Regina's fine ass thigh on her hip. Emma hissed quietly as another sensation came to her attention: Regina was cupping her left breast.
She looked down to find that her robe had come open in the night and her body was bared to the world and, it seemed, the brunette's wandering hands. "Regina." She whispered quietly; fearing that at any moment Henry or, irrationally, her mother, could come bursting through the door. The brunette tugged her closer, squeezing the flesh of her chest and burying her face in the back of Emma's head, inhaling deeply. Damn Regina and her ability to sleep deeply.
Emma tried to ease away, but to no avail; the woman's thigh clenched around her briefly and held her in place. But it was her slender hand that truly held the blonde captive. It began to move, gently cupping and rubbing, as if testing the weight of the flesh in her palm. Emma stifled a moan and licked her lips. "Regina, wake up!" she hissed. But the woman mumbled and ran her hand down the blonde's body unconsciously massaging her before returning to her left breast; the fingers stroked up to her nipple and clamped down lazily. "Regina!" Emma shouted.
"What?" The brunette awakened, totally oblivious to the situation of her body. "Why are you waking me so early on a Sunday morning, Miss Swan?" her voice was drowsy and annoyed and sexy as hell, in Emma's opinion.
"Madam Mayor, I suggest you release me."
"Release you?" The words snapped the brunette out of her sleeping state and a shock ran through her body as she found herself draped around the blonde like a familiar lover. Her thigh bare and heavy on the blonde's hip and her hand… "Oh, God." She exclaimed and snatched it from where it had been rolling her nipple back and forth. "Miss Swan!" she shouted as if it had been all Emma's fault.
"Don't yell at me." Emma sat up and looked at her in embarrassment and amusement. "I didn't do anything! I woke up with you wrapped around me like a panther on a tree."
"Well, I…well, I mean to say that…" Regina began with chagrin then snapped. "You should have woken me up!"
"I tried! But you sleep so damn hard!"
"Well then, that settles it! I was obviously dreaming." She rolled away and stood, wrapping her robe closely to her body but feeling it wasn't enough.
"About my breasts?" Emma stood and closed her own robe before putting her hands on her hips.
"Of course not! That's ridiculous!" The blonde couldn't tell if the redness in her face was from anger or embarrassment; but she was willing to bet on the latter.
"Well you sure as hell weren't dreaming of lemon drops and lollipops….or were you?" She asked with a smirk and Regina blushed even deeper. Emma had to say that she rather liked the color on her.
"You are obviously feeling better today, Miss Swan." She sniffed and changed the subject. "Why don't you go make some coffee?"
"Sure, I'll do that. One cream and two sugars." She bit back and went out the door to put on some clothes. Regina cocked her head; how had she known her coffee order?
Emma moved back into her own apartment and found it despairingly empty without Regina there bossing her around or rubbing her back. But the truth was that she wasn't running a fever anymore and that she really needed to get back to work. She sighed and opened the fridge. She would definitely miss Regina's cooking.
Emma got to work to find that her father had left all the paperwork that required the Mayor's signature on her desk. She sighed, not relishing the trip to the woman's office; they had barely spoken to one another after she had woken up with Regina fitting her like a glove. Hell, she thought, we're adults right? We can handle this. She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and grabbed the stack of papers, wanting to get it over with.
Regina was a wreck. She remembered with horror waking up with Emma's nipple between her fingers as if she had a right to it. She had barely been able to focus on work; so guilty was her conscience. She couldn't handle the fact that Emma had been spending her fevers undergoing sexual assault at the hands of the Evil Queen and then Regina had turned around and groped her. It was what she had wanted to protect her from by having her in her own bed; she wasn't trying to put her in worse danger.
She felt miserable and shameful that after all the work to be better, to be the mother that Henry deserved, she still had that darkness inside her. Hadn't Emma even said she smelled like it? And apples and spice. She heard the blonde's faltering voice in her mind and wiped the frustrated tears from her eyes as a knock sounded on her door.
"I'm busy." She said, attempting to sound casual.
"You're about to be busier." Emma said and let herself in.
Regina stiffened and quickly arranged her face to appear bored. "Miss Swan, more paperwork?" she asked as she eyed the offending stack on her hip.
"It seems that anything that requires your name on it, my parents left to me." She sighed and set the stack down on the desk before looking at the woman carefully. "You're not getting sick are you? You look…tired, Regina."
"I'm perfectly fine." The woman brushed her off and Emma's eyes flashed in concern.
"Are you sure-"
"Of course." She hissed.
"Well, if you do find yourself under the weather, give me a call. You know the last place anyone would bother you is my apartment."
"You're not afraid I'll rape you in your sleep?" the bitter response slapped Emma's surprised face. She leaned over and put her hands on the desk before leveling her eyes at the brunette's red tinged ones.
"I'm pretty sure I can take you." She eyed her. "I mean, especially if you're sick."
"Not if you're chained to a dungeon wall."
"You don't have a dungeon or more than likely I would have already seen it."
"No, I don't have a dungeon."
The inflection caused Emma to narrow her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing."
"Liar." The two women looked at one another in anger, neither one willing to back down from the steely gaze of the other.
Regina lifted a brow. "Leave the paperwork, I'll get it to you by tomorrow morning." She said, dismissing the woman with a cold tone.
Emma refused to yield. "What's going on, Regina? If this is about the way we woke up-"
"As difficult as it might be for you to believe, Miss Swan, I have hardly given that a thought today."
"Liar." Emma snorted again. "Really, it's ok. I understand your inability to keep your hands off me."
Regina leapt up from her desk and snarled, actually snarled at her. "Miss Swan, kindly leave my office this instance!" She pointed to the door emphatically. "Before I do exactly as the woman in your dreams and force you into submission."
Emma stepped back and fought a grin. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked over the woman seething behind her desk. "Is that supposed to deter me?"
Regina blinked. "You said you didn't want her-"
"No, her, I don't want."
The brunette sighed and fought the hopeful shiver that ran up her back. "Sheriff, we are the same person. I don't know what leads you to believe otherwise."
"Stop." Emma said quietly. "The woman that took advantage of me in the dungeon and the woman that nursed me to health are two different people." She spoke as if explaining to a child. "That woman was harsh and controlling but this morning…" She looked down at her boots. "and for the past couple of days, you have been nothing but…gentle with me."
"Don't romanticize it." The brunette snapped back into mayor mode after shaking off the tender sound of Emma's words on her heart. "I touched you this morning because I wanted to. I was possessive just like the woman in the dream. I touched you without asking-"
"Without asking what? Permission?" Emma smiled. Regina blinked again and Emma continued. "I think the fact that you are pointing out a deficiency in that area distinguishes you from the Queen in my dreams."
"As I told you before," Regina refused to back down. She couldn't explain why it was so important that Emma understood her bad intentions. "Had you shown up chained in my dungeon, I would have done exactly what the Queen did to you; probably worse."
"I don't believe you would do that now." Emma shrugged. "You're different from her."
"You've never actually met her."
"But I have." Emma's eyes flashed. "She peeks through every now and then in your eyes when you're hurt or frustrated. I see her in the faces of my mother and father when they reminisce about the good-ole-days spent fighting you. I see her in the way the hush still falls in the diner when you walk in. I have met her on some level. But I know that the woman that took such good care of me and the woman that tried to rape me are not the same person."
"I fear that you have seriously misjudged me."
"I'm an excellent judge of character; it goes with my lie-detecting skills." Emma lifted her chin and smirked.
Regina really wanted to believe her. She glanced down at the paperwork and took her seat once more. "I'll have these done by tomorrow morning."