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“Lily, give it baaaaa-aaaack!” Emma whines in the background. She’s pouting, arms fully outstretched in reach for her phone, and grasping at air—her “grabby hands” as she terms. Regina tries not to show too much pleasure at her little princess’ frustration, hiding her chuckle behind Lily’s teasing laughter. “Mommy, make Lily give it back! Use your super serious Mommy magic! Pretty please?”
“I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do from here, dear,” Regina says, shaking her head slightly. She winces and clicks her tongue when Emma demonstrates how powerful her lungs are for several long seconds before folding her arms dramatically and ending her display of temper with an even deeper pout than before. “Now you behave. Listen to Miss. Page and use your smart little head to keep out of trouble, do you understand me, young lady?”
Emma blows a raspberry at her and turns away with an indignant hmph. Off-screen, behind the phone, Lily chimes in with a “Awwwwww...”
Regina sighs.
Lily turns the camera towards herself to look Regina in the eye. “So... should I let her sleep in your bed if you end up spending the night out?”
“If that’s what Emma wants. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up falling asleep wherever you drop.” Lily shrugs. “If she wants a story or you feel she’s earned it, choose one from the red bin on the left side underneath my bed. That’s the left from when you enter the room.”
Lily nods again. “Got it.” She turns the camera back to Emma, who quickly looks away, sending blonde locks flying across the screen. “I’m gonna end the call now, Em. Last chance to make peace.” Emma shakes her head. “No? Is that your final answer?” Emma nods. “Yes? Did you say yes?” She shakes her head again. Lily stifles another laugh. “No?” Another head shake. Regina smiles and mouths an ‘awwww’ of her own. “So no?”
Her poor frustrated princess is far from amused. She unfolds her arms to cover her ears with her hands. “NO, Lily! No, no, nooooo!”
“Okay, okay! You don’t need to yell at me; I heard you!” Lily laughs, spinning the camera around one last time. “I got this. Enjoy your night off.”
Regina nods, and Lily ends the call. Come morning, or even bedtime, she will be forgiven, this she knows. It’s in the little princess’ nature to be forgiving.
“Was that Lily I heard on your phone, dear?”
Dropping her phone in her lap, Regina takes the two glasses of wine as Maleficent spreads a granny square blanket over their legs and reclaims one glass for herself. Good thing, too. It’s a little chilly to be by one’s self on the porch.
“Perhaps,” she responds, coy. Her phone slips between her legs.
“Does she know where you are?”
Regina takes a sip of wine. “If she does, she’s keeping quiet about it. Did she tell you where she was going tonight?” Maleficent hums.
“Emma called her out for drinks, I believe. Are they at Granny’s? Or the local bar?” she asks with a small chuckle. “Do they need us to take them home?”
Regina downs the rest of her drink. “Actually... they’re spending the evening at my house.”
Maleficent’s brow furrows, but that’s all the surprise she shows. She takes half hers in one go before setting the glass on the small table in front of the bench. Her lack of inquiry only persuades Regina to elaborate, which she does.
“The Savior and I, we’ve had our share of... conflict, and somewhere along the line, the feelings of animosity began to fade, or shift, or...” she looks up at her old friend and mentor, so beautiful and wise and patient. “Say something, Mal. Let me know where you stand on this before I have the chance to humiliate myself further.”
“And now you love her?” The question is soft, curious. “You’ve fallen in love with the Savior?”
“I’ve... yes—but it’s not what you’re imagining, I promise you.”
A brow rises, and a playful smirk on the full pink lips of a master tease. “Well then, I suppose you’ll have to enlighten me, dear.”
Of course. “Our relationship is... somewhat unconventional, even for these times, I suppose you can say. For one, we don’t have sex...”
“Sexual relations are not essential to love, Regina. You know this. From what Lily tells me it seems the people of this time have either forgotten this fact or are completely ignorant.”
Regina sighs. “I am aware.” She pours them both another round and takes another sip before continuing. “Do you remember what we did in the dungeon of your castle all those years ago?”
“Of course I do. Though, for me, it is hardly so long as you make it seem.” Maleficent turns away, her voice wistful in tone. “You were such a young girl, so eager to learn, and to please, like a child. It was always so endearing. I couldn’t bear to hurt you as severely as you were wont no matter how much you begged...” she locks eyes with Regina once more. “Believe me, you begged.”
Her ears burn red despite herself. “I know.”
“Why do you bring it up? Do you play such games with Emma?” A sly smile. “How does she fare?”
“Occasionally, and rather well. It helps her punishments are far less... extreme. She’s a mere child being put in the corner rather than flogged with a horse whip or burnt with the bottom of a dragon’s tongue.”
“Oh?” A melodic laugh from Maleficent puts her at ease. A low vibration between her legs draws Regina back to the present. She ignores the latter for the moment. “Is that all?”
“Yes... It is.”
Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!
“Regina, so long as Emma agrees with, or is at the very least aware of our little rendezvous—” Bzzzt! Bzzzt! “—whatever your relations are with her, I assure you, poses hardly any a threat to me. Dragons are no strangers to polyamory, after all. It’s practically evolutionary.” Bzzzt! Bzzzt! “Do you need a moment?”
“Please.” At Maleficent’s nod, Regina retrieves her phone and, sucking in a breath, accepts the FaceTime request. “Is everything oka—Emma?”
The camera is definitely in Emma’s hands. Her princess sniffles loudly, holding the phone a good distance away as she rubs one eye with a fist. Her face is extremely flushed. “Mommy...” she whimpers, “Mommy I need to tell you something...”
Regina tenses immediately. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Where’s Lily?”
Emma shakes her head. Hazel eyes dart past the camera for a second. Lowering both her head and the camera so her face is out of frame in favor of her favorite pastel pink pajamas, Emma’s sniffles mix with sobs. “Lily s-said she was gonna read me a story... a-and...”
“And?” Regina prompts, “Look at me, Emma. Did Miss. Page say or do something to upset you? Tell me what it is.”
Maleficent leans in close and watches for a glimpse of her own, chin resting on Regina’s shoulder.
What Regina thinks is her princess crying for at least half a minute clumsily reveals itself to be a fit of laughter as Emma flips the camera to Lily. “I can’t do this, Lily! I can’t tell fibs like you!”
Lily, now in what appears to be pale pink shorts under a long white shirt with LUCKY in green letters, hair in a messy bun atop her head alongside Regina’s reading glasses on her nose, sits on the floor of the master bedroom engrossed by the contents of one of Emma’s picture books. As she reads the script aloud, it dawns on Regina this book isn’t one she thought would ever make it past the walls of the store and into her house, but here it is.
“The cats nestle close to their kittens now, the lambs have laid down with the sheep,” recites Lily in such an English accent Zelena would be proud. “You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear. Please go the fu—”
“Miss. Page, that’s enough!” Regina interjects.
The girls (and Maleficent) laugh, her glasses sliding down Lily’s nose and landing between the pages of the book. Lily picks them up and puts them back atop the bedside table, having the courtesy to fold them up proper before doing so. The book finds a new placement on the lid of the closed red bin near her feet, which she pushes away feebly. She joins Emma on the bed, switching the view of the camera so both girls are in the frame at once. Her thumb tenderly brushes away a new tear of laughter from Emma’s cheek.
“We’re getting ready for bed now—wait, is that my mom?!” Dark eyebrows furrow as Lily grabs Emma’s phone in attempt to confirm. “Are you two... is this for real?” Regina accommodates and holds the phone a bit farther away just as Emma pushes herself back in the picture.
“Hello, Lily, you’re looking well,” Maleficent says smoothly with a small wave, “and hello to you too, Emma, dear.”
“Hello...” Emma says, and hides her face behind her hands before also ducking behind Lily. Taking her eyes away from the screen and moving the position of the phone so only Emma is on camera, Lily reaches behind her and pats Emma’s head. The little princess peeks through her fingers at Regina and Maleficent, and says with her voice partially muffled by her hands, “You gonna come home tonigh’ an’ tuck me in, Mommy?”
She can feel her heart melting. “If you really want me to, but I think Lily’s got it handled, don’t you?”
Emma nods, and takes her phone from Lily again. “But Mommy, I miss you. Do you miss me?”
“Of course I do, little one.” Beside her, Maleficent moves and quietly announces she will return, taking with her both the tall glasses and the newly-opened wine bottle. On Emma’s end, Lily makes a similar, more audible remark. “Mommy’s very sorry for not helping you earlier. Can you please forgive me?” Emma giggles.
“Mhmm! All forgive!” Her face grows serious for a moment, and she cocks her head. “Mommy, who’s the pretty lady?”
“She’s Auntie Maleficent. She’s Lily’s mother.”
“Ohhhh. So are you having a Mommy party? Because me and Lily are having a sleepover party, and Lily said-she said she’s gonna stay with me when I sleeps and beat up all the monsters if I have nightmares.”
“Did she? So you like Lily taking care of you?” Emma nods. “Do you still need me to come tuck you in, or do you think Miss. Page can do it just as well as Mommy?”
Her princess puckers her lips in thought. “Uhhhh... you can come if you waaants...” she says after a brief pause. She giggles enthusiastically when Regina laughs.
“Go get ready for bed, princess. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
Emma nods. “Don’t go sleep too late, promise?”
“I’ll try. Goodnight, dear.”
“Night, Mommy. I love you!”
“I love you too, princess.”
She hangs up first. Maleficent hasn’t returned, and Emma will no doubt be looking for Lily. Gathering the crochet blanket in her arms, Regina heads inside. If Maleficent has any questions, she’d rather answer them soon. She finds her sitting by the window sill, on her own phone.
“Mom... just... why are you using those words?” Lily asks.
Maleficent chuckles. “Because, my dear, there isn’t any harm in a little indulgence so long as everyone is aware and there is consent. It’s widely practiced among our kind. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“If you say so. I gotta go. I think Emma fell in the toilet or something.”
Soon as Lily ends the call, her mother sighs, shaking her head and turning to Regina. “I think I overwhelmed her.”
Regina scoffs. “I’m not surprised. You’re quite the intimidating art piece, Mal.”
Maleficent crosses to where she stands, and cups a warm hand to Regina’s cheek. She glides her hand down to trace the outline of her jaw, and once under, tilts Regina’s head up with a firm finger. The kiss is slow and heavy, calming, and Regina instinctively closes her eyes.
“Perhaps I can formally meet your little princess sometime,” Maleficent whispers, “She seems a very charming girl.” The next kiss is shorter, sweeter, teasing. An arm snakes around her waist and long nails dig lightly into her hips. The blanket disappears.
“Maybe...” Regina breathes, sliding her arms around Maleficent’s neck with a smirk, “but you’ll have to ask very nicely, dear Maleficent. I have all night.”