Swanqueen fanfic idea and yeah I KNOW I could just write it myself, but I genuinely have no time.
Alright, so season 3 finale but Emma travels back in time alone, Hook decides not to follow her or he's just too slow, idc. Emma lands in the EF and of course Regina is the first one she sees, just like in the episode. Only now there's no one to hold her back and Emma just approaches Regina. She gets captured immediately and thrown into the dungeon.
Regina, who's intrigued by the weird things that Emma is wearing, questions her, and Emma reveals that she's from the future AND another realm. Regina thinks that Emma is a very powerful witch (which, technically, she is) and decides not to kill her... just in case.
She talks to her daily, asks her things about the realm and somehow, Emma lets things slip that Regina shouldn't know about. Regina isn't stupid and realises that this blonde woman knows her in the future. Thus, more questioning begins and slowly but surely, Regina starts trusting Emma and lets her sleep in one of the bedrooms.
Emma doesn't tell her certain things though, like that she's Snow White's daughter, but she tells her about Henry and that they're friends. Regina is taken aback and falls for the time traveller who knows her so well.
Emma, who's already fallen for Regina during Neverland, doesn't dare to take the next step, after all there's Robin (and somehow, Hook) – but as Regina kisses her, she can't deny her.
She does tell her about Robin, but Regina doesn't care much. That's in the future, right? She's in the now.
But then it happens. The unimaginable:
Emma realises that Regina is seeming to lose interest in casting the curse. And, of course, without the curse, Henry wouldn't exist. Storybrooke wouldn't exist. Regina and Emma couldn't meet the way they met.
Alas, they love each other. Madly. Regina's father loves Emma like a daughter, accepts her for Regina and couldn't be happier for them. But if Emma stays, everything will fall apart.
Thus, Emma tells her the truth—the whole truth. Regina is shocked, obviously, mad, too, but mainly terrified. What will happen now? Regina has to cast the curse, right? She has to kill her father and then wait 28 years to meet Emma.
Regina decides to send Emma back and drink a memory potion to forget her. Otherwise nothing would go the way it happened (fuck time travel stories, man. Too complicated.)
Emma is sent back (no Marian/Zelena drama lol) by I'm guessing Jefferson? Is he still in the EF? Timelines, timelines... Otherwise they ask Rumple, idk.
Emma is back in SB, decides to stay because now she has to, for Regina, and tells Hook to stop following her like a lovesick puppy. For good.
She visits Regina, who's exactly like before, so she doesn't remember what happened in the EF.
And Emma starts to woo her (by being extra nice, sweet, flirty, charming), but Regina is with Robin and they seem to be horrendously happy. Emma realises that she has no chance anymore and pulls back, which Regina doesn't agree with.
She confronts Emma, who's extremely weird, and tells her that "something" happened while she went back in time, but she can't tell Regina. Regina asks if it's about her and Emma says yes, but that she doesn't remember because of a memory potion.
Regina, who believes her best friend, starts brewing another potion, to remember. And when she drinks it and does remember, she breaks down and cries, tells Emma how heartbroken she was after Emma left and that her father remembered everything until his death—he probably sacrificed himself for this very moment, because he knew that one day, they would be reunited (I made myself cry with this)
They both kiss and cry and Regina thanks Emma for being so clumsy around magic, for stumbling into the time portal.
Then they say fuck Robin and fuck soulmates (figuratively) and they marry and live happily ever after <3
