There wasn't a whole lot of domestic bliss in Storybrooke once the rest of the world discovered (or rediscovered) magic without knowing how to use it.
On that first morning back, Emma woke before Regina, leaned over to kiss her slumbering partner, and then made her way downstairs to find coffee or tea and make breakfast.
At the bottom of the stairs, she encountered her parents.
It couldn't have been later than 7am. Emma swiveled on her heel and peered at a small clock on one of the den side table.
"Everybody all right?" She asked her mother cheerfully.
"Sorry, ummm…we let ourselves in. Henry is making toast." Snow whispered with an apologetic smile.
"Oh. Ok." Emma just shrugged and made her way past her nervous looking parents. Which was weird, because they knew about her and Regina of course. And it wasn't like they hadn't seen Emma after a night with the former Evil Queen. Emma sighed and turned on her heel. "What's wrong…"
"Just…you know…pixies." Snow smiled and smoothed down her hair which, once Emma looked closely, did look a little mussed up. There were dark circles under her mother's eyes as well. She hadn't slept obviously.
"Pixies?" Regina's voice, scratchy with sleep, preceded her arrival. Emma was relieved to see that she'd thrown on pajamas and a robe. She smiled to see Henry rounding the corner then, but her smile faltered when he burst into tears at the sight of her.
He threw himself at Regina, like he was a young child again. Emma could see Regina wincing at the grip the kid had on her. She watched as Regina rubbed his back soothingly.
"Ummm…the pixies tore up Henry's comic collection." Crossing her arms in obvious anger herself, Snow spoke quietly over the frustrated boy. "They also set his bed on fire and laughed at him when he told them to stop."
"Was Henry safe?" Emma started, swallowing her fear.
"He was with us. They had broken in and pretty much destroyed his room. So he slept with us." Snow just looked embarrassed again, and a little worried. Emma understood, because if Regina flipped...
"You could have called." Regina didn't sound upset though, she just looked guilty.
"At any hour. But never mind that now." Regina interrupted Emma, shaking her head slightly. "Did you close yourselves in somehow or did you get rid of them?"
"I used a song, something a friend taught me when I was young. It has a part that sounds like a hyena or something. Drives them nuts." James called out from where he'd wandered into the kitchen to check on breakfast. Of the group, he looked the most relaxed.
"Bullying pixies? That's weird. I mean they're mischievous but to be mean spirited like that." Regina trailed off thoughtfully, nodding in Emma's direction so that she'd take Henry from her. Before he shifted away, Regina touched his chin and met his eyes. "I'll replace every item in that collection." She said firmly.
Glancing down at the top of Henry's head, Emma thought about this latest attack. How could she keep the kid safe if they split their time between two places? As if she might be reading her mind again, Regina gave her a pointed look and cleared her throat.
"I think the solution is obvious." Regina crossed her arms and trailed after the rest as they made their way to the dining room.
Breakfast was a much more cheerful affair than any might have guessed. Henry had rebounded quickly from his disappointment and he spent much of his time firing questions at his mothers as they ate the toast and fruit and yogurt that James had hastily thrown together.
In the hours to come, it became evident that Regina's place was some kind of safe zone. It was likely that the magical creatures about town were afraid of her. Emma received innumerable calls, from Red and Belle, from Granny and Archie, from Cinderella herself—magic from all corners of the globe was creating chaos everywhere in Storybrooke as well. Many of the magical creatures that roamed through the town were new to the residents. A particularly dangerous breed of dragons were responsible for a major fire, destroying ten homes on the East side of town while water spirits flooded the West side before swimming away.
Then, shortly after those crises emerged, an enormous herd of deer flocked through Granny's, blocking the front and bowing strangely whenever she or Red came near. They didn't seem to mean any harm but looked almost as though they were guarding against the two werewolves leaving. Regina took care of it personally, driving to the diner to discuss the matter with two men who had recently joined other members of her coven. Watching from her car, Emma wondered if the two guys had anything to do with Regina's old guards. When one of the dark haired duo spared a glance her way, Emma smiled calmly and nodded. He returned the nod but didn't smile. Regina ran back to the car and got in, slightly out of breath from something she'd been saying to the animals. As Emma drove slowly, the deer were coaxed back to the woods. Still, they hovered close to the road, their eyes seemingly still intent in the direction of Granny's.
That afternoon, while the rest of Regina's coven worked around town, Regina and Snow worked in the backyard. Regina fenced them in with a new protective spell, intertwining magical purple flowers with some kind of electro-magnetic field that made their skin hum when they all walked too close to it.
"That can't be good for our internal organs." James spoke sort of jovially. Regina just rolled her eyes at him but Emma actually snickered at what he was really insinuating.
The day was sunny and bright and the new magical fence shimmered purple and silver in the light.
While Emma stood at the kitchen window, making a pot of tea for the group, she heard static and voices from her walkie-talkie. It was Archie, his voice coming in and out.
"…white haired…flying…demon…" were all she could make out. Then: "Power station. Workers hurt…"
By the time Emma ran out back to get Regina, the static had taken over. Emma watched as Regina rolled up her sleeves, waved her hands, and threw some kind of golden arc of energy through the wall and presumably at a long distance toward the demon.
"I don't recognize this one." Regina's voice sounded like an echo in the room. Her eyes were bluish purple and the light from them ebbed and then shone brighter when Emma squeezed her hand. She left quickly, stopping at the front door to throw on a jacket before rushing across town in a blur.
"So much for a kiss goodbye." Emma sighed dramatically, wondering just what the hell she was supposed to do when the only magic she could produce came during sex with Regina apparently. She returned to the task of setting out snacks and tea and then it hit her harder…
She had her guns and she had the ability to throw lightening at people when super duper angry or when touching Regina.
So what was the point of the whole 'savior' thing beyond breaking the dreaded Curse?
Her frustrations started to boil over when Snow swept past her and ran up the stairs to speak to James.
Putting her palms flat on the kitchen counter, Emma looked around. She was in someone else's house—someone else's town. Nothing about any of this felt like her own. That internal instinct she always went by—the one that told her to go places or leave—was starting to drum like a heartbeat. She closed her eyes, seeing only the deep red of frustration and fear. Fear. That Emma herself wasn't fulfilling her fullest potential. When she felt those energies course through her, she felt her hands warm on the counter. And then she felt the countertop shift beneath her, changing in texture and shape.
Like sand. She could even smell it. The memory or whatever it was felt really vivid.
Emma's eyes stayed closed and she tried to let herself drift. What was she supposed to do, she wondered? When fear kicked in, the spell was broken and she was back in Regina's kitchen once again.
Later that night, she readied herself for bed, feeling a little strange that she was moving through the routine without her girlfriend. Her nerves were apparent to her parents who stopped her when she padded between the washroom and Henry's room, where he took his time organizing his things before finally agreeing to get into bed.
"Don't worry, she can handle herself." Snow said quietly. James wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders, crushing both her and his wife in a hug.
"Thanks." Emma squeaked. She fought sudden, stupid tears and leaned into Snow. "That's not…I mean thanks." She left it at that.
The bed was cool and alien without Regina's familiar warmth. She slept fitfully for the first hour or two, awoke to check the time more than once, then finally drifted sometime around 2am.
It was sometime close to an hour after that when Regina finally snuck in.
Emma was on her right side and her eyes opened a crack when she heard the click of the closet light behind its closed door. She'd gone to bed wearing her underwear and a t-shirt and she was feeling overheated beneath the duvet. When Regina emerged from the closet, she had only her underwear on. Emma let her gaze drift lazily over the smooth curves of Regina's breasts, watching her nipples pucker in the coolness of the room. It made Emma snicker like an idiot.
"Really." Regina whispered. "Now why are you even awake my darling?" Her voice sounded tired but wired and her eyes flashed purple in the darkness. She sat on the edge of the bed close to Emma, and ran her hand over Emma's shoulder. Mind reader or not, she yelped a little with surprise when Emma's arm circled her waist and she found herself thrown onto her back on the bed.
"Know what?" Emma spoke softly, kissing Regina's jawline as she hovered over her. She trailed her lips down and over Regina's breasts, alternating small licks with wet kisses as she explored one then the other then back again.
"What?" Regina finally asked after seven minutes. Her back arched and she bit her lip, turning her head to the side against the pillow. Emma took one nipple into her mouth, sucking more insistently and then kneading harder with her tongue. Her hands cupped beneath, caressing and squeezing in some rhythm that hit Regina much lower.
"I…" Emma just kept up what she was doing, switching to the left side and crossing her right hand over to press gently against Regina's throat. Then she licked and sucked even harder, seeing as she looked down, how Regina was fighting the urge to grind her now undulating hips against something. She chuckled and pulled away, stopping everything so that Regina just lay there, panting and wet and staring at her in wonder. Emma settled against her lover's side, smoothing wet tendrils of hair from her forehead and kissing her nose.
"You what?" Regina husked. She looked wired but relaxed, much more than before.
"I'm going to figure out my role in all of this." Emma said resolutely. "I am going to find my path. And I'm going to be a really big help for you and for my parents and for Henry…"
"I know, darling, I already know that." Regina's hand flattened against her forehead like she was still trying to collect herself. She whimpered when Emma's fingers danced lightly over her hips. "You use your anger to wake yourself. It's ok, I don't take it personally." Regina's smile was sleepy but she kept pressing her hips down against the bed.
Emma took mercy on her then, reached between her thighs and settled on top of her. It only took a few minutes, with Regina's hands tightening against her shoulders as she felt herself topple into orgasm the moment Regina's clit swelled against her fingers. Regina muffled her cries against Emma's neck, holding on tight as Emma surged and rubbed against her thigh.
In two months, Emma would be in the Arizona desert with Rumpelstiltskin. For now, she was with the woman she loved and their family was safe under the same roof. She fell into a dreamless sleep, broken only by the smell of heated sand and the yellow and red and orange shades of the mesas that would soon shelter her.