AUTHOR NOTE: We decided to up the rating and explore this. We're glad that we did because it brought out a lot of emotional necessity for them to acknowledge and begin to work through. We hope that you feel the same after reading it. And thank you all to all of our readers for sticking around for the ride. This story has a long way to go too!
I don't believe there are triggers in this one, but Regina references again how her past intimacies were not pleasant. Nothing specific again though. Let us know what you think or if you have any questions! =)
And as always - We are neither A&E nor ABC; we do not own OUAT. We just play in a certain town in Maine and its fairytale land counterpart…
Chapter Seven
"Shut up, Swan and kiss me," Regina said with a smirk.
If nothing else, the brunette was confident and capable of telling people what to do! But, there was no malice in her tone. Instead, she sounded quite bemused at saying that to Emma, and the smile in her voice reached her eyes, especially as Emma made good on her orders and kissed her soundly. She wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, kissing her back enthusiastically, trembling at the feel of their breasts pressed together as hard as they held each other close.
With their passions rekindled swiftly, the savior was more than eager. She was equally demanding as she was needy with her mouth, wanting to make sure that there was no longer any doubt in Regina's mind that she wanted to make love to her right now. Despite the reassurances from the woman in her arm's, Emma couldn't help being afraid that she was going to lose this. Lose Regina. Sure there was a sound case that Zelena just wanted her sister's heart, but the fight tonight was going to be intense either way. What if there was an accident and she lost Regina forever after finally finding one another?
Moaning with that despairing reality, Emma took the brunette by the hips and lifted her off her feet, closing the scant distance left towards the bed.
Regina hummed sharply into the kiss when Emma lifted her up, surprised that she could. She kissed even harder then, turned on the idea that Emma had that sort of strength. She trembled with anticipation as her bare back hit the sheet and broke the kiss, staring intently at the blonde as she played with her hair.
"I have no idea how this works," she admitted, blushing hotly. Regina smiled, looking more like the fresh-faced, hopeful young woman she'd been before Daniel's death. Affection in her tone, she asked, "Teach me, Miss Swan?"
Emma smiled tenderly, knowing how difficult it was for Regina to admit her ignorance in anything and that made her feel exceptional, being Regina's first in so many ways. The trust that was given to her was a gift. A gift that had to be cherished and honored because it brought out so much beauty in Regina. The hardened mask that she wore was utterly stripped away, leaving a shy and devoted lover - yet was so calm in her embrace.
She kissed her softly then, murmuring against her lips. "Fortunately for you, I'm not the lecturing kind of gal."
Regina chuckled softly, cupping Emma's face in her hands. "I've thought about this so many times, my dear…"
"So no pressure, huh?" she quipped jokingly, moving her mouth to kiss against the palm of the mayor's hand.
"None at all," Regina promised. She smiled at Emma's kiss, hardly able to believe this was really happening. Her free hand slid over her neck and back, exploring her warm skin, as the savior smiled right back.
Without another word, she slipped out of the mayor's hands and resumed her attentions, caressing Regina's neck. Emma took her time in learning her, shifting her weight so she could explore untouched skin with her hands that lips hadn't the pleasure of knowing yet. Patient fingers returned to caressing the curvature of a breast, while the savior slowly worked her mouth lower. She held back the desperation to brush her tongue along Regina's nipples because she so wanted to feel them harden once more. But the savior slowed the pace even further than before, wanting the woman under her to feel safe and loved.
It wasn't easy for Regina to voice her pleasure as Emma's hands and lips grazed her skin. But knowing that Emma wanted to hear her, Regina allowed herself to react with very soft moans and gasps. She wanted the pleasure that Emma gifted her, and it was a desire that she didn't know existed prior.
"Regina…" the blonde groaned, fingers gripping the comforter in response to exactly what the mayor had presumed in Emma wanting to hear her. The kisses along her skin quickened, moving to the swell of the neglected breast.
The brunette groaned softly, her breath quickening. She tilted her head up to take in the sight of Emma at her breasts and moaned then. "Please...?" she asked timidly.
Regina watched as her lover flicked a tentative tongue across her nipple before encircling it, working the other soft flesh against the palm of her hand. Her head fell back and she moaned hotly. Emma felt her own desire intensify with the moan that she coaxed from Regina's mouth, making her join in. She cupped the breast she was focused on, engulfing the nipple inside her mouth, flicking her tongue hungrily on the hardening nub.
The mayor arched her back, pushing her flesh into Emma's mouth and hand as she moaned again. Desire radiated from her core, leaving her feeling wanton, but of course, Regina didn't know how to relay that to Emma either. She scissored her legs beneath the blonde, crying out at how good Emma made her feel. Without realizing it, Regina had expressed her passions quite clearly, and the savior was feeding off of it.
Emma tore her mouth away, green eyes glowing with desire as she looked up at mayor. "God I want you …" The weight of Regina's legs and feeling the heat of her covered center against her own abdomen was making the blonde delirious with need.
"Emma, please…" Regina groaned, and the savior didn't need to be told again.
She lightly pushed Regina's legs off of her, needing far better access to give them both what they wanted. Hands slid down the mayor's taut abdomen as Emma grazed her teeth along the waistband of black, lacy panties, and inhaled Regina's scent for the first time. It made her eyes roll backwards, groaning with a frightful need to finally taste her. Losing the last traces of any pretense, Emma leaned back and finally stripped the mayor bare. She tossed the fabric aside so her hands could revisit warm skin, sliding up the brunette's calves before curling against her knees, slowing spreading her legs apart.
Regina stared raptly at Emma, watching her every move, memorizing every second. This was about pleasure this time. She wanted to say something to her, but Regina's brain short circuited with anticipation and need. Emma's gaze softened when she finally cast her eyes upwards. Too riveted to the beautiful body revealed below her she hadn't quite felt the full effects of the mayor's eyes upon her. But she did now.
"You're beautiful," she replied, hands caressing along inner thighs softly. "So beautiful …"
"Thank you, dear. So are you…" Regina blushed. She leaned forward a little, running her fingers through Emma's hair before cupping her cheek.
"Have to disagree," she voiced with a smile that reached her eyes. "You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I don't even come close."
Her blush intensified. Talking during intimacy was unheard of in her experience and it only made her feelings for Emma burn hotter that her lover wanted to interact with her. Regina bit her lip, smiling.
Teasing her a little because she thought it was safe to do so, she asked, "Oh, and have you seen so many women to make that quantified comparison, Miss Swan?"
"I've seen enough to know my statement still stands," she answered truthfully, nipping playfully at Regina's palm. "Or if you want, I could say you're the most beautiful fucking woman I've ever seen? Get that emphasis so there's no mistake."
"Such language," she mock-scolded, grinning. Then, Regina took a deep breath and looked serious. "I'm… not… displeasing to you then…?"
Watching as the playfulness subsided with the way Regina regarded her, Emma's voice lost its lighthearted tone and responded with deep sincerity. "Never."
Alright. It is that she wants to spend time with me and not just rut with me as the others did… Regina felt foolish for asking, but she had to know. This was so unlike what she had experienced before. She tugged Emma back up and kissed her hard, expressing her relief and fragile joy at her affection through the kiss. The blonde smiled, seeing where she was headed and moaned into the kiss as she settled between Regina's legs comfortably. She could honestly do this all day - kissing Regina Mills. Not that the savior didn't want to sate her needs by other pleasurable means, but the act of kissing tempered her own wounded soul and was more intimate for her than the mere physical act of sex. Intentions could be gleaned or hidden within a kiss, but there was nothing but love and want between them.
Regina moaned into the kiss, her pulse quickening immediately as their lips and tongues met. With Emma between her legs, it was enough to make her feel absolutely crazy… and nothing had even happened yet! She didn't know if she'd be able to take it, when Emma did finally make a move on her! And the savior wasn't quite ready yet as she lost herself in the moment of lips and tongues and her own hands running down Regina's thigh. She was on sensory overload, feeling their bodies pressed tightly together and moans intermingling. It was making her want desperately all over again. Regina slid a leg around Emma, tightening it against her backside to pull her even closer. All of her hesitation and anxieties melted away with the sensual, intense kiss. And while she didn't know quite what this would be like, what had happened between them so far was more erotic and beautiful than anything she had ever known.
It was Emma's turn, groaning hotly into the kiss, squeezing Regina's thigh as the other woman really responded. The trepidation that was there on the outskirts of the mayor's mind had finally disappeared and now that they were on the same page, it made the savior reel with a hunger that she had never felt before.
She abruptly broke the kiss, panting softly as she rocked atop her. "I need you, Regina," Emma rasped out, her words thick with desire.
Quickly she squirmed her way lower, trailing hot, wet, kisses along her lover's chest and taut abdomen with fervent need. The former queen moaned and curled her fingers into the sheet beneath her as Emma's kisses seared a trail down her body. She's going to pleasure me with her mouth! Regina realized, and the thought of that thrilled her. The idea of Emma's blonde head between her legs made her groan her name hotly, urging her lower. Those encouraging moans were a beautiful piece of a song that reached Emma's ears, but it was hearing her name groaned out like that that forced her eyes to roll into the back of her head. Regina so vocal with her pleasure pulsed a hard jolt of wanting that made the savior's own clit throb with desire. She couldn't wait to taste to her. Not anymore.
"Fuck, Regina," she said almost muted, so entranced by her lover's fragrance. Tufts of dark curls covering sensitive folds were already glistening with arousal that Emma squeezed the apex of Regina's thighs. "Fuck …"
The savior was now at a loss for words, except for the foul language that Regina abhorred, and no longer could she endure the wait. Nestling her face before the mayor's most intimate space, she licked a trail with the tip of her tongue from the base of her entrance all the way up to brush against her clit.
The woman who had never been permitted to make a sound in her marriage, then never wanted to in her strategic liaisons howled with pleasure when Emma licked her. Regina's back arched high, thigh muscles clamping around the savior's head.
"Again!" she gasped. "Oh god, Emma, please - again!"
Emma had to curl her tongue back inside her mouth to fully appreciate Regina's musky flavor with a moan before diving back in for seconds. She repeatedly flicked her tongue through the mayor's swollen folds with a heated groan, wanting to hear Regina's demanding voice again. The mayor cried out again, grinding slowly against Emma's tongue, pleading with her for more, surprising herself at needing to be so vocal at last.
Regina's wanton cries compelled the savior to work through her faster and to up the ante. She spread her lover's lips wide open, exposing that sensitive bundle of nerves to be assaulted by the tip of her tongue. Emma batted at her clit at a frantic pace while Regina rocked against her face. And, for the first time in her life, Regina climaxed. The brunette clenched, arching her back high off the bed as she screamed the savior's name as the release swept her senses completely. Emma had to tighten her hold or risk being pried away - the last thing in this world she'd want to have happen. She scooted forward, strong arms keeping her fixed on the prize of prolonging Regina's pleasure because that scream was the most powerful, concussive, sound to have ever hit her eardrums during the throes of passion.
And then, panting loudly, Regina collapsed against her bed. She closed her eyes and slowly uncurled her fingers from the sheet as she trembled with the aftershocks of pleasure. For the moment, Emma had literally shocked Regina into silence and the mayor was in no hurry to come back from that state! Nestling into Regina's folds, Emma lapped at the arousal coaxed from the intensity of the mayor's climax. She was quite gentle, reverent even, in caressing her with her mouth. With each touch, Regina's body twitched. She moaned softly and finally pulled herself upright, touching the side of Emma's face, who looked up with a captivating smile.
"Em-ma… the savior… who'd bring back happy endings…" she whispered in awe, too strung out from her climax to censor her thoughts.
The look on Regina's face made it clear that she was thinking of how, ultimately, Emma's arrival had changed her life for the better. Emma Swan had helped her heal the rift that she and Henry had long had… she had gone a long way to even repairing the damage that existed between she and Snow White. And now, she had taught Regina what it was to be pleasured and… loved.
"Emma..." Regina breathed again, but then fell silent because the enormity of her feelings were too much to vocalize. She didn't even know what to say, or what she could say! "Dear Em-ma…"
"I … I don't think I've ever heard you say my name that many times in a day." She pushed herself up and onto all fours, slowly bringing her lower half to straddle atop the mayor's lap. Despite her playful tone, Emma's eyes were thoughtful as they cupped Regina's face. "A girl could get used to it," she said, brushing their lips softly together as she felt strangely delirious that Regina, the former evil queen that had cursed everyone here to Storybrooke, now thought of her as the happy ending she had been yearning for.
"Is that so?" she whispered.
"Yeah." Emma reached into dark hair, combing fingers through the short locks gently as her mind working hard to decipher if this fairytale 'nonsense', as she had been apt to believe, may actually give her something to hope for as well.
Regina smiled softly, feeling her heart pound fiercely in her chest. Was this too much to hope for? To believe possible? That Emma really could be her happy ending? She bit her lower lip, her mind racing through the last couple of years worth of interaction with the blonde who was touching her so tenderly.
She took a deep breath. "Emma… I say this with utmost sincerity despite the fact that you may attribute it to post-coital bliss or even assume I've lost my mind. I love you. I am in love with you. And, with everything going on, I want you to know that right now. I love you, Emma Swan."
Immediately Emma wanted to retort with a 'Or I fucked you so hard that you lost your mind' because she couldn't believe what Regina had just said! Eyes widened in shock. "You … you love me?"
For as much as Emma wanted to have been loved her entire life, all of those instances had been taken away from her. From her parents giving her up, through the foster system, to being unlucky in love - she found it difficult to comprehend that she had a true chance at love. This was not a game for Regina, not after closing her heart off for decades to the possibility that she could find love again. It had taken this crisis to force the mayor into revealing her true feelings towards the savior, and she acknowledged that. But for Emma, to love meant to lose, and that brought her right back to the fight tonight. She didn't want to lose Regina. Even with the small assurances that could be given in which the fight wouldn't be to the death, it didn't mean that the chance wasn't still lurking!
"I do, Emma. I love you. And, I hope that when we've banished my sister to Oz or wherever we can send her, you, Henry, and I can build a future. Together," she said seriously. Brown eyes that had once glared quite fiercely at Emma as she plotted against her now gazed at her with love and hope. "I am trusting you with my heart not only because you're Storybrooke's Savior but because I believe you to be my true love. And who better to put my faith in than you?"
First the declaration of love, and now believing she was her true love? Emma felt lightheaded and had to hold onto the mayor's shoulders for support, fearing she would fall backwards. Everything that she could have wished for was here in her arms. Having Regina meant a future with their son. And a place to call home.
"But how can you know that?" Quietly she asked this, her voice weak with the tumultuous emotions churning inside. "Being your true love?"
Emma believed in true love because she had been the power behind it when it saved her son. She and Henry had built a connection over the year when she first came to Storybrooke and had grown to love the son she had given away. It wasn't easy, opening her heart to the kid, but he had won her over, chipping away at her negativity and giving her hope. But romantic true love? Was that even possible for the so called savior?
Regina didn't know how to answer that at first. It was just an inherent feeling as someone who'd grown up in the Enchanted Forest. She wrapped her arms around Emma's shoulders as she tried to frame her words in a way that her lover would understand. In the end, she opted for simplicity and truth from the heart.
"Because no one has ever made me feel the way you do. Not even Daniel. And… even if I am 'just' in love with you, that is magical enough for me," she said with a smile. "Speaking of which, I should give my heart to you now. So we can see that this works and both have time to adjust before tonight."
Regina thrust her hand into her own chest and took her heart in a light grip. She yanked it out with force. To her surprise and pleasure, it did grow more brightly than in Neverland, and completely missed the horrified look that Emma was shooting her way. Regina had taken her heart out of her body as if it were mere habit - like brushing teeth!
It was truly more than a year ago. It just doesn't feel that way, Regina reminded herself. Sacrificing those I loved most to save everyone, and allowing myself to love Emma has really begun to heal my dark heart. Here is visual proof.
Regina blinked and pulled herself out of her reverie, realizing that this sight and experience was not commonplace to Emma. She smiled almost cheekily, holding her heart in both hands.
"My heart. It's not as dark as when I presented it to Tinkerbell when I dared her to kill me. This is a testament to how you and Henry have changed me for the better," Regina said quietly. "Em… I give you my heart for protection because I love you."
The organ magically pulsated with each beat in Regina's hand and although what she had said was true, it was still marred by a significant amount of swirling black tendrils. Emma had nothing to compare to but believed that what she was seeing was a heart on the mend. She did always know, after all,when Regina was telling the truth and this was no different.
Now the savior was coming to terms with tonight's reality and this crazy plan that they were going to embark on together. Emma couldn't tear her eyes away from the gift that was being entrusted to her and was unable to take it just yet. She covered Regina's hands underneath and felt an insurmountable pressure adhering to her own heart. "I haven't even told you that I loved you back."
That had halted her hands from promptly taking the heart because if Regina loved her that much before Emma admitted the same, was storing it inside her going to work if there wasn't an emotional balance between them?
The hope in her eyes faded as Regina digested what Emma just said. Of course, she doesn't. Emma doesn't love me back. How could she? I'm a monster. I've long been a monster. I'm the one responsible for separating her from her parents, because of the curse… it was my curse that gave Emma the hard life she's had in this wretched world. She doesn't love me. She pities me and only wanted to protect me for Henry's sake. This… this intimacy… it was all physical on her side. I'm such a damn fool.
"I know you haven't," Regina said with a shuddering sigh.
I should crush it myself. I could ruin Zelena's plans and it would free Emma and Henry to leave Storybooke like she wants, she thought as the earlier bliss was replaced by despair. Why go on when my true love can't love me back?
Pursing her lips, the mayor reigned in her emotions and watched curiously as the brightness to her heartbeat faded to a duller shade of red. She swallowed hard.
"You don't have to say anything, Emma. You'd don't have to feel anything for me, besides physical attraction. It's been unfair of me to put all of this on you. I have absolutely no right. Forgive me my foolishness. I'm just emotional from the stress of everything happening, and apologize for pressuring you."
Emma's throat clenched painfully with the shameful knowledge of how carelessly she wounded Regina just then. Her uncertainty had been misinterpreted and the mayor had ran with it to the most disastrous outcome. Her hands gripped Regina's hands tightly, unaware of how the color shifted from the heart she helped cradle.
God I feel like shit. Look what I did to her. She opened up her soul to me and look what happened! I made her retreat into that shell she made over the years because I couldn't say I was awed by her. She trusted me so much in giving me her heart and without me saying I loved her back yet. And she thinks we're true love?! What if we're not? I mean, I don't know if that can happen for me. I'm just … scared.
"Regina, please. Don't do this," she urged. "I'm the one that's sorry. I suck at expressing myself when it comes to ... to this. Being ... open to the people I care about. I don't know how to love very easy at all. Just like you."
She dropped a hand free to caress her lover's cheek with a pleading look.
"Please believe me that I feel no pressure in any of this. That this isn't just some insignificant physical want. It's so much more than that. I'm here because I want to be here. Hell, Regina. I've been pushing to be with you since the park. I want to keep you safe. I want to protect your heart in every sense. I'm just ...well, I was just dumbstruck that you gave me your heart like this without me saying that I loved you back first."
There. That wasn't so hard. I said what I had wanted to say...
But that wasn't going to be enough for Regina and in truth, not even for Emma who closed her eyes and steeled herself. "It's just that ... " she grimaced, feeling foolish for her own insecurities. "I honestly don't know if this'll work. Me storing your heart. What if the love I do have for you isn't enough to keep it safe?"
Regina looked miserable and afraid. "Then, we are back where we started, Emma. I face Zelena alone tonight where she'll defeat me. She'll take my heart, enact whatever curse she has planned, and we're doomed. I was right with what I'd said before: you should take Henry and leave this place."
"No, god damn it! We're not!" she cried out. "I just told you I love you! I'm just fucking scared what it means to be true loves. Or … or if that's even fucking possible for me!" Emma visibly struggled, dropping her hand from Regina's face as her voice had become desperate. She suddenly felt unworthy of having this woman's love because it was clear she was only making things worse by hurting her with doubts.
Regina couldn't believe this. She had finally made her own choice, had no domineering mother to come and ruin it, and she still couldn't get this right! Her heart flared as she growled, anger and impatience clear on her face.
"We are both idiots. Do you realize this?! Who cares if we are true loves or not! This isn't the Enchanted Forest. This is Storybrooke. In Maine," she snapped, a laugh nearly bubbling out of her while she ranted. For a moment, Regina actually sounded like Henry as passionate as she became. "All that matters is that I love you. And you love me. And we can use magic to our advantage because it exists here. Forget everything else. We love each other at long last. And we can defeat my sister. We just have to believe."
Emma was silenced by Regina's rapidly shifting emotions. She had just called both of them idiots and was determined to make the savior understand that she needed to have faith in them. That they could do this together.
Which is so messed up because it was me doing that for her not that long ago.
She laughed at herself, casting her gaze away from Regina's. "I really am a fucking fool. I just got too caught up in all the fairytale tropes that I had forgotten what I had just told you. And you had to remind me."
Shaking her head in amazement, Emma brought her head back up and smiled.
"You're right. We can do this." But her expression softened as she lean forward, pressing their foreheads together. "I'm sorry that I got all doom and gloom. And to be perfectly clear right now? I do love you, Regina."
"I love you too. But I may have to wash your mouth out with soap, Miss Swan. Our son will tell you that I am most serious with that threat too," she said with a knowing smirk while Emma laughed. Regina grew serious again, gazing thoughtfully at her heart. "You will be able to protect my heart. And me. I have faith in you, dear."
Hesitantly she brought her hand up to finally touch the magically imbued heart and focused on what she believed - that she was in love with Regina and the woman she loved had faith in her.
I was sure I could do this. The stakes just got higher with my feelings involved but it doesn't change how adamant I was. Long as this … No. Fuck it. This is going to work. Me and Henry aren't losing her. It's … Huh?
She lost her train of thought as Regina's heart began to pulse brighter than before. "Did …did it just …?" she whispered, looking towards the brunette to confirm she wasn't seeing things.
"See? You do have a positive effect on my heart and me," Regina said with a smile.
It felt strange to have Emma's hands on such an intimately vital part of her anatomy. It was an intimacy even more unique than what had passed between them, along the lines of what it felt like to make magic with the savior. Regina glanced at her heart, then removed her hands so Emma was the only one holding it.
Daunted, Emma quickly brought the other hand underneath it to firmly cup Regina's heart, truly believing that she may accidentally drop it! She soon clutched it to her chest, this delicate treasure whose power she could feel radiating, soaking through the pores of her skin, and up her arms. It was a familiar sensation that Emma had felt when the two of them performed magic together - the intermingling of emotional drive that amplified what they wanted to accomplish. Driven by fear or the love of their son, Emma immediately recognized the magical facet that was distinctly Regina's imprint when the energy finally touched her own heart.
"Holy shit, Regina …" Emma blinked back tears because it was so magnificent to feel how profoundly the mayor loved her, and she hadn't even placed it within her own chest yet.
Regina blushed and curled her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins. It was beautiful to watch Emma begin to really understand her feelings.
"You are the only one who has been able to see me as Regina since I'd started using dark magic," she said quietly. "You protected me from the town and the wraith when everyone else would have left me for dead. I know Henry factored into your decisions, but… still. I was terrible to you and yet you could see value in me, or a glimmer of goodness. I love you, Emma. For so many reasons. And I'm glad you can feel that now."
Emma's lower lip quivered slightly, unable to reply with something meaningful during the barrage of their emotions fusing together within her own heart. Little did the savior know that at some point when Regina was speaking, their hearts had aligned, beating together as one.
A lone tear broke free, skipping off her cheek and away. "Henry was the reason for some time, yes. But when I knew you were going to die? The trigger? That wasn't me saving you for our son. I wanted to save you because I didn't want you to die."
Regina loosened her position so she could reach out to cup Emma's face with one hand. She rubbed her thumb over the other woman's cheek, staring at her intently. "Thank you, dear. And that's why I know you'll keep me safe yet again, with the ordeal we have before us."
Leaning into Regina's hand was becoming a fast habit now, but it gave Emma immediate comfort since the first moment she did it. She felt safe, doubly so as Regina stared at her and touched her cheek gently. No longer overwhelmed, her expression fell into a mask of stark determination, clutching Regina's heart even tighter. "Tell me what I have to do."
"Ooo. Ease your grip for starters, Hercules. I can feel that," she said gently.
Regina knew that Emma didn't understand the mechanics or the details of enchanted hearts or she wouldn't have put so much pressure. Uncomfortably, she was reminded of crushing Graham's heart while knowing that he was with Emma at the time. She sighed inwardly.
"It might be easier if I placed it in your chest, since I have more experience," Regina went on. "A little less stressful, hm?"
Green eyes widened in terror and immediately loosened her grip upon the heart. "Fuck, Regina! I'm so sorry!" Looks her over hurriedly to see if she had caused any unwanted harm from her idiotic ineptitude. "Are you okay?!"
"Emma… I'm fine. Truly." She held out her hand. "May I?"
Breathing a sigh of relief that her lover was really fine, Emma nodded. "Yeah. Of course." She slowly and gently used both hands to hold the heart out for Regina to take. "Here."
Regina regarded her seriously once more. "At least you've already had a hand thrust into your chest before and know what to expect. I will be more gentle than Mother was. I promise."
She made good on that, pulling Emma close with her free hand so she could press their lips together. As she kissed her, Regina carefully thrust the hand holding her heart into the savior's chest and settled it there beside Emma's. When the mayor had done this, Emma had seized her shoulders in a vice grip, kissing her back harder with a sharp moan. Now she immediately felt both hearts beat in perfect harmony, even with the darkness abiding in the background that wanted to inflict damage on the love that Regina finally accepted into her life. It couldn't cast its despairing shadow over the power of that love right now, but that didn't mean it couldn't come to the forefront in the future.
Saying a silent prayer that her darkness did not taint her lover, she withdrew her hand and leaned back to look at her. "Are you alright, dear?"
"Am I alright?" she repeated hoarsely, and then repeated. "Am I alright?" The savior's eyes sparkled with yearning as she immediately brought their mouths together in a hard kiss as answer. She was on a high, feeling incredibly invincible right now as all doubt was cast out of her mind; the two of them were definitely going to find a way to defeat Zelena and secure their happy ending.