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Regina unlocks her front door and toes out of her heels as soon as she closes the doors. Dropping her keys in the the nearby bowl that Henry made at school in 3rd grade, she proceeds her way toward the kitchen for a glass of water.
She stops in her tracks having barely entered the living room.
There’s an unconscious person in a bathing suit on her couch. A very familiar, blonde one lying on her stomach with hair falling in every direction, she seems to be chewing on a strand of it actually. Regina’s nose wrinkles and she tries to tell herself it’s disgust instead of fondness.
She sighs in exasperation and changes her direction towards the sleeping Emma.
She extends her hand with the intention of poking her when she notices the swathe of reddened skin across Emma’s entire back and halts the motion.
Instead she rolls her eyes and softly pushes Emma’s hair away from her face (and mouth).
“Emma.” Regina says softly.
The only answer she gets is a whimper of protest. Regina pulls back, crosses her hands and repeats the name a bit louder and far more irritated. “Emma!”
That one seems to do it, because Emma’s eyes finally open and she blinks sleepily up at Regina before the ugly sunburn looks to make itself known and she grimaces in pain.
“Regina? What are you doing in my-”
“I think that’s what I should be asking you, Miss Swan.” Regina says with a bit of snark she doesn’t really mean.
Emma’s eyes finally flicker around Regina’s living room, taking in the surroundings as she presumably remembers how she came to be there.
“Oh! Right.” She gets up into a sitting position, though Regina notices how she doesn’t let her back rest against the couch. “I fell asleep in the sun and Henry told me you have some kind of magic sunburn potion or something, so-”
“So you came here and fell asleep in my living room.” Regina says, voice dry with restrained humor.
“I couldn’t find it, so I was just going to wait for you to come home, but…” Emma trails off clearly embarrassed and Regina only somewhat successfully fights off a smile.
“I see.” She says.
They stay silent a moment, looking at each other until the air seems to charge with the as of yet unnamed energy that’s been building between them for a while now.
Before breaking it Regina lets the room grow thick with it first.
“I keep it in the bathroom, wait here.” She finally says and turns around to go get it, she hears Emma letting out a long breath behind her and with her face hidden from the other woman’s view, Regina smirks.
—
“Owww, ow.” Emma whines, laying back on the couch as Regina’s hands rub the sunburn salve into her back. “Hurts.”
“Don’t be a child, Miss Swan. It’ll start working in a minute.” She snaps but keeps the touch as light as possible. Emma’s back really does look painfully sensitive. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson about falling asleep while sunbathing at least.”
Emma’s answer is barely a mutter.
“What was that, Emma?” Regina asks.
“Nothing.” Emma says.
But Regina has excellent hearing, she’s pretty sure what Emma said was: ‘Not if it means more of your hands on me I haven’t.’