Author's Note: Please note, fantastic friends and readers, that the rating has changed. This story was rated T for (Emma's) language but it is now M for language and SwanQueen sexiness. This chapter gets a little (a lot) NSFW. Read, enjoy and review if the spirit moves you, Dearies!
Chapter VIII
The Magic
Emma felt like a voyeur. Regina and Cora had just had what had possibly been their first ever mother-daughter moment (that didn't involve ripping out hearts) and she had listened to it like it was a radio show. Some things should be private. She waited until she heard the door close and eased back over to the window. Regina was on the side of the bed again. She looked so damn confused and sad and all Emma wanted to do was pull her close and not let go. When had that started? When, exactly, had she decided that she should be the one to comfort The Evil Queen?
It had been right about the time that she had walked into her home and seen the powerful, unstoppable, larger than life Regina Mills tucked into her parent's bed like a broken doll. She hadn't been able to save her that time. When she had needed saving most, Emma had been a step too slow and hours too late. Some Savior she was. She had decided then and there that she would never fail Regina again. She would always save her: every time from then on. That was why she had gone to the mines, to save Regina. Not Henry, not Storybrooke, not her own skin, but to save Regina, The Evil Queen and her Mother's mortal enemy. God, how fucked up was that?
The woman in question was sitting still, her thoughts obviously consuming her. Then she snapped to life and movement. Emma flinched when Regina's face, pinched and pensive, suddenly grew hard, her lips tugged into a snarl and she hurled the water glass in her hands against the wall. It shattered and Regina turned to the window. Emma pushed herself through the opening as quickly as she could. There were tears sliding down Regina's cheeks and her chest was heaving, like she was holding in sobs or screams.
"What's wrong?"
She had heard everything Cora had said, it hadn't been anything that made Regina do this.
Regina wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.
"Everything is wrong, Miss Swan." Her voice was an angry hiss.
Emma reached out to touch her, but Regina batted her hand away before she started to pace the room.
"Be careful, there's glass on the floor."
Regina whirled around on her bare heel, face drawn in a scowl, the vein in her forehead throbbing. "I know there's glass." Anger, sarcasm and superiority dripped off of her words. This was the Regina she had fought with for so long, Mayor Regina Fuck-You-Very-Much Mills.
"Listen," Maybe she could calm her down. It had never worked before, but it was worth a shot. "it's going to be okay, we'll work all of this crap out."
"How?" Regina's hands curled into fists and she held them by her side, her entire body shaking with anger. "How can we work it all out?" The woman's brown eyes were on fire with emotions, flickering and hot. "It's not real. None of this is real, Emma. The town, the people, my mother, Graham, even Henry. None of it is real. It's a curse, a fantasy, a God damn magical illusion that is going to drive us both insane." Regina curled her arms around herself. "Graham is dead." Regina jerked her head to the side and looked away from Emma. Not fast enough to hide the flash of guilt and pain that went across her features, though. My Mother is dead. I killed them both. Even if I hadn't, that woman." Her voice cracked, "is not my mother. She wasn't soft, and kind. She didn't give hugs and kisses and she sure as hell didn't act like that. She made my life miserable and killed a boy whose only mistake was falling in love with me, right in front of my eyes." For a moment, her brown eyes flickered violet and Emma almost stumbled backwards. Magic. Regina still had her magic.
Every word hit Emma like a punch. It wasn't just what she was saying, but how Regina was saying it. Truth, bitter and unadulterated truth. This was what Regina believed to be true with everything she was. She blinked and tried to process what she had heard. She had known Cora was a piece of work, but for Regina to be so upset, angry and scared. There was more to it then Regina's fiancé. Graham, Emma's heart squeezed. She had known, somewhere deep inside of her, that Regina had killed him. It didn't make hearing it any easier.
"So go."
Regina turned away from her, "Leave and forget about whatever this is. This can only end badly. Once Snow and Charming share true love's kiss again, it will be over. A nightmare that everyone wakes up from, no worse for the wear."
And Emma had thought that she'd had problems.
"First thing," Emma drew in a breath, "you did not kill Cora. That is on Snow and we all know it. It was a truly shitty thing to do and no amount of apologizing will ever fix it."
Regina didn't turn around, but she tightened her arms around herself again. It was like she was physically trying to hold herself together.
"Second, it doesn't matter what happened before. Graham and Cora are alive again, and we can go on from there."
She stepped closer to Regina and touched her back with careful hands, the same way she had done in the Mine.
"And third." She wrapped her arms around Regina, fingers travelling down the other woman's bare arms to tangle with Regina's fingers. She rested her chin on Regina's shoulders and pulled her back against her. This was how she had held her when everything had ended.
"I am real." She turned her head and laid a kiss on Regina's pulse point. She felt the woman shiver in her arms.
"You are real." She moved to the other side of Regina's neck and kissed her again.
Now she turned Regina around in her arms and the woman allowed herself to be moved, all fight gone.
"And this, whatever this is, is real. We are real, this is happening." She pulled Regina tight against her body and then lifted one hand to her face, and cupped the brunette's tear-stained cheek the same way she had before Cora had come in. "And if the curse breaks tomorrow, bright and early, it's going to keep happening." Because there was no way she was stopping, she didn't even know if stopping was really an option at this point.
"This is crazy."
Emma wiped a tear off of Regina's cheek, "Says the Mayor of Crazy Town."
Regina smiled a little bit and Emma felt her heart lighten. They were still pressed together, and at some point Regina's arms had slid around her waist and they now rested at the small of her back. Emma felt warm fingers curl under the hem of her tank top to touch bare skin.
"We're going to figure all of this out, you and me."
Regina looked up and her eyes were darker then Emma had ever seen them. Dark and hungry. "You." Her voice was husky and low, "and me."
The rage, the sorrow, the flash of magic in her eyes, Emma momentarily forgot all of that. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against Regina's, then pulled away. A promise, a reassurance, a gesture of comfort and passion all in one movement. "Yeah."
Then Regina was on her. Lips, teeth and a warm, clever tongue assaulted her mouth again and Emma's knees went weak. God, no wonder the woman had been a Queen, Emma was about to fall at the other woman's feet. Regina's hands slid from her waist and into the back pockets of her jeans. Emma's brows rose at the move and she hummed her approval. Regina pressed against her and Emma fell back one step, then another. When her knees hit the bed she fell backwards, and hands on the other woman's waist and in her hair, she tugged Regina down on top of her.
No matter what happened next, no matter how many years she lived, or what crazy shenanigans happened during those years, she was never going to forget the sight of Regina straddling her hips and hovering above her like a dark and sexual angel. Agile hands moved from her ass, over her hips and under her tank top. Emma could feel the muscles in her stomach twitch when Regina's nails gently scraped up her sides.
She broke their kiss and gasped for air, she wanted more. More of Regina's lips, more skin, just more. Her hands slid down Regina's body. Slowly taking it all in. Every smooth line and every wicked and tantalizing curve. She had always known that Regina was beautiful, but the blazers and pencil skirts, as attractive as they were, simply did not do her justice. When her hands rounded Regina's hips, Emma knew exactly where she wanted them to go. She slid down to the hem of Regina's silky night dress and slid both hands up smooth thighs, dragging the fabric up as she went. Regina nipped her lip then soothed it with her tongue in response. When Emma's fingers found lacey high cut panties she fumbled to a stop.
Regina's shapely backside had been something of an obsession of hers since her arrival in Storybrooke. It was tight, perfect and distracting in the best sort of way. Regina had known Emma had been ogling her, perhaps the entire time. She had put an extra saucy swing in her hips just to torture and entice her. Now she finally had her hands on it and she wasn't going to let her opportunity go to waste.
She pushed Emma onto the bed, or at least she told herself she had as she fell on top of the other woman. She was in control, barely, and needed to stay that way. Passion and want burned through her, consuming her, making her want more then she had for decades. She could not remember if she had ever felt like this before. She and Daniel had never fully consummated their love, and she had only felt fear and disgust for Leopold. Graham had been a physical distraction, nothing more. She had never needed the touch of another, not like this. She had never wanted anyone the way she wanted Emma. She kissed her with her entire being, trying to consume every sweet ounce of Emma that she could.
She paused when Emma broke their kiss and looked at the woman beneath her. Golden spirals of hair were spread across her white comforter and Emma looked flushed and her eyes were a hazy swirl of blue and green, a peaceful lagoon that Regina could happily drown in. She straddled the other woman and simultaneously hoped that the other woman could and could not feel the dampness that had soaked through her undergarments. She had not been so aroused in, perhaps, ever. What was Emma doing to her, and why was she letting it happen? Because she wanted it, needed it even. She craved Emma's touch and couldn't stop her hands from touching the other woman. Lust had possessed her like a demon and she did not think she could control herself much longer.
Her hands abandoned their place in Emma's pockets and she moved them slowly towards the blonde's midriff. She had imagined doing this, pushing her hands under the woman's wife-beater for far longer than she admitted. She dragged her nails along Emma's tight muscular abdomen and felt another bolt of lust go through her when she felt the woman's muscles twitch under her ministrations. She kept moving her hands up, and when she hit fabric, Emma's soft cotton bra, she hesitated. She had never touched another woman, what if Emma didn't enjoy her touch?
Hot hands moved under her nightdress and she felt her eyes flutter shut for a moment. When she felt Emma tugging it up over her hips she felt a new surge of arousal in her sex. She leaned down and caught Emma's lips in another kiss, nipping at her now swollen lower lip and then swiping her tongue across it. Pain and pleasure, a tantalizing combination that made her dizzy with want. Her hands moved on instinct, seemingly without her conscious command, under Emma's bra. The woman's breathe hitched in her chest and she shuddered and arched into Regina's hands. Pleasure buzzed through her, Emma had certainly enjoyed that.
She felt fingers, long and tapered, slide under the lace of her panties and her mind momentarily went haywire with pleasure. When Emma tugged her soaked lace panties down Regina let her head fall forward. She laid an open mouthed kiss on Emma's neck and then started to explore the area with her teeth and tongue, nipping and nibbling, tasting the salt of her sweat and something else, something that was essentially Emma. Delicious, intoxicating, addictive, Emma Swan was better than the finest wine.
She abandoned her perusal of Emma's breasts, a new and extremely enjoyable activity for her, and tugged the shirt up and over the woman's head. She threw the garment over her shoulder and paused to enjoy the bare skin bellow her. God, Emma was perfect. She could see the swell of the breasts she had been teasing the flat expanse of her stomach and the light red lines that her nails had already left on her pale skin. Emma arched up again, and Regina could not resist the clear invitation. Her mouth fell to Emma's chest, her neck, her collar bones, and her teasing amount of cleavage. She could feel more then hear Emma's breathy moans of pleasure.
Emma's hands were on her bare rear and thighs, fingers dancing towards her soaked and aching core. She knew the moment the other woman felt the copious evidence of her arousal.
"God, Regina."
She abruptly changed her direction and started kissing her way down Emma's taut stomach, and her hands tangled in the other woman's belt. She wanted the jeans off of the other woman's shapely legs. The buckle came open easily enough and Emma's hips rose in her hands, encouraging her. She unhooked the fly and jerked the zipper down with shaky hands. She needed Emma so much that she could barely control herself, and for some reason that didn't scare her like it should.
She pushed Emma's jeans off of her hips and growled in protest when she realized the woman's boots were laced over the pants legs. She was momentarily stilled when Emma tugged her nightdress, which had been pushed up to her stomach anyway, the rest of the way off of her. She had not been wearing a bra underneath.
"Sweet Fucking Baby Jesus."
Regina grinned at Emma's curses. How could someone with such a beautiful mouth speak such dirty words?
She leaned down and caught the woman's mouth in another kiss, long and lingering.
"Please, Emma."
She had never asked to be touched. She had screamed to be left alone, she had dictated how and where to touch her, but she had never begged. Queens did not beg. She was begging, wantonly, needy, she needed Emma to touch her with a desperation that she couldn't even understand.
"Oh God, no. We can't."
What? Emma's denial cut through her lust-crazed mind. She didn't understand. Sex was an exchange of power for pleasure. She was offering Emma her power, her consent, for pleasure. Did the other woman not want her?
"I-I don't understand."
The sight of Regina Mills naked almost killed her. She would have died happy too. Emma had seen her fair share of naked women. She was no blushing virgin, and had always appreciated a beautiful body, no matter what gender it was. Regina was not simply beautiful. She was a work of fucking art.
She mumbled something blasphemous enough to have every Nun from every Catholic orphanage she'd ever been through (three facilities in two different cities) blush.
She was perfection, her breasts were sweet, pert, and tipped with erect coral-colored nipples that begged to be worshipped. Emma's mouth watered and she could feel wetness soak her already wet boy shorts. She had never wanted anyone so much as she wanted Regina Mills right now. Right fucking now. She wanted to roll over and feast on olive-toned skin. She had felt the slick evidence of how much Regina wanted her and she needed to taste the other woman, to fill her, to feel her muscles clench around her fingers. She wanted to fuck the mayor until she collapsed into a boneless heap and passed out from pleasure. They kissed again, and Emma felt her body tighten and her need raged through her like a fire.
"Please, Emma."
Honey soaked whiskey, gorgeous and needy. She would never ever get the sound of Regina begging for her touch out of her head, it was burnt into her memory along with the sight of the woman gloriously naked on top of her.
Then she looked at Regina's beautiful face and realized that it was still marred by tear tracks.
This was so wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. She couldn't just fuck Regina and expect everything to work out. The brunette, captivating and sexy as she was, was vulnerable right now. She'd had a day that would have broken a lesser woman. If she did this now, if she gave into her lust and need, she would never forgive herself. She did not want their first time to be a fast and furious fuck that they might regret later.
"Oh God, no. We can't."
She watched the emotions play in Regina's eyes. Want, hurt, confusion.
"I-I don't understand."
The seductress, the wanton sex angel, disappeared.
"Don't you want me?"
The instant vulnerability, the way Regina immediately doubted herself, doubted Emma, that was why they couldn't continue. Regina had to understand why, though.
"Are you kidding me?"
She caught the woman's wrist in her hand and dragged it to the apex of her trembling thighs. She knew Regina could feel the heat and her soaked sex through the fabric of her uncomfortably damp underwear.
"I want you more than I've wanted any other person ever."
Regina's fingers twitched and the small movement made Emma's hips buck and she saw stars for a moment.
"No."
She jerked Regina's hand away and brought it to her lips. She pressed a kiss to the woman's fingers. "Not like this."
Regina's dark eyes were filling with tears again and Emma felt like the lowest form of life on the planet at the sight of them.
"When we make love, it's going to be good. I want it to be a long, beautiful night with no fear." She touched Regina's cheek and wiped away the single tear that had escaped her dark eye. "no tears, and definitely no sons or mothers just down the hall." She looped her hand around the back of Regina's neck and tugged her down to lay on her.
The intimate touch of the woman's body against hers did not help the raging lust that burnt through her veins and arteries, but she forced herself to be calm. "You deserve to be worshipped, Regina, not fucked. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Regina's face was hidden in her shoulder so she dropped a kiss on her temple.
Please understand, Emma mentally begged the other woman.
She felt Regina turn her head and Emma tilted her own so they could see eye to eye.
The look in her dark brown eyes knocked Emma for yet another loop.
"No one has ever made love to me, Emma." Her voice was little more than a whisper, small and unsure. "I haven't ever done anything other than this. I don't know-"
Emma cut her off with a kiss. "I will make love to you and show you how good it can be." She mentally damned each and every one of Regina's past lovers. Who in the hell could touch this woman and not want to spend days worshipping her like some sort of pagan sex goddess? "Just not tonight." She wrapped her arms around Regina's naked form and, with no small amount of regret, tugged her lacey panties back into their proper place.
"Will you stay?"
She tightened her arms around Regina, "Wild ass horses couldn't drag me away from you."
Regina laughed, it was small and quick, but a laugh none the less.
"Where did my gown go?"
Emma smirked, "Doesn't matter, Mills, you're not putting it back on. I'm trying to be good but I'm not a damn saint. I'm going to take off my boots and jeans and I am going to hold you against me, skin on skin, all night."
"You just want to cop a feel, Swan."
She kissed Regina's shoulder, "You've got that right."
She sat up and started to fight with her boots while Regina turned down the comforter and sheets. Emma had never been one for over-night stays. It had been a very long string of one-night-stands since Neal had abandoned her on Pinocchio's command. Still, settling into Regina Mill's bed, naked but for her boy shorts. (Regina had pouted at her and said that her wearing a bra wasn't fair so she had shed it) felt surprisingly comfortable.
Her all-consuming need had started to recede and her body no longer throbbed quite as much. She turned to her side and smiled at the equally bare brunette. Regina was covered now, but all Emma needed to do was close her eyes to see the image of her naked. She reached out for the other woman, her woman, and pulled her close.
"You're my little spoon." She wrapped around Regina, letting her sudden urge to protect take over. A woman who didn't know what making love was had probably never been held either. Her left arm curled beneath Regina's head and her right draped over the woman's tiny midriff. Their legs tangled together, wrapping around each other with a comfortable ease. Regina twisted her fingers around her own. Emma had never felt more comfortable or complete as she did with Regina in her arms and that was a terrifying thought. Yet, she did not tense up or move away, she snuggled closer. She pressed a kiss to Regina's exposed shoulder.
"Tell me a story."
She was warm and happy, but not quite ready for sleep yet.
"A bed time fairy tale, Emma?"
Emma nipped the other woman's shoulder hard enough to leave a small mark, "God no. I've had enough fairytales to last a lifetime. Tell me a real story. Tell me a story about our son."
Regina went quiet for a moment and Emma feared that she had stepped over some invisible line.
"When Henry was an infant he had thick dark hair."
Yeah, she remembered that. She had seen him and his ridiculous amount of hair just after he'd been born. She had not held him, though. Emma had known that if she had held him that she would have never been able to let go.
"But by the time he was six months old it had lightened" She felt Regina's fingers leave hers and then a tug on one of her curls, "to blonde."
She smiled when Regina's hand returned to hers.
"When he was, oh two and three, it was so blonde it was almost white, especially in the summer. Henry loved to play in the backyard." She could hear the smile in Regina's voice as she spoke, "He was such a happy little boy. He would run around the apple tree and rose bushes, a big circle over and over again babbling at me to catch him."
Emma's eyes started to droop and she could almost see it. A towheaded Henry toddling around in circles with his beautiful brunette mother chasing him. All that was missing from the scene was her.
"By the time he was five, it had started to darken and I found myself torn because I loved his light baby hair but when it started to darken he looked a little bit like me." She trailed off for a moment, "I love him so much, Emma."
She knew, and she also knew that taking him away had been the worst mistake she had ever made. A mistake that she now had a chance to fix.
"I know you do. He knows too."
Regina snuggled back against her, tight enough so there was no space between them. It should have been wildly erotic, but Emma felt warm comfort and something that was disturbingly close to the big L word.
"Please don't take him away again."
She rolled a little and leaned her head a bit so she could kiss Regina's cheek, "Never. Never ever again, Regina. I won't let anyone take Henry from you. From us."
"Okay."
She was never going to get over this soft and vulnerable side of Regina. It continued to amaze her that this sweet and brave woman had been hidden behind the high, seemingly impenetrable walls of The Evil Queen. What and who the hell had happened to Regina to make her so guarded and so hurt? She had a list of suspects: Cora, Gold, her own damn mother. It was a complicated and completely fucked up situation, and eventually she would have to work it all out. Not tonight, though. Tonight was for them, for her and Regina to just be.
"Sleep now, Regina. All of our crazy problems will still be here in the morning."
"And you?"
Emma snuggled into her brunette's neck and sighed at the smell of her apple shampoo. "I'll be here too."
There was so much to talk about: the curse, Henry, Regina's magic, Greg and Tamara, Cora, Storybrooke, everything. Tomorrow would come and she would have to tell Regina everything. Tonight, though, tonight she was content to let Regina rest in her arms and feel safe and lov-cared about. Safe and cared about.
As the Savior and The Evil Queen drifted off to sleep, another set of eyes snapped open. Confusion came first, complete and utter non-comprehension. Then the familiar spark and tug of magic made itself known. Memories trickled in and a fast and cunning logic organized them into some semblance of order.
The diamond, the fail safe magical artifact that had bound her powers and kept her locked in place, was gone. She was free and for the first time in twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine, years she was free. A smile tugged at her lips and a slender hand pushed wild blonde curls out of her eyes.
She had died, she remembered the sword piercing her, but now she was alive again. She did not know how or why, but it did not matter. Maleficent cared little for details. They were pesky little things that she only tolerated when she had to. She was more of a big picture woman. Her picture, her big canvas consisted of one image. An image that she had nurtured in a reptilian mind for almost three decades. It was simple, really. Regina, her dear friend, betrayed, beaten, bloody and broken at her feet begging for mercy that the both knew would not come. She had locked her in a cave for years in her dragon form and then she had sent a bumbling blonde to slay her for whatever had been hidden in that thrice-damned golden egg. Regina had enacted the Dark Curse, despite her warnings, and though she'd had the power to make Malificent's life a beautiful, easy thing she had instead turned her into a guard dragon.
Oh she would pay. Magic surged through her. Without her staff it would be somewhat harder to control, but she was not without her ways. Regina would pay for her callous betrayal and she would pay dearly. Whatever happiness she had gained here would be, to steal a quote, destroyed. Utterly and completely crushed under her heel while Regina writhed in agony. She would not kill her, why would she do that when Regina was her only friend?
She stretched her wonderfully human body and felt vertebrae crack. She was going to paint the town that she'd been trapped beneath red with blood and purple with magic. Right after, she stretched her legs and got a very stiff drink.