Emma and Regina huddled by the fireplace at day after spending the night hunting (yep they are vampire).
A/N I am doing a callback on myself for this one: Stay with me. So I'm going for a similar vibe of what I would've written back then in terms of length and take. Thank you for the prompt M <3 I have cheated a little though, they are not entirely huddled on this one ^^
-As for Stay with me if you don't want to read that one: Premise very simple; Emma is transformed into the DarkSwan and creates her own unique realm while at it. Regina tries to save her. It doesn't go as planned. Originally a prompt, a bunch of words I was given to use in whatever way I wanted. Never sure that I made what the prompter wanted tho xD
The goblet hit the ground, its contents spilling in an array of drops that stained the floor beneath in deep reds and mauves, spreading through the grain of the wood before fully drying up.
On the couch, one hand still languidly offered towards where the goblet waited, glinting in an almost mocking way, The Dark One huffed before propping herself up, muscles waking up as her consciousness came back to her. The room was warm, warmer, that is, than what she knew the darker parts of the castle to be at this time of day: illuminated by the fireplace in where wood kept on burning as she left the comfortable seat her couch was, she picked up the goblet with one hand, blinking as one stray drop began fell on her skin. Licking her skin clean, she sucked on her teeth until feeling two stabs on her lower lip that healed just as quickly.
Outside the castle, further beyond where the covered windows could spy upon the realm, sun shone timidly almost as it reach its zenith. No matter the state of the sun as it moved through the sky, the remnants of its presence made The Dark One's skin prickle while turning away from the fireplace, the warmth leaving her just as quickly. It must have been a few hours since their return, when magic had colored everything in deep purples and dark grays and it had been easy to feel intoxicated on the blood she had tasted on those she had allowed to fall onto her realm. It was later than expected, maybe, and for that she rubbed the tiredness out of her eyes as she glanced towards where the second inhabitant of the castle had left what felt a lifetime ago; the main door of their personal quarters ajar in a way no servant would dare to touch.
Not like they were many of those, magic allowed her solitude. A curse on itself, perhaps, when she had given in on the dagger so it overtook her but different when the first tendrils of magic began to seep out of her, the possibility of a place away from any responsibility her previous title had given her, muzzled her with, a distant moonray she had picked up and nurtured.
Magic, hers, had been at its peak when the vortex had swallowed her in a way that she sometimes thought of and gave onto now, as she walked past the door, corridor waiting for her as torch after torch light up. The opportunity to create as much as destroy came from one unique place when it came to threading ink and that had been used up already when she had wished for a place to hide, to reside, until everything was decided.
The everything being the key for it, truly. Emma, past her, that was, might have wanted a place to rest and come to terms with herself, to maybe even stall for time, to placate her even. She herself had accepted the terms of a weaker realm if only she was able to obsess, to reach towards, under the guise of trying to work together with the mortal side of her.
One she had promptly assassinated the first moment she had been able to. Of course.
This version of her, the surviving one, was sure that, at the time she had created the realm, the idea of having a sun and moon cycle had been a product of her still working mortal mind. Pity, she considered, that she was no longer able to see its usefulness but the magic to change the laws under which the realm operated where locked away on a psyche that had been snuffed out already. A tedious alchemical process would wake it up back again, of course, but did she want to bring back a side of her that had only felt loss?
Her Queen waited for her at the end of the corridor, where it split between going to a lower or higher level, staircase illuminated by floating candles as the torches gave out. She looked pensive, eyes sparkling purple and lips as stained The Dark One knew hers to be. On her neck, the second bite she had taken of her, visible just in between the fabric of her gown.
And she might have created a more modern place perhaps, she could have, definitely. But the silhouette of her Queen, the way the woman moved amidst the place that could only hold them as they were, away from anything, everything else, was enough for her to know she had been right on obsessing, on her mind to reach a laser-like focus as she felt everything else slip away.
She wondered what mortal her would have thought. She found the resulting logic amusing enough for a chuckle to escape, Regina's shoulders barely moving as she turned towards her, the glint of her own teeth a silver line The Dark One found herself wanting to drink to.
She reached out, palm facing upwards in a crude reprise of what had been Regina's first night at the castle, when she had offered everything if she just allowed for the portal back home to close and allowed them in, allowed them time. She had been sure, back then, that magic had come to play when she had sunk her teeth then, when she had given into the older woman's blood.
Transformation had, nevertheless, set in quickly enough, a sort of division being created between them, the version that laid safe and outside any external forces that would put them back into the spotlight of a life Emma had learned to loathe, and the fastidious version that ought to be at the center of that very same narrative that had made them be apart in a way Emma's mind could not comprehend.
Regina picked up her hand -why wouldn't she- lips languid and soft as she kissed her, dark eyes growing darker as purple came back into play, followed by black. She felt herself relax even by the touches the kiss promised to bring with afterwards.
And then a halt, as if the brunette was considering something, a doubt gurgling on her throat.
The wording hung between them as the theater they created fractured for a moment, the backdrop fractal-like in the way magic protested, creaking. The voice that had spoken had come from The Queen but the tone had been different, not entirely pleading, not entirely awake but almost reaching from depths The Dark One refused to entertain for longer than necessary.
A different version of her, however, wished different.
"Let's go back"
Words insistent as the sun continued its own movement across the sky. The last thing, Emma thought, that remained of her, a sadder her, a trapped option of her. Magic rippled out of her in short waves, snuffing out the candles, one by one.
She eyed the way the resulting wisps of smoke framed Regina's figure as their eyes got used to the even less light than before. Regina was still stunning, lips now traveling towards her pulse point, fangs caressing her skin. Emma had first bitten in a similar fashion back then, had been as slow as Regina was now, had requested for the same time than the other woman was.
The call for waking up, however, felt much more sinister now.
They had a realm, for themselves, away of everything else. An insistent call of a child that deserved his mothers a ring she had battled against. Voice insistent, creating a different place as the sun continued its movement across the sky, the last thing that remained of her, a sadder her. Bristling, still eyeing the brunette through eyes that closed slightly as darkness enveloped them, candles snuffed one by one as her magic rippled,
"Why would you want me different?"
A/N So, you know, Strahd anyone?
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