Work Text:
Regina finally had some leverage over Rumplestiltskin but she needed to secure it, and she also had to protect her old friend while she and Emma made the trip to bring back her daughter, Lily.
A purple swirl of magic announced Regina’s arrival in the magister office, and Maleficent slowly turned her gaze from the window to see the newcomer. She had been looking at the apple tree she remembered Regina telling her about one day, many years ago.
“How did it go?” Maleficent asked as she turned her back to the window to meet her only friend.
Regina let out a deep sigh and walked over to the desk, holding the small box containing Belle’s heart, and put it over the white marble.
“As expected. He’s raging, but he’s under control… for now. We need to be very cautious with this heart,” Regina turned her back to the desk and folded her arms over her chest.
“That’s what I’m here for, Regina. I will guard it with claws and fire, should it come to it,” Maleficent said to her. She walked closer to the mayor and stood a mere foot from her.
“Thank you for doing this for me,” Maleficent’s voice was soft, and her gaze was as kind as Regina remembered had once been for her, and it made her feel guilt.
“It’s the least I could do after everything that’s happened between us. After what I did to you with the curse,” Regina’s voice quavered momentarily. She averted her eyes and tightened her own hold on her body.
Maleficent knew Regina better than Regina herself, and she could see she’d truly changed and deeply regretted having wronged her. There had been more than simple friendship between them in the past, and even if Regina tried distancing herself with this posture and by evading her eyes, Maleficent could sense it was contact what she craved.
The blonde woman took a step closer and carefully placed her hands over Regina’s tense arms, and gently moved them apart to a more relaxed position on the sides.
“There’s always collateral damage when one casts a curse, and it always comes back to bite us in the tail. You had to learn this lesson on your own, as I did once,” Maleficent said in a tone that reminded Regina of their days as mentor and apprentice. “I’ve moved on from it, and so you will,” the older woman assured her.
Regina turned her gaze back to blue eyes, mouth slightly agape at the surprise; “You really do forgive me?” she asked hopeful.
Maleficent’s hands went to cradle Regina’s face, and blue eyes looked deeply into brown with tenderness. “You know I couldn’t hold a grudge against you even if I wanted, my dear apprentice.”
Maleficent’s eyes clouded as emotion filled them with nostalgia for what could’ve been if Regina had let go of her thirst for revenge. But the past had come to pass and she understood there were some things just not meant to be, and others that had to.
But what if, maybe, they could still happen in a new world?
Regina felt her heart race inside her chest as Maleficent slowly, tentatively, leaned down to bring her face closer to hers. She swallowed nervously when their breath mingled—ruby lips so close to plum—but her mentor stopped, waiting for Regina to take the deciding step ofthe fate of their relationship.
To move on from, or to move into?
Blue eyes implored brown to take this risk and allow their second chance to flourish, and Regina couldn’t keep fighting this feeling she’d always harbored for the dragon sorceress. She took that last, final step and claimed bright red lips she longed tasting again, and their kiss closed the circle they’d left open thirty years ago.
The void in Regina’s heart would be completely filled with the fire of the dragon.
“Two years later, Regina and my mother are still happy together, and I did find my “father,” but it turned out it was a she—a human—and it’s none less than the former Evil Queen, and that’s fucking awesome! I have the most kick ass family there’s in the fairytale world and I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, maybe one: the un-charming, as my human mom calls them. I still want to punch them when I see them, but it wouldn’t be wise to hit my parents in law. Emma wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“What are you writing?” Emma asked Lily as she came to join her in the living room. She’d been sitting in the chair by the window of their new home.
“It’s just an update to my diary. Nothing special,” Lily smiled at her.
“I object. Nothing about you is ever not special, my star,” Emma leaned down to kiss her lips.
“Says the Dark Savior,” Lilly teased her.
“Says your true love.”