Teach Me

A/N: This ficlet is based on the promos/spoilers for the upcoming episode: It's not Easy Being Green. (I was also listening to Rise by The Frames while writing this, so blame my muse's scribblings on that)

"I need you to teach me."

The words float around her head but she never quite connects with the meaning behind them.

"Excuse me?"

"Magic," Emma clarifies and storms through the hallway without Regina recalling ever having invited her to come in. "I need you to teach me how to use it," Emma repeats.

"I.." Regina blinks, then frowns as she looks down at the hand still holding the door knob. She truly didn't recall having invited Emma in. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" She sputters, even as she throws the door shut and turns to face Emma.

"Come on Regina, it's not as if I woke you up. Besides I doubt either of us is going to catch much sleep tonight."

Folding her arms across her chest, Regina fixes the woman an irritated glare. "So you decided to stop by and what; bother me because you are plagued by a bout of insomnia?"

She's surprised to find Emma staring at her for a long drawn out moment before she is moving towards the far wall to recline against it. "I'm really tired actually, believe it or not. Exhausted even. But after what happened tonight I just need...I need…" Emma's lips clamp together and her head falls forward, obscuring her face behind a curtain of blonde hair as she lets out a soft sigh.

"I felt...useless. I want to help out Regina."

"I do not need your help," she replies a little indignantly.

Because it was one thing to be publicly humiliated by that damned Witch; it was another to be beaten in her own game, to have her magic be rendered practically useless. It was another thing entirely to have to admit that. To admit her weakness, to admit she needed help with something, especially magic. It was the one constant she was always able to fall back upon when everything else failed her.

"Is that why you are favoring your right side?" Emma queries and tilts her head up and gazes at Regina inquisitively. "Why you walk a little more stiffly than you normally do?"

Regina grits her teeth as she holds Emma's gaze unflinchingly. "I am doing just fine, thank you."

"The hell you do," Emma spits out angrily. "Goddamnit Regina, you got thrown through the freaking clock-tower. You could've died, you.."

"My magic protected me," Regina interrupts. She rubs across her temples wearily as she tries to think of a way to get Emma to leave her alone. She needs some time and space. Preferably alone.

"This time."

"It will the next time too. I might have underestimated Zelena but that won't happen again."

"Why are you so adamant on going about this solo? I just..I don't understand it," Emma says as she launches herself away from the wall and approaches Regina. "Why? I remember in Neverland you said we could beat Pan together. That our magic combined would be strong enough. Why won't you teach me?"

"Because this isn't your problem Emma," Regina says as she rolls the muscles in her shoulders. "It's mine." Though she won't admit it out loud, Emma is right. Her entire body is killing her. Even with how she used magic to cushion her fall, and to heal her injuries, she hasn't been able to take away all the discomfort.

"Because she's your sister?"

She can't help her reaction to the word. The way her entire body stiffens and then this surge of anger that courses through her body. More secrets that Cora had kept from her. And she's been wondering, ever since the revelation that she had a sister; if things could've been different now, had her mother told her about it in the past. Not that it matters anymore. Even with Zelena being her sister, she is unreasonable and a threat to everything she cares about. Henry mainly. And she would stop at nothing to protect him. Even if it means killing Zelena.

"She means nothing to me, if that's what you are worried about," Regina says. Then as she looks at the clock in the hallways she purses her lips and tilts her head at her uninvited guest. "If we are done? Some of us do need our nightrest."

"So that's it? You're just going about this all by yourself and possibly get yourself killed in the process?" Emma says in a tone which is a mixture of anger and exasperation. "Henry just lost his father Regina how the hell…"

"He doesn't remember me," Regina interrupts, her nostrils flare with anger at that subject being brought back up again. Just seeing him every day without a spark of recognition in his eyes is weighing heavily on her heart, she can do without being reminded of in other ways.

"But he will," Emma counters as she steps into Regina's space, until there are scarcely inches left between their faces. Their sudden close proximity forces Regina to look into Emma's eyes.

"And I just..I just broke the news to him that he lost his father okay? So I.."

It's the choked up way Emma's voice sounds as she halts mid-sentence, which reminds Regina of the words Emma had spoken at Neal's funeral. And it's the spark of something dangerous and dark shining in Emma's eyes which alerts Regina that Emma might just have ulterior motives for coming to her door in the middle of the night.

"It's about him isn't it?" She hedges carefully, even as Emma's eyes flicker everywhere instead of meeting Regina's own. The silence that lingers after that is all the answer Regina needs, but instead of saying anything else she waits. She waits, because the look residing on Emma's face reminds her of a broken heart and not enough time to have it mend again. Not enough time to come to terms with never seeing someone again.

She heard what happened that very same day. And she is without words ever since. Because the images are still too fresh in her own mind, and she cannot shake feeling the similarities to what she had to do herself.

"You want to learn magic because you want to take what you are feeling right now out on Zelena," she finally says, after a few more seconds pass.

"If I said that's part of the reason, are you going to tell me you won't teach me magic?" Emma speaks up. The expression on her face is calm, but Regina knows better, the way Emma's hands fidget with the edges of her red jacket are a dead give-away.

"Hurting her…killing her won't bring him back."

"No, but at least his sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain. I want to help Regina. You and I both know that as long as Zelena controls Gold with that dagger, she'll be practically invincible. And if nothing else, I at least owe it to Neal to try and save his father."

"Even if I did teach you magic, it might not be enough," Regina admits hesitatingly. Because it is not as if she hasn't thought about it. It is not as if she hasn't thought of a hundred different ways either she or Emma might have attempted to wrest the control of the dagger from Zelena during the fight in the town-square. But at the time she wasn't able to find a weakness in the magic that Zelena was using to keep it secure, and Emma.. Emma wasn't even been able to keep herself up right after the first blast of magic fired her way.

"There isn't just me you know?" Emma replies and her lips curl up in the faintest of smiles. "There's an entire town of people right now that's ready to back you up. And I know it might not seem like much, but I also know that it's not something Zelena might count on. Especially not after that display she pulled earlier tonight."

She is half tempted to sneer at the notion that some mere peasants would be of any use in whatever upcoming fights might follow, but Regina stops herself before the words of disdain can roll across her lips. Instead some bits and pieces of a plan slowly start to form inside her head and she smirks at Emma in response. Only to find Emma look at her almost worriedly.

"What?" she mutters, unable to mask the irritation in her voice. She has seen that expression once time too many times today, ever since she hobbled out of the clock-tower.

"I was lying on the ground, paralysed and unable to do crap Regina. I couldn't...move, I couldn't do anything. And she just..lifted you off the ground and hurled you through the air. I can't stop thinking about it," Emma says, her tone soft and strangely devoid of any anger that Regina had expected to accompany her words.

"I can't stop thinking that if only I had known more about magic. I could feel it, dancing beneath my fingertips, but at that moment, I wasn't able to do anything with it. Teach me," she says again, and this time Regina can't think of a single reason to say no.

"Fine," she huffs out, as she tucks a stray lock of hair behind one of her ears. "Though it would have to wait until tomorrow, I do not have the energy or will for this right now."

"Right.." Emma's gaze lifts to the clock and Regina thinks that at the very least she has the decency to look sheepish upon actually realizing what time it was. "I know, it's strange but like I said before, I've never felt so drained and at the same time I'm too wired to sleep just yet. Too much...stuff on my mind I guess."

Like Neal, Regina muses as she sees Emma's eyes cloud over for a moment, and it's that thought along with seeing Emma reluctantly walk towards the door that makes her do something she knows she would never do normally. But Emma had reached out before, had pushed her to talk to Henry and interact with him, and Regina thinks that if there is ever a moment to repay that kindness it would be now.

"Do you want to stay for a little while longer?" she offers before Emma reaches the door. "I think a drink or two can't hurt tonight, all things considered, wouldn't you agree?"

"Uh..sure?" The way Emma's expression changes from confused to relieved is all the confirmation Regina needs that she made the right call.

"Cider?"

She catches Emma smiling at her faintly from the corner of her eyes as they walk through the hallway.

"Got something stronger?"

And some of the heaviness on her heart dissipates as she smiles back.