Reset

Following the meal Emma and Regina decided to sit in the living room with the second bottle of wine of the evening. High heels had been discarded as they sat curled up at either end of the small sofa, facing each other and talking. It all seemed so natural, they had covered off Emma's time in prison and Henry's birth before Regina spoke about Henry as a baby and growing up. The spoke a little about the Enchanted Forest until Emma could see that the memories were too difficult for Regina.

"So, magic," Emma said as she wiggled her eyebrows.

"Magic," Regina said with a smile at the goofy woman in front of her.

"How do I see if I'm Gandalf?" Emma asked as she put her wine glass on the table in front of them.

Regina rolled her eyes, "well it's not an easy process," she ignored Emma's flippant comment.

"Okay, how do we start?" Emma asked eagerly.

Regina placed her own wine glass down on the table "well, all magic is emotion, as you learn to control it it becomes easier to summon."

Emma frowned and Regina tried again, "if you summon magic by.. anger.. when you first try to summon magic you may need to be in a fierce rage. But later, when you are more familiar with magic, you won't need to go to those lengths."

"Okay, so you're telling me I need to be really emotional to summon my magic, if I have any?" Emma speculated.

"Precisely," Regina said.

Emma uncurled herself from the sofa and sat up straight, "so.. how do I do this?"

"Well, when you first summon your magic you won't be able to do anything with it so there's no point in attempting to do something specific," Regina sat up straight as well, "you need to focus on an emotion."

"Right," Emma closed her eyes and then opened them again, "which emotion?"

"That's up you, whatever your magic may respond to," Regina said.

"Okay.. name some emotions," Emma requested.

"Well, there's annoyance, rage," Regina started.

"No, not angry, I don't want to blow something up," Emma said, "other emotions.."

"Happiness?" Regina said, "admiration, joy, love.. These are all top level emotions, you may need to go deeper into them."

Emma turned to look at her with a frown.

Regina sighed, "happiness, for example, you may be happy because you feel serene and calm, you may be happy because you're anticipating something good."

"Okay, I'm going to try joy," Emma nodded, "because you make me happy," she winked dramatically and then looked forward and closed her eyes and concentrated.

Regina watched her for any change and Emma concentrated so hard she seemed to start going red. After several minutes Emma stopped and opened her eyes, "okay, joy isn't working and because it's not working I'm getting frustrated."

Regina shrugged, "try frustration then, maybe you will only be able to access your magic through negative emotions, they are often stronger and easier to conjure up."

Emma looked unsure but closed her eyes again and focused on the emotion. She searched her brain for frustrating feelings and found herself becoming quite sad but focused on that feeling for a few minutes before she eventually opened her eyes.

"Nothing," she said dejectedly, "and now I'm sad, too."

Regina quickly sat beside her and put her arm around the blonde's shoulder, "I'm sorry.."

"Maybe we could try loving emotions," Emma smiled, "you could hold me and I could focus on that."

Regina smiled, "it's worth a shot."

Regina tightened her grip on the blonde's shoulder and put her other hand on Emma's thigh comfortingly. Emma closed her eyes and started to focus on the feel of Regina's arm across her shoulder blades and the hand resting on her thigh. She could feel Regina's leg against hers and the brunette's breast was pressed against her arm. She realised that she wasn't really focusing on emotions or tapping her magic and a smile formed on her face.

"You know.." Emma said teasingly.

"Yes?" Regina smiled at the blonde's distraction.

"Maybe I need to try a stronger emotion," Emma said as she opened her eyes and turned her head to face Regina.

Regina nodded slowly, "any ideas?"

"One or two," Emma admitted as she brought her hand up to cup Regina's face and leaned in to kiss Regina's full, red lips. In moments they repositioned themselves so they faced each other properly and intensified the kiss. One open-mouthed kiss led quickly into another and they both pulled the other as close as possible so their bodies crushed together.

Emma attempted to focus on the mind-blowing intensity of the feelings and especially the feel of Regina's tongue working it's way into her mouth but that niggling feeling that had been with her all day just wouldn't go away. She tried to push it away and concentrated on running her hands through Regina's hair and across her back. She revelled in the feelings of Regina's heaving chest pushed up against hers and the feel of their lips meeting and melting together.

But the feeling was still there and she frowned which Regina picked up on and stopped as she whispered, "Emma?"

"I'm sorry," Emma winced, "I'm so sorry.. it's not you.."