Chapter Rating: T/PG-13
Warnings: Mild Language, Brief Mention of Cheating, Mentions of OQ & CS but as always SQ is endgame.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, or whatever the hell else. They belong to Disney, ABC etc, etc, I claim no rights to copyrighted material, and this story is purely for entertainment purposes.

It wasn't love at first sight. That wasn't how love worked — it wasn't how their love worked. It had snuck up on them. A slow build; the kind of love that didn't spring up overnight. It was something they had cultivated over a lifetime of shared experiences. Because True Love wasn't a sprint. It was a marathon.

They first met when they were ten; two young girls born with the Gift that had come to the Citadel to learn more about their calling. The other kids showed off their Soul Signs; the small inked markings that appeared on their inner right wrist when their magic first manifested. All but the little blonde girl with eyes the color of sea glass. As the other children proudly revealed their Soul Signs, she kept pulling on her sleeve, in an attempt to keep hers hidden from the others.

"You don't have to show them," Regina had whispered to her. "If you don't want to."

"I don't want them to laugh," the towheaded child confessed. "Everyone always laughs."

"Then don't show them," she told her.

The girl scoffed. "That's easy for you to say. You have a crown as your Soul Sign. I have a stupid egg."

She held up her wrist and showed Regina her Soul Sign; a little bland egg.

"I like it."

The blonde frowned. "You're making fun of me."

Regina shook her head. "I'm not. Yes, I have a pretty hat." She showed her left forearm, and there were the Soul Signs of her parents. "Just like my mother and my father. And all of the other people in my bloodline. Mine won't change much. It'll get bigger, have more jewels maybe. But it will always be just a pretty hat. Not like others might change. A wolf cub that could become a pack leader. Or a seed that could grown into an oak tree. And yours — It could become anything."

"But what if it's a chicken?" the girl asked. "Or an ugly duck?"

She shrugged. "What if it's not?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Do you always have a comeback ready?"

Regina thought about it for a moment. "Not always. But most of the time, yes."

That got the girl to smile. "I'm Emma, Emma Swan."

"Regina. Mills."

Emma nodded. "I know who you are, Regina. The pretty hat Soul Sign sort of gives you away, your Highness."

Just then as they smiled at each other, a tiny plain white egg appeared on Regina's left arm next to her half-sister's Soul Sign, she glanced at Emma who was looking oddly at her own arm.

"Hey! I've got your crown," she said. "What does that mean?"

"I think it means, I'm stuck with you," Regina told her.

Emma rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Try not to act so thrilled about it."

"I'll do my best."

They were inseparable after that. Attached at the hip. Where Regina went Emma soon followed. Or the other way around. Most thought that Emma had been her sycophantic yes-person. But it was never like that. It was a friendship forged between equals. And just as Emma would have followed Regina to hell and back, Regina would have done the same for her. They complimented each other. Both the odd balls in their respective social circles, shucking societal conventions. Regina, with whom she associated with and Emma, with how she carried herself. Neither of them wanted to be labelled or placed in a neat little box. And neither of them had much time for fate and great destinies.

"It still looks like an ugly duckling to me."

Regina rolled her eyes. "For the last time, Emma, it's a cygnet."

Emma frowned. "It's a what's-it now?"

"A cygnet," she supplied. "A baby swan. Read a book."

"Hey! I read."

"When was the last time you read something just for fun, Emma?" Regina asked.

She watched as the blonde frowned in mock confusion. "People read for fun? I thought that was just a weird thing only you did, your Highness."

"Idiot."

"And you hang out with me. So what does that say about you, Regina?"

"That I make poor choices."

And when it came to love, they both did.

First, for Regina had been Daniel. A kind boy with a gentle heart that had swept her off of her feet. He had been a common born mage. Born to two magical nulls; those born without the gift. And he was so different than all of the other boys. His Soul Sign was still etched on her heart, still the same fowl that had been on his wrist when he was tragically taken from her.

And for Emma, her first love resulted in a child, whom surprisingly enough, she had named after Regina's father. The boy's father was an outsider, born with the Gift, but not nearly as powerful as Emma, or even Regina. And Neal, just like Daniel was tragically ripped from Emma too soon, leaving little Henry without a father. And Emma without a partner.

"You're going to get through this," Regina reassured her.

"I don't know if I can do this by myself, Regina," Emma replied.

"Then let me help," she told her friend.

"You and me? Raise a child together? As friends?"

Regina smiled softly. "Yes."

It was just like that. So instant. They were both looking down at little Henry and just then a tiny quill appeared on all arms. For Emma and Regina it was adding to the ever changing collage of Soul Signs that adorned their left arms, given to them by the people in their lives they cared for. Henry had one on his right wrist and there, so plainly as day on his left arm was his mother's swan, his father's spinning wheel, and there, freshly appeared, was Regina's crown.

"He has your Soul Sign," Emma observed.

Regina chuckled. "Stranger things have happened, Emma."

And stranger things did happen.

They both found love again. Regina with a highborn noble, Robin, just like her mother had always wanted. And Emma with a lowborn rogue, Killian, gifted with magic but had no place in their world. Not that Emma cared. She loved her rogue. No one could tell her differently. And the same with Regina. They were in love and there was no power in the universe that would ever change that.

However, something had been missing. They both must have felt it, even then. Even when they were so sure of their love of these two men. It must have felt wrong on some level though they never spoke about it. If Regina thought back on those years, she had to admit that every time she saw Emma with Killian her heart broke just a little. But she still didn't bring herself to come between them. And when Emma announced she was going to marry Killian, Regina had been the first to congratulate her.

But when Regina announced months later that she and Robin were engage, Emma had not shown her that same courtesy.

"Don't marry him," she said.

"Pardon me?"

"Robin…" Emma began. "Don't marry him."

"Emma…" Regina shook her head. "Where is this coming from?"

"He doesn't really love you," Emma insisted. "He doesn't really see you."

"Oh, right, I suppose since he isn't' pawing at me in public like some desperate lech, to you that would be mean that he doesn't love me," Regina fired back.

"What is that supposed to me?" Emma asked, her voice rising an octave.

"It means, Emma, that Captain Guyliner doesn't love you, he just wants you for your physical qualities."

"Killian's not using me for sex," Emma insisted. "It isn't like that between us."

"Really? You expect me to believe that?" Regina asked.

"Yes!" Emma shouted. "Because I'm your friend and I'm telling you it's not like that."

"Since we're friends, if I told you that I loved Robin and that was the end of it, would drop it?" Regina stared her down as she spoke, standing so close, she could feel Emma's breath ghosting across her lips. She studied the fire in that burned in those sea green eyes of hers, searching for an answer. When Regina thought she had found it with Emma's silence, she scoffed. "I didn't think so."

And then she started to walk away. But Emma called after her.

"Do you?"

Again Regina turned to her with a "Pardon me?"

"Do you love him, Regina?" Emma asked; her voice soft, and her eyes glassy with tears she couldn't shed. "And is that really the end of it?"

"Emma, I don't know what you're asking," Regina told her as they slowly made their way back to each other.

But her best friend shook her head and closed the remaining distance between them until they were just as close as they had been when Regina asked her question previously.

"I think you do, Regina. You know what I'm asking. You know exactly what I'm asking."

"Emma, don't be ridiculous. I don't have any -"

Emma's lips crashed into hers with a kiss that hit like a fist and stole her words and breath away. Regina's initial surprise gave way and she returned the kiss in kind, her hands in Emma's hair, fingers threading through blonde tresses as she pulled Emma against her with a heady moan. And then the kiss grew into something more. Into something new but familiar. Terrifying but comforting. Into something that was wrong but felt so right that neither could pull themselves away.

"Emma… wait…"

With a shaking sigh, Emma eased away but not completely. "Regina, please don't tell me to stop."

Brown eyes, hooded and dark, drank in the woman that was so earnestly and desperately throwing herself at Regina and she smirked. "Lock the door, Em-ma."

And that's how it had started. It wasn't right. But it didn't feel wrong. It was something that felt true. Truer than anything she had ever felt for before save for the love of the son they raised together. And it was something that was theirs. A secret and dark love, cherished as all dark things must be venerated in a place between the shadow and the soul. But as all things done in the dark, eventually it came to light. They couldn't keep living a double life. They couldn't keep something like this secret. Their love was etched all over their skin, and burned into their souls. There was no way they could keep that secret for long.

It was the secret that had almost killed them. Killed this. Regina was ready to walk away. But Emma fought for them. She never gave up on it. And Regina was glad that she didn't.

However, as the years began to roll away it was clear that this was something greater than either of them had felt.

Still, even now as Regina laid, draped over her lover, sated and content, she traced the markings over Emma's heart of the loves that came before her with uncertainty. What if Killian was a better match for her? What if he could make her happy? She had loved him once. Maybe he was supposed to be hers.

"It's always been you, Regina," came a loving whisper in the night. "Always." Long lithe fingers wrapped around Regina's wrists and kissed the crown that was there, promising again, "Always."

Regina's breath hitched in her throat when Emma flipped her onto her back, her hips slotted between her legs. In the darkness of the room, bathed in the silver light of the moon, Emma's silhouette glowed.

"How is that you still look just as beautiful as the first time I saw you like this?" Regina asked, absentmindedly.

Emma chuckled, as she settled against her body. "Because it's dark and they say that True Love is blind."

Regina rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."

"I'm your idiot," Emma proclaimed, softly as her lips brushed against hers. And when Regina laughed into the kiss, the blonde pulled away. "I mean it, Regina. I'm yours."

"I know, Emma."

"But you don't believe it…" Emma eased away with a heavy sigh, sitting back on her knees. "Goddamnit, Regina. What else do I have to do?"

"Emma… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you think that I doubt you. It's just-" It wasn't something that she could easily put into words.

"It's just, what?" her lover demanded.

"I'm scared…" Regina confessed. "I lost Daniel. You lost Neal. Killian's mark is on your heart. Just like Robin's is on mine. And I… I don't want you to be another regret, Emma. I don't want to look down at this swan next to Henry's quill and remember what I've lost."

"You're not going to lose me, Regina. Or Henry. So long as you want us, we're yours," Emma told her.

Tears welled in her eyes. "Emma…"

"But you're still scared," Emma said. "I understand. I just wish there was something I could do to make you believe me when I say I'm yours. You don't have to say it back. You don't have to feel the same way. I just want to be near you, Regina. I just want you in my life. I just-"

Regina put her fingers to Emma's lips to get her to stop talking. "Shh… Emma… Let me say this. I love you. You and Henry are my world. But… Every single one of these markings on our bodies is a chink in our armor, Emma. Love is weakness. And I… It's… What if I lose you?"

"You know that I love you, right?" Emma asked.

She nodded. "I do. I wouldn't have left Robin if I didn't think you did."

"Ok, but do you believe me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you feel it here?" Emma tapped her chest gently over her heart.

"Do you believe me when I say that I love you?" Regina countered.

Emma smiled, knowing she was speaking out of insecurity. "Yes."

"What if I'm lying?"

"Regina, you're a terrible liar."

She scoffed. "I'm an exceptional liar."

"Not when it comes to me. I always know when you're lying. And you never lie about the important stuff." Emma paused, and cupped Regina's face in her hands. "I am yours, Regina. I didn't expect it to happen. I fought it for years. But it's just the reality. I am yours. You don't have to say it back. You just have to bel-"

Regina silenced her with a fiery kiss, nipping at her lips until Emma allowed her access with a shaking whimper and sagged in Regina's embrace as the kiss deepened between them. And when they finally pulled away they were both breathless, their bodies humming with need.

"I'm yours, Emma," Regina whispered. "I've always been yours."

At that confession their lips touched and a shimmering glow burst forth from their brief union which made them both jumped back with a surprised, quizzical expression.

"What was that?" Emma asked.

Regina shook her head. "How did you ever graduate from the Citadel?"

"I copied off of you."

"I know that's a lie, but the fact that it sounds convincing should be very telling about you, Miss Swan."

"Emma," her lover corrected. "We've been through too much. But come on, your Highness, tell me what just happened. I know you're dying to."

She was actually. But that wasn't the point.

"It's True Love's Light. It's rare. But if that happened…" Regina trailed off as she looked down at her Soul Sign on her right wrist.

"But if that happened what?" Emma asked, following Regina's gaze to her wrist. "Did that just…?"

"Yes," Regina confirmed, taking Emma's right wrist in her other hand. "Look…"

"Holy shit…"

Her swan with wings outstretched had been crowned with her wife's Soul Sign, a golden crown with purple, black, and red gems, matching Regina's.

"Your Soul Sign changes when you met your Soulmate and accept them into your heart."

"Crazy."

"That's it? That's all you have to say? A rare magical phenomenon happens completely localized in our bed chambers and all you can say is 'Crazy?'"

"What do you want me to say, Regina? I'm not freaked out. I love you. You love me. That was already all I ever wanted; to share a life with you and do all of the sappy things my folks talk about. If we're soulmates, too? That's even better."

Regina shook her head. "You're an idiot. I married an idiot."

"This idiot is your soulmate," Emma added, playfully.

Regina's eyes when wide. "Oh, god, you're right. I want to take it all back now."

"Sorry, your Highness. But there are no takebacks. I'm yours."

She smiled. "And I'm yours."

Her lover's grin beamed in the darkness. "Forever."

Regina nodded. "And always."

Soulmates...

So, I get that this might not be Soulmatey enough for some of you. But I needed consent to be a factor here. I don't like the fact that in most of these Soulmate stories, consent is an afterthought. I wanted to make it clear these two are soulmates but it wasn't fully realized until both Emma and Regina accepted each other completely. I hope you enjoyed the story nonetheless. Thank you for reading.

Notes if I continue this: As this story feels complete, what I would like to do, is tell a more drawn out version of how SQ got together in this universe.

And as always you can find me on tumblr where I am MurderouslyAdorkable.