A/N: Getting there! :p Enjoy, and please review! :)
"Have you seen Emma?"
Regina waits as Lily seems to debate how to answer, and she clenches her hands into fists inside pockets of her coat; all of a sudden brought back to when the blonde had first come to town. Emma had often offered her that same, hard look, although even back then she'd found something enticing flickering behind the ice of the younger woman's glower. With Lily, all she receives is stone, and she wonders for a moment if she means to answer her at all.
"Day before yesterday."
Lily grunts eventually, and the Mayor frowns as she muses
"I haven't seen her since this morning."
"So? What's strange about that?"
The younger woman shrugs, and Regina resists the urge to snap at her that it's actually fairly strange indeed for her not to have heard anything from the blonde for so long. Privately, this realisation surprises her, threatening to make her blush, and she wonders if Emma has also picked up on the fact that they sometimes act like an old, married couple.
It would be a good explanation for why she's suddenly avoiding her.
A smirk at this, but she knows there's a more serious reason she's heard nothing from the blonde since Emma had behaved so peculiarly earlier today, and her fingers brush against the fractured cuff in her pocket as she sighs
"She was acting strangely."
Silence at this as Lily simply looks bemused, and Regina rolls her eyes as she elaborates
"Not strange as in just being Emma, strange as in... Something's not right."
"What makes you say that?"
"She wasn't talking to me how she usually would... Wasn't acting how she usually would."
"Maybe she's pissed off at you?"
Lily suggests, and Regina bites back a retort as the younger woman's expression suggests she'd find this to be highly likely.
"She has no reason to be 'pissed' at me, I haven't done anything that would irritate her that I can think of."
"Really? Emma has no reason to be angry at you?"
Lily asks, her eyes hard, and the Mayor frowns, feeling uncomfortable, and she pulls the cuff from her pocket and holds it out for her companion to see.
"I found this at her house in the basement. I have no idea how it got there, or what it means that it was there when she wasn't... Nor how it came to be broken."
"What is it?"
"A dampener cuff. These things are hard to come by as they're tricky to enchant. Gold has had access to a couple since the curse broke, and my mother was a firm believer in their usefulness, but they're not commonplace. Emma wouldn't know how to create something like this, which leads me to believe it was used on her, not used by her... I can feel her magic still lingering in it."
This time Regina does blush, something so obscurely intimate about this admission, but Lily seems not to notice as she studies the cuff with a rather bored expression.
"Well, it's broken. Doesn't that mean it no longer works?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"-So what's the problem?"
The younger woman shrugs, and the Mayor frowns as she closes her hand around the cuff and slips it back into her pocket, stating icily
"If all of her friends were as disinterested as you seem to be, I'm beginning to understand Miss Swan's distaste for asking others for help."
To her surprise, this statement garners her immediate anger, Lily snapping at her with more passion than the brunette has seen since first encountering the woman on her bizarre road trip with Emma.
"Don't you start telling me how I should feel! You have no right."
Narrowing her eyes, the Mayor purses her lips; resentful at this small outburst, but she doesn't turn away. Instead, she strives for patience and tries again.
"I'm concerned that something might have happened to Emma. I haven't spoken to her parents about it because I don't know what it is that might have happened yet, and I know she'd prefer I not worry them unnecessarily. I was going to ask Hook, but I wondered if coming to you might be a better option."
"Over the pirate? Of course."
Lily scoffs, and Regina raises a brow, surprised at the clear note of disdain in her voice.
"Oh?"
"Obviously... So, what do you want from me?"
"Well, would you come back to Emma's house with me to take a look?"
"I'm not sure she'd appreciate that."
"I'm sure she'll understand if I tell her we had a reason to be concerned. Come on, I locked up when I left there earlier, but I have keys."
"You have keys?"
"Well, they're Henry's, but yes. Why?"
"Nothing... I just don't understand your guys's relationship in the slightest."
Lily muses as she falls into step beside the Mayor, and Regina throws a troubled look down at her heels as she suffers the uncomfortable thought
Nor do I some of the time. Sometimes I'm not sure just what's going on between us.
The Queen's lips brush tantalisingly against the blonde's as sly fingers dip into tight leather and Emma swallows a noise somewhere between a groan and a cry.
Oh, fuck... Finally...
The word swims at the forefront of her mind as she closes her eyes, and she pushes it forcefully away; retaliating against the insanity it seems to suggest by lashing out and biting at the brunette's throat. She does so roughly, making it very clear- at least to herself- that she's not playing with any version of Regina she might associate with pleasant evenings and carefully honed camaraderie. Her teeth leave a mark, and she yelps as the darker woman slams into her roughly, pushing her hard against the wall.
"I don't recommend you try that again..."
The Queen warns, sending a harsh bolt of power to play from her fingertips to act as a warning, and the blonde's knees buckle as she hisses but the darker woman's thigh remains wedged between her own and keeps her from falling. Soft laughter at this, suddenly cut short as Emma slides her palm down the bare flesh of the Queen's stomach to even the score. She doesn't pay her back with power, but rather a slow dip of slim fingers; deliciously deep.
"I wouldn't have thought you had it in you, Saviour."
The brunette murmurs into thick curls, her breathing shallow as Emma makes no move to pull out but rather applies pressure with her palm to earn herself a hitched sigh.
"Maybe you'd fair better if you quit underestimating me all of the time."
The younger woman suggests silkily.
"Expecting you to trip yourself up over one of your many hangups is hardly 'underestimating' you, dear, it's simply waiting for the inevitable... And had you wanted me to assume you'd be a, hmmm, deft hand at this?"
The blonde can feel full lips smirking against the hollow of her jaw, and she thrusts her fingers roughly to earn a guttural cry of surprise.
"Touch a nerve, did I?"
The Queen goads huskily once she's recovered, before she bites down on her lip to suppress a moan as Emma slips her thumb up to tease over slick flesh, musing wickedly
"No, but I think I might have."
She watches as the brunette tries to snap back at her but seems momentarily unable to do much more than shudder. She feels a delicious wave of victory that is cut short when the darker woman uses both her power and brute force to spin her around; rendering her suddenly no longer in control, but pushed submissively- vulnerably- against the pitted wall of the dungeon.
The Queen smiles, admiring the view, before demanding curiously
"Have you done this before?"
Emma rolls her eyes, her cheek pressed against wet stone as the brunette clutches her wrists tightly behind her back, keeping her bent as she'd like her.
"Answer me."
The darker woman orders, snaking her hand around the blonde's stomach to open up her pants, before tugging tight leather down pale thighs to reveal the younger woman intimately.
"Have I been accosted while shoved against the damp wall of a dungeon? No, I can't say that I have."
Emma growls, and the Queen shakes her head- perturbed by this purposeful insolence- and slips her fingers between slender legs.
"Not that. This."
She hisses, teasing pointedly and smirking as she watches heavy lashes flutter closed.
"Maybe... I was curious."
"You were curious?"
The darker woman raises a brow, and Emma shrugs as best as she can in her current position, replying reasonably
"I'm a curious person."
"Yes... I would say that you are."
The Queen agrees quietly, dark eyes wandering over pale flesh as her sly teasing becomes a more focused attack, and she nips at the sharp point of her tongue appreciatively as she watches the younger woman quiver. She allows herself to relish this for a little while longer, working her fingers until she's rewarded with a husky sound of pleasure, but this is still a game, and she has no intention of allowing the blonde to get off so easily.
Pardon the pun.
Letting go of the younger woman's wrists cautiously, dark eyes flash with wicked excitement as Emma slams her palms against the wall to brace herself; preoccupied with seeking her release as playful fingers continue to keep her on edge. With her other hand now free, the Queen makes a small movement with her wrist to summon a dark, heavy item from one of the hidden chests upstairs in the castle, and she applies sublime pressure as she bucks her hips into the blonde's with a hiss of anticipation, before putting her new prop to use.