Emma felt as if she might lose her lunch. She left her room and went to the library once more. She didn't go to read—she did that all day the day before and still found no loophole, she didn't go to summon the Genie to watch Allison and Eva, she just couldn't listen to Regina and Graham's panting anymore.
What's worse is she couldn't bring herself to leave the castle because she liked the fact that she could feel. Even if it was pain she was feeling. It was a lot better than feeling nothing. So she laid on the couch, hugging a pillow. She could feel the beginnings of tears, but she refused to let them go.
Sooner or later, Emma could never be sure, the main doors to the library burst open. The Queen sauntered in, in a new dress. Emma would be lying if she said she didn't notice the bust line and how ample and delicious the woman's breasts appeared. She would also be lying if she said she didn't notice the daring in her eyes and redness of her lips, the pearliness of her teeth or the magic at her fingertips.
Emma stood and shoved her hands in her pockets, "Your Majesty?"
Regina knit her brows and walked over to her, "Oh my. You look awful, Dear. Are you feeling well?"
"I'm not sick, but if you're asking if I'm feeling well… I'm not."
They eyed each other at Emma's accent on the word 'feeling', "So are you ill or aren't you?"
Emma turned away from her. "I'm fine." She walked a few paces and turned back.
Regina gave Emma an arrogant smirk.
Emma looked into her, "It's working." She said matter of factly.
Regina knit her brows once more and once more walked over to the princess, "What's working?"
"I think you know."
"I haven't a clue of what you're talking about."
"I think you do."
"I don't."
"Regina." Emma gave her deathly serious look, "It's working." She repeated.
Regina smirked, "Let me know when you're ready to clarify whatever this discussion is about."
"You know what it's about." Emma practically whined.
"I don't." Regina turned to her with awaiting eyes and after a full minute of nothing, she poofed out of the library.
"GRAHAM!" was heard echoing throughout the castle.
Emma looked down and away from where she'd been standing, "I feel… I feel jealousy."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Eva woke up in a bed she didn't recognize. This could not be happening again. Not after Proctor and his weird-ness when he first started at Miami. She promised herself never again would she get drunk enough that she couldn't remember…
She looked down thanking the Lord she was still clothed this time. She heard water running and smelled food wafting into the room.
Were there two people in this place?
Carefully, she crept out of the bedroom. She saw no one in the kitchen, though she did see a couple plates of food and a note next to one. She peered into the living room.
That room was oddly familiar.
She walked into the room and sat down on the couch. Flashes of Allison came to her.
Was this Allison's place?
She stood up and looked at the mantle of pictures. She saw a few people she knew she'd never seen before. She saw Remy with the people she'd never seen, she saw a picture of Allison with Remy and the same people she'd never seen, and finally she saw a picture of Allison and Remy. She looked over the pictures in the second row and saw Allison in a few of them. She figured it was safe to say that she was in fact in Allison's apartment.
"You shouldn't be with her."
"Why not?"
"Because she's not the kind of girl you settle down with. She's not the kind of girl you marry. She's the kind of girl that pulls you into her charming clutches and ruins your life. She's probably cheating on you."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"You said that you were sort of dating her. She didn't want the commitment. Because she wanted to more easily talk her way out of her adultery."
"That's not what 'sort of' dating meant."
"You might want to get tested. I still won't be surprised if she has a disease or two."
"As a matter of fact, she does have a disease."
"And you still slept with her?!"
"She has Huntington's!"
"What?"
"You not hungry?" Allison's voice ripped her from her memory flash.
Eva turned quickly to find blonde hair hidden in a towel and a robe that was just plain making fun of Eva for having a crush and hiding everything she wanted to see more of.
"After last night, I assumed you'd need something to soak up that alcohol… I made pancakes and eggs…" The blonde scratched her nose and looked over to the brunette. She saw confusion in Eva's eyes, "You don't remember what happened."
"It's coming back to me." Eva said cautiously as she walked over to the other doctor, "I'm so sorry."
"You haven't remembered the good parts." Allison smiled as she held a chair out for the brunette before moving to the Keurig. "Eat. It will come to you."
"All I remember is getting in an argument and calling you and your..person a whore."
"She's not my person—not in the sense that you're referring. And the both of us have had our slutty times in life, so don't worry."
Eva took a bite of pancakes.
"I want you like no one else. I've been… so jealous and angry lately. I've turned into a different person. I slept around—I never sleep around. I flaunted a random guy I didn't care about… And it was all because I couldn't get those three words out: I want you."
"I want you too."
Allison sat down next to the brunette, having gotten the other woman and herself some coffee. She had casually opened the paper, but was dying on the inside hoping Eva would remember the night before. She looked up and found honey brown eyes staring intensely back at her. She smiled soft, relieved, "You remembered the good part."
Eva nodded, eyes suddenly wet. She leaned into the blonde, and Allison found herself leaning right back.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma sat on the edge of a couch in the library she had pulled in front of the biggest mirror and just happened to be hugging a pillow tight as she watched them.
"Genie!" Regina yelled as she entered the library.
"Nooo!" Emma turned to Regina miffed.
Genie reappeared from the mirror Emma had been watching, "My Queen?"
"What were you just showing the princess? Was it our friends on Earth, yet again?"
"Yes it was our friends on Earth yet again!" Emma cried, "And you ruined it! Something was about to happen!"
"Nothing was about to happen."
"Then how come we were looking at each other with big goo-goo eyes?" Emma stood in Regina's business.
"They weren't looking at each other…"
"Yes. They were going to kiss." They were going to kiss! It dawned on the blonde what the loophole was.
The certainty with which Emma spoke annoyed Regina, so she glared at the princess, "When are you leaving? The storm has been gone for days, I'm sure your parents are sick with worry and are sending search parties to look for you."
Emma paused, giving her a delighted glare, but as she took the other woman in, she decided to ask the queen what was really on her mind, "Why didn't you tell me about them?"
"You didn't need to know."
"I didn't need to know that part of me was living another life? Feeling things? Healing people? Falling in love?"
"It only would have made you jealous."
"But here's the catch. I can't feel, remember that part of your little curse?"
"I never forget." Regina spat.
It was now all so clear to Emma that Regina did feel and that remark was clearly about the non-curse-breaking kiss.
Regina turned from Emma and started walking away.
Emma saw the smoke start at the queen's feet and chased after her grabbing her shoulder, "Don't! You can't just…" She looked around realizing the scenery changed, "walk away from me." She said as she took in the fact that they were in the Queen's quarters.
"Then what can I do around you? You seem to have a long list of things I can't do. And you know I can't end you without ending part of myself. You know that that threat of your life after that pathetic excuse for a kiss was empty. You seem to think I know what's going on in that tiny little brain of yours, but I don't. So what?" Regina yelled as she pushed Emma across the room into a wall. "What do you want from me?!"
~0~0~0~0~0~
They were centimeters apart when Allison's phone buzzed on the counter and she tensed and darted away from the brunette.
Eva stood, "I should go."
"What? Why?"
"I've imposed enough for one 12 hour period…" She gave the blonde a small smile. She walked over and kissed her cheek, "Can I make you dinner tonight?"
"Tonight?"
"Yes, I'd like to make up for last night, try to start this… thing off right. I make mean enchiladas."
"I love Mexican food."
"Well, it's a good thing I'm Latina."
Allison looked as though she thought she'd accidentally said a racial slur as she knew Eva was not Mexican but Cuban.
Eva could only smile, "You're cute when you think you've said something offensive." She then covered her own mouth, "I am obviously still feeling that liquid courage, saying whatever pops into my head…" She shook her head and stared at the blonde, "Please come to dinner."
"I will." Allison nodded, "Is this gonna be our first date?" She smiled wide.
"It might just be our first date. At least, I was hoping that's what it would be."
Allison smirked, "I see what you're doing. Making me dinner in your house. You just want to get into my pants faster than anyone else ever has…"
Eva was the one that looked as though her foot was stuck in her mouth now.
"You're cute when you think you've planned something offensive." Allison smiled as she walked Eva to her door, "I'll see you later… What time?"
"Uhh.. 8?"
"I'll see you at 8." Allison kissed Eva's cheek and shut the door.
~0~
Eight o'clock could not have come faster—it couldn't have come slower either. Allison busied herself, but ultimately, she sat around waiting until she needed to get ready. She took her time and ended up getting to Eva's apartment late.
Time for Eva went much the same. She'd just put the enchiladas in the oven when her bell went off. She looked to the door and down to her pajamas, "Uh… Hold on just a second!"
She ran to her bedroom and quickly pulled on her black high-waisted short-shorts and a button up. She tucked it in as she went to the door, "I'm coming! I'm sorry!" She pulled open the door to find Allison wearing a snug nice looking v-neck, a vest and luckiest damn ass-hugging slacks in the world.
"Wow." It was the only word either woman had to offer the other.
"You look…." Allison trailed off, staring at Eva's legs.
"I could say the same about you…" Eva couldn't help that her eyes found rest at the V of the vest, which happened to line up perfectly with the V of the v-neck. She swallowed and looked up to find amused grey-green eyes staring back at her. "Uh!" She mentally punched herself in the face, "Come in! Please."
Allison stepped inside, a knowing smirk gracing her features. She took Eva's face and kissed her cheek, "Don't be embarrassed. I was staring at those legs of yours that run for days." She whispered before walking into the townhouse completely.
"Did you have any trouble getting here?"
"No, it was an easy find." Allison could tell that Eva was nervous, "It smells great." She tried to placate the woman's nerves.
"Yeah…" Eva looked around, "Oh, dinner! Yeah. I just put it in. It should be done in a bit."
Allison nodded, "What to do until then?" She fell all too gracefully to the couch, crossed her legs and looked to the brunette.
"…" There was nothing going through Eva's mind. She'd come up with so many topics, even made flashcards just in case, but she couldn't even remember where she put them. She had never been so utterly nervous in her entire life. And Allison was just staring at her. She knew she should say something, but she couldn't get anything out.
"You okay?"
"You pulled away from me this morning." Eva had absolutely no idea where that came from.
"I did." Allison nodded.
"And you're super casual and ever confident now."
The blonde merely shrugged.
"How can you go from shying me away to being like that? All… regal and carefree?"
"I think the nerves are hitting you a little later than they hit me, Eva." Allison uncrossed her legs and sat forward, elbows on her knees, "See, I've been weird and awkward since we met. I had Remy as a distraction—for everyone, not just myself—for my awkward, nervousness. I've already done the shy girl can't ask the other to dance—not that I want to dance because I don't dance—but I've already done all of that. This morning…"
Allison smiled as she looked at the ground, "This morning was a dream. So was last night. But this morning… my phone going off was a wake up call. I didn't tense because I was nervous; I tensed because I wanted to scream at my alarm. But there was no alarm. There was only my phone telling me I had a low battery. So, right now, I'm back in the dream. I'm confident again." Allison looked off.
"At least one of us is." Eva moved quickly to the kitchen.
Allison knit her brows and leaned back again as she strained to see what the brunette was doing. Just as she started to stand, Eva came back in.
"Wine?" The normally composed brunette, handed the blonde a glass with a shaking hand. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize." Allison took a sip, "I'm glad I can make you this nervous." She smiled as she set her glass down. She turned and watched Eva down hers and walk into the kitchen once more. She came back quicker than the last, bottle in hand, and poured herself another glass.
Allison watched on amused, but when Eva finished off the second glass and grabbed the bottle once more, she had to intervene.
"I think you've had enough… For now." She took the bottle from the brunette and set it on the ground.
"I'm no lightweight."
Allison chuckled out loud, "I don't doubt it. I smelled the whiskey on your breath last night…"
"Well… liquid courage and all that." Eva set her empty glass on the coffee table and turned, sitting forward on the couch. She sat up straight and crossed her ankles. "I had flashcards…" She looked down at her hands, inspecting them with such concentration she didn't feel the couch rise and a few seconds later dip closer to her once more. She jumped when she felt a warm, slack covered thigh against her own. She turned and saw still amused green eyes. "I'm glad you're enjoying my nerves."
"It's just so unlike you."
"I know. I hate it." She turned away from the blonde.
Allison leaned forward. She grabbed Eva's shoulders and pulled back. After she got the woman to lean back into the couch, she pulled her in so that the brunette's head rested against her shoulder. She traced the brunette's upper arm.
"There is no pressure for anything, Eva. I'm not expecting anything, I'm not going to ask for anything. You don't have to talk to me when you have nothing to say. You don't have to sit here like this with me, I was just hoping it would help you relax. You don't even have to feed me. I can leave now and we can do this some other time."
"That's ridiculous." Eva wrapped an arm around Allison's middle, "Why would I want to schedule another first date with the woman of my literal dreams? This would just happen all over again…" She crossed her legs and let leg that did the crossing fall over the blonde's thigh.
Allison couldn't help but bring her hand to rest on Eva's knee. She let her fingers trace different patterns there just as her other hand was doing on Eva's arm. "I guess that would be silly."
A few minutes went by before Eva snuggled into Allison's side even more, "This is nice though."
"It is nice. You're more relaxed, I can feel it."
"I am." She looked up to the blonde, "I might just be getting my confidence back. Careful Dr. Cameron. When I see someone I want, I don't stop until I get them. And it's all too easy when I'm confident."
Allison's brows rose in amusement, "I think there's a difference between confidence and arrogance."
Eva opened her mouth to respond.
The timer went off for the food.
"Dinner's ready."
They ate quietly, steeling glances at one another. They smiled and turned away bashfully when caught. And then came dessert. Eva put the apple enchilada on one plate. Their forks met a couple times and their bodies got closer together when they decided to start feeding one another.
The brunette had definitely found her confidence on the couch; and it had definitely been building exponentially since then.
Allison would be willing to go out on a limb and say that it was Eva's over zealous confidence that ruined the moment they were in.
"Dance with me." Eva had a twinkle in her eye as she whispered the words and stood. She put the empty dessert plate in her sink and moved to the living room, turning on some music.
"What?!" Allison was desperate.
"Dance with me." Eva's hypnotizing hips swayed to the music.
Allison decided that she had died, and this was her hell. "I don't dance."
"So you've always said. But you did tell me once that you dance in your underwear…"
"I'm not stripping down for you. It's weird. Especially for a first date."
Eva moved over to the blonde. "Please?"
"No. No stripping down, no dancing in my underwear. I don't dance unless I'm home alone."
"Dance with me and I'll strip down for you."
"Nothing Chris, Serena and I haven't seen before." Two could play at this game. If Eva wanted to prove she was the boss in this potential relationship, Allison was content in proving that she could be the boss when she wanted. She gave the brunette a victorious, sarcastic smile and waited for a rebuttal.
The rebuttal that came was not what Allison expected.
Eva un-tucked her shirt from her short-shorts, making sure she had the blonde's attention then she casually—evilly unbuttoned it to the beat of the music and took it off. She slowly unbuttoned her shorts and let the swaying of her hips do the rest of the work. Once they landed on the floor, she swayed back over to Allison and wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck. She leaned up to the blonde's ear and whispered, "Dance with me, Allison Cameron."
"Yes ma'am." Allison could admit defeat; but what a way to be defeated. She let Eva take her to the middle of the living room where they swayed to the soft music.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma pushed Regina back a step and pushed herself from the wall, "What do I want from you?! I want you to open those beautiful brown eyes of yours and see what's right in front of you!"
"And what is that?!" Regina cried out, turning angrily from the blonde, running her fingers through her hair, walking in a calming circle before facing the princess once more.
"ME! I am!" Emma took a deep breath to calm herself, "I feel for you. I've only ever felt for you. Even when I didn't know you were alive, even when I was seven, playing 'Evil Queen,' I felt for only you." She paused and closed the space between them. She took Regina's face in her hand, "Don't you see that? Don't you see my feelings for you?"
"You can't feel." Regina turned from her.
"I feel as much as you feel." Emma whispered. "Ever since I came here, I've felt things. Hope, jealousy, love, contentment, compassion, anger, sadness, guilt—everything aside from indifference!"
Regina pushed from her, "And what is supposed to happen from here? You admit that you love me and what? You tell your parents that I'm still alive and young and you love me? I come out of my castle grounds after 20 years for them just to kill me again, this time succeeding?"
"No." Emma shook her head. "I go home. I tell my parents I met someone. I tell my parents all about her, how perfect she is. I tell them that I need to be with her and they let me go."
"Oh Emma." Regina turned from her, gathered herself and turned back, "For being indifferent and smarter than the average human and not letting emotions cloud judgments, you sure have your head in the clouds."
"What does that mean?"
"It's not that simple. You can't just tell them you love someone and them let you go…"
"It is."
"They'll need more than your word that you're in love. They'll need proof. And if they find out it's me you're choosing, they'll think you under another curse… You can't feel, remember?"
"Do you love me?"
"It doesn't matter—"
"DO you love me?" Emma didn't let Regina talk. She took her hands and stared into that chocolate brown she felt so deeply for.
"Let my hands go."
Emma squeezed tighter, trying to convince Regina to just let her heart feel fully and completely, "Regina please!" She stared desperately into the brunette's brown eyes, "True love is the most powerful magic of all."
"Love…" Regina pulled her hands free and pushed the blonde back, keeping her at arm's length, "is weakness, Emma. It's always been my vice. My downfall. And it, in the end will be my demise. That, I can assure you."
Emma stared at the brunette woman, "It'll be your demise?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
Eva had managed to get Allison down to her skivvies and she'd managed to corner her on the couch, sitting astride her lap. She moved in to kiss the blonde. She knew that the blonde wanted it as much as she did. It was completely obvious. But when her lips met a cheek, she pulled back confused. "Allison?"
Allison looked down at her hands as they gripped almost bare hips. She felt more than saw Eva's hips move in her lap. "How did you manage to get me down to my bra and panties?" She asked innocently, pathetically.
"I have my ways… I told you. I get what I want when I'm confident." She tried to lean in again, but this time, her lips met chin. "Allison."
"I'm sorry." Allison managed to shimmy from underneath Eva and started for her shirt.
"I want you." The brunette managed to get out as she watched the blonde put on her v-neck and reach for her pants. She noticed that her words made the blonde stop. "I want you like I've always wanted to want someone. Like I've wanted no one else. You frustrate me; you challenge me; you intimidate me. And I'm completely in love with you."
Allison dropped her pants and turned to the brunette, tears lining her eyes, "I love you too."
Eva crawled over to the other woman and kissed her neck, "Then why won't you let me kiss you? What are you so scared of?"
Allison's chin quivered as she inhaled to tell her what she was scared of. "The woman I've been dreaming of all my life realizing I'm not good enough for her and breaking my heart. I've loved and lost and moved on, but that… That I won't come back from."
Eva held Allison's face and kissed her temple. "That won't happen." She whispered.
"How do you know?"
"Because I've been dreaming about you too. And, I mean, Al, if anyone isn't good enough, it's me. Acting the way I did. I've never not deserved anyone more in my life." She kissed the blonde's cheek again, "But I can be deserving of you if you give me a chance. And I know you're deserving of me."
"How do you know that I deserve you?" Allison pulled a bit from Eva and looked at her.
"Because you're you."
"Well you're you…"
"I am." Eva smiled.
Allison couldn't help the smile that grew on her face as she saw Eva's eyes light up. She was the one that leaned in this time. Their lips met. It was a kiss that could break evil queens' curses… if curses were real that is.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma and Regina stared at each other. And it was as they stared that they felt it. A shockwave rippled through them both.
Emma let a tear fall from her eye, thanking the heavens that Allison and Eva finally kissed; that's all that that shockwave could have been: True love's kiss breaking their part of the curse.
Emma and Regina closed the distance, their lips smashing together. They didn't break until their lungs cried for oxygen. They stayed centimeters apart, breathing in the other's eager pants.
Emma finally gulped enough air to speak, "It'll be your demise?" She asked again.
"Yes." Regina whispered.
Emma's chin quivered as she took in what Regina was saying. "You love me too."
"Yes."
The both of them stared intently as they felt every emotion they'd missed out on flood their systems as their lips met once more in a life-altering kiss.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Alexandra walked through the woods to a clearing. They were higher up than she'd imagined and she could see more land than she was expecting. She looked out at all the trees, innocently hoping that she would be able to see the Evil Queen's castle.
"It's actually the other direction…" Red came from the woods and pointed, "West." She clarified "Wicked witches always tend to go to the western most part of their lands and stop… But her castle was destroyed when she was. You wouldn't be able to see it."
"Who said I was looking for a castle?"
Red gave the girl a smile, "You still love her, don't you?"
"I haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about."
"Come on, Love. You can tell Red and I. We've a pretty good idea of what we speak." Hook was the third to come from the clearing. "Loving someone that doesn't love you back… It hurts. In some cases you win their love, in some cases you move on, in some cases they die and you've no other choice but to move on." He wrapped his good arm around the brunette.
"And what, you're telling me that she's going to come to her senses, all of the sudden start feeling again and love me back?"
Both brunettes could feel the sarcasm oozing from the blonde princess's lips.
"No, ours is one of love lost. Both of us lost our loves to Rumplestilskin. Through our mutual lust for revenge, we found each other. And though our souls were mangled, we managed to fix each other." Hook started.
Red took her turn and spoke softly. "She can't feel emotion. You can't blame her for that. You can't blame her for letting you and all the others try to fix her. She doesn't know what hurt feels like. She doesn't know pain of the heart. She is curious enough and… sexual enough to let you and every other girl try as they might because she might think that there is a possibility that her curse might just break if someone loves her enough. But you can't blame her for something you knew from the beginning."
"I can too!"
Hook chuckled at the young girl, "No. You can't and you know it. The White Princess might think that she can read emotion and might think she's smarter than everyone else because of it—and she might very well be—but that doesn't take her childishness away. Her parents have taught her of true love and true love's kiss. She's childish enough to believe that it will work on her, on this particular curse, but it won't. And you, Princess, I am sure have eavesdropped on enough of your parents' and her parents' and even random others' conversations to know that true love's kiss can't break her curse as she can't feel anything." He sighed, "Let it go. Let her go and you might just find someone worth your love."
"You have someone in mind?"
"We might." Red smirked to the woman scorned by the very princess she was helping to find. "Oh… if we're not back by the time you get back to camp, don't be alarmed or alert anyone to our absence." She smiled a wolfish grin.
Alexandra watched Red Riding Hood opt for Hook's hook and lead him into the woods, away from the campsite. She turned back to the clearing. She looked west. Something caught her eye. It looked like the peaks of a castle. But… That couldn't be. The thing came down at the witch's demise.
Didn't it?
AN: We're getting down to it. I hope you're enjoying! Let me know your thoughts and feels!
P.S. The next chapter will change the rating of this story.