Another chapter up! The next one is pretty much done as well so it won't be more than another couple days before it's up as well :) after the next chapter there will be no more FTL! They'll be back in Storybrooke and I am very excited! I hope you enjoy the chapter :) review, review, review! Please, please, please! :)
"You sure you don't want to let a poor man in on where we are heading?"
Regina turned her head as Hook fell in step beside her and looked him up and down with an amused crease of her brow, "I'm very sure."
"Even with our past?"
She couldn't help but smile with continued amusement at his playful smirk, "especially with our past," she looked him up and down and then straightened her neck so she could watch where she was going and continued following Mulan and David, "and with your nasty habit of catching me by surprise?"
"From what I recall you rather enjoyed a particular selection of my surprises, Regina," he grinned as he leaned in a little closer to her ear and watched her purse her lips to keep herself from smiling as she walked.
"A select few," she enunciated slowly with a sideways glance in his direction. With her eyes focused back ahead of her she quirked her head a little and smirked, "Killian Jones." She jumped a little when David spun around a delivered a hard punch to Hook's jaw that sent the pirate stumbling backwards. She stepped back herself with a hand over her mouth and a quiet startled laugh as David shook his hand out.
"What in the bloody hell was that for?!" He yelled and gently rubbed his jaw with his hand.
"I don't like you," he growled through his teeth and got in to the pirate's space, "stay away from her."
"You don't need to worry about me, mate," he cocked his head a little and gritted his teeth in annoyance, "the queen is a very loyal creature when it comes to the things she cares for. I'd wager she is behind this little spat just to play games," he looked up a little with a grin before meeting the man's furious blue stare.
David gave him one last hard glare before he turned to face Regina, not bothering to look at Mulan or Aurora. She looked back at him with a smug smile and her hands behind her back and as he stepped closer to her he cocked his head in a request for an answer.
"He deserved a good hit," she nodded and then smiled bitterly at Hook as she walked slowly toward David, "and you have a little excess stress," she quieted her voice as she got closer and she proceeded to close her fingers around his open leather jacket and slowly press herself up against him. She pulled herself a little higher and turned her head so her mouth was against his ear and then whispered almost too quiet to hear, "and I am very, very hot for you right now."
She felt him let out a slow breath down her neck and she pushed herself heavier in to him when his hands slowly found her waist. They had gone from having sex at least once or twice a day and often even upwards of that, down to none in two days. She was missing him and she was slowly starting to lose control of the lust burning inside her.
"Continue on ahead," David called to Mulan and felt Regina's lips curl in to a smile against his neck before she lifted her head and stood tall and straight in front of him and slowly and subtly arched her back in to him, "we'll catch up. I've got to deal with Regina," he spoke with a rather demanding voice and kept his eyes on Regina as she kept her dark eyes focused on his lips as short needy breaths left her parted ones.
He didn't pay much attention to their words amongst one another as they continued up ahead. When they were gone out of his peripheral and their footsteps and voices were out of his range of hearing he dropped his head down in a hard hungry kiss. He absorbed her whimper when he deepened the kiss and she eagerly returned it and allowed him as she moved her hands a little higher and gripped the collar of his jacket and pulled him in hard against her as she swivelled her head.
He broke off the kiss for only a few moments as he looked past her and pushed her backwards until her back slammed against a tree and then he kissed her again, hard and hungry, unable to get enough as he pinned her down with his body against hers. His hands tangled in her hair while hers pulled him in by his collar and she clawed at the back of his neck as she tried desperately tried to get more.
...
"How far do you think they got?"
"I don't know," he chuckled with a shake of his head as he finished buttoning his shirt and she flicked her hair out of the collar of her blazer. "So," he started uneasily and kept his eyes on his fingers as they buttoned his shirt and she snapped her attention to him, "you and Hook."
Regina smiled and shook her head as she answered simply, "I want nothing to do with him."
"You sure?"
"Yes," she answered easily and walked up to him, draping her arms around his shoulders as he finished with the last of his buttons, "you are good to me," she whispered timidly and he lifted his eyes from his fingers to look her in the eye. She gave her head a small shake and smiled a little, still not quite comfortable with being vulnerable, "why would I ever leave that behind?"
David gave a small smile as his heart ached in his chest with another conflict between his love for Snow and his love for Regina. He wrapped his arms loosely around her waist and whispered, "I love you," instantly her expression became conflicted with the inability to truly believe it and the desire to do so.
She hummed a small quiet sound and leaned in to his touch when he lifted his hand and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Yes...there is that as well," she whispered and moved a thumb through the hair on the back of his head.
...
"Here, let me take those for a bit," he offered and began sliding the bow and quiver of arrows from her body.
"Alright," she shook her head with an amused smile and shrugged out of the weapon.
"How much longer do you think until we are back in Storybrooke?"
"Well if we don't experience any delays and we continue walking after the sun goes down then we could make it back in the middle of the night."
"Oh..." He frowned and remained quiet for a few more steps. He didn't want to lose the simplicity of being with Regina, he didn't want to face Snow or the townspeople, he wanted to stay there and love Regina without another care in the world. "And if we don't walk through the night? We'll be opening the portal in the morning?"
"Yes," she nodded but couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye despite him looking for her to.
"There they are!" Aurora pointed with a smile when she saw David and Regina emerge from the trees. She walked up to the pair and stopped in front of Regina with her hands clasped in front of her and then glanced up at David and he took her silent request with a nod and a smile and left her to be alone with Regina. "Alright so I have made a decision," she nodded and Regina squinted her eyes a little with curiosity.
"About what?"
"That I am actually really alright with you and David. I wasn't because he's married to Snow and such and while that still bothers me a little it doesn't bother me nearly as much as you being without him," she explained and Regina knitted her brow in confusion. "Your story is horrible. It really is and you went completely mad without love in your life and now that you've found it you've also found happiness. You deserve him. After all you've dealt with you deserve a light in your life. Even if it does come at a cost. But really, what doesn't come with a price?"
Regina watched her intently and tried to find the trick or the lie so Aurora simply stood there and waited for the mistrusting queen to place a sliver of trust in her. She was intrigued by her and desperately wanted to know what was running through her mind and what it was she had used to convince herself to accept her words. "Friends?" Aurora offered with a smile once Regina had shifted her weight and relaxed a little with her acceptance.
The longer she looked at her the harder it was to bite back a smile at Aurora's naive eagerness. "Friends," she agreed quietly with a nod and a cautious smile. Her smile grew a little and she let out a slightly uneasy laugh when Aurora grinned and wrapped her arms around her neck and shoulder in a hug. She returned the gesture a little awkwardly but Aurora didn't seem to mind that she was far out of her comfort zone. She'd never really had a friend before. Not aside from David and Daniel.
Aurora let go of her with a bright smile and a happy laugh and Regina looked back at her with caution but the willingness to learn. She opened her mouth to reassure her but Mulan's blade was heard being quickly unsheathed and both she and Regina snapped their attention to her to find her walking toward them, "Mulan!" She scolded but then they realized her sword was not pointed at Regina but past her.
Regina spun around to look at what Mulan found as threatening only to agree. Her eyes widened a little with her nervousness and her heart rate quickly increased as her muscles all went tense. As much as she wanted to run away she held her ground instead but before she could use the magic burning in her fingertips she was enveloped in dark purple and she heard the panicked protests and worried calls of her name before she disappeared.
When the purple smoke disappeared from her vision she was absolutely furious, "where did you take me," she growled through her clenched jaw.
"Away. I need to talk to you and I don't need you shooting arrows at my head."
"Where did the magic go?"
"Clever girl," Cora smiled quietly but Regina only glared, "I took it. It's a nifty little spell really. Any magic user within a mile or so of the caster loses their ability to use it until the spell wears of or they leave the radius of the spell."
Regina glared at her in silence for a few more seconds before she looked up and around for her location and then looked for the sun. With it behind her she walked forward, not speaking a word as she passed Cora. Her expression and body language spoke up enough. Without the threat of her mother's magic, Regina was left with anger and confusion and hopeless desires rather than overwhelming worry and fear to go along with the rest.
Cora fell in step roughly two strides behind Regina and didn't make any attempt to get closer, "I've been waiting twenty eight years to reunite with you. Throughout that time I have been searching for a way to you but obviously I came up empty. Still I've been trying to figure out what your method of transport is but for the life of me I cannot," she breathed out a quiet laugh but Regina remained silent and continued on her path.
"You are heading to lake Nostos correct?" She nodded when Regina made an incoherent sound and gave a subtle shake of her head, "and you have the compass from the giant but what are you using to open a portal?"
"Doesn't matter," she cocked her head irritably and stepped over a small fallen log, "it will only allow for the passage of two."
"Why is that?"
"How long exactly do I have to listen to you?"
"I want to know you," she smiled a little and then let it vanish a split second later.
"I tried!" She cried out desperately as she turned around to face Cora, "I tried to get you to know me but you were too busy playing puppeteer to hear me!" She yelled with her hands up a little higher and her fingers curled and tense but not closed.
"I am listening now," she nodded with a gentle voice and took a step closer as she looked back and forth between Regina's dark eyes.
"It's too late," she whispered with a shake of her head. She swallowed the lump in her throat and flicked her eyes away when Cora took half a step closer and lifted her hands to hold either side of her face. Her touch was gentle and she tried so hard to ignore it and focus on the trees behind Cora as her tears burned in her eyes.
"It is not to late," she shook her head and combed her fingertips through Regina's hair over her ear, "it can't be too late, Regina," she whispered desperately with another shake of her head.
"it is," she gave a broken whisper and felt a tear roll down her cheek and then felt Cora's thumb wipe it away. She closed her eyes and bowed her head a little just so she could savour her soft touch and pretend for a moment or two that she could have her mother's love without any catch or trick or play.
Cora shook her head, not accepting her daughter's answer, "I love you," she whispered and Regina convulsed sharply but subtly with a held back cry and her eyes were closed tighter, "I love you, Regina, so much," she whispered as her own tears fell silently and Regina bit back more cries.
"No," Regina whispered slowly with a shake of her head, her voice filled with sorrow as she fought the desire to fall in to her mother's arms and backed away instead. She reluctantly opened her eyes as she continued to back away and Cora let her arms fall slowly back down in front of her, "you don't have your heart," Regina choked out a painful whisper and shook her head as her tears fell quickly, "you can't love me, you have never loved me, and I don't believe you ever will be able to love me. No matter how much I want it."
"Regina-"
"Rumple told me when I inquired about you and expressed my guilt for sending you away," she answered simply and then turned around so she could continue on her way back toward the others, "he was quite bitter about it."
"I was protecting us."
"How is ripping your own heart out and hiding it away a form of protection? How is raising a daughter with out loving her, protecting her!?"
"If I had had my heart we wouldn't have achieved the status or power that we now have," she reasoned with a desperate plea and Regina stopped once again and turned around with tears in her eyes.
"But we would have been happy," she whispered through the tight ache in her chest and nodded her head in small tight movements. Her tears threatened to fall but they didn't until she turned her back to Cora and started walking again.
...
David rubbed his hands over his face while he leaned against the tree. The four of them were silent and on edge while they waited anxiously for any sign of Regina or Cora. At the sound of rustling branches they all leapt to their feet and Mulan pulled out her sword while David got ready to take his bow if needed. When Regina stepped in to sight they all simultaneously let out the breaths they were holding and let the tension disappear.
"You okay?" He asked as he walked up to her and looked her over for any injury.
"I'm fine," she nodded and forced a smile. When she tried to step past him he stepped with her and cut her off. She gave him an unimpressed stare but she knew it wasn't as strong as she had hoped for and his expression softened enough for her voice to crack when she tried again to reassure him, "I'm fine."
David shook his head when she swallowed and bowed hers as she closed her eyes to fight away her tears. "Regina," he whispered tenderly and pulled her in to him, ignoring her resistance to follow his touch. As his arms wrapped around her she let herself slump in to him with a quiet shaky breath against his neck as she hugged him around his middle. "We are almost home," he whispered and she nodded against him, "she won't be able to follow us, you'll be okay."
"I know," she whispered and let go of him to step out of his arms and he allowed it however reluctantly, "I know," she repeated quietly and took a deep breath to calm herself down before stepping past him and pushing a hand through her hair, "we should get going. The sun is almost down...we'll travel as far as we can tonight and then rise early in the morning."