For the life of her, Emma didn't know what possessed her to kiss Regina just then, but when Regina fingers laced into her hair and she pulled her closer, kissing her back, she didn't regret it. It was mere moments before Regina was pulling her closer and closer, like Emma was her air and she needed her to survive.

Emma was relieved when Regina took control, because she really had no idea what she was doing, but her heart raced, wondering what she'd just awoken inside this woman who was still a mystery to her. She felt like Regina might devour her, like she'd been waiting for this moment for an eternity, just waiting for Emma to make a move.

Regina was always so controlled, so sophisticated, but when she slid herself on top of Emma in such a smooth motion that Emma was barely aware of what was happening, and stopped kissing her for a moment, her lips still hovering mere inches from Emma's, Emma saw something completely different in her eyes. Regina was looking at her with a fiery sort of intensity, and Emma had to guess that's what lust or maybe even desire looked like, and somehow she was bringing that out in Regina.

Regina pressed her mouth down on Emma's again, her tongue slipping effortlessly between Emma's lips, exploring her, tasting her, and in an instant, it was too much.

Emma turned her head, breaking off contact, and breathed out, "wait," in a voice that sounded a million miles away, muffled by the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

She didn't know why she'd started kissing Regina and she really didn't know why she'd stopped, but she turned her head back to meet Regina's eyes, finding a look of soft concern where that fire had been just a moment ago.

"Are you alright?" Regina asked, and her voice was huskier than normal, and Emma could tell she was still a little short on breath.

"Yeah, I just need…" Emma's voice trailed off, and she realized she had no idea what she needed. "I'm sorry."

"Shh, it's okay," Regina said, softly, lifting herself off of Emma and moving beside her again. "You don't need to be sorry."

Emma felt like she might cry at the loss of Regina's warm body above her, but Regina reached over to lace her fingers through Emma's hair, still staring intently into her eyes.

"I just… I've never kissed anyone before," Emma said, quietly, feeling her cheeks burn with embarrassment at the revelation, though she suspected Regina had already assumed as much.

"I know. I should've taken that slower. I overwhelmed you. I'm sorry."

Emma chewed on the inside of her lip. Part of her regretted stopping and part of her wanted to tell Regina she liked it and she wanted to do that again sometime, but a bigger part of her worried about what it would lead to next and she supposed she really was overwhelmed.

"Emma," Regina started, after Emma hadn't said anything for several moments. "It's okay to not be ready, you know that right? There's no pressure."

"Yeah," Emma said, her cheeks burning hotter. She hoped Regina didn't notice, but she also knew there was no way she couldn't.

"What can I do to make it better?" Regina asked.

"Just… maybe hold me."

"Of course, little swan," Regina agreed, pulling Emma close and wrapping her tightly in her arms.

Emma let out a sigh as her head rested on Regina's chest. This was the second time she'd heard Regina call her 'little swan'. The first time had been that day when Seth was missing; the first time she ever really remembered having a conversation with Regina, in her entire life. She'd said it, and Emma had asked her to repeat it, and she'd covered it up.

Emma hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now she wondered if 'little swan' had been what she called her princess. She supposed it must be, because why else would she have said it twice, without even seeming to notice?

Emma decided not to ask. Regina had said she could know her if she wanted, but she wasn't sure if now was the best time. If Regina had been thinking about her princess while kissing Emma, Emma wasn't sure she'd ever want to know.

But still, as she lay there with Regina in silence, Emma wondered about the princess. She wondered if she really reminded Regina of her, or if Regina had just said that because Emma had been worried about it really being Mal. She wondered if Regina had known she was jealous. She supposed she must have, though Emma hadn't even quite figured out those feelings for herself just yet. It was all so new.

She wondered if the princess was like her. She'd speculated that she must have been more like Regina - confident, sure of herself, experienced. But maybe that was the similarity Regina had noticed in Emma. Maybe the princess had been young and innocent, stuck somewhere on the cusp between a woman and a child, desiring someone so far out of her league.

And Emma reasoned that must be where these conflicting feelings were coming from. Of course, most of her friends were already having sex, and she'd, just now, had her very first kiss, but her friends were also dating people with just as little romantic experience as they had, so what did they have to lose? None of her friends were dating Mayor Mills, were they?

Emma tried to shake the thought out of her mind. She wasn't dating Regina, afterall. They'd just kissed, and she was just lying next to her - nearly on top of her, really - while Regina held her and stroked her hair and treated her like she was the only thing that mattered in this entire world.

On some level, Emma was kicking herself for even entertaining any of these thoughts while her entire life was in complete shambles. She should be worrying about not going to school, or finding a job, or her father in the hospital, or wondering how her mother and brother were holding up at home without her, and not worrying about whether or not Regina wanted to date her. It also occurred to her that even if Regina did want to date her, she should be really worried about how she was supposed to explain that to her family - or anyone, for that matter.

She wondered if Regina was thinking the same thing. She wondered if Regina was already regretting everything, and wishing she'd never come with her at all, because how would she ever explain this to anyone? Emma knew she had nothing to offer, not to a woman like Regina.

"You should try to get some sleep," Regina murmured, drawing Emma from her thoughts. Her mind had been racing and yet Regina sounded completely calm, like she might fall asleep herself, any moment. Maybe she wasn't freaking out at all?

"I wanna stay with you," Emma whispered, dreading the thought of having to be alone with her own brain at the moment.

"Mm hmm," Regina agreed, as she reached over Emma with one arm, and turned off the light on the night stand behind her. They were still in the clothes they'd been wearing all day, but Regina didn't seem to mind, and Emma wasn't eager to leave her arms just to get dressed.

"Regina?" Emma whispered, after a few moments of silence.

"Sleep," Regina said, and Emma could tell she really was on the verge of sleep, "we can talk later."

"Okay."

To Emma's surprise, Regina leaned over and kissed her forehead, soft and warm and comforting, and Emma felt herself relax, finally.

"Good night, Regina."

"Good night, my darling."

They didn't talk about it the next morning.

When morning came, and the sun came streaming in the window, Emma had barely had a moment to adjust her eyes to the light when she heard banging on the door, and Lily asking if they wanted breakfast.

And Regina had laughed and said they should probably change their clothes first.

Emma noticed a change in Regina's demeanor from the day before. Really, it was a change from anything she'd ever seen. It took her all morning, and even after saying goodbyes and getting back in Regina's car to head back to Storybrooke, before it finally hit her: Regina looked happy.

Emma knew this was new, and since Regina seemed eager to talk about any subject under the sun, other than the night before, Emma decided to let it go, for now. Regina was happy, and she was content to think that maybe she was the reason.

That afternoon, after they'd returned to Storybrooke and Regina had reluctantly taken Emma back home, she'd gone to her vault. She didn't want to think about kissing Emma and a future with Emma or anything else she might hope for, until she knew they had a future at all.

She had to break the curse.

She leaned over the table in her vault, resting on her elbows and holding the small silver scroll in front of her eyes. It didn't make sense that it wouldn't open; she'd never known a curse to seal itself shut once it had been cast.

She still wasn't particularly eager to break it, but she knew that she would have to eventually, and she'd never been all that good at waiting. She knew that if there was a way to break it, the answer had to lie in one of two places: inside that scroll, or in the deranged brain of the imp in the basement of the hospital.

Regina sighed and closed her eyes, knowing what she had to do.

"You have five-" Nurse Ratched started, but Regina raised a hand to stop her.

"Oh, this will be longer than five minutes," she informed her. "I'll let you know when I'm done."

To her surprise, Nurse Ratched didn't argue, and Regina supposed that she probably didn't really care all that much about what happened in this room once the door was closed. Rumple appeared to be so far gone, she was sure the nurse thought there was no way he could get any worse.

Rumple appeared to be in slightly better shape than when she'd left him last, sitting on the bed, nearly upright. She noted frenzied scrapings all over the walls, as though he'd tried to scratch Emma's name from his sight, and she wondered if he'd spent all this time alone trying to figure out the new curse.

She hoped he had, anyway.

"Your Majesty," Rumple greeted in an even tone the moment the door shut behind Regina.

Regina took a step closer. "You're looking well, Rumple."

Rumple scoffed. "I'm sure you didn't come here to make small talk."

"No, I didn't. I have a confession."

"You let your little pet princess cast your curse," Rumple said, his lip curling up into a sneer.

She should have known he'd figure it out. Who else would have cast it? "Yes."

"Yes," Rumple repeated, looking at Regina with an expression of urgent expectation. "And now you want to know how to break it."

Regina shook her head. "I don't want to break it."

"Oh?" Rumple asked, his eyes lighting up with curiosity, before darkening again. "Oh, of course. You just want to wake up Emma. You don't give a damn about anyone else."

"I don't," Regina agreed.

"Well, it's a good thing then, since you can't break it anyway."

"I know."

"You do?" Rumple asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I saw Maleficent."

"Ah, yes… she came to see me in my cell a time or two. I'm not surprised she figured it out."

Regina nodded. "The lightest of light magic. I don't have it."

"No, you don't," Rumple agreed. "And now, thanks to you, neither does Emma. You let her taint her goodness by casting that curse, and you let her taint the curse with her goodness. Look where it got us."

"That's why you're here and not…" Regina stopped herself before she admitted that this room was originally intended for Belle. "And not living the life I created for you."

"Bingo."

Regina sighed. "But none of it matters because I can't break it and we're all going to die."

"Now you're finally getting it. You always were a little slow on the uptake, dearie."

"I blame my teacher."

"But you think there still might be a way, or you wouldn't have come here."

"Is there?"

Rumple's lip curled into a sly smile. "Oh, there is, but you're not going to like it."

"I'll do whatever it takes."

"There should have been a boy, he would have been the key."

"Should have been?" Regina asked. "But there isn't?"

"Emma should have grown up here, met a man, and had a child. You would have come to me, desperate to fill that hole in your heart, and I would have procured that child for you. He was the key, and he would have led Emma here on her twenty eighth birthday. But it didn't come to pass."

Regina shook her head quickly. "Then why are you telling me? What use is this to me now?"

"There's another boy."

Regina swallowed. "Not… not Seth."

"Yes. Seth."

"But… how? He's already here, Emma's already here… how does he fit in."

"To break this curse," Rumple said, standing and speaking with an intensity Regina didn't think he was capable of anymore, "will require a great sacrifice. The boy is the key. You took something from him."

"Yes, his heart. He has it back," Regina said. "What do I need to sacrifice?"

"You'll have to figure that out."

Regina paced the floor in her vault, growing more and more livid as she replayed her conversation with Rumple in her mind. How was Seth the key and what was she supposed to sacrifice?

There was a knot forming in her stomach as the idea intruded her mind again and again that the only sacrifice she could make that would mean anything to her, would be Emma.

But that couldn't be it. She wouldn't let herself even entertain the idea.

She would not sacrifice Emma to save herself, let alone this town.

"No," Regina said out loud to the empty room, deciding that there had to be another way. She grabbed the scroll from the table top again, staring at it in a frenzied fury.

"How can this be sealed?" Regina muttered to herself, turning it over again. "It has to be magic… of course."

How had it not occurred to her before? She couldn't open the scroll because it wasn't her curse anymore. Emma hadn't been able to open it because this cursed version of her wasn't the one who cast the curse.

She needed Emma's magic.

"I wonder…" Regina whispered to herself as she hurriedly grabbed Emma's necklace from the box she'd been keeping it in. She held the pendant over the scroll, and gasped in surprised relief when both objects glowed white in her hands. A click, and then the metal encasing the scroll popped open.

Regina wasted no time pulling the paper scroll out from its case and rolling it open, her eyes quickly scanning the words written on it. She'd read it so many times she nearly had it committed to memory, and her heart started to sink as she neared the end, realizing there was nothing in there she didn't already know by heart.

But, a peculiar thing happened when she reached the last word of the curse. She noticed the paper was still glowing white, even though the pendant was nowhere near it.

"It's infused with her magic," Regina said softly, trying to make sense of it. She grabbed the pendant again, holding it over the scroll, wondering if she could suck it out. Perhaps if she could remove Emma's magic, tether it completely to the pendant again, she could harness it. She could use it to break the curse.

She didn't anticipate what would happen next.

Instead of moving up into the pendant, more magic flowed down into the scroll. It flashed bright white, causing Regina to look away, blinking at the dark spots that momentarily formed in her line of vision.

When she looked back at the paper, it was no longer glowing, and neither was the pendant, but something had changed. There were more words written on the scroll now, as though someone had quickly scribbled notes at the end.

It only took a second for Regina to recognize Emma's handwriting.

It wasn't the chicken scratch Emma used in this world, but her flowery calligraphy that she spent years perfecting in the Enchanted Forest. It wasn't perfect - Regina could tell it had been written very quickly - but it was distinctively Emma's.

"Oh, Emma, what did you do…" Regina's voice trailed off as she began to read what Emma had added to the curse. "Everyone gets to keep their happy endings."

She supposed that made sense. She could see the effect that had had on the curse, and she should have known Emma was too good to let everyone suffer for eternity. She wouldn't be able to bear it.

But there was more.

Regina's breath hitched in her throat as she read the second line: "I want to forget Regina."

Regina read the words over and over, as though they might somehow change; as though she'd read them wrong in the first place. Five words, and she was gutted.

She tried to reason with herself. Emma had been upset - she'd been more than upset, she'd been angry. She'd just learned that Regina had stolen her brother's heart, and she'd lost all faith in her at that moment. She'd been young, and she was trying to protect herself. There was no way she meant it, not really. It had just been in the heat of the moment.

But she couldn't convince herself. Emma hadn't known the whole story. She hadn't known exactly how Regina had saved her life. She didn't know how deep their connection was.

And Regina knew this wasn't a heat of the moment decision. Emma really wanted to forget her.

She supposed she couldn't even hold that against her. She hadn't really given Emma much of a reason to want her in her life. Sure, Emma hadn't wanted Regina to die, but deep down Regina had known, even then as she'd sat in her cell waiting for the curse to come, that her little swan had been lost to her.

She remembered sitting, watching out the window, growing less and less sure as every minute had passed and the sky stayed clear and bright. She'd almost managed to convince herself that Emma had never gone to her palace at all; she'd just gone back down from the tower, and joined her family for breakfast, pretending for all the world that Regina was not about to be executed.

Or, perhaps that she'd realized she wanted her to be.

She'd been so sure that her little swan had betrayed her, and she'd been ready to accept death since she'd have nothing left to live for anyway, until she saw it - that first little hint of purple on the horizon. She hadn't been sure what it was at first, but it was only moments before the dark purple smoke was billowing, obscuring the sky and blocking out the light.

She'd heard the frenzy from inside the tower and outside the window, from the courtyard below, but Regina had just walked over to the bars and stared outward, watching the beauty of her curse, knowing it meant her princess had come to her rescue after all.

But now, as she read the words again, she knew her little swan really had been lost to her.

But Emma - this Emma, this Emma Nolan who lived in Storybrooke and knew nothing of Regina's former sins - she wasn't her little swan.

She didn't need to get her back. She didn't need to break the curse. She didn't even need to wake Emma up. She didn't need her to remember. She didn't want her to. She was going to build a life with her here, and if they only got ten years and the curse imploded on itself, then so be it.

Ten years with Emma was better than a lifetime without her.