New record for reviews on a single chapter in this story! Awesomesauce! Keep it up! It's so exciting! As for Cora yes she was entirely sincere in the last chapter and she will be in future encounters as well. No she does not have a heart but there's gotta be something there she feels for her daughter and she's trying to work it out. I'm having a great ol' time playing with the humanity in the "villains" in this story. Now it is time for David to worm his way a little deeper in to our dear Regina's heart :) As for the ending I will most certainly be following through with that in a later chapter. Enjoy! And tell me what you think!
He was pacing now. He had previously been arguing with himself whether he should sit or stand, make a fire or not make a fire and after trying and failing to make a fire he opted for pacing back and forth. He checked his phone for the time more than he would like to admit and it had been nearly four hours since she had smoked him away without any explanation as to why and only instructions to stay put. He was nervous. Was she hurt? Was she dead? Should he go look for her now? Where the was he? What was she so scared of? Why did she smoke him away and leave herself to fend off whoever that woman was? Her mother perhaps?
With a long tense sigh he rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair, glancing at the movement in the shadows only to do a double take and find the brunette walking slowly toward him. "Regina!" He ran toward her but she didn't look at him and instead kept her eyes to the ground as he fussed over her, looking for any injury. He didn't know her injury could not be physically seen. When he looked more closely at her face he noticed her eyes had a reddish hue and were just the slightest bit puffy, "you've been crying..."
She nodded and felt his hands stop fussing over her and simply hold her arms just beneath her shoulders, "yes," she whispered and one of his thumbs moved slowly back and forth over her arm, "I'm sorry I took so long to come get you. I just needed some...time," she swallowed away the tightness in her throat and resisted the urge to collapse in to him.
David nodded and tried to catch her eye when she turned her head a little and dropped her eyes to the ground beside their feet, "are you alright?"
Regina furrowed her brow and slowly began shaking her head, "no actually," she whispered, the whole concept of admitting such a thing being unheard of but she was so tired of holding everything in, "I am not alright."
She looked up at him a little confused and he supposed it was because of her confession to him. The ball was in his court now and she stood in front of him waiting on edge to see what he would do with it, if he would hurt her or find a way to comfort her without scaring her off. Something had hurt her and perhaps it was even herself and when he caught glimpse of how her eyes started to pool with tears before she bowed her head and folded her arms protectively over her chest he felt a strong ache in his own heart.
"Come here," he whispered and took hold of one of her folded forearms and pulled her toward him, entirely ignoring the fact that she planted her feet and leaned away to try and keep him from doing so. He wrapped his arms around her anyway and tucked her head under his to keep it against his chest. She remained tense and stubborn for a long while but eventually she let the air from her lungs out in a long shaky breath against him and moved her hands so they rested flat against his chest on either side of her head.
He felt her weight against him increase as she relaxed and the smallest of smiles curled his mouth when she took a deep breath and nuzzled the side of her head against his chest and allowed her eyes to fall shut. Keeping his right arm wrapped tightly around her waist he lifted his left and let his hand fall softly over the small hand over his heart and curled his fingers around it. Moving his thumb back and forth over her knuckles he began to slowly and subtly sway them back and forth, dancing to the silence around them.
When their slow swaying was enough to add footsteps to compensate the movement he was happy to feel her step with him. They were just small steps, barely large enough to even be considered a step really but he enjoyed it, "who is she?"
She did not give him an answer right away because she wasn't quite ready to open up about that topic and he did not ask in a manner of urgency or demand but instead a gentle offer for her to speak and be truly listened to. She believed he really could go forever without an answer to his question and he would be perfectly content. But she had a sore heart that wanted to trust him with anything, "my mother," she whispered and felt a tear roll down her cheek without warning.
He frowned as he lowered his head to rest against hers and closed his eyes, his mouth above her ear so he never needed to raise his voice any higher than a gentle whisper, "I'm listening," he offered softly and felt her face contort against his chest as she fought herself. He wanted to hear her, he wanted her to pour her heart and soul out to him, he wanted to know how she thought, he wanted to know how she worked. All were things he couldn't have cared less about in the past but now wanted more than anything.
Someone to listen to her. She had wanted that almost more than life itself countless times throughout her life and she was having a difficult time accepting what he was giving her. It was difficult for her to wrap her head around the fact that his offer to listen to her was not a trap or a ploy but rather a lifeline of sorts to catch her from falling.
"Since I was just a little girl I have wanted my mother's love," she started quietly with her tears burning behind closed eyes and rolling slowly down her cheeks, "I tried my very hardest to earn her approval and the number of times she has genuinely smiled at me or praised me can be counted on one hand and I relive them too often. I tried and I tried and I tried..." She whispered and shook her head slowly against him and he remained silent and listening.
"Magic was her choice in discipline and there was nothing my father or I could do about it. The marks she left cannot be seen but there are plenty. She was and still is the most manipulative woman I have ever known. I have become her in more ways than I hoped and I absolutely hate myself for it," she whispered slowly with a shake of her head.
She turned her head into his chest so her forehead and the bridge of her nose pushed against him as he held her close and continued to sway them, "I promised myself years ago that I would not fall in to her footsteps, that I would not ever use magic because magic ruined lives, tore apart families, and allowed for too much power to be held in a person's hand. To me magic was evil and I wanted no part of it. But here I stand," she pushed her head further in to his chest and whimpered quietly as her tears fell down her cheeks, "a monster."
She was not comforted by his arm wrapping tighter around her middle nor was she comforted by his hand squeezing hers a little tighter or by the way he pushed his head against hers as she breathed out a quiet but no less painful cry in to the night air. "I have become the woman I hate. I am the woman everyone hates, the one that slinks through the darkness I have learned to call home, the one who will rip a heart out of a chest without batting an eye, I am the reason people watch their back when they are alone and in the shadows, I am the threat mothers use when their child will not obey, I am feared by all and loved by no one."
Her body hurt and her heart throbbed in her chest and still David remained silent as he swayed them and held her. He said nothing pertaining his tear dampened shirt and nothing about her shaky tired voice or the words and thoughts she only had herself to hear in the past. He simply listened just as he said and she could not express her gratefulness for such a gift. "I have become my mother and that was my greatest fear."
She shook her head and then turned it back so the side of her face rested against his chest, "I love my mother because she is my mother. All I want is for her to return that love I have been craving my entire life...but she will never love me. She is incapable of such a thing," despite how much she wished it false, a person without their heart in their chest could not love. At least not properly, not in the way love should be felt.
"She claims she wants to do better but I cannot trust her. I want to trust her, I want to give her another chance," her small whisper was defeated and full of sorrow as she gave a small shake of her head and felt her heart take another stab, "but she hurts me. I am tired of her yanking on my chain, coaxing me out in to the open with the promise of love only to be kicked and tossed carelessly in to the dark."
She frowned against him and opened her eyes to focus on their hands resting over his heart with only the fading sun and rising moon to offer light, "I am tired of being a pawn for everyone's game but my own," she whispered as her tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She had nothing left to say and her mind was left to be as calm as it could be with the rest of her worries and fears and thoughts locked away.
Still he remained silent and the swaying he led was beautifully mind numbing. The movement allowed her to relax heavier in to him now that she had gotten what she had to say off her chest. She blinked slowly and more tears fell as she studied his large hand consume her smaller one with warmth and safety while the arm around her back did the same. "A penny for your thoughts?" She whispered timidly and cautiously moved her thumb over his fingers curling around her hand.
"You want to hear them?" He asked, whispering above her ear as he watched her thumb move.
"...yes."
"I think you are angry at the world and rightfully so," he started quietly and continued to sway them because he knew it soothed her and he loved having her close, "I think your mother is rather cruel and that no son or daughter should have to work so hard for so little love from their mother. But most importantly you are only a monster," he stopped swaying and he lifted his hand from hers to rest the side of his finger along the bottom of her chin to tilt her head up so she would look at him, "because you are too scared to take off the armour that portrays you as such."
He looked steadily in to her watery brown eyes as they flicked back and forth between his, soaking in every word he spoke. He took a quiet breath and followed his hand with his eyes as it moved from her chin and rested it carefully over her heart, her chest bouncing slightly with a cry she held back. "Inside," he looked back up to find her stating right at him having not looked down as he had, "you are good," his heart ached the very instant he caught sight of the tears that started to fall once again, "I truly believe that."
"Thank you," she whispered and then felt her shoulders vibrate with another cry she forced down. She had always wanted someone else to see that she was good. She knew she was inside but she had given up trying to prove it because it was pointless and exhausting. But to hear those words from Prince Charming of all people...she had no words.
With a quiet sniff she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder and turned it so she could overwhelm her senses with his smell as she buried her nose in to his neck. Her fingers of one hand moved slowly through his hair as his arms wound securely around her and he turned in face in to her hair and she felt loved. For the first time in too long she felt loved. Even if it wasn't really and truly there, she felt loved.
Perhaps she was simply putting too much emotion and too much thought in. He was her friend and she had not yet gotten used to having someone help her to be better or having someone to talk to who would listen. She was not used to having someone. His offer to play things out still stood clear in her mind and while she had not had a proper friend or lover since Daniel she did not believe that the way her heart longed for David's touch was attached to merely friendship. Not with the way she desired to kiss him as he held her close and tight in his arms, not with the way her heart jumped when he gave her affection in its simplest form, not with the way she worried so much for his safety.
But did she want to go down that road when she knew the end would result with her crying on the floor alone? Would the time spent with him be worth it when she lost him to Snow in the end? Would agreeing to fall for him only to lose him be more worthwhile than keeping him as a friend indefinitely? Perhaps...perhaps not.
Without loosening her arms she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked him in they eye for a moment only to drop her eyes down to his mouth. She moved in slowly, her eyes fluttering shut a mere moment before their lips touched and even at the contact she did not close her parted lips around his. Instead she played with pressure from featherlight to nonexistent as she tried to make up her mind. Slowly she swivelled her head to tilt the other way and built the courage to follow through with a kiss.
Her thumb moved slowly through his short as she kissed him softly and carefully. It was a different kiss than the others and it was an important one but he seemed to know that for he was there for her with every motion but did not once attempt to take the control from her. Her heart felt light in her chest as it fluttered irregularly and that is what she wanted to feel. She wanted to feel special and feel loved and she really just wanted to feel. Wonderful shivers flew under her skin and up and down her spine when she made light contact with his tongue and her own as she closed her mouth around his bottom lip.
She pulled away slowly and hovered over his mouth for a little while just to feel his breath across her mouth and jaw. Her fingertips drew slow invisible nervous patterns in his hair as she worked through her thoughts. She gave up quickly however because the amount of thoughts racing through her head was too large and she decided to give her heart a break, "be gentle with me," she pleaded quietly and watched his mouth lift in to a small smile before she closed her eyes and buried her nose back in to his neck.
Maybe, just maybe...she was wrong.
...
She laid on her side in David's arms wide awake and troubled. When he had fallen asleep she found her mind to run wild with things left unsaid but they were not things to be said to David. Slowly and carefully she moved her hand to the front pocket of his jeans and slipped her hand inside as she watched his face for any change in case he were to wake up. He remained deep in his sleep however and with his phone in her hand she carefully detangled herself from his arms and pushed herself to her feet.
Her destination was not known but she had to get far enough away not to wake David. So she walked through the dark until she found a large boulder with a height that would be at her eye level if she were to sit down. So sit down she did and when she was comfortable and finished mindlessly rolling the phone between her fingertips she turned it on and started a video.
She rested the phone horizontally on the rock and when it was balanced she brought a soft blueish light to her palm and suspended it in midair so that her face would be lit up for the camera and she would have the use of her hands as she spoke. It floated at eye level beside her head and she adjusted her weight a little as she looked in to the camera of the phone and smiled a small sad smile, "hello Henry."