Hi everyone! Thank you all for reading and all the feedback on the previous ones! It's very very much appreciated! :) This next one is longer and happier, I hope you'll like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the characters.
SWAN QUEEN WEEK
Day 3- Time Travel
"Woah! Regina?" Emma looked around furiously after landing on something solid on her backside. Much to her relief she saw the brunette just a few feet away from her, sitting up and running a hand through her hair. "What the hell happened?" Emma scowled as she pushed herself up from the ground. She looked around and saw trees and grass everywhere but it wasn't a forest. It seemed to be a park of some sorts. It was a real miracle that nobody saw them appear out of nowhere...
"I told you not to touch anything in my vault, have I not? You just had to go and play around with things you don't know how to handle... " Regina muttered, standing up and dusting her pants off.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Now what do we do?" Emma asked standing up as well.
"We have to figure out where we are... We're not in Storybrooke that's for sure." Regina said with narrowed eyebrows.
"How can you know that for sure?" Emma asked though she also had a feeling they were not in town anymore but she wouldn't bet on it.
"I know my own town, Miss Swan. And this type of tree doesn't grow in there. We're not in Storybrooke." Regina said firmly. "So where are we?" she looked around, her brown eyes taking in every little detail that could help.
Emma did much the same, running her eyes over the buildings she could see, moving towards the path to get a better look at everything. Back when she was a bail bondsperson she was rather good at tracking down places, and at recognizing them easily as well. And there was something about this place, this park and the little she could see of the city from there, the bakery on the corner and the bus stop they all looked slightly familiar... Just like she had been here before. And she had been to so many cities, it was possible she had been here as well. But she couldn't figure it out which one.
Then she heard it, the muffled tune that brought up memories from deep down, making her mouth fall open.
"No way..." she breathed as she took a few steps down the path towards the sound.
"Emma?" she faintly heard Regina's voice from behind her but she didn't stop just walked briskly towards the entrance of the park. "Emma!" Regina called out once again, hurrying after her.
The blonde halted in her tracks as she got to the gates of the park and caught sight of the car. An ice cream truck with big colorful signs on its side and a speaker on the top of the car, blasting with the catchy tune that triggered Emma's long forgotten memories.
"Oh god." Emma whispered, looking down along the street now and realizing why she had that strange feeling before.
"Emma! Are you okay? What is it?" Regina caught up to her and touched her elbow to get her attention. The touch snapped Emma out of her daze and she turned to look at the brunette.
"Yeah, sure. And I know exactly where we are." she said and when Regina just looked at her expectantly she added. "We're in Hopkins, Minnesota."
"How... how do you know?" Regina asked, sounding confused.
"I spent some time here. When I was a teen." Emma uttered, looking around as if she really couldn't believe.
"Is there any reason why you think we'd end up here? Were you thinking of this place recently?" Regina questioned, trying to figure out their situation.
"No, not really..." Emma shook her head then something else caught her attention.
A bus was coming down the road and slowing as it got to the bus stop and as Emma watched it she noticed that it looked somewhat old. She had a feeling like she was in Storybrooke except... In Hopkins time wasn't still, were there really no technical advances since she was a girl? She watched as the bus stopped and opened its door and Emma could almost see herself as a scared but determined teenager as she got off a bus just like this one, running from the foster system, not knowing what the future might hold for her but strongly believing it could only be better than the group homes. Thinking she would finally be independent, stand on her own, be an adult... She could almost see herself... until she actually really did.
She did a double take, sure that her eyes were playing a trick on her when she saw the blond haired girl in a worn jacket and a backpack on her shoulders get off the bus and stand in the stop, watching the bus drive away with a nervous look in her eyes. That wasn't possible, that simply just couldn't be... her. She watched the girl turn around and take in her surroundings just like Emma herself did a few minutes ago and all thoughts that maybe it was just another girl resembling her went out of her mind. But if that was young Emma... then that meant... oh god, Regina's gonna kill her.
She didn't have much time to ponder over that though because young Emma just turned towards the park and she absolutely couldn't risk getting seen by her younger self so she just grabbed Regina's hand and spun around, making their way back into the park.
"Emma what is it?" Regina asked worriedly, trying to look behind them to see what they were practically running from.
"Oh god, oh god..." she muttered over and over again as soon as she stopped under a large oak tree, pacing a bit before she put her palm on the trunk and leaned onto the tree. "Oh my god." she whispered.
"Emma what happened? Who did you see?" Regina asked, putting a hand on her shoulder, stroking it and stepping close to her to see her face.
"Regina... I saw me." she whispered.
"What?"
"I saw myself. Oh god... It's not only where we are, Regina. It's when!" she told the other woman, barely believing it herself even as she said it. Regina's eyes just widened though and she once again looked around.
"Do you mean... When are we, Emma?" she asked.
"If I remember correctly, it's 1998. I was fifteen."
"Emma Swan at the age of fifteen... oh wow, I wonder how you were at that time..." Regina mused with an amused smirk and Emma groaned.
"Seriously Regina? We're stuck in the nineties and all you worry about is how I was as a teenager? I was stubborn and thought I was smarter and stronger than anyone. I thought I could get on all alone..." she told the brunette with an eyeroll.
"Alright. Well we have to be careful, you cannot see us and we can't do anything that might affect your life otherwise..."
"My future could change. Yes I know, Regina. But how is this even possible? I thought time travel was almost impossible..." she said then thought of the other time this has come up. Yes, she was kind of a veteran time traveler now, this wasn't her first time in the past. Their little run-in with Zelena and her evil, or well wicked plan to destroy Regina's happiness and gain her own caused her a trip down memory lane. A trip that almost didn't end well for her. This time she would be much more careful.
"Well, I can only think of one explanation to this. I'm afraid you must have cast a curse somehow while playing around with the different things in my vault. There was actually a restoring curse, one that makes a person or an item reverse in age...it wasn't a complete curse and it wasn't mine, I found it between my mother's things. I didn't really understand it either but you must have... poured something on it... or mixed something that heightened its effects. I don't know. It must have channeled your light magic, it must have activated it." Regina explained with a frown.
"I did what? I cast a curse?" Emma asked incredulously and when Regina nodded she added. "On us?"
"Yes, Emma. I suppose the portal has closed up. Or well I hope because if not, anybody who goes into my vault could fall through it."
"Not like that many people go into your secret vault, though..." Emma reasoned.
"Yes but I for one wouldn't want to run into Henry while we try to figure this out ourselves. But he does come in there sometimes..." Regina pointed out and Emma nodded with a sigh.
"You're right. Alright, I think... I think there must be a reason why we're here, right? So let's just...go after um, well me. And see what she does here." she suggested.
"Okay, if you're sure that's a good idea." the brunette sounded uncertain.
"It's not like we have anything else to do, Regina. Supposedly there's no magic here, so we can't just look for a magical object to open a portal with..."
"Yes, I guess you must be right. It can't be a coincidence we came here..." Regina said and started to walk down the path towards the gates again.
As Emma followed her, watching the slight sway of her hips and the way the wind blew her hair a bit she thought that if she was struck here with anyone, she was rather glad it was with Regina.
"You coming?" Regina paused to wait for her at the gates and Emma jogged towards her. "So where did you go from here?" she asked, looking around, searching for the blonde girl she saw getting off the bus.
"I uh... I'm not sure. Wow, it was a long time ago..." Emma muttered, trying to concentrate really hard on remembering every little detail she could about those few days. "I think I went that way. I wanted to find shelter for a bit..." she nodded towards a street to their left and they started to walk in that direction.
It was an odd feeling, walking down the street, looking at the houses and stores they passed and feeling this deja vu. Except it wasn't deja vu since she have actually already seen all of this. She had walked this street and looked up on buildings and wondered just where will she find a place to spend the night. She knew where to go, flashes and images and sometimes just her instinct leading her and soon enough she spotted the backpack with the little panda sticker on the bottom corner that she put there. It was a gift in a bag of chips that she managed to get a hold of before the other kids and that was kind of the rule in group homes, if you took it it was yours.
"There I am..." she murmured to Regina, who until then was walking next to her wordlessly, just letting her take the lead.
The young girl stood on the sidewalk for a bit before she lowered herself onto a step leading to a front door. She looked deep in thought and Emma knew what must be going through her head. All the insecurities and fears and the desperation and the built up anger that found running away the best option.
"Okay, what should we do? What will you do?" the brunette asked.
"I umm...I dunno." Emma rubbed her forehead, trying to remember but then she realized just where they were. "Oh... Oh!" her eyes widened and a grin slowly spread on her face.
"Emma?" Regina asked, confused.
"See that supermarket there?" Emma pointed to a building a couple of blocks down on the other side of the street. "That's where I met Lily." she said, the memory clear in her head. "So just... umm, give me a moment. I mean younger me. I guess she'll realize she's hungry or something and go into the store." she finished, watching herself as she sat perched on the stone, probably expecting someone to come out any minute and tell her to go away. She was now gazing down the street in the direction of the supermarket and Emma thought it could happen any minute now.
But her younger self didn't move.
"Well?" Regina murmured after a couple of minutes passed in silence. They were kind of just standing in front of a shoe store so she was trying to act like she was just window shopping but she could only observe five pairs of shoes for so long...
"Give her some time. Any minute now..." Emma muttered, her eyes glued to the girl and it was lucky that there were barely anyone on the street and even like this nobody was paying any attention to them because it must have looked pretty suspicious and rather creepy.
They waited another long moment before Emma noticed something, or rather someone else.
"Look, there's Lily!" she pointed out the dark haired girl crossing the street to the supermarket. She walked confidently, striding into the shop like she owned it or the very least like she had done this a hundred times before.
"That's Lily? Wow she changed so much..." Regina said in awe, thinking of the woman she had met a couple of months before. The woman who turned out to be Maleficent's daughter. She didn't really resemble her mother, not even when she was young... Though she had that air of mischief and cheekiness to her that Regina knew Maleficent had as well. Well a grown up version of them at least.
"Yeah... " Emma whispered with a nostalgic smile, almost getting lost of her memories of the two of them together. Lily was her first crush. Before her young Emma never thought of girls like that but Lily changed everything. It was strange, to know that even though nothing happened between the two of them, the girl had such a major impact on her life. How differently everything would have gone if young Emma didn't realize her feelings back then? How long would it have taken her? How many slaps would she have gotten from life...?
Now she was long over Lily, she had someone else in her heart, another brunette who became her friend over the years. A brunette who was now waiting for her younger self to make a move. But of course Regina knew nothing of her little crush...
But it all started with Lily. And it was extremely exciting for Emma to know that and be able to witness it. Of course back then she didn't know what an important part of her life was it, that it was a beginning to something much bigger, that her life would change... She couldn't know, but now she did. Maybe that was why they had to come to this part of Emma's past, maybe she needed to be reminded of that first, innocent love and how pure and blissful it was. How happy it made her. Maybe it was the universe's way of reminding her what she could have had... what she maybe will have the chance to have with Regina again. If only she grew some balls...
"Emma, are you sure this is that time?" Regina suddenly asked and she realized she had been a bit distracted for minutes now. Lily was long ago inside the supermarket and young Emma was still sitting on the steps.
"This isn't good, I'm sure it's that time. We both wear the same clothes, I took this road... I don't understand, what's wrong?" Emma muttered, knowing her younger self had to go in there. There would be unthinkable consequences if she didn't... She racked her brain to figure out what was different this time around, to remember every little detail about that day. Why did she go into the supermarket? She ended up stealing Pop tarts, yes but... it couldn't have been because she was hungry, if that was the case she would have gone in by now. No there was something else...
She watched her young self gazing across the street, letting her eyes linger on people, following them to the store and suddenly she had a flash, just the faintest, faded memory of a woman. Who sauntered into the supermarket like a... like a queen. She gasped, her heart missing out a beat as she once again let her eyes jump from the building to young Emma and then they settled on the woman standing next to her with a questioning look.
"Regina? You have to walk down the street and go into the supermarket." she told the brunette who looked at her like she was out of her mind.
"What? Are you kidding me?" she asked.
"No, I'm sorry but...please, this is very important." she pleaded.
"Emma, she cannot see me. That would risk..." Regina started but the blonde cut her off.
"You have to. Otherwise young me won't move and I won't meet Lily and... a bunch of things will go differently. Please, I know what I'm doing." Emma said, looking into those brown eyes and hoping that Regina would trust her on this.
"Emma..." Regina hesitated, clearly not so sure about this plan.
"Regina please! You have to go now, we have no time to spare. Lily will come out of there any minute now, we can't allow that! You just have to walk down that side of the street where she can see you, it's important that she sees you, you see. And go into the supermarket. Please." Emma rambled and Regina sucked in a deep breath.
"Just hope that you're right." she told Emma then she squared her shoulders and after the next passing car she crossed the street and started walking towards the store.
"Of course I'm right. This is my life..." Ema muttered to herself as she watched Regina walk down to street with her usual long strides, her Major Mills power walk. That woman was truly something and she found herself thinking she could just spend a whole day watching Regina walk and do nothing else, it was mesmerizing... Her confidence, the way she held herself, her perfect composure. And of course it didn't help that she was also breathtakingly stunning. Even in a pantsuit, she managed to look so feminine and the way the wind caught in her hair, Regina kind of looked like a supermodel. "Oh shit." Emma hissed when she realized she shouldn't be watching Regina but her younger self to see if it worked. Her eyes snapped to the front steps with bated breath, wishing with all she had that she remembered correctly.
She only had to wait a few seconds though before young Emma noticed Regina walking down the street. She knew right away when it happened because the blonde girl's eyes widened, her head tilted slightly to the side and she bit her lower lip slightly. A smirk spread on her face because she knew those signs, her young self wasn't making them consciously just yet but those were her 'hi!I like you, I think you look good enough to eat!' signs.
"Gotcha!" she murmured and sure enough as Regina walked down the street and into the supermarket, her younger self stared after her for a moment then as if she was drawn in by some higher power -which might just be the truth, Emma now realized with a dawning amazement- she crossed the street too and walked evenly to the supermarket and disappeared inside. "Mission accomplished." she muttered with a grin.
Emma slumped back against the wall of the house next to her, only now realizing that her palms were sweating and her heart was hammering away in her chest. Only now allowing herself to think about how vital this moment really was in her life and how it was a close call that she lost it.
"She went in." Regina's voice sounded from next to her a few minutes later and she looked up at her with a grin.
"Yes, thank you, thank you so much Regina." she said, feeling like she just wanted to kiss her right there and then.
"How did you know?" the brunette asked in amusement.
"Well you know, apart from it being my life... " Emma started and earned a glare from the brunette. "Sorry, so when I saw that she wasn't moving I knew there had to be something that made her go in there. And I started to wonder what that could possibly be... Then I looked around and realized. An image actually popped into my mind." she said and when Regina still looked at her with a confused look she continued. "You see I thought about this time travel thing, if I'm here now and have these memories that means she had to do them. And she did it because of you. So I came to the conclusion that... this was always meant to be like this Regina. You know, time is a strange thing, everything is connected. And a gorgeously beautiful woman, Regina, could always effect me in the most unbelievable ways..." she finished with a shy smile.
"You...you mean...?" Regina trailed off and Emma couldn't actually believe that she managed to make the mightly Regina Mills speechless.
"Yes, I was..." she took a deep breath before deciding to go full in with her little confession. "Even back then, I was so attracted to you that I simply followed you into the store to see you for a couple of more minutes. Of course, inside I met Lily and it all ended as it did and frankly, I just forgot about you entirely. Until about ten minutes ago. That's why I knew this would work."
"Well, Miss Swan, I have to say I'm impressed. I didn't know you had it in you... I have to admit, this was very smart." Regina said, making Emma burst out laughing because only Regina could seem so very reluctant to say a praise to someone. "I only have one question left..." the brunette added and at Emma's nod she continued. "You said 'even back then'... " she said and maybe it was just Emma's mind playing tricks, making her see what she wished for but was that a glimmer of hope in her eyes? She felt her cheeks getting hotter. This was it, the moment. And now she knew that it was a leap she would have to take and just hope for the best.
"That wasn't a question..." she stalled and Regina rolled her eyes.
"Miss Swan."
"Sorry... um. Yes, Regina. Even back then and ever since I met you." she said, meeting the brunette's wide, surprised eyes boldly, letting her see how she truly felt about her. Because it was just attraction when she was a teenager but it was so much more now. So much deeper and complex and confusing and maddening and lovely at the same time. Just like Regina herself. Her heart was racing and she was utterly terrified of what the other woman might say, she was so scared that with this she would destroy everything they built up so hardly. But before she had time to delve into these, before she had time to get cold feet and backtrack somehow, Regina reached out to cup her cheek gently and she traced her thumb over Emma's cheekbone with so much affection that the blonde was sure she would just melt on the spot before Regina pulled her in, closing the distance between their faces and sealing their lips in a sweet but passionate kiss.
A bright flash of light enveloped them but neither one of them seemed to notice as they were pretty distracted with how their lips slid against one another and their arms came up to clutch at the other, fingers tangling into hair and settling on slim waists, fitting together perfectly. When they finally pulled back and opened their eyes Emma glanced around them, then back at Regina in shock.
"Was that...?" she asked, her tone still breathy from the kiss."Are we back?"
"True Love's Kiss can break any curse." Regina nodded with a smile. "So, I have a feeling I don't need to elaborate about my feelings..." she said playfully and Emma let out a chuckle before she pulled Regina into another kiss.
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