A/n Short chapter this time, sorry ^^'' But we are slowly moving towards the end… even though Emma and Regina are just going to be their usual blind selves.

Discovering

66.-"You're warm."

The words are said softly, one hand caressing her own as carefully as the voice seems to not want to startle her and for a second Regina sighs and closes her eyes, wanting to curl and fall asleep once again, the presence of the sleepy blonde only making her want to crave the blissfulness of sleep even if it's only for one more second.

But then she opens her eyes once again and Emma is looking at her, a gentle smile on her lips, fear on her eyes and the stubborn shadow the blonde always seems to have whenever Emma is near. It's everything all of sudden, sharp edges and careful softness and the sight makes her want to smile and when Emma moves a tad closer, her naked body pressing against her, the proof of what they have done a few hours before, she only sighs and clutches Emma's back, her digits digging on the blonde's flesh, a quiet sob seizing her body.

Emma doesn't say anything, she just lets her hug her tightly, her lips touching her shoulders, leaving behind phantom caresses that seem to scorch her skin every time Emma seems about to move away from her, severing their contact.

And Regina knows that it must be difficult for Emma, that she is not the only one with ghosts instead of pupils, with nightmares instead of memories, but as Emma keeps hugging her tightly guilt disappears, a tentative warmth touching her when she finally manages to look back at Emma, lips, skin, soft, warm, gentle.

It's comfortable, she thinks, and yet it's something else, something that's not biased with fate and destiny and for the first time Regina lets herself breath. It smells like cinnamon and freesia and maybe something else or just something that's not exactly that but the brunette woman just kisses Emma again and again, bruised lips against pale ones and for that moment everything is ok, even, safe.

And Regina finds herself basking on it.

67.-"No reason."

But there is a reason and Regina knows that Emma is aware of it when she tilts her head to one side and kisses her fully on the lips, her eyes not entirely closed, looking around even on the kiss, nervousness and fear on her clipped smile. The feeling of being ripped apart makes her hide a wince when Emma pulls back, clothes rumpled and morning after look blatantly obvious from her mussed-up hair to the gentle love bites that Regina can almost trace on the blonde's pale collarbone.

The reason, Regina thinks, sighing and biting her bottom lip, remembering those times in where she looked upon a star wondering when her wish would come, remembering the many times that, as an adult, she had learnt to fear wishes. And Emma kissing her, softly and yet not entirely, seems more like a wish, a wish she had made so long ago back in a place where her mind didn't want to look, afraid of the despair she was sure was waiting there.

"Thank you" She says at the end and Emma nods and hums, turning and marching towards her apartment, first light of morning blinding Regina for a second as the blonde walks away, one hand over her chest, an old wish on her lips.

Because there is a reason for that kiss, there is something that Regina would never say but Emma, Emma who has spent too much time also wondering, waiting, swallowing back tears and hatred, is able to understand.

And so Regina wonders, wonders if something had already changed or it's another piece of the ever-ending game she always seem to be in.

Her bed is cold when she goes back to it and for a second she is grateful of Henry's heavy sleep, of her own decision to make the blonde's need to disappear. Even if that hurts too much, even if she wished differently.

She is not made for wishing after all.

68. - "I bought you a ticket."

Regina's wide eyes is the last hint Emma needs to see in order to know that the brunette hadn't been expecting something like that and as she stares back at her, a slightly crumpled ticket on her right hand, she almost sighs, remembering the days in where she had been partially numb to the world. Not that she would want to go back to those days in where nightmares and fear were her only world but it had been easy to just react to the things she knew she was supposed to react. Her emotions were surfacing and so did her fears, fear that were nothing like the ones the magic could ever create.

"I knew you wanted to see this movie" She finally says, a shrug and a bit on her bottom lip, shoulders tensing, the marks she had there also making her remember the morning after, the night before, the heated kisses and Regina's sad eyes as she had walked back to her apartment, thrill on her chest.

A week after that though, there are things, memories of "noes" of mocking admissions, that are haunting her, pain and almost faded pretenses but not quite still waiting, waiting for her, for her magic, for her tied tongue and blabbery mouth. She wonders if she has done the right thing though and when Regina just stares back at her she looks at her with fear and longing and the pressure on her chest only gross, threatening to break her in two, to choke her.

"Regina?" She asks, tentatively, but Regina doesn't answer, fear and longing and something that Emma doesn't know how to dwell on haunting her eyes. Emma sees the brunette smiling before turning, her back becoming nothing else but a blurred figure in the middle of the street when she finally realizes that she is crying.

69.-"Take mine."

Regina smiles softly at two red-rimmed eyes before looking away nervously checking the rest of the patrons inside the dinner, Ruby looking at them with a brow arched and something that almost looks like a scold from Regina is seated at.

Not that she wants to think twice about the werewolf, or why she always seems to be looking at them, or the fact that she feels cold and lost and not so sure of anything anymore. The steaming cup of chocolate that's now in front of Emma and is her peace offering looks back at her, between Emma's pale hands –she notices how the fingernails appear to be poorly treated- and her own.

It's not exactly an apology and Regina knows that, nor an invitation for anything else and she knows that also. She just want to know where she stand though and so she waits, Emma's green eyes craving her own name on her own, a tired nod following that look, almost the same minute movement that had started everything else, that had made Regina stop and wonder… for something else than just a story she would never be the main character off.

It's ironic, she knows, so she stays and waits. Until nothing else is left to say without words and her apology seems to be nothing more like cooling chocolate with a straw, the red color of it making her almost want to smile.

"I would love seeing that movie with you" She says tentatively but it's not a promise, not a forgiveness plea, not words that actually mean anything else and as she stare at Emma the woman knows that Emma knows that.

Pain, she thinks as she nods curtly, nervously. It's just pain.

Although it isn't just that, not anymore.

70.-"I'll meet you halfway."

The song is slow and not exactly cheerful but when Emma twirls and makes Henry roar with laughter Regina can only stare and smile, entranced, desiring, wishing, hoping.

And think that maybe she will never have the perfect date like she would have wished for when she still believed in wishes and happy endings that wouldn't need prices to exist. Maybe she would always need to wait for something else, maybe that night had been a mistake.

But as Emma keeps signing, not good enough, not attuned enough but real and warm and just Emma, Regina smiles.

She wants that, she thinks, meeting the blonde halfway, reaching it.

And then…. Who knows.

Note:

The song Emma is singing is "I will meet you halfway" by the The Partridge family and next chapter will be more emma-centric ;)