Meet Me on the Inside
Chapter Two: While the Captain's Away, the Queen will Play
"Regina?"
Emma's words freeze Regina. There's too much emotion in them to answer, too many questions she herself doesn't have a response to.
At first she thinks this is some weird dream transference bullshit where Emma is able to peek into Regina's subconscious and talk to her and surely Regina's going to wake up any moment now.
"Emma?" she questions with the same amount of gravity and confusion as the blonde underneath her.
"What happened to Killian?" there's an edge of panic in Emma's voice and she's breathing hard. Suddenly Regina is stone cold sober and awake.
This isn't a dream.
In some fucked up way, this has become her reality.
She clamps a hand to her mouth, and scrambles off of Emma and hurries to the bathroom down the hall. All the cider she's consumed comes back up into the porcelain bowl and once she's done, Emma's hands find their way onto her shoulders, wrapping her in an over sized shirt that she later realizes is Killian's.
"Regina, what's going on? What happened?" Emma looks like a little child in the fluorescent lighting of the bathroom and Regina hugs the shirt and shakes her head.
"I...I don't know." She's as shook as Emma, perhaps even more, but she can't let it show. "Last I know I was sleeping, and then I came to here, on top of you."
Emma blushes at that and unconsciously reaches for a love bite that Regina has left on her neck. "And what about Killian?"
"I don't know." It's a testament to how Regina is flustered that her lip doesn't automatically curl up on his name. "It's all confusing."
Emma presses the heel of her palm into her eye. "That's the understatement of the century. This is so fucked up."
Regina tries not to flinch at that. Of course Emma would treat this like it was the end of the world. She tried not to let that sting and instead focused on figuring out what happened, because she certainly doesn't know what is going on right now, other than her very vivid dream was actually a very vivid reality.
"Let's get dressed up," Emma offers and goes back to her bedroom. Neither of them make eye contact with the bed, for it is a stark reminder of what happened mere minutes ago. "Here." Emma hands Regina an oversized tee and some shorts before she puts clothes on herself. "Coffee?"
"Have anything stronger?" Regina knows she shouldn't be drinking but she needs something to numb the inevitable pain to come. Here she was, having just spent a night with Emma like she longed and wished she could do and it had been a disaster, totally coerced on both their parts. Neither was a fully willing participant due to whatever magic had been placed on them.
Emma nods her head. "Good idea. I have some whiskey in my cabinet."
Regina dresses hurriedly and tries to keep her eyes away from Emma as she too puts on her clothes. But it's hard to ignore the marks the two of them left on each other, hard to ignore how memories of hot bodies twisting and curling around each other fill their heads. Regina goes down the stairs when she's done and looks around until she finds the bottle and some clean glasses, pouring them a thumb each.
Emma grabs the offered glass, eyes never quite able to meet Regina's. Regina can't look into them either, afraid of what she might see in green depths. Hatred, disgust-things she is used to seeing, but not on Emma, not even when they were at each other's throats.
Emma drains the glass in one go, sets it down with a loud thunk on the counter. "Okay, let's talk about what the fuck just happened."
Regina nurses her drink more slowly, letting the burn of it cover the burn in her heart. "I thought it was all a dream."
"A dream?" Emma's brow raises.
"Yes...some sort of weird dream, where my hatred for Hook had extended to and taken control of my thoughts. I thought I had turned into him and was merely living out one of his love sessions with you," her lips curl in disgust and she covers it up with a sip of her whiskey. Emma knows she hates Hook, so she doesn't bother with that bit of information, but the more damning one.
"Why were you having dreams about me and Hook having sex?" Emma leans on the counter, closer to Regina.
Regina feels defenseless so she curls one arm around her midriff. "I think it has to do with whatever magic it was that was placed on me, rather than my own whims and desires." She tries to infuse indifference into the statement so Emma doesn't suspect the true reason.
"Are you sure...are you sure you didn't do something?"
Regina's head snaps up at the accusation. "Are you blaming this on me? You think I purposefully would turn into Hook?"
Emma has the decency to blush. "No. I just wanted to make sure. Sometimes magic can be wonky."
"I am well aware of that," Regina snaps out, because she wasn't fool enough to do risky magic like that. She wouldn't turn herself into Hook in order to just have Emma. She wanted to feel Emma's touch on her own skin, her kisses on her own lips.
"Do you have any clue what could have caused this? What were you doing before?"
"I was...indulging in a drink or two," Regina omits because it would be embarrassing to let Emma know how drunk she had gotten and the reason behind it.
"And?"
"I don't quite recall." And Regina doesn't. She just knows she was brooding and pining away a lot in those hours and she hates herself for being pathetic enough to do that.
"Well then, what happened?" Emma throws her hands up in exasperation.
"Why don't we look at things from your perspective. Did you mess with anything? It would be more believable that you would be the one to inadvertently mess something up."
Emma gave a hard glare. "No, I didn't do anything. It was a perfectly normal day. I woke up, did my shift, came home, watched some TV, ate some dinner, waited on Killian to come back. And he did...but was it you the whole time?"
Regina didn't want to answer that, but it would be helpful to the both of them if she did. "I..was..but I didn't know what was happening was real. I thought I was merely acting out some twisted dream."
Emma looks at her with consideration and Regina hates that contemplative look, as if Emma is trying to piece her together, to figure out if Regina needed her pity. "Don't," she snaps. "What ever magic placed on the both of us, I should say you deserve the pity and not me. I wasn't the one being tricked into thinking it was the love of my life I was sleeping with only to find out it was my friend." She swallows hard on calling Hook the love of Emma's life, but it's what destiny has decreed, has it not?
Emma doesn't say anything to that, instead: "If you're here, than where's Hook?"
As if summoned by her words, there is a pounding on the door. Emma hurries over, Regina lagging behind her. Hook is there on the doorstop, hands crossed over his chest. He's wearing Regina's outfit from last night and it's stretched across his massive chest hilariously. What's even funnier is seeing his hairy legs encased in a skirt and pantyhose.
"Killian!" Emma cries out in joy.
"You!" he ignores Emma and raises his hook pointing it threateningly at Regina. "You did this to me! Did you think it would be funny?" He moves forward and Emma shoves him back.
"Calm down!"
"Not until the witch explains to me what she's doing here in our house, and in your clothes!" His eyes are wild and he's suspicious. He's not wrong to have his doubts.
Emma casts a look at Regina, conflicted, and panicking. Regina clears her throat and plasters on a fake smile. "There was a minor body switch up. But worry not, nothing of serious consequence happened. I merely woke up here on the couch and you woke up where I was. No harm done."
He doesn't look too ready to accept what she's saying, but then again when did anyone ever take anything she said at face value?
Emma did, a voice whispers in the back of her mind. She silences it.
"I'll be leaving now, since I am no longer welcome here." She poofs away and ends up in her room. There she sinks onto her bed and just looks up the ceiling. She remembers all too well searching fingers, wet slick heat, and a litany of moans. Of how it felt to be so connected to someone.
She closes her eyes as her arousal flares to life. What happened last night shouldn't have happened but somehow it had. And she knew it wasn't by her own magic. Body switches didn't just happen on a thought. A potion, maybe? She hadn't brewed one, and she couldn't imagine anyone slipping anything into her personal stash of cider.
So it had to be a spell. But who had cast it?
And why?
She had to talk more to Emma about this, so when she felt it would be reasonable to text her, she did, asking to meet in Granny's because she didn't trust herself to be alone around Emma. She could feel the pull to be next to her, to touch her again, to taste those lips and the nectar that dripped from her other pair.
She arrived at Granny's first and got a booth for them, nervously fiddling with her napkin as she sipped her coffee. Her head was pounding from all the cider she had consumed and she needed some sleep but she couldn't, not when the last time she had she had ended up in and on top of Emma. What if it happened again?
She closed her eyes and sighed in disappointment as she realized she'd sacrifice being a scruffy pirate for a couple of hours, if only she could redo the night with Emma. She wanted to really try that new angle. She was sure Emma would love it.
Emma slid into the booth a couple seconds later, shooting Regina an unsure smile. The former queen was pleased to find that Emma hadn't covered up the marks on her neck.
"You wanted to talk?"
"Yes. I went through the options of why this happened, and how it could have, and I regrettably have answers to neither, but, I am certain it must have been a spell cast on us."
"Given our limited amount of magic users here, it leaves us only with Gold. But why would he do this is us?"
"I don't know. To get his sick kicks in?" Regina shrugged. "The town has been quiet for a while, with no threats running around, and he does have it out for me."
"But why would having you sleep with me hurt you? Or be a punishment?" Emma let a smug grin fill her face. "Sleeping with me is an honor."
"Oh please, don't flatter yourself," Regina snipped. Internally, she wished it was an honor she had daily.
"So, a visit to Gold, is it?"
"After her majesty's had a visit to my sword," Hook practically growls as he storms in loudly, stopping by Emma, hook possessively placed over her shoulder, holding her down from getting up. His other hand curls onto the sword hidden under his cloak.
Emma shoots Regina a guilty look. "I'm sorry, I..."
"You told him," Regina sighs, finishes her coffee. She shouldn't be surprised. Emma wasn't the best of liars.
"He saw the marks on my neck." She points. "And he deserves to know. It was his body that got hi-jacked."
Ah, Emma ever the noble. Regina had been content in letting Hook stay in dark, in keeping the moment between her and Emma alone. It would have made it more special. Now it was just another filthy act; a travesty, a stain against Hook's and Emma's true love.
Regina shoots him a nasty glare letting her eyes drift down to his crotch. "I've already seen your sword and it's nothing impressive."
He grits his teeth so hard she's surprised they haven't cracked. "I'm not as inclined as Emma to let this incident be an 'accident'. It certainly reeks of magic."
"As long as it doesn't reek like you do," she shoots back and this time, Emma throws out a hand to bar Killian from taking another step.
"Don't antagonize him, please." Emma gives Regina a pleading look. "It's hard to deal with...an indiscretion in a relationship."
"He was the one who threatened me with his puny sword in the first place," Regina tosses her hair up. "I bet he can't even make you come properly."
She knows she shouldn't be rubbing this in his face but she might as well. It's going to be the only enjoyment she gets from what happened that night. His face twitches. "Wouldn't you like to know, your majesty. At least she came because she thought it was me."
Regina's eyes narrowed. Low blow.
His lips curled up and he stepped past Emma, striking his hook into the wood in front of Regina, leaning in to openly sneer at her face, voice low. "Don't think I don't know. A man always knows when someone is interested in his woman."
She doesn't let her gaze waver but on the inside she's shaken. How does he know? She made sure to mask her feelings well. Was she that obvious?
"Hey, no fighting in my diner," Granny shouts out from behind her counter. "I better not find any scratch marks on my tables, Jones!"
Hook leans back, thinking he has won this round. "Whatever happened, will not happen again."
Just to spite him, Regina hopes it will.