Queens of Storybrooke (OUAT fanfic, #SwanQueen, NSFW in parts)

Chapter IV: Static

"So you have a magical projection solely based on your memory of the areas? Wow," Emma scoffed as she stepped into Regina's kitchen. She began opening random cabinets, looking for coffee mugs. 

Regina stared blankly at Emma's rummaging, which would normally unnerve her. With Emma, for some reason she didn't mind. "Well you have to remember, I created this place myself. There's no part of Storybrooke that I don't already know by heart. If anything is misplaced, moved, or fiddled with in any area portrayed on the cube, it will notify me with a-"

Suddenly the cube let out a harsh ringing sound and vibrated on its pedestal. Both Emma and Regina turned their alarmed faces to the cube and ran over to it. Regina gripped the sides and squinted at the square that detected strange movement. 

"What is it? Who is it?" Emma asked, squeezing in over the top of Regina's shoulder. Regina sighed and turned her head away from Emma's eager stare. 

"It's just Grumpy. He's knocking on your parents' front door right now. Probably looking to chew you out over the mines still being robbed. I despise those tiny -"

"It...it's okay. I know I need to get on top of it. I'm just tired." Emma turned on her heels back towards the kitchen. 

Regina turned as well, watching Emma walk away. Emma did look tired. Regina instantly felt sorry that she had berated her about not doing her job as sheriff earlier. Not long ago, she lost Neil. She remembered Emma grieving, but not nearly as much as she probably should have. Emma was so good at compartmentalizing her feelings and locking them away, for no one to see. Regina understood like no one else did. She had ripped out her own heart, to not feel anything, on occasion. 

Regina followed Emma into the kitchen, and couldn't help watching the way Emma moved. Her back always straight as a board, her chin up, but with a haggard energy that usually only radiated from the elderly. Emma always perplexed Regina and how she experienced the people around her. Emma was one of the two people in Storybrooke that was a complete mystery to her, as her backstory was not chronologized in  the story book. 

"I know I'm hard on you, Swan. And I apologize. My harsh criticism is a trait from the old me that is a bit hard to shake," Regina said as she prepared coffee while Emma finally found the mugs. 

"I know. I have some old traits I'd like to shake too, honestly." Emma smiled sheepishly. She set down two Victorian-style ceramic cups that were the closest things to mugs that Regina had in her gigantic home. She leaned over the counter and stared down at the floor, her hands bracing herself at the sides of the dark marble. 

Regina chuckled and inched closer to Emma, leaning against the counter as well. She had her back to it, her elbows on the counter top as she lounged backwards. The coffee pot bubbled as it brewed. 

"You mean those impenetrable walls you've got posted up behind that heroic smile of yours?"

Emma whipped her head around, her blonde curls falling from her shoulder to the center of her back. She furrowed her brow at Regina, whose face was only inches from her own. "You don't know anything about me," Emma nearly whispered. 

"Exactly," Regina hissed back. She brought her face even closer to Emma's as they peered into each other's eyes. 

The static between them could blow up all of Storybrooke in seconds.