"Have you ever felt like you were missing something?" Regina whispered. "Like there was a void in your heart?"
Emma's breath caught in her throat. She knew all too well what that void Regina spoke of felt like. In her earlier years, she had dreamed of her parents coming to take her away, but as she grew older and less naive, she sought for a place to call her own, for people who worried for her. "Yeah," Emma nodded. "I do."
"I always wanted a child, but I wasn't lucky enough to be able to have one of my own. When I went to Boston to interview for a chance to adopt, I saw them catering Henry around the office since he had just arrived, and I fell in love instantly." Regina looked to Emma then, her eyes shining and a small smile on her face. "I was lucky to be able to get him."
"You've given him a great life, Regina." Emma took the older woman's palm and squeezed. "Not a lot of kids are as lucky as he is."
Regina hesitated a second before asking, "Do you mind if I asked what your experiences in foster care were like?"
Emma blanched which made Regina squeeze the blonde's hand in earnest. "You don't have to."
Emma chuckled and shook her head. "No, it's just, not a lot of people seemed to care. My social workers would only get me out of there if it was absolutely dire, and a lot of times, they looked at my behaviour and attitude and figured I was putting it on myself.
"There was one house," Emma continued, "the Johnson's. It's where I met August. They scooped me up after I got taken from my other placement because that family didn't buy groceries for a month so me and the older kids would take turns using our five finger discount."
Regina raised her eyebrows at that, but Emma just shrugged.
"Anyway, the Johnson's were pretty religious. They believed in faith healing, very conservative, and really strict. One time I had a really bad flu or something and was throwing up everywhere, so they got a priest to look at me, and he said to keep praying and if it gets any worse it was God's will. August snuck me some medicine before I got any worse, but after that I managed to fly under the radar with them, made friends with this girl at school who they seemed to approve of, and me and August spent about two years living there. When I was fifteen, August had already aged out of the system and was enlisted. I ran away after that."
"How come?"
Emma's face heated up, and she glanced at Regina under her lashes. "Like I said, they were really religious. That girl I made friends with? She was kind of more than that. She came over a couple times, and one day Mr. Johnson came into my room, and he saw us spring apart. I got well-acquainted with the sting of a belt that night."
Regina furrowed her brow momentarily confused before clarification dawned on her. "Oh."
"Yeah," Emma chuckled nervously, glancing cautiously up at Regina. "Does that bother you?"
"Yes."
Emma deflated and bit her lip. Tension wracked her body and she held her breath. She should have kept her mouth shut about her experiences.
"How can they lay a hand on a child for who they love?" Regina continued, making Emma snap her head up.
Relieved, Emma let out a breathy sigh and shrugged. "I wouldn't call it love, but some people have issues."
"Some people are idiots."
Emma laughed at loud and patted Regina's hand. "I hear you on that."
They continued to talk throughout the movie, drowning out the rowdy teenagers and the couples snuggling on the hoods of their cars. Halfway through, Emma had asked Regina about her teenage years if the brunette hadn't spent it gallivanting which moved them into a game of Twenty Questions, a game Regina had unsurprisingly never played. So far, she had found out about a secret boyfriend turned brief fiance Regina had in her youth, discovered the brunette had aspired to be in the Olympics for equestrian events, and that the superpower she wanted most was teleportation. Emma had divulged that she was an amateur guitar player, would spend her life eating potatoes if she had to, and had been suspended from four schools. By the time she was thinking of her next question, the credits were rolling and people began filtering out.
"I don't think we really paid attention to the movie," Regina commented.
"Scottie goes crazy, and Madeleine is objectified."
"That's Hitchcock for you," Regina said dryly, causing a snort from Emma.
"I'm gonna wait till it clears out a bit, okay?" Emma asked as she reached for the empty Skittles and Junior Mints bag, stuffing them into the empty popcorn bag.
"It's still your turn."
"I have a good one," Emma said excitedly. "Any piercings or tattoos other than your earrings?"
Regina bit her lip in contemplation.
"No way," Emma grinned knowingly. "Where is it?"
With deft fingers, Regina silently unbuttoned the last few buttons of her silk blouse and pulled apart the cloth to reveal her stomach and a small lavender piercing just above her navel.
"No fucking way," Emma laughed excitedly and turned on her car light, ducking her head to Regina's stomach to get a closer look.
Regina blushed as passing cars peered into the bug, clearly seeing Emma duck down behind the dashboard. She tapped the blonde's shoulder, prompting her back up.
"When did you get that?" Emma asked amazed as Regina hastily buttoned her shirt back up.
"I believe that's a question, and if I'm not mistaken it's my turn," Regina said shortly. "Do you have any body modifications?"
Emma snorted and lifted her fingers to show air quotes. "'Body modifications.' That sounds morbid. But yeah, I've got a tattoo."
Pulling back her sleeve, Emma revealed a tattoo on her left wrist of a simple flower with six petals.
"Oh," Regina said as she leaned closer, taking Emma's arm in her grasp for closer inspection. "I never noticed before. What does it mean?"
"Ah," the blonde smirked. "My turn."
Regina rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. "When I got my piercing, yes?" At Emma's nod, Regina continued. "I was seventeen, and it was shortly after my father had passed away quite suddenly from an aneurysm. I took it very hard since he and I were close, and there was just a moment there where I went on a downward spiral. It was that time where I hid a boyfriend from my mother, but it was then on a whim I passed by a shop and got it done."
"Your mother must have had a field day when she saw that."
Regina shook her head solemnly. "Her heart gave out just before my eighteenth. I swore she knew what I was up to, so I ended my engagement and tried to do my best by her."
Emma frowned and wrapped an arm around the brunette, squeezing her shoulders affectionately. "I'm sorry."
Regina breathed out a chuckle, shaking her head again. "It's fine. But you, what's your story behind your tattoo?"
"It was at the house before the Johnson's, actually. I was thirteen or so, and I promised myself that I wouldn't be passed to more than six group homes," she explained fingering each petal. "The Johnson's was the sixth, and then I went to boot camp."
A thick silence came over them before Regina let out a breath. "I think we've sufficiently fulfilled tonight's quota of tragic back stories."
Emma laughed, but her smile was cut short when the sound of a gun went off, and Emma's eyes widened. She grabbed Regina and tugged her down onto her lap, splaying her torso over the brunette's head, cradling it protectively.
It sounded again, closer this time, and it took Emma peeking over the windshield to see that it was just the engine backfiring of an old car. She winced and slowly got up, blushing at Regina's now-mussed hair. "I, uh, I'm sorry," Emma stammered, avoiding eye contact. "I thought it was...something else."
Regina edged closer in her seat and used her thumb and forefinger to tug Emma's chin back to her. Despite the momentary shock of being pulled down, she smiled softly, letting her thumb stroke a path along Emma's jaw to soothe away the tension there. "Don't be. You're safe here," she whispered reassuringly. Waiting patiently for Emma to realize that Regina understood her reaction, the blonde nodded, leaning into Regina's hand for comfort. Quietly, the brunette asked, "do you need to talk?"