Chapter Text
Ev’ry time we say good bye
I die
A little
Regina’s warm hands cupped Emma’s face as they kissed soundly, wrapped around the other in an embrace neither wanted to admit was loving. Their sex had been quick, but passionate; now they were savoring the little time they had left together, before Emma returned home to Hook, and Regina to Robin.
Pushing up from the bed above her lover, Regina caught her breath and smoothed back dark locks from her face. She gazed at Emma’s lean form beneath her, all legs, muscle and just utter beauty; she knew she didn’t even come close to deserving someone like this woman, this blonde who had taken over her life the minute they met.
Emma sat up to meet Regina and smoothed her hands down tanned breasts, humming in pleasure.
“God, it’s always so hard to leave you,” Emma whispered against Regina’s chest, leaving soft kisses in a disjointed pattern.
Regina tilted her head up and sighed. These moments always felt so final, like leaving behind splinters of her blackened (yet healing) heart. She broke apart from Emma’s arms, earning a grunt of annoyance from the blonde as she leaned over to grab the hotel alarm clock.
“Shit!” Regina slammed the clock back down and started scrambling for her clothes. It was nearly 6 in the morning – Robin would be awake in the next hour, and she should have returned from her “business trip” with Emma long before dawn
“Regina…” Emma said quietly from the bed, where she sat upright and unclothed, and clearly in no rush to leave. “Babe, it’s fine."
Regina whipped her head around, glaring at her lover. “Of course it isn’t fine, Emma. This…us…we shouldn’t have done this. Shouldn’t have continued this-“
She stopped herself and threw up her hands, turning toward the wall mirror and running hands through her hair. “I need to go. I’m not supposed to be with you, I have a soul mate, for fuck’s sake!”
Emma watched as Regina straightened out the rest of her clothes and threw her things into her purse. She suddenly felt a desperate longing for the dark-haired woman, despite their occasional meet-ups in the shady hotel five miles from the Storybrooke border and stolen moments throughout the week. But to Emma, it was more than a hookup borne out of boredom or attraction: she and Regina understood each other, knew how deeply loneliness could travel to a person’s core.
Regina was the first to spark Emma back to life, but also was always the first to leave her, the first to go back to living a lie with a man she hardly knew.
A single tear rolled down Emma’s cheek and she quickly wiped it away before Regina could see. Curving her lips into a thin line, she clasped her hands in front of her, the sheet barely covering her chest as she waited for another goodbye from the woman she needed to see and feel every day.
Grabbing the keys to her Merc, Regina emerged fully put together and makeup perfectly applied, ultimately erasing remnants of their night together. She frowned when she saw Emma’s downturned mouth.
“Any day now, dear. I’m sure you don’t want to explain anything to Hook any more than I do to Robin.”
Emma lifted her head from her chest. “You go ahead, Regina,” she said in a half-whisper. “I’ll take a cab.”
“Don’t be silly,” Regina scoffed. “Get up, get dressed, it’s time to go back to reality.” She took a few steps forward to the bed and trailed her hand down Emma’s toned bicep. “Until, of course, when the mood strikes again…” she husked, running her eyes over Emma’s naked top half.
Emma slapped Regina’s hand away, who flinched at her lover’s sudden anger.
“No, Regina,” Emma growled. “You’re right, it’s time to go back to them” – she spat out the word, anger dripping in her voice – “and say our goodbyes. Forget whatever we have with each other.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to stop-“
“But that’s what you meant!” Emma yelled, hands in the air and eyes wide. “Just go, Regina. Go home, go to Robin, just…go.”
Emma turned her head away as Regina stood still, mulling over the blonde’s words in her head. They both knew it was wrong to continue, but the nagging part of her brain told her she never wanted to tell Emma goodbye ever again.
Instead, she walked out the door, closing it with a sharp click behind her. She rested her forehead against the cool paneling, wondering why it always had to be so hard to stay and to leave at the same time.
“Goodbye, my darling,” Regina whispered. After a few moments, she finally pushed away from the door and walked down the stairs to the parking lot, leaving behind a trail of the rest of her heart in pieces.