A/N: This chapter was a bit of a struggle, but I loved writing all of Emma's dialogue. Welcome to the Enchanted Forest!
It was, by far, the best kiss Regina had ever had.
She didn't know if she should attribute it to the fact that it was with a girl, or that it was with Emma, or if it was simply that she'd actually wanted it. There was a rush like she'd never felt before, as if something burst around them the minute they touched. As if they were in the movies, with lights and wind machines.
She reluctantly allowed Emma to pull away after a moment, but Regina kept her eyes closed and her arms firmly around the blonde, burying her face in the other girl's neck. She stayed there, still soaking up the moment, when Emma's voice forced her eyes open.
"What the hell?"
Regina looked up, twisting to figure out what Emma was looking at, but it was all around them. The suburban street was gone, trees in its place. It was a thick and gloomy forest unlike any either girl had ever seen, fog keeping them from seeing far.
They let go of each other but stayed close, looking around as if an answer would come into view. "Something happened when I kissed you," Emma said. "It was really different than ever before."
"Good different," Regina replied, both a statement and a question.
Emma smiled. "But even the best kiss ever couldn't really…" She waved at the scenery around them. "I don't get it."
"Maybe if we try again?" If nothing else, Regina was eager for another kiss. They drew together and kissed harder this time, desperate to make something happen. And while it felt just as special, just as right, it didn't take them back.
They pulled apart to look around again, both puzzling over what possibly could have happened. There were no answers, none that made sense. Emma intertwined her fingers with Regina's and started off into the forest with the brunette following close behind her. They were both silent, speechless as they found a dirt path and took it. It seemed impossible to talk about anything but where they were, and yet neither had any idea how to address that topic.
"Is this place freaking you out as much as it's freaking me out?" Emma asked after a few minutes of walking. The fog was constantly folding in behind them, and the forest was strangely quiet.
"Yeah." Regina glanced over her shoulder to see nothing but mist. There was no way of finding their way back to the place where they'd started, not that there was anything in that spot worth going back to.
The fog thankfully began to thin, and both girls smiled at the silhouette of a house in the distance. They hurried towards it, grateful for some sign of civilization, but Emma came to an abrupt stop when they were halfway there, not seeming to notice when Regina crashed into her. "Holy shit," she whispered. "Do you see that?"
"See what?" Regina saw nothing but the house, although something definitely seemed off about it. It was nothing like the crisp, identical houses of her neighborhood. It had curving edges, and strange accents painted in white.
"It's a gingerbread house," Emma breathed, and Regina finally saw that it was creamy frosting, not paint. "The gingerbread house. Hansel and Gretel."
"Who?" Regina followed close behind Emma as they continued towards the house.
"From the fairytale, you know? The witch in the gingerbread house."
"My mother was never one for fairytales." Regina ignored the sting that came from thinking of her mother, instead peering closely at the building.
Emma paused to look back at Regina and shake her head. "She's insane. I loved those stories when I was little." She stopped moving again, close enough to see the texture of the gingerbread and the ripples in the sugar-glass windows. "It looks so real. It even smells real." She grabbed onto Regina's wrist when the brunette made to move forward. "We are not knocking on that door. We are not touching that house."
They headed back to the road, Regina puzzled by Emma's sudden retreat. "I thought we could ask for help. Find out where we are."
"In the story, these two kids are abandoned by their parents in the woods." Emma smiled sadly to herself; she'd always loved the stories about orphans and lost children most, even though her own happy ending never seemed to come. "So they go to this house made of gingerbread and try to eat parts of it, and there's a witch inside who catches them and locks them up. She's going to cook one of them for dinner, but they shove her in the oven and get away."
Regina grimaced. "That's a terrible story."
"I'll tell it to you better another time. It was always one of my favorites." Emma glanced at Regina to see her disgust disappear into a smile. "So we're either at Disneyland, in which case we should just enjoy ourselves, or…"
Emma didn't finish the sentence, and Regina didn't even attempt to make a suggestion of her own. They fell back into silence, taking the trail side by side until the lifting fog revealed tall iron gates. As they stepped out of the cover of the trees, they could see the massive, dark building squatting behind the gate.
"What story is that from?" Regina asked, peering up to find towers and spires climbing up through the roof.
"Don't know, but big creepy castles are probably not a good idea." Emma made to move on, but Regina stayed put.
"We need to find out where we are and how we got here," she insisted. "We can't just keep walking forever. I'm cold and I'm hungry and I just want to go home." She paused after that, wishing she didn't sound so whiny. They'd only been out here for half an hour at most, but Emma had been living like this for a week. "Not home."
"Somewhere you actually recognize," Emma supplied, slipping off her jacket and tucking it around Regina's shoulders like she had on prom night. The brunette gave her a watery smile and Emma pulled her close. "We're in this together," she promised. "If you want to go check out the big creepy castle, then we'll do that."
Regina kissed Emma's cheek, grateful beyond words that the blonde was reassuring her rather than thinking her ridiculous. "I wish we had another choice," she said softly.
They stayed close together as they passed through the gates and made their way up the long path towards the castle. Very few windows were lit, revealing it to be mostly unoccupied, but the distance between the gates and the doors gave whoever was in there plenty of time to see them coming. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, a girl about their age opened one of the doors and took a step out.
The girl wore a simple blue dress that looked as though it came from another era, and she was holding a candle. Emma took a deep breath and was the first to speak. "Hi. We're lost and we were wondering if you could tell us where we are."
The girl looked puzzled, taking in their clothing and their odd question. "The town of Kell End is about a mile down the road," she said.
Emma and Regina shared a glance, neither registering the name. "But where are we, you know." Emma gestured widely.
"As this is disputed territory, it doesn't have much of a proper name. We're between the three kingdoms." When she realized the travelers still had no idea what she was talking about, she continued. "Between the Red, Gold, and White Kingdoms. The three main divisions of the Enchanted Forest. Although how you got here without passing through at least one of them, I don't know."
"The Enchanted Forest," Regina echoed. "I think we're very far from home."
"No kidding." Emma turned back towards the girl. "Is there any chance we could stay here for the night?"
"I'll have to ask my master," the girl replied, and yet she led them into a gloomy entrance hall. The visitors instinctively reached for each other's hands.
"Who is your master?" Regina asked, seeing no sign of other activity in the hall or any of the hallways leading off of it.
"The Dark One."
"What, like Voldemort?" Emma asked. Both brunettes looked at her quizzically, and she turned to Regina. "Seriously? You don't know Harry Potter?"
"My mother said those books were dangerously unrealistic," Regina replied bitterly, remembering all too well when she had been the only girl in middle school who wasn't reading them.
"They're called fantasy for a reason," Emma said.
The girl in the blue dress cleared her throat and the visitors stopped their discussion. "May I have your names to take to my master?"
"Regina Mills."
"Emma Swan."
The girl curtseyed slightly before setting the candle on a table to leave them with some light. "I'm Belle, if you need me."
Emma looked over Belle's dress again, realization dawning on her. "Like the princess?"
"Certainly not. My father has only just been made a Count." She nodded to them and hurried up the stairs.
Emma glared at the candle. "You'd better not start talking to me."
"What do you think this all means?" Regina asked as soon as they were alone again. "The Enchanted Forest? The Dark One?"
Emma drew Regina closer, slipping her arms around the brunette's waist. "Maybe we're just dreaming."