You Bring the Light [Regina&Emma, 1/1]
Title: You Bring the Light.
Fandom: Once Upon a Time (OUaT).
Pairing(s): Emma/Regina.
Rating: PG-13.
Word Count: 1257.
Warnings: Femslash.
Disclaimer: I do not own OUaT, or any of its characters. :)
They get stuck in an elevator and that's when Emma knows fate is out to get her.
Of all the women in the world to get stranded in a damned elevator with, the very last person she'd want or expect it to be is Regina Mills.
But she supposes that's how it always works.
'Don't talk,' comes Regina's low growl, 'it'll make this easier.'
Emma knows when to push Regina's buttons and when to indulge her, and now seemed a time for the latter. The two of them in close proximity often ended badly, as evidenced by the scar above her eye and under Regina's lip. Once they started they wouldn't be able to stop and Emma isn't looking for a fight. She just wants out of this elevator and she wants out, now.
'I don't get service in here,' the mayor says, all frowns and balled fists. 'It'll be hours before they notice I'm not at the town hall and start looking for me, and hours after that before they're smart enough to come looking here. Better make yourself comfortable, Miss Swan. We're relying on a town full of idiots.'
Regina sighs and leans against the wall. She flips her cell phone off and on, off and on, off and on, until finally she throws it at the ground.
'Whoa there, Madam Mayor, a broken phone won't get us anywhere,' Emma says in an effort to persuade her out of violence, blue eyes locking onto the brown with a quiet plea.
'Shut up,' she seethes at the blonde, her brown eyes almost flickering red with repressed rage.
Emma hoists her hands up in the form of a white flag and steps back, raising her brows. She doesn't understand what's got Regina so peeved. Sure, it sucks being stuck in here but it isn't worth breaking things over. Must be that Regina is not only stuck in the elevator but stuck in the elevator with her. Emma swallows her offense, rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest.
She won't look at Regina, she won't.
If she does, she'll start a fight, and it wouldn't take much to bait Madam Mayor judging by the mood she's in now.
They spend what seems like an eternity in silence and Emma still won't look at her, she's too suffocated by annoyance for that.
Yet still she isn't surprised when Regina finally breaks the silence. What surprised her was how.
'I resent you, Miss Swan, do you know that?' Emma makes a move to speak but one look from Regina silences her. 'No, don't talk.' A pause; a breath; a measured glance. 'I resent you for being better for Henry than I am without even trying. I resent that the town champions you. I resent everything you stand for. I resent you.'
Regina seems overwhelmed with emotion, hands shaking with what Emma assumes is exasperation. She wants to say something but knows she's been ordered not to. She doesn't know what bothers her more; that she's been given orders or that she's following them.
'I want you to leave. You won't, not now. I know that. But you will eventually. And when you do, I'm going to have to clean up the mess.'
Emma presses her lips together and raises her eyebrows. She can no longer remain silent, high road be damned. 'Do you really think that little of me, Madam Mayor?'
'Yes,' Regina answers without hesitation.
She should have expected that but it still pisses her off.
'You're unbelievable,' Emma expels with a sigh and an accusatory glare. She flips her hands in the air and rounds on Regina, and when she levels her eyes to the other woman's she means business.
'What's unbelievable is you, Miss Swan, coming back into Henry's life after you signed it away twelve years ago. What's unbelievable is how you selfishly disregard anyone else who's now in it. And feeding into his fairytale obsession is just cruel.' Regina's breath comes in heaves and her eyes seem to alight with ire.
Emma braces for confrontation and closes the distance between them, narrowing her eyes.
'You just wish he cared enough about you to tell you first,' she challenges, knowing exactly how to press Regina's buttons. 'Or maybe not cast you as the villain.'
She knows she shouldn't have said it but it's too late now and she can see the damage in Regina's eyes.
But she still isn't taking it back.
When the shorter woman lunges at her Emma expects to be hit, not kissed. She expects to be punched like she was that night in the graveyard, not backed into the wall by Regina's lips. She expects to be screamed at rather than smothered.
It is then that she begins to learn not to expect anything from Regina anymore, and kisses back because she does not know what else to do.
Because something from deep within her is telling her to.
When the kiss is broken, Emma tries to say something and Regina silences her with, 'I said don't talk.'
Emma is defenseless; confused and infuriated, exhilarated and stunned. She wants to move her arms but before she can they're pinned beside her.
'What the hell?' she finally whispers, confusion wrinkling her face.
Regina looks a thousand things at once--humiliated, passionate, disillusioned, terrified, irate, bitter. Emma has never been able to keep up with the woman's emotions and now she feels more lost than ever.
Neither speaks.
'I don't understand you,' Emma admits, touching her arm. Emma doesn't understand Regina but she wants to. She sees something flicker in Regina's eyes and it both inspires and chills her. She wants to understand it, feel it for herself. She sees the vulnerability and it enthralls her. She's made a living for herself studying people's insecurities but Regina still eludes her. She's never met someone so maddening and so pitiable. She can't read her, but she wants to.
Regina for once is silent and won't look at Emma. She tries to back away but Emma stops her.
Emma doesn't know the first thing about Regina Mills other than up until thirty seconds ago she thought she hated her.
And now she doesn't know how she feels.
Regina looks like a wounded lioness, cowed but not clawless.
It's silent for a moment before Regina's phone buzzes from the floor, and the two women snap back to reality.
Regina snatches it up and answers it, unloading whatever feelings she's been repressing onto the poor guy on the other side. When she hangs up she stuffs it into her purse and fixes her gaze at the door. She's already decided to pretend the kiss never happened.
Emma says nothing because she's still not sure what to say. Emotions are pulsing thick as blood beneath her veins and her head is swirling with thoughts she can't control. She's confused and enraged and humiliated and yet through all of it she somehow summons the verve to find Regina's lips once more.
Regina yields quietly and in a way Emma feels she is finally in control.
Until they hear the voices of a rescue team and suddenly spring apart as if a geyser of fire shot up between them.
Nothing is said from that point on.
By the time Emma makes it back to Mary Margaret's loft she is in a daze and when asked to talk about it declines.
Each of them go to bed that night with a heavy heart and a head full of unanswered questions.