What happens when Madam Mayor meets Madam Secretary? Written for Stiene's birthday. Rosé and shine!

She was chaos and beauty intertwined –
A tornado of roses from divine.

.

.

"But mom!"

"Henry, I said no. Don't insist, please, sweetheart…"

Her son frowned, then made that puppy face that reminded her of when he was just a little toddler, and now – he was taller than her, making a bit difficult to maintain her authority without smiling.

"Henry, don't look at me like that –"

"Regina," Emma cut in. "Come on, let him. It's a big occasion, isn't it? And besides," she shrugged at her angry glare, "the kid knows how to handle the real world, you know that. He'll be safe."

Regina let her gaze slide between the two of them. "Fine," she huffed. "You cornered me, didn't you?"

She pretended to roll her eyes at Emma's victorious smile and at Henry's grin, and shook her head. She turned towards her husband, sharing with him one of those looks where he just knew what she was thinking. "Darling, let's book the tickets, shall we?"

– § –

The flight was smooth, and she spent it watching the sky through the porthole – white clouds curling in round, fluffy flocks. When they landed, there was a neat, black car waiting for them. Henry climbed inside enthusiastically, deaf to her remarks – Henry, come on, we're in a limo – followed by Emma, Robin and Snow. The latest was speaking on the phone, again, as she had done since they'd left Storybrooke for Boston.

"David? What do you mean, he won't climb off the tree?"

"I'm seriously reconsidering leaving the kids with Dad and Killian," Emma whispered after a while. "Liam is teething and Neal's in that age where he simply has to explore every corner of the world."

"At least Belle's there," Regina sighed. "Honestly, I hope she'll keep an eye on them…"

"They'll be fine," stated Robin, watching them, clearly amused. "Two boys, two girls, all under the age of three, with a pirate and a prince, what could possibly go wrong?"

Regina opened her mouth to tell him what exactly could go wrong – but before she could utter a word, Henry's thrilled shriek stopped her.

"Look, the Smithsonian!"

He was pointing at his left, and their eyes followed his finger as the car raced across Constitution Avenue. Then, he turned – Look, mom, the White House, he said in awe. But they didn't stop there. After some other minutes, finally, they were reaching their destination.

Regina smoothed invisible wrinkles on her dress, taking a deep breath. It's show time.

– § –

"Oh, I'm so in need of a drink," sighed Matt, entering Daisy's office and plopping down on a chair.

Daisy lifted her eyes from the paper she was reading, and glared at him. "After years in this office, you'd think someone like you was used to strange things, Matt," she said. "Unless you're just pissed because you don't get to write a speech about this?"

Matt lifted his eyebrows, the answer clearly depicted on his face. "Excuse me, it would be so challenging to write! Imagine all the metaphors! It's not every day that you get to write about… fairy tales characters!"

She rolled her eyes, finally standing up. She approached the door, motioning for him to follow her. "You know that the boss wants it to be top secret," she told him. "Now don't throw a fuss, and help me out, okay? I haven't seen a Disney movie in years and I'm sure I'll say something silly."

They walked towards the main office, Daisy's heels ticking on the ground, then knocked at the door. After a well-known Come in, Matt pushed the door.

"It seems I was not the only one in need of a drink," he deadpanned, taking sight of his boss.

"I'm willing to share," Elizabeth said, lifting her glass. "Ah, the tablet of doom," she sighed, spotting it in Daisy's hands. "How much time do we have?"

"Three minutes, more or less," said Blake, storming in the office. "They're with Nadine now."

Elizabeth knocked down what was left of the drink, then stood up. "Okay, let's do this," she said, more resolute. Then glanced at the bottle. "Okay, just another drop, for luck. Matt, come here, I know you want some too."

– § –

The woman who welcomed them had an air of efficiency and no-nonsense, and Regina instantly decided that she liked her. After introducing herself, she led them across endless corridors, up the stairs and through doors, until they reached an elegant open space, full of desks and buzzing of activity. "Welcome into the State Department," she said formally. "Let me see if the Secretary is ready for you."

She knocked on a door – spied inside, exchanged a few words and then turned towards them. "Come on in, please," she said.

Regina exchanged a quick look with the others – Emma motioned slyly for her to go first – she narrowed her eyes, but followed Nadine inside.

Her first impression of Elizabeth McCord was… well, was something like this woman doesn't fear a thing. "Welcome," she had said, offering her hand to shake – Regina noticed that there were also other three people inside the room: a tall and beautiful woman, and two men: one with a pink stylish tie and an anxious expression, the other with curly hair and glasses.

The Secretary quickly introduced them – "so, you've met my Chief of Staff Nadine… this is my press coordinator Daisy… Blake, my personal assistant… and Matt, the irreplaceable speechwriter," she said, while Regina and her family were shaking everyone's hands.

Then, it was her turn, she supposed, so she cleared her throat. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all," she started. "We were… surprised to get your call, but now we're here and most importantly, you are not freaking out… and we'll do whatever we can to help," she promised. "So, to make things short, I'm Regina Mills, but you probably know me as the Evil Queen…"

She turned towards her companions, pointing them one after the other. "That… was Mary Margaret Blanchard, also known as Snow White – and Emma Swan, her daughter… Henry, my son, whom I've adopted – Emma is his birthmother – and Robin Locksley, formerly known as Robin Hood, my husband," she ended.

An awkward silence fell in the room – she knew the members of the State Department were trying to process her oh-so-fucked-up genealogical tree, or just trying to let themselves believe that they were indeed fairy tales characters.

"Can you write it down?" Blake said, breaking the silence. "I have, like, three thousand questions – "

" – which will be answered as soon as we'll have solved our problems, Blake," Elizabeth cut in. "Now, as thrilled as we are to meet you, can we please get to work?"

– § –

Elizabeth McCord had always considered herself as a down-to-earth person. Henry was the dreamy one, lost in the world of thoughts and speculations, of eternal questions about God and the angels and post-death life.

Now she was standing in her office with fairy tales characters, and she couldn't stop thinking This is Henry's field, damn it, not mine. What happened to the bloody dictators, the spies, the death threats?

She was somehow fascinated by them, though. The deeper they went into the conversation, the more she could get from those persons. She was good at reading people, and they might have been products of fantasy, once, but they were people, after all.

The kid, Henry, was incredibly smart for his age – just like Jason, she thought affectionately. He seemed to have a profound knowledge of magic, but then, it was the universe where he'd grown up, so she guessed it was normal. The blonde, Emma, wasn't so sure of herself about that – every now and then she caught her throwing incredulous looks, and she wondered why. Snow White – just thinking of her name, oh god, she needed another drink – was listening, sometimes suggesting something, and had that hard look of strong people – a look she had always seen in zones of war.

She couldn't quite decipher the queen's husband yet – her mind refused to say Robin Hood, Jesus – Allison loved to watch that movie when she was little, she could still hear the songs resounding in her brain – Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly, what a day!

She shook her head slightly, trying to focus.

When she had agreed to all this, it was only because she was out of options. Finding them – finding magic, it had been a pain in the ass. Their contact person was… weird to say the least, and even weirder now that she knew he was Pinocchio.

And here they were, trying to get their head around this new magical threat, because August – Pinocchio, whatever, had said I don't know much about this artifact, because it looks like dark magic, Madam Secretary, but I know someone who can help you…

– § –

Blasted imp, thought Regina, always getting in my way even if he's not present. She kept her eyes on the object – a scepter, black and white, currently emitting some weird kind of smoke – her hands making it rotate, again and again, endlessly. She was observing it, like it was a snake in a nest of birds.

She hadn't a clue on how it had arrived in the land without magic, but Rumple was going to have a really hard time once she'd get home, that was sure. Memories of her lessons with the Imp were swirling in her mind, when he had shown it to the Queen, and then replaced it on the top shelf of his library, with that stupid grin on his lips.

She gripped it firmly, and interrupted Snow who was babbling about something unimportant. "This has an easy solution, Madam Secretary," she said, locking her gaze with the other woman. "We can bring it home and take care of it – I think light magic could easily fix the problem, anyway."

As soon as the words left her lips, she saw relief in her eyes, as if she had lifted a weight from her shoulders. Ah, that's a part I don't miss about being Queen, she mused, chuckling inwardly.

"How will you transport it home?" Elizabeth asked. Regina met briefly Henry's gaze – they shared a knowing smile, and he went to open his trusted backpack, took an object, and tossed it in her direction.

"With a little help," she answered, placing Pandora's box in the middle of the table. She motioned for the others to make space and get away – and noticed the tall guy, Blake? swallow nervously.

She focused – since their last adventure in New York, she had discovered she was able to use magic outside of her town, but only with a magical artifact. She nodded at Emma, the blonde already set in motion, and they directed a blast of power towards the box – the usual reddish light, a flash, and the scepter was gone inside. "Here you go, all done," she announced, almost laughing at the sight of their astonished faces.

– § –

Elizabeth wasn't quite sure about how she'd ended up in that situation – only thing she knew, was that the… object… was somehow gone, and the fairytale people were just talking, completely unperturbed, as if that was their reality – bloody hell, that was their reality, she reminded herself. The… queen, and the blonde, and their son – they were talking about dinner, and stopping by in New York to see Hamilton, and she was suddenly aware that the problem was solved. She felt a sudden sense of… loss? As if she'd had a glimpse of magic, right in that moment, and she wasn't quite ready to bid it goodbye.

The words were out of her mouth before she could think about it.

"Your… ahem, your Majesty," she called, smiling slightly, "it would be a pleasure to have you all for dinner at my place, actually," she offered, and the queen was drawing a breath to answer, but her son was quicker.

"Oh, that would be so cool," he sighed. "Can we go, moms?"

She didn't miss the set of glances that flew between the adults – the queen to the blonde and her husband, and the blonde to Snow White, and Snow White to the queen again – before, finally, they all nodded – okay, she was totally going to have a call with Henry first. But hell, her husband knew what a Kumari was; there was no way he was going to be put off by the weirdest dinner of their life.

– § –

It was awkward, at first.

But after one or two hours, oh, the very awkward-situation had shifted to a casual dinner, and Regina was observing her family. Her son in a corner with Jason – twin souls, playing Mario Kart as if they'd done that together all their life. Allison talking with Snow about – clothes? Oh Jesus, maybe that girl would have succeeded into instilling a sense of fashion into her stepdaughter…
Emma was with Stevie – she had no clue about the subject of their conversation, but it seemed to involve some very amusing stories about Miss Swan's past boyfriends…

And she was sitting on the sofa, and her head was so perfectly nested onto Robin's shoulder, right now… she was feeling so nice and warm – listening to him and Henry, and exchanging amused glares with Elizabeth.

"You can say whatever you want, but sometimes I think my wife loves horses more than me," Henry insisted. "You should have seen her with Buttercup." He brought one hand up to circle his wife's shoulders, squeezing affectionately her forearm. "Sorry, babe, but it's true."

Regina felt Robin chuckle against her hair. "This one too," he confirmed. "One hell of a rider, if you ask me." He stilled, just then realizing the double meaning in his words, as the others couldn't hold back their laughter.

"And yet I've never heard you complaining about my riding skills," Regina told him. She noticed that Elizabeth was nodding, her eyebrows lifted, gaze addressed to Henry. A clear message between the two of them – you'll better not do that, or else you're giving up the "riding" for one month at least…

She saw love, there, and snuggled closer next to her husband. She thought of that sentence she had noticed in the hall, framed with love and care, and hung next to the coats.

My kind of couples are the couples where the men know their women are powerful forces of nature.
They know they could blow entire armies in a matter of seconds.
And they embrace it and take pride in it.
"Oh… it's not me you should be worried about. It's my wife."