Chapter Text
Ugh, why is it so bright in here? Did I forget to draw the blackout curtains again?
Emma turns over and is met with resistance she isn’t expecting. A body. A warm body. Oh crap. Who did she go home with last night? Storybrooke had fairly limited options when it came to people she would want to sleep with. She only hoped it was Ruby so they could laugh about how drunk they were and move on as if nothing happened.
Dark brown hair peaked out from underneath the blanket, so Ruby seemed plausible. But it quickly became clear that Emma wasn’t in her own bed at the loft, nor was this Ruby’s apartment above the diner. Where was she?
The color scheme of the room was cream, white, and gray. The wallpaper had a slight tree like design to it, and everything looked neat, tidy, and in its place. Her phone was propped up on a charging stand on the bedside table, along with her watch, badge, and keys. Emma looked around on the floor for where she likely threw her clothes, but she didn’t find them. And she wasn’t naked. She was in a pair of light pink flannel pajamas.
What?
What kind of one night stand would lend her pajamas?
The woman next to her took in a long breath and turned over, reaching out her hand to Emma, grabbing at the air until she was able to place her palm on Emma’s forearm.
“You okay, baby? It’s early,” the woman grumbled, and finally Emma placed everything.
The decor.
The sheets.
The pajamas.
Oh no.
She’d slept with Regina last night. How could she do that and not remember? If she had been this drunk, surely Regina would have been just as inebriated as she was.
But as the brunette woke up, she seemed relaxed, well rested, and oddly happy to see Emma this morning.
“Em? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s the matter?” Regina asked and sat up.
What’s the matter?
What wasn’t the matter?! Why was she the only one freaking out about this? And why was Regina using pet names for her?
They hated each other. Or, well, more accurately they fought a lot, mostly over Henry, and Emma lusted after Regina. Something wasn’t right here.
But then Regina sat up and kissed her shoulder and this didn’t feel like a prank or practical joke. She wanted to lean into it, but this wasn’t what she remembered. She couldn’t give in.
But she didn’t know if she could handle this first thing in the morning either. So she played along and finally did what she’d wanted to do for months. She leaned over and kissed Regina, hard. Probably with more passion and tongue than was appropriate at this early hour. But she couldn’t help it. She was allowed to kiss Regina and she wouldn’t waste a single second.
“Good morning to you too,” Regina chuckled and laid them both back down, brushing some hair from Emma’s face. “Someone had some good dreams, I see. Anything you want to recreate?”
Emma shook her head.
“Just happy to see you like this,” Emma said, hoping she was convincing enough that Regina couldn’t tell anything was wrong.
Somehow she’d woken up in an alternate reality where they were together. She wasn’t wasting this chance. It might be harder to convince the rest of the town she was normal, but if she got to live out what she’d wanted since she came to this town, she wouldn’t let the opportunity go to waste.
“Like this? Did you have a bad dream, sweetheart?” Regina asked and cupped her cheek, searching for something in her eyes. “You can tell me anything. You know that right?”
She was starting to suspect something was wrong. Emma could tell. If she wanted to keep this up, she’d have to find some way to act normal. But what did that mean in this world with Regina? Her normality was one where Regina looked at her with hatred tinged with fear. Their fights over Henry had been getting bad recently.
What was the last thing she remembered?
She was leaving Storybrooke. She’d had a weird fight with August about how she was this mythical savior and she had to do something to break a curse. He was starting to sound like Henry and it was scaring her. She had tried to take Henry with her, but he convinced her to take him back. Then she decided that it wasn’t safe for him anymore to be around her. She couldn’t be the one he depended on.
And she had a meeting with Regina today. While she’d been packing last night, Regina invited her over to chat. She was going to talk to her about leaving town and maybe setting up some kind of visitation with Henry. Then she went to sleep and woke up here.
Emma couldn’t tell this Regina that. She’d sound insane.
“Just an off feeling this morning,” Emma said and kissed her more gently than before. “I think I’m gonna shower and get an early start at work.”
Every nerve in her body was telling her to stay in that bed with Regina and just make the most of this. But if she had woken up in some alternate reality, or this was a very, very realistic dream, she needed to figure out her baseline.
"Your dream really must have messed with your head. You're not going to work today,” Regina started as she sat up. The neck of her silk pajama top had slid to the side and revealed her shoulder. “Would you like me to join you?”
Again, Emma had to fight the instinct to say yes, no matter how much she wanted to. If they were together in this reality, Regina would be expecting Emma to know her inside and out. One surefire way to tell the woman she adored that something was wrong would be for her to fumble that experience.
“As much as I want to say yes,” Emma said and used every ounce of cool she had in her to climb into Regina’s lap slowly. “I’m really feeling out of it this morning. I just need to a good hot shower and then I’ll feel so much better.”
Regina’s hands gripped Emma’s waist and held her close as she kissed her. Emma was having a harder time getting out of bed now that she was in this position, but she had to be strong.
“Emma, you just turned down shower sex. Normally your idea of a way to clear your head is by putting it between my legs. Now, who are you and what have you done to my wife?” Regina asked in a teasing tone.
Wife.
Oh god.
How was it possible to feel like she hit the jackpot and that she was trapped in the most horrendous nightmare all at once?
Now she felt terrible for wanting to pretend as if nothing was wrong. This was more than giving in to her desires, actually telling Regina how she felt, and getting to date her. This version of herself married Regina. They built a life together. What if they had more children besides Henry? How old is he in this universe now?
“What would you say if I told you that I feel like I woke up in an alternate universe?” Emma asked cautiously.
“I would say that is not my idea of a practical joke and ask you what’s really going on?” Regina looked at her with a stern look and Emma begrudgingly got out of Regina’s lap and shrugged. “Emma, you’re scaring me,” Regina said and followed her, lying on her stomach as she put herself right up against Emma.
Emma didn’t say anything. Her body reacted before she could and she wrapped her arm around Regina’s waist to pull her close. Even if her mind didn’t remember her life with this woman, at least her body did.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Regina asked.
“I had just gotten a call from you to come meet you at your office today. We were going to clear the air about Henry and I was going to tell you I was leaving Storybrooke and ask for visitation because I felt like that was best for Henry,” Emma said, toying with some of Regina’s hair. It was longer than what she remembered, now flowing past her shoulders in gentle curves. How dare she be this beautiful first thing in the morning!
“Emma, that was five years ago, before the curse broke and all of the trials we fought together. You don’t remember any of it?”
The curse? What? Not her too. Now Emma was sure she had woken up in a nightmare.
“I need to shower. Maybe things will be a little clearer then,” Emma said and got out of bed, walking into the en suite bathroom, and shutting the door swiftly behind her.