Distant birdsong and the crunch of snow underfoot were the only sounds to be heard on the path. Regina and Emma walked the same way they had days before, under centuries old trees that stood still in the frozen morning.

"I can't believe the weather just changed like that!" Emma pulled her cloak tight around her but was still cold. "Does it do this a lot?"

Regina was not cold. Under her cloak she wore a red leather jerkin with a high collar and blouse. It had taken her dress maid a while to locate her winter clothes that morning but it was well worth it.

"Snow in Spring? Not usually" Regina replied

"I'm glad you wanted to get away from the palace today, it's nice to be able to talk without feeling like the walls are listening" Emma said

Regina nodded and waited for whatever it was Emma obviously wanted to say.

"So, you probably want to know why your mother was in our dance room yesterday" Emma tried

"The Queen" Regina corrected

"Yes" she said "do you have another mother?"

"No, you should call her The Queen" Regina replied

Emma looked at her for a moment.

"Ok, your queen" she said. Regina frowned

"Is she not your queen too?" she asked

"This isn't my kingdom" Emma replied

Regina rolled her eyes. Well you're in it she wanted to argue, but knew Emma would have a response or that too and they would probably go on for hours.

"Yes I would like to know what went on" Regina said

"Pip was fired" Emma said

"What?" she had not expected that.

"He's kind of a shit sometimes" Emma said "and he pissed off the wrong people this time"

Regina wondered whom, he might be in more danger than Emma realised.

"What did he do?" Regina asked

"I have no idea, but it's not unlikely that he did whatever he's been accused of." Emma said with a sigh.

Regina let that sink in for a moment.

"And why were you on the floor?" she asked

"Oh, yeah there's no way to get around that" Emma laughed "Your queen wanted me on the floor, so that's where I was"

Regina hummed in acknowledgement. Cora liked nothing more than showing people how dominant and powerful she was. If Emma was a display of strength, Cora making her kneel sounded about right.

They continued their walk. Green had been replaced with white that laced every branch and leaf. It felt like a completely different place, like they could be anywhere. Regina imagined for a moment that they were in a distant corner of the forest, far away from the palace and her mood lifted.

"Aren't you cold?" Emma asked, she felt cold in her bones, despite her thick woollen cloak.

"No" Regina replied shortly.

Emma regularly glanced at her as they walked. Regina looked different. She wasn't in a bad mood but the wall was up. Her face was grave.

"I'm sorry about what happened the other day" Emma said "it was my fault. I shouldn't have..."

She faltered. What shouldn't she have done? Told Regina what she needed to know? Shown her what to expect? She was pretty sure her lesson had hit home.

But she was kidding herself. She knew what she shouldn't have done. She shouldn't have given in, let Regina do that to her, let them kiss.

"Shouldn't have what?" Regina asked "it seemed like a fairly essential lesson"

"I shouldn't have touched you" Emma said and looked at the ground quickly "…kissed you"

She shouldn't have, but she did, and given the chance to go back and change it, she wasn't sure she would have any more control than she did the first time.

She hated saying it out loud. What would she say if Regina asked if she regretted it? She regretted so many things, like how it came about, how Pip had caught them, that she was a fucking princess for fuck's sake. But she didn't regret the kiss. It might have ruined her forever, but she couldn't regret it.

Regina didn't speak. She didn't ask why or how it happened, how Emma felt about it or if it would happen again. The wall was still up.

Sunlight melted the snow and it dripped from branches all around them. The daffodils Emma had admired days ago sagged and drooped under the weight of the flurry.

Collared doves leapt from the limbs of the beech trees above them sending a shower of white powder over them. Regina smiled as they walked through it.

"I love snow" Emma said gently from her side

"It always makes me think of Snow White now" Regina said

"I've heard of her" Emma replied, impressed with herself

"Well, she is the fairest of them all" Regina said playfully

"You can't honestly believe that" Emma laughed

"Why not?" Regina asked

"I mean" she began

Do you own a mirror? she thought. Regina watched her, amusement blooming across her face.

"Well, I'm here for a start" Emma said finally

Regina laughed. Her smile was wide and her head tipped back. Emma felt it wash over her. She loved seeing this version of Regina.

"I don't know what's so funny" she said in obvious jest, relieved she managed to say something not entirely idiotic.

Regina's nose wrinkled as she laughed harder and Emma found herself laughing too, with the woman who at that moment must really have been the fairest of them all.

"We should be careful on this part of the path" Emma said

Regina looked around them.

"Why?" she asked

"I saw a broken tree down here the other day, when…" Emma replied.

She seemed to hesitate. Was she going to bring up what they had talked about? Regina kept her face a mask.

"When we were down here" Emma finished

"Was it The Hanging Tree?" Regina asked, looking further down the path to see the tree she had named when she was a child, not knowing at the time what it would mean to most people.

"The w-what?" Emma turned, startled

"The tree that's broken. It balances between its broken trunk and the tree next to it. It looks like it's fingertips just brush it, like a gust of wind could knock it down" she described as best she could, though she found it hard to describe something so familiar.

"Hanging...between two trees, not a tree for hanging people?" Emma asked

"No, not for hanging people" Regina said, though ironically she had stood beneath it many times over the years, hoping it might one day fall. It seemed funny to her that she had accidentally given it a morbid name, then used it to scare or calm herself when she needed. The times and troubles that sometimes brought her down here rose sickeningly to mind.

She looked up to see Emma watching her. She didn't alter her face to hide the memories that surfaced, she let her see what must have been written all over her.

Before long they fund themselves by the tree. Regina felt the twisted mix of hope and sadness that she always felt when she came down here.

"I don't know how long it has been like this" Regina said, trailing the long branches with her eyes all the way into the next tree.

"Every time there's a storm I think it must have come down. There's nothing to hold it up but it's will I suppose" she said

"Maybe it just doesn't want to. Maybe it likes being a tree and once it comes down, what is it then?" Emma asked

Interesting Regina thought. She tipped her head to one side and turned the theory over in her mind. It was always defined as a tree, then the thing that makes it a tree is taken from it. Is its value taken too? What does it become? What will she become? When she becomes a queen, what will happen to the woman who was the princess?

"Which is worse, always being the thing you're told you are, or changing to something which could be worse?" Regina asked.

She didn't care if Emma thought she was still talking about the tree or if she figured out the metaphor for her life. These kinds of things never mattered to her at The Hanging Tree.

"Be careful" she said as Emma took another step towards it.

"You said it's been through storms" Emma turned back to her

"It has" Regina said "but that won't stop it falling when it falls"

"So you think it's inevitable?" Emma asked

Regina moved to her side and looked up. Maybe she didn't want to play metaphor ping-pong with Emma after all. It only served to depress her further.

"I have stood in this very spot a hundred times and hoped it would fall on me" she said "How many times have you stood here?"

Emma looked up too.

"I have my own hanging trees" she said quietly "maybe yours is the one to do it" she turned to look at Regina.

The conversation was so heavy with unsaid things they might as well have been back at the castle.

Regina wanted to slide her arm around Emma's waist and stand there together but she knew she couldn't, she just stood there, looking into green eyes thinking of all the things she could never do.

There was a creak from above. A shock went through her and she looked up. It moved! The tree she had known for nineteen years moved for the first time ever and she was right below it. An involuntary smile broke across her face.

"Regina!" Emma had instinctively leapt back, but Regina didn't follow.

The violent crack of breaking wood filled her ears and she didn't move, pinned to the spot by awful fascination. She saw it fall through the air above her and she didn't move.

She expected it to hurt. She expected cold and wet and hard, sharp pain.

She felt a tug around her waist and the almighty crash of the tree hitting the ground resounded all the way through her.

She opened her eyes. She was on her hands and knees in the snow. She tried to get up and realised Emma's arm was around her. She turned to see her crouched over her with her eyes shut tight.

She was on her knees, one arm around Regina, the other thrown behind her, palm facing the fallen tree that had moved course by ten feet or more.

She was trembling.

"You're ok" Regina whispered and touched her face gently. Emma's breathing was hard and juddering.

"You're ok" Regina lowered Emma's other arm and wrapped her own around her. Emma still shook under her touch.

"You're ok" Regina said again. She rubbed Emma's back and felt her arms slowly curl around her.

She could feel her heart pounding.

"I'm sorry" Regina said, and she meant it.

She always felt oddly safe here, like it didn't matter if the tree came down. She had never thought anyone would care if she were crushed to death, let alone risk themselves to save her.

Why would the tree move now? Had something changed? Did she have something to live for?

Emma softened, like the tension was gradually leaving her, adrenaline was working its way out of her system. Regina still rubbed her back. Emma smelled like wild flowers and a sensation Regina hadn't felt very often in her life took over them both. Was it safety? Belonging? Whatever if it was, it made her heart sing.

Her eyes settled on the fallen tree. She looked up again. It should definitely have been exactly dead on top of them. How had Emma moved it? The answer was obvious. It had to be magic.

Emma had stopped shaking. Her breathing had settled but Regina could still feel her heart pounding. Her grip on Regina loosened and she drew back.

Emma's cheeks were stained with tears. Regina brushed them away. Her hands fell to her lap realising that may have been an unwanted intimacy.

"Don't do that again" Emma said

Regina's heart sank.

"Sorry, it was automatic" she touched Emma's cheek lightly with her thumb in apology.

"No" Emma took her hand before she could lower it again. She kissed her palm and rolled her fingers around it, like she had left something precious there.

"Don't...if you find another hanging tree, don't stand under it" Emma said, still holding Regina's hand closed with her own.

Tears unbidden filled Regina's eyes. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

"I understand" Emma said, new tears filling hers too "I've been there"

Regina took a breath that shuddered as she drew it in.

"I have had no control of my life, I've felt worthless. I still do sometimes, but I don't think that I am, and I know you are not"

Regina felt like she was drowning. The feelings she was so skilled at pushing down rose quickly and brutally to the surface.

"Why? Because I'm accomplished?" She asked. Accomplished. A hollow word that meant she was well bred and trained, like her prize steed.

"Because you're incredible" Emma said, her forehead wrinkled.

Regina rolled her eyes defensively.

"I mean it" Emma said fiercely, finding her voice "I know you feel lost, like you have nothing to live for"

A jolt of anxiety shot through Regina. How did she know that?

"I see it all the time, except when you dance. You learn so quickly, you're precise and you won't settle for less than your absolute best. You give everything you have until there's nothing left" Emma searched her eyes for signs of comprehension, acceptance.

"There is nothing left" Regina repeated, "I'm empty. My life is empty. My only friend in the world can't speak and crushed my leg 6 months ago so that's hardly ideal" she tried to joke

"I'm your friend" Emma said

"You are?" Regina asked, hardly able to let herself believe it. Emma gave her a lop sided smile. It was a little goofy and extremely cute.

"You mean you're not angry..." Regina took a deep breath "about what I did to you the other day?" She almost winced as she spoke.

"Not angry" Emma replied

"Disappointed?" Regina tried

"Not disappointed either" Emma said with half a smile.

Regina's heart fluttered. Was it ok, then? Had Emma felt the same as her when they kissed? Like nothing else existed and…

"How do you feel about me?" She asked while she still had the courage.

Emma stared wide-eyed at the ground. Regina felt like she was underneath the hanging tree again.

When EMma finally dragged her eyes up to meet Regina's the brightness that was in the moments ago was gone.

"We're friends" she said

The cold, sharp pain she had expected earlier came down on her now.

Of course Emma didn't care for her beyond friendship, what had she been thinking? She berated herself for her greediness. Her friendship was a gift in itself, how dare she ask for more?

"We're friends" Regina replied.

They knelt facing each other in the snow. Regina felt the beginning of tears again though she forced a smile.

Emma returned it with relief and reached to pull her into a hug.

Regina let her. With Emma's arms around her waist she let her tears fall where they would never be seen and when their embrace was over all trace of them was gone.