The prologue takes place during season one, sometime shortly after True North. The rest of the fic will pick up in season two towards the end of Lacey and will re-write the heteronormative fiasco that was Second Star on the Right.

The song and the title are from Daylight by Maroon 5. Both song lyrics and text messages are italicized in the piece, but you'll be able to tell the difference.

Reviews spread love, and this is quite a labor of love, so... review if you can, please and thanks!

I never wanted to stop because I don't wanna start all over, start all over
I was afraid of the dark but now it's all that I want

Henry rarely had sleepovers, but he had begged Regina to be allowed to stay over one night with Ava and Nicholas, soon after they had reunited with their dad. She had a grudging respect for their father, of course, knowing Michael's loyalty to his children from a time he couldn't then remember, and besides, how could she say no to that face? So she'd let him go, and flinched as he smiled but didn't hug her goodnight. She waved him off the porch after giving Michael an entirely too-thorough rundown of his sleeping schedule and dietary needs. She pretended she wasn't heartbroken at how much happier he looked, integrated into some other family. Some other family that didn't include her.

Her phone vibrated as Michael pulled away from her house.

I hear the kid has a sleepover tonight.

She smiled grimly, knowing a booty call when she saw one, even if it was in text message form.

She bitterly swallowed the desire for it to mean more than that to the bumbling blonde sheriff. They had been making love, having sex, fucking - what did words matter? - on the down low, neither woman acknowledging their desperate and power-laden unions, since Emma had saved Henry from that damned mine. Always after Henry was sleeping; always when Henry was in school; always when Mary Margaret was out for the night and Regina could take Emma on her roommate/mother's kitchen floor and then leave her still half-undressed; always when no one would know, when it could stay in a secret place where neither of them had to acknowledge the thrill that ran through both of them upon seeing each other, the warmth and the strength they drew from each others' bodies, the deep feelings that came with their deep fuckings that neither woman had yet spoken of or hinted at.

And Regina certainly wasn't about to begin that conversation. Not even with herself.

I see the Storybrooke rumor mill now includes its sheriff. Congratulations.

Affecting a devil-may-care attitude was a speciality of Regina's: if the sheriff wanted something, she reasoned, she'd simply have to work for it.

The response was almost immediate.

Yeah yeah wtvr u say, Madam Mayor. Now can I come over or wut?

"Nothing if not a spelling whiz and blunt," Regina murmured aloud to herself as she stepped back into her house, primping in the mirror, reapplying blood red lipstick she knew Emma loved, and unbuttoning an extra blouse button or two before typing out a response.

I'm really rather busy, Sheriff. If you care to specify what you'd like, I'd be happy to oblige.

Her eyebrow shot up and heat tore through her body at Emma's almost immediate response.

I think I know what ud like, Madam Mayor.

Regina smirked.

If allowing you to come over will stop your endlessly cryptic and poorly composed responses, then by all means, come, Sheriff Swan.

Emma didn't miss the double entendre, and her bug was outside five minutes later.

Regina smiled as the doorbell rang, primping her hair one more time before answering. Emma's eyes were already dark with desire, and Regina was suddenly very grateful the sun had gone down, because it limited the chances that someone could see the way Emma kissed her immediately, pulling her inside and shutting the door behind them.

"I missed you," the blonde breathed into her skin, and Regina's heart leapt and shrank at the same time.

"I doubt you missed me so much as sex, Sheriff, seeing as you have the drive of a fifteen year old," Regina quipped back, tearing the blonde's red jacket roughly off of her shoulders.

Emma stopped her tongue's frenzied tour of Regina's collarbone to rear back and look into Regina's eyes. "No, Regina. I missed you," she corrected, with a sincerity that frightened them both. To cover it up, Emma kissed the brunette soundly as they both groaned with the release.

Bruising kisses and nails breaking open lines on each others' backs characterized the next few hours, along with screams of pleasure and teasing encouragements, earth-shattering orgasms and fingers and thighs and lips dripping with each others' juices.

Rarely did Regina drift off to sleep after they did... whatever the hell it was that they were doing... but that night, she did, secure in knowing that Henry was safe and sound out of the house, with no chance of being them discovered.

Emma knew by unspoken agreement that she wouldn't be welcomed in the morning: that if she were there when Regina awoke, the brunette might never allow this to happen again. She ran a gentle finger across the curve of Regina's flawless shoulders, wrapping her body around Regina's tenderly.

Here I am staring at your perfection; in my arms, so beautiful.

She knew she would rather die than admit it, but she wished this weren't just fucking. She put on a good show that sex was all it was for her, and she knew Regina could be a flat-out cruel person, but she also knew that she truly loved their son and would do anything for him: even if that 'anything' was misguided, was holding on too tightly, sometimes. And holding on too tightly was something Emma definitely understood. She was doing it now, as she slid her arm across Regina's stomach and pulled her soft and firm body close tenderly.

The sky is getting bright; the stars are burning out
Somebody slow it down

Regina sighed in her sleep and shifted still closer to the blonde, and Emma allowed herself to smile softly at how relaxed the older woman's face was when she slept. She didn't know that the only nights Regina wasn't plagued by nightmares were the nights she fell asleep in Emma's arms.

This is way too hard, 'cause I know
When the sun comes up, I will leave
This is my last glance that will soon be memory

Sometimes she hated this woman, and sometimes she... no. Putting things to words destroys them. And anyway, Regina would kill her - maybe even literally - if she heard the words that were threatening to form in Emma's mind. She didn't dare hope that they were forming in Regina's, as well.

And when the daylight comes I'll have to go
But tonight I'm gonna hold you so close

Emma gloried in the warmth of Regina's beautiful body against hers for as long as she could. But they had given each other pleasure long into the night, and Emma could hear the morning birds beginning to wake each other with their songs. With immense reluctance - but resigning herself to the thought that this was the only way it could be, not knowing that Regina struggled with the same forbidden and unwelcome attachment - Emma kissed Regina's temple lightly, gently disentangling their bodies as she pulled the covers over her enemy-lover, dressed silently and almost mournfully, and slipped away into the dawn.

'Cause in the daylight we'll be on our own
But tonight I need to hold you so close