"You should clean this place out," Emma said, looking around Regina's vault. "Something could live down here and you wouldn't even know it."
Regina rolled her eyes. "Please. Stop exaggerating. There isn't that much stuff. But no touching anything. I don't want you getting hurt."
"What, like this?" Emma asked.
Regina looked over at her quickly, hoping that Emma hadn't managed to grab anything that she shouldn't have. It looked harmless enough; it was just a mirror after all. "I don't see a problem with you having a mirror."
Emma turned the mirror over. "Hey there's writing back here."
"What does it say?" Regina asked, going to back to looking around. The goal was to get as much stuff out of the vault as possible, but Regina didn't really want to give anything up.
"If it is the past you seek, all you have to do is speak. Name the person you wish to see, and then go on a learning spree," Emma recited. "Sounds like you can look at someone's past through this mirror."
"How far back?" Regina asked.
Emma shrugged. "Doesn't say. Guess as far back as you want."
"Interesting," Regina said. "I didn't even know that I had that down here. Just put it into the box of things to get rid of."
"What if I want to use it?" Emma asked.
"No," Regina said quickly. "You have no idea what that thing could do. Just put it in the box and help me sort through the rest of these."
Emma sighed before turning to the box. At the last moment, just before she was about to put the mirror in the box she whispered, "Regina Swan-Mills."
The mirror of course heard her, and sucked her in. By the time Regina turned around, Emma had fallen to the floor.
The first thing Emma thought as she looked at her surroundings was that Regina was going to kill her. Of course she hadn't listened, resulting in her now being stuck in what looked like a castle in the Enchanted Forest.
Emma groaned before going to walk towards the nearest door. Nobody seemed to be around, resulting in Emma feeling the need to explore.
Suddenly the door handle began to turn. Emma's eyes widened before she quickly turned and looked for a place to hide. At the last second, she climbed into the closet. Arriving in a bedroom seemed to have its perks.
"I didn't mean to spill tea on my dress," a young girl said. Emma felt like she recognized the little girl, but from where?
"Oh stop with your excuses," an older voice said. Emma gasped as the woman with the older voice walked into the room. It was Cora. Which meant that the little girl was…
"I apologize," Regina said, bowing her head. "I shall change my dress and then return to tea time."
"I don't want to hear your apology," Cora hissed. "I want you to be able to act like a lady all the time without doing something as ridiculous as spilling your tea. I have trained you better than that."
"Yes Mother," Regina said quietly.
"You are lucky that I have to return to the tea party, otherwise your punishment would be now," Cora said. "But since I have other duties, you will wait in your room until I return."
Regina had winced at the mention of punishment, but just nodded. Cora glared at her before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Once she was gone, Regina walked to her bed and sat down heavily. Emma couldn't believe her eyes or ears. Cora was going to punish Regina for spilling tea on her dress? Everyone made mistakes.
Then again, Regina had mentioned several times that Cora had punished her for little things. Spilling tea would definitely have been one of them.
Emma sighed before shifting and getting comfortable. She had a feeling that she would be there awhile.
Several hours later, Emma woke up to the sound of pained crying. That woke her up in no time. Had she missed what Cora had done?
Turns out she had. And from what she could see, she was glad that she had been asleep. She wouldn't have been able to take seeing her future wife getting beaten by her mother.
Large gashes completely covered all of Regina's back, and they looked incredibly painful. Emma had no doubt that they had taken a long time to get as deep as they were, but hopefully now things were better.
Cora suddenly slammed the door open, rolling her eyes at Regina's sobs. "Grow up, you insolent child. Pain is good for you."
"Yes Mother," Regina said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
Emma's eyes filled with tears of her own. "I don't want to see anymore of this," she whispered. "I want to go home."
She shut her eyes, hoping that when she opened them she would be back in the vault.
"Emma?" Regina said, lightly shaking her. "Emma, please wake up."
Emma's eyes fluttered open. "Oh thank goodness I'm back."
"Back?" Regina asked. "You've been here the whole time. All you did was pass out as you went to put the mirror in the box. I don't think you hit your head though."
"I didn't," Emma said, sitting up slowly. "But I did see something interesting. The mirror wasn't lying, I whispered your name and it took me to a day where you had spilled tea on your dress and Cora was threatening the punish you."
Regina winced. "One of the whipping days?"
Emma nodded slowly. "It wasn't pretty. I was hiding in your closet, but at least I was asleep when the actual beating took place."
"Good," Regina said. "You didn't need to see that."
"Believe me, I know," Emma said. "From now on, if you tell me not to use something in your vault, I won't."
"Of course it took you being sucked into my past for you to realize that," Regina said, chuckling. "But I'll take it."