Chapter 9: Past Emotions

Neverland

Daniel was beat, it was already night-time, and he was lying on his back over the grass with his small thin arms stretched out and his eyes closed, breathing slightly heavy. Few feet away from him, was the tree he spent half the day trying to hit the x mark, the tree was all marked up because of his attempts but finally there was a single arrow stuck in the middle of the x mark. He had finally done it.

"Good job, bud," Fiona said as she approached the tree and removed the arrow from the center of the mark.

"Thanks," Daniel mumbled as he remained on the ground, his arms ached a lot.

Fiona approached the blonde boy and noticed he was tired but he had a small proud smile across his face, he was probably feeling very accomplished after doing this and that's what Fiona wanted him to feel after pushing him to last this long, sure for the boy was more frustrating and tiring, but for Fiona it was also very boring staying this long here with him and she didn't know why she did it because honestly, if it was any other boy, she didn't care, she'd teach them once or twice but then leave. However, with Daniel she felt like she should do this for him, she just doesn't know why yet.

"Should I do it again?" Daniel asked as he opened his eyes, looking up, seeing Fiona looking down at him, then a second later his stomach growled loudly, he was starving, he was already hungry like two hours ago.

Fiona let out a chuckle at that and picked up his arrows and bow, to put everything away. "No, it's fine for tonight, you hit the mark, now you deserve a meal and a goodnight's sleep, tomorrow we shall train again."

"Really?" Daniel quickly sat up, "you are going to train with me again, tomorrow?"

Fiona stop for a second on her tracks but then composed herself, "sure, perhaps try even some sword fighting. Shooting arrows is perfect for long distance combat or to surprise attack, but you need to learn some hand-to-hand combat if the enemy ever gets too close," she explained him as she grabbed his small hand and pulled him up on his feet, then gave him the bow and the arrows.

Daniel paid close attention to her words and then began to follow her through the woods, on their way to the camp. "Hey Fiona, can I ask you something?"

"Hmn?"

"Why don't you talk with the others that much?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, you are always by yourself or something, it's like you don't like us," his voice lowered a bit at the end of his words. He was still a pure young boy.

Fiona took a quick side glance to try figure out the boy's emotions. "It has nothing to do with that."

"Then what?" He looked up at her with curious eyes, but she kept her green eyes focused on the path.

"There's just something wrong about this situation."

"What does that mean?"

Fiona took a deep breath, not wanting to explain the young boy how she felt like she didn't belong to Neverland, how none of them did and how before she tried to escape but Peter Pan always stopped her from doing that. "Look, it doesn't matter. Let's hurry so you can eat," she said and quickened her steps.

"O-Okay!" Daniel stumbled a bit to catch up with her and stopped doing these kinds of questions, because it was obvious Fiona didn't want to share and he was going to respect that.

Enchanted Forest

Emma and Regina have been walking the entire day through the woods and they haven't gotten any closer to find out some village around here, Emma figured it wouldn't be that far since they found that couple but perhaps they just mistook the direction and now they were last.

"Perhaps we should rest for now, start a fire, the sun is setting," Regina suggested as she was few steps behind Emma.

"I don't want to stop till we find some place, or someone or anything, really," Emma complained as she kept walking but truth to be told she was very tired from all that walking and Regina was probably too and sure it'd be best to just rest for now since at nighttime they wouldn't be able to spot anything properly, but she was also way too concerned about her child's safety that she just didn't want to stop. She felt like if she stopped, she was failing her child.

"I don't think we will find anything soon, Emma and before it gets too dark, we should prepare a fire," Regina said, but being careful with her tone since she could tell Emma was still very upset, for good reasons to however for her it was weird to deal with a cold Emma, usually she was the one being mean or distant but this time it was Emma and Regina felt like she wasn't the same Emma from almost 8 years ago and that pained her; part of her wanted the old Emma back, her best friend back.

"Regina, I really don't want to stop. I need to find my son," Emma said, already feeling triggered because that's what Regina was to her, Regina was a trigger, because it reminded her of the past, a very happy yet very painful past and she couldn't forget the way that this Regina erased the memories of the Evil Queen, the actual Regina Emma loved, the only Regina that she finally experienced everything she wished for and now the same person, basically, took away that happiness from her. So how could she look at Regina and not feel anger? Betrayed? Hurt? It was a very hard thing to do, specially knowing that they share possibly two children and they never experienced the typical loving family moments together.

"But Emma-"

"I said no!" Emma stopped and kept her head down as she raised her voice.

Regina quickly frowned at the blonde's tone, of course the mayor hated when somebody acted that way towards her, specially Emma, she could understand some extent of Emma's feelings towards her, but she still couldn't fully understand this attitude. "You don't have to act like that."

Emma huffed after hearing the mayor's words and turned around to face her and that's when Regina could see anger in the blonde's eyes, but also lot of hurt. "I think I have the right to act the way I do."

"Sure, part of it, but yelling at me won't solve anything," Regina confidently continued, "you trying to hurt my feelings with this attitude won't help us getting anywhere close to find Daniel or even Fiona."

Emma chuckled at that, "hurt your feelings? Regina trust me, this attitude as you call it, won't hurt you even half of what hurt me when you did what you did eight years ago," she said while trying to control the shaky tone in her voice and she could even feel tears threatening to come, but she didn't look sad, she just looked very angry and frustrated. "And we are not here to find Fiona, we are here to just find Daniel and get back home," and after saying that she turned on her heel and keep walking.

Regina looked at the ex-sheriff with shocked eyes. Emma explained part of what happened between her and the evil queen and Regina couldn't fully believe that her past-self had fallen in love with Emma, so she couldn't completely understand how Emma really felt, but she also didn't want to go into that subject because she still didn't digest that properly. "Why can't we do both? If what Gold says its true, then Fiona is my child, we need to save her too!" Regina said and quickly got in front of Emma's way, stopping her from walking.

Emma frowned at her. "Oh sure, now that you found out that you finally gave birth to a child like you always wanted to but never could, you want to go find her, then you can do that on your own."

And that's when Emma crossed the line, she should've known that was a very sensitive subject for the brunette, so it was no wonder when the very next thing heard after Emma's words was a sound of a slap, because that's exactly what Regina did to the blonde's pale cheek. "D-don't you ever dare to speak to me like that, I am done with your attitude, Miss Swan," Regina said very angrily and maybe just then Emma could experience a little bit of the Evil Queen on this Regina, because she clearly touched a nerve.

Emma was just very shocked at the brunette's action, she really wasn't expecting the slap, but it also gave her a wake up call because now she could see that her mean actions were affection Regina and even though part of her wanted to hurt her, another part of her still loved her a lot and it was painful to see the mayor so upset.

Regina turned on her heel and keep walking, she didn't care if Emma decided to follow her or leave her, she was going to do what she felt was the right thing to do, find both children, not just one. – But she couldn't go that far because Emma was quick on her feet and grabbed Regina by the arm before pushing the mayor against a tree and pressing herself against her as well. "Emma, I swear-!" then Emma quickly covered her mouth to stop her from talking.

"Shh, listen, someone's coming," Emma whispered.

Regina rose her eyebrows and looked up at the blonde's face, now that they were so up close, Emma was indeed slightly taller than her and she could notice very well her fingers red-printed on that pale cheek.

The noises they were wearing was from a carriage and a group of people murmuring, they had finally reached closer to a village and those villagers seemed to be afraid by the presence of the dark carriage and soon Emma could see why because the person stepping out of that carriage was the infamous Evil Queen, with a blue long dress, her neck covered with a giant necklace and her long hair flowing over her right shoulder and that took the air out of Emma.

She wasn't expecting to see the Evil Queen and even though she knew that nothing good was about to happen to those villagers, she couldn't stop herself from feeling butterflies in the pit of her stomach, it was like seeing an old high school flame. She hadn't seen that face, that presence in almost eight years, sure, the Regina she was pressing her body against had the same face, but Emma could spot the slight differences between the two brunettes.

Since Emma was so star-struck, she hadn't removed her hand from Regina's mouth, so the mayor abruptly removed the pale hand from her mouth. "Emma, we can't stay here, we need to go, and we need to go now," Regina whispered to her, knowing very well if her past-self saw them, it would create a very big problem, specially because they shared the same face. "Emma," Regina lowly hissed, trying to get the other woman's attention.

Emma finally snapped out of it and looked down at brown eyes staring up at her, and even though she heard what the mayor said, she was now staring at her with the same star-stuck face. Emma never got over her feelings and this situation only proved that she could and would never forget how she felt for Regina. She was even daring herself to slowly lean her face closer to the mayor's; the feelings and the memories came flowing in like a big wave and Emma wasn't being able to deal with it properly, she just wanted what she had back, she just wanted to feel those lips on hers one more time.

"E-Emma…" Regina whispered as she felt green eyes getting closer to hers, her dark eyes even searched all over Emma's face trying to figure out what was about to happen, "Emma…w-what are you doing?"

That was when a drop of cold reality hit Emma and she just placed her forehead over Regina's shoulder. Of course, she could never have none of that back.

And before they could discuss or probably ignore what just happened, they heard a familiar voice.

"Whose out there?" It was the Evil Queen's voice.

- TBC -

There you go, I know these chapters are a bit shorter compared to the ones before, but I don't want to keep you guys waiting that much for a next chapter.

I hoped you enjoyed this! And I hope you understand why both women are feeling the way they do, that's why their bond and interaction are so messy now.