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“A ball?” Emma questions. “You want to have a ball?”
“Balls are fun, and you would’ve been going to them your whole life if the curse never happened,” Snow answers. “We may be staying here now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring some of our traditions here.”
Emma looks to David for help, but her father is smiling. “It would be something of a first for you, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, I – yeah, I mean, I never even went to prom, which I guess is like a ball… I just – I’m not a big poofy dress person and I wouldn’t know how to do the kind of dancing you’d do at a ball.”
“I could help you pick out the perfect dress,” Snow says, happily, clapping her hands all excitedly. “We could even take Elsa with us so that your dresses could match in color if not in style.”
“And I could teach you how to dance,” David offers, a genuine hopefully smile on his face. “It was something I was looking forward to doing before the curse.”
Emma looks between them and their clear excitement about this and then catches Henry grinning at her as he teases, “Don’t you think it’s time that you accepted being a princess, mom? And nothing’s more princess-y than going to your first ball.”
Emma laughs and shakes her head. “Fine, but this ball can’t just be for me.”
“Of course not, it’ll be a Welcome Home, Storybrooke ball,” Snow assures her. “I’ll get all of the princesses on board, it’ll be perfect, just you wait.”
“If you say so.”
***
“You look beautiful, Emma,” David says as she walks down the stairs of the loft, in the poofiest deep blue princess dress that Snow told her would bring out the color in her eyes. Her long blonde hair is full of bouncy curls, and she feels a little out of sorts, but the smiles on Snow and David’s faces ease those nerves, as does seeing Elsa and Henry beside them.
Henry’s in his own suit, his girlfriend going to meet them at the ball, while Elsa is in a lighter blue dress, not nearly as poofy as Emma’s dress. She chose more of a lighter poof, one that didn’t involve extra fabric making it branch out, but she looks just as perfect. The design of the dress suits her. The smile on her face, reassuring.
She and David had practiced dancing around the living room until she couldn’t stand it anymore, but at least she feels confident in attending her first ball.
“She really does,” Elsa agrees when she reaches her.
She offers her hand because that’s what David told her to do and Elsa grins as she kisses her hand.
“Thank you, you look pretty fantastic yourself.”
Elsa grins and curtsies (though Emma finds this extremely weird and out of date), she can’t help smiling. “Are we ready, then?”
“We are.”
***
Snow had managed to find an actual ballroom that Emma couldn’t believe existed in Storybrooke, and after being introduced as Princess Emma with her escort Queen Elsa, which had her all nervous again as everyone watched her and Elsa descend the stairs, she felt even more out of sorts.
Luckily, Elsa is kind in her smile as she takes her hand and leads her to the dance floor. They’re the center of attention at first. She’s not terribly surprised but she is relieved when others join them on the floor.
Emma smiles at Elsa, relieved as the song changes and she can wrap her arms around her neck. Elsa’s arms fall to around her waist, pulling her close as they turn on the spot in a hug with their foreheads touching.
In this moment, it’s just them and no one else and her nerves fly away. They rotate on the spot together, easily melding into one. Emma doesn’t nearly step on her toes like she did to David during practice and in fact, it feels natural together.
She doesn’t resist the urge to kiss her, even if it merges their lipstick, causing them both to laugh, slightly, as the song ends.
It switches to one of those dances that David taught her, though she’s still not too sure that she’d be any good at it.
But Elsa smiles at her. “Just follow my lead.”
Emma nods as they begin. Following Elsa’s steps as they keep in step with each other and all of the couples that are on the floor.
It feels great as they switch partners as part of the dance, and she’s faced with David.
“Having fun?” David asks, as they continue to dance. He’s smiling and clearly happy at the prospect that she’s enjoying her first ball.
Emma smiles and teases. “It’s not as bad as I was expecting.”
“Oh, come on, this is better than not bad,” David retorts.
“Maybe,” Emma teases.
Before he can press further, they switch partners again.
This time, she’s with Henry.
“Enjoying yourself?” she asks, seeing the smile on his face.
“It’s not quite learning how to sword fight, but it’s still pretty cool.”
Emma smiles. “Good, I’m glad.”
It’s not long before she’s back facing Elsa, smiling as she spins her around before the final curtsey as the song ends.
“What do you say we go get something to drink?” Emma asks. She likes the dancing more than she thought she would, even enjoyed the big poofy dress, but this kind of dancing is kind of tiring. “Just one drink and then, we can come back.”
Elsa smiles. “I’d like that.”
“Good.”
***
“So?” Snow questions as she helps Emma out of the dress. “Did you like your first ball?”
“It was – surprisingly more fun than thought,” Emma admits. She can see Snow’s giant smile in the mirror behind her. “Not something that I’d think I’d wanna do every night, but every once in a while, it couldn’t hurt.”
Snow smiles. “We would never do them every night, maybe every other night,” she teases.
Emma laughs. “I was thinking more like once a year.”
“Maybe once a month – there’s always an excuse to throw a ball,” Snow counters.
“Maybe every other month,” Emma offers. “Though, I think my dress will have to be a little less poofy.”
“Deal,” Snow says, smiling at her. The back of her dress undone so she can slip it off once Snow goes downstairs.
She turns around and Snow gives her a quick hug. “I am glad you had fun. Hopefully, you and Elsa will enjoy having even more fun at the next one.”
“I hope so.”
“Good and good night, Emma.”
“Good night, mom.”
With that, Snow goes downstairs, smiling brightly and leaving Emma to her own devices. It may have taken well into adulthood, but she’s pretty happy that she finally gets to have her parents around for things like this.
It feels good – to have family that cares, and a girlfriend to enjoy these things with, even if the thought of attending endless balls is still a bit weird to her.
She’ll get used to it.