Is It Too Late? - Swan Queen AU

Chapter 1: The Reunion

"Thanks, Charming." She winked at the man, taking a deep breath. The memories had come back to her more so in the past two days of being back in her hometown than they had back in New York. The temperature of the room dropped as a soft voice flowed through the room, barely heard through the loud booming of the one and only Mayor of Storybrooke. Ice ran through Emma's veins at the sound of the woman's voice breaking through the large barriers she had built years ago, and her breath caught in her throat as it traveled closer. "Mary Margaret! This looks... great."

Regina Mills, the one woman who could break Emma with just the look of an eye. The one woman who Emma had cried over for years. The one woman who caused that last push for Emma to throw herself into the military without looking back.

Slowly, the woman in the red jacket turned her body around, taking in the black heels with stocking clad toes tucked within. Long tanned legs were hidden behind an annoyingly modest grey knee length dress, but the olive skinned woman wearing the dress caught the blonde taking in her look. The tightening of Regina's jaw was completely unnoticed by everyone but the retired military woman staring at her. Emma noticed the neck of the dress reached the base of the darker haired woman's neck, and her jacket covered her arms all the way to her wrists. It was growing hotter in the gym, causing her breathing to become uneven. "I-I'm going to go get some air." Her voice sounded almost like a squeak as she walked quickly to a back door of the gym. The fresh air hit her lungs like a fire roaring through an old wooden house.

___

Emma walked through the small crowd of her graduating class to find her place next to Ruby and David as Mary Margaret, class president, stood on the small stage, speaking of memories and the time capsule they buried outside of Granny's cottage. One of their classmates walked up the stage, holding a metal cylinder out to the mousy woman. "We will be opening this, so I will have a few people hand out the letters and valuables we all placed within the capsule. So, without further ado..." The popping of the metal object opening pierced into Emma's gut.

May - 12 years ago

"Emma, I'm putting in this picture for you, but you can't look at it until we open the capsule." A soft kiss was placed on Emma's cheek by the dark brown haired girl.

"Yes, ma'am." She laughed, pulling her letter to Regina from her pocket. "Babe, put this in your envelope before you seal it, I already put yours in mine..." Her eyes looked at the folded up lined pieces of paper. Emma had written for hours on end, trying to tell Regina everything she couldn't in person. Every wish, every promise, every thing she wanted them to remember. One last picture of the two girls kissing on a bench out at the docks - it was Emma's favorite - was placed in Regina's envelope before she sealed it. Emma's white envelope was pulled from her grasp as Regina placed a kiss over the seal, a pink lipstick mark left behind.

Present

Names were read off as their envelopes and pictures were pulled from the container. "Regina White." The woman walked up to the men handing out the valuables, her steps measured and steady as she took two envelopes and a small bracelet with her name on a tag connected to the threads.

"Emma Swan, here." Mary Margaret winked at the blonde as her hands took hold of the two yellowing envelopes, one with a faded pink lipstick mark over the seal. Her eyes closed as she reached her place back between her friends. Soft fingertips ran over the edges of the two envelopes, but she didn't dare open either. One, she knew, contained the letter to herself, a letter from Regina, and a picture of the two, but the second, she had not remembered placing inside the time capsule.

Only noticing she had been zoning out after David tapped her shoulder, Emma shook her head and tucked the two pieces of her past tightly in her inner jacket pocket. She would not open them here, no, or maybe not at all.