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The first time was a fluke.
Regina and Emma had been continuing their magic lessons after Neverland, and Emma was determined to learn how to, as she called it, “poof”. They had been trying for a few lessons, and Emma hadn’t so much as conjured some colored smoke, nevertheless actually managed to transport herself somewhere.
If it had been anything else, Emma might have given up, but this was one of the only pieces of magic she actually really wanted to learn. Emma was nothing if not stubborn, and so there she was, on a Friday morning before work, straining herself on Regina’s couch, making more progress towards an aneurysm or a migraine than her actual goal. Maybe if she did have an aneurysm she’d be able to poof herself to the hospital – after all, adrenaline had been one of the things that managed to kick start her magic learning before.
Despite the early hour, Regina was perfectly put together, already dressed for work in one of her tailored looking pantsuits with a silk blouse. She sat opposite Emma on one of the leather couches, her posture perfect as usual, but it was obvious she was relaxed, comfortable in her own home. She might try to deny it, but Emma knew she was enjoying herself. She wouldn’t have invited Emma over for early morning practice sessions otherwise. Regina did very few things she truly didn’t want to do, and excuses that it was ‘for Henry’ only stretched so far.
“You have to concentrate. Visualize where you want to go, summon the magic, and will yourself there.” Regina paused to give Emma a condescending look, arching one perfectly manicured eyebrow, before insisting “It’s truly not that difficult.”
Emma would beg to differ.
In a very typical Regina fashion, the older woman transported herself somewhere, presumably the kitchen, and returned a moment later, a coffee in hand and the same bored expression on her face as if she hadn’t so much as lifted a finger.
Emma rolled her eyes. Regina could be such a show-off. She supposed that, for Regina, poofing was the equivalent of lifting a single finger, but she didn’t like to be reminded about another one of the (many) ways she felt she was inferior to Regina.
She swallowed a frustrated grunt and resisted the ever present urge to snark at Regina. It wouldn’t help anything, besides maybe make Regina more irritated at her than normal, and as Emma really wanted to learn to poof, she didn’t want to piss off Regina and end up without a teacher. God knows she wouldn’t be able to figure it out on her own.
“Goddammit. Why is this so hard?” Emma whined, unable to keep silent anymore. Regina didn’t respond verbally, but the slight shake of her shoulders and upturn of the corner of her lips indicated she was stifling her laughter at Emma’s predicament.
Emma screwed her eyes shut and pinched her face together as if that would help her think harder. She could smell Regina’s coffee and it was distracting, every time she got a whiff it pulled her thoughts back to the living room and to Regina herself. She needed to ignore the older woman, but well, that was much easier said than done.
Regina’s very presence was distracting, Emma could always tell when Regina entered a room, always carried an edge of awareness of her proximity and whereabouts. She told herself it was something to do with them both being magic users, though a small part of herself admitted that it could be due to the massive crush she had on the Mayor. It was probably the magic thing, though.
It was a Friday morning and she would much rather be in bed, she normally didn’t get up to go to the station for another hour, and today she was on the late shift so she would have loved the chance to sleep in. She decided to picture her bed as her destination, instead of the park she had been envisioning before. Maybe she just didn’t want to be there enough. If she imagined her bedroom, where she really wanted to be, she might have better luck.
Emma thought hard of how comfortable her bed was, with her soft flannel sheets and puffy duvet. She had a mountain of pillows, most not matching, that she like to burrow herself into. She imagined herself inside pillow cave, warm and comfy, engulfed in the scent of her laundry detergent.
Emma peeked one eye open, expecting it but still somehow disappointed to see Regina’s living room and the woman herself smirking back at her. Emma found it unfairly attractive when Regina made that face, and idly wondered whether this whole ordeal would be easier without her distracting presence after all.
Emma closed her eyes again as she imagined herself laying in bed with a cup of coffee and one of Granny’s bear claws. That would be the ideal morning. Emma usually didn’t admit to it, but she loved to eat in bed, crumbs be damned. She had once rented a small studio apartment and had never even bothered to buy a kitchen table, choosing instead to save her money and make due with eating on the couch or in the bed. It was more comfortable anyways.
God, she imagined what Regina would do if she knew. Probably call her a child and make some comment how Henry was lucky he was raised to be civilized and not a cave person like Emma. Regina’s bed was probably immaculate, all silk sheets and matching pillows, made perfectly every single morning with whatever the fancy corners were called that she could never quite get the hang of….
Emma felt something, a slight rush accompanied by a brief feeling of weightlessness, and opened her eyes only to find herself in what she presumed was Regina’s bedroom. In Regina’s bed. She supposed she really could be anywhere, but what she was thinking about before transporting herself combined with the unmistakable scent of Regina made Emma quite certain about her whereabouts.
She wondered what it said about her that she knew what Regina smelled like, could pick apart that the scent came partially from her shampoo, her perfume, and her laundry detergent. That she could tell the difference between the woman’s regular perfume and the one she wore for special occasions. That she could identify the woman based on scent alone.
“Shit! Fuck. Okay, Emma, you got this. Focus. Just go back downstairs. She never has to know. This is so weird.”
She screwed her eyes shut again, this time knowing what it felt like, desperately imagining her place on the couch. She couldn’t concentrate though, not on Regina’s bed. She scrambled of the side of the bed and righted herself, looking around just to double check that Regina was in fact still downstairs. Thankfully the bedroom was empty.
The comforter was a bit wrinkled where Emma had landed, and she panicked slightly when she realized. She tried to smooth out the wrinkles she had made for a minute, before deciding it was good enough. Surely Regina wouldn’t notice.
She couldn’t help but ponder that Regina’s room wasn’t exactly as she had imagined. The bed was made, exactly as Emma had pictured, and soft with matching pillows and expensive fabrics that likely cost more than her rent each month, but the color palate didn’t exactly scream “Evil Queen”.
Not that that was how Emma thought of Regina anymore, really, just she somehow expected her bedroom to be different. She hadn’t expected white and gray and lilac. There were a few accent pillows that were a deep, royal shade of purple but everything else was pale, pastel. Soft.
So she he had imagined Regina’s bedroom a time or two in the past. It was perfectly natural, she reminded herself. Now that she’d really seen it, though, she knew that the image probably wouldn’t leave her head for weeks. She didn’t know whether to consider that a good or a bad thing.
Shaking her head, she turned to face the wall and closed her eyes in concentration, sighing in relief as a few seconds later she felt the tell-tale weightlessness that told her she managed to poof herself out of Regina’s bedroom. She really didn’t care where she ended up, just anywhere else, before Regina went looking for her and caught her.
Emma was pleasantly surprised when she opened her eyes and found herself back on the couch, facing the woman in question. Maybe she was getting better at this. She hoped that her face wasn’t too flushed, that her embarrassment wasn’t written on her face for Regina to see. She had always been unfairly good at reading Emma, and this was not something that she was not really wanting to have to explain.
“Good. Finally. Now you can poof yourself home and let me get off to work. You do know, Emma, that closing your eyes doesn’t actually make your magic work any better, right? The only thing you’ll conjure is premature wrinkles on your forehead.”
Regina touched her hand in between her brows to indicate what she meant, before she got up and walked out of the living room towards the stairs, apparently not actually expecting an answer to her barb disguised as a question. Emma could’ve sworn she heard a low chuckle as Regina walked away, but she couldn’t be sure as part of her brain was occupied ogling Regina’s shapely ass, perfectly framed by her tailored dress pants.
Emma groaned lowly to herself. This crush of hers was getting out of control. Regina was the Mayor, Henry’s other mother, and sort of her friend. Nothing more than that, despite the infinite number of other possibilities Emma’s mind had a tendency to dream up.
Emma closed her eyes again and tried once again to picture her bedroom, hoping that this time she wouldn’t end up in…. no. She stopped herself before even thinking of the woman’s name, focusing her attention back on her own room.
A few minutes later she appeared in her bedroom, and flopped down on her bed in relief.
“Thank god.” She contemplated going to Granny’s and living out her earlier fantasy of breakfast in bed, but decided against it in favor of a nap. She could go to Granny’s for lunch later before her shift started in the afternoon. Maybe even poof herself there, if she was lucky.
Emma wasn’t lucky.
She woke up a few hours later from her nap, rested but hungry and cranky, and after redoing her ponytail and shrugging back on her leather jacket, she focused on Granny’s. She clenched her fists at her side and strained herself, her mind imagining the perfect bear claw and a coffee, maybe some pancakes. She thought about her favorite booth where she usually sat with Henry…
She felt lightheaded for a moment and grinned, she was getting good at this! She took a deep breath in through her nose, expecting to smell coffee and disappointed when it smelled like mop water and….crayons? Had Ruby been cleaning the floors of the diner? Sounds of young voices registered and she opened her eyes to find herself decidedly not at Granny’s.
She quickly recognized her surroundings as a classroom, Henry’s classroom to be precise, and she swore quietly under her breath, only at the last minute remembering there were children around and she couldn’t go spouting off curses. All the kids were staring at her, and Henry’s teacher had a very non impressed expression on her face, likely Emma had interrupted her teaching.
“Ma? What are you doing here?”
Henry looked confused and worried, no doubt expecting her to be there to warn them all about the next big bad that was trying to take over Storybrooke. He was already starting to get up from his chair, readying himself for action, but Emma was quick to try to ease his worries.
“Nothings wrong, Henry, everything’s fine. I was just...patrolling the town. Poofing is better for the environment than driving, y’know global warming and all that. Save the environment. Everything seems fine here. I’ll just be going now.”
Henry looked unconvinced. He probably knew that she was on the late shift and shouldn’t even be only duty now, but luckily he didn’t say anything. His mannerisms reminded her so much of Regina and when he quirked an eyebrow at her in the exact same way as his mother usually did, it was unmistakable who had raised him. He might have Emma’s genetics but he definitely had Regina’s sass, something she was not looking forward to experiencing during his upcoming teenage years.
“Okay, ma. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Emma nodded but internally cringed, he definitely knew she wasn’t on duty based on his slightly sarcastic tone of voice. She realized belatedly that she didn’t even have her badge and gun on her, and resisted the urge to blush. Hopefully Henry’s teacher hadn’t caught on as well.
She reconsidered her original plan of trying to poof herself out of there. If it didn’t work right away the last thing she wanted was to be stuck standing there looking like an idiot in front of Henry and his entire class. He’d no doubt tell Regina, and then Emma would never hear the end of it.
“Erm, actually, I think I’ll check out the rest of the school first.”
Emma nodded to herself, waved goodbye to Henry and his teacher and then hurriedly made her way out of the classroom and into the school hallway, looking around a few times to make sure she was alone before leaning back against a row of lockers and sighing.
She was grumpy and hungry and just really wanted some coffee. It was obviously going to take some time for her to learn control, but she knew she’d never learn if she didn’t practice. She closed her eyes and chanted in her mind, Granny’s. Granny’s. Granny’s. Thinking that maybe thinking of people was causing her poofing accidents, she thought hard about Granny and Ruby.
That seemed to work, and when Emma opened her eyes again she sighed in relief as she took in her surroundings. She had somehow managed to make it inside of the kitchen instead of the actual diner, but she was close enough to her goal to call it a success. It was certainly much closer than she had been getting anyways.
Ruby barged into the kitchen carrying a tray of empty plates and startled at seeing Emma there, almost dropping them but regaining her balance at the last minute.
“Hey, Em. What’re you doing back here? How’d you get back here, anyways? I didn’t see you come in.”
Emma shook her head. “Rubes, don’t even ask, it’s been a rough morning. I’ll go out front and sit down, but can I please get the lumberjack breakfast? And coffee.”
It wasn’t really breakfast time anymore but Emma was still hungry for breakfast and so she was going to eat breakfast. Granny’s was a diner so they served it all day and she took advantage of that fact often. Sometimes she didn’t feel or act like an adult, but one of the best things about being an adult was that she could eat whatever she pleased, whenever she pleased. She could go out and buy a cake and eat it all in one sitting and no one could stop her. She had done that once and felt horribly sick to her stomach the rest of the day but the principle was still valid.
“Of course, I’ll be right out.”
Emma managed to make it halfway through her cup of coffee and had made a good start on her scrambled eggs and sausage before Ruby came out to pester her about her bad day. Figures. Everyone in Storybrooke was so nosy. Yes, Ruby was her friend, but she was also a terrible gossip and got much of her entertainment by spreading stories, whether true or false, to the townspeople.
“So…want to tell me about your morning? Or at least how you ended up in the kitchen?”
Emma groaned and pushed her face into her hands. It wasn’t like her lessons with Regina were a secret, in fact it was quite well known that she was learning magic, but her failure to be instantly good at it was still a bit embarrassing to Emma. She was supposed to be the savior, she should be able to control her own magic.
“I’ve been learning how to poof from Regina. And it’s not going so great so far.”
Emma looked up in time to catch Ruby tilt her head to the side in a distinctly canine fashion as she considered what Emma had said. Emma’s lips quirked but into a grin at the image it created in her head but didn’t say anything - Ruby could be quite sensitive about such things and Emma really wasn’t one to judge.
“Well, I mean if you were aiming for the diner and got the kitchen that’s not too terribly far off. You’ll get there. Even Her Majesty had a hard time with it at first, or so I’ve heard anyways.”
The thought of Regina made Emma groan again. She couldn’t believe she had really managed to poof herself inside Regina’s bedroom for god’s sake. Like how weird was that?! She needed to get control of herself and over her crush before something worse happened. She shuddered just imagining what would’ve happened had Regina caught her on her bed.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks.”
Even she could hear the insincerity in her own voice but Ruby seemed to accept it regardless, moving on to take an order of a couple who had just walked in.
When Emma had finished her meal, practically licking the plate clean, she made her way outside, greeting people as she went. She knew pretty much everyone in town, either personally or by association, and as the town Sheriff everyone definitely knew her.
She enjoyed living in a small town but it was quite the adjustment from Boston and the other places she had lived while growing up. The sense of community and such was incredible, especially to someone like Emma who had grown up with foster families that didn’t give two cents about her, but at the same time the knowledge that practically everything she did was noticed and thereafter discussed was not comfortable in the least. Emma was used to flying under the radar, so her “princess” and “savior” status making her a minor celebrity was jarring at the very least.
She still had a few hours to kill before she had to make her way to the station and Emma was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with her spare time. Henry was in school, Regina was at work, Ruby was waitressing, her mother was teaching, and her dad was… well she didn’t know what her dad was doing but probably something. It had been quiet lately – almost too quiet, and the monotony of small town life was something she still hadn’t acclimated to.
She suddenly remembered that she had some paperwork that Regina had been bugging her about that she could swing by and drop off, and decided that she might as well do it now as she didn’t have anything better to do. She wasn’t far from the Sheriff’s station and decided just to walk over and pick it up as it was warm enough and the sun was shining. God knows if she tried to poof over to the station she probably would end up in one of the jail cells and not be able to get herself out. It was that kind of day and she wasn’t going to take any chances.
A quick look over the paperwork revealed it to be not her best work but she wasn’t about to redo it. It was good enough. Regina would likely just file it without looking at it anyhow – it wasn’t like anyone would be coming to Storybrooke to audit them. In the beginning of Emma’s tenure as Sheriff Regina would nitpick small details and make Emma redo her reports, but lately they had been getting along much better and she now reserved that for when she was in a particularly bad mood.
She decided to poof to Regina’s office and to her surprise she succeeded almost immediately, landing in the middle of the posh office smack in front of Regina’s desk. Unfortunately, the woman in question wasn’t there. Emma looked around but there were no signs of Regina and walked out of the office to check with Ashley, who was working as Regina’s secretary.
“Hey Ash. Do you know where Regina is? I wanted to drop some stuff off with her.”
Ashley looked up and startled slightly as she hadn’t seen Emma walk in.
“Oh, hey Emma. You just missed her. She went to lunch about fifteen minutes ago.”
Emma shrugged, that was what she had figured. It didn’t really matter, Regina didn’t need to be there for Emma to drop off the papers, though a part of her was disappointed that she wouldn’t get to see her.
“Dang, okay. I’ll just leave these on her desk then. Thanks.”
Emma left the file in the middle of Regina’s immaculate desk, lettings some of the papers fall out and leaving it at an awkward angle just to mess with Regina. She was so anal about her desk and Emma couldn’t help but find it funny, always moving the smallest things just to watch the Mayor’s face twitch when she noticed them.
Emma was laughing to herself while picturing how Regina’s face would look when she saw the papers later when all of a sudden she felt the signature weightless feeling and realized she had unconsciously transported herself somewhere. She had a bad feeling she could guess whereto.
She landed in a heap in the middle of Regina’s bed, and since her day was already going so well, Regina happened to be standing in the room, checking her makeup in the full length mirror on the wall.
“Miss Swan?”
Regina’s voice was somehow questioning and condescending at the same time. Emma groaned and could feel the hot blush rising to her cheeks.
“Care to explain why you ended up in my bedroom?”
Emma shook her head and got up, shoving her hands in her pockets and shuffling towards the door.
“Honestly I have no idea. I dropped those papers off at your office and Ashley said you were at lunch. I went to leave and next thing I knew I was here. Sorry.”
“Hmmmm.” Regina gave Emma a wry smile. “I’d tell you to control your magic better but I know that’s quite a bit beyond your ability at this point. Interesting that you ended up here of all places, but magic can be quite peculiar.”
“Yeah I’ve messed up a few times and ended up a few weird places. I’ll keep practicing. I think it’s getting better though.”
“Good. Now, if you don’t mind...”
“Oh yeah, sorry. I’ll just go.”
“Goodbye Emma.”
Regina smirked and Emma felt warm from more than just embarrassment. The Mayor’s voice had contained just a hint of teasing and it made Emma worry that she might realize Emma’s poofing had been more than just random. Hopefully it wouldn’t happen again and Regina would forget all about it.
Emma was hot. She felt sticky and overheated, not quite sweaty yet but in that stage where she could practically feel the droplets forming around her hairline. The air was hot and thick, and each breath felt like an effort. She felt slightly claustrophobic but not panicked, wanting to wriggle but at the same time oddly unphased by how still and unresponsive her body was.
It was dark, and Emma wondered why until she realized her eyes were closed. She tried to open them, but it felt like someone had glued them shut, it was like waking up sick with crusty eyes, or after a night of drinking with day old mascara sticking like concrete.
She tried again to open her eyes and this time she succeeded, but her vision was so blurry that she closed her eyes again immediately, feeling the urge to rub them but unable to with limbs that felt like jello. She felt like she was swimming in a pool of very thick, warm water, or like she was submerged in sticky honey.
Emma was confused, she didn’t know exactly what was going on or where she was, but slowly she focused herself with much effort and became aware of light touch of someone's fingertips running along her side.
As soon as she noticed the touch, it became all she could think about, the rest of her sensations fading away into the darkness. She could feel the hand so vividly, the pads of each finger as they stroked along her ribs, the slight scrape of blunt nails as they moved over her stomach and traced her abdominal muscles.
The light touch sent shivers through her body, a stark contrast to the heat and the itchiness which seemed to invade her every bone, and Emma knew she needed to get closer to this touch, she needed more of it.
Her body seemed more responsive, and she was able to arch into the touch, encouraging it, and she sighed when the fingers resumed their exploration of her torso. After a few moments the touch grew harder, more bold and less hesitant, as it ventured up to Emma’s breasts, circling them casually, unhurried, like the touch had all the time in the world.
One hand became two, and fingers became palms as both of her breasts were kneaded by careful hands. Emma could tell her nipples were hard, and wished that the fingers would give them attention, the blood filling them making them ache to be touched. She arched further, trying to encourage the hands, but they continued their exploration, ignoring Emma’s silent plea.
An errant thought passed Emma’s mind that they were a woman’s hands, just large enough that they were able to fully cusp her breasts. The palms of the hands were soft, and the fingers long and slender, delicate. The way they caressed and touched her was a giveaway in itself, as they knew just how and where and how hard to touch her. Not like the always slightly too hard grip of a man.
The fingers finally focused on her nipples, circling the aerola slowly before brushing over just the very tips of her nipples. It was just a whisper of a contact but felt like fire. Fingertips grasped both of her nipples and tugged, hard, sending a bolt of lightning through Emma’s body down to her core. Emma’s nipples were usually quite sensitive and such a touch would have hurt, but she curiously didn’t feel any pain.
Emma wanted to open her eyes, to see who was touching her. She knew who it was, but at the same time she couldn’t say, the knowledge was stuck on the tip of her tongue, the information stuck at a synapse. Emma felt comfortable though, safe, and no part of her wanted to pull away. This was where she wanted to be.
Emma wanted to arch up into the contact, feel the hot body of her lover pressing against her, to get impossibly closer. Time passed strangely, she couldn’t figure out how long the hands had been touching her – it felt like minutes but also somehow hours. The touch never escalated, never drew back, it just kept Emma on the edge between desperately wanting and needing.
The fog eventually cleared and Emma’s chest felt lighter, breathing was easier. She opened her eyes and her vision focused on Regina, who was propped up above her, touching her gently with that infuriatingly attractive smirk on her face and a dark look in her brown eyes.
Before she had even registered the urge, Emma had closed the distance between them and kissed Regina. She felt like a visitor inside her own body, seemingly having no control over her actions but absolutely aware of every sensation. The feeling of Regina’s tongue against Emma’s was exquisite and made her want more, made her want to open her mouth wider, to get closer. Emma vaguely realized that her hands were in Regina’s hair, but those sensations seemed to fade into the background as her focus was drawn to the pillow like softness of Regina’s lips.
She felt herself groan, the vibrations in her chest obvious even though she couldn’t hear the sound, everything was slightly muffled and her head still felt foggy. She wanted Regina to touch her again, wanted to feel the older woman’s hands on her body, lower this time. Arching her back and thrusting her hips forward, Emma tried to physically say what her mouth couldn’t, too busy as it was kissing Regina.
Finally, Regina seemed to get the message, and her hands travelled down Emma’s body, with the same careful deliberation as before. Emma was wet, and somehow already close, her body burning with a need that had been brewing since Regina started touching her. As soon as a finger brushed her clit she wanted to cry out, but found she couldn’t make a sound or move her lips.
One finger slid slowly inside her and it felt amazing but wasn’t enough, Emma didn’t know if anything could be enough, the way she was feeling then. She tried to open her legs further, to clench down harder, anything to make the sensations increase, but she was trapped in her pleasure. She was so close, and felt like she could fall over the edge at any given moment, but none of the sensations were sharp enough, strong enough for that final push.
It was incredible and infuriating and Emma wanted to scream but she couldn’t make a sound. She wanted to move but her body was heavy again, unresponsive. Her vision had darkened and Regina was no longer in view, whether Emma had closed her eyes or not she didn’t know. Her entire being was focused on the place between her legs, the feeling of Regina’s fingers inside of her. She was so close, she just needed Regina. Regina…
Emma jerked awake, the dim light of morning somehow managing to hurt her eyes even through her eyelids, so she clenched them shut, trying and failing to hold onto the last vestiges of the dream. It had only been a dream. The realization was equally relieving and disappointing. Before she could dwell too much, a pulse of blood between her thighs reminded her that she had been very rudely interrupted right before she finished.
She was going to have to take care of herself, something she was perfectly comfortable doing and did often enough. She hesitated though, wondering if she should instead try to fall back asleep and see if she couldn’t let the dream go to it’s inevitable conclusion, thinking that would be a much more satisfying way to take care of her problem, but another twinge and she resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep until she either finished, or cooled off. She ran a hand down silk sheets to where she could feel herself sticking uncomfortably to her panties…
Silk sheets?
Emma’s eyes bolted open. Fuck. She wasn’t in her bed, or even her apartment, and she was absolutely certain that was where she had fallen asleep. Thanks to her issues the past few days, she was quite familiar with her current location. She was in Regina’s bedroom. In Regina’s bed. In her half awake state she hadn’t realized it but clearly she had accidentally transported herself there. Her eyes were probably comically wide as she frantically looked around the room, searching for Regina. When she found the room empty she sighed with relief, noting from the clock on the bedside table that it was just past seven.
She became aware of the sound of running water and realized that the reason Regina wasn’t in bed was because she was in the shower. Emma didn’t know whether to be thankful or curse because of the thoughts that were created due to the awareness that Regina was naked and wet, less than twenty feet away.
Before her mind could travel too far down that road she shook herself. She needed to get out there as soon as possible. She didn’t trust herself not to poof right into the damn shower with Regina, so she decided she was going to have to escape the old fashion way and hope that Henry wasn’t up and about yet. She would get out of the house, and then figure out a plan from there.
She moved as quickly as she dared over to the door, peeking behind her frantically to make sure nothing looked out of place, and turned the handle. Thankfully the door moved silently and Emma was able to slip out of the room without making any noise or drawing any attention. Emma was aware of every sound, the slight sticking of her feet on the hardwood floors seeming to echo throughout the space, the pounding of her own heart in her ears deafening. She tiptoed on her bare feet down the stairs, peering over the banister first to make sure Henry wasn’t in the kitchen. All was quiet though, and Emma made it out the front door.
She slumped back against the door, panting slightly after holding her breath for so long in a pitiful attempt to stay quieter. She didn’t even want to imagine having to explain her presence in Regina’s bedroom for the second time in as many days, knowing that there’s no way Regina would believe that it was a fluke.
Emma was without her phone and without the bug, so unless she wanted to try poofing, which she vehemently did not, she would have to walk home. Luckily her apartment wasn’t too far from Regina’s, and it was early enough that most of the town wouldn’t be up and about yet. Surely no one would see her, and even if they did, people from the Enchanted Forest ought to have seen weirder things than a Sheriff taking a morning stroll in her pajamas.
Emma had had a terrible day. Since she escaped from Regina’s bed that morning things had gone from bad to worse. She spent the entirety of the day running around town doing what what, in her opinion, the stupidest shit ever which was not worth the involvement of the police department nor her valuable time. Someone’s cat got stuck up in a tree, Mary Margaret had called in an emergency which turned out to be a bird that had gotten it’s eggs stolen by another bird, and Leroy had gotten drunk in the middle of the day and ended up getting his ass thrown in jail by Emma to sober up. Again.
Emma was tired and frustrated. And horny. Running out of Regina’s house that morning had certainly distracted her but it did nothing to solve the problem she had been facing or the increasingly annoying aching feeling between her legs that increased every goddamn time she thought of the Mayor, which was much more often than she’d like to admit.
If she didn’t know any better she would think that Regina had cursed her or something, but she knew herself and her body well and it was simply that time of the month when mother nature worked against her to conspire to get her pregnant. She had been horrified the first time she correlated her increased arousal with ovulation but at this point it was just a fact of life and she knew to to expect it every month just as she knew to expect a week of pain and cramps and bleeding. Fuck mother nature.
To make matters worse, she had been hearing whispers all day from the residents all wondering exactly why she had been walking home early in the morning in her pajamas, from the direction of the Mayor’s mansion no less. She should’ve known better than to think it would have gone unnoticed, despite the relative emptiness of the streets at the time. Emma herself didn’t care one bit where other people went and what they did so long as they didn’t break any laws or cause any trouble, but she seemed to be alone in that opinion. The residents of Storybrooke – especially the older, retired ones that didn’t have anything to do, loved to sit by their windows and spy on their neighbors.
Most of the rumors were relatively tame, or at least the ones she had heard, ranging from her staying the night at the Mayoral mansion to spend more time with Henry to her and Regina getting drunk and Emma being too intoxicated to make it home. She had heard only one suggestion that her and Regina were sleeping together, though the other participant of the conversation had scoffed immediately and denied it altogether– claiming that Emma was straight and ‘no doubt has a Prince as a true love waiting for her.’ Gross.
By the time Emma made it home from work she had a pounding headache and could practically feel the damage to her molars from grinding them. After scarfing down a disgustingly large portion of mac n cheese and taking a long, hot shower, Emma settled down in her bed to take care of business. She hadn’t bothered to get dressed after her shower so there wasn’t much to do besides slip her hand under the sheets, and yep, she was already wet and ready to go.
She wasn’t going to think of Regina. Really, she wasn’t. She’d wring out an orgasm, go to sleep, and forget all about the terrible day. She kept her fantasies vague at first, thinking more about feelings and sensations than the actual human invoking them while she made small circles on her clit. Of course, that didn’t really work so well for her since Emma was a highly visual person, so she ended up trying to imagine someone the opposite of Regina. A man, even.
After a quite a few minutes and absolutely no progress towards an orgasm, Emma succumbed to the inevitable. Regina. Emma imagined Regina on top of her, kissing her, how her velvety voice would wrap so prettily around Emma’s name, what Regina’s fingers would feel like inside of her. The coil in her belly began to tighten at a rapid pace, her body responding much much better when thinking about the actual object of her desire.
She was so close she could taste it, had overcome that last plateau and was rocketing up and up and up… and just as Emma was about to crest the wave, she felt the telltale weightlessness which signified her poofing somewhere.
“Fuck!”
Two things happened at once. Emma came, and she appeared in Regina’s bed, right next to Regina herself.
When she realized what was happening it was too late to stop it but she wrenched her hand away to avoid being caught in the act. She wasn’t so lucky like earlier, and Regina was in her bed reading a book, only narrowly avoiding getting crushed by Emma as she appeared in the room.
“Emma?!”
“Shit!”
Emma scrambled for something, anything she could use to cover herself, ending up curling her legs awkwardly and hiding herself behind a pillow. She was sweaty and panting and could smell the sex on herself so she knew that there was no way Regina wouldn’t notice.
“Emma...”
Regina’s eyes were wide and she looked startled but not displeased. If Emma had stayed long enough she might have wondered why, but instead of answering she did what she did best - ran. Her and the pillow scrambled frantically into Regina’s bathroom, where she closed her eyes and wished as hard as she could to be returned to her own bed, ignoring Regina's calls and knocking on the bathroom door.
Luckily, it worked, though she doubted she’d ever be able to look Regina in the eye again.
She managed to avoid Regina for nearly a week after the incident and was feeling quite pleased with her success. Surely, Regina would just ignore it, especially if plenty enough time had passed. Hell, maybe she’d even forget all about it. Emma tried very hard to convince herself that that was a possible, viable outcome.
Her success came to an end the next Friday night when, while she was microwaving herself dinner, she was suddenly transported out of her kitchen. It felt… different though to when she did it and she could have sworn she saw the lightest wisp of purple and smelled a waft of apples right as her kitchen disappeared from view.
Emma hadn’t been thinking of anything at all – certainly not Regina, so appearing in the woman’s bedroom was quite the surprise. What she saw when she got there was more of a surprise.
Regina was lying on her bed propped up on a mountain of pillows, completely naked, one hand between her legs and one on her breast, pulling at her nipple. Emma’s mind ground to a halt as she took in the sight before her, her body temperature immediately rising a few degrees. She blinked a few times and when she finally convinced herself that the sight was, in fact, real, her higher brain functions kicked back in and she realized that she had accidentally barged in on Regina masturbating and that she should really leave. Immediately. Or yesterday.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry. I’m leaving, I don’t know what’s with my magic?! I’ll get control of it, I promise just…”
“Emma.”
Regina’s tone was calm, a bit lower than normal from arousal maybe but she didn’t sound or look at all surprised to see Emma there.
“You didn’t transport yourself here, I did… this time anyway. I’d thought, after last time, that we’d talk about it, but you’ve been avoiding me. I remember very well when I was learning to poof, the places I’d end up and why… and besides, you’re hardly subtle. You can be a bit oblivious at times, so I’d figured I’d have to just… make it obvious.”
Emma’s jaw dropped and her eyes darted around frantically as she digested Regina’s words. Did she really mean…?
“By all means, if you want to poof yourself home, go ahead. But I’d think you’d rather join me?”
Emma didn’t hesitate another second, and holy shit was reality better than her dreams. She was suddenly very, very thankful for magic lessons after all.