A/N: Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this story. This chapter is where the rating will come into play: it's separated by a page break. Slightly longer than usual (hence the wait), but it didn't feel right to cut it.
Assembling a search party was always the first response when someone went missing, but Regina Mills wasn't just anyone. There were very few people that actually cared for her well-being and part of that was because they didn't get to know her. The other woman wasn't exactly an open book, either.
She knew that the mayor would never forgive her, if she inadvertedly alerted the town of her absence and was replaced before her return.
Mickey was lying by her feet as she scribbled her options out on the corner of a newspaper. Henry was upstairs, getting himself ready for another productive day at school. She'd claimed that Regina left early for a business meeting, and the boy had so much trust in her, that he believed it without question.
After dropping him off at school, Emma canvased the whole town. She didn't find any leads, but that was made easy by the fact that she didn't explicitly say who or what she was looking for. Just that she was there on official business.
Eventually, she found herself sitting in Henry's room, glancing between the framed pictures that lined his walls. Most of them included her and the Charmings, but the closest one to his bed was taken with his adoptive mother. She was unmistakably happy in that shot, making Emma reach out subconsciously to trace her laughter lines with her pointer finger.
It was then that she spotted the other walkie talkie, hidden rather discreetly behind a few stuffed animals and a bucket of green army men that were sitting atop a large toy chest.
Checking to see that it was still on, Emma tried to find the right words to say to someone that had been, and to a certain degree still actively was, the bane of her existence.
"Can I go forward when my heart is here?"
A moment passed and then another. Only brief static filled the air. Nothing.
So much for quoting Shakespeare, she thought to herself with a sigh. Setting the device back down where she found it, Emma turned to walk away. She was halfway to the door when she saw the beginnings of dark purple smoke blocking her path as the mayor materialized before her.
"Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out."
They held each other's gaze for roughly three minutes, before they slowly started closing the gap that their animosity and denial had wedged between them. Two steps forward, no steps back. Regina reached out to grasp at the lapels of Emma's stupid red leather duster, while the savior's hands were gently cradling the sides of the other woman's face.
"Why did you run?"
It was an honest question, although Emma doubted that she would receive an honest answer without a fight. Thinking back to how crushed Regina had looked, when she alluded to watching her leave? It steeled her resolve to push forward, no matter how many barriers the queen tried to throw up.
"I was angry at you."
Well, if that wasn't a cheap shot at a response, she wasn't sure what was.
"No, you weren't."
Regina huffed in frustration, because the sheriff saw through her facade so easily and she felt powerless. Vulnerable, even. Most people in this town didn't question her authority, and if they did, then she silenced them with a grim look and a fireball.
"Damn it, Miss Swan."
Purple smoke surrounded them both and Emma instinctively closed her eyes, but Regina made her break her habit by tugging on her lower lip with her teeth. Fortunately, they reappeared in the mayor's chambers, just as hazel eyes peeled open reluctantly. A swift flick of the queen's wrist locked the door, letting them both breathe a little easier.
Backing her up against the wall, Regina alternated between mild nips to Emma's collarbone and her thumb rubbing across the slightly irritated skin, pulling away just enough to see the whole picture that lust was painting for her.
Oh, the town's savior was completely disheveled.
A surprised gasp left her lips, when the other woman's hands found purchase on the assets that she always watched as Regina walked away. Yes, she'd noticed. Her hips gyrated forward as the kneading started, bringing up her thigh to press against where the blonde needed it most.
Good, now they were almost even.
Of course, her plan of attack backfired a little when she actually felt how much Emma wanted her. Regina recovered a moment too late, finding that the dynamic had changed and she was now the one with her back against the wall. She almost felt like one of those dirty felons that Emma arrested, being handled in much the same manner.
Well, they were missing one thing, but they weren't there yet, trust-wise.
The thought that she might ever be ready? That startled Regina and she reacted out of a defensive fear, turning the tables as she pulled the sheriff in for a thorough kiss, before seizing the breathless opportunity to push her to the mattress. It was queen-sized, of course. After her experiences with kings, she never wanted anything to do with them again.
Not in this life, or the next.
Emma found herself craving every push and pull, occasionally letting herself be lead about. It didn't take being blindfolded for her to feel like she was blind. But then again, wasn't that the whole idea of love, or something like it?
Not that this was anything like that.
After taking turns undressing each other, their clothes joined the jacket that Regina loathed on the floor. That was probably her favorite part: removing that trademark piece of the sheriff's every day attire. If she were in less of a hurry to fulfill their desires, then she probably would have done it some serious harm.
Emma followed the other woman's previously rehearsed words to the dot and relished in the way that the mayor's pretty little mouth exhaled sharply. Her fingers stilled as Regina locked up, tensing to the point where it was nearly impossible to move. Clearly, it had been a while.
She watched in wonder as the dark-haired authority figure reached down to collect evidence of Emma's arousal, bringing gleaming fingertips up to her view. "Someone's been practicing," Regina murmured in an almost accusatory tone. "Tell me, who's the lucky guy? Or have you completely switched teams now, Miss Swan?"
Emma chuckled in mirth, despite the unimpressed looks that she was receiving from her bedmate. "Fuck you," she muttered, as she wiggled her fingers slightly in Regina's entrance and grinned when she was given more room. "Well, well... so the evil queen gets turned on by a dirty mouth, does she?"
Regina felt herself relax slightly, although a part of her was still trying desperately to hold on to her mask. When it had been with Leopold, it was hard and fast. She never reached her peak and found that it was easier to get him to finish, roll over, and sleep. With Graham, it was more about the pride in knowing that she could get him off, and although he tried to return the favor, she seldom let him even entertain that idea. But with Emma Swan?
It was like the most delicious possession, and instead of reaching into her chest to pull out her heart, the blonde was reaching for something far more precious: completion.
Emma didn't know about her previous affairs under the sheets and she preferred to be blissfully ignorant about the other woman's encounters, too. But if there was anyone that worked her up like they had nothing to prove, it was the savior. Regina both hated and enjoyed her lack of direction; she knew that this wasn't about Emma trying to fulfill her duties.
Regina's lips captured a stiff pebble and sucked her into a gasping frenzy, alternating between breasts while the other woman managed to ease her thighs apart. The friction of rubbing directly against each other filled the room with whimpers and grunts, elevating as the pace quickened. Emma's fingernails dragged down her back, leaving angry red lines behind.
Regina was quick to notice the fading marks, despite humming at the pain mixed with pleasure. Pinning both arms above Emma's head at the wrists, she smirked at the slight struggle while the other hand slid down the sheriff's abdomen. It was easier, now that their skin was slick with sweat and wandering kisses.
"Regina..."
She paused, easing her grip slightly on Emma's wrists as she became slightly concerned that she was holding her too tightly. But the blonde shook her head, keeping her hands pinned to the bed even when they were released. "What is it?"
"You... what were you - oh fuck," Emma husked under her breath, her eyes nearly rolling into the back of her head as Regina's adventurous fingers pried her netherlips open as their hipbones clashed in the oldest of dances.
Regina didn't ease up on her ministrations, using her free hand to grip the other woman's chin and turning her head rather forcefully, so that their eyes met. "I was angry at myself," she replied, the vulnerability in her words contradictioning her jerky, almost rough movements.
"Why?"
Emma managed to utter that single word, before a particularly rough thrust pushed her to the brink and she was dangling over the precipice.
"Because, for the first time since Daniel was taken from me, I realized that I had something to lose. Not just my son - well, our son. But this arrangement between us," Regina was able to bite out, stilling her hips as Emma panted beneath her and groaned as she was pulled back from the edge.
"You're not going to lose me."
Regina wanted to believe her, she did. But her heart was too blackened by past experiences to make her capable of such comprehension. "Let go, Emma."
Even as those manicured fingers started to work her up again, Emma shook her head and grit her teeth together. "No," she stated simply. She was not going to let her go. Even if it meant getting her heart broken, or being treated differently if everyone else found out about her daliances with not just another woman, but the queen.
An evil queen, nonetheless.
Regina narrowed her eyes and scissored her fingers, watching as flawless white skin became flushed. There was a small mark on her collarbone, where she'd dug into earlier. No amount of concealer would hide that, should Emma heed her words and find another lover.
Yes, it was selfish and self-serving, but Regina felt like she was entitled to be that way, for all those years of watching men do it.
Emma managed to tangle her legs with the other pair, flipping them over. Placing her hands on either side of Regina's head, she tried to catch her breath as their hips continued to move against each other. Unable to form any words, she settled for trying to beat the queen at her own game.
At least, that's what she told herself as the next set of words slipped from her lips.
"Let go, Regina. Not of me, but of this lie that you keep telling yourself. That you are not worthy, that you are not enough, that you don't deserve it. Let go for you and know that I will catch you. Let go."
That was the last thing that Regina heard, before surrendering to the waves of pleasure and feeling Emma's soft lips pressing against every inch of her cooling skin.