Tougher than the rest

I can't let fate dictate my actions any more

Those were the words Regina first heard at her right a second after she sensed Emma's magic around her. She, however, didn't move as the blonde woman materialized at her side, a bashful look on her eyes and something seeming like regret around her lips. It felt strange, to look at her and see her dressed back at something that wasn't from the princess version just as it felt strange to look at her eyes and still seeing them empty As if something, a part of her, had been left on the main road just like the shards of the sword that had been casted away by Regina's own magic seconds after they all had seen Robin Hood, their looks a variety of confusion and sorrow.

Emma's own eyes, however, weren't filled with pity in that moment and for that she kept studying her backyard as if nothing had happened and a particular savior wasn't now looking at her with her own arms crossed and resting her weight near her, silent but pressing enough for her to finally concede a small sigh. Looking at Emma from the corner of her eye, Regina found herself wondering back on the princess she had briefly seen before she had been able to come back from the Wish Realm mentality. The blonde that stood before her seemed more like Emma, the savior, but it still seemed to titillate if one looked long enough at her and for that Regina bit down her tongue, not really knowing what to answer to Emma's sentence.

"I thought you would be with…" She didn't continue, not wanting to know if she had something to really do it so.

"He said he wanted to sleep." Emma replied, lips curving and trembling, almost saddened, before she spoke again. "Saying to a pirate that he shouldn't drink rum it's not the best way to come back from a trip to another realm it seems."

"And how did you know…" Regina asked, only to be cut short again.

"I just knew."

The answer, paired up with a shrug, made the former Queen hid a small smile she very much suspected Emma had been able to pick on it considering the smug glint on her pupils once he looked up.

She, thought Regina, staring for a moment too long, was beautiful.

"What I said… earlier." Mumbled the younger woman after clearing her throat, another protective shrug making her shoulders shudder as she talked; her eyes sliding off Regina's own silhouette and wandering towards the shadows not bathed in the light the brunette had lighted on earlier, its glow almost orange on the patch it was able create around both of them and a few more meters around their feet. "I told that to August."

"Do you really think that?" Regina found herself asking back and for a second she wondered if she had truly said it as Emma merely pressed her lips together before taking a deep sigh, her chest deflating as Regina's own did the same, unconsciously mirroring the younger woman's actions. Because, Regina found herself thinking, eyes set on Emma's features, hands around her midriff, tips tingling as she stared at the way the savior seemed to be mulling through and idea she wasn't sure she would ever say, her lips seeming to part and tremble for a few seconds as she watched.

Did Emma really think that? Regina truly wanted to know, truly needed to know because fate and prewritten destiny seemed to be everywhere, waiting. And yet, even though she longed for freedom…

"You told me to ask Robin to come with us." She said, not really sure where to go from there, the smell of the lake and the forest not so long ago they had both been standing at reaching her nostrils for a second as magic rippled through her, Emma's eyes seeming to glow for a moment before they settled back on deep green.

"I did that, didn't I?" Came the reply and she found herself not truly knowing what to say, not truly knowing if she wanted to actually answer. "Is he inside?"

It came off as brusque and Regina took a deep intake of breath, feeling the tender patches of skin on her lips where she had bite them on, nervousness returning to her body, coiling around her stomach as she shook her head, a sudden breeze seeming to make the leaves that laid around her backyard revolve before settling again.

"He said he wanted to sleep under the stars."

Which was true but she still sucked on her breath noticing how hesitant she sounded, how fearful she seemed as Emma took a step closer, her body heat touching her arm, her shoulder, even though her clothes.

"I did that, didn't I?"

What would have been the blonde's answer, wondered the former queen, if fate… if destiny, hadn't been there? What could have happened?

She, however, had already the answer and it was precisely for that why she closed her eyes and inhaled sharply, hearing a faint "I won't bother you, sleep tight, Regina." Rushed and soft that ended in the same fluttering sensation around her stomach as Emma's magic touched her own. Just like a caress too quick to call it so.

"Sleep tight, Emma."

It came off late but, Regina thought, wasn't that what they did? Speaking too late? Perhaps they did.