The team heads back to the Mills' mansion to regroup, and Henry enjoys a moment with his quickly expanding family.
"Hey." A low, husky rumble. Emma blinked sleepily, green eyes locking onto brown.
"Hey," Emma replied, a smile tugging at her lips. She shifted forward to press a kiss to the tip of Regina's nose, feeling the brunette shift against her with a contented sigh. Late morning sunlight poured in through the window and everyone felt far more rested now.
Nova and Belle had gone to check on Grayson and Ruby earlier, returning with the good news that Grayson was stable and recovering well. Everyone slept much easier through the rest of the night, though Granny had caused a bit of a ruckus when she insisted on standing guard in the intensive recovery wing to keep an eye on her granddaughter - eventually the stubborn woman got her way, after treating the reluctant Dr. Whale like he was a toddler and not a fully grown man. He'd made himself scarce after that.
A soft, rumbling sigh escaped the blonde as she tucked her head down and burrowed herself a little further into the warm arms that encircled her. Regina rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. "We should get up," she murmured, shifting to glance around the room and take stock of their surroundings.
August spoke quietly to Tinkerbell as they kept watch at the window, Leroy was asleep on a cot with his head pillowed on Nova's lap, and Belle sat curled up in an armchair in the corner, idly flipping through an old book. The Charmings had left fifteen minutes earlier to bring back food from the cafeteria.
"Five more minutes," Emma mumbled, burying her face against Regina's shoulder. The brunette hummed in agreement and stroked her blonde hair, her other arm snugly wrapped around Emma's waist, their shared body heat contained within their cocoon of blankets.
Before Emma, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt safe and happy in another's embrace. Regina had never had a reason to stay lounging in bed once she woke, not when she always woke alone, but she found herself content to stay snuggled against the blonde for as long as she was wanted. Emma's fingers were gently curled into her now-wrinkled shirt and her breath was warm and steady against her collarbone, teasing at her skin.
"We should call Henry," Regina murmured, eyes fluttering shut as she rested her chin atop Emma's head. Emma made a sound of acknowledgement but didn't move, even when footsteps and the creak of the door heralded Snow and David's return.
"Breakfast," David announced, sounding much more chipper now that he had a cup of coffee in hand. He and Snow had their arms full of take-out bags after coercing the cafeteria workers to pack food for them - not that it took much persuasion once the cooks realized they were the only people doing something about the town's demon problem.
"Up and at 'em, we've got a big day ahead of us," said Snow, moving to Regina's bed to nudge the two awake. Regina reached back to swat away Snow's hand where the younger brunette was poking her on the hip.
"Five more minutes," Regina growled at her, and Snow's brows disappeared beneath her bangs in surprise. She liked to think she knew Regina quite well, and last she checked, five more minutes had never been part of her vocabulary.
"Kay, fine, we're up," Emma warbled, lifting her head and blinking up sleepily at her parents. Snow and David exchanged a vaguely amused look as the Queen and the Savior slowly untangled from each other's embrace and got out of bed. Regina still looked grumpy at the interruption, while Emma was oblivious to it all, more interested in the smell of hot breakfast wafting from the bags David was opening up.
"Food?" she said, bumping up against David's shoulder. He chuckled, digging out an egg-and-sausage breakfast sandwich and offering it up to his daughter before kissing her affectionately on the temple. She had his appetite and his appreciation for food, and he adored that to no ends.
Hot food and coffee was the best way to start a day, it seemed, and soon everyone was milling closer for some sustenance, chattering softly and looking more lively. Emma woke up enough to banter with August, and Leroy was already wolfing down his second sandwich.
"Regina?" David held out a sandwich to her, smiling with success when she accepted it. Everyone knew the mayor avoided greasy foods like the plague so it was nice to see her partaking in the group breakfast, even talking with Belle and Tink as they sat around in visitor chairs.
"Should I bring some down to Granny, Ruby, and Grayson?" Nova offered after she'd polished off her breakfast. Leroy jumped up to go with her.
"Actually, we should bring Granny and Ruby back up here," said David. "We need to hold council."
"Yes, a round table in a hospital room," said Regina, sarcastic. "How quaint."
"What about Grayson?" Emma added.
"He needs to rest. Whale made it clear that he wouldn't be fighting with us anytime soon. Granny and Ruby should be a part of this discussion."
"What is there to discuss? We need to get the box back. It's simple, just not easy." Regina sighed as she sat down on the edge of the bed, Emma sitting closely next to her with a supportive hand resting on her lower back.
It was a wonderful feeling, to have someone who just automatically supported you and offered comfort without question, not out of duty or necessity but simply because they wanted to. Robin had done so back when he was still around, and for a while it was nice to be loved and taken care of - but it just wasn't the same. His touch had been a temporary comfort, the touch of a man who was told he was her soulmate because of his tattoo - nothing like the stable protectiveness of Emma's caress. Emma, who had always been there for her, always concerned, always hovering, yet never daring to cross that line and touch her. Not until now. Regina instinctively leaned in against Emma's side, craving more of the touch she had been denied for so long. Emma's fingers absently trailed up and down her spine in soft, tender touches.
"So what do we do? Attack them until they lose their physical forms again?" David sat on a cot with Snow, nursing a cup of coffee and looking hopeful.
"Are you forgetting about the demon dogs?" Leroy asked, skeptical. "We can beat up the demons, sure, but those dogs are nasty. Pretty sure they still outnumber us."
"And we might not have even won today if they hadn't run off with Pandora's Box," August added, his brows scrunched up as he frowned. "We've never fought anything like them before."
"You've barely fought anything at all, puppet," Regina sassed. "But now that we know about them, we'll be prepared. Emma and I are powerful when we combine our magic, so that's what we'll do next time." To Emma, she said, "Ready for another magic lesson, Swan?"
Emma's response was an immediate grin.
"Not here?" said Snow, quirking a brow at them. "We should go back to the house first. I want to check on Neal, and Henry surely misses you both by now."
"That's a good idea," David agreed. "I'll go talk to Granny and Ruby."
Once discharged from the hospital, the group walked back to Mifflin street on high alert, worried about another attack. Without Pandora's Box in their possession, however, it seemed the demons had no more interest in them, and they arrived at the Mills house unbothered. Granny and Ruby had rejoined them after Grayson insisted that he would be fine, though he did relent to Ruby's demand that he text her every few hours to prove that he was still alive.
I'm already recovering, Red. I'm not going to just drop dead, he'd insisted, looking amused. Ruby had given him a withering stare until he gave up and made a show of keeping his cellphone on the bedside table.
"How's the barrier looking?" David asked as they headed up the path. Regina reached the barrier first, settling a hand against the faintly shimmering light.
"Holding strong against the demon influence." The group headed through, with Regina pausing to reinforce it from within before they ambled into the house. Henry met them at the door, looking frazzled but relieved to see them, and immediately passed Neal over to Snow and David before hurling himself at his mothers for their three-way hug.
"Mom! Ma!"
"Henry," Regina breathed out, pressing her cheek to his head and tightening her arm around his quickly broadening shoulders. Emma's arm landed over hers and squeezed them both, happy to have them in her arms together.
"Hey, kid," Emma murmured, taking in a deep breath of his familiar shampoo and feeling his lanky arms wrap fully around them. Just as quickly as it had happened, he pulled back from them, nose crinkled and a frown tugging on his lips.
"Were you at the hospital?"
Emma and Regina exchanged a concerned look, not having wanted to worry him with that information. Especially considering that everyone was fine.
"How did you-"
"You smell like the hospital," he said, voice lowering. Of course he knew what the hospital smelled like. He'd died there once, when he was ten and right before Emma had broken the first curse. The smell of antiseptics and death are impossible to forget. "Are you both okay? Is anyone-"
"We're all fine, Henry, I promise," Emma insisted, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "Let's head inside first, okay?"
They all ended up in the kitchen again, somehow, brewing pots of coffee and tea as Snow tended to Neal and the others caught Henry up on what had happened. Regina still looked less than impressed with the War Council happening in her precious kitchen but kept amicably quiet, busying herself with occasionally readjusting Henry's collar or smoothing down his wild hair- and bless his heart, he just smiled and let her.
"So, what's the plan?" he asked once they'd finished relaying everything, with that eager smile of his that he usually sported right before naming an Operation. Emma chuckled.
"Your mom's going to teach me some magic so that we can handle those hellbeasts. And then we get Pandora's Box back and kick some demon ass."
"Emma," Regina warned, squinting at the blonde who immediately amended her comment with:
"-butts. Demon butts."
"I'm thirteen, Mom, not a baby," Henry complained, to which Regina just shook her head a little and smiled before beckoning for Emma.
"Let's go, Emma. We've got work to do. We can practice in the backyard."
"What should we do in the meantime?" David asked as the two women moved for the back door.
"Entertain yourselves without destroying my house," was Regina's sarcastic response before the two women left. David blinked, then leveled his eyes on his grandson who simply shrugged.
"We could play some video games while we wait," he suggested, moving towards the family room. "I got to level fifty eight at Castle Defense last night."
And with that, David, August, Leroy, and Tinkerbell hurried off after the teenager. Snow sat at the counter with Belle, Ruby, and Nova, shaking her head a little.
"Men- and Tinkerbell," she sighed.
"At least they'll be occupied for a while." Ruby shrugged, eyes glued to her phone as she texted Grayson back. Granny leaned against the sink as she bobbed Neal in her arms, fawning over the little prince with all the adoration an experienced grandmother could muster.
The backyard was brightly lit by a clear, colorless sky, the air cool and nippy against their exposed skin. Regina readjusted the collar of her petticoat around her neck before taking up a position in the middle of the yard and giving Emma a perusing look. The blonde had summoned a change of clothes from the Charming household and now stood before her in an off-white turtleneck sweater under her red leather jacket, paired with her usual jeans and knee-high boots. Regina tilted her head some, missing the look of her borrowed dress shirt on Emma's lean form.
"So, what am I learning first?" Emma asked, grounding her feet shoulder-width apart and shaking out her arms as if preparing for some sort of physical exercise. Regina chuckled.
"Not the Olympics, for one. Magic is emotion, Emma. You need to ground yourself, mentally and emotionally, to properly channel your abilities."
"Says the one who used to rile me up to kickstart my magic." Emma quirked a brow, grinning.
"Would you prefer I insult you and call you a pathetic waste of ability again?" Regina sassed back.
"Nope. I like the nicer way. Are you gonna teach me magic with good emotions? Kickstart my magic with a kiss?" The dimples were back, along with a playful glint in those green eyes. Regina rolled her dark eyes, resisting the urge to smile despite how cute the blonde was being.
"Not when your mother is watching us from the kitchen window, dear."
"What?" Emma whipped her head around to find that her mother was indeed peering out the kitchen window at them, all big green doe eyes and curiosity. Belle and Granny seemed to do the same, though more subtly. "Oh. Well, that puts a damper on things."
"Focus, miss Swan," Regina chuckled, ignoring Emma's immediate scowl as she summoned a row of targets to appear on the far side of the yard. As a precaution, she added a separate barrier around her precious apple tree on the chance that Emma accidentally directed a destructive spell at it. The poor thing had already been attacked by a chainsaw, it'd had enough trauma for a lifetime.
"Now," she said, motioning at the targets. "Destroy them."
"If it's the last thing I do?" Emma teased, but quickly dropped her smile and went to work when Regina squinted at her. She summoned up a familiar energy ball in her hands and made to throw it when the brunette cleared her throat.
"You'll need something more lethal than a ball of air, dear. We're aiming to kill the hellbeasts, not knock them around."
"But this is the only thing I know how to conjure," Emma murmured, brows knitting together. "I've tried making fireballs like yours but it's never worked for me."
"Of course not; fireballs are my thing." Regina smirked. "But your energy- you can temper it, make it more concentrated."
When Emma gave her a blank look, she pointed at the target again.
"Throw your energy ball. Watch."
Obeying, Emma hurled the ball of energy in her hand at the target with as much gusto as she could. The targets were staked deeply into the ground, thus it hardly moved when the energy ball hit it, simply shrugging off the blow with the smallest of shakes. Emma grimaced.
"Alright, not so effective," she conceded.
"Now make another one. A stronger one." Regina moved up next to her, settling her hand around Emma's wrist and coaxing her palm upright. The blonde once again conjured a ball of energy in her hand, the only type of energy that ever came at her call. Not fire or water or even a spark of electricity- just air. Pure, clean air, whipping about in a confined orb.
Regina's fingers tightened just a little around her wrist, her skin warm with the whisper of magic. "Temper it, Emma. Your magic is more powerful than you know; you just need to give it direction. Concentrate."
The wind within the magical orb whipped faster, fiercer. Emma willed it to grow, felt the flow of energy thrumming along her arm, hot and cold at the same time, powerful yet comforting. The orb grew until it was nearly the size of a basketball, a miniature hurricane in the palm of her hand.
"Good," said Regina, gently releasing her wrist and stepping back. "Now try it."
Emma aimed at another target and threw. Part of her still expected to see the same result… the other part was shocked when her attack shattered the target, leaving nothing but a broken stump in the ground where it had been staked in.
A whoop of excitement not unlike that of an excited fan watching a sports competition sounded from the kitchen windows. Both women turned in time to see Snow bounce on the spot before blushing and clamping her hands over her mouth.
"Very good," Regina praised, disregarding their audience. "Again."
They spent the next half an hour honing Emma's energy ball attack until she could summon the miniature hurricanes on a whim. By the time Regina deemed her ready to proceed, the yard was covered in shards of wood and straw, the shattered remains of all the targets Regina had conjured. She cleaned up the debris with a flick of her wrist and a toss of her hair.
"Well done. Now-"
"Do I get a reward?"
Regina paused, pursing her lips. "What?"
"You said I did well. Do I get a reward?" Emma grinned, hands in her back pockets as she rocked on the soles of her boots, her cheeks deeply dimpled. Regina lifted a brow.
"And what kind of reward, pray tell, do you expect to receive while your mother watches us?"
Snow was indeed still enthralled by their magic lessons, now seated on a bar stool by the kitchen window with a mug of tea in hand. Emma chuckled.
"How 'bout a kiss?"
"Miss Swan…"
"Just one kiss, Re-gi-na…"
The brunette seemed to consider it. As final incentive, Emma added with a nod in her mother's direction, "I think she's using your china teacup."
Oh no she did not. She should know better than to use my china! Regina seized Emma by the collar of her jacket and pulled her in roughly, crushing their lips together in a kiss. She could feel the blonde's arms immediately curl around her waist, drawing her in just a little closer, bodies pressing together.
A startled squeal could be heard from the kitchen window, followed by a loud guffaw that was clearly Ruby laughing at Snow's expense.
"You sure showed her," Emma murmured, her eyelids at half mast as she grinned against Regina's lips. The brunette just hummed before kissing her again, this time slower, a gentle and tentative meeting of soft lips and probing tongues. The blonde's fingers slid up along the firm tendon of Regina's neck, to the base of her head and then up her scalp, weaving into thick dark hair with the gentlest of tugs, urging her head back so that she could more thoroughly explore her mouth. The brunette was thankful that she'd opted for shorter heels today, easily melting into the taller woman's embrace with her head tilted up at the perfect angle, a low rumble of approval vibrating in her throat as Emma nipped at her lower lip. Her fingers remained curled into the worn leather of Emma's jacket even as they came apart for air, foreheads pressed together, noses brushing intimately.
"Satisfied with your reward?" Regina murmured huskily, tongue darting out to lick at her lips. Emma gave a soft groan.
"I wish the house wasn't full of people right now."
The brunette chuckled, trying not to think too hard on the insinuation. "Magic lessons, Emma. Focus."
"Mm," the blonde huffed, stepping back and away from the temptation that was Regina Mills. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to find Snow peeking shyly out the window at them, giving a wave when she realized she'd been spotted spying. "She's taking this all surprisingly well."
"Your mother is full of surprises," Regina snorted.
"Glad I got to avoid the whole coming out to the parents thing, at least."
"Oh, don't hold your breath. I'm sure she's got a closet full of Pride flags, rainbow banners, and unicorn stickers just waiting for you when things calm down."
Emma scrunched her face, caught between touched that her mother could be prepared for such a thing, and mortified that she'd actually spring that on her. "Yeah, I hope not."
"At least she supports your life choices," Regina said, tsking softly as she conjured up more targets for them to work with. She didn't even want to imagine what could have happened if she'd ever brought up her own sexuality when she was still under her mother's thumb. She'd likely have more scars on her person. "I'm not sure my mother would have reacted so favourably."
"Sorry," Emma murmured, shuffling her feet a little and shoving her hands into her back pockets again. From all that she'd heard, Cora accepted only the best for her daughter. Regina did end up marrying a king, after all. "I guess she wouldn't have approved of me."
"On the contrary," the brunette's lip lifted in faint amusement. "I think you proved to be quite a challenge to her, and my mother enjoyed a good challenge. She wouldn't have liked me being with a woman at all, of course, but… If it had to be a woman, I think she would have accepted you."
"That's a frightening thought." Emma gave a dry chuckle. "Cora, approving of me."
"She did cherish power, and you are the Savior."
"Think she would have given me her blessing?"
"Her blessing? For wh- oh." The oh left Regina's lips in a breathy exhale as dark eyes widened in realization. Then she blinked and averted her gaze, feeling suddenly skittish. It was far too soon for that topic to come up, and she wasn't going to let Emma linger on it. Not yet. Not now. "Well, we'll never know. Come on, let's get back to work."
Pursing her lips in a bit of a grimace, Emma nodded her agreement, turning to fully face the newly conjured targets across the yard. It was too soon, certainly, but she'd hoped for some sort of favourable reaction from Regina at least, if even just an acknowledgement that it would eventually be brought up. They were soulmates, after all, linked by destiny or fate or whatever the hell it was that pixie dust worked off of. Didn't that guarantee their relationship? Wasn't marriage an obvious part of their future together?
She looked up, met Regina's dark eyes, and a memory of the brunette's voice echoed within her mind, as clear as the day Regina had first said it to her.
And don't you ever dare push that soulmate bullshit onto me ever again.
The flicker of expectation - of entitlement - she felt just a moment ago was squashed immediately, because damn it, she would not make that mistake again. She couldn't fall back on the soulmate excuse every time she thought of their relationship, because they were so much more than that and Regina deserved to be treated as such. To be respected and cherished and loved, to be given the same amount of time and effort and dedication as any other budding relationship, "soulmate" status notwithstanding. She wouldn't repeat Robin's mistakes and simply expect a perfect, established relationship. She had to earn it.
"Hey," she said, catching Regina's attention before the brunette continued with the lesson. "When this is all over… can I take you out on a date?"
"I... a date?"
"Yeah. Just you and me. Maybe we can try out Tiana's new restaurant?"
And just like that, the subtle tension in Regina's face disappeared, her brows raised and her lips parted in surprise. Brown eyes locked onto green ones and conveyed a sense of relief and gratitude without having to exchange a single word. Outwardly, she gave an almost shy smile and said, "I'd like that."
"Okay," Emma said, cheeks dimpling with her puppy-like grin.
They spent the rest of the afternoon practicing some new spells in which they combined their magic, working in tandem to move or attack targets in the yard, and learning to throw up physical barriers of pure energy that would come in handy during a battle. At some point Snow came out with water bottles and snacks for them, refusing to leave until both women had a protein bar each. ("I know you haven't eaten since breakfast," Snow had insisted, quirking a brow at Regina. "And Emma's not the only one who's noticed your unhealthy diet of coffee whenever you're stressed." Regina didn't even have a retort for that, so she grudgingly ate a bar to appease the pixie haired brunette.)
As late noon crept towards evening, Emma dropped to the ground with a dramatic puff of air, her chest rising heavily with each breath. Her jacket had been discarded hours earlier and every inch of her skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Her sweater, jeans, and hair were drenched.
"I thought you said this wasn't the Olympics," she huffed.
"It's not my fault you tense up every muscle in your body when you use your magic," Regina smirked, sitting down gracefully at the base of her apple tree. She was warm and tired, but hadn't broken a sweat. "Eventually it will come second-nature to you, and then you won't tense up and wear yourself out anymore."
"I'll be lucky if I ever look half as graceful as you do," the blonde grumbled, dragging herself across the grass to be nearer to the other woman as Regina chuckled. Emma rolled onto her back, feeling soft blades of green crumple beneath her shoulders, likely staining her off-white sweater. Her head was next to Regina's thigh and she grinned up at her before her eyes drifted to the bright red fruits hanging in the tree branches overhead. The apple tree provided ample cover from the setting sun.
"Your apples are literally the best I've ever tasted."
Regina's eyebrow reached a record breaking height. "Is it a talent of yours, saying things that can be inappropriately construed?"
"You're the one with your mind in the gutters, Madam Mayor," Emma laughed. Regina reached down to flick her on the nose, prompting Emma to close her eyes and tilt her head up until she bumped against the brunette's thigh. Her cheeks were now deeply dimpled thanks to the smile splitting her lips. "How come you never magicked it?"
Leaning back against the tree trunk and resting her eyes, Regina asked, "Magicked what?"
"Your apple tree. The branch I cut off. How come you never fixed it once you had your magic back?"
"Oh." Regina hummed under her breath, absently stroking her fingers through Emma's golden hair where her head was still pressed up against her thigh. "I left it there as incentive to stay angry at you."
Emma's head shifted. Regina cracked open an eye to look down at her. "What?"
"You had a hard time staying angry at me? Even back then?"
"Your continued presence in Henry's life was reason enough for me to be angry, but I'll admit, you had your charms."
Emma smirked. "So, if we hadn't been fighting over Henry, you'd have fallen for my charms?"
Regina smiled faintly, stroking Emma's hairline until the blonde's eyes drifted shut again. "I might have," she murmured, and Emma just smiled a little wider in response.
"What about now?" Emma asked after another long moment of quiet. "The tree branch, I mean."
"I don't see a reason to fix it now," Regina admitted, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. "It's been there for the past three years. Besides, it reminds me of you."
Emma's body shook with her laugh. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Well, let's just say I won't complain if I see you in a tank top with a chainsaw again... Just not anywhere near my tree."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Mom! Ma!" Henry's voice called out across the yard, prompting both women to lift their heads and smile warmly in their son's direction. "Grandma and Granny are thinking of starting dinner, and want to know if they can use the stove."
Regina's expression turned deadly. "Absolutely not!"
"Oh, shit." Emma scrambled up, offering her arm to Regina. "Don't let them do that, kid! Tell them to wait for us!"
Regina grabbed Emma's bicep - momentarily impressed at how wonderfully muscular the blonde was - and let Emma haul her up to her feet. "For us? I don't trust you in my kitchen any more than I trust Snow in my kitchen!"
"Hey, I know how to cook!" Emma pouted.
"Microwaving frozen food doesn't count as cooking, dear."
"Mom!" Henry had this big, apologetic grin on his face as he leaned out of the back door, like he was sorry but also finding it all terribly amusing. "Grandma's already preheating the oven!"
"Snow!" Regina shouted, hurrying towards the house. Emma snatched her red leather jacket up from the ground and hurried after her.
"Henry, you grab your grandmother, I'll hide the kitchen knives."
"Oh, no," Regina called over her shoulder, "You're heading upstairs to shower off the sweat and grass stains."
"Can you refrain from killing my mother in my absence?"
"I make no promises."
"Reginaaaa!"
As his mothers rushed past him and into the house, Henry grinned, leaning against the back door and watching them go. There was an outburst of voices from within the kitchen; his brunette mother freaking out, his grandmother insisting that she knew what she was doing, his blonde mother hollering about cooperation. The men were wisely staying out of it, having taken over Henry's video game controllers, but Tinkerbell and Ruby were joining in the kerfuffle and getting perhaps a little too much enjoyment out of it.
In the midst of a crisis or not, Henry's family was here together, his moms were together together, and they were all having dinner and bickering and being so amazingly domestic - and he couldn't have been happier.
"Henry!" Regina shouted from the kitchen. "Tell your grandmother to stop it!"
"Henry! Tell your mother to stop!" Snow shouted back.
"I'm coming," Henry called back, smiling to himself as he trotted towards his family, letting the back doors swing shut behind him.