This chapter is dedicated to Guest (the same one who wrote the prompt for "Wooing Emma"). Thank you so much to those of you that have been reviewing with positive feedback, it's really helping to encourage me to keep going! Original prompt is at the bottom.
Emma and Regina had just experienced their first fight. Most normal couples did it. Only they weren't normal.
Emma still didn't have full control over her magic whenever she was emotional, so she chose to leave the room before things got out of control and she actually hurt Regina. Only, that was what the fight was about.
Without Regina knowing, Emma had gone to see Gold about removing her magic. It was too unpredictable, and it tied her down to be the Savior. She didn't want to be the Savior anymore. She just wanted to be Emma.
Regina had been furious about how Gold couldn't be trusted, and how she could help Emma. Emma, being the stubborn woman she was, said that she didn't need Regina to tell her what to do. Then the argument started.
It had ended once Henry had come home, both women not wanting to worry Henry with their arguing. Emma left the room to go cool down, in her own little corner of the house.
Regina had cooled down, and now she was really worried. She knew that both she and Emma had said things that they didn't mean, and was looking to apologize. But she couldn't find Emma. And that scared her more than anything.
Throughout the years of getting to know Emma, Regina had learned that Emma ran whenever she felt that she needed to get out. So naturally, Emma had probably run.
Regina walked through the house, peeking into every room. "Why did I insist on giving myself such a big house?" she mumbled, as she opened yet another door.
"Mom?" Henry called. "What are you looking for?"
"Not what, who. I can't find Emma," Regina said. Henry smiled at her.
"I know where she is," he said. "It's her go-to spot whenever we play hide-and-seek." He turned away from Regina and began walking towards the part of the house that Regina was hardly in. It was dusty and dark, as if no living thing had ever been there. Which there hadn't been.
"I didn't even know this part of the house existed," Regina said. She coughed as she waved her hand in front of her face, trying to get rid of the dust in the air.
"We found it by accident," Henry explained. "We think it was made by the part of your mind that was good when you created the curse."
"What makes you say that?" Regina asked.
"The rest of the mansion is very precisely decorated," Henry said. "This part has just a bunch of stuff that makes you happy." Regina just looked at him, confused.
"You'll see," he said. "It's like, the house knows when someone else moves in, and creates a comfort room for them." They stopped in front of a door. "This is Emma's."
Henry turned to Regina. "Make things better," he whispered. "Don't let her run away." Regina nodded and opened the door.
Emma's comfort room looked exactly like her nursery in Snow and David's palace. How she remembered this room, Emma had no idea. But for some reason, it was comforting.
She and Henry had discovered this part of the house by accident, but it was the best accident ever. This room had everything that made her comfortable, including an easel.
Emma loved painting, although hardly anyone knew it. It had been at one of her many foster homes that she discovered this love, but she hadn't painted for a very long time. It was very relaxing for her, simply because she had the freedom to paint whatever she wanted. No one could tell her what to do when she painted.
Emma was so lost in her painting that she didn't even notice Regina enter the room. Regina gasped when she saw what Emma was painting. It was absolutely beautiful. Emma was painting the sunset just as it hit the water of the ocean. Yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, and blue all mixed together to make the most realistic sunset Regina had ever seen on a canvas.
"It's beautiful," Regina whispered. Emma froze and turned around.
"How did you find me?" Emma asked. "You've never been in this part of the house before."
"Henry sold you out," Regina said. She walked over and looked over Emma's shoulder at her painting.
"I didn't know that you could paint," Regina said.
"I started in one of my foster homes," Emma explained. "It was one of the few places that I could actually be me."
Regina nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "If you want to get rid of your magic, you can. I won't stop you."
Emma sighed and put down her painting supplies. "I was just frustrated. I don't actually want to," she said.
Regina kissed her cheek. "You paint beautifully, you know."
"Thank you," Emma said, blushing. "It's just something little that I do."
"It's the little things that made me fall in love with you," Regina replied.
Original prompt: "If you're open for a second prompt I'd love a story and it could be a follow up or prequel to the first idea that after a bad fight Regina learns all these things about Emma that no one else seems to notice she can sing she can draw she has a fear of something just a few little things she learns over time in the courting process it'd be a bit of a long story but a good one I think"
So I wrote the story and then went back and realized that the review said nothing about painting. My bad. Consider it me making the prompt my own. Review!