Even though they were last to sleep, Emma and Regina were first to wake. Emma smiled at Regina from across the clearing and Regina waved her over. The blonde stood and crossed to her, sitting in front of her cross-legged on the ground.
"Do you want to practice more?"
"Ok."
"Make a fire." Emma shifted her body to sit next to Regina facing the firewood the group had used the previous night. She concentrated, but nothing happened.
"Why am I having such issue?"
"You aren't dark, you have less anger, so it'll take a lot more concentration from you than it would for someone else."
"So I should be more angry?"
"No, Emma, you're great, but you need to concentrate more. I won't always let you achieve what you want to," Regina said, adding a wink.
"Ok, well, can you help me a little right now? I mean, we use magic together and maybe I'll feel closer to the magic?"
Regina couldn't resist the thought that Emma needed her, so she agreed. They chose a less formal touch than palm to palm and chose to sit facing each other, legs crossed and holding hands. Touching Regina made Emma feel her magic boiling underneath the surface, wanting to be used. She would never tire of the feeling of the darker woman's magic, not the brutality of it, but the strength. She knew Regina wouldn't use magic against her anymore, and it made the magic less terrifying.
"Close your eyes," Regina directed. Emma looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm serious, close your eyes." After the blonde shut her eyes, Regina spoke again.
"Now imagine the wood being on fire. Just clear your head and think of the fire." She could feel the blonde concentrating, but nothing was happening. Regina lowered her voice to a whisper and said, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you weren't trying, I mean, I know you love holding my hands, dear, but try harder."
"Oh I'm imagining the fire, Regina, just maybe not the one I want to appear on the wood," Emma retorted, teasingly, causing Regina's eyebrow to rise and a smirk to play at her lips.
"Concentrate harder."
"Well, you two look cozy," Snow said, now making her way to them. Emma dropped her hands and the fire started.
"We were practicing, I need to get better," Emma said.
"I see."
"Why do you care?" Regina demanded.
"I don't want you teaching my daughter dark magic."
"Poor, little, good, Snow White. Just can't handle things not going your way, can you?" Regina taunted.
"Regina, don't," Emma said.
Regina let out a growl and pushed herself off the ground. "I don't know why I try to help you guys. You'll only ever assume the worst of me. DO NOT follow me," she shrieked, walking away to the edge of the clearing. She stopped before the jungle, turning momentarily and looking directly into Emma's eyes, "If Killian wishes to find me later, feel free to tell him to find me."
After she was gone Snow sat down next to Emma and the guys all began sitting up, the yelling done by Regina having woken them.
"Hook," Emma called.
"Yes, darling?" he asked, sitting all the way up.
"Regina said she wanted us to leave her alone, but that if you wanted to see her later, that would be fine."
"Ah, thank you, Emma. How late is later? I might fancy seeing her now."
"I'm not certain, her yelling is what woke you all up, though, so she just left. Maybe give her some time?"
"Alright, love. Thanks for the message."
Snow leaned into Emma. "So she's calling him Killian, now?"
"I guess."
"Strange how Regina has changed so much just in the short time we've been here."
"Well, maybe he's her true love. Love is strength, that's why Cora couldn't take my heart, so maybe Regina really has found love."
"What about you, Emma? Have you found love?"
"What?" Emma's heart skipped a beat, wondering if maybe she was being too obvious in her defense of Regina.
"You and Neal? Is there a possibility that you two will find your way back to each other?"
"No. Neal and I had our chance and he chose wrong. I can't love him like that again."
"You and Regina seem to be friends, now. Is that real or is it that you're just tolerating her and being nice so she'll help."
"Imagine that you had the chance to find me when I was younger, but you needed the help of someone like Regina, and you couldn't possibly do it without her, would you have accepted her help?"
"Of course, but Regina is evil, Emma."
"Not the way she used to be. She loves Henry and I know it's real because I recognize the same love for him from myself."
"But everything she did, to your father and me, and to you—"
"Is in the past. And Henry is my future and she has all legal rights to him. I have to play fair with her, or she'll win."
"But after everything she's done, any court would give you Henry!"
"Oh, any court would give me Henry if I told them she has magically ripped out people's hearts? That she created a curse to send you all to Storybrooke, Maine, a made up town, from Fairytale Land? Tell me how that will hold up."
"But he's your son."
"He's her son, too!"
"Why do you care so much, Emma?"
"Because Henry loves her! Why would I take him away from his mom?"
Snow looked like she was being scolded by a parent and responded, "Ok, you're right. I'm sorry."
Neal was standing in front of the women, looking at Emma like he wanted to interrupt. She looked back at him and raised her eyebrows, moving her head slightly forward, as if asking him what he wanted.
"Would you like to go for a walk with me?" Neal asked.
"No, I don't. I'm going to practice more magic, I'm suddenly feeling angry enough. Do not search for me, I'll find my way back." She stood, and then looked to Hook. "Hook, give me your flask," she demanded.
"What of my rum?"
"Just give it to me, I've already used magic with it and I'll need it to find you guys if I get lost."
He tossed her the flask and she stormed off into the jungle.
Regina sat on the beach where she brought Emma the night before. She couldn't see the starts, for the sun was too bright, but the night before the stars had been beautiful. Emma had been beautiful. Regina thought of Emma's vulnerability that had been displayed for her at different moments on the island. Their stolen moments and secret rendezvous'.
She thought back to how badly she had wanted to destroy the blonde for coming into her life and trying to take Henry from her. Now they seemed like memories of someone else, because all she could feel for the woman was overwhelmingly powerful feelings of love. It scared her, it had been something she desired but never expected to have again. The fact that she had found it in Emma Swan was even more peculiar to her. The blonde woman was so pure and though Daniel had been good, too, and Regina had been good when she was with Daniel, she wasn't good anymore. Emma could try to change that, but her heart was already blackened.
As Regina sat in the sand she wondered what Emma was doing, wanting to be close to her. She was almost willing for everyone to know, just so she could be around the blonde day and night without hiding it. She knew better, though. If Snow, Charming and Neal found out, she knew Emma would never have a moment of peace. No, they would have to stick with the Hook story temporarily.
All she had come to the island for was to save Henry. She needed Henry, he was and would always be the most important person in her life, though his biological mother was gaining presence on that list. She thought of her little boy and smiled at who he was becoming. He would be a good man one day. She hoped they had everything worked out between their worlds before he would be an adult. He could be king one day, whether she was ruling, or the Charmings, because he was royalty on either side.
Her thoughts lingered on, allowing herself to imagine herself and Emma raising Henry together for the remainder of his childhood. It was a pleasant thought, but she knew she shouldn't get her hopes up. Not only because love can't last for her, but because she was planning to do anything it would take to get Emma and Henry off this island together, even if it meant sacrificing herself.
Emma had been tromping around the jungle angrily for what seemed like hours, but judging by the sun's position in the sky had probably only been a single hour. Her mother had frustrated her, and though Emma knew Snow was just trying to understand, it still pissed her off that they just wouldn't give Regina a break. They had all toasted Hook for saving her father, but he had worked with Cora, which had brought them harm, but they were intent on hating Regina.
Emma's doubts of Regina, no matter how many there were and how many reasons existed for those doubts, were disappearing. No, they were fleeting. They popped into her head to scare her, then flew away with one intense look from the beautiful caramel eyes. She knew Regina was her true love, even if Regina didn't believe it yet. Actually, there was no real way to be certain without magical proof, but she could feel it in her soul when she was near the brunette.
Emma had faced the urge to run every time they kissed, it was her nature to run and though she fought that nature for Henry, she was sorely tempted over and over to run from Regina. She needed to protect herself. But the look on Regina's face when they kissed, or when they touched, it caused Emma to stay, never wanted those brown eyes to see another person leaving.
She hadn't had a family until Henry, and now she had a mother, a father, a son and a …girlfriend? No, Regina deserved a better word. Soul mate? No, the only thing that fit what she felt was true love. It was more family than she ever had or expected and she needed them to fit together. Somehow she would make her parents and Regina tolerate each other.
Her thoughts flew to Henry, thinking of how he had found her, on her birthday right after she had wished not to have to be alone. She had been struck at how much he looked like Neal. But after she'd met Regina, she saw the snarky facial expressions Regina made on her son's young face. As frustratingly attractive as those expressions were on the woman's face, they were endearingly cute on Henry's.
She truly believed what she told Neal. She believed that Regina had raised Henry so well, and she couldn't be more thankful for how great the kid was turning out and it made her heart swell with love for both her son and his other mom. She would fight to the death to protect them, even if it meant her own.