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Ladies Choice
Her thumb ran over the mask. She hadn’t realized the Ball was to be a masquerade. Regina scowled at the mask. Snow had wanted a good old fashioned Harvest Ball, with “dancing and romance and a feeling of home.”
Whatever the hell she thought home meant.
“No thank you.” She dropped the mask back into the cardboard bin. “You don’t cover up perfection.”
Beside her, Zelena let out a snort. “Oh don’t be such an ass, Regina.” She fished out a mask of her own. It was a garish glittering green with black feather all around the edge. “It’s delightful. Like a third grader when mad with glitter.”
“Ninth grade.” Snow White chirped, “They’re studying Romeo and Juliet.” She smiled like a besotted twelve year old, “It’s this realm’s greatest story of true love.”
Regina bit back half-a-dozen sarcastic remarks about
. Like most tales of love, Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy, penned by a man who had spun his famed career with cross-dressing and dick jokes.
“It’s the rules, Regina.” David grinned behind his rhinestone and craft-painted monstrosity of a mask. “Everyone has to wear a mask.” He held out a large and truly hideous black mask that looked like it belonged to a cut-rate Batman costume “It’s all good fun.”
She rolled her eyes, “Fine.”
She twisted her wrist and black diamond encrusted mask appeared on her face, She was a queen, after all, and she had standards.
Town square had re-imagined to be a royal courtyard, or as close to a modern Maine town to come to it. The electric lights had certainly never existed in the Enchanted Forest. Everyone had gotten into the spirit, though. Women’s dresses were large, ornate and swayed asy danced and demurely draped across their men.
Regina had, in a none-too-subtle rebellion, opted for a more modern ensemble. Her dress was a form-fitting Dolce & Gabbana gown that clung to her like a second skin and glowed with a rich gold-copper gleam that she hadn’t been able to resist when she had bought it a handful of years ago. The only alteration she’d allowed her tailor to make was the back. He’d removed it. She’d grown out her hair with a pinch of magic and had swept it to the side in fall of ringlets and curls. She’d forgone her signature red lipstick for a lighter gloss and had only added a few touches of makeup here and there. She’d worn a minimum of jewelry, as the gown needed no further gilding. She’d boosted her height with a pair of jet black Louboutin stilettos. The mask completed the look, she supposed.
Not that it mattered.
Music, dancing, and frivolity marked the Ball as a success and it had only just begun. Global warming and daylight savings time had given them an October sky streaked with sunset and stars. The temperature hovered around sixty-degrees and braziers were ready for cheerful fires if the temperature dropped too low later. It was a perfect modern Harvest Ball. It was a perfect night for love and romance. It was a night, she supposed, very much like the night her mother had met her father at a masquerade. If she was still a naive teenager she would be excited. She had day-dreamed, oh so long ago, of Balls. Of meeting her True Love and dancing the night away. She had thought that these beautiful balls would be magnificent.
She’d been wrong, or perhaps she was just jaded now. She had seen too many pageants, too many banquets and far too many balls. All the glitz and glamor, the princes and princesses, the romance and intrigue, was lost on her. She looked out across the town square and only saw white holiday lights strung through the trees two months too early. She saw watered down punch and a headache of a clean up. She saw yet another happily ever after denied to her.
She had watched these sorts of events from the edges before, as Leopold’s Queen, and had little interest in staying. She had promised her damnable sister that she would attend. Zelena had never been to a Ball and Regina had seen a little glimmer of excitement in her blue eyes. She wasn’t able to bring herself to squash it. So here she was, once again, the fairest wall flower of them all. She would never leave it all behind, not really. She was now, as she had been before, The Queen of Nothing. She twisted her wrist and conjured a glass of wine from her private stores. She watched as Swan danced with her Pirate. She watched Snow dance with Charming. She watched countless couples dance and smile. Even the dwarf got a clumsy dance with the fairy-girl he pined after.
She drained her glass and the wine, a damn fine vintage and year, tasted like vinegar. She swallowed it anyway.
Damn Snow, damn Zelena, and damn all of them, she was going home. There was no need to torture herself this time. There were no guards or footmen tasked with ensuring her attendance. There was no overbearing husband to punish her for leaving. She was going home and-
“Leaving so soon, My Queen?”
She turned, with a somewhat crude retort ready, but her jaw dropped slack when she saw who had spoken.
Maleficent stood in the twinkling twilight, dressed in a tuxedo. She should have known her old friend would defy expectations and standards, She should have expected that she would have come, as Maleficent did enjoy a good party. She could have never anticipated how utterly amazing the woman looked.
The black wool tux had been tailored to fit her like a glove. The stark contrast of black and white was dapper and bold. It also made her scarlet lips stand out deliciously. Her eyes, always intense, glowed incandescent blue beneath her mask.
Much like herself Maleficent had conjured her own mask and it was gorgeous, it was polished amethyst that had been carefully faceted and carved to look like dragon-scales.
“I never understood the human obsession with masks.” Maleficent’s lips quirked, “or Balls for that matter.” She circled the rim of Regina’s glass and it refilled. Maleficent arched a brow and Regina raised and tipped the glass for Maleficent to drink. Her eyes fluttered and she let out a small moan of appreciation. “It tastes almost like
.”
Regina shivered a little, “California, a land far to the west. It has excellent vineyards. I used to tell myself I’d go there one day to see it for myself.” She scoffed at that idea.
“You’ve alway been a dreamer, My Little Witch.”
Regina blushed at the very old, very familiar, name. Maleficent’s presence made her relax a little. It warmed her and made her feel. Maleficent filled up the nothing.
“And I remember that once upon a time you dreamed of dancing at one of these things.”
Maleficent vanished the glass and offered her hand. “Just once, let us have the dream.”
Regina felt tears well up and she blinked them back, “I don’t know how to dance, Mal. You know that.”
Maleficent grinned, “Then I shall have to lead.”
Regina hesitated, the swirl of emotions inside was powerful and it would be so easy to say no, to turn away and go home to where she would be safe. She would be alone, but no one would be able to hurt her. But-
She put her hand in Maleficent's, the other woman’s fingers wrapped around her own: slender, warm and strong. Mal had never hurt her, not even in her own defence when Regina had lashed out at her.
“May I have this dance, Your Majesty?”
Regina pursed her glossed lips and forced her anxiety down. “You may.”
Maleficent brushed her lips over Regina’s knuckles then lead her to the dance floor. It was a beautiful piece, Chopin’s “Mosaic” perhaps, played by a few of the musicians who had traded lutes and harps for violins and a cello. Regina had watched the dance hundreds of times. Regina’s lessons, if her Daddy spinning her around in the garden, had been so long ago.
Mal placed her hand on the center of her back and her fingers traced a soothing pattern against Regina’s bare skin. “Let me guide you.”
Previous, on the few and far between events that she’d been forced to dance she had focused on her feet and the beat of the music (that she had never been able to sync her body to) and at the stares. People had always stared and she had hated it. With Maleficent, though, the worry and self-consciousness melted away. It always had. Maleficent had always been a source of strength and peace.
Between curses, dark ones, sisters, operations and wayward daughters she had somehow forgotten how much she treasured her time with her dragon.
Maleficent moved them gracefully and effortlessly through the dance steps. Regina felt the knotted muscles along her spine relax and her knees unlocked.
“You look-” Mal had leaned closer so her words were whispered directly into Regina’s ear. “-radiant tonight. Like a Goddess amongst peons.”
SHe could feel Mals lips brush against her cheek and the shell of her ear. She shivered in a very good way. Regina slid her hand from Mal’s wool-clad shoulder to her neck where her perfectly coiffed blonde hair met her starched collar of her dress shit. It wasn’t the proper form for a waltz, but Regina craved the closeness. Theirs was a potent connection that she felt buzz through her body, all the way down to her bones.
“You look amazing too, Mal. I thought your new look was delicious before but this is”
She breathed her in, Chanel No 5 layered over lilacs and brimstone. Maleficent’s scent was familiar and wonderful: heat, sex and something that was just Maleficent.
“Truly magnificent.”
They turned smoothly, without missing a beat or faltering even an inch. Maleficent pulled her closer still, they were flush,pressed together. Maleficent had worn heels of her own so she was still taller then Regina so it was all too easy for Regina to rest her head on Maleficent’s shoulder. In the old world this would have been unspeakably scandalous. Hell, Storybrooke was a small town full of small minds so it probably still was. Regina didn’t give a damn. She was in Maleficent’s arms and that meant she was safe and cared for. No one would dare face down a dragon to attack her.
“I’m glad you like it. A little hatchling convinced me it would look good.”
She turned her head and Regina followed her eyeline. Lily, dressed in a low-cut black dress that might have come out of her own closet, stood at the side of the dance floor animatedly chatting with Zelena.
The puzzle pieces clicked together “Oh. Oh My Old Friend, we’ve been none-too-subtly manipulated.”
Maleficent chuckled, a deep and harmonious sound that made Regina’s knees go a little weak.
“And do you regret it?”
She had been manipulated so many times that she should be furious. She wasn’t, she couldn’t be. This was the closest thing to happy she had been in a very long time.
“No.”
They whirled around again and Maleficent turned her head at just the right moment so that her lips brushed against Regina’s in a feather-light kiss.
“I regret only one thing when it comes to you, Regina.”
Only one?
Regina could hardly believe that over the years and throughout all the things she had done to the other woman that she only had one regret.
They twisted again and a tingle of magic (or was it anticipation) coursed through Regina’s body. “Oh?”
“Letting you go.”
Regina lost her breath, lost her words, and perhaps for a moment her mind entirely. SHe couldn’t possibly mean that.
“And now I-we have been given and new chance. I would be a fool to pass it by. I have to at least try, to take a chance. We have both lost so much, our true-selves included. Now we are re-building. My daughter, your son, sister and niece. Perhaps I am selfish.”
She sighed and they turned again. She let go of Regina’s hands and pushed a dark curl out of her face. She lingered on her cheek, caressing her face just like she had oh so many years ago.. Regina stayed close, unable and unwilling to move, to break their embrace and the magic that she could feel flowing between and around them. Her own hands were curled around Mal’s shapely neck,fingers tangled in golden tresses and the raw silk of her bow-tie.
“Selfish?”
Maleficent nodded, “Because even with Lily in my life, I still want you too.”
“Oh Mal”
She looked away for a moment, overwhelmed. That was when she realized that they were no longer on the dance floor They were floating above it. They were dancing in the air and she had been so wrapped up in Maleficent that she hadn’t even noticed. The short shimmering train of her dress dropped down past her heels and protected her modesty from the crowd of people below them who were all starting slack jawed up at them. Honestly, Regina had forgotten they were there. All of her thoughts, all of her emotions, had been focused on the woman whose arms were wrapped around her.
“Mal,” She looked back at her, straight into intense blue eyes that had always been able to see right through her. “I’ve changed. We’ve both gone through so much. Destiny and fate and-”
“I happen” Maleficent interrupted her softly, “to think that fate and destiny is ridiculous. All creatures, even mortals, have free will. Choice. All those years ago you chose to help a bitter old dragon. Later I chose to let that sweet woman be consumed by rage and darkness. You chose to keep me locked away for years yet you also chose to bring my daughter back to me. We are not titles or destinies. We are our choices, and I am asking you to make one more. It does not have to be now, or even soon. You can keep fighting all their fights for them, putting yourself at risk over and over. You can follow fate and be their good little martyr or-”
“Or” Regina’s voice caught in her throat, the word was barely a whisper.
“Or” Maleficent continued, her lips quirked into a small smile.
“Or you can choose me. Choose us again.”
They weren’t really dancing anymore, they were snuggled tight together and swaying in the air.
There were no kings, curses or vows of vengeance between them. It was just the two of them.
Maleficent had, at some point, lowered her hand to Regina’s waist. One hand on her back, one on her waist. It was intimate, but not lewd. Maleficent didn’t shift her hands to make it sexual, though she could have. She had before. Mal’s touch was magic when she wanted it to be. This, though, was not about their sexual chemistry, it was about their emotions. Emotions, something that both of them struggled with.
“So we just get together: all of our baggage, history and children and what-live happily ever after?”
Maleficent laughed, “Happily Ever After? Doubtful, but I think that together we can just be happy. After all the years and the pain, we could be happy together.”
Regina felt a tear slip out of her eye and it was caught by her mask.
The mask.
She raised her hand to the mask, the one she had conjured herself. She took it off. She was so tired of wearing masks. She carefully removed Maleficent’s mask, the amethyst was heavy in her hands. Her face, a face that Regina had loved, still loved, would always love, was bare now. Her skin was soft and her smile was wide and bright. Regina couldn’t help herself, she closed the small distance between them and kissed Maleficent. It was past and possibilities, fire and joy, life and love. It was the choice that she had finally been given. It was the choice that she wanted to make. It was Maleficent.
The masks dropped out of her hands and clattered to the ground below.
“Is that a yes?” Maleficent broke their kiss and looked directly into Regina’s eyes. Some would find an ancient dragon sorceress staring them down intimidating. Regina found acceptance and love and a real chance at happiness in her gaze.”
“It is.”
Maleficent, usually reserved and stoic, broke into another laugh, loud and wild. She spun them around wildly. Regina let her head fall back and laughed too. Maleficent pulled her back in for another kiss. They kissed and spun in the air and happiness was suddenly real and tangible. Sudden applause, shouts and the jarring absence of music reminded her that they were still in a very public place, floating in the air for all the town to see.
“Damn. What are we going to of about all of them?” She was only half serious, she was still unable to stop grinning. This was not a dream.
“Don’t you remember, My Queen, when it comes to the great unwashed masses, always leave them wanting more.”
They disappeared in a swirl of magical smoke, their choices made.