Heartless

Knowing you believe in me means I'm not alone

The air around the tiny apartment was stilled and even though Henry had fallen asleep a little while ago neither the blonde seated at the old ratty couch or Regina herself had asked aloud about where the boy should sleep that night. Something -from David's brokenhearted expression to Snow's asleep form- kept them from leaving the house. The shards of glass from the mirror that had been resting near the bed had been collected and were now glinting on top of the kitchen's table where the mayor had been inspecting them, her magic chanting and answering to the spell she herself had once used around the city and kingdom.

"She knew that we were going to try to imprison her, didn't she?"

The question came in a soft murmur, a tone that barely reached Regina's ears. When she looked towards the blonde, however, she saw Emma's head turned towards the bed where Snow rested, David seated next to her, as silent as he had been ever since he had read Snow's scribbled note. The light of the place hit the blonde's skin as she seemed to smile sadly, one arm resting on the back of the couch she was seated at, her long fingers tightly closed around a frayed edge of the fabric, her lower lip trembling as she fell silent once again. She looked tired and for the tiniest of seconds Regina found herself closing her hands into thin air, the fiery sense of remorse licking her insides, twisting her guts.

"She… knows what kind of plans we are able to come up with, yes." She finally offered, the pronoun sounding strange on her mouth like every time she thought about the Queen. The blonde's sigh, however, made her swallow and approach the couch's back where Emma twisted and tilted her head just a little, enough for their gazes to meet. On the other side of the sofa Henry slept soundly, his hair slightly mussed and his clothes rumpled here and there. For a second Regina looked at him, only to discover Emma glancing at her as she finally looked back at those green hued eyes. "Maybe I should…"

"We will find another way." Emma replied, short and forceful, her voice clipped, the wrinkles around her eyes seeming to grow deeper for a second, her tongue peeking between her teeth as she swallowed, the beginning of a vocal leaving her mouth, her chest halting. "You…"

And Regina waited for that sentence to be finished, knowing beforehand that Emma never would. David was close enough for them to hear the two of them but remained silent, his eyes not even looking at them as Regina glanced subtly at the bed, suddenly aware that they had company, that they weren't alone.

"Perhaps if I go alone..." She insisted but the blonde shook her head. From where Regina was standing she could distinguish the tight muscles on the blonde's shoulders, the way they seemed to support the woman's weight as if the blonde herself felt as frail as a glass figurine. Even the woman's fingers looked brittle when she detangled them from the fabric she had been playing with, the hollow of her throat shinning with cold sweat.

"Regina, no."

The word was almost whispered, almost like a plea, and Regina thought on the glutton way the Queen herself would have probably eat that sentence up back in the forest, back in another time.

"I was ready back at the cemetery." Emma kept talking, her eyes now focused solely on Henry's asleep form, on the temple Regina could see a thick vein pulsating with the energy Regina could feel crackling against her skin. "I'm ready now. We can go out and defeat her."

"And so does she." Regina replied back quickly, her voice strong enough for David to shudder just a millimeter, just enough to tell the brunette how the man was indeed listening to their conversation. "Attacking her won't do you any favors."

And Regina knew Emma understood as well as she understood what Emma was saying, why Emma wanted to fight. And there was some sort of spark on those green eyes, one that Regina found herself willing to look at for as long as Emma let her and for that she bitted down her want and wish only to finally come around the coach and sit near Henry, her hands going to that mussed hair, silently rearranging it as if she would once do back when the boy had been accosted by nightmares and, crying, would ask for her to be near his bed.

"You said that you were ready." She said, her eyes never leaving Henry, not even when she felt Emma's burning her flesh.

"I was."

And there was some sort of silent promise there, one Regina felt herself willing to drown into, fall into. She, though, didn't let herself step any closer that border, that edge.

Because she knew, because she understood, she had seen the little tree being hold by David and Snow, had felt inside of her the old need to know, to see for herself, to learn, she had almost trembled when the Queen had destroyed their only chance of a weapon, had almost dissolved into the question, the one she had been so sure about so many years ago, the question that now ate her tongue and for it she felt herself want to remain there, just in that place, for a minute, for a second.

"Regina"

And Emma's voice burned her as she took a deep breath, her words like molten lava, her voice as sharp as those shards of glass. She looked ready, she thought, she looked alive.

And even for a moment, for a second, Regina envied the woman she had once been able to see that from the blonde she had in front of her without the knowledge of what it was to see it destroyed.

"Regina."