Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time, Storybrooke and any recognizable characters are property of ABC Studios and the Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: Once again, I am sorry for not posting anything last week, but life gets in the way and sometimes it gets a bit harder to keep writing and giving the story the attention it deserves. So I prefer to push back on the deadlines I give myself, but write when I feel like I am more inspired, than just force myself to write anything and risk it not being my best. I hope you'll all understand. Which is why, as from now, I will update every two weeks, and if I go on a writing spree (which I really hope will happen soon enough, it kind of happened this week, so yay!) and manage to get a lot done, I will post every week whenever possible. Either way, thank you so much for reading, following, reviewing and favouriting this. It's great to open my computer and read your lovely reviews. Keep them coming, please! I know this story is a lot of talking and not too much actually happening, but I am a fan of slow build ups, I think it gives any future relationship a pretty solid ground to be built on. Plus, those two really have a lot to say, especially to each other! ;) And thanks to my beta, even though poor thing's so busy that she probably barely even read this chapter. But she's still awesome!

Chapter 8 - The Product of True Love

Regina was, predictably, the first one to open her eyes the next morning. She glanced on Emma's direction to see a mess of blonde hair sprawled on the pillow, the rest of the woman covered by the blankets, and couldn't help a small chuckle. She even slept like a child.

It wasn't until she caught some movement from the corner of her eyes that she even looked to the front of the cell, and when she did, all softness immediately left the woman's features.

The younger woman held one cup of coffee on each hand, clearly uncomfortable, and Regina wondered how long ago she had gotten there.

"You know, Miss Lucas, I do hope this coffee is still hot by the time I get it."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Your Majesty, is the breakfast not up to your standards?" Despite her annoyance, she got a bit closer so that Regina could get the mug, and did not miss the chance to do an exaggerated curtsy at the woman before delivering the drink, which earned a scoff from Regina. Ruby grinned, seemingly satisfied with the reaction.

The older woman sat back onto her bed and took a sip, her face immediately tensing. "Really, dear? After serving me coffee for twenty-eight years, you still don't know that I've always hated too much milk?"

"I'm sorry you're under the impression that I care about that. This is the way Emma likes her coffee, which is the sole reason I am here in the first place, putting up with you."

Regina smirked, "Emma likes it black now."

Despite the clear teasing, Ruby could not help noticing that Regina's tone remained almost a whisper, almost careful not to wake her cellmate up. That small realization kept her from replying to the remark the way she had previously intended to. Instead, she simply turned her head on Emma's direction. "Should we wake her up?"

"Don't," the smallest hint of softness was back to the former Mayor's voice, but it was gone just as suddenly, "The sooner she wakes up, the longer I have to listen to her."

"I can't believe she would choose to stay here," the younger woman mused, more to herself than to the other brunette.

"I'm sorry you're under the impression that I have any interest in making small talk, dear," she mimicked Ruby's gestures and her voice, before waving her hand dismissively and, back to her normal tone, continuing, "You'll do well to just leave her coffee by her bed and go before you do wake her up." Ruby was once again thankful for the bars that separated them, although she was sure no one would blame her if she turned and attacked Regina right there.

It was not long after the footsteps faded into the distance that she heard shuffling coming from the blonde's bed, and then Emma's still sleepy voice. "Who was that?" she mumbled in Regina's general direction.

"Someone who probably has more problem than you with keeping quiet," the brunette rolled her eyes before looking back the woman, who was now grinning.

"Aw, you were worried about waking me up?"

Regina looked away from Emma, for reasons she herself did not understand. "Don't be absurd, I was simply enjoying the silence."

"Yeah, sure you were," she motioned for her coffee, thankful it was still hot enough to be considered drinkable, but made a face nonetheless. "How much milk did they put in here?"

The brunette couldn't help smirking and feeling a bit disappointed that she had sent the wolf away before she could hear that.

"How are you feeling?" she asked the blonde with a serious voice.

Emma immediately noticed the change, knowing what it meant. They were already starting with the lessons or whatever it was that Regina had planned for the day. "A little tired," she mumbled while taking another sip of her coffee, knowing very well that this was not the answer Regina was looking for. The raise of the woman's eyebrow confirmed what she already knew. "Ok, fine. I'm still scared, ok? I still don't think I'm ready to go into this, and I still wish you had a way to just take it from me so that I wouldn't have to deal with it." She sat back on her bed with a huff.

"Well, dear, there isn't. Not for people like us," noticing Emma's questioning glance, she breathed deeply and went to sit next to the woman, trying to keep the edge off her voice. Magic was still a sore subject, even for herself, and if she was honest, she didn't feel any more ready than Emma did. But she knew this was the only way to help the woman, and, for reasons unknown even to her, she wanted to help. Her voice was much quieter now, due to the short distance between them. "Some people have magic because they learned how to do it. My mother was like that. She didn't have any magic in her, she wasn't born with it, but she was taught. With me, it was different," she closed her eyes briefly, trying to keep thoughts about her past in the back of her mind, "I don't know why, maybe it was because she couldn't do anything without magic by the time that I was born. Maybe it had nothing to do with this, but the truth is that I had no choice in the matter. It was one of the few things in which I truly had no choice. I did not use it until Rumplestiltskin started teaching me, but it was always there. I just suppressed it my whole life because I was so scared of it from seeing my mother doing it all the time."

"Did she use magic to hurt you?" Emma's question was unexpected, as it had nothing to do with magic itself and everything to do with the one thing Regina dreaded the most: her past.

"Yes."

The blonde waited for an explanation that never came. Still, she was thankful that, at least, she was being told the truth, even if the woman would not elaborate on it.

"As I was saying," Regina's voice cracked as she tried to keep her emotions at bay, "When one learns magic without really having any, well, it takes much longer, but it is also much safer, because they gain magic as they learn, so from the moment they get it, they are controlling it. For us, it usually starts manifesting itself before we even know that we have it. Then we have to take all this energy and find a way to keep it from getting out of hand."

"Was that supposed to make me feel calmer? Cause I gotta tell you, it's not doing much of that, Regina," she chuckled, the nervous hint on it not being lost on the brunette.

"I want you to have all the information you can possibly have. Trust me, it will help you make decisions when it comes to your magic. And those decisions, more than the way you use magic, those are the things that will define you and may change everything for you. You have to know these things. That your magic is all yours, for example. That way, if someone comes along trying to claim it, to offer to take it away, to make you stronger, or whatever else, you will know if they really have your best interest in mind, or if they are just trying to gain something, and maybe hurt you. I'm afraid this world is much more dangerous than Storybrooke, dear."

"So, the fact that we were born with magic, does that makes us more powerful than people like Cora?"

"Yes," Regina replied, nodding slightly, "It is why Rumple needed me to cast that curse. My mother didn't have enough power. And I suspect it is also the reason why she never came back from Wonderland to fight me once I started using my magic."

"Where do you think my magic comes from?" she fidgeted, now looking down at her hands, "If yours might have come from Cora's constant use of it, why would I have it?"

"My strongest theory right now is that," she sighed, deeply annoyed by what she was about to say, but knowing it was the only thing that made sense, "you are the product of true love. Rumple keeps saying that is the most powerful magic there is. If that is true, Emma, it means your magic comes from a much lighter place than mine. It could be a little different, but it is probably going to make things a little easier for you. The pull towards darkness should be way less present than with mine."

"If it's about true love, then why is there a pull to darkness at all?" she lifted her head up to look at Regina, and the woman could see the fear in her eyes. The brunette hesitated, and it was all it took, "It's because of who I am, isn't it? I mean, who I turned out to be?"

Regina turned slightly to the side so that she could look at Emma better, "The things you have been through taught you to see things differently from your parents. Your magic is not all light because you have experienced too much. I wouldn't say that it has tainted it, just that it gave you a different perspective, that allows you to see that not everything can be separated into good and bad. Your magic is a mixture of that. The first time it happened, for example, you said you attacked one of the guards, right?" At Emma's nod, she went on, "But you didn't do it because you wanted to hurt anyone. You did to protect Henry. Your reasons were still good. Your magic represents you entirely. You may not have always chosen the best way to do things, but you never did it solely because you wanted to hurt people."

"And you did?" Regina nodded quietly, "How does that affect your magic, though?"

"I was taught that magic has to come from a dark place. And, as you can imagine, I was in a really dark place when I started. So it has always reflected that. I have never used it to heal anyone, for example. I'm not even sure I can."

Emma turned to look at the woman in front of her. She noticed the hint of sadness as the last words were spoken, and it unsettled her. "Maybe you couldn't before, and then you didn't have magic for a long time. But if magic really reflects who we are now, then I have no doubt that you can," she was met with a sweet yet disbelieving smile, "No, I'm serious. Do you really think that, if you ever saw Henry get hurt and you had magic, that you wouldn't do anything to tap into a more peaceful place within you, or remember an easier time, anything, just so that you could keep him from hurting? Cause I'm absolutely sure you would."

"How can you do that?" Regina was truly amazed by the other woman's words, "How can you have such faith in me?"

"Regina, listen to yourself," she started, "You are doing everything you can to keep the daughter of your arch nemesis from getting hurt. You were powerful enough to conquer kingdoms and to cast the most powerful curse that this world has ever seen. You survived your crazy mother and you are still able to love your son better than most of the 'parents' I've had in my life. Really, how can you not have any faith in yourself?" she smiled and, hesitantly but with enough confidence, she took her hand to the woman's chin, slowly bringing her head back up so that she could see her eyes. "I do believe in you, you know?" She stroked her thumb almost imperceptibly through Regina's chin before letting go.

Their position was suddenly too intimate, and Regina was the one to put some distance between them when she got up and took the first book she could find, before lying in bed. "I believe we can take a break for the moment."

Emma wanted to pretend like she didn't understand what was happening, but she knew it could not end well if she did. A vulnerable Regina was a threatened Regina, after all, and the woman still did not know how to let her walls down without the fear that followed it. If the blonde was honest, she was not much better at this than Henry's adoptive mother, either. So she ignored the fact that they had only been talking for less than hour, and whispered 'ok', jumping to lie on her bed in a manner that made much more noise than an adult should, and earned a scoff from Regina. And then the smile that was becoming harder and harder to contain whenever Emma was around.

"Do you have anything else you want to know for now?"

They had been talking for almost the entire day. Regina explained much more about magic that Emma could ever dream of, and the blonde was still in awe at how much the other woman knew about it. She had always thought Regina to be one to just act on instinct and use a spell whenever it was convenient. She didn't expect her to have that much knowledge on magic itself, where it came from, the different types, but she found that it truly helped. By understanding this thing she had, that she still couldn't control, it became a little less scary, it slowly gave her more confidence.

"I don't know…" Emma said, "I think I just need to absorb everything for now, and maybe try to make sense of things?" she bit her lip, suddenly nervous that Regina would think she was trying to avoid talking about it some more. But the woman's expression showed that she understood.

"That is perfectly understandable, dear," she assured. "It won't do any good to just overload that pretty little blonde brain with more information than it can process."

Emma started nodding, but then paid enough attention to the words to be offended by them. However, the hint of annoyance soon left her when she saw the playful smirk on Regina's face. "Ha ha, very funny. So what do we do now? I'm gonna get bored pretty soon." She was almost immediately hit on the shoulder by a book throw her way. "Helena the Mindl… REGINA! Not that one again," she groaned.

"What? You never finished it," she grinned.

"And I never will!" she threw the heavy book back, missing Regina's face by an inch.

"You know you are free to leave whenever you feel like leaving," the brunette spoke somewhat annoyed.

"And you know that I am not leaving this place anytime soon. Not before I can control it," she sighed. "Look, can we just… talk? About anything other than magic?"

Regina's lips turned upward at the suggestion. Mostly, though, because she was far past the point in which she would deny she liked being around Emma. "What would you like to talk about, then?"

The blonde shrugged before moving her feet from one side to the other, creating a line on the dirty floor, "I don't know."

"Eloquent as ever," Regina smiled. "What is your favourite colour?" she asked, grinning.

Emma let out a short laugh. "What is my favourite colour? Really, Regina?"

"It's a perfectly valid question," she defended, choosing not to mention that she had realized a few days ago how little she knew about Emma, other than the way she was raised in the real world, and the few bits that everyone else seemed to know. More than that, she found she wanted to know the little things, the ones not many people would consider asking.

"Blue," she finally replied, before a thought crossed her mind, "hey, is that why my magic energy or whatever is blue, too?"

"I thought you didn't want to talk about magic," Regina smirked, "but yes," she conceded, "well, it might be, I'm not sure. But it makes sense."

"Does that mean your favourite is purple? I always thought it would be black." Emma wondered out loud.

"Please, I do not have time for such nonsense as picking which colour I like best, I always had more important things to do."

"Oh, come on! Everybody has one! And you were the one who said it was a perfectly valid question," she mimicked Regina and heard a quiet laugh from the woman herself, "so you can't find it that stupid."

"I simply guessed you were the kind of person who has one. Although I figured it would be red, judging from the way you never left your house without that hideous jacket."

"The reason I like that jacket is not because of its colour," she replied, and just when Regina was sure she was getting more of an explanation, Emma Swan, probably for the first time in her life, decided to stay quiet.

"Well? What is the reason, then?"

"You seem awfully interested in me today," Emma was the one grinning now, and it grew bigger when Regina turned to look away from her. "One day," she spoke, once again getting the older woman's attention. "I'll tell you one day, when you decide on a colour you like," she winked.

Regina grunted in response. "You are infuriating, Ms Swan."

"But you wouldn't have it any other way, and you know it."

"Do I?"

But the truth was that she did. And it was beginning to unsettle her, how true Emma's words were. As if on cue, her next words reached her ears. "If you don't, you will, soon enough."

Their eyes met, and the mood suddenly changed. Neither woman could point out exactly what was different. It was not uncomfortable, but it was strange. It was not scary, and yet it terrified one of them, the mere possibility of what it could mean.

Regina was the first to break contact when she heard the distinct sound of footsteps. "The only thing I will find out soon, dear, is if the she wolf was well trained enough to make us the right coffees this time."

Emma laughed, the tension dissipating just about the time two guards came into view, each holding a separate tray that included a mug of steaming coffee, a variety of pastries, and fruit. They opened the cell carefully, as if still afraid Regina might try to attack them and run away – the way they acted earned an eyeroll from each woman – and handed them their food, which they gladly accepted.

The brunette was the first to look at her coffee and smile. She then took a sip and enjoyed the sensation of drinking what she actually wanted to drink. A quick look at Emma showed that the feeling was shared by the woman. "Enjoy it, Miss Swan. At least while you're eating, you're not asking stupid questions. Honestly…"

"Oh my god, you asked the freaking question first!" she replied, exasperated, much to Regina's amusement, but she couldn't bring herself to be angry at the woman. "And I'm the infuriating one," she mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," Emma was quick to reply, "Enjoy your coffee, your majesty," she gave her the brightest and fakest smile she could manage, and then just rolled her eyes when Regina kept on smirking.