Was there any aspect of her life that her mother didn't screw up? The woman had been dead for three years and still managed to life difficult for Regina. Not two minutes into being the savior, and her façade was starting to crumble.
"I'd be honored if you were to wear this to the ball tonight." It was a simple enough gesture, Regina thought as Robin fastened the pendant around her neck. She could do that, wear some piece of gaudy jewelry to the ball if that's all Arthur asked of her.
"I'm looking forward to a dance with the savior." Her heart stopped, and Percival's presence was forgotten. A dance? She could hear Cora's comments as clear as day.
"Regina don't slouch!" The older woman snapped at her ten-year-old, forcefully straightening her posture.
"You're a princess, not a peasant!" The girl didn't make a sound as Cora tugged at the elaborate updo that had fallen out of place.
"Look at you, all disheveled. What will the instructor think?" Young Regina made a pained sound as her mother jabbed the pins back into her head.
"I'm sorry, Mother, but I hate dancing! Why can't I play with the other children instead?" Wrong thing to say, as Cora physically dragged her daughter into the dance hall.
"Those other children aren't going to run a kingdom! Future queens must learn to dance." Cora left Regina in the care of Master Rivers and didn't bother to stay and watch, only leaving her with a single piece of motherly advice.
"Don't disappoint me, dear. You know the consequences."
Unfortunately, Regina was terrible at ballet. She wasn't flexible enough, her turnout wasn't perfect, and her feet were always sickled- no matter how hard she tried. After months of lessons, and not getting the results her mother wanted, all lessons were dropped completely in favor of other fields. She never learned to dance properly.
"At least you're pretty." Her mother would say when she would eventually fail to meet Cora's high standards at French, Spanish, world history, etc. If it wasn't for her remarkable magical talent, Regina would have felt utterly useless. But there was a significant part of her past that she didn't know she had forgotten.
"He's not the only one looking forward to a dance with the savior." Robin remarked, stroking the back of Regina's hand with his thumb. Regina didn't have the heart to tell him the truth, so she just smiled slightly and leaned into his touch. What was she going to do? She obviously couldn't go to the ball.
"I'll watch him tonight, I'm not going." While her offer to babysit Prince Neal was genuine, it was also a great excuse to miss out on the ball. The Charmings did not take the bait, to her great displeasure.
"But you have to, everyone's expecting you!" Snow exclaimed, almost offended that Regina would turn down the chance to go to a lavish ball. Her stepdaughter would never understand the real reason why.
"I should be figuring out how to rescue Merlin, not fox-trotting my way across Club Medieval!" Would her defensive sass be enough to deter one of Snow's optimistic talks?
"What's the real reason, Regina?" Snow persisted, staring down the Queen.
"Because…" Should she just say it? That the great and terrible Evil Queen was horribly unqualified to be a monarch?
"…I don't know how to dance." There. The embarrassing admission was out in the open, free for Snow and Charming to make fun of her for.
"That can't be possible, we went to dozens of balls together!" Regina's anger was starting to rise. The girl wasn't getting it.
"Where your father was more interested in dancing with his precious daughter than his wife! No one cared enough to ask me to dance!" Snow flinched, but was otherwise undeterred.
"Well, we'll just have to teach you." Oh dear god no.
"No." Regina didn't need traumatic childhood memories to resurface.
"Doc?" The princess turned towards the dwarf in the room, who had picked up an ornate music box. One that Regina recognized.
"Where did you get that?" She couldn't place it, but she had seen it before.
"Gold gave it to me before we left." Snow shrugged.
"He said we would need it in Camelot. Didn't say where he got it." Before Regina could protest, David took her hand and swept her into a dance. Snow then turned the crank on the music box, and Regina felt something rush through her, Rumple's memory charm breaking. The song…she knew it well.
"One and two and three and four step ball change. Beautiful, mi princesa!" A sixteen-year-old princess with ebony hair was being twirled around the achingly familiar ballroom by a woman that could be her 65-year-old twin. The younger version of herself laughed, curtseying light heartedly. It was the happiest she'd ever seen herself.
"I don't know, Grandmother. I still see myself stepping on Father's toes." Regina gasped. She had a grandmother?
"My dear, no one is a worse dancer than your father. I never could teach him to be light on his feet." The older woman took adolescent Regina by the hand and led her out of the ballroom to the queen's sitting room. The two women seemed to be very close.
"Will you be there? I know you don't like Mother, but you're the Queen! You're expected to attend!" Regina realized they were talking about her birthday ball. An event she never used to look back on fondly, and now she knew why. A key detail had been left out of her memory.
"It's your event, mi cara. If you want me there, it shall be so." They were interrupted by a palace guard, addressing the older woman by Your Majesty. Things were starting to piece together. There was a reason this sitting room looked familiar- this was her ancestral home. Her grandmother was the one and only Queen Isabella of Catalonia, her father's mother- a woman who loved her only granddaughter with all her heart. But then Rumple had to ruin it.
"I don't want to go." Young Regina had cried when her father had come to collect her. They had to return home before Cora found out where they had really gone.
"Mi bella muñeca, this isn't goodbye. I will always watch over you." The older monarch had embraced her sole heir in a tight hug, wiping the tears from her face.
"No matter what your mother tries to plant in your head, there are people that love you. Remember that, Regina." Young Regina nodded, returning the sentiment.
The memory ended in a flash, Regina returning to reality when she felt David shake her somewhat roughly.
"Regina? Hello?" The Queen blinked and looked at the prince with a blissful smile on her face leftover from the experience. She was going to make it her mission to find her grandmother and run right into dear Nana's arms.
"Where did that come from? You said you couldn't dance!" Regina didn't know what the prince was talking about, and asked him to elaborate.
"You went into a trance and starting dancing a well rehearsed ballroom number! I could barely keep up! What happened?" The former Evil Queen laughed, patting David on the shoulder.
"I don't know how he got it, but that music box belonged to my grandmother, Isabella of Catalonia. It turns out she taught me long ago." Snow's jaw dropped. Being a royal herself, she knew of all the regal families in the Enchanted Forest. Isabella of Aviz was a formidable woman, and wasn't known to have a granddaughter.
"But wait- how did you not know?" Snow was confused- how does one forget they have family. Important family. Regina's good mood disappeared quickly, remembering how she forgot her in the first place.
"You can blame Rumple. He placed a powerful memory charm on me to make me forget her, probably realized I was never going to cast his curse with her around. Couldn't afford to have anyone love me. I assume he did the same to her." Regina was seething with anger at her mentor. First Cora and now Rumple? How many more people meddled in her life?
"That's why there's no mention of you in the royal records." Snow put the pieces together, lifting baby Neal out of his crib.
"I'm sorry he did that to you, Regina. But look at the silver lining." Regina raised an eyebrow.
"You can go to the ball now!" Regina scowled and rolled her eyes. Trust Snow White to ruin the moment.