DISCLAIMER:: do not own ouat or any of its characters. just borrowing for purpose of creative expression. no profit obtained.
A/N:: next chapter is where the magic will hit the fan so to speak, this is just the set up, but I still hope everyone enjoys.
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Chapter 3
Emma stumbled through the front door, clinging onto the sturdy wood to keep herself upright. She had been feeling fine all night, but in the last few minutes of the ride home, all the alcohol she consumed had seemed to go straight to her head and she was feeling dizzy.
Regina too was starting to feel the numbing effects of the booze she'd consumed at the festival. She had been so convinced of her sobriety that she'd insisted she was alright to drive them home, refusing a very sober Charming his offer to take them. Now, as she helped Emma stand so she could push the front door closed and lock it, she wondered if she had unintentionally put her and Emma's life at risk. She decided not to dwell on it; they had made it home sans damage after all. She tossed the keys on the foyer table along with her purse and gestured with her head towards the kitchen. "Shall we make dinner?" The bread from the homemade grilled cheese sandwiches (Emma's favourite) would sop up the excess alcohol in their system and hopefully sober them up a little. At least enough so that she could tell Emma what she had been holding in for far too long. She needed the younger woman perfectly alert and aware for what she needed to say, that whatever the blonde responded with was the absolute truth and not some drunken-induced fabrication of honesty.
Emma shook her head. She grabbed Regina's hand. "Can't we just lay for a while first? My head is spinning." She clutched at her head with her free hand as if to punctuate her statement.
Regina nodded and led Emma over to the great room. She helped the inebriated woman down onto the couch before crouching down to take off her boots.
As soon as they hit the floor, Emma tucked her tight-covered legs up onto the couch and rested her head on the armrest as if it were a pillow, closing her eyes. "That's better." A small smile came across her face as her head finally began to stop swimming.
Regina grabbed the throw from the back of the couch and draped it over the blonde's body. "You rest a moment dear. I'll grab you some water and something to eat."
Emma nodded her eyes still closed. "Thank you baby."
Regina froze mid-way to the door, stuck in place by the unintentional term of endearment. It was just the alcohol talking. It had to be, right? There was no way Emma could have actually meant it. But there was a nagging voice in the back of her mind as she resumed her trek to the kitchen that kept telling her a drunken mind speaks a sober heart.
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"Ugh, I think I drank too much." Snow pressed the heel of her hand into the center of her forehead, her face scrunched up as she trudged into their small little house.
"How many cups of that punch did you have?" Charming followed her in, carrying a still asleep Henry in his arms. He kicked the front door shut with a backward pop of his foot before heading towards the guest room at the back of the house.
Snow dug the heel of her hand all the harder into her flesh as if that would magically cure the cloudiness in her brain. She could remember several times on nights out with the girls when she'd still been a mousy schoolteacher named Mary Margaret, when she'd gotten more than a little tipsy at the urging of a waitress named Ruby, and it had never once felt like this. She could almost feel an actual cloud floating around in her head, starting to obscure the details. "Um, three, I think. But I don't know when Red poured the vodka in so I don't know how many were actually spiked. It feels like I had six." She groaned and collapsed down onto the couch as Charming came into the room.
"Henry's all tucked in. Any idea what Regina wanted to discuss with Emma?"
Snow frowned. The last thing she could handle right now was small talk, even if she had been wondering the same thing herself since her former arch-nemesis had asked them if they could watch Henry for the night to give her and Emma the opportunity to have dinner alone. Apparently there was an important discussion they needed to have that the little boy wasn't supposed to be privy to. "I don't know. But whatever it is, I don't think they'll get a chance to discuss it. They both drank more than I did and if I'm feeling this bad after three cups of that stuff, I can't even imagine how Emma's feeling after six."
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"Here dear, drink this; it will help." Regina helped Emma sit up, handing her a large glass of water.
Emma took a few tentative sips at first, but as the cool water passed over her tongue and fell down her throat, she began to suck at it greedily, downing half the glass before even taking a breath.
Regina sat down on the vacated cushion that the blonde's upper body had just been draped across, cradling a small box in her hand. "I was planning on giving this to you during dinner, but it seems we may not make it to that portion of our evening." She stared down at the box in her hands almost shyly.
Emma twisted at her torso so she could regard the box without having to actually sit up. "A birthday present?"
Regina nodded, handing the box over before she lost her nerve.
Emma accepted it and then turned back around, her back now to her as she lifted a small delicate silver chain with a pendant on its end. Two hearts, one sparkling so brightly she had little doubt that they were actual diamonds, probably 1/4 carat total, the other black, but somehow it glittered just as brightly. The hearts were intertwined. Same size, same shape, the only difference their colour, both linked together, two parts of the same whole.
Regina fidgeted in the silence that seemed to be stretching out around them as the blonde regarded her gift. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Something needed to be said before she lost it. "It's supposed to represent good and evil."
Emma exhaled. "I actually get it. They're the same, only their reasoning is different. And they're linked, one can't fully exist without the other." A piece of jewelry had never said so much before. "Will you put it on me?"
Regina reached around the blonde and plucked it from the box, lifting it delicately out and unclasping it. She draped it around Emma's neck as the blonde held her hair out of the way, clasping it once more. She felt an urge to kiss the back of the other woman's neck, where little wisps of hair were curling, but she held back, her fingers instead tracing the path of the chain around the side of her neck. When the blonde had dropped her hair once more, she urged her to lie back down in her lap.
Emma complied, turning on her side away from the brunette to look out at the dim living room. She let the water work its magic and begin to clear the alcoholic haze from her mind. She fought the urge to moan when manicured fingers began to stroke through her hair soothingly. Her own fingers gripped the pendant at her throat. "Thank you."
The words were whispered so low that Regina barely caught them. "It was nothing."
"Not just for this."
"For what?"
"For letting me live here. I know you only did it so that you'd have unrestricted access to Henry, but still, I wouldn't have kept him from you after what we went through to get him back and I know you knew that. And yet you still invited me to come here. It couldn't have been easy for you."
Regina smiled to herself. "A lot changed while we were away Emma. What we faced, together, it... put things into perspective, made me realise what's important in life."
Emma turned her head slightly, nuzzling against the covered thigh beneath her, offering up more of her hair to Regina's ministrations. "And what's that?"
"Henry. You. Love. Not taking it by force, as I have in the past, but earning it. I came to understand what it was I truly wanted."
Emma's eyes were already slipping closed, her consciousness slipping further and further away. "Maybe you've had what you wanted all along; maybe you just never realised it." She buried her face deeper into the covered flesh of the woman's leg. "I'm just going to take a quick nap, so tired." She was asleep the second after the words left her mouth.
Regina continued to run her fingers through the blonde's hair, staring down at the woman laying in her lap affectionately. She waited until her breathing evened out and the woman was asleep before whispering the confession she'd been holding back for months now. "I think I've fallen in love with you."
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As James helped his wife back to their room, holding hard on her arm to keep her from crashing into the walls. She'd gone from tipsy to punch-drunk in a matter of minutes it seemed. The alcohol she'd consumed must just be absorbing into her system. He was glad he hadn't had any punch, instead carrying around his own water bottle; he didn't like raspberries, but his daughter loved them and since it was her birthday Snow had chosen to cater to her preferences. And it seems his dislike was lucky for him, at least tonight. It had spared him what was gearing up to be one helluva hang over.
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Just inside the town line, Red was at one of her favourite spots in the woods that bordered three sides of the coastal town. She came here after she'd changed to lay down and watch the sky. It was calming and it kept her more natural wolf instincts at bay. She spun in a circle, her arms spread wide, her face turned up in an unbroken stare at the round moon overhead. It wouldn't be long before the wolf's moon. She didn't have to wait for it to change anymore; she had enough control over both sides of herself to transform at will. But it was always easier and took less toll on her energy to do it during the wolf's moon.
She felt free here in this clearing, staring up through the break in the canopy as she twirled. She felt the cloudiness in her brain, attributing it to the alcohol she'd consumed. She'd probably have a hangover in the morning, but it was worth it. To feel this free, like she could let it all go, if only for a second. A hangover was worth feeling like this.
She stopped spinning and let herself collapse down to the ground and onto her back, her eyes never leaving the dark ceiling of the sky overhead. The stars twinkled brightly, winking down at her from the blackness. With them watching over her, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.
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Rumpel could already feel the magic of the potion starting to take hold. It started as a hazing of your senses. You started to forget little things as it worked its power over your memories first, slowly erasing the memory of the years you were about to lose. He was fortunate the he was still of sound enough mind to magically counteract those effects in himself before it was too late. But anyone else who had drunk the potion laced punch would have no such advantage. They would lose memory of all they'd known for the second half of their life.
"Will it hurt?" Belle looked down at his arms as if she already expected to see what wasn't supposed to be there.
He shook his head. "No one will feel a thing." Belle wouldn't be affected. She had only taken a single sip, and she said it had been from a cup filled before the wolf had poured the potion into the punch. She would be safe. It wasn't the way he had hoped to accomplish this, but nevertheless, the end result was the one he had hoped for. Belle and him would be of a more compatible age. As soon as the effects on everyone else had worn off, all would return to normal.
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Regina's eyes were sagging with exhaustion. Emma had barely moved since she'd fallen asleep with her head in her lap, the alcohol she'd consumed and the emotionally trying events of the day obviously taking their toll on her. She bent down and pressed a kiss to her exposed temple. She lifted the head laying on her lap just enough to slide out from under. She didn't want to fall asleep like that, too afraid she'd move too much in her sleep and knock the other women onto the ground.
She stood, staring down at the sleeping woman. She could curl up with her on the couch. It would hold them both; they had managed that bunk on the ship well enough and that was just as small as the plush sofa.
Her other option was to retire upstairs to her own room. Her bed was waiting for her, comfy and ready. But it seemed so far away, maybe too far. It was Emma's birthday. Why that mattered, she was still trying to deny. Always protecting her heart first. That had been her MO for so long now that she wasn't sure she even knew how to truly give all she had to a person. But maybe it was time to try.
Emma rolled over to face the back of the couch as she lifted the blanket draped over her, the movement affording Regina just the space she needed to slip in behind her. It was warm under the shelter of the blanket; Emma's body heat had formed a nice little oven in the enclosed space. It felt nice in the chilly late autumn air.
Her arm slid naturally over the blonde's waist, holding her close. She pressed herself firmly against Emma's back, felling her own back balancing on the edge of the cushions. Her face was buried in the golden strands of Emma's mane, fragrant with the scent of sweet pea and the ocean breeze and a little something that was all Emma.
She had a feeling things were going to change between them tomorrow, for better or worse she couldn't yet determine. She wasn't sure how much of this night the sheriff would even remember. She hoped she'd remember all of it; she wasn't sure how much courage she'd have come light of day and if she'd be able to repeat any of what she'd said.
Her head felt heavy, the pleasant haze that had been building all night finally pushing her towards sleep. With one last deep inhale, snuggling closer to the woman next to her, she finally allowed herself to succumb.