Forget them!
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Pairing: Tinkerbell/Mulan, mentions Tinkerbell/Regina and Mulan/Aurora
Summary: Heartbroken Tinkerbell and Mulan become friends (and then friends with benefits) in Storybrooke.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Note: Unbeta'd and written in like ten minutes because I felt so bad for Sleeping Warrior and Fairy Queen (or whatever Tinkerbell/Regina was called).
Tinkerbell was a huge flirt. Everyone and their mother in Storybrooke knew this. What they didn't know was that she was one of the most heartbroken people in town. Mulan knew this right off. After all, like her love knew love when she saw it, Mulan knew heartbreak and despair when she saw it. She knew because it mirrored her own. Perhaps that was how she had become friends with the fairy, had flirted back, even. They spent many nights getting drunk with Leroy, and telling eachother about Aurora and Regina, the ones that got away because they were too slow to getting what they really wanted, or, in their case, too slow to realize it was what they wanted.
"Forget them!" Tinkerbell shouted one evening.
"For get all of them!" Mulan, far into her seventh shot, echoed, slamming the shot glass onto the bar. She got a 'look' from the barkeep and a roar of affirmation from Leroy.
"We should just… forget all of it, you know?" Tinkerbell asked. She raised her spare shotglass and drained it.
"Yeah, we should," Mulan echoed again. "We should find Cora and have her take our hearts."
"Cora's dead," Leroy said.
"Suck an elf!" Mulan shouted.
"There is still Regina, but…" Tinkerbell offered.
"We can't go see her right now. It would only hurt you," Mulan replied, patting her friend's back. Tinkerbell smiled at her gratefully.
"You're a good friend."
"Yeah…"
"Maybe we should just…" Tinkerbell swallowed. "We should just go home. I don't feel well." The two of them, having gotten into Storybrook within two weeks of eachother, both slept in the bed and breakfast portion of Granny's before they found an empty house for rent and moved in together.
Mulan walked Tinkerbell to the sidewalk after paying their tab and called for the town's only taxi service, who were familiar with the two of them. They made it home without another word, Tinkerbell leaning on Mulan's shoulder and Mulan's head back and her eyes closed. "Maybe we should just be together, if we can't be with who we want. Like… no strings or anything, but damn it gets lonely," Mulan said, her voice low. She wasn't even sure that Tinkerbell was awake to hear her, but the thoughts she'd had for a couple of weeks now came out of her mouth finally.
"No strings? Like just intercourse?"
"I think they say 'friends with benefits' here, Tink," Mulan corrected.
"I had that sort of arrangement before. It didn't work out with Hook, and I really don't know what I would do if I lost your friendship."
"How good of friends were you with hook?" Mulan lifted her head and looked over to the blonde.
"Okay, point taken." There was a silence between them for a moment, and then Tinkerbell said, "Alright. We could."
"Not tonight though," Mulan said.
"Yeah I am hardly in the mood tonight, however, if we still shared the bed, just to sleep, I wouldn't be opposed to it."
Mulan smiled and leaned her head back again as Tinkerbell shifted slightly to adjust to the movement. "Sure. We could do that." It was silent the rest of the cab ride home, and Mulan and Tinkerbell stumbled inside to Tinkerbell's bed, where they slept in their clothes, huddled together.