first day for the bisexual regina mills week. from the three word prompt; wind/gold/ache. regina gets a girl crush.
Gold
.
But I won't let them break me down to dust
I know that there's a place for us
For we are glorious
.
There is something lyrically beautiful in how she smiles. She twirls around in her gown, her dancing partner catching her amidst envious eyes, eyes of the guests who married for convenience and not for love. But they didn't, not this couple, this couple of a Duke and Duchess her mother has invited to the summer ball she holds once a year.
Regina peeks from behind the column, hidden in a nest of darkness just next to the staircase. She looks down to the great ballroom, her breaths slow and her eyes wide in amazement as she watches them. She is supposed to be asleep, by now, but she has managed to leave her nanny and her chambers while the woman snored softly in her rocking chair.
She doesn't know what has her so fascinated with the woman. It's not the first time she hides in this little spot, to try and pretend she's attending the ball with the other guests, whilst she's still too young to do so. But it is the first time she sees someone that beautiful.
The Duke is handsome, that's for sure. She's actually heard her mother talking to one of the maids about the Duke, about how fine he was, such a strong and poised gentleman.
But the Duchess… the Duchess, with her beautiful smile and her golden dress, makes her heart ache of something new and unexpected, and infuses warmth inside of her, like ichor, like she's honey and belladonna together. She doesn't know what she's feeling, Regina. Maybe she longs for love, at such a tender age – the love she sees between the Duchess and her husband – maybe she longs to be as happy as that beautiful woman is, one day.
Her hair is free, wild like a spirit of the forest, and it's against all the customs of the good society, as her mother says. Her hair twirls and shines around as if the wind is dancing with soft tendrils of sun. She's like a goddess, she thinks, it's like she's the daughter of that Apollo she learned about from her books.
And Regina smiles and watches that precious, beautiful display of love and happiness, and thinks that when she grows up, she wants to be happy just like that, and beautiful, and loved, just like that.