Chapter Text
Pleasant days in Storybrooke were difficult to come by, but so far, Regina had finished her morning eggs, followed by a long, blissful sip of coffee. The bell pinged. Regina’s head snapped towards the entryway, but it was nothing more than a couple wanting breakfast at Granny’s. They took a seat at the counter then began to skim the menu. What a sight to behold. Regina took another sip of the glorious hot drink, having almost forgotten what coffee tasted like when it wasn’t cold.
The bell pinged. Regina’s fingers squeezed the mug handle, the edge of the cup only inches from Regina’s lips. No customer had entered the building. Regina tipped the mug upwards, determined to finish the damn thing whilst she still could.
Black smoke surrounded the entrance. All too familiar goosebumps trailed along her spine. The couple at the counter shifted in their seats. Granny, however, simply placed a hand on her hip, the apron creasing beneath her fingers. They shared a look. One that was becoming all too familiar.
Lighting struck. Behind the flicker of light Emma appeared inside her smoke, clad in leather, face thunderous. “Consequences,” she bellowed, voice deep and murderous. The way she strolled to the countertop could have challenged Regina’s regalness as queen. She slapped her hands on the side. “I said there would be consequences!”
“And I said that Granny’s is not a delivery service. You want bear claws—” Granny’s arm shot out completely straight, all the way down to her pointed finger. “Get in line.”
The hard look morphed to a pout. Emma stamped her foot. “Not good enough,” she said, though now the deep voice had faded. Regina allowed herself one long sigh. At least she’d finished her coffee, even if in a rush. On the way to Emma, Regina wafted her hand in the air to rid them of the dramatic smoke.
Her heels clicked against the flooring, and Emma spun around, those green eyes lighting up, and for half a second Regina was close to demanding that Granny start a delivery service, but she did not want to know where that would lead to. Bear claws today, who knew what would be tomorrow?
“A calm day is all I ask for, Ms Swan. One day.”
Emma narrowed her eyes. “But I didn’t do anything yesterday.” That did not deserve a response. Regina stared at the blonde idiot. Emma giggled. “Oh, right. But you said they were cute.”
“The first puppy was cute.” Henry had almost convinced her to keep it. “A dozen of them running amuck in my spotless mansion, however…”
The bell pinged and in came Mary-Margret to the rescue. “Emma,” she said. “Please tell me you’re not threatening Granny again.”
“Nope. Those wizards taught me how to control minds.”
“Emma!” Mary-Margret’s horrified squeal caused anyone within a mile radius to flinch. “Surely you learned something less...sinister from them?”
“What’s sinister about having a bear claw delivered straight to your door every morning?”
The proud look on Emma’s face caused something warm and fuzzy to stir inside Regina’s chest. Regina was almost certain those wizards had made up that ability, especially considering it hadn’t worked, and she would put Snow’s mind at ease later, but could Regina really fault the way Emma had attempted to put it to use? Not with the dark one curse running through her veins.
“But you can’t go around controlling—”
“Snow,” Regina warned. “Sweet treats are harmless.”
Not unlike Snow’s disapproval. They’d had a lot of that lately, and it was Regina who has had to pick up the pieces every time. Regina didn’t mind when Emma appeared at the mansion ranting and raving about her mother, but it was not ideal at 3am.
Before any apologies were uttered, either fake or meaningful, Granny’s shook. Regina grabbed onto the counter, a woman was jostled off her stool, and Emma wore a very guilty expression. Regina narrowed in on that look.
“Oopsie.”
Emma poofed from the diner, her giggle trailing behind. Regina’s muscles clenched, her head shaking. “How attached are you to your child?” she asked Snow. “Because she may not live long enough to see another bear claw.”
They’d just gotten rid of the wizards dammit. What fresh hell had Emma gotten them into now? Before Snow was able to wipe the mortified look off her face, Regina poofed out of Granny’s, landing in the centre of the town just as—
A wave of fire soared over her head. Regina flung her arms up, face flaming, and with it, a protective barrier. The remaining fire died on impact. The resounding roar vibrated throughout the town. Cursing Emma, Regina dropped the barrier and teleported into the clocktower for a better vantage point.
There was a dragon in her town. When she got her hands on Emma Swan. Where even was she? Oh, the things she would…no, no, no, no. Regina was reformed now. Emma had seen to that. And now they were here because stupid, heroic Emma had taken on the curse. Regina settled on yelling and lots of it.
Another roar forced Regina to assess the damage. There was a heap of bricks where a floral shop had once stood, metal bent in at an unnatural angle beside a charred swing set, and the trees in the forest had turned red and angry. Regina did her best to send out a protective spell throughout the town. There was only so much she could do, but so long as no-one got seriously hurt, then they could rebuild infrastructure.
As expected, people were screaming and running around like idiots. Regina managed a quick phone call with David. He had sent out people to calm the fires whilst the fairies looked for any potential casualties and got them straight to the hospital.
The next raging fire came hard and fast. Regina teleported back onto the street a split second before the dragon’s tail swung into the building. The bricks crumbled as if in the beginnings of an avalanche, only a few at first, but as more joined they picked up speed - Emma popped up beside the tower – and it collapsed. Emma disappeared beneath it.
Death by clocktower. That would be something for the books. Luckily for them, the dark one curse had turned Emma into a cockroach. It took Regina a few paces before Emma popped up, charcoal stuck to her hair and face, which was thunderous once again.
Regina turned towards Emma, then flicked her between the eyes. “Idiocy trumps dark one!”
“Hey!”
“Leaving me to deal with your mess.”
“I was finding—”
Another dragon took flight with a roar.
“Maleficent,” Emma finished. “She was not an easy woman to track down. I ended up in this swamp realm where I almost drowned!”
Regina groaned. “Need I remind you that the reason we are in this predicament is your inability to stop realm hopping?”
“What was I supposed to do? Leave that stupid dragon to destroy our town?”
That stupid dragon was currently locked in battle with Maleficent. Even though it was much bigger in size, Maleficent managed to swoop beneath its belly, then around and over its back before once again swooping beneath it. The pair raised their arms, in sync down to the magic fizzling at their fingertips. In the dragon’s confusion, Maleficent used her tail as if it was a baseball bat and the dragon a ball.
“Emma! Portal.”
That thing was hurtling towards them and gaining traction. Whilst a swirl appeared on the ground, Regina concentrated on guiding it to the target. “So now it’s useful,” Emma muttered, utterly unbothered about the dragon hurtling towards them. It disappeared in a blink. Emma sealed off the portal and kept it that way.
Regina’s arms dropped, chest heaving heavily. “Of course it’s useful when there’s something flying towards us that could crush us like a bug!”
Emma mimicked the words with a high pitched voice, face pulled and fingers pressing together as if she were holding flamencos. Regina’s lips twitched. “You are not amusing,” she said, but even as Emma dropped the act, Regina had to swallow the laugh inside her throat.
“Maleficent kicked butt! Brilliant idea or what?”
“You want to hear a brilliant idea?” Regina lowered her voice and glared. “Stay in this realm. Then things like dragons will stop following you back!”
Maleficent flew towards them, shifting back into human form before landing gracefully on the ground. “I held up my end of the deal,” Maleficent said, rather pointedly. Deals. Fantastic. Regina glared so hard she was surprised Emma didn’t disintegrate. She had to be the most reckless dark one to date.
Emma returned the look with her shit eating grin. “Have you met her? Big scary dragon doesn’t fight even bigger dragon out of the goodness of her heart.”
“I prefer her like this,” Maleficent said, followed by, “Regina, good to see this one has yet to give you an aneurysm. Would love to catch up, but I must run and take your dark one with me.”
Regina wanted to pull her hair out. As if Emma wasn’t getting into enough trouble as it was. “The messes you continue to get us into astound me.”
“I do my best to please,” she said, followed by a low bow. The urge to launch a fire ball at Emma’s head decreased dramatically. Not that she would let on to that, oh no, not when her town needed to be fixed yet again.
“I do hope that sentiment extends to the lovely citizens of this town,” Regina drawled. “Tonight, 6pm. Town hall. So help me if you’re not back in time.”
“Reginaaaa! Last time they were close to getting out pitch forks and forcing me out of town. Who knows what will be next.”
“If history is anything to go by then nothing good.” Regina didn’t much care for dwelling on those memories. Maleficent hummed her agreement. “I’ll make sure there are plenty bear claws.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
With that the pair disappeared and Regina was left with a town that would take days to repair, and that wasn’t taking into consideration Emma’s relationship with the people of Storybrooke. They’d only just fixed it up after those unhinged wizards levelled nearly half of it.
And yet, any residual frustration had left with Emma. Because what Regina would much rather be doing was fighting a big scary dragon with Emma by her side.
There had always been something satisfying about town meetings. The order, the authority Regina had over these people when it was once a very different story, but since Emma had become the dark one, all anyone wanted to do was yell at Emma. It was despicable. That was her job.
Emma was twitching nervously, eyes following each person who entered the room. “Go sit down,” Regina told her. She handed her the box she’d gotten from Granny’s. “And take these with you.”
In return Emma offered a grateful smile that caused a flutter inside Regina’s chest. More people entered town hall, shuffling into any open space now the seats were already taken. The flutter disappeared, and with it, her ability to stay calm. She followed Emma to the seat that had been left vacant. Emma took it then opened the box.
Henry swiped a pastry and squished a chunk into his mouth.
“Hey! I need the entire box,” Emma muttered, but Henry simply grinned around his food.
“You should mess up more,” he said. “Think of all the free food.”
Before Regina could admonish him for suggesting this was Emma’s fault – even if, technically, he was right, Emma giggled and playfully nudged him. “Or I could go and threaten Granny with—”
“Emma!” Mary-Margaret said.
Regina glared, at the pair of them, more annoyed at Emma’s idiot mother than Emma’s less-than-angelic thoughts. It still caused Emma to slide a little further down her seat, stuffing the pastry into her mouth. “Right,” she muttered. “Free bear claws.”
Now the room had filled out, Regina took her place in front of the crowd. “Shall we begin?” she asked. All eyes turned upon her. She cleared her throat. “Now I am aware that we have taken some setbacks recently—”
“And the cause is right there,” Leroy popped up, pointing at the front row. The murmur of agreement picked up immediately. Emma’s cheeked reddened. “And you’re all doing diddly squat about it.”
“We are working on a solution,” Regina said, regretting her poor choice of words immediately. Emma was not a problem to be fixed, but that didn’t stop everyone treating her that way. And what’s more, Emma had been trying, she’d even dropped the leather outfit for the meeting, something which no one seemed to appreciate, especially with how good it looked on her.
The murmuring, however, had only gotten worse. “May I remind everyone,” Regina said, raising her voice, “that since Emma took on the dark one curse she has not threatened to harm anyone—” except for Regina, but she wouldn’t mention that. “She has not cast any curse, has not intentionally caused anyone any harm. In fact, Emma has been attempting to stay out of people’s way, and when there has been some…incidents, she has been there, fixing what she is able to.”
“A good fix would be exile,” Leroy said.
Regina hated that little man, but much worse were the hums of agreement that followed. “Excuse me,” Regina said, making eye contact with anyone who had approved at his awful stance. “I do recall that Emma Swan has put her neck on the line for all of you ungrateful imbeciles time and time again. Now she has taken on the dark one curse, not for personal gain need I remind you, and you are all ready to turn your back on her.”
The silence that followed was glorious. Regina dared a glance at Emma which was even better. Her eyes were shiny, and she began to mouth something then stopped, instead offering a simple smile.
“Words mean nothin’ sister,” he said. “That dragon could have killed someone. It’s lucky some of us aren’t dead already.”
Regina turned her icy glare on him, but it did nothing more than cause him to chuckle humourlessly and cross his arms. There would be no getting through to him, so Regina may as well carry on with the agenda and try to find out who needed what help. She pulled her attention back towards her son, and the seat beside him that was now vacant.
It had been a long three days of simmering anger, cleaning up Emma’s mess, running on fumes instead of sleep, Mary-Margert calling, texting and just popping in to see if you’ve heard from Emma, and a good dose of anger on top, that by the time Emma appeared in Regina’s office, she was too exhausted to be angry.
“Your mother - we’ve been worried sick.” Too exhausted to even pretend that it was just Snow who had been concerned. They had an open line of communication that Regina had created when I’d become apparent Emma was incapable of remaining in Storybrooke for more than a few seconds at a time. “At least check in next time.”
“But I screwed up, again, I didn’t think…”
Regina rubbed her temples. These past few months had been long and difficult, and they didn’t seem to be ending any time soon. By her desk, Emma gave Regina a sheepish look, pulling out a small, ornate box. Emma placed the box on her desk, right on top of a pile of paperwork, but for once, Regina didn’t care if the stack was pushed all over the floor. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had bought her a spontaneous gift.
The detail really was exquisite. Regina traced her thumbs over the design, prolonging this moment for all it was worth. It was likely some jewellery, perhaps a necklace that she would never find reason to wear or a gorgeous pair of earrings. Emma was bouncing on her heels, so Regina found the edges and popped it open.
Regina peered inside. “Is this a joke?”
Her head snapped up and away from the offending object, not understanding what could have possibly gone through Emma’s mind.
“You don’t like it?” Emma asked, seemingly genuinely baffled.
“Ms Swan.” She pushed back from her chair to lean over her desk. “You will find the owner of this heart and put it back where it belongs. Immediately.”
“But…I thought you liked them.”
“Did you misunderstand what I just said?”
Emma’s bottom lip trembled. This was certainly new. There had been tantrums that ranged from toddler to teenager, anger fuelled rages that lasted for hours, childish humour that only their son found amusing, but never tears, and Regina had no idea how to respond.
“I can’t do anything right,” she said, and her chest heaved, and more tears dribbled from her eyes. “No one—” hiccup, “wants me—” hiccup, “already. Now you’re gunna hate me forever.”
Pulled by some inexplicable instinct, Regina went to Emma, and wrapped both arms around her body. Emma’s head rested on Regina’s shoulder, arms looping around her waist, and she fit so nicely that Regina wondered why they’d never done this before. Even with the way Emma’s shoulders shook and her tears were wetting Regina’s blouse, she never wanted to let go.
“It’s okay, Emma. I used to like hearts, just…not so much anymore. We’ll give it back and everything will be okay.” Regina squeezed a little tighter, hands splayed out on Emma’s back. Her eyelids fluttered closed as if on autopilot. She was so warm, especially pressed up against Regnia’s body.
Long after Emma had calmed neither of them had let go. Emma had muttered something that sounded an awful lot like this is kinda nice and Regina had hummed her agreement whilst squeezing more firmly. It made everything go away, the frustration, the helpless feeling Regina got every time they failed to find a way to rid Emma of the curse, the feelings that Regina had to bury when she wanted to do something like this with Emma, along with so much more. They vanished.
Until someone screamed. They jumped apart, but Emma appeared just as clueless. Another scream and all those awful sensations came flooding back. Tired was an understatement.
Holding onto Emma’s arm, Regina teleported them towards the commotion. People were back to running and screaming, but Regina couldn’t see a source. Emma shrugged, so Regina scanned the area, until—
No.
No.
“Do not dare tell me that this is your doing,” Regina said.
Small, Elf-life creatures were running amuck in her town. Ones she knew all too well. One of them had jumped on a puppy, whilst another poked its owner in the back of his calves to keep him running. A hoard of them began running towards them, but just as Regina raised her hands to fend them off, they dived on Emma.
“For our queen!” one of them said.
Emma poofed out of sight, taking those awful things with her. Regina groaned. Of course this was Emma’s doing. Granny’s bell pinged and out came Mary Margret and David. As if this day wasn’t bad enough. Regina looked helplessly at the pair.
Emma popped back up. Where there had been half a dozen or so, now more clung onto Emma’s body, from her arms, around her legs, one was jumping on top of her head, clutching onto a chunk of hair, laughing manically every time Emma flinched.
“Cut it out!” she said.
Then poofed.
There would be yelling. So much yelling.
“Do you know what’s happening?” Mary Margert asked.
“Ask your daughter.”
Emma appeared back, this time, bringing back more of them. Emma twisted this way and that trying to dislodge the creatures. Whenever she tried to hit one, another would jump up and block her aim. She poofed out again. Regina wanted to scream.
She spun towards Mary-Margret. “Those things are worse than you ever were,” Regina said, not caring in the slightest when Mary-Margret’s glowered. “I had an infestation once. It was dreadful.”
They needed a plan and quickly, but to buy themselves some time, Regina readied herself, so when Emma appeared, she threw a wave of magic hurtling at them. The creatures, along with Emma who was caught in the cross fire – something which lightened Regina’s mood a smidge, went flying, toppling onto the ground and freezing in place.
“Enough.” A whole load of angry eyes snapped in Regina’s direction. “Whatever she—” Regina pointed at the most idiotic dark one to ever dark one, “has done, I will fix it. Now, I am going to unfreeze one of you and you better have a very, very, good explanation for showing up in my town uninvited.”
When one of them had scuttled towards Regina, it took off its tiny hat. “She stole from us,” it said, voice high pitched and squeaky. Mary Margret had the audacity to aww. Regina shot her a look. This day was threatening to un-do all her good will. This was Emma’s fault. She was very, very dead.
David sneezed into his elbow. “Sorry,” he muttered, but Regina ignored him.
“What did this imbecile steal and I will endeavour to return it intact.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed, and although she had more power than Regina and could free herself, she lay on the ground, only able to show her annoyance on her face. Small victories. Whatever affection she felt for the idiot blonde she put on ignore. Even if a small wave crashed through her stomach when Emma’s lips started twitching.
“It’s too late for that,” it said. “She declared war.”
They had to be more dramatic than she ever was as queen. There was no way that Emma could be that stupid—
“SHE TOOK THE HEART OF OUR QUEEN!”
The little thing ran and jammed something into Regina’s shin. Ow. As she jumped backwards, the spell she had cast dissipated. The creatures jumped up, but Regina waved her hands, teleporting herself and Emma back to her office, landing beside the item that had set this thing into motion.
When Emma looked inside the box, she giggled, and so help Regina, because she couldn’t hold it in any longer. The laugh bubbled up inside her throat, because of all the things in the world that Emma Swan could have done as the dark one, she had done this.
“It is a very good job that it is you causing me all this stress,” Regina said.
Their eyes held and caught, Emma’s still crinkling with laughter, because yes, it was a good job that Emma was the cause of these problems, because Emma could get away with it, because Emma could do anything and it would never make Regina want her any less. Perhaps, one day, Regina would even work up the courage to tell her.