A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long! I had my final hand-ins last week which required several months of boring academic writing, a dissertation, and writing up case studies of my patients to celebrate the fact that I managed not to kill any of them- woo!- so that pulled me away from fic writing for a while. On top of that, I got another puppy (because I am apparently grossly masochistic) which again ate into my time and sanity for a while! Still, I'm back now. School is done and I'm just waiting to get my results, my puppy is a little older and less demanding of my time every 5 minutes, and I have every intention and hope that I will finish this fic before Christmas (and am also currently working on a Halloween short). So, yes. I hope you enjoy this chapter, thank you for reading and sticking with me. Reviews would be hugely appreciated as I've really missed them, and I will try and update this monster soon :)
P.S- Some of you that read this on fanfic already know about the puppy as you sent me PMs asking if I was dead/ coming back/ wtf the deal was, and asked if you could see my new fur-child. If you want proof that I'm not just slacking off, or to see a weird mix of breeds (golden x rough collie) then you can absolutely add me on Instagram if you want to: liseyschokker. I don't post anything especially fic related, but a couple of you asked, so I'm just slipping it in here in case people want to get friendly. Oh my.
"So, dear, you were saying..."
Regina smirks, closing the door to the blonde's bedroom behind her and standing with her back against the wood with her wine glass held in one hand.
"What was I saying?"
Emma grins, placing her whisky on top of the dresser before padding across the room and pulling the curtains closed to dampen the heavy patter of falling rain.
"That you're not so sweet."
The brunette challenges as she considers the soft hues of the younger woman's sleepwear.
"You should know that better than anyone."
Emma agrees, her socks allowing her to move silently over the floorboards as she makes her way back across the room to stand toe to toe with the Mayor. Mindful of the darker woman's wine, she presses herself flush with her previous tormentor, tasting tart malbec on painted lips as she pushes the brunette roughly against the door.
"Ouch! The handle."
Regina hisses, throwing the blonde an irritable wince when the latter takes a step back.
"Are you alright?"
Emma asks dutifully, although her expression suggests that she's not overly concerned, and the darker woman narrows her eyes accordingly.
"That wasn't quite what I had in mind when challenging you on your nature."
The brunette replies, massaging the small of her back, although she keeps further thoughts on the matter to herself; tempted to point out that just by stepping back and reacting to her displeasure, Emma is playing far more nicely than her heated promise suggests. Instead, she opts to tease her opponent, imagining that doing so will reap greater reward.
"Pity... I allowed you to lure me up here with the promise of being shown your nastier side, yet it appears you're not so terrible, just clumsy, which I already knew."
She sighs primly, and Emma rolls her eyes as she takes a seat on the bed.
"So leave."
She challenges, offering the darker woman a wicked smile when her proposal is met with a frown.
"You don't want that."
Regina counters boldly, and she pushes herself away from the door and stalks a slow circle around the blonde's bed. Unlike Emma, she remains clad in expensive heels, and her footsteps sound a dangerous beat as she catalogues the Saviour's belongings.
"Was most of this stuff here when you moved?"
She asks, gesturing towards the chest of drawers and the bureau lost under a pile of laundry.
"A lot of the furniture, yeah. It's not really my style, but it does the job."
Emma shrugs, before asking curiously
"Do you really not know more about this place? I mean, it was your Curse."
"And? Do you really think I spared any interest in where others besides myself might end up?"
Regina raises a brow, her expression every bit that of the Queen, save for her lack of contempt for her audience.
"I doubt it, but you have to admit that a lot of people's houses and lives here make sense."
"Make sense?"
"In a way."
"I suppose that's so, but I can't take much credit."
The brunette muses disinterestedly, running her finger over a narrow tear in the wallpaper before resting her hand on the dark wood of the dresser.
"A lot of things in this town seem to have a way of working themselves out, Miss Swan."
"Seems that way."
Emma agrees, drinking in the expensive cut to the Mayor's outfit appreciatively while recalling several heated exchanges during the infancy of their relationship when she'd found herself too distracted by the darker woman's appeal to bite back with the eloquence she would have liked.
Well, as Madame Mayor says, it all worked out in the end.
A small smirk at this, before she spies the empty glasses left on the nightstand and acknowledges that everything working out rarely comes without its casualties.
"Don't look so glum, dear. It's your own fault for not cleaning up after yourself."
Regina interrupts the blonde's discomfort as she follows the direction of her gaze, and the younger woman shoots her companion a withering glance.
"I've been a bit preoccupied, in case you'd forgotten."
Emma snaps, and the brunette nods with a small shrug of her shoulders as she calls out the real matter at hand bluntly.
"Guilty as charged, but you needn't feel that way. Well... Not entirely. The worst that could have happened has already happened, and that wasn't without some commendable disagreement from your side. I believe, given the circumstances, you may be somewhat off the hook, Saviour, if you pardon my wording... Still, as for tonight, you assured me that you'd made your choice, but if you want me to leave, then-"
"-No. Don't go. As you said, that would sort of be like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted."
"If the horse had been happy, it wouldn't run off."
Regina counters with a frown, and Emma raises a brow as she admits
"I can't tell if you're furthering the metaphor or just giving me horse facts."
"The metaphor?"
"It's a saying. A nice way of saying too little, too late."
"I see. Well, even if we simply call it what it is, what's done is done."
"That doesn't make it any better."
"No, but neither will sitting around moping about it."
"I'm not moping."
Emma hisses, and the brunette smirks at her wickedly and hands the younger woman her whisky.
"You better not be, given your company."
The Queen warns, taking a sip of her wine before opening up the top drawer of the blonde's dresser and picking through her underwear in an unabashed fashion.
"Regina.."
The Sheriff scolds, and the Mayor glances up at her coolly as she continues snooping.
"What? I'm just curious what a 'really not so sweet' woman such as yourself might have tucked away, Saviour."
Holding up the midnight lace of a garter belt, she raises a brow, and the younger woman groans as she falls back onto the bed without further complaint.
"Why is everything you own black?"
Regina frowns as she pulls out several more items of interest for inspection.
"Black looks good on me."
Emma replies simply, and the darker woman clears her throat as memories of tight leather and vampish makeup spring pleasantly to mind.
"True."
She agrees, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and considering the abandoned walkie and laptop strewn across the floor; evidence of the younger woman's previous bids for freedom.
"I wondered for a moment whether you might try to jump from one of the windows."
Regina muses as she gestures towards the evidence of her tyranny.
"I did consider it. Along with cutting my own hand off and stabbing you with a kitchen knife."
The blonde replies, and the darker woman titters quietly as she marvels at this admission
"Did you really?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Don't be, it would have done you very little good."
She reasons lightly.
"Yeah, that's what I figured."
The younger woman chuckles self-deprecatingly.
"... Are you sure you want me to stay?"
Regina asks, smiling in light of their shared amusement, but her tone is suddenly serious as she nods pointedly towards the glasses left standing on the younger woman's nightstand.
"I'm sure. I'll talk to Hook tomorrow."
"Good... If it makes you feel any better, I have a slightly awkward morning planned, too."
"Oh?"
"I agreed to meet your mother for coffee, which, given recent events, may be a little unsettling."
"You've hung out with Mary Margaret when you were whole before."
Emma frowns.
"Indeed, but my reunion of self is not the only recent event I'm referring to."
"What do you-... Oh!"
"Mm."
"Well... At least you don't have to come out and actually tell her what we did."
"True. Although, I'm sure that conversation would be amusing as well as traumatic."
"Some things are best left unsaid."
Emma growls, and Regina laughs quietly before looking down at the younger woman and asking gently
"From your wording, am I to deduce that you plan to tell Killian we've been together?"
"I don't know... I'm either going to have to tell him that we fucked, or that we're planning to."
"Well... Neither would be a lie."
The darker woman points out with a flash of her teeth.
"No. I guess not."
The Sheriff agrees.
"So why not put that plan into action?"
Regina asks wickedly, placing her wine on the nightstand pointedly before leaning over the blonde; resting her hand on the younger woman's thigh, before letting it slip deliberately between her legs.
"Gladly."
Emma grins, pulling the Mayor down into a rough, open-mouthed kiss while running her fingers appreciatively over the soft silk of her shirt.
"I really did miss you dressing like this."
She admits with a teasing squeeze of the darker woman's backside through expensive slacks, and Regina smirks with her teeth nipped over her bottom lip and her eyes bright and dangerous.
"If I'd known, I would have reverted to old classics sooner."
"That would have been horribly confusing, I have to say."
"Exactly."
The darker woman laughs, slipping her hand inside the blonde's shorts and confirming that she wears nothing underneath.
"I'd be inclined to ask you to return the favour..."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that the floral shirts and ill-fitting dresses are sweet, but entirely out of character."
"You're the one that's always telling me to dress more appropriately..."
Emma points out waspishly as she threads her fingers into dark waves.
"Mm, I know, and it's really very cute that you're so affected by my opinion of you."
Regina teases, letting out a choked gasp as the blonde bites warningly at her collarbone.
"I've given up trying to please you."
The Sheriff murmurs against her skin, and the brunette chuckles darkly as she moves to straddle the younger woman with a deliberate buck of her hips.
"That doesn't bode well..."
She hisses as the blonde begins undoing the buttons of her shirt.
"I don't need to try when I know I succeed."
Emma reasons, and the Queen smirks indulgently as she sits back and allows expensive silk to fall open.
"Now that was out of character..."
She muses, before reconsidering her statement and tacking on
"At least, I would have thought so a couple of days ago. You're full of surprises."
"Aren't I just?"
The blonde agrees, bending her knees to bring the darker woman in closer. Regina reciprocates by leaning down to brush her lips against the Sheriff's; playing her fingers through messy curls that spill out over the younger woman's pillow. Her movements are slow- intimate- and she stills when Emma murmurs into their kiss
"Not exactly a surprise, but I've never done this before..."
"Done what?"
"This. You asked me in the Enchanted Forest what experience I'd had with girls, and I told you there were three occasions prior to our fucked-up journey of self-discovery."
"So, then... What?"
"I never took any of them to bed with me. It was never like this."
Emma admits, and the brunette sits back as she considers her companion pensively.
"It will never be like this, dear, not with another... And you had me in my bed not so long ago."
"That was different. That was a trick... That was evil."
"You deserved it."
"I never said otherwise."
The blonde replies simply, and Regina cocks her head as she teases softly
"Are you nervous?"
"No."
"Really?"
"Really. I would be if we hadn't already messed around downstairs."
"Then why bring it up?"
"No reason, I was just thinking is all."
Emma shrugs, reaching back up for the brunette, but Regina resists and pushes for a more satisfying answer.
"Why were you caught up on the fact?"
"I don't know... After we fucked on your bed in the Enchanted Forest, I understood it wasn't real. It wasn't really you- the part of you I'd let myself believe for a moment that it was- and I can't count it. I was so thrown after that little trick; wondering if that was really what it would be like- what you'd sound like- and it messed with my head."
"Thank you. That's what I was going for."
The Queen muses thoughtfully, before lowering herself heavily so that she lies flush over the blonde.
"You can find out now..."
She proposes sinfully, snaking her hand between them to dip inside creased linen to cup the younger woman's sex.
"I plan to."
Emma agrees, catching the darker woman off guard when she flips them roughly so that she sits astride slim hips; capturing the Queen's wrist to hinder any further exploration of wicked fingers.
"Spoilsport."
Regina scolds her, before biting her bottom lip as the blonde pushes her bra up and out of the way and replaces the support of the left cup with the weight of her hand.
"Every colour looks good on you..."
Emma muses, mimicking the darker woman's earlier reflection when pilfering through her lingerie, and the Queen nods, closing her eyes.
"Of course it does."
She agrees, taking in a sharp breath through her nose as the blonde tweaks the sensitive bud of her nipple in response.
"You're ridiculous."
The Sheriff repeats her previous analysis of the brunette's mannerisms, and Regina offers up a curiously genuine smile as again, she agrees.
"Maybe so, but you love it."
"Hmm."
Emma replies noncommittally, but the Queen's displeasure in light of this response is swiftly replaced by surprise as the younger woman offers her hand a queerly amiable squeeze while her teeth find her throat in a far less friendly manner.
"Emma, I- Em!"
Regina cries as the Sheriff forces her hand back and snaps the handcuffs that trail down from the bedrails shut around her wrist.
"Really, dear!"
The Queen scolds, attempting to free herself immediately, but she's instantly met with the familiar retaliation of the blonde's magic; just as strong, just as stubborn.
"What? You wanted a reminder that I'm not so sweet, didn't you?"
Emma challenges, and the brunette narrows her eyes as she considers her unsavoury shackles while using her free hand to push her hair out of her face.
"Well, yes, but-"
"-You can't ask for darkness and make the rules, Regina. It's one or the other."
The blonde warns, and the Mayor weighs up her options irritably, before surrendering with a word of warning
"Fine. But if you so much as think of using a whip or anything so crude to make me bleed, I'll-"
"-You'll what?"
Emma asks curiously, her expression unnervingly calm as she remains splayed over the Queen.
"I'll pay you back in kind."
Regina hisses, and the blonde nips the tip of her tongue as she grins, pointing out impishly
"You say that like I'd mind."
"You'd mind, dear."
"I-"
"-Perhaps not the sting of pain, but the sting of humiliation? You'd mind."
The Queen insists, and the blonde falls silent as she allows her this presumption without complaint.
"I have no intention of humiliating you."
She confides finally, and the brunette takes in a slow breath before allowing a minute nod of acceptance.
"You did do it well."
She muses, and Emma pushes her hair back with a small smile as she warns
"That's not all I do well."
"No... It's not."
Regina agrees, watching as the blonde uses her magic to unlock the cuff from the bar running across the top of the headboard in order to link the chain through and secure her other hand, rendering her completely at her mercy.
"I'm not going to restrain you by any other means but these cuffs."
The younger woman informs her quietly, and the Mayor swallows as she tilts her head back to consider silver bracelets.
"For most, that would be enough."
"You're not most people."
"No... But I'm curious. The last couple of days aside, I have tried where possible to refrain from using my magic on you. Against you... I suppose part of that stems from a wish to save face; you would know, and you would retaliate, but there's also something pleasant in our shared position of having but not needing such power. Not when we're together, not usually. When I was younger, fresh to the throne, I relied heavily on my magic to get what I wanted. I relied on it in order to feel something; anything. I used it to threaten, both generally and carnally. I used it to enhance and to punish. I haven't done that to you, not here in this land as my whole self. Not for a long time. I don't need to... I enjoy being around you."
"That, and I'll generally do what you say."
Emma chips in with a grin.
"Hardly!"
"I do in the situations you're referring to. When it's just the two of us."
"I can think of many times when you've done the opposite!"
"But can you think of many times where you've wanted me to behave in any other way?"
"... No."
Regina admits, offering the cuffs a small tug as she wraps the chains in her fists and relaxes into her forced position.
"Still curious?"
Emma teases quietly, before leaning down to taste exposed flesh without waiting for an answer. She works slowly, exploring soft curves before finally giving in and slipping her hand beneath the Mayor to unhook burgundy lace. With the Queen cuffed to the bed and clad in her unbuttoned shirt, there is little more the blonde can do but push delicate cups further out of the way, but she doesn't let the fact hinder her as she goes back to navigating warm skin with her tongue.
"Ah!"
The Mayor hisses as the Saviour adds a cruel touch of her teeth, and the blonde sighs as she turns her attention ever lower, deeming the Queen's portrayal of her better-half's arousal to be deliciously accurate.
"Take them off, Sheriff."
The darker woman mutters as Emma skims a finger teasingly along the waistband of her dress pants, and the blonde chuckles at the bossy note in the Mayor's request and decides to allow it as she relishes just how flustered the brunette looks tethered beneath her.
"I'm sure you can ask nicer than that."
She teases, and Regina shakes her head as she counters boldly
"I'm sure you'd prefer it if I didn't."
"I'm calling the shots."
"That doesn't mean I'm wrong."
Regina muses as the blonde unclasps her pants and tugs them down along with her underwear.
"It doesn't."
She agrees, lowering herself down the bed. Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she enters the brunette slickly with two fingers and admonishes against the flesh of her thigh
"Don't."
"No?"
Regina asks, desisting in her awkward attempt to toe off her heels, and the blonde responds with a sly flicker of her tongue as her position knelt between the Queen's legs does the rest.
"Fuck..."
The brunette hisses as the younger woman continues with her torturously slow pace; taking her time to sample various vocalisations and shudders from her companion as her messy curls brush maddeningly against the soft skin of the Mayor's inner thighs.
"This isn't what I meant when I suggested you play dirty..."
The Queen groans, her wrists aching and stomach tight as she flexes and shivers beneath the younger woman's touch, feeling increasingly lightheaded as the Sheriff's leisurely assault brings her tantalisingly close to the edge and keeps her there.
"And I told you, you can't tell me how to play..."
Emma admonishes with a soft bite to the web of muscle leading to the Queen's sex.
"What if I concede?"
"Hmm?"
"What if I assure you I remember full well that you're not so- ah!- not so sweet?"
Regina breathes, straining against the cuffs as pleasure ripples through her at the deep thrust of the younger woman's fingers.
"What if you do?"
Emma chuckles against slick folds.
"Please, dear... Please..."
The Queen surrenders, and the blonde responds with pity; quickening her ministrations and adding pressure where it's needed most to elicit a choked cry as the brunette comes undone, digging the sharp points of her heels into the Saviour's hips as she pulls her in instinctively.
"Ow!"
Emma grunts in a manner that suggests she's not at all opposed, and the Mayor pants for her to shut up as she rides her high with her eyes and teeth clenched shut.
When she finally feels in control of herself, she blinks up at the blonde and studies her silently, noting the high colour to the younger woman's cheeks and the frenzied fall of her hair.
"Alright?"
The Sheriff teases her breathlessly, and the brunette nods, using her magic to release herself from the handcuffs and massaging her wrists as she remains lain out on display beneath the Saviour.
"That was evil."
She states finally, and Emma makes a seesaw motion with her hand as she counters
"Not really my style. I'm dark, you're evil, remember?"
"Call it whatever you like, dear, you're unequivocally twisted."
Regina chuckles a little hoarsely, and the blonde offers her a sunny grin as she accepts this slight on her character appreciatively.
"Maybe so."
She agrees, tucking her hair back as she shifts her position to sit cross-legged between the darker woman's feet, drinking in her enviable view thoughtfully.
"I was hoping for a little more proof, though."
The Mayor sighs, and the younger woman adopts a frown as she calls her out gruffly
"Didn't I just provide you with proof and then some?"
"Hmm... Some proof, yes... And yet..."
Regina smirks, rolling onto her side to pull open the drawer of the nightstand and peering inside curiously.
"Will you quit snooping through my stuff!?"
Emma snaps.
"Why? Worried I'll find something interesting?"
"More just it's kind of rude and I have no idea what you're looking for."
The blonde argues irritably.
"Something interesting!"
Regina shrugs, falling back against the pillows and regarding the Sheriff with a wicked tug to her lips.
"Care to be more specific?"
The younger woman sighs dutifully.
"No. My meaning is obvious."
The Queen counters, before rolling her eyes and elaborating when the blonde simply offers her a bemused glower.
"While this was undoubtedly fun, I don't truly need proof that you're not as nice and sweet as everyone else seems to think. I know you're not... I was just hoping to find more than some admittedly sinful lingerie to support my theory."
"Ah. Something more along the lines of what you presumed I'd left lying around at my parent's house?"
Emma scoffs, cottoning on, and the Mayor shrugs primly and flashes her teeth.
"Are you sixteen?"
The blonde grumbles in light of the darker woman's confession, and Regina scowls at the insinuation before coming clean while inspecting a packet of painkillers splattered with something sticky.
"When I was sixteen, I would have died of embarrassment before asking about such things. When I was a little older, I used my hand when lacking a lover, as did anyone else in the Enchanted Forest."
She states bluntly, rubbing her fingers clean on the blonde's bedding with a wrinkle of her nose.
"That said, alternative options have weighed quite heavy on my mind over the last few months. I mean, I could hardly let it be known at the time for fear of saying or doing anything inappropriate, but when you enlightened me on the types of aid available for purchase in this land, I was rather intrigued, if a little mortified, dear."
"Oh god..."
Emma cringes, shaking her head as she confides apologetically
"If I'd known I was opening your eyes to the world of toys and depravity, I wouldn't have been so flippant!"
"No? You would have educated me thoroughly?"
"Regina..."
"It was an honest question! And, incidentally, I'm not sure the subject matter was exactly appropriate for a town meeting in the first place."
"You mean the town meetings where we find an excuse to spend two hours alone in your office drinking cider and talking about anything other than town business?"
"The very same."
The brunette agrees, before raising her brow pointedly in a bid to bring the younger woman back to the topic at hand.
"Bottom drawer."
Emma states finally, nodding towards the dresser, her cheeks flushed scarlet as she watches the Mayor slip from the covers to stalk across the room in a promise of bare flesh and high heels. Regina shucks her shirt as she goes, laying it on top of the dresser, before pulling open the drawer she'd picked through earlier.
"No, the bottom left."
The Sheriff speaks up, before falling silent when the brunette tosses the garter belt and a couple of sheer stockings at her before bending down to inspect the drawer in question.
"Under my jeans."
Emma advises, shaking out scant nylon and fingering a narrow ladder running from the sole to the elasticated lace running along the top. Nodding woodenly when the Queen holds up her find, she sits back on her heels and crosses her arms over her chest awkwardly.
"So? Are you happy? Do you have your proof?"
She asks as Regina considers the selection in her hand with open curiosity.
"It's no enchanted rope or edging charm, but my options were fairly limited before coming to Storybrooke."
The blonde continues uncomfortably to break the silence, and the Mayor looks up at her and offers up a sordid smile.
"Yet you still own such things, despite pure bliss being available at the mere flick of your wrist... A trick worth trying, by the way. It's a unique experience."
She confides huskily, and Emma tries to push aside the images conjured by this admission in order to focus.
"I use what's familiar."
She shrugs, and the brunette ponders over this response, recalling the way she had relied on similar force of habit from the Saviour when she'd threatened her with a blade.
"What would your mother say?"
She teases, and the blonde clears her throat as she watches the darker woman select a glass wand from the toys in her hand and replies sternly
"If you tell my mother about any of this, I'll full-on kill you... That said, if you find a legitimate reason to slip in reference to my bottom-drawer collection while talking to her, I'd admittedly be impressed. And then I'd kill you."
"Hmm, no. We tried that. It wasn't nearly as fun as I'd hoped."
The Queen muses lightly, perching on the edge of the bed and staring the Sheriff down expectantly.
"What?"
Emma demands, her throat suddenly dry as she watches the darker woman's fingers dance up the shaft of the wand with mounting anticipation.
"Didn't you get the hint?"
Regina asks, gesturing towards the hosiery tossed onto the bed, and the blonde sighs as she pushes herself up to change; seeing little point in arguing when she's entirely on board with where things seem to be going.
"I must say... I'm surprised you own this kind of stuff."
The Mayor muses as she watches the younger woman strip out of her pyjamas and secure black lace around her waist.
"Thought about it a lot, did you?"
Emma teases as she slips on the stockings and secures them in place.
"No, but that's probably for the best."
Regina chuckles, making herself comfortable as she sits bare but for her heels on the blonde's bed. Drinking in the younger woman's meagre outfit appreciatively, she beckons for her to join her, allowing Emma to lean over her for a slow kiss before she guides the Sheriff down onto her back.
"I had a life before I came here, Regina."
The younger woman reminds the Mayor as the darker woman traces the edge of the garter belt with her finger, and the brunette nods, replying simply
"So did I..."
"Yeah, but I've never made loud, unflattering presumptions about yours."
Emma points out, and the Queen laughs darkly as she snaps the elastic keeping sheer hold-ups in place as though suggesting she'd had a point.
"I know. Pretty rude of you, really."
She sighs, and the blonde chuckles as she skims the base of the darker woman's ribcage with her thumb.
"Sorry, if I'd known you were looking for depraved fantasies and humiliation, I'd have happily accommodated your desires."
"Mm. Maybe just the first part."
Regina breathes, and the Sheriff grins as she murmurs into thick waves
"There's still time..."
"Quite."
The Queen agrees, cupping the younger woman's heat and slipping her middle finger a little deeper to deem her next move appropriate. Moving up onto her knees, she leans in and captures the blonde's bottom lip between her teeth as she slides into her with the glass wand until met with resistance.
"Shit..."
Emma growls, drawing her knees up instinctively, and the brunette pulls back for just a moment to confirm that her expression is one of pleasure before lowering her attention back to parted lips, moving the wand slowly as she fists her other hand around the rail of the headboard to provide herself with leverage.
"What you did with that whip was both depraved and humiliating."
Regina hisses as she speeds up her fucking and looks down on the younger woman hungrily.
"You played your hand, I played mine."
Emma replies breathlessly, gripping the sheets as she looks up at the brunette.
"You left me wanting."
The Queen scolds as she slows her pace deliberately. Cruelly.
"You fucked with me, I fucked with you... Or didn't, and that's what stung."
The younger woman counters in a choked voice.
"What stung were your words."
"I only meant them towards half of you."
The blonde pants as she meets glittering coals defiantly and swallows.
"So address the other half."
The Mayor leans down to whisper in her ear, stilling her hand completely with the wand buried deep.
"...Is that really necessary? Don't you know how I feel already, Regina? Don't you know that I would never tire of you? That I think about you a hundred times more a day than I'd care to, and yet wouldn't change the fact if offered the opportunity? You call me stubborn and unruly, and I am, I'm both of those things, but you know I'd never deny you. All of you. Not in the current context. Not when I understand full well what's on offer."
Emma confides as she traces full lips with her finger, her breathing shallow but her tone steady, sincere, as she addresses the demeaning truths she'd spat at the Queen when the darker woman had been tethered at her mercy.
"I suppose you do now..."
Regina agrees quietly, accepting the Saviour's words as an apology for what was said amongst bones as she returns to using the wand with earnest. Smirking into the salted hollow of the younger woman's throat as she sends her over the edge, she merely moves her hand faster until hissed expletives crumble into hoarse sobs, finally relenting and pushing herself up to sit astride the blonde's hips.
"You're wrong, you know... Both of us are."
"Huh?"
Emma frowns as she tries to catch her breath.
"You're plenty sweet, Saviour."
The brunette muses as she pushes messy curls out of the blonde's face.
"Shut up."
The younger woman growls, offering a sharp pinch to the bare flesh of the Mayor's thigh.
"Ouch!"
"See...?"
Emma smirks with her eyes closed and her heartbeat in her ears.
"I said you were sweet, I never said you weren't a juvenile pain in the backside."
Regina mutters as she rolls off the Sheriff and falls down to lie beside her.
"Fuck..."
The blonde groans finally, slipping torturous glass from spent folds with a whimper and sitting up to look down at her bedmate.
"Damn."
She elaborates further, laughing breathlessly as the brunette throws her a positively evil smirk.
"Made the right choice then, did you dear?"
"I guess so."
Emma nods, unhooking the belt from her waist and ridding herself of suggestive lingerie in favour of the shorts she'd been wearing previously. Resuming her seat on the bed with her long hair covering her breasts, she sips at the dregs of her whisky before cracking a yawn.
"I still can't quite believe it, though."
She muses, rubbing a smear of the darker woman's lipstick from her arm.
"You and me both, although... I suppose the choice was always there, just neither of us dared to admit it."
"There was a lot at stake for both of us if we'd been wrong. If we'd been mistaken and the other had no interest."
"Speak for yourself, dear. Find me one person in this town that doesn't spare me just a little interest."
Regina muses smugly, and the blonde rolls her eyes as she knocks back the last of her drink.
"Mary Margaret."
She challenges, and the Mayor chokes on her disgust and offers the Sheriff a withering scowl as the latter fetches her wine with an impish grin.
"Well played."
The Queen commends, sipping rich malbec before sliding beneath the covers and yawning herself. Watching as Emma appears tentative in crawling into bed to join her, she asks bluntly
"Is this not okay?"
"It's new."
The blonde replies simply, curling up onto her side and considering the darker woman thoughtfully.
"Not true. We shared a bed when I had you cuffed, dear."
The Queen reminds, and Emma glances up at the handcuffs trailing over the headboard and nods.
"True... I guess, in that case..."
She shrugs, offering her companion an exhausted smile.
"...I would show more respect for your boundaries if I wasn't concerned I might fall asleep mid-sentence."
Regina sighs, and Emma nods, stifling another yawn with the covers as she agrees
"Honestly, I'm way too beat to even know what my boundaries are right now."
"Interesting."
The Queen smirks with her eyes closed, and the younger woman shakes her head as she mutters
"Shut up. You can make the most of my wording tomorrow... Regina?"
Silence, and she chuckles to herself as she pulls the blankets up over her head and wills them into darkness.