A/N: I am SO SORRY for the enormously long wait for this chapter... I have no real excuse other than the fact that a) I've been at work every day for the last week and a half, and b) for some reason this chapter threw some mad writer's block at me. But here it finally is - I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Seventeen

Emma couldn't help but smile wryly when she looked up to find Regina leaning against the doorway to her office. In either hand she was carrying a takeout cup from Granny's. When Emma only raised her eyebrows at her, she shook one of them enticingly.

'I had no idea that I had you so well trained,' Emma said. Regina's casual smile immediately turned into a glare.

'Hardly,' she said, sauntering into the room with her usual cool authority and placing one of the coffees in front of Emma. She didn't let go of it, however – her fingers remained firmly wrapped around it as she leant across the desk, her dark eyes boring into a pair of unblinking green ones.

'You're bringing me coffee, Regina,' Emma said, smirking. 'You've officially been domesticated.'

'Please stop talking, Miss Swan,' Regina replied, finally releasing the cup and sitting herself down in her usual chair on the other side of the desk. 'Unless you're going to say thank you.'

Emma responded by picking up the cup, prising the lid off of it and suspiciously eyeing its contents. 'You didn't spit in this, did you?'

'Emma.'

'I'm kidding,' Emma said, taking a sip. 'Thank you, Regina.'

'You're not welcome. At all.'

'You definitely did spit in this.'

'I'm certainly beginning to wish that I did.'

Emma laughed, putting the cup back on the desk and leaning backwards in her chair. 'What are you doing here, anyway? Is everything okay?'

'Everything's fine,' Regina replied, crossing her legs over. She noted with a throb of pride that Emma's unblinking eyes automatically followed their movement. 'I simply came to ask you if you wanted to come to my house for dinner tonight.'

'I've been to your house for dinner three times in the last two weeks,' Emma replied, finally looking back up again. 'Mary Margaret may be kind of wrapped up in the whole David thing, but even she might get suspicious if I start moving in with the mayor.'

Regina took a calm sip of her coffee. 'Just tell her that it's because you're spending time with Henry.'

'That's what I have been telling her,' Emma said, raising her eyes to the ceiling. 'But she's not an idiot, Regina.'

'Are you quite sure about that?'

'Regina.'

'She has no reason to be suspicious – we're meant to hate each other, if you recall. No one in their right mind would begin to imagine that just because we're finally being civil to one another it means that we're actually making out like teenagers in my office. And Miss Blanchard is certainly not in her right mind.'

'Regina.'

'Don't look at me like that. You know that I'm right.'

Emma continued to glare at her for a few moments, unable to ignore the automatic defensiveness that arose whenever Regina insulted her roommate. But then she sighed. 'I'm just… I'm being careful.'

'Because you think that it must be obvious to anyone who looks at us,' Regina said, smiling slightly. 'I thought that too, for a short while. But then I remembered who we are: we're the scary, angry mayor who's incapable of love and the scary, angry sheriff who simply doesn't want to be. No one would see us together. Not even your roommate.'

'I know,' Emma muttered, tracing her finger around the rim of her coffee cup. 'We've just got a good thing going on. It would really suck if it got ruined by… someone else finding out.'

'They won't,' Regina said simply. 'No one even cares about us, except for us. No one notices a thing.'

Emma almost nodded. And then, as it often did, the image of August's blue eyes flashing with something that worryingly resembled knowing shot through her mind: the way that his eyes always seemed to watch her nowadays. Because he did care. And he did notice.

Emma winced automatically.

She got up from her chair and walked over to the nearest filing cabinet just to have something to do with her body that didn't involve it anxiously vibrating beneath the desk.

'So. Dinner?' Regina asked, seemingly oblivious to the nerves that were jumping beneath Emma's skin. She watched as she opened the cabinet, pulled out a file and shoved it closed again. When Emma returned to the desk she walked straight past her chair, choosing instead to pace back and forth with her eyes fixed on the papers in her hands.

'Hm?' she eventually responded. Regina frowned. She'd heard her: she knew that she'd heard her.

'Emma,' she said warningly, leaning forwards in her seat. 'What are you doing?'

'Working,' she responded, not looking up. As she breezed past her Regina caught that now familiar scent of vanilla and coffee. She gritted her teeth, refusing to let herself get distracted by it.

Her hand shot out and grabbed at Emma's wrist the moment that she was in reach, not looking down as the papers tumbled to the ground.

'Why don't you want to come to dinner?'

'I do,' Emma replied, glancing down at the file that was now spread across the floor between them. When she tried to bend down to pick it up, Regina's arm braced and stopped her from moving.

'Then why are you looking so worried?'

'I'm not worried,' Emma said, glancing up. 'This is my face. I have an anxious face.'

'You have a face that should never be involved in a game of poker,' Regina replied. She let go of Emma's wrist, waiting for her to start pacing again. She watched as she chose instead to sigh, leaning back against the edge of the desk with her fingers curling whitely around the wood. 'Look. If you really don't want to come, for whatever reason, then you can just—'

'I think that somebody does know.'

Regina blinked. Then she frowned.

'…who?'

'August,' Emma mumbled. 'He… he never says anything. But he just gives me this look. This look that says that knows me better than I think he does.'

A low growl came from Regina's throat before she could stop it. She looked like a guard dog with her fur stood on edge.

'I told you that I didn't trust that man.'

'Regina—'

'I've never liked him. In fact, I really think that I may hate him.'

Emma couldn't help but laugh. 'Oh, Jesus. Regina, you—'

'And not because I am jealous,' Regina snapped, cutting her off before the ludicrous words could even escape from her infuriatingly smug lips. 'Because he's untrustworthy and interfering and now he has information to use against me. Against us.'

Emma sighed. 'This is why I didn't want to say anything.'

'Why?'

'Because you're freaking out.'

'So are you!'

'I'm not – because he's not going to do anything. You don't have to trust him, Regina, but I do. I'm just a bit concerned, that's all. Because… look, he may have worked it out. Or he may think that he's worked it out. Which, like it or not, means that anyone could do the same thing if they just paid enough attention. So maybe we should aim for a bit of… subtlety.'

Regina let out a sharp bark of laughter. 'Now there's a word that I would never associate with you.'

Emma glowered at her, scooting her body backwards on the desk until her legs were dangling away from the floor. She looked like a pouting child, and Regina had to force herself not to laugh once more.

'Okay,' she conceded after a moment. 'The dinners can… slow down.'

'I don't want them to,' Emma quickly interjected. 'I love spending time with you, and with Henry. But I just think it's… it's probably best.'

Regina nodded, biting down on her bottom lip. There was a beat. When she spoke again her voice was low and worried, clattering through the quiet room. 'So… when am I going to get to see you?'

Emma smiled. 'You'll get to see me plenty. I promise.'

She watched as Regina moved slowly to her feet. She placed herself between Emma's knees and reached out, looping a single blonde curl around her finger.

'I hope so,' she said quietly, not meeting Emma's gaze. She was so focused on the movement of that yellow strand of hair that her eyes almost looked black.

'Don't look so worried,' Emma said, her fingers trailing upwards until they found the curve of Regina's waist. 'I can always try and speak to him. Put the thought out of his mind.'

Regina released a snort of derision. 'You'll do no such thing. You cannot lie, Miss Swan. He'll know that you're trying to hide something and he'll know it immediately.'

Emma's bottom lip jutted firmly outwards into another pout. 'I can so lie.'

'Oh, of course,' Regina said, tugging gently on the curl that was still wound around her finger. 'Because that time that you broke into my office and then tried to convince me that it was some kids with a rock was so successful.'

'You totally bought that.'

'A monkey wouldn't have bought that, Emma. It was insulting.'

Emma could feel Regina nudging closer to her, now standing firmly between her outspread thighs. She glanced down, and then she sighed.

'Then... what do you want me to do?'

Regina blinked. Emma sounded almost defeated, somehow: like the mere knowledge that Regina was upset with this situation was absolutely devastating to her, and she needed to try and fix it. Like she had no other choice.

'You don't have to do anything,' Regina said slowly, tilting Emma's chin upwards until she was forced to meet her gaze. She sighed once more, her green eyes misting over.

'Yes I do. This is my fault.'

'How exactly is it your fault?'

'He saw it.'

Regina frowned. 'He saw… what?'

'The way that I look at you,' Emma said flatly. 'The way you force me to light up.'

'I…' Regina could feel something sharp scratching at the backs of her eyes and she blinked fiercely, trying to force it away again. 'I do what?'

'You heard me,' Emma said, releasing Regina's waist with a groan. 'And he noticed. So this is my fault, and I should be the one to fix it.'

But Regina was distracted by just how suddenly the feeling of Emma's hands leaving her body had made her want to cry. Before she knew it she was leaning forwards and pressing her lips fiercely against Emma's, her fingers slipping through the blonde curls that were now their home and pulling her as close against her chest as her trembling arms would allow her to.

Emma blinked, startled, and then felt the heat that was coming off of Regina's body; the desperation that was leaking from her skin. She pushed her away, peering up into the dark eyes that were still frowning at her.

'Regina? What—?'

'Do you trust him?' Regina demanded, her gaze unfaltering. Emma swallowed.

'I told you, you don't have to be—'

'That's not what I was asking, Emma,' Regina interrupted, moving her face closer until their lips were nearly touching; separated by only a wisp of air. 'Do you trust him? Do you trust him to not say anything?'

Emma managed to nod beneath Regina's anxious gaze. 'Yeah. I do.'

She felt the sharp exhalation of air that Regina released against her skin. 'You're sure?'

'Yes.'

Regina nodded. 'Okay. Okay then. Then I suppose… I suppose I trust him too.'

Emma paused for a moment before she carefully asked, '…what?'

'If you're sure that he's not going to try and use whatever information he may have against us,' Regina said, the words tasting bitter on her tongue, 'then I'm going to trust you. And I won't mention it again.'

But Emma was shaking her head. 'You're… letting it go? You're seriously going to do that for me?'

'I trust you,' Regina repeated with a shrug of her shoulders. Her heart was beating furiously against the inside of her chest and she was sure that Emma must have been able to feel it, but she forced herself not to pull away. 'So, yes. I'm going to hope for the best and let this thing go.'

'For me.'

Regina swallowed. 'Yes. For you.'

Emma's eyes were darting across Regina's face, trying to draw one last drop of sense out of what she had just said to her. Regina didn't trust anyone – how the hell was it possible that she was suddenly so willing to believe in her?

And then she saw it: the smile that was on Regina's face, without her ever moving her lips. As she looked down at Emma, her dark eyes worried and her expression utterly neutral, there was a hint of a smile playing about it even so. Emma recognised it for exactly what it was – it was the same light that August had noticed in her.

Her hands slipped back around Regina's waist, pulling her towards her once more and closing the minute gap between their bodies. Regina's lips quirked nervously upwards.

'I never thought that I would be the person to make you look like that again,' Emma said, raising a hand and trailing her thumb down Regina's jaw.

Regina shivered momentarily before she responded. 'Look like what?'

Emma never blinked. 'Happy.'

She watched as Regina's face broke into a smile. A real, genuine, fiercely luminous smile that filled the sheriff's station with the same light that still plagued Emma's nightmares. It was a smile that was all teeth and lines and made her dark eyes shine with what could only have been tears.

'You're right,' she said after a moment, swallowing. She tilted her head forwards until their foreheads were touching. 'It's certainly unexpected.'

Because, as she was slowly realising – she was happy. Not all of the time, and not without a heavy, vibrating anxiousness still permanently lurking within her bones. But she was still happier than she had been for years – at least twenty eight of them.

The day that her curse had wrapped its fingers around the Enchanted Forest was the day that her life was meant to have gotten better: it was supposed to have been her happy ending. Instead, twenty eight years of stagnant loneliness had begun to follow her around; surrounding her with glass walls that she had inadvertently built herself and choking her on the stale air that filled the space between them. She had spent the majority of her life that way: alone, and unhappy, and waiting for something to change.

She felt herself slowly beginning to smile again as she moved her face forward those last few inches. Emma's hands returned to her waist and tugged her closer, her own mouth bridging the remaining distance and pressing itself firmly against Regina's. As their lips parted and Regina heard herself sighing into Emma's mouth, the thought crept up on her and whispered intoxicatingly into her ear.

Maybe this is your happy ending.

Her hands found their way down to Emma's jeans and she raked her nails against the tops of her thighs, letting her fingers crawl downwards until they were hooked behind Emma's bent knees. She lifted them slightly, nudging them upwards until Emma wrapped her legs around Regina's waist. And then Regina fell forwards, taking Emma with her: she pushed her down into the desk, her hands on either side of those messy blonde curls, and she kissed her until her lips begun to sting.

But she's the saviour, that voice in her head continued whispering. You know that she's going to break your curse. You know it. She's giving you your happy ending – and then she's going to take it away again.

Regina tried to ignore it, letting her tongue delve deeper into Emma's mouth until she heard her beginning to moan. She could feel her own hips starting to rock forwards to meet the rough fabric of Emma's jeans, and suddenly those legs were gripping on more tightly around her hips. Emma's hands made their way up into Regina's dark hair and bunched into fists, holding her so fiercely that she couldn't have pulled away even if she had wanted to.

'Someone could walk in,' Emma panted against her cheek after a moment, glancing over towards the glass walls and the open door.

Regina tilted her head forwards, capturing Emma's bottom lip between her teeth and biting down.

'I don't care,' she replied. Because she didn't. The voice in her head was screaming at her what a fool she was being – how badly her heart was going to get broken. But she simply did not care. She kissed Emma harder and she felt her pulse immediately quicken when Emma moaned in response.

She knew that the likelihood was that her heart was going to get broken. She didn't love Emma – not yet. But she was certain that she could. And loving people never worked out well for her. Loving people tore her heart into pieces and painted it black.

Emma could leave her. Emma could kill her. Or – possibly worst of all – Emma's kiss could be the very thing to break her curse, which would probably destroy them both. Regina knew that she could love her. And she knew that she could so easily rip her own curse to shreds simply by letting herself do so.

And yet she was still kissing her, pushing her down into the desk. Her right hand had found its way between their bodies and was slipping down the front of Emma's pants.

When its movement stopped just short of the fabric of Emma's underwear, a moan came from the throat was currently being plagued by Regina's front teeth.

'Regina,' she groaned, her back arching upwards. 'You're killing me.'

Regina continued to nibble at Emma's pulse point, not replying. One finger began to nudge the fabric of Emma's panties downwards but then stopped almost immediately afterwards. Emma whimpered once more, her head thudding backwards against the desk.

And that's when the vicious little voice inside Regina's head spoke up once more. It sounded like her – it had the same venom in it that she used to use in another land, in a long, flowing dress. It hissed inside her ear like an insect burrowing beneath her skin.

TRUE love breaks any curse, dear. You don't have to worry about that.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

Because how can you possibly expect to find true love when you aren't even telling her the truth?

Emma's eyes snapped open when she realised that Regina wasn't kissing her anymore: she was pressed down against her body, her face buried against her neck. Her shoulders were heaving up and down as she tried to catch her breath. Other than that, however, she was still.

'Regina?' Emma asked, trying to push herself up onto her elbows. She dragged one hand away from where it had been trying to hoist the bottom of Regina's dress up and started pushing the tendrils of dark hair away from her face. 'You okay?'

Regina nodded, her eyes closed so that she wouldn't be forced to meet Emma's worried gaze. 'Fine, dear.'

She felt a hand under her chin, trying to ease it upwards. With a sigh, Regina pushed herself off of Emma's body and forced herself to stand up once more.

Emma blinked up at her. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' Regina replied, trying to smile.

How can you even begin to convince yourself that you could find TRUE love with someone who you have never, and will never, be truthful with?

She should be happy about this – she knew that. Emma's kisses would forever be biting and desperate and they could very well undo her, but they would never undo her curse. True love could. For as long as Regina kept her secret… what they had would be nothing more than just that: desperate, biting, empty kisses.

Her curse was safe. And she should have been happy about that.

'Regina?' Emma asked, shifting forwards to the very edge of the desk. Regina took half a step backwards, running a hand through her tangled hair. 'What did I do?'

But Regina just shook her head. She was trying to smile – Emma could see her physically forcing the corners of her mouth upwards, and it was the saddest sight that she had ever seen. Regina – her Regina, who was strong and terrifying and her own personal hurricane – suddenly looked tiny. She looked pathetic.

Emma couldn't bear it. She sprung off of the desk and wound her arms back around Regina's neck, silently pleading with her to look at her. When she did, those dark eyes had turned from chocolate to treacle, and they were glistening with something that she couldn't read. It almost looked like… shame. But in a flash it was gone again.

'Regina,' Emma muttered, leaning forwards and sliding her lips against Regina's once more because she simply didn't know what else she could do. She felt a pair of hands returning to her waist.

Regina felt that mouth on hers, that body pressed against her own, and for a moment she felt better in the way that only Emma could manage to make her. But then her bones fell heavy with sadness once more.

She doesn't even know who she's kissing.

Her curse was safe, and she should have felt happy about that. But in keeping it that way, she had cursed Emma too. Cursed her to be trapped in the same timeless, loveless world that had kept her prisoner for twenty eight years.

Her curse was safe.

But Emma wasn't.

A/N: So in reviews for past chapters I've had a lot of people worrying that I was about to throw an 'Of Love And Loathing' moment at you all by making Emma's kiss suddenly break the curse... I hope this cleared some of that up for you! Thanks for reading, come and say hi on tumblr if you fancy it :D starsthatburn x