The Lioness and the Warden stood locked in a battle of wills. The only sound in the room came from the soft sizzling fire in the torch above them.
Emma was the first to break eye contact. She knew that those weren't lies but she still didn't feel right believing them. Regina's words, though true, didn't sit well with her. She pressed her palm to her forehead and dug her fingers into her hair. This was all too much.
Never in a million years would she have guessed that Regina Mills, her first crush, and the Warden were the same person. But here she was, alive and marked as one of Voldemort's followers. Emma hugged her arms to her stomach because despite the heated glares they'd been throwing back and forth she was still in a drafty dungeon cell wearing a sweat soaked tank top. Cold sweat.
Regina busied herself with magically healing her bloody hand. Emma winced, the broken glass had slipped her mind. She shouldn't have said those things. The dark haired woman's brow was set in concentration. Amber light danced across the room creating softening the shadows of Regina's face. Emma was sickened to admit that Regina had only grown more beautiful over the years. One thing did click into place though; Emma's sexually charged dreams as of late made a lot more sense now. Would she ever be over this impossible woman?
Once the glass shards were out of her hand Regina set about fitting the old storage room with the usual magical prison cell amenities. Emma observed her waving her wand around the room conjuring a toilet and sink to take care of her hygiene needs that appeared and disappeared depending upon necessity. A shower head appeared too. 'I would have tried to escape days ago if I knew I'd get the deluxe cell with an overhead shower upgrade' she thought.
These new cuffs around her wrists were bulkier than the old ones and the lock looked ancient. Emma's fingers danced over the links of her iron bindings as her mind drifted back to simpler times, before the end of her fourth year, when Voldemort hadn't risen from the dead right in front of Harry during the Triwizard Tournament. All she cared about back then was how tragically unfair it was that she had to say goodbye to the cute Beauxbatons girl that she'd made out with during the Yule ball. And now she couldn't even remember the girl's name.
Emma watched as Regina gently polished her already gleaming wand with a soft cloth. The action was so familiar. Something Regina used to do whenever she was nervous. Emma smirked. 'This isn't over,' she realized, 'I just need a different angle.'
If the gate is locked; pick the lock. If you can't pick the lock; climb the wall. If you can't climb the wall; look for a hole.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Regina sounded irritated.
Emma tilted her head in speculation and said, "Crucio."
Nothing happened.
Regina lifted an eyebrow, "It appears wandless magic is not your forte."
The blonde shook her head, "That's not what I'm doing." Emma began counting off spells on her fingers, "Imperio. Impedimenta... Incarcerous!"
Regina was too perplexed to be annoyed now. "Now you're just listing spells that start with an I."
Once again Emma shook her head. "No. I'm listing all the spells you could have used against me in our duel." Emma had battled Death Eaters before. She was with Harry and the others during the Battle at the Ministry and dueled them again when they came to kill her parents for being Order members.
Emma knew one thing for certain; Regina may be marked as a Death Eater but she definitely did not duel like a Death Eater. "Crucio is every bad guy's default spell but instead you come at me with... what? Avis? Regina-"
"-Warden."
Emma ignored Regina's attempt at correcting her and pressed forward, "You had plenty opportunity to bring the hurt. But you didn't."
The dark haired woman twirled her wand in her hand. That meant Regina wanted her to think she was being nonchalant. "Criticizing my dueling methods, Miss Swan? You are bold." Emma was surprised Regina hadn't started inspecting her cuticles for imperfections by now.
"I'm also alive thanks to you." Emma pointed out. "You could have killed me."
"Beginning to regret that decision." Regina scrutinized the nail beds on her left hand.
A hearty laugh burst from Emma's mouth. Emma didn't need her super power to know what that was. "You're a liar Regina Mills. And the mask you're wearing right now is way easier to see through than the metal one." Emma leaned forward, took a risk and lightly gripped Regina's arm. "You're not as dead inside as you claim to be."
Light emanated from the wand in Regina's hand and the chains attached to the cuffs around Emma's wrists yanked her arms up. Emma's breath was knocked out of her as her back slammed against the wall. There was a wand at the base of her throat and a fire in Regina's eyes that could only be mirrored in intensity by Emma's. "I'd kill you right now if you-"
"-Then do it!" Emma exclaimed, cutting off the rest of Regina's threat. "What's stopping you from killing me?" She didn't wait for an answer because she already knew it. With every fiber of her being she knew and she'd wager her life on it. "Seriously, you want a reason to kill me? Fine. You were right, I've been lying this whole time and I have no idea who Madame Regal is." Emma paused to gauge Regina's reaction. Imperceptible didn't even begin to describe the look in her eyes. "You don't need me anymore. So, what are you waiting for?" She challenged.
The knuckles that gripped the wand at her throat were stark white. Emma felt a slight tremor run from Regina's hand up the shaft of the wand and press into her skin but she refused to even blink.
Finally, in true enigmatic fashion, Regina answered her question with a question. "Why are you acting like this?"
"Because I don't believe you when you say you've changed at all. I don't believe that, not for one second." Emma explained. "But do you want to know what I do believe in? You, Regina."
"I told you to stop calling me that." Regina reminded her irritatedly but the fact that she put the wand back into her coat pocket told a different story.
"No, Regina." Emma emphasized the woman's first name. This was becoming frustrating. "Your name is Regina. Regina, Regina, Regina!"
"Shut up!" Regina fiercely shouted as she shoved Emma against the wall. Both of Regina's open palms slapped the wall on either side of Emma. "Shut up." She reiterated.
Emma has never been very good at following orders. "You're not the Warden, you're not a Death Eater, you're just Regina!" Emma laughed softly, trying to ignore the heat of their bodies so tantalizingly close. "You like to paint and dance! Your favorite color is purple." She looked, really looked, at Regina this time. Her eyes, her nose, her lips. They were all the same. Emma noted that there was a scar that hadn't been there before and the spark of life that lit up her face as a teenager was smaller now, buried under years of pain and loss but it was still there. And maybe there was something else swirling in those chocolate depths, something that hadn't been there when Emma was thirteen but she'd always hoped to see one day.
Emma continued listing off all of the things that made the woman in front of her the friend she had those short few years ago. "You've never backed down from a challenge. You can tie more knots than a sailor but you didn't know how to use chopsticks until you were sixteen because I had to teach you. And... and you smell like lavender and apples... Regina Mills..."
"Warden. I'm-I'm the Warden." Regina choked out weakly.
"You're the best Chaser I've ever seen."
They were standing so close that all Emma would have had to do in order to kiss Regina is lean forward. So that is exactly what she did. Emma closed her eyes and she jumped -metaphorically- consequences be damned because Regina was alive and that fact hadn't fully struck her until just then. When their lips met it was not soft and tentative liked she'd fantasized about countless times in the middle of Potions class or as she watched the Chaser eating breakfast across the Great Hall.
Emma would be lying if she said she didn't expect Regina to instantaneously pull away. What she didn't anticipate was the exact opposite. Regina's body pressed into Emma's and the blonde felt demanding fingers weave themselves through her hair. Emma's hands, still bound above them, itched to take hold of the other woman. Emma put everything she felt into that kiss with her eyes shut tightly and heart pulsing.
The kiss deepened with the flick of a tongue on a bottom lip. Regina moaned lustfully into her mouth and with that sound the dark haired woman snapped back into her senses. Emma was clued into this fact by the shaky hands pushing her away, an action that didn't work out well for Regina because Emma was already pinned against the wall. She stumbled back covering her mouth with one of her hands, the other frantically grasping for the doorknob.
And then Emma was alone.