A/N: As usual, sorry for the wait! I seem to suddenly have 1000 things to do, so I apologise for leaving this story hanging in favour of writing babysitter smut and doing my study/ job/ gym etc. Very rude, I know! :)
"Emma, look out!"
Regina hisses, yanking the blonde's wrist to pull her out of the line of sight of the mirror as the veil of smoke accompanying their arrival in her old chambers begins to dissipate. In doing so, she pulls the Sheriff down onto the bed beside her, and they share an awkward moment lying nose to nose before the brunette pushes herself up with careful consideration of where she sits and offers her companion a sigh.
"You realise you don't have to be quite so theatrical, dear. You don't see me shrouding myself in mystique."
She scolds, and Emma narrows her eyes as she personally considers the way the Mayor wafts her hand and wrinkles her nose to be rather theatrical indeed.
"That makes this occasion a rarity, Madame Mayor. And I'll tell you what I told your evil doppelgänger when she said much the same; I learned from the best."
"Yes... Well."
Regina thins her lips as she doesn't quite dare ask for an elaboration as to the particulars of Emma's conversation with the Queen now that she knows the nature of their twisted relationship.
Seeming to sense the reason for the sudden tension between them, Emma props herself up onto her elbows with a cautious glance at the mirror and puts Regina's mind at ease for the time being.
"When I heard you out by the croquet court, I wasn't ready to deal with you, so I brought Her Majesty and myself down into the dungeon. I've only ever worked with jumping from one place to another a few times before, most of them while stuck in this shit-hole, and I only know how to do it because you taught me when Zelena first showed up."
"I never told you to add smoke effects."
"No, but you do like to add a little flare to most of your magic, and given that everything I know about the subject more or less comes down to what I've picked up from you, can you really blame me for getting kind of fancy about it?"
"I suppose not. Though it's a shame that seems to be the only way in which I've rubbed off on you."
"I mean... Are you sure you want to get into that?"
"What? I-... Oh."
Regina rolls her eyes with a dusky blush as she clears her throat and beckons impatiently for the younger woman to sit up properly. Fingering her bottom lip pensively, she gives in to her curiosity and asks
"What were you doing out on the croquet court, anyway? I wouldn't have thought either of you would be in the mood for such a pastime; it certainly was never a favoured game of mine."
"I was in the mood for playing with the Queen, just not exactly by the common rules of the game... I wanted to win one."
Emma sighs with a shrug; the blood painting her sternum still glistening ever so slightly.
"By challenging the Queen to the best of ten?"
"... As I said, I was playing by my own rules... You wouldn't have liked my version, either."
The blonde admits uncomfortably, and Regina nods as she studies pale features splattered with gore and recalls the cold fury dancing in green eyes not long ago. Looking away, she agrees
"Probably not... I saw the snake."
"Oh!? Shit, I just... I don't know, I guess I wasn't really thinking straight at the time, but I always presumed stuff like that would just disappear when no longer being used."
"Usually that's the case."
"So, then what was it still doing there?"
"You're not usual. I don't know how your magic works, not entirely. It's strong, it's... Different."
"Yeah? I don't know... I mean, different, maybe, but I think Her Majesty and I were on pretty even footing for the most part! Whenever I got a chance to get one over on her, I took it, but then she'd eventually screw me over again and I'd be stuck just trying to keep my head above water... Proverbially. We never quite got to that point."
"Good. But, don't forget, dear, you've had very little practice in what for her is a well-honed art form. Don't underestimate yourself, Emma. I doubt you and I would be a fair match were we to challenge each other at video games, or whatever it is you do."
"Video games?! I was a highly sought-after bail bondswoman before I came to your little town! I bet I could wipe the floor with pretty much any of the rest of you if we're talking running, fighting, generally going about our business without looking like a lunatic in the outside world, and your example of where I might shine is video games?!"
"I just know you sometimes play them with Henry, whereas I haven't a clue how to get beyond switching on the machine."
Regina waves away the Sheriff's irritation dismissively, before returning to the matter at hand.
"You played the Queen's game, Emma, but you also forced her to play yours. I'm impressed... Slightly traumatised given the implications, but impressed."
The brunette frowns as the younger woman laughs a little uncomfortably; her teeth shockingly white against the scarlet splash of doe's blood colouring her mouth and jaw.
"I'll take it. Trauma and all."
The blonde grins, but her gaze is once more wary as she glances over at the mirror and sits up a little straighter.
"So how do you want to do this? You know how Her Highness's mirror tricks work better than I do."
Emma reasons, before suffering a pang of awkward guilt as she recalls her own little trick down in the stables and the pleasured groan she'd garnered by thrusting the bullwhip slowly into the Queen's slick heat.
I suppose I did alright for a novice...
Not catching the blush creeping across the blonde's cheeks as its heat is masked by her macabre crimson mask, Regina simply accepts Emma's implication that she knows best- as I do in most instances- but not without an irritable sniff.
"Would you stop addressing the woman that way? She's the Evil Queen."
"I know, but 'Her Royal Evil Highness' is kind of a mouthful."
"That may be, but you never call me that. You never refer to me by my true title, and I'm just as much the Queen as that bitch."
"Are you seriously going to focus on that right now?"
"Of course not, I simply... It wouldn't kill you to at least acknowledge my status once in a while."
The brunette sighs, and the Sheriff offers her a small smirk as she promises impishly
"Duly noted, Your Majesty, now get your head out of your ass and try being productive."
"... You tread a thin line, Miss Swan."
"Mm. It's why you like me. Now, come on."
Emma gestures towards the mirror a little regretfully. She would so much rather continue bickering with the Mayor in the ghastly extravagance of her long-ago bedroom, but the blood slathered over her pale skin is beginning to dry, and while she doubts they're even on their fifth hour of the Mayor's seven, she has known both the Evil Queen and her more familiar counterpart for long enough to know she'd be a fool not to allow for a couple of bumps to throw them off course.
Scowling irritably, Regina seems otherwise of a similar opinion as she pushes herself up from the bed and takes a few steps back into the corner.
"She needs to believe you're trying to avoid her rather than baiting her. The blood will be bait enough without you offering yourself to her so brazenly which may only serve to rouse her suspicions."
"It seems to have worked so far."
Emma points out, and she receives a wince and swallows a little sheepishly.
"You don't want her coming at you believing it's her move, Emma. You just want her curious as to what your last move might have been."
Regina insists, nodding towards slick blood pointedly to accompany this last statement, before admitting softly
"I don't want her coming at you believing it's her move."
Clearing her throat and offering the brunette a curt nod, the Sheriff agrees
"No, we won't let her think that."
"Well... Then the rest is really quite simple, dear. When you're ready, take the sheet off the bed and walk into the line of sight of the mirror and throw it over. Take your time; let her see you do it. Let her believe you want to keep her in the dark. So long as she's watching, that will be enough to draw her in. She'll want to punish you for our little stint in the dungeon, but she'll need to know what you've done to get into the state you're in. She'll come."
"How do we know when she's watching?"
Emma frowns, and she raises a brow when Regina surprises her by laughing quietly. Fixing an old portrait of herself clad in an ostentatiously billowy gown with a decidedly cruel glower, the brunette reasons
"She's not exactly subtle, dear. I doubt I need to tell you that. If she were still ripping the place to shreds searching for you- for us- we'd know about it. I don't hear anything, which means she's given up throwing whatever tantrum she most definitely will have thrown, and is now using subtler methods. Spying on others through glass isn't a skill many have, and so it's one that she- that I- favoured. After all, what's vengeance without a good helping of indulgent superiority?... She'll be searching, I have little doubt about that. Just take your time before using the sheet and she'll find you."
Dark eyes glitter with an unreadable expression as the Mayor glances down at the sheet in question. The sheet Emma remains perched lightly upon.
The sheet that lies crumpled and out of place in a rather suggestive manner.
Her gaze flickers over to the chair that centres the room and the white ropes coiled on the floor around its legs, and she suffers a wave of anger that she latches onto purposefully.
"She'll find you."
She repeats, and Emma nods.
"What about you? Are you going to hide or make yourself invisible or something? Can you do that?"
"In a way... Not in the ridiculous way you're probably imagining."
"Oh, no, of course, I'm sure your powers of invisibility aren't ridiculous at all..."
"Did you want my aid, dear?"
"Kind of, yeah."
The blonde grins, and Regina glowers at her pointedly, before elaborating on her plan.
"I can use shadows better than most; it's a trick Rumple favours and that he taught me early on. I've never succeeded in being quite so sneaky as Gold, but I've never given this shortcoming a great deal of concern. I can keep my presence undetected until I wish for it to be known."
"Shit, imagine if there were a less convoluted way to go about explaining such things, Madame Mayor."
"You asked! My point is that I don't just snap my fingers and disappear into thin air!"
"I'm sure, to you, there's a distinction in there somewhere, but to me, it's all the same... I just need to know you'll be hidden and safe."
Emma explains swiftly as she can tell the brunette's patience is wearing thin.
"I will be... It might be trickier to keep my presence a secret from a version of myself, but I don't believe in this instance that it will matter. Her entire focus is going to be on you, dear... You're on the loose, you're bloodied, you're creeping around her chambers without her permission, and you're what she wants."
Unease finds the Mayor's tone as she voices this last observation, and Emma meets her gaze seriously as she mulls over the darker woman's words.
"It doesn't matter. Her intent, her next move, her punishment, none of it matters, because this next move is ours, Regina. I lure her in and you seal the deal. Simple, right?"
"... Not at all."
Regina shakes her head, before letting out a weary sigh and retreating a further step back into the corner in preparation.
"But we'll manage, Sheriff. We always do. As for what happens on the other side, I have a great deal of trepidation, but I suppose we'll manage that too. Somehow."
She swallows, her expression grave and Emma nods as her heartbeat begins to pick up nervous speed before her eyes widen with a sudden spark of inspiration.
"Take the ropes. Take the ropes from the chair, there. We'll use them on her... Don't you think?"
She finishes uncertainly as Regina glances over at the ropes with an altogether less enthusiastic expression; Emma's inclination to use them to bind the Queen only serving as proof for her that the blonde has experienced their particular form of magic... After all, she knows full well what purpose she had once used those bonds for.
Leave it. She's told you already. There's no point delving deeper into a matter you don't wish to know anything about.
Regina sighs, stepping back out into the light in order to retrieve the ropes as requested with a flare to her nostrils as the acrid stench still lingers in the scorched marks made through the stone.
Yes, Emma has told her that her experience with the Evil Queen had turned carnal. Yes, she's made several comments to add some context to this utterly twisted fact... But that almost makes the use of the ropes harder to swallow.
"It was just a suggestion."
The Sheriff interrupts the Mayor's uneasy thoughts, and Regina glances up at her as she returns to the shadows, realising that her hesitant disquiet has been misinterpreted as uncertainty.
"It was a good one."
She assures with a thin smile.
"Just two or three minutes, Regina. That's all."
Emma smiles back as she addresses their imminent task, and the brunette nods as she reminds the younger woman firmly of a matter she has mentioned several times since they first hatched this strange plan.
"Two or three minutes... Try to make it two, dear, for both of our sakes... And remember, you have to go through first, Emma. It's my magic that seals the portal, and once I go back through, it closes. I don't want to have to spill any more blood in an attempt to retrieve you from forgotten realms. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Good. And please... I know it's not really up to you what happens next, just... Please be careful. Just get her in position, that's all we need from her. I just need her in front of the glass with her guard down... Well... At half-mast, at least. I-"
"-Regina, I know. It was mostly my fucking plan!"
"Well, I've paid witness to some of your other plans! I just-... Emma, I've only just come out and admitted that I find you to be a reasonable human being. Please show me some courtesy and avoid coming to any further harm thus complicating matters even more than they already are."
The brunette implores sternly, and the younger woman offers her a nervous grin as she agrees obediently
"Back at you, Madame Mayor, just in a less frilly way of saying it."
"Oh, hush, I-"
But the darker woman's irritation is cut short as the blonde steps in towards her and kisses her firmly.
"I lure, you push, okay?"
Emma speaks up when she finally pulls back for air.
"Okay."
Regina agrees breathlessly, sounding a little dazed as she watches the younger woman make her way almost into the line of sight of the glass before Emma offers her one last glance over her shoulder.
"You lure..."
The Mayor repeats quietly as she melts back into the shadows; the enchanted rope clenched in her fist. Drinking in tight black leather and the soft fall of tousled curls, she supposes that this part of their plan, at least, she doesn't doubt in the slightest.