Well, hello there! So, as some of you may know, I've been writing fanfic for eons-well, since 1999 anyway-in various fandoms, but this is my first foray into OUaT. I've read tons of SQ fic, but this is my first attempt at writing Emma and Regina, so please bear with me and let me know if my characterization is off. This is AU, so I hope that I have a little leeway. Still, I'd like to stay somewhat true to the original characterizations. Be kind?

I'll try to update on a reasonably regular schedule, but I'm working on my PhD, so can't make any firm promises. The depictions of violence are not overly graphic, but may trigger some people, so wanted to post the warning. There is a discussion of suicide in the first chapter, again, not graphic, but there. I'll make sure to add warnings to any other issues as chapters are posted.

Your face is like a chamber where a king

Dies of his wounds, untended and alone,

Stifling with courteous gesture the crude moan

That speaks too loud of mortal perishing,

Rising on elbow in the dark to sing

Some rhyme now out of season but well known

In days when banners in his face were blown

And every woman had a rose to fling.

I know that through your eyes which look on me

Who stand regarding you with pitiful breath,

You see beyond the moment's pause, you see

The sunny sky, the skimming bird beneath,

And, fronting on your windows hopelessly,

Black in the noon, the broad estates of Death.

Edna St. Vincent Millay